“It really boils down to this: all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gateless Gate Case #1: Joshu’s Dog
A monk in all seriousness asked Master Joshu: “Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?”
Joshu retorted: “Mu!”

“Zen is not effort. Effort is tension, effort is work, effort is to achieve something. Zen is not something to achieve—you are already that. Just relax. Relax so deeply that you become a revelation to yourself.”

-Osho

Blue Cliff Record Case #87: Unmon’s Medicine and Disease
Unmon, instructing the assembly, said, “Medicine and disease correspond to each other. The whole earth is medicine. What is your true self?”

“So many of our relationships and our society as a whole are built around productivity, consumption, and speed. Even a meditation practice can turn into a self-improvement project to get ‘good at.’ Choosing to slow down and not accomplish anything is a revolution in itself.”

-Sister Ocean

Blue Cliff Record Case #86: Unmon’s Bright Light
Unmon, giving instruction, said, “Everyone has his own bright light. When you look at it, you can’t see it; it is complete darkness. Now, what is your bright light?”
He himself answered on behalf of the monks, “The kitchen and the entrance gate.”
Again he said, “It would be better not to have even the best things.”

“To know that you are a prisoner of your own mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation is the dawn of wisdom. To want nothing of it and to be ready to abandon it completely is earnestness.”

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

Blue Cliff Record Case #83: The Old Buddha and a Pillar
Unmon, instructing the assembly said, “The old Buddha and a pillar intersect each other. What number of activity is that?”
On behalf of the assembly he said, “Clouds gather over the South Mountain; rain falls on the North Mountain.”