BELOVED OSHO,

ON ONE OCCASION, JOSHU SAID TO HIS MONKS:

I HAVE SINGLE-HEARTEDLY PRACTICED ZAZEN IN THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE FOR THIRTY YEARS. IF YOU WANT TO REALIZE ENLIGHTENMENT, YOU SHOULD REALIZE THE ESSENCE OF BUDDHISM, DOING ZAZEN.

IN THE COURSE OF THREE, FIVE, TWENTY OR THIRTY YEARS, IF YOU FAIL TO GRASP THE WAY, YOU MAY CUT OFF MY HEAD AND MAKE IT INTO A LADLE TO DRAW URINE WITH.

JOSHU IS ALSO REPORTED TO HAVE SAID:

THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE ONLY SEEKERS AFTER BUDDHA, BUT NOT A SINGLE ONE IS A TRUE MAN OF TAO. BEFORE THE EXISTENCE OF THE WORLD THE SELF-NATURE REMAINS INTACT. NOW THAT YOU HAVE SEEN THIS OLD MONK, YOU ARE NO LONGER SOMEONE ELSE, BUT A MASTER OF YOURSELF. WHAT'S THE USE OF SEEKING ANOTHER IN THE EXTERIOR?

ONCE A MONK ASKED JOSHU: "WHAT IS YOUR FAMILY'S TRADITION?"

JOSHU RESPONDED: "I HAVE NOTHING INSIDE, AND I SEEK FOR NOTHING OUTSIDE."

Maneesha, the word `zazen' has to be understood before I can start discussing the sutras that you have brought. Zen I have explained to you. It comes from the Sanskrit dhyan. Buddha never used Sanskrit as a part of his revolution. Sanskrit was the language of the learned, it has never been a language of the masses. Buddha broke away from tradition and started speaking in the language of the masses. It was a revolt against scholarship, learnedness, the pundits, the rabbis, the people of the scripture, whose whole heart is in their books. And because of those books they cannot see the reality.

Buddha started speaking in the language of his province, Pali. In Pali, dhyan changes its form a little bit. It becomes jhan. When Bodhidharma reached China, jhan again changed, into Chinese; it became ch'an. And when the school of Rinzai took the same message to Japan from China, the word ch'an came very close to the very original Pali, jhan. It became in Japan, zen.

In English there is no equivalent word. There are words like concentration, contemplation... but they are all of the mind. Dhyan means going beyond the mind. It is not concentration, it is not contemplation; it is just letting the mind be put aside and looking at reality and your own existence directly, without the mind interpreting it.

Have you ever tried small experiments? Watching a roseflower, can you watch the roseflower without the mind saying, "How beautiful"? Can you just watch the rose without the mind saying anything at all? In that moment you are in the state of dhyan, or zen.

I am reminded of a story. Twenty-five centuries ago it was a great coincidence that in Greece there was Socrates and in India were Gautam Buddha and Mahavira, and in China there were Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu  --  all expressing the existential truth, indicating towards it. It is very strange that suddenly, all over the world, there were at least six people fully awakened. Their words may be different because their languages are different, but their indication is to the same moon. That is absolutely certain.

Dhyan means looking, either outside or inside, without thinking  --  just looking straight forward. Your eyes become only a mirror. The mirror never says anything to anybody. Neither does it condemn the ugly nor does it appreciate the beautiful; it is simply non-judgmental.

Dhyan is, exactly, a non-judgmental state of mirror-like consciousness, just seeing and not saying anything. Then seeing becomes total. And in that seeing is the truth, is the good, is the beauty.

Because of this phenomenon, in the East there is no equivalent word for `philosophy'. In the East the word that has become equivalent is darshan, but darshan refers to a totally different dimension than philosophy. Philosophy means love of wisdom. It is love of knowledge. And darshan means just the opposite: not the love of wisdom or of knowledge, but of seeing. Darshan means seeing. Dhyan is the method, the path; and darshan, seeing the truth with your own eyes, is the goal of the whole Eastern effort.

