One cannot have a problem
BELOVED OSHO,
AFTER A LECTURE TO THE MONKS ONE MORNING, YAKUSAN WAS APPROACHED BY A MONK, WHO SAID, "I HAVE A PROBLEM. WILL YOU SOLVE IT FOR ME?"
"I WILL SOLVE IT AT THE NEXT LECTURE," YAKUSAN ANSWERED.
THAT EVENING, WHEN ALL THE MONKS HAD GATHERED IN THE HALL, YAKUSAN CALLED OUT LOUDLY, "THE MONK WHO TOLD ME THIS MORNING HE HAD A PROBLEM, COME UP HERE IMMEDIATELY!"
AS SOON AS THE MONK STEPPED FORWARD TO STAND IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE, THE MASTER LEFT HIS SEAT AND ROUGHLY TOOK HOLD OF THE MONK.
"LOOK!" HE SAID. "THIS FELLOW HAS A PROBLEM!"
HE THEN PUSHED THE MONK ASIDE AND RETURNED TO HIS ROOM WITHOUT GIVING THE EVENING LECTURE.
WHEN KYOZAN WAS LIVING AT KANNON TEMPLE, HE PUT UP A NOTICE-BOARD ON WHICH IT SAID, "NO QUESTIONS WHILE SUTRAS ARE BEING READ!"
A MONK CAME TO VISIT THE MASTER, AND JUST AT THAT TIME KYOZAN WAS READING THE SUTRA, SO THE MONK STOOD BESIDE HIM UNTIL KYOZAN HAD FINISHED READING AND ROLLED UP THE SUTRA.
KYOZAN SAID, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
THE MONK REPLIED, "I WAS NOT READING THE SUTRA - HOW COULD I UNDERSTAND IT?"
KYOZAN SAID, "YOU WILL UNDERSTAND LATER."
THE MONK AFTERWARDS BROUGHT THE MATTER UP TO GONTO, WHO SAID, "THAT OLD ROSHI! WHAT I THINK IS THAT, PROPERLY SPEAKING, THOSE OLD SCRAPS OF PAPER THAT WERE BURIED ARE STILL WITH US."
Zen is not in the anecdotes. It is just like a fragrance around a roseflower: you cannot catch hold of it, but you can smell it. Zen needs sensitivity - not intellectual, not of the mind, but of your total being.
These anecdotes from different angles point to the same thing.
AFTER A LECTURE TO THE MONKS ONE MORNING, YAKUSAN WAS APPROACHED BY A MONK, WHO SAID, "I HAVE A PROBLEM. WILL YOU SOLVE IT FOR ME?"
In the first place, nobody can solve anybody else's problem. Deep down you don't have a problem at all, because you are the answer. How can you have a problem? The mind is full of problems, but the mind is not your reality.
Yakusan must have been a very compassionate master. He said, "I WILL SOLVE IT AT THE NEXT LECTURE."
He is giving time to the monk to see the point. The next lecture means tomorrow, so it means that which never comes. "Drop the problem here! Don't wait for the answer to come from outside sometime in the future."
But Yakusan is known to be very kind. He said, "I WILL SOLVE IT AT THE NEXT LECTURE."
THAT EVENING, WHEN ALL THE MONKS HAD GATHERED IN THE HALL, YAKUSAN CALLED OUT LOUDLY, "THE MONK WHO TOLD ME THIS MORNING HE HAD A PROBLEM, COME UP HERE IMMEDIATELY!"
AS SOON AS THE MONK STEPPED FORWARD TO STAND IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE, THE MASTER LEFT HIS SEAT AND ROUGHLY TOOK HOLD OF THE MONK.
"LOOK!" HE SAID. "THIS FELLOW HAS A PROBLEM!"
HE THEN PUSHED THE MONK ASIDE AND RETURNED TO HIS ROOM WITHOUT GIVING THE EVENING LECTURE.
He has answered in that immediacy, when he called the monk to come before the audience.
AS SOON AS THE MONK STEPPED FORWARD TO STAND IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE, THE MASTER LEFT HIS SEAT AND ROUGHLY TOOK HOLD OF THE MONK.
"LOOK, THIS FELLOW HAS A PROBLEM!"
This is a very strange thing, because one cannot have a problem! One simply is. All problems are imposed by others on you: you are born as innocence. Innocence has immense clarity to see the wonder that surrounds you, but it has no problems. The questioning will be taught at a later stage, because without questions the mind cannot exist. Mind is nothing but another name for questioning.
You can try a small thing as an experiment. If you go backwards in time, you will stop somewhere near the age of three or four. Beyond that your memory has not recorded anything. It simply means the first three or four years you lived in tremendous innocence, surrounded by the beauty of the world, of the people, of the trees, of the ocean; not asking why, but simply being together with whatever surrounds you, enjoying, rejoicing, dancing. Mind has not come in yet.
