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All great discoveries are made by amateurs.
It always happens that when you start new work, you are very
creative, you are deeply involved, your whole being is in it.
Then by and by, as you become acquainted with the territory,
rather than being inventive and creative you start being
repetitive. This is natural, because the more skilled you
become in any work, the more repetitive you become. Skill is
repetitive.
So all great discoveries are made by amateurs, because a skilled
person has too much at stake. If something new happens, what
will happen to the old skill? The person has learned for years
and now has become an expert. So experts never discover anything
;
they never go beyond the limit of their expertise. On the one
hand, they become more and more skillful, and on the other hand
they become more and more dull and the work seems to be a drag.
Now there is nothing new that can be a thrill to them—they
already know what is going to happen, they know what they are
going to do; there is no surprise in it.
So here is the lesson: It is good to attain to skill, but it is
not good to settle with it forever. Whenever the feeling arises
in you that now the thing is looking stale, change it. Invent
something, add something new, delete something old. Again be
free from the pattern—that means be free from the skill—again
become an amateur. It needs courage and guts, to become an
amateur again, but that’s how life becomes beautiful.
3. Choose Nature
Wherever you find that society is in conflict with nature,
choose nature—whatever the cost. You will never be a loser.
The thinking up to now has been that the individual exists for
the society, that the individual has to follow what the society
dictates. The individual has to fit with the society. That has
become the definition of the normal human being—one who fits
with the society. Even if the society is insane, you have to
fit with it; then you are normal.
Now the problem for the individual is that nature demands one
thing, and society demands something contrary. If the society
were demanding the same as nature demands, there would be no
conflict. We would have remained in the Garden of Eden. The
problem arises because society has its own interests, which are
not necessarily in tune with the interests of the individual.
Society has its own investments, and the individual has to be
sacrificed. This is a very topsy-turvy world. It should be just
the other way round. The individual does not exist for the
society, the society exists for the individual. Because society
is just an institution, it has no soul. The individual has the
soul, is the conscious center.
4. An Echoing Place
The world is an echoing place. If we throw anger, anger comes
back; if we give love, love comes back.
Love should not be demanding; otherwise it loses wings, it
cannot fly. It becomes rooted in the earth becomes very earthly;
then it is lust and it brings great misery and great suffering.
Love should not be conditional, one should not expect anything
out of it. It should be for its own sake—not for any reward, not
for any result. If there is some motive in it, again, your love
cannot become the sky. It is confined to the motive; the motive
becomes its definition, its boundary. Unmotivated love has no
boundary: It is pure elation, exuberance, it is the fragrance of
the heart.
And just because there is no desire for any result, it does not
mean that results do not happen; they do, they happen a
thousandfold, because whatever we give to the world comes back,
it rebounds. The world is an echoing place. If we throw anger,
anger comes back; if we give love, love comes back. But that
is a natural phenomenon; one need not think about it. One can
trust: It happens on its own. This is the law of karma: Whatever
you sow, you reap; whatever you give, you receive. So there is
no need to think about it, it is automatic. Hate, and you will
be hated. Love, and you will be loved.
5. Retrospective Wisdom
The other is never responsible. Just watch. If you become wise
in the moment, there will be no problem. But everybody becomes
wise when the moment is gone. Retrospective wisdom is worthless.
When you have done everything, you have fought and nagged and
bitched and then you become wise and see that there was no
point in it, it is too late. It is meaningless—you have already
done the harm. This wisdom is just pseudo-wisdom. It gives you
a feeling "as if" you have understood. That is a trick of the
ego. This wisdom is not going to help. When you are doing the
thing, at that very moment, simultaneously, the awareness should
arise, and you should see that what you are doing is useless.
If you can see it when it is there, then you cannot do it. One
can never go against one’s awareness, and if one goes against
it, that awareness is not awareness. Something else is being
mistaken for it.
So remember, the other is never responsible for anything. The
problem is something boiling within you. And of course the one
you love is closest. You cannot throw it on some stranger
passing on the road, so the closest person becomes the place
where you go on throwing and pouring your nonsense. But that
has to be avoided, because love is very fragile. If you do it
too much, if you overdo it, love can disappear.
The other is never responsible. Try to make this such a
permanent state of awareness in you that whenever you start
finding something wrong with the other, remember it. Catch
yourself red-handed, and drop it then and there. And ask to be
s forgiven.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Book of Secrets
"Tantra says, accept whatsoever you are. This is the basic note
-- total acceptance. And only through total acceptance can you
grow. Then use every energy you have.
How can you use them? Accept them, then find out what these
energies are -- what is sex, what is this phenomenon. We are
not acquainted with it. We know many things about sex, taught
by others. We may have passed through the sex act, but with a
guilty mind, with a suppressive attitude, in haste, in a hurry.
Something has to be done in order to become unburdened. The
sex act is not a loving act. You are not happy in it, but you
cannot leave it. The more you try to leave it, the more
attractive it becomes. The more you want to negate it, the more
you feel invited. You cannot negate it, but this attitude to
negate, to destroy, destroys the very mind, the very awareness,
the very sensitivity which can understand it. So sex goes on
with no sensitivity into it. Then you cannot understand it.
Only a deep sensitivity can understand anything; only a deep
feeling, a deep moving into it, can understand anything. You
can understand sex only if you move in it as a poet moves amidst
flowers -- only then! If you feel guilty about flowers, you may
pass through the garden, but you will pass with closed eyes.
And you will be in a hurry, in a deep, mad haste. Somehow you
have to go out of the garden. Then how can you be aware?
So tantra says, accept whatsoever you are. You are a great
mystery of many multidimensional energies. Accept it, and move
with every energy with deep sensitivity, with awareness, with
love, with understanding. Move with it! Then every desire
becomes a vehicle to go beyond it. Then every energy becomes a
help. And then this very world is nirvana, this very body is a
temple -- a holy temple, a holy place.
Question: WHAT ARE THE INDICATIONS TO KNOW THAT A PARTICULAR
TECHNIQUE WILL WORK FOR ME? (from Chapter 2, The Book of Secrets)
There are indications. One, you begin to feel a different
identity within you. You are no more the same. If the technique
fits you, immediately you are a different person. If you are a
husband, you are no more the same husband. If you are a
shopkeeper, you are never again the same shopkeeper. Whatsoever
you are, if the technique fits you, you are a different person;
that is the first indication.
So if you begin to feel strange about yourself, know that
something is happening to you. If you remain the same and do
not feel any strangeness, nothing is happening. This is the
first indication of whether a technique fits you. If it fits,
immediately you are transported, transformed into a different
person. Suddenly this happens: you look at the world in a
different way. The eyes are the same, but the looker behind
them is different.
Secondly, all that creates tensions, conflicts, starts dropping.
It is not that when you have practiced the method for years,
then your conflicts, anxieties, tensions will drop -- no! If
the method fits you, immediately they start dropping. You can
feel an aliveness coming to you; you are being unburdened. You
will begin to feel, if the technique fits you, that gravity has
become reversed. Now the earth is not pulling you down. Rather,
the sky is pulling you up.
How do you feel when an airplane takes off? Everything is
disturbed. Suddenly there is a jerk, and gravity becomes
meaningless. Now the earth is not pulling you, you are going
away from gravity. The same jerk happens if a meditative
technique fits you. Suddenly you take off. Suddenly you feel
the earth has become meaningless; there is no gravity. It is
not pulling you down, you are being pulled up.
In religious terminology, this is called "grace." There are two
forces -- gravity and grace. Grace means you are being pulled
upwards; gravity means you are being pulled downwards. That is
why in meditation many people suddenly feel they have no weight.
That is why many people feel an inner levitation. So many have
reported this to me when the technique fits them: "This is
strange! We close our eyes and we feel that we are a little bit
above the earth -- one foot, two feet, even four feet above the
earth. When we open our eyes we are just on the ground; when we
close our eyes we have levitated. So what is this? When we open
our eyes we are just on the ground! We never levitated."
The body remains on the ground, but you levitate. This
levitation is really a pull from the above.
If the technique fits you have been pulled, because the working
of the technique is to make available for you the upward pull.
This is what the technique means: to make you available for the
force which can pull you up. So if it fits, you know -- you
have become weightless.
Thirdly, whatsoever you will now do --whatsoever, howsoever
trivial, -- will be different. You will walk in a different
way, you will sit in a different way, you will eat in a
different way. Everything will be different. This difference
you will feel everywhere. Sometimes this strange experience of
being different creates fear. One wants again to go back and be
the same, because one was so attuned with the old. It was a
routine world, even boring, but you were efficient in it. Now
everywhere you will feel a gap. You will feel that your
efficiency is lost. You will feel that your utility is reduced.
