7 Zen and the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises A Letter to Yamada Koun Roshi Jesuit Theologate Kamikshakujii, Nerima, Tokyo September 15, 1975 Yamada Koun Roshi San-un Zendo, Kamakura Dear Yamada Roshi, Allow me to begin by first expressing my continued gratefulness to you for your untiring guidance, especially during the last summer sesshin. I shall keep on seeking your guidance from hereon as before, so l ask for your continued forbearance. Just recently (after the summer sesshin), I entered into my yearly Ignatian Spiritual Exercises as prescribed by the Society of Jesus, and it gave me an occasion to take stock of things and sum up what I had been coming to realize through these years since I had begun to practice Zen under your direction. Humbly and respectfully, I offer the following reflections to you, as a report on how I have been able to see it from excitingly fresh new angles. 169170 Ruben Habito I have mentioned in previous letters to you that after entering the Society of Jesus in 1964, I was soon introduced to the Spiritual Exercises of our founder Saint Ignatius. I made this journey for a period of thirty days in the first year of my life as a Jesuit. Ever since then, it has been part of my regular yearly schedule to enter into an Ignatian eight-day retreat, and this latest one was part of this schedule, The Spiritual Exercises are divided into four main parts, which can be seen as four stages in the experiental journey of the exercitant. The length of each part depends on the disposition of the individual exercitant. The first part, or first week as it is scheduled, involves a thorough look at everything that blocks the exercitant from attaining his or her ultimate aim, and this involves an examination of one’s sinfulness and inordinate attachments with a view to uprooting them. The second part involves a set of meditations on the public life of Jesus Christ, or his life on earth. The third part is the contemplation of his passion and death on the cross, and the fourth part is the contemplation of his resurrection and his new glorious life in God. The capstone of the Exercises is the Contemplation for obtaining Love (Contemplatio ad amorem) which I shall explain below. As the exercitant is involved in the second part, prescriptions for making right decisions concerning one’s way of life are offered. All inall, the aim of the Spiritual Exercises is to form the individual toward becoming a true Christian. Based on the actual religious experiences of Ignatius of Loyola who lived in the sixteenth century in the context of Christian Europe, the Exercises were developed as a way of religious practice, and widely known and made use of within the Catholic Church even up to our day, They can be practiced within a three-day, a five-day, eight-day or thirty- day period. However, there are inherent limitations as to the actual: methods prescribed in the Exercises, and spiritual directors who make use of these methods have been constantly faced with the task of renewal, going back to the original spirit based on Ignatius’ experience, and applying it to an ever-changing age. Anyway, putting all these aside, I myself have been given an opportunity to take a fresh look at these Exercises in the light of the very little and very limited experience in Zen that Ihave been privileged to partake of up tonow. This is a way of seeing the Exercises beyond the sectarian barriers of its particular verbal formulations, going back to the original experience, in the light of the Zen enlightenment experience. What I am about to describe, therefore, is not a comparison between Zen and the Spiritual Exercises, but a look at these two in the light of one eye. This is to see the experiential substratum of the Exercises and likewise to see what it means to be a true Christian. Total Liberation 171 Iwould like to describe the Spiritual Exercises centering on three main points, The first point is the Principle and Foundation, which is the starting point and presupposition for making the Exercises as such. Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. All other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him fulfill the end for whichhe iscreated. From this it follows that man isto use these things to the extent that they will help him attain this end. Likewise, he must rid himself of them insofar as they prevent him from attaining it. . “Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things, insofar as it isleft to the choice of our free will and isnot forbidden. Acting accordingly, for our part, we should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to dishonor, along life toa short one, and so in alll things we should desire and choose only those things which will best help us attain the end for which we are created.” (Translation by Anthony Mottola, The Spiritual Exercises of SaintIgnatius, NY : Doubleday Image Books, 1964, pp. 47-48.) This passage, called the Principle and Foundation, not only explains the aim of the Exercises, but presents the kernel of Christianity as such. This would need much explanation, which I have to omit at present as it would be only secondary to our purpose now. A central element of this Principle and Foundation is the person who is indifferent. This refers to one who has fully grasped the aim and purpose for which the human being was created, and lives fully and only for that alone. This is the person who is totally free and is not swayed by attachments of a surface view of