THOUGHTS ON ZEN AND CHRISTIANITY<\/p>\n
By Jack Campitelli<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a9 2012 Jack Campitelli LLC<\/p>\n
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For many of us who transact between the worlds of Christianity and Zen Buddhism, there is little reason or need to explain how seamlessly the metaphysical\/mystical elements of Zen and Christianity fit together.<\/p>\n
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THE RELIGIONS<\/p>\n
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Christianity has such a broad spectrum of religions that claim to be Christian that the common denominator can only be the name Christ in the religion.\u00c2\u00a0 Christian religions can span a New Testament Christ of various exegeses to a New Age Christ of the cosmos.\u00c2\u00a0 There is also an ontological Christ that represents God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence in being and time.\u00c2\u00a0 This Christ could probably after painful discussion be roughly comparable with Buddha nature or even Lord Krishna dancing in the universe.<\/p>\n
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Buddhism started 600 years before Christ in India.\u00c2\u00a0 As Christ was plying the shores of Galilee, Buddhism was heading into China.\u00c2\u00a0 And 600 years later written evidence of Zen Buddhism started coming to notice.\u00c2\u00a0 As Thomas Aquinas was finishing Summa Theologica, Zen was entering Japan.\u00c2\u00a0 It if from Japan, rather than China, that Europe and North America received Zen priests and masters.<\/p>\n
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Zen is supposedly a non-religion that starts with the premise that God both exists and does not exist and neither exists nor does not exist.\u00c2\u00a0 The foundational element is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153suchness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that carries various names that roughly is comparable to Christ in the universe.\u00c2\u00a0 You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t push the analogy because Buddhism, although full of rich texts, is not dogmatic in the sense that traditional mainstream Christianity is.\u00c2\u00a0 Zen is about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153practice\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by which they mean mindful attention to all that goes on in our lives.\u00c2\u00a0 The starting place of this in Zen is often \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zazen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or sitting Zen where the student concentrates on breath.\u00c2\u00a0 In a monastic setting this is a twice daily practice.\u00c2\u00a0 Officially there is no \u00e2\u20ac\u0153aim\u00e2\u20ac\u009d since \u00e2\u20ac\u0153striving\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the start of much karmic trouble in sacred texts.\u00c2\u00a0 Unofficially, the aim is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or a state of oneness with all that is followed by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153satori\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or awakening into emptiness.\u00c2\u00a0 There are explanations of why such states are possible due to the posture of sitting Zen but, for Buddhists, that is not up for discussion.\u00c2\u00a0 I believe that would say that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zazen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is <\/em>enlightenment.\u00c2\u00a0 The fact that you are not yet aware is another issue.\u00c2\u00a0 In between formal mediation sessions students work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whether cooking, cleaning, or working in fields \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or even Buddhist enterprises.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Zen has weekend \u00e2\u20ac\u0153services\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for visitors that can look like scenes from a Tibetan monastery or sometimes sparse liturgy from a Quaker meeting hall.\u00c2\u00a0 Services often have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lecture\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the presiding priest on some aspect of Buddhism.\u00c2\u00a0 Services are followed by a Sunday-school of sorts for adults where Zen practice is discussed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zen represents a direct path to mystical\/metaphysical experiences that is now quite mainstream for Benedictins, Trappists, and even Jesuits.\u00c2\u00a0 However, for Sunday-Christians, Zen Buddhism remains largely unknown and, if known, suspect and competitive with their current religion.\u00c2\u00a0 Besides the barrier of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mysterious Orient\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that cloaks the practice of Zen, there is the fact that no major religions preach \u00e2\u20ac\u0153how to\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for mystical experiences from the pulpit.\u00c2\u00a0 In marketing terms, mystical experiences are wholesale goods as far as religion goes whereas sermons and Sunday worship services are retail.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem with all forms of mysticism is that it tends to cut out the middleman: the priests, the church, the authoritarian hierarchy that customarily forms the traditional bridge between God\/Christ and the faithful.\u00c2\u00a0 There is just no way to have an indirect mystical experience.\u00c2\u00a0 The path to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153awakening,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d no matter the twists and turns of methodology, are always personal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nevertheless, an increasing number of Christians around the world are finding their way to Zen Buddhism as additive to their Christian practice<\/em>, not to supplant it.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike parts of Christendom that are rigid with orthodoxy, Zen Buddhism has remained \u00e2\u20ac\u0153flexible\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 As it moved into China from India, its practice was influenced by Taoism and Confucianism.