You will feel that everywhere you are an outsider.
One has to pass through this period. You will become attuned
again. You have changed, not the world, so you will not fit.
So remember the third thing: When the technique fits you, you
will not fit into the world. You will become unfit. Everywhere
something is loose, some bolt is missing. Everywhere you will
feel that there has been an earthquake. And everything has
remained the same; only you, you have become different. But you
will be attuned again on a different plane, on a higher plane.
The disturbance is felt just like when a child grows and becomes
sexually mature. At the age of fourteen or fifteen every boy
feels that he has become strange. A new force has entered -- sex
. It was not there before, or it was, but it was hidden. Now for
the first time he has become available for a new kind of force.
That is why boys are very awkward; girls, boys, when they
become sexually mature they are very awkward. They are nowhere.
They are no longer children and they are not yet men, so they
are in between, fitting nowhere. If they play with small
children they feel awkward -- they have become men. If they
start making friendships with men they feel awkward -- they
are still children. They fit with no one.
The same phenomenon happens when a technique fits you. A new
energy source becomes available that is greater than sex. You
are again in a transitory period. Now you cannot fit in this
world of worldly men. You are not a child, and you cannot yet
fit in the world of saints; and in between one feels awkward.
If a technique fits you these three things will come up.
You may not have expected that I would say these things. You
may have expected that I would say you will become more silent,
more quiet, and I am saying quite the contrary: you will
become more disturbed. When the technique fits you will become
more disturbed, not more silent. Silence will come later on.
And if silence comes and not disturbance, know well that this
is not a technique; this is just getting adjusted to the old
pattern. That is why more people go for a prayer than for
meditation because prayer gives you a consolation. It fits you,
adjusts to you, to your world.
Prayer was doing virtually the same thing that psychoanalysts
are now doing. If you are disturbed they will make you less
disturbed, adjusted to the pattern, to the society, to the
family. So by going to a psychoanalyst for one, two or three
years you will not get better, but you will be more adjusted.
Prayer does the same thing, and priests do the same thing --
they make you more adjusted. Your child has died and you are
disturbed, and you go to a priest. He says, "Do not be disturbed.
Only those children die early whom God loves more. He calls
them up." You feel satisfied. Your child has been "called up."
God loves him more. Or the priest says something else: "Do not
be worried, the soul never dies. Your child is in heaven."
These prayers, they make you adjusted to the pattern... you
feel better.
Meditation is a science. It is not going to help you in
adjustment, it is going to help you in transformation.
That is why I say these three signs will be there as
indications. Silence will come, but not as an adjustment.
Silence will come as an inner flowering. Then silence will not
be an adjustment with the society, with the family, the world,
the business -- no! Then silence will be a real harmony with
the universe. Then a deep harmony flowers between you and the
totality, then there is silence -- but that will come later.
First you will get disturbed, first you will become mad. If a
technique fits, it will make you aware of everything that you
are. Your anarchy, your mind, your madness, everything will come
to light. You are just a dark mess. When a technique fits, it
is as if suddenly there is light and the whole mess becomes
apparent. For the first time you will encounter yourself as
you are. You would like to put the light off and go to sleep
again -- it is fearful.
This is the point where the master becomes helpful. He says,
"Do not be afraid. This is just the beginning. And do not
escape from it." At first this light shows you what you are,
and if you can go on and on, it transforms you toward what you
can be.
TRY THIS TECHNIQUE: (from The Book of Secrets, Chapter 49)
IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER
SUCH CLARITY.
Mind is confusion; there is no clarity. And mind is always
crowded, always cloudy -- never the open sky, cloudless, empty;
mind cannot be that. You cannot make your mind clear; it is
not the nature of the mind to be so. Mind will remain unclear.
If you can leave the mind behind, if you can suddenly transcend
the mind and come out of it, clarity will happen to you. You
can be clear, but not the mind. There is not such a thing as a
clear mind; never has been and never will be. Mind means the
unclarity, the confusion.
Try to understand the structure of the mind, and then this
technique will be clear to you. What is mind? A continuous
process of thought, a continuous procession of thoughts --
associated, non-associated, relevant, irrelevant -- many,
multi-dimensional impressions gathered from everywhere. The
whole of life is a gathering, a gathering of the dust. And this
goes on and on.
A child is born. A child is clear because the mind is not there.
The moment mind appears, the unclarity, the confusion enters.
A child is clear, a clarity, but he will have to gather
knowledge, information, culture, religion, conditionings --
necessary, useful. He will have to gather many things from
everywhere, from many sources -- opposite, contradictory sources
. From thousands and thousands of sources he will gather. Then
the mind will become a marketplace, a crowd, and because of so
many sources, confusion is bound to be there. And whatsoever
you gather, nothing is certain, because knowledge is always a
growing affair.
I remember, someone related an anecdote to me. He was a great
searcher, and he told me this about his professor who taught
him for five years in a medical college. The professor was a
great scholar of his subject. The last thing he did was to
gather his students and tell them, "One thing more I have to
teach you. Whatsoever I have taught you is only fifty percent
correct, and the remaining fifty percent is absolutely wrong.
But the trouble, is, I don’t know which fifty percent is correct
and which fifty percent is incorrect -- I don’t know."
The whole edifice of knowledge is such. Nothing is certain, no
one knows, everyone is groping. Through groping we create
systems, and there are thousands and thousands of systems.
Hindus say something, Christians say something else, Mohammedans
still something else -- all contradictory, all contradicting
each other; no agreement, no certainty -- and all these sources
are the sources for your mind. You collect: your mind becomes
a junkyard; confusion is bound to be there.
Only a person who doesn’t know much can be certain. The more
you know, the more uncertain you will become. People, primitive
people, were more certain and appeared to be more clear. There
was no clarity -- simply unawareness of facts that could
contradict them. If the modern mind is more confused, the reason
is that the modern mind knows more. If you know more you will
be more confused, because now you have more knowledge, and the
more you know, the more uncertain you become. Only idiots can
be certain, only idiots can be dogmatic, only idiots will never
hesitate. The more you know, the more the earth is taken away
from your feet, the more hesitant you become.
What I mean to say is, the more the mind grows, the more you
will know the nature of the mind is confusion. When I say only
idiots can be certain, I don’t mean that a Buddha is an idiot
-- because he is not uncertain. Remember the difference. He is
not certain, he is not uncertain -- he is simply clear. With the
mind, uncertainty; with the idiotic mind, certainty. With no
mind both certainty and uncertainty disappear.
Buddha is a clarity, a space, open space. He is not certain --
there is nothing to be certain. He is not uncertain, because
there is nothing to be uncertain. Only one who is seeking
certainty can be uncertain. Mind is always uncertain and always
seeking certainty; always confused and always seeking clarity.
A Buddha is one who has dropped the mind; and with the mind
all confusion, all certainty, all uncertainty, everything is
dropped.
Look at it in this way: your consciousness is just like the sky
and your mind is just like the clouds. The sky remains
untouched by the clouds. They come and go; no scar is left
behind. The sky remains virgin: no record, no footprints,
nothing of the clouds, no memory. They come and they go; the
sky remains undisturbed.
This is the case within you also: the consciousness remains
undisturbed. Thoughts come and go, minds evolve and disappear.
And don’t think that you have one mind; you have many minds,
it is a crowd. Your minds go on changing. You are a communist,
so you have a certain type of mind. You can leave it and you
can become anti-communist. Then you have a different mind; not
only different, quite the opposite. You can go on changing
your minds just like your dress. And you go on changing -- you
may not be aware of it -- these clouds come and go.
Clarity can be achieved if you become aware of the sky; if your
focus changes. You are focused on the clouds if you are
unfocused on the sky. Unfocus on the clouds and focus on the
sky.
This technique says: IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY
ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER SUCH CLARITY.
Meditate on the sky; a summer sky with no clouds, endlessly
empty and clear, nothing moving in it, in its total virginity.
Contemplate on it, meditate on it, and enter this clarity.
Become this clarity, this space-like clarity.
If you meditate on open unclouded sky, suddenly you will feel
that the mind is disappearing, the mind is dropping away. There
will be gaps. Suddenly you will become aware that it is as if
the clear sky has entered in you also. There will be intervals.
For a time, thoughts will cease -- as if the traffic has
ceased and there is no one moving.
In the beginning it will be only for moments, but even those
moments are transforming. By and by the mind will slow down,
bigger gaps will appear. For minutes together there will be no
thought, no cloud. And when there is no thought, no cloud, the
outer sky and the inner become one -- because only the thought
is the barrier, only the thought creates the wall; only because
of the thought the outer is outer and the inner is inner.
