"Jerusalem was the seat of the Jewish university; people traveled from faraway lands to Judea to be educated in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was at the very peak of its youth. But none of these learned people came to listen to Jesus. The reason? – because they believed they knew it all: they have read all the scriptures, they are acquainted with all the wise sayings of the past. Their memories were full, but memory is not intelligence.

"In fact, the more knowledgeable you become, the less is the possibility of your ever becoming intelligent enough to discover yourself. Your knowledge does not give you your real being, it only creates a pseudo ego, and the egoist cannot go to a carpenter's son, Jesus, who knows nothing because he has no certificates…

"Only one man – and because he was the only one, his name is still remembered. He was a professor in the university; Nicodemus was his name. But even he could not gather courage enough to come to Jesus in full daylight. He was afraid: 'What will people say? 'He is a professor of religion, and he goes and asks questions to an uneducated young man who has never seen the scriptures?'' Hence he went in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep; even Jesus' intimate apostles were asleep. He woke up Jesus, introduced himself: 'I am a professor of religion in the university; Nicodemus is my name. Please forgive me for disturbing your sleep.'

"Jesus said to him, 'Don't be worried about it, because I will disturb your far deeper sleep. But you are a coward, and on this path cowards cannot move. It needs guts – and the first symbol of a courageous man is to recognize that he knows not, that all his knowledge is borrowed, that he is repeating words of others, that he has never entered into silences of his own soul, that he is blind.'

"The very recognition is a great beginning. The moment you recognize that you do not know, you are already moving toward the path that leads to knowing. In the scriptures are only dead words; a true seeker cannot be satisfied with them."