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BELL OF TRANSIENCE.
Now, any scholar can repeat that, there is no problem -- the words are very simple. But Issa KNOWS it.
Sengai says:
WHAT MIND DO YOU PUNCTUATE?
THE PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE?
THE CANDLE IS BLOWN OUT,
AND THE DIAMOND TURNS TO ASHES.
He is saying the same thing: WHAT MIND DO YOU PUNCTUATE? The past is no more, the future is not yet, and if there is no past and no future, how can there be any present?
What time... WHAT MIND DO YOU PUNCTUATE? Neither the mind is there, nor time is there. When mind and time both disappear, THE CANDLE IS BLOWN OUT.
That is exactly the meaning of the word `nirvana': THE CANDLE IS BLOWN OUT. Now can you find the flame of the candle? Even if you look through the whole universe you will not find it. It has simply become one with the universe. The moment the candle of mind, which is equivalent to the candle of time, is blown out -- utter silence... Nothing is found, but tremendous peace, a feeling of coming home....
Question 1
Maneesha has a question:
OUR BELOVED MASTER,
CAN IT HELP TO CONTEMPLATE ON A CONCEPT? IF THE CONCEPT IS JUST ONE'S INTELLECTUAL UNDERSTANDING, OR SOMEONE ELSE'S INSIGHT, WHAT IS THE VALUE? AND EVEN IF IT IS OUT OF ONE'S OWN INSIGHT, WHAT IS THE POINT? -- IF YOU HAVE KNOWN IT, YOU HAVE KNOWN IT.
Maneesha, this not a question -- this is the answer. There is nothing to contemplate and there is nobody to contemplate. When you disappear with all your mind and not even a trace remains behind, just a pure sky... you have found. I will not say what, because the moment you say what you have found you defile it. It is inexpressible ecstasy.
Thousands of buddhas have tried to bring it down to words; nobody has succeeded. It is just not in the nature of things that the ultimate ecstasy can be brought into words.
Before we enter into, not contemplation, but meditation, I don't want you to be serious. I am so against seriousness -- it is a spiritual sickness. Laughter is spiritual health. And laughter is very unburdening. While you laugh, you can put your mind aside very easily. For a man who cannot laugh
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