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a jump from outside into his own self. But reaching into yourself you do not find meaning. You certainly find a tremendous ecstasy, you are drowned in peace and silence, you feel as if thousands of flowers are showering over you; it is majestic, it is a splendor, it is a miracle, it is mystery, but it is not meaning.
Meaning is for the ordinary things of the world, significance is for the inner. The inner is not a commodity, it has no price. You cannot sell it, you cannot purchase it; nobody can give it to you and nobody can take it away from you. Its status is unique in the whole universe. Everything goes on changing continuously, just like a cyclone, but your being remains the center of the cyclone without ever changing; it remains just the same.
It is a search into your own inwardness ... but the question is not asked by only one monk ...
Do you hear that the cuckoos have come again? Do you see the significance of their innocent songs? There is no meaning, you cannot translate it; but it is coming from the very being of the cuckoos, out of some great joy, out of some great abundance, and they want to share it with the universe.
A buddha also speaks, but in the same way as the cuckoos are singing, in the same way as the roses share their fragrance to the air, or the bamboos chatter amongst themselves -- they don't have words, but as the wind passes through them they say something without saying it, "We also are here."
There is no Buddhism as a philosophy, but there is an experience of Buddha which is available to all. It is not a teaching, it is an experience. You cannot teach a blind man what light is, nor can you teach a deaf man what music is. To know the light you need eyes and to experience music you need the receptivity of a musical ear.
BOKUSHU SAID, "I WON'T ANSWER."
Bokushu belongs among the great masters of Zen. Without hesitating a moment he said, "I WON'T ANSWER."
In fact he is answering by making this statement. He is saying, "It is not answerable; you can have it, but it cannot be explained to you by somebody else."
"I WON'T ANSWER," also means, "I am no more, who is going to answer?"
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