Taoism, Daoism, Tao, Dao, Lao Tzu's Tap Te Ching, Vol. 2 Tao: The three treasures, Chapter 2: Choicelessness, Question 3

The third question:

Question 3

This is a complex question and comes out of a very complex mind. The question seems to be very simple, direct, straight. It is not. In the beginning the questioner says: I KNOW NOTHING. If that is really true, the latter part cannot come, then would come a full stop. If you really feel you know nothing then what is there to say? Full stop. It would have been enough. But no, then knowledge comes in.

I KNOW NOTHING -- I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO ASK. WHAT QUESTION IS THERE? AND WHAT WORDS CAN ANSWER THE PROBLEMS OF A SLEEPING SOUL WHEN THE ONLY ANSWER IS ALREADY SO PRONOUNCED: BE AWAKE, BE TOTAL. All this is your knowledge. If you have really heard as you say you have, -- that the only answer is so pronounced -- if you have really heard it, you cannot be ignorant. If you have really heard it, then how can you say that you are sleeping? In sleep you cannot hear it.

BE AWAKE, BE TOTAL. For it to be understood you will have to come out of your sleep. You must be dreaming that you have heard the answer.

In the beginning you say: I KNOW NOTHING. Do you think something more is needed to explain it? It is completely explanatory in itself. Nothing more is needed, nothing more is to be added to make it more clear. In fact whatsoever you add will make it more murky and puzzled. I KNOW NOTHING is so simple. But no, you know well that this is just a trick. You know that you are playing a game of ignorance to appear wise because you have heard that people who are wise say that they don't know anything at all. You are being clever. This cleverness will kill you, this cleverness is not going to help.

If you know nothing you know nothing, and if you know nothing and you can remain with your ignorance, you will feel my presence because when someone is ignorant, that someone is vast, infinite. Ignorance has no boundaries, only knowledge has boundaries, only knowledge has limitations. Ignorance has no limitations, ignorance is infinite. Knowledge is closed, ignorance is an opening, an infinite opening. Knowledge is noisy, ignorance is silent -- there is nothing to be noisy about, there is nothing to fuss about. One is ignorant -- finished!

Then one is really ignorant and then your other words that follow, could not follow, they simply could not exist with ignorance. No, you are trying to be wise. You say: I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO ASK. WHAT QUESTION IS THERE? From where are these words coming? Out of your ignorance? AND WHAT WORDS CAN ANSWER THE PROBLEMS OF A SLEEPING SOUL... You already know everything. You are a sleeping soul, no words can answer your questions.... WHEN THE ONLY ANSWER IS ALREADY SO PRONOUNCED. You have already heard the answer as well and you know the answer: BE AWAKE, BE TOTAL.

IT IS YOUR PRESENCE THAT MY QUESTION SEEKS -- NOT YOUR RESPONSE. If you are ignorant there is no need to seek my presence, it is already there. In your infinite ignorance, without boundaries, you meet me, you meet the whole, you meet God, you meet Tao.

You have not known the beauty of ignorance, no. You are trying to pretend to be ignorant but your knowledge won't allow you to. It comes in between, it is always there surrounding you. Even if you say that you are ignorant you will make that ignorance appear very knowledgeable, you will decorate that ignorance with knowledge. Ignorance is naked, nude, you cannot decorate it; only knowledge is decorated, polished. Knowledge is like a whore, always on the market, for sale. Ignorance? Who will purchase ignorance? To whom can you sell it? Nobody needs it, in fact everybody has already got it within him. There is no need to decorate it. It is like night: dark, silent, not even a single movement. Words cannot exist with ignorance. So whatsoever you say in the first part you destroy in the latter part, and by the end of your question you have destroyed it completely.

Don't play the game with yourself because nobody else is going to be deceived by it except yourself.

It happened that a disciple was with a Zen master for many years and nothing happened. He tried to do whatsoever the master said but still nothing happened because in fact he was not trying, he was pretending to try. He was just showing that he was trying; he was playing a game, he was not sincere. Then he started asking others: What to do? I do everything, whatsoever the master says, and nothing happens. Somebody said: It will not happen, it is difficult, it is almost impossible. If you really want it to happen the only way is to die. The man had by this time become such a practitioner of pretensions that he said: I will do it. He went to the master to see him.

