"There are many misconceptions about the nature of Zen teaching and practice. Zen teaching simply means not attaching to language… Zen meditation points directly to our minds so that we attain our true nature. Because of this emphasis on attaining mind over mere conceptual understanding, people often think that Zen is anti-intellectual. Actually that view is not correct…

If you read the sutras with a not-thinking mind, then the sutras can help; but if you are thinking and checking, and holding, and wanting, then even the sutras can send you straight to hell."

- Seung Sahn 'The Compass of Zen', p244, 246