When the thought is not there, the outer and the inner lose
their boundaries, they become one. Really, boundaries never
existed there. They appeared only because of the thought, the
barrier.
To meditate on the sky is beautiful. Just lie down so you forget
the earth; just lie down on your back on any lonely beach, on
any ground, and just look at the sky. But a clear sky will be
helpful -- unclouded, endless. And just looking, staring at
the sky, feel the clarity of it -- the uncloudedness, the
boundless expanse -- and then enter that clarity, become one
with it. Feel as if you have become the sky, the space.
In the beginning, if you only meditate on the open sky, not
doing anything else, intervals will start appearing, because
whatsoever you see enters you. Whatsoever you see stirs you
within; whatsoever you see is pictured, reflected. You see a
building. You cannot simply see it; something immediately starts
happening within you. You see a man, a woman; you see a car --
you see anything. It is not just outside, something has started
within, the reflection, and you have started reacting to it. So
everything you see moulds you, makes you, modifies you, creates
you. The without is constantly related with the within.
To look into the open sky is good. Just the expanse is beautiful
, with no boundaries there. Your own boundaries will disappear,
because the no-boundary sky will reflect within you. And if
you can stare without blinking your eyes it will be good. If
you stare without blinking your eyes... because if you blink
your eyes your thought-process will continue. Stare without
blinking the eyes. Stare in the emptiness, move into that
emptiness, feel that you have become one with it, and any
moment the sky will enter within you. First you enter into the
sky and then the sky enters you. And there is a meeting: the
inner sky meeting the outer sky.
In that meeting is realization. In that meeting there is no
mind, because the meeting can happen only when the mind is
not there. In that meeting you are for the first time not your
mind. There is no confusion. Confusion cannot exist without
the mind. There is no misery, because misery also cannot exist
without the mind.
Have you observed this fact anytime or not -- that misery cannot
exist without your mind? You cannot be miserable without your
mind. The very source is not there. Who will supply you with
this misery? Who will make you miserable? And the same is true
from the opposite direction also: you cannot be miserable
without your mind and you cannot be blissful with your mind.
The mind can never be the source of bliss.
So if the inner and outer sky meet and mind disappears, even
for a moment, you will be filled with a new life. The quality
of that life is absolutely different. It is life eternal,
uncontaminated by death, uncontaminated by any fear. In that
meeting you will be here and now, in the present -- because
past belongs to thoughts, future belongs to thoughts.
Past and future are part of your mind. Present is existence --
it is not part of your mind. This moment doesn’t belong to
your mind. The moment that has gone belongs to your mind; the
moment that has yet to come belongs to your mind. This moment
never belongs to you. Rather, you belong to this moment. You
exist here, right now here. Your mind exists somewhere else,
always somewhere else.
Unload yourself. I was reading one Sufi mystic. He was traveling
on a lonely path, the way was deserted, and he saw a farmer
with his bullock cart. The cart was stuck in mud. The road was
rough. The farmer was carrying a big load of apples in his
bullock cart, but somewhere on the rough road the tailboard of
the wagon became unfastened and the apples were scattered. But
he was not aware of it; the farmer was not aware of it. When
the cart got stuck in the mud, first he tried to bring it out
somehow, but all efforts were in vain, so he thought, "Now I
must unload my cart, then maybe I can pull it out." He looked
back. Hardly a dozen apples were left -- the load was already
unloaded! You can feel his misery. The Sufi reports in his
memoirs that that exasperated farmer made a remark. He said,
"Stuck, by heck! Stuck! -- and not a damn thing to unload!"
The only possibility was that if he could unload the cart it
could come out; but now -- nothing to unload!
Fortunately you are not stuck in such a way. You can unload --
your cart is too much loaded. You can unload the mind, and
the moment the mind is not there, you fly; you become capable
of flying.
This technique -- to look into the clarity of the sky and to
become one with it -- is one of the most practiced. Many
traditions have used this. And particularly for the modern mind
it will be very useful, because on earth nothing is left. On
earth nothing is left to meditate on -- only the sky. If you
look all around, everything is man-made, everything is limited,
with a boundary, a limitation. Only the sky is still,
fortunately, open to meditate on.
Try this technique, it will be helpful, but remember three
things. One: don’t blink -- stare. Even if your eyes start to
feel pain and tears come down, don’t be worried. Even those
tears will be a part of unloading; they will be helpful. Those
tears will make your eyes more innocent and fresh -- bathed.
You just go on staring.
The second point: don’t think about the sky, remember. You can
start thinking about the sky. You can remember many poems,
beautiful poems about the sky -- then you will miss the point.
You are not to think "about" it -- you are to enter it, you
are to be one with it -- because if you start thinking about
it, again a barrier is created. You are missing the sky again,
and you are again enclosed in your own mind. Don’t think about
the sky. Be the sky. Just stare and move into the sky, and
allow the sky to move in you. If you move into the sky, the sky
will move into you immediately.
How can you do it? How will you do it -- this moving into the
sky? Just go on staring farther away and farther away. Go on
staring -- as if you are trying to find the boundary. Move deep.
Move as much as you can. That very movement will break the
barrier. And this method should be practiced for at least forty
minutes; less than that will not do, will not be of much help.
When you really feel that you have become one, then you can
close the eyes. When the sky has entered in you, you can close
the eyes. You will be able to see it within also. Then there is
no need. So only after forty minutes, when you feel that the
oneness has happened and there is a communion and you have
become part of it and the mind is no more, close the eyes and
remain in the sky within.
The clarity will help the third point: ENTER SUCH CLARITY. The
clarity will help -- the uncontaminated, unclouded sky. Just
be aware of the clarity that is all around you. Don’t think
about it; just be aware of the clarity, the purity, the
innocence. These words are not to be repeated. You have to feel
them rather than think. And once you stare into the sky the
feeling will come, because it is not on your part to imagine
these things -- they are there. If you stare they will start
happening to you.
The sky is pure, the purest thing in existence. Nothing makes it
impure. Worlds come and go, earths are there and then disappear
, and the sky remains pure. The purity is there. You need not
project it, you are simply to feel it -- to be vulnerable to
it so you can feel it -- and the clarity is there. Allow the
sky to happen to you. You cannot force it; you can only allow
it to happen.
All meditations are really allowing something to happen. Never
think in terms of aggression, never think in terms of forcing
something. You cannot force anything. Really, because you have
been trying to force, you have created all kinds of misery.
Nothing can be forced, but you can allow things to happen. Be
feminine. Allow things to happen. Be passive. The sky is
absolutely passive: not doing anything at all, just remaining
there. Just be passive and remain under the sky -- vulnerable,
open, feminine, with no aggression on your part -- and then
the sky will penetrate you.
IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER
SUCH CLARITY.
But if it is not summer what will you do? If the sky is clouded,
not clear, then close your eyes and just enter the inner sky.
Just close your eyes, and if you see some thoughts, just see
them as if they are floating clouds in the sky. Be aware of the
background, the sky, and be indifferent to thoughts.
We are too much concerned with thoughts and never aware of the
gaps. One thought passes, and before another enters there is a
gap -- in that gap the sky is there. Then, whenever there is no
thought, what is there? The emptiness is there. So if the sky
is clouded -- it is not summertime and the sky is not clear --
close your eyes, focus your mind on the background, the inner
sky in which thoughts come and go.
Don’t pay much attention to thoughts; pay attention to the
space in which they move. For example, we are sitting in this
room. I can look at this room in two ways. Either I can look
at you, so that I am indifferent to the space you are in, the
roominess, the room you are in -- I look at you, I focus my
mind on you who are here, and not on the room in which you are
-- or, I can change my focus: I can look into the room, and I
become indifferent to you. You are there, but my emphasis, my
focus, is on the room. Then the total perspective changes.
Just do this in the inner world. Look at the space. Thoughts
are moving in it: be indifferent to them, don’t pay any
attention to them. They are there; note it down that they are
there, moving. The traffic is moving in the street. Look at
the street and be indifferent to the traffic. Don’t look to see
who is passing; just know that something is passing and be
aware of the space in which it is passing.
Then the summer sky happens within."
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-- total acceptance. And only through total acceptance can you
grow. Then use every energy you have.
How can you use them? Accept them, then find out what these
energies are -- what is sex, what is this phenomenon. We are
not acquainted with it. We know many things about sex, taught
by others. We may have passed through the sex act, but with a
guilty mind, with a suppressive attitude, in haste, in a hurry.
