Suresh, Thanks for this.
I'd only disagree that zen practice or any of its teachings should be considered 'religious' at all. 'Religion' to me means a belief system based on faith. Zen is not based on faith. Zen is based on experience. ...Bill! --- In [email protected], SURESH JAGADEESAN <varamtha@...> wrote: > > The small word `zen' contains the whole evolution of religious > consciousness. It also represents freedom from religious > organizations, from priesthood, from any kind of theology, from God. > This small word can bring fire to your being. > > Zen is the very essence of all religions, without their stupid > rituals, nonsensical theologies. It has dropped everything that could > be dropped. It has saved only that which is the very soul of > religiousness. So even drinking a cup of tea with a Zen master, you > will find you are participating in a religious phenomenon. > > Zen believes that truth cannot be expressed by words, but it can be > expressed by gestures, action. Something can be done about it. You > cannot say it, but you can show it. > > Zen, in the first place, is not a teaching but a device to awaken you. > It is not information, it is not knowledge. It is a method to shake > you up, to wake you up. Teaching means you are fast asleep and > somebody goes on talking about what awakening is and you go on > snoring and he goes on talking. YOU are asleep, HE is asleep; > otherwise he will not talk to you. At least when he sees that you are > snoring he will not talk to you. > > Zen wants you to approach life unconditionally. That means without any > prejudice, without any precondition, without any expectation. You can > be total only if you are standing at your very center. > > Zen approaches things from the very other extreme: wherever there is > sacredness, God is. Wherever there is holiness, God is. Not vice versa > -- not that God's presence makes any place holy, but if you make any > place holy, the presence of the divine, of godliness, is immediately > felt there. So they have tried to bring the sacred into everything. No > other religion has gone that far, that high, that deep. No other > religion has even conceived the idea. In Zen there is no God. In Zen > there is only you and your consciousness. Your consciousness is the > highest flowering in existence up to now. It can go still higher, and > the way to take it higher is to create your whole life in such a way > that it becomes sacred. > > Pain has a tremendous value in awakening. Pain has been used by many > masters to awaken the sleeping disciple. All your old religions, on > the contrary, console the disciple and help him to sleep well -- God > is in heaven and everything is okay on the earth, you don't be > worried! But Zen is not at all interested in consoling you. It is > interested in awakening you. > > I call Zen the only living religion because it is not a religion, but > only a religiousness. It has no dogma, it does not depend on any > founder. It has no past; in fact it has nothing to teach you. It is > the strangest thing that has happened in the whole history of mankind > -- strangest because it enjoys in emptiness, it blossoms in > nothingness. It is fulfilled in innocence, in not knowing. It does not > discriminate between the mundane and the sacred. For it, all that is, > is sacred. > Life is sacred whatever form, whatever shape. Wherever there is > something living and alive it is sacred. > > Zen has only created devices, leaving you completely free to find the > truth. And it is strange, more people have become enlightened through > Zen than through any other religion of the world. The other religions > are very big, and Zen is a very small stream. You can see these small > things, and a master uses them in such a way that they start pointing > to the moon. > > Organized religions are political. Zen is a non-political > religiousness. You cannot call it even religion. It is so > individualistic and so emphatically concerned only with the potential > of the individual. It does not want anything from the individual, it > simply wants him to be himself. > > In Zen an empty-headed fool is almost ready for meditation. A man full > of knowledge is far away from meditation. An empty-headed fool is > simply a loving way of saying that you are not far away from becoming > wise. The fool can become wise; the knowledgeable never. The > empty-headed can become empty-minded, but the man who is carrying > scriptures and degrees and the universities and the libraries in his > head, he is far away. A master will not unnecessarily waste time on > such a person. > > In Zen an empty-headed fool is almost ready for meditation. A man full > of knowledge is far away from meditation. An empty-headed fool is > simply a loving way of saying that you are not far away from becoming > wise. The fool can become wise; the knowledgeable never. The > empty-headed can become empty-minded, but the man who is carrying > scriptures and degrees and the universities and the libraries in his > head, he is far away. A master will not unnecessarily waste time on > such a person. > > The internal and the external are in absolute harmony. There is no > division. But man has created the division and has created much > anxiety about it. Drop the division, and go beyond anxiety. Dropping > dualities one becomes religious. Don't think yourself separate from > the world. That's why Zen people say: The world is Nirvana. There is > no other enlightenment. > > Zen does not want anybody to be a believer. Either experience or just > go home. Except experience, no belief is going to help. So those who > have followed Zen masters were not followers, they were fellow > travelers. They were rejoicing in the master's enlightenment. They > were drinking as much of his wisdom as possible, and they were finding > the path so that they could also experience the same lightning > experience which dissolves all questions, all answers, and leaves you > simply innocent, centered eternity in your hands. But they were not > followers, and this is very difficult for the ordinary masses to > understand. > > When you are a master of your own being, then you live in the same > world but with totally different eyes -- the same world becomes > divine. That is the meaning of the declaration of Zen Masters: samsara > IS nirvana -- this very world is enlightenment. All that is needed is > a change in you from foolishness to wisdom, from unawareness to > awareness. > > The path of Zen starts by dropping thoughts, becoming more and more > alert to the thought process -- becoming so aware that in that > awareness, in that heat of awareness, thoughts start evaporating and > you are left in your total nudity and aloneness. That is the path of > meditation; it works through the mind. It is against mind, it > transcends mind, but the path goes through the mind. > > AUM is the unstruck sound; there is no instrument. When you become > absolutely silent, suddenly it is there. Zen people have the right > expression for it; they call it'the sound of one hand clapping'. If > two hands are there, of course, the clapping is easy, but one hand > clapping and the sound of one hand clapping seems to be absurd -- but > they are truly expressing the reality. When you go inside and you are > absolutely silent you hear for the first time the inner music. > > Zen wants everybody to be a glory unto himself. It is not an > achievement, it is not competition; it is simply originality. And the > originality is already there, you have just to throw away all the > rubbish that you have been collecting from others. However valuable it > may be, it is destroying your original being, covering it with dust; > and you will never be happy unless you find your original being. The > very finding of your original being is such a dance, such a joy, that > you can bless the whole world yet you will remain overflowing. > > FROM ZEN MASTER OSHO > > -- > Thanks and best regards > J.Suresh > New No.3, Old No.7, > Chamiers road - 1st Lane, > Alwarpet, > Chennai - 600018 > Ph: 044 42030947 > Mobile: 91 9884071738 > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! 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