IS BUDDHISM DIFFICULT

From: "Om Johari"
To:
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 07:20:58 -0500
Subject: If you make it difficult, it is difficult. If you make it easy, it is easy. But if you don't think, the truth is just as it is
As my today's offering, kindly accept these dis-joined excerpts from Chapter 5: Beyond the Prism of the Mind (talk of 15 April 1977) of OSHO BOOK: The First Principle (Talks on Zen). With gratitude, Om

ZEN Story is in ALL capitals:

... There is nobody who can give you the answer. In fact there is no answer; there is only an understanding. By understanding, the question disappears. There is no answer.

And the goal-oriented man seeks the answer, so he will come upon many answers and will hang around one answer for a few days, few months, few years... and then will get fed up and will move to another answer. But that is a long procession; one can go on ad infinitum, from one answer to another answer.

The real path is not of finding an answer, but of finding an understanding. In the light of understanding, the question disappears. And suddenly you are the answer! Suddenly life itself is the answer! The way is the goal, the samsara is nirvana...

The whole vision cannot be contained in any book, and the whole vision cannot be contained in any creed. Then where to find the whole vision? The whole vision can be found only when you drop the mind and look into the reality of things without thinking about them. It is not a question of contemplation, not a question of thinking, not a question of logical thinking. It is not a question of any syllogism. You have to just look silently, innocently, into that which is already herenow. That is revelation.

And not that you come upon a truth. Suddenly you find the seeker is the sought and the observer is the observed, that the objective and the subjective are not two, that they were looking like two because the mind was standing in between and was making a boundary. Now the mind has disappeared, the boundary has disappeared; there is only oneness, one whole...

HAKUJU SERVED AS A DISTINGUISHED LECTURER AT THE TENDAI-SECT COLLEGE... Hakuju... became enlightened, but he continued the way he was doing... he remained a lecturer. Zen believes that the ordinary life has not to be renounced. The ordinary life has to be transformed by your inner understanding...

Another great Zen saying. Another great Zen Master has said, "Before I came to my Master, rivers were rivers and mountains were mountains. Then my Master confused me utterly; then rivers were no more rivers and mountains were no more mountains. Then living in the presence of my Master, by and by the confusion disappeared, the smoke disappeared, and one day again rivers were rivers and mountains were mountains." Now, what is the difference... The difference is not in the outside. The difference is in the inside. Before, they were just ordinary mountains, rivers; now they have an extraordinary quality. That quality you give to them, you pour into them. Your luminosity makes your whole existence luminous.

A man is not what he does; a man is what he is. So the emphasis of Zen is never to change your actions; just transform your understanding, transform your consciousness. Bring a new consciousness into existence.

AS HE WAS LECTURING WITH HIS CUSTOMARY ZEAL ON THE CHINESE CLASSICS ONE HOT SUMMERS AFTERNOON, HE NOTICED THAT A FEW OF THE STUDENTS WERE DOZING OFF. HE STOPPED LECTURING IN MID-SENTENCE AND SAID, "IT IS A HOT AFTERNOON, ISN'T IT? CAN'T BLAME YOU FOR GOING TO SLEEP. MIND IF I JOIN YOU?"

... A holist, a totalist will not pretend. The moment he felt sleep was coming to him he stopped in mid-sentence. He would not complete even the sentence; he lives moment to moment. Even to wait to complete the sentence is false. Why wait? He stopped in mid-sentence and asked the students, "IT IS A HOT AFTERNOON, ISN'T IT? CAN'T BLAME YOU FOR GOING TO SLEEP."

And see the point. A perfectionist will always be blaming everybody, that "You are wrong," that "You are not doing this," that "This should be done this way." A perfectionist is continuously condemning everybody; that is his joy. He is trying to put everything right in the world...

The perfectionist will find fault even with God. "Why did he create this world? Why did he create tuberculosis and cancer? And why did he create poverty and richness, and why did he create this and that? Why?" A perfectionist continuously condemns; that is his joy.

If this Master Hakuju was a perfectionist, he would have shouted at the students, "What are you doing? For what have you come here? You are falling asleep? This is not the way of a seeker, not the way of a disciple, not the way of a student." But rather than saying this, he says, "IT IS A HOT AFTERNOON, ISN'T IT? CAN'T BLAME YOU FOR GOING TO SLEEP. " He understands. The total man understands. He understands his limitations; he understands everybody else's limitations. He never asks the impossible.

"MIND IF I JOIN YOU?" Really beautiful. Just superb, a master stroke. "MIND IF I JOIN YOU?" He is asking their permission, because a few of them may be perfectionists! And they were.

WITH THIS, HAKUJU SHUT HIS TEXTBOOK, AND LEANING WELL BACK IN HIS CHAIR, FELL ASLEEP... And not only that, when a really total man falls asleep, he snores too... THE CLASS WAS DUMBFOUNDED, AND THOSE WHO BAD BEEN DOZING WERE AWAKENED BY HIS SNORES.

Must have been a man of child-like qualities. It is very difficult to fall asleep so easily, and to snore. And to snore before one's own students? Must have been a very egoless person.

THE CLASS WAS DUMBFOUNDED... They could not believe it, because the man was known as an enlightened Master... And this enlightened man has fallen asleep, cannot keep himself awake, is as ordinary as any ordinary person? They were dumbfounded.

And when they heard him snoring, it was unbelievable. Who has ever heard of a Buddha snoring? But a real Buddha will not be worried. If he wants to snore, he will snore. If he feels like snoring, he will snore. He will not bother what you say about him.

... AND THOSE WHO BAD BEEN DOZING WERE AWAKENED BY HIS SNORES. ALL SAT UP IN THEIR SEATS... Now their sleep disappeared. ...AND WAITED FOR THE MASTER TO AWAKEN.

This you can find only in the Zen literature, this possibility of being so human, of being so imperfect and yet unworried about it. A tremendous acceptance of all that is, of sleep, of snoring. No effort to hide yourself behind any facade.

Once there was a famous Buddhist layman named Busol. He was a deeply enlightened man; his wife too was enlightened, and so were his son and daughter. A man came up to Busol one day and asked, "Is Zen difficult or not?" Busol said, "Oh, it is very difficult. It is like taking a stick and trying to hit the moon." The man was puzzled and began to think. "If Zen is so difficult, how did Busol's wife attain enlightenment?" So he went and asked her the same question. She said, "It is the easiest thing in the world. It is just like touching your nose when you wash your face in the morning." By now the man was thoroughly confused. "I don't understand. Is Zen easy? Is it difficult? Who is right?" So he asked their son. The son said, "Zen is not difficult and not easy. On the tips of a hundred blades of grass is the Buddha's meaning." "Not difficult? Not easy? What is it then?" So the man went to the daughter and asked her. "Your father, your mother, and your brother all gave me different answers. Who is right?" She said, "If you make it difficult, it is difficult. If you make it easy, it is easy. But if you don't think, the truth is just as it is."

If you make it difficult, it is difficult. If you make it easy, it is easy. But if you don't think, the truth is just as it is. The truth is just as it is. This suchness, this total acceptance, this total surrender to truth - no pretensions, no hypocrisies, no effort to hide yourself behind screens, no effort to show yourself as more than the life-size - this authenticity is Zen... Be spontaneous, be natural, and you have already arrived.

I was reading a few lines of Ogden Nash... a centipede has a hundred legs.

The centipede was happy quite,
Until a toad in fun
Said: "Pray, which leg goes after which?"
This worked his mind to such a pitch,
He lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering how to run.

Now it becomes impossible. The moment you think, things become impossible. If you don't think, the truth is as it is... (this full chapter is ready to share.)