posted January 08, 2008 06:57 PM            

You look at a flower and immediately your mind starts talking: "A beautiful flower, never seen before." Some poetry, borrowed of course, arises. The flower is missed, the clarity is not there. Words blur -- can't you see a flower without naming it? Is naming a must? Is your naming the flower going to help in any way? Will the flower be more beautiful if you have the botanical knowledge about it? That is the difference between a botanist and a poet: a botanist knows about the flower, the poet knows the flower. The botanist is simply ignorant -- he knows much but it is about and about -- the poet sees.

In Sanskrit there is only one word for rishi and kavi, for the seer and the poet. There are not two words, because they say whenever there is a real poet he is a seer; whenever there is a seer he is a poet. Clarity -- then life becomes poetry. But then you have to look at the flower without naming it -- is it a rose or something else?

Why are words needed? Why do you say, "It is beautiful"? Can't you see the beauty without speaking? Is it necessary to repeat that it is beautiful? What do you mean by repeating it? It means the flower is not enough; you need a suggestion that it is beautiful, then you can create beauty around it. You don't see the flower, the flower is just a screen, you have to project beauty on it.

Look at the flower and don't say anything. It will be difficult, the mind will feel uneasy because it has become habitual. It constantly goes on chattering. Look at the flower and make it a meditation. Look at the tree and don't name it, don't say anything. There is no need; the tree is there -- why say anything?

posted January 08, 2008 06:58 PM            

"How beautiful!" It fell like a stone in a silent pool. "How beautiful!" fell like a stone in a silent pool and the whole thing became rippled.

Meditate near a tree, meditate with the stars, with the river, with the ocean, meditate in the market with people passing. Don't say anything, don't judge, don't use words -- just look. If you can clear your perception, if you can attain a clarity of looking, everything is achieved. And once this clarity is achieved you will be able to see yourself.

Self-knowledge happens to a clear mind, not to a mind filled with knowledge, not to a mind filled with judgments of good and bad; not to a mind filled with beauty, ugliness, but to a mind that is without words. Self-knowledge happens to a wordless mind. It is always there, you only need a clarity of mind to perceive it so that it can be reflected; you need a mirrorlike mind so that the reflection becomes possible. Once this happens, then you can help your neighbor, never before.

So don't advise anybody! All your advice is dangerous because you don't know what you are doing. Don't try to change anybody, not even your son, not even your brother. Nobody is in need of your change because you are dangerous. You can cripple, you can kill, you can maim, but you cannot help transformation. Unless you are transformed don't move into another's life. When you are filled with light you can help. Really, then there is no need to make any effort to help. Help flows from you just as light flows from a lamp, or fragrance comes out of a flower, or the moon shines in the night -- no effort on the part of the moon, it just flows naturally.

Somebody asked Basho, a Zen master, "Say something about your lectures. You go on talking and still you talk against words. You go on talking, and in those talks you go on talking against words and against talking. So say something about it!"

What did Basho say? Basho said, "Others talk -- I bloom!"

When there is no effort, then it is a blooming. Then it is just like a flower blooming, there is no effort to bloom. A Basho speaks, a Buddha speaks -- no effort, it just happens! It is a natural phenomenon when Buddha is speaking. When you are speaking it is not a natural phenomenon, other things are involved: you want to impress the other, you want to change the other; you want to control, manipulate the other, you want to dominate the other; you want to give the impression that you are a man of knowledge -- you want to feed your ego. Many other things are involved. You are not blooming. It is a great political game when you talk, there is a strategy in it, tactics.

But when a Basho talks, he blooms. If somebody is there, then he will be benefited -- but to benefit the other is not the goal, the benefit can happen effortlessly. The flower does not bloom for you. If you pass by the path the fragrance will reach you; you can enjoy it, you can feel ecstatic, you can be grateful -- but the flower never flowered for you, the flower simply flowered.

A Buddha blooms, a Jesus blooms, and the whole world is benefited. But you go on trying to benefit others and nobody is benefited, rather you do harm. The world would be better if there were less mischievous people around changing and transforming it. All the revolutions have simply done harm, and every reform has led into a deeper mess.

D.H.Lawrence once suggested that for a hundred years we should stop all revolutions, we should stop all universities, we should stop all reforms and all talk about them, and for a hundred years we should live like primitives. The suggestion is beautiful. Then humanity could come to be alive again, the energy could arise and people could attain to clarity.

posted January 08, 2008 06:58 PM            

Look at life like a child not knowing what he is looking at, just looking -- and that looking will give you a new perception. That new perception is what Jesus is talking about. I will repeat the words:

THE MOTE THAT IS IN THY BROTHER'S EYE THOU SEEST, BUT THE BEAM THAT IS IN THINE EYE THOU SEEST NOT.

WHEN THOU CASTEST THE BEAM OUT OF THINE EYE, THEN THOU WILT SEE CLEARLY TO CAST THE MOTE OUT OF THY BROTHER'S EYE.

Only that can be helpful. If you become a light unto yourself you become a light unto others. But that is a blooming, and everybody is benefited -- knowingly, unknowingly, everybody is benefited. You become a blessing.

posted January 09, 2008 07:00 PM            

JESUS SAID: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES AND TO STRETCH TWO BOWS; AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SERVANT TO SERVE TWO MASTERS, OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER.

Everybody is already mounted on two horses, everybody is stretching two bows -- not only two but many. That's how anguish is created, that's why you are constantly in anxiety. Anxiety shows that somehow you are mounted on two horses. How can you be at ease? Impossible, because the two horses are moving in two directions, and you cannot move anywhere.

With one horse movement is possible, you can reach somewhere. With two horses movement is impossible, they will negate each other and you will not reach anywhere. And this is the anxiety -- that you are not reaching anywhere. Deep down this is the anguish: that life is slipping out of your hands, time is becoming less and less, death is coming near and you are not reaching anywhere. It is as if you have become a stagnant pool, just getting dryer and dryer and dying. There is no goal, no fulfillment. But why is it happening? -- because you have been trying to do the impossible.

Try to understand the mind as it functions in you, then you will be able to understand what Jesus means. You want to be as free as a poor man because only a poor man can be free -- he has no burden, he has nothing to protect, you cannot rob him. He is unafraid. You cannot snatch anything from him because he has nothing; with nothing, he is at ease; with nothing as his possession, nothing can be stolen from him. Nobody is his enemy because he is not a competitor at all, he is not competing with anybody.

You want to be as free as a poor man, as a beggar, but you also want to be as secure as a rich man, as safe as an emperor. The rich man is safe, the rich man is secure, he feels more rooted. Outwardly, he has made all the arrangements, he is not vulnerable: he has protections against death, you cannot murder him so easily, he has an armor. And you would like to be free like the beggar and to be secure like an emperor -- then you are mounted on two horses and it is impossible to reach anywhere.

You love a person, but you want the person to behave like a thing, completely in your hands. But you cannot love a thing, because a thing is dead and cannot respond to you. So if the other is really a person he cannot be possessed, he is like mercury: the more you try to keep him in your fist, the more he goes out -- because to be a person means to be free. If he is a person, you cannot possess him; if you can possess him, he is no longer a person and you will not be able to love him. Then he is just a dead thing. Who can love a dead thing?

You are mounted on two horses. You want a person like a thing, which is impossible! A person has to be free and alive, and only then can you love him. But then you feel difficult, you start possessing, and then you start killing him; you are poisoning. If he allows you this poisoning, sooner or later he will be just a thing. So wives become decorative pieces in the houses, husbands become just watchmen -- but love disappears. And this is happening in all directions.

There is doubt in you because doubt has its benefits: it gives you more calculating power, it gives you more protection, nobody can deceive you easily. So you doubt -- but then doubt creates anxiety because deep down you are uneasy. Doubt is just like illness. Unless you have trust you cannot be at ease, because doubt means wavering and wavering is uneasy. Doubt means, "What to do -- this or that?" Doubt means, "To be or not to be?" -- and it is impossible to decide.

posted January 09, 2008 07:01 PM            

With doubt there is uneasiness. It is an illness, it is just like any illness -- it is a mental illness. So a man who doubts becomes more and more ill. But you cannot deceive him easily because he is more cunning, he is more clever in the ways of the world. You cannot deceive him, but he is ill. So there is a benefit -- he cannot be deceived -- but there is a loss, a great loss. The benefit is at a very great cost: he remains wavering, uneasy, he cannot decide. Even if he decides, that decision is just the major portion deciding against the minor. He is divided, there is always conflict.

Trust you also want. You also want to be in faith, because faith gives you health; there is no indecisiveness, you are completely certain. Certainty gives you a happiness: there is no wavering, you are unwavering; you are whole, not divided -- and wholeness is health. Trust gives you health, but then you become vulnerable, anybody can deceive you. If you trust you are in danger, because there are people all around who would like to exploit you, and they can exploit you only when you trust. If you doubt, they cannot exploit.

So you are mounted on two horses, doubt and faith -- but you are doing the impossible. You will remain constantly in anxiety and anguish, you will deteriorate. In this conflict of the two horses you will die. Some day or other there is going to be an accident -- that accident will be your death: you will be finished before you have reached anywhere; you will be finished before the flowers come; you will be finished before you come to know what life is, what it means to be. The being will have disappeared.

JESUS SAID: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES....

But every man is trying to do the impossible, that is why every man is in trouble. And I say to you: this is in every direction. So there are not only two horses, there are millions of horses altogether, and every moment you are living a contradiction. Why does it happen? The mechanism has to be understood, only then can you drop it. Why does it happen? The way every child is brought up is the cause. The way every child enters into this world of mad people all around is the cause. They create contradictions, they teach you contradictory things.

