Quotes from Ray Grigg

The function of the zazen and koan is to undo the system that contains them.

But for those who need a system, Chuang Tzu offers the reminder that the fish trap is only needed to catch the fish; once the fish is caught the fish trap is no longer needed so much the better if the fish can be caught without the trap.

The situation demands effort but thwarts trying.

The first is that all effort to negate self only succeeds in affirming it. The second is that self is not a thing but a reference position.

One uttered word of explanation is wrong,

The unspoken conspiracy of all religions—and the Buddhism of Zen Buddhism is not an exception—is their seemingly irresistable inclination to make metaphysical what is not so, and then to organize into complexity what is inherently simple.

The ordinary is immune to understanding because it cannot be placed outside human experience for examination.

So the real answer to any fundamental question is experience itself.

25. Practice Humility Practice humility and do not try to get ahead of each other. A winner requires a loser. Retribution provokes reprisal. What a foolish circle to be trapped within. We are born in humility and we die in humility. From beginning to end, it is a proven path.

34. Beneath Each Knowing There is mystery because there is not-knowing. Yet beneath each knowing is the next not-knowing. So each knowing deepens the mystery. Yet even in knowing there is the mystery of knowing.

47. Attached By Each Other Float into the air of idea and disappear into the thin wind of thought. Where then is body that comes from soil and flesh that belongs with flesh? Touch earth. Smell its fragrance. Taste its flavours. Man and woman are attached by each other to earth.