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GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
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THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
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THE KARMA CLEARING
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TURNING IN
Chapter 3: Go on unconcerned
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Turnin In
OUR BELOVED MASTER,
RINZAI SAID:
WHAT IS THE USE OF CATCHING A DREAM, AN ILLUSION, A FLOWER IN THE SKY? THERE IS, FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY, ONLY THE ONE WHO IS NOW PRESENT HERE AND IS LISTENING TO MY EXPOUNDING OF THE DHARMA....
ALL TROUBLES EXIST BECAUSE YOU ARE MINDFUL OF THEM; IF YOU ARE MINDLESS OF THEM, HOW CAN THEY HOLD YOU? IF YOU DO NOT TAKE THE TROUBLE TO DIFFERENTIATE AND GRASP APPEARANCES, YOU WILL REALIZE TAO IN AN INSTANT. IF YOU FOLLOW OTHERS, AND SUCCEED IN LEARNING SOMETHING BY KEEPING YOURSELVES BUSY WITH YOUR STUDIES, YOU WILL FINALLY RETURN TO THE REALM OF BIRTH AND DEATH. IT IS FAR BETTER TO MAKE YOURSELVES UNCONCERNED, AND GO TO SOME MONASTERY WHERE YOU CAN SIT CROSS-LEGGED ON THE CORNER OF A MEDITATION BED.
MAKE NO MISTAKE: THERE IS NO DHARMA EXTERNALLY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE FOUND INTERNALLY. DO NOT GRASP THIS MOUNTAIN MONK'S VERBAL WORDS, FOR IT IS FAR BETTER TO PUT AN END TO ALL KARMAS AND GO ON UNCONCERNED. DO NOT ALLOW THOUGHTS THAT HAVE ARISEN IN YOUR MINDS TO GO ON UNINTERRUPTED, AND DO NOT ALLOW THOUGHTS THAT HAVE NOT YET ARISEN TO RISE. THIS IS MUCH BETTER THAN YOUR TEN YEARS OF JOURNEYING TO CALL ON LEARNED TEACHERS.
ACCORDING TO THIS MOUNTAIN MONK'S VIEW, THERE ARE NOT SO MANY THINGS; SUFFICE IT TO BE ORDINARY AND TO GO ON UNCONCERNED, WEARING YOUR ROBE AND EATING YOUR RICE....
THERE ARE BALD-HEADED AND BLIND MONKS WHO, AFTER SATISFYING THEIR HUNGER, IMMEDIATELY SIT IN MEDITATION TO LOOK INTO THEIR MENTAL ACTIVITIES AND ARREST THEIR THOUGHTS SO THAT THE LATTER CANNOT ARISE AGAIN. THESE PEOPLE HATE DISTURBANCE AND SEEK QUIET; THIS IS THE WAY OF THE HERETICS.
THE PATRIARCH SAID, "THOSE WHO SET THEIR MINDS ON LOOKING INTO QUIETNESS, APPLY THEM ON CONTEMPLATING EXTERNALS, AND KEEP THEM UNDER CONTROL TO QUIET AND FREEZE THEM IN ORDER TO ENTER SAMADHI, ARE ALL IN THE STATE OF MENTAL ACTIVITY."
Maneesha, there are three words to be understood perfectly well before you can understand what Rinzai is saying. He is talking about the fourth word.
The three words that he is not talking about are `concentration', `contemplation', and `meditation'.
In English there is no word for the fourth state of your consciousness, so unfortunately we have to translate that fourth word into the third -- meditation. But it is not accurate, and it is dangerous. But if you understand that it is just to indicate something which is not contained in the English word itself, then there is no problem.
The fourth word is dhyana, which became ch'an in China and in Japan it became zen.
`Concentration' means you put all your thoughts on one object. It is a perfectly valid means for any scientific research.
The second word, `contemplation', means to allow your mind to move only on a certain object. In a way it includes concentration, but in another way it gives you a little more rope. For example, you are contemplating on love, its meanings, its implications.... Contemplation is the method of philosophy.
