In fact to attain this individuality, this aloneness, which is not against the universe, which is in absolute tune with the universe… In a way it can be said that you have disappeared in the ocean. Or it can be said that the ocean has disappeared in you. But one thing is certain, that there is no barrier any more. Nothing divides you. But it is a question not to be discussed, it is something to be experienced. A dewdrop dropping into the ocean – from the outside seems to disappear, but from the inside it remains itself, although it loses all distinctions, all discriminations, all divisions, all separations. It has become one with the cosmos, but it is.

The feeling of isness is more acute and sharp in the ultimate realization. So when the monk said, “I come from a great Icchantika family,”

Tozan remained silent for some time. Then the monk said, “What shall we do when the four mountains come pressing round us?”
Tozan said, “I myself came from under the roof of a family.”
The monk said,
“Is there relativity or no relativity?”
Tozan answered, “None.”
The monk asked “Where will you let me go?”

– “you are closing all doors!”

Tozan was a man of great understanding. He said,

“To a rice field.”
The monk heaved a sigh and said, “Good-bye,” and died sitting there.
Tozan tapped him on the head…

That’s what Sardar Gurudayal Singh has to do.

Tozan tapped him on the head three times with his staff and said, “Like this, you knew how to die, but not how to live.”

The real thing is the art of living. If you know how to live, you will automatically know how to die. But knowing how to die is not enough, anybody can commit suicide. There are simple ways of leaving the body.

Even without poison there have existed methods in Yoga, in Tantra, in Zen, in which you can stop your heart and you can exhale and stop your breathing. This may be a miracle to others, but this is not the way of a right, intelligent, understanding man; it is not the way of the buddha. First you have to learn to live rightly, with awareness, consciousness, love, compassion. Your life first has to become a dance, worthy to be offered back to existence. Death is a small affair, a single moment thing. In a split second you will die, but life is eternal. And if you know the grace and the beauty and the joy and the splendor of life, you will die joyously, laughingly, because you know death is a fiction, the greatest fiction. It has never happened, you have simply moved house.

I am reminded of Mulla Nasruddin. One night a thief entered into his house. He was sleeping, but he opened one of his eyes, looked at the thief and closed his eye. The thief was a little afraid – “a strange man, he opens one eye, sees me and still says nothing and remains completely still!” So he quickly gathered whatever he could, and as he was going out, Mulla Nasruddin took his blanket, covered himself, it was a cold night, and followed the thief.