After sitting in meditation for a while, your legs begin to hurt, and your mind wanders to other things. I have told you not to think about things, but at this point you might feel that thinking can be very good. When you get tired or frustrated, you believe that thinking will help you, that it will help to relieve your discomfort and tiredness. Perhaps you fantasize about life problems yet to be solved or life plans yet to be realized. A self is definitely involved when you do this. There is no doubt who is doing all the thinking. If you cannot reach emptiness, then all of your previous karma will follow you. The nature of sin is not empty if you cannot empty yourself. When you empty yourself, all the sins you have created will also be empty.

Even when one preaches fearlessly as the lion roars,
The minds of the perverse and obstinate only harden.
They continue to break the main precepts and obstruct Bodhi
And cannot see the secret the Tathagata reveals.


Fearless preaching refers to Ch'an teachings. Ch'an teachings are likened to a lion's roar because lions were thought to be the most powerful of all animals, and Ch'an is the highest of all Dharma. But even ultimate teachings are useless to ordinary sentient beings who are afraid of them. Actually, the highest teachings, those which are taught to Bodhisattvas, are wordless and formless. Such teachings are far beyond the understanding of ordinary people.