To follow the compass and keep to the rule is to tie oneself without a rope. Doing what you like in every way is heresy and devilry. To unify and pacify the mind is quietism and false Zen. Subjectivity and forgetting the objective world is just falling into a deep hole. To be absolutely clear about everything and never allow oneself to be deceived is to wear chains and a cangue. To think of good and evil is to be in Heaven-and-Hell. Looking for Buddha, looking for Truth outside oneself is being confined in two iron Cakravala.
One who thinks he is enlightened by raising thoughts is just playing with ghosts. Sitting blankly in Zen practice is the condition of the devil. Making progress is an intellectual illusion. Retrogression is to go against our religion. Neither to progress nor retrogress is to be merely a dead man breathing. Tell me now, what are you going to do? You must make the utmost effort to accomplish your enlightenment in this life, and not postpone it into eternity,reincarnating throughout the three worlds.
-Mumon’s Zen Warnings