OUR BELOVED MASTER,

TOREI SAID:

IF YOU WANT TO BE FREE FROM THIS WORLD OF SUFFERING, FIRST YOU MUST CONTEMPLATE IMPERMANENCE.

THOSE WHO ARE BORN MUST INEVITABLY DIE. EVEN THE YOUNG ARE NOT EXEMPT; EVEN THE STRONG ARE IN DANGER. EVEN A LONG LIFE DOES NOT LAST MORE THAN EIGHTY YEARS OR SO. IF YOU DON'T ANNIHILATE THE NATURE OF AFFLICTIONS SOMEHOW, AND ARRIVE ON THE PATH OF LIBERATION, EVEN IF YOU ASCEND TO THE RANK OF SOVEREIGN OF A NATION, GREAT MINISTER, DEITY, SPIRIT, OR WIZARD, IT IS STILL EVANESCENT AS LIGHTNING AND MORNING DEW, LASTING ONLY FOR A WHILE.

WHEN CONDITIONS MEET, EVERYTHING SURELY SEEMS TO EXIST; BUT WHEN THE CONDITIONS DISINTEGRATE -- EMPTINESS. THIS BODY IS GAINED THROUGH THE RELATIONSHIP OF FATHER AND MOTHER, AND COMES FROM THEIR CONDITIONS. SOLIDITY BECOMES SKIN, FLESH, LIGAMENT, AND BONE; FLUIDITY BECOMES SPITTLE, TEARS, PUS, AND BLOOD; HEAT BECOMES WARMTH AND FLEXIBILITY; AIR BECOMES BREATH AND MOVEMENT.

WHEN THESE FOUR CONDITIONS SUDDENLY ARE EXHAUSTED, THE BODY GETS COLD AND THE BREATH STOPS -- THERE IS NOTHING CALLED "ME." AT THAT TIME THIS BODY IS REALLY NOT OUR OWN; IT IS ONLY A TEMPORARY INN. HOW CAN WE BE SO GREEDILY ATTACHED TO THIS TEMPORARY INN THAT WE IGNORE ETERNITY?

CONTEMPLATING THESE FOUR TRANSCENDENCES -- IMPERMANENCE, SUFFERING, EMPTINESS, SELFLESSNESS -- SEEKING THE WAY OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS CALLED, "THE TEACHING OF FOUR REALITIES FOR DISCIPLES." THIS IS THE ESSENTIAL GATEWAY TO BEGINNING ENTRY INTO THE WAY FOR ALL ENLIGHTENED ONES.

Maneesha, before I discuss Torei's serious things, I have to introduce a few new animal gods into Avirbhava's Museum of Gods. Before I call her, I will have to tell you something about these gods.

"Sheep: The male sheep is known as a ram and has been a symbol of numerous gods. Osiris and Ammon-Ra of Egypt were both worshipped as rams. The ram was sacrificed each year in Egypt. It was skinned and the skin placed over an image of the god, recalling the time when Ammon-Ra was incarnated in the form of a ram.

Apes: In ancient Egypt, apes were considered sacred and were preserved by embalming them at death.

Mouse: One of the greatest of the Greek gods, Apollo, was known to take the form of a mouse in his role as sender of the plague. Apollo, the sun god, would incarnate as mice and rats to dispel the forces of night.

Horse: In Hinduism, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu is a white horse, Kalki. It has not yet happened. Nine incarnations have happened; the tenth is awaited. The tenth will be called Kalki. It will be a white horse, who is to come to judge the world at the end of this yuga, the fourth and the last cycle of one million, eight hundred thousand years in the Hindu concept of the world. He will destroy the wicked, reward the good, and enable Vishnu to create a new world."

It seems the time for Kalki is coming near. Beware of the white horse!

"Bull: In ancient Persia, the bull was worshipped as the god who caused the grass to grow. In Greece, the great god Zeus used the guise of a bull to seduce Europa, hoping thereby that his animal transformation would elude his ever-watchful wife, Hera, from detecting his adultery. The followers of Dionysius would kill a bull during midsummer festivals in honor of the great god Zeus."

