Saturday, August 25, 2007
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Osho's favourite zen story: Where does this path lead to?
The emperor of China was a very great painter; he loved painting, and he used to call other painters to the palace every year to have an exhibition. When he had become very old, he declared, at one annual function, "Now I am very old and I want to see the most perfect painting in the world. I will provide space in the palace to the painter, and whatever he needs..."
So, a few painters who thought they could create such a painting stayed in the palace. Somebody completed his painting in one month and brought it to the emperor. He had done well, but it was not the most perfect.
By and by three years passed, and only one painter remained. For three years he had been painting -- and he was not painting on canvas; he was painting on the wall of the palace where his room was allotted to him. He had painted a beautiful forest... and a moonlit night, a small river, and a very small footpath going round and round around the trees and then disappearing in the forest.
After three years he came to the emperor and said, "Now you can come. Whatever I can do I have done. I think it is the most perfect painting in the world. So I invite Your Honour to come, and I don't ask any reward -- these three years were the most precious that I have lived. Just your seeing it is enough."
All the other painters had been painting for reward, and when you are painting out of some motivation, for some reward, your painting cannot be perfect. Your motivation will be the dust. This painter said, "I am not at all interested in any reward; you have already given it to me. These three years I have lived such a beautiful life, day and night; nothing could be more than you have given me. Now, just look at the painting so that I can go back home. My children, my wife, may be waiting for me."
The emperor went with him. Certainly this painter had done the greatest job. He became so interested that he asked the painter, "Where does this small path go, finally
The painter said, "I have never gone on it but if you are willing to come with me, we can go and see where it leads. This question has arisen in me also many times, 'Where does this small path lead?'"
So, the painter and the emperor both entered the path and disappeared behind the trees, and nothing has been heard about them since.
This story has always made me immensely happy. There is no returning from perfection, there is no going back. Perfection takes you and you disappear.
So, a few painters who thought they could create such a painting stayed in the palace. Somebody completed his painting in one month and brought it to the emperor. He had done well, but it was not the most perfect.
By and by three years passed, and only one painter remained. For three years he had been painting -- and he was not painting on canvas; he was painting on the wall of the palace where his room was allotted to him. He had painted a beautiful forest... and a moonlit night, a small river, and a very small footpath going round and round around the trees and then disappearing in the forest.
After three years he came to the emperor and said, "Now you can come. Whatever I can do I have done. I think it is the most perfect painting in the world. So I invite Your Honour to come, and I don't ask any reward -- these three years were the most precious that I have lived. Just your seeing it is enough."
All the other painters had been painting for reward, and when you are painting out of some motivation, for some reward, your painting cannot be perfect. Your motivation will be the dust. This painter said, "I am not at all interested in any reward; you have already given it to me. These three years I have lived such a beautiful life, day and night; nothing could be more than you have given me. Now, just look at the painting so that I can go back home. My children, my wife, may be waiting for me."
The emperor went with him. Certainly this painter had done the greatest job. He became so interested that he asked the painter, "Where does this small path go, finally
The painter said, "I have never gone on it but if you are willing to come with me, we can go and see where it leads. This question has arisen in me also many times, 'Where does this small path lead?'"
So, the painter and the emperor both entered the path and disappeared behind the trees, and nothing has been heard about them since.
This story has always made me immensely happy. There is no returning from perfection, there is no going back. Perfection takes you and you disappear.
Don't get caught in decorations
Sekiso wrote:
The dharma spring
has never run dry;
if is flowing even now.
A single drop has fallen and spread
far and deep.
Don't be caught
by the decorations at the edge
and the wall around it.
In the dead of the night the moon shines
from the middle of the pond.
What Sekiso is saying is very symbolic. The dharma spring -- the spring when those who are ripe become suddenly full of flowers, when the dark night ends and the morning has come -- The dharma spring has never run dry. He is saying, "Remember, the dharma spring has never run dry; it always comes, just as it used to come in Gautam Buddha's time, or even before." It is part of eternal nature. It is just that you have to be ready to catch the train. The train always comes, but mostly either you reach the railway station before the train has come, or you reach after the train has left -- you always find an empty platform. Sad and frustrated, you go back home.
The dharma spring has never run dry. It always is available; just you are not ready. The whole responsibility has to be taken by you, on your own shoulders. The existence is as much in favor of buddhas as it has always been, but you are not even looking at it. You are not preparing, you are not even witnessing so that when it comes... In fact, it never comes, it is always there -- YOU come to IT. The deeper your witnessing, and suddenly you find a tremendous reality flooding you. In your very innermost center it is still waiting.
The dharma spring has never run dry; if is flowing even now. A single drop has fallen and spread far and deep. The ocean of dharma spring is always ready to absorb you; it has always space for you, you are always welcome. Nobody has been rejected by dharma nature. If even a single drop has fallen, it has spread all over the ocean, far and deep.
be caught by the decorations at the edge and the wall around it. In the dead of the night the moon shines from the middle of the pond. We are all attracted by decorations, by the non-essentials. A lake may have a wall around it with beautiful statues, sculpture, architectural designs. And you may get so much involved in those decorations that you fail to see that the pond is reflecting the moon, exactly in the middle. This is just symbolic. It is saying that the existential truth is always shining in the middle of this whole world of decorations. Power, all kinds of desires, motivations, longings -- amongst this whole crowd, exactly in the middle, exactly in the center of your being, the full moon is reflected. Don't get caught in decorations.
The dharma spring
has never run dry;
if is flowing even now.
A single drop has fallen and spread
far and deep.
Don't be caught
by the decorations at the edge
and the wall around it.
In the dead of the night the moon shines
from the middle of the pond.
What Sekiso is saying is very symbolic. The dharma spring -- the spring when those who are ripe become suddenly full of flowers, when the dark night ends and the morning has come -- The dharma spring has never run dry. He is saying, "Remember, the dharma spring has never run dry; it always comes, just as it used to come in Gautam Buddha's time, or even before." It is part of eternal nature. It is just that you have to be ready to catch the train. The train always comes, but mostly either you reach the railway station before the train has come, or you reach after the train has left -- you always find an empty platform. Sad and frustrated, you go back home.
The dharma spring has never run dry. It always is available; just you are not ready. The whole responsibility has to be taken by you, on your own shoulders. The existence is as much in favor of buddhas as it has always been, but you are not even looking at it. You are not preparing, you are not even witnessing so that when it comes... In fact, it never comes, it is always there -- YOU come to IT. The deeper your witnessing, and suddenly you find a tremendous reality flooding you. In your very innermost center it is still waiting.
The dharma spring has never run dry; if is flowing even now. A single drop has fallen and spread far and deep. The ocean of dharma spring is always ready to absorb you; it has always space for you, you are always welcome. Nobody has been rejected by dharma nature. If even a single drop has fallen, it has spread all over the ocean, far and deep.
be caught by the decorations at the edge and the wall around it. In the dead of the night the moon shines from the middle of the pond. We are all attracted by decorations, by the non-essentials. A lake may have a wall around it with beautiful statues, sculpture, architectural designs. And you may get so much involved in those decorations that you fail to see that the pond is reflecting the moon, exactly in the middle. This is just symbolic. It is saying that the existential truth is always shining in the middle of this whole world of decorations. Power, all kinds of desires, motivations, longings -- amongst this whole crowd, exactly in the middle, exactly in the center of your being, the full moon is reflected. Don't get caught in decorations.
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