The Great Zen Master Ta Hui, Chapter 3: Power

BELOVED OSHO,

DO NOT GRASP ANOTHER'S BOW

NOW IF YOU WANT TO SAVE MENTAL POWER, DO NOT BE CONCERNED WITH WHETHER OR NOT A THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD CAN SAY IT, OR WHETHER OR NOT AN EIGHTY-YEAR-OLD-MAN CAN CARRY IT OUT. JUST DON'T DO ANY EVIL AND YOU HAVE MASTERED THESE WORDS. THEY APPLY WHETHER YOU BELIEVE OR NOT, SO PLEASE THINK IT OVER.

IF WORLDLY PEOPLE WHOSE PRESENT CONDUCT IS WITHOUT ILLUMINATION WOULD CORRECT THEMSELVES AND DO GOOD, THOUGH THE GOODNESS IS NOT YET PERFECT, ISN'T THIS BETTER THAN DEPRAVITY AND SHAMELESSNESS? ONE WHO DOES EVIL ON THE PRETEXT OF DOING GOOD IS CALLED IN THE TEACHINGS ONE WHOSE CAUSAL GROUND IS NOT GENUINE, BRINGING ON CROOKED RESULTS. IF, WITH A STRAIGHTFORWARD MIND AND STRAIGHTFORWARD CONDUCT, YOU ARE ABLE TO SEIZE SUPREME ENLIGHTENMENT DIRECTLY, THIS CAN BE CALLED THE ACT OF A REAL MAN OF POWER. THE CONCERNS THAT HAVE COME DOWN FROM NUMBERLESS AGES ARE ONLY IN THE PRESENT: IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THEM RIGHT NOW, THEN THE CONCERNS OF NUMBERLESS AGES WILL INSTANTLY DISPERSE, LIKE TILES BEING SCATTERED OR ICE MELTING. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND RIGHT NOW, YOU'LL PASS THROUGH COUNTLESS EONS MORE, AND IT'LL STILL BE JUST AS IT IS. THE TRUTH THAT IS AS IT IS HAS BEEN CONTINUOUS SINCE ANTIQUITY WITHOUT EVER HAVING VARIED SO MUCH AS A HAIRSBREADTH.

MATTERS OF WORLDLY ANXIETY ARE LIKE THE LINKS OF A CHAIN, JOINING TOGETHER CONTINUOUSLY WITHOUT A BREAK. IF YOU CAN DO AWAY WITH THEM, DO AWAY WITH THEM IMMEDIATELY! BECAUSE YOU HAVE BECOME HABITUATED TO THEM SINCE BEGINNINGLESS TIME, TO THE POINT WHERE THEY HAVE BECOME TOTALLY FAMILIAR, IF YOU DON'T EXERT YOURSELF TO STRUGGLE WITH THEM, THEN AS TIME GOES ON AND ON, WITH YOU UNKNOWING AND UNAWARES, THEY WILL HAVE ENTERED DEEPLY INTO YOU. FINALLY, ON THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. IF YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO AVOID GOING WRONG WHEN YOU FACE THE END OF YOUR LIFE, THEN FROM NOW ON WHENEVER YOU DO ANYTHING, DON'T LET YOURSELF SLIP. IF YOU GO WRONG IN YOUR PRESENT DOINGS, IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO GO WRONG WHEN YOU'RE FACING DEATH.

THERE'S A SORT OF PERSON WHO READS SCRIPTURES, RECITES THE BUDDHA-NAME AND REPENTS IN THE MORNING, BUT THEN IN THE EVENING RUNS OFF AT THE MOUTH, SLANDERING AND VILIFYING OTHER PEOPLE. THE NEXT DAY HE DOES HOMAGE TO BUDDHA AND REPENTS AS BEFORE. ALL THROUGH THE YEARS TILL THE END OF HIS LIFE HE TAKES THIS AS DAILY RITUAL -- THIS IS EXTREME FOLLY. SUCH PEOPLE ARE FAR FROM REALIZING THAT THE SANSKRIT WORD `KSHAMA' MEANS TO REPENT FAULTS. THIS IS CALLED "CUTTING OFF THE CONTINUING MIND." ONCE YOU HAVE CUT IT OFF, NEVER CONTINUE IT AGAIN; ONCE YOU HAVE REPENTED, DO NOT COMMIT [WRONGDOINGS] AGAIN -- THIS IS THE MEANING OF REPENTANCE ACCORDING TO OUR BUDDHA WHICH GOOD PEOPLE WHO STUDY THE PATH SHOULD NOT FAIL TO KNOW.

