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is part of the philosophy of thusness, or suchness. Everything that happens, the man of understanding simply accepts it -- this is how things are, this is how nature functions. There is no complaint, there is no grudge.
BIRTH IS THUS
DEATH IS THUS
VERSE OR NO VERSE
WHAT'S THE FUSS?
THEN HE LET GO OF THE WRITING BRUSH AND PASSED ON.
Perhaps in this moment, when he was writing this verse, he completed his journey.
The discourses that are going to follow were given when he was not enlightened, but he was very clear in explaining everything to the ordinary people. He moved amongst laymen, he talked to the ordinary people, and he talked in a way that they could understand. His whole approach was that the great masters are not available to the people; they are available only to very intimate disciples, or perhaps only to the devotees -- who will take care of the millions? So he started moving amongst the people, and the people were rejoicing; that's why the emperor honored him as a great master, as a sun of awareness.
Masters don't move, they don't go to the people; they know the gap between them and the ordinary people is too big, almost unbridgeable. Unless somebody comes close to the master on his own accord, there is no way for the master to penetrate his being.
But Ta Hui was not a master, he was a very articulate teacher. He was not talking Zen; he was talking about Zen. All that he had gathered... and he had gathered really very consistently, very logically. Only once in a while will I tell you that he has committed a mistake -- which is natural, because he has nothing inside himself to compare it with. He has no criterion except his intelligence, his logic, his reason. But enlightenment is beyond your mind, beyond your rationality, beyond your intellect. That ultimate criterion is not within him. But he is certainly of immense cleverness, although blind; he has not seen the light. He describes the light as if he is a man who has eyes. He has only heard people who have eyes. But he has collected every piece of information in a very systematic way. So remember this: he is a teacher, not a master.
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