Episode Description: Henry shares some thoughts on Yakusan’s famous dialogue on meditation. A monk asks, “What do you think about when you meditate?” Yakusan answers, “Think not-thinking.” Henry relates this to master Dogen’s own profound awakening, in which he experienced “body and mind falling away,” and to the many writings and teachings that flowed from this life-resolving experience. Henry then turns to the Stoic Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius’s writings on peace of mind, and shows how these two men, from vastly different times and cultures, came to recognize deep common ground in human experience.
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