Common Ground

By Wayne Brown
Zen Temple, Gateway Park

Revised December, 2015

What all the great faiths of the world have in common is faith itself. And faith is a mistake. Faith is ...

"strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof."

 Well, doesn't Science itself have its "strong beliefs". Doesn't that make Science a religion?

Actually, no. Scientific theories are only those that are capable of disproof. Scientists always hang on to the most reliable of theories, while thinking up ways to experimentally disprove others. If it is impossible to imagine a way to devise an experiment that would, at least in principal, disprove a theory, then the theory has little interest and little practical use. Scientific theories do not survive because they are proven, they survive because (so far) they have resisted disproof.

This outlook leaves plenty of room for compassion and positively encourages a sense of awe and wonder. It is an outlook that forms the core of my own personal version of "Zen", although I understand that there are many students and masters of Zen who would disagree -- indeed, for many, Zen seems to slip back into the realm of religion. For me, it makes no sense to "believe" in Zen. As far as I can tell, the voluminous writings of the Zen masers add up to advice on what not to believe.

Zen tradition welcomes some very old theories about the way reality works. For example,  that the "self" doesn't really exist. Such an idea would seem susceptible to disproof. In fact, it flies in the face of direct experience. On the other hand, modern brain science is beginning to make sense of this claim. The response should be to let Science, not dogma, decide the issue.

Even without a body of "beliefs", Zen has a lot to say on about how to live. In such matters, Zen finds common ground with many religions, especially (of course) Buddhism. It also has a lot of ground with common sense and Science, so the overlaps do not make Zen a religion, nor, for that matter, a Science.

So, that's it in a nutshell -- for those who want to know where I stand on such matters.

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