That which is needs no deprivation. You need not lie down on a thorn bed and
you need not go on a fast and you need not torture your body by not
sleeping. In fact, the more healthy and normal you are, the more is the
possibility for the truth to be seen.
The people who are goal-oriented, they don't look into life. They look in
books, because they can find the goal only in books. In life there is no
goal. If you look around there is no goal. Life is there, every part of
existence is full of joy, celebrating, the children are turning and dancing,
and the birds are dancing, and the peacocks are dancing, and the stars are
turning and dancing. The whole existence is turning in a dance. If you look
into life there is dance, but there is no God. Where to find the God? Where
to find the perfection? You have to look in the books. It exists only in the
books, in the imaginations of those people who have written books.
A Japanese academic who wished to understand Zen more fully went to a
monastery to submit himself to the koans. He was asked, "What is mu?" -- to
define, that is, a word which has no meaning in Japanese....
It is just like "hoo". "Hoo" is a Sufi word; it means nothing; it is just a
sound. Exactly is the word "mu"; it means nothing; it is just a sound. In
English there is one word coined by a new logician; that word is "po". Yes
means yes, no means no. Po is just between the two; it neither means yes nor
means no. Learn this word; it is a very significant word. If somebody asks,
"Is there a God?" say "Po", because if you say yes, it is wrong -- you don't
know; if you say no, it is wrong, because you don't know. So po. Po does not
make you committed to any ideology. It makes no sense; it is simply a
nonsense sound. So is mu. If you ask a Zen Master, "Has a dog Buddhanature?"
he will say, "Mu". It means neither no nor yes. If you ask, "Do Buddhas
exist after they have left the body?" he will say, "Mu". This word "mu" has no meaning.