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mean anything else. I am just like an abyss. Come closer to me and you will fall into me. For this, the invitation has been given to you. You have heard it and you have come.
Be aware that through me you are not going to gain anything. Through me you can only lose all -- because unless you are lost, the divine cannot happen; unless you disappear totally, the real cannot arise. You are the barrier.
And you are so much, so stubbornly much, you are so filled with yourself that nothing can penetrate you. Your doors are closed. When you disappear, when you are not, the doors open. Then you become just like the vast, infinite sky.
And that is your nature. That is Tao.
Before I enter into Chuang Tzu's beautiful parable of The Empty Boat, I would like to tell you one other story, because that will set the trend for this meditation camp which you are entering.
I have heard that it happened once, in some ancient time, in some unknown country, that a prince suddenly went mad. The king was desperate -- the prince was the only son, the only heir to the kingdom. All the magicians were called, miracle makers, medical men were summoned, every effort was made, but in vain. Nobody could help the young prince, he remained mad.
The day he went crazy he threw off his clothes, became naked, and started to live under a big table. He thought that he had become a rooster. Ultimately the king had to accept the fact that the prince could not be reclaimed. He had gone insane permanently; all the experts had failed.
But one day again hope dawned. A sage -- a Sufi, a mystic -- knocked on the palace door, and said, "Give me one opportunity to cure the prince."
But the king felt suspicious, because this man looked crazy himself, more crazy than the prince. But the mystic said, "Only I can cure him. To cure a madman a greater madman is needed. And your somebodies, your miracle makers, your medical experts, all have failed because they don't know the abc of madness. They have never traveled the path."
It seemed logical, and the king thought, "There is no harm in it, why not try?" So the opportunity was given to him.
The moment
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