live-zen-14

Osho,
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.
The other dimension is that whatever question is asked to him, he goes on saying in answer, “Beating the drum.” It does not matter what question you are asking – there may be millions of questions but there is only one answer:

Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)

…and the answer cannot be verbalized. That’s why Kasan used to keep a drum by his side. You ask him anything – it does not matter what you are asking, he will simply beat the drum. That was his answer.
Reduced to your understanding it means, “Be nothing just like the drum and you will find the answer. I cannot give it to you, it is your own emptiness. At the most I can hit you from the outside, but the sound comes from within you.”
Kasan said, “Learning by study is called hearing; learning no more is called nearness; transcending these two is true passing.”
Kasan is certainly a master as far as finding exact analogies from the experience of no-mind to the world of mind. Nobody surpasses him. You have to understand him slowly: Learning by study is called hearing. Somebody else has written, you have studied it; somebody else is teaching, you have studied him – but it is all only hearing, it is not experience. Knowledge cannot be converted into experience. On the contrary, it is the greatest barrier to experience. Learning by study is called hearing.
He says that at the most the studious, the learned can be said to be people who have heard it. Not that they have known it.
Every Buddhist scripture starts with the words, “I have heard….” There are thousands of Buddhist scriptures, but without any exception, every scripture begins with the words, “I have heard” – a deep sincerity, a truthfulness. “Buddha may have known, but as far as I am concerned, I have only heard.”
Learning no more is called nearness. If you stop this kind of knowledge, if you drop this kind of knowledge, learning no more, Kasan calls it nearness. You have come very close; still, it is not experience. Learning was very far away; not learning is nearness, but even nearness is too far away.
Transcending these two is true passing. If you can transcend knowledge and you can also transcend no knowledge…in other words, if you can transcend ignorance and wisdom both, you have really passed to the beyond. This is called true passing.
A monk asked, “What is true passing?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.”
Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)
The monk asked again, “What is the true teaching of the Buddha?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.”
Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)
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.”
Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)
The monk still continued to ask: “When an enlightened one comes, how do you treat him?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.”
Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)

This “beating the drum” of Kasan is a tremendous device. He says, “All your questions, howsoever great they look, howsoever profound and philosophical, they are all coming out of an emptiness within you.” He is saying, “Just for a moment think of yourself as a drum.”
That was his meditation to his disciples. If you can conceive of yourself as emptiness enclosed by the body, you will have understood the absurd action of Kasan. It is not logical; in fact, a logical person will think this man is mad. And by the way, Nivedano is – otherwise, why are you beating the drum?

Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)

Good!

Setcho’s commentary is not great, but still good.
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”?
Different masters in different ages have used different devices just to take you out of your mind process, just to silence you, just to make you aware of your inner emptiness. Setcho said, “No other master has been able to surpass Kasan’s beating the drum.”
I will tell you, what is sweet is sweet,
What is bitter is bitter.
He is saying, “Kasan is simply concerned with the ultimate truth of your emptiness. Out of your emptiness all kinds of sounds, thoughts, imagination, dreams…but a good hit on your coconut…”

Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)

Yeah, it hits well – many people seem to realize the emptiness!
Even if nobody else becomes enlightened, Nivedano’s drum is going to become enlightened. That is not a small matter.

