Osho on Bodhidharma

 

 

One of the most beautiful in the history of Zen. And, of course, it belongs to the first Zen patriarch, Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is the genius of the absurd. Nobody has ever surpassed him.

When he reached China, the Emperor came to receive him. Rumors had arrived that a great man was coming -- and he was a great man, one of the greatest. The Emperor came, but when he saw Bodhidharma, he repented. He started thinking, 'It would have been better if I had not come. This man seems to be almost mad!' Bodhidharma was coming with one shoe on his foot and one shoe on his head.

Even the Emperor started feeling embarrassed to receive such a man, and when they were alone he asked, very politely, why he did this.

Bodhidharma said, 'This is just the beginning. I have to prepare my disciples. If you cannot accept this much contradiction, you will be incapable of understanding me, because I am all contradictions. The shoe is just symbolic. In fact I wanted to put my feet on my head.'

Bodhidharma took Zen from India to China. He planted the seed of Zen in China. He started a great phenomenon on its way. He is the father and, of course, Zen has carried the qualities of Bodhidharma all these centuries. Zen is one of the most absurd religions -- in fact, a religion has to be absurd because it cannot be logical. It is beyond logic. [....]

 

He was the man who was also a lion. Ordinarily he would not speak but his silence was also terrible and terrific. He would look into your eyes absolutely silent, and he would go like a cold shudder through your spine. Or he would speak -- then too he was like thunder. Find a picture of Bodhidharma and look: very ferocious and still very sweet. A parrot crossed with a lion -- very sweet and very ferocious.

The whole Zen discipline has carried the same quality with it. Zen masters are very hard on the outside and very sweet on the inside. Once you have earned their love they are as sweet as honey, but you will have to pass through hardship. Bodhidharma, for nine years while he was in China, sat facing a wall, gazing at a wall. He was known in China as the man, the ferocious man, who gazed at the wall for nine years. It is said that his legs withered away -- sitting and just looking at the wall. People would come and they would try to persuade him, 'Look at us. Why are you looking at the wall?' And he would say, 'Because you are also like a wall. When somebody comes who is really not like a wall, I will look.' Then one day his successor came. And the successor cut off his hand and gave it to Bodhidharma and said, 'Look this way, otherwise I am going to cut off my head.' He turned, immediately about-turned, and said. 'Wait! So you have come. I was waiting for nine years for you.'

After nine years he came back to India. When he was coming back, this incident happened.

 

-Osho, "Ancient Music in the Pines, #9"

 

 

 

 

The disciple has been trying hard to put the words of Bodhidharma exactly, but it must have been a great effort and a great tension for him because what Bodhidharma is saying can be understood only by people of great meditation. It is not possible for it to be understood by so-called ordinary humanity. It goes against all ordinary religions, ordinary prophets, ordinary messengers of God, ordinary holy scriptures.

Feeling uneasy, the disciple makes some additions on his own part. Now if a man reads these sutras without having a taste of meditation, he is bound to be in confusion, and he is bound to be misled by the additions. The disciple is mixing, and polluting the pure crystal clear water of Bodhidharma with all kinds of crap, because he cannot tolerate such a crystal clear approach, so refined.

Although there have been many enlightened people in the lineage of Gautam Buddha, Bodhidharma became the most famous. He is not the founder of Zen Buddhism; the founder of Zen is Mahakashyapa. But even Mahakashyapa has faded. Bodhidharma is not the founder but he has become the most important enlightened person after Gautam Buddha just because of his outrageousness, his non-compromising approach. He is not going to console anybody; he is simply going to say the truth. Whether it hurts you or heals you it is up to you, but he is not going to add a single word just to console you, because every consolation is putting you into sleep. Every consolation is a kind of opium.

Bodhidharma is absolutely strict. That's why he is painted as a ferocious looking man. It does not mean that he was like that. He was a prince, and I don't think that the way he has been painted down the centuries is his actual photograph. It is rather the experience of those who had to deal with him -- he was ferocious. And he was ferocious because he would not say any consolatory words, he would simply say the naked truth. If it hurts you, good. Perhaps you need to be hurt and only that will awaken you. You don't need any consolation, because that will put you into a deeper sleep.

Bodhidharma is unique, and I can understand why his disciple could not understand. That must have been the case with many people who heard him. At the last moment when he wanted to choose a successor -- he had chosen only four disciples, and from four he was going to choose one successor. He was really strict; perhaps the most strict master the world has ever known, but the most compassionate, because his strictness is nothing but his compassion.

 

-Osho, "Bodhidharma The Greatest Zen Master, #2"

 

 

Bodhidharma is right when he says that even suffering has to be gratefully accepted, because it is the very seed of buddha. If there was no suffering, you would never search for the truth. It is suffering that goes on impelling you to go beyond it. It is anguish and agony that finally compels you to seek and search for the path that goes beyond suffering and agony, to find a way that reaches to blissfulness and to eternal joy.

Bodhidharma is saying: Don't be antagonistic to suffering; even feel grateful to suffering. That is a great idea. Feel grateful to pain, suffering, old age, death, because all these are creating the situation for you to search for truth. Otherwise you would fall asleep; otherwise you would be so comfortable, you would become a vegetable. There would be no need .... Suffering creates the need for a search.

 

-Osho, "Bodhidharma The Greatest Zen Master, #12"

 

 

 

 

Bodhidharma has insights which are unparalleled. There have been many disciples of Gautam Buddha who have attained to enlightenment, but nobody has shown such great insightfulness. Either they have remained silent or they have spoken, but neither their silence nor their speaking has reached to the heights and to the depths of consciousness.

Perhaps the reason is that Bodhidharma is unafraid of what he is saying. He knows no fear. He has no concern with what people will think about his statements. He does not take into account anybody else when he is speaking. It is almost as if he is speaking to himself.

For nine years he was sitting before a wall and when people would come, they would have to sit behind him. They could ask questions but Bodhidharma would answer only to the wall. He was not at all concerned about who was asking the question; he was more concerned with his own insight.

 

-Osho, "Bodhidharma The Greatest Zen Master, #13"

 

 

 

 

Bodhidharma was also poisoned. Although the people who poisoned him thought that he was killed, he was not. He was made of a different kind of matter. He simply went into a coma and in the night disappeared, leaving one of his shoes in the tomb and the other shoe hanging on his staff.

After three years, when people completely believed that he was dead, he was seen by a high government official passing the boundaries of China and entering into the Himalayas. The official could not believe his eyes. He had heard that Bodhidharma had been poisoned and killed. He asked Bodhidharma, who said, "I was in a coma and I waited for the night. When the coma disappeared a little and I was able to get up, I escaped from the tomb. I have left one of my shoes there in the tomb as proof that I have been there and another shoe I am taking, hanging on my staff to prove that I am Bodhidharma -- my identity card."

The official immediately rushed to the mountain where Bodhidharma had been poisoned and he told the disciples. They showed the tomb and the official said, "I would like it to be opened because I have seen the man with his sandal hanging on his staff, and he has told me that he left the other sandal as a signature in the tomb. I would like to open the tomb and see whether that man was really Bodhidharma or somebody else who was playing a trick on me." The tomb was opened and only one shoe was there, nothing else.

 

-Osho, "Bodhidharma The Greatest Zen Master, #13"

 

 

 

 

Except for Bodhidharma, nobody else has been able to make these kinds of statements for the simple reason that they are so strange, they look so illogical, irrational. But existence is illogical. It is irrational. If you are only thinking in the mind, then it is one thing, but if you are experiencing the process of mud transforming into a lotus flower, you will understand Bodhidharma without any difficulty. You will rejoice in his strange statements.

 

-Osho, "Bodhidharma The Greatest Zen Master, #13"

 

 

 

 

Beyond the mind there is only one laughter, but it resounds for centuries. The place where Bodhidharma became enlightened … I have been to that place. He became enlightened fourteen hundred years ago and people have made a temple in his memory, in the place where he laughed for the first time. And the story is that if you sit silently in the temple, you will still hear the laughter.

 

There is a statue of Bodhidharma. He was a very strange man. If he meets you in the night, you will never go out of your house in the night again. He had such big eyes that, if he looked into you once, that was enough for enlightenment! And his laughter must have been a great laughter because he has a very good, big belly. Even in the statue the belly has ripples.

 

I had not time to sit there in the temple, but I know that if you sit there in the temple in the silence of the forest, perhaps you may hear the laughter. Perhaps the mountains, the trees, the rocks around the temple are still vibrating with that great man. I have looked into the lives of many great people, but Bodhidharma stands apart … very strange and very unique.

