Faith Runs Through All Consciousness

Zen is what makes the religious feeling run through its legitimate channel and what gives life to the intellect. Zen does this by giving one a new point of view of looking at things, a new way of appreciating the truth and beauty of life and the world, by discovering a new source of energy in the inmost recesses of consciousness and by bestowing on one a feeling of completeness and sufficiency.

That is to say, Zen works miracles by overhauling the whole system of one’s inner life and opening up a world hitherto entirely undreamt of. This may be called a resurrection. And Zen tends to emphasize the speculative element, though confessedly it opposes this more than anything else in the whole process of spiritual revolution, and in this respect Zen makes use of phraseology belonging to the sciences of speculative philosophy.

D.T. Suzuki in his work, Practical Methods of Zen Instruction is explaining what the Buddhists consider Zen; it is the catalyst for life experiences. Life experiences are expressed through my belief system, so they are distorted and reshaped to include other aspects of thought that blends with Zen and the by-product is a widening of my awareness. When I expand my belief system and step into unknown inner zones, I’m able to experience awareness using my inner senses more that my physical senses.

Zen, or consciousness, reacts to my inner sense in a completely different way and the manifestations from my inner senses change my reality and the world I live in. Connecting to my inner senses allows me to experience the expansion of my own consciousness, or Zen, in each experience. This is a physical resurrection, which quietly fills me with the essence of religion.

My spiritual revolution is not a revolution; it is more of an awakening than a complete resurfacing of my belief structure. Suzuki mentions speculative philosophy as a definition, or a category, to use as an association for this awakening of Zen, or the expression of another quality of my consciousness. There is nothing theoretical or abstract about the nature of this quality, it is as natural as nature is, in its awareness of being physical.

The inner senses and my inner consciousness are constantly being expressed and manifested in my reality, but that reality may not be the reality I’m focusing on in the moment; I change that reality through my beliefs. The fundamental perception that I innately sense is Zen or consciousness, but I give it a special name based on my individual beliefs about religion.

Suzuki goes on the say:

Zen is the ultimate fact of all philosophy and religion. Every intellectual effort must culminate in it, or rather must start from it, if it is to bear any practical fruits. Every religious faith must spring from it if it has to prove at all efficiently and livingly workable in our active life. Therefore Zen is not necessarily the fountain of Buddhism thought and life alone; it is very much alive also in Christianity, Mohommedanism in Taoism and even in positivistic Confucianism. What makes all these religious and philosophies vital and inspiring, keeping up their usefulness and efficiency, is due to the presence in them of what I may designate as the Zen element.

Suzuki is expressing my inner sense of connection through consciousness, or Zen, which is manifested through my belief in different religions and philosophies. They all are valid since there genesis is consciousness, which is expressing diversity in physical form; that is my method to expand in awareness. Consciousness fragments itself in order to know itself in every aspect of physical energy. When diverse religions and philosophies begin to accept a common inner foundation and embrace the diversity that produces awareness, Zen will appear in every religious experience regardless of past beliefs and associations. It can be called any name, but the essence is the same.

As Suzuki says:

Mere scholasticism or mere sacerdotalism will never create a living faith. Religion requires something inwardly propelling, energizing and capable of doing work. The intellect is useful in its place, but when it tries to cover the whole field of religion it dries up the source of life.

Consciousness allows faith to run through all layers of itself in order to expand awareness. When I use my inner senses to experience religion, I can call it whatever name I choose and know I am connected to Zen, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, or whatever consciousness I choose in each moment.