Yes, I do, says Hyakujo. When hungry, I eat; when tired, I sleep. He is saying, “I simply go with nature. I am no more, only nature is: tired, it goes to sleep; hungry, it eats. Neither do I interfere nor do I make any effort in the sense ‘effort’ is understood.”

Yuan asked a necessary question,

“And does everybody make the same efforts as you do, master?”
Hyakujo answered, “Not in the same way. When they are eating, they think of a hundred kinds of necessities, and when they are going to sleep they ponder over affairs of a thousand different kinds. That is how they differ from me.”

A clear-cut differentiation. If you can understand this, you will understand the difference between a buddha, who looks almost human, and other human beings. Their actions are the same: the buddha eats when he is hungry, he sleeps when he feels tired; so you do. On the surface there seems to be no difference. The difference is inside: when the buddha is eating, he is simply eating; there are no other thoughts in the sky of his mind. His whole attention, his whole awareness, is just concerned with the act in the present – eating. When he is asleep, he is simply asleep. He does not dream, he does not wander here and there with a thousand anxieties and problems; he has none. Asleep, he is simply asleep.

Modern psychoanalysis has to come to an understanding. They have not yet dared. They have only been studying what Hyakujo calls the barbarous mind. All their conclusions and their whole science will remain absolutely incomplete unless they explore the mind of a buddha. That will bring a tremendous revolution in the whole psychoanalytical movement, because on the surface the buddha is exactly the same as you are. But you can see the point: while you are eating, you are thinking a thousand and one thoughts; while you are sleeping, you are dreaming of faraway lands, or maybe repressed desires.

It is sad that even while you are making such a deep and intimate act as love, you are not loving the woman you are making love to, you are thinking of Sophia Loren. And don’t think that it is only you who is thinking of Sophia Loren, the woman you are making love to, is thinking of Mohammed Ali. On every bed there are four fellows. This is the barbarous mind: never in the moment, always going astray.

Hyakujo put the difference with the enlightened man very clearly: when hungry, eat; when tired, sleep. Don’t do anything else. Always remain contained in the moment, contained in the act. Raising hands, just raise your hand; don’t think of anything else. Sitting, just sit; walking, just walk. Every act should be so concentrated that it does not allow other thoughts to enter in.