The Zen master Mu-nan had only one successor. His name was Shoju. After Shoju had completed his study of Zen, Mu-nan called him into his room.
“I am getting old,” he said, “and as far as I know, Shoju, you are the only one who will carry on this teaching. Here is a book. It has been passed down from master to master for seven generations. I have also added many points according to my understanding. The book is very valuable, and I am giving it to you to represent your successorship.”
“If the book is such an important thing, you had better keep it,” Shoju replied. “I received your Zen without writing and am satisfied with it as it is.”
“I know that,” said Mu-nan. “Even so, this work has been carried from master to master for seven generations, so you may keep it as a symbol of having received the teaching. Here.”
They happened to be talking before a brazier. The instant Shoju felt the book in his hands he thrust it into the flaming coals. He had no lust for possessions.
Mu-nan, who never had been angry before, yelled: “What are you doing!” Shoju shouted back: “What are you saying!”
Learned To Unlearned
Why Shoju was not interested in the book which was representing successorship.
Because truth cannot be taught, but it can be learned – because truth is not a teaching, not a doctrine, not a theory, a philosophy, or something like that. Truth is existence.
Truth is BEING. Nothing can be said about it. It is unteachable teaching, which can be learned by Unlearning.
What Shoju has learned from his Master Mu-nan is to Unlearn. His gesture of throwing the book in fire has told him that I have dropped the knowledge. He has Learned To Unlearned.
Near a sage you go to unlearn. When you are fed up with your learning, when you have learned much and gained nothing, when you know much and you are lost in your own knowledge, when you know much but you have completely forgotten who you are, when you know much about unnecessary things, nonessential things and the essential knowledge about your own being is lost – then you come to a sage to unlearn.
And that is the greatest surrender. It is easy to surrender your wealth because it is outside you. Robbers can take it, it can be stolen; it is nothing that is part of you, it is outside! You can drop it easily. But knowledge becomes an inner phenomenon, it gets inside you, it runs in your blood, it becomes part of your bones, it becomes your very marrow. It is difficult to surrender it.
It is easy to learn something, it is very, very difficult to unlearn it. How to unlearn when you know a certain thing? It becomes very, very difficult not to know it. How to drop it? It is so deep in you. Unless you move beyond your mind – for you are identified with the mind – you cannot drop it because you think “It is me.” You think your knowledge is your being.
Move! All meditations are techniques to move from the mind, to gain a little distance from the mind, to become a little aloof and unidentified; to transcend the mind, to become a watcher on the hills so you can see what is happening in the mind. When you are separate from the mind, only then is there a possibility to drop something, to drop knowledge, to unlearn.
…The disciple aims at losing day by day. That is his gain. He gains by: …losing day by day. That is his learning, he learns by unlearning day by day. A moment comes when he is again a child, not knowing anything. A moment comes when he enters paradise again. He tasted the bitter fruit of knowledge, but he found out it was stupid. Knowledge is deep stupidity. He found it out, now he comes into paradise again. Now no serpent can seduce him. He comes mature – a child but mature. A child, innocent – but alert, aware, conscious.
Learning from story No Lust: Learned To Unlearned
Experience Learning
With this we will have a question CAN MEDITATION BE LEARNED, OR IS IT, LIKE LOVE, A STATE OF BEING THAT COMES AS A PRESENT?
Meditation cannot be learned in a positive way, but it can be learned in a negative way. This is very important to understand: the basic method of meditation is negative. What do I mean when I say meditation can be learned negatively, only negatively? I mean that the mind can be unlearned, and the moment you unlearn the mind you are learning meditation.
Unlearning the mind is learning meditation; when the mind has been completely unlearned you have learned meditation. You cannot go directly into learning meditation. All that is needed is to remove the mind. Mind is like a block. The river is there but blocked, it can’t flow. It is covered with rocks; those rocks don’t allow it any outlet. It is surging inside you, it is longing for the ocean, it wants to get out of this prison. That’s why everybody feels so restless. This restlessness is nothing but your consciousness
longing to meet with the ultimate. The river wants to reach the ocean. The seed wants to sprout, but it is covered, blocked by a big rock. That rock is of your mind. And it is a big rock because you have been accumulating it for many many lives. Your meditation is simply crushed underneath it. You cannot reach meditation directly, but you can remove this rock chunk by chunk. You can take a chisel and a hammer – and go on hammering on the rock. Slowly slowly the rock will disappear. The day the rock disappears, suddenly a flow, a fresh flow of water, will start running towards the ocean. That is meditation.
Hence, in one sense meditation cannot be learned. You cannot practice it, because all practicing is of the mind. All practices strengthen the mind, make it stronger. And the mind has to be made weaker; its power over you has to be destroyed. It has to be put in its right place: it is not the master, it has only become the master. You have to stop cooperating with it, you have to stop giving more and more nourishment to it. That’s what I mean by unlearning the mind. Don’t support it. Don’t cling to it. Don’t rely on it. Don’t be possessed by it. Don’t live according to its dictates. And then slowly slowly the master is free from the slave. That master is your meditative quality. Our question: “Can meditation be learned, or is it, like love, a state of being that comes as a present?”
It is already there. It does not come like a present – nobody ’presents’ it to you – it is your very nature, svabhava, it is your very being. And so is love. When meditation has happened, love is its aroma, its perfume. A meditative person is naturally loving; it can’t be otherwise. A loving person is naturally meditative. If it is not so, then you are deceived, then you are carrying false coins. If a man thinks he is meditative and is not loving, then his meditation is nothing but a mind practice, something false, pseudo. Something which is not meditation is masquerading as meditation. He has been deceived by his mind. If a man thinks that he is very loving and is not meditative, his love is nothing but another name for lust. He knows nothing of love; he can’t know the very nature of things. AES DHAMMO SANANTANO. This is the ultimate law: meditation brings love naturally – it is its aroma, its fragrance. And love exists only around the flower called meditation, never otherwise. They are together. Either search for love or for meditation. And you can only search for one, because things are already too complicated. If you start searching for both you will make them even more complicated, you may become more confused. Hence, only seek one. If you can find one, the other is found without any effort on your part. Either find love or find meditation and the other will follow it like a shadow. But they are not learned in a direct way as you learn mathematics, as you learn geography, history, as you learn a new language. That is not the way to learn meditation or love; they are learned in an indirect way. If you want to learn meditation, you will have to unlearn the ways of the mind. If you want to learn love, you will have to unlearn the unloving ways that have become very ingrained in
you. Anger, possessiveness, jealousy – these will have to be unlearned. And it never comes as a gift because it is already given; it is your innermost nature. Yes, it is a grace, a gift, but it is not going to happen in the future, it has already happened. You have never been without it, you CAN’T be without it. Love and meditation constitute your real essential core.
Tags: Disciple Is Receptive Learned To Unlearned No Lust Sunflower Truly Wise Truth Means Unlearning
