... are surrounded by fear, remember that in life there is only one thing certain, and that is death. Hence, those who understand drop the fear. Because what else could be more insecure than life? To be alive means that at any moment death is possible. Security is possible only in the grave, because nobody has ever heard that anybody dies in the grave. Everything is secure and safe. Once Confucius was...

... asked the same question by one of his disciples - of course, in a little different way, in different words: "Master, tell us something about the fear of insecurity." And Confucius told him, "Don't be worried about that. Death will make everything secure. While alive, enjoy insecurity." Insecurity is synonymous with being alive. The more you are alive, the more insecure. The less...

... you are alive, the less insecure. Do you want the safety and security of death? There, it is absolute. A Sufi story: A great king was very much afraid of death. He had invaded many lands, created many enemies, and simultaneously he had created many nightmares that he would be assassinated, that he would be murdered, that he could not trust anybody. All around there were spies of the enemies who were...

... palace. And I was worried that perhaps you are not aware that for death, even this one door is enough. And guards will not be able to prevent death. I always wanted to see you and suggest to you that the best security is if you go in and tell the masons to close the door. Even one door is dangerous. You have left one loophole in your security system." Both the kings listened to him in amazement...

... with the security I have also found a tremendous thrill of living. "According to your own logic, if you close one more door this will become a grave. This has already become ninety-nine percent a grave, just one percent is left. The more doors you close out of fear, the more windows you close out of fear, the more you die. Now why not finish the whole fear?" The king never went to live in...

... that house. It was exactly right that the more secure you are, the more you have to be dead. And vice versa is also true: you want to live on the heights, sunlit peaks, you have nothing to lose. One day death is going to take away everything. That is absolutely certain, not a probability. And there is no way for you to protect yourself against it. This very understanding will drop the paranoia. Then...

... why be bothered? While you are alive, be alive as totally and as intensely as possible. In fact, death should be an incentive to live. If there was no death, you could postpone living. Because of death, postponement is not possible. You have to live this very moment because you cannot be certain about the next moment. Whether the breath that is going out will come back or not is absolutely...

..., "Somewhere I need, or I think I need, security and safety." For what? Do you want just to remain a vegetable forever - safe, secure, in cold storage? There are a few idiots in America - about ten are well known - who have stopped breathing, their hearts have stopped beating. But they were rich enough and, of course, they were afraid to die. So they have arranged for their bodies to be kept...

... life, they can only write it in bold letters. They can surround you with a feeling of sickness. If death is the end, then life is nothing but sickness -- sickness unto death. But existentialism can help intelligent people not to be satisfied with nausea, but to inquire. There have been people who have found themselves. Their serenity is a proof of it, their fragrance is evidence of it, their...

... has convinced millions of people that life need not be a sickness unto death; on the contrary life can become such a dance that death becomes the ultimate culmination of the dance. Life can be transformed so deeply that even death disappears as darkness and becomes a dawn, that even death is no more an end but a new beginning. Existentialism has paralyzed immensely, terribly, the intelligentsia of...

... understood very deeply, because philosophically it may become the cause of the third world war. It has destroyed all that was beautiful in life. It has negated everything that was valuable -- love, silence, meditation, joy. It has erased them all. Life is only a sickness, and we are clinging to life because we are afraid to die. It is not that we love life; we hate it -- but at least it is known. Who knows...

..., death may be far worse. It is better to remain with the known, although it is miserable. They have created the philosophical background for people like Ronald Reagan to destroy the whole humanity. If existentialism is true, then there is no harm in destroying the whole humanity; in fact it should be taken as a blessing that all sickness disappears, all that is ugly disappears. And all is ugly...

... politicians and philosophers. And these existentialists.... One wonders! I have written letters to Jaspers, to Jean-Paul Sartre and they didn't even have the courage to answer. I asked them, "If your philosophy is right, you should commit suicide. Why are you living? For what? Waiting for death?" According to them, life is nothing but a waiting room and the train that will come, its name is death...

