"In fact the people who have empires are not emperors, they are imprisoned in their own empire, worried, continuously afraid of being invaded – a thousand and one worries. What kind of being an emperor is this?

"Jesus also says, 'Knock and the doors shall be opened unto you.' I don't want to disagree with the poor carpenter. He would have been a beautiful sannyasin. He was just a little eccentric, but that is not a bad quality; it gives some color to life.

"The statement 'Seek and the doors shall be opened unto you' is again the same thing – between you and the future. You seek, then the doors shall be opened.

"I say unto you, 'Don't seek. Don't ask. Don't knock and disturb the neighbors! The door is open – enter.'

"I have spoken about one of the most beautiful women, Al-Adabiya, a Sufi mystic of very rare quality. She was passing by the side of the mosque…she never went into the mosque. If this whole existence is not his temple, then man-made houses will be too small; he cannot be a guest in those small houses. They are going to remain empty and waiting.

"She had heard many times of another seeker, who finally became a master – and he became a master because of Al-Adabiya. There is a limit…he was continuously praying, sitting outside the mosque, 'God, open the door, let me in.' She tolerated him for a few days, but the point came when she could not tolerate it. She hit him hard on his head and said, 'You idiot, open your eyes! The doors are open, and there is no need to pray for it.'

"A crowd gathered. Hassan was very much respected as a religious man, a man of prayer, and Al-Adabiya was thought of as something crazy; she was always doing crazy things. Now she had done the last crazy thing. But to Hassan something happened. He looked into the eyes of Adabiya, touched her feet and said, 'I am sorry, please forgive me. The doors are open.'

"How can existence close the doors to its own children? You expect and you create a tension in your being: somewhere, some day, in some life, you will become enlightened."