Clapping

Osho, Zen masters often ask their disciples, How does one hand clap? We, your new disciples, ask you: How does one hand clap?

It happens every day—and you simply don’t hear it. What you don’t want, that is what I am giving you. What you never asked for, that is what I am distributing to you. The clap is sounding with one hand. Even for what you are not yet ready, I am pouring into you. The clap is indeed with a single hand. Try to understand this a little. Where you don’t wish to go—where you had not even dreamt of going—I am taking you there. The hand from your side that should be there for the clap is missing. My single hand is clapping. And the day your hand appears there, I will withdraw mine. Still, the clap will be of one hand. Then there will be no need of my hand. Then you will have become capable yourself. “One hand clapping” is a symbol—a very deep symbol of the anahat…

Osho, we have understood that you are continuously clapping with one hand and we are not hearing it. But how will our clap sound with one hand?

The answer is with you—you are the answer. So when you say, “We have understood that you are continuously clapping with one hand and we are not hearing it,” you have not understood. If you had, then listen. Nothing would remain to be asked. In the very listening, the happening would occur. Here I will speak; there you will listen. Here there will be no one speaking; there no one listening—the happening will happen. In the moment of listening, you will not be. If you are, how will you listen! You will dissolve completely; you will not be. You will remain a hollow, empty temple in which my voice will echo. In that very listening the one-hand clap will begin to sound. In that listening you will find that what we groped for outside is present within. But every question of yours shows that you take some raw understanding to…

Mamiya later became a well-known teacher, but while he was studying under a master he was asked to explain the sound of one hand clapping.

ALTHOUGH MAMIYA WORKED HARD AT IT HIS MASTER SAID TO HIM ONE DAY, "YOU ARE NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH. YOU ARE TOO ATTACHED TO FOOD, WEALTH, THINGS -- AND THAT SOUND. IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU DIED." THE NEXT TIME MAMIYA CAME BEFORE THE MASTER, HE WAS AGAIN ASKED WHAT HE HAD TO SHOW REGARDING THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING. MAMIYA AT ONCE FELL OVER AS IF HE WAS DEAD. "YOU ARE DEAD ALL RIGHT," SAID THE MASTER, "BUT HOW ABOUT THAT SOUND?" LOOKING UP MAMIYA REPLIED, "OH, I HAVEN'T SOLVED THAT ONE YET." "WHAT?" ROARED THE MASTER, "DEAD MEN DON'T SPEAK. GET OUT!" Once you are awake and out of the vicious circle, God is there, nothing else exists. Then there is no need to believe. Then you know. But before that knowing happens, faith will be needed. And all those philosophers who have been trying for…

Osho, please, in the question "who am I?" what does "I" mean? Does it mean the essence of life?

Or another famous koan is: "The sound of one hand clapping." The Master says to the disciple, "Go and listen to the sound of one hand clapping." Now this is patent absurdity: one hand cannot clap and without clapping there can be no sound. The Master knows it, the disciple knows it. But when the Master says, "Go and meditate on it," the disciple has to follow. He starts making efforts to listen to the sound of one hand clapping. Many sounds come to his mind: the birds singing, the sound of running water.... He rushes immediately to the Master; he says, "I have heard it! The sound of running water -- isn't that the sound of one hand clapping?" And the Master hits him hard on the head and he says, "You fool! Go back, meditate more!" And he goes on meditating, and the mind goes on providing new…