For example, you have been taught: Love the whole of humanity, be brotherly to each and everyone, love thy neighbor as thyself. And simultaneously you have been educated, brought up, conditioned, to compete, to compete with everyone. When you compete, the other is the enemy, not the friend. He has to be defeated, he has to be conquered; really, he has to be destroyed. And you have to be ruthless, otherwise the other will destroy you. If you are a competitor, then the whole society is the enemy, nobody is a neighbor, nobody is a brother. And you cannot love -- you have to hate, you have to be jealous, you have to be angry. You have to be continuously ready to fight and win, and it is a hard struggle -- if you are tender-hearted you are lost.

So be strong and violent and aggressive. Before the other attacks, you attack him. Before it is too late, you attack and win; otherwise you will be lost because millions are competing for the same thing, you are not alone. And how can a mind which is in competition be in love with its neighbor? It is impossible! But both teachings have been given to you: you have been taught that honesty is the best policy, and also that business is business! Both things together, both horses have been given to you together. And a child, unaware of the ways of the world, cannot see and feel the contradiction.

To feel the contradiction a very mature intelligence is needed; a Jesus, a Buddha is needed to feel the contradiction. A child is unaware of the ways of the world, and the teachers -- the father, the mother, the family -- are persons he loves. He loves them -- how can he think that they are creating contradictions in him? He cannot even imagine it because they are his benefactors: they are kind to him, they are bringing him up. They are his source of energy, life, everything. So why should they create contradictions? A father loves, a mother loves, but the problem is that they were also brought up in the same wrong way and they don't know what to do except to repeat. Whatsoever their parents taught them, they are teaching their children. They are simply transferring a disease; from one generation to another the disease is being transferred. You may call it the 'treasure', the 'tradition', but it is a disease. It is a disease because no one becomes healthy through it.

The whole society goes more and more neurotic. And a child is so simple, so innocent, that he can be conditioned into contradictory ways. By the time he realizes the contradiction it is too late. And it happens that almost your whole life is lost, and you never realize that you are mounted on two horses. Think about this contradiction and find it, try to find it in your life. You will find millions of contradictions there -- you are a confusion, a mess, a chaos.

When people come to me and they ask for silence, I look at them and I feel very much, because it is almost impossible -- silence can exist only when all the contradictions have been dropped. It needs arduous effort, very penetrating intelligence, understanding, maturity. Nothing is there, and you think that just by repeating a mantra you will become silent? If it were so easy, then everybody would have become silent. You think just by repeating "Ram, Ram," you will become silent? Riding on millions of horses, repeating the mantra, you will become silent? That mantra will be still one more horse, that's all -- more confusion will come out of it. If one more horse is added, you will be more confused through it.

posted January 09, 2008 07:01 PM            

The way you are brought up is wrong, but nothing can be done now because you have already been brought up, you cannot move back. So you have to understand it and drop it through understanding. If you drop it because I say so, then you will add more horses. If you drop it through understanding -- because you understand the whole thing and hence it is dropped -- then no more horses will be added. On the contrary, old horses will be released to their freedom, so they can move and reach their goals... and you can move and reach your own goal.

For not only are you in difficulty, your horses are also in very great difficulty because of you; they cannot reach anywhere either. Have pity on yourself and on your horses, both. But this should be done through understanding -- your understanding, not my teaching or Jesus' or Buddha's. They can show the path, but if you follow without understanding you will never reach the goal.

Now try to understand.

JESUS SAID: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES AND STRETCH TWO BOWS; AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SERVANT TO SERVE TWO MASTERS, OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER.

Why is it impossible, and what is impossibility? An impossibility is not something which is very difficult, no. Howsoever difficult a thing may be it is not impossible, you can achieve it. By impossibility is meant something which cannot be achieved whatsoever you do; there is no way, no possibility to do it. When Jesus says impossible he means impossible, he doesn't mean very difficult -- and you are trying to do the impossible. What will happen? It cannot be done, but you will be undone through it. It cannot be done, but what will happen to you who have been making an effort to do the impossible? You will fall apart. It is not possible to do it, but doing it, you are undoing your own life. This will happen, this has happened.

Look at people who doubt. Have you seen a man who has doubt and who does not have faith? If you see a man who only has doubt you will see he cannot live, it is impossible to live. Go to the madhouses: there you will find people who have doubts about everything. Then they cannot even move, because they doubt even a simple action.

I knew a man who was so full of doubt that he could not go to the market -- and the market was just a few yards away. He would come back again and again to check the lock. And when we were children we used to play tricks on that poor man. He would be going out and we would ask him, "Have you checked the lock?" He would be angry but he would go back to check it. And he was alone, there was nobody else -- and so afraid! He would be taking his bath in the river and somebody would say, "Have you checked the lock?" He would be very angry, but half way through his bath, immediately he would come out and run to the house to check. This is the perfect skeptic. If doubt goes too far you will enter into a madhouse, because then you doubt everything. This is one type of man who is completely broken into fragments.

If you choose faith against this, you will become absolutely blind. Then anybody can take you anywhere, then you have no intelligence of your own, no alertness of your own. Around Hitlers you will find this type of person -- they have trusted and through trust they have lost.

Because of this you are trying the impossible: to make a compromise, not to go to this extreme, because there neurosis comes; not to go to the other extreme, because there blindness happens. Then what to do? Then simple reasoning says, "Just compromise both, half and half -- a little doubt, a little faith." But then you mount on two horses. Is it not possible to live without doubt and without faith?

It is possible! In fact, that is the only possible way to grow: to live without doubt and without faith; just to live simply, spontaneously, with awareness. And this is really what trust is -- not trusting somebody else. This is trusting life: wheresoever it leads, without doubt, without faith, you simply move, you move innocently.

A man who doubts cannot move innocently. Before he moves he will think, and sometimes he will think so much that the opportunity is lost. That's why thinkers never do much. They cannot act, they become simply cerebral, because before action they must decide, they must come to a conclusion; and they cannot come to a conclusion, so how can they act? Then it is better not to act, and wait. But life will not wait for you.

Or you become faithful, believing, a blind man. Then anybody, any politician, any madman, any pope, any priest can lead you anywhere. They themselves are blind, and when the blind lead the blind there is bound to be catastrophe. What to do? Reasoning says, ordinary reasoning says, "Make a compromise."

One scientist, B.F.Skinner, did an experiment worth remembering. A white mouse was the object of experiment. The white mouse was starved for two or three days so it was very hungry; really, it was just hunger, ready to jump and eat anything available. Then it was put on a platform. Just below the platform there were two similar boxes, the same color, same size, and both boxes contained food. The white mouse could jump in either the right box or the left.

The mouse immediately jumped, not even a single moment of thought. But whenever he jumped into the right box, he would get an electric shock. And there was a trapdoor, so he would fall inside another box through the trapdoor and would not be able to reach the food. Whenever he jumped into the left box, there was no shock and there was no trapdoor, so he would reach the food. Within two or three days he learned the trick: he would jump in the left box and avoid the right.

Then Skinner made a change, he changed the places of the boxes. The mouse jumped into the left box and found that there was an electric shock. Now it was disturbed, confused as to what to do and what not to do. So before jumping it would tremble and waver, doubtful. This is how a philosopher is -- a white mouse, trembling, doubtful what to do: left or right, and how to choose? And who knows...? But then it got accustomed again. Then Skinner again made a change. The mouse became so confused that although it was hungry it would wait, trembling, looking at this box and that -- and how to decide? Then he decided the thing you have decided: he jumped between the two boxes -- but there was no food, this was not going to help. And after a few weeks of experiment, the white mouse became mad, neurotic.

posted January 09, 2008 07:02 PM            

You miss life if you jump in the middle. If it were possible for the white mouse to mount both boxes, he would have done that. These are the two possibilities which open for reasoning: mount both horses or just jump in the middle. Intelligence, a very penetrating and keen intelligence, is needed to understand the problem -- there is no other solution. I am not going to give you any solution, no Jesus has given any solution to anybody; just the understanding of the problem is the solution. You understand the problem and the problem disappears.

Is it not possible to live without faith and without doubt, not making a compromise? ... Because the compromise is going to be a poison: they are such contraries that your whole life will become a contradiction, and if contradiction is there you will be divided, split; schizophrenia will be the final result. Or, if you choose one and deny the other, then the benefits that were possible from the other are denied you. Doubt gives you protection against exploitation, faith gives you certainty -- drop one and the benefit of it is also dropped. If you choose both you mount on two horses; if you make a compromise you create a division within your being -- you are two, you become a crowd. Then what to do?

Just understand the problem and get down from both horses -- don't make any compromise. Then a totally different sort of being, a totally different quality to your consciousness happens. But why are you not doing that? -- because that quality needs alertness, that quality needs awareness. Then you need not doubt anybody, you simply have to be fully alert. Your alertness will be the protection against exploitation.

If a fully alert man looks at you, you cannot deceive him; his very look will disarm you. And if he allows exploitation, it is not because you are cunning and cheating him, but because he is kind and allows you. You cannot cheat a fully alert man. It is impossible because he looks through you, you are transparent; he has such consciousness that you are transparent. If he allows you to cheat him it is because of his compassion. You cannot cheat him.

