Joy in the morning

Maneesha, before I discuss the great matter of Zen, Avirbhava has brought a few ancient gods to be inaugurated into her Museum of Gods. Her assistant, Anando, has also brought a few small gods. Before I tell them to show you what they have brought ...

The research on the subject of the rat as an object of worship ... The rat is a very ancient god, but still prevalent, not dead. The research was done by the appropriate person, Sardar Gurudayal Singh.

"The rat is the charioteer of the elephant god, Ganesh. According to myth it is worshipped all over India, and especially in Maharashtra.

Rats are said to consume more grain than all the people of India. They are one of the causes of India's poverty, and their growth rate is far greater than that of the Indian people.

During Indira Gandhi's rule there were suggestions brought to parliament about how to tackle this problem. Immediately, opposition leaders from Morarji Desai's party argued that a poisoning of rats was out of the question because that would hurt the religious feelings of Maharashtran people. The only solution to this menace of rats destroying the grainstocks that was considered was to make the rats aware of birth control. But how to get this message to the rats? The opposition claimed that they had done their duty by suggesting this great solution; the implementing of birth control upon the rats would be the ruling party's affair. That was the end of the debate."

Since that time Morarji Desai himself has been a prime minister and again the question was brought up. Now he was in a difficult situation. As a Gandhian he is against birth control. Instead of birth control, celibacy is the solution. In the first place he should have considered that teaching rats birth control is going against Gandhian philosophy. They should be taught how to be celibate.

Secondly, when he was in opposition he had himself proposed that birth control was the only solution. They cannot be killed, even though because of them the whole of India is suffering from poverty. Now that he was in the ruling party, the prime minister, he could not go against his word. He was in a difficult situation. And by this time the rats had grown far bigger and far more numerous than at the time of Indira.

Right now they are eating three times more than the Indian population. Soon they will starve the whole population, but the politician cowards will not take any step. Morarji put it aside into the file, saying that an investigation should be made of how to introduce birth control to the rats. This is the way of the cunning politicians -- always create an investigation committee which does great work in two, three years; then take their report and file it away. By that time most probably the prime minister is gone, and the new prime minister has no obligation to be bothered with any report that had been asked for by the previous one.

It is strange that people can see human beings dying, but they cannot hurt their stupid feelings, which they call religious feelings. The whole idea is so stupid!

The elephant god Ganesh is a myth. The story is that Shiva's wife was taking a bath. It seems she must have been taking a bath for the first time in her life, because so much dust and rust came off her body. In the bathroom she became playful, and made a statue from that rust and dust. And because she is a goddess, she was able to breathe life into the statue. That is how Ganesh was born.

And she told Ganesh, "I am taking a bath, so you sit down outside on the steps. Your father is out, don't allow anybody in." But he had no idea of the father ... Who is the father? In fact nobody has any idea who the father is. It is not only Ganesh; everybody simply believes, and often their belief is not the case.

Shiva came, and Shiva is a very angry god ... Ganesh stopped him, saying, "My mother is taking a bath."

Shiva said, "Your mother? I have been gone. How have you been born?" In a rage he cut off the head of Ganesh, and threw the head into the valley -- they lived in the Himalayas. He entered the house and asked his wife, "What is the matter? Who was this fellow sitting outside. I cut off his head and threw the head into the valley."

His wife was very angry. She told the whole story of how she had made him. He said, "My God, I have killed my own son!"

He went in search, but how to find where that head had gone? He just found a small elephant, so he cut off the head of the elephant and put it on top of the child's body. Being a supreme God, he managed to glue them together perfectly. But because the child was small and the head was too heavy, the child needed some kind of horse or vehicle to carry him, he could not walk with all that weight. And these stupid ideas have prevailed with millions of people.

So Shiva looked around and found a rat, and Ganesh rides on the rat. Such a poor fellow, the rat is carrying such a load ... And he is loved and worshipped all over India, most particularly in Maharashtra. Morarji Desai should consult Shiva about how he managed to teach the rat to carry Ganesh.

