Zen is love

Anando, it is a great moment of rejoicing that finally Basui has come home.

Old habits die hard. He is now a master, but here and there, a few pieces from before, from when he was just a teacher, are still present. Now they can be avoided, or they can be given the right direction. But the man has arrived. He has started speaking out of his own experience. He is no longer a parrot.

To be a parrot is so easy, just to repeat somebody else, to be an echo. But to be a master needs a steel spine - to be oneself and to be utterly aware so that nothing enters and pollutes your purity.

The master is perhaps the most miraculous, the most magical phenomenon in existence.

He knows and he cannot say he knows. He is and he goes on saying that he has disappeared. He discovers the buddha in himself, perfect - but he has to say that he has become a buddha. But nobody becomes a buddha. It is not some kind of graduation, education, discipline or practice. But the difficulty of the master is that he has to use words that you can understand.

But now I can see and I will tell you where the points are which make me certain about Basui.

Although he has been long away, falling and rising, moving on this way or that way - his night has been long and dark - finally he has reached to the sunrise. It is light all over.

The moment you are enlightened, the whole existence is enlightened. And even if old habits are there, your new experience will express itself from nooks and corners of your old habits. It is just like a house which is dark and suddenly you bring a light inside. The walls may hide that the house has light now, but the windows, even the closed windows will show that that light has arrived. The house is no longer dark.

The situation is similar in the case of a teacher. An innocent man moves very easily into masterhood, because for him to be a disciple is a very simple and spontaneous act of love. But for the scholar it is difficult, and the more profound his scholarship is, the harder it is for him to even think that anybody else can know more than he knows - and he knows nothing. All that he considers knowledge is just crammed by the memory. Somebody else may have experienced it, but he is just a repetition. He is not the original man. I was hoping that some day Basui would say something that would reveal his splendor and his glory.

You have to remember that because of his profound scholarship, the statements are mixed up.

When he says, IF YOU WOULD FREE YOURSELF OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SIX REALMS, YOU MUST LEARN THE DIRECT WAY TO BECOME A BUDDHA, he is for the first time speaking of the direct way, the only one way, the way in.

You don't have to wander around the world. Just a small turning in is enough, and all that you have longed for, for lives, is suddenly revealed to be your own self. You were searching for yourself, and that was your suffering: you could not find yourself. You could not find yourself in riches, or in power; you could not find your so-called love. You have looked everywhere, you have walked thousands of ways in thousands of lives, but you have never reached to yourself. This is the basic suffering:

not to know yourself. Not to be aware of your eternity is the only misery - all miseries are small expressions of it.

But now Basui says there is a direct way. The direct way is simply to close your eyes and turn inwards. Forget the world as if it is a dream. It does not mean that it is a dream, it is just a way to concentrate your whole life energy inwards. Forget the whole world as if it is a dream, as if it does not exist. Only you are - then the whole energy starts flowing towards your center. There is nowhere to go; all doors are closed.

There is a very strange story of the Jaina tirthankara, Mahavira....

He remained for twelve years in absolute silence. He would not even indicate anything, or make any sign, because that is again a language, you are conveying something, some message. He did not convey a message, he did not ask a thing. For twelve years, he remained naked in the deep forest.

One day it happened that he was standing there by the side of the river, and a man who was looking after many cows had brought them to the river to drink water and he found Mahavira.

He asked him again and again, "Are you going to stay here?" But Mahavira would simply look at him and not say anything - no emotion even on his face to show that he had heard.

The man said, "I have to go urgently, I have just been informed that my house is on fire. And I cannot take all these cows, I have to run! So you please take care of my cows. Anyway, you are not doing anything, just standing naked like an idiot - at least you can take care of my cows. I will be coming back soon!"

The man was very much amazed that Mahavira did not show any sign, whether he was deaf or not. He shouted, but there was no effect. He had to run, his house was on fire. So he said, "Okay, whether you say anything or not, I assume that you will look after my cows. But if you don't, you will find that I am a very evil man!"

But there was no sign of response. Nobody has lived in silence like Mahavira.

The man went home. And hours later, by the evening, he came back. Mahavira was still standing in his place, but all the cows were gone.

He asked, "Where are the cows?" But he was as deaf as before.

The man said, "This is such a weird man. At least he could tell me where my cows have gone. If he does not want to speak, he could indicate by his finger where they are."

But Mahavira would not use even his hand because that is also a language; a gesture is also a language. He was very clear about it, that no language means no language.

