To face a Buddha is dangerous

Bodhidharma, for the first time in these sutras, looks at the people who are not enlightened and who are bound to misunderstand him. Hence, he talks about the possibility of the ordinary, unenlightened mind, and how it looks at things. He himself talks about it, so that he can make it clear that all these so-called understandings of the mind -- either shallow or deep, or even very deep -- all are wrong.

This is very rare, because Bodhidharma never thought about the people who would be his audience. He only thought about the truth. And he talked about it without any consideration of those who were listening to it, or reading it. This is part of his compassion; this is the part that makes the arhatas and the bodhisattvas separate.

Arhatas never, never think about anybody else. If they speak, they are just speaking to themselves. Most probably they remain silent. They have a profound respect for others, but they know that to tell them about the ultimate is to disturb their ordinariness. It is an interference in their mundane minds -- although it is for their own benefit. But they are not asking for it, and unless they invite the truth, the truth is not going to knock on their doors.

The truth is almost like the sun in the morning. It rises ...it does not knock on your doors saying, "I am here and the night is over and you can wake." It does not go to every nest of the birds, to tell them, "Now it is time to sing, I have come," nor does it go to every flower to open its petals and release its fragrance.

It simply comes. Those who are receptive will receive it. Those who are not receptive will not receive it. Those who are awake will know that the morning has arrived, but those who are fast asleep will not know, even in their dreams, that the night is over. But the sun does not interfere.

The understanding of the arhatas is that compassion means not to interfere, not to trespass, even though it is for the benefit of those against whom you are trespassing. Trespassing in itself is against the dignity of individuals and it is a humiliation. To say to someone, "You are asleep," means you are putting yourself on a higher pedestal. You are saying, "I am awake and you are asleep," you are saying "I am holier than thou, higher than thou; I have arrived to the ultimate peak of my consciousness and you are still wandering in the world of darkness, groping everywhere, stumbling, falling and finding no way out."

Even to advise anyone is to take a certain position: "I know and you do not know." The arhatas' standpoint is that it is against compassion, it is against reverence for life; hence they remain silent. If anybody feels their presence on his own accord and comes close to them to drink the living waters of their experience, they are available -- just like the river passing by. You can quench your thirst, but it is absolutely up to you; the river will not do anything on its own part. It is a beautiful approach. But the approach of the bodhisattvas, to whom Bodhidharma belongs, has its own beauty.

The bodhisattvas make every effort to awaken people, knowing perfectly well that out of a million people, perhaps one may understand them and the remaining will either be indifferent, or most probably will misunderstand.

Bodhisattvas know perfectly well that speaking the truth is a very shortcut way to create enemies in the world, because the whole world is full of lies. All the vested interests are based on lies. The so-called religions, the so-called nations -- all are fabrications of cunning minds.

An authentically religious man belongs to no religion and belongs to no nation and to no race and to no color. He belongs to the whole humanity. All the nations are his. He does not believe in political boundaries created by the cunning and dirty politicians. And he does not believe in the discriminations created by the priests, by the popes, by the archbishops, by the shankaracharyas, by the rabbis.

He believes that every human being has a divine nature, and every human being has the potential to grow into a beautiful lotus flower -- a lotus flower that belongs to eternity, a fragrance that comes but never goes.

Knowing all this, the bodhisattva still makes every effort; it does not matter even if he is crucified. Jesus is a bodhisattva, so is Socrates a bodhisattva, so is Al-Hillaj Mansoor. Even if it means crucifixion, it does not matter if it can help somebody, somewhere, to get out of his sleep.

A bodhisattva is ready to accept all condemnation from the whole world, but he cannot remain silent and unsharing. That is impossible for him.

As far as I am concerned, both are absolutely right. There is no contradiction.

They are both representing two sides of the same phenomenon. Their expression of compassion is different, but it IS the expression of compassion. Both are expressing it in their own unique ways.

The sutra:

It needs some explanation. It is possible you may pass a Gautam Buddha without recognizing him because the recognition of a buddha, of an awakened being, needs some insight on your part. It depends on you, your understanding. If you don't have any understanding of the awakened one, you may pass by his side and you may not even feel anything. You are closed. The sun is there but your doors and windows are all closed. The sun is there but you are standing with closed eyes.

