No Water, No Moon

CHAPTER 1

No Water No Moon
11 August 1974 am in Buddha Hall

THE NUN CHIYONO STUDIED FOR YEARS, BUT WAS UNABLE TO FIND ENLIGHTENMENT.
ONE NIGHT, SHE WAS CARRYING AN OLD PAIL FILLED WITH WATER. AS SHE WAS WALKING

ALONG, SHE WAS WATCHING THE FULL MOON REFLECTED IN THE PAIL OF WATER.
SUDDENLY, THE BAMBOO STRIPS THAT HELD THE PAIL TOGETHER BROKE, AND THE PAIL

FELL APART. THE WATER RUSHED OUT; THE MOON’S REFLECTION DISAPPEARED – AND
CHIYONO BECAME ENLIGHTENED. SHE WROTE THIS VERSE:

THIS WAY AND THAT WAY I TRIED TO KEEP THE PAIL TOGETHER, HOPING THE WEAK
BAMBOO WOULD NEVER BREAK.

SUDDENLY THE BOTTOM FELL OUT. NO MORE WATER; NO MORE MOON IN THE WATER –
EMPTINESS IN MY HAND.

Enlightenment is always sudden. There is no gradual progress towards it, because all gradualness
belongs to the mind and enlightenment is not of the mind. All degrees belong to the mind and
enlightenment is beyond it. So you cannot grow into enlightenment, you simply jump into it. You
cannot move step by step; there are no steps. Enlightenment is just like an abyss, either you jump
or you don’t jump.

You cannot have enlightenment in parts, in fragments. It is a totality – either you are in it or
out of it, but there is no gradual progression. Remember this thing as one of the most basic: it
happens unfragmented, complete, total. It happens as a whole, and that is the reason why mind is
always incapable of understanding. Mind can understand anything which can be divided. Mind canunderstand anything which can be reached through installments, because mind is analysis, division, fragmentation. Mind can understand parts; the whole always eludes it. So if you listen to the mind you will never attain.

That’s what happened: this nun, Chiyono, studied for years and years and nothing happened. Mind
can study about God, about enlightenment, about the ultimate. It can even pretend that everything
has been understood. But God is not something you have to understand. Even if you know
everything about God, you don’t know him; knowledge is not ’about’. Whenever you say ’about’,
you belong to the outside. You may be moving round and round, but you have not entered the circle.

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