Question
I would like to talk about satori and say that we can meditate, practice zazen all our lives, and experience satori or kundalini millions of times, even four times a day… It is still violence, still isolation. Perhaps we become a Buddha or a god for ourselves, but that is not life. Now, if I feel a satori coming, I want to drive it away. It pisses me off because I see it only separates me from the rest of the world. I do not want any more satori—not that I have experienced many, but I want it out of my life. It is a virus. What I want is a relationship with others and the world. I want to be able to look at, listen to, and understand the world with all my attention. It takes enormous energy, and I do not have much. I often lose myself and often return. There is no path, only obstacles. We are like newborns.
A disciple can ordain a master, or a master a disciple… A man can meditate facing a wall for nine years; he has lost nine years of his life. Life is relationship with others and the world.
Douglas Mahr
Answer from Master Kosen
What separates you from the rest of the world is certainly not satori.
The kind of contradiction you express is more aptly called an illness of the mind.
Kosen