. I did say why ... friend ...

. The question is ... Are your consciousness sufficiently open to receive the new ... and put aside ... the old?

. Nietzsche was a philosopher ... Life is not a philosophy ... Life is not a question ... All questions are absurd ... Life is a mystery ... a Divine mystery ...

. The thinking of a so-called intellectual about Life is the same of a blind man about Light ... friend ...

. A blind man may have logical conclusions about what Light is ... still ... The experience will miss ...

. Nietzsche or others are tremendously important, but they are not with the whole ...

. Nietzsche talked about existencialism but he was not existencialist ... Nietzsche had philosophies about Life ... but he had not Life. Life is always Now-Here ... and your projections always come from the past ... and your past is Dead. One who have Life, cannot have philosophies about Life ... cannot have any projection towards Life ... Life is existencial ... and ... your so-called projections are always utilitarian ... pseudo-creations ... nothing more ...

. You can know a priori how does the sugar taste ... but this so-called a priori idea is just philosophical rubbish. You must ... taste it ... know it ... be it. Unless, you live the mystery of Life ... intensly ... vividly ... dangerously, you'll never Know ... what Life is. A moralistic will never know what Life is ... He may have theories about Life ... while others ... who Live it ... have Life ...

. They are super-egoists - particularly Nietzsche. I love him, too. He has a tremendous insight into things ... and ... the vivid truth is consubstantialized by his book - "Thus Spoke Zarathustra".

. Great revelations have come through his mind. And he's the one most neglected all over the world - perhaps out of fear, because once you're deep into Nietzsche, you cannot be the same person you've been before. Nietzsche is going to change you.

. His thoughts are rational; his insights have no parallel in the whole history of philosophy, but still he is not a meditator. It is all mind creation ... It is not coming from his inner source ... It is not coming from his heart ...

. Meditate over this insight of Nietzsche - "Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed".

. A little enlightened zen story to meditate upon ...

. God sent for the sun and questioned him: "Why do you erase darkness? What has she done?"

. "Darkness?" asked the sun. "Who is darkness? I have never met her. Where does she live? I have never set eyes on her, so how can I harass her? At least I should be acquainted with my foe. Please call her so that I may beg her forgiveness and clear the misunderstanding."

. God could not persuade darkness to come before the sun. This happened billions of years ago, they say. The problem remains still unsolved, for darkness is not the opposite of light but it's absence.

. Understand well the difference between "opposite" and "absence". If darkness is the opposite of light, we could though a handful on a lamp and the light would go out. We cannot do that for the simple reason that, darkness is the absence ... the nonpresence ... the nonbeing of light. It has no existance of its own. Light has its own existence ... because ... Light is existencial. When Light is not, what remains is darkness. Darkness cannot be removed. It cannot be dealt with, directly. If you want to bring in darkness, you will have to do something to light.

. In the exact same manner ... friend ... all that is considered evil in Life I look upon as darkness, be it greed, sex, anger. All that is bad in Life if full of darkness. Generally, we look upon one who fights this darkness as an ascetic, a man of temperance. I do not call him so. I consider the methods of such people as devices for insanity and hypocrisy; and neither a hypocrite nor a lunatic is in a desirable state of being.

. Darkness is not to be fought with. How can you fight something wich is not? ... You shall just deal with that which is ... right ? A lamp has to be lighted. In the presence of light, there is no darkness. Whatever is excellent in Life, that alone is Truth. Its absence is neither the opposite nor the inverse of its presence. Its absence is its pure nonpresence alone. Therefore a man of violence can cultivate nonviolence, but the violence remains within. A man may cultivate celibacy, but sex will rage just as much within. Such self-control is deception and I am against it. I am in favor of that self-control in which we do not subdue the evil, but awaken the good whithin. We do not remove darkness, but kindle a light whithin.

. Such awakening truth transforms the man and takes him to the temple of truth. He who is awaken to the truth, reaches this temple ... The temple of God ... and this temple ... is not controlled by time ... it is timeless ... Ad infinitum ...

. Yes ... the context does change the object ... the object has no Life on it's own ...

. A flower is beautiful in a certain context ... a flower is beautiful while is nourished by manure ...

. If you remove it from the earth ... it ends up fainting ... its ends up losing away it's fragrance and beauty ...

. The modern world has par excellence a male chauvinistic worldview ... Throughout all the ages the world has been always male oriented ... The whole history of humanity is male oriented ... Have you ever noticed that?! ...

. And evey man is trying to conquer the world ... We live in an imperialistic world, whether consciously or unconsciously ...

. I want you to understand this ...

. The ego is very clever. Once it is there, it is very imperialistic. It wants its empire to be as big as possible. Your house becomes part of your ego, your garden becomes part of your ego, your children become part of your ego, your husband, your wife become part of your ego. You make a very imaginary empire, and this empire is bound to bring you in conflict with nature. But you are at fault, not nature.

. I have heard about a professor of philosophy, head of the department of philosophy in the university of Paris. He was a little eccentric, as philosophers are bound to be.

. His students had become accustomed to his eccentricities, but one day he surpassed himself. He came into the class and said, “I want to make a declaration; if anyone is against it he can stand up. My statement is, that I am the greatest man in the whole world! Has anybody any objection?”

. The students said, “This is too much! We have been tolerating this fellow, anything he says, but now…!”

. One student said, “We are all wanting to know… what is your evidence that you are the greatest man in the world?”

. The professor laughed, he said, “That is very simple. Just answer a few questions. One: which country is the best in the world?”

. The students could not suspect that they were getting caught in the professor’s net. Naturally – they were all French – they said, “Of course, France! There is no question about it.”

. The professor said, “Much is settled. So only France is left. I have to prove myself the greatest man in France, and that will prove me to be the greatest man in the world.”

. The student said, “That is true.”

. Then he said, “In France, which is the biggest city?”

. Now the students became suspicious that he was coming closer, but there was no way of going back. “Paris, of course, is the best city in France.” He said, “Much is settled. Now I want to know which institution in the city of Paris is the greatest, the highest?” Obviously, it was the university.

. And he said, “Now, things are very simple. Which department in the university is the highest and the greatest?” The students looked at each other. They had to accept that it is the department of philosophy. How can any other department be higher than the department of philosophy?

. The old man sat in his chair, and he said, “Now, I am the head of the department of philosophy in the greatest city, Paris, in the greatest country, France. Do you have any objection to my statement that I am the greatest man in the whole world?”

. They had objections, but no logic. The professor had brought them to a point where they had to accept, unwillingly, that he is the greatest man in the world.

. This is the work of the ego that is going on in everybody. Everybody somehow is trying to feel, to convince himself, that he is the greatest man in the world: somebody because he has more muscular strength; somebody because he has more intellectual, argumentative rationality; somebody because she is more beautiful than anybody else.

. And you can always find something that will be supportive to you – but it is not really nourishing to you. It is cutting you off from existence. And then on every step there is going to be trouble; you will find that you are chained.

. Thanks for the jargon word, friend ... You must have found that term recently ... you want to exhibit your undigested knowledgeability trash ... that's good ... go on ...

. I would be surprised if you had understood ...

. Because, if you had you would be simpler and wiser ... with no jargons ...

. Yes ... friend ... Krishnamurti was a man of great insight ...

. He was a true master ... A rare master ... Because the majority of the so-called masters from the 20 st century and even now were just charlatans ... for example Sathya Sai Baba ...

. But ... I have my way ... and Krishnamurti had certainly his way ... we both reached the peak of the himalayas ... but we went from different paths ... whose ultimate is the same though ...

. His path was the intellectual path ... the dimension of human awareness ...

. My path is wider ... His vision was too narrow but tremendously clear cut ... He was in the line between philosophy and mysticism ... he was a beautiful man ... my vision is a bit more foggy ... it's a synthesis of all the great masters ...

. hahahah ... Such mediocrity of yours friend ...

. You can imprision the body ... yes.

. But you cannot imprision human consciousness ... and ... Life means ... consciousness ... Life means ... awareness ... a quintessence awareness.

. You're not the body ... you have a body ... you're witnessing the body ... you're just a pure witness ... nobody can take away from you, your consciousness ... No stupid politician or no stupid priest, right ... ?

. Buddha, once, was recorded for saying - "Even in Hell, I'll be well" ... Meditate upon this, friend ...

. I do not belong to any system ...

. I´m multidimensional ... I'm a Life ... You cannot imprision a free being ... You cannot imprision Life ... Can you ?

. A truth will always be a truth even if one's opinion goes against it.

. The ocean will always tastes the same in any corner of the world, even if one do not believe in it ... right ?

. Life is a fact ... None human's systems are a fact ... They are a search for power ... They are an ego trip ... and sure we produce Genghis Khans; Hitlers; Mussolinis ... and so on so forth ...

. Nobody talks about the beautiful phenomena of History ... they just talk about murderers ...

. Belief is against doubt, friend ...

