OUR BELOVED MASTER,

WHEN HE WAS WITH KYOZAN, RYUSEN WAS THE MONK IN CHARGE OF FOOD. ONE DAY A STRANGE MONK CAME AND ASKED FOR A MEAL, AT WHICH RYUSEN GAVE HIM PART OF HIS OWN.

KYOZAN KNEW OF THIS BUT CALLED RYUSEN TO HIM AND ASKED, "THAT ENLIGHTENED MONK WHO CAME JUST NOW -- DID HE GIVE YOU ANY FOOD?"

RYUSEN SAID, "HE DENIED HIMSELF AND PASSED ON HIS ALMS."

KYOZAN COMMENTED: "YOU MADE A GREAT PROFIT."

Maneesha, the understanding of Zen is not an ordinary understanding, for the simple reason that Zen does not care about language, does not care about common communications. It has evolved in its own way, a unique way. So those who are spectators and are afraid to enter into the stream will feel the cool breeze but will not understand the heart of Zen. In a word, Zen has contributed to the world a totally new language, a totally new communication, a very fresh communion.

Just in the morning as the lotus opens,

so newness is that of Zen.

The sun rises, the lotus opens,

and the dewdrops on the lotus leaves shine,

better than real pearls.

It is a very delicate matter, and rather than putting Zen into any category... Religion is too strict and hard, and in that very hardness the heart is crushed to death. Philosophy is so vague, making castles in the air, beautiful castles but it does not bring to the world any new fragrance, any new form of transformation.

Zen in some way accumulates all that man has created, but its approach is more aesthetic. All religions talk about truth, about beauty. In fact, truth, beauty and God -- satyam, shivam, sundram -- has been the ancient search. These are the three doors: satyam, truth -- but truth is a little hard, demands too much of you. Hence many never bother to ask what truth is. Godliness seems to be far away beyond the skies; the distance is so great that it discourages the traveler. Beauty is very close, in the flowers, in the birds singing; a solitary cuckoo deep in the forest gives a love call.

Zen's approach is to find the truth, but not to be as hard as philosophers tend to be -- more peaceful and more graceful. That's why no philosopher in the whole history of man has raised his consciousness to the point where you can call him a buddha. He talks much of things beyond, but if you look into his ordinary life he is just as you are. All his flights of thought, his dreamlands are writings on water. Writings on paper don't differ from writings on water. The only difference is: water is quick and finishes the writing; the papers, the books, the scriptures take a long time.

Zen has a very musical approach, a very poetic approach, the approach of a dancer, the approach of a lover. You have to treat existence with loving hands. You have arisen out of it, you will be dissolved into it one day. It is your life, it is your death. But whether in life or in death, you will remain part of the cosmos.

Zen does not talk about God, for the simple reason that there is no such person as God. What is there? -- a tremendous quality of eternal life all around. Nothing dies; if this wave is disappearing another wave is coming, and the disappearing wave will simply go to sleep just to rest, and will be back soon.

Hence, I will not say anything about God. Zen does not talk about it; but it certainly implies godliness. Then God becomes melted ice. Then the personality of God disappears into all living beings. Then God is not a person but the very existence.

Religions have been concerned about God and good, and they have created fossilized dogmas. And they are not willing even to change a little, although anybody can see the foolishness. The foolishness is not God's. That poor fellow suffers at our hands.

Somebody has made the elephant a god. Somebody has made the monkey a god -- even without its permission. There are people who worship trees, and the trees must be giggling, "Why do these idiots waste their time bringing flowers and coconuts?"

Our own coconut has gone on a missionary trip. He was here and it was a good coincidence that when he was here, our Stonehead Niskriya, the first German Zen master, was not here. A single hit on the poor coconut, who used to go to Goa and come back....

