An excerpt from "The Grass Grows by Itself"

The "Master of Silence"

Bhagwan Shree Rajineesh speaking on 25 February 1975 a.m. in Buddha Hall

A while ago I was embarrassed to death and almost ruined

by an inquisitive pilgrim. 

 

Life is a mystery.

The more you understand it, the more mysterious it becomes.

The more you know, the less you feel that you know.

The more you become aware of the depth, the infinite depth,

the more it becomes almost impossible to say anything about it.

Hence silence.

A man who knows remains in such awe,

such infinite wonderment that even breathing stops.

Standing before the mystery of life, one is lost completely.

But there are problems,

and the first problem with the mystery of life

is that there is always the possibility of frauds,

people who can deceive others, people who can cheat.

In the world of science that is not possible.

Science moves on a plain ground with infinite caution -

logical, rational. If you utter something nonsensical,

immediately you will be caught,

because whatsoever you say can be verified.

Science is objective, and any assertion, any statement,

can be verified in experiments in the laboratories.

With religion everything is inner, subjective, mysterious,

and the path is not on a plain. It is a hilly track.

There are many ups and many downs,

and the path moves like a spiral.

Again and again you come to the same place,

maybe a little higher.

And whatsoever you say cannot be verified,

there is no criterion of verification.

Because it is inner, no experiment can prove or disprove it;

because it is mysterious, no logical argumentation can decide this way or that.

That's why science is one,

but there exist almost three thousand religions in the world.

You cannot prove any religion false. Neither can you prove

any other religion to be true or authentic.

That is not possible, because no empirical test is possible.

 

A Buddha says that there is no self inside.

How to prove this or how to disprove this?

If somebody says, "I have seen God", and he sounds sincere,

what to do? He may be a deluded lunatic,

he may have seen a hallucination,

or he may really have seen the reality of existence.

But how to prove or disprove?

He cannot share his experience with anybody, it is inner.

It is not like an object you can place in the middle

and everybody can watch it, and everybody can experiment

and dissect it. You have to take it in faith.

He may sound absolutely sincere, and may be deluded:

he may not be cheating you, trying to cheat you,

he may be himself deceived. He may be a very true person

but he has seen a dream and thinks it is real -

sometimes dreams have the quality that they look more real

than the reality itself. Then dreams look like visions.

He has heard the voice of God

and he is so filled with it, so thrilled. But what to do?

How to prove that he has not gone mad,

that he has not projected his own mind and idea?

There is no possibility.

If there is one genuine religious man,

there are ninety-nine others all around him.

A few of them are deluded: poor, simple fellows, good at heart,

not trying to harm anybody, but still they harm.

Then there are a few cheats, robbers, deceivers:

cunning, clever people who are knowingly doing harm.

But the harm pays. You cannot find

a better business in the world than religion.

You can promise, and there is no need to deliver the goods,

because the goods are invisible.

I have heard an anecdote - in America

they invented invisible hair-pins for ladies.

One lady was purchasing them at a supermarket

and the salesman gave her a packet of invisible hair­pins.

She looked in the box and she couldn't see any.

Of course, they were invisible, so how can you see?

And she said: "But I don't see anything in it."

The man said: "They are invisible, so how can you see?"

So the lady asked: "Really? Are they invisible?"

The man said: "You are asking me? For seven days

we have been out of stock, and still we are selling them.

They are absolutely invisible."

When things are invisible,

 

you can go on selling, promising.

There is no need to deliver the goods,

because in the first place they are invisible,

so nobody can ever detect them.

And you cannot find a better business than religion,

because the goods are invisible.

I have seen many people being deceived, many people deceiving.

And the thing is so subtle

that nothing can be said for or against.

For example, I know a man who is a simple, plain, stupid man. But stupidity has its own qualities. Particularly in religion, a stupid man can look like a PARAMAHANSA. Because he is stupid, his behavior is unexpected, just like an enlightened man. The similarity is there. Because he is stupid, he cannot utter a single rational statement -just like an enlightened man. He is foolish, he doesn't know what he is saying, how he is behaving. Suddenly he can do anything: and this sudden doing seems to be as if he belongs to another world. He has epileptic fits, but people think he is going into samadhi. He needs electric shock treatment! Suddenly he will go into a fit and swoon, and the followers will beat their drums and they will sing to the glory of God, that their master has gone into great samadhi, ecstasy. And his mouth starts foaming, and his saliva flows out - he is simply in a fit. He has no intelligence. But that is a quality, and there are deceivers around him who go on spreading things about the "baba".