What is zazen? Zen is, just once or twice a day... in the early morning when the sun is rising and the birds are singing, you sit silently by the side of the ocean or the river or the lake. It is not something that you have to do continuously. It is just like any other activity. You take your bath  --  that does not mean that for twenty-four hours you have to continue taking a shower. Zazen exactly means that: taking a shower continuously. Zen is a periodic effort to see the truth. Zazen is a twenty-four hour, around-the-clock remaining aware, alert, in the state beyond mind. Your activities should show it, your words should show it. Even your walking should show it  -- the grace, the beauty, the truth, the validity, the authority.

So zazen is an extension of Zen around the clock. Just because of zazen, monasteries came into existence. Because if you are living an ordinary life of a householder you cannot manage to contemplate, to be in the state of Zen twenty-four hours a day. You have to do many other things. And there is every possibility that while you are doing other things you may forget the undercurrent. So monasteries came into existence. The society decided that the people who want to go deeper into their being are doing such a great experiment for the whole humanity, because if even one man becomes a buddha, with him the whole humanity rises a little bit in consciousness.

It may not be apparent. It is just like when the Ganges... a big river, so big that by the time it reaches to meet the ocean its name, from Ganga, becomes Gangasagar, "the ocean of Ganges." It becomes oceanic  --  so vast. As it moves into the ocean, the ocean certainly rises a little bit. The ocean is so vast that even hundreds and thousands of rivers never create a flood in the ocean, but certainly even a single dewdrop raises the level. At least you can comprehend it: a single dewdrop losing itself in the ocean, and the ocean is something more than it was before  --  one dewdrop more.

The people of those days were certainly more subjective, of more clarity that the real evolution of man is not in developing machines, technology; the real evolution has to happen in the consciousness of man. His consciousness has to become a pinnacle, an Everest, a peak that rises high above the clouds. If even a single man succeeds, it is not only his success, it is also the success of all men  --  past, present, future  --  because it gives a clear-cut indication that we are not trying; otherwise we could also be buddhas. Those who have tried, have become. It is our intrinsic nature.

The society supported the monks, supported the monasteries. There were thousands of monasteries with thousands of monks who were not doing anything. Society allowed them  --  "We are engaged in production. We will provide you with food and clothes. You go totally into your effort of reaching the highest peak of consciousness. Your success is not going to be only your success. If thousands of people become buddhas, the whole humanity, without any effort, will find a certain rise in consciousness."

This was a great insight. And society took over the burden of thousands of monks, of thousands of monasteries; all their needs were fulfilled by the society. Today, that society has disappeared because today even the concept that you are a hidden buddha has disappeared. A strange idea has caught humanity, that every man is an island. And that is sheer nonsense. Even the islands are not islands. Just go down a little deeper and they are joined with the continent.

Everybody is joined, it is just a question of going a little deeper. Our roots are entangled with each other, our source of life is the same.

It was a tremendous insight of those days that they decided  --  particularly, for example, in Tibet: every family had to contribute one child to the monastery, and in the monastery he had to do only zazen. He had no other work to distract him.

But now that possibility does not exist. Hence, I have managed different devices in which you can remain in the world  --  no need to go to a monastery, because there is nobody to support you. You can be in the world and yet manage an undercurrent of fire that slowly slowly becomes like your breathing. You don't have to remember it.

Maneesha has asked:

BELOVED OSHO,

ON ONE OCCASION, JOSHU SAID TO HIS MONKS:

I HAVE SINGLE-HEARTEDLY PRACTICED ZAZEN IN THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE FOR THIRTY YEARS.

He is referring to those thirty years with his master, Nansen. He is saying, "I have single-heartedly practiced zazen for thirty years continuously, without ever bothering about how far away enlightenment is." Is it going to happen or not? Is it a truth or just a mirage? Is it something real or only a fiction created by dreamers? Without any doubt, how can one sustain for thirty years the same routine around the clock  -- walking, sitting, sleeping?

