Shishi Shandao
Jap., Sekishitsu Zendo
Stone Room Virtuous Dao
| born: c. 760 died: c. 830 place: China |
| stories: Osho The Zen Manifesto: Freedom From Oneself, ch 6, ch. 7 Zen: The Solitary Bird, Cuckoo of the Forest, ch. 4, ch. 15 |
| Gyozan said to Sekishitsu, "Tell me what to believe in and what to rely on?" Sekishitsu gestured across the sky above, three times with his hand, and said, "There is no such thing." Gyozan asked, "What do you say about reading sutras?" Sekishitsu replied, "All the sutras are out of the question. Doing things that are given by others is dualism of mind and matter. And if you are in the dualism of subject and object, various views arise. But this is blind wisdom, so it is not yet the Tao. "If others don't give you anything, there is not a single thing. That's why Bodhidharma said, `Originally, there is not a single thing.' "You see, when a baby comes out of the womb, does he read sutras or not? At that time, the baby doesn't know whether such a thing as buddha nature exists or not. As he grows up and learns various views, he appears to the world and says, `I do well and I understand.' But he doesn't know it is rubbish and delusion. "Of the sixteen ways or phases of doing, a baby's way is the best. The time of a baby's gurgle is compared to a seeker when he leaves the mind of dividing and choosing. That's why a baby is praised. But if you take this comparison and say, `The baby is the way,' people of the present days will understand it wrongly." And that is true even today. When I am saying to you, "Be nothing," I am saying in other words, "Be just a newborn baby, a pure consciousness, undivided into knowing and not knowing. The baby's consciousness is pure. It knows nothing, it does not even know that it is." You must have heard small babies talk about themselves as separate persons. They may say, " The baby is hungry. The baby is thirsty." The "I" takes a little time to grow. It takes at least three to four years for society to create an ego so the baby starts saying "I" – instead of saying, "The baby" is hungry, "I" am hungry. And the moment the baby says, "I am hungry," he is no longer a baby. He has entered into the world, he has graduated, in a way. But according to Zen, once again you have to become just like the baby. This second childhood is the greatest revolution possible... --Osho The Zen Manifesto: Freedom From Oneself, ch. 7 |
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