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a certain city, then this happened." He would use 'Tathagata' more often than he would use the word I.
The question is: WHAT IS TATHAGATA?
Literally it means 'one who comes like the wind and goes like the wind', 'thus come, thus gone'. That is the literal meaning of the word Tathagata: just a breeze that suddenly comes. It was not there one moment before and then it is there, and then next moment it is gone. And it leaves no trace behind. You cannot see the breeze, you can only feel it. You cannot see the buddha, you can only feel him. Hence those who come to see the buddha will go empty-handed, because whatsoever they will see is not the buddha.
Seeing my body is not seeing the buddha. The body is only a house where the buddha is dwelling. Seeing the house is not seeing the one who is dwelling in it. You cannot see the one who is dwelling in the house, you can only feel him. Hence those who come with a thinking mind miss. Those who come with a feeling heart are immediately moved, touched, transformed.
It is like wind: you cannot see it but you can feel it. You can feel the touch of it, the coolness of it. It is so refreshing, it is so rejuvenating, it makes you so alive!
To be in a buddhafield is to be in the field where the wind is blowing constantly. It can be seen only by the disciples. By 'seen' I mean it can be felt only by the disciples. That's how it has to be seen. And it can be breathed in and out only by the devotees. The disciple feels it touching his body, playing with his hair, moving his clothes. He feels it, he infers that it is there. But the devotee breathes it in; it circulates in his being, it becomes part of his being.
The student comes to see, the disciple to feel, the devotee to be.
Bodhidharma says:
ONE WHO KNOWS THAT HE COMES FROM NOWHERE AND GOES NOWHERE.
From where does the wind come and where does it go? It has no destination... it has no motive. It is not going anywhere and not coming from anywhere; it has always been here.
Swami Ramateertha used to tell a parable:
There was a great atheist. In his drawing room he had written in big letters: God is nowhere.
His
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