Since we are social beings we ourselves are in communion: ontologically, relationship, fellowship, with others. There is actually no living person apart from others. So we discover ourselves, realize ourselves only in the meeting with others; the deeper the meeting, the more we find ourselves and blossom into persons. From a Christian perspective we are even more so created to be in communion, reflecting as we do the very “being-one-together” of the divine Persons in the Trinity, that ultimate secret of God’s life, as shared with us by Jesus.

Here’s Hakuin again: “Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes. This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land! And this very body, the body of Buddha.” And this, this very practice, is where I come to meet myself-in the morning.

Attention is key. Here, for me, is an important synthesis. To what am I paying attention? To what cannot be named or imagined or understood, to “no thing”. I remember that Jesus said the wheat must fall into the ground and die or it cannot give life. That seems the same as saying there is no self. It makes perfect sense even while it makes no sense. It is a hard saying, but I believe it is good to bear it

by Jason Bartashius
Thomas Merton proclaimed in his essay, “The Woman Clothed with the Sun” that a certain power existed in the fact that we know so little of the Virgin Mary. Merton saw Mary’s non-divinity …

By Joe Benenate, DO
Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Care
Board Certified in Family Practice
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in the MKZC Zen Journal, Volume 12, Number 1 Winter 2007
At the very beginning of my …

by Maria Reis Habito
“I am not religious, but  I`m spiritual”. This is a commonly heard statement, especially among younger people, many of whom are disaffected with organized religion, but seek some form of secular spirituality.  …