“It is not that you have to become a Buddha, you are a Buddha, fallen asleep. Somebody needs to kick you. Somebody needs to shout at you. Somebody needs to hit you. And that is the purpose of a master.”
My approach is not that of evolution. Nothing is going anywhere – all is here. Things are changing, certainly, but there is no evolution. Things are moving, certainly, but nothing is going higher and nothing is left behind as lower. Drop those categories. And dropping them you will immediately be entering into a new world. Suddenly you will find friendship with trees, because they are no longer lower. Suddenly you will find a great affinity with birds, because they are no longer lower. Suddenly you will look into the eyes of your dog, and you will find a Buddha there too. Then the sheer joy of it is infinite. You will look into the eyes of your woman, and a Buddha is hiding there too.
I make all things divine. I don’t want you to go to God — I bring God to you. And not only to you – I bring God to the whole existence. It is really there. There is no other reality; this is the only reality there is. This is the only dance there is. Don’t miss this dance! Don’t get obsessed with ideals, otherwise you will be losing an opportunity. […]
Sat Bodhi asks: You said life and existence have no goal, they are a purpose unto themselves.
Yes, it is so. It is not a philosophical statement. I am simply sharing my experience. I am not saying anything which I have not seen, felt, lived. I am simply opening my heart to you.
It is so.
It is not an argument. I am not trying to convince you of anything at all. I am simply making it clear to you what has happened to me. And I say to you: this is available to you too – and this very moment. Not a single moment’s postponement is needed, because enlightenment is a state of nature.
Relax, don’t be tense about goals, because all goals make tension, create tension, stress, strain, because you always have to look ahead, you have to look far away. You have to think of future things, you have to plan for them. And you have to strive. Naturally, tension arises, anxiety arises, anguish arises. You are torn apart – your reality is here and your heart is somewhere else. You become schizophrenic.
When I say relax, I mean drop all goals – drop all ideals. Relax into this moment… listen to this moment, live this moment, have a taste of it. Be surrounded by the reality that is already here, and suddenly you will also have the same taste I am talking about. It is an experience, existential. It is not speculation. […]
I don’t teach you anything as the aim of the world. I teach you only life, love, joy. I don’t want you to become obsessed with the future. Now is my teaching – if it can be called a teaching. Rather than calling it a teaching I would like to call it a sharing. I am not a teacher in that sense. I am not giving you a doctrine so that you can adapt yourself to the doctrine and you can become a follower. I want you to become me, not a follower.
But you are so miserly. Not only in giving: even in taking you are so miserly. To hide that miserliness you philosophize in so many ways – these are strategies. You are afraid to relax. So first you were tense for money, for a better house, for a better job, for a more beautiful woman. Now you are tense for evolution – how to become enlightened, how to become a Buddha? You need a good kick in the pants.
That’s exactly what happened…
A great seeker, a philosopher, a thinker, came to Ma Tzu. Ma Tzu is one of the rare Zen masters. And the philosopher asked – he was a professor in a university – he asked how to become enlightened, how to become a Buddha. Ma Tzu said – he was sitting in the temple just by the side of a great Buddha statue – he said, “To talk about such solemn and serious things, let us start by the right approach: you first bow down to Buddha.”
It looked so right that to talk about Buddhahood, to talk about enlightenment… and Ma Tzu said with great seriousness, “You bow down to Buddha.” So the philosopher bowed down – and Ma Tzu gave him a good kick, a terrific kick in the pants. And something happened… not only that you are laughing: the philosopher started laughing, seeing the whole ridiculousness of it. His first satori – he had some taste of Buddhahood in that moment.
What really happened? He was not expecting such a kick from such a great man, such an enlightened sage. You never expect such things. It was such a shock. For a moment, his thinking stopped. For a moment, he could not think at all. This was so unexpected.
That very moment, bowing down to the statue of Buddha, and Ma Tzu kicking him so unexpectedly, was like an electric shock. It must have gone to the deepest core of his mind. For a moment, all thinking stops, all time stops… and he is looking at Buddha’s statue. In that very moment, that meditative moment, he started laughing.
Years later, he was asked again and again, “What happened to you? – because you have never been the same man since?” He would answer, “Something strange happened. Since the day Ma Tzu kicked me, I have not stopped laughing. Whenever I bow down to Buddha, I remember Ma Tzu and the kick is there again. For a moment my thinking stops and I can see what this man means. He taught me without using a single word.”
That’s exactly what you need: a kick in the pants – a terrific kick. You are Buddhas, you have simply forgotten. You need only a remembrance, not evolution! It is not that you have to become a Buddha, you are a Buddha, fallen asleep. Somebody needs to kick you. Somebody needs to shout at you. Somebody needs to hit you. And that is the purpose of a master.
Ma Tzu is a master. […]
Osho, Take it Easy, Vol 1, Ch 6 (excerpt)
Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
Featured image supposedly of Ma Tzu (Ma Zu Daoyi), credit to wikimedia.commons
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