Book Title: Zen Buddhism
Author(s): Christmas Humphereys
Publisher: William Heinemann LTD

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Page 260
________________ INSTEAD OF CONCLUSION 227 And the sleep of the mind is Zen. But how does one begin to develop the intuition? The answer should be obvious. There should be a dozen books on the subject but I know of none. Therefore, lest it be said that this brief study of Zen is not practical, let me add in all humility a brief ladder which has led me, and seems to be leading others, to a land of such "careless” sunlight, song and joy as only the ‘few from the Battle of Self may know. THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTUITION Preliminary exercises (a) Laugh. Roar with laughter. There is nothing, no single thing in this whole vast Universe worth taking as seriously as you at present are taking yourself. (6) Be serious. Deadly serious. There is nothing, no single thing in the whole vast Universe more enormously important than lighting your pipe or powdering your nose or washing up. Your Saturday night outing and your Sunday morning prayer-meeting are both tremendously and equally important/unimportant. (c) Undress. Take off these diver's boots of belief in God, soul, divine and not quite-nice. Take off the suits and frocks of conventional beliefs and social rules and prejudices about everything under the sun, from the way to grow roses to the International Problem of East and West. Both will get on very nicely without your help. Now take off your "undies” of personal private convictions and ideals. Now blush. There isn't much left, is there?

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