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all the gold of India, he became the gold king of India. He purchased all the gold, wherever it was possible. And once you have all the gold in your hands, you have the whole country in your hands. If you start selling it, the prices will go down. He kept the whole market dependent on him just because he was holding the gold.
And I asked him, "What enjoyment are you getting out of it?"
He said, "I don't know, just there is a tremendous desire to be the richest, to be the most powerful."
The inward journey begins only when you understand it clearly that anything outside is not going to give you contentment.
Takuan wrote:
INVITED BY OUR PARENTS,
WE CAME HERE
AS TEMPORARY GUESTS,
AND WITHOUT REMAINING MIND,
WE GO BACK TO OUR NATIVE PLACE.
In a small haiku he is describing the whole of life. A child comes invited by the parents as a guest in the world, stays here some time, and again moves into the unknown universality, just as a wave arises and disappears in the ocean. This much is our so-called life.
If you understand it, you become humble, you become utterly peaceful. You know that you are just a guest here; there is no need to possess anything, there is no need to cling to anything. Everything will be left behind and you will be gone. The tidal wave of death will be coming and will clean the shore of all the signatures that you have been making.
Hotei, another Zen master's haiku:
MAITREYA! MAITREYA!
FOREVER DIVIDING HIMSELF,
HE IS HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE --
YET SCARCELY NOTICED.
This haiku is particularly important for us, because Maitreya is lying here. Hotei was not aware where Maitreya is. He used to sit here in the front row, and he has been missed. I can provoke him...
(SARDARJI GIVES A LOUD BELLY LAUGH FROM THE BACK OF THE HALL.)
You see, Sardar Gurudayal Singh... he will have to go and provoke him, that is the problem. Because Maitreya won't listen to anybody, he will have to be dragged out. And once in a while he comes, still knocks on doors in Lao Tzu House. For a few days Anando was very much terrified because he was knocking
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