Zen is not a retail shop - it is wholesale

Maneesha, enlightenment is an instantaneous awareness, understanding; it has nothing to do with rational, philosophical, or theological mind. It is just a gesture, not a word. It is here, this very moment, the very essence of Zen.

This is a beautiful anecdote, particularly for this evening, when there is so much silence and the birds are singing and the bamboos are listening silently. Such moments cannot be reduced to language and the moment you reduce them, you destroy them. They are always virgin; that is their very essence.

SUIGAN, THINKING HE HAD ATTAINED SOMETHING OF ZEN...

Remember, it is very easy to think that you have attained something of Zen. But thinking has nothing to do with Zen. It is the barrier. If you think you have attained something of Zen, you have missed. Zen is a non-thinking, silent rejoicing within yourself, a dance of consciousness without any boundaries of words, thoughts.

Suigan was wrong from the very beginning when he thought that he had attained something of Zen.

Secondly, Zen is not possible to be attained in installments. It is absolutely un-American. Either you have it in its wholeness or you don't have it. But in parts, it is not available. Nothing can be done about it: this is the very nature of things.

So on both counts he was wrong. First, he thought, and Zen is beyond thinking; second, he thought that he had got something of Zen. You cannot get something of Zen. It never comes in parts and pieces: it is not a retail shop, it is wholesale. When it comes, it comes so totally that it leaves no space for any thought.

But SUIGAN, THINKING HE HAD ATTAINED SOMETHING OF ZEN LEFT JIMYO'S MONASTERY, his master. These anecdotes are being lived here again. We are not reading them, we are living them; there is no other way to understand them.

There are many sannyasins who have left, thinking they have attained something. Suigan is only symbolic. Somendra thinks he has attained something, Rajen thinks he has attained something.

And there are many Somendras and many Rajens.

Don't belong to that category any of you, because it is very easy for the mind to persuade you that you have attained it. Then you think, "What am I doing here?" Remember this, when your mind says, "My God, in what unknown space have I entered? I cannot figure out what it is - a taste, a sweetness, a fragrance, a joy, a song without words, a music without any instruments."

The old Chinese proverb is: 'When the musician becomes perfect, he throws away his instruments.

When the archer becomes perfect, he forgets about his bow and his arrows'. When a meditator comes to his very center, there is a dance, an immense blissfulness overflooding him, but there is no thought. Beware of thinking. That is your enemy number one.

SUIGAN, THINKING HE HAD ATTAINED SOMETHING OF ZEN, LEFT JIMYO'S MONASTERY, WHEN HE WAS STILL A YOUNG MONK, TO TRAVEL ALL OVER CHINA.

YEARS LATER, WHEN SUIGAN RETURNED TO VISIT THE MONASTERY, his old master asked, "TELL ME THE SUMMARY OF BUDDHISM."

These kinds of questions are very special to Zen: they don't say what you hear; they don't mean what you understand; they are only indications. Asking, "TELL ME THE SUMMARY OF BUDDHISM," he is not asking like a professor. Anybody can summarize, any scholar can do it. The master is not asking for the summary of Buddhism, he is asking you to show your understanding, "Have you arrived home? Have you got it?"

SUIGAN ANSWERED, and he missed again. This was the time; if he had remained silent, just open and available to the master, he would have instantaneously become the very summary of Buddhism, the very summary of existence. But he answered. Zen is not a question-answer thing. You cannot answer in words: only silence can give the proof that you have understood. But he could not remain silent.

He answered, "IF A CLOUD DOES NOT HANG OVER THE MOUNTAIN, THE MOONLIGHT WILL PENETRATE THE WAVES OF THE LAKE."

JIMYO LOOKED AT HIS FORMER PUPIL IN ANGER. HE SAID, "YOU ARE GETTING OLD! YOUR HAIR HAS TURNED WHITE, AND YOUR TEETH ARE SPARSE, YET YOU STILL HAVE SUCH AN IDEA OF ZEN. HOW CAN YOU ESCAPE BIRTH AND DEATH?"

Escaping from birth and death is a way of describing the entrance into the transcendental which is never born and never dies.

TEARS WASHED SUIGAN'S FACE AS HE BENT HIS HEAD. AFTER A FEW MINUTES HE ASKED, "PLEASE TELL ME THE SUMMARY OF BUDDHISM."

The master said, "IF A CLOUD DOES NOT HANG OVER THE MOUNTAIN, THE MOONLIGHT WILL PENETRATE THE WAVES OF THE LAKE."

The beauty is that the same answer was given by Suigan. It was not right and now it is right. What is said does not matter, but from what source, from what understanding, from what silence.

Suigan was simply repeating like a puppet. That answer is written in so many sutras. It was not his own. That's why the master was angry, angry out of compassion, angry because, "YOU ARE GETTING OLD! How are you going to manage not to be born again? Time is so short and you are still a parrot."

