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Wu was one of the greatest emperors of China, a very cultured man. It hit him very strongly. He never expected that anybody should misbehave in front of the great emperor. And this man does not even say, Your Holiness, or, Your Highness. He does not even address the emperor. All that he says is: EMPTINESS, NO HOLINESS.
Certainly he must have been angry inside; it is natural -- he had been waiting for three years. Bodhidharma took three years to reach -- and he had heard so much about the man and the man seems to be a very strange fellow, a little weird. Offended but not showing it, behaving like a cultured, sophisticated hypocrite, he again asked, "Then who is this standing before me? If the first principle of existence is emptiness and there is nothing holy, then who are you?" WHO IS THIS STANDING BEFORE ME?
Great was Bodhidharma. I cannot conceive of anybody else in his place when I see his answer. It is simply just his own, absolutely authentic. He does not bother that the emperor is offended -- he offends even more. But what he says is such a great truth that he is not responsible.
Truth always offends.
That's why truth is always crucified.
He simply said, NO KNOWING.
The emperor had asked, WHO IS THIS STANDING BEFORE ME? and Bodhidharma said, NO KNOWING. He does not even use the word `I'. You simply see the beauty of the man and his utter commitment to truth -- that he will not descend even a single step so that he can be understood. Understood or not his commitment is to the truth, not to any emperor.
Whenever I have come to this point I feel we need many Bodhidharmas in the world -- such integrated people, so uncompromising, so fearless and so devoted to the truth. His truth is that he does not know who is standing before Emperor Wu. He is saying exactly what Socrates said in his last days: "I don't know anything." But still Socrates was using the word `I', he was not of the category of Bodhidharma. See the difference: he says, "I only know that I know nothing," but the I remains and this knowing that "I don't know anything" remains.
With Bodhidharma, everything has been dropped. He is saying, "In front
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