In a small church, the priest was very much annoyed, disturbed, irritated by an old man who was the most respected member of the congregation. He was the richest man of the town; he had donated so much to the church, and he was always donating to all kinds charities. Of course, he was sitting in front every Sunday, and even before the priest would start speaking he would start dozing away. And if he was only sleeping while the priest was speaking, it would not have been such a big problem. The real problem was, the moment he went to sleep he would start snoring so loudly -- and the church was so small and the congregation was so small, there was no loudspeaker even.
And he was snoring just in front of the priest.
But the old man used to come with a young child, his grandson. The priest thought of an idea. After the service was over, he took the little boy aside, and told him, "I will give you half a dollar per Sunday if you go on keeping your old man awake. All that you have to do is, the moment he snores you push him and wake him up."
He said, "Done -- in advance?"
The priest said, "You are as smart as your old man -- in advance."
The little boy said, "In advance -- I don't believe in people. You give me half a dollar and you see: next Sunday I will not let him sleep or snore."
The next Sunday was really a beautiful day because the boy did not allow his grandfather to sleep or to snore. But the old man was very angry with the boy. After the sermon he said, "What happened to you? Why did you go on waking me up? -- you disturbed my whole day. In fact, this is the only time when I sleep, and sleep well. In the night I don't have that good a sleep -- so many thoughts and so many problems.... And here, listening to that idiot -- the same sermon, the same monotonous voice -- it gives me such a good sleep. I have tried all medicines and nothing works like him.
"What happened to you? You have always been sitting silently, but today you went on poking me and waking me up."
His grandson said, "Business is business."
The old man asked, "What business?"
He said, "The priest has given me half a dollar in advance and today I am going to take another half dollar for the next one, because I believe in payment in advance."
The old man said, "Don't be worried: I will give you one dollar, and I will give it in advance." The boy took one dollar from the old man and the old man said, "You just sit silently as you used to sit before and don't disturb me. It is not costly; this good sleep for one dollar I can afford."
The priest was very puzzled. The next Sunday, many times he looked at the boy and even indicated to him to do something, but the boy simply said, No, and the old man went on snoring. He really snored better than ever because one Sunday he had missed -- just compensation.
After the service, the priest called the boy and said, "You are a cheat. You took the advance payment but still you were sitting silently; and that old man went on snoring and disturbing my sermon and everybody else. Nobody could listen because of his snoring."
The boy said, "Business is business."
The priest said, "What business?"
He said, "The old man has given me one dollar in advance, and he is going to give me one dollar per Sunday. If you are interested, then the rate will be higher now."
The priest said, "I am a poor priest, I cannot compete with that old man, because how much can I give to you? He will always be giving more. It is better I should talk to the old man."
He went to the old man and he said, "This boy is cheating us both. It is better to be clear about it: you are disturbing my sermon."
The old man said, "Your sermon is just meaningless -- you are disturbing my sleep. Which is more costly? -- your sermon or my sleep. I wait seven days for your sermon in church on Sunday mornings. This makes me refreshed. And you are trying to sabotage it through my own grandchild. And as far as I am concerned, I am going to sleep."
The priest said, "You can sleep, we have no objection; in fact many other people sleep also. But they have also objected, not to your sleep but your snoring because that wakes them up. And you have such a great snore."
The old man said, "I can't help it, because when I am asleep what can I do about snoring? If I am awake I can stop it, but when I am awake it doesn't happen -- it happens only when I am asleep. But you can't expect an asleep man to do something about snoring. I am helpless. So please continue as we have continued before."

This is the problem of language. Language is linear, and existence is multidimensional. Thinking is in language, in words. So the words move in a row -- it can be miles long but it is linear.
But existence is multidimensional. From each point... as if it is a sun with millions of rays moving towards infinity. Each ray can lead you to infinity, but if you choose one, of course you have to leave others; and you can choose only one. You cannot even ride on two horses, what to say about two dimensions? You cannot ride on two boats, what to say about two dimensions? -- because they are going to diverge more and more, more and more; as you go further, there will be an infinite unbridgeable gap between them. At the source they are one. From there you can choose any one, but once you have chosen a line then others are dropped.