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go on projecting your own dreams, and you will live in maya, in illusion.
Mind is illusion, not the world. Let me emphasize it, because it has become a great misunderstanding around the world that the East teaches that the world is illusory -- that is a misunderstanding. The East teaches that the MIND IS illusory, and the world created by the mind is bound to be illusory -- because only an illusion can come out of another illusion.
The true world -- that which is -- is not illusory. But you have not known it yet; you have no inkling of it. You can know it only when you drop all dreaming.
It is said that when Rabbi Kotzker drove out of town with Rabbi Hirsh of Tomashov, they came to a bridge where several women began to throw stones at them.
"Have no fear," said Kotzker. "They are not real women, nor are their stones real. They are mere phantoms."
Rabbi Hirsh was silent for a moment, then asked, "Might we not be phantoms too?"
"No," came Kotzker's answer, "as long as we have at some time had a genuine urge to repent."
The word 'repent' has to be understood; it has been mis-understood down the ages. 'Repent' is repeated again and again by Jesus; he says again and again, "Repent! Repent! because the end of the world is close by." From the Greek, when Jesus statements were translated into English, a great misfortune happened -- to many words. This word 'repent' is one that has suffered the most. It is a translation of a Greek word 'metanoia'; 'metanoia' means turning in, 'metanoia' means meditation. 'Repent' also means return -- return to the source. It has nothing to do with the idea of repentance that you have been taught in your churches, that your priests have been telling you. 'Repent' has nothing to do with repentance. 'Repent' means: Turn in! Return back! Come to the source of your being! Come to the very core of your being!
And Rabbi Kotzker's answer is immensely beautiful, of great value. He says, "No -- as long as we have at some time had a genuine urge to repent." If we have even a genuine urge to meditate, for metanoia, for turning back in, then we are real. But we are real only IN meditation; otherwise
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