Enjoy the Moment

Two friends were talking. One friend said, "You will not be able to believe that last night in my dream I went fishing. My God, what a great fish, so huge. The whole night I was fishing and fishing and there was no end... greater and greater fish...!"

The other man said, "This is nothing. What I saw last night you will certainly not believe. I saw that on one side Marilyn Monroe is lying naked and on the other side another beauty."

As he asserted this the first man said, "You idiot. You pretend to be my best friend. Why did you not call me?"

The man said, "I did. I went running to your house, and your wife told me that you had gone fishing!"

Nobody is where he thinks he is. You think you are here? Really, you think...? If you look within yourself you may not believe it. It is strange, you are here and your mind is wandering somewhere else, is thinking about something else.

To be in the presence of a master is not to be just physically present. It has to be a presence of consciousness, of awareness, as if the whole world has disappeared. Only this moment -- and you are gripped by a great silence. Out of this silence will arise the dance, the celebration.

Mind creates so many systems, so many methods. It thinks, "If I drop out of the life I am leading, something deeper will be found." This is absurd. But the mind goes on thinking that somewhere in Tibet, somewhere in Meru Pravat, somewhere, the "real thing" must be happening. The heart is in conflict: how to go there? How to come in contact with the masters who are working there? The mind is always looking for something somewhere else, never for something here and now. The mind is never here.

Do not move in comparisons. Each moment is unique; it Cannot be compared. And this is the nonsense, the stupidity of the human mind: that the moment with which you are comparing your present moment was not so beautiful as you think, because when you were actually in that moment, you were thinking about something else. So the glory, the beauty, the happiness of it, is just a false phenomenon.

Everyone says that childhood was golden, and no child seems happy about his childhood. Every child is trying to grow up soon. If he can take a jump, if a child is allowed to take a jump, he will become his father immediately. No child is happy about his childhood, because childhood is such a slavery, and childhood is such a weakness, and a child is so much at the mercy of others. He feels it. Everything hurts. Mother and father and everyone is so strong, and he alone is so weak and dependent that he cannot do anything on his own. From everywhere comes the commandment "Don't!"

So every child is in deep misery. He contemplates the day when he will also be an adult -- powerful. But when he is an adult, he will begin to say, "Childhood was good." When he is old, just near death, he will create a golden dream. He will say, "What bliss childhood was! What a heaven!"

Psychologists say that this is also a trick of the mind. Because the reality is so hard, you have to escape somewhere. You are not capable of facing it, you do not want to encounter it. Really, the old man is now near death, so he wants to escape from it. When he begins to think about childhood, he has escaped, because childhood is as far away from death as anything. In his imagination, he has moved to being a child again. Now there is no death, no disease, no illness, no oldness. He is passing into the past, but why not into the future?

Old men always escape into the past, young men always into the future. Why? Because for an old man the future means death, so he doesn't want to see the future. Every day on the calendar a new date appears and death comes nearer. He doesn't want to see it, and the easiest way is to escape into the past. And to escape, you have to make it golden and beautiful, otherwise the journey will be boring.

Contentment means life here and now, living moment to moment without any escapes.

We go on missing the point and we go on thinking of something else which was not the case; this is how the foolish mind functions. Enjoy the moment, and whatsoever the moment makes available to you, be enriched by.

Open all Windows

An ancient Chinese story will help you to understand the great Zen master Eno. His every statement is a scripture in itself.

The ancient story is that a great emperor, being afraid of death, created a palace with a single door. No other doors, no other windows, no way of entering into the palace except from one small door where he had placed a complete row of guards. Guard number one was to be guarded by number two, and guard number two was guarded by number three, and guard number three was guarded by number four... seven guards watching each other! More protection is not possible.

A neighboring king heard about it, and he wanted to see this most secure palace. He was welcomed. The owner of the palace took him in, showed him all the facilities inside, that there was no way for any enemy, for any thief, for any killer to enter.

The king was very much impressed. He said, "I will immediately order the same. Just give me the names of the architects, to make the same palace for me in my kingdom."

Talking with each other, they came out to where the chariot of the king was waiting. And when he said, "I'm going to make exactly the same palace. I loved it, the very idea. It is so safe and secure..." a beggar by the side of the road started laughing madly.

Both were stunned. For a moment there was silence.

They both asked the beggar, "Why are you laughing?"

He said, "I'm laughing because there is a loophole in all this, and I know the loophole. I have been sitting in this place for years, begging, so I have been watching the building of the palace."

The emperor asked, "What is the loophole?"

He said, "That one door!"

The emperor laughed. He said, "I have placed seven guards on it. They are guarding on each other, nobody can betray. What is the fear?"

The beggar said, "With due respect, I want to tell you that death will enter and your guards will not be able to see it. And death is the only insecurity. What else? Do you have any protection against death?"

The emperor was at a loss.

The beggar said, "My suggestion is that if you want really to be secure, tell your builders to raise a wall in place of that door! I still cannot guarantee that death will not enter -- but at least you have made as much effort as possible; close the door and be inside."

The emperor said, "But that means I'm already dead! It becomes a grave, not a palace, if I cannot come out."

The beggar said, "If you think just by closing one door your life will be finished, don't you think that by closing other doors, parts of your life are finished? By closing the windows, other parts of your life are finished? You are going to live at the minimum, while the maximum was available."

Both the kings were surprised to see the intelligence of the beggar. They came close to him and they asked him, "From where have you come?"

He said, "You will not understand. Your fathers were my friends. Once I also used to be an emperor. But seeing the whole unnecessary trouble, I made myself completely secure -- I dropped all walls, all worries, opened all windows. Now for almost half a century nobody has harmed me. I'm just a beggar -- why should anyone harm me? I have nothing to be stolen. I sleep as I have never slept before."

