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Zen

The Great Zen  Master Ta Hui

Chapter-23

So very close

 

 

Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen The Great Zen Master Ta Hui

 

 

BELOVED OSHO,

SO VERY CLOSE

JUST BECAUSE IT'S SO VERY CLOSE, YOU CANNOT GET THIS TRUTH OUT OF YOUR OWN EYES. WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR EYES IT STRIKES YOU, AND WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES IT'S NOT LACKING EITHER. WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH YOU SPEAK OF IT, AND WHEN YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH IT APPEARS BY ITSELF. BUT IF YOU TRY TO RECEIVE IT BY STIRRING YOUR MIND, YOU'VE ALREADY MISSED IT BY EIGHTEEN THOUSAND MILES.

It is such a rejoicing to see Ta Hui coming closer and closer to reality, to the truth, and to his awakening. Just a step more and the old Ta Hui will be no longer there; and the new Ta Hui is naturally going to speak the language of all the awakened ones without exception. This sutra is one of the most important that we have come across up to now.

The greatest difficulty with the human mind is that whatever is available from the beginning it tends to forget, it takes it for granted. There is no gap between you and your truth because you are the truth. This is such a tremendous phenomenon, but one goes on missing it for the simple reason that every search leads you away from it, every question misguides you, every answer is going to be wrong.

If truth was separate from you, things would have been very easy. If the truth was far away from you, you would have achieved it long ago; if truth was difficult, almost impossible, it would have challenged your ego. The ego cannot be challenged by something which is already the case: there is no question of any achievement. If truth was somewhere on Everest, then thousands of Edmund Hillarys would have started moving towards Everest. If truth was on the moon, millions would have been attracted.

There is an ancient story... God made the world and in the beginning he used to live in the world, in the marketplace. But his life was becoming a nightmare -- not a single moment of rest. People were standing the whole day and waking him in the night, they had so many complaints, so many things were wrong. They were bringing new suggestions as to how things should be changed, how things should be made -- about each and everything.

The torture became too much, and he enquired of his closest angels, "What has to be done? These people will kill me. Somebody comes and says, `Listen, tomorrow there should be no rain because I am going fishing' -- and just after him a woman comes, `I need absolutely that there should be rain tomorrow because I have sown the seeds today and if rain comes tomorrow they will settle in the soil.' Now, what I am supposed to do? And this is just one instance."

You can conceive the situation of poor God. He was so fed up with man that he never made anything after he had made man. It is not that his creativity was exhausted with man; he could have created many more things, but man was too much! He was repenting -- why had he created man? Without man life was peace, silence, trees, animals and birds. They were all joyous, without any fear of death, without any religions, without any philosophies, without any theologies, without any wars. Things were utterly silent -- but the moment he created man he committed his first and last mistake. So he asked, "Now what to do?"

Somebody suggested, "Go to Everest."

He said, "You don't know... I can see the future. Soon Tensing and Edmund Hillary are going to reach there, and if they find me there then you can be sure roads will be made, airports will be made, buses will be running, trains may be reaching, airplanes will be landing -- and the same trouble will start there."

Somebody said, "Then it is better you move to the moon."

But he said, "You cannot see the future. To me, past, future and present are all simultaneously available. Soon they are going to reach the moon. It is only a question of a little time -- and in the eternity of existence, a few years, a few hundred years, don't mean anything. Give me some idea where they will never reach!"

And an old angel who had been listening all the time whispered in his ear, "Then there is only one place. You start living in man himself; that is the only place he will not bother to look. He will look for you all around the world, to the faraway stars, but he will not look within."

When the first Russian astronaut came back -- he was the first man to reach close to the moon, circulating around it, studying it, bringing photographs from there -- the first question asked to him in Russia was, "Did you see God there?"

And he said, "I didn't see anybody. There is not even water, there is not even a single tree -- there is no possibility of anybody being there. Life cannot exist. The air is so thin -- oxygen is one eighth of what it is on the earth, so I don't see any possibility. God is not there."

