Missed calls from God

Many candidates were invited to interview for a position as wireless operator at a telegraph office. They stood in a long line outside the office waiting for their names to be called. But that waiting was not silent. Conversations were going on, and either outside or inside, all were lost in their own thoughts.

Just then, a man standing at the very back left the line and went into the telegraph office. Perhaps no one saw him go.

People saw him only later, when he came out carrying an appointment letter in hand saying, "I have been appointed to the position advertised in the papers. So for you there is no need to stand in line here, you can go home."

A great hubbub arose when they heard this.

They shouted slogans like: "Favoritism," "Kill him."

People started complaining, "When this man had already been selected what was the need to call all of us here? "

But a big official from the telegraph office came out and said, "Your conclusion is wrong. This person was appointed only because he successfully completed the test. Through a loud speaker on top of the telegraph office we broadcasted in telegraph signals: 'Whoever understands this message, immediately come inside your appointment letter is ready.' But if you were occupied with your conversations and couldn't hear the tapping, what fault is that of ours?"

Ah! One day won't God say the same to each of us? So many are his calls - but amidst all our noise, has not his call become like the tapping of that telegraph signal?

God is calling each and every moment. But this mind of ours is busy with itself. Unless our minds become unoccupied we will not be able to hear his voice. Only the unoccupied mind is meditation. As we become empty - silent - wordless, his music fills our being to the brim.

Be silent - and know.

If you want to attain the divine, learn to die

Someone went to visit a Baul mystic. He was absorbed in singing his song. Neither his eyes seemed to be seeing this world, nor did it feel as if his soul was present. He was somewhere else - in some other world, in some other form. When his song stopped, and it seemed his consciousness was returning, the visitor asked, "How do you feel liberation can be attained?"

The sweet-spoken mystic said, "Only by means of death. "

I said this to someone yesterday. He asked, "By death?" I said, "Yes, by death while living. Only one who dies to everything else, awakens and becomes alive to the divine."

There is no art greater than learning to die while living. I call that art: meditation. One who lives as if he is dead will certainly know whatever is essential in life.

If you want to attain the divine, Learn to die. Have you not seen that when the seed dies, it becomes a tree?

The tricks your mind plays to save itself from meditation

Idries Shah tells a dervish tale:

There was once a wise and very rich man who had a son.

He said to him: My son, here is a jeweled ring. Keep it is a sign that you are a successor of mine and pass it down to your posterity. It is of value, of fine appearance, and it has the added capacity of opening a certain door to wealth.

Some years later he had another son. When he was old enough the wise man gave him another ring with the same advice.

The same thing happened in the case of his third and last son.

When the Ancient had died and the sons grew up one after the other each claimed primacy for himself because of his possession of one of the rings. Nobody could tell for certain which was the most valuable.

Each son gained his adherents, all claiming a greater value and beauty for his own ring. But the curious thing was that the door to wealth remained shut for the possessors of the keys and even their closest supporters. They were all too preoccupied with the problem of precedence, the possession of the ring, its value and appearance.

Only a few looked for the door to the treasury of the Ancient. The rings had a magical quality too.
Although they were keys they were not used directly in opening the door to the treasury. It was sufficient to look upon them without contention or too much attachment to one or other of their qualities. When this had been done the people who had looked were able to tell where the treasury was and could open it merely by producing the outline of the ring.

The treasuries had another quality too: they were inexhaustible. Meanwhile the partisans of the three rings repeated the tales of their ancestors about the merits of the rings, each in a slightly different way.

The first community thought they had already found the treasure because they had the key. The second thought that it was allegorical and thereby consoled themselves. And the third transferred the possibility of opening the door to a distant and remotely imagined future time and therefore for them there was nothing to do at present.

There is every possibility for you also to belong to one of these three communities because anyone who begins to search s always prone to fall into the trap of any one of the three. Really, these are the three basic tricks the mind can play to save itself from meditation

So beware of these old tricks.

Meditation is the master key. It can open the doors of the infinite and it can unlock the mystery of the unknown. But just by possessing the key nothing is attained, unless one uses it.

