Thanks! I'd quibble a bit with that though. I love the way Zen banishes ideas and concepts, throwing them into the fire the moment they reify. However there is a something. A something greater. That is very much the point. To perceive it, to align with it.

Zen knows that ideas in the mind prevent you from doing this, that's why they are so militant about banishing concepts.

For example, when we westerners say "God," we attach all kinds of stuff to it. Near-eastern King, sitting frowning on a throne.

Buddhism would agree with none of that. And so, to them, that kind of God doesn't exist.

A field which surrounds us though...this is the Buddhist idea of God and it's precisely what our culture is at war with. As materialists, we continually deny that such a thing could be. My argument is that we should seriously think about this idea.

I'm no religious scholar, though I practice zen. I certainly have some things wrong and am happy to be corrected.