CHAPTER 1
To study the way ... to forget
the self ...
25 July 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium
OUR BELOVED MASTER, DOGEN WROTE:
TO STUDY THE WAY IS TO STUDY
THE SELF. TO STUDY THE SELF IS TO FORGET
THE SELF. TO FORGET THE SELF IS TO BE ENLIGHTENED
BY ALL THINGS. TO BE ENLIGHTENED BY ALL
THINGS IS TO REMOVE THE BARRIERS BETWEEN ONE’S SELF AND OTHERS. THEN THERE IS NO TRACE OF ENLIGHTENMENT, THOUGH
ENLIGHTENMENT ITSELF CONTINUES INTO
ONE’S DAILY LIFE ENDLESSLY.
THE
FIRST TIME WE SEEK THE LAW, WE ARE FAR AWAY FROM THE BORDER OF IT. BUT SOON AFTER THE LAW HAS BEEN CORRECTLY
TRANSMITTED TO US, WE ARE ENLIGHTENED PERSONS.
Maneesha, this is the first day of a new series of talks,
devoted to the full moons.
The moon is an
ancient symbol of transforming the hot rays of the sun into cool, peaceful,
beautiful rays. It has nothing of its
own. When you see the moon, you are seeing only a mirror which is reflecting
the rays of the sun. Those reflected rays are just like the
ones you can see when the sun is reflected in a river.
The moon is a mirror but not only a
mirror, it is also a transforming agent. It changes the heat rays into cool, peaceful
rays. That is the reason why the moon has become the most significant symbol in the East.
2
This
series is dedicated to the full moons. In the series itself we are going to discuss
one of the most unique masters, Dogen.
Before I enter into the sutras,
it will be good for
you to know something about
Dogen. That background will help you to understand his very condensed
sutras. Apparently they look contradictory. Without the background of
Dogen’s life pattern they are like trees without roots, they cannot bring flowers.
So first I will talk about Dogen’s life structure.
DOGEN WAS BORN INTO AN ARISTOCRATIC
FAMILY IN KYOTO, EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
HIS FATHER WAS A HIGH-RANKING GOVERNMENT MINISTER AND HE HIMSELF WAS AN UNIQUELY INTELLIGENT CHILD. IT IS SAID THAT HE BEGAN TO READ CHINESE POETRY
AT THE AGE OF FOUR – another Mozart.
Chinese is perhaps the most difficult
language in the world, because it has no alphabet. It is pictorial and to read it means years of hard work to
memorize those symbols. To the born Chinese it is not so difficult, because from the very birth it becomes ingrained into
his mind, but anybody who is studying Chinese
from the outside world ... I have been told by friends that it takes ten years
at least, if one works strenuously; thirty years if one works the way any ordinary
student will work.
At the age of four, to understand
Chinese – and not only Chinese, but Chinese poetry; that makes it even more difficult. Because to understand the prose of any language
is simple, but the poetry
has wings, it flies to faraway places. Prose is very marketplace, very
earthly; it creeps on the earth. Poetry
flies. What prose cannot say, poetry can manage to indicate. Prose is connected
with your mind, poetry is more connected with your heart; it is more like love than like logic.
At the age of four, Dogen’s
understanding of Chinese poetry immediately showed that he was not going to be an ordinary human being. From that very age his behavior was not
that of a mediocre child; he behaved
like a buddha, so serene, so graceful, not interested in toys. All children are interested in toys, teddy-bears ... who cares about poetry?
But,
fortunately or unfortunately, his father died when he was only two years old and his mother
died when he was seven. Dogen
used to say later on to his disciples, when he became a fully- fledged
master in his own right, that everybody
thought it was a misfortune: ”What will happen to this beautiful, intelligent child?” But
in his deepest heart he felt it was an opportunity; now there was no barrier.
