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  • Be Still and Know: Zen and the Bible by Ruben L.F. Habito
  • Janet K. Ruffing RSM (bio)
Be Still and Know: Zen and the Bible. By Ruben L.F. Habito. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Press, 2017, 194 pp. $24.00.

Ruben Habito's most recent book is an intriguing meditatio on brilliantly chosen passages and themes from the Christian Scriptures which he uses as koans, or teaching stories, for guiding Christian and non-Christian practitioners on Zen retreats. The Rev. Jane Lancaster Patterson, Ph.D. and New Testament Scholar, aptly names what Habito is up to in this volume in an interview appended at the end. She says, "It seems the use of koans in the Sanbo Zen lineage has made using traditional scriptures for teaching a natural move" (182). Habito's many volumes on Zen and Christianity are well known to readers of Spiritus. Deeply trained in the Sanbo Zen lineage for eighteen years while still a Jesuit, he has balanced his Christian and Zen understandings and practice in intriguing ways over the years. His latest book is based on conferences or "teachings" during Zen retreats held in Christian or mixed religious contexts, such as Osage Monastery of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Sand Springs, AZ, as well as retreats offered at Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas where he is the guiding teacher for both Christian and non-Christian practitioners. In each chapter, there is always the silence of sitting Zazen, the experiential process of entering this silence that opens one to deep spiritual experience in "just sitting" and "just being" in the silence, present to oneself and un-nameable mystery, and Dharma talks that are based on key Biblical texts he uses as koan, or teaching stories, to support the silent sitting and deepening awareness that emerges in the silence for his retreatants. The result is a lovely taste of Zen mediated through familiar biblical texts used in a [End Page 282] non-habituated way, opening to rich new insights and fresh experiential awareness through a subtle Zen lens. The Presence of the living God is always pointed to without precisely naming it, but certainly intentionally evoking it. The texts devel-oped in these retreat talks are Psalm 46, "Be Still and Know," Psalm 23, "My Cup Overflows," Matthew 13:44–46, "The Treasure that is You" and Matthew 5:1–3, 8–9, "Blessed are You." In the final long chapter based on the beatitudes, Habito offers more extensive reflection on his method in these retreat talks, giving guidance on how to participate in such a retreat and making more explicit references to his extensive experience with key movements within the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. He says, "The one who gives a talk in Zen is always pointing to each of you as you sit there with openness to listen in the silence, breathing in and breathing out, telling each and every one, 'This is about you. Listen as if you were alone in the universe hearing this'" (149). This book would ably support any Christian practitioner of Zen who is integrating this particular practice of "just sitting" with contemporary Christian theology and the wisdom sayings of Jesus in the Gospels.

Janet K. Ruffing RSM
Yale Divinity School
Janet K. Ruffing

Janet K. Ruffing, RSM is Professor of the Practice of Spirituality and Ministerial Leadership at Yale Divinity School and Professor Emerita of Spirituality and Spiritual Direction at Fordham University. Recent Essays include: "The Praxis of Spirituality: Experiencing God and Responding to that Relationship," Studies in Spirituality 27, and "Looking for Meaningful Conversation and Connection: Ordinary Connections, Cooperative Exploration, Spiritual Direction and Empathic Connection," Human Development, Summer 2018.

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