One day the Buddha Shakyamuni was preaching and at the end he said, “Do not run after a man or a woman; it is better to look into yourself.” The internal revolution is important but hard:

A man always remains a man. A man congeals like a man. A woman congeals like a woman. An intellectual congeals like an intellectual. A madman congeals like a madman.

This congealing, inflexibility, is the cause of many troubles. But once it is finished, once the personality becomes straight and honest and a person joins the cosmic order, then the mind grows soft and supple and there is no longer any reason to hide or run away from anything. The mind, the spirit, is always shining, sparkling, day after day. That is sainthood. The quality is straight, the consciousness unresisting. That is the essential point of Dogen’s Zen. Sky and earth have the same body, all existences have the same root. No need to create a separation between myself and others. When you let go of the “isms,” the solidified, congealed thoughts, then you can find true satori, true do, the Tao (the way).

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