“Sitting silently, doing
nothing,
the spring comes and the grass goes by itself.”
This is one of the most popular Haikus of Zen. Haiku is an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three or four lines containing usually five, seven and five syllables respectively. Haiku is not poetry in the sense it is understood by intellectuals. Its format is poetic, but what it contains is an expression of reality. They are often inspired by an element of nature, a moment of beauty or a poignant experience.
The Zen monks have a remarkable talent at expressing nature perceived through the five senses in a meditative state.
While meditating they open their eyes and what is mirrored in their heart is expressed aesthetically.
Osho calls these Haikus “paintings in words.” And they indeed are! You can visualise the landscape described in the poetry. Coming from a silent heart, the silence in these words seeps into your pores and you are transported to the mountain or to the forest wherever these monks were sitting.
Haikus have to be decoded to understand the deeper meaning of the words. Osho decodes each word of this haiku and unravels the mystery of this poem.
“Sitting silently”: It starts with the body. If the body can sit restfully, relaxed, it helps immensely for the mind to become silent. If the body is restless, tense, then the mind cannot be silent. So the haiku is starting from the very foundation: sitting. If you have not tried already, try sitting silently doing nothing, and you will understand how difficult it is to do so for the modern mind.
“Doing nothing” means having no thoughts. The body should be non-tense, and the mind should be without any thought. Even the idea that you are doing meditation is a disturbance, because every “doing” makes the mind active. Mind can remain passive only when you are in a state of non-doing. You are enjoying the peace that comes on its own, it is not your doing.
You have to wait for the spring to come, you cannot bring it; you cannot manufacture it. Just as the outside spring comes, the inner spring also comes. There are inner seasons of life. And when the spring comes to your inner world, as if thousands of flowers open up. The inner world becomes a music unto itself and then the grass grows by itself.
By “the grass” indicates your life; your life force. Green is the symbol for living. When spring comes, everything becomes green. And once you have experienced this phenomenon, you have known the greatest secret that there are things which you cannot do, but can only allow to happen. This is the essence of meditation.
Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune.
She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.
