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Main Index
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this man wants to convey. He wants to convey that which cannot be conveyed; he wants to say that which cannot be said. And he has been able to convey it.
This man Ikkyu was a strange master. Zen masters ARE strange masters. A religious person is bound to become strange, because he lives in a totally different way -- he lives in a separate reality. He starts existing here as an outsider. He becomes a stranger to this ordinary world, because he is here and yet not of it. He lives here, but untouched, uncontaminated, unpolluted by it. He lives here, and lives in such a way that he is untouchable. He does not escape from the world. He lives in the ordinary world in an extraordinary way.
I have heard a few stories about Ikkyu. One is this, which will give you some taste of the man. Before we enter into his poems, it is better to have some taste of the man.
One summer day while working, perhaps weeding, Ikkyu got so tired, and being hot, came up to the temple porch and aired himself in the cool breeze. He felt so fine that he went into the temple and took the Buddha from the shrine, and binding him to a pole outside, said, "Now, you too cool yourself!"
Looks absurd, binding a wooden Buddha to a pole, and saying to Buddha, "Now, you too cool yourself!" But look... something deep is there. For Ikkyu, nothing is dead any more, not even the wooden Buddha. All is alive. And he has started feeling for everything as he feels for himself. Those boundaries of I and you are no more relevant. He ha come to the one.
And now another, just the polar opposite of this story:
One night, a very cold winter night, he was staying in a temple. And then suddenly, in the middle of the night, the priest of the temple heard noise and saw light, so he came running: "What is happening?"
He saw Ikkyu sitting there -- he was burning a wooden Buddha. The priest was aghast. He said, "Are you mad or something? What have you done? This is sacrilege. There can be no other sin greater than this. You have burnt my Buddha!"
And Ikkyu took a small stick and started poking into the ashes. And the priest said, "Now what are you doing, and what are you
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