Our whole educational system is programmed to create the mind in you and to destroy the wonder, to destroy the poetry of your life and to force you to understand the prose and the prosaic.
Yakusan was right when he told the audience, "LOOK, THIS FELLOW HAS A PROBLEM!" Not even the bamboos have problems. This is a strange fellow! And standing before a silent audience of disciples, the poor monk must have forgotten at least for a split second his mind and his problem.
This was the strategy of Yakusan; he has given the answer without uttering even a single word.
Without even asking, "What is the problem?" he has answered it. And because he has answered a great problem, HE THEN PUSHED THE MONK ASIDE. By his gesture he is saying, "Push the mind aside!" AND RETURNED TO HIS ROOM WITHOUT GIVING THE EVENING LECTURE. Returning to his room simply means returning to his inner being, indicating to everybody, "Return to your inner being."
Now, there is nothing else to be said. In a small anecdote so much is throbbing, and with so much intensity. If you can be immediate, you can get the taste of your own being. You can feel this silence.
WHEN KYOZAN WAS LIVING AT KANNON, HE PUT UP A NOTICE-BOARD ON WHICH IT SAID,
"NO QUESTIONS WHILE SUTRAS ARE BEING READ!"
The sutras are Buddhist scriptures.
A MONK CAME TO VISIT THE MASTER, AND JUST AT THAT TIME KYOZAN WAS READING THE SUTRA, SO THE MONK STOOD BESIDE HIM UNTIL KYOZAN HAD FINISHED READING AND ROLLED UP THE SUTRA.
KYOZAN SAID, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
THE MONK REPLIED, "I WAS NOT READING THE SUTRA - HOW COULD I UNDERSTAND IT?"
The monk missed the great opportunity of understanding. The truth is not written in the sutra, but in closing the sutra, in dropping all the past, howsoever beautiful.
When he closed the sutra, he was indicating that when you are finished with all sutras, understanding arises on its own. It does not come out of any book, any scripture, any sutra. That's why he asked a very absurd question, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
The poor monk was just waiting to ask something, waiting for when the reading of the sutra was finished and he could ask the question. But the master is always ahead of the disciple; before he could utter even a single word, KYOZAN SAID, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
THE MONK REPLIED, "I WAS NOT READING THE SUTRA - HOW COULD I UNDERSTAND IT?"
The monk is showing his mediocre mind, showing that he does not understand the language of those who know, is showing his ignorance without even being aware that if Kyozan asks, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" he perfectly knows that he was reading the sutra, rather than the monk. But when in the close proximity of a disciple the master closes the sutra, he is saying something without saying it. He is saying, "The moment you are free of sutras, you are free of mind and all your problems will disappear. Please don't ask them!"
KYOZAN SAID, "YOU WILL UNDERSTAND LATER."
This moment you missed; I had given you a great opportunity of my presence and my silence, I did everything to show you that the sutra has to be finished. Unfortunately you missed, but don't be worried, you will understand later.
THE MONK AFTERWARDS BROUGHT THE MATTER UP TO GONTO, WHO SAID, "THAT OLD ROSHI!" 'Roshi' means the master, the old master. "WHAT I THINK IS THAT, PROPERLY SPEAKING, THOSE OLD SCRAPS OF PAPER THAT WERE BURIED ARE STILL WITH US."
Now he is taking the monk to the same space which he missed when Kyozan closed the sutra. He is saying that, "We are still filled with OLD SCRAPS OF PAPER THAT WERE BURIED: they are still within us. That's why you missed that opportunity, a great opportunity. Otherwise you would have found the answer: you are the answer!"
Question 1:
Maneesha has asked:
BELOVED OSHO,
THAT POOR MONK WAS NOT LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE HERE IN BUDDHA HALL, BECAUSE MY EXPERIENCE IS THAT PROBLEMS SELDOM SHOW THEIR FACE WHEN YOU ARE AROUND.
THEY JUST SCUTTLE AWAY, FEELING VERY PETTY AND OUT OF PLACE, AND ONLY SLOWLY RE-EMERGE HOURS LATER.
Maneesha, you are right, because everyone who is here is here out of an intense longing to know, to feel, to be. With me, the moment your heartbeat synchronizes, your problems start disappearing.
But you have to be aware, because they don't go far away; they just wait outside Buddha Hall. This is the tragedy: when you are going out of Buddha Hall, they jump up again.
I am reminded of a man who had gone to Ramakrishna, asking for his blessings, because he was going to Kashi, the holy place for the Hindus, to have a dip in the holy Ganges - although the same Ganges was flowing by the side of Ramakrishna's hut. The man said, "Bless me, I am going to Kashi to take a holy dip."
Ramakrishna was a very simple man, a villager, but a man of great insight. He said to the man, "I have no objection: I can bless you, but I have to remind you about one thing. Have you seen that by the side of the Ganges there are tall trees?"
He said, "Yes."
