"I left Jesus to search for the Tao when I was sixteen," writes Kenneth Leong. "Now I am forty and realize that I could have found the Tao in Jesus." This is an intriguing book that reveals how Zen philosophy parallels the core message of the gospel.
It is the spiritual side of Zen, the art to trust and accept life that coincides with the core of the Gospel message. For power, dogma and doctrine were not Jesus' passion, but the mystery of life and the possibility of love. Sometimes people have overlooked the joy, the humor and the depth of Jesus' teachings—often because they could not surmount the narrow confines of openness to the scripture's power to transform our lives.
"I left Jesus to search for the Tao when I was sixteen," writes Kenneth Leong. "Now I am forty and realize that I could have found the Tao in Jesus." This is an intriguing book that reveals how Zen philosophy parallels the core message of the gospel.
It is the spiritual side of Zen, the art to trust and accept life that coincides with the core of the Gospel message. For power, dogma and doctrine were not Jesus' passion, but the mystery of life and the possibility of love. Sometimes people have overlooked the joy, the humor and the depth of Jesus' teachings—often because they could not surmount the narrow confines of openness to the scripture's power to transform our lives.
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Overview
"I left Jesus to search for the Tao when I was sixteen," writes Kenneth Leong. "Now I am forty and realize that I could have found the Tao in Jesus." This is an intriguing book that reveals how Zen philosophy parallels the core message of the gospel.
It is the spiritual side of Zen, the art to trust and accept life that coincides with the core of the Gospel message. For power, dogma and doctrine were not Jesus' passion, but the mystery of life and the possibility of love. Sometimes people have overlooked the joy, the humor and the depth of Jesus' teachings—often because they could not surmount the narrow confines of openness to the scripture's power to transform our lives.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780824522278 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | PublishDrive |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2017 |
| Sold by: | PUBLISHDRIVE KFT |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Sales rank: | 740,253 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Reading the Gospels, Zen Style
* * *
In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer.
– John 16:33
I left Jesus to search for the Tao when I was sixteen. Now I am forty, and I realize that I could have found the Tao in Jesus.
This book is partially a reflection of my journey. It may look like a round trip, but it is not. Without the trip, I do not think that I could have come to any real understanding of Jesus. The point that I would like to make here is that Zen is not a foreign import. Zen is everyday spirituality. And we have always had it in our own backyard! It is just that most of us haven't noticed what is right in front of our eyes. Zen is a transcultural and transreligious phenomenon. No matter where you are, you can always find it. For Zen is in you.
Jesus is perhaps the most famous figure in human history. The Christian Bible is a perennial bestseller, and Christianity is still the most popular religion in the Western world. But even two thousand years after his death, Jesus of Nazareth remains as enigmatic as ever.
Who is Jesus? What does he really stand for? What did he teach? There is still very little consensus among us on these issues. Paradoxically, the most famous person in history is also the most elusive one.
This is not a book on the search for the historical Jesus. Neither is it a scholarly book on Christianity or the traditional doctrines and notions of Jesus. Rather, it is a book on the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels from a fresh perspective to recover the lost dimensions of his spirituality — joy, humor, and poetry. It is important for us to distinguish between what is said about Jesus and what Jesus has said. To do so is to discover a brave new world full of color and vitality. It is the beginning of an eye-opening adventure.
We often misinterpret Jesus because we tend to take him too "seriously," or solemnly. Ironically, to take Jesus "seriously" is not to take him seriously. True spirituality begins with relaxation. In reading scriptures, "seriousness" is irreverence!
In order to understand Jesus' teachings, we must have a sense of humor. Indeed, humor is a key to Zen. Legend has it that the Zen was born in the midst of Mahakashyapa's smile. Mahakashyapa was one of Buddha's senior disciples. More will be said about his smile when we discuss the Sermon of the Flower in chapter 2.