\u00c2\u00a0 As it moved to Japan, its practice adopted many of classic elements of Japanese architecture and customs: of sabi<\/em> (untranslatable but full of simplicity; quietude; rustic beauty) and wabi<\/em> (untranslatable but things \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fresh and simple; natural; accidental happenstance; uniqueness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d approximate).\u00c2\u00a0 There is nothing about a phrase like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christian Zen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that is going to upset Buddhists.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Early Christian mystics from Origen to the Desert Fathers, led ascetic lives, perhaps masochistically ascetic: when their regular ascetic practices failed to deliver the goods, they turned to increasing harsher levels of mortification.\u00c2\u00a0 They produced writings that are similar to a stage of the Buddha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s passage in Hermann Hesse \u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Siddhartha <\/em>when Siddhartha spends years with ascetic practitioners who were searching for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the way\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but leaves them behind on his quest.\u00c2\u00a0 The writings that survive show that the Desert Fathers and their like were truly embedded in the metaphor and dogma of early Christianity and, while I can find \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Zen-like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d passages, I find no attempts to describe \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pure\u00e2\u20ac\u009d kensho<\/em> experiences, even in stories.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What we know of Jesus from the New Testament Gospels does not exactly fit into the non-dogma of Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism, which hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet begun.\u00c2\u00a0 Zen didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t emerge into written history until about 600AD.\u00c2\u00a0 However, what is interesting in examining the historical fragments of early Zen Buddhism, is that, like Jesus and his disciples, mendicant Buddhist monks, travelled and taught for decades, perhaps a century, before written records and commentary and stories about Zen began to emerge.\u00c2\u00a0 And, perhaps like instances in the Gospels, apocryphal stories of early Buddhism were penned to create legitimacy and credibility \u00e2\u20ac\u201c once a foundation had been established.\u00c2\u00a0 Meaning, given the difficulty of widely disseminated communication from the time of Buddha about 600BC through the time of the emergence of Zen Buddhism in 600AD, and thus overlapping the period when Jesus taught, it was common for stories to emerge at some point to cover origins when it became necessary to have stories.\u00c2\u00a0 Stories were a way to set roots deep into past or present popular religions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including politically powerful pagan \u00e2\u20ac\u0153religions\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the case of Christianity. The stories of both early Buddhism and early Christianity were likely more expedient than factual as was the custom.\u00c2\u00a0 And stories, such as Revelations, could easily have been both well meaning and, like all good marketing sales letters, designed to create a sense of urgency in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153signing up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Revelations seems at once poetic, mysterious, symbolic and scary as hell.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems an accepted fact these days that early Christians were awaiting the imminent return of Jesus and undoubtedly wanted to be on the right team when he returned.<\/p>\n The Gospel of Thomas, though not an official New Testament gospel, has some Buddhist-like elements.\u00c2\u00a0 But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not Buddhist.<\/p>\n What we do know is that for centuries, and not too long after historic Jesus walked the Holy Lands, there is evidence of efforts to connect his teachings with Hinduism and Buddhism.\u00c2\u00a0 Since the Gospel birth stories and the time-line of Jesus parallel those of a host of religions that pre-date Jesus (most originating to the west of Galilee), there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a case to be made that narratives were created that fit the early Christian efforts to connect Jesus to other and earlier religions, perhaps to enhance Christianity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fledgling credibility and legitimacy.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not inconceivable that stories also arose to link him to religions to the east of Galilee.<\/p>\n Somewhere in the 1100\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story about a St. Buddha began to surface that supposedly found a path from India and may have happened, if at all, in the 7th<\/sup> century AD.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 St. Josaphat of the story was a Catholic martyr and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Buddha.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The exact details of his life are lost to history but his name was removed in recent times from the official roll of Catholic martyrs.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, there is a whole body of legend about Jesus himself traveling to India as a young man and adopting Hindu\/Buddhist beliefs and returning them to the Holy Land.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe never returning.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe leaving Galilee and traveling to Kashmir where he preached until his death.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a tomb for him in Kashmir, India.<\/p>\n A woman, St. Hildegard de Bingen (1098 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1179), is currently being honored as the 35th<\/sup> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Doctor of the Church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 2012.