Modern psychologists will perhaps
understand it: you may be grown up – fifty, sixty, seventy – your father and mother may be dead ... still
they dominate you in a very psychological way. If you silently listen to the voices within you can work
out that, ”This voice comes from my father, or from my mother, or from my uncle, or from my teacher, or from the priest.”
Dogen used to say, ”It was a great
opportunity that both the people who could have distracted me, who loved me and I loved them ... and that
was the danger. They died at the right time. I am infinitely grateful
to them just because they died at the right time without destroying me.”
It
is something very strange for a seven-year-old child to understand this. It has been discovered only now by the psychologists that man’s greatest
barriers are the father, the mother. If you want
to be a totally free consciousness you
have to drop, somewhere on the way, your teddy-bears, your toys, the teachings
that have been forced upon you. They have all been of good intent,
there is no question about it, but as it is said
in an ancient proverb, ”The path to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Just good intentions are not enough;
what is needed is a conscious intention, which is very rare. To find a father and mother with a conscious meditative energy is just hoping for the hopeless.
When
his mother died Dogen was translating the most significant Buddhist scripture, abhidharma
– ”the essence of religion” – from
Chinese into Japanese. He showed
every sign of a tremendous future.
And at the age of seven, when his father and mother had both died, the first
thing he did – which is unbelievable
– was to become a sannyasin. Even the neighbors, relatives, could not believe it. And
Dogen said, ”I will not miss this opportunity.
Perhaps if my father and mother were alive, I might not have left the world in search of truth.” He became a sannyasin and started searching
for the master.
There
are two kinds of seekers
who become interested in truth. One starts looking
for scriptures: he may become a great intellectual, he may become a giant, but inside there will be darkness. All his light is borrowed,
and a borrowed light is not going to help in the real crises of life.
I am reminded of a Christian priest
who used to repeat in every sermon Christ’s saying, ”If somebody slaps you on one cheek, give him the
other, too.” Everybody liked his sermons, he was quoting such great statements. But in one place a man really stood up and slapped the priest
on one of his cheeks. The priest was
shocked, because he had just been quoting Jesus. But anyway, to save his face, he gave his other cheek. And that
man must have been a real rebellious type; he slapped the other one, too. Now this was too much!
The
priest jumped at the man and started beating him. And the man said, ”What are you doing?”
He said, ”The scripture stops with the
second cheek. Now I am here and you are here: let us decide this.”
Borrowed scriptures won’t help in
actual encounters. In life there are
everyday realities to be faced. In death the ultimate
reality has to be faced. And borrowed
knowledge is not going to help at all.
The second type of seeker does not go
towards the scriptures, but starts searching for a master. These are two different dimensions: one is
looking for knowledge, the other is looking for a source which is still alive. One is looking for dead scriptures, the
other is looking for a living scripture whose
heart is still beating and dancing, in whose eyes you can still see the
depth, in whose presence you can see your own potential.
This second type is authentically the seeker for truth. The first type is only a seeker for knowledge.
You can have tons of knowledge and
still you will remain ignorant. The
man who has found the master may have
to drop all his knowledge so that he can become open and vulnerable to the master’s
presence, so that he can dance with the master’s
heart. In this dance there happens a synchronicity, both the hearts slowly settle into the same rhythm.
This rhythm is called the
transmission. Nothing visible is given – no teaching, no doctrine – but
invisibly two hearts have started
dancing in the same tune. All that the master knows slowly goes on this
invisible track and pours into the hearts of the disciples to the point of overflowing.
Dogen shows his intelligence,
certainly, that he never turned to the scriptures. While his mother was alive, he was translating abhidharma, one
of the most important Buddhist scriptures, from Chinese into Japanese. If his parents had lived, he might have become a
great scholar. After his parents had died, he burned all that he had translated
with that scripture,
abhidharma.
It is so unbelievable. A seven-year-old child had the great
insight that, ”Words won’t quench my thirst.
I have to go in search of a living source, of someone who has known not
by words, but by actual experience; one who is existentially a buddha.”
The
search for the master is the search for the buddha.
