What is god? What is god. .
. today? The answer is money.
I studied under a Zen master for 5 years in Mexico. He is one of the five honest people I've met in my life. He is a Japanese who immigrated to Mexico.
He changed my life. My movie El Topo (The Mole) was influenced by him. Coming to Japan makes me remember him.
Once, he explained to me what it is to be a Zen master. He told me of a Zen master who had to give a speech. The Zen master sat down, and just as he was about to begin his speech, a bird began to sing.
The Zen master sat silently and listened to the bird sing its song. When the bird finished singing, the Zen master said that was his speech, and left. There aren't any little birds singing here.
If there were, I would get up and leave. Since there aren't any birds I'm going to have to sing. When I heard this story, I asked myself what it means.
The bird in the story wasn't saying anything. It was just singing naturally. So I'll do the same.
I'm singing right now. I'm singing what I am capable of singing. What would you sing?
Firstly, when the dark clouds of words are gone with the wind, your soul sings in the silence. Words are filled with intellect. When there are no words in my mind, my mind sings.
When there are no negative feelings in my heart, my heart sings. When there are no distressed feelings in my sex, my sex sings. When my body isn't performing useless actions like it is now, my body sings.
I am my mind, my heart, my sex, my body, and my soul. The soul also sings. When it is free.
When it doesn't have a name. When it doesn't have an age. When it doesn't have a nationality.
When it doesn't have definitions. That's a bird that sings or a soul that sings. My mind wants to know more.
Because everything is constantly changing. My heart, it wants to belong more. To be more attached to reality.
My sex wants to create more. To create is to give. And my body, it wants to live more.
You too can feel the beauty and joy of the bird's song. When the bird is singing in the tree, it is in the tree. If it is not in the tree, it is nowhere.
When you're here, you're completely here. You're here, not anywhere else. So, here I see minds with no limits.
Hearts with no criticism. Creative sexes, and bodies that do not do useless things. In our lives, the most useless things are hope and fear.
When they think, "I want something I don't have," or "I'm afraid of losing what I have," people are full of fear. Sitting here with no hopes and fears, means that we are good. What is god?
What is god. . .
today? Money. Yes, God has many names, like Jehovah, Christ, and Mohammed.
The money god also has many names, like dollar, peso, or yuan. But it's the same. It's the need to survive in our society.
The need to survive in our society in the technical sense. But joy, the joy of the bird with its song, isn't about money or technical things. However, without money or technical things, there is no joy.
So, life is like a river. Without hope or fear, you jump into this river. You work to make money.
You work to make money not so you can have things. The money you make is used to develop your spirit. The necessary amount.
That's all the money you need to make. That's all you need. Just that will decrease the fear that makes us too ambitious.
It will decrease the hope that makes us believe in our possessions. Understand that money is a divinity that you have to share. If I have money, and you don't, I will share it.
If I have food and I don't share it with everyone, then I don't eat it. If I shut myself away, I'm not living. We must open ourselves.
We must connect to others with love. My goal in life is the same as the goal of everyone else. If we all shut ourselves away in our shells, we are destroying the planet.
If we shut ourselves in a name, in an age, in a nationality, in prejudices or old false ideas, we are destroying the planet. What else is there? That's it.
I'm not a Zen master. If I were a Zen master, I would make you levitate. I would have a missing arm.
You wouldn't be like this. And I'd be like this. Why?
Because the first Dharma disciple cut off his own arm to make his master listen to him. That's why Zen was transmitted by a person that was missing an arm. I'm always thinking about what would happen if I cut off my arms and legs.
If my head got cut off, it would fall with a smile. That's my understanding of Zen.
