In this rackety town

Maneesha, entering into the world of Zen is not like any other entering; it is entering in yourself.

There is no door, and there is no possibility of doing anything. You have simply to relax so totally that you sink deep within yourself.

Remember, relaxation is not an activity. It is absence of all activity. And only in the absence of all activity, when you are relaxed to your very being, the door opens to all the mysteries of the world, all the miracles of existence.

It fills your being with great dance, although you cannot utter a single word. You hear the music that you have never heard, although there is no way to translate it to anyone else. You see flowers blossoming ... their colors are absolutely unknown to you. Your whole being becomes a fragrant luminosity. There is nothing to say about it; you can just be it. And the rays of your silence will start creating and weaving a field around you.

That's why a master in Zen is not simply a teacher. In all the religions there are only teachers. They teach you about subjects which you don't know, and they ask you to believe, because there is no way to bring those experiences into objective reality. Neither has the teacher known them - he has believed them; he transfers his belief to somebody else. Zen is not a believer's world. It is not for the faithful ones; it is for those daring souls who can drop all belief, unbelief, doubt, reason, mind, and simply enter into their pure existence without boundaries.

But it brings a tremendous transformation. Hence, let me say that while others are involved in philosophies, Zen is involved in a metamorphosis, in a transformation. It is authentic alchemy:

it changes you from base metal into gold. But its language has to be understood, not with your reasoning and intellectual mind but with your loving heart. Or even just listening, not bothering whether it is true or not. And a moment comes suddenly that you see it, which has been eluding you your whole life. Suddenly, what Gautam Buddha called "eighty-four thousand doors" open.

These anecdotes, when first translated by Christian missionaries, were translated to show the world that "Christianity is the only civilized religion, and as a proof look at these stupid dialogues, with no reason and no rhyme!" But everything backfired. They wanted to prove Zen to be a very primitive religion. But to those who were real seekers, it proved that on the contrary, every other religion may be primitive; at least Zen is not.

In the first place, it is not a religion at all. It is not in competition with Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism or Mohammedanism; it does not belong to that category at all. It has its own category, its own language, its own world, and there is no competitor to it. Its uniqueness is absolute and categorical.

But you will have to be very loving, very careful in understanding these strange dialogues, because the language seems to be the same as we use but hidden between the words and between the lines there is a different poetry, a different song, which we are not accustomed to.

But my people will understand it, because we are entering into the same space which Zen has been pointing towards. These dialogues can be understood only by meditators; otherwise they look stupid.

THE MONK, KANKEI, ONCE VISITED THE NUN, MASSAN RYONEN. HE SAID TO HIMSELF, "IF WHAT SHE SAYS HITS THE SPOT, I WILL REMAIN THERE. IF IT DOES NOT, I WILL OVERTURN THE ZEN SEAT!"

He was a seeker in search of a master, and when he came to see Massan Ryonen, a woman Zen master, he thought in his own mind, IF WHAT SHE SAYS HITS THE SPOT ... it is not a question of reasonability. Not that what she is saying is very wise, but if it hits the spot, my own being - if the arrow of what she says reaches to my being, I will stay; otherwise I WILL OVERTURN THE ZEN SEAT.

When a disciple comes, a seat is offered by the master for him to sit. And if the disciple rejects the master, he overturns the seat gracefully - showing that "this is not my place" - and leaves. That overturning of the Zen seat is symbolic that "I don't accept you as a master, but I will not say it.

Saying is so crude. I will just give you the hint, that you could not hit the spot of my being, for which I am searching; I will have to go to another master."

HE ENTERED THE HALL, AND MASSAN SENT A MESSENGER TO ASK, "HAVE YOU COME ON A MOUNTAIN-VIEWING JOURNEY, OR FOR THE SAKE OF BUDDHISM?"

IN RESPONSE, KANKEI SAID, "FOR THE SAKE OF BUDDHISM," SO MASSAN SAT UPON HER SEAT, AND KANKEI APPROACHED HER.

