It is reported in the life of a great Sufi mystic, Farid, that a king came to see him. He had brought a present for him, a beautiful pair of scissors, golden, studded with diamonds--very valuable, very rare. He touched Farid's feet and gave him the scissors; Farid took them, looked at them, gave them back to the king, and said, "Sir, many thanks for the present that you have brought. It is beautiful, but utterly useless for me. It will be better if you can give me a needle. Scissors I don't need; a needle will do."
The king said, "I don't understand. If you need a needle, you will need scissors too."
Farid said, "I am talking in metaphors. Scissors I don't need because scissors cut things apart. A needle I need because a needle puts things together. I teach love. My whole teaching is based on love--putting things together, teaching people communion. I need a needle so that I can put people together. The scissors are useless; they cut, they disconnect. Next time when you come, just an ordinary needle will be enough."
Logic is like a pair of scissors: it cuts, it makes things divided. Mind is a kind of prism--pass a ray of white light through it and immediately it is divided into seven colors. Pass anything through the mind and it becomes dual. Life and death are not life-and-death, the reality is lifedeath. It should be one word, not two; not even a hyphen in between. Lifedeath is one phenomenon. Lovehate is one phenomenon. Darknesslight is one phenomenon. Negativepositive is one phenomenon. But when you pass this one phenomenon through the mind, the one is divided immediately in two. Lifedeath becomes life and death--not only divided but death becomes antagonistic to life. They are enemies. Now you can go on trying to make these two meet, and they will never meet.
Kipling is right--"East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet." Logically, it is true. How can the East meet the West? How can the West meet the East? But existentially it is utter nonsense. They are meeting everywhere.
For example, you are sitting in India. Is it East or is it West? If you are comparing it with London, it is East; but if you are comparing it with Tokyo, it is West. What exactly is it, East or West? At each point East and West are meeting, and Kipling says, "Never the twain shall meet."
The twain are meeting everywhere. No single point is such that East and West are not meeting and no single man is such that East and West are not meeting. It cannot be otherwise; they have to meet--it is one reality, one sky.