THE MIND, DISCRIMINATING INTELLECT, AND CONSCIOUSNESS OF STUDENTS OF THE PATH SHOULD BE QUIET AND STILL TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY. WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO, YOU SHOULD SIT QUIETLY AND KEEP THE MIND FROM SLACKENING AND THE BODY FROM WAVERING. IF YOU PRACTICE TO PERFECTION OVER A LONG, LONG TIME, NATURALLY BODY AND MIND WILL COME TO REST AT EASE, AND YOU WILL HAVE SOME DIRECTION IN THE PATH. THE PERFECTION OF QUIESCENCE AND STILLNESS INDEED SETTLES THE SCATTERED AND CONFUSED FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SENTIENT BEINGS, BUT IF YOU CLING TO QUIESCENT STILLNESS AND CONSIDER IT THE ULTIMATE, THEN YOU'RE IN THE GRIP OF PERVERTED "SILENT ILLUMINATION" CH'AN.

Ta Hui reminds me of an incident in Charles Darwin's life. His sixtieth birthday was celebrated. The children of his neighborhood also thought of something to present to him. Great people, rich people, were going to present him many things -- he had become by that time a world reknowned scientist -- but children have their own way of seeing things.

Charles Darwin's whole life was devoted to the study of animals, birds, insects, fish. He was working out in what steps human evolution has happened, how man has come to be. He never believed in the theory of creation. No man of intelligence can believe in it, for the simple reason that every day new things go on happening. Creation would have been a closed circle: God created everything and there was no question of any new inventions, new discoveries. God's work has to be perfect; hence there is no space for evolution. Evolution can happen only when things are imperfect.

The children found a way. They collected many insects, dissected them -- took out some insect's head, some other insect's leg, some other insect's body, and piece by piece they joined and glued a totally new insect which God has not created. And they went to Charles Darwin, saying, "We have brought an insect that perhaps you would love to know. We have never seen this. Just today we have found it."

Charles Darwin himself was a little taken aback: he had gone around the world, but he had never seen such an insect. Then he looked closely and he saw that the head belonged to some other insect -- he could see the glue and he could see the children's inventiveness -- and the children wanted to know the name of the bug.

Charles Darwin said, "I know it. Its name is humbug."

Ta Hui reminds me... he is a humbug. He has been moving from one master to another master and he was collecting things -- something from one person, something from another person. He has made a good collection and glued it perfectly well, but he cannot deceive one who knows the truth. And all the masters he had visited may not have been enlightened. Some certainly must have been enlightened, because there are a few statements which only an enlightened man can make. But there are a few others which only unenlightened moralists, puritans -- that kind of people -- can make. They are good people; they mean well, their intentions are good, but they don't know that just to mean well is not enough.

You should be at the very source of your being, where you can feel these three things: goodness, beauty and truth. In India we have called it the experience of SATCHIDANAND -- that is one expression. The other expression of the three is SATYAM, SHIVAM, SUNDERAM. I would like you to understand both statements, because they contain the very gist of the religious experience.

Satchidanand is made of three words: SAT, which means ultimate truth; CHIT, which means ultimate consciousness; ANAND, which means ultimate bliss. That is one set which denotes the experience of enlightenment.

But enlightenment is vast. There is another set: SATYAM, which means truth; SHIVAM, which means good; SUNDERAM, which means beautiful.

Why is this difference there? -- that too is significant to understand. The first statement comes from people who are of a philosophical bent: truth, consciousness, bliss. The second set comes from people who are basically poetic. Truth remains in both the sets, but the other two qualities change. To the poet, beauty is more important than anything else -- and also the quality of goodness.

So the first set comes from people who have become enlightened, but they have been of a philosophical mind. And the second group comes from people who have been poets. The only thing that joins them is truth -- and truth is a vast sky -- it contains all great experiences. You can choose any according to your own inclination.

Ta Hui has come across mere moralists who don't know the source of good, but talk about good. They are ethical, not religious. He has also come in contact with some enlightened masters -- I will tell you from where he has made this humbug teaching. The difference is so vast, qualitatively so different, but even a man of Ta Hui's intelligence could not figure out that they don't meet anywhere. You cannot glue them together -- the distance is so vast. But it will be a good discipline for you -- that's why I have chosen Ta Hui. It will be a good discipline for you to learn a little discrimination; otherwise you get impressed by any nonsense.

Just the other day somebody brought a book about a woman I had known. She was just a very ordinary woman, living with Swami Muktananda -- serving him, cooking his food. After the death of Muktananda, she has taken his place. Now her name is Gurumayi, the feminine of the Guru -- Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and she is followed by many people. The book has been sent to me because she is touring around the world and many people are impressed by her. She is the successor of Muktananda. He himself was a perfect idiot -- now where to put this woman? You cannot be more perfect than Muktananda was.

But the problem is people simply listen to the words and they don't have any criteria to check whether these people are saying things out of their own experience, or they have collected them from books, from other people, and are simply repeating. You can see it very clearly in Ta Hui. He is a perfect specimen.