\u00c2\u00a0 She was a renowned herbalist of her day, prolific composer and mystic\/visionary.\u00c2\u00a0 Her long-term monastic companion was also a visionary.\u00c2\u00a0 St. Hildegard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mystical experiences manifested themselves as visions and voices from God urging her to write about her visions.\u00c2\u00a0 Her narrative claims she had visions from an early age (3) and is perhaps why her parents confined her to a monastic enclosure a few years later.<\/p>\n Meister Eckhart (c.1260 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c c1327), theologian, philosopher and mystic, is often thought as an entry place for Christians to explore mysticism.\u00c2\u00a0 And perhaps he is.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though he was tried and convicted as a heretic, his thought and metaphor remained clearly in the Christendom box of dogma and he considered himself a Thomist (St. Thomas Aquinas).\u00c2\u00a0 What he is not <\/em>is a common denominator between Zen and Christianity.\u00c2\u00a0 Meister Eckhart comes complete with his own arcane pathways \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but they are not the way of Zen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n THOMAS AQUINAS AND KENSHO<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, historically, there is one very unlikely, almost totally unknown, taste of Zen to touch orthodox Christianity — and that is from the most rational and prolific mind that Christendom has ever produced and whose massive works form the very foundations of Christianity: St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) of the encyclopedic Summa Theologica <\/em>fame.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nearly seven hundred forty years ago, Friar Thomas Aquinas, aged 49, died on his way to the Council of Lyons. His death, then unexpected, is still unexplained. \u00c2\u00a0However, the age was full of unexpected and unexplained deaths.\u00c2\u00a0 The sole fact that seems historically sure is that, following four years of incredibly productive intellectual work during his second professional stay at the University of Paris, Thomas underwent \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an intense personal experience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on December 6, 1273, which caused him to cease writing forever. That experience may have been a stroke, some form of physical or nervous breakdown, or a mystical experience. (In his important new study\u00c2\u00a0Friar Thomas d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Aquino,\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>Father James A. Weisheipl rather puzzlingly suggests that it was a combination of all three.)<\/p>\n One proffered explanation is that Aquinas had what the Buddhists would call a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153awakening\u00e2\u20ac\u009d experience while saying Mass.\u00c2\u00a0 In a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d experience one realizes that there are no inherently existing \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthings,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that the world we experience is empty.\u00c2\u00a0 More precisely that there is no distinction between me and thee.\u00c2\u00a0 Kensho also implies an experience of one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inner nature, the originally pure mind.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever its explanation, the fact is that Thomas never wrote again after his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When his several admirers asked him why, he supposedly replied, “I cannot, \u00c2\u00a0for all that I have written seems like straw to me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>(as quoted by James Arraj Christian Philosophy, Vol. III <\/em>found on his website: www.innerexplorations.com<\/a> from a book by Jaques Martain)<\/p>\n The reason this experience is quite Buddhist is perhaps found in a Zen story.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In modern times a great deal of nonsense is talked about masters and disciples, and about the inheritance of a master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s teaching by favorite pupils, entitling them to pass the truth on to their adherents. Of course Zen should be imparted in this way, from heart to heart, and in the past it was really accomplished. Silence and humility reigned rather than profession and assertion. The one who received such a teaching kept the matter hidden even after twenty years. Not until another discovered through his own need that a real master was at hand was it learned that the teaching had been imparted, and even then the occasion arose quite naturally and the teaching made its way in its own right. Under no circumstance did the teacher even claim \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am the successor of So-and-so.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Such a claim would prove quite the contrary.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Zen master Mu-nan had only one successor. His name was Shoju. After Shoju had completed his study of Zen, Mu-nan called him into his room. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am getting old,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and as far as I know, Shoju, you are the only one who will carry on this teaching. Here is a book. It has been passed down from master to master for seven generations. I have also added many points according to my understanding. The book is very valuable, and I am giving it to you to represent your successorship.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the book is such an important thing, you had better keep it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Shoju replied. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I received your Zen without writing and am satisfied with it as it is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mu-nan. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Even so, this work has been carried from master to master for seven generations, so you may keep it as a symbol of having received the teaching. Here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They happened to be talking before a brazier. The instant Shoju felt the book in his hands he thrust it into the flaming coals. He had no lust for possessions.