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1、A ZEN STUDENT CAME TO BANKEI AND SAID: MASTER, I HAVE AN UNGOVERNABLE TEMPER - HOW CAN I CURE IT? SHOW ME THIS TEMPER, SAID BANKEI, IT SOUNDS FASCINATING. I HAVENT GOT IT RIGHT NOW, SAID THE STUDENT, SO I CANT SHOW IT TO YOU. WELL THEN, SAID BANKEI, BRING IT TO ME WHEN YOU HAVE IT. BUT I CANT BRING
2、IT JUST WHEN I HAPPEN TO HAVE IT, PROTESTED THE STUDENT. IT ARISES UNEXPECTEDLY, AND I WOULD SURELY LOSE IT BEFORE I GOT IT TO YOU. IN THAT CASE, SAID BANKEI, IT CANNOT BE PART OF YOUR TRUE NATURE. IF IT WERE, YOU COULD SHOW IT TO ME AT ANY TIME. WHEN YOU WERE BORN YOU DID NOT HAVE IT, AND YOUR PARE
3、NTS DID NOT GIVE IT TO YOU - SO IT MUST COME INTO YOU FROM THE OUTSIDE. I SUGGEST THAT WHENEVER IT GETS INTO YOU, YOU BEAT YOURSELF WITH A STICK UNTIL THE TEMPER CANT STAND IT, AND RUNS AWAY.THE TRUE NATURE IS your eternal nature. You cannot have it and not have it, it is not something that comes an
4、d goes - it is you. How can it come and go? It is your BEING. It is your very foundation. It cannot BE sometimes, and NOT BE sometimes; it is always there.So this should be the criterion for a seeker of truth, nature, tao: that we have to come to the point in our being which remains always and alway
5、s - even before you were born it was there, and even when you are dead it will be there. It is the center. The circumference changes, the center remains absolutely eternal; it is beyond time. Nothing can affect it, nothing can modify it, nothing really ever touches it; it remains beyond all reach of
6、 the outside world.Go to the sea, and watch the sea. Millions of waves are there, but deep in its depth the sea remains calm and quiet, deep in meditation; the turmoil is just on the surface, just on the surface where the sea meets the outside world, the winds. Otherwise, in itself, it always remain
7、s the same, not even a ripple; nothing changes.It is the same with you. Just on the surface where you meet others there is turmoil, anxiety, anger, attachment, greed, lust - just on the surface where winds come and touch you. And if you remain on the surface you cannot change this changing phenomeno
8、n; it will remain there.Many people try to change it THERE, on the circumference. They fight with it, they try not to let a wave arise. And through their fight even more waves arise, because when the sea fights with the wind there will be more turmoil: now not only will the wind help it, the sea wil
9、l also help - there will be tremendous chaos on the surface.All the moralists try to change man on the periphery. Your character is the periphery: you dont bring any character into the world, you come absolutely characterLESS, a blank sheet, and all that you call your character is written by others.
10、 Your parents, society, teachers, teachings - all are conditionings. You come as a blank sheet, and whatsoever is written on you comes from others; so unless you become a blank sheet again you will not know what nature is, you will not know what Brahma is, you will not know what tao is.So the proble
11、m is not how to have a strong character, the problem is not how to attain no-anger, how not to be disturbed - no, that is not the problem. The problem is how to change your consciousness from the periphery to the center. Then suddenly you see that you have always been calm. Then you can look at the
12、periphery from a distance, and the distance is so vast, infinite, that you can watch as if it is not happening to you. In fact, it never happens to you. Even when you are completely lost in it, it never happens to you: something in you remains undisturbed, something in you remains beyond, something
13、in you remains a witness.So the whole problem for the seeker is how to shift his attention from the periphery to the center; how to be merged with that which is unchanging, and not to be identified with that which is just a boundary. On the boundary others are very influential, because on the bounda
14、ry change is natural. The periphery will go on changing - even a buddhas periphery changes.The difference between a buddha and you is not a difference of character - remember this; it is not a difference of morality, it is not a difference in virtue or nonvirtue, it is a difference in where you are
15、grounded.You are grounded on the periphery, a buddha is grounded in the center. He can look at his own periphery from a distance; when you hit him he can see it as if you have hit somebody else, because the center is SO distant. Its as if he is a watcher on the hills and something is happening in th
16、e valleys and he can see it. This is the first thing to be understood.Second thing: it is very easy to control, it is very difficult to transform. It is VERY easy to control. You can control your anger, but what will you do? - you will suppress it. And what happens when you suppress a certain thing? The direction of its movement changes: it was going out, and if you suppress it, it starts going in - just its direction changes.And for anger to go out
