The Buddha has no wisdom, no insight, no accumulation of merit. Such concepts do not exist for the Buddha. If your intention is to gain wisdom and accumulate merit in order to become a Buddha, then you are attempting the impossible.

The great Ch'an poet, Han Shan, lived on Cold Mountain, from where he took his name. He did not own anything, not even pants, yet he felt that there was nothing that was not his. If Han Shan had gone to the T'ang Emperor and said, "All this is mine, " he might have been put to death for his audacity. But if the Emperor proclaimed to Han Shan, "The whole world is mine, " Han Shan would probably have answered, "Yes, you are right." There was nothing that Han Shan desired. He did not even concern himself with his body. He was utterly free, with no attachments. Therefore, he had no self-limit. Having no self-limit, the mountain he lived on, all of China, in fact the entire universe, was his.

I said that the Buddha has no wisdom. You may think, however, that he has compassion. If there is compassion, then there must be an idea of sentient beings. If the Buddha is aware of sentient beings, then he is still discriminating, and he is not a Buddha. We say that the Buddha has compassion, but as far as he is concerned, he has none. If we feel that we are compassionate, then we are not Buddhas.

After one retreat, a student told me, "I feel like I am the mother of the whole world."