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AND DISCRIMINATING?
Maneesha, we are reaching to the second greatest Zen master, Joshu. Nothing can be compared with Bodhidharma, but if anyone else comes close to him, that is Joshu. But he just comes close, not to that height, not that Everest, but one cannot do anything about it.
Some trees grow very high, some trees don't.
In the world of trees there is no comparison.
In the world of real consciousness, authentic realization, also there can be no comparison. But still one should not forget the highest, so that one does not become lost into the thousand and one great peaks.
The Himalayas are thousands of miles. Each peak is unique has to say something, has to reveal some beauty, some truth... stands on its own feet, not dependent, not imprisoned, with tremendous glory and splendor.
One can easily get lost and I would like you to remember the highest, because that should be your aim too.... Your arrow should point to the highest.
Before I say something about Joshu, I would like to remind you of Bodhidharma's sutras that we discussed yesterday. In just a very few words he has condensed the whole experience, the whole interiority, the whole kingdom of God: "Emptiness, nothing holy." And when the emperor asked, "Then who is standing before me?" the answer was, "No knowing."
Yesterday I forgot a very special point to be made to you that will give you the taste of real Zen. He said, "NO KNOWING." He could have said, "Not knowing," but he chose, "No knowing," because "not knowing" implies the existence of I. No knowing does not imply; it simply states innocence. Not knowing is ignorance and no knowing is innocence.
Such is the clarity and depth of this man Bodhidharma. Even Socrates said, "I do not know anything." Even he falls far below the heights of Bodhidharma. He accepts in his statement the existence of I; he accepts the existence of knowledge. He is simply saying, "I am ignorant."
Just a little difference, how small and how delicate: no knowing -- not knowing. A small letter `t' and worlds are set apart.
In these fourteen centuries that have followed Bodhidharma, hundreds of Zen masters
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