"ZEN----MAJJHIMA" FREEDOM:  The mighty ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt. Even so, the true way has but one savor, the savor of freedom.

"ZEN----YUANSOU" LIBERATION: This inconceivable door of great liberation in in everyone. It has never been blocked, it has never been defective. Buddhas & Zen masters have appeared in the world & provided expedient methods, with many different devices, using illusory medicines to cure illusory illnesses, just because your faculties are unequal, your knowledge is unclear, you do not transcend what you see & hear as you see & hear it, and you are tumbled about endlessly in an ocean of misery by afflictions due to ignorance, by emotional views & habitual conceptions of others & self, right & wrong.  The various teachings & techniques of Buddhas & Zen masters are only set forth so that you will individually step back into yourself, understand your own original mind & see your own original nature, so that you reach a state of great rest, peace, and happiness.

"ZEN----PAI-CHANG" LIBERATION IN ALL PLACES:  Don't seek a Buddha, don't seek a teaching, don't seek a community. Don't seek virtue, knowledge, intellectual understanding, & so on. When feelings of defilement & purity are ended, still don't hold to this nonseeking & consider it right. Don't dwell at the point of ending, & don't long for heavens or fear hells. When you are unhindered by bondage or freedom, then this is called liberation of mind & body in all places.

"ZEN----TZU-HU" FREE FLOWING:  All things are free flowing, untrammeled what bondage is there, what entanglement? You create your own difficulty & ease therein. The mind source pervades the ten directions with one continuity; those of the most excellent faculties understand naturally.

"CHAOS & SELF" FREE SELF: Chaos seems to be everywhere a rising column of cigarette smoke breaks into wild swirls. A flag snaps back & forth in the wind. With the flag you know that it's the wind that snaps the flag around. But with out mind you wouldn't know that. & you would not know that the wind came from the weather, & the weather came from the sun & moon. The moon & sun came from the beginning of life it's self.   Yet people live seeing only the flag snapping in the wind, with no ideal what is going on. Be true with your self you feel it, so believe what you feel. Not believing in your self only holds you back & only gives you regrets. That's no freedom.

"ZEN----MAGGA" BEHIND A NAME:  A name is imposed on what is thought to be a thing or a state, & this divides it from other things & other states. But when you pursue what lies behind the name, you find a greater & greater subtlety that has no divisions. Atoms of dust are not really atoms of dust but are merely called that. In the same way, a world is not a world but is merely called that.

"ZEN----YEN-T'OU" INDEPENDENCE: There is no other task but to know your own original face. This is called independence; the spirit is clear & free. If you say there is some particular doctrine or patriarchy, you'll be totally cheated. Just look into your heart; there is a transcendental clarity. Just have no greed & no dependency & you will immediately attain certainty.

"ZEN----T`AO-SHAN" INTERRELATED: Every thing is interrelated. Nothing exists alone. Without my parents I would not be, & without their parents they would not be. Without the sun & rain that nurtured the crops & the farmer who cultivated them, & the baker who baked the bread, they would not have food. Without the earth to support us & the air to breathe, how would we be sustained? Ultimately, what can be said to exist without every other thing?   All things are parts of One Thing. This is not a clever idea, it is the Truth.

"ZEN----FOYAN" WHAT IS WRONG:  For your part, obviously something is wrong with you--that's why you go to others for certainty. If you were all right, why would you ask others?

"ZEN----FA-YEN" WHAT IS DISTURBING YOU:  What is disturbing you & making you uneasy is that there are things outside & mind inside. Therefore even when the ordinary & holy are one reality, there still remains a barrier of view. So it is said that as long as views remain you are ordinary; when feelings are forgotten you're a Buddha. I advise you, don't seek reality, just stop views.

