In this silence, that awakening is possible. In this silence, the stone buddha can start laughing, can start dancing, can start breathing. And remember: just as Hyakujo was not ready to worship a stone buddha, I am also against all worship. The worshipper is the worshipped; you don’t have to worship anyone else.

Your innermost being is the highest and the most precious, the most existential and conscious point. There is nothing higher than it. You need not worship, you can only meditate. And remember the difference between worship and meditation.

The mother was saying, “Worship, pray!” and Hyakujo, a young man, was saying, “I want to be.” Prayer is always addressed to somebody else. Prayer is not religious; worship is not religious. Being fully aware and silent is the only way of knowing the taste of religion.

This is a good opportunity. The clouds have come at the right time. Listen to the message of the rain. It simply is: just be like it. In a silent space, the dance of the rain, the whisper of the bamboos…and you have come home.

Many years later, Hyakujo became a monk.
One day, as attendant to Baso…

a great master, one of the greatest after Mahakashyapa.

…he went wandering in the mountains.
On his return he suddenly began to weep.

Note the point: that he suddenly began to weep. There was no reason at all.

One of his fellow monks said,
“Are you thinking of your father and mother?”
“No,” said Hyakujo.
“Did somebody slander you?” asked the monk.
“No,” answered Hyakujo.
“Then what are you weeping for?” persisted the monk.

Why? That is the question mind goes on persisting in. For the mind, everything has to be based on a certain reason, a cause. Mind does not allow anything without reason, without causality. And because of this persistence, mind misses the most essential question of your own being: why you are.

You can look here and there. Perhaps somebody will tell you why you are. But nobody in the whole history of consciousness has been able to say why he is. All that you can do is shrug your shoulders: I am, there is no question of why.

Hyakujo was right in telling the monk, “Go and ask the master.”

The monk went and asked Baso.Baso said,
“Go back and ask Hyakujo again.”
The monk came back to the room and found Hyakujo laughing.

Now this is too much for the reasonable mind, this is absurd… Now look, the rains are trying to stop. This is not right. Just now they were at their peak and now they are becoming silent to participate in your silence.