Zen and the Mystic Impulse: Reflections on the Teachings of Willigis Jäger, Benedictine Monk, Mystic, and Zen Master
Conceivably, if one wants to study Zen, one would wish to travel to China or Japan. One could even find a number of Zen temples and centers in North America that frequently offer retreats, short and long.
Arnie Lade, a teacher specializing in complementary and energetic healing living in Victoria, British Columbia, chose Germany. Lade traveled to Holzkirchen, a small village in Bavaria, to study with Willigis Jäger. When he asked why he made such a journey, he replied, “Yes, there are many Zen Masters in North America, but there is only one Willigis Jäger.” In the foreword to this volume, theologian Franz Nikolaus Müller calls Jäger (1925–2020) a “master of spiritual life” (Lebensmeister).
Jäger, a German Benedictine monk, drew from both Christian and Zen teachings to inspire thousands of people from various faiths. Deeply inspired by a spiritual revelation while visiting a church with his mother before he was even in school, he knew his life’s direction. When grown, he joined the Benedictine community and began his monastic pursuits. After being ordained as a priest, he traveled to many countries, but his deeper interest in Christian mystical writings and practice (though not exactly encouraged by his superiors) remained. He studied the mystical teachings of Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila among others. Father Hugo Lasalle, a Jesuit priest who lived in Hiroshima, Japan, introduced him to the lineage of Zen masters Sogaku Harada and Hakuun Yasutani, which was later continued by Yamada Kaun Roshi.
Jäger received permission from his Benedictine superiors to move to Kamakura, Japan, and begin an intensive training under Yamada Roshi, who was one of the few Zen masters who accepted non-Buddhists as students. Some pioneering Zen masters in North America, such as Philip Kapleau Roshi, Taizan Maezumi Roshi, and Robert Aiken Roshi, have come from this Sanbo Kyodan lineage.
In his Zen practice, Jäger had experiences of profound awakening. He called it the “unfolding of a flower,” likening his experience of emptiness to the “nada, nada, nada” (“nothing, nothing, nothing”) of John of the Cross. His studies culminated in 1980, when Yamada Roshi gave him authority to teach Zen.
Lade has wonderfully captured Jäger’s teachings in Zen and contemplation. This is Lade’s own personal mystical journey. Throughout the book, Lade also quotes from many other great mystics and teachers.
Mysticism is a path of transformation. Lade draws from what Jäger taught as a journey to fulfillment without emphasizing a particular practice. One studies koans, and one also uses prayer. Jäger taught that there is more to meditation than just sitting. He taught the two fundamental methods for entering silence and the ground of being that are most common in Christianity, Zen, and mystical traditions. They are called “gathering” and “emptying the stream of consciousness
Gathering involves focusing on a specific point, such as the koan mu in Zen, Om in yoga, Allah hu in Sufism, or Christian prayer. Emptying involves becoming aware of a vast, nonreactive state of mind that opens the door to a refined consciousness. Whatever arises is not followed but released.
Lade also talks about two other teachers that shaped his spiritual life: Haidakhan Babaji from India, Reverend Master Meiten, a Zen Buddhist dharma teacher. Together with Jäger, these teachers pointed Lade in the same direction: toward enlightenment.
I don’t know whether I have done justice introducing Jäger. Maybe a one-line review would be: get this book and read it!
Fall 2026 – by Dhananjay Joshi
