"Socrates said, 'When I was young, I thought I knew much. When I became old, ripe in wisdom, I came to understand that I know nothing.'

"It is reported of one of the Sufi masters, Junnaid, that he was working with a new young man. The young man was not aware of Junnaid's inner wisdom, and Junnaid lived such an ordinary life that it needed very penetrating eyes to realize that you were near a buddha. He worked like an ordinary laborer, and only those who had eyes would recognize him. To recognize Buddha is very easy – he is sitting under a bodhi tree, luminous; to recognize Junnaid is very difficult – he was working like a laborer, not sitting under a bodhi tree. He was in every way absolutely ordinary.

"One young man was working with him, and that young man was continually showing his knowledge, so whatsoever Junnaid would do he would say, 'This is wrong. This can be done in this way, it will be better' – he knew about everything.

"Finally Junnaid laughed and said, 'Young man, I am not young enough to know so much.' This is really something. He said, 'I am not young enough to know so much.' Only a young man can be so foolish, so in-experienced.

"Socrates is right when he says, 'When I was young I knew too much. When I became ripened, experienced, I came to realize only one thing – that I am absolutely ignorant.'

"Life is a mystery; that means it cannot be solved. And when all efforts to solve it prove futile, the mystery dawns upon you. Then the doors are open; then you are invited. As a knower, nobody enters the divine; as a child, ignorant, not knowing at all, the mystery embraces you. With a knowing mind you are clever, not innocent. Innocence is the door.

"This Zen master is right when he says, 'I don't understand it myself.' Very deep, really deepthe deepest answer possible. But this is the last part of the anecdote. Start from the very beginning.

"The disciple comes to the Zen master and says, 'In what state of mind should I seek the truth?'

"The master says, 'There is no mind so there cannot be any state of mind.'

"Mind is illusory – that which is not but appears to be, and appears so much that you think that you are the mind."