ARHATA and BODHISATTVA

HINAYANA and MAHAYANA

You might have heard about these words when you are in 3^rd standard a small child in the History book. Let us recap it.

First, the teachings of Gautam Buddha have created two kinds of seekers: one is called ARHATA and the other is called BODHISATTVA. 

The arhata is someone who makes every effort to become enlightened and once he is enlightened he completely forgets about those who are still groping in the dark. He has no concern with others. It is enough for him to become enlightened. 

Why should you be interested that somebody else becomes enlightened? It is none of your business. Everybody has absolute freedom to be himself. The arhata insists on individuality and its absolute freedom. Even for the sake of good, nobody can be allowed to interfere in anybody else's life. 

Hence the moment he becomes enlightened, the arhata does not accept disciples, he never preaches, he never helps in any way. He simply lives in his ecstasy. If somebody on his own can drink out of his well he will not prevent him, but he will not send an invitation to you. If you come to him on your own accord and sit by his side and drink his presence, and get on the path, that is your business. If you go astray, he will not stop you. 

In a certain way this is the greatest respect ever paid to individual freedom -- to the very logical extreme. Even if you are falling into deep darkness, the arhata will silently wait. The very idea of compassion is foreign to the philosophy of the arhatas. 

And their path will be called HINAYANA, "the small vehicle," the small boat in which only one person can go to the other shore. He does not bother to create a big ship and collect a crowd in a Noah's Ark and take them to the further shore. 

There are people called bodhisattvas. They provoke and invite others to the same experience. And they wait on this shore as long as possible to help all seekers who are ready to move on the path, and who just need a guide; they need a helping hand. The bodhisattva can postpone his going to the further shore out of compassion for blind people groping in darkness. 

And there are bodhisattvas who can tell the boatman, "Wait, there is no hurry. I have lingered on this shore long enough -- in misery, in suffering, in anguish, in agony. Now all that has disappeared. I am in absolute bliss, silence and peace, and I don't see that there is anything more on the other shore. So as long as I can manage, I will be here to help people." 

But bodhisattvas call their path -- against the path of the arhatas -- MAHAYANA, "the great vehicle," the great ship. The other is just a small boat.

THE TECHNIQUE OF ALL TECHNIQUES

Witnessing is the technique for centering. A man can live in two ways: he can live from his periphery or he can live from his center. The periphery belongs to the ego and the center belongs to the being. If you live from the ego, you are always related with the other. The periphery is related with the other.

Whatsoever you do is not an action, it is always a reaction. You do it in response to something done to you. From the periphery there is no action – everything is a reaction; nothing comes from your center. In a way, you are just a slave of the circumstances. You are not doing anything; rather, you are being forced to do. From the center the situation changes diametrically: from the center you begin to act. For the first time you begin to exist not as a relata but in your own right.

And you don’t have any center. The moment you have a center then you have a distance from yourself, you have a distance from your periphery. Someone can abuse the periphery, but not you. You can remain aloof, detached. There is a distance between you and yourself. Between you as your periphery and you as the center there is a distance, and that distance cannot be broken by anyone else – because no one can penetrate to the center. The outside world can touch you only as the periphery. 

Understand clearly the distinction between reaction and action. You love someone because someone loves you. Buddha also loves you – not because you love him; that is irrelevant. Whether you love him or hate him is irrelevant. He loves you because it is an act, not a reaction. The act comes from you, and the reaction is forced upon you. Centering means now you have begun to act. 

Another point to be remembered: when you act, the act is always total. When you react, it can never be total. It is always partial, fragmentary, because when I act from my periphery – that is, when I react – it cannot be total because I am not involved in it really. Only my periphery is involved, so it cannot be total.

So if you love from your periphery, your love can never be total – it is always partial. And that means much, because if love is partial then the remaining space will be filled by hate. If your kindness is partial, the remaining space will be filled by cruelty. If your goodness is partial, then who will fill the remaining space? If your God is partial, then you will need a Devil to fill the remaining space.

That means a partial act is bound to be contradictory, in conflict with itself. Modern psychology says you both love and you hate simultaneously. Amphibian is your mind – contradictory. To the same object you are related with love and with hate. And if love and hate are both there, then there is going to be a confusion – and a poisonous confusion. Your kindness is mixed with cruelty. and your charity is theft, and your prayer becomes a violence. And even if you try to be a saint, on the periphery, your sainthood is bound to be tinged with sin. On the periphery, everything is going to be self-contradictory.

Only when you act from the center is your act total. And when that act is total, it has a beauty of its own. When the act is total, it is moment-to-moment. When the act is total, you don’t carry the memory – you need not! When the act is partial, it is a suspended thing.

