You brought nothing and take nothing back home.
All material games of having, gaining and losing are meaningless in the ultimate sense.
Only our resistance creates the illusion of I, My and Mine..
Let go off that resistance and accept the simple naked truth!
“Awakening to Reality” happens instantly and spontaneously.
Whatever we get in life, is a divine gift, whether its pleasure or pain.
Accept the Divine gift with gratitude as it comes and Celebrate life in abundance.
Accept life as it comes and celebrate life unto death…Just celebrate..
Only in that celebration, one can dissolve into the cosmic celebration
And bliss explodes inwards and Flows outwards…Just celebrate.
Life is such a beautiful play of nowhere to nowhere.
Life is such a joyful play where one gains nothing and loses nothing.
Simply, Live.Love..Laugh…Here Now.
Live this moment...celebrate this moment….
Ah This!
Living this moment is Enlightenment…
Nirvana, Moksha, kingdom of god….
“Awakening to Reality” –
All else are added unto it.
Such a person is never shy of life
Sannyas will happen out of Bliss and Ecstasy.
He has no grudge for this world and no greed for the other world.
He can come and go whenever he wants to celebrate.
And whenever the man’s destiny summons forth.
Nothing binds his freedom and Responsibility. 

Mount Sumeru and the Great King
Osho : Mount Sumeru is accepted by Buddhist mythology, Hindu mythology, Jaina mythology – all the three religions born in this country have accepted the story of Mount Sumeru. It will be good for you to understand what is the purpose of Mount Sumeru. The purpose is that only chakravartins – and a chakravartin is an emperor who has conquered the whole world – are allowed to sign their names on Mount Sumeru when they enter into paradise.

One great emperor died with a great desire, because there is nothing greater than signing your signature on Mount Sumeru. It was the tradition of those times that the wife of a man who died would commit sati, and the kings used to have many wives, not just one. All the wives had to commit sati – sometimes a hundred women, sometimes five hundred women. Krishna had sixteen thousand women! So it was a massacre; whenever an emperor died, hundreds of living women ....

When this emperor reached the gates of heaven with his hundreds of wives who had died with him on the funeral pyre, the gatekeeper said to him, ”You take these instruments and sign on Sumeru, but don’t take anybody else with you.”

The emperor said, ”These are all my wives, and what is the point of signing on Sumeru if there is nobody even as a witness? I want all my wives to be with me to see it.”

The gatekeeper laughed and he said, ”I have been here ... for generations we have been the gatekeepers. Before me, my father and before him, his father ... as long as existence, our family has been on this gate. And everyone on this gate has given the same advice that I’m giving to you. You will be thankful for it. If you insist, I will allow – but then don’t be offended.”

The emperor could not understand, but perhaps the gatekeeper knows more about things ... He went alone and was simply amazed at the gatekeeper’s compassion. Because he could not find a small place anywhere on Mount Sumeru to make his signature. All over there were signatures and signatures and signatures.

The meaning is clear: ”You are not the only one. Millions of emperors have passed before you.” He said to the gatekeeper, who was with him, ”This is very humiliating. I used to think I would be the only emperor who is going to sign. And this whole mountain, miles and miles ... there is no space for a signature!”

The gatekeeper said, ”Do one thing – another advice that we have been giving since my ancestors. Here is the instrument. Remove somebody’s name and put your name. And this is not new; this has been happening for centuries as far as I know, my father knew, my father’s father knew. You have to remove somebody’s name and create space for your signature.”

The emperor said, ”But that takes all the joy out of it. Somebody will come and remove my name.”

The gatekeeper said, ”That, of course, is going to happen. It is up to you.”

This is the failure of success. Ultimate success brings ultimate failure. And this story may be not a fact; the Sumeru Mountain range does not exist anywhere, but all these three religions have accepted it for the simple reason to show you: Don’t run after the ego. Your ego can take you at the most to the Sumeru Mountains; and then you will see you have wasted your whole life, just to remove somebody’s name. What is the joy of being the greatest celebrity in the world?

