It Is Really Hard to Teach Zen

It is really hard to teach Zen when everybody has been poisoned by Zen books. So you say, "Taste this tea. Don't think." And the clever student says, "But according to Hui-Neng this isn't tea. There is nothing from the beginning." That's how the poison works. "Listen to the rain." "What rain? Hearing is empty." &c. &c.

Zen is of the heart (Xin). It is not in books. One Zen book says one thing, another Zen book says another. Where is the Zen? It's in your heart. So why do you need to be taught Zen? You just need somebody with a hammer to smash the ice that has formed around your heart.

In Tibet there are instructions on how to open the "Crystal Heart Channel." It's a channel that runs directly from your heart to your eyes and once you open it you can use the "Lasso of Water" to lasso the "Lamp of Pure Space."

Everything in the world is projected right in front of your eyes by the Lamp of pure Mind. There it is! Awesome! Wonderful!

A fierce wind blows from the north. It tastes like snow today.

The blue mountains are shivering. I saw the last leaf fall, turning its back then front.