"B.F.SKINNER'S KAMIKAZE PIGEONS & FREE WILL" PIGEONS & FREE WILL: Are pigeons intelligent enough or dumb enough to be trained to fly suicide missions during wartime? The answer is yes. Using the principles of positive reinforcement, skinner trained pigeons during W.W.II to peck at keys that controlled the bomb they were riding. As the enemy ship moved, the pigeons would peck the controls to maintain the missile on track of its target. The pigeon bomb never saw battle, but simulated tests proved successful.  (B.F. SKINNER)
          So humans being the only animal that possesses self awareness, imagination, & reason, humans are the "freak of the universe" (R.FROMM).  You would think we would have the free will to not let our selfs be trained to peck at a key, dropping to our demise.  "Are we man or pigeon"?

"ZEN----LINJI" NO CONCERN: Just put thoughts to rest & don't seek outward anymore. When things come up, then give them your attention; just trust what is functional in you at present, & you have nothing to be concerned about.

"JOSEPH CONRAD, TYPHOON" A BAD DAY:  What from the magnitude of the shock might have been a column of water running upright in the dark butted against the ship, broke short and fell on her bridge crushingly, from on high, with a dead burying weight. A flying fragment of that collapse, a mere splash, enveloped them in one swirl from their feet over their heads, filling violently their ears, mouths, and nostrils with salt water. It knocked out their legs, wrenched in haste at their arms, seethed away swiftly under their chins; and opening their eyes they saw the piled-up masses of foam dashing to and fro amongst what looked like the fragments of a ship.  "And you were thinking your day was bad"!  ((( The raft of Medusa )))

"ZEN----LANKAVATARA" MAHATMI:  What is meant by nondeality, Mahatmi? It means that light & shade, long & short, black & white, can only be experienced in relation to each other. Light is not independent of shade, nor black of white. There are no opposites, only relationships. In the same way, nirvana & the ordinary world of suffering are not two things but related to each other. There is no nirvana except where the world of suffering is, there is no world of suffering apart from nirvana. For existence is not mutually exclusive.

"ZEN----XUEDOU" ILLUMINATING PERCEPTION:  When you illuminate your perception, your eyes are like a thousand suns, so that nothing can escape notice. Ordinarily, people just never been so observant, but they should not give up in frustration because of underestimating themselves.

"ZEN----FOYAN" MIND'S EYE:  It is though you have an eye that sees all forms but does not see itself this is how your mind is. Its light penetrates everywhere & engulfs everything, so why does it not know itself?

"ZEN----LINGYUAN" DON'T RUSH: Ying Shaowu said to Zen master Zhenjing Wen. Whatever is rushed to maturity will surely break down early. Whatever is accomplished in a hurry will surely be easily destroyed. What is done without making consideration for the long run, & is hastily finished, is not of a far-reaching & great character. Therefore it is said "When you want to be quick, you don't succeed; act carefully & you won't miss!"

"ZEN----XUETANG" REFLECTION: In managing affairs one must weigh the heavy & the light; when speaking out one must first think and reflect. Strive to accord with the middle way, do not allow bias. Hasty & careless actions seldom bring success. Even if you can get done in this way, after all you cannot complete anything totally.

"A LETTER TO XIANG" BEING IN A WORLD WITHOUT MISERY:  What has been long neglected cannot be restored immediately.  Ills that have been accumulating for a long time cannot be cleared away immediately.  One cannot enjoy oneself forever. Human emotions cannot be just right. Calamity cannot be avoided by trying to run away from it. Anyone who has realized these five things can be in the world with out misery.

"ZEN----HUANGLONG" MAKE THE WAY WIDE: Huanglong said to the great statesman Wang Anshi. Whatever you set your mind to do, you always should make the road before you wide open, so that all people may traverse it. This is the concern of a great man. If the way is narrow &  perilous, so that others cannot go on it, then you your-self will not have any place to set foot either.

"ZEN----YUANWU" LIVING AND DEAD WORDS: Study the living word of Zen, not the dead word. When you attain understanding of the living word, you never forget it. When you attain understanding of the dead word, you can't ever save yourself.

