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The Lord asked: What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to the Tathagata, “By me has dharma been demonstrated”? Whosoever, Subhuti, would say, “The Tathagata has demonstrated dharma,” he would speak falsely, he would misrepresent me by seizing on what is not there.
And why?…Because not even the least dharma is there found or got at. Therefore is it called “utmost, right and perfect enlightenment.”
Furthermore, Subhuti, self-identical is that dharma, and nothing is therein at variance. Therefore is it called “utmost, right and perfect enlightenment.” Self-identical through the absence of a self, a being, a soul, or a person, the utmost, right and perfect enlightenment is fully known as the totality of all the wholesome dharmas….
What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to a tathagata, “by me have beings been set free”?
Not thus should you see it, Subhuti!
And why? There is not any being whom the Tathagata has set free…

Further the Lord taught on that occasion the following stanzas:
Those who by my form did see me,
And those who followed me by voice
Wrong the efforts they engaged in,
Me those people will not see.
From the dharma should one see the buddhas,
From the dharma-bodies comes their guidance.
Yet dharma’s true nature cannot be discerned.
And no one can be conscious of it as an object….
Whosoever says that the Tathagata goes or comes, stands, sits or lies down, he does not understand the meaning of my teaching.
And why? “Tathagata” is called one who has not gone anywhere, nor come from anywhere. Therefore is he called “the Tathagata, the arhat, the fully enlightened one.”
To recapitulate: The Lord said: The Tathagata speaks in accordance with reality, speaks the truth, speaks of what is, not otherwise…. “Tathagata,” Subhuti, is synonymous with true suchness.
The word suchness is of immense importance in Buddha’s approach towards reality. The word suchness is as important in Buddhism as God is in other religions.
The Buddhist word for suchness is tathata. It means, “Seeing things are such, don’t take any attitude, don’t make any opinion, don’t judge or condemn.” The Buddhist meditation consists of suchness. The method is very practical and very deep going. Buddha has said to his disciples, “Just watch things as they are, without interfering.” For example, you have a headache. The moment you note it, immediately the opinion enters that this is not good: “Why should I have a headache? What should I do not to have it?” You are immediately worried, you have taken an opinion, you are against it, you have started repressing it. Either you have to repress it chemically, through an Aspro or Novalgin, or you have to repress it in the consciousness – you don’t look at it, you put it aside. You get involved in something else, you want to be distracted in something else so you can forget it. But in both ways you have missed suchness.
What will Buddha suggest? Buddha says take note twice, “Headache, headache.” Don’t feel inimical towards it, neither friendly nor antagonistic. Just take simple note, as if it has nothing to do with you: “Headache, headache.” And remain undisturbed, undistracted, uninfluenced by it, without any opinion.
See the point. Immediately, ninety percent of the headache is gone…because a headache is not a real headache, ninety percent arises out of the antagonistic opinion. Immediately you will see that the greater part of it is no longer there. And another thing will be noted: sooner or later you will see that the headache is disappearing in something else – maybe you are now feeling anger. What happened? If you repress the headache you will never come to know what its real message was. The headache was there just as an indicator that you are full of anger in this moment and the anger is creating a tension in the head, hence the headache. But you watched, you simply took note of it – “Headache, headache” – you remained impartial, objective.
Then the headache disappears. And the headache gives you the message that “I am not a headache, I am anger.” Now, Buddha says, take note again: “Anger, anger.” Now don’t become angry with anger, otherwise again you are trapped and you have missed suchness. If you say, “Anger, anger,” ninety percent of the anger will be gone immediately. This is a very practical method. And the ten percent that will be left will release its message. You may come to see that it is not anger, it is ego. Take note again: “Ego, ego.” And so on and so forth. One thing is connected with another, and the deeper you move the closer you come to the original cause. And once you have come to the original cause the chain is broken – there is nothing beyond it.
A moment will come when you will take note of the last link in the chain, and then nothingness. Then you are released from the whole chain, and there will arise great purity, great silence. That silence is called suchness.
This has to be practiced continuously. Sometimes it may happen that you forget, and you have made an opinion unconsciously, mechanically. Then Buddha says remember again: “Opinion, opinion.” Now don’t get distracted by this – that you have made an opinion. Don’t get depressed that you have missed. Just take note, “Opinion, opinion,” and suddenly you will see – ninety percent of the opinion is gone, ten percent remains, and that releases its message to you. What is its message? The message is that there is some inhibition, some taboo; out of that taboo the opinion has arisen.
A sex desire comes in the mind and immediately you say, “This is bad.” This is opinion. Why is it bad? – because you have been taught it is bad, it is a taboo. Take note, “Taboo, taboo,” and go on.
Sometimes it will also happen that you have judged – not only judged, you have made an opinion; not only made an opinion, you have become depressed that you have missed. Then take note again, “Depression, depression,” and go on.