This man Yuri Gagarin... they have made a museum in Moscow in memory of Yuri Gagarin, the first man who came close to the moon. On the top of the museum they have written, "We have searched everywhere, we have even looked on the moon, and God is not there!"

Perhaps the old angel was right: "They will look for you everywhere. Just start living in the very innermost core of man himself." And since then God has been at peace.

Of course since then you have not been in peace, because even complaining gives a great relief, and now there is nobody to complain to. In the churches, in the synagogues, in the temples, people are still doing the same nagging device they call prayer. They are still suggesting, "Do it this way! Don't do it that way!"

In the Second World War Germany was praying, "Victory has to be to the Germans," and England was praying, "Victory has to be to the English." But now all these prayers disappear into the empty sky; there is nobody to hear them.

Two generals after the Second World War, one English and one German, were talking in a restaurant in Paris. The German said, "What went wrong? Five years we were continually winning, and then suddenly came the collapse."

The English general smiled and said, "My friend, you don't understand. War is not all... we were praying to God continually. Our armies were praying to God before they started moving, every morning."

The German said, "Do you think we were doing otherwise? We were also praying all the time."

The English general laughed and said, "What was the language in which you were praying?"

The German said, "Obviously it was German."

The English general said, "Now the point is clear. God does not understand German, he understands only English!"

Although he has disappeared within you, you are looking at the sky. It is empty, infinitely empty, and you are praying to God... you will not look even for a single moment within yourself.

The attraction for the faraway is tremendous. It challenges your ego. It will make you the greatest man, the first man who reached the peak of Everest, the first man who walked on the moon, the first man who walked on Mars, and I don't see any point in it. What is the point in it? First or second or third... a man standing on Mars for a few minutes just looks stupid. But people are trying to reach to the stars.

The faraway has a tremendous magnetic force, particularly for the ego, because it gives you the promise of great achievement. The psychology of the ego is contained in the word achievement: achieve something. The truth is already there, within you; you cannot achieve it, you cannot lose it, because it is your very being. That's why millions of people never become interested in it -- what is the point? You can neither lose it nor can you attain it -- it is already there.

Down the ages slowly, slowly it has become taken for granted that there is nothing to be found inside. And it is true: there is nothing to be found. Nothing to be achieved, because your inside has already the whole kingdom of God -- you cannot add anything to it and you cannot take anything away. But your ego is driving you crazy, taking you to all the corners of the world. The ego is not interested in what you already have because that will not be a great achievement.

Ta Hui's sutra is, JUST BECAUSE IT IS SO VERY CLOSE, YOU CANNOT GET THIS TRUTH OUT OF YOUR OWN EYES. Even to say, "It is very close," is not right; it is you. Closeness also means a little distance. When you want to see things you need a certain perspective. If you put your mirror just on your nose you will not see anything; you have to keep it a little away from you, then you can see your face. But the truth is closer than anything. In fact, the word `closer' gives the idea of distance. That's why I say, Ta Hui is just one step away. One step more and he will disappear.

Truth is you.

He has almost reached the end of his pilgrimage: JUST BECAUSE IT IS SO VERY CLOSE YOU CANNOT GET THIS TRUTH OUT OF YOUR OWN EYES. WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR EYES IT STRIKES YOU, AND WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES IT IS NOT LACKING EITHER. When you open your eyes it is really the truth opening its eyes, and when you close your eyes it is the truth that is closing its eyes. One who has realized knows that the seeker himself is the sought. That is the trouble: the pilgrim is himself the goal of the pilgrimage.

There is a Sufi story about al-Hillaj. He was a poor man, but very sincere in his search. Mohammedans think that if you go to their holy place, Kaaba, just once in a lifetime, that's enough for your liberation. So he collected money, sold his house, his land, whatsoever small things he had -- and the village gave him a good send off.

But just outside the village under a tree was sitting a great master, Junnaid. al-Hillaj had no idea who he was, but Junnaid said, "Listen, where are you going?"

al-Hillaj said, "I wanted to ask you which way I should go. I am going to Kaaba." al-Hillaj looked at the man more carefully. He was so radiant -- he was not an ordinary man.