things, and transcends the so-called common sense of the world. Now this "aim and purpose for which the human being was created" is no other than "to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul," Rather than give a theological formulation, the key point and goal of this Principle and Foundation is to grasp experientially the aim and purpose of creation. This experiential grasp of the aim and purpose of creation will enable the exercitant to realize and actualize this aim and purpose in all his daily activities and passivities, that is, sleeping, waking up, sitting, standing up, and so on. For him, every moment is simply filled with the "praise, reverence and service of God our Lord," and that alone. With this Irecall that koan in Zen on the Original Face (without thinking of good or evil, show me your Original Face before your father and mother were born!) and Iam led to say that the solution to this koan is based on fundamentally the same experience. Based on this experience, one attains the state of being an indifferent person - not one who is unmoved by emotions, but one who is totally free with regard to all things. Of course this is a state that needs to be continually polished from moment to moment, and the following stages of the Exercises are also geared towards the concretiza- tion and further orientation of this total freedom.a Ee 172 Ruben Habito In the Spiritual Exercises, this Principle and Foundation is set forth by Ignatius right in the beginning as a presupposition of the whole enter- prise. But behind this seemingly quite detached and "objective" expres- sion is the totality of the mystical experience of Ignatius himself, reached after having struggled through a tempestuous period of search and agonizing interior struggle. ‘The exercitant thus can only really fully appreciate and grasp the real import of this initial passage after having gone through the whole process of the Exercises and being gifted with the grace of "seeing the purpose of one's creation." In Zen of course the centra{ aim is no other than “seeing into one's original (or essential) nature,” which is not the adherence to a doctrinal proposition as to what this original or essential nature is, but rather consists of a fundamental experience. This is the experience of self- realization that enables the person to see right through oneself and cut right through one's ego-attachments, illusions and false conceptions. It is this experience that throws in proper light one's place in the whole universe, and thus enables one to cut at the roots of those inordinate attachments, which are the sources of lust, anger, ignorant craving, and so forth. In other words, it is the liberation of the person from these fundamental shackles that prevents the True Self from coming to thefore. Thus liberated, the person's decisions, thoughts, words, action, eating and drinking, sitting and standing, talking and keeping quict, crying and laughing, from waking up in the moming to retiring to bed, even his or her very slumber, are all exquisite expressions of that original or Essential Nature. Thus, whether one be in a state of health or sickness, riches or pov- erty, honor or dishonor, or whether one should have a long life or a short one, as Ignatius mentions, in each particular state or situation one is given, isrealized the fullness of this original nature, “the purpose of one’s creation.” In this connection, may Irefer to a Christian doctrinal formulation that is at the background of this section, which is the notion of “creation out of nothing” (creatio ex nihilo). I myself was led to see the experiental significance of this “doctrine” with that initial experience in Zen precipitated by my working on the famous koan Mu which you presented me in my initial interview with you. (Editor’s note: See Mumonkan, Koan No.1 on Joshu’s Dog, inKoan Yamada, Gateless Gate, Los Angeles, Center Publications, 1979, p. 13. “A monk asked Joshu in all earnestness, ‘Has a dog Buddha Nature of not?’ Joshu said, ‘Mu'!’” I must confess that I was inclined to do abit of intellectualizing on this subject, having been trained in philosophy in my Jesuit formation, and also being of an inquisitive temperament. The original context of the Total Liberation 73 koan, of course, is simply a negative answer to the monk’s question: “No dear monk, a dog does not have Buddha Nature.” But this goes against all of Buddhist doctrine, which affirms the Buddha Nature, or original or essential nature, in your usage in all living beings, including dogs and cats, salamanders and cockroaches, and so forth. The koan also initially set me thinking about the concept of “nothing” or “nothingness,” and I ts philosophizing about this notion. is vein, I read Nishitani Keiji’s Shukyo to wa Nanika_(Bditor’ note: later wanslated as Retigion and Nothingness, Berkeley, ee of California Press, 1982), and got the very important hint that this Mu, which is so central and plays the role of a fulcrum in Zen, is not the same as that concept of “nothingness” that is simply dualistically opposed to ‘somethingness” or to “being,” but is something that transcends this dualism. Working on this hint, I stopped my philosophizing, and I simply sat with my legs crossed, straightening my back, regulating my breathing, putting my whole being into focus simply on this Mu and as you keep urging your Zen disciples, to become one with it, to be absorbed (botsunyu, literally, to lose oneself and enter) into it. Mu with every breath, every step, every