BELOVED OSHO,

THE STUDENT DOKO CAME TO THE MASTER AND SAID,

"IN WHAT STATE OF MIND SHOULD I SEEK THE TRUTH?",

THE MASTER REPLIED, " THERE IS NO MIND, SO YOU CANNOT PUT IT IN ANY STATE, AND THERE IS NO TRUTH, SO YOU CANNOT SEEK IT."

DOKO SAID, "IF THERE IS NO MIND AND NO TRUTH, WHY DO ALL THESE STUDENTS GATHER BEFORE YOU EVERY DAY TO STUDY?"

THE MASTER LOOKED AROUND AND SAID, "I DON'T SEE ANYONE."

THE INQUIRER ASKED, "THEN WHO ARE YOU TEACHING?"

"I HAVE NO TONGUE, SO HOW CAN I TEACH?", REPLIED THE MASTER.

THEN DOKO SAID SADLY, "I CANNOT FOLLOW YOU; I CANNOT UNDERSTAND."

THE MASTER SAID, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND MYSELF."

Life is such a mystery, no one can understand it, and one who claims that he understands it is simply ignorant. He is not aware of what he is saying, of what nonsense he is talking. If you are wise, this will be the first realization: life cannot be understood. Understanding is impossible. Only this much can be understood --  that understanding is impossible. That is what this beautiful Zen anecdote says.

The master says, " I don't understand it myself." If you go and ask the enlightened ones this will be their answer. But if you go and ask the unenlightened ones they will give you many answers, they will propose many doctrines; they will try to solve the mystery which cannot be solved. It is not a riddle. A riddle can be solved, a mystery is unsolvable by its very nature- there is no way to solve it. Socrates said, "When I was young, I thought I knew much. When I became old, ripe in wisdom, I came to understand that I knew nothing."

It is reported of one of the Sufi masters, Junnaid, that he was working with a new young man. The young man was not aware of Junnaid's inner wisdom, and Junnaid lived such an ordinary life that it needed very penetrating eyes to realize that you were near a buddha. He worked like an ordinary laborer, and only those who had eyes would recognise him. To recognise Buddha was very easy --  he was sitting under a Bodhi tree; to recognise Junnaid was very difficult --  he was working like a laborer, not sitting under a Bodhi tree. He was in every way absolutely ordinary.

One young man working with him, and that young man was continually showing his knowledge, so whatsoever Junnaid would do, he would say, "This is wrong. This can be done in this way, it will be better" -he knew about erverything. Finally Junnaid laughed and said:," Young man, I am not young enough to know so much."

This is really something. He said, "I am not young enough to know so much." Only a young man can be so foolish, so inexperienced. Socrates was right when he said, "When I was young, I knew too much. When I became ripened, experienced, I came to realize only one thing --  that I was absolutely ignorant."

Life is a mystery; that means it cannot be solved. And when all efforts to solve it prove futile, the mystery dawns upon you. Then the doors are open; then you are invited. As a knower, nobody enters the divine; as a child, ignorant, not knowing at all- the mystery embraces you. With a knowing mind you are clever, not innocent. Innocence is the door.

This Zen master was right when he said, "I don't understand it myself." It was very deep, really deep, the deepest answer possible. But this is the last part of the anecdote. Start from the very beginning.... The disciple came to the Zen master and said, "In what state of mind should I seek the truth?" The master said, "There is no mind so there cannot be any state of mind."

Mind is the illusion that which is not but appears, and appears so much that you think that you are the mind. Mind is maya, mind is just a dream, mind is just a projection... a soap bubble floating on a river. The sun is just rising, the rays penetrate the bubble; a rainbow is created and nothing is there in it. When you touch the bubble it is broken and everything disappears --  the rainbow, the beauty- mothing is left. Only emptiness becomes one with the infinite emptiness. Just a wall was there, a bubble wall. Your mind is just a bubble wall --  inside, your emptiness; outside, my emptiness. It is just a bubble, prick it, and the mind disappears.

