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HYAKUJO: THE EVEREST OF ZEN, WITH BASHO'S HAIKUS
Chapter 5: Don't be idiot buddhas
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Hyakujo
BELOVED OSHO,
ONCE, HYAKUJO WAS OUT IN THE FIELDS WORKING ALONGSIDE HIS DISCIPLES. JUST AS A CERTAIN MONK LIFTED UP HIS HOE, THE SOUND OF THE DINNER DRUM COULD BE HEARD.
WITH THIS, THE MONK LAUGHED LOUDLY, DROPPED HIS HOE AND WENT TO THE TEMPLE.
"WONDERFUL!" EXCLAIMED HYAKUJO. "THIS IS THE GATE TO THE ENTERING OF THE BODHISATTVA KANNON."
HYAKUJO FOLLOWED AFTER THE MONK, AND ARRIVING AT THE TEMPLE, ASKED THE MONK, "WHAT TRUTH DID YOU PERCEIVE WHEN YOU HEARD THE DINNER DRUM?"
THE MONK SAID, "JUST NOW I WAS TERRIBLY HUNGRY, AND WHEN I HEARD THE SOUND OF THE DRUM, I WENT BACK AND HAD MY MEAL."
ON HEARING THIS, HYAKUJO HIMSELF LAUGHED.
ON ANOTHER OCCASION, ISAN, HEARING THE WOODEN GONG SOUNDING, RUBBED HIS HANDS AND GAVE A GREAT LAUGH.
WHEN HYAKUJO SAW AND HEARD THIS, HE ASKED ISAN THE SAME QUESTION AS HE HAD ASKED THE OTHER MONK IN A SIMILAR SITUATION, AND RECEIVED A SIMILAR RESPONSE.
AT ANOTHER TIME, A MASTER OF THE VINAYA SECT NAMED FA MING REMARKED, "YOU ZEN MASTERS DO A LOT OF TUMBLING ABOUT IN THE EMPTINESS OF THE VOID."
HYAKUJO REPLIED, "ON THE CONTRARY, VENERABLE SIR, IT IS YOU WHO TUMBLE A LOT IN THE EMPTINESS OF THE VOID."
THE VINAYA MASTER ASKED, "HOW CAN THAT BE?"
"THE SCRIPTURES," CONTINUED HYAKUJO, "ARE JUST WORDS -- MERE INK AND PAPER -- AND EVERYTHING OF THAT SORT IS JUST AN EMPTY DEVICE. ALL THOSE WORDS AND PHRASES ARE BASED ON SOMETHING PEOPLE ONCE HEARD -- THEY ARE NOTHING BUT EMPTINESS. YOU, VENERABLE SIR, CLING TO THE MERE LETTER OF THE DOCTRINE, SO OF COURSE YOU TUMBLE ABOUT IN THE VOID."
"AND DO YOU ZEN MASTERS NOT TUMBLE IN THE VOID?" ASKED THE VINAYA MASTER.
HYAKUJO SAID, "WE DO NOT."
THE VINAYA MASTER RESPONDED "HOW NOT?"
AT THIS, HYAKUJO SAID, "ALL THOSE WRITINGS ARE THE PRODUCTS OF WISDOM, AND WHERE WISDOM'S MIGHTY FUNCTION OPERATES, HOW CAN THERE BE TUMBLING ABOUT IN THE VOID?"
Maneesha, before I introduce Hyakujo's sutras, and their meaning to me, I have to make you all understand that you must act intelligently.
Just the other day, because I told Hasya not to unnecessarily struggle with dropping cigarettes -- her whole life she has been smoking -- many others who had already dropped, they immediately jumped! And many who had never smoked, they started smoking, perhaps thinking that this is a device towards buddhahood.
You are all buddhas, but don't be idiot buddhas.
Today the whole place is full of tobacco smell. I don't want this place to be filled with tobacco smell. It has been so clean, and if you, many of you start smoking, you will bring the smell here. So those who have never smoked, simply stop. Those who have stopped and already were out of the withdrawal symptoms, should not start again.
