Master Dogen, and all other Zen Teachers, speak of our experiencing this world before labeling sights and sounds, without thought and opinions, through the Practice of Zazen.

… But is such a strange experience of the world ‘Real’?.


Recent neurological research indicates that our experiences of timeliness, self-lessness, oneness and the like during Zazen may be created through the stimulation or quieting of various regions within the human brain during meditation … So are they but figments of our imaginations?

I believe that, through Zazen, we are merely substituting one mental simulation of the world (what we experience as ordinary, daily life before Zazen) with another quite valid, equally true, alternate simulation of the world … a view of life from a very different perspective.

Speaking of technology, we had trouble with the end of the netcast today.

If you are sitting-a-long, please self time.


We see in the past that those who transcended the ordinary and transcended the sacred and those who died while sitting or died while standing, relied totally on this power. Moreover, changing of the moment through the action of a finger, a [flag]pole, a needle, or a wooden clapper; and exact experience of the state through the manifestation of a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout, can never be understood by thinking and discrimination. How could they be known through mystical powers [*] practice and experience? They may be dignified behavior beyond sound and form. How could they be anything other than criteria that precede knowing and seeing? [Nishijima]*[the word ‘or’ found here likely should be omitted]


In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred and dying while either sitting or standing have all depended entirely on the power of zazen. In addition, triggering awakening with a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and effecting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout-these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking; much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? [SZTP]


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