A total act has a beginning and an end. It is atomic; it is not a series. It is there, and then it is not there. You are completely free from it to move into the unknown. Otherwise one goes on in grooves, the mind becomes just groovy. You go on moving in the same circular way, in a vicious circle. You go on continuously in it.

The moment you begin to act from the center, every act is total, atomic. It is there and then it is not there. You are completely free from it. Then you can move with no burden, unburdened. And only then can you live in the new moment that is always there – by coming to it fresh.

But you can come to it fresh only when there is no past to be carried. And you will have to carry the past if it is unfinished. The mind has a tendency to finish everything. If it is unfinished, then it has to be carried. If something has remained unfinished during the day, then you will dream about it in the night – because the mind has a tendency to finish everything. The moment it is finished, the mind is unburdened from it. Unless it is finished. the mind is bound to come to it again and again.

Whatsoever you are doing – your love, your sex, your friendship, your job, your work – everything is unfinished. And you cannot make it total if you remain on the periphery. So how to be centered in oneself? How to attain this centering so that you are not on the periphery? Witnessing is the technique.

This word ”witnessing” is a most significant word. There are hundreds of techniques to achieve centering, but witnessing is bound to be a part, a basic part, in every technique. Whatsoever the technique may be, witnessing will be the essential part in it. So it will be better to call it ”the technique of all techniques”. It is not simply a technique. The process of witnessing is the essential part of all the techniques.

PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION

Consciousness can go either out or in; these are the two ways available for consciousness. When consciousness goes out, it thinks above the object, the other, the thou. When consciousness tomes in, thinking disappears -- because there is no other, no object. It falls into subjectivity.

When consciousness goes out, philosophy is erected. Philosophy is thinking about objects. Philosophy is extra version. When consciousness goes in, it forgets all about objects, it starts enjoying the being of subjectivity, of inferiority. You are simply there enjoying the very fact of being alive, the very fact of being conscious. No object is these, you are pure subjectivity. No thought is there, you are pure consciousness.

Extra version is philosophy, introversion is psychology and transcendence of both is religion. Buddha uses two words. For the outside he uses DHATU, the object. Philosophy is concerned with the object. It forgets the observer, it remembers the observed. The arrow is pointed towards the without, DHATU, the object. And for the inner journey Buddha uses the word CHITTA, subjectivity. When you are moving inwards psychology is created, when you are moving outwards philosophy is created.

And science is a growth of philosophy. But the modern psychology, the so-called psychology, is not psychology in the sense that Buddha uses the word 'psychology' because the modern psychology again goes on thinking ABOUT mind, in an objective way. It uses the philosophical method. Hence it misses the point. That is the difference between modern psychology and the real psychology.

Gurdjieff used to say that the real psychology has yet to be born. What does he mean by real psychology? Is Sigmund Freud not a real psychologist? Is Carl Gustav Jung not a real psychologist? Is Adler not a real psychologist?

No, they all think in the objective way. Their psychologies are nothing but philosophies. They think about mind; the mind is taken as an object. They think about the mind from the outside. They watch. They observe. They analyze. They dissect. But the observer remains outside; the observer thinks.

Gurdjieff says that the real psychology has yet to be born. In a sense he is right, in a sense he is not. If we think about Freud, Jung, Adler and company then he is right, but if we think about Patanjali, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Hui Neng, then he is wrong. The real psychology has existed for millennia. The real psychology has existed for so long that we have forgotten about it. The new, the so-called psychology is very immature. It is a very late arrival just one hundred years old. It is very childish.

The real psychology is the psychology of the Buddhas. The real psychology is to go inside your being -- not to watch how rats behave, not to watch how others behave, not  to go on looking outside, but to go inside with closed eyes, deep, meditatively, alert, fully alert, watching what happens inside. Go on dropping from the outside into your inside, into your inferiority. Go on forgetting the world of objects, then the world of thoughts, then the world of feelings -- go on dropping out, go on dropping out. A moment comes when your consciousness is there without any content.

To know this consciousness is to know what real psychology is -- the psychology of the Buddhas. And you ask: What is religion? The division between the 'out' and 'in' is still a division, so the 'in' is also not very much 'in',it is part of the 'out', it is another aspect of the same coin.

On one side is written 'out', on another 'in'. So philosophy and psychology are two aspects of the same coin: one is extroversion, another is introversion.

