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it. The husband says, "Love me!" The wife says, "Love me because you promised -- have you forgotten the courting days?" But they are no longer there. Those persons are no longer there either. A young man of twenty, just remember: are you the same man? Much has passed; the Ganges has flowed too much -- you are no longer there.
I have heard: One night Mulla Nasruddin's wife said, "You no longer love me, you no longer kiss, you no longer hug me. Remember when you were courting me? -- you used to bite me and I loved that very much! Can't you bite me once more?"
Nasruddin got out of his bed, started walking. His wife said, "Where are you going?"
He said, "To the bathroom to get my teeth."
No, you cannot step in the same river twice. It is impossible. Don't cling; if you cling you create a hell. Clinging is hell, and a nonclinging consciousness is always in heaven. One moves with the mood, one accepts the mood, one accepts the change; there is no grudge, no complaint about it because this is how life is, things are. You can fight, but you cannot change.
When somebody is young, of course there are different moods because youth has different seasons and moods. How can an old man have the same? And an old man will look very foolish with those moods. How can an old man say the same thing? Everything has changed. When you are young you are romantic, inexperienced, dreamy. When you are old all the dreams have gone. Nothing is bad in it, because when the dreams are gone you are nearer and closer to reality -- now you understand more. You are less of a poet because you cannot dream now, but nothing is wrong. Dreaming was a mood, a season -- it changes. And one has to be true to the state in which one finds oneself at a certain point.
Be true to your changing self, because that is the only reality. That's why Buddha says there is no self. You are a river. There is no self because there is nothing unchanging in you. Buddha was thrown out of India because the Indian mind, particularly the brahmins, the Hindus, believed in a permanent self, ATMA. They always said that something is permanent, and Buddha said only change is permanent -- nothing
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