Something has to be done in order to become unburdened. The
sex act is not a loving act. You are not happy in it, but you
cannot leave it. The more you try to leave it, the more
attractive it becomes. The more you want to negate it, the more
you feel invited. You cannot negate it, but this attitude to
negate, to destroy, destroys the very mind, the very awareness,
the very sensitivity which can understand it. So sex goes on
with no sensitivity into it. Then you cannot understand it.
Only a deep sensitivity can understand anything; only a deep
feeling, a deep moving into it, can understand anything. You
can understand sex only if you move in it as a poet moves amidst
flowers -- only then! If you feel guilty about flowers, you may
pass through the garden, but you will pass with closed eyes.
And you will be in a hurry, in a deep, mad haste. Somehow you
have to go out of the garden. Then how can you be aware?
So tantra says, accept whatsoever you are. You are a great
mystery of many multidimensional energies. Accept it, and move
with every energy with deep sensitivity, with awareness, with
love, with understanding. Move with it! Then every desire
becomes a vehicle to go beyond it. Then every energy becomes a
help. And then this very world is nirvana, this very body is a
temple -- a holy temple, a holy place.
Question: WHAT ARE THE INDICATIONS TO KNOW THAT A PARTICULAR
TECHNIQUE WILL WORK FOR ME? (from Chapter 2, The Book of Secrets)
There are indications. One, you begin to feel a different
identity within you. You are no more the same. If the technique
fits you, immediately you are a different person. If you are a
husband, you are no more the same husband. If you are a
shopkeeper, you are never again the same shopkeeper. Whatsoever
you are, if the technique fits you, you are a different person;
that is the first indication.
So if you begin to feel strange about yourself, know that
something is happening to you. If you remain the same and do
not feel any strangeness, nothing is happening. This is the
first indication of whether a technique fits you. If it fits,
immediately you are transported, transformed into a different
person. Suddenly this happens: you look at the world in a
different way. The eyes are the same, but the looker behind
them is different.
Secondly, all that creates tensions, conflicts, starts dropping.
It is not that when you have practiced the method for years,
then your conflicts, anxieties, tensions will drop -- no! If
the method fits you, immediately they start dropping. You can
feel an aliveness coming to you; you are being unburdened. You
will begin to feel, if the technique fits you, that gravity has
become reversed. Now the earth is not pulling you down. Rather,
the sky is pulling you up.
How do you feel when an airplane takes off? Everything is
disturbed. Suddenly there is a jerk, and gravity becomes
meaningless. Now the earth is not pulling you, you are going
away from gravity. The same jerk happens if a meditative
technique fits you. Suddenly you take off. Suddenly you feel
the earth has become meaningless; there is no gravity. It is
not pulling you down, you are being pulled up.
In religious terminology, this is called "grace." There are two
forces -- gravity and grace. Grace means you are being pulled
upwards; gravity means you are being pulled downwards. That is
why in meditation many people suddenly feel they have no weight.
That is why many people feel an inner levitation. So many have
reported this to me when the technique fits them: "This is
strange! We close our eyes and we feel that we are a little bit
above the earth -- one foot, two feet, even four feet above the
earth. When we open our eyes we are just on the ground; when we
close our eyes we have levitated. So what is this? When we open
our eyes we are just on the ground! We never levitated."
The body remains on the ground, but you levitate. This
levitation is really a pull from the above.
If the technique fits you have been pulled, because the working
of the technique is to make available for you the upward pull.
This is what the technique means: to make you available for the
force which can pull you up. So if it fits, you know -- you
have become weightless.
Thirdly, whatsoever you will now do --whatsoever, howsoever
trivial, -- will be different. You will walk in a different
way, you will sit in a different way, you will eat in a
different way. Everything will be different. This difference
you will feel everywhere. Sometimes this strange experience of
being different creates fear. One wants again to go back and be
the same, because one was so attuned with the old. It was a
routine world, even boring, but you were efficient in it. Now
everywhere you will feel a gap. You will feel that your
efficiency is lost. You will feel that your utility is reduced.
You will feel that everywhere you are an outsider.
One has to pass through this period. You will become attuned
again. You have changed, not the world, so you will not fit.
So remember the third thing: When the technique fits you, you
will not fit into the world. You will become unfit. Everywhere
something is loose, some bolt is missing. Everywhere you will
feel that there has been an earthquake. And everything has
remained the same; only you, you have become different. But you
will be attuned again on a different plane, on a higher plane.
The disturbance is felt just like when a child grows and becomes
sexually mature. At the age of fourteen or fifteen every boy
feels that he has become strange. A new force has entered -- sex
. It was not there before, or it was, but it was hidden. Now for
the first time he has become available for a new kind of force.
That is why boys are very awkward; girls, boys, when they
become sexually mature they are very awkward. They are nowhere.
They are no longer children and they are not yet men, so they
are in between, fitting nowhere. If they play with small
children they feel awkward -- they have become men. If they
start making friendships with men they feel awkward -- they
are still children. They fit with no one.
The same phenomenon happens when a technique fits you. A new
energy source becomes available that is greater than sex. You
are again in a transitory period. Now you cannot fit in this
world of worldly men. You are not a child, and you cannot yet
fit in the world of saints; and in between one feels awkward.
If a technique fits you these three things will come up.
You may not have expected that I would say these things. You
may have expected that I would say you will become more silent,
more quiet, and I am saying quite the contrary: you will
become more disturbed. When the technique fits you will become
more disturbed, not more silent. Silence will come later on.
And if silence comes and not disturbance, know well that this
is not a technique; this is just getting adjusted to the old
pattern. That is why more people go for a prayer than for
meditation because prayer gives you a consolation. It fits you,
adjusts to you, to your world.
Prayer was doing virtually the same thing that psychoanalysts
are now doing. If you are disturbed they will make you less
disturbed, adjusted to the pattern, to the society, to the
family. So by going to a psychoanalyst for one, two or three
years you will not get better, but you will be more adjusted.
Prayer does the same thing, and priests do the same thing --
they make you more adjusted. Your child has died and you are
disturbed, and you go to a priest. He says, "Do not be disturbed.
Only those children die early whom God loves more. He calls
them up." You feel satisfied. Your child has been "called up."
God loves him more. Or the priest says something else: "Do not
be worried, the soul never dies. Your child is in heaven."
These prayers, they make you adjusted to the pattern... you
feel better.
Meditation is a science. It is not going to help you in
adjustment, it is going to help you in transformation.
That is why I say these three signs will be there as
indications. Silence will come, but not as an adjustment.
Silence will come as an inner flowering. Then silence will not
be an adjustment with the society, with the family, the world,
the business -- no! Then silence will be a real harmony with
the universe. Then a deep harmony flowers between you and the
totality, then there is silence -- but that will come later.
First you will get disturbed, first you will become mad. If a
technique fits, it will make you aware of everything that you
are. Your anarchy, your mind, your madness, everything will come
to light. You are just a dark mess. When a technique fits, it
is as if suddenly there is light and the whole mess becomes
apparent. For the first time you will encounter yourself as
you are. You would like to put the light off and go to sleep
again -- it is fearful.
This is the point where the master becomes helpful. He says,
"Do not be afraid. This is just the beginning. And do not
escape from it." At first this light shows you what you are,
and if you can go on and on, it transforms you toward what you
can be.
TRY THIS TECHNIQUE: (from The Book of Secrets, Chapter 49)
IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER
SUCH CLARITY.
Mind is confusion; there is no clarity. And mind is always
crowded, always cloudy -- never the open sky, cloudless, empty;
mind cannot be that. You cannot make your mind clear; it is
not the nature of the mind to be so. Mind will remain unclear.
If you can leave the mind behind, if you can suddenly transcend
the mind and come out of it, clarity will happen to you. You
can be clear, but not the mind. There is not such a thing as a
clear mind; never has been and never will be. Mind means the
unclarity, the confusion.
Try to understand the structure of the mind, and then this
technique will be clear to you. What is mind? A continuous
process of thought, a continuous procession of thoughts --
associated, non-associated, relevant, irrelevant -- many,
multi-dimensional impressions gathered from everywhere. The
whole of life is a gathering, a gathering of the dust. And this
goes on and on.
A child is born. A child is clear because the mind is not there.
The moment mind appears, the unclarity, the confusion enters.
A child is clear, a clarity, but he will have to gather
knowledge, information, culture, religion, conditionings --
necessary, useful. He will have to gather many things from
everywhere, from many sources -- opposite, contradictory sources
. From thousands and thousands of sources he will gather. Then
the mind will become a marketplace, a crowd, and because of so
many sources, confusion is bound to be there. And whatsoever
you gather, nothing is certain, because knowledge is always a
growing affair.
