Talk for the Ahmadiyya Muslim World Religions Conference ay UNBC September 20 2005. by Judith Johnson

Listening to each other is an act of generosity, and a difficult spiritual practice, so many thanks to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for providing us with the opportunity to practice together in this way. They were perhaps a little generous in awarding me a Ph.D., I don’t have one. Also I am not a renowned religious scholar. I am just a student. I am honored to be included in this company.

These are student robes - their purpose is to indicate to you that I practice with qualified teachers, and to remind me that I am a very junior student. I have been guided by my teachers in preparing this talk, but any mistakes are just mine.

It may seem strange to some of you that atheists and Buddhists have been asked to speak here. The theme is “Seeking the existence of God” and Buddhism is considered a non theistic religion: it neither confirms nor denies the existence of God.

Buddhism is practiced by atheists, by agnostics and by theists. Teachers do not support one sort of student at the expense of the other. They say things like “there is no God in Buddhism” but they also say things like “Buddhism is a religion, of course there is God.”

It may seem that this is fence sitting, but it is not. From the Buddhist perspective, the spiritual activities that are the heart of humanity are too large to be confined by the concept of God. They are also too large to be confined by the concept of no God.

Shakyamuni himself, the founder of Buddhism, encouraged people to find things out for themselves. He said “Believe nothing, O monks merely because you have been told it...or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings--that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”

In Zen practice it is not necessary to believe anything. We just do the practice, then trust our experience of that practice. Practice leads to experiences of unity, where we realize that everything is interconnected, we can completely relate to the idea of “all my relations,” nothing exists in isolation.

Those of us that are not theistic don’t interpret our experience in terms of God. From a Buddhist perspective it does not make sense to try and split unity into God and not God, so theists may simply say “everything is God.” Christians who practice Zen and experience unity have no doubt that they are experiencing God. If you want to know more about that you have only to read Thomas Merton or other Christian Buddhists.

If you are a Zen student, how you interpret your experience is up to you, but teachings warn that that any interpretation is incorrect. It is commonly said “if you open your mouth, you are wrong.” Of course we can’t stop our minds from interpreting, minds will do that, but all Zen students benefit from more practice and less interpretation.

By now you are probably asking, “what is this Zen practice?” Like any authentic spiritual path that I am aware of, Zen practice takes people outside their usually unaware and unthinking “comfort zone.” This is done by sitting in contemplation until our knees and backs ache, taking ritual meals where it is difficult to get enough to eat, submitting to correction from each other and from teachers, continuing contemplation even if difficult emotions arise, and struggling to understand teachers who seem to say self contradictory things. To start with, none of this is comfortable. The point of it all is to study the self.

North American culture emphasizes being mentally, emotionally and physically comfortable at all times. Anything that causes discomfort is seen as a bad thing, a problem to be solved. From a Buddhist perspective this attitude seems self indulgent, and unhelpful. Expecting to develop spiritually in a comfortable way is like expecting to get physically fit by sitting in an armchair.

Many people who try our practice leave because they are physically, emotionally or mentally uncomfortable. But when the need for uncomfortable self study is completely accepted, then Zen students find contemplative practice both enjoyable and satisfying. Carrying this practice into everyday life is challenging but it brings many benefits.

Experiences of unity free the student. The more we see how we fit into the unity of things, the more liberated we become. I put it this way because it is experienced as freedom, but when this liberation happens we let go of our selves for a while, and there is only one direction we want to take: that is behaving in a more compassionate and responsible way. Serious Zen students generally find themselves becoming happier as they become more honest about themselves, apologize more, listen more deeply, and find new ways to give to others.

All Buddhist traditions have precepts to help students take responsibility for what is realized in contemplation. These are behavioral guidelines that the student may promise to follow. They always include some version of “don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie, no irresponsible sexual behavior, no intoxicants.” Interpretation of each precept is expected to be broad, applying to the mind as well as to physical actions. So, wasting someone’s time with idle chatter is stealing. Ignoring someone or denying them space for self interested reasons is killing.

Practitioners are expected to practice contemplation until they naturally respond to the unity of things, with a full understanding of their own intentions, not to follow precepts rigidly. Following rules rigidly, or with poor self knowledge, can be harmful.

Take “don’t kill,” for example. Even a strictly vegetarian Buddhist might kill a mosquito, especially if it might be carrying a disease and was about to bite a child. Buddhists generally accept that there are circumstances where killing a person is necessary in self defense or to defend others. Knowing when interrupting is killing requires self knowledge and sensitivity to the situation. It is not good enough to mindlessly apply “don’t kill,” there must be an effort to respond in a compassionate way to each situation.

There is another reason to emphasize natural responses to unity over rule following. Some really desirable behavior simply cannot be legislated. Empathy, a supportive smile, a warm handshake, these things cannot be forced: they happen naturally or they don’t happen.

In the Rinzai Zen tradition that I practice, precepts are not emphasized at the start. The emphasis is on freeing students to respond naturally. Other Buddhist traditions introduce precepts earlier, then develop the student’s ability to apply them.

Whichever approach is used, there must be sustained effort to respond to everything in life from our experience of the unity of things. Teachers can be pretty fierce about this. Anzan Hoshin Roshi once said to his students “If you refuse to take responsibility for your body, breath, speech and mind, and unfold each moment as this Original Nature itself, then get the hell out, or I’ll throw you out.”

From the Buddhist perspective, what we call our experience is not so important. God or unity, original nature or Buddha: the important thing is to do a spiritual practice consistently, then to carry that practice into everyday life. When we do this we realize that there is some truth to all our religions and our non-religions.

There is a compassionate side to being human. We can learn to put ourselves aside and simply respond to situations by doing what is needed. This is what makes us happy. The potential for selflessness and happiness is nurtured by spiritual practice of many different kinds, including this simple act of listening openly to each other.

Thank you very much for listening.