Bodhidharma was the first one who crossed the Himalayas and went to China. Asked where he was going, he
said, ”In search of lions. I cannot work with cowards.” China was still a fresh land, just turned towards Buddhism. Even the Emperor Wu, who must have been at that time the greatest emperor in the world, because he ruled over the whole of China, was waiting with eagerness to meet Bodhidharma.
He had met many humble, meek, beautiful, nice Buddhist monks. He had heard stories about Bodhidharma – stories were coming ahead of him, that he was not a meek person, not a humble person, neither egoistic nor arrogant; that he was a very simple and sincere person, but he did not go in a roundabout way, he went directly to the point. He functioned like a surgeon – even though it hurt, he could remove cancers from people’s psyches.
Wu had come to receive him at the border. He presented himself and told Bodhidharma, ”I have opened all my treasures for Gautam Buddha. There are thousands of monks, hundreds of monasteries, temples, sculptures, thousands of translators working on every word of Buddha’s to translate them into Chinese. What will be my reward?”
Bodhidharma looked at him with his very stern eyes and said, ”Reward? – you will fall into the seventh hell.”
Wu was crestfallen. He could not believe it; what kind of man was this? Still, he was a man of great patience, and knowing about Bodhidharma, he said, ”I have not done anything wrong. Why should I fall into the seventh hell?”
Bodhidharma said, ”It is not a question of doing wrong or right; you have done it with a wrong motive – you want a reward. There is a desire to be rewarded; you are still childish. Can’t you do something as a reward in itself? If you cannot do something as a reward in itself, forget all about religion.
”If the reward is in the future, the monks who have been telling you that you will reach to the seventh heaven have been befooling you, cheating you; or perhaps they themselves are fools. Religion has nothing to do with the future. Its whole concern is this moment, lived in its totality. And it brings its own reward. If you have really loved Buddha, then whatever you have done, you should have enjoyed. You have already received the reward.
”Asking for a reward simply means that what you have done was not your love, was not your love affair – it was business. And I am shocked that even being an emperor, you are nothing but a businessman. I will not enter into your empire. I had come in search of lions, but if the emperor himself is not a lion, then it is futile.”
And he went into the mountains. Before he went to the mountains, Wu asked, ”Forgive me, your teaching is so new…. Nobody ever told me that this moment is all, but I can see there is truth in it.
I can see it in your eyes – you are a living proof of it. Don’t leave me like this. At least before you go you have to help me to get rid of the ego – because in every scripture Buddha goes on saying, ‘Drop the ego.’ I have been trying in every possible way, but everything fails.”
Bodhidharma said, ”I never say to anybody, ‘Drop the ego;’ I do it myself. You come early – four o’clock in the morning, alone, without your bodyguards, without your sword – to the temple I am staying in and I will finish your ego forever.”
The emperor could not sleep, thinking whether to go or not to go: ”The man seems to be crazy! How can somebody else destroy your ego? I have never heard of it, and I have been listening to so many mystics. They all say, ‘You have to do it yourself, nobody else can do it.’ This is the first man… and he seems to be so certain… and the way he looks and the way he talks, also create fear, and he has asked me to come alone – no bodyguards, no sword – at four o’clock, while it is still very dark; ‘Come, I will be waiting in the temple, and I will finish it forever.’”
He had been to wars, and he had never worried, but this man was creating great fear in him; he can do anything. He has a great staff in his hand; he might hit him or…”One never knows, because I will be alone. I have never been alone.” Many times he decided, ”Forget all about it,” but he could not sleep. At four o’clock, he had to go: the man had such charisma.
And as he arrived, Bodhidharma said, ”So finally you decided to come – and the whole night you wavered.”
Wu said, ”How do you know?”
Bodhidharma said, ”There is no question of knowing. Ego is such a phenomenon that if somebody promises to destroy it, it is going to create a great wavering in you: ‘To go to that man or not to go to that man?’ But you are courageous, and I am happy. Now sit down and close your eyes. And just try to find the ego, where it is. And the moment you catch hold of it – I am sitting in front of you with my staff – one hit and the ego will be finished.”
The Emperor Wu could not understand what to make of it. What was he saying? But there was no other way than to do what he was ordering. So he sat in front of him. For the first time in his life, with closed eyes, he tried to find the ego, knowing that Bodhidharma was sitting there with his staff – a dangerous man.
”And what does he mean that he will give one hit and it is finished? He ill finish me – or the ego?
But now whatever is going to happen is going to happen. It is better to give it a try.”
Wu looked all over inside: he could not find any ego anywhere. Ego is just imagination; it is not a reality, something that you can find. And as he was searching for the ego – and so totally, because that madman was sitting in front of him with his staff – thoughts stopped, time stopped. How two hours passed he had no idea, but he felt for the first time such a great silence, such peace.
As the sun was rising, his face was also lit with a new light. Bodhidharma shook him and told him, ”It is enough. You have not found it because it is not there. Those who have looked for it have never found it, and those who go on trying to find out how to drop it, how to get rid of it, how to be free of it, remain confined in the same prison, because they never look for it first. Before you start thinking of dropping something you should find out where it is. You cannot drop something which does not exist.”
Emperor Wu touched Bodhidharma’s feet and said, ”I am relieved of a burden that I thought was impossible to get rid of in this life, because those scriptures say it takes lives and lives to get rid of the ego – and you managed to finish it within seconds.”
Bodhidharma said, ”I have not finished it, it was not there. It has never been there – it was only your belief.”
Bodhidharma had his own way. Wu tried hard to persuade him to enter the empire. Bodhidharma said, ”You have missed – that chance you have missed; but you can always come to me. I will remain in this temple, and I will remain in the same position, sitting before a wall, facing the wall, and I will turn only when the right person comes to enquire. I am not interested in curiosity-mongers or in philosophers. Only if a real seeker comes, only then will Bodhidharma look at him, otherwise he is finished.”