What is religion? Religion is to throw away the whole coin itself. No more going out, no more going in, no more 'going' at all. When going disappears, when the pilgrimage has ended, then you simply are -- neither as an object nor as a subject. Then there is no knower and the known, then there is no observer and the observed -- then there is oneness, an oceanic feeling of oneness. Then you are in the rose, then you are in the  trees, then you are in the rocks, then you are in people. You are everywhere. You permeate the whole existence. This is religion.

Philosophy is going out, psychology is going in, religion is not going anywhere at all. All journeys have been dropped, there is no identification with anything, in or out. This transcendence is what religion is. To another way.... To you ask Zen people they have their way of saying it. They say philosophy is that, psychology is this and religion is just suchness, TATHATA. That is an object; this is subjectivity; thusness, suchness, TATHATA, existence, isness, In Japaneese it is called KONOMAMA, or SONOMAMA, just isness with no demarking line, with no label attached to it, with no identity, just pure being -- is religion.

So first move from that to this, then move from this to such. TATHATA IS the ultimate word of Zen people. One who has attained to TATHATA is called TATHAGATA. That's why TATHAGATA IS one of the names of Buddha -- one who has attained to suchness.

And when you are freed of this and that, you are freedom itself.

Personality Vs Individuality

Is It really worth putting any energy into improving my personality?

NO... The personality has to be dropped so that your individuality can be discovered. The personality is not you; it is a mask people have put over you. It is not your authentic reality, it is not your original face. And you are asking, “Is it really worth putting any energy into improving my personality?”

Put your energy into destroying your personality. Put your energy into discovering your individuality. And make the distinction very clear: individuality is that which you have brought from your very birth. Individuality is your essential being, and personality is what the society has made of you, what they wanted to make of you.

My whole teaching is, don’t cling to personality. It is not yours, and it is never going to be yours. Allow your nature full freedom. And respect yourself, be proud of being yourself, whatever you are. Have some dignity! Don’t be destroyed by the dead.

Personality is a dead thing. Drop it! — in a single blow, not in fragments, not slowly, today a little bit and then tomorrow a little bit, because life is short and tomorrow is not certain. The false is false. Discard it totally! Every real human being has to be a rebel… rebel against whom? — against his own personality.

Respect man, love man. Respect his individuality, respect his differences. And that is possible only if you respect your individuality. That is possible only if you are grounded in your own being and you are unafraid.

The disappearance of your person is not your disappearance, remember; on the contrary, it is your appearance. As your person disappears, your personality falls away; your individuality, your individual arises. To have a personality is hypocrisy. To be an individual is your birthright.

The Japanese-American was a long-time customer at this Greek restaurant, because he had discovered that they made specially tasty fried rice. Each evening he would come in the restaurant, and he would order “FLIED LICE” This always caused the Greek restaurant owner to nearly roll on the floor with laughter. Sometimes he would have two or three friends stand nearby just to hear the Japanese customer order his “flied lice.”

Eventually the customer’s pride was so hurt that he took a special diction lesson just to be able to say “fried rice” correctly. The next time he went to the restaurant he said very plainly, “Fried rice, please.”

Unable to believe his ears, the Greek restaurant owner said, “Sir, would you repeat that?”

The Japanese-American replied, “You heard what I said, you flucking Gleek!”

How long can you go on pretending? The reality is going to come up some day or other, and it is better that it comes sooner.

SINCERITY vs SERIOUSNESS

YES.. Love, trust, beauty, sincerity, truthfulness, authenticity -- these are all feminine qualities, and they are far greater than any qualities that man has.

But the whole past has been dominated by man and his qualities. Naturally in war, love is of no use, truth is of no use, beauty is of no use, aesthetic sensibility is no use. In war, you need a heart which is more stony than stones. In war, you need simply hate, anger, a madness to destroy.

In three thousand years, man has fought five thousand wars. Yes, this is also strength but not worthy of human beings. This is strength derived from our animal inheritance.

There is no need to feel yourself weak because of your feminine qualities. You should feel grateful to existence that what man has to earn, you have been given by nature as a gift.

Man has to learn how to love. Man has to learn how to let the heart be the master and the mind be just an obedient servant. Man has to learn these things. The woman brings these things with her, but we condemn all these qualities as weaknesses. Even if you have chosen women as great individuals, you can see what you have chosen – you have chosen a man.

Because, you have chosen the qualities of man that were in the woman. For example, Joan of Arc had all the qualities of man. The Queen of Jhansi in India had all the qualities of man: she could fight with a naked sword, could kill people without any problem. Such women have been chosen in history and great tribute is paid to them by the historians. And they don’t represent women. In fact, that is the reason why they have been chosen, because they are just carbon copies of men.

Rejoice in your feminine qualities, that is your great inheritance from nature. Don’t throw it away, because the man does not have them.