All pundits, all roshis, all professors, all rabbis, all popes are just parrots! And they do such immense harm to humanity that it is incalculable.

Just a few days ago the Shankaracharya of Puri - I'm an old, intimate enemy of his - asked the Indian government that the ancient sati pratha should be legalized! For centuries Hinduism has been forcing women, when their husbands die, to jump into the funeral pyres, alive, to be burned and die.

This is called sati. The word sati comes from sat, 'the truth'. Calling a woman sati because she has jumped into the funeral pyre of her husband is saying that she has attained the truth. If this is true, then why has not a single man in the whole of history jumped into the funeral pyre of his wife? Such an easy way to become one with truth! At least the Shankaracharya of Puri should commit sati. That would make his name history, the only man in the whole of history... And he is such an idiot, he can do it! It is good that he should; otherwise, he has no right to ask the government.

Hindus have been torturing women for centuries. If somebody, out of love, jumps into the funeral pyre - whether it is man or woman does not matter, if it comes out of love - then I have tremendous respect for it. But it was not coming out of love, it was being forced.

If a woman did not commit suicide, she had to live her whole life without getting married again. The rule does not apply to men. Once their wife dies, they immediately start looking around for someone else to possess. The women who jumped were forced to jump. And the way it used to happen...

the woman was dragged along, great drums were beaten so nobody could hear her crying; a great quantity of ghee - purified butter - was poured on the funeral pyre, creating so much smoke, nobody could see what was happening to the poor woman.

And if any woman resisted and was powerful enough or rich enough and the Hindu priesthood could not manage to force her to commit suicide, she was condemned for her whole life like a servant:

she had to shave her hair, she could not wear any ornament; she could only use white clothes, without any color; she could not participate in any religious festivals; she could not even participate in somebody's marriage; she could not be present at somebody's birth. She was simply thrown out of all ceremonials, she had to live like a shadow in the servants' quarters behind the house.

This was much more painful than just to take a jump into the funeral pyre, when it would be finished within minutes. So every intelligent woman, rather than living for sixty years or seventy years in utter slavery and condemnation, chose to commit suicide. It is not sati!

And this fellow, the Shankaracharya of Puri, was speaking on the occasion where a six-year-old girl - in fact it is illegal for her even to be married - was burned on the funeral pyre of her husband.

Nor was she of an age to be married. Their marriage was invalid, illegal, unconstitutional and this murder is supported by the Shankaracharya of Puri.

On this occasion he was asking the government to make sati pratha legal. I am asking the Indian government to make it a law that every shankaracharya should commit sati first. There are eight shankaracharyas in India. Only after that should any woman commit suicide and it should always be out of love, not because of a ritual.

Suigan was repeating a ritualistic answer - just as the Shankaracharya of Puri is doing - without even understanding the meaning. The master was angry, because it was time that Suigan should understand the essential, existential experience that makes a man a buddha. That he was still a parrot made him angry.

So he asked, "HOW CAN YOU ESCAPE BIRTH AND DEATH?"

A very essential point to be remembered: what words could not do, tears did. TEARS WASHED SUIGAN'S FACE. He could see the compassion of the master through the anger. And he could see that he himself was simply repeating the sutra. It was not his own understanding.

TEARS WASHED SUIGAN'S FACE AS HE BENT HIS HEAD. AFTER A FEW MINUTES HE ASKED, "PLEASE TELL ME THE SUMMARY OF BUDDHISM."

He is now accepting: "I don't know, please tell me." And the master says the same thing. But something has changed in Suigan, that you have to understand. Tears have washed not only his face, but also his mind. Bending his head was a gesture saying, "I was pretending to be a knower, but I'm utterly ignorant. I am not even worthy of touching your feet." This acceptance of innocence and these tears create a totally new situation for the same sentence: "IF A CLOUD DOES NOT HANG OVER THE MOUNTAIN, THE MOONLIGHT WILL PENETRATE THE WAVES OF THE LAKE."

BEFORE THE TEACHER HAD FINISHED SPEAKING, SUIGAN WAS ENLIGHTENED.

Enlightenment is pure silence, the silence of no-mind. Your mind is continuously going on and on, yakkety-yak, yakkety-yak. Do you see it in the meditation? Do you think it is coming from somewhere outside? It is within you and you are hiding it. And my effort is to persuade you not to hide it, not to suppress it, to throw it out. Perhaps tears may come to your eyes or laughter and a deep understanding may arise.

If Suigan can become enlightened, why cannot you? It is everybody's birthright.

Before we try going into ourselves, into enlightenment, Maneesha has asked one question:

Question 1:

Maneesha, it is up to everyone. This place is not a prison: you are here out of your own understanding. If you feel you need to be somewhere else, don't wait a single moment, be where you feel to be. I am all for freedom. Freedom is my religion.

Maneesha is asking:

At least as far as I am concerned, everyone has to decide for himself. I cannot force enlightenment on you.

