“If we see changes in the situation we change immediately, as if we have no integrated soul, no crystallized soul.”
Your face changes continuously. If you see a stranger you have a different face; if you see a friend, immediately the face changes; if your servant is there you have a different face; if your master is there you have a different face. You continuously change your masks because you depend on the situation. You don’t have a soul, you are not integrated, things around you change you. That is not the case with a Joshu. With a Joshu, the case is totally different. He changes his surroundings, he is not changed by his surroundings. Whatsoever happens around him is irrelevant, his face remains the same; there is no need to change the mask.
It is reported that once a governor came to see Zen Master Joshu.
Of course, he was a great politician, a powerful man, a governor. He wrote on a paper, “I have come to see you,” his name and governor of this-and-this state.
He must have, knowingly or unknowingly, wanted to influence Joshu.
Joshu looked at the paper, threw it away and said to the man who had brought the message: “Say I don’t want to see this fellow at all. Throw him out.”
The man went and said: “Joshu has said, ‘Throw him out.’ He has thrown your paper away and said, ‘I don’t want to see this fellow.’“
The governor understood.
He wrote again on a paper, just his name and, “I would like to see you.”
The paper reached Joshu and he said: “So this is the fellow! Bring him in.”
The governor came in and he asked: “But why did you behave in such a strange way? You said, ‘Throw this man out.’“
Joshu said: “Faces are not allowed here. ‘Governor’ is a face, a mask. I recognize you very well, but I don’t recognize masks and if you have come with a mask, you are not allowed.
“Now it is okay; I know you very well, but I don’t know any governor. The next time you come, leave the governor behind, leave it at your house; don’t bring it with you.”
We are almost continuously using faces; immediately we change. If we see changes in the situation we change immediately, as if we have no integrated soul, no crystallized soul.
Osho, Roots and Wings – Talks on Zen, later called A Bird on the Wing, Ch 4
Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
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