If you really want to be living at the maximum, don't listen to the duality of the mind.

The only security in existence is going beyond the mind.

The beggar was a great Taoist master. His name was Lieh Tzu. But people had forgotten that fifty years before he had dropped his kingdom.

He said, "The only security I have found is in being silent, in being myself, where all duality disappears. Where you and the universe are one, then death cannot do anything."

Each moment life reveals its newness

Boredom is the consciousness of repetition. Because animals cannot remember the past, they cannot feel bored. They cannot remember the past, so they cannot feel the repetition. The buffalo goes on eating the same grass every day with the same delight. You cannot. How can you eat the same grass with the same delight? You get fed up.

For a dull mind, everything is old; for a totally alive mind there is nothing old under the sun. Cannot be. Everything is in flux. Every person is in flux, is river-like. Persons are not dead things. How can they be the same? Are you the same?

The river is continuously flowing; it looks the same but it is not the same. The old Heraclitus has said that you cannot step twice into the same river because the river is never the same.

You always live with dead expectations. Every day you come home and you expect certain behavior from your wife. Now look how you create your own misery: you expect a certain fixed behavior from your wife and then you expect your wife to be new. You are asking the impossible. If you really want your wife to remain continuously new to you, don't expect. Come home always ready to be surprised and shocked, then the wife will be new. But she has to fulfill certain expectations. We never allow our total flux-like freshness to be known to the other. We go on hiding, we don't expose, because the other may not be able to understand it at all. And the wife also expects the husband to behave in a certain way, and, of course, they manage the roles. We are not living life, we are living roles. The husband comes home; he forces himself into a certain role. By the time he enters the house, he is no more an alive person -- he is just a husband.

A husband means a certain type of expected behavior. The woman there is a wife, and the man there is a husband. Now when these two persons meet there are really four persons: the husband and wife, which are not real persons -- just personas, masks, false patterns expected behavior, duties, and all that -- and the real persons hiding behind the masks. Those real persons feel bored.

But you have invested much in your persona, in your mask. If you really want a life which has no boredom in it, drop all masks, be true. Sometimes it will be difficult, I know, but it is worth it. Be true. If you feel like loving your wife, love her, otherwise say you don't feel like it. What is happening right now is that the husband goes on making love to the wife, and goes on thinking of some actress. In imagination he is not making love to this woman, in imagination he is making love to some other woman. And the same is true about the wife. Then things become boring because they are no more alive. The intensity, the sharpness, is lost.

Live more authentically. Drop the masks; they are a weight on your heart. Drop all falsities. Be exposed. Of course it is going to be troublesome but that trouble is worth it because only after that trouble will you grow and become mature. And then nothing is holding life. Each moment life reveals its newness. It is a constant miracle happening all around you only you are hiding behind dead habits.

Become a Buddha if you don't want to be bored. Live each moment as fully alert as possible, because only in full alertness will you be able to drop the mask. You have completely forgotten what your original face is. Even when you stand before the mirror in your bathroom and you are alone, nobody is there, even standing before the mirror you don't see your original face in the mirror. There too you go on deceiving.

Existence is available for those who are available to existence. And then I tell you, there is no boredom. Life is infinite delight.

Either have no consciousness -- then you cannot feel repetition -- or have so much consciousness that in each repetition you can see something new. These are the two ways to get out of boredom. Either live like a Buddha or live like a buffalo, then you will not be bored. Now the choice is yours.

Frustration is a shadow of expectation

It is better not to meditate than to meditate with expectation, because at least you will not suffer the frustration. Don't meditate. But if you have decided to meditate, then be clear. Meditation does not guarantee anything to you. Not that nothing happens out of it; it happens, but there is no guarantee. Tremendous possibilities open but you cannot expect them. If you expect, doors remain dosed. It is your expectation that blocks the way.

Once you drop expectations you have learned how to live. Then everything that happens fulfills you, whatsoever it is. For one thing, you never feel frustrated because in the first place you never expected. So frustration is impossible. Frustration is a shadow of expectation. With the expectation dropped, frustration drops on its own accord.

Don't expect anything in the future. Don't corrupt it. Because if all your expectations are fulfilled then too you will be miserable... because it is your expectation and it is fulfilled. You will not be happy about it. Happiness is possible only through surprise; happiness is possible only when something happens which you had never expected, when something takes you completely unawares. If your expectations are fulfilled a hundred per cent, you will be living as if you are in the past, not in the future. You come home and you expected your wife to say something and she does. And you expected your child to behave in a certain way and the child does. Just think -- you will be constantly in boredom. Nothing will happen. Everything will be just a repetition, as if you are seeing something which you have seen before, hearing something which you have heard before. Continuously you will see that it is a repetition of something. and repetition can never be satisfying. The new, the novel, the original, is needed.

So if your expectations are fulfilled. you will remain completely unfulfilled. And if your expectations are not fulfilled. then you feel frustrated. Then you feel constantly as if you propose and God goes on disposing; you feel that God is the enemy; you feel as if everybody is against you and everybody is working against you. If your expectations are never fulfilled you will feel frustrated.

when everything happens unexpectedly, everything becomes new. It brings a freshness to your life; a fresh breeze is continuously blowing and it does not allow dust to gather on you. Your doors and your windows are open: in comes sunshine, in comes the breeze, in comes the fragrance of flowers -- everything unexpected. You never asked for it, and existence goes on showering it on you. One feels God Is.

