The Sun Rises in the Evening

CHAPTER 1

Always at Ease, Unmoved
11 June 1978 am in Buddha Hall

DO YOU NOT SEE HIM,
THE REALLY WISE MAN, ALWAYS AT EASE, UNMOVED?
HE DOES NOT GET RID OF ILLUSION, NOR DOES HE
SEEK FOR THE (SO-CALLED) TRUTH.
IGNORANCE IS INTRINSICALLY THE BUDDHA NATURE,
OUR ILLUSORY UNREAL BODY IS THE COSMIC BODY.
GETTING RID OF THINGS AND CLINGING TO EMPTINESS
IS AN ILLNESS OF THE SAME KIND;
IT IS JUST LIKE THROWING ONESELF INTO A FIRE
TO AVOID BEING DROWNED.
WHEN ASKED ’WHAT IS YOUR RELIGION?’
I ANSWER ’THE POWER OF THE MAKAHANNYA.’
SOMETIMES AFFIRMING THINGS, SOMETIMES DENYING THEM,
IT IS BEYOND THE WISDOM OF MAN.
SOMETIMES WITH COMMON SENSE, SOMETIMES AGAINST IT,
HEAVEN CANNOT MAKE HEAD OR TAIL OF IT.

I HAVE SEEN THE SUN RISING IN THE EVENING, and since then I have been drunk with that
which is. You can call it God, you can call it NIRVANA, you can call it any name – it does not matter.
Whether you give it a name or you don’t give it, it remains the same. A rose is a rose is a rose. But
one thing is certain about it: that the sun rises in the evening.
The apparent is not real; the real is just the opposite of the apparent. It is obvious that the sun rises
in the morning. To deny the apparent and the obvious I say that I have seen the sun rising in the
evening.

The experience of the Buddhas contradicts the experience of everyone else. It is not common; it
is unique, it is extraordinary. Ordinarily, whatsoever we have become accustomed to know is just a
mind game, because we look at that which is with loaded eyes. Our mirrors are covered with great
dust; they have become incapable of reflecting the real. The real is not far away, the real surrounds
you. You are part of it, it is part of you. You are not separate from it, you have never been separate
from it. You cannot be separate from it – there is no way to be separate from it, it is impossible
to be separate from it. But still, the dust-covered mirror is incapable of reflecting it. Once the dust
disappears, you will be surprised that all that you have been seeking was not needed to be sought
at all, because you had it already.

The spiritual search is as illusory as any other search. The search itself is illusory because it has
taken one thing for granted: that something is missing. And nothing is missing! Once you take
it for granted that something is missing you start looking for it; then you go on looking for it in all
directions. And the more you search the more you will miss it, because the more you search the
more dust-covered becomes the mirror. The more you travel to seek it, the farther and farther you
go in search of it, the more and more frustrated you become. Slowly slowly you start thinking that it
is so far away...’That’s why I am not reaching it.’

The reality is just the opposite: you are not reaching it because you are it. It is not far away, it is so
close by that even to call it ’close’ is not right, because even closeness is a kind of distance. It is not
distant at all, it breathes in you. It is not ’there’, it is here. It is not ’then’, it is now. It has always been
with you. From the very beginning everyone is a Buddha, everyone is a mirror capable of reflecting.

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