There's a Japanese master,
Fellow called Bokouju.
See,
Every time I think of his name,
I imagine a plump,
Rotund kind of a guy,
Happy-go-lucky soul,
Bokouju.
It was said of Bokouju that every morning when he woke up,
He'd give a great big belly laugh that resounded through the 250 cells of the monastery.
Everyone could hear him.
He woke up with that laughter like the alarm clock and he'd go on for about three or four minutes.
And the last thing he did at night before he went to bed was again let out a great big belly laugh and then he'd curl up on his mat and go to sleep.
And the disciples were very curious to know what it was that made the master laugh.
And they tried their level best to get him to tell them.
And all kinds of people have been trying to figure out what was it that made him laugh.
An Indian mystic called Kabir has some extraordinary mystical poems.
One of them begins with the line,
I laughed when they told me that the fish in the water is thirsty.
But we are,
Aren't we?
For another line that I read last summer of an American hunter who would be hunting in Africa,
He said he lived with some natives there and whenever they were in danger,
He said it was quite extraordinary.
They'd look at us white men,
Says this man,
With a strange kind of curiosity when they saw fear in our eyes.
It was incomprehensible to them,
Says this writer,
Like looking into the eyes of fishes who were afraid to drown.
Can you imagine a fish scared of drowning?
And so again and again,
The mystical teachers of the world have been posing this question.
They're puzzled.
Why are they unhappy?
Why are they scared?
And of course,
Still one has seen in their mind it makes sense to feel scared.
It makes sense to be unhappy.
You know,
When I talk about fear,
I'm not talking about the present response to immediate danger.
I'm not talking about that,
That the animals have.
I'm talking about fear of what's going to come,
Fear of what's going to happen.
And this,
The mystics tell us,
Doesn't exist.
In their mind,
Simply doesn't exist.
What a state to be in.
Extraordinary.
You know,
There's another story about this.
There's this camel trader,
An Arab,
Walking across the Sahara Desert and they pitch tent for the night and the slaves drive pegs into the ground and then tie the camels to the pegs.
Then they come in to say to the master,
There's only 19 pegs and we've got 20 camels.
How do we tie the 20th camel?
And the master said,
These camels are stupid animals.
Just go through the motions of tying the camel and he'll stay put all night,
Which is what they did.
And the camel stood there.
The next morning when they lifted tent and they continued on their journey,
The slaves came to complain that all the camels were following except this one.
This one refused to budge.
And the master said,
You forgot to untie him.
They said,
Oh yes.
So they went through untying him.
That is an image of the human condition.
We're scared about things that are not.
They're tied to things that don't exist.
They're illusions.
They're falsehoods.
They're beliefs.
They're not realities.
The agonies we go through over things that we have convinced ourselves our happiness depends upon,
But it doesn't.
And we don't want to see it.
The mystics,
They understand this because they went through this themselves.
You don't need anyone else to show you the way.
You just get a glimpse of this and you keep at it.
You'll find the way.
And sooner or later you'll discover what this means.
You're tied to things that don't exist.
They don't exist.
The story of the disciple who goes to the master and the master says,
What have you come here for?
And the man says,
Moksha,
Moksha is the Sanskrit word for freedom.
I've come for freedom.
Oh freedom,
Says the master.
Go and find out who has bound you.
So the guy goes back and meditates for a week.
The disciples eyes are opened and he attains freedom.
He attains liberation and comes back and says to the master,
No one has bound me.
You're free already.
Why do you seek it?
Which is what it was that made the master,
Bokoju,
Laugh.
But you don't understand it because you've tied yourself with all kinds of imaginary chains.
Just get a glimpse of this and you keep at it.
You'll find the way.
