Because since the beginningless past we are running after objects, not knowing where our Self is, we lose track of the Original Mind and are tormented all the time by the threatening objective world, regarding it as good or bad, true or false, agreeable or disagreeable. We are thus slaves of things and circumstances.

Zen in it's essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

You ought to know how to rise above the trivialities of life, in which most people are found drowning themselves.

Zen has no business with ideas.

The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow.

The fighter is to be always single-minded with one object in view: to fight, looking neither backward nor sidewise. To go straight forward in order to crush the enemy is all that is necessary for him.

When we start to feel anxious or depressed, instead of asking, "What do I need to get to be happy?" The question becomes, "What am I doing to disturb the inner peace that I already have?"