Signatures on water

Maneesha, Zen is the very principle of existence. Whether there is anyone who teaches it or not, whether there is anyone who learns it or not, it is there. Zen is the very heartbeat of existence.

It is not dependent on any teaching, not dependent on any masters, not dependent on disciples.

Masters come and go, disciples come and disappear; Zen remains. Just as it is. It is always just as it is.

I have made my comment.

Now I will take the anecdote:

I hope things are very simple....

If there is no Catholic church, no pope, there will be no Christianity, because Christianity has nothing to do with existence's essence. If there is no shankaracharya and no Hindu monks, existence will just remain the same as it is. Their being or not being does not affect existence. Certainly their doctrines will disappear, their congregations will not be held anymore. Their teachers and their masters and their disciples will not be there. And if these people think Hinduism is dependent on these scriptures, shankaracharyas, then certainly there will be no Hinduism either.

Except Zen, no religion has been so intensely clear about its own existential status. The others are only aware about their theologies, their scriptures, their teachers, their masters, their disciples. They are all very superficial - just waves on the ocean. But Zen has never for a single moment identified itself with the waves. It consistently emphasizes, "I am the ocean. Waves come and go; the ocean remains. Many more waves will come and go; it does not affect the ocean in any way."

Obaku was right when he said that there is no Zen. There were many teachers and many followers, but they don't constitute the reality of Zen.

For example, one day I was not and one day I will be again not. The same is true about each of you. But the essence of existence knows no change; it remains. And that essence of existence is called Zen. It is not an ordinary religion like Hinduism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism - I am including even Buddhism - because Zen is the essence; everything else is just commentary. Zen is the experience; everything else is just decoration.

Obaku is right: even though there are Zen masters and there are Zen followers, yet there is no Zen in the sense that these teachings are all superfluous and these teachers are only knowledgeable. They know about Zen, but they have not lived it, they have only learned about it. And when the teachers themselves don't have Zen as a quality of their innermost being, how can they teach anyone? But that does not mean that there is no Zen.

Zen is another name of existence - and then you will be able to understand Obaku very easily.

SETCHO SAYS:

Setcho is appreciating the tremendous insight of Obaku, his clarity of vision in making a distinction between the snake and the dragon, his great capacity to be a master:

COMMANDING HIS WAY OF TEACHING... But he is so humble that HE MADE IT NO POINT OF MERIT.

SEATED MAJESTICALLY OVER THE WHOLE LAND... He is just a beggar as far as the outside world is concerned, but because of his insight into the very center of existence he is the real emperor. Even a great emperor - TAICHU ONCE ENCOUNTERED HIM AND THRICE FELL INTO HIS CLUTCHES.

We don't know what those clutches were. They are not recorded but they must have been of the same quality. For example, when somebody says, "There is no Zen, although there are Zen teachers and Zen disciples," at the same time he means that these disciples and these teachers make no difference - Zen is.

Zen is rather is-ness. It is in the flowers and it is in the mountains and it is in the clouds. It is in the open sky and it is in the tremendous light of the sun and it is also in the darkness of the night.

It is! Everything else is commentary.

A master is authentic when he knows it as his own being; a master is unauthentic when he does not know it as his own being although he knows all the holy scriptures. He may be a learned scholar and because of his learning he may find disciples, but all are sitting in a wrong boat.

Question 1:

You are asking me,

Obaku's statement does not concern this assembly. At least it does not concern me. He was talking only about his land, centuries before: the land of T'ang, a small province of China. He is not talking about eternity - he cannot talk about me or you!

I know Zen - not from any scripture. I do not belong to the tradition of Zen; I belong to these clouds.

I belong to existence on my own accord. I have found Zen - not through the scriptures. That's why I can say, even in Japan there are only teachers and followers, no Zen. I am almost a stranger to the tradition; but I have found Zen on my own accord. It is my discovery, it is not an inheritance from the tradition, an inheritance from Mahakashyapa, Bodhidharma, Obaku. I don't have anything from these people - I don't owe anything to anybody.

If Obaku were here, then Zen Master Niskriya would have pinched his nose. As his representative, Master Niskriya, pinch Maneesha's nose.

Question 2:

Maneesha, your second question is:

"OSHO, OBAKU SEEMS TO BE SAYING THAT ONE CANNOT KNOW ZEN BY EXPERIENCING ONE PARTICLE OF BREWER'S GRAIN. BUT I HAVE HEARD YOU SAY, 'TASTE ONE DROP OF THE OCEAN, AND YOU KNOW THE WHOLE OCEAN.' CAN YOU PLEASE COMMENT?"

