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Whatever you want to ask will be given. I have offered one thousand rupees. Do you want ten thousand rupees, one hundred thousand rupees?"
Sudas was going mad. One hundred thousand rupees he cannot even count!
Prasenjita ordered his people to deliver one hundred thousand rupees to Sudas.
Of course, the rich man did not contest it, it was futile. The king would not accept defeat in any way. It could even lead to bloodshed.
And when Prasenjita offered the flower to Buddha, all that Buddha said was, "Drop it." He dropped the flower. What else can you do before a buddha if he says, "Drop the flower"?
Now he was standing with empty hands and Buddha again said, "Drop it too!" This was beyond the mind and its comprehension.
Sariputra said to Prasenjita, "Buddha does not mean the flower; Buddha means the ego. You are so full of ego; even offering, touching the feet of Buddha, your ego has not changed even a little bit. And to be with Buddha, the only way is to drop your ego, your personality."
In this small anecdote is contained the whole of Zen. You have to drop all that has been given to you by others. You have to reach to your innermost center which you have carried from eternity to eternity. And then life is a bliss, then life is love, then life contains all kinds of ecstasies.
Zen is not a religion because there is no reference to God, soul, heaven and hell, no rituals. It is a very concentrated effort to penetrate to your very being. Drop, go on dropping anything that you can drop. When only a witness remains which you cannot drop, you have arrived home. Zen has brought religion to its scientific crescendo.
Before the sutras...
KYOGEN WAS A FELLOW DISCIPLE OF KYOZAN. HE STUDIED UNDER ISAN FOR A WHILE BUT, FAILING TO ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT, HE LEFT ISAN AND WENT TO NANYANG, WHERE HE LIVED A SOLITARY EXISTENCE IN A HUT IN THE FOREST.
HE REALIZED HIS ENLIGHTENMENT ONE DAY ON HEARING THE SOUND OF A STONE STRIKING BAMBOO.
Somebody must have thrown a stone that struck the bamboo and created a sound. And this is strange: hearing the sound of a stone striking bamboo brought his enlightenment.
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