To be a parent is a great art, something extraordinary

THE TROUBLE with the family is that children grow out of childhood, but parents never grow out of their parenthood! Man has not even yet learned that parenthood is not something that you have to cling to it forever. When the child is a grown-up person your parenthood is finished. The child needed it -- he was helpless. He needed the mother, the father, their protection; but when the child can stand on his own, the parents have to learn how to withdraw from the life of the child. And because parents never withdraw from the life of the child they remain a constant anxiety to themselves AND to the children. They destroy, they create guilt; they don't help beyond a certain limit.

To be a parent is a great art. They are to support, they are to strengthen, they are to nourish, but not to impose their ideas, not to give the shoulds and should-nots. They are not to create slaves.

But that's what parents all over the world go on doing: their whole effort is to fulfill their ambitions through the child. Of course nobody has been ever able to fulfill his ambitions, so every parent is in a turmoil. He knows the death is coming close by every day, he can feel the death is growing bigger and bigger and life is shrinking, and his ambitions are still unfulfilled, his desires are still not realized. He knows that he has been a failure. He is perfectly aware that he will die with empty hands -- just the way he had come, with empty hands, he will go.

Now his whole effort is how to implant his ambitions into the child. He will be gone, but the child will live according to him. What he has not been able to do, the child will be able to do. At least through the child he will fulfill certain dreams.

It is not going to happen. All that is going to happen is the child will remain unfulfilled as the parent and the child will go on doing the same to his children. This goes on and on from one generation to another generation. We go on giving our diseases; we go on infecting children with our ideas which have not proved valid in our own lives.

Parents are not consciously exploiting their children; they are doing it for the child's sake. They think that if he is a engineer, a scientist, a mathematician, a professor, a politician, a president, a prime minister, that will be good for him; if he is rich, has great money and wealth and name and fame, he will be happy in his life. But they are completely unconscious because they know... but they know only in a very very vague way, it is not clear-cut. They see presidents, prime ministers; they know they are not happy. They see the rich people; they know they are not happy. They themselves may be rich and they know they are not happy. They may have succeeded in their life, in their profession, and they know that life has been just a stupid exercise of utter futility, nothing has been gained. But that's all they know, and that's all they can teach. With all good wishes they impose their ideas on the child.

That becomes the circumference of everyone.

To be a parent is a great art. To give birth to children is nothing -- any animal can do it; it is a natural, biological, instinctive process. To give birth to a child is nothing great, it is nothing special; it is very ordinary. But to be a parent is something extraordinary; very few people are really capable of being parents.

And the criterion is that the real parents will give freedom. They will not impose themselves upon the child, they will not encroach upon his space. From the very beginning their effort will be to help the child to be himself or to be herself.

FIND FRIENDS WHO LOVE THE TRUTH

DO NOT LOOK FOR BAD COMPANY
OR LIVE WITH MEN WHO DO NOT CARE.
FIND FRIENDS WHO LOVE THE TRUTH.

That is the meaning of a spiritual commune: FIND FRIENDS WHO LOVE THE TRUTH -- because alone you may not be able to gather that much courage to go into the uncharted sea. But when you see many are going, a great courage may arise in your heart. It is there, lying dormant; it may become active. Hence a commune is needed -- Buddha created a SANGHA, a commune -- where seekers can gather together, where lovers of truth can hold hands with each other, where meditators can share their experiences with each other, where people can feel that they are not alone, where they can create an alternative society.

Alone you may not be able to gather that much courage, alone you may feel hopeless. But when you see many people dancing, singing, rejoicing in their journey, great courage arises in your heart, great trust arises in yourself. You become confident that it is possible in this life to be a buddha.

DO NOT LOOK FOR BAD COMPANY.... What is "bad company"? People who are not interested in truth. ... OR LIVE WITH MEN WHO DO NOT CARE. And avoid people who are indifferent to truth, because they are going to waste their life. To be with them you will have to be like them. To be with them you will have to behave in their ways. Find people who are in a love affair with existence. That will help your search tremendously; you will be immensely benefited.

Avoid all serious company; avoid people who are trying to become somebody. Get more and more in tune with people who are simply living their life, not trying to become anybody, who are simply being as they are. Move to them, they are the real spiritual people in the world.

The only thing that matters - Did you Enjoy the Game ?

Buddha says: LIVE IN JOY, WITHOUT POSSESSIONS, LIKE THE SHINING ONES. Live like the buddhas, who don't possess a thing but can use everything. The world has to be used, not possessed. We come empty-handed and we go empty-handed, so there is no point in possessing anything. To be possessive is ugly -- but use everything! While you are, use the world, enjoy everything that the world makes available, and then go without looking back, without clinging to things.

This is the way of the buddhas. AES DHAMMO SANANTANO: this is the inexhaustible law of the buddhas. Then a buddha can be a beggar if he chooses to be so -- if that is his way -- or a buddha can be an emperor. There have been emperors who were buddhas.

In India there has been one man, Janaka, the father of Sita, Rama's wife, who was a buddha. He lived in the palace with all the richness of a great king and yet he was absolutely nonpossessive, he possessed nothing. It was just as if you are staying in a hotel; you don't possess anything. You stay for a few days and then you are gone. You use.

The intelligent person uses life and uses it beautifully, aesthetically, sensitively. Then the world has many treasures for him. He never becomes attached, because the moment you become attached you have fallen asleep.

THE WINNER SOWS HATRED
BECAUSE THE LOSER SUFFERS.
LET GO OF WINNING AND LOSING
AND FIND JOY.