Tips for Witnessing

Witnessing is an art which can transform our life. Witnessing can transform the energy of our emotions into their highest form. But for most people it is not easier to witness feelings and emotions. Here I am sharing few tips for witnessing strong feelings or traumas.

1) First of all we should not run away from negative emotions or moods. Most of us try to escape from sadness, anger or loneliness. Once we start facing sadness, anger or lust with ease then only we can even think of witnessing them. So the basic step is to be comfortable with them and get used to them, know them or start facing them but don't avoid them.

2) When we start facing negative emotions then we will be taken over by them. E.g. in sadness we will become sad. In the beginning it is bound to happen but slowly we should create a space or distance between mood and us. E.g. Sadness is there but we are not sad. Instead we are watching the sadness. This thing can happen easily if we have become good in witnessing thoughts. Emotion is a cluster of thoughts, so if we could not witness thoughts then how can we witness Emotions.

3) Another important thing is that we don't need to run away from any feeling or we don't need to do something about the feeling. Let the emotion be there and but we should also be there. So the situation is that there are two currents flowing in us. One is the current of an intense emotion and second is the current of awareness watching the emotions.

4) If sadness is there and we have become sad then it simply means that there is no watcher of the sadness. We have become identified with the sadness. So we can take it as a thumb rule that if we have become sad, angry or jealous then we are not witnessing, So immediately start witnessing again and create a distance between the emotion and the watcher.

5) We are always in a hurry and we tend to react to any emotion. But in reality we don't need to do anything with any emotion, except that we allow it to be there and watch it with passivity. We have to watch the emotion and nothing else. If we have the attitude of transforming or somehow getting rid of the emotion then possibly we could not watch the emotion. Our job is just to witness and nothing more.

6) Stillness - This is one of most important and most neglected area. Stillness or relaxation or ease in watching the emotions. If we are not still then possibly we can never watch any strong emotions. Strong emotions always makes us feverish or excited and stillness brings us closer to our inner center. A Meditator should pay importance to stillness not only while meditating but in day to day living. There are many occasions in the day when we lose our cool. On those occasions remember to be still and calm with awareness.

7) It is easier to witness an emotion in the beginning rather than when it has taken the shape of a monster. So practice witnessing all the time and whenever we see any emotion arising then start witnessing its high tide and low tide.

8) Most of time we only want to get rid of negative emotions but we tend to enjoy positive emotions. We need to watch both. No choosing of emotions. If one has to witness emotions then one to witness all type of emotions. We can either drop the mind completely or not. We cannot choose one side of coin. If we choose head then tail will also come some times. Either keep the coin or drop it.

THE FRIEND ASKS (1)

The friend asks if mind (MANA), intellect (BUDDHI) mind stuff (CHITTA) and ego (ahankara) are separate entities or they are different names for the same thing. He also wants to know if they are different from the atman or the soul, or they are one with it, and whether they are conscious or unconscious. He also wants to know what is conscious and what is  unconscious, and their specific places in life.

The first thing is that in this world matter and consciousness are not two separate things. What we call matter is consciousness asleep and what we know as consciousness is matter awakened.

In reality matter and mind are not different; they are different manifestations of the same thing. Existence is one, and that one is God or brahman or whatsoever you want to call it. When that one is asleep it appears as matter, and when awake it is mind, or consciousness. So don’t treat matter and mind as separate entities; they are only utilitarian terms. They are not really different.

Even science has come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as matter. As science goes deeper and deeper into matter it finds that matter is no more and only energy remains, only energy is. What remains after the explosion or splitting of the atom is only particles of energy. And what we know as electrons, protons and neutrons are particles of electricity.

In fact, it is not correct to call them particles, because particles connote matter. The scientists had to find a new word, which is quanta, which has a different connotation altogether. Quanta is both a particle and a wave. It is difficult to comprehend how a thing could be both a particle and a wave simultaneously, but quanta is both. Sometimes it behaves as a particle – which is matter; and sometimes it behaves as a wave – which is energy. Wave and energy are behaviors of the same quanta.

When science dug deep it found that only energy is, and when spirituality delved deep it found that only spirit or atman or soul is. And soul is energy. The time is just around the corner when a synthesis of science and religion will be achieved, and the distance that separates them will simply disappear. When the gap between matter and God has proved to be false, the gap between science and religion cannot exist for long. If matter and mind are not two, how can religion and science be two? The separation of science and religion was dependent on the separation of matter and mind.

