DYING AND MEDITATION

Once you know that you are doing to die within days, immediately this world--the money, the bank, the business, this and that--becomes useless. Now everything is no more than a dream, and you are already awakening.

Once someone learns that he is going to die within a certain time period-the person is already dead in a way, and he starts thinking about the future-then meditation is possible.

Once a person knows he is going to die, he will drop much rubbish of his own accord. Immediately his whole vision is transformed. If you have to leave tomorrow, you start packing your suitcases and you are no longer worried about this room in the hotel. In fact you are no longer here; you are managing your suitcases and things, and you are thinking about the journey.

The same happens to a person when you tell him that he is going to die, that death is certain and cannot be avoided and he should not go on fooling around; now the decisive moment has come and he has already wasted enough life.

Immediately the person turns his back on the world and starts peeking into the darkness of the future. At that moment, if you tell him about meditation he will be willing
to do it--and that can be one of the greatest gifts.

IRRESPONSIBILITY

When you start becoming responsible toward yourself, you start dropping your false faces. Others start feeling disturbed, because they have always had expectations and you were fulfilling those demands.

Now they feel that you are becoming irresponsible. When say that you are being irresponsible, they are simply saying that you are getting out from under their domination. You are becoming freer. To condemn what you are doing, they call it "irresponsible."

In fact, your freedom is growing. And you are becoming responsible, but responsibility means the ability to respond. It is not a duty that has to be fulfilled in the ordinary sense. It is responsiveness, a sensitivity. But the more sensitive you become, the more you will find that many people think that you are becoming irresponsible-and you have to accept that-because their interests, their investments, will not be satisfied. Many times you will not fulfill their expectations, but nobody is here to fulfill anybody else's expectations.

The basic responsibility is toward oneself. So a meditator first becomes very very selfish. But later on, when one has become more centered, rooted into one's own being, energy starts overflowing. But it is not a duty. It is not that one has to do it. One loves to do it; it is a sharing.

CONCENTRATION

Concentration follows interest; it is a shadow of interest.

If you feel that concentration is missing, nothing can be done directly about concentration; something will have to be done about interest.

For example, a child sitting in the school suddenly starts listening to birds chirping outside the window and completely concentrates on listening to that. The teacher shouts, "Concentrate!" and the child cannot concentrate on the blackboard, his mind returns again and again to the birds.  They are so joyful and he is really interested in them, so his concentration is there.

The teacher says, "Concentrate!" He is concentrating-in fact the teacher is distracting him from his concentration.

But the teacher wants his concentration for something for which he has no interest; that's why he finds it difficult to concentrate.
So always remember: If you feel that you go on forgetting things, that simply means that somewhere interest is missing, or you have some other interest.

Maybe you want to earn money out of it, your interest is in the money but not in the work then you will start for getting things.
So just watch your interest. And whatever you are doing, if you are doing it with deep interest, there is no need to worry about remembrance-it simply comes.

So just start taking more interest. Remain in the moment, take more interest in whatever you are doing.

And after two or three months you will see that the memory simply follows.

Great saying
But earning decrease if we do what we like
How to manage home and society  


It is very Simple.... Then Become more interested in earning. I mean enjoying any work as meditation; doing any work with deep love. If your job and you complete the work, it is creative. If you don't love your job then of course it is a chore, it is a duty to be done somehow, it is a burden. Then you would like some other time to be creative. If we really love our home and family we will go dancing to same office and earn more money for them.

But The Problem is BIGGER it is, whether the individual is merely the instrument of society or the end of society. Are you and I as individuals to be used, directed, educated, controlled, shaped to a certain pattern by society and government; or does society, the State, exist for the individual?

Is the individual the end of society; or is he merely a puppet to be taught, exploited, butchered as an instrument? That is the problem that is confronting most of us. That is the individual is a mere instrument of society, a plaything of influences to be molded; or whether society exists for the individual.

If the individual is merely an instrument of society, then society is much more important than the individual. If that is true, then we must give up individuality and work for society. But if society exists for the individual, then the function of society is not to make him conform to any pattern but to give him the feel, the urge of freedom.

The thinking up to now has been that the individual exists for the society, that the individual has to follow what the society dictates.

The individual has to fit with the society. That has become the definition of the normal human being--one who fits with the society.

Even if the society is insane, you have to fit with it; then you are normal.

Now the problem for the individual is that nature demands one thing, and society demands something contrary. If the society were demanding the same as nature demands, there would be no conflict. We would have remained in the Garden of Eden. The problem arises because society has its own interests, which are not necessarily in tune with the interests of the individual.

Society has its own investments, and the individual has to be sacrificed.

This is a very topsy-turvy world. It should be just the other way round. The individual does not exist for the society; the society exists for the individual. Because society is just an institution, it has no soul. The individual has the soul, is the conscious center.

