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Part X : 1987-1990 Poona-Two : This. This.
A Thousand Times This
On 27 May 1988, Osho begins a new series of discourses entitled:
This. This. A Thousand Times This
Before I start a new series of talks on Zen—called This.
This. A Thousand Times This—I want to devote today to preparation
for the coming Zen anecdotes…absurd yet profound, without
any rationality but still as truthful as language allows. this01
This. This. A Thousand Times This…is the essence of existence,
is the essence of your being, is the essence of Zen—This.
This is vast: a small word, it contains total, universal, eternal
truth.
There are no boundaries to this.
It never begins and it never ends.
It is always here.
You can wander here and there, but it is just like a fish moving
in the ocean; it is the same ocean wherever it goes. You can be
a child, you can be young, you can be old, you can be dead, but
this remains an eternal truth of your being. Alive or dead, you
cannot get rid of this.
This essential point is being discussed again and again by Zen
masters. In different ways they have sung their song, in different
ways they have signed their signatures; but only the ways differ,
all their arrows converge on this. We will see how it has been
repeated and why it has been repeated—why for thousands
of years those who have known, either said this, or remained silent
in thisness. But whatever the case, whether they say it or not,
they are pointing to this by words, by silence, by dance, by music,
by just being….
And a very small minority, one in a million, stops running,
just remains standing here and now, drops all desires, asks for
nothing and suddenly he finds everything within himself.
This is the door of the kingdom of God….
This is the only poetry, the only song, the only dance, the only
answer, here, now, in your very breathing, in your very heartbeat….
And if you can understand this, nothing else is needed—you
have come home. You have been long going astray, you have wandered
through lives in many forms on many paths; this brings you suddenly
back to your essential self. And your essential self is the universal
self. There is no distinction between the individual and the universal.
Once the dewdrop falls into the ocean, all distinctions disappear,
the dewdrop becomes the ocean….
Every master worth the name lives only for those who can understand
this. There is no other reason for an enlightened man to live—even
for a single moment more. He has arrived home, but he can see
many of his fellow travelers are still wandering in darkness.
It will be very unkind not to give them a call.
All the masters are nothing but calls to those who are wandering
unnecessarily and suffering unnecessarily. This! and you suddenly
open your innermost lotus. this15
After a long profound silence, Osho comments:
This is what Zen is all about: just a simple awareness.
A flame, unwavering, a sword that cuts deep to the very core of
your being.
Remember, Zen is not a word but only a shadow of an experience.
You are the reality.
Everything else is just non-essential commentary. this13
Zen has become my most beloved for the simple reason that it
does not create any theology. It does not bother about God. Because
God is always that, God is always there. And the real concern
is this, not that. Here, not there. Now, not then. this02
A furious monsoon rainstorm erupts and the power briefly goes
out, plunging the whole assembly into an abrupt and silent darkness.
When the power returns, Osho waits a few moments before beginning
again.
Do you hear the rain?
If you can hear it intensely, totally, this moment can become
your enlightenment.
It is not a question to be discussed, it is an inquiry into your
own inner space. It is stopping the mind from its wavering thoughts
and coming to a stillness within you where nothing moves. this13
I have always wanted to bring Seppo to you because he is one
of the most precious buddhas who has walked on the earth.
He was unique in his own way; in his teaching, words were not
important but only thisness, the utter silence of existence. The
chattering of the birds are the only holy scriptures in the world.
And the commentaries of the bamboos are really honest, sincere
and to the point.
Seppo would have loved this assembly, this moment of silent waiting.
He was not as fortunate as I am. He had very few disciples but
that is very unjust of existence. Seppo should have had the whole
world as his disciples because what he is giving is the ultimate
essence.
(The chirping of birds runs through the silence of Buddha Hall.)
This was Seppo.
They have all gathered here. this02
Nansen was one of the greats. I count him with Gautam Buddha,
Mahakashyap, Bodhidharma, Joshu, Hyakujo. There have been thousands
of masters, but Nansen will still stand out with his own beauty,
uniqueness. He became so well known to the people that the very
mountain where he had a small cottage is now called Mount Nansen.
this03
By the way, just a few days ago I received an invitation from
the Soto sect, founded by Tozan. They were celebrating a thousand-year-old
tradition on a great scale. And the chief of Soto Zen must have
read my books. He must also have heard the story that I have accepted
that I am the fulfillment of Gautam Buddha's promise that he will
be coming after twenty-five centuries and his name will be `friendliness'—Maitreya.
The representative of Tozan and his sect—there are only
two sects of Zen, Soto is the more ancient…And you will
be happy to note that the chief of Soto Zen has recognized that
I have the consciousness and awareness, that I have fulfilled
the promise. He asked if I could come to their ceremony, and if
I cannot come, I should at least send my robe—that is an
old tradition in Zen.
I have sent one of my robes—with my message—to their
ceremony. In the ceremony almost a million people are participating,
and more than two hundred fifty government officials are deputed
by the government of Japan to be present in the ceremony.
I have told my sannyasins there to go with my robe, my note
and message. The chief of the sect presented my robe and my message
to the whole gathering with deep love and devotion. He has informed
me that he will be coming here soon to visit me and to see my
people.
In fact this is the only alive Zen assembly. In those one million
people and two hundred fifty government representatives, not a
single person knows exactly the space that you are feeling every
day….
Because the words—Buddha or Bodhidharma or Nansen or Baso—are
just names of the forms. They all represent the same space; and
whenever there are people who are ready to receive, they suddenly
descend there.
I have received many letters saying that in the meditations
a strange feeling happens—as if something is descending,
a deep silence from beyond, heavy, almost tangible. In that silence
Baso is present, Buddha is present. When you are absent all the
awakened ones are present to you. Then this assembly becomes an
eternal phenomenon.
We have been here always and always. Once in a while you forget
who you are, but it is immaterial: Sooner or later you recognize
again, sooner or later you again see your crystal clear being.
Neither time matters, nor space, you are the one who never comes
and never goes, the one who simply is.
THIS! this04
Just a few days ago a man from Japan who is translating one of
my books on the Dhammapada—Gautam Buddha's greatest scripture,
"the path of religiousness"—wrote to me, "I
was surprised: you don't know Japanese, you don't know Pali, you
don't know Sanskrit. And in your talks on the Dhammapada, in many
places you have changed words which have been put there by the
Christian missionaries." He was simply amazed because he
looked in the Japanese translations and he found that I was right
every time. He could not believe how a man who does not understand
Japanese can say that instead of `faith', there should be the
word `trust'.
I can understand his difficulty, but it is not a difficult matter
for me. I am not a commentator. When I speak on anyone, I have
no commitment except to my own understanding, to my own illumination.
And when I say that something is changed in a wrong way, translated
wrongly, it does not mean I understand the Japanese or Chinese
from which the translation has been done. It simply means that
I know the very heart of Gautam Buddha. I know the emptiness of
that heart, it is my own experience. No master who has touched
the emptiness of the heart can talk in terms of faith. Faith is
only for the blind….
But I can understand the poor translator's difficulty. He is
doing his best, but his conditionings pop up here and there, unintentionally.
I don't blame these translators, but they have created a difficulty
for the West. Just reading them, the Western mind will not be
able to understand exactly where they have translated wrongly.
I can see where they are wrong. And I can indicate to you that
when you see, you see; when you know, you know—no belief,
no faith. Those are words belonging to the world of the blind.
We are entering into the world of the buddhas. empti03
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