by Kim Boykin
www.tricycle.com The Web site of the Buddhist magazine Tricycle includes "Buddhist Basics" and a directory of Buddhist centers.
www.shalem.org The Web site of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation includes links to classic texts on contemplative practice from Christianity and other religious traditions.
www.centeringprayer.com The Web site of Contemplative Outreach includes detailed instructions in centering prayer, writings on Christian contemplative prayer by Thomas Keating and others, and a list of contacts for centering prayer groups.
Sources of Meditation Cushions and Benches, Buddhist Books and Tapes, Bells, Incense, and Other Supplies
Carolina Morning Designs Cushions, benches, and bells only. Request a brochure: (888) 267-5366 or [email protected]. Online catalogue: www.zafu.net. Also on the Web site: "What's Wrong with the Chair?"
Dharma Communications Request a catalogue: (845) 688-7993; [email protected]; or P.O. Box 156, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457. On-line catalogue: www.mro.org/dc/store.shtml.
DharmaCrafts Request a catalogue: (800) 794-9862; customer-service @dharmacrafts.com; or 405 Waltham Street, Suite 234, Lexington, MA 02421. On-line catalogue: www.dharmacrafts.com.
Shasta Abbey Buddhist Supplies Request a catalogue: (800) 653-3315; [email protected]; or P.O. Box 1163, Mt. Shasta, CA 96067. On-line catalogue: www.buddhistsupplies.com. Offerings include a foam wedge to support sitting in a chair.
Finding a Meditation Group
Suggestions for finding a Zen center in your area:
1. Look in the Yellow Pages under "Meditation" or "Churches: Buddhist" or in the white pages under "Zen" (many Zen centers are called "Zen Center of [location]").
2. Browse the on-line directories of worldwide Buddhist centers at www.tricycle.com, www.buddhanet.net, and www.manjushri.com.
3. Browse The Complete Guide to Buddhist America by Don Morreale or The Buddhist Directory by Peter Lorie and Julie Foakes, which are directories of Buddhist centers in the United States and Canada, or Journey of Awakening by Ram Dass, which includes a directory of meditation centers.
You can use the same strategies to find a Tibetan, Vipassana, or Theravada Buddhist center. The practice taught to beginners in these traditions is quite similar to Zen meditation. There are more than a hundred Shambhala Meditation Centers in North America (and others around the world), offering meditation instruction in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and through Shambhala Training, a secular path of meditation training. Contact Shambhala at (902) 420-1118 (in Nova Scotia) or [email protected], or see the lists of "Shambhala Centers" and "Practice Centers" on the Web site: www.shambhala.org.
Jesuit priest and Zen teacher Robert Kennedy leads Zen retreats around the country. For information, contact R. O'Connell at [email protected] or (212) 831-5710, or go to Kennedy's Web site: kennedyzen.tripod.com.
To find a centering prayer group in your area, contact Contemplative Outreach at (973) 838-3384 (in New Jersey) or [email protected], or see the list of "Contacts" on the Web site: www.centeringprayer.com.
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Notes
An Invitation to Zen Practice
1 just plain Zen More precisely, the Zen in this book is just plain American Zen.
2 like comparing tennis and mathematics Thomas Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite (New York: New Directions, 1968), p. 33.
3 differential equations Thanks to my mathematician friend Fred Helenius for this suggestion of what mathematicians might ponder.
3 "Thy will be done"-not my will, but thine The idea of connecting "Thy will be done" with Zen is from the chapter "Thy Will Be Done" in Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989), pp. 201-203.
Practice: Zazen: Counting the Breath
13 "a simplified space" Beck, Everyday Zen, p. 25.
19 "In returning and rest ..." Isaiah 30:15b-16.
Chapter One: How I Became a Christian Zen Practitioner
29 "I felt as if ... " and "Why people think ..." I am quoting from a photocopy given to my husband, with a handwritten note citing Susan Howatch, Church Times (London), Jan. 1991.
36 the aliens needed to leave the Vatican Thanks to Helen Blier for this remark.