 

It is possible that his laughter was so infectious that the trees started laughing and the mountains started laughing. Although Bodhidharma is dead, they are still laughing; they cannot stop it. If you go with the whole idea, perhaps you may really hear it – or you may imagine it. But I have come across people who have heard it, because they have told me.

 

I had gone there, but I had not time enough to stay in the temple, because the right time is in the middle of the night – when he had become enlightened. And particularly on a full-moon night in a certain month, if you stay in the temple, in the middle of the night there is every possibility that either you will hear the laughter or you will start laughing.

 

That’s what I am doing … Just the very idea that you are such an idiot: a man who has died fourteen hundred years ago, you are sitting, waiting to hear his laughter now!

 

-Osho, "The New Dawn, #23, Q2"

 

 

 

 

I have a very soft corner in my heart for Bodhidharma. That makes it a very special occasion to speak about him. Perhaps he is the only man whom I have loved so deeply that speaking on him I will be almost speaking on myself. That also creates a great complexity, because he never wrote anything in his life. No enlightened being has ever written. Bodhidharma is not an exception, but by tradition these three books that we are going to discuss are attributed to Bodhidharma.

-Osho, "Bodhidharma: The Greatest Zen Master, #1"
 

 

 

Bodhidharma reached China. He was one of the greatest buddhas of all the ages. After Gautam Buddha, Bodhidharma seems to be the most precious person in the Buddhist heritage. When he reached China, his fame had reached far ahead of him. Even Emperor Wu who ruled over the whole of China came to receive him at the boundary. And the conversation that transpired between the two is of immense importance. It has to be meditated upon again and again. It has a tremendous message for you all.

 

Emperor Wu was not only a great emperor, he was very religious too, and he had done much for Gautam Buddha's message. In fact no other person except Emperor Ashoka had done so much for Buddhism as Emperor Wu had done. He transformed the whole of China into a Buddhist world. He made thousands of temples for Buddha, he made hundreds of monasteries -- millions of Buddhist monks were supported by the royal treasury. He translated all the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Thousands of scholars worked for years, almost their whole lives. He had done great work. Naturally, he wanted to know from Bodhidharma, "What is my merit?"

 

The first thing that he asked Bodhidharma was, "I have done so much, what is my merit? What have I gained? What virtue?"

 

Bodhidharma looked at him very sternly. If you have seen Bodhidharma's pictures you will be puzzled. He looks more like a lion than like a man -- very fierce; his eyes are very penetrating, like swords. He must have cut Wu down to his proper size just by his look.

 

Wu started trembling, he had never come up against such a man. He had conquered many enemies, he had conquered many dangerous kings, but Bodhidharma was the most dangerous person he had come across. It was a cool morning, but he started perspiring.

 

And Bodhidharma said, "Merit? Virtue? You are stupid! Now this is the ego and nothing else getting nourished and fat in the name of religion and spirituality. You are bound for the seventh hell, mind you!"

 

Wu could not believe his ears, could not believe his eyes. He said, "But thousands of other monks have come from India and they have all said, 'Wu, you have done a great service to Buddha's religion. You are a beloved of Buddha, you are blessed by Buddha.' But you are saying just the opposite!"

 

Bodhidharma said, "Forget all about those monks! They were buttressing you, they were praising you because they knew that that's what you expected from them. They are cunning and crafty people. They know nothing of Buddha and his message. I am a buddha myself, I am not a Buddhist monk. I speak on my own authority, and I say to you: You are cursed!"

 

Emperor Wu asked, "Do you mean to say there is nothing holy, nothing spiritual, in all these beautiful acts?"

 

Bodhidharma said, "No action is holy, because every action arises out of the ego. When you forget all about actions, when you disappear and things start happening on their own and you cannot claim that they are YOUR actions, only then does something of immense value, of immense beauty penetrate your life.

 

"Spirituality has nothing to do with doing, spirituality is the fragrance of being, and you are not a being yet. You are still concerned that you have done this, you have done that.

 

"The ego is a doer, your self-nature is a nondoer. Your self-nature simply allows existence to flow through it, it simply allows the ultimate law to function through it. Your self-nature is just a hollow bamboo. In the hands of the ultimate nature it becomes a flute and a beautiful song is born out of it. But the flute cannot say, 'This is my song. What is my merit? What am I going to gain out of it? To what heaven, to what joys will I attain?' The bamboo flute is just nothing. Its whole being consists of nothingness. That's why the song can flow through it, it is utterly empty."

