[bnelson44]

For the christian trying to go deeper Zen meditation can be used as a tool. Many are put off by the Buddhist trappings of Zen. By having a christian context for Zen, Kennedy Roshi adds another path toward realizing the truth for oneself.

A Christian gets to heaven by following the teachings of Christ and the Church. He doesn't do it by another path which may or may not realize the truth. Prayer for a Christian was taught to us by Christ himself and "Christian prayer is ALWAYS determined by the structure of the Christian faith, in which the very truth of God and creature shines forth. For this reason, it is defined, properly speaking, as a personal, intimate and profound DIALOGUE between man and God. It expresses therefore the communion of redeemed creatures with the intimate life of the Persons of the Trinity. This communion, based on Baptism and the Eucharist, source and summit of the life of the Church, implies an attitude of conversion, a flight from "self" to the "You" of God. Thus Christian prayer is at the same time always authentically personal and communitarian. It flees from impersonal techniques or from concentrating on oneself, which can create a kind of rut, imprisoning the person praying in a spiritual privatism which is incapable of a free openness to the transcendental God. Within the Church, in the legitimate search for new methods of meditation it must always be borne in mind that the essential element of authentic Christian prayer is the meeting of two freedoms, the infinite freedom of God with the finite freedom of man." From:

LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Emphasis mine.

[stig]

Prayer for a Christian was taught to us by Christ himself

If that were the case then Catholics would only say the Our Father. The eastern orthodox catholic monks have numerous tools above and beyond standard prayer they use to deepen their spirituality. The fact that there are charismatics in the catholic church who try to speak in toungues indicate that many people within the catholic church are looking for something more than standard prayer to deepen their spirituality.

There is a movement called centering prayer which, from my reading, is zen meditation replaced with christian themes to help a person concentrate on a single theme and keep random thoughts in check.

Part of the point of zen is to cut through our insecent inner chatter and experience life in a pure form without our usual preconceptions. This is done through meditation of a particular form that zen teaches. By the way this meditation is starting to be studied by doctors and seems to bring added health benefits to those who practice it.

Finally I would say that people who pray the rosary are probably very close in technique to those who practice zen meditation. In saying the Rosary to yourself while kneeling especially you put yourself into the kind of posture that helps to focus your attention. By breathing normally while you say the rosary silently to yourself you are controlling your breath in much the same way. I would venture to say that if we studied the brain wave patterns of those who are adept at praying the rosary we would probably see similar brain activity to those that meditate.