The Perfect Master, Vol 1 Talks on Sufi Stories

If you go on following whatsoever you are doing, if you do it sincerely, and then you come to know that you have done it as totally as is humanly possible and nothing has happened, then it is time to move. A Sufi Master accepts only those who move in such a way. But these people were saying:
"ACCEPT US AS YOUR DISCIPLES,FOR WE SEE THAT THERE IS NO REMAINING TRUTH IN OUR RELIGIONS, AND WE ARE CERTAIN..."
Now only stupid people can be certain about such mysteries.

Wise people will be hesitant; intelligent people will not be so certain, cannot be. How can you be certain? And they said:

The woman was thrilled. Her ego swelled up. And Mulla looked at her -- she was a transformed being, and Mulla said "Sorry, excuse me. But let me remind you of one thing: this thing I have been telling to many women before, and I cannot promise you that I will not say it to other women again. You are not the only one I am saying this to -- this I say to every woman. This has been my usual practice."

They are not saying anything about the Master or the truth or the true path. They are simply saying in an indirect way, "We are so intelligent that we can understand who you are." But you cannot deceive a Master. Whatsoever you say, he will see through it.

To encounter a Master is to encounter a mirror. You cannot bribe a Master. You cannot because he has no ego. You cannot buttress him. Now, this was something great they were saying. It is almost like saying to a woman, "You are the most beautiful woman in the world." When you say to a religious teacher, "You are the true path," it is almost the same.

That's what the so-called teachers go on hankering for. They wait for somebody to say it. If the Master had been a bogus one, he would have cherished these disciples. He would have declared to his other disciples, "Look! These are the real people I have been waiting for! These are the people who understand me." But because a Master has no ego, he has not any self left -- Sufis called it FANA -- he has disappeared. A Master is really a TRUE absence, a nothingness. He reflects the disciple. There is no way to provoke his ego, because there is none.

Now, he is saying, "You have betrayed your old Masters, and you come to me -- how can I trust you? that you will not betray me? You have not followed your old Masters, because I can see that you are carrying junk. If you had followed any Master, you would have become unburdened of the junk. I can see the garbage of your knowledge.

"If you had followed any Master, then the first thing would have been to drop knowledgeability. You have SO much know-ledge, and because of that knowledge you are saying what is true and what is not true, and what religion to follow and what not to follow, and what is the right path and what is not the right path. It is according to your knowledge. You are so full of this bulls hit! How can I think that you have followed any Master, that you have been disciples to anybody? You have never been disciples. That much is certain. Whether those Masters were true or not, that is not YOUR business. One thing is certain and that is YOUR business: that you have not been disciples at all. And the same you are going to do to me too. How can I accept you? For what should I accept you? Just to be betrayed again?"

There is a Sufi story:

He had fulfilled many conditions.

He rushed home. He killed the mother. He took out her heart. And when he was coming back, he was in such a hurry, he was in such a passionate blindness, that he stumbled on the way. The plate fell and broke and the heart also fell and broke into many pieces, but from those many pieces only one voice came: "My son, walk a little more consciously."

He gathered the pieces. He was not in any mood to listen to it.

He gathered the pieces, he rushed to the woman, he offered the heart. The woman looked at it -- she was aghast. She said, "It is finished! If you can kill your own mother, I cannot trust you. You can kill me for any other woman. You are a dangerous man. You simply get out of my house! NEVER come back again. The relationship is completely finished. If you had said no, I would have been yours, but you missed."
The story is the same, with the same flavor and the same meaning and the same message. If you can betray your old Masters so easily and can condemn them so easily, how can the Sufi trust you? You will do the same to him.

Do you see the point? If a man who is a Hindu easily becomes a Christian, the Christian missionary is simply deceiving himself -- because if he was not a true Hindu and he could deceive, how can he be a true Christian? And a true Christian and a true Hindu are the same. The difference is only between the untrue Christian and the untrue Hindu.

Truth is one and the true path is one. It does not belong to anybody. It is nobody's property. It is not my path and Buddha's path and Krishna's path and Zarathustra's path -- it is just THE path. Buddha, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, they have all walked on it. It is only ONE! There are not many paths really. Many people walk on the path, but the path is one. And it is so vast that they may not even meet each other.

The demand of the Sufi Master is very significant. You have to understand it. He says, "You have betrayed your own Master -- you can betray me too. And I don't want anything to do with people such as you. Go back!"

And he tells this story:
" THE VIZIER AHMAD OF THE CALIPH MUSTASIM OF BAGHDAD INVITED THE MONGOL TO INVADE HIS MASTER'S DOMAINS."
He betrayed his master. And now he wants to be rewarded. Halaku Khan did well with him. This is the reward.
"HE ORDERED THAT AHMAD SHOULD BE HANGED."
"This man is not trustworthy. He has betrayed his master who has trusted him for so long, maybe for years -- how can I trust this man? I cannot leave him alone; he is dangerous. He can do the same to me and more easily, because I am a stranger. He was not even true to his master, who was not a stranger, who had taken him so close to himself that he could betray him and help me to destroy his master. And now he has come to be rewarded. This man is a traitor!"
The Sufi said:
"BEFORE YOU ASK ANYONE TO ACCEPT YOU, ASK YOURSELF WHETHER IT IS NOT SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT FOLLOWED THE PATH OF YOUR OWN TEACHER. IF YOU ARE SATISFIED ABOUT THIS, THEN COME AND ASK TO BECOME DISCIPLES."
NOT THAT HE IS SAYING, I will not accept you, but he makes a simple condition, "Have you followed your old Master? Have you done what he was telling you to do? Have you practiced it in any way? If you have practiced, if you have done it, if you are certain about it, that you did it and it didn't work, you did all that you could and it didn't work, you were not half-hearted in it, you were not holding back, you were not clever and cunning, you were not just a spectator but you had participated in the being of the Master, if you can be certain about this, if you are satisfied with YOUR performance as a disciple -- then come to me. I will accept you."

But that is something very important. This is happening nowadays very much in the world. People go on moving from one Master to another; like driftwood they knock on many doors. But they never knock long enough, so the door doesn't open. They have no patience. They don't do a thing. They are simply rushing here and there -- as if somebody ELSE is going to give them the truth. Truth is not a thing to be given. It cannot be transferred. You have to EARN it. You have to become PREGNANT with it. It has to be BORN in you. You have to become a WOMB for it. It is something ALIVE. You have to pour your life energies into it. You have to revive it within your being. You have to CREATE it. God is not sitting there somewhere so you can go and discover him. God has to be created!

So those who are looking for God as if he is hiding somewhere, and they will go and search and find him, they are looking in vain. You are not only to discover God: you have to create him. Each prayerful heart creates God again and again. It is your creation. But people go on thinking of God as if it is something like a commodity, that you can purchase it.
A man came to Mahavir, a king. His name was Presenjit; a very famous king of those days. And he was going to many Masters. He had been to Buddha, he had been to Ajit Keshkambali, he had been to Prabuddha Katyana, he had been to Makkhli Goshal, he had been to Sanjay Vilethiputta -- to MANY teachers. Then he came to Mahavir, and he asked Mahavir, "Give me what you call meditation, DHYANA, give it to me! And I am ready to pay for it. Whatsoever the price."

A worldly man -- only knows how to purchase a thing, thinks of everything as if it can be purchased. If he falls in love with a woman, he purchases the woman and misses thereby -- because love cannot be purchased. You can purchase the body, but not the soul. Love has to be earned. You have to become worthy of it.

Now, he comes to Mahavir and asks such a stupid question. Mahavir must have laughed. He said, "Listen. Why did you trouble Jo come so far into this forest? In your own capital there is a man -- my disciple he is, a very poor man -- and he would very much like to sell his meditation. He is so poor. Just go to him! I don't need what you can give to me, so I am not in any mood to sell my meditation to you. Go and purchase it from a very poor man. He may decide to sell it."

It was a joke. Presenjit rushed in his chariot, went to the poor man's hut. It was such a poor hut that he thought, "Certainly this man will sell. I can even purchase this man -- what about the meditation!"

And the man came, a very poor man, almost naked, but utterly beautiful and graceful, a great light within his being -- you could see it. And the king felt, "Mahavir IS right -- this man HAS got it.

Look at his face -- so luminous!" And he said, "rust tell me what you wont. I have come to purchase your meditation, your samadhi. And I am ready to give anything you ask."

The man hesitated. What to say to the king? And the king thought, obviously, "He is hesitating about the price." So he said, "Don't be worried. You can say ANY amount."

But the man said, "It is not a question of price."

The king said, "Don't be worried about it at all. I can give my whole kingdom to you, because when once I decide to purchase a thing, I always purchase it. Just say!"

But the man said, "I am sorry to say... I don't want to say no to you, but what are you asking? It is absurd! I cannot sell it. It is not a thing. It is not anything objective. It HAS HAPPENED to me. Mahavir must have played a joke with you. You go back to the Master. He has simply sent you here so that you can under-stand that even if you give your kingdom to a poor beggar, he cannot sell his meditation or samadhi. There is no way to purchase it. It is invaluable. And it is not a commodity at all."

This has to be understood by every disciple, every seeker. You are with me here. If you don't go into that space that I make available for you, sooner or later you will start thinking, "Nothing is happening. What am I doing here? I must go and seek some other door. I must go and beg from somebody else. I must go and learn from someone somewhere ELSE." But the space is available to you. The door is open. And you are not walking in. You remain hanging outside. You go on pretending in a thousand and one ways that you are moving, but you are not moving.

The moving is possible only when you are totally with me -- if even a small part of you is not with me, it is impossible to move in the door. You will have to move as a total organic unity. You cannot leave your left hand outside. You cannot leave ANYTHING outside. You will have to move in totally! Only then can you move. You cannot move in partially, remember it.

So those who are totally with me, they have moved. And those who are going to be totally with me, they WILL move. But there will be many also who will simply be here partially. A little bit. Trying to judge whether it is worth taking the risk. Hanging around. Calculating. If you are calculating, you are not a disciple. If you are trying to figure it out, you are not a disciple. Because it is NOT a question of figuring it out. It is so immense, you cannot figure it out. It is so enormous, you cannot calculate about it. It is bigger than you, so you cannot hold it in your hands. You have to be ready to disappear, to evaporate. You have to die, and only then... the resurrection.

The disciple has to become the mythological bird, the phoenix: he has to disappear into the fire, and out of the ashes the new will be born.

Those who are ready, those who can take the risk, those who are courageous, only they will attain. And the remaining ones will start thinking, "Maybe this is not the right door, this is not the right path, -this is not the right Master. I should go somewhere else. Why am I wasting my time here?" And you will do the same somewhere else too. And you can go on and on, life after life, wandering and wandering, and never arriving.

This is what you have been doing in your past lives! You are not new, nobody is new. All are old-timers. You have been here for ever and ever, from the very beginning you have been here. I KNOW people are here who have been with Buddha... and missed. I know people are here who have been with Rumi AND missed. And I know, there are MANY people here who have been with Jesus AND missed.

It is not new. It is not that you are for the first time with a Master. You have been many times. And each time you missed, you condemned the Master rather than rethinking about your own self.

The calculating people are always ready to listen about the truth, but it has to be abstract. When you come to the details, when they have to do something, when the truth starts becoming a pragmatic reality, then problems arise.

There is a famous statement of Ludwig Wittgenstein: Don't look for the meaning, look for the use. And in the same way, thousands of years before Wittgenstein, Lao Tzu says: The mean-ing is the use. The use is the meaning. When you look for it, you cannot see it. When you listen for it, you cannot hear it. But when you use it, it is inexhaustible.

A Master is not there to give you a doctrine but a discipline. A doctrine is an abstract thing. It is ABOUT God. A discipline is not about God: it is about you.

A Master is not there to philosophize, because we have more philosophy than we need, already too much. A Master is there to help you walk. You are cripples. A Master is there to heal, to cure you, your crippledness, your blindness, your paralysis. He is a physician, he is not a philosopher. But people are always ready to listen to abstract things, because those abstract things never touch your life.

I have heard -- this story comes from the heart of China:
In a small church in a remote village, the people came to the minister complaining that the wife of a deacon was stealing chickens from her neighbor. They said, "You've got to do something about it."

He said, "All right, I will." That Sunday he preached on the text "You shall not steal." At the close of the service the deacon came to him and said, "Excellent sermon, Pastor."

But in three or four days the people came and said, "That sermon didn't do any good at all -- she's still stealing."

So the next Sunday, the minister got more specific. He said, "You shall not steal your neighbor's goods." At the close of the service the deacon shook hands and said, "That's a much better sermon. You've really got to speak specifically."

However, during the week the people said, "That didn't do any good -- she's still stealing."

So the minister took courage in both hands and said, "You shall not steal your neighbor's chickens."

The deacon came to him and said, "Now look, you're not supposed to be all that specific in the pulpit."
When it comes to the small, real details of your life, you stop hearing. When it is about abstract worlds of paradise, God, Nirvana, you are all alert. It doesn't matter. It is beautiful philosophy. You cannot lose anything. You can become a little more knowledgeable. But when it comes to the stealing of your neighbor 's chickens, then it touches your life. THERE you become alert. THERE you stop listening.

Remember: a Master is not to impart abstract truths to you but something that has to be practiced in life, something that has to become your lifestyle.

Great courage is needed, and great endeavor, and great discipline, to change and transform one's way of life. If you cannot, don't condemn the path you have been following because really you have never followed it.
A man went up to the salesman at the Rolls Royce stand in the motor company's show and asked the way to the gents' toilet.

The route was a bit complicated and the salesman deserted his post to escort the man to the door of the toilet. Thanking him, the man asked why he had gone to so much trouble.

"Because," answered the salesman, "yours was the first genuine inquiry I've had all day."
If you really want to be with a Master you will have to become a genuine inquiry. Not philosophic curiosity, but an inquiry in which your life and death are involved. An inquiry which is going to transmute you. An inquiry that is going to become a metamorphosis.

YOU ARE capable of flying into the sky, but you are hiding in your cocoons. Those cocoons have to be broken -- and it hurts. And it hurts because you think those cocoons are your defense, your safety, because you think those cocoons are your homes. They are your prison cells.

The Master has to destroy the prison cell so the prisoner can be freed. But the prisoner has become too identified with the prison cell, so he decorates it. He may even hang the picture of the Master in the prison cell. He may worship the Master, but in the prison cell. He will not listen to the Master that the prison cell has to be broken. And unless you destroy the prison cell, and cooperate with the Master in destroying it, you will not be free.

And to be free is the only way to know what truth is. Freedom is truth. Freedom is God. Freedom is Nirvana.

Chapter #6

Chapter title: Only One Ecstasy

26 June 1978 am in Buddha Hall

ShortTitle: PERF106

Audio: Yes

Video: No

Length: 99 mins

The first question:

HOW DOES THE INTERNAL WORLD OF EXPERIENCE RELATE TO EXTERNAL REALITY?

The internal is the external, and the external is the internal. They are absolutely one.

To see this is to be free of all division and of all schizophrenia.

It is good to divide for intellectual purposes. It is good to categorize to understand things. But to know reality one has to drop all categories, all mind concepts, because they limit. They have to limit to define. You cannot define the unlimited. You have to divide and cut into pieces. Only parts can be defined: the whole cannot be defined.

But the moment you cut the whole into pieces, it is no more real. The whole remains the whole.

Just listen to these words of Lao Tzu:

TO THE LEFT AND TO THE RIGHT.

ALL THINGS DEPEND UPON IT TO EXIST,

AND IT DOES NOT ABANDON THEM.

TO ITS ACCOMPLISHMENTS IT LAYS

NO CLAIM.

IT LOVES AND NOURISHES ALL THINGS,

BUT DOES NOT LORD IT OVER THEM.

There are moments... have you not watched in your own being? You may be a man ordinarily. Sometimes you are not a man at all: you are a woman. You may be a woman ordinarily, but sometimes you are a man. The Tao goes on flowing. Nothing can obstruct it. There are female moments in every male's consciousness, and there are male moments in every female's consciousness. Man and woman are together, undivided, two aspects of one coin.

TO THE LEFT AND TO THE RIGHT.

ALL THINGS DEPEND UPON IT TO EXIST...
It is an invisible ocean of energy, of consciousness, of bliss -- SATCHITANANDA -- it is truth, it is consciousness, it is bliss. But even these three words are not three things. The idea of the trinity in Christianity. is beautiful, but there are not three Gods -- there is only one God. Three faces. The Hindu idea of Trimurti is even more beautiful: one God with three faces. In fact, the God has as many faces as there are people.