...And watch minutely -- if you really are walking, is there any
walker inside? Walking happens, it is a process. Legs move, hands
move, you breathe more, the wind blows in your face, you enjoy; the
faster you go, the more vitality you feel -- everything is
beautiful. But is there really a walker? Is there somebody sitting
inside, or does just the process exist? If you become aware, you
will find only the process exists. The ego is illusory: it is just
a mind-creation. You eat, and you think there must be somebody who
eats, because logic says: How can you walk without a walker inside?
How can you eat without an eater being there? How can you love
without a lover being inside? This is what logic says. But if you
have loved, and if you have come to a moment where love really
existed, you must have known that there was no lover inside -- only
love, a process, an energy. But nobody inside.
You meditate, but is there any meditator? And when meditation
comes to a flowering, and all thoughts cease, who is there inside?
Is there somebody who says that all thoughts have ceased? If that
is there, then still the meditation has not flowered; at least one
thought is still there. When meditation flowers there is simply
nobody to take note of it, nobody to give it recognition, nobody to
say: Yes, it has happened. The moment you say: Yes, it has happened
-- it is lost already.
When there is really meditation, a silence pervades; without any
bounds a bliss throbs; without any boundaries there is a harmony;
but there is nobody to take note. There is nobody to say: Yes, this
has happened. That's why the Upanishads say that when a person
says: "I have realized!" you can know well that he has not. That's
why all the Buddhas have said that whenever somebody claims, the
very claim shows that he has not reached the final peak because at
the final peak the claimer disappears. In fact, it has never been
there. Eating is not a dream -- the eater is the dream.
The whole emphasis has changed from the seed to the flower.
That's why many people in the West think that to call Zen, "Zen
Buddhism", is not good, because a vast difference is felt in the
answers. But they are wrong. Zen Buddhism is absolute pure
Buddhism, even purified of Buddha, purified of Buddhist concepts.
It is the most essential, the purest DHYAN, the purest flowering of
consciousness. Without any center, you exist. Without there being
anybody, you exist. You are, and still you are not. That's what
Tilopa is emphasizing: no-self, ANATTA, emptiness, void.
What does Bokuju say? He says: "We dress, we eat." His answer is
finished. His answer is complete, perfect. He says simply: we eat,
and we dress, and we have never found any problem, and we have
never found anybody who can come out. There is nobody inside.
Eating exists, dressing exists, ego does not...
...When somebody asked the great master Zenerin: What do you do
with your disciples? He said: What do I do? I don't do anything.
The questioner asked: But so many things happen around you, you
must be doing something. Zenerin said: Sitting quietly, doing
nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.
This is what a master is doing: sitting quietly, doing nothing,
waiting for the right moment, the spring. Suddenly, when the
disciple and the master meet, there will be spring -- the spring
comes, and the grass grows by itself. And this is how it happens. A
master simply sits, not doing anything and a disciple waits for the
master to do something. Then comes the spring. And the moment they
meet, the grass grows by itself....
....You breathe in, you breathe out; that is what life is. How
do you do it? Are you the doer? Then hold your breath in, for a few
seconds, and you will come to know that you are not the doer. You
cannot hold it for long. Within seconds the breath will force
itself out. Hold it out: within seconds you will find you cannot do
anything -- the breath is forcing itself in. In fact, the grass
grows by itself, just like breathing. It grows of its own accord;
you are not the doer....
....THEREUPON, SEKKYO SEIZED THE MONK'S NOSE AND GAVE IT A GREAT
YANK.
"OUCH!" YELLED THE MONK, "YOU HURT ME!"
In this "Ouch!" is the whole mystery. Somebody yanks on your
nose -- what happens inside? The first thing is that it was never
expected. The mind was expecting some intellectual answer. This is
rather total. He was asking for some theory, some doctrine, some
method, technique: he wanted a head-to-head communication. This is
rather total. The total master jumps on him, just like a cat jumps
on a mouse. A total thing. The whole cat jumps, not the head; and
the whole mouse is caught, not the head. This is a total thing,
unexpected. And unexpectedness is the key, because if the mind can
expect, there will be no shock. If the mind can expect, then the
mind is already dead. So if you go to Sekkyo, remember well -- he
will not do the same to you again, because you can expect it now.
He will do something absolutely unexpected.
Because Zen masters hit, throw people out of the window, jump on
them, do anything, it has sometimes happened in the history of Zen
that people will come completely ready. Dimensions are limited.
What can you do? You can hit, you can throw, you can jump on the
man. Just a few alternatives are there. So people will come
completely ready. But you cannot deceive a master -- he will not do
anything; he will simply sit silently -- and that will be
unexpected. Unexpectedness is the key, because in an unexpected
moment the mind cannot function. That's what "Ouch!" means. The
mind has simply stopped. This voice doesn't come from the mind, it
comes from your totality. It is not manipulated by the ego, because
there is no time for the ego to manipulate, it has happened so
suddenly, the master has jumped upon you so suddenly, there was no
time to prepare, to get ready, to do something. This "Ouch!" comes
from your whole body, mind, soul; from your very depth of emptiness
it comes, it has a flavor of the total.
And there is no manipulator, nobody has done it -- it has
happened. And when something happens and the doer is not, that is
how you catch hold of emptiness. This is emptiness. This "Ouch!"
comes from the inner emptiness. Nobody is a doer of it. The
disciple has not done it: it has simply happened. And in that
happening, in that "Ouch!" mind is not functioning. It has passed
through the mind, but it has not come from the mind. And it has
passed through the mind at such a fast speed, in fact, if you are
really hurt on the nose, yanked, the "Ouch!" that happens breaks
the sound-barrier. You go and ask the physiologists: it moves
faster than sound. It has a total energy in it and it is beautiful,
because this man may have completely forgotten the spontaneousness
of being. He is thrown back to his spontaneousness. He is thrown
from the mind deeper into his own innermost shrine: from there
comes this "Ouch!" Unexpected, not doing it, it happens. It happens
out of emptiness, you have caught hold.
"OUCH!" YELLED THE MONK, "YOU HURT ME!"
And immediately comes back the echo: "You hurt me." It lasts
only for a single moment, not even a single moment, a minute part
of it, a glimpse, a lightning, and immediately the mind takes
control again: You hurt me.
Look at these three words -- you, hurt, me. This is the whole of
life: you and me and the hurt. Immediately the whole mind is back,
with all the basic elements; you, me and the hurt.
"THAT'S THE WAY TO GET HOLD OF EMPTINESS", SAID SEKKYO.
He has revealed it. He has not explained, he has already given
it. He has not only indicated, he has created a situation in which
it happened. That's what a master is for: to create a situation in
which things happen to you, to create a situation in which you can
become aware of the mechanicalness of the mind, and of the
spontaneousness of your inner no-self. And then you can move, by
and by, from the mind to the inner spontaneousness. You can become
loose and natural. You have to understand that everything can go on
without your mind trying to manipulate -- everything in fact goes
on very beautifully. The trouble starts when you take hold, when
you try to manipulate, when you want the mind to be in the saddle
-- then the trouble starts. Otherwise everything goes on, and goes
on so beautifully. There is no need to improve it, and you cannot
improve it.
The master gave him a glimpse of his inner being, because the
"Ouch!" came from the very center. It was not of the body, not of
the mind. It was of the total, and in that moment he functioned as
a spontaneous being, not as a doer.
This functioning can become your whole life -- that's what
religion should be. A religious life is a functioning of the
spontaneous being. There are situations every moment. You act, but
not as a doer, you act spontaneously....
~ Osho, "The Grass Grows By Itself"
