It is imperative to cut off the mind road.
If you do not cut off the mind road, you will be a ghost, clinging to the grass.
Wu Men Hui-k’ai,, 1183–1260, Chinese Chán master
I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success or money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritual horizon.
Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears
Jung, Autobiography
A long weekend here in Ireland.
My home can be anywhere, heaven or earth.
All I need is room in my heart.
And a good source of water, of course.
You need room in your heart . . . a big empty space
To sort out what’s real from what’s not.
Hsu Yun, 1840 – 1959, renowned and influential Chinese Chan Buddhist master
In this whole world, everyone searches for happiness outside, but nobody understands their true self inside. Everybody says, “I, I want this, I am like that” . . . But nobody understands this I.
Before you were born, where did your I come from? When you die, where will your I go? If you sincerely ask, “What am I?”, sooner or later you will run into a wall where all thinking is cut off.
We call this “Don’t know”.
Zen is keeping this Don’t Know Mind always and everywhere.
Seungsahn Haengwon, 1927 – 2004, Korean Seon (Zen) master and founder of the international Kwan Um School of Zen.