
My books also have to be burned
excerpt
series:
Tao - The Three Treasures
Volume 3 / Chapter 4
Aug 14, 1975 Chuang Tzu Auditorium

183



The ninth question:
I am new to your teaching, but if I have understood you so far you say – approximately anyway – that knowledge obtained from books is mere information, and as such is useless and sterile. What matters is an inner knowing derived from experience, and feeling rather than intellect. Why then do you publish books for sale?
I speak to seduce you into silence. I use words so that you can be persuaded towards the wordless existence. The books are there to lead you beyond, so don’t cling to them. At the most they are bridges. But if you make your house on a bridge you are a fool. Pass through it!
Right now, you cannot understand silence, you can understand only words. I have to use words to give you the message of silence. Between the words, between the lines, sometimes – if you hang around me long enough – you may one day start hearing silence. Then there is no need, then burn those books with other Vedas, Bibles, and scriptures. My books also have to be burned.
Everything has to be left behind. But right now you are not ready. When you are ready there is no need for any books. Those books are not published for those who understand. Those books are published for those who have a desire to understand – but don’t yet understand. Their desire is beautiful. They have to be helped. And if I am to help you I have to come close to you. Before you can come close to me I will have to come close to you – that is the only way. Before I can take you to the place where I am, I will have to come down to the place where you are.
Those books are not necessary. Their need is because of you. If you can jump over them, avoid them, bypass them – beautiful. But you will not be able to bypass them; otherwise you would not be here. You are here to listen to me. You are still hoping that by listening you may gain. I am not thinking that by listening you may gain. I am thinking that by listening you will become able to listen to that which is not said, and through that you will gain. Nobody gains through books, but books can help you to go beyond. All the scriptures say the same thing.
In the Upanishads it is said, “Nayamatma pravachanen labhyo – this soul cannot be got from sermons. Na medhaya na bahuna shruten – neither can it be got from intelligence.” Somewhere else in the Upanishads they say, “The goal is where?” Where is the goal? Go beyond the words, only then you will know.
The point from where words turn back and cannot go beyond – that is the point, the door. The Bible, the Koran, they exist to help you to go beyond them. If you have been carrying them on your head it is your stupidity; you have not looked into them. Because they say, “Don’t cling to words, don’t cling to theories, to concepts, philosophies. All is rubbish!”
My books are there to be transcended. Enjoy them on the way but don’t cling to them. And get ready to go beyond.
Tao - The Three Treasures
Volume 3 / Chapter 4