The whole heart is devoted to one thing: how to become more conscious, how to become a witness, how to remain a witness whatever happens. It is possible only if you have come in contact with a master, exceptions not included. The master is an example that the dream can be fulfilled. That it is not a dream, it is a reality  --  it is just that we have not tried in the right way.

Joshu could continue for thirty years just because he saw Nansen. The very presence of Nansen filled him with a great explosion of joy. "It is possible! If it is possible for Nansen, it is possible for me."

Nansen had asked him, "Do you have a master or not?" and he did not reply to exactly the question that was asked. He said, "I am with the master." He said, "My master is in front of me," indicating Nansen, who was lying down meditating. And he addressed Nansen as "Tathagata."

Tathagata is the most lovely word used for Gautam Buddha. Just out of respect, the disciples don't use the name Gautam Buddha, they use the word "Tathagata." And tathagata is very meaningful. It comes from tathata. Tathata means thisness, just here and now  -- a man who always remains here and now, never wavering towards past or future, is a tathagata. He neither goes anywhere nor comes back, he simply remains here. Time passes by, clouds pass by, but nothing touches him. His being here is from eternity to eternity. That is the most cherished word the followers of Buddha used to address him.

Joshu said to Nansen, "Tathagata, I am with my master." And in that moment something happened  -- just in silence. Nothing was said, nothing was heard, but something transpired, something was transferred. In Zen they call it "transmission of the lamp." And Nansen never asked him to be initiated; neither did Joshu ask to be initiated. The initiation had happened without any ceremony and without anybody ever knowing it. The moment he called him "Tathagata"... that moment was very precious. "I am with my master."

Nansen accepted him, without saying anything. He simply called the head monk of the monastery and told him, "Take care of this new fellow. He is going to become ripe very soon. If he can recognize me as tathagata, he has already moved half the way. It won't take long for him to recognize himself as tathagata. He has the right vision, the right direction... just a question of a little time."

But that "little time" took thirty years. Those days of patience are gone. Now you need quick things, the quicker the better. Because of this strange idea of quickness all things that grow very slowly and very silently have disappeared. Consciousness is one of those things which you cannot grow quickly. Thirty years sitting in zazen, Joshu became enlightened. What Nansen said was, "He will take just a little time." In the eyes of Nansen, thirty years are just a little time compared to the eternity of existence on both sides. What is thirty years? Nothing, not even a little time.

Joshu was talking to his disciples:

"IF YOU WANT TO REALIZE ENLIGHTENMENT, YOU SHOULD REALIZE THE ESSENCE OF BUDDHISM, DOING ZAZEN."

The essence of Buddhism is not in the scriptures, not in the words of Buddha. It is something to be understood, because it has far-reaching implications. Whatever Buddha has said is as close to truth as possible, but even being close to truth, it is not true. Even closeness is only a kind of distance. So you cannot find the essence of the experience of Buddha through the scriptures. That is the ordinary conception of people, that if you read Buddhism, if you become a learned scholar of Buddhism, you will know the essence of it.

One great Buddhist monk, Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan, met me by chance in a Buddhist conference in Bodhgaya. He took me out of the crowd and asked me, "Whatever you were saying is so authoritative, but... Forgive me for interrupting you, I loved whatever you said, but I have never found in any scripture the stories you were telling. And I am the head of the Buddhist Society of India."

I had heard his name, I had read his books. I said, "It is a great opportunity to meet you. I have loved your books, but I can say to you that you don't know the essence of Buddhism. Otherwise you would have understood my stories. It does not matter whether it really happened or not."

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "Whatever I have said, if it has not happened it should have happened. That's what I mean. Even Gautam Buddha cannot deny it. It may not have happened  --  that I can accept, that it is not factual. I don't care much about facts. To me, truth is something more than a factual incident. It is anything that carries the essence."

He said, "You are a strange fellow. I have never heard such an idea."

He lived in Nagpur. I used to pass Nagpur once in a while; he would always come and he would say, "This story I have read in your book. I loved it, but the problem is that it never happened in Buddha's life."

