Zen provides us with three ways that make our journey home possible: First is zazen, silent meditation wherein we become still and quiet through and through and touch the clear, vast, empty tranquil Mind. Second is koan study, the study of the sayings and doings of our ancestral teachers that enable us to truly understand the nature of the self, that is, to know deep down that even as we are born, grow, mature, decline, die and perish we are at the same time unborn, undying, infinite and eternal. Finally, there is the practice of our daily lives, whereby what we have realized in our zazen and koan study may clarify, deepen, integrate and express itself as compassionate action towards all that breathes and does not breathe.

   -Danan Henry Roshi. Forward to Dogs, Trees, Beards and Other Wonders: Meditations on the Forty-eight Cases of the Wumenguan, by Ken Tetsuzan Morgareidge.