" Each lesson with him would be concluded by a half-hour session of meditation zazen, sitting Zen. It was to free my mind, to achieve what he termed the Void. What exasperated him, though, was my inability to master this. It was hard to think of nothing and yet not to think at all. Try as I might, I found it elusive. It frustrated me, as I wanted to show him that I could accomplish what appeared to me to be the easiest thing of all. Surely I had done enough of that in school to make me an expert? "

― Tan Twan Eng , The Gift of Rain