Zen: Spirituality without Religion or Dogma
One thing I treasure about zen is that it’s a path to inner transformation that doesn’t involve having to accept any teaching or having to believe in anything. However, if you have strong religious beliefs, or hold certain spiritual teachings close to your heart, that’s fine too! It doesn’t matter. All you need in order to practice zen is the discipline to meditate regularly.
To do zen meditation (zazen), we sit up straight, still, and relaxed, and turn our attention to experiencing our breathing. This is actually difficult; we only succeed intermittently. But during moments when we succeed, we forget all ideas, concepts, teachings, and beliefs, and we begin to uncover the wonderful truth of zen. This is that we are essentially positive, joyous energy, one with the energy of the universe. To the rational thinking mind, this doesn’t make sense, but if we practice zazen regularly, this becomes more and more clear. We realize that fundamentally we are happy and content, and we don’t have to strive so hard after happiness. We realize that the world, despite all the misfortune and suffering, is a beautiful and fascinating place, and we are grateful to be alive to be able to experience it. And we sense, though we cannot prove it, that all things and beings in the world, and everything that is happening, is a manifestation of the positive and joyous energy that we have discovered within ourselves.
On the path to this realization, we don’t have to venerate any objects or books, we don’t have to put on any special clothes, we don’t have to perform any rituals, and we don’t have to accept ancient and sometimes outmoded dogmas. We just have to practice zazen, and the truth of zen will reveal itself to us.
This is spirituality for the 21st century and beyond—as we learn more and more about the the universe, how it came into being, and how it functions, many people find the religious teachings of the past to no longer be relevant, but still have the need for spiritual connection. Zen meditation enables a person to experience this connection, no matter what the current discoveries are about what we are and where we came from. Whether we are religious, atheist, or agnostic, zen brings us to a deep experience of oneness with the fundamental joyous energy of being, which enables us to live a life full of gratitude, appreciation, and wonder.
Carl Viggiani, Sensei