 

Shocked -- but he could see the point -- Wu said, "You are the first man who is not impressed by my great power, money, my empire. You are the first man with whom I am feeling that something is possible. How can I drop this ego? Yes, I can understand your point. First, I was claiming a great empire, now I am claiming something of the beyond. But the claim is the same and the claimer is the same. I can see your point. I bow my head to you. I am grateful that you have not been polite to me, that you have hit me hard. You have wounded me but I am thankful. How can I drop this ego?"

 

And Bodhidharma asked, "What ego do you want to drop? Again you want to do something. If YOU drop it, then the ego will persist. This is the subtle game of ego: if you drop it, the ego starts coming from the back door. It starts saying, 'Look! I have dropped the ego. Look how humble I am. There is nobody who is more humble than me. I am the humblest person in the world -- just dust under your feet.' But look into the eyes, look into the heart of the man who is claiming that he is the humblest person -- it is the same ego. It is not egolessness. Egolessness cannot claim humbleness. Egolessness cannot claim egolessness. Egolessness cannot claim at all, it simply falls silent. It cannot even say, 'I am not, I am nobody' -- because the 'I' can exist in any claim whatsoever."

 

The emperor asked, "Then help me because I cannot get out of this ego."

 

Bodhidharma said, "Come early in the morning, three o'clock. Come alone, don't bring anybody with you. And don't be worried -- I will finish it once and for all."

 

The emperor could not sleep the whole night. "What does he mean? -- this mad monk. He will finish it once and for all? And the man looks so dangerous... and three o'clock is not the time to meet such a person. He can do anything, he's so unpredictable. And he has asked that I should come alone."

 

Many times he decided not to go, but the pull was great, the man had something magnetic. He had to go. At three o'clock he found himself getting ready. He went. Bodhidharma was staying outside the town in a small temple. It was dark, and Bodhidharma was waiting... with his staff in his hand.

 

And he said, "So you have come! although you hesitated much. You decided many times not to come. You could not sleep the whole night, neither did you allow me to sleep -- because I had to go on pulling you. But now that you have come things can be settled forever. Sit in front of me, close your eyes, go in, and find out where the ego is! And don't fall asleep because I am sitting in front of you with my staff. I will hit you on the head immediately if you go to sleep! Be alert because when I hit I hit really hard. And find out.... If you can find the ego, just show me that this is the ego and I will finish it. First you have to find it, where it is."

 

The emperor followed the logic. He closed his eyes. It was impossible to fall asleep. Bodhidharma was sitting there. Even with closed eyes he could see Bodhidharma sitting there, and once in a while Bodhidharma would hit his staff on the ground just to let him know that "I am here. You go on searching."

 

Two hours passed, three hours passed. Wu looked and looked. For the first time he looked inside. In fact if you look inside and you can remain alert, just for forty-eight minutes.... That is the limit. The ego can go on eluding you only for forty-eight minutes, not more than that. This has been the experience of all the buddhas down the ages. Now, don't ask why forty-eight minutes, because that's impossible to answer. It is just like at a hundred degrees water evaporates, nobody asks why. Why not at ninety-nine degrees? Why not at a hundred and one degrees? There is no question about it, it is simply so, the law of nature. At a hundred degrees water evaporates. Exactly like that, if you can remain alert and watchful continuously without wavering, for forty-eight minutes, your whole inner being becomes so quiet, so silent, so peaceful, so alert. For the first time there is clarity, transparent clarity. You can see everything that is there.

 

And Wu looked and looked and looked and could not find any ego -- because ego cannot be found. It is fictitious, it is just your idea, it has no substance in it. It is not even a shadow, what to say about substance? It exists only because you have not looked in. Looking in, your light is discovered -- which is always there, you just have to look in and find it. He was looking for the ego but he found the light, because the ego is not there and the light is there. He had gone to search for the ego but he found the light. And once the light was found there was no darkness.

 

Three hours passed and then the sun was rising, and Wu's face was transformed. He had a new beauty, a new grace. Bodhidharma laughed and he said, "Now, open your eyes. You have not been able to find it... so I have finished it forever."

 

Wu opened his eyes, touched Bodhidharma's feet and said, "Master, you have not done anything and yet you have finished it." That's the miracle of a master; he never does a thing, and yet the ultimate miracle happens in his presence. His presence is the miracle, his presence has the magical quality.

-Osho, "The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 12, #10, Q1"

 

 

 

 

Bodhidharma is one of the greatest enlightened men who has ever existed, and one of the most unique amongst all the enlightened men. In many ways he surpasses his own master, Gautam Buddha.

