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Osho Zen Stories

  1. Drop all 'isms'
  2. Mind of a Sage
  3. Judging a saint
  4. The Fake Monk
  5. Rinzai's Answer
  6. Mystic Rengetsu
  7. Zen Master Sekito
  8. Zen Sage & Thief
  9. Zen Master in Jail
  10. Buddha’s message
     
  11. The Game of Chess
  12. Innocence is Divine
  13. Master's Compassion
  14. Knowledge is Trouble
  15. Respond with awareness
  16. Tetsugen 3 set of sutras
  17. You are already a Buddha
  18. Sound of one Hand Clapping
  19. Master waits 4 right Moment

Paul Reps 101 Zen Stories

  1. Stories 1 - 2
  2. Stories 3 - 4
  3. Stories 5 - 7
  4. Stories 8-9
  5. Stories 10
  6. Stories 11
  7. Stories 12-14
  8. Stories 15-16
  9. Stories 17-18
     
  10. Stories 19 - 21
  11. Stories 22 - 24
  12. Stories 25 - 27
  13. Stories 28 - 32
  14. Stories 33 - 36
  15. Stories 37 - 38
  16. Stories 39 - 41
  17. Stories 42 - 44
  18. Stories 45 - 46
     
  19. Stories 47 - 48
  20. Stories 49 - 50
  21. Stories 51 - 53
  22. Stories 54 - 56
  23. Stories 57 - 59
  24. Stories 60 - 61
  25. Stories 62 - 64
  26. Stories 65 - 66
  27. Stories 67 - 68
     
  28. Stories 69 - 72
  29. Stories 73 - 75
  30. Stories 76 - 78
  31. Stories 79 - 82
  32. Stories 83 - 86
  33. Stories 87 - 89
  34. Stories 90 - 91
  35. Stories 92 - 94
  36. Stories 95 - 97
  37. Stories 98 -101
 

Osho - Sound of one Hand Clapping

Osho : If you have heard about Zen masters... they go on telling their disciples to go and meditate, meditate on the sound of one hand clapping. We can create a sound by clapping two hands. Zen masters say to their disciples, ”Go and find out that sound which comes out of only one hand: the clapping of one hand, not with anything else.”

We know this is absurd. A sound can come only with conflict, with two things clashing. Two hands can create sound, not one hand. Zen masters also know that, but still they have been giving this meditation for centuries. From Buddha up to now, Zen masters go on giving it. They know, their disciples know, that this is absurd. Then what is the significance? One has to watch, meditate, and move towards a sound which is already there, which is not created. That is the meaning of the sound of one hand.

I have heard a story. A small boy, just ten or twelve years of age, lived in a Zen monastery. Every day he would see many seekers coming to the master to ask for help, methods, techniques, guidance. He also became attracted, so one day he also came in the morning in the same way a seeker comes to a Zen master. With deep reverence he bowed down seven times. The master started laughing:

”What has happened to this boy?”

And then he sat in the way seekers should sit before a Zen master. Then he waited, as seekers should wait, for the master to ask, ”Why have you come?”

The master asked, ”Toyo” – Toyo was the name of the boy – ”why have you come?”

So Toyo bowed down and said, ”Master, I have come in search of truth. What shall I do? How should I practice?”

The master knew that this boy was simply imitating, because everybody he heard came and asked the same questions, so just jokingly the master said, ”Toyo, you go and meditate. Two hands clapping can create a sound. What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Toyo bowed down seven times again, went back to his room, started meditating. He heard a geisha girl singing, so he said, ”Right, this is the thing.”

He came immediately, bowed down. The master was laughing. He said, ”Did you meditate, Toyo?”

He said, ”Yes sir, and I have found it: it is like a geisha girl singing.”

The master said, ”No, this is wrong. Go again, meditate.”

So he went again, meditated for three days. Then he heard the sound of water dripping, so he said, ”Right now, this is the thing – I have got it.” He came again, the master asked... he said, ”The sound of the water dripping.”

The master said, ”Toyo, that too is not it. You go and meditate.”

So he meditated for three months. Then he heard locusts in the trees, so he said, ”Yes, I have got it.” He came again.

The master said, ”No, this too is not right.”

And so on and on. One year passed. Then for one year continuously he was not seen. The master became anxious: ”What happened to the boy? He has not come.” So he went to find him. He was sitting under a tree, silent, his body vibrating to some unknown sound; his body dancing, a very gentle dance, as if just moving with the breeze.

The master didn’t like to disturb the boy, so he sat there waiting. Hours and hours passed. When the sun was setting and it was evening, the master said, ”Toyo?” The boy opened his eyes and he said, ”This is it.”

The master said, ”Yes, you have got it!”

This aum is that sound. When all sounds disappear from the mind, then you hear a sound. The Upanishads have made that sound the symbol of the whole, because whenever the whole happens to the part, it happens in that music of aum, in that harmony of aum.

Source: from book “Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi” by Osho