THE ZEN MASTER MU-NAN HAD ONLY ONE SUCCESSOR. HIS NAME WAS SHOJU.
AFTER SHOJU HAD COMPLETED HIS STUDY OF ZEN, MU-NAN CALLED HIM INTO HIS ROOM AND SAID, "I AM GETTING OLD, AND AS FAR AS I KNOW YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL CARRY ON THIS TEACHING. HERE IS A BOOK. IT HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN FROM MASTER TO MASTER FOR SEVEN GENERATIONS, AND I HAVE ALSO ADDED MANY POINTS ACCORDING TO MY UNDERSTANDING. THIS BOOK IS VERY PRECIOUS, AND I AM GIVING IT TO YOU TO REPRESENT YOUR SUCCESSORSHIP."
SHOJU REPLIED, "PLEASE KEEP THE BOOK. I RECEIVED YOUR ZEN WITHOUT WRITING, AND I WAS VERY HAPPY WITH IT, THANK YOU."
MU-NAN REPLIED, "I KNOW THAT, BUT THIS GREAT WORK HAS BEEN CARRIED FROM MASTER TO MASTER FOR SEVEN GENERATIONS, AND IT WILL BE A SYMBOL OF YOUR LEARNING. HERE, TAKE THE BOOK." THE TWO WERE TALKING IN FRONT OF A FIRE, AND THE INSTANT SHOJU FELT THE BOOK IN HIS HANDS HE THRUST IT INTO THE FLAMES.
MU-NAN, WHO HAD NEVER IN HIS LIFE BEEN ANGRY BEFORE, SHOUTED, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
AND SHOJU SHOUTED BACK, "AND WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?"

All books are dead, and that is how it should be; they cannot be alive. All scriptures are graveyards, they cannot be anything else. A word, the moment it is uttered, goes wrong. Unuttered, it is okay; uttered, it is falsified by the very utterance.
Truth cannot be said, cannot be written, cannot be indicated in any way. If it can be said, you will attain to truth just by hearing it; if it can be written, you will attain to truth just by reading it; if it can be indicated, you will attain to truth by mere indication. This is not possible, there is no way to transfer truth to you; there exists no bridge. It cannot be given, it cannot be communicated.
But people become addicted to scriptures, books, words, theories, because for the mind it is easy to understand a theory, it is easy to read a book, it is easy to carry a tradition. With anything dead the mind is always the master; with anything alive the mind becomes the slave.
So the mind is always afraid of life; it is the dead part in you. Just as hairs and nails are dead parts of your body, the parts that have died already and that the body is throwing out, so the mind is the dead part of your consciousness. It is the part that has already become dead, and the consciousness wants to get rid of it.
What is the mind? It is the past, the memory, the accumulated experience. But the moment you have experienced the thing, it is dead. Experiencing is in the present, experience is in the past.
The word can be possessed by the mind -- anything dead can be possessed by the mind; and only dead things can be possessed. If you try to possess a live thing there are only two ways: either you will not be able to possess it, or you will have to kill it first and then you can possess it. So wherever there is possession, there is murdering, killing.
If you love a person, love in itself is an experiencing, a moment-to-moment flow with no past being carried; the river remains fresh. But the mind says, "Possess this woman, possess this man, because who knows about the future? Possess! She may escape, she may go to somebody else, she may fall in love with someone else. Possess her and block all the ways of escape, close all the doors so she remains always yours." The mind has entered and now this woman will be killed, now this man will be murdered. There will be a husband, there will be a wife, but there will not be two live persons.
And this is the mischief the mind goes on doing everywhere. The moment you say, "I love," it has become an experience, it is already dead. Loving is something else; it is a process. Why when in love can you not say, "I love?" That would be profane. How can you say, "I love?" In love you are not, the possessor is not, so how can you say, "I love?" In love there is no 'I'; love is there of course but you are not.
While an experience is alive, experiencing, there is no ego. The process is there and you can say love is there, but you cannot say, "I love." In that love you have dissolved, you have merged and melted. Anything live, alive, is greater than you; anything dead and the mind can jump, just like a cat jumps on a mouse and catches hold of it.
Truth cannot be delivered, there is no way to deliver it. Once delivered it is dead, it has already become untrue.
Lao Tzu insisted on not saying anything about the truth his whole life. Whenever someone asked about truth he would say many things, but he would not say anything about the truth; he would avoid it. In the end he was forced to say something. Disciples, lovers, said he should write because he had known something which was rarely known, he had become something which was unique -- there would be no Lao Tzu again. So he wrote a small book, Tao Te Ching, but the first thing he said in it was, "Tao cannot be said, Truth cannot be uttered. And the moment you utter it, it is already false." And then he said, "Now I can write at ease. I have declared the basic fact: uttered, truth becomes false; written, it has already gone wrong."
Why is the word false? One thing: it always belongs to the past. Another thing: the word in itself cannot carry the experience to you.
The word is needed because you don't know, this is the problem. Because you don't know, the word is needed, so how can the word express? That which you don't know, the word cannot say to you. The word may be heard, you may memorize it, you may understand the meaning written in the dictionary -- what silence means is written in the dictionary, and you know it already -- but that is not the meaning.
Once a villager entered a big bank; many people were coming and going and much business was going on. Suddenly the villager cried, shouted at the top of his voice, "Did somebody drop a wad of notes with a rubber band around it?" Many people cried, "Yes, I did," and they ran towards him. A crowd gathered and everybody was claiming the money. The villager said, "I have found the rubber band."
The word will reach you but not with the weight of the notes. Those notes will be left behind; the word will reach but it is just a rubber band. It may have been around the notes, but still it is just a rubber band.
Truth is incommunicable.
So it is a trial between two evils.
The word you may not be able to understand but you can hear it, and some possibility is open. Hearing it continuously, you may become aware of something which has not been said in the word. The word will help, just as a bait -- you may be caught in the net.
With words a possibility opens, not a certainty because everything depends on you, but a possibility opens.

