This is one of the most foundamental meditations. If it can settle in you That "I'm not" then suddenly the whole world disappear. To know that I'm not is to know that there is no need to do anything. To be anything, to possess anything, to attain anything. When there is no self, ambition is irrelevant. If there is self, Then ambition is relevant.
Most of us have fallen into the trap. The trap is they try not to desire the thing in THIS world, but then they start desiring things of the other world. But it is the same - Desire is the same. It does not matter what you desire. It makes no difference at all what the object of your desire is - desire is the same.
You desire money or you desire meditation: desire is the same. Only the object has changed. And the object is not the problem - the problem is the desire itself, desiring itself. Somebody desires long life here, a beautiful body here, success, fame; somebody else desire eternal life with God in Paradise - what is the difference? The only difference seems to be this; that the first man is not so greedy as the second one. The second is more greedy.
That's why your so called spiritual people are very greedy people. It is not just an accident that india is very greedy. That spirituality creates new greeds. In fact the so called mahatmas go on teaching people; "Don't desire things of this world because they are momentary. Desire things of the other worlds because they are eternal." And this they called Renunciation? Is this renunciation? this is getting more desirious. This is asking for eternal gratification.
The worldly people are simple people. They are satisfied with momentary desires. And the other worldly seems to be absolutely greedy. They are not satisfy with this world; they need another world where eternal pleasure exist, where beauty never fades, where life is always young, where one lives and never become old.
This is greed! This is pure greed! transplanted into another world. This is more greed than the first. Avoid this so called spiritual materialism; it is utterly materialistic. It does not change your life. It can't change it. It simply nourishes your old mind. It poison you even more.
Buddha says the basic meditation is to see that " I'm not and I will not be. so how can I be in the middle of two nothingness? If I was not before and I will not be again after death, then how can I be right now?" One cannot exist between two nothingess. Then this too must be a nothingness - we have not rightly seen it.
Before birth we were non-existent, no-self, and we shall be so after death again. Therefore we are in this condition at the present moment. without a thing in the world we can call our own - not even our ownselves. This goes to the deepest core of the problem.
Don't dispossess things - dispossess yourself, and things are automatically dispossessed. If I'm not, then how can I possess a woman, or man? If I am not, how can I possess a child? If I am not, then how is possession possible? there is nobody to possess. Do you see the difference.
Other religion have said: Renounce possession! Buddha says: Renounce the possessor. Certaintly, it goes infinitely deeper. You can renounce the possessions, but the possessor remains, and with the possessor the blueprint to possess again - the possessor will bring his possessiveness by the back door.
You can see it happening: A man renounce his worldly life, moves to the mountain, a cave, but then he possesses that cave. And if somebody else comes and start living in the cave, he will throw him out. He will say, "Get out! This is my cave." And this man has renounce his house, wife, his childrens. Now the same possessiveness has entered in a new form.
It does not matter what you possess, but if you possess then you remain on this leaky road.
Dispossessing things doesn't mean escaping things. Things are there, they will be everywhere. In the mountain or cave also things will be there - the mountains, the trees - and you can start possessing them. If you sit under a certain tress, you start possessing it. This is your tree; and no other religious man can come and meditate there: he has to find his own tree. Or you start possessing Temples, the Mosques, the Churches. Or you start possessing philosophies - Hindus, Christian, Etc. Or you start possessing scriptures - the Koran, the Gita, the Bible etc. Or you start possessing the concept of GOD: " This is my concept of GOD". Your is wrong and my concept is right."
Buddhas cut the root. He says there is nobody to possess. Just see the beauty of it and the tremendous import of it. He simple cut the roots. He does not cut the branches and the leaves; Don't drop the possession, drop the possessor. Then you can live in the world and there is no problem. Just live in the world and don't possess because there is nobody to possess.
That's why i dont say to my cultivators to renounce the world. I say renounce the EGO and live in the world. The world cannot do you any harm. All the harms that happens through the EGO. That's why buddha calls "SELF"; his word for 'EGO': The SELF.
Buddha works for 6 years continuously in search of the SELF. You have heard the famous teaching of all ages. Know thyself! Buddha work hard. For 6 years he tried from every nook amd corner, from every angle, from every possible side, to penetrate into this reality of the self. But he could not find it. Know Thyself, and you will know there is no self.
