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Respect or disrespect, society or no society, honour or no honour, that is irrelevant -- I have decided to be myself because this is my life and I have to live it in my own way. Whatsoever the cost I will live like a free man.' Once you declare that you become centred.
That's what the whole effort is in sannyas, that's what sannyas is all about -- to bring you back to your centre. That's why I don't give you any outer discipline, just an inner consciousness, an awareness; no duty, only a responsibility; no outer pattern, no style from the outside, but an inner flow, an inner glow. To live in that glow, to move into that flow and allow your life to have freedom, to be in a let-go -- that's what sannyas is. And that's what Tao is.
HUI ANG HURRIED OUT. AND THE KING SAID TO HIS COURTIERS,
'CLEVER, THE WAY HE TALKED ME ROUND WITH HIS ARGUMENT!'
It is not clever, it is cunning. It looks clever because all cunningness looks clever. Remember, cleverness and cunningness are not going to help -- only intelligence, awareness, alertness will.
This man has deceived the king but my feeling is that you can deceive somebody only if you yourself are deceived. This man is not a Master otherwise how can he deceive somebody?
Let me tell you another story which is just exactly parallel. A great sage came to China, his name was Bodhidharma. The Emperor Wu of China came to receive him on the border. The Emperor had been waiting for years because Bodhidharma had been coming and coming from India. He had to cross the whole Himalayas -- it took years. Then he arrived. The Emperor was a little bit puzzled seeing him because he looked a very strange man. The most strange thing was that he had one shoe on one of his feet and the other shoe he was carrying on his head. Was this man mad?
But the King was a very polite man, cultured of course. He tried not to see it because that would be too.... He simply tried not to see it and not to say anything about it. That would be too impolite and this was the first meeting with this great sage -- and what type of man was he?
But how long can you avoid it? He was just standing there holding his shoe
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