. The moment you say ... For example ... I believe in the communist system of thought ... Or I believe in the catholic priest ... and you know ... all of that rubbish ... it means ... you're against all other systems. You're creating a schizophrenic world. And this leads to war ... it does not lead to compassion ... to love ... to fraternity. Why? Because you're fighting for a system ... and for that ... you don't bother to kill other people ... as long as your system wins ... you understand the chaos of it, friend?

. This is what have been happening through 5,000 years of history, friend ...

. Ironically , all religions ... all the 300 religions ... with no exception ... talk about love ... but they live on constant war ... THEY LIVE FOR WAR ... otherwise they would not exist ... their ego is tremendously subtle ...

. So ... What is my suggestion ... ?

. First, drop believing, friend ... Let beliefs be dropped, they are all rubbish! Trust in doubt, that's my suggestion; don't try to hide it. Trust in doubt. That is the first thing to bring into your being: trust in your doubt; trust in your inner voice; truth is your heart; trust in your inner light. And see the beauty of it, how beautifully trust has come in ...

. Please see this ...

. What does it mean when I say ... "I believe in this system of thought ... ?"

. It means ... that I don't know ... I did not understand it for my own ... for my own light ... and I do not want to understand it through my inner voice ... but I will pretend that I know, to the world ... and to myself.

. The moment you know, belief fades away ...

. Yes ... there are unfathomable mysteries, beyond human understanding ...

. Life is a mystery ... it cannot be approached through the mind ... Why?

. Because Life is not an academic question to be solved ...

. Life is beyond mind ... As you're beyond mind ...

. Mind is utilitarian not existentialist ...

. And Life is existentialist ...

. I want you to understand this ...

. We are existencial: the "ism" is a mind thing. Our approach to reality is not a mind approach; it cannot be a mind approach, by nature ... it is a communication by heart to heart.

. All "isms" have belief systems: we don't have any belief system. Human beings, by nature, cannot have any belief system.

. You cannot believe in the sun ... You SEE IT ... It's an existential phenomenon ... there is no need for a mind approach ... The mind is quiet ... The mind is always utilitarian, not existentialist ...

. You are not required to believe in anything unless you know it; and when you know something you don't believe, it's impossible, because there is no need ... you understand ?

. You believe only things which you don't know.

. Belief grows only in ignorance.

. Knowing something is enough, there is no need to believe. We are seekers, searchers ... the human being is seeking the ultimate, by nature ... we're not believers.

. We, as human beings, don't have or at least we should not have any idea beforehand about what we are going to get in the end, when the search is over.

. What is the purpose of Philosophy?

. Philosophy has no purpose ... And if it has ... It is to stupefy human ...

. I want you to see this, with no preconceived idea; with clarity of mind; with emptiness of mind ...

. Philosophy is playing with shadows, thoughts, speculation. And you can go on playing infinitely, ad infinitum, ad nauseam; there is no end to it.

. One word creates another word, one theory creates another theory, and you can go on and on and on.

. In five thousand years much philosophy has existed in the world, and to no purpose at all.

. But there are people who have the philosophic attitude. And if you are one of them, please drop it; otherwise you and your energy will be lost in a desert.

. Be simple, and by being simple ... by being ordinary ... so much ordinary ... effortless, you'll become extraordinary ...

. There is no good and there is no evil ...

. There are human beings ... Whose nature is in TAO ...

. Those who are aware of it are wise beings ...

. Those who are not ... are the ignorants ... they may be knowledgeable ... they may have theories about Life ... but they don't have Life ...

. The wise Lives ... The ignorant pretends to Live ...

. you quote Laozi, but you did not even understand it ...

. See ... It is simple, friend ... But it is a very subtle and delicate matter ... You understand ...

. Please, do not philosophize about it ... Otherwise you'll create more problems out of a simple matter ...

. And that's what humanity have been doing ... You just need to see the reality as it is, carefully ... Innocently ... With no arrogance ... With no prejudice or preconceived idea ... In that state there is clarity and wonder ... In that state there is a mirror like quality ...

. Don't try to become anything ... In that becoming ... There is mental effort, right?

. There is a state of contradiction ... You're not that which you desire ... And this leads to psychological suffering, whether made it consciously or unconsciously ...

. See ... there is two kinds of person in the world ... People who follow Morality and people who follow Religiousness, not the religion you know, from the theologians, but the pure religion ... The one associated with meditation ... That's the true one ... The religion of Jesus, or the religion of Buddha ... Or Mahavira ... and so on ... you understand ?

. Not the religion of these stupid priests ... They're manipulative people ... They're in service of the devil ... can you see that, friend? They want power, and the Heaven is a simple pretext ... you understand that ? PLEASE SEE THIS ... There is no Heaven, there is no Hell ! This is the most STUPID idea ever created by humanity! If you go into this matter deeply, you'll understand by yourself ... and in that understanding i'm not moralizing you! You understand it through your own intelligence! You do it because you're a meditative being ... !

. So, this is an example to show you, that a man of morality is a man ready to obey to any stupid commandment ... To any stupid Leader (Hitler, Trump etc.). They're not a man of understanding ... They're just by-products of the society ... Subtle slaves ...

. A man of Religiousness is a man of intelligence ... A Jesus; A Buddha; A Lau Tzu... They're compassionate beings ...

. Hugs friend ... Please, go into it by yourself deeply ... But do not analyse it ... Just see it innocently ... Not philosophically ...

. Tao, Zen, Sufism ...

. That's the pathless path ... That is the path in which you can go beyond any dualism ...

. I'm glad to know it ...

. But seek not ... That's the path to Awe ... To God ... To Moksha ...

. I want you to understand this ...

. If you have to prove anything is because you're not that which you want to prove ...

. If you want to prove that you're a good person, is because you're not ...

. If you want to prove that you're humble or virtuous, is because you're not ...

. Why?

. Because anything born from the ego, that is, anything born from the desire of social recognition; born from your self awareness, leads to distortion of perception and suffering ...

. Seek not ... Because you're already that which you're looking for ...

. Perfectly good ... Yes ... Truth is the unassailable ... It cannot be expressed, verbally ... As it cannot be expressed the beauty of a flower ... But seen ...

. Life is beyond any thinking ...

. Life is not a problem to be solved ... But a mystery to be lived ...

. I know myself ... I know thyself ... I know that wich is not and that wich is ...

. That's good ...

. You must be a scholar ... A knowledgeable ...

. For the blind man, who likes to rationalize intelectually, that's good friend ...

. Please, go on with your jargon ... With your ideologies ... With your prejudices ... Trying to demystify what is intelectually a rose flower ... Trying to demystify the non-demystifiable ... Eyes are not needed ...

. I would like to know ... If you believe in the sun ... ?

. Do it as you've been always doing ... Let your so-called mind talk ...

. You should not pay attention to me ... Normally, the mediocres stay in their beautiful dreams ... wich are the majority ... hence the suffering and the conflict in the world ... so please do not pay attention to me ...

. There's just one truth ... as there's just an universe ... truth is always "uni" ... the ocean tastes the same in every corner ...

. That's not a knowledge ...

. Just a truth being reflected by me ... Truth is never a knowledge ...

. It is existencial ... It is not your so-called philosophical jargon ...

. No ...

. You need to be a light unto yourself ... Books will make you more knowledgeable ...

. A wise being is not knowledgeable ... He is as an innocent child ... Pure ...

. You don't need to decorate scriptures nor to read them ...

. You need to read your book ... your inner book ... YES ... that's the only one worth reading ...

. But there's a tremendous fear ... you might be transformed radically ... so people think that it's better to live confortably miserable ... preserving their golden dreams ...

. Don't be afraid for being ignorant ... be afraid for being knowledgeable ...

. Meditation is the key to make you aware about the confusion that is repressed within you.

. It does not create confusion ... Just make you aware how confuse you're and make you aware that you don't know ... It makes you aware that you don't know life ... It makes you aware that you're still an animal ... you did not reach the state wich is beyond mind ... wich is beyond the biological needs ...

. But your so-called politicians and priests don't like people to gain that awareness and they use all the preventions ... and they've been succeeding since 5,000 years ago.

. When you turn into a rebell, into a true human being ... In that circumstances, you're not useful for the society, therefore a Jesus is murdered, a Socrates is poisoned.

. You are pure love; you are pure compassion ... A buddha is pure awareness ... He can see people stumbling in the dark unnecessarily ... creating their own hell ... creating their own nightmares ... and drowning in their created hell ...

. Inevitably, compassion will rise within them... They try to communicate to people that this is your own doing ... That you're not REALLY BLIND!!! ... You just HAVE BEEN TAUGHT TO BECOME BLIND!!!!! ... The society teaches you to become blind ... The society likes blind people because they're never rebels ... they're always ready to obey to stupid politicians ... to obey to stupid priets ...

. Good you recognize it ... Rarely, a man can put the ego aside for a bit ... But you could, friend, while reading my "answer" ... I'm glad for you ...

