| |
and their handcuffs and forced them out of jail. But they were surprised that by the evening they were all back.
It is something so important, it is far more important than the French Revolution itself. The prisoners begged them, "Don't force us. Outside does not exist for us. The gap is too big -- seventy years -- and we are living very happily." A few of them said, "We cannot sleep without the chains." They have become almost like teddy bears.
The same is the situation of almost everyone: your chains have become teddy bears. However dirty, smelly, greasy and Italian, but on every airport, on every railway station you will find children dragging their teddy bears. They will not leave them because they cannot sleep without them. With them it feels so warm and they have been such friends, no quarrel.
We are all accustomed to many ropes.
Rinzai is saying, "IF HE SHOULD NOT COME IN A PARTICULAR WAY, HE WOULD HAVE BOUND HIMSELF WITHOUT A ROPE."
Only if he comes like a lion roaring, alone, no more part of the crowd, no more dependent on the crowd, no more a Christian, no more a Hindu, no more a Buddhist -- if he has thrown all the scriptures and all the conditionings away, he will come in his full glory, a man in his total dignity.
This dignity is not a comparative thing. It has nothing to do with anybody else; it is not relative. It is his own nature come to full blossoming. He has thrown all hindrances away.
If you come across a man who has no ropes, no chains, no conditionings, you will immediately see the difference between yourself and that person. His freedom will be almost tangible and you will see your slavery clearly in comparison to him. Of how many things you are a slave! Your slavery is multidimensional. But you go on living because everybody else is also living in the same way. You think perhaps this is the only way of life.
This is not the only way of life. In fact, it is not a way of life at all. It is a way of missing life. Without blossoming into your full potential, you have dragged yourself from the cradle to the grave, but you have not lived.
I have heard about a man who died, then he
|
|
|