OSHO TRANSFORMATION TAROT

TAROT OF OSHO TRANSFORMATION

Letters

No-Mind

The definitive and the inexpressible

2. Communion

Internal and external harmony

3. Lighting

Why does Buddha wait at the gates of heaven?

4. Sincerity

Bodhidharma seeks a disciple

The definitive accident

Chiyono and the cube of water

6. Greed

A parable of ambition and haste

7. Beyond greed

8. Discipleship

The numerous professors of the mystic Hasan

The greatest of miracles

From the temptation posed by spiritual powers

10. Worth

On the virtues of uselessness

11. Recognition

The teacher, the gardener and the guest

12. Questions

The teacher and his thirst for answers

13. Abandon knowledge

The threatening vision of Naropa

14. Authenticity

Milarepa and the false teacher

15. Alert

The sudden death of Ekido's disciple

Imitation

Gutei's finger pointing at the one

A cup of tea

The eyelids of Bodhidharma and the origin of tea

18. Meditation

On which side of the shoes have you left the umbrella?

19. Stay centered

The monk and the prostitute

20. Ego

The woman who had to cross the river

21. Consciousness

Mary Magdalene and the expensive perfume

22. The frenzied heart

The crazy wisdom of Francis of Assisi

23. Sentence

Love and the law of Moses

24. Abuse of power

About how Vivekananda lost his key

25. Light on the Path

The philosopher, the mystic, and the storm

26. Uniqueness

Beyond superiority and inferiority

27. Disguised blessings

The adventures and misadventures of a villager

28. Self-acceptance

Thoughts in the king's garden

29. Gratitude

A night without lodgings

30. What Never Dies

The grieving mother and the mustard seed

31. Detachment

Hakuin and the child

32. Beyond the small family

33. Renewal

The inheritance of Buddha

34. Ira

The monk of ungovernable genius

35. The mastery of moods

The secret of the ring

36. The Gates of Hell

The pride of the samurai

The gates of heaven

38. Transmutation

The Heart Meditation of Atisha

39. Energy

The man with the wreath of fingers

40. Totality

Failure

The open secret of true success

42. Concern

The elderly woman on the bus

43. Fantasy thinking

The parable of the wish-granting tree

44. Desire

The king's treasure and the magic bowl

45. Live totally

Alexander the Great meets Diogenes

The search

Searching for the house of God

47. Hope

Lost in the jungle

48. Challenge
The farmer and the wheat field

49. Love

The king's challenge to his three sons

Compassion

Jesus and the money changers

Abandon the past

52. Regret

When Shibli threw the rose

53. Game

Krishna's challenge to Arjuna

54. Concentration

Saraha and the woman who made arrows

55. Sex

The Circle of Mahamudra

Devotion

The dance of Meera in the temple

57. Intelligence

Rabiya and the riddle of the lost needle

58. To do

Trust in Allah, but tie your camel first.

59. The trip

60. Laughter

The last surprise of the Chinese mystic

NO-MIND

The definitive and the inexpressible

Your inner being is nothing other than your inner sky. The sky is empty, but the empty sky...
it contains everything, all existence, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the planets. The empty sky
gives space to everything that is, forms the background of all existence. Things come and go, and the
the sky remains the same.

Exactly in the same way you have an inner sky, which is also empty. The clouds
they come and go, the planets are born and disappear, the stars emerge and die, and the inner sky
remains the same, untouched, unblemished, whole. We call that inner sky sakshin, the
witness, and it is the goal of all meditation.

Enter and enjoy the inner sky. Remember: you are none of the things you can see. You can
to see the thoughts, then you are not the thoughts; you can see the feelings, then
you are not the feelings; you can see the dreams, the desires, the memories, the imaginations,
projections, then you are none of that. Keep eliminating everything you can see. Then,
One day the tremendous moment arrives, the most significant moment of life, when there is no longer
Nothing to reject. Everything seen disappears and only the one who sees remains. And the one who sees is the empty sky.