`Meditation', in English, simply means a far more deep concentration. The first concentration is superficial: you just stay on the surface, you touch the circumference. In meditation you go to the very center of the object. But remember, all are object-oriented.
The fourth word, `zen', is introverted. It is going in; it is non-objective. It is neither scientific nor philosophical; it covers a totally different area. It means not to know the object but to experience the subject.
Closing yourself in and finding the center of your life and consciousness is the goal of Zen.
Unfortunately, nothing like Zen ever developed in the West. And because the experience never developed there was no need for any word for it. Words are needed only when there are experiences to be expressed. In the East, concentration, contemplation and meditation are all mental activities.
Zen is going beyond the mind, where no object exists. And remember, the moment the object is no more there, you cannot maintain the subject; they are two sides of the same coin. On the outside the object drops, on the inside the subject disappears, and then what remains is that spotless cleanness, that silence out of which everything arises and disappears. That is dhyan in Sanskrit, jhan in Pali, ch'an in Chinese and zen in Japanese.
They have all traveled from dhyan, and whenever a word moves from one language to another language it automatically takes different shapes, different pronunciations. But you have to understand it clearly, that only the words are different; the space they point to is one, where there is no object and no subject, where there is no knowledge and no knower; just pure innocence, the fragrance of pure innocence. And the flowers that blossom in that innocence are of ultimate ecstasy, of absolute bliss.
The whole East has been in search, for thousands of years, for the origin of your very life, the very center of your being. It has not been concerned with the outside world; that's why science has not developed in the East. The genius of the East was interested not in objects and things; it was interested in only one thing: who is alive in me? Who is throbbing in my heart? Who is taking my breath in and out? And once you have found this space, you cannot find anything more precious.
Rinzai is one of the most famous Zen masters. Just as Bodhidharma took dhyan to the land of China, Rinzai brought from China -- his Chinese name is Lin Chi -- the same lamp, the same light, to Japan. It is a tremendous transmission from one land to another land, from one master to another master, and it is the only tradition in the world which is still breathing, still alive.
So while you listen to Rinzai, remember: it is not scripture -- it is a life, a song, a dance. It is all that is the source of life.
RINZAI SAID:
WHAT IS THE USE OF CATCHING A DREAM, AN ILLUSION, A FLOWER IN THE SKY?
According to the people who have become enlightened, the whole world becomes almost like a dream. I say "almost like a dream;" I have to give you the exact definition.
A dream is something that goes on changing, and the real is that which remains always the same. Your consciousness is a reality, an eternity. Everything else around you is of the same stuff dreams are made of.
When you are asleep, the dreams look so real -- I don't think anybody in the world has ever suspected while dreaming that a dream might be a dream. While you are asleep and dreaming, the dream becomes such a total reality that not even a doubt arises. And when you wake up in the morning you suddenly find that you were running after non-existential fragments of your imagination.
To the awakened man, to the buddha, the whole world and all its objects become almost like dreams. Everything is fleeting fast: the young man becoming old, the old man coming closer to his grave. Seen from the heights of a buddha, everybody is digging his own grave, every day. It takes seventy years, but in comparison to the eternity of existence, seventy years are not even seven seconds.
If a whole album of photographs is taken from the time you became impregnated in your mother's womb through the whole nine months of growth, and the series of photographs of that growth is shown to you, do you think you will recognize that it is you? Even your childhood pictures, if they are presented to you in your old age... you may think, "Perhaps I used to look like this, but I cannot be absolutely certain...."
Everything is fleeting. Because of this flux, buddhas have called the world a great dream.
THERE IS, FOLLOWERS OF THE WAY, ONLY THE ONE WHO IS NOW PRESENT HERE AND IS LISTENING TO MY EXPOUNDING OF THE DHARMA.
ALL TROUBLES EXIST BECAUSE YOU ARE MINDFUL OF THEM.
The mind has a very great strategy to project responsibility onto somebody else. If you are sad, somebody else is responsible for it; he misbehaved with you. If you are angry, somebody else is responsible for it; he enraged you. Mind continually throws the responsibility on some other object.
