Food for Thought

Via daurdabla
"Do not say that worldly affairs and pressures of business leave you no time to study Zen ... Suppose a man accidentally drops two or three gold coins in a crowded street swarming with people. Does he forget about the money because all eyes are upon him? Does he stop looking for it because it will cause a disturbance? Most people will push others out of the way, not resting until they get the money back into their own hands. Are not people who neglect the study of Zen because the press of mundane circumstances is too severe, or stop their meditation because they are troubled by worldly affairs, putting more value on two or three pieces of gold than on the unsurpassed mysterious Way of the Buddhas?"
--Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769)