The new Bishop-elect for the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is in hot water with conservatives in the US because he practices zen. See articles on The Times website here and here if you want to read more.
There are a couple of things I want to say about this:
1. Firstly, as Ruth Gledhill points out in her article, it’s sad that once again when truly unbelievable things are going on in the church (the Nazi bishop who wasn’t excommunicated etc.) that this is the kind of story that makes the headlines.
2. It seems quite clear to me that Zen is not a religion but a philosophy or set of practices. There is no God in Zen. As such I don’t think there is any reason to think that a Christian can’t also find Zen helpful. I do. Bishop Kevin says that Zen practices deepen his relationship with Christ. I think I would say the same. As the Irish Jesuit William Johnston points out in his book ‘Christian Zen’, there is a difference between Zen and Zen Buddhism. A Zen approach can be taken to any of the religions – so we could have Zen Judaism, Zen Islam, Zen Christianity as well as Zen Buddhism. I think Zen helps us to see but doesn’t tell us what we should see (a helpful phrase I have taken from Richard Rohr’s analysis of Eckhart Tolle) – i.e. Zen is about process not content.
I am resolutely Christian – for me it’s all about Christ who is the ‘really real’ (to borrow a phrase from Gregory of Nyssa). But there is stuff in Zen that can help me receive Christ and follow Christ and which I can learn from. Thomas Merton and Richard Rohr have been saying this for a long time!
So let’s lay off Bishop Kevin!
Au contraire.
As one who has dabbled with Zen for his meditative life, it soon became evident to me that Zen practices were entirely contradictory to the mainstream of catholic spirituality. Traditional Christian contemplation involves the focussing upon God, the practice of the presence of Christ, the allowance to be filled to the deepest part of one’s self with the Spirit. Zen in contradiction to this advocates the emptying of one-self and an explicit (yes, explicit) denial of the God who I am meant to open myself to. I cannot allow Christ to be truly present if I am seeking to be empty of everything.
Perhaps you might need to give us a clear example of a Zen practice that would permit, even explicitly invite the presence of Christ?
Hi Peter
thankyou for your comment and also for the opportunity it has given me to think again about my views on this.
I know how fond you are of a good argument and I am afraid I am going to disappoint you! I don’t intend to get into one with you on this. So I will keep my response brief and to the point.
The dichotomy between Christian meditation being about fulness and non-Christian meditation being about emptiness is a bit old hat (IMHO). There seem to be plenty of Christians who experience an emptying (John of the Cross’ Dark night of the Soul etc.) and plenty of non-Christians that find meditation fills them with love, joy and peace etc.
But what I really want to say is that I don’t need to invite the presence of Christ because Christ is already present. Christ is within me. What I need to be emptied of are the layers of ego and the chaotic mental busyness that keep me from an awareness of Christ. When I use meditation techniques and practices to help me to come to stillness then I find it is Christ I encounter – who was there waiting to be encountered all along.
So when I sit on my mat (as I have just done) and begin my meditation time by making the sign of the cross and saying the collect for purity and then move into focussing on my breathing as I silently say my mantra (the name ‘Yahweh’ or the Jesus Prayer for example) I AM engaged in emptying – you are quite right – but what I am seeking to empty myself of is that which keeps me from awareness of Christ.
with you there, but then I’m not really the sot of Christian who’d complain about that sort of thing anyway… I thought that with age one was supposed to become more conservative
I think Zen can be contrasted with the modern culture of presumption. You might enjoy the short Zen tale I just posted at http://deligentia.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/empty-your-cup/