One Zen master used to ask his disciples: Some time ago, I put a goose in a bottle. Now the goose has grown, and the neck of the bottle is very small so the goose cannot come out. The bottle is very precious and I don't want to break it, so now there is a crisis. If the goose is not allowed out, she will die. I can break the bottle and the goose will be out, but I don't want to break the bottle - the bottle is precious. I don't want to kill the goose either. So what would you do?
This is the problem! The goose is in the head and the neck is very narrow. You can break the head, but it is precious. Or you can let the goose die, but that too cannot be allowed - because YOU are the goose.
That old Zen master continued asking his disciples, and beating them, and saying to them: Find out a way because there is no time. And only once did he allow an answer. One disciple said: The goose is out!
Many answers were tried, but he would always beat the person and say no. Someone would suggest doing something with the bottle, but again the master would say: The bottle will be broken, or something will go wrong, and that cannot be allowed. Or somebody would say: Let the goose die if the bottle is so precious. These were the only two ways; there was no other way. And the master wouldn't give any other clue.
But to this disciple he bowed down and touched his feet and said: He is right - the goose is out! It has never been in.
YOU ARE OUT! You have NEVER been in. The FEELING that you are in is just a false conception.
So there is NO real problem of how to bring you out of your head. Just watch. When you watch, what happens? Just close your eyes and watch the thoughts. What happens? Thoughts are there, in, but you are not in. The watcher is always beyond. The watcher is always standing on the hill. Everything moves around and around, and the watcher is beyond.
The watcher can NEVER be the in, can never be the insider - he is always out. Watching means to be out. You may call it witnessing, awareness, mindfulness, or whatsoever you choose to call it, but the secret is - watch!
So whenever you feel the head is too much, just sit under a tree and watch, and don't try to come out. Who will come out? No one has been in. The whole effort is futile, because if you have never been in then how can you come out? You may go on trying and trying and getting involved in it, you may get mad but you will never be out.
Once you know that in a moment of watchfulness you are beyond, transcending - you are out. And from that moment you will be headless. The head belongs to the body, not to YOU.
The head is part of the body, it belongs to the body, it has a function in the body, it is beautiful, it is good. The bottle is precious, and if you know the way, the secrets of it, it can be used. When Buddha is preaching, what is he doing? - using the bottle. The bottle is REALLY precious, worth preserving. But this is no way to preserve it - to get into it and get caught into it, and then make efforts to come out. The whole life becomes chaos.
Once you know that watching you are out, you become headless. Then you move on this earth without any head. What a beautiful phenomenon, a man moving without a head!
You cannot even imagine how much silence can descend upon you when the head is not there. Your physical head WILL be there, but the involvement, the obsession, is not there.
The head is not a problem! It is beautiful, a wonderful device, the greatest computer yet invented, such a complex, such an efficient mechanism. It is beautiful. It can be used, you can enjoy using it. But from where have you got the idea that you are in it? It seems to be just a false teaching.
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