The first recognition comes from people who are trying to do good according to their small understanding. Whatever they feel -- helpful to humanity, helpful to the animals -- they are trying to do something to beautify existence. They don't want to be just a burden on the earth. They want to contribute something; they want to leave the world a little better than they found it when they came into existence.

These people will see buddha's first body, the transformation body. They will see buddha surrounded with an aura of light. You have seen pictures of Jesus, of Krishna, of Buddha with a surrounding aura. That is an actual phenomenon and now it has a scientific basis to support it.

In the Soviet Union, a great scientist and philosopher, Kirlian, developed a special camera and specially sensitive films, so sensitive that they can see things which your eyes cannot see. His first experience was of tremendous wonder because his photographs showed auras around everybody, not only around human beings but around animals and around trees, around a roseflower. The roseflower was there in the picture and just by the side, a small light-aura.

He was surprised to know that the more silent, peaceful a man was, the bigger was the aura. And the more angry, anxiety-ridden, sad, miserable, full of anguish a man was, the smaller was the aura. And before a man was going to die, six months before, the aura completely disappeared; then his photographs came without any aura, just like ordinary photographs.

This aura has been seen by sensitive people, just as Kirlian's sensitive films photograph it. The sensitive disciples of Jesus will see something which others will not be able to see. The sensitive disciples of Gautam Buddha who have lived in deep love with him, who have been showered by his blessings, who are completely drowned in his being, will be able to see something which an ordinary spectator will not be able to see. The more they become receptive, the more they become sensitive, the more Buddha's reality becomes apparent to them.

The first experience is of the transformation body: a thin light body, just four inches bigger than your body ...just around your body a four-inch aura of light, very soft light. This is the body that transmigrates. That's why, before death -- as Kirlian discovered -- six months before, this body starts disappearing, it starts becoming condensed inside the being of man. It takes six months for it to come back to the center and become just a point of light instead of a big aura. And this small point of light transmigrates while your whole body remains here.

Scientists have been trying to prove that there is no soul on the grounds that when they weigh a living man just a moment before he dies, and when they weigh him a moment after, his weight is the same -- absolutely the same.

Naturally their conclusion is that nothing has gone out and; hence, that there is no soul. If something goes out and, then the weight will be less. But now it can be told to the scientists that light has no weight; that's why if a point of light transmigrates it won't make any difference on your weighing scales.

Light is absolutely weightless and the transmigration body is nothing but pure light. This is experienced by people even of shallow understanding. Those who don't understand much, but still have a little consciousness -- just a shallow consciousness -- even they can see this light.

But the people of moderate understanding can see a deeper body, hidden behind this thin layer of light, a thicker layer of light known in the Buddhist scriptures as the reward body. It arises only when one has been meditating so much that one is earning immense reward. In this world the greatest treasure and the greatest reward is to learn to be silent, to be utterly silent. This is a silence body. But it is possible to be seen only by those who have come very close to Gautam Buddha.

I have always divided people into three categories. The first is the student who comes to the awakened one. The student is capable of seeing the first body, the transformation body.

The second is the disciple, who is not there with the buddha or any awakened human being out of curiosity -- who is not there just to accumulate knowledge -- but who himself wants to come to the same space, to the same blissfulness, to the same benediction. The disciple has taken a quantum leap from the student. The student is interested in collecting more and more information; the disciple is interested not in information but in transformation. He wants to change into a different being, a being which is beyond the mind. He is capable of seeing the second body, the reward body.

The reward body is really existence recognizing your meditation, your silence, and showering flowers on you. Existence is immensely happy when someone becomes enlightened, because the enlightenment of one person is really the triggering of enlightenment for many people. It can become a long chain, which can go for centuries. For example, what was triggered by Gautam Buddha's enlightenment is still triggering people into enlightenment. Twenty-five centuries have passed, but the chain has continued. It is a chain reaction.

There are very few religions in the world which are still alive. Zen is still alive.

There are still people who can be called contemporaries of Gautam Buddha; they are connected so deeply that you cannot separate them, by time or by space.

In Mohammedanism, only a small school of Sufis is a living part; the whole of the rest of that religion has died. But Sufism is still continuing a chain reaction.

Still there are people who are awakened.

In Judaism, the whole religion except for a small school of the Hassids is dead.

Those Hassids have been carrying the torch for centuries. They are still creating more and more enlightened people.

