' Passing On Transmission '...

"If we are to discuss this matter, the simple fact is that there is nothing whatsoever to point out to people.

If there were anything at all to indicate to people, Buddhism would not have reached the present day.


For this reason the successions of Buddhas extending a hand and the successions of Zen masters passing on transmission have done so for lack of practical choice; there has never been an actual doctrine."



-Fu-an
in Thomas Cleary
Teachings of Zen Buddhism
NY: Barnes & Noble, revised and expanded edition, 2000 (1998), p. 103