Zen Buddhism, Talks on the Faith Mind of Sosan, Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book Of Nothing Chapter 6: Strive to no goals

TO LIVE IN THE GREAT WAY IS NEITHER EASY NOR DIFFICULT, BUT THOSE WITH LIMITED VIEWS ARE FEARFUL AND IRRESOLUTE:

THE FASTER THEY HURRY, THE SLOWER THEY GO, AND CLINGING CANNOT BE LIMITED; EVEN TO BE ATTACHED TO THE IDEA OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS TO GO ASTRAY.

JUST LET THINGS BE IN THEIR OWN WAY AND THERE WILL BE NEITHER COMING NOR GOING.

OBEY THE NATURE OF THINGS (YOUR OWN NATURE), AND YOU WILL WALK FREELY AND UNDISTURBED.

WHEN THOUGHT IS IN BONDAGE THE TRUTH IS HIDDEN, FOR EVERYTHING IS MURKY AND UNCLEAR, AND THE BURDENSOME PRACTICE OF JUDGING BRINGS ANNOYANCE AND WEARINESS.

WHAT BENEFIT CAN BE DERIVED FROM DISTINCTIONS AND SEPARATIONS?

IF YOU WISH TO MOVE IN THE ONE WAY DO NOT DISLIKE EVEN THE WORLD OF SENSES AND IDEAS.

INDEED, TO ACCEPT THEM FULLY IS IDENTICAL WITH TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT.

THE WISE MAN STRIVES TO NO GOALS BUT THE FOOLISH MAN FETTERS HIMSELF.

THERE IS ONE DHARMA, TRUTH, LAW, NOT MANY; DISTINCTIONS ARISE FROM THE CLINGING NEEDS OF THE IGNORANT.

TO SEEK MIND WITH THE DISCRIMINATING MIND IS THE GREATEST OF ALL MISTAKES.

MANY BEAUTIFUL things things in this sutra. And for the seeker, not only beautiful but foundational and essential also -- because Sosan is not a poet, he is a seer. Whatsoever he says carries the poetry of the infinite, but that is not to the point. Whenever an enlightened person speaks, whatsoever he speaks is poetry and beautiful. Just the way he is, whatsoever comes out of him resounds him, carries him, the fragrance. But that is not to the point. Don't be lost in the poetry, because poetry belongs to the form and the truth is formless.

The way Sosan says things is beautiful and poetic, but remember, don't be lost in his poetry. Don't be lost in the poetry of the Upanishads, of the Gita, of the sayings of Jesus. In itself the form is beautiful but that is not to the point. Move into what the content is, not the container.

For the seeker the content is essential, and to understand the content is to become it -- because there is no truth beyond understanding. In fact, understanding itself is the truth. To say that through understanding you will reach truth is wrong, because there is no truth apart from understanding.

Understanding is the very truth. You understand... you have become the truth. Truth is not somewhere waiting for you to happen; it is through your understanding that it will be revealed -- revealed within you.

These instructions of Sosan are for the seeker, and every word is very very meaningful.

TO LIVE IN THE GREAT WAY IS NEITHER EASY NOR DIFFICULT...

Whenever there is a goal it can be either easy or difficult. It depends where you are, how much distance between you and the goal, whether there is a highway or you just have to travel along a hilly track. Is the road mapped, marked, or do you have to find your own way?

If there is a goal it will be either easy or difficult. It depends... whether you have traveled on the path before also. Is the way known? -- it will be easy. If the way is unknown it will be difficult. Are you a good traveler? Your physical condition, your mental condition, will make it either easy or difficult.

But truth is not a goal at all, so how can it be easy or difficult?

There are people who say truth is very very difficult. They are saying something which is absolutely ignorant. There is an opposite school which says, "Truth is easy -- there is no problem. Just understand and it is easy." They are also saying something which is not right. And both things can be understood by the mind. Difficult? -- the mind can find techniques and ways and means, and it can be made easy.

Three thousand years ago traveling was difficult. Now it is almost as easy as anything: you simply enter an airplane and do nothing, just rest. And by the time you have taken your tea, you have reached. If the goal is difficult it can be made easy.

That's what Maharishi Mahesh Yogi goes on teaching in the West: that he has found a jet-speed technique. If the goal is difficult then, of course, if you travel by a bullock-cart it will be very very difficult, and if you travel by a jet it will be easy.

But is there a goal? That is the crux of the matter. If it is a goal, somewhere, distant, then there are possibilities of making easier ways, means, vehicles. But is it a goal

Sosan says it is not a goal, so how can it be difficult or easy? And if it is not a goal, how can there be a way to it? And if it is not a goal, how can there be methods and techniques to reach it? Impossible! He says it is neither easy nor difficult, because it is not a goal at all.

TO LIVE IN THE GREAT WAY IS NEITHER EASY NOT DIFFICULT...

Then what is this Great Way? This Great Way is your nature -- you are already it! That's why it is not a goal. It is not going to be something in the future. No time is needed for it to happen. You have always been in it, it is already the case. You are at the goal, you exist in the goal. You cannot exist out of it, there is no possibility of going out of it. Howsoever much you wander you cannot go out of it. Wherever you go you will carry your Tao within you. It is your intrinsic nature. It is not dispensable, you cannot put it aside and forget it. You are already there because HERE is that 'there.' You need not look in the future: you simply be here and you find it.

Seek and you will miss. Don't seek, just be, and it is there. And you will laugh because it has been always there -- just because of your seeking you were missing it, just because you were so much in a hurry you couldn't see within.

TO LIVE IN THE GREAT WAY IS NEITHER EASY NOR DIFFICULT, BUT THOSE WITH LIMITED VIEWS ARE FEARFUL AND IRRESOLUTE:

THE FASTER THEY HURRY, THE SLOWER THEY GO AND CLINGING CANNOT BE LIMITED; EVEN TO BE ATTACHED TO THE IDEA OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS TO GO ASTRAY.

JUST LET THINGS BE IN THEIR OWN WAY AND THERE WILL BE NEITHER CORNING NOR GOING.

YOU ARE THE WAY and you are the goal. And there is no distance between you and the goal. You are the seeker and you are the sought. There is no distance between the seeker and the sought. You are the worshiper and you are the worshiped. You are the disciple and you are the Master. You are the means and you are the end. This is the Great Way.

It has been always available to you. This very moment you are in it. Awake, and you are in it. Go to sleep, you remain in it, but because you are asleep you cannot see it. And then you start seeking.

You are like a drunkard seeking your own home, asking for something that is just in front of your eyes. But the eyes are not clear -- they are filled with opinions, distinctions, they are filled with words and theories. That's why your vision is blurred, otherwise whatsoever you are seeking is just in front of you.