. This is the first step for the path of wisdom; for the path of meditation; for the pathless path.

. But it is FULL of pitfalls, and tremendously risky, because in that moment you turn in a rebell; in a creator. That's the reason why man still lives comfortably miserable.

. In that moment, you are a Buddha- " You're in the world, but not of the world".

. But as I said, it's almost impossible ... Those who achieve that state ... are bound to be murdered by society or being marginalized ... Because they 're new ... they cannot fit with the so-called society patterns and prejudices ...

. No ... because all of them are futile ... they're imaginations from your prejucides, and dirty imagination, friend ...
. The philosopher thinks about things. It is a mind approach. My approach is a no-mind approach. It is just the very opposite of philosophizing. It is not thinking about things, ideas, but seeing with a clarity which comes when you put your mind aside, when you see through silence, not through logic. Seeing is not thinking.

. The sun rises there; if you think about it you miss it, because while you are thinking about it, you are going away from it. In thinking you can move miles away; and thoughts go faster than anything possible. If you are seeing the sunrise then one thing has to be certain, that you are not thinking about it. Only then can you see it.

. Thinking becomes a veil on the eyes. It gives its own color, its own idea to the reality. It does not allow reality to reach you, it imposes itself upon reality; it is a deviation from reality. Hence no philosopher has ever been able to know the truth.

. All the philosophers have been thinking about the truth. But thinking about the truth is an impossibility. Either you know it, or you don't. If you know it, there is no need to think about it. If you don't, then how can you think about it?

. A philosopher thinking about truth is just like a blind man thinking about light. If you have eyes, you don't think about light, you see it. Seeing is a totally different process; it is a byproduct of meditation.

. Hence I would not like my way of life to be ever called a philosophy, because it has nothing to do with philosophy. You can call it philosia. The word ‘philo’ means love; ‘sophy’ means wisdom, knowledge – love for knowledge. In philosia, ‘philo’ means the same love, and ‘sia’ means seeing: love, not for knowledge but for being – not for wisdom, but for experiencing.”

. No ... because all of them are futile ... they're imaginations from your prejucides, and dirty imagination, friend ...
. The philosopher thinks about things. It is a mind approach. My approach is a no-mind approach. It is just the very opposite of philosophizing. It is not thinking about things, ideas, but seeing with a clarity which comes when you put your mind aside, when you see through silence, not through logic. Seeing is not thinking.

. The sun rises there; if you think about it you miss it, because while you are thinking about it, you are going away from it. In thinking you can move miles away; and thoughts go faster than anything possible. If you are seeing the sunrise then one thing has to be certain, that you are not thinking about it. Only then can you see it.

. Thinking becomes a veil on the eyes. It gives its own color, its own idea to the reality. It does not allow reality to reach you, it imposes itself upon reality; it is a deviation from reality. Hence no philosopher has ever been able to know the truth.

. All the philosophers have been thinking about the truth. But thinking about the truth is an impossibility. Either you know it, or you don't. If you know it, there is no need to think about it. If you don't, then how can you think about it?

. A philosopher thinking about truth is just like a blind man thinking about light. If you have eyes, you don't think about light, you see it. Seeing is a totally different process; it is a byproduct of meditation.

. Hence I would not like my way of life to be ever called a philosophy, because it has nothing to do with philosophy. You can call it philosia. The word ‘philo’ means love; ‘sophy’ means wisdom, knowledge – love for knowledge. In philosia, ‘philo’ means the same love, and ‘sia’ means seeing: love, not for knowledge but for being – not for wisdom, but for experiencing.”

. Mysticism itself, by its very nature, is a contradiction, because it is not an ism. It is not a creed or dogma in which you can believe. You can be a mystic, but there is nothing like mysticism. And when one is a mystic the paradox deepens, it does not disappear. When one is a mystic there is no one left. There is a mystery, but with no center to it. It is like a cloud: translucent darkness, infinite darkness.

. One of the most important statements about mysticism in the Western hemisphere is the book called The Cloud of Unknowing. The name of the author is not known; it is good that we don’t know who wrote it. It indicates one thing: that before he wrote it he had disappeared into a cloud of unknowing. It is the only book in the Western world which comes close to the Upanishads, The Tao Te Ching, The Dhammapada. There is a rare insight in it.

. First he calls it a cloud. A cloud is vague, with no definable limits. It is constantly changing; it is not static – never, even for two consecutive moments, is it the same. It is a flux, it is pure change. And there is nothing substantial in it. If you hold it in your hand just mist will be left, nothing else. Maybe your hands will become wet, but you will not find any cloud in your fist.

. That’s what happens to the mystic: he becomes wet, really wet. Those countries where alcohol is prohibited they call dry, and those countries where alcohol is not prohibited they call wet. But the only wet person is the mystic. He is a real alcoholic! He cannot be helped by Alcoholics Anonymous. If a mystic enters there, they will all become alcoholics themselves!

. But for Dionysius it is even more a contradiction because he was a theologian. His whole book is written with a disguise, as if it is a treatise on theology; mysticism is just something by the side, secondary, not primary. Hence the name Theologia Mystica – as if mysticism is only a consequence of getting deep into the world of theology. Just the reverse is the case.

. The word “theology” means logic about God; theo means God. But there can be no logic about God. There is love about God, love for God, but no logic about God. There are no proofs possible. The only proof is the existence of the mystic. The presence of Dionysius, of Ramakrishna, of Bahauddin – the presence of these people is the proof that God exists, otherwise there is no proof. Because Buddhas have walked on the earth, there are a few footprints of God left behind on the shores of time.

. Philosophers have argued for centuries, but all their arguments are utterly futile and impotent; they have not come to a single conclusion.

. The mystic has to speak in contradictions because he is speaking about the whole, and the whole contains the contradictions. It contains the day and the night, both. If you call God the day, then it is only half the truth; if you call him the night, that too is only half the truth.

. Hence Dionysius calls God translucent darkness – as if the sun has risen in the night.

. The whole consists of both life and death. If you call God life, only life, then it is a half-statement. And remember a half-truth is far more dangerous than a complete lie because the complete lie is bound to be discovered sooner or later – just a little intelligence is needed. But the half-truth is very dangerous; even intelligent people, very intelligent people, may not be able to find that it is untrue. That is the danger of half-truths: they look like truths and they are not. They can keep you deceived for centuries.

. Mysticism is the whole truth; it has to be contradictory. Somewhere logic and love have to meet, because they both exist. Hence Theologia Mystica. Somewhere man and woman have to meet and merge and disappear into each other because they both exist and they are both halves of one whole. Hence the beauty and the bliss of a real meeting between a man and a woman: the orgasmic joy is possible only because two halves of a single whole have come together. Both were suffering, both were missing something. Suddenly, all that feeling of missing has disappeared. Of course, the meeting between a man and a woman can only be momentary. Again they are separate, and again the misery sets in, and again the desire to be united. Because the meeting is physical it cannot be very deep and it cannot be lasting either.

. But the meeting of the mystic with the whole is absolute; there is no coming back. He has gone beyond the point of no return. He has dissolved himself like a dew-drop slipping out of the lotus leaf into the lake. He has become the lake. Then whatsoever he says will be contradictory, because a part of it will be the vision of the dew-drop and a part of it will be the vision of the total lake, a part will be the standpoint of the part and a part will be the standpoint of the whole. Hence all mystics have spoken in contradictory terms.

. This is one of the reasons why intellectuals are against them, because the intellectual demands consistency and the mystics cannot be consistent. By the very nature of things that is not possible. He is helpless – he has to be contradictory. He has to say, “I am contradictory because I am vast enough to contain contradictions.”

. Logic is a small thing, love is infinity.

. What is Love?

. It depends. There are as many loves as there are people. Love is a hierarchy, from the lowest rung to the highest, from sex to superconsciousness. There are many, many layers, many planes of love. It all depends on you. If you are existing on the lowest rung, you will have a totally different idea of love than the person who is existing on the highest rung.

. Adolf Hitler will have one idea of love, Gautam Buddha another; and they will be diametrically opposite, because they are at two extremes.

. At the lowest, love is a kind of politics, power politics. Wherever love is contaminated by the idea of domination, it is politics. Whether you call it politics or not is not the question, it is political. And millions of people never know anything about love except this politics – the politics that exists between husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. It is politics, the whole thing is political: you want to dominate the other, you enjoy domination.

. And love is nothing but politics sugar-coated, a bitter pill sugar-coated. You talk about love but the deep desire is to exploit the other. And I am not saying that you are doing it deliberately or consciously – you are not that conscious yet. You cannot do it deliberately; it is an unconscious mechanism.

. Hence so much possessiveness and so much jealousy become a part, an intrinsic part, of your love. That’s why love creates more misery than joy. Ninety-nine percent of it is bitter; there is only that one percent of sugar that you have coated on top of it. And sooner or later that sugar disappears.

