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would not allow me not to. I wanted to die before Gautam Buddha so I wouldn't have to carry this burden." He proved to be one of the great masters -- of the same caliber as Gautam Buddha -- and he created a lineage of great disciples and great masters.
I have talked about Zen: Mahakashyap was the first -- not Gautam Buddha -- to initiate the process which culminated in Zen, because it was his disciple, Bodhidharma, who took the message to China. And perhaps Gautam Buddha would not agree with everything Zen consists of, because the real master of Zen and its origin is Mahakashyap, who has a totally different personality from Gautam Buddha -- less serious, with a sense of humor, with no idea of holier-than-thou.
The man who was finally the decisive factor was Bodhidharma; he comes in the fifth generation of disciples of Mahakashyap. He was very decisive in giving a certain character to Zen, which it still carries.
Bodhidharma is farther away still from Mahakashyap. He has a great sense of humor, is very straightforward, knows no etiquette, no manners, is very simple and innocent, has no philosophical background, speaks in an ordinary way. But ordinary words from the mouth of a man like Bodhidharma start having such freshness, such authority -- more than any philosophical jargon can ever have.
Philosophical words are vague, wishy-washy, big -- much ado about nothing. Bodhidharma speaks exactly telegraphically; if ten words will do, he will not use eleven words.
But nobody would have conceived that this small stream arising in a silent man like Mahakashyap would become the world's most purified and essential religiousness. But Mahakashyap has the quality of humbleness -- so humble that he drops even the idea of enlightenment, of truth. Certainly, he has experienced something in the presence of his master: he is ready to forsake everything -- truth included. If Gautam Buddha is going to hell, he would like to go to hell; he is not interested in going to heaven.
It is a strange phenomenon, that the West has no idea about. It knows students, it even knows the word `disciple', but it has never gone very deep into the existential
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