10 Bulls of Zen

1. THE SEARCH FOR THE BULL

IN THE PASTURE OF THIS WORLD,

I ENDLESSLY PUSH ASIDE THE TALL GRASSES IN SEARCH OF THE BULL.

FOLLOWING UNNAMED RIVERS,

LOST UPON THE INTERPENETRATING PATHS OF DISTANT MOUNTAINS,

MY STRENGTH FAILING AND MY VITALITY EXHAUSTED, I CANNOT FIND THE BULL.

I ONLY HEAR THE LOCUSTS CHIRRING THROUGH THE FOREST AT NIGHT.

 

COMMENT:

THE BULL HAS NEVER BEEN LOST. WHAT NEED IS THERE TO SEARCH? ONLY BECAUSE OF SEPARATION FROM MY TRUE NATURE, I FAIL TO FIND HIM. IN THE CONFUSION OF THE SENSES I LOSE EVEN HIS TRACKS. FAR FROM HOME, I SEE MANY CROSSROADS, BUT WHICH WAY IS THE RIGHT ONE, I KNOW NOT. GREED AND FEAR, GOOD AND BAD, ENTANGLE ME.

 

2. DISCOVERING THE FOOTPRINTS

ALONG THE RIVER BANK UNDER THE TREES,

I DISCOVER FOOTPRINTS!

EVEN UNDER THE FRAGRANT GRASS I SEE HIS PRINTS.

DEEP IN REMOTE MOUNTAINS THEY ARE FOUND.

THESE TRACES NO MORE CAN BE HIDDEN THAN ONE’S NOSE LOOKING HEAVENWARD.

 

COMMENT:

UNDERSTANDING THE TEACHING, I SEE THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE BULL. THEN I LEARN THAT, JUST AS MANY UTENSILS ARE MADE FROM ONE METAL, SO TOO ARE MYRIAD ENTITIES MADE OF THE FABRIC OF SELF. UNLESS I DISCRIMINATE, HOW WILL I PERCEIVE THE TRUE FROM THE UNTRUE? NOT YET HAVING ENTERED THE GATE, NEVERTHELESS I HAVE DISCERNED THE PATH.

3. PERCEIVING THE BULL

I HEAR THE SONG OF THE NIGHTINGALE.

THE SUN IS WARM, THE WIND IS MILD, WILLOWS ARE GREEN ALONG THE SHORE.

HERE NO BULL CAN HIDE!

WHAT ARTIST CAN DRAW THAT MASSIVE HEAD, THOSE MAJESTIC HORNS?

 

COMMENT:

WHEN ONE HEARS THE VOICE, ONE CAN SENSE ITS SOURCE. AS SOON AS THE SIX SENSES MERGE, THE GATE IS ENTERED. WHEREVER ONE ENTERS ONE SEES THE HEAD OF THE BULL! THIS UNITY IS LIKE SALT IN WATER, LIKE COLOR IN DYESTUFF. THE SLIGHTEST THING IS NOT APART FROM SELF.

 

4. CATCHING THE BULL

I SEIZE HIM WITH A TERRIFIC STRUGGLE.

HIS GREAT WILL AND POWER ARE INEXHAUSTIBLE.

HE CHARGES TO THE HIGH PLATEAU FAR ABOVE THE CLOUD-MISTS,

OR IN AN IMPENETRABLE RAVINE HE STANDS.

 

COMMENT:

HE DWELT IN THE FOREST A LONG TIME, BUT I CAUGHT HIM TODAY! INFATUATION FOR SCENERY INTERFERES WITH HIS DIRECTION. LONGING FOR SWEETER GRASS, HE WANDERS AWAY. HIS MIND STILL IS STUBBORN AND UNBRIDLED. IF I WISH HIM TO SUBMIT, I MUST RAISE MY WHIP.

 

5.  TAMING THE BULL

THE  WHIP AND ROPE ARE NECESSARY,

ELSE HE MIGHT STRAY OFF DOWN SOME DUSTY ROAD.