Hindus have a method of looking at the tip of the nose: just sit silently and look at the tip of the nose and do nothing. People laugh, because what foolishness! What will happen out of it? But the meaning is missed. Hindus are saying it is just in front of you, just like the tip of the nose. Be silent and look at the tip of the nose and don't get entangled into any thinking... and suddenly it is there -- just like the tip of the nose, always in front of you.

And this is the beauty of the tip of the nose: wherever you move it is always in front of you. Right you go, it is there; wrong you go, it is there. Be a sinner, it is in front; be a saint, it is in front. Whatsoever you do -- stand in a reverse posture, in SHIRSHASAN -- it is there in front of you. Fall asleep, it is there; be awake, it is there.

This is the meaning of looking at the tip of the nose, because whatsoever you do, you cannot put it anywhere else than in the front. The moment you move, it has already moved. Just looking at the tip of the nose you will understand that the truth is just in front of you. Wherever you move, it moves with you; wherever you go, it goes with you. You cannot miss it, so there is no question of finding it. To understand that you have NOT missed it... But look: ordinarily you never look at the tip of the nose, because you are looking at other things, you are interested in other things. You never LOOK at the tip of the nose.

Hindus have another beautiful theory. They say when a person starts looking at the tip of the nose his death is near, within six months he will die. When a person starts seeing it without trying to see it -- whatsoever he is doing he goes on seeing the tip of his nose -- within six months he will die.

It has something in it. Because you become aware of the tip of the nose only when all your desires, all objects of desire, have become futile. You have no energy to move in desires, death is coming near. You are so energyless, all vitality has ebbed. You cannot move your eyes, you cannot run after desires and goals... the life is ebbing. In the last moment nothing remains except to look at the tip of the nose. One meaning.

Another meaning, and greater, and that is: whenever a person can look at the tip of his nose, he will die to this world. A new birth -- because he has looked in front of himself with clarity. This world disappears, this life disappears. He is dead as far as his old being was concerned. He is a new being, it is a rebirth. Now there is no coming and no going.

He has attained -- just by looking at the tip of the nose? Yes, because the whole question is: how to look in front and not sideways. Because the truth is in front of you, it cannot be otherwise. It is neither easy nor difficult.

It is not a question of effort, so how can it be easy or difficult? It is a question of awakening, not a question of effort. It is not a question of doing something. Doing, you will lose it, because you will become engrossed in doing. If you do something, it will be easy or difficult.

It is a question of non-doing. How can non doing be easy or difficult? Non-doing is completely beyond the world of doing. It is just being! How can being be difficult or easy? Being simply is. That is the Great Way. The whole effort is to come to know and see the tip of the nose, just to look with clear eyes in front of you.

... BUT THOSE WITH LIMITED VIEWS ARE FEARFUL AND IRRESOLUTE:

THE FASTER THEY HURRY, THE SLOWER THEY GO...

It looks contradictory but it is happening to everybody. This is what has happened to you. The faster you go, the slower you are. Why? Because you go without seeing in front, and the goal is there! The faster you move, the faster you are going astray.

If somebody looks at your speed you are fast, but if somebody looks at what you are missing, you are slower. The faster you go, the slower. Don't go anywhere! Just be here -- and immediately you reach. No space is to be traveled and no time to be transcended. Just be here! Make now and here your only mantra, and you don't need anything else. Be now, and here. Don't go anywhere, fast or slow.

It happened:

A small boy came to school very very late. He was coming always late. The teacher was very angry and she said, "Again? Again you are late and even more late than yesterday! And I have been telling you again and again. You don't listen!"

The boy said, "But there was great difficulty. It is rain ing outside you see, and the road is so slippery with mud that I would move one foot towards the school, and I would slip two backwards. It is so slippery that the faster I tried to move, the slower I was reaching. In fact I was going in the opposite direction: one foot ahead and two feet thrown back."

The teacher said, "You are very clever, but then how did you reach?"

The boy said, "I just started walking towards my home, that's how."

You are also on a slippery road where the faster you go, the slower is the speed -- because you are going away. If somebody looks at the goal, then you are going astray. Your speed is dangerous, it is against the goal, because NO speed is needed. You have just simply to stop and look.

People come to me and they say, "When will we get enlightenment? When?" If I say, "Now," they can't believe me. And I tell you, now. If you miss THIS now, then another now, but always now. There is no other time.

WHENEVER it happens it will happen in the now, and whenever it happens it will happen in the here. Here and now are not two words, just like time and space are not two words. Einstein used a new term: 'spatiotime.' He made one word out of two, 'spatiotime,' because he found scientifically that time is nothing but the fourth dimension of space, so no need to use two words.

And here and now are also not two words. Thousands of years before Einstein, mystics like Sosan were aware of that. It is 'now-here.' These two words are to be joined, they are one, because now is nothing but a dimension of here -- the fourth dimension. 'Now-here' is one word.

And whenever it happens it will happen in the nowhere. It can happen just now, no need to wait! But you are irresolute and fearful -- that creates the problem.

What is the meaning of being fearful? What is the situation inside when you are fearful? You want it, and you don't want it also. This is the situation of a fearful mind: he wants to go and he doesn't want to go because he is afraid. He would like to but he is not certain, irresolute.

Jesus always used the word 'fear,' many times, against faith. He never used 'disbelief,' 'distrust' against faith; he would always use the word 'fear' against faith. He said those who are not afraid, they become faithful, because faith is resolution. Faith is a decision, a total decision. You move totally in it, it is a trust, with nothing to be held behind, unconditional. It cannot be taken back. If you have moved totally, who will take it back?

Faith is absolute. If you go into it, you go into it. You cannot come out of it -- who will come out of it? There is nobody standing behind who can pull you back. It is a jump into the abyss, and Jesus is exactly right to make fear the antonym of faith. Nobody has done that ever. But he is absolutely right, because he is not concerned with the outer language, he is concerned with the language of the inner being.

It is fear which does not allow you to move into faith. It is not disbelief, remember, it is not disbelief which hinders you from moving into faith, it is fear.

Of course you rationalize your disbelief, your fear. You hide it in words and you say, "I am skeptical, I am doubtful. How can I move unless I am convinced totally?" But look deep down within yourself and you will find fear.

Fear means half of you wants to go and half does not want to go. Half is allured by the unknown, has heard the call, the invocation; and half is afraid of the unknown, clinging to the known. Because known is known, there is no fear in it.

You do something; that something has become known. Now if you want to move into a new job, into a new pattern of life, new habits, new style, half of you clings to the known, says, "Don't move! Who knows, it may be worse than this. And once you are gone you cannot come back." So the half says, "Cling!"

This half belongs to the past, because past is known, the memory. And the other half always is excited, feels the call to move on the unknown path through the uncharted -- because something new will become ecstatic.

