Jag har fått många mail från Zen-meditatörer.
Jag bifogar utdrag ur några ur min brevskörd, och de kan ju tala för sig själv:

"I have been (Zen)meditating for two years now. For the first year meditation seems to be my savior in many ways. It helped me relaxed and made me more mindful to my surrounding. However, from last year I have experinced a mental block right in front of my forehead and it gave a funny kind of headache. There is a rhymic movement behind my nose, forehead and upper jaw. I also have problem concentrating in anything. Moreover, I have terrible loss of memory. These symptoms had seriously hurt my school work. I had to take a leave of absence last semester due to the problems."

Efter en zen-meditationsövning:

"I almost could not return to 'here'. It took all of my energy to step back across that threshold. When I initually went to that place I could feel my internal organs slowing, shutting down, I was dying, happily. The face of my daughter was the only link that kept me in the 'here'. I became extremely weak and drained and had to mentally massage and restart my bodily processes. Since that time, i have been experiancing some rather discomfitting physical maladies, pain, cramping, all of my ribs, spine and joints pop and move. I experiance extreme highs and lows of emotion, very pendulous in nature. I,ve had heart problems, ie., palpitations, bigimeny, arrythmias. Compassion makes me sad, joy is sorrow and sorrow joy."

"I just returned from a seven day zen Rohatsu meditation retreat. We meditated from 4:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night. About two days after I came back, an enourmous pressure started between my eyes. It feels like my teeth are being pulled into my gums. It feels like my head is going to explode. I have trouble focusing. It feels like a gathering between my eyes. It comes and goes, but it gets worse, stronger as the day proceeds. I don't know where I belong. Nothing makes any sense. I feel a little like killing myself. Help."