“We in the "developed" world seem to have many auditory strategies that insulate us from the presence of silence, simplicity, and solitude. When I return to Western culture after time in desert, mountain or forest, I discover how we have filled our world with a multiplicity of noises, a symphony of forgetfulness that keeps our won thoughts and realizations, feelings and intuitions out of audible range.”
![“We have been teaching together [with Kaz] now for more than twenty years in sesshins, in international travel programs in Japan and China, as well as intensives on Buddhism that focus on the work of Zen Master Dogen and Ryokan, as well as on many of the Mahayana sutras.” quote by Joan Halifax](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a23/joan-halifax-11817_buddhism_we-have-been-teaching-together-with-kaz_210232.jpg)
![“[Kaz] is a great scholar, very funny - a true man of no rank!” quote by Joan Halifax](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9d0/joan-halifax-11817_men_kaz-is-a-great-scholar-very-funny-a-true_589104.jpg)
![“I remember having a discussion with [Kaz] about his translation of the word shunyata as "boundlessness," instead of the more traditional "emptiness." I said: "Kaz, everyone is used to the word emptiness for shunyata. This might not sit well with people. He said: "Translator's prerogative!" Then he…” quote by Joan Halifax](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/410/joan-halifax-11817_assuming_i-remember-having-a-discussion-with-kaz_727693.jpg)
