"Who should be sent? Who should be made the guide there – a man who has much philosophy in his mind, a man who can talk, discuss, argue, a man who is bookish, a man who is knowledgeable, or a man who can act spontaneously? He may not know much, he may be simple; may not be intellectual, but he will be total.

"The chief disciple must have started dreaming and thinking he was going to be chosen. Mind is always ambitious. He must have planned how to behave, what to do, so that he would be chosen as the chief of the new monastery. He must not have slept for many days; the mind must have been revolving around and around.

"The ego plans and whatsoever you plan will miss reality, because reality can only be encountered spontaneously. If you think about it beforehand you may be ready but you will miss. A ready person will miss; this is the contradiction. A person who is not ready, who has not planned anything, acts spontaneously, reaches the very heart of reality.

"The chief disciple must have theorized, many alternatives must have come to his mind. The master is going to choose; there is going to be some sort of test. He must have consulted the scriptures, because in the old days too, masters had been choosing disciples to be sent to new monasteries. How have they chosen? What sort of examination has to be passed? How could he succeed?

"There are many stories from the ancient days. Almost always this has been one of the basic tests Zen masters have put before their disciples – they ask them to express something without using language. They say, 'Say something about this thing but don't use any name – because the name is not the thing.'

"The chair is here, I am sitting on it. A Zen master can say, 'Say something about this chair but don't use the name, because the word chair is not the chair. So don't use any verbal expression, don't use language, and say something.'

"The mind feels puzzled because mind knows only language, nothing else. If language is barred, mind is barred."