Roger Corless(1938 - 2007/01/12)
Born in Merseyside, England, in 1938, [Roger Jonathan Corless] began studying religion at the age of sixteen, understanding himself as being Buddhist, though attending Christian churches. He studied theology at King’s College at the University of London, receiving a Bachelor of Divinity in 1961. In wrestling with the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible, and particularly in the sacrament of the Eucharist, Roger experienced God’s presence. He was baptized into the Roman Catholic church in 1964 after coming to the United States to pursue a PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he received that degree in 1973. From there, he joined the Department of Religion at Duke University and remained there until his retirement in 2000.
In 1980, Roger took refuge as a Gelugpa Buddhist under Geshela Lhundup Sopa, having first obtained permission from his Catholic spiritual director and having explained to Geshela what he was doing. His refuge or dharma name was Lhundup Tashi, ‘‘spontaneous fortune’’ or ‘‘luck.’’ Later, Roger also became a Benedictine oblate, taking Gregory as his Oblate name after Pope Gregory, whose instruction to Augustine of Canterbury was not to destroy the pagan temples, but to bring them into the church by trying to find what was good and preparatory to the Gospel. Roger understood himself as a dual practitioner, but did not seek to blend the two practices or traditions. Rather, he sought to be present to each in their own irreconcilable differences and deep riches.
Roger was always reflecting and writing on something, wanting to be open to the insights emerging from his studies and practices. His works are prolific. Over the past thirty years, he published three monographs (The Art of Christian Alchemy: Transfiguring the Ordinary through Holistic Meditation [Paulist Press, 1981]; I Am Food: The Mass in Planetary Perspective [Crossroad, 1981, and Wipf and Stock, 2004]; and The Vision of Buddhism: The Space under the Tree [Paragon House, 1989]), one edited volume (with Paul Knitter, Buddhist Emptiness and Christian Trinity: Essays and Explorations [Paulist Press, 1990]), essays in thirty-one books, thirty-seven articles in twenty journals, articles in six encyclopedias, and twenty-seven papers. Before his death, he had also completed six additional essays, forthcoming in edited volumes, and a draft of another monograph, Where Do We Go from Here? The Many Religions and the Next Step. Over the years, his works examined Buddhist teachings and practices, Christian teachings and practices, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and interreligious dialogue; more recently his focus had turned to queer dharma topics and same-sex issues. (Adapted from Source Jul 21, 2020)
In 1980, Roger took refuge as a Gelugpa Buddhist under Geshela Lhundup Sopa, having first obtained permission from his Catholic spiritual director and having explained to Geshela what he was doing. His refuge or dharma name was Lhundup Tashi, ‘‘spontaneous fortune’’ or ‘‘luck.’’ Later, Roger also became a Benedictine oblate, taking Gregory as his Oblate name after Pope Gregory, whose instruction to Augustine of Canterbury was not to destroy the pagan temples, but to bring them into the church by trying to find what was good and preparatory to the Gospel. Roger understood himself as a dual practitioner, but did not seek to blend the two practices or traditions. Rather, he sought to be present to each in their own irreconcilable differences and deep riches.
Roger was always reflecting and writing on something, wanting to be open to the insights emerging from his studies and practices. His works are prolific. Over the past thirty years, he published three monographs (The Art of Christian Alchemy: Transfiguring the Ordinary through Holistic Meditation [Paulist Press, 1981]; I Am Food: The Mass in Planetary Perspective [Crossroad, 1981, and Wipf and Stock, 2004]; and The Vision of Buddhism: The Space under the Tree [Paragon House, 1989]), one edited volume (with Paul Knitter, Buddhist Emptiness and Christian Trinity: Essays and Explorations [Paulist Press, 1990]), essays in thirty-one books, thirty-seven articles in twenty journals, articles in six encyclopedias, and twenty-seven papers. Before his death, he had also completed six additional essays, forthcoming in edited volumes, and a draft of another monograph, Where Do We Go from Here? The Many Religions and the Next Step. Over the years, his works examined Buddhist teachings and practices, Christian teachings and practices, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and interreligious dialogue; more recently his focus had turned to queer dharma topics and same-sex issues. (Adapted from Source Jul 21, 2020)
Library Items
Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota
This book contains ten essays on the topic of buddha-nature by prominent Buddhist Studies scholars, written in honor of Professor Minoru Kiyota (1923–2013), who taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1962 to 2008.
Griffiths, Paul J., and John P. Keenan eds. Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990. https://archive.org/details/buddhanatureafestschriftinhonorofminorukiyota_542_W/mode/2up.
Griffiths, Paul J., and John P. Keenan eds. Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990. https://archive.org/details/buddhanatureafestschriftinhonorofminorukiyota_542_W/mode/2up.;Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota;Paul J. Griffiths; John P. Keenan;Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota
Lying to Tell the Truth—Upāya in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Oikonomia in Alexandrian Christianity
Roger Gregory-Tashi Corless, in his essay "Lying to Tell the Truth", explores the use of intentional vagueness and obscurity in the texts of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and relates this to the intentional use of falsehood (or, perhaps better, nontruth) in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. Both in second century Alexandria and in third century India, he suggests, one finds a self-conscious use
of graded, hierarchically ordered sets of "false truths" as pedagogical devices. For the Lotus, Corless suggests, the "true truth" is that all living beings are in fact possessors of Buddha Nature; it is this toward which the pedagogically useful though partial truths (upāya) found in other assertions point. This position is illustrated with extensive quotations from Kūkai, and is compared with positions taken by a series of Christian thinkers from Nicholas of Cusa to John Henry Newman. (Griffiths and Keenan, introduction to Buddha Nature, 3–4)
Corless, Roger Gregory-Tashi. "Lying to Tell the Truth—Upāya in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Oikonomia in Alexandrian Christianity." In Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan, 27–40. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990.
Corless, Roger Gregory-Tashi. "Lying to Tell the Truth—Upāya in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Oikonomia in Alexandrian Christianity." In Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan, 27–40. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990.;Lying to Tell the Truth-Upaya in Mahayana Buddhism and Oikonomia in Alexandrian Christianity;Christian thought and Buddha-Nature;Roger Corless; 
