Kyozan: A True Man of Zen

CHAPTER 1

The tremendous statement
3 December 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium

OUR BELOVED MASTER,
ONCE, WHEN HE WAS STILL WITH HIS MASTER, KYOZAN SAID TO ISAN, ”WHERE DOES THE
REAL BUDDHA DWELL?”
ISAN REPLIED, ”BY MEANS OF THE SUBTLETY OF THOUGHTLESS
THOUGHT, CONTEMPLATE THE BOUNDLESS SPIRITUAL BRIGHTNESS. CONTEMPLATE IT
UNTIL RETURNING TO THE GROUND OF BEING, THE ALWAYS ABIDING NATURE, AND ITS
FORM OF THE UNDICHOTOMOUS PRINCIPLE. THIS IS THE REAL BUDDHA.”
ON HEARING THIS, KYOZAN WAS ENLIGHTENED.
LATER, WHEN KYOZAN HAD BECOME A MASTER HIMSELF, ISAN SENT HIM A MIRROR AS A
GIFT. WHEN HE WENT TO THE HALL WHERE HIS MONKS WERE ASSEMBLED, KYOZAN HELD
UP THE MIRROR AND SAID TO THE ASSEMBLY, ”PLEASE SAY WHETHER THIS IS ISAN’S
MIRROR OR KYOZAN’S MIRROR. IF SOMEONE CAN GIVE A CORRECT REPLY, I WILL NOT
SMASH IT.”
NO ONE ANSWERED, AND KYOZAN SMASHED THE MIRROR.

Maneesha, a new series of talks begins today.
These are not sermons in a church; these are communions. A discourse, a sermon, remains within
the limits of the mind. Only a communion can raise you beyond the mind, and that which is beyond the mind is Zen. A new series of communions is a great event. We will be looking into the very heart
of Kyozan.

Kyozan was a very simple man – not the philosophic kind, not a poet, nor a sculptor. Nothing can be
said about him except that he was absolutely authentic, honest. If he does not know a thing he will
say so, even at the risk of people thinking that he has fallen from his enlightenment. But this makes
him a unique master.

Zen is full of unique masters, but Kyozan’s uniqueness is his simplicity. He is just like a child. It took
Isan, his master, forty years of hard work to make Kyozan enlightened. He was determined, and he
said he would not leave the body until Kyozan became enlightened – though he was old enough.
Kyozan did everything that Isan said, but nothing penetrated to his very being. He was a very
ordinary man. Heaven and hell, God and the beyond had never worried him. He was not a seeker
in the sense every seeker is – a seeker of truth.

No, he was not seeking truth, because he is reported to have said that, ”If you are seeking the truth
you have certainly accepted that truth exists, and I will not accept anything on belief. So I am just
seeking, searching in all directions, trying to come in tune with the universe. It may be just my fallacy,

my fantasy, but I want to go without any prejudice.”

>   Downlod Book Here