I said, "For that I am not responsible. If it did not happen, what can I do? It should have happened! You are a learned scholar; you can add it somewhere in the Buddhist scriptures."

He said, "What are you saying? Nothing can be added to the scriptures."

I said, "Any scripture to which nothing can be added is dead."

When I entered America, the inquiry officer asked me a few questions... whether I am an anarchist, a communist. I told him, "Listen, I am a living man." He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "I may not be anarchist today, but tomorrow I can be an anarchist. So this whole stupid inquiry... with a living man! You should only allow the dead who are not going to change, ever. Living persons you should not allow in America. Because I am continuously growing, new leaves will come, new flowers will come. Who knows? Anarchism, communism..."

He said, "You are a strange fellow! I am asking a simple thing, I am not a philosopher."

I said, "I am also not a philosopher, but make a note that your inquiry is applicable to a dead person only  --  not to a living person. If you ask me this moment what I am, I can tell you. Next moment, nobody knows what I will be. Even I don't know. Then don't call me contradictory. I am a communist, I am an anarchist, and a little more. Do you have any category?"

Gautam Buddha, twenty-five centuries back... I can add much more to his teachings. These twenty-five centuries have not gone by in vain. Consciousness has taken on new terms, has known new skies, has flown farther than ever before. Because of this stupidity that you cannot add anything, all the scriptures become dead.

I asked Anand Kausalyayan, "If Gautam Buddha himself had lived for twenty-five centuries, do you think he would be saying the same things?"

He said, "You are crazy, but rational. It is true. If he had lived for twenty-five centuries, he would have added much."

I said, "Then it is my responsibility to add a few things here and there. I take the liberty because I have tasted the same consciousness. You have not tasted the consciousness  --  that's why you are worried. You know only the dead scripture, which died twenty-five centuries ago. I am a living scripture."

To realize the essence of Buddhism is to realize what Buddha realized, is to go as deep into yourself as Buddha went in. That's what we are doing here. And we are not Buddhists, we don't belong to any dead tradition or any dead orthodoxy. There is no need. We are all carrying the buddha within us  --  why go on searching anywhere else?

That is the purpose of zazen, to search through all the garbage that you have accumulated down the centuries. You have been here on the earth for four million years in different shapes, in different bodies, in different species. You have gathered so much around your small buddha that you will have to dig as deep as possible. And don't waver in digging.

One great Sufi mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, one day took his disciples to a field where a farmer had been trying for months to dig a well. The disciples were feeling a little reluctant  --  what is the point in going there? Whatever he wants to say, he can say here. But Jalaluddin insisted: "You come with me. Without coming you will not understand."

What the farmer had done was, he would start digging in one place, go ten feet, twelve feet, would not find water and would start digging in another place. He had dug eight holes and now he was working on the ninth. He had destroyed the whole field.

Rumi told his disciples, "Don't be like this idiot. If he had put all this energy into digging one hole he would have found water, howsoever deep it is. He has wasted his energy unnecessarily."

And that's what everybody is doing. You start, you go a little bit, and then you start again sometime later, or some years later. You go a little bit from a different direction.

These little bits are dangerous. Your effort should be concentrated, and once you start, and you have a master in whom you can trust and in whom you can see the realization of a buddha, then there is no going back. Then go on digging, even if it takes thirty years.

That's what Joshu is saying:

IN THE COURSE OF THREE, FIVE, TWENTY OR THIRTY YEARS, IF YOU FAIL TO GRASP THE WAY, YOU MAY CUT OFF MY HEAD AND MAKE IT INTO A LADLE TO DRAW URINE WITH.

I promise you, at the risk of my head, that if you continue... one never knows. Three years, five years, twenty years, thirty years  --  one never knows how much garbage you have gathered. Sometimes it can happen in a single moment. Sometimes it can take years. It all depends on the thickness of the layers of dust, past memories, future aspirations, and how courageous you are to cut the whole thing in a single blow.

Without any rest, go on digging. The water is certainly everywhere; so is the buddha-consciousness in every living being. Only man is so fortunate that he can understand it. Other animals are also on the way....