So nobody can say that it is a simple matter, "just kill those rats." Anybody who says that most probably will be killed. Particularly no politician is going to take the risk, because then who is going to vote for him? Being against the rat, no politician can win. And the rat has been doing so much harm that just ten years more and he will finish everything and leave this country a graveyard. But still the politicians will not take any step.

More about rats: "The rat has been used as a symbol of the cosmos. The head, neck, and body signify the upper planes of atma, which means self; buddhi, which means intelligence; and higher manas, the awareness, consciousness. Each leg of the rat represents a different plane: the lower manas, the lower mind, the astral mind, the ethereal mind, and other physical aspects."

These idiots who go on making such metaphors and symbols should be imprisoned and punished, but they are worshipped and respected as great scholars.

"The Dakotan explanation for why the moon wanes is that it is eaten by a multitude of rats. In Germanic belief, the soul assumes the form of a rat or mouse, and in this form may come forth from a sleeper's mouth."

So beware! Never allow your mouth to open in your sleep. The rat may escape.

I have heard a story that Nancy Reagan phoned her doctor, "Come quickly! A rat has entered into snoring Ronald's mouth!"

The doctor said, "I am coming, but it will take a few minutes. Meanwhile you do one thing, hold a small piece of cheese over his mouth. Perhaps the rat may come back out."

When the doctor arrived after ten minutes, he could not believe his eyes. Nancy was waving a cat over Ronald's face. He said, "My God, this way the rat will go even deeper! I told you to hold a piece of cheese!"

She said, "I did, but the rat pulled the cheese in! Now I am holding the cat to pull the rat and the cheese both out. Now that you have come, I can relax, you do the work!"

But this really was a religious belief in Germany.

Obviously the soul must enter from somewhere and must get out from somewhere; some door is needed, and the mouth seems to be the right place for it. If you are sleeping with somebody else, then it is even more dangerous -- somebody else's rat may enter your mouth. Always keep your mouth shut, for safety and security. Neither allow the inner one to go out, nor allow an outside one to come in!

"The name of the rat is taboo in some parts of Europe. In Bohemia a white mouse should not be killed, it should be taken out of the trap and fed. Otherwise luck will desert the house and other rats will increase in number. Sometimes spells are used to keep down the number of rats.

Elsewhere four pairs of rats are married and set adrift -- with the idea that this will cause the other rats to go away."

When they see that the others are going on their honeymoon ... just get your own boat and go on a honeymoon too. Why are you wasting your life unnecessarily in those dark holes, when others are enjoying the fresh air on the river? The idea seems to be good.

"Rats are an omen of death in Austria. In other places they are a good omen.

In Zoroastrianism the rat is an evil animal, and the killing of one rat equals in merit the slaying of four lions."

So don't be worried -- if you are a rat, you are equal to four lions. If your wife calls you a rat, she is saying, "You are equal to four lions."

"In Jewish folklore, eating anything gnawed by a rat causes loss of memory. Thus cats, which eat rats, don't remember their masters."

Rats destroy the memory system; that's why cats go on forgetting who is their master. Dogs never eat rats so they always remember their master.

And simultaneously Anando is also contributing something to Avirbhava's Museum of Gods, the monkey.

The monkey has also been a problem in India. You cannot shoot a monkey -- a monkey can shoot you, there is no constitutional law against that.

In the capital of North India, Lucknow, there is a very beautiful temple of the monkey-god Hanuman. Surrounded by great trees, it is a very ancient temple, and hundreds of monkeys live on those trees. People go with food, flowers, sweets, and those monkeys ... of course Hanuman is just a stone monkey, but the real monkeys are all around and they are flourishing, becoming stronger.

Something happened suddenly in 1955. Nobody knows the actual cause, but the monkeys became violent at the sight of any kind of uniform. So the policeman, the postman, the military man, the sannyasin ... none of them could pass down that street. Those monkeys would jump on them and hit them hard, tear away their clothes and they would have to run naked, oozing blood, down a main street in Lucknow. And the assembly of Lucknow could not decide what to do.

