The master of Kennin temple was Mokurai, Silent Thunder. He had a little protégé named Toyo who was only twelve years old. Toyo saw the older disciples visit the master’s room each morning and evening to receive instruction in sanzen or personal guidance in which they were given koans to stop mind-wandering. Toyo wished to do sanzen also.

“Wait a while,” said Mokurai. “You are too young.” But the child insisted, so the teacher finally consented.”

In the evening, little Toyo went at the proper time to the threshold of Mokurai’s sanzen room. He struck the gong to announce his presence, bowed respectfully three times outside the door, and went to sit before the master in respectful silence.

“You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together,” said Mokurai. “Now show me the sound of one hand.”

Toyo bowed and went to his room to consider this problem. From his window he could hear the music of the geishas. “Ah, I have it!” he proclaimed. The next evening, when his teacher asked him to illustrate the sound of one hand, Toyo began to play the music of the geishas.

“No, no,” said Mokurai. “That will never do. That is not the sound of one hand. You’ve not got it at all.”

Thinking that such music might interrupt, Toyo moved his abode to a quiet place. He meditated again. “What can the sound of one hand be?” He happened to hear some water dripping. “I have it,” imagined Toyo. When he next appeared before his teacher, he imitated dripping water.

“What is that?” asked Mokurai. “That is the sound of dripping water, but not the sound of one hand. Try again.”

In vain Toyo meditated to hear the sound of one hand. He heard the sighing of the wind. But the sound was rejected. He heard the cry of an owl. This was also refused. The sound of one hand was not the locusts. For more than ten times Toyo visited Mokurai with different sounds. All were wrong. For almost a year he pondered what the sound of one hand might be.

At last Toyo entered true meditation and transcended all sounds. “I could collect no more,” he humbly explained to the master, “so I reached the soundless sound.” Toyo had realized the sound of one hand.”

This listening is profoundly important. There is much more being said as we learn to listen to the tones through the basic intent of the Heart – it is a complete resonation to the state of our Being.

Much of what I offer as a teacher is wordless. My words merely point to the gaps and pauses between the words. It is in these simple spaces that the real meaning of my offerings can be heard. It takes great patience to master this art of watching and listening. When the mind is busy seeking what it desires through emotionality, very little can be heard or realized. But when we become silent, something extraordinary occurs…something otherworldly.

To achieve this there must be tone present within us, resonating and vibrating at a very subtle level as a focal point to position our attentions beyond the noise of the mind. The tones and the vibrations offered in the Meditations I offer must be carried into our daily living. We must let the tones live within us to sustain consciousness rather than fear and hate.

We must be more interested in the tone than we are in the thoughts that keep us living in fear and hate. We must step away from the personality and ego state that has ruled our entire lifetime, and be willing of silence in order to learn the language of Love. It can be done, but it requires a Heart filled with gratitude and compassion.

The more simple we are, the more profound the contrast between silence and noise becomes – the path to silence becomes clear through simplicity. All we need do is get simple. Eat simple food, clean our house in simplicity, speak only what needs to be spoken and stop worrying about what people think of us.

When we can maintain this inner sense of discipline, we will find that something changes within. A new attention will occur and we celebrate it by focusing our attentions all around it. We let go of everything that keeps us from being silent and l let silence and simplicity become our essence.

It is imperative that we understand there is no perfect environment for meditation. Meditation is simply developing space within where silence can exist without any conditions having to be met. Silence in meditation is about no longer being at odds with our thoughts.

When we see how split our mind is and how it has been used to cause war within our elements, we can cease the tragedies of our lifetime in one swift moment. Then the rest of our life will fall into place.

To awaken we must be willing to find the Silence of our meditation. It is only through this deep inner reservoir of consciousness that we awaken to the state of our Being and the essence of Love that constitutes WHAT we truly are. Love is beyond mind. Love is the “WHAT-NESS” of us all. When we are willing of inner silence and seek to preserve our efforts to live in these beautiful spaces, we suddenly realize we are THAT which the mind cannot think.