The man ran around and found all the cows gathered behind the bushes. So he thought, "This man is very clever and cunning. He is hiding the cows behind the bushes and when the sun sets and it is dark, he will take them all away."

It was a natural conclusion for an ordinary man. And he was getting enraged because Mahavira was not answering. He could not conceive that somebody could be in such silence.

So he got burning torches and said to Mahavira, "Up to now you have been pretending that you cannot hear, but from now on you will not be able to hear." And he forced the burning torches into both his ears. Mahavira did not say anything.

The man was very much puzzled. But now nothing could be done, he had destroyed his ears.

Perhaps he was wrong, perhaps he was unnecessarily doubting the man.

It is a mythological story from this point onwards. Up to here it seems to be factual, because Mahavira remained deaf after this time, and his ears remained burned, but after this the disciples must have elaborated it. I don't want you to believe in the elaboration, but it is significant to know it....

The god Indra, who rules over the clouds and the rainbows, saw all this happening and felt very sad and sorry for poor Mahavira, who had never done any harm to anybody. He thought, "He needs a bodyguard at least." So he came down.

With him it was possible, without using any language, without using the body or the mind, to have contact, communication. It was not against silence, it was beyond silence.

The communication was that Indra, without speaking, not visible or audible to anybody, said, "I feel very sorry for you. I would like to appoint one or two bodyguards because you remain absolutely silent; anybody can do harm to you."

Mahavira communicated, "This man has done me a great service. Up to now my silence was only half. I was not speaking but I was hearing, and the hearing was also a disturbance. I'm grateful to him that he destroyed my ears; I don't need any guard, because the guard can only defend my body, not me. Nobody can harm me - you know it. So don't be unnecessarily worried, be at peace and go back to your work.

This part seems to be mythological because there is no god of the clouds and rainbows, but it is significant in the sense that Mahavira was not angry. On the contrary he said, "Up to now, my silence was only half - I was not speaking but others were speaking and I was hearing. And nature has not provided any way to close your ears just as you close your eyes, so he was certainly a very good man and he has done me a great service. He has now made my silence complete."

Such silence, which is complete, is the direct way.

The word 'mind' is from his old habit as a teacher, but he is using it with a capital M, and that is equivalent to no-mind. The old mind is no longer there, but he uses the word out of habit.

Teachers have used, instead of mind, transcendental mind, Mind with a capital M. But a man who is not a scholar will simply say, "There is no mind anymore... why do you even talk of transcendental mind?"

That which is not - you cannot transcend it. He is still carrying dead bones; what he wants to say is right, but his old habits of speaking are there and he is still using them.

He says, THE DIRECT WAY TO BECOME A BUDDHA...

But nobody ever becomes a buddha. That is the language of the scholar, the teacher, the preacher, the philosopher. The experience of the existential man, the original man, is that you are always a buddha. You may not recognize it, you may even deny it, but that does not matter. A fish can deny the ocean because the fish has never known the ocean. It has been born in it, it has lived in it and one day it will disappear in it; it is just a solid wave.

There is an ancient Sufi story....

A young philosophically minded fish starts inquiring, "I have heard so much about the ocean. Where is the ocean?"

Nobody could answer. They were all in the ocean. All around was nothing but the ocean. An old fish said to the young philosopher, "Ocean and we are not separate. You are the ocean. We are just waves in the ocean."

You need not become a buddha. You have just to be silent, to experience that which is already there.

NOW, WHAT IS THIS MIND? - again, with a capital M. He is trying to make a distinction but it would have been better to ask, "What is this buddha-nature? What is this consciousness?" The word 'mind' can be deceptive.

IT IS THE TRUE NATURE OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS...

His description is correct, that's why I say he has come home - of course he is late, but he has arrived.

Now, something new, the original face, the ultimately original face. This is not a repetition. His old structure of language is broken down. Fragments of it will hang with him for a few days, perhaps more. But by and by they will drop, because the essential is grasped. It is called one's original face.

The buddha is your original face.

Now you can see what I mean, the old habits. Again, he brings the word 'mind' in. "The Mind is intrinsically pure." He should say that the no-mind is intrinsically pure. Mind is the impurity; no-mind is the purity. But he has to learn the ways of expressing as a master. He knows how to express as a teacher but he has now become a master. We can understand his difficulty.

The description shows that he has begun to see and feel.

Please, always replace his word 'mind' with 'no-mind'. I don't have to remind you again and again.

Whenever he says mind - you hear no-mind.

... YOU MUST FIRST OF ALL LOOK INTO THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THOUGHTS FLOW.