But the truth is, if you are silent and don't allow the mind to function, there is no trouble -- no sadness, no anger, no love, no hate -- just a pure sky without any clouds.
ALL TROUBLES EXIST BECAUSE YOU ARE MINDFUL OF THEM. You give too much juice to your troubles.
You are in such great love with your misery that even if a clear-cut path to get out of your troubles is shown to you, you will have second thoughts.
I have sometimes told a story to you....
A sannyasin who had renounced the world... not my sannyasin, who rejoices in the world; that is a great difference that I'm creating in the whole tradition of sannyas. The old sannyasin was renouncing the world and at the same time saying that the world is just a dream. If it is just a dream, why not enjoy? What is the hurry to escape from a dream? The dream cannot harm you.
You are quoting scriptures that say it is a dream, but you know perfectly well it is a reality. You know the woman you are renouncing and escaping from by going into the mountains... BOTH are a reality. Otherwise, mountains are also dreams -- perhaps a little longer lasting, but that does not make any difference in the definition of dreams. A dream is that which changes.
Where are you going? The old sannyasin was escaping from the world.
I am introducing to humanity a new sannyas, a new way of rejoicing in the world. Why not rejoice? It is only a dream; it cannot even scratch you. It cannot spoil you -- it does not exist in the first place, so what is the hurry? And wherever you go, you will find troubles. They may be new troubles, but what does it matter? Old troubles are always better. They are well acquainted with you, you know them very well.
Just the old husband, for example -- you know him, and all the nonsense that he will do. The old wife... the husband knows that she will nag and nag and nag, and it has been going on for years. Now it is just a broken record -- who cares? The husband and wife never have any conversation. Neither the husband listens to what the wife is saying nor the wife listens to what the husband is saying. The conversation continues, and everybody knows that nobody is listening to anybody. It is better to keep the old wife, the old husband. It is simpler, less complex. With the new husband you will have new troubles; with the new wife you will have new problems.
An old sannyasin, a traditional sannyasin, had become so troubled in his home-life that he renounced the world. But that does not make any difference: you cannot renounce your mind.
Wherever you go, your mind is inside you.
So he went deep into the mountains but he had the same mind. He was a very violent man. And a bird flew over him, dropping a great load of shit. He said, "My God, here also, the same problem! All my life I have suffered. And I thought that I had renounced the world, but even these idiot birds torture a sacred holy man!"
So many incidents happened that finally he thought, "Wherever you go there are problems. It is better to commit suicide."
So he jumped into the river, but by chance, unfortunately, he knew how to swim. So he came out swimming, cursing himself: "Why did I learn swimming in the first place? And now all my clothes are wet!"
So he thought to collect dry wood by the side of the river-bank to make a funeral pyre. The neighbors who lived there gathered around..."What is happening? First this man jumped, then came out, and now he's making a fire."
They asked, "What is the problem?"
He said, "I'm going to jump into the fire, because in the river I could not succeed in committing suicide."
They said, "Please, do it somewhere else, because your burning body will stink up the whole neighborhood."
He said, "It is so difficult. You cannot allow a person either to live or to die!"
That night he dreamed and prayed to God: "It is enough! Either you take away my troubles... I'm even ready to exchange because I see everybody smiling, laughing, enjoying. I'm ready to change with anybody!"
A voice in his dream filled the whole sky, saying, "Everybody should collect his troubles in bags and come to the temple in the center of the city." So he thought, "Perhaps my prayer has been heard!" He collected all his troubles... but he saw that everybody in the city was moving with bigger bags than he was carrying. Now he became afraid.
He tried to look for somebody who was carrying a smaller bag, but he could not find anybody -- his bag seemed to be the smallest.
He said, "My God, if I have to change... My old troubles were at least well acquainted with me. New troubles... Who knows what kind of woman you will get, whether she beats the husband or not, how old she is, whether she is alive or just dead..."
He became very much worried, but there was no other way. He went to the temple. Everybody came to the temple, all with big bags. A few people even had two bags. And the voice said, "Now put all your bags by the side of each pillar in the temple, and I will give you the signal -- you can choose anyone's bag you want."