In a small church, the priest was very much annoyed, disturbed, irritated by an old man who was the most respected member of the congregation. He was the richest man of the town; he had donated so much to the church, and he was always donating to all kinds charities. Of course, he was sitting in front every Sunday, and even before the priest would start speaking he would start dozing away. And if he was only sleeping while the priest was speaking, it would not have been such a big problem. The real problem was, the moment he went to sleep he would start snoring so loudly -- and the church was so small and the congregation was so small, there was no loudspeaker even.
And he was snoring just in front of the priest.
But the old man used to come with a young child, his grandson. The priest thought of an idea. After the service was over, he took the little boy aside, and told him, "I will give you half a dollar per Sunday if you go on keeping your old man awake. All that you have to do is, the moment he snores you push him and wake him up."
He said, "Done -- in advance?"
The priest said, "You are as smart as your old man -- in advance."
The little boy said, "In advance -- I don't believe in people. You give me half a dollar and you see: next Sunday I will not let him sleep or snore."
The next Sunday was really a beautiful day because the boy did not allow his grandfather to sleep or to snore. But the old man was very angry with the boy. After the sermon he said, "What happened to you? Why did you go on waking me up? -- you disturbed my whole day. In fact, this is the only time when I sleep, and sleep well. In the night I don't have that good a sleep -- so many thoughts and so many problems.... And here, listening to that idiot -- the same sermon, the same monotonous voice -- it gives me such a good sleep. I have tried all medicines and nothing works like him.
"What happened to you? You have always been sitting silently, but today you went on poking me and waking me up."
His grandson said, "Business is business."
The old man asked, "What business?"
He said, "The priest has given me half a dollar in advance and today I am going to take another half dollar for the next one, because I believe in payment in advance."
The old man said, "Don't be worried: I will give you one dollar, and I will give it in advance." The boy took one dollar from the old man and the old man said, "You just sit silently as you used to sit before and don't disturb me. It is not costly; this good sleep for one dollar I can afford."
The priest was very puzzled. The next Sunday, many times he looked at the boy and even indicated to him to do something, but the boy simply said, No, and the old man went on snoring. He really snored better than ever because one Sunday he had missed -- just compensation.
After the service, the priest called the boy and said, "You are a cheat. You took the advance payment but still you were sitting silently; and that old man went on snoring and disturbing my sermon and everybody else. Nobody could listen because of his snoring."
The boy said, "Business is business."
The priest said, "What business?"
He said, "The old man has given me one dollar in advance, and he is going to give me one dollar per Sunday. If you are interested, then the rate will be higher now."
The priest said, "I am a poor priest, I cannot compete with that old man, because how much can I give to you? He will always be giving more. It is better I should talk to the old man."
He went to the old man and he said, "This boy is cheating us both. It is better to be clear about it: you are disturbing my sermon."
The old man said, "Your sermon is just meaningless -- you are disturbing my sleep. Which is more costly? -- your sermon or my sleep. I wait seven days for your sermon in church on Sunday mornings. This makes me refreshed. And you are trying to sabotage it through my own grandchild. And as far as I am concerned, I am going to sleep."
The priest said, "You can sleep, we have no objection; in fact many other people sleep also. But they have also objected, not to your sleep but your snoring because that wakes them up. And you have such a great snore."
The old man said, "I can't help it, because when I am asleep what can I do about snoring? If I am awake I can stop it, but when I am awake it doesn't happen -- it happens only when I am asleep. But you can't expect an asleep man to do something about snoring. I am helpless. So please continue as we have continued before."

