Zen 101
It's not what you think
My upcoming novel, Zen Men Tell No Tales, is set in a Zen monastery. It might be helpful for some to have a quick intro to this religion so that the story won’t feel so foreign. I have been a student of Zen for over 40 years, and in that time, I have thoroughly figured out nothing about Zen. But that’s OK. Zen is not something to figure out. In my experience, Zen is the practice of meditation to understand what it means to exist. Eventually, many Buddhists arrive at the view that everything is impermanent and that anything, including the self, is a source of suffering if clung to. Everything else is negotiable. The goal is just to sit, become who you already are, and stop trying to be anybody else.