For centuries, millions of good people have sought holiness through eastern spirituality. I do not believe God would be deaf to their pleas; I believe that the Holy Spirit can breathe where he wills. On the other hand, I don’t believe in spiritual shortcuts. Our biases blind us and mislead us, and it is no easy task to overcome our personal and cultural biases.

A more serious approach to eastern spirituality has been taken by William Johnston, S.J, and Robert Kennedy, S.J., both Jesuits and Catholic priests. Kennedy, who gives Zen retreats, is a recognized roshi or Zen teacher who has mastered the teaching of his lineage. He in turn has recognized Ken Hunt, a Trappist monk, as a roshi, who has been practicing Zen for a long time at Spencer Abbey in Massachusetts.

You'll find all sorts of variations on how eastern practices are incorporated by those who pursue Catholic monastic life and the discipline of meditation. The Trappist Thomas Merton wrote commentaries on Zen, Sufi, and Taoist practices. More recently, the Paulist priest Thomas Ryan has written Prayer of Heart and Body. Father Ryan attended the Kripalu Yoga Center in Stockbridge, MA, and then incorporated yoga practice into his prayer life as a Christian.

The question that comes up is the relationship between practice and doctrine, and this is still greatly debated. First of all, there are non-European Christians who are a generation or two removed from conversion to Christianity. Part of their identity as Indians, Japanese, Native Americans is involved in how they follow certain practice and they seek to preserve those practices. At the same time, they recite the creed and believe in what they should believe in.

There are certain incommensurables when it comes to doctrine--the dharmakaya (Buddha as the absolute all encompassing emptiness or fullness, depending on your doctrine school of Buddhism) is not God fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Reincarnation and life followed by final judgment are not reconcilable. Christ and Krishna are not the same. Incarnation and becoming an avatar or divine descent are not the same.

The adept who teach and practice these methods borrowed from other traditions know the boundaries, and their advice is the substance of spiritual reading—Thomas Merton, William Johnston, Henri LeSaux or Swami Abhishiktananda are examples. Some speak of a sharp distinction; others speak of living in two worlds; some speak of having their Christian beliefs illuminated by the spiritual encounter from such a borrowing.

All of this can be helpful to the spiritual life, but at the same time I would first ask Christians whether they have ever delved into the riches of Western spirituality: Ignatius Loyola, Theresa of Avila, John Vianney, etc. Or more basically, have you read the gospels?

Until you experience and know your own tradition, you can not be enriched by another’s.