Chapter 4 second morning

May 11, 1974 Mysteries beyond the mind Beloved Master—Beautiful Baiyun, why are we so lucky to have you with us, and why are we with you? "Why" is always unanswerable.To the mind it seems that whenever you ask why, it can be answered, but this is a false assumption, no "why" has ever been answered, or can be answered.The whole existence is, it has no why. If you ask, if you persist, then you may be able to create an answer, but that answer is created, it is not really an answer, the question itself is basically nonsensical. Trees exist, you cannot ask why, sky exists, you cannot ask why.The whole existence exists, the rivers are flowing, the clouds are floating, and you cannot ask why.

The mind asks why, I know.The mind is curious, it wants to know the why of everything, but this is the disease of the mind. The mind cannot be satisfied unless it gives you a final answer, but there cannot be a final answer.When I say the final answer, I mean that when you have this answer, you will not ask any why, but there cannot be such a state.Whatever is said, the "why" arises again. This has been the whole absurd endeavor of philosophies: why is there this world?Out of it they think, and they create a theory about it: God made it.But why did God create it?And then more theories came up...and finally: why is there a god?

So the first thing to understand is this quality of mind that is always asking "why".Just as leaves grow from the tree, the "why" grows from the mind, you cut one off and more will grow.You may collect many answers, but the real answer does not exist.Unless the real answer exists, the mind will keep searching. So here's the first thing I want to tell you: don't insist on asking "why". Why do we persist?Why do we want to know why?Why do we want to go deep into something and come to its basics?Why?Because if you can know every why, if you know every answer to a thing, you become its master, and then that thing can be manipulated, and then that thing is not a mystery, then you are not There will be surprises.You already know it -- you have killed the mystery.

The mind is a murderer -- the murderer of all mysteries.The mind is always at ease with anything that is dead, but with anything that is alive the mind is uneasy because you cannot be its total master.A living thing is always unpredictable, a living thing cannot have a fixed future, you don't know where it will go, but with a dead thing, everything is certain, fixed, so you You will feel very reassured that you will not worry and you will be sure. To make everything certain is a deep impulse of the mind, because the mind is afraid of life, the mind has created science in order to kill every possibility of life.The mind will try to find an explanation, and once the explanation is found, the mystery disappears.

You ask a why, it is answered, then the mind is relieved, through this answer, can you achieve anything?You have not achieved anything, you have lost something, the mystery is lost. Mystery makes you uneasy because it's something bigger than you, it's something you can't manipulate, it's something you can't use as an item, something that overwhelms you , something that when you stand in front of it you become naked, you become impotent, something in which you disappear. Mysteries give you a sense of death, hence why you ask so many "why" - why is that so?Why is that? — This is the first thing that must be remembered.

Please don't think that I am evading your question, I am not evading it, I am telling you something about the mind - why it asks.If you can keep that sense of mystery, I'll answer.If that sense of mystery is maintained, then the answer is not in danger, it may be useful, then each answer leads you into a deeper mystery, then the whole thing becomes qualitatively different, then your asking does not matter. Not to get an explanation, your questioning is to go into a deeper mystery, then that curiosity is not psychological, it becomes an inquiry, a deep inquiry of your whole being. Did you realize that difference?If you are longing for an explanation, then that is not good, and I am very reluctant to satisfy it, because then I will become your enemy, and then I will kill everything around you.Theologians even make God a dead thing -- they explain too much, they answer too much about God, so God becomes dead.Man did not kill him, the priests did, and they explained too much about him, so no mystery remained.

What is God if there is no mystery in it?If it's just a theory, then you can discuss; if it's just a doctrine, then you can analyze, if it's just a belief, then you can accept or reject it, then you are bigger than him, and this god is Just a part of knowledge in your head, it is a dead thing. Whenever I am speaking to you, always remember this: anything I say is not meant to stifle your inquiry, is not meant to explain to you.I am not interested in giving you answers, on the contrary, I want to make you probe deeper, penetrate deeply into those mysteries. My answers will give you deeper questions, and there will come a moment when all questioning will disappear, not because you have all the answers, but because every answer is useless, then the mystery is all Yes, then it is everywhere, inside and out, then you become a part of it, then you float in it, then you also become a mysterious person, only then, the door will be opened.

Now I cannot answer why I am with you and why you are here with me. First things first: you're not just here with me this time, you've been with me before.Life is very interconnected, it is a flow like a river, we divide it into past, present and future, but that division is only for practical needs, in fact lives are not separate, the flow of life exists at the same time . The Ganges in the source part, the Ganges in the Himalayas, the Ganges in the plains, and the Ganges in the sea, they are all the same Ganges!They exist simultaneously.The beginning and the end are not two separate things, it is the same flow, it is not the past and the future, it is the eternal present, and this has to be understood deeply.

You were with me, you are with me now, it's not a matter of the past.If you can be silent, if you can put your mind aside a little bit, if you can become a white cloud hanging on a mountain, without thought, just being, then you will feel it. You were with me once, you are with me now, and you will be with me in the future, this being with me has no time. Someone asked Jesus, "You talk about Abraham, the father of the Hebrews. How do you know that?"Because there are thousands of years between the time of Abraham and the time of Jesus, that's a long gap.Jesus spoke a very cryptic statement, the most cryptic statement that Jesus ever spoke, and he said: Before Abraham existed, I existed... Time is gone.

Life is eternal now, we are always here and now - forever and ever.Different shapes, different forms, of course, different situations - but we've always been there. The individual is a figment, lives are not separate, we are not like so many islands, we are one, and this oneness must be felt.Once you can feel this oneness, time disappears, space becomes meaningless, and suddenly you are removed from time and space, then you exist, you just exist. Someone asked the Buddha: Who are you?Buddha said, I don't belong to any class, I just exist.I exist, but I don't belong to any class.Right now, you can have that glimpse.If you don't think, then who are you?Where is the time?Is there any past?Is there any future?Then this moment becomes eternity.The entire time process is just a very long present, and the whole space is just an expanded here.

So when you ask why I am here, or why you are here, it is because that is the only way to exist.I couldn't be anywhere else, and you couldn't be anywhere else, that's how we bonded together. Now you may not be able to see that connection is not yet clear to you, because your unconscious is not yet clear to you, because you are not yet fully aware of yourself.You know one-tenth of your whole being, and nine-tenths are still in darkness. You are like a forest, only a small part is cleared, some trees are cut down, and a small area is cleared for habitation, but except this small area, the rest is a dark forest, you Not knowing its boundaries, you are so afraid of the dark and of beasts that you never dare to leave the place where you live, but where you live is only a part of this dark forest - you only know a part of your whole being. I see you with all your darkness, with all your forest.Once you can fully see one person, you can fully see everyone.For that forest is not divided, and in that darkness the boundaries meet and blend together and become one. Here you are, if I become too focused on one person, then I am concentrating, but even when I am concentrating, I continue to feel your boundaries mixed with other people's boundaries.So, for some purposes, I may be able to see you as a person, but in fact it is not.When I'm not focused, I'm just looking at you, but not really looking at you - just a look, then you cease to exist, your boundaries meet the boundaries of everyone else, not just people or The boundaries of man meet, and also the boundaries of trees, and stones, and the sky, and everything else.Boundaries are fictional, and therefore individuals are also fictional. I'm here because I can't be anywhere else, that's how life happens.You are here because you can't be anywhere else, that's how life happens to you. But this is difficult to accept, why is it difficult to accept?Because then you cannot manipulate it, then life becomes bigger than you. You would sound comfortable if I said you were here because you were a seeker of truth from a great man.If you are here because you are a great seeker, then your ego is fulfilled.Then if you choose, you can also not be here, then you are a person who can choose, then you are controlling life, not life controlling you. But I don't say that, I say you are here because life happens like this Life, you can't choose - it's not your choice, even if you leave, it's not your choice, that's how life happens to you.If you choose to stay here, it is not a choice, choice is impossible, only the ego can choose. Whenever the ego is not fulfilled, you feel restless or uncomfortable.So, there are two ways of reassuring you, one of which is to continue to satisfy your ego, and the other is to give up the ego altogether.Remember, the first way is temporary, the more you satisfy your ego, the more it will demand and run out. So I tell you: I am here, you are here, life happens in this way, it has happened many times before, and it will continue to happen in the same way. If you can understand this, many things will become possible immediately, if you understand this, you will become more open, less closed, more sensitive, more receptive, then you are not afraid, then life can pass by you, and then life becomes just a breeze, and you become an empty room, life comes and goes...you let it happen.That secret is "allowing" -- that's the secret of all secrets. So I emphasize, I insist that you are not here because of your choice, and I am not here because of my choice, for me there can be no choice, because I do not exist; for you In other words, you may be delusional, thinking that you are here because of your choice, but that is not a fact. I am not going to satisfy your ego, because the ego has to be destroyed, and that is my whole effort: how to destroy you - because once your boundaries are destroyed, you become infinite, this very moment, this thing It can happen, there is no obstacle to it, only your attachment. A lot of people come to me and ask: Have we ever been with you before?If I say yes, they're fine; if I say no, they're frustrated.why?Because we live in fictional situations.Now that you're here with me, that doesn't seem to matter that much, you were with me before, that seems more important, and you miss this moment when you can really be with me, because with My being together is not a physical phenomenon, you can sit next to me and you may not be with me, you can cling to me for years and you may not be with me for a single moment, Because being with me just means you don't exist. I do not exist, and if you do not exist even if there is only one fragment, then there is a rendezvous -- two emptinesses can come together.Remember, only two voids can meet, there can be no other conjunction, and whenever you have a conjunction it means two voids are merging. The ego is hard, it has too many contents to merge, so you can struggle, conflict, but you cannot join.You might think of the conflict of these two selves as a rendezvous, and it is a rendezvous.You are together but you are never together, you meet but you do not meet, you touch each other but you remain untouched, the emptiness within you remains a virgin field, it is not penetrated . But when the ego is not there, when you don't feel that there is much of me, when you don't think of yourself at all, when there is no self... that is what Buddha called Anata -- no self.He was greatly misunderstood, in India, people are talking about the Atma - the self, the supreme self, everyone claims to be looking for the supreme self - how to become the ultimate self, and Buddha said: No The self is to be achieved.On the contrary, please be a "no self", whose teachings cannot be accepted, he is cast out of this country, he is not accepted everywhere, a Buddha is always cast out, wherever he goes, he will be Will be thrown out because he hits you so hard that you can't bear it, he says you don't exist. When you are empty, when there is only one void, the rendezvous happens, anyone who has the ability to be empty will merge, and that is the only way to become one with existence, you may call it love, You may call it prayer, you may call it meditation -- or whatever you like to call it. You are here because that's how life happens, and I'm here because that's how life happens to me. This possibility of you being near me can be used, it can be misused, it can be missed.If you miss, then it's not the first time, you've been with me many times, it may not just be with me.Many times you are with a Buddha, that is with me; many times you are with a Kabir, or a Mahavira, that is with me; many times you To be around Jesus, Moses, or Lao Tzu is to be with me.Because a Lao Tzu or a Buddha cannot be defined in any way, they are two voids, and the two voids are not qualitatively different. You may have been with a Lao Tzu and I say you are with me, because nothing can make any difference.One Laozi is one emptiness, and two emptinesses are the same.You can't make any difference. But you missed it, you've been missing it so many times that you might miss it again. Remember, you're smart, cunning, calculating, and even if you miss, you'll miss smart, you'll rationalize it, you'll say you can't get anything, so you miss, or you'll find some Rhetoric to see how to miss, and how to hide that fact. If you are alert to this possibility of missing out, then maybe the rendezvous can be made immediately, and I say immediately - there is no need to delay it. It makes sense that life happened to get you here; there are millions of people out there and life doesn't happen that way, and you're lucky, but don't make that a bit of food for your ego, because if you If your ego gets stronger from taking everything from there, then you miss out on that luck. You are lucky, but it is still an open possibility, you can grow into it, and you can leave it.This opportunity is rare, and it is rare for many reasons. First of all, it is very difficult to be attracted to an empty person - very difficult, because emptiness is not a magnetic force.You are attracted to someone who has certain things, why are we attracted to someone who has certain things?Because we have desires, we also want things. You are attracted to a politician with power, because you are power directed, you want power, so anyone with power becomes an idol, becomes a hero; you are attracted to a very rich person, because you are Poor, deep down you desire wealth, so anyone with wealth becomes ideal, but why should one be attracted to someone who has nothing? It's very lucky, it's a rare possibility, sometimes life happens in such a way that you're attracted to someone who has nothing, someone who's empty, and you don't get anything from him things, instead when you are with him you have to lose everything, that is a gamble, so you are all gamblers, so you are here. Unless you bet it all you will miss out because the gamble can't be partial, part is not acceptable, that's not the rule of the game, so don't keep it, bet everything you have, it's risky , and dangerous, so I say that being attracted to a Buddha or a Jesus is rare, only a few people are attracted. You know the story about Jesus, Jesus had very few disciples, only twelve disciples, and they were all very ordinary people; some were fishermen, some were carpenters, some were farmers.They were not important people in any way, just ordinary people, why would such ordinary people be attracted to Buddha or Jesus? Being ordinary is a very extraordinary quality, because those who are extraordinary, they are pursuing some kind of self-journey-wealth, power, or status.But a farmer, a fisherman, or a carpenter, they are unimportant people, utterly ordinary, not striving for any achievement, these people will be attracted to Jesus. It is rare to be ordinary, and it is truly extraordinary to be completely ordinary.It is said that Zen masters have been saying: become ordinary, then you will become extraordinary.Because every ordinary person is trying to be extraordinary -- and that is a very ordinary thing.Just be ordinary, and that means not looking for anything, not looking for any achievement, not having any goal, just living moment by moment, floating.That's what I told you, to float like a white cloud. I say you are rare here for another reason, because the human mind is always afraid of death, it is attached to life, it has a strong desire for life.It clings to life even in pain...has a deep fear of death.When a person comes to me, in fact he is coming to die, he is coming to disappear. I would be an abyss to him, a bottomless abyss, and in that abyss he would fall, fall, fall, reach nowhere... If you go deep Look at me and you will feel dizzy; if you stare into my eyes you will see the abyss, and then the fear will grab you -- and the falling, falling... Just think of a leaf falling into an abyss, and that abyss is infinite, it has no bottom, so it can go nowhere, it can only disappear; falling, falling, falling, it will disappear. The religious journey has a beginning, but it never ends.You come to me, you fall into me, you will disappear, you will never reach anywhere, but that disappearance is joy, no other joy has ever been known, no other joy has ever existed, the joy of utter disappearance !Just like when the sun comes out in the morning, the dew disappears, or like at night, when the oil lamp is burning, and then a gust of wind blows, the flame goes out... The flame disappears, you cannot find it anywhere, you Also disappears in the same way. The pursuit of suicide is rare, and this is suicide - real suicide!You can kill the body everywhere, but you cannot kill yourself everywhere.Here you are getting ready for the final suicide - killing "yourself". But don't take all of these things as explanations, they're not, and I've always been against explanations. If all of this makes you more mysterious, if all of this makes you more obscure, fine.If your mind goes into smoke and you don't know what is what, that's the best situation. Wherever the wind takes you Beloved Master, like all clouds, white clouds are also guided by the wind. What is the current direction of the wind?Is there any particular potential in this day and age? The white clouds are not guided by the wind, only when there is resistance, there will be that guiding phenomenon. If the white cloud wants to go to the east and the wind blows to the west, then there is a lead because there is resistance.But if the cloud goes nowhere, East or West is the same for him, without resistance, and if the cloud itself has no will, then the wind cannot guide it. You can guide only when someone is not ready to float, to relax, to let go, but the phenomenon of the cloud means it is to let go.If the wind says east, the cloud is ready, it is ready to move east, there is not even a thought of "no", there is no resistance; if the cloud moves west, and the wind starts to blow east, then the cloud will Move to the east. The wind is not leading, leading is only needed when someone is against. People come to me and they say: guide us.I know what they're saying: guide us.I know what they're saying - they're not ready, otherwise why would they need to be guided? It is enough that you are here with me, everything is going to happen - the wind blows to the east, you start to float to the east, but you say "guidance", you say "guidance", you are talking about you In opposition, you have resistance, you have rejection, you will fight, that is one thing.If the cloud itself has no will, how can you make a distinction -- which is the cloud and which is the wind?Boundaries exist with will. Remember this, and this must become your fundamental insight: the boundary between you and me exists because of your will.You are there, surrounded by a will, and I come, then there is conflict. Clouds have no will, so where is the line?Where do clouds end and wind begin?The wind and the cloud are one, the cloud is a part of the wind, the wind is a part of the cloud, the phenomenon is one and inseparable. The wind goes on blowing in every direction, so the problem is not choosing a direction, the problem is how to become a cloud.The wind goes on blowing in every direction, it moves, it changes, it keeps going from one corner to another, with no direction in fact.There is no map, the whole thing is without a map, there is no one who is guiding it and saying: now go east, now go west, the whole existence is making it fluctuate, it is a fluctuating existence, all directions belong to it. When I say all directions, I mean both good and bad, both moral and immoral.When I say all directions, I really mean all.The wind blows in every direction, it always has. So, remember: There was not a particularly religious age, and there was not an anti-religious age, there could not have been.People think that way because that also satisfies their ego. In India people think that in ancient times there was an age of religion on the earth and now everything is corrupted, it is the darkest age, this is total nonsense.No age is religious, and no age is anti-religious. Religion has nothing to do with time, it has to do with the quality of mind. So the question is not whether the cloud goes east then it is religious, or goes west then it is anti-religious, no if the cloud has no will then it is religious no matter where it goes, And if the cloud has a will, it is irreligious wherever it goes. There are two types of clouds, few without a will, and countless clouds with their wills, projections, desires and concepts, and they fight with the wind.The more they fight, the more pain they create.Fighting can't lead you anywhere, because you can't do anything about it. Whether you fight or not, the wind will go to the east, so you have to go to the east. You can only have a concept that you have been fighting, You are a great fighter, that's all. A man who understands stops fighting, he doesn't even try to swim, he just flows with the flow, he uses the flow as a tool, he becomes one with it and flows with it, This is what I call "surrender," and that's what the old scriptures call "the attitude of the devotee."After surrendering, you cease to exist, so that wherever the wind leads you, you go, you don't have any will of your own. It has always been like this, in the past there were some buddhas, some floating white clouds, and now there are also some buddhas, some floating white clouds; With will and desire you are a black cloud - very heavy; without will, without desire you are a white cloud - very light, these two possibilities have always been undecided whether to allow that to let go It depends on you. Don't think about time and age, time and age are irrelevant, they will not force anyone to become a buddha, nor will they prevent a person from becoming a buddha, time and age are irrelevant. If you make yourself empty, this is the golden age; if you make yourself too full of desire, this is the darkest age.You create your own time and era around you, you live in your own time and era. Remember, we are not living in the same era in that way.A man like Jesus is ancient!He may be here, but he is ancient, he is so eternally alive, you cannot call him modern, he lives so completely, so you cannot say he belongs to a certain time slice, he does not come and come Go to part of the pop world. Live with the absolute and you become absolute; live with the eternal and you become eternal; live with the timeless and you become timeless. But the question is still relevant in another sense.People all over the world have the feeling that a certain era, a certain time, a certain peak, or a certain climax is approaching, and something is about to explode, as if we are approaching a special point in human evolution, but I want to tell you that this is also how I feel about the times, and people in every age think so.Something is going to culminate in our time, we are here, something special is going to happen on this earth, it always has been! It is said that when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, just as they were about to pass through the gate, Adam told Eve that we are going through the greatest transformation in history.The first person actually said and thought this way: The biggest transformation... And then every age has been thinking that things are reaching a climax, reaching a final point where everything will explode and new people will be born, but these are the hopes, the journeys of the self, It doesn't really make sense.You will be here for a few years and then someone else will come here and they will think the same. There is no climax of an era, only an individual climax, and the reaching of the apex is always the arrival of a consciousness, not a collective unconsciousness. You can become a religious person, this time is good, time is always good, don't think too much about others, because maybe it's just running away from yourself.Don't think about the times, don't think about humans, because the mind is very tricky, the minds of people are very tricky, you don't know... I was reading a letter from a friend who said he had a lot of setbacks in love and whenever he fell in love he was miserable so he stopped loving any individual and started loving the whole human race.It is easy to love the whole of humanity. Those who are not able to love, they can always love the whole of humanity, no problem.Loving someone is very difficult, it can be hell.It can be hell as it can be heaven. We are avoiding all the time, people start thinking about others just to avoid thinking about themselves, they start thinking about times, times, planets, and what will happen to human consciousness, it's just avoiding the basic question: my consciousness what will happen? Your consciousness should be the goal, every time is good, all the time is good for that goal.