The old sannyasin thought, "This is a very dangerous situation!" He looked at the bags; they appeared so big! "Only God knows what is inside." At least his small bag... he knows what is in it.
He kept himself close to his pillar, so when the time came to exchange, he could jump immediately and pick up his own bag. But he was very much surprised that everybody was doing the same! No exchange happened, because nobody wanted unknown troubles. Even the people who had two bags carried their two bags back home.
And as he reached his home he thanked God, "You are compassionate and merciful that you allowed me to keep my own troubles."
There grows a kind of friendship with your own troubles. Somebody else's headache... one does not know what kind of headache. People cling to their troubles. And by renouncing the world, nothing is gained -- only a few more troubles.
I don't want anybody to renounce the world. I want everybody to revolutionize the world by revolutionizing himself.
And the only revolution is not to be attached to your mind. Whatever it says, just be a witness. Don't get caught in its net. This is the simple art of being without any troubles. And a consciousness which is without any troubles knows the greatest joy that life has kept in the very center of your being. It starts overflowing you. Its fragrance is indescribable; its sweetness one can only experience but cannot explain.
ALL TROUBLES EXIST BECAUSE YOU ARE MINDFUL OF THEM; IF YOU ARE MINDLESS OF THEM, HOW CAN THEY HOLD YOU?
In fact, you are holding them -- all your headaches. You are clinging to them. Without them, what are you going to do?
The whole art of revolutionizing your individuality is very simple: don't hold on to anything that mind brings to you. And remember that mind persuades you -- "This is very beautiful. There is no harm, you can hold it." But once you hold it, soon you become aware that only the appearance was beautiful; inside it is a whole hell. But now you cannot leave it either, you have become habituated to it.
Mind is a great salesman. That's why everybody is so much in trouble. Mind goes on telling you, "Hold this trouble, it is so beautiful. Go on a honeymoon. Don't miss this point." But as you reach the honeymoon hotel, all the romance is already finished. As you look closely at the woman, and she looks closely at you, you know: "My God!" You are carrying all the suitcases -- "just married"... and it is the beginning of all misery.
But this is not only about marriage; this is about everything. The problem basically is, the moment you hold something you are no more a witness. You have lost your watchfulness, and that is your authentic being. You become identified with anything you hold.
IF YOU DO NOT TAKE THE TROUBLE TO DIFFERENTIATE AND GRASP APPEARANCES, YOU WILL REALIZE TAO IN AN INSTANT.
`Tao' is the Chinese word for dharma, for the truth.
IF YOU FOLLOW OTHERS, AND SUCCEED IN LEARNING SOMETHING BY KEEPING YOURSELVES BUSY WITH YOUR STUDIES, YOU WILL FINALLY RETURN TO THE REALM OF BIRTH AND DEATH.
Unless a deep meditation cleanses you of your mind completely, you are going to be born again and again and suffer again and again. It is almost a wheel which goes on moving -- from birth to death, from death to birth -- and you are glued to the wheel, crushed by it, but you don't leave it. You are afraid: "If I leave it, in this vast universe I will be lost!"
It happened to a man who was lost in the mountains and could not find the way back to his home. The sun was setting and he became more and more afraid and nervous. The night started coming, and everything became silent and dark
Now he started moving very slowly, because one never knows where one is going. In fact he came to the dead end of a small pathway, and he fell from that dead end, but clung to some roots.
The night was cold. His hands became almost frozen, they lost the capacity to hold on anymore. He remembered his god, he remembered even other people's gods. Somebody may help! He recited whatever he knew of the scriptures but... no way. The hands were getting colder and they started slipping from the roots.
He said good-bye to the world: "I'm finished, I don't know how deep the valley is in which I'm going to fall, or how many fractures, or how many pieces of me will be found. But that is not my problem," he thought. "That is others' problem."
But such tears! -- and he had always thought of leaving the world because it is so troublesome. Now a good chance was there, but he was holding on.