SHE SAID, "WHERE DID YOU COME FROM TODAY, MAY I ASK?"

KANKEI REPLIED, "FROM ROKO."

MASSAN THEN SAID TO KANKEI, "WHY DON'T YOU REMOVE YOUR BAMBOO HAT?"

KANKEI HAD NO REPLY, AND, MAKING HIS BOWS, ASKED, "WHAT IS MASSAN?"

The bamboo hat has to be removed in grace and gratitude when you encounter a master. The removing of the hat is simply signifying that "I am available, in humbleness, open; I'm not covered or defensive. Even if you want to cut my head, I am ready."

In the first court in America where my case was presented after I was illegally arrested, the woman magistrate was in a puzzle - because in America, you cannot wear your hat in the court. Wearing your hat in the court is insulting the court. Such are the different attitudes of East and West.

I could see that she was a little bit puzzled what to do. She sent an attendant to tell me, "Perhaps you don't know that in the court you have to remove your hat. To keep your hat on is to insult the court."

I said to him, "Go back to the magistrate and tell her that if she has courage, she should ask the question herself. Because according to me, to remove the hat is insulting and I will not insult the court."

The man thought for a moment, went back to the magistrate. The woman was even more puzzled!

She simply thought it was better not to get into an argument. Because it is not written in the constitution; it is just a formal tradition. I am not legally bound to remove my hat. I will remove my hat only when I see a buddha - not for a magistrate. Seeing the situation, the woman behaved sanely. She said to the attendant, "There is no need, just don't raise the question again." Different worlds, different symbols ....

When Massan asked, "WHY DON'T YOU REMOVE YOUR BAMBOO HAT?" she was saying that if you have come for the sake of Buddhism - and that means for the search of the buddha within you - then be graceful. Remove the hat, be humble and be receptive.

KANKEI HAD NO REPLY, AND MAKING HIS BOWS, ASKED, "WHAT IS MASSAN?" Massan was the woman master's name.

SHE ANSWERED, "IT DOES NOT SHOW ITS PEAK."

The woman got the name Massan because of the Massan Mountain where she had her monastery.

The peaks are so high that they are almost always covered with snow and clouds; they rarely show.

And that is exactly the situation of consciousness. It is so much covered with thoughts - the past, the conditionings ... so much smoke - that it rarely shows.

This is the beauty of Zen, that ordinary questions are suddenly turned to immense significance.

HE ASKED, "WHO IS MASSAN'S HUSBAND?"

SHE ANSWERED, "THERE IS NOT REAL FORM OF MEN AND WOMEN."

The difference and discrimination between men and women is only phenomenal, it is not authentic.

It does not have a spirituality to it.

And now we know that science can convert men into women, women into men, and there are thousands of people around the world who have changed their sex - just bored! One gets bored: a woman every day, a woman again, and again. A man ... in the morning again you wake up a man.

And one starts thinking, is there some way to change?

People change clothes, people change shoes, people change ties. Up to now it was not possible, but now it is possible - many, many more people are going to change their sex. For the first time, a man will be standing behind a woman's body, or a woman may be standing behind a man's body.

And then they will understand what mystics have always been saying, that the inside is the same; only the window and its frame is different.

Your inner being is neither male nor female.

Listening to this, the monk said, or rather shouted, the Zen shout "KWATZ!" AND ASKED, "WHY THEN DON'T YOU CHANGE AND DISAPPEAR?"

If men and women have no form ... he is only a disciple, talking on a very much lower level, not understanding the higher standpoint of Massan.

SHE SAID, "I AM NOT A GOD, I AM NOT A DEMON. WHAT COULD I CHANGE?" I have come to the point which never changes. That which changes, I have left behind. Man changes, woman changes. Everything that changes I have left behind.

AT THIS, KANKEI KNELT DOWN, AND BECAME THE GARDENER OF MASSAN'S TEMPLE FOR THREE YEARS.

