Why do we practice zazen?

"We practice because we do not yet know who or what we are. But as a result of many causes, including the suffering we experience and the longing and engendered by that suffering, we aspire to know. That aspiration leads many people to begin the practice of zazen." page xxvi, A walk with Dogen into our time, preface by Peter Levitt in The essential Dogen: writings of the great zen master

As I more and more value the Buddhist practices and philosophy while feeling distant from so much of the Christian theology I have studied throughout my life, I have wanted to somehow record a coherent statement on what all this means. The word aspiration has been coming up lately and may well and embody the reason I have attended church from a young age and done so much study of religion. I have encountered gems along the way but have never felt so comfortable as I do now. It is strange because I don't really have anyone to talk with it about. So many of our friends are involved Christians and I don't want to sound like I am belittling their faith as I explained what I have found for myself.

"After all, most of us were raised with the idea inherited from our various religious traditions that originally we are not at one with Oneness, that from the moment of conception we live at a distance from the source of life. Except for the more mystical orientation within these traditions that speaks of imanence, divinity is seen as solely transcendent and, thereby, is considered radically other from human beings."

Yes, I have been attracted to the mystical traditions but never adopted a discipline or a worldview. The Abrahamic traditions try to have it both ways casting imanence as a characteristic of the transcendent God. It took three centuries for the church fathers to get a coherent theology out of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Hardly anyone reads or understands that theology so most Christians just continue to read the scriptures without much understanding, singing the hymns, and inspired by the liturgy. 

Stopping heresy and book banning were then instituted to deal with other strains of the story of Jesus. "In his introduction to The Nag Hammadi Library, James Robinson suggests that these codices may have belonged to a nearby monastery and were buried after Saint Athanasius condemned the use of non-canonical books..."

So along with many mentors: Thomas Merton, those monks who buried the codices, Bishop Spong, and many others, I still consider myself a Christian though outside the orthodoxy. I also don't consider myself an atheist because I'm not sure what the difference is between believing in a mysterious God that acts in mysterious ways and just seeing the universe as it really is. Buddha did not see such speculation as useful and indeed is a distraction.

Part 2

Also see: Hearsay and Tradition September 23, 2019 

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy90ZW1wbGF0ZXMvcnNzL3BvZGNhc3QucGhwP2lkPTUxMDA1MQ&episode=YWEzZGE3MDMtNGZjOC00YmVmLTkyMWEtYTczNzZhMDUwYzNj