NOW IF YOU WANT TO SAVE MENTAL POWER... Buddha's whole teaching is that all the power that mind has is given by you. Mind has no power of its own; it is given by you through identification. Because you identify yourself with it, the mind becomes powerful. It is YOUR power.

Mind has no power at all; mind is just like the walking stick of a blind man. The stick walks, but the power is coming from the blind man. The stick cannot walk on its own, although it is called a walking stick. The blind man walks, and all the power that the stick has belongs to the blind man.

Your mind is a blind man's walking stick.

The moment you open your eyes and understand the identity, you can withdraw your power from the mind. You have given it, and the moment you withdraw your power, mind simply collapses. So to talk about mental power, he must have heard some teacher.

DO NOT BE CONCERNED WITH WHETHER OR NOT A THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD CAN SAY IT, OR WHETHER OR NOT AN EIGHTY-YEAR-OLD MAN CAN CARRY IT OUT. JUST DON'T DO ANY EVIL AND YOU HAVE MASTERED THESE WORDS. THEY APPLY WHETHER YOU BELIEVE OR NOT, SO PLEASE THINK IT OVER.

Now he goes on committing mistakes... if you compare him to any enlightened man's statements. First: JUST DON'T DO ANY EVIL. No awakened being of the world has ever said that "because awakening makes one clear. You go on doing evil acts because of your unconsciousness. Evil acts don't have any grip over you.

Gautam Buddha used to say that if a house shows light from the windows, from the doors, then thieves remain away. They know that the owner of the house is yet awake. The light is enough indication for a thief not to take the risk. But if the light is put off then the thief can come closer; it is a good opportunity. In darkness he can manage to steal something.

He used to say that the situation of human beings is the same. If your eyes show light, if your very existence shows illumination, if you radiate... then evils don't come close to you. Then whatever you do comes out of your blissfulness, and blissfulness cannot do any evil.

To teach people not to do evil is absolutely absurd.

If they are unconscious they are bound to do evil. They can try; they can force themselves to do good and not to do evil, but it will remain superficial. They don't have even the awareness of what is evil and what is good.

Once a man, a very rich man of Calcutta, came to Ramakrishna. He wanted to do some good act. He was becoming old, and he was very rich, and he thought it would be good to donate one thousand golden rupees -- at that time there were gold rupees. The word `rupee' simply comes from gold. It is a Sanskrit word, RAUPYA; in Hindi it has become RUPAYA; in English it has become rupee -- but it comes from gold. Now even a paper note is called a rupee; the word has lost all meaning, it has no relevance. But that's how things go on changing, and we go on using the same words for new realities to which they do not belong at all.

In the beginning people used to use horses. They were the fastest vehicle, but still people ask, "How much horsepower does your car have?" Strange... horses have gone, but our old mind still manages to think about a car in terms of horsepower, and nobody thinks about the stupidity of it.

This man brought one thousand gold rupees. He was feeling very great and thinking, "Ramakrishna will be surprised, nobody will have given him such a gift. I'm going to do a great good work." It was for the temple of Ramakrishna where he lived in Dakshineshwar, just near Calcutta.

The first thing he did was to pour from his bag all one thousand gold rupees in front of Ramakrishna... so loudly! They made so much sound that everybody in the ashram gathered: "What is happening?"

Ramakrishna said, "Do you want to exhibit what you are doing? You could have silently given the bag to me. There was no need to pour out all those one thousand rupees in front of me. That was almost as if you were trying to make everybody in the ashram curious to come and see what is happening. This is not a good act. Deep inside you it is an ego trip, but I will accept the rupees. Now put them back in the bag."

So he put them in the bag and Ramakrishna said, "Now, are the rupees mine or yours?"

The man said, "Of course they are yours; I have offered them to you."

Ramakrishna said, "That's good. I offer them to the Ganges. Can you help me a little?"

The man said, "What kind of help?"

"Just go -- behind the temple is the Ganges. Throw the whole bag into the Ganges. Now it is MY money not yours, so you need not be worried about it."

The man was in shock -- "I got caught in unnecessary trouble. One thousand gold rupees... people would certainly say that this man is mad -- offering it to the Ganges?" But he was committed, so he went to the Ganges. Hours passed.

Ramakrishna said, "What is the matter? Throwing the bag away cannot take that much time."

He sent somebody who brought the news: "That man takes one rupee out of the bag and throws it on the stone rocks around the Ganges. A big crowd has gathered because those rupees are making so much noise and they are pure gold. Then the man throws one rupee far away in the Ganges. Then he takes another rupee, again hits it on the rocks... and more and more people are gathering there. He is making a great show."

Ramakrishna had to go himself. He said, "You are not only an egoist, you are stupid too. One checks whether rupees are authentic or not by throwing them on the stone so that he can hear the sound of gold, and if they are not authentic, they will not give the same sound. But that is when one is collecting them. You are throwing them away! Whether they are authentic or not makes no difference.

