Why should I ask forgiveness from the door?

A great Zen Master, Rinzai, was sitting. A man came. He pushed the door very hard – he must have been angry – he slammed the door. He was not in a good mood. Then he threw his shoes, and came in. Rinzai said 'Wait. Don't come in. First go and ask forgiveness from the door and from your shoes.'

Why should I ask forgiveness from the door?

The man said 'What are you talking about? I have heard that these Zen people are mad, but it seems true. I was thinking it was just rumour. What nonsense you are talking! Why should I ask forgiveness from the door? And it looks so embarrassing... those shoes are mine!'

Then Rinzai said 'You get out! Never come here again! If you can be angry at the shoes, why can't you ask their forgiveness? When you were angry, you never thought that it was so foolish to be angry with the shoes. If you can relate with anger, then why not with love? Relationship is relationship. Anger is a relationship. When you slammed the door with such anger, you related to the door; you behaved wrongly, immorally. And the door has not done anything to you. First go, otherwise you don't come in.'

Under the impact of Rinzai's silence, and the people sitting there, and that presence... like a flash, the man understood. He understood the logic of it, it was so clear. 'If you can be angry, then why can't you be loving? You go.' And he went. Maybe in his whole life that was the first time. He touched the door and tears started flowing from his eyes. He could not hold back those tears. And when he bowed down to his own shoes, a great change happened in him. The moment he turned and came towards Rinzai, Rinzai took him in his arms and embraced him.


This is reconciliation. How can you pray if you are unreconciled? How can you come to a Master if you are unreconciled with existence?

Don’t do Anything stupid just because you are Angry

A man was putting up family pictures on the newly painted walls of his house. He was using nails and a hammer in order to hang the picture frames. In the process, some nails got bent and fell down on the floor.

The man’s 4 yr old daughter was playing near by. She wanted to play with her dad and called out to him. However the man was busy with framing the pictures, and so ignored her calls and finally asked her to go outside and play with her brother. The girl saw the nails lying on the floor. So she picked up a few nails and went out to play along with her brother.

After a while the son came running in and told his dad ~ that the girl was scratching the newly purchased car with the nails.

The man ran outside and in a fit of rage, the furious Man took his child’s hand & hit it many times, not realizing he was using the hammer, which was in his hand. With blood all over her hands, the girl was rushed to a nearby hospital.

The girl underwent an emergency operation. After a while, When the child saw her father in the hospital, with painful eyes she said : “Dad, I am so sorry, that I damaged your car “. With tears in her eyes, She continued looking at her hand and asked~ ‘Dad – When will I get back my fingers? I promise that I will never ever damage your car again’.

At the hospital, The child had lost all her fingers due to multiple fractures.

The man was so hurt and speechless, that he couldn’t stop sobbing and crying for hours. The girl had lost her fingers forever, because of his uncontrolled anger and stupid action.

He went back to the car and kicked it many times. Devastated by his own actions, sitting in front of the car he looked at the scratches, His daughter had written ‘LOVE YOU DAD’.

Moral: Don’t do something permanently stupid just because you are temporarily upset. If you are patient in one moment of anger , you will escape a hundred days of sorrow… Remember, Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. Anger and Love have no limit.

Always remember that “Things are to be used and people are to be loved”. But the problem in today’s world is that “People are being used & Things are being loved”.

Monk said I have dropped all coming, all going.

When Alexander was going back from India.... His teacher had told him, "When you come back from India, bring a sannyasi, because that is the greatest contribution of India to the world."

The phenomenon of a sannyasi is uniquely Indian. Nowhere else has the idea of transcending the world totally captured the minds of people as it has in this country. Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander. Aristotle had asked him, "Bring a sannyasin when you come back. I would like to see what a sannyasin is like, what it is all about."

After Invading India, when he was going back he remembered. He inquired where to find a sannyasin. People said, "Sannyasin are many but real sannyasins are very few. We know one."
In Alexandrian reports his name is given as Dandamesh -- it may be a Greek form of some Indian name. Alexander went to s ee the man -- again the same beauty as Diogenes, the same peace.

Whenever awakening happens it brings something similar. Around every Buddha you will find the same spring, the same fragrance, the same peace.

Again, as he entered into the energy field of Dandamesh, he was tremendously affected, as if he had entered into a perfumed garden. He remembered Diogenes immediately. He asked Dandamesh, "I have come to invite you -- come with me. You will be our royal guest, every comfort will be provided for, but you have to come with me to Athens."

Dandamesh said, "I have dropped all coming, all going." He was talking of something else; Alexander could not understand immediately. He was saying that, "Now there is no more coming in the world and no more going out of the world. I have transcended all coming and going." What in the East we call AVAGAMAN -- coming and going; coming into the womb and then going into death.
Alexander said, "But this is a commandment -- I command you! You have to follow. This is the order from the great Alexander!"

Dandamesh laughed. The same laughter -- again Alexander remembered Diogenes -- the same laughter. Dandamesh said, "Nobody can command me, not even death."

Alexander said, "You don't understand -- I am a dangerous man! " He pulled out his sword and he said, "Either you will come with me or I will cut off your head."

Dandamesh said, "Do it, cut off the head -- because what you are going to do now, I have done years before. When the head falls, you will see it falling on the earth and I will also see it falling on the earth."

Alexander said, "How will you see it? You will be dead!"

Dandamesh said, "That is the point: I cannot die anymore, I have become a witness. I will witness my death as much as you will witness. It will happen between us two -- you will be seeing, I will be seeing. And my purpose in the body is fulfilled: I have attained. There is no need for the body to exist anymore. Cut off the head!"

Alexander had to put his sword back in the sheath -- you cannot kill such a man.

OSHO

The anger is within me

A monk decides to meditate alone, away from his monastery. He takes his boat out to the middle of the lake, moors it there, closes his eyes and begins his meditation.

After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own. With his eyes still closed, he senses his anger rising, and by the time he opens his eyes, he is ready to scream at the boatman who dared disturb his meditation.
But when he opens his eyes, he sees it’s an empty boat that had probably got untethered and floated to the middle of the lake.
 
At that moment, the monk achieves self-realization, and understands that the anger is within him; it merely needs the bump of an external object to provoke it out of him. From then on, whenever he comes across someone who irritates him or provokes him to anger, he reminds himself, “The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me.”


ALWAYS REMEMBER :Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

We all need to live life to its fullest each day, Worry about nothing, pray about everything!!!