Junnaid said, "Forget all about Kaaba. I am here. Just make seven circles around me, the way you would be doing if you reached Kaaba, and put all your money in front of me. Don't waste it!"

The man was so authoritative that poor al-Hillaj gave him all his money and made the seven circles. Then Junnaid said, "I have found the truth within myself. In Kaaba there is only a stone; I am a living truth! Your pilgrimage is fulfilled, but just one step more...."

al-Hillaj asked, "What is that step?"

He said, "The step is when you start making the circle around yourself. Still, my truth is my truth. You will be blessed, you will feel great, you will have ecstatic moments, but still it is my truth. You should learn to circle yourself."

al-Hillaj said, "That seems to be a very difficult job. How one can circle oneself?"

And Junnaid said, "Just whirl... whirl in the same place seven times, and wherever you are is the truth."

al-Hillaj never left Junnaid. He said, "Now give me a place at your feet. I am feeling so fulfilled and contented, I don't know why; so relaxed, I don't know why. I have never been in such a beautiful space. Just allow me to sit by your feet."

And al-Hillaj proved to be the greatest disciple of Junnaid -- so great that he became a master in his own right. Today the situation is that Junnaid is remembered only because of al-Hillaj; otherwise Junnaid would have been forgotten.

al-Hillaj was crucified because he declared, "Ana'l haq -- I am the truth." That was his crime -- but that is the reality. But no religion wants you to know the reality, because their whole business will go bankrupt. Then who is going to bother about the holy scriptures? Who is going to bother about churches and organizations? Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, Jews -- who is going to bother with them?

If you have found your truth within yourself there is nothing more in this whole existence to find. Truth is functioning through you. When you open your eyes, it is truth opening his eyes. When you close you eyes, it is truth who is closing its eyes.

This is a tremendous meditation. If you can simply understand the device, you don't have to do anything; whatever you are doing is being done by truth. You are walking, it is truth; you are sleeping, it is truth resting; you are speaking, it is truth speaking; you are silent, it is truth that is silent.

This is one of the most simple meditation techniques. Slowly, slowly everything settles by this simple formula, and then there is no need for the technique. When you are cured, you throw away the meditation, you throw away the medicine. Then you live as truth -- alive, radiant, contented, blissful, a song unto yourself. Your whole life becomes a prayer without any words, or better to say a prayerfulness, a grace, a beauty which does not belong to our mundane world, a ray of light coming from the beyond into the darkness of our world.

WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH YOU SPEAK OF IT, AND WHEN YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH IT APPEARS BY ITSELF.

Even the mystics who have chosen to remain silent have been heard, and people have come to them. Their silence was as loud, perhaps louder than their words could have been. Even though they were living in the deserts or in the mountains, people have tracked them down.

Something invisible joins us all into one network, and whenever some point becomes luminous, suddenly the whole network feels the thrill. Those who are more sensitive feel more; those who are less sensitive feel less; those who are intellectuals feel it, but interpret it in such a way that they miss the point. Have you seen a spider's web? Just touch it from any place and the whole web will feel your touch; every fiber in it will be vibrating.

Ta Hui is right: "Even when your mouth is shut, it speaks." Whether you want anybody to hear you or not, people from faraway places will start traveling towards you. Otherwise it would have been almost impossible to find the silent mystics.

The story is told that when Jesus was born, three wise men from the East traveled to Judea to pay their respects to the newborn baby. It is said that, in fact, that's how Jesus got his name: when the first wise man entered into the stable where Jesus was born -- the door was small, it was made for donkeys, not for men -- he struck his head against the door and said, "Jesus!" Mary said to Joseph, "That seems to be a very good name for the boy."

The story is mythological. It says, "A star led the way and guided them" -- otherwise how were they going to find where this small child was? They were old, they had no time to wait, and they had traveled thousands of miles. They were waiting, and a star led the way and stopped exactly over the stable. This is a mythological or perhaps a poetic way of saying it, but it has some truth in it; it is not just a fabrication, a beautiful story.

First, all the three wise men came from the East. Perhaps the West was not able to be so sensitive as to understand Jesus, and that too when he was just a baby. They did not understand him even when he was thirty-three, when they crucified him, and they have not understood him even today! They worship him, but that worship is just a sociality; half the world is Christian, but that is simply politics.

It is significant that all three old men came from the East. My understanding is that the light was not of a star shining ahead of them and leading them to the place. The East has its own explanations, which Christians have never been able to understand. The light was the third eye of these three old wise men -- it is also called "the star" -- and it led them in the right direction.

Stars don't move that way; stars go round and round, they cannot go straight. And stars are far away -- even if it were to stop exactly above the stable you would not be able to figure out where the stable is because that star is so far away that the stable could be anywhere on the earth.

Christians have not been able to explain what this star is. They have taken it literally -- that a real star guided the way -- and they don't understand that stars are very big. Our sun is a mediocre star; it is six thousand times bigger than the earth, but still it is in the mediocre category. In comparison to some starsthis sun is just non-existent. But even this sun cannot lead you. If it comes too close it will burn the whole earth; it has to remain as far away as it is.

Stars are millions of light-years away; certainly it was not a star at all. It is the star that shines in your third eye, between your two eyebrows, and fills your whole being with light;it has a magnetic pull towards a man who is going to became enlightened some day, or who is maybe already enlightened.

The story about Gautam Buddha is the same: A great saint came from the Himalayas. He had not visited the world for fifty years, but his death was approaching and Buddha had been born. No messenger had informed him, nobody knew that this man was going to be a Buddha, but the old man had an absolute certainty. The same star was guiding him too. He rushed fast because he was not certain that he would be able to reach there in time; he might die before reaching. But he reached there and as he was known all over the country as one of the most wise men, the father of Gautam Buddha touched his feet and said, "Why have you taken the trouble? The journey is tedious; you could have simply sent a message and I would have come. What is the reason?

He said, "No, I had to come. I want to see the baby that was born in your house."

The father could not believe it, but the man was so respected he could not even ask him why. He thought that perhaps he wanted to bless the baby -- so the baby was brought and the old man with tears of joy touched the feet of the small baby. The father said, "What are you doing?"

The old man said, "I will not be here when he becomes enlightened; my days are finished. But he will become a great enlightened being, and at least I will have the satisfaction of touching his feet. And at least I am the first man to touch his feet -- millions will touch them, millions will gather around him, but I am the first to recognize him, to see him. You can see only the baby; I can see his inner light, because I can see my own inner light." Once you see your own inner light you start seeing light wherever it exists. Then time and space are no more barriers.

BUT IF YOU TRY TO RECEIVE IT BY STIRRING YOUR MIND, YOU HAVE ALREADY MISSED IT BY EIGHTEEN THOUSAND MILES. The truth that is within you, the truth that you are, cannot be found by your mind. Mind is a very low faculty. The higher can see the lower but the lower cannot see the higher.

Mind's function is to know the objective world, and it is a perfectly good mechanism for that. But it has no way to look within itself, to look beyond itself; it simply has no faculties to perform that act. It is just a mechanical device developed through millions of years of evolution.

Not a single man in the whole of history has been able to say that he has recognized truth through the mind. Those who have recognized it have recognized it when the mind was completely silent, nonfunctioning... no stirring of thoughts, as if the mind was put aside. Mind is not a ladder to your being; it is a wall, not a bridge.

The essential religiousness consists of only one thing; the transcendence of the mind. Immediately all the doors of your innermost being start opening of their own accord, and all the mysteries of life and existence become available to you. Once this truth is recognized, known, you can use the mind -- just as a vehicle trained to express in a fragmentary way. Something can be expressed; although those words are not absolutely correct -- they cannot be, they were not made for it -- they can indicate. At least they can give you a few hints.

There have been two types of saints, sages: one, I have told you -- is the arhatas -- who remain silent; it takes sensitive people to find them. And bodhisattvas -- they make every effort to reach out to the sensitive people. There is no way to say who is doing better; they are simply following their own inner light. Nobody is higher than the other.

The world is so strange: sometimes if truth comes to your door and knocks, his very coming to your door may become a barrier. The reverse is also true: when you go on the search and you knock on the door of truth and everything remains silent... perhaps you may be more receptive to the silent one, to his presence, than to the bodhisattva who runs after you, who tries every effort to approach as many people as possible. But both have helped in their own unique ways.

You have the capacity, you are just not aware of it.

The most costly and most famous diamond in the world is the Kohinoor -- the word `kohinoor' means the light of the world -- which was presented to the British king of that time by a Sikh king of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, just as a friendly gesture. It is still in the crown of the British queen, but it is such a unique piece that it is not used, it is being kept in a museum for people to see.

This Kohinoor has a tremendous story behind it. It was found in the state of Hyderabad, in a small village called Golconda. A poor man had a small field by the side of a small river in Golconda. One day he found this Kohinoor: it was three times bigger than it is now, because so much cutting and polishing has gone on that only one-third has remained, two-thirds have been removed. It was shining in the sand of the river, and he thought it would be good for the children to play with -- so he brought home the Kohinoor and his children were playing with it.

Just by coincidence a wandering sannyasin reached Golconda and asked this poor man for shelter for the night. The poor man was immensely happy: although he was to give him his own food and he himself would have to remain hungry, it is a great blessing that a man who has left everything in the search for truth has knocked on his door.

When the sannyasin had eaten the food and before going to sleep, they started talking. The wandering sannyasin was a source of great information because he was wandering from one corner of the country to the other. He said to the poor man, "Looking at your things, your small hut, your torn clothes, I feel sad. I know places... if you sell your land and your house here, for the same price you can find at least four times more land. Then your life will be richer."

So the man sold everything, but the children carried their toy, the Kohinoor. And on the way some jewelers saw those children carrying such a big diamond that their breath stopped. They could not believe, they had never conceived that such a big diamond could exist.

The jewelers asked him the price, and he said, "There is no question of price -- it is just a toy for my children. You can give whatever you feel like giving and take it." But the children were reluctant, they wouldn't give it up. So finally the poor man said, "We don't have anything else, just that children's toy. Don't disturb them" -- and he moved on.

But by the time he reached to the place the sannyasin had spoken of the prices of things had changed. It was years before that the sannyasin had seen that the prices were very low in that part of the country. So rather than settling there he came back home, and the Nizam of Hyderabad, the king of Hyderabad state, heard about this diamond that those children used to play with. He enquired and was informed that it was the best diamond in the whole world, of the finest quality, of the finest water, without any flaw. You can purchase it at any price and still it will be cheap.

So the king purchased it, gave the man a few thousand gold coins, and the poor man was very happy. The king purchased also his field -- because where the Kohinoor was found, there must be other diamonds in that part of the field. This field became Golconda, one of the greatest mines for diamonds, and the field of that poor man and that small river have produced almost all the famous diamonds of the world -- and in thousands. And the poor man's family had possessed that land for centuries, generation after generation, but was not aware of its treasures.

You also have had the Kohinoor from the very beginning of eternity. But you are not a jeweler -- you cannot appraise what you are carrying within yourself. A Gautam Buddha is nothing but a jeweler who can see immediately that you are carrying a tremendously valuable Kohinoor inside you. If you start searching for it through the mind you will miss it. It can be found only when mind is completely silenced.

That's what meditation is all about. Silence the mind: whatever method you follow is immaterial. Silence the mind, and you are in for a great surprise -- perhaps the greatest surprise, because there is nothing greater than that. You will find your truth, you will find your home, you will find your eternity. You will find everything that you have been dreaming of, desiring, and feeling frustrated and miserable about, because that which you were asking was within you and you were looking everywhere else.

Ta Hui is right: BUT IF YOU TRY TO RECEIVE IT BY STIRRING YOUR MIND, YOU HAVE ALREADY MISSED IT BY EIGHTEEN THOUSAND MILES. Just a small stirring of the mind and you are far away from yourself; no stirring of the mind and you are exactly where you need to be.

Just become aware of your tremendous treasure.