It is something strange that both monkeys and dogs are against uniforms -- both seem to be very revolutionary. Uniformed people are very orthodox, all just imitating each other. Dogs immediately start barking when they see the postman or the policeman or the sannyasin; anybody who wears a uniform provokes dogs and monkeys to fight against this traditionalism.

It used to be that monkeys only made faces and threatened from the trees. But in Lucknow -- perhaps somebody had hurt them, nobody knows the cause -- for fifteen days they made such a chaos that the whole market had to be closed. And the government could not decide to shoot those monkeys, because if they were shot the whole Hindu population's religious heart would be hurt. But since nobody came on that road anymore, those monkeys came to their senses -- because now no more food was available. So finally they decided not to harm people any longer. They could see the point -- if nobody passes on the road, nobody comes to the temple, they don't get any food or flowers. Otherwise they were the blessed monkeys, very rich.

Seeing the situation, after fifteen days they had to surrender. Slowly, slowly people started opening their shops again, moving on the street, cautiously at first. And the government had alerted the people that nobody should shoot a monkey. Rather than calling the army to shoot the monkeys, they ordered people, "If you shoot a monkey you will be thought a criminal, and you will be treated just as if you have shot a man. No distinction will be made!"

These poor politicians are ruling all over the world, and they are ruled by all kinds of superstitions and stupidities.

"Zoolatry, or the worship of animals, is not uncommon in the East. The monkey is among those animals worshipped, like the tiger and the snake, out of fear.

It is said that the monkey is a symbol of the lower mind which imitates or reflects the higher, or represents the automatic mind. The monkey god, Hanuman, son of Vayu, the god of winds, is worshipped today in India. He is a symbol of the intellect which comes from the higher mind, Vayu.

And in the orthodox villages in India the monkey is always free from harm and is magic. Its magic influence is implored against the whirlwind, and it is also invoked to avert sterility. The bones of monkeys are said to pollute the ground. Mentioning a monkey brings starvation for the rest of the day, but it is regarded as lucky to keep one in the stable.

It is seriously believed in Africa and South America that monkeys can talk, but do not for fear of being made to work."

That is really good ... if they talk there is every danger man will force them to work. It is better to keep quiet.

I have heard about a small child who would not talk. He was taken to this psychologist, to that psychiatrist, to a psychoanalyst ... nobody could get him to utter a single word. He could hear perfectly well; he was checked, his ears were perfect. But he would not show even a sign from his eyes or face that he had heard anything.

But one day at the dining table he said to his mother, "Where's the salt?"

The mother said, "My God, you have never spoken before."

He said, "Nothing was ever missing before, why should I have spoken? I heard all those psychoanalysts and psychiatrists and all the nonsense they were talking. But to speak means going to school, and I hate school. It's just because of the salt that I had to speak now, in spite of myself. But this is just between me and you, don't tell anybody. I am never going to speak again, so nobody would believe you anyway."

There was not a witness, either. The mother was at a loss. She told her husband, but the husband said, "It is not possible, six years silence and suddenly ... You will have to give me proof. Make him speak again."

But he would not speak, he had made the point clear that speaking meant going to school.

This idea in South America and South Africa -- both faraway places -- is that monkeys understand your language, but they will not speak just out of fear that they would be forced to work.

"Another story suggests that apes carry off women to the woods. In many places respect for the monkey is based on the belief that it is the abode of the human spirit.

Among the Hottentots, the killer of a baboon has to sacrifice a sheep or goat and hang the lowest vertebrae around his neck, or he will suffer from lumbago. In China the monkey is regarded as lucky in that it keeps sickness away, while in Java an offering made to the king of the monkeys is believed to cure sterility."

Now, Avirbhava, bring your rat, and Anando, your monkeys.

Very meditative monkey!

Well, where are your small monkeys?

Just give a good clap, too.

Now, remove your gods. Just ask all the sannyasins around the world to find out about all the animals that have been worshipped by human beings -- to show to everyone what kind of past we have had. And there are still people who are worshipping animals.

