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34 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE
My Journey into Buddhism
By Dr Elizabeth J. Harris
Elizabeth shares with Benny Liow of
Eastern Horizon about her journey
into Buddhism and the motivations
behind her many publications,
including her most recent
“Buddhism in 5 Minutes”.
Benny: You have been a prolific
writer of Buddhism. Could you
share what was the motivation
behind all these publications,
including your most recent
Buddhism in Five Minutes
(Equinox, 2021)?
Elizabeth: I first encountered
Buddhism in 1984, in my early
thirties, when I took part in an
educational, interreligious visit
to Sri Lanka. When we were
in the ancient Buddhist city of
Anuradhapura, I experienced what
I can only describe as an encounter
with the Buddha. I had separated
myself from the group and was
sitting with other devotees, on the
Dr Elizabeth Harris holds an Honorary Senior
Research Fellowship at the University of
Birmingham, attached to the Edward Cadbury
Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion
within the School of Philosophy, Theology and
Religion. Previous to this, she was an Associate
Professor at Liverpool Hope University, specializing
in Buddhist Studies. She is a former President of the
European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies
and is the current President of the UK Association
for Buddhist Studies. She has published widely in
Buddhist Studies and Interreligious Studies.
floor, in the shrine room adjacent Studies, but also into a person
to the famous Bodhi tree, believed who drew deeply from Buddhist
to have grown from a sapling of the wisdom. My publications have
very tree under which the Buddha been motivated by these factors,
had gained enlightenment. I gazed namely to promote appreciation of
at the image in the room, absorbing Buddhism and the wisdom it can
the tranquility, and suddenly the offer to the world and to encourage
image seemed to be surrounded interreligious understanding.
with light. As I’ve explained before
in my writings, I realized at that As someone raised as a Christian,
point that I would have to learn what are the areas in Christianity
more about Buddhism. In 1986, that you find resonate with that
I returned to Sri Lanka to study of Buddhism?
Buddhism, on a World Council of
Churches scholarship. My intention I was born into a Methodist
was to stay one year but, in the family and my roots still lie within
end, I stayed for over seven years Christianity. I usually tell people
and completed a doctorate in that I remain a Christian but draw
Buddhist Studies there. I also drew deeply from Buddhism and practice
Buddhist forms of meditation into Buddhist forms of meditation. I also
my own spiritual practice and so know much more about Buddhism
immersed myself in Buddhism that from an academic perspective than I
I eventually found that I was looking do about Christianity. My encounter
at the world through Buddhist eyes. with Buddhism has also affected the
Sri Lanka made me not only into an way I see Christianity. For instance, I
academic, specializing in Buddhist no longer agree with or support any