Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

Why are you always talking about going back to the origin instead of waking up to what lies ahead?

Answer

What is waking up? Up to what? Westerners always have these notions of illumination. Yes: Satori means "awakening." People like the idea of waking up; but to what? It's easier to go back. The newborn baby is pure. It has true freedom, it's not at all complicated, doesn't need to make love, gets its food from its mother, cries when it feels like it . . . It doesn't think. We have to understand what freedom is. If you think with your fore-brain all the time, you become complicated; that is how European philosophy got so complicated. We must go back to the origin of the human being. It's difficult. A koan.