. When you are in the beginning of a love affair, those honeymoon days, you taste something sweet. Soon that sugar wears off, and the realities start appearing in stark nakedness and the whole thing becomes ugly.

. Millions of people have decided not to love human beings any more. It is better to love a dog, a cat, a parrot; it is better to love a car – because you can dominate them well, and the other never tires to dominate you. It is simple; it is not as complex as it is going to be with human beings.

. At a cocktail party the hostess couldn’t help overhearing the conversation of a suave gentleman.

. “Oh, I adore her. I worship her,” declared the gentleman.

. “I would too if she were mine,” agreed his friend.

. “The way she walks and swishes. Her beautiful big brown eyes, her head so proud and erect…”

. “You’re very fortunate,” commented his friend.

. “I would too if she were mine,” agreed his friend.

. “The way she walks and swishes. Her beautiful big brown eyes, her head so proud and erect…”

. “You’re very fortunate,” commented his friend.

. “And do you know what really thrills me? The way she nibbles my ear.”

. “Sir,” the hostess interjected. “I couldn’t help listening to those affectionate words. In this day of numerous divorces I admire a man who so passionately loves his wife.”

. “My wife?” said the gentleman, surprised. “No – my champion race horse!”

. People are falling in love with horses, dogs, animals, machines, things. Why? Because to be in love with human beings has become an utter hell, a continuous conflict – nagging, always at each other’s throats.

. This is the lowest form of love. Nothing is wrong with it if you can use it as a stepping-stone, if you can use it as a meditation. If you can watch it, if you try to understand it, in that very understanding you will reach another rung, you will start moving upwards.

. Only at the highest peak, when love is not a relationship any more, when love becomes a state of your being, the lotus opens totally and great perfume is released – but only at the highest peak. At its lowest, love is just a political relationship. At its highest, love is a religious state of consciousness.

. I love you too, Buddha loves, Jesus loves, but their love demands nothing in return. Their love is given for the sheer joy of giving it; it is not a bargain. Hence the radiant beauty of it, hence the transcendental beauty of it. It surpasses all the joys that you have known.

. When I talk about love, I am talking about love as a state. It is unaddressed: you don’t love this person or that person, you simply love. You are love. Rather than saying that you love somebody, it will be better to say you are love. So whosoever is capable of partaking, can partake. Whosoever is capable of drinking out of your infinite sources of being, you are available – you are available unconditionally.

. That is possible only if love becomes more and more meditative.

. ‘Medicine’ and ‘meditation’ come from the same root. Love as you know it is a kind of disease: it needs the medicine of meditation. If it passes through meditation, it is purified. And the more purified it is, the more ecstatic.

. Nancy was having coffee with Helen.

. Nancy asked, “How do you know your husband loves you?”

. “He takes out the garbage every morning.”

. “That’s not love. That’s good housekeeping.”

. “My husband gives me all the spending money I need.”

. “That’s not love. That’s generosity.”

. “My husband never looks at other women.”

. “That’s not love. That’s poor vision.”

. “John always opens the door for me.”

. “That’s not love. That’s good manners.”

. “John kisses me even when I’ve eaten garlic and I have curlers in my hair.”

. “Now, that’s love.”

. Everybody has their own idea of love. And only when you come to the state where all ideas about love have disappeared, where love is no more an idea but simply your being, then only will you know its freedom. Then love is God. Then love is the ultimate truth.

. Let your love move through the process of meditation. Watch it: watch the cunning ways of your mind, watch your power-politics. And nothing else except continuous watching and observing is going to help. When you say something to your woman or your man, look at it: what is the unconscious motive? Why are you saying it? Is there some motive? Then what is it? Be conscious of that motive, bring it to consciousness – because this is one of the secret keys for transforming your life: anything that becomes conscious disappears.

. Your motives remain unconscious, that’s why you remain in their grip. Make them conscious, bring them to light, and they will disappear. It is as if you pull up a tree and bring the roots to the sunlight: they will die, they can exist only in the darkness of the soil. Your motives also exist only in the darkness of your unconsciousness. So the only way to transform your love is to bring all the motivations from the unconscious into the conscious. Slowly, slowly, those motives will die.

. And when love is unmotivated, then love is the greatest thing that can ever happen to anybody. Then love is something of the ultimate, of the beyond.

. That is the meaning when Jesus says, “God is love.” I say to you: Love is God. God can be forgotten, but don’t forget love – because it is the purification of love that will bring you to God. If you forget about God completely, nothing is lost. But don’t forget love, because love is the bridge. Love is the process of alchemical change in your consciousness.

. Such a mediocre answer ...

. You did not even understand what they meant whith that truth ...

. All knowledge is superfluous. Knowledge as such is superfluous. And all knowledge creates only an illusion that we know - we don't know. You can live with a man your whole life, and you can think that you know him - and you don't know him. You can give birth to a child, and you can think you know him - and you don't know him.

. And whatsoever we think we know is very illusory.

. Somebody asks, 'What is water', and you say, 'H2O' - you are simply playing a game. It is not known what water is, nor what H is nor what O is.

. You are just labelling. Then somebody asks what this H is - this hydrogen - and you go to the molecules, to the atoms, to the electrons... but you are again giving names. The mystery is not finished - the mystery is only postponed. And at the last, there is tremendous ignorance. Nobody knows what the electron is.

. In the beginning we did not know what the water is - now we don't know what the electron is, so we have not come to any knowledge. We have played a game of naming things, labelling things, categorising, but life remains a mystery.

. Ignorance is so profound and so ultimate that it cannot be destroyed. And once you understand it, you can rest in it. It is so beautiful, it is so relaxing ... because then there is nowhere to go. There is nothing to be known, because nothing can be known. Ignorance is ultimate. It is tremendous and vast.

. All that we know is illusory. Somehow we manage the illusion that we know. Somebody introduces you to somebody else, tells them your name, your qualifications, your country, and it is thought that you have been introduced. You remain completely unintroduced, because your name is not you, neither is your country nor is your religion. You are that profound ignorance inside.

. But when I use the word ignorance, I don't use it in any negative sense - I don't mean absence of knowledge. By ignorance I mean something very fundamental, very present, very positive. It is how we are. It is the very nature of god to remain mysterious. It is the very nature of things to remain mysterious. Everything is illusive, and that's why it is so beautiful. If man succeeds in knowing everything one day, there will not be anything left except to commit suicide.

. We can go on knowing and knowing and knowing, and we never arrive - the ignorance remains untouched, undisturbed by it.

. To come to an understanding of this ignorance is to become enlightened. Hence the socratic dictum:

. 'I know only one thing - that I don't know.' That's what enlightenment is all about. If you can accept your ignorance - welcome it, cherish it, enjoy, delight in it, because this is how things are: nothing is known, nothing can be known and everything is mysterious your life will have a quality of magic.

. Logic will be gone, and your life will be more magical; a charm, a tremendous grace will be there, because now there are no boundaries - nothing is defined. This undefined is what god is. And I call this ignorance divine.

. The very urge to know is an egoistic urge, because by knowledge we want to become powerful. Yes, bacon is right when he says, 'Knowledge is power.' And our search is really for power. We go via knowledge. We want to know because by knowing we can manipulate.

. The word science means knowledge, and the word religion should really mean ignorance. It is the polar opposite.

. Science is an effort to know about things, and religion is not any effort to know - rather, it is an effort to live whatsoever is... to relax into it and to celebrate it.

. If one can rest in one's ignorance, there is no problem, no anxiety. The mind by and by disappears.

. It makes ripples no more.

. You must have heard the old proverb: Ignorance is bliss. It has some depth in it. And I always say, 'Blessed are the ignorant, for theirs is the kingdom of god.' And I don't say, 'Theirs will be the kingdom of god'; I say 'Theirs is the kingdom of god.'

. So just have a taste of ignorance, and you will have a taste of me. I am not a man of knowledge. In fact I don't know anything - because nothing can be known; that is not possible. If somebody claims that he knows something, he is claiming the impossible. I don't know anything. But this not knowing is so blissful, who bothers to know?

. So let this surround you more and more. Even your husband is not known to you - how can a mystery be known? If you live together, you love each other, you share each other's space, but the space is such that it can never be reduced to knowledge. The moment you feel that you know your husband or your child or your friend, your mother, your father, you have reduced them to things. A husband becomes a thing, a wife becomes a thing. Then they are no more persons, their glory is lost - and the agony begins.

. If you can remain in this ignorance of 'How can I know?' then life is very alive, flowing. You are never stuck, and there is always much to explore. In fact there is everything to explore, and every day is a new beginning of a new exploration. You never feel that you have known this man for so long. You are never fed up... you are never bored.

. Boredom comes out of knowledge. The fed-up feeling comes out of knowledge. The moment you say that you know this man, now the exploration has stopped. Now you are stuck together. Maybe you are together for some other reasons - security, finance, society, morality, religion, a thousand and one reasons - but now the exploration is no more there. And when there is no more exploration there is no more love.

