Chapter 6 – The Door To Consciousness

CHAPTER SIX
The Door To Consciousness

Millions of people are living according to the mirror. They think that what they see in the mirror this is their face. They think this is their name, this is their identity, and that is all.

You will have to go a little deeper. You will have to close your eyes. You will have to watch within. You will have to become silent. Unless you come to a point of absolute silence inside, you will never know who you are. I cannot tell it to you. There is no way of telling it. Everybody has to find it.

But you are ——that much is certain. The only question is, to reach to your innermost core, to find yourself. And that’s what I have been teaching all these years. What I call meditation is nothing but a device to find yourself.

Don’t ask me. Don’t ask anybody. You have the answer within you, and you have to go deep down into yourself to discover it. And it is so close ——just a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn and you will be facing it.

And you will be surprised that you are not your name, you are not your face, your body, you are not even your mind.

You are part of this whole existence, of all its beauty, grandeur, blissfulness, its tremendous ecstasy.

Knowing oneself is all that consciousness religion means.

Note: All the above matter is in italic form and this matter is taken from
The Sword and the Lotus
Chapter – 17 title: A device to find yourself
Question – 5

CENTER AND CIRCUMFERENCE

THERE IS A LOT OF DIFFERENCE, and the difference is not only quantitative, it is qualitative. The modern world, the modern mind, knows only the empty temple. It has completely forgotten about the one who is enshrined in the temple. So we go on worshipping the temple, but the God is forgotten. Not knowing anything about the center of life, we go on moving and indulging on the periphery. The American cherishes his body as the body, Baul worships his body as the shrine of God. The Bbody in itself is nothing. It is luminous because of something that is beyond the body. The glory of the body is not in the body itself ——it is a host ——the glory is because of the guest. If you forget the guest, then it is sheer indulgence. If you remember the guest, then loving the body, celebrating the body is part of worship.

The Baul has a great vision. In that vision body is the lowest part, the most visible part, the most tangible. But it is not the all, it is just the beginning. You have to enter through the body; it is just a gate. It leads to deeper mysteries. The Baul cherishes the body because the body is a vehicle, and through the body one can know that which is embodied, that which is not body itself. The body is the earthen lamp and God is the flame. The lamp is worshipped because of the flame. Once the flame is gone, who worships the body, who celebrates the body? Then it is nothing; then dust unto dust, it returns back to the earth.

The body is throbbing with God, pulsating with God. If you can see that pulsation, then even dust becomes divine. If you cannot see that pulsation, then it is simply dust. Then there is no meaning in it.

The modern American worship of the body is meaningless. Hence, people go after health food, massage, Rolfing, and in a thousand and one ways they somehow try to create meaning in their lives. But look into their eyes; a great emptiness exists. You can see they have missed the target. The fragrance is not there, the flower has not flowered. Deep inside, they are just desert-like, lost, not knowing what to do. They go on doing many things for the body, but they are it is missing the target.

Here is an anecdote I have heard an anecdote:

Rosenfeld walked into the house with a grin on his face. “You will never guess what a bargain I just got,” he told his wife. “I bought four polyester, steel-belted, radial wide-tread, white-walled, heavy-duty tires, on sale yet!”

“Are you nuts?” said Mrs. Mistress Rosenfeld. “What did you buy tires for? You don’t even have a car.”

“So,” said Rosenfeld, “you buy brassieres, don’t you?”

If the center is missing, then you can go on decorating the periphery. It may deceive others, but it cannot fulfill you. It may even deceive you sometimes, because even one’s own lie repeated too many times starts appearing like a truth. , Bbut it cannot fulfill you, and it cannot give contentment. People try The American is trying hard to enjoy life, but there seems to be no rejoicing. The Baul is not trying at all to enjoy life. There is no effort in it; he simply is enjoying it. And he has nothing to enjoy; he is just a beggar on the road, but he has something of the inner, some glow of the unknown surrounds him. His songs are not only songs; something from the beyond descends in them. When he dances, it is not only that his body is moving; something deeper has moved. He’s not trying to enjoy.

Remember that it: whenever you are trying to enjoy, you will miss. When you are trying to achieve happiness, you will miss. The very effort to achieve happiness is absurd ——because happiness is here: you cannot achieve it. Nothing has to be done about it, ; you have simply to allow it. It is happening, it is all around you; within, without, only happiness is. Nothing else is real. Watch, look deep into the world, into trees, birds, rocks, rivers, into the stars, moon and sun, into people, animals ——look deep: existence is made out of the stuff of happiness, joy, SATCHITANANDA. It is made of bliss. There is nNothing need to be done about it. Your very doing may be the barrier. Relax and it fulfills you; relax and it rushes into you; relax, and it overflows you.

The Baul is relaxed; the American is People tense. Tension arises when you are chasing something, relaxation arises when you are allowing something. That’s why I say there is a great difference, and the difference is qualitative. It is not a question of quantity — that Bauls have more than Americans, or Americans have less than the Bauls. No, the Americans have nothing of happiness that the Bauls have; and what the Americans have — the misery, the tension, the anguish, the neurosis — the Bauls don’t have. They exist in a totally different dimension.

The dimension of the Baul is here-now; the dimension of the American is somewhere else — then-there, but never here-now. The American is People are chasing, chasing hard, trying to get something out of life, trying to squeeze life. Nothing comes out of it because that is not the way. You cannot squeeze life; you have to surrender to it. You cannot conquer life. You have to be so courageous to be defeated by life. Defeat is victory there, and the effort to be victorious is going to prove to be nothing but your final, UTTER utter failure.

Life cannot be conquered because the part cannot conquer the whole. It is as if a small drop of water is trying to conquer the ocean. Yes, the small drop can fall into the ocean and become the ocean, but it cannot conquer the ocean. In fact, dropping into the ocean, slipping into the ocean is the way to conquer.

Dissolve yourself.

The Baul is one who is dissolved in life. He has said an absolute yes to life. He’s not trying to squeeze anything. He simply waits — passive, alert, available. When God knocks on his door the doors are always open, that’s all.

He is not chasing God. How can he chase? Where, in what ways, on what paths can we find Him? Either He is everywhere or He is nowhere. You cannot address your life towards God; you cannot make a target out of Him. He is the total; the total cannot be made a target. Wherever you look, He is. Whatsoever you do, you do in Him. Even when you are miserable, you are miserable in Him. Even in your misery you don’t lose Him. He cannot be lost. That which can be lost is not God.

