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WERE AS FULL OF UNDIGESTED TEACHINGS AS YOU NOW ARE WITH MEAT, RICE, AND FRUIT. YOU FELT DISCOMFORT, AND, BECAUSE YOU ARE UNACCUSTOMED TO SPIRITUAL DISCOMFORT OF THE REAL KIND, YOU INTERPRETED THIS AS A HUNGER FOR MORE KNOWLEDGE. INDIGESTION WAS YOUR REAL CONDITION. "...
Now he has created a condition to hit the point deep into the heart. He has hammered this situation. He has exactly created the situation in which the man was, but only now can he understand. It could have been said, but then he would not have understood.
Let me remind you of a Zen story. The path of Zen and the Sufis are not very different. Their methods are different, but their working is very similar. Zen Masters also create situations; of course, their path is of meditation, not of love, and Sufism is the path of love, not meditation -- but let me add one thing more, otherwise you will misunderstand.
If you follow the path of meditation, love comes as a shadow, and if you follow the path of love, meditation comes as a shadow. They are always together; if you can manage one, the other has been managed without managing it. But as far as devices, designs are concerned, Sufis and Zen Masters are alike.
A professor of philosophy went to a Zen Master, Nan-in, and he asked about God, about nirvana, about meditation, and so many things, and the Master listened silently -- questions and questions and questions. And then he said, "You look tired. You have climbed this high mountain; you have come from a faraway place. Let me first serve you tea." And the Zen Master made tea. The professor waited. He was boiling with questions. And when the Master was making tea and the samovar was singing and the aroma of the tea started spreading, the Master said to the professor, "Wait, don't be in such a hurry. Who knows? Even by drinking tea your questions may be answered... or even before that. "
The professor was at a loss. He started thinking, "This whole journey has been a wastage. This man seems to be mad. How can my question about God be answered by drinking tea? What relevance is there? This man is a madman. And it is better to escape from here as soon as possible because
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