Lest we think that the Judeo-Christian tradition is marked by a tight upper lip, it may help to remember that there is always a humorous, fun-loving side to God. For he made Moses, a man who was "slow of speech and tongue," the most important prophet of the Jews. It was also God who made Sarah bear a child in her old age. This is the reason why the child is named Isaac, which means "the Laughing One." And the apostle Paul gave us this portrayal of a prank-playing God:
God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chooses what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chooses what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. (1 Cor. 1:27–28)
Given the fact that God is fun-loving, it should not surprise us that seriousness is a major obstacle for spirituality. For relaxation is a prerequisite for humor. Jesus once exclaimed that God has "hidden these things [truths, secrets about the kingdom] from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes" (Matt. 11:25). This is a most Zen-like utterance but is overlooked by laypeople, clergy, and theologians alike. The point is that little children are more spiritual than adults because they are much more relaxed and tend to rely on intuition rather than on intellect.
What most people refer to as "seriousness" is actually a sign of the ego. Most of us are "serious" because we are too self-obsessed — obsessed by our self-importance and our own notions of what is good, what is right, what is true, etc. I am not an advocator of frivolity, but seriousness is self-defeating to the extent that it is a reflection of a certain obsession. Obsessions obstruct both our vision and our adaptability. On the other hand, relaxation and humor, to the extent that they allow us to be more mindful and effective, are real seriousness.
There are other types of obsessions too. The most common one for most of us is what is called "common sense," of which rationality is a part. Most people will not take something "seriously" if it is not rational. In fact, this is what "non-sense" means. But as Albert Einstein has observed, our so-called common sense often turns out to be simply prejudices acquired through years and years of social conditioning. The point of Zen is not to defy reason but to recognize the limitations of rationality.
Unlikely as it may seem, humor is a way to truth. While many people often associate humor with lightness and a cavalier attitude toward life, the philosopher Georgias Leontinus sees things much differently:
Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor. For a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious; and a jest which will not bear a serious examination is certainly false wit.
From now on let us define "humor" as the mental ability to discover, express, or appreciate what is ludicrous, incongruous, or absurd. This suggests a certain mental sharpness or quickness. Humor is closely related to wittyness, which is the mental ability to see illuminating or amusing relationships. Both are key mental qualities that are important for enlightenment.
True humor requires alertness — an alertness that is a result of relaxation and not of fear. Deep spiritual truths appear to be self-contradictory or even ridiculous when expressed in words. A ready example is Jesus' famous saying that "whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it" (Luke 17:33). The statement flies in the face of logic. As Simone Weil put it, "Contradictions are the criterion of the real."
We have been conditioned to treat rationality as sacred. But life itself is, in a very deep sense, absurd. It will not render itself to the tyranny of reason. Even the most wise cannot help but be flabbergasted by a three-year-old who keeps asking why. If you are not convinced, try asking yourself what is the reason for living. Life is basically a mystery that is not meant to be solved by our intellect. It cannot be "known" through the brain but through the heart. This is a basic message of Zen.
There have been a lot of confusions and misconceptions about Jesus, often because he has been taken too seriously. He is more often worshiped (or attacked) than listened to. Zen is about relaxing, listening, and having a sense of humor while doing so. When we really listen to Jesus, we will find that he seldom preached or moralized. What he excelled at was relating to us through his colorful stories and enlightening us with his poetry.
We can certainly see Jesus as Savior, Messiah, Son of God, and miracle worker. But we may be missing the whole point if we do not recognize that he was, at heart, a poet, and his sayings are the songs of his soul. In the Zen circle, it is widely known that the Tao (Truth), because it is paradoxical in nature, cannot be preached or otherwise verbalized; it can only be hinted at. That's why Jesus resorted to poetry and humor. Where else but in poetry do we find contradictions coexisting and yet so gracefully harmonized?
If we are to understand the spiritual truth of the Gospels, we must begin to observe their poetry and cosmic jokes. Many Christians (and Buddhists also) have a tendency to undervalue joy, fun, laughter, and jokes, much to their own detriment. During one of my Zen classes, I asked my students to close their eyes and visualize Buddha. After that, I also asked them to visualize Jesus Christ. Then I asked them what their pictures of Buddha and Christ were like. Not surprisingly, most of them described Buddha as a smiling figure and Christ as a sober figure.
