zanmai-o-zanmai
The Samadhi That Is King of Samadhis
Zanmai is the Japanese pronunciation of the phonetic rendering in Chinese of the Sanskrit word “samadhi,” which means the state in Zazen; that is, the balanced state of body and mind. O means “king.” We can consider that there are many kinds of samadhi in our daily lives. However, according to Buddhist theory the most important and best samadhi is just the samadhi that we can experience in Zazen. Therefore, we call the state in Zazen “the king of samadhis.” In this chapter, Master Dogen explains what Zazen is, and so he chose the title Zanmai-o-zanmai, The Samadhi That Is King of Samadhis.