This is the fear. You are divided. Fear divides you, and if you are divided there is irresolution. One step you take towards the unknown, the other step remains in the past, in the grave of the past. And then you are stuck, because nobody can move with one step, with one leg, one foot -- nobody can move. You have to take both your wings into it, both your parts into it. Only then you can move.

Irresolute and you are stuck -- and everybody is stuck. That is the problem, that is the anxiety. Stuck and you cannot move, and life goes on flowing, and you have become rocklike, blocked, a prisoner of the past.

... BUT THOSE WITH LIMITED VIEWS ARE FEARFUL AND IRRESOLUTE:

THE FASTER THEY HURRY, THE SLOWER THEY GO...

Their whole life is contradictory. They do something with one hand and immediately they undo it with another -- irresolute. You love a person on one hand, you hate on another. You create love on one hand, on another you sow the seeds of hatred. And you never see what you are doing.

Just last night I was talking with someone about a hidden monastery in Bokhara. Gurdjieff lived in that monastery for at least six years. He learned many techniques from that Sufi school. One of their techniques is still used in that monastery.

The technique is very beautiful. Whenever a person enters the monastery, becomes a disciple, he is given a plaque, a sign. On one side is written: "I am negative, please don't take me seriously" -- if I say something wrong I am not really saying it to you. Because I am negative, and I am filled with hatred, anger, depression. And if I do something, that is because of MY negativity, not because you are wrong.

On the other side of the plaque is written: "I am positive I am loving, affectionate, please don't take me seriously" -- if I say you are beautiful, I am not saying anything about you -- I am feeling high.

And whenever a person feels that the mood is changing he changes his plaque; he puts the right side up, whatsoever he is. And many things happen through it, because nobody takes him seriously. People laugh, because he is negative.

If somebody is feeling nauseous and vomits, okay! He is not vomiting on you, he is not throwing anything on you. He is throwing something, something that is disturbing him. And only when this division stops and the disciple comes to the Master and says, "I am neither. Now I am neither negative nor positive, everything has subsided and both my wings have become one, now I am one," only then is the plaque taken away.

The moment that plaque is taken away is the moment of enlightenment. Then you are whole. Otherwise you are always contradicting yourself and then you feel misery and anguish and you think, "What is happening to me?" Nothing is happening to you! On one hand you do something good, on another you immediately do something bad -- immediately, to destroy the other side that has gone ahead, because you are irresolute, you are divided.

One part of you clings to the old habits, another part wants to move into the unknown. One part wants to cling to the world, another part wants to become a bird and go into the unknown sky of the divinity, or the very divineness of existence. Then you are stuck.

Try to see this. It is difficult because you have never tried to see it, otherwise it is not difficult at all. It is neither difficult nor easy. Just see what you are doing with yourself and with others.

Whatsoever you do halfheartedly will bring you misery. Stuck, you will fall and fall into hell. Hell is a place where people are stuck, and heaven is a place where everybody is moving, not frozen. Hell is a place where there is no freedom, heaven is freedom.

Hindus have called the ultimate state MOKSHA, absolute freedom. Nobody is stuck anywhere; floating like a free river, a bird on the wing, infinite sky all around, not tethered to anything.

... BUT THOSE WITH LIMITED VIEWS ARE FEARFUL AND IRRESOLUTE:

THE FASTER THEY HURRY, THE SLOWER THEY GO, AND CLINGING CANNOT BE LIMITED...

AND REMEMBER, whenever you cling, clinging as such is the problem; it is not a question of what you cling to. So Sosan says CLINGING IS NOT LIMITED -- not limited to this world, to this body, senses, enjoyments. You can cling to enlightenment, you can cling to God. You can cling to love, you can cling to meditation and prayer. And, clinging, you are stuck again.

Don't cling to anything, remain free and moving. The more moving, the nearer you are to yourself. When you are completely moving, nowhere stuck in your energy, the truth knocks at the door. It has always been knocking, but you were stuck and you couldn't hear it. It is just in front of you at the very tip of your nose.

... EVEN TO BE ATTACHED TO THE IDEA OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS TO GO ASTRAY.

Then that becomes the problem. If you become too attached, that, "I have to attain enlightenment," then this will become your problem. Enlightenment is never attained, it happens. It is not an attainment. And the achieving mind never attains it.

You may be trying to attain power in this world, then you start trying to attain power in that world. First you want to attain wealth in this world, then you try to attain wealth in that world. But you remain the same, and the mind and the functioning and the whole scheme remains the same: Attain! Reach! This is the ego trip. The achieving mind is the ego.

And one who reaches is one who is not trying to achieve, who simply is happy wherever he is, who is simply blissful whatsoever he is. He has no goal. He is NOT going anywhere. He moves, but his movement is not for a goal. He moves out of his energy, not for a goal -- his movement is not motivated.

Of course, he reaches the goal -- that's another thing, beside the point. A river moves from the Himalayas; she is not moving towards the sea, she does not know the sea, where it is, she is not bothered about the sea. The very song of moving in the Himalayas is so beautiful, passing through the valleys, to the peaks, passing through the trees, then coming down to the plains, to people... the very movement is beautiful! And every moment the movement is beautiful, because it is life.

The river is not even aware there is a goal or there is a sea. That is not the concern. And if a river becomes too much concerned, then she will be just in the same mess as you are. Then she will stop everywhere and ask where to go: Where is the right path? And she will be afraid whether north will lead, or south, or the east or the west -- where to go?

And remember, the ocean is everywhere. Whether you move north or east or west makes NO difference. The ocean is everywhere, all around is the ocean. It is always in front of you; wherever you move, it makes no difference.

Don't ask for the path, ask how to be more moving. Don't ask for the goal, it is not there somewhere fixed. Wherever you move, move dancing. You will reach to the ocean -- that happens. It happens to small rivers, it happens to big rivers, they all reach. A small stream you cannot conceive how this small stream will reach to the ocean, but it will reach.

There is no problem of small or big. Existence is infinitely graceful to everybody; small or big makes no difference. Small trees flower, big trees flower. Flowering is the thing! And when a small tree flowers it is not less happy than when a big tree flowers; the happiness is exactly the same. The happiness is not a question of size, it is not a question of quantity. It is a quality of your being. A small river also dances and reaches, a big river also dances and reaches.

You are all like rivers, you all will reach to the ocean. But don't make it a goal; otherwise, the faster you go, the slower you are moving.

And the more you want to reach, the more you are stuck, because the more you become afraid. The fear of missing the goal grips hold of you, the fear of not reaching cripples you, the fear of going wrong paralyzes you. If there is no goal, there is no fear.

