Roar of the lion! For two years he has been meditating in his den. Now, resolute, he emerges into our corner of the wilderness. His eyes shine;they measure the distant sky. All people, all things, when they hear his roar, become very quiet. Before his stately presence, they cannot help kneeling.

One who lives in such moment-to-moment single-minded simplicity needs no other good, fears no evil. The green grass is for the lion to walk on; the warm east wind blows for him to breathe it. His enemies meet their downfall by their own malignity, but those who respect him grow strong in his virtue.

Sometimes when the lion gets angry he roars. Then scholars make up a definition: "The essence of the lion is to roar." And when he is tired, he sometimes falls asleep on the spot. Observing this, the scholars then decide that the character of the lion is quietude. Or he has occasion to be gentle to a field mouse. So scholars note down that love is the essence of the lion. Once in a while, he has a fight with a ferocious tiger. Then scholars determine that the essential attribute of lionhood is fighting. But the lion's essence is none of these things that scholars ponder over. Whether he roars or sleeps or loves or fights, he is always and only manifesting the essence of himself: lion.

The lion has no wish to seek out the path that his friends travel. He does not want to travel it. He seeks his own way, goes his own way. In the world of people, you hear a chattering of "Human Way" or "Humanity" or "Universal Way": all this noise amuses the lion. He does not want to become a God or a Human Being either. He knows always: I am I. Always he goes his own way and wants his own way. He observes that ' I am I' is the only enlightenment. But he adds, by way of precaution, that the enlightenment is not in the recognition that 'I am I' nor is it in 'I become I'.

A weak dog barks all the time. A man who is not himself curries favor and laughs continually. The lion never roars or laughs without cause.

There are many know-it-alls who keep trying to make peace between our style and foreign styles and between the Old and the New. For the lion, only the lion's way--no need to harmonize New and Old or compromise our style with any foreign style. It would be idle conceptualizing for the lion if he tried to reconcile style differences that are not in him. It would be no more than an intellectual game if he tried to harmonize a New and Old that are not in him either. The lion is proud and pleased that he is not the know-it-all who sets such a high price on concepts and conclusions. The lion doesn't enjoy imitating people.

He thinks it is pitiful to see a human being play the monkey. If one person whispers "Lord", three others at once repeat "Lord,Lord." If the person pronounces "Buddha," a dozen echo him with "Buddha,Buddha." He intones "Heaven" and a hundred mimic him, "Heaven,Heaven." He says "Freedom and Life" and they all respond with "Freedom and Life, Freedom and Life." He whispers "Rapture" and they all sigh "Rapture, Rapture." He utters "Enlightenment"; everybody cries "Enlightenment, Enlightenment." He lets drop the word "Experience" and then "Experience, Experience" is heard all over the place.

There are imitators of Gautama Buddha and of Jesus Christ and of Confucius, and of Honen, Nichiren, Dogen, Shinran, Luther, Savanarola, Kant, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Maeterlinck, Ibsen, Roman Roland, Tagore, and so on and so on and so on. If such an imitator doesn't imitate something, he's Nobody among his friends. But the lion always shows his life in his own words.

Some people get conceited because they can take the essence of the teaching and--memorize it. Some young people puff themselves up by chanting "freedom life ecstacy rapture" or "I really intend to go My Own Way." Both of these keep company with the monkey. For such restless, timid people the lion feels pity.

Life is always fresh when I keep developing, always old when I preach. Words that burst out of me are always new, but when I get ready to tell them to others, they are already stale.

There is a type of person who constantly lets us know that he is seeking Truth. There's another type of person who is always affirming to us that he is Enlightened. The so-called Truth-seeker is forever trying to establish what the Way is. He asserts over and over, "Even if it takes my whole life I shall find that True Way." The way that such a person seeks must exist somewhere outside his own life. He doesn't realize that we cannot escape the Way for even an instant. Such a dupe as this hasn't the sort of mind needed to seek the Way!

There is, on the other hand, the person who is continually announcing: "I am Enlightened." He thinks he doesn't need to seek the Way because he already owns it. All he needs to do is give it to others, explain it to others! He too understands the Way as a fixed "ism", a concept. He's no Enlightened One: he's only another dupe, using "Enlightened" as a label.

The lion is always seeking his own way and always finding his own way; he is always aware of truth and always seeking it. He is truth-seeker and enlightened, both.

The lion tramples down anyone who disturbs his own way. Who the person is, is no concern of his--even though it be country, family, teacher, parent, wife, child, or friend. But if such a one steps out of his way, the lion does not run after him or try to make him suffer. That is not his way! Therefore, for him, no fixed enemy, no fixed friend: Just the Lion, he himself. And in him, all--country, family, teacher, parents, wife, children, and friends.