"Looks original. It is not. There are no golden horses of course, and no horse flies, but you have seen a horse, you have seen flying birds, you have seen gold; now this is a new combination. But everything is old, of the past, of the known.

"Originality is not possible, only fictitious originality is possible. Mind remains dead, it is memory. Then, am I saying that there is no possibility to be original? No, I am not saying that. Thought cannot be original, no thought can be, originality in thinking is not possible. Originality in being is possible.

"You can be original, but you cannot think originally. A Bertrand Russell is not original, cannot be – a very profound thinker, but not original. A buddha can be original – not in his thinking, in his being; the way he is, absolutely virgin ground. No one has traveled there before. He is absolutely fresh, just born, moment to moment changing, alive, never allowing deadness to settle on him. Being can be original, thought cannot be original. Thinkers are never original, only no-thinkers are – if you will allow me the term. Deep inside if you attain to emptiness you will be original. Out of that emptiness whatsoever arises is always new. But the distinction has to be remembered.

"Even a buddha when he talks becomes unoriginal. His being is original, but when he uses language, again, the mind has to be used, the memory has to be used. The language belongs to others, not to you; you have not brought a language into the world, you have brought a fresh being, of course, but the language has been given by the society, by others, so even a buddha has to use a borrowed language.

"The moment Buddha says something originality is lost. And, if you listen to Buddha, not to his words, but if you can have a glimpse through the words of his being, then you will feel originality, then there is the lotus flower, every petal fresh, just like a morning's dewdrops – but then you have to penetrate the language, the words.

"When Buddha communicates he is also communing. He is saying something and he is also being something."