Source: "Zen: The Solitary Bird, Cuckoo of the Forest" - Osho
 

Osho - Chuang Tzu said:

The sun and the moon and all the beings on earth and heaven are ready to receive me. And all beings, the whole existence, will be the mourners. So you need not worry, you need not engage mourners.
You can engage mourners -- now they are available on the market. There are people who you pay, and they mourn. What type of humanity is coming into being? If a wife dies, a mother dies, nobody is there to mourn, so you have to engage professional mourners. They are available in Bombay, Calcutta; in big cities they are available, and they do such a good job you cannot compete with them. Of course they are more efficient, they get daily practice, but what ugliness it is when you have to pay for it. The whole thing has become false.
Life is false, death is false, happiness is false. Even mourning is false. And this has to be; it has a logical meaning to it. If you have never been really happy with a person, how can you be really mournful when he dies? It is impossible. If you have not been happy with your wife, if you have never known any blissful moments with her, when she dies how can authentic tears come to your eyes? Deep down you will be happy, deep down you feel a freedom: Now I am independent, now I can move according to my desire. The wife was like an imprisonment.

I have heard that a man was dying and his wife was consoling him, saying, "Don't worry, sooner or later I will join you."
The man said, "But don't be unfaithful to me." He must have been afraid. Why this fear at the last moment? This fear must have always been there.
The wife promised, "I will NEVER be unfaithful to you."
So the man said, "If you commit even a single act of unfaithfulness towards me I will turn in my grave. It will be very painful for me."
Ten years later the wife died. At the gate of heaven, Saint Peter asked her, "Who would you like to see first?"
She said, "My husband, of course."
Saint Peter asked, "What is his name?"
So she said, "Abraham."
But Saint Peter replied, "It is going to be difficult to find him because we have millions of Abrahams, so give me a clue about him."
The wife thought and said, "With his dying breath he said that if I committed any act of unfaithfulness towards him he would turn in his grave."
Saint Peter said, "Say no more. You must mean twirling Abraham, the one who is constantly twirling in his grave! For ten years he has not had a single moment of rest. And everybody knows about him. There is no problem, we will call him immediately."

No faith, no trust, no love, no happiness, has ever happened out of your relationships. When death comes, how can you mourn? Your mourning will be false. If your life is false, your death is going to be false. And don't think that you are the only false one -- all around, those who are related to you are false. And we live in such a false world, it is simply amazing how we can continue.

A politician was out of work. He was an ex-minister. He was looking for a job, because politicians are always in difficulty when they are not in office. They cannot do anything other than politics, they don't know anything else but politics. And they don't have any qualifications either. Even a puny job requires certain qualifications -- but for a minister none are needed. A chief minister or a prime minister does not need any qualifications at all.
So this minister was in trouble. He met the manager of a circus, because he thought that as politics is a great circus, he must have learned a little something which he could use in the circus. So he said, "Can you find me a job? I am out of work, and in much trouble."
The manager said, "You have come at the right time. One of the bears has died, so we will give you a bear's costume. You don't have to do anything, just sit doing nothing all day and nobody will know the difference. Just sit from morning to evening so the people will know that the bear is there."
The job looked good, so the politician accepted. He entered the cage, put on his costume, and sat down. He was sitting there, when just fifteen minutes later another bear was shoved in. He panicked and ran to the bars, started shaking them and cried out, "Help, let me out of here!"
Then he heard a voice. The other bear was speaking. He said, "Do you think you are the only politician out of work? I am an ex-minister too. Don't be so afraid."

The whole of life has become false, root and all, and how you exist in it is a sheer miracle. Talking with a false face, talking to a false face, happiness false, misery false. And then you hope to find the truth! With false faces the truth can never be found. One has to realize his own true face and drop all the false masks.
Source - Osho Book "The Empty Boat"

Drop all 'isms'

Osho : Meditate on this small parable, a real story.

Ma Tsu heard of Ta Mei’s stay on the mountain, and sent a monk to ask him this question....Ma Tsu is a great Zen master, and Ta Mei is one of his disciples – he had thousands of disciples. The master sent some-body to ask the disciple some question – because he is staying on a mountain, alone, meditating, just sitting silently there. Now, the master must be feeling that he is getting settled or something. So he sends a person. He cannot go – he is very old, it will be difficult for him to climb the mountain – but he wants to see whether this Ta Mei can still be unsettled or not. He must be thinking to unsettle this Ta Mei, so...

Ma Tsu heard of Ta Mei’s stay on the mountain and sent a monk to ask him this question: ’What did you obtain when you called on the great master Ma Tsu and what prompted you to stay here?’

Ta Mei replied, ’The great master told me that mind was Buddha and that is why I came to stay here.’

