ONE HUNDRED TALES FOR TEN THOUSAND BUDDHAS by Ma Dharm Jyoti

Tale 21

     After His morning bath, Osho likes to have toast and tea for His breakfast. He is sitting on the sofa--a little table is placed before Him. He is wearing a white lunghi and the upper part of His body is Naked. He wraps a shawl around only when He goes out. He is looking so fresh and beautiful--like a pink rose in full bloom. I bring toast and tea on a tray, place it on the table and sit on the floor opposite Him. As I fill the cup with tea, He asks me, “Where is yours?”

     I say, “Osho, I don’t drink tea.”

     He laughs and says, “Meditation is not possible without drinking tea. Tea keeps the meditators awake” -- and tells me the story of Bodhidharma who plucked his eyelids and threw them away because he was feeling sleepy while meditating. The first tea leaves grew  from them.

     Seeing my reluctance to have tea, Osho fills the other cup and asks me to try it. I drink it slowly and like it and I tell Him it tastes really good. He gives me another cup and says, “One cup won’t do; you have to drink two cups every morning.”

     I ask Him, “How about if the cup is big?”

     He says, “ The size of the cup does not matter: two cups of tea every morning!”

     I ask Him, “What is the secret of two cups?”

     He says, “It is a  Zen koan for you!”

     Next morning, at breakfast, He asks me, “Did you find the answer to the Zen koan?”

     I say, “Maybe: one cup for me, and one in the name of my beloved.”

     He says, “You have come close to the answer but not exactly.”

     Every one present there enjoys this tea ceremony with much laughter.
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