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Book Name: This, This, A Thousand Times ThisPrevious     Next
 

JUST FOR THIS, THAT WE RENEGADES EXPERIENCE AT THE FEET OF THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN THE WORLD. ANYTHING TO SAY?

(OSHO SPREADS OUT BOTH HIS ARMS AND REMAINS SILENT.)

Remember the two hands of Hyakujo.

Nothing to say.

Your silence is enough unto itself, it does not need anything more. It is more than you could have ever dreamt of.

The second story Maneesha has brought...

ONE DAY NANSEN WAS WORKING ON THE MOUNTAIN WITH A SICKLE.

Nansen was one of the greats. I count him with Gautam Buddha, Mahakashyap, Bodhidharma, Joshu, Hyakujo. There have been thousands of masters, but Nansen will still stand out with his own beauty, uniqueness. He became so well known to the people that the very mountain where he had a small cottage is now called Mount Nansen.

ONE DAY NANSEN WAS WORKING ON THE MOUNTAIN WITH A SICKLE. A MONK CAME UP THE MOUNTAIN PATH AND ASKED, WITHOUT KNOWING TO WHOM HE WAS TALKING, "HOW CAN I GET TO MASTER NANSEN?"

THE MASTER RAISED HIS SICKLE IN FRONT OF THE MONK, AND SAID: "I PAID THIRTY CENTS FOR THIS SICKLE."

THE MONK RETORTED: "I DID NOT ASK YOU ABOUT THE SICKLE."

"WHAT, THEN," QUERIED THE MASTER, "DID YOU ASK ME?"

THE MONK REPEATED, "HOW CAN I GET TO MASTER NANSEN?"

THE MASTER SAID, "OH, YES! THIS CUTS WELL!"

You see the effort of bringing the monk to the present. It does not matter what it is, it may be the sickle -- at this moment Nansen is trying to bring the monk, the stranger, to the present moment. But the monk goes on asking about something far away.

Zen is not a philosophy for far away things, it is a very realistic approach to the present -- and every means and method is being used to bring seekers to the moment. Ordinarily, intellectually the story will look absurd, that's why people like Nansen and Hyakujo have disappeared from the world. We have become too intellectual and they were non-intellectuals, innocent, tremendously present, integrated, but always here; you cannot push them anywhere else. You cannot take them out of their moment.

Now Nansen is working with the sickle, you cannot make him talk about anything else, even about

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