If the master’s presence does not become a dance in you, you have not been present, you must have been somewhere else.

I have told you the story…

Two friends were talking. One friend said, “You will not be able to believe that last night in my dream I went fishing. My God, what a great fish, so huge. The whole night I was fishing and fishing and there was no end…greater and greater fish…!”

The other man said, “This is nothing. What I saw last night you will certainly not believe. I saw that on one side Marilyn Monroe is lying naked and on the other side another beauty.”

As he asserted this the first man said, “You idiot. You pretend to be my best friend. Why did you not call me?”

The man said, “I did. I went running to your house, and your wife told me that you had gone fishing!”

Nobody is where he thinks he is. You think you are here? Really, you think…? If you look within yourself you may not believe it. It is strange, you are here and your mind is wandering somewhere else, is thinking about something else.

To be in the presence of a master is not to be just physically present. It has to be a presence of consciousness, of awareness, as if the whole world has disappeared. Only this moment – and you are gripped by a great silence. Out of this silence will arise the dance, the celebration.

One of the most important disciples of Gautam Buddha was Mahakashyapa. It is strange that he is rarely mentioned in Buddhist scriptures. As far as I know he is mentioned only once. There were other great disciples, Sariputta, Moggalayan, Ananda and many more, and they are mentioned thousands of times. There are so many incidents in which they are involved.

Mahakashyapa is mentioned only once, because his first encounter with Gautam Buddha was his last. He looked into his eyes, he touched his feet and he sat by the side. And for forty years he was simply rejoicing, celebrating. People used to think that he was somewhat crazy: “Why does he go on smiling? Nobody has said anything, nothing has happened and he is smiling as if somebody has cracked a joke…?”

He was asked and he said, “What more…? I have seen the greatest height of consciousness. I have seen the purest love. I have seen the silence that is eternal, and I am utterly satisfied. Out of that satisfaction comes my smile. I am not smiling at somebody else. My smile is just like a flower. It is not flowering for you. It is just the juice of the bush that is blossoming in the flower. Because I am so full of my master’s presence, flowers go on blossoming.”