Dont TRY to be natural, just BE natural

Suzuki tells a story:

A monk once asked one of the old Chinese Masters: What is the way?

The Master replied:The natural one, the ordinary one, is the way.

How, continued the monk, am I to be in accord with it? Asked the monk.

When you try to be in accord with it, said the Master, then you deviate from it.

Does this mean that one should not try?

No, because that too is a way of trying. Of course, indirect, but still intentional; that too will not help. But just see the dilemma clearly and you are out of it.

ARE YOU, NOT?

Meditation requires understanding and not effort, understanding is essential, not effort, and remember always that you cannot substitute understanding with any effort whatsoever. But what do I mean by understanding? By understanding I mean - living a natural life. Of course, you cannot try to be natural, that is self-contradictory!

You can BE natural but you cannot try to be natural.

What is the holy ultimate truth?

When the Chinese emperor Wu came to meet Bodhidharma he asked the Master: What is the holy ultimate truth?

Bodhidharma laughed and replied: Nothing holy, sir, and it is emptiness itself.

Of course Wu was taken aback, but he asked again: Then who is the one who at present stands confronting me?

Bodhidharma simply said: I don't know.

Do you see the beauty of it? And the truth? And the innocence? And the holiness? And the fullness? And the absolute ultimateness?

Meditation is beyond knowledge. You can be it but you cannot know it. All knowledge is superficial. It is never anything else but acquaintance from outside. It is always about but never the thing itself.

The monkey way of thinking

In the BOOK OF AMU DARIA there is an old Sufi tale:

Once upon a time there was a monkey who was very fond of cherries. One day he saw a delicious looking cherry and came down from his tree to get it, but the fruit turned out to be in a clear glass bottle, so he had to put his hand into the bottle to get it out. As soon as he had done so he closed his hand over the cherry but then he found that he could not withdraw his fist holding the cherry
because it was larger than the internal dimensions of the bottle's neck.

Now all this was deliberate because the cherry in the bottle was a trap laid by a monkey hunter who knew how monkeys think. The hunter, hearing the monkey's whimperings, came along and the monkey tried to run away, but because his hand was, as he thought, stuck in the bottle. He could not move fast enough to escape. But as he thought he still had hold of the cherry he consoled himself.

The hunter picked him up and tapped the monkey sharply on the elbow making him suddenly relax his hold on the fruit. The monkey was now free - but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle and he still had them.

This monkey-way of thinking is the mind-way also!

And in the end when death, the hunter, comes everyone is found caught in his own bottle. Remember, before the hunter comes make sure your hand is out of the bottle!

Do not cling to anything, to any idea, because clinging is the bondage. Even if one is clinging to the idea of liberation - moksha or nirvana, one will be in bondage. With clinging meditation is impossible because clinging is mind - the bondage, and no-clinging is meditation -the freedom.

The educated fool

In ancient times the king of a certain country was concerned because his son was something of a fool. The king's counsellors urged that the son be sent away to a great university in another land in the hope that the boy would acquire learning and wisdom.

The king agreed.

The son studied hard for several years then wrote his father that he had learned just about everything possible and pleaded to be allowed to return home.

The king assented.

When the son arrived at the palace the king was overjoyed. A great feast was prepared and all the great men of the kingdom were invited.

At the end of the festivities one of the sages present asked the son what he had learned. The young man ticked off the university's curriculum that he had gone through. While the lad was talking the sage slipped a ring off his finger, closed his hand over it, held up his hand and asked: What do I hold in my hand?

The son though for a moment and said; It is a round object with a hole in the centre.

The sage was astonished at such wisdom. Maybe the lad had become a great mind.

Will you now name the object? asked the sage.

The king's son pondered for a few moments, then said: The sciences that I studied do not aid me in answering your question, but my own commonsense tells me that it is a cartwheel.

The sage concluded to himself that you can educate a fool but you cannot make him think.

Information is not knowledge because information is not transformation and can never be - and knowledge comes only through transformation. Information is adding something to the same old mind. It is quantitative; there is no qualitative change because the mind behind remains the same. That is why all that is called education just proves superficial. Mind must go through qualitative change otherwise there is no wisdom; and to go on adding information to ignorance is fatal. I call meditation the method for mind's total mutation. First let there be a transformation of the very quality of the mind and only then education can be educative.