This consciousness seems to be difficult; that's why you have chosen the impossible. But the impossible is impossible -- you only make believe that it can happen; it has never happened, it will never happen. You have chosen the impossible because it looks easier. Compromise always looks easier -- whenever you are in difficulty you compromise. But compromise never helps anybody, because compromise means two contraries will exist within you; they will always be in tension and they will divide you. And a divided man can never be happy.

This is what Jesus means, but Christians have misunderstood him. Christians have completely missed Jesus, because the mind goes on interpreting. What have they interpreted? They think Jesus is saying, "Choose one horse! Either this world or that -- choose one! Don't mount two horses, because you will be in difficulty and it is impossible. So choose one horse." That's what they have come to conclude and interpret.

posted January 09, 2008 07:02 PM            

Your mind sticks to its own conclusions, because if one conclusion is lost, your confidence is lost. So whatsoever the situation you stick to your conclusions. That gives you ground for your ego and your mind to stand on.

One day, Mulla Nasruddin was walking with a very big stick which was too long for him. One friend suggested, "Nasruddin, why don't you cut a few inches off from the bottom?"

Nasruddin said, "That would not help -- because it is this end that is long."

Your reasoning can be suicidal. It is! You think it is reasoning, but it is not reasoning, it is just deceiving -- deceiving yourself. But you don't want to lose ground, you want to be confident; and all confidence that comes through mind is false, because mind cannot give you confidence. It can only give you false things, it can only supply you with false things. It has not got the real thing with it, it is just a shadow. Mind is just thoughts, shadows, nothing substantial in it. But it can go on playing rationalizations, and you will feel good.

Christians miss the whole point. They think Jesus is saying, "Choose!" Jesus can never say, "Choose!" -- Jesus means choicelessness. ... Because if you choose, the choosing mind is strengthened, not destroyed; the mind which is choosing becomes stronger through the choice. No, it is not a question of choice. And through choice you can never be total, because you have to deny something.

If you choose faith you will have to deny doubt. Where will this doubt go? It is not something outward that you can throw, it is deep in you. Where will it go? You can simply close your eyes, that's all; you can simply repress it in the unconscious, that's all. But it is there, like a worm, eating your consciousness. It will be there, and someday or other it will come to the surface. What can you do? How can you drop it? If you choose doubt, where will your faith go? It is part of you. So compromise will happen: you will become an amalgam of many things somehow put together; not a synthesis but a compromise.

Jesus means quite the contrary. He means, "Don't choose."

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES AND STRETCH TWO BOWS; AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SERVANT TO SERVE TWO MASTERS, OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER.

Look at the last phrase: ... OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER. If you choose one, you honor the one and offend the other -- and the offended part of you will take revenge, it will become rebellious.

It happens -- science depends on doubt, totally on doubt, no trust is allowed. So have you known, have you observed scientists? Out of their lab they are very faithful; you cannot find more trusting people than scientists, more easily cheated than anybody else, because their doubt part functions in the lab and their trust part functions outside. They are simple people as far as the outside world is concerned, but in their lab they are very cunning and clever.

You can cheat a scientist very easily. It is not so easy to cheat so-called religious men. In the temple they are in deep trust, outside the temple they are very cunning. Look at the so-called religious people: outside the temple you cannot cheat them, there is no possibility to cheat or exploit them; but inside the temple they are very simple. They use their trust part there, their doubt part in the world. They are good businessmen, they accumulate wealth -- they exploit the whole world.

A scientist can never be a good businessman, he cannot be a good politician. That is not possible, because the doubt part is finished in the laboratory; outside, the trust part functions. A scientist at home is totally different from a scientist in his scientific research work. You may have heard many stories about their absent-mindedness. They happen, really happen, they are not stories. Because he uses his attention in the lab, then outside the lab he becomes inattentive -- he has used one part, it is finished. So he has a double life: in the lab he is very mindful, outside the lab he becomes absent-minded.

posted January 09, 2008 07:03 PM            

In the lab, this man is perfect as far as attention is concerned, presence is concerned. But that part is used up there; outside the lab he is a totally different man, just the opposite.

That's why it happens that you find a contradiction in the life of so-called religious people, it is natural. See them praying in the temples, and look at their faces! They look so innocent, their eyes filled with such deep emotion, tears flowing down. You cannot imagine the same man outside, how he will look, how he will be at his shop, how he will behave when you go to the shop. The emotional part, the trusting part, is finished in the temple, in the mosque, in the church; when he comes out he is free of that part. Then he is as doubting as any scientist can be, as skeptical as possible.

This is how we live a double life, this is a compromise. Jesus is not saying, "Choose one against the other." If you choose one against the other, the other part will be offended, and the offended part of your being will take revenge. And it makes it very difficult, it makes life almost impossible to live. The more you try to live with one part, the more the other part disturbs all your planning, all your scheming; it comes up again and again. Then what to do?

The way, the thing to be done, is not to choose. The thing is to understand the whole contradiction of your being. Not choosing, but becoming choiceless; not dropping one against the other -- because you cannot drop one aspect of a thing.

You have a rupee coin, it has two aspects. You cannot drop one aspect, you cannot drop one side of it. You may not like the other side, but you have to carry both; if you want to carry one you have to carry two, then the whole rupee will be with you. The only thing that you can manage is that you can hide the aspect you don't like, and the aspect you like you can put on the surface, that's all. That's how the conscious and the unconscious are created.

The conscious is that part, that horse that you like, and the unconscious is that horse, that part that you don't like. The conscious is that which you have chosen, the unconscious is that against which you have chosen. These are the two churches -- the one you go to and the one you don't go to. Otherwise, in a man like Buddha, the conscious and the unconscious both disappear, because he has not chosen for, he has not chosen against. The whole coin drops. And only the whole coin can drop, half can never be dropped.

posted January 09, 2008 07:04 PM            

But you are still mounted on two horses. The only way is to drop the whole thing, and the secret is not in dropping -- because dropping can also become a choice. This is the most complex and subtle thing: you can drop, and choose dropping against not dropping -- then again there are two horses. No, this is to be done through understanding. Dropping is not the thing, understanding is the thing.

Understand the whole madness: what you have done to yourself, what you have allowed to happen to yourself, what type of contradictions you have been accumulating -- just see through the whole thing. Don't be for and against, don't condemn, don't judge -- just look through the whole thing that you are. Don't hide, don't offend, don't judge: "This is good and that is bad." Don't evaluate. Don't be a judge but just an onlooker, detached, a witness. Just see the whole thing that you are, whatsoever you are; whatsoever mess you are in, just see it as it is.

Suddenly, an understanding arises which becomes the dropping. It is just as if you have been trying to enter a wall, and suddenly you become aware that this is a wall and there is no door. Do you need to drop the effort now? You simply move! That movement is simple, it is not for and against -- you simply understand that this is absolutely useless, impossible. That is the meaning of Jesus: you simply look; it is impossible, you move. There is no choice on the part of the mind, you don't make any effort.

Whenever there is understanding, it is effortless. And whenever something is effortless it is beautiful because it is whole. Whenever there is effort there is ugliness, because it is always the part, never the whole. Effort means deep down you are fighting against something. But why are you fighting? -- because that which you are fighting still retains meaning for you. The enemy also has meaning, just like the friend -- the opposite meaning, but he carries meaning. And have you ever thought that whenever your enemy dies, something in you dies immediately? You not only suffer from the death of your friends, you also suffer from the death of your enemies -- you cannot remain the same.

In India it happened: Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi were constant fighters against each other. Then Gandhi was murdered, and Jinnah is reported to have said, "I feel very sad. Something in me has died." Who can Jinnah fight against now? Against whom can he be the fighter? Against whom can he accept the challenge? The ego drops if the enemy is not there. You are constituted of your friends and of your enemies -- you are a contradiction.

Only he is whole who has no enemies and no friends, who has not chosen, who has no leanings for this or for that; who simply moves moment to moment with a choiceless awareness, and whatsoever life brings, he allows. He floats, he is not swimming; he is not a fighter, he is in a letgo. If you can understand this, then you will be able to understand the meaning of Jesus:

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES AND TO STRETCH TWO BOWS, AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SERVANT TO SERVE TWO MASTERS, OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER.

The ordinary meaning will be, "Choose one master, don't choose two." But through choice you will never be whole, so it is not a question of choosing one master against another, because you will still remain a slave, you cannot be free. Only choicelessness can give you freedom. Then you don't choose, you simply drop the whole effort -- it drops by itself when you understand. Then you are the master.

In India, we have been calling sannyasins, swami. Swami means, master of oneself, it means one who has dropped choosing, it means now he accepts no master. And this is not an egoistic understanding, this is a deep understanding that if you choose between contraries you are a victim, if you choose between the contraries you will remain divided in the contraries. A sannyasin is not against this world and for that one, a sannyasin is simply neither for nor against -- he simply moves without friends and without enemies.

posted January 09, 2008 07:04 PM            

When the impossible effort is gone, anxiety disappears, then you are no longer in anguish. And when you are no longer in anguish, bliss arises. Bliss is not something to be achieved. You only have to create the capacity. When you are not in anguish, bliss happens. You have created the capacity, you have opened the door and the sunrays enter and fill you. As you are, anxiety-ridden, divided, mounted on two horses, trying to stretch two bows together, you are schizophrenic, you are ill, you are wavering. Or, at the most, you have made a compromise and you have become normally neurotic.

A normal being somehow carries on his work; the neurosis does not come in the way, that's all -- an adjusted citizen, that's all. But it is not worthwhile. Even if you are an adjusted citizen, a good citizen, a normal human being, no ecstasy will happen to you. You will remain sad, and whatsoever you achieve in this world will give you more sadness. Look at the people who have succeeded, who are ahead of you, who have reached the top, and you will see they are more sad than people who are not so successful -- because their hope is lost.