 

Gautam Buddha was a man of manners, son of a king, well educated in etiquette, in language, literature, music, archery -- in whatsoever was available there in those days, he was educated.

 

Bodhidharma was an uneducated person. So there are bound to be differences. But he was a very straightforward man, no sophistication, no way of being nice. He was just a sword, really sharp to cut off any head.

 

He went to China. His fame had reached before him. The emperor of China, Wu, who ruled over all China -- which is one-fourth of the world -- was one of the greatest emperors. He came to receive Bodhidharma, because he had heard so many strange stories about him. And he had already become converted to Buddhism by other Buddhist monks who had reached before Bodhidharma.

 

Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, "I have made thousands of statues of Buddha, thousands of temples in China. I am financially supporting hundreds of monasteries where thousands of Buddhist monks are living. What is going to be my reward? I am doing everything which is virtuous."

 

That's what the other monks were telling him. That's what the other priests of other religions have been telling rich people: donate to the church, donate to the religion, and you will be rewarded immensely in paradise.

 

I also say to you, Donate if you want to go to hell with me, because I don't like heaven at all. All those idiotic saints who do not even drink tea, who have never sung a song, who have never danced, who have never loved a woman -- just dry bones. Heaven must be a graveyard, a long graveyard filled with skeletons moving all around, carrying their harps and playing on the harp, "Alleluia." I cannot tolerate that kind of nonsense. Once in a while it is okay, but for eternity?

 

And you are not going to meet any beautiful people in heaven, people with juice, people with color -- poets, painters, dancers, film actors and actresses, philosophers, atheists, scientists -- all the people who had genius of some kind, talented people.

 

You will not find Michelangelo there, or Leonardo da Vinci, or Kant, or Socrates. No, that is impossible. All these people are in hell, and I would love to take you all to hell, because hell must be a tremendously beautiful place where all these geniuses have gathered. And once we reach there, we are going to make it a really great oasis. It is not Oregon. You will not have to face idiotic hostility. You will be received with great joy.

 

But all other religions have been telling you, "Donate; that is the greatest virtue." The money goes to the priest. The money goes to the bishop, to the cardinal, and finally it reaches to the Vatican.

 

Now, my suggestion is that the Vatican should be turned into an AIDS home, because they are responsible for homosexuality. They should be forced to accept their criminal act. To teach people celibacy, to teach that monks cannot have any love relationship with a woman, and nuns cannot have any contact with men, you are preparing the ground for homosexuality. And AIDS is the ultimate outcome of this homosexuality. That's why I call AIDS a very virtuous disease, immensely religious.

 

There used to be a saying that "All roads lead to Rome." I would like to say to you: all roads still lead to Rome, but not for everybody -- only for people who are suffering from AIDS. People suffering from AIDS from all over the world should start moving towards the Vatican.

 

The pope is the richest man in the world. He controls more riches than any Rockefeller, he has more power than any king or queen. In fact, there is only one queen in the whole world, and that is in England. Four other queens are in playing cards, but all five have the same power.

 

The pope has the grip over six hundred million Catholics, and money goes on pouring into the Vatican.

 

So the Emperor Wu asks the first question to Bodhidharma, "I have donated so much. What is going to be my reward?"

 

He was not aware that Bodhidharma was a very straightforward man. He said, "Nothing. Instead, you should be punished."

 

The emperor could not believe it. He said, "But all the monks have been telling me, 'Donate. Make temples. Make caravanserais. Make hospitals, schools. Give in charity to the monasteries.' And you are making just the opposite statement."

 

Bodhidharma said, "In the first place, from where did you get all this money? For that you will be punished. Secondly, these people have been exploiting you, and you are a just an idiot. No virtue in it, only stupidity."

 

To talk to the emperor of such a big empire in this way you need real guts. And Bodhidharma is the strongest man in the whole of history. The emperor wanted to change the subject. Bodhidharma said, "Nothing doing. I am not entering your capital. I am not interested in being your guest. I am going to the hills in the Himalayas. I have found a cave while I was coming here. It is really beautiful." There the story happened that you are mentioning.

 

Bodhidharma sat in that cave facing the wall. That too, only Bodhidharma can do. A few people came -- impressed because he has put the emperor into his right place. That man was exploiting the whole country. The whole country was suffering in poverty because of him, and nobody had the courage to say it. And this man did it in a single sentence, and refused to be a guest of a criminal.

