Religious life comes into existence by our asking how we can live with zazen as the standard for our lives, while in turn being protected by zazen. Looking at it from a slightly different angle, religious life becomes vital when zazen begins to function in our everyday activities.... In this respect, the zazen of Dogen Zenji is religious in the very deepest sense. It differs from any number of books on Zen flooding the market today which depict zazen simply as a method to train the hara (equated by some with the solar plexus, or with the manipura chakra), or as some sort of health plan, or as a method for cultivating the mind. Rather, Dogen Zenji’s zazen is religious in the sense that it teaches us most fundamentally how to live out our own lives.... In Japan, when you say zazen, people generally assume you are talking about something one does in order to gain enlightenment. That sort of idea is far removed from the zazen of Dogen Zenzi. For Dogen, zazen could never be separated from religion. Behind zazen there had to be Buddhist teachings, and behind them there had to be one’s own life experience.