Whenever you become conscious, at whatsoever point, from there take note – just a simple note – and leave the whole thing. And soon you will see the entangled mind is no longer as entangled as it has always been. Things start disappearing, and there will be moments of suchness, tathata, when you will be simply there and the existence is there and there is no opinion between you and existence. All is undisturbed by thought, unpolluted by thought. Existence is, but mind has disappeared. That state of no-mind is called suchness.
Buddha says: A tathagata is synonymous with suchness. Synonymous – not that he has the quality of suchness, he is suchness.
And Buddha says: A tathagata speaks in accordance with reality. He cannot do otherwise. It is not that he chooses to speak in accordance with reality – there is no choice. Whatsoever is real is spoken through him. It is not that he chooses, “This is real and I should speak this, and that is unreal and I will not speak that.” If that choice has arisen, you are not a buddha yet.
A tathagata speaks out of choicelessness. So it is not that the tathagata speaks truth; in fact it should be said in this way, that whatsoever is spoken by a tathagata is truth. He speaks in accordance with reality. In fact, reality speaks through him. He is just a medium, a hollow bamboo. The reality sings its song through him, he has no song of his own. All his opinions have disappeared and he himself has disappeared. He is pure space. Truth can pass through him into the world, truth can descend through him into the world. He…speaks the truth, he speaks of what is….
Yatha bhutam – whatsoever is the case, he speaks. He has no mind about it, he never interferes. He does not drop a thing, he does not add a thing. He is a mirror: whatsoever comes in front of the mirror the mirror reflects. This reflectiveness is suchness.
“Tathagata,” Subhuti, is synonymous with true suchness. And why does he say true suchness? Is there some untrue suchness too? Yes. You can practice. You can practice, you can cultivate a certain quality called suchness, but that will not be true. The true suchness has not to be cultivated, it comes.
For example, what do I mean when I say you can cultivate? You can decide, “I will only speak the truth, whatsoever the consequence. Even if I have to lose my life I will speak the truth.” And you speak the truth – but this is not true suchness, it is your decision. The untruth arises in you. You go on pushing down the untruth. You say, “I have decided that even if my life is at stake I am going to be true.” It is effort. Truth has become your prestige. Deep down you are longing to be a martyr. Deep down you want to let the whole world know that you are a truthful man, that you are ready to sacrifice your life also for it; you are a great man, a mahatma. And you may sacrifice your life, but it is not true suchness.
True suchness knows nothing of choice. You are simply an instrument of reality. You don’t come in, you don’t stand in between, you have simply withdrawn yourself. The mirror does not decide, “This man is standing in front of me. I am going to show him his real face, whatsoever the consequence. Even if he throws a stone at me – because he is so ugly, he may get angry – but I am going to show him his real face.”
If a mirror thinks that way then the mirror is no longer a mirror – mind has come in. It is not mirroring, it is his decision. The purity is lost. But a mirror is simply there, it has no mind; so is a buddha. That’s why Buddha uses the word true suchness.
This Buddhist meditation of taking note – try it, play with it. I cannot say practice it, I can only say play with it. Sitting, walking, sometimes remember it – just play with it. And you will be surprised that Buddha has given to the world one of the greatest techniques to penetrate into your innermost core.
Psychoanalysis does not go that deep. It also depends on something like this – free association of thoughts – but it remains superficial, because the other’s presence is a hindrance. The psychoanalyst is sitting there; even if he is sitting behind a screen, but you know he is there. That very knowledge that somebody is there hinders. You cannot be a real mirror, because the presence of the other cannot allow you to open totally. You can open totally only to your own self.
Buddha’s method is far more deep going because it is not to be told to anybody else. You have just to take note inside. It is subjective and yet objective. The phenomenon has to happen in your subjectivity, but you have to remain objective.
Just take note, and go on taking note as if it is none of your business, as if it is not happening to you, as if you have been appointed to do some job: “Stand on this corner of the road and just take note of whosoever passes by. A woman, a woman. A dog, a dog. A car, a car.” You have nothing to do, you are not involved. You are absolutely aloof, distant.
It can take you from one thing to another, and a moment comes when you have reached to the very cause of a certain chain. And there are many chains in your being, thousands of threads have got intertwined into each other. You have become a mess. You will have to follow each thread, slowly slowly, and you will have to come to the end of each thread. Once the end is reached, that chain disappears from your being. You are less burdened.
Slowly slowly, one day it happens – all threads have disappeared, because you have looked into all causes that were causing them. They were effects. One day, when all causes have been looked into, you have observed everything – all the games of the mind that it goes on playing with you, all the tricks and cunningnesses of it, all the deceptions and mischiefs – the whole mind disappears, as if it has never been there.
There is a famous sutra which Buddha has said about the mind, about life, about existence. The sutra is one of the most golden ones. He says:
“Think about the mind as stars, a fault of vision, as a lamp, a mock show, dewdrops, or a bubble, a dream, a lightning flash, or a cloud. So should one view what is conditioned.”
Mind is a conditioned phenomenon. It is the effect of some causes. You cannot destroy the effects directly, you will have to go to the causes. You cannot destroy a tree just by cutting its branches and leaves and foliage; you will have to go to the roots – and roots are hidden underneath. So are the roots in you. These things have to be understood. Buddha says: “Think of your mind as stars.” Why? Stars exist only in darkness. When the morning comes and the sun rises they disappear.
