The One Night Stand Guru

The teacher and the student sat facing each other. A
small praying box on the table kept chanting softly in
Chinese. The room was in semi-darkness, it smelled of
incense. The top of the teacher’s bald head gleamed
warmly with the flickering of candles. He regarded the
student with gentle, but amused eyes.

T: Did you bring sixty dollars in cash as I told you?

S: Yes, but it seems kind of high for just an hour.
How many sessions will I need?

T: Only one. No one ever returns.

S: Why? Are you a fake?

T: I tell them only the truth, if they see it as the truth,
they need not come back. If they don’t like what they
hear, they don’t come back either. Most people, don’t
want truth, they want hope, they enjoy the search,
love the struggle to achieve, to acquire knowledge and
freedom.

S: Why should I struggle for knowledge and freedom?

T: You can’t help it.

S: Why?

T: No reason. That’s how you are.

S: Would knowing the truth make me immortal?

T: No. Death is home. You must return. You want to return.

S: On the contrary, I fear death.

T: I know. That fear is there to prevent your desire to die
from overwhelming you. The conflict between your
programming not to die, and your deep hidden death
wish, is what you call fear.

S: Is death that good then?

T: It’s beyond good. It’s perfect.

S: How does it feel?

T: It doesn’t feel like anything, and there is no one there
even to notice that. No time, no universe, no presence,
nor absence of anything. That is why it’s called perfection.

S: What is the purpose of life then?

T: The purpose of life is death.

S: So life is not eternal?

T: No

S: Is death eternal, then?

T: Obviously not.

S: I see nothing obvious about it.

T: ‘You’ are alive now. If it happened
once, it could happen again.

S: So, I`ll be reborn?

T: Not `you,’ exactly, the ‘I feeling’
will be reborn.’

S: What is eternal then?

T: Not a thing.

S: So what’s Truth?

T: I just told you.

S: Is that it?

T: Yes.

S: What a crock! I won’t be back!

T: I told you so! Here is my card. Tell your friends.