According to Osho, Bokoju’s “pre-arrangement” was not against tathata. He did not pre-plan; he simply allowed what was arising to flower, acting without the sense of a doer. In tathata, even arranging is natural if it comes spontaneously; calculation and concern for propriety would be ego. The true criterion is inner suchness, not outer appearances.
Like a flower opening by itself, his actions came naturally without ego, so they fit tathata; forcing or calculating would have been against it.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, wasn’t Zen master Bokoju’s pre-arrangement of his death contrary to tathata (suchness)?
If tathata makes one arrange, then he is arranging; if tathata does not make one arrange, then he will not. You cannot judge from the outside. The matter is inner. If there is no sense of the doer, then whatever happens is happening through tathata. If there is the sense of the doer, then whatever happens is happening through the ego. You are the doer. How will you judge from the outside? You know only one thing: if someone goes, he must be going because he wants to go; if he does, he must be doing because he wants to do; if he gets up, he must be getting up because he wants to. In your life you have never allowed anything to happen by itself. You have had no connection with the spontaneous. You have done everything. You have even “done” such unique things of life as cannot be…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, OF VOLUNTARY DEATH MANY DIE TOO LATE AND SOME DIE TOO EARLY. STILL THE DOCTRINE SOUNDS STRANGE: `DIE AT THE RIGHT TIME.' DIE AT THE RIGHT TIME: THUS ZARATHUSTRA TEACHES. TO BE SURE, HE WHO NEVER LIVED AT THE RIGHT TIME COULD HARDLY DIE AT THE RIGHT TIME! BETTER IF HE WERE NEVER TO BE BORN! -- THUS I ADVISE THE SUPERFLUOUS. BUT EVEN THE SUPERFLUOUS MAKE A GREAT THING OF THEIR DYING; YES, EVEN THE HOLLOWEST NUT WANTS TO BE CRACKED. EVERYONE TREATS DEATH AS AN IMPORTANT MATTER: BUT AS YET DEATH IS NOT A FESTIVAL. AS YET, MEN HAVE NOT LEARNED TO CONSECRATE THE FAIREST FESTIVALS. I SHALL SHOW YOU THE CONSUMMATING DEATH, WHICH SHALL BE A SPUR AND A PROMISE TO THE LIVING. THE MAN CONSUMMATING HIS LIFE DIES HIS DEATH TRIUMPHANTLY....
Question: IF IT RAIN, LET IT RAIN; IF IT RAIN NOT, LET IT NOT RAIN; BUT EVEN SHOULD IT NOT RAIN, YOU MUST TRAVEL WITH WET SLEEVES. LOOK AT THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS! THEIR COLOUR AND SCENT FALL WITH THEM, ARE GONE FOR EVER, YET MINDLESS THE SPRING COMES AGAIN. BUDDHISM IS THE SHAVED PART OF THE SAUCEPAN, THE WHISKERS OF THE PEBBLE, THE SOUND THAT ACCOMPANIES THE BAMBOOS IN THE PICTURE. THE PUPPET-PLAYER HANGS THEM ROUND HIS NECK, NOT HIS HEART; HE CAN TAKE OUT A DEVIL, HE CAN TAKE OUT A BUDDHA. IF HE SAYS, "THERE IS NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT IT," So from the very childhood the fear of death had entered into him. He was constantly afraid. Maybe that's why when he was young he became interested in Zen -- because Zen people say there is no death. He entered a monastery and way overdid the austerities.
Question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, BUKKO SAID: THE WAY OUT OF LIFE-AND-DEATH IS NOT SOME SPECIAL TECHNIQUE; THE ESSENTIAL THING IS TO SEE THROUGH TO THE ROOT OF LIFE-AND-DEATH. THAT ROOT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT FELL FROM HEAVEN OR SPRANG UP FROM EARTH. IT IS AT THE CENTER OF THE FUNCTIONING OF EVERY MAN, LIVING WITH HIS LIFE, DYING WITH HIS DEATH, BECOMING A BUDDHA, MAKING A PATRIARCH. THESE ARE ALL IN DEPENDENCE OF IT, AND ONE WHO GOES INTO ZEN HAS TO PIERCE AND BREAK THROUGH TO THIS THING. WHAT IS CALLED ZEN SITTING IS NOT SOME SORT OF OPERATION TO BE PERFORMED, AND TO TAKE IT SO IS WRONG. IN OUR LINE, IT IS SIMPLY REALIZING WHAT ONE'S OWN TRUE HEART REALLY IS, AND IT IS NECESSARY TO PLEDGE ONESELF TO THE TRUE HEART.
Osho, in the context of the practice of heedfulness (apramad), please explain the similarities and differences among the practices of witnessing, awareness, and tathata.
One more thought on tathata. A Zen fakir wrote a small song: “The geese fly across the sky. They have no desire that their reflections be formed in the still lake below. Yet the reflections form. The blue lake has no desire to catch the reflections of the geese. Yet the reflections are caught. Then the geese fly on and the reflections also fly away. The geese do not know they were caught in the lake; the lake does not know that the reflections aroused any curiosity, any stir, any disturbance in its bosom.” Tathata means such a being. Things happen. He is ready for all—wants to do nothing and has no complaint. That is why one of Buddha’s names is Tathagata. He loved that name. Even speaking of himself he would say, “The Tathagata passed through a certain village.” Tathagata means one who has attained tathata—thus come, thus gone.…