In My Youth I Regarded The Universe

The Temptations Of God Were Always More Dangerous For Mankind Than Those Of Satan.

Hitherto Man Had To Live With The Idea Of Death As An Individual; From Now Onward Mankind Will Have To Live With The Idea Of Its Death As A Species.

Modern Man Lives Isolated In His Artificial Environment, Not Because The Artificial Is Evil As Such, But Because Of His Lack Of Comprehension Of The Forces Which Make It Work- Of The Principles Which Relate His Gadgets To The Forces Of Nature, To The Universal Order. It Is Not Central Heating Which Makes His Existence 'unnatural,' But His Refusal To Take An Interest In The Principles Behind It. By Being Entirely Dependent On Science, Yet Closing His Mind To It, He Leads The Life Of An Urban Barbarian.

Zen Is To Religion What A Japanese "rock Garden" Is To A Garden. Zen Knows No God, No Afterlife, No Good And No Evil, As The Rock-garden Knows No Flowers, Herbs Or Shrubs. It Has No Doctrine Or Holy Writ: Its Teaching Is Transmitted Mainly In The Form Of Parables As Ambiguous As The Pebbles In The Rock-garden Which Symbolise Now A Mountain, Now A Fleeting Tiger. When A Disciple Asks "what Is Zen?", The Master's Traditional Answer Is "three Pounds Of Flax" Or "a Decaying Noodle" Or "a Toilet Stick" Or A Whack On The Pupil's Head.

The New Frontiers To Be Conquered Are Mainly In The Convolutions Of The Cortex.