Question
I was so excited to discover a way to ask a Zen master a question tonight that I forgot the usual conventions, or rather, I forgot to ask my question with the respect I owed you. Please forgive me. It is very strange, but I feel that even these sentences are absurd: asking someone who has reached your degree of steadiness to forgive… If I receive no answer, I will not make myself sick over it; my ego regenerates so quickly!
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
Be fully aware that the emotion you feel in speaking to a master, the idea you have of him, and the respect you show him are actually the respect you show yourself. This famous master exists within you. However wonderful he may be, he is nothing other than your inner master.
Kosen