"ZEN----YUANWU" OPENING THE MIND: Zen requires opening the mind & losing all false cognition & false views. When nothing hangs on your mind & you have passed through cleanly, then you are ready for refinement.

"ZEN----FOYAN" SAVING ENERGY: Zen practice requires detachment from thought. This is the best way to save energy. Just detach from emotional thought & understand that there is no objective world. Then you will know how to practice Zen.

"ZEN----YUANWU" DON'T SEEK ZEN: If you want to attain intimate realization of Zen, first of all don't seek it. What is attained by seeking has already fallen into intellection. The great treasury of Zen has always been open & clear; it has always been source of power for all your actions. But only when you stop your compulsive mind, to reach the point where not a single thing is born, do you pass through to freedom, not falling into feelings & not dwelling on concepts, transcending all completely. Then Zen is obvious everywhere in the world, with the totality of everything everywhere turning into its great function. Everything comes from your own heart. 

"ZEN----YUANWU"  STUMBLED PAST: As soon as you try to chase & grab Zen, you've already stumbled past it.

"ZEN----WUZU" TALKING ABOUT ZEN: Talking about Zen all the time is like looking for fish tracks in a dry riverbed.

"ZEN----MI-AN" THE ZEN SHORTCUT: The shortcut of Zen is to leave the present & directly experience the state before birth, before the division of wholeness.   When you accomplish this, you are like a dragon in the water, like a tiger in the mountains. You are very clear & calm everywhere, free to enliven or kill every where, spontaneously able to "rouse the wind & stir the grasses" everywhere. You do not cling to any activity, you do not sit inactive.   This is like cutting a skein of thread, & dyeing a skein of thread when one is cut all are cut, when one is dyed all are dyed. From top to bottom, the whole thing is a huge door of liberation. Now Buddhist truths & things of the world have become one where is there any external thing at all to constitute an impediment?

"ZEN----YUANWU" SUBJECTIVE ZEN: Many intelligent people understand Zen subjectively, & are unable to let go of their subjectivity. They still their minds without experiencing their real nature, & think this is emptiness. They try to abandon existence to cling to emptiness. This ia a serious malady. (a)--ZEN ZERO

"ZEN----DAHUI" PEACE & QUIET: When you have attained mental & physical peace & quiet, don't get stuck in peace & quiet. Be independent & free, like a gourd rolling & bobbing on a river.  (b)--ZEN ZERO

"ZEN----YING-AN" ZEN MIND:  The mind of Zen adepts is straight as a bowstring, like a long sword against the sky cutting through confusion wherever they may be. Worldly wealth & status, hauteur & extravagance, mundane desires, & all the ups & downs of life, cannot affect them. Fame & profit, judgments of right & wrong, & all the possible states of being, cannot trap them.

"ZEN----YUANTONG" WORRY & TROUBLE: The ancient saints governed their minds before sprouting, stopped feelings before confusion. In general, preparing beforehand means no trouble. Therefore "the alarm is beaten at the outer gate to deal with the thugs," & preparations are made beforehand. When the task is done beforehand, then it is easy. If you do it hurriedly & carelessly, it must be hard. The fact that the ancient sages had not a worry all their lives & not a day's trouble truly lies in this.

"ZEN----HUANGLONG" PASSING THE TEST:  In private teaching, Huanglong used to give 3-barrier sayings, but few comprehended this device. When someone occasionally made a reply, he would just close his eyes & sit still without any particular approval or disapproval. The recluse Pan Yanzhi inquired further about this. Huanglong said, "One who has already passed the barrier goes on freely. The one who asks the gateman whether it is all right or not is the one who has not yet gone through the pass."

"ZEN----FOYAN" KNOW YOURSELF:  I tell people to get to know themselves. Some people think this means what beginners observe, & consider it easy to understand. Reflect more carefully, in a more leisurely manner, what do you call your self?