To know is to be unafraid, and to know is to be full of love. To know is to be God, to be immortal.

There is no way to pollute the sky, to leave impressions on it, to leave traces. We can
draw lines in the water but, as soon as we make them, they disappear; if we make them on stone
they will last thousands of years. We simply cannot draw lines in the sky, therefore, not even
we ponder the question of their disappearance. Please understand this difference. We cannot
draw lines in the sky: I can move my finger through the sky: the finger passes, but does not draw anything
line and there is not even the question of its disappearance.

The day a person goes beyond the mind, when their consciousness transcends the mind,
experiments that, just like in the sky, lines have not yet been drawn on the soul.
It is eternally pure, eternally illuminated; pollution has never affected it.

COMMUNION
The man is living like an island and it is from there that all misfortunes arise. Throughout
Throughout the centuries, man has tried to live independently of existence, which is impossible.
by the very nature of things. Man cannot be independent nor dependent. The
existence is a state of interdependence: everything depends on everything else. There is no hierarchy,
nobody is above or below others. Existence is a communion, a story of
eternal love.

But the idea that man has to be taller, superior, or special creates problems.
The man does not have to be anything; he has to dissolve into the totality of things. When
we let down all the barriers, communion occurs, and that communion is a blessing. To be
one with the totality is everything. This is the very core of religiosity.

COMMUNION

Internal and external harmony

Heraclitus says: Things would not go better if everything happened to men according to their desires.
unless you expect the unexpected, you will not be able to find the truth, because it is hard to discover and
difficult to achieve. Nature loves to hide. The gentleman whose oracle is in Delphi neither
speaks neither hidden, only gives signals.

Existence has no language... and if you depend on language, you will not be able to communicate with the
existence. Existence is a mystery, you cannot interpret it. If you interpret it, you lose it.
existence can be lived, but not thought. It resembles poetry more than philosophy. It is a
signal, it is a door. It shows, but says nothing. We cannot approach existence through
of the mind. If you think about it, you can keep thinking, but no matter how much you do, you will never
you will reach, because thought itself is the barrier. Thought is a private world, you
it belongs; next it leaves you locked, encapsulated, a prisoner within yourself. If not
you think, you stop being; you stop being confined. You are open, you become porous, existence flows
within you and you flow into existence.

Learn to listen: listening means being open, vulnerable, receptive, but in no way
it means to think. To think is a positive action. To listen is passive: you are like a valley that receives;
you are like a uterus that receives. If you can listen, then nature speaks, but without
language. Nature does not use words. So what does it use? As Heraclitus says,
Use signs. We see a flower: What is the sign that it contains? It is not saying anything but, can you
to really say that it says nothing? It says many things but does not use words: it is a message
without words.
To hear what has no words you will have to abandon words, because only the similar
one can hear the similar, only the similar can relate to the similar.

When you sit next to a flower, don't be a person, be a flower. When you sit next to a
tree, do not be a person, be a tree. When you bathe in the river, do not be a man, be the river.
So you receive thousands of signals. And it's not about communication, it's a communion. Nature
he speaks, and speaks in a thousand tongues, but in no language.

LIGHTING

Whatever you do, do it with deep awareness; then, even the slightest things become
sacred. So cooking or cleaning becomes something sacred; it turns into an act of worship. The
the issue does not lie in what you do, but in how you do it. You can clean the floor like a robot,
mechanically; as you have to clean it, you clean it; then you miss something precious.
Cleaning the floor could have been a great experience; you missed it. The floor is clean,
but something that could have happened inside you has stopped happening. If you are aware, if you are
alert, besides the ground, you yourself would have received a deep cleaning.

Clean the floor with full awareness, radiating consciousness. Work, sit, or walk, but there is
something that has to be a continuous thread: it illuminates more and more moments of your life with the light of
consciousness. Let the candle of consciousness burn at all times, in every act. The effect
The cumulative aspect of this practice is lighting. The cumulative effect, bringing together all the
moments, all the small candles, become a great source of light.

