OUR BELOVED MASTER THERE WAS A MONK WHO HAD STAYED WITH YAKUSAN FOR THREE
YEARS AND SERVED AS THE HEAD COOK. ONCE, YAKUSAN ASKED HIM, "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN
HERE?"
"THREE YEARS," THE MONK REPLIED.
"I DON'T KNOW YOUR FACE AT ALL,"
SAID YAKUSAN.
THE MONK DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YAKUSAN
MEANT, AND, OUT OF RESENTMENT, LEFT THE MONASTERY.
ANOTHER MONK ONCE SAID TO YAKUSAN, "I
HAVE A DOUBT. PLEASE, MASTER, CLEAR IT AWAY."
YAKUSAN SAID, "THEN COME TO ME AT THE
REGULAR DISCOURSE."
THAT NIGHT, SEATED FOR DISCOURSE, YAKUSAN
ADDRESSED THE ASSEMBLY OF MONKS IN FRONT OF HIM, SAYING, "TONIGHT A MONK WILL CLEAR
HIS DOUBT AWAY. WHERE ARE YOU? COME UP HERE!"
THE MONK AROSE AND CAME FORWARD. NO SOONER
HAD HE REACHED THE MASTER THAN YAKUSAN KNOCKED HIM DOWN AND IMMEDIATELY RETURNED TO HIS
ROOM.
Friends,
One sannyasin has asked me:
CANNOT WE DISAGREE WITH YOU? CANNOT WE CRITICIZE YOU?
A significant question for everyone.
This is not a debating club. Neither your
agreement is needed, nor your disagreement. What is needed is your right hearing. If you
hear rightly, it will be decisive. Agreement is just a mind thing, and disagreement is
also the same. Neither of them is going to help you. What is going to help you is to
experiment, to experience, but that comes only when you have heard me.
The greatest difficulty is to hear rightly,
to hear silently. If you are thinking to agree or disagree, then you cannot hear me. Your
prejudices are there functioning as a curtain, they will distort everything.
I don't ask you to agree with me, and I don't
ask you to disagree with me. Our whole approach is beyond the mind.
You have to learn how to listen, how to be
silent and let your silence decide. Let your no-mind decide. And I know that your no-mind
will be in absolute synchronicity with what I am saying to you. I will not use the word
agreement -- that word belongs to the mind -- nor disagreement. They are two polarities of
the mind -- positive/negative, theist/atheist, believer/nonbeliever.
I am trying to approach your no-mind, where
it is never a question of choice. No-mind functions choicelessly. Once I have approached
the no-mind, if you have allowed me, putting your prejudices aside, you won't have to
agree or disagree, you will find an immense synchronicity. You will be in absolute harmony
with me. And only that harmony can help your evolution.
What will you do with agreement? Just a
belief will be created, and I am against all beliefs. What will you do with your
disagreement? Your prejudice will remain, and your prejudice is your problem. You will
remain within the boundaries of your past upbringing, your programming by the family, by
the school, by the society, by the church.
This is not an intellectual discussing club;
this is a place for seekers. It is a totally different phenomenon than you will come
across anywhere else around the world. Here, we are searching to find a deep harmony. If
you can be harmonious with me -- it is not agreement -- you are one with me. Agreement
needs two. If you can be harmonious with me, I can transfer much that cannot be said. And
only that which cannot be said is going to help your growth.
The other night, those Christian monks were
here. They behaved in a very mannerly way, but they said at the gate when asked by
Narendra ... one man told him, "I like everything, and I have been doing Dynamic and
Kundalini Meditation for four and a half months, and I have been immensely helped in
dropping my tensions, my mind stress. But then I felt suddenly, something is missing
...." And what is missing? -- service, service to the poor.
Now this is his upbringing, continuous
Christian teaching, which becomes a barrier. Although he meditated here with me, I don't
think he was hearing me.
You cannot serve anybody unless you have
found yourself. Who are you to serve? Your service will be dangerous. You are in absolute
darkness and unconsciousness. Out of your unconsciousness any action is going to be
harmful.
Let us contemplate a little more about this
word `service'.
All the religions have been serving the poor
for thousands of years, and poverty goes on growing. Is this authentic service? Then in
thousands of years poverty should have disappeared. In fact, you are feeding poverty.
Real service will be that the poor should be
told that "You are being exploited, and you have to revolt against the vested
interests." Unless the poor understand that their poverty is caused by a few people
who are exploiting them, sucking their blood ... It is not caused by your past lives and
bad acts, it is caused by the social system which depends on exploitation.
The religions have to be made aware of the
fact that they have been doing this service for centuries. What is the result? -- because
a tree is known by the fruit; if the fruit is rotten, the tree is not worth much. Service
seems to be a beautiful word to hide an exploiting social structure. It appears so good --
serving the poor -- it seems a great virtue.
But why are the poor there in the first
place? Who has made them poor?
On the one hand you go on serving the poor
and converting them into Catholics. The service is not in the service of the poor, the
service is to increase the power of the Catholic church. You go on finding orphans and
converting them. How have Catholics increased to six hundred million? -- by serving the
poor. The service is motivated.
If you are really interested in destroying
poverty you will look into the roots. You treat only symptoms. Giving food to the poor, or
clothes to the poor ... how is it going to help? It will only keep them at survival level,
and it will allow the vested interests to continue exploiting them. You see the vicious
circle?
The capitalists go on donating to the church.
The church goes on helping the poor at least to live, because laborers and slaves are
needed. Even slaves were fed by their masters. That was not service. If you don't feed
your horse, if you don't feed your cow, you will lose much money. If you don't feed the
poor, the capitalist will disappear. Who is going to work for him? Whom is he going to
exploit?
So it is a very cunning game. The rich man
goes on donating a small portion of his exploitation to the church. The church goes on
bringing up the orphans, aboriginals, poor people, to the survival level. They are needed
alive, because without them the whole system will collapse.
So on the one hand, the capitalist goes on
giving money in charity; on the other hand, he goes on exploiting the poor. And between
the two, the priest has his own percentage -- he is a mediator -- so he is living
beautifully. Millions of missionaries are there around the world, but they are serving the
exploiters in the name of service.
I don't want to be in this vicious game.
I want poverty to be completely removed.
There should be no person who needs service.
A society that needs service is sick.
But its prejudice about service has prevented
it from hearing me.
I am reminded of a case in Jesus' life. Most probably it is simply
mythology. Not most probably -- it is certainly mythology.
Jesus brings Lazarus back from death. Now,
the question is: is Lazarus going to live forever? He will die again -- so Jesus has given
him two deaths instead of one. The arithmetic is absolutely clear. He will suffer poverty,
and one day he will die again.
But I don't think this happened, because if
it were true, why could Jesus not perform any miracle on the cross?
On the cross he became angry with God. He
shouted, "Have you forsaken me?" He felt utterly helpless. This man who used to
raise the dead, who used to walk on water, could not fly with the cross? It is absolutely
inconsistent. With the man's miracles, he could not manage any miracle on the cross?
And that was the place where he was expected
... Then the Jews would have accepted him as their last prophet. He was put on the cross
as a test, that "If you are really the son of God, now let us see. If you really walk
on water, if you really raise the dead to life again, then we will put you on the cross
and see what miracles you can do, or God can do on your behalf."
Nothing happened. He shouted at the clouds;
there was no God. But what is the need of God if a man walks on water, feeds people --
thousands of people -- with one loaf of bread, wakes up the dead? There was no need to
call for God. He could have flown away with the cross, and that would have proved
absolutely without doubt to the Jews that he was their last prophet, he was the only
begotten son of God. His helplessness on the cross shows that all the stories of miracles
are simply invented -- because no contemporary source even mentions Jesus' name.
Can you think that a man who walks on water,
a man who raises dead people back to life, a man who restores the eyes of the blind, the
limbs of the crippled just by his touch, was not able even to carry the cross up the hill?
Three times he fell -- the cross was too heavy -- and three times they gave him a good
beating to get up again and carry the cross. And this is the prophet, the only begotten
son of God!
With Jesus the idea of service has come into
existence: serve the poor. But why? In fact, logically, he said, "Blessed are the
poor, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God." If that is true, make more people
poor. The rich people cannot enter into paradise. A camel can pass through the eye of a
needle, but a rich man cannot enter into the gate of paradise. If that is the case, why
serve the poor? If anybody needs service, it is the rich. Steal their money, make them
poor, so they can inherit the kingdom of God.
Poverty is perfectly right, according to
Jesus' own statements. It is good to be poor -- according to Jesus -- it is great to be
poor.
I hate poverty! And I hate Jesus for making
such statements, consoling the poor and protecting the rich. It seems that Jesus is on the
side of the poor ... and what help has he given to the poor? And what help has
Christianity given to the poor?
Even in Christian countries there is immense
poverty. Even in the richest country, America, there are three million people on the
streets; in this cold winter they are dying. What are the Christians doing for those
people? And they are Christians, but nobody is interested in them. They are already
Christians, they will inherit the kingdom of God.
And America goes on sending missionaries
around the world to help the poor. Strange ... They cannot help their own poor because
they are already Christian. So that is the criterion: service is meant to convert poor
people, because just bread and butter and clothes and medicine will purchase them.
Mohammedans used to do the conversion in a
different way, a very short cut -- by the sword. Either be a Mohammedan, or the sword is
going to cut off your head. Because the Koran says, "The more you convert people to
Mohammedanism, the more virtuous you are -- and only Mohammedans will be saved," so
they are cutting off your head in service. They were trying hard to make you a Mohammedan,
because that is the only way to reach to God -- and you refused. "It is better for
you to die than be a Hindu, a Christian, a Jew. Be born again and we will see. If not in
this life, then in another life, you will be converted to Mohammedanism."
Their way was short, just a simple sword
hanging over your neck. And they converted many; they are the second greatest religion.
Christians have the most people, and the second most are Mohammedans.
Christianity persuades people with a little
sophistication. Mohammedans were absolutely in a hurry. Christians take time: they adopt
orphans, they find leftover children in Calcutta. They bring them up, they give them
education -- but all for the purpose of increasing the power of Christianity. The whole
earth has to be turned into a Christian world; then only people will be saved.
Even if it is true that Jesus walked on
water, what is the point of it when boats are available? It is simply stupid. What is
divine in it? Even if he had managed to raise Lazarus from the dead ... then nothing more
is heard about Lazarus, only that story is there. What happened to Lazarus? He must have
lived in misery and poverty, and would have died in sickness, disease, old age. What is
the point of your service?
A similar case will help you to understand.
A woman's husband died. She
was young, had only one child. She wanted to commit sati, she wanted to jump in the
funeral pyre with her husband, but this small child prevented her. She had to live for
this small child.
But then the small child died; now it was too
much. She went almost insane, asking people, "Is there any physician anywhere who can
make my child alive again? I was living only for him, now my whole life is simply
dark."
In India you cannot marry again, and
particularly in those days it was absolutely impossible. A woman cannot marry again. Man's
possessiveness is such that "Even if I die ... you suffer, but you should not marry
anyone." Such jealousy -- and this is called the "Indian heritage" by Mr.
Rajiv Gandhi.
It happened that Buddha was coming to the town, so people said, "We
don't know any physician, but Buddha is coming. That is a great chance. You take the child
to Buddha, and tell him that you were living for this child, and the child has died, `and
you are such a great enlightened person, call him back to life! Have mercy on me!'"
So she went to Buddha. She put the dead body
of the child at Buddha's feet, and she said, "Call him back to life. You know all the
secrets of life, you have attained to the ultimate peak of existence. Can't you do a small
miracle for a poor woman?"
Buddha said, "I will do it, but there is
a condition."
She said, "I will fulfill any
condition."
Buddha said, "Settled. The condition is:
you go around the town and, from a house where nobody has ever died, bring a few mustard
seeds." That village was cultivating mustard seeds, so Buddha told her, "Just go
around ..."
The woman could not understand the strategy.
