Yakusan: Straight to the Point of Enlightenment
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Whatever the cost enlightenment is cheap
Whatever the cost enlightenment is cheap. Koke received a horse from the emperor, fell off, broke his leg—made crutches. 'Do you know me?' 'Why shouldn't I?' 'Here's somebody who expounded the Dharma and can't walk.' Rajiv Gandhi says the earth is one, all boundaries should dissolve. Osho supports it but asks: Who will begin? Can you practice what you preach? Whatever the cost, enlightenment is cheap—the cost is yourself. Koke's broken leg: the Dharma doesn't protect the body, it transcends it.
There is no way to compare me with anybody
There is no way to compare me with anybody. Yakusan rang the bell, monks gathered—then went back to his room. 'Sutra priests for sutras, shastra priests for shastras—why question my goings-on?' Peter Priskil, a Christian, wrote a book comparing Osho favorably to Jesus—rare honesty. Bertrand Russell knew Buddha was higher than Jesus but couldn't write it. To praise a living contemporary is almost impossible—mythology grows around the dead. There is no way to compare me with anybody: each enlightened being is unique.
A grand approach to reality
A grand approach to reality. The governor visited Yakusan, who kept reading. 'Better to hear the name than see your face!' 'Why respect the ear and look down on the eye?' Yakusan pointed up and down. 'I don't understand.' 'Clouds are in the sky; water is in the well!' The governor suddenly realized. The two greatest enemies of man: religions and the military. Both are life-negative. A grand approach to reality: clouds in the sky, water in the well—truth is right here, not in scriptures or armies.
The sutra is long, the night is short
The sutra is long, the night is short. The novice Gao: 'Where from?' 'Nanyue.' 'Where going?' 'To receive precepts.' 'What's the aim?' 'To escape birth and death.' 'There is someone who doesn't receive precepts and has no birth and death to escape.' 'Changan is noisy.' 'My province is peaceful.' 'From scriptures or inquiry?' 'Neither.' The Dalai Lama is not enlightened—his desire for political power prevents it. The sutra is long, the night is short: truth is not in scriptures but in direct experience. Don't agree to take it up—just be it.
The truth is what works
The truth is what works. 'What are you doing?' 'Carrying water.' 'What about that fellow?' 'He is here.' 'For whom are you working?' 'For that fellow.' 'Why not let him work with you?' 'Don't make a fool of him!' 'I have a special phrase I've never told anyone.' 'It is already following you.' Rajiv Gandhi says India suffers from Western materialism. India suffers because it accepted only half of man—the spirit, not the body. The truth is what works: carrying water is the special phrase. Zen is not about escaping work but finding the eternal in the ordinary.