Note f15 — ZEN AS CHINESE INTERPRETATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Reading edition
Compare this with the statement made by the sixth patriarch himself when he was asked how it was that he came to succeed the fifth patriarch “Because I do not understand Buddhism.” Let me also cite a passage from the Kena-Upanishad, in which the readers may find a singular coincidence between the Brahman seer and those Zen masters, not only in thought but in the way it is expressed:
“It is conceived of by him by whom it is not conceived of; He by whom It is conceived of, knows It not. It is not understood by those who understand It; It is understood by those who understand It not.”
Lao-tzŭ, founder of Taoist mysticism, breathes the same spirit when he says: “He who knows it speaks not, he who speaks knows not.”