AT ANOTHER TIME, GOEI WENT TO SEKITO AND SAID, "IF YOU CAN SAY A WORD, I WILL REMAIN HERE; OTHERWISE I WILL GO AWAY."

SEKITO SIMPLY SAT THERE, not saying a single word. Because silence is the only answer; it cannot be confined into a word. Sekito is answering, but the questioner is not able to understand that silence can also be an answer, that there are things which cannot be brought to the lower level of language, of words.

There are experiences for which you have to look in the eyes of the master. Perhaps you may see the moon reflected there. Perhaps in that silence when you are looking into the eyes of your master, something may transpire. You may become aware of your own inner flame.

SEKITO SIMPLY SAT THERE, AND GOEI WENT OFF.

He did not understand the silent answer.

FROM THE BACK SEKITO CALLED HIM - "WHERE! WHERE! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

GOEI TURNED HIS HEAD.

SEKITO SAID, "FROM BIRTH TO DEATH, IT IS JUST LIKE THIS - TURNING THE HEAD, TURNING THE BRAIN.

HOW ABOUT IT?"

GOEI WAS SUDDENLY ENLIGHTENED, SO HE BROKE HIS STAFF.

Goei used to carry a staff, and used to think that he had come to know - that he had become a master; the staff in Zen is carried only by the master. For the first time he looked into himself when Sekito asked him, "Where?" because it is here, so where are you going? It is within.

In a single moment of sudden awakening, he understood that up to now he has unnecessarily carried the staff; he was just a teacher, not a master. He broke his staff.

These are all symbolic things in Zen. Breaking the staff means, "Now you are the master and I'm the disciple. I will not say it in words, because words are very polluted; I will make the symbol that I'm no more a master. I was living in a false identity - I break that identity and throw it away. Now you are the master and I will live in your presence, drinking as much as possible the waters of life."

A poem of Chikusan reads:

HE IS PART OF ALL, YET ALL IS TRANSCENDED;

SOLELY FOR CONVENIENCE HE IS KNOWN AS MASTER.

WHO DARES SAY HE HAS FOUND HIM?

IN THIS RACKETY TOWN

I TRAIN DISCIPLES.

These last lines are particularly important: IN THIS RACKETY TOWN I TRAIN DISCIPLES. He must have been in Poona! You cannot find a more rackety town. But strangely, masters have chosen rackety towns in search of a few intelligent people. The rackety town has a good quality: in the beginning it becomes a little disturbed, but slowly slowly it accepts that these people are a little different, and it does not bother.

Now we are here, and in this rackety town, people will not be aware at all that five thousand people are in search of themselves, and sometimes they touch the very buddhahood, the pinnacle of consciousness. But they will go on standing in queues before movie houses, shopping in the marketplaces, never being aware ... It is a strange unconsciousness, that five thousand people from all over the world are gathered here - they must be doing something - but they won't even look inside the gate. Such unconcern about the grandeur of man, such unconcern about the splendor of your innermost being.

Chosha wrote:

EVERYTHING, EVERY PLACE IS REAL.

EACH PARTICLE MAKES UP ORIGINAL MAN.

STILL, THE ABSOLUTELY REAL IS VOICELESS,

THE TRUE BODY IS MAJESTICALLY OUT OF SIGHT.

Neither can you say anything about the beauty, the majesty, nor can you see it with your ordinary eyes. When you turn inwards these eyes are closed; they can't turn inwards. A third eye opens up - you have a new vision, a new clarity, which is not part of your two eyes. It is straightforward, it knows nothing as right or wrong; it simply knows what is.

It is voiceless, it cannot say ... it cannot tell you that you are carrying a great kingdom of God within you and you are behaving like a beggar, for small and petty things.

Question 1:

Maneesha has asked:

Maneesha, drop that sense too, and then you will know pure freedom.

Now you are ready to go inwards ... just a cup of tea.

