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The
first question: SOME OF THE TECHNIQUES IN THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE METHODS SEEM TO BE
END RESULTS AND NOT TECHNIQUES, SUCH AS THOSE THAT SAY TO "BECOME UNIVERSAL
CONSCIOUSNESS" OR "BE THIS ONE" ETC. IT SEEMS THAT WE NEED TECHNIQUES TO
ACHIEVE THESE TECHNIQUES. WERE TECHNIQUES LIKE THESE MEANT FOR VERY ADVANCED PERSONS WHO
COULD JUST BECOME COSMIC AT A MERE SUGGESTION?
Such techniques were meant, not for very advanced persons, but
for very innocent persons -- simple, innocent, trusting. Then just a suggestion is enough.
You have to have something to do because you cannot trust.You don't have faith. Unless you
do something, nothing can happen to you because you believe in action. If something
happens to you suddenly without any doing on your part, you will be scared and you will
not believe it. You may even bypass it; you may not even record in the mind that it
happened. Unless you DO, you cannot feel something happening to you -- this is the way of
the ego. But for an innocent person, for an innocent, open mind, just a suggestion is
enough. Why? Because really, the innermost being is not something to be achieved in the
future -- it is here and now, it is already the case. Whatsoever is to be attained is
here, present in you right this very moment. If you can trust without any effort, it can
become revealed. It is not a question of time, of you having to work it out. It is not
somewhere far away that you have to travel to. It is you. You may call it God, you may
call it nirvana or whatsoever you like -- it is you already. So even a suggestion , if
believed totally, can reveal it to you. That's why so much significance is given to
SHRADDHA, trust, faith. If a person can believe in the master, just a hint, a suggestion,
an indication -- and in a flash everything will be revealed.
The basic point to be understood is this: there are things which
you cannot attain right now because time will be needed to produce them. They are not with
you. If I give you a seed, it cannot immediately become a tree. Time will be needed, and
you will have to wait and work. Then the seed cannot become the tree immediately. But you
are really the tree already. It is not a seed which has to be worked, it is a tree hidden
in darkness, it is a tree which is covered, it is a tree which you are inattentive too --
that's all. Your inattention is the cover. You are not looking at it, that's all. You are
looking somewhere else and that's why you are missing it. In a trusting moment the master
can tell you, just by a suggestion, that it is here. And if you can believe, if you can
look in that dimension in trust, it will be revealed to you.
These techniques are not for advanced people; they are for
simple, innocent people. Advanced people are, in a way, difficult. They are not innocent,
they have been working, they have attained something, and they have a subtle ego behind
it. They know something so they are not innocent, they cannot believe. You will have to
argue and convince them -- and then too they will have to make some efforts. By an
innocent mind, I mean a mind which is not arguing. It is just like a small child. The
child goes with his father hand in hand, he is not afraid. Whatsoever the father is
leading, he must be leading in the right direction. The father knows -- so the child need
not worry about it. He is not thinking of the future, what is going to happen is not his
concern. He is enjoying the very journey; the end is not the problem at all. For the
father it may be a problem. He may be afraid. He may be wondering whether they have lost
the path or not, whether they are on the right path or not. But for the child it is not a
problem. He knows that the father knows. That's all. And wherever the father leads, he
will follow -- and he is happy at this very moment.
A trusting disciple, an innocent mind is just like a child -- and
the master is more than a father. Once the disciple surrenders, he trusts. Then at any
moment, when the master feels that the disciple is tuned, that the disciple is in harmony,
he will just give a hint.
I have
heard about a Zen master, Bokuju. He struggled hard to attain enlightenment, but nothing
happened. Really, with a hard struggle sometimes nothing will happen, because the hard
struggle is through the ego. And through hard struggle the ego becomes more hard. He did
whatsoever could be done but the goal was no nearer. Rather, on the contrary, it was
further away; further away than when he had started the journey. He was puzzled, confused,
so he came to his master. The master said, "For a few years just completely stop any
effort, any goal, any destination. Just forget, and live moment to moment near me. Don't
do anything. Simply eat, sleep, walk, and just be near me. And don't raise any question...
just see me, my presence. And don't make any effort because nothing is to be achieved.
Forget the achieving mind because the achieving mind is always in the future -- that's why
it goes on missing the present. Just forget that you have to achieve anything."
Bokuju believed in his master. He started living with him. For a
few days, a few months, ideas floated in, thoughts came, and sometimes he would become
uneasy and would think, "I am wasting time. I am not doing anything. How can it
happen without doing anything? If it couldn't happen through such hard effort, how is it
going to be easily attained by not doing anything?" But, still, he believed in the
master. By and by the mind slowed down, and in the present of his master he started to
feel a subtle calm flowing -- a silence would fall from the master onto him. He started
feeling a merging. Years passed. He completely forgot that he was. The master became the
center and he started to live like a shadow.
Then the miracle is possible -- this happening itself is the
miracle. One day, suddenly, the master called his name, "Bokuju, are you here?"
Just this, "Bokuju, are you here?" And he said, "Yes, master." And, it
is said, he became enlightened.
There was nothing like a technique, not even a suggestion --
just, "Bokuju, are you here?" The total presence had been called, "Are you
here, not moving anywhere, not gone somewhere else? With total intensity, are you present
here?" And Bokuju said, "Yes, master." In that "yes" he became
totally present there.
It is said that the master started laughing and Bokuju started
laughing, and the master said, "Now you can go. Now you can move out there and help
people by your presence." Bokuju never taught any method. He would simply ask this
much, "Just be near. Remain present." And whenever a disciple was in tune, he
would call the name of the disciple and ask, "Are you here?" This was the whole
technique.
But this technique will need a grounding of your mind, a deep
innocence. There are many techniques which are simple, the simplest possible: just a
saying, "Be this one" -- just a hint. But it must have been said by the master
in a certain moment. "Be this one" cannot always be said. It must have been said
in a certain tuning, when the disciple was totally one with the master, or totally with
the universe, merged. Then the master says, "Be this one" -- and suddenly the
focus will change and the last part of the ego will dissolve.
These methods worked in the past but now it is difficult, very
difficult, because you are so calculating, you are so clever. And being clever is just
against being innocent. You are so calculating, you know too much arithmetic. This
calculation goes on and on in the mind: whatsoever you do, it is always calculated,
planned. You are never innocent, never open, receptive; you believe too much in yourself.
Hence you go on missing. These methods won't be helpful for you unless you prepare. That
preparation can be very long, and you are very impatient.
This age is basically the most impatient age that has ever
happened on this earth. Everyone is impatient, everyone is too time-conscious, and
everyone wants to do everything immediately. Not that it cannot be done -- it can be done
immediately. But with such time-consciousness it is impossible. People come to me and they
say that they have come only for one day. The next day they are going to Sai Baba, and
after meeting him they will go to Rishikesh, and then they will go somewhere else. Then
they return frustrated and they think there is nothing India can give. It is not a
question of whether India can give something or not, the question is always whether you
can receive it or not. You are in such a hurry and you want something immediately. Just
like instant coffee, you think of instant meditation, instant nirvana. It is not possible.
Nirvana cannot be packed, cannot be made instant. Not that it is impossible to make it
instant, it can become instant -- but it can become instant only with the mind which is
not after the instant. That's the problem. It can become instant. Immediately, this
moment, it can happen. Not even a single moment is needed. But only to one who is relaxed
about time completely, to one who can wait for infinity -- for him it will happen
instantly.
This looks paradoxical but this is the case. If you can wait for
eternity, you will not need to wait at all. But if you cannot wait for even a single
moment, you will have to wait for eternity. You will have to wait because the mind which
says, "Let it happen immediately," is a mind which has already moved from the
moment. It is running, it is standing nowhere, it is just on the move. A mind which is on
the move, on the way, cannot be innocent.
You may not be aware of it but innocent people are always without
time-consciousness. Time lingers slowly. There is no hurry to go anywhere, they are not
running. They are enjoying moment to moment. They are chewing each moment. And each moment
has its own ecstasy to deliver. But you are in such a hurry that it cannot be delivered.
While you are here, your hands are in the future, your mind is in the future -- you will
miss this moment. And this will be always the case; you will always miss the now. And NOW
is the only time! The future is false, the past is just memory. The past is no more, the
future is yet to be -- and all that ever happens is the now. Now is the only time.
So if you can be prepared to slow down a little, to become
non-calculating, playing like children, here and now, then these simple techniques can
work miracles. But this century is too time-conscious. That's why you ask, IT SEEMS THAT
WE NEED TECHNIQUES TO ACHIEVE THESE TECHNIQUES. No. These are techniques, not end-results.