The individual has totally different interests from the society, because the society has no soul. The society is soulless. And if you become too much a part of the society, it will reduce your soul also to a non-entity. Beware, before you have lost your whole opportunity. Don't be a slave. Follow society to the point you feel is needed, but always remain master of your own destiny.

BUT You and I have become imitative, we are copying, our education, our social structure, our so-called religious life, are all based on imitation; that is I have ceased to be a real individual; psychologically, I have become a mere repetitive machine with certain conditioned responses. Our responses are conditioned according to the pattern of society, whether it is eastern or western, religious or materialistic. 





Now there is a contradiction  need to concentrate on work what we like
But society and family require money
Money makes us to concentrate on work which we just do with out liking
As you say if we concentrate on earnings
Now it is like we asking kid to concentrate on class instead of bird sound
So now what should we do concentrate on earnings or what we like.? 

So now what should we do concentrate on earnings or what we like.?

To Be Straight, The MASTERS SAY... Do WHAT WE LIKE...

All the great masters in the world have been saying only one thing down the centuries, "Have your own mind and have your own individuality. Don't be a part of the crowd; don't be a wheel in the whole mechanism of a vast society. Be individual, on your own. Live life with your own eyes; listen to music with your own ears." But we are not doing anything with our own ears, with our own eyes, with our own minds; everything is being taught, and we are following it.

Be an individual if you want to be happy. If you want to be happy, then start choosing on your own. There are many times when you will have to be disobedient — be! There are many times when you will have to be rebellious — be! There is no disrespect implied in it. Be respectful to your parents. But remember that your deepest responsibility is towards your own being.

Everybody is dragged and manipulated, so nobody knows what his destiny is. What you really always wanted to do you have forgotten. And how can you be happy? Somebody who could have been a poet is just a moneylender. Somebody who could have been a painter is a doctor. Somebody who could have been a doctor, a beautiful doctor, is a businessman. Everybody is displaced. Everybody is doing something that he never wanted to do — hence unhappiness.

Happiness happens when you fit with your life, when you fit so harmoniously that whatsoever you are doing is your joy. Then suddenly you will come to know: meditation follows you. If you love the work that you are doing, if you love the way you are living, then you are meditative. Then nothing distracts you. When things distract you, that simply shows that you are not really interested in those things.

Live spontaneously, living moment to moment without any prefabricated discipline, living with the unknown, not exactly knowing where you are going. Because if you know already where you are going you are dead. Then life runs in a mechanical way. A life should be a flow from the known towards the unknown. One should be dying each moment to the known so the unknown can penetrate you. And only the unknown liberates.

Discipline can never be of the unknown. Discipline has to be of the mind. The mind is your past. All that you have learned, all that you have been conditioned for, all that you have experienced, all that you have thought about – this is your mind. Out of this mind comes a planning for the future. That planning for the future will be nothing but a repetition of the past. It comes out of the past; it cannot be anything else.

Maybe a little modified here and there, decorated here and there, but there will be no radical revolution in it. What we need is a radical revolution. Take freedom. Be courageous to live without any planning, to live without mind, to live without past. Of course it is dangerous, but life is dangerous. Only when you are dead, then there is no danger. Then you are safe – safe in your grave.

Safety never exists before that. If you want to be safe and secure and perfectly protected, insured against all dangers, then don’t enter into life. Enter into your grave. Then don’t breathe, because breathing is dangerous. One day breathing is going to bring death to you. Breathing is dangerous.

A KNACK

Real meditation consists if a knack, not an art-the knack of falling into spontaneous silence.

If you watch, in twenty-four hours, every day, you will find a few moments in which you are falling automatically into silence.

These moments come on their own; it is just that we have not watched.
The first thing to be aware of is when these silent moments come.

And when they come, simply stop all that you are doing. Sit silently, and flow with the moment. And they do come-they are natural.

A few windows always open on their own, but we are so occupied that we never notice that the window has opened and the breeze is coming in and the sun has penetrated; we are so occupied with our work.

So watch ... early in the morning when you are fresh after a long, deep sleep, and the world is just awakening and the birds have started singing and the sun is rising.

If you feel a moment surrounding you, a space growing in you, just fall into it.

Sit silently under a tree, by the side of the river, or in your room, and just be ... nothing to be done.
Just cherish that space-and don't try to prolong it.

Once you have known the knack of it, it will come more and more.

Then you start falling into a kind of harmony with it.

A love affair starts between you and that space called silence, serenity, tranquility, stillness.

And the bond becomes deeper and deeper.

Finally, ultimately, it is always there.

You can always close your eyes for a moment and look at it; it is there.

You can almost touch it-- it becomes tangible.

But it is a knack, not an art.

You cannot learn it: You have to imbibe it.