AT THE AGE OF THIRTEEN DOGEN WAS
FORMALLY INITIATED. It was not easy to be initiated, one had to prove one’s capacity, potentiality, possibility. One
had to prove that one will not betray on the
path, that one will not waste the time of the master, that one will wait
infinitely. So he had to wait until the age of thirteen, and then:
HE WAS FORMALLY INITIATED INTO THE
MONKHOOD ON MOUNT HIEI, THE CENTER OF TENDAI
BUDDHIST LEARNING IN JAPAN. FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS HE STUDIED THE SCHOOLS OF Mahayana AND Hinayana, VERSIONS OF BUDDHISM, UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF HIS TEACHER,
ABBOT KOEN.
BY THE TIME HE WAS FOURTEEN DOGEN HAD
BECOME TROUBLED BY A DEEP DOUBT CONCERNING ONE ASPECT OF THE BUDDHIST
TEACHING.
This is the sutra that made him troubled
to the very core of his being.
IF,
AS THE SUTRAS SAY, ”ALL HUMAN BEINGS
ARE ENDOWED WITH THE BUDDHA-NATURE,” WHY IS IT THAT ONE MUST TRAIN ONESELF SO STRENUOUSLY TO REALIZE
THAT BUDDHA- NATURE, TO ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT?
A very significant question. If everybody is a buddha, then to recognize it should be the
simplest thing in the world. If you are potentially a buddha, then the
barriers cannot be much; they cannot hinder
you. Nothing can hinder you. A rose bush brings roses, a lotus seed brings the
lotus. If every man is a seed buddha,
then why so much discipline? He was
only fourteen years of age, and just one year before he had been initiated, but this sutra disturbed him immensely.
It is obvious that if to be a buddha
is our nature, then it should be the simplest thing ... without any discipline, without any effort – just a
natural phenomenon, as you breathe, as your heart beats, as your blood runs in the body. There is no
need of all the nonsense that has been forced upon people to become buddhas, to achieve buddhahood.
At this point he left his teacher
because the teacher could not answer him. The teacher was just a teacher.
He could teach the sutras, but he could not answer. He could realize
the great significance
of
the question. Either
buddhahood is not everybody’s nature
... it is some faraway
mountaintop, that you have to travel through
all kinds of hardships to reach. But if it is your very nature,
then this very moment you can
realize it – there is no need even to wait for a single moment. But the
teacher could not say that, because he himself had not realized
buddhahood. He had been teaching Buddhist scriptures, and not a single student
had ever said, ”This sutra is contradictory.”
IN SEARCH OF SOMEONE WHO COULD HELP
RID HIM OF HIS DOUBT, DOGEN FOUND HIMSELF WITH ANOTHER TEACHER, MYOZEN.
Teachers are many. Just to graduate into a certain branch of
knowledge is not anything unique or special. But to find a master is really arduous, in
that they both speak the same language – the
teacher, the master. And sometimes it may be that the teacher speaks
more clearly, because he is not
worried about his own experience. The
master speaks hesitantly, because he
knows whatever he is saying is not perfectly
appropriate, does not express the experience itself
... that it is a little way off.
The teacher can speak with full
confidence because he knows nothing. The master either remains silent or, if he speaks, he speaks with a
great responsibility, knowing that he is going to make statements which appear to be contradictory, but which are not.
But every teacher wants to be known as
a master. For the seeker this creates a problem. Myozen also proclaimed himself
a master, but time proved that he was not a master.
IN SPITE OF LONG YEARS OF TRAINING
UNDER MYOZEN, DOGEN STILL FELT UNFULFILLED. AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE HE DECIDED TO MAKE THE JOURNEY TO CHINA WITH MYOZEN, IN ORDER TO STUDY
ZEN BUDDHISM FURTHER. LEAVING THE SHIP,
DOGEN FOUND HIS WAY TO T’IEN-T’UNG MONASTERY, WHERE HE TRAINED UNDER MASTER WU-CHI.
