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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