"They are religions of deep analysis, religions of deep awareness, religions of enlightenment.

"Then there are religions of the heart: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism. They believe that the path goes through the heart, that the heart has to be dissolved into the beloved, into the divine.

"The first religions are the religions of meditation. The word meditation is not exactly right but there is no other word to translate dhyana into English, because the language has never known a religion of meditation so the word does not exist. All Western languages, in fact, have known only the religion of the heart so they have the perfect word for that path – prayer. But for dhyana they don't have any word so meditation is the only word that can be used. In fact, dhyana means exactly the opposite; dhyana means just the contrary. The word meditation comes from a Greek root medonai which means to think about. The word meditation means to think about, and dhyana, which we are translating as meditation, means how not to think about; how to be in a state of no thought; how to come to a point where you are but there is no thinking; a state of no-mind, pure awareness. But meditation is the only word, so we will use it.

"Zen is the culmination of the Buddhist search. Zen is the uttermost flowering of the path of meditation. The word zen comes from dhyana. Dhyana became ch'an in China, then ch'an became zen in Japan. Remember this: Zen originated in India with Gautam Buddha. When Gautam Buddha attained to his ultimate enlightenment, the state of no-mind, the world came to know the path of analysis, the path of right thinking, the path of right remembering, and the path of how to dissolve all thinking by becoming more and more aware of thoughts. Just by watching thoughts, slowly, slowly, they fade out – you become simply a watcher, you are not identified with your thinking, you stand aside and you go on watching, just as if you are standing by the side of the road and watching the traffic. The mind is like traffic, very circular, goes on moving in a circle, very repetitive, almost a mechanism."