"Something very important is being imparted. Be attentive.

Once, Hakugan said to Yakusan, who was reading a scripture, 'You should stop fooling people.'

"There is nothing more courageous than Zen. There have been Zen masters who have burned holy scriptures, there have been Zen monks who have burned even Gautam Buddha's wooden statues because the night was too cold.

"Hakugan is saying to Yakusan, 'You should stop fooling people.'

"All your so-called knowledgeable intellectuals, pundits, rabbis, all are fooling the people; because to let them get involved in scriptures is to take them away from themselves. You are not to find yourself in the scripture. You have to come inward, leaving all scriptures, philosophies and religions outside, howsoever true they appear to be, howsoever rational or reasonable is their logic. Logic cannot quench your thirst. And the source of love is not the same source.

"Logic arises out of your mind, love arises out of your heart. But the love that arises out of the heart is just like Pune air – polluted, utterly polluted. It is the world's fourth city which is the most polluted. Mind's love is just a word, the heart's love has a little life, but very crippled. Fortunately you don't end at the heart, the road goes a little deeper.

"There is another kind of love; just to make the distinction we will call it compassion. A love without the desire to possess, a love without the desire to power, a love that simply wants to share its bliss, its grace, its joy, and asks nothing in return.

"You can understand these anecdotes only out of your love. So while I am reading, listen to the very center of your beingand I have been teaching you nothing else but getting into the center. From now onwards I would like you, even while I am reading, to be not just a listener, but also a meditator. In absolute silence these flowers of eternity bloom.

"Yakusan was puzzled, because the scriptures were holy scriptures. And Hakugan, who himself was known to be a great master, was saying to him to stop befooling people, 'Throw away these scriptures. All your knowledge, reduced to reality, is nothing; because you don't know on your own, you are simply living on a borrowed theology, philosophy, religion."