At some point, on the way,
One has to find oneself alone.
Without a book, without a master,
Without a dojo, without others’ eyes.
One has to sit through the arch of Zazen,
Sitting bare, one has to pass through the arch of meditation.
And see one’s heart, ample and firm,
Guide him unfailingly to the ocean of trust.
Around, inside, above, below,
Born again.
Notes & Silence 
Solitude is an austere but effective teacher – though finding oneself is not something I would equate with the concept of re-birth. Just realisation.
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« Just » realisation ?
This belittling, at first glance, triggered me…
Then I reconsidered this oxymoronic phrase and noticed that it is, in fact, the heart of all spiritual matters you’ve pointed at (bumped into ?).
ZA-ZEN
Just Sitting.
There is the concentrated transformative power of all koans contained in this « just realisation ».
Still, there nothing which would be worth removing the adverb, since this is what it is : just realisation.
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The idea that anything can be triggered by whatever seems vaguely disturbing, as well as very funny.
There is nothing that can be belittled in realisation. But it is irreducible. The basic and all encompassing element of what you appeared to be describing, needing no re-formulation, in fact obscured by such re-formulation. Hence « just » – pure, simple and not effectively described otherwise. Certainly not by a term so misused as that of re-birth – at least, not to my mind.
The most profound is ever the simplest. The simplest is ever the most impenetrable. We make our own difficulties.
The following, from Khalil (or Kahlil, as he spelled it for the English speaking world) Gibran’s « The Prophet »:
And a man said, « Speak to us of Self-Knowledge. »
And he answered, saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always know in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.
And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.
Say not, « I have found the truth, » but rather, « I have found a truth. »
Say not, « I have found the path of the soul. » Say rather, « I have met the soul walking upon my path. »
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
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