He is doing his best to get rid of his old scholarship and to bring a freshness to his expression, and once in a while he succeeds.

YOU MUST FIRST OF ALL LOOK INTO THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THOUGHTS FLOW.

SLEEPING AND WORKING, STANDING AND SITTING, PROFOUNDLY ASK YOURSELF...

This is an old habit. A man of understanding simply knows, there is no question, no answer. If you are still asking that means you have not found it.

He says:

There is no need. You are it. Experience it. Who are you questioning? Do you think anybody else will answer it? You can taste the sweetness of a fruit, you can smell the fragrance of a flower, but you cannot say what it is exactly in words. And this is a far deeper realm.

... WITH AN INTENSE YEARNING TO RESOLVE THIS QUESTION.

There is no question anymore. It is just his old habit, his old mind - the mechanical mind, which goes on repeating his old scholarship days.

THIS IS CALLED "TRAINING" OR "PRACTICE."

Once you see your self-nature, there is no practice and no training, or any desire for truth or thirst for realization. In the assembly of masters, he will look such a novice if he says, THIS IS CALLED "TRAINING" OR "PRACTICE" OR "DESIRE FOR TRUTH" OR "THIRST FOR REALIZATION."

If you have realized, there cannot remain any thirst for realization. Just drink a glass of pure water - which is difficult to find in Poona!

Existence plays strange games. It has made this place to awaken you, but it has no qualifications for it. If you drink even the polluted water of Poona, your thirst will be gone. You may have amoebas - that is another thing, not at all a concern of Zen. I have gone through the whole literature of Zen; they never talk of amoebas. But you know that you have to pass through the amoebas before you can reach to truth and become a buddha. You have to suffer amoebas. It is a new kind of hindrance imposed on the potential buddhas.

Gautam Buddha will be in difficulty. He will have to be hospitalized because he will not know anything of amoebas. This is a great speciality of Poona. But it is good; it wakes you up, it keeps you aware.

It helps you to become a watchful consciousness. Avoid amoebas!

Mind has to be dropped long before. You have to search into no-mind, into that silent space where you will meet yourself, your buddha.

It is not a prerequisite to becoming a buddha, it is a prerequisite to discovering the buddha. These are small differences of words but they show that the moment you talk about becoming, you are talking about a process of change. Becoming is change, but the moment you talk about being, you are talking about is-ness. There is no change. The buddha is your being, not your becoming. But I can understand Basui's difficulty; he is saying right things but in the wrong words.

I hope he will do a little more homework.

Jakuan wrote:

A master, in this simple statement, says the whole scripture: "Perfect melody - like wind among the pines of far-off slopes. Mind is washed sky clean: hear it beyond itself."

Another Zen expression:

You have heard too much about the buddha, now it is time to see the face.

Question 1:

Anando has asked:

Anando, when you love a person, you don't harass him by saying "I love you" again and again; otherwise, he will kill you. There is a limit to how much you can listen to "I love you." One gets fed up.

Just try it on any lover and see how long the love remains. The boyfriend or the girlfriend will disappear, because you can eat sweets but there is a limit, otherwise sickness will follow.

Zen never mentions love. My own understanding is that the man of Zen simply loves as he breathes.

It is not something special, there is no need to mention it. Don't you feel my love although I never say it? Do you want me to say it to you again and again?

Zen does not say it, that is a great indication that it understands. Love should not be said, but shown in every gesture - through your eyes, through your hands, through your silence. It should radiate around you. It is the same with compassion. It is not mentioned either.

Zen is not born in America, where there are great thinkers who can be great only in America, like Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill....

Dale Carnegie's books have been best-sellers in America, second only to The Holy Bible. He used to run classes and schools where people were taught that whether you love or not does not matter.

What matters is the word, the expression. Who can tell about the inside? Before going out of the house, kiss your wife and say, "I love you, sweetheart. I will miss you so much."

You may have other thoughts inside, absolutely contrary to this: "Now is the time to enjoy..." Or you may be thinking of your girlfriend! But that is all inside - your wife is not a mind reader. So just say it, and it does not cost anything to kiss her, at least three times a day. When you come back from the office, again kiss your wife and say to her, "I love you, darling." And again before going to bed; don't forget. These idiots like Dale Carnegie are thought to be great philosophers who are helping people in their relationships.

Real love has no words to express itself. Real love is a presence, you can feel it. It surrounds you like wind, it rains over you like rain. A roseflower does not say, "How beautiful I am." And if roseflowers start studying Dale Carnegie and start saying to you, "Where are you going, darling? I love you so much. And I'm so beautiful," you will have to say, "Shut up! Just be a flower - don't bother me!" - what else can you do?

