in that love which is prayer too,
there are no distinctions at all.
Now I am no more.
The word I is simply a convenience
and as such causes many difficulties.
When the clouds of the I disappear
nothing remains but love –
love without cause,
unconditional love.
Here I stand in the marketplace:
who is ready to come and take it from me?
Kabir stands in the marketplace, torch in hand.
If you are ready to burn your house down, come with me.
138. Love.
Ah, if the veena were outside you could hear its music,
but it is inside
and we do not hear it.
But we can become one with it.
And how much is music worth that ends with listening?
Ultimately the musician, the veena, the music,
the listener
are not separate.
Look inside,
go within,
and see who is waiting there for you.
139. Love.
The springs of meditation are close at hand
but the layers of suppressed sex work like rocks.
The repression of sex has choked your life with anger,
its smoke pervades your whole personality.
When you were meditating in front of me the other day
I saw all this very clearly,
but I could also see that your will is very strong too,
your thirst for God is also strong
and you are working hard,
so there is no need to be disheartened.
Difficulties are there,
blocks are there,
but they will disintegrate
because the breaker is not yet broken.
Meditate totally and soon the springs will be reached.
But you have to put your whole being at stake –
nothing less will do.
Hold back a bit and you will miss.
Time is short so gather all your strength;
whilst the opportunity is here
your effort must be total.
It is difficult to say whether you will have such an opportunity
in another life, so everything must be finished in this one.
If the gates don’t open this time
you will have to start from the very beginning next time –
and then it is far from sure that I will be with you.
In your last life you worked for it
but the work was not completed;
and it was the same in the life before that.
For three lives you have repeated the same cycle
again and again –
it is time now to break it.
It is already late,
any further delay would be foolish.
My regards to all.
140. Love.
The meaning of sadhana
is to enter into one’s own nature,
to live in it,
to be it.
One must therefore know what is not one’s nature
so as to be aware what one wants to be free of.
Recognizing it becomes freedom from it.
A disciple of Bankei asked him:
I become overwhelmed by anger.
I want to be rid of it but I cannot be.
What shall I do?
Bankei did not say a word,
just stared deep into the eyes of the disciple,
who began to sweat
in those few heavy minutes of silence.
He wanted to break the silence
but couldn’t gather the courage.
Then Bankei laughed and said: It’s strange!
I searched and searched but could find
no anger within you.
Still, show me a little of it, here and now.
The disciple said: It is not always here.
It comes all of a sudden, how can I produce it now?
Bankei laughed again and said:
Then it is not your true nature.
That remains with you always,
and if your anger had been part of it
you could have shown it to me.
When you were born it was not with you,
when you die it will not be with you.
No, this anger is not you.
There is a mistake somewhere.
Go away and think again,
search again, meditate again.
141. Love.
God purifies in every way.
It is not only gold that has to pass through fire
to be purified
but man too.
For man this fire is the anguish of love.
It is a blessing when this fire enters a person’s life;
it is the fruit of infinite prayers, infinite births.
It is the intensity of thirst that turns finally into love,
but unfortunately few are able to welcome it
because few can recognize love in the form of anguish.
Love is not a throne, it is a cross;
but those who gladly offer
themselves to it attain the very highest throne.
The cross can be seen, the throne cannot –
it is always hidden behind the cross.
And even Jesus hesitated for a moment;
even his heart cried out: Father, why hast thou forsaken me?
But the next moment he remembered and said:
Thy will be done.
That was enough:
the cross became a throne
and death a new life.
In the moment of revolution
between one statement and the next
Christ descended into Jesus.
Your suffering is intense and a new birth is at hand;
be happy, be grateful.
Don’t be afraid of death,
be thankful.
It is the tidings of a new birth.
And