 

So a few people came there, but he would not turn towards them. He said, "I will turn only when I see that somebody who has guts has come; otherwise, whether to face towards the wall or towards your faces makes no difference."

 

Finally this young man came, who said to Bodhidharma, "You have to turn now! I, for whom you have been waiting, have come. Do you want some proof?"

 

And before Bodhidharma could say anything, with his sword the man cut off his hand and placed it at Bodhidharma's feet. And he said, "If you want me to cut off my head, I can do that too; otherwise, turn towards me!"

 

It was not a question of surrender. How have you managed to hear surrender? This man has not cut off the hand to show his surrender. He has really shown his unique individuality, not surrender. Just the opposite!

 

He is not surrendering to Bodhidharma; he is forcing Bodhidharma, "Now you cannot go against your promise; otherwise, I am going to cut off my head too."

 

And Bodhidharma turned immediately. He had to. He said, "This is too much. There was no need to cut off the hand."

 

The man said, "The hand does not matter, neither does the head. I have lived with this hand and with this head for fifty years, and there is no ecstasy, no blissfulness. The whole life has been just a long story of misery, suffering, pain. It has been just a tragedy. Seeing you, a man of steel, I thought perhaps here is the man who knows the secret.

 

"So if I have to live, I have to live with you. And you have to teach me; otherwise, there is no point in living."

 

It was not a question of surrender. In fact, he forced Bodhidharma to accept him as his disciple, and he proved worthy.

 

Such people have disappeared from the world.

-Osho, "From Bondage to Freedom, #7, Q2"
 

 

 

I also forgot THE NOTES OF THE DISCIPLES OF BODHIDHARMA. When I talk of Gautam Buddha I always forget Bodhidharma, perhaps because I feel as if I have included him in his master, Buddha. But no, that is not right; Bodhidharma stands on his own. He was a great disciple, so great that even the master could be jealous of him. He himself did not write a word, but a few of his disciples, unknown because they did not mention their names, wrote some notes of Bodhidharma's words. These notes, though few, are as precious as the Kohinoor. The word Kohinoor, do you know, means the light of the world. Noor means the light, kohi means of the world. If I had to describe anything as Kohinoor, yes, I would indicate towards those few notes by the anonymous disciples of Bodhidharma.

-Osho, "Books I Have Loved, #2"

 

 

 

 

This German man, and his colleague the Dutch psychologist who wrote that I am enlightened but not illuminated, and that I am illuminated but not enlightened, should both meet to discuss matters and come to a conclusion, then let me know… because I am neither. They are so much concerned with words: “illumination” or “enlightenment”? Also, the same reasons are used by each of these men to reach totally opposite conclusions. The Dutchman wrote his book some time before the German; it seems as if he stole the theme from the Dutchman. But this is how professors behave  –  they go on stealing the same arguments from each other, exactly the same argument… that I don’t speak like an enlightened man or like an illuminated man.

 

But who are they to decide how an enlightened or illuminated person should speak? Have they known Bodhidharma? Have they seen his picture? They will immediately conclude that an enlightened or illuminated person cannot look like that. He looks ferocious! His eyes are those of a lion in the forest, and the way he looks at you is such that it seems he will jump from the picture and kill you instantly. That’s how he was! But forget Bodhidharma, because now fourteen centuries have passed.

 

I knew Bodhidharma personally. I traveled with the man for at least three months. He loved me just as I loved him. You will be curious to know why he loved me. He loved me because I never asked him any question. He said to me, “You are the first person I have met who does not ask a question  –  and I only get bored with all the questions. You are the only person who does not bore me.”

 

I said, “There is a reason.”

He said, “What is that?”

I said, “I only answer. I never question. If you have any question you can ask me. If you don’t have a question then keep your mouth shut.”

 

We both laughed, because we both belonged to the same category of insanity. He asked me to continue the journey with him, but I said, “Excuse me, I have to go my own way, and from this point it separates from yours.”

 

He could not believe it. He had never invited anyone before. This was the man who had even refused Emperor Wu  –  the greatest emperor of those days, with the greatest empire  –  as if he was a beggar. Bodhidharma could not believe his eyes, that I could refuse him.

 

I said, “Now you know how it feels to be refused. I wanted to give you a taste of it. Goodbye.”

But that was fourteen centuries ago.

