By the word Osho he has made the position clear: “I am not rude, and I cannot be rude to anybody. It is really out of compassion that I have struck on your stick, showing you that you don’t deserve to have it. It should be in my hands. You did not understand, that’s why I had to come to the assembly hall and sit in the position where you used to sit.

“Obviously you are feeling insulted, but all I am saying is that the moment a real master enters, then he is always the host, he is never the guest.”

As Kingyu was about to open his mouth to reply, Rinzai struck him.

He did not allow him to speak, because it is not a question of speaking, it is not a dialogue.

Try to understand: don’t be bothered about words, but the actual situation. He was going to open his mouth means he was going to say something. Rinzai struck him to say, “Don’t say anything, see! Don’t get lost into explanations, just see the situation, just look into my eyes!”

Kingyu pretended to fall down. Rinzai hit him again

– because no pretensions are allowed in Zen. Either you fall down, not by any effort but as a happening…You don’t pretend; it is not a drama.

Kingyu pretended to fall down. Rinzai hit him again. Now this hit is for his pretension – not only this pretending to fall, but his whole life is a pretension. He is not a master, yet he has been pretending to be the master.

Kingyu said, “Today things were not to my advantage.”

That is not the response of one who has understood. He is still thinking in terms of advantage. He has not understood the meaning of the behavior of Rinzai. He throws the responsibility, like everybody else in the world, on destiny, on kismet, on the lines of the hand, on the birth chart – all kinds of stupid excuses. “What can I do? Today things were not to my advantage.”

The reality is that Rinzai did too much, gave him again and again opportunities to understand – which would have been one of the greatest days in his life – that a master has walked down from his hill to his monastery, uninvited, and tried to wake him up. But he is thinking of advantages….

At a later time, Isan asked Kyozan, “In the case of these two venerable ones, was either the winner or loser?”

This was asked century after century in Zen: “What happened that day? Who was the winner and who was the loser?”