. My definition of love is: when you are exploring the other, you are in love.

. I want you to understand this truth ...

. That is the most important question that can arise in anybody’s mind, but there is no answer for it. The most important question, the ultimate question, cannot have any answer; that’s why it is ultimate.

. When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus remained silent. Not only that, the story says that when Pontius Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?” he did not wait to listen for the answer. He left the room and went away. This is very strange. Pontius Pilate also thinks that there cannot be an answer for it, so he didn’t wait for the answer. Jesus remained silent because he also knows it cannot be answered.

. But these two understandings are not the same, because these two persons are diametrically opposite. Pontius Pilate thinks that it cannot be answered because there is no truth; how can you answer it? That is the logical mind, the Roman mind. Jesus remains silent not because there is no truth, but because the truth is so vast, it is not definable. The truth is so huge, enormous, it cannot be confined in a word, it cannot be reduced to language. It is there. One can be it, but one cannot say it.

. For two different reasons they behaved almost in the same way: Pontius didn’t wait to hear the answer, he knew already that there is no truth. Jesus remains silent because he knows truth, and knows that it could not be said.

. Chidvilas has asked this question. The question is absolutely significant. There is no question higher than that, because there is no religion higher than truth. It has to be understood; the question has to be analyzed. Analyzing the question, trying to understand the question itself, you may have an insight into what truth is. I will not answer it, I cannot answer it; nobody can answer it. But we can go deep into the question. Going deep into the question, the question will start disappearing. When the question has disappeared you will find the answer there at the very core of your heart — you are truth, so how can you miss it? Maybe you have forgotten about it, maybe you have lost track of it, maybe you have forgotten how to enter into your own being, into your own truth.

. Truth is not an hypothesis, truth is not a dogma. Truth is neither Hindu nor Christian nor Mohammedan. Truth is neither mine nor yours. Truth belongs to nobody, but everybody belongs to truth. Truth means that which is: that is exactly the meaning of the word. It comes from a Latin root, verus. Verus means: that which is. In English there are a few words which are derivations of the Latin root verus: was, were — they come from verus. In German, war — that comes from verus. Verus means that which is, uninterpreted. Once the interpretation comes in, then what you know is reality, not truth. That is the difference between truth and reality. Reality is truth interpreted.

. So the moment you answer the question, “What is truth?” it becomes reality; it is no longer truth. Interpretation has entered into it, the mind has colored it. And realities are as many as there are minds; there are multi-realities. Truth is one because truth is known only when the mind is not there. It is mind that keeps you separate from me, separate from others, separate from existence. If you look through the mind, then the mind will give you a picture of truth. That will be only a picture, a photograph of that which is. And of course, the photograph depends on the camera, on the film used, on the chemicals, on how it has been developed, how it has been printed, who has done it. A thousand and one other things enter in; it becomes reality.

. The word reality is also beautiful to be understood. It comes from the root, res; it means thing or things. Truth is not a thing. Once interpreted, once the mind has grabbed it, defined it, demarked it, it becomes a thing.

. When you fall in love with a woman there is some truth — if you have fallen absolutely unaware, if you have not ‘done’ it in any way, if you have not acted, managed, if you have not even thought about it. Suddenly you see a woman, you look into her eyes, she looks into your eyes, and something clicks. You are not the doer of it, you are simply possessed by it, you simply fall into it. It has nothing to do with you. Your ego is not involved, at least not in the very, very beginning, when love is virgin. In that moment there is truth, but there is no interpretation. That’s why love remains indefinable.

. Soon the mind comes in, starts managing things, takes possession of you. You start thinking about the girl as your girlfriend, you start thinking of how to get married, you start thinking about the woman as your wife. Now these are things; the girlfriend, the wife — these are things. The truth is no longer there, it has receded back. Now things are becoming more important. The definable is more secure, the indefinable is insecure. You have started killing, poisoning the truth. Sooner or later there will be a wife and a husband, two things. But the beauty is gone, the joy has disappeared, the honeymoon is over.

. The honeymoon is over at that exact moment when truth becomes reality, when love becomes a relationship. The honeymoon is very short, unfortunately — I’m not talking about the honeymoon that you go for. The honeymoon is very short. Maybe for a single moment it was there, but the purity of it, the crystal purity of it, the divinity of it, the beyondness of it — it is from eternity, it is not of time. It is not part of this mundane world, it is like a ray coming into a dark hole. It comes from the transcendental. It is absolutely appropriate to call love God, because love is truth. The closest that you come to truth in ordinary life is love.

. Chidvilas asks: “What is truth?”

. Asking has to disappear; only then do you know. If you ask, “What is truth?” what are you asking? If I say A is truth, B is truth, C is truth, will that be the answer? If I say A is truth, then certainly A cannot be the truth: it is something else that I am using as synonymous with truth. If it is absolutely synonymous, then it will be a tautology. Then I can say, “Truth is truth,” but that is silly, meaningless. Nothing is solved by it. If it is exactly the same, if A is truth, then it will mean truth is truth. If A is different, is not exactly truth, then I am falsifying. Then to say A is truth will be only approximate. And remember, there cannot be anything approximate. Either truth is or it is not. So I cannot say A is truth.

. I cannot even say, “God is truth,” because if God is truth then it is a tautology — “Truth is truth.” Then I’m not saying anything. If God is different from truth, then I am saying something, but then I am saying something wrong. Then God is different, then how can he be truth? If I say it is approximate, linguistically it looks alright, but it is not right. ‘Approximately’ means some lie is there, something false is there. Otherwise, why is it not a hundred percent truth? If it is ninety-nine percent truth then something is there which is not true. And truth and untruth cannot exist together, just as darkness and light cannot exist together — because darkness is nothing but absence. Absence and presence cannot exist together, truth and untruth cannot exist together. Untruth is nothing but the absence of truth.

. So no answer is possible, hence Jesus remained silent. But if you look at it with deep sympathy, if you look into the silence of Jesus, you will have an answer. Silence is the answer. Jesus is saying, “Be silent, as I am silent, and you will know” — not saying it in words. It is a gesture, it is very, very Zen-like. In that moment when Jesus remained silent, he comes very close to the Zen approach, to the Buddhist approach. He is a Buddha in that moment. Buddha never answered these questions. He had eleven questions listed: wherever he would move his disciples would go around and declare to people, “Never ask these eleven questions of Buddha” — questions which are fundamental, questions which are really significant. You could ask anything else, and Buddha was always ready to answer. But don’t ask the fundamental, because the fundamental can only be experienced. And truth is the most fundamental; the very substance of existence is what truth is.

. Go into the question. The question is significant, it is arising in your heart: “What is truth?” — a desire to know that which is, is arising. Don’t push it aside, go into it. Chidvilas, whenever it happens again, close your eyes, go into the question. Let the question become very, very focussed — “What… is… truth?” Let there arise a great concentration. Forget everything, as if your whole life depends on this simple question, “What is truth?” Let it become a matter of life and death. And don’t try to answer it, because you don’t know the answer.

. Existence is Beginningless andEndless

. Scientists say that "nothing is added in existence, and nothing deleted."

. Not a single atom has been added, cannot be added. From where can you bring it… when we talk about the total, from where can you bring a single atom? Or if you want to destroy a single atom, how can you destroy it? Where can you push it? Science says that nothing can be destroyed and nothing can be created. The totality remains the same, but the parts change. A tree is destroyed, a body is dead; a flower is coming up, a tree is alive.

. Things come up, things go down; things are born, things die.

. But the totality remains as it is.

. A tree dies because a tree is a part. When it dies it goes back down to the total, but the total remains the same. This sutra says: I suffer not destruction, neither have I birth…. How can the total be born? This point also must be looked at deeply.

. All the religions have tried to think how the world came into being. Where is the beginning? Christianity says that before Jesus Christ, four thousand years back, the world came into being, suddenly, in a week. In six days God created the world, and on the seventh day he relaxed. That’s why the seventh day is a holiday. In six days he created the world – on a particular date. This is absurd, because this total cannot come out of nothing. And even if the world came into being, God was before it. So there was a world of a certain kind. God was there, so existence was there.

. Hindus say "this is beginningless and endless; existence is beginningless and endless."

. So worlds may be created and worlds may be destroyed, but existence continues. The Hindu mind says that one world is created and another is being destroyed simultaneously. A star is born and another star is dying. Our earth is just now old, and soon it will die. Whatsoever we do, the earth is going to die; now it is old. Many things will happen which will help it to die: the population explosion will help, atomic research will help, pollution will help, chaotic trend, revolutions, rebellions will help; everything will help this earth to die.

. Man going to the moon is a very symbolic act. Whenever some planet dies, life tries to go somewhere else. It happens only then, never before. Whenever some planet is going to die, life begins to try to go somewhere else, to be replanted somewhere else.

