The Shocking Wisdom of Zen || Acharya Prashant (2025)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00This is about Chaochu. One day Chaochu fell down in the snow and called out, help me up, help me up.

00:06So there is this Chaochu fallen in the snow and he's calling, help me, help me.

00:11So a monk came, came and lay down beside him.

00:14Now instead of extending help, a Chaochu sees this, gets a jolt, simply gets up and walks away.

00:20What has this other monk in a second experientially taught Chaochu?

00:25Another shocker, it was Rinzai himself.

00:30There was this student he had and whenever Rinzai would ask a deep important question that he wanted the students to reflect over.

00:38Now instead of giving the question sufficient time and respect and reflection,

00:44this one student would just raise his finger as if he already knows the answer.

00:49So the master, seeing this happen repeatedly, goes to the disciple and simply cuts off his finger.

00:56And the kohan says that it was at this moment that the disciple got immediately enlightened.

01:04If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.

01:06That shocks us so much and these are all followers of the Buddha.

01:09And they are saying if you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.

01:12Why are they saying that?

01:13The Zen masters could have put it in a more sober way.

01:17But they want to shake your mind, your consciousness up.

01:20They are saying the real one can never be known.

01:24In other words, truth is unknowable.

01:30So it is already a disciple, an advanced disciple, who is asking a question and the master replies.

01:36And then often the kohan ends with, and the disciple was immediately enlightened.

01:44So it is already an advanced disciple, who gets immediately enlightened.

01:49Let me pick up the simpler ones first and then proceed to the more high voltage ones.

02:14So this is about Chao Chu.

02:32One day Chao Chu fell down in the snow and called out, help me up, help me up.

02:39So that is this Chao Chu, most probably himself a monk.

02:48So Chao Chu has fallen in the snow and he is calling, help me, help me.

02:55So a monk came and lay down beside him.

03:02So he finds someone coming to him.

03:05And must be expecting that this fellow will now lend a hand and pull him up.

03:10But instead of pulling him up, what does this monk do?

03:14Came and lay down beside him.

03:17Now Chao Chu got up and went away.

03:20This Chao Chu was shouting, come help me, help me.

03:24I have fallen to the snow, can't get up.

03:27Somebody lend a hand.

03:28Now instead of extending help, this monk comes and lies down behind him, Chao Chu.

03:39Now Chao Chu sees this, gets a jolt, simply gets up and walks away.

03:45What has this other monk, in a second, experientially taught Chao Chu?

03:51Bondage is a choice.

04:00You are not helpless.

04:03You are pretending to be.

04:04Just as you chose to fall into the snow, you can equally choose to get up and walk away.

04:21It is within your power.

04:24But you are pretending to be helpless and that is a very old way of the ego.

04:31So, pretend to be helpless when you are actually not.

04:37Pretend to be helpless when you are actually not.

04:45Getting it?

04:50Now obviously this cannot work with someone

04:53who is in no position to receive the instruction.

04:58Or who is actually fallen so deep into the snow

05:05that he can't get out on his own.

05:10In the zone of facts and physicality, that is possible.

05:18You could be a very weak person, physically.

05:20Or you could have slipped deep into the snow.

05:28That too is possible.

05:29And it is not always possible that you get up and walk away on your own.

05:32So, here it is seen that probably the disciple Chao Chu is young and strong.

05:45He does have the capacity to get up and walk away.

05:48But is still acting feeble and helpless.

05:52So, a fellow monk or a teacher, a master

05:59saw this as an opportune time to deliver an instruction, a message.

06:05And said, let me use this situation

06:08to drive home a very important point.

06:15And how was that done?

06:20A monk, a friend, walked up to Chao Chu and just lay down beside him.

06:28And Chao Chu got the message, simply got up and walked away.

06:36Walked away and

06:37What's left unsaid here is, in the typical Koan style, walked away and lightened.

06:50Now

06:50Another shocker, ninth one

07:00If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.

07:05Now that shocks us so much, and these are all followers of the Buddha.

07:12These are all

07:14Zen Buddhists.

07:17And they are saying, if you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.

07:20Why are they saying that?

07:22Because

07:25you

07:27cannot meet someone you do not already know of.

