Zen is nonsense- and a Zen Master would be the first to tell you so. The tenents of Buddhism teach abandonment of desire but Zen is a Japanese/Korean permutation of Buddhism and became a way of looking at life, a "suchness" philosophy. I always thought a lot of it is semantic in nature. It just tries to get you tho think beyond causation, not in place of it. Prayer does the same. I'm a Catholic and there's a lot more philosophies I find more offensive than Zen.
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican Thursday cautioned Roman Catholics that
Eastern meditation practices such as Zen and yoga can ``degenerate into a cult
of the body'' that debases Christian prayer.
``The love of God, the sole object of Christian contemplation, is a reality
which cannot be `mastered' by any method or technique,'' said a document
issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The document, approved by Pope John Paul II and addressed to bishops, said
attempts to combine Christian meditation with Eastern techniques were fraught
with danger although they can have positive uses.
The 23-page document, signed by the West German congregation head Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, was believed the first time the Vatican sought to respond to
the pull of Eastern religious practices.
Ratzinger told a news conference that the document was not condemning
Eastern meditation practices, but was elaborating on guidelines for proper
Christian prayer.
By Eastern methods, the document said, it was referring to practices
inspired by Hinduism and Buddhism such as Zen, Transcendental Meditation and
yoga, which [may] involve prescribed postures and controlled breathing.
Some Christians, ``caught up in the movement toward openness and exchanges
between various religions and cultures, are of the opinion that their prayer
has much to gain from these methods,'' the document said.
But, it said, such practices ``can degenerate into a cult of the body and
can lead surreptitiously to considering all bodily sensations as spiritual
experiences.''
Read the document itself here:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFMED.HTM
Isn't that a bit of a strawman, though? Observe:
1. One would have to be a very bizarre person to put Zen at the top of the "offensive philosophies" list. Who, for example, would hate Zen more than they hated the views of Nazism or Marxism-Leninism? What Catholic would find Zen more offensive than the sort of hedonist narcissism that drives many homosexual activists?
2. The posters point was not that Zen was offensive, but that it isn't Christian.
Soooo...straw man. Big time.