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should be written in your notes, Devageet, as no-thing-ness; otherwise nothingness has a negative meaning -- the meaning of emptiness, and that's not it. The meaning is 'fullness'. Emptiness in the East has a totally different context... SHUNYATA.
I called one of my sannyasins Shunyo, but the fool goes on calling himself Doctor Eichling. Now, can stupidity be greater? 'Doctor Eichling' -- what an ugly name! And he has shaved off his beard just to be Doctor Eichling... because with a beard he was looking a little beautiful.
In the East shunyata -- emptiness -- does not mean emptiness as in the English language. It is fullness, overfullness, so full that nothing is needed any more. That is the message of THE BOOK. Please include it in the list.
First, THE BOOK of the Sufis.
Second, THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran. I could easily drop THE PROPHET for the simple reason that it is only an echo of Friedrich Nietzsche's THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA. In our world nobody speaks the truth. We are such liars, so formal, so full of etiquette.... THE PROPHET is only beautiful because it echoes Zarathustra.
Third, THE BOOK OF LIEH TZU. Lao Tzu I mentioned, Chuang Tzu I mentioned; Lieh Tzu I forgot, and he is the very culmination of both Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. Lieh Tzu is the third generation. Lao Tzu was the master, Chuang Tzu was the disciple. Lieh Tzu was the disciple of a disciple, perhaps that is why I forgot him. But his book is immensely beautiful and has to be included in the list.
Fourth -- and this is really amazing -- I did not mention Plato's DIALOGUES OF SOCRATES. Perhaps I forgot because of Plato. Plato is not worth mentioning, he was just a philosopher, but his DIALOGUES OF SOCRATES AND HIS DEATH is impossible to overpraise and should be included.
Fifth... I also forgot THE NOTES OF THE DISCIPLES OF BODHIDHARMA. When I talk of Gautam Buddha I always forget Bodhidharma, perhaps because I feel as if I have included him in his master, Buddha. But no, that is not right; Bodhidharma stands on his own. He was a great disciple, so great that even the master could be jealous of him. He himself did not write a word, but a few of his
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