Osho Complete Online Library

Book Name: Sufis - The People of the Path, Vol 1

best it could on their stalks to try to see what it was that was confronting him.

So the man said, 'Can you hear me?'

And the snail said, 'Yes, of course. Who and what are you anyway?'

And the man said, 'Well, I am a man.'

And the snail said, 'Whatever is that?'

So the man said, 'Well, we are something like you. For instance, you have got eyes on stalks and we have got stalks on the other end.'

And the snail said, 'The other end?'

And the man said, 'Yes, just a minute. It's for putting our feet on, you see -- and these feet....'

And the snail said, 'Whatever are these feet for?'

And the man said, 'The feet are for moving along very rapidly on.'

And the snail said, 'Really, you amaze me. Is there anything else peculiar about you?'

And the man said, 'Well, you know how you have got your house on your back?'

And the snail said, 'Yes, yes.'

And the man said, 'Well, we don't do that, you see. We have lots and lots of houses and we go in and out of them almost at will. '

The snail said, You really are a most astonishing creature. Is there anything else strange about you?'

And the man said, 'Well, now, we are man, and a man can take a thing like a leaf -- you know a leaf?'

And the snail said, 'Yes, yes, I know a leaf.'

And the man said, 'Well he can make marks on this leaf and hand the leaf to another man who could give the leaf to a third man who could tell from the marks on the leaf what the first man was thinking. '

'Ah,' said the snail, 'you are one of them, hm?'

And the man said, 'What do you mean?'

'You are a liar!' said the snail. 'The trouble with you liars is you tell one lie and then you tell a bigger one, and then finally you over-reach yourselves.'

There are different languages at different planes. The Sufi speaks the language of the heart, and the priest speaks the language of the head. The priest speaks the language of knowledge and the Sufi speaks the language of love. They don't meet, they don't communicate. Communication is impossible. the priest is blind, he has never seen the light, he only believes in it.

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