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lady approached the injured man and asked, "Are you comfortable?"
"Ehhh! I make a living," sighed Berkowitz.
In the Jewish context he could not understand the word `comfortable' in any other sense than in the sense of making a good living. He said, "Yes." He has the accident, but he cannot understand the word `comfortable' in the present context of accident. Perhaps he may be dying, perhaps he is badly hurt, but his context remains as his old mind which thinks only of money, earning.
This has to be remembered while you are studying Zen -- the differences of context.
It is said: To arrive at the truth, the German adds, the Frenchman subtracts, and the Englishman changes the subject!
I have heard...
You can always tell a man's nationality by introducing him to a beautiful woman. An Englishman shakes her hand, a Frenchman kisses her hand, an American asks her for a date, and a Russian wires Moscow for instructions!
Question 2
BELOVED OSHO,
CAN YOU PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL QUESTION, "WHO AM I?" AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA OF "WHO AM I?"?
Prem Shunyo, it is exactly the difference I was just talking about -- the difference between the ego and the self.
The ego is your false idea of who you are; it is just a fabrication of the mind. It is your own homemade mind-manufactured concept, but it has no corresponding reality to it. It is perfectly good as far as the world is concerned because there, you are dealing with other egos. The moment you go beyond your mind, you also go beyond your ego, and suddenly you realize that you are not what you have always thought yourself to be -- that your reality is totally different, that it does not consist of your body or of your mind, that in fact you don't have any word to express it.
But it is still not the ultimate reality; it is just in between, between the ultimate reality and the ultimate falsehood. It is better than the false, but it is lower than the really real. You are still carrying a certain idea of separation from existence. That separation keeps you unavailable to all the blessings which are your birthright.
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