A few other Zen masters’ statements before I come to Maneesha’s questions:
Kyuho said, “Our late teacher said, ‘You should be completely finished up, emptied away; one nen, one eon; you should be like cold ashes and the dead tree, like the incense burner on the deserted shrine, like the frozen lake, like a piece of glazed silk.’ Tell me, what does this mean?”
The head monk said, “It means the realm of one color” – that is, great enlightenment.
Kyuho said, “You do not understand our teacher’s meaning.”
The head monk ordered someone to fetch a packet of incense and said, “If I cannot pass away while this incense is burning, your words will be proved true.” He threw the incense into the burner. A cloud of white smoke rose, and while it still hung in the air, the monk passed away sitting up straight.
Kyuho, stroking the dead monk’s back, said, “You could pass away sitting up straight, but you could never dream of our late teacher’s meaning.”
This passing away seems to be so miraculous. As the incense will be burned away, the monk is saying, “I will be gone with the smoke.” That is the meaning of inner emptiness: “I can empty out myself any moment” – and he did manage it, sitting straight; as the incense stopped burning he was gone.
But Zen is a very strange way of approaching the truth.
Kyuho, stroking the dead monk’s back, said, “You could pass away sitting up straight, but you could never dream of our late teacher’s meaning.”
This is going to be very hard. He has proved that he can empty himself – so much so that he can die out of his own will. As the incense burns and the smoke cloud moves away, he will be gone. Still Kyuho said, “You have not understood the meaning of beating the drum.”
Why is he so hard about the poor fellow who has even died, emptied himself completely? He is hard because he is saying, “You have tried self-will by moving away your consciousness from the body like the smoke of the incense; you have made a great effort of the will, and in fact your will is your ego. You can do this, but you have not understood the meaning of beating the drum. You have emptied yourself, but you are there; you have proved yourself, but you are there.
“In your very proving you have proved only your ego, your power of will. You cannot understand the great meaning of beating the drum. It has to be relaxed. It has not to be done by you because it is there. You have not to do anything, you have simply to relax into it. You don’t have to die, you have simply to be aware that emptiness is your innermost reality.”
That’s why although Kyuho seems to be hard on the poor fellow who has died, he is right: the man who has died must have had a great willpower.
I have told you about Nansen….
Before he was going to die, he informed all his disciples to come to partake in the ceremony of his death. He had thousands of disciples and he asked them, “Now please, anybody – suggest to me some original way of dying. I don’t want to be in any way orthodox – I have never been in my life. Why should I be orthodox in dying if I have not been in living?”
The disciples looked at each other. Nobody had heard about an original death; death is death. Still, one suggested, “I have heard about a monk dying sitting, cross-legged, in a lotus posture.”
Nansen said, “Stupid! So many have done that; it is nothing new. Just try to find something new. You are my disciples and you cannot do even this much for me? – to find an original way of dying? Do you want me to die like everybody else, lying on the bed?”
The bed certainly is a very dangerous place. Ninety-nine point nine percent of people die there…so beware! When the light is put off, simply get out of the bed – it is the most dangerous place. Be somewhere else: in the bathroom, on the floor, on the roof…anywhere, but avoid the bed.
Nansen said, “I am not going to die in the ordinary way.” Somebody suggested, “Then you can die standing up.”
Nansen said, “That seems to be a little better, but still it is not unique, because I have heard about one Zen master dying standing.”
That gave a clue to a disciple; he said, “That gives me an idea. Why don’t you try it? Die standing on your head!”
He said, “This is great!” – And he stood on his head and died.
Now the disciples were at a loss what to do, because there exists no ritual for a man who has died standing on his head….
Somebody suggested, “His sister…she is his elder, she is a nun in the nearby monastery; it is better to call her. It is a dangerous case. We should not take any responsibility for it!”
The sister was called. She was older than Nansen; Nansen was ninety and the sister was ninety-five, but the sister was in no way inferior to Nansen in her understanding. She gave a hit to Nansen and told him, “Your whole life you have been mischievous; at least in your death behave!”
So Nansen jumped up, lay down on the bed, smiled – and died.
The disciples could not believe it, whether he is still dead…because first he had deceived them by standing on his head. “We would have burned him alive. Now it is better to wait for two or three days and see if he is really dead.”
Nansen opened his eye and said, “I am really dead! There is no need to wait. When I am saying it who are you to dispute it. Is it my death or yours?”
They said, “Certainly it is your death.”
So he said, “Can I close my eyes?”
They said, “It is up to you.”
He closed his eyes and the disciples had to burn him, feeling very much worried – perhaps they are burning him alive or…who knows? He looks absolutely dead, but he looked dead when he was standing on the head, he looked dead when he was lying on the bed…!
Zen is certainly a very original way of living, of loving, of dying, of expressing its experiences.

Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)

Have you got the feel of beating the drum?
There is nothing inside, still…it makes so much noise. Just look within yourself. What is there? A heartbeat, breathing coming in and going out…and what else? When you are utterly silent you are pure emptiness. Emptiness breathing…emptiness full of the dance of the heartbeat.
This is what is called going beyond, passing beyond – beyond knowledge, beyond ignorance – into the world of no knowing.

Maneesha has asked, “Would you agree with Kasan – that there is a state beyond learning?”
Kasan is not saying that there is a state beyond learning. Kasan is saying there is a space beyond learning, not a state but a space – infinite, empty.
Just watch this silence. Feel it, be drowned in it. And you will have tasted something of Zen.
These anecdotes are not ordinary stories. Each anecdote carries a whole scripture.

Her second question is: “ 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?”