And many things happen near him: that is the miracle. Many things happen, because many things happen of their own accord. The baba is in a swoon, and many people will feel their kundalini rising. They are projecting. There is a certain phenomenon: if you sit quietly for a long period, the body accumulates energy, and then the body starts moving, feeling restless. Sudden jerks start coming - they think this is kundalini. Kundalini is rising and when it rises in one person, how can you lag behind? Then others start. Then it is just like if one person goes to the toilet, then others feel the urge: if one person sneezes, others have a tremendous sneeze coming to them. It becomes infectious. But with so many things happening, the baba must be in samadhi. He is simply in a fit. In the East it has been my observation that only one genuine person exists, ninety-nine are false - either themselves deceived, simple, poor people; or deceivers, cunning, clever people.

This can go on, because the whole phenomenon is invisible. What to do? How to judge? How to decide? Religion is always dangerous. It is dangerous because the very terrain is mysterious, irrational. Anything goes, and there is no outer way to judge it. And there are people with their gullible minds, always ready to believe something, because they need some foothold. Without belief they feel unanchored, uprooted; they need somebody to believe in, they need somewhere to go and feel anchored and rooted.

Belief is a deep need in people. Why is it a deep need? Because without belief you feel like a chaos; without belief you don't know why you exist; without belief you cannot feel any meaning in life. No significance seems to be there. You feel like an accident with no reason at all to be here. Without belief, the question arises: Why are you? Who are you? From where are you coming? Where are you going? And there is not a single answer - without belief there is no answer. One feels simply without any meaning, an accident in existence, not needed at all, not indispensable. You will die and nobody will bother; they will all continue. You feel something is lacking, a contact with reality, a certain belief. That's why religions exist - to supply beliefs, because people need them.

A person without belief has to be very, very courageous. To live without belief is to live in the unknown, to live without belief is a great daring. Ordinary people cannot afford that. With too much daring, anguish comes in, anxiety is created. And this has to be noted: to me a real religious person is without belief. Trust he has, but not belief, and there is a vast difference between the two.

Belief is intellectual. You need it, that's why you have it. It is there because you cannot live without belief. Belief gives you a support to live by; it gives you a certain meaning, howsoever false; it gives you a certain blueprint for life, how to move, where to move. You are on the highway, not lost in the forest. Belief gives you a commodity, there are other believers just like you; you become a part of the crowd. Then you need not think on your own, then you are no longer responsible for your own being and what you are doing. Now you can throw the responsibility on the crowd.

An individual Hindu is never as bad as a Hindu crowd. An individual Mohammedan is never as bad as a Mohammedan crowd. What happens? Individuals are not bad, crowds are simply mad - because, in a crowd, nobody feels responsible. You can commit murders in a crowd easily, because you know the crowd is doing it and you are just a wave in it, you are not the deciding factor, so you are not responsible. Individual, alone, you feel a responsibility. You will feel guilty if you commit something. It is my observation that sin exists through crowds; no individual is ever a sinner. And individuals, even if they commit something wrong, can be taken out of it very easily; but crowds are impossible, because crowds have no souls, no centers. To whom to appeal?

And in all that goes on in the world - the devil, the evil forces - the crowd is in fact responsible. Nations are the devil; religious communities are the evil forces. Belief makes you a part of a bigger crowd than you, and there is a feeling of elation when you are a part of something bigger, a nation - India, or America, or England. Then you are not a tiny human being. A great energy comes to you and you feel elated. Euphoria is felt. That's why, whenever a country is at war, people feel very euphoric, ecstatic. Suddenly their life has a meaning - they exist for the country, for the religion, for the civilization; now they have a certain goal to be achieved, and a certain treasure to be protected. Now they are no longer ordinary people, they have a great mission. Belief is the bridge from the individual to the crowd.

Trust is totally different.

Trust is not an intellectual concept.

Trust is a quality of the heart, not of the head.

Belief is a bridge between the individual and the crowd,

and trust is a bridge between the individual and the cosmos.

Trust is always in God, and when I say "God",

I don't mean any belief in God. When I say God, I simply mean the whole.

