We've been asked why a Zen meditation group meets at a Christian church. The Rev. Jack Lohr, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Franklin Lakes from 1985 to 2008,
established the group in 1998 following a 21-day retreat with Zen master and Nobel Peace-Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh..
A Zen meditation community can meet to sit anywhere—in a forest, in a home, in a school. Mindfulness meditation can be practiced by anyone anywhere at anytime:
while doing the dishes, weeding the flowers, folding the laundry.
1. The practice of mindfulness, which is what Thich Nhat Hanh teaches and we practice here, is a non-religious discipline that is enjoyed by people of many different
faiths, and those who claim no faith.
2. The practice of mindfulness, which is grounded in awareness of the breath, is a health-enhancing strategy that is recommended by many doctors.
3. This practice of mindfulness explicitly encourages practitioners to return to their spiritual roots and deepen their faith experience in their own religion. In
Living Buddha, Living Christ, Thich Nhat Hanh says: "I always urge my Western friends to go back to their own traditions and rediscover the values that are there,
those values they have not been able to touch before."
A.Some of the most accomplished Zen practitioners have been Christians.
Trappist monk Thomas Merton had a deepening practice of Zen, revealed in his many writings.
Indian Jesuit Priest Anthony de Mello invited people through his retreats to encounter "the Master." The Master is no one single individual: “He is a Hindu Guru, a
Zen Roshi, a Taoist Sage, a Jewish Rabbi, a Christian monk, a Sufi Mystic. He is Lao Tzu and Socrates, Buddha and Jesus, Zarathustra and Mohammed. His teaching
Is found in the 7th century B.C. and the 20th century A.D. His wisdom belongs to East and West alike.” [One Minute Wisdom (1985)]
Robert E. Kennedy, S.J., Roshi, is a Jesuit priest and Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage. In his book, Zen Gifts to Christians, Kennedy Roshi suggests that people,
leaning toward a deeper form of prayer, are often attracted to studying Zen. It is not because they wish to become Buddhists but because they seek a more contemplative
prayer life. He writes: “Zen gives us a method to put contemplation into practice. Zen training does not allow us to analyze or theorize about prayer or life. Instead, it
plunges us at the outset into the contemplative act in which there is no subject or object.” He is also the author of Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit: The Place of Zen in Christian
Life. His Morning Star Zendo is located in Jersey City, NJ.
B. Some are Jewish: each has written and taught extensively.
Sylvia Boorman, practicing psychotherapist, co-founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, and senior teacher at Insight Meditation Center in
Massachusetts.
Jack Kornfield, PhD in clinical psychology, introduced Theravada Buddhist practice to the West. As a member of the Peace Corps he was assigned to Thailand where
he studied under Buddhist master Ajahn Chah for many years.
Bernard Glassman, a Jewish-American Buddhist roshi who co-founded the Zen Peacemaker Circle, an international organization of socially-engaged Buddhist teachers.
Sharon Salzberg, who concentrates her teachings on vipassana and brahmavihara meditation.
The mind can go in a thousand directions.
But on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.
With each step, a gentle wind blows.
With each step, a flower blooms.
--Thich Nhat Hanh