What is the sound of one hand?

Mamiya went to a great teacher to learn meditation. The teacher told him to concentrate on the famous koan:

What is the sound of one hand?

Mamiya went away and came back a week later shaking his head. He could not get it.

Get out! said the Master. You are not trying hard enough. You still think of money and food and pleasure. It would be better if you died, then you might learn the answer.

The next week Mamiya came back again.

When the Master asked him: Well, what is the sound of one hand?

He clutched at his heart, groaned and fell down as if dead.

Well, you have taken my advice and died, said the Master, but what about the sound?

Mamiya opened one eye: I have not solved that yet, he said.

Dead men don't speak, said the Master.

Get up and get out!

The whole yoga has gone dead because of imitation. One cannot imitate anything that is real, the real is always spontaneous: one can jump into it but one cannot practice it. Any practice is of the mind and by the mind - and the mind is the past, the dead; the mind is the thing one has to jump out of. Out of the mind is the explosion, so be aware of the mind and its tricks!

The mighty cock

Suzuki tells a story: Chi Hsing Tzu was raising a fighting cock for his prince.

Ten days passed and the lord asked: Is he ready?

Chi answered: No sir, he is not ready. He is still vain and flushed with rage.

Another ten days passed and the prince asked about the cock.

Chi said: Not yet, sir. He is on the alert whenever he sees the shadow of another cock or hears its crowing.

Still another ten days passed and when the inquiry came from the prince, Chi replied: Not quite yet, sir. His sense of fighting is still smoldering within him ready to be awakened.

When another ten days elapsed, Chi replied in response to the inquiry: He is almost ready. Even when he hears another crowing he shows no excitement. He has now become positive. He has grown in subtle inner awareness. Now he resembles one made of wood, he is so quiet and silent.
His qualities are integrated. No cock is his match and to win he will not have to fight because other cocks will at once run away from him. They cannot face him now.

And really it proved so. He won fights without fighting at all.

And I say that you can do likewise with yourself: learn the secret from Chi Hsing Tzu's cock!

The real thing is not to fight with your thoughts or desires or instincts because that is negative and the negative cannot help. The real thing is to grow in awareness in meditation because then one wins without any fight whatsoever - and to win through conflict is not a real victory because that which has been suppressed will have to be suppressed again and again. Through conflict there is no end to conflict and through fight only more fight is born. But there is a victory without any conflict, fight or suppression. That victory comes through positive growth in awareness. Do not fight with yourself but grow in awareness and understanding and silence, and all that is negative and diseased will have withered away by itself.

The one sword

Kusunoki Masashige came to a Zen monastery when he was about to meet the overwhelming army of Ashikaga Takanji and asked the Master: When a man is at the parting of the ways between life and death how should he behave?

The Master answered: Cut off your dualism and let THE ONE SWORD stand serenely by itself against the sky!

Mind means duality and meditation, oneness. In Zen they call it - THE ONE SWORD.

Can meditation be thought?

Dogo had a disciple called Soshin. Soshin waited long with his Master to be taught the art of meditation. He expected lessons the way a schoolboy is taught at school, but there were no special lessons coming, and this bewildered and disappointed the disciple.

One day he said to the Master: It is a long time since I came here but not a word has been given to me regarding the essence of meditation.

Dogo laughed at this heartily and said: What are you saying, my boy? Since your arrival I have ever been giving you lessons on the matter!

At this the poor disciple was even more bewildered and for some time he could not think what to say.

Then one day he gathered courage and asked again: What kind of lesson could it have been, sir?

Dogo said: When you bring me a cup of tea in the morning, I take it; when you serve me a meal, I accept it and when you bow to me I return it with a nod. How else do you expect to be taught in meditation?

Soshin hung his head and began to think about the puzzling words of the Master,

But at this the Master said again: If you want to see, SEE, RIGHT AT ONCE, because when you begin to think you miss the point altogether.

Meditation cannot be taught directly because it is not a mechanical technique, but a living art.