An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

by D.T. Suzuki

There must be a certain way in which silence and eloquence become identical, that is, where negation and assertion are unified in a higher form of statement. When we attain to this we know Zen.

“All things are reducible to the One; where is this One to be reduced?” The master’s reply was, “When I was in Tsin district I had a monk’s robe made that weighed seven chin.”

So long as one is conscious of space and time, Zen will keep a respectable distance from you; your holiday is ill-spent, your sleep is disturbed, and your whole life is a failure.

The desire to possess is considered by Buddhism to be one of the worst passions with which mortals are apt to be obsessed.