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CHAPTER 8
Dancing madly from eternity to eternity
3 June 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium
BELOVED OSHO,
ONE NIGHT ISAN REIYU WAS IN ATTENDANCE ON HYAKUJO, SITTING TILL LATE IN THE QUIETNESS OF THE MOUNTAIN TEMPLE.
“WHO ARE YOU?” HYAKUJO ASKED. “REIYU,” REPLIED ISAN.
“RAKE IN THE FIREPLACE,” SAID HYAKUJO.
ISAN DID AS HE WAS TOLD AND SAID, “I FIND NO EMBERS LEFT.”
HYAKUJO TOOK UP THE TONGS AND, RAKING DEEP DOWN, BROUGHT UP A TINY BURNING EMBER, WHICH HE SHOWED TO ISAN, AND SAID, “JUST THIS, YOU SEE!”
ISAN WAS SUDDENLY ENLIGHTENED. HE MADE DEEP BOWS AND PRESENTED HIS VIEWS TO HYAKUJO, WHO SAID:
“YOU HAVE REACHED A CROSSROADS ON THE JOURNEY. IT IS SAID IN THE SUTRA, ‘IF YOU WANT TO SEE BUDDHA NATURE, YOU SHOULD OBSERVE TIME AND CAUSATION.’”
WHEN THE TIME COMES YOU WILL REALIZE IT, JUST LIKE REMEMBERING SOMETHING YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN. IT IS NOT OBTAINED FROM OTHERS.
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THEREFORE, WHEN YOU ARE ENLIGHTENED IT IS JUST LIKE WHEN YOU WERE NOT ENLIGHTENED – NO MIND, NO DHARMA.
IF ONLY YOU HAVE NO DELUSION, AND NO DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN THE BUDDHA AND THE UNENLIGHTENED, YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE MANIFESTS ITSELF.
NOW YOU HAVE ATTAINED IT. MINDFULLY CULTIVATE IT.
Maneesha, Zen is your very heart. It is not an achievement, you already have it. It is only a recognition.
This small anecdote is tremendously important compared to great religious scriptures, which say so much without saying anything. These small anecdotes say so much without even using a word. Their language is of existence, it is neither Hebrew, nor Arabic, nor Sanskrit. The bamboos understand it as much as you, it is the very language of being alive. Only dead people are deaf, and vice versa is also true: those who are deaf are dead.
ONE NIGHT ISAN REIYU WAS IN ATTENDANCE ON HYAKUJO, SITTING TILL LATE IN THE QUIETNESS OF THE MOUNTAIN TEMPLE.
You can feel the situation in which Isan was sitting, close to Hyakujo. “WHO ARE YOU?” HYAKUJO ASKED.
Not that he is asking his name, he knows it. Isan has been one of his longstanding disciples. He is not asking anything concerning his personality, he knows every layer of it. He is asking directly, “Who is there inside, within all these clothes, the body, the bones, the mind, the thoughts; who is there at the very innermost core?”
“WHO ARE YOU?” HYAKUJO ASKED. “REIYU,” REPLIED ISAN.
“RAKE IN THE FIREPLACE,” SAID HYAKUJO. ISAN DID AS HE WAS TOLD AND SAID,
“I FIND NO EMBERS LEFT.”
HYAKUJO TOOK UP THE TONGS AND, RAKING DEEP DOWN, BROUGHT UP A TINY BURNING EMBER, WHICH HE SHOWED TO ISAN, AND SAID, “JUST THIS, YOU SEE!”
I want to say to you also: Just this! Do you see? – the silence, the joy, the chitchatting of the bamboos? Do you see the flame of your being?
ISAN WAS SUDDENLY ENLIGHTENED. HE MADE DEEP BOWS AND PRESENTED HIS VIEWS TO HYAKUJO, WHO SAID: “YOU HAVE REACHED A CROSSROADS ON THE JOURNEY. IT IS
SAID IN THE SUTRA, ‘IF YOU WANT TO SEE BUDDHA NATURE, YOU SHOULD OBSERVE TIME AND CAUSATION.’”
WHEN THE TIME COMES YOU WILL REALIZE IT, JUST LIKE REMEMBERING SOMETHING YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN...
This is immensely significant – to understand that you are not lost, you have just forgotten who you are. And the most laughable thing is you are asking others, “Who am I?” Whatever you know about yourself is not you. The knower within you is beyond the reach of your mind, you cannot think about it. You can simply be it. And the sutra coming from Gautam Buddha says, “It is a remembering.”
You must all have felt once in a while... in all the languages of the world the expression exists that, “It is just on the tip of my tongue,” a name – you can even see the face, you know that you know the name, it is just on the tip of your tongue, but it is not coming out. And the harder you try, the narrower becomes the space from which the forgotten can become again a recognition.
A point comes when you drop it. One can only go so far, you cannot drive yourself absolutely mad; you just go out for a morning walk, or start digging in your garden and suddenly out of nowhere, the name is remembered. You had never forgotten it.
