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will be a royal guest, so don't be worried about anything. But I want you to come to Greece, because my master wants to see an enlightened man."
The old man laughed. He said, "In the first place, put your sword back into its sheath -- this is not the way to meet a master. And get down from your horse!"
Alexander had never heard such authoritative words -- and from a naked man, who has nothing.
And the man said, "Remember that you may conquer the whole world, but you are still a beggar. Now you are begging me to come with you. But as far as I'm concerned, I have come to the point where there is no movement. I don't go anywhere, I have never gone anywhere. I have been always now and here. Time has stopped, mind has stopped...."
Alexander was very angry. He said, "I will cut off your head if you don't come with me!"
The man said, "That's a good idea. You can take the head, but I'm not coming. And remember: just as you cut off my head, you will be watching the head falling on the ground and I will also be watching. Watching is our secret, tell your master -- and take my head."
Now it is very difficult to take the head of such a man, who is not afraid at all. Alexander said, "I have to go without a master."
The old man said, "Tell your master that enlightenment is not something that you can bring from outside. You cannot export it -- you have to explore it within yourself. Drop all logic, all rationality, all mind, and go inwards as deep as you can. At the very end of your search you will find the buddha.
"My coming will be of no use. I would not have refused, because there is no difference for me, where I am -- but seeing me, do you see any enlightenment? Neither will your master be able to see any enlightenment. To see enlightenment, you need a little bit of the experience of enlightenment, at least some meditativeness. And I don't think meditation has even entered into the consciousness of people in the West."
Strangely, even today -- the twenty-three hundred years since Alexander have not been of any help -- meditation is still an Eastern concept. It is still only in the East that people become thirsty
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