For death, mind plays another trick: it postpones it – because to accept it here and now would be a constant worry. So the mind puts it somewhere in the future, then there is no hurry: “When it comes, we will see.” And for love, mind has created substitutes which are not love: sometimes you call your possessiveness your love, sometimes you call your attachment your love, sometimes you call your domination your love. These are ego-games, love has nothing to do with them. In fact, because of these games, love is not possible.

Between life and death, between the two banks of life and death, flows the river of love. And that is possible only for a person who does not take life for granted, who moves deep into the quality of being alive and becomes existential, authentic. And love is for the person who accepts death here and now and does not postpone it. Then between these two a beautiful phenomenon arises: the river of love.

Life and death are like two banks. The possibility is there for the river of love to flow, but it is only a possibility. You will have to materialize it. Life and death are there, but love has to be materialized – that is the goal of being a human. Unless love materializes you have missed, you have missed the whole point of being.

Death is already happening, so don’t put it in the future. If you don’t put it in the future there is no question of defending yourself; if it is already happening – and it has been already happening always – then there is no question of protecting yourself against death. Death has not killed you; it has been happening while you were still alive. It is happening just now, and life is not destroyed by it. In fact, because of it life renews itself each moment: the old leaves fall, they make space for the new leaves to come; the old flowers disappear, the new flowers appear. One door closes, another immediately opens. Each moment you die and each moment there is resurrection.

Once a Christian missionary came to me and he asked, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ’s resurrection?”

I told him that there is no need to go so far. Each moment everybody is resurrected. But he could not understand. It is difficult for people who are too much into their ideology.

He said, “But do you believe that he was crucified? Is this not just a myth, or is it a reality? What do you think?”

I said to him again that everybody is crucified every moment. That is the whole meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection. Whether it is historical or not does not matter a bit. It is simply irrelevant to think whether it happened or not – it is happening.

Each moment the past is crucified, the old leaves disappear. And each moment a new being arises in you, resurrects. It is a constant miracle.