How to find joy? Let your ambition disappear; ambition is the barrier. Ambition means an ego trip: "I want to be this, I want to be that -- more money, more power, more prestige." But remember, Buddha says: THE WINNER SOWS HATRED BECAUSE THE LOSER SUFFERS. LET GO OF WINNING AND LOSING AND FIND JOY. If you want to find joy, forget about winning and losing. Life is a play, a game. Play it beautifully, forget all about losing and winning. The real sportsman's spirit is not that of winning or losing, it is not his real question. He enjoys playing; that is the real player. If you are playing to win, you will play with tension, anxiety. You are not concerned with the play itself, its joy and its mystery; you are more concerned with the outcome. This is not the right way to live in the world.

Live in the world without any idea of what is going to happen. Whether you are going to be a winner or a loser, it doesn't matter. Death takes everything away. Whether you lose or win is immaterial. The only thing that matters, and has always been, is how you played the game. Did you enjoy it? -- the game itself -- then each moment is of joy. You never sacrifice the moment for the future.

All postponement is dangerous...

When you are dying, the life is slipping out of your hands and you cannot cling anymore; in that impotence you say,'I renounce.' Just look at the absurdity of it: when life is renouncing you, you go on playing the ego game; you say,'I renounce. Wait a minute more; life is renouncing you itself. You are already being carried towards the rubbish heap!

It is said that one day Diogenes and Alexander went out of the town for a morning walk. They came across a cemetery and Diogenes started looking at the skulls and the bones, and there was a big heap. Alexander was disgusted and he said,'What are you doing?'

He said,'I am looking for your father's skull. He was such a great emperor, your father. Come please, because I cannot recognize which one is your father's skull. You may be able to recognize it because he was your father. And don't feel so disgusted, because sooner or later we will be on this heap also, and nobody will be able to recognize! Remember Alexander, nobody will even be able to recognize who was who.'

When you are on your death-bed, just being carried toward the grave, then you start thinking of God. You have missed the opportunity. When you were young, you had something to offer to Him. Now you have nothing; you are a wasted opportunity. You are already empty, hollow. Now there is nothing to give to Him. How can you offer yourself to Him? -- you have nothing to offer. The song that you could have sung, you never sang; the dance that could have been your life, you missed; the flower that could have been offered to Him, you never helped it to open. In fact, you did all that was just the contrary, just the opposite of it. And then you think of renouncing, and then you think of God, and then you think of prayer. When the heart is already dead, you think of prayer....

Remember this: while you are flowing and young, that is the moment of sannyas, that is the moment of offering yourself to God. Don't postpone it. All postponement is dangerous, because with the very idea of postponing there is no end to it. You will go on postponing.

While you still have life, offer it to God. It will look like death, but it will become a resurrection. If you give yourself totally, God will give Himself totally to you. You will lose nothing; you will gain much. For nothing, you will gain the Whole.

Belief is a conditioning...

Have you looked into the word "atheist"? It contains "theist"; it is only a reaction. Just think, if all theisms disappear, what will happen to atheists? They will have to die. They will lose all the excitement of denying God, because nobody is proposing the exists. The theist knows not, but believes. The atheist also knows not, but believes.

Have you really searched every nook and corner of existence and found that there is no God? Forget about every nook and corner of existence -- have you searched within yourself? Your atheism is just an ideology, a negative belief.

There is a very beautiful story in Indian scriptures:

When Narda, a devotee, a great devotee, was dying God appeared to him. Such things used to happen in the past; they don't happen anymore. And God asked him what he would like, if he had any desire to be fulfilled in the next life.

He said, "Yes, I want to be born an atheist."

Even God was puzzled. Remember, such things used to happen in the past; now they no longer happen. God said,'What? You want to be an atheist? Such a great devotee, such a believer, such a religious man who has been singing and singing my name?"

Narda said, "Yes, because although I am a devotee, I continuously go on forgetting you, but I have seen atheists who never forget you. That's why I want to be an atheist next time: so that I can remember you continuously. I don't want to forget you even for a single moment. Now you are only one of the items of my mind, but for the atheist you seem to be his whole heart -- although he denies you, he remembers you. So just give me one blessing: that I should be born an atheist so that I can talk about you continuously."

This story is beautiful. It says in a very symbolic way that the atheist and the theist are not in different boats.

expect Free Size, which everyone can use...

Every religion has a few methods, but we are going to have ALL the methods of all the religions of the past and of all the religions that are going to happen in the future. We are going to create a space for ALL kinds of people, not for any particular type. The old religions are missing in that way.

For example, only a particular type of person can be helped by Mahavira's methods -- only the type who belongs to Mahavira's type can be helped. It is a very limited methodology. Mahavira attained to the holy fruit; he taught the same method by which he attained. Jesus had his own method, Mohammed had his own method. So no religion of the past could be universal because it belonged to a certain type and only that type could be benefited by it.

Hence one problem has arisen: you may be born in a Jaina family and you may not be of the same type which the Jaina method can help. Then you are in a difficulty; your whole life will be a wastage. You will try the method; it won't suit you -- and you will not change your method. You will think it is because of your past karmas that the method is not working, that it will take time. You will rationalize. You may be born in a Hindu family and Hindu methods may not work.

There are so many types of people in the world, and as the world has grown and people's consciousnesses have grown, more and more new types, more and more crossbreeds have come into existence which were never there before -- which never existed in Mahavira's time, which never existed in Krishna's time. There are many new types, crossbreeds. And in the future this is going to happen more and more; the world is becoming a small village.

choose your own way...

I have heard about a man who became very famous in Germany -- even today his statues are there and some squares and some streets are still named after him. His name was Dr. Daniel Gottlieb Schreber. He was the real founder of Fascism. He died in 1861, but he created the situation for Adolf Hitler to come -- of course, unknowingly.

This man "... had very pronounced views on how to bring up children. He wrote many books. Those books were translated into many languages. Some of them ran into fifty editions." His books were loved tremendously, respected tremendously, because his views were not exceptional -- his views were very common. He was saying things which everybody has believed down the centuries. He was the spokesman for the ordinary mind, the mediocre mind.

