I’m a student of the Rinzai Zen school
by Anonymous
I’ve been a student of the Rinzai school of Zen for approximately four years. My interest in Zen was first nurtured by the book “The Three Pillars of Zen” by Roshi Philip Kapleau. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Zen Buddhism- it opened my eyes to the practical, everyday side of zen. Previously all I could find were more metaphysical, esoteric based works, such as collections of Koans and commentary. While I believe these are surely necessary for continued study of Zen, it was much easier in my case to be taught an understanding of what the day-to-day practice of it was like. You have to learn to walk before you can run, right?
I struggled for the longest time in my life with the notion of religion and how it related to how I lived. Zen is the first and only philosophical belief system I’ve found that coincides with how I “feel” about God/Ultimate Beings, the Universe, and so forth. I feel that it places the responsibility of “redemption” (for lack of a better term) in your own hands, rather than delegating it to a higher power. I mean no disrespect to those who follow beliefs other than mine; we all have to find God in our own ways. Zen brings me peace in a world that I sometimes struggle to understand. The wisdom of the Buddhas is timeless, and through what I’ve been taught, I’ve found some semblance of peace. Though the path to enlightenment is long, I know that for myself, that path is the right one.
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