...because only the same can hear the same...

Harmony without and within

   " Man is living as an island, and that's where all misery arises. Down the centuries man has been trying to live independently from existence--that is not possible in the very nature of things. Man can neither be independent nor dependent. Existence is a state of interdependence: everything depends on everything else. There is no hierarchy, nobody is lower and nobody is higher. Existence is a communion, an eternal love affair.

    But the idea that man has to be higher, superior, special, creates trouble. Man has to be nothing--man has to dissolve into the totality of things. And when we drop all the barriers, communion happens and that communion is a benediction. To be one with the whole is all. That is the very core of religiousness.

    Heraclitus says: It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish. Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find the truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. Nature loves to hide. The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals--but gives signs. 

    Existence has no language... and if you depend on language there can be no communication with existence. Existence is a mystery, you cannot interpret it. If you interpret, you miss. Existence can be lived, but not thought about. It is more like poetry, less like philosophy. It is a sign, it is a door. It shows, but it says nothing. 

    Through mind, there is no approach to existence. If you think about it, you can go on thinking and thinking, about and about, but you will never reach it--because it is precisely thinking that is the barrier. Thinking is a private world, it belongs to you--then you are enclosed, encapsulated, imprisoned within yourself. Nonthinking, you are no more; you are enclosed no more. You open, you become porous, existence flows into you and you flow into existence.

    Learn to listen--listening means you are open, vulnerable, receptive, but you are not in any way thinking. Thinking is a positive action. Listening is passivity: you become like a valley and receive; you become like a womb and you receive. If you can listen, then nature speaks--but it is not a language. Nature doesn't use words. Then what does nature use? Says Heraclitus, it uses signs. A flower is there: what is the sign in it? It is not saying anything--but can you really say it is not saying anything? It is saying much, but it is not using any words--a wordless message.

    To hear the wordless you will have to become wordless, because only the same can hear the same, only the same can relate to the same.

Sitting by a flower, don't be a person, be a flower. Sitting by the tree, don't be a person, be a tree. Taking a bath in a river, don't be a man, be a river. And then millions of signs are given to you. And it is not a communication--it is a communion. Then nature speaks, speaks in thousands of tongues, but not in language."