CHAPTER 2

1984 in Lao Tzu House, Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, USA

I apologize because this morning I did not mention a few books that I should have mentioned. I was
so overwhelmed by Zarathustra, Mirdad, Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Jesus and Krishna that I forgot a
few of the books which are even far more significant. I could not believe how I could forget Kahlil
Gibran’s THE PROPHET. It is still torturing me. I want to unburden – that’s why I say I am sorry, but
not to anybody in particular.

How could I forget the book which is the ultimate: THE BOOK of the Sufis! Perhaps I forgot because
it contains nothing, just empty pages. For twelve hundred years Sufis have been carrying THE
BOOK with tremendous respect, opening its pages and studying it. One wonders what they study.
When you face an empty page for a long time, you are bound to rebounce upon yourself. That is the
real study – the work.

How could I forget THE BOOK? Now who will forgive me? THE BOOK should have been the first
to have been mentioned not the last. It cannot be transcended. How can you create a better book
than one which contains nothing, and the message of nothingness?

Nothingness should be written in your notes, Devageet, as no-thing-ness; otherwise nothingness

has a negative meaning – the meaning of emptiness, and that’s not it. The meaning is ’fullness’.
Emptiness in the East has a totally different context... SHUNYATA.

I called one of my sannyasins Shunyo, but the fool goes on calling himself Doctor Eichling. Now,
can stupidity be greater? ’Doctor Eichling’ – what an ugly name! And he has shaved off his beard
just to be Doctor Eichling... because with a beard he was looking a little beautiful.

In the East shunyata – emptiness – does not mean emptiness as in the English language. It is
fullness, overfullness, so full that nothing is needed any more. That is the message of THE BOOK.
Please include it in the list.