A Zen Story... and a parable for your voices and your ghosts

When wolves were discovered in the village near Master Soju’s temple, Soju entered the graveyard nightly for one week and sat in Zen. This put a stop to the wolves problem. Overjoyed, the villagers asked him to describe the secret rites he performed.

“I didn’t have to resort to such things,” he said, “nor could I have done so. While I was in za-zen, a number of wolves gathered around me, licking the tip of my nose and sniffing my windpipe, but because I remained in the right state of mind, I was not bitten. As I keep preaching to you, the proper state of mind will make it possible for you to be free in life and death. Invulnerable to fire and water. Even wolves are powerless against it. I simply practice what I preach.”

A simple story, but very meaningful.

The Master simply went to the graveyard sat there for one week, not doing anything, not even praying, not even meditating. He simply sat there in meditation -not meditating, just in meditation. He simply sat there.

This is the meaning of za-zen. It is one of the most beautiful words to be used for meditation. It simply means just sitting, doing nothing. ‘Za’ means sitting. He simply sat there. And this sitting, when the mind is not there, and thoughts are not there, and there is no stirring, and the consciousness is like a cool pool of water, with no ripples, is the right state. Miracles happen on their own accord.

The Master said, “While I was in za-zen, a number of wolves gathered around me, licking the tip of my nose and sniffing my windpipe. But because I remained in the right state of mind, I was not bitten.”

A very fundamental law of life is that if you become afraid, you give energy to the other to make you more afraid. The very idea of fear in you creates the opposite idea in the other. Each thought has a positive and a negative polarity, just like electricity. If you have the negative pole, on the other side, the positive pole is created. It is automatic. If you are afraid, the other immediately feels a desire arising in him to oppress you, to torture you.

If you are not afraid, the desire in the other simply disappears. And it is not only with men, it is even with wolves also. With animals it is also the same. If you can remain in the right state -that is undistracted silence, just a witness to everything whatsoever is happening with no idea arising in you. Then no idea will arise in others around you.

There is another story, an old Indian story… In the Hindu heaven, there is a tree called Kalpataru, the wish fulfilling tree. A traveler, by accident, reached there. He was tired. So, he sat underneath the tree, and he was hungry, so he thought, “if somebody was here, I would ask for food, but there seems to be nobody.”
Suddenly, the moment the idea of food appeared in his mind -food appeared. He was so hungry, he didn’t bother to think about it, he ate it.

Then he started feeling sleepy and he thought that if a bed was there -and the bed appeared.

Lying down on the bed, the thought arose in him, “What is happening? I don’t see anybody here. The food has come, the bed has come, maybe there are ghosts doing things to me?”
Suddenly ghosts appeared. Then he became afraid and thought, “Now, they will kill me!” And then they killed him.

In life, the same is the law. If you think of ghosts, they are bound to appear. Think and you will see. If you think of enemies, you will create. If you think of friends, they will appear. If you love, love appears all around you.
If you hate, hate appears. Whatsoever you go on thinking is being fulfilled by a certain law.
If you don’t think anything, then nothing happens to you.

The Master simply sat there in the graveyard. The wolves came, but finding nobody there, they sniffed. They must have sniffed, whether the smell is stinking or not. They circled around, they watched. But there is nobody just emptiness. What to do with emptiness? And this emptiness, and this silence, and this bliss. You cannot destroy it. Not even wolves are that bad. They felt the sacredness of this emptiness. They disappeared.

The villagers thought that this man had done some secret rites. The Master said that he had not done anything, ”nor could I have done so. I simply sat there and everything changed.”

This anecdote is a parable. If you sit in this world silently, if you live silently, as an alive nothingness, the world will become a paradise. The wolves will disappear. There is no need to do anything else. Just the right state of your consciousness and everything is done.

There are two laws. One law is of the mind.
With the law of the mind, you go on creating hell around you. Even friends become foes. Lovers prove enemies. Flowers become thorns. Life becomes a burden. One simply suffers life. With the law of mind, you live in hell wherever you live.

If you slip out of the mind, you have slipped out of that law.
Suddenly, you live in a totally different world. That different world is nirvana. That different world is God. Then without doing, everything starts happening.
So let me say it in this way, if you want to do, you will live in the ego. And the wolves will surround you. And you will constantly be in trouble.
If you drop the ego, if you drop the idea of being a doer, and you simply relax into life, if you are in a let-go, you are again back into the world of God, back into the garden of Eden.
[OSHO: The Ancient Music in the Pines Discourse #7.]
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