Trust is a deep understanding that you are simply a part,

a note in a great symphony, just a small wave in the ocean. Trust means you have to follow the whole, flow with the whole, be in accord with the whole. Trust means: I am not here as an enemy, I am not here to fight; I am here to enjoy the opportunity that has been given to me; I am here to be grateful and celebrating. Trust is not in a doctrine: you need not be a Hindu, you need not be a Mohammedan, you need not be a Jain or a Sikh. Trust is a commitment between the individual and the whole. Trust makes you religious - not Hindu, not Mohammedan, not Christian - simply religious. Trust has no name. Belief makes you a Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian. Belief has names, millions of names; there are thousands of beliefs - you can choose. Trust has only one quality: the quality of surrender into the whole; the quality of moving in accord with the whole; the quality of not forcing the whole to follow you, but simply allowing yourself to move with the whole. Trust is a transformation; trust has to be attained; belief is given by birth. Nobody is born in trust, everybody is born in belief: you are born a Hindu, or a Jain, or a Buddhist. Belief is given by society, because belief is the bridge between you and society.

If society doesn't give you a belief, there is a fear - you may become rebellious. In fact it is certain that if the belief is not given, you will become rebellious, and society doesn't want that, can't afford that. Society, before you become aware, gives you deep beliefs. Into your blood it goes - with the milk of your mother the poison of belief seeps into your being. By the time you become aware of what has happened you find you are already a Hindu, or a Mohammedan, or a Christian. The straitjacket is already there: you are imprisoned.

And it is very difficult to get out of it because it gets into your unconscious; it becomes your very foundation. Even if you get out of it, even if you go against it, it will remain in the foundation, because to cleanse the unconscious is very difficult. Consciously you can't do it.

I have heard, it happened that Mulla Nasrudin became an atheist. And he was dying, so the priest came. The priest said: Mulla, now this is the last moment and the last opportunity. Still there is time left, you confess your sin and you confess that you went wrong by becoming an atheist. Become a theist and die believing in God.

Mulla Nasrudin opened his eyes and said: "Thank God I am not a theist."

Even if you are not a theist, you will thank God. Deep down it remains in the unconscious, it becomes a foundation. Whatsoever you have learned in your childhood before the age of seven has become your foundation. To uproot it, very great effort and meditation is needed. You will have to move back, only then can it be wiped out. You can create anti-beliefs, they won't help, they cannot help. You can become a theist. You can be a Hindu in your childhood, then you can be converted to a Christian, but you will remain a Hindu - your Christianity will be coloured by your Hinduism. You may become a communist, but, deep down, the unconscious is there and it will colour your communism. A deep meditation is needed to cleanse the unconscious.

Trust is totally different. Trust is not in words, in scriptures. Trust is towards life - the very energy that moves the whole. You trust it and you float with it. If it takes you down in the whirl, you go down in the whirl. If it takes you out in the swirl, you come out in the swirl. You move with it, you don't have your own mind about it. If it makes you sad, you become sad. If it makes you happy, you become happy. You simply move with it, with no mind of your own, and suddenly, you come to realize that now you have achieved a point where bliss is going to be eternal. In your sadness also you will be blissful, because it is none of your business. The whole is doing it that way and you are moving with it. Happiness - okay. Sadness - okay. You simply "okay". Everything is Okayed. This is what a religious man is: he has no mind of his own. Belief has a very strong mind of its own.

It is said about a great saint, Tulsidas that he was invited into a Krishna temple in Mathura, and he was a believer in Ram. He went there, but he would not bow down, because the statue was of Krishna with a flute on his lips. It is said that he said to Krishna: "I can bow down only to Ram, so, if you want me to bow down, you take the bow of Ram in your hand. When I see that you have become Ram, only then will I bow down."

This is the mind of belief. Otherwise, what is the distinction between Ram and Krishna? And what is the distinction between a flute and a bow?

And the story goes on: it says that the statue changed, it became the statue of Ram, and then Tulsidas bowed down very happily.

Now the problem is, what must have happened? My understanding is that the statue must have remained the same, because statues don't bother. They don't bother whether you bow down or not. But the mind of a believer can create things. Tulsidas must have projected: it must have been a projection; it must have been a hallucination. He must have seen that's certain. He must have seen, otherwise he would not have bowed down: that's certain. The possibility is that his own mind created, and when you are too filled with belief you can create. You can see things which are not there, and you can miss things which are there. A mind that is filled with belief is a mind which can project anything according to the belief. When you see things, always remember this.

People come to me.... If somebody is a believer in Krishna and he meditates, immediately Krishna starts coming to him. Visions. But Christ never comes to him. A Christian starts meditation - then Krishna never disturbs his meditation, only Christ comes. To a Mohammedan, neither Krishna nor Christ comes; and Mohammed cannot come because Mohammedans have no pictures of Mohammed. They don't know what he looked like, so they cannot project.