Strangely, Hinduism and Christianity are completely dead religions. They don't have even a small stream of living masters. And they are very important religions. Hinduism is the oldest religion of the world and Christianity is the biggest religion of the world, but both are completely dead. They are just an ugly weight on humanity. Nothing blossoms in their gardens; no flower comes to release its fragrance. They are lamps without any flame in them.

It is said of Diogenes, a man of the same caliber as Bodhidharma .... If they had met, it would have been a great meeting. Diogenes was in Greece. He lived naked; he had such a beautiful body that to hide it behind clothes would have been a crime. It is perfectly good to hide an ugly body behind clothes but a beautiful body needs to be available for anybody who wants to see the beauty, the proportion. Diogenes was one of the most beautiful men. Even when Alexander the Great met him, he felt a little embarrassed -- although he was a world conqueror, compared to Diogenes he was utterly poor.

Diogenes had nothing, but his richness was radiating from his naked body.

Diogenes used to carry a lamp, even in the daytime. He was thought to be a little crazy -- obviously. In a world of insane people, anybody who is sane is bound to be thought a little crazy. And he was doing something which you will also feel looks a little crazy. Whomever he would meet on the way, he would take up his lamp and look at his face. And when asked, "What are you doing, Diogenes? It is full daylight; you don't need to keep your lamp burning," he would say, "no, I have to keep it burning. I am searching for an authentic man."

When he was dying, his lamp by his side, somebody asked, "Diogenes, your whole life you have been searching for an authentic man. What happened? Did you meet any authentic man or not?" He said, "Thank God, although I never met any authentic man I have saved my lamp."

Because the world is so cunning, so full of thieves, even to save one's lamp is to be fortunate. This Diogenes was an awakened man. In fact, he was not looking in your eyes when he raised his lamp, he was showing his eyes, so that you could see clearly into his eyes, and THERE was an authentic man. And if you had looked into his eyes, you would have changed totally into a new being.

A disciple looks into the eyes of the master. He looks into the very depth of his eyes. A disciple is not interested in what the master is saying, he is interested in what the master IS.

Then he comes to know the second body of the master; his treasure, his reward body. The whole existence has been showering millions of rewards on the master. But there is still a third step. The man of the deepest understanding comes to know the third body, the deepest body.

The student comes to know the first body, the disciple comes to know the second body and the devotee comes to know the third body, the real body, the buddha's real being. Again there is a quantum leap -- from disciple to devotee. Disciple comes very close, very, very close, but even closeness is a distance. The devotee simply melts and merges into the master. He is not close, he becomes one. And in this oneness he comes to know the real body of the awakened being.

But Bodhidharma says: these three bodies and the experiences of these three bodies are of the normal mind. Actually, there is not even one buddha-body. A man of enlightenment is utterly nobody -- or no body. That's what the meaning of nobody is. He is pure emptiness. He is just pure sky without any limitations.

This infinitude is known only when one becomes a buddha.

The devotee merges with the buddha, but in a subtle way he still carries his idea, "I am a devotee, a lover. I have surrendered everything." A very subtle "I" -- almost on the verge of disappearing, but it is there. He has not yet experienced the emptiness of the master.

There is a story about a great Zen master, Lin Chi. The day one of his disciples was going to become enlightened ...he had come a long way and the master had been watching his progress, and he knew that as the sun set that day, before that time, the disciple was going to become enlightened. He had come so close, it was just like a moth flying closer and closer to the flame of a candle. One could say that it was not going to take much time. The moth has come so close that soon it will be falling into the flame and disappear for ever.

Lin Chi called his disciple and told him, "Listen, I have been beating you for years." That is part of Zen tradition. That is the only tradition where the master is allowed to beat the disciple ...for strange reasons, or for no reason at all. Only he knows why he is beating him: sometimes he brings a wrong answer to a question, then the master slaps him.

But sometimes disciples are simply amazed. They have not even spoken a word and the master starts slapping them and they say, "This is too much because we have not said anything." The master says, "That does not matter. We know what you were going to say, we could read it on your face. We knew the way you entered the room ...so why waste time? First, you will have to say things and then we will have to beat. Make it short. Get a good beating and go away. Find out the right answer."

And it is a well-known fact that when the disciple finds the right answer he has nothing to say, because the right answer cannot be said. Only wrong answers can be said.