Ramakrishna said, "When you take the dip in the Ganges, it is true, all your sins will jump out of your head; but they are not finished. How long can you remain immersed in the water of the Ganges?
Sometime you will have to come out."
The man said, "Sometime? Even a few seconds are enough. But why are you saying that?"
Ramakrishna said, "Remember those tall trees. All the sins are sitting there, waiting for you to come out. Then they jump on you, and my experience is that sometimes even other people's sins which are left sitting... because once in a while a person takes a dip and dies. Now where do his sins go?
They will wait on the trees for some other idiot and will immediately jump on you. So rather than depending on the Ganges, just take a dip here. And remember, by taking a dip you cannot get rid of your sins."
The word 'sin' is very significant. Christianity has corrupted it. In origin it means 'forgetfulness'.
According to me, except for forgetfulness there is no sin: and except for awareness there is no virtue.
And if you are aware, there are no sins and no problems; nothing has to be solved, everything is exactly as it should be.
Can't you feel this holy Ganges of silence you are all drowned in? But when you get out of Buddha Hall, be very careful. Don't let your old mind and your old self take possession of you. It is waiting there, just by the side of the bamboos.
I have placed bamboos around Buddha Hall, so that your problems, your sins can have a resting place. Avoid! Let them rest there, they cannot do any harm to the bamboos - particularly to bamboos, because bamboos are so hollow; they will get lost in the hollowness of the bamboos.
Meanwhile you escape to your inner room.
The bamboos are asking for a few laughs. Even the clouds are not silent. A few laughs before we enter into our daily meditation.
A New Age musician from California is convinced that wild animals have a friendly, loving nature, which will respond to beautiful music.
To test his theory, he goes to the African jungle, finds a clearing in the forest, and starts to softly play his guitar. Within minutes, from out of the jungle, animals of all shapes and sizes begin to appear. Monkeys, snakes, giraffes, zebras, lions, and hippos, all are sitting together in the clearing, enchanted by the soft music.
Suddenly, there is a banging and crashing in the bushes and an old crocodile comes lumbering out of the forest. He stops, looks at the guy, opens his huge jaws, and - snap - swallows the poor musician in one bite. The other animals are furious.
"Look here, you idiot," roars the lion. "We were enjoying that!"
The crocodile looks at him blankly, puts a hand to his ear and says, "What?!"
At the Russian Intercontinental Nuclear Missile Control Center, a drunken soldier is dusting the missile control panel.
Suddenly an enraged Russian general comes puffing and panting into the room.
"What are you doing, you son-of-a-bitch?" he shouts.
"I am dusting the control panel," hiccups the soldier drunkenly.
"Okay," snaps the general, "then where the hell has England gone?"
Henri, the gallant Frenchman, has a new girlfriend called Sylvie, and he is crazy about her.
One afternoon Sylvie is waiting for him in bed in her Paris apartment, when Henri comes in. He is overcome by passion, takes off his hat and throws it out of the open window. Then he takes off his new coat and throws that out too. Sylvie shrieks with delight. Then Henri takes off his shoes and throws them out too.
"Henri, cheri," cries Sylvie, "what are you doing? Don't throw away your beautiful new clothes!"
"Do not worry, my darling," replies Henri. "By the time I am finished they will all have gone out of fashion!"
After he has left the White House, Ronald Reagan is still hankering for public office, so he decides to run for sheriff in a small rural community in California.
He sets out to visit all the farms in the neighborhood, and carries a notebook to mark down the results of each visit.
At one farmhouse, as he gets out of his car, he is met by Grandma Gittelman, holding a broom.
Grandma takes one look to see who it is and starts shouting, "Get out of here, you bum!"
"Wait," says Reagan, "I just came to ask if you would vote for me as county sheriff."
"Vote for YOU?" scoffs grandma. "You are not fit to walk the streets. You should be locked up! Now get lost."
Ronald Reagan gets back in his car and drives off fast down the road. When he gets a safe distance away he takes out his notebook and looks up Grandma Gittelman's name. Opposite it he writes:
"doubtful."
Now, the first step of throwing out all your rubbish, gibberish, insanity. Rupesh, give the beat and everybody goes crazy...
(Drumbeat)
(Gibberish)
Rupesh...
(Drumbeat)
Be silent,
close your eyes, no movement,
just go in.
This is the holy temple of your being.
Rupesh, give the beat...
(Drumbeat)
Everybody dies.
Die totally to the past, so you can be reborn.
Resurrection is possible
only if you die to the past.
You can live every moment totally new.
There is no other life than now!
This is the quantum leap
from mind to no-mind.
Go deeper, deeper, deeper.
Don't be afraid,
it is your own being, your own sky!
Rupesh, give the beat, bring everyone back to life...
(Drumbeat)
Come back,
fresh, alive, radiant, centered,
a joy unto yourself, a peace that passeth
understanding.
This is your splendor, your glory,
this is your prayer and your gratitude
to existence.
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.
Can we celebrate now?
YES!