Remember, fear is goal-oriented. If you are not going anywhere, what is the fear? You cannot miss, you cannot be a failure, so what is the fear? Fear means the possibility of being a failure. From where does this possibility of being a failure enter? It enters from the goal orientation -- you are always looking for the goal.

People come to me and they say, "We have been meditating for three months. Nothing has happened." Nothing is going to happen, because you are waiting for it. You cannot WAIT even for the happening, because even waiting becomes an inner effort. You are looking...

You relax! When you are no more there, it happens. It will never happen to YOU; it will happen only when the boat is empty, when the house is empty. When you dance but there is no dancer, when you observe but there is no observer, when you love and there is no lover, it happens! When you walk and there is no walker inside, it happens.

Don't wait, don't make any effort, don't make a goal, or even enlightenment will become a bondage. It has become so to many many people in the East. Millions of people take sannyas -- they become Buddhist bhikkhus, Hindu sannyasins -- they move to the monasteries, and they are stuck there.

They come to me and they are just like anybody else in the world. Somebody is stuck in the market, they are stuck in the monastery; that is the only difference. Somebody is a failure in the market, they are a failure in the monastery. But they never look... WHY are you a failure? You create your failure yourself -- if you are asking for the goal, you will be a failure.

In the ultimate, the goal-oriented mind is a hindrance, the greatest hindrance. You simply BE! The ultimate will come! Let it be the ultimate's decision and problem, not yours. You leave it to him, he knows more. Let it be God's problem, let him worry about it. You don't worry -- you simply enjoy life as it moves, while it lasts. You dance and sing and be ecstatic, and let God worry. Why are YOU worried?

You simply be unworried. And don't be an achiever, because to be an achiever is to create the greatest tension that can happen to the human mind. Then you cannot look herenow, then you are looking far away, distant, in the future; there is the goal, the utopia, the golden city, SHAMBALA -- there. And you have to reach, so you run. Where are you going? From whom are you running? For what are you running? The SHAMBALA is herenow, the utopia has already happened.

Jesus said to his disciples, "For whom are you waiting? I am here!" Even his disciples were asking, "When will the Messiah come? When?" -- because Jews were waiting for centuries for the Messiah's coming and when he came they were not ready to welcome him. They are still waiting. And Jesus HAS come and they are still waiting. And even when Jesus was not there, many other Jesuses were there, and they have always been coming.

God is always overflowing. Sometimes it is a Mohammed, sometimes it is a Jesus, sometimes it is a Buddha, sometimes it is a Sosan, a Chuang Tzu. He is overflowing, he is falling continuously, he cannot do anything about it! He is not a miser.

But Christians say he has got only one son. Is he impotent? Did he become impotent after Jesus was born? This seems absurd -- "the only begotten son." That is not possible, otherwise your God is not a God -- no worth.

Mohammedans say there is only one prophet. Mohammed is the last, the last prophet. Why the last? Is your God dead? Can't he send any better message? Can't he improve? Is he no more a creator? -- because creativity always means self-transcending, always transcending.

A painter goes on painting, and always transcending himself.

Somebody asked Van Gogh, "Which of your paintings is the best?"

He said, "This which I am painting now."

A few days afterwards the man again asked. Van Gogh said, "I have told you. This!"

And he was painting ANOTHER painting. "This which I am painting now is the best."

God is an overflowing, infinite overflowing. When Mohammed comes, Mohammed is the best; when Buddha comes, Buddha is the best. Really, he never creates anything second-hand. He always creates the best, incomparable.

But people go on waiting. They miss the messenger at the door because their eyes are not there, their eyes are moving in some utopia, somewhere else. They are not there, they are not at home. God comes to you many times and returns, because you are not there. You are never wherever you are. And he knocks there, but you are not there.

Let it be his worry, you don't be worried -- you simply remain unworried. And these are the two situations: either you are worried or you are ecstatic, and both cannot exist together. If you are ecstatic, you are madly ecstatic. If you are worried, you are madly worried. There are two types of madmen a madness that comes out of worries and a madness that comes out of being, overflowing being.

The choice is yours. Either you will be a worried madman, on the couch of some psychiatrist, or you can become a madman of God, like a St. Francis or Sosan. Then your whole life becomes a dance, an infinite ecstasy, a blessing that goes on and on, and increases, increases, goes on increasing... there is no end to it. It begins, it never ends.

JUST LET THINGS BE IN THEIR OWN WAY AND THERE WILL BE NEITHER COMING NOR GOING.

Infinite grace is there, no coming, no going. Infinite silence, no coming, no going. But just let things be in their own way. You don't come in the way, you don't try to change anything.

This is very difficult for the mind to understand, because mind enjoys changing: if you are a sinner, how to become a saint; if you are ugly, how to become beautiful; if you are bad, how to become good.

The mind goes on changing, trying to change, and the mind appeals because it seems, "Yes, you can be better, so try to change." And then you cannot get better, then you are stuck -- because you are already better! The only thing is how to stop worrying and how to start living. Be a liver, just let things be in their own way.

Accept! Who are you to worry? You were born -- nobody asked you whether you wanted to be born or not. Otherwise you would have been stuck there, because you cannot decide anything. You are irresolute.

If you were asked, if God was there to ask you -- he never made that mistake because he knows that you will be stuck there -- for infinity you will not be able to decide whether to be born or not. He suddenly threw you in without asking your permission, otherwise you would not be here. And if he asks again about your death, you will be stuck. He never asks, he simply takes you away. He knows you well: you cannot decide.

If he comes and asks, "When do you want to die?" will you be able to decide? Saturday morning? Sunday? No! There are only seven days, and you will not be able to decide. He has to come without asking you.

When life happens without you, birth happens, death happens, love happens without you, then why should you be worried? Whosoever is the source, if he can give you birth, if he can give you death, if he can create and uncreate, then let all the worries be his. You enjoy while you are. And if you can enjoy while you are, suddenly you know: this is the source. You have touched infinite life.

Jesus says, "I am here to teach you the life abundant, infinitely rich." And the way is to let things be. You don't come in, you don't come in your own way. Let your Tao flow, let your nature move... WHEREVER it goes!

OBEY THE NATURE OF THINGS (YOUR OWN NATURE), AND YOU WILL WALK FREELY AND UNDISTURBED.

WHEN THOUGHT IS IN BONDAGE THE TRUTH IS HIDDEN, FOR EVERYTHING IS MURKY AND UNCLEAR, AND THE BURDENSOME PRACTICE OF JUDGING BRINGS ANNOYANCE AND WEARINESS.

WHAT BENEFIT CAN BE DERIVED FROM DISTINCTIONS AND SEPARATIONS?

WHEN YOU ARE FILLED with thoughts the mind is blurred, your vision is not clear. But what to do? Thoughts ARE there. Let them be there. You be unconcerned! Let them be there -- you don't get involved with them. They move on their own, let them move. Why should you get involved and disturb them? They flow like a stream -- let them flow. You sit on the bank and rest.

