One day, Ungo Doyo went up into the hall and quoted Tozan’s old saying, “Hell is not really painful. Wearing this robe, to fail to understand the great matter – that loss is most painful.”
Addressing his monks, Doyo said, “You are already within this tradition. A hundred percent is not far from ninety percent. You should exert a little more energy. Then you elders will not tire of your perpetual journey and yet will not turn away from the monastery.”
He continued: “An ancient has said, ‘If you wish to be able to bear this matter, you must go and stand atop the highest mountain, and walk on the bottom of the deepest sea. Only then have you some power.’”
Doyo said, “If you have not yet taken care of the great matter, for now you must tread the hidden road.”
A monk then asked, “What is esteemed by an ascetic?”
Doyo said, “Where mind’s consciousness does not reach.”
Another monk asked, “What are the grades of buddhas and patriarchs?”
Doyo said, “Both are grades.”
A third monk asked, “What is the meaning of the coming of Bodhidharma from the West?”
Doyo said, “Meeting no one on the ancient road.”

Maneesha, the whole Western approach and the Eastern approach to understand reality have been diametrically opposite. The West has believed in the body, in the outside world, in matter. Therefore a great science has arisen out of all this search, science with all its branches: physics, chemistry, medicine. But the basic thing is they are all denying the inner reality of man.

And the East is focused, totally and unconditionally, on the search for the inner: “Who is residing within you?” The body has always been taken just as a house, just like the clothes you wear. You are not your clothes and you are not your body, you are not even your mind. Then what is left? – an utter silence. In this silence have arisen heights of consciousness like Gautam Buddha, and these heights are not unavailable to anybody. They are available to you and to everybody else, whoever is ready enough to take just a little turn – from the outside to the inside. These anecdotes are concerned with this turning point.

One day, Ungo Doyo went up into the hall and quoted Tozan’s old saying, “Hell is not really painful. Wearing this robe, to fail to understand the great matter – that loss is most painful.”

Now you have to understand the symbols and the metaphors of Zen. Hell is not really painful because there is no hell other than your being outside yourself, and there is no heaven other than being within yourself. Hell and heaven are both just metaphors; they do not denote any reality.

All the religions have made much fuss about them. Their whole exploitation of man depends on two things: fear of hell and greed for heaven. It is such a contradiction that all these religions go on teaching against fear, against greed, and underground their whole teaching is based on the fear of hell: that if you are not virtuous, if you are not a believer, you will fall into eternal hell; you will be tortured for eternity. And if you are a believer, a faithful, virtuous, respectable person, then the doors of heaven are open for you.

It is a contradiction because hell is only a metaphor for fear, and heaven is another metaphor for greed, for lust. Zen does not consider them to be of any significance at all.

That’s why Tozan says, “Hell is not really painful.” Don’t be bothered about hell. The real pain is that you are wearing the robe of a monk, a sannyasin; you have declared yourself as a seeker of truth, and still you are not going withinward, you have not yet found the way. And your inner world is not very far away.