I remember, someone related an anecdote to me. He was a great
searcher, and he told me this about his professor who taught
him for five years in a medical college. The professor was a
great scholar of his subject. The last thing he did was to
gather his students and tell them, "One thing more I have to
teach you. Whatsoever I have taught you is only fifty percent
correct, and the remaining fifty percent is absolutely wrong.
But the trouble, is, I don’t know which fifty percent is correct
and which fifty percent is incorrect -- I don’t know."
The whole edifice of knowledge is such. Nothing is certain, no
one knows, everyone is groping. Through groping we create
systems, and there are thousands and thousands of systems.
Hindus say something, Christians say something else, Mohammedans
still something else -- all contradictory, all contradicting
each other; no agreement, no certainty -- and all these sources
are the sources for your mind. You collect: your mind becomes
a junkyard; confusion is bound to be there.
Only a person who doesn’t know much can be certain. The more
you know, the more uncertain you will become. People, primitive
people, were more certain and appeared to be more clear. There
was no clarity -- simply unawareness of facts that could
contradict them. If the modern mind is more confused, the reason
is that the modern mind knows more. If you know more you will
be more confused, because now you have more knowledge, and the
more you know, the more uncertain you become. Only idiots can
be certain, only idiots can be dogmatic, only idiots will never
hesitate. The more you know, the more the earth is taken away
from your feet, the more hesitant you become.
What I mean to say is, the more the mind grows, the more you
will know the nature of the mind is confusion. When I say only
idiots can be certain, I don’t mean that a Buddha is an idiot
-- because he is not uncertain. Remember the difference. He is
not certain, he is not uncertain -- he is simply clear. With the
mind, uncertainty; with the idiotic mind, certainty. With no
mind both certainty and uncertainty disappear.
Buddha is a clarity, a space, open space. He is not certain --
there is nothing to be certain. He is not uncertain, because
there is nothing to be uncertain. Only one who is seeking
certainty can be uncertain. Mind is always uncertain and always
seeking certainty; always confused and always seeking clarity.
A Buddha is one who has dropped the mind; and with the mind
all confusion, all certainty, all uncertainty, everything is
dropped.
Look at it in this way: your consciousness is just like the sky
and your mind is just like the clouds. The sky remains
untouched by the clouds. They come and go; no scar is left
behind. The sky remains virgin: no record, no footprints,
nothing of the clouds, no memory. They come and they go; the
sky remains undisturbed.
This is the case within you also: the consciousness remains
undisturbed. Thoughts come and go, minds evolve and disappear.
And don’t think that you have one mind; you have many minds,
it is a crowd. Your minds go on changing. You are a communist,
so you have a certain type of mind. You can leave it and you
can become anti-communist. Then you have a different mind; not
only different, quite the opposite. You can go on changing
your minds just like your dress. And you go on changing -- you
may not be aware of it -- these clouds come and go.
Clarity can be achieved if you become aware of the sky; if your
focus changes. You are focused on the clouds if you are
unfocused on the sky. Unfocus on the clouds and focus on the
sky.
This technique says: IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY
ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER SUCH CLARITY.
Meditate on the sky; a summer sky with no clouds, endlessly
empty and clear, nothing moving in it, in its total virginity.
Contemplate on it, meditate on it, and enter this clarity.
Become this clarity, this space-like clarity.
If you meditate on open unclouded sky, suddenly you will feel
that the mind is disappearing, the mind is dropping away. There
will be gaps. Suddenly you will become aware that it is as if
the clear sky has entered in you also. There will be intervals.
For a time, thoughts will cease -- as if the traffic has
ceased and there is no one moving.
In the beginning it will be only for moments, but even those
moments are transforming. By and by the mind will slow down,
bigger gaps will appear. For minutes together there will be no
thought, no cloud. And when there is no thought, no cloud, the
outer sky and the inner become one -- because only the thought
is the barrier, only the thought creates the wall; only because
of the thought the outer is outer and the inner is inner.
When the thought is not there, the outer and the inner lose
their boundaries, they become one. Really, boundaries never
existed there. They appeared only because of the thought, the
barrier.
To meditate on the sky is beautiful. Just lie down so you forget
the earth; just lie down on your back on any lonely beach, on
any ground, and just look at the sky. But a clear sky will be
helpful -- unclouded, endless. And just looking, staring at
the sky, feel the clarity of it -- the uncloudedness, the
boundless expanse -- and then enter that clarity, become one
with it. Feel as if you have become the sky, the space.
In the beginning, if you only meditate on the open sky, not
doing anything else, intervals will start appearing, because
whatsoever you see enters you. Whatsoever you see stirs you
within; whatsoever you see is pictured, reflected. You see a
building. You cannot simply see it; something immediately starts
happening within you. You see a man, a woman; you see a car --
you see anything. It is not just outside, something has started
within, the reflection, and you have started reacting to it. So
everything you see moulds you, makes you, modifies you, creates
you. The without is constantly related with the within.
To look into the open sky is good. Just the expanse is beautiful
, with no boundaries there. Your own boundaries will disappear,
because the no-boundary sky will reflect within you. And if
you can stare without blinking your eyes it will be good. If
you stare without blinking your eyes... because if you blink
your eyes your thought-process will continue. Stare without
blinking the eyes. Stare in the emptiness, move into that
emptiness, feel that you have become one with it, and any
moment the sky will enter within you. First you enter into the
sky and then the sky enters you. And there is a meeting: the
inner sky meeting the outer sky.
In that meeting is realization. In that meeting there is no
mind, because the meeting can happen only when the mind is
not there. In that meeting you are for the first time not your
mind. There is no confusion. Confusion cannot exist without
the mind. There is no misery, because misery also cannot exist
without the mind.
Have you observed this fact anytime or not -- that misery cannot
exist without your mind? You cannot be miserable without your
mind. The very source is not there. Who will supply you with
this misery? Who will make you miserable? And the same is true
from the opposite direction also: you cannot be miserable
without your mind and you cannot be blissful with your mind.
The mind can never be the source of bliss.
So if the inner and outer sky meet and mind disappears, even
for a moment, you will be filled with a new life. The quality
of that life is absolutely different. It is life eternal,
uncontaminated by death, uncontaminated by any fear. In that
meeting you will be here and now, in the present -- because
past belongs to thoughts, future belongs to thoughts.
Past and future are part of your mind. Present is existence --
it is not part of your mind. This moment doesn’t belong to
your mind. The moment that has gone belongs to your mind; the
moment that has yet to come belongs to your mind. This moment
never belongs to you. Rather, you belong to this moment. You
exist here, right now here. Your mind exists somewhere else,
always somewhere else.
Unload yourself. I was reading one Sufi mystic. He was traveling
on a lonely path, the way was deserted, and he saw a farmer
with his bullock cart. The cart was stuck in mud. The road was
rough. The farmer was carrying a big load of apples in his
bullock cart, but somewhere on the rough road the tailboard of
the wagon became unfastened and the apples were scattered. But
he was not aware of it; the farmer was not aware of it. When
the cart got stuck in the mud, first he tried to bring it out
somehow, but all efforts were in vain, so he thought, "Now I
must unload my cart, then maybe I can pull it out." He looked
back. Hardly a dozen apples were left -- the load was already
unloaded! You can feel his misery. The Sufi reports in his
memoirs that that exasperated farmer made a remark. He said,
"Stuck, by heck! Stuck! -- and not a damn thing to unload!"
The only possibility was that if he could unload the cart it
could come out; but now -- nothing to unload!
Fortunately you are not stuck in such a way. You can unload --
your cart is too much loaded. You can unload the mind, and
the moment the mind is not there, you fly; you become capable
of flying.
This technique -- to look into the clarity of the sky and to
become one with it -- is one of the most practiced. Many
traditions have used this. And particularly for the modern mind
it will be very useful, because on earth nothing is left. On
earth nothing is left to meditate on -- only the sky. If you
look all around, everything is man-made, everything is limited,
with a boundary, a limitation. Only the sky is still,
fortunately, open to meditate on.
Try this technique, it will be helpful, but remember three
things. One: don’t blink -- stare. Even if your eyes start to
feel pain and tears come down, don’t be worried. Even those
tears will be a part of unloading; they will be helpful. Those
tears will make your eyes more innocent and fresh -- bathed.
You just go on staring.
The second point: don’t think about the sky, remember. You can
start thinking about the sky. You can remember many poems,
beautiful poems about the sky -- then you will miss the point.