They look like end-results because you cannot conceive of how they can work. They can work
in particular mind; they cannot work in other types of mind. And really, those who know,
they say that all the techniques will ultimately bring you to the innocence where the
phenomenon happens. When the phenomenon happens, it will be because the techniques will
have brought you to that innocence -- if the innocence is there.
But it is difficult now because nowhere is innocence taught;
everywhere we are teaching cleverness. Universities are not to make you innocent, they are
to make you clever, cunning, calculating. The more clever you are, the better you will be
in the struggle of life. You can gain much wealth, prestige, power, if you are
calculating. If you are innocent, you will prove to be stupid; if you are innocent, then
you will be nowhere in this competitive world. This is the problem: in this competitive
world you may not be anywhere, but in that non-competitive world of nirvana, if you are
innocent, you will be somewhere. If you are calculating you will not be anywhere in the
world of nirvana, but in this world you will be somewhere. And we have chosen this world
to be our goal.
Old universities differed completely, their orientation was
totally different. Nalanda, Takshila -- they did not teach calculation, they did not teach
cleverness. They were teaching innocence. Their orientation was different from Oxford or
Kashi or Cambridge. Their orientation was totally different -- they were creating a
different type of mind. So it almost always happened that a person who studied in
Takshshila or Nalanda would become a BHIKKHU, a SANNYASIN, in the end. By the time he
graduated from university he would renounce this world. Those universities were
anti-world; they were preparing for some other dimension. They were preparing you for
something else which cannot be measured in terms of this world. These techniques were for
those type of people. Either they were innocent by their nature or they were training
themselves to be innocent.
When Jesus said to his followers, "If someone hits you on
one cheek, you give him the other," what is he intending to do? He is trying to make
you innocent. Only a foolish person would do this. When someone hits you on one cheek, a
calculating mind will say, "Hit him hard, immediately." And a really calculating
mind will say, "Before someone hits you, hit him. Because attack is the best
defense." Ask Machiavelli -- he is the cleverest mind. He says, "Before someone
attacks you, you attack him, because attack is the best defense. Once someone has attacked
you, you are already weak; he has already gained over you. Now the race is not equal. He
is ahead of you. So don't allow the enemy to go ahead. Attack before anybody attacks
you."
This is a calculating mind; this is a clever mind. Machiavelli
was read by every prince and every king in medieval Europe -- but he was such a clever
person that no king would employ him. He was read -- his book was the bible for
power-politics, every prince would read his book The Prince and they would follow it --
but no king was ready to employ him because he was such a clever man. It was better to
keep him away -- he was dangerous; he knew too much. He said, "Virtue is not good,
but pretending to be virtuous is. Don't be virtuous, but pretend always that you are
virtuous. That is the real good because then you gain from both the ends: from vice you
gain, and from virtue also." This is the calculating mind. Go on pretending that you
are virtuous, and always praise virtue. But never be really virtuous. Always praise virtue
so others know that you are a virtuous person. Always condemn vice -- but don't be afraid
to use it.
Jesus says, "When someone hits you on one cheek, give him
the other. And if someone takes your coat, snatches it, give him your shirt also. And if
someone forces you to carry his load for one mile, tell him that you are ready to carry it
for two miles." This is patent foolishness, but very meaningful. If you can do this,
these techniques will be for you. Jesus is preparing his disciples for sudden
enlightenment. Just think about it. If you can be so innocent, so trusting, that if the
other is hitting you, he must be hitting you for your good -- so give him the other cheek
also, and let him hit it. The other's goodness is believed in, trusted in; no one is your
enemy. When Jesus says, "Love your enemies," this is the meaning. No one is your
enemy; don't see the enemy anywhere. That doesn't mean that there will not be enemies and
there will not be people who will exploit you. There will be. They will exploit you. But
be exploited -- and don't be cunning. Just look at that dimension: be exploited but don't
be cunning. Be exploited but don't be mistrusting, don't disbelieve, don't lose faith.
That is more valuable than anything others can cheat you of. Nothing else is so valuable.
But how do our minds function? If one man deceives you, the whole
of humanity is evil. If one man is dishonest or you think that he is dishonest, then you
don't believe in man at all. Then the whole of humanity has become dishonest. If one Jew
is a miser, then the whole race of Jews is miserly. If one Mohammedan is bigoted, then all
Mohammedans are. Just one is enough for us to lose our faith in all. Jesus says,
"Even if all are dishonest, you should not lose faith, because faith is more valuable
than what these dishonest people can take from you by their dishonesty." So really,
if you lose faith you are losing something; otherwise nothing is lost.