"He believed in disciplining children from the time they were six months old" -- because he said if you don't discipline a child when he is six months old you will miss the real opportunity of disciplining him. When a child is very tender and soft, unaware of the ways of the world, make a deep imprint -- then he will always follow that imprint. And he will not even be aware that he is being manipulated. He will think he is doing all this of his own will -- because when a child is six months old he has no will yet; the will will come later on, and the discipline will come earlier than the will. So the will will always think: 'This is my own idea.'

This is corrupting a child. But all the religions of the world and all the demagogues and all the dictatorial people of the world, and all the so-called gurus and the priests, they all have believed in doing this.

This seems to be the basic cause why man is unhappy, because no man is moving freely, no man is sensing, groping his path with his own consciousness. He has been corrupted at the very root.

But Schreber called it discipline, as all parents call it. "He believed in disciplining children from the time they were six months old in such a way that they would never after question their parents and yet believe that they were acting of their own free will. He wrote that on the first appearance of self-will one has to..." stop it immediately, kill it immediately. When you see the child becoming a person, an individual, you have to destroy the first ray of his individuality, immediately, not a single moment should be lost.

When the first appearance of self-will is noticed "... one has to step forward in a positive manner... stern words, threatening gestures, rapping against the bed... bodily admonishments, consistently repeated until the child calms down or falls asleep.

Make the child so afraid, shake him to his very roots! And those roots are very tender yet -- a six-month-old child. Threaten him with gestures, with a deep hatred, enmity in your eyes, as if you are going to destroy the child himself. Make it clear to the child that either he can live or his self-will -- both cannot be allowed to live. If he wants his self-will then he will have to die. Once the child comes to know that he can live only at the cost of self-will, he will drop his self-will and he will choose survival. That's natural! Survival one has to choose first; everything else comes secondary.

"And then one is master of the child forever. From now on, a glance, a word or a single threatening gesture is sufficient to rule the child."

Down the centuries, parents have been destroying people. They were destroyed by their parents, and so on and so forth. It seems to be a chronic state. Your parents were not happy; whatsoever they knew made them only more unhappy and more unhappy -- and they trained you for it, and they have made a replica of themselves in you.

Happiness happens when you fit with your life, when you fit so harmoniously that whatsoever you are doing is your joy. Then suddenly you will come to know: meditation follows you. If you love the work that you are doing, if you love the way you are living, then you are meditative. Then nothing distracts you. When things distract you, that simply shows that you are not really interested in those things.

We have been distracted into unnatural motivations: money, prestige, power. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you money. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to give you power, prestige. Watching the butterfly is not going to help you economically, politically, socially. These things are not paying, but these things make you happy.

A real person takes the courage to move with things that make him happy. If he remains poor, he remains poor; he has no complaint about it, he has no grudge. He says: "I have chosen my way -- I have chosen the cuckoos and the butterflies and the flowers. I cannot be rich, that's okay! But I am rich because I am happy."

This type of man will never need any method to concentrate, because there is no need -- he is in concentration. His concentration is spread all over his life. Twenty-four hours he is in concentration.

Stop THINKING...

THINKING cannot be stopped. Not that it does not stop, but it cannot be stopped. It stops of its own accord. This distinction has to be understood, otherwise you can go mad chasing your mind.

No-mind does not arise by stopping thinking. When the thinking is no more, no-mind is. The very effort to stop will create more anxiety, it will create conflict, it will make you split. You will be in a constant turmoil within. This is not going to help.
And even if you succeed in stopping it forcibly for a few moments, it is not an achievement at all -- because those few moments will be almost dead, they will not be alive. You may feel a sort of stillness, but not silence, because a forced stillness is not silence. Underneath it, deep in the unconscious, the repressed mind goes on working.

So, there is no way to stop the mind. But the mind stops -- that is certain. It stops of its own accord.

So what to do? -- your question is relevant. Watch -- don't try to stop. There is no need to do any action against the mind. In the first place, who will do it? It will be mind fighting mind itself. You will divide your mind into two; one that is trying to boss over -- the top-dog -- trying to kill the other part of itself, which is absurd. It is a foolish game. It can drive you crazy. Don't try to stop the mind or the thinking -- just watch it, allow it. Allow it total freedom. Let it run as fast as it wants. You don't try in any way to control it. You just be a witness. It is beautiful!

Mind is one of the most beautiful mechanisms. Science has not yet been able to create anything parallel to mind. Mind still remains the masterpiece -- so complicated, so tremendously powerful, with so many potentialities. Watch it! Enjoy it!

Finally, eventually, one day, you become master. Then when you want to think, you think; if thought is needed, you use it; if thought is not needed, you allow it to rest. Not that mind is simply no more there: mind is there, but you can use it or not use it. Now it is your decision. Just like legs: if you want to run you use them; if you don't want to run you simply rest -- legs are there. In the same way, mind is always there.

As he is not playing - LIFE has no why, no purpose, no reason...

Millions of people are being massacred and it is God's play? Why can't he play golf? or chess? Why torture people? So much misery in the world, and these fools go on saying it is God's play? Children are being born paralyzed, blind, deaf, dumb...God's play? What kind of God is this? Either he is nuts or he is not God at all, at least not godly. Must be very evil.

Now, these answers don't help -- they create more questions. Life has no purpose, cannot have any purpose.

All purposes are within life. Yes, a car has a purpose; it can take you from one place to another. And food has a purpose; it can nourish you, it can keep you alive. A house has a purpose; it can give you shelter when it rains and when it is hot. And clothes have a purpose.... All purposes are within life, but life itself cannot have any purpose because it is not a means to some end. A car is a means, a house is a means.

