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ZEN: THE PATH OF PARADOX
VOL. 1
Chapter 6: A Concession to the Gods
Question 4
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 1
The fourth question:
Question 4
CAN YOU TELL US IN JUST A FEW WORDS WHAT THE MOST BASIC SECRET OF ZEN IS?
Let go.
Life reveals itself most plainly when you don't clutch at it, when you don't cling to it, when you don't hoard, when you are not a miser, when you are loose and ready to lose, when your fist is not closed, when your hand is open.
Life reveals itself most plainly when you do not clutch at it -- either with your feelings or with your thoughts. Touch and go -- that is the secret, the whole secret, the whole art. Everything kept goes stale -- everything, I say. Hoard and you kill it, hoard and it stinks. The reason is that whatever is momentous, living and moving, is momentary. By hoarding you want to make it permanent.
You love a woman, you love a man -- and you want to possess it, you want it to be permanent. It can be eternal but it cannot be permanent. Understand it. Try to understand it. It is momentary but if you live the moment in a total let-go, it is eternal. A moment lived totally in a relaxed state of mind is eternity. But you don't live in the moment and you don't know what eternity is, so you want to make it permanent, you want it to last for tomorrow also, for the day-after-tomorrow, for the coming year and maybe the coming life. You want to hoard it.
These three words are very important: momentary, permanent, eternal. In ordinary dictionaries the meaning of eternal seems to be forever and forever. That is wrong. That is not the meaning of eternal, that is the meaning of permanent. Then permanence becomes eternity. It is not. Eternity is not a duration, eternity is the depth in the moment. Eternity is part of the momentary, it is not against the momentary -- the permanent is against the momentary. If you go deep into the moment, drop into the momentary, dissolve totally and utterly into it, you have a taste of eternity. Each moment lived totally and relaxedly is eternity lived. Eternity is always present; now is part of eternity, not part of time.
Let go -- as a leaf goes with the stream.
Basho sings:
WHEN THE LIGHTNING FLASHES
HOW ADMIRABLE HE WHO THINKS NOT
LIFE IS FLEETING.
A tremendous statement. This is the beauty of Zen people -- you will not find it anywhere else. This is something unique to Zen. Ordinarily religious preachers and priests will be saying that life is fleeting, life is going by, life is slipping by. They create a desire in you to hoard, they create a greed in you. And they create a greed for the other world: heaven, paradise, nirvana, whatsoever it is. This life is fleeting. Before it goes, use this time and hoard something in the other world -- some virtue, some PUNYA.
Says Basho:
WHEN THE LIGHTNING FLASHES
HOW ADMIRABLE HE WHO THINKS NOT
LIFE IS FLEETING.
And, same guy:
THE MORNING DAWNS
LATE NIGHT SOON FOLLOWS.
LIFE TRANSIENT AS DEW.
YET THE MORNING GLORY
UNCONCERNED
GOES ON BLOOMING, BLOOMING
ITS SHORT COMPLETE LIFE.
Let this sentence sink into you: ITS SHORT COMPLETE LIFE. Short but complete. The morning glory is loved very much by Zen people and the reason is that it opens in the morning and by the evening it is gone. In the morning it was there, so beautiful, so authentic, so real, and by the evening the flower has faded, dropped into the earth, ready to disappear.
The morning glory is an exact symbol for life .When the morning glory blooms, in that small life, in that short span, it is complete, it is total. It lacks nothing. Those few moments are enough. Eternity is touched.
You live for seventy years but you don't live. A hoarder never lives, a miser never lives.
You ask me: CAN YOU TELL US IN A FEW WORDS WHAT THE MOST BASIC SECRET OF ZEN IS? Let go, and touch and go.
Dogen said to his Master, I have experienced the dropping of the body and the mind.'
Master Nayojo exclaimed, 'Then for what are you waiting now? Drop this too.'
There was a slight hesitation on Dogen's part; he could not understand. So the Master hit him hard on the head -- and Dogen laughed. He got it. He prostrated himself before his Master and the Master said, 'That is dropping dropped.'
'That is dropping dropped.' This is utter relaxation, this is utter let-go. Even nirvana is dropped, even God is dropped, even spirituality is dropped, even meditation is dropped. Meditation is perfect when meditation is dropped. You have arrived when you have even forgotten about enlightenment. This is total relaxation; this is let-go.
Just before he passed away, at the age of sixty, Bashui sat up in the lotus posture and to those gathered around him said, 'Don't be misled. Look directly. What is this?' He repeated this very loudly again, and then again, and then laughed, relaxed, collapsed and died.
He is showing utter relaxation to his disciples -- this is let-go. 'Don't be misled. Look directly. What is this?' The Master is dying. They must have become very alert. They thought he was going to die but suddenly he sat up in a lotus posture. This was unexpected. They may have been dozing but now they could not doze any more.What was he doing, this old man? Then he shouted really loud three times. 'Look directly. Don't be misled. What is this?' And laughed, relaxed, collapsed and died.
Dying in such a relaxed way and living in such a relaxed way is what Zen is -- the whole secret, the whole art.
Next: Chapter 6: A Concession to the Gods, Question 5
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 1
| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
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