Wrong Way of Avoiding Guilty..

If you have something in you that is very antagonistic to male energy, It has nothing much to do with your expectations, Those expectations are just to avoid, those are tricks of the mind - they are not problems. The root cause is not there; the root cause is that your energy is very male-antagonistic.

And because it is antagonistic you have to create a few tricks so that you can always avoid people around you.

Nobody is according to your idea; that's a trick, a strategy. Nobody is beautiful enough, nobody is good enough, nobody is moral enough, nobody is worthwhile, nobody is extraordinary; all are very ordinary medicore people. That is the trick of the mind so that you can avoid people around you. First you decide that this person is an ordinary, very worthless creature; then it is very simple to reject him. Then you will not feel guilty that you have rejected him. Before rejecting you labelled him - that he is worthless.

But deep down it is not just expectation. Your energy is anti-male. Something must have happened in your childhood that has made you very anti-male. You may not remember it, you may have forgotten about it, you may have repressed it. Maybe your childhood experiences was ugly. The first encounter, if it is ugly, creates great trouble. Then the energy simply becomes anti.

And it is happening more and more in the world. The world, as it becomes more free, becomes more and more ugly. And once a person has been in some way violated, in some way offended, then the energy recoils and becomes anti.

But it can change; there is no problem about changing it. If it were expectation it would be more difficult because that is a mind thing. But it is just antagonistic.

SCHIZOPHRENIA

Guilt always creates schizophrenia. If guilt goes very deep, it can create a real split.

There is no division between the world and spirituality. But a division arises because of the phenomenon of guilt.

So guilt has to be dropped.

Not that you have to bring spirituality and the world together; they are together. There is no way to separate them.

You have to understand your guilt and drop it, otherwise guilt always creates schizophrenia.

If guilt goes very deep, it can create a real split.

A person can really become two--so much so that one may not be aware of the other at all.

The split can become so great that the two aspects never meet; there is no encounter.

You have to understand your guilt.

Just move as naturally as possible and don't categorize something as "spiritual" and something else as "worldly."

The very categorization is wrong, because then division starts.

Once you label something as spiritual, suddenly you have condemned the world.

When you say something is worldly, the division has come in. There is no need.

You don't divide when you see the moon in the night and you enjoy it, and then one day you see a child smiling and you enjoy that.

Which is spiritual-and which is material?

You see a flower opening and something opens in you and you delight in it.

The food is being cooked and it smells delicious, and suddenly there is joy in it.

Which is spiritual and which is worldly?

The whole of humanity has become almost schizophrenic, because we have been taught to force, things.

The part that wants to laugh and the part that doesn't allow you to laugh become separate, and then you are divided.

You create a top dog and an underdog, so there is conflict.

The rift that the conflict creates can become bigger and bigger and bigger.

So the problem is how to bridge that rift, and how not to create it anymore.

"Remember one thing, never, never allow a cat in the house"

I am reminded of a story. A great Master was dying.
 
He called his chief disciple to his side and whispered in his ear, "Remember one thing, never, never allow a cat in the house" -- and he died.

"What kind of message...? And for this you called me: 'Never allow a cat in the house'?" The chief disciple enquired from a few old, elderly people, because perhaps there was some meaning in it. "Perhaps it is a code word, otherwise why should he say that? And he died without giving any explanation. I was just going to ask, 'Why are you against cats? Your whole life... and this is the ultimate conclusion of all your discipline, practices, scriptures, scholarship: don't allow a cat in the house'".

One old man said, "I know what the matter is. This is the message given to him by his master too, because his master got into trouble because of a cat." The old master had lived outside the village. He had only two... in English it is difficult to translate because nothing like that exists. You have underwear, in India they have langots -- they are just strips of cloth. It needs a little practice to put on. It is just a long strip of cloth which you simply wind around yourself and that functions as underwear, or the onlywear. For a monk that is the onlywear.

He had two onlywears -- that is my translation for langots -- but the trouble was there were a few rats, and they used to destroy his onlywear. He asked somebody from the village, "What to do with these rats? They are very cunning."

The man said, "It is very simple. What we do in the village is just keep a cat. You keep a cat I will bring you a cat. She will finish off those rats and your onlywear will be saved."

The old master said, "This is a simple solution." The cat was brought. She really did her job, she finished off the rats, but the problem was the cat was hungry and she needed milk. She was always sitting in front of the monk, hungry. Cats, when they are hungry, look really poor. She had done her job, and without saying it she was saying, "I have done all your business, all the rats are finished, but I am hungry now."

So the old master asked again, "Now what to do? The cat sits in front of me, looking hungrily at me: 'Provide food, otherwise I am going and then rats will come back.' She does not say all that but I can see in her eyes that she is threatening me, challenging me. I need some milk."

