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3 June 1979 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Deva Ageho. Deva means divine; Ageho means homelessness.
Life has no security; it thrives in danger. It has no safety; it is possible only in danger. Death is safe and secure; life is a risk. Hence those who really want to live have to take many risks. They have to go on moving into the unknown. They have to learn one of the most fundamental lessons: that there is no home; that life is a pilgrimage, no beginning, no end. Yes, there are places where you can rest, but those are just overnight stays and in the morning you have to move again. Life is a constant movement, it never comes to any end; that’s why life is eternal.
Death has a beginning and an end. But you are not death; you are life. Death is a misconception. People create death because they long for security. It is the desire for security and safety that creates death, that makes one afraid of life, that makes one hesitant of moving into the unknown.
Life’s only nourishment is risk: the more you risk, the more alive you are. And once you understand it, not out of despair, not out of helplessness, but out of meditative awareness – once you understand it you are thrilled by the sheer beauty of its possibility.
Life is something impossible. It should not be but it is. It is a miracle that we are, that trees are, that birds are. It is really a miracle, because the whole universe is dead. Millions and millions of stars and millions and millions of solar systems are dead. Only on this small planet earth, which is nothing – if you think of its proportion it is just a particle of dust – life has happened on it. This is the most fortunate’ place in the whole of existence. Birds are singing, trees are growing, blooming, people are there, loving, singing, dancing. Something just unbelievable has happened.
To become aware of it, to welcome it, to rejoice in it, is sannyas. To trust it is sannyas. To go with it with no idea where it is leading is sannyas. To be surrendered to it is sannyas.
Man can accept homelessness in despair; then one misses the whole point. That is where existentialism has missed the whole point: Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, they all have missed the point. They came very close, very close they were; the truth was just by the corner. They were as close as any Buddha, but they missed. Instead of becoming blissful they became very very sad that life has no meaning, that life has no goal, that life has no security. They became very much shaken; it was very shattering.
Buddhas have also come to the same conclusion, but rather than becoming sad they jumped into the unknown. They surpassed all boundaries. They accepted as life is. They accepted that it is the very nature of life; there is no point in feeling frustrated. And they understood that it is beautiful that life is insecure, because then there is a possibility to explore, then there is a possibility to invent. Then there is a possibility to come across the new; then there is a possibility of surprises. If everything was secure, certain, guaranteed, destined, there would have been no thrill and no dance.
Buddhas have danced! Seeing the incredible happening, seeing the miraculous happening, they have rejoiced. Jesus says again and again to his disciples: Rejoice, rejoice! I say again and again, rejoice!
And that’s my whole teaching. I don’t give you a goal, I don’t even give you a sense of direction. I simply make you aware of the facticity of life, what it is, how it is. Fall in tune with it. Go along with it, with no personal, private desires, with no ideas how it should be. Let it be as it is, and you relax. That relaxation is sannyas, and that relaxation brings one to God.
God is nothing but your heart exploding in total rejoicing, your being radiating with the rhythm of existence. God is not somebody that you will see and encounter. It is disappearance of your self- obsession; it is disappearance of the ego. It is a melting: the ice of the ego melts and you become one with the ocean. That oceanic feeling is God.
God cannot be worshipped. One can become God but one cannot worship God. All worship is false, all worship is futile. Become gods! – less than that won’t do. And we have the seeds within us.
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