'I don't know.' Seung Sahn (Soen-sa) b.1927. North Korea.

«After a time he began to see visions, both terrible and beautiful. On hundredth day, while he was sitting outside chanting and beating a moktak (a gong),

his body disappeared and he was in infinite space. From far away he could hear the moktak beating, and the sound of his own voice. He remained in this state for some time. When he returned to his body, he understood. The rocks, the river, everything he could hear, all this was his true Self. All things are exactly as they are. The truth is just like this.

"He came down from the mountain and went to the Zen Master Ko Bong, said to be the greatest in Korea and the hardest, for advice on how to practise.
Ko Bong said, 'A monk once asked Zen Master Jo-Ju (Chau-chu), "Why did Bodhidharma come to China?" Jo-Ju answered, "The pine tree in the front garden." What does this mean?' Soen-sa understood the koan, he didn't know how to answer. He said, 'I don't know.' Ko Bong said, 'Only keep this don't-know mind. That is true Zen practice.'»

in: Anne Bancroft, Zen, Direct pointing to reality, London, Thames and Hudson, 1987, p.29.