The man said, "Every day you will have to come for the milk, so I will give you my cow. I have many cows, you can take one."

He took the cow but his problems went on increasing: now the cow needed grass. He again went to the town, and the townspeople said, "You are a strange fellow -- problem after problem, problem after problem. Why don't you start growing something around your hut? -- there is so much land lying fallow. We will give you seeds; take the seeds and start growing something. It will help you also; you can eat some of it and the cow can eat some."

So he, poor man, started sowing some seeds.

But this was great trouble: now the crops had to be cut. And he was a monk; he was not supposed to do all these things. But now one thing was leading to another. He went to the village and he said, "This is difficult. Now those crops have to be cut; I don't have any instruments, and I will need helpers."

The people said, "Listen, we are tired of you. You are worthless; you can't find any solution for anything. Do we have to solve everything? It is simple: One woman has become a widow and she is perfectly capable of taking care of you, your cow, your crops, your kitchen, everything -- cat, rats.... She is a perfectly experienced woman."

"But," he said, "I am a monk."

They said, "Forget all about that monkhood. What kind of monk are you! You have a cat, you have a cow, you have a field, a crop -- and you think you are a monk! Forget about it. And anyway this marriage is just a bogus marriage; you need not have any kind of relationship with the woman. She is poor and in difficulty, you are in difficulty; both of you together will be good."

The man said, "That's right. If it is just a legal thing, there's no harm, because my master never said anything against that. He said, 'Don't get married but I am not getting married; it is just for show, for the village, so nobody raises any objection that I am living with a woman. I can say that she is my wife, but I don't have to be her husband really, nor does she have to be my wife really."

He talked to the woman. The woman said, "I am not interested in a husband -- one was enough -- but I am in trouble, you are in trouble; and this is good, we can help each other."

So they got married. Now things went on growing.... Sometimes he was sick and the woman would massage his feet. Slowly, slowly, he started liking the woman. A man is, after all, a man; a woman is, after all, a woman. The woman started liking the man. They were both feeling lonely. In the cold winter nights they were both waiting for somebody to say, "It is too cold -- why can't we get close?"

Finally the woman said, "It is too cold here."

The monk said, "It is cold here too."

The woman said, "It seems you don't have any guts."

He said, "That's right. You come here -- I don't have any guts. I am a poor monk, and you are an experienced woman: you come here. Together it will be warmer."

Of course it was warmer! That's where his whole mo
nkhood went down the drain. And when he was dying he told to his disciples, "Don't let any cat stay with you."

And the old man told the chief disciple, "Since then, it is traditional on your path that each master says to the disciple, 'Beware of the cat.' It is very difficult to be aware of the cat -- the cat comes in somehow or other. Life is so strange.

How can we avoid being Authoritative?

It is very simple. The people who are authoritarian are the people who are suffering from an inferiority complex. To hide their inferiority they impose their superiority. They want to prove that they are somebody, that their word is truth, that their word is law. But deep down they are very inferior beings.

This is one of the reasons that all of the politicians suffer from an inferiority complex. Anybody who does not suffer from an inferiority complex will not go into politics at all.

We have to know that nobody is superior, nobody is inferior, and nobody is equal either. Everybody is unique. That point has to be remembered, because if you say nobody is superior and nobody is inferior, people are certain to conclude that everybody is equal -- which is not true.

Equality is psychologically wrong. Everybody cannot be an Albert Einstein and everybody cannot be a Rabindranath Tagore. But that does not mean that Rabindranath Tagore is superior because you cannot be him. Rabindranath cannot be you either.

My whole point is that everybody is a unique manifestation. So we destroy the whole idea of superiority and inferiority, equality and inequality, and we replace it with a new concept of uniqueness. And every individual is unique.

Just look lovingly and you will see that every individual has something which nobody else has. Once the idea of uniqueness spreads, there will be nobody who will try to enforce authority.

Instinct, Intellect, Intuition and the FOURTH.

What is the difference between human nature, habbit, Instinct, Intellect and Intuition?

Habit is not nature, it is nurture. You learn it by imitation. By seeing people doing things, you start doing them. By seeing what makes people successful, you follow them. It does not come out of your nature, it comes out of your surroundings. Yes, it can become so deep-rooted that in every language there is an expression: habit is second nature. It becomes so deep-rooted that you cannot even make the distinction whether it is habit or nature. But habit is never nature. You did not bring it with you, and any day you want to drop it, you can drop it. Any day you want to change it you can change it.

Nature cannot be changed. And instinct is part of nature. In you, nature is expressed in four layers. Instinct is the lowest. Then there is intellect, which is higher than instinct. Most people never know anything more than these two, and these two are always fighting for supremacy. All the religions have remained with intellect; that’s why they are against instinct.

