Seppo first visited Enkan, then Tosu three times, and Tozan nine times, without result. When at last he visited Tokusan, Seppo asked him, “Is it possible for me too to share, with the patriarchs, in the supreme teaching?”
Tokusan struck him with his staff, saying, “What on earth are you talking about?”
The next day Seppo asked for an explanation. Tokusan said, “My religion has no words and sentences. It has nothing to give anybody.”
At this Seppo became enlightened.
Once, a monk asked Tozan, “What is the mystery of mysteries?”
Tozan said, “It is like the tongue of a dead man.”
On another occasion a nun asked Joshu, “What is the secret of secrets?”
Joshu tapped her on the elbow.
The nun said, “You are still holding on to something.”
“No,” said Joshu. “It is you who are holding on to it.”
Once a monk asked Joshu, “What is the word of the ancients?”
Joshu said, “Listen carefully! Listen carefully!”
Maneesha, listen carefully.
The cuckoos are absolutely free to sing their song or not. Listen carefully to the birds, because these sounds are coming from the very center of existence. It is life singing, dancing, rejoicing.
Before I discuss the anecdote before me, I have a few things to say to you.
First: you have to be aware that you are living in an insane world. Unless you see the insanity of the world and its behavior, you will never get rid of it. You will always be in bondage.
Just today I came across the statistic: one million children every year are being sold, at the high price of twenty to forty thousand dollars, for sexual abuse. And this number of one million is not complete, because many countries don’t allow a survey. It is absolutely certain that at least three times more children from poor countries, poor parents, will be sold for sexual abuse. And we call this world sane.
In New York last year, hundreds of small, just-born, babies were found thrown into junk yards, in gutters, flushed down toilets. What can be more barbarous? And all these people pretend to be part of some religion – Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Mohammedan. Why this kind of insane behavior? – because nobody is objecting, because great vested interests are supporting the whole mafia. Your politicians are involved in it; your religious leaders are involved in it. Otherwise, such inhuman acts could not continue. One suspects whether humanity will ever become a culture, a civilization.
Just today I have received a letter from the Shankaracharya of Puri saying that he wants a debate with me. I am perfectly willing, but on what grounds is he going to debate with me? He has said that if a woman is burned alive, becomes a sati, then in Hyderabad rains will come. Now on what grounds can we discuss this? The only way is that the Shankaracharya should become a sati in Hyderabad! And if rains come, I will accept that he was right. If rains don’t come, everybody will know that he was wrong.