40 "If you think your heart cannot pray, ..." Karl Rahner, The Need and the Blessing of Prayer, trans. Bruce W. Gillette (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1997), p. 11. Other books on prayer that I have found especially helpful are C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, 1973); Ann Ulanov and Barry Ulanov, Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1982); and Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1970).
40 opening our hearts to God Rahner, The Need and the Blessing of Prayer, p. 3.
41 We heed God's call in Psalm 46 This way of describing contemplative prayer is from Tilden Edwards, Living in the Presence: Disciplines for the Spiritual Heart (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987), p. 11.
Practice: Walking Meditation
46 "you feel as if. .." Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (New York: Weatherhill, 1973), p. 27.
Chapter Two: The Buddhist Way of Liberation from Suffering
49 Siddhartha Gautama For the story of the Buddha, I have drawn on Roger J. Corless, The Vision of Buddhism (New York: Paragon House, 1989), pp. 3-15; Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 14-29; Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 16-27; Jonathan Landaw and Janet Brooke, Prince Siddhartha: The Story of Buddha, (Boston: Wisdom, 1984), pp. 46-69; and Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to Its History and Teachings (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), pp. 37-42, 54-56.
56 the ordinary, unenlightened human life My use of the word unenlightened in articulating the First Noble Truth comes from Robert A. F. Thurman, "Boardroom Buddhism," Civilization, Dec. 1999-Jan. 2000, p. 61. Thanks to Jonathan Strom for calling my attention to this issue of Civilization.
57 Ecclesiastes The references in this paragraph are to Ecclesiastes 1-5. Thanks to Brian Mahan for pointing out some of the similarities between Ecclesiastes and Zen.
57 Augustine Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. PineCoffin (New York: Penguin, 1961), pp. 75-78.
58 when desire is possessive I picked up the helpful distinction between desire and possessive desire from Denys Turner, The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 183-184.
59 True satisfaction is found . . . This sentence is inspired by Sylvia Boorstein's articulation of the Second Noble Truth in It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), p. 19.
60 "It does not do ..." J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
62 selflessness is not alien to Christianity Quotes from Paul: Galatians 2:20; Romans 12:5. Love your neighbor as yourself Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19, 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8.
62 "If I loved my neighbour ..." Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, pp. 114-115.
62 selflessness doesn't mean . . . we shouldn't use the word I This idea is from Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (New York: Routledge, 1989), p. 67.
63 two levels of truth I borrowed this phrase from H. H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion, 1997), p. 160.
63 (Much of the paradoxical-sounding rhetoric ...) This idea is from Williams, Mahayana Buddhism, p. 46.
64 "His students . .. " Philip Martin, The Zen Path Through Depression (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), p. 20.
64 "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." This is Sylvia Boorstein's articulation of the First Noble Truth in It's Easier Than You Think, p. 16. The phrase "Suffering is optional" is also used by Zen teacher Cheri Huber, Suffer
ing Is Optional (Mountain View, Calif.: Keep It Simple Books, 2000).
65 "Third-and-a-Half Noble Truth": "Suffering is manageable" Boorstein, It's Easier Than You Think, p. 26.
65 Eightfold Path For the discussion of the Eightfold Path, I have drawn especially on Corless, The Vision of Buddhism, pp. 210-211; Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within (New York: Broadway Books, 1997); Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught (New York: Grove Press, 1974), pp. 45-50; and the entries on the "Eightfold Path" and "trishik- sha" (the Three Trainings) in The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen (Boston: Shambhala, 1991).
65 "skillful" and "realistic" "Skillful": Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path (Boston: Wisdom, 2001). "Realistic": Thurman, "Boardroom Buddhism," p. 61.
69 A student complained to the Buddha ... The story of the poisoned arrow is condensed and paraphrased from Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, pp. 12-15.
Practice: Noticing Thoughts
73 not about eliminating thoughts but illuminating them I got this phrase from a meditation instructor at the Shambhala Meditation Center of Atlanta. He didn't know where he'd gotten it.
76 "To study the Buddha Way..." From Dogen's Genjokoan. A slightly different translation appears in Kazuaki Tanahashi (ed.), Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen (New York: North Point Press, 1985), p. 70.
