Ceremony

Can we have a tea ceremony with you one day instead of a lecture?

Do you think my lecture is something else? Then you have been missing the tea that I am offering to you. The tea is a symbol of awareness, because it doesn't allow you to sleep. That's all I am offering to you. You come to me and I say to you: Have a cup of tea. That is the whole meaning of whatsoever I have been telling you -- a cup of tea. And the last question:

Question: BELOVED OSHO, HOW DOES THE MAN OF ZEN TAKE HIS TEA? Looking at his puzzled face, the master said, "Don't be worried, we have met before. I was chopping wood; I had directed you to this place." The emperor said, "But why did you not say then and there that you are the master?" He said, "At that time I was not. I was just a woodchopper, a woodcutter -- so totally involved in it that I had absolutely no place left for the master. That's why I told you to wait, so that I could finish with my wood, take a shower, put on the master's robe, remember that now I am a master, and be total in it. Now I am ready. For what have you come?" The emperor said, "I have completely forgotten for what I had come!

A master got up to address a group seeking enlightenment and had only this to say: 'ha! Ha! Ha! What's all this? Go to the back of the hall and have some tea.' he then got down and departed.

That which cannot be said should not be said at all. One should keep silent. That's what this master is doing -- without saying anything he is making a gesture. First he says, 'Ha! ha! ha!' -- he laughs, a belly laughter. It must have been a shock for those who had come to seek enlightenment. You don't expect that, that you will be taken so non-seriously. Enlightenment-seekers are very serious people, long-faced people. And here comes this man, stands there on the stage and says, 'Ha! ha! ha!' What kind of sermon is this? But it is a Zen sermon. He laughs at the absurdity that you are trying to seek enlightenment. It cannot be sought -- that's what he is saying. He is ridiculing them. He is saying, 'You are ridiculous! Ha! ha! ha! You are foolish, you are stupid. Enlightenment cannot be sought; it is not something…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, ON ONE OCCASION, AS JOSHU WAS RECEIVING NEW ARRIVALS IN HIS MONASTERY, HE ASKED ONE OF THEM, "HAVE YOU BEEN HERE BEFORE?" "YES," THE MONK REPLIED. "HELP YOURSELF TO A CUP OF TEA!" JOSHU SAID TO HIM. THEN HE TURNED TO ANOTHER NEW ARRIVAL AND SAID, "HAVE YOU BEEN HERE BEFORE?" "NO, YOUR REVERENCE," THE VISITOR REPLIED. "THIS IS MY FIRST VISIT HERE." JOSHU SAID TO HIM, "HELP YOURSELF TO A CUP OF TEA!" THE PRIOR OF THE MONASTERY TOOK JOSHU ASIDE AND SAID, "ONE HAD BEEN HERE BEFORE, AND YOU GAVE HIM A CUP OF TEA. THE OTHER HAD NOT BEEN HERE, AND YOU ALSO GAVE HIM A CUP OF TEA. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" JOSHU CALLED OUT LOUDLY, "PRIOR!" "YES?" THE PRIOR REPLIED. "HELP YOURSELF TO A CUP OF TEA!" INSTRUCTED JOSHU.