GREAT ZEN

He who is attached to things
And lets them occupy his mind,
Desire arises in him,
And anger is born.
Anger, once it has arisen,
Leads to blindness,
Blindness destroys memory,
And with it, the man perishes.

Once, at the funeral of one of his monks, Joshu remarked:
"What a long procession of dead bodies following a single living person!"
The deceased was a master, and even after death, the master is more alive than you, the living. A master never dies.
He became a master through understanding that there is no death. He holds eternity in his hands. He is simply woven from immortality. You can burn his body, but you cannot burn his eternity, his immortality.

Joshu is right when he says: "Look at the strange procession! Behind one living person... - and this person lies in a coffin - a long procession of dead bodies follows."
A wise person realizes that until you fully understand the world around you, you cannot claim to be alive. You can only claim that you exist ("I am, therefore I exist"), but no more. This is not life. You have not explored the peaks of the Himalayas of your life, you have not explored the oceanic depths of your consciousness. Your roots are ignored. You don't even know that you have origins. You never provide them with nourishment.

You must remain unattached to any of your aspirations. Reach a point where everything you have tried to do is reduced to zero, and remain indifferent to it. Equanimity. This is what you must learn.

Ryusyu, a Zen poet, wrote:

Three, two, one; one, two, three -
How are you going to know the secrets of Zen?
In the spring, after the rain, on my roof, the birds try
To master new sounds;
They chirp, they twitter;

Ryusyu says:
"Whatever you do, whatever you do, you will not attain the truth. All this is just games that philosophers like to play. It is better not to get carried away with spiritual games, but simply to remain silent and observe what is happening around."
In the spring, after the rain, on my roof, the birds try... - observe these ordinary phenomena: the rain has passed, leaving behind a mist, a fragrance emanating from the earth. And the birds, bustling on the roof, - they... are trying to master new sounds: they chirp, they twitter.
Ryusyu says that you don't need to take spiritual searching so seriously. You can simply observe ordinary phenomena; observation remains observation, whether you are watching chirping birds or the chatter of your own mind. Whether you are watching the sunrise or your inner world. Learn from the small things in life one art - the art of observation.
Then begin to apply the skills you have acquired to explore your inner world.
Therefore, Zen monasteries resemble beautiful gardens with wonderful ponds, birds, large trees, dense forests, mountains... and all of this serves for zazen.

Sit under an old tree and do nothing: just observe.