Scientists think that the theory of evolution is Charles Darwin's concept. In the scientific field it is true, but they are not aware of the Eastern concept of evolution. A very different concept  --  far more relevant and far more valid. It is not that one monkey simply becomes man. It is very difficult. You can force him, massage him, stretch him, operate on his tail, put his tie right, but a monkey is a monkey. I don't think that suddenly one day some monkey got the idea, jumped out of the tree, stood on his two feet, and started becoming man. If so, all the other monkeys would have become man. They don't become, they are still there in the trees.

The East does not mean by evolution that a monkey becomes a man, but the consciousness of a monkey may be born into a human being. It is not the body that evolves; it is the consciousness within that goes on taking higher forms, goes on reaching towards higher peaks. Man up to now is the highest peak of all that the animals have been trying to be, unconsciously. This is the fortunate situation for man, that he can do consciously some work that other animals cannot do.

It is impossible to teach meditation to a buffalo, although buffalos look more meditative than man. But nothing can be taught, and even if there are a few birds, or a few animals who can be taught a few tricks, that does not become their evolution. They simply become actors. A few animals have the capacity to imitate, but only to imitate. Neither can they add anything nor can they delete anything.

I told Anand Kausalyayan, "You are old, but still it is not too late. The essence of Buddhism is not in the Buddhist scriptures, the essence of Buddhism is in being a buddha." And one becomes a buddha if he reaches his own center.

Joshu is completely certain; otherwise he would not have made such a statement: IN THE COURSE OF THREE, FIVE, TWENTY OR THIRTY YEARS... because in thirty years he became enlightened. He thinks, "If a man like me can become a buddha, then anybody can become. There are more intelligent people than me, more courageous people than me. Somebody may become in three years, somebody in five years."

The question of time is irrelevant. The real thing is to begin now, don't postpone for tomorrow. Deeper somewhere, there is a life source  --  that much is certain. You are alive, you are breathing, you are listening, your heart is beating. You are perfectly alive, so there must be a source from where life is coming to you. This much can be said with an absolute guarantee, that you are connected with the universe and that connection is your buddhahood.

JOSHU IS ALSO REPORTED TO HAVE SAID:

THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE ONLY SEEKERS AFTER BUDDHA, BUT NOT A SINGLE ONE IS A TRUE MAN OF TAO.

To be a seeker in a lukewarm way, thinking that buddhahood is certain..."If I don't work it out today, there is tomorrow." The seeker without an urgency  -- there are thousands of people around the world. There are even more cases now than at the time of Joshu  -- there are millions of people who have a certain idea that one day they will turn inwards, but that day has not come yet. There are so many other things to be done. There are always, there have always been thousands of people interested, but not interested enough to risk their whole life. And unless you risk your whole life, unless it becomes such an urgency that it has to be done whatever the consequences  -- whatsoever the losses, you have to know yourself  -- unless this becomes such a total thirst, you will not become a buddha. Or a man of Tao  --  which are not two things; a man of Tao is the Chinese expression for the same experience as becoming a buddha.

BEFORE THE EXISTENCE OF THE WORLD THE SELF-NATURE REMAINS INTACT. NOW THAT YOU HAVE SEEN THIS OLD MONK  --  Joshu is pointing at himself. NOW THAT YOU HAVE SEEN THIS OLD MONK, YOU ARE NO LONGER SOMEONE ELSE, BUT A MASTER OF YOURSELF. If you have seen me clearly, you have seen yourself clearly, because I am nothing but a mirror. Only a blind man can pass without seeing himself in me, his own image.

The master's basic, fundamental function is to be a mirror to the disciple so the disciple can have a certain idea of what a man of Tao means, what it means to be a buddha.

Joshu, with a lion's roar, is saying, "When you have seen this old monk, you are no longer someone else but a master of yourself." A master only reflects your masterhood. He reflects your potentiality, he reflects what originally you are and you have forgotten.

