“Zen is the way of the spontaneous, effortless effort, the way of intuition. A Zen master, Ikkyu, a great poet, has said, ‘I can see clouds a thousand miles away, hear ancient music in the pines.’ This is what Zen is all about. You cannot see clouds a thousand miles away with the logical mind. The logical mind is like a glass, too dirty, much too covered with the dust of ideas, theories, doctrines. But you can see clouds a thousand miles away with the pure glass of intuition, with no thoughts, just pure awareness. The mirror is clean and the clarity supreme.

  “You cannot hear ancient music in the pines with the ordinary logical mind. How can you hear the ancient music? Music, once gone, is gone forever. But I tell you, Ikkyu is right. You can hear ancient music in the pines – I have heard it – but a shift, a total change, a change of gestalt, is needed. Then you can see Buddha preaching again and you can hear Buddha speaking again. You can hear the ancient music in the pines because it is eternal music, it is never lost.

   “You have lost the capacity to hear it. The music is eternal. Once you regain your capacity, suddenly it is again there. It has always been there, only you were not there. Be herenow, and you can also see clouds a thousand miles away and hear ancient music in the pines.

   “Change more and more toward the right hemisphere. Become more and more feminine, more and more loving, surrendering, trusting; more and more close to the whole. Don’t try to be an island, become part of the continent.”  Osho