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just like a dry leaf in the wind, wherever the wind takes it: to the north, then the north is beautiful; to the south, then the south is beautiful -- because all is divine. Wherever you go you encounter him. There is no need to have any aim.
The moment you have any aim you become tense; you become concentrated on the aim. The moment you have any aim you are separate from the whole. You have a private goal, and to have a private goal is the root of all ego. Not to have a private goal is to be one with the whole, and to be one with the whole is possible only if you are aimlessly wandering.
A Zen person is a wanderer, aimless, with no goal, with no future. Moment-to-moment he lives without any mind; just like the dry leaf he makes himself available to the winds. He says to the winds, "Take me wherever you want." If he rises on the winds high in the sky he does not feel superior to others who are lying down on the ground. If he falls to the ground he does not feel inferior to others who are rising on the wind high in the sky. He cannot fail. He cannot ever be frustrated. When there is no goal, how can you fail? And when you are not going anywhere in particular, how can you be in frustration? Expectation brings frustration. Private ambitions bring failures.
The Zen person is always victorious, even in his failure.
KEISHIN SAID, "WHAT IS THE MATTER OF YOUR PILGRIMAGE?"
He asks again to make certain, because he may be simply repeating He may have read in some old Zen scriptures that "One should be aimless. When one is aimless, life is a pilgrimage." Hence the Master asks again:
..."WHAT IS THE MATTER OF YOUR PILGRIMAGE?"
HOGEN SAID, "I DON'T KNOW."
Now, if Hogen was only repeating some knowledge gathered from scriptures or others, he would have again answered the same thing, maybe paraphrased in a different way. He would have been like a parrot. The Master is asking the same question, hut the answer has changed, totally changed. He simply says: I don't know.
How can you know if you are aimless? How can you know when you don't have any goal? How can you be when there is no goal? The ego can exist only with goals,
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