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quality in it: it radiates joy, celebration, it radiates witnessing.
A great Zen master, Lin Chi, says: "O Brethren in the Way, you must know that there is in the reality of Buddhism nothing extraordinary for you to perform. You just live as usual without even trying to do anything in particular, attending to your natural wants, putting on clothes, eating meals, and lying down if you feel tired. Let the ignorant people laugh at me. The wise men know what I mean to say."
Lin Chi is saying: Don't do anything in particular, don't be a doer. Let things happen, and be a watcher. And the ignorant will laugh at you; they will say, "What kind of religion is this?"
You must have come across these ignorant people. They will say to you, "What kind of religion is this? Into what trap have you fallen? Because your master is not teaching you anything special."
Yes, I am not teaching you anything special -- because all ideas of speciality are ego trips. I am teaching you to be normal, to be ordinary. And if you can relax into normalcy, into ordinariness, suddenly you will burst forth into an extraordinary radiance. A great splendour will happen to you.
Lin Chi is right when he says, "Let the ignorant people laugh. The wise men know what I mean to say." Eat, drink and be merry, just as everybody else is. Don't try to be special in any way. But eating, remain a witness. Drinking, remain a witness. Merrying, remain a witness. And that witnessing will change everything. That witnessing is the transformation.
Only that witnessing will make you aware of who you are.
I SHAN'T DIE, I SHAN'T GO ANYWHERE,
I'LL BE HERE;
BUT DON'T ASK ME ANYTHING,
I SHAN'T ANSWER.
THIS IS IKKYU'S DEATH VERSE. Traditionally in Zen, when a master dies, his disciples ask him for a death verse -- the last poetic expression, the last statement, the testament. The last statement about death.
Ikkyu says:
WE EAT, EXCRETE, SLEEP, AND GET UP;
THIS IS OUR WORLD.
ALL WE HAVE TO DO AFTER THAT
IS TO DIE.
Now death is coming, and the disciples have asked him to compose the last verse. And this was his last
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