Christianity and Zen

In recent years Christians have shown increasing interest in Buddhism, an interest, I think, which doesn't arise so much from academic or neighborly curiosity, nor from any dissatisfaction with Christianity, but instead stems from a desire to return to older forms of Christian worship... forms that included the various methods of meditation that are still followed in Buddhism. Buddhism's history is such that, having been founded in a preliterate time and place, it was spread …

…discipline is clarity of thought. Life can be cruel and confusing especially when we discover that we're largely responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. We need to understand our predicament. Escaping from life to sit on cushion and obliterate our minds is hardly the answer to anything. Next week we discuss how a Zen practitioner develops the necessary clarity of thought to transcend ego-consciousness - the state in which the ego doesn't exist.