Only a few great thinkers have been in favor of instinct against intellect. These are very rare people; otherwise everybody has been in favor of intellect, because intellect has a higher position. It brings more respectability to you, more honor. Instinct is almost like the animals. Intellect makes you superior to the animals — but instinct is juicy, intellect is dry. Hence the people who live with instinct are joyous, happy, loving, and the people who live with intellect are dry, quarreling.

Beyond your intellect is your feeling. Another name for your feeling is intuition, a more scientific name. But very few people reach to intuition, because to reach to intuition, you have to go beyond intellect, and meditation is the only way. But unfortunately meditation is not part of our education. Education stops at intellect, creating a quarrel between your instinct and intellect, creating a split, a schizophrenia that you will suffer from your whole life.

If you meditate, something beyond intellect starts functioning. You can call it the heart, you can call it intuition. It has no arguments, but it has tremendous experiences. But it is not the end of your whole nature. There is, beyond this third, the fourth, which has not been named. In the East, it has simply been called turiya, and turiya means “the fourth.” It has not been named because any name falls short of it. It is your ultimate nature, your very essential nature. It is where you meet with the universal nature, just like a dewdrop disappearing into the ocean. Nature is a vast world — it begins with instinct and ends with the fourth, the turiya. Habit is a nurture; you learn it from others.

People don’t think what they are doing: what kind of dress they are using, whether it is comfortable or not; what kind of houses they are living in, whether they are aesthetic or not. They are simply imitating others.

A life of imitation is not a true life. It is not sincere. One should live naturally on all the four steps:
Instinct is of the body.
Intellect is of the mind.
Intuition is of the heart.
And the fourth, turiya, is of the being.

If you can live all these four in harmony, you are the perfect man. Nothing should be denied in favor of anything else. All four have to be together in a harmony. And if you can avoid habits, if you can allow your nature to be your whole life, no space for habits at all …. All habits take you away from your nature; all habits prove you to be mediocre.

Live naturally and you are as natural as a roseflower; live through habits and you are made of something plastic, dead, meaningless. Then you feel miserable, and nobody else is responsible for it. You allowed imitation to enter in your authenticity and it has poisoned everything. Just follow your inner voice. Your body has its own wisdom — use it. Your mind can grow into a great giant as far as intelligence is concerned; use it, but don’t be used by it. Your heart has so much love, so much beauty; it can fill the whole universe, it is oceanic. Allow it to spread and expand, and share it with people. And the fourth is the ultimate. That is your eternal life with all conceivable blissfulness, ecstasy, joy, fearlessness, deathlessness.

If one lives simply according to his nature on each of these four rungs, he is a true man; he does not have any habit. Habits destroy your truth and impose things on you which were never intended by nature to be your destiny.

The Fifth Dimension - THE WHOLE - TRANSCENDENTAL

Misery has many things to give to you which happiness cannot give. On the contrary, happiness takes away many things from you. Happiness takes all that you have ever had, all that you have ever been; happiness destroys you.

Misery nourishes your ego, and happiness is basically a state of egolessness. That is the problem, the very crux of the problem. That’s why people find it very difficult to be happy.

That’s why millions of people in the world have to live in misery, have decided to live in misery. It gives you a very, very crystallized ego. Miserable, you are. Happy, you are not. In misery: crystallization; in happiness you become diffused.

If this is understood then things become very clear. Misery makes you special. Happiness is a universal phenomenon, there is nothing special about it. Trees are happy and animals are happy and birds are happy. The whole existence is happy, except man. Being miserable, man becomes very special, extraordinary.

Misery makes you capable of attracting people’s attention. Whenever you are miserable you are attended to, sympathized with, loved. Everybody starts taking care of you. Who wants to hurt a miserable person? Who is jealous of a miserable person? Who wants to be antagonistic to a miserable person? That would be too mean.

The miserable person is cared for, loved, attended to. There is great investment in misery. If the wife is not miserable the husband simply tends to forget her. If she is miserable the husband cannot afford to neglect her. If the husband is miserable the whole family, the wife, the children, are around him, worried about him; it gives great comfort. One feels one is not alone, one has a family, friends.

When you are ill, depressed, in misery, friends come to visit you, to solace you, to console you. When you are happy, the same friends become jealous of you. When you are really happy, you will find the whole world has turned against you.

Nobody likes a happy person, because the happy person hurts the egos of the others.

The others start feeling, “So you have become happy and we are still crawling in darkness, misery and hell. How dare you be happy when we all are in such misery!”

And of course the world consists of miserable people, and nobody is courageous enough to let the whole world go against him; it is too dangerous, too risky. It is better to cling to misery, it keeps you a part of the crowd. Happy, and you are an individual; miserable, you are part of a crowd.

Happy? Do you know what happiness is?

