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

CHAPTER 3. IN SEARCH OF A LOST TREASUREIf we can perceive something, it means that when something will be removed, we will perceivenothing.The question continues: ”BUT HOW CAN THERE BE PERCEPTION WHEN WE ARECONFRONTED BY NOTHING AT ALL?”HYAKUJO ANSWERED BY SAYING: ”WE ARE NOT TALKING OF THAT PERCEPTION WHICH ISINDEPENDENT OF THERE BEING AN OBJECT OR NOT. HOW CAN that BE?””THE TRUE NATURE OF PERCEPTION BEING ETERNAL, WE GO ON PERCEIVING, WHETHEROBJECTS ARE PRESENT OR NOT.”A mirror can exist without reflecting. Just take that case, that a mirror can exist without any reflection.A consciousness can exist without any perception. There is no need, no necessity. The mirror andits mirror quality is not dependent on anything and its reflection. For example, the lake can go onexisting whether the moon comes or not. If it comes, it will be reflected; if it does not come, whocares? The lake is perfectly satisfied unto itself, so is the case of the inner lake of consciousness.”THEREBY WE COME TO UNDERSTAND THAT, WHEREAS objects NATURALLY APPEAR ANDDISAPPEAR, THE NATURE OF PERCEPTION DOES neither OF THOSE THINGS.”The mirror remains; things come and go. Consciousness remains, awareness remains, witnessingremains; things come and go. Life comes, death comes, your mirror-like witnessing remainseternally. It is the only thing in the whole of existence which never changes.Basho wrote:AUTUMN EVE – PLEASETURN TO ME.I, TOO, AM A STRANGER.Basho’s haikus have no parallel. All Zen masters have written haikus, but Basho seems to havemelted and merged into nature more deeply than anybody else.”Autumn eve – please turn to me. I, too, am a stranger.” Just as you are, he is saying, ”Here in thisworld we are all strangers.”We ordinarily forget the matter, we start taking everybody for granted. Have you ever thought aboutit? These ten thousand buddhas are all strangers. We make efforts to forget that everybody is astranger – we make marriages, friendships, we try to introduce each other – just to forget the feelingthat everybody is a stranger. It will make us very much frightened, that we are surrounded withstrangers. All our families, all our clubs, all our religions, all our nations are only an opportunity tohide the fact that we are all strangers.Zen is an effort to make you fully aware of your strangeness. This will give you freedom from thecrowd. This will give you a sense of being yourself, a deep intensity of consciousness that you aresurrounded in a strange world where everybody is a stranger.Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen, with Basho’s Haikus 44 Osho