Religion is not to make you poor, religion is to make you the richest man in the world. But your riches will not be of the mundane; they will be of the sacred, they will be of the divine. Blessed are those who are capable of knowing themselves, because without this, life remains a hell, and there is no way out.

Jean-Paul Sartre has written a very beautiful small book, which is a description of hell. The name of the book is NO EXIT. There they do not have the old type of tortures, hellfire, etcetera; all comforts, air-conditioning, everything that they need is available. The only problem is there is no exit.

So they are stuck in an air-conditioned place, with all kinds of strangers, with nowhere to go, nothing to do; everything is supplied without even asking. You just desire and you get it -- this used to be the description of heaven! There you just desire and you have it, but there is no exit.

It is an air-conditioned nightmare! You cannot go out; everybody is sitting on a beautiful sofa -- but just sitting there. People are getting fed up with each other for no reason... just continuously in the public eye, no privacy, and the problem continuously arises, "Now what is going to happen? -- because we cannot get out..."

What he has described is an air-conditioned nightmare because there is no exit... without knowing it exactly, he is describing your mind. You are also enclosed in your mind with all kinds of dreams, imaginations, projections, ideologies -- but no way to get out.

Meditation is not a way to get out of the mind. Meditation says, "Just watch the mind and you are out. In fact, you have always been out." Your being inside the mind is your fallacious idea. Once you stop the mind functioning, suddenly the fallacious idea will disappear and you will find you are out in the open. Then the whole sky is available to you -- your freedom, your eternal life, this vast beautiful existence is always available to you, to shower you with all kinds of blessings.

Just a small trick... it is not really even a technique, just a trick. You are not in the mind, but you have been thinking that you are in the mind -- that is your trouble.

You must remember some nightmare: that will explain to you how this situation continues. In a nightmare, you want to open your eyes and you cannot; you want to move your hands and you cannot. No exit! -- and the nightmare becomes so intense... perhaps a lion is standing on your chest or you have been thrown from a mountain into abysmal darkness and you can't even see the bottom of it.... When it comes to its absolute intensity, the very intensity wakes you up.

You cannot manage to wake yourself up if the nightmare is of a mild quality; you cannot come out of it. But if it is very intense then that very intensity wakes you up, and suddenly there is no nightmare. You have never been under the paws of a lion and you were not being thrown from any mountain; you were not being crushed by a bulldozer -- nothing was happening. It was only a dream, but you were thinking you were in it. You were not in it; even when it was happening you were out of it. It was only a film going on in front of you. You were out of it.

Three-dimensional films did not succeed in the market. Perhaps only one or two films were made, because the working and making of them was too costly, too arduous, and they did not succeed. Some day a better technology is bound to bring them back... but I saw the first, and I was amazed about one thing. Because the film is three-dimensional, people are just as people are: a man comes running on his horse and the whole movie house gives way. The people in this half of the movie hall rush to that side, the other half rush to the other side -- because the horse is inside the movie hall. Being three-dimensional, it looks exactly like a horse.

A man throws a certain weapon and everybody hides his head, because that weapon looks as if it will come out of the screen. Everybody knows that it is a movie, and everybody laughs afterwards when he has done his act, knowing well that, "It is a movie and we are outside of it, nothing can come out of the movie screen." It may be only three-dimensional... but the moment the horse comes running so fast, you forget all about the movie, and the first question is to save your own life.

You are out of it: the mind is only your belief that you are in it. This belief has to be broken -- and the way to break this belief, I have been telling you, is very simple. Just watch -- and just by watching suddenly you are out of it, because the watcher cannot be inside; he has to stand outside and look at the whole thing.

And the moment you are identified with the watcher -- which is your real identity -- the mind loses all its grip on you. Mind no more stirring, you have arrived to the truth.

This small sutra is very significant. Perhaps it may be that Ta Hui spoke it when he realized -- not through his intellectual acumen but through his meditation -- the existential truth. This may be the turning point from the intellectual into an enlightened being.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

 

 

Next: Chapter 24, The inescapable

 

Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen The Great Zen Master Ta Hui

 

 

 
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