Whatsoever you believe, you project. Belief is a projection. It is just like a projector in a movie film-house: you see something on the screen which is not there. The projector is hidden behind, but you never look at the projector, you look at the screen. The projector is at the back, and the whole game is going on there, but you look at the screen. The whole game is going on in your mind, and a mind filled with belief always goes on projecting things in the world, it sees things which are not there. This is the problem. The mind which believes is always vulnerable and always provides an opportunity to be exploited by the cheaters - and the cheaters are all around. The whole path is filled with robbers, because no map exists.

Moving into religion is moving into the uncharted, into the unmapped. Robbers can flourish there very easily, they can wait for you - and they are waiting. And sometimes, even if the person is not deceiving you, you want to be deceived. Then you will be deceived. Nobody can deceive you if, deep down, you are not ready to be deceived.

Just a few days before, a man came to me and he said: A baba has deceived me, and he is a great yogi. I asked him: And what has he done? He said: He can make gold out of any metal. He has shown me and I have seen it happening with my own eyes. Then he said that I should bring all my gold and he would make it tenfold. So I collected all my ornaments and he has simply escaped with them. He has deceived me.

Everybody will think that he had deceived him, but I told this man: It is your greed that has deceived you. Don't throw the responsibility onto anybody else. You are simply foolish. Greed is foolish. You wanted your ornaments to be made tenfold. That mind has deceived you; the other person has simply used the opportunity. He is just a clever person, that's all. You are the real problem. If he had not deceived you, somebody else would have.

So who deceives it not the question. It has been my observation that if somebody deceives you, it shows a certain proneness in you to be deceived. And if somebody can lie to you, it means you have a certain affinity with lies. A man of truth cannot be deceived. A man who lives in truth cannot become a victim of liars. Only a liar can be deceived by another liar; otherwise there is no possibility. There are millions of people who are ready to be deceived, who are simply waiting for someone to come and deceive them - because of their beliefs, because of their vicious desires, because of their greed. And remember well that greed is greed, whether it exists in the material world or in the spiritual makes no difference. The quality of it remains the same. You would like somebody to increase your gold tenfold - this is greed. Then somebody says, "I will make you an enlightened person", and you fall in line immediately. That too is greed.

And I tell you: It is possible to increase gold tenfold very easily, but it is almost impossible to make any other person enlightened. Because that is no game. The path is arduous. In fact nobody ever makes you enlightened - you yourself become enlightened; the other may be a catalytic agent at the most, nothing more. But in fact everything happens within you; the other's presence may have helped, that's all. And if you are really sincere, even that is not needed. If you are sincere, those who can help will seek you, if you are insincere, you will seek those who can harm. That is the difference. When a disciple seeks a master, there is almost always going to be something wrong. When a master seeks a disciple, only then something authentic is going to happen.

How can you seek a master? Whatsoever you may think will be your mind, and you are completely ignorant, you are a sleepwalker. You will seek somebody according to you. YOU will be the criterion. Then you will go and seek somebody who is doing a miracle.

You may go and seek Satya Sai Baba, because that will be a deep fulfilment of your greed. You will see: here is the man. If he can produce things out of air, he can do anything. Now your greed is provoked. Now a deep affinity happens immediately. That's why you will see thousands of people around Satya Sai Baba. If a Buddha exists, you will not see multitudes there, because there is no affinity. Satya Sai Baba has an appeal deep inside you: your greed is provoked. Now you know this is the right man. But you are wrong. How can you decide who is the right man? You create your deceivers, you give them the opportunity. You follow magicians, not masters.

If you really want to seek a master, drop greed and drop your beliefs. Go to a master completely nude in the mind, with no beliefs; as if you are a tree in the fall with no leaves, naked, standing against the sky. You go and seek a master with a naked mind, with no leaves, with no beliefs. Only then, only then, I say, will you be able to see without projection; only then will something penetrate into your life from the above. Then nobody can deceive you.

So don't be bothered and don't condemn the deceivers: they fulfil a need. Because you need them, they are there. Nothing exists without any cause. People exist all around you, because you need them. Thieves exist, robbers exist, exploiters exist, deceivers exist, because you need them. You will be nowhere if they all disappear; you will be simply unable to live your life if they are not there.

This story is beautiful, and has to be understood deeply.

THERE WAS A MONK WHO CALLED HIMSELF "THE MASTER OF SILENCE". ACTUALLY HE WAS A FRAUD AND HAD NO GENUINE UNDERSTANDING.

You can pretend, and in religion you can pretend more than anywhere else. Because people are clever in their worldly ways but they are completely innocent as far as religion is concerned. You may be able to know everything that goes on in the market, you have lived there, you know the tricks and the ways and everything - you have yourself been doing those things. You are wise as far as the world is concerned, but when you move into the world of a monastery, from the market to the monastery, there is a great difference. In the monastery you are completely innocent, like a child. You may be very old, sixty or seventy years of age, but in a monastery, in a temple, you are just like a small child. You have not lived there, and the same things exist there also. Again it is a market.

