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RELIGION IS IRRATIONAL – by the irrational and for the irrational. Reason cannot contain it; reason
is so small.
Religion is the vast sky of existence. Reason is a tiny human phenomenon. The reason has to
be lost, has to be dropped. Only by going beyond the mind does one start understanding what is.
That’s the radical change. No philosophy can bring that radical change – only religion.
Religion is non-philosophic, anti-philosophic, and Zen is the purest form of religion. Zen is the very
essence of religion. Hence it is irrational, it is absurd. If you try to understand it logically you will
be bewildered. It can only be understood illogically. It has to be approached in deep sympathy and
love. YOU CANNOT approach Zen through empirical, scientific, objective concepts. They all have
to be dropped.
It is a heart phenomenon. You have to feel it rather than think it. You have to BE it to know it. Being
is knowing. And there is no other knowing.
That’s why religion has to choose a different kind of language. Religion has to talk in parables, in
poetry, in metaphors, in myth. Those are indirect ways of hinting at the truth – only hinting at the
truth, no direct pointing; just whispering, not shouting. It comes to you in a deep rapport.
These small poems of the Zen master, Ikkyu, are of immense importance. They are not great poetry,
remember, because that is not the concern. The poetry has been used as a device, so that yom
heart can be stirred. The poetry is not the goal. Ikkyu is not concerned with creating great poetry;
he is not really a poet, he is a mystic. But rather than speaking prose, he speaks in poetry – for a
certain reason