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Main Index
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name of such a state. Rit, (That, which is as It is) is a different thing altogether. There are no thoughts around, not even the thought of No-Thought. No one remains who can assert that he is in the No-Mind state. There is no one within -- there is complete silence. There is not even the knower who can say, "See, I am completely quiet." If this much still remains, then know that the mind is yet trying out its last deception; and this deception will throw you back once again into the whirlpool of thoughts. A single moment of this thought of being thoughtless and you are back again into the deepest of hells. This one thought can be likened to the game of snakes and ladders the children play. They keep moving forward, till they enter the snake's mouth and go hurtling down to its tail! A single thought of being thoughtless and you fall in the snake's mouth, you go down, down -- all the steps you had so laboriously climbed -- all your labour turns to naught!
Therefore, Bodhidharma had once said to the King: "I do not know. I do not know myself, who is standing before you." Someone told him later, that the king was terribly pained by his answer. He felt insulted. He should not have treated a king thus. Bodhidharma said, "Because he was a king, and because he had taken a long journey just to see me, I gave even that much of an answer; or else, even this much of an answer was wrong. That too is not present within me, which can say! I do not know who I am." I had to say this much, or else the king would have been troubled more by my silence. Please do not misunderstand me. It was out of consideration for the trouble he took to come so far and for the fact that he was awaiting my coming since years, I had to give him some answer. It was just as we would give a toy to an eager child, that I gave this answer to him."
As long as thoughts keep whirling within, know that you too, are a thought. Once nothing is left within, not even the knower, then there is no difficulty. This seems very difficult to us; and this was the greatest difficulty in understanding Buddha in this country. The reason why Buddha was understood in China was because of Lao Tzu. Because of Lao
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