WHEN BASHO WAS OUT WALKING WITH HYAKUJO HE SAW A WILD DUCK FLY PAST.
BASHO SAID, "WHAT IS IT?"
HYAKUJO SAID, "IT IS A WILD DUCK."
BASHO SAID, "WHERE IS IT?"
HYAKUJO SAID, "IT HAS FLOWN AWAY."
BASHO AT LAST GAVE HYAKUJO'S NOSE A SHARP PINCH. HYAKUJO CRIED OUT WITH PAIN.
BASHO SAID, "THERE, HOW CAN IT FLY AWAY?"
SETCHO SAYS:
THE WILD DUCK! WHAT, HOW AND WHERE?
BASHO HAS SEEN, TALKED, TAUGHT AND EXHAUSTED THE MEANING OF MOUNTAIN CLOUDS AND MOONLIT SEAS.
BUT JO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND -- "HAS FLOWN AWAY."
FLOWN AWAY? NO, HE IS BROUGHT BACK! SAY! SAY!

OSHO,
BASHO IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN THE FIRST ZEN MASTER TO USE HITS, PINCHES, SHOUTS AND PUSHES TO BRING A DISCIPLE TO THE PRESENT. BUT SUCH METHODS LEAVE THEMSELVES OPEN TO ABUSE AND TO BECOMING SIMPLY A TRADITION.
YOU SEEM TO DEVISE A DIFFERENT METHOD EVERY DAY TO OUTSMART US.
YOU ARE ALWAYS AT LEAST ONE STEP AHEAD OF US!
WHAT DO YOU SAY?

Maneesha, before Zen master Niskriya takes care of you, I would like to answer this beautiful anecdote.... Basho has tremendous respect in my heart. He is not only a mystic, a master, he is also a poet, a painter, a sculptor; he is a creative phenomenon. Nobody can compare with him as far as his multidimensional personality is concerned.
Bodhidharma is the greatest peak but he is onedimensional. Basho is not that great a peak but he has a different quality of greatness that is his multidimensionality. Just as Bodhidharma is unique so is Basho. His statements have to be listened to very carefully. He speaks as Basho should speak -- he is the very essence of Zen.
If Bodhidharma is the founder then Basho is the flower. He has the fragrance which only a flower can have. That fragrance is manifested in his poetry, in his small statements, in his every gesture. Even in his ordinary talks with people he cannot be other than Basho.
This small anecdote would have been forgotten if Basho were not there. There is nothing new in it but Basho gives it new meaning. There is nothing philosophical or mystical in it, but Basho makes it a mystery. You will have to be very silently aware to see what a great master is....
Bodhidharma is very raw. He smells of the earth when the first rain clouds come -- and a beautiful smell out of the earth. Basho is far more refined, perhaps the most refined Zen master up to now. His refinement is in his cultured, meditative spaciousness. Out of that spaciousness many flowers have showered on the world. It does not matter wherever he is and whatever is going on, Basho is going to make it a Zen state of affairs. That uniqueness will not be found again.
Just think of this Hyakujo and a wild duck....
WHEN BASHO WAS OUT WALKING WITH HYAKUJO HE SAW A WILD DUCK FLYING PAST.
BASHO SAID, "WHAT IS IT?"
Certainly the question is not about the wild duck, because Basho is not blind. Hyakujo is far behind in spiritual growth; he is not yet a master. Not even a perfect disciple. He has some intellectual sophistication, but even he missed it. He missed it because he must have thought that Basho had not seen that it is a wild duck.
Basho is not asking about the wild duck at all. He is not asking about the form but the essence.
WHAT IS IT? He is not asking about the past or the present but that which transcends time.

HYAKUJO SAID, "IT IS A WILD DUCK."

Perfectly factual, perfectly right -- but not in the eyes of a man like Basho.
BASHO SAID, "WHERE IS IT?" He gives another chance to Hyakujo and he again misses it.

HYAKUJO SAID, "IT HAS FLOWN AWAY."
BASHO AT LAST GAVE HYAKUJO'S NOSE A SHARP PINCH. HYAKUJO CRIED OUT WITH PAIN.
BASHO SAID, "THERE, HOW CAN IT FLY AWAY?"

So much is implied in this small conversation. First, as we conceive time and as it is in the eyes of the awakened, is not the same.
For us time passes by.
For the awakened one you pass by.
Time is always present. It never goes anywhere.
It is always now and here.
Have you ever met the past? Yes, you have imagined, dreamt about it. But your dreaming about the past is not the past; your imagination is not the reality. Where is the future? -- except in your desires and in your longings and in your passions, where is the future? And these longings and desires and greed and ambitions are part of your mind. They are not part of time.
For a man whose desires have disappeared, whose greed is no longer there, do you think there will be even a slight shadow of tomorrow? With the desires and longings going away the future dies, and with the memories and imaginations and the dreams dropping, the past disappears. Then what remains in your hands? You cannot even call it present, because present is possible only if there is something past and something future. In that context the present is the middle, but if the future disappears and the past dies, the present cannot live. The present is also part of your mind.
Your mind is time.
And when times ceases, your mind ceases.
Then you simply are.
You have to understand this background, then only will you be able to see Basho's tremendous insight into things, transforming small experiences into great metaphysical truths.
As he saw the wild duck fly past Basho said, "WHAT IS IT?"
He is not asking about the wild duck, he is asking about it -- and the it contains the whole existence. But obviously anybody who understands only language and knows nothing about that which is beyond language, will agree with Hyakujo.
HYAKUJO SAID, "IT IS A WILD DUCK." But he has not understood that Basho would not ask about the wild duck -- he can see it himself. He is asking about it, another name of existence. "WHAT IS IT?" The wild duck is just an excuse to raise the question: What is existence? Existence is not a wild duck, although a wild duck is part of existence -- but existence is far bigger.
The it of Basho contains the totality; the poor wild duck is not even a dewdrop in the ocean. But he gives another chance to Hyakujo to understand that his question is not directed about the wild duck.
…
please read further in chapter 4 of Live Zen