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were working on the same strategy -- somehow to force you to the center. As your consciousness becomes deeper, as it becomes an easy thing to go to the center just like you go in your house and come out, you have become a buddha.
Then slowly, slowly your center starts changing your circumference. Then you cannot be violent, then you cannot be destructive; then you are love. Not that you love -- you are love. Then you are silence, then you are truth, although the old you has disappeared. That was your circumference, that was the cyclone that is gone. Now, only the center remains.
Rinzai's method is far simpler than Rumi's. Very few people will be able to whirl for hours, but shouting is a simpler method. Anybody can shout and can shout wholeheartedly, and it can be very intense and urgent. Whirling you will take hours to find out the center; shouting, a split second and you are at the center.
The anecdote...
RINZAI BECAME KNOWN AS THE MASTER OF THE SHOUTS. ON ONE OCCASION A MONK ASKED, "WHAT ABOUT THE CARDINAL PRINCIPLE OF THE BUDDHA-DHARMA?"
Now, he is asking something important. What is the cardinal principle of the religion of Buddha?
RINZAI SHOUTED -- THE MONK BOWED.
"DO YOU SAY THAT'S A GOOD SHOUT?" RINZAI ASKED.
THE MONK COMMENTED: "THE THIEF IN THE GRASS HAS MET COMPLETE DEFEAT."
"WHAT IS MY OFFENCE?" RINZAI ASKED.
THE MONK REPLIED, "IT WON'T BE PARDONED A SECOND TIME."
RINZAI GAVE ANOTHER SHOUT.
The first shout of Rinzai was perfectly good. The monk bowed down because he felt a great relief by moving from the circumference to the center. But Rinzai was a little suspicious. Because everything in this world becomes traditional, it had started becoming traditional that Rinzai will shout and you have to bow down to show that you have understood it, that it has reached to your center. It was becoming a tradition.
This is very unfortunate. Everything becomes a habit, a ritual, a tradition, and loses all meaning. Now, his bowing down may be true or may be just a mannerism. That's why Rinzai asked, "DO YOU SAY THAT'S A GOOD SHOUT?"
THE MONK COMMENTED: "THE THIEF IN THE
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