The only right answer to all real questions || Acharya Prashant, on Zen (2016)‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel - video Dailymotion

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: 24th Advait Learning Camp, 14.9.16, Mukteshwar, India  Context: ~ What are the right questions? ~ What is the answer? ~ How to Understand Zen Koans? ~ What is the only right answer to all real questions?   Zen Koan:  A monk asked Joshu, “Has the dog Buddha nature?” Joshu replied, “Moo” .   Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00A monk asked Joshu, has the dog the gupta nature? Joshu replied, Moo. Moo stands for

00:25nothing. Everything about the dog and the gupta is different.

00:46As long as you compare a thing about the dog and the gupta, you will only find differences.

01:07As long as the dog is something or anything, as long as the buddha is seen as something or

01:19anything, all you will see is differences. The dog and the buddha are alike only in their nothingness.

01:33Has dog the buddha nature? Yes, of course. The dog is buddha when the dog is nothing.

01:43Of course, the dog has buddha nature, but not as long as it is a dog. As long as it is a dog,

01:53it is just a dog. The dog is a buddha when it has lost its doghood. You are a buddha when you have

02:04lost your personhood. The buddha is nothing but the one who has lost himself. That great emptiness,

02:17that great nothingness is the buddha. Has dog buddha nature? Moo. Do I have buddha nature? Moo.

02:29Do you have buddha nature? Moo. As long as I am myself, as long as I am what I appear to be and

02:38what I think myself to be, of course, there is no possibility of buddha nature. For buddha nature,

02:44is that vast emptiness that we all are. That vast emptiness in which even we appears like

02:58an absurdity for there is no diversity, no difference. So, what to talk of me and we?

03:06When you are not, then the buddha is. Surely the buddha is even when you are,

03:18but what to do if you believe yourselves to be non-buddha as long as you are?

03:25Hence, you are the buddha only when you are gone. Gate gate paragate swaha. When you are gone,

03:38gone, totally gone and disappeared, that is buddha buddha. When the dog is gone,

03:45gone, totally gone and disappeared, that is buddha buddha. Do you now see what Jyotish is saying?

03:53Yes, of course, the dog has buddha nature, but not the dog. The dog and the buddha are one,

04:02but not as long as the dog insists on being a dog. As long as you insist on being what you

04:12stand for, what you are attached to, what you are identified with, of course, there is no possibility

04:17of buddha nature. The buddha nature will remain present but yet appear absent and that is the

04:26great maya. You know what maya is? That which prevents the present from being seen and that

04:40which makes you see that which is not. These are the two things that maya does. You start

04:55looking at yourself as someone who is not and you start forgetting the one that you really are,

05:11that is maya. Seen a little differently, Yoshu also means that this question itself is a barrier

05:40against buddhahood. So, when the question is posed, Yoshu presents a nothing to the question,

05:49drop this question and there lies buddhahood. As long as there is a question, there is a question.

05:56Who are we? The ones who are full of questions. When the questions are gone, we are gone and

06:03what remains is the buddha. Drop this question and that's what the buddha also used to do.

06:09He would not entertain several questions that pertain directly to buddhahood. His

06:19response would be drop the question and you are home. The answer would keep you

06:28believing in the validity of the question. So, I will not present any answer. Answer

06:36will reinforce your belief in the question. You are already distracted. Why should I

06:46confuse you even more? So, I will not give you an answer. Do you have buddha nature?

07:00No. Neither yes nor no. If you say yes, then you mean that you as you are,

07:07you as you think you are, have buddha nature. No way. The way we have built ourselves up,

07:20the way we have conceptualized ourselves, there is no possibility of buddha nature.

07:25It is only the force of habit, conditioning, biology and evolution. All of them are something.

07:35None of them is nothing. All of them are space time. None of them are beyond the mind. So,

07:52yes would not be proper. When I asked, do you have buddha nature? Saying yes would not be proper.

07:59This question is the same as saying, are you brahman? Are you atman? Saying yes would not be

08:04proper. Asking do you have buddha nature is the same as asking are you the atman? Saying yes would

08:12not be proper. Saying no would also not be proper. If you don't have buddha nature, if you are not

08:22the atman, then you must be something other than the atman. Which means something other than the

08:29atman exists. Which means there is multiplicity of truths. Because the atman, the buddha nature

08:38is the sole truth. By saying that you exist and are yet not the atman, you are saying something

08:49besides the atman exists. And thereby you are raising parallel gods, parallel truths. And if

09:03truths are parallel, they are just false. The truth by definition is the one that has no end,

09:13no substitute, no parallel. So, neither can you say yes nor can you say no. All you can say is

09:23Moo. This Moo is such a beautiful word. Language does not normally have it. But

09:33spirituality stretches language. It forces language to do things which language normally

09:39cannot do. That's what saints do. That's what seers do. That's what Zen does. Moo is a classical

09:48subject. So, that is the reason why you will find me admonishing you when you say aham brahmasmi.

10:04I will say what rubbish are you talking? Are you Brahm? And you will find me equally irate when

10:20you say naham brahmasmi. I will say if you are not Brahm, what else are you? And this may confuse

10:28you. You may feel yesterday he kept on saying I am that. Today when I am saying I am that,

10:38he is saying are you that? Look at your face. Because your yes is as dangerous as your no.

10:48The answer is Moo. You see now why yesterday I kept insisting you are that, you are that and

10:57today when you want to dance, I am that, I say. You see this? Saying anything regarding your Brahm

11:14nature or Buddha nature is a disgrace. So, don't say anything. When you don't say anything,

11:20then you are that. But who says by saying anything you will be displaced from being that? But try

11:28saying and let's see what happens. That's the absurdity of Zen. That's the beauty of Zen.

11:37That's the truth of Zen. It's everywhere but it's not in the beginning, not in the end,

11:50neither in the beginning. Yet nothing apart from it exists. But go and find it in all your latest

11:59grams. Nothing apart from it exists. But try finding it, you will fail. Could you find it?

12:11Saying yes is arrogance. Saying no is blindness. So, the answer is Moo. Moo is the only defeating

12:31answer to all real questions. All real questions. Do you love me? If I say yes, I'm accepting that

12:44you and I exist and if you and I exist and we are separate, there is a question of love. If I say no,

12:50then I am saying that I too exist and I have nothing for you. In either case I am damned. So,

13:01the right answer is Moo. Do you exist? Were you born? Would you die?

13:32Should I hit you hard? Continue.

13:36Yes, yes, yes.

13:45Zen does not hesitate. In? Are you getting it? Clear?

The only right answer to all real questions || Acharya Prashant, on Zen (2016)‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir... ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel

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