THIS IS WHAT'S GOING ON :

Tokusan was studying Zen under Ryutan. One night he came to Ryutan and asked many questions. The teacher said: `The night is getting old. Why don't you retire?' So Tokusan bowed and opened the screen to go out, observing: `It is very dark outside.'

Ryutan offered Tokusan a lighted candle to find his way. Just as Tokusan received it, Ryutan blew it out. At that moment the mind of Tokusan was opened.

`What have you attained?' asked Ryutan.

`From now on,' said Tokusan, `I will not doubt the teacher's words.'

The next day Ryutan told the monks at his lecture: `I see one monk among you. His teeth are like the sword tree, his mouth is like the blood bowl. If you hit him hard with a big stick, he will not even so much as look back at you. Someday he will mount the highest peak and carry my teaching there.'

On that day, in front of the lecture hall, Tokusan burned to ashes his commentaries on the sutras. He said: `However abstruse the teachings are, in comparison with this enlightenment they are like a single hair to the great sky. However profound the complicated knowledge of the world, compared to this enlightenment it is like one drop of water to the great ocean.' Then he left the monastery.

A certain swordsman in his declining years said the following :

In one's life there are levels in the pursuit of study. In the lowest level, a person studies but nothing comes of it and he feels both that he and others are unskillful. In the middle level he is still useless but is aware of his own insufficencies and can also see the insufficiencies of others. In a higher level he has pride in concerning his own ability, rejoices in praise from others and laments the lack of ability in his fellows. This man has worth. In the higher level, a man has a look of knowing nothing.

These are the levels in general. But there is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way and never thinks of himself as having finished. He truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of pride but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, "I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself."

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never-ending.

"Step from under the eaves and you're a dead man. Leave the gate and the enemy is waiting."