Happiness is simply happiness. One is transported into another world. One is no longer part of the world the human mind has created, one is no longer part of the past, of the ugly history. One is no more part of time at all. When you are really happy, blissful, time disappears, space disappears.

Albert Einstein has said that in the past scientists used to think that there were two realities — space and time. But he said that these two realities are not two — but two faces of the same single reality. Hence he coined the word spaciotime, a single word. Time is nothing else but the fourth dimension of space.

Einstein was not a mystic, otherwise he would have introduced the third thing also — the transcendental, neither space nor time. That too is there, the witness. And once these three are there, you have the whole trinity. You have the whole concept of trimurti, three faces of God. Then you have all the four dimensions. The reality is four-dimensional: three dimensions of space, and the fourth dimension of time.

But there is something else, which cannot be called the fifth dimension, because it is not the fifth really, it is the whole, the transcendental.

When you are blissful you start moving into the transcendental.

It is not social, it is not traditional, it has nothing to do with human mind at all.

SHIVA' S 112 Techniques

Really, when you try the right method it clicks immediately. You try them. Just play with them -  And these methods are simple, you can just play with them.

Take one method and play with it for at least three days. If it gives you a certain feeling of affinity, if it gives you a certain feeling of well-being, if it gives you a certain feeling that this is for you, then be serious about it. Then forget the others, do not play with other methods. Stick to it - at least three months. Miracles are possible. The only thing is that the technique must be for you.




   BREATH MEDITATIONS


   

 001    THIS EXPERIENCE MAY DAWN BETWEEN TWO BREATHS. AFTER BREATH COMES IN (DOWN) AND JUST BEFORE TURNING UP (OUT) -- THE BENEFICENCE.

 002    AS BREATH TURNS FROM DOWN TO UP, AND AGAIN AS BREATH CURVES FROM UP TO DOWN -- THROUGH BOTH THESE TURNS, REALIZE.

 003    WHENEVER IN-BREATH AND OUT-BREATH FUSE, AT THIS INSTANT TOUCH THE ENERGY-LESS, ENERGY-FILLED CENTER.

 004    WHEN BREATH IS ALL OUT (UP) AND STOPPED OF ITSELF, OR ALL IN (DOWN) AND STOPPED -- IN SUCH UNIVERSAL PAUSE, ONE'S SMALL SELF VANISHES. THIS IS DIFFICULT ONLY FOR THE IMPURE.

 005    ATTENTION BETWEEN EYEBROWS, LET MIND BE BEFORE THOUGHT. LET FORM FILL WITH BREATH ESSENCE TO THE TOP OF THE HEAD AND THERE SHOWER AS LIGHT.

 006    WHEN IN WORLDLY ACTIVITY, KEEP ATTENTIVE BETWEEN THE TWO BREATHS, AND SO PRACTICING, IN A FEW DAYS, BE BORN ANEW

 007    WITH INTANGIBLE BREATH IN CENTER OF FOREHEAD, AS THIS REACHES HEART AT THE MOMENT OF SLEEP, HAVE DIRECTION OVER DREAMS AND OVER DEATH ITSELF.

 008    WITH UTMOST DEVOTION, CENTER ON THE TWO JUNCTIONS OF BREATH AND KNOW THE KNOWER

 009    LIE DOWN AS DEAD. ENRAGED IN WRATH, STAY SO. OR STARE WITHOUT MOVING AN EYELASH. OR SUCK SOMETHING AND BECOME THE SUCKING.

 010    WHILE BEING CARESSED, SWEET PRINCESS, ENTER THE CARESSING AS EVERLASTING LIFE

 011     STOP THE DOORS OF THE SENSES WHEN FEELING THE CREEPING OF AN ANT. THEN

 012     WHEN ON A BED OR A SEAT, LET YOURSELF BECOME WEIGHTLESS, BEYOND MIND

 013     IMAGINE THE FIVE-COLORED CIRCLES OF THE PEACOCK TAIL TO BE YOUR FIVE SENSES IN ILLIMITABLE SPACE. NOW, LET THEIR BEAUTY MELT WITHIN. SIMILARLY, AT ANY POINT IN SPACE OR ON A WALL -- UNTIL THE POINT DISSOLVES. THEN YOUR WISH FOR ANOTHER COMES TRUE

 014     PLACE YOUR WHOLE ATTENTION IN THE NERVE, DELICATE AS THE LOTUS TH, IN THE CENTER OF YOUR SPINAL COLUMN. IN SUCH BE TRANSFORMED

 015     CLOSING THE SEVEN OPENINGS OF THE HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS, A SPACE BETWEEN YOUR EYES BECOMES ALL INCLUSIVE

