Question
Even a Zen master may need help, and I am a very generous person, so I am going to tell you something. First, you have a fixation on churches, overlooking the fact that Zen schools are churches in disguise—read: sects. Then I must tell you that churches do not benefit from priests, but they have many people who have faith, true faith. When you feel kundalini, they will see the Virgin, for example. Because, you see, what is important to understand is that religions are vehicles for embracing the Absolute. So the problem is not religion, but the way one participates in religion… You yourself even say, “What Zen do you practice?” If you practice bad Zen there is no awakening; if you practice true Zen, awakening is IMMEDIATE. You can also be awakened and be Catholic or Muslim… I understand your passion, however, but readers do not need it. They just need to understand what is true and false, what is possible and impossible. That is Zen’s first failing: devaluing understanding, explanation, and philosophy, and overvaluing zazen practice. How will someone interpret a mystical experience if they do not know how to understand it and no one knows how to explain it to them? Their interpretation will be wrong. Zen’s second failing lies in its cultural baggage, its form: the sitting position must be a certain way, the clothing, and so on… All utterly useless. We must return to what is essential, and what is essential is mind or consciousness. We must get to the root of the problem of mind and not focus on form, because for thousands of years form has taken priority in religions, even in Zen.
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
“Even a Zen master may need help, and I am a very generous person, so I am going to tell you something. First, you have a fixation on churches, overlooking the fact that Zen schools are churches in disguise—read: sects.”
It is precisely with reference to Zen schools that I criticize the church, and with reference to the church or churches that I criticize Zen.
You confirm what I say when you write, “So the problem is not religion, but the way one participates in religion…” You know very well that Jesus was crucified under pressure from the church of his time, and that if he returned today, he would not be welcome in the Vatican for long.
”You yourself even say, ‘What Zen do you practice?’ If you practice bad Zen there is no awakening; if you practice true Zen, awakening is IMMEDIATE. You can also be awakened and be Catholic or Muslim…”
I completely agree.
”They just need to understand what is true and false, what is possible and impossible. That is Zen’s first failing: devaluing understanding, explanation, and philosophy, and overvaluing zazen practice. How will someone interpret a mystical experience if they do not know how to understand it and no one knows how to explain it to them? Their interpretation will be wrong.”
That is exactly what I explain, particularly in the Fukanzazengi of the Future.
”Zen’s second failing lies in its cultural baggage, its form: the sitting position must be a certain way, the clothing, and so on… All utterly useless. We must return to what is essential, and what is essential is mind or consciousness. We must get to the root of the problem of mind and not focus on form, because for thousands of years form has taken priority in religions, even in Zen.”
Getting to the root of the problem of mind means understanding that mind and form are one, understanding mind as matter and matter as mind.
Kosen