Meditation simply means a few moments when you are not in the mind, a few moments when you slip out of the mind. You slip in reality, in that which is. These existential moments are so tremendously ecstatic that once you taste them, you will stop daydreaming.

Daydreaming will continue unless you start tasting meditation. Unless you are nourished on meditation, you will go on starving and hankering for some food in the future. And you know the future is not going to bring it, because today was future just one day before. Yesterday it was future, and you were daydreaming about it. Now it is there. What is happening? Are you happy? Yesterday was also one day in the future. The past was all part of future one day, and it has slipped – and the future will also slip. You are befooling yourself in daydreaming.

Become a little more aware and try to bring your consciousness more and more to the facticity of existence. See this flower, don’t think about that flower. Listen to this word I am uttering, not to that word that I am going to utter. Look at me right now. If you postpone even for a single split moment, you miss me.

And then it becomes a habit, a very ingrained habit. Tomorrow also you will miss me, and the day after tomorrow also, because you will remain the same. Not only that – your habit of daydreaming will have become more strong.

I was reading the other night a beautiful Japanese story. Such stories exist in all the folktales of the world, on similar patterns. It is a beautiful story. Listen to it.

There was once a man who hewed stones from the rock. His labor was very hard and he labored much, but his wages were slight and he was not content.

Who is content? Not even emperors are content, so what to say about a stone-cutter? His work was certainly hard and the payoff was almost nothing.

He sighed because his labor was hard, and he cried, “Oh, I wish I was rich so I could rest on a couch with a cover of silk.” And an angel came from heaven, saying, “You are what you have said.”

And this really happens – not only in parables and stories; it happens in real life. Whatsoever you think about yourself, starts happening. You create your world by your thought, you create your world by your desire. Whatsoever you insist on, starts happening. Reality goes on cooperating with you. It waits for the moment, for the day, when you will cooperate with it. Until then, it goes on cooperating with you.

And the angel said, “You are what you have said.” And he was rich, and he did rest on a couch, and the cover was of silk, and the king of the land went by with horsemen in front of his carriage and behind the carriage there were also horsemen, and a golden parasol was held over the head of the king.

And when the rich man saw this, he was vexed that no golden parasol was held over his own head and he was not content. He sighed and cried, “I wish to be a king.” And the angel came again and he said, “You are what you have said.”