. Still scientists are not able to find out from where life came to this earth; there seems to be no reason how it can come up suddenly. It must have come from somewhere else. It is possible that some old earth dying, some ancient planet dying, and its sun…. Even one man and one woman transplanted to this earth would create the whole thing. It may have been Adam and Eve coming from some other planet which was dying; and two are enough to create millions.

. It is felt deeply that this earth is going to die soon; that is why there is so much search to go beyond this earth – to the moon, to Mars, or to somewhere, somewhere to find a home again. Life is just going to die here. Neither politicians can help us, not pacifists. This earth is going to die.

. Everything born is bound to die some time. And for the earth, one thousand, two thousand years are nothing. So it may continue, but it is just on the verge. Every symptom shows that it is just on the verge. So one earth may be born, another may die.

. One world may be born. When I say world, I don’t mean total, because there are many, many worlds. Our world consists of the solar system: this sun and the family of this sun. We don’t know. Out there are other worlds; there are many universes. We are totally unaware of them. Every day a new star is born and every day a star is dying, disappearing. But the whole remains, and the whole remains the same. It is neither born, nor is there any possibility of its being dead. It is beginningless and endless.”

. I want you to understand this ...

. No Philosopher has ever been able to know the truth.

. All the philosophers have been thinking about the truth.

. But, thinking about the truth is an impossibility.

. Either you know it, or you don't.

. Religion comes first, morality is only a by-product. If you make the by-product into the goal of human character, you will create such a troubled, miserable humanity – and for such a good cause. You are bringing the cart before the bullocks – neither the bullocks can move, nor the cart can move; both are stuck.

. How can a man be truthful if he does not know what truth is? How can a man be honest if he does not know even who he is? How can a man be compassionate if he does not know the source of love within himself? From where will he get the compassion? All that he can do in the name of morality is to become a hypocrite, a pretender. And there is nothing more ugly than to be a hypocrite. He can pretend, he can try hard, but everything will remain superficial and skin-deep. Just scratch him a little bit, and you will find all the animal instincts fully alive, ready to take revenge whenever they can get the opportunity.

. Putting morality before religion is one of the greatest crimes that religions have committed against humanity.

. The very idea brings a repressed human being. And a repressed human being is sick, psychologically split, constantly in a fight with himself, trying to do things which he does not want to do.

. Morality should be very relaxed and easy – just like your shadow; you don’t have to drag it with you, it simply comes on its own. But this has not happened; what has happened is a psychologically sick humanity. Everybody is tense, because whatever you are doing there is a conflict about whether it is right or wrong. Your nature goes in one direction; your conditioning goes just in the opposite direction, and a house divided cannot stand for long. So everybody is somehow pulling himself together; otherwise the danger is always there, just by your side, of having a nervous breakdown.

. I do not teach morality at all. Morality should come on its own accord. I teach you directly the experience of your own being. As you become more and more silent, serene, calm and quiet, as you start understanding you own consciousness, as your inner being becomes more and more centered, your actions will reflect morality. It will not be something that you decide to do; it will be something as natural as roses on a rose bush. It is not that the rose bush is doing great austerities, and fasting, and praying to God, and disciplining itself according to the Ten Commandments; the rose bush is doing nothing. The rose bush has just to be healthy, nourished, and the flowers will come in their own time, with great beauty, effortlessly.

. A morality that comes with effort is immoral. A morality that comes without effort is the only morality there is.

. That’s why I don’t talk about morality at all, because it is morality that has created so many problems for humanity – about everything. They have given you ready-made ideas about what is right, what is wrong. In life, ready-made ideas don’t work, because life goes on changing, just like a river – taking new turns, moving into new territories… from the mountains to the valleys, from the valleys to the plains, from the plains to the ocean.

. Heraclitus is right when he says, “You cannot step in the same river twice,” because it is always flowing. The second time you step in, it is different water. I agree with Heraclitus so much that I say unto you, you cannot step in the same river even once – because when your feet are touching its surface, the water underneath is flowing; as your feet are going deeper, the water on the surface is flowing; and by the time you have touched the bottom, so much water has gone… it is not the same water, that your step can not be said to be entering into the same river.

. Life is just like the river – a flux. And you are all carrying fixed dogmas. You always find yourself unfit, because if you follow your dogmas, you have to go against life; if you follow life, you have to go against your dogmas.

. Hence my whole effort is to make your morality spontaneous. You should be conscious and alert, and respond to every situation with absolute consciousness. Then whatever you do is right. It is not a question of actions being right or wrong, it is a question of consciousness – whether you are doing it consciously or unconsciously like a robot.

. My whole philosophy is based on growing your consciousness higher, deeper, to the point when there is no unconsciousness inside you; you have become a pillar of light. In this light, in this clarity, to do anything wrong becomes impossible. It is not that you have to avoid doing it; even if you want to do it, you cannot. And in this consciousness, whatsoever you do becomes a blessing.

. Your action out of consciousness is moral, out of unconsciousness is immoral… it may be the same action.

. I am reminded of an old story: A king was getting old, and he told his only son, who was going to succeed him, “Before I die you have to learn the art of morality, because a king has to be a model for everyone else in the kingdom; nothing should go wrong in your actions. So I am sending you today to my old master. I am old, he is even older than me, so don’t waste time. Learn everything intensely, totally, without wasting a single moment.”

. The prince went to the master and he was surprised – surprised by the fact that the master was a master of archery: “And what has archery to do with morality? Has my father gone senile?” But he had come to the mountains, so he thought, “It is better to see the old man at least once.”

. He went in. The old man was immensely beautiful and graceful, surrounded by an aura of silence and peace. He had been thinking he was going to meet a warrior, an archer, but here was a sage. He was getting even more puzzled. He asked the old man, “Are you the master archer?” He said, “You are right.”

. The prince said, “I have been sent by my father, the king, who is your disciple, to learn morality from you. I cannot see any connection at all between morality and archery.” The old man laughed and he said, “Soon you will see.”

. The prince said, “I am in a hurry. My father is old, and before he dies I want to fulfill his desire.” The master said, “Then get lost, because these things cannot be learned in a hurry. Patience, infinite patience is the very foundation of learning any art, whether it is archery or it is morality.”

. Looking at the old man’s eyes the prince remained, and he said, “When are my lessons going to start?” The old man said, “Just now they have started. Patience is your first lesson. And about the second lesson I should make you aware. The second lesson is that you will be cleaning the floors, cleaning in the garden, collecting the old leaves, throwing them out. Be very careful, because I may hit you with a wooden sword at any moment. Although it is wooden, it hits really hard. It has given many people fractures.”

. The prince said, “But I have come here to learn morality, not to get fractures!” The old man said, “That will come in its own time, this is only the beginning.” Puzzled, confused… but he knew his father, that if he went back empty-handed the old man would be really enraged. He had to learn. On both sides two mad, old people…. “And this man is trying to teach me morality by hitting me! But let us see what happens.”

. And the master started hitting him. He would be washing the floor, and suddenly a hit would come. He would be cleaning the path in the garden, and suddenly a hit would come. But he became surprised, within a week, that a certain intuition was arising in him. Even before the old man had approached him, he would jump out of his way. Whatever he was doing, some part of his consciousness was continuously alert the old man, where he was. And the old man used to walk so silently that it was almost impossible to remain conscious. But he started being conscious, because getting so many hits, his whole body was hurting.

. It continued for one month. But in one month he became so capable that the old man was no longer able to hit him. The old man said, “You are really the son of your father. He was also very keen, intense, and total in learning; it won’t take much time. Your first lesson is finished today, because for twenty-four hours I have been trying to hit you, but you have been found always alert, and saved yourself.

. “From tomorrow morning you will have to be more alert, because the wooden sword will be replaced by a real sword. The wooden sword at the most could have given you a fracture, but the real sword may even cut off your head. So more awareness will be needed.”

. But this one month had been of such great learning… he was never aware that inside him there was so much possibility of intuitive awareness. He was trained, well-trained intellectually, but he had no idea of any intuitiveness. And he was not afraid even of the real sword, because he said, “It is the same. If you cannot hit me with the wooden sword, you cannot hit me with the real sword either. It makes no difference to me.”

. For one month the old man was trying in every possible way to hit him with the real sword, and naturally the prince became more and more alert – had to become, there was no other alternative.

. And one complete month passed, and the old man could not even touch him. He was very happy, and he said, “I am immensely satisfied. Now the third lesson. Up to now I was hitting you only while you were awake. From this evening, remember that in the night when you are asleep I may hit you at any time. Again it will start with the wooden sword.”

. The prince became a little worried – awake it was one thing, but when you are asleep? But these two months had given him tremendous respect, trust in the old man and his art, and also a confidence about his own intuition. And he thought, “If he says it, then perhaps intuition never sleeps.”

. And that proved to be the truth. The body sleeps, the mind sleeps, but the intuition is always awake; its very nature is awareness, but we never look at it He had to look, he had to remain alert, even asleep.

