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These notes, fragmentary as they are, still are of great significance: they represent the essential core of Buddha's message. It is going to be a little arduous to understand them. Be very attentive and silent because these are not ordinary words. When a man like Bodhidharma speaks, small questions, ordinary questions, are transformed into great inquiries. And whatsoever he says about those ordinary questions is of immense significance. His each word has to be pondered over, meditated upon. This will also give you a little taste of communion between the disciple and the master.
The first thing that you will note is: the question is asked, the answer is given, but the disciple never asks any question about the answer given. The answer has been totally accepted. It is not an inquiry from a student, it is an inquiry from a disciple. So the answer of Bodhidharma does not create any more questions, it simply ends the question. The disciple asks another question, but never raises a question about the answer, concerning the answer.
That is the first thing to be noted. That is a very central part of communion. It is trust, it is faith. It is not belief but it is certainly faith. And there is a difference between belief and faith. When you believe in something, the doubt still persists in you. The belief can only cover it up, it never destroys it: it will rise again and again and again. No belief can destroy your doubt, because belief is in the head and doubt is also in the head. Faith is of the heart, something far superior to the head. The question comes from the head, but the answer is received in the heart, at a higher altitude of your being. And then the question simply disappears from the head. The heart knows how to trust, the heart knows what faith is.
Faith is not against doubt, faith is absence of doubt. Belief is against doubt. Belief represses doubt, faith dissolves it. Belief is like a blind man believing that there is light; faith is like one who has opened his eyes and seen the light. The moment you see the light there is no question of doubting anymore.
Communion means communion of two hearts. The student functions from the head,
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