"Secondly, one counts rupees when one is collecting them. You are throwing the rupees away. What does it matter whether there are exactly one thousand, or one rupee less or one rupee more? But perhaps you have not realized that in the name of doing good, you are just doing something stupid. This is not going to bring any blessings to you. Your one thousand rupees have gone in vain."

But everywhere this is being done. We may think we are doing good. We may think we are not doing evil. But thinking has nothing to do with good and evil.

Good is that which comes spontaneously from your awareness and evil is that which never comes spontaneously out of your awareness.

The man of awareness does only good.

His action and his awareness are in a deep synchronicity. Evil cannot enter into the lighted house of that man.

But moralists have no idea of enlightenment or meditation. They go on teaching people disciplines: Do this, do that; this is right, that is wrong. And finally Ta Hui says, SO PLEASE THINK IT OVER.

Thinking can never bring you to any conclusion.

Thousands of years of philosophy... the greatest geniuses thinking all over the world have not come to any conclusion at all. It has been such a great wastage of intelligence and genius. They cannot even think on small matters.

Immanuel Kant, a great German philosopher who belongs to the highest category of philosophers, was told by a woman, "I love you. I have waited long hoping that perhaps you may take the initiative. But you don't seem to take initiative so I have to ask you to marry me."

He said, "You could have asked before, but first I have to think it over. I never do anything without thinking."

He consulted all the libraries, all the books on marriage; he collected all the pros, all the cons. The difficulty was that for three years he worked, but the pros and cons were equal. So there was no decision coming... Finally, on the pro side, one thing appeared that was more than on the con side. He came across a book that said: It is always good to experience a thing even if the experience proves to be wrong. It will give you maturity. It is never good to avoid any experience, because avoiding any experience is avoiding maturity.

This was the only point that was more in favor of marriage; otherwise both sides were equal. Seeing that he had found the solution, he rushed to the woman's house and knocked on the door. The girl's old father opened the door and asked, "What do you want?"

Immanuel Kant said, "Your daughter has asked me to get married to her and I have been thinking. It certainly took a long time; thinking is a long process. It took three years. I worked hard day and night and finally I have come to the conclusion that I should marry."

The old man said, "That's good, but my girl has married long ago. She already has two children. She could not wait. And in these three years you never showed your face even a single time."

He said, "I was so much engaged in thinking -- consulting ancient scriptures, all the manuals of marriage. It was a tremendous job to come to the conclusion." Immanuel Kant remained unmarried his whole life.

Thinking is not the way to find the truth.

Non-thinking is the way.

Thinking always creates more muddle. Non-thinking brings clarity, spaciousness, purity and a great straightforward insight. It is not a question of pros and cons; you simply know in what direction you have to go. It is a simple understanding.

Ta Hui must have listened to some other teacher who was telling his disciples to think it over.

ONE WHO DOES EVIL ON THE PRETEXT OF DOING GOOD IS CALLED IN THE TEACHINGS ONE WHOSE CAUSAL GROUND IS NOT GENUINE, BRINGING ON CROOKED RESULTS. IF, WITH A STRAIGHTFORWARD MIND... but it remains still the mind, and mind is never straightforward. You all have minds, so it is not a problem to understand that the mind is always crooked. It is never straightforward.

The Eastern mystics have used the tail of a dog to symbolize mind. They say even if you keep the tail of the dog straight in a hollow bamboo for twelve years, whenever you remove the bamboo the tail will again go crooked. You cannot expect that it will remain straightforward; that is just the nature of the tail.

The situation with the mind is the same -- it is crooked. It never goes directly, immediately, straightforward. It is cunning, it is clever. It tries to find a way in which it can pretend to be good and yet enjoy all the pleasures that evil offers.

I have heard about a bishop who was in the confessional, and a young, beautiful woman came to confess. She said, "Father, I have been raped -- and not once, but three times in the night."

The bishop said, "But if you have been raped, you don't have to confess. The man who raped you has to confess. You have not committed any sin."

The woman said, "You don't understand. I enjoyed it -- that's why I have come to confess and pray to God to forgive me -- otherwise I could have done everything not to be raped. It was the same man who raped me three times in the night, and I did not scream or shout. I really enjoyed it."

The father said, "This case is very serious. You come to the side of the room, because you have to explain to me the exact details of what that man did. He seems to be just a born devil." Then the father kissed the young girl and asked, "Has he done this?"

The girl said, "Yes, Father."

The father said, "He is really a devil." Then he started playing with her breasts and asked, "Did he do this too?"

The girl said, "Yes, Father."

And the father said, "That man should be condemned to hell! And did he tell you to undress?"

The girl said, "Yes, Father."

He said, "That man needs eternal hell fire! You undress."

And the father made love to her and asked, "Did he do this too?"

The girl said, "Yes, Father."

