So just before the outbreak of Covid-19, I started to do extensive readings into Zen and Eastern Religious ideas. I really found them inspiring, uplifting and providing a tranquil, profound means of traversing the way.
They’re not a replacement for Christianity; I see them more as a supplement that helps me to live the tenants of the teachings of Christ. There was nobody more detached and calm in his insight than Christ. After all, he was known for often uttering the words; “Fear not.” Imagine, those words coming out of the mouth of a god-man who knew his fate was to have his body nailed to a cross.
Once you accept that everything is connected and that God is not sitting on a mythical throne, but instead exists within us and is us, it totally transforms your worldview. When you understand that your observation brings existence into being all actions, no matter how small become profound. And if you Christians are having apoplexy over my newfound Zen tranquility, then I present you with the Acts of the Apostle, which is a paraphrase of the poet Epimendies.
In him we live and move and have are being; even some of your poets have said, “For we are his offspring.” Acts 17:29 RSV
They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one,
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies.
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever,
For in you we live and move and have our being.
Minos, Epimenides 6th or 7th century BCE
Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. 2 Timothy 1:14
So here’s one example; I have begun to talk to the plants, the trees, the earth and the sky. I praise them in their glory and magnificence. They have become my friends. How wonderful is that! I have conversions with them and talk to them about their travails and being. (I am not nuts. And besides it has been shown that plants do understand. They’ve done scientific experiments and when you sheer a plant; or even show them scissors they start screaming. Also ice crystals take different shapes when shown certain words. Beautiful when shown beautiful words and ugly and misshapen when exposed the ugly words. How can this possibly be?)
So this summer I began conversing with the oak tree in my yard. A perfectly normal oak tree. I’ve even embraced it and told it I loved it. Well this fall it had the most incredible, copious, orgasm of acorns. My yard was covered many inches thick with acorns. You tell me whether my oak is a happy tree?
During the summer of 2020 my Stewartia tree refused to blossom (probably jealous of the Oak). So during the spring of 2021 I began speaking to her. I lovingly told her how important she was and how much I loved her. I told her I longed to see her full and resplendent with her blossoms. So I know you won’t believe it…she had the most incredible bloom of her entire life. She put off blossoms for over 4 weeks steady. That has never, ever happened before in over the 35 years of her life. I planted her when she was just 4-5 feet tall. She now towers over the shoreline by the lake. I believe she wanted to please me…maybe I’m nuts or maybe I’m not. How is your screened in prison working for you…ignoring all of the miracles that surround you.
The birds have begun to intrigue me more. I have a running conversation with a crow I’ve named Luther. My kids and my wife tell me that Luther is many birds, but I say that’s not so, besides it doesn’t matter. Maybe Luther is just an identity in the crow multi-verse, it matters not to me. Maybe Luther is an icon. But I have to tell you, many times when I leave my house, Luther is overhead and begins his deep resonant conversation with me. Usually begging for a little food or maybe just happy to see me. And the eagles often greet me when I look out over the lake. Probably the eagle I teased with the frozen pickerel.
Since studying Zen, Tantra and other Eastern thought, I’ve never been so in love with the world and its beauty. And so in love with the people who cross my path. I am forever mouthing blessings over total strangers. I still struggle with attachment, longing and ownership. And I there is always a huge power struggle with my fat ass body, which is often in pain, and always looking to be fed. However, I now see my body as more of a container for my soul rather than my identity.
If we truly do live, breathe and move within God as the Greeks…(and their Christian imitators) believed…the Luther is God, the Oak is God, The Stewartia tree is God…as well as the earth, and the sky. And knowing this in my spirit makes me joyful and incredibly grateful to the God that literally surrounds me with its love. Understanding that I exist within God is liberating and comforting. And…I can say with all my heart that I truly know God and he responds to my heart through the actions and love of his created self.
So the end is actually the beginning and where the idea for this post emerged. I have been going to Market Basket Supermarket during this macabre time of eerie specters cloaked behind masks quickly darting through the aisles. In the midst of all of this there is an beautiful, older, Asian, check-out clerk who seems to me to have a really beautiful soul. I know this from speaking to her over the past few weeks I have seen her in the store. Yesterday, she is on the register in the quick-line checkout again and it is empty. So I push my cart up to the register and confess and apologize that I might have one or two items over the limit. She looks at me and says essentially, “Don’t worry, water is all the same.” I say to her, “That’s Zen right?” she says “yes.” Of course water is an allegory for the fact that it is believed in Buddhism that all human beings share one consciousness which merely changes shape within all things. We finished the check out process and I gazed at her as said, “God is looking at you through my eyes.” She smiled a knowing smile and then I was on my way.
If we all approached life with the realization that God is within all of us, our interactions and routines would change in significant ways. If God sees the world through our consciousness, then he sees the reactions of the people we interact, and how our actions affect others. If we are hurtful, God sees the response in those we are cruel to both through our eyes and within the being of the other person at the same time. He experiences our acts of kindness too, through the eyes of all involved. God is balanced within both sides of the interaction. When we apprehend our being in the world in this way, it has the potential to profoundly change the way we live. We can’t just be placidly detached, we must be actively involved in our becoming, and the becoming of all beings. That is wrapping Buddhism within Christianity and it is the more exalted path. If our eyes are the sight of God, then we must strive to be the vision of the One, and be active in transforming being into a better, more loving existence.