Moreover, remembering the natural sage of Jetavana park, we can still see the traces of his six years of upright sitting.We can still hear rumors of the transmitter of the mind-seal at Shaolin [Bodhidharma], spending nine years facing the wall. The ancient saints were like that already: how could people today fail to practice wholeheartedly? [Nishijima]

Consider the Buddha: although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind-seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? [SZTP]

The ‘mind-seal’ is the seal connecting each of us, and all phenomena, when the mind but realizes that fact. It is as five fingers that are too one hand, a vibrant city that is but the life of its single streets, a lonely treeleaf that is just the branch and tree it springs from. More than mere connection between two things, it is a simultaneous perception of difference and no difference. What is some ‘you’ and all that ‘you’ consider ‘not you’? Each is, is not, and is the other. The wholehearted practice of Zazen helps us see what’s been all along, and is quite ordinary.