This Museum of Gods is not just a museum, it shows how human mind has remained retarded. Rather than bringing consciousness to its heights, man has been worshipping all kinds of animals. Even the future, the final incarnation of God in Hinduism, Kalki, is going to be a white horse -- not a man, not a buddha. It shows the retardedness, the primitiveness of our intelligence. This museum will be a symbol to the whole world to remind them: "This is what your forefathers have been doing, what you are doing. And you call it religion!"

Before I ask Avirbhava to bring her new acquisitions, two little jokes about these gods.

Late one night, Satan the devil and his partner, Lucifer the monkey, knock on the door of Pope the Polack's Vatican apartment. The Polack pope comes to the door with an arm around his best friend, Simon the sheep.

"Good evening, your phoniness," says the devil, grinning cheekily and fondling his forked tail. "My friend and I were wondering, do you have any midget nuns in your apartment?"

"Certainly not!" snaps back the pope, trying to slam the door.

"Well then, Holy Father," chuckles the devil, licking the flames of his lips and jamming his pitchfork in the doorway, "do you have any midget nuns living in the Vatican?"

"I don't know of any," cries the frightened Pope the Polack.

"Perhaps," giggles Lucifer, the monkey, swinging from Satan's pitchfork, "you know of any midget nuns living anywhere?"

"I cannot say," shouts Pope the Polack, infuriated, "that I know of any midget nuns anywhere at all!" And he grabs Simon the sheep's crucifix, and waves it wildly under the devil's nose.

The devil picks up the monkey by the shoulders, lifts him in the air, and shakes him hard.

"You see, you idiot!" shouts Satan. "I told you you fucked a penguin!"

Pope the Polack goes for a summer retreat into the mountains of Italy. He lives in a little stone cottage, and the only companions he has are a flock of sheep.

After a few days without any company, the Polack pope becomes crazy for sex, and he chooses one of the horned sheep as a partner.

He takes off his gown and puts his machinery into the sheep. But while he is in action with the poor animal, it suddenly starts to run. Pope the Polack, with his underwear down around his ankles, is unable to do anything but hold on to the sheep's horns.

They race down the mountainside together, past a field where Grandma Pickle is picking daisies. Grandma is a little short-sighted, but looks up in amazement as the sheep and the Polack pope go racing past.

"My god!" she mutters to herself. "No money to buy pants, but he is driving a white motorbike!"

Now, Avirbhava, bring your gods.

(THE MASTER LAUGHINGLY BECKONS AVIRBHAVA FORWARD. AVIRBHAVA COMES FORWARD WITH A BULL DRESSED AS THE POPE, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY SHEEP AND MICE START DANCING IN FRONT OF THE MASTER ON A STRING, AND AN APE IS BOUNCING UP AND DOWN WILDLY ON A PIECE OF ELASTIC.)

Great!

(AVIRBHAVA ASSISTS THE LITTLE POPE IN KISSING THE MASTER'S FEET, WHILE A LIVE RECORDING OF THE POPE'S SERMON BOOMS OVER THE LOUDSPEAKERS.)

Great, Avirbhava!

(THERE IS GENERAL HILARITY WITH THE MICE SQUEAKING, THE APE GROWLING, ETC. BY THIS TIME THE MASTER IS REALLY ENJOYING IT!)

That's good!

Now the serious matter....

Torei is not a master but he is certainly a great teacher. And I have chosen him so that you can make a clear-cut distinction between the greatest teacher and the smallest master.

Even the smallest master, the humblest master, has a beauty, a truth, a realization. He may not say a single word, but his silence is a scripture. The greatest teacher may know all the scriptures, may have great interpretations, but he remains a parrot. What he says he does not know; his saying is dependent on his learning, studying, but not on his experience, not on his existential approach to his own being.