She went to one house, and they said, "A few mustard seeds? We can bring a few
bullock carts full of mustard seeds if Buddha can bring your son back to life. But our
mustard seeds will not be of any help, because not one, but thousands have died in our
family. Since eternity we have been here. We have seen our great-grandfather dying, we
have seen our great-grandmother dying, we have seen our grandfather dying, grandmother
dying. We have seen so many deaths in our family. These mustard seeds are useless.
Buddha's condition is, `from a house where nobody has ever died.'"
It was a small village, and she went to every
house. Everybody was ready: "How many seeds do you want?" But the condition was
impossible because "so many people have died in our family."
By the evening she became aware of the fact,
and of the strategy of Gautam Buddha. She understood that whoever is born is going to die,
"so what is the point of getting the child back again? He will die again. It is
better for you yourself to seek the eternal, which is never born and never dies."
By the evening she came back empty-handed.
Buddha asked, "Where are the mustard seeds?"
She laughed. In the morning she had come
crying; now she laughed, and she said, "You tricked me! Everybody who is born is
going to die. There is no family, not in this village, nor in the whole world, where
nobody has died. So I don't want my son to be brought again back to life -- what is the
point? After a few days, or a few months, or a few years, he will have to die again. And
all these years he will live in misery, in all kinds of anguish and anxiety. Your
compassion is great that you did not bring him back to life!
"Forget about the child. Initiate me
into the art of meditation, so that I can go into the land, the space of immortality,
where birth and death have never happened."
Buddha said, "You are a very intelligent
woman. You understood the point."
I call this a miracle, not Jesus' waking up
Lazarus. I don't call that a miracle. Apparently that looks like a miracle, but appearance
is not the reality. I call Buddha's strategy a miracle. Everybody is going to die, there
is no point ... One has to get out of birth and death.
Buddha initiated the woman, and she became
one of the enlightened ones among Buddha's disciples. Her urgency was such ... she knew
that "My husband has died, my child has died, and now it is my number. Any moment and
I will be a victim of death, so there is not much time. I don't know at what moment death
is coming, so I have to be totally involved in the search, in what Buddha is telling me to
do: `Go inwards. Go to the very center of your being, and you will be beyond birth and
death.'"
This I call an authentic miracle: cutting the
problem from the very roots.
I am serving, but my service is very subtle.
I am serving by waking up people to their innermost being. That is the only miracle I
consider of any worth.
And I am serving the poor by not deceiving
them that "You will inherit the kingdom of God." I am constantly saying to the
world that the poor are our creation. Those who are giving charity to the churches, they
should stop exploitation. Charity won't help. What charity are they giving?
It is a very cunning device. They are not
giving a single rupee. They are earning so much, and income taxes go on becoming more and
more as your income increases. There comes a point when you have to pay one hundred
percent income tax, and if you go on increasing your income, you may have to pay one
hundred and twenty-five percent, one hundred and fifty percent; you have to pay to the
government more than you have earned. So this device helps after the point you feel it is
good to pay to the government. Ten percent, fifteen percent, okay; when it comes to the
point of paying one hundred percent, it is better to give in charity rather than giving it
to the government. It is people's money: if they had not given it to charity, they would
have had to give it to the government.
So on the exploitation of people they are
securing their bank balance in paradise. It is not their money; nobody gives his own
money. In fact, all rich people all over the world have many charity trusts of their own.
Just here, in India, Tata is one of the
richest people, amongst the three richest families. He has a great charity trust worth
forty crore rupees, and he goes on pouring money into the trust. It is the people's money,
it should go to the government, but he siphons off the money.
Every rich person around the world is doing
the same. Give it to the church, or make your own trust. Open a school in the memory of
your father. Open a hospital and become a great man of charity in the memory of your dead
mother. At least there will be the name of your mother, there will be your name, that you
have made it in your mother's memory. And this is the money that is making people poor.
The church is made happy by receiving
charity.
When I was arrested in America and without
any reason they, in their minds, harassed me -- I was not harassed, I enjoyed the whole
trip. I saw the other side of the world which I would never have seen -- twelve days being
a guest of President Ronald Reagan!
They dragged me from one jail to another. I
covered almost half of America traveling in the government airplane. I passed over a city,
and I loved the lights of that city. I have been telling Anando that when we have more
houses -- and soon we will have, because more people are going to come, and we have to
make arrangements for them -- then we will make our own street lights.
I passed over a city called Salt Lake City.
It is a city whose founder was killed just as they wanted to kill me, because we were also
creating a city, and far bigger than Salt Lake City. We had one hundred and twenty-six
square miles in our hands; we could have made three New Yorks or three San Franciscos!
Salt Lake City was made by a special cult of
the Christians which separated from the Vatican. They are called the Mormons. I don't
agree with them, but I love their city.
Their founder was murdered by the American
government, shot dead -- but Mormons were Christians after all, so they could not kill all
the Mormons. They are the most intelligent people in the whole Christian fold, and they
have this city, Salt Lake City. Ninety-eight percent of the people in that city are
Mormons, and they have a special arrangement ....
Every day, every Mormon around the world
should send one dollar to their capital, Salt Lake City. So they receive one million
dollars every day, and that's how they are enlarging their city in such a beautiful way.
Such great planning and architecture! Roads for the future! Six cars can move abreast, at
least, and a road runs just in the middle of the city straight across the whole city, so
wide. And from that road, not as it happens in old cities ...
It was a different world then, because the
vehicles were different. Now, in all the cities of the world, roads meet directly with the
main road; that is dangerous. Most of the accidents are caused because roads meet
directly, and from both sides, neither this side nor that side can see who is coming on
the other road, the main road. If they are both moving at speed, then a clash is bound to
happen. And when a clash happens between two cars ... it is never just between two cars,
it is at least between eight cars, because the cars are moving bumper-to-bumper.
In Salt Lake City they have made a futuristic
plan. The roads do not meet directly, but first the small road runs by the side of the big
road for almost half a mile, so the main-road traffic knows perfectly that one car is
moving by the side, and then it merges slowly slowly into the main road, not directly.
