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your dance, your tears of joy, your purity of aloneness, your silence, your serenity, your ecstasy. That which death cannot take away from you is the only real treasure; and that which can be taken away by anybody is not a treasure -- it is simply befooling you.
How many millions of people have lived before you on this earth? You don't even know their names; whether they ever lived or not does not make any difference. There have been saints and there have been sinners, and there have been very respectable people, and there have been all kinds of eccentrics, crazy, but they have all disappeared -- not even a trace has remained on the earth.
Your sole concern should be to take care of and protect those qualities which you can take with you when death destroys your body, your mind -- because these qualities will be your sole companions. They are the only real values, and the people who attain them -- only they live; others only pretend to live.
The KGB knocks on Yussell Finkelstein's door one dark night. Yussel opens the door. The KGB man barks out, "Does Yussel Finkelstein live here?"
"No," replies Yussel, standing there in his frayed pajamas.
"No? So what is your name then?"
"Yussel Finkelstein." The KGB man knocks him to the ground and says, "Did you just say that you did not live here?"
Yussel replies, "You call this living?"
Just living is not always living. Look at your life. Can you call it a blessing? Can you call it a gift, a present of existence? Would you like this life to be given to you again and again? It is so empty. Because of its emptiness, your prayers are empty. You cannot fill your prayers with gratitude. Gratitude for what? You are doing no more than acting parts in a drama; you are not being yourself.
I am reminded... a very beautiful young woman had gone to see the great painter, Picasso. And she saw there a photograph of Picasso hanging on the wall. She asked Picasso, "Is that your photograph? Is that you?"
Picasso said, "No."
The woman said, "Strange. It looks exactly like you. Do you have a twin brother? It is so absolutely alike."
Picasso said, "It may be
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