... the Jews: without him, six million Jews would still be suffering from nausea, anguish, anxiety, meaninglessness. Adolf Hitler is a great savior. And now he has come in a far greater form as Ronald Reagan. Perhaps Ronald Reagan will prove the greatest savior of humanity by destroying all life. Existentialism has to be fought, it has to be destroyed by the roots, because it is in favor of death and...

... any distinction. There is no problem; a dead man is a dead man, it is just a corpse." Just then the old man tried to sit up. He was still alive and listening. He said: "My sons, just help me to find my shoes." They said, "What are you going to do with your shoes? Are you going to die with your shoes on?" He said, "I have still a little life left. I can walk to the...

...;because I'm afraid I have forgotten them." Now it is too long... eighty-eight years old, but still trying his best -- not accepting old age, not being worried about death, and although he had gone senile, still ready to live. But most people, even when they are young, are living reluctantly, resisting life, afraid of life, feeling guilty to live because that's what they have been told, that's how...

... death! You will have enough time in your grave. At that time you can meditate on what death is. Right now, live! And don't live lukewarm." Many people go on living on dimmer switches. They go on dimming, dimming. They don't die, they simply go on dimming; they simply fade out. Death happens to only a very few people, those who have really lived and lived hot. They know the difference between life...

... living for ever, so one day you will be dead. Death takes no exceptions - that you are a great scholar or a prime minister. You will die, that much I can predict. Nothing else is predictable but that much can be predicted easily - that you will die. And in your grave, silently, meditate on what death is." Confucius was trembling. The king also asked him, "You have been to Lao Tzu - what...

..., whatsoever happens, even if death happens, there is nothing to do but follow him. He will not turn back." My father said to my brother-in-law, "You don't know him, he is not the type to go back on anything. He would rather die - and we are both going to die with him! And we have unnecessarily got ourselves into trouble. I have been avoiding this for years, but just because of you, I agreed."...

... are the ignorant, for theirs is the kingdom of God already, now, here. It is not a question that they shall inherit sometime, somewhere in some life after death - that is mystifying. Mysticism is cash. Mystifying is a promissory note. Nobody knows whether you will be able to cash this promissory note. The government may fail, the bank may go bankrupt. Only banks can go bankrupt, who else? And this...

... promissory note can be cashed only after death, that is the condition on it. "In God we believe... in God we trust." And the pope promises you that this much will be given to you after death but it is always after death. They have been exploiting people with such simple means of exploitation that anybody who has a little bit of intelligence can see it. Life is mystery. Scriptures are mystifying...

... could have quoted all the old ancient scriptures but on his own? He had never thought about it, that anybody was going to ask, Have you something to say of your own? And when Lao Tzu looked at him Confucius knew that that man could not be deceived. Confucius asked him about something. Lao Tzu said, "No, I don't know anything." Then Confucius asked, "What happens after death?" And...

... and death because they have tasted life, and that experience of life makes them capable of tasting death too. And because they know life, they can know death. If living, you miss life; dying, you are going to miss death. "And you are wasting your time; just go out and live!" said Lao Tzu to Confucius. "And one day you will be dead. Don't be worried: I have never heard of anybody...

... afraid of death. People who are afraid of death eat more because eating seems to be the base of life. The more you eat, the more alive. This is the arithmetic in their mind. Because if you don't eat you die. So non-eating is equivalent to death and more eating equivalent to more life. So if you are afraid of death you will eat more, or if nobody loves you, you will eat more. Food can become a...

... something. It is a giving, wholehearted giving of all that you have, your being also. He cannot give love, he cannot receive love. Then what to do? But he hankers, as everybody hankers for love. It is a basic need just like food. Without food your body will die and without love your soul will shrink. It is a must. Then he has created a substitute, and that substitute is sympathy. He cannot get love...

