This month on Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice we have three more questions and answers.

• Can a Westerner become Enlightened?
• Is a Buddhism a religion, and can you believe in God and be a Buddhist?
• How do we deal with distracting thoughts that cause us to lose the object of meditation?

The wide-ranging questions produce wide-ranging answers looking at what enlightenment is, how it relates to the Buddha’s Enlightenment, atheism East & West, how the Buddha incorporated the Hindu deities of his day and how that has conditioned the deities found in Esoteric and Tantric Buddhism; the use of ritual and the body in meditation as a foundation and aid in practice.

Don’t forget if you have a question that you would like to ask then just send it to: thezengateway@gmail.com for next month’s Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice.