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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
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miles into the mountains to reach the master, and do you know what the master asked, the first question? Not very philosophical, not very metaphysical.... The moment Nan Yin bowed down, the master asked, "What is the price of rice in your town?" The price of rice...!
But Nan Yin instantly said, "I am no longer there, I am here. I never look back, and I destroy all the bridges that I have crossed. So forget all about the rice and its price!"
The master was tremendously happy. He hugged Nan Yin, he blessed him, and he said, "If you had told me the price of rice in your town, I would have thrown you out of the monastery. I would not have allowed you here, because we are not interested in rice merchants."
Each master has his own way of seeing into disciples' inner beings. Now this was a simple question: Nan Yin said, "Where is your umbrella -- on the left or on the right side of the clogs?" Now, nobody can think of Immanuel Kant asking such a question to any of his disciples; nobody can imagine Hegel or Heidegger or Sartre asking such a question to one of his students -- impossible!
Only a man like Nan Yin, a man who is a buddha, can ask such a question -- so ordinary, yet with such extraordinary insight. He is saying, "When you were putting your umbrella, were you aware? -- or did you just do it mechanically?"
Once a man, another man, a professor in a university, came to see Nan Yin. He threw his shoes -- must have been angry or something -- slammed the door, came in. At least thirty other disciples were sitting there. Nan Yin looked at the professor; he was a very famous professor... must have expected that Nan Yin will stand up and welcome him. Instead, Nan Yin shouted at the professor and told him to go back and ask forgiveness. "You have misbehaved with the door, you have misbehaved with the shoes! Unless they forgive you, unless I see that you have been forgiven, I will not allow you in -- you get out!"
Shocked, shattered -- but the professor could see the point. Still he tried; he said, "But what is the point of asking forgiveness from the shoes or the door? They are dead anyway, how can they forgive?"
Nan Yin
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