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Book Name: The MiraclePrevious     Next
 

your bed and you don't find your slippers where they should be, if the servant has forgotten to put them there, all silence is disturbed and you are mad and you start slamming doors and doing all kinds of things. This kind of silence is of not much use. This silence also comes after making love, but that too is very momentary; soon it is lost.

Sannyas is the search for a silence that remains like an undercurrent for twenty-four hours a day, so deep and so profound that there is no possibility of it getting disturbed. Nothing can disturb it, not even death.

It happened once: a Zen master was writing a letter -- it was the middle of the night -- and a thief entered his hut. Of course the door was not locked; there was nothing there, so there was no need for a lock. The thief came into the house just through a misunderstanding. If he had known that it was a Zen master's house he would not have entered, because what can you find in a Zen master's house?

But when he entered the Zen master looked at him and asked him 'What do you want?' The way he asked ... the thief could not lie. When you are encountering a man of truth it is very difficult to lie, it is almost impossible.

The thief said "I am sorry -- I am a thief -- I have come to steal something. But excuse me, I never know that I was entering a Zen master's house."

The master said "Don't feel embarrassed. Look into that box -- there are ten rupees. More I cannot offer because more I don't have. You can take those ten rupees, you deserve them. You have come so far and the night is so dark. And in fact I am feeling very happy: this is the first time a thief has given me the honour of being thought rich, otherwise I am a poor man. You have honoured me by coming to my house; now I can also brag that thieves have started coming to me, to my house. So take out those ten rupees.

The thief was in such a puzzled state he could not figure it out, what to do, what not to do, how to manage with this man. He wanted somehow to escape so he quickly took out the ten rupees and as he was leaving the master said "Wait. Leave at least one rupee in the box because in the morning I will have

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