Are you a heretic?

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by earl

Couldn't help but notice the passing discussion re "zen Christianity." Dogma-wise nothing probalby could be on the surface of it more different in aim (let alone method) as Buddhism and Christianity.

Hi Earl,

Amongst others perhaps on here, seattlegal seems to maintain a seamless balancing of zen and Christianity. (if she doesn't mind me saying so?)

s.

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Snoopy

Hi Earl,

Amongst others perhaps on here, seattlegal seems to maintain a seamless balancing of zen and Christianity. (if she doesn't mind me saying so?)

s.

Well, my zen was obtained (unbeknownst to be--thanks, Sen-Sei!) without any of the zen vocabulary or associated philosophy/theory before I became a Christian. (My Sen-Sei told me that I was way too theory-based in my thinking, and snuck some zen practice into the rest of my martial arts lessons. It wasn't until after I became a Christian, and started comparative religious studies, that I recognized that the seated breathing exercise Sen-Sei snuck in with the Qi-Gung was zen meditation, that the riddles he would ask were koans, and the joking conversations he would have with me while I practiced my katas were mondos, and if I gave a bad answer, he'd knock me on top of the head with his knuckles instead of using a zen stick.) It was already part of my personality when I became a Christian, and I had no means at the time to identify it as something to be discarded. **shrug**

{btw, do you want to know what I mean by slapping a zen practitioner with a fish? It's waking them up to the Christian gospel--the testimony of Jesus.}

[China Cat Sunflower]

Originally Posted by seattlegal

Well, my zen was obtained (unbeknownst to be--thanks, Sen-Sei!) without any of the zen vocabulary or associated philosophy/theory before I became a Christian. (My Sen-Sei told me that I was way too theory-based in my thinking, and snuck some zen practice into the rest of my martial arts lessons. It wasn't until after I became a Christian, and started comparative religious studies, that I recognized that the seated breathing exercise Sen-Sei snuck in with the Qi-Gung was zen meditation, that the riddles he would ask were koans, and the joking conversations he would have with me while I practiced my katas were mondos, and if I gave a bad answer, he'd knock me on top of the head with his knuckles instead of using a zen stick.) It was already part of my personality when I became a Christian, and I had no means at the time to identify it as something to be discarded. **shrug**

{btw, do you want to know what I mean by slapping a zen practitioner with a fish? It's waking them up to the Christian gospel--the testimony of Jesus.}

Now that's totally groovy!

I find philosophical Christianity, which to me is simply Greek philosophy through rose colored glasses, and Taoist philosophy to be perfectly compatible. Add a little Hindu cosmology flavored quantum physics, a bit of Western Hermetica, some Jewish mysticism, and beat...well!

Chris

[Paladin]

wow, all this slapping and beating! So much for the idea that mixed spirituality is easy

[China Cat Sunflower]

Originally Posted by Paladin

wow, all this slapping and beating! So much for the idea that mixed spirituality is easy

LOL!

I like the buffet approach, but I'm not a syncretist. I don't think all the religions are saying the same thing, just that a lot of the stuff in the middle meshes quite nicely. I say I'm not a syncretist because as much as I like the eastern approach, I don't believe in the dimunition of the ego as the path to enlightenment. Kinda Randian that way, although I'm not a devotee of the rest of her philosophy. Anyway, I think that I'd much rather quest than contemplate, but I do appreciate the transcendental nature of things.

Chris

[flowperson]

China Cat:

I have found through my life experiences that without questing there cannot be any transcendance. What true things you have written here today !

flow....

[Caimanson]

Originally Posted by China Cat Sunflower

Now that's totally groovy!

I find philosophical Christianity, which to me is simply Greek philosophy through rose colored glasses, and Taoist philosophy to be perfectly compatible. Add a little Hindu cosmology flavored quantum physics, a bit of Western Hermetica, some Jewish mysticism, and beat...well!

Chris

HOW HERETIC!

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by seattlegal

{btw, do you want to know what I mean by slapping a zen practitioner with a fish? It's waking them up to the Christian gospel--the testimony of Jesus.}

Hi sg,

Should one bring a sowester?

s.

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Snoopy

Hi sg,

Should one bring a sowester?

s.

If you feel that you can't handle the rain without it.

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Thomas

'Man does not choose his tradition. Tradition calls the man.'

Thomas

That would make me a heretic to zen, then I guess, even though I was being unknowingly trained in the traditions of Zen without any of the philosophy, since I wasn't raised in any religion.

Originally Posted by seattlegal

Well, my zen was obtained (unbeknownst to be--thanks, Sen-Sei!) without any of the zen vocabulary or associated philosophy/theory before I became a Christian. (My Sen-Sei told me that I was way too theory-based in my thinking, and snuck some zen practice into the rest of my martial arts lessons. It wasn't until after I became a Christian, and started comparative religious studies, that I recognized that the seated breathing exercise Sen-Sei snuck in with the Qi-Gung was zen meditation, that the riddles he would ask were koans, and the joking conversations he would have with me while I practiced my katas were mondos, and if I gave a bad answer, he'd knock me on top of the head with his knuckles instead of using a zen stick.) It was already part of my personality when I became a Christian, and I had no means at the time to identify it as something to be discarded. **shrug**

{btw, do you want to know what I mean by slapping a zen practitioner with a fish? It's waking them up to the Christian gospel--the testimony of Jesus.}

Originally Posted by Snoopy

Hi toujour,

Yes I know of the decay prior to Maitreya but wasn't really worrying just seeing what people thought about the dharma in the face of evangelism (and worse). IMO I think the growth of zen is because of it's bare bones rationality and directness. Plus of course the neat outfits.

s.

Yep, that settles it. I'm a Zen heretic, who got "slapped with a fish," and was called away by the evangelism of Christianity!

[wil]

In the cartoon of Jonah, isn't that what people were doing in Ninevah (Mosul) slapping people with fishes?

Interesting...

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by wil

In the cartoon of Jonah, isn't that what people were doing in Ninevah (Mosul) slapping people with fishes?

Interesting...

Yeah, Jonah was pretty upset when those fish-slappers in Nineveh repented from their evil and violent ways and avoided being overthrown as he had prophesized. He showed much more compassion for the plant that grew up and died over the course of one day while he was outside of the city moping that the city wasn't overthrown than he showed for those fish-slappers who changed their ways.

[wil]

So what was the cartoon implying? Were those fish slappin Ninevite sinners pre christians of some sort?

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by wil

So what was the cartoon implying? Were those fish slappin Ninevite sinners pre christians of some sort?

They were ignorant and asleep before Jonah's prophesy woke them up.

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by seattlegal

and started comparative religious studies,

Hi sg,

So how did they all stack up for you then? Feel free to provide a long and rambling reply. (I know it will be interesting, insightful and probably other stuff too!)

s.