Your question is very accurate. Zen is love, and Zen is compassion, but there is no need to make a manifesto, a declaration of it. In utter silence - the transmission of the lamp.

Now before you go in, I have to say a few jokes so that you can come back; otherwise, this world is not worth returning to. I make every effort that at least our small world is joyous, laughing, so that when you go in you will not remain there, you will bring the buddha out. You don't have to remain there. Just carry the buddha out - in your actions, in your feelings, in your love. But come out!

And just to make sure, I have to tell you a few jokes so you don't become serious and remain inside thinking the world is a dream. It is all a changing flux - "Why bother... nobody is going to miss me anyway, and it is so peaceful here..." From this peaceful space, going to the canteen is a quantum leap.

You are here being buddhas, and then seeing the same buddhas eating in the canteen - one is simply shocked. I don't know where your canteen is, I never go anywhere. Just so as not to see some buddha doing something which is not buddha-like, I keep myself closed in my room. I come only in the evening to see you, when you are ready to be buddhas - just for a few minutes, then you are free.

Kowalski is standing at the urinal quietly pissing, when he notices that he is being watched by a midget.

Kowalski continues his pissing, when suddenly he sees the midget dragging a stool up next to him.

The midget climbs up and proceeds to admire Kowalski's machinery from close by.

"Wow!" exclaims the midget. "You have the nicest balls I have ever seen."

"Well, er... thanks!" says Kowalski, surprised and flattered. Then he begins to move away.

"Listen," says the midget. "I know this is a rather strange request, but I wonder if you would mind if I touch them?"

Startled, Kowalski hesitates. But seeing no real harm in it, he says, "Okay."

Standing on his tip-toes on the stool, the midget reaches up and gets a good grip on Kowalski's balls. Then in a loud voice, the little guy yells, "Okay, buster! Hand over your wallet, or I will jump!"

Giovanni is holding his head in despair.

"It-a is a tragedy!" he exclaims to his friend, Luigi.

"Why-a?" asks Luigi.

"I come-a home last night, and what do I see?" says Giovanni. "My wife is-a in bed with a Chinese!"

"Really? What did-a you say?" asks Luigi.

"What could I say?" shouts Giovanni crazily. "I don't-a speak Chinese!"

Terry Turkeynose is snoring sweetly one night, when he starts dreaming that God is talking to him.

"Terry!" booms the voice of God. "I have big plans for you, so you had better clean up your act!"

The next morning, Terry races out of the house. He goes to the Facial Fixit Clinic, gets a nose job, a hair transplant, new teeth, a suntan, and then blows the rest of his money on some really snappy clothes.

He is walking home totally exhausted and aching after such a frantic day, when he hears a deep rumbling in the heavens above. Terry looks up nervously, and gets run over by a bus.

The next thing he knows, he's in Heaven, standing in front of Almighty God.

"Holy shit!" shouts Terry at God. "Are you nuts?"

"Hey, I'm sorry," says God, picking up Terry's new false teeth from the ground and giving them back to him.

"So why the hell did you put me through all that trouble," screams Terry, "and then rub me out!"

"Hey, look, man," booms God, "I said I'm sorry - I just did not recognize you!"

Okay, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes. Feel your body to be frozen.

Gather all your consciousness at the center of your being - not going out, but going in. As the consciousness goes inwards, it becomes very crystallized, and a great joy arises.

For the first time you feel you are blessed, because for the first time you are a buddha.

Let this recognition go deep into every fiber of your being, so that you can remain a buddha twenty- four hours.

It is such a joy, such a dance, such a beauty, such a grace to remain a buddha twenty-four hours. It is your own being, expressing itself in its glory and splendor.

Deeper and deeper...

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax. Let the body remain there, and the mind - but you are neither. You are just a pure consciousness, a no-mind, a watcher on the hills.

This is your original man.

The original man is the buddha.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back. Bring your experience with yourself...

Slowly, silently, gracefully, sit down just like a buddha, without any hesitation.

It is something that you had forgotten, it is remembered again. Recollect the experience of the inner space, the silence and the grandeur of it, the peace and the splendor of it...

These are the few moments which will prove the most precious in your life. And if you are alert enough, you will spread these moments all over your life and death, because the experience of the buddha within you is the experience of eternity within you.

Okay, Anando?

Yes, Beloved Master.

Can we celebrate the ten thousand buddhas?

Yes!