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When you try to understand Lao Tzu he zigzags. Sometimes you see him going towards the east
and sometimes towards the west, because he says east is west and west is east, they are together,
they are one. He believes in the unity of the opposites. And that is how life is.
So Lao Tzu is just a spokesman of life. If life is absurd, Lao Tzu is absurd; if life has an absurd logic
to it, Lao Tzu has the same logic to it. Lao Tzu simply reflects life. He doesn’t add anything to it, he
doesn’t choose out of it; he simply accepts whatsoever it is.
It is simple to see the spirituality of a Buddha, very simple; it is impossible to miss it, he is so
extraordinary. But it is difficult to see the spirituality of Lao Tzu. He is so ordinary, just like you.
You will have to grow in understanding. A Buddha passes by you – you will immediately recognize
that a superior human being has passed you. He carries the glamor of a superior human being
around him. It is difficult to miss him, almost impossible to miss him. But Lao Tzu… he may be
your neighbor. You may have been missing him because he is so ordinary, he is so extraordinarily
ordinary. And that is the beauty of it.
To become extraordinary is simple: only effort is needed, refinement is needed, cultivation is needed.
It is a deep inner discipline. You can become very very refined, something absolutely unearthly, but
to be ordinary is really the most extraordinary thing. No effort will help – effortlessness is needed.
No practice will help, no methods, no means will be of any help only understanding. Even meditation
will not be of any help. To become a Buddha, meditation will be of help. To become a Lao Tzu, even
meditation won’t help – just understanding. Just understanding life as it is, and living it with courage;
not escaping from it, not hiding from it, facing it with courage, whatsoever it is, good or bad, divine
or evil, heaven or hell