Life has no goal, life is not going anywhere. Life is simply here! It has never been created -- forget that idea of creation. That creates many stupid questions in the mind. It has never been created, it has always been here, and it will always be here -- in different forms, in different ways, the dance will continue. It is eternal. Aes dhammo sanantano -- so is the ultimate law.

There is no purpose -- that's the beauty of life! If there were some purpose, then life would not be so beautiful. Then there would be a motivation, then it would be businesslike, then it would be very serious. Look at the roses and the lotuses and the lilies -- what purpose? The lotus in the early morning sun opening up, and the cuckoo starts calling...what purpose? Is it not intrinsically beautiful? Does everything need a purpose outside itself?

Life is intrinsically beautiful. It has no extrinsic purpose, it is not purposive. It is just like the song of a bird in the dark of the night, or the sound of water, or the sound of the wind passing through the pine trees....
Man is goal-oriented because your mind is goal-oriented. It creates questions like this: "What is the goal of life?" There must be some goal. But if somebody says, "This is the goal of life," then you will ask, "What is the goal of this goal? Why should we attain it? What purpose is it going to serve?" And then somebody says, "This is the goal of this goal." The same question arises again, and you fall into a regress, ad infinitum.

"What is the purpose of creation?"
The world has never been created. The word 'creation' is not right. It has always been here, it is eternal. There is no creator. God is not the creator of the world: God is the very creative energy of existence -- creativity rather than a creator. He is not the poet but the poetry, not the dancer but the dance, not the flower but the fragrance.

"Why does life exist?"
These questions look very philosophical, and can torture you very much, but are absurd. It is like asking, "What is the taste of the color green?" Now, it is irrelevant. The color green has no taste; color and taste are not related at all. "Why does life exist?" Just look at the words: 'life' and 'existence' mean the same thing; it is a tautology. If you are asking: Why is life life? then it will be clear to you. But when you ask, "Why does life exist?" the language deceives you.

You are asking: Why is life life? You are asking: Why is a rose a rose? Would you be satisfied if the rose were a marigold? Then you would ask: Why is a marigold a marigold? How are you going to be satisfied?

If life does not exist, will you be satisfied? Just conceive of yourself without body, without mind, a ghost, asking the question: Why doesn't life exist? What happened to life? Why did it disappear? The same question will persist and persecute you.

Life is a mystery. There is no why, no purpose, no reason. It is simply here. Take it or leave it, but it is simply here. And when it is here, why not take it? Why waste your time in philosophizing? Why not dance and sing and love and meditate? Why not go deeper and deeper into this thing called "life"? Maybe at the ultimate core you will know the answer. But the answer comes in such a way that it cannot be expressed. It is like the dumb man's taste of sugar. It is sweet -- he knows that it is sweet, but he cannot say it.

The buddhas know but they cannot say. And the idiots know not and they go on saying, and they go on giving you answers. Idiots are very clever in that way -- in finding, fabricating, manufacturing answers. Ask any question and they will answer you.

ancient story : Last Initiation...

The last initiation was going to be given to the disciple. The Master said, "Your last initiation will be given in a very indirect way." The disciple had passed all the hurdles that the Master had put in his way; he had proved his mettle. Now the last initiation... and once he has passed the last initiation, he will be declared enlightened The disciple touched the feet of the Master and said, "I am ready. Just order me and I will do whatsoever needs to be done."

The Master said, "You will have to go to the King, and go early in the morning; be the first visitor to the King. Because the King has a habit: whosoever comes to him first, whatsoever he asks, the King gives. But the country is so rich that it is very rare that anybody goes. Years pass and nobody goes to ask for anything. But don't take any chances -- be there very early. The King comes in the morning into his garden, as the sun rises the King enters the garden -- be there. And he will ask you, 'What do you want?' And whatsoever you want, ask him."

The disciple could not understand what kind of initiation this last one was. But the order had to be followed. He went. He didn't take any chance: three o'clock early in the morning he was waiting for the King.

As the sun was rising, the King entered. The young man bowed down to the King; the King said, "Have you come to ask for something? You can ask for anything! Whatsoever you ask, I will give it to you."

A great desire possessed the young man. He was a poor man, had come from a very poor family, "And the King says whatsoever...?" To be certain, he asked again, "What do you mean by 'whatsoever'?"

The King said, "Exactly that I mean -- whatsoever. Even if you demand my kingdom I will give it to you. You can ask for as much money as you want..."
The poor young man could not think much. He thought, "Maybe ten thousand rupees will do." But a desire came that "Why ten thousand? You may never get such a chance again -- why not one hundred thousand?"

And then another desire, and desires upon desires... because mind constantly asks for more. So whatsoever he decided, the mind was still asking for more.
The King said, "It seems you are not yet ready to ask. I will go for my morning walk, meanwhile you decide. And when I return, whatsoever you ask will be given to you."
That half an hour was a torture. He went on and on, "I can ask for this and that, and a golden chariot, and so many millions of rupees, and so much land -- I will create a small kingdom of my own."

Desires and dreams... and the King came; that half hour had passed so fast. The King was standing there and he said, "Young man, have you not decided yet?"
And then suddenly the young man thought, "Whatsoever I ask will be less than the King has, so why not ask for all? Be finished with the figures!"
So he said, "Sir, if you are so willing to give, I ask for every-thing! -- all that you have. Your whole kingdom, all your riches, your palaces -- everything. You simply get out of the palace! And you cannot go back in. You may take something. You simply get out -- forget all about it. I can allow you only these clothes that you are wearing."