07:35You just don't know Dimello.

07:37Can you meet Dimello?

07:38Can you meet Dimello?

07:40Even if Dimello

07:41crosses

07:44your path,

07:47would you say, I met Dimello?

07:51Would you say?

07:52So, meeting the Buddha would imply

07:54that you already know the Buddha.

07:57You already know Sharmaji.

08:01So, suddenly when you happen to see him on the road, you say, Sharmaji, I met Sharmaji.

08:12But if you do not know Dimello,

08:14Dimello can coolly walk past you.

08:17And you will not be able to claim that you have met or seen or encountered Dimello, right?

08:24Right?

08:25How can you meet the Buddha?

08:27If you say,

08:30you have met the Buddha,

08:34that means that you already have an image of Buddha just as you have an image of Sharmaji.

08:40Right?

08:40You already know Sharmaji.

08:42But how do you already know the Buddha?

08:44By having

08:48a cultivated image

08:51of your own.

08:54And in that image lie all your conveniences,

08:58all your mischief and all your bondage.

09:02Right?

09:03So, first of all,

09:05you build up an image of the Buddha and then

09:07if you find someone corresponding to that image,

09:12you declare that person to be Buddha.

09:17The funny thing is,

09:18often the other person also knows what particular image

09:24you have

09:26maintained of the Buddha in your mind.

09:30He already knows

09:31that in your mind the Buddha

09:33Buddha

09:34is like this, this and this.

09:38So, that makes it very easy for the other person

09:43to look, act, behave like the Buddha.

09:47And when you will encounter that person, you will immediately say,

09:51today, today I met the Buddha.

09:58The Zen masters could have put it in a simpler way, less shocking way.

10:07In a more sober way.

10:08But they want to shake

10:11your mind, your consciousness up.

10:17They are saying, the real one

10:19can never be known.

10:25In other words, truth is unknowable.

10:30Truth is unknowable.

10:32The Upanishads continue to repeat that.

10:45Your descriptions, your images

10:47will never be able to capture the truth.

10:50And if

10:52something that can be described

10:56is being

10:58touted as the truth,

11:00just run away.

11:04Anything with attributes,

11:07anything with properties,

11:10anything that can

11:13be registered in the memory,

11:19just cannot correspond to the truth.

11:26Wherever you find such a thing happening,

11:29just smile.

11:31and know that it's Maya.

11:38If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.

11:40Which Buddha?

11:41The one that you have met on the road

11:43or the one

11:44that exists in your mind as an image?

11:46If there is an image of greatness that you have in mind,

11:58kill that image.

12:02The more you carry that image,

12:04the more

12:05greatness will remain elusive.

12:09The first question from the session is from Drishti.

12:25I'll ask on her behalf because she seems to have dropped out.

12:28Drishti.

12:29The question was,

12:30Namaste Acharya Ji.

12:32In most koans,

12:34I can see that there is an element of small physical pain.

12:38As you said,

12:39a koans are about giving shock.

12:41So does bodily pain have a role in the disillusionment of a student?

12:45Or is it just a matter of illustration?

12:50You see,

12:50the ego is related to physical comfort.

12:54No?

12:57So if you want to unsettle the ego,

13:00it is sometimes helpful to unsettle the body.

13:08We talked of Rinzai today.

13:10I think it was Rinzai himself,

13:15who delivered the utmost shock to the body.

13:19So there was this student he had.

13:28And whenever Rinzai would ask a deep important question that he wanted the students to reflect over.

13:37Now, instead of giving the question sufficient time and respect and reflection,

13:43this one student would just raise his finger as if he already knows the answer.

13:55In a very impudent kind of way.

14:02So, the teacher would ask the question and this,

14:06this one, this fellow would not take time to absorb the question,

14:12understand it,

14:13but would behave as if, you know, he is, he already knows, already knows.

14:19And probably this student was not really an idiot.

14:24He was a sharp one.

14:26Because he belonged to the master's group of disciples.

14:31Had he really been a duffer,

14:34he wouldn't have been found in front of the master.

14:37Probably a sharp student.

14:40And probably there was some merit.

14:43In his assertion that he already knows the answer.