This is the problem of language. Language is linear, and existence is multidimensional. Thinking is in language, in words. So the words move in a row -- it can be miles long but it is linear.
But existence is multidimensional. From each point... as if it is a sun with millions of rays moving towards infinity. Each ray can lead you to infinity, but if you choose one, of course you have to leave others; and you can choose only one. You cannot even ride on two horses, what to say about two dimensions? You cannot ride on two boats, what to say about two dimensions? -- because they are going to diverge more and more, more and more; as you go further, there will be an infinite unbridgeable gap between them. At the source they are one. From there you can choose any one, but once you have chosen a line then others are dropped.

Nach dem Aufenthaltsort auf dem Berg Olympos und dem Beinamen des Zeus Olympus nennt man die von ihm beherrschte Göttersippe die olympischen Götter, Olympioi theoi oder Olympier. In der klassischen griechischen Mythologie sind sie die zwölf herrschenden Hauptgottheiten. Sie entsprechen den zwölf Monaten des Jahres sowie den zwölf Tierkreiszeichen.

Die Olympier sind die Sippe ihres Oberhauptes Zeus, der seinen Vater Kronos und damit die vor ihm herrschenden Titanen gestürzt hatte. Seine Gattin ist Hera. Sein Bruder ist der Meergott Poseidon, weitere sind die Erdegöttin Demeter, Apollon und Artemis, Ares und Aphrodite, Hermes und Athene, Hephaistos und Hestia oder Dionysos.

Zu ihnen stößt nach seinem Tod der Herakles, der als Lohn seiner zwölf Arbeiten von Zeus unter die Götter versetzt wurde, nachdem Hera mit ihm versöhnt war. Die war seine Gegenspielerin gewesen, weil Herakles einer Liason des Zeus mit der Alkmene entstammte.

Ihre Herrschaft müssen sie im Kampf gegen die Nachkommen der Titanen sichern und sperren auch sie in den Tartaros. Um die zu überwinden, müssen sie sich der Hilfe der Styx versichern, wo sie später noch ihre Eide schwuren. Daraufhin müssen sie sich mit den Giganten schlagen. Besonders bedürfen sie dabei der Hilfe des damals noch sterblichen Herakles, der nachher auch in den Olymp aufgenommen wurde, wo er Gatte der Hebe wurde, die in ihrer Funktion als Mundschenk der Götternahrung Nektar vom Ganymed abgelöst worden war.

Schließlich müssen sich die Olympier gegen den Typhon durchsetzen. Als der zum Himmel emporstieg, dabei glühende Steine warf und ohrenbetäubend brüllte, wandten sich die Olmpier entsetzt zur Flucht. Dabei verwandelten sie sich in Tiere, Zeus in einen Widder, Apollo in einen Raben, Dionysos in einen Ziegenbock, Artemis in eine Katze, Hera in eine Kuh, Aphrodite in einen Fisch und die Eos in einen Ibis. Auch Ares wandelte sich zu einem Fisch, der gewaltige Herakles in ein Reh, Leto in ein Wiesel, Hephaistos in einen Stier und so fliehen sie nach Ägypten, das alte Land der Weisheit, ehe Zeus den Typhon bändigt.

Abgebildet sind die Olympioi auf dem 384v. entstandenen Parthenonfries in Athen auf der Akropolis.

Ihre Entsprechungen in der römischen Mythologie sind Jupiter und Juno, Neptun und Minerva, Apollo und Diana, Mars und Venus, Mercur und Ceres, Volcanus und Vesta, dazu Bacchus und Hercules.

Indem Sie anerkennen, dass Sie selbst für Ihr Leben verantwortlich sind, haben Sie plötzlich wieder selber alle Trümpfe in der Hand. Wenn Sie sich bei allem was Sie tun, fragen, warum Sie es tun, werden Sie irgendwann zu einer erstaunlichen Wahrheit gelangen:
Alles was Sie tun machen Sie, um GLÜCKLICH zu sein !!!