The monk said, ’The great master’s Buddha Dharma is different now.’

Ta Mei asked, ’What is it now?’

The monk replied, ’He says it is neither mind nor Buddha.’

Ta Mei laughed and said, ’That old man is causing confusion in the minds of others and all this will have no end. Let him say that it is neither mind nor Buddha. As far as I am concerned, mind is Buddha.’

When the monk returned and reported the above dialogue to Ma Tsu, the latter was very happy and said, ’The plum is now ripe.’ ’Ta Mei’ in Chinese means ’big plum’. ’The plum is ripe now, I cannot unsettle him.’ Now even the master cannot unsettle the disciple. The disciple has arrived; now he knows all the tricks of the old man.

Zen fakirs say: ”If you want to go to the house of God, you must learn the burglar’s art.” You need as much alertness as the thief uses. You also must transform your fear and enter like the thief, as if it is your own house.

There is a Zen story: There was a very well known thief who was considered number one in the hierarchy of thieves. He was so adept at his art that he had never been caught, yet everyone knew he was a thief. The news even reached the ears of the king who called him, and honored him for his wonderful efficiency and skill.

As he became older his son said to him, ”Father, it is time for you to teach me your art, because who knows when death may come?’ The thief replied, ”If you wish to learn I shall teach you. Come with me tomorrow night.” The next night both father and son set out. The father broke through the wall as the son stood watching. His absorption in breaking in would have put any artist to shame. He was lost in his work as if he were lost in prayer. The son was awed by his father’s proficiency. He was a master thief, the guru of so many thieves.

The son was trembling from head to foot, though it was a warm night. Fear arose again and again, chilling his spine. His eyes darted everywhere, watching all directions, but his father was lost in his work and didn’t lift his eyes even once. When they entered through the hole the son was trembling like a leaf; never had he felt so afraid in all his life, but the father moved about as though the place belonged to him. He took the son in, broke the locks, opened the lock of a huge wardrobe filled with clothes and jewels, and told the son to get inside.

No sooner did the son enter but the father closed the cupboard, locked it, and taking the key with him, left the house shouting, ”Thief, thief!” and returned home. By then everyone had awakened. The son was caught in the worst dilemma of his life. What was he to do? He was worried about the footprints and the hole in the wall. At that moment the servant come right up to the wardrobe. The poor boy was at his wits end, his mind completely blank. At such a time the mind does not work, because it is full of stale knowledge and doesn’t know how to deal with fresh situations. He had never heard of such a thing arising in the whole history of thieving.

His intellect became useless. At the moment the intellect became useless, the consciousness within was awakened. Suddenly, as this energy caught him, he began making a noise as if a rat was gnawing at the clothes inside the cupboard. He was shocked at himself; he had never done such a thing before. The woman servant brought a bunch of keys and opened it. He immediately puffed out the lamp she was holding and, giving her a push, ran out of the house through the hole in the wall. Some ten or twenty people gave chase.

There was a great deal of noise, because the whole village was awake. The thief ran for his life – ran as he had never run before. He had no idea it was he who was running. Suddenly, as he reached a well, he picked up a big stone and threw it in the well – all this without the slightest idea of what he was doing. It seemed to him it was not he but someone else directing him. At the sound of the stone falling in the water the crowd gathered around the well, thinking the thief had fallen in. He stood behind the tree to rest a bit, then continued home muttering to himself.

When he went in he found his father fast asleep with the blanket over his head. The son pulled off the cover and said, ”What are you doing?” The father continued snoring away. He shook him hard. ”What did you do to me? Did you want to see me killed?” The father opened his eyes for a minute and said, ”So you have returned? Good. I’ll hear the rest in the morning,” and appeared to fall back asleep. The son pleaded with him, ”Say something, father. Ask me what I went through or I shall not be able to sleep.”

The father said, ”Now you are an expert; you don’t need to be taught. Anyway, say it if you must.” After the son recounted all that had happened the father answered, ”Enough! Now you know even the art that cannot be taught. After all you are my son! My blood flows in your veins. You know the secret. If a robber uses his intelligence he gets caught. You have to leave your intelligence behind, because each time it is a totally new experience, a new moment; each time you are entering a different person’s house and every house is new. The old experience never comes of use.

