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to know also.
AFTER THIS, KYOGEN LEFT HIS HERMITAGE AND WENT BACK TO ISAN, WHO CONFIRMED HIS ENLIGHTENMENT -- without his asking.
Enlightenment is such a subtle fragrance, so invisible a flower that only another enlightened person can recognize it. As far as others are concerned, they are absolutely blind. If you ask them whether the sun has risen or not, they will say, "It never set. The question of rising does not arise. I am a blind man, I cannot make judgments about light. That window is closed for me."
So first people go from one teacher to another teacher in search of the master. And even if they have found the master, it is not certain that they will become enlightened. Their greed for it, their ambition for it prevents it.
Perhaps tired, bored, they leave the master. They find far more freedom, a greater space, more clarity just being away from the master. And if they have really dropped the ambitious mind, then anything -- a cuckoo singing, or the bamboos making songs of their own in the strong wind, or the oceanic waves -- it does not matter what....
The point is, if you are prepared, and not asking for anything, not even for enlightenment, the right moment has come for you. Then the whole world from anywhere may bring you the light, the eyes, the interiority which you were missing -- although you were trying. And you were missing because you were trying. Don't try! Simply let it happen. And watch.
Here, when you do the meditation every evening, your function is to watch very silently how the body makes itself comfortable. It is not a question of trying. You cannot try relaxation -- only in America!
There are books sold in millions of copies. When I came across such a book, it said, "You must relax!" Now that `must' will not allow you to relax; that `must' is your problem; that `must' is keeping you tense, strained.
You must not be; and suddenly there is relaxation. You are not, then relaxation is.
The sutra:
KYOZAN WAS UNCERTAIN AS TO THE VALIDITY OF KYOGEN'S ENLIGHTENMENT SO, BY WAY OF TESTING HIM, HE SAID TO KYOGEN, "I HAVE HEARD THAT YOU COMPOSED A VERSE EXPRESSING YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT.
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