380. ZEN REMARKS

380. Master Daito Kokushi teaches that doing zazen consists in 'sweeping away thoughts'. He adds: 'When thought is put down, the original face appears'. But what does he mean by 'thoughts'? The Master answers: 'Experiencing heat and cold and so on, or feeling a lack, or having desires -- these are all delusive thoughts'. Sounds as though he would have the Zen practitioner reduce him- or herself to a robot. Hardly an attractive goal.

379. ZEN REMARKS

379. Master Mumon says, 'you must completely cut off the way of thinking'. The Sixth Patriarch says, 'think neither good nor evil'. And so, we might ask, what's wrong with thinking? Why this insistence on not thinking?