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”WHAT IS THE REAL FORM OF THE UNIVERSE?” ASKED THE MONK.
”THE FISHES AT PLAY IN THE CLEAR-FLOWING WATER MAKE THEIR MISTAKES,” REPLIED
KASSAN.
Maneesha, the bird flying across the sky leaves no footprints. This is called the Way of the Birds –
simply disappearing into the nothingness of the sky, without leaving a trace behind. Zen wants you
to be just like the Birds’ Way – a nobody, a nothingness.
It is strange but true that in your nothingness you are for the first time born. The nothingness is the
womb out of which your spiritual heights are revealed.
Just as you cannot follow the bird because he leaves no footprints, the buddha also leaves no
footprints. You cannot follow a buddha for the simple reason that you are a buddha; you have just
forgotten it. And once you try to follow a buddha, you are going astray.
Those who make footprints behind themselves – create organized religions, give commandments
for the coming future, scriptures to be followed by those who have not come yet – are all engaged
in nonreligious activity.
Religion is a rebellion – rebellion against following. This is a religious place. You are not my followers.
You can love me, I can love you …. Following means a subtle spiritual slavery. I don’t have any
follower and I don’t want anybody to be a follower of anybody else either. The moment you start
following someone, you are going to miss yourself. You will be lost in dark nights and dark clouds
and it will become more and more difficult to find the way back home.
A MONK SAID TO TOZAN, ”YOU ALWAYS TELL LEARNERS TO TAKE THE WAY OF THE BIRDS.
WHAT IS THIS WAY OF THE BIRDS?”
TOZAN SAID, ”YOU MEET NOBODY ON IT.”
It reminds me of a very beautiful story in Aesop’s fables. There are scholars who think that Aesop as
a person never existed, that those stories are told by Gautam Buddha, who was also called bodhisat.
And the word bodhisat, as it moved from country to country, became Aesop. But it does not matter
who told them; the stories are significant on their own.