Abbot Reding – Zen Father, Mystic and Zen Father Master Reding – It is not the path of comfort, but the path of sacrifice!
Mystic & Zen Father - Master Reding - The dog chases the ball, the tiger bites the thrower!
Zen Father - Master Reding warmly welcomes you. As a simple mountain monk, I have compiled this incomplete knowledge here. From the bottom of my heart I bow in infinite gratitude and reverence before God and my masters, free from East and West. How could I have spent my life without experiencing this literally existential encounter. May their teachings flourish in the hearts of people. All the best on the Way!
Adolescence - The Adventure Begins
Born and raised in City of Zurich (Switzerland), Zen Father Master Reding enjoyed life on the city limits. Following his mother's instructions, he completed his apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant at Empa Dübendorf with a vocational baccalaureate (BMS). Thanks to additionally obtaining his Matura at the KME (Cantonal Matura School for Adults), the university was also open to him.
Inner Emptiness - Paternal Vacuum - Divorce
The contraceptive pill and the feminist movement of 1968, with its associated destruction of families, created chaos and meaninglessness in society. An inner emptiness in people's hearts caused them to harden and their souls to atrophy. Short-term satisfaction of the senses without responsibility became the focus of society. The spirit of the father was absent and an unbearable vacuum arose in the soul. The perfect breeding ground for narcissism and perfectionism arose under the protective cloak of pity. This environment and ideology had a great influence on him.
This pursuit of meaning developed suddenly during puberty, when he came into contact with the Logos (Zen dialogues) for the first time. The spirit of the father awakened in him unconsciously and the inner emptiness slowly filled with the long-awaited love of the symbolic father.
Thus began the unconscious search for the mystical father in heaven, a teacher and master on the path.
Decision - No mountain top without a valley floor!
An accident suddenly took Father Reding's life away and his back was damaged. All I had to do was lie in bed and breathe so that the pain could be endured. His whole life seemed over and he accepted being a cripple for life. During this difficult and reverent time he made the decision to finally look for a master and enter the monastery.
Because it couldn't get any worse. It seemed impossible to ever physically cope with everyday Japanese monastic life. He couldn't walk for three months but the decision was made. And so he had to learn everything again, literally step by step. Ready to sacrifice his entire life, the preparation began. Pain is now a lifelong master and teacher. To prepare for monk life, he lived with his mentor, Kaspar Reinhart, at the Zurich Karate Academy for a year and slept on the floor of the training hall.
Zen Practice - Looking for the Master
In Japan he was ordained as a Zen monk by Zen master Noritake Kotoku (monk name: Masan Doam). After formal training at the Empukuji Zen monastery near Kyoto, he wandered from temple to temple to find a suitable teacher. He earned his living through traditional alms-giving on the streets of Japan and helped with ceremonies in the temples of his brother monks and sisters.
According to his Dharma father's instructions, the journey went to South Korea. His time as a mendicant monk ended suddenly when the exchange with Zen master and Korean patriarch Powha Sunim began. Whether in the hermitage, in the temple, in the mountains and in the monastery, the battlefield of wisdom was omnipresent with the Zen master. As a personal assistant and student, Logos was examined around the clock and life at the teacher's side did not allow for any carelessness. The guiding star was finally found after many years of hardship and searching and shines timelessly in the student's heart.
Mendicant Monk - You're welcome!
As a thank you for the ten years of training to become a Zen monk, Zen Master Reding made a traditional pilgrimage through Japan to give alms with his straw sandals. From Wakkanai in the north of Hokkaido to Ishigaki-Jima in the south of Okinawa (3000 kilometers) it took him eight months and lived from hand to mouth.
Heading south every day, without knowing whether there would be enough food or where the nearest place to sleep was, he examined life and death among the people of Japan. During his time as a wandering and mendicant monk, the monastery and the marketplace became one.
Back to the Roots - The Prodigal Son Returns!
We have to destroy everything and build something new with the pieces! Son Urban (4)
The time away helped to understand more about his origins and identity (Christianity). Although he didn't know how long his training would last, he promised that he would support his father in old age. So he decided to settle in Switzerland and from then on rediscover our christian culture.
Rustic Zen & Mysticism - Church in your own mind and God in your own self!
As a simple mendicant monk, he found accommodation in an old, barren and cold attic in Einsiedeln. Visitors & guests arrived unexpectedly and life & death were examined together in meditation. The foundation stone was laid with the fatherly strictness from Japan and the motherly kindness from Korea and the Zen Academy was founded in 2014 with the mutual trust of laypeople and clergy. Free from East & West, the monks are committed to sharing their pursuit of inner emptiness, potential and truth for the benefit of all and to further examine the patriarchal Zen lineage.
Vita Innocentis - From Saulus to Paulus
Before enlightenment; Chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; Chop wood, carry water. Adam and Eve play again in the Garden of Eden and so the Reding family grows. What else does the simple abbot have to do other than chop wood and carry water. The monastery gates remain open for a handful of determined and intrepid people to examine life and death together again and again.
Catholic Faith & Zen Father - Searching for the mystical Father
After many years of searching, Master Reding rediscovered the Christian faith and finally found the right form for the content of Zen (mysticism) to unfold here. Suddenly he realized that, even though he had traveled halfway around the world, the key to the soul was always right in front of him. The Father in Heaven! But without the teachings of the Zen patriarchs, he would never have survived this journey and found his way back to the source.
For the soul has the language (form) of Christianity in the West and so Zen as Mysticism (content) can also express itself now appropriately.
Zen Buddhism - From a Grandfather to a strict and loving Father
The long search and unconscious journey to the symbolic father in heaven (West) went via the grandfather in the East (Zen Buddhism). Growing up in a fatherless society (single mothers), the natural discipline, strictness and love of the father is far too intense and brutal for us. Since the grandfather was also a strict father in the past, the approach seemed a little easier because he has the privilege of good-naturedness.
Catholicism - Cave for the Mystics and the Love of Fathers
The necessary step towards Catholicism was and is, however, littered with great personal obstacles and trials. After Zen Father Master Reding and his children became Catholic, his own family, relatives, friends and students turned their backs on him. He was abandoned, divorced, betrayed, sued and deceived. People tried to damage his reputation and the monastery. Only a handful of honest friends stood by him. But faith, love and hope were and are stronger.
In the monastery and on the market square (Vita Contemplativa & Vita Activa), you wandering and temple monks, brothers and sisters, where exactly do you see all the comings and goings of things? Fast fast! Give me an answer, because life and death are the important things, be careful, everything is fleeting and passes quickly. Time waits for no one. God, protect yourselves!
Cultural decay and resurrection! In a fatherless and therefore disrespectful time, we feel lonely, aimless, divided, disloyal, lost and betrayed. Only with the spirit and the Love of the Father do we have the courage and determination to break the cycle of cause and effect, action and consequence of many generations. You did not start it, but you can finally finish it and march through the gateless gate to freedom and responsibility!
Zen Father - Master Reding - Nomen est Omen
Order: 臨済正宗 (Rinzaishoshu) Master from the true tradition of Zen.
Title: 西瑞軒 (Saisuiken) The pure and auspicious house in the west.
Monk name:
- 磨山 (Japanese: Mazan) Polishing an entire mountain. The Mountain of Bodhidharma.
- 道庵 (Korean: Doam) The eaves on the path, which provides some shade and protection.