He said, "Let that man come to my confessional. He will have to come."

But the girl said, "He did one thing more too."

The father said, "What! More?"

The girl said, "He gave me gonorrhea. I have told you beforehand; he is really a very evil person."

Your so-called good people go on doing, in the name of good, all kind of evil acts -- and it is bound to be so. It is not their fault. They have been brought up with a wrong teaching. They have been told to do this, to do that, but nobody has ever gone deep into their psychology -- why are they doing it? What is the root source of their evil acts? And, unless that root is cut...

Man's nature in itself is basically good. You just have to remove the wild weeds that have grown in his nature. Meditation is the only method to take out all that is evil, without much effort, and then what remains is good. Then whatever the man does, he has not to think about it -- about whether it is good or evil. He simply does it. He feels a deep harmony with existence and he cannot go against that harmony.

Evil is going against nature's harmony.

It is creating discord.

And only people who don't know the beauty of harmony and the joy of harmony can commit evil acts. But don't say to them, "Do this, do that."

I have heard that God, in the beginning, first asked the Babylonians, "Would you like a commandment?"

They asked, "What is the commandment?"

God said, "Don't look at another's wife with an evil thought."

The Babylonians said, "That is impossible. Keep your commandment to yourself, because if some beautiful woman comes in front of us, it does not matter whose wife she is. The evil thought arises on its own accord. We cannot do anything; before we even think anything, it is there."

God went to the Egyptians and asked, "Would you like a commandment?"

They said, "First we want to know, what is the commandment?"

And God said, "Always do good."

The Egyptians said, "You go to others and give this commandment to them, because if somebody gives evil to us, how are we going to defend ourselves? An eye for an eye... if he is doing evil, we will do greater evil; only can we put him right. If he is doing evil and we go on doing good, we will be crushed. Forgive us, we don't want your commandment. You can keep it."

Then he went to Moses and asked Moses, "Do you want a commandment?

And Moses asked, "How much does it cost?" He did not bother to ask what the commandment is. The real thing is how much it costs.

God said, "It costs nothing."

Moses said, "Then I will take ten!"

If it is free, then why not take ten? That's how Jews have ten commandments. But in those ten commandments there is no commandment for meditation. They are all just moralistic, superficial teachings.

IF, WITH A STRAIGHTFORWARD MIND AND STRAIGHTFORWARD CONDUCT, YOU ARE ABLE TO SEIZE SUPREME ENLIGHTENMENT DIRECTLY, THIS CAN BE CALLED THE ACT OF A REAL MAN OF POWER. All this is simply crap. It is just putting things upside down.

The enlightened man is really a man of power -- not power over others but simply a source of power, not a power that dominates, enslaves, but just a deep strength, stamina, courage. It is his inner source. It has nothing to do with anybody else. It is simply his power that radiates all around him. Anything that he is saying comes from that power. Then the conduct is straightforward, then the mind is straightforward. But you cannot first put the mind straightforward and your conduct straightforward, and then attain supreme enlightenment directly.

Enlightenment has to be the first thing and everything else is just a by-product. As the tree grows, the roots are needed first, although the roots are invisible. Perhaps that is the reason why thinkers have missed the basic point: roots are invisible, but once the roots are there, the tree starts growing. Foliage comes, beautiful greenery, flowers come -- psychedelic and colorful -- fruits come which can give great nourishment, but they are all coming because of the hidden roots.

It is not vice versa: that first you hang a few flowers and a few fruits, bring some foliage, tie it together -- and then the roots will grow. It does not happen that way; that is not the course of nature. But this is what people have been taught: first become good, first become moral, first follow a certain discipline. Then you will attain to enlightenment and enlightenment will give you great power.

Enlightenment itself is power. But it has to come first, it cannot be second. And everything else will follow.

The enlightened man cannot do wrong, cannot do evil. His every breath is in the service of good, his every act is in the service of the divine. He himself is totally surrendered to the whole -- allowing the whole to use him in whatever way it wants.

This is the difference between morality and religion: a religious person is moral, but the moral person is not religious.

The moral person is only a hypocrite.

But the problem has arisen because we have seen enlightened people like Gautam Buddha, but we don't see their enlightenment. Their roots are hidden. We see their actions, their fruits, their flowers, their foliage. And the natural logic of the mind is that if we also start doing the same acts as they are doing, we will become enlightened.

You can see the logical fallacy, but it appears very rational... Buddha eats one time a day, so you eat one time a day; Buddha has only three sets of clothes, so you have only three sets of clothes; Buddha never uses any vehicle, always walks from village to village, so you always walk. You can imitate every action of Buddha without difficulty, you can repeat his words exactly the way he says them, but still you will not become enlightened, because the roots are missing. And with roots the problem is that they are always hidden; they are secret.