... countries where divorce is not prevalent, women don't bother at all about their figures, because if divorce is possible then the women will have to find new lovers; they are figure conscious. The search for love helps the body figure. When love is settled, it is finished in a way. You need not worry about the body; you need not take any care. So this person may be afraid of death; may be he is not in any...

... deep, intimate love with anyone. And these two are again connected. If you are in deep love, you are not afraid of death. Love is so fulfilling that you don't care what is going to happen in the future. Love itself is the fulfillment. Even if death comes, it can be welcomed. But if you are not in love, then death creates a fear; because you have not even loved yet and death is approaching near. And...

... death will finish and there will be no more time and no future after it. If there is no love, fear of death will be more. If there is love, less fear of death. If total love, death disappears. These are all connected inside. Even very simple things are deeply rooted in greater patterns. Mulla Nasrudin was standing before his veterinary doctor with his dog and insisting that, "Cut the tail of my...

... has been misinterpreted in many ways. One is this - it seems that yoga is saying that you die to life because non-attachment means then you don't desire anything. If you don't desire anything, if you are not attached to anything, if you don't love anything, then you will be just a dead corpse. No, that is not the meaning. Non-attachment means don't be dependent on anything, and don't make your life...

... in a river, and he was just going to be drowned. He was not a religious man, but suddenly, at the verge of death, he cried loudly, "Allah, God, please save me, help me, and from today, now I will pray and I will do whatsoever is written in the scriptures." While he was saying this "God help me", he caught hold of a branch hanging over on the river. And when he was grabbing and...

... not a love. So he will do it, years. Even for his whole life he will be just a hired priest, a salaried man. In the end, he will die as if he has never prayed. He may die in the temple praying-but he will die as if he has never prayed, because there was no devotion. So don't do abhyasa, a practice, without devotion, because then you are unnecessarily wasting energy. Much can come out of it if...

... Lao Tzu, the wearing out and renewal ends. And where the wearing out ceases, death is impossible. Death is an accumulation of all the wearing out Every day the process of wear and tear takes place and, ultimately, death is the sum total. He who experiences this balance within himself does not succumb to either disintegration or death. The body is bound to die because the body lives in extremities...

... fill himself. Whatever the object, whatever the direction, be it of this world or the next, we remain empty, vacant. Sikandar died empty-handed, so did Einstein; so did all the great men of the world; they all left empty-handed. From childhood, we start this race to fill ourselves. All our life is spent in this pursuit and yet we die as empty as we were born. Those who are failures in life die empty...

...-handed, but those who count themselves successful, they too die empty-handed. Those who were failures at least had some hope of being filled if they were successful. One who has failed consoles himself that luck was against him or situations were not conducive to him and hence he failed. But those who succeed have no excuses left. They cannot say they had no opportunity. Sikandar could not give any...

... anything, the opposite is required. Emptiness hence becomes vivid because of our eagerness to be full. When this eagerness to be full no longer is there, the feeling of emptiness is also lost. We experience pain because we have expectations of joy. When there is no desire for happiness, there is no experience of unhappiness. Death frightens us because we hold on to life. If we do not hold on to life...

..., death will have no meaning. Insult pricks us like a thorn because we are eager for the flowers of honour and acclaim. If we do not hanker for the flowers, the thorns will disappear on their own. The opposite is always necessary in order to experience. Your emptiness is a proof of your ambition to be full; your sorrow is evidence of your yearning for joy. If insult pains you, it is a proof of your...

... calmness; it is death. It is not peace; it is the silence of the grave. Tranquillity is an alive happening. Such desolate silence is a dead thing. If the stillness and silence of the grave is the goal, we shall have to destroy ourselves. But this does not bring joy to anyone. Rather, the person is immersed in such deep dejection and melancholy, that life folds up its wings and ceases its Journey. We see...

... of life and death, of wearing out and renewal. This sounds strange because, generally, each one of us wishes to be a perfectionist. Everyone of us is constantly striving to be so. Lao Tzu says, "We do not have to be perfect. We have to be whole." There are two words in the English language, that we must note: one is "perfect" and the other is "whole". To be perfect...