They are the most intelligent people, and
they have put such beautiful green and blue lights all over the city that I forgot for a
moment that my hands were handcuffed, that my feet were in chains, that my waist was
surrounded by a very thick chain. And my hands were not only handcuffed, they were fixed
with the chain surrounding my waist so I could not even wave my hand to friends. Even
walking was difficult, because they made the chains too tight on the feet.
When I saw the beautiful Salt Lake City
underneath me in the night, I forgot completely. Everything is fresh and new; they have
changed everything that used to be in the old cities. Their lighting has consideration for
people's eyes; it is blue, it is green, it is soft. It is not dangerous and hazardous for
people's eyes. Their roads -- you can move at as great a speed as you want, not fifty-five
miles per hour!
Have you ever considered ...?
I have been caught twice in America speeding,
because I cannot drive at fifty-five miles per hour when the car is made to go one hundred
and forty miles per hour! Do you see the inconsistency of the governments? You make the
car to go a hundred and forty miles per hour, and you make the rule that nobody can go
faster than fifty-five. Then why do you create these cars? -- just let them go fifty-five
miles per hour. There is no need to make any law, there is no need to put signs on every
crossroads that you should not go beyond fifty-five. And you are allowing car factories to
create cars which are meant to go one hundred and forty miles per hour ....
What kind of intelligence is ruling the
world?
I was moving as fast as the car could go, and
when I was stopped by the police, the cops, they said, "You are going beyond the
speed limit."
I said, "Look at my speedometer. I
cannot move beyond the speedometer."
They said, "We are not concerned with
your speedometer. Don't you see the sign boards?"
I said, "When I am driving I look ahead!
And when a person is moving at one hundred and forty miles per hour, do you want him to
look sideways?"
They said, "You are a strange
person."
I said, "Ask your government that all
factories should create cars which go only fifty-five miles per hour. There will be no
question of so many cops on the road. I listen to my engine, not to your signs!"
They talked with each other, "What
should we do?" They gave me a ticket, that I had to be present in court.
I said, "It is better I don't appear in
the court; otherwise your judges will be embarrassed just as you are embarrassed. So my
attorney will deal with it. It is not much of a matter -- fifty dollars."
And exactly fifty dollars I was fined.
I said, "That does not matter. Once in a
while you can catch me. And why bother the court? -- I can give you fifty dollars on the
spot. But my speed will remain according to my speedometer!"
Then I made arrangements for one car ahead of
me, one car behind me. And I had made arrangements ... There are mechanical devices which
give you a signal when the cops are around. I continued to move at my speed!
Only in Salt Lake City you can move freely
... or in Germany. Adolf Hitler will be remembered in history for making the greatest
road, for the first time, on which you can drive at any speed you want.
Rather than increasing the roads, making
better roads, you prevent people from speeding. And unless the car moves beyond one
hundred, you don't have the feeling of a great ecstasy: you are almost flying!
In fact, Japanese scientists have discovered
that if four hundred miles per hour is allowed, the car will rise one foot above the
ground. That will be a real joy, because then there will be no bumps, no stones, you will
be almost flying like a plane, just one foot above the ground.
Japan has in fact invented a railway train
.... But Japan has not enough land, because that railway train moves at four hundred miles
per hour, one foot above the tracks. It can't stop at every station -- and Japan has only
the possibility of having two stations: one from where it starts and one where it stops,
the beginning and the end ... the alpha and the omega!
The sannyasin also wanted to know whether he
is allowed to criticize me.
I have no control over you, but any criticism
is going to be against you, not against me. It is not going to harm me at all. The whole
world is criticizing me, and I am not even touched; there is no question of being harmed!
So you can criticize, but remember it will
harm you. Your criticism will take you away from me. Your criticism will create a wall
between me and you, and a bridge is needed, not a wall.
You can criticize so many things .... The
whole past of humanity is available for you to criticize, and the whole world is there to
criticize me. Why bother to criticize me? You are here not to criticize, you are here to
find out the truth. Criticism is very easy. Understanding needs intelligence, criticism
does not.
I have told you the story by
the great Russian novelist Turgenev, THE FOOL.
In a village there was a poor man who was
thought by everybody to be an idiot, and because everybody told him that "You are an
idiot," he also started believing it. What to do? -- if everybody is saying it,
everybody cannot be wrong. So he had accepted the idea that "I am an idiot."
He would open his mouth and immediately
somebody would say, "Stop! You are an idiot, you don't know anything. Keep
quiet!" But it was hurting him very much.
A sage was passing by the village. He went to
the sage, he told his miserable story. The sage said, "Don't be worried, my son, it
is a very simple problem. All you have to do is this: whenever somebody says something ...
don't say anything from your side; just watch others saying things.
"When somebody says, `Look what a
beautiful sunset!', then you criticize. You ask, `What is beauty? Why do you call this
sunset beautiful? I don't see any beauty. Where is beauty?' Just remain consistently
criticizing. If anybody says, `Look at that woman! How beautiful!', then criticize: `What
is beautiful in that woman? Just a skeleton covered with flesh in a bag of skin? What do
you mean? What is beauty? That stinking woman? Just open her up!'"
God was not very clever, otherwise he would
have made us with zips! You can open the zip and look inside, and that will be enough. All
beauty will be finished. You will run away so fast you won't look backwards. What happened
to the beautiful woman? or the beautiful man? Inside you are just bones, blood, flesh.
What is beauty?
That sage said, "Remember one thing:
don't make any statement on your side, otherwise they will criticize. You just for one
month persist in criticizing. Just move around the town, and anybody saying ANYthing ...
"Somebody says, `Service to the poor is
good.' Ask them, `What is good? Why are there poor? What do you mean by service?'"
If death is the end, then what is the
difference between the saint and the sinner? Both will die and be finished. There will be
no account taken that this is a saint, don't destroy him; this is a sinner. If death is
the end, as the materialists believe, then there is no question of being saintly or evil.
It is all the same. Death equalizes everybody.
For one month he practiced what the sage had
said. The whole town was amazed how intelligent he had become. "What has happened?
What a miracle! Nobody can answer his questions!" They started saying about him that
he is no more an idiot, he has become a sage.
After one month the sage came back. He called
the young man, and he said, "Are things okay?"
