Read an article by Thomas Moore (author of Care of the Soul) in this quarters issue of Tricycle (Summer 2002) entitled, Zen Catholic.

While I haven't read his book, I have read a couple of his other articles (one was in Parabola) and I know a little bit about this man. He lived as a Catholic monk but has been influenced by Zen writings and this article explained the interplay between his Catholicism and his Zen Buddhism.

The one thing that still startles me is the phrase he used (and I have heard it many, many times):

I was born a Catholic, I did not choose it or make myself into such a thing.

And the phrase that I hear most often following that phrase is, "... and I will die a Catholic." If there was another religion that had a similar view (but would never be as vocal about it), would be my Mormon upbringing. Keep in mind that I was born a Mormon, but have now married into a Catholic family … so I think that I'm in a good position to compare this strange value of being "born as a member of religious order."

I say strange because from a rational point-of-view, religion is not an identity … espeically not an identity that was thrown on you. A Mormon writer, Michael Quinn, used the phrase, "DNA Mormon" to refer to the fact that whatever he would think or say, that Mormonism was a part of his very being, and he couldn't shake it even if he wanted to.

Maybe there is something to this … While we don't remember our most formative years, the perspectives we were given during our childhood continue to shape our perspectives of things as adults. Do you think that the world is a huge plate on the back of an elephant which is on the back of a turtle, which is on the back of a turtle, and so on? Of course not, if you are reading this, you probably believe that the world is a ball filled with a sticky glue we call gravity. Even if I could use logical arguments to prove the plate-elephant-turtle cosmology, it would be impossible to change that perspective that you were given as a child.

So maybe you could be born a Catholic or a Mormon and never be able to shake off the perspectives of those cultures … no matter how much you studied Zen Buddhim or read the Tao Te Ching. Maybe the best thing that you could do is have them all dance together in your soul?

A couple good quotes from the article:

Zen plays the role of janitor in my religious life, and if my understanding of Zen (pardon the expression) is right, that is a compliment. The Zen I know pulls the rug out from anything I land on as the truth and blissfully blows away dangerous moments of intelligence and understanding.
...
My readings in Zen have allowed me to empty my Catholicism, which is to say, to keep it alive in me. I think my Catholic critics don't like that emptiness, but to me it makes all the difference. It allows me to remain a Catholic. Without it I'd be worshipping the church or serving its membership or converting others to my views. I have Zen in mind when I tell people, quite honestly, that I have no message and that I'm not trying to accomplish anything with my words.

And this one …

I have no interest in comparing the religions, and none in trying to show how one is the same as the other in any way. I've never been in favor of the idea that all religions are one. I think they are all very different from each other, and their diversity is the basis of their richness.

This last quote could get me writing here more … but that is for another day, I guess.