"ZEN----SEUNG SAHN" TRUE SELF: How do you understand your true self? What are you? Do you know? If you don't know, only go straight--don't know. Then this don't know mind mind cuts off all thinking, & your only--me situation, only--me condition, & only--me opinion disappear. Then your correct situation, correct condition, & correct opinion appear--very simple. 

"ZEN----LINJI" THE FREE SELF: If you want to be free, get to know your real self. It has no form, no appearance, no root, no basis, no abode, but is lively & buoyant. It responds with versatile facility, but its function cannot be located. Therefore when you look for it you become further from it, when you seek it you turn away from it all the more.  "Are we, are we ourselves?" (THE FIXX--1984)

"ZEN----FAYAN" CONFUSION:  Due to confusion, people mistake things for themselves; covetousness flares up, & they get into vicious cycles that cloud perceptions & enshroud them in ignorance. The vicious cycles go on & on, & people cannot be free.

"ZEN----SEKISO asked "PROCEED FROM THE TOP OF THE PLOE": "How can you proceed on from the top of a hundred-foot pole?" Another Zen teacher said: "One who sits on top of a hundred-foot pole has attained a certain height but still is not handling Zen freely. He should proceed on from there & appear with his whole body in the ten parts of the world."

"ZEN----FUSHAN YUAN" SAFETY & DANGER: Nothing is more essential to leadership & teachership than carefully discerning what to take & what to leave aside. The consummation of taking or leaving is determined within; the beginnings of safety & danger are determined without. Safety is not the safety of one day, nor is danger the danger of one day. Both safety & danger come from gradual development. It is imperative to examine the matter of leadership. To uphold leadership by means of enlightened qualities accumulates enlightened qualities, to uphold leadership with courtesy & justice accumulates courtesy & justice. Exploitative leadership accumulates resentment & enmity. When resentment & enmity build up, inside & outside are estranged & opposed. When courtesy & justice build up, inside & outside are harmonious & happy. When enlightened qualities accumulate, inside & outside are sensitive & compliant.  So where there is a plenitude of enlightened qualities, courtesy & justice, then inside & outside are happy. When exploitation & resentment are extreme, inside & outside are miserable. It is the feelings of misery & happiness to which calamity & blessing respond.

"ZEN----MIAN" THREE DON'TS:  In leadership there are three don'ts: when there is much to do, don't be afraid; when there is nothing to do, don't be hasty; & don't talk about opinions of right & wrong. A leader who succeeds in these three things won't be confused or deluded by external objects.

"ZEN----HSI-SOU"  WORLDLY AFFAIRS:  Men of affairs who are in positions of wealth & rank yet are not trapped by wealth & rank, & are also able to break through the iron face of the mortal being & focus their minds on this path, must already have the seed of wisdom; otherwise, how could they reach this?   The trouble is not being able to do real true work in deadly earnest. We see many who think & compare, consciously anticipating enlightenment, trying deliberately to achieve cessation, rejoicing when others privately acknowledge them, wanting people to praise them. As soon as you give rise to these thoughts, this is the root of birth & death.

"ZEN----LIAO-AN" NO DOGMA:  When the ancients uttered a word or half a phrase, it was to resolve sticking points, untie bonds, pull out nails, & remove stakes; how could they have any dogma to bind people? We see many students who cling to the pointing finger, taking it for the moon; they seek mystery & marvel, they seek intellectual understanding, instead of a way to the source. They are to be deeply pitied.   So for people of superior faculties & keen insight, this matter is not hard to see. As for those of lesser potential & capacity who are also lazy & pursue trivia in neglect of the fundamental, they have no hope of attainment. In reality, they exclude themselves.

