You might have noticed that when the mind

is recovering from sleep it takes at least fifteen minutes

to close one aperture and fully open the other.

That is why dreams

cannot last longer than that

in your memory after waking.

When the mind is approaching sleep

it again passes the same threshold.

Be aware of this threshold

because it is very significant

for those who are in search of the inner treasure.

This threshold is the gate to the unknown.

This threshold,

this gap between waking and sleep,

must be used for meditation.

Be aware of the gap,

be a witness of the interval,

and you will be transformed.

319. Love.

I know what is happening to you –

nothingness is descending, emptiness is increasing.

Welcome it, and rejoice in its coming.

Dance in ecstasy because

there is no other way to welcome it.

And the more you dance, the more you will die.

And when you are completely dead you will be reborn.

And the moment is near, very near – just by the corner.

You have passed through the entrance-explosion and now

be ready for the ultimate.

Look at yourself once more

as the river looks at itself before falling into the ocean,

because after falling into the ocean

there will be no one to look, and no one to be looked at!

320. Love.

What is meditation?

Hsu Yun says: Meditation lies in laying down.

But laying down what?

Laying down yourself – because nothing less will do.

Have you ever been at the bedside of a dead man?

If you try to scold him he will not be excited,

and even if you hit him with a staff he will not hit back.

He also indulged once in the same things everyone indulges in.

He also longed for reputation and wealth.

But now he is without any longing whatsoever.

Now he does not make any distinctions

and lays down everything.

If you can be in this laying down state – alive,

you are in meditation.

321. Love.

Leave the grasping of things and thoughts.

Open your fist completely

because grasping is suffering.

Stop! cries Buddha.

But the mad mind does not stop.

If it stops, it is Enlightenment!

322. Love.

Love to be alone.

Solitude is the temple of the divine,

and remember that there is no other temple.

323. Love.

Do not be closed to the universe.

Open all your doors and windows

and let everything pass freely in and out, out and in,

because only then will you be able to receive the truth.

324. Love.

Ego plays a subtle role everywhere –

not only in men but in mice also!

An arrogant elephant

looked down contemptuously at a mouse

and said: You are just about

the skinniest little creature I have ever seen.

I am not always like this, squeaked the mouse.

I’ve been sick!

325. Love.

The whole of Yoga has gone dead because of imitation.

One cannot imitate anything that is real.

The real is always spontaneous:

one can jump into it but one cannot practice it.

Any practice is of the mind and by the mind –

and the mind is the past, the dead.

The mind is the thing one has to jump out of.

Out of the mind is the explosion,

so be aware of the mind and its tricks!

Mamiya went to a great teacher to learn meditation.

The teacher told him to concentrate on the famous koan:

What is the sound of one hand?

Mamiya went away

and came back a week later shaking his head.

He could not get it.

Get out! said the master. You are not trying hard enough.