Question 8

THE ZEN MASTERS SAY, "KILL YOUR PARENTS, " AND EVEN, "IF YOU MEET THE BUDDHA ON THE WAY, KILL HIM IMMEDIATELY. "IS IT NOT SHOCKING?IS IT NOT IRREVERENT?

It is shocking, but precisely, that is the purpose. A Master has to shock you to awake you. A Master is not a lullaby. A Master is not a tranquilizer. A Master has to be like a sharp knife in your heart. To be with a Master is painful. And the Master has to destroy all possibilities of projections.

First the child learns to project on the mother and the father. Then for the whole life one goes on projecting. Have you watched it in your own being? Whenever you are attracted by a woman, you may be again looking for your mother. Whenever you are attracted by a man, just watch. Are you again looking for your father? Because the first man the child has known was the father and the first woman was the mother. The child is imprinted with the first form of the woman and the first form of the man. That imprint is very deep.

You all know that suddenly one day you see a woman and something clicks. What clicks? The mother in you. When you see a woman and something reminds you deeply of your mother.... It may not be conscious, you may not be aware of it, you may not be able to figure out what it is, you may not be able to put your finger on it, but if you go deep into your unconscious you will find that the way the woman walks, the long nose of the woman, or the black eyes of the woman or the style of her hair, or her voice, or something, suddenly has clicked your unconscious and the unconscious knows, "This is the woman." People fall in love so suddenly, without knowing the woman, who she is -- love at first sight. How is it possible? What psychological mechanism is functioning there? Your mother. And so it is true about the father.

When Zen Masters say, "Kill your parents," they are saying, "Destroy the imprint of your mother and father from your unconscious." Once that imprint is destroyed you will be free.

Christianity, Islam, or Judaism or Hinduism are not as perfect religions as Zen, because they still talk of the Father God or the Mother Goddess. The imprint continues. Not only in this world, it goes on being projected in the sky too -- God the Father or Kali the Mother. You are still looking for your parents. Now, even in the ultimate reality you are looking for your parents. When will you become adult? When will you become mature? Zen is a process of maturity: so kill the parents.

There is a saying among Zen people that a man becomes really mature when his father and mother are dead. Have you not watched? If your father and mother have died, you are shocked. You have never thought that they would ever die. Although many times you have wished that they should die -- an unconscious wish -- because they are heavy on you, because their very presence is a restriction.

Have you watched, whenever you go to talk to your father you start stuttering, perspiring, you become nervous? Because he reminds you again that you are helpless, a small child, and he is a powerful man. Have you watched, when you go to your mother it is so difficult to communicate? It is so difficult to say anything. It becomes so difficult to talk to a mother, to sit and chitchat is almost impossible. What to say? She is puzzled and you are also puzzled. Both are embarrassed.

So deep down sometimes you have thought, "They should die, so I should be free of them." And when the father and mother die, suddenly you feel you are a child no more.

But when Zen people say it, they mean something else. They are not talking about the father and mother on the outside. They are talking about the inside. When the father and mother in the inside die, you become mature, you become free.

And remember, if you are free from your father and mother in the unconscious, you will be capable of communing with your father and mother for the first time, because then there will be no barrier. In fact, you will be able to love them for the first time. You will be able to forgive them for the first time. You will be able to feel compassion for them, how much they have done for you. When you are mature, when you are free of them, when their presence is no more a heavy weight on your heart, you can feel them for the first time. You can be with them in a loving space.

So it is shocking, but it is not irreverent, one thing.

The second thing: they say, "If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill him immediately." And these people who have said these things, they were worshiping Buddha every day in the temple. They may have said it sitting at the feet of the statue of Buddha.

The man who said this was a priest in a temple. He lived in the temple, worshiped in the morning, evening, would bring flowers and incense, and he said one day to his disciples, "If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill him immediately!" One disciple asked, naturally, "What do you mean? And you have been worshiping Buddha." And the man said, "Yes, I have been worshiping him because he has helped me. Even to kill him he has been helpful! It is he who has helped me to kill him. It is he who has helped me to be free of him." The ultimate work of the Master is to make you free of himself.