 

-Osho, "Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Ch 6"

 

 

 

 

I AM ECSTATIC because just the name of Bodhidharma is psychedelic to me. In the long evolution of human consciousness there has never been such an outlandish Buddha as Bodhidharma -- very rare, very unique, exotic. Only in some small ways George Gurdjieff comes close to him, but not very close, and only in some ways, not in all ways.

 

There have been many buddhas in the world, but Bodhidharma stands out like Everest. His way of being, living, and expressing the truth is simply his; it is incomparable. Even his own master, Gautama the Buddha, cannot be compared with Bodhidharma. Even Buddha would have found it difficult to digest this man.

 

This man Bodhidharma traveled from India to China to spread the message of his master. Although they are separated by one thousand years, for Bodhidharma and for such men there is no time, no space -- for Bodhidharma Buddha was as contemporary as Buddha is contemporary to me.

 

On the surface you are my contemporaries, but between me and you there is a long long distance. We live on different planets. In reality, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Pythagoras, Bahauddin, Bodhidharma -- these are my contemporaries. Between them and me there is no gap either of time or of space.

 

Superficially there is a one thousand years' gap between Buddha and Bodhidharma, but there is not even a single moment's gap in reality, in truth. On the circumference Buddha was already dead for one thousand years when Bodhidharma arrived on the scene, but at the center he is together with Buddha. He speaks the essence of Buddha -- of course he has his own way, his own style, but even Buddha would find it strange.

 

Buddha was a very cultured man, very sophisticated, very graceful. Bodhidharma is just the opposite in his expression. He is not a man but a lion. He does not speak, he roars. He has not that grace which belonged to Gautama the Buddha; he is rough, raw. He is not polished like a diamond; he is just from the mine, absolutely raw, no polishing. That is his beauty. Buddha has a beauty of his own, very feminine, very polished, very fragile. Bodhidharma has his own beauty, like that of a rock -- strong, masculine, indestructible, a great power.

 

Buddha also radiates power, but his power is very silent, like a whisper, a cool breeze. Bodhidharma is a storm, thundering and lightning. Buddha comes to your door without making any noise; he will not even knock on your door, you will not even hear his footsteps. But when Bodhidharma comes to you he will shake the whole house from its very foundations. Buddha will not shake you even if you are asleep. And Bodhidharma? He will wake you up from your grave! He hits hard, he is a hammer.

 

He is just the opposite of Buddha in his expression, but his message is the same. He bows down to Buddha as his master. He never says, "This is my message." He simply says, "This belongs to the buddhas, the ancient buddhas. I am just a messenger. Nothing is mine, because I am not. I am only a hollow bamboo who has been chosen by the buddhas to be a flute for them. They sing; I simply let them sing through me."

 

When he reached China, the Emperor Wu came to receive him on the borders: A great enlightened person is coming! And of course Wu was imagining him to be something like Gautama the Buddha -- very gentle, graceful, kingly. When he saw Bodhidharma he was shocked. He looked very primitive, and not only that, he looked very absurd, because he was carrying one of his shoes on his head -- one shoe on one foot, the other shoe on his head!

 

The emperor was embarrassed. Hc had come with his whole court and the queens. "What will they think? And what kind of man have I come to receive?" He tried to overlook it out of politeness. He did not want to ask the question, "Why is this shoe on your head?"

 

But Bodhidharma would not leave him. He said, "Don't try to overlook it. Ask directly and be straight from the very beginning. I have already read the question in your head."

 

The emperor was at a loss; he had to ask. Now what to do with such a man? He said, "Yes, you are right, the question has arisen in me. Why are you carrying this shoe on your head?"

 

Bodhidharma said, "To put things in the right perspective from the very beginning. I am an absurd man! You have to understand it from the very beginning. I don't want to create any trouble later on. Either you accept me as I am or you simply say that you cannot accept me, and I will leave your kingdom. I will go to the mountains. I will wait there for my people to come to me. This is just to show you that I am illogical, I can be as absurd as one can imagine. That is my way of working, that is my way of destroying your mind. And unless your mind is destroyed you will not know who you are. So what do you say?"

 

The king was at a loss. He had come with a few questions, but whether to ask this man those questions or not? -- because he may say something ridiculous; not only that, he may do something ridiculous.

 

But Bodhidharma insisted, "It is better that you ask whatsoever you have come to ask."

 

The king said, "The first question is: I have been doing many virtuous deeds...."

