Throw away all opinions, all likes and dislikes, and only keep the mind that doesn’t know… Your before-thinking mind, my before-thinking mind, all people’s before-thinking minds are the same. This is your substance. Your substance, my substance, and the substance of the whole universe become one. So the tree, the mountain, the cloud, and you become one… The mind that becomes one with the universe is before thinking. Before thinking there are no words. “Same” and “different” are opposites words; they are from the mind that separates all things.
Seung Sahn Soen-sa
Korean-born Zen teacher
(August 1, 1927–November 30, 2004)
from the book Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn