| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
|
ZEN: THE PATH OF PARADOX
VOL. 3
Chapter 10: A Song Untouched by Time
Question 1
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 3
The first question:
Question 1
THE CONTEMPORARY IDEAL OF LIVING COMPLETELY WITHIN THE PRESENT MOMENT, NO LESS THAN THE CLASSICAL MYSTICAL NOTION OF LIVING TOTALLY WITHIN THE DIVINE ETERNAL, IS AS IMPOSSIBLE AS IT IS INHUMAN. IT RESULTS IN A DISEASED RATHER THAN A GRACEFUL PRESENT. GRACEFUL EXISTENCE INTEGRATES PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE.
THE IDEAL AS SUCH CORRUPTS. Whatsoever the ideal, it is a calamity, it is a great disease to be avoided. It is the ideal that has been driving humanity neurotic. The moment you start thinking in terms of ideals, you are condemned. Then you are always falling short of it, then you are never okay; and guilt arises and you start feeling you are not worthy, that you are worthless. And the moment a man starts thinking he is worthless, he becomes worthless -- because you are that which you think you are. AS A MAN THINKETH, SO HE BECOMES.
All ideals are perfectionist, they demand perfection -- hence they are all inhuman. Man is not perfect. Nothing is perfect. Nothing can be perfect, BECAUSE only in imperfection is there growth. The perfect means the dead; the perfect means the perfectly dead -- the absolutely dead.
So let me say to you: Even God is not perfect, cannot be, otherwise He will be a dead God. Only in imperfection is there a possibility to evolve, to grow. Only in imperfection is there future. Perfection consists only of the past -- then there is no future. If God is perfect, then what is going to happen to Him? Nothing is going to happen. All that had to happen has already happened. All that He was destined to become, He has become -- there is no future. Then the God is a graveyard. Then He is not a tree blooming, and He is not a river flowing.
Even God is not perfect, so how can man be perfect? Everything that lives is imperfect, because life is possible only through imperfection. Imperfection is a great blessing. Feel blessed that you are imperfect. Imperfection means your circle is not complete, something is still open. You have a future, you have a possibility.
Imperfection is a promise, a hope. Imperfection carries potentiality; all has not yet become actual, something is still in the seed. You can remain excited. Something tremendously new is going to happen to you, something unknown, unfamiliar; something unexpected you can still expect. That's what life is.
So the first thing to be understood is: All ideals are perfectionist. Hence, ALL ideals are inhuman. And all ideals cripple and paralyze you. All ideals create a kind of subtle bondage around you, they imprison you. The really free man has no ideals.
So, to live in the present is not an ideal, remember. If you make an ideal out of it you have missed the point. To live in the present can be rightly translated as: to live without ideals. That is the meaning of living in the present. To live in the present means to live without ideals, to just live herenow and remain open and remain ready -- whatsoever the future brings, remain always welcoming and receptive. don't force the future in a certain way, in a certain direction. Let it happen.
To be in the present is not an ideal. But I understand your question. There are people who have made it an ideal. It happens because we have become so accustomed to transforming everything into a neurosis, so that even if elixir is given to you, you will transform it into poison. You know only one thing: how to transform everything into a poison.
For example, Buddha says: Through desire there is misery -- so if you become desireless, there will be no misery.
Now, this is a simple fact, stating a simple truth. What happened? People started creating a new desire: to be desireless. This is how you transform every truth into falsehood.
Buddha is saying: To be in desire is to be miserable. He is not saying desire about what: desire as such creates misery -- because in desire you start moving from the present, you start thinking of the future. You start thinking of dreams -- you are going to do this, and this is going to happen; and if this happens you will be happy, and if that happens you will be very very miserable. The moment you start dreaming and desiring you have missed contact with life; you disconnected. You are no more living in those moments of desire. Those moments of desiring are death moments. Life has stopped flowing. You are frozen.
Whenever you are in desire you are not alive. Life and desire can't exist together. They are two gestalts, you can have only one at one time. If you move into desire, life disappears; if you are living, desire disappears.
Have you not seen in some psychology books a certain picture of an old woman? And in the same picture, in those same lines, is hidden a beautiful young woman -- both are there. But if you look at the old woman, then you cannot see the young woman. If you look at the young woman, then suddenly the old woman disappears. They are BOTH there in the same lines, but you can see only one at a time. Your gestalt changes. When you are looking at the young face, then those lines are making a new pattern. Because of this pattern, the other pattern cannot be seen. When you start seeing the old woman, the young woman recedes back; because of the old woman's pattern, you cannot see the new woman's pattern. You cannot see both together. Because you cannot see both together, whenever you are with one the other becomes non-existential to you. And you know both are there; still you cannot see.
Exactly the same is the case with desire and life. If you desire, life is no more there; you stop living. The same energy becomes desire, so no more energy is available to live. When you start living, desire disappears because the same energy has become life; you cannot desire any more.
Alive moments are desireless moments. Desireless moments are alive moments. It is a simple statement about life's patterns, gestalts.
But what happened? People listened to Buddha and they thought, "He must be right. He says. 'With desire there is misery,' So now we will desire desirelessness. How to attain desirelessness.?" Now they are ready to go on another journey of desire. Just the OBJECT of desire has changed. first they were thinking how to have more money, how to have more power, how to go to New Delhi, Washington, London, Moscow; now, their goal has changed -- how to attain NIRVANA, MOKSHA, God, desirelessness.
But the object is there, and with the object the desire ii there. They have committed something very absurd. They missed the point. Buddha is not saying to create a new desire. Buddha is simply saying: Understand desire. Look into desire and you will find misery. Once this understanding has penetrated deep into your being, that desire is misery, then the problem has disappeared. Then you don't desire at all. And, when you don't desire, there is desirelessness.
Desirelessness cannot be desired; MOKSHA cannot be desired; God cannot be desired. If you desire, God has become an object of lust. You are again in the same trap -- with a new label, but the disease is the same. Maybe the skin is new, but the wine is old.
The same is happening in the modern world. And this, too, is happening because of Zen. Zen says: Be herenow, because that is the only way to be here -- that is the only way to be. Now is the only moment there is! How can you be in the future? The future is not yet; how can you be in the future? You can only think. That will be just your mind game. How can you be in the past? The past has disappeared. You can only be in the memory -- memory, imagination. But both are non-existential.
To exist means to be herenow. These trees exist, you only pretend. Rocks exist, you only pretend. Stars exist, you only pretend.
Zen has a simple message. It says: See into life -- only the present is true. Future is imagination, past is memory. Memory is nothing but a taped record in the mind. And imagination is nothing but a projection through the memory, a desire coming out of the past -- to have the same pleasures again and again, or to avoid the old sufferings. And meanwhile the present moment is passing by. Life is slipping out of your hands.
Zen is very pragmatic, very existential. The message is very simple: Be here, and be now.
Now, you can create an ideal out of it. You can jump upon the idea. YOu say, "Right! Now I will be here and now. I will try, I will not leave any stone unturned; I will do my best. I will be here and now. I will practise, I will meditate, I will sit in zazen, but I HAVE to be here and now!" Now you are creating an ideal out of a simple fact which was a statement, it was a truism.
You are making an ideal. Now you are going to be in difficulty. Again and again you will find the mind has slipped into the past; again and again you will find the mind has slipped into the future. You will catch hold of it, you will bring it back to the present. Again it is slipping. Again you are bringing it to the present. In fact, your NOW is not now! It is going to happen somewhere in the future when you have practised how to live now! Your present is also not present. The present of your ideal cannot be present. All ideals are in the future.
"How to live in the present?" you are asking. Zen says there IS NO other way to live! And you ask, "How to live?" Zen says THERE IS NO OTHER WAY AT ALL! How are you managing not to live in the present? And you ask, "How to live in the present? Should I meditate, should I do this and that? Should I do a mantra, should I close my eyes? Should I leave my wife and children, because they lead me into the future -- I have to think about them? Should I go to the Himalayas?" But these are all future ideas! "Should I go to the Himalayas?" -- the Himalayas is in the fu-ture. "Should I attain to satori?" -- this is again the future. Rather than understanding, you immediately create desire.
You ask: THE CONTEMPORARY IDEAL OF LIVING COMPLETELY WITHIN THE PRESENT MOMENT, NO LESS THAN THE CLASSICAL MYSTICAL NOTION OF LIVING TOTALLY WITHIN THE DIVINE ETERNAL, IS AS IMPOSSIBLE AS IT IS INHUMAN.
If you make it an ideal, it is inhuman AND impossible. And it will destroy you. All ideals are destructive, and all idealists are the poisoners of humanity. Beware of them!
Live a simple, ordinary life -- a day to day existence. Feeling hungry, eat; feeling sleepy, sleep; feeling loving, love. Don't hanker for anything perfect. Perfection is impossible. And don't start creating a new ideal out of this simple fact.
For example, Zen Masters say, "How marvellous! I carry fuel, I draw water from the well." Now this is a simple statement of a fact. The Master is carrying wood from the forest and he says, "How marvellous! This moment -- this precious moment -- the sun rising, the birds singing, the green all around, the flowers blooming, the fragrance of grass in the air, and I am carrying wood to the ashram. How wonderful! How beautiful this moment, this diamond-like moment!"
Now you can make an ideal out of it. You may not be a woodcutter. You may be a professor in the university. You renounce your post; you say, "I am going to be a woodcutter -- I will go to the forest. I will cut wood and I will carry fuel. And I'm going to feel 'How wonderful!"'
Now you will miss. Now you will go to the forest, you will cut wood, but you will miss the whole point. Cutting wood you will be thinking, "When is it going to happen? It has not happened yet. That feeling has not yet exploded -- How wondrous!" And you are waiting all around, and you look at the sun, and you look at the trees, but they look like ordinary trees, and the sun is ordinary, and the birds -- the same old, stupid birds chattering. And, yes, the grass is green, but so what! -- grass has always been green. You know all the poetry about grass, you are a professor; and you know all the great paintings, so what is new? You look all around and it is not happening. And you go on chopping wood. And you have never chopped wood; you start feeling tired. You look all around and there seems to be no wonder happening. And you say, "How miserable! Nothing is happening! This Zen Master cheated deceived me. What is there to call wondrous?"
No, you miss the point. The Master has not cheated you. He is not saying you should become a woodcutter. Remain a professor! People are as beautiful as trees. Young people are as beautiful as young grass. Go on teaching! Teaching is AS wondrous as carrying fuel. The Master was simply saying that whatsoever you are doing, if you are utterly there, the mind not wavering anywhere else... then suddenly the beauty is there, the benediction is there. The benediction is part of being present.
But don't make an ideal out of it! Thousands of people renounced their homes and became Buddhist monks when Buddha walked and he talked about "How wondrous!" But I don't think they arrived anywhere. They renounced the world, but it was a desire. Buddha had renounced the world for a totally different reason: the desire had been understood. See the point!
Buddha renounced the world seeing the futility of desire. Seeing that desire cannot lead anywhere -- it leads into misery and hell again and again -- seeing it there, seeing the whole mechanism of it, seeing the repetitious wheel of many lives, seeing that all that you can do you have done, but where is bliss? where is equilibrium? where is that benediction? where is real life?... seeing that not even for a single moment has that happened, he renounced the world.
That renunciation came out of understanding. When he renounced the world and became a Buddha... and naturally he had great grace, great joy around him, great silence, so wherever he moved many people became desirous. They saw this man walking: "So this man has arrived, so THIS is the way to arrive." They are not yet finished with desire. They have created a new desire. Looking at Buddha they have become LUSTFUL for Buddhahood!
It is almost the same. You see a Cadillac car passing by, and a desire arises -- you should own it. It is nothing different! You see a Buddha passing by, and a desire arises -- "Why should not I have this grace? Why should not I have this calm, quiet silence? Why should not I be so joyful as Buddha IS? Why not I?" Desire has arisen. It is the same desire!
Seeing a beautiful woman pass by with somebody else -- somebody else's wife -- and a desire starts lingering inside: "Why should not I have a beautiful wife like that?" It is the same game played on different planes, in different ways. But the trick is the same.
So seeing a Buddha, many people became desirous. And they renounced, but they renounced for a wrong reason. Buddha's renunciation was a natural outgrowth of understanding. Their renunciation is part of the same desire. so it happens many times that they are working hard, but waiting from the corner of the eye: "When is it going to happen?"
I have heard these two stories:
A monk said to Master Seijo. "I am told that a Buddha who lived in ancient times sat in meditation for ten cycles of existence and still could not realize the truth of liberation. Why was this so?"
Seijo answered him, "Your question is self-explanatory."
Again, the monk persisted, "Since the Buddha meditated, why couldn't he attain Buddhahood?"
