Life in itself has no meaning

'Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create a meaning. You will find meaning only if you create it. It is a poem to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.

Buddha finds meaning because he creates it. God is not a thing but a creation. And only those who create find. Each individual has to give birth to God, to meaning, to truth; each man has to become pregnant with it and pass through the pains of birth. Each one has to carry it in one's womb, feed it by one's own blood, and only then does one discover.

The inquiry has to be pure, without any conclusion. If you are looking for a certain meaning, you will not find it - because from the very beginning your inquiry is polluted, it is impure. You have already decided.

For example, if a man comes into my garden and thinks he can find a diamond there, then to him this garden is beautiful. He cannot find the diamond and he says there is no meaning in the garden...And there are so many beautiful flowers, and so many birds singing, and so many colours, and the wind blowing through the pines, and the moss on the rocks. But he cannot see any meaning because he has a certain idea: he has to find the diamond, only then there will be a meaning.

He is missing meaning because of his idea. Let your inquiry be pure. Don't move with any fixed idea. Go naked. Go open and empty. And you will find not only one meaning - you will find a thousand and one meanings. Then each thing will become meaningful.'

Extract from The Silence of the Heart: talks on Sufi stories (The Times of India, Bangalore, 15.03.08)