The watcher on the hill

I seem to be neither totally “in the world,” nor the “watcher on the hill.” How to be someplace? I feel like I am in between everything I do.

Then that is exactly the place you should be.

You go on creating problems. Wherever you are, be there. There is no need to be a watcher on the hills. There should be no ‘should.’ Once ‘should’ enters life you are already poisoned. There should be no goal. There should be no right or wrong. This is the only sin: to think in terms of division, values, condemnation, appreciation.

Wherever you are…nothing is wrong in between the watcher on the hills and a man in the world. That’s exactly where you should be.

And I say: wherever you are, if you can accept it, immediately then and there you have become the watcher on the hills. Even in hell, if you accept it, hell

disappears, because hell can remain only through your rejection. Hell disappears and heaven appears. Whatsoever you accept becomes heavenly, and whatsoever you reject becomes hell.

It is said that a saint cannot be thrown into hell because he knows the alchemy to transform it. You have heard that sinners go to hell and saints to heaven—but you have heard the wrong thing. The case is just the other way around: wherever sinners go, they create hell and wherever saints go, they create heaven. Saints are not sent to heaven. There is nobody to send and manage all this—there is nobody. But wherever they go, this is the way they are: they create their heaven. They carry their heaven with them, within them. And sinners?— you can send them to heaven: they will create hell. They cannot do otherwise.

So what is the definition of a saint or a sinner? My definition is: a saint is one who has come to know the alchemical secret of transforming everything into heaven. And a sinner is one who does not know the secret of transforming things into beautiful existences. Rather, on the contrary, he goes on making things ugly.

Whatsoever you are will be reflected around you. So don’t try to be anything else. And don’t try to be some other place. That is the disease called man: always to become somebody, to be some other place, always rejecting that which is, and always hankering for that which is not. This is the disease called man.

Be alert! Do you see it?! It is a simple fact to be seen. I am not theorizing about it; I am not a theoretician. I am simply indicating a bare, naked fact—that if you can live in this moment wherever you are and forget about the future, goals, the idea of becoming something else, immediately the whole world around you is transformed; you have become a transforming force.

Acceptance…a deep, total acceptance is what religiousness is all about.

A wants to become B; B wants to become C. Then the fever of becoming is created. You are not a becoming; you are a being. You are already that which you can be, which you can ever be—you are already that. Nothing more can be done about you; you are a finished product.

This is the meaning I give to the story that God created the world: when the perfect creates, the creation is perfect. When God creates, how can you improve upon it? Just think of the whole absurdity; the whole idea is absurd. You are trying to improve upon God; you cannot improve. You can be miserable, that’s all. And you can suffer unnecessarily. And you will suffer diseases that are just in your imagination and nowhere else. God creating means: out of perfection comes perfection. You are perfect! Nothing else is needed. Look right now, this very moment, within yourself. Have a direct insight. What is needed? Everything

is simply perfect and beautiful. Not even a cloud can I see. Just look within yourself—not even a cloud in your inner space. Everything is full of light.

But the mind will tell you, sooner or later, to be something else, to be somewhere else, to become. The mind doesn’t allow you to be. The mind is becoming, and your soul is being. That’s why buddhas go on saying: “Unless you drop all desiring you will not attain!” Desiring means becoming. Desiring means to be something else. Desiring means not to accept the case as you are, not to be in a total ‘yes’ mood—no matter what the situation.

To say yes to life is to be religious; to say no to life is to be irreligious. And whenever you desire something you are saying no. You are saying that something better is possible.

The trees are happy and the birds are happy and the clouds are happy— because they have no becoming. They are simply whatsoever they are. The rose bush is not trying to become a lotus. No, the rose-bush is absolutely happy to be a rose bush. You cannot persuade the rose bush. Howsoever you advertise the lotus, you will not be able to corrupt the mind of the rose bush to become a lotus. The rose bush will simply laugh—because a rose bush is a rose bush is a rose bush. It is simply settled and centered in its being. That’s why the whole of nature is without any fever, calm and quiet and tranquil. And settled!

Only the human mind is in a chaos, because everybody is hankering to be somebody else. This is what you have been doing for a thousand and one lives. And if you don’t awaken now, when are you thinking to awaken? You are already ripe for awakening. Just start from this very moment to live and enjoy and delight. Drop desiring! Whatsoever you are, enjoy it. Delight in your being. And then suddenly time disappears, because time exists only with desiring.

Future exists because you desire.

Then you will be like birds; listen to them. Then you will be like trees; look

—the freshness, the greenery, the flowers.

Please be where you are. I am not here to create a new desire in you; I am simply here to make you aware of the whole absurdity of desiring. Desiring is sansar. Understanding the futility of desire is to become enlightened. One who has found out that he is already that which he always wanted to be is a buddha. And you are all buddhas; howsoever fast asleep and snoring makes no difference.

Let me be your alarm. Open your eyes. You have slept long enough. It is time to awaken. The morning is knocking at the door.

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