No Mind, No Truth

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.

Anything more?

Question 1

When I say my work is done I mean I am finished with any seeking; I mean I have come to realize that there is nothing to be realized, nothing to be known, nowhere to go. This moment is enough, this moment is eternity. When I say my work is done I mean now there is no desire.

Desire is business. You have to do something, only then will you be happy. I am simply happy; it is not concerned with any doing, it is now uncaused. That is the difference between happiness and bliss. Happiness is caused -- you have a friend and you are happy; your beloved has returned and you are happy; you have won a lottery and you are happy. Causes are there; they are beyond you, they are outside you, so your happiness comes from the outside. It is caused, and that which is caused cannot be forever. The beloved may go back, the friend may turn enemy -- friends turn enemy -- and whatsoever you have achieved may be lost. That which is caused cannot always be there, cannot be eternal.

When I say my work is done I mean now my happiness is uncaused. There is nothing that is helping me to be blissful, I am simply blissful. It cannot be taken away. You cannot uncause it if it is not caused. You cannot do anything to it; it is simply beyond, it cannot be destroyed. My business is finished. And when I say my business is finished, I am finished, because I can exist only with the business. Then why am I here? This is one of the oldest questions.

Buddha lived for forty years after he became enlightened. After his business was finished he lived for forty years more. Many times it was asked, "Why are you?" When the business is finished you should disappear. It looks illogical: why should Buddha exist within the body even for a moment? When there is no desire, how can the body continue? There is something very deep to be understood. When desire disappears the energy that was moving in desire remains; it cannot disappear. Desire is just a form of energy. That's why you can turn one desire into another. The anger can become sex, the sex can become anger. Sex can become greed, so whenever you find a very greedy person he will be less sexual. If he is really perfectly greedy he will not be sexual at all. He will be a brahmachari, a celibate, because the whole energy is moving into greed. And if you find a very sexual person you will always find he is not greedy, because nothing is left. If you see a person who has suppressed his sex he will be angry; anger will be always ready. You can see in his eyes, in his face, that he is just angry; the whole sex energy has become anger. That's why your so-called monks and sadhus are always angry. The way they walk they show their anger; they way they look at you they show their anger. Their silence is just skindeep -- touch them and they will become angry. Sex becomes anger. These are forms; life is the energy. What happens when all desires disappear? Energy cannot disappear, energy is indestructible. Ask the physicists; even they say that energy cannot be destroyed.

A certain energy was existing in Gautam Buddha when he became enlightened. That certain energy was moving in sex, anger, greed in millions of ways. All forms disappeared, so what became of that energy? Energy cannot go out of existence, and when desires are not there it becomes formless, but it exists. Now, what is the function of it? That energy becomes compassion.

You cannot be in compassion because you have no energy. All your energy is divided, sometimes in sex, sometimes in anger, sometimes in greed. Compassion is not a form. Only when all your desires disappear does that energy become compassion, KARUNA. You cannot cultivate compassion. When you are desireless, compassion happens; your whole energy moves into compassion. And this movement is very different. Desire has a motivation in it, a goal; compassion is nonmotivated, there is no goal to it, it is simply overflowing energy.

So when I say I exist for you I don't mean that I am doing something to exist for you. Now I am not doing anything; forms of desire have disappeared. Now the energy is there, without me. The energy is moving and overflowing, and you can partake, you can feed on it. That is what Jesus meant when he said, "Eat me. Let me become your blood, let me become your food." This overflowing energy can become food to you, food of the eternal. I am not doing anything. When I say I exist for you it is only language, for there is no other language. I am not doing anything, this is how it is happening. My forms have disappeared; now a formless energy has remained, and it will go on overflowing. Those who are wise can partake, because soon it will become bodiless also. First energy becomes formless, desireless, and then it becomes bodiless.

The body has its own momentum. When one is born, when a buddha is born, he is born out of a communion of two bodies, the father and the mother; then particular chromosomes, particular cells, create his body. Those cells have a built-in momentum. That built-in momentum means that this body will exist for seventy or eighty years; this is a body blueprint. For eighty years this body can exist. The body doesn't know, cannot know, that the soul that has entered is going to become enlightened. This house cannot know that the person who has entered this house to live will become enlightened. And when this man becomes enlightened, even then this house will not know. The house will continue; it has its own life. The body has its own life, and the body is completely unaware that a person has become enlightened. It continues, it has its own momentum, its own fuel.

