A quote from 9th century Zen master Liu Chi...later used as a Zen koan.

Whether pilgrims or wayfairers, while seeking to be taught the "TRUTH" (or something), disciples learn only that there is nothing that anyone else can teach them!

They learn --- once they are willing to give up being taught --- that they already know how to live, that it is implied in their own tales. The secret is that there is no secret!

Everything is just what it seems to be. This is it! There are no hidden meanings.

The Zen way to see the truth is through your everyday eyes. It is only the heartless questioning of life-as-it-is that ties a person in knots. People do not need an "answer" in order to find peace. They need only to surrender to their existence, to cease the needless, empty questioning. The secret of enlightenment is when you are hungry, eat; and when you are tired, sleep!

The Zen Master warns: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" This admonition points up the fact that no meaning that comes from outside of ourselves is real!

The "Buddhahood" of each of us has already been obtained. We need only recognize it!

Philosophy, religion, patriotism, all are empty idols. The only meaning in our lives is what we each bring to them.

Killing the Buddha on the road means destroying the hope that anything outside of ourselves can be our master! No one is any "bigger" than anyone else. There are no "mothers" and "fathers" for grown-ups, only "sisters" and "brothers!"

From a book by Sheldon Kopp.....