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Which is funny when you think that teaching martial arts or zen from the japanese culture is done by using very vague metaphores and general directions instead of detailed technical instructions.

You are supposed to 'get it' or 'feel it'. How you manage to get your foot or your mind to perform as instructed is an exercice left to the student.




I could be wrong, but I have a feeling there's a huge difference between what zen is in the Western world and what it is in it's original context.


There is even a difference of what zen is from master to master. The problem with defining zen, illumination and other similar concepts, is, according to a lot of teachings, that words are inedequate tools to describe them. Practice and experience is what get you closer to what it is.

It's pretty hard to agree on something you can't talk about.

We already have a hard time agreeing on things we have metrics on.


"zen to aku" is a common Japanese expression that means "good and evil". It also means "wholeness" and "everything", among a bunch of other meanings (not all spelled with the same character, but pronounced the same). Zen is a very broad term in Japanese, that probably encompasses the western notion.




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