Religion has been reduced to such nonsense. And the harm is that people become involved in these absolutely absurd ideas and forget completely about themselves. The only religion is the religion of being conscious. All other religions are simply toys for children.

But we go on living unconsciously, without seeing what people are doing. They celebrate monkeys, elephants, they worship even rats. This is such an undignified state of affairs that it has to be changed completely.

So Avirbhava's Museum of Gods will be immensely significant for visitors -- to show them, "This is your past, this is your religion, and this is still your present. You cannot simply say that it is past. And do you want to realize yourself through rats?"

This museum will provide a great insight to anybody who comes here without any prejudice. But it will bring many law cases against me, although we are not harming their gods -- they will be taken care of -- we are just putting them in a museum, where all your scriptures and all your ideologies also belong.

We want a complete break from the past so that man can have his wings to fly into the sky of consciousness, absolutely free. That is the revolution of Zen.

This is the way the authentic master speaks, even knowing perfectly well that he is doing something wrong. Speaking about the truth is not right, but it is absolutely necessary to give some indication. Words are used not for themselves, but to indicate the wordless; sounds are used to indicate the soundless, the silence.

Yun-Men says:

He is asking your forgiveness.

He is saying that in your innermost being the unknown, the miraculous, the buddha, lives. It cannot be burned. Your consciousness cannot be burned or destroyed by any other means. It is indestructible. He is not referring to your body. Your body may be burned, you cannot pass through fire; you may be drowned in water. He is referring to your innermost being -- of which you are unaware -- which is the source of your life.

In meditation you have to find that space, that clear sky, and then a metamorphosis, a revolution, happens on its own accord. You start changing without any effort because of the new clarity, the new light, the new experience, the new acquaintance with yourself. The whole existence becomes new.

A man who knows himself cannot worship rats, a man who knows himself cannot worship monkeys or elephants, a man who knows himself cannot worship at all! -- because worship is outward. He cannot pray at all, because all prayers are addressed to somebody else. He can only meditate, he can only be silently drowned in his own splendor -- which is not his own.

Slowly, slowly as meditation deepens he becomes aware that it is the splendor of our whole universe.

We are not only parts, we are one with the whole. The whole expresses itself in many ways, then everything becomes divine; the very earth you are sitting on becomes divine, and whatever you are doing becomes divine. But first you have to find the divine element within yourself. It is not a belief system; it is an inquiry, it is as scientific an investigation as any science can claim.

In fact no science is as scientific as meditation, because all sciences deny the existence of the scientist. They are experimenting with things, but they don't want to say anything about who is working inside them, about what it is. On that point they remain absolutely silent because it cannot be made objective, it cannot be put on their table so they can dissect it and find all the elements in it; it is non-material.

Hence the scientist is bound to remain with the superstition that the world is only objective, that the world has only the outside. Can you see the irrationality in it? The outside can exist only if there is an inside. If you deny the inside you cannot accept the outside, they both come together. The mystic is more scientific in the way he accepts the beauty of the world, the universe, and the way he accepts the beauty and splendor of his own being.

Ryokan wrote:

Don't go anywhere, just go in.

And Ekon's haiku, so small, but so immensely beautiful:

If you can feel the joy in the morning, if you can feel the joy of being alive, every breath becomes a blessing, is a blessing. If you can see sleep as a great rest and relaxation in the evening, what else do you want?

In your insight everything becomes a joy and everything points to the same moon, the same truth.

Question 1

Maneesha has asked:

Maneesha, it means many things. It certainly means that my assembly of buddhas has become juicier, it has become more alert, less judgmental, more experimental. It also means that when you are all so deeply involved, I don't have to look at my watch. When I see somebody disturbed, fidgeting, feeling that it is too late, only then have I looked at my watch. I haven't looked at it for years.

Sometimes it doesn't show the time at all, there is nothing to look at. One day Shunyo reminded me, "Your watch ... it is seven and your watch is saying four."

I said, "It does not matter."

