Lower and Upper ACH Cell Clusters
The lowermost grouping of ACH nerve cells extends throughout the brain stem. It is called the caudal ACH column figure 5 .3 7 In a book about Zen, there are several reasons for considering it first, even though it is lower anatomically. For these ACH cells of the brain stem, through their long axons, play vital roles in governing our levels of consciousness and in shaping our sensory perceptions.7 The top of this lower ACH cell column begins where the midbrain joins the pons.2 Here, in one...
The Zen Mirror Beyond Narcissism and Depersonalization
Human understanding is like an irregular mirror, which distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it. The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection. The water has no mind to receive their message. A mirror reflects. Water reflects the geese flying overhead. Instantly, unsentimentally. Reflection does not change the mirror, the water surface, or the geese. It is an optical process, a fact of life. When waves no longer ripple the water's surface, it...
A Brief Outline of Zen History
The nature of Zen does not lie in scholarship, philosophy, in the Buddhist Doctrine, and not even in zazen It lies in one thing alone, namely seeing into the Buddha nature that is in each person. The power of true center must be the most frequently mislaid artifact of human wisdom. It is as if the same message keeps washing ashore, and no one breaks the bottles, much less the code. When I first encountered Zen in Kyoto, I understood little about its origins. Buddhism goes back a long way, two...