Diogenes had nothing, but his richness was radiating from his naked body. Diogenes used to carry a lamp, even in the daytime. He was thought to be a little crazy – obviously. In a world of insane people, anybody who is sane is bound to be thought a little crazy. And he was doing something which you will also feel looks a little crazy. Whomever he would meet on the way, he would take up his lamp and look at his face. And when asked, “What are you doing, Diogenes? It is full daylight; you don’t need to keep your lamp burning,” he would say, “no, I have to keep it burning. I am searching for an authentic man.”

When he was dying, his lamp by his side, somebody asked, “Diogenes, your whole life you have been searching for an authentic man. What happened? Did you meet any authentic man or not?” He said, “Thank God, although I never met any authentic man I have saved my lamp.”

Because the world is so cunning, so full of thieves, even to save one’s lamp is to be fortunate. This Diogenes was an awakened man. In fact, he was not looking in your eyes when he raised his lamp, he was showing his eyes, so that you could see clearly into his eyes, and there was an authentic man. And if you had looked into his eyes, you would have changed totally into a new being.

A disciple looks into the eyes of the master. He looks into the very depth of his eyes. A disciple is not interested in what the master is saying, he is interested in what the master is.

Then he comes to know the second body of the master; his treasure, his reward body. The whole existence has been showering millions of rewards on the master. But there is still a third step. The man of the deepest understanding comes to know the third body, the deepest body.

The student comes to know the first body, the disciple comes to know the second body and the devotee comes to know the third body, the real body, the buddha’s real being. Again there is a quantum leap – from disciple to devotee. Disciple comes very close, very, very close, but even closeness is a distance. The devotee simply melts and merges into the master. He is not close, he becomes one. And in this oneness he comes to know the real body of the awakened being.

But Bodhidharma says: these three bodies and the experiences of these three bodies are of the normal mind. Actually, there is not even one buddha-body. A man of enlightenment is utterly nobody – or no body. That’s what the meaning of nobody is. He is pure emptiness. He is just pure sky without any limitations. This infinitude is known only when one becomes a buddha.

The devotee merges with the buddha, but in a subtle way he still carries his idea, “I am a devotee, a lover. I have surrendered everything.” A very subtle “I” – almost on the verge of disappearing, but it is there. He has not yet experienced the emptiness of the master.

There is a story about a great Zen master, Lin Chi. The day one of his disciples was going to become enlightened…he had come a long way and the master had been watching his progress, and he knew that as the sun set that day, before that time, the disciple was going to become enlightened. He had come so close, it was just like a moth flying closer and closer to the flame of a candle. One could say that it was not going to take much time. The moth has come so close that soon it will be falling into the flame and disappear for ever.