Then what was the mechanism that was preventing it from coming to the surface? That mechanism is the whole psychology of the buddhas. The more your mind is full of thoughts, tensions, worries, the further away you are from yourself; the moment the mind is silent you are suddenly centered in your very being.
And there is no other greater ecstasy, no other greater blissfulness, than to know who you are. To know the inner space is to know all. It is unlimited silence but not dead, it is alive with songs of its own, with dances of its own.
Of course they belong to a totally different stratum.
You see Gautam Buddha sitting in the lotus posture; that is from the outside, a photograph. I see him from inside, he is not sitting in the lotus posture, he is dancing madly. From eternity to eternity his dance goes on and on becoming more and more juicy. More and more flowers start opening in the innermost being – even the silence is fragrant.
It is not something special. Hyakujo is pointing out to his disciple that it is the most natural, simple experience: just don’t ask to be special and it is yours, just don’t go on a journey of power and it is yours, just don’t even seek it and you have found it. It is your very nature; even if you try to drop it somewhere, throw it somewhere, it is not possible.
There is no way not to be a buddha. Yes, there is a little difference, not worth even calling a difference: a few buddhas are asleep, a few buddhas are awake. Those who are awake were asleep before, those who are asleep now will – in their own time of ripening, blossoming – become buddhas. The difference is not there at all.
A tremendous statement. The sutra of Gautam Buddha says, “IT IS NOT OBTAINED FROM OTHERS. THEREFORE, WHEN YOU ARE ENLIGHTENED IT IS JUST LIKE WHEN YOU WERE NOT ENLIGHTENED.”
Please see the beauty of it and the depth of it.
“NO MIND, NO DHARMA... AND NO DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN THE BUDDHA AND THE UNENLIGHTENED. YOUR ORIGINAL NATURE MANIFESTS ITSELF. NOW YOU HAVE ATTAINED IT. MINDFULLY CULTIVATE IT.”
Even if you have attained the inside, you will have to remember it again and again, just because of your old habits of judgment that somebody is enlightened and somebody else is not enlightened.
A thousand and one times I have been asked, “What are the qualities of a buddha?”
I am not an old, traditional Zen master, otherwise anybody who asks, “What is a buddha?” deserves a good hit on the head so he becomes awake.
The Zen master Niskriya unfortunately is not here. He is the first German Zen master. And you know a Japanese hit is one thing but a German hit is bound to make you awakened! He has gone to Germany, just to make arrangements to come back here again, to help the sleeping ones.
He is the reincarnation of Sekito, the stonehead. When he comes back I am going to ask him, “Would you like to change your name to your original name Sekito, the stonehead?” Just before leaving yesterday, he was hiding his head in a China cap. But hiding a stone head does not make much sense. He still had his staff.
This staff came into being in Zen tradition as a symbol that this is the only difference between the awakened and the not awakened. Hit hard and everybody is going to wake up. If you cannot wake up here, where even the drums of Nivedano are becoming enlightened, then it is very unfortunate.
A footnote:
HYAKUJO IS ALSO KNOWN AS PAI-CHANG. HE BECAME ENLIGHTENED WHEN STUDYING UNDER BASO TOGETHER WITH NANSEN.
BASO SAID OF HIM, “ZEN IS WITH HYAKUJO.”
Baso’s declaration is more than one can expect.
IT IS SAID THAT HE WAS CLEVER AND GENTLE AND HE HAD NOTHING OSTENTATIOUS ABOUT HIM. HE WAS INVITED TO THE GREAT TEMPLE AT MOUNT HYAKUJO, FROM WHICH HE TOOK HIS NAME. MANY DISCIPLES GATHERED AROUND HIM, AMONG THEM ONE SUCH AS OBAKU, ALSO KNOWN AS HUANG-PO – AND ISAN.
Question 1 Maneesha is asking: BELOVED OSHO,
WHEN ONE TALKS TO SOMEONE IT IS WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE OTHER PERSON CAN HEAR. ONE WOULD NOT SPEAK TO A DEAF PERSON. BUT YOU ARE ONLY TALKING TO US UNTIL WE BEGIN TO HEAR YOU. AREN’T YOU?
Maneesha, it is the unfortunate destiny of every master to speak to those who cannot hear. To show this symbolically, Bodhidharma, the most famous name in the world of Zen, remained speaking for nine years facing the wall. The audience used to sit behind him, not in front of him. In front of him was just a wall. For nine years he was again and again asked, “What kind of man are you? We have heard many masters, many teachers, many preachers; they always face their audience.”
With tears in his eyes Bodhidharma said, “It makes no difference. On both sides the walls are deaf. At least this wall does not disappoint me – I know it is a wall, so there is no question of disappointment; but if I turn towards you and find you just like a wall it will be very much disappointing. I will wait for those who are open like doors and not closed like walls.”
His first disciple stood behind him for twelve hours, deep in the snow. Without saying a single word he cut off his hand, threw it before Bodhidharma and said, “If you don’t turn towards me, I am going to cut off my head!”
Bodhidharma said, “Wait! You have done enough.”