You are not to think "about" it -- you are to enter it, you
are to be one with it -- because if you start thinking about
it, again a barrier is created. You are missing the sky again,
and you are again enclosed in your own mind. Don’t think about
the sky. Be the sky. Just stare and move into the sky, and
allow the sky to move in you. If you move into the sky, the sky
will move into you immediately.
How can you do it? How will you do it -- this moving into the
sky? Just go on staring farther away and farther away. Go on
staring -- as if you are trying to find the boundary. Move deep.
Move as much as you can. That very movement will break the
barrier. And this method should be practiced for at least forty
minutes; less than that will not do, will not be of much help.
When you really feel that you have become one, then you can
close the eyes. When the sky has entered in you, you can close
the eyes. You will be able to see it within also. Then there is
no need. So only after forty minutes, when you feel that the
oneness has happened and there is a communion and you have
become part of it and the mind is no more, close the eyes and
remain in the sky within.
The clarity will help the third point: ENTER SUCH CLARITY. The
clarity will help -- the uncontaminated, unclouded sky. Just
be aware of the clarity that is all around you. Don’t think
about it; just be aware of the clarity, the purity, the
innocence. These words are not to be repeated. You have to feel
them rather than think. And once you stare into the sky the
feeling will come, because it is not on your part to imagine
these things -- they are there. If you stare they will start
happening to you.
The sky is pure, the purest thing in existence. Nothing makes it
impure. Worlds come and go, earths are there and then disappear
, and the sky remains pure. The purity is there. You need not
project it, you are simply to feel it -- to be vulnerable to
it so you can feel it -- and the clarity is there. Allow the
sky to happen to you. You cannot force it; you can only allow
it to happen.
All meditations are really allowing something to happen. Never
think in terms of aggression, never think in terms of forcing
something. You cannot force anything. Really, because you have
been trying to force, you have created all kinds of misery.
Nothing can be forced, but you can allow things to happen. Be
feminine. Allow things to happen. Be passive. The sky is
absolutely passive: not doing anything at all, just remaining
there. Just be passive and remain under the sky -- vulnerable,
open, feminine, with no aggression on your part -- and then
the sky will penetrate you.
IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER
SUCH CLARITY.
But if it is not summer what will you do? If the sky is clouded,
not clear, then close your eyes and just enter the inner sky.
Just close your eyes, and if you see some thoughts, just see
them as if they are floating clouds in the sky. Be aware of the
background, the sky, and be indifferent to thoughts.
We are too much concerned with thoughts and never aware of the
gaps. One thought passes, and before another enters there is a
gap -- in that gap the sky is there. Then, whenever there is no
thought, what is there? The emptiness is there. So if the sky
is clouded -- it is not summertime and the sky is not clear --
close your eyes, focus your mind on the background, the inner
sky in which thoughts come and go.
Don’t pay much attention to thoughts; pay attention to the
space in which they move. For example, we are sitting in this
room. I can look at this room in two ways. Either I can look
at you, so that I am indifferent to the space you are in, the
roominess, the room you are in -- I look at you, I focus my
mind on you who are here, and not on the room in which you are
-- or, I can change my focus: I can look into the room, and I
become indifferent to you. You are there, but my emphasis, my
focus, is on the room. Then the total perspective changes.
Just do this in the inner world. Look at the space. Thoughts
are moving in it: be indifferent to them, don’t pay any
attention to them. They are there; note it down that they are
there, moving. The traffic is moving in the street. Look at
the street and be indifferent to the traffic. Don’t look to see
who is passing; just know that something is passing and be
aware of the space in which it is passing.
Then the summer sky happens within."
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The Pathless Path
A Taoist parable:
There is a statue of Lao Tzu, the founder of Tao. And a young man has been thinking for years to go to the mountains and see the statue of Lao Tzu. He loves the words, the way Lao Tzu has spoken, the style of life that he has lived, but he has never seen any of his statues. There are no Taoist temples, so there are very rare statues and they are all in the mountains - standing in the open, carved out of the mountain - no roof, no temple, no priest, no worship.
And years pass, and there are so many things always coming in between. But finally one night he decides that he has to go - and it is not that far, only a hundred miles - but he is a poor man, and he has to walk. In the middle of the night - he chooses the time in the middle of the night so that the wife and the children and the family are asleep and no trouble arises - he takes a lamp in his hand, because the night is dark, and goes out of the town.
As he comes out of the town to the first milestone, a thought arises in him, "My God, one hundred miles! And I only have two feet - it is going to kill me. I am asking the impossible. I have never walked one hundred miles, and there is no road...." It is a small hill path, a footpath - dangerous too. So he thinks, "It is better to wait till the morning. At least there will be light, and I can see better; otherwise I will fall somewhere off this small footpath. And without seeing the statue of Lao Tzu, simply be finished. Why commit suicide?"
So he was sitting just outside the town, and as the sun was rising an old man came by. He saw this young man sitting; he asked, "What are you doing here?" The young man explained.
The old man laughed. He said, "Have you not heard the ancient saying? Nobody has the power to take two steps together, you can take only one step at a time. The powerful, the weak, the young, the old - it doesn’t matter. And the saying goes, `Just one step by one step, a man can go ten thousand miles’ - and this is only a hundred miles! You seem to be stupid. And who is saying to you that you should go continuously? You can take time; after ten miles you can rest a day or two days, enjoy. This is one of the most beautiful valleys and the most beautiful mountains and the trees are so full of fruits, fruits that you may not have even tasted. Anyway, I am going; you can come along with me. I have been on this path thousands of times, and I am at least four times your age. Stand up!"
The man was so authoritative: when he said "Stand up!" the young man simply stood. And he said, "Give your things to me. You are young, inexperienced; I will carry your things. You just follow me, and we will take as many rests as you want."
And what the old man had said was true - as they entered deeper into the forest and the mountains, it became more and more beautiful. And wild, juicy fruits... and they were resting; whenever he wanted, the old man was ready. He was surprised that the old man himself never said it was time to rest. But whenever the young man said it was time to rest, he was always willing to rest with him - a day or two, and then they would start the journey again.
Those one hundred miles just came and went by, and they reached one of the most beautiful statues of one of the greatest men who has ever walked on the earth. Even his statue had something - it was not just a piece of art, it was created by Taoist artists to represent the spirit of Tao.
Tao believes in the philosophy of let-go. It believes you are not to swim, but just to flow with the river, allow the river to take you wherever it is going - because every river ultimately reaches to the ocean. So don’t be worried, you will reach the ocean. There is no need to be tense.
In that lonely spot the statue was standing, and there was a waterfall just by the side - because Tao is called the watercourse way. Just as the water goes on and on flowing with no guidebooks, with no maps, with no rules, no discipline... but strangely enough in a very humble way, because it is always seeking the lower position everywhere. It never goes uphill. It always goes downhill, but it reaches to the ocean, to its very source.
The whole atmosphere there was representative of the Taoist idea of let-go. The old man said, "Now begins the journey."
The young man said, "What? I was thinking, one hundred miles and the journey is finished."
The old man said, "That is just the way the masters have been talking to people. But the reality is now - from this point, from this atmosphere, a journey of one thousand and one miles begins. And I will not deceive you, because after one thousand and one miles you will meet another old man - perhaps me - who will say, `This is just a stopover, go on.’ Go on is the message."
The journey itself is the goal.
It is infinite. It is eternal.
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There is a statue of Lao Tzu, the founder of Tao. And a young man has been thinking for years to go to the mountains and see the statue of Lao Tzu. He loves the words, the way Lao Tzu has spoken, the style of life that he has lived, but he has never seen any of his statues. There are no Taoist temples, so there are very rare statues and they are all in the mountains - standing in the open, carved out of the mountain - no roof, no temple, no priest, no worship.
And years pass, and there are so many things always coming in between. But finally one night he decides that he has to go - and it is not that far, only a hundred miles - but he is a poor man, and he has to walk. In the middle of the night - he chooses the time in the middle of the night so that the wife and the children and the family are asleep and no trouble arises - he takes a lamp in his hand, because the night is dark, and goes out of the town.
As he comes out of the town to the first milestone, a thought arises in him, "My God, one hundred miles! And I only have two feet - it is going to kill me. I am asking the impossible. I have never walked one hundred miles, and there is no road...." It is a small hill path, a footpath - dangerous too. So he thinks, "It is better to wait till the morning. At least there will be light, and I can see better; otherwise I will fall somewhere off this small footpath. And without seeing the statue of Lao Tzu, simply be finished. Why commit suicide?"
So he was sitting just outside the town, and as the sun was rising an old man came by. He saw this young man sitting; he asked, "What are you doing here?" The young man explained.
