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THE PATRIARCH THERE? -- YES!
BRING HIM TO ME, AND HE CAN WASH MY FEET.
Now he is trying to pretend that he understands the strange ways of Zen. He is also making a strange statement: "Bring him to me and he can wash my feet."
It is simply ugly. Schoolmasters should not enter into the area of truth. Their world consists of small, borrowed knowledge to transfer. They should not speak as if they are lions, because they are not. He has not added a single word to make Bodhidharma's statement more understandable; he has not given any transparency to it. He has not made Emperor Wu understand what not knowing is -- he is a pretender.
This man's name is Setcho. Many times in these commentaries we will come across people who are only teachers but are pretending to be masters. But you should understand that the anecdote is so complete...
Only if you look into my eyes perhaps you may find the commentary or if you look into my empty hands you may find the meaning.
What Bodhidharma has said is absolute, complete. Nothing can be added to it and nothing can be deleted from it. Even a Gautam Buddha would have been surprised by the flowering of Bodhidharma. He is saying that all is empty and unless you enter into emptiness you will not understand anything of life and its mysteries. And nothing is holy, so don't be bothered to become saints, discipline yourself, practice this or that.
Just enter into your own being.
In the silences of the heart nothing is missing.
The saint is just pretending -- because the reality is already there. It needs no practice, no holiness.
All that it needs is awakening.
Just wake up and just see who is within you.
It does not mean you will come to know great knowledge, it does not mean that you will come to know who you are. It simply means you will come to know that there is pure innocence. That is your essential being, and in it nothing is holy.
A beautiful rose is beautiful, but do you think there are saintly roses and sinner roses? Except the priests who have dominated man, the very categories of the sinner and the saint do not exist in existence. All is beautiful,
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