For such innocent people these techniques are enough, they will
not ask for anything more. You say, and it happens to them. Just on hearing the master
many have become illumined -- but in the past, not in this age.
I have
heard a story about Rinzai. He was a very poor BHIKKHU, a poor SANNYASIN, a beggar. As he
was sleeping in his hut a thief entered. There was nothing in the hut except a blanket
that he himself was using. He was sleeping on the floor, covered with his blanket. Then he
became very uncomfortable and stared to think, "What an unfortunate fellow! He has
come so far from the village to find something, and there is nothing in my hut. What
misery! How to help him? The only thing is this blanket." And he was under it and the
thief would not have the courage to snatch the blanket, so he slipped out from under it,
left it there and slipped into a dark corner. The thief took the blanket and went away.
The night was very cold, but Rinzai was happy that the thief had not gone back
empty-handed.
Then he sat at the window of his hut. The night was cool, and the
full moon was in the sky. He wrote a small haiku, a small poem. In the haiku he said,
"If I could have given this moon to that thief, I would have." This mind! What
has he lost? Just a blanket. What has he gained? The whole world, all that can be gained.
He has gained innocence, trust, love.
For this man no technique is needed. His master would say,
"Just look. Be aware. Be alert." And that would do.
The second question.
HOW TO
DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE DICTATES OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND AND THAT OF THE INNER GUIDE?
HOW CAN ONE RECOGNIZE THAT THE INNER GUIDE HAS COME INTO FUNCTION?
The first thing: because of Freud, much misunderstanding has
arisen around the word "unconscious". Freud completely misunderstood it,
misinterpreted it. And he has become the very basis of modern knowledge about mind. To
Freud, unconscious meant simply the repressed conscious, the suppressed part of the
conscious. So all that is evil and bad, immoral, has been suppressed. Because the society
cannot allow it, it has to be suppressed within. For Freud, that repressed part is the
unconscious -- but not for mystics. Freud is not a mystic; he has not entered his own
unconscious. He has been simply observing cases of patients: ill people, abnormal people,
mad, insane, pathological. He has been studying the pathological mind, and through the
study of the pathological mind -- and that, too, from without -- he concluded that just
underneath the conscious there is an unconscious mind. That unconscious mind carries all
that has been suppressed from the childhood, all that society has condemned. The mind has
suppressed it, just to forget that it is there.
But it is there -- and it goes on functioning. And it is very
powerful: it goes on changing the conscious, it goes on playing tricks with the conscious.
The conscious is really impotent before it, because whatsoever is repressed is repressed
only because it is so powerful that society cannot cope with it. So society has been
repressing it and society doesn't know what else to do with it. For example, sex. It is so
powerful that if you don't repress it you won't know what to do with it. It will lead you
into dangerous paths. And it is such a forceful energy that the whole society will become
chaotic if it is allowed completely.No marriage could exist, no love could exist,
everything could be just a chaos if it was allowed total freedom -- because then man would
behave like an animal. If there were no marriage, no family, the whole society would be
destroyed. Society depends on the unity of the family; the family depends on marriage;
marriage depends on sex-suppression. Everything that is natural, forceful, has been
inhibited, tabooed -- so forcibly that you feel guilty about it and you go on fighting
with it. Society has not only created policemen outside, it has created inner policemen,
your conscience -- a double arrangement so that you don't go astray so that you cannot be
natural, you have to be unnatural.
Now modern psychologists say that insanity is part of
civilization -- no civilization can be without madness. But mad people are suffering
because you have forced such an order over them that their natural instincts are crushed.
They have been crippled. It may be that your madmen are more powerful than you, that's why
their inner instincts have revolted and they have thrown their conscience, their mind,
everything, overboard. That's why they are mad. A better concept of humanity, a better
organization, a better discipline with more knowledge and wisdom, may use them. They may
prove geniuses; they may prove very talented people. They are. But they have such a force
in them that they cannot repress themselves. And society will not allow them to move
because they are wild. Freud came to the conclusion that civilization needs the
unconscious, the repressed part.
But really, for Tantra and yoga this unconscious is not the
unconscious, it is just between the conscious and the unconscious, a small boundary. It is
subconscious. The conscious has forced something down, but the conscious knows about it.