To me, only one is; two simply don’t exist. There is no place for duality; so the question of matter and mind does not arise. If you like the language of matter, you can say that everything is matter. And if you like the language of mind or consciousness, you can say that everything is consciousness. I for one prefer the language of consciousness. But why do I prefer it?

Because, in my view, one should always prefer the language of the higher, which has greater possibility; one should not prefer the language of the lower, where possibility is less and less.

We can, for instance, say that only the seed is, and not the tree. And it is not wrong to say so, be cause the tree is only a transformation of the seed. But there is a danger involved in this statement. The danger is that some seeds may say, ”If we are seeds all the way up, then why seek to become trees? We will remain as we are; we will remain seeds. ” So it is better if we say that only trees are, and not seeds. Then the possibility for the seed to become a tree remains. I prefer the language of consciousness, so that what is asleep can awaken, this possibility should be available.

There is a similarity between the materialist and the spiritualist; both of them accept only one – either matter or mind. But there is a difference too. While the materialist accepts the primary thing and is thus deprived of the ultimate, the spiritualist accepts the ultimate which includes the primary in it. It is all inclusive; it does not exclude. I love the language of spirituality; and therefore I say that everything is consciousness. Consciousness asleep is matter, and  consciousness awakened is consciousness. All is consciousness.

The second thing the friend wants to know is whether mind, intellect, mind stuff, and ego – mana, buddhi, chitta and ahankara – are separate entities or they are one. They are not separate entities, they are many faces of the same mind. It is like you ask whether the father, the son and the husband are separate individuals – and I say no, he is one and the same man. We know that the same person is a father in relation to his son, a son in relation to his father, and a husband in relation to his wife. But the fact is that the same person is playing different roles in relation to different persons.

Our mind behaves in many ways. When it feels arrogant and says, ”I am everything and  others are nothing before me,” then mind appears as ego. That is one way of mind’s behavior. It is ego when it says, ”I am everything.” When it declares, ”Everyone is just zero before me,” then mind is ego.

And when the mind thinks, cogitates, it is intellect. But when it does not think or cogitate, when it simply moves about, rambles without any sense of direction, when it is unfocused, it is called mind stuff, or chitta.

Intellect is mind with a direction, as is the mind of a scientist sitting in his lab and thinking how to split the atom. When the mind moves about with out any purpose and aim, when it kind of dreams and daydreams, when it thinks of becoming a billionaire or the president of a country, when it is unfocused, then it is chitta or mind stuff. Then it is just waving and wavering, it is incoherent and unorganized. And when it follows a well laid system of thought it is intellect.

These are the many ways of the mind. But it is all mind. And the friend also wants to know if mind, intellect, mind stuff and ego are separate from the soul or the atman.

Do you think that when there is a storm in an ocean the ocean and the storm are separate? When the ocean is agitated and disturbed, we call it a storm. Similarly when the soul is agitated and disturbed, when it is restless, it is called mind. And when the mind is quiet it is again soul. Mind is the restless state of the soul, and soul is the quiet and tranquil state of the mind.

In other words, when consciousness is disturbed and agitated, when it is stirred and tempestuous, it is mind. That is why so long as you are in mind you can not be aware of the atman, or the soul. And for the same reason the mind ceases to be when it is in meditation. But what does it mean to cease? It means that the waves raging in the sea of the soul have quieted down. It is only then that you know you are a soul. So long as you are disturbed and restless, you know your self only as a mind.

The restless mind appears in many forms – some times as ego, sometimes as intellect and

sometimes as mind stuff. These are the different faces of the same restless mind.

The atman and mind are not separate. The atman and the body too are not separate; because the substance, the essence, the reality is one, and all these are transformations of the same. And if you know the one, all conflicts with the body or the mind, all strife comes to an end. Once you recognize the one, then it alone remains. Then the one abides in Rama as well as in Ravana. Then you will not worship Rama and kill Ravana. Then you will either worship both or kill both; because the same dwells in both – Rama and Ravana.

Essence is one, its expressions are infinite. Truth is one, its forms are many. Existence is one; its faces and gestures are myriad.

But you cannot understand it if you approach it as a philosophy. You can understand it only if you approach it experientially, if you know it as an experience. All this I say just to explain it to you; this explanation cannot become your knowing, your experience. You will have to know it for yourself. And when you will enter into one and know it you will exclaim, ”My God, what I had known as body is you; what I had known as mind is you, and what I had known as atman is also you!”

Earnestness, sincerity, authenticity

Earnestness, sincerity, authenticity — these are the foundations. They are not different things but different aspects of the same phenomenon. One has to be utterly truthful about oneself. One need not hide, only cowards hide. The courageous person remains as he is, naked. He is ready to accept whatsoever the consequences, but he is not ready to compromise his truth. This is the only way to become an individual; this is the only way to have integrity.

