Sannyas is the science of synactics. This word has been coined by a few people. I love this word – synactics. It means the science of connections. Sannyas is synactic; it connects you with somebody who has arrived. By getting connected with somebody who has arrived, your journey starts. The master is never going to do anything really, he is a catalytic agent. But his presence gives you confidence, his presence gives you courage, his presence gives you trust. His presence becomes a proof that something more than the known exists – that the beyond exists.

Says D. T. Suzuki, one of the most significant persons of this age: “There is no transference of secrets from master to disciple. Teaching is not difficult, listening is not difficult either, but what is truly difficult is to become conscious of what you have in yourself and be able to use it as your own. This self-realization is known as seeing into one’s own being, which is satori. Satori is an awakening from a dream.”

But unless you are close to someone who has become awakened it is very difficult. You can even dream that you have become awakened – that’s the most difficult part of it. You can even dream that you have become awakened if somebody is not there who is already awakened. You will have no way to judge whether you have become awakened or you are still dreaming. Don’t you remember dreams when you dream that you are awake? You must have all dreamed dreams when you feel you are awake – and then when you become awake you laugh. Then you know it was just a dream.

But who knows? This may also be a dream. One can dream in a dream in a dream and go on in and in. You can dream that you are going to sleep, preparing your bed. Then you fall on the bed and you can dream that now you have fallen asleep and then you start dreaming in your sleep…. And you can dream that you are going to sleep and preparing a bed and falling and you fall and you start dreaming – and so on and so forth. You call go on ad infinitum.

One who is already awakened is a must for those who have decided to go on the ultimate journey.

In Japan the Zen people have a saying:

Kokoro koso,

kokokar mayowasi,

kokoro nare;

kokoro ni,

kokoro,

kokoro yurusu na.

“It is mind that deludes mind for there is no other mind. Oh mind, do not let yourself be misled by mind.”

You can deceive yourself. It is your own mind which goes on deceiving your mind. Your small mind goes on deceiving, your big mind. Your mind with a lower case m goes on deceiving your Mind with a capital M. And there is nobody else.