The master said, "There is no mind, so what type of state are you asking about?" It is difficult to understand. People come to me and they say, "We would like to attain a silent state of mind." They think that the mind can be silent; mind can never be silent. Mind means the turmoil, the illness, the disease; mind means the tense, the anguished state. The mind cannot be silent; when there is silence there is no mind. When silence comes, mind disappears; when mind is there, silence is no more. So there cannot be any silent mind, just as there cannot be any healthy disease. Is it possible to have a healthy disease? When health is there, disease disappears. Silence is the inner health; mind is the inner disease, inner disturbance.

So there cannot be any silent mind, and this disciple is asking, "What type, what sort, what state of mind should I achieve?" Point blank, the master said, "There is no mind, so you cannot achieve any state." So please drop this illusion; don't try to achieve any state in the illusion. It's as if you are thinking to travel on the rainbow and you ask me, "What steps should we take to travel on the rainbow?" I say, "There is no rainbow. The rainbow is just an appearance, so no steps can be taken." A rainbow simply appears; it is not there. It is not a reality, it is a false interpretation of the reality.

The mind is not your reality; it is a false interpretation. You are not the mind, you have never been a mind, you can never be the mind. That is your problem- you have become identified with something which is not. You are like a beggar who believes that he has a kingdom. He is so worried about the kingdom -- how to manage it, how to govern it, how to prevent anarchy. There is no kingdom, but he is worried.

Chuang Tzu once dreamt that he had become a butterfly. In the morning he was very much depressed. His friends asked, "What has happened?.- we have never seen you so depressed." Chuang Tzu said, "I am in a puzzle, I am at a loss, I cannot understand. In the night, while asleep, I dreamt that I had become a butterfly."

So the friends laughed: "Nobody is ever disturbed by dreams. When you awake, the dream has disappeared, so why are you disturbed?"

Chuang Tzu said, "That is not the point. Now I am puzzled: if Chuang Tzu can become a butterfly in the dream, it is possible that now the butterfly has gone to sleep and is dreaming that she is Chuang Tzu." If Chuang Tzu can become a butterfly in the dream, why not the other? - the butterfly can dream and become Chuang Tzu. So what is real --  whether Chuang Tzu dreamt that he has become a butterfly or the butterfly is dreaming that she has become Chuang Tzu?  What is real? Rainbows are there. You can become a butterfly in the dream. And you have become a mind in this bigger dream you call life. When you awaken you don't achieve an awakened state of mind, you achieve a no-state of mind, you achieve no-mind.

What does no-mind mean? It is difficult to follow but sometimes, unknowingly, you have achieved it, but you may not have recognized it. Sometimes, just sitting ordinarily, not doing anything, there is no thought in the mind --  for mind is just the process of thinking. It is not a substance, it is just a procession. You are here, I can say a crowd is here, but is there really something like a crowd? Is a crowd substantial or are only individuals there? By and by individuals will go away, then will there be a crowd left behind? When individuals have gone, there is no crowd.

The mind is just like a crowd; thoughts are the individuals. And because thoughts are there continuously you think the process is substantial. Drop each individual thought and finally nothing is left. There is no mind as such, only thinking.

But thoughts are moving so fast, that between two thoughts you cannot see the interval. But the interval is always there. That interval is you. In that interval there is neither Chuang Tzu nor the butterfly --  for the butterfly is a sort of mind and Chuang Tzu is also a sort of mind. A butterfly is a different combination of thoughts, Chuang Tzu again a different combination, but both are minds. When the mind is not there, who are you --  Chuang Tzu or a butterfly? Neither. And what is the state? Are you in an enlightened state of mind? If you think you are in an enlightened state of mind this is, again, a thought, and when thought is there you are not. If you feel that you are a buddha, this is a thought. The mind has entered; now the process is there, again the sky is clouded, the blueness lost. The infinite blueness you can see no more.

Between two thoughts try to be alert; look into the interval, the space in between. You will see no mind; that is your nature. For thoughts come and go --  they are accidental --  but that inner space always remains. Clouds gather and go, disappear --  they are accidental --  but the sky remains.You are the sky.

Once it happened that a seeker came to Bayazid, one Sufi mystic, and asked, "Master, I am a very angry person. Anger happens to me very easily; I become really mad and I do things. I cannot even believe later on that I can do such things; I am not in my senses. So, how to drop this anger,  how to overcome it, how to control it?"

