I've been told that most Buddhists have happily and willingly moved away from Theistic religion. I've also been told that Buddhists do not contemplate what cannot be known – and God cannot be known.
I can't help but wonder this on a few levels. Firstly, I need to ask what does 'moving away from Theistic religion' really mean? I had always believed there are not only two positions. It doesn't have to be a question of either Theism or Atheism. I believe there is also Non-Theism.
Mu.
I've also read that students of Zen concentrate for years on koans as a method attaining enlightenment. I wonder if Buddhists spend time focusing on koans too?
If so, I've come to wonder whether contemplating God could in itself act as a koan?
Personally, attempting to 'find' God, attempting to define God is a practice that has no solution. Attempting to understand the incomprehensible would seem to be a fruitless endeavor, but only if we are searching for a definitive answer. If we practice to understand the incomprehensible as a journey, it can become a koan of sorts.
Admittedly, I've never really looked at it from this point of view, but I think I've practiced it for years. A summation of my experiences could be to say witnessing the repeated death and rebirth of “God” - continually. Repeatedly shattering my images and concepts of God.
To-understand-the-incomprehensible is my koan.
The Zen of Contemplating God.
Interesting thoughts...
1 comment:
Stephen Batchelor (e.g. Buddhism without Beliefs) is a contemporary example of a Non-Theistic Zen Buddhist, who also rejects other theoretical doctrines such as reincarnation.
I'm not sure my Zen teacher would agree that contemplating God is a koan. But then, he doesn't believe in God anyway! Most koans seem to involve struggling with a problem that is superficially practical but really a theoretical issue in disguise. The breakthrough is achieved when we perceive the Reality there. Sounds very much like contemplating God, doesn't it?
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