Question 1

Maneesha has asked:

OUR BELOVED MASTER,

IS WITNESSING A LEARNING OR A REMEMBERING?

Maneesha, it is both and it is both not.

It is both in the sense that in the beginning you have to learn to enter into your inner temple. And then you have to remember continuously, because to forget again and again is human. But as your remembrance becomes a silent breathing in you, the moment you start breathing buddha in and out, then it is neither learning nor remembering.

It is simply you.

You have not achieved anything, you have not discovered anything; it has always been there. And whether you remember it or not, it will always remain there.

That's why Zen does not take things seriously. What does it matter? -- in this life or in some other life you are to become a buddha.

The buddha is the New Man.

He is the man of the future.

The whole human consciousness is moving towards buddhahood.

Strangely, it is already there within you, but you are not aware. Hence, a master can be helpful to you.

It is just like tickling you (THE MASTER MAKES TICKLING GESTURES TOWARDS US)... and you start laughing, and I have not tickled yet! (AGAIN HE MAKES THE MOVEMENT) ... And you will start feeling...(FOR THE THIRD TIME, HE STRETCHES HIS FINGERS TOWARDS US) the master's work is to tickle you. And it is a joy to tickle ten thousand buddhas!

Now it is time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh. He waits and waits for his time. If I go on continuing to tell jokes to you, one thing is certain: I may die, but Gurudayal Singh is not going to die. He will still wait.

At the end of the Sunday school class, the teacher, Miss Holynose, turns to the kids and says, "Now, how many of you children would like to go to heaven?"

Everybody shoots up their hand, except for one little girl.

"Come on, Sally," says Miss Holynose. "Don't you want to go to heaven?"

"Sure I want to go to heaven," replies Sally looking around. "But not with these guys!"

The body of Mendel Kravitz is lying in an open coffin in Finkelstein's Funeral Parlor. As the mourners file past to pay their final respects, Hymie Goldberg clucks his tongue and shakes his head.

"He was an atheist, he never believed in heaven and hell, you know," Hymie says to Grandpa Finkelstein, who is standing by the coffin, looking somber.

"Really?" replies the Fink, looking at the dead Mendel's immaculate suit and tie. "Then I guess he is all dressed up with nowhere to go!"

Gorgeous Gloria is fed up with her usual boyfriends, so she decides to join a computer match-making service. She sends in all her personal information and preferences and then waits excitedly for the result.

The very next day she gets a phone call from her first prospective date. After ten minutes of chatty conversation, the guy suddenly says, "I'm nine inches long and four inches around! Are you interested?"

"Interested?" cries Gloria. "I'm fascinated! And how big is your prick?"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes. Feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now look inwards with your totality of consciousness, with an urgency as if this is going to be your last moment of life.

Deeper and deeper...

Silence starts deepening. A subtle, undefinable bliss starts arising, a fragrance of udumbara tree. You are very close to buddha; just a little more and you ARE the buddha.

The only quality that buddha has is witnessing. Both the words mean the same: be a witness and you are a buddha.

To make this witnessing clear, more clear,

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax. The body is there, the mind is there, but you are neither.

You are the witness.

This witness is your only treasure. Everything will be burned on a funeral pyre; only the witness cannot be touched by any fire, by any sword. The witness is your eternity.

The evening was great on its own, but your silence, your peace, your blissfulness have made it a thousand times more beautiful. If you can keep witnessing through the day, twenty-four hours, your whole life will become just an ecstasy.

A man who dies without knowing ecstasy lived in vain, or lived not.

Before Nivedano calls you back, collect as much fragrance as possible to bring with you. You are coming back as a buddha, with the same grace, with the same joy, with the same fulfillment.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back silently.

Sit for a few minutes recollecting the experience you have been through, because you have to keep this experience around the clock. A day will come when you will not need to remember it. It will be there whether you look at it or not.

That day comes! -- I can say it with absolute authority, because it has come to me; why can it not come to you?

Every human being is a seed of the buddha.

Blessed are those seeds which come to their total flowering.

Okay, Maneesha?