In order to test whether the Mulla
was sensitive to philosophical knowledge
he made a sign, pointing at the sky.
The philosopher meant: There is only one truth,
which covers all.
Nasruddin’s companion, an ordinary man, thought:
The philosopher is mad.
I wonder what precautions Nasruddin will take.
Nasruddin looked in his knapsack and took out a coil of rope.
This he handed to his companion.
Excellent, thought the companion.
We will bind him up if he becomes violent.
The philosopher saw that Nasruddin meant:
Ordinary humanity tries to find truth by methods
as unsuitable as attempting to climb
into the sky with a rope.
Now can you remain content with the fact
of Mulla Nasruddin giving the rope to his companion
without any interpretation whatsoever?
Remain with the fact, and you will be in meditation.
167. Love.
The ego is necessary
for both the sensation of pain and the feeling of pleasure
and vice versa also –
the sensation of pain and the feeling of pleasure,
are necessary for the existence of the ego.
In fact these are two sides of the same coin.
The name of the coin is ignorance.
Understand this
and do not fight with the ego
or with pain and pleasure,
because unless ignorance is gone
they will not go, they cannot go.
And you cannot fight with ignorance
because ignorance is just absence of something –
absence of yourself.
So be present to your ignorance,
be aware of it,
and then you will be and there will be no ignorance
because you and ignorance cannot exist simultaneously,
as with light and darkness.
168. Love.
A small boy with a penny
clutched tightly in his hot little hand
entered the toy shop
and drove the proprietor to distraction
asking him to show this and that
and everything
without ever making up his mind.
Look here, my boy, said the storekeeper finally.
What do you want to buy for a penny –
the whole world with a fence around it?
The boy thought for a moment
and then replied: Let me see it.
And I say to you that ordinarily
no one in this world is different from that small boy.
But unless one is different, one is not mature.
And maturity does not come with age alone,
maturity comes through understanding the distinction
between that which is possible
and that which is not possible.
169. Love.
Things go on changing without.
You must mirror them,
you must reflect them,
but remember always that the mirror remains the same.
Mirroring does not change the mirror.
Do not be identified with mirroring.
Remember yourself as the mirror –
that is what is meant by witnessing.
And witnessing is meditation.
Lieh-Tzu exhibited his skill in archery to Po-Hun Wu-Jen.
When the bow was drawn to its full length
a cup of water was placed on his elbow
and he began to shoot.
As soon as the first arrow was let fly
a second one was already on the string
and a third followed.
In the meantime he stood unmoved like a statue.
Po-Hun Wu-Jen said: The technique of your shooting is fine,
but it is still a technique.
You look just like a statue from without.
Now let us go up to a high mountain
and stand on a rock projecting over a precipice
and then you try to shoot.
They climbed up a mountain.
Standing on a rock projecting over a precipice
ten thousand feet high
Po-Hun Wu-Jen stepped backward
until one third of his feet was hanging over the rock.
He then motioned to Lieh-Tzu to come forward.
Lieh-Tzu fell to the ground
with perspiration running down to his heels.
Po-Hun Wu-Jen said:
The perfect man soars up above the blue sky
or dives down to the yellow springs,
or wanders about all over the eight limits of the world,
yet shows no signs of change in his spirit.
But you betray a sign of trepidation
and your eyes are dazed.
How can you expect to hit the target?
170. Love.
Do you want to ask questions?
Or do you want to get answers?
Because if you want to ask questions
then you will not get answers,
and if you want to get answers
then you cannot be allowed to ask questions –
because the answer is in that consciousness
where the questions have not yet been raised,
or have been uprooted and thrown out.
171. Love.
I hope you will be moving in deep meditation.
Breathe in it
sleep in it
live in it –
let meditation be your very existence.
Only then is the happening.
Don’t do it, but be it.
And my blessings are always with you.
If you need any help from me just ask when
you are thoughtless,
and it will be given to you.
172. Love.
A madman entered the bazaar and declaimed:
The