BEING WELL TRAINED, HE BECOMES NATURALLY GENTLE.

THEN, UNFETTERED, HE OBEYS HIS MASTER.

 

COMMENT:

WHEN ONE THOUGHT ARISES, ANOTHER THOUGHT FOLLOWS. WHEN THE FIRST THOUGHT SPRINGS FROM ENLIGHTENMENT, ALL SUBSEQUENT THOUGHTS ARE TRUE. THROUGH DELUSION, ONE MAKES EVERYTHING UNTRUE. DELUSION IS NOT CAUSED BY OBJECTIVITY; IT IS THE RESULT OF SUBJECTIVITY. HOLD THE NOSE RING TIGHT AND DO NOT ALLOW EVEN A DOUBT.

 

6.  RIDING THE BULL HOME

MOUNTING THE BULL, SLOWLY I RETURN HOMEWARD.

THE VOICE OF MY FLUTE INTONES THROUGH THE EVENING.

MEASURING WITH HAND-BEATS THE PULSATING HARMONY, I DIRECT THE ENDLESS RHYTHM.

WHOEVER HEARS THIS MELODY WILL JOIN ME.

 

COMMENT:

THIS STRUGGLE IS OVER; GAIN AND LOSS ARE ASSIMILATED. I SING THE SONG OF THE VILLAGE WOODSMAN, AND PLAY THE TUNES OF THE CHILDREN. ASTRIDE THE BULL, I OBSERVE THE CLOUDS ABOVE. ONWARD I GO, NO MATTER WHO MAY WISH TO CALL ME BACK.

 

7.  THE BULL TRANSCENDED

ASTRIDE THE BULL, I REACH HOME.

I AM SERENE. THE BULL TOO CAN REST.

THE DAWN HAS COME. IN BLISSFUL REPOSE,

WITHIN MY THATCHED DWELLING I HAVE ABANDONED THE WHIP AND ROPE

 

COMMENT:

ALL IS ONE LAW, NOT TWO. WE ONLY MAKE THE BULL A TEMPORARY SUBJECT. IT IS AS THE RELATION OF RABBIT AND TRAP, OF FISH AND NET. IT IS AS GOLD AND DROSS, OR THE MOON EMERGING FROM A CLOUD. ONE PATH OF CLEAR LIGHT TRAVELS ON THROUGHOUT ENDLESS TIME.

 

8.  BOTH BULL AND SELF TRANSCENDED

WHIP, ROPE, PERSON, AND BULL — ALL MERGE IN NO-THING.

THIS HEAVEN IS SO VAST NO MESSAGE CAN STAIN IT.

HOW MAY A SNOWFLAKE EXIST IN A RAGING FIRE?

HERE ARE THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE PATRIARCHS.

 

COMMENT:

MEDIOCRITY IS GONE.

MIND IS CLEAR OF LIMITATION. I SEEK NO STATE OF ENLIGHTENMENT. NEITHER DO I REMAIN WHERE NO ENLIGHTENMENT EXISTS. SINCE I LINGER IN NEITHER CONDITION, EYES CANNOT SEE ME. IF HUNDREDS OF BIRDS STREW MY PATH WITH FLOWERS, SUCH PRAISE WOULD BE MEANINGLESS.

 

9. REACHING THE SOURCE

TOO MANY STEPS HAVE BEEN TAKEN RETURNING TO THE ROOT AND THE SOURCE. BETTER TO HAVE BEEN BLIND AND DEAF FROM THE BEGINNING!

DWELLING IN ONE’S TRUE ABODE, UNCONCERNED WITH THAT WITHOUT — THE RIVER FLOWS TRANQUILLY ON AND THE FLOWERS ARE RED.