It was specially meant for Hasya and Chitten, who have been going through withdrawal symptoms. When I entered yesterday and looked at Chitten, he was looking so sad, so dead. I wondered what was the matter, because I was not aware that he was also following Hasya. And when I said that Hasya can smoke, and there is no need to be worried... What does it matter if you live two years longer, or two years lesser? You will never know the difference. Nobody will know the difference, that Hasya lived two years less.
So except Chitten and Hasya, everybody has to come back. Use your own intelligence.
When I told Hasya to smoke, Chitten had a great smile on his face. I wondered what was happening to him, because Hasya's withdrawal symptoms cannot affect Chitten. Later on I came to know that he was on the same trip. Just hearing that he is free to smoke was enough to bring a great smile to him -- he has not smoked yet, but all the withdrawal symptoms disappeared!
Don't be unnecessarily stupid. If necessary, it is okay, but unnecessarily stupid, that is a little too much!
And remember, I should never smell tobacco in Buddha Hall. Even Hasya and Chitten, they can smoke wherever they want, but before coming to Buddha Hall they will change their clothes, take a shower and wash their mouths.
The cigarette is not a device for buddhahood. It is simply a kindness, not to unnecessarily harass you, but it is not for others to follow. They are already good, there is no need for them to start smoking. It is poison, it is destructive. It cannot destroy your buddhahood, but it shows your unintelligent habits. But if they have been formed a long time ago -- for years -- it is going to take too much time to throw them away. I will allow you to become a buddha smoking, but this is not the rule, this is only the exception.
Still you will look a little foolish, when you become a buddha with your cigarettes. You yourself will think, "What am I doing? Being a buddha..."
One man used to come to me nearabout thirty years ago. He wanted somehow to drop his smoking habit.
I said, "It is not difficult, it is simply a question of determination, a little will. What the cigarette is giving to you -- a certain poison, nicotine -- that keeps you feeling a certain well-being for a few minutes, meditation can do for twenty-four hours without any nicotine."
He started meditating, he dropped the cigarettes -- not with force. They dropped on their own as his meditation became deeper. Then he wanted to be initiated as a sannyasin.
I said, "Have you thought it over?"
He said, "I am absolutely ready."
He took sannyas, and the next day he came saying, "You were right. I was going to the market with my wife, and people surrounded us. They started asking me questions: `With whose wife are you escaping?' -- because a sannyasin is not supposed to have a wife..."
He tried his best to say, "She is my wife!"
But they said, "You are a sannyasin."
The poor fellow was in a difficulty, so he mentioned my name.
Then they said, "Then it is okay, because with Osho everything is okay. You can go, but it will be better that you get your wife also to become a sannyasin. Then it will be easier, otherwise some other crowd will beat you."
So he brought his wife.
I said, "She has no understanding. She has never thought about it, but it has now become necessary."
So she became a sannyasin.
The third day they were traveling in the train. They had a small child, and people caught hold of them and stopped the train. They called the police saying, "These sannyasins are trying to escape with somebody's child."
They tried hard saying, "He is our child -- ask him!"
They said, "You cannot deceive us this easily, you must have hypnotized him. That poor boy!"
So they were taken to the police station. The police officer had heard me, had read me. So he said, "Don't be worried, I can understand. But the best way will be to let your son also be a sannyasin. Otherwise, anywhere you go you will be in trouble."
So on the third day the child was introduced into sannyas. I said, "How many people are you around? Bring them all together -- why harass me every day?"
He said, "I am not harassing, I am being harassed. You were right that I should think twice, but I did not think of all these problems, that people would be so angry."
So the child also became a sannyasin.
They still come here. They live in Bombay, and some day you may see all the three.
Before you start smoking a cigarette, remember: it is going to create unhealthiness in you, in your lungs, and a shorter life. And most importantly, it is taking away your drive, your urgency towards meditation. You relax with your cigarette, then what is the need of the rest that Hyakujo talks about. The nicotine gives a little restfulness. There is no need for any meditation -- just more and more cigarettes.