WHAT IS THE USE OF SEEKING ANOTHER IN THE EXTERIOR?

Joshu is saying, "If you cannot see the buddha in me, then don't waste your time. You will not be able to see it anywhere." This certainty comes with self-experience.

I have called this book JOSHU  --  THE LION'S ROAR. Normally, buddhas are very humble. Joshu is also very humble but he cannot help but say with absolute authority that "once you have seen me, you have looked into a mirror. If you cannot find your master here, then you will be wasting your time wandering around the world, and you will think that you are a seeker. There is no need to seek; just see that you are fortunate to have come across a master."

This authority arises out of absolute experience.

ONCE A MONK ASKED JOSHU, "WHAT IS YOUR FAMILY'S TRADITION?"

By "family" is not meant the ordinary family; by "family" is meant your master, your master's master. Once you have become a buddha, you are reborn. Now there is no question of your ordinary family, your ordinary parents. Your master has become the one closest to you. Your master has become a rebirth for you. So, "WHAT IS YOUR FAMILY'S TRADITION?" someone asked Joshu.

JOSHU RESPONDED... and you have to learn how these Zen masters respond, they don't reply. They don't repeat. Their response... perhaps the questioner has never dreamt that somebody will respond to his question in this way.

JOSHU RESPONDED: "I HAVE NOTHING INSIDE, AND I SEEK FOR NOTHING OUTSIDE. This is the tradition of my family. Inside, an empty heart asking for nothing. Outside, no desire, no ambition. This is the tradition of my family."

This is the tradition of all the buddhas. This has to become your tradition too.

Ryushu, a Zen poet, wrote:

THREE, TWO, ONE; ONE, TWO, THREE  --

HOW ARE YOU EVER GOING TO PROBE

THE MYSTERIES OF ZEN?

SPRING BIRDS BUSY ON MY ROOF

AFTER THE RAIN

TRY OUT SOME NEW SOUNDS,

TWEETING AND CHIRPING.

What does Ryushu mean by THREE, TWO, ONE? Man begins either from the concept of three... just like the Hindu trimurti, three faces of God, or like the Christian trinity. The words `trinity' and `trimurti' both come from the same root, tri. The word `three' comes from tri. Either one can begin from three  -- the knower, the known and the knowledge, the seeker, the sought and the search  --  or one can begin in a contrary way: ONE, TWO, THREE. One can start from oneself; then he finds the other, he witnesses it. The other can be anything in your inner experience. And then the third: the third is the very witnessing. The one who witnesses, the other, which is witnessed, and the process of witnessing is the third.

Ryushu is saying: Whatever you do, this way or that, you will not reach to the ultimate. These are all games, which philosophers tend to play. It is better not to get involved in games of spirituality, but just be silent and watch what is happening around you.

SPRING BIRDS BUSY ON MY ROOF AFTER THE RAIN  -- watch these small things, the rain and the mist that it has left behind, and the fragrance that comes from the earth. And the birds who are busy on the roof  --  they are trying NEW SOUNDS, TWEETING AND CHIRPING. Ryushu is saying there is no need to be very serious about the search. You can become a witness of ordinary things  -- the witnessing is the same, whether you witness a bird chirping or you witness your mind chattering. Whether you witness a sunrise outside or you witness your innermost being, witnessing is the same.

Ryushu is saying, rather than getting involved in controversial philosophies, start from small things. Learn from small things one art  --  the art of witnessing. And then use that same art inwards. It is easier to learn it in the outside world.

It is because of this that Zen became a very artistic religion. No other religion is so artistic: their monasteries are beautiful gardens, with beautiful ponds, birds, great trees, thick forests, mountains... and all this is for zazen. You sit under an ancient tree and nothing has to be done: just watch.

You know the famous haikus:

SITTING SILENTLY,

DOING NOTHING,

SPRING COMES

AND THE GRASS GROWS BY ITSELF.

ANCIENT POND,

A FROG JUMPS IN

THE SOUND

--  of the frog,

and then the great silence. And you are just sitting by the side of an ancient tree.