Wise Jester

A great and foolish King complained that the rough ground hurt his feet, so he ordered the whole country to be carpeted with cowhide.

The court jester laughed when the King told him of his order. “What an absolutely crazy idea, Your Majesty,” he smiled. “Why all the needless expense? Just cut out two small pads to protect your feet!”

Be Whole

From the story it is very clear that the king’s focus was on the ground and not on his feet. At the same time Jester was able to see everything or the whole. Whenever we are able to see the whole instead of fragments the solution is very easy and achievable.

This world does not exist in fragments, it exists as a whole, one whole.

Be rooted in the earth so that you can stretch to the sky; be rooted in the visible so that you can reach into the invisible. Don’t create duality and don’t create any antagonism.

The world and God are not divided anywhere. There is no boundary: the world goes on spreading into God and God goes on spreading into the world. Really, to use two words is not good but language creates problems. We say the creator and the created, we divide.

Language is dualistic; in reality there is no created and no creator, only creativity, only a process of infinite creativity. Nothing is divided. Everything is one – undivided.

Where do you end and I begin?

Where is the point where we can draw a line between you and me? Where? There cannot be any demarcation. The air goes on flowing in you. You breathe: if even for a moment the air is not flowing in you, if the breath is not coming, you will be dead. And the air in me just a moment before has left me and entered you. It was my life just a moment before, now it is your life; and your breath has returned to me. It was your life, now it is my life. Where are we divided?

Life goes on flowing; life is something in between you and me. The tree goes on creating oxygen and you breathe it. If the trees disappear, you will disappear. The trees go on changing cosmic rays into food – that is what fruit and vegetables are – and if they disappear, you will be no more. They are constantly creating food for you, that’s how you exist. Greenery is in a constant process of creating food for you; you depend on it.

The clouds go on moving, bringing water for you. The whole is connected. The faraway sun sends its rays to you and those rays are life. If the sun disappears, all life will disappear. Even the sun gets its energy from some source; scientists have not yet been able to find that source, but if that source disappears everything will disappear. Everything is related, joined together. This world does not exist in fragments, it exists as a whole, one whole.

Learning from story Wise Jester: Be Whole

Experience Learning

A man should be just man, a man should be just human – total, whole. And out of that wholeness will arise a new kind of health.

The East is introvert, the West is extrovert. Man is split, mind is schizophrenic. That’s why all the great masters have come from the East and all the great scientists have come from the West. The West has developed science and has completely forgotten about the inner soul; is concerned with matter, but has become oblivious of the inner subjectivity. The whole focus is on the object. Hence all the great scientists are born in the West.

The East has become too much concerned with the inner soul and has forgotten objectivity, matter, the world. Great religious masters developed out of this, but this is not a good situation, this should not be so.

Man should become one.

Man should not be allowed to be lopsided anymore. Man should be a fluidity, neither extrovert nor introvert. Man should be capable of being both together. The inner and the outer, if balanced, give the greatest ecstatic experience.

The person who is neither leaning towards the inner too much, nor towards the outer too much is the person of equilibrium. He will be a scientist and a mystic together. That is something that will happen, that is something that is going to happen. We are preparing the field for it. I would like to see a man who is neither Eastern nor Western, because to be Eastern as against Western is ugly. To be Western as against Eastern is again ugly. The whole earth belongs to us and we belong to the whole earth. A man should be just man, a man should be just human – total, whole. And out of that wholeness will arise a new kind of health.

The East has suffered, the West has suffered. The East has suffered; you can see it all around – the poverty, the starvation. The West has suffered, you can see inside the Western mind – tension, anxiety, anguish. The West is very poor inwardly, the East is very poor outwardly. Poverty is bad. Whether it is inner or outer makes no difference, poverty should not be allowed.

Man should be rich, inner, outer, both.

Man should have all-dimensional richness.

Just think of a man who is an Albert Einstein and a Gautam Buddha both. Just meditate on that possibility – that is possible. In fact if Albert Einstein had lived a little longer, he would have turned into a mystic. He had started thinking about the inner, he was becoming interested in the inner mystery. How long can you remain interested in the outer mystery? If you are really interested in mystery then sooner or later you will stumble upon the inner too.

Love is the passage to go out, meditation is the passage to go in.

And a man who is in love and meditative is beyond schizophrenia, is beyond all kinds of split. He has become one, he is integrated. In fact, he has soul.