Learning the language of interfaith dialogue: the Religious Life Council at Princeton University

How can you pray, if not to God? a student asked me.

I was stunned, never having considered the question.

Do you believe in God? they wondered.

I, the sole Buddhist student on the Princeton Religious Life Council, had no single word in my vocabulary to describe the limitless, the incomprehensible, the divine.

A circle of sixteen students--Sikh, Muslim, Baha'i, Jewish, and Christian--sat waiting for my response. I tried to explain that it depends on what you mean by God, that everything--and nothing--describes the infinite, that words inevitably befuddle and confuse. Language, I found, was the perfect metaphor:

     Two people look at the same tree, one calls it un roble and the
     other calls it an oak. There are as many different perceptions of
     reality as there are leaves on a tree--but the branches are
     covered in leaves, no matter what you call them. Just as language
     offers us a way of expressing our experiences, religion shapes the
     experiences themselves. Different languages clearly have different
     vocabularies, but they express the same thing.

The group, drinking cups of tea, listened attentively. For some, this idea was unsettling: "If all religions are leading to the same place, why am I practicing my religion and not yours?" one student asked.

We launched into another debate, drawing from our shared experiences of the week-long 2003 Intercession Retreat at the Toronto Zen Center. For five days, members of the Religious Life Council (the RLC) had been attending meditation, prayers, and talks with religious leaders of the Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish, and Muslim traditions. The metaphor of trees extended to pathways, which in turn was drawn out to teams ascending mountain peaks.

"I think of all religions as different paths up the same mountain, leading to one peak," offered one student in the group, "and followers of each religion, of each path, are members of a team climbing to the top."

"We're all from the same source," another affirmed. "It makes little difference which path you follow; you only need to follow the one that is right for you."

"But that idea is troubling to me," a student responded. "I believe that mine is the exemplary path. How can I accept that there is little difference between paths if this is a tenet of my faith?"

As the conversation intensified, people continued to discuss and reiterate their ideas. Some felt that their path was more adequate than others, but the group seemed to agree that we were, indeed, like teams ascending the same mountain. But then, after a silence, one of the quieter members of the group spoke. "What if I think you're on the wrong mountain?"

Among the Religious Life Council fellows, we had assembled a group that included students majoring in computer science, politics, anthropology, biology, history, psychology, economics, public policy, comparative literature, and religion. If a metaphor worked perfectly for some, it was bound to be worthless for others. Yet during the retreat, students convened on the basis of their religious ideals and core values--a complete reversal from the more rationalized manner of communication that we know so well at school.

During these conversations, as students reflected on their experiences with Zen meditation, listening to the reading of the Torah, sharing a vegetarian langar with Sikh community members, and watching our Muslim friends in prayer, members of the Religious Life Council unconsciously embodied the RLC Mission Statement that was articulated when the group first formed in 2001:

     To deepen understanding and cultivate respect among religious
     faiths; To weave connections between intellectual life and
     spiritual growth; To widen the conversation on critical moral and
     ethical issues of the day; To provide visibility for the strength
     and diversity of religious life on Princeton campus.

While interfaith dialogue did exist on campus before 2001, Princeton lacked a well-organized, cohesive program. This changed when an anonymous donor approached the Office of Religious Life (the ORL) with a desire to contribute to a new initiative. After a great deal of planning, the Religious Life Council was founded as a program of the ORL, finding an original, creative way to show the donor's love of God. Consequently, the Office of Religious Life has taken on a more active role in supporting numerous religions at Princeton. Located in Murray Dodge Hall at the center of Princeton's campus, the ORL is most commonly known as the home of Christian ministers, administrators, and many Christian student groups. The building also houses the Muslim Students Association, however, and now an Interfaith Prayer Room that is used by members of the RLC for meditation, prayer, ceremonies, discussion, and quiet reflection.

When I first applied for the council in the fall of 2001, towards the end of its first year, the RLC consisted of about fifteen students who met twice a month. Today we are a group of about twenty-five students, including Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, Unitarian Universalist, and Zoroastrian members; we meet once a week. This article will describe the Religious Life Council's formation and application process, the expansion of our Intersession Retreat model, our weekly meetings, and basic principles that we have learned from our experiences with interfaith dialogue.