“No amount of care and hesitancy, no amount of introspection and searching of our motives, can make any ultimate difference to the fact that the mind is
Like an eye that sees, but cannot see itself.
In the end, the only alternative to a shuddering paralysis is to leap into action regardless of the consequences. Action in this spirit may be right or wrong with respect to conventional standards. But our decisions upon the conventional level must be supported by the conviction that whatever we do, and whatever ‘happens’ to us, is ultimately ‘right’. In other words, we must enter into it without ‘second thought’, without the arriére-pensée of regret, hesitancy, doubt or self-recrimination. Thus, when Yün-men was asked, ‘What is the Tao?’, he answered simply, ‘Walk on! (ch’ü)’
Alan Watts, The Way of Zen, 1957
