Osho on Zen Master Ikkyu Poems

Osho - These small poems of the Zen master, Ikkyu, are of immense importance. They are not great poetry, remember, because that is not the concern. The poetry has been used as a device, so that your heart can be stirred. The poetry is not the goal. Ikkyu is not concerned with creating great poetry; he is not really a poet, he is a mystic. But rather than speaking prose, he speaks in poetry -- for a certain reason.

The reason is: poetry has an indirect way of hinting at things. Poetry is feminine. Prose is masculine. Prose, the very structure of it, is logical; poetry is basically illogical. Prose has to be clear-cut; poetry has to be vague -- that's its beauty, its quality. Prose simply says what it says; poetry says many things. Prose is needed in the day-to-day world, in the marketplace. But whenever something of the heart has to be said, prose is always found inadequate -- one has to fall back to poetry.

There are two languages in language. Each language consists of two languages: one is prose, the other is poetry. Prose has become very predominant because it is utilitarian. Poetry has disappeared by and by, because it has no utility. It is needed only when you are in love. It is needed only when you are talking of love, death, prayer, truth, God -- but they are not commodities. They are not sold in the marketplace, they are not purchased either.

Our world, slowly slowly, has become linear. The other language, the deeper language, has lost its meaning for us. And because of the disappearance of the second language, the language of poetry, man has become very poor -- because ALL richness is of the heart. Mind is very poor, mind is a beggar. Mind lives through trivia. The heart is an opening to the profundities of life, to the depths of existence, to the mysteries of cosmos.

Remember this there are tWo languages in language, two ways of speaking, two levels of linguistic usage. There is a language of clear truths, concepts and formulas, the language of pure logic, objective information, exact science. But that is not the language of the heart, and that is not the language of love, and that is not the language of religion.

Osho - That is the whole secret of mantras. A mantra is a condensed poem; it is essential poetry. Just by reading it, you can't understand it. Not that you don't understand intellectually -- it is simple, the meaning is apparent -- but the apparent meaning is not the real meaning.

The apparent meaning comes from the first language, and the hidden meaning will have to be waited for. You will have to repeat it in deep love, in great prayerful moods... some time it will suddenly erupt from your own unconscious, it will be revealed to you. A melody will be heard. That melody is the meaning -- not the meaning that you had deciphered from the first reading, on the first reading. And one never knows when it will happen.

Hence, in the East, people have been reciting the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada; they go on reciting. Every day, morning and evening, they go on reciting. They recite as many times as possible. They don't even keep count; what is the point of keeping count? But with each reciting, something goes deeper into you, the groove is deepened. And one day the melody is heard.

When you have heard the melody, you have come to know the real mantra. You have stumbled upon the second hidden layer, the real poetry in it. That cannot be understood: that can only be heard. That cannot be understood: that can only be experienced.

These small poems of Ikkyu are like mantras. Don't try to understand them intellectually. Rather, play with them with deep love, sympathy, rapport. And, slowly slowly, like a fragrance, like a melody, something will arise in you and you will be able to see what this man wants to convey. He wants to convey that which cannot be conveyed; he wants to say that which cannot be said. And he has been able to convey it.

This man Ikkyu was a strange master. Zen masters ARE strange masters. A religious person is bound to become strange, because he lives in a totally different way -- he lives in a separate reality. He starts existing here as an outsider. He becomes a stranger to this ordinary world, because he is here and yet not of it. He lives here, but untouched, uncontaminated, unpolluted by it. He lives here, and lives in such a way that he is untouchable. He does not escape from the world. He lives in the ordinary world in an extraordinary way.

Source - Osho Book "Take it Easy, Vol1"