Master’s Compassion
Sekito became a master of hundreds of people who became enlightened. He was a very hard master, almost dangerous to the disciples, but all his hardship came from a very loving heart, a very deep compassion. He wanted them to become enlightened, he did not allow them to escape. Once in a while a disciple might escape and Sekito would follow him for miles and pull him back, ”Where are you going? Come back!” And the disciple would say, ”Just forgive me, I am tired,” – because he would beat the disciples, he would jump on the disciples.
Once he threw a disciple from the window of a second-story building, and jumped on top of him. The disciple had multiple fractures, and Sekito was sitting on his chest asking, ”Got it?” And the disciple really got it, he became enlightened. Who cares about multiple fractures, the real thing is enlightenment. At any cost it has to happen! People have never come across a man like Sekito, whose compassion was so great. He was ready to do ANYthing. Even in his old age he would hit so hard that his own hand would hurt.
And disciples would say, ”You are getting old now, Master, you should not hit people so hard, because they are young and you are old. You are becoming every day more fragile.” He said, ”I know. My hand hurts the whole night, but I cannot see somebody groping in the darkness. If just one hit can make him awake, it does not matter if my hand hurts the whole night. Sooner or later these hands will disappear into the earth, but if these hands can help somebody to wake up…
You think I am getting old; that is true, but as far as I am concerned, even when I am dead if I see someone stumbling in the darkness I will jump out of my grave and hit him as hard as I can.” This man was a rare master, apparently very hard, deep down so soft that he was ready to jump out of his grave. My feeling is, if he had done that – he never has done that – just his skeleton would have made the person enlightened. There would not have been any need to hit. The person would have shouted immediately, ”Got it! You just go down.”
Source: “God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth” By Osho