My Treasure

Illusion

The pure land paradise is not far. When in reverence this truth is heard even once, he who praises it and gladly embraces it has merit without end.

How much more he who turns within and confirms directly his own nature, that his own nature is no-nature – such has transcended vain words.

The gate opens, and cause and effect are one; straight runs the way – not two, not three.

Taking as form, the form of no-form, going or returning, he is ever at home.

Taking as thought the thought of no-thought, singing and dancing, all is the voice of truth.

Wide is the heaven of boundless samadhi, radiant the full moon of the fourfold wisdom.

What remains to be sought? Nirvana is clear before him, this very place the lotus paradise, this very body the buddha.

Man lives in illusion. Man lives through illusion. Man lives for illusion. In short, man lives because of illusion, hence the fear of truth. Nobody wants truth although everybody goes on seeking it. That seeking is a deception, that seeking is an avoidance; to seek truth means to avoid truth.

It has to be understood how the seeker goes on avoiding truth. To seek means to look far away, to seek means to look somewhere else, to seek means to go on a trip. To seek means to postpone: to seek means it will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, it is not happening right now. It is not here, it is there. It is not this, it is that.

Man goes on living in illusion, but to live in illusion one needs to avoid truth because if truth comes, it will shatter all your illusions and all your so-called life and all your so-called love. Truth looks like a calamity. Friedrich Nietzsche is right in a sense when he says: “Please don’t give truth to humanity; otherwise you will destroy people’s joy, you will destroy their enthusiasm, you will destroy their gusto. Don’t give truth to humanity; otherwise all that they have will disappear because all that they have is a kind of dream. Don’t wake humanity otherwise the dreams will be shattered, and they may be seeing beautiful dreams – or hoping to see, somewhere, sometime.”

That’s why Christ is crucified, Socrates is poisoned, Buddha is stoned: they bring truth to people who have become almost illusory, they bring light to people who live in darkness and dream in darkness. And their dreams depend on darkness – when somebody brings light into the darkness, the darkness disappears and the dreams and the desires.

One feels hurt by a Buddha or a Christ. Christ looks not like the savior but like the enemy. Otherwise why should you crucify Christ? There is no other reason. The basic reason is that he uproots you, he shatters you. This has to be understood very deeply. And when you live in illusion, you search for truth. That is a double deception so that you can go on telling yourself, consoling yourself, “I am searching. Look what great efforts I am making, how much I am putting my energy into the search – look!”

The search for truth arises out of your lie. It is the lie that puts you on the search for truth. It is a protection for the lie, it is the way for the lie to survive. It says: “Go and search for truth. It is there far away in some distant land. You will have to travel, and the travel is long and the travel is not going to be finished soon. It will take lives and lives, it will take millennia, but go! Go on searching, one day you will find it.” The lie gives you hope, it gives you a future, it gives you future dreams. Your God is somewhere far away. It has to be far away because close by he will be dangerous.