"The real thing for the blind man to do is not to think about light but to cure his eyes; for the deaf man, not to reflect on music but to go through some alchemical processes which can make him hear.

"That's the difference between reflection and meditation: meditation opens your eyes, reflection is thinking with closed eyes. Meditation is seeing and thinking is remaining blind. But thinking can give you great conclusions, very logical too; in fact only thinking can give you logical conclusions. Meditation will give you very paradoxical experiences – illogical or supralogical, but never logical.

"Existence consists of contradictions – it is vast enough to contain all contradictions. It consists of polar opposites. They appear to be opposites to the logical mind, but deep down in reality they are complementaries. They exist together in a kind of simultaneity.

"In English meditation again has the same flavor as reflection. In English there is no word which can be said to be the equivalent of dhyana or Zen, so we have to use the word meditation; that comes closest. But a few conditions have to be put upon it.

"The moment you use the word meditation, the question immediately arises 'On what?' because meditation in the English language means meditating upon something. And the words dhyana, or Zen, simply mean emptying yourself of all thinking – it is not a question of meditating upon something. Meditation is a state of absolute silence, of profound peace, of not thinking at all but just being aware. Only in that awareness will you be able to see the truth.

"You say: 'I have been reflecting on the difference between 'feeling sorry' for someone and 'having compassion.'' And you can immediately see the difficulty: 'feeling sorry' for someone and 'having compassion' are exactly the same. The person who knows what compassion is cannot say 'I have compassion,' he is simply compassionate. Having compassion is not possible – either you are compassionate or you are not; it is not a question of having. If you have compassion, it is the same, in different words, as feeling sorry for someone.

"But language can give you great scope for playing games, mind games."