Joshu's Zen

A student asked Joshu, "If I haven't anything in my mind, what shall I do?" Joshu replied, "Throw it out." "But if I haven't had anything, how can I throw it out?" continued the student. "Well," said Joshu, "then carry it out."

The questioner thinks: there is nothing in my mind so how can I throw it out? He has forgotten that the very he himself who thinks does not exist as such. That "self" must be thrown out. That very "self" is the one that thinks there is nothing in his mind, and it is that self that is the cause of the trouble, the author of the question. The greatest attachment and the hardest to see is attachment to self. When one realises he is attached, then he is already transcended.