Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:03 — 40.3MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More
How does silence impact spirituality at the level of interfaith or interreligious engagement? Our guest today, Kenneth Leong, wrote 
a seminal book on Christian-Buddhist interspirituality, and so we were eager to have him join the Encountering Silence conversation to reflect on how silence takes us to a place beyond the limitations or separations of doctrine, dogma, or religious culture.
Kenneth S. Leong is the author of The Zen Teachings of Jesus and a German-language book of Zen Stories, 100 Zen-Geschichten für das neue Jahrtausend: Anleitung zum Glücklichsein. After working over twenty years in finance, he pursued a Master’s Degree in Teaching and devoted twelve years to teaching in a variety of education settings, primarily teaching mathematics but also finance, philosophy, and Zen.
Mr. Leong has been a speaker and lecturer on Buddhism and spirituality since the mid-1990s, having taught in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the New York Open Center, and other continuing education and adult learning venues. He is active on social media, moderating or contributing to groups devoted to topics such as Buddhism, Alan Watts, and Zen Christians.
Silence, to me, means right concentration. — Kenneth S. Leong
Some of the resources and authors we mention in this episode:
- Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus
- Alan Watts, The Way of Zen
- Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
- Red Pine (tr.), The Heart Sutra
- Red Pine (tr.), The Diamond Sutra
- Red Pine (tr.), The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng
- Barbara A. Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church
- Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
- The Desert Mothers and Fathers, Early Christian Wisdom Sayings
- Evagrius Ponticus, The Praktikos & Chapters on Prayer
- The Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness
- Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
- Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here
- Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught
- William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
- J. Krishnamurti, Think on These Things
- Henri Nouwen, Peacework: Prayer, Resistance, Community
- Bhikkhu Bodhi (ed.), In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
- Alan Watts, Tao: The Watercourse Way
- Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture
- St. Francis of Assisi, In His Own Words: The Essential Writings
Episode 27: Encountering Silence in Christianity and Zen: A Conversation with Kenneth S. Leong
Hosted by: Carl McColman
With: Kevin Johnson, Cassidy Hall
Guest: Kenneth S. Leong
Date Recorded: May 25, 2018