This, This, A Thousand Times This: The Very Essence of Zen

CHAPTER 1

Zen – your very essence
27 May 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium

Maneesha,
Before I start a new series of talks on Zen – called THIS. THIS. A THOUSAND TIMES THIS – I
want to devote today to preparation for the coming Zen anecdotes... absurd yet profound, without
any rationality but still as truthful as language allows.

I am wearing sunglasses in the night; it is due to the courtesy of President Ronald Reagan. His
poisoning has created many after-effects. One of them is that my eyes have immensely weakened;
they cannot face even the daylight. But even through my glasses I am perfectly able to see you.
In this connection a practical joke:

I have received an invitation from one of the most important global promoters in the election of the
president of America. They want me to run for the presidency and they are ready to promote me.
Even though I have been prevented – illegally, unconstitutionally – from entering America for ten
years, certainly I can enter the presidential election. The law cannot prevent me. I can remain
outside of America.

I have told Global Promotions to go ahead.

It does not matter whether I win or I lose. What matters is that it will decide how many intelligent
people live in America, how many people have a sense of humor and how many people have a
universal sense of humanity as one.

If by chance I win the presidency, it will be really the greatest laughter in history. And it will be
the beginning of a new day. I certainly hope there are people, irrespective of party or religion or
prejudice, who will support me just for the sake of a good laugh.

These glasses will do good, they will look good on American television. At least my face will be more
presentable than Ronald Reagan’s.

My fight continues against the illegality and the crime that has been done to me and to my commune
and my people. You will be surprised that they went on delaying a decision in the Supreme Court of
Oregon till they expelled me from America...

I was there for five years without any entry visa. They could not tell me to go out of America; they
knew I would fight in the courts. And every American is a foreigner – the real Americans have been
killed, massacred, forced into forests, into small reservations. They even changed their name; they
are called ”Red Indians.”

Even Ronald Reagan is not an American; neither was Abraham Lincoln. So there is no problem: if
other foreigners can be chosen to be the president of America, I am also eligible.
When they deported me... after that the Supreme Court of Oregon declared my commune to be
victorious and the opposing party in the case – ”One Thousand Friends of Oregon” – was defeated.
They appealed to the Supreme Court of America and the Supreme Court also gave its decision in
my favor.

The destruction of the commune and expulsion of me and my people have been absolutely
undemocratic, unconstitutional. This proves an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied.
Now what is the point of being victorious in the court, the highest court in America, when they have
crushed everything? – destroyed the commune, in which five thousand sannyasins worked for five
years, ten hours, twelve hours per day, to transform a desert into a beautiful city.

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