The coldness went on becoming deeper and deeper, and finally he had to let go of the roots. And just as he was surprised, you will be surprised: he was standing on the ground! All the night long, only six inches down was plain ground, his way back home.
But that night he suffered almost a hell. The whole night, the coldness, the every-moment fear, that "Now it is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to the roots." He could not believe that he would ever see another day, another sunrise.
But when he fell down -- just six inches -- he could not believe it! He looked all around. Just nearby was his house. He said, "My God! I unnecessarily provoked all the gods, recited all the scriptures that I have memorized -- for nothing! Just six inches down!"
That is exactly your situation. You are holding so tight. To what are you holding? And I'm trying every day to persuade you not to hold, because just below, six inches down, is your very center of being, your eternity.
But even if you die, it is a rehearsal; you don't die really. You try... but I'm not saying to try, I'm saying to die! And people are dying so carefully. I'm puzzled... I simply keep my eyes closed in order not to see how comfortable you are making it for yourself.
Just waiting for Nivedano's drum to bring you back to life -- and you have not died yet! Just one day at least try... REALLY die! Don't think of any comfortable position, because you will not be able to have a comfortable position in your grave. And one day you will be in a grave, so it is better to be prepared.
Here, every day, ten thousand people die and within five minutes they are all resurrected. And two thousand years ago, nobody was certain that Jesus was actually dead. My feeling is that he was just as dead as you all are. Resurrection is not possible unless the death is just like your death.
So he closed his eyes, rested on the cross and waited for the evening when the crowd would disperse. His friends had made every arrangement to bring him down from the cross and take him out of Judea.
I don't give you that much trouble -- just five minutes' death, because you have to get only six inches down from your mind. Your center is exactly six inches away. That much witnessing, and you are free of all troubles and for the first time you know the beauty of existence. And don't wait -- Nivedano will wake you up.
IT IS FAR BETTER TO MAKE YOURSELVES UNCONCERNED, AND GO TO SOME MONASTERY WHERE YOU CAN SIT CROSS-LEGGED ON THE CORNER OF A MEDITATION BED.
MAKE NO MISTAKE: THERE IS NO DHARMA EXTERNALLY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE FOUND INTERNALLY.
This is a great statement. He's saying you cannot find anything outside and you cannot find anything inside.
What you find inside is not a thing. It is pure consciousness, unbounded consciousness, just pure sky. Finding it is to find the greatest treasure. And you are carrying it, and desiring small things, mediocre things, while in your innermost being you are an emperor.
I want you just to be reminded of it. Once you have known the beauty and the joy and the bliss, you will not be able to forget it. It will follow you like a shadow all day long, all night long. Slowly slowly, it will become just your breathing, your heartbeat. You don't have to take care of it; it is always there, taking care of you.
DO NOT GRASP THIS MOUNTAIN MONK'S VERBAL WORDS... Rinzai used to live on a high mountain and was known as a mountain monk.
DO NOT GRASP THIS MOUNTAIN MONK'S VERBAL WORDS, FOR IT IS FAR BETTER TO PUT AN END TO ALL KARMAS AND GO ON UNCONCERNED. DO NOT ALLOW THOUGHTS THAT HAVE ARISEN IN YOUR MINDS TO GO ON UNINTERRUPTED, AND DO NOT ALLOW THOUGHTS THAT HAVE NOT YET ARISEN TO RISE. THIS IS MUCH BETTER THAN YOUR TEN YEARS OF JOURNEYING TO CALL ON LEARNED TEACHERS.
ACCORDING TO THIS MOUNTAIN MONK'S VIEW, THERE ARE NOT SO MANY THINGS; SUFFICE IT TO BE ORDINARY AND TO GO ON UNCONCERNED, WEARING YOUR ROBE AND EATING YOUR RICE.
THERE ARE BALD-HEADED AND BLIND MONKS WHO, AFTER SATISFYING THEIR HUNGER, IMMEDIATELY SIT IN MEDITATION TO LOOK INTO THEIR MENTAL ACTIVITIES AND ARREST THEIR THOUGHTS SO THAT THE LATTER CANNOT ARISE AGAIN. THESE PEOPLE HATE DISTURBANCE AND SEEK QUIET; THIS IS THE WAY OF THE HERETICS.
