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food, and he never asked, `Why do you go on standing outside?'" -- because that is one of the fundamentals of Zen: don't interfere into anybody's life. Everybody has a territorial imperative, a certain area. Don't enter into it; that is his dignity, that is his pride. Leave it to his intelligence.
"And he was not only giving me food, he was giving me spiritual nourishment. It was not bad, Osho. Don't misunderstand me, and don't misunderstand my master, Nansen."
ON ANOTHER OCCASION, YAKUSAN WAS RETURNING TO HIS TEMPLE WITH A BUNDLE OF FIREWOOD WHEN A MONK ASKED HIM, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"
YAKUSAN REPLIED, "I HAVE GOT FIREWOOD."
THE MONK POINTED TO YAKUSAN'S SWORD AND SAID, "IT MAKES THE SOUND `TAP-TAP'."
Perhaps because he was carrying the firewood, and the sword was hanging around his waist... it may have been hitting the firewood and making the sound `tap-tap'. He said, "What is that which makes the sound `tap-tap'?"
AT THIS THE MASTER UNSHEATHED THE SWORD AND ASSUMED A WARRIOR'S STANCE.
He stood like a warrior.
What is Yakusan intending to show to the monk?
First, the monk has asked, "Where have you been?" He has not answered that, because what is past is past, and what is future is future. They are not the concern of Zen.
The concern of Zen is the present moment. You can ask a question about the past, but you cannot distract the master from the present. So he did not answer where he had been; on the contrary, he simply said, "I HAVE GOT FIREWOOD. Just in the present, right now, you can see the firewood and you can understand where I must have been -- collecting firewood. But that has not to be said. That is a past thing. I simply show you the present. And the present implies the past, and in a subtle way it implies the future, but nothing can be said about that. That which is gone, is gone, and that which has not come yet, has not come yet."
We can live only in the present moment. That is our only time. One never knows what is going to happen in the next moment.
Just three days ago, a Canadian sannyasin who had been here for only three days, was meditating. And before meditating
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