... are dissonant, there is no music. When the mind is at the extremity it exists. When the extremities are lost, there is no mind. Then the consciousness, the spirit, the soul, is what remains. Such a person, says Lao Tzu, is free from the cycle of birth and death. He who establishes himself in this golden mean establishes himself in heaven. Both extremes lead to extinction. But there is no death at...

.... Birth is one extremity; death is the other. The mind also will go, for the mind also lives in extremities: pleasure and renunciation, friendship and enmity, love and hate; the world and nirvana. But there is another condition within: the state of balance. Only when this state is achieved can we know about that for which there is no death. And where there is no death, there is no rebirth. Without...

... talking about life after death, Lao Tzu says in this sutra that this is the only way to get out from the cycle of birth and death. Two things Lao Tzu has told us. One, complete involvement in our activities is necessary if we are to enter the opposite state; and two balance within the self is necessary so that no tensions are formed. Then, disintegration and death are impossible. Generated by...

... original." Somebody suggested, "Then the best way is, die standing on your head! We don't think that anybody has done that before. It is going to be unique - never done before and perhaps never in the future." Hotei said, "I like the idea!" Even at the point of death he stood on his head. And it is said that the disciples were at a loss to figure out what to do now. Because they...

.... He is just surviving, not living. He has chosen an anti-life attitude. He rejects life to gain spirituality. Necessarily, rejecting life, he rejects everything that is implied in life - all its colors, all its songs, all its beauties, all its joys. It is a tremendous phenomenon. He becomes dry, juiceless - just a skeleton, waiting for death so that he can be released from the body completely. Of...

... clarity, consciousness, love, compassion - but he remained a rascal to the very end. I mentioned the name of Hotei. He was just on his deathbed, and he asked his disciples, "Can somebody suggest to me a way to die which has never happened before? - because I don't want to die in the ordinary and common way. For example, most people die lying in their bed. "And," Hotei said, "that's...

... why I never lie in bed because that is the most dangerous place: ninety-nine percent of people die there! So I have been sleeping on the floor my whole life to avoid that place. "But I would like to die in my own way, just the way I have lived my life in my own way: not caring at all what others say but simply living spontaneously, out of my own being, out of my own insight. Whether I am...

... condemned or whether I am disrespected - that I have never cared about. But I am worried - I need some suggestion from you." Somebody suggested, "You could die standing." He said, "The idea is good!" Then one of the disciples said, "But it is not very original, because I have heard of a great rascal saint just like you who died standing. So it will not be very unique and...

.... She came up and she said, "Hotei, you rascal! Your whole life you have been this way - but at least behave at the point of death! Get up and lie down on the bed!" Naturally, when the elder sister says so.... Hotei jumped up, laughed, lay down on the bed and died! But this kind of saint is a very unique phenomenon. Tradition would not accept him, religions will avoid mentioning him. Even...

... after death he continued to be himself. Before dying he said, "Remember, I am not a traditional man, so please don't give me a bath". It was a traditional thing, that before taking him to the funeral pyre he should be given a bath. He said, "I have taken my bath in the morning so there is no need to give me a cold bath again. I hate it!" "But," they said, "you will...

... comes only once in a while. The whole crowd of disciples started laughing, because he had hidden in his clothes -fireworks! So, many things started exploding. He made a joke even of death! He created laughter even at his funeral. So I cannot say that a saint can be a rascal, but I can say certainly that existence is very accommodating: a rascal can be a saint, and perhaps a greater saint than your so...

...; Death comes without any concern about your involvements, and life goes on, undisturbed. A little stir, a little dust and the great wheel of life's chariot goes moving on. If you can be willing to die when death comes, I am bringing buddhahood to you. There is no problem. You can be a buddha and still go back home. The idea has been propounded for centuries that if you become a buddha, then what will...

