Why Zen?

A simple answer is, "why not?"  Anyone who knows me and my work knows I am an omni, not having sworn my allegiance to one particular style or school of practice.  All spiritual practices have merit (like all forms of yoga), and truly at the heart of the wisdom traditions, sans dogma, the message is the same: be nice to one another, keep your body healthy, and your mind clear in order to know that behind this form is the space of all creation, dissolution, consciousness and essence, we are all going to die and the more we can come from the space of wakeful consciousness the clearer we can be about this life and death.

A more direct answer to, "Why Zen?" is my husband is a Zen practitioner and I made this move specifically for him, but in general to change my life in a big, conscious, purposeful way.  Starting with "What is Zen?" might be more helpful...  The word zen is actually a metamorphism from the word dhyana, a Sanskrit word from the Yoga tradition meaning meditation.  Dhyana is part of the 8-limbed path of classical Yoga written about by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, among other texts.  The word changed as the wisdom teachings and practices swept thru the east in different languages to jana, chana, chen and zen.  Zen Buddhism is one part of the Mahayana school of Buddhism.  There's three main schools in Buddhism, Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana, and to further complicate things, each of the main schools have many "sub" schools and there's several different schools of Zen!  Suffice it to say, I'm a Buddhism novice.  I've done a wee bit of study in the Zen tradition, and have a scoch more exposure in the Vajrayana tradition as my two main teachers are students of the Vajrayana path.   Ultimately I'm faced with the big, conscious, purposeful decision I made to come here and if the true meaning of the word "Zen" is taken to heart (dogma aside), I came to this Zen center and residential community to strengthen my meditation practice.  Being here has strengthened my practice indeed, not only by increasing the time I spend on the cushion, but also in all the idiosyncrasies of living!  The lessons contained herein were present in my life before zen center (BZC), I was just too busy to feel their presence....the closeness of others in shared space, everyone's habits and how they affect everyone else, ways things have been done vs. how things could be done differently, likes, dislikes, specific forms of practice, noise, silence, the list is infinite.  I wish I could say this place, Zen schools and practitioners are without dogma (and no doubt some might be!) which I'll discuss in future blogs.   It's just like Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven dwells within, but men do not see!"  Or to be more Zen about it, samsara is nirvana.  Om on.