Chapter title: None

‌Chapter title: None‌

27 December 1980 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 8012265 ShortTitle: GREENR27 Audio:

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[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.]

Dhyan Oliver. Dhyan means meditation. Oliver means a peaceful heart.

It is possible to have a peaceful heart without meditation too, but that peace will be the peace of death. It will not be alive. It will be the peace of a cemetery, not of a garden -- no flowers, no birds singing, no sound of the wind passing through the pine trees, no dance. Something empty -- that is possible without meditation, but that kind of peace has no value at all.

Many have tried it and many have achieved it but it is not worth any effort. It is in fact suicidal, it is dying in a very gradual, slow way; it is crippling yourself and closing yourself. If you remain open then there are distractions and distractions disturb your peace. So people have escaped to the caves, to the mountains, to the monasteries. But the escapist is not religious -- never. He is a coward and cowardliness is not a religious quality, it is just its opposite.

I am against that kind cf peace. Then it is better not to have peace. If one has to choose between these two things, a life without peace and a death with peace, then it is better to choose a life without peace -- at least you are alive!

But there is a third alternative available one can be alive and peaceful both. That

miracle happens through meditation. Meditation is not an escape, it is the science of centering yourself, the science of becoming the centre of the cyclone. You remain in the world, but still, something in you remains out of it.

Meditation is the discovery of that something which is always out, beyond, transcending. Its name is awareness. If one becomes aware, that awareness is always transcending situations. And awareness cannot be disturbed by any distraction; one becomes aware of the distraction. (A train's horns sound mournfully.) For example, this train -- it can disturb you if you are forcing yourself to remain peaceful, but if you are available to the noise, alert, there is no distraction. It is there, it comes through your ears and passes; you remain unaffected. In fact it can even deepen your silence and peace rather than disturbing it. That's what I mean by meditation.

Meditation is synonymous with awareness. And to be aware is the whole of religion.

Atit Herbert. Atit means going beyond, because Herbert is not a good name, but it has been very good in the past. It means a glorious warrior, it means an army hero. It contains destruction in it.

The days of the warrior are over. We need a totally different kind of man who does not believe in war, 1/08/07

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who believes in love, who does not believe in destroying, who believes in creating. We need people who are not engaged in manufacturing arms, but who are totally absorbed in growing roses -- and that's what sannyas is all about. It is just the opposite of the warrior.

The soldier and the sannyasin represent two different lifestyles, totally opposed to each other. The past belonged to the soldier, the future belongs to the sannyasin. And we are passing through one of the most significant times because we are passing through a tremendous transformation. The old is dying and the new has to be given birth to. The old will try in every way to go on living, the

old always insists on keeping itself alive, somehow -- even if it cripples people. It tends to exploit them; it is a parasite. It does not leave you easily, it follows you like a shadow, and it is heavy because it is big. The present is so small and the past is so huge. It cripples and paralyses the present. It does not allow you to fly.

The warrior was very much respected in the past because war was the only business that humanity had been doing for at least a million years. We only know about three thousand years, in three thousand years five thousand wars have been fought. If we count the days when there was no war happening anywhere on earth, then in three thousand years there have been only seven hundred years. And these have not been in one stretch, one day here, two days there, a week here, a week there. This is the total amount out of three thousand years there were seven hundred years when there was no war. But that too was not peace, it was only preparation time. Between two wars you need a little gap to prepare.

For a world war to happen at least ten or twelve years are needed, because one war destroys so much that it takes time to reconstruct everything -- and then again we are ready to fight. So what is known in history as peaceful days are not truly peaceful days but only days of cold war. So history can be divided into two cold war and hot war -- but it is all war. And it is time to get rid of the whole absurd past.

So go beyond the idea of war, conflict, fight, only then can your life be a joy. And there is nothing glorious about being a warrior; it is ugly. Destruction can never be glorious, only creativity is glorious.

Just to write a single song is far better than to create the atom bomb. It is far more valuable just to write a beautiful story, a parable, than to go to the moon.

We have to change our values, we nave to re-evaluate all our values, only then is a sannyasin born.

Initiation into sannyas is only the beginning -- the beginning of many things which have to be done, which we have not done before, which we have been ignoring up to now. But it is possible. It may not be possible for the whole of humanity right now, but it is possible for individuals to slip out of the past. All that is needed is a little courage, a little trust, a little love for life. And it is there in everybody, we just have to allow it to come to the surface.

Nirdosh means innocent.

Sannyas is an effort to discover your intrinsic innocence. It is not an effort to gain knowledge. The knowledgeable person is always a stupid person. The knowledgeable starts depending on knowledge, he starts functioning through knowledge. Life goes on changing every moment and knowledge remains static and life is growing. So there comes a gap between knowledge and life.

Knowledge means ready-made answers, but no ready-made answer can ever fit life. It is like ready-made clothes you can purchase them -- today they may fit the child but the child is growing and the clothes are not growing. Soon the child will be in difficult if you insist that 'Don't be inconsistent; if these clothes were perfectly okay two years before, why are they not okay now? -- they are the same clothes!' And the gap between knowledge and life is not only of two years; it is of thousands of years.

People are reading the Vedas, the Bible, the Koran; they are deriving their ready- made answers from those ancient books, and life has gone through tremendous changes. If the people who wrote the Vedas are brought to the earth again, I don't think they will recognise anything, they will not be able to recognise anything at all, everything has changed. But this is the trouble with a knowledgeable person, he tries just the impossible, he tries to make life fit with his knowledge. It cannot happen, and then he is frustrated, and in his frustration he starts gathering more knowledge, thinking that more knowledge is needed.

In fact innocence is needed, not knowledge. Innocence means your just being a clear mirror -- it is a state of not-knowing, and your functioning o ut of that state of not-knowing. Then you don't have any answers ready-made. Then life is there, a challenge, a continuous challenge, and you are here to respond, so you respond according to the moment. It always fits; there is no gap between your response and the situation, there is a deep harmony. But it is possible only through innocence.

So the really wise man is not knowledgeable, he is innocent. He drops all knowledge and becomes just a mirror. The moment you become just a mirror you are enlightened, because suddenly you see the 1/08/07

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tremendous beauty of life. Its very truth is revealed to you, all its mysteries are suddenly open to you, all its doors are open, all locks disappear.

Anand Urja. Anand means bliss. Urja means energy.

There is a great significant, pregnant statement of William Blake; he says 'Energy is delight.' It is almost a seed which can be grown into a total philosophy of life.

People are living in such a stupid way that they go on wasting their energy. They are always low in energy and that is the root cause of their misery, because if the energy is not there, there cannot be any dance in your life. Dance is overflowing energy. If the energy is not there, then there cannot be any flowers in your life, because flowers are just a luxury. The tree has so much that it flares up into flowers. It has to share -- it bursts forth into flowers, colours, fragrance. But if you keep the tree undernourished it will not give you flowers. It may survive but it will not give you flowers and fragrance. And that's how human beings are living, just surviving, and the reason is that we waste our energy and we waste it unnecessarily, on non-essentials.

A few people are after money their whole life; even when they have accumulated too much money they don't stop, they can't stop. It has become a dead habit, they go on doing the same thing. Even on their deathbed they will be thinking of money.

A Jew was dying. The sun was setting and it was getting darker and suddenly he opened his eyes and asked his wife, 'Where is my eldest son?' And one said 'He is sitting on your right. Don't be worried, he is here -- rest.' He said 'And where is my second son?' And she said 'He is on your left, don't be worried.' But he started to get up, he tried hard. His wife forced him to lie down and told him 'Rest, because the doctors say this is the last hour of your life.' And then he said 'Where is my youngest son?'

She felt that he was asking about them because of so much love. Tears came to her eyes and she said 'He is sitting near your feet, we are all here.' He said 'I know you are all here, but who is tending the shop? If this is happening while I am alive, what is going to happen when I am dead? At least let me die in peace -

go and look after the shop!'

This man is dying but his whole concern is the shop, who is tending the shop. Now this type of person cannot accumulate enough energy to bloom. There will be no spring in this type of man's life.

