"But the search is arduous. It needs courage, it needs intelligence, it needs awareness.

"Buddhism is no ordinary religion. It is not a religion of the mob, it is the religion of rare individuals. It is not the religion of the mediocre, it is the religion of those who are really intelligent. No other religion is so individualistic. And the paradox is that Buddha says there is no self, the paradox is that Buddha does not believe in individuality – but his religion is that of the individuals.

"Just to be interested in what Buddha has said is a great adventure, because nobody before or after has been such a radical revolutionary.

"Today's sutras of Ikkyu are of immense importance.

"The first sutra:

If at the end of our journey
There be no final resting place,
How can there be
A way to lose ourselves in?

"You will have to meditate over it. Slowly, slowly, the meaning will dawn into your consciousness.

"First: there is no goal, so nobody can go astray. Let it penetrate your heart, let it pierce you like an arrow. There is no goal in life, so there is no way to miss it. All other religions depend on that; all other religions go on telling people: 'You are missing.' That is the meaning of the word sin – to miss, to miss the target. The original Hebrew root means to miss the target; not being able to reach the goal – that is sin.

"According to Gautam Buddha, there can be no sin. You can't miss it because there is nothing to miss. The goal does not exist; the goal is imaginary, it is your creation. You create the goal, then you create virtue and sin. Those who are moving towards the goal are virtuous, and those who are not moving towards the goal are sinners. You create the goal and then you divide humanity into saints and sinners. Drop the goal and saints disappear, sinners disappear, divisions disappear, the higher and the lower disappear – and valuation disappears, and then there is no heaven and no hell.

"See the point of it: just the idea of the goal creates heaven and hell."