smile, every movement, And it was this por korea es led on explosive experience which you have con- , which now enlightens my whol i i eatin igh y le being, enlightens the whole And so, our traditional Christian formulation of creatio ex nihilo for me is no longer a mere philosophical concept or doctrine that once upon a time there was nothing, and then from hence came something, or whatever, but is simply an expression of an ever-present wonderment, with every breath, every step, every smile, every leaf, every flower, every raindrop, realized as a grace-filled gift of God! Everything in the whole universe, leaves, rocks, mountains, living beings of every sort, is simply and originally nothing but the gratuitous gift of God, uttered into being by his Word (Logos). Everything in its particularity is in a relationship of absolute dependence on the Infinite God, and nothing at all exists apart from this Infinite God. This can be expressed also as “to live and exist in God, within God,” and likewise, “to be enwrapped by the divinity.” This founds the Christian view of the holiness of the whole universe. So again, what Ignatius writes in the Principle and Foundation of his Spiritual Exercises is actually already an expression of the summit of the mystical experience waiting for one called to undergo these Exercises with proper guidance, although he writes with rationalistic and appar- , ently dualistic ideas of his time, as when he refers to the “salvation of the soul.” Shorn of this dualism and rationalism, we can be led to taste the174 Ruben Habito center of his message, simply that “man is created to praise, reverence,and serve God our Lord.” And this is the eternal purpose of all creation, realized in every breath, every step, every smile. In other words, to praise, reverence, and serve God in every breath, every step, a8 such, is the “salvation of our soul” and not merely a means to it! This doctrine of creation has another important aspect in Christianity, that is, it also provides the basis for being a Christian doctrine. This is the assertion that all things that exist have their foundation in the Word of God, as pointed out in the Gospel of John, 1:3, and other passages. The Word of God is one with God (Jn. 1:1, 14:9, 14:11, etc.) transcending all time barriers and limitations (Jn. 8:58, Heb 13:7-8). It is the way, the truth, the life itself (Jn. 14:6). It is the light of the world (Jn. 8:12) and is empowered with all the power and authority in the whole ‘universe, Christ the Lord himself (Mt. 28:28). Christ the Lord is one God himself, and is likewise fully and totally a human being, the fount and basis of the salvation of the whole universe (Phil. 2:5-10, Jn. 1:14). The first disciples, upon meeting with Jesus of Nazareth, experienced the very presence of Christ the Son of God in their midst, and this is the historical starting point of Christianity. Christ the Son of God is the archetype of all creation, of the whole universe, and is the foundation of all (Eph. 1:4- 12). With all this as a background, one who has experienced Christ the Son of God is thus able to grasp at the same time the “purpose and aim of creation.” This leads us to the second point in the Exercises which I would like to consider. The greater part of them is taken up with the contemplation of the earthly life, the passion and death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God. The point of this contemplation is to grasp the mind and heart of Christ, to be atone with Christ. Christ is the Sonof God, fully human, walked the earth, shed perspiration, experienced thirst and dtank water to quench his thirst, rejoiced, grieved, suffered, died and was buried. And according to Christian proclamation, he resurrected, and now sits at the right hand of God, as the Lord of all creation, fully one with the Godhead, in total divinity. The practitioner of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises contemplates on these mysteries of the concrete life of Christ the Lord and grasps, becomes one with, becomes absorbed into the heart and mind, the very presence of this Lord Creation, Andas one goes deeper and deeper into this kind of contemplation, there comes amoment when he can exclaim with Paul, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ in me” (Gal. 2:20). Christ the Lord is the fount of salvation of all creation, and acts dynamically throughout all ages in this salvific action. This is the center of Christian faith, and this is likewise the very content of the religious experience that the Christian is opened to in practicing the Exercises. Total Liberation 175 And it is the core of the Christian confession of faith to proclaim that this Christ, the Word of God from all eternity, entered history, and took on the fullness of humanity in Jesus of Nazareth, Or vice versa, that this man Jesus, born of a woman in a particular age and in a particular onan context, is the Christ, the very fullness of the Eternal Son of _ With Jesus, the whole of the human is elevated into the realm of the divine. That is why for us Christians, the earthly life of Jesus reveals the “archetype” of what it means to live as a child of God: being bom, growing up, accepting pain and sorrow as well as joy and jubilation, taking on the tasks demanded of us in our particular historical and social situation. So we contemplate on this life of Jesus as the life of the Son of God, as enlightening our very lives here and now as children of the same God in Christ. Passages in the