THIS VERY BODY THE BUDDHA Talks on Hakuin’s Song of Meditation

Just possess yourself and you have possessed all.

Hakuin is one of the greatest Zen masters and his Song of Meditation is commented on by Osho in this book. Hakuin’s song is so small and yet so much truth, so much love and so much insight is condensed into a few words. According to Osho it contains all the Bibles, all the Korans and all the Vedas. Hakuin is sharing his buddhahood in this song which says: “ All beings are from the very beginning buddhas.” Zen people call this single sentence “The Lion’s Roar.” Hakuin says, it happens through meditation that one discover or rediscover one’s buddhahood. He also says that there need not be any worry about sins and past karma as all that can be burnt in a single sitting of meditation.

Hakuin’s song is a very condensed statement of buddhahood. It says one need not go any where to seek and search because all is here in this shore. This is the only shore and the other shore is hidden in this shore.

“This very place the lotus paradise,

This very body the Buddha.”

The Zen attitude towards life is that of laughter, of living, of enjoying and of celebrating. Osho says: “Laugh so totally that when death comes you can have your last laugh.”

This book consists of 10 chapters of which only 2 chapters are devoted for Osho’s commentary on Hakuin’s ‘Song of Meditation’. The remaining chapters are set apart for Osho’s responses to questions from disciples and seekers. Osho tells a number of jokes, parables and anecdotes during the course of his talks. Here is one such joke:

A great film director and his wife were on safari in the African jungle when, just as they were walking along a narrow path in the thickest part of the bush, a huge lion leapt out at them, grabbed his wife in its massive jaws, and began to drag her off. “Shoot, John!” she yelled to her husband. “Shoot!” “I can’t,” he yelled back. “I’ve run out of film!”

Given below are some of Osho’s o0bservations:

There are people who are greedy for money and there are people who are greedy for God. It makes no difference at all, they are the same people.

A man who tries to remain always secure, safe, will not learn anything, will not learn ever.

A blind man believes in light. But a man who has eyes does not believe in light, there is no need. He knows light.

God resides in you as you. God is a tree in a tree and a dog in a dog and a man in a man. God is all these things.

ZEN: THE PATH OF PARADOX

Living and dying in a relaxed way is what Zen is.

A monk came to a master for help on working on one of the classic questions in Zen dialectic: “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the west?” The master suggested that before proceeding with the problem the monk should make him a low salaam. As he was dutifully prostrating himself, the master gave him a good swift kick. When he felt the master’s foot he attained immediate enlightenment.

Zen says that meaning is man-created and so there is no meaning and no purpose and no need to look for it. Commenting on this typical Zen story, Osho says: “ You don’t ask a cloud, why it has come to China or you don’t ask a star,why it is there. Men like Bodhidharma are so pure, they don’t exist through meaning; they simply exist without any meaning. They don’t exist for any purpose.”

This book is the transcript of Osho’s talks on Zen, which is considered as the only religion in the world that teaches sudden enlightenment. A method adopted by the Zen masters for this is to ask their disciples to solve a koan. A koan is a riddle that is impossible to solve by its very formation. ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’ is a famous Zen koan. Osho says that when one is looking at the riddle and no thought arises one can see into the riddle that it is absurd. In the gap, thinking is not there but knowing happens. In Osho’s words: “ When thinking stops and knowing happens, when thoughts disappear and clarity comes and you can see that truth is not something to be thought about, truth has to be seen.” An unexpected kick or whack from a master can also lead the disciple to sudden enlightenment.

Zen doesn’t have a concept of church, priest or God .To them God is not something above humanity, it is something hidden within humanity. Zen says that with God, man will remain always a slave and a worshiper and he will remain always in fear of God. Zen says everything is divine, each leaf of every tree and each pebble on every shore is special, unique and holy. so how can anything be special, divine and good or anything be evil, bad and ugly.

Zen says that the mind is the world and unless one drops the mind one can never be in tune with existence and one cannot pulsate with the pulse of the universe. According to Osho the whole teaching of Zen consists of only one thing: “how to take a jump into nothingness, how to come to the very end of your mind, which is the end of the world.” Zen says : “When you are silent, it speaks; when you speak, it is silent.” This is the Zen paradox.

Some of Osho’s observations:

Meditation is not concentration-- If you look with concentration you will find an ant, not God.

The man who is articulate in language is the dominant man.

Even when you say something about somebody else, you are saying it only about yourself.

Those who go on telling you to amend your nature and improve upon yourself are very dangerous people.

TAO: THE PATHLESS PATH

Happiness is natural; one should not seek it, one should simply enjoy it.

Tao means the way, which is more like a bird flying in the sky leaving no markers behind. The bird has flown but no marks are left; it is a pathless path. Osho, in this book, comments on five Taoist parables, which according to him are very deep and they have to be penetrated and meditated upon to know the real meaning. Confucius is used as a laughing stock in Taoist stories, where he is figured as a traveller going from somewhere to somewhere, always seeking and searching for knowledge.

In one of the parables Confucius asks a poor wandering monk who is singing a song of joy: “Master, what is the reason for your joy?”
“I have many joys”, replies the monk. “ Of the myriad things which heaven begot, mankind is the most noble - and I have the luck to be human. This is my first joy. People are born who do not live a day or a month, but I have already lived to ninety. This is my joy. For all men, poverty is the norm and death is the end. Abiding by the norm, awaiting my end, what is there to be concerned about?”
“Good!” says Confucius, “here is a man who knows how to console himself.”

By interpreting the story Osho says that there cannot be any reason for joy as it is natural like one’s health. So never ask reasons for someone’s happiness; it is just like asking why somebody is healthy.Also, there cannot be many joys. The monk feels himself happy because he at the age of ninety is still healthy and alive when so many others have died at their prime young age. The monk says that everybody is going to die and everybody else is poor and hence he doesn’t feel miserable either. According to Osho the monk’s happiness is a comparative happiness which is a pseudo-happiness. His interpretation reflects the Taoist vision.

Confucius believes in consolations whereas Tao believes in contentment. What is needed , according to Osho, is contentment and not consolation and contentment comes only when one is not comparing. Osho says: “Don’t compare with those who have more, don’t compare with those who have less.” The goal of all Confucian philosophy is that “ a man must become a gentleman”; one cannot find a loophole in his character and all virtues have become real in him. But the Taoists don’t talk about the goal at all.

The whole of Tao’s message according to Osho is that “Be anarchic, be authentically true to your own being. Listen only to yourself. Don’t allow anybody to discipline you. Don’t allow anybody to make a slave of you, don’t allow anybody to condition you. Man who has lived, loved, experienced, meditated, who has gone through so many things in life, has become more worthy - he has to be given a higher life. Happiness is natural; one should not seek it, one should simply enjoy it.”

Some of Osho’s observations:

The moment a person becomes perfect, he is dead. An alive person is never perfect, and my teaching is basically not for perfection but for totality.

Laziness is just like the common cold - nothing much to worry about. Ego is like cancer. It is better not to have either.

An intelligent person will have to think before he acts. The soldier has to act before he thinks.

Osho says: “The Indian society is based on the laws of Manu and the Chinese society is based on the laws of Confucius. And both men have destroyed both of the countries.”