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room he had written in big letters: God is nowhere.
His small son was playing one day while he was reading his newspaper. The small son was trying to learn how to read, so he tried to read the sentence on the wall: God is nowhere. But 'nowhere' was a big word, so he broke it in two. He read, "God is now here."
The father was shocked -- he had never read the sentence that way. The whole gestalt changed: "God is nowhere," and the child was reading, "God is now here." There is great difference between 'nowhere' and 'now here'! For the first time he read that sentence with the vision of a child, with the innocence of a child.
It is said that since that day he could not read the old sentence in the old way: "God is nowhere." Whenever he would look he had to read, "God is now here." It became something fixed -- the impact of the child was such.
A buddha is always here. You have always been here. You don't come from anywhere and you don't go somewhere else. This whole universe contains you; we are part of it.
Bodhidharma says:
The Tathagata IS ONE WHO KNOWS THAT HE COMES FROM NOWHERE AND GOES NOWHERE.
Read 'nowhere' as 'now here'. The Tathagata is one who is now here and knows that he is always now here. He has not come and he is not going.
Ramana Maharshi was dying, and a disciple asked, "Bhagwan, where will you go?"
He opened his eyes and laughed. That was not the time to laugh at all. He was dying, his death was absolutely certain -- he was dying of cancer -- there was great pain. Still he laughed and he said, "You fool! My whole life I have been telling you that there is nowhere to go, we are always here. So where can I go? I will be here! The body will be gone, dust unto dust, but where can I go? I will be part of this universe as I am part of it now. Now the body gives you the idea that I am separate -- that is your idea, not mine. For me, my body does not separate me from existence but bridges me."
You see the difference between the ignorant and the wise? The same body to the ignorant is a wall that separates you from existence. The same body to the wise, to the enlightened, is a bridge; it joins
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