new Testament showing us the various aspects of this life thus revealed to us the way towards which we are called, the Truth which we seek, the Life that is the source of our own. individual historical lives. That is why the second and third and fourth weeks of the Spiritual Exercises center on the contemplation on this life of Jesus, from his public life, to the passion and death on the Cross, and the Resurrection unto the newness of life. Each particular passage in the New Testament then, revealing to us an aspect of the life of the Word of God in the flesh, is our very food and drink, and we approach these passages not with some intellectual interpretation, but precisely as food and drink. And I may mention here that Zen has taught me to appreciate better this Christian tradition of reading Scripture not with the head, but as food that nourishes the life of the Spirit: “Taste and see how good is the Lord!” Every koan that I tackle in Zen is not an intellectual exercise, but precisely something to be tasted and “eaten,” so that the koan is absorbed into my being, and I become one with the koan, whether it may involve a dog, a cat, a mountain, a star, a pound of flax, a person in distress, or whatever. And so Scripture passages also present us with koans to be a to be absorbed into our whole being, that we may become one “in Here may I just mention one element that I feel is quite distinctive for ” the Christian bent on the unreserved following of Christ: to contemplate on the life of Jesus of Nazareth is to assume this life as the archetype and model for one’s own, and concretely this means taking the path he took, making the fundamental options he made his own. And this means to live one’s life as totally opened to the Spirit (Breath) of God, in proclaiming the good news to the poor, in announcing release to the captives, recovering sight for those who cannot see, in setting free the oppressed (Lk. 4:18-19), This is acall for us Christians to situate our lives with Jesus176 Ruben Habito on the side of the poor, the oppressed of the earth, and to let ourselves become an instrument for the proclamation of this good news of liberation. Ycannot go into the details of this matter in this letter, except to indicate » that following Jesus entails for us Christians a definite perspective in looking at our present society, in looking at history, And that is the perspective from the standpoint of the poor and the oppressed, as bearers of the message of liberation that Jesus brought with his whole historical existence. It is this message that brought him into direct conflict with the religious and political authorities of his time, and brought about his condemnation by those authorities to death on the cross. And for us, to follow Jesus is to place our destiny together with the poor and the op- pressed, proclaiming the message of liberation, and accept the conse- quences of this message as Jesus did, which is death on the cross. This, of course, includes not only the death to self, the death to all our ego- centered attachments, but also the manifold implications of such a death, in our concrete choices of our way of life, our values, our particular preferences in this historical existence. In the words of Ignatius, “to be poor with Christ poor, to be despised with Christ despised.” This is an element which I do not find explicitly taught in Zen, and 1 beg to be corrected on this point if I may. Except that the process of “emptying” in Zen disposes me to be perfectly free and able to place my destiny with that of the poor and oppressed of humanity, whom I inevitably encounter in this historical existence, in the way that Kanzeon or the Hearer of the Cries of the World becomes one with the sufferings of those she encounters, and offers a hand in the alleviation of those sufferings. 7 So to experience being “one in Christ” which is a fruit of the Exercises involves not only a “general” or “universal” kind of oneness in eating and drinking and laughing and crying, but also a quite concrete kind of oneness with the sufferings of living beings in this historical existence, the oneness that Jesus Christ himself realized as he assumed the suffer- ings of all humankind on the cross. The contemplation of the cross of Christ in the Spiritual Exercises is then not just a self-flagellating or masochistic enterprise that relishes the sight of suffering, but is the . plunging of oneself into the lot of suffering humankind with Christon the cross. It is also a call to look at the very concrete ways in which living beings are made to suffer in this earth in our present day and age: at the poverty and hunger, at the destitution and deprivation, at the discrimina- tion and oppression, at the various forms of military violence that desecrate the sacredness of human life which is a gift of God. Being one with this suffering and death of Christ on the cross is also to be one with him in the newness of the life of the resurrection. This Total Liberation 177 solidarity with suffering humankind is the source of that energy that enables one to give oneself fully in the concrete historical tasks of liberation. Thus the contemplation on the Risen Christ gives the exerci- tant the vision that alll this suffering is not in vain, that it does not all end in defeat and desperation, butin glorification and triumph, Righthere, in the midst of apparent defeat and despair, is the vision of glory. Itis on the cross itself that Jesus tells the Good Thief, “Truly, today you are