VBT – Meditation 29.4
Love Is A State
Zen as “the great love affair.” Yet, rarely are love or compassion mentioned in Zen anecdotes or discourses of the masters. Why is this?
For the Zen love is a state. It is unaddressed: you don’t love this person or that person, you simply love. You are love. Rather than saying that you love somebody, it will be better to say you are love. So whosoever is capable of partaking, can partake. For whosoever is capable of drinking out of your infinite sources of being, you are available – you are available unconditionally.
Buddha loves, Jesus loves, Osho loves, but their love demands nothing in return. Their love is given for the sheer joy of giving it; it is not a bargain. Hence the radiant beauty of it, hence the transcendental beauty of it. It surpasses all the joys that you have known.
When you love a person, you don’t harass him by saying “I love you” again and again; otherwise, he will kill you. There is a limit to how much you can listen to “I love you.” One gets fed up.
Just try it on any lover and see how long the love remains. The boyfriend or the girlfriend will disappear, because you can eat sweets but there is a limit, otherwise sickness will follow.
Zen never mentions love. The man of Zen simply loves as he breathes. It is not something special, there is no need to mention it.
Zen does not say it, that is a great indication that it understands. Love should not be said, but shown in every gesture – through your eyes, through your hands, through your silence. It should radiate around you. It is the same with compassion. It is not mentioned either.
Zen is not born in America, where there are great thinkers who can be great only in America, like Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill….
Dale Carnegie’s books have been best-sellers in America, second only to The Holy Bible. He used to run classes and schools where people were taught that whether you love or not does not matter. What matters is the word, the expression. Who can tell about the inside? Before going out of the house, kiss your wife and say, “I love you, sweetheart. I will miss you so much.”
You may have other thoughts inside, absolutely contrary to this: “Now is the time to enjoy…” Or you may be thinking of your girlfriend! But that is all inside – your wife is not a mind reader. So just say it, and it does not cost anything to kiss her, at least three times a day. When you come back from the office, again kiss your wife and say to her, “I love you, darling.” And again before going to bed; don’t forget. These idiots like Dale Carnegie are thought to be great philosophers who are helping people in their relationships.
Real love has no words to express itself. Real love is a presence, you can feel it. It surrounds you like wind, it rains over you like rain. A rose flower does not say, “How beautiful I am.” And if rose flowers start studying Dale Carnegie and start saying to you, “Where are you going, darling? I love you so much. And I’m so beautiful,” you will have to say, “Shut up! Just be a flower – don’t bother me!” – what else can you do?
Question is very accurate. Zen is love, and Zen is compassion, but there is no need to make a manifesto, a declaration of it. In utter silence – the transmission of the lamp.
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