God Gene How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes

One Spiritual Instinct Instinct leads, logic does but follow. William James The first thing I noticed about Tenkai was his smile. It was serene, content, knowing but not smug. It was the smile of a person at peace with himself and the world around him. The smile of someone who had seen much but could still be surprised. It was a spiritual smile. The second thing I noticed was that even though Tenkai spoke fluent Japanese, wore traditional Japanese garb, and was living in a Japanese monastery, he was clearly not Asian. His blue eyes and light brown hair were the giveaway. He, in fact, was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, as Michael Hoffman. I met Tenkai at the Hosenji Zen Center, which is located in a small Japanese village about an hour's train ride west of Kyoto. The Center provides a venue for people from different countries and religious traditions to learn about Zen Buddhism and practice its system of meditation, known as zazen, in which one sits in the lotus position with half-closed eyes and focuses on breathing. The idea is to empty the mind of all thoughts. I participated in the Center's daily activities: waking to a gong at 6 a.m., an hour of zazen sitting in a traditional tatami mat room overlooking a waterfall, eating a breakfast of rice gruel and pickled vegetables in silence, several hours of weeding the vegetable garden or sweeping the stone paths, sutra chanting, supper of more rice and vegetables, and a final two hours of meditation in a log cabin overlooking a temple. It was a peaceful life. But I was not at the Center to ripen my intuitive faculties or to experiment with monastic existence. I was there attempting to understand whether or not there is a biological basis of spirituality. Until the age of twenty-four, Tenkai led an ordinary life as a high school teacher. Following a breakup with his girlfriend, however, he began to ask himself the life questions at the heart of our need to believe in something larger than ourselves. Why was he here? What is the purpose of life? Why is there so much suffering? Soon thereafter he quit his job, got on his bicycle, and started pedaling east. He didn't stop until he reached the shores of the East China Sea. Along the way, Tenkai experimented with every spiritual system and mystical tradition he encountered. In Austria, he studied the principles of anthroposophy, which claims to be "a path of knowledge which leads the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe." In an Indian ashram, he practiced a type of meditation in which bouts of exuberant dancing and singing were alternated with periods of complete motionlessness. He prayed for twelve hours a day at a monastery in Nepal, and in China he practiced the graceful motions of Tai Chi. At times he fasted and abstained from sex, while at other times he mixed alcohol, drugs, and women with abandon. There were times when he sat quietly for hours; at other times he jumped about and grunted like a gorilla. But no matter what he tried, no matter which spiritual leader he followed, Tenkai felt that something was missing. It wasn't until he abandoned his bicycle and flew to Japan that he found what he was looking for: Zen Buddhism. Zen is based on the premise that every human being is capable of enlightenment. All that is needed is to see through to one's true nature through meditation. The emphasis is on living in the present with no regret for the past or fear of the future. The motto on the Hosenji Zen Center's brochure, for example, is "Your future is here now." Zen is unique among religions in that it is virtually devoid of theology, scripture, or ritual. There are no gods or devils, there is no heaven or hell. Although Zen does have priests, they do not have any special claim to holiness. [read more]