And do you know why people offer coconuts? There was a time some five thousand years back, when men's actual heads were offered -- living men, young, in robust health, that was the condition. But because it was a great ritual and whoever offered themselves became immensely loved by the society. And particularly, the idea of meeting God... But slowly slowly, people started thinking that this is very stupid: nobody has returned, nobody has even written a postcard saying, "We have arrived," or any kind of news. And it looks so inhuman. The coconut is a substitute, because it has a little beard, two eyes, hairs.

If you go into the implications of your religious rituals you will find strange things hidden behind them. You will find the statues of the elephant god, Ganesha. You can make any stone a statue just by painting the stone red, and soon people will start worshipping it.

When for the first time the British empire started to put down tracks for the railway lines, they were in a very great difficulty, because they could not put the stones in that denote the miles. Wherever they put the stone they would make it bright red, because bright red is more visible than any other color. And it was a difficulty for them. The villagers would come, would bring sweets, some flowers. A god has arrived in their town.

The British officers tried hard: "What are you doing? This is just a stone."

And the villagers laughed. They said, "You don't understand. This is not a stone; this is the symbol of the god Ganesha."

Why did red become so important? It was symbolic of blood. You could not pour blood on the god, but you could paint. And nobody thinks of the connection, that first blood was poured on, and later... For thousands of years man has been cutting off men's heads, offering heads with blood oozing out of them. As a little intelligence arose, they substituted a coconut for the head, and they substituted the red color for blood.

But if you tell them, you are in danger; you have hurt their religious feelings. I hear this phrase "religious feelings" only when they are hurt; otherwise nobody knows what these religious feelings are.

Zen is the purest religion, with no hang-ups.

Before I take the sutras, a little biographical note:

RYUSEN WAS A DISCIPLE OF KYOZAN. HE BECAME A MONK AT THE AGE OF SEVEN AND STUDIED ZEN UNDER DAIJI, A DISCIPLE OF HYAKUJO AND THEN WENT TO KYOZAN, UNDER WHOM HE BECAME ENLIGHTENED.

WHEN RYUSEN WAS ABOUT TO DIE, AT MIDNIGHT HE SAID TO HIS MONKS, "IF YOU USE UP THE MIND OF THE THREE WORLDS, THAT IS NIRVANA." SAYING THIS HE SAT IN THE PROPER MANNER, AND PASSED AWAY.

A man who has been going deeper into meditation passes the door of death many times. Whenever he goes, he passes it, whenever he comes back... It is simple to understand that death has nothing to do with life. Death is a door. If you move inside the door, you move into the universe. If you move outside the door, you move into mortal existence. And because we go on living on the outside our whole life, the fear of death arises.

And out of fear -- it is a chain -- other things will arise: out of fear you will believe in God; out of fear you will believe in the priest; out of fear you will go to the temple, to the mosque, to the church. Out of fear you will fast, out of fear you will worship; out of fear you will do all kinds of things. But anything done out of fear is not religious. That point is absolute. Anything arising out of fear cannot lead you to truth.

Truth needs guts and courage. It comes out of a loving search. The inquirer is a lover; he is trying to find the ultimate lover. Even the ordinary love affairs are stepping-stones. I am not against love, for the simple reason that that's how you will learn something, in fragments. Each love affair will give you some maturity, some integrity.

But love is in bondage. The society has sealed every love. Anything that becomes a law becomes dead. When love becomes a marriage you are committing suicide. If love remains a freedom, step-by-step you will be able to reach your innermost being. And you will have a good laughter, that the search was for yourself; the lover and the loved are not two. Other loves were failing because you were depending on the other. Unless you find in your inner consciousness both together, the love and the lover...

We have in India one of the most beautiful statues. It is ancient, because examples have even been found in the excavations of Harrapa and Mohanjo Daro. The statue is of ardhanarishwar; half of it is male, and half of the statue is female -- a tremendous insight.

Only Carl Gustav Jung in this century again brought up the question of what does it mean. As a psychologist he had of course a certain insight, but his insight was the lowest possible. He interpreted ardhanarishwar as meaning that all men and women have also their opposite sex within them. It is true, because you are born out of a father and a mother and both have contributed. How can you be only male? How can you be only female? But he stopped there, and that statue needs a much deeper exploration.

