Thinking of Not-Thinking

Text

Once when Yaoshan was sitting in meditation, a monk asked, "What are you thinking, sitting there so still?" Yaoshan said, "I'm thinking of not-thinking." The monk asked, "How do you think of not-thinking?" Yaoshan said, "Non-thinking."

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Yaoshan Weiyan

Lineage: Qingyuan line

From Traditional Zen Encounter Dialogues

• My Mind Is Not at Peace
• Not Knowing Is Most Intimate
• The Boat Monk's Transmission
• The Sound of Bamboo
• Vast Emptiness, Nothing Holy
• Ordinary Mind Is the Way
• Nanquan Kills the Cat
• Wash Your Bowl
• The Oak Tree in the Garden
• This Very Mind Is Buddha

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Jingde Chuandenglu, Yaoshan chapter

  Traditional Zen Encounter Dialogues: Thinking of Not-Thinking