Use your intelligence and you land yourself in trouble. Rely on your intuition and you succeed.” Zen masters always mention this story. They say the art of meditation is like house-breaking – you need as much awareness. Intelligence should be put aside and awareness should come into play. Where there is fear there is bound to be awareness. Where there is danger you become absolutely alert and all thoughts stop.

There is no Goal

Just explaining this to you: that there is no goal, that there is nothing to achieve, that everything is good as it is.

I will tell you a Sufi story: There is a story told by Sufis about a man who read that certain dervishes, on the orders of their Master, never touched meat and did not smoke. Since this tends to fit in with certain well-established beliefs, especially in the West, this man made his way to the ZAWIA -- assembly place -- of the illuminated ones, to sit at their feet. They were all over ninety years old.

Sure enough, there they were, not a spot of nicotine or shred of animal protein among them, and our hero gasped with delight as he sat drinking in the unpolluted air and tasting the bean-curd soup which they provided. He hoped that he would at least live to a hundred.

Suddenly one of them whispered, "Here comes the great Master!" And all stood up as the venerable sage came in. He smiled benignly and went into the house, heading for his quarters. He did not look a day over fifty.

"How old is he, and what does he eat?" asked the enraptured visitor.
"He is one hundred and fifty years old, and I don't suppose any of us will reach that venerable age and station," wheezed one of the ancients. "But, of course, he is allowed twenty cigars and three steaks a day, since he is now beyond being affected by frivolities and temptations!"

It is a beautiful story. There comes a moment when a man goes beyond all duality -- then he is allowed everything. I can talk about the future because I live in the present -- it is allowed! And I can talk about saving the world from the third world war because I have no desires left -- it is allowed. I can go on teaching you day in, day out, year in, year out, saying continuously, hammering continuously: "There is no goal, no purpose, nothing to achieve." Still it is allowed to me to teach you.

Why is it allowed to me to teach you? -- because I am not a teacher any more. And I am not giving you a doctrine, and I am not giving you a character, and I am not giving you a discipline. I am simply imparting my joy that has happened to me.

Source - Osho Book "Be Still and Know"

Osho - God is the Guest

I would like to tell you a story that I love to tell. There is a great temple with a hundred priests to look after it. One night the chief priest went to bed and dreamed that God has sent word that he will visit their temple the next day. He did not believe it, because it is difficult to come across people who are more disbelieving than the priests. He did not believe his dream for another reason, too. People who trade in religion never come to believe in religion. They only exploit religion, which never becomes their faith, their truth. 

No one in the world is more faithless than one who turns faith into a means of exploitation.  So the chief priest could not believe that God would really this temple. The priest had never believed in such things, although he had been a priest for long years. He had worshipped God for long and he knew that God had never visited his temple even once. Each day he had offered food to God, and he knew that he had in reality offered it to himself. He had also prayed to God every day, but he knew well that his prayers were lost in the empty sky, because there was no one to hear them.

So he thought that the message was not true, it was just a dream, and a dream rarely turns into a reality. But then he was afraid, too, lest the dream should come true. At times what we call a dream turns into a reality and a reality as we know it proves to be a dream. Sometimes what we think to be a dream really becomes a reality. So the chief priest ultimately decided to inform his close colleagues about his last night’s dream. He said to the other priests, ”Although it seems to be a joke, yet I should tell you about it.

Last night I dreamed that God said that he would visit us today.” The other priests laughed and they said, ”Are you mad that you believe in dreams? However, don’t tell others about it; otherwise they will take you to be crazy.” But the head priest said, ”In case he should come, we should be prepared for it. There is no harm if he does not turn up, but if at all he comes, we will not be found wanting.” So the whole temple and its premises were scrubbed, washed and cleaned thoroughly. It was decorated with flowers and flags and festoons.

Lamps were lit and incense burned. Perfumes were sprayed and every kind of preparation made. The priests tired themselves out in the course of the day, but God did not turn up. Every now and then they looked up the road, they were disappointed, and they said, ”Dream is a dream after all; God is not going to come. We were fools to believe so. It was good that we did not inform the people of the town; otherwise they would have simply laughed at us.” By evening the priests gave up all hope, and they said, ”Let us now eat the sumptuous food cooked for God.

