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THEN HE ASKED RYUZAN, "WHAT IS THE GUEST WITHIN THE HOST?" These are traditional Zen questions, which decide whether the master is really a master or just a teacher, a man of realization or just a man who has gathered knowledge from others, from scriptures.

"WHAT IS THE GUEST WITHIN THE HOST?"

RYUZAN SAID, "THE BLUE MOUNTAIN IS COVERED BY WHITE CLOUDS."

The white clouds are the guests. The blue mountain is the host, because it will remain, and the clouds will come and go. That which comes and goes is the guest, and that which remains is the host. But he said it in a very beautiful poetic way. Zen is sheer poetry: "THE BLUE MOUNTAIN IS COVERED BY WHITE CLOUDS."

TOZAN ASKED, "WHAT IS THE HOST WITHIN THE HOST?" That is another traditional question.

Ryuzan answered very beautifully. He said, "HE NEVER GOES OUT OF THE DOOR." The host never goes outside the door. That which goes outside is the mind; it goes around everywhere, Bangkok ... where are you going right now, L.A? It is the mind that goes, but Avirbhava remains here. In you, in everybody, the consciousness always remains in; it never goes out of the door.

The mind travels around the world. The moment the mind stops traveling, you come to a great realization: that you are not the one who has been traveling. You are the one who has not moved even a single inch, who is always inside you at the deepest center, never leaving that place.

In our meditations we are searching for the host. We have all become guests, and gone too far away from our own beings. In our meditations we are trying to come back and let the guest merge into the host. The moment you enter into your very interiority, there is a great explosion of light. You are no more a human being; you have become a buddha. You have become pure awareness, unconfined, unlimited.

Ryuzan's answer is so beautiful:

"HE NEVER GOES OUT OF THE DOOR."

TOZAN THEN ASKED, "HOW FAR APART ARE HOST AND GUEST?"

RYUZAN SAID, "WAVES ON A RIVER."

He must be a great master, of tremendous understanding. He is saying that just as a river has waves, those waves are the guests. And when the waves have disappeared, the guest has disappeared in the host. The river remains; the waves come and go.

RYUZAN SAID, "WAVES ON A RIVER."

TOZAN THEN ASKED, "WHEN GUEST AND HOST MEET, WHAT IS SAID?"

RYUZAN SAID, "THE PURE BREEZE SWEEPS THE WHITE MOON." Nothing is said.

"THE PURE BREEZE SWEEPS THE WHITE MOON."

Just a tremendous beauty, a blissfulness, a benediction arises. Nothing is said, not even a hello.

TOZAN TOOK HIS LEAVE AND DEPARTED.

Hakuyo has written:

OVER THE PEAK-SPREADING CLOUDS, AT ITS SOURCE THE RIVER IS COLD.

IF YOU WOULD SEE, CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN TOP.

If you want to see you will have to climb the mountain top. If you want to see you will have to reach to the highest point of your consciousness.

Another Zen poet:

FOR LONG YEARS, A BIRD IN A CAGE, TODAY, FLYING ALONG WITH THE CLOUD.

These small statements defeat the great scriptures of other religions. In what a beautiful way he says everything that needs to be said!

FOR LONG YEARS, perhaps many, many births, A BIRD IN A CAGE, TODAY, FLYING ALONG WITH THE CLOUD.

Freedom is the ultimate goal. We are all living in cages, not only of body and mind, but of all kinds of concepts, superstitions. Unless we drop all these cages, scatter them, burn them, and become free - just like a bird on the wing, flying away with the clouds - we will not know what is possible. We will not know what our destiny is. We will not be able to realize the joy, the ultimate experience of truth.