Why is Zen called the path of paradox?

Why is zen called the path of paradox?

THE HANDLESS HOLD THE HOE. A PEDESTRIAN WALKS, RIDING ON A WATER BUFFALO. A MAN PASSES OVER THE BRIDGE; THE BRIDGE BUT NOT THE WATER FLOWS. And he went out of the palace and never came again. This is absurd, what he says -- THE HANDLESS HOLD THE HOE. How can the handless hold anything? But that is how it is happening. That which abides in you is handless, and is holding all kinds of things. God is handless, and is supporting the whole world. And you are handless in your innermost being -- you don't have hands or legs or a head, you are formless. But you are holding a thousand and one things. A PEDESTRIAN WALKS, RIDING ON A WATER BUFFALO. He says: A man is sitting on the water buffalo and still walking. He is saying: God is taking you, you are riding on him -- and…

Why is zen paradoxical?

It will assert itself in day-to-day life. When you meet a woman once a day on the beach she is totally a different animal. You are a different kind of animal too. Meeting for one hour, she is prepared for it, she is ready for it, she has rehearsed for it, she has been standing before the mirror for hours for it. You will not find the same woman if you start living with her twenty-four hours a day; it will be impossible for her to be so ready and rehearsed. By and by she will start forgetting about you. She will get ready only when you are going to the movie, otherwise she will not bother. Then you will see something else which was never there before. Then small things of life, trivia, assert themselves. Over small things she starts arguing -- and you start arguing too. Over small…

Question: I have heard that all buddhas in the past, present and future preached the same dharma and countless beings were saved from suffering. Is this not true?

ANSWER: YOU HAVE HEARD SOMEONE SPEAK OF DREAMS, AND YOU YOURSELF ARE ACTUALLY DREAMING. WHATEVER YOU FIGURE WITH YOUR DUALISTIC MIND NEVER MAKES A TRUE ACCOUNT OF MIND ESSENCE, THEREFORE, I CALL YOU A DREAMER. DREAM IS ONE THING AND REALIZATION ANOTHER. DO NOT MIX THEM TOGETHER. WISDOM IN THE DREAM IS NOT THE REAL WISDOM. ONE WHO HAS TRUE WISDOM DOES NOT HOLD SELF-RECOGNITION. BUDDHAS IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE ARE IN THE REALM BEYOND COGNITION. IF YOU SHUT OFF YOUR THINKING FACULTY, BLOCKING OFF THE ROAD OF YOUR MIND, YOU WILL ENTER A DIFFERENT SPHERE. UNTIL THAT TIME, WHATEVER YOU THINK, WHATEVER YOU SAY, WHATEVER YOU DO IS NOTHING BUT FOOLISHNESS IN DREAMLAND. QUESTION: WHAT KIND OF WISDOM SHOULD ONE USE TO CUT OFF DELUSIONS? ANSWER: WHEN YOU OBSERVE YOUR DELUSIONS, YOU WILL KNOW THAT THEY ARE BASELESS AND NOT DEPENDABLE. IN THIS WAY YOU CAN CUT…

Osho, life is contradictory, full of inconsistencies. Then why did Buddha show the path of logic, reason, order, and discipline?

Buddha aroused your suffering. He shouted, “Fire!” You ran. In that rush, some of you got outside. Linji is among those who made it out. Now he says, “He lied well! There was no fire, not even smoke. But in that fear we came out. Therefore I lay my head at his feet—had you not shouted, we would not have come out.” I too keep telling you many kinds of lies. I know—the fortunate among you will someday recognize them. But you will recognize them only when you are out. Then you will not be angry—you will feel blessed. Buddha spoke your language. To awaken you, he had to. He did not speak his own language to you. Yes—had there been an enlightened one present, Buddha would have spoken his own tongue to him. One morning he came with a flower. Such a thing had never happened before. He had…

Osho, what is zen?

These sounds, these birds, these trees, these people, this silence... three thousand people disappearing into a silence, losing their identities, egos... and suddenly Zen is there! It becomes almost tangible. You can touch it, you can eat it, you can drink it. But there is no way to convey it through words. You have to be calm and quiet and contented so that you can be in the present. You have to be free of all care. Care simply means you are not trusting existence; you are trying to be careful on your own. You are afraid. You are not yet aware that existence cares for you, that it mothers you, that it fathers you. Once you start feeling the mothering, the fathering that surrounds you, in the air, in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, you drop caring for yourself. There is no need to be worried.…