Christian turned Zen Buddhist (Christianity, Buddhism)

Christianity, Buddhism

"Sometime in 2007, it fully dawned on me that I did not, and indeed, could not believe some of the things that, more or less, one is required to believe to call oneself a Christian, and that no amount of deciding or effort was going to change that. Additionally, I realized that I actually never had. One of the ideas that my mind would not sit still for was an externalized, interventionist God. I simply didn't buy it.

Now that was troublesome, having been raised a Christian, and it took some time to actually admit what I had already realized because of fear of damnation inculcated since childhood in the church. Once that admission was made, though, I let go of Christianity. I decided that I wanted a spiritual life that would work for me, not the other way around, and for the first time felt free to look outside the faith I was brought up in."

—Will Collum

This quote is taken from an interview with Will Collum at MeditationHow.info.


This four part meditation testimonial and interview features Will Collum of Columbia, South Carolina, who shares his experiences shifting from Christianity to Zen Buddhism, cultivating Inner Awarness, Zazen Shikantaza (Sitting Meditation), and his process of Letting Go.

Article: Mind the Grid, by Robert Wright

Robert Wright gets off the grid and into mindfulness:

in addition to unplugging from the wired world, I plugged into a regimen that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I was at a silent meditation retreat. My fellow yogis and I did about five hours of sitting meditation each day and five hours of walking meditation. Then each night we listened to a talk about the context of all this: the Buddhist worldview.

So I’ve failed to control my variables. Who knows how much of my newfound calm is due to escaping modern technology and how much is due to immersing myself in an ancient discipline?

Review: The 14th Dalai Lama: A Manga Biography

Although not a Zen book, this is definitely a book worth buying. This biography focuses on the conflict between China and Tibet, and shows the suffering that the people of Tibet endured. The message throughout is that only a non-violent struggle will result in a return of the Tibetan people to Tibet and peace with China.

The drawings are typical of the manga style, so if this is your first time reading manga, get ready for some exaggerated expressions. That said, I thought the drawings added a lot to the story. This is an excellent book and well worth reading. It will be available September 28, 2010.