The laughing man

An ancient parable…

Once upon a time there was a country, that encompassed all the countries of the world. And in that country there was a town, that incorporated all the towns of that country; and in that town there was a street, in which were gathered all the streets of the town; and on that street there was a house, which sheltered all the houses of the street; and in that house there was a room and in that room there was a man, and that man personified all men of all countries and that man laughed and laughed.

No-one had ever laughed like that before.

Why was he laughing? He was laughing because he had understood that he is all. He was laughing because he had understood the stupidity of searching. There was no need to search; all was given from the very beginning.

This is a persistent Zen note: that everybody is a Buddha from the very beginning, you just have to come out of your dreams and see the reality of your being.

This man was laughing – this man of the parable. This is the clear laughter of enlightenment that perceives all countries, towns, streets, and beings as original mind. When ‘many’ disappear and ‘one’ is realized, one has seen, one has come home. And coming home is all that matters. And then one laughs. All the enlightened people have laughed – laughed at the whole absurdity of it all, laughed at the whole effort of so many many lives for something that was already inside them, and they were looking out and they were running and running, and chasing, and driving themselves crazy.

Osho, The Sun Rises in the Evening, Ch 7 (excerpt)

The spiritual search is as illusory as any other search. The search itself is illusory because it has taken one thing for granted: that something is missing. And nothing is missing! Once you take it for granted that something is missing, you start looking for it; then you go on looking for it in all directions. And the more you search, the more you will miss it, because the more you search, the more dust-covered becomes the mirror. The more you travel to seek it, the farther and farther you go in search of it, the more and more frustrated you become. Slowly slowly you start thinking that it is so far away… ‘That’s why I am not reaching it.’

The reality is just the opposite: you are not reaching it because you are it. It is not far away, it is so close by that even to call it ‘close’ is not right, because even closeness is a kind of distance.

It is not distant at all, it breathes in you.
It is not ‘there’, it is here.
It is not ‘then’, it is now.
It has always been with you.

From the very beginning, everyone is a Buddha, everyone is a mirror capable of reflecting.

This is the basic message of Zen – and the greatest message that has ever been delivered to man, and the greatest liberating force that has ever been brought to the earth. But you will have to look in a totally new way. All that is needed is not search, but a new way of looking at things. The common, the ordinary, the usual way has to be dropped.

Hence I say the sun rises in the evening.

By what name you call it does not matter a bit, because it is wordless, it is wordlessness, it is utter silence. It is unchanging, unmoving; it is eternal, it is timeless.

Osho, The Sun Rises in the Evening, Ch 1 (excerpt)

Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales

Featured image credit to Thich Nhat Hanh Quote Collective