| Well I'm so and so, | |
| I was given this name by my parents, | |
| I've been to such and such a college, | |
| I've done these things in my profession, | |
| and I produce a little biography. | |
| Buddha says forget it. | |
| That's not you, that's just some story. | |
| That's all gone, that's all passed. | |
| I want to see the real you! | |
| Who you are now! | |
| Well nobody knows who that is, you see? | |
| Because we don't . | |
| . know ourselves except through listening to our own echoes . | |
| . and consulting our memories. | |
| But then there's a real you, and that again leads us back to this question: | |
| Who are you? | |
| You will find that the Zen people are quite divided on this. | |
| They will say, \"No we don't believe literally in reincarnation. | |
| That after your funeral, you will suddenly become somebody different, living somewhere else.\" | |
| They will say, \"Reincarnation means this: | |
| that if you sitting here now are really convinced that you're the same person who walked in at the door half an hour ago, you're being reincarnated. | |
| If you're liberated, you'll understand that you're not. | |
| The past doesn't exist. | |
| The future doesn't exist. | |
| There is only the present and that's the only real you that there is.\" | |
| The Zen master Dogen put it this way, he said | |
| \"Spring does not become the summer. | |
| First there is spring and then there is summer,\" | |
| T.S. Elliot has the same idea in his poem \"The Four Quartets\" | |
| where he says, \"When you settle down in the train to read your newspaper… | |
| you are not the same person who left the platform.\" | |
| If you think you are, you are linking your moments up in a chain, | |
| and this is what binds you to the wheel of birth and death. | |
| But when you know that every moment in which you are is the only moment, | |
| this comes into Zen—a master will say to somebody | |
| \"Get up and walk across the room!\" | |
| and he comes back and the master says \"Where are your footprints?\" | |
| They've gone. | |
| So where are you? | |
| Who are you? | |
| When we're asked who we are, we usually give a kind of recitation of a history, |
| Well I' m so and so, | |
| I was given this name by my parents, | |
| I' ve been to such and such a college, | |
| I' ve done these things in my profession, | |
| and I produce a little biography. | |
| Buddha says forget it. | |
| That' s not you, that' s just some story. | |
| That' s all gone, that' s all passed. | |
| I want to see the real you! | |
| Who you are now! | |
| Well nobody knows who that is, you see? | |
| Because we don' t . | |
| . know ourselves except through listening to our own echoes . | |
| . and consulting our memories. | |
| But then there' s a real you, and that again leads us back to this question: | |
| Who are you? | |
| You will find that the Zen people are quite divided on this. | |
| They will say, " No we don' t believe literally in reincarnation. | |
| That after your funeral, you will suddenly become somebody different, living somewhere else." | |
| They will say, " Reincarnation means this: | |
| that if you sitting here now are really convinced that you' re the same person who walked in at the door half an hour ago, you' re being reincarnated. | |
| If you' re liberated, you' ll understand that you' re not. | |
| The past doesn' t exist. | |
| The future doesn' t exist. | |
| There is only the present and that' s the only real you that there is." | |
| The Zen master Dogen put it this way, he said | |
| " Spring does not become the summer. | |
| First there is spring and then there is summer," | |
| T. S. Elliot has the same idea in his poem " The Four Quartets" | |
| where he says, " When you settle down in the train to read your newspaper | |
| you are not the same person who left the platform." | |
| If you think you are, you are linking your moments up in a chain, | |
| and this is what binds you to the wheel of birth and death. | |
| But when you know that every moment in which you are is the only moment, | |
| this comes into Zen a master will say to somebody | |
| " Get up and walk across the room!" | |
| and he comes back and the master says " Where are your footprints?" | |
| They' ve gone. | |
| So where are you? | |
| Who are you? | |
| When we' re asked who we are, we usually give a kind of recitation of a history, |
| Well I' m so and so, | |
| I was given this name by my parents, | |
| I' ve been to such and such a college, | |
| I' ve done these things in my profession, | |
| and I produce a little biography. | |
| Buddha says forget it. | |
| That' s not you, that' s just some story. | |
| That' s all gone, that' s all passed. | |
| I want to see the real you! | |
| Who you are now! | |
| Well nobody knows who that is, you see? | |
| Because we don' t . | |
| . know ourselves except through listening to our own echoes . | |
| . and consulting our memories. | |
| But then there' s a real you, and that again leads us back to this question: | |
| Who are you? | |
| You will find that the Zen people are quite divided on this. | |
| They will say, " No we don' t believe literally in reincarnation. | |
| That after your funeral, you will suddenly become somebody different, living somewhere else." | |
| They will say, " Reincarnation means this: | |
| that if you sitting here now are really convinced that you' re the same person who walked in at the door half an hour ago, you' re being reincarnated. | |
| If you' re liberated, you' ll understand that you' re not. | |
| The past doesn' t exist. | |
| The future doesn' t exist. | |
| There is only the present and that' s the only real you that there is." | |
| The Zen master Dogen put it this way, he said | |
| " Spring does not become the summer. | |
| First there is spring and then there is summer," | |
| T. S. Elliot has the same idea in his poem " The Four Quartets" | |
| where he says, " When you settle down in the train to read your newspaper | |
| you are not the same person who left the platform." | |
| If you think you are, you are linking your moments up in a chain, | |
| and this is what binds you to the wheel of birth and death. | |
| But when you know that every moment in which you are is the only moment, | |
| this comes into Zen a master will say to somebody | |
| " Get up and walk across the room!" | |
| and he comes back and the master says " Where are your footprints?" | |
| They' ve gone. | |
| So where are you? | |
| Who are you? | |
| When we' re asked who we are, we usually give a kind of recitation of a history, |