Chapter 15: Truth as It Is - Naked
Of course Sanskrit is very sophisticated. The exact meaning of “sanskrit” is: that which is very sophisticated, cultured, refined. But it became so refined that it lost all contact with reality; it became so refined that it became abstract, it lost aliveness; it became conceptual, it became philosophy in itself.
Buddha dropped Sanskrit; he never used it. He used Pali, the language of the people. It is more raw but closer to the earth; more pragmatic, more primitive, but closer to reality. Primitive languages are always closer to reality. They are not yet in the hands of the scholars, the professors, the philosophers. In Pali, dhyana is pronounced jhana. From jhana has come the Japanese word zen.
Zen is the only path. Vivekananda is utterly wrong in saying that there are three paths; there is only one path. There is only one reality and one path to it, and that is dhyana - meditation. Meditation is not knowledge, it is not action, it is not feeling: it is transcendence of all these three. And when you have transcended the three you enter the fourth - turiya.
We have been meditating over the Mandukya Upanishad all these days. The Mandukya Upanishad is concerned with the fourth, Turiya. Zen is the fourth, meditation is the fourth. And the original face is discovered only when all the turmoil of activity, thinking, feeling, has ceased, when you have fallen into a tremendously silent space. There are no words to hear, there is only to see - or even better will be, only to be. One simply is. And in that isness is revealed all that is hidden. There is no need to say anything. When you have tasted yourself, what is the point of saying anything.
Two mystics, Farid and Kabir, met by coincidence. Farid was traveling and his disciples said to him, “We are very close to the commune of Kabir, and it will be a great experience for us if we can see you both being together, talking to each other, sharing your experiences with each other.” Farid agreed.
The same happened to Kabir’s disciples. They heard Farid was passing by; they prayed to Kabir, “It will be good if we invite Farid and his followers to be with us just for a few days. It will be of tremendous significance for us just to see you two together, talking, sharing.”
Kabir said, “That’s beautiful! Invite him.” Farid was invited. Kabir himself came outside the village to receive him. They hugged each other, they laughed loudly. Holding hands they walked together to Kabir’s community. Two days they stayed together, and the disciples of Kabir and Farid were utterly disappointed because not a single word was uttered by Farid or Kabir. They sat together, smiled at each other. Sometimes they held each other’s hands. Now how long could the disciples sit and wait and wait? Two days appeared like two years! And they became very tired and bored. And what happened to these people? They all were puzzled because Farid had been talking to the disciples for years. Kabir had been talking to his disciples for years - and suddenly both have become dumb?!