At the age of forty Buddha became enlightened. The body became irrelevant but it continued. It continued, it completed its circle; it was there for eighty years. It is good, for these forty years were the overflowing years, and we were able to know what enlightenment is. If Buddha had disappeared that very moment there would have been no religion. If the body had dropped, if Buddha had become enlightened and the body had dropped, he would not have been -- even to tell what had happened. This was good; existence was very compassionate. Buddha lived for forty years more, not with any motivation, but with the momentum of the body he just went on overflowing. This body will also disappear; the momentum has to be completed.

I am not doing anything for you; for that too is sort of egoistic, anybody thinking he is doing something for you. It is happening. The form of desires disappears and energy becomes compassion. The body has to complete its momentum; it has to complete its momentum, it has to complete its blueprint. This gap will be an overflowing. It is a feast, not given by me to you, it is a feast given by the whole.

Language creates problems. Language is always dualistic, language is always of this world. Language belongs to desire and it carries all the connotations, so it is very difficult to say anything about that which is not of this world. Either you have to be silent -- even then, silence too can be misunderstood -- or you have to use language. And every word is loaded.

If I say I am here for you, you can interpret it in such a way that it looks like a business, looks like a work. It is not, it is none of it; it is simply an overflowing of love. And I am not the doer for if I am the doer, there can be no love. Just a light is burning. You may find the path the light is there. You may use it, it may become a flame for you, it may kindle a light within you, but that depends on you. I am simply here. You are initiated, not by me but the energy itself. Eat me as much as you can, let me become part of you. Celebrate this occasion.

Jesus' words again create problems- words always create problems. Had Jesus been here, had he been here in the country of the Upanishads, Buddha and Mahavir, the language would have been totally different. Jesus was born a Jew; he had to use Jewish language, myth, phraseology. So he said, "The work, the business, that was given from my father to me, is done." If he had been here he would never have talked about "the father." The father is a Jewish concept; it is good, beautiful, but very anthropomorphic. God is not the father, God is not a person, and God is not in any sort of business. But Jews are businessmen, and their God is also a businessman, the super- businessman- controlling, managing, manipulating. And just as with a businessman you can seduce him, you can bribe him. He is a very real person. He will be angry: if you don't surrender to him he will throw you in hell; if you follow him, you will achieve paradise -- heaven and heavenly pleasures.

This whole language belongs to the world of profit, business. But every language has its own problems. This language is concrete and gives a very family-type appearance to existence: the father, son and the work.... You can reach the father through the son.... Jesus was simply using the language available.

In this country we have tried many linguistic patterns. Hindus use millions of types for Hinduism is not a religion, it is many religions. All types of religions exist in Hinduism; it is a crowd, it is a phenomenon in itself. Every type that has ever existed in the world exists in Hinduism. This is a miracle. Even an atheist can be a Hindu -- an atheist cannot be a Christian -- and even an atheist can become enlightened. Buddha was an atheist, he didn't believe in God. He said there is no God, and even more mysterious, he said there is no soul. He said nothing exists, and he became one of the incarnations of a Hindu God. It is really mysterious. This atheist, Gautam Buddha, became the Tenth avatar. He said there is no God and Hindus said: This man is God's incarnation he is Bhagwan.

Hindus say even a denial is a way of assertion; Hindus say even to say no is to say yes. This is very mysterious. They say even to say there is no God is to say God in a negative way. If God can be asserted in positive language, why not in negative? "It" is a word, "nothing" is also a word, and one is just as relevant as the other. Buddha said no; then no became absolute, nothingness became the nature. Shankara said yes; then yes became absolute, that "yesness," Brahma, became the source. But Hindus say both mean the same. Each language, each pattern of expressing it, has its own benefits and its own dangers and pitfalls.

