ぜんZenbefore/ago/former/previous/the above

Long ago, the entire country of Japan was inhabited by Zen masters. There were no fishermen, no Samurai, no serfs.

But these were no ordinary Zen masters. They meditated only on former events. But by meditating on what happened previously, they would meditate on their previous meditation. And since they were previously meditating on something that happened before, they would eventually meditate on that, and so on. Some might call them recursive Zen masters, because their meditation eventually stretched back through all of their previous meditations, even into their former Zen teacher's meditations, back back into time long ago.

So how did Japan come about from a race of Zen masters? Maybe if we meditate on the above long enough, we'll discover the answer...