This one-handed man became his first disciple. It is obvious that his desire to know was keener even than to live, that his inquiry was an intense fire in which he was ready to burn himself. But that’s why I say again and again: those were beautiful days, they were golden moments when such people as Bodhidharma existed. And he was not alone – hundreds of Bodhidharmas have existed, but slowly, slowly they have disappeared. Even in the Buddhist countries where these phenomenal beings appeared, Zen is now only an academic study.
I want it to be declared to the world that this is the only place where Zen is not an academic study. We are trying to live it, we are trying to our utmost, to bring a great experience back to life.
Question 2
Maneesha’s second question is:
BELOVED OSHO,
I REMEMBER YOU SPEAKING SOME TIME AGO ABOUT ZEN IN COMPARISON WITH J. KRISHNAMURTI AND GURDJIEFF’S WORK, SAYING – IF I UNDERSTOOD CORRECTLY – THAT WHERE J. KRISHNAMURTI AND GURDJIEFF WORKED WITH THE ACTIVE MIND, ZEN WORKED WITH THE INACTIVE MIND. YOUR WORK, I HEARD YOU SAY, WAS TO HELP US TO GO BEYOND BOTH ACTIVE AND INACTIVE MINDS, TO FIND THE TRANSCENDENTAL, THAT IS: CONSCIOUSNESS.
Maneesha, you have heard me rightly. Mind has two sides – it can be active, it can be inactive. But even in its inactivity it is there; inactivity is the mind’s backyard. To be truly conscious, to be authentically a buddha one has to go beyond both, the active and the inactive.
Question 3
She has also asked:
WHEN WE DO GIBBERISH, FOLLOWED BY SILENCE, ARE WE EXPERIENCING THE ACTIVE, THEN THE INACTIVE MIND? AND IS IT POSSIBLE THAT WE CAN EXPERIENCE THE TRANSCENDENTAL DURING THE LET-GO? CAN ONE HAVE MOMENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS BEFORE BEING TOTALLY AND IRREVOCABLY CONSCIOUS?
The whole method is managed in the same way you are describing it.
Gibberish is to get rid of the active mind, silence to get rid of the inactive mind and let-go is to enter into the transcendental.
And don’t think that it is something special, that only special people can do it. You are doing it! – you just have to recognize it. You have to realize the fact of your dignity.
The whole society has destroyed you, spoiled you, undermined you, repressed every possibility of your reaching to yourself. And the whole world is against me, because I am doing exactly the opposite: I am trying to bring the individual back into the world, and the world has killed the individual completely.
Just today, I have received an invitation from a small commune of friends in New Zealand. They have a beautiful place; they have sent pictures of a river surrounded by an ancient forest, high rising mountains. You can see the whole range of mountains covered with snow. And they wanted me to come and have my commune there. They are ready to make available as much land as possible, but they don’t understand that their government will not allow a dangerous man like me in their country. They should first ask their government before they invite me.
The politician is the enemy of man. The politician represents the past, the dead, all the graveyards; and my work is to bring even those who have been long dead out of their graves. They try hard not to come out, but I have my own means – I tell them “Gibberish, do gibberish, if you cannot do anything else! At least that will prove that you can breathe and then we can go on from there.”
And remember, when I am talking about graves, I am talking about you.
Before we go into these three stages... Remember, if you are doing something, do it totally; otherwise there is no point in doing it! I will prepare the ground with some laughter – that is always cleansing, strengthening, it makes you aware that if you can laugh you are not dead.
Fanny goes to her dentist and complains about a toothache. “Is it very painful?” asks Doctor Floss, adjusting the chair. “Yes, it is,” replies Fanny.
“All right, Miss Pringle,” says Floss, turning to his assistant, “you can can leave us now.”
Miss Pringle goes out quietly, and the dentist and his patient are left alone. “Darling!” says Floss, embracing his patient, “we can’t go on meeting like this!” “But why not?” wails Fanny.
“Because,” says Floss, “you have only got one tooth left!”
Fergus Cratchit, the seventy-year-old Scotsman, hobbles into his favorite pub to shoot the breeze with his friends.
Fergus has recently married a nineteen-year-old girl, and several of the men at the bar buy him drinks and ask him to tell about his wedding night.
“My youngest son, Kenneth, lifted me onto the bed where my lovely bride was waiting for me,” recounts Fergus. “And the next morning, my three older sons carried me off the bed.”
The men gathered at the bar scratching their heads, and then asked Fergus why it needed three sons to take him off when he needed only one son to put him on.
“It is obvious,” replies Fergus, proudly. “I fought them!” Now, be ready... Nivedano, the first...
(Drumbeat) (Gibberish) Nivedano... (Drumbeat)
Absolute silence, close your eyes, no movement of body or mind. Just be at the very being.
This. This.
This is the very essence of Zen. Just rejoice in it!
Nivedano, the second... (Drumbeat)
Everybody dies completely.
Even if the dead go on breathing, don’t be worried – you be dead! This will give you a taste of the transcendental.
Nivedano... (Drumbeat)
Everybody comes back to life. Really!
It is no laughing matter – you are still dead. Nivedano... a good beat...
(Drumbeat)
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.
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