Brother Lawrence: A Christian Zen Master

The winter I was eighteen, I stood looking at the bare branches of a tree. . . . My awareness was suddenly opened, so that I saw God.

This is the beginning of Brother Lawrence's spiritual journey, a journey that made him stand out to the Christian community of his day (he lived c. 1614-1691), not because he was a great thinker, a gifted speaker, or a talented writer--but simply because of the way he lived his life.

This way of life echoes the teachings of Zen. Surrender yourself to God and you will be equally at peace in both suffering and joy, Brother Lawrence told one of his visitors. When a person does not cling, wrote the Buddha centuries earlier, she is not agitated.