(A HEARTY LAUGH FROM SARDARJI ...) Sardar Gurudayal Singh gets the joke before I tell it! He is really a miracle. And he is sitting just in the first row, with all his grandeur. It is very unique to get the joke before it is told. Most people don't get it even when it is told. They laugh because others are laughing; very few people get it. But Sardar Gurudayal Singh is ahead ....

Nurdski is drunk, standing before the judge. "You are accused by your landlord of being drunk and setting fire to the bed," says the judge.

"Thash absolute nonshense," slobbers Nurdski indignantly. "The bed was already on fire when I got into it!"

Young Maria Spumoni is getting married tomorrow. So, she comes to her mother as all good Catholic virgin girls are expected. "Mama," says Maria, "I have-a to ask-a you something ..."

"Yes-a," interrupts her mother. "I know-a, my little tesoro. That's-a why-a your mama is here. So let-a me tell you from my experience. Now that-a you have-a a man, treat-a him nice. On-a your first-a night, Oh blessed Virgin Mary! the things you will-a do. It will-a change your whole life-a ..."

"No, no, mama," cries Maria quickly. "I already know-a how-a to fuck-a, I just want-a to know how to make-a spaghetti!"

Two cannibals are sitting around the evening fire admiring a new Maytag refrigerator beside them.

"What is the capacity of that fridge?" asks the first cannibal.

"I'm not sure," says the second cannibal. "I guess just a little more than those two guys who brought it!"

Grandma Piebaker is out walking her dog, Queenie, when she decides to go into the local supermarket. She ties up Queenie outside, and then goes in to do some shopping. Almost immediately, every stray dog in the area is sniffing around the defenseless Queenie.

The local cop sees what is happening and goes to get Grandma Piebaker. "You can't leave your dog alone there, lady," says the cop.

"Why not?" asks Grandma.

"Lady," says the cop, "your dog is in heat!"

"Eat?" replies Grandma. "She will eat anything."

"No, lady," says the cop, "your dog should be bred."

"Sure," says Grandma, "she will eat bread, she will eat cake, she will eat anything."

In complete frustration, the cop shouts, "The dog should be laid!"

Grandma stares angrily at the cop and says, "So lay her. I always wanted a police dog!"

Before Nivedano gives his beat for you to go completely crazy, you have to understand the meaning of throwing out your gibberish that is inside your mind, continuously moving .... You are not even aware of it. When you start throwing it out, then you become aware, "My god, all this bullshit I am carrying in my head!"

And this is the best place to do it, because everybody else is engaged in throwing his bullshit.

Nobody is listening to you. You won't get this chance anywhere else in the world, so you can be absolutely at ease in exposing yourself. Just don't sit silently, because anybody who is sitting silently - all this gibberish coming from everybody else will enter into his head! I am making you aware, it is a warning: don't be stupid and don't sit silently. Defeat all those who are around you. This is just a great chance!

Nivedano, give the first beat to the drum, and everybody goes crazy throwing his gibberish ...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Become silent ... no movement, as if you are a frozen statue.

You have thrown your dust out - don't miss the moment.

Go in.

Deeper ... deeper.

Your being is depthless; you can go as deep as you have courage and guts to go.

The deeper you go, more you are.

To make this inwardness total ...

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Everybody dies.

Feel the body left behind.

Feel the mind left behind and just enter into the unknown space.

Just being ...

To be is the whole purpose of meditation.

In this moment there is no difference between you and the Buddha.

Keep this moment alive twenty-four hours.

Do whatever is needed to do, but don't forget your immortal, eternal self, your universal being.

Let it become your heartbeat, your very breathing.

You don't have to do anything.

Just a little remembrance.

Great and blessed is this space.

Great and blessed are you, to have found the essential religion, the very core of your nature.

Live according to your nature and you will live in a dance.

Your life will blossom many flowers.

You will come across much love, much compassion.

You will share joy.

Nivedano ...

(Drumbeat)

Bring all the buddhas back to the body ....

Sit down, for a moment remembering the experience.

This experiencing is Zen.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Can all the buddhas celebrate now?

Yes!