with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43), The third main point I would like to explain to you about the Spiritual Exercises which indicates the centrality of experience is with regard to the fruit of the concluding part, called the Contemplation for Obtaining Love. Here, the exercitant is called to begin by seeing how God the Creator and Lord is present in the entirety of the universe, in his fullness, in all things. Here the “universe” is not taken as something abstract, but is seen in each and everything, the earth, nonliving beings, plants, fruits, animals, human beings (the exercitant himself), Here is an exercise in contemplation (as opposed to meditation which involves a discursive Inquiry into things) which is actually a tasting of things as they are. This act of contemplation or tasting cuts through the subject-object barrier, and this kind of contemplation is thus clearly distinguished from other kinds of which presuppose a subject “contemplating” an “object.” In this context, tosee how the Creator and Lordis “presentinall things” involves an exercise of tasting (of each particular thing in the light of God, each particular thing which, if we recall, is not at all apart from this infinite God). Such “tasting” is quite akin to the mode of tasting in various Zen koans, for example, in those that involve dogs, cats, a finger, a tree in the garden, masagin (“three pounds of flax”). The Contemplation for Obtain- ing Love can thus likewise employ these koans, to lead to genuine experience, and not for mere intellectualization, The Contemplation for Obtaining Love as explained by Saint Ignatius can easily be taken and interpreted intellectually, saying that “The whole universe is in God,” or “God is in the whole universe.” But the only thing the Exercises aim at is not a theological or doctrinal explanation, but to truly experience this presence of God in all, in each and every thing. With the above three points we can see the total aim and scope of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, and thatit is simply to form a true Christian. This is someone who has “eaten” and “drunk” the mind and heart of Christ the Lord, one who thus gives of his whole being towards the salvation of the universe. Incidentally, the salvation of the whole universe is the gathering up of all things in heaven and on earth into one, with Christ at the head (Eph. 1:10). Nowa person who gives of his whole being toward the salvation of the whole universe is also able to “save a ghost” (as given in the Miscellaneous Koans studied immediately after178 Ruben Habito the enlightenment experience), Such a person is one who is totally free, , . Open to the universe, who is able to walk freely between heaven and earth, as the Mumonkan preface describes, '__ Inordertoreach sucha state of total freedom, according to the Spiritual Exercises, one must first be freed from one’s inordinate attachments, from one’s sins, This is the aim of the first week of the Exercises, after the Principle and Foundation, before going into the contemplation of the life of Christ. And this reminds me of Zen Master Dogen’s Prescription for Learning the Way (GakudoYojin-shu), where he gives as one of the conditions for entering the Way the cutting off of all those blocks to the Way, such as inordinate affections for honor and glory and for material possessions. The Spiritual Exercises are thoroughly within the Christian frame- work, based on Christian tradition, doctrine and devotional practices as background. So in thatsense, this limits those who can participate in them to those who share this background. As a way of practice, this method has other limitations which can be pointed out. Its most salient characteristic as a way of religious practice can be understood better in comparison with Eugen Herrigel’s description of the art of archery. Herrigel first describes the Western way of archery where the archer aims at a target, and with his whole strength concentrated upon it, attempts to hit it. In contrast with this “purposive method” of archery, Hertigel describes the Oriental art of archery in which is found the spirit of Zen, whereby one sitaply disposes oneself, in posture, breathing, inner focus, and Jets the arrow hit the target in a most natural and unforceful way (Cf. Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953). ay “purposive” way of the West of course has its own results, and we cannot deny that this way has led countless individuals to the “target” of living true Chrisitan lives. However, it must also be pointed out that there are many (raps and dangers for the practitioner in the process of being sidetracked into doctrinal or intellectual interpretations. This kind of danger is not only applicable to the Spiritual Exercises, but to Christianity in general. Traditional teachings and doctrines are interpréted intellectually, and in many cases, one misses the fundamental Christian experience that underlines such teachings and concerns. But in fact, many elements within the religious tradition of Christianity are mainly geared towards such a fundamental experience, to guide believers to this experiential dimension. ‘n Christian doctrine, the fundamental _ , core is something that transcends the intellect, expressed in some form of conceptual contradiction that is geared to toppling (killing ') this discursive intellect, and to guiding one toa genuine religious experience, Thus, to say that Jesus is both Gad and man at the same time, or that there Total