Torei is a good example of a great teacher. But such teachers can deceive humanity -- they have been deceiving, because they talk beautifully. Their words are the same as the words of the masters -- sometimes more refined, more cultivated, more cultured -- but still they are empty. Once in a while they may quote a sentence which has significance; not because of them, but because that sentence has come from some great living master. They have been great collectors, but as far as their own reality is concerned they are as ignorant as one can be.

TOREI SAID:

IF YOU WANT TO BE FREE FROM THIS WORLD OF SUFFERING, FIRST YOU MUST CONTEMPLATE IMPERMANENCE.

I have told you these words: concentration, contemplation, meditation. The fourth, which is missing in the English language, is dhyana, or Zen in Japanese.

Contemplation is the way of the philosopher. He thinks it over. It is not beyond mind, it is within mind. He may be very sophisticated, his words may be arranged beautifully, but he cannot understand what meditation is; he can only understand contemplation. The very word `contemplation' means thinking about higher things. But if you don't know those things, what can you think about?

Contemplation is one of the most empty words. If you know, you know; there is no need to contemplate. If you don't know, how can you contemplate? What are you going to contemplate? What is going to be your subject matter? You are simply groping in darkness and calling it contemplation.

He certainly is acquainted with the scriptures, very well acquainted, but he is committing the same mistake millions of teachers around the world have committed. First:

IF YOU WANT TO BE FREE FROM THIS WORLD OF SUFFERING...

Can you find a person who does not want to be free from suffering? There is no question about it. Everybody wants to get rid of suffering, misery.

The way that Torei suggests is, FIRST YOU MUST CONTEMPLATE IMPERMANENCE. It won't help. You can think everything is impermanent: birth is impermanent, youth is impermanent, wealth is impermanent; life itself is running out. Everything is impermanent. That does not mean it will take you out of suffering. It simply makes you more aware that while there is time, enjoy as much as you can, because time is passing and death is not far away.

Strangely enough, the same argument is given by Charvakas, the Indian atheists. They say, "Everything is fleeting, so don't waste time in temples, in rituals, just eat, drink and be merry. And if you don't have money, borrow money, because after death everyone is finished, nobody is going to ask for his money back. After death, in the graveyard everybody sleeps soundly. The man who borrowed the money and the man who gave the money both are dead. So don't miss a single moment. Enjoy it, even if it is to be enjoyed on borrowed money."

The statement in Sanskrit is very beautiful. The statement says, no one who has gone beyond death has ever come back. This is enough proof, more than enough, that death is the end. And if death is the end, then why be worried about small things? It may be your own pocket or somebody else's pocket, it does not matter. Death will not differentiate between the sinner and the saint. There is no one to make the judgment.

RINAM KRITVA GHRITAM PIBET. Even if you have to borrow money, borrow it, but drink refined butter. Don't be worried about tomorrow.

It was a great school, not only in India but in Greece also. These were the two countries at that time which were touching the peaks of civilization. In Greece there was a great man, Epicurus, and he still has a small following. But generally, the whole Western world is Epicurian; they may know, they may not know.

Epicurus' whole teaching was that all is matter, and when all matter disintegrates nothing is left behind. So don't bother about any spirituality, and don't bother about any other world -- there is none. There has not been a single witness. It is certainly a tremendous argument, that there is not a single witness of the other world, the paradise. It seems to be all fancy, imagination, wish-fulfillment. What you cannot get here, you project that you will get it after life. It gives a certain consolation.

But what can you contemplate? Even if you contemplate that everything is impermanent, that simply means do it quick, be speedy, things are fast running out of hand; squeeze the juice of every moment without delay. Contemplation can take you into an atheistic worldview.

THOSE WHO ARE BORN MUST INEVITABLY DIE. EVEN THE YOUNG ARE NOT EXEMPT.

Just because everyone is going to die... Torei and similar teachers think that it is enough for people to become detached because everything is going to die. The result is just the contrary -- because everything is going to die, be quick before it dies.

A man was brought into a court in France for making love to a woman on the sea beach. The charge was that he had been making love to a dead woman.

The magistrate asked him, "What do you have to say?"

