need of properly regulating the breath--essential points in the
practice of Zen meditation. Some of the best commentaries
on the Book of Laotse have been written by Zen scholars.

Zennism, like Taoism, is the worship of Relativity. One
master defines Zen as the art of feeling the polar star in the
southern sky. Truth can be reached only through the
comprehension of opposites. Again, Zennism, like Taoism,
is a strong advocate of individualism. Nothing is real except
that which concerns the working of our own minds. Yeno,
the sixth patriarch, once saw two monks watching the flag
of a pagoda fluttering in the wind. One said "It is the wind
that moves," the other said "It is the flag that moves"; but
Yeno explained to them that the real movement was neither
of the wind nor the flag, but of something within their own
minds. Hiakujo was walking in the forest with a disciple when
a hare scurried off at their approach. "Why does the hare fly
from you?" asked Hiakujo. "Because he is afraid of me," was
the answer. "No," said the master, "it is because you have
murderous instinct." The dialogue recalls that of Soshi (Chaungtse),
the Taoist. One day Soshi was walking on the bank of a river
with a friend. "How delightfully the fishes are enjoying themselves
in the water!" exclaimed Soshi. His friend spake to him thus:
"You are not a fish; how do you know that the fishes are enjoying
themselves?" "You are not myself," returned Soshi; "how do you
know that I do not know that the fishes are enjoying themselves?"

Zen was often opposed to the precepts of orthodox Buddhism
even as Taoism was opposed to Confucianism. To the
transcendental insight of the Zen, words were but an