The young man said, "Great! Things are
not just okay, but absolutely great! You have given me such a secret. I have criticized
everybody -- the priests, the professors, the poets, the scholars -- and they are all
defeated. Now they have changed their idea; they think that some miracle has happened to
me: `His whole personality has changed, he is no more an idiot. He is the most intelligent
man, a wise man we should be proud of.'"
The sage said, "That's good. Now keep it
up. Don't make any statement on your own, just go on criticizing."
Criticizing is so simple. It does not need
any skill, any art, any intelligence. What will you gain by criticizing me? You will
simply lose me.
I am not preventing you, I am simply making
things clear to you. Are you here to learn criticism, argument, logic? Or are you here to
learn the art of going beyond the mind? It is your freedom. You can choose the mind, or
you can choose meditation.
This place is for meditation.
If you choose the mind, this is not your
place. Perhaps in some future life ... maybe you will become more mature and understand
the futility of all criticism, all agreement, all disagreement. They are all mind-fucking!
You have to go beyond it.
The sutra:
OUR BELOVED MASTER,
THERE WAS A MONK WHO HAD STAYED WITH YAKUSAN FOR THREE YEARS AND
SERVED AS THE HEAD COOK. ONCE, YAKUSAN ASKED HIM, "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?"
"THREE YEARS," THE MONK REPLIED.
"I DON'T KNOW YOUR FACE AT ALL,"
SAID YAKUSAN.
THE MONK DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YAKUSAN
MEANT,
AND, OUT OF RESENTMENT, LEFT THE MONASTERY.
The master was too compassionate on him --
but he missed the point, the poor monk.
Yakusan has asked him, "HOW LONG HAVE
YOU BEEN HERE?" He is not asking how many years, his emphasis is on the point of
here: "How long have you been here?"
In Zen, language takes a totally different
nuance. The master is asking, "How long have you been in the time which is called
now, in the space which is called here? How long have you been here?" He is not
asking how many years you have spent here.
Perhaps the man had not even touched the
space called here, the time called now. So he said, "THREE YEARS." That was
factual, he had been in the monastery as a cook for three years -- but that was not the
question.
Yakusan was not interested how many years he
had been in the monastery; he was interested that "Have you touched the point here,
or not? Have you learned the art of being here, or not?"
To be here and now, you have to be in
meditation, beyond mind. Then suddenly all time disappears, you are in eternity. The very
present moment becomes eternal. That was the question.
When a master asks anything, it is never an
ordinary thing. The words may be ordinary, but you have to listen very carefully: Where is
his emphasis? Why is he asking suddenly?
And because the monk said, "Three
years," the master saw that he could not understand even a simple statement in the
world of Zen. That's why he said, "I DON'T KNOW YOUR FACE AT ALL."
Again, he gave another opportunity to the
person. "Have you discovered your original face? -- because I don't see it. I see the
persona, the personality, but I don't see your original being, your original face. I DON'T
KNOW YOUR FACE AT ALL." And he was the cook, and the master was seeing him every day,
because he was serving his food. So it had nothing to do with factuality, it had something
to do with absolute truth.
Yakusan was saying, "You don't know how
to be here, you don't know how to be in the now. That means you don't know who you are.
That means you have not looked inwards, behind the personality, into your original
face."
The original face is the face of the buddha.
The original face is the face you had before
your father was born.
The original face is the face you have had
since eternity, and you will have till eternity. It is your very being, it is your very
life source.
But instead of understanding the master's
compassion, the monk did not understand what he meant, and he felt resentment: "What
kind of man is this? I have been serving food to him for three years, and he says he has
not seen my face." He thought, "It is very insulting, humiliating." Out of
resentment he left the monastery.
So many poor people -- poor in the spirit --
by chance, by accident, come across a master, but they are bound to miss.
For three years the master has not asked him
anything. He gave him enough time. Three years is thought to be enough time for anyone to
get into the center.
It is a very strange phenomenon, and perhaps
you may have observed it. If you move your house, it takes three days to be at rest in the
new house.
Gautam Buddha and Mahavira, two great
awakened people, did not allow their monks to stay in one place more than three days,
because if you stay more than three days friendships arise, you can fall in love, you can
start loving the place, you can start loving the food that you are getting in the place.
You can become acquainted, you are no more a stranger. It takes three days for a stranger
to be absorbed by the masses. So Buddha and Mahavira were in absolute agreement on the
point that no sannyasin should stay in one place more than three days; three days is the
limit. After the third day he should leave, so no attachments, no possessiveness, arise.
It is my experience that it takes three years
for the laziest person. To those who are faster, it can happen in three seconds, but even
to the laziest, if he goes on meditating, in three years he will find his original face.
That is a finding of thousands of meditators.
So after three years -- the man had been with
the master, he had been cooking, he had been listening to the master's discourses -- it
was time to ask him: "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?"
He understood how long but he forgot the word
`here'. The emphasis was not on how long, the emphasis was on `here'. But out of
compassion a master gives as many chances as possible. He asked another question.
"I DON'T KNOW YOUR FACE AT ALL -- and
you say you have been here for three years. Where is your face?"
Now the man became resentful. He is standing
before the master, and what kind of madman is this? -- he is asking, "Where is your
face?" He is asking about your original face -- not this face that is reflected in
the mirror, but a face that is reflected in the heart of the master.
The master knows when he encounters his
disciple whether his heart reflects his original face or not. The original face is your
consciousness, your witnessing, your buddha.
But this is the poverty of humanity, that you
may come across -- which is very rare -- a master, and you will misunderstand and
misinterpret, and what was compassion may look to you like humiliation, insult, and you
may leave the master with resentment, with anger.
Being with a master one has to be very
patient and one has to listen correctly. One has to watch where the emphasis is. The
master has no concern how many years you have been here. What is he going to do with
counting the years? Certainly he is not asking about the years; he is asking about this
moment.
Are you here?
Factually you all seem to be here, but if
your mind is wandering somewhere else, then in truth you are not here.
This face that you see in the mirror is not
your original face. The original face is only a symbolic word. It does not mean `face';
inside there is no face. It simply means your originality, your individuality, your
essential consciousness, your very nature of being a buddha. That is your original face.
