Its teaching is transmitted mainly in the form of parables as ambiguous as the pebbles in the rock-garden which symbolize now a mountain, now a fleeting tiger. When a disciple asks 'What is Zen?', the master's traditional answer is 'Three pounds of flax' or 'A decaying noodle' or 'A toilet stick' or a whack on the pupil's head.

Bricks to Babel (1980)