Dasabhumi and Tre Vie: An Idea on Reinterpretation of the Christian Three Ways through the Buddhist teaching of the Ten Stages of Bodhisattva

Christians have Tre Vie or the Three Ways as a conceptual map for their spiritual development. According to the map, a Christian steps up through three stages of purification-illumination-union. However, there are some problems in the way that the teaching is usually accepted. There is widespread misperception that the highest level of development, i.e. the stage of union and contemplative prayer, is accessible to only a few spiritual elites. Another problem is the Protestant resistance to asceticism. Asceticism as human effort is regarded as conflicting with the Protestant theological principle of sola gratia, grace alone. This article is to reinterpret Tre Vie in the light of Dasabhumi, the Ten Stages of Bodhisattva. Remarkable similarities are found when the two teachings are compared and contrasted. Daniel Brown, a psychologist, says that there is a universal path in the development of meditation. His discoveries are a good tool to support the connection and similarities between Tre Vie and Dasabhumi. As a result, it will be revealed that contemplative dimension is already involved in the earlier stages. If contemplation appears even in the beginner’s stage, a sort of elitism that only a chosen few have an access to contemplative prayer is unnecessary. By definition, contemplation is not human effort but the grace of the Holy Spirit. If contemplative dimension is present from the beginning of Christian spiritual development, this means that grace works throughout the entire process. This will eliminate Protestants’ misunderstanding and suspicion against asceticism. The development through purification-illumination-union is not a straight line. Rather, it is more like a spiral movement. Even in the lower stage, the entire cycle of all the three elements is made. And it repeats the cycle in a growing scale.