So Lin Chi had been beating the disciple on and off, and suddenly he called him.

He was sitting outside in the garden meditating on the koan for which he had been getting beatings. The disciple said, "Why has he called me? because I don't have anything to say." And before entering the door of the master's room he said clearly, "I don't have anything to say, so don't start slapping me. And I have not come of my own accord; you have called me."

Lin Chi said, "That's true. You have not come, I have called you, but I will slap all the same for a totally different reason today. Just come close."

The disciple said, "This is going too far. I have been told that when you don't have anything to say, you cannot be slapped. You are breaking even that rule."

The master said, "Don't waste time. Just come close. I am going to slap you because after today I will not be able to slap you again. This day you are going to become enlightened, so this is the last chance. Let me have a good .... Tomorrow you can slap me -- you will have the right -- but today is my last chance." And he slapped him.

This is a beautiful tradition. It shows great love. A master beating the disciple for no reason at all, just because he is going to become enlightened today and from tomorrow he will not be able to beat him ...! The disciple became enlightened that day and the next day when he came to see the master, the master closed the doors. He said, "You can say anything you want to say from outside the room, because I am an old man. You must understand that slapping me is not right, so from now on doors will remain closed for you. You can say anything you want to say a little loudly from outside."

The moment a devotee forgets even that he IS, that no idea of I AM arises in him, then he comes to know that the buddha has no body at all. That buddha is a nobody; he is simply pure silence, emptiness, a total zero.

BUT ACTUALLY, THERE'S NOT EVEN ONE BUDDHA-BODY MUCH LESS THREE. THIS TALK OF THREE BODIES IS SIMPLY BASED ON HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, WHICH CAN BE SHALLOW, MODERATE OR DEEP.

PEOPLE OF SHALLOW UNDERSTANDING IMAGINE THEY'RE PILING UP BLESSINGS AND MISTAKE THE TRANSFORMATION BODY AS THE BUDDHA. PEOPLE OF MODERATE UNDERSTANDING IMAGINE THEY'RE PUTTING AN END TO SUFFERING AND MISTAKE THE REWARD BODY AS THE BUDDHA. AND PEOPLE OF DEEP UNDERSTANDING IMAGINE THEY'RE EXPERIENCING BUDDHAHOOD AND MISTAKE THE REAL BODY AS THE BUDDHA. BUT PEOPLE OF THE DEEPEST UNDERSTANDING LOOK WITHIN, DISTRACTED BY NOTHING. SINCE A CLEAR MIND or better, no-mind, IS THE BUDDHA, THEY ATTAIN THE UNDERSTANDING OF A BUDDHA WITHOUT USING THE MIND ....

INDIVIDUALS CREATE KARMA.

Before we enter into this sutra, you have to understand this word KARMA. It means action. But action can be of two types: either it can be a reaction or it can be a response.

Somebody insults you. You become angry -- he has pushed your button. In fact he is the master, you are behaving like a slave. He has managed to create anger in you. He is in control. If he wants to change the situation he can say, "I am sorry," and things will be different. You are just a victim; you don't have any control of the situation. When somebody insults you, you are immediately reacting out of your past experiences.

This reaction is really karma.

It is a binding force; it creates chains for you.

But a response is a totally different thing from reaction. A response is not produced by the other person. He insults you, he abuses you -- you listen to him, he is making certain statements about you. A man of understanding, a man of awareness, a man of meditation will simply listen to it. He is making some statements ...good or bad, that is not the concern of the moment. First you listen to him without immediately going into a reaction. You allow your awareness like a mirror to reflect whatever he is saying, or whatever he is doing. And out of your mirror-like, immediate, in the present, not-from-past-experience awareness, some response comes.

He was telling you that you are greedy, he was telling you that you are ugly, he was telling you that you are dirty. And if you silently listen, there is nothing to be angry about. Either he is right or he is wrong. If he is right, you have to be grateful to him. You have to tell him, "Thank you, you have a great compassion.

You have made me aware of things of which I was not aware. Please, always remember, whenever you see something in me, tell me. Don't feel that I will be offended. I will always remain grateful."

Or if you find that he is wrong, you can simply say, "I have heard your statements but they are not true. And about something which is not true, why should I react? You will have to reconsider. Reconsider your statements and then we will see. But as far as I can see, there is nothing true in them and I need not be offended by lies." There are only two alternatives.

