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Chapter 9 - Lovers of tao
And as far as hungry ghosts are concerned, I cannot agree with him. There are hungry people, but hungry ghosts? There is no reason for them to be hungry, they can eat in any restaurant without paying -- and they do it. You cannot see them, so they can enter anywhere; locks and doors don't matter. This is a stupid idea he must have got from his childhood which is still hanging around -- hungry ghosts! To frighten a child just a ghost is enough, but to make it hungry means, "Beware!" A hungry ghost immediately gulps you. One moment you are and next moment you are gone. I know ghosts, but I have never heard ..."Poor ghosts, hungry ghosts." There is no reason for them to be hungry -- just something to frighten children ...
But Rinzai is still carrying his own childhood. There are no ghosts in the world, but all the religions talk about ghosts because their very foundation is dependent on a belief in God. And if people start asking questions about God's existence, they are immediately repressed: "Even to disbelieve or doubt for a single moment about God you will be in trouble." The ghosts come in the same line.
God lives far away; ghosts live just in the neighborhood. They may be living in your own house. To frighten children with a God who lives far away -- no child is so unintelligent to be afraid. By the time the message reaches to him the child will think, "We will see. But first, bring the ice cream from the refrigerator." But hungry ghosts? They may be in the refrigerator itself enjoying all your ice cream!
But a man like Rinzai talking about hungry ghosts simply shows that even if you grow older the child within you remains. And then he became very learned in his scriptures, so the scriptures and the childhood superstitions all got mixed up. Finally he became enlightened, but his whole past was still hanging around him like shadows. And when he starts talking about religion he has to come down to the mind, and the mind is full of those shadows of the past.
He says:
IT WILL GO TO ALL PLACES AND JOURNEY TO LANDS WHERE IT WILL
CONVERT THE LIVING. IT HAS NEVER, EVEN FOR THE TIME OF A THOUGHT, STRAYED FROM OMNIPRESENT PURITY AND CLEANNESS, SHINING THROUGH
THE TEN DIRECTIONS OF SPACE, WHERE MYRIAD THINGS ARE IN THE STATE
OF SUCHNESS.
Now he is saying something of experience. He knows that your suchness, your nature, your Tao is immortal, and it is all over the cosmos.
It is a very difficult job ... and I have suffered so much from these people. Reading their scriptures, I had to sort out what was their childhood, what was their training, what was their scripture knowledge, and what was their actual experience -- that was very small. And to search in a mountain for a small diamond, it is really difficult. Now, what he is saying is true but still the language is not of Zen. The language is of philosophy.
IT HAS NEVER, EVEN FOR THE TIME OF A THOUGHT, STRAYED FROM
OMNIPRESENT PURITY AND CLEANNESS, SHINING THROUGH THE TEN
DIRECTIONS OF SPACE, WHERE MYRIAD THINGS ARE IN THE STATE OF
SUCHNESS.
Just a simple sentence: in your suchness you are the whole. This very moment if you become aware of your suchness, you are not separate from the cosmos. But a small thing Osho - The Language of Existence
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