It has ever been so: what we offer to God is consumed by us in the end. No one is going to turn up. We were crazy enough to believe in a dream. The irony is that we knowingly made fools of ourselves. If others go mad, they can be excused, because they don’t know. But we know God never comes. Where is God? There is this idol in the temple; it is all there is to it. And it is our business, our profession to worship him.” And then they ate well and went to bed early as they were tired. When it was midnight a chariot pulled up at the gate of the temple, and its sound was heard.

One of the sleeping priests heard it and thought that it was God’s chariot. He shouted to others, ”Listen friends and wake up. It seems he, whom we expected all day, has arrived at long last. The noise of the chariot is heard.” The other priests snubbed him saying, ”Shut up, you crazy one. We have had enough of madness all through the day, now that it is night let us sleep well. It is not the sound of a chariot, but the rumblings of the clouds in the skies.” So they explained the thing away and returned to their beds. Then the chariot halted at the gate, and someone climbed the steps of the temple and knocked at its door.

And again one of the priests woke up from sleep and shouted to his associates, ”It seems the guest has arrived whom we awaited the whole day long. He is knocking at the door.” The other priests berated him as they had done with the first. They said, ”Are you not crazy? Won’t you allow us to sleep? It is just the dash of winds against the door and not a knock of a caller.” So they again rationalized and went back to their beds. The next morning they woke up and walked to the gates of the temple.

And they were astounded to see a few footprints on the steps of the temple. Surely enough someone had climbed them during the night. And then they noticed some marks of a chariot’s wheels on the road, and there was now no doubt at all that a chariot had arrived at the gate in the night. And strangely enough the footprints on the steps were absolutely uncommon and unknown. Now the priests burst into tears and fell down and began to roll on the ground where the chariot had halted. And soon the whole village was at the temple’s gates.

Everybody in the crowd asked with bewilderment, ”What is the matter?” The priests said, ”Don’t ask what the matter is. God knocked at the door of our temple last night, but we rationalized everything. We are now damned. He knocked at the door and we thought that it was the flapping sound of the winds. His chariot came, and we thought that it was the rumble of thunder in the sky. The truth is that we did not understand anything. We only explained them away, because we wanted to enjoy our sleep.”

God knocks at every door. His grace visits every home. But our doors are shut. And even when we hear a knock we immediately rationalize it and explain it away. In the old days they said that ”A guest is God”. There is a slight mistake in this maxim. The truth is that God is the guest. God is waiting as a guest at our doorsteps, but the door is closed. His grace is equally available to all. Therefore don’t ask whether one attains through his grace; one attains through his grace alone. And as far as our efforts are concerned, they are a help in opening the door, in removing the hurdles from the way. When he comes, he comes on his own accord.

Source: "In Search of the Miraculous Volume 1" by Osho

 Be Indifferent 

This is a Sufi story: An old man and a young man are traveling with a donkey. They have reached near a town; they both are walking with their donkey. School children passed them and they giggled and they laughed and they said, ”Look at these fools: they have a healthy donkey with them and they are walking. At least the old man can sit on the donkey.”

Listening to those children the old man and the young man decided, ”What to do? – because people are laughing and soon we will be entering the town, so it is better to follow what they are saying.” So the old man sat on the donkey and the young man followed.

Then they came near another group of people and they looked at them and said, ”Look! – the old man is sitting on the donkey and the poor boy is walking. This is absurd! The old man can walk, but the boy should be allowed to sit on the donkey.” So they changed: the old man started walking and the boy was allowed to sit.

Then another group came and said, ”Look at these fools. And this boy seems to be too arrogant. Maybe the old man is his father or his teacher and he is walking, and he is sitting on the donkey – this is against all rules!”

So what to do? They both decided that now there is only one possibility: that they both should sit on the donkey; so they both sat on the donkey.

Then other groups came and they said, ”Look at these people, so violent! The poor donkey is almost dying – two persons on one donkey. It would have been better if they carried the donkey on their shoulders.”

So they again discussed, and then there was the river and the bridge. They had now almost reached the boundary of the town, so they thought: ”It is better to behave as people think in this town, otherwise they will think we are fools.” So they found a bamboo; on their shoulders they put the bamboo and hung the donkey by his legs, tied it in the bamboo and carried him. The donkey tried to rebel, as donkeys are they cannot be forced very easily. He tried to escape because he is not a believer in society and what others are saying. But the two men were too much and they forced him, so the donkey had to yield.

Just on the bridge in the middle a crowd passed and they all gathered and they said, ”Look, these fools! We have never seen such idiots – a donkey is to ride upon, not to carry on your shoulders. Have you gone mad?”