George Gurdjieff's father died and at that time he was only nine years old. The father was poor but a very integrated man, a man of tremendous awareness. He called Gurdjieff and said, "Listen. You are too young to understand what I am saying, but remember it. Soon you will be able to understand it, and if you can start acting accordingly, start acting so that you don't forget. I don't have anything else to give to you; no money, no house, no land." He was a nomad. "I am handing you over to my friends, but remember, this is the only treasure that I can give you as an inheritance. And listen carefully; these are the last words of your father -- his whole life's experience."

A nine-year-old boy ...he came close to listen to the old father and the father said, "It is a very simple thing: If somebody insults you, listen silently, carefully, in detail to what he is saying -- what are the implications. And then tell the person, 'I am grateful that you have taken so much interest in me. After twenty-four hours I will come and reply to you. I cannot help it, because my dying father has made it a condition to me that only after twenty-four hours consideration am I allowed to answer.'"

And in his own old age, Gurdjieff said to his disciples, "This simple principle helped me tremendously, because after twenty-four hours who remains angry?

And after considering twenty-four hours, either one finds he is right -- and if he is right there is no need to bother, it is better to change yourself -- or he is wrong.

Then too there is no need to be bothered. It is his problem, not your problem."

A man who is fully awakened remains undefiled by whatsoever he does, because it is a response. It is a pure reflection from a mirror, with no judgment. It does not come from the past, it comes from the present consciousness. But anything that comes from your past experiences is going to create a chain for you.

In the East, for ten thousand years we have been thinking about it, experimenting with it. It is the only thing that the whole East and its genius has remained involved with: how a man can come to a stage where his actions don't make any bondage for him, don't create another birth for him -- how a consciousness can be created where one can act without acting, and where nothing contaminates his being.

INDIVIDUALS CREATE KARMA. KARMA DOESN'T CREATE INDIVIDUALS ....

So it is in your hands. You are not a by-product of your actions. You are far bigger than your actions; good or bad, you are always bigger. And it is in your hands to change everything.

The East has paid tremendous respect to the individual and has given him the greatest power over his own destiny ever given anywhere in the world. In the East there is no savior. You are the savior. Nobody else can do that for you.

It would be really ugly if somebody else could save you. Then even your being, saved or redeemed, is a kind of slavery.

And if somebody else can redeem you, somebody else can push you back into the wheel of birth and death, because you are just a puppet. All the religions that believe in saviors reduce man into a puppet. They take away the freedom and the dignity and the pride of individual beings.

Bodhidharma is saying: INDIVIDUALS CREATE KARMA. You can create hell for yourself, you can create heaven, or you can go beyond both. This going beyond both, does not exist in Judaism, in Mohammedanism, in Christianity.

That is the special contribution of the Eastern mystics. Hell and heaven exist as hypotheses in Christianity, in Mohammedanism, in Judaism. But MOKSHA, being beyond heaven and hell ...because hell is misery and heaven is happiness, but happiness too becomes boring after a time. No Western religious leader has ever thought about it, that happiness after a time becomes boring. How long can you tolerate happiness? Just as pain, after a long time, becomes a companion ...without it you feel something is missing.

I have known a man who had suffered from headache, migraines, for almost ten years. I used to go into the mountains and he was also a professor in the same university where I was a professor. Once he asked me, "Can I come along with you?" I never liked anybody else to go with me, because I was going out of the city just to avoid all the idiots -- and this idiot was not only an idiot, he had a migraine! I said, "My God," but I said, "Okay. It looks very unkind to say no to you. Just sit, but don't talk about migraine because I have an allergy."

He said, "What kind of allergy?"

I said, "If anybody talks to me of his disease, I become sick with the same disease."

He said, "I have never heard that such an allergy exists."

I said, "It is not a question of hearing, I am the example -- it is not a bookish question. Just don't talk about migraine!"

So I took him to the mountains. It was the season of the mangoes, and the mountain was full of the sweetness of the mangoes. I have the habit of climbing trees from my very childhood. I had fallen from the trees so many times that my father used to tell me, "Now it is time you stop." I used to say, "I have fallen so many times that I am almost an expert in falling. You don't be worried. I am not a beginner. I fall with a certain method, that's why I am surviving."

So I took him to a mango tree which had very ripe mangoes and many parrots -- parrots love mangoes -- and I told him, "You come along with me, up the tree."