It is a metaphor.
I am talking about these anecdotes not for
the sake of the anecdotes. I am talking about these anecdotes for you to become aware:
You are with a master.
You have to listen rightly.
You have to listen silently.
No agreement is needed, no disagreement is
needed, no criticism is needed. Just listening peacefully, a synchronicity arises.
Suddenly you feel a merger, a meeting -- so deep a meeting that you don't know who is who,
who is the disciple and who is the master.
It happened to Chuang Tzu, a great master, perhaps one of the very rarest
ones ....
His disciple Lieh Tzu one day came and sat on
the seat of the master. Then came Chuang Tzu and sat on the floor. The gathering of
hundreds of monks could not believe what was happening. The master is sitting on the
floor, a disciple is sitting on his seat!
The master said to the head monk, "Ring
the bell for discourse" -- and Lieh Tzu gave the discourse.
The master, Chuang Tzu, clapped and said,
"Perfectly right. From now onwards I don't have to come. You take my seat. You are my
successor."
Zen is such a unique phenomenon. There is no
question of inferiority or superiority. The master is not offended. He could see the face
of Lieh Tzu for the first time. The original face has arisen, the buddha is awakened,
that's why he has taken the seat. It does not matter. When the buddha has arisen in a
disciple, the master can retire.
Chuang Tzu never came back again to the
assembly hall. Lieh Tzu continued.
I have told you another story about Chuang
Tzu and Lieh Tzu. It is worth remembering again in this context.
One day Chuang Tzu woke up in the morning
.... It was after this incident that I told you about. Although he was not coming to the
assembly hall, his disciples were missing him. Lieh Tzu had become awakened, but he was
not of the same quality. He was still new, he was not so articulate. He had entered into
buddhahood just now, while Chuang Tzu had been living in that state for many many years.
So the disciples would listen to Lieh Tzu but
would still go to Chuang Tzu's room just to touch his feet or just to sit by his side.
One morning Chuang Tzu woke up and almost a
dozen disciples were there, because he was late. It had never happened before. "Is he
sick?" He was getting old, so they were concerned. But he woke up and he called the
disciples in.
He said, "I am in a difficulty, that's
why I am late. Do you promise to help me to get out of the difficulty?"
They said, "We will do anything. Even if
our life is needed, it is in your hands. Just tell us."
He said, "No, it is not a question of
taking your life. In the night I dreamt that I had become a butterfly."
All the disciples laughed. They said,
"This is not a problem. We all dream of many things. A butterfly? -- now you are
awake, there is no question ... it is finished. The dream is no more."
Chuang Tzu said, "No, it is not
finished. Now it starts -- the question. If Chuang Tzu can dream in his sleep that he has
become a butterfly, cannot the butterfly in her sleep dream that she is Chuang Tzu? Now
who am I? -- a butterfly dreaming of being Chuang Tzu or am I really Chuang Tzu? That is
the problem."
It is absolutely right. If you can dream
about being a butterfly, what is wrong in a butterfly dreaming about being you?
The disciples looked at each other. What to
do? -- this is nonsense, but you cannot tell the master that this is nonsense. He is
making out of this nonsense a very sensible question.
They said, "If you cannot solve it, you
cannot expect us unenlightened, unconscious people to solve it."
He said, "Ring the bell and call the
whole monastery."
There were at least fifteen hundred monks,
and they came running. What has happened? -- because it was very rare: the bell was rung
always in the assembly hall, not in the cottage of the master.
They all surrounded him. Those twelve
disciples told them, "Our master is in a difficulty." First they all laughed.
The twelve said, "Don't laugh. We also laughed, but he is really very sad, very
serious. We have never seen him so serious. He is not a serious man at all but his
question seemed to be relevant as we pondered over it. It looks absolutely right to
wonder."
Fifteen hundred monks looked at each other.
There was a great silence. Lieh Tzu was not present, he had gone to the city for some
work. He came back right at this time. The gathering of the monks allowed him to enter.
He said, "What is the problem? Why are
you gathered here?"
They told him the problem. He did not enter
into the cottage, he went outside. As he was going out, the monks said, "Where are
you going? You are needed, you have to help the master."
He said, "I am going to help him."
He went to the well. It was a cold winter
morning, and he pulled out ice-cold water in a bucket and went into the cottage and poured
the whole bucket on Chuang Tzu.
Chuang Tzu jumped out of the bed. He said,
"Wait! The problem is solved! I am Chuang Tzu. But where have you been? If you had
not come here I would have remained in my bed the rest of my life. Where have you
been?"
Lieh Tzu said, "Are you awake, or do I
have to bring another bucket?"
Chuang Tzu said, "No, there is no need
for another bucket. One bucket is enough to prove that I am not a butterfly. The butterfly
would have died! I am certainly Chuang Tzu. Just tell all the monks, `Don't be worried,
the problem is solved.'
"But you should not be so strange --
bringing such cold water! At least you could have warmed the water. I am an old man. You
don't understand .... I was just waiting for you, to see whether you could solve it or
not. You are really my successor. You have rightly taken my seat. Don't be worried, slowly
slowly you will learn and I will manage many situations for you to learn."
This was one of the situations.
The master functions in different ways on
different people. Different masters are creating different devices, but all for the sake
of finding the truth.
Never get resentful, never be angry, never
feel insulted. The master never means to humiliate anyone. He wants everyone to be
elevated to the ultimate status of a Gautam Buddha.
ANOTHER MONK ONCE SAID TO YAKUSAN, "I
HAVE A DOUBT. PLEASE, MASTER, CLEAR IT AWAY."
YAKUSAN SAID, "THEN COME TO ME AT THE
REGULAR DISCOURSE."
THAT NIGHT, SEATED FOR DISCOURSE, YAKUSAN
ADDRESSED THE ASSEMBLY OF MONKS IN FRONT OF HIM, SAYING, "TONIGHT A MONK WILL CLEAR
HIS DOUBT AWAY. WHERE ARE YOU? COME UP HERE!"
