showing his "inness" and "isness".

To break out of this circle is what Zen is all about -- not to go on moving in your mind
through words and concepts but to drop into existence itself.

A great Zen Master, Nanin, was cutting a tree in the forest. And a professor of a
university came to see him. Naturally the professor thought that this woodcutter must
know where Nanin lived in the hills, so he enquired. The woodcutter took his axe in his
hand and said, 'I had to pay very much for it.'
The professor had not enquired about his axe. He was enquiring where Nanin lived; he
was enquiring if he would be in the temple if he went there. And Nanin raised the axe and
said, 'Look, I had to pay very much for it.' The professor felt a little puzzled and before he
could escape, Nanin came even closer and put his axe just on the head of the professor.
The professor started trembling and Nanin said, 'It is really sharp.' And the professor
escaped.
Later on, when he reached the temple he came to know that the woodcutter was nobody
but Nanin himself. Then he enquired, 'Is he mad?'
'No,' the disciple said. 'You had asked if Nanin was in and he was saying yes. He was
showing his "inness" and "isness". That moment he was a woodcutter; that moment, axe
in his hand, he was totally absorbed in the sharpness of the axe. He was that sharpness in

that moment. He was saying "I am in" by being so immediate, by being so totally in the

present. You missed the point. He was showing you the quality of Zen.'

Zen is non-conceptual, non-intellectual. It is the only religion in the world which

preaches immediacy; moment to moment immediacy; to be present in the moment, no

past, no future.

But people have lived with theologies. And those theologies keep them childish, they

don't allow them to grow. You cannot grow by being confined in a theology, by being a

Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan or even a Buddhist. You cannot grow; you don't

have space enough to grow. You are confined very much, in a very narrow space; you are

imprisoned.

"Everything happens outside"

A house caught fire. The owner beat his breast and wept loud. A man standing next to him said,

”You are tormenting yourself unnecessary. It was only yesterday that your son sold the house for a
good sum.
The man could not believe his ears. He stopped his lamenting. The house was still burning, but he
looked on unconcerned. He stood at a distance; he was no longer the owner of the house.
After a little while his son came running, ”Oh, ’god, how did the house catch fire? I made a deal on
the house but the payment is still to come. Now who will pay for a ruined house?”
The father began to wail again. The house was unaffected. The happiness or sorrow of its owners
had no effect on it. It was burning before and it continue burning after, but the owner’s mood would
have changed again if the buyer had appeared and said he would honor the contract although the
house was burned down.

Everything happens outside you, but you stand too close; that is the trouble. Keep your distance!
When happiness comes stand apart and watch. When sorrow comes stand a little away and watch.
Mind you, start with happiness, not with sorrow. Generally people try to dissociate from themselves
at times of sorrow in order to escape from it. That is a general tendency of the mind, and it gets
you nowhere. Create the distance when you are happy, because everybody wants to escape from
sorrow. If you want to establish a genuine detachment just running away from sorrow will not do.
You have to do just the reverse
OSHO :The Great Path"