He said, "I thought she was an English lady."

Man has been told by these teachers:

EVEN THE STRONG ARE IN DANGER. EVEN A LONG LIFE DOES NOT LAST MORE THAN EIGHTY YEARS OR SO.

The desire is that you will think, "Everything is so changing, what is the point in going after it?" That's what Torei is thinking. But he is absolutely blind to the fact that the more people think things are going to change, the more they increase their speed. Why has humanity been increasing its speed?

I have heard... A newly-wed couple is rushing in a fresh, new Ferrari. The girl feels afraid because the car is going at one hundred and fifty miles per hour. She is trembling, and she asks the man, "Please at least look at the map."

The man says, "Who bothers about the map! Is it not enough to enjoy the speed itself? We must reach somewhere, it cannot be nowhere. You can consult the map -- I am enjoying the speed. I don't have any time to waste consulting the map. What is the point? Wherever we reach, we will find a hotel; whether its name is Honeymoon Hotel or not does not matter."

Increasingly, humanity has been interested in speed, more speed. Perhaps you have not taken into consideration the implication. The implication is, do everything as fast and quickly as you can because life is short. But these people like Torei thought that if people contemplate that everything is going to die... why love this woman if she is going to die? -- if not today then tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Even if she does not die, she will be in a worse position -- she will become old. What is the point in loving a woman who will become old?

A man was telling a woman, "I love you. I love you more than my life."

The woman said, "Really? Will you love me always as you love me now?"

The man contemplated and he said, "There is only one problem. When you become old, will you look like your mother? Then I withdraw my statement. I cannot love your mother -- that much is certain. Will you remain the same?"

Nothing remains the same.

From the point of change there are two roads. One leads to atheism, materialism -- enjoy, there is nothing much to discover. The other road is that because everything is impermanent, try to find something permanent. That is what the masters do -- help the person to find something in himself that is absolutely eternal.

That is the goal of meditation, not of contemplation. But a thinker cannot understand meditation. He cannot understand that you can go out of your mind. How can you jump out of your mind? You are mind. To him you are nothing more than mind. And you can see his statement:

IF YOU DON'T ANNIHILATE THE NATURE OF AFFLICTIONS SOMEHOW, AND ARRIVE ON THE PATH OF LIBERATION, EVEN IF YOU ASCEND TO THE RANK OF SOVEREIGN OF A NATION, GREAT MINISTER, DEITY, SPIRIT, OR WIZARD, IT IS STILL EVANESCENT AS LIGHTNING AND MORNING DEW, LASTING ONLY FOR A WHILE.

WHEN CONDITIONS MEET, EVERYTHING SURELY SEEMS TO EXIST; BUT WHEN THE CONDITIONS DISINTEGRATE -- EMPTINESS.

You are just a certain combination of conditions. When those conditions meet, you are. When those conditions disintegrate -- nothingness. A buddha can also say the same thing, but he says it because he knows nothingness is not nothingness, because he knows you have entered into your inner sky -- which looks to the outsider like nothingness.

But when a teacher says this, not knowing anything about it, there is every danger that he will create people who will become materialists. If everything ends then what is the point of being virtuous, what is the point of prayer, what is the point of donations, what is the point of service to the poor? Why waste time? Just enjoy life -- drink, dance, do whatever you want to, because death will come. And it comes to everyone, the saint and the sinner, in a similar way; it does not make any categories.

THIS BODY IS GAINED THROUGH THE RELATIONSHIP OF FATHER AND MOTHER.

This type of thing can be told only by a teacher. Everybody knows this body is gained through the relationship of father and mother. And then more stupid things he goes on saying:

... AND COMES FROM THEIR CONDITIONS. SOLIDITY BECOMES SKIN.

How can solidity become skin? If I had met this fellow... I have every respect for his learning but I would put him to task, to turn solidity into skin -- or skin into solidity, that would do.