The world teaches people to be pseudo, to be compromising. The world makes people deceptive, false. All your so-called morality, character, respectability, is nothing but an effort to create a facade so you can hide your reality, you can hide and you can go on showing a false face to the world. Whatsoever is expected from you, you can show it to the world. But a man who hides his reality and shows his falseness to the world becomes split, he becomes two. In fact he becomes many, because in each situation he has to use a different face.

You can’t use the same face with your wife that you use with your girlfriend. You can’t use the same face with the boss that you use with your servant. You have to carry many faces so that whatsoever the requirement of the situation, you wear a mask. Slowly slowly it becomes automatic. You need not change; they change of their own accord. To be in such a state means to be miserable, mad, divided in thousands of pieces. Life will be a chaos and a misery and a hell.

But one can drop the facade; one can drop all the masks. That’s what my approach is: to be true, to be your original face. And then suddenly you start feeling a kind of strength which was never there before, because you start becoming one. All your fragments start melting into each other and they create a centre, they create integrity, they create individuality. Then one is earnest, sincere and authentic.

And that’s what religion is all about. Religion has nothing to do with God or heaven or hell and all kinds of theories and philosophies. The basic concern of religion is truth. And one has to live it, only then can one know it, there is no other way. It is not a belief, it has to be your own existential experience. You have to experience it in the innermost core of your very being. And that liberates. That brings freedom to you, bliss to you, benediction to you.

VALMIK AND NARADA

You have done all kinds of actions, good and bad. You have been right and wrong, you have seen all the days and all the nights of your life, you have been to the temples and you have made crimes -- but your being remains undefiled, just as the ocean. You are so vast... these small things don't matter at all in the last reckoning.

Hence I say to you, never judge anybody by any small action that he has done. Somebody has stolen, somebody has murdered, somebody has lied -- these are small actions. Don't judge the man and his whole life on the basis of a small action.

And remember the ultimate truth -- that whatever you do, your innermost core remains undefiled. There is no way to pollute your being, to corrupt your soul. Within a second... if you become aware of your inner being, you will be surprised: "I was condemned by everybody, I was condemning myself, but my real being has remained untouched. It is always virgin, always pure."

I would like to share with you a beautiful story. There was a man, thousands of years before. His name was Valmik; his profession was robbery. And if needed, he had no hesitation in killing people. If they resisted giving him their money, their valuable things, he had no hesitation for a single moment to kill them. He was a strong man.

At that time he was not known as Valmik, he was known as Valya Bhil -- the bhils are aboriginal, primitive tribes. And who would call Valya Bhil "Valmik"? -- because Valmik means the same, but becomes respectable. He was a robber and a murderer, and everybody knew it. It was very rare that people would pass through the forest where he lived. The road had almost become unusable, because whoever passed that way was going to be robbed or killed.

A musician, a poet, and a very beautiful man, Narada, who always, even while moving, continued to play on a very simple musical instrument -- and remember, the more simple the instrument the more difficult it is to create great music out of it. He used to carry a simple instrument, an ektara -- a one-stringed sitar. It is easy when there are many strings to create music, because you can create different notes on different strings. The ektara has only one string -- that is the meaning of ektara. Ek means one; tara means string. It has become almost the symbol of Narada. You will not find a statue or a painting of him without his ektara. He was a master musician, and a great poet -- and perhaps the only man in India who knew the hilariousness of existence, who used to laugh....

When he was leaving, people told him: "Don't go -- otherwise you will lose your ektara. That Valya does not care who you are, and if you try to save your ektara you will lose your head. Better is to follow another route, although that route is a little longer."

Narada said, "If I had not known I might have gone by the other route, but now it is a challenge, between Valya and Narada. I would love to see this man, who has made you all cowards, so afraid. Just a single man, and the whole traffic on the road has disappeared. Must be a lion, living in the forest... and thousands of people used to pass on this road. Now nobody goes there; the road is closed -- not for repair!"

Narada went, because he trusted in music more than in the murderousness of a man. What kind of music it is that cannot transform the murderous animal instinct in a man?

Valya heard the music -- it was enchanting, it had a magic. And when he saw Narada alone -- with no weapons, with no possessions, just one ektara ... the man was even more beautiful than his music. It has to be so, because the creator of anything is always greater than his creation; the creation cannot be greater than the creator. For the first time Valya felt hesitant, indecisive whether to let this beautiful man pass. But to make an exception would not be right -- this was his fame, that nobody could pass on that road without being robbed or killed.