I am not a man who is dogmatic in any way, but I will not put you in any discomfort. If you become sad and dull, and you start losing the joy of life, then it is okay, continue with the cigarettes. But remember, the responsibility is now greater on you to get into meditation. Only if in meditation you can get a deeper rest than nicotine can give you, will dropping cigarettes be easy.
But two fools are in trouble. Why are other idiots, who are almost out of the trouble, immediately jumping into it? Before withdrawal symptoms, you withdraw from the cigarettes. So anybody who has started, stop immediately. And anybody who has already stopped before, and has overcome the withdrawal symptoms, should not start again.
Always interpret whatever I say as my compassion and my love. I don't want you to be in unnecessarily uncomfortable states. So if I make somebody an exception, it does not mean I am making a rule for everybody.
At least in Buddha Hall air, no smoke smell should be here. This you should take as a warning. If I smell tomorrow again the smell, I will immediately go back.
Now the introductory note about Hyakujo:
AS MENTIONED BEFORE, HYAKUJO WAS THE ORIGINATOR OF THE ZEN MONASTERY. THE DUTIES OF THE ABBOT AND OTHER OFFICERS WERE CAREFULLY DEFINED, AND THE LIVES OF THE MONKS REGULATED IN DETAIL.
IN ADDITION, HYAKUJO ENCOURAGED HIS MONKS TO WORK IN THE FIELDS DURING THE DAY. THIS WAS QUITE A REVOLUTIONARY MOVE, AS BEFORE HYAKUJO'S TIME, MONKS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO ENGAGE IN PRODUCTIVE WORK, BUT WERE ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON GIFTS FROM PEOPLE BY WHICH TO LIVE.
Certainly it was a great revolutionary move, to make sannyasins work in the fields, in the orchards, because for centuries they had not done anything. Society had taken the responsibility to take care of them, but there was a limit.
This situation happened in the time of Buddha, when India was one of the richest countries in the world. It was called The Golden Bird. It was not difficult for India, to provide all that was needed for a few thousand sannyasins. Joyfully, people did it. But as times changed, and the whole of the East had fallen into poverty, had been exploited by the West, sucked completely...
In Thailand, where one person is a sannyasin in every four persons, the burden has become too much. The Thailand government had to make a law that nobody can take sannyas without a government license. That is to prevent people from taking sannyas.
This seems to be very strange. You cannot even be a sannyasin without government permission. Even sannyas is not free anymore, but has become mandatory because a poor country and so many sannyasins... And now it is no longer a joy to contribute to their welfare, to their monasteries. They have become almost a heavy burden on the poor societies.
The same is the situation in India, but the Indian government has not taken any step, just because of the fear that if Hindu sannyasins have to take a license from the government, the whole of the Hindu society will go against the present-day rulers. In a vote they will be thrown out.
Half of India's population is undernourished. One fourth of India's population can manage only one meal a day, and if you see that meal, you will be simply shocked -- what a meal! And all the predictions of scientific sources are that by the time of the year two thousand, India will have the biggest starvation problem that has ever happened in history. Fifty million people are predicted to die in that year. That means for every two persons, one person will die. All around there will be corpses.
In this situation of poverty you cannot afford sannyasins who are depending on social charity.
Hyakujo's introduction of work and productivity was certainly a great revolutionary step. Society must have opposed him, and the monks must have opposed it because they were enjoying complete free time and all kinds of luxuries.
But Hyakujo was a very strong man. In his monastery he managed it that everybody worked. It did not mean that he was taking you away from meditation. The work was not very strict, but very flexible, depending on your intelligence -- whatever you could contribute to the monastery. If you could work in the field, or chopping wood, or carrying water -- whatever you could do. But the necessary thing was that everything should be done with a meditative mind.
Work should be a meditation. Just as you sit for meditation, Buddha introduced walking also as meditation. Then why should working not also be associated with meditation. There is no reason. Only when work and all kinds of movements of your body, are followed by a meditative silence, can you really be a buddha. And certainly a buddha should not be dependent on charity.