 

COMMENT:

FROM THE BEGINNING, TRUTH IS CLEAR. POISED IN SILENCE, I OBSERVE THE FORMS OF INTEGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION. ONE WHO IS NOT ATTACHED TO FORM NEED NOT BE REFORMED. THE WATER IS EMERALD, THE MOUNTAIN IS INDIGO, AND I SEE THAT WHICH IS CREATING AND THAT WHICH IS DESTROYING.

 

10. IN THE WORLD

BAREFOOTED AND NAKED OF BREAST,

I MINGLE WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD.

MY CLOTHES ARE RAGGED AND DUST-LADEN AND I AM EVER BLISSFUL.

I USE NO MAGIC TO EXTEND MY LIFE;

NOW, BEFORE ME, THE TREES BECOME ALIVE.

 

COMMENT:

INSIDE MY GATE, A THOUSAND SAGES DO NOT KNOW ME. THE BEAUTY OF MY GARDEN IS INVISIBLE. WHY SHOULD ONE SEARCH FOR THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE PATRIARCHS? I GO TO THE MARKETPLACE WITH MY BOTTLE AND RETURN HOME WITH MY STAFF. I VISIT THE WINE SHOP AND THE MARKET, AND EVERYONE I LOOK UPON BECOMES ENLIGHTENED.

The Enlightenment of Chikanzenji

One day Chikanzenji was mowing down the weeds around a ruined temple. When he threw away a bit of broken tile it clattered against a bamboo tree. All of a sudden he was enlightened. Whereat he sang:

Upon the clatter of a broken tile 
All I had learned was at once forgotten. 
Amending my nature is needless. 
Pursuing the task of everyday life 
I walk along the ancient path. 
I am not disheartened in the mindless void. 
Wheresoever I go I leave no footprint 
For I am not within color or sound. 
Enlightened ones everywhere have said: 
“Such as this is the attainment.”

This poor monk, Chikanzenji, had been working for at least thirty years. He was a hard seeker; he was a very, very honest and sincere and serious seeker. He practiced all that was told to him, he visited many masters, he lived in many monasteries. He did all that was humanly possible. He practiced yoga, he practiced zazen, he did this and that — but all to no avail. Nothing was happening; in fact, his frustration was growing more and more. The more the methods failed, the more and more frustrated he became.

He had read all the Buddhist scriptures — there are thousands of them. It is said about this Chikanzenji that he had all these scriptures in his room, and he was constantly reading, day and night. And his memory was so perfect he could recite whole scriptures — but still nothing happened.

Then one day he burned his whole library. Seeing those scriptures in the fire he laughed. He left the monastery, he left his guru, and he went to live in a ruined temple. He forgot all about meditation, he forgot all about yoga, he forgot all about practicing this and that. He forgot all about virtue, sheela; he forgot all about discipline, and he never went inside the temple to worship the Buddha.

But he was living in that ruined temple when it happened. He was mowing down the weeds around the temple — not a very religious thing to do. Not anything specific, not anything special, just taking the weeds out. When he threw away a bit of broken tile, it clattered against a bamboo tree — in that moment, chittakshana, the moment of awareness, happened. In that very clattering of the tile against the bamboo, a shock, a jerk happened and his mind stopped for a moment. In that very moment he became enlightened.

How can one become enlightened in one single moment? One can, because one is enlightened — one just has to recognize the fact. It is not something that happens from the outside, it is something that arises from the inside. It has always been there but you were clouded, you were full of thoughts.

Chikanzenji burned all the scriptures. That was symbolic. Now he no longer remembered anything. Now he had forgotten all search. Now he no longer cared. Unconcerned, he lived a very ordinary life — he was no longer even a monk. He had no pretensions anymore, he had no ego goals any more. Remember, there are two kinds of ego goals: the worldly and the otherworldly. Some people are searching for money; some people are searching for power, prestige, pull. Some people are searching for God, moksha, nirvana, enlightenment — but the search continues. And who is searching? The same ego.

The moment you drop the search, you drop the ego also. The moment there is no seeking, the seeker cannot exist.

