Dissatisfaction

Many people are drawn to Zen by their dissatisfaction with themselves. They want to be someone else. They point to Deshan, but they are pointing to the greenhorn Deshan, when he was always already to argue. If you are stuck here, you are still riding a tricycle. Deshan didn’t become somebody else. He just matured. You put away childish things once you slice through Deshan’s ultimately mature challenge, “If you can say ‘Yes,’ you get 30 blows; if you say ‘No,’ you get 30 blows.