Editing Devachanda:Main Page (section)

==Becoming Abandoner==

Shozen (初禅, The Firtst Meditation) is a a terrifying experience. Perhaps the things around you begin to be engulfed in pure white or pure black, leaving you floating alone in the void; perhaps either you or the world suddenly flips upside down, gravity tearing at your fragile body, lifting you from the ground and sending you plummeting into the sky; perhaps when you look at the people around you, you find that they all have cat heads and bird beaks, and they pounce on you, pecking at your flesh, yet you feel no pain, you feel nothing but the supreme ecstasy.

Those who have little time left find the clock speeding backwards; those who are wrongfully accused glimpse snow falling from the summer sky; those who give up all hope cut their wrists, blood spurting endlessly, flooding the entire city.

Every abandoner has a unique Shozen experience, but they all share a common element: the reality you know collapses and disintegrates before your eyes -- then, you wake up from the dream.

Shozen is a Dream, but Dream is not merely a dream. Ujoushujou(有情衆生/有情众生, sentient beings) believe that dreams are nothing more than activities of the mind during sleep, projections of reality in the brain, reflections of individual struggles. This kind of dream is a mortal's dream, which abandoners call illusion. Dream is something far superior than illusion. Dream is not the activity of the mind, the mind is the activity of Dream. Dream is not the projection of reality; reality is the projection of Dream. Dream is not the struggle of individuals; individuals are the struggle of Dream.

Dreams belong to the Deva. Do you remember those dreams you forgot? You wake up in a cold sweat, knowing that you dreamed of something astonishing, wondrous, something that stirred your heart or left you anxious, yet you can't recall the specifics? That's because the Deva took your dreams away. The Deva always takes people's dreams, but since you have experienced Shozen, the Deva will repay for the dreams taken from you.

This repayment lies deep within your soul, and it is called the Mark.