The old man laughed. He said, "Have you not heard the ancient saying? Nobody has the power to take two steps together, you can take only one step at a time. The powerful, the weak, the young, the old - it doesn’t matter. And the saying goes, `Just one step by one step, a man can go ten thousand miles’ - and this is only a hundred miles! You seem to be stupid. And who is saying to you that you should go continuously? You can take time; after ten miles you can rest a day or two days, enjoy. This is one of the most beautiful valleys and the most beautiful mountains and the trees are so full of fruits, fruits that you may not have even tasted. Anyway, I am going; you can come along with me. I have been on this path thousands of times, and I am at least four times your age. Stand up!"
The man was so authoritative: when he said "Stand up!" the young man simply stood. And he said, "Give your things to me. You are young, inexperienced; I will carry your things. You just follow me, and we will take as many rests as you want."
And what the old man had said was true - as they entered deeper into the forest and the mountains, it became more and more beautiful. And wild, juicy fruits... and they were resting; whenever he wanted, the old man was ready. He was surprised that the old man himself never said it was time to rest. But whenever the young man said it was time to rest, he was always willing to rest with him - a day or two, and then they would start the journey again.
Those one hundred miles just came and went by, and they reached one of the most beautiful statues of one of the greatest men who has ever walked on the earth. Even his statue had something - it was not just a piece of art, it was created by Taoist artists to represent the spirit of Tao.
Tao believes in the philosophy of let-go. It believes you are not to swim, but just to flow with the river, allow the river to take you wherever it is going - because every river ultimately reaches to the ocean. So don’t be worried, you will reach the ocean. There is no need to be tense.
In that lonely spot the statue was standing, and there was a waterfall just by the side - because Tao is called the watercourse way. Just as the water goes on and on flowing with no guidebooks, with no maps, with no rules, no discipline... but strangely enough in a very humble way, because it is always seeking the lower position everywhere. It never goes uphill. It always goes downhill, but it reaches to the ocean, to its very source.
The whole atmosphere there was representative of the Taoist idea of let-go. The old man said, "Now begins the journey."
The young man said, "What? I was thinking, one hundred miles and the journey is finished."
The old man said, "That is just the way the masters have been talking to people. But the reality is now - from this point, from this atmosphere, a journey of one thousand and one miles begins. And I will not deceive you, because after one thousand and one miles you will meet another old man - perhaps me - who will say, `This is just a stopover, go on.’ Go on is the message."
The journey itself is the goal.
It is infinite. It is eternal.
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Love - Freedom - Aloneness
A relationship is a puzzle with no clue to it. Howsoever you try to manage it, you will never be able to manage it. Nobody has ever been able to manage it. It is made in such a way that it simply remains puzzling. The more you try to demystify it, the more mysterious it becomes. The more you try to understand it, the more elusive it is.
It is a greater koan than any koan that Zen masters give to their disciples, because their koans are meditative -- one is alone. When you are given the koan of relationship it is far more complicated, because you are two -- differently made, differently conditioned, polar opposites to each other, pulling in different directions, manipulating each other, trying to possess, dominate... there are a thousand and one problems.
While meditating, the only problem is how to be silent, how not to be caught in thoughts. In relationship there are a thousand and one problems. If you are silent, there is a problem. Just sit silently by the side of your wife and you will see - she will immediately jump upon you: "Why are you silent? What do you mean?" Or speak, and you will be in trouble - whatsoever you say, you are always misunderstood.
No relationship can ever come to a point where it is not a problem. Or if sometimes you see a relationship coming to a point where it is no longer a problem, that simply means it is not a relationship anymore. The relationship has disappeared - the fighters are tired, they have started accepting things as they are. They are bored; they don’t want to fight any more. They have accepted it, they don’t want to improve upon it.
Or, in the past, people tried to create a kind of harmony forcibly. That’s why, down the ages, women were repressed - that was one way of sorting things out. Just force the woman to follow the man, then there is no problem. But it is not a relationship either. When the woman is no longer an independent person the problem disappears - but the woman has also disappeared. Then she is just a thing to be used; then there is no joy, and the man starts looking for some other woman.
If you ever come across a happy marriage, don’t trust it on the surface. Just go a little deeper and you will be surprised. I have heard about one happy marriage...
A hillbilly farmer decided it was time to get married, so he saddled his mule and set off for the city to find a wife. In time, he met a woman and they were married. So they both climbed up on the mule and started back for the farm. After a while, the mule balked and refused to move. The farmer got down, found a big stick, and beat the mule until it again began to move.
"That’s once," the farmer said.
A few miles later, the mule balked again, and the entire scene was repeated. After the beating, when the mule was moving again, the farmer said, "That’s twice."
A few miles later, the mule balked for a third time. The farmer got down, got his wife down, and then took out a pistol and shot the mule in the eye, killing it instantly.
"That was a stupid thing to do!" the wife shouted. "That was a valuable animal and just because he annoyed you, you killed him! That was stupid, criminal..." and she went on like this for some time. As she stopped for breath, the farmer said, "That’s once."
And it is said, after that they lived forever in married happiness!
That is one way of solving things, that’s how it has been done in the past. In the future, the reverse is going to be tried - the husband has to follow the wife. But it is the same thing.
A relationship is a koan. And unless you have solved a more fundamental thing about yourself, you cannot solve it. The problem of love can be solved only when the problem of meditation has been solved, not before it. Because it is really two non-meditative persons who are creating the problem. Two persons who are in confusion, who don’t know who they are - naturally they multiply each other’s confusion, they magnify it....
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It is a greater koan than any koan that Zen masters give to their disciples, because their koans are meditative -- one is alone. When you are given the koan of relationship it is far more complicated, because you are two -- differently made, differently conditioned, polar opposites to each other, pulling in different directions, manipulating each other, trying to possess, dominate... there are a thousand and one problems.
While meditating, the only problem is how to be silent, how not to be caught in thoughts. In relationship there are a thousand and one problems. If you are silent, there is a problem. Just sit silently by the side of your wife and you will see - she will immediately jump upon you: "Why are you silent? What do you mean?" Or speak, and you will be in trouble - whatsoever you say, you are always misunderstood.
No relationship can ever come to a point where it is not a problem. Or if sometimes you see a relationship coming to a point where it is no longer a problem, that simply means it is not a relationship anymore. The relationship has disappeared - the fighters are tired, they have started accepting things as they are. They are bored; they don’t want to fight any more. They have accepted it, they don’t want to improve upon it.
Or, in the past, people tried to create a kind of harmony forcibly. That’s why, down the ages, women were repressed - that was one way of sorting things out. Just force the woman to follow the man, then there is no problem. But it is not a relationship either. When the woman is no longer an independent person the problem disappears - but the woman has also disappeared. Then she is just a thing to be used; then there is no joy, and the man starts looking for some other woman.
If you ever come across a happy marriage, don’t trust it on the surface. Just go a little deeper and you will be surprised. I have heard about one happy marriage...
A hillbilly farmer decided it was time to get married, so he saddled his mule and set off for the city to find a wife. In time, he met a woman and they were married. So they both climbed up on the mule and started back for the farm. After a while, the mule balked and refused to move. The farmer got down, found a big stick, and beat the mule until it again began to move.
"That’s once," the farmer said.
A few miles later, the mule balked again, and the entire scene was repeated. After the beating, when the mule was moving again, the farmer said, "That’s twice."
A few miles later, the mule balked for a third time. The farmer got down, got his wife down, and then took out a pistol and shot the mule in the eye, killing it instantly.
"That was a stupid thing to do!" the wife shouted. "That was a valuable animal and just because he annoyed you, you killed him! That was stupid, criminal..." and she went on like this for some time. As she stopped for breath, the farmer said, "That’s once."
And it is said, after that they lived forever in married happiness!
That is one way of solving things, that’s how it has been done in the past. In the future, the reverse is going to be tried - the husband has to follow the wife. But it is the same thing.
A relationship is a koan. And unless you have solved a more fundamental thing about yourself, you cannot solve it. The problem of love can be solved only when the problem of meditation has been solved, not before it. Because it is really two non-meditative persons who are creating the problem. Two persons who are in confusion, who don’t know who they are - naturally they multiply each other’s confusion, they magnify it....
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The Flowers Showered
"The child continues somewhere in you: when you weep you can
find him, when you laugh you can find him, when somebody gives
you a present you can find him, when somebody forgets to, you
can find him, when somebody appreciates you, you can find him;
when somebody condemns you, you can find him - it is very
difficult to be really mature. One can never be mature unless
the child simply dies within you, is no longer a part of you -
otherwise it will go on influencing your actions, your
relationships.
