Is the moon round?

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Kyozan was looking at the moon together with Sekishitsu and asked him, 'Where does the roundness of the moon go when it becomes sharp, crescent?' Sekishitsu said, 'When it is sharp, the roundness is still there.' When it is round, it is still sharp. Nothing goes anywhere. Sometimes it is manifest, sometimes it is unmanifest, but it is always here — just like the moon itself.

A day comes when the whole moon disappears. And on the first day of the moon, it is just a small arc; it shows only for a few minutes and then is gone. But the moon as such is always there.

Sometimes the sun reflects only a part of it. Sometimes the sun reflects the whole of it. But ...it is always there.

You are standing before a mirror, if the mirror disappears, do you disappear?.. The truth is in you, unreflected. You don't need a lamp to go inside, because inside you… is something like twilight when the sun sets and the night has not come… sandhya… mystics use it as an indication of the quantum leap when you move from the mind to no-mind.

This anecdote says that the moon remains itself, whether it is known or not known… You are the moon. It is your freedom to know yourself or to remain ignorant. Nobody can force you to be enlightened and nobody can force you to be unenlightened.

It is just your moon. Just a small moment of silent watching — and the explosion. Abridged from Zen: The Solitary Bird, Cuckoo Of The Forest, courtesy: Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com