Kassan said to his monks:
FIND ME IN THE TIPS OF A HUNDRED GRASSES.
RECOGNIZE THE PRINCE IN A NOISY MARKET!
These were Kassan's last words before he died: "Now you will not be able to find me here, in this body, but don't be sad - FIND ME IN THE TIPS OF A HUNDRED GRASSES."
Just look silently and deeply and you will find your master everywhere. The whole existence will become suffused with your master. And of course the moment a master dies, he makes the whole existence sacred for his disciples. In the stones they will touch him, in the flowers they will see his colors, in the rainbows they will see his beauty. A disciple becomes so deeply immersed in the consciousness of the master, that when the master's consciousness spreads all over existence, the disciple at least can see it. That's why in Zen when a master dies the disciples dance; they make a ceremony of it, because their master is freed from all boundaries of body and mind. This freedom of their master is an indication of their own freedom. This freedom has to be respected, recognized, through their ceremony, through their songs and dances.
#