 016     AS SENSES ARE ABSORBED IN THE HEART, REACH THE CENTER OF THE LOTUS

 017     UNMINDING MIND, KEEP IN THE MIDDLE -- UNTIL

 018     LOOK LOVINGLY ON SOME OBJECT. DO NOT GO ON TO ANOTHER OBJECT. HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OBJECT -- THE BLESSING



 CENTERING MEDITATIONS


 019     WITHOUT SUPPORT FOR FEET OR HANDS, SIT ONLY ON BUTTOCKS. SUDDENLY, THE CENTERING

 020     IN A MOVING VEHICLE, BY RHYTHMICALLY SWAYING, EXPERIENCE. OR IN A STILL VEHICLE, BY LETTING YOURSELF SWING IN SLOWING INVISIBLE CIRCLES

 021     PIERCE SOME PART OF YOUR NECTAR-FILLED FORM WITH A PIN, AND GENTLY ENTER THE PIERCING AND ATTAIN TO THE INNER PURITY

 022     LET ATTENTION BE AT A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE SEEING SOME PAST HAPPENING, AND EVEN YOUR FORM, HAVING LOST ITS PRESENT CHARACTERISTICS, IS TRANSFORMED


 STOP MEDITATIONS



 023     FEEL AN OBJECT BEFORE YOU. FEEL THE ABSENCE OF ALL OTHER OBJECTS BUT THIS ONE. THEN LEAVING ASIDE THE OBJECT-FEELING AND THE ABSENCE-FEELING, REALIZE

 024     WHEN A MOOD AGAINST SOMEONE OR FOR SOMEONE ARISES, DO NOT PLACE IT ON THE PERSON IN QUESTION, BUT REMAIN CENTERED

 025     JUST AS YOU HAVE THE IMPULSE TO DO SOMETHING, STOP

 026     WHEN SOME DESIRE COMES, CONSIDER IT. THEN, SUDDENLY, QUIT IT

 027     ROAM ABOUT UNTIL EXHAUSTED AND THEN, DROPPING TO THE GROUND, IN THIS DROPPING BE WHOLE

 028     SUPPOSE YOU ARE GRADUALLY BEING DEPRIVED OF STRENGTH OR OF KNOWLEDGE. AT THE INSTANT OF DEPRIVATION, TRANSCEND

 029     DEVOTION FREES



 LOOKING MEDITATIONS



 030     EYES CLOSED, SEE YOUR INNER BEING IN DETAIL. THUS SEE YOUR TRUE NATURE

 031     LOOK UPON A BOWL WITHOUT SEEING THE SIDES OR THE MATERIAL. IN A FEW MOMENTS BECOME AWARE

 032     SEE AS IF FOR THE FIRST TIME A BEAUTEOUS PERSON OR AN ORDINARY OBJECT

 033     SIMPLY BY LOOKING INTO THE BLUE SKY BEYOND CLOUDS, THE SERENITY

 034     WHILE THE ULTIMATE MYSTICAL TEACHING IS IMPARTED. EYES STILL, WITHOUT WINKING, AT ONCE BECOME ABSOLUTELY FREE

 035     AT THE EDGE OF A DEEP WELL LOOK STEADILY INTO ITS DEPTHS UNTIL -- THE WONDROUSNESS

 036     LOOK UPON SOME OBJECT, THEN SLOWLY WITHDRAW YOUR SIGHT FROM IT, THEN SLOWLY WITHDRAW YOUR THOUGHT FROM IT. THEN





 SOUND MEDITATIONS


 037     IMAGINE THE SANSKRIT LETTERS IN THESE HONEY-FILLED FOCI OF AWARENESS, FIRST AS LETTERS, THEN MORE SUBTLY AS SOUNDS, THEN AS MOST SUBTLE FEELING. THEN, LEAVING THEM ASIDE, BE FREE

 038     BATHE IN THE CENTER OF SOUND, AS IN THE CONTINUOUS SOUND OF A WATERFALL, OR BY PUTTING THE FINGERS IN THE EARS, HEAR THE SOUND OF SOUNDS

 039     INTONE A SOUND, AS AUM, SLOWLY. AS SOUND ENTERS SOUNDFULNESS, SO DO YOU

 040     IN THE BEGINNING AND GRADUAL REFINEMENT OF THE SOUND OF ANY LETTER, AWAKE

 041     WHILE DOWNLOADING TO STRINGED INSTRUMENTS, HEAR THEIR COMPOSITE CENTRAL SOUND; THUS OMNIPRESENCE

 042     INTONE A SOUND AUDIBLY, THEN LESS AND LESS AUDIBLY AS FEELING DEEPENS INTO THIS SILENT HARMONY

 043     WITH MOUTH SLIGHTLY OPEN, KEEP MIND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TONGUE. OR, AS BREATH COMES SILENTLY IN, FEEL THE SOUND "HH."

