Don’t love sagehood;
sagehood is an empty name.
There is no special truth
but this radiant spiritual openness,
unobstructed and free.
It is not attained by adornment
and cultivated realization.
From the buddhas to the Zen masters,
all have transmitted this teaching,
by which they attained liberation.

Deshan Xuanjian (780 CE-865 CE), Deshan Xuanjian, was a Chinese Zen Buddhist monk during the Tang Dynasty. He was born in Jiannan in what is now Sichuan Province. He is remembered for hitting his students with a cane to express awakening.