Zen is not Zen. Zen is like, if you find yourself in a field of manure, making a walkway of manure patties to get out of the field. Zen itself like medicine made of thinking, to cure thinking disease.
It is not in conflict with Christianity. Consider if you were pinned beneath a tractor and suffering greatly. You probably would not be able to perceive, for example, the sweet smell of the air. But if I tell you how to remove the tractor using a remote control in your pocket, and you can then smell the sweet air, that does not mean that my method replaces, or is in conflict with, or competes against as truth, the sweet smell of the air. So Zen is only a tool.
The Buddha himself called Buddhism (and therefore Zen) a raft. It is a tool to get across the river. You wouldn't use a raft to cross a river and then drag it with you across the land with you all day.
So Zen is not the truth. It is a tool. What can be realized with Zen is the truth. Some call it 'God', some call it 'The Absolute', some call it 'Satori' or 'Enlightenment.'
But in true nature, there are no attributes, no essence. So if you say Enlightenment is this or that ... you are always lying. So how can you talk about it? Only if you know and agree, in the context of talking about it, that talking about it is only using manure patties as tools to help yourself and others get out of the manure field. What's outside of the manure field has no words, language, name, form, attributes.
The Heart Sutra says "No Attainment, with nothing to Attain." So how can you ever realize yourself while sailing a boat? If you say you can, then you are a squirrel chasing a nut. If you say you can't, then you are attached to emptiness. But if you are only sailing a boat, then the universe is Just Like This.
It is only necessary to put down all thinking, all opinions, all notions, and the universe is already clear. But it is hard to put down the tool which we mistake as ourselves - we sense that beyond that is death, so we cling to the aggregation of mind made illusions we call 'self,' just as if we were afraid to put down the framing hammer because we think the frame will disappear. We mistake the tool for the object of the tool. The tool of course can not 'know' it's object. A framing hammer knows nothing of a frame. Similarly, mental activity knows nothing of it's object, yet we think we are the mental activity, and with it, we seek to know 'the truth.'
The Koan might as well be 'what color is 2 + 2 = 5?.' Every thought is not necessarily wrong, but every thought IS wrong if you think it is the truth. So 'what color is 2 + 2 = 4' is equally as insane.
When you realize what the Buddha realized, just BEFORE you will be in awe, but just after you will laugh, laugh, laugh.
Here is a koan for you: Why is the Fat Buddha laughing and What does he know that you don't already know?
Thanks for writing - was fun to read! Hope you are doing Great! (And soon become enlightened!)
I had a feeling this story would smoke you out of your manure field. Ha!
Consider if you were pinned beneath a tractor and suffering greatly. You probably would not be able to perceive, for example, the sweet smell of the air.
In Italy of all places, I was on a business trip at dinner and I failed to heed the warning to coat the bread with olive oil. I nearly choked to death when I laughed at a joke and a piece of bread go lodged in my throat. It was 45 seconds of hell until the guy next to me whacked my back enough times to disload the bread.
Never the forget the first breath after it dislodged. The breath tasted like a perfect sip of wine. That was my second Enlightenment!
We mistake the tool for the object of the tool. The tool of course can not 'know' it's object.
Also, the object has no knowledge of the programmer who created the object. It works both ways.
The Koan might as well be 'what color is 2 + 2 = 5?.'
Yes, and perhaps the skill of the Zen Master was that he chose the kind of manure pattie what would work for me. He succeeded in pushing me to meditate hard enough to break through the veil for a few seconds.
I like the raft story. It's a classic Buddhist story and it's powerful.
I think treating your "self" less seriously can be liberating. We are such stuff as dreams are made on...
Question for you. I think you mentioned Atlas Shrugged was one of your favorite books. But are there any shorter books you recommend reading?
I'm doing quite well, thanks...