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ZEN: THE PATH OF PARADOX
VOL. 2
Chapter 8: There is No Back of this Book
Question 5
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 2
Question 5
WHY IS IT SAID THAT LIFE IS STRANGER THAN FICTION?
Because it is. Fictions are by-products of life; how can they be MORE strange than life? Fictions are just shadows of life; how can they be more strange than life itself? Fictions are man-made, and life is God-made. Whatsoever man can do will have limitations; whatsoever God makes is unlimited, infinite.
Man can create a strange fiction, but he cannot create a real mystery. Even the strangest fiction that man can create will remain man's product. You can get intrigued with it once, or at the most twice, or, if you are very dull, at the most thrice. Even the dullest person cannot go to see the same movie a fourth time. Then it is no longer strange.
But life is like a Zen koan; it has no answer. It is a question-mark, and it remains a question-mark, and the more you inquire into it, the bigger becomes the question-mark. The more you know about it, the less you know. One day, when you have really known it, you declare your utter ignorance. That's what Socrates does when he says, 'I don't know a thing.' That's what the Upanishads say: 'The man who thinks he knows, does not know. And the man who says he does not know, he is the knower -- follow him, go with him, keep track of him, don't allow him to escape. He has the key -- the man who says, "I don't know."'
Why? What is the point of these declarations? The point is, when you really know life, suddenly it is revealed to you, that how can you know? Life is a mystery; it has no solution. And every day, in many ways, you come across this riddle. But because you have become a knowledgeable person you don't see those riddles. You keep on repeating some dull answers which are meaningless, pointless.
D. H. Lawrence was walking in a garden with a small boy, and the boy asked, 'Tell me, sir, why are the trees green?' Now, if there was some scientist, some foolish scientist, he would have said, 'Because of the chlorophyll, ' or something like that. But Lawrence is not a scientist, and not a foolish man at all. He is one of the great mystics the West has produced, but is not KNOWN as a mystic. One of the great tantrikas the West has produced, but is not known as a tantrika.
If you were not a scientist, an ordinary person, you would have felt embarrassed. You would have answered something or other, or you would have forced the child to keep quiet. You would have said, 'When you grow up, you will know.' That's what fathers go on doing. Neither they know, nor their fathers nor their fathers' fathers -- and they go on saying, 'When you become a grown-up person you will know. Don't disturb me.'
But D. H. Lawrence is an authentic man. He looked into the child's eyes and he said, 'They are green because they are green.' He is saying there is no answer. 'I am ignorant' he is saying -- 'I am as ignorant as you are.'
And don't think for even a single moment that if you come across God and you ask him why the trees are green.... He will also shrug his shoulders, I tell you. He will not be able to answer you, because he is not a school master.
Once it happened, a great poet, Coleridge, wrote a small poem. A child from the neighbourhood came, because the poem was being taught in the school, and the teacher was finding difficulties in explaining it. So the teacher said to the child, 'You live just next door to this poet -- you go to him. He must know what his poem means.'
And Coleridge looked into the child's eyes and said, 'Yes, when I wrote it, two persons knew what it means -- but now only one knows.' The child said, 'Who is that one? That one must be you!' And the poet laughed, and he said, 'I am not that one. When I wrote this poem, I and God knew the meaning. Now only God knows.'
And I tell you not even God knows. Knowledge is so foolish, God cannot be thought of as knowledgeable. God is not a pundit, not a scholar, God is a lover. God himself is a poet. He sings a song, but you cannot expect him to know the meaning of it. He creates beautiful flowers, but you cannot expect to know the meaning of them. In fact there is no meaning.
Once you know the meaning of something then it is no more meaningful. Let me repeat it: Once you know the meaning of anything then it is no more meaningful, then it loses all meaning. The day you know what love is, love becomes meaningless. You can know the chemistry of the love -- hormones and chemicals and this and that -- and then love is finished.
Anything, the moment you know the meaning of it, becomes meaningless. God himself is the meaning, but he does not know what the meaning is. This is the mystery of life. You will come across it every day, if you are a little more sensitive. Knowledge makes people insensitive -- knowledge makes them such dullards that they go on carrying in their heads much knowledge. And their knowledge is nothing but labelling.