It is not really unconscious, you know about it. You may not want to recognize it, you may
not want to be attentive to it, because you are afraid that if you give it attention it
will come up. You have forced it into darkness but you are conscious bout it. The Freudian
unconscious is not really unconscious, it is only subconscious. It is not dark night, it
is in the light, you can see it.
Tantra talks about the real unconscious which is not suppressed
by you but which is your deepest being. And your conscious is just one part of it which
has come into light, the one-tenth part which has seen the light, which has become
conscious. Nine parts, nine-tenths, are just hidden underneath. That unconscious is really
your source of life-energy, of being. Your conscious mind is one-tenth of the whole mind
and this conscious mind has created its own center: that center is the ego. This center is
false because it doesn't belong to the whole mind, it is not the center of the whole mind.
It is just a center of the conscious part, a fragment. The fragment has created its own
center and that center goes on pretending it is the center of the whole being. No, your
total mind has a center: that center is called the guide. That center is in the
unconscious and it will be revealed only when five fragments, or half of the mind, come
into light. Then the center which is the guide will be revealed. It is hidden in the
unconscious.
So you need not be afraid of the unconscious; it is the Freudian
unconscious you are afraid of. It is something to be afraid of. But this Freudian
unconscious can be thrown out in catharsis. Hence my great insistence on catharsis. This
Freudian unconscious can be thrown out in catharsis: whatsoever you wanted to do and you
have not done, do it, meditatively. Don't do it to anyone because that will create a chain
of events -- and you will not be in control. Just do it in a vacuum. If you are angry, do
it in a vacuum. If you feel sexuality, throw it into the sky. If you feel anything, just
allow it to move from your inwards outwards. Express it. A meditative catharsis will
relieve you of the Freudian unconscious. With the technique that I am teaching -- if it is
followed -- the Freudian unconscious will simply disappear. And only when this Freudian
unconscious disappears can you penetrate the real unconscious. It is just in-between,
between the conscious and the unconscious. You just go on throwing your rubbish things
into a room and you close it; you go on accumulating a junkyard -- Freudian unconscious is
just a junkyard. Don't throw it in -- I say, throw it out. When it moves in, you will
become pathological, you can go insane. When it moves out you will become fresh, young,
unburdened. For this age, catharsis is a must. No one can reach the inner guide without
catharsis. And once you are in deep catharsis you need not be afraid. Then the real
unconscious will start revealing itself; then it will penetrate into your conscious, and
then for the first time you will become aware of your vast territory. You are not such a
small fragment, you have a very vast being, and this vast being has a center -- that
center is the inner guide.
How to differentiate between the unconscious and the inner guide?
How to differentiate between the Freudian unconscious and the inner guide? It will be
difficult if you don't go through catharsis. But you can feel a difference by and by
because the Freudian unconscious is just a repressed thing. If something appears in you
with a violent force, know well that this violent force is coming because you have
repressed it in the first place. If something simply appears in you without any violence,
just bubbles up silently, easily, without any sounds, even soundlessly, then know that
this is the real unconscious. From the guide something is coming to you. But you will
become proficient only when you go through catharsis. Then you will know what is
happening. Whenever anything comes from the Freudian unconscious you will feel disturbed,
it will make you uneasy, uncomfortable; and whenever something comes from the guide you
will feel such serenity, you will feel so happy, so at ease, so at home, that you cannot
imagine it. You will simply feel that this is the thing. Your total being is in harmony
with it, there is no resistance. You know this is the right, this is the good, this is the
truth -- and nobody can convince you otherwise. With the Freudian unconscious you can
never be serene, you can never be still and calm; you will be disturbed. It is a sort of
disease that has come up -- and there will be a fight with it. So it is better if you pass
through deep catharsis, then the Freudian unconscious will become silent, by and by.
And just as bubbles come up from a riverbed, come up to the very
surface of the water, you will feel bubbles coming up from the very bed of your being.
They will come to your conscious mind. But their very coming will give you a deep
tranquility -- a feeling that nothing can be more right than this. But before it happens
you have to unburden yourself of the Freudian unconscious. And that can happen only if you
are in a let-go, because the innermost being is so nonviolent that it will not assert
itself. The Freudian unconscious will want to assert itself; every moment it is trying to
assert itself and you are pushing it back. This is the difference. It wants to assert
itself, it wants to become active, it wants to lead you somewhere, it wants to manipulate
you -- and you are resisting it, fighting it. The real unconscious, the guide, is not
assertive. If you allow it, if you invite it, prayerfully, it will come to you just like
an invited guest. You have to be in a let-go. Only then will it come. When it feels you
are ready, when it feels it will not be denied, rejected, when it feels it will be
welcomed, then it will come to you. So, you have to do two things: catharsis for the
Freudian unconscious, and training in let-go and surrender for the real guide, the real
unconscious. These two things done, you will know the difference.