STILL
UNSATISFIED, FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL
MONTHS HE VISITED
NUMEROUS MONASTERIES. JUST AS
HE WAS ABOUT TO GIVE UP HIS SEARCH AND RETURN TO JAPAN, HE HAPPENED TO HEAR THAT THE FORMER ABBOT OF T’IEN-T’UNG HAD DIED,
AND THAT HIS SUCCESSOR, JU-CHING, WAS SAID TO BE ONE OF CHINA’S
FINEST ZEN MASTERS.
He changed his plan to go back to Japan and went again to the same monastery where he had been.
The old master, who was just a
teacher, was dead, and he had been succeeded by Ju-ching – a man who had soared high and touched the peaks
of consciousness, who had dived deep and touched the depths of his being, who
had moved vertically upwards and downwards, who
had traveled through all his
conscious territory. This man
Ju-ching proved to be a man who answered doubts, settled them, because Dogen was still carrying the same question: that
if buddhahood is your nature, then why is any discipline
needed?
It was Ju-ching who said, ”No
discipline is needed. No discipline,
nowhere to go, no way to be traveled
... just be, silent, settled, at the very center of your being, and you are a
buddha. You are missing it because you are looking
and trying everywhere else except within
you. You will never
find your buddhahood by changing this
monastery for another monastery, this master for another master. Go in!”
Ju-ching is known as one of the finest
masters, a very fine sword
that cuts things
immediately. His presence,
his fragrance, his grace ... Dogen
remained with him, never asking a question, just drinking the very presence of the master,
the very atmosphere, the very climate – getting drowned.
And a moment always comes ... An
ancient Tibetan proverb says, ”If the disciple is ready, the master appears.” The whole question is of the
disciple being ready. But the disciple can be ready only if he comes across a man of consciousness – not a man only of words,
but a man of the experience – who
has been to the highest peaks, to the lowest depths. And just being close to him one can feel the vibe, the coolness.
He radiates the truth; and if you are
ready, suddenly something clicks. All
doubts disappear, you know you have
found the master. Now there is nothing to be asked. Whatever is needed, the
master will give it. In fact, it is
only because of the poverty of language that we say, ”The master will give it.” The truth is, when you are ready it simply
showers on you – the master cannot even prevent it. The master is already radiating, just the doors of your being are
closed. So those vibrations, and they are simply vibrations, return back. If the doors are open, nothing is said and everything is understood.
When Dogen became a master in his own
right, when Ju-ching declared to him, ”Now, no more play the role of being a disciple,” at that moment he hit Dogen and
said, ”You have come to understand; now
be compassionate on the blind humanity. Now don’t go on sitting by my side. You
are a buddha. Just because you were
wandering here and there, you could
not understand. Then sitting by my side, silently ... I have not given you anything.
You have simply become centered, and in this centering is the inner revolution.”
DOGEN
WROTE:
TO STUDY THE WAY IS TO STUDY
THE SELF.
Now
these are tremendously valuable statements. He is saying,
”Don’t ask about the way – there
is no way.” TO STUDY THE WAY IS TO STUDY THE SELF. The way leads away,
and the further you go in search, the
more you are lost. Drop all going and remain at home, just doing nothing. As Basho has said:
ANCIENT POND. A FROG JUMPS,
AND
GREAT SILENCE.
And Basho was just sitting
there, so he wrote a small poem, sitting silently,
doing nothing: A frog jumps in the ancient pond.
A little sound and then great silence.
We are little sounds in a great
silence. Between us and the universe
there is not much more difference than between a sound and silence.
In every temple in the East we have
used different kinds of bells. Even today they are used without any understanding. The reason is to give you a message – you ring the bell, a sound is created
from nowhere. It echoes in the
empty temple, it re-echoes, and every echo becomes more silent, more silent, and finally it disappears.
Our existence is nothing but a sound in an immense ocean of silence.
TO STUDY THE WAY IS TO STUDY
THE SELF.