I myself am inclined towards the negative, hence so much emphasis on Zen masters. I have really loved these anecdotes -- no mind, no truth, no understanding. Your desire is positive. If God is asserted in a positive way your desire will not die, your desire will turn towards God and you will start desiring God. Negativity is to say no to all your desires, to all your objects of desire. Then all desires and all objects disappear and only you are left in your purity. That purity, that innocence- the benediction of it- is what I want you to enjoy with me. It is not a teaching; I am not a teacher. It is not a doctrine, it is just you enjoying with me. I am available here, and if you put your mind aside we can celebrate. I am in an inner dance; you can also become a partner in it. You may call this my business.

My work is done as far as I am concerned because I am done. Now the energy has become a compassion and an overflowing, and all those who really want to taste are invited to do so without any condition. You are not to give anything, you simply are to take. No discipline, no bargain- nothing is expected on your part. It is a gift. It has always been so, it will always be so; the ultimate bliss is always a gift. That's why we have been calling it grace, PRASAD... as if the divine gives to you out of his overflowing energy.

I will tell you one story Jesus used to say. He repeated it many times- he must have loved this story. He said, "Once it happened, a very rich man needed some laborers in his garden to work, so he sent a man to the marketplace. All the laborers who were available were called and they started working in the garden. Then others heard and they came in the afternoon. Then others heard and they came just when the sun was setting. But he employed them. And when the sun went down, he gathered all of them and paid them equally. Obviously those who had come in the morning became disappointed and said, "What injustice! What type of injustice is this? What are you doing? We came in the morning and we worked the whole day and these fellows came in the afternoon; just for two hours they worked. And a few have just come, they have not worked at all. This is injustice!"

The rich man laughed and said, "Don't think of others. Whatever I have given to you is it not enough?" They said, "It is more than enough, but it is injustice. Why are these people getting when they have just come?"

The rich man said, "I give them because I have got too much, out of my abundance I give them. You need not be worried about this. You have got more than you expected so don't compare. I am not giving them because of their work, I am giving them because I have got too much... out of my abundance."

Jesus said some work very hard to achieve the divine, some come just in the afternoon and some when the sun is setting, and they all get the same divine. Those who had come in the morning must object: "this is too much!"

You just see: you have been meditating so much and suddenly someone comes just at evening and becomes enlightened. And you have been such a great ascetic. Just look: if all the ascetics reach and see that sinners are sitting just by the side of the throne of God, what will happen? They will become so sad: "What is happening?- these sinners never disciplined their lives, they never worked and they are here; and we were thinking they would be in hell!" There is no hell; there cannot be. How can hell exist? Out of God's abundance everything is heaven. It should be so, it must be so, it has to be so. Out of his abundance is heaven, there can be no hell. Hell was created by these ascetics because they cannot conceive of sinners in heaven. They have to make compartments; they cannot think that you will be there.

It is reported that one Hassid, a rabbi, Baal Shem, was visited by a woman. She was about seventy, h er husband was eighty, and now, by and by, was becoming a virtuous man. His whole life he had been a sinner so she had come to give her thanks that he had finally converted her husband -- which was impossible as he had been a sinner his whole life. But now he was turning so she was very thankful to Baal Shem. She had always been a pious lady, never wavered, never went wrong, always had been on the right track and always thinking that heaven was just waiting to welcome her, and always knowing well that this husband of hers was going to hell. So she said to Baal Shem, "There can be hope now- even my husband may reach heaven."Baal Shem laughed and said, "The greater the sinner, the greater the saint."

The woman became sad and said, "Then why didn't you tell me before? You should have told me forty years before."

The greater the sinner, the greater the saint. This woman will be in such hell if she finds her husband in heaven. These so-called virtuous people have created hell; otherwise, out of divine abundance, hell cannot exist. Saints will receive for they come in the morning; sinners will receive and they may have come in the evening. Everyone is going to receive. It is a gift.

I am here, not as a business but as a gift. But you are so afraid and fearful. You can understand business; you know the terms; you cannot understand a gift, you don't know the terms. You can understand if you have to fulfill some condition. If nothing is required of you, you are simply at a loss. All expectations belong to the mind, all disciplines belong to the mind, all so-called saintliness and so-called sin belong to the mind. When there is no mind, there is no sinner and no saint, and the gift simply showers on you.