But what about the stick?
Realization has nothing to do with believing or understanding. It's got to do with realizing it with your own life. That's how you make yourself free. When you believe, you're attached to belief systems. When you understand, you're attached to words and ideas. Reality resides in neither of those; it's the direct experience of your very life that we're talking about. All phenomena are empty, yet all phenomena are functioning. How do you keep from falling into one or the other? If you call this a stick, you miss it. You're tied up in the words and ideas that describe it. If you say it's not a stick, you deny its existence. So what is it? Neither stick nor not a stick. Neither absolute nor relative. Neither heaven nor earth. What is it? Don't tell me about it. Show me!
- Mountain Records of Zen Talks by John Daido Loori
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