Seijo replied, "Because he was a Buddha."
Now this is an utterly beautiful answer, and true too. Not only beautiful, but true too. Seijo makes a very shocking statement; he says, "Because he was a Buddha!" When you are a Buddha and trying to become a Buddha, you are going to fail. Buddhahood is not a goal, it is a recognition. It is not something that is going to happen in the future; it is not something that you have to prepare for. It is something that is already there -- only recognition is missing!
Another story and you will understand better:
An old Zen story tells of a pilgrim who mounted his horse and crossed formidable mountains and swift rivers seeking a famous wise man in order to ask him how to find true enlightenment. After months of searching, the pilgrim located the teacher in a cave. The Master listened to the question and said nothing. The seeker waited.
Finally, after hours of silence, the Master looked at the steed on which the pilgrim had arrived, and asked the pilgrim why he was not looking for a horse instead of enlightenment.
The pilgrim responded that obviously he already had a horse. The Master smiled, and retreated into his cave.
Very indicative! The Master said, "Why don't you search for a horse? Why do you bother about Buddhahood?" And the man said, "What nonsense are you talking about? The horse is already with me. I have got the horse! Why should I seek it?" And the Master didn't say anything -- he simply smiled and retreated into his cave. Finished! He had given the answer.
You are a Buddha. You cannot search for it. That is the great declaration of all the great religions -- that you are gods and goddesses in disguise, incognito. You have forgotten your own identity, you don't know who you are. Hence all seeking. And sometimes you start seeking that which you are already. Then it is impossible to find... then frustration.
Don't start seeking, just start looking at what is the case. Looking into the reality as it is, is enough. That is the meaning of Zen people when they say "Be herenow" -- look into reality. Nothing is missing, all is already here. Listening to it, please avoid creating an ideal; otherwise your ideal will mislead you.
Second thing. You say: IT RESULTS IN A DISEASED RATHER THAN A GRACEFUL PRESENT.
It does not even result in a diseased present -- because whenever the present is there, it is graceful. It cannot be diseased. That has never happened; it cannot happen in the very nature of things.
The present by its very nature is never ill, never sick. It is always the future which brings the sickness, the nausea, disturbance, distraction. No, if you make an ideal of living in the present, then it will not give you a diseased present; no, it will give you another future. And the future is always ill because the future always creates tension. The future is never relaxation.
The future is there calling you: "Do this, do that. Fulfill me." With great expectations and hopes you move towards it. Naturally, much frustration is going to happen -- because THE FUTURE NEVER COMES, SO it can NEVER be fulfilled. The tomorrow never comes -- so you can hope for tomorrow, but tomorrow when it turns up will be today. and you don't know how to live today, so again you will miss and there will be frustration, more and more. The more you desire, the more you hope, the more you will be frustrated. Hence, the future brings illness, disease.
Remember, with an ideal the present is completely forgotten. It may even be the ideal to live in the present, but any ideal as such distracts you from the present. And it is not going to happen in a diseased present rather than a graceful present, because I have never heard about a diseased present. ALL moments of present are simply graceful.
GRACEFUL EXISTENCE, YOU SAY, INTEGRATES PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE.
You don't understand. Graceful present does not know anything of past, future or present. How can it integrate them? -- it does not know anything about them. The whole division disappears. When you are in the present, there is no past, no future -- and, of course, when there is no past, no future, how can there be present? Let it be understood! The present can exist only between past and future, just in the middle of it. It is a middle term. Drop past, drop future -- where can you put your present? It disappears.
The REAL present cannot even be called present... it is eternity, it is timelessness.
So don't say that it will be a synthesis -- a graceful integration. Integration of what? The past is not! How can you integrate something which is not? And the future is not! How can you integrate something which is not? And because of the past and the future, the illusion of the present is created. How can you integrate an illusion? No, they simply disappear, they are not found any more.
And when they are not found, there is grace, because divisions disappear. Conflicts, antagonisms in your being, splits in your being disappear -- suddenly you are harmonious, you are one. You start humming in a unison. A song arises out of you which knows nothing of the past and nothing of the future, and nothing of the present either! A song untouched by time. That's why all the old scriptures say God is beyond time, SAMADHI is beyond time.
Next: Chapter 10: A Song Untouched by Time, Question 2
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 3
| 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 |
