ON BEING SELECTIVE AS TO THE PLACE OF MEDITATION

This ordinary conception has prevailed amongst humanity that one should go to a quiet place to meditate, and get away from places which are full of strife, struggle, conflict. But Zen has a totally different attitude -- and more psychological. There is no need to leave the world. The world is a perfectly good place -- as a fire test. What is needed is to go in, not to go somewhere out. And you can go in anywhere in the world, whether it is the Himalayas or the M. G. Road. You can become enlightened even with a rented bicycle! It does not matter that it was rented. I have heard of people becoming enlightened even on stolen bicycles, because becoming enlightened has nothing to do with bicycles.

Daikaku says:
IF HE TRIES TO TAKE REFUGE FROM TROUBLE BY RUNNING TO SOME QUIET PLACE, HE WILL FALL INTO DARK REGIONS.
No other religion has said that. And I authenticate it: The person who escapes from troubles falls certainly into a very dark space, because his very beginning is wrong. He is going away from the trouble. He should have remained in the trouble, untroubled – that would have been some gain. But he has escaped from it, and when there is no struggle, no trouble, no strife.... Sitting somewhere in the Himalayas, the silence that surrounds you is of the Himalayas, not of you. That is not going to help. You have to find your own Himalayas within.