77 precise but also gentle I have borrowed these adjectives from Pema Chodron, "Precision, Gentleness, and Letting Go," in The Wisdom of No Escape: And the Path of Lovingkindness (Boston: Shambhala, 1991), pp. 13-20.
77 You're at a train station I got the train station image from a meditation instructor connected with the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) or Shambhala Training in Boulder, Colorado, in the late 1980s; I don't remember now who it was.
78 let it be I more often hear the instruction to "let thoughts go," but I like the idea of "letting thoughts be," which I found in Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom (Boston: Shambhala, 1993), pp. 39-41.
78 Hug each thought goodbye Thanks to Laurie Watel for the phrase "hugging thoughts goodbye" to succinctly capture the train station image.
79 If it seems like it was one big blur ... The idea in this sentence came from Beck, Everyday Zen, pp. 26-27.
79 When Jesus says ... Matthew 5:27-28.
79 "Be angry but do not sin" Ephesians 4:26a.
79 "Sometimes pious men and women..." and "There is no real danger . . . " Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961), pp. 222-223.
Chapter Three: Zen Teachings and Christian Teachings
83 This is a koan ... Koan quoted from Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki (eds.), Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings (Boston: Tuttle, 1998), p. 155.
85 Nonduality negates twoness . . . That "nonduality" negates twoness without affirming oneness was first made clear to me in the chapter "The Buddhist-Christian Dialogue" in David Tracy's Dialogue with the Other (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990), p. 69. See also Williams, Mahayana Buddhism, pp. 63-65.
87 George Lindbeck Quotations from George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1984), pp. 16-17. (Lindbeck proposes understanding doctrines in a fourth way, as "communally authoritative rules of discourse, attitude, and action." This "cultural-linguistic" approach emphasizes the similarities between religion and language.)
89 things are a big mess, but its OK anyway This idea and its phrasing were inspired by the chapter "It's OK" in Charlotte Joko Beck's Everyday Zen, pp. 114-118, and by the statement, "Practice is about finally understanding the paradox that although everything is a mess, all is well," in Ezra Bayda, "What Practice Is," Zen Center of San Diego Newsletter, Jan. 1996, which is available on-line at www.prairiezen.org /archive/practice.htm.
95 "by grace alone ..." and "We confess together ..." Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran World Federation, "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," 1999, paragraphs 15 and 37, available on-line at www.elca.org/ea/ EcumenicaUromancatholic/jddj/jddj.html.
96 a friend of mine asked me Thanks to Jan Thomas for this and other good theological conversations by e-mail.
99 incommensurable Thanks to Brian Mahan for pointing out that I should use three categories here instead of two-not just similarities and differences but also incommensurabilities-and for recommending that I read David Tracy's "The Buddhist-Christian Dialogue" and that I use Lindbeck's categories in this chapter.
100 "neither are we two, ... " Tracy, Dialogue with the Other, p. 94.
Chapter Four: Enlightenment: Already and Not Yet
109 Issan Dorsey This story is drawn from Kobai Scott Whitney, "The Lone Mountain Path: The Example of Issan Dorsey," Shambhala Sun, Mar. 1998.
111 "Let me respectfully ..." "Evening Gatha," in John Daido Loori (ed.), Zen Mountain Monastery Liturgy Manual (Mt. Tremper, N.Y.: Dharma Communications, 1998), p. 47.
111 practice meditation as if your hair is on fire From Dogen's Zazen-gi (Rules for Zazen) and Gakudo Yojin-shu (Guidelines for Studying the Way). See Tanahashi, Moon in a Dewdrop, pp. 29, 31.
112 Bodhidharma and Hui-k'o For these stories, I have drawn on Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History: Vol. 1, India and China, trans. James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter (Old Tappan, N.J.: Macmillan, 1988), p. 92; Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker (eds.), The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader (Hopewell, N.J.: Ecco Press, 1996), pp. 6-8; Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen (New York: Pantheon, 1957), pp. 91-92; and the entries "Bodhidharma" and "Hui-k'o" in The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen and in Charles S. Prebish (ed.), Historical Dictionary of Buddhism (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1993).