Even that he did reluctantly; even that much he would have less.

The King fell on his knees, started praying to God, tears rolling down from his eyes -- of great joy, ecstasy! And he was thanking God saying "I have been waiting for such a man. How long I waited! But finally you heard my prayer, and now he has come and I am free of all this nonsense. Thank you! You heard my prayer, although it has been so long and I had to wait so long, but still you heard it. I am grateful."

When he was saying these things to God, the young man was standing there and he started thinking, "What is the matter? If this man is feeling so happy renouncing the kingdom, what am I getting into? If this man has been praying for thirty years, as he is saying, 'Send a man who can take my whole kingdom, who can ask for my whole kingdom!' -- if for thirty years he has been praying, then it is not worthwhile at all. I am getting into unnecessary trouble."

He also fell on his knees, touched the King's feet and said, "Sir, I am a young man -- I am a young fool. Please excuse me. I don't want anything. Your prayer to God, your thankfulness to God has finished my whole mind. I am going back to the forest to my Master."

The King tried to persuade him, "Don't go. Just have a look. Come into the palace! I will not only give you my palace, my kingdom, my riches, but my beautiful daughter also. Come and just have a look!"

But the young man said, "I cannot stay here, not even a single moment -- because the mind can betray me. An insight has happened, and I am thankful to you just as you are thankful to God. I am finished!"

And when the young man reached back to his Master and told the whole story, the Master said, "Your last initiation is over. Now nothing will ever make a slave of you. Now you are alert, conscious, free. You have passed -- I am happy. I was watching from here, and when you had asked for the whole kingdom, my heart was crying. I was thinking, 'So, fifteen years' work on this fool, and all finished.' You can't imagine my happiness," said the Master, "that you are back, that you could see the point, that you were observant."

Be observant, just watch.... People HAVE money, people have great palaces, people have all that you can desire -- just watch, just see: are they happy? are they contented? They may be more happy than you are and more discontented than you are -- then don't follow them. They are blind! They have followed other blind people. Don't follow them, don't imitate the crowd.

The really religious person is one who gets out of the entanglement of the mass psychology, of the mass hypnosis. The mass conditions you: rebel against it; go out of this mass conditioning, become an individual. Then only can you re-member from where you come, because only then will you know who you are.

Right now you know you are a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Christian. You are not all these things: you are neither white nor black, you are neither man nor woman -- you are just a pure consciousness with no adjectives attached to it. There is no frame to this consciousness; this consciousness is infinite. If you drop the mass conditionings you will be coming closer home.

A device not to meditate...

Chanting a mantra is nothing but a process of thought, concentrated thought. It is again a new device, a device not to meditate. People are repeating Christian prayers, Mohammedan prayers, Hindu prayers, all ways to avoid meditation. These are not meditations, remember. Mind is so cunning that in-the name of meditation it has created many pseudo-phenomena.

Meditation is when you are not doing anything at all, when the mind is not functioning at all. That non-functioning of the mind is meditation -- no chanting, no mantra, no image, no concentration. One just simply is. In that isness the ego disappears, and with the ego the shadow of the ego disappears. That shadow is fear.

Future come of its own accord...

You just see: you have been meditating so much and suddenly someone comes just at evening and becomes enlightened.

You can understand business; you know the terms; you cannot understand a gift, you don't know the terms. You can understand if you have to fulfill some condition. If nothing is required of you, you are simply at a loss.

"... as if I have been waiting for something to happen that never happens..." That is never going to happen. Whatsoever you are waiting for, you are waiting in vain. It is not going to happen, and what is going to happen has nothing to do with your expectations and your desires. You just let it come in; don't block the way. Remove yourself out of your own way. This time, with no expectations, no desires, no hopes, just meditate.

There is no need to look for any result. Let it happen. Let the future come of its own accord. Don't make a destination out of meditation -- just simple direction will do. Enjoy it. Celebrate it. Be festive about it.

WHAT IS THERE, IS THERE...

"NOTHING HAS HAPPENED
AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.
WHAT IS THERE, IS THERE".

This is a tremendously significant sutra. All the scriptures can be condensed in such a sutra. If you can understand only these three lines, there is no need to understand anything else. Look at your life from your childhood up to now. What has happened? Many things appear to happen, but what has really happened? You remain the same, the consciousness remains the same, and all that happens is just superficial, like a dream. If it has not happened up to now, how is it going to happen in the future? Only the present is; past and future are dreams. Even for a single moment, if you can penetrate into reality and you can see what is, face to face, you will laugh at the whole absurdity of your efforts. What are you trying? -- you are trying something impossible: you are fighting against reality. The reality is; it knows no becoming, it is being. It knows no future; it is already here. It has always been already here. You have just to see it -- and once you can see it, all worry, all anxiety disappears. Then you stop trying, pulling yourself up by your shoestrings. Then you simply relax. Then there is no tension. Then rather, you start delighting, you start being blissful as you are.

Don't Cling to the Judgements of Mind...

You come before the mirror; whether you are beautiful or ugly the mirror makes no comment. It simply mirrors you, that's all, whatsoever you are, with no comment, with no judgment. It does not say, "You are ugly -- get lost!" or, "You are beautiful -- remain here a little longer. I enjoy you, I enjoy your company." A witness becomes a mirror, he goes on watching.

And the miracle is, if you can watch your mind without becoming a judge, you will go beyond mind very soon. It is your judgments which create entanglements with the mind. One thing you like and you cling to it, another thing you dislike and you want to push it away. You become entangled, you get involved with the mind, you become identified with the mind. And you don't know what truth is and you don't know what good is and you don't know what beauty is. All that you know is borrowed, all that you know is what the society has told you.