So Buddhists, for twenty-five centuries, have been continuously imitating: Christians have been imitating Christ, and the same is true about other religions. They have all created great imitators, but inside they are just as ordinary, as unenlightened, as anybody else. They have taken the whole thing from the wrong end.

THE CONCERNS THAT HAVE COME DOWN FROM NUMBERLESS AGES ARE ONLY IN THE PRESENT. This sentence he must have got from someone enlightened, because he could not manage to think of it himself. It is a very pregnant sentence.

THE CONCERNS THAT HAVE COME DOWN FROM NUMBERLESS AGES ARE ONLY IN THE PRESENT: IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THEM RIGHT NOW, THEN THE CONCERNS OF NUMBERLESS AGES WILL INSTANTLY DISPERSE, LIKE TILES BEING SCATTERED OR ICE MELTING. IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND RIGHT NOW, YOU'LL PASS THROUGH COUNTLESS EONS MORE, AND IT'LL STILL BE JUST AS IT IS. THE TRUTH THAT IS AS IT IS HAS BEEN CONTINUOUS SINCE ANTIQUITY WITHOUT EVER HAVING VARIED SO MUCH AS A HAIRSBREADTH. Now these words cannot come from a teacher. The insistence on NOW and the implication behind now is immensely great. He is saying that you may have committed thousands of crimes in the past, but the past is no more. Only memories of the past have remained in your mind. You may have imagined committing many crimes and evils in the future, but they are only in the mind. They are all now: your past, your present, your future are all in this moment.

This is a very tremendous statement. It means you don't have to get rid of your past by doing good acts. It means that you don't have to be punished for your past -- because it was an unconscious action. You were not aware. If you can become aware right now, all that has been a heavy load on you will melt away like ice.

Now there is no question of doing good and there is no question of doing evil. Now the only thing is bringing a deep understanding of the present moment, an awareness of the present moment.

And that's what meditation is. It does not care about the past, it does not care about the future; it simply becomes a pillar of light in the present. In that pillar of light in the present, all past and future simply disappear. They don't have any actual existence.

It is as if you have slept the whole night, doing good acts and bad acts -- sometimes escaping with your neighbor's wife, sometimes becoming a saint -- but in the morning when you wake up, you know you have not done anything. It was only the sleepiness that created all those dreams.

To the man of understanding, all that you have done has been done in your unconsciousness; so the only way is just to become conscious, and you will be awake. And all your past will disappear just as dreams disappear when you are awake. This statement can certainly be said to come from a source of enlightenment.

MATTERS OF WORLDLY ANXIETY ARE LIKE THE LINKS OF A CHAIN, JOINING TOGETHER CONTINUOUSLY WITHOUT A BREAK. IF YOU CAN DO AWAY WITH THEM, DO AWAY WITH THEM IMMEDIATELY!. That's why I was saying that he has done a good patchwork. He has deceived even the emperors by doing his patchwork.

Once in a while, he has got hold of the words of somebody enlightened. But in the meantime he goes on collecting all kinds of advice from teachers who have collected them from others. And they are so mixed up with each other that it is very difficult to make a clear-cut division.

But I wanted to take it whole; otherwise I could have cut out all that is nonsense and left only that which is true. I wanted to give you a certain insight in how to distinguish whether it is coming from a source of enlightenment or it is just intellectual gymnastics.

BECAUSE YOU HAVE BECOME HABITUATED TO THEM SINCE BEGINNINGLESS TIME, TO THE POINT WHERE THEY HAVE BECOME TOTALLY FAMILIAR, IF YOU DON'T EXERT YOURSELF TO STRUGGLE WITH THEM, THEN AS TIME GOES ON AND ON, WITH YOU UNKNOWING AND UNAWARES, THEY WILL HAVE ENTERED DEEPLY INTO YOU. FINALLY, ON THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

Do you see how he forgets himself? If things can be done now, in a single moment of awareness, why can't you do it at the moment of death? That too will be a NOW and a single moment. And it will be easier to do at that time than it is now, because now you can postpone for tomorrow. When death is standing in front of you, there is no question of postponing; either you have to do it or not do it. And who would like to carry all his nightmares with him?

Ta Hui himself became enlightened just a minute before he was dying. Death can be of immense help, it can be a blessing in disguise, because now there is no future, no tomorrow. You cannot say, "Today I am busy, tomorrow I will meditate." You have to drop all business. Now the only significant thing to be done is to be alert and aware, get rid of all your past, and move into death -- innocent, clean, clear, unburdened. Then your very death becomes the entry into the divine. Then you are not dying; you are entering into eternal life.

But Ta Hui says as a thinker, as a teacher, FINALLY, ON THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Nothing has to be done. If one has only to become aware, he can become aware any time, whether the next moment is death or not. But death can become a great incentive to do it immediately. Just the idea of tomorrow makes you say, "It's okay, there's no hurry. If not today, then tomorrow" -- and tomorrow never comes. It is always today. And you become habituated to postponing for tomorrow. Death for the first time makes you aware that now there is no tomorrow. If you want to be aware, be aware. And the shock of death helps awareness.

