Pail Of Water

A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath.

The student brought the water and, after cooling the bath, threw on to the ground the little that was left over.

“You dunce!” the master scolded him. “Why didn’t you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even one drop of water in this temple?”

The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.

Drop Shortcuts

Disciple was ready, just needed one push. When a disciple is ready all the masters push by giving them the shock.

Master is not here to fulfill your expectations. If the master fulfills your expectations he will never be able to transform you.

Master is here to destroy all your expectations; he is here to shock you. And in those shocking experiences your mind will stop.

You will not be able to figure it out: and that is the point where something new enters you. With that new you are born again.

A person who gives birth to himself is a dwij, a twice-born. He has been reborn. Now he is his own mother, his own father.

Death has never killed anybody; death has no power to kill; death is the most impotent thing in the world. You make it potent by clinging to the superficial.

The power of death is not intrinsic to death, the power of death is given by you.

Death is empowered by you because you go on clinging to the superficial. Death can take only the superficial, it cannot enter the depths of your being.

But if you think your clothes are you, your body is you, your mind is you, then you have given power to the hands of death. Death will destroy this and then you will convulsively weep that ‘I have been killed’ and for your whole life you will be afraid of death.

Zen says that if you drop knowledge – and within knowledge everything is included, your name, your identity, everything, because this has been given to you by others – if you drop all that has been given by others, you will have a totally different quality to your being – innocence. This will be a crucifixion of the persona, the personality, and there will be a resurrection of your innocence; you will become a child again, reborn.

Hindus call this state DWIJ, twice born. This is a second birth. A man becomes really a Brahmin when he has gone through the cross – the personality burnt and destroyed by death. Or he has renounced it himself voluntarily, then innocence arises and he is reborn. Then he is a Brahmin because then only he comes to know what truth is.

But we have decided to follow the short-cut, the way of the belief. We are hoping against hope that somebody else’s eyes will do the work for us.

Learning from the story Pail Of Water: Drop Shortcuts

Experience Learning

One thing has to be remembered about meditation; it is a long journey and there is no shortcut. Anyone who says there is a shortcut is befooling you.

It is a long journey because the change is very deep and is achieved after many lives – many lives of routine habits, thinking, and desiring. And the mind structure; that you have to drop through meditation. In fact it is almost impossible – but it happens.

A man becoming a meditator is the greatest responsibility in the world. It is not easy. It cannot be instant. So from the beginning never start expecting too much and then you will never be frustrated. You will always be happy because things will grow very slowly.

Meditation is not a seasonal flower which within six weeks is there. It is a  very very big tree. It needs time to spread its roots.

A state of meditation is an innocent, silent state. You are blissfully unaware of your awareness. You are, but you are utterly relaxed. You are not in a state of sleep; you are fully alert, more alert than ever. Rather, you are – alertness.

What is meditation? Meditation is just being delighted in your own presence; meditation is a delight in your own being. It is very simple – a totally relaxed state of consciousness where you are not doing anything. The moment – doing enters you become tense; anxiety enters immediately. How, to do? What to do? How to succeed? How not to fail? You have already moved into the future.

If you are contemplating, what can you contemplate? How can you contemplate the unknown? How can you contemplate the unknowable? You can contemplate only the known. You can chew it again and again, but it is known. If you know something about Jesus, you can think again and again; if you know something about Krishna, you can think again and again. You can go on modifying, changing, decorating – but it is not going to lead you towards the unknown. And “God” is the unknown.

Meditation is just to be, not doing anything – no action, no thought, no emotion. You just are. And it is a sheer delight. From where does this delight come when you are not doing anything? It comes from nowhere, or, it comes from everywhere. It is uncaused, because the existence is made of the stuff called joy. It needs no cause, no reason. If you are unhappy you have a reason to be unhappy; if you are happy you are simply happy – there is no reason for it. Your mind tries to find a reason because it cannot believe in the uncaused, because it cannot control the uncaused – with the uncaused the mind simply becomes impotent. So the mind goes on finding some reason or other. But I would like to tell you that whenever you are happy, you are happy for no reason at all, whenever you are unhappy, you have some reason to be unhappy – because happiness is just the stuff you are made of. It is your very being, it is your innermost core. Joy is your innermost core.