He said, "What?"

I said, "You come along."

He said, "I have never been climbing up a tree."

I said, "Try, it will be an adventure for you."

And he fell down from the tree. I had to rush, come back down the tree. He looked very amazed. He said, "It is strange. I had the migraine and by falling from the tree, it has disappeared."

I said, "Sometimes it happens, but don't make it a practice. And don't tell anybody, because it may not happen to somebody else. It is just coincidence." But the migraine disappeared.

And after seven days he met me and he said, "I miss my migraine."

I said, "First, you were continuously complaining about migraine, and now you miss it?"

He said, "I never knew that I would miss it. Now I have nothing to talk about; migraine was my whole philosophy. And because of the migraine I was getting everybody else's sympathy. Now nobody sympathizes with me!"

I said, "Then the only thing is, we can go to the mountains again, climb the tree and fall. Perhaps -- I can't be certain because there is no science in it -- perhaps the migraine will come back."

He said, "I will have to think about it because it was really very difficult. The suffering was bad."

But next day he told me, "I am ready because without migraine I cannot live. I feel so empty because I had lived ten years with migraine."

And you will not be surprised if you watch your own behavior!

There are people who are smoking and they know they are burning their lungs.

They know they are destroying their health ...but it makes no difference. In a few countries the governments have even decided that the factories which produce cigarettes should also write on the packets that it is dangerous to health. First the cigarette companies were against any such law being passed, because this may destroy their whole business. Who is going to purchase cigarettes when it is written on the package that it is against your health? "The medical opinion is that it is dangerous for your health," or something like that.

But governments passed the law and the people who had been smoking are still smoking, and the number of smokers goes on increasing. It does not make any difference. The law has been absolutely meaningless. Man becomes accustomed to anything. Then it is very difficult, even if it is dangerous, even if it is killing him, even if it is proved that it is going to give you cancer ...You would rather have cancer than change your habits.

But Bodhidharma is saying: You are the master of your destiny. You can change every act, you can change every habit. You can change what you think has become your second nature and you can create a totally new individuality, fresh and young, with more awareness, with more understanding, with more blissfulness, with a great ecstasy.

ONLY SOMEONE WHO IS PERFECT CREATES NO KARMA IN THIS LIFE AND RECEIVES NO REWARD.

Who is perfect? The only person who is perfect is one whose consciousness has dispelled all unconsciousness from his being. Right now only one-tenth of your consciousness is conscious and nine-tenths is unconscious.

The perfect man is one whose whole being, all ten parts, are absolutely conscious and full of light. There is no darkness in his heart. In the very depths and silences of his heart there is nothing but peace, silence, light, joy. Such a man is perfect and such a man can do anything. Nothing is binding on him. He creates no karma, he creates no chains, he creates no new life. He has come to the very end of the road.

A perfect man, an awakened man, is not born again. What happens to his consciousness? It becomes part of the universe, just like a dewdrop slipping from a lotus leaf into the ocean. Either the dewdrop becomes the ocean, or the ocean becomes the dewdrop. You can say it either way. But this is the goal of all religiousness, the dropping of the dewdrop into the ocean.

THE SUTRAS SAY, "WHO CREATES NO KARMA OBTAINS THE DHARMA."

One who is fully conscious knows his self-nature. That is the meaning of dharma.

WHEN YOU CREATE KARMA, YOU ARE REBORN ALONG WITH YOUR KARMA. WHEN YOU DON'T CREATE KARMA, YOU VANISH ALONG WITH YOUR KARMA ....

SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE TEACHING OF THE SAGES IS A SAGE. SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE TEACHING OF MORTALS IS A MORTAL.

You may be a student of a great philosopher, but he is not an immortal. He is as afraid of death as you are, or perhaps more, because he is thinking more about life, death, birth. The more he thinks, the more he creates a paranoia.

Sigmund Freud was thinking more about death just because he was thinking about sex. Sex is one side of life, the beginning. And death is the other side of life, the end. A person who thinks about sex cannot avoid thinking about death. He has to. Sex and death are so deeply connected.

You will be surprised that there are, in South Africa, a species of spiders: the male makes love only one time in his life because the next chance never arises.

While he is making love, the female spider starts eating him. He has long legs and the female starts eating through his legs. And he is in such an ecstasy, he is not in his consciousness. By the time his orgasm is finished, he is also finished.