When Jesus entered the temple of Jerusalem, he entered with a whip and he started beating people, because many shopkeepers had entered the temple and many money-lenders. He turned their tables upside down and he said: "You have made my God's temple a market. You traders - you get out!" This is really something - one single man, and the whole crowd of traders escaped.

Truth has a strength of its own. When something is true, you immediately become weak, because you are a liar and you immediately understand: That's right. Those shopkeepers didn't fight; those money-lenders could have killed Jesus; he was alone and they were many. But simply at the truth of it they escaped outside. And only when they reached outside did they start planning what to do with this man - and it was their planning that finally crucified Jesus.

In the monasteries, in the temples, in the ashrams, another world exists. You don't know the laws of it, the rules of the game. You can be deceived there very, very easily. And pretenders abound because it is so easy.

This has been my feeling: two types of people move towards religion. One is the man who has lived in the world, lived it through and through, and has come to understand that it is futile, useless, a wastage of life. It is just like a dream, and that too not a beautiful dream, but a nightmare. This is one type, the genuine type, the authentic, who has lived through the world and found it useless, a desert, with no oasis in it, and has turned away. His turning is total. He will not look back. There is nothing to look back to. Buddha used to ask his disciples: "Have you really turned completely or would you like to have a little of your mind always looking back, a part of you always looking back?" This is the first type who is really genuine, who has lived in the world and found it just a frustration. That's why he has moved towards religion.

Then there is another type which is completely opposite. The first type is one per cent; the second type is ninety-nine per cent. These people are very much attracted towards religion. This type is those people who couldn't succeed in the world, who couldn't succeed in their ambitions, who could not become important. They would have liked to have become prime ministers and presidents, but they couldn't. They were simply not made that strong to fight there. They are people who would have liked to have become Rockefellers, or Fords, but could not because the competition was too great and they were not made of the right strong metal. They were lacking, because life is a struggle and they were simply inferior. They didn't have that much intelligence, or that kind of strength to fight through and to fulfil their ambitions. These people also turn towards religion.

These are the great deceivers. They will become the problem for religion and for people who seek religion. They will be deceivers all around the temple; they will make the temple a trade-house because their desires are still there lurking. They have turned to religion as politicians - of course, politicians who have failed in politics. You go all over the country -around gurus everywhere you will find politicians who have failed. Ex-ministers will always be found coming to some guru - people who wanted too much in the world and couldn't get it, they turn towards religion, because there things are easier. Competition is not much, and you can pretend, and you can believe easily that you are a very superior being. And there is no competition. You can simply say, "I have become enlightened", and nobody can deny it, and nobody can disprove it. There simply exists no criterion to judge it, and you can always find foolish people to follow you.

Even a Muktanand can get followers. Once I passed Muktanand's ashram, and just to see what was happening there, I went in. I have never seen such an ordinary man becoming a great religious leader of people. No potential, no achievement, no insight - if you saw him walking in the street you would not recognize that there is something there. Just plain ordinary - and not ordinary in the sense of Zen - just plain ordinary. But even he can find followers.

In the world, millions of fools exist; and they are always ready to believe, always ready, ready to fall into the trap of anybody. In fact, sometimes there is no trap at all, but they fall, because they would like to believe that something is happening. Man is so imaginative, and, because of his imagination, he starts believing that something is happening. These people know at least this much about what to do.

Somebody comes to me and says: "I have a certain pain in my backbone." Now, if I say that this is simply a pain, go to a doctor, he simply turns away from me and never comes back, because he had not come for that. He had come for an approval. If I say: "Yes your kundalini is rising", he will be happy. These fools will always find their Muktanands.

And not very ordinary people, sometimes very intelligent people come. Just a few days before, a film producer came to me - a well-known name all over India. His blood sugar has gone beyond all ordinary limits; it has reached five hundred. He should really be dead by now. He is a drunkard, and a great food eater, obsessed with eating, but still he continues and continues eating sweets and drinking alcohol. Now, because of so much blood sugar, his whole body is trembling. It has to, because his whole body is ill, every fibre of it is ill, and there is a deep trembling inside. He was sitting there when I was talking to others, and he was trembling. Then he asked me: "What do you think? What is it - is it kundalini rising?"

Now what to do with these people? These are the victims, and these are participants in creating deceivers; they are also half responsible. And I know this man also belongs to Muktanand's group.

