What Neil Theise has said about Zen koan practice
1 quote · 1 episode · Sep 12, 2026
Neil Theise, Adjunct professor of pathology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and co-discoverer of the interstitium, has been quoted on Zen koan practice once in 1 episode of Mayim Bialik's Breakdown, most recently on September 12, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
Theise recounts a meditation experience in which watching incense become smoke resolved his 'body or cells' koan into a both-and realization of Buddhist emptiness.
“I looked up and saw the stick of incense on the altar becoming smoke. And I thought, oh, stick or smoke, body or cells. It isn't one or the other. It's both and, not either or”
Mayim Bialik's Breakdown: Re-Air: What is Energy? And Can Energy Therapy Heal?| Phenomena Podcast (Sep 12, 2026) · Listen from 20:43
Episodes
Re-Air: What is Energy? And Can Energy Therapy Heal?| Phenomena PodcastMayim Bialik's Breakdown · Sep 12, 2026 · 1 h 18 min
A re-aired Phenomena episode in which Ivy Ross, Martin Picard, Richard Hammerschlag, Neil Theise, Meredith Sprengel and Jonathan Cohen ask what energy is in healing.