One morning, Mulla Nasruddin was walking towards the market very sad. And a friend asked, "What has happened?"

Nasruddin said, "Don't ask me! I am so sad and so depressed that I could cry."

But the friend insisted, "But what is the matter? We have never seen you so sad. You have been in so many difficulties, financial and otherwise, but we have never seen you so sad and depressed. What is the matter? What has happened?"

Mulla Nasruddin said, "Two weeks ago, one of my uncles died and he left one hundred thousand rupees for me."

The friend said, "Nasruddin, have you gone mad? If your uncle has left one hundred thousand rupees for you, you should be happy not sad."

Nasruddin said, "Yes, that's so -- but last week, my other uncle died and he has left two hundred thousand rupees for me."

The man said, "Then you are completely out of your mind -- you should dance and rejoice and celebrate, because there is no reason to be unhappy! You are the happiest man in this town!"

Nasruddin said, "That I know -- but I have no more uncles. That makes me sad."

posted January 09, 2008 07:05 PM            

In a poor country there is not so much madness. People can still hope. And when you can hope, nothing comes up -- you go on running and running. When the goal is achieved, then you stand still and you have to look at yourself and at what a mess you have created in your being, what chaos. You suddenly go out of your mind. You have always been out of your mind, but it is revealed when you succeed, because when there is no more to dream about, you have to encounter yourself. As you are, bliss is not possible, happiness is impossible. You can only hope for it and tolerate the pain, the suffering that you have brought upon yourself.

But bliss is possible; it has happened to a Jesus, to a Buddha, it can happen to you -- but then you have to leave the impossible aside. Think of the natural, the possible, the easy. Don't think of the impossible, the difficult, the challenging. The ego always likes to do the impossible, but it is a failure, it has to be a failure. But the ego likes to take the challenge of the impossible, because then you feel you are something. Against an impossible goal you become a great fighter.

And religion is simple, easy, natural -- it is not riding on a horse at all. It is just a morning walk not going anywhere. Just walking is the end; not doing anything in particular, just enjoying the morning breeze, the sun, the birds -- just enjoying yourself.

posted January 10, 2008 10:23 PM            

The whole human problem consists of choosing between the momentary and the eternal. If you choose the momentary you are building your house on sands -- it is going to fall. If you choose the eternal, then something is achieved which is going to be forever and forever.

And nothing less can satisfy you, only the eternal can satisfy you. The momentary cannot satisfy you; rather, on the contrary, it will make you more hungry and more thirsty. It is like someone throwing butter in the fire to put it out -- it will become food for the fire and the fire will increase. The momentary is just like butter in the fire of your mind's desire; it helps it, it is a food. Only the eternal can quench the thirst, there is no other way.

But when I say, "If you choose the eternal, only then do you build your house on a mountain-top, on something rocklike which will endure and your effort will not be wasted"... what do I mean when I say, "If you choose the eternal"? -- because the eternal cannot be chosen. If you choose you will always choose the momentary, because choice is of the momentary. Then what do I mean when I say, "Choose the eternal"? I mean: if you can understand that the momentary is useless -- by the next moment you will be thirsty again, and this water is not going to destroy your thirst -- if you understand this then the momentary drops. It becomes useless, you simply come to understand its meaninglessness. It simply drops and the eternal is chosen -- you never choose it.

When the momentary drops, the eternal enters into your life. But the momentary must become absolutely fruitless, meaningless; with the momentary your failure must be total. "Blessed are those who fail in this world" -- this beatitude must be added to Jesus' other beatitudes.

Be a failure in this world! You are trying to do just the opposite: to succeed in it. If you succeed, that will be the real failure because then you will remain with the momentary -- but no one ever succeeds; we are fortunate because no one ever succeeds. At the most, you can go on postponing the failure, that's all. You may postpone it to a further life, you can postpone it for millions of lives. But no one ever succeeds in this world, because how can you succeed with the momentary, that which is fleeting? How can you make a house on it? That which is passing moment to moment, going out of existence, how can you make a house, an abode on it? By the time the house is ready, the moment is gone. That's why every moment you feel frustrated -- but again you start doing the same thing.

It seems you are not aware, it seems you are not alert to what you are doing -- it seems you have not learned anything from life. You have remained ignorant of life, you have not attained to any experience. You may have much knowledge, you may know how to build the house -- you may be an engineer, an architect -- but you have not learned through experience that on the momentary the house cannot be built. This is the first thing Jesus says.

posted January 10, 2008 10:24 PM            

Many things. First: A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN....

You always make something in the valley. These are symbols: 'valley' means the dark night; 'high mountain' means more conscious, more aware; the more aware you are, the higher you go. When you become perfectly aware, you are on Everest. That is why Hindus have been saying that Shiva lives on Gourishankar, the highest mountain-top. Shiva is the highest consciousness; Shiva is not a person, Shiva means the perfect consciousness. Perfect consciousness lives on Gourishankar.

When you are unconscious you fall down into the dark valley -- your night is a valley, your sleep is a valley. When you are aware you start moving towards the height; when you are completely unconscious, that is the lowest point of existence. Rocks exist there, at the lowest rung of the ladder, because rocks are perfectly unconscious. They are not dead -- they are alive, they grow; they are young, they become old, they die. They pass through all the phases you pass through, but they are not conscious -- the lowest rung of the ladder. Sometimes you are like a rock: when you are fast asleep what is the difference between you and a rock? When there is not even a single ray of consciousness, then what is the difference between you and the earth? You have fallen back.

In sleep, you go towards the valley. The 'sinner' means one who lives constantly in sleep; the 'saint' means one who is not asleep even in his sleep. Krishna has said to Arjuna: "When everybody is asleep, the yogi is still awake. When everybody is in slumber, the yogi is still alert." The totality of the yogi never goes to sleep. A point of witnessing always remains there; he witnesses his own sleep. In sleep you fall down, in awareness you rise high. When nothing is asleep in you, when your whole consciousness has become a light, when not a single fragment is unconscious, when your complete being is filled with light -- that is what we mean by a Buddha, a Christ: no unconsciousness exists -- this is the highest peak. Hence the symbolic meaning of... A CITY BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN.

You are building your cities, your houses, in a valley, and ordinary sleep alone is not enough for you, you also seek drugs to fall more asleep; you seek methods of hypnosis to become more sleepy, more unconscious -- because consciousness is pain, it is anguish. Why is it anguish? And Buddha and Jesus say it is the greatest bliss that is possible! But for you, why is consciousness painful? And why do you want to forget everything? Why is consciousness painful?

It is painful if only one percent of you becomes conscious and ninety-nine percent of you remains unconscious, then that one percent suffers seeing the mess all around. Seeing that ninety-nine percent in a state of madness, that one percent of consciousness suffers, that one percent of consciousness seeks alcohol, drugs, LSD, marijuana or something else -- sex or music or a mantra -- to create an autohypnosis. So that one percent also falls back and becomes part of the whole. Then you are not worried because there is nobody to know, then there is nobody to be alert and conscious -- then there is no problem.

This is what they call the logic of the ostrich. Whenever an ostrich finds that some enemy is coming he will hide his head in the sand. For the moment he cannot see, and his logic is, "When I cannot see the enemy, how can the enemy be there?" The ostrich seems to be a perfect atheist, for that is what atheists have been saying. They say, "If we cannot see God, how can he be there? Something exists only when we see it," as if existence depends on your seeing; and if you don't see then the thing disappears.

The ostrich hides his head, closes his eyes, and immediately he is unafraid because the enemy is no more. But the enemy does not believe in your logic. On the contrary, you are playing into his hands when your eyes are closed; you are playing into the hands of the enemy, on your own part you are becoming a victim. You could have escaped, but now there is no escape because you think there is no enemy. You may feel a momentary happiness because the enemy is not there -- not that the enemy is not there, but because you feel as if he is not. That's how you feel a momentary happiness when you become unconscious through drugs: no problems exist, all the enemies disappear, there is no anxiety -- because for anxiety you need to be alert, aware.

When one hundred percent of your being becomes conscious then there is bliss, because the conflict disappears -- Buddha is right. You are also right because your experience says that the more you become alert, the more you feel problems around you. So it is better to remain in a long slumber, in a lifelong sleep. That's why we build our cities in the valleys, not on mountain-tops.

Then there is another reason.

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED, CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

We build our cities in such a way, on such a fleeting existence, on the momentary, the temporal, that by the time they are ready they are falling; by the time they are ready they have already become ruins. Why? -- because we can see only the momentary, we don't have a total vision. We can see only that which is nearest, just very close. Only the moment is close -- you see one moment, then it passes, then another moment, then it passes. You see these passing moments, you cannot have a total vision.

For the total vision a perfect consciousness is needed. In a total vision, you can see the whole of life; not only the whole of life, you can see the whole world. That's what Jainas mean when they say that when Mahavira became enlightened he could see past, present and future -- the whole of time. What do they mean? They mean that the wholeness of existence becomes clear to you, and when the wholeness is clear, only then can you make a fortified city. Otherwise, how can you make one?

posted January 10, 2008 10:25 PM            

It happened once that a Chinese master had an American disciple. When the disciple was going back the master gave him a present, a small carved wooden box, and he said, "One condition always has to be followed; if you give this box to somebody else, then the condition has to be fulfilled. Promise... because I have been fulfilling this promise, and this is not a new thing, it's a very ancient thing and for many, many generations the condition has been fulfilled."