So he warned the great musician and seer: "I pray to you, go back. If you don't go back I will have to take your possessions, whatever they are. If you resist you may lose your life. And I don't want to do anything with you -- neither do I want to take your instrument nor do I want to deprive you of life. And don't say later on that I did not warn you."

But Narada went on playing on his ektara. And rather than going on the road he came and sat by the side of Valya, who was sharpening his sword. Narada said, "You are a beautiful man; but why do you do such a thing?"

He said, "What else can I do? I don't have any education; I am an untouchable, the lowest and most condemned class of the Hindus. I cannot go to a temple, I cannot go in the city -- but I have to look after my wife, my old mother, my father, my children."

Narada said, "If that is the case, I would like to go to your home and ask everybody -- you are committing things which are inhuman. Who is going to be punished for them? You are committing all those things for your old mother and father -- ask them, `Will you share my punishment too?' Ask your wife, ask your children: `Whatever I am doing I am doing for you -- are you going to share my punishment?"'

Valya laughed, and he said, "You seem to be very clever and cunning! I will go home and you will disappear. Nobody can cheat Valya."

Narada said, "There is no question of cheating. You can tie me with a rope to a tree -- and you know nobody comes here; I will wait. And whatever you want to do after, you can do. But first bring me the answer."

He had never thought about it. He went home. He asked his father, mother, his wife, his children -- nobody was ready to share the punishment. They said, "That is not our business. It is your responsibility to take care of your family; we are not concerned with how you are taking care. What you are doing is totally your responsibility."

It was a great shock. He could not believe that the parents he loved so much, the wife he loved so much... his own children, for whom he was committing all kinds of crimes... flatly refused: "It is your duty to take care of us. The question of sharing in your punishment does not arise."

He came back with tears in his eyes, untied Narada, touched his feet, and said, "Just by a single question you have transformed me. I don't have a family. If they cannot share my punishment they don't love me -- I was living in an illusion. They loved all the money that I was bringing to them, but when the question of punishment was raised not a single one answered that `I will share with you.' Now I don't have any family."

And he threw his sword away in the forest and asked Narada, "Initiate me so that one day I can also feel the same music and the same poetry and the same joy that I see on your face."

Narada said, "Much is not needed -- just the name of God. You have to start chanting the name of God, RAM."

Narada said, "This will do: sit silently and repeat, ram, ram, ram, so that all that goes on in your mind slowly slowly is replaced by Ram. And this is the beauty of it -- that once it has replaced everything, it also disappears. In the same way you light a candle... the flame is not possible without the candle but slowly slowly, first the flame will burn the candle, and once the candle is finished the flame will disappear automatically."

This is something very significant. So he said, "You do simple things. Don't get involved in any complex thing because you are a simple man, a courageous man. And after a few months I will be coming back to see what is happening. If some other help is needed I will always be available to you."

But he was uneducated, aboriginal, a primitive man -- uncivilized, uncultured. He started with trust -- because this kind of simple person is always trusting. He started repeating, RAM... RAM... RAM... RAM... And Narada had told him, "Go on repeating faster and faster -- don't leave any gap between two RAM'S."

The poor fellow got into trouble. If you repeat, "ram, ram, ram..." and he was uneducated, he had never heard the name. So he got mixed up; he started repeating "Mara, Mara, Mara..." ram means God, but if you repeat it, two Ram's join -- and the change is possible for an uneducated man. Mara means "dying, dying, dying..."

But in a way it is significant, the story. If you really want to achieve the state of godliness, the death of your ego is absolutely necessary. So although it was just a mistake, when after three months Narada came back, Valya was a transformed being. He was radiating light, pulsating the whole atmosphere with a new energy.

Even Narada felt defeated. His whole life he had been repeating, chanting, singing the name of God, playing on his musical instrument, but his gain had not been as much as Valya's. He was almost a light unto himself. Around him an aura of light... Narada could not call him valya again, because that would be disrespectful. He changed valya into Valmik, and told him, "You have done a miracle, because the same name I have been repeating for my whole life and just in three months you have left me far behind. It will take lives for me to catch hold of you."

He said, "I have not done anything except whatever you have told me. I have been repeating, `mara, mara, mara..."'

Narada said, "My god! I never told you that -- I told you ram.

He said, "I am an uneducated man, absolutely unaware of any religion or anything. My whole life has been just of robbery and murder. I forgot -- instead of ram the order changed; the M of ram came ahead of R. Forgive me."

Narada said, "There is no need to forgive you. You are so innocent: without any greed, without any desire to be rewarded in heaven, even repeating mara, mara, you are a new man. Don't be worried. You continue -- whatever you have been doing is right."