Many people at the time of death have become enlightened, although their enlightenment remains unknown, because after it they simply die. Their enlightenment never helps anybody else because there is no time, but still it is great -- at least they have managed it for themselves.

IF YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO AVOID GOING WRONG WHEN YOU FACE THE END OF YOUR LIFE, THEN FROM NOW ON WHENEVER YOU DO ANYTHING, DON'T LET YOURSELF SLIP. He goes on, up and down. Those few sentences were absolutely right. Now again he has come to DOING. IF YOU GO WRONG IN YOUR PRESENT DOINGS, IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO GO WRONG WHEN YOU'RE FACING DEATH.

Meditation is not a question of DOING at all.

Meditation is a question of awakening.

THERE'S A SORT OF PERSON WHO READS SCRIPTURES, RECITES THE BUDDHA-NAME, AND REPENTS IN THE MORNING, BUT THEN IN THE EVENING RUNS OFF AT THE MOUTH, SLANDERING AND VILIFYING OTHER PEOPLE. THE NEXT DAY HE DOES HOMAGE TO BUDDHA AND REPENTS AS BEFORE. ALL THROUGH THE YEARS TILL THE END OF HIS LIFE, HE TAKES THIS AS DAILY RITUAL -- THIS IS EXTREME FOLLY. SUCH PEOPLE ARE FAR FROM REALIZING THAT THE SANSKRIT WORD `KSHAMA' MEANS TO REPENT FAULTS. THIS IS CALLED "CUTTING OFF THE CONTINUING MIND."

Now what he is saying is absolutely applicable to him -- he is repeating good words, he is repeating scriptures. He may be worshiping the Buddha, being a Buddhist monk. What he is saying seems to be his own experience.

It is true. Millions of people in the world are doing the same -- whether they are Christians or Jews or Hindus or Buddhists or Jainas, it does not make any difference. They are the same people. When they are in the temple they pretend to be religious. This one hour of religion is not going to help because twenty-three hours are canceling it continuously. Twenty-three times more they are irreligious. This one hour religion is just a self-deception.

And you can see how he goes on mixing things. The Sanskrit word KSHAMA does not mean repenting faults. KSHAMA means forgiving, forgiving others and forgiving yourself too -- forgiving because you were unconscious and others are unconscious. This forgiveness will bring some awareness to you.

Every year Jainas have one day, KSHAMAVANI, the day of forgiving, when even enemies have to meet each other and forgive each other. And the miracle is that after the day is gone the enemies are still enemies; nothing has happened, it's just a ritual.

We can make a ritual of every great thing. You step on somebody's feet and you say, "I am sorry." Do you really mean it or is it just a social convention? It makes life smooth, but it does not come from your very being. You don't even think about it.

But certainly he catches hold of a sentence which is not from ordinary teachers: THIS IS CALLED "CUTTING OFF THE CONTINUING MIND."

You can see the contradiction. A person who lives in repentance cannot be said to be "cutting his mind."

Repentance is always about the past.

It is a feeling of guilt -- "I have done wrong."

"Cutting the mind" means that the past is no more -- "it was a dark night and I was unconscious. Things that have happened were out of my sleep; now I don't have any connection with that old past." Not having any connection with the mind means not having any connection with the past.

Your mind is your past.

The whole past is continuously gathering in the mind. Cutting the mind away from yourself, you are cutting your past and you are starting anew, fresh.

This is what the great masters have said: Die each moment to the past, and be reborn for the new, for the fresh, for that which is coming -- dying each moment because past is being created every moment.

Your present is nothing but continuously becoming past -- why go on gathering an unnecessary weight? It is better that each moment you go on cutting yourself from the past. Don't carry any scratches from the past and remain available and open to the future. Soon the future will also become past.

The moment anything becomes past, cut yourself away from it. Then you can die just like an innocent child, then your death will be just like a birth: no past, an innocent mind.

And this is the right death because it is not an ending of life, but a beginning of a greater life -- of a life which will not be encased in the body, but will be spread all over existence: you will dance in the trees and you will smile in the flowers and you will shine in the stars. Your freedom will be total and you won't have any boundaries.

ONCE YOU HAVE CUT IT OFF, NEVER CONTINUE IT AGAIN; ONCE YOU HAVE REPENTED, DO NOT COMMIT AGAIN -- THIS IS THE MEANING OF REPENTANCE ACCORDING TO OUR BUDDHA. He does not know the Buddha. Buddha does not teach repentance; he simply teaches awareness.

Repentance is a dangerous technique. It is just like Catholic confession. Every religion has managed to create some cheap substitute that everybody can do and feel good. You go to the church, you confess to the priest, and you think that you are freed. Now the priest will tell God and you are forgiven. But in reality what happens when you come out of the confessional is that you are again ready to commit the same things. There is no problem. Next week you can again confess.

