Samsara – the Path to Nirvana

“I am the better for having been afflicted.”  – King David

I have two pivotal memories from my adolescence and early adulthood as a young Catholic.  The first one was, when I saw my first cross without the crucified Jesus on it.  Something never sat right with me about that vision till this very day.   I also remember being asked by another Christian where I stood about the “Resurrected Jesus”, by then I was beginning to introduce my Zen influence into my teaching mode.  I answered, “It didn’t matter to me whether or not the resurrection story is true, Jesus had me at the cross.”  I can’t tell you how well that did not go over.  It wouldn’t be much longer after then, that I would complete my transition to Zen Buddhism.  But I must be clear, it was not a rejection of Catholicism or the Teachings of Jesus, but rather a “completion” a kind of “evolution” toward completing my experience of what I call today “authentic spirituality”.