In Christianity, we seem to be too conscious of God, though we say that in Him we live and move and have our being. Zen wants to have even this last trace of God-consciousness, if possible, obliterated. That is why Zen followers advise us not to linger even where the Buddha is and to pass quickly away where he is not. All the training of the monk in the Zendo, in theory as well as in practice, is based in the notion of “meritless deed.” Poetically, this idea is expressed as follows:
“The bamboo shadows are sweeping the stairs,
But no dust is stirred:
The moonlight penetrates deep in the bottom of the pool,
But no trace is left in the water.”
When this is expressed in the more Indian and technical terms of the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra, it is as follows:
“Habit-energy is not separated from mind, nor is it together with mind; though enveloped in habit-energy, mind has no marks of difference.
“Habit-energy which is like a soiled garment produced by manovijñāna, keeps mind from shining forth, though mind itself is a robe of the utmost purity.
“I state that the ālaya is like empty space, which is neither existent nor non-existent; for the ālaya has nothing to do with being or no-being.
“Through the transformation of manovijñāna, mind is cleansed of foulness, it is enlightened as it now thoroughly understands all things:—this I preach.”[f153]