What is Zen?

What is zen?

Go on, beat it. That is exactly what Prajnaparmita sutra says too. GATE, GATE, PARA GATE, PARA SAMGATE BODHI SVAHA -- go, go with all sentient beings, go from delusion to enlightenment. Go on, beat it. That's what Zen is. It is not a philosophy to be understood, it is a transformation to be gone through. It is not something like information, it is not even reformation; it is total change, it is absolute radical change. It is a death and a resurrection. Die into Zen and be born into Zen. The word 'Zen' means dhyana, it comes from the root DHYANA. In China it became CHAN, and in Japan it became Zen -- but it comes from Buddha's word DHYANA. Zen means dhyana. Zen means meditation.

Osho, what is zen?

Sagar, IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO ANSWER because Zen is not a philosophy, it is not a doctrine. It is an experience, an experience of your own interiority, of your own subjectivity -- not an objective experience. If it were some object outside you, there would be a possibility of describing it, of analyzing it, of defining it. It is indefinable by its very nature; it is not within the grasp of intellect. It is an experience of dropping out of your mind, disappearing from your mind into your being, slipping out of the mind and entering into your being. The mind is a false entity; your being is your real face, your original face. The mind is created by the society, hence there are different kinds of minds -- Hindu mind, Christian mind, Jewish mind -- but the being is one; it is neither Christian nor Hindu nor Mohammedan.…

Osho, do you really think zen is full of zest, zip, zap and zing?

The father, not wanting to leave his son without an answer, says, 'Listen to the following, son. Let us suppose that two men come into a restaurant, one with dirty hands and the other with clean hands. Which one is going to go and clean his hands?' 'The one with dirty hands, of course, Daddy!' 'Very good,' says the father. 'Now let's suppose that the two men walk into a restaurant, one with dirty hands and the other with clean hands. Which one is going to go and wash his hands?' 'The one with dirty hands, Dad. I just told you!' 'No, not this time, son. The one who will go and wash his hands is the one who already has clean hands, because he is in the habit of cleaning them. The one with dirty hands is in the habit of keeping his hands dirty.' 'What a mess, Daddy!'…

Somebody asked the master, bokuju: we have to dress and eat every day -- how do we get out of all that?

BOKUJU ANSWERED: WE DRESS, WE EAT. THE QUESTIONER SAID: I DON'T UNDERSTAND. BOKUJU ANSWERED: IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, PUT ON YOUR CLOTHES AND EAT YOUR FOOD. What is Zen? When people come to me this is the whole situation, every day. They bring their problems but I have not come across a single problem, because there are none. You create them, and then you want an answer to them. There are people who will give you answers: those are small teachings. And there are people who will give you an insight into your problem: that is the great teaching. Small teachings lead to forced disciplines, and great teachings allow you to become loose and natural. Bokuju says: We dress, we eat. But the man could not understand. Of course, it is difficult to understand such a simple thing. People can understand complex things but they cannot understand simple things. Because…

Beloved Osho, in uruguay, evening has come. A small group of friends listen as silence speaks. Beloved master, what is the essence of zen?

Dhyan is the process of coming to yourself: leaving the body out, leaving the mind out, leaving the heart out, leaving everything out -- eliminating everything by "I am not this" -- until you come to a point where there is nothing to be eliminated. And the strangest experience is that when you have eliminated everything, you are also not there as the old person you used to be, the old ego, the old "I." It was the combination of all that you have eliminated. Slowly, slowly, without knowing, you have destroyed your ego. Now there is only pure consciousness, just light, eternal light. Dhyan was taken by the Buddhists to China, but in China a great transformation took place because China was under the great impact of Lao Tzu, and his whole teaching was "let-go." Gautam Buddha fights to enter into his own being; at the ultimate point he…