And societies have been repeating for centuries, and go on repeating the same things. Society is not enlightened; there has not yet been an enlightened society, only enlightened individuals.

Don't say that is is good, don't say that it is bad. It is hard in the beginning because our minds are so judgmental; we are continously judging. It may be conscious or unconscious but the judgment is continous. But slowly slowly one becomes aware that judgment is futile and that judgment is the cause of all disturbance. When you judge that something is good you want to cling to it; when you judge that something is bad you want to throuw it away -- when you want to throw something away it will cling to you, the law of reverse effect will function. When you want to cling to something it will try to escape from you, the law of reverse effect will function. This is one of the most fundamental laws for all meditators to understand.

Pass over the Personality...

Human personality is partial. In a better society we will give children personalities but also the capacity to get rid of them. That is what is missing right now: we give them personalities, too tight personalities, so that they become encapsulated, imprisoned, and we never give them a way to get rid of them. It is like giving a child steel clothes and not giving him any idea of how to unlock, how to throw the clothes, one day when he is becoming bigger.

All personality is false. Good personality, bad personality, the personality of a sinner and the personality of a saint -- all are false. You can wear a beautiful mask or an ugly mask, it doesn't make any difference.

Your personality is a social phenomenon. Your being is buried deep down under this personality. You need a shock, so that the personality is thrown open, or for some moments you are identified with it no more and you reach the center. There, everything is empty.

If human personality is a barrier, it is a barrier only if you cling to it. It has to be passed through: it is a ladder, it is a bridge. One should not make one's house on the bridge, true, but one has to pass over the bridge.

The whole art of meditation is, how to leave the personality easily, move to the center, and be not a person. Just to be and not be a person is the whole art of meditation, the whole art of inner ecstasy.

Life - explainable or experienceable...?

Life is beautiful because there is so much which cannot be explained. It would have been a disaster if life consisted only of things which can be explained. Just think for a moment: if everything could be explained, then there would be no mystery, then there would be no poetry, then there would be no secret. Then everything would be utterly flat and boring.

Life is not a boredom because there are dimensions in it that you can go on exploring, yet you can never come to explanations. You can experience much, yet even that which you have experienced cannot be translated into words.

You fall in love. Since the very first man, millions of people must have fallen in love; yet love is still a mystery, you cannot reduce it to knowledge. The moment you try to reduce to knowledge, it slips out of your hands. And it is good that it is so miraculous that generation after generation, millions of people go through the experience; they know what it is, yet they cannot say what it is.
All that can be experienced is not necessarily explainable, and all that can be explained is not necessarily experienceable.

Nirvana at the Beach...

Any meditation that is of worth will be alive even in the marketplace. Because a marketplace is nothing once you attain to the meditative state. No market can disturb it, no market can distract you away from it.

Meditation is your inner health. Twenty-three hours a day sick, spiritually sick, full of anger, hate, jealousy, competition, violence, and suddenly for one hour you become a Gautam Buddha -- how can you manage it? This is not possible.

All the religions have been deceiving people. Because people want to have something spiritual, they have given a toy -- one hour do this and you are doing meditation -- but they have not looked at the psychology of it. It is just not in the nature of things, you cannot do it this way. Either you have to be meditative twenty-four hours a day or you have to be non-meditative twenty-four hours a day, the choice is yours. But you cannot divide your life into two parts -- in the temple you will be meditative and in the shop, in the office, you will be non-meditative.

Gautam Buddha and the people who have understood him down the centuries insist on a meditation that goes with every action, with anything you do. It follows you like a shadow. It runs within your consciousness like an undercurrent. You may be in the market, you may be in the temple -- you may be anywhere, and your inner silence remains undisturbed, unperturbed. This is the only true meditation.

Everything happens for a Reason ...

If everything happens according to God, it will give you a few good things. You will be able to tolerate, to accept many miseries, sufferings, with equanimity, with a certain tranquility, calmness, quietness. That will give you strength, integrity, a grace, but then you will also become a slave. Anybody can dominate you, anybody can exploit you. And the same is true about every other idea.

You are not created for any purpose. And it is good that you are not created for any purpose; otherwise you would be a machine. A machine is created for some purpose. Man is not created for some purpose, for something -- no! Man is just the outflowing, overflowing creation. Everything simply is. Flowers are there and stars are there and you are there. Everything is just an overflowing, a joy, a celebration of existence without any purpose.

The universe is a family. The experience is possible only when you trust -- and after that, bliss is inevitable. Without it misery is our fate, it cannot be avoided. With it bliss is natural, it comes of its own accord.

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The Land of Wise Men & Women ...

Exactly the same number of women attain to enlightenment as men, but they don't fuss about it as much as men -- that's all. They don't advertise it as much as men. They enjoy it. That is how woman, the feminine being, is.

Man enjoys talking about his enlightenment more than enlightenment itself. He is interested in how many people have come to know that he has become enlightened. Women are not worried. They are not worried at all. If it has happened they enjoy it, they nourish it deep inside. It becomes a pregnancy. They live with it; they don't talk about it. That's why you don't know many names. Only a few names are known and those are of women who had some quality of man in them, that's why you know. Otherwise you would not have known them.

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WHO AM I ...?

Who am I ?
The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not; the five cognitive sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which apprehend their respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not; the five cognitive senseorgans, viz. the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and procreation, which have as their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and enjoying, I am not; the five vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-breathing, etc., I am not; even the mind which thinks, I am not; the nescience too, which is endowed only with the residual impressions of objects, and in which there are no objects and no functioning’s, I am not.

If I am none of these, then who am I?
After negating all of the above-mentioned as ‘not this’, ‘not this’, that Awareness which alone remains - that I am.

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