Sie glauben mir nicht ? – Kann ich verstehen!
Also versuchen wir es mal von Anfang an:


Warum gehen Sie jeden Morgen zur Arbeit und buckeln sich für ein paar lächerliche Euro krumm?
- Sicher nicht um mich dabei glücklich zu fühlen! Sondern um Geld zu verdienen.

Warum wollen Sie Geld verdienen?
- Von Wollen kann keine Rede sein! Ich muss ja!

Warum?
- Ich muss doch meine Familie ernähren!

Wieso? Wir leben doch in einem Sozialstaat und für die Ernährung der Familie würde auch das Sozialamt sorgen.
- Ja schon, natürlich. Aber wir wollen uns ja auch mal einen Urlaub gönnen oder zumindest ein mal im Monat lecker essen gehen.

Ah ha! Jetzt sind wir schon wieder vom Müssen zum Wollen gewechselt. Aber weiter: Warum wollen Sie Urlaub und lecker Essen ?
- Ich brauche halt ab und zu mal etwas Entspannung und Erholung.

Jetzt heißt es wieder „ich brauche“. Eben war es noch „ich will“
Also was nun und WARUM ?
- Na gut! Also von vorne: Ich gehe arbeiten um Geld zu verdienen mit dem ich meine Familie ernähren kann und weil ich mit ihnen etwas Schönes erleben will, wie Urlaub oder lecker Essen.

Und weiter...
- Also warum will ich das mit meiner Familie erleben....? – Ich fühle mich einfach gut dabei. Es ist schön mit meiner Familie. Ich liebe meinen Partner und die Kinder. Wenn wir zusammen eine Sandburg am Strand bauen fühle ich mich einfach.... GLÜCKLICH.......oups!?
.....
Also doch?

Nehmen wir ein anderes Beispiel:
Sie streiten sich ständig mit Ihrem Partner.
Um GLÜCKLICH zu sein?

Ja! So erstaunlich das klingen mag. Vor lauter Streit haben Sie das eigentliche Ziel natürlich aus dem Auge verloren. Aber fangen wir doch mal von Vorne an:
Sie haben doch diesen Partner gewählt.



Warum?

Damit er sie GLÜCKLICH macht. Sie haben gewisse Erwartungen an ihren Partner. (Erwartungen sind übrigens das sicherste Mittel um eine Beziehung irgendeiner Art zu zerstören!)
Ihr Partner ist also nicht so wie Sie sich das vorstellen. Sie streiten sich mit ihm um von ihm das zu bekommen, was Sie ursprünglich wollten: In einer Partnerschaft GLÜCKLICH sein.
Natürlich wird der permanente Streit nicht angenehm sein. Aber es ist möglich, dass Sie eines Tages vor lauter Streit entdecken, dass Ihr Partner gar nichts für Ihr Glück kann, sondern dass GLÜCKLICH SEIN ein Gefühl ist, dass nur in Ihnen selbst statt findet und völlig losgelöst sein kann von äußeren Gegebenheiten. Dann hätte Sie das Streiten tatsächlich an Ihr Ziel gebracht. Diese Variante ist allerdings höchst selten.......

Noch ein Beispiel:
Ihr Kleiner ist sehr aufmüpfig und bringt neuerdings schlechte Noten mit von der Schule. Auch hier ist wieder Ärger angesagt.
Sie wollen (erwarten!!), dass ihr Kurzer es mal besser hat als Sie es hatten. Es würde Sie GLÜCKLICH machen ihn so aufwachsen zu sehen. Daher üben Sie Druck auf ihn aus (Erwartung ist auch Druck!). Diesen Druck haben Sie vielleicht gar nicht gemerkt oder halten ihn für völlig normal. Ihr Kurzer aber sucht sich ein Ventil für den Druck. Und darunter leidet die Schule. Auch hier könnten Sie es sich natürlich einfacher machen, Ihr Ziel zu erreichen, Ihren Sohn GLÜCKLICH zu sehen. Wie wäre es z. B. wenn Sie ihm mit gutem Beispiel voran gehen und selber GLÜCKLICH werden? Sie wissen doch wie gut Kinder alles nachmachen können wenn sie nur wollen.......

Ich war schon immer von den Menschen und ihrem manchmal völlig unlogischen Verhalten fasziniert. Warum reagieren wir in manchen Situationen so völlig kontraproduktiv? Das Leben kann doch so einfach und so schön sein.....