Don’t bother about the way, just study yourself.
TO STUDY THE SELF IS TO FORGET THE SELF.
Who is going to study the self? The
one who is going to study the self has already dropped the self. The one who is studying
the self is the witness – your real self.
TO STUDY THE SELF IS TO FORGET THE SELF. TO FORGET THE SELF IS TO BE ENLIGHTENED BY ALL THINGS.
Then it does not matter in what
situation you are – any situation will make you enlightened. People have become enlightened in every kind of situation you can imagine.
The question is, if the self is dropped – then you may be chopping wood or carrying
water from the well, it does not matter. The moment there is no self – only a
witnessing, a silent watchfulness – you are enlightened by all things.
TO BE ENLIGHTENED BY ALL THINGS IS TO REMOVE THE BARRIERS BETWEEN ONE’S SELF AND OTHERS.
To be enlightened simply means: neither
I exist nor you exist. What exists is something
transcendental to I and thou, something more, something bigger and higher.
THEN THERE IS NO TRACE OF ENLIGHTENMENT............................................ In
such a small passage he has condensed
so much. Each sentence could have become a scripture.
THEN
THERE IS NO TRACE OF ENLIGHTENMENT, THOUGH
ENLIGHTENMENT ITSELF CONTINUES INTO ONE’S DAILY LIFE ENDLESSLY.
Once you have become enlightened, it
is not that every day you have to remember that you are enlightened; that
every morning, shaving before the mirror, you have to remember that you are enlightened; or going to the market, you
have to remember not to behave against enlightenment. Once you have become enlightened your every act is automatically
of awareness, of consciousness. Soon
you forget all about enlightenment because it has become your very body, your
very bones, your very blood, your marrow – it has become your very being. Now there is no need to remember it.
There
have been masters
who have forgotten
completely that they are enlightened because there is no need to remember it. Their masters have hit them on their heads. The Zen stick came into existence for very certain purposes. One of the purposes was that somebody who
has become enlightened and is still
sitting silently has to be hit to be made aware, ”Now go away! Get on! Pick up your rented bicycle! What are you doing here?”
Enlightenment does not happen
twice – once is enough.
The master hits as a reward, to remind you, ”Now there is no need to be near me.”
There are beautiful stories
...
Mahakashyapa became enlightened, and
he would not even come near Buddha. He used to sit far away, under a tree; for years he had been meditating there. He
became enlightened ... now he was afraid
to come close to Buddha because he would recognize. Buddha himself had to walk
towards Mahakashyapa and say,
”Mahakashyapa, don’t try to deceive me. Now there is no need to sit under this tree. Get on and move! There
are millions of people who are still groping in darkness, and you are sitting here enlightened. Take this fire of your enlightenment and
make as many people aflame as
possible.”
Mahakashyapa had tears in his eyes. He said, ”I have been hiding, who told
you? I know that now this has happened a difficulty ... I am
enlightened, and I cannot go near to you. I want to touch your feet, but I touch your feet, make the
gesture of touching your feet, just from far away under the tree. Because
I know, once one is enlightened he will be sent away.”
Another disciple of Gautam Buddha,
Sariputta, made it a condition. When he took initiation he was already
a very famous scholar of his time.
He made it a condition, ”If by chance
I become enlightened, please don’t send me away. I want to remain always by your side. If enlightenment means that I will have to
go away, I will not become enlightened, so it is up to you.”
Buddha said, ”Don’t be worried. First become enlightened, then we will see.”
He said, ”No, I want it as a promise.
Enlightenment is certain
by your side. And if you don’t give me a promise, you will be the barrier to my enlightenment.”
Buddha said, ”You are putting me into
difficulty. If everybody starts saying, ‘Don’t send us away,’ how I am going to manage?”
– already ten thousand sannyasins were moving with him from one village
to another village.