. The old man started hitting him, and a few times he got really bad hits. But he was grateful, not angry, because after each hit he was becoming more and more alert, even in sleep – just like a small flame, something remained alive in him, alert and watchful. And just in one month he was again able to protect himself even in his sleep. As the old man would come close, very silently, making no noise, no footstep sounds, the young man would jump up out of his bed. He may have been fast asleep, but something remained awake.

. And in the next lesson the real sword in appeared his sleep. The next morning the old man said, “Now the last lesson – I will be hitting you with a real sword. And you know my sword, just a single hit and you are finished. You have to gather all your consciousness.” The young man was a little worried, a little afraid, because the game was becoming more and more dangerous.

. In the early morning sun the old man was reading a book, sitting under a tree in the rising sun, and the young man was gathering the old leaves from the garden. Suddenly a thought came to him, “This old man has been hitting me for months; it will be a great idea… I should try to hit him and see whether he is alert or not.”

. And he was just twenty or twenty-five feet away, when he was just thinking this in his mind – he had not done anything yet – and the old man said, “Boy, I am very old, and your teaching is not finished yet. Don’t have such ideas.” The prince could not believe it. He came and touched his feet, and said, “Forgive me, but I had not done anything, I was only thinking… just an idea.”

. The old man said, “When you become fully alert even the sound of your thoughts is heard. It is the question of awareness. You don’t have to do anything, you just think and I will know. And soon you will become capable of the same – just a little more patience .”

. And soon the day came when he started suddenly becoming aware that the old man was thinking of hitting him… for no reason. The old man was sitting reading his book, but the idea came so clearly that he went to the master, and said, “So you are going to hit me again? Just a few seconds before I heard the idea.” The master said, “You are right, I was just thinking to finish the page and come. Now there is no need for you to be here. I know your father is old and is waiting for you.”

. But the young man said, “What happened about morality?” The old man said, ”Forget all about it.

. A man who is so alert can only be moral. He cannot harm anybody, he cannot steal, he cannot be unkind, cruel; he will be naturally loving and compassionate. You forget all about morality!”

. This awareness is what I call religiousness. The prince went back. The father was waiting and waiting, and he said, “Have you learned the whole art of archery?” The young man said, ”You sent me to learn the art of morality. From where have you got the idea of archery?” The king said, ”I sent you to learn morality, archery was only a device.”

. There are many devices, many ways and methods of meditation to create awareness, to wake up your sleeping intuition. And once it is awake, then there is no need to tell you what is good, what is moral, what is bad, what is immoral; your awareness will be decisive on its own. And it will be spontaneous, fresh and young, and always to the point, because all principles become dead. And if you try to fit your life according to principles, you also become dead.

. That’s what has happened to Christians, to Hindus, to Mohammedans, to Jainas, to all the people around the world – they are living according to dead principles. And those dead principles don’t fit with the reality – they cannot fit. Only a spontaneous consciousness…. The difference is something like this: you have a photograph of yourself of the last year, or maybe of your childhood, and if you don’t know that it is your picture of your childhood, you may not even recognize it – because you have changed so much. That picture is dead, it is not growing; you are growing.

. Morality is like photographs. Religion is like a mirror. If a child is facing it, it reflects the child; if an old man is facing it, it reflects the old man. It is always spontaneous, in the moment, responding to reality. A conscious human being is just like a mirror – he reflects reality and responds accordingly. His response is moral.

. So I am changing the whole emphasis from action to awareness.

. And if more and more people can become aware, the world will be a totally different place. A man of awareness will not go to war. Although religious scriptures say that to sacrifice yourself for your nation, for your religion is virtuous, a man of consciousness cannot follow that dead idea. To him, the nation itself is an immoral idea, because it divides humanity – and war is certainly immoral. You may find good names, good words – sometimes it is religion, sometimes it is political ideology, sometimes it is Christianity, sometimes it is communism – good ideas, but the reality is turning human beings into butchers.

. You are killing people whom you have never even met. And you know perfectly well that just as you have left a wife behind, crying, who will be waiting for you, just as you have left your old mother and father back at home, hoping that their son comes back alive, just as you have left small children… the man you are killing has also a wife, has also children, has also an old father and mother. And he has done no harm to you; neither have you done any harm to him.

. If the world becomes a little more conscious, soldiers will throw away their arms and hug each other, sit down together under a tree and gossip. The politicians cannot force all the armies to kill, to murder. Neither can the popes, the religious leaders convince anybody that for God’s sake you have to kill. Strange… because God has created everybody. Whomsoever you are killing, you are killing God’s creation. If it is true that God created the world, then there should be no war – it is one family; there should be no nations.

. These are immoral things: the nations, the religions, anything that discriminates against people and creates conflict.

. A man of awareness will not be greedy, because he will be able to see that his greed will create poverty; and the people who will be starving and dying through poverty are his brothers and sisters. It does not matter whether they live in Ethiopia or in India; it does not matter whether their skin is white or black.

. Authentic morality is a by-product of consciousness. And the art of consciousness is religion. There is no Hindu religion, there is no Christian religion, there is no Mohammedan religion; there is only one religion, and that is the religion of consciousness – becoming so aware, so enlightened and awakened, that you have eyes to see clearly and can respond according to that clarity.

. A man of consciousness cannot be deceived by words. Mohammedans say that if you die in a religious war… how can there be a religious war? War is basically irreligious. But Christians, Mohammedans, and all other religions say that if you die in a religious war, your reward will be great in the other world. For this immoral act of killing people, you will be rewarded. But beautiful words “religious war”, cover it up.

. A man of awareness sees deeply and penetratingly through your words. Neither your God can deceive him, nor your holy books can deceive him, nor your nations, nor your politicians. He lives according to his consciousness. He has an individuality, a very crystal clear individuality – a pure mirror, unclouded by anything, with no dust covering it.

. Why wouldn't they enjoy ... ?

. I want you to understand this ...

. Religion is dead. It has really lived too long, it should have been dead long ago. It has not done any good to humanity, it has done immense harm. It has divided humanity. It has given different groups of people the idea that “You are the real people of God,” that “You are special; other human beings are second class.” It has fulfilled the egos of Jews, of Christians, of Hindus, of Mohammedans – of everybody. It has created so many wars. It has killed millions of people, burned thousands of people alive, and all in the name of God. For your own sake you are being burned alive!

. Religion is one of the most criminal phenomena that have existed in the world. It is time that we declare it dead.

. But remember, every death is a beginning of something new; every death is not an end. On the one side it looks as if something has ended, but on the other side something fresh starts growing. The death of religion becomes the beginning of religio.

. The word “religion” comes from religio. Religio has a beauty of its own, which is lost in “religion.” Religio means an existential, an experiential phenomenon. The very word means coming to a point where you are one – one with yourself, one with existence. Religion which comes from the same root does not have that meaning. It, on the contrary, makes you split. Making you one is not its work; its work is to make you schizophrenic, to put you into a split state, to put you against your own body, to put you against your own sex, to put you against yourself; to divide you into parts, fragments, and create an inner conflict in you.

. All religious people are continuously fighting with themselves, because their biology says to do something, and their holy scripture says to do just the opposite. Their own being wants to grow in one way, but the priests direct them into some other way.

. Every religion has been trying to make you somebody else. No religion has allowed you to be just yourself. They are all afraid of your being just yourself; then their function is lost. Their function is to create conflict in you, to make you miserable, suffering, in anguish. Then naturally you have to seek help.

. They create the disease, and then they start praying for you to be forgiven. They are the criminals, and they are asking for you to be forgiven. And whom are they asking? There is nobody.

. So it is really a great exploitation by the priesthood of all the religions. They have destroyed every individual. They have made you Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, but they have not allowed you to become just an individual, a human being. You were born not as a Christian, you were born not as a Buddhist; you were born just as a human being. They have destroyed your innocence; they have misdirected your life. They have molded you into something which you cannot become; it is not your potential.

. This is not religio. Religio is accepting you in your totality, making you whole, healthy. And that opens the door to become one with existence. You are part of it; every moment you are part of it. You are breathing existence in and out every moment – you are eating it, you are living it in every possible way. No man is an island, we are all part of an infinite continent; that’s what I am calling existence.

. Religio will relax you. Religio will give you, for the first time, the dignity of being a human being, and the vastness of being part of the whole existence.

. Religion is dead, religio is born.

. Religion is something like marriage: unnatural, arbitrary, artificial, created by social convenience.

. Religio is like love: natural, simple. No law is involved in it; no society, no culture dominates it.

. Love is a law unto itself, and love gives you something that is immensely precious. You start feeling needed. You are not superficial, you are not just accidental; you are needed, you are fulfilling some essential need. Love gives you the first glimpse that existence wants you the way you are. There is no need to become Jesus Christ or Gautam Buddha. Nature does not like carbon copies. Existence likes originals. You, in your originality, are acceptable.

