Taoblog

Shen Tsan was giving a bath to his old teacher. Rubbing his back, he said: "This is such a fine temple..." Every body is a fine temple, according to Zen. Every body is a shrine of Tao; Tao is enshrined in everyone. You need not go anywhere else to find Tao; if you can find yourself you have found Tao. It is hiding within you -- it is your within. "THIS IS SUCH A FINE TEMPLE," SHEN TSAN SAID, "BUT THE BUDDHA IN IT IS NOT AT ALL HOLY!" Maybe the old teacher was taking a bath and also reciting a sutra. That's what Buddhist monks do; they will go on taking a bath and reciting a sutra. Hindu pundits do the same, Hindu sannyasins do the same. They will go to take a dip in the Ganges and they will recite gayatri and other mantras. They are divided! If you want to recite gayatri, recite gayatri -- forget about taking a bath. And when you are taking a bath, take the bath, forget about gayatri. Then let this bath be your only mantra. He must have been reciting some mantra because they think, "Why waste time? You can do both the things." They will go on eating and they will go on reciting inside a certain sacred mantra. Why waste time? But then you are missing the totality of eating, then you do not taste your food. How can you do it? The mind is capable of doing only one thing at a time; it cannot do two things together -- it is impossible. If you are eating, then let your whole consciousness be that of taste, of smell. Forget everything! Then even ordinary bread may taste like the most delicious food possible. But you are not present. Look at people eating -- they are talking, there are people who are listening to the radio or seeing to the TV. I have heard about stupid Americans even making love while seeing the TV! -- what to say about eating? Why miss? You can do both the things -- you can make love and you can go on seeing the TV. Now, neither you will be seeing the TV nor you will be making love; you will not be able to enjoy either, you will miss both. There are people who cannot eat if they don't have company to talk and gossip and to discuss. When you are talking you go on swallowing -- swallowing is not eating. Eating should be meditative, prayerful. You should be more respectful to food because it is life, it is nourishment. And then thousand and one problems arise out of it. Because while you are eating you are reading the newspaper or quarrelling with the wife or listening to the radio or looking at the TV or talking to a friend or holding the phone, you will miss the joy of eating. You will eat more because your taste buds will not feel fulfilled and contented. Then you will gather unnecessary fat in the body. Then one has to start dieting, fasting, naturopathy and all kinds of nonsense follow. But the simple thing that should have been done in the first place was: just eating and not doing anything else.

Nadir shah heard about a great wise man in India, and he asked him to come. The wise man said, "To come to you will be enough proof that I am not wise, so the thing will be useless. You will have to come to the well." Nadir shah felt intrigued and excited too. He had never seen anybody disobey him. This man must have some guts. He went to the man and he felt some strange aura and energy around him. He said, "I have come. I want to ask you: it is said in the scriptures that to sleep too much is bad, but I love to sleep. In fact, I drink too much, and then to get up becomes difficult. The hangover... and then it is better to have more to drink and go to sleep again. What is your suggestion? Should I stop it?" The old man said, "No. Whatever the scriptures say means nothing. They were not written for you. They had no idea that a man like you will take instructions from the books. I would suggest you should sleep twenty-four hours, you should sleep forever. There is no need to wake up." Nadir shah said, "This is strange advice. Twenty-four hours? Forever?" The old man said, "Yes. Although it is against all the scriptures, but I say on my own authority that people like you need twenty-four hours of sleep, because whenever you are awake you will do some mischief. Asleep, much violence, much war, much trouble to the world will be stopped." So there is not much wrong.

All enlightened people have to lie, because truth cannot be said to you. You won't understand it; you are fast asleep, snoring. Truth cannot be said in language. The moment you put the experience of truth in language, it becomes untrue. So, rather than distorting the truth and making it untrue, it is far better to create a device -- which is a lie. But it works!

When love calls you, listen to it. That's the only responsibility. When love says something to you, let it enter into the deepest core of your being. When love knocks on your door, open the door. The real beloved, in fact, does not close the door at all, but waits at the door for the lover to come, so that he need not even knock.

Taoism is a love affair. It has nothing to do with ruled and the rulers, leaders and the led. It has certainly to do with love and lovers. And the beauty of love is: it does not create hierarchy.

You have every capacity, ability, potentiality to be enlightened. It is just a question of your decision. At the most, love persuades. And love has many ways to persuade. It is only hate that imposes. Just look at silence, and we all have become one. All divisions are lost and there is an immense peace, a tremendous feeling of joy arising in you.