Kasan’s Beating the Drum
Kasan said, “Learning by study is called ‘hearing’; learning no more is called ‘nearness’; transcending these two is ‘true passing.’”
A monk asked, “What is ‘true passing’?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.”
The monk asked again, “What is the true teaching of the Buddha?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.”
The monk asked once more, “I would not ask you about ‘this very mind is the Buddha,’ but what is ‘no mind, no Buddha’?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.”
The monk still continued to ask: “When an enlightened one comes, how do you treat him?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.”

Setcho put it like this:

Dragging a stone, carrying earth,
Use the spiritual power of a thousand-ton bow.
Zokotsu Roshi rolled out three wooden balls;
How could they surpass Kasan’s “Beating the Drum”?
I will tell you, what is sweet is sweet,
What is bitter, bitter.

Osho,
Would you agree with Kasan that there is a state beyond learning?

The second question:

Is it possible to hear through the eyes and see with the ears? That’s what feels to be happening during these discourses.
Would you please comment?

And the third question:

What did the monk mean by his last question? To speak of how to treat a buddha sounds as if one has some control over how one will be in his presence, as if there might be a certain protocol to be observed.
Would you please explain?

Maneesha, before I talk about the anecdote, I would like… Who is at the drum? Nivedano, beat the drum first.

[Nivedano hits the drum hard.]

(Drumbeat)

You will have to do it again and again whenever I say….

This anecdote about Kasan’s beating the drum looks so simple from the outside, but from the inside it has tremendous meaning and is multidimensional.

The first….

You have to understand what a drum is.

A drum is emptiness enclosed.

Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)

There is nothing inside the drum. That is our actual state. We are just an outside cover, inside is emptiness. And just as the drum can speak out of emptiness, you are doing everything out of emptiness. This is one dimension of the meaning of Kasan’s beating the drum.