... FLESH, LIGAMENT, AND BONE; FLUIDITY BECOMES SPITTLE, TEARS, PUS AND BLOOD; HEAT BECOMES WARMTH AND FLEXIBILITY; AIR BECOMES BREATH AND MOVEMENT.

Great philosophy! And he is talking as if he is stating some scientific discoveries.

WHEN THESE FOUR CONDITIONS SUDDENLY ARE EXHAUSTED, THE BODY GETS COLD AND THE BREATH STOPS.

Great contemplation!

THERE IS NOTHING CALLED "ME." AT THAT TIME THIS BODY IS REALLY NOT OUR OWN; IT IS ONLY A TEMPORARY INN. HOW CAN WE BE SO GREEDILY ATTACHED TO THIS TEMPORARY INN THAT WE IGNORE ETERNITY?

CONTEMPLATING THESE FOUR TRANSCENDENCES -- IMPERMANENCE, SUFFERING, EMPTINESS, SELFLESSNESS -- SEEKING THE WAY OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS CALLED, "THE TEACHING OF FOUR REALITIES FOR DISCIPLES." THIS IS THE ESSENTIAL GATEWAY TO BEGINNING ENTRY INTO THE WAY FOR ALL ENLIGHTENED ONES.

This is the problem with the learned scholarship. They see that the enlightened one shows in his every action non-attachment, impermanence, because the enlightened one never suffers; in his consciousness he is beyond suffering. The scholar watches all these qualities from the outside and then he creates his great ideology: if you contemplate impermanence, non-attachment, suffering, you will enter into the gateway of the buddhas.

He himself has not entered. These are not the words of a buddha, these are the words of a great teacher who has collected fragments of teachings from here and there. And he is not honest, either -- no scholar is. It is very difficult to find a scholar who will say that what he is saying is not his knowledge. He pretends that what he is saying, he knows, that he is saying it only because he knows.

Every scholar, almost without exception, is a pretender. And because of these pretenders, it becomes very difficult for people to figure out who the authentic masters are. The scholars speak of the gateway of the buddha, they speak about eternity, they speak about emptiness. Their words are perfectly right, but the men who are speaking them are not right, because these words are borrowed.

Once you borrow a truth it becomes untrue. Truth can arise only within you; it cannot be adopted -- you have to remember this. In life you will meet many people who appear to know so much that you are overwhelmed by their knowledge. But inside there is nothing, no experience.

A great psychologist, head of the department of psychology in Varanasi University... I was only a student and one of my friends had gone from the college to study in Varanasi. He came into contact with this psychologist, Professor Laljiram Shukla, and the professor became so much interested in him that he married his daughter to the young man.

The young man was continuously talking about me to him: "You should meet my friend." Continuously mentioning me, he became obsessed.

He started writing to me saying, "I will pay all the fare and you will stay with me in the university. You come, just be a guest for one week, because I have heard so much about you from my son-in-law that now it is becoming a disturbance in me." So I went.

In the morning, nearabout twenty-five professors of the university had gathered to meet me. The professor of psychology, Laljiram Shukla, was perhaps the only great psychologist in India; people were very respectful about him. We all waited because he was worshipping the monkey god, Hanuman. When his worship was over he came and he greeted me, and he said, "I have been waiting. How long are you going to stay?"

I said, "That will be decided within ten minutes."

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "Just sit down. You think you are a psychologist and you worship a monkey! Do you believe in Darwin -- that man is born out of the monkeys? Perhaps you are worshipping your forefathers?"

He said, "This is very insulting."

I said, "That's why I said that just within ten minutes I will decide how long I have to stay here. I can stay here my whole life, but I don't think that even for one hour you will be able to tolerate me."

I questioned him directly. I said to him, "You are worshipping for what? There must be some desire. Some desire perhaps to be the vice-chancellor or to be the education minister or to be the prime minister of India? For what are you worshipping? Because a man who has no desire has no need to worship. Do you think a monkey can manage what you cannot manage? Why are you putting yourself into such humiliation before a monkey?"

He said, "Don't refer to my god again and again by the name `monkey'."

