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die following those eighty thousand rules, then who will be responsible? Who will be responsible for my misery, for my rebirth into misery again, you or I?' He has not said that, he simply indicates. It is a beautiful answer: 'Birth and death is a problem of great moment. And we are not certain even of the next moment -- how can I go into those rules?' But he has not said so much, he has simply indicated why he is not following all those rules. '... all changes ceaselessly -- everything is a flux. I can die any moment. If you say so, I will bow down as many times as you say, but if I die in the middle of it without becoming enlightened you will be responsible, sir.' He has changed the label. The Master has pushed and he has rightly responded.
The Master asked 'Why not embody the unborn and grasp the timeless? Why be worried about death and birth?' Another push, another provocation, another temptation. 'Why not embody the unborn? Why don't you yourself think that there is no death, that the soul is immortal, that life never dies? Everybody else believes that, why don't you believe that way? Embody the unborn and grasp the timeless -- why be worried with time and flux and change? Grasp the eternal!'
Yoka replied 'To be unborn and deathless is to embody it; to be timeless is to grasp it. There is no other way. How can I grasp it? How can I embody the unborn and the deathless? It is not a question of belief, it is not a question of practice either. I cannot cultivate it because all that is cultivated will be false -- false because it is cultivated; it will be imposed. How can I embody it and how can I grasp the timeless? There is only one way and that is to BE. And I am not yet. I have not seen it yet. I have heard all these philosophies, I can believe in them -- millions of people believe in them -- but belief never leads to knowing. Only being is needed. And I am not yet, sir, I am not yet deathless. I don't know. All that I know is death. All that I know is time. And what are you saying to me? Should I believe? How can I embody the deathless unless I know that I am that? To be unborn and deathless is to embody it; that is the only way. To be timeless
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