He is telling the same monk who had asked him
in the morning, "I HAVE A DOUBT. PLEASE, MASTER, CLEAR IT AWAY."
Yakusan is so certain of clearing it away
that without clearing it he is telling the assembly, "TONIGHT A MONK WILL CLEAR HIS
DOUBT AWAY. WHERE ARE YOU? COME UP HERE!"
THE MONK AROSE AND CAME FORWARD. NO SOONER
HAD HE REACHED THE MASTER THAN YAKUSAN KNOCKED HIM DOWN AND IMMEDIATELY RETURNED TO HIS
ROOM.
The doubt is cleared, the ego is shattered.
Returning to the room has been a symbol in Zen almost since Bodhidharma. It means: doubt
is part of the mind; I have shattered it. I am returning to my room, you return to your
own inner shrine.
From different angles, for different kinds of
people, the master manages. He has only two hands, but he functions almost like thousands
of hands. He has only two eyes, but functions like thousands of eyes.
Shohaku wrote:
CUCKOO CALLING
TODAY OF ALL DAYS
WHEN NO ONE IS HERE.
Shohaku was meditating for many months on a
koan: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
Now, one hand clapping cannot make any sound.
The very word clapping means two things are needed. Two hands can clap (THE MASTER CLAPS
HIS HANDS), but one hand ... These are called koans. They are not puzzles that you can
solve, they are unsolvable. You can dis-solve them, but you cannot solve them. Meditation
dissolves them.
So for months he had been meditating, and
every once in a while he would hear something -- a cool breeze passing through the pine
trees making a subtle sound and music -- and he would think, "Perhaps this is
it."
He would run to the master, but before he had
uttered a word, the master would just close the door in his face and shout from inside,
"Go back and meditate. This is not the sound!"
Shohaku would think, "What is the
matter? I have not even said anything and he has refused already!"
But the master is right, because no answer
can be right. There is no question, so whatever he brings is wrong, till he stops
bringing. Many times the master would slap him. When he would say, "This is the sound
I have heard: bamboos cracking," the master would say, "Go back."
And this day it happened!
CUCKOO CALLING ... At another time he may
have run to the master saying to him, "It is the call of the cuckoo, the sound of the
cuckoo."
But today it was different. CUCKOO CALLING
TODAY OF ALL DAYS WHEN NO ONE IS HERE.
He has dissolved his mind, and with the mind
the koan is dissolved. There is no question to be solved. He is no more here.
He did not run to the master, but the master
in the middle of the night suddenly ran towards Shohaku, when the cuckoo was still
calling. The master was waiting that he may come, but he has not come. That means he has
dissolved the question.
The master reached to Shohaku, who was
sitting silently, and the cuckoo was still calling ... and Shohaku was so silent and so
peaceful, surrounded by such serenity.
The master shook him. Shohaku opened his
eyes, didn't say a single word, just touched the feet of the master.
The master said, "So you have heard!
Come on, now you can stay with me in my cottage. I have been looking towards you with
great hope. All those slaps -- you know I am old and it hurts my hand more than your face.
All those beatings ... and you don't understand that my hand hurts the whole night! You
are young. I am in a hurry. My death is very close. Before my death I wanted ...
"You have dissolved the koan, the sound
of one hand clapping. Today it happened of all days: the cuckoo is calling ... but now I
can see you are no more there. Your mind is silent, your ego is gone. A peace, a great
peace, a tremendous transformation from mind to no-mind has happened. I declare you my
successor."
Shohaku's master died the next day. He was
hanging around just hoping and waiting and hitting hard for Shohaku to understand. He had
many disciples, but Shohaku was the most promising because he had taken every hit with
great gratitude, bowing down, touching his feet, with never a single resentment, never
anger, never a feeling of humiliation, never a feeling of frustration that "For
months together I have been coming and coming and coming and he goes on rejecting. Even
though he does not hear my answer, already he rejects it before I have opened my mouth.
Now I know, no answer was going to be the answer. Only no-mind could be the answer.
No-mind is the sound of one hand clapping."
CUCKOO CALLING
TODAY OF ALL DAYS
WHEN NO ONE IS HERE.
A beautiful, very beautiful haiku to
remember.
Maneesha's question ...
OUR BELOVED MASTER
IS IT BECAUSE OF A REFUSAL TO ENCOUNTER THE REALITY OF DEATH THAT
THERE IS A RELUCTANCE TO MEDITATE?
Maneesha, yes, because meditation and death
are very similar. In death you enter reluctantly, unwillingly. That's why you fall
unconscious, in a coma. In meditation you are going with full consciousness, with great
totality of being, on your own accord. It is the same point that you will pass in death
also, but if you have moved to the center before death, then death is no more a fear. You
know it. You have died many times whenever you touched your center, and you have gone
again into a resurrection.
Every meditation is a death and a
resurrection.
You go to the point where death takes people
unconsciously. You go consciously, that is the only difference. The point is the same.
From the same center, death will take you into another womb if you are unconscious.
If you are conscious, doing meditation, then
death is the same .... You will not resist death. You will go dancing with death to the
center. It is a well-known path, you have traveled on it thousands of times. It is a
well-known door, you know it perfectly. Where death is going, you are going rejoicing,
dancing, singing, because you know that door leads you into eternity, into the cosmos.
If you die consciously you will not enter
into another womb, you will not be born again, because birth is nothing but the beginning
of death. You will not be reborn; that means you will never die again. You have reached to
your original being. You have become a buddha.
The fear of death prevents people from
inquiring deeply into themselves.
I came across a man; his wife had brought him to me. He looked very nervous. The
wife told me that something has happened to him: "He does not sleep, and he does not
allow anybody else in the house to sleep. Even the neighbors are getting tired. Just to
keep awake he goes to every room, knocks on the door, asks the wife or the son or the
son's wife or the daughter, `Are you asleep?'"
But when you ask somebody, "Are you
asleep?", you have broken the person's sleep. He has to answer: "Yes, I was
asleep but now I am awake!" And he would put the radio on full volume just to keep
himself awake and he would walk on the veranda and keep the neighbors awake. They would
shout and he would shout back at them.
I said, "What are you afraid of?"