14:47But he didn't obviously quite fully know the answer.

14:52Yet he was insisting that,

14:55I am the know-all one.

14:59So, the master,

15:02seeing this happen repeatedly,

15:06goes to the disciple and simply cuts off his finger.

15:12And the koan says that it was at this moment that the disciple got immediately enlightened.

15:18You understand this, maybe the finger was not totally cut off.

15:29Maybe just took the finger and bended it backwards a little painfully or delivered a little cut to it, something.

15:37But the master did do something painful to the finger.

15:44Because the fundamental association of the ego is with the body.

15:48Right? I am the body.

15:49So, you shake up the body, the ego shakes up.

15:54That does not really support or validate physical mistreatment.

16:01But what that tells is that in the rarest of cases,

16:08it is possible for a wise and skillful master to deliver a subtle message

16:20through physical pain also.

16:26But those are rare conditions and they require a very willing and ripe disciple

16:32and a skillful teacher.

16:36In today's context, if you go and if you chop off a kid's finger,

16:44you would be in jail.

16:45So, it is in very unique, very rare, very distinct environments and in very deep student-teacher

16:58relationships that it is possible for the teacher to inflict physical pain on the student

17:04and help the student through that pain.

17:09It is possible, but in very rare circumstances.

17:15Namaste Acharya Ji.

17:19Can you hear me?

17:23I wanted to ask about what you exactly mean when you say the ripe ones,

17:33that the Zen Kwans work only on the ripe ones.

17:38Only few instructions are used.

17:40So, it is said that it works on only the ripe and you described ripe as a fruit that is weakly hung

17:50to a tree and can fall at any moment.

17:54But it is still attached to the tree.

17:57What is the difference between this, a person who is attached in this way and a person who is not ripe,

18:04let's say?

18:06The falling is an event.

18:10It is a particular moment when the fruit falls.

18:14The ripening is a process.

18:19The falling is an event.

18:21The Kwans refer to that event.

18:23Like sudden shattering of glass.

18:26It is an event.

18:30It is a loud event.

18:33It is a conspicuous event.

18:35It catches your attention.

18:36It is an event.

18:38But the ripening of the fruit is a silent, unattractive process.

18:46It takes effort.

18:51It requires being in the process.

18:56Staying on the path.

18:58That is what results in ripening.

19:03So, is enlightenment a process?

19:06Not exactly.

19:07Is it an event?

19:08Not exactly.

19:11It is neither a process nor an event.

19:13Is it a combination of both?

19:15Even that cannot really be said.

19:17But what is definite is that you cannot escape the process.

19:23For example, you cannot escape writing reflections or writing exams or attending sessions

19:33or engaging with the kind of stuff I send you away.

19:40You cannot escape all that and still hope to be ripe.

19:45All that is a process.

19:48You engage with that over a period of time and then slowly you find that you are ripening.

19:55That the sour, tangy fruit is turning sweet.

20:00What role does the choice play here, personal choice?

20:13All the role, all the credit is due to choice.

20:16Because you cannot stay in that process absurdly.

20:22Prakriti is absurd.

20:23Prakriti is random.

20:26You probably can come to me due to a random happening.

20:35It is possible.

20:35But you cannot stay here randomly.

20:39It will require a lot of conscious choice.

20:43You will have to choose every time, every day, every session, every exam.

20:48You will have to choose.

20:59Prakriti does not require any choices.

21:01Liberation from Prakriti requires choices.

21:07You can continue to be in the Prakriti flow without applying choice of any kind, right?

21:16Prakriti has to be seen for what it is

21:40and left at its place.

21:44The universe is absurd.

21:46And I don't want to find meaning in that absurdity.

21:50This is called detachment.

21:55This is also liberation.

21:57All liberation in some sense is liberation from the attempt to project meaning on absurdity.

22:06Liberation

22:10is to refrain from

22:14projecting doership on randomness.

22:19That is liberation.

22:29Vedanta

22:30Proceeds through explanation

22:43and brings you to a point

22:46where

22:48Koan

22:50delivers it through experience

22:52from explanation

22:54from explanation

22:56to experience.

23:06Oh, oh, oh, oh.

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