Now the problem arises for me - what to do? If I say: "Yes. It is Kundalini rising and this is your last life. Soon, within days, you will be enlightened," he will bow down, touch my feet and will go away very happy. He will be happy, I will be happy, and everything is settled. And he will go around talking about me, that this is the right, the greatest master that he has come to know. It is good business. Simple. But then I am deceiving him, and not only deceiving. I am killing him, I am a murderer, because I know that he is dying of diabetes, and the diabetes has gone beyond all limits. If I say, "This is kundalini and enlightenment is coming, and this is like samadhi, that's why you are trembling; it is God descending into you," or, "You are rising towards the Divine," or "The Divine is descending in you," he will be very happy, everybody is happy, there is no problem. He will work for me and until he dies he will go on talking about me.

But the moment I said: "This is nothing to do with any enlightenment. This is simple - too much sugar in the blood. Your whole body is feverish. You don't waste time, you go to the doctors and listen to them," immediately I could see the change in his face. It changed: "This man is not a master at all. How can he be a master, and enlightened, when he cannot understand such simple phenomenon that is happening in me?"

It actually happened. A man, very well-known in the West, Franklin Jones, was a disciple of Muktanand - and then his kundalini arose. Muktanand approved: "You have become a SIDDHA." Not only did he approve, he gave a written certificate. I simply cannot believe what foolishnesses go on - a certificate that you have become a SIDDHA, enlightened! So of course the man became a SIDDHA and he changed his name. He was Franklin Jones, now he is Bubba Free John, and he has many followers of his own.

Now the trouble came in, because he had become more enlightened than Muktanand ever expected, and he had become a guru in his own right. No he wanted - he came again just a few months ago - now he wanted another certificate. Now he wanted to show: "There is no need for me to belong to any master, because now I am a master myself, and my karmas with you, with Muktanand, are fulfilled. So, give me a certificate that I am absolutely free."

Now Muktanand hesitated - this was going too far. So he denied; he would not give another certificate. But the thing had already gone too far. The man returned home, wrote a book, and said: "Of course Muktanand helped me a little on my way, but he is not an enlightened man and I dissolve all my links with him. He is an ordinary man."

This is how things go. He was an enlightened man because he gave the certificate; he was the greatest master in the world. Now he is no longer. He is an ordinary man - "I dissolve all my links with him."

These things go on. Remember this, because you can become a part in such a game yourself. Never believe in yourself too much. Remain aware. When you come to me I will say exactly what is happening. Many have gone from me because I will not support their egos and I will not fulfill their wishes, and I will not say what they want me to say. And once they go away, they are against me, they have to be. These are the traps. Not only do the deceivers create them, you help to create them. Don't be a participant in any deception, be very, very alert.

This monk, who was a fraud and had no genuine understanding, called himself "The Master of Silence". That's very beautiful, because if you utter something you can be caught. It is simply beautiful to remain silent; then nobody can catch you. They say it is good for two kinds of persons to be silent: the very, very wise have to be silent, because what they know cannot be said; and the very, very foolish, because if they are not silent, they will be caught. So this man, who was a fraud, used to call himself "The Master of Silence". He would not utter a single word. But if you don't utter a word you cannot sell anything. If a salesman is silent, how will he sell things? So he devised a plan.

TO SELL HIS HUMBUG ZEN HE HAD TWO ELOQUENT ATTENDANT MONKS TO ANSWER QUESTIONS FOR HIM - BUT, AS IF TO SHOW HIS INSCRUTABLE SILENT ZEN, HE HIMSELF NEVER UTTERED A WORD.

ONE DAY, DURING THE ABSENCE OF HIS TWO ATTENDANTS, A PILGRIM CAME TO HIM AND ASKED: "MASTER, WHAT IS THE BUDDHA?"

This is one of the Zen questions. It means: what is DHARMA, what is religion? It means: what is awareness? It means: what is an awakened being? It is one of the most fundamental questions in Zen - What is the Buddha? What is that utterly enlightened state of being that we call Buddha?

NOT    KNOWING   WHAT    TO    DO,    OR    HOW    TO    ANSWER,    HE    LOOKED DESPERATELY AROUND IN ALL DIRECTIONS FOR HIS MISSING MOUTHPIECES. THE PILGRIM, APPARENTLY PLEASED AND SATISFIED, THANKED THE MASTER AND SET OUT AGAIN ON HIS JOURNEY.

ON THE ROAD THE PILGRIM MET THE TWO ATTENDANT MONKS ON THEIR WAY HOME. HE BEGAN TELLING THEM ENTHUSIASTICALLY WHAT AN ENLIGHTENED BEING THIS MASTER OF SILENCE IS.