... into the ways of power, money and prestige. You are lost in a jungle of desires, longings; you live thirsty and you die thirsty, while the source of all fulfillment is within you. Zen cuts all nonsense out. It is twenty-four-carat gold, no mixture. That makes it very simple and also very difficult. It is difficult, because the simple is the most difficult thing in the world to understand. It is...

... TZU, ONE DAY TOOK A BATH, BURNED INCENSE, SAT UPRIGHT AND SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES: 'THE BODY OF REALITY IS PERFECTLY QUIESCENT, WHILE GIVING THE APPEARANCE OF GOING AND COMING. THE THOUSAND SAGES ARE FROM THE SAME SOURCE; MYRIAD AWARENESSES ARE ULTIMATELY ONE. I AM NOW A BUBBLE BURSTING - WHAT IS THE USE OF SADNESS?'" He was going to die, he was going to leave the body that he had used up to then...

.... To be close to a master when he is dying is a great experience, because you know that in his death, you have touched the eternal. You know that nobody dies, that death has never happened and will never happen. Death is an ignorant standpoint. Awareness spreads all over existence. THE MONK SAID, "WHY DON'T I SEE?" WU TZU REPLIED, "IT IS NOT VISIBLE TO THE EYE." You never ask...

... way to repay it. All that we can do is show our gratitude. Maneesha has asked another question: BELOVED OSHO, SHOULD NOT WE POINT OUT TO THE SHANKARACHARYA OF PURI THAT ALL THIS RAIN HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WOMEN COMMITTING SUICIDE, AS HE WOULD LIKE THEM TO, BUT IS BECAUSE YOU DEDICATED THESE DISCOURSES TO THE CLOUDS? HIS ENTICEMENT TO DEATH AND YOUR POURING LOVE ON THE CLOUDS - DOES NOT THE...

... son is graduating and is going to open a shop. Just a few days more, let me remain ignorant. I will become a buddha when all other concerns are finished." But those concerns are never finished. Do you conceive of a time when you will not have any concerns? When death comes, do you say to death, "Wait, I have to at least close my shop," or "Wait, I have invited a guest."...

... light which can remain continuously through the twenty-four hours, like an underground current. It will change your whole life, its style, its pattern, its approach. Except this, there is no way to a metamorphosis. Except this, there is no way to eternity. In this moment, you are beyond life and beyond death. To make it deeper, Nivedano ... (Drumbeat) Relax, let go. Be almost dead. This will help you...

... appears that they are simply finished. If you want to know my view about it, I will say that Krishna gave them a fresh opportunity to begin their life anew, and live it in a right way. He gave them a clean slate to write on. In Krishna's view, in my view, nobody dies; there is no way to die. Death is a lie. It does not mean that you should go on a killing spree and kill people with abandon. Of course...

..., the day you come to know that no one dies, you will acquire the right to kill, because then killing will have altogether a different meaning. But then you, on your part, should have the readiness to die, because this readiness alone will prove that you really know that death is a misnomer and that nobody really dies. Krishna has this readiness in full measure. Every now and then he enters the den of...

... death at the hands of a person like Krishna is in itself a great phenomenon, because it happens in the presence of a catalytic agent. If you die in the presence of such a being, his vibes will go with your subtle body. And with the removal of the gross body, which was an impediment in the way of your meeting with Krishna, and with the assimilation of Krishna's vibes by your subtle body, your meeting...

... death with a smile on his face. That is the only test. He is yet a child, and he fights and wrestles with a terrible snake known as Kalia. As a child he fights with the most powerful demons. What does it all mean? It means that no one dies and that death is a lie, an illusion. It means that although death has an appearance, it has no reality. And if we know that death is a lie then we can realize the...

... GROSS BODY? They don't change on their own, but It makes a great difference if one has the rare opportunity of dying at the hands of a person like Krishna. And this opportunity comes once in a long while as a result of great meritorious karmas. Ordinarily, after death, one's mind does not undergo a change, only the body changes. Except the body, nothing of one's subtle form changes with death. But a...