 

And Bodhidharma looked deeply into the eyes of the king -- a shiver must have gone down his spine! -- and said, "All nonsense! How can you do a virtuous deed? You are not yet aware. Virtue is a by-product of awareness. What virtuous deeds do you mean? You look like a fool -- how can you do a virtuous deed? Virtue follows a buddha, virtue is my shadow." He said, "You can only do vice, not virtue. It is impossible."

 

The king still tried to make some conversation and get rid of this man as politely as possible; he did not want to offend this man. He said, "By virtuous deeds I mean that I have made many temples for Buddha, many shrines. I have made many ashrams for the Buddhist bhikkhus, sannyasins. I have arranged for thousands of scholars to translate Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Millions and millions of rupees I have put in the service of Gautam Buddha. What is going to be the result, the consequence, of all my virtue and of all my virtuous deeds? Millions of bhikkhus take food every day from the palace and all over the country. What is going to be the outcome of it?"

 

And Bodhidharma laughed -- the king had never heard such laughter -- a belly laughter that could shake mountains. He laughed and laughed and he said, "You are simply foolish. All your efforts have been a sheer waste; there is going to be no result out of it. Don't try, and don't imagine that you are going to the seventh heaven as other Buddhist bhikkhus must have been telling you. They have been exploiting you. This is their strategy to exploit foolish people like you. They exploit your greed for the other world, they give you great promises. And their promises cannot be proved wrong because nobody comes back from the other world to say whether those promises have been fulfilled or not. They are exploiters, they are parasites! You have been a victim. Nothing is going to happen out of this which you think is very virtuous. In fact, you will fall into the seventh hell, because a man who lives with such wrong desires, who lives with desires, is going to fall into hell."

 

The emperor tried to change the subject. He said, "Is there anything holy or not?"

 

Bodhidharma said, "There is nothing holy, there is nothing unholy. Holiness, unholiness, are our mind attitudes, prejudices. Everything is as it is. This is tathata, suchness: things are simply as they are. Nothing is wrong and nothing is right. Nothing is sin and nothing is virtue."

 

The emperor said, "You are too much for me and for my people."

 

Bodhidharma said goodbye, turned back and moved to the mountains. For nine years in the mountains he sat facing a wall. People would come, because this conversation -- if you can call it a conversation -- reached faraway places. "The emperor has been hammered like anything, has been crushed. And this Bodhidharma is really something very strange, but he has a quality... some integrity, some strange perfume surrounds him. He is surrounded by an aura of his own."

 

People started coming from faraway places to see him, and they would ask him, "Why don't you look at us? Why do you go on looking at the wall?"

 

And Bodhidharma would say, "I am waiting for the right man. When he comes I will look at him. Otherwise it is all the same whether I look at the wall or I look at your faces. And the wall can be forgiven because it is a wall -- you cannot be forgiven. Hence it is better for me to look at the wall and not to look at you. You have fallen into such unawareness that I would like to shake you out of it. But then you feel angry, then you feel offended. I don't want to bother you. I will turn only towards the man who has the capacity, the courage to be with me, to be my disciple."

 

And only after many years did one man turn up. He stood for twenty-four hours behind Bodhidharma not saying a single word. Finally Bodhidharma had to ask, "Why are you standing behind me?"

 

He said, "Now it is you who are starting it. I have come to kill myself if you don't turn towards me."

 

And he cut his hand off with his sword and presented it to Bodhidharma and he said, "Take it as a token; otherwise I will next cut my head. Turn towards me immediately!"

 

Bodhidharma had to turn. He looked at the man, smiling, and said, "So you are my disciple! So the man has come for whom I have been waiting!"

 

Bodhidharma was the first patriarch of Zen, and this man was the second patriarch of Zen, and a new tradition started. A new river was born from the source of Bodhidharma. These fragments were found just at the beginning of this century. They were excavated by M.A. Stein from Tung Huang. These are the notes of some unknown disciples of Bodhidharma. They consist of a question by a disciple and the answer by Bodhidharma. These notes, fragmentary as they are, still are of great significance: they represent the essential core of Buddha's message. It is going to be a little arduous to understand them. Be very attentive and silent because these are not ordinary words. When a man like Bodhidharma speaks, small questions, ordinary questions, are transformed into great inquiries. And whatsoever he says about those ordinary questions is of immense significance. His each word has to be pondered over, meditated upon. This will also give you a little taste of communion between the disciple and the master.

-Osho, "The White Lotus, #1"