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I have often tried to isolate that
quality of "
Zen" which attracted me so powerfully to its
literature and later to the practice of
zazen. But since the
essence of Zen might well be what one
teacher called "the moment-by-moment
awakening of
mind," there is little that may sensibly be said about it without succumbing to that breathless, mystery-ridden prose that drives so many
sincere aspirants in the other direction. In zazen, one may
hope to penetrate the ringing stillness of universal mind, and this "
intimation of immortality," as
Wordsworth called it, also shines forth from the brief, cryptic Zen texts, which refer obliquely to that absolute
reality beyond the grasp of our linear vocabulary, yet right here in this
moment, in this ink and paper, in the sound of this hand turning the page.
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