dont paint legs on a snake

hello girls! how are you? very windy day here in hk. my current breakfast book is a little zen book titled 'who am i?'. margie took a copy for me from the su bong zen center in causeway bay. i read one chapter every morning so i thought i would share it with you. 

''when you see the sky, only blue. When you see the tree, just green. When you see the wall, only white. When you see the floor during meditation time, eye half open and only meditation, only brown. That name is 'seeing something, mind is clear.'
Zen means 'don't make anything.' Don't make 'behind' meaning. If you make 'behind' meaning, then you are checking, checking, checking... whole life. So even if you attain something, you cannot believe it. 

We have in Zen, one saying 'Don't paint legs on a snake.' That's no.1 important speech. Trust that the snake is enough. Why do we need to put our idea on the snake? 'Snake don't have legs so I put on you legs because you should walk. Now you have legs, so of course you need socks and shoes.' So you make a snake with legs and socks and shoes.

If you cannot believe that the snake is enough, that means we cannot believe in ourselves. We cannot believe in our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind so we cannot believe anything. And we always think about great love, great compassion.. to help somebody.

Our intention is good, we want to help this snake, we want to make it have feet and socks and shoes and give it some style. But our good intention only hinders everything around us. Because the basis of all human relationship is trust, if you trust something and trust someone and they make a mistake, that is no problem. Because you trust them, soon they will begin to trust themselves. They slowly, slowly, slowly... everything becomes independent.'' - zen master su bong.