Searching for What?

ON THEIR FIRST MEETING, SEIGEN ASKED SEKITO, ”WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?” AND SEKITO REPLIED, ”I COME FROM SOKEI,”

where Eno lived, his old master, who has sent him to Seigen because his death was imminent, and who said, ”I will not be able to see your enlightenment, but you are bound to be enlightened. Just go to Seigen.”

This is the beauty of Zen, no competition at all. The whole thing is that everybody should become enlightened. Where he becomes enlightened is not important. Who is the master who makes him enlightened is not important. Seeing death coming, Eno said to Sekito, ”You are bound to become enlightened, but my death is very close. It is better you go to Seigen.” And Seigen was his competitor master.

Eno lived in Sokei. So when SEIGEN ASKED, ”WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?” SEKITO REPLIED, ”I COME FROM SOKEI.”

In other words he is saying, ”I am coming from Eno, your competitor master. He has sent me here.”

SEIGEN HELD UP A WHISK AND SAID, ”DID YOU FIND THIS OVER THERE?”

SEKITO REPLIED, ”NO, NOT ONLY WAS IT NOT OVER THERE, BUT IT WAS ALSO NOT IN THE WEST LAND.”

The West land, in Japan, is India – ”What you are asking me for was not in Sokei, it was not even in India where Gautam Buddha was born and where Mahakashyapa started the Zen tradition. What is it that was not even with Buddha or with Mahakashyapa or with Bodhidharma?”

SEIGEN ASKED, ”YOU REACHED THE WEST LAND, DIDN’T YOU?”
TO WHICH SEKITO REPLIED, ”IF I HAD REACHED, I COULD HAVE FOUND IT.”

Only I was missing, otherwise it was everywhere. Because I did not go there, it was not there. He is talking about his own being. It has been inside him, not in Sokei and not even in India. This is a great dialogue.

He is saying, ”If I had gone there, it would have been there. It is within me.” But he is not directly indicating that it is within him. That is the way of Zen dialogues. Nothing direct, everything very indirect, and you have to catch the knack of following the indirect indications of what they mean.

SEIGEN SAID, ”NOT YET ENOUGH – SPEAK FURTHER.”

Seigen is testing Sekito whether to accept him as a disciple. Certainly he must be a man of tremendous possibilities; otherwise Eno, his comspetitor master, would not have sent him to him.

The competition between masters is a very strange phenomenon. There is an ancient story in India that there were two sweet shops. Both were competitors to each other and both were always quarreling because the street was small, as in the past all the streets were very small. They could talk to each other just sitting in their shops, and there was always argument.

One day things came to such a head that they started throwing sweets at each other. And a whole crowd gathered, jumping and catching the sweets and enjoying. The fight went on till both their shops were completely empty, and the whole city enjoyed it because they got all the sweets.

This story is told to indicate that when two masters fight it is just throwing sweets at each other. The disciples enjoy. Both lots of disciples eat the sweets that the masters are throwing at each other.

The competitor masters were not enemies. They were using different methods, but they were working for the same truth from different angles. When Eno thought that his death was coming close, he could not see anyone better then Seigen, although Seigen was his lifelong competitor. But that is immaterial; he is the best man, he knows. His whole life they have been fighting and arguing, dialogue upon dialogue, pulling each other’s legs. And they lived close enough, not far away.

SEIGEN SAID, ”NOT YET ENOUGH – SPEAK FURTHER.”

You have not said enough. You are very intelligent – just speak a little more.

SEKITO REPLIED, ”YOU SHOULD ALSO SPEAK FROM YOUR SIDE. HOW IS IT YOU URGE ONLY ME?”

You know perfectly well where I am coming from. I come from Eno – you were both equal competitors; neither could defeat the other – and I am his best disciple. So don’t just ask me to speak; you have to speak from your side also. I represent here my master, he has sent me. I owe everything to my master. So it is not going to be a one-sided dialogue. You have to say something also.

This is a beautiful illustration of even disciples having their dignity. Although he has come to be a disciple to Seigen, that does not mean that he has to lose his dignity, his individuality, that he has to surrender. No master would like a man who has no dignity. This proves the man has his own integrity.

SEIGEN SAID, ”THERE’S NO PROBLEM FOR ME IN ANSWERING YOU, BUT NOBODY WOULD AGREE WITH IT.” SEIGEN CONTINUED, ”WHEN YOU WERE AT SOKEI, WHAT DID YOU GET THERE?”

A very significant statement he has made without making it look important. He is saying, ”There is no problem for me in answering you, but nobody would agree with it.” If a master really speaks his mind, if he really speaks that which is beyond the mind, nobody is going to agree with him, except only other masters, and they are very few, very rare.

