As a beginner on the Mindset journey, I have an interest in applying Zen to my current interests. As I currently see it as an outsider to the philosophy, Zen is a Buddhist philosophical practice that, in part, focuses on quieting the mind and spirit.
I will attempt to show how this can both be applied to another item of interest, the Bible topic concordance.
Stories in the Bible very often have a forward (in time) looking prophetic aspect, as well as a backwards looking “lesson” aspect. But since this aspect is not given expicitly in the Bible, the stories need to sit with the reader, sometimes over very long periods of time. And the growing meaning of the connections of these stories make the topical concordance of the Bible “grow” over time, as new meaning are discerned. Let me describe a couple examples:
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Abraham was ordered by God to take Isaac to a mountain to sacrifice him, ostensibly to prove Abraham’s faith. Abraham carries out all of the steps up until the final plunge of the knife, when an angel intervenes and stops him. Without further context, what is meant as the lesson from this?
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Moses wanders the desert for decades with the tribes of Israel, when they finally are given the sign it is time to enter the Promised Land. But Moses is not permitted to enter himself. Instead Joshua will lead the army and the people. The reason given is that when Moses went against God’s command and struck a rock for water, instead of commanding it by voice, he committed a sin. So Moses does not enter the Promised Land and passes away on the mountain. What lesson are we to take from this?
On first glance, these stories may seem pointless and even nonsensical. Even paging through study notes may not lead to a clear answer. This is where my current understanding of Zen comes into play.
For me, I had to digest these stories initially without an answer to “Why?”. No storming of logic via mind would have helped. Instead, the stories sitting in the back of my mind quietly over a period of months, as well as keeping my eyes and mind open to other voices who have expertise and opinions on these matters, led me to the deeper meaning.
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Abraham attempting to sacrifice Isaac is a mirror of the New Testament of Jesus. While it was never the intent for God to let Abraham carry out the sacrifice, his faith took Abraham right up to the end, when Isaac was spared. In the New Testament, God the Father offers Jesus as the sacrifice, but in this case, the human race happily lets the sacrifice happen. The stories (and the individuals within them) are contrasted this way.
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Joshua leading the tribes of Israel into the Promised Land is also connected to the New Testament. Moses is close to a perfect prophet, giving up his life to the commands of God. But since there are no truly sinless people (save Jesus), Moses cannot overcome his (admittedly few) failings. So instead, the people of the tribes, who are much more broken and sinful than Moses, enter the Promised Land because they follow Joshua. In the New Testament, we are taught that no one can be saved unless they believe in and follow Jesus. So we prophetically see the New Testament lesson of following Jesus first given in an otherwise confusing Old Testament story.
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As part of Moses story, there is an additional part of the story concerning his error. When he hits the rock for water, instead of believing and speaking the word, he also prophetically comments on a New Testament lesson. Belief, faith, in the Word will lead in the correct direction. Instead, Moses takes an agressive action out of frustration, ignoring faith. This is why this act, which otherwise looks trivial, is given as the reason for Moses failing.
Without the ability to sit and meditate on meaning over time, or without an openess to let ideas grow and gain concordance, we can cheat ourselves out of a level of complexity of life that makes it exponentially richer.
My current beginner understanding of Zen can help me approach these topics with the correct attitude. Instead of attacking the material with a fast, acute reading , looking for a quick answer to our questions, a slow and measured contemplation of the ideas via my beginning Zen practice of quieting can lead to a true, richer insight.
