and more beauty in his own ring.

But the curious thing was that

the door to wealth remained shut

for the possessors of the keys

and even their closest supporters.

They were all too preoccupied with

the problem of precedence,

the possession of the ring, its value and appearance.

Only a few looked for the door to the treasury

of the old man.

The rings had a magical quality too.

Although they were keys

they were not used directly

in opening the door to the treasury.

It was sufficient to look on them

without contention or too much attachment

to one or other of their qualities.

When this had been done

the people who had looked

were able to tell where the treasury was

and could open it merely

by producing the outline of the ring.

The treasuries had another quality too:

they were inexhaustible.

Meanwhile the supporters of the three brothers,

repeated the tales of their ancestors about

the merits of the rings,

each in a slightly different way.

The first community thought they had

already found the treasure

because they had the key.

The second thought that it was allegorical

and so consoled themselves.

And the third transferred the possibility

of opening the door

to a distant and remotely imaginable future

and so for them there was

nothing to do at present.

There is every possibility

for you too to belong to one of these three communities,

because anyone who begins to search

is always prone to fall into the trap of any one of the three.

Really, these are the three basic tricks the mind can play

to save itself from meditation.

So beware of these old tricks.

345. Love.

Look at yourself without thinking, evaluating, or judging,

without any liking or disliking;

that is, without any movement of the mind

or without the noise of the mind.

Then you have eyes

which are altogether different from your eyes

because they are not burdened by the past.

They are innocent and silent,

and in this silence there is neither

the observer nor the observed –

but that which is,

undivided and one,

beginningless and endless.

You can call it God or nirvana or anything whatsoever –

the name does not matter

because the name is not the thing,

and when one has known the thing

one does not bother about the value.

346. Love.

Begin the following meditation from tomorrow –

and know that this is an order!

Now you are so totally mine

that I cannot do anything other than order you! Prerequisites:

Do it cheerfully.

Do it relaxedly.

Be playful.

Do it in the morning after taking a bath.

The meditation:

First: breathe deeply and rhythmically,

not fast but slowly,

for ten minutes.

Second: dance rhythmically and slowly;

be ecstatic, as if flowing in it,

for ten minutes.

Third: use the mahamantra: hoo-hoo-hoo.

Continue dancing and moving,

do not be serious, do not be tense,

for ten minutes.

Fourth: close the eyes and be silent;

do not move or dance now.

Stand, sit or lie down, as you feel to do,

but just be as if dead,

feel a sinking in,

surrender and be in the hands of the whole,

for ten minutes.

Post requirements:

One: live the whole day in ecstasy,

in intoxication of the divine,

flowing and flowering in it,

and whenever depressed say inwardly: hoo-hoo-hoo,

and laugh outwardly,

laugh without any reason, and accept the madness.

Two: before sleep chant the mahamantra: hoo-hoo-hoo

for ten minutes,

then laugh at yourself.