The disciple said, "I will fulfill it." It was such a beautiful thing, so valuable, so ancient, he said, "Whatsoever the condition...."

The master said, "The condition is simple: you have to keep it in your house facing east. And this has always been done, so be respectful to the tradition."

The disciple said, "This is very simple, I will do it."

But when he put the box facing east, then he came to understand that it was very difficult, because his whole arrangement in the drawingroom became absurd. That box facing east would not adjust. So he had to change the whole arrangement of the drawingroom to be harmonious with the box. But then the whole house became absurd, so then he had to change the whole house. Then the garden became absurd! Then he felt exhausted. He wrote to the master: "This box is dangerous! I will have to change the whole world -- because if I also change my garden, then next it will be the neighborhood...." And he was a man of sensitivity, that's why he felt like this.

If you build your life on the momentary, you are going to be in difficulty with the whole because it will never adjust. It will never be harmonious, something or other will always be wrong. The whole has to be looked to before you make your city, before you make your abode; the whole has to be consulted and referred to. With the vision of the whole you should create your life and the pattern of your life; you should live with the vision of the whole. Only then will your life be a harmony, a melody; otherwise, you will always be somehow outlandish, eccentric.

Every man is eccentric. This word is beautiful. 'Eccentric' means out of the center, somehow missing the center, not exactly as it should be. Why is every man eccentric, out of the center, out of focus, out of step with life? -- because everybody is trying to make life according to the moment, and the moment is not the whole. The moment is a fragment, such a small, trivial fragment of eternity. How can you adjust to eternity if you make your life according to the moment? That's why Jesus says, "Make your life, create your life according to the whole, the eternal, not the momentary."

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED, CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

Your city will always be falling, your city will always be in ruins. It is so! You need not ask Jesus, you can just look at your life: it is a ruin. Before you have built it, it is already a ruin. You are a ruined city. Why is it happening? -- because of the momentary. Have a vision of the eternal, of the timeless.

How will this vision come? The higher your consciousness, the greater your vision; the lower your consciousness, the smaller your vision. Go and stand on the street under a tree and look: you have a vision -- you can see to the nearest corner of this road, then there is a turning and the vision stops. Climb the tree and have a look from the tree -- then you have a greater vision. Go in an airplane -- then you have a birdseye view of the whole city. Go higher, and greater becomes the vision; go lower, and smaller is the vision. There are rungs in the ladder of consciousness. If you are at the peak of your consciousness, look from there: eternity is revealed.

Have you observed a very small thing? You are standing under a tree, you look to the east -- you don't see anything. Somebody is sitting on top of the tree and he says, "I can see a bullock cart coming."

You say, "There is no bullock cart! I can't see it -- and when I can't see it, how can it be?" The bullock cart is in the future for you, but for the man who is sitting on top of the tree the bullock cart is in the present. So don't think that the present means the same to everyone. Your present is confined to you, it may not be present for me; my present is confined to me, it may not be present for you. It depends on the ladder of consciousness.

posted January 10, 2008 10:25 PM            

Time is your invention because you live in the valley. Hence, all the traditions of the world have been emphasizing that when you move into samadhi, ecstasy, deep meditation, time disappears. What do they mean? They mean that the division of past, present, future, disappears; existence is, but without divisions, timeless. Build your city on the timeless, don't build it on the momentary; otherwise it will always be a ruin, because the present is fleeting and becoming the past. What do I mean when I say it will be a ruin before you have even built it? ... Because the moment you build, that moment is past, it is already gone, it is no more in your hands. The earth below your feet is moving continuously.

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED....

And why does he use the word fortified? As you are, in the valley, you are always in fear, insecurity, always in danger. The valley is filled with ghosts, shadows, enemies, hatred all around.

I have heard about a housefly who was passing by a supermarket. In one window insecticides were on display. She read the sign; in big red letters it was written, "New spray guaranteed to kill flies IMMEDIATELY!" She read the sign and as she flew away, muttered to herself, "There is too much hatred in the world!"

You live in the world of the valley. There, everything is guaranteed to kill immediately. You live in the valley of death -- nothing else is guaranteed there, only death is guaranteed.

Have you ever observed the fact that in life, everything is uncertain except death? It should be otherwise, but the only certainty that you have is a guarantee to die, that's all. This much can be said in the valley: you will die, that much is certain. Everything else is uncertain and accidental -- it may happen, it may not happen. What type of life is this where only death is guaranteed? But it is so, because in darkness only death can exist; in unconsciousness only death can exist. Unconsciousness is the path towards death.

Whenever you want to be unconscious, you want to die. A deep urge to die is in you, otherwise you would start moving towards the height. Freud, in the last phase of his life, stumbled upon a very deep fact: he called it thanatos -- the wish towards death. His whole life he was thinking around libido -- a theory which says that man exists as a will to live; but the more he penetrated into the will to live, the more uncertain he became. The more he started to understand the will to live, he found that deep down there is a will to die.

It was very difficult for Freud because he was a linear thinker, one-dimensional, and he was an Aristotelean, a logician. This was very contradictory that behind the libido -- the lust to live, the will to live -- there is a will to die, thanatos. He became very much disturbed. But that's what Buddha has always been saying, and that's what Jesus has been saying: that as you are, you are so useless, your whole life is so futile, just full of frustrations, that you would like to die.

When you take something to become unconscious, the wish to die is there -- because unconsciousness is a temporary death. You cannot live without sleep even for a few days, because sleep is a sort of temporary death. You need it, you need it very deeply. If you cannot die every day for eight hours you will not be able to live the next day -- because your whole life is such a mess, and 'to be' is not bliss; rather, 'not to be' seems to be blissful. So wherever you can lose yourself you feel blissful. If you can lose yourself in a political movement, if you can become a Nazi and you can lose yourself in a crowd, you feel good because this is a death -- you are no longer there, only the crowd exists.

That's why dictators succeed -- because of your wish to die. Dictators succeed even in the twentieth century, because they give you a chance to die so easily. That's why wars have always existed, and they will continue to exist because you are not changing in any way. Man is not transforming himself. Wars will exist because they are a deep will to die. You want to kill and you want to be killed. Life is such a burden that suicide seems to be the only solution. If you have not committed suicide up to now, don't think that you are truly a life-lover. No! You are simply afraid. You are not a lover of life, because a lover of life will always move towards the heights -- the higher the peak, the more life. Hence Jesus can promise, "Come to me, and I will give you life in abundance!"

Hence Jesus says, "I am life, great life. Come to me!" But to come to Jesus is very difficult because you have so much investment in the valley, in the dark ways of life, and you are so afraid of being alive. You make many arrangements in order not to be too alive, you exist with the minimum of life. You exist like an automaton, you turn everything into a mechanical thing so that you need not bother about it -- you need not live in it.

Wars will continue, violence will continue, and men will go on killing each other. The whole effort has been to create a device which can become a global suicide, and now we have discovered it -- the H-bomb. Why are scientists continuously working, devoting their whole lives to creating destructive things? -- because that is the deepest desire in man: to die, somehow to die. It is not very conscious, because if it becomes conscious you will start transforming yourself. Many times you assert, "It would have been better if I had not been born!"

posted January 10, 2008 10:26 PM            

Suicide is a deep-rooted instinct. Immediately you feel anything going wrong you feel you want to commit suicide, to destroy yourself. A religious man is one who becomes alert that a deep death-wish is hidden inside. Why is it there? You have to bring more light into yourself so that you can become aware of the corner where death is hidden and continuously eating you. It is not that suddenly one day you die -- you die slowly for seventy years. Death is not a phenomenon that comes in the end, it starts with birth. Then every breath and every moment is simply nothing but a continuity of dying and dying and dying. It completes itself in seventy years because it is a very slow process.

But you have been dying, and you are waiting deep down to be finished -- the sooner the better. You have not committed suicide because you are very afraid, scared: what will happen? So you tolerate life, you are not enjoying it as a gift of God. You are simply tolerating it, you are simply carrying it somehow, waiting for the moment when you can get out of the train.

Once it happened: Thomas Edison was invited for a dinner at which a few friends had gathered. He was a man of few words and he was always disturbed whenever there was a crowd. He was a lonely worker in his laboratory; he was a researcher, a contemplative man; the presence of the other was always a disturbance for him. And at the dinner there were many people and they were so engaged in eating, gossiping and discussing that he felt, "Now, this is the moment I can escape!" So he just started to look for the door through which he could escape -- and then he was caught. The host caught him and asked, "Mr. Edison, what are you working on now?" He said, "The exit!"

Everybody is working for the exit. Become alert to it!

Why can't you enjoy life -- which is a gift? You have not earned it, that's why I say it is a grace. Existence has given it to you -- you can call it God -- it is a simple gift, a pure gift; you have not done anything to achieve it, to gain it. Why can't you be blissful and thankful and enjoy it? It should be enjoyed dancing. But what is the problem? It is because greater awareness is needed to enjoy bliss; to suffer anguish there is no need to be aware. To suffer anguish, more darkness is needed, less consciousness is needed -- night is needed, not day. But to enjoy bliss, more alertness is needed.

