TALKS ON ZEN
About Isan
Isan was a great master as one can be, but he left behind him neither great scriptures nor great commentaries. He is a great master, but almost forgotten. Who remembers people who have not created great followings, who have not made organized religions, who have not chosen their successors, who have not made their religion a politics, a power in the material world? Isan did none of that. He simply lived silently. Of course thousands of disciples were attracted towards him, but it was not his fault. You cannot blame him for it – it was just the magnetic force that he had become by disappearing into enlightenment.
Our eyes are clouded with words, our minds full of doctrines and ideologies, our whole upbringing and education focused on how to leave the biggest footprints, how to leave our mark. Osho lures the inimitable Zen master Isan out of the obscurity of thirteen hundred years and illuminates his teaching: “To cut all this rubbish like a sword, in a single blow, without hesitation, and the whole sky is yours, the whole expanse of the universe is yours.”Isan No Footprints in the Blue Sky.
Isan No Footprints in the Blue Sky bevat Talks on Zen
In “Isan No Footprints in the Blue Sky” zegt Osho: De naam van deze serie talks geeft je een verwijzing naar wat voor soort mens Isan was. Hij was een zo groots mogelijke meester als men maar kan zijn, maar hij heeft geschriften noch commentaren nagelaten. Isan functioneerde precies zoals 
Boeddha gezegd heeft dat een authentieke meester moet functioneren – als een vogel in de blauwe hemel verdwijnen terwijl je geen sporen achter laat.”
Osho gaat door op de woorden van de grote meester Isan om het reeds lang bestaande mystieke inzicht erin te hameren dat, tenzij iemand even onschuldig is als hij sterft als toen hij geboren werd, hij de hele betekenis van het leven is misgelopen. Deze onschuld aan het eind van het leven is fundamenteel anders en komt voort uit een gezond, intelligent en meditatief geleid leven.
Osho legt uit dat we alleen door meditatie kunnen ervaren dat er nooit iets sterft en er nooit iets geboren wordt. Alles ontstaat uit dezelfde eeuwigheid.
ISAN NO FOOTPRINTS IN THE BLUE SKY, Talks on Zen
“The name of this series will give you an indication what kind of man Isan was. The title of the series is “Isan: No Footprints in the Blue Sky”. He was as great a master as one can be, but has left behind him neither great scriptures nor great commentaries. Isan functioned exactly as Buddha had said an authentic master would – to disappear in the blue sky like a bird, leaving no footprints.”
Osho expands on the words of the great Zen master Isan to hammer home the long-standing mystic understanding that unless a man is as innocent when he dies as when he was born, he has missed the whole significance of life. This innocence at the end of life is profoundly different and comes from having lived sanely, intelligently, and meditatively.
Osho explains that only through meditation can we experience that nothing ever dies and nothing is ever born. Everything comes and goes from the same eternity.
Het audiobook “Isan No Footprints in the Blue Sky” is verkrijgbaar via internet.
About Isan
Isan was a great master as one can be, but he left behind him neither great scriptures nor great commentaries. He is a great master, but almost forgotten. Who remembers people who have not 
created great followings, who have not made organized religions, who have not chosen their successors, who have not made their religion a politics, a power in the material world? Isan did none of that. He simply lived silently. Of course thousands of disciples were attracted towards him, but it was not his fault. You cannot blame him for it – it was just the magnetic force that he had become by disappearing into enlightenment.
Our eyes are clouded with words, our minds full of doctrines and ideologies, our whole upbringing and education focused on how to leave the biggest footprints, how to leave our mark. Osho lures the inimitable Zen master Isan out of the obscurity of thirteen hundred years and illuminates his teaching: “To cut all this rubbish like a sword, in a single blow, without hesitation, and the whole sky is yours, the whole expanse of the universe is yours.”Isan No Footprints in the Blue Sky.
“We have learned to do things, to go to bed, to get up early in the morning, to go to the job. Everything has been learned. Even a robot can do the whole process. You are not needed. And that′s exactly what has happened to humanity. It is a robot humanity. You have learned everything that is necessary and given it to your robot mind who goes on doing things on your behalf. And giving the charge to the mind you have gone to sleep.
“The whole effort of the buddhas is to bring out your consciousness and to make you clearly aware of the distinction between functioning consciousness and a pure consciousness which has no function, just a mirror. The mirror has no function, it has utility, but even while you are looking in the mirror, the mirror does not do anything. The reflection is spontaneous. Even if you don′t want the reflection, still it will reflect – and the mirror is not in need of you to stand before it.”The way Zen expresses it is this: The full moon shines in the lake. Neither the full moon desires to be reflected – but it is reflected – nor does the lake want to reflect it, but it does reflect it. Both are not at all doing any active work in this reflection. Both are just being themselves and the reflection comes on its own accord. You do your things and only in doing your things can you separate the functioning consciousness and the pure consciousness.”When you walk, do you know you are walking? When you are silent, are you aware that you are silent? When you are eating, is there any awareness standing by the side, watching your function of eating? That awareness is the great enlightenment. It has no function, it has no utility, it is not a means to some end. It is enough unto itself. It is such a contentment, such deep satisfaction with oneself and the cosmos, such a strong let-go, that you don′t have to do anything. Just being is more than you can have conceived – the joy of just being, the blissfulness of just being.”I pass every day Mukta′s pond, and those two swans are just twenty-four hours a day enjoying, doing nothing. And they look so dignified, so utterly contented… not even a shadow around them of any desire or any ambition, or of any position, of any success. All those are stupid things. They are enjoying every moment, just sitting in the pond. Isan No Footprints in the Blue Sky”A consciousness is just like what Basho calls, ′Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.′ What he is saying is, ′As far as I am concerned, I am not doing anything, neither am I desiring anything. The spring comes on its own accord, uninvited. The grass starts growing without any effort on my part. I am just a watcher, sitting silently, doing nothing.”This non-doing awareness, which has no function in the world but is simply a blissfulness, an ecstasy, a drunkenness utterly centered in the present moment… That is the whole idea of the buddhas: to make you aware that something is hiding inside you. But because it is of no use, you don′t care about it.” Osho,Isan No Footprints in the Blue Sky