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Main Index
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of the Vatican is based on a belief. DAS KAPITAL is the bible for the Soviet Union -- because Marx says there is no God, it has become a program for every child. In seventy years the old generation has disappeared. Now every child believes there is no God. In India every child believes there is God. Both are beliefs: one is positive belief, one is negative belief, but belief is belief. Neither the Soviet Union knows, nor the Vatican.
The people who know, say it is impossible to say anything about the ultimate reality. It cannot be brought into language; it remains mysterious. You can enter into it, but you cannot say anything about it. You can enjoy it, you can rejoice it, you can dance it, but language is too poor.
This is the real poverty of philosophy, that it cannot express the ultimate experience of meditators.
Only the agnostic can be a meditator. He puts aside all programming, whether the programming is from the theist or from the atheist does not matter. All programming, the whole mind, has to be put aside, and you have to enter into a space of no-mind.
In that no-mind there is no time,
just the present moment and utter silence,
and great clarity,
and you are a luminous being,
Now, Here.
That's why Yakusan said, "I have got firewood. The rest you can understand. But don't ask me about the past."
THE MONK THEN POINTED TO YAKUSAN'S SWORD AND SAID, "IT MAKES THE SOUND `TAP-TAP'. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS IT?"
Have you ever thought about it? -- even small things cannot be defined. If somebody asks you, "What is yellow?" what will you do? You can point to the color yellow, but you cannot give any definition. What is yellow? What is red? You will say, "Red is red." But that is not giving the answer. This is tautology; you are simply repeating "A rose is a rose is a rose," but you have gone nowhere. You have not defined what is rose. You can only indicate -- "This is." No definition is possible -- only indication.
So when the man asked, "What is that which is making the sound `tap-tap'?" the master did not answer, "It is a sword," because Zen does not believe in language; it
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