You say to your thoughts, "Okay, if clouds are in the sky, and trees and rivers and oceans on the earth, then why not thoughts in the mind?" Accept them! Okay! If you accept and say okay, you will feel a sudden change, because your energy is needed for them to move.

And if you are unconcerned, by and by the energy withdraws itself. They become less and less. Then a moment comes when thoughts come only when they are needed. Thoughts are not a burden -- unneeded thoughts are a burden, they create your blurred vision. The blurriness comes because of unnecessary thoughts.

When you want to move you use your legs, when you want to think you use your thoughts, when you want to communicate you use your mind. But when you are sitting under a tree, why go on moving your legs? You will look mad. But your mind goes on moving.

Mind is a function, and a function is useful at the right time. When it is needed the mind starts functioning. I am talking to you: the mind is functioning, otherwise how can I talk to you? Sosan saying something, how can he say it if there is no mind? But the moment I have stopped talking the function is off, then there is no mind -- just as there are no legs, because when they are not moving they are not there.

When you feel hungry you eat. When you want to communicate you use thoughts. When there is no hunger you don't go on eating. But there are people who go on chewing gum, who go on smoking; so gum and smoke, they are just substitutes for food. They would like to eat continuously, but it is impossible because the body will not tolerate it, so they have to do something with the mouth. They will chew gum or they will chew PAN, smoke, or do SOMEthing. Or, if they cannot do anything...

For example, women all over the world in the past were never allowed to do these stupidities that men are allowed. They were not allowed to smoke, they were not allowed chewing gum or things like that; they were not good and graceful. So what did they do? They started talking. That's why girls talk more, because a substitute is needed. The mouth MUST go on. They start talking.

You cannot find two women sitting and not talking with each other -- unless they are English women, who are no women at all. So much has been suppressed in them, they have become just like zombies. Otherwise women go on chattering; just like birds in the trees, they go on chattering. Just the other day a few women were working here in the garden. The whole day they chattered -- the whole day! It cannot be purposeful because there is nothing... but they chattered. Just the mouth wants to eat continuously.

You see people sitting in a theater. They will go on moving their legs. Why are they sitting there? They should go out and walk! They are doing both. They cannot sit silently. And this is what is happening to your mind.

Mind is good in itself. Everything is good in itself, in its place. Then everything fits. The shoe fits perfectly when everything is in its place. When mind is needed, use it; when it is not needed, put it aside. You remain the master and everything is a function.

But the mind has taken over. Whatsoever you are doing, it goes on and on -- as if you cannot put your radio off, the knob is broken. It remains on and on. You are sleeping and the radio goes on and on. You are resting, you are eating, you are making love, and the radio goes on and on. And you have to tolerate it continuously. By and by, you become oblivious to the fact that the radio remains on; you simply don't listen.

That's what has happened to your mind. It goes on and on and on; you don't know where the knob is to put it off. So you don't listen, you simply tolerate it, neglect it. You have taken it for granted, as if it is going to be so.

This is not so, otherwise a Buddha cannot happen. And when I say this, I say it through my own experience. It is not so. The knob can be replaced. That is all that meditations do. They don't lead you to enlightenment, they simply knock a knob that is not there, or broken, or stuck, or still it is there, but you don't know how to use it.

Meditation is a technique, and the technique can help only some function, not your being. So no meditation leads you to being directly, it simply fixes your functions. Perfectly the shoe fits and you are enlightened.

Right is Chuang Tzu; "When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten." When every function fits, the body is forgotten; when every function fits, this world of appearances is no more. You are enlightened! Suddenly everything is illuminated as it is.

IF YOU WISH TO MOVE IN THE ONE WAY DO NOT DISLIKE EVEN THE WORLD OF SENSES AND IDEAS.

This IS BEAUTIFUL! He says... DO NOT DISLIKE EVEN THE WORLD OF SENSES AND IDEAS.

There are two types of people. One type goes on fighting with the senses: how to kill the body, how not to enjoy through the body, not to fall in love, not to eat with taste. They go on fighting with their senses, they become great ascetics. Basically they are masochists, they enjoy crippling themselves. But society pays them respect, and the respect becomes an allurement.

They are thought to be great men because they are not concerned with the senses. And they cannot be great, because senses are the doors to meet the infinite that surrounds you. Senses are the doors; from those doors the infinite enters you and you enter the infinite.

They go on closing their doors. Then their houses, their bodies, become prisons, and they suffer. And the more they suffer, the more they are respected and worshipped because people think they have done something miraculous, they have gone beyond the body.

There is no need to go beyond the body. The only thing is: the body should function rightly, perfectly. It is an art, it is not austerity. It is not an austerity; you are not to fight with it, you are simply to understand it. And the body is so wise -- wiser than your mind, remember, because the body has existed longer than the mind. Mind is a very new arrival, just a child.

Body is very ancient, very very ancient. Because you moved once as a rock; the body was there, the mind was fast asleep. Then you became a tree; the body was there, with all its greenery and flowers. The mind was fast asleep still, not so asleep as in the rock but still asleep. You became an animal, a tiger; the body was so alive with energy, but the mind was not functioning. You became a bird, you became a man... The body has been functioning for millions of years.

The body has accumulated much wisdom, the body is very wise. So if you eat too much the body says, "Stop!" The mind is not so wise. The mind says, "The taste is beautiful -- a little more." And if you listen to the mind, then the mind becomes destructive of the body, this way or that. If you listen to the mind, first it will say, "Go on eating," because mind is foolish, a child. He does not know what he is saying. He is a new arrival, he has no learning in him. He is not wise, he is yet a fool. Listen to the body. When the body says, "Hungry," eat. When the body says, "Stop," stop.

If you listen to the mind, it is as if a small child is leading an old man -- they both will fall in a pit. And if you listen to the mind then first you will be too much in the senses, and then you will get fed up. And every sense will bring you misery, and every sense will bring you more anxiety, conflict, pain.

If you eat too much there will be pain and there will be vomiting, and the whole body is disturbed. Then the mind says, "Eating is bad, so go on a fast." And a fast is also dangerous. If you listen to the body it will never overeat, it will never under eat -- it will simply follow the Tao.

A few scientists have been working on this problem and they have discovered a very beautiful phenomenon: small children, they eat whenever they feel hungry, they go to sleep whenever they feel that sleep is coming -- they listen to their bodies. But parents, they disturb them, they go on forcing: "It is dinner time, or lunchtime, or this and that, or sleeping -- time -- go!" They don't allow their bodies.

So one experimenter tried leaving children on their own. He was working with twenty-five children. They were not forced when to go to sleep, they were not forced when to get up. They were not forced at all for six months. And a very deep understanding came.

