The Western mystical equivalent is Cabala, the most complicated “Jewish joke” ever invented. Briefly, Cabala exhausts the third, semantic circuit by setting it to solve intractable numerological and verbal problems. The Far Eastern equivalent is the Zen Koan, which serves the same function in a less maniacally systematic way than Cabala, e.g., “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Zen koans are always combined with zazen (sitting Zen), which combines the first-circuit-clearing asana with second-circuit-mellowing breath-counting (a weaker pranayama).