Zarathustra is leaving his disciples and they ask him, "What is your last message?" And he says, "Beware of Zarathustra." Without any comment he escaped into the forest. "Beware of Zarathustra" -- the last message. Beautiful. Tremendously Zen. "Beware of me; otherwise you may become a slave to me" -- that's what he means.

The same I say to you. Forget about Buddha. because you can kill Buddha very easily. Kill me. That will be far more difficult. With Buddha you have no relationship at all, so you can take it, "Okay, if he comes on the way, we can kill him." But I say to you, kill me when I come on your way. And I will come.

At the last moment, when everything has been cut off, the Master remains, because that is the deepest relationship. You can cut your relationship even with your mother because that is only biological, physical. You can cut your relationship even with your beloved because that is psychological. But to cut your relationship with the Master is the most difficult thing. You will need a really sharp sword, a really, really sharp sword, and you will need great courage, because the disciple-and-Master relationship is a spiritual relationship. It goes deepest in your being. You will start trembling.

When I will stand on your way.... And that is going to be the last barrier: the Master is the passage to God and the last barrier too. You will have to leave the Master also. And these things are of the inward journey, remember again and again. At the last moment when you are disappearing into emptiness, the last hand that you will have to leave will be the Master's hand.

So it is not irreverent. It is with great respect that it has been said.

One thing more. The Zen people are totally different from Christians. You cannot think of a Christian saying to another Christian, "Kill Jesus when he comes on your way. Kill him immediately!'? That will look very sacrilegious because Christians have not yet been able to be nonserious about their religion. Their religion is very serious. Hence it misses much. Zen has the quality of laughter, it can laugh. And Zen has the quality of rebelliousness, nonauthoritativeness. And Zen goes on keeping a balance: surrender to the Master, and yet remain independent. Very difficult, almost impossible. But when you do the impossible, only then does the ultimate happen to you. Surrender to the Master, and yet remain independent. Be sincere in your search, but don't lose your laughter. Become wise, but let foolishness also flower. And Zen people are very, very absurd in that way. They can say things which will shock you.

A Zen Master is weighing flax, and a man comes, a seeker, and he asks, "What is Buddha? What is Buddhahood? What is Buddha-nature?" The Master is weighing the flax, and he says, "Three pounds of flax. That is what Buddha is."

Three pounds of flax! -- and he is talking about Buddha? Looks very sacrilegious.

A Zen Master, on a cold night, burned a Buddha statue, a wooden statue, because he was feeling cold. No Christian can do that. No Hindu can do that. No Mohammedan can do that. Hence they lag behind. In the night he burned the Buddha statue because it was too cold, and in the morning he was worshiping again.

This playfulness, this nonseriousness, is of tremendous value. With me also, remember that: you have to surrender and yet you have to remain independent. In fact, your surrender is needed so that I can make you independent. Paradoxical of course, but this is how one grows.

I have heard one beautiful story -- very shocking, but tremendously beautiful. The story is from Sheldon Kopp:

One Sunday afternoon after church, God and St. Peter went to play golf. God teed up on the first hole, swung his driver mightily, and sliced the ball off into the rough beside the fairway. Just as the ball hit the ground, a rabbit came running out from beneath a bush, picked up God's golf ball in his mouth, and ran with it out onto the fairway. Down from the sky swooped a hawk and pounced on the rabbit. The hawk picked up the rabbit in its claws and flew with it over the green. A hunter spotted the hawk, took aim with his rifle, and shot the bird in midflight. The hawk dropped the rabbit onto the green. The golf ball fell from the rabbit's mouth and rolled into the cup for a hole in one.

St. Peter turned to God with exasperation, saying, "Come on now! Do you want to play golf, or do you want to fuck around?"