The voices of the crows and sparrows, the rustling of the wind—you hear them without making any mistake about them, and that’s what’s called hearing with the Unborn.

“Even among those in the assembly now who acknowledge what I say, there are some who merely teach the Unborn with their mouths and don’t continually abide in the Unborn, people who only know about the Unborn, people of merely intellectual understanding.

What foolishness it is to create the anguish of delusion by changing the precious Buddha Mind, pondering over this and that, mulling over things of no worth!

If there were anyone who actually succeeded at something by pondering it all the way through, it might be all right to do things that way; but I’ve never heard of anyone who, in the end, was able to accomplish anything like this! So, pondering over things is useless, isn’t it?

“With people who are clever, there are sure to be a great many shortcomings. To have transcended those clever people whom all the world holds in great esteem is what’s meant by ‘stupidity.’ There’s really nothing wrong with being a blockhead!

The participants divided themselves among the halls, where they practiced either zazen or chanting. Without setting up any rules, each person just naturally pursued his own activity, practicing diligently and quietly so that it seemed as if there were no one in the room.

These days, the Zen monasteries everywhere crowd together three or five hundred monks, regulating their schedule down to the minute, restricting their area of movement, virtually binding them hand and foot so that it’s just like going into a jail. If anyone commits even the slightest infraction, they beat him and throw him out, never showing the smallest forgiveness. Their prying and bullying are worse than a government official’s!