He said, ”Sariputta, you are such a
great scholar, you should understand. Because enlightenment is not only enlightenment, it is also a great
responsibility. You have come to realize the ultimate peace, the joy, the blissfulness.” Now it is your
responsibility to share it, go as far away as possible. Now there is no point in sitting by the side of the master.
THEN
THERE IS NO TRACE OF ENLIGHTENMENT, THOUGH ENLIGHTENMENT ITSELF CONTINUES INTO ONE’S DAILY LIFE ENDLESSLY.
THE FIRST TIME WE SEEK THE LAW – by
law is meant the ultimate law of existence – WE ARE FAR AWAY FROM THE BORDER OF IT. BUT SOON AFTER THE LAW HAS BEEN
CORRECTLY TRANSMITTED TO US ...
I have explained to you what
transmission is: it is not through words, it is through the presence. It is through being close, in trust, in love,
that something jumps from the master’s inner being and makes you aflame. It is a quantum leap of
consciousness. It is almost like two candles: one is lit, another is unlit. If you bring both the candles
closer, there will come a moment when the flame of the lit candle will take a jump – you can see the jump –
and the unlit candle also becomes lit. And the lit candle does not lose anything. The unlit candle was carrying the
possibility, the potentiality; it just needed an opportunity.
The master is the opportunity.
THE
FIRST TIME WE SEEK THE LAW WE ARE FAR AWAY FROM THE BORDER
OF IT. BUT SOON AFTER THE LAW HAS BEEN CORRECTLY TRANSMITTED TO US, WE ARE ENLIGHTENED PERSONS.
Everybody is a buddha,
either awake or asleep. Only this small
distinction exists; otherwise
there is no lower or higher.
There is nothing wrong in being a sleeping buddha – it is your choice. A little more sleep is not going to harm anybody – just don’t snore, because
that will create a disturbance in other people’s
sleep.
A Catholic priest
was in great difficulty. An old man, the richest
man of his congregation, used to sit in front of him, and he used to come
with his small grandchild. And the old man, as the sermon would start, would start snoring.
It was such a disturbance to the priest,
but the man was rich and he was donating
so much to the church that he could not be interfered with. But somehow
it had to be stopped; otherwise sooner or later everybody would be
sleeping, snoring, and he would be preaching to them. This disease had to be stopped.
He tried to find a way. He pulled the little child aside when they
were leaving and asked him, ”Can you do something, for God’s sake?”
He said, ”I never do anything without
money. I don’t know God or God’s sake – just money.” A real businessman’s son.
The Catholic priest said, ”Okay. I will give you a quarter dollar if you
keep the old man awake. Whenever he snores wake him up – just hit him with your knee.”
He said, ”In advance, because I don’t
do anything without the money in advance. And if the old man comes to know, there is going to be
trouble. So better give me the advance first, I am taking a risky job.” The priest had to give him a quarter dollar.
The
next Sunday morning,
when the old man started
snoring, the little boy hit him again and again to
wake him up. The old man said, ”What has happened to you? You used to sit
silently. You have been coming with me always.”
He said, ”It is a business matter.”
The old man said, ”What do you mean?”
He said, ”I am getting a quarter dollar to keep you awake.”
The old man said, ”That’s simple – I will give you half a dollar to let me sleep.” He said, ”Okay – in advance.”
The old man gave him half a dollar and the boy stopped waking him up. The preacher
made many signs to the boy, ”Just do something!” But the boy closed his eyes, as if he was in great meditation.
After the church, the priest caught
hold of the boy saying, ”You are very cunning.
You took the money in advance,
and for half of the sermon you were doing perfectly well. Then why did you
start behaving in such a way – as if
you were meditating? For years I have
been seeing you; you have never
closed your eyes.”
He said, ”You don’t understand: business is business.” The priest said, ”What do you mean?”
He said, ”The old man has given me half a dollar. Naturally, I had to stop. Now, if you are ready for one dollar next Sunday ... But it is always a risk; the old man may give me two dollars.”
The priest thought, ”This is a
difficult thing for a poor priest. The rise of the price will go on, because that old man is rich, he can give anything.”