They slept well. They had less dreams, no nightmares, because nightmares were coming through the parents who were forcing them. They ate well, but never too much -- never less than necessary, never more than necessary. They enjoyed eating and sometimes they would not eat at all. When the body was not feeling to, they would not eat, and they never fell ill because of eating.

And one more thing which no one ever suspected came to be understood, and that was miraculous. Only Sosan can understand, or Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu, because they are the Masters of Tao. This was such a discovery! They came to understand that if a child was ill, then he would not eat particular foods. Then they tried to understand why he was not eating those foods. The foods were analyzed and it was found that for that disease, those foods were dangerous. How did the child decide? Just the body.

And when the child was growing, whatsoever was needed for his growth he would eat more of. Then they analyzed and they found that these ingredients are helpful. And the food would change, because the needs changed. One day a child would eat something and the same child the next day would not eat it. And the scientists felt that there is a body-wisdom.

If you allow the body to have its say, you are moving on the right path, the Great Way. And this is so not only with food, this is so with the whole life. Your sex goes wrong because of the mind, your stomach goes wrong because of your mind. You interfere with the body. Don't interfere! Even if you can do it for three months, don't interfere. And suddenly you will become so healthy, and a well-being descends on you. Everything feels okay, the shoe fits. But the mind is the problem.

The mind has its own function; that is, how to relate with others, how to move in this world where so many persons are living, how to drive a car, how to follow the rules and regulations of the traffic, how not to create danger for others or for yourself, how to look ahead and plan. The mind is just like a radar, it looks ahead -- where to move, how to move -- but the base remains the body.

Those people who are against the body and cripple their senses will miss their enlightenment for a longer period than those people who listen to their senses and follow their advice.

If you listen to the senses you become simple. Of course nobody is going to pay you respect because they will say, "This man is a sensual man." And a sensual man is more alive than a non-sensual man. But nobody is interested in life; everybody is interested in a dead thing to be worshiped.

Don't ask for any respect from people, otherwise you will go astray. And a moment comes when everybody can respect you, but you cannot respect yourself because you are completely astray. Nothing fits, everything goes wrong.

Listen to the body! -- because you are here to enjoy this moment that has been given to you, this graceful moment, this beatitude that has happened to you. You are alive, conscious, and such a vast world!

The human being is a miracle on this small planet -- very very small, tiny! The sun is sixty thousand times bigger than this earth, and this sun is mediocre. There are millions of times bigger suns than this, and there are millions of suns and millions of worlds and universes. And up to now it seems, as far as science goes, that life and consciousness has happened only on this earth. This earth is blessed.

You don't know what you have attained. If you feel what you have attained, you will be simply grateful and you will not ask for anything more. You could have been a rock and you could not have done anything about it. You are a man! And you are suffering, and you are worried, and you are missing the whole point. Enjoy this moment because this may not come again.

That is what Hindus mean: they say you can become a rock again. If you don't enjoy and don't grow in it, you will fall. You can become an animal again. This is the meaning: remember always that this climax of consciousness is such a peak -- if you don't enjoy and become integrated in it, you will fall.

Gurdjieff used to say that you have got no soul yet; life is just an opportunity to attain it, to become a soul. Don't go on wasting time and energy, because if you die uncrystallized you simply disappear. And who knows when the opportunity will happen again -- or not? Nobody can know, there is nobody who can say anything about it.

This much can be said: that this moment the opportunity is there for you. If you enjoy it, it becomes more crystallized -- if you feel ecstatic about it and grateful. Remember, nothing more is needed to be grateful. All that you have is too much, it is too much to be grateful and thankful for. Don't ask more from the existence. Simply enjoy that which is given to you. And the more you enjoy, the more will be given to you.

Jesus says, a very paradoxical sentence: "If you have more, more will be given to you, and if you have not anything, even that which you have will be taken away from you." Seems to be very anti-communist. Seems to be absurd. What type of mathematics is this? "The more you have, the more will be given to you; and if you don't have anything even that which you have will be taken away from you!" Seems to be for rich men and against poor.

It is not concerned with ordinary economics -- it is the ultimate economics of life. Only those who have will get more, because the more they enjoy it the more it grows. Life grows through enjoyment. Joy is the sutra.

Be joyful, grateful, whatsoever you have. Whatsoever! be ecstatic about it. And more opening, and more falls on you -- you become capable of being given more blessings. One who is not grateful will lose whatsoever he has. One who is grateful, the whole existence helps him to grow more, because he is worthy and he is realizing what he has got.

Be more loving, and more love will come to you. Be more peaceful, and more peace will come to you. Give more, and you will have more to give. Share, and your being increases.

But you never give, you never love, you never share. In fact you are not even aware that you have got anything. You are simply waiting that something is going to happen somewhere. It has already happened! Just look at it -- you carry the treasure. And you never give because you don't know it has happened to you, and you don't know that giving will become a growth.

It happened in a Jewish community: a saint was dying. He was a poor man, but very very rich -- rich in his being, rich in his ecstasy. He was a mystic.

And the whole community was concerned. All types of doctors were called but nothing could be done, and death was coming nearer and nearer every moment. Then the whole community gathered to do the last thing -- to pray. But it seemed even that was not working.

So the rabbi said, "Now we can do only one thing, and God will not be helpful unless we do that. We should share our life. So you donate a few days, a few years from your life to this dying saint."

So everybody came forward; people loved him. One man said, "Five years," another man said, "One year." Somebody said, "One month," Somebody even said, "One day." One miser said, "One minute." But even that -- even that, think, don't laugh -- even one minute of life is not a small thing, not a petty thing. When you are dying, even that one minute you will miss.

Then Mulla Nasruddin, who was also there, came forward. He was not a Jew but he also loved that mystic. And he said, "Twenty years!"

Nobody could believe it. One Jew who was sitting just behind him pulled his leg and said, "What are you doing, Nasruddin? Have you gone crazy? Twenty years! What do you mean? Too much! Are you mad? And you are not even a Jew!"

Nasruddin said, "From my wife's life!"

Nobody is ready to share anything. And unless you share you will not receive more, because you don't become capable of it. You are not worthy of it. Demand, and you will lose; give and you will get.

This life, as it is, is already TOO much. Be ecstatic about it, about small things. Even food should become a sacrament. Even shaking hands should become a prayer, it should be a giving. Even being with people should become a deep bliss -- because what has happened to you has not happened anywhere else. Says Sosan:

IF YOU WISH TO MOVE IN THE ONE WAY DO NOT DISLIKE EVEN THE WORLD OF SENSES AND IDEAS.

