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the queue before a movie house -- and such a splendor! And you own it, because nobody else owns it.
A full moon night, and nothing stirs in your heart?
A rosebud opens, and nothing opens in your being?
A cuckoo starts singing its song, and you don't get cuckoo?
Wisdom is a totally different thing than knowledge. Knowledge de-mystifies existence; wisdom mystifies it. Wisdom belongs to the mystics; knowledge belongs to scientists, to philosophers, to theologians -- but they are not the people of religion. They don't know the heartbeat of the universe.
Only people who enter into the realm of the mysterious open doors upon doors of mystery and suddenly find themselves, not in a mundane world which is meaningless, but in a fairyland where everything is so significant, so poetic, so musical, so beautiful.
This whole experience is the experience of a religious being. And this experience is possible only if you can put your mind aside. Mind is a collector of knowledge; it has no interest in mystery.
IN THE OLD DAYS, KUEI SHAN ASKED LAZY AN, "WHAT WORK DO YOU DO DURING THE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF THE DAY?" AN SAID, "I TEND AN OX." KUEI SHAN SAID, "HOW DO YOU TEND IT?" AN SAID, "WHENEVER IT GETS INTO THE GRASS, I PULL IT BACK BY THE NOSE." KUEI SHAN SAID, "YOU'RE REALLY TENDING THE OX!"
Zen is full of such small dialogues, which are very special to Zen. In this small statement, just a few words are transferred between two men, but everything that has to be said about Zen has been said.
An was known in the history of Zen as a lazy man. His name became Lazy An, because he never did anything. Kuei Shan asked him, "what work do you do during twenty-four hours of the day?" -- because you don't do anything, just sitting silently.
People loved Lazy An. He was a beautiful man, of a great presence. His very being in a place made it almost holy, he had such an energy -- although he was never doing anything. People used to bring food to him. He never even went to beg, which was the way of all buddhist monks, but people took care of him. They were concerned about him. If it was cold they would bring blankets; if it was
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