He said, "I am afraid that if I go to
sleep, what is the guarantee that I will wake up? I may die in my sleep. I want to keep
awake. Death is my fear."
I had to teach him meditation. Six months he
continued to come to my meditation class, and once he started feeling himself touching
some inner space he became absolutely unafraid.
His wife came to me. She said, "What a
miracle you have done! You have not given him any medicine ...."
I said, "I have given him some
medicine" -- because the word meditation ... Meditation and medicine come from the
same root. Medicine cures your body; meditation cures your consciousness. They are both
treatments. One is physical, the other is spiritual. I said, "I have given medicine.
He will sleep now."
And I inquired after a few days when I was
passing by his house. It was afternoon, and the wife said, "Now he sleeps even in the
day! You have created another trouble!"
Now his small children were looking after the
store that he runs, and he said, "I don't bother. Sleep is so good, and I have
learned the art of transforming the sleep into meditation. The whole night I am rejoicing
-- and I cannot miss my afternoon nap. It is a meditation. And the store ... The children
are taking care of the customers perfectly well, in fact better than me. With me the
customers were haggling about prices; with the children they don't haggle."
The poor children ...! First the father was
mad, he wouldn't sleep; now he is more mad. He sleeps in the day, he sleeps in the night
-- and the poor children have to take care of the shop so the customers will not haggle.
The children were earning better, getting higher prices, so he said, "Things are
going perfectly well. Why do you bother me? And if you bother me much more I will take you
all to my master!"
You have to learn how to sleep, and you have
to learn how to meditate. Both are the same. In sleep also you go to the same depth, but
not the whole night. In eight hours sleep, six hours you dream -- not continuously, but
with a few breaks here and there, for two hours. For two hours you are at the very center
of your being. That's what rejuvenates you, that's what brings a new freshness to your
face and to your eyes in the morning.
I myself cannot sleep at all -- the whole
night, not a wink. That reminds me of a beautiful anecdote -- in the margin!
One English lord, a member of
the British parliament, was suspicious that another lord was having a love affair with his
wife. But the English are very mannerly. Even in situations where one forgets -- tends to
forget -- men go on etiquette, they will manage.
He asked the lord, "Did you sleep with
my wife last night, sir?"
And his friend said, "Not a wink!"
That is my situation.
My personal physician, Amrito, has managed a
CD player that plays music continuously the whole night so that I can at least enjoy
music. Otherwise I am just lying down. For thirty years I have not slept -- but do you see
my eyes tired or anything?
My own understanding is that sleep is a
habit. It is not a necessity, it is a habit. For millions of years man remained in dark
caves in the night with no fire, no light. There was no other alternative than to fall
asleep. Those millions of years the habit has become so deeply rooted that we go on
sleeping.
But my own understanding is that I have not
slept for thirty years, not dreamt for thirty years -- and it has not in any way disturbed
anything in me. The whole sleep is a silent meditation, and with beautiful music in the
background, the whole night is such a blissful, such an ecstatic experience!
Maneesha, it is because of the fear of death
that people avoid meditation -- but it is only meditation that can take you beyond the
fear of death, that is the irony of the case. You are afraid of meditation because of
death, but you don't know it is only meditation that can make you fearless of death --
because to the meditator there is no death, but only life, and life divine and life
eternal.
It is time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh.
It is the last day of the
holiday season in Goa, and tomorrow Gorgeous Gloria and Sardar Gurudayal Singh will be
going their separate ways as their seaside friendship comes to an end.
That night, in Sardar Gurudayal Singh's hotel
room, Gloria leans close to Sardarji's ear and whispers, "Since this is our last
chance together, I would like to do something different tonight!"
"Okay," agrees Sardar Gurudayal
Singh. "Then you try to kiss me, and I will slap your face!"
Jimmy Bakker's "Praise the Lord!"
TV church has not been making much money ever since Jimmy got out of jail. He is sitting
in his living room one day when his wife, Tammy, comes home wearing an expensive new
dress.
"My God!" shouts Bakker. "You
know we are broke. You promised not to buy any new clothes this month. What made you do
it?"
"I'm sorry, sugar," replies Tammy,
"but the devil tempted me."
... It is the same Bakker, you know, who has been
tempted by the devil to make love to his secretary and to make love to his assistant
priest. Now he is trying hard to get back, but it is difficult. The whole country knows
that this man has been deceiving for years, teaching celibacy to the television onlookers.
He had millions of people listening to him ... one of America's most prominent TV
preachers.
The wife said, "I am sorry, sugar, the
devil tempted me" -- just the same as the devil tempted you!
"The devil?" shouts Jimmy. "So
why didn't you say to him, `Get thee behind me, Satan' -- like a good Christian
woman?" ...
That's what Jesus used to do. The devil used to tempt him .... It is strange, I have been
looking for the devil my whole life and I have not found him. I wanted to tempt him. But
Jesus was continuously tempted by the devil, and he always said to the devil, "Get
behind me!"
So Bakker told his wife, "Just like a
good Christian, why did you not say to the devil, `Get thee behind me, Satan'?"
"I did," replies Tammy, "but
then he whispered to me, `Honey, it fits you beautifully from behind'!"
Avirbhava!
Avirbhava is going on a shopping trip. The
devil will tempt her. So remember ...!
When Gautama the Buddha Auditorium becomes
too small to contain all the seekers coming to Poona, our Beloved Master goes on a tour of
the universe looking for a new site.
At one stop, he arrives at the Pearly Gates
and is greeted by Saint Peter. The Christian saint takes one look at the man before him,
and nearly faints.
"My God! You? Up here? And you want a
two-week tourist visa?" cries Peter. "I must have a talk with God first."
And Saint Peter scuttles away to find God Almighty.
God is not very pleased at Saint Peter's
news, and after a lot of deep thought, he tells Saint Peter, "Okay ... He can stay
for a short while, but only on one condition: no discourses!"
A couple of weeks later, God runs into Saint
Peter again.
"How is everything going with
`You-know-who'?" asks God. "Is everything all right?"
"Just great, Swami-ji!" replies
Saint Peter. "Everything is YAA-HOO!" |