DON'T DISLIKE the world of senses, and don't dislike the world of ideas, because they too are beautiful in their own right. If you don't get involved with it, what is wrong with an idea? It is a beautiful flower. Mind is good if it is in its place.

Gurdjieff has a teaching, and very relevant to the modern man, that all your centers are mixed up. Their purity is lost; everything interferes with everything else. And he is right. When you make love, mind is not needed, but mind goes on functioning. Really you make love through the mind, not through the sex center.

Sex is not bad, sex is beautiful in its own right -- a flowering, a deep sharing, a deep meeting of two persons. But the mind goes on interfering. Then it is ugly, because this mind is a disturbance. Then the sex center will take its own revenge. You are studying Gita, Koran, Bible, and sex goes on coming into the mind, you go on thinking about sex. It has to be so, because you disturbed the sex center, so when will the revenge be taken?

Look at your advertisements. If you have to sell anything, first you have to make it sex-appealing. Whether you sell a car -- you have to put a naked woman with it -- or toothpaste? You have to find a naked woman. Anything! As if toothpaste is not the real thing, the real thing is the naked woman, the sex. You sell soap, and you have to add a beautiful naked body.

I have heard:

One Italian model, one woman, who was working for many years as a model for soap advertisements, once she was asked, when she became old and nobody bothered, "What type of soap do you really use?"

She said, "None, because every soap is destructive to the softness of the skin. I simply use wet wool on my body, that's why it is so beautiful! but I have helped to advertise all types of soaps, and they are selling."

When Mulla Nasruddin became a hundred years old I asked him: "Nasruddin, what is the secret of your long life?"

He said, "Wait! Within seven days everything will be settled, then I can say."

I asked, "What is the matter? What is to be settled?"

He said, "Many companies are after me, so my lawyer is settling things -- which vitamin helped, which food. Right now I don't know, but it will be settled within a week and then everybody will know."

Ideas are beautiful in themselves. Nothing is wrong. Everything is good if it is in its right place, everything becomes wrong if it is put in a wrong place -- then it never fits.

And that is the matter with you: everything is wrong. When you make love, the mind comes in. When you meditate, the sex comes in. When you eat, the mind comes in. When you go to sleep, the food comes in. All centers mixed in a chaos.

Let every center be pure, and let every center function in its own right, in its own time. It HAS its own time and its mood and its season. Don't allow it to move into others.

And start from the mind because that is the great disturber, the great noise-creator, and it moves in everybody's territory, and it wants to dominate everything. Remove that domination. Every sense should be pure and enjoyed in its own right. There is no need for the mind to come in.

Then when you enjoy mind, no center will interfere. Then it will not be a problem, because all other centers are innocent. Your mind is cunning -- and you listen to the cunning one, and you never listen to the innocent senses. Mind is clever, calculating. All other senses are just innocent and they cannot fight with the mind because mind is a great politician, and those senses are simple people. Sex is simple and mind goes on condemning. The sex center cannot do anything else than this, that the energy moves into wrong channels.

Enjoy every sense in its own right, and when you are enjoying it, become it -- so no energy is left to move anywhere, the whole energy moves into it. There is no mind at that time, no body at that time; you become the sex energy. When you are hungry become the hunger, and eat as if every cell of your body is hungry and absorbing the food. And let it enjoy.

And when you want to think, then sit under a tree, close your eyes -- enjoy thoughts! Nothing is wrong with thoughts. Enjoy them as a flowering, beautiful flowering, a great poetry in its own right. Then a clarity comes, then your waters are not murky, then the mud settles and you can see through things.

IF YOU WISH TO MOVE IN THE ONE WAY DO NOT DISLIKE EVEN THE WORLD OF SENSES AND IDEAS.

INDEED, TO ACCEPT THEM FULLY IS IDENTICAL WITH TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT.

If you can accept fully whatsoever you are, this is enlightenment. Don't think that when you become enlightened you will see lights and visions -- all nonsense! That happens on the path, but it is just a part of the mind, nothing of the ultimate. All your lights and experiences come through the mind.

Energy moves in the body; subtle senses are hidden there. They become active and you can feel many things. Nothing is wrong in them, enjoy, but don't think that is enlightenment.

Enlightenment happens only in that moment when there is no complaint in you, when you are not going anywhere, not desiring, not condemning, not judging. You simply exist and with total acceptance. This moment there is enlightenment.

Enlightenment is a VERY ordinary thing. It is nothing extraordinary, it is nothing special -- because the special is the search of the ego. It is just ordinary! There is no demand, no hankering for anything, no clinging. Simply you are, and you are happy -- happy without any cause.

Remember this. This is the difference between happiness and bliss. Your happiness is caused. Sometimes a friend has come and you are happy. How long are you going to be happy with the friend? A few moments -- and then you will be happy when he leaves. What type of happiness is this? It is caused, and the cause disappears. Sooner or later you become fed up and it disappears. Bliss is a happiness uncaused. Simply as you are, you are happy. There is nothing to say about why you are happy.

Look at the whole thing. You never think why you are miserable -- you are simply miserable. Whenever you are happy you start looking, "Why am I happy?" Misery seems to be natural; happiness seems to be something unnatural happening sometimes. Misery is your state and happiness is your hankering.

An enlightened person is simply happy, just as you are simply miserable. Simply happy! and is never miserable. Even sometimes when the shoe pinches, he simply puts it right. It is not misery, it is simply physical pain -- a discomfort, but not misery. He simply puts the feet right; he changes the shoes, or he walks without the shoe.

Discomfort can happen to an enlightened man, but never misery -- because how can misery happen? When there is no cause for his blissfulness misery is impossible. you caused, you cannot destroy it. Uncaused, how can you take it away? Uncaused, there is no opposite to it. This is ANANDA.

Hindus have a word, ANANDA: ecstatic bliss, uncaused bliss, for no reason and for no rhyme. That's why whenever someone is blissful the world will think he is mad. They will ask, "Why are you so blissful? Why are you laughing?" as if laughing is a crime. And if you say, "I am just laughing! It is so good tO laugh!" they cannot understand. For their laughter also tension is needed. And this is the base of all jokes.

Why do you laugh when a joke is told? What happens within you? What does the joke do? It creates a tension. The story goes on, and you become more and more tense inside, and you cannot imagine what is going to happen. Then suddenly there is a turn, and the happening is such that you never expected that this would happen.

If you can expect, that means if you know the joke, there will be no laughter. You will simply say the joke falls flat, because tension is not created. When you don't know the joke, the tension is created; you are waiting, you become watchful -- what is going to happen? And then the whole thing turns in such a way that you could not expect. The tension is released, you laugh. That laughter is a tension release, caused.

Why does sex give you pleasure? Because it is a tension. You eat, you breathe, energy is created, and life is always giving you more than you need. Life is abundance, life is a luxury, perfect luxury! It is not concerned with your needs, it always gives you more than you need.

