"Machiavelli had a great insight when he wrote the book The Prince. Although it is a book of diplomacy and has nothing to do with religion, there are insights which can help you to understand. Machiavelli says, 'A king should never tell to his friend what he cannot tell to the enemy, because no one knows: who is a friend today may be an enemy tomorrow, and who is an enemy today may be a friend tomorrow.' He is laying down a diplomatic policy – but our whole life is diplomatic. We say things because the listener will appreciate them; then it has become conditional. To say the truth we don't have to consider at all whether it will be liked or not.

"Gurdjieff used to teach his disciples unconditionality as a basic principle for finding the truth. If you put any conditions, those conditions will be the barriers, and what are all your religions except conditions?

"When a follower of Krishna or a follower of Christ sits for meditation, his desire is to see Krishna – he is expecting existence to be according to his desire – and the Christian is asking for Christ. Because of their conditioned minds it is possible Hindus may see Krishna. The Christian will not see Krishna and the Hindu will not see Christ; they will see according to their conditions. They will see their own conditions in a kind of hallucination, and they will feel immensely joyous that they have realized God.

"All your so-called saints are simply psychopaths. They don't understand that the basic foundation of finding the truth is to first clean your mind of all conditions. Approach existence absolutely empty. Allow existence to say something. Don't ask.

"That's where Zen comes to be the highest kind of religiousness. Just compare it to Jesus' saying to his followers, 'Ask and it shall be given unto you' – but ask. What you can ask will be some desire, some longing, some passion, some greed. What can you ask? – and existence has no obligation to fulfill your asking.

"Jesus goes on by saying, 'Knock and the doors shall be opened unto you.' It seems as if existence is closed; unless you knock, the doors will not be opened."