In most religions and societies, the people believe in what is seen and what their faith is. However, it seems to me as though the Zen attitude towards it’s religion and anything regarding death there is no answer. This I can understand because some people do not know any answers about death except the fact that a person is born and then dies after a long or short life. But, the Zen attitude is more along the lines of believing in nothing. It seems to me that the Buddhists and those who believe in Zen that they do not have any beliefs or that their belief is nothing. This is because they are constantly contradicting themselves saying things like “there is no place where nothing is born and nothing dies and that we need not see each other at all” (67 sacred art). That quote was stated in The Sacred Art of Dying when someone was saying goodbye to fellow Buddhists, he states that he will see them where everything is born and dies. That is then when the man he speaks to corrects what he says. But to me this is somewhat silly to think. If nothing dies and nothing is born in the nowhere place, where do we come from? What is this religion really based on? Maybe it could have been just a child rambling on about nothing, because that’s what it seems like. I do not want to sound like I am bashing a religion. However, I just simply do not get how they can believe that no one is born anywhere and no one dies. It would be nice if no one died because all my loved ones would still be with me today. Their religion and Zen attitude may just be to protect themselves, to keep them from being sad in a world that is always and constantly a disappointment.
Within the reading I did notice something I liked however. A quote on page 63 that says “I am I, and I am you, and I am not I. In this mode of awareness, there is no struggle between life and death, for one is both fully alive (I am I and I am you) and fully dead ( I am not I) at the same time”. This quote strikes me as quite amusing. This is because this person is completely not only contradicting himself, but is also seeming to avoid death as a whole. Know that they will live through another and while that person is really dead with their body, the person they say they will live through is still living. They are saying that they are not themselves, that they are everyone. I like this even though it is a bit weird to me. If you are not yourself you are constantly knowing what other people feel, it’s as if you can be and do anything you want to in a world that is nothing. Which is ultimately true, this world will someday be nothing to me and to the others who also die. This is because when we die we leave everything behind. But, this is my point of view and what I believe. Someone with a Zen attitude would say that what they work for in this world is to die a death they have already died (which is a never ending circle) that what they did in life can live through those they “are” and live through once their body is actually dead.
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