and, so to speak, draws it into his consciousness
and assimilates the idea of it,
one is completely changed.
He is in all truth born again.
And then there is no fear
because then there is no gap.
176. Love.
Thinking is necessary but not enough,
one must know living also,
otherwise one becomes like the philosopher
mentioned by Soren Kierkegaard
who builds a fine palace
but is doomed not to live in it.
He has a shed for himself next door to what
he has constructed for others,
including himself, to look at!
Meditation is not thinking, but living.
Live it daily, moment to moment;
that is, live in it or let it live in you.
It is not something other-worldly either,
because all such distinctions are from the mind:
they are speculative and not existential,
and meditation is existential.
It is no more than one’s everyday life lived totally.
When Mencius says: The truth is near
and people seek it far away,
he means this.
When Tokusan is asked about it he replies:
When you are hungry you eat,
when you are thirsty you drink,
and when you meet a friend you greet him.
He means this.
Ho Koji sings: How wondrous this, how mysterious!
I carry fuel, I draw water.
He also means this.
And when you are near me
whatsoever I may say I always mean this.
Or I may not say anything –
but then too I always mean this.
177. Love.
Religion is so much an experience
that it cannot be handed over by one to another.
But there are traditions of religious experience –
which are bound to be false
because of the very nature of the religious experience.
One has to travel the path alone
with no footprints of other travelers even to guide one.
Hassan of Basra was asked: What is Islam and who
are the Muslims?
He is reported to have said: