Zen Gifts to Christians - Hardcover

Kennedy, Robert E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826412823 ISBN 13: 9780826412829

Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2000

Synopsis

Robert Kennedy is one of three Jesuits in the world who answer to both the titles "Father" and "Roshi," or venerable Zen teacher. In 1991, after ten years of practicing Zen meditation, he was installed as a Zen teacher at the recommendation of his teacher, Glassman Roshi, and of Glassman Roshi's teacher, Maezumi Roshi. Today, he directs a dozen groups of people from many religious persuasions—even atheists and agnostics—who sit weekly in Zen meditation throughout the greater New York metropolitan area. This book is specifically addressed to the Christian practitioners of Zen meditation or those who are curious about it. It is structured around the ten well-known ox-herding pictures that have been a consistent source of inspiration to Zen students for centuries. Each picture represents a specific Zen insight into life, and these insights, says Kennedy, are not only fully compatible with Christianity but can help Christians achieve the spiritual goals enshrined in a Christian classic. For example, The Cloud of Unknowing: to be silent and attentive, to be wholly present to life, to be able to separate one's true self from one's false self, the self-seeking part of the personality that so often brings one pain.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert J. Kennedy teaches theology at St. Peter's College, is a psychotherapist in private practice, and conducts Zen retreats at various centers in the United States and Mexico. He is the author of Zen Spirit/Christian Spirit.

Review:

“Though Robert Kennedy’s recent book Zen Gifts to Christians (2000) is intended for Christian readers who may be “temperamentally inclined” (i) to learn about Zen to spiritually augment their lives, it also succeeds as a work that defines the Western Buddhist community and as an introductory text for those interested in Zen Buddhism. Organizing the book around the ten ox-herding pictures of Zen Buddhism, each picture is elegantly expanded into a chapter detailing each step in the spiritual quest. Kennedy richly supplement the lessons and ideas contained in each bull with references to Western poetry and prose, making the bulls more accessible to the reader by presenting the information in different ways. Kennedy’s anecdotes and citations beautifully illustrate the points he wishes to make.Robert Kennedy’s Zen Gifts to Christians is a refreshing contribution to the Buddhist-Christians interreligious dialogue. The book displays a deep understanding that, while sympathetic, is also appropriately critical. Unlike other works (such as Robert Neville’s Behind the Masks of God [1998]), it offers amore fair minded treatment of Buddhism and Christianity, because it goes beyond counting the differences between the two religions and emphasizes the similarities. Rising to the challenge first issued by Thomas Merton, Kennedy also demonstrates how Buddhist practice can strengthen and invigorate Christian Praxis (something that Dom Aelred Graham’s Zen Catholicism: A Suggestion [1963] tried to do but, sadly, fell short of the mark). My single reservation about Zen Gifts to Christians is very minor; though Kennedy targets the book exclusively at Christians, the lessons and ideas presented in the book already reach out to other audiences.” – Katherine M. Pickar, L Moyne College, Buddhist-Christian Studies 23 (2003) (Katherine M. Pickar)

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0826412823
• ISBN 13: 9780826412829
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 131