... needs a profound monist, an adwait-wadin, to say that the sculptor and the sculpted, the statue, are one. It will be difficult for us to accept it. Our eyes, our intellect, our mind will refuse to accept that they are one. To say so seems to be utterly fantastic. Tomorrow the sculptor will die, but his statue will remain. It needs very penetrating eyes to see and to say that the sculptor will live as...

... perfection. The word sudarshan is one such word. Sudarshan, a Sanskrit word, means that which is good looking, beautiful. It is amazing that a weapon of death and destruction can be beautiful. Death is not supposed to be beautiful, but it becomes beautiful in the hands of a man like Krishna. That is the meaning of Krishna's weapon; it lends beauty even to death. The sudarshan is a very lethal, very...

... destructive weapon, as destructive as the atom bomb. But we cannot give this name sudarshan to the atom bomb. But Krishna does the miracle; he turns death into a blessing. Even death is beautiful if it is in the hands of a Krishna. And by the same logic a flower ceases to be beautiful if it is in the hands of a Hitler. Beauty depends on the quality of the person who holds it. That is how at the hands of...

... Krishna even death is blissful. And people on both sides of the Mahabharat know it; that is why they called his weapon by this beautiful name. A moment comes when Krishna plunges into battle with a weapon in his hands. This is an expression of his spontaneity. Such a person lives in the moment; he lives moment to moment. He is not tied to the past, not even to the minute that has just passed. And such a...

... passing moment. He lives today and dies to it as soon as it is gone. Before he goes to bed at night he will die to the bygone day; he does not carry even a bit of it over. And when he wakes up tomorrow, he will live in the moment that will exist then. That is how he is always new and young. He is never old; he is ever young and fresh. And because his being springs from the whole of existence, it is...

... manifest world nothing happens without a cause. If in this world of cause and effect you happen to come across a person like Krishna, it is never accidental. Nothing in this wide world is accidental. Not even accidents take place accidentally, so how can a death at the hands of Krishna be accidental? Really, nothing is accidental here. If I hug someone and quarrel with another, if I love someone and hate...

... Krishna. His death, from his side, is not without cause. This man had been living a sequential life, a life connected with a long dead past; he was not living a spontaneous life. How can the life of a demon be spontaneous? And whoever is not spontaneous is no different from a demon. His life is inextricably bound up with his past; he lives through his dead past. If such a person dies at the hands of...

... Krishna it means that his death is a link, the latest link in the long chain of his past. His death flows from his past, although it is causeless for Krishna, from Krishna's side. Krishna would not have gone searching for this man in order to kill him; on the contrary, the man himself came to him to court death. This is altogether a different thing. Similarly, whosoever goes to him, Krishna's love is...

.... Question 16: QUESTIONER: WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN SAYING ABOUT KRISHNA AND HIS MYRIAD VIRTUES HAS SWEPT US OFF OUR FEET, AND WE SEEM TO HAVE TURNED INTO HIS DEVOTEES. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THERE ARE NO INADEQUACIES IN HIS LIFE? IS IT NECESSARY THAT WE JUSTIFY HIS EVERY ACTION WHETHER IT IS DANCING WITH THE GOPIS OR HIS STEALING THEIR CLOTHES OR GOADING PIOUS YUDHISTHRA TO LIE ABOUT THE DEATH OF ASHWASTHAMA? AND...

... for us that we can sacrifice everything, including the lungs, for its sake. Someone dies for love. He dies for the sake of the heart that does not exist in the eyes of the scientist. What will you say about this man? How can you deny the fact of his death? Someone, a Majnoo, is madly in love with a Laila. He is mad to win the heart of his beloved. You can say that this madness is wrong, but in spite...

... will not enter in you. He can enter only when you are completely unprotected. It is a dangerous path, but the risk is worth taking. This is the only way that one becomes that which one is meant to be. We are almost like seeds: if we don't die, and if the hardness is not dropped, we will never become a sprout. And for the seed the rainshower is meaningless. For a sprout, it is a great benediction. The...

