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They are manufactured right now in his factory in Nepal. Then they are dipped into acids to disfigure them, then they are buried down deep in the earth for six months, and then they are taken out. With inscriptions in ancient languages, with dates reaching far back -- three thousand years, two thousand years, one thousand years -- in the languages which were prevalent in those days. And then they are sold all over the world.
When I had stayed with this friend for the first time and I saw so many antiques in his house, I said, "From where did you get them?"
He said, "I cannot lie to you -- we manufacture them."
I was puzzled. I said, "You are doing something so Christian? Do you follow the Christian God? He has also done the same thing: he manufactured everything four thousand and four years before Jesus Christ, but with marks, distortions, which can deceive people."
People go on clinging to their dogmas; but the whole thing is because we start by asking wrong questions.
When you come to a master be very alert and ask things which are really a deep concern for you, the ultimate concern for you. Ask things upon which your life and death depend.
WHAT IS BUDDHA-MIND?
Bodhidharma says:
YOUR MIND IS IT.
He immediately changes the very flavor of the question. It is no more abstract, nothing to do with Buddha. Buddha may have been, may not have been. He may not be a historical person, who knows; he may never have existed, he may be just a beautiful fiction. But you are not a fiction, you are here, you are present; the question has to be concerned with you.
YOUR MIND IS IT. WHEN YOU SEE THE SELFSAME ESSENCE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT SUCHNESS.
Now Bodhidharma has started entering in you. He says: The mind can manifest in many ways. The ordinary manifestation is that of insanity: thousands of thoughts and desires and memories running inside, clashing with each other, conflicting. A great war going on... sometimes very hot, sometimes very cold, but the war continues. Awake, asleep, it is always there. You are just a battlefield. This is the ordinary state.
But if you SEE THE SELFSAME ESSENCE OF
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