And this is not only true for the child, every moment of the
past is there and influencing your present - your present is so
loaded. And millions of voices from the body and the mind go on
manipulating you; how can you reach the path?
You are a mountain. This mountain has to be dissolved. What to
do? It can be dissolved consciously - one thing is to live your
past again, consciously.
This is the mechanism of consciousness: whenever you live
something consciously it never becomes a loaded thing on you;
try to understand this. It never becomes a burden on you if you
S live it consciously."
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find him, when you laugh you can find him, when somebody gives
you a present you can find him, when somebody forgets to, you
can find him, when somebody appreciates you, you can find him;
when somebody condemns you, you can find him - it is very
difficult to be really mature. One can never be mature unless
the child simply dies within you, is no longer a part of you -
otherwise it will go on influencing your actions, your
relationships.
And this is not only true for the child, every moment of the
past is there and influencing your present - your present is so
loaded. And millions of voices from the body and the mind go on
manipulating you; how can you reach the path?
You are a mountain. This mountain has to be dissolved. What to
do? It can be dissolved consciously - one thing is to live your
past again, consciously.
This is the mechanism of consciousness: whenever you live
something consciously it never becomes a loaded thing on you;
try to understand this. It never becomes a burden on you if you
S live it consciously."
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The Art of Dying
"Life is in living. It is not a thing, it is a process. There is no way to attain to life except by living it, except by being alive - flowing - streaming with it. If you are seeking the meaning of life in some dogma, in some philosophy, in some theology, that is the sure way to miss life and meaning both.
Life is not somewhere waiting for you, it is happening in you. It is not in the future as a goal to be arrived at, it is herenow, this very moment - in your breathing, circulating in your blood, beating in your heart. Whatsoever you are is your life, and if you start seeking meaning somewhere else you will miss it. Man has done that for centuries.
Concepts have become very important, explanations have become very important - and the real has been completely forgotten. We don’t look to that which is already here, we want rationalizations.
I have heard a very beautiful story.
Some years ago a successful American had a serious identity crisis. He sought help from psychiatrists but nothing came of it, for there were none who could tell him the meaning of life - which is what he wanted to know. By and by he learned of a venerable and incredibly wise guru who lived in a mysterious and most inaccessible region of the Himalayas. Only that guru, he came to believe, would tell him what life means and what his role in it ought to be. So he sold all his worldly possessions and began his search for the all-knowing guru. He spent eight years wandering from village to village throughout the Himalayas in an effort to find him. And then one day he chanced upon a shepherd who told him where the guru lived and how to reach the place.
It took him almost a year to find him, but he eventually did. There he came upon his guru, who was indeed venerable, in fact well over one hundred years old. The guru consented to help him, especially when he learned of all the sacrifices the man had made towards this end. "What can I do for you, my son?" asked the guru.
"I need to know the meaning of life," said the man.
To this the guru replied, without hesitation, "Life," he said, "is a river without end." "A river without end?" said the man in a startled surprise. "After coming all this way to find you, all you have to tell me is that life is a river without end?"
The guru was shaken, shocked. He became very angry and he said, "You mean it is not?"
Nobody can give you the meaning of your life. It is your life, the meaning has also to be yours. Himalayas won’t help. Nobody except you can come upon it. It is your life and it is only accessible to you. Only in living will the mystery be revealed to you."
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Life is not somewhere waiting for you, it is happening in you. It is not in the future as a goal to be arrived at, it is herenow, this very moment - in your breathing, circulating in your blood, beating in your heart. Whatsoever you are is your life, and if you start seeking meaning somewhere else you will miss it. Man has done that for centuries.
Concepts have become very important, explanations have become very important - and the real has been completely forgotten. We don’t look to that which is already here, we want rationalizations.
I have heard a very beautiful story.
Some years ago a successful American had a serious identity crisis. He sought help from psychiatrists but nothing came of it, for there were none who could tell him the meaning of life - which is what he wanted to know. By and by he learned of a venerable and incredibly wise guru who lived in a mysterious and most inaccessible region of the Himalayas. Only that guru, he came to believe, would tell him what life means and what his role in it ought to be. So he sold all his worldly possessions and began his search for the all-knowing guru. He spent eight years wandering from village to village throughout the Himalayas in an effort to find him. And then one day he chanced upon a shepherd who told him where the guru lived and how to reach the place.
It took him almost a year to find him, but he eventually did. There he came upon his guru, who was indeed venerable, in fact well over one hundred years old. The guru consented to help him, especially when he learned of all the sacrifices the man had made towards this end. "What can I do for you, my son?" asked the guru.
"I need to know the meaning of life," said the man.
To this the guru replied, without hesitation, "Life," he said, "is a river without end." "A river without end?" said the man in a startled surprise. "After coming all this way to find you, all you have to tell me is that life is a river without end?"
The guru was shaken, shocked. He became very angry and he said, "You mean it is not?"
Nobody can give you the meaning of your life. It is your life, the meaning has also to be yours. Himalayas won’t help. Nobody except you can come upon it. It is your life and it is only accessible to you. Only in living will the mystery be revealed to you."
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ABC of Enlightenment
Words are not just words. They have moods, climates of their own. When a word settles inside you, it brings a different climate to your mind, a different approach, a different vision. Call something by a different name and see how things change. So one of the most important things to remember is, if possible, live an experience and don’t fix it by a word, because that will make it narrow.
Say you are sitting outside on a silent evening. The sun has gone and the stars are just coming out. Just be. Don’t even say, ‘This is beautiful,’ because the moment you say that it is beautiful, it isn’t the same any more. By saying ‘beautiful’ you are bringing in the past, and all the experiences that you said were beautiful have coloured the word. Your word ‘beautiful’ contains many experiences of beauty. But this experience is totally new. Life has never been like this before. It will never be again. Why bring in the past? The present is so vast, the past is so narrow. Why look through a hole in the wall when you can come out and look at the whole sky?
So try not to use words, but if you have to, be very choosy about them, because each word has a nuance of its own. Be very poetic about it. Use each word with taste, love, feeling.
There are feeling words and there are intellectual words. Drop intellectual words more and more. Use feeling words. There are political words and there are religious words. Drop political words. These are words which immediately create conflict. The moment you utter them, argument arises. So never use logical, argumentative language. Use the language of affection, of caring, of love, so that no argument arises. If you start acting this way, you will see tremendous changes.
A single word uttered without awareness can create a long chain of misery. But if you are alert, many miseries can be avoided. Just a very small change can make a lot of difference. You should be very, very careful and only use words when absolutely necessary. Avoid contaminated words. Use fresh words, non-controversial words which are not arguments, just expressions of your feelings. If you can become a connoisseur of words, your whole life will be different. Your relationships will be totally different because 99 per cent of a relationship is expressed through words. Gestures are also words. If a word brings misery, anger, conflict, argument, drop it. What is the point of carrying it? It may have created a lot of trouble for you and yet still you blurt it out. Drop it. Replace it with something better.
The best thing is silence. Next best is singing, poetry, love.
Say you are sitting outside on a silent evening. The sun has gone and the stars are just coming out. Just be. Don’t even say, ‘This is beautiful,’ because the moment you say that it is beautiful, it isn’t the same any more. By saying ‘beautiful’ you are bringing in the past, and all the experiences that you said were beautiful have coloured the word. Your word ‘beautiful’ contains many experiences of beauty. But this experience is totally new. Life has never been like this before. It will never be again. Why bring in the past? The present is so vast, the past is so narrow. Why look through a hole in the wall when you can come out and look at the whole sky?
So try not to use words, but if you have to, be very choosy about them, because each word has a nuance of its own. Be very poetic about it. Use each word with taste, love, feeling.
There are feeling words and there are intellectual words. Drop intellectual words more and more. Use feeling words. There are political words and there are religious words. Drop political words. These are words which immediately create conflict. The moment you utter them, argument arises. So never use logical, argumentative language. Use the language of affection, of caring, of love, so that no argument arises. If you start acting this way, you will see tremendous changes.
A single word uttered without awareness can create a long chain of misery. But if you are alert, many miseries can be avoided. Just a very small change can make a lot of difference. You should be very, very careful and only use words when absolutely necessary. Avoid contaminated words. Use fresh words, non-controversial words which are not arguments, just expressions of your feelings. If you can become a connoisseur of words, your whole life will be different. Your relationships will be totally different because 99 per cent of a relationship is expressed through words. Gestures are also words. If a word brings misery, anger, conflict, argument, drop it. What is the point of carrying it? It may have created a lot of trouble for you and yet still you blurt it out. Drop it. Replace it with something better.
The best thing is silence. Next best is singing, poetry, love.
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