“The ultimate principles that make up the Way are not something to be thrashed out in contentious debate, clanging and banging to beat down the unbelievers. This thing handed down by the buddhas and the patriarchs has no special meaning. If it were put in the form of verbal teachings, it would sink to the level of the teaching categories.… But the teaching of the sudden and immediate enlightenment is not like that.” – Lin-Chi
(Burton Watson, trans. The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi [Rinzai]. A Translation of the Lin-Chi Lu. Boston and London: Shambala, 1993, 78.)
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