Just visualize this poor monk — who was no longer a monk — living in a ruined temple. He had nowhere else to go, he was just clearing the ground — maybe to put some seeds there for vegetables or something. He came across a tile, threw it away, and was taken unawares. The tile clattered against the bamboo tree and with the sudden clattering, the sudden sound, he becomes enlightened.

And he said: Upon the clatter of a broken tile / All I had learned was at once forgotten.

Enlightenment is a process of unlearning. It is utter ignorance. But that ignorance is very luminous and your knowledge is very dull. That ignorance is very alive and luminous, and your knowledge is very dark and dead.

He says, All I had learned was at once forgotten. In that moment he knew nothing. In that moment there was no knower, in that moment there was no observer — just the sound. And one is awakened from a long sleep.

And he says, Amending my nature is needless. That day he felt that he was just struggling unnecessarily. Amending my nature is needless. You need not amend yourself, you need not improve yourself — that is all just tommyrot! Beware of all those who go on telling you to improve yourself, to become this or to become that, to become virtuous. Who go on telling you that this is wrong, don’t do it; that this is good, do it; that this will lead you to heaven and this will lead you to hell. Those who go on telling you to amend your nature and improve upon yourself are very dangerous people. They are one of the basic causes for your not being enlightened.

Nature cannot be amended; it has to be accepted. There is no way to be otherwise. Whosoever you are, whatsoever you are, that’s how you are — that’s what you are. It is a great acceptance. Buddha calls it tathata, a great acceptance.

Nothing is there to be changed — how can you change it, and who is going to change it? It is your nature and you will try to change it? It would be just like a dog chasing its own tail. The dog would go crazy. But dogs are not as foolish as man. Man goes on chasing his own tail, and the more difficult he finds it the more he jumps and the more he tries and the more and more bizarre he becomes.

Nothing has to be changed, because all is beautiful — that is enlightenment. All is as it should be, everything is perfect. This is the most perfect world, this moment lacks nothing — the experience of this is what enlightenment is.

Gautam Buddha and the Blowing Out of a Candle

Gautam Buddha was the most cultured and the most educated, the most sophisticated person ever to become a mystic. There is no comparison in the whole of history. He could see where the innocent mystics had unknowingly given chances for cunning minds to take advantage. He decided not to use any positive term for the ultimate goal, to destroy your ego and any possibility of your ego taking any advantage.
He called the ultimate, nothingness, emptiness, shunyata, zero. Now, how can the ego make zero the goal? God can be made the goal, but not zero.

Who wants to become zero? — that is the fear. Everybody is avoiding all possibilities of becoming zero, and Buddha made it an expression for the ultimate.
His word is nirvana.

He chose a tremendously beautiful word, but he shocked all the thinkers and philosophers by choosing the word `nirvana’ as the most significant expression for the ultimate experience.
Nirvana means blowing out the candle.

The other mystics have said that you are filled with enormous light, as if thousands of suns together have suddenly risen inside you, as if the whole sky full of stars has descended within your heart.
These ideas appeal to the ego. The ego would like to have all the stars, if not inside the chest then at least hanging on the coat outside the chest. “Enormous light”… the ego is very willing.
To cut the very roots, Buddha says the experience is as if you were to blow out a candle. There was a small flame on the candle giving a small light — even that is gone, and you are surrounded with absolute darkness, abysmal darkness.

People used to come to ask him, “If you go on teaching such things, nobody is going to follow you. Who wants darkness, enormous darkness? You are crazy. You say that the ultimate experience is ultimate death. People want eternal life, and you are talking about ultimate death.”

But he was a very consistent man, and you can see that for forty-two years he hammered on the genius of the East without ever compromising with the ego. He also knows that what he is calling darkness is too much light; that’s why it looks like darkness. If one thousand suns rise in you, what do you think? — that you will feel enormous light? You will feel immense darkness, it will be too dazzling. Just look at one sun for a few seconds — and you will feel your eyes are going blind. If one thousand suns are within you, inside the mind, the experience will be of darkness, not of light.