Suddenly when the master looked at him, he fell on the ground, closed his eyes and pretended that he was dead. The master had a hearty laugh, because you can pretend many things but how can you pretend that you are dead? It is the last of absurdities. The master said: Right, you did well, but one question before you disappear completely. What about the koan, the problem I have given you to solve?

The master had given him a problem to meditate upon, the very basic problem that if you want to create sound with one hand, how will the sound of one hand sound?

The pretender opened his one eye and said: Master, that I haven't solved yet. The master hit him hard, kicked him, and said: You hypocrite, don't you know this much, don't you know that dead men don't answer any questions? You are dead, but immediately you answer a question.

If you are really ignorant then all the other words that you have written are false, useless, futile, meaningless, gibberish. But if they are meaningful then whatsoever you have said in the beginning is a pretension. That's why I say the question is complex.

And then you want my presence. A presence cannot be desired. You have to wait for it, you cannot want it. It is a free gift; whenever you are ready it is given. And your knowledge won't allow you to receive my response. The man is saying that he is not in any way interested in my answers -- because he knows the answers already, he is a man of knowledge. He wants my presence. But what have you done to earn it? Just by desiring do you think you become capable?

Then why are these others trying to get my response? Are they fools except you? In fact, to pass through response is a training to reach to the presence. You ask a question, I respond to you, and by and by your questions will drop. Not that you will become more knowledgeable -- if you become more knowledgeable then more questions will arise. No, if you really listen to me, if you try to understand me -- not the words, but the space between the words, not the lines, but the space between the lines, not what I say, but that which I mean -- if you understand it, you will become ready, and by and by questions will drop. And when a non-questioning mind arises, suddenly my presence will burst upon you. These answers are to make you ignorant; these answers are to bring your knowledge out, to help you to unlearn it, but it all depends on you. You can gather my answers without listening to the meaning, you can gather the words, but they will become more and more of a burden of knowledge on you, on your head. Then more questions will arise, because every answer is capable of creating a thousand and one questions. Then you miss the point. Then you were not in fact here with me, you have been on your own trip, your own ego-trip. It is not my trip, it was your trip, you were not with me.

If you really listen, just through listening questions will disappear. And whenever one day it happens that in your mind there is not a single question, that is the point when you can say: I know nothing.

You will not even know enough to ask a question because to ask a question is to know something. How can you ask a question without knowing anything? Even to ask a question a certain knowledge is needed, otherwise how will you ask? If you ask, 'Who is God? What is God?' at least you know something about God, otherwise the question cannot arise. A child cannot suddenly ask: Where is God? No, first he has to learn that God is, that God created the world; then through this learning the question will arise. Questions are not out of ignorance, questions are out of knowledge. When questions drop, you have the infinity of ignorance, a dark night, beautiful, velvet-like, infinite. You are in it, dissolved as completely as a drop in the ocean. Then you feel my presence. Knowledge is the barrier.

And you say that you are not interested in my response -- then you are destroying the very bridge; then you will not be able to feel my presence -- that will become impossible. First you have to allow me to kill all that you know, to destroy it, to demolish something which has gone wrong within you. Only then can I be creative. Presence is a creative phenomenon. My answers are just destructive, they are to destroy something. They are to rediscover your ignorance and with it, the infinity. If you can become totally ignorant you have taken the first step to becoming totally wise. Totality is the bridge. If you are totally ignorant, then totality has already happened, and totality is the bridge. Then to reach wisdom from ignorance is not much of a problem, the bridge is open, the bridge is ready. So be total. At this moment you can be total only in ignorance -- the next happening will be to be total in wisdom. But you go on clinging with small bits of knowledge.

Don't try to be clever with me. Be sincere. If you are ignorant, then be ignorant, and you will touch my presence, you will enter me and you will allow me to enter you. But if you are not capable of feeling my presence then try first to feel my response; then let me demolish you, destroy you, for the creative explosion to happen.

Taoism - Daoism - Tao - Dao

VOL. 2, TAO: THE THREE TREASURES

Chapter-2

Choicelessness