Osho Rajneesh Book "The Sun Rises in the Evening"

The Sun Rises in the Evening

We are going on an immense journey with Yoka Daishi, a great Zen Master. These sutras are

known as SHODOKA, the Song of Enlightenment. When Yoka became enlightened he burst forth

singing just like a tree in spring bursts forth, blooms, and thousands of flowers are there, and great

fragrance. This is a song. Remember, it has not been addressed to any audience – that is the

beauty of it. If somebody has heard it that is another thing, but Yoka has not addressed it; he was

simply singing it out of the sheer joy that had happened in him. In fact, to say that he was singing it

is not right; it was singing itself in him.Just as we say ’It is raining’, like that it was singing. And that

is true of all the people who have become enlightened; the audience, if it is there, is secondary. It

is not primarily an address, it does not take into account the people who are hearing it – they are

irrelevant. Maybe they trigger it, but there is no compromise.

Just because of this many people have felt, particularly R. H. Blyth who has translated this beautiful

song into English... He says that ’Yoka keeps on talking when he has nothing more to say.’ That

is true: one rose flower is enough to say what the rose bush haS to say, a thousand flowers are

not needed; but the rose bush is overflowing. You don’t go to the rose bush, you don’t criticize the

rose bush, you don’t say ’Why do you go on repeating? It is enough to say it with one flower. Your

message has been seen and heard. The second flower will be just like the first...’ and so on and so

forth.

R. H. Blyth is logically right. He says ’Yoka goes on talking when he has nothing more to say.’ It is

not a question of whether one has to say more or less, deep down he has nothing to say at all, he is

not saying anything. It is just sheer joy, hence it is called ’The Song’. It is not meant to be heard; if it

is heard that is another matter. When the rose bush blooms and you see the flower and the beauty

and the benediction that surrounds it and you are thrilled, that is another matter. The rose bush had

never thought about you; if you had not passed by there would have been no difference, the rose

bush would have continued singing its song.

So is the case with me. You are just an occasion. I go on singing my song; it is unaddressed, it

is a flowering. I also have nothing to say – certainly, I have something to show, but I have nothing

to say. So is the case with Yoka. Blyth missed the point, but I can understand why he missed it:

the logical mind always misses it because ’Yoka goes on repeating the same thing again and again.’

The statements are circular – they are the same kind of flowers again and again and again – they

don’t say more, they don’t add anything new. But the joy is such, the explosion is such, that one is

simply overflowing with it. Yoka cannot do anything about it, he is utterly helpless just as the rose

bush is utterly helpless. In fact, the rose bush is not doing anything, Yoka is not doing anything; he

is as much a witness to his song as you are. He may himself be feeling a little puzzled why this

song goes on and on and on. ’I have said it, I have said it many times.’ But what to do if the song

continues? If it is coming from the very source of existence Yoka cannot prevent it.

And this is one of the most significant things to be understood, otherwise you will misunderstand

all the Buddhas. Gautam the Buddha has been misunderstood because for forty years he was

continuously saying the same thing. Why? He could have said it in very few words – those words

can be written on a postcard. But you have missed the point, you have not seen the sheer joy of

sharing, of just singing it for its own sake.

Remember, this is a song – The Song of Enlightenment. It is flowing through Yoka. Yoka is just a

vehicle, a passage, a hollow bamboo; existence itself is singing through him. He cannot do anything

this way or that; there is no point in criticizing poor Yoka.

Once a man came to J. Krishnamurti and asked ’Why do you go on talking and at the same time

you go on saying that it cannot be said?’ And he said ’Ask the rose, ask the trees why they go on

blooming.’

There is no ’why’ to it, there is nobody doing it. The doer has disappeared, hence the song has

become possible. Yoka is no more. Yoka and the song cannot both exist together; if Yoka exists

then the song cannot exist. The song can exist only when the first condition has been fulfilled: that

Yoka has disappeared. When he is no more there, when he is no more obstructing the passage,

when he is absolutely empty, only then can God take possession of him.

Zen people don’t use the word ’God’, they use the word ’Buddha-nature’. But it is the same; one is

possessed. The song has to be sung, the dance has to be danced. It is not your dance, it is not my

dance, it is nobody’s dance... existence itself is dancing.

Yoka Daishi was one of the disciples of the great Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Zen. When he

came to the Master he was just on the verge of enlightenment – as everybody is just on the verge.