<\/p>\n Mu-nan, who never had been angry before, yelled: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What are you doing!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Shoju shouted back: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What are you saying!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (quoted from www.101zenstories.com)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the 1500\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avilla were Christian mystics and wrote from and about that state.\u00c2\u00a0 There was great interest around Europe in their writings but their mystical experiences lacked easy, understandable \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pathway practices.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Thus widespread interest was short lived.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CHRISTIAN MYSTIC EXPERIENCES SHOW LITTLE SIMILARITY WITH BUDDHIST KENSHO<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Christian mystics may well have rooted their mystical experiences in the ecstatic rapture of being totally immersed in thinking about or praying to Christ in one manner or another.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Whether St. Hildegard, St. John of the Cross or St. Theresa, the mystics of the middle ages seemed to produce very talkative and proselytizing interpretations of their experiences — not to diminish their experiences, just to distinguish them from what we know of Buddhist experiences.\u00c2\u00a0 In all of Buddhist literature, as far as I know, there are no reported visions of God\/Buddha or voices urging them to write about the visions. \u00c2\u00a0In fact, Buddhist \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d experiences don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have words or call for words.<\/p>\n The visions\/voices of Christian mystics set them apart from the general populace and their mystical visions are used to proselytize to or mystify the uninitiated with the standard dogma of the Church during their time.\u00c2\u00a0 And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a case to be made that some of these souls were neurologically or psychologically impaired rather than just predisposed.<\/p>\n In my limited experience, the first thing someone does after a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d experience is nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 The last thing one does is run around and tell folks about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Or create interpretation for it.\u00c2\u00a0 How an awakening experience manifests to others is by a change in visage and a change in attitude and behavior; rarely in<\/p>\n Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an interesting excerpt from http:\/\/www.orthodox.cn\/patristics\/apostolicfathers\/mystic.htm<\/a><\/p>\n In reference to early Christian mystics or the Desert Fathers, [v]isions were practically non-existent in the mystical theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church! Distractions to prayer, whether voluntary or involuntary, were to be deplored and dismissed with whenever possible, and visions and ecstasies were considered to be involuntary distractions to prayer! Those experiences which later mystics sought after and prized so highly were considered by the earlier Christians as little more than nuisances to be suspiciously examined and barely tolerated.<\/p>\n Simply focusing on the idea of Christ relentlessly could quite possibly lead to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d experience.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can do it by attentive breathing (zazen) or attentive archery or tea ceremony, then it seems quite possible that persons could experience \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by focusing on certain repetitious prayers (like the rosary), plain song chants, or long litanies producing similar sounds to those of chanting Tibetan monks and perhaps inducing semi-hypnotic states.\u00c2\u00a0 This could explain how some Christian mystics attained \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kensho\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but without pathways that they could pass on easily.<\/p>\n In contrast to the quietude of Buddhism mystics, the Christian mystics that find their way to history seem to have an agenda.\u00c2\u00a0 Their visions hold not just meaning for themselves but with it comes an urgency to interpret and share the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153meaning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of their visions with others.\u00c2\u00a0 And since they survived history, one can assume that the interpretations of their visions fell within the bounds of approved dogma and reaffirmed the legitimacy of the Church and even Christ.<\/p>\n ZEN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S FIT TO CHRISTIANITY<\/p>\n Using Zen meditative practice does not immediately put the novitiate outside any mainstream religions.\u00c2\u00a0 Writing about various Buddhist pathways<\/em> to metaphysical\/mystical experiences rarely gets anyone in Dutch with the precepts of their current religion.\u00c2\u00a0 Where things go awry is trying to put words to the wordless Zen experiences you might have and then trying to fit them into the dogma of a particular religion.\u00c2\u00a0 The first victim of awakening is almost everything you think you knew about God and certainly most of the dogma of your current religion.\u00c2\u00a0 It is not as if your new state is antagonistic, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that you have moved beyond the world of words.\u00c2\u00a0 I suspect this is precisely what happened to St. Thomas Aquinas.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps he became Christianity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Zen victim\u00e2\u20ac\u009d due to his intensely focused attention into the nature and existence of God.<\/p>\n In a broad sweeping conclusion (and thus suspect), I have the feeling that Christ of the Gospels and Zen Buddhism are not a close match.