This is not the right way; this is the way all the sannyasins of all religions of the world have followed up to now.
Escaping from the world is not done without any reason. The reason is that to be in the world is very disturbing. But remember, unless you want to be disturbed, nothing can disturb you. If you remain just a watcher then the disturbances will come and go. Even in a marketplace you can become a buddha. And I want buddhas to be in the marketplace, because the buddhas on the mountains have not been of much help in transforming humanity.
Now we need buddhas in the marketplace -- that is the only hope for a future mankind and for a better and new man: joyous, loving, compassionate and able to dance, able to sing, able to celebrate.
No buddha of the past was able to celebrate. That is missing something.
No buddha of the past was able even to laugh. Something is missing....
Now you see our buddhas... Sardar Gurudayal Singh, being the ancientmost buddha here, leads the laughter. He's a rare man in the world, because I have never heard of anybody laughing before the joke is told! He's the most unique person. He trusts me -- why wait for the joke?
THE PATRIARCH SAID, "THOSE WHO SET THEIR MINDS ON LOOKING INTO QUIETNESS, APPLY THEM ON CONTEMPLATING EXTERNALS, AND KEEP THEM UNDER CONTROL TO QUIET AND FREEZE THEM IN ORDER TO ENTER SAMADHI, ARE ALL IN THE STATE OF MENTAL ACTIVITY."
It is nothing to do with what we have called dhyana. An authentic meditation has nothing to do with freezing your thoughts, repressing your thoughts. All these activities are mental activities.
The only activity in you which is not mental is witnessing, because witnessing is able to witness all mental activities. It is behind the mind -- just six inches behind.
When you enter into meditation today, don't cling to any roots! When it is time to die, die. When it is time to resurrect, resurrect. But don't be in a hurry. Resurrection in a hurry does not suit a gentleman. At least while you are resurrecting, be nice fellows.
Ryokan wrote:
BUDDHA IS YOUR MIND
AND THE WAY GOES NOWHERE.
DON'T LOOK FOR ANYTHING BUT THIS.
IF YOU POINT YOUR CART NORTH
WHEN YOU WANT TO GO SOUTH,
HOW WILL YOU ARRIVE?
And we are all trying to arrive into our own being, but driving our thoughts in all directions.
UNAWARE OF COMING AND GOING,
I TURN BACK ALONE.
CAUGHT IN THE MIDNIGHT SKY,
THE MOON SILVERING ALL.
These haikus have come out of deep meditation, deep witnessing. UNAWARE OF COMING AND GOING, I TURN BACK ALONE. If you turn back inside yourself, naturally you are alone, but in that aloneness miracles happen.
CAUGHT IN THE MIDNIGHT SKY, THE MOON SILVERING ALL.
He's simply saying that it is so beautiful inside, as if the moon is caught in the sky and everything has become silver in its light.
Obviously, inside there is no darkness. And certainly the light is not of the sun but of the moon. The light of the sun is hot. The light of the moon is cool, and inside there is such a cool breeze blowing... but you never reach to that point, to feeling that coolness.
Homeo wrote:
WINO, ALWAYS STUMBLING,
YET IN DRINKING
I SHOW MOST DISCRETION.
WHERE TO WIND UP?
SOBER THIS EVENING
SOMEWHERE ON THE RIVER BANK
I FIND DAWN'S MOON.
He's saying that, "When I'm not drunk" -- and by `drunk' he certainly means drunk on the divine -- "When I'm not drunk with my own inner sources, I stumble here and there. But when I'm drunk, I SHOW MOST DISCRETION. SOBER THIS EVENING, SOMEWHERE ON THE RIVER BANK I FIND DAWN'S MOON."
Next: Chapter 3: Go on unconcerned, Question 1
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Turnin In
| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
|
|
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT TESTIMONIALS EE LEVEL1 EE LEVEL2 EE LEVEL3 EE LEVEL4 EE FAQS |
