[kouunji]

This feels like part of a western habit of cherry-picking from other traditions, and, in this case, not understanding the context we're pulling from. We see things like Zen as fun, playful and liberating, but miss the whole part of it that entails "killing the self". It's a practice of systematically disassembling what you thought you were until there is nothing left...and this is a process that is generally done in a highly structured, supervised way. It's telling that we just pluck out the practice and think it will let us deal with our shit so we can get more done at work. I say this from the context of having studied in Zen temples in Japan in my 20s, and having done myself real harm.

[data_maan]

I do not want to intrude - but I am curious at the same time what you mean by "real harm", was it something along the lines of what the original author described? (Or perhaps other people can share their experiences?)

I'm also a bit confused from a logical point of view - if there is such and end goal of Zen, of being "completely disassembled" wouldn't Japanese temples where they do a lot of zazen, at some point need to look like asylums for the terminally psychically ill, once a majority has "disassembled themselves"?