Bayazid took the head of the disciple in his hands and looked into his eyes. The disciple became a little uneasy, and Bayazid said, "Where is that anger? I would like to see into it.

The disciple laughed uneasily and said, "Right now, I am not angry. Sometimes it happens." So Bayazid said, "That which happens sometimes cannot be your nature. It is an accident, It comes and goes. It is like clouds -- so why be worried about the clouds? Think of the sky which is always there."

This is the definition of Atma --  the sky which is always there. All that comes and goes is irrelevant; don't be bothered by it, it is just smoke. The sky that remains eternally there never changes, never becomes different. Between two thoughts, drop into it; between two thoughts it is always there. Look into it and suddenly you will realize that you are in no-mind.

The master was right when he said, "There is no mind, so there cannot be any state of mind. What nonsense are you talking?"

But the nonsense has its own logic. If you think that you have a mind, you will start thinking in terms of states --  an ignorant state of mind, an enlightened state of mind. Once you accept mind, the illusory, you are bound to go on dividing it. And once you accept that the mind is there, you will start seeking something or other.

The mind can exist only if you continuously seek something. Why? It is because seeking is desire, seeking is moving into the future, seeking creates dreams. So somebody is seeking power, politics, somebody is seeking riches, kingdoms, and then somebody is seeking the truth. But seeking is there and seeking is the problem, not what you are seeking. The object is never the problem, any object will do. The mind can hang on to any object, any excuse is enough for it to exist.

The master said, "There is no state of mind because there is no mind. And there is no truth, so what are you talking about? There can be no seeking."

This is one of the greatest messages ever delivered.It is very difficult; the disciple cannot conceive that there is no truth. What is the meaning of this master when he says that there is no truth? Does he mean that there is no truth? No, he is saying that for you, who are a seeker, there can be no truth.

Seeking always leads into the untrue. Only a nonseeking mind realizes that which is, for whenever you seek you have missed that which is. Seeking always moves into the future, seeking cannot be here and now. How can you seek here and now? You can only be. Seeking is desire --  future enters, time comes in... and this moment, this here and now is missed. Truth is here, now.

If you go to a buddha and ask, "Is there God?" he will deny it immediately: "There is no God." If he says there is, he creates a seeker; if he says there is God, you will start seeking. How can you remain quiet when there is God to be sought? Where will you run? You have created another illusion.

So Buddha said there is no God. Nobody understood him, people thought he was an atheist. He was not denying God, he was simply denying the seeker. But if he had said that there is God the seeker would have been there. And the seeker is the world; seeking is all that maya is. For millions of lives you have been a seeker, after this or after that, this object, that object, this world or that world, but a seeker. Now you are a seeker after truth but the master says there is no truth. He cuts away the very ground of seeking, he pulls away the very ground where you are standing, where your mind is standing. He simply pushes you into the abyss.

The inquirer said, "Then why these many seekers all around you? If there is nothing to seek and no truth, then why this crowd?" You must have been there, sitting around the master. Somebody comes to me and I say, "There is no seeking. Nothing is to be sought, because there is nothing to seek. "He is bound to ask, "Then why are these people here, why are these sannyasis here? What are they doing here?"

But the inquirer went on missing the point. The master looked around and said, "I don't see anyone there is no one here." The inquirer went on missing the point for the intellect always goes on missing. He could have looked. This was the fact: There was no one.

You can be in two ways but just one if you are seeking. If you are not seeking you are not, for seeking gives you the ego. Right this moment if you are not seeking anyone, anything, you are not here, there is no crowd. If I am not teaching anything- because there is nothing to be taught, no truth to be taught -- if I am not teaching anything and if you are not learning anything, who is here? Emptiness exists and the bliss of pure emptiness. Individuals disappear and it becomes an oceanic consciousness. Individuals are there because of individual minds. You have a different desire, that's why you differ from your neighbor; desires create distinctions. I am seeking something, you are seeking something else; my path differs from yours, my goal differs from yours. That's why I differ from you. If I am not seeking and you are not seeking, goals disappear, paths are no more there. How, then, can the minds exist? The cup is broken. My tea flows into you and your tea flows into me. It becomes an oceanic existence.