Nivedano…

(Drumbeat)

When one is absolutely silent, yes, one can see through the ears and one can hear from the eyes. Then there is no distinction between the senses, one simply becomes one sensitivity. Eyes and ears and nose, they all dissolve into one sensitivity. You see it, you feel through it, you hear through it – and still you remain silent. All this knowing from the ears and all this hearing from the eyes does not disturb your silence.
Yes, Maneesha, that’s what I have been trying for years: to create the situation for you – and I feel immensely happy that you have responded with great rejoicing.
You have become part of this cosmic silence.
This is your true reality.
In this reality you are not.

And her 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?”
You have completely misunderstood Kasan’s answer. When asked, “When an enlightened one comes, how do you treat him?”
Kasan said, “Beating the drum.” It is not a question of any protocol; it is not a question of any control on your part. Kasan’s approach has to be understood. Whatever your question is – this time it is meeting the Buddha – you may have asked, “If a buffalo comes by, how has it to be treated?” His answer would have been the same: “Beating the drum.”
By this “beating the drum,” he is saying, “All is empty, even the Buddha – he is far more empty than you. The only difference between him and you is that you think you are not empty, and he knows that he is empty and you are empty.”
Try to understand Kasan more existentially than intellectually. He is not a man of intellect. He moved around with his drum, but he is certainly a great master. Language does not work. There is no other way to convey, but Kasan has invented, found a way – in an empty drum. You ask him or you do not ask him, he is going to beat the empty drum.
Kasan had thousands of disciples. Very few people can be said to have made more beings enlightened than Kasan, and he never spoke. His only speech was beating the drum.
Beautiful were these people and great must have been the people who followed and understood.
Golden were the days when even a Kasan could be understood. He was as awakened as any Gautam Buddha.

Now, Nivedano, the last beat on the drum….

(Drumbeat)

Now the drum should be allowed to rest. And specially for the drum, I am going to tell a few stories:

Teddy Bearson gets the feeling that his wife is cheating on him, so he hires Mr. E.T. Pickle, the private detective, to follow her. Pickle has instructions to make a video film of all his wife’s suspicious activities.
A week later Pickle reports: “Here it is!” He says, “All the evidence in living color – and with your best friend, too!”
Teddy and Pickle watch the movie together. Teddy’s wife and his best friend are having lunch, swimming, dancing, walking and laughing in the countryside, making love under the pine trees….
“I can’t believe it! I just can’t believe it!” says Teddy.
“You better believe it!” says E.T. “The evidence is all here.”
“That is not it,” sighs Teddy. “I just can’t believe my wife can be so much fun!”

Mabel Mince goes into the police station and tells the police officer that her boyfriend is missing.
The cop starts to fill out a report and asks Mabel if she can give a description of the missing man.
“Sure,” says Mabel. “He is thirty-five, six foot tall, blond hair, blue eyes, very handsome and well mannered and he plays the guitar.”
A friend of hers whispers in her ear, “Hey, Mabel, what are you talking about? Your boyfriend is short, fat and hairy!”
“I know,” snaps Mabel, “but who wants him back?”

A man in New York is charged with hitting a woman on a double-decker bus, and the judge is asking him if he has any excuse.
“Well, Your Honor, it was like this,” explains the man. “She came on the bus and sat next to me downstairs. Then she opened her bag, took out her purse, closed her bag, opened her purse, took out a dollar, closed her purse, opened her bag, put back the purse, and closed her bag again.
“Then she saw that the conductor was going upstairs, so she opened her bag, took out her purse, closed her bag, opened her purse, put in her dollar, closed her purse, opened her bag, put back her purse and closed her bag again.
“Then she saw the conductor coming down the stairs again, so she opened her bag, took out her purse, closed her bag, opened her purse…”
“Stop!” shouts the judge. “You are driving me crazy!”
“Right!” says the man, “That’s what happened to me!”

Leroy and Liza, the black lovers, are out on a small country road, riding double on Leroy’s old bicycle.
Suddenly they get the urge to make love. So there and then they jump off the bike and go for it.
After a few minutes a huge truck comes over the top of the hill. The driver sees the black couple rolling around in the middle of the road, so he gives a blast on his horn and frantically steps on the brakes – but Leroy and Liza just carry on making love.
The truck finally skids to a halt about three inches from the sweating couple. The driver jumps out of his cab and screams, “You crazy niggers! You could have been killed!”
Leroy lifts up his head, looks at the driver and says, “Well, I was coming, Liza was coming, and you was coming. And I figured, Hell, you was the only one with the brakes!”

Now two minutes for absolute silence.

No movement.
Close your eyes and collect your whole energy inward.

Now relax…

Okay, come back.