The difference really cannot be taught to you -- you will know
it. When it happens, you will know it. How do you know the difference between when there
is pain in your body and when the whole body feels a well-being? When the whole body is
filled with well-being and when your head has a headache, how do you feel what the
difference is? You simply know it. You cannot define it, you simply know it: you know what
a headache is and you know what well-being is.
The real guide will always give you a feeling of well-being, and
the Freudian unconscious will always give you a feeling of headache. It is a turmoil, it
is an inner conflict, it is anguish, it is pain suppressed. So whenever it comes you will
feel painful all over.
Because of this Freudian unconscious, many things have become
painful which are not naturally painful For example, sex. Because society has repressed
sex, it has become painful. One of the most blissful things in natural life is sex. But it
has become painful. If you move into sex you will feel frustrated, you will feel guilty,
at the end you will feel weakened. And you will decide never to have sex again. This is
not because of natural sex, this is because of the unconscious. Sex has become painful. It
has been so repressed that it has become ugly and painful Otherwise it is one of the most
natural ecstasies. If a child is never taught that sex is bad and a sin he will enjoy it,
and every time he will feel a deep well-being flowing all over the body.
Men feel more well-being than women -- because women are
repressed more. No one requires that a boy should be a virgin but everyone requires, even
the boy himself, that the girl he is going to marry should be a virgin. Even playboys
require that the girl should be a virgin. Women's unconscious has been repressed ore than
men's, that's why only a few women achieve orgasm. And that, too, in the West -- in the
east not more than five per cent of women, at the most, achieve any enjoyment in sex.
Ninety-five percent are simply fed up with it. That's why when sadhus and monks teach that
sex is sin, women always agree. They gather in multitudes around monks because the thing
appeals to them, it is right. Because they are so suppressed they have never known any
bliss out of it. In India, while making love, woman are not supposed to move, be active.
They have to lie still like a corpse. If they are active their man will become suspicious:
they are enjoying sex and this is not the sign of a good woman. A good woman is one who
doesn't enjoy. In the East they will say that if you want to marry, marry a good woman,
and if you want to enjoy, then have a friendship with a bad woman -- because only bad
women can enjoy. This is unfortunate. The woman is not supposed to move, to be active, she
should be just dead. How can she achieve orgasm when the energy is not moving?
And if she cannot enjoy it she is bound to be against the husband
and she is bound to think that the husband is evil. Every day Indian women come to me and
they say that they are fed up with sex and their husbands are forcing them again and again
to have sex. They don't like it, they are disgusted. And why are the husbands not so
disgusted? Why are the women disgusted? The reason is that they have a greater repressed
unconscious about sex than men.
Sex will become painful. If you have suppressed it, it is a
headache. Anything can become a headache -- just suppress it, that is the trick. It will
become a suffering. And anything can become blissful -- just express it, don't suppress
it.
This Freudian unconscious is all that you know right now. You
don't know about the real unconscious, the Tantra unconscious -- that's why you are
afraid. And afraid, you cannot let go. Afraid, you cannot lose control. You know that if
you lose control, immediately the suppressed instincts will take over. Immediately,
whatsoever you have repressed will come to the mind and it will insist on being acted out.
That's why you are afraid. Catharsis is needed first so the fear goes. And then you can
let go. And if you let go, a very silent force will start flowing to your conscious mind
and you will feel a well-being, you will feel that you are at home, you will feel that
everything is good, you will feel that you are blessed.
HOW CAN ONE RECOGNIZE THAT THE INNER GUIDE HAS COME INTO
FUNCTION? This will be the first sign: you will start feeling good, good about yourself.
Remember, you always feel bad about yourself. I almost never come across a person who
feels good about himself. Everyone is condemning himself, everyone thinks he is bad. And
when you think you are bad how do you suppose that someone else is going to love you? And
when no one loves you, you feel frustrated. But you yourself don't love you. You have
never touched your hand lovingly, you have never felt your body lovingly, you have never
thanked God that he has given you such a beautiful body, such a beautiful organism. No,
you just feel disgusted. And the religions, the so-called religions have taught you to
feel condemned -- this body is a bag of sins. You are carrying a burden.