There is a flower blooming, and somebody asks, 'What is it?' And you say, 'A rose.' And you think you have answered? Is this the answer? By calling it a name, by labelling a certain mystery in life, do you think you know? Just by saying it is a rose, what have you said? You have not said a single word about the rose. The rose has no name, it is just a way of classifying it -- utilitarian. But what do you mean by calling it a rose? You can call it by another name, and the rose will remain the rose. So the name is not the rose. Then what is it? Just by calling it a name, you are befooled. You think you know; you have labelled it. Labelling is not knowing -- and your so-called science goes on just labelling.
If you go into the world of the scientist, his work is labelling. He goes on labelling. The more labels he puts on reality, the greater the scientist he becomes, the greater he becomes. And then we go on throwing those labels at children's heads, and tell them to cram them, so they become knowers.
A rose is such a great mystery. Tennyson has said, 'If I could understand a flower, root and all, I would have understood the whole existence.' Yes, in a small flower the whole existence is involved -- by knowing a small flower, you will know the whole of it. Or, unless you know the whole of it, you cannot even know the part -- the whole and part are so together.
That's why it is said that life is stranger than fiction. Life comes from God; the very source is mysterious. Life is a riddle, and a riddle with no solution. It is not like a riddle you find in your magazines or in your books -- at the back of the book the answer is given. There is no back of this book. Mm? You can go on and on looking for the answer, but there is no written answer anywhere.
Listen to these few stories.
There's eight bubbleboys, with long hair, coming into a road-side cafe, and they see this fellow at a table. He's got a cup of coffee and a plate full of egg and bacon and sausages. Well, they go over to him, all eight of them, and just start messing him about. The first one pours coffee over his head, the second picks up his sausages with a fork and rams them in his eyes, the third one crashes the plate over his head, the fourth one shoves bacon in his ear, and the fifth one says, 'Oh, we'd better leave him now and get ourselves something to eat and drink.'
So they go over to the man that's serving and say, 'He isn't much of a man to stick up for himself, is he?'
And the man that's serving says, 'No, and he's not a very good driver either. He's just run over eight motorbikes.'
Life is more like fiction. Strange things happen in life.
There was once a man, and a woman who had a dog. They were travelling in the same compartment in the train. The man started to smoke and the dog began to cough. The lady said, 'If you don't stop smoking I'll throw your cigarette out of the window.' The man didn't stop smoking, so the lady took his cigarette and threw it out of the window. Then the man took out another cigarette and started smoking again. The dog began to cough again. The lady said, 'If you don't stop smoking I'll throw your cigarette out of the window again.'
So the man said, 'If you throw my cigarette out of the window again, I'll throw your dog out of the window too,' and carried on smoking. So the lady took his cigarette and threw it out of the window. The man took the dog and threw it out of the window.
When they reached the next station the dog was there waiting for the train. And what do you think it had in its mouth? The cigarette.
Or this third one.
Aunt Mildred decided to buy a parrot to keep her company. The local pet shop had a good selection, but one bird with bright green and blue feathers immediately caught her attention as the pick of the bunch. Curiously enough, the shopkeeper seemed reluctant to sell it.
'I don't think he's really Madam's sort of parrot,' he explained evasively.
'Why on earth not?'
'He doesn't come from a very nice home. Now, if Madam would care to step this way, I think I have just the bird....'
'But I don't like any of those, I want this one,' Mildred insisted.
'Very well, Madam.' Noting the glint of determination in Mildred's eye, the shopkeeper sold her the bird and an expensive wrought-iron cage to go with it.
Mildred installed the parrot in her sitting-room and waited breathlessly for his first words. The parrot flapped his wings, looked around the house, and said, 'New house. Very nice.' Mildred was delighted.
At half-past four Mildred's two teenage daughters came back from school. The parrot cocked an eye at them and said, 'New girls. Very nice.'
Mildred clapped her hands with joy. Not only was the parrot such a magnificent specimen, but he had perfect manners. No wonder the man at the pet store hadn't wanted to part with him!
At half-past five her husband Henry returned from the office. The parrot skittered to the front of his cage and said, 'New house. New girls. Same old customer. How are you, Henry?'
Life certainly is more strange than fictions.
Next: Chapter 8: There is No Back of this Book, Question 6
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 2
| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
|
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