Osho meets China--Zen master Heshan Beats the Drum

Ho-shan used to give the following sermon: 'To discipline
ourselves in learning, is called hearing; to reach a point where
any more learning no more avails, is called approaching.
When one goes beyond these two stages he is said to have
truly transcended.'

Once a monk asked: 'What then is truly transcending?'

Without uttering a word Ho-shan motioned as if beating a
drum, saying: 'Dang, dang, doko dang, doko dang.'

To all such questions Ho-shan's answer was always the
same: 'Dang, dang, doko dang, doko dang.'

The Zen people are mad in a way because they are trying to
pull you towards the ultimate which is beyond you. They are
trying to pull you beyond yourself; they are trying to pull you
out of yourself. They are mad people, but if you allow them
they can give you a glimpse of the eternal, and once the
glimpse happens you are never the same again.

Let this story penetrate your heart as deeply as possible and
whenever you are becoming a victim again of theories,
dogmas, doctrines, philosophies, say loudly, 'Dang, dang,
doko dang, doko dang.' It will be helpful; it will suddenly bring
you back to the earth.

--Osho
Dang Dang Doko Dang ch. 9

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.

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.

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...

--Osho
Live Zen, ch. 14

Story, Commentary by Yuanwu

Heshan said, "Cultivating study is called learning, ending study is called
nearness."

(No Chan practitioner can leap clear of this. An iron hammerhead with no hole. An
iron spike.)

"Going beyond these two is real going beyond."

(What are you doing with one eye on your forehead?)

A monk asked, " What is real going beyond?"

(What will he say? I'd blot it out with a single stroke. There's an iron spike.)

Heshan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."

(An iron spike, iron brambles. Hard, hard.)

The monk asked, "What is the real truth?"

(What will he say? A double case. There's another iron spike.)

Heshan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."

(An iron spike, iron brambles. Hard, hard.)

The monk asked, " I don't ask about 'mind is Buddha' -- what about 'not mind, not
Buddha?"

(What will he say? This garbage heap! The three sections are not the same.
There's another iron bramble.)

Heshan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."

(An iron spike, iron brambles. Hard, hard.)

The monk asked, "How do you receive a transcendent person?"

(What will he say? This monk will encounter a fourth ladleful of his foul water.
There's another iron spike.)

Heshan said, "Knowing how to beat the drum."

(An iron spike, iron brambles. Hard, hard. But what does this really mean? In the
morning going to India, in the evening returning to China.)

Verse on the story by Xuedou, Commentary by Yuanwu

One hauls rock;

(In the heart of the realm the emperor commands. A leper drags along his
companions. A transcendent person comes this way.)

A second moves earth.

(Beyond the borders the general gives orders. Both have their crimes covered by
the same indictment. Those with the same illness sympathize with each other.)

To shoot the bolt requires a ten-ton crossbow.

(Even with a ten-ton pull it still won't be able to penetrate. It is not to be lightly
answered. How could it be used for a dead frog?)

Xianggu Laoshi (Old master Elephant Bones--Xuefeng) rolled balls--

(There's another one who's come this way. He had a holeless iron hammerhead.
Who doesn't know?)

How could this equal Heshan's knowing how to beat the drum?

(An iron spike. It takes this fellow to understand. One son has attained intimately.)

I report for you to know:

(Even Xuedou himself hasn't seen it even in a dream. He's adding frost to snow.
Do you know?)

Don't be careless --

(Again there's a bit of confusion.)

The sweet is sweet; the bitter is bitter.

(Thanks for the answer. Xuedou wrongly adds a footnote -- he should get a
thrashing. Has he ever been beaten? I'll hit! As before, vast darkness.)

Here is the most current English translation of this story, done recently by Thomas
Cleary (1998), using the Chinese pinyin for the names. Also, Cleary includes the
commentaries used in the original Blue Cliff Record, by Zen master Yuanwu--these
are seen in parentheses interspersed in the story, and also in the following verse
by Zen master Xuedou. This is again an expanded story from ones above.

In June of 1976, Osho gave a series of talks on Zen, which were collected into book form
and titled Dang Dang Doko Dang. This title is taken from an English translation of a
Chinese Zen story from The Blue Cliff Record (Ch., Biyan Lu), formally published by
imperial edict c. 1300, but was circulating in Chinese Chan circles in handwritten form for a
few centuries before that. It is Case 44, and is titled "Knowing How to Beat the Drum." The
main story concerns the Chinese Zen master Heshan Wuyin--here his name is given in the
old form Wade-Giles romanization of "Ho-shan." His answer to the monks question, in
altered form, became the title of the book--Dang Dang Doko Dang.

Twelve years later, in April of 1988, Osho again used this story as a jumping off point for
his discourse of the day, which became known as his book titled Live Zen. This time the
English translation was taken verbatim from the book by the Japanese Zen adept Katsuki
Sekida titled Two Zen Classics (1977). It uses the Japanese romaji romanization of
Chinese Zen master Heshan, as "Kasan." It also is an extended story, including the verse
commentary by Chinese Zen master Xuedou, identified here in the Japanese
pronunciation of "Setcho."

Osho talks on a story of Chinese Zen master Heshan,
known as Heshan Beats the Drum.

Below is the original Chinese text of this story, Heshan Beats the Drum, in traditional
Chinese characters. It is taken from the Foguang Shan Chan collection, published out of
Taiwan in the 1990's. This is the complete text, with the anecdote, commentary by Yuanwu,
verse by Xuedou, with Yuanwu's commentary, and closing commentary again by Yuanwu. This
is the format used in all 100 Zen stories of this book, The Blue Cliff Record. Traditional
Chinese is read starting at the top right of the page, reading down, then moving to the left,
line by line.

--End

Audio mp3. Complete talk from chapter 9 of Dang Dang Doko
Dang. Osho talk in English. Click on the play button below to
hear. 01:43:12

Audio mp3. Complete talk from chapter 14 of Live Zen. Osho talk
in English. Click on the play button below to hear. 01:09:14

oshobob The Living Workshop

Osho meets China