He thought, ”It is better to talk to
the old man.” He said to him, ”I don’t object to your sleep because sleep is not – according to the holy
scriptures – a sin. You can sleep. But snoring ... that too is not sin
according to any holy scripture, but it interferes with other sleepers. And to
interfere in somebody else’s life is certainly immoral. There are many others
who are sleeping, I know. But who comes
to the church? People who are utterly
tired come to the church
to have at least a good morning
sleep. You are disturbing them. And this boy is going to prove a great
businessman. He has already managed ... he asked for payment in advance.”
The old man said, ”There is no point
in getting into competition because, whatever price has to be given, I will give. But for God’s sake let me sleep – and I am going to snore. It is my birthright.”
This much is the difference between
your essential buddhahood and your snoring buddhahood. Just give a good shake ...
You will be surprised to know that
there used to be two groups of Christians: one
was called ”Quakers” and the other
was called ”Shakers.” In their church the Quakers quake just to keep themselves awake, and the Shakers shake
just to keep themselves awake. I think those two groups, which have almost disappeared, represent the most essential part
of any religion. Christianity is poorer because of the decline of those two groups.
It is perfectly right if you can help
to wake up your buddha by shaking. What is wrong with it? What are you doing in the Dynamic Meditation? It is just a mix of shaking and quaking.
Soon you will be entering into our
every evening’s meditation and you will see that nobody ever has disturbed the sleep so much – not only
their own, but for miles around nobody can sleep. We are determined to make everybody
a buddha.
Question 1 Maneesha has asked:
OUR
BELOVED MASTER,
TO FORGET THE SELF – TO REMEMBER
THE SELF:
ARE
THESE TWO DIFFERENT
PATHS OR, IN SOME WAY, ARE THEY THE SAME?
They are the same, just different
expressions. One can say something
positively; one can say the same thing
negatively. But they both are saying
the same. Remembering the self, the
self will disappear. The more you remember, the more you will find it is not there.
Forgetting the self is the same. You
are beyond yourself; don’t cling to your ”I”, to your ego, to your personality. Just drop clinging to this
cage, move out of the cage, and the whole sky is yours. Open your wings and fly across the sun like an eagle.
In the inner sky, in the inner world,
freedom is the highest value – everything else is secondary, even blissfulness, ecstasy. There are thousands
of flowers, uncountable, but they all become possible in the climate of freedom.
Before we enter into our meditation, I have to wake up all those who have fallen asleep by now.
Dodoski and Nerdski are sitting in the local
jail charged with disturbing the peace and being drunk
and disorderly.
That afternoon, Sergeant Crapski takes
the boys to a big field to do some civic duty work while they serve their time.
”Okay,” says the cop. ”Like I told you guys before,
you can start digging that trench.”
The officer gives a shovel to each of
them, points vaguely out at the ten-acre lot, and then walks away.
Nerdski looks around for a while, then
turning to Dodoski says, ”Dig what trench? I
don’t see any trench.”
... Do any of you see?
Nerdski is out of work so he goes up
to Beverly Hills. He goes around from
mansion to mansion, offering to do odd jobs. Finally, at one huge estate, Nerdski knocks on the door.
”Got
any work you need doing?” he asks.
”What
can you do?” asks the owner.
”I’m a really good painter,” replies Nerdski.
”Great!” says the man, handing him a
can of green paint. ”You can go round the back and paint the porch green. It is pretty big, so it will probably take you all day.”
But two hours later, Nerdski knocks
again at the front door. ”I’ve
finished that porch,” he tells the owner.
”Wow,” says the man. ”That was really fast.”
”No problem for me,” says Nerdski proudly.
”I’m a professional.” ”Okay,”
says the man. ”Here is your money.”
”Thanks,” says Nerdski and turns to leave. ”By the way,” he adds. ”That’s not a porch, it’s a Ferrari!”
