 In 1987, the Plymouth-Canton school system in Canton, Michigan banned DT Suzuki's Zen Buddhism-selected writings because, quote, this book details the teachings of the religion of Buddhism in such a way that the reader could very likely embrace its teachings and choose this as his religion. Dangerous subversive stuff here. The sense of Zen. Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being and it points the way from bondage to freedom. By making us drink right from the fountain of life, it liberates us from all the yolks under which we finite beings are usually suffering in this world. We can say that Zen liberates all the energies properly and naturally stored in each of us, which are in ordinary circumstances cramped and distorted so that they find no adequate channel for activity. This body of ours is something like an electric battery in which a mysterious power latently lies. When this power is not properly brought into operation, it either grows moldy and withers away or is warped and expresses itself abnormally. It is the object of Zen, therefore, to save us from going crazy or being crippled. This is what I mean by freedom, giving free play to all the creative and benevolent impulses inherently lying in our hearts. Generally, we are blind to this fact, but we are in possession of all the necessary faculties that will make us happy and loving towards one another. All the struggles that we see around us come from this ignorance. Zen, therefore, wants us to open a third eye, as Buddhists call it, to the hitherto undreamed of region shut away from us through our own ignorance. When the cloud of ignorance disappears, the infinity of the heavens is manifested where we see for the first time into the nature of our own being. We now know the signification of life. We know that it is not blind striving, nor is it a mere display of brutal forces, but that while we know not definitely what the ultimate purport of life is, there is something in it that makes us feel infinitely blessed in the living of it and remain quite contented with it in all its evolution, without raising questions or entertaining pessimistic doubts. Says Confucius, at 15 my mind was directed to study, but I knew where to stand. This is one of the wisest sayings of the Chinese sage. Psychologists will all agree to the statement of his. For generally speaking, 15 is about the age youth begins to look around seriously and inquire into the meaning of life. All the spiritual powers until now securely hidden in the subconscious part of the mind break out almost simultaneously. And when this breaking out is too precipitous and violent, the mind may lose its balance more or less permanently. In fact, so many cases of nervous prostration reported during adolescence are chiefly due to this loss of the mental equilibrium. In most cases, the effect is not very grave, and the crisis may pass without leaving deep marks. But in some characters, either through their inherent tendencies or on account of the influence of environment upon their plastic constitution, the spiritual awakening stirs them up to the very depths of their personality. This is the time you will be asked to choose between the everlasting no and the everlasting ye. This choosing is what Confucius means by study. It is not studying the classics, but deeply delving into the mysteries of life. This was banned in Michigan in 1987.