"But," he said, "how can it be? What about my acts of murder? Because I cannot count so I cannot say how many people I have murdered. What about my robberies?"

Narada said to him, "Forget it all. You have reached the ocean of your being. It is radiating all over; even a blind man may be able to see it or, at least feel it -- the joy, the fragrance. And don't think at all about what you have been doing. Those are small acts. Small rivers, muddy, dirty, have fallen into the ocean, and the ocean is never made dirty by these rivers. It remains undefiled."

You Know The Great Indian Epic RAMAYANA Was Written by the SAME VALMIK.

Gurdjieff 48 Exercises

First and last: self-observation and non-identification.

1.  The effort to realize: I have a body.

2.  The effort to realize that I descended into and become attached to this organism (this animal) for the purpose of developing it.

3.  The attempt to realize the organism's mechanicity:

    (a) Its habitual reaction to recurrent situations

    (b) The magnetic relationship of the centres

4.  Experiment of the part of the driver (intellect), in order that he may learn his business.

5.  The formatory apparatus reporting the behavior of the organism to the “I”.

6.  Formulation of observations concurrent with the act of observation.

7.  Formulation of the ideas.

8.  The attempt to understand the ideas.

9.  The attempt to relate the ideas and understand the relationships.

10. The attempt to define terms in accordance with institute ideas.

11. The attempt to interpret life, human beings, etc., in terms of mechanicality, types, springs, centers, etc.

12.Describe experience; reflect on the ideas

13. Triangulate, that is, have a three-fold purpose for each act.

14. Assemble all you know of a given object at the moment of perceiving it.

15. Constructive imagination:

    (a) Image the great octave.

    (b) Attempt to realize man's position in the universe.

16. Relate each object to its position in the scale. For instance a cigarette belongs to the vegetable kingdom (mi) of the organic scale. Trees belong to the vegetable kingdom. The gold of a watch to metals (do). Man (si). Etc. The whole natural kingdom is interposed between earth (mi) and planets (fa) of the great octave. Etc.

17.Attempt to realize the fact of six thousand million people.

18. Attempt to realize the fact of death.

19. Be aware of the weight of opinion.

20. Apply the law of the octave to one's own behavior. Attempt to know when any given impulse has reached 'mi'

21.  Peel the onion, that is, make notations of the various attitudes toward life, stripping off the superficial ones in an effort to reach the     fundamental attitude.

22. Note likes and dislikes. Find the essential wish.

23. Find the chief feature.

24. Make gratuitous efforts.

25. Cast a role for oneself.

26. Pursue an impossible task.

27. Go against inclination.

28. Push inclination beyond the limits of its natural desire.

29. If a man forces you to go one mile, go with him twain.

30. Determine what it is you really want in any given situation. Deliberately get it, or deliberately oppose the “I” to this wish. At any event, non-identify with the wish.

31. Practice mental gymnastics relative to time, space and motion.

32. Seek the concrete illustration and examples (in experience) of the ideas.

33. Try to perform, consciously, instructive, emotional, and intellectual work at the same time.

34. Try to keep in mind that at any given moment you are actualizing one of several possibles.

35. Try to keep in mind that when you talk these ideas to someone or to a group, human cells are at that moment instructing a group of monkey cells, within each brain.

36. Try to realise that man, oneself, is a cosmos. That this organism is the planet or globe of this “I”. That the organism contains cells corresponding to the categories of nature.

37. Try to become aware of the operations of the subcenters: the emotional and moving sub-centers of the intellectual, the intellectual and    instinctive of the emotional, the intellectual and emotional sub-centers of the instinctive.

38. Try to keep in mind and realize that we are constantly receiving influences from our entire universe.

39.Try to realize that this organism is, in reality, a mere bubble. That, in fact, the whole material or actualized universe is related the potential universe as shadows is to substance.

40. Give all five points the necessary activity.

41. The attempt to use the formatory apparatus as a muscle, directly and independent of sub-vocalizing (inner talk).

42.The attempt to repeat a poem and a series of numbers simultaneously, using formatory apparatus for the poem, the vocalizing apparatus for the numbers.

43. Unroll the film.

44. Evoke in pictures the object to which ideas are related.

45. Supply the base, the third force, the neutralizer, in all and every situation. That is, improvise.

46. Cast spells.

47. Try to practice conscious morality.

48. Try to think of the reasonable thing to do or say in any given situation. Each event is potentially a complete circle. But circumstances usually distort it or, at best, supply only a curve. If this much is supplied: (U) try to determine just what is reasonably necessary to complete it. Supply it,  thus: (Ü)