. But a Christian is a carbon copy; he is trying to become Jesus Christ, and in two thousand years not a single Christian has succeeded. In twenty-five centuries not a single Buddhist has succeeded in becoming Gautam Buddha. Is it not proof enough? You can go even further backwards. In five thousand years, no Hindu has succeeded in becoming a Krishna. It is simply impossible. Nature never repeats.

. They say history repeats itself – because history is not nature. History belongs to carbon copies, retarded people; naturally it repeats itself. They don’t know what else to do, so they go on doing the same thing again.

. Nature is very inventive. It does not create even two persons equal, even similar. There are four billion people on the earth today, but you cannot find two persons who are exactly alike. Even twins are not exactly alike. They may appear to be, but their mother knows who is who; their wives know who is who. There are differences – very subtle. Outsiders may be puzzled, but those who know them closely can see the differences in their individuality – in their gestures, in their way of speaking, in their way of thinking, in their way of walking – in small things. But the differences are bound to be there.

. Religion has tried a very futile experiment, and almost destroyed humanity for thousands of years.

. The death of religion releases you from becoming somebody else. Now you can enjoy being yourself.

. We can call our commune, religio – a mystery school, a way of searching for one’s own spiritual being, a way of discovering one’s original face. Nobody has to become anybody else.

. And you are asking me, “God is dead, religion is dead, then what is left now?”

. In fact, those were the hindrances, which are removed, and everything that is essential is available now. Now you can be yourself without any guilt. Now you can be simply a human being without belonging to any organized religion. The moment truth becomes organized, it becomes untrue.

. I am reminded of a beautiful ancient story. A newly-recruited devil came running to the master devil, huffing and puffing, and said, “Something has to be done immediately! One man on the earth has just found the truth! And if he spreads it, what are we going to do? Our whole business is finished! He has to be prevented.”

. The old man laughed. He said, “You are a new recruit; you don’t know – my people are already there.”

. The young devil said, “Your people?”

. He said, “Yes, my people. The priests are already around the man, and they are organizing whatever he has found. That is my way of destroying truth, and it has never failed; for centuries I have been doing that. The priests – all the priests – are in my service! They don’t know it, but the moment truth is organized, it dies.”

. Why does truth die when it is organized? It dies because it is an individual experience. Can you organize love? Nobody has ever thought about it; otherwise it would have died. You cannot organize love. Love is something that transpires between two individuals. It does not need any priest, it does not need any book of instructions.

. When I was studying in the university I used to have a roommate – he was a little bit of an idiot, just the same as people are all over the world.

. He asked me, “Everybody talks about the fact that he has fallen in love, and some girl has fallen in love with him. It seems we are the only two persons in this whole university…. About you there is no problem, because you don’t want anything to do with any love, any woman, because you think they will be a distraction in your search. I don’t know what you are searching for, but I am at a loss. I want to fall in love. But how to fall in love? I have been to the university library looking for a book, HOW TO FALL IN LOVE; there is not a single book on the subject. And I cannot ask anybody else, because they will simply laugh. If everybody knows how to fall, then why don’t I?”

. I said, “You don’t be worried, I will teach you. You just choose the girl that you would like to fall in love with.”

. He said, “I chose her two years ago, but how to start? The moment she enters, I become so nervous in the classroom, I forget all about love. I forget even what the teacher is saying.”

. I said, “Don’t be worried. I will write a love letter for you. You simply post it to the girl and wait for the answer.”

. I knew the girl; she was one of the most beautiful girls in the university. She had been interested in me, but I had told her, “Right now, I am involved too much in my own work, in my meditations, and I don’t think you have patience enough to wait. But if you can wait, then I can promise you one thing: the day I become enlightened I will be ready. But not before that.”

. She said, “Enlightened? My God! How long will I have to wait?”

. I said, “Nobody knows. I may become enlightened in this life, I may become enlightened in another life. Nothing can be said, it is unpredictable. So the best is, for the time being you choose somebody else.”

. But she was persistent. So I approached her and said, “Just do me a favor.”

. She said, “Have you become enlightened?”

. I said, “No, not yet. But one of my friends is in a difficulty. He wants to fall in love, but he does not know how to fall in love. So you will receive a letter from him. Don’t discourage him – write him a beautiful letter.”

. She said, “This is tricky. Then I will be stuck with that boy – and I know your roommate, I don’t want anything to do with him.”

. I said, “You need not be worried.”

. And she said, “How can I write a very loving letter to that idiot? I cannot!”

. I said, “Then I will write it.” So I was writing letters from both the sides. And the boy was so ecstatic!

. He could not believe that just with his writing a letter, love began.

. But then the girl fell in love with somebody else. She told me that she could not wait, her parents were forcing her: either she had to choose someone, or they would. “You are my choice, but your enlightenment is a strange thing,” she said. ”I have never heard of anybody making such a condition, that when they become enlightened, then they will think about other matters. I have to choose; otherwise they will choose. So I have chosen, unwillingly. I will remember you, but I am getting married.”

. I said, ‘You get married happily, and don’t feel that you are doing it unwillingly. I am responsible for making you sad, and for making you decide in favor of someone else. I like you, but as far as love is concerned, that involvement is possible only after my enlightenment, not before that!”

. She said, “Then what about your friend that you have been unnecessarily forcing upon me? He goes on writing every day. And you have made it such a mess that you go on writing in my name, and I have to post those letters. I read them and I say, ‘My God! That idiot!’ And you are praising him and telling him, ‘I will die without you, and I cannot live without you. You are my heart.’ What am I to say to that man?”

. I said, “You have simply to say that your parents are forcing you to get married.” And in India it is common, an arranged marriage. A love marriage is still not acceptable.

. So she told the idiot, “What can I do? I love you so much, but my parents have arranged my marriage. So now I will not be seeing you anymore, and you stop writing the letters.”

. He almost came to a nervous breakdown, crying, in tears. I asked, “What is the matter?” – I knew what was the matter!

. He said, “My love affair was going so smoothly. Every day a letter – I was writing, she was replying; everything was going so smoothly. And her father has disturbed everything. I will shoot that man!”

. I said, “That won’t help. You find another girl – there is no problem – and start writing letters again.”

. He said, “But I don’t know what to write.”

. So I said, “You do one thing. You go to the girl and ask for all the letters you have written to her.”

. He said, “What!”

. “You just tell her, ‘I need those letters, because I have not been writing them.’ And return her letters to her.”

. So he went to the girl and asked for his letters. But she said, “What will you do with those letters?”

. He said, “What will I do? Have I to live or not? You are getting married – I will have to write letters to somebody else. Now what is the point of writing the same letters again? I can use these letters. And here are your letters that you had written to me; perhaps you may need them sometime, because who loves one’s own husband? Who loves one’s own wife? You may need them.”

. The girl said, “You can have both the sets, because both are written by the same man.”

. He was very angry with me, but I said to him, “That is the function of a priest. I have not done anything unique; that is what the priests have been doing all through man’s history. They pray for you to God. They even bring answers from God to you – answers to your prayers. They make your prayer, they make the answers for your prayer. I have been just functioning like a priest – only the area was different; it was love, it was not God.”

. The priests have no function if there is no God. Then there is no prayer, then there is no holy book, then there is no ritual. The priest has nothing left. He wants an organized religion. He turns religio into its opposite and calls it religion.

. Religio is a freedom. Religion is a slavery. Dropping God, dropping religion, I have restored your freedom. Now you can be yourself without any fear. You can grow without copying anybody. You can just grow into your own unknown potential.

. You are asking, “What is left?” Everything becomes available; only blocks have been removed, hindrances have been removed. Now you can meditate. You cannot pray; prayer needs a God.

. Meditation needs no God. Prayer has divided humanity, because Christian prayer is different from Hindu prayer. Mohammedan prayer is different from Christian prayer. But meditation is the same.

. Here, this very moment… if you are all silent, it is the same silence.

. Silence cannot have any name, any label.

. And meditation is the ultimate growth of silence.

. Now you can be silent, you can grow deeper and deeper within yourself, searching for the center from where your life arises. The moment you discover that center, there is an explosion which is far more significant than any atomic explosion, far more luminous. The atomic explosion is destructive. The explosion that happens at your center gives you a tremendous energy to be creative.

. And it does not make you part of any organized cult, creed, dogma – no. It simply makes you a dignified individual, immensely blissful because you have found the greatest treasure in the world. There is nothing more to be found. In finding your center, you have found the very center of existence.

. You have found eternity.

. Now there is no death.

. And out of this experience arises lovingness, compassion, creativity. Even sitting silently, doing nothing, there will be a certain aura of bliss around you, a certain fragrance around you.

. You have come home.

. You're unique in the world, friend ... because ... You're an individual ..

. Individuality means your uniqueness - not compared with anybody else. Your incomparable uniqueness: that is individuality.

. Individuality is beautiful; thats how existence has made you, as an individual.

. Ego is comparison ... Ego is your invention ... But ...

. Existence has not given you any Ego ... It has certainly given you an individuality.