Religious zen

Q: Is Zen a religion?

A: Yes.

This is a question I come across more often than I would have thought. Actually, I don't think I've ever thought about whether or not zen is a religion before I heard the question for the first time. For me zen has always been a religion among the others, a branch of buddhism among other branches of buddhism.

In fact, I don't see a single reason why zen wouldn't be a religion. Just because you can take the ideology of a religion and practise it without its religious aspects doesn't somehow erase the original product. Just because you could live by christian ethics without actually belonging to a denomination or believing in God doesn't make christianity any less a religion. And that, I think (ooh, she thinks! Scary!) is what has happened to zen - particularly in the west.

I'm all for the "treat others as you'd like to be treated yourself" and "don't kill" and whatnot, basic civilized rules that are laid out in the book known as the Bible. I can pretty much say that I live by these rules, but I'm not a big fan of the religious stuff, believing to God and Jesus and resurrection and sins. But I'm happy to take this "Golden Rule"-thing and use it to make my life better. Am I a christian believer? Nope. Can I say that just because I use christian ethics in a non-religious way, christianity is not a religion? No.

Zazen, a.k.a. "zen meditation" (a term that it is a bit misleading in some cases, but let's deal with that later), can be a valuable tool for anyone. You don't need to be buddhist, even less zen buddhist, to practise zazen and enjoy its good effects. Doing zazen doesn't make you a zen buddhist either, no more than the act of going to the church makes one a christian. You might get peace of mind from hearing a mass or saying the prayers with rest of people there, but that still won't necessarily make you a christian. The same thing with zen philosophy - if you get something out of it, good for you. If you can incorporate it to your own life and situation, even better. But don't for gods' sake come to tell me that just because YOU might not think zen is YOUR religion, that it isn't a religion at all!

First of all, zen is a type of buddhism, and buddhism is, at least when I last checked, one of the major world religions. Ergo, zen = buddhism = religion. All the zen schools draw their roots to a buddhist monk called Bodhidharma, Daruma in japanese, who brought his variant of buddhism to China in the 5th c. and who emphasised inner enlightenment, transmission without reliance on words and meditation as the most important practise. Humans being what they are the school split into several branches first in China, and then some of these were transmitted to Japan - the biggest schools being Rinzai and Sôtô. The importance of this dharma lineage is shown for example in the Sôtô practise of chanting all the names in your own lineage from Shakamuni (Shakyamuni) to the head of your own monastery each morning. I've seen the list of names and it's no mean feat to memorize them all...

And secondly, doing zazen and using the "zen way of thinking" (whatever that might be) to be able to cope better with your everyday problems is just fine, but that's actually not zen at all. And from now on I'll speak of Sôtô zen, since that's the school I know something about. There's a special reason for zazen, and it's not to make your life easier (though that might also happen). We do zazen because that's when we literally become buddhas. Zazen, when properly done, is not a way to enlightenment, it IS enlightenment. 一分座れば一分仏, sit for one minute and you're a buddha for one minute. Those who recognize something religious in this way of thinking raise your hands? Maybe something, mm ... I don't know ... supernatural? I mean, suddenly turning to a buddha and all? And no, this ISN'T a metaphor. Suddenly there's all these thing's to believe in: First of all, you must believe that story about Buddha, suffering and enlightenment. And as if that wasn't enough, you must believe that we all have the same ability (and need) for the said enlightenment, and that it's possible by following the principles laid out by Dôgen zenji, basically by sitting facing a wall. Which part here doesn't look like "religion"? (Although I admit that getting up voluntarily at 4.45am just to be able to sit for 40min facing a wall, being hit with a stick and then cleaning the temple grounds without getting paid sounds somewhat more like a cult than a religion... *g*)

So, Sôtô zen has validity both as a religious tradition and organization, and there's religious beliefs behind it all. And what's more important, there are believers - a religion without followers would indeed be a useless thing. And as long as these three can be found, I'm of the opinion that zen is a religion.