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For the first time you recognize your being as a witness. This takes you to the beyond, and to the mysterious, and to the miraculous.
Onwards, life is a sheer joy, a sheer dance, a great music. You are overflowing, radiating pure gold. You have found the treasure of treasures. This has been the search of the whole East, of the whole Eastern genius.
Shomoku says to Bansho,
"AS I LOOK BETWEEN YOUR EYEBROWS, THERE IS VERY MUCH SOMETHING THERE. IF YOU DON'T PIERCE THROUGH COLD BONES, ONCE, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO CAST THIS THING OFF. HEREAFTER, SEE FOR YOURSELF -- IT IS NOT A MATTER OF MY SPEAKING MUCH."
In such a small passage, Shomoku has said everything that is necessary for a seeker.
THEN BANSHO WAS GIVEN THE SAYING OF CHOSHA'S TO CONTEMPLATE ON: "TURN YOURSELF BACK INTO MOUNTAINS, RIVERS AND EARTH."
It is a very strange statement of Chosha's.
"TURN YOURSELF BACK INTO MOUNTAINS, RIVERS AND EARTH." What does it mean?
It means, remember you are carrying five elements in your body: the earth, the air, the fire, the sky, the water. These are the five elements that make your body. Chosha is saying, "Return these elements back to their sources, and then see whether something is left behind."
Yes, something is left behind. That something is your consciousness. It is not a by-product of your body, it is a totally different phenomenon than the material world. Once you have tasted something of consciousness, awareness, alertness, you will not be afraid of death; you know it can happen only to the dead body, it cannot happen to your living sources of consciousness. They are in the body, but they don't belong to the body.
Chosha's statement was given to Bansho to meditate on:
"TURN YOURSELF BACK INTO MOUNTAINS, RIVERS AND EARTH."
FOR SIX MONTHS BANSHO MET WITH NO SUCCESS AND SHOMOKU MADE THE COMMENT, "I ONLY HOPE YOU WILL UNDERSTAND LATER."
What went wrong?
He was too much in a hurry, he became too tense about the matter, too serious about the matter, and realizing your being is not a serious matter at all. It comes to you in utter relaxation, a non-tense state of being, in a playfulness.
Never
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