We cannot understand how great the step was. For centuries monks have enjoyed a complete freedom from any activity, and all their welfare was taken care of by the society.
So Hyakujo's introduction of work was a great step, and had a great clarity about the future as society was becoming more and more poor. Rather than governments making rules -- it becomes so ugly, that you have to take a license from the government to become a sannyasin... Sannyas has always been an act of freedom and the government has nothing to do with it, but an intelligent move on the part of sannyasins is needed. Hyakujo has to be heard all over the world.
NOT ONLY THAT, HYAKUJO WAS CRITICIZED BY ALL CONSERVATIVE BUDDHISTS AND MONKS FOR HIS INSISTENCE THAT ALL THAT THE CROPS YIELDED THROUGH THE LABOR OF HIS MONKS SHOULD BE SUBJECT TO THE ASSESSMENT OF TAXES ON AN EQUAL BASIS WITH THOSE OF LAY PEOPLE.
They were angry at the very idea of sannyasins working. And on top of it, Hyakujo insisted that the same tax system should be applicable to sannyasins' work and earning as it was for anybody else in the country. Sannyasins should not be given a special place.
Naturally he was tremendously opposed, but he was right. And when you oppose right, sooner or later the right wins over.
Now in China every sannyasin works, in Japan... And the work has become so creative because it is no longer only an economic consideration. It is an aesthetic expression of your meditativeness, of your joy, of your blessings. Paintings, sculpture, all kinds of things became available by the idea that work and meditation are not opposed, but that meditation can continue underneath. That's what I am saying to you every day: your buddha should continue underneath in every one of your activities.
HYAKUJO'S FAVORITE MOTTO WAS: "ONE DAY WITHOUT WORKING, ONE DAY WITHOUT EATING."
If you don't work one day, then be prepared, next day is a fasting day. Absolutely right! You are working for your liberation. Why should anybody else be taxed for it? Why should anybody support you? You are working for your enlightenment. You will not be able to share it with anybody.
So it is absolutely necessary in Hyakujo's monastery, that if you don't work, you don't eat. If you want to eat, then work just a little. That helps for your food, for your clothes and small necessities. You don't have to become the richest person in the world. You don't have to accumulate all kinds of unnecessary luxuries, but be comfortable. In a state of uncomfortableness, meditation becomes difficult.
HE SAW THAT WORSHIP AND MEDITATION COULD BE PART OF EVERYDAY WORK AND SEEMINGLY MUNDANE ACTIVITIES.
IT IS SAID THAT THE GREAT PEARL WAS THE CREATOR OF THE CHINESE TEA CEREMONY.
Hyakujo himself was the creator of the Chinese tea ceremony. To make tea a meditative ceremony is just symbolic. It shows that any mundane activity can become meditative. Digging a hole in the garden, planting new roses in the garden... you can do it with such tremendous love and compassion, you can do it with the hands of the buddha. There is no contradiction.
The tea ceremony is only the beginning. I say unto you: Your every act should be a ceremony.
If you can bring your consciousness, your awareness, your intelligence to the act, if you can be spontaneous, then there is no need for any other religion, life itself will be the religion.
Now the sutra:
ONCE, HYAKUJO WAS OUT IN THE FIELDS WORKING ALONGSIDE HIS DISCIPLES. JUST AS A CERTAIN MONK LIFTED UP HIS HOE, THE SOUND OF THE DINNER DRUM COULD BE HEARD.
WITH THIS, THE MONK LAUGHED LOUDLY, DROPPED HIS HOE AND WENT TO THE TEMPLE.
"WONDERFUL!" EXCLAIMED HYAKUJO. "THIS IS THE GATE TO THE ENTERING OF THE BODHISATTVA KANNON." HYAKUJO FOLLOWED AFTER THE MONK, AND ARRIVING AT THE TEMPLE, ASKED THE MONK, "WHAT TRUTH DID YOU PERCEIVE WHEN YOU HEARD THE DINNER DRUM?"