That’s why Bauls call God ADHAR MANUSH — the essential man, the essential consciousness. It is so essential you cannot lose it. It is your very ground, it is your being. He celebrates his body because he knows that someone who is of the beyond, the stranger, is residing in the body. The body is an abode. It is a temple, but not empty. It is full of light, it is full of life — God is there. Realizing this, he dances; realizing this, he sings; realizing this, he smiles and cries and weeps, and tears roll down his face. Seeing the miracle: “I have not earned Him, and He is here; I have not even sought Him, and He is here; I have not even begged, and He is here,” a great, tremendous gratitude arises. The Baul dances because of it.

Now let me say this: the American is People are trying to find happiness, hence his overconcern with the body. It is almost an obsession. It has gone beyond the limits of concern, it has become to obsession with obsessive: continuously thinking about the body, doing this and that, and all sorts of things. They are He is making an effort to have some contact with happiness through the body. , and Tthat is not possible.

The Baul has ATTAINED it. He has already seen it inside himself. He has looked deep into his body, not through massage, not through Rolfing, not through sauna bath. He has looked into it through love and meditation and he has found that it is there, the treasure is there. Hence he worships his body; hence he is careful about his body because the body is carrying the divine.

Have you watched how a woman walks when she is pregnant so careful, because a new life is enshrined in her. Have you seen the transfiguration that comes to the, face of a woman when she becomes pregnant? Her face is luminous, hopeful, throbbing with new life, new possibility. Look at Prafulla; she is pregnant now. Look at her face — how transfigured, how happy she looks. She is carrying a treasure, a great treasure. A new life is going to be created through her. She walks carefully, moves carefully. A grace has arisen in her because she is pregnant. She is no more alone: her body has become a temple. This is just to make you understand.

What to say about a Baul? God is there. He is pregnant with the divine. He glows, he is luminous, he dances and sings. Possessing nothing, he possesses all; having nothing, he is the richest man in the world. In one way he is just a beggar on the road, and in another way, the emperor. Because of this that has happened inside — that he has become aware — he is happy with his body, he takes care of his body, he loves his body. This love is totally different.

The second problem is that And secondly: the American mind is competitive. It is not necessary that yYou may not be really in love with your body; , you may be just competing with others. Because others are doing things, you have to do them. And Tthe American mind is the most shallow, ambitious mind that has ever existed in the world. It is a the very basic worldly mind. That’s why the businessman has become the top-most reality in America. Everything else has faded into the background; the businessman, the man who controls money, is the top-most reality. In India, brahmins BRAHMINS were the top-most reality ——the seekers of God. In Europe, the aristocrats were the top-most reality ——well-cultured, educated, alert, in tune with the subtle nuances of life: music, art, poetry, sculpture, architecture, classical dances, languages,—Greek and Latin. The aristocrat, who had been conditioned for the higher values of life for centuries, was the top-most reality in Europe. In Soviet Russia Under Communism the proletariat, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the laborer is the top-most reality. Under capitalism In America it is the businessman; VAISHYA, the one who controls money.

Money is the most competitive realm. You need not have culture, you need only have money. You need not know anything about music, anything about or poetry. You need not know anything about ancient literature, history, religion, philosophy ——no, you need not know. If you have a big bank balance, you are important. That’s why I say the American mind this is the most shallow mind that has ever existed. It And this mind has turned everything into commerce. It This mind is continuously in competition. Even if you purchase a Van Gogh or a Picasso, you don’t purchase because it is a for Picasso. You purchase it because the neighbors have purchased one. They have one a Picasso painting in their drawing room, so how can you afford not to have one it? You have HAVE to have it. You may not know even anything — you may not know even how to hang it, properly since it which side is which. Because it is difficult to know, with as far as a Picasso is concerned, whether it the picture is hanging upside–down or right–side up. You may not even know at all whether it is an authentically a Picasso or not. You may not look at it at all, but because others have much but you have acquired it because other and they are talking about Picasso, you have to show your culture. You simply flaunt show your money. So whatsoever is costly becomes significant; whatsoever and possessions because whatever is costly is thought to be significant.

Money and the neighbors seem to be the only criterion in deciding American success to decide everything: their cars, their houses, their paintings, their decorations. You have to keep up with the Joneses. If they have People are having saunas baths in their bathrooms, not because they love their bodies, not necessarily, but because it is everyone has to have one to be part of the ‘ “in” ‘ crowd thing — everybody has it. Otherwise If you don’t have it you look poor. If everybody has a house in the hills, you have to have one too it. You may not know how to enjoy the hills; or you simple may be simply bored there. Or you may take your TV t.v. and your radio there and just listen to the same programs radio you were listening to in your at home, . and watch the same t.v. program as you were watching at home. What difference does it make where you are sitting, the hills or in your own room live? The answer is that it matters because it matters to others. And so on it goes. But others have it. A four-car garage is needed; others have it. You may not need four cars.

The American mind is continuously competing with others. The Baul is a non-competitor. He is a drop-out. He says, “I am no more concerned with what others are doing, I am only concerned with what I am. I am not concerned with what others have, I am only concerned with what I have.” Once you see the fact, that life can be tremendously blissful without having many things, then who bothers? That’s one of the basic differences between other renunciates in India and the Bauls. Bauls are beggars, Jain monks are also beggars, but there is a great difference: Jain monks have the American mind. They have left the world with great effort, they have renounced the world with great effort — because they think this is the only way to achieve the other world, to earn virtue. But they remain businessmen. The Jains are the top-most businessmen in India. That’s why I say they have the American mind. Their sannyasins remain the same.

The Baul’s renunciation is totally different. He has not renounced for any other world. He has renounced seeing the foolishness of possessions, seeing the unnecessary burdening. He has renounced seeing the fact that you can be so happy without many things. Then why carry them? Carrying them creates anxiety, burdens you and destroys your blissfulness. The Jain monk is thinking of another world: his MOKSHA, his heaven. The Baul is not worried about any other world. He says, “This is the only world.” But he has come to see the fact, a simple truth: that the more you have, the less you enjoy. Can’t you see it? It is a simple arithmetic of life — the more you have, the less you enjoy, because you don’t have any time to enjoy. The whole time is occupied by having. If you have too many things, you are occupied by those many things; your inner space is occupied. To enjoy, you need a little space; to enjoy, you need a little unburdening; to enjoy, you need to forget your possessions and just be.

The Baul loves life, hence he renounces. The Jain monk hates life, hence he renounces. So sometimes the gesture may appear the same, but it need not be the same. The inner significance may be totally different.

I have heard….

