Great Throughts Treasury

"The Three Worlds are the heart only; the ten thousand things are but its differentiation."

"There are blind naked-heads, who, after having eaten enough, practice zazen; they stop forming thoughts that they don't arise, they flee the disturbance of the world and seek the silence. This is a deviating form of Zen."

"There is a Buddhism-obsession being mixed with the essence... When you love the holy and despise the ordinary, you are still swimming in the ocean of delusion."

"There are disciples who, being in chains, visit a teacher who then gives them yet another chain. The disciples, unable to differentiate, are delighted. That is called: A guest looks at another one."

"Whatever you are seeking, all becomes suffering. It is better to have nothing further to seek."

"There is no Dharma outside the heart, nor anything to find inside. So what are you looking for?"

"When you want to be free, recognize your true self. It has no form, no appearance, no root, no base, no place, but it is fresh and vivid."

"You are taking the words of these ordinary Zen-teachers for the true way; you think that Zen-teachers cannot be understood and that you as ordinary humans could not risk to look critically at the ancient ones. When you hold this habit for your whole lifetime, despite what your view teaches you, you are blind."

"When I say there is nothing outside, then disciples who don't understand me think the inside were meant; therefore they sit silently and think this were Zen."

"When you meet a master swordsman, show him your sword. When you meet a man who is not a poet, do not show him your poem."

"Young novices, who don't yet understand, immediately believe those blinders, and let them talk things which do only put humans in chains."

"When you try to grasp Zen in movement, it escapes into silence. When you try to grasp Zen in silence, it escapes into movement. It is like a fish in a source, who makes waves and dances at will."

"Followers of the Way, mind is without form and pervades the ten directions? Fundamentally, it is one pure radiance; divided it becomes the six harmoniously united spheres of sense [the five physical senses, plus intellect]. Since the mind is non-existent, wherever you are, you are emancipated."

"Can't stop the thoughts arising and disappearing in your mind, true awareness shining boundlessly, you must focus on the one that doesn't move. To realize there are neither forms nor names, nothing to pursue, sword of Wisdom has been used, must hurry to hone it."

"Friends, I tell you this: there is no Buddha, no spiritual path to follow, no training and no realization. What are you so feverishly running after? Putting a head on top of your own head, you blind idiots? Your head is right where it should be. The trouble lies in your not believing in yourselves enough. Because you don't believe in yourselves you are knocked here and there by all the conditions in which you find yourselves. Being enslaved and turned around by objective situations, you have no freedom whatever, you are not masters of yourselves. Stop turning to the outside and don't be attached to my words either. Just cease clinging to the past and hankering after the future. This will be better than ten years' pilgrimage."

"The Master said: Look at the wooden puppets performing on the stage! Their jumps and jerks all depend on the man behind."

"Many students come to see me from all over the place. Many of them are not free from their entanglement with objective things. I treat them right on the spot. If their trouble is due to grasping hands, I strike there. If their trouble is a loose mouth, I strike them there. If their trouble is hidden behind their eyes, it is there I strike. So far I have not found anyone who can set himself free. This is because they have all been caught up in the useless ways of the old masters. As for me, I do not have one only method which I give to everyone, but I relieve whatever the trouble is and set men free."

"The Master took the high seat in the Hall. He said: 'on your lump of red flesh is a true man without rank who is always going in and out of the face of every one of you. Those who have not yet proved him, look, look!"