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Just being, you feel at the very highest peak of existence. You cannot ask for more, it has already been given to you; we have just lost the way to our own home.
These anecdotes relate to those seekers of the past; they have become very foreign to us, and that is why, even though we can understand the language, we cannot understand what is happening inside, behind the curtain. The anecdotes look very ordinary, but they are not ordinary; there cannot be anything more extraordinary than these Zen seekers and their ways of inquiry.
Tokusan is a great master. Before he became a master he came to Isan's temple. Every master had his own temple, his own monastery, and disciples moved from one monastery to another in search of a man with whom they could fall in love, with whom they could risk all. And the moment someone finds a master who is more precious than his own life, that day is the most fortunate day for the disciple. Now there is no more need to go anywhere, he has arrived home. Now the disciple can settle deep in silence, deep in his truth. He has found the significance of existence.
TOKUSAN CAME TO ISAN'S TEMPLE. CARRYING HIS PILGRIM'S BUNDLE UNDER HIS ARM, HE CROSSED THE LECTURE HALL, FROM EAST TO WEST AND WEST TO EAST; THEN, STARING AROUND, HE SAID, "MEW, MEW," AND WENT OUT.
TOKUSAN REACHED THE GATE, BUT THEN SAID TO HIMSELF, "I SHOULD NOT BE IN A HURRY."
What transpired is very simple. Tokusan is saying to Isan, "I am just like a cat, MEW, MEW. Are you capable of teaching an innocent animal? I am utterly ignorant, as ignorant as an animal -- are you capable? And I have been searching from east to west, from west to east, and I have not yet come across the man who can be my master."
Because Isan did not say anything TOKUSAN REACHED THE GATE, BUT THEN SAID TO HIMSELF, "I SHOULD NOT BE IN A HURRY. This has been too quick, this inquiry, I did not give enough chance to Isan.
I SHOULD NOT BE IN A HURRY," SO HE DRESSED AND ENTERED A SECOND TIME TO HAVE AN INTERVIEW. ISAN WAS SITTING IN HIS PLACE.
TOKUSAN, HOLDING UP HIS KNEELING CLOTH, SAID, "OSHO!"
`Osho' is a word signifying great respect, love and
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