VBT – Meditation 107.5

VBT – Meditation 107.5

Forget The Achieving Mind

I have heard about a Zen master, Bokuju. He struggled hard to attain enlightenment, but nothing happened. Really, with a hard struggle sometimes nothing will happen, because the hard struggle is through the ego. And through hard struggle the ego becomes more hard. He did whatsoever could be done but the goal was no nearer. Rather, on the contrary, it was further away; further away than when he had started the journey. He was puzzled, confused, so he came to his master. The master said, “For a few years just completely stop any effort, any goal, any destination. Just forget, and live moment to moment near me. Don’t do anything. Simply eat, sleep, walk, and just be near me. And don’t raise any question… just see me, my presence. And don’t make any effort because nothing is to be achieved. Forget the achieving mind because the achieving mind is always in the future – that’s why it goes on missing the present. Just forget that you have to achieve anything.”

Bokuju believed in his master. He started living with him. For a few days, a few months, ideas floated in, thoughts came, and sometimes he would become uneasy and would think, “I am wasting time. I am not doing anything. How can it happen without doing anything? If it couldn’t happen through such hard effort, how is it going to be easily attained by not doing anything?” But, still, he believed in the master. By and by the mind slowed down, and in the present of his master he started to feel a subtle calm flowing – a silence would fall from the master onto him. He started feeling a merger.

Years passed. He completely forgot that he was. The master became the center and he started to live like a shadow.

Then the miracle is possible – this happening itself is the miracle. One day, suddenly, the master called his name, “Bokuju, are you here?” Just this, “Bokuju, are you here?” And he said, “Yes, master.” And, it is said, he became enlightened.

There was nothing like a technique, not even a suggestion – just, “Bokuju, are you here?” The total presence had been called, “Are you here, not moving anywhere, not gone somewhere else? With total intensity, are you present here?” And Bokuju said, “Yes, master.” In that “yes” he became totally present there.

It is said that the master started laughing and Bokuju started laughing, and the master said, “Now you can go. Now you can move out there and help people by your presence.” Bokuju never taught any method. He would simply ask this much, “Just be near. Remain present.” And whenever a disciple was in tune, he would call the name of the disciple and ask, “Are you here?” This was the whole technique.

But this technique will need a grounding of your mind, a deep innocence. There are many techniques which are simple, the simplest possible: just a saying, “Be this one” – just a hint. But it must have been said by the master in a certain moment. “Be this one” cannot always be said. It must have been said in a certain tuning, when the disciple was totally one with the master, or totally with the universe, merged. Then the master says, “Be this one” – and suddenly the focus will change and the last part of the ego will dissolve.