Old Luke and his wife were known as the stingiest couple in the valley. Luke died and a few months later his wife lay dying. She called in a neighbor and said weakly, “Ruthie, bury me in my black silk dress, but before you do, cut the back out and make a new dress out of it. It is good material and I hate to waste it.”

“Could not do that,” said Ruthie. “When you and Luke walk up them golden stairs, what would them angels say if your dress ain’t got a back in it?”

“They won’t be looking at me,” she said. “I buried Luke without his pants.”

The concern is always the other ——Luke will be without pants so everybody will be looking at him. The American concern is always with the other. The Baul’s concern is simply with himself. The Baul is very selfish; he is not worried about you, and he is not worried about anything that you have or anything that you have done. He is not concerned at all with your biography. He lives on this earth as if he were alone. Of course, he has a tremendous space all around him — because he lives on this earth as if he were alone. He moves on this earth without being concerned with others’ opinions. He lives his life, he is doing his thing, and he is doing his being. Of course, he is happy like a child. His happiness is very simple, innocent. It is not manipulated, it is not manufactured. It is very simple, essential, basic, like a child’s.

Have you watched a child just running, shouting, dancing for nothing at all ——because he has nothing? If you ask him, “Why are you so happy?” he will not be able to answer you. He will really think that you are mad. Is there any need to have a reason for any cause to be happy? The child He will simply be shocked that the ‘ “why” ‘ is asked can be raised. He will shrug his shoulders and will go on his way and start singing and dancing again. The child has nothing. He is not a prime minister yet, he is not a president of the United States, he is not a Rockefeller. He owns nothing ——maybe a few shells or a few stones that he has collected on the seashore, that’s all.

That’s all that Bauls own: a few seashells, a few stones — they will make a MALA of those stones, they will wear the MALA; a little instrument to sing, bells to ring for their innermost God, a small AEKTARA, a one-stringed instrument — that too one-stringed, because that is enough; a small DUGGI, a small drum — that’s all. A Baul sleeps unconcerned with the world. He lives, moves unconcerned with the world. And his God is always within him so wherever he is is his shrine. He never goes to the temple — not that he is against it; he never goes to the mosque — not that he is against it. He has come to the real temple, and now there is no need to go anywhere. He worships, he prays, he loves, but his love, his prayer, his worship, is of the essential reality that he is.

The Baul’s life does not end when life ends; the An American’s life ends when life ends. When the body ends, the American ends. Hence, the American is very afraid of death. Because of his the fear of death, the American goes on trying any way to prolong his life in any way, sometimes to absurd lengths. Now there are many Americans who are just vegetating in hospitals, or in mental asylums. They are not living; they are long since dead. They are just kept alive managed by the physicians, medicines, and modern equipment. Somehow they just go on hanging on.

The fear of death is so tremendous:—once gone you are gone forever and nothing will survive ——because the American knows only the body and nothing else. If you know only the body you are going to be very poor. First, you will always be afraid of death, and one who is afraid to die will be afraid to live ——because life and death are so intertwined together that if you are afraid to die you will become afraid to live. It is life that brings death, so if you are afraid of death, how can you really love life? The fear will be there. It is life that brings death; you cannot live it totally. If death ends everything, if that is your belief idea and understanding, then your life will be a life of rushing and chasing. , Bbecause death is coming, and you cannot be patient. Hence you understand the American mania for speed: everything has to be done fast because death is approaching, ; so try to manage as many more things as possible before you die. Try to stuff your being with as many experiences as possible before you die, because once you are dead, you are dead.

This creates a great meaninglessness and, of course, anguish, and anxiety. If there is nothing which is going to survive the body, then whatever whatsoever you do cannot be very deep. Then whatever whatsoever you do cannot satisfy you. If death is the end and nothing survives, then life cannot have any meaning and significance. Then it is a tale told by an idiot, full of fury and noise, signifying nothing.

The Baul/conscious man knows that he is in IN the body, but he is not the body. He loves the body; it is his abode, his house, his home. He is not against the body because it is foolish to be against your own home, but he is not a materialist. He is earthly but not a materialist. He is very realistic, but not a materialist. He knows that in dying, nothing dies. Death comes but life continues.

I have heard: The funeral service was over and Desmond, the undertaker, found himself standing beside an elderly gent.

“One of the relatives?” asked the mortician.

“Yes, I am,” answered the senior citizen.

“How old are you?”

“Ninety-four.”

“Hmm,” said Desmond, “hardly pays you to make the trip home.”

The whole idea is of bodily life: if you are ninety-four,; finished. ! Then it hardly pays to go back home; then better to die. What is the point of going back? — yYou will have to come back again. It hardly pays… . . . if death is the only reality, then whether you are ninety-four or twenty-four, how much difference does it make? Then the difference is of only a few years. Then the very young start feeling old, and the child starts feeling already dead. Once you understand that this body is the only life, then what is the point of it all? Then why carry it on?

Camus has written that the only basic metaphysical problem for man is suicide. I agree with him. If body is the only reality and there is nothing within you that is beyond body, then of course that is the most important thing to consider, brood, and meditate on. Why not commit suicide? Why wait until ninety-four? And why suffer all sorts of problems and miseries on the way? If one is going to die, then why not die today? Why get up again tomorrow morning? It seems futile.

So oOn the one hand the American is constantly running from one place to another to somehow grab the experience, somehow not to miss the experience. He is running all around the world, from one town to another, from one country to another, from one hotel to another. He is running from one guru to another, from one church to another, in searching, because death is coming. On the one hand is a constant, mad chasing, and on the other hand is a deep-down apprehension that everything is useless ——because death will end all. So whether you lived a rich life or you lived a poor life, whether you were intelligent or unintelligent, whether you were a great lover or missed, what difference does it make? Finally death comes, and it equalizes everybody: the wise and the foolish, the sages and the sinners, the enlightened people and the stupid people, all go down into the earth and disappear. So what is the point of it all? Whether it be a Buddha or a Jesus or a Judas; what difference does it make? Jesus dies on the cross, Judas commits suicide the next day ——both disappear into the earth.

On the other hand, there is a fear that you may miss and others may attain, ; and on the other hand there is a deep apprehension that even if you get, nothing is got. ; Eeven if you arrive, you arrive nowhere because death comes and destroys everything.

The conscious man Baul lives in the body, loves his body, celebrates it, but he is not the body. He knows the essential man, the ADHAR MANUSH. He knows that there is something in him that which will survive all deaths. He knows that there is something in him that which is eternal and time cannot destroy it. This he has come to feel through meditation, love, prayer. This he has come to feel inside his own being. He is unafraid. He is unafraid of death because he knows what life is. And he is not chasing happiness, because he knows God is sending him millions of opportunities; he has just to allow.