THE MONK SAID, "JUST NOW I WAS TERRIBLY HUNGRY, AND WHEN I HEARD THE SOUND OF THE DRUM, I WENT BACK AND HAD MY MEAL."
ON HEARING THIS, HYAKUJO HIMSELF LAUGHED.
Simple things... the monk was so deeply engaged, so totally engaged in his work, that he had forgotten completely that it was time for lunch. And as the drum was beaten to call all the monks from the fields and the gardens, he laughed, throwing away his hoe.
Hyakujo asked him, "Why did you laugh?"
A simple and honest answer: "I laughed at the coincidence. As the drum was beaten, suddenly I felt a great hunger. I laughed at the coincidence."
ON HEARING THIS, HYAKUJO HIMSELF LAUGHED.
Hyakujo made Zen very light, very earthly, very honest, sincere.
ON ANOTHER OCCASION, ISAN, HEARING THE WOODEN GONG SOUNDING, RUBBED HIS HANDS AND GAVE A GREAT LAUGH.
WHEN HYAKUJO SAW AND HEARD THIS, HE ASKED ISAN THE SAME QUESTION AS HE HAD ASKED THE OTHER MONK IN A SIMILAR SITUATION, AND RECEIVED A SIMILAR RESPONSE.
If you are silent and honest, the response cannot be different. Both have laughed at the coincidence. They were both so totally engaged in their work, they completely forgot themselves. And when you forget yourself, how can you remember your hunger? And when they heard the drum or the gong -- a sudden hit and a spontaneous remembering: "I am hungry and this is the time to go to the dininghall."
Both laughed. Hyakujo asked both just to see whether the similar situation would have a similar response from two honest, simple, meditative people.
In fact, all buddhas will respond similarly in a situation because of the simple fact that they are in the moment and their action is not through the mind, but instantaneous. They respond, they don't react. And being empty-hearted, their responses will be just like a mirror -- reflecting the situation, whatever is there in front of them.
Because both confronted hungriness, they laughed, "This is strange that we got lost so much in the work, that there was not even a sign of hunger. And just the gong... as if the gong created the hunger."
The hunger was there but was waiting, because the consciousness was totally engaged somewhere else. The gong brought the consciousness to the waiting hunger. Hyakujo laughed, seeing the similarity of simple and empty-hearted people.
AT ANOTHER TIME, A MASTER OF THE VINAYA SECT NAMED FA MING REMARKED, "YOU ZEN MASTERS DO A LOT OF TUMBLING ABOUT IN THE EMPTINESS OF THE VOID."
HYAKUJO REPLIED, "ON THE CONTRARY, VENERABLE SIR, IT IS YOU WHO TUMBLE A LOT IN THE EMPTINESS OF THE VOID."
THE VINAYA MASTER ASKED, "HOW CAN THAT BE?"
"THE SCRIPTURES," CONTINUED HYAKUJO, "ARE JUST WORDS -- MERE INK AND PAPER -- AND EVERYTHING OF THAT SORT IS JUST AN EMPTY DEVICE. ALL THOSE WORDS AND PHRASES ARE BASED ON SOMETHING PEOPLE ONCE HEARD -- THEY ARE NOTHING BUT EMPTINESS. YOU, VENERABLE SIR, CLING TO THE MERE LETTER OF THE DOCTRINE, SO OF COURSE YOU TUMBLE ABOUT IN THE VOID."
Ordinarily, the meditator is thought to be in the emptiness, in the ultimate void. But these forming teachers, who were only scholars of the vinaya scriptures of Gautam Buddha...
The master of the vinaya sect must have been very skeptical of Zen. It is his skepticism that said, "YOU ZEN MASTERS DO A LOT OF TUMBLING ABOUT IN THE EMPTINESS OF THE VOID."
Scholars always think that meditators are wasting their time just sitting silently doing nothing. Scholars think they are doing great work creating great systems of thought and philosophy, and these meditators simply sit with their closed eyes. To the scholars, the meditators seem to be just lazy people who have found a good name, meditation, just to hide the laziness.
