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

CHAPTER 4. LIE DOWN AND WITNESSYou are the buddha, but the Buddhist traditional mind will not even accept an umbrella in Buddha’shand. Even while it is raining, the poor fellow has to sit without an umbrella. Who has ever heardof Buddha having an umbrella? But my approach to the buddha is closer to the approach of Zen,not the Ceylonese or the Burmese Buddhism. The Burmese, the Ceylonese and the Tibetans aremore Hinduized. The people who took Buddhism to Burma were traditional orthodox people. And thewoman emperor, Ashoka’s daughter, Sangamitra, who took Buddhism to Ceylon was as orthodox asher father. From its very beginnings Tibetan Buddhism has remained attached to Indian Buddhism.Zen has a speciality; in fact, it should not be called Buddhism. Although it is the very essentialmessage of Buddha, it originated with Mahakashyapa’s laughter. Zen considers Mahakashyapa tobe their founder, not Buddha. Buddha is Mahakashyapa’s master, and that is their business.Zen considers Mahakashyapa to be its originator. And Bodhidharma was a disciple of the linethat followed Mahakashyapa. That line became a little alienated from the orthodox line becausevery individual people, freedom lovers joined Zen – all kinds of eccentrics, geniuses, not mediocrefellows who just go to the temple to read the sutras and say the prayers. That is being done by everyother religion. Their scriptures may be different, their prayers may be different, their temples may bedifferent, but essentially they are all doing the same thing.Zen has broken new ground. Mahakashyapa did the first thing: he laughed. Buddha never laughedin his life. With his laughter starts a new stream of more joy, of more rejoicing, of more dancing, ofmore human beings. And when Bodhidharma took Zen to China, it took another turn. It becamemore eccentric, because Bodhidharma was far more eccentric than Mahakashyapa. He was thestrangest fellow, but always to the point. He looked strange. You could not understand him. He wasnot part of the common crowd.So first, Bodhidharma made it a very special dispensation and then it met with Taoist mystics. Thisis one of the greatest meetings of two religions where there was no conflict. They simply understoodeach other’s silence – not even a debate. They looked into each other’s eyes and knew that theywere both in the same space.So Zen is a by-product of the meeting of Buddhism and Taoism. It has a different character fromboth, it is a crossbreed: something of Tao that is essential, and something of Buddha that is essentialhas created a new phenomenon, Zen. And when it reached China, it took a few centuries to be clearthat it was no longer the orthodox Buddhism and no longer the orthodox Taoism, it was somethingnew. Out of the meeting of those two came a strange flower, and this flower has been carried toJapan, where it blossomed to its ultimate peak.THE MONKS WERE PUZZLED BY THIS REPLY, AND AFTER A SHORT WHILE INQUIREDAGAIN: ”MASTER, WHAT DHARMA DO YOU EXPOUND IN ORDER TO LIBERATE OTHERS?”Surely adequate questions but not in the context of Zen.HYAKUJO RESPONDED, ”THIS POOR MONK HAS NO DHARMA BY WHICH TO LIBERATEOTHERS.” You should have to understand the beauty of these words. THIS POOR MONK... doesnot mean simply that he has no possessions. He is saying, ”I am so poor, that even I am not. Mypoverty is not ordinary poverty. I have lost myself in the cosmos. I am no more.”Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen, with Basho’s Haikus 63 Osho