So if you see a saint who is sad, know well that he is not a saint, because awareness will give a blissfulness, awareness will give a deep laughter to his whole being, awareness will give him something so that he will become childlike. He can run after a butterfly, he can enjoy simple food, and he can enjoy the ordinary things of life so much that everything becomes a gift. Everything becomes a grace from God and he can be thankful moment to moment -- even for his breathing. He can even enjoy his breathing, simple breathing -- it is so blissful! If you find a saint who is sad, know well something has gone wrong. He still lives in the valley, he has not moved to the peak. Otherwise, he has a radiance, a lightness, a childlike enjoyment, unworried, unafraid -- he is fortified in his consciousness.

Why does consciousness fortify you? -- because the more conscious you become, the more you know you cannot die, there is no death. Death exists only in the dark valley. And if you are fortified against death, you are fortified. The more conscious you are, the more you know you are the eternal, the divine. Right now you don't know who you are. This is the valley of ignorance, and there only death happens, nothing else; and you live trembling, shaking with fear. If you look within you will find only fear and nothing else, because around you there is only death, nothing else. So this is natural: with death all around, fear inside is a natural counterpart.

If you move to the heights, love will be within and eternity all around. There will be no fear -- there cannot be, because you cannot be destroyed, you are indestructible. There is no possibility of your death, you are deathless. This is the fortification Jesus talks about.

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED -- but remember the high altitude is the fortification -- CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

This is very paradoxical: in the valley you constantly fall, on the top never. This is paradoxical because we see people falling from the top. In the valley, why should one fall? One is walking on level ground, people fall from heights -- that is a myth. In the inner world nobody falls from the heights; once the inner height is achieved, one never falls from it. Nothing can be taken from you if you have achieved it in the within. But without, your myth is true.

posted January 10, 2008 10:26 PM            

Once you have known that you are deathless, how can you unknow it? There is no way to unlearn it -- you have learned. And only that which cannot be unlearned is real knowledge. That which can be unlearned is just memory, not knowledge; that which you can forget is just memory, not knowledge.

Knowledge is that which you cannot forget, there is no way to forget it. It has become your being, it is part of you, your very existence. You need not remember it -- you need remember only those things which are not part of you.

FORTIFIED, A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

And you cannot hide it. A city built on the top will be known -- for eternities it will be known, there is no way to hide it. How can you hide a Buddha? It is impossible! How can you hide a Jesus? It is impossible! The phenomenon is so tremendous, their existence is so penetrating, that the impact will last.

You can crucify a Jesus, but you cannot neglect him. And those who crucified him still suffer for that crucifixion. Just a single man was killed, an ordinary son of a carpenter -- nothing important. The Jews must have thought that way because nobody was bothered: if you kill a carpenter's son and you kill according to the law, there is no problem. But Jews have suffered for two thousand years because of that crucifixion, generation after generation. They have been continuously crucified, just for this one man. It looks very illogical, and Jews go on saying, "We have not done anything!" They are right in a way, because those who did it, they died long ago.

But a person like Jesus moves with the timeless. As far as Jesus is concerned, the crucifixion is going to remain forever and forever. It is not past, because a person like Jesus is never past -- it is a fact right now: he is crucified. Jews may think, "We did it in the past, but those who did it are no more. We never did it -- we may belong to those who did it, but we never did it!" but Jesus' crucifixion is now going to be an eternal fact. Now it cannot be moved into the past, it is going to be a live wound; the wound is going to remain there in the heart. And Jews have suffered, they have suffered too much it seems, because just for one man millions of Jews have been killed these twenty centuries. Just for one man, millions of Jews? It seems unjust.

But you don't know this man, that's why it seems unjust. This man is worth more than millions of men. The day they crucified this son of a carpenter they played with a tremendous fire. They tried to hide it, but it cannot be hidden. They tried to hide it: there exists no Jewish record in which Jesus is crucified. Christian records exist, but Jews have not even recorded the fact that he was crucified. But you cannot hide it, and Jews started to disappear. They suffered because they tried to close their eyes against the sun. And this is the misery of the whole thing: that they gave birth to Jesus.

Jesus was a Jew and he remained a Jew up to the very last moment -- he was never a Christian. And the Jews had been waiting for this man for many thousands of years. Their prophets in the past had told them, "A man will come who will deliver you. Soon a man will be there who will become your salvation." From the housetops, for thousands of years, prophets had been telling this to the Jews, and the Jews had been waiting, waiting. They prayed and they waited and they waited -- and this is the irony: when the man came, they refused him! When the man came and knocked at their door, they said, "No! You are not that promised one." Why?

It is easy for the mind to wait, because the mind can go on hoping, desiring, dreaming. But when God knocks at your door, remember, you will also refuse -- even though you may have been praying. But when God knocks at the door, what is the problem? Why do you refuse? -- because only one can exist in the house. When God knocks at the door, you have to disappear -- that's the problem.

Waiting, you exist, your ego exists. The Jews were very egoistic about the promised man to be born in their race. They were the chosen few; God had chosen them and the son of God was going to be born in a Jewish family -- the ego felt very good about it. But when this chosen man came and knocked at the door and said, "I have come to fulfill the promise," they said, "No, you are not that chosen man, and if you try to say that you are, we will kill you!" What was the problem?

posted January 10, 2008 10:27 PM            

They killed Jesus, but they have not even recorded it. They wanted to forget this whole thing so that they could hope again -- and they are hoping still. The Jews are still hoping for the promised man. And I tell you, if he comes again -- he will not come, because he must have learned by experience -- if he comes again, they will crucify him again. And they have suffered a lot, just because they tried to ignore the city built on the mountain-top.

They tried to hide a city built on the mountain-top, they tried to hide the sun -- they tried to hide the truth. They crucified the truth. But truth cannot be crucified, you cannot kill it; it is eternal, it is deathless. And still they have not become aware why they have suffered so much. The guilt... they still feel guilty deep down. A Jew is never without guilt -- the guilt follows like a shadow. The guilt is that they refused the promised one when he came. And Jews know deep down that they have committed the greatest sin that is possible: to refuse God when he knocks at your door.

And he is not going to fulfill your expectations -- whenever he comes he will be a stranger. Because if he fulfills your expectations, then he is no longer God. God is always a stranger, always the unknown, knocking at the door of the known. He cannot come in the form of the known, it is not possible -- he remains always the unknown, the mysterious. You would like him to come according to the formula. No! He follows no formula, he is not dead -- only dead matter follows a formula. Life lives as a mystery.

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED, CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

JESUS SAID: WHAT THOU SHALT HEAR IN THINE EAR AND IN THE OTHER EAR, THAT PREACH FROM YOUR HOUSETOPS; FOR NO ONE LIGHTS A LAMP AND PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL, NOR DOES HE PUT IT IN A HIDDEN PLACE, BUT HE SETS IT ON THE LAMPSTAND SO THAT ALL WHO COME IN AND GO OUT MAY SEE ITS LIGHT.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Whatsoever you have heard, go and shout it from the housetops so that others can hear it... FOR NO ONE LIGHTS A LAMP AND PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL, NOR DOES HE PUT IT IN A HIDDEN PLACE...."

Jesus says, "Go and tell the good news! Go and tell that the unknown has entered into the known; go and tell that in your routine world the mysterious has entered! Go and tell it from the housetops so that people can hear, and people can come and know and be benefited -- don't be shy about it!"

There is a deep problem about this. It is very difficult -- it must have been very difficult for Jesus' disciples, it is always so -- to tell others that the son of God has come. Very difficult, because people will laugh, they will say you have gone crazy. They will not believe that Jesus is the Christ -- they will believe you are crazy. If you say, "Jesus is God," they will think you have gone completely mad: "You need some psychoanalysis -- go and visit a doctor, take some medicine, rest and relax! If you think this, something is wrong with you, something has gone wrong in you!"

It is very difficult to tell people that someone has become realized. Why? -- because whenever someone becomes realized it becomes a deep wound in you, it becomes a deep hurt: you could have become the same, but you have missed. A comparison enters, your ego feels hurt: "Jesus is the son of God? Why am I not? The case should have been otherwise. How has Jesus become the son of God?" And it is easier to deny this than to change yourself and become the son of God. It is easier because 'no' is always the easiest thing in the world: nothing is to be done, you say no and it's finished! If you say yes everything starts, nothing is finished. No is always the end, yes is always the beginning.

If you say, "Yes, Jesus is the son of God," then you have to transform yourself. Then you cannot remain with this yes, you have to move, you have to do something. If you say no, the problem is solved. Then whatsoever you are, wherever you are -- in the valley, in darkness, in death -- you are at ease. Jesus creates an unease in you; Buddha moves amidst you and he creates an unease, and we take revenge -- because if one man can reach such a height, how is it that you have missed? It is better to say that there is no height, nobody has ever reached it. Then you are at ease in your darkness, then you can be comfortable.

Jesuses and Buddhas, they are very great tensions, because they uproot you from the valley, they shake you from your sleep and they say, "Move on -- this is no place to stay!"

There is a saying of Jesus: "This world is just a bridge. Move on! This is no place to make a home. Cross it, but don't stop on it. Nobody makes a house on the bridge." This world is just a bridge and you have made a house on it. You would not like to know the fact that this is a bridge, because then what will happen to all your effort and labor and all your investment and your whole life devoted to making this house? And now somebody comes, a vagabond, who says, "What are you doing? This is a bridge!" So it is better not to look down into the river.

Why is it a bridge? -- because Jesus, or people like Jesus, never use a single word without deep meaning. It is a bridge because it is on a river, and the river is of the momentary. Time is just a momentary river -- it goes on flowing and flowing.