It will take a long time for you to get accustomed, for your eyes to become strong enough to see — slowly slowly — darkness turning into light, death turning into life, emptiness turning into fullness.
But he never talked about those things. He never said that darkness would ever turn into light. And he never said that death would become a resurrection at some later point, because he knows how cunning your ego is. If that is said, the ego will say, “Then there is no problem. Our aim remains the same; it is just that we will have to pass through a little dark night of the soul. But finally, we will have enormous light, thousands of suns.”

Gautam Buddha had to deny that God existed — not that he was against God, a man like Gautam Buddha cannot be against God. And if Gautam Buddha is against God, then it is of no use for anybody to be in favor of God. His decision is decisive for the whole of humanity, he represents our very soul. But he was not against God. He was against your ego, and he was constantly careful not to give your ego any support to remain. If God can become a support, then there is no God.

One thing becomes very clear: although he used, for the first time, all negative terms, yet the man must have had tremendous charismatic qualities. He influenced millions of people. His philosophy is such that anyone listening to him would freak out. What is the point of all the meditations and all the austerities, renouncing the world, eating one time a day… and ultimately you achieve nothingness, you become zero! We are already better — we may be miserable zeros, but we are at least. Certainly, when you are completely a zero there cannot be any misery; zeros are not known to be miserable — but what is the gain?

But he convinced people — not through his philosophy, but through his individuality, through his presence. He gave people the experience itself, so that they could understand: it is emptiness as far as the world is concerned, it is emptiness for the ego. And it is fullness for the being.

There are many reasons for the disappearance of Buddha’s thought from India, but this is one of the most significant. All other Indian mystics, philosophers, and seers have used positive terms. And for centuries before Buddha, the whole of India was accustomed to thinking only in the positive; the negative was something unheard of. Under the influence of Gautam Buddha they followed him, but when he died his following started disappearing — because the following was not intellectually convinced; it was convinced because of his presence.

Because of the eyes of Gautam Buddha they could see: “This man — if he is living in nothingness then there is no fear, we would love to be nothing. If this is where zeroness leads, if by being nothing such lotuses bloom in the eyes and such grace flows, then we are ready to go with this man. The man has a magic.”
But his philosophy alone will not convince you, because it has no appeal for the ego.

And Buddhism survived in China, in Ceylon, in Burma, in Japan, in Korea, in Indochina, in Indonesia — in the whole of Asia except India — because the Buddhists who reached there dropped negative terms. They started speaking in positive terms. Then the ultimate, the absolute, the perfect — the old terms returned. This was the compromise. So as far as I am concerned, Buddhism died with Gautam Buddha.
Whatever exists now as Buddhism has nothing to do with Buddha because it has dropped his basic contribution, and that was his negative approach.

I am aware of both traditions. I am certainly in a better position than Gautam Buddha was. Gautam Buddha was aware of only one thing — that the ego can use the positive. And it is his great contribution, his courageous contribution, that he dropped the positive and insisted on the negative, emphasized the negative — knowing perfectly well that people were not going to follow this because it had no appeal for the ego.

To me, now both traditions are available. I know what happened to the positive — the ego exploited it. I know what happened to the negative. After the death of Gautam Buddha, the disciples had to compromise, compromise with the same thing which Gautam Buddha was revolting against.

So I am trying to explain to you both approaches together — emptiness as far as the world is concerned and fullness, wholeness as far as the inner experience is concerned. And this is a total approach, it takes note of both: that which has to be left behind, and that which is to be gained.
I call my approach the only holy approach.

All other approaches up to now have been half-half. Mahavira, Shankara, Moses, Mohammed, all used the positive. Gautam Buddha used the negative. I use both, and I don’t see any contradiction.
If you understand me clearly, then you can enjoy the beauty of both viewpoints, and you need not be exploited by your ego or be afraid of death and darkness and nothingness.