It is saying that if you go deep in meditation a moment comes when the lover finds the beloved -- not as a separate entity, but as one with himself. One is both: the lover and the loved. This non-duality, this non-dichotomy takes you to the point at the highest peak of consciousness where everything starts blossoming.

Ryusen moved from master to master with an open heart, with a receptivity, with a begging bowl, and finally he found Kyozan. And it is a strange experience, when you find your master; deep in your heart so many bells start ringing, so much dance, every cell of your being... It becomes a celebration; you have found the master.

And when he found Kyozan, the road came to an end. Then he remained with Kyozan, and became enlightened. He established a new monastery in the mountains. And the night that death was going to come to him, he asked his disciples to wait, "because in the middle of the night I am going to leave my body."

This has been a Zen tradition, that at the last moment disciples ask the master whatever is the most prominent question in their mind, because the master will not be available any more.

Ryusen said, "IF YOU USE UP THE MIND OF THE THREE WORLDS, THAT IS NIRVANA." SAYING THIS HE SAT IN THE PROPER MANNER -- that is the lotus posture -- AND PASSED AWAY.

What does he mean?

According to Gautam Buddha -- and confirmed by all the awakened ones -- we are divided into three parts: the body, the mind, the being. And every part has its own mind.

Even the body has its own mind. Without the body having its own mind you will not be able to live a single moment, because so much work is going on inside you. Blood is circulating, food is being transformed into its basic elements, and different parts of the body need different kinds of nourishment. The blood is continuously running, distributing... for example, if your mind does not get oxygen for six minutes, it will die, and you will die with it.

And the wisdom of the body is independent, because you have to sleep too. In sleep you may forget breathing. In fact, even awake you cannot remember your breathing. If you can remember your breathing for one minute, you are on the right path. You will be surprised that you cannot remember even for one minute; there are so many distractions.

Just put your wristwatch in front of you. Start looking, and suddenly you forget. You say, "Aha! So Stonehead is going somewhere with his staff," and you have forgotten what your work was. And then you remember, and then you feel full of repentance. Then you are again wasting time. Go back and remember.

It takes months to remember something for a single minute continuously without being distracted. All kinds of distractions are there: bananas... you cannot resist being distracted.

The mind has its own mind too. That's why it is not needed in the body. If surgery is needed, your whole brain can be taken out and put in the proper conditions where it gets the necessary nourishment. It is amazing that you will not know that it has been taken out of the body, and you will not know that there is any difference. You will still be counting on the lottery, "Let us see what happens this time. Tomorrow the lottery is going to be opened." And all kinds of things that were going on inside your mind will continue.

I have heard about a politician. They had to take his brain out to clean it; there was so much dust, so much garbage. So they took the brain to another room and left the politician.

A man suddenly came running in and woke up the politician. "What are you doing here? You have been declared president of the country!"

Things looked a little different. When a person becomes a president, naturally it looks a little different. And he was going out with his friend when the doctors called him, "Where are you going? Your brain is still in the lab."

He said, "At least for five years I will not need it."

It is possible, and is going to become an actuality -- we have wasted so much brain energy -- Einstein's mind or Bertrand Russell's mind could have been kept. If they want to go, let them go. Their brains need a certain nourishment that could be given artificially; the minds could be kept alive as long as you want, and could continue to work. We have wasted so many minds. The day is not far away when great minds will be saved for the progress of science, for the progress of consciousness.

When the dying master said, "IF YOU USE UP THE MIND OF THE THREE WORLDS, THAT IS NIRVANA... If you can create a synchronicity between your mind, your being and the body, you have come to your fulfillment. Now there is no more. I am leaving this body in the middle of the night; otherwise in the morning as the news spreads so many people will come to prevent me, out of their love, out of their respect. So I am leaving this body like a thief. Remember my words as the last words of one who knows."

