My Sweet Lord
What's behind wanting to find a connection between religions
A few weeks ago I wrote to my editor at Monkfish saying I currently am thinking about two book length projects. And I asked whether one or the other might be of interest to him (and, of course, them…)
One idea was a sequel to my novel, which they’ll be publishing about this time next year. And, yes, I am super excited about it. My seventh book, but my first foray into fiction. No doubt I’ll be discussing this more as we get closer to publication…
The second idea reflects my continuing struggle to reconcile my Zen Buddhist nonduality with a critical appreciation of those mystical forms of Christianity. It’s kind of an obsession. I call it Zen Master Jesus. This exploring the contours of that liminal place of meeting and contradiction is something that calls deeply to my heart. I certainly keep writing pieces using Christian themes here at my Buddhist Substack page.
But I'm also having trouble finding how it all coheres. From one angle there’s a lot more contradiction than meeting. So, along with the obsession is considerable anxiety about what I can offer.
He replied to this note, “I'm partial to the Zen Master Jesus idea. I think reflections on the tensions you mention would be valuable.”
I’m fine with letting the sequel marinade. I’m still in shock that they’re even taking the novel on. I know so many people over the years who have a novel in them, but have never found a publisher. I also can see how it might best be a one off.
But this meeting of Christianity and Zen Buddhism. That I’m both chewing on and being chewed on by. Pretty much every day.
As it sometimes happens soon after this exchange I found myself sharing some notes with a Roman Catholic lay person who is also authorized as a Zen teacher in the SanboZen lineage. Someone wrote me asking for a referral to a Christian Zen teacher in her area. I wrote him asking if he felt he fit that bill.
In response to my query he wrote “I do not consider myself and would not call myself a Christian (or Catholic) Zen teacher. If I were pushed, I would probably say I am a troubled — maybe tortured! — Catholic Christian, who is at the same time a Zen teacher.”
This meeting of Christianity and Zen (Buddhism) in people’s hearts is a messy thing. To say one is a Christian Zen teacher or a Zen Christian teacher is to imply a theological unity that as I speak with these people usually doesn’t seem to be what they mean. At least so far I haven’t met someone who is an authentic lineage holder in a Zen tradition, and there is a small bunch of them, offering any kind of grand synthesis.
They just do what they do. Like that bumblebee that should not fly. And yet it does.
I think part of the problem for me has been feeling I need to reconcile the two traditions. And trying that seems to be creating a mess. At best it makes a new religion. Or, maybe that’s at worst.
As I sit with it all I find I have no desire nor even the hubris to think inventing a new religion is in my job description…