If you understand it... only one step, and you are enlightened; or not even one step – just a blink.

When Yoka came to his Master, the scriptures say he was just on the verge of enlightenment.

And I say to you everybody else is just the same – on the verge. You can postpone it as long as

you want, but the postponement is yours – that is your decision; you can postpone it forever – that

is your freedom; otherwise you are on the threshold. You have always been on the threshold – any

moment you could have become enlightened, any moment you can become enlightened. Nothing

is barring the path except your own decision.

But he was a unique man, unique in the sense that he was not ready to postpone any longer. When

he came to Huineng only a little, just a gentle push was enough. He had slept long; the sleep was

disappearing. He was just in that state when you are not asleep and not awake, and just a small

dialogue with the Master, just a small exchange, a little encounter, and he became enlightened with

no effort, no method. Just looking into the eyes of the Master... a few words pass between the

Master and Yoka, and the dialogue is of immense significance.

I would like you to understand it. In fact, I would like you to have such an exchange with me.

Yoka Daishi walked around the Master three times without bowing and merely shook his Buddhist

staff with iron rings.

The Master said ’A SHRAMANA, a Buddhist monk, embodies the three thousand rules of

deportment and the eighty thousand minute moral rules. From whence does your honour come,

may I ask, with your overweening self-assurance?’

When one comes to a Master one has to bow three times: that has been a traditional greeting.

When you face an enlightened being you have to bow three times – the body bows, the mind bows,

the soul bows; you surrender utterly. That is just a gesture; it happens spontaneously. And when it

happens spontaneously only then does it happen.

Just two, three nights before, Hema came to see me. She may not even be aware of the Buddhist

rule that when you face a Master you have to bow down three times, but she bowed three times.

She was laughing all the time because she could not understand what was happening. She was

puzzled, she must have felt a little ridiculous, and everybody else started laughing. Something had

takes possession of her being. Now this was not a formality. What happened to Hema was a natural

outpouring, a spontaneity. But in this ugly world every spontaneous thing becomes reduced to a

formality.

It used to happen to people when they would come to see a Buddha – they would bow down three

times. People started following, imitating.

In the first meeting with the Master, Huineng, Yoka walked around the Master three times without

bowing and merely shook his Buddhist staff with iron rings.

The Master said ’A SHRAMANA embodies the three thousand rules of deportment and the eighty

thousand minute moral rules.

Now look what happens to religion. Buddha has said that ’Be a law unto yourself. Be a lamp unto

yourself. There is no other law.’ But Buddhist scriptures are full of rules – three thousand rules of

deportment; even to remember them is difficult. And eighty thousand minute moral rules... and a

Buddhist monk is expected to fulfil all of them.

Huineng said ’From where does your honour come, may I ask, with your overweening self-

assurance?’ Do you think Huineng was saying ’You have to follow all these rules’? No, not at all, he

was simply provoking. This is the push. He was hitting hard, he was hitting at this new arrival who

was just on the verge – as everybody else is. You can misunderstand it, then you have postponed

your enlightenment. Yoka could have retorted ’What nonsense! One has to be spontaneous. And

I had never thought that a man like you would expect those stupid rules – three thousand or eighty

thousand...’ He could have retorted, and missed.

Yoka replied ’Birth and death is a problem of great moment; all changes ceaselessly.’ It looks

unrelated; it is not. He is saying ’Any moment I can die. Do you want me to follow all that ritual

– eighty thousand rules? And if I die following those eighty thousand rules, then who will be

responsible? Who will be responsible for my misery, for my rebirth into misery again, you or I?’

He has not said that, he simply indicates. It is a beautiful answer: ’Birth and death is a problem of

great moment. And we are not certain even of the next moment – how can I go into those rules?’

But he has not said so much, he has simply indicated why he is not following all those rules. ’... all

changes ceaselessly – everything is a flux. I can die any moment. If you say so, I will bow down

as many times as you say, but if I die in the middle of it without becoming enlightened you will be

responsible, sir.’ He has changed the label. The Master has pushed and he has rightly responded.

The Master asked ’Why not embody the unborn and grasp the timeless? Why be worried about

death and birth?’ Another push, another provocation, another temptation. ’Why not embody the

unborn? Why don’t you yourself think that there is no death, that the soul is immortal, that life never

dies? Everybody else believes that, why don’t you believe that way? Embody the unborn and grasp

the timeless – why be worried with time and flux and change? Grasp the eternal!’

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