Maitri, they are not two things. It is almost as if I were to put a glass of water in front of you, half full and half empty, and ask you whether the glass is empty or full. Either answer would be wrong, because the glass is both half full and half empty. From one side it is empty, from another side it is full.

Half of your life is part of the mundane world, the other half is part of the sacred. And it is unfortunate, but there is no other way — we have to use the same language for both the mundane and the sacred. So one has to be very alert. To choose the mundane will be missing; if you think of the mundane, you will find the sacred life empty. If you think of the sacred, you will find it overflowingly full.

~ Osho

The Truth About Imagination

The Truth About Imagination…

Imagination can take you way away from the truth. And this is always the case for hardcore spiritual seekers. They imagine the truth, and never attain. Again and again ( life after life ), they end up making the same mistake…imagining something that cannot be imagined.

Imagination is of the mind, its a mind game. You can imagine anything, but the truth has to be known. Imagination becomes a great barrier. But all seekers have to go thru it, it’s a learning process. Any idea whatsoever has to be dropped, only then the cup is empty…only then the universe can pour into ‘you’. Then ‘you’ will not be ‘you’ anymore…

Shiva beautifully gives one technique…” imagine the biggest you can, and keep imagining until you can’t imagine anymore “ …as this happens, the mind slowly tires and it drops. Only then, there is possibility…possibility of knowing the unknown which is known but made unknown. The more of the mind, the less of you. Mind is not an enemy, it’s a tool, treat it such, but transcendence is required. In today’s society, the mind is very complex. Hence, based on the personality of the person, techniques are prescribed by awakened ones.

For seekers, remember, until one is empty of all dogma, one cannot attain. The mind is cunning, a very cunning mechanism…don’t bother. Just be an observer, be silent…and taste truth. Truth Rocks !

A man of wisdom and a man of knowledge

This is the difference between a man of wisdom and a man of knowledge. A man of knowledge has ready-made answers: you ask and the answer is already there. You are irrelevant, your question is irrelevant. Before the question, the answer exists; your question simply triggers the memory.

If you go to a man of wisdom he has no answers for you; he has nothing ready-made. He is open, he is silent. He’ll respond but first your question will resound in his being, not in his memory. Through his being the response comes; nobody can predict that response. If you go the next day and ask the same question, the response will not be the same.

Once it happened that a man tried to judge the Buddha. Every year he would go and ask the same question. He thought, “If he really knows then the answer will be always the same. How can you change the answer? If I come and ask, `Is there God?’- if he knows he will say yes or he will say no, and next year, I will come again and ask.”

So for many years the man came and he became more and more puzzled. Sometimes Buddha would say yes, sometimes no, sometimes he would remain silent, and sometimes he would simply smile and not answer anything.

The man became puzzled and said, “What is this? If you know, then you must be certain, your answer fixed. But you go on changing. Once you said yes then you said no. Have you forgotten that I asked this question before? Once you even remained silent and now you are smiling. That is why I have been coming with the gap of a year —  just to see if you know or not.”

Buddha said, “When you came for the first time and asked, `Is there God,’ I answered. But my answer was not to the question, it was to you. You have changed, now the same answer cannot be given. Not only have you changed, I also have changed. The Ganges has flowed much; the same answer cannot be given. I am not a scripture to be opened and the same answer found there.”

A buddha is a living river, and a river is ever-flowing. In the morning it is different —  it reflects the gold of the rising sun. The mood is different. In the evening it is different, and when the night comes and the stars are reflected in it, it is different. In the summer it shrinks; it floods during the rains. A river is not a painting, it is a live force.

A painting remains the same whether it is raining or it is summer. A painted river will not be flooded in the rains; it is dead; otherwise there would be change. There is only one thing that goes on continuously and that is revolution. Everything else is impermanent except revolution. It goes on and on.

~ Osho