oked at me. In the silence, one of the guests passed around a plate of cut fresh fruit and cherries and sweet dried dates. Nan’s relentless, intense Ch’an Buddhism sort of enlightenment, delivered only after painful years of carbon-crushing intellectual intensity, expressed a clear ambition: To learn to

nation of the Buddha’s ancient Indian teachings with the mystical philosophical habits of Chinese Daoism. Its adherents explain that enlightenment in Ch’an demands concentration strong enough to make and then smash diamonds. It produces, as a result, an unmatchable form of enlightenment. So, with the ant