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Basho wrote:

WHEN A THING IS SAID, THE LIPS BECOME VERY COLD LIKE THE AUTUMN WIND.

Basho is the greatest haiku writer. His haikus have never been surpassed by anyone else.

WHEN A THING IS SAID - his meaning is, when somebody says something out of an authentic experience, when something comes from the silences of your innermost being, THE LIPS BECOME VERY COLD, because you are coming from such a cool place, like the Himalayas.

In your very innermost being everything is cool, so that when some word comes out of the lips, THE LIPS BECOME VERY COLD LIKE THE AUTUMN WIND.

You speak from the mind, you simply repeat what has been conditioned into you. You are not even as intelligent as parrots.

I have heard....

A woman had a beautiful parrot, but he died. She was very desperate and in despair. Her neighbors said, "There is not much to be worried about. Just go to a pet shop and get another parrot, even better than you had before."

So she went, and she loved one parrot, the beauty of it - Suriswarji would have called it Bhagwan.

But the shopkeeper insisted, "Madam, you can choose any - we have hundreds of parrots - but leave that one alone."

The more he insisted, the more the woman said, "Whatever is the price is not the question. I have decided, I will take this parrot."

The shopkeeper said, "If you insist, I will give it to you. It is not a question of the price; it is a question that this parrot has lived in a very ugly place. He comes from the house of a prostitute, so he uses four-letter words" - like Bhagwan!

The woman said, "I will manage, I will teach him. I have no other work. My husband died, and just to replace my husband I took a parrot, because my husband was doing nothing else than what a parrot is capable of doing - and more nicely. I will manage, don't you be worried."

So she took the parrot, and she started teaching him. But the parrot was impossible. She would teach him the Christian, authorized prayer, and he would say, "Fuck it all!" The woman was at a loss what to do with this parrot.

And then came Sunday, and the bishop came for the round. It was early morning, the woman had just got up, and she saw this bishop's car coming towards her home. She had removed the blanket from the parrot's cage, because it was cold winter, but seeing the bishop coming, she again covered the parrot's cage, because nobody knows what this fellow will say. Before the bishop it would be very embarrassing.

As the bishop entered, the parrot inside the cage, hidden behind the blanket, said, "Aha! Today has been very short!" Every day, in the morning the blanket was removed, in the evening the cage was covered again. He said, "Today has been very short. I have never seen such a short day."

The bishop said, "What is the matter? Why have you covered the poor parrot?"

Now the woman was at a loss what to do. She said, "I feel embarrassed, but I have to tell you: he uses four-letter words."

The bishop said, "Don't be worried. I have a parrot myself, who is a very religious and saintly person.

The whole day he goes on counting on the beads, praying to God. You give your parrot for a few days to me, and I will put it in the cage of my parrot. He is so saintly a person that he will teach your parrot to be virtuous, to be Catholic."

And what transpired when the new parrot went in? The other parrot looked into its eyes, and dropped the beads. The bishop could not believe it; he said, "Why have you dropped the beads?"

The parrot said, "My prayer is fulfilled! I was asking for a girlfriend. She has come!"