As for my statement, I stand by it, Obaku or no Obaku. I repeat again: If you have tasted a single drop you have tasted the whole ocean. Now you know its saltiness. If you have tasted one moment of silence, you have tasted its blissfulness, its benediction. I don't care what Obaku says. As far as this statement is concerned he is wrong.

I agree with his first statement unconditionally. In the same way I disagree with his second statement, also unconditionally - there is no possibility of compromise. And you can see my point is so clear that Obaku unnecessarily becomes a laughingstock. He was doing perfectly well, but he went a little too far. He forgot that there would be coming people of greater insight and deeper clarity, who will condemn his second statement.

I am not a man who follows anybody; I am nobody's disciple. I have tasted existence and I have declared that I have known it. Anything that goes against my experience is wrong.

BASHO'S "SUN-FACED BUDDHA, MOON-FACED BUDDHA"

Maneesha, the clouds have come again....

Basho's statement, "SUN-FACED BUDDHA, MOON-FACED BUDDHA" looks like a puzzle. It is not. It is simply saying that Buddha is Buddha whether he is sun-faced or moon-faced; Buddha is Buddha whether he is sitting, standing, walking or lying down. In the world of Zen buddha simply means your very nature. So whether or not it starts raining, you will be the same, or clouds come thundering - you will be the same. In sickness your consciousness does not become sick; in old age your consciousness does not become old; in death you are not dead.

Your buddhahood, your nature, your essence is immortal. This is my comment.

Just a formal question. But you don't ask formal questions of a man like Basho, because a man like Basho is going to reply something which you had never expected. The master said, SUN-FACED BUDDHA, MOON-FACED BUDDHA, in response to the priest's question, HOW DO YOU FEEL THESE DAYS? when he was sick.

Basho is saying, "Whether I am sick or healthy, alive or dead, it does not make any difference to my essence. So don't ask such stupid questions." And Basho is certainly one of the most precious men ever born on the earth.

SETCHO SAYS:

Setcho has improved a little bit, but a schoolmaster is a schoolmaster. It is really very unlikely for a schoolmaster to become enlightened - at least I have never heard of any such incident when a schoolmaster has become a buddha.

Setcho is trying and because he is just a schoolmaster, knowledgeable, he is going to have a great struggle in finding the truth. The truth is already found, you are just not looking at it. There is no pain, no struggle as far as knowing your being is concerned. But the pain and struggle comes in when you know too much about your being, your truth, your enlightenment. All that knowledge becomes mountainous, and then you have to struggle out from your own knowledge.

It is the greatest difficulty to know and to become innocent. Your knowledge prevents you from becoming innocent. There is struggle and there is pain and there is agony, but it has nothing to do with truth; it has something to do with your knowledgeability.

First he is just like a parrot when he repeats:

There was no need to repeat it, Basho has said it.

FOR TWENTY YEARS I HAVE HAD FIERCE STRUGGLES... I am absolutely certain that he must have struggled hard. But that struggle is not in finding the truth, that struggle is to get out of your knowledge. The struggle is with the mind, not with the being.

Once you have erased all your knowledge and you have become only no knowing, Zen is in your empty hands. It has always been there, but because of knowledge your eyes were not capable of seeing it. The struggle is with all those theories, theologies, philosophies which are covering your eyes like dust; hence, I don't think that he is making a wrong statement, but he is wrongly understanding the reason for his struggle. Struggle has been there - it is almost as if one is descending into the dragon's cave and then coming out is almost impossible. Knowledge is a far bigger dragon.

Setcho is right that he has fought for twenty years, but he is not right that he has come out. He still has to fight a little more. He is on the right track, but even the right track is not the goal.

Question 3:

And you are asking, Maneesha:

Just bullshit, Maneesha, fresh bullshit...!

I have not struggled at all. I have not suffered in finding the truth. Yes, I have suffered much in transferring it to you. I have taken every pain possible to make you aware of your reality. In a way you are right that my illnesses or my hardships are for you, not for me.

Existence has been immensely compassionate, as far as I am concerned. I have not taken even a single step to find it. The reason was that I never got in the clutches of knowledgeability; I never became a learned scholar, although there is hardly a single man who has read so much as I have read. But my readings could not pollute my consciousness, they could not corrupt my consciousness; they were just like signatures on water.

I have read all the scriptures, but I have not allowed anything to be accumulated and fill my inner emptiness. That emptiness is absolutely pure and when I speak, I speak from my own emptiness, from my own purity, from my own innocence. Sometimes it coincides, that is another matter, but it coincides only when something matches my experience. Then I can say to Bodhidharma, "I agree - emptiness, no holiness, no knowing."

