Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Do not worry about old age. It is hard to know what this life is, whether it is a life or not a life, whether it is old or not old… Concentrating our resolve, we should just strive in pursuit of the truth. We should learn in practice that in pursuing the truth we are as if meeting life-and-death [itself]; it is not that we pursue the truth in life and death. People today imagine that they will set aside the pursuit of the truth when they reach fifty or sixty, or reach seventy or eighty: this is extremely stupid. We are conscious of having lived for so many years and months, but this is just the restless activity of the human soul, not the state of learning the truth. Do not notice whether you are in your prime or past it; determine solely to learn the state of truth and pursue the ultimate..  Do not be particularly concerned about becoming a pile of dirt in a graveyard; give it no special consideration. If you do not single-mindedly strive to be saved, who will be inspired by whom? When we are vainly wandering in the wilds, skeletons without a master, we should realize right reflection—as if making an eye.’ (Shobogenzo Gyoji)