The mad man>>>>>>> doing miracles.....

This is the story of Bodhidharma meeting with the Chinese emperor Wu- a very strange meeting, very fruitful. Emperor Wu perhaps was at that time the greatest emperor in the world; he ruled all over China, Mongolia, Korea, the whole of Asia except India. He became convinced of the truth of Gautam Buddha's teachings, but the people who had brought the message of Buddha were only scholars. None of them were mystics. And then the news came that Bodhidharma was coming, and there was a great anticipation all over the land. Emperor Wu had become influenced by Gautam Buddha, and that meant that his whole empire was influenced by the same teaching. Now a real mystic, a buddha, was coming. It was such a great joy!

Emperor Wu had never before gone to the boundaries where India and China meet to receive anyone. With great respect he welcomed Bodhidharma, and he said, "I have been asking all the monks and the scholars who have been coming, but nobody has been of any help - I have tried everything. How to get rid of this self? Because Buddha says that unless you become a no-self, your misery cannot end."

He was sincere. Bodhidharma looked into his eyes, and he said, "I will be staying by the side of the river in the temple near the mountain. Tomorrow, at 4 o'clock in the morning exactly, you come and I will finish this self forever. But remember, you are not to bring ant arms with you, don't bring any guards with you; you have to come alone."

Wu was a little worried - the man strange! "How can he just destroy my self so quickly? It has been said by the scholars that it takes lives and lives of meditation; only then the self disappears. This man is weird! And he wants to meet me in the darkness, early in the morning at 4 o' clock, alone, without even a sword, no guards, no other companion? This man seems to be strange - he could do anything. And what does he mean that he will finish the self forever? He can Kill me, but how will he kill the self?

The whole night Emeror Wu could not sleep. He changed his mind again and again - to go or not to go? But there was something in Bodhidharma's eyes, there was something in his voice, and there was some aura of authority when he said, "just come at 4 o'clock sharp, and I will finish this self forever! You need not be worried about it." What he had said sound absurd, but the way he said it and the way he looked were so authoritative: He knows what he is saying. Finally Wu had to decide to go. He decided to risk it - "At the most he can kill me - what else? And I have tried everything. I cannot attain this no-self, and without attaining this no-self there is no end to my misery."

He knocked on the temple door, and Bodhidharma said, "I knew you would come; I knew that the whole night you would be changing your mind. But that does not matter - you have come. Now sit down in the lotus posture, close your eyes, and I am going to sit in front of you. The moment you find your self inside, catch hold of it so I can kill it. Just catch hold of it tightly and tell me that you have caught it, and I will kill it and it will be finished. It is a question of minutes." Wu was a little afraid.

Wu was a little afraid. Bodhidharma looked like a madman - he has been depicted as a madman, although he was not like that. The paintings are symbolic. Thats the impression he must have left on people. It was not his real face, but that must be the face that people have remembered. He was sitting with his big staff in front of Wu, and he said to him, " don't wait even for a second. Just the moment you catch hold of it - search inside every nook and cranny- open your eyes and then tell me that you have caught it, and I will finish it."

Then there was silence. One hour passed, two hours passed. Finally the sun was rising, and Wu was a different man. In those two hours, he looked inside, in every nook and cranny. He had to look- that man was sitting there; he could have hit him on the head with his staff. You could expect anything, whatever, Bodhidharma was not a man of etiquette, manners; he was not part of Wu's court. So had to look intently, intensively. And as he looked, he became relaxed... because it was no where! And as he looked for it, all thoughts disappeared. The search was so intense that his whole energy was involved in it; there was nothing left to think and desire, and this and that.

As the sun was rising Bodhidharma saw Wu's face; he was not the same man - such silence, such depth. He had disappeared.

Bodhidharma shook him and told him, "Open your eyes - it is not there. I don't have to kill it. I am a non-violent man, I don't kill anything! But this self does not exist. Because you never look for it, it goes on existing. It exists only in your not looking for it, in your unawareness. Now it is gone."

Two hours had passed and Wu was immensely glad. He had never tasted such sweetness, such freshness, such newness, such beauty. And he was not. Bodhidharma had fulfilled his promise. Emperor Wu bowed down, touched his feet, and said, "please forgive me for thinking that you are mad, thinking that you don't know manners, thinking that you are weird, thinking that you can be dangerous. I have never seen a more compassionate man than you... I am totally fulfilled. Now there is no question in me."

Emperor Wu said that when he dies, on his grave, Bodhidharma's statement should be engraved in gold, so that people in centuries to come would know..." there was a man who looked mad, but who was capable of doing miracles. Without doing anything he helped me to be a no-self. And since then everything has changed. Every thing is the same but I am not the same and life has become just a pure song of silence."

Source: The happiness that comes from within - JOY by OSHO.