When the unconscious is released you will feel suddenly that you
are accepted, you are not bad. Nothing is bad. The whole of life becomes deep down a
blessing. You feel blessed. And the moment you feel blessed, all others around you become
blessed; you can bless them, you can feel happy. Because you feel condemned, you feel bad
about yourself and you think the same about others. How can you love another's body if you
condemn your own body? If you are against your own body, how can you love another body?
You will condemn -- deep down you will condemn. Really, religions have prepared you to
become just ghosts. They don't want you to be with the body, they want you to be just
unembodied spirits. Everything has been so condemned..and you have taken it for granted. I
have seen in scriptures, in many scriptures, that it written that your body has nothing
but blood, fat, phlegm -- just to condemn it. I don't know what these persons who were
writing these scriptures wanted. Did they want gold to be there? Why is blood bad? Blood
is life! But they have condemned it and we have accepted the condemnation. They must be
mad, insane.
Jains always say that their TEERTHANKARAS never urinated, they
don't defecate. Such bad things. But why is urine bad? What do you want to urinate instead
of urine? And what is bad in it? But it is such a bad thing. And psychologists say that
because the sex center and the urinating organ are the same in man, sex has become
condemned. And in woman the sex center is just in the middle, on one side defecation and
on the other side urination, sex cannot be good if it is between two such bad things. The
condemnation of sex has come because we have condemned defecation. But why? Why condemn
it? What is bad? But we accept condemnation and when we accept, then there are problems.
Your whole body is condemned by neurotic people. They may have
written scriptures but that doesn't make any difference. They may have been great leaders
-- neurotics almost always are. They are great leaders because they are so fanatic that
they can immediately get a following. And there are always people who worship fanaticism.
Anyone who says something strongly will have people falling at his feet saying he is the
right leader. and he may be just neurotic, just mad. These neurotic people have condemned
you and you have accepted them, you have been conditioned by them.
When the unconscious flows in you, a subtle well-being will come.
You will feel good: everything is good, and everything is Divine. Your body comes from the
Divine, your blood also, your urine also. Everything is Divine. When the unconscious flows
in you, everything is Divine, everything becomes spiritual. Nothing is bd, nothing is
condemned. This will be the feeling, and then you will fly. You will become so light you
cannot walk. Then nothing is a burden on your head. Then you can enjoy small things in a
very great way. Then every trivial things becomes a beauty. But that beauty is given by
you -- whatsoever you touch becomes golden because deep down you are so filled with bliss.
This will be the first thing that will happen to you -- a
goodness about yourself. And, when the unconscious starts flowing into your conscious, the
second thing will be that you will become less world-oriented, less intellectual, more
total. Then if you are happy you will not just simply say that you are happy -- you will
dance. Just saying, "I am happy," is pale, meaningless. I see people who say,
"I am happy" -- but just look at their faces! I know people who say, "I
love you," but their body is not expressing anything. Words are dead but we have
substituted them for life. When the unconscious flows in you, this will be the difference:
you will live with your total being. When you feel happy, you will dance. Then you will
not simply say, "I am happy"-you will be happy: that's the difference. You will
not say, "I am happy" -- there is no need to say it because you will be happy.
Then there will be no need to say to someone, "I love you" -- you will be love.
Your whole being will show the feeling, you will vibrate with love. Anybody passing nearby
will feel that you love; anyone just touched by your hand will feel a subtle energy has
entered into him. There is a warmth in your presence, a happiness.
This will be the second thing. First, you will feel a goodness
about yourself and about everything; and second, you will become total. When the guide
takes you, you will be total.
The third question:
WHEN THAT INTUITION STARTS FUNCTIONING, IS SURRENDER THE ONLY TECHNIQUE
FOR THAT INTUITION, OR THE INNER GUIDE? DOES A PERSON LIVING THROUGH INTUITION ALWAYS
SUCCEED? HOW DO YOU VALUE SUCCESS AND FAILURE? IS IT NOT TRUE THAT THE PERSON LIVING
INTUITIVELY WILL BECOME WEAK INTELLECTUALLY?
Surrender is the only technique for the inner being to become
active.
