... Empty but happy, empty but filled; empty but not lacking, empty but overflowing; empty but at ease, at home.

... FLOWERS BEGAN TO FALL AROUND HIM.

He was surprised - because he was nobody. He never expected it. If you expect, they never shower; if you don't expect, they shower - but then you are surprised. Why? Subhuti must have thought something had gone wrong. Showering on Subhuti, a nobody, no one, and that too when he was empty? Not even thinking of God, not even thinking of liberation, not even meditating - because when you are meditating you are not empty, you are doing something and filled with your effort - not doing anything? Subhuti must have become alert that something had gone wrong: The gods have gone crazy. Why these flowers, and it is not the season? He must have looked at the tree and he must have looked at himself again. On ME, flowers are showering? He could not believe it.

Remember, whenever the ultimate happens to you, you will be surprised - because you never expected it; you were not waiting for it even, you were not hoping. And those who are expecting and waiting and hoping and praying and desiring - it never happens to them because they are so tense. They are never empty, never relaxed.

The universe comes to you when you are relaxed, because then you are vulnerable, open - all doors open. From anywhere, God is welcome. But you are not praying, and you are not asking for him to come; you are not doing anything. When you are not doing anything, just in a mood of sublime emptiness, you become the temple, and he comes.

IN A MOOD OF SUBLIME EMPTINESS, FLOWERS BEGAN TO FALL AROUND HIM....

He looked all around - what is happening?

'WE ARE PRAISING YOU FOR YOUR DISCOURSE ON EMPTINESS,' THE GODS WHISPERED TO HIM.

He couldn't believe it. He was never expecting it. He couldn't believe that he was worthy, or he was capable, or he had grown.

'WE ARE PRAISING YOU FOR YOUR DISCOURSE ON EMPTINESS,' THE GODS WHISPERED TO HIM.

They have to whisper. They must have looked at the amazed eyes of this Subhuti, so surprised. They said: 'We are praising you. Don't be so surprised and don't be so amazed. Be at ease! We are just praising you for your discourse on emptiness.'

'BUT I HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF EMPTINESS,'

SAID SUBHUTI - 'I have not spoken anything!'

'YOU HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF EMPTINESS, WE HAVE NOT HEARD EMPTINESS,' RESPONDED THE GODS. 'THIS IS TRUE EMPTINESS.'

AND BLOSSOMS SHOWERED UPON SUBHUTI LIKE RAIN.

Try to understand. They said, 'WE ARE PRAISING YOU FOR YOUR DISCOURSE ON EMPTINESS,' and he was not talking to anybody, there was nobody. He was not talking to himself because he was empty, not divided. He was not talking at all, he was simply there. Nothing was being done on his part - no clouds of thought were passing through his mind, no feelings arising in his heart: he was simply as if not. He was simply empty.

And the gods said: 'WE ARE PRAISING YOU FOR YOUR DISCOURSE ON EMPTINESS.'

So he was more surprised and he said: 'What? I HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF EMPTINESS, I have not said anything!'

They said: 'You have not spoken and we have not heard. THIS IS TRUE EMPTINESS.' For you cannot discourse on emptiness, you can only be empty; that is the only discourse. Everything else can be talked about, everything else can become a sermon, an object of sermon, everything else can be discussed, argued - but not emptiness, because the very effort to say anything about it destroys it. The moment you say it, it is not there. Even a single word is enough and the emptiness is lost. Even a single word can fill you, and the emptiness disappears.

No, nothing can be said about it. Nobody has ever said anything about it. You can just be empty and that is the discourse. BEING is the discourse.

Emptiness can never become an object of thought, thoughtlessness is its nature. So the gods said: 'You have not said anything and we have not heard. That is the beauty of it! That's why we are praising you. Rarely does it happen that somebody is simply empty. This is true emptiness' - and he was not even aware that it was emptiness, because if you are aware, something foreign has entered into it: you are divided, you are split. When one is really empty, there is nothing other than emptiness, not even the awareness of emptiness. Not even the witness is there. One is perfectly alert, one is not asleep - but the witness is not there. It goes beyond witnessing, because whenever you witness something, there is a slight tension inside, a subtle effort, and then emptiness is something else and you are something else. You witness it, you are not empty; then emptiness is again just a thought in the mind.

