No Trace

When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

The thinking not only leaves some trace or shadow, but also gives us many other notions about other activities and things. These traces and notions make our minds very complicated.

Thinking which leaves traces comes out of your relative confused mind.

So if you attach to the idea of what you have done, you are involved in selfish ideas.

We should not forget what we did, but it should be without an extra trace.

In order not to leave any traces, when you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do. You will have something remaining which is not completely burned out. Zen activity is activity which is completely burned out, with nothing remaining but ashes.

So moment after moment you should devote yourself to your practice.