\u00c2\u00a0 The metaphysical parables of Jesus are not Zen koans.\u00c2\u00a0 (A koan is a short question or story that undermines all attempts to explain it using words.\u00c2\u00a0 The idea is you noodle on the koan until your brain gives up.\u00c2\u00a0 And then the answer might appear.)\u00c2\u00a0 Zen casts a would-be student adrift into mindful-doing and mindless-emptiness so that the student is forced to quit using words as his way of knowing or to stay away from words long enough to find his own wordless knowing out of mindfulness and mindlessness.<\/p>\n The New Testament Jesus on the other hand gets right to a Confucian-like set of behavioral principals that define Christianity, such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love thy neighbor as thyself.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 (Mathew 22:35)\u00c2\u00a0 The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lord\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer (Mathew 6:9-13 et al) is very Christian-like and little Zen-like.\u00c2\u00a0 The most Christ-like part of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our Father\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is an amazing concept that is not found in Buddhisn:\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 This is seemingly an anti-karma pathway.\u00c2\u00a0 The quid pro quo to getting your own transgressions forgiven unto eternity is that you must forgive the transgressions of others against you.\u00c2\u00a0 This prayer is directed to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our Father in heaven\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which seems like an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153external God above us\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Latin \u00e2\u20ac\u0153qui es in caelis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heaven\u00e2\u20ac\u009d certainly carried the notion at the time of 1) a real place and 2) located in or beyond the sky.\u00c2\u00a0 It is pushing the definitions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heaven\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as understood then to translate this as an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153internal space\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or heaven as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oneness with Christ.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lord\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is not Zen-like.<\/p>\n Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s use of short \u00e2\u20ac\u0153parables\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a mode of teaching doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to have parallels in other religions.\u00c2\u00a0 Like koans, they are a clever way of conveying a lesson without coming right out and saying it.\u00c2\u00a0 Parables are open to interpretation as to meaning and the wrong people hearing them cannot really get a good purchase for attacking them as unorthodox teaching.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Zen koans, parables are sort of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153coded\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and useless to someone who has not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153eaten\u00e2\u20ac\u009d them.<\/p>\n While Christianity, like Zen, is about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153doing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153doing good,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Christian foundational element of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is not a part of the Zen tradition.\u00c2\u00a0 The Buddhist concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Right livelihood\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is not exactly the same thing.\u00c2\u00a0 On the other hand, if one finds enlightenment in Buddhism, past sins become irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 That is just not who you are any longer.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, for the most part, there is no you <\/em>any longer!\u00c2\u00a0 But there is a subtle difference between growing beyond the karma cycle of good and evil via \u00e2\u20ac\u0153enlightenment\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and being forgiven by a deity upon request.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps it amounts to the same thing in the end, but it is not the same exactly.<\/p>\n Metaphysical\/Mystical experiences in the Sufi, Judaic, Buddhist, Hindu and Christian traditions are remarkably the same and remarkably produce the same behaviors \u00e2\u20ac\u0153on the other side\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153awakening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 What is not<\/em> common to all these religions is the historic figure of Jesus as the be all and end all.<\/p>\n As you enter the world of Zen Buddhism many Christians wonder if they need to set Christ aside to enter.\u00c2\u00a0 The answer is, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No\u00e2\u20ac\u009d — on many counts.\u00c2\u00a0 A more important question is, are you still a Christian after you have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153awakened\u00e2\u20ac\u009d using Zen practices?\u00c2\u00a0 Or, maybe phrased more articulately, how does Christ fit into your experience of no-self and awakened-self after plying the depths of Zen? \u00c2\u00a0The easy answer is that the idea of Christ is not necessary to successfully reach a state of wakefulness in Buddhism any more, according to Buddhism principles, than you need \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Buddha\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to reach the same state.<\/p>\n In recent Christendom, stern religions like the Quakers, Shakers, Amish and even Mennonites offered very sparse Zen-like religions that involved \u00e2\u20ac\u0153right livelihood\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153doing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 As they would say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hands to work; hearts to God.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Their aim was perfection in everything.