That day you ahve known - when you know that there is no self. There is utter emptiness inside, absolutely emptiness, silence undisturbed, virgin silence. There has never been anybody. It is just a Dream.
In the nightyou dream and you think you have become an emperor. And in the morning you find yourself in the same old bed, and you are not the emperor. But the mind can imagine; the mind is a great imaginative force. The self is mind imagination. It does not exist in reality.
Those who has penetrate deep into their own being have come to know utter silence. Nobody has been found there. And that is the greatest realization.: to find nobody there... then all problems disappear., because the problem creator has disappear.
Nothing means NO THING AT ALL.
A man came to a Master and asked, " Does a DOG have Buddha nature?"
You cannot asked this sort of question elsewhere or you will make other master enrage. But in Buddhism you can ask; there is no problem about it.
And the master answer is very strange and very puzzling, and down the centuries people have been contemplatingit; it has become a cone to meditate over.
The master said. "MU" means nothing. Now the problem is: what does he means by saying MU? It can also mean no; it can mean nothing.Is he saying that the Dog have not the same nature as Buddha? That is not possible from a Zen Master. Then What does he mean by MU? He does not mean no - he means nothing. He is saying : Buddha is nothing, so is dog. He is saying yes by saying no.
He is saying: yes, the dog has the same nature as Buddha, But Buddha is nothing! so is a dog.
There is no self, either in Buddha or Dog. There nobody there inside! Buddha is emptyand so is the dog. Onlt the forms are different, dreams are different. The dog is dreaming it is a dog - that's all. You are draming you are a man, somebody dreaming he is a tree. but inside there is nobody - puire consciousness.
This silence is samadhi. When you start having glimpse of this silence, your life start changing. Then you live for the first time in a poetic way. Then death create no fear in you. Then nothing can disturb you or distract you.
The master's reply, MU, really means yes. But he didn't say yes for a certain reason - becausethe yes will be misunderstood. Then the man would have thought that the dog also have the same self as the Buddha - That's why he didn't use the word 'yes'. He said no. But he does not mean that the dog has not the same nature. He means both have nothingness inside. The form differ.
For a Bhuddhist, and particular the ZEN Bhuddhist, there is nothing profane and nothing sacred.
Next Chapter 5
Most of us have fallen into the trap. The trap is they try not to desire the thing in THIS world, but then they start desiring things of the other world. But it is the same - Desire is the same. It does not matter what you desire. It makes no difference at all what the object of your desire is - desire is the same.
You desire money or you desire meditation: desire is the same. Only the object has changed. And the object is not the problem - the problem is the desire itself, desiring itself. Somebody desires long life here, a beautiful body here, success, fame; somebody else desire eternal life with God in Paradise - what is the difference? The only difference seems to be this; that the first man is not so greedy as the second one. The second is more greedy.
That's why your so called spiritual people are very greedy people. It is not just an accident that india is very greedy. That spirituality creates new greeds. In fact the so called mahatmas go on teaching people; "Don't desire things of this world because they are momentary. Desire things of the other worlds because they are eternal." And this they called Renunciation? Is this renunciation? this is getting more desirious. This is asking for eternal gratification.
The worldly people are simple people. They are satisfied with momentary desires. And the other worldly seems to be absolutely greedy. They are not satisfy with this world; they need another world where eternal pleasure exist, where beauty never fades, where life is always young, where one lives and never become old.
This is greed! This is pure greed! transplanted into another world. This is more greed than the first. Avoid this so called spiritual materialism; it is utterly materialistic. It does not change your life. It can't change it. It simply nourishes your old mind. It poison you even more.
Buddha says the basic meditation is to see that " I'm not and I will not be. so how can I be in the middle of two nothingness? If I was not before and I will not be again after death, then how can I be right now?" One cannot exist between two nothingess. Then this too must be a nothingness - we have not rightly seen it.
Before birth we were non-existent, no-self, and we shall be so after death again. Therefore we are in this condition at the present moment. without a thing in the world we can call our own - not even our ownselves. This goes to the deepest core of the problem.
Don't dispossess things - dispossess yourself, and things are automatically dispossessed. If I'm not, then how can I possess a woman, or man? If I am not, how can I possess a child? If I am not, then how is possession possible? there is nobody to possess. Do you see the difference.