As my days are becoming fewer and fewer on this earth, nothing matters except one thing: that I should pour myself into you as much as possible. Tomorrow I may not be here, so I should complete the celebration today. Tomorrow you may have to celebrate alone.

The whole credit goes to Ronald Reagan. Poisoning me he has taken away from you at least twenty years of my life. I am fighting with the poison and it has been a good challenge for me, but for you it can be a loss any moment. I am just living on the fringe. So when I go to sleep I say good-bye to the world, because I don't know for certain that tomorrow morning I will wake up. When I wake up I am amazed that there is one more day, one more celebration, one more day to laugh with my people, to be part of their silences, to have my heart beat with their hearts. Looking at the watch has become irrelevant.

I go on wearing the watch so that you don't become afraid. Because if I don't wear the watch, you can be certain that my time is up.

Now something really serious:

Magnus Marx wants to buy a talking parrot for his wife's birthday. He hears that a rare Brazilian banana-parrot is being auctioned, so he goes to the salesroom to have a look at it.

The auctioneer puts the bird up on the stand in front of the crowded sales room.

"Twenty-five dollars," bids Magnus.

"Thirty-five!" comes another bidder.

Magnus bids again, "Forty dollars!"

"Fifty!" cries the other bidder.

Ten minutes later, a sweating Magnus hands over two hundred dollars to the auctioneer.

"That's a wonderful parrot you have bought, sir," says the auctioneer as he pockets the money.

"I know he is beautiful," agrees Magnus. "But there is just one thing I forgot to ask before -- does this bird talk?"

"Talk?" repeats the auctioneer. "For the last ten minutes he has been bidding against you!"

Sluggo, the deaf-mute gangster, is discovered to be stealing money regularly from the local mafia godfather. Sluggo runs to the priest and begs in sign-language for protection.

Father Finger agrees to protect him, then arranges a meeting with the mafia godfather. The mafia chieftain, upon seeing Sluggo, becomes so enraged that he pulls out his pistol, puts it against Sluggo's head and says to Father Finger, "Tell him that if he does not say where that million dollars is, I will finish him right here!"

"Did you say one million dollars?" asks Father Finger.

"Yeah, that's right," shouts the fuming ganglord, waving his gun madly. "Now tell him to talk, or die!"

Finger turns to Sluggo and signs him a message. The deaf-mute, trembling with fear, signs back to the priest that the money is hidden in a cardboard box in the basement of his apartment building.

"Really?" exclaims Father Finger aloud.

"Well?" roars the mafia godfather. "What the hell is he saying?"

"He says," replies Father Finger quietly, "that you don't have the balls to pull the trigger!"

Larry and Lottie Loveditch, the middle-aged suburban couple, are spending Saturday afternoon gardening.

Lottie looks tense and uneasy until suddenly she throws down her clippers, stomps over to her husband and kicks him hard on the bum.

"What is that for?" asks a puzzled Larry.

"That is for being a lousy lover!" screams Lottie.

Larry rubs his backside and goes back to digging the weeds. Five minutes later he drops his shovel, storms over to his wife and kicks her into the bushes.

"You monster!" screams Lottie. "What was the reason for that?"

"That," replies Larry, "was for knowing the difference."

Nivedano, give the beat ...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent,

close your eyes,

feel the body to be frozen.

No movement ...

Just settle in,

deeper and deeper.

This is the only temple.

This silent space is the only buddha.

This is it! Remember.

To make it more clear, Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Relax, let go,

just be a watcher. The body is there,

the mind is there,

you are simply aware of them.

This awareness is beyond life and death.

This awareness

is the meaning of the word 'buddha'.

Drink as much of it as possible,

be drenched,

carry out this awareness around the clock

and your life will become a beautitude,

a great bliss,

an ecstasy, a revolution.

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Come back ...

Slowly, gracefully ...

Carrying the experience with you.

Forgetfulness of this experience

is the only sin in the world,

and to live in awareness is the only virtue.

All else is commentary.

The simple truth is to be, and to be aware,

and you have come home.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.

Can we celebrate the gathering of the buddhas?

Yes, Beloved Master!