Three: in the morning as you feel awake

chant again the mahamantra: hoo-hoo-hoo

for ten minutes,

and then begin the day with a hearty laugh.

Four: remember always that I am with you.

347. Love.

Everything belongs to the man who wants nothing.

Having nothing, he possesses all things in life:

renouncing all he becomes the master of all.

But why?

Because into his emptiness enters the divine.

348. Love.

Live humbly and in wonder

and then meditation comes by itself.

Relax, and there is ecstasy.

But effort is needed

because unless this fails completely you will not

be effortless!

349. Love.

Be aware of the mind before it is stirred by a thought,

or, be aware of the gap between two thoughts,

and – you will meet yourself!

And this meeting is the meeting with the divine.

350. Love.

Buddha says: If the mind does not arise

all things are blameless.

What more is there to be said?

And even this much is enough to blame everything!

351. Love.

The eyes are blind. One must look within the heart.

So do not believe the eyes,

believe the heart

and remember to look through it,

and then you will come to know things unbelievable.

And unless one comes to know the unbelievable

one has not known at all.

352. Love.

Remember always the one who is inside the body.

Walking, sitting, eating or doing anything,

remember the one who is neither walking nor sitting

nor eating.

All doing is on the surface,

and beyond all doing is the being;

so be aware of the non-doer in the doing,

of the non-mover in the moving.

One day Mulla Nasruddin’s wife,

hearing a tremendous thump

ran to his room.

Nothing to worry about, said the Mulla.

It was only my cloak which fell to the ground.

What! And made a noise like that? asked his wife

Yes – I was inside it at the time, said the Mulla.

353. Love.

A monk asked Daishu Ekai, What is nirvana?

The master answered: Not to commit oneself

to the vicious circle of birth and death

or pleasure and pain

is great nirvana.

What then is the vicious circle

of birth and death and pleasure and pain?

The master said:

To desire nirvana!

Now be silent and feel what is meant by to desire nirvana,

and remember that I am not saying think about it

because to think is to miss it.

Feel it.

Feel it.

Feel it.

354. Love.

In this world everything is upside down

and anyone who is meditating

will have to put everything right side up!

One should not try to know life but to know death,

and then the mysteries of life are revealed to him.

One should not ask for any security

and then there is no insecurity at all.

Bunan says in a poem:

While living be a dead man,

be thoroughly dead,

and then behave as you like

because then all is well.

355. Love.

Materialistic societies produce hollow men,

men with dead emptiness within,

and because of this dead emptiness

one dies before one is really born.

Remember that man cannot live by shops alone,

and today the holy of holies is the shop.

The outer is meaningless without the inner richness,

and the outer richness

only makes the inner poverty prominent.

Man is hollow because there is no inner growth

and the inner grows only when one lives in the inner.

Inward is the way of growth, grace and God.