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ZEN BUDDHISM Master builds into the tissue of character the food of satori. Where he lives during this introvert digestion is his own affair. It may be alone in the mountains; it may be in the market place. But wherever he lives and however he passes his days, the student, for so he is, is stamping out the last traces of that self whose selfish desires for so long stood in the way of the whole man's whole enlightenment. Now is the last great battle against the "great dire heresy of Separateness that weans thee from the rest".
As The Voice of the Silence warns us, "Kill out desire; but if thou killest it, take heed lest from the dead it should again arise." The lower, personal, separative self will not die willingly, and concept will encumber the path to the last step of the Way. And the sign of self is ever the same, desire. And desire is a veil about the face of Zen.