Every spider knows that this is happening every day -- but what to do? Sooner or later every spider finds himself trapped into the same thing. Sex and death have come very close in that species. It is not that close in human beings, but it is not very far either. Sex is the beginning of death.

Sigmund Freud was so afraid of death that he prohibited anybody from creating any discussion about death in front of him. And he had hundreds of disciples.

Perhaps in this whole century he was one of the greatest teachers. He created the great profession of psychoanalysis, and those who learned psychoanalysis from him brag about the fact that they are disciples of the original master, the founder of psychoanalysis itself.

But they don't know that Sigmund Freud was so much afraid of death that even at the mention of it, three times in his life, he fainted. He became unconscious just because somebody mentioned the word, 'death.' Even the word reminded him of his own death. He never used to pass through any cemetery; even if he had to go around a few miles to avoid a cemetery he would go, but he would never go to a cemetery. He never went to the cemetery to say the last goodbye to a friend who had died, never! He went only once, but then he never came back!

Bodhidharma is saying: SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE TEACHING OF MORTALS IS A MORTAL. A MORTAL WHO CAN GIVE UP THE TEACHING OF MORTALS AND FOLLOW THE TEACHING OF SAGES BECOMES A SAGE.

Drop the teachings of those who don't know that there is life beyond death. Then they don't know anything at all. All their knowledge is simply verbal, just so much prose. In fact, it is just rubbish and crap.

If you want to be a disciple, at least choose someone who knows something beyond death. And the person who knows something beyond death is bound to be the person who knows something beyond mind, because they are the same experiences.

BUT THE FOOLS OF THIS WORLD PREFER TO LOOK FOR SAGES FAR AWAY.

It is a very significant statement. THE FOOLS OF THIS WORLD PREFER TO LOOK FOR SAGES FAR AWAY. There are people who worship Gautam Buddha, twenty-five centuries far away. There is no fear; Buddha cannot do anything to you.

To face a living buddha is dangerous.

He can overwhelm you.

But worshiping a Buddha who has been dead for twenty-five centuries .... You can carry the Buddha statue wherever you want and you can do with the statue whatever you want; the statue cannot do anything to you. But a living buddha is dangerous. To be in contact with him is to be constantly risking, because he is taking you towards the goal where you will disappear. You will BE, but just pure consciousness, not an ego.

The UPANISHADS say that the authentic master is a death. He kills the disciple as an ego. He makes the disciple just a nothingness.

The fools love very much to worship Jesus, but the contemporaries of Jesus crucified him. It is a very strange world. There is not even a mention of the name of Jesus in his contemporary literature. Except for his own disciples, nobody had even taken note of him. It is strange ...such a man, whom the contemporaries could not tolerate alive -- when he was only thirty-three they crucified him -- but they have not even mentioned his name. Yet after two thousand years, half the world is Christian ...strange! And if Jesus Christ comes today, the same Christians will crucify him again.

I have heard that in a New York church, on a Sunday morning, the bishop came a little early to see if all the arrangements were okay or not, because only on Sunday do Christians become religious. It is a Sunday religion. As the bishop entered he found a young man looking exactly like Jesus Christ. His heart sank.

He felt he was going to die. "My God, why has he come here? He has not learned any lesson. When he came, what people did to him -- and again he is back! But it is better to enquire who he is. Perhaps he is just a hippy who looks like Jesus." So he went close to him and asked, "Who are you?"

Jesus looked at him and he said, "This is a strange question. You represent me on the earth and you don't recognize me? I am Jesus Christ."

The bishop immediately phoned the Vatican to the pope saying, "What do you think I should do? Jesus Christ is here in the church."

The pope said, "I am tortured so much with a thousand and one worries, and you bring another. Can't you figure out what to do? The first thing is, inform the police. And the second thing is, look busy."

If Jesus Christ comes back, he is not going to be treated differently from how he was treated before. That's why he is not coming back; otherwise he promised, "I will be coming back soon." Two thousand years and the soon has not ended. Any intelligent man will not come back; it was enough. One experience is enough.

Contemporaries have always misbehaved with the people of awareness, with the people who have enlightenment. And the same people have always worshiped the dead saints, dead sages, dead prophets, dead messiahs.

