O son, long have you been caught in the bondage of perceiving yourself as the body. Cut this bondage with the sword of knowing “I am awareness” and be happy.

Raise the sword of awareness. “I am awareness” – raise this sword of understanding, chop away the idea that “I am the body,” and you are happy.

All suffering is of the body. Birth, illness, old age, death – all are of the body, and when there is identification with the body there is identification with all the pains of the body. When the body is worn out then we think, “I have become worn out.” When the body becomes ill we think, “I have become ill.” When the body approaches death we are frightened that we are dying. Beliefs…only beliefs.

I have heard that one night Mulla Nasruddin and his wife were lying in bed…. They had no children, and his wife was very eager to have a child. As they were about to fall asleep the wife said, “Listen, if we have a child where will we put him to sleep? – because there is only one bed.”

So Mulla slid a little towards the side, saying, “We will put him right here between us.”

And the wife said, “And then if we have a second?”

Mulla slid over a little more saying, “We can put him here also.” Miserly fellow!

The wife said, “And if a third comes?”

Mulla slid over further and was just going to say, “Put him right here,” when he fell off the bed with a crash. His leg was broken. The neighbors gathered, hearing all the noise – he was crying loudly – and they asked, “What happened?”

He said, “This child – the one who does not yet exist – broke my leg. And when a nonexistent child can cause so much trouble, what to say of a real one! Excuse me, but I don’t want any children. This experience is enough!”

Sometimes…no, not sometimes, usually we live like this – believing. We follow our belief, and when we follow our belief real consequences come, even if the belief is false. There was no child, but a real leg was broken. The effect of the false can be real. If the false is believed deeply enough, its consequences will actually happen.

Psychologists say many of the various experiences of our world are more belief than reality.