That extra energy accumulates in the body -- that is what sex energy is. When it accumulates you get a tension in the body. Now the tension arises and then you have to release it. When the tension is released you feel happy, relaxed; you can go to sleep.

But the trick is in the tension. So if you make love too much and the tension is not created, everything goes flat -- the joke goes flat, there is no happiness. If you make love too much, you will be fed up with it, because it depends not on love, it depends on a built-up tension.

If you make love an everyday affair the energy is not overflowing. Then after lovemaking, rather than happy you will feel miserable, frustrated. Orgasm cannot happen because orgasm needs more energy than the body needs. It is overflowing, so the whole body throbs in it.

Remember, in repressive societies people enjoyed sex more, because even to meet with one's own wife was such a difficult thing. It was almost impossible to meet another's wife -- there were so many hurdles to be crossed to meet one's own wife.

In India you couldn't see your wife in daylight. Such a big family, a hundred people living together, sleeping together. Sometimes, even with your wife, you had to make arrangements to make love. It was beautiful, beautiful in a way, because tension was so high that there was a peak, and then there was a valley of relaxation.

In the West sex has become absolutely flat. Now nobody enjoys sex in the West -- there is too much. Before the buildup you throw the energy. In your whole life this is the way happiness happens: create tension, then relax it.

Bliss is not the same. It is uncaused. It is not a tension and release, is not concerned with tension and release at all -- it is simply the happiness that comes when you feel good with existence, when you feel you accept. When you feel that you accept, you suddenly feel the whole existence accepts you. Then you can bless the whole, and the whole blesses you. It is uncaused. It cannot be taken away. You cannot make me miserable. You can at the most make me uncomfortable, that's all.

There exists no opposite to bliss, ANANDA. It is absolutely uncaused. That's why it can be eternal -- because a caused thing cannot be eternal. When the cause disappears, the effect will disappear.

INDEED, TO ACCEPT THEM FULLY IS IDENTICAL WITH TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT.

THE WISE MAN STRIVES TO NO GOALS, BUT THE FOOLISH MAN FETTERS HIMSELF.

All your goals become fetters to you, they become imprisonments, you are caged in them. And then you suffer, and then you ask, "How to be free?" Be free of the goals and you will be free! There is nothing else to be done! Don't create a goal, then there is no imprisonment.

THERE IS ONE DHARMA, TRUTH, LAW, NOT MANY; DISTINCTIONS ARISE FROM THE CLINGING NEEDS OF THE IGNORANT.

TO SEEK MIND WITH THE (DISCRIMINATING) MIND IS THE GREATEST OF ALL MISTAKES.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING when you make a goal? Who makes the goal? The mind makes it, and then the mind seeks a way to reach it. Then the mind invents techniques, methods, ways. And then you follow those ways and methods. What are you doing? You are following mind, you are moving in a circle.

The goal is created by the mind, the means are created by the mind, and the mind leads you. How can you reach with the mind to no-mind?

And mind is tense, because mind canNOT be relaxed. It depends on the opposites. It is bound to remain moving into the extremes. It can condemn, it can appreciate, but it cannot accept totally. And the totality is the goal -- it can come only through acceptance.

Mind cannot accept, it can deny. And when it denies it feels very good, because of the ego. You are the denier. When it accepts, the ego feels very bad -- because when there is no denial, no fight, no conflict, nowhere to go, then what will you do? As if to just be here and now is useless. Somewhere else bliss is happening, and what are you doing here?

I have heard:

Once two bums were resting under a tree. The scene was peaceful and beautiful. A brook was bubbling just by the side and a beautiful cold breeze was blowing. One of the bums said to the other, "Right this moment, if a guy had fifty thousand dollars, I would not change places with him."

The other said, "And if he has one hundred thousand dollars, then?"

The first said, "Not even then."

The second still went on talking and said, Suppose he has one million dollars?"

Then the first got excited. He sat up and he said, Now it is different. You are talking real dough!"

This is how the mind goes: imagination, dream -- and the dream becomes the real dough. Nobody is there, but now excitement is there.

Think something and soon you get excited. Even a picture of a nude woman and you get excited, hence so much pornography in the world. It is just a picture -- lines and color on the paper, nothing else. There is nobody, and you know it well, but you will hide this picture from others, and when you are alone you will meditate on it. What are you doing? -- real dough.

Mind is just imagination, but you get excited. And once you get excited, the mind has sold you something. And then you will remain miserable, because the mind can sell the idea but can never supply the stuff. That is the problem: it has no stuff to supply. It can sell you the idea -- a good salesman, but nothing to supply. And by the time you reach and you ask, he will supply you with something else.

I have heard:

One salesman came back to his boss and said, "I am in a difficulty. That land we sold, now it is a problem. The man goes on phoning me, because the whole land is covered under six feet of water. And he says, 'What type of land have you given? And how is a building to be erected?' So what should I do? Should I give him the money back and cancel the whole thing?"

The boss said, "What type of salesman are you? Take two motorboats and sell them to the man!"

A salesman has to go on selling things. If this has not worked, then something else. And if the man got excited the first time, why not the next time? You only need tricks.

Mind goes on selling you ideas of the future. It cannot supply you because the future never comes. And whenever it comes it is always going to be the present. The supply is in the present, and the salesman talks about the future. The supply is here, and mind thinks in terms of hope, dream, imagination.

Accept the reality as you are and the world is. Don't try to change anything -- and there is enlightenment. And then everything changes, because now you are no more the same. If YOU change something, nothing will change. If you accept, everything is transformed. It becomes luminous with an unknown light. Suddenly a music is heard which you have never heard before, a beauty revealed which was hidden. A door opens, darkness disappears, a sun has risen.

But it happens only when you are at ease with yourself. It is a happening, it is not a result of your efforts. And don't feel unhappy, because if it is not a result then what can you do? Feel happy because it is not a question of your effort. You can attain it this very moment. There is no need to postpone it.

Understanding is acceptance. Acceptance is enlightenment. Buddhists -- and this Sosan is a Buddhist, a follower of Buddha -- have a particular word for acceptance. They call it TATHATA. It means no complaint, it means no condemnation, it means no appreciation. It means simply as things are, they are. Such is the way -- suchness.

And one lives in suchness. Whatsoever happens, one is ready to let it happen. Wherever life goes, one goes with it. Whatsoever happens is good. You don't create a conflict, you are with it. You float, you don't swim -- and you never swim against the stream. You simply float with the stream, and by and by you don't know who is who, what is what, who is the stream and who is the one who has become part of the stream. You become the stream! This is enlightenment.

Zen

HSIN HSIN MING: THE BOOK OF NOTHING

Chapter-6

Strive to no goals