"The stone statue of buddha cannot deceive him. At the most, it looks like a man. It is not even a man: it does not breathe, it does not weep, it does not laugh. It is carved out of a stone; it is simply dead and will never laugh or cry or feel. How can it?

"Hyakujo said rightly, 'This certainly looks like a man; but I will not call it a buddha, because the very word buddha means awareness and this stone is not aware. I want to become a buddha afterwards – not like a stone statue but a dancing, a singing, a laughing, an alive buddha.'

"A buddha that cannot dance is not much of a buddha; a buddha is the very essence of silence and being. If you can be silent this evening, the opportunity is great. The whole sky is pouring around you with a single indication: 'Wake up, you have been asleep too long.'

"In this silence, that awakening is possible. In this silence, the stone buddha can start laughing, can start dancing, can start breathing. And remember: just as Hyakujo was not ready to worship a stone buddha, I am also against all worship. The worshipper is the worshipped; you don't have to worship anyone else.

"Your innermost being is the highest and the most precious, the most existential and conscious point. There is nothing higher than it. You need not worship, you can only meditate. And remember the difference between worship and meditation.

"The mother was saying, 'Worship, pray!' and Hyakujo, a young man, was saying, 'I want to be.' Prayer is always addressed to somebody else. Prayer is not religious; worship is not religious. Being fully aware and silent is the only way of knowing the taste of religion.

"This is a good opportunity. The clouds have come at the right time. Listen to the message of the rain. It simply is: just be like it. In a silent space, the dance of the rain, the whisper of the bamboosand you have come home.

Many years later, Hyakujo became a monk.
One day, as attendant to Baso

"a great master, one of the greatest after Mahakashyapa.

he went wandering in the mountains.
On his return he suddenly began to weep.

"