DOES A PERSON LIVING THROUGH INTUITION ALWAYS SUCCEED? No, but he
is always happy -- whether he succeeds or not. And a person not living intuitively is
always unhappy whether he succeeds or not. Success is not the criterion because success
depends on many things. Happiness is the criterion because happiness depends only on you.
You may not succeed because others are competitors there. Even if you are working
intuitively, others may be working more cunningly, more cleverly, more calculatingly, more
violently, more immorally. So success depends on many other things; success is a social
phenomenon. You may not succeed.
Who can say that Jesus succeeded? Crucifixion is not a success,
it is the greatest failure. A man crucified when he was just thirty-three -- what type of
success is this? No one knew about him. Just a few villagers, uneducated people, were his
disciples. He had no position, no prestige, no power. What type of success is this?
Crucifixion cannot be said to be a success. But he was happy. He was totally blissful --
even when being crucified. And those who were crucifying him would remain alive for many
years but they would remain in misery. So really, who was undergoing crucifixion? That is
the point. Those who crucified Jesus, were they undergoing crucifixion? Or was Jesus, who
was crucified? He was happy. How can you crucify happiness? He was ecstatic. How can you
crucify ecstasy? You can kill the body but you cannot kill the soul. Those who crucified
him, they lived, but their life was nothing but a long slow crucifixion -- misery and
misery and misery.
So the first thing is that I don't say that if you follow the
inner guide you will always succeed -- in the sense that the world recognizes success; but
in the sense that a Buddha or a Jesus recognizes success, you will succeed. But that
success is measured by your happiness, your bliss -- whatsoever happens is irrelevant, you
will be happy. Whether the world says that you have been a failure, or the world makes you
a star, a success, it doesn't make any difference. You will be happy whatsoever the case;
you will be blissful. Bliss is success to me. If you can understand that bliss is success,
then I say you will succeed always.
But to you bliss is not success; success is something else. It
may even be misery. Even if you know that it is going to be a misery, you long for
success. Ask political leaders -- they are in misery. I have not seen any political leader
who is happy. They are just miserable, but still they are trying for higher posts, trying
to get still higher on the ladder. And those who are already above him are in misery, and
he knows it. But we are ready to be miserable if success comes to us. So what is success
to us? Success is egoistic fulfillment, not bliss. It is just so that people will say that
you have succeeded. You may have lost everything -- you may have lost your soul; you may
have lost all that innocence that gives bliss; you may have lost all that peace, silence,
that brings you nearer to the Divine; you may have lost all, and become just a madman --
but the world will say you are a success.
For the world, ego gratification is the success; for me it is
not. For me, to be blissful is success -- whether anyone knows about you or not. It is
irrelevant whether anyone knows about you or not, whether you live totally unknown,
unheard of, unnoticed. But if you are blissful, you have succeeded.
So remember this distinction because there are many people who
would like to be intuitive, who would like to find the inner guide, just to succeed in the
world. For them the inner guide will be a frustration. In the first place, they cannot
find it. In the second place, even if they can find it, they will be miserable. Because
what they are aiming at is recognition by the world, ego fulfillment -- not bliss.
Be clear in the mind -- don't be success-oriented. Success is the
greatest failure in the world. So don't try to succeed otherwise you will be a failure.
Think of being blissful. Every moment think of being more and more blissful. Then the
whole world may say you are a failure but you will not be a failure. You have attained.
Buddha was a failure in the eyes of his friends, family, wife,
father, teachers, society -- he was a failure. He had become just a beggar. What type of
success is this? He could have been a great emperor: he had the qualities, he had the
personality, he had the mind. He could have been a great emperor but he became a beggar.
He was a failure -- obviously. But I say to you he was not a failure. If he had become an
emperor then he would have been a failure because he would have missed the real life. What
he attained under the Bodhi Tree was the real and what he lost was unreal.
With the real you will succeed in the inner life; with the
unreal... I don't know. If you want to succeed in the unreal then follow the path of those
who are working in cunningness, cleverness, competition, jealousy, violence. Follow their
path, the inner guide is not for you. If you want to gain something of the world, then
don't listen to the inner guide.
But ultimately you will feel that although you have won the whole
world, you have lost yourself. Jesus says, "And what does a man get if he loses his
soul and gains the whole world?" Who will you call a success: Alexander the Great or
Jesus the Crucified? So if -- and that `if' has to be understood well -- if you are
interested in the world, then the inner guide is not a guide for you. If you are
interested in the inner dimension of being then the inner guide, and only the inner guide,
can help. |
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