The master looked around and said, "I don't see anyone there is no one." The intellect goes on missing, and the inquirer said, "then whom are you teaching? If there is no one, then whom are you teaching?" And the master said, "I have got no tongue, so how can I teach?" He goes on giving hints to become alert, to look, but the inquirer is engulfed in his own mind. The master goes on hitting, hammering on his head; he is talking nonsense just to bring him out of his mind.

If you had been there you would have been convinced by the inquirer, not by the master. The inquirer would have appeared exactly right. This master seemed to be mad, absurd. He was talking and he said, "There is no tongue, so how can I talk?" He was saying, "Look at me, I am without form. Look at me, I am not embodied. The body appears to you but I am not that, so how can I talk?" The mind goes on missing. This is the misery of the mind. You push, it again gathers itself; you hit it, and for a moment there is a sinking and a trembling, and again it is established.

Have you seen a Japanese doll? They call it a daruma doll. You throw it, in whatsoever way -- topsy-turvy, head upside-down --  but whatsoever you do the doll sits in a buddha posture. The bottom part is so heavy you cannot do anything. Throw it in any way and the doll again sits in a buddha posture. The name daruma comes from Bodhidharma; in Japan, Bodhidharma's name is Daruma. Daruma used to say, this Bodhidharma used to say, that your mind is just like this doll. He would throw it, kick it, but whatsoever he did he could not disturb the doll; the bottom part was so heavy. You throw it upside-down, it will be right-side-up.

So this master went on pushing. A little shaking and the doll sat again, missed the point. Finally, desperate, the inquirer said, "I don't follow, I don't understand." And with the ultimate hit, the master said, "I don't understand myself."

I go on teaching you, knowing well there is nothing to be taught. That's why I can go on infinitely. If there were something to be taught I would have finished already. Buddhas can go on and on because there is nothing to be taught. It is an endless story, it never concludes, so I can go on and on. I will never be finished; you may be finished before my story ends, for there is no end to it.

Somebody was asking me, "You go on talking every day?" I said, "Because there is nothing to be taught." Some day you will suddenly feel it --  that I am not talking, that I am not teaching. You have realized there is nothing to be taught because there is no truth.

What discipline am I giving to you? None. A disciplined mind is again a mind, even more stubborn, more adamant; a disciplined mind is more stupid. Go and see the disciplined monks all over the world Christian, Hindu, Jain. Whenever you see a man who is absolutely disciplined you will find a stupid mind behind it. The flowing has stopped. He is so much concerned with finding something that he is ready to do whatsoever you say. If you say, "Stand on your head for an hour," he is ready to stand on his head. It is because of desire. If God can be achieved only through standing on his head for hours, he is ready, but he must achieve.

I am not giving you any achieving, any desiring; there is nowhere to reach and nothing to achieve. If you realize this you have achieved this very moment. This very moment, you are perfect; nothing is to be done, nothing is to be changed. This very moment, you are absolute Brahma.

That's why the master said, "I don't understand it myself." It is difficult to find a master who says, "I don't understand it myself," for a master must claim that he knows, only then will you follow him. A master must not only claim that he knows, he must claim that only he knows, nobody else: "All other masters are wrong, I alone know." Then will you follow. You must be absolutely certain, then you become a follower. The certainty gives you the feeling that here is the man, and if you follow you will reach.

I will tell you one story. It happened once, a so-called master was traveling. In every village he would go, he would declare, "I have achieved, I have known the divine. If you want, come and follow me."

People would say, "There are many responsibilities. Some day, we hope we will be able to follow you." They would touch his feet, give him respect, serve him, but nobody would follow because there were many other things to be done first before one went to seek the divine. First things first. The divine is always the last, and the last thing never comes because the first are so infinite they are never finished. But in one village, a madman --  mad he was, otherwise who would follow this master --  said, "Right. Have you have found?"

The master hesitated a little, looking at the madman --  because this man seemed dangerous, he might follow and create trouble --  but before the whole village he couldn't deny it, so he said, "Yes."