Can’t you see the trees are rooted in the ground? They cannot go anywhere, and still they are happy. They cannot chase happiness, certainly; they cannot go and seek happiness. They are rooted in the ground, they cannot move, but can’t you see the happiness? Can’t you see their joy when it is raining, their great contentment when winds are running hither and thither? Can’t you feel their dance?

Now researchers say that when the gardener comes and the gardener loves the tree, the tree feels happy and rejoices. If you love the tree and you come close to it, it rejoices, as if a great friend is coming close. Now there are scientific instruments to check whether the tree is happy or not. It vibrates in a different rhythm. When the enemy comes — the woodcutter, the carpenter — the tree is simply in a turmoil, anxious, afraid. And when you cut one tree, now the scientists say the other trees all cry and weep. It is not only that when you cut one tree that tree weeps and cries; other trees, all the surrounding trees, cry and weep. And not only with trees, but if you kill a bird, all the trees start weeping — subtle tears, great anguish, agony spreads. But tThey are rooted; they go nowhere. Still, life comes to them.

This is the understanding of the Baul: that there is no need to go anywhere. Even if you go on sitting under a tree as it happened to Buddha; God himself came to him. He was not going anywhere — just sitting under his tree.

All comes ——you just create the capacity; all comes ——you just allow it. Life is ready to happen to you. You are creating so many barriers, and the greatest barrier that you can create is chasing. Because of your chasing and running, whenever life comes and knocks at your door she never finds you there. You are always somewhere else. When life reaches there you have moved. You were in Katmandu; when life reaches Katmandu you are in Goa. When you are in Goa and life somehow reaches Goa, you are in Poona. And by the time life reaches Poona, you will be in Philadelphia. So, yYou go on chasing life and life goes on chasing you, and the meeting never happens.

Be… . . . just be, and wait, and be patient.

Note: this matter is taken from

The Beloved, Vol 1

Chapter – 8 title: the body is an abode

Question – 1

THE HARMONY OF BODY, MIND, AND SOUL

Your body is energy, your mind is energy, your soul is energy. Then what is the difference among between these three? The difference is only of a different rhythm, different wavelengths, that’s all. The body is gross ——energy functioning in a gross way, in a visible way.

Mind is a little more subtle, but still not too subtle, because you can close your eyes and you can see the thoughts moving; they can be seen. They are not as visible as your body; your body is visible to everybody else, it is publicly visible. Your thoughts are privately visible. Nobody else can see your thoughts; only you can see them ——or people who have worked very deeply into seeing thoughts. But ordinarily they are not visible to others.

And the third, the ultimate layer inside you, is that of consciousness. It is not even visible to you. It cannot be reduced into an object, ; it remains subject.

If all these three energies function in harmony, you are healthy and whole. If these energies don’t function in harmony and accord you are ill, unhealthy; you are no more whole. And to be whole is to be holy.

The effort is to help you so that we are making here is how to help you so that your body, your mind, your consciousness, can all dance in one rhythm, in a togetherness, in a deep harmony ——not in conflict at all, but in cooperation. The moment your body, mind and consciousness function together, you have become the trinity, and in that experience is God.

Your question is significant, Naren. You ask, “Please say something about the relationship of consciousness and energy.”

There is no relationship of consciousness and energy. Consciousness is energy, purest energy; mind is not so pure, ; body is still less pure. Body is much too mixed, and mind is also not totally pure. Consciousness is total pure energy. But you can know this consciousness only if you make a cosmos out of the three, and not a chaos. People are living in chaos: their bodies say one thing, their bodies want to go in one direction; their minds are completely oblivious of the body ——because for centuries you have been taught that you are not the body, for centuries you have been told that the body is your enemy, that you have to fight with it, that you have to destroy it, that the body is sin.

Because of all these ideas ——silly and stupid as they are, harmful and poisonous as they are, but they have been taught for so long that they have become part of your collective mind, they are there ——you don’t experience your body in a rhythmic dance with yourself.

Hence my insistence on dancing and music, because it is only in dance that you will feel that your body, your mind and you are functioning together. And the joy is infinite when all these function together; the richness is great.

Consciousness is the highest form of energy. And when all these three energies function together, the fourth arrives. The fourth is always present when these three function together. When these three function in an organic unity, the fourth is always there; the fourth is nothing but that organic unity.

In the East, we have called that fourth simply “the fourth” ——turiya; we have not given it any name. The three have names, the fourth is nameless. To know the fourth is to know God. Let us say it in this way: God is when you are an organic orgasmic unity. God is not when you are a chaos, a disunity, a conflict. When you are a house divided against yourself there is no God.

When you are tremendously happy with yourself, happy as you are, blissful as you are, grateful as you are, and all your energies are dancing together, when you are an orchestra of all your energies, God is. That feeling of total unity is what God is. God is not a person somewhere, God is the experience of the three falling in such unity that the fourth arises. And the fourth is more than the sum total of the parts.

If you dissect a painting, you will find the canvas and the colors, but the painting is not simply the sum total of the canvas and the colors; it is something more. That “something more” is expressed through the painting, color, canvas, the artist, but that “something more” is the beauty. Dissect the rose flower roseflower, and you will find all the chemicals and things it is constituted of, but the beauty will disappear. It was not just the sum total of the parts, ; it was more.

The whole is more than the sum total of the parts; it expresses through the parts, but it is more. To understand that it is more is to understand God. God is that more, that plus. It is not a question of theology, ; it cannot be decided by logical argumentation. You have to feel beauty, you have to feel music, you have to feel dance. And ultimately you have to feel the dance in your body, mind, and soul.

You have to learn how to play on these three energies so that they all become an orchestra. Then God is ——not that you see God, there is nothing to be seen; God is the ultimate seer, it is witnessing. Learn to melt your body, mind, soul; find out ways when you can function as a unity.

It happens many times that runners…. . . . You will not think of running as a meditation, but runners sometimes have felt a tremendous experience of meditation. They were surprised, because they were not looking for it ——who thinks that a runner is going to experience God? ——but it has happened, and now running is becoming more and more a new kind of meditation. It can happen in running. If you have ever been a runner, if you have enjoyed running in the early morning when the air is fresh and young and the whole world is coming back out of sleep, awakening, and you were running and your body was functioning beautifully, and the fresh air, and the new world again born out of the darkness of the night, and everything singing all around, and you were feeling so alive…. . . . A moment comes when the runner disappears, and there is only running. The body, mind and soul start functioning together; suddenly an inner orgasm is released.