People are running after power, prestige, respectability, people are trying hard to become a member of a Rotary club or if they cannot become Rotarians, then at least they can become Lions -- as if just to be a human being is not enough; one has to be a lion!

People are running after futile things and wasting precious energy. A sannyasin has to become alert and capable of discriminating between what is essential and what is non-essential. And then drop the non-essential. And the essential is not much; it only takes a very small fragment of your energy and leaves so much energy in you that life becomes a blissful phenomenon.

Bliss is nothing but overflowing energy. William Blake is right: Energy is delight!

Anand Meena. Anand means bliss. Meena is a precious stone, a diamond.

Bliss is a diamond and a diamond that is already there inside us -- we are born with it. It has not to be searched for anywhere else. We are not to beg for it, we are not to fight for it, we are not to steal it from somebody, we are not in any need to go anywhere; all that is needed is to search within. Hence it is not a difficult phenomenon, because it is the closest thing to you. It is your innermost core.

Jesus calls it the kingdom of god because once you have found it you become for the first time immeasurably rich, inexhaustibly rich. Then you can go on sharing and giving gifts to all and sundry and you will still have your treasures absolutely intact. You will not be losing anything; on the contrary, the more you give, the more you will have. And one has to learn a simple art of closing one's eyes and looking in, watching inwards. It takes a little time because we have become accustomed to watching outside; our eyes have learned to focus on objects.

When a child is born he cannot see clearly; everything is blurred. Naturally, because for nine months in the mother's womb there was nothing to see, it was

all dark; his eyes were closed and he was asleep for nine months. Now when he suddenly opens his eyes he cannot focus. Everything is blurred, all colours are mixing, things are mixing -- that is natural. It takes a few months for the child to be really skilful in focussing.

Exactly the same happens to the sannyasin because he is a child again, as far as the inner world is concerned, so it takes a few months to focus and just a little patience. One should not feel frustrated if one 1/08/07

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does not succeed in the first attempt. One should wait, be patient; in the right time the focussing happens.

And it differs from individual to individual. Some people can focus easily, some people take a little longer, but it doesn't matter, it is irrelevant.

Once you have become able to focus inside you discover the diamond, and then all kohinoors, all the great diamonds of the world, are just stones compared to it. Then the light on the outside is almost like darkness compared to it. Then the life that you have been living is almost death compared to it, because now you have tasted immortality, eternity, divinity. Now for the first time you have known the source of nectar within yourself.

Prem Ami. Prem means love. Ami means nectar.

Love gives you the first taste of the eternal. It opens you to the timeless, to the deathless, hence it is the only nectar available to man. In fact there is a deep longing in everyone to never die, everybody wants to remain forever. But this is not physically possible. And even if one day science makes it physically possible, only fools will be ready to become physically immoral; the wise people will not be ready to accept it.

There is a story: Alexander was coming to India and some philosophers, some alchemists, in Greece had told him 'You may meet wise seers in the East who can show you the way, because we have heard that there are places in the East

where you can find springs of nectar and if you drink from those springs you become an immortal. Naturally, he was immensely interested, he was asking everybody about it. And the story is beautiful, a wise man showed him the way and he reached a place where there was a beautiful small pool.

He had never seen such crystal-clear water.

It was the nectar, and he was just going to drink out of it when a crow sitting on a tree shouted 'Stop!' He was very puzzled that the crow was speaking. And the crow said 'Wait a minute before you drink, then you can drink. I have drunk from it and I have become immortal; I have lived for millions of years. Now I want to die but there is no way to die; I have tried all ways to commit suicide, but nothing succeeds. And now it is such a boring life, living the same routine every day. And there is no hope even of death coming and finishing it; I will have to live this way forever and forever and forever, so think about it, and decide.

And it is said that Alexander became silent and ran away from the source of nectar; he ran away because he was afraid that he might be foolish enough to drink out of it. He saw the point, that if you become physically immortal. how will you live for eternity? -- it will be tedious, tiring, everything will become boring.