People come to me and say: 'I have experienced one moment of emptiness.' And I tell them: 'If you have experienced it then forget about it, because who will experience it? The experiencer is enough, enough of a barrier. Who will experience it?' Emptiness cannot be experienced, it is not an experience because the experiencer is not there: the experiencer and the experience have become one. It is an EXPERIENCING.

Allow me to coin this word: it is an EXPERIENCING. It is a process, undivided - both the poles have disappeared, both the banks have disappeared, and only the river exists. You cannot say: 'I experienced,' because you were not there - how can you experience it? And once you enter it you cannot make it a past experience, you cannot say: 'I experienced,' for then it becomes a past memory.

No, emptiness can never become a memory, because emptiness can never leave a trace. It cannot leave any footprints. How can emptiness become a past memory? How can you say 'I experienced'? It is always in the now, it is experiencING. It is neither past nor future, it is always an ongoing process. Once you enter you have entered. You cannot even say: 'I experienced' - that's why Subhuti was not even aware of what was happening. He was not there. Any distinction between him and the universe was not there. No distinction, all boundaries dissolved. The universe started melting in him, he melted into the universe: merging, melting, oneness. And the gods said: 'This is true emptiness.'

AND BLOSSOMS SHOWERED UPON SUBHUTI LIKE RAIN.

This last line has to be understood very very carefully, because when somebody says that you are empty, immediately the ego can come back - because you will become aware, and you will feel something has been achieved. Suddenly the gods will make you aware that you are empty.

But Subhuti is rare, extraordinarily rare. Even though the gods shouted around him, whispered in his ears, and the flowers were showering on him like rain, he didn't bother. He simply kept silent. They said: 'You have spoken, you have given a discourse!' He listened without coming back. They said: 'You have not spoken, we have not heard. THIS IS TRUE EMPTINESS!' There was no ego saying: 'The true happiness happened to me. Now I have become enlightened' - otherwise he would have missed at the last point. And immediately flowers would have stopped showering, if he had come back. No, he must have closed his eyes and he must have thought: 'These gods are mad and these flowers are dreams - don't bother.'

The emptiness was so beautiful that now nothing could be more beautiful than that. He simply remained in his sublime emptiness - that's why blossoms showered upon Subhuti as rain. Now they were not falling a few here and a few there, now they were showering like rain.

This is the only story about Subhuti, nothing is said about him anymore. Nowhere is he mentioned again. But I tell you the flowers are still showering. Subhuti is no longer under any tree - because when one becomes really, totally empty, one dissolves into the universe.

But the universe still celebrates it. The flowers go on showering.

But you will be able to know them only when they shower for you. When God knocks at your door only then do you know that God is, never before. All arguments are futile, all discourses not to the point, unless God knocks at your door. Unless it happens to YOU, nothing can become a conviction.

I talk about Subhuti because this happened to me, and this is not a metaphor; it is literal. I had read about Subhuti before, but I thought: 'It is a metaphor - beautiful, poetic.' I had never even a slight notion that this happens actually. I never thought that this was a realistic phenomenon, a real thing that happens.

But now I tell you it happens. It happened to me, it can happen to you... but a sublime emptiness is needed.

And never be confused. Don't ever think that your negative emptiness can ever become sublime. Your negative emptiness is like darkness; sublime emptiness is like light, it is like a rising sun. Negative emptiness is like death. Sublime emptiness is like life, eternal life. It is blissful.

Allow that mood to penetrate you deeper and deeper. Go and sit under trees. Just sit, not doing anything. Everything stops! When you stop, everything stops. Time will not be moving, as if suddenly the world has come to a peak and there is no movement. But don't bring in the idea 'Now I am empty,' otherwise you will miss. And even if gods start showering flowers on you, don't pay much attention.

And now you know the story, don't even ask why. Subhuti had to ask, you need not. And even if they whisper by themselves: 'We have heard true emptiness and the discourse on it,' don't bother, and the flowers will shower like rain on you too.