| ENERGY
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GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
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THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
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THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
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MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
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I CELEBRATE MYSELF: GOD IS NOW WHERE, LIFE IS NOW HERE
Chapter 7: Come to your own festival
Question 3
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen I Celebrate Myself
Question 3
The third question:
COULD IT BE THAT THE WORD `GOD' IN ANCIENT TIMES, BEFORE THE PRIESTS, WAS USED BY PEOPLE TO EXPLAIN THE UNEXPLAINABLE, THE DIVINE EXISTENCE, THE NATURE OF BEING, THE BUDDHA?
Before the priest there was no God -- not even the word. God and priests come simultaneously. In fact the priest will be needed to come in first; then he brings God in. God cannot exist without priests.
There was no God before the priests. People were just pagans; they loved life, they rejoiced in life. They had no idea of heaven or hell. This earth was enough, this life was too much; they lived moment to moment. In fact they had no idea of calendar and time, because they had no watches and no calendars. They had no idea when the year ends and when the year begins. They had no idea how many days are in a week, how many days are in a month, how many months there are in a year. All these things came very late.
If you had gone to the real, the original people on the earth they were the happiest people ever. They simply lived -- without fear, without greed. They loved nature. Everything was mysterious, miraculous. A sunrise again, and they danced; a full moon again, and the whole night they danced to abandon. They had no God and they had no madhouses; they had no priests and no psychoanalysts. They had not heard about the buddha, yet they were all buddhas. But very natural buddhas, not philosophizing about it, so they never used words like "inexpressible, unexplainable, the divine existence, the nature of being, the buddha ..." All this nonsense comes afterwards!
When the priests came they took power in their hands and declared, "We represent God ..." It took a little longer time for the priests to invent God and slowly slowly refine it. And they are still refining and trying to deceive humanity even into the future. That was what Paul Tillich was doing -- trying to improve the image of God. If God has failed as someone far away there, beyond, perhaps we should change his place.
That shows that it is our idea that he is there: "We should change our idea. That idea has failed; it worked long enough. Now put God into the depths. Not faraway there, but faraway THERE." But it is far away always, because they cannot put it close by. Close by you will see this is not God. So it has to be far away -- either way, this side or that side. But far away has to be there between you and him, an unbridgeable distance so you never can come to see him and take a close-up photograph.
No photograph exists because nobody has ever been close to God to take a photograph.
Priests have been trying to improve the image so it appeals again to the newer generations, but now they cannot manage it. Once it is declared God is dead, you may go on giving him artificial breathing, but everybody knows he is on artificial breathing. Just switch off and the fellow is gone.
A little biographical note before the sutras ...
AS A YOUNG MAN, TANKA TENNEN FIRST STUDIED CONFUCIANISM.
Confucius seems to be a giant in creating confusion! He has confused the whole of China for centuries.
He has no God, but he substitutes God with morality, and he makes so much of moral preachings that people have to live in a tight space, almost imprisoned. And he became a great influence over China.
He was a great intellectual, no doubt, but he never looked beyond intellect. So whatever he says is just rationalization, creating more convenient societies. Etiquette, morality, behavior, all are based on creating a better society. It is because of Confucius that China easily became communist, although Confucius lived twenty-five centuries ago, a contemporary of Gautam Buddha and Lao Tzu and Socrates.
China's conversion to communism is strange, because it was a poor country, it did not have a capitalist class to exploit. It was still feudal with landlords; it was an agricultural society. It has not come to technology yet.
Marx failed in all his prophecies. He is the greatest failure as a prophet. He never said that Russia would become communist, or China would become communist, no. He could not conceive, because these countries were not even capitalist; communism can only come, according to him, after capitalism has developed to its climax and society is completely divided between the proletariat, the have-nots, and the bourgeois, the haves -- a clear-cut distinction. Naturally the haves will be in the minority and the have-nots will have a tremendous majority.
In his Communist Manifesto the last line is: "Proletariat of the whole world unite. You have nothing to lose except your chains." When you have nothing to lose, revolution is possible. But if you have something to lose you cannot become part of a revolution; there is danger, you may not get anything. And what you have got may get lost -- that may also be taken away.
China and Russia both were never conceived. Not even for a single moment did it come to Karl Marx's mind that they would become the first communists -- vast countries, both together almost half of the world.
China became communist because of Confucius, because Confucius was absolutely materialist. No God, no heaven, no hell; you come from nothingness and you go to nothingness. There is no life before birth, and there is no life after death. So all that you have got are these seventy, eighty, ninety, perhaps one hundred years. Make the most of it. So his whole teaching is a materialist morality. Because you are not alone, you are living in a society, you have to take care that you don't trespass other people.
His whole idea is ethical, not religious. He managed to lay the foundation of the Chinese mind, and Karl Marx immediately got a completely ready-made foundation: materialist, atheist, believing only in this life, no eternal being, no eternal life. That was the reason China easily became communist. Confucius had done almost half the work.
But he was a well-known teacher, so people used to go to that great scholar. Even the emperors used to send their sons to learn how to be utterly moral. That would give you the ego -- he created ego. He believed in strengthening your ego, polishing your ego; giving it a prestige, an image that would be respectable in society. But he had nothing of religiousness in him.
So when this young man, Tanka Tennen, first studied Confucianism ... he had gone there in search of something essential, not outward behavior. One day he was on his way to the city -- frustrated with Confucius; all that he was saying was about social behavior. He was the first behavioral psychologist.
ONE DAY HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO THE CITY WHEN HE CAME ACROSS A MAN OF ZEN, WHO ASKED WHERE HE WAS GOING.
TANKA REPLIED, "I AM GOING FOR THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE EXAMINATION."
That was the most respected, prestigious profession, and being a student of Confucius he would be accepted for any high post. The very recommendation, that he had been with Confucius, was grounds enough that he was the right man.
THE ZEN MAN SAID, "MASTER MA TZU IS WORKING IN KOSEI COUNTY. THAT IS THE PLACE FOR CHOOSING BUDDHAS -- YOU MUST GO THERE. Rather than going into government service, at least give it a try. Ma Tzu is very close by, where buddhas are blossoming. You can go to the government service any time -- but Ma Tzu may not be available. Such a great master is so close by, just working in Kosei county. You must go there."
Suddenly, the hidden desire that had led him to Confucius -- and Confucius had completely changed his search for truth. He used to say, "There is only behavior -- good behavior, bad behavior -- there is no truth to be found. Don't waste your time." So he overpowered the young man, convinced him that the best thing is, "You are intelligent, you go into government service. And with my recommendation you will be immediately accepted."
Suddenly a hidden seed surfaced. Because of this man of Zen ... A man of Zen simply means a man who has become a buddha but who is not a master. He knows the truth but he has no way of conveying it. He is a mystic in his own right but he is not a master; he is not articulate enough to manage the inexpressible in some device to be conveyed to you. He does not know how to transmit the lamp. So he ... that type of mystic is simply called, in Zen, "a man of Zen." He is as experienced as any buddha, but because he is not a master, he knows the truth but he has not the way to lead others to it. But his personality will be luminous, his eyes will have a different quality, his gestures will have a different grace.
So when this man of Zen met the young man and told Tanka, "Master Ma Tzu is working in Kosei county; that is the place for choosing buddhas -- you must go there," without any hesitation, without thinking again that he was going to become a government officer and suddenly he has moved on a different path altogether, Tanka went to Kosei. He did not even answer the man, "I am going."
Such a deep search must have been hidden, and forced deeply into the unconscious by Confucius. It suddenly surfaced. Seeing this man was enough, that the path is towards Ma Tzu. If this man, who is not a master, has an aura of mystery around him, an energy, a charisma, then what about Ma Tzu? Without saying anything to him,
TANKA WENT TO KOSEI RIGHT AWAY. WHEN HE SAW MA TZU, THE MASTER PULLED TANKA'S HEAD TOWARDS HIM AND LOOKED AT HIM -- into his eyes -- FACE TO FACE, FOR A LONG TIME. THEN MA TZU SAID, "SEKITO OF MOUNT NANGAKU WILL BE YOUR MASTER."
He was looking into this young man's eyes -- what kind of potential? Who will be the right master for him? Should I accept him? Will it be quicker with me or with Sekito?
And you can see the non-competitive world of Zen. He saw in the young man's eyes that Sekito would be a far more suitable master for him than he would. So he told him, "Sekito of Mount Nangaku will be your master."
Seeing Ma Tzu, he could see the difference between a man of Zen and a master of Zen. A man of Zen is a small flame; a master of Zen is the whole forest afire.
And when Ma Tzu looked into his eyes, he was also looking into the eyes of Ma Tzu. He could see the compassion, the great love. It is out of compassion and love that he tells him, "Go to Sekito. That will be quicker; here it will take a little longer time. Why waste time?" And he was so much impressed by Ma Tzu that he immediately followed his advice.
SO TANKA WENT TO MOUNT NANGAKU. WHEN HE SAW SEKITO, SEKITO SAID TO TANKA, "GO AND WORK IN THE RICE-POLISHING ROOM."
It almost always happens in Zen monasteries when a new initiate comes in, the master, even when he enters the room -- the way he walks, the way he sits -- the master is witnessing what will be right for him in the beginning. He has to be trained according to his potential. No Zen master ever imposes himself on anybody. So Sekito said to him, looking at him, he felt that he needed to learn first, waiting. He said, "Go and work in the rice-polishing room."
TANKA MADE A BOW AND LEFT FOR THE DORMITORY. HE WORKED IN THE KITCHEN FOR THREE YEARS.
He never went again to ask Sekito, "How long do I have to polish rice?"
A Zen master creates such a tremendous trust.
It is not belief -- belief is in theories, theologies.
Trust is a personal intimacy, a feeling that "he understands me; that's enough. Now whenever the time is ripe he will call me."
People have waited not only three years but thirty years, polishing rice.
Once it happened ...
The man was polishing rice for thirty years, and the master had told him, "Unless I call you, you should not come. And you are not to attend the scholarly discussions in the monastery, you are not to read the scriptures. You simply polish rice from the morning till late in the night. There are ten thousand monks, and you have to take care of the rice."
So for thirty years the man completely forgot thinking -- because what is the need of thinking when you are just polishing rice every day for thirty years? Almost half of his life had gone into polishing rice. And it is such a simple process you don't need any mind, you don't need any thinking. And he had been prohibited from going to the discourses, going to the sermons, going to the discussions of the monks, told not to read scriptures. He had been prevented completely from anything that could create a mind. He had been given a simple task that was going to uncreate the mind. Whatever mind he had got would be uncreated.
And these people were of great strength, integrity. Just to wait for thirty years, without any complaint, without even seeing the master again ... and because the master had said, "This is the only thing you have to do." He was not even talking to any other monk. People had completely forgotten about him.
He lived in a small hut by the side of the kitchen. In the morning he would enter the kitchen; late in the night he would fall back into the hut, go to sleep. This was a simple process. In thirty years' time there was no mind.
And an incident happened. The master was getting old, and seeing that his death was coming close, he informed the ten thousand monks -- excluding the one who was just polishing the rice -- "If anybody wants to be my successor he should come in the night and write on my door just the essence, the very essence of Zen."
There were great scholars, and the whole monastery knew who was the most scholarly person; perhaps he would be chosen. That scholarly person, when the master had gone to sleep, stole very silently so that nobody would find who had written it. He was even afraid; he knew the master. You could not deceive him, that was certain. And he himself knew that he knew nothing of Zen as far as experience was concerned, although he could make a scholarly statement. But that old fellow was not going to be deceived by scholarship.
And he made a beautiful statement; he wrote it on the door, very silently so that the master did not wake up: "Zen is nothing but getting out of the mind, and the beyond opens its doors." But he did not sign it, afraid, and very cautious -- "If he finds it right, I will stand up and say I have written it. If he finds it wrong, I will simply sit silently." That old fellow used to beat the disciples.
In the morning, when the master opened the door and saw the sentence, he said, "Who is the idiot who has written this?" And there was no answer from the ten thousand monks.
So he washed it off, and said, "Don't destroy my door! Unless you know ... I can die without a successor, but I will not have any scholar to be my successor."
Of course the statement was perfectly good, you could not improve on it: "Zen is going beyond the mind." It could not be condensed more clearly and accurately. But masters have their own ways of finding ....
Two monks simply passed by the rice polisher. People did not even know his name, they simply called him the rice polisher. They did not consider him even a monk; he had never told anybody that he had been initiated, and nobody ever bothered about him, what his name was. He never came to the discourses, he never came to meditations, he never came to scholarly discussions. And the whole campus was agog with all kinds of philosophical discussions; when scriptures are read, sutras from Gautam Buddha were read, he never came. What kind of man ...? Just doing one thing ... people had completely forgotten how many years he had been doing it.
Two men was just passing by, discussing, "The sentence was perfectly right, but this old fellow is very strange ... How did he manage to find that it is a scholarly statement but not existential, not experiential?"
For the first time the rice-polisher monk laughed. In thirty years that was the first expression. Those two monks looked at him, and they said, "Why have you laughed? And we have never seen you laughing ..."
He said, "I laughed because whoever wrote that must be an idiot!"
They said, "Exactly -- these were the words of the master! Can you write something better?"
He said, "I don't know how to write. I have forgotten. In thirty years the little bit I knew how to write, I have forgotten. And anyway who wants to be the successor?"
They were shocked, "This man is strange. Thirty years completely silent, and suddenly exploding ..."
In the middle of the night the master came to the rice-polisher and he said, "Can you improve upon it?" The rice-polisher monk said, "There is no mind; how are you going to go beyond it? And there is no beyond -- all is here and now. One has to go nowhere, not even beyond mind. Mind is a fiction, and the people have created another fiction of going beyond the mind. But forgive me. I don't want to be your successor. I am so happy. You are such a great man, you gave me such a meditative job ..."
The master said, "You will have to accept my successorship because there is nobody else whom I can trust. They are all filled up with scholarship and all kinds of knowledge. You are the right person, and I have been waiting for these thirty years: perhaps you will be the successor. This waiting proved to me absolutely that you must have experienced something that is keeping you centered, without any worry, no tension. You have not even uttered a single word to anybody; you just do your job and go to sleep. But one thing: these scholars and these ambitious people will create trouble for you. So I have brought my robe and my staff and my cap" -- these are the things that the successor gets from the master. "So take this robe, this staff, and this cap." He put it on the rice-polisher monk's head, and told him to escape from the monastery as quickly as possible.
"Just go deeper into the mountains. Those who need will reach you. But beware! If anybody finds it out from this monastery they are going to kill you. They will not accept a rice-polisher monk as their master."
So the poor fellow took the robe, the staff, and escaped. But while he was escaping from the gate, the gatekeeper saw him with the robe and with the hat and the staff of the master. So he immediately informed all the ambitious monks who were trying, working out how to improve, "Now stop! The man has been chosen."
They said, "Who is the man?"
They said, "Do you remember a man who came thirty years ago and never spoke for thirty years? The rice-polisher! I saw him just going out of the gate with the master's staff and cap on his head, and the robe he was carrying in his hand and running!"
So, many ambitious people took their swords and rushed towards the way the guard had told them. And they soon found that poor rice polisher, surrounded him with their swords, and told him, "Give the robe. You don't know a single word about Zen."
The poor man laughed. He said, "Do you think there is a word that one has to know before he knows Zen?"
They were shocked. It was true, but still their ambition ... and they could not accept him. But he said, "There is no problem. Keep your swords in their sheath, there is no need to be worried. This is the cap" -- he threw the cap on the ground. "And this is the robe, and this is the staff. If you can take it, take it."
But although they were ambitious, they had a certain sensibility, living with the master so long. How could they take it? If the master had given it to him, then it would be absolutely wrong. And they knew that they knew not, and this fellow seemed to know. It did not matter that he was a rice-polisher.
So they touched his feet and said, "We were wrong. We were just ambitious. You please come back."
He said, "But I don't want to be the successor. I had refused, but the old man was so insistent. You please take all these things. Whoever wants to be the successor, he can. I am going to the mountains."
They said, "No, you have to come back."
He became the successor.
Zen is a very strange path. No scholarship is needed, no knowledge is needed. What is needed is an immense silence, and waiting, watching ... whenever the time is ripe, existence pours all its mysteries into you.
So for thirty years he worked in the kitchen.
Now the sutra:
OUR BELOVED MASTER,
ONE DAY, SEKITO ANNOUNCED TO EVERYBODY THAT THE NEXT DAY THEY WOULD WEED THE GRASS IN FRONT OF THE BUDDHA HALL. THE FOLLOWING DAY, ALL THE MONKS GATHERED WITH SICKLES IN THEIR HANDS, BUT ONLY TANKA CAME WITH A TRAY FILLED WITH WATER. BEFORE COMING THERE HE HAD WASHED HIS HAIR, BUT IT WAS NOT YET SHAVEN. NOW HE KNEELED DOWN IN FRONT OF SEKITO, AND SEEING HIM, SEKITO LAUGHED, AND SHAVED TANKA'S HEAD. AS THE MASTER USUALLY DID, SEKITO GAVE TANKA SOME SPECIFIC COMMANDMENTS, BUT AS HE DID SO, TANKA WALKED AWAY COVERING HIS EARS WITH HIS HANDS
-- giving the gesture that "I don't need any knowledge, I know it. Don't fill my ears with nonsense. Don't fill my ears with words. I have come to experience the wordless." That gesture shows that Tanka had arrived.
TANKA THEN LEFT FOR KOSEI TO SEE MA TZU. ARRIVING AT THE MONASTERY -- because it was Ma Tzu who had sent him to Sekito; now he had completed the job. He got his head shaved after he had completed the job. Ordinarily, when one becomes a monk his head is shaved. But because he was told immediately to go to the kitchen and work there ... In those three years just waiting and watching and being aware, he realized his very nature. That very nature is the buddha, so now was the right time to be initiated. Before it, it would have been a formal initiation. Now it was going to be authentic initiation. And that's why, when he bowed down in front of the master, Sekito laughed -- "This fellow is really clever! He has not even shaved his head for these three years. He was waiting for the moment when he would be really worthy of initiation."
He shaved his head, and as every master does after shaving the head -- that is the initiation process -- he gave him a few commandments. But as he did so -- gave the commandments -- TANKA WALKED AWAY, COVERING HIS EARS WITH HIS HANDS, showing absolutely to Sekito that "You don't have to teach me anything. You have put me in the device and I have come to the space where no teaching is needed."
TANKA THEN LEFT KOSEI TO SEE MA TZU, because he was his original master who had looked into his eyes, and directed him to the right place where he could become quickly a buddha. He needed to show his gratitude, to show what he had attained and get his recognition.
ARRIVING AT THE MONASTERY HE WENT INTO THE HALL AND, CLIMBING ON THE STATUE OF MANJUSHRI, SAT THERE.
Manjushri is one of Gautam Buddha's very important enlightened disciples. He chose the statue of Manjushri -- there must have been other statues, of Sariputra, of Mahakashyapa, of Maudgalyan, other disciples who had become enlightened when Gautam Buddha was alive. So they are the original forces. Manjushri he had chosen for a particular reason, because ... I have to tell you a little bit about Manjushri.
Manjushri was always sitting under a tree, the same tree. He never asked a question to Gautam Buddha, never read any scriptures. Every day he would come whenever Gautam Buddha was talking, in the morning, in the evening. He would sit under the tree with his eyes closed. And everybody was wondering why he did not ask anything.
One day, suddenly in the morning as Buddha came ... Manjushri was sitting under his tree. Suddenly, flowers from the tree started falling over Manjushri. The tree must have been blossoming with hundreds of flowers, and they were showering like rain. And Buddha told the whole ten thousand disciples to look at what was happening. All looked -- they could not believe their eyes. Why were all the flowers suddenly falling on Manjushri's head, his body, his lap? He was almost covered with flowers.
Gautam Buddha declared: "Manjushri has become enlightened. Even the tree is giving him recognition. Existence is celebrating."
And Manjushri had arrived without asking a question, without getting an answer -- just waiting silently. Nature was celebrating. One of nature's ambitions was fulfilled: one man again had become a buddha, had reached to the ultimate consciousness.
Tanka certainly chose the statue of Manjushri and sat upon it:
THE OTHER MONKS WERE ASTONISHED AND TOLD MA TZU, WHO CAME IN, LOOKED AT HIM AND SAID, "MY SON IS TENNEN."
In Chinese, tennen means natural. That was the very quality of Manjushri. He had become attuned with nature. Just sitting with that tree, he had become almost one with it. So when he became enlightened the tree could not resist the temptation to shower all the flowers -- not a single flower was left on the tree. All the flowers had showered.
So Manjushri's enlightenment is called natural, spontaneous enlightenment, with no method, with no device. Tennen means natural, and when Ma Tzu saw him sitting on the statue of Manjushri ... and every disciple of Ma Tzu was stunned, they could not believe how this man was behaving. But Ma Tzu could see: the man had changed. It was no longer the same man whose eyes he had looked into. He simply said, "My son is Tennen." My son is just natural, a natural buddha.
TANKA CAME DOWN, MADE A BOW AND SAID, "THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME A DHARMA NAME."
He accepted that word `tennen' as his dharma name, his sannyas name. Since that time he started calling himself Tanka Tennen. Tanka, the natural one.
MA TZU THEN ASKED, "WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?"
TANKA SAID, "I COME FROM SEKITO."
MA TZU SAID, "THE PATH ON THE STONEHEAD IS SLIPPERY. DID YOU FALL OVER?"
TANKA REPLIED, "IF I HAD FALLEN OVER, I WOULD NOT HAVE COME HERE." I would have waited. I have not fallen over, I have risen above.
That's why he was sitting on the head of Manjushri -- declaring, "I am another Manjushri and I have not fallen over; otherwise I would not be here. I would not have come to show my face to you again without becoming a buddha."
This man, Tanka Tennen, became a master in his own right. But his whole teaching was just to be natural.
That's my whole teaching: just to be natural. Nature is dhamma, nature is Tao, nature is Zen. And the moment you are natural, flowers will shower over you. The moment you will be natural, not only will you celebrate and dance, the whole existence around you will dance and celebrate.
Hakuin wrote:
YOUR SINGING-AND-DANCING
IS NONE OTHER THAN THE VOICE OF DHARMA.
Your celebration, your singing-and-dancing, is none other than your very nature. And this nature has been crippled by your so-called religions -- your God, your priests, your theologians.
Zen is a rebellion against all religion. It is all for religiousness but not for religion. Religiousness is a totally different phenomenon than religion. Religion is a doctrine, a creed, a cult, an organization. Religiousness is simply a quality that naturally blossoms in you. You have just to go deep down into yourself to find the seed of the buddha that exists at the very center of your being.
All our meditations are concerned only with one thing: how to take you to the seed where the buddha is hidden, just as flowers are hidden in a seed. And once you have reached to the center, the seed starts growing.
Then, becoming a buddha is not a faraway phenomenon. You have started becoming a buddha, you have started on the path which brings the transformation. Right now you are all bodhisattvas, buddhas in essence, in seed. If you can find out the center of your being you have found the very center of existence.
Next: Chapter 7: Existence is celebration, Question 4
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen I Celebrate Myself
| 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 |