So his question was not sincere and honest, it was rather an effort to make a laughingstock of Hyakujo. But it was difficult -- it is always difficult. A scholar is not even the dust underneath the feet of a meditator. He knows nothing of the heights of consciousness. Hyakujo did well, he did not felt offended.
"ON THE CONTRARY, VENERABLE SIR, IT IS you WHO TUMBLE A LOT IN THE EMPTINESS OF THE VOID."
This must have come as a shock to the vinaya master: "HOW CAN THAT BE?"
"THE SCRIPTURES," CONTINUED HYAKUJO, "ARE JUST WORDS -- MERE INK AND PAPER -- AND EVERYTHING OF THAT SORT IS JUST AN EMPTY DEVICE. ALL THOSE WORDS AND PHRASES ARE BASED ON SOMETHING PEOPLE ONCE HEARD -- THEY ARE NOTHING BUT EMPTINESS. YOU, VENERABLE SIR, CLING TO THE MERE LETTER OF THE DOCTRINE, SO OF COURSE YOU TUMBLE ABOUT IN THE VOID."
Facing an enlightened man is a rare experience in the sense, that you cannot make a laughingstock of him.
He turned the whole thing on the scholar: "Rather than saying that we Zen people are tumbling in the emptiness and the void, calling it meditation... the truth is that you scholars are tumbling in the emptiness and void. What are your scriptures? Just paper and ink, mere words spoken by somebody, but those words are always empty. The moment they reach to the paper, to the ink, they don't have life.
"You are really tumbling into emptiness. We are not tumbling into emptiness, we are becoming emptiness, and that is a totally different thing. We are enjoying the emptiness, we are finding that emptiness is our nature, that out of this emptiness arises everything -- our very life source.
"AND DO YOU ZEN MASTERS NOT TUMBLE IN THE VOID?" ASKED THE VINAYA MASTER.
HYAKUJO SAID, "WE DO NOT."
THE VINAYA MASTER RESPONDED, "HOW NOT?"
AT THIS, HYAKUJO SAID, "ALL THOSE WRITINGS ARE THE PRODUCTS OF WISDOM, AND WHERE WISDOM'S MIGHTY FUNCTION OPERATES, HOW CAN THERE BE TUMBLING ABOUT IN THE VOID?"
A Zen meditator also reads the scriptures, but his reading cannot be called empty. He brings those words back again to life through his meditativeness, through his own wisdom. Someone has spoken those words out of wisdom, out of enlightenment -- a buddha. Only another buddha can bring them to life again. Only another buddha can give meaning to them again.
Hyakujo says, "We are not tumbling into emptiness. Even if we are reading the ancient sutras, they are always secondary. We are simply testifying to our meditativeness, looking into the mirrors of the scriptures. For us, scriptures are a kind of reference source. Alone, inside, we don't know whether we are on the right track or not. Reading about the same track in the scripture, functions in a double way. It makes the scripture alive, and it makes you confident to move along the same path you are doing."
Basho wrote a small haiku:
YELLOW ROSE PETALS
THUNDER --
A WATERFALL.
Remember always, a haiku is a painting in words. Silently Basho must have been meditating and when he opens his eyes saw "yellow rose petals, thunder -- a waterfall."
Just the minimum words are used. Haikus are telegrams -- not a single unnecessary word. You cannot add into this small haiku another word, nor can you take out a single word. It is exactly in a silent mind that opening the eyes and looking outside: rose petals and a great thunder and a waterfall.
Try to understand haikus as paintings in words from great masters of meditation. That is the only way to understand them. Otherwise they are just empty words, unrelated, without any grammar and no care about the language. They don't say anything. They simply show something: if you are meditating, and out of meditation you open your eyes, whatever you see becomes so beautiful, so poetic, so musical that Zen masters keep a copybook with them. They simply note down a few words.
Next: Chapter 5: Don't be idiot buddhas, Question 1
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Hyakujo
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GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
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