"All religion is nothing but that: an effort to become more conscious, an effort to become more aware, an effort to bring more alertness, attentiveness to your life.

"All the religions of the world, in one way or another, emphasize that the sleep consists in deep identification or in attachment.

"Man's life has two layers to it: one is that of the essential, and another is that of the accidental. The essential is never born, never dies. The accidental is born, lives and dies. The essential is eternal, timeless; the accidental is just accidental. We become too much attached to the accidental and we tend to forget the essential.

"A man becomes too much attached to money – money is accidental. It has nothing to do with essential life. A man becomes too much attached to his house or to his car, or to his wife, or to her husband, to children, to relationship. Relationship is accidental; it has nothing essential in it. It is not your real being. And in this century, the twentieth century, the problem has become too deep.

"There are people who call the twentieth century 'the accidental century' – they are right. People are living too much identified with the non-essential: money, power, prestige, respectability. You will have to leave all that behind when you go. Even an Alexander has to go empty-handed.

"I have heard:

"A great mystic died. When he reached paradise, he asked God why Jesus was not born in the twentieth century.

"The Lord God started laughing and said, 'Impossible! Impossible! Where would the twentieth century people ever find three wise men or a virgin?'

"The twentieth century is the most accidental. By and by, man has become too much attached to 'my' and 'mine' – to possessions. And he has completely lost track of his being. He has completely lost track of 'I.' 'My' has become more important. When 'my' becomes more important, then you are getting attached to the accidental. When 'I' remains more important and 'my' remains just as a servant, then you are a master, then you are not a slave – then you live in a totally different way.

"That's what Zen people call the original face of man, where pure 'I' exists."