Beheading Yourself

Chia Yung went out to fight bandits, but was wounded and lost his head. Mounting his horse, he returned to the camp. The soldiers and people of the camp all came to look at him, and Yung spoke from his chest, "I was defeated by the bandits and they cut off my head. Tell me, in your opinion, does it look better to have a head or to be without a head?" The officers wept and said, "It's better to have a head." Yung replied, "I don't think so. It's just as good to be without a head!"  Luyichi (9th c.)

A monk said he had the precious sword. Ten-t'ou stretched out his neck, saying: "Well, then, cut off my head." The monk said: "Your head is off!" at which Yen-t'ou laughed loudly. But the monk did not perceive the meaning of that laughter.  Blue Cliff Record

The precious Vajra sword is right here and its purpose is to cut off the head.  Tai-hui

When thou seest in the pathway a severed head… of it thou wilt learn our hidden mystery.

I am free from head.

You have never beheld the head of Man: you are a tail.

Behead yourself!  Rumi

You must choose one of two things - either have your head cut off or go into exile… He who loves Me, but loves his head better, is no true lover.  Attar

If He sever one head from the body, He at once raises up thousands of heads for the beheaded one.  Rumi

He played away his head, laughing and rejoicing.  Rumi

This travelling hat may look small, but when I put it on it covers the whole cosmos.  Huang-po

If sense-data are literally inside the brain we are committed to the conclusion that they are always smaller than the things to which they belong, (or else) that our own head is very much larger than it appears to be from touch.  H.H. Price

That head of clay is from the earth, and this pure Head from Heaven.  Rumi

How can a world be contained in the clay of the body? How should a heaven be contained in the earth? God forfend! Thou art beyond this world both in thy lifetime and at the present hour.  Rumi

How wonderful is the path of love, when the headless one is exalted.  Hafiz

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