Part of what I am doing in this book is presenting the joyful Jesus. Laughter, particularly laughter in what we call the "real" (translated as the "joyless") world, is a key ingredient to our spiritual health. C. S. Lewis writing in the voice of a devil, made the following observation in The Screwtape Letters: "Laughter of this kind [joy] does us [the devils] no good and should always be discouraged. Besides, the phenomenon is of itself disgusting and a direct insult to the realism, dignity and austerity of Hell." Similarly, R. H. Blyth, one of the precursors of Zen in the Western world, observes that "enlightenment is always accompanied by a kind of sublime laughter."
Joy is an ability of the soul. It is not a natural instinct. If it were, we should find most people joyful. Rather, joy has to be learned. In this book, we will see how Jesus taught the art of joy through the Gospels.
Laughter is the beginning of liberation. We have to learn to be less serious and loosen up. In this context, humor is a key ingredient to spiritual awakening. Self-humor is particularly helpful because it loosens up our biggest attachment — our "self." People who cannot make fun of themselves and their own "holy objects" cannot make good Zen students. For enlightenment is largely a matter of seeing the cosmic joke on ourselves and giving it a hearty laugh!
Therefore, one of the first things we need to learn about Zen is that it is not solemn. There is no "holy object" in Zen, which is the same as saying that everything is holy for Zen. A famous Zen joke goes like this: "When you see the Buddha walking on the road, kill him!" Zen is deliberately "irreverent" or even "blasphemous" because our "holy objects" often turn out to be sources of our greatest attachments. They are the very things that are keeping us from being really spiritual. Is it a surprise then to find Jesus often being accused of blasphemy during his days?
Most of us know that the first two of the Ten Commandments have to do with idolatry. The problem is that we idolize all the time, often without being conscious of it. In fact, the most dangerous idolatries are those committed in the name of God. A ready example is the idolization of the words of Jesus by taking them literally rather than seeing the poetry of them. Our "punishment" for doing that is that we fail to recognize their beauty, joy, and insight.
As an illustration of the importance of reading the scriptures as poetry, let us take the following verses from the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, And cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, For behold, your reward is great in heaven. ...
(Luke 6:20–22)
One of the saddest errors we have committed is to make the kingdom an event in the future. The apostle Paul has told us clearly that "now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). The word "shall" in the poem above is there to indicate necessity and not futurity. To interpret otherwise is to take away the mystery and the beauty of the kingdom, together with its liberating effect.
The kingdom is available now; this is what Jesus meant when he said that the kingdom of heaven is "at hand." Once our spiritual eye is opened, we will see that there is richness in poverty, fullness in hunger, joy in sorrow, and blessedness in trouble. All opposites are unified in the kingdom. They are all present realities. Jesus said "Behold, your reward is great in heaven." The kingdom is in the here-and-now — if we care to look. We will elaborate on this in the chapter titled "The Magic Kingdom."
Not only was Jesus a poet; he was also an artist. In a sense, this is already implied because a poet is an artist with words. But Jesus was not only an artist with words: he was also a master artist of life. He took life as the raw material to express his soul. He brought quality into life.
Zen is intricately related with art and poetry. In fact, Zen is nothing but the art of living. The practice of Zen means bringing beauty and quality into life — one's own and that of others. In the next two chapters, we shall see that some of Zen's basic elements are presence, ordinariness, zest, ease, gentleness, freedom, simplicity, and paradoxity. They also happen to be important elements of art. We shall see in the two chapters titled "What Is Zen?" that the Sermon on the Mount is essentially an "art of living" lesson.
Let me give you a preview of the Zen element of "ordinariness." There is no doubt that modern civilization has made tremendous progress in science, technology, and material well-being. One of the big issues we will address in this book is why, given this "progress," we have not found happiness. An article in the New York Times, titled "A Rising Cost of Modernity: Depression" (December 8, 1992), is one of the many to lament this absurd fate of people today. Why are we so unhappy despite our material affluence? Basically my answer to this question is that the modern world has lost the art of "ordinary magic" — the art of transforming our ordinary, mundane, and perhaps humdrum existence into a life of beauty and joy.
