The Mirror of Zen

It is extremely important that Zen practitioners should
pursue live words, not dead words.

Gatha

If you truly wish to see Zen Master Lin-chi,
You had better be a man of iron.

Commentary

If you attain enlightenment through live words, you will become
a teacher equal to Buddha and Patriarchs. If you attain through
dead words, you cannot even save yourself.
Therefore it is really only through "live words" that you can
hope to be awakened to your own nature.

Capping Word

When looking into your Great Doubt (hwa-du, or kong-an
there are two gates by which to enter: fiercely grabbing
the key point of the kong-an, or merely grasping at the kong-an's
conceptual meaning. Grabbing and holding fiercely the key point
of the kong-an without letting go is to practice with "live words,"
which is a shortcut. It cuts off the path of mind and the path of
speech, allowing nothing whatsoever to hold on to. Merely
pursuing the conceptual meaning of your kong-an is practicing
"complete" and "sudden enlightenment" teachings through
attachment to dead words. Such study only opens wider the road
to conceptual reasoning and the path of speech, since it is mainly
concerned with thinking and conceptual understanding.