... waste it. And the greatest use that you can put this moment to is meditation. Everything else eventually proves meaningless. Earn money, become respectable, have political power, mm? one day death comes and everything is taken away and you are a beggar again. - Only meditation cannot be taken away by anything - not even by death. One can continue meditating while one is dying. One can not remain rich...

... while one is dying - one can remain a meditator. One cannot have power while one is dying, but one can keep silent, one can remain silent. And if you can remain meditative even while death is happening, you have known something which is indestructible; even death cannot destroy it. That's what life is really. You have known life. That which can be destroyed by death is not life. It is a misnomer. How...

... life can be destroyed by death? So we must have been thinking that it was life - but it was not... we were deceived. Eventually, finally, one comes to know that only death is the criterion, and that only meditation passes through the gates of death, nothing else. So devote all your energy to meditation. Your life will be enriched and your death too. When you are enriched, everything is enriched...

... - your life, your death, your love. When you become centred, all your activities are enriched because you start functioning from a totally different realm... from your innermost core. Even if you say 'hello', it comes from your heart. If you shake hands, it has a warmth, a spiritual quality to it. So use your time, mm? [A sannyasin says: I've been painting and doing sculpture, but in the last year I've...

... too strict and hard, and in that very hardness the heart is crushed to death. Philosophy is so vague, making castles in the air, beautiful castles but it does not bring to the world any new fragrance, any new form of transformation. Zen in some way accumulates all that man has created, but its approach is more aesthetic. All religions talk about truth, about beauty. In fact, truth, beauty and God...

... dissolved into it one day. It is your life, it is your death. But whether in life or in death, you will remain part of the cosmos. Zen does not talk about God, for the simple reason that there is no such person as God. What is there? - a tremendous quality of eternal life all around. Nothing dies; if this wave is disappearing another wave is coming, and the disappearing wave will simply go to sleep just...

... feelings are. Zen is the purest religion, with no hang-ups. Before I take the sutras, a little biographical note: RYUSEN WAS A DISCIPLE OF KYOZAN. HE BECAME A MONK AT THE AGE OF SEVEN AND STUDIED ZEN UNDER DAIJI, A DISCIPLE OF HYAKUJO AND THEN WENT TO KYOZAN, UNDER WHOM HE BECAME ENLIGHTENED. WHEN RYUSEN WAS ABOUT TO DIE, AT MIDNIGHT HE SAID TO HIS MONKS, "IF YOU USE UP THE MIND OF THE THREE WORLDS...

..., THAT IS NIRVANA." SAYING THIS HE SAT IN THE PROPER MANNER, AND PASSED AWAY. A man who has been going deeper into meditation passes the door of death many times. Whenever he goes, he passes it, whenever he comes back... It is simple to understand that death has nothing to do with life. Death is a door. If you move inside the door, you move into the universe. If you move outside the door, you move...

... into mortal existence. And because we go on living on the outside our whole life, the fear of death arises. And out of fear - it is a chain - other things will arise: out of fear you will believe in God; out of fear you will believe in the priest; out of fear you will go to the temple, to the mosque, to the church. Out of fear you will fast, out of fear you will worship; out of fear you will do all...

... found Kyozan, the road came to an end. Then he remained with Kyozan, and became enlightened. He established a new monastery in the mountains. And the night that death was going to come to him, he asked his disciples to wait, "because in the middle of the night I am going to leave my body." This has been a Zen tradition, that at the last moment disciples ask the master whatever is the most...

..., if your mind does not get oxygen for six minutes, it will die, and you will die with it. And the wisdom of the body is independent, because you have to sleep too. In sleep you may forget breathing. In fact, even awake you cannot remember your breathing. If you can remember your breathing for one minute, you are on the right path. You will be surprised that you cannot remember even for one minute...