So is your mind; it exists only in unconsciousness. When the sun of consciousness rises it disappears – just like stars. Don’t fight with the stars. You will not be able to destroy them, they are millions. Just become more aware and they will disappear on their own accord.
A fault of vision…. Your eye is ill, it has some fault. Then you see things which are not there. For example, you may be seeing double or you may be seeing patterns, because your eye is not as it should be. If your liver is not good your eyes will start seeing things which are not there; a weak liver, and eyes will see patterns in the air, bubbles, designs, patterns. They are not really there, they are caused by your eye itself. You cannot fight with them, you cannot destroy them, because they don’t exist. All that is needed is that you will have to go to a physician. Your eye needs treatment, your eye needs to be cured.
Buddha used to say, “I am not a philosopher, I am a physician. I don’t give you a doctrine, I doctor you. I don’t give you a theory, I simply give you a medicine. I don’t talk about what light is, I only help you open your eyes so you yourself can see it.”
The blind man cannot be helped by definitions of light and color and rainbows. The only help possible is that his eyes have to be brought back. You cannot explain to a deaf person what music is. Only when he can hear will he know. The experience is the only explanation.
Third, Buddha says think of the mind as a lamp. Why as a lamp? The lamp burns only while the oil in it lasts. Once the oil is finished the flame disappears. So is the mind – and the oil is the desire. While there are desires in the mind, the mind will remain alive. Don’t fight with the flame, just don’t go on pouring fuel on it. Desire is the fuel.
Desire means, that which is, you are not satisfied with it, you want something else. You are not living in suchness – that’s what desire means. Desire means you want things to be other than they are. You don’t want them the way they are. You have your own ideas, you have your private dreams to impose upon reality. You are not contented with reality as such, you want to change it according to your heart’s desire. Then mind will remain. Mind exists because you are not contented with reality.
So many people come to me and they ask, “How to stop the thoughts?” They want to stop the thoughts directly. They cannot be stopped. Thoughts exist because desires exist. Unless you understand desire and drop desire, you will not be able to drop thoughts – because thoughts are by-products.
First the desire comes in. You see a beautiful car passing by and a desire arises. Buddha will say, “Say, ‘Car, car.’ Finished. If a desire has arisen in you, say again, ‘Desire, desire,’ and be finished.” But you have seen a beautiful car and a dream, a desire, takes possession of you.
Now so many thoughts will arise: “How can I manage to purchase this car? Should I sell my house? Should I go to the bank? Should I earn more money, legal/illegal? What should I do? This car has to be possessed.” Now how can you stop thoughts?
A politician used to come to me and he wanted to stop thoughts, he wanted to meditate. I said, “First you drop your politics, otherwise how can you stop? You are so ambitious.”
First he was an MLA. He was very ambitious, he became a deputy minister. But he was again ambitious, he became a minister. Now he was trying to become the chief minister of a state. And he said, “But I have come only for this, that if you can help me to relax, to meditate, I will be more capable of fighting, of giving a good fight to my competitors. And you are saying drop politics? That I cannot do.”
But if you don’t drop desire, how can you stop thinking? Thinking comes as a help. You want to be the chief minister, the mind starts spinning and weaving. The mind says, “Now I have to look into things, into how it should be managed.” Now there are a thousand and one problems to be solved, only then can your desire be fulfilled. Thinking is a device of desire to fulfill itself. You cannot stop thinking directly.
Buddha says desire is like oil in a lamp: if the oil is no more, the flame will disappear on its own.
Think of mind as a lamp, think of mind as a mock show, a magic show. Nothing is substantial there, it is a kind of hypnotic state. The hypnotist has hypnotized you and he says, “Look – the animal, the camel is coming.” And there arises a form of a camel in your mind, and you start looking at the camel and the camel is there – for you. Everybody is laughing, because nobody is seeing the camel, but you are seeing it.
Your mind is a magic-box, that’s what Buddha has said again and again. It goes on creating phantoms, imaginations, which have no substance in them – but if you want to believe in them they will become real. Your mind is a great mock show. In fact the English word magic comes from the Indian word maya. “Maya” means illusion.
Illusions can be created, and you all create illusions. You see a woman, but you never see yatha bhutam – as she is. That’s why there is so much frustration afterwards. You start seeing things which are not there, which are only projections of your mind. You project beauty, you project a thousand and one things on the poor woman. When you come closer, when you are able to live with the woman, those phantoms will start wearing out. Those imaginations cannot persist against reality for long; the woman’s reality will assert, and then you will feel cheated and you will think as if she has cheated you.
She has not done a thing. She herself is feeling cheated by you, because she has also projected something on you. She was thinking you are a hero, an Alexander or something, a great man, and now you are just a mouse and nothing else. And she was thinking you are a mountain – you are not even a molehill! She feels cheated. You both feel cheated, you both feel frustrated.
I have heard:

A woman walked into the Missing Persons Bureau. “My husband disappeared last night,” she reported.
“We’ll do our best to find him,” the officers assured her. “Kindly give us a description of the man.”
“Well,” she waited a little and then said, “he’s about five feet tall, wears thick glasses, has a bald head, drinks a lot, has a red nose, has a high squeaky voice….” And then she stopped and thought for a moment, and said, “Oh, just forget the whole thing!”

If you see the reality, that is how it is. You will say, “Oh, forget the whole thing.” But you don’t see, you go on projecting.
One day Mulla Nasruddin said to me, “My uncle lived in Italy for years. He died from wine, women and song.”
I said to him, “Nasruddin, I had never thought that your uncle was so Omar Khayyamic. Tell me something more about your uncle. I am interested.”
Mulla Nasruddin said, “Actually it is not as romantic as it sounds. And I will not hide the real thing from you, I will tell you the truth, Osho. He was singing this rude song under a married bird’s window and her husband came out and brained him with a Chianti bottle. He died of wine, women and song.”

That’s how we go on and on.
Reality is never frustrating, reality is always fulfilling. Frustrations come because we impose our illusions on reality.
Buddha says it is a mock show. Be aware – your mind is a magician. It shows you things which are not there, which have never been there. It deludes you, it creates an unreal world around you, and then you live in that unreal world. This world of trees and birds and animals and mountains is not unreal, but the world that your mind creates is unreal.
When you hear people like Buddha talking about the unreality of the world, don’t misunderstand them. They don’t mean that the trees are unreal, they don’t mean that the people are unreal. They mean that whatsoever you have been thinking about reality is unreal – your mind is unreal. Once mind is dropped, all is real. Then you live in suchness, then you become tathata – then you are suchness.

The professor was telling his 8 a.m. class, “I have found that the best way to start the day is to exercise for five minutes, take a deep breath of air and then finish with a cold shower. Then I feel rosy all over.”
A sleepy voice from the back of the room responded, “Tell us more about Rosy!”

The mind is ready to jump upon anything, to project. Be very careful with the mind. That’s what meditation is all about – being careful, not being deceived by the mind.
The fifth thing: Think of the mind as dewdrops, very fragile…. Just for the moment the dewdrops exist. Comes the morning sun and they evaporate. Comes a little breeze and they slip and are gone. So is the mind. It knows nothing of reality, knows nothing of eternity, it is a time-phenomenon. Think of it as dewdrops. But you think of it as pearls, diamonds – as if it is going to stay.
And you need not believe in Buddha, you just watch your mind. It is not the same even for two consecutive moments. It goes on changing, it is a flux. One moment it is this, another moment it is that. One moment you are in deep love, another moment you are in deep hate. One moment you are so happy, and another moment you are so unhappy. Just watch your mind!
If you cling with this mind you will always remain in a turmoil, because you will never be able to remain in silence – something or other will go on happening. You will never be able to have any taste of eternity, and only that taste fulfills. Time is constant change.
And sixth: Think of your mind as a bubble. Like bubbles, all mind experiences burst sooner or later and then nothingness is left in the hands. Go after the mind – it is a bubble. And sometimes the bubble looks very beautiful. In the sunrays it may look like a rainbow, it may have all the colors of the rainbow, and it looks really enchanting, majestic. But go rushing for it, catch hold of it, and the moment you catch hold of it, it is no longer there.
And that’s what happens every day in your life. You go on rushing after this and that, and the moment you catch hold of something it is no longer the same. Then all beauty is gone – that beauty was only in your imagination. Then all joy is gone – that joy was only in your hope. Then all those ecstasies that you were thinking were going to happen, do not happen – they were only in your imagination, they were only in the waiting.
Reality is totally different from these bubbles of your imagination – and they all burst. Failure frustrates, so does success. Success also frustrates – ask the successful people. Poverty is frustrating, so is richness – ask the rich people. Everything, good or bad, is frustrating because all are mind-bubbles. But we go on chasing the bubbles – not only chasing, we want to make them bigger and bigger and bigger. There is a great mania in the world to make every experience bigger.

There is a story to the effect that a group of students from different nations were asked to write individual essays on the elephant. A German student wrote on the uses of the elephant in warfare. An English student, on the elephant’s aristocratic character. A French student, on lovemaking among the elephants. An Indian, on the elephant’s philosophical attitude. And an American chose for his subject, how to make bigger and better elephants.

The mind is continuously thinking – the mind is American – how to make things bigger…a bigger house, a bigger car, everything has to be bigger. And naturally, the bigger the bubble becomes the closer it comes to bursting. Small bubbles may float a little longer on the surface of the water; bigger bubbles cannot even float that much. Hence the American frustration. Nobody is as frustrated as the American.
The American mind has succeeded in making the bubble very big; now it is bursting from everywhere. Now there seems to be no possibility to protect it, to save it; it is exploding. And nobody is at fault, because nobody thinks, “It is our deepest desire and we have succeeded in it.” Nothing fails like success.
Seventh: Buddha says think of the mind as a dream. It is imagination, subjective, one’s own creation. You are the director, you are the actor and you are the audience. All that goes on in your mind is a private imagination; the world has nothing to do with it, the existence has no obligation to fulfill it.

A doctor had just finished giving a patient, who was quite a bit more than middle-aged, a thorough physical examination. “I can’t find a thing wrong with you, sir,” the doctor said, “but I recommend you give up about half of your love life.”
The old man stared at the doctor for a moment and then said, “Which half – thinking about it or talking about it?”

Mind is insubstantial – thinking or talking; it knows nothing of the real. The more mind you have the less reality you will have; the less mind you have the more reality. The no-mind knows what reality is, tathata. Then you become a tathagata – one who has known suchness.
Or think of the mind as a lightning flash, says Buddha. Don’t cling to it, because the moment you cling to it you will create suffering for yourself. The lightning is only there for the moment, and it is gone. Everything comes and goes, nothing remains, and we go on clinging. And by clinging we go on creating misery.
Watch your mind, how ready it is to cling to anything, how afraid the mind is of the future, of change. It wants to make everything stable, it wants to cling to everything that happens. You are happy, you want this happiness to remain. You will cling with it. And the moment you cling you have crushed it already, it is no longer there.
You have met a man, a woman, you are in love, and you cling and you want this love to stay forever. In that very moment – when you desire that the love should stay forever – it has disappeared. It is no longer there. All mind experiences are like lightning: they come and they go.
Buddha says: You simply watch. There is not time enough to cling! You simply watch, take note: “Headache, headache”; “Love, love”; “Beauty, beauty.” Just take note, that is enough. It is such a small moment that nothing more can be done. Take note and become aware.
Awareness can become your eternity – nothing else.
And the last thing, the ninth: Buddha says, think about mind experiences as clouds, changing forms, fluxes. You look at the cloud; sometimes the cloud is like an elephant, and immediately it starts changing and becomes a camel or a horse, and so many things. It goes on changing, it is never static; so many forms arise and disappear. But you are not worried – what does it matter to you whether the cloud looks like an elephant or it looks like a camel? It does not matter, it is just a cloud.
So is the mind a cloud around your consciousness. Your consciousness is the sky and the mind is the cloud. Sometimes it is an anger cloud, sometimes it is a love cloud, sometimes it is a greed cloud – but these are forms of the same energy. Don’t choose, don’t become attached. If you become attached with the elephant in the cloud you will be miserable. Next time you will see that the elephant is gone and you will cry and you will weep. But who is responsible? Is the cloud responsible? The cloud is simply following its nature. You just remember – a cloud is there to change, so is the mind.
Watch from your inner sky and let the clouds float. Become just a watcher. And remember, clouds will come and go, you can remain indifferent.
Buddha has given indifference very great value. He calls it upeksha. Remain indifferent: “It doesn’t matter….”

Two astronauts, a man and a woman, were visiting the planet Mars, where they found the Martians very hospitable and eager to show them around. After a few days the astronauts decided to pose a pressing question to their hosts: “How is life reproduced on Mars?”
The Martian leader proceeded to take the astronauts to a laboratory where he showed them how it was done. First he measured some white liquid into a tube, and then carefully sprinkled a brown powder on top, stirred the mixture and set it aside. In nine months, the astronauts were told, this mixture would develop into a new Martian.
Then it was the turn of the Martians to ask how life was reproduced on Earth. The astronauts, a bit embarrassed, eventually gathered courage to give a demonstration, and began to make love. They were interrupted, however, by the hysterical laughter of the Martians.
“What is so funny?” the astronauts asked.
“That,” replied the Martian leader, “is how we make Nescafé.”

All forms…one need not be worried about these forms. Just watch. Think of mind…as stars, a fault of vision, as a lamp, a mock show, dewdrops, or a bubble, a dream, a lightning flash, or cloud. So should one view what is conditioned.
And then the conditioning disappears and you come to the unconditioned. That unconditioned is suchness, truth, reality – yatha bhutam.
Now the sutras.
The Lord asked: What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to the Tathagata, “by me has dharma been demonstrated”? Whosoever, Subhuti, would say, “The Tathagata has demonstrated dharma,” he would speak falsely, he would misrepresent me by seizing on what is not there.
And why?…Because not even the least dharma is there found or got at. Therefore is it called “utmost, right and perfect enlightenment.”
Furthermore, Subhuti, self-identical is that dharma, and nothing is therein at variance. Therefore is it called “utmost, right and perfect enlightenment.” Self-identical through the absence of a self, a being, a soul, or a person, the utmost, right and perfect enlightenment is fully known as the totality of all the wholesome dharmas….
Buddha says:
What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to the Tathagata, “by me has dharma been demonstrated”?
It cannot occur to a tathagata, because there is no longer a person inside. Personality is a form of the mind, the idea of “I” is a form in the clouds. To a tathagata, clouds have disappeared, there is only pure sky – indefinable, infinite. There arises no idea of “I.”
So a tathagata cannot say, “I have demonstrated the dharma.” In the first place, he is not. In the second place, because he has disappeared, now he knows nobody is.
For example, you all fall asleep tonight and you all start dreaming. Somebody starts saying something, and somebody starts groaning and somebody is shouting, and a man who is awake, what will he think? He will laugh at you – because he knows dreams are just dreams, they are not realities.
One is groaning, one is crying, one is shouting, or one is very ecstatic and one is laughing – and he knows all is false. Neither is there any cause to laugh, nor is there any cause to weep. All is false. People are asleep. He will not go to the person who is crying and console him, “Don’t cry,” and he will not feel happy because somebody is laughing. He knows that they are dreaming.
That is the situation of a tathagata, of a buddha. One who has known his inner sky now knows that everybody is that sky, but everybody is clouded. And those clouds are false, imaginary. And if those clouds are false and imaginary then there are no beings. To whom can the tathagata demonstrate the dharma? There is nobody, there is pure sky. The moment you disappear, all beings disappear. Then there are no longer separate beings, it is all one. There is nobody like a master and nobody like a disciple.
That’s why I said to you the other day that this is a game, a great drama that we are enacting here. It is the ancient drama, enacted many times – enacted with Buddha and his disciples, Christ and his disciples, Krishna and his disciples. The same drama is being enacted. From your side it is a very real thing, from my side it is just a drama. From your side it is a serious thing to be a disciple; from my side it is neither serious nor nonserious, it is simply a cloud. And my whole effort here will be to help you to see that it is just a cloud, a formation in the clouds.
And the day you become awakened you will laugh, because there is nothing to be achieved – nothing to lose, nothing to achieve. All is as it has always been since the very beginning; to the very end, it remains the same. Do you think the sky changes when clouds gather in the rainy season? Do you think the sky changes when it is summer and the clouds disappear? Do you think there is any change in the sky? The sky remains the same, clouds come and go.
So is sansara – so is the world, the mind.
Buddha says:
What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to the Tathagata, “by me has dharma been demonstrated”? Whosoever, Subhuti, would say, “The Tathagata has demonstrated dharma,” he would speak falsely, he would misrepresent me by seizing on what is not there.
There is neither I nor you, there is neither the master nor the disciple. And there is nothing to demonstrate, all is as it is. There is nothing to teach, there is nothing to learn.
Because not even the least dharma is there found or got at. Therefore is it called “utmost, right and perfect enlightenment.”
Buddha says: That’s why we call it perfect enlightenment. There are other religions in the world whose idea of enlightenment cannot be called perfect. For example, the Christian idea of trinity – God, the Son and the Holy Ghost. It means that at the very ultimate end also there remain three distinctions, divisions. That means some cloud has been retained, some form has been retained, some formality has been retained. The world continues a little bit still, mind has not been dropped utterly.
The Hindu idea is a little better. Only two remain: the God and the soul. Better than three, but still the two, the duality. All duality is of mind. It is mind that separates things, it is mind that defines. So this too cannot be perfect enlightenment.
In the Jaina concept only one remains: the soul. This is far better – better than Christianity, better than Hinduism. Only one remains: the soul. But Buddha says that too is not perfect enlightenment, because to think of one it will be necessary to think of two, and three and four and five. Just to say “one” is enough to bring in the whole train. The one cannot be defined without bringing the two in.
What will you mean by “one”? You will have to say not-two. So the one will need the other at least for its definition. The other will remain somewhere hidden, it has not disappeared completely. If I am there, then you will be there. It cannot disappear completely. The “I” will need the “you”; just for its own sheer existence the “you” will be needed. “I” exists only in the pair with “thou.” They are together; I-thou is one reality.
So Buddha says “I” has also to disappear. Then the whole trinity is gone. In the ultimate experience there are neither three nor two nor one. It is pure sky – nothingness, no being, no entity. It is zero, shunyata.
That’s why Buddha says this is…
…“utmost, right and perfect enlightenment.”
Furthermore, Subhuti, self-identical is that dharma, and nothing is therein at variance. Therefore is it called “utmost, right and perfect enlightenment.” Self-identical through the absence of a self, a being, a soul, or a person…
All forms have disappeared. That’s why the sky remains identical with itself. There are no longer any forms arising, disappearing, no longer any change, no movement. All dreams have disappeared. It is morning and the sun has risen and one is awake. There is awareness, but there is nobody who can say, “I am aware.” There is teaching, but nobody can say, “I am the teacher.” There is a path, but almost pathless. Methods – but they cannot be called methods. The master and the disciple – but only from the side of the disciple; from the side of the master all has disappeared.
What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to a tathagata, “by me have beings been set free”?
Not thus should you see it, Subhuti!
And why? There is not any being whom the Tathagata has set free….
How can that idea arise in a tathagata – that “I have set many beings free”? In the first place, nobody is unfree. So if you ask, “Is Buddha a savior?” Buddha will say, “No, I am not a savior – because nobody needs to be saved. There is nobody to be saved.” And freedom is everybody’s nature. Freedom is there, it need not be brought. One has to just become alert of what is already there. So Buddha says:
There is not any being whom the Tathagata has set free….

Further the Lord taught on that occasion the following stanzas:
Those who by my form did see me,
And those who followed me by voice
Wrong the efforts they engaged in,
Me those people will not see.
If you see Buddha as the form, as the body, then you miss. If you only hear the words of the Buddha and don’t hear his silence, you miss. If you see only his face and you don’t see his inner sky, you miss.
Buddha speaks only to utter silence. Buddha is there in the form only to express the formless. Remember this stanza. I can also say the same to you:
Those who by my form did see me,
And those who followed me by voice
Wrong the efforts they engaged in,
Me those people will not see.
From the dharma should one see the buddhas…
From the standpoint of the sky, not from the standpoint of the cloud.
From the dharma should one see the buddhas.
From the dharma-bodies comes their guidance.
Yet dharma’s true nature cannot be discerned.
And no one can be conscious of it as an object….
This is saying in words that which cannot be said – avachya, unspeakable. Buddha is saying: From where comes the Buddha’s guidance? Not from himself but from the eternal, from the sky. Buddha is just a passage, the eternal floats through him. Don’t be too much obsessed by the words that he uses, listen to his silence. Don’t be too much concerned by the body he lives in, don’t be concerned with the house in which he resides. Think of the inner presence, think of his being. See deep.
And how to see deep in a buddha? The only way to see deep in a buddha is not with open eyes but with closed eyes. To see deep into yourself is the only way to see deep into a buddha. If you become acquainted with your own inner sky you will be acquainted with the buddha’s – all the buddhas of all the ages, past, present and future too. Descend into your own being.
Whosoever says that the Tathagata goes or comes, stands, sits or lies down, he does not understand the meaning of my teaching.
And why? “Tathagata” is called one who has not gone anywhere, nor come from anywhere. Therefore is he called “the Tathagata, the arhat, the fully enlightened one.”
When clouds come, do you think the sky has gone somewhere? When the clouds go, do you think the sky has come back? The sky remains, your innermost nature remains.
Once you were a rock. That was a cloud that had taken the form of a rock; you lived in the mineral world. Then you became a tree; you changed your form; you became a rosebush or a pine or a cedar of Lebanon. But the inner nature remained the same. Now the form of the cloud changed, you lived in the vegetable kingdom. Then you became an animal – maybe a lion, a tiger, a crocodile, a deer, a dog. Only the form changed, but the inner sky remains the same. Then you became a man or a woman – again the form is changing. You can become an angel in the heaven – only the form will change.
You can go on moving from one form to another, you can go on dying in one form and being born into another form. This is called sansara: getting caught in one form, then getting caught in another, moving from one form to another form, from one prison to another prison.
What is buddhahood? Becoming aware of the inner sky that was in the rock, in the animals, in the trees, in man and in woman. Once you become aware of that inner sky you are released from all forms. That is freedom. Not that you become free…because in that freedom you don’t exist, you can’t exist.
“You become free” simply means you become free from yourself. All selves are forms. The rock has a self, a soul. The tree has a self, the animal has a self. The Buddha has no self – he is utter freedom. That’s why Buddha says:
Whosoever says that the Tathagata goes or comes…
Certainly he goes and comes – this Diamond Sutra started with that. See the beauty of it: The Diamond Sutra started with it – that Buddha goes to beg, then he comes back, puts down his bowl, cleanses his feet, sits, looks in front of him, and Subhuti asks. The sutra started with the form and the sutra is ending on the formless.
That is the beginning. You cannot listen to my silence first; first you will have to listen to my words. You cannot see my inner sky directly; first you will have to see this cloud that surrounds me. Only then, slowly slowly, will you start falling in tune with the innermost. First, naturally, you come to the outer. First you see the house and then you will see the dweller.
It is natural, nothing is wrong in it, but don’t cling to the house. Move from the house, from the dwelling to the dweller. This is the beauty of this sutra: it starts with Buddha’s body – how he walks, how he sits, how he looks, what he does. And now it ends on this strange sentence:
Whosoever says that the Tathagata goes or comes, stands, sits or lies down, he does not understand the meaning of my teaching.
And why? “Tathagata” is called one who has not gone anywhere, nor come from anywhere. Therefore is he called “the Tathagata, the arhat, the fully enlightened one.”
Who is called “the fully enlightened one”? One who has come to know the sky that never moves, one who has come to know the eternal which is beyond time, one who has come to know truth.
Truth is always the same – dreams change, truth is always the same. Be acquainted with Buddha’s words but don’t remain there. That is just an introduction – move from there.
What I say to you, listen to it but don’t become obsessed with it – move from there. By and by, fall in tune with my silence. By and by, forget me – forget the cloud and enter the sky. Then you are really in tune. Then you have started moving into truth itself.
Words are about truth, they are not truth themselves. The word God is just a word, it is not God. The word love is just a word, it is not love. Use the word, then throw it away. It is the container, not the content.
With the master, don’t become too much attached with his body. That attachment will become a barrier. Love the master, but go deeper. Slowly slowly, step by step, penetrate his innermost core. And you will be surprised – because the innermost is the same. In the innermost, the disciple and the master meet. In the innermost there is no distinction.
Kabir has said a very strange sentence: “The moment has come when the master touches the feet of the disciple.” Then there is no distinction. Who is the master and who is the disciple – there is no distinction.

When Rinzai was with his master – the master was a very very hard master, as Zen masters are – Rinzai was beaten so many times, was thrown, and the master would jump on him and beat him. Then one day Rinzai was going on a journey, a pilgrimage, and the master called him and started beating him. Rinzai said, “But I have not even said a single word! And I have not done anything.”
The master said, “I know, but you are going on this pilgrimage and my feeling is that when you come back you will be enlightened and I will never have any chance to beat you again. That’s why – this is the last chance.”
And when Rinzai came back, yes, it had happened. The master bowed his head and said, “Now you can beat me.” Not that Rinzai has beaten the master, but the master says, “Now you can beat me. Now you enjoy – I have enjoyed beating you so much. You have arrived home.”

At the innermost core there is no distinction.
Buddha is saying don’t be too much concerned with the words. Use them as steps, stepping stones. Don’t be too much concerned with Buddha’s movements, bodily movements. People are there, imitative people, who will start walking like the Buddha, who will start talking like the Buddha, who will start using the same words, the same gestures. Buddha is saying those are not the real things; the real thing is beyond forms, it cannot be imitated.
Don’t imitate the master. Only then one day will you be able to become the master. Love, listen, but always remember that you have to go far in. You have to transcend all clouds.
Enough for today.