And he said to Sekito, ”You will not agree with it. You are not yet enlightened. You are not yet in that space. You can intellectually argue with me but you cannot understand my answers. Remember, I am ready to answer any question you have, but nobody is going to agree. At any rate you are not going to agree. Perhaps your master would have agreed. But it is very rare to find another enlightened man to talk with where agreement is possible beyond intellect. So it is better, rather than me saying anything, that you tell me when you were at Sokei with Eno, what did you get there? What have you got?”

SEKITO REPLIED, ”EVEN BEFORE GOING TO SOKEI...” This is a very beautiful statement, very deep and profound.

SEKITO REPLIED, ”EVEN BEFORE GOING TO SOKEI, I HAD NOT LOST A THING.”

So there is no question of getting anything from Eno, I have everything within me.

A great thinker, Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher, was on his deathbed, and this is just a few years back. The rabbi came and said to Martin Buber, ”Have you made peace with God?”

Martin Buber’s last words were – he opened his eyes and he said to the rabbi – ”I have never quarreled with him. What question is there of making peace with God?” And he died.

That’s what Sekito is saying, ”EVEN BEFORE GOING TO SOKEI, I HAD NOT LOST A THING.” So there is no question of getting anything there. ”I am carrying everything within me.”

THEN SEKITO ASKED, ”WHEN YOU WERE IN SOKEI, DID YOU KNOW YOURSELF?”

Because of his statement that he had not lost anything even before he went to Eno, to his place in Sokei, Sekito asked, ”WHEN YOU WERE IN SOKEI, DID YOU KNOW YOURSELF?”

SEIGEN SAID, ”HOW ABOUT YOU? DO YOU KNOW ME NOW?”
SEKITO ANSWERED, ”YES, I DO. HOW CAN I KNOW YOU ANY FURTHER?” HE CONTINUED, ”OSHO, SINCE YOU LEFT SOKEI, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STAYING HERE?”

SEIGEN REPLIED, ”I DO NOT KNOW EITHER. AND YOU, WHEN DID YOU LEAVE SOKEI?”

SEKITO SAID, ”I DON’T COME FROM SOKEI.”

He has changed his statement completely. First he said he came from Sokei. That was just a superficial answer to the question, ”Where do you come from?” Now things are getting deeper.

SEKITO SAID, ”I DON’T COME FROM SOKEI.”

He means that he comes from eternity. Sokei was just one of the stops on the way; he does not come from Sokei, he comes from eternity. There have been many stops; Sokei was one of the stops.

SEIGEN RESPONDED, ”ALL RIGHT – NOW I KNOW WHERE YOU COME FROM.”

SEKITO SAID, ”OSHO, YOU ARE A GREAT ONE – DO NOT WASTE TIME.”

He was saying that you are wasting time unnecessarily in checking to see whether I am of any worth or not, but, before you accept me as a disciple, I have accepted you as a master. That’s why he has suddenly started calling him Osho. He is saying whether you accept me as a disciple or not, that does not matter. I have accepted you as my master. ”OSHO, YOU ARE A GREAT ONE – DO NOT WASTE TIME.” Let us begin the real work.

That is the honest seeker’s response. Don’t waste time in this dialogue and answering and questioning. Just let us begin the real work. And the real work is following the inner path to your very center.

Taneda wrote:
SEARCHING FOR WHAT?
I WALK IN THE WIND.

He is saying that I don’t know what I am searching for. How can I know before I have found it? Truth is just a word. How can I say what I am searching for? Before I have found it, I cannot say what I am seeking. This is a very strange but beautiful statement. He is saying before you find the truth, you cannot even say you are searching for truth. You are simply searching. You don’t know for what. If you did know it, there would be no need to search. So you are just groping.

Taneda is perfectly right. A seeker is simply groping in the dark hoping some way must be there. Existence cannot be so cruel.

SEARCHING FOR WHAT?
I WALK IN THE WIND.

I am just flying everywhere, walking in the wind. But I don’t know what I am seeking. I will know only when I have found it. He is saying: anybody who is searching for something is believing in something before he has found it, and that is wrong. That’s what all the religions are doing, creating beliefs before people have even found anything; before they have known anything they have been turned into believers, into faithful ones. And their whole search has been destroyed.

I don’t ask you what you are searching for. I simply show you the way. I simply insist, ”Go on, go on, go on.” You are bound to find it because it is there somewhere inside you. If you search deep enough with urgency and totality, you are bound to find it. And only by finding will you know what you were seeking. This is a totally different, diametrically opposite standpoint to all the belief systems of the world.

God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth 23 ♡♥Osho♡♥