Runners have sometimes come accidentally on the experience of the fourth, turiya, although they will miss it because they will think it was just because of running that they enjoyed the moment; that it was a beautiful day, that the body was healthy and the world was beautiful, and it was just a certain mood. They will not take note of it. But if they take note of it, my own observation is that a runner can more easily come close to meditation than anybody else. Jogging can be of immense help, ; swimming can be of immense help. All these things have to be transformed into meditations.

Drop the old ideas about of meditations, that just sitting underneath a tree with a yoga posture is meditation. That is only one of the ways, and it may be suitable for a few people but is not suitable for all. For a small child it is not meditation, it is torture. For a young man who is alive, vibrant, it is repression, it is not meditation. Perhaps Maybe for an old man who has lived, whose energies are declining, it may be meditation.

People differ, ; there are many types of people. To someone who has a low kind of energy, sitting underneath a tree in a yoga posture may be the best meditation, because the yoga posture is the least energy-expensive ——the least. When the spine is erect, making a ninety-degree angle with the earth, your body expends the least energy possible. If you are leaning towards the left or towards the front, then your body starts spending more energy, because the gravitation starts pulling you downwards and you have to keep yourself, you have to hold yourself so that you don’t fall. This is expenditure. An erect spine was found to need the least spending of energy.

Then sitting with your hands together in the lap is also very very useful for low-energy people, because when both the hands are touching each other, your body electricity starts moving in a circle. It does not go out of your body; it becomes an inner circle, the energy moves inside you.

You must know that energy is always released through the fingers, energy is never released from round-shaped things. For example, your head cannot release energy, it contains it. Energy is released through the fingers, the toes of the feet, and the hands. In a certain yoga posture the feet are together, so one foot releases energy and it enters into the other foot; one hand releases energy and it enters into the other hand. You go on taking your own energy, you become an inner circle of energy. It is very resting, it is very relaxing.

The yoga posture is the most relaxed posture possible. It is more relaxing than even sleep, because when you are asleep your whole body is being pulled by gravitation. When you are horizontal it is relaxing in a totally different way. It is relaxing because it brings you back to the ancient days when man was an animal, horizontal. It is relaxing because it is regressive; it helps you to become an animal again.

That’s why in a lying posture you cannot think clearly, it becomes difficult to think. Try it. You can dream easily but you cannot think easily; for thinking you have to sit. The more erect you sit, the better is the possibility to think. Thinking is a late arrival; when man became vertical, thinking arrived. When man used to be horizontal, dreaming was there but thinking was not there. So when you lie down you start dreaming, ; thinking disappears. It is a kind of relaxation, because thinking stops; you regress.

The yoga posture is a good meditation for those who have low energy, for those who are ill, for those who are old, for those who have lived their whole life and now are coming closer and closer to death.

Thousands of Buddhist monks have died in the sitting lotus posture, because the best way to receive death is in the lotus posture ——because in the lotus posture you will be fully alert, and because energies will be disappearing, they will be becoming less and less every moment. Death is coming. In a lotus posture you can keep alertness to the very end. And to be alert while you are dying is one of the greatest experiences, the ultimate in orgasm.

And if you are awake while you are dying you will have a totally different kind of birth: you will be born awake. One who dies awake is born awake. One who dies unconscious is born unconscious. One who dies with awareness can choose the right womb for himself; he has a choice, he has earned it. The man who dies unconsciously has no right to choose the womb; the womb happens unconsciously, accidentally.

The man who dies perfectly alert in this life will be coming only once more, because next time there will be no need to come. Just a little work is left: the other life will do that work. For one who is dying with awareness, only one thing is left now: he has had no time to radiate his awareness into compassion. Next time he can radiate his awareness into compassion. And unless awareness becomes compassion, something remains incomplete, something remains imperfect.

Running can be a meditation ——jogging, dancing, swimming, anything can be a meditation. My definition of meditation is: whenever your body, mind, soul are functioning together in rhythm it is meditation, because it will bring the fourth in. And if you are alert that you are doing it as a meditation ——not to take part in the Olympics, but doing it as a meditation ——then it is tremendously beautiful. . . .

In the new commune we are going to introduce all kinds of meditations. Those who enjoy swimming, they will have opportunities to go for a swimming meditation. Those who enjoy running, they will have their group to run for miles. Each according to his need — only then this world can be full of meditation; otherwise not.

If we give only a fixed pattern of meditation, then it will be applicable only to a few people. That has been one of the problems in the past: fixed patterns of meditation, not fluid — fixed, so they fit certain types and all others are left in the darkness.

My effort is to make meditation available to each and everybody; whosoever wants to meditate, meditation should be made available according to his type. If he needs rest, then rest should be his meditation. Then “sitting silently doing nothing, and the spring comes and the grass grows by itself” — that will be his meditation. We have to find as many dimensions to meditation as there are people in the world. And the pattern has not to be very rigid, because no two individuals are alike. The pattern has to be very liquid so that it can fit with the individual. In the past, the practice was that the individual had to fit with the pattern.

I bring a revolution. The individual has not to fit with the pattern, the pattern has to fit with the individual. My respect for the individual is absolute. I am not much concerned with means; means can be changed, arranged in different ways.

That’s why you find so many meditations going on here. We don’t have enough opportunities here, otherwise you would be surprised how many doors God’s temple has. And you would be surprised also that there is a special door only for you and for nobody else. That’s God’s love for you, his respect for you. You will be received through a special door, not through the public gate; you will be received as a special guest.

But the basic fundamental is, whatever whatsoever the meditation, it has to fill this requirement: that the body, mind, consciousness, all three should function in unity. Then suddenly one day the fourth has arrived: the witnessing. Or if you want to, call it God; call it God or nirvana or Tao or whatever whatsoever you will.

Note: this matter is taken from
The Book of Wisdom
Chapter – 23 title: Behind the Master’s Hands
Question – 2

YOU ARE NOT THE BODY

Deva means divine, chetan means consciousness divine consciousness. Man can live either as body or as consciousness. These are the two alternatives to live. Two roads are possible for man to follow: either one can remain identified with the body… then one will have pleasures of the body and pains of the body. They will all be momentary and life will have a superficiality; because the body is only a periphery. The wall that surrounds the temple is not the deity itself. And then it is born and dies, so the life span of the body is very small. And iIf one feels identified with the body one is always in a hurry, hence the Western hurriedness, hence the Western obsession with speed. Basically it is identification with the body. Life is running fast, going out of your hands ——do something and do it instantly, and be in a hurry, otherwise you will miss it. And find better means of doing it, faster means of doing it. Speed has become a mania. How to reach some place with greater speed; that has become the sole concern. Why you want to reach there is nobody’s concern. Why in the first place do you want to go there? That is not the point, but you should reach it faster. And the moment you reach there you start thinking of reaching somewhere else.