The madman said, "Now, initiate me. I will follow you to the very end. I want to realize God myself." The so-called master became perturbed, but what to do? The madman started following him, he became a shadow. One year passed. The madman said, "How far, how far is the temple?" He said, "I am not in a hurry but how much time will be needed?" By this time the master had become very uncomfortable and uneasy with this man. This madman would sleep with him, he would move with him; he had become his shadow. And because of him his certainty was dissolving. Whenever he would say, in a village, "Follow me," he would become afraid, because this man would look at him and say, "I am following you, master, and still I have not reached."

The second year passed, the third year passed, the sixth year passed, and the madman said, "We have not reached anywhere. We are simply traveling in villages and you go on telling people, "Follow me." I am following- whatsoever you say, I do it, so you cannot say I am not following the discipline." The madman was really mad, so whatever was said he would do. So the master couldn't deceive him by saying that he was not doing well. Finally, one night, the master said to him, "Because of you I have lost my own path. Before I met you I was certain; now I am no more. Now you please leave me."

Whenever there is someone certain and you are mad enough, you start following. Can you follow this type of man who says, "I myself don't know. I myself don't understand?" If you can follow this man, you will reach. You have already reached if you decide to follow this man, for the mind asks for certainty, the mind asks for knowledge. The mind also asks for dogmatic assertions, so if you can be ready to follow a man who says, "I don't know myself," seeking has stopped, for now you are not asking for knowledge. One who is asking for knowledge cannot ask for being. Knowledge is rubbish; being is life.

When you stop asking for knowledge you have stopped asking about the truth, for truth is the goal of knowledge. If you don't inquire what is, rather you become so silent, so mindless, that which is, is revealed.

I myself say I don't know; you cannot come across a more ignorant man than me. There is no truth and there is no way. I have not reached anywhere, I am simply here and now. If you can follow this ignorant man your mind will drop. For the mind always follows knowledge, and when the mind drops there is no need to go anywhere. Everything is available, has been available always; you have never missed it. But just because of your seeking of the future, of the goal, you cannot look. The truth surrounds you, you exist in it. Just like the fish exist in the ocean, you exist in the truth. God is not a goal, God is what is here and now. These trees, these winds blowing, these clouds moving, the sky, you, I --  this is what God is. It is not a goal.

Drop the mind and the divine. God is not an object, it is a merger. The mind resists a merger, the mind is against surrender; the mind is very cunning and calculating.

This story is beautiful. You are the inquirer. You have come to me to inquire about how to achieve truth, you have come to me to inquire about how to achieve a state of mind which is blissful. You have come to acquire knowledge, to solve the mystery, and I repeat to you: There is no state of mind, because there is no mind; there is no truth, so no seeking is allowed. All seeking is futile; search as such is foolish. Seek and you will lose, don't seek and it is there, run and you will miss. Stop: it has always been there. And don't try to understand- be. Understanding is superficial. Under the Bodhi tree, Buddha has not known more. You may know more.

Many scholars came to Buddha; they knew more than Buddha. Mahakashyap came; he was a great pundit. Sariputra came, he was a great pundit. Sariputra came and five hundred disciples came with him, disciples of Sariputra. When Sariputra came to Buddha he came for more than knowledge, for of knowledge he had had enough. Really, he may have known more than Buddha; he was a very deep, penetrating scholar. He knew all the scriptures, he was a great Brahmin pundit and all the Vedas were on his tongue. He could have recited them. But he asked Buddha, "Give me something that is more than knowledge. Of knowledge I have got enough, and I am fed up with it."

And what did Buddha say to Sariputra? He said, "Unlearn. Drop knowledge, and that which is more will happen to you."

A real master teaches you unlearning; it is never learning. You have come to me to unlearn whatsoever you know, never learning. You have come to me learned, so whatsoever you know, please drop it. Become ignorant, become like a child. Only the heart of a child can knock at the doors of the divine, and only the heart of a child is heard. Your prayers cannot be heard; they are cunning. Only a child, only a heart which doesn't know can be.

This is the meaning of this anecdote, and it is good for you, for the same is the case with you.