He projected, of course. He must have heard that those who know remain silent. He must have read it in the scriptures where it is said millions of times that one who knows, never says; one who says, has not known yet.

But these are very, very paradoxical things. Lao Tzu says in the very beginning of "Tao Te Ching", that truth cannot be uttered, and that which can be uttered is not true. But Lao Tzu uttered this - so what to think about it? Is it true, or not? It is the uttered word, it has been said. Now you will be in very deep trouble, Lao Tzu says that truth cannot be said, but this much he is saying. So is this saying true or not? If it is not true that will mean that truth can be uttered; if it is true then even this cannot be uttered.

Religion is full of paradoxes and that's the problem. This man must have read many Zen masters saying that truth cannot be said. This is right: truth cannot be said. But this much can be said, many things can be said, millions of things can be said which will be helpful to find that which cannot be said. Many things can be indicated, and that which cannot be said can at least be shown. The whole meaning is only this: that the truth is greater than the words. It is greater than the silence also. Truth is so vast that it cannot be forced into the capsule of words and it cannot be forced into silence either. In fact, silence exists in truth, and words also exist in truth. Truth is the very sky, the very space.

This master pulled a trick. Thinking that truth cannot be said, the best way is to keep silent - but then no one will be attracted to you. So he had two attendants to talk about him -mouthpieces. That is a good arrangement, because if they say something wrong, he is not involved, if they say something right - so far, so good. But one day he was caught. You can deceive people for the time-being, but you cannot deceive people for ever. Some day, somewhere, you will be caught. You cannot make an arrangement of lies which can go on for ever. The truth will erupt. Ninety-nine per cent of the time you may succeed, but one per cent you will fail. And that one per cent will bring the whole success to failure. It will destroy the whole thing.

One day a pilgrim came and asked: "What is the Buddha?" The master desperately looked this way and that in all directions for his missing mouthpieces. This was the truth; he had no answer to give. And by looking in all directions, he was looking for something else - not for truth, not for Buddha, not to indicate anything by a gesture. But the pilgrim projected. By his looking in all directions, the pilgrim thought that he was really a Zen master, a great master. He would not utter words, but he was showing that you can look in every dimension, in every direction, and you will not find Buddha there, because Buddha is inside. You can seek and search and you will not find, because he is in the seeker himself. This was the projection, and this is what you can do easily. This is how people are deceived - they have their own minds and beliefs and concepts and theories, and they project.

Many times it has happened to me. People project. A man came. He came with a bag. I didn't know what he had in the bag. He touched my feet and the bag was in his hand, so the bag also touched my feet. I thought it was just accidental. But the man had a bottle with water in it inside the bag, and it was not accidental. He wanted my feet to touch the bottle, and I was completely unaware of what he was doing. Then, after a few days, he came and he thanked me, and he was very, very grateful. He said: "You cured my illness." I asked: "What illness? I don't know your illness." He said: "I had a severe headache for many years, a sort of migraine, and the water I brought last time I came, you touched it with your feet." I said: "I never touched it with my feet." He said: "Whatsoever is the case, you touched the bottle and I drank it for a few days and the headache is completely gone."

Now what to do? If I say that this is simply his own magic, he has done it, it is an auto-hypnosis, then there is a possibility that the headache may come back; because you cannot believe in yourself, you always believe somebody. You cannot believe in yourself - but if you cannot believe in yourself, how can you believe in anybody? But this goes on. You feel impotent inside: you cannot believe in yourself. You seek somebody, and through somebody's belief, your own magic, your own auto-hypnosis starts working. This man was cured. In the first place, his headache must have been created by himself - because a real headache cannot be cured in such a way, only a false headache, a psychological one - in the first place the headache was a hypnosis; in the second place, he had cured it. But this man is dangerous, because if you can create a headache you can also create cancer. Projecting things...

Once it happened that a man stayed with me and we were sleeping in the same room. In the night I must have gone to the toilet and he must have been very sleepy, half awake, half asleep. So he looked at my bed and I was not there. Then he must have fallen asleep for a few seconds. When I came back and he must have looked again -1 was there! So he thought that for those few seconds I had disappeared. He jumped out of the bed, caught my legs and said: "Just tell me - you have done the miracle - but tell me how you did it? Now I will never leave you. You are the right master!" So I told him: "It is okay. You will not leave me; but at least give me a chance also to say whether I would like you to be with me always, or not - because you are simply a fool." But the man said: "No, you don't try to escape. I am not going to leave you. I have seen the miracle: for this I was waiting. I will choose the master who can disappear. You have done it. I have seen it with my own eyes!"