Other religion have said: Renounce possession! Buddha says: Renounce the possessor. Certaintly, it goes infinitely deeper. You can renounce the possessions, but the possessor remains, and with the possessor the blueprint to possess again - the possessor will bring his possessiveness by the back door.
You can see it happening: A man renounce his worldly life, moves to the mountain, a cave, but then he possesses that cave. And if somebody else comes and start living in the cave, he will throw him out. He will say, "Get out! This is my cave." And this man has renounce his house, wife, his childrens. Now the same possessiveness has entered in a new form.
It does not matter what you possess, but if you possess then you remain on this leaky road.
Dispossessing things doesn't mean escaping things. Things are there, they will be everywhere. In the mountain or cave also things will be there - the mountains, the trees - and you can start possessing them. If you sit under a certain tress, you start possessing it. This is your tree; and no other religious man can come and meditate there: he has to find his own tree. Or you start possessing Temples, the Mosques, the Churches. Or you start possessing philosophies - Hindus, Christian, Etc. Or you start possessing scriptures - the Koran, the Gita, the Bible etc. Or you start possessing the concept of GOD: " This is my concept of GOD". Your is wrong and my concept is right."
Buddhas cut the root. He says there is nobody to possess. Just see the beauty of it and the tremendous import of it. He simple cut the roots. He does not cut the branches and the leaves; Don't drop the possession, drop the possessor. Then you can live in the world and there is no problem. Just live in the world and don't possess because there is nobody to possess.
That's why i dont say to my cultivators to renounce the world. I say renounce the EGO and live in the world. The world cannot do you any harm. All the harms that happens through the EGO. That's why buddha calls "SELF"; his word for 'EGO': The SELF.
Buddha works for 6 years continuously in search of the SELF. You have heard the famous teaching of all ages. Know thyself! Buddha work hard. For 6 years he tried from every nook amd corner, from every angle, from every possible side, to penetrate into this reality of the self. But he could not find it. Know Thyself, and you will know there is no self.
That day you ahve known - when you know that there is no self. There is utter emptiness inside, absolutely emptiness, silence undisturbed, virgin silence. There has never been anybody. It is just a Dream.
In the nightyou dream and you think you have become an emperor. And in the morning you find yourself in the same old bed, and you are not the emperor. But the mind can imagine; the mind is a great imaginative force. The self is mind imagination. It does not exist in reality.
Those who has penetrate deep into their own being have come to know utter silence. Nobody has been found there. And that is the greatest realization.: to find nobody there... then all problems disappear., because the problem creator has disappear.
Nothing means NO THING AT ALL.
A man came to a Master and asked, " Does a DOG have Buddha nature?"
You cannot asked this sort of question elsewhere or you will make other master enrage. But in Buddhism you can ask; there is no problem about it.
And the master answer is very strange and very puzzling, and down the centuries people have been contemplatingit; it has become a cone to meditate over.
The master said. "MU" means nothing. Now the problem is: what does he means by saying MU? It can also mean no; it can mean nothing.Is he saying that the Dog have not the same nature as Buddha? That is not possible from a Zen Master. Then What does he mean by MU? He does not mean no - he means nothing. He is saying : Buddha is nothing, so is dog. He is saying yes by saying no.
He is saying: yes, the dog has the same nature as Buddha, But Buddha is nothing! so is a dog.
There is no self, either in Buddha or Dog. There nobody there inside! Buddha is emptyand so is the dog. Onlt the forms are different, dreams are different. The dog is dreaming it is a dog - that's all. You are draming you are a man, somebody dreaming he is a tree. but inside there is nobody - puire consciousness.
This silence is samadhi. When you start having glimpse of this silence, your life start changing. Then you live for the first time in a poetic way. Then death create no fear in you. Then nothing can disturb you or distract you.
The master's reply, MU, really means yes. But he didn't say yes for a certain reason - becausethe yes will be misunderstood. Then the man would have thought that the dog also have the same self as the Buddha - That's why he didn't use the word 'yes'. He said no. But he does not mean that the dog has not the same nature. He means both have nothingness inside. The form differ.
For a Bhuddhist, and particular the ZEN Bhuddhist, there is nothing profane and nothing sacred.
Next Chapter 5
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