Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen, with Basho's Haikus - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. THE GREAT PEARLNow, this is something to be understood and it is one of the most debated subject matters forcenturies: if enlightenment is sudden, that means there is no cause to it. It can be sudden only ifit has no causality. If it has any cause, first the cause has to be produced, then enlightenment willfollow.Science believes in causality. You provide all the necessary causes, and this will be the inevitableoutcome. But Zen, in the sense of sudden enlightenment, drops the idea of causality. There isno cause that leads to enlightenment – and Hyakujo is making it clear. If no cause, no causality,leads to enlightenment, the reason is that enlightenment is not an effect; cause and effect are joinedtogether. Enlightenment is not an effect of any cause; it is already there. The effect is in the future.That which is already there, needs no cause. It needs only a turning of your vision. That is nota cause. It needs only a remembrance. That is not a cause. What is already there, in this verymoment, requires no causality. Causality produces something. It is already perfectly present;nothing has to be added. All that is needed is to wake up and see.Seeing is not a causality, you have to understand it. That’s why no method, no device can be said tobe absolutely certain to lead you to enlightenment. All that it can do, is to trigger a certain process inyou so that you start looking inwards. It can produce the looking inwards, but it cannot produce yourenlightenment. If you honestly and urgently look inwards, the buddha is there. Your enlightenmentexplodes in thousands of ways; it has been just waiting for your eyes.All Zen masters have been talking about methods, about devices. The reason is that there is noway to introduce you to your own buddha, your own nature. It is so deep down inside you, it cannotbe made objective. It cannot be said, ”Look, this is your nature. Say hello to it. Get introduced.”Nobody can introduce you to your own nature. Hence, all these devices which are in a way lies, aredesperate efforts of the masters somehow to force you to look inwards. Then everything will happenon its own accord.... A VINAYA MASTER – vinaya is the whole Buddhist scripture – NAMED YUAN ONCE CAMETO HYAKUJO AND ASKED, ”DO YOU MAKE EFFORTS IN YOUR PRACTICE OF THE TAO,MASTER?”HYAKUJO REPLIED, ”YES, I DO. WHEN HUNGRY, I EAT; WHEN TIRED, I SLEEP.”Such a great and beautiful statement contains so much, oceans of meaning.”YES, I DO”, says Hyakujo, ”WHEN HUNGRY, I EAT; WHEN TIRED, I SLEEP.” He is saying, ”I simplygo with nature. I am no more, only nature is: tired, it goes to sleep; hungry, it eats. Neither do Iinterfere nor do I make any effort in the sense ‘effort’ is understood.”Yuan asked a necessary question, ”AND DOES EVERYBODY MAKE THE SAME EFFORTS ASYOU DO, MASTER?”HYAKUJO ANSWERED, ”NOT IN THE SAME WAY. WHEN THEY ARE EATING, THEY THINK OF AHUNDRED KINDS OF NECESSITIES, AND WHEN THEY ARE GOING TO SLEEP THEY PONDEROVER AFFAIRS OF A THOUSAND DIFFERENT KINDS. THAT IS HOW THEY DIFFER FROM ME.”Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen, with Basho’s Haikus 19 Osho