A Zen monk, Rinzai, attained his enlightenment, and the first thing he asked was, ”Where is my body? Where has my body gone?” And he began to search. He called his disciples and said, ”Go and find out where my body is. I have lost my body.”

 

He had entered the formless. You are also a formless existence, but you know yourself not directly, but from others’ eyes. You know through the mirror. Sometime, while looking in the mirror, close your eyes and then think, meditate: if there was no mirror, how could you have known your face? If there was no mirror, there would have been no face. You do not have a face; mirrors give you faces.

 

Think of a world where there are no mirrors. You are alone – no mirror at all, not even others’ eyes working as mirrors. You are alone on a lonely island; nothing can mirror you. Then will you have any face? Or will you have any body? You cannot have one.

 

You do not have one at all. We know ourselves only through others, and the others can only know the outer form. That is why we become identified with it. Another Zen mystic, Hui-Hai used to say to his disciples, ”When you have lost your head meditating, come immediately to me. When you lose your head, come immediately to me.

 

When you begin to feel there is no head, do not be afraid; come immediately to me. This is the right moment. Now something can be taught to you.” With a head, no teaching is possible. The head always comes in between.

 

- Osho, "Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, Vol 1, #1"