17. The First Zen Koan

When Shakyamuni Buddha was at Mount Grdhrakuta, he held out a flower to his listeners. Everyone was silent.

Only Mahakashyapa broke into a broad smile. The Buddha said, "I have the True Dharma Eye,the Marvelous Mind of Nirvana, the True Form of the Formless, and the Subtle Dharma Gate, independent of words and transmitted beyond doctrine. This I have entrusted to Mahakashyapa."

Swami Dayananda Saraswati reaching out to us with the same flower!

16. Dropping the Doubting Mind

Excerpts from a chat I had with a friend on orkut...

I: Wot came first -- You, Your Mind or God?
She: I would say God. But its a loaded question. For you see God is within us.. and we part of that great ocean. Thus God and Me would be interchangable. On the other hand "Me" or "I" represents ones ego.. with it attached the mind.. thus.. a simple answer would be.. consciousness .. though that was not part of the question.

I: If foremost is the consciousness, and whomsoever concluded that, how did s/he conclude that?
She: What makes you think someone concluded that? What if there is no he or she? The truth is something that has always existed, I personally dont think it was created, its as simple as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west...

I: I have similar viewpoint... Its like you win a lottery, and you are happy... but the moment you relate the two things, you have lost the spontaneity... you bring in the fear, the fear of losing the cause of your happiness... in a similar way, once you realise THAT, the consciousness or God or whatever you name THAT, you don't need to answer the WHYs and the HOWs... you just know IT... the HOWs and the WHYs are just mind play... As mentioned in Yoga Vashishta: A crow sits on a coconut tree and a ripe coconut falls, and the mind ascribes cause and effect. Most Zen koans also convey the same message... The only thing now required is to realize THAT! So, now the question arises, "How can I realize THAT?"... But then there is no cause which can result in the effect of knowing THAT! The answer to me lies in the Grace of the Realized Soul or Guru (Spiritual Master), as you can't do anything other than surrender to THAT to realize THAT!

Hope I didn't bore you... I was just clarifying it to myself :)

---

Zen Koans

A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master:
'Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?'
Joshu answered:
'Mu.'

Zen is
like a man hanging by his teeth

in a tree over a precipice:
his hands grasp no branch,

his feet rest on no lib,
and under the tree another person asks him,
‘Why did Bodhidharma come to China from India?’.
If the man in the tree does not answer,

he fails;
and if he answers,

he falls and loses his life.
Now what shall he do?

By René Magritte, 1898-1967.
The text in Latin means, "This is not a pipe."

15. Where's my Saffron Robe?

The 'Bodhi' in me tells me that this will be the cover page photo of my book:
"Enlightenment - How I Did It"!!
(I can visualize a Buddha laughing at this thought of mine!)