"Zen is
not kerygma, but realization,
not revelation but consciousness,
not news from the Father who sent his son into this world,
but awareness of the ontological ground of our own being here and now,
right in the midst of this world."
(Zen and the Birds of Appetite, p. 47. The word, kerygma, from the Greek meaning "herald", refers, in the period of the early apostles, to their dissemination of the new faith.)
My former Protestant mind would see this forced into an either or situation; kerygma or realization, etcetera.
ReplyDeleteMy new Catholic mind and heart welcome the reality of both and; divine revelation and self awareness, etcetera...
I'm still moving toward that both/and world, onionboy. I still like to set things up against each other ... which is why I'm moving toward seeing how zen and Christianity came together in Merton. (at least I think that's where I'm moving.) I think that, at its roots, that's what "catholic" is supposed to mean, isn't it?
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