She is asking:

There is no point. The point is to be with you! The master is non-essential. If you feel that being with the master something is growing in you, that is your decision. Otherwise, be anywhere you want, but remember, you will not find another place on earth at this moment to become enlightened. But enlightenment is not a necessity for everyone: very few people can afford it because it is moving on a razor's edge. Certainly you cannot become enlightened intelligently. You can become enlightened only if your so-called intelligence is no longer interfering with your being.

What is your intelligence? Even the most intelligent people like Albert Einstein died without enlightenment. He left his brain to be examined, because he himself was wondering if there was something special in his brain that made him so intelligent. Perhaps, if it was known, it could be injected into everybody else. Maybe it was some protein, some vitamin, or some other chemical.

After his death his brain was examined thoroughly. It was the first time anybody's brain had been examined so thoroughly. He certainly had a few things more than ordinary people - some chemicals, twenty-six percent more. He was the most intelligent human being - yet, unenlightened. Intelligence has nothing to do with enlightenment.

Intelligence is part of your brain, your chemistry; and consciousness is not part of your chemistry:

consciousness is your being, nobody can inject it. Enlightenment is simply becoming aware of your transcendence of chemistry and physics, biology and physiology, knowing yourself to be the eternal, non-physical energy. It is pure light, and nobody can enforce it, it is absolutely in your hands to remain ignorant or to become enlightened.

Before we try, a few laughs will be good to clean off the seriousness that has settled upon you.

Young Fagin Finkelstein, the advocate, is drafted to fight in Ronald Reagan's latest war with Iran.

However, he manages to convince the draft-board officer that he is half-blind, and is sent home.

That evening Fagin goes to the movies, and at the end, when the lights come up, he notices that a member of the draft-board is sitting next to him.

Without a moment's hesitation, Fagin taps him on the arm and asks, "Excuse me, madam, but I wonder if you can help me. Is this the train for New Jersey?"

Sardar Gurudayal Singh is driving down M.G. Road one day in a brand new Maruti car. His friend, Sarjano, stops him and says, "Hey-a Sardarji, where did-a you get that brand-a new car?"

"Well," replies Sardar Gurudayal Singh, "I was going for a spin to Mulshi Lake on my old Yezdi motorbike, when I saw this sexy American girl, Ma Papaya Pineapple, stranded by the side of the road in this car. So I stopped and fixed the car for her."

"Far out-a," says Sarjano. "Then what happened?"

"Well," continues Sardar Gurudayal Singh, "Ma Papaya Pineapple looks at me in a very sexy way, nudges me in the belly and says, 'Thanks man, I'm really grateful. I will give you anything you want!'

"So naturally," adds Sardarji, "I took the Maruti!"

Three college boys go into their favorite coffee bar, only to find that their usual table is being occupied by an old woman. After debating what to do about the situation, they finally decide to embarrass the woman into leaving.

Sitting down next to the old lady, the first one says, "Hey guys, did you know that I was born three months before my parents were married?"

"That's nothing," says the next one. "I was born six months before my parents were married!"

"Guys," says the third, "my parents have never been married!"

The little old lady finally looks up from the table and says pleasantly, "Will one of you bastards pass the salt?"

Pope the Polack and Edwin Meese are arguing over what is considered man's greatest invention.

Pope the Polack insists it is the wheel, "because that has made man mobile, and made it easier for me to spread the word of God."

But Meese claims it is the lever, "because that was the start of machinery, and machines have made us what we are today." They argue at length, but are unable to reach an agreement. Finally, Meese says, "Let us ask Ronald. He is the president - he knows everything."

President Reagan tells them that they are both wrong. "Man's greatest invention is my thermos bottle," he declares.

"Your thermos bottle? You have got to be kidding!" says the Polack.

Reagan shakes his head and says, "It keeps my coffee warm in the winter and my juice cold in the summer."

"So?" queries Meese.

"Well," replies the president, "how does the thermos KNOW?"

Now, the first drum, Rupesh, and everybody goes crazy; your best hit!

(Drumbeat)

Rupesh...

(Drumbeat)

Everybody becomes absolutely silent;

close your eyes;

go in.

No movement.

Deeper and deeper,

beyond the mind.

This is the message of all the buddhas:

just be.

Rupesh, beat the drum...

(Drumbeat)

And everybody falls dead.

Let the body breathe; that is not your life.

Go deeper,

find out the life which needs no breathing.

It is just a pure space,

silent and joyous, a dance unto itself.

Drown in the dance.

This is the quantum leap,

from mind to no-mind.

So blissful is this evening,

so blessed are these moments.

Rupesh, beat the drum to bring everybody back to life...

(Drumbeat)

But come fresh, young, silent

and immensely alive.

Don't forget for a single moment this peace.

If it becomes your very life,

it is enlightenment.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Are we allowed to celebrate?

YES!