Mind is a very subtle game. You can hear things I am not saying; you can go through things I am not doing; you can deceive yourself. So it is not necessary that somebody should deceive you. You can deceive yourself. You are a self-deceiver.

The man, seeing the silent master looking desperately all around, thought that this was the right man, a great enlightened man, indicating that the Buddha cannot be found anywhere. So, satisfied, well pleased, he thanked the master and set out again on his journey.

ON THE ROAD THE PILGRIM MET THE ATTENDANT MONKS ON THEIR WAY HOME. HE BEGAN TELLING THEM ENTHUSIASTICALLY WHAT AN ENLIGHTENED BEING THIS MASTER OF SILENCE IS.

HE SAID: "I ASKED HIM WHAT BUDDHA IS AND HE IMMEDIATELY TURNED HIS FACE TO THE EAST AND TO THE WEST, IMPLYING THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR BUDDHA HERE AND THERE, BUT ACTUALLY, BUDDHA IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY SUCH DIRECTIONS. OH, WHAT AN ENLIGHTENED MASTER HE IS, AND HOW PROFOUND HIS TEACHING!"

WHEN THE ATTENDANT MONKS RETURNED, THE MASTER OF SILENCE SCOLDED THEM THUS: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME? A WHILE AGO I WAS EMBARRASSED TO DEATH AND ALMOST RUINED BY AN INQUISITIVE PILGRIM.

Remember this story well, because it can be your story also on the path. And this should not be so - this story should not become your story. I am telling these stories and talking about them to make you aware of certain things. I love these stories, because they indicate so simply and so directly and so immediately certain phenomena which are possible for every pilgrim to meet on the path. How to avoid them so that you are not deceived? Nothing can be done about the deceivers. What can you do? They are there and the whole allows them also - that far it is good. You cannot do anything about the deceivers, so don't be worried, let them be themselves. But you can do something about yourself, that is the point.

I don't want you to become revolutionaries and go and hunt babas. No. Leave them to themselves. I'm telling you, not to become revolutionaries, but to become more aware so that such things don't happen to you, that's all. Babas will continue, always and always, because fools are there, and they need them; they fulfil a particular need.

So what is to be done? You can do only one thing. You drop that need within you. Don't project. Don't allow beliefs to settle in your mind. Clean the mind every day, as one cleans the house; dust gathers the whole day, in the evening you clean it, and again in the morning. In the night you have done nothing, but even in the night dust settles, so in the morning you clean again. Continuously clean your mind of beliefs, concepts, theories, ideas, ideologies, philosophies, doctrines, scriptures. You simply clean your mind of verbal chattering and you try to look at reality without any mind inside. Just look, a pure look, stare naked. Tilopa says: "Stare naked and MAHAMUDRA will be yours." You will attain to the highest enlightenment possible to human consciousness. Stare naked. Let your eyes be clean of all concepts. Then the reality will be revealed to you, because you will not distort it and you will not project it and you will not put anything into it.

What did this pilgrim do? He had some ideas and he put these ideas into the gesture of the master who was looking all around for his mouthpieces. Into that situation he put his own ideas. He must have read somewhere that the Buddha cannot be found in any direction. That was projected.

Don't be a projector, don't be an active mind. Let your mind be completely passive, receptive. Don't bring anything from the mind into the reality, otherwise you will distort it. Simply allow the reality to enter the mind and you be a passive watcher, a passive witness. Then, whatsoever the case is, you will know. Then that which is will be revealed to you, and only that can lead you to maturity, to growth, and to the final flowering.

Drop the mind if you want to know the real. Put aside the mind if you want to penetrate into the truth. The truth is always there, but your mind is standing just in-between. Put aside the mind, make a window and look, and everything, the very mystery of life, becomes unveiled before you. With the mind nobody has ever been able to know the truth. Without the mind anybody can know the truth, because the mind is the only barrier. The mind must cease for the truth to be.

And you have nothing else but mind, so it is difficult, very difficult to put it aside -arduous, but it happens if you go on trying. In the beginning only a few seconds of glimpses will be there. But even those will give you a new dimension. For seconds mind stops, and suddenly, as if there is lightning, the whole world of mind disappears and the world of the real is revealed. These lightnings will happen to you, and then, by and by, you will get settled into the state of no-mind. Then there is no need for lightning, the sun has arisen. Now it is the morning, all darkness disappears.

A religious person is a person of no mind, no belief. A religious person is a person of trust.