The mind remains in a constantly feverish state. This is basically because we have become got identified with the periphery, and the body is going to die, so death haunts one. In the West death is still a taboo. One taboo has been broken ——the taboo about sex ——but the second taboo, which is deeper than the first, still exists. It needs some Freud again to break this taboo. People don’t talk about death, or even if they do, they talk euphemistically ——that the man has gone to gGod, to heaven, has gone to eternal rest. But if the man has only lived in the body, he has not gone anywhere. He is dead, simply dead ——dust unto dust. And the one who has gone into another body was never here in this body, because he never became aware of it; the man remained completely oblivious of it.

The other way is to become alert about your inner consciousness. The body is heavy, very prominent, apparent, visible, touchable, tangible. The consciousness is not visible, not so much on the surface. One has to search for it, one has to dig deep. It needs effort, it needs a constant commitment to explore one’s own being. It is a journey, but once you start feeling yourself as consciousness you live in a totally different world. Then there is no hurry because consciousness is eternal, and there is no worry because consciousness knows no disease, no death, no defeat.

Then there is no need to search for anything else. The body lacks everything, hence it creates desires upon desires; the body is a beggar. But consciousness is an emperor ——it possesses the whole world, it is the master. Once you have known the face of your inner being, you become relaxed. Then life is no more a desire but a celebration. Then all is given already: the stars and the moon and the sun and the mountains and the rivers and the people ——all is given. You have to start living it.

This has to become your exploration. This is what life sannyas is all about: an exploration into consciousness. It is there but it is a hidden treasure. And, naturally, when you have a treasure you keep it hidden deep down so nobody can steal it. God has put consciousness at the deepest core of your being. The body is just the porch, ; it is not the innermost chamber. But many people simply live in the porch and they think this is life; they never enter the house of their being.

Let life sannyas become a journey into your own self. Use the body, love the body ——it is a beautiful mechanism, a precious gift, great are its mysteries ——but don’t become identified with it. The body is just like the airplane aeroplane and you are the pilot. The airplane aeroplane is beautiful and very useful, but the pilot is not the airplane aeroplane and the pilot has to remember that he is distinct, distant, aloof, away, far away. He is the master of the vehicle.

So use the body as a vehicle but let consciousness be enthroned.

Note: this matter is taken from
Darshan Diaries
Hallelujah!
Chapter – 13 title: Only in Bliss are you Close to me

FROM GOAL SEEKER TO CELEBRATOR

What is relaxation? It Relaxation is a state of affairs where your energy is not moving anywhere, not to the future, not to the past ——it is simply there with you. In the silent pool of your own energy, in the warmth of it, you are enveloped. This moment is all. There is no other moment. Time stops ——then there is relaxation. If time is there, there is no relaxation. Simply, the clock stops; there is no time. This moment is all. You don’t ask for anything else, ; you simply enjoy it. Ordinary things can be enjoyed because they are beautiful. In fact, nothing is ordinary ——if God exists, then everything is extraordinary.

People come to me and ask, “Do you believe in God?” I say, “Yes, because everything is so extraordinary, how can it be without a DEEP consciousness in it?” Just small things …. . . . Walking on the lawn when the dewdrops have not evaporated yet, and just feeling totally there ——the texture, the touch of the lawn, the coolness of the dewdrops, the morning wind, the sun rising. What more do you need to be happy? What more is possible to be happy? Just lying down in the night on the cool sheet on your bed, feeling the texture; feeling that the sheet is getting warmer and warmer, and you are shrouded in darkness, the silence of the night …. . With closed eyes you simply feel yourself. What more do you need? It is too much ——a deep DEEP gratitude arises: this is relaxation.

Relaxation means this moment is more than enough, more than can be asked and expected. Nothing to ask, more than enough, than you can desire ——then the energy never moves anywhere. It becomes a placid pool. In your own energy, you dissolve. This moment is relaxation. Relaxation is neither of the body nor of the mind, relaxation is of the total. That’s why buddhas go on saying, “Become desireless,” because they know that if there is desire, you cannot relax. They go on saying, “Bury the dead,” because if you are too much concerned with the past, you cannot relax. They go on saying, “Enjoy this very moment.”

Jesus says, “Look at the lilies. Consider the lilies in the field ——they toil not and they are more beautiful, their splendor is greater than King Solomon. They are arrayed in more beautiful aroma than King Solomon ever was. Look, consider the lilies!”

What is he saying? He is saying, “Relax! You need not toil for it ——in fact, everything is provided.” Jesus says, “If he looks after the birds of air, animals, wild animals, trees and plants, then why are you worried? Will he not look after you?” This is relaxation. Why are you so much worried about the future? Consider the lilies, watch the lilies, and become like lilies ——and then relax. Relaxation is not a posture; relaxation is a total transformation of your energy.

Energy can have two dimensions. One is motivated, going somewhere, a goal somewhere; this moment is only a means and the goal is somewhere else to be achieved. This is one dimension of your energy, this is the dimension of activity, goal-oriented. Then everything is a means; somehow it has to be done and you have to reach to the goal, then you will relax. But for this type of energy the goal never comes, because this type of energy goes on changing every present moment into a means for something else, into the future. The goal always remains on the horizon. You go on running, but the distance remains the same.

No, there is another dimension of energy: that dimension is unmotivated celebration. The goal is here, now; the goal is not somewhere else. In fact, you are the goal. In fact, there is no other fulfillment than of this moment ——consider the lilies. When you are the goal and when the goal is not in the future, when there is nothing to be achieved, rather, you have just to celebrate it, you have already achieved it, it is there. This is relaxation, unmotivated energy.

So, to me, there are two types of persons: the goal-seekers and the celebrators. The goal-oriented, they are the mad ones; they are going, by and by, crazy, and they are creating their own craziness. And then the craziness has its own momentum: by and by, they move deeper into it ——then they are completely lost. The other type of person is not a goal-seeker ——he is not a seeker at all, he is a celebrator.

And this I teach to you: Be the celebrators, celebrate! Already there is too much: the flowers have bloomed, the birds are singing, the sun is there in the sky ——celebrate it! You are breathing and you are alive, and you have consciousness ——celebrate it! Then suddenly you relax, then there is no tension, then there is no anguish. The whole energy that becomes anguish becomes gratitude; your whole heart goes on beating with a deep thankfulness ——that is prayer. That’s all prayer is about: a heart beating with a deep thankfulness.

