Zen Buddhism looks at Christianity

To look at Christianity from Zen is really saying to look at Christianity from the perspective of intuition, the sense of which is more about the act of coming to direct knowledge without reasoning or inferring. 

The Zennist would hope the Christian to see intuition as direct contact with absolute spirit in which even the subject and the object disappear into a transcendent singularity.  Explained another way, intuition is the sudden leap from flesh to spirit in which the ineffable presence of spirit is realized.  This is also an epiphany if not also Zen’s satori.

Zen’s view, I assume, will not sit well with contemporary Christians who are overly consumed with literalizing the Bible.  Their understanding of religion has to come through the human senses and also imagination without which they think not to have religion.  This of course is where Christianity and Buddhism differ.  Buddhism has an implicit prohibition towards literalizing its religion.  In other words, it is against making direct intuition palatable for the senses especially for the imagination.

It is unfortunate that the message of Christianity has to be sold to those people who are overly attached to the flesh and their imagination.  Like with Zen, it is only when the Christian fully understands what spirit is about that progress can be made. 

Yes, spirit and flesh are antithetical to each other just as in Buddhism the unconditioned and conditioned are antithetical.  The very crucifixion of Jesus on the cross is nothing more than the total and absolute transcendence of the flesh.  Spirit is incarnated in the flesh but is not of the flesh.  It is through the crucifixion that spirit is resurrected transcending the man of flesh.  In this wise, Zen Buddhism and Christianity are very much the same.

Comments

[TheZennist]

We can call it the way of the spirit whereby gnosis of the spirit is attained (Jesus who was baptized by spirit and thus became Christ). In light of this, the full and complete letting go of the flesh (the crucifixion) through Christ constitutes the full knowing of God (Christ is the hidden spirit in man that transcends the flesh and returns to absolute spirit or God). So it follows that if you know Christ, you come to have full knowledge of God (spirit Jn 4:24). On the other hand, if you do not know Christ, you have no way of truly knowing God.

[taalumma]

Someone who practices Zen-Orthodox Christian spirituality is learning how to open up to the dark and the light. And to accept with love both sides of the life experience altogether as their path unfolds.
Someone who practices Zen-Christian spirituality is learning how to open up to the dark and the light. And to accept with love both sides of the life experience altogether as their path unfolds.
Jesus, the Zen-Christian, accepted the suffering entirely. Then, in silence, he resigned and allowed himself to undergo pain and death. But Jesus was Spirit. And he's calling was to share the message about learning how to let go. And the body is a beautiful gift that must break. But I know that I am Spirit. And you are Spirit. And if we come back again, may it be to share the same message we've always had. It's the one about the end of all suffering.

[Xavier]

Certainly there is a possible coordination between Buddhism and Christianity in terms of understanding 'the Absolute' as non-objective. It is the biblical critique of idolatry (image worship) and the Buddhist teaching of going beyond the imagination and recognizing the unconditioned.

But there is one criticism that Christianity can make of Buddhism and that is the question of attaining that ultimate intuition of reality as a merit or retribution. If the recognition of our tathAgatagarbha is what ultimately *justifies* all our actions and this is achieved as the *result of a natural effort*, we have not really overcome the scheme of merit, which is the core of Original Sin. Ultimately, Christianity is not a liberation from ignorance (avidyA) but from the sin of retribution.

That is the drawback I find to your 'docetic' proposal of the Cross. It is only when the Absolute fully (and not apparently) assumes the consequences of retribution that this scheme can be seen as false. A life justified by merit is always an objectification of who we ultimately are because it causes us to place our ultimate trust in an objective thing.