Heraclitus has said, "You cannot step in the same river twice" -- because if you come to step twice, the river has gone; it is some other water that is flowing now, the same water is not there. The river gives you the appearance that it is the same river, but there is no fixed riverlike thing. A river means change -- it is going, going, going, flowing. Why does Jesus call this world a bridge? -- because you have made it on the temporary: time, the river of time, everything moving. Move from this bridge. This is no place to make a house.

But if somebody comes and tells you this, when for fifty years you have been making the house and now it is almost ready... and remember, it is always almost ready, never ready! It cannot be, that is not the nature of it. When it is almost ready and you were just going to rest from the whole effort and tension of building the house, if this man comes and he says, "This is on the river," rather than believing in this man and looking down, you would like to say, "Go away, you are a fool!" Or if this man insists, as Jesus goes on insisting and hammering, you will become angry. Hence he was crucified -- it was too much trouble.

posted January 10, 2008 10:27 PM            

In the valley, that has always been happening. If a man with eyes comes to a town of blind men, they will kill him -- or if they are kind, they will operate on his eyes. But they will do something, because simply coming there that man makes them blind! They think they have never been blind -- they never knew it -- and this man comes and he says, "You are blind, you are mad!" He makes them aware of things they don't want to be aware of. Those things create anxiety.

Jesus says to his disciples, "Go, and cry from the housetops!" Why from the housetops? -- because people are almost deaf, they don't hear, they don't want to hear. Even when they listen they are not hearing, they are somewhere else. Even when they nod they are simply bored. They may tolerate it but they never enjoy the truth, because truth will always make you uncomfortable, bound to do so -- because you live in the valley of lies.

Your whole life is such a lie: you have been lying to others, to yourself, and you have made everything around lies. Now somebody comes and speaks the truth. If somebody comes to a man who believes that he is healthy when he has all sorts of diseases and says, "What nonsense you are talking -- you are ill!" that man thinks, "This man is a bad omen -- he is making me ill. I was absolutely okay." Making you alert, making you aware of the truth, destroys your palaces, dream palaces you have made out of cards, out of playing cards.

Jesus says: Go, and whatsoever you have heard me telling you... PREACH FROM YOUR HOUSETOPS; FOR NO ONE LIGHTS A LAMP AND PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL. Don't be shy, and don't be afraid! The light is there, now don't hide it: ... NOR DOES HE PUT IT IN A HIDDEN PLACE, BUT HE SETS IT ON THE LAMPSTAND SO THAT ALL WHO COME IN AND GO OUT MAY SEE ITS LIGHT.

This has always been a problem: Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Mohammed, Zarathustra, they always have to insist continuously that the disciples go and tell others. The opportunity will not be forever -- Jesus will not be there in his physical body forever, and if you cannot recognize him when he is in his physical body, how will you be able to recognize him when he is not? If his physical presence cannot become a revelation to you, how can it become a revelation to you when he has disappeared into the universal?

Only rarely does someone become enlightened, only rarely does someone's darkness disappear. It is such a rare phenomenon and it is not going to last forever -- hence Jesus is always in a hurry. He knows well. And Jesus had the most limited time on earth; he died when he was thirty-three. He started preaching when he was thirty, he died when he was thirty-three -- only three years. He was in a great hurry. He knew this crucifixion was going to happen, so he said, "Go and make as many people aware and alert as possible. The door is open, now they can enter into the divine."

But the disciples always remained wavering. Only when Jesus died did they start preaching -- that too always happens -- because when Jesus disappeared, only then they realized what had happened to their lives. When Jesus is there you become accustomed to the light that Jesus is; when he disappears, then darkness; and then you feel what light you have missed, and then you go on preaching from the housetops. When Jesus was there something was possible, but now nothing is possible.

You go on for centuries -- the church is doing that: all over the world they go on preaching, preaching that Jesus is the light. But now it cannot be very helpful because the door has disappeared, now Jesus has become invisible. He can help, but if you cannot see the light when it is visible, how can you see it when Jesus becomes invisible? If you cannot enter the door when it opens just in front of you, how will it be possible for you to enter a door which is not visible at all? Difficult!

But disciples themselves become alert when the light disappears. Then they start crying and weeping, and then they know... because only through contrast do you come to know; you only become aware that you were alive when you are dying. When you come to the moment of death, then you become aware what life was and how you have missed it. It is said that only when people die do they come to know that they were alive -- otherwise they miss.

JESUS SAID: IF A BLIND MAN LEADS A BLIND MAN, BOTH OF THEM FALL INTO A PIT.

So don't be shy! Go and tell others that there is a man who has eyes; otherwise people will be led astray, because people have a need to be led. If you cannot find a Buddha or a Jesus, you will still follow someone because there is a great need to follow. There is a great need because you don't know where to go. Somebody says, "I know..." so what to do?

posted January 10, 2008 10:27 PM            

It is always easy to follow a wrong master, because you are wrong; something is similar between you and the master. But: IF A BLIND MAN LEADS A BLIND MAN, BOTH OF THEM FALL INTO A PIT.

It happened: Mulla Nasruddin died and his two disciples committed suicide -- because without the master, what could they do? Mulla leading, the disciples following, they all three knocked at the door of the other world, a beautiful gate. Nasruddin said, "Look! This is what I promised -- and I always deliver whatsoever I promise. We have reached heaven!" They entered.

The guide took them to a beautiful palace and he said, "Now you are going to live here for eternity, and whatsoever you need, you just tell me and I will fulfill it immediately."

Mulla said, "Look! This is what I promised and I have delivered it!"

For seven days they lived in rapture, because whatsoever they needed, immediately the demand was fulfilled -- whatsoever it was. All their desires of millions of lives were fulfilled within seven days, because there was no effort to be made, no time to be wasted. But by the seventh day they became very frustrated, because when you get something too easily, you cannot enjoy it. And when you get it so immediately that there is no gap between the desire and the fulfillment, you become fed up -- that's why rich men are so fed up. A poor man can have a little dance in his life, but not a rich man. Look at kings: they are dead, fed up with everything, because everything is available. Availability is such a great problem -- greater than poverty, greater than scarcity.

By the seventh day they were fed up, because they enjoyed the most beautiful women, the most costly wine, the best food, the costliest clothes -- they lived like emperors. But then what to do? By the seventh day Mulla asked the guide, "We would like to have a look down on the world. We would like to open a window so we can look at the earth."

But the guide said, "Why?"

Mulla said, "Just to regain our interest, it will be helpful to regain our desire." So the guide opened a door, they looked down at people on the earth -- they looked at us -- people struggling their whole lives and not achieving much, and they regained their hunger by contrast.

They enjoyed seven days again, but again they became fed up. Now the same medicine wouldn't do; just looking at the world would not be of much help, they had become immune. So Mulla said, "Now I have another ridiculous demand: we would like you to open a door into hell, so we can look at hell and regain our taste. But we have become afraid -- because what will we do after it?"

The guide started laughing and he said, "Where do you think you are?" They were in hell!

posted January 10, 2008 10:28 PM            

But this happens if you follow a blind man: even if you reach heaven, it will turn out to be a hell, because blindness can never reach heaven. Heaven is not really a place to reach, it is a state of consciousness; it is not somewhere in geography, it is not geographical -- it is something in you. Hell and heaven both exist in you. But if you follow a blind man, how can a blind man lead you towards the heights? He will lead you into the valley. But there is a need to be led -- be aware of that need.

You want to be led, because then the responsibility goes to the other. It is better to have a blind leader than none -- this is your state of mind. Hence Jesus says, "Go and tell people from the housetops that the master is here!"

Jesus has appeared, and the chance is rare, and there is every possibility you may miss the opportunity. Run and catch hold of this man, because few are the moments when the door of heaven opens! Those are the moments when a man becomes enlightened. Then he is a door: then you can look through him and you can realize the whole truth.

A master is not a man who teaches you, a master is a man who awakens you. A master is not a man who has some information to give to you, a master is a man who is going to give you a glimpse into your own being. But this became a problem: if Jesus had remained silent nobody would have crucified him. But he was in a hurry, and he started moving around the country and telling people. That created a problem because nobody understood him -- everybody misunderstood him. This is going to be so, because between two different dimensions communication is impossible. He talked about the kingdom of God and people thought he was talking about some kingdom here.

He said, "I am the king," and people thought that he was going to dethrone the king here. He taught, "Those who are meek shall inherit the earth" -- he was talking about something else, but people thought he was promising his disciples, "You will inherit the earth." Then the politicians became afraid, because 'kingdom', 'king', 'inheritance of the earth' -- all these terms are political. Priests also became afraid because whatsoever he said was beyond law.

Love is always beyond law. Love cannot follow any law because it is a superior law, the highest. When you love, everything is okay because love cannot do anything wrong. There are no regulations and rules for it -- rules and regulations exist because you can't love, because you are incapable of love. That's why there are so many rules: so that you cannot harm the other, so that you are prevented from harming the other. But when you love, why should you harm the other? Rules disappear.

And Jesus talked about the ultimate law, love. Then priests became afraid, then the judges, magistrates, the legal system became afraid that he would make a chaos, he would create anarchy. He was crucified because he became a troublemaker.

This need not happen. It has happened in the past but this need not happen now, because now, after thousands of years experiencing Buddhas, Mahaviras, Zarathustras, Jesuses, Mohammeds, we must become more alert!

But no, it is still the case -- as if man never learns. His stupidity seems to be ultimate, final, and he goes on rationalizing his stupidity. He fortifies his stupidity, his ignorance, and whosoever comes to take it away looks as if he is the enemy. Friends look like enemies, enemies look like friends. Those who can lead seem to be leading you astray, those who are blind are your leaders.

