Questions to Master Deshimaru: Your expression, "Zen is beyond religion, "could be taken to mean that Zen is supposed to take the place of all religions, to supplant them. What do you really mean?

Questions to Master Deshimaru

Maitre Deshimaru en mondo

Question

Your expression, "Zen is beyond religion, "could be taken to mean that Zen is supposed to take the place of all religions, to supplant them. What do you really mean?

Answer

Religions remain what they are. Zen is meditation. Meditation is the foundation of every religion. People today feel an intense need to go back to the source of religious life, to the pure essence in the depths of themselves which they can discover only through actually experiencing it. They also need to be able to concentrate their minds in order to find the highest wisdom and freedom, which is spiritual in nature, in their efforts to deal with the influences of every description imposed upon them by their environment. Human wisdom alone is not enough, it is not complete. Only universal truth can provide the highest wisdom. Take away the word Zen and put Truth or Order of the Universe in its place.