There were at least five attempts made on the life of Gautam Buddha while he was alive. Now there are more statues of Gautam Buddha in the world than of anybody else. And the same people tried five times to kill him.

BUT THE FOOLS OF THIS WORLD PREFER TO LOOK FOR SAGES FAR AWAY.

Because to be close is dangerous, they can change you. And nobody wants to be changed.

THEY DON'T BELIEVE THAT THE WISDOM OF THEIR OWN no-MIND IS THE SAGE.

And the reality is, you don't have to look far away in time or in space. You have just to look inwards, and this very moment you can find the awakened one. This very moment you can find the buddha ...not twenty five centuries back; there is no need to go that far. And there is no way to go backwards. God has forgotten, when he made the world, to put in a reverse gear. You can simply go forward, just go forward.

Even Henry Ford forgot to put the reverse gear in the first car that he made as a model. If God can forget, poor Henry Ford has to be allowed! And when he got into his car, then he realized that this was a very difficult problem. If you have gone five feet past your house, then you have to go around the whole city to get home, to come back. It was Henry Ford's genius, to create a reverse gear. God has not learned, even now. But he must be meeting with Henry Ford there, to put in a reverse gear so you can go to see Jesus Christ, or Gautam Buddha, or Mahavira, or Krishna.

But my feeling is that even if there is a reverse gear available, nobody is going to use it for the simple reason that to face such colossal individuals needs guts, needs courage. And the greatest courage in the world is to go through the transformation from being a mortal to being an immortal god.

THE SUTRAS SAY, "AMONG MEN OF NO UNDERSTANDING, DON'T PREACH THIS SUTRA."

But where can you preach it? If people have understanding, they don't need the sutra. Only the people who don't understand need the sutra. So I cannot agree with this sutra which says, "AMONG MEN OF NO UNDERSTANDING, DON'T PREACH THIS SUTRA."

Be compassionate, preach to everybody. If they can understand, good. If they cannot understand, perhaps some seed may fall into their heart without their knowing. And then someday spring comes; it may sprout. Perhaps they may not hear you, but somebody again repeating the same thing ...they may feel that they have heard it before, there must be something in it.

No, one has to go on repeating continuously to people of no understanding, because if they are people of no understanding there is dormant in them the possibility of understanding. You just go on hitting. They need just a little more hitting, a little more repetition of the message to reach to their heart. They have thick skulls.

But don't listen to any sutra which teaches you unkindness, which teaches you to be uncompassionate. ...THE SUTRAS SAY, "WHEN YOU SEE THAT ALL APPEARANCES ARE NOT APPEARANCES, YOU SEE THE TATHAGATA."

The moment mind disappears with all its illusions and dreams and thoughts and imaginations, you see within yourself the awakening, which you can call the buddha, you can call the Christ. These are simply names. But one thing is certain:

the moment your mind disappears, something divine appears in you and starts growing into a huge tree with great foliage, with great flowers, with great fruit.

THE MYRIAD DOORS TO THE TRUTH ALL COME FROM THE MIND. WHEN APPEARANCES OF THE MIND ARE AS TRANSPARENT AS SPACE, THEY ARE GONE ....

WHEN MORTALS ARE ALIVE THEY WORRY ABOUT DEATH. WHEN THEY ARE FULL, THEY WORRY ABOUT HUNGER. THEIRS IS THE GREAT UNCERTAINTY. BUT SAGES DON'T CONSIDER THE PAST.

Because the past is no more ...

AND THEY DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE.

Because the future is not yet ...

NOR DO THEY CLING TO THE PRESENT.

Because the present is fleeing every moment ...what is the point of clinging?

Clinging will bring you misery. So they don't think of the past ...it is gone. They don't cling to the present ...it is going. And they don't think of the future ...it has not come yet. There is no point in thinking about it. It may come, it may not come.

FROM MOMENT TO MOMENT THEY FOLLOW THE WAY.

Just in this single sentence is hidden the whole secret of religion ...MOMENT TO MOMENT THEY FOLLOW THE WAY. In full awareness and spontaneity, moment to moment, they go on living joyously, peacefully, silently. Slowly, slowly, as their silence deepens, as their understanding deepens, as their awareness reaches to the highest climax, each moment becomes a paradise. Then they don't think of a paradise somewhere in the clouds.

Then the paradise is here.

Then the paradise is now.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.