Liberation 179 are three persons in one God, are examples of such conceptual contradic- tions, but without them Christianity cannot stand! What I have tried to do above is to present to you a form of Teligious practice that has been and is still quite influential in Christian tradition, namely the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, and have tried to look into these Exercises with a Zen eye. The aim of these Exercises is the formation of the true Christian, in what can be distinguished as three interrelated stages. First, the uprooting of the inordinate affections and ego-centered attachments, by ascetic discipline, by ordering one’s life and cutting off those elements that serve as hindrances in the fulfillment of the aim and purpose of creation. The accomplishment of this stage enables the individual to attain true freedom, detachment, indifference, to be able to reach the second, which is the putting of one’s whole being in the mystery of Christ, seeing the life of Jesus as presented in the Scriptures as the archetype and model, and following him through his public life, suffering and death on the cross, and to his new life in the Resurrection. This newness of life is crowned in the third stage, wherein God is discovered in all things, in the Cosmic Love which vivifies the whole universe, in every stone or mountain, plant or animal, and in every human being encountered, each in fullness in its historical and concrete particularity. This is the crown of the Christian life, as experienced by ignatius, and as he offers to all who would follow him through these Exercises. Now these three stages of the Exercises remind me very much of the “three aims of Zen,” which are, 1) development of the power of concentration, 2) the attainment of enlightenment, and 3) the actualiza- tion of this supreme way of enlightenmentin daily life. While they are not exactly the same as what I have described regarding the Exercises, the affinity is quite striking. The development of the power of concentration through the sitting exercise together with the elements of discipline that it involves, in the regulation of one’s life, one’s food intake, sleep, environment, as prescribed as conducive to one’s unhampered practice, is in many ways not unlike the ascetic attitude and self-abnegation required of one about to begin the Spiritual Exercises, cutting off all those elements in oneself that hinder the attainment of the purpose of one’s creation, which is to praise, reverence, and serve the Lord God. The realization of one’s nothingness before God, and the realization of how God fills and fulfills all things. The various Exercises of contemplation can dispose the individual towards this realization experience, if he or she is not derailed in conceptual entanglements and intellectual gymnastics while undergoing these Exercises, But with the grace of this experience, the Exercises of the second and third stages described above are an effective way that leads to the actualization of the experience of one’s180 Ruben Habito nothingness before God, of the fullness of God in all things, in the concrete events of one’s daily life. In Zen the tackling of one koan after another is what aids in the actualization of the enlightenment experience in daily life, just as the continued practice of contemplation enables the Christian to “incarnate” that experience of realization. Ignatius’ ideal is summed up in the phrase “contemplation in action,” wherein the two are no longer separate, but are complementary moments of an integrated life. For such a contemplative inaction, the reality of God is no longer confined to the chapel or in the meditation hall but is right there, in the busyness of daily life, in the dining room, in the marketplace, in the peace marches, in the human rights rallies, in the hospital rooms, in the prison cells, r L Iclose by asking for your continued guidance and direction, and with deep gratitude for taking me and other Christians like inyself into your discipleship in Zen. Warmest greetings and acknowledgments also to Mrs. Yamada, for all the generosity extended to us just like we are members of your very own family. Gassho, with reverence, Ruben Habito 8 Christians and Zen Enlightenment A Dialogue Between A Zen Master and His Christian Disciples Yamada Koun Roshi: Recently more and more Christians, especially Catholics, have been coming to zendos to undergo genuine Zen training. More and more priests and sisters are beginning to practice zazen. For such people a common apprehension is felt in the beginning of their practice. Can they continue and go deeply into this practice and still remain steadfast and faithful to their Christian faith? I suppose it is natural for a dedicated Christian to have such an apprehension, but letme say first of all that such worries are unfounded. Let me lay aside Buddhist doctrine, and speak of just zazen, the Zen experience in its purity. Here there is no coloring of religious doctrine at all. If you lay before the human spirit a certain set of conditions, a natural outflowing will result from those conditions. Whether one believes in Buddhism or Christianity, or Hinduism or Islam, or whether one has no religious convictions whatsoever, or to put it in other terms, whether the color of one’s skin is white or black or yellow or whatever, as long as one is a human being, if one’s spirit is given a set of conditions, a certain development will naturally take place. This can be said to be scientific truth. 181