LIGHTING

Why does Buddha wait at the gates of paradise

The story goes that when Gautama Buddha died, he arrived at the gates of paradise. Those gates
rarely do they open, only once every many centuries; visitors do not arrive every day and
when someone arrives at their gates, all paradise celebrates. One more consciousness has succeeded
to flourish and existence is much richer than it was before.

The doors were open and the rest of the enlightened who had entered paradise before...
because in Buddhism there is no God, but the enlightened are divine: therefore, there are many gods
like enlightened beings. Everyone had gathered at the gates with music, songs, and dances.
They wanted to welcome Gautama Buddha but, to their surprise, he was standing giving the
back to the doors. His face still looked towards the distant shore he had left behind.

They said:
How strange. Who is he waiting for?

And it is said that the Buddha replied:

My heart is not so small. I am waiting for those I have left behind and who still
fighting along the way. They are my travel companions. You can keep the doors closed,
you will have to wait a bit to celebrate my entrance into paradise because I have decided to be the
last to go through them. When everyone has been illuminated and has entered through the door, when
no one was left out, so it will be my time to enter.

This story is a story, it cannot be a real fact. It is not something that depends on one; when
you illuminate yourself as you enter the universal source of life. It is not a matter of choice or decision.
But the story is that he keeps trying, even after dying. This story arose from what
What he said he would do on the last day before he died: that he would wait for you all.

He can no longer wait, he has already waited much longer than he should have. He should already...
having left but, seeing your misfortune and your suffering, somehow still remains there. But each time the
waiting becomes more impossible. It will have to leave you behind—with reluctance—but it will wait for you at the ...
another shore. He will not enter paradise because he made a promise.

Sincerity

Just remember one thing: be authentic, be honest with yourself. Declare your truth to
price that it may be. Even if you have to risk your life, risk it, because the truth is much more
more valuable than anything else, because truth is true life.

Sincerity

Bodhidharma is looking for a disciple.

This reminds me of Bodhidharma, who introduced Zen in China... The emperor came out to welcome him to
the border; and if it had been anyone other than Bodhidharma, the emperor would have cut off his
head immediately because he was behaving in a very impudent manner. The
the emperor had built thousands of temples, had erected thousands of Buddha statues. There was a thousand
scholars continuously translating the words of Buddha from Pali to Chinese, and ten thousand monks
they were fed by the imperial treasury. The emperor had done much for China
Buddhist rhetoric. Obviously, he thought his actions would be valued, that's why he said:

I have done all this. What do you think? What is the virtue achieved with all of this?

Bodhidharma said:
—Virtue? Idiot!—and he said it in front of the entire court that accompanied the emperor.

The emperor could not understand it.

I don’t understand why you get so angry. Bodhidharma replied:

You are destroying the living word and you are feeding those scholars who contribute nothing.
to the people's conscience. And do you still have the courage to ask if you are accumulating great
virtues? You will go straight to hell!

The emperor thought: Shortly after, the emperor returned to the palace and Bodhidharma stayed in
the hills that surround the Chinese border. He sat in a temple looking at the wall
for nine years and stated:

Nine years is a long time, but finally, one morning the man showed up. He said to
Bodhidharma:

—Listen, I think I am the person you have been waiting for.

To prove it, he cut off his hand with his sword, threw it in Bodhidharma's lap, and said:

Turn towards me or I'll cut off your head right here and you will be responsible!

Bodhidharma turned around immediately and said:

It's enough. This is the proof that you're as crazy as I want! Sit down. It's not necessary.
cut off your head, we have to make use of it; you will be my successor.

A man who cuts off his hand to prove the sincerity of his quest... and Bodhidharma does not.
He doubted for a moment that he would have been beheaded if he had not turned back. He would have.
unnecessarily burdened with the responsibility of having killed a man, and furthermore a
such a beautiful man, so brave. Certainly that man was the successor of Bodhidharma.

But no one knows what happened between them. Not a word was spoken; Bodhidharma
she simply turned to him, told him to sit down, looked him in the eyes... it was snowing and around
there was an immense silence. No question was raised nor was any answer given. But something
It must have happened because otherwise Bodhidharma would not have chosen him as a disciple.

