OUR BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE WISDOM OF THE HEART?

Maneesha, common sense carries many fragments of truth, but they are never complete. Around the world everywhere it is heard -- "the wisdom of the heart." But the truth is, wisdom arises not out of the heart, it arises out of the emptiness of the heart. But that is

known only to those who have reached deepest into the self.

But common sense carries fragments of knowledge. It knows that the people who are compassionate, people of heart, have a certain wisdom which is not knowledge, a certain

insight, a certain intuitiveness which cannot be taught. They can see things, feel things. They are sensitive to things which are not available to the mind. So people start thinking

that there are possibilities of the heart having wisdom. But they don't know that the heart is your emptiness. And out of your emptiness a clarity, a transparency arises which can see things which you cannot intellectually infer. This is wisdom.

To make it complete, Maneesha, it has to be said, "the wisdom of the empty heart." The

heart, as the physiologist knows it, is just a blood-pumping system. Out of your heartbeats no wisdom can arise. Have you ever felt any wisdom arising from your heartbeats? Has any doctor ever heard some wisdom while checking your heartbeats through his stethoscope?

This heart is not the one we mean when we are talking about the emptiness of the heart.

Actually, we are talking about throwing away all the contents of the mind. Then, the nomind itself becomes your heart. It is not a physiological thing. It is your no-mind -- no

prejudice, no knowledge, no content. Just purity, simple silence, and the no-mind can be

called the empty heart. It is only a question of expression. What you want to choose, you

can choose: the wisdom of the empty heart, or the wisdom of no-mind -- they are equivalent.

When you are in deep meditation, you feel a great serenity, a joy that is unknown to you,

a watchfulness that is a new guest. Soon this watchfulness will become the host. The day

the watchfulness becomes the host, it remains twenty-four hours with you. And out of

this watchfulness, whatever you do has a wisdom in it. Whatever you do shows a clarity,

a purity, a spontaneity, a grace.

A Mulla Nasruddin story....

He was born in Iran, and in Iran his grave is still there. A strange grave, unique in the whole world. There are millions of graves, but nothing like Mulla Nasruddin's grave. On

the grave there is standing a closed door with a big lock on it. And the lock... Mulla Nasruddin before dying made all the arrangements. "You put the key with me inside the

grave, so nobody can open the door." Even the emperor came to see -- "What nonsense is

happening! And this man is thought to be a wise man, of course a little eccentric, but

loved by everybody."

The emperor inquired of Nasruddin's disciples, "What is the matter?"

They said, "It is not new. He used to carry this door wherever he went. We asked him, `What is the matter?' He said, `If I take the door with me, nobody can enter into my house. Obviously, everybody enters into the house from the door. So just to protect the 

house, I carry the door with me.' And before dying he said, `Fix that door on my grave,

lock it, and put the key with me. Any time I like I can open the door and just have some

fresh air.'"

The emperor said, "All nonsense."

But the emperor also liked the man. The chief disciple said, "There is something in it. He

is saying: Don't think that my death is my death. You are putting my body in the grave

but I am still alive. My life is eternal."

But he was crazy always. To make this statement, that life is eternal, he has put up this door: "Any moment, if I want to come out, at least I have the key and I don't have to ask anybody's permission. I can open the door, have a little walk, or enjoy around the city.

You will not see me, but I will see you."

Mulla Nasruddin was once sent by the emperor of Iran with great gifts to the emperor of India. And Nasruddin praised the emperor of India as the full moon. The rumor reached Iran -- there were enemies of Nasruddin, and they said, "You have not chosen the right person to take the message. He has praised the emperor of India as the full moon!"

The emperor said, "Let him come back. He will have to answer; otherwise he will lose

his head." Nasruddin came back. The Indian emperor was very impressed by him, and had given him many presents. The emperor of Iran was very angry and he said, "Nasruddin, your life is at risk!"

Nasruddin said, "Everybody's life is always at risk. Do you think your life is not at risk?"

The emperor said, "Don't discuss philosophy, you have to answer. You called the Indian

emperor the `full moon.' It is insulting to me."

Nasruddin said, "You are an idiot; you don't understand the meaning. You are the rising

moon, the first-day moon, which is just a small arc, remains for a few moments and

disappears. The full moon means the days of decline have come. That Indian emperor was an idiot. He thought I was praising him, but I was simply declaring that `Your time has come. Now there is no more growth, only decline.' And you are an idiot for being angry. You are the rising moon -- you have to expand, conquer. You have enough time to become a full moon."

The emperor was very much impressed by the interpretation. Nasruddin's enemies were

simply shocked. They had never thought that he would give this interpretation. Nobody

ever thought about it; everybody thought that he had been insulting.

Nasruddin is a Sufi mystic, a little crazy, but always tremendously wise. One day he was going to take his disciples to see a rare collection of paintings that had come to the city. Now the question was... He would be riding on his donkey. He asked his disciples, "What  to do? If I ride on my donkey in the usual way, then my back will be towards you. That is insulting, and I cannot insult my disciples. If you walk ahead of me, your backs will be towards me. I don't think you will do that insult to me. So the only possible way is, I will ride on the donkey facing you." The disciples said, "But the whole town will laugh, and you will make us also look stupid... although there is a point in it. But to go anywhere with you is a trouble."

The procession went on through the town. Everybody looked -- what is the matter? Nobody had ever seen anybody riding on a donkey facing backwards. Finally a crowd gathered, and they said, "We will not let you go unless we get the explanation." Nasruddin said, "The explanation is simple. I don't want to insult my disciples so I cannot have my back towards them. And I don't want to be insulted by my disciples, so they cannot walk ahead of me. They have to walk behind me. Now what do you say -- how can it be managed? This is the only way."

People said, "It is crazy, but it is the only way. If keeping somebody at your back is insulting, then certainly you are doing the right thing."

A simple man with utter purity -- every act in his life is full of wisdom, but on the surface

looks a little crazy. He belongs to the same category as Bodhidharma, as Mahakashyap. But he is a little more eccentric than any of them.

From the emptiness of the heart, it is not necessary that what arises will be understood by

people as wisdom. You will be perfectly at ease with it, and those who understand you

will be perfectly at ease with you. But in this world to find people who can understand

the wisdom of the empty heart is very difficult and rare.

But there is no problem. The man of empty heart does not need any recognition. He is so fulfilled that he may look mad to the whole world, but if it is arising out of his spontaneity, it does not matter. All that matters is that it should not be fake, that it should

not be hypocrisy, that it should not be phony. It should be coming out of your heart and its emptiness. Then everything is wise whether people recognize it or not.Who has recognized Mulla Nasruddin? Very few people. Who has recognized Bodhidharma? Very few people. Who has recognized Mahakashyap suddenly laughing? 

Only Gautam Buddha. Ten thousand monks were present but nobody could understand this eccentric behavior. But it was arising out of the empty heart, from a clarity of vision. Only another man of the same clarity can understand it.

Maneesha, the wisdom of the empty heart is understandable only to those who have entered into their own emptiness. To others it will remain a puzzle, a craziness, a madness. And there are so many beautiful buddhas -- their behavior was absolutely in tune with the emptiness of the heart, but it was not rational. It could not be understood by the so-called intellectual. It was almost impossible to be understood by the crowd.

Osho, The Buddha_The Emptiness of the Heart