\u00c2\u00a0 Such striving for perfection is not Buddhist.\u00c2\u00a0 What is <\/em>Buddhist is the extraordinary mindfulness it takes to create perfect work.\u00c2\u00a0 Mindfulness is a very powerful spiritual path.\u00c2\u00a0 The Christian aspects of their religions revolved around \u00e2\u20ac\u0153loving your neighbor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and even though they were rough on their own members, they were historically open hearted to strangers.\u00c2\u00a0 Their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rules\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of in-house conduct made sparse monasteries look like pleasure palaces.<\/p>\n However, there is a case to be made that the essence of Buddha, the historic figure, and Christ, the historic figure, are remarkably similar.\u00c2\u00a0 That is, each historic figure shares the same \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what is-ness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 It may be a matter of sophistry, but if we define Christ as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that part of God that is one with time and space (being and time)\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and further that Christ has always been one with all that is and thus is one with us, whether we know it or not, then Buddha, Christ, and us<\/em> all share the same \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oneness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n This concept of Christ makes Christ part of all that is from the very onset of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what is\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and will continue until the end of time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the end of evolution or the collapse or fulfillment of the cosmos.\u00c2\u00a0 From Alpha to Omega.\u00c2\u00a0 According to this view of the nature of Christ, Christ already is part of all that is Buddhist.\u00c2\u00a0 Just as Buddhists believe Buddha is part of everything \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that is\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and thus part of Christ and us \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whether we know it or not.<\/p>\n A more important question for Christians to ponder is, do Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Testament teachings actually add something to Buddhism that is not there?\u00c2\u00a0 For me, the answer is, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The metaphysical Christ is one with us no matter what or no matter the name we use to describe \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God with us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 However, the historic Christ of the New Testament introduces a few new ideas not found in Buddhism in a straight-forward manner: proactive \u00e2\u20ac\u0153love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the ultimate state of being; and breaking the karmic wheel with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153forgiveness\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of ourselves and everyone else.\u00c2\u00a0 To me these ideas are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evolutionary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they go beyond the rubric of Buddhism; they seem to move consciousness to a higher level.<\/p>\n However, these concepts are irrelevant on your path to spiritual awakening \u00e2\u20ac\u201c no matter what path you take.\u00c2\u00a0 As Buddhists would say, you are already on the path.\u00c2\u00a0 And you become enlightened just by realizing you are on the path.\u00c2\u00a0 On this path, at some point you may get to a place of oneness with all that is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I mean before you die.\u00c2\u00a0 If you look at the New Testament\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s testimony about the thoughts of historic Jesus, you may find that Christ brings something to your life that might take your Zen practice to another dimension.<\/p>\n Perhaps, before setting out on your journey, you may wish to examine what is essential to you of Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Testament teachings.\u00c2\u00a0 All \u00e2\u20ac\u0153new\u00e2\u20ac\u009d religions of sincerity are trying to find new descriptors, new metaphors, for interacting with God.\u00c2\u00a0 To gain admission to the new religion it will be necessary to learn its argot, such as L. Ron Hubbard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.\u00c2\u00a0 To understand anything well, you must eat it.\u00c2\u00a0 I am becoming much more careful, as I age, about what passes as metaphysical food.<\/p>\n Forming accessible pathways to an awakened state may be the greatest gift of Zen to all religions and all persons with spiritual curiosity.\u00c2\u00a0 It is one of the intrinsic wonderments of Buddhism that you really do not need to learn a new dogma or a new language (in the sense of coded metaphors) to plumb its depths.\u00c2\u00a0 To my way of thinking, it would be a mistake to try and cram the New Testament into Buddhism.\u00c2\u00a0 It won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if you are Christian, on the other side of Buddhism, you will undoubtedly find Christ in a new light.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Online resources:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.religion-online.org\/showarticle.asp?title=1608<\/a><\/p>\n This is an amazing site:\u00c2\u00a0 http:\/\/www.innerexplorations.com\/chmystext\/cm5.htm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THOUGHTS ON ZEN AND CHRISTIANITY By Jack Campitelli \u00c2\u00a9 2012 Jack Campitelli LLC For many of us who transact between the worlds of Christianity and Zen Buddhism, there is little reason or need to explain how seamlessly the metaphysical\/mystical elements of Zen and Christianity fit together. THE RELIGIONS Christianity has such … Continue reading Zen and Christianity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consciousness","category-eckhart-tolle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":804,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}