This is precisely why Jesus is so relevant to our world. Jesus is a great teacher of "ordinary magic." But we have completely overlooked this great gift of his because we tend to be obsessed with his miracles and other supernatural feats. It might be fun to occasionally watch a faith-healing session, but it is more important to learn "ordinary magic" because it affects our daily life. The common mind looks for external wonders, but the most important wonder is an internal one — that of fundamentally transforming our way of perceiving the world. Without the latter, "ordinary magic" will not be possible.
Jesus was a powerful guru who taught "inner alchemy" through awakening the latent artist in us. Like in other arts, the objective in this "art of life" is not so much to change the external world but to come up with creative and constructive ways to relate to it. This alone is real miracle. Marianne Williamson offers us the following insight into the nature of miracles:
It [a miracle] is a shift not so much in an objective situation — although that often occurs — as it is a shift in how we perceive a situation. What changes, primarily, is how we hold an experience in our mind — how we experience the experience.
Even if we have a fantastical way to change the external world, our ego has a way to change its demand from one thing to another. For desires are endless. The only real solution is "inner alchemy," which means discovering the kingdom (or Quality, or Beauty) within. The initiation rite for the practice of "ordinary magic" is a kind of spiritual awakening. It is only after the awakening that one can be "born anew" and live like a new person.
True spirituality is art — for the practice of spirituality requires imagination and great sensitivity. Piousness is not the right approach to art or to the words of Jesus, which are the poetics of his inner spiritual experience.
The idolization and literalization of scriptures obscures the meaning of Jesus to many religious people. Remember that Jesus is an artist and a poet. Art is possible only if there is a genuine communication between two souls — that of the artist and that of the audience. The problem with an attitude of worship is that it tends to take the two souls apart rather than put them together. Sociologist Ellen Rosenberg makes the following observation about Bible worship: "As the code words have become 'Bible inerrancy,' the Bible itself is less read than preached, less interpreted than brandished. ... The Bible has become a talisman."
The fear of individuality or the urge to conform is another obstacle for genuine communication. One simply cannot "follow the party line" to spirituality. Bible illiteracy takes on a new meaning in certain Christian groups that believe in Bible inerrancy. Members of these groups are often quick to quote from the Bible, but their understanding of the Bible is often a result of indoctrination rather than a product of personal realization. As such, it lacks genuineness. Harold Bloom comments on this phenomenon:
One of the great ironies of Protestant history is that the exaltation of scripture, which in the seventeenth century endowed Baptists and other Protestants with freedom from institutional constraints and with spiritual autonomy, has become, as the twentieth century closes, the agent for depriving Baptists and other Protestants of their Christian Liberty, their soul competency to read and interpret the Bible, each person by her own Inner Light.
The sayings of Jesus are spiritual poetry. We cannot get to their essence through the filter of institutionalized religion. Rather, we have to rely on our own "soul competency" to find resonance with them. Biblical knowledge through the intellect is not enough. We have to feel the truth and vibrancy of Jesus' words through our own heart. It is only when we can relate with Jesus through our "heart-connection" that we can really come to know him.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Zen Teachings of Jesus"
by .
Copyright © 2001 Kenneth S. Leong.
Excerpted by permission of The Crossroad Publishing Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
One / Reading the Gospels, Zen Style,
Two / What is Zen? (I): The Art of Living,
Three / What is Zen? (II): The Heart of the Matter,
Four / The Magic Kingdom,
Five / Zen: The Art of Seeing,
Six / The Looking-Glass Universe,
Seven / The Usual Hell,
Eight / Faith,
Nine / My Yoke is Easy,
Ten / What Defiles a Man,
Eleven / Resist Not Evil,
Twelve / Love,
Thirteen / I Am the Way,
Notes,