Hindus go to the Ganges to take a bath. Every twelve years a great gathering -- perhaps the greatest in the world -- happens in Prayag. Hindus from all over the country, and even from outside the country, just come there to have a dip in the Ganges, because it is thought that the moment you take a dip in the Ganges all your sins, even all your wrongdoings, are washed away.

I used to go to Prayag many times, but I have never taken a dip in the Ganges. I love swimming and I have been swimming in many rivers, but never in the Ganges. I used to stay with a family. They said, "This is strange. You love swimming, you always go to the rivers when you are in other cities, but here where the whole country comes to take a dip..."

I said, "That is the reason -- so many sins must be afloat here and for centuries people have been dipping in it. It is very dangerous. I keep away from the place because if their sins are really washed away here... as long as we can remember -- at least ten thousand years -- millions and millions of people have been washing their sins here. This is the dirtiest place in the whole world. I cannot step in it."

The man was very much shocked because he was always bragging that he lived near the Ganges and took a dip in it every day. I said, "You are an idiot. Every day! You must have gathered so many sins that now even God cannot help you."

He said, "But nobody ever thought about it."

I said, "Who thinks? People simply go on doing what others are doing. And you are a doctor, well educated, well known in your area -- at least you should not be so superstitious and stupid. If sins can be washed away by the Ganges, that simply means you are again ready to commit sins. What is the problem? Go on committing as many sins as you want to commit. The Ganges is there -- just go and have a dip."

These are the religious priests exploiting people so cunningly, giving them hope, giving them simple tricks to deceive even God.

WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO, YOU SHOULD SIT QUIETLY AND KEEP THE MIND FROM SLACKENING AND THE BODY FROM WAVERING. IF YOU PRACTICE TO PERFECTION OVER A LONG LONG TIME, NATURALLY BODY AND MIND WILL COME TO REST AT EASE, AND YOU WILL HAVE SOME DIRECTION IN THE PATH. THE PERFECTION OF QUIESCENCE AND STILLNESS INDEED SETTLES THE SCATTERED AND CONFUSED FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SENTIENT BEINGS, BUT IF YOU CLING TO QUIESCENT STILLNESS AND CONSIDER IT THE ULTIMATE, THEN YOU'RE IN THE GRIP OF PERVERTED "SILENT ILLUMINATION" CH'AN.

This small school of silent illumination is one of the highly evolved methodologies about awareness, but Ta Hui does not belong to that small line of illumined people.

The mind always thinks of doing something.

When you are doing something, mind is nourished. When you are not doing anything, mind starts dying. Mind is almost like a bicycle. If you go on pedaling, the bicycle goes on moving. If you stop pedaling, it may go a few feet because of the old momentum, but finally it has to fall. Mind needs continuous doing. Do something... that is the pedaling that keeps the mind going on.

This school of "silent illumination" ch'an, which Ta Hui speaks continually against, is of a far higher quality than Ta Hui can understand. These people simply sit silently. They don't do anything -- good or bad. They simply don't do anything. If somebody offers food they can take it; if nobody offers food they remain hungry, but they don't do anything for it.

And existence is so compassionate that if a certain person is simply sitting silently, he creates a field of silence around him. Somebody is bound to be attracted towards him. No "silent illumination" ch'an adept has died of hunger or cold. Somebody has come to cover him, somebody has brought some food, somebody has brought water. Not even a single man of that lineage has died... and they have attained to the highest peak of illumination.

It seems Ta Hui feels a certain jealously that these people don't do anything and still they are worshiped. These people don't do anything; still they are thought to be living buddhas. His own leanings are for moral works, good works, service to the people. He is an intellectual. But it seems before he died he became tired of his intellectual approach, because he had not gained anything.

At the last moment of his life, he must have realized that he had wasted his life unnecessarily wandering in a desert where nothing grows. This realization, in a single moment, changed his whole character, his whole being. His whole life he was only a teacher, but he died as a master. If he had lived a little more, perhaps he would have asked forgiveness from the people who belong to the "silent illumination" ch'an. We don't know. Perhaps inside his own being he must have asked for forgiveness.

But he seems to be jealous because he is teaching, he is doing good, he is serving people; he is moving from town to town bringing people to the feet of Gautam Buddha, and these people don't worship Buddha. They don't even chant Buddha's name. They simply sit silently. They don't have any records because they don't say anything. Their whole being is their statement. They are themselves buddhas. Why should they chant the name of Buddha, why should they worship Buddha, why should they go to the Buddha's temple?

My own sympathy is not with Ta Hui. My own sympathy is with those "silent illumination" ch'an people. They are the very salt of the earth.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Zen

The Great Zen Master Ta Hui

Chapter-3

Power