THE DEFINITIVE ACCIDENT

What produces illumination is not a sequence of causes. Your search, your intense longing, your
willingness to do anything, all of this together creates a certain aroma around you in which that
a great accident becomes possible.
THE DEFINITIVE ACCIDENT

Chiyono and the Water Cube

The nun Chiyono studied for years but was unable to find enlightenment. One night
I was carrying an old bucket full of water. As I walked, I looked at the moon.
reflected in the water of the cube. Suddenly, the bamboo strips that held the pieces of the cube
they broke and the cube fell apart. The water spilled and the reflection of the moon disappeared; and Chiyono
It lit up. He wrote the following verse:

In one way or another I tried to keep the cube whole, hoping that the weak bamboo would never
it broke. Suddenly, the background fell.

No more water; no more reflection of the moon in the water: emptiness in my hand.

Lighting is always like an accident because it is unpredictable, because you cannot

manage it, you can't make it happen. But don't get me wrong, because when I say that the
lighting is like an accident, I'm not saying you shouldn't do anything to obtain it. The
Accidents only happen to those who do a lot to make them happen, although they never happen because of that.
what they do. That doing is only the cause that creates the situation for which it tends to occur.
accident, that is all. This is the meaning of that magnificent event.

I must tell you something about Chiyono. She was a very beautiful woman. When she was young, even the
the emperor and the princes were pursuing her. She refused because she only wanted to be the lover of what
divine. She went from monastery to monastery trying to become a nun, but even the great ones
masters refused: they had many monks under their care and she was so beautiful that they would forget
of God and everything else. That's why, wherever I went, I found the doors closed.

What did Chiyono do? She found a way out: she burned her face and filled it with scars. And then
It was a teacher who couldn't even recognize whether they were male or female. Then they were accepted.
as a nun. She studied and meditated for thirty, forty years continuously.

Then, suddenly, one night... I was looking at the moon reflected in the bucket of water. Of
suddenly the cube fell, the water spilled, and the moon disappeared; that was the trigger.

There is always a crucial point at which the old disappears and the new begins, at which
we are reborn. That was the crucial point. Suddenly, the water spilled and there was no moon anymore. Then
Chiyono must have looked up to see the true moon. Suddenly, she woke up to the fact
that everything is a reflection, an illusion, because we see things through the mind. When we
he broke the cube, the mind also broke. She was ready. Everything that could be done was already done.
she had done. She had already done everything possible. There was nothing left, she was ready, she had
Cattle. This ordinary accident became the crucial point, the trigger.

Suddenly the background fell; it was an accident. No more water, no more moon in the water; emptiness in
my hand.

And this is the illumination: when you have emptiness in your hand, when everything is empty, when
There is no one, not even you. You have arrived at the original face of zen.

GREED

When people become greedy, they start to be in a hurry and try to find a way to
do things faster. They do everything while running because they think life is running out for them. They are
The people who say: Is time money? Money is very limited; time is limited.
time is not money, time is eternity; it has always been there and will always be. And you always
You have been here and you will always be.

Therefore, abandon greed and do not worry about the results. Sometimes, due to your impatience,
you lose many things.

GREED/BEYOND GREED

A parable of ambition and haste

I will tell you an ancient Indian parable...

A great saint, Narada, was heading towards paradise. He used to travel between the earth and paradise. He was like the
messenger that united both worlds; acted as a bridge.

He encountered a wise old man, quite elderly, who sat under a tree repeating his mantra.
He had been repeating his mantra for many years and many lives. Narada asked him:

Would you like to ask something? Do you want me to send a message from you to the Lord?

The old man opened his eyes and said:

—Just ask him one thing: how much longer will I have to wait? How much longer? Tell him that it is
too much. I have been repeating this mantra for many lifetimes, how much longer do I have
What should I keep doing? I'm tired of it, I'm bored.
Next to the wise old man, under another tree, there was a young man with an ektara, an instrument.
with a single string, playing it and dancing. Narada jokingly asked him:

Would you like to know how much time you have left to enlighten yourself?

But the young man didn't even bother to respond. He kept dancing. Narada asked him again:

I am going to see the Lord. Do you have any message for him?

But the young man laughed and kept dancing.

When Narada returned a few days later, he told the old man:

God has said that you will have to wait at least three more lives.

The old man was so angry that he threw the beaded rosary far away from him. He wanted to hit
Narada! And he said:

This makes no sense! I have been waiting so long, and I have practiced all kinds of
austerities: I have sung, I have fasted, I have done all the rituals. I have fulfilled all the
requirements. Three lives; it's unfair!

The young man kept dancing under his tree and was very happy. Narada was scared, but he...
approached and said to him:

Although you did not ask anything, I inquired out of my own curiosity. When God said
that the old man still had three lives left, I asked about the young man who danced beside him and
he played the ektara. And God said: .

Then the young man started to dance even faster and said:

As many lives as there are leaves on this tree? Then I am not far off, it's as if I already
I would have arrived! Think of all the trees on Earth. Compare! I am very close.
Thank you for asking.

And she began to dance again. And history tells that instantly, at that very moment,
the young man lit up.

BEYOND GREED

GREED/BEYOND GREED
The man is whole when he is in tune with the universe; if he is not in harmony with the
The universe is therefore empty, totally empty. And from that emptiness arises greed. Greed tries
to fill ourselves—with money, with houses, with furniture, with friends, with lovers, with anything—
because one cannot live empty. It's something horrifying, a ghostly life. If you are empty and not
there is nothing inside you, living is impossible.

To feel fulfilled, to feel that you have a lot inside you, there are only two paths: either you
you tune in with the universe... Then you feel filled with the wholeness, with the flowers and the stars.
They are both inside and outside of you. That is true fullness. But if you don't do it—and there is
millions of people who don’t—then the easiest thing is to fill up with any old junk.

Greed means that you feel a deep void and that you are willing to fill it with anything.
something that is at hand, regardless of what it is. Once you understand this, there's nothing left for you.
more to do with greed. What you have left to do is to enter into communion with the whole to
may the internal void disappear. And with it, all greed disappears.

But all over the world, there are many crazy people looking for things to fill their emptiness. Some
they accumulate money, even if they don't use it. Others dedicate themselves to eating; and they continue to gulp down even if they don't

they are hungry. They know that it will cause them suffering, that they will get sick, but they cannot
prevent it. This way of eating is also a way to fill oneself up. Therefore, there are many
ways to fill the void, although it never completely fills: there is still a void and you continue
feeling miserable because it's never enough. There is always a need for more, and the demand for
more and more never ends.

You have to understand the emptiness you are trying to fill and ask yourself:

Therefore, follow your existential direction.

Surrender and approach existence in silence and in peace, in meditation.

And one day you will realize that you are so full—overflowing—you overflow with joy, happiness, blessing.
You have so much that you can give to the world without exhausting yourself.

That day, for the first time, you will feel no greed, no desire for money, food, or
things, you will want nothing. You will live naturally and find what you need.

Discipleship

No situation is without lessons, none at all. All situations are

pregnant, but this is something you have to discover; superficially it may not seem that it is
That's it. You have to stay alert, you have to look at all aspects of the situation.
Discipleship

The countless teachers of Junnaid

One of the great Sufi masters, Junnaid, was asked when he was dying...
the first disciple approached him and asked:

Junnaid opened his eyes and said:

It will be very difficult for me to answer because I have learned from almost everyone. All existence has
I have been my teacher. I have learned from every event that has occurred in my life. And I am happy about everything.
what has happened to me, because thanks to all that learning I have arrived.

To satisfy your curiosity, I will give you three examples. The first one: I was very thirsty and I ...
I was heading towards the river with my bowl, my only possession. When I arrived at the river, a dog came.
running, he jumped into the river and began to drink.

I observed it for a moment and threw the bowl away from me; I realized it was useless. A dog
I can live without him. I also jumped into the river and drank as much as I wanted. Since I had jumped into the
river, my whole body refreshed. I sat by the river for a few seconds, thanked the dog and
I touched his feet with deep respect because he had taught me a lesson. I had left him.
everything, all the possessions, but I had a certain attachment to my bowl. It was very beautiful, beautifully
carved and I always thought someone could steal it from me. At night I would place it under my head,
like a pillow, so that no one would take it away from me. It was my last attachment, and the dog helped me. It remained

Very clear: if a dog can manage without a begging bowl... I am a man, why
Was I not going to be able to manage? That dog was one of my teachers.

Second—said Junnaid—I got lost in the forest and when I arrived at the nearest village it was already
midnight. Everyone was asleep. I wandered around to see if I could find someone.
I woke up that could give me shelter, until I met a man. I said to him:

It seems that you and I are the only ones awake in the whole town. Can you
Will you take me in tonight?

The man said:

I can see by your cloak that you are a Sufi monk...

The word Sufi comes from suff; suff means wool, a wool garment. The Sufis have used
wool garments for centuries; that's where their name comes from, from the clothes they wear. The thief said:
 I can see that you are a Sufi and I feel a bit embarrassed to take you to my house. I am more
What willing, but I must warn you who I am. I am a thief; would you like to be the guest of a
thief?

Junnaid hesitated for a moment. The thief said:

—Look, it’s better that I told you. It seems that you have doubts. The thief is willing but the mystic
doubt of entering the house of a thief, as if the mystic were weaker than the thief. In fact,
I am the one who should be afraid of you: You could change me, you could transform my life!
Inviting you poses a risk for me, but I am not afraid. I welcome you. Come to my house.
Come, baby, sleep and stay as long as you want because I live alone and earn enough. I can
to support another person. And it will be very pleasant to chat with you about the great things. But
you seem to doubt.

And Junnaid realized that what the thief was saying was true. He asked for forgiveness. He touched his feet.
of the thief and said:

Yes, my rooting in my own being is still very weak. You are a strong man and I would like to go.
to your house. And I would like to stay a little longer, not just tonight. I also want to
strengthen me!

—Let's go!—said the thief.

He fed the Sufi, gave him something to drink, helped him prepare the bed, and said to him:

Now I will go. I have to do my work. I will come early in the morning.

The thief returned early in the morning. Junnaid asked him:

Have you been successful?

No, not today, but we'll see tomorrow, said the thief.

And this continued for thirty days: the thief would go out every night and return every morning with the
empty hands. But he was never sad or frustrated—nor a sign of failure on his face, always
I was happy—and I said:

It doesn't matter. I put my best effort into the attempt. I haven't been able to find anything today, but
Tomorrow I will try again. And, God willing, tomorrow what has not happened may happen.
today.

A month later, Junnaid left, and for years he tried to achieve fulfillment, although he always failed.
But when he thought about abandoning his project, he remembered the thief with his smiling face.
saying: .
I remember that the thief was one of my greatest masters—said Junnaid—. Without him, I would not be who I am.
I am.

And third—said Junnaid—I entered a small village. A boy was carrying a lit candle.
Evidently, he was heading towards some small temple of the locality to leave the burning candle.
during the night.

And Junnaid asked him:

Can you tell me where the light comes from? You have lit the candle, so you must have had to.
See it. What is the source of the light?

—Wait!—said the child laughing, and blew out the candle in front of Junnaid—. Have you seen how it has
Where did the light go? Can you tell me where it has gone? If you tell me where it has gone, I will tell you where it comes from.

because it is the same place. It has returned to its source.

I have been with great philosophers but no one has told me something so beautiful: 'He has returned to his
source'. Everything ends up returning to its source. Moreover, the child has made me aware of my
ignorance. I was trying to play a trick on him and I ended up getting the worst of it. He showed me that
Asking foolish questions—where did the light come from?—is not intelligent. It comes from nowhere.
part, from nothing; and returns to nowhere, to nothing.

I touched the boy's feet—Junnaid continued—. He was surprised and said:

Why are you touching my feet?

You are my Master, Junnaid replied, you have taught me something. You have given me a great lesson.
a great understanding.

Since that moment, I have been meditating on nothingness and, little by little, I have been entering into it.
And now the final moment will come when the candle goes out, the light will go out. And I know where I am going; to
the same source.

I remember that boy with deep gratitude. I can still see him in front of me, blowing
your candle.

THE GREATEST OF MIRACLES

Making a miracle is great, but not great enough. Making a miracle is still being
in the world of ego. True greatness is so ordinary that it does not aspire to anything; it is so
ordinary that never tries to prove anything.
THE GREATEST OF MIRACLES

From the temptation posed by spiritual powers

A man came to Lin Chi and said:

My Master is a great psychic. What can you tell me about yours? What can your Master do? What
miracles?

What miracles has your Master been performing? asked Lin Chi.

The disciple said:

One day he told me to go to the other shore of the river and he was there with a paper in his hand. The river was
very wide, more than a kilometer. He was standing on the other shore; from there he began to write
with a pen and its writing was marked on the paper I was holding. I have seen this with my
with my own eyes, I am a witness to it! What can your Master do?

When he is hungry, he eats; when he is sleepy, he sleeps,

What are you talking about? said the man. And you call that a miracle? Everyone
he/she does it!

Lin Chi continued:

No, nobody does that. When you sleep, you do a thousand other things. When you eat, you are thinking about...
a thousand other things. When my teacher sleeps, he simply sleeps; he does not turn nor toss, nor
He/She even dreams. At that moment, only the dream exists, nothing else. And when he/she is hungry, he/she eats.
It's always where it is. What is the purpose of writing from one bank of the river to the other? That's something that
it would only interest very stupid people. Why does he do it?

Someone went to Ramakrishna and said:

My teacher is a great man. He can walk on water.

That's stupid! said Ramakrishna. I can go to the ferryman and for two pence he will cross me.
to the other shore. Your Master is a crazy man. Go and tell him not to waste his life. That's something that can be
do with complete ease.

But the mind is always desiring. The mind is nothing more than desire, a longing for things to happen.
something. Sometimes he thinks about money, about having more money, a bigger house, about being more
respectable, in having more political power. Then one turns to spirituality and the mind continues
being the same. Now one wants more psychic powers: telepathy, clairvoyance, and all kinds of
nonsense. But the mind remains the same; you want more. The same game continues...
Now it is about telepathy, clairvoyance, or psychic powers: you can do such a thing, I can too.
do more. I can read people's minds from thousands of kilometers away.

Life itself is a miracle, but the ego is not willing to accept it. It wants to do something.
special, something that no one else does, something extraordinary.

VALUE

Don't worry too much about utilitarian ends. Rather, constantly remember that you do not...
you are here, in life, to be an object. You are not here to have utility; that is beneath
your dignity. You are not here to be increasingly efficient, but to be increasingly alive;
You are here to become increasingly intelligent; you are here to become increasingly happy, ecstatically.
happy.

VALUE

On the virtues of uselessness

Lao Tse was traveling with his disciples and they arrived at a forest where there were hundreds of loggers.
counting logs because a great palace was being built. They had cut down almost all the
forest, but there remains a tree, a great tree with thousands of branches, so large that its shadow could
to shelter ten thousand people. Lao Tse asked his disciples to find out why that tree did not
it had still been cut when the rest of the forest had been felled and nothing was left.

The disciples went and asked the woodcutters:

Why haven't you cut down this tree?

This tree is completely useless, said the lumberjacks. There is nothing that can be done with it.
because the branches have many knots. There is not a single straight section. Pillars cannot be built.
furniture cannot be made with it. Its wood cannot be burned either because the smoke is
very bad for the eyes, it can almost leave you blind. This tree is absolutely useless. That's why not
we have cut it.

The disciples returned. Lao Tzu laughed and said:

—But like this tree. If you want to survive in the world, be like this tree, absolutely.
useless. Then no one will harm you. If you are straight, they will cut you, someone will turn you into furniture.
If you are precious, someone will sell you in the market, you will become a consumer good. Be
like this tree, absolutely useless. Then no one will be able to harm you. And you will grow.
big and strong, and you will be able to provide shade to thousands of people.
The logic of Lao Tse is very different from the logic of your mind. He says: be the last. Move in the
world as if you were not. Be a stranger. Don't try to be the first, don't compete, don't try
to prove your worth. It's not necessary. Be useless and enjoy.

Of course it is very impractical. But if you come to understand it, you will realize that it is
very practical to another level, in depth: because life is for enjoying and celebrating, life does not
it is a consumer good in the market; it should be like poetry, like a song, like a
dance.

Lao Tzu says: if you try to be very clever, if you try to be very helpful, you will be used. If you try to be
very practical, one way or another you will take the reins, because the world cannot leave you in peace
to the practical man. Lao Tzu says: abandon all those ideas. If you want to be a poem, an ecstasy,
Forget about usefulness. Be honest with yourself.

RECOGNITION

The yearning of the mind is to be extraordinary. The ego is hungry and thirsty for recognition.
Some achieve that dream through wealth, others through power, politics; others
they fulfill the dream through miracles, through juggling, but the dream remains:

And that is a miracle; when you accept that you are nobody, when you are as ordinary as everything.
what surrounds you, when you don't seek recognition, when you can exist as if you didn't exist. The
The miracle is to be absent.

RECOGNITION

The Master, the gardener, and the guest.

This story is beautiful, one of the most beautiful Zen anecdotes, and Bankei is a brilliant Master.
But Bankei was an ordinary man.

Once, Bankei was working in his garden. A seeker arrived, a man who
he was looking for a Master, and asked Bankei:

—Gardener, where is the master?

Bankei laughed and said:

Wait. Go through that door and inside you will find the Master.

The man turned around and entered. He saw Bankei seated on a throne, it was the same man who
I had seen outside, the gardener. The seeker asked:
Are you pulling my leg? Get down from that throne. What you are doing is sacrilegious, don't you have
Respect for your teacher?

Bankei sat down on the ground and said:

Well, now you have it tough. You won't find any teacher around here... because I am the one.
Master.

The man found it difficult to see that a great Master could work in the garden, that he could
be ordinary. He left. He couldn't believe that man was the Master; he lost his chance.

Everyone fears not being anyone. Only a few curious and extraordinary people do not.
They fear not being anyone, like Gautama Buddha or Bankei. A nobody is not an ordinary phenomenon;
it's one of the greatest experiences of life: you are and at the same time you are not. You are pure
existence without name, without address, without limits... neither sinner nor saint, neither inferior nor superior, only
silence.

People are afraid because their personality disappears in front of such a person; their name, their
fame, your respectability, everything disappears; that's where fear comes from. But death is going to take away
All those things anyway. The wise allow all that to fall by itself.
So death has nothing left to take. Fear disappears because death does not
He can come to you; you have nothing for her. Death cannot kill one who is nobody.

When you feel like you are nobody, you become immortal. Nirvana is that experience of nothingness.
the absolute silence without alterations, without ego, without personality, without hypocrisy; only silence... and the
insects singing at night.

In some way you are here, and yet you are not.

You are here because of your old association with the body, but if you look within, you are not. And that understanding,
where there is pure silence and pure being, it is your reality, that death cannot destroy. This is your
eternity, is your immortality.

There is nothing to fear. There is nothing to lose. If you think you are going to lose something—your name,
Your respectability, your reputation - you must know that they are worth nothing. They are childish toys, they are not suitable.

for mature people. And it's time for you to mature, to simply be.

Your 'being someone' is very small. The more you are someone, the smaller you are; the more you stop
Being someone, you are greater. Be absolutely nobody and you will be one with existence itself.