DO NOUGHT WITH THE BODY BUT RELAX.

A child is dancing and jumping and running around; ask him, “Where are you going?” He is not going anywhere ——you will look foolish to him. Children always think that adults are foolish. What a nonsense question, “Where are you going?” Is there any need to go anywhere? A child simply cannot answer your question because it is irrelevant. He is not going anywhere. He will simply shrug his shoulders. He will say, “Nowhere.” Then the goal-oriented mind asks, “Then why are you running?” ——because to us an activity is relevant only when it leads somewhere.

And I tell you, there is nowhere to go: here is all. The whole existence culminates in this moment, it converges into this moment. The whole existence is pouring already in this moment; all that is there is pouring into this moment ——it is here, now. A child is simply enjoying the energy. He has too much. He is running, not because he has to reach somewhere, but because he has too much; he has to run.

Act unmotivated, just an overflow of your energy. Share, but don’t trade, don’t make bargains. Give because you have, don’t give to take back ——because then you will be in misery. All traders go to hell. If you want to find the greatest traders and bargainers, go to hell, ; there you will find them there. Heaven is not for traders. Heaven is for celebrators.

In Christian theology, again and again, for centuries it has been asked, “What do angels do in heaven?” This is a relevant question for people who are goal-oriented: “What do angels do in heaven?” Nothing seems to be done, nothing is there to do. Somebody asked Meister Eckhart, “What do angels do in heaven?” He said, “What type of a fool are you? Heaven is a place to celebrate. They don’t do anything. They simply celebrate — the glory of it, the magnificence of it, the poetry of it, the blooming of it, they celebrate. They sing and they dance and they celebrate.” But I don’t think that that man was satisfied by Meister Eckhart’s answer, because to us an activity is meaningful only if it leads somewhere, if there is a goal.

Remember, activity is goal-oriented, action is not. Action is overflowing of energy; action is in this moment, a response, unprepared, unrehearsed. Just the whole existence meets you, confronts you, and a response comes. The birds are singing and you start singing — it is not an activity. Suddenly it happens. Suddenly you find it is happening, that you have started humming — this is action.

And if you become more and more involved in action, and less and less occupied in activity, your life will change and it will become a deep relaxation. Then you “do” but you remain relaxed. A buddha is never tired. Why? — because he is not a doer. Whatsoever he has, he gives, he overflows.

DO NOUGHT BUT WITH THE BODY BUT RELAX; SHUT FIRM THE MOUTH AND SILENT REMAIN.

The mouth is really very very significant, because that is where the first activity landed; your lips started the first activity. Surrounding the area of the mouth is the beginning of all activity: you breathed in, you cried, you started groping for the mother’s breast. And your mouth remains always in a frantic activity. That’s why Tilopa suggests: “Understand activity, understand action, relax, and … SHUT FIRM THE MOUTH.”

Whenever you sit down to meditate, whenever you want to be silent, the first thing is to shut the mouth completely. If you shut the mouth completely, your tongue will touch the roof of your mouth; both the lips will be completely closed and the tongue will touch the roof. Shut it completely — but that can be done only if you have followed whatsoever I have been saying to you, not before it.

You can do it! Shutting of the mouth is not a very big effort. You can sit like a statue, with a completely shut mouth, but that will not stop activity. Deep inside the thinking will continue, and if thinking continues you can feel subtle vibrations in the lips. Others may not be able to observe it because they are very subtle, but if you are thinking then your lips quiver a little — a very subtle quivering.

When you really relax, that quivering stops. You are not talking, you are not making any activity inside you. SHUT FIRM THE MOUTH AND SILENT REMAIN. And then don’t think.

What will you do? Thoughts are coming and going. Let them come and go, that’s not the problem. You don’t get involved; you remain aloof, detached. You simply watch them coming and going, they are not your concern. Shut the mouth and you remain silent. By and by, thoughts will cease automatically — they need your cooperation to be there. If you cooperate, they will be there; if you fight, then too they will be there — because both are cooperations: one for, the other against. Both are sorts of activity. You simply watch.

But shutting of the mouth is very helpful. So first, as I have been observing many people, I will suggest to you that first yawn: open your mouth as wide as possible, tense your mouth as wide as possible, yawn completely; it even starts hurting. Two or three times do this. This will help the mouth to remain shut for a longer time. And then for two or three minutes, say loudly gibberish, nonsense. Anything that comes to the mind, say it loudly and enjoy it. Then shut the mouth.

It is easier to move from the opposite end. If you want to relax your hand, it is better to first make it as tense as possible. Clench the fist and let it be as tense as possible, do just the opposite and then relax — and then you will attain a deeper relaxation of the nervous system. Make gestures, faces, movements of the face, distortions, yawn, say two or three minutes nonsense — and then shut. And this tension will give you a deeper possibility to relax the lips and mouth. Shut the mouth and then just be a watcher. Soon a silence will descend on you.

There are two types of silences. One, silence that you can force upon yourself. That is not a very graceful thing, it is a violence; it is a sort of rape on the mind, it is aggressive. Then there is another sort of silence that descends on you, like night descends. It comes upon you, it envelops you. You simply create the possibility for it, the receptivity, and it comes. Shut the mouth, watch, don’t try to be silent. If you try, you can force a few seconds of silence, but they will not be of any value — inside you will go on boiling. So don’t try to be silent. You simply create the situation, the soil, put the seed and wait.

EMPTY YOUR MIND AND THINK OF NOUGHT.

What will you do to empty the mind? Thoughts are coming, you watch. And watching has to be done with a precaution: the watching must be passive, not active. These are the subtle mechanisms and you have to understand everything, otherwise you can miss anywhere. And if you miss a slight point, the whole thing changes its quality. Watch; watch passively, not actively.

What is the difference? You are waiting for your girl, or your lover — then you watch actively. Then somebody passes by the door and you jump up to look whether she has come. Then, just leaves fluttering in the wind, and you feel maybe she has come. You go on jumping up; your mind is very eager, active. No, this will not help. If you are too eager and too active this will not bring you to Tilopa’s silence or my silence. Be passive as you sit by the side of a river and the river floats by, and you simply watch. There is no eagerness, no urgency, no emergency. Nobody is forcing you. Even if you miss, there is nothing missed. You simply watch, you just look. Even the word “watch” is not good, because the very word “watch” gives a feeling of being active. You simply look, not having anything to do. You simply sit by the bank of the river, you look, and the river flows by. Or, you look in the sky and the clouds float, and passively.