 044     CENTER ON THE SOUND "AUM" WITHOUT ANY "A" OR "M"

 045     SILENTLY INTONE A WORD ENDING IN "AH." THEN IN THE "HH," EFFORTLESSLY, THE SPONTANEITY.

 046     STOPPING EARS BY PRESSING AND RECTUM BY CONTRACTING, ENTER THE SOUND

 047     ENTER THE SOUND OF YOUR NAME AND, THROUGH THIS SOUND, ALL SOUNDS


 RISING IN LOVE: A PARTNERSHIP IN MEDITATION

 048     AT THE START OF SEXUAL UNION KEEP ATTENTIVE ON THE FIRE IN THE BEGINNING, AND SO CONTINUING, AVOID THE EMBERS IN THE END

 049     WHEN IN SUCH EMBRACE YOUR SENSES ARE SHAKEN AS LEAVES, ENTER THIS SHAKING

 050     EVEN REMEMBERING UNION, WITHOUT THE EMBRACE, THE TRANSFORMATION

 051     ON JOYOUSLY SEEING A LONG ABSENT FRIEND, PERMEATE THIS JOY

 052     WHEN EATING OR DRINKING, BECOME THE TASTE OF THE FOOD OR DRINK, AND BE FILLED

 053     WHEN SINGING, SEEING, TASTING, BE AWARE YOU ARE AND DISCOVER THE EVERLIVING

 054     WHEREVER SATISFACTION IS FOUND, IN WHATEVER ACT, ACTUALIZE THIS

 055     AT THE POINT OF SLEEP, WHEN THE SLEEP HAS NOT YET COME AND EXTERNAL WAKEFULNESS VANISHES, AT THIS POINT BEING IS REVEALED

 056     ILLUSIONS DECEIVE, COLORS CIRCUMSCRIBE, EVEN DIVISIBLES ARE INDIVISIBLE

 057     IN MOODS OF EXTREME DESIRE, BE UNDISTURBED

 058     THIS SO-CALLED UNIVERSE APPEARS AS A JUGGLING, A PICTURE SHOW. TO BE HAPPY LOOK UPON IT SO

 059     PUT ATTENTION NEITHER ON PLEASURE NOR ON PAIN, BUT BETWEEN THESE

 060     OBJECTS AND DESIRES EXIST IN ME AS IN OTHERS. SO ACCEPTING, LET THEM BE TRANSFORMED

 061     AS WAVES COME WITH WATER AND FLAMES WITH FIRE, SO THE UNIVERSAL WAVES WITH US

 062     WHEREVER YOUR MIND IS WANDERING, INTERNALLY OR EXTERNALLY, AT THIS VERY PLACE, THIS

 063     WHEN VIVIDLY AWARE THROUGH SOME PARTICULAR SENSE, KEEP IN THE AWARENESS

 064    AT THE START OF SNEEZING, DURING FRIGHT, IN ANXIETY, ABOVE A CHASM, FLYING IN BATTLE, IN EXTREME CURIOSITY, AT THE BEGINNING OF HUNGER, AT THE END OF HUNGER, BE UNINTERRUPTEDLY AWARE

 065     THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE

 066     BE THE UNSAME SAME TO FRIEND AS TO STRANGER, IN HONOR AND DISHONOR

 067     HERE IS THE SPHERE OF CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE. THROUGH CHANGE CONSUME CHANGE

 068     AS A HEN MOTHERS HER CHICKS, MOTHER PARTICULAR KNOWINGS, PARTICULAR DOINGS, IN REALITY

 069     SINCE, IN TRUTH, BONDAGE AND FREEDOM ARE RELATED, THESE WORDS ARE ONLY FOR THOSE TERRIFIED WITH THE UNIVERSE. THIS UNIVERSE IS A REFLECTION OF MINDS. AS YOU SEE MANY SUNS IN THE WATER FROM ONE SUN, SO SEE BONDAGE AND LIBERATION

LIGHT MEDITATIONS

 070     CONSIDER YOUR ESSENCE AS LIGHT RAYS RISING FROM CENTER TO CENTER UP THE VERTEBRAE, AND SO RISES `LIVINGNESS' IN YOU

 071     OR IN THE SPACES BETWEEN, FEEL THIS AS LIGHTNING

 072     FEEL THE COSMOS AS A TRANSLUCENT EVER-LIVING PRESENCE

 073     IN SUMMER WHEN YOU SEE THE ENTIRE SKY ENDLESSLY CLEAR, ENTER SUCH CLARITY

 074     SEE ALL SPACE AS IF ALY ABSORBED IN YOUR OWN HEAD IN THE BRILLIANCE

 075     WAKING, SLEEPING, DREAMING, KNOW YOU AS LIGHT


DARKNESS MEDITATIONS

 076     IN RAIN, DURING A BLACK NIