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Buddha goes on talking in parables, Sufi mystics go on talking in parables -- it is not coincidental. The story, the parable, the anecdote, is the way of the right hemisphere; logic argument, proof, syllogism, is the way of the left hemisphere.
Listen to it.
GOSO HOYEN USED TO SAY, 'WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME WHAT ZEN IS LIKE, I TELL THEM THIS STORY.'
This story really tells what Zen is like -- without defining, it indicates. A definition is not possible because Zen in its basic quality is indefinable. You can taste it but you cannot define it; you can live it but language is not sufficient to say it; you can show it but you cannot say it. But through a story a little bit can be transferred. And this story really indicates, indicates perfectly the quality of what Zen is like. This is just a gesture, don't make it a definition, don't philosophize around it, let it be like lightning, a flash of understanding. It is not going to increase your knowledge but it can give you a shift, a jerk, a change of gestalt. You can be thrown from one corner of the mind to another...and that is the whole point of the story.
NOTICING THAT HIS FATHER WAS GROWING OLD,
THE SON OF A BURGLAR ASKED HIS FATHER TO TEACH HIM THE TRADE
SO THAT HE COULD CARRY ON THE FAMILY BUSINESS
AFTER HIS FATHER HAD RETIRED.
The trade of a burglar is not a scientific thing: it is an art. Burglars are as much born as poets; you cannot learn, learning won't help. If you learn, you will be caught because then the police know more than you. They have accumulated centuries of learning. A burglar is a born burglar; he lives through intuition, it is a knack; he lives through hunches. A burglar is feminine, he is not a businessman; he is a gambler, he risks all for almost nothing; his whole trade is of danger and risk. It is just like a religious man. Zen people say that religious people are also like burglars: in search of God they are also burglars. There is no way to reach God through logic or reason or accepted society, culture, civilization. They break the wall somewhere, they enter from the back door If in the daylight it is not allowed, they enter in dark. If
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