-- The Strange Lecture --

Zen Master Joshu entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, "A metal Buddha does not withstand the furnace. A wooden Buddha does not withstand the fire. A mud Buddha does not withstand water. The genuine Buddha sits within you......

".. Try sitting in Zazen for twenty or thirty years, and if you still don't understand then cut off my head!..

"I heard Yaoshan say, 'People ask me to reveal it, but when I teach, it is like something taken from a dog's mouth.' What I teach is like something taken from a dog's mouth. Take what I say as dirty. Don't take what I say as clean. Don't be like a hound always looking for something to eat.

"Where is the Buddhadharma? Thousands of fellows are seeking Buddha, but if you go looking among them for a person of the Way you can't find one. If you're going to be a disciple of Buddha then don't let the mind's disease be so hard to cure.

"This nature existed before the appearance of the world. If the world ends, this will not end. From the time I saw my true self, there hasn't been anyone else. There's just the one in charge. So what is there to be sought elsewhere? At the moment you have this, don't turn your head or shuffle your brains! If you turn your head or shuffle your brains it will be lost!"