Not realizing that the liberation you seek is functioning perfectly in your own mind, you search far and wide, study various doctrines, and seek guidance from enlightened teachers. Even if your aspiration is genuine, if you do not look deeply into your own mind, how can you ever find it? You are like fish in the ocean seeking water. Just let go of your ideas and step back into the pure, clear awareness of your own mind. Then you will be able to discern all the subtle teachings of the various traditions. You will comprehend the truth of life and death. Each of you is endowed with perfect wisdom, but until you stop seeking outside yourself, you can never realize it.

From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing

Louie Wing nearly always traveled on foot, but when he needed to get somewhere faster, he would sometimes ride his bicycle. His bicycle was old, rusty, and small, a child’s bike really. When people saw him ride it, they could not help but gawk; the six-and-a-half-foot man on the child’s bike was an unusual sight.

One day Louie Wing rode up to his cabin where several students were sitting on the porch chatting. One of them said, “Louie Wing, you are a giant, why do you ride such a tiny bike?”

Louie Wing said, “It only looks tiny from there. Once you get on it, it is so big that you can’t see anything else.”

Another student said, “If you can’t see anything else, how can you find where you’re going?”

Louie Wing said, “By not looking.”

From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing

by Ted Biringer

From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing

by Ted Biringer

After a talk, Jenny asked, "Is the unnamable void the same thing as the true mind?"

Louie Wing said, "The ‘unnamable void’ and the ‘true mind’ are both provisional terms aimed at guiding you to the reality itself. A name is not the thing itself; let go of the name and realize the reality.

Jenny asked, "If all names are provisional, why not dispense with them altogether?"

Louie Wing said, "Because of names, you can go to an ice cream parlor, order a hot fudge sundae, and get the thing itself. However, once you have the hot fudge sundae you can forget about the name…mm."

From The Flatbed Sutra of Louie Wing: The Second Ancestor of Zen in the West
by Ted Biringer