To know that the one good is balance and yet not to reach balance, to know all phenomena are mind and yet not to understand mind; this is confusion. To know the matter of birth and death is serious and yet not to realize birthlessness, to know impermanence is swift and yet not to realize there is fundamentally no speed; this is confusion.

Records of the Lanka (c 725 CE-), Records of the Teachers and Students of the Lanka presents a complete set of biographies of the Zen patriarchs.Dating from the first half of the eighth century, and only recently rediscovered in Tun Huang, China, these books offer the best information currently available on the early meditation techniques of the "northern school" of Zen Buddhism.