So the desire in every human heart for immortality cannot be for physical immortality -- it is a misunderstanding. It is a desire to find something beyond the body, beyond the mind, beyond time. To become part of that which is forever, to dissolve into it. And love gives you the first glimpse of it; the first lesson in immortality is love.

So to me love is nectar -- there is no other nectar. This story of Alexander is just a parable -- a beautiful parable, significant, but still a parable.

Learn to love. Very few people know how to love. They all know that love is needed, they all know that without love life is meaningless, but they don't know how to love. And whatsoever they do in the name of love is not love, it is always something else. It is mixed with so many things -- jealousy, anger, hatred, possessiveness, domination, ego. All these poisons destroy the very nectar.

To love means to get rid of all these poisons. So drop jealousy, drop possessiveness, drop all ego trips and then slowly you will see a new quality of love arising in you. And it will give you wings, it will make you weightless. And

as love goes higher, you go higher. A man is exactly where his love is. If his love exists on the lowest plane then a man is on that plane.

Love at the lowest is sex, love in the middle of the journey, exactly in the middle, is love and love at the very end is prayer. Love has to become prayer.

Prayer is the pure fragrance of love. And once you have come to that purity you will know within yourself there is something which is already immortal. Love is the way to find it, and the far easier way to find it. There are other ways too, but love is the most beautiful way to find it.

My sannyasins have to go on refining their love so that one day love is simply love for love's sake, without any motivation, without any desire, no expectation of getting anything back, but a simple sharing.

In that very moment one has transcended the physical and psychological and has entered into the spiritual.

Brahmen. Eastern mythology believes in three aspects of god. That is the eastern equivalent of the Christian trinity. In the East we call it trimurti, the three faces of god. Reality is one but it has three 1/08/07

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The first dimension is represented by the god Brahma; Brahma represents creation. The second dimension is Vishnu; Vishnu represents maintaining the universe. And the third dimension, the third aspect is Shiva; Shiva represents destruction -- because existence becomes so old that it has to be destroyed and again recreated. So there are cycles of existence just as there is a cycle of seasons every year, summer comes and winter comes and the rain, and the cycle goes on. In the same way these three are the ultimate dimensions of reality; everything begins with Brahma and ends with Shiva and again begins with Brahma; between the two is Vishnu who maintains.

So Brahmen means the creative aspect of existence. The only way to be really in tune with existence is to be creative. While you are creating something, whatsoever it is -- poetry, a song, some music, some dance, whatsoever it is -- whenever you are creating you participate in existence. You are no more separate from it, in fact you disappear and existence starts creating through you. And if you can catch hold of those moments, if you become aware of those rare moments when there is no ego and creation is simply flowing through you, then creativity becomes meditative.

Every creator knows those moments, but in a vague way. Poets know that there are moments when poetry simply flows; even if you want to stop it you cannot stop it. And there are moments when you are simply dry, there are dry spells when you want tn create something but nothing comes. The more effort you make, the less is the possibility... because the effort simply means ego effort.

Creativity happens only when ego is absent, when you are relaxed, in deep rest, when there is really no desire to do something. Suddenly you are in a grip, some unknown force overwhelms you, takes possession of you. That is exactly the right word you are possessed.

The poets, the painters, the sculptors, they all know these moments but they know them only when they are gone, they only remember them. They look back and they feel that something of great importance was there but it is no more. They catch hold of those moments only when they are gone, the meditator catches hold of them while they are there. That's the only difference between the poet and the mystic, the poet remembers the creative moments, the mystic becomes aware in those moments themselves. And that makes a great difference.

Once you have become aware that you are not and still you are -- that the ego is no more there, the self is no more there, still you are -- you have had a totally new experience of your own being. Buddha calls it nirvana, no-selfness. And the creator comes to it many times; the only thing is he should catch hold of it while it is there.

And that's my whole work here: I want my sannyasins to be creators in many ways, in every possible way, ana meditators. Meditation is just to catch hold of those moments and creativity is to create those moments. When creativity and meditation meet -- you have arrived home, the journey is complete. And then life is just pure contentment, absolute fulfilment.

Is the Grass Really Greener...?

Chapter #28

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