'I wanted a faith that was deeper': Jesuit priest and Zen master -- Part I

Very informative. Thank you!

People get all wrapped up in this exotic stuff and it's like Christianity is for the kids. Zen is neat, interesting, but you can realize God, feel God, understand God, love God, get your joy from God and your comfort. You can do this as a Christian.

Some people study too much. You have to live too.

In response to the comment "Sounds like zen is a little bit like centering prayer as you've described it," Robert Kennedy responds, "I wish Thomas Keating would answer that himself. Centering prayer, as it seems to me, is a Christian adaption of zen, a way of Christianizing zen, making it more understandable to Christians, making Christ or some phrase of scripture the center of your attention. Zen goes beyond that - there is no center."

What I find unfortunate is that Robert Kennedy does not understand what centering prayer is about (as it is not about making some phrase of scripture the center of your attention) and more importantly does not encourage people to go more deeply into their own Christian tradition ... to rediscover the desert mothers and fathers, the teaching of the Cloud of Unknowing, and other Christian mystics. Perhaps he found zen so meaningful because he discovered in Japan what he would have discovered in the Christian contemplative tradition if he had a teacher to point that way.

I don't see any conflict between the practice of Zen and Christianity. All of the great religions, including Christianity, confront the ultimate question of death. Death is the event in life where we are the most naked before God, a final letting-go. In the history of Christian ascetism we are taught to live as we would wish to die, to imitate the self-emptying of Jesus. Attachment to our identities and our possessions is what holds us back. Jesus often spoke about this. When you look at the life of Jesus you can see his practice of Zen in all but name.

I am one with you Father Robert in the Spirituality of the NOW and the HERE- the ABSOLUTE and ONLY BEING-REAL.BUT i also believe that the HERE AND NOW-ABSOLUTE AND REAL is DIVINE- only when it is also LOVE ( as an act )NOW and HERE (at the "MOMENT").

Thanks and enjoy your work, and stay always in LOVE, father. TANTUM QUANTUM AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM!

In order to practice Christian/Zen spirituality as Father Kennedy so beautifully elucidates it, one must do the work of departing from this capitalist culture. That's mighty hard in the present day, methinks.

I am 65 and because I had a good memory as a child and I came from a very religius home I knew all the answers to the Catechism in primary school. It was not an apaphatic education at all. The ctechism did not give answers to questions. It told us what the questions were and then it told us THE answer. In middle age, about 20 years ago I realised that most of the religious language I knew was dead. Most of the answers I knew were to questions I was not asking. Then I discovered Zen. I try to stay with the present moment. 'Keep your feet warm and your head cool'.

I've never before been engaged by podcasts, but that seems to be changing for me. These interviews by Tom Fox with Fr. Kennedy were excellent for giving an introduction to his work and some of the issues related to Zen and Christian perspectives. I found it wonderfully mature work, and I really appreciated access to it.