First understand your need to be led. It is beautiful, because that shows a search -- but don't be in a hurry to follow anybody. How will you decide? What is the criterion? For the seeker this is one of the most puzzling things: how to decide who is Jesus and who is a blind man? Certainty seems to be impossible, but glimpses of certainty are possible. You cannot be absolutely certain from the very beginning, because the very nature of the thing is such: how can a blind man decide that the other has eyes? The only decision, the only certainty possible is when he starts seeing. Then he will be able to decide -- but then there will be no need. When you become a Buddha there is no need to recognize a Buddha; when you are like Jesus there is no need to know Jesus or follow Jesus. This is the paradox.

You are blind and you have to choose -- how will you decide? By the words? Then you will be deceived, because scholars, pundits, priests, they are very clever with words. Nobody can defeat them, because they have been in the business for a long time. Jesus will look poor in his words -- the high priest of the Jews could have defeated him easily. That would not have been a big problem. Kabir or Buddha can be defeated easily through argument, through logic. You cannot judge through words, you will be deceived -- don't use that criterion.

posted January 10, 2008 10:28 PM            

Being vibrates, being blooms, being has a fragrance about it. If you can be silent near a Jesus, you will start listening to his silence. And that silence will make you so blissful, and that silence will make you so fulfilled, so overflowing with love and compassion -- that is the criterion. If you do that with a pundit, with a man of knowledge, then you will simply be filled with misery -- because he is as miserable as you are. If you listen to the words, he will look very great. If you listen to his being, to his vibrations, to the throbbing of his life, he is as miserable as you are -- maybe more. That's why he has become a man of words: to hide his misery. That's why he talks theories, philosophies, systems; that's why he argues -- because he does not know.

A man who knows does not really argue, he simply states, he simply says.... Look at these sayings of Jesus -- he is not arguing, he is not giving any reasons, he is simply making statements, simple statements.

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED, CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN -- no argument, just a simple statement of fact.

WHAT THOU SHALT HEAR IN THINE EAR AND IN THE OTHER EAR, THAT PREACH FROM YOUR HOUSETOPS; FOR NO ONE LIGHTS A LAMP AND PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL, NOR DOES HE PUT IT IN A HIDDEN PLACE, BUT HE SETS IT ON THE LAMPSTAND SO THAT ALL WHO COME IN AND GO OUT MAY SEE ITS LIGHT --

no argument, not trying to prove anything, simply making a statement.

JESUS SAID: IF A BLIND MAN LEADS A BLIND MAN, BOTH OF THEM FALL INTO A PIT -- simple statements of fact!

These words can be used more beautifully by a man of knowledge, but there you will be deceived.

Whenever you are in search of a master listen to his being. Learn the art of listening to his being; just be near him, feel him -- through the heart. Suddenly you will feel you are changing, because he is a magnetic force. Suddenly you will feel something is going, a deep change within you. You are no longer the same, your room is filled with an unknown light -- as if your burden has dropped for a moment, as if through him you have got wings, you can fly. And this is an experience. Only this experience will give you a right person, a man with eyes who can lead you.

Where is he going to lead you? He is going to lead you to yourself. A man of knowledge will always lead you to somewhere else, to a heaven somewhere in the sky, to a goal somewhere in the future. But a man of being, a Jesus, a Buddha, leads you nowhere else, just to yourself -- because there is the goal. You are the target, you are the goal.

And listen through the heart; satsang, that is the criterion. Otherwise, blind men have been leading you for many lives, and again and again the blind leader and you have both fallen in the pit.

The last thing about the pit: whenever Jesus says, "They fall into the pit," the pit is the womb. Whenever a blind man leads, both fall into the womb again -- that is the pit. They are born again into the same miserable life, the same anguish starts in new forms. Nothing substantial changes, the story remains the same; the whole thing remains the same, just outer forms change. You are again in hell, again in misery -- the womb is the pit.

When a man of being leads you, you never fall into the pit. Then you are born in another dimension, and it is no longer worth being born again into this world. You disappear from here, you appear somewhere else. That somewhere else is God, that somewhere else is nirvana.

posted January 20, 2008 01:39 AM            

JESUS SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES: MAKE A COMPARISON TO ME AND TELL ME WHOM I AM LIKE.

SIMON PETER SAID TO HIM: THOU ART LIKE A RIGHTEOUS ANGEL.

MATTHEW SAID TO HIM: THOU ART LIKE A WISE MAN OF UNDERSTANDING.

THOMAS SAID TO HIM: MASTER, MY MOUTH WILL NOT BE CAPABLE OF SAYING WHOM THOU ART LIKE.

JESUS SAID: I AM NOT THY MASTER, BECAUSE THOU HAST DRUNK, THOU HAST BECOME DRUNK FROM THE BUBBLING SPRING WHICH I HAVE MEASURED OUT.

AND HE TOOK HIM, HE WITHDREW, HE SPOKE THREE WORDS TO HIM.

NOW WHEN THOMAS CAME TO HIS COMPANIONS, THEY ASKED HIM: WHAT DID JESUS SAY TO THEE?

THOMAS SAID TO THEM: IF I TELL YOU ONE OF THE WORDS HE SAID TO ME, YOU WILL TAKE UP STONES AND THROW AT ME; AND FIRE WILL COME FROM THE STONES AND BURN YOU UP

Whenever there is a man like Jesus or Buddha, you try to escape from him in every possible way because he is just like a death to you. Of course, you will rationalize your escape, you will find clever reasons why you are escaping. You will argue in your mind, "That man is not a Christ, that man is not yet enlightened." You will find something wrong in that man, so that you can feel at ease. You will avoid that man. It is dangerous to encounter him because he can live, he can see through you; you become transparent to him. You cannot hide yourself from him, you cannot hide the falseness that you are -- before him, you are just like an open book.

And your whole life you have been hiding. Your whole life you have been trying to live a false, inauthentic life; you have been living in lies, and he will see through you. Before him you will become a trembling leaf; before him you will be reduced to your truth; before him you cannot manage your false image -- he will be a catastrophe. So only those who are very courageous can come near to a Jesus. The greatest courage is needed to come near a man like Jesus. That means you are ready to take the jump into the abyss, you are ready to lose yourself.

To move with Jesus in the insecurity of the unknown, in the uncharted, in the ocean where the other shore is not visible, tremendous courage is needed. And this is the problem: very few will follow Jesus. Those who escape, they will miss him, and they will miss the very meaning of their own lives, because deep down, when you try to escape Jesus, you are trying to escape from your own truth. He is nothing but your future -- you are a seed, he is the tree; he has come to bloom, he is your future, he is your possibility. Escaping from him, you are escaping from your own ultimate possibility.

But those who come near, it is not certain that they will encounter Jesus just by coming near. Those who escape, they have escaped -- finished! But those who come near, live near, even living near they can avoid Jesus, because they can be near him for the wrong reasons. So, out of thousands, few will choose him. And those few who choose him, they will not all be with him for the right reasons. And those who are with him for the wrong reasons will also miss him.

You can be with an enlightened person for the wrong reasons. Look for the reasons why you seek: why do you go to a master? What are your real reasons? Are you seeking truth? Rarely is a man seeking truth. You may be seeking happiness, but not truth. Happiness happens when truth is achieved. But if you are seeking happiness you cannot achieve truth, because happiness is a byproduct; you cannot achieve it directly, there is no way to it -- it comes via truth. If you reach the true, happiness will happen; it is a shadow, it comes with the truth. But if you seek happiness, then happiness is not possible and truth is missed.

Out of one hundred seekers, ninety-nine are for happiness. They have suffered -- life has been a misery, much pain: they are seeking the antidote, they are seeking the opposite. To be with a Jesus or a Buddha in search of happiness is to miss him again, because your eyes are closed. Happiness can never be the goal; it is achieved, it comes automatically, you need not bother about it. It is always a byproduct: you simply take care of the tree, and flowers come. You need not go directly to the flowers -- if you do, you will miss. If you are after flowers you will miss; but if you take care of the tree, flowers come in their own time. You need not worry, you need not even think about them.

In your ordinary existence also this is known, but you never make it a deep experience. Whenever you are happy.... You have been happy for a few moments; it is difficult to find a man who has not been happy even for a few moments -- because if you have never been happy for a few moments, if you have never tasted happiness, then you cannot seek it. Then why would you search for happiness? Without having tasted it, how could you make it a goal? You have tasted it. It was momentary, a glimpse -- and then again darkness; a glimpse -- and then again anguish. The morning comes only for a moment, and then midnight again. You have tasted it, but you have not entered into it. How does it happen? Try to enter into it.

Whenever you feel happy, you were not looking for it. That is the first basic thing about happiness: it happened when you were looking for something else. For example, you have heard the story of Archimedes: he was in search of a scientific truth. He worked, experimented, thought, pondered over it many days and nights. He forgot himself. Then suddenly, when he was in his bath one day, lying down in his tub, it happened, it bubbled up -- he realized. He was naked, but he forgot that he was naked. When you are happy you forget yourself; if you cannot forget yourself you are not happy. Happiness means you are no longer there; it happens only when you are not.

The problem was solved, the whole tension relaxed. Archimedes ran into the street shouting, "Eureka, Eureka! I have found it, I have found it!" People thought he had gone mad. They had always been suspicious of this man, this Archimedes, and now their suspicion was proved right. "Too much thinking is bad" -- they had always been of this opinion, and this man was thinking too much. Now he had gone mad and was crying, "Eureka!" on the street -- "I have found it!"