I said, "What can I do? He is a monkey. And it is not a question of whether he is your forefather or not. The question is, a psychologist is still primitive. Have you seen God?"

Those professors who had gathered became very uneasy. They had come to see if some discussion will happen which will be profitable to them, but there seemed to be no way to discuss with me. I said, "Non-essentials aside, just remember the monkey god and tell the truth: have you ever seen God?"

He became so angry, he called his son-in-law and told him, "You idiot! You have been harassing me again and again, and now he is disturbing my belief system."

I said, "A man of your understanding should not remain with belief systems. He should have something which he knows, not only believes, and you don't have anything that you know. Or if you know just tell me, we can discuss it. What is the point of discussing something which you don't know?"

The ultimate result was that he told his son-in-law to pack my suitcases and take me immediately to the airport. "I don't want such a man; in seven days he will destroy my whole life's religiousness." And because all the professors came down to say goodbye to me, he was very angry. Later on his son-in-law wrote to me, saying that he was so angry with all the professors: "You left me alone and you went with him to say goodbye to him. It seems you agree with him."

They said, "There is no question of agreement -- you misbehaved. If you don't know, you should have said, `I don't know.' That would have been more dignified. You had been inviting him, he had not come on his own; now you have thrown him out of the house. Still, he was not angry, he was just laughing."

I said, "I knew it. That's why I did not give the time, how long I would be there. I know myself."

But later on he felt very guilty. And he also felt, how is he going to face all those twenty-five professors in the university? He wrote to me a letter of apology. I answered him that "There is no question of apology. You have not insulted me, you have only insulted yourself. You have been insulting yourself your whole life -- by your worshipping, by your so-called religiousness, by all kinds of belief systems. And not knowing a single thing. It is good that I accepted your invitation and created a chaos in your mind. Perhaps, seeing the chaos, you will come out of the mind. And that is the world I had come to discuss with you -- the world beyond mind." But for the scholars mind is all.

When all the conditions collapse, Torei is saying, nothing remains. This word `nothing' has very strange connotations. When a buddha says "nothing" he means no-thing, and when a scholar says "nothing" he simply means emptiness. When a buddha says "nothing" he says there is no-thing anymore: pure space, utter silence...

We all speak the same language. The master has also to use the same language but he gives new meanings to words, new fragrances to words, new poetry to words. They go dancing into your heart, the same ordinary words, with such extraordinary radiance, penetration. But one has to be a knower himself.

This gathering is not for those who are interested in studying religion. This gathering is only for those who are interested in experiencing what religion is all about. It is an existential, experimental lab. It is as scientific as any science. No question of belief -- you are not asked what you believe. No question of your mind -- whatever kind of mind you have, just put it aside.

You may have a great learned mind; that is perfectly okay, put it aside. You may have a very ordinary mind, uneducated; no matter, just put it by the side of the great scholar's mind. Mind has no value here. The value arises only when mind is no more there. Then you start growing into a different dimension which can only be called existential.

Before we do our meditation, a few words from some authentic masters.

A haiku by Issa:

LISTEN,

ALL CREEPING THINGS --

THE BELL OF TRANSIENCE.

Nothing to be done, just listen... everything is changing. What is the point? The point is that the listener is never changing; the watcher is always there. That is the only permanent thing in existence.

LISTEN -- or watch --

ALL CREEPING THINGS --

THE BELL OF TRANSIENCE.

Now, any scholar can repeat that, there is no problem -- the words are very simple. But Issa KNOWS it.

Sengai says:

WHAT MIND DO YOU PUNCTUATE?

THE PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE?

THE CANDLE IS BLOWN OUT,

AND THE DIAMOND TURNS TO ASHES.

He is saying the same thing: WHAT MIND DO YOU PUNCTUATE? The past is no more, the future is not yet, and if there is no past and no future, how can there be any present?

What time... WHAT MIND DO YOU PUNCTUATE? Neither the mind is there, nor time is there. When mind and time both disappear, THE CANDLE IS BLOWN OUT.