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a great understanding which is not of the mind, which is of your total being. That understanding gives you the first principle, the first taste of tao.
I have heard:
A wealthy horse-owner died and left a large fortune to a university. A provision in the will, however, was that the school must confer a degree of Doctor of Divinity upon his favorite horse. Since the university was anxious to receive the money -- it was a really big sum -- the Dean set a date for the animal to receive a degree of D.D.
This unusual occasion was attended by the press, and one of the reporters asked the Dean, "What is your reaction to this strange arrangement?"
"Well," replied the Dean, "in my experience I have awarded many degrees. However, I must admit that this is the first time I have awarded a degree to a WHOLE horse."
All others were donkeys, not whole horses.
The mind cannot have any contact with reality. To live in the mind is to live like an idiot. To live with the mind, in the mind, as the mind, is to live a stupid life. The moment you become a little loosened from the mind: celebration. The moment you become a little loosened from the mind: joy. A little you become loosened from the mind: and God. And suddenly the doors are open. They have never been closed; only your mind was blocking the way.
The mind can give you the second principle. The first principle is possible only through no-mind. Meditation means a state of no-mind. Meditation does not mean "to think about". Meditation means not to think at all. It does not mean, of course, to fall asleep. It means to fall AWAKE. It means thoughts should disappear and only pure consciousness should be there, a presence, a luminous presence: you see; there is clarity, transparency.
Thoughts don't allow you to see. Or, even if they allow, they distort. Or they interpret. They never allow the reality to come to you raw. They decorate it, they change it, they color it. They make it digestible to you. They make it according to you. And you are false, you are a mask, so when reality is cut according to you it becomes unreal.
That's why the Master said, "If I tell you the first
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