I am very interested in people's responses to two questions:

1) What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?

And

2) What is it that keeps you practicing?

I want to hold off on answering these questions myself right away, as I don't want to "lead" the answers with the tone and content of my own response. And to further that, I think this thread would be more interesting and valuable if folks answered these questions for themselves before reading others' responses, to prevent "groupthink" from taking over.

My intention with this post is to explore what it is that unites us in our endeavor of the Way, and what may vary from person to person. This is related to my own self-exploration and discovery of an undying spark of faith and what it means to "trust yourself" in making your way down this road of life and death, and the question that arises in the space between the two.