"That has been the greatest calamity that has befallen humanity: all the do-gooders have created a schizophrenic man. When you divide reality into means and goals you divide man himself, because for man, man is the closest reality to man. His consciousness becomes split. He lives here but not really; he is always there, somewhere else. He is always searching, always inquiring; never living, never being, always doing; getting richer, getting powerful, getting spiritual, getting holier, saintly – always more and more. And this constant hankering for more creates his tense, anguished state, and meanwhile he is missing all that is made available by existence. He is interested in the far away and God is close by. His eyes are focused on the stars and God is within him. Hence the most fundamental thing to understand about Zen is: the goose has never been in. Let me tell you the story how this koan started:

"A great philosophical official, Riko, once asked the strange Zen master, Nansen, to explain to him the old koan of the goose in the bottle.

"'If a man puts a gosling into a bottle,' said Riko, 'and feeds him until he is full-grown, how can the man get the goose out without killing it or breaking the bottle?'

"Nansen gave a great clap with his hands and shouted, 'Riko!'

"'Yes, Master,' said the official with a start.

"'See,' said Nansen, 'the goose is out!'

"It is only a question of seeing, it is only a question of becoming alert, awake, it is only a question of waking up. The goose is in the bottle if you are in a dream; the goose has never been in the bottle if you are awake. And in the dream there is no way to take the goose out of the bottle. Either the goose will die or the bottle will have to be broken, and both alternatives are not allowed: neither has the bottle to be broken nor has the goose to be killed. Now, a fully-grown goose in a small bottlehow can you take it out? This is called a koan.

"A koan is not an ordinary puzzle; it is not a puzzle because it cannot be solved."