But when I see a small difference, it does not matter with whom - for example with Joshu, who is considered one of the greatest masters in the Zen tradition, I could not agree, although what he was saying was not absolutely wrong. He was saying, "The way is not difficult." But even this much difference is enough and I can see that he has missed the point. There is no way; hence the question of its being difficult or easy does not arise. You are already there where you want to be.

Maneesha, I have suffered because I love you.

Truth has been very easy to me.

Love has been very difficult.

Truth has been without any struggle.

There was nothing to struggle with - just pure emptiness.

But to transfer that emptiness to you has been a great struggle. For thirty-five years I have been continuously struggling in this way and that way to approach you - somehow to wake you up.

Yes, in that I have suffered much, and I am going to suffer much unless you decide not to hide but to expose yourself, not to remain a seed but start growing. I have suffered because I had to say things which go against traditions, religions, nations. I have made so many enemies in the world that you can call me a great success, a great success in making enemies although I had wanted to be a friend. But this whole business of transferring truth creates enemies easily and friends very rarely.

But I have enjoyed this struggle and will continue to enjoy, whatever pain, whatever agony it brings - perhaps a man like me is destined to be crucified. And that's what the politicians of the whole world and the religious heads of the whole world are trying, but they don't want my blood on their hands.

They are trying in every possible way to silence me.

The Attorney General of America, after harassing and torturing and poisoning me said in a press conference, "All that we want is that Osho should not be seen anywhere, not heard by anyone; no news media should report him." That is equivalent to a modern and sophisticated crucifixion. But they have not been able to be successful and they are not going to be successful because nobody has ever loved you so much as I love you. Jesus loved his "father" - you were just sinners to him.

Gautam Buddha was afraid even to use the word 'love', because it reminds him of imprisonments, of chains which are created in the name of love.

I am the first in many senses. I love you and I love you so much that I am certain no government, no country, no army, even if they join together... Now twenty-four countries have joined together in not allowing me to enter their lands - but I have lovers in their lands.

Even my own country has created every kind of hindrance, that I should not be heard by the masses.

They don't allow me to move from my home, and they are trying to prevent people from all over the world coming here. But truth is not weak and love is far stronger than all the nuclear weapons.

It may create pain and physical trouble for me, but nobody can put locks on my mouth. They can put chains on my hands - they did; they can put chains on my feet - they did. I am living in a situation which can almost be called house arrest - but I trust in love, that it is going to be victorious.

Even if they kill me my voice will be heard around the earth for as long as there is a single living human being.

Question 4:

Maneesha, your second question is:

They are certainly only seemingly opposite. When I said, "This very body, the Buddha," and "This very earth, the paradise," my meaning was, "Don't look anywhere else! Don't look there - look here, look in."

And to make it possible to look in, sometimes I had to say that we are not the body. The first thing is to bring you here. "This body the Buddha," is just to bring you here, and once you are here the second thing is, "Look within; you are not the body but something that the body contains - the emptiness, the nothingness." There is no contradiction; they are two steps of a single process.

Now a few moments to be devoted to laughter. This evening you have been too serious....

The woman was happily showing off her new mink coat to her friend. "It was nice of your husband to buy you that beautiful coat," said the friend.

"He had to," replied the woman. "I caught him kissing the maid."

"How terrible!" exclaimed the friend. "Did you fire her?"

"Not yet," replied the woman, "I still need a new hat."

A young woman went into a bank and asked the clerk for change of a one hundred dollar bill. She handed over the note but the clerk took one look at it and said, "I'm sorry, Miss, but this one hundred dollar bill is a fake."

"Oh, my God!" cried the woman, "I have been raped."

Giles Winterbottom, the farmer, takes his small son, Jasper, to market one day.

Winterbottom goes to look at the cows and strokes them, pulls their skin and generally fondles them.

"Why do you do that?" asks Jasper.

"Well, you see, son," says Winterbottom, "if you want to buy a cow, that is the best way to see if she is healthy."

A few days later, Winterbottom is out in the fields when Jasper comes running up and says, "Dad, there is a traveling salesman in the kitchen, and I think he wants to buy Mom!"

Three old Jewish mothers meet at a party in New York.

"There is nobody like my son," says the first. "Every winter he buys me a new fur coat."

"That's nothing," gloats the second. "My son takes me to the best travel agent in the town every year and arranges the summer vacation of my choice."

"That's all rubbish!" laughs the third. "My son goes to the most expensive psychiatrist in the whole world and all he does is talk about me!"

Now two minutes of absolute silence.

Close your eyes, gather your energy in.

Now relax.

Now, come back.

Okay Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.