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Main Index
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all together here to use it. That is the message: 'Take the money! but leave a little for me too. I am also here to use it, as much as you are here to use it.'
Such a practical, such an empirical attitude! And so free of money! And in the court he said, 'THIS MAN IS NO THIEF...' he has turned this thief into a friend. He says '... AT LEAST AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED. I don't know about others -- how can I know about others? This much I know: I gave him the money and he thanked me for it. It is finished, accounts are closed. He does not owe it to me any more. He has thanked me for it -- what else can one do?'
At the most we can thank. We can thank God for all that he has given us -- what else can we do?
AFTER HE HAD FINISHED HIS PRISON TERM, THE MAN WENT TO SHICHIRI AND BECAME HIS DISCIPLE.
What else can you do with such a man as Shichiri? You have to become a disciple. He has converted a thief into a sannyasin. This is the alchemy of a master, he never misses any opportunity. Whatsoever opportunity is there, he uses it -- even if a thief comes to a master, he will return a sannyasin.
To come in contact with a master is to be transformed. You may have come for something else, you may not have come for the master at all -- the thief was not there for the master. In fact, had he known that in this hut lives a master, he would not have dared at all. He had come only for the money; he had stumbled upon the master by accident. But even if you meet a Buddha by accident, it is going to change you utterly. You will never be the same man again.
Many of you are here just by accident. You were not searching for me, you were not seeking for me. By a thousand and one accidents you have arrived here. But it becomes more and more difficult to go.
A master does not preach, he never says what should be done. Bodhidharma says, 'Zen has nothing to say, but Zen has much to show.' This master showed a way to this thief. He changed this man, and he changed him with such skill. He must have been a great surgeon -- he operated on this man's heart... and no sound was heard. He destroyed this man utterly, and he created this man again. And the
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