Master Tells Stories
The Detached Mind
is the Enlightened Mind
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Group Meditation in Los Angeles, CA., USA, March 13, 1996
(Originally In English) Videotape #536
There was once a Zen Master who had some disciples and one of them wrote to the Master every now and then after initiation, just like you write your spiritual diary and send it to me, or sometimes report to me on what kind of "progress" you've made. So that disciple wrote to the Master and said, "Master I'm really deeply involved with enlightenment right now. I spend all my time in search of my inner true Self." The Master only read the first line of the letter and then kicked it into the dust bin.
A long while later the disciple wrote another letter to the Master, saying, "Oh Master now the whole universe responds to my innermost thoughts. How incredible the Truth is! How magnificent human wisdom is! How great the universal Power is!"
But the Master just blew his nose with the letter (laughter), and threw it into the toilet. Then in a third letter the disciple wrote, "Oh Master, I now have compassion for all humankind and all underprivileged beings! Even an ant, I hear his heart throbbing and feel his soul striving! Oh Master, what a wonderful discovery! I'll strive even more, I promise you! I'll be your best disciple, you'll see."
So then the Master wiped something with the letter. (Laughter) You know where; I won't say (Master and everyone laugh), and then threw it into the toilet and felt hopeless.
Later, in a fourth letter, the disciple reported, "Master, now I'm one with the universe! Everything is me and I am everything! There's nothing that's not me. I'm everything. Oh, I congratulate myself!" (Laughter)
But the Master didn't even bother to touch it, just let the wind blow it anywhere it might go and didn't want to say anything anymore. Then, for a long time the Master said, "Don't bother writing to me anymore. You're just wasting paper and pen." So the disciple didn't write anything anymore.
Many years passed by and the Master was kind of feeling a little bit sorry for having been so harsh to the disciple the last time. Remembering his fantastic disciple -- long time no see and no hear from -- he kind of sent a message to him and said, "Hey! What's happening now? How's your spiritual progress?" (Laughter) Perhaps he missed his nonsensical, "big universal" letters.
So the disciple wrote back only two words on one big piece of paper: "Who cares?" (Laughter and applause) Do you know how the Master reacted then? He went and drank coffee, tea or non-alcoholic beer with Seven-Up. (Master and everyone laugh.) That's the way it should be.
Only when you know that you're OK do you not care. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how much you write to me, saying, "I love You, the universal Power, compassionate me," and whatever; all this is nonsense, theory. That's why many teachers of theory open their mouths and talk about compassion, enlightenment, wisdom and all that, but they don't do anything about it. They don't even know; they just talk about it. That's very boring, and it's very difficult to make them realize that we don't need talk.
Why I talk all the time is because you like it. (Audience: Yes.) Besides I don't talk to teach you. If you think I'm teaching you, you're wrong because I'm hopeless with you, too. I know I can't teach you anything. I just amuse you with my different expressions, hoping that you might catch something you like and hold onto it. Then you'll remember me and won't forget to practice. One day you'll know everything yourself; not only through my teachings, maybe thirty percent through my teachings. But it's more or less just so that you'll remember me and then we can connect inside.
To be honest with you, I don't believe that anyone can teach anyone else at all. But whatever I can do, I just try my best because you ask for it. You demand it so I do it, not because I believe I can teach you through words, through talking, through language. But I believe that we can establish a very deep connection with each other, and through that deep connection we can communicate inside. That's the only teaching that might perhaps happen. Otherwise you're already a Buddha. You're an entity just like I am.
What's the need of me telling you what to do? You have everything I have. It's just that through our inner connection with each other you're willing to be reminded of your true Self inside through my inner true Self. Then our inner true Selves become one together, and there's no teaching at all. Originally there was no need and there will never be any need for any soul to learn anything.
