Zen Christian
Last Friday when I got home from the Star Trek Movie (AWESOME!!!!) I found I had a direct Message from none other than the OJG John Wilkerson. and he asked:
“Been meaning to ask you: what is a ‘Zen Christian’? To me, zen & Christianity are incompatible.”
Now if you mean Zen in the idea of Buddhism then yes they are incompatible, if you mean, as I do a philosophy on living life as I mean it, then no they aren’t incompatible. You see there are Buddhists that practice Zen and there are Buddhist that don’t practice Zen.
If your wondering what he means be that, its simple, On my website at jtindie.com under the WHO IS JT I write “I am a ZEN Christian who has been a part of the local Christian Music Scene in Pittsburgh Area for the past 6 years” Well I got to admit that I didn’t explain it there just so I could see who would ask me about it, over the last year and half I have had a couple people ask me that same question. So here is what I mean when I call myself a ZEN Christian.
Years ago I read the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” By Robert S Prissig and in the beginning of the book he lets the readers know that the book has very little to do with either Zen or Motorcycle Maintenance. What the book had to with really was life and living. If you study Zen you find that what Zen Emphasizes is Direct experience through meditation and practice. Through the act of letting go, Really letting go. A zen practitioner who studies archery will pull a bow and fire the arrow hundreds perhaps a thousand times in one practice session. He will do this until he no longer exists apart from the bow and arrow. Until , as cheesy as it sounds, he becomes the bow. and it is this idea from ZEN that I bring to my Christianity.
When I first became a Christian I simply existed in God’s love, and floated in His Grace. Then when I went out and actually tried to live a life as a Christian, I found myself constantly wracked by the idea that no matter what I did I always failed in one way or another. (all have sinned and fallen short) I kept trying to do my best and be who I thought God wanted me to be and I kept failing. Each time I failed it became harder and harder for me to go on.
Until I read where Jesus talks about us abiding in him and he abiding in us. That is when I remembered what I had learned about letting Go and just being. So I decided that I was just going to BE a christian, not do anything special, not go out of my way, just BE in Christ and not worry when I fail, not really to do anything but live out what God has given me. I find it a wonderful way to live life. When I fail, when I find sin in my life, I accept that it is part of being broken, ask for forgiveness and go on. I don’t allow it to stop me and crush me like it used to.
When I would practice anything, shooting, martial arts, card tricks, engineering. I found there I get to a point where it has become so natural that it isn’t me shooting the gun, throwing a punch, palming a card, or designing a machine, it is just the skill flowing through me. It is the same for me with Christ now. It isn’t me being a Christian, but Christ flowing through me. My sin is what happens when I try to take control over something that should be natural, or me trying to force something out of its time.
That is my idea of Zen Christian
