With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last’s night’s Comparative religion group was well attended and enjoyable, but clearly, we struggled with the religion of Islam. The behavior of many of its adherents leaves we in the West feeling anxious, if not downright hostile. We have to wonder what it is all about. The thing is, it’s as plain as the nose on our face: submission, which is the core meaning of the word, “Islam” itself. Westerners are not grown up to feel particularly in need of submitting. We stand on our own authority, or like to believe that we do.
Our two faith traditions, Zen and Islam, are very far apart. We speak very different languages and have very different core assumptions. While Islam, like Zen, does not hold humanity is essentially sinful, Islam does hold that humanity is disobedient to God. Whereas Zen, holds that humanity has separated itself from the Universe, this separation is not understood to be malevolent or even necessarily “sinful,” but more a simple by-product of our neurophysiology.
The starting point of Zen is a cosmological view that we are all one, deeply and completely one. So, an “individual self” is a delusion. The starting point for monotheistic faith traditions is the separate nature of God and Man. From a Zen point of view we might say that God is a delusion, man is a delusion, and that, at bottom, there is “just this,” as Master Baso points out in Case Four of Master Dogen’s Shinji Shobogenzo. This “just this” is the true reality.
Releasing oneself, letting go of self, and surrender, are Zen practices, which on the surface appear to be similar to Islamic submission, but the tone, aim, and internal sense are worlds apart. We practice to surrender our ego to the cosmos, a weave of living processes, recognizing our illusionary nature in the process. Islamic submission seems to be the act of a self, retaining the idea of self, and surrendering that self to Allah, a separate and superior sentient being. The feel is, I imagine, much like that of a serf to a king.
I would like to know more about Islam. If for no other reason than to understand a faith tradition that is rising and asserting itself in no uncertain terms on the world’s stage. Our group decided to find and invite Muslims to our discussion in order to gain a better understanding.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Last’s night’s Comparative religion group was well attended and enjoyable, but clearly, we struggled with the religion of Islam. The behavior of many of its adherents leaves we in the West feeling anxious, if not downright hostile. We have to wonder what it is all about. The thing is, it’s as plain as the nose on our face: submission, which is the core meaning of the word, “Islam” itself. Westerners are not grown up to feel particularly in need of submitting. We stand on our own authority, or like to believe that we do.
Our two faith traditions, Zen and Islam, are very far apart. We speak very different languages and have very different core assumptions. While Islam, like Zen, does not hold humanity is essentially sinful, Islam does hold that humanity is disobedient to God. Whereas Zen, holds that humanity has separated itself from the Universe, this separation is not understood to be malevolent or even necessarily “sinful,” but more a simple by-product of our neurophysiology.
The starting point of Zen is a cosmological view that we are all one, deeply and completely one. So, an “individual self” is a delusion. The starting point for monotheistic faith traditions is the separate nature of God and Man. From a Zen point of view we might say that God is a delusion, man is a delusion, and that, at bottom, there is “just this,” as Master Baso points out in Case Four of Master Dogen’s Shinji Shobogenzo. This “just this” is the true reality.
Releasing oneself, letting go of self, and surrender, are Zen practices, which on the surface appear to be similar to Islamic submission, but the tone, aim, and internal sense are worlds apart. We practice to surrender our ego to the cosmos, a weave of living processes, recognizing our illusionary nature in the process. Islamic submission seems to be the act of a self, retaining the idea of self, and surrendering that self to Allah, a separate and superior sentient being. The feel is, I imagine, much like that of a serf to a king.
I would like to know more about Islam. If for no other reason than to understand a faith tradition that is rising and asserting itself in no uncertain terms on the world’s stage. Our group decided to find and invite Muslims to our discussion in order to gain a better understanding.
Be well.
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