Schon in der Schule haben sie mir den „Grüblerschlumpf“ zugeteilt.
Warum? Weil ich zwar ein geselliger Mensch war, auf der anderen Seite aber still die Menschen beobachtet habe. Und eins ist mir klar geworden: Egal wie wir leben, ob als Mönch oder als Ballermann Abonnent, egal was wir beruflich machen, Feng Shui Berater, Lokführer oder Bundeskanzler, wir alle wollen doch eigentlich nur eins:
GLÜCKLICH SEIN !!!!

Warum aber gibt es so wenige von uns, die das wirklich von sich sagen können, dass sie GLÜCKLICH sind?

Ich glaube, wir haben vergessen, wer für unser Leben verantwortlich ist. Es ist so bequem; andere für unsere Probleme verantwortlich zu machen. Aber es wird uns definitiv nicht GLÜCKLICH machen!

Alle die ich kenne, die GLÜCKLICH sind, haben ihr Leben selbst in die Hand genommen, wohl wissend, dass es einen höheren größeren Zusammenhang gibt (manche nennen ihn Tao), in dem jeder von uns ein kleiner Teil ist. Wer sich selbst annehmen, lieben und respektieren kann, nur der wird das auch mit anderen können. Nur der kann auch loslassen. Und nur der hat den Schlüssel zum GLÜCKLICH SEIN in sich.

In a court there was a case, a murder case, but the jurors and the judge were going to decide that the man is innocent Because there were reliable witnesses who said that only for three minutes had he gone out and then he was again back amidst them. Only for three minutes was he not there with them, and it seems too much to commit a murder in three minutes. Then the lawyer from the opposite party said, "Let me try one experiment." He took his pocket watch out and he said, "Now, everybody should close his eyes and remain silent. After three minutes I will give you a hint that three minutes are over." Everybody remained silent.
If you remain silent for three minutes, three minutes is long, very long; they last very long. They appear very long, nonending. Have you ever stood -- somebody dies, a political leader or somebody, and you have to stand for one minute in silence. That one minute looks so long that you start thinking that this political leader should not have died.
Three minutes... and after three minutes were over, the lawyer said, "I have nothing else to say." And the jurors decided that this man had committed the murder. They changed their verdict. Three minutes are so long.
Whenever you are silent, one moment of silence will be very, very long. And it is impossible to imagine what happens when you are absent a single moment may be the gap, but it looks almost like eternity. One gets very much afraid. One wants to go back, to hold to the past.

THE STUDENT DOKO CAME TO THE MASTER AND SAID,
"IN WHAT STATE OF MIND SHOULD I SEEK THE TRUTH?",
THE MASTER REPLIED, " THERE IS NO MIND, SO YOU CANNOT PUT IT IN ANY STATE, AND THERE IS NO TRUTH, SO YOU CANNOT SEEK IT."
DOKO SAID, "IF THERE IS NO MIND AND NO TRUTH, WHY DO ALL THESE STUDENTS GATHER BEFORE YOU EVERY DAY TO STUDY?"
THE MASTER LOOKED AROUND AND SAID, "I DON'T SEE ANYONE."
THE INQUIRER ASKED, "THEN WHO ARE YOU TEACHING?"
"I HAVE NO TONGUE, SO HOW CAN I TEACH?", REPLIED THE MASTER.
THEN DOKO SAID SADLY, "I CANNOT FOLLOW YOU; I CANNOT UNDERSTAND."
THE MASTER SAID, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND MYSELF."

Life is such a mystery, no one can understand it, and one who claims that he understands it is simply ignorant. He is not aware of what he is saying, of what nonsense he is talking. If you are wise, this will be the first realization: life cannot be understood. Understanding is impossible. Only this much can be understood -- that understanding is impossible. That is what this beautiful Zen anecdote says.
The master says, " I don't understand it myself." If you go and ask the enlightened ones this will be their answer. But if you go and ask the unenlightened ones they will give you many answers, they will propose many doctrines; they will try to solve the mystery which cannot be solved. It is not a riddle. A riddle can be solved, a mystery is unsolvable by its very nature- there is no way to solve it. Socrates said, "When I was young, I thought I knew much. When I became old, ripe in wisdom, I came to understand that I knew nothing."

Reden und Gleichnisse des Tschuang-Tse

Verlag: Insel-Taschenb.

ISBN: 3-458-34017-3
Medium: Taschenbuch
Seitenzahl: 146 S.
Erscheinungsjahr: 1990