This passiveness is very very essential; that is to be understood, because your obsession for activity can become eagerness, can become an active waiting. Then you miss the whole point; then the activity has entered from the back door again. Be a passive watcher.

EMPTY YOUR MIND AND THINK OF NOUGHT.

This passivity will automatically empty your mind. Ripples of activity, ripples of mind-energy, by and by, will subside, and the whole surface of your consciousness will be without any waves, without any ripples. It becomes like a silent mirror.

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY.

This is one of Tilopa’s special methods. Every Master has his own special method through which he has attained, and through which he would like to help others. This is Tilopa’s specialty:

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY.

A bamboo: inside completely hollow. When you rest, you just feel that you are like a bamboo: inside completely hollow and empty. And in fact this is the case: your body is just like a bamboo, and inside it is hollow. Your skin, your bones, your blood, all are part of the bamboo, and inside there is space, hollowness.

When you are sitting with a completely silent mouth, inactive, tongue touching the roof and silent, not quivering with thoughts, mind watching passively, not waiting for anything in particular, feel like a hollow bamboo — and suddenly infinite energy starts pouring within you, you are filled with the unknown, with the mysterious, with the divine. A hollow bamboo becomes a flute and the divine starts playing it. Once you are empty then there is no barrier for the divine to enter in you.

Try this; this is one of the most beautiful meditations, the meditation of becoming a hollow bamboo. You need not do anything else. You simply become this — and all else happens. Suddenly you feel something is descending in your hollowness. You are like a womb and a new life is entering in you, a seed is falling. And a moment comes when the bamboo completely disappears.

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY.

Rest at ease — don’t desire spiritual things, don’t desire heaven, don’t desire even God. God cannot be desired — when you are desireless, he comes to you. Liberation cannot be desired because desire is the bondage. When you are desireless, you are liberated. Buddhahood cannot be desired, because desiring is the hindrance. When the barrier is not, suddenly Buddha explodes in you. You have the seed already. When you are empty, space is there — the seed explodes.

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY. GIVING NOT NOR TAKING, PUT YOUR MIND AT REST.

There is nothing to give, there is nothing to get. Everything is absolutely okay — as it is. There is no need for any give and take. You are absolutely perfect as you are.

This teaching of the East has been very much misunderstood in the West, because they say, “What type of teaching is this? Then people will not strive, and then they will not try to go higher. Then they will not make any effort to change their character, to transform their evil ways into good ways. Then they may become a victim of the devil.” In the West, “Improve yourself” is the slogan; either in terms of this world, or in terms of the other, but improve. How to improve? How to become greater and bigger?

In the East we understand it more deeply, that this very effort to become is the barrier — because your being you are already carrying with you. You need not become anything — simply realize who you are, that’s all. Simply realize who is hidden within you. Improving, whatsoever you improve, you will always be in anxiety and anguish because the very effort to improve is leading you on a wrong path. It makes future meaningful, a goal meaningful, ideals meaningful, and then your mind becomes a desiring.

Desiring, you miss. Let desiring subside, become a silent pool of nondesiring — and suddenly you are surprised, unexpectedly it is there. And you will have a belly-laugh, as Bodhidharma laughed. And Bodhidharma’s followers say that when you become silent again, you can hear his roaring laugh. He is still laughing. He has not stopped laughing since then. He laughed because, “What type of joke is this? You are already that which you are trying to become! How can you be successful if you are already that, and you are trying to become that? Your failure is absolutely certain. How can you become that which you are already?” So Bodhidharma laughed.

Bodhidharma was just exactly a contemporary of Tilopa. They may have known each other, maybe not physically, but they must have known each other — the same quality of being.

GIVING NOT NOR TAKING, PUT YOUR MIND AT REST. MAHAMUDRA IS LIKE A MIND THAT CLINGS TO NOUGHT.

You have achieved if you don’t cling; nothingness in your hand — and you have achieved.

MAHAMUDRA IS LIKE A MIND THAT CLINGS TO NOUGHT. THUS PRACTICING, IN TIME YOU WILL REACH BUDDHAHOOD.

What is to be practiced then? To be more and more at ease. To be more and more here and now. To be more and more in action, and less and less in activity. To be more and more hollow, empty, passive. To be more and more a watcher ——indifferent, not expecting anything, not desiring anything. To be happy with yourself as you are. To be celebrating.

And then, ANY MOMENT, any moment, when things ripen and the right season comes, you bloom into a buddha.

Note: this matter is taken from
Discourse Series
Tantra: The Supreme Understanding
Chapter – 4 title: Be Like a Hollow Bamboo

REMEMBER THE RESIDENT

Veet means beyond, dehen means the body. Man is in the body but is not the body. The body is beautiful, the body has to be loved and respected, but one has not to forget that one is not it, that one is a resident in the body. The body is a temple: it is a host to you but you are not part of it. The body is a contribution from the earth; you come from the sky. In you, as in every embodied being, the earth and the sky are meeting: it is a love affair of earth and sky.

The moment you die, nothing dies; it only appears that it does to others from the outside. The body falls back into the earth to have a little rest and the soul falls back into the sky to have a little rest. Again and again the meeting will happen; in millions of forms the play will continue. It is an eternal occurrence.

But one can get too very identified with the body; that creates misery. If one starts feeling ‘ “I am the body” ‘ then life becomes very heavy. Then small things disturb, small pains are too much: just a little hurt and one is disturbed and disoriented.

A little distance is needed between you and your body. That distance is created by being aware of the fact ‘ “I am not the body, I cannot be the body. I am conscious of it, so it is an object of my consciousness, and whatsoever is an object of my consciousness cannot be my consciousness. The consciousness is watching, witnessing, and whatsoever is witnessed is separate.” ‘

As this experience deepens in you, miseries start disappearing and evaporating. Then pain and pleasure are almost alike, then success and failure are the same, then life and death are not different. Then one has no choice, one lives in a cool choicelessness. In that cool choicelessness gGod descends. That has been the search of all the religions, that cool choicelessness. In India we call it samadhi, in Japan they call it satori; Christian mystics have called it ecstasy.

The word ‘ “ecstasy” ‘ is very significant; it means standing out. Standing out of your own body, knowing that you are separate, is the meaning of ecstasy. And the moment it happens you are part of the lost paradise again, paradise is regained.

Note: this matter is taken from
Darshan Diaries
Turn On, Turn In and Drop the Lot
Chapter – 24 title: None