Now the sutra:

OUR BELOVED MASTER,

WHEN HE WAS WITH KYOZAN, RYUSEN WAS THE MONK IN CHARGE OF FOOD. ONE DAY A STRANGE MONK CAME AND ASKED FOR A MEAL, AT WHICH RYUSEN GAVE HIM PART OF HIS OWN.

KYOZAN KNEW OF THIS BUT CALLED RYUSEN TO HIM AND ASKED, "THAT ENLIGHTENED MONK WHO CAME JUST NOW -- DID HE GIVE YOU ANY FOOD?"

RYUSEN SAID, "HE DENIED HIMSELF AND PASSED ON ALL HIS ALMS."

KYOZAN COMMENTED: "YOU MADE A GREAT PROFIT."

There are things which you can see, and there are things far superior, far more precious, that you cannot see.

In this incident the strange monk asked Ryusen -- who was in charge of the food of the monastery, but there was nothing to spare; only his own food was left, so he gave part of it to the stranger. This is the visible part; anybody can see it. Kyozan, the master, can see what is happening. He is also seeing what is not ordinarily seen. He called Ryusen and asked, "THAT ENLIGHTENED MONK WHO CAME JUST NOW -- DID HE GIVE YOU ANY FOOD?" He is asking him, "Did he give you anything in return?"

RYUSEN SAID, "HE DENIED HIMSELF AND PASSED ON all HIS ALMS."

KYOZAN COMMENTED: "YOU MADE A GREAT PROFIT."

Ryusen has given only a small part of his food, but the strange monk showered him with all his joy and blissfulness, with all his light and love -- which are not visible to the ordinary eye, but which are visible to one who is in the same state and height of consciousness. Kyozan had seen everything, but he wanted to know whether Ryusen had consciously received with thankfulness what that strange monk had given to him.

He does not call him "strange monk." In the beginning the anecdote says "a strange monk," but Kyozan calls him the enlightened monk. He was simply watching whatever was going on, the exchange.

What Ryusen gave was material, anybody can see it. But what he received is immaterial, it is spiritual. You can see it only if your inner eye is open. Listening to Ryusen's answer, Kyozan commented: "You made a great deal. You gave him ordinary food and he showered so much nourishment on you without being asked. YOU HAVE MADE A GREAT PROFIT."

The Buddha created a line which deviated from Hinduism on every point, on smaller immaterial points too. For example, the Hindu sannyasin for centuries has been called swami, the master. It has its own reasons. It is to remind him that he is the master, not to get subdued either by his mind or by anybody else. But there is also a danger. And the danger is by calling somebody a swami he may start thinking that he is a swami. And it may simply give nourishment, strength to his ego; the target has been missed. Buddha changed it. He did not call his sannyasins swami; he called them just the opposite: Bhikkshu, the beggar. Why did he change it? There were reasons.

You should be as humble as a beggar. You should be humble to see how much existence is pouring out for your growth. You must be so humble that you can find your master. It was an absolute extreme from swami to bhikkshu.

But Buddha gave bhikkshu a great meaning. He made it golden. There are fingers which make things golden. There are people whose words bring the wordless into the world.

Issa wrote:

CUCKOO'S CRYING --

NOTHING SPECIAL TO DO,

NOR HAS THE BURWEED.

Zen's whole vision is: everything is exactly in its right place. You just have to relax. You don't have to do anything to make a better world; it is your activity which is making it worse every day. The lazy people certainly have one quality: they have never disturbed anybody.

Lazy people cannot be Genghis Khan killing thirty million people. They cannot be Tamerlane killing forty million people. They cannot be Nadirshah, they cannot be Alexander the Great, they cannot be Napoleon; they cannot be Ivan the Terrible, they cannot be Stalins, Mussolinis, Adolf Hitlers. Lazy people have one thing that is good: because they cannot be bothered, they remain out of trouble.