113 one historian Kenneth Ch'en, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964), p. 352.
114 "like some sort ofgoblin..." Hakuun Yasutani, Flowers Fall, trans. Paul Jaffe (Boston: Shambhala, 1996), p. 43.
114 This paradoxical language I was assisted in understanding and articulating this point-that paradox is a way to use language to point beyond language-by Turner, The Darkness of God, ch. 2.
115 "For us, complete perfection . . . ' Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, p. 103.
116 riding around on your ox Yasutani, Flowers Fall, p. 42.
117 "The ogre outside ..." Hakuin, Zen Words for the Heart: Hakuin's Commentary on the Heart Sutra, trans. Norman Waddell (Boston: Shambhala, 1996), p. 24.
121 bodhisattva For the definition of a bodhisattva, I have drawn on Corless, The Vision of Buddhism, pp. 41-42; and the "bodhisattva" entries in The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen and Prebish, Historical Dictionary of Buddhism. The second definition is from Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Heart Sutra Explained (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), p. 39.
124 Getting Saved from the Sixties Steven M. Tipton, Getting Saved from the Sixties (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).
124 a similar way of understanding Christian morality Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, pp. 114-115.
Practice: Practicing with Everything
128 a Korean Baptist seminary professor Thanks to Gerald May for sharing this story.
Chapter Five: Making Zen Practice Part of Your Life
141 Form, or physical reality, is empty The interpretation of "Form is emptiness; emptiness is form" in this sentence comes from Lopez, The Heart Sutra Explained, p. 72.
141 "no suffering, ..." and `far beyond deluded thoughts" "The Heart Sutra," in Loori, Zen Mountain Monastery Liturgy Manual, p. 27.
142 Four Bodhisattva Vows Translation used by the Atlanta Soto Zen Center, Atlanta.
145 "dark to the mind but radiant to the heart" John Daido Loori, Mountain Record of Zen Talks (Boston: Shambhala, 1988), p. xiii.
146 More than half This is suggested by James William Coleman, "The New Buddhism: Some Empirical Findings," in Duncan Ryuken Williams and Christopher S. Queen (eds.), American Bu
ddhism: Methods and Findings in Recent Scholarship (Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 1999), pp. 94-95.
148 sesshin and shin The translations of these terms are from the entries on "sesshin" and "kokoro" (shin) in The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen.
Practice: Zazen: Shikantaza, or "Just Sitting"
151 "nothing but precisely sitting" This is the literal translation of shikantaza given in The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen.
154 "You mustsit..." Hakuun Yasutani, in Philip Kapleau, The Three Pillars of Zen (New York: Doubleday, 1980), p. 128.
157 "it-doesn't-matter Zen ..." Yasutani, Flowers Fall, p. 19.
One More Thought: If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing Badly
159 "The Joys of Mediocrity" Linda Weltner, "The Joys of Mediocrity: Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Badly," Utne Reader, Jan.-Feb. 1994, pp. 99-100, reprinted from New Age Journal, Sept.-Oct. 1993.
160 "If a thing is worth doing, ..." G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1910).
160 "requires the humility ..." David Yount, Breaking Through God's Silence (Touchstone Books, 1997).
160 "It's been my observation ..." Fred Craddock, "Cloud of Witnesses," audiotape of a sermon given on May 25, 1985 (Atlanta: Candler School of Theology Media Center, Emory University, 1985).
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Acknowledgments
Thanks especially to my husband, Brian Mahan-my primary conversation partner about Zen, Christianity, theology, spiritual formation, religious education, and writing-whose influence permeates the content, structure, and style of this book. In particular, I am indebted to Brian for my understanding of the centrality in spiritual practice of attending to what inhibits us from living with wisdom and compassion.
Thanks to Gerald May, who has shaped my whole way of understanding contemplative practice, both Buddhist and Christian. Thanks to Laurie Watel and Jennifer Watts for our conversations about religion, theology, and spiritual practice and for sharing my excitement about this project. To Anne Mushin Kaufhold: Happy sixteenth anniversary of our spring break at the monastery!