"ZEN----HUI-CHING" GENUINE SEEKERS: Genuine seekers of true enlightenment should first question themselves & discover their inherent spiritual light. Then they must meet others to find out the handle of going beyond. As they penetrate the subtle crux of being & nonbeing, grasping & rejection are both empty; as they pass through the dark machinations of gain & loss, they devote no energy to matters of glory & disgrace.

"ZEN----LIAO-AN" CURING MADNESS: The teachings of the whole vast canon are all prescriptions for curing the mad. If you see through the origin, the mad mind abruptly stops, & you may spontaneously burst out in a laugh.

"ZEN----HSUEH-YEN" CLARIFYING MIND: What is most essential to Buddhism is based on clarifying the mind. If you want your mind to be clear, it is important to put opinions to rest. If opinions are not stopped, then wrong & right are confused; if the mind is not clear, reality & illusion are mixed up. If you stop opinions & clear the mind, then reality & illusion are both empty, wrong & right do not stand.

"ZEN----WU-MEN" THE GREAT WAY: The great way is right before our eyes, but it is still hard to see what is right before our eyes. If you want to know the true substance of the great way, it is not apart from sound & form, words & speech.

"ZEN----YUN-KU" AWAKEN ON YOUR OWN: Learning the path of Zen study has no special mysterious gateway or essential road: it requires individuals to awaken on their own. If you have awakened correctly once, you see mountains are not mountains & rivers are not rivers; then after that you see mountains are mountains & rivers are rivers. If you are not awakened, when you see things you are obstructed by seeing, influenced by things, confused by objects, This is what is called restlessness of habit ridden consciousness, in which there is no reliable basis.

"ZEN----KAO-FENG" THE FIRE OF ZEN: This thing is like an enormous fire, fierce flames pervading the sky, with never the slightest interruption. Everything in the world is thrown into it, immediately evaporating away like a fleck of snow.

"ZEN----FO-HSING T' AI"  THE IMPASSABLE BARRIER: Even if you attain realization of the emptiness of persons & things, this does not measure up to the way of Zen. Even if you embody complete function & complete perception, this is still not the essential wonder of Zen. You must break through the impassable barrier & get to know the opening beyond.

"ZEN----YING-AN" GOING BEYOND: When you get to the point where even a thousand people, even ten thousand people, cannot trap you, that is still not expertise. You must go on to the beyond & activate the transcendental key, never injuring your hand against the sharp edge, bringing everyone in the world to life.

"ZEN----CHEN-CHING" INDIVIDUAL REALIZATION: This thing cannot be learned, cannot be taught, cannot be transmitted, it can only be attained by individual realization. Once you've attained realization, you are content, unpreoccupied, thoroughly lucid, clear & at ease. All spiritual capacities & miracle working are inherent endowments & need not be sought elsewhere.

"ZEN----TSU-HSIN" EYES & FEET:  If you only understand your self & not the environment, you have eyes but no feet. If you understand the environment but not your self, you have feet but no eyes. In either case there is something on your chest all the time. Since there is something on your chest, uneasiness is always present, & you get stuck along the way. How can you attain peace? A spiritual ancestor said, "If you cling to it, you lose measure & inevitably fall into a false path. Let it go & be natural, essence neither goes nor stays."

"ZEN----PRAJNAPARAMITA" DOORS:  When the perfect wisdom is first seen, a new perception comes into being that does not depend on any structure. The great quest of the seeker now blossoms as various vast & mysterious doors swing open at the mere touch of the new perception.   There is the door that opens to a vista of the essence-less essence, that which is the real nature of the manifested world. There is the door of liberation from a merely partial perception of muddled perspective of this real nature. & there is the door that opens directly into the authentic realization of this true nature.   There is the wonderful door that opens into an intensity of sights & sounds, color & beauty. & there is the door of balance & ease through which one looks in awe at all the limitless structures of the world as one looks at the star studded night sky & there is the door to the exquisite happiness that would never want to own any worldly treasures or to possess even that same happiness. Finally there is a door of total awakening itself.