Listening to them – and a great crowd gathered – the donkey became restless, so restless that he jumped and fell from the bridge down into the river – died. Both men came down – the donkey was  dead. They sat by the side and the old man said, ”Now listen....”

This is not an ordinary story – the old man was a Sufi master, an enlightened person, and the young man was a disciple and the old master was trying to give him a lesson, because Sufis always create situations; they say unless the situation is there you cannot learn deeply. So this was just a situation for the young man.

Now the old man said, ”Look: just like this donkey you will be dead if you listen to people too much. Don’t bother what others say, because there are millions of others and they have their own minds and everybody will say something; everybody has his opinions and if you listen to opinions this will be your end.” Don’t listen to anybody, you remain yourself. Just bypass them, be indifferent. If you go on listening to everybody, everybody will be prodding you to this way or that. You will never be able to reach your innermost center. 

Source: “Tantra: The Supreme Understanding“ - Osho 

Note: Osho further says in the same book using this story “All meditation is to become centered, not to be eccentric, to come to your own center. Listen to your inner voice, feel it, and move with that feeling. By and by, you can laugh at others’ opinions, or you can be simply indifferent. And once you become centered you become a powerful being; then nobody can prod you, then nobody can push you anywhere – simply, nobody dares. You are such a power, centered in yourself, that anybody who comes with an opinion simply forgets his opinion near you; anybody who comes to push you somewhere simply forgets that he had come to push. Rather, just coming near you he starts feeling overpowered by you.”

Finding a Diamond on a Muddy Road

Gudo was the emperor’s teacher of his time. Nevertheless, he used to travel done as a wandering mendicant. Once when he was on his way to Edo, the cultural and political center of the shogunate, he approached a little village mad Takenaka.

It was evening and a heavy rain was falling. Gudo was thoroughly wet. His straw sandals were in pieces. At a farmhouse near the village he noticed four or five pairs of sandals in the window and decided to buy some dry ones.

The woman who offered him the sandals seeing how wet he was invited him to remain for the night in her home. Gudo accepted, thanking her. He entered and recited a sutra before the family shrine. He then was introduced to the woman’s mother, and to her children. Observing that the entire family was depressed Gudo asked what was wrong.

‘My husband is a gambler and a drunkard,’ the housewife told him. 'When he happens to win he drinks and becomes abusive. When he losses he borrows money from others. Sometimes when becomes thoroughly drunk he does not come home at all. What can I do?

‘I will help him,’ said Gudo. 'Here is some money. Get me a gallon of fine wine and something good to eat. Then you may retire. I will meditate before the shrine.'

When the man of the house returned about midnight, quite drunk; he bellowed: 'Hey, wife I am home. Have you something for me eat?'

I have something for you: said Gudo. ‘I happened to be caught in the rain and your wife kindly asked me to remain here for the night. In return I have bought some wine and fish. You might as well have them.'

The man was delighted. He drank the wine at once and laid himself down on the floor. Gudo sat in mediation beside him. In the morning when the husband awoke he had forgotten about the previous night. 'Who are you? Where do yon come from?' he asked Gudo, who still was meditating. ‘I am Gudo of Kyoto and I am going on to Edo,' replied the Zen master.

The man was utterly ashamed He apologized profusely to the teacher of his emperor. Gudo smiled. 'Everything in this life is impermanent' he explained. ‘Life is very brief. If you keep on gambling and drinking yon will have no time left to accomplish anything else, and you will cause your family to suffer too.'

The perception of the husband awoke as if from a dream. 'You are right,' he declared. 'How can I ever repay you for this wonderful teaching! Let me see you off and carry your things a little way.’
'If you wish,' assented Gudo. The two started out. After they had gone three miles Gudo told him to return. ‘Just another five miles,’ he begged Gudo. They continued on. You may return now,' suggested Gudo.

'After another ten miles,' the man replied.
'Return now,’ said Gudo, when the ten miles had been passed.
‘I am going to follow you all the rest of my life,' declared the man.
Modern Zen teachers in Japan spring from the lineage of a famous master who was the successor of Gudo. His name was Mu-nan, the man who never returned back.

A Cup of Tea

 Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912) received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in saved tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. 'It is overfull. No more will go in!'

‘Like this cup,' Nan-in said. ‘You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? '