Kowalski is on holiday in a small town
in the Italian Alps. After a few
lonely nights he begins to feel the need for a woman. So he asks the local bartender how to find the ladies of the town.
”We gotta no prostitutes,” replies the
bartender. ”The priest-a would never
allow it. But the thing-a you want is-a kept out of sight.”
”What have I got to do?” asks Kowalski.
The bartender explains that up in the
mountains there are caves. ”Go there after dark-a,” he says. ”And shout-a ‘Yoo-Hoo!’ into the cave. And
if the lady calls back, ‘Yoo-Hoo,’ you work out-a the price. If she
is busy, you get no answer.”
So that night, Kowalski ”Yoo-Hoo’s” his way from cave to cave, but with no luck. Finally he decides
to go back to town to get drunk, but at the bottom of the mountain he
finds a cave that he has not seen before.
”Yoo-Hoo, Yoo-Hoo!” he shouts.
”Yoo-Hoo, Yoo-Hoo!”
comes back the clear reply.
So Kowalski
rushes into the cave – and is knocked flat by a train!
Jimmy is lost in the desert with two friends, Billy and Sammy.
They wander around
for two days, almost dying of thirst, until they come to a nunnery.
They
knock on the door and the Mother Superior answers.
”Water, water, please give us water!” they groan.
”Oh, no,” says the nun. ”We had a man in here before. If you want to come in here for water, you have to let us cut off your pricks.”
The three guys run back out into the
desert. But two days later they figure that they will die anyway, so what the hell. They go back to the nunnery and say that they accept the condition.
They are brought in and the head nun
takes Billy into another room. There
is a short scream and then the nun
comes back for Sammy. She takes him into another room and there is another,
longer drawn-out, scream. But when she comes back for Jimmy, he is terrified.
”Just a minute!” he cries. ”How did you cut their pricks off?”
”Simple,” says the nun. ”We ask them what their profession is. The first guy is a butcher, so we cut it off with a knife. The second guy is a carpenter,
so we sawed it off.”
At this point, Jimmy starts laughing hysterically with tears rolling down his cheeks. ”What’s
so funny?” asks the nun.
”You’re gonna have trouble with me,” laughs Jimmy. ”I work for Kwality
Ice Cream!” Now ... everybody
is awake.
Nivedano ... (Drumbeat) (Gibberish) Nivedano ... (Drumbeat) Be silent ...
close
your eyes ...
Feel
as if you are frozen.
Enter
in.
The deeper you can,
the
more you will experience your buddha-nature.
At the deepest point,
you are the ultimate
reality –
immortal, eternal, with all the blessings
that
you can ever conceive of. Don’t miss the opportunity.
It is the simplest
thing in the world
to go in ... because
it is your own home.
You need not even knock on the doors. In fact there are no doors inside.
It is an open space, an open sky.
But
to know this open sky is to realize
the deathless principle
of your existence. Deeper, deeper,
and deeper ...
Drink
this life juice to your heart’s content.
And remember this peace, this silence, this blissfulness.
Around the day,
whatever you are doing, don’t forget it. Like an undercurrent,
let it remain there. And slowly, slowly it will change your whole life structure. To make it more clear – sharply clear, Nivedano
...
(Drumbeat)
You
relax ... let go ...
as if you have died.
One day you will.
This
is just a rehearsal.
Leave
the body,
forget the mind ...
and move as deep as you can, like an arrow ... fast,
hitting the very center.
This is the buddha.
Nivedano ... (Drumbeat) Come back.
But come back as buddhas,
knowing perfectly
your eternal being.
Just
sit down for a few seconds to recall the memory
of the territory
that you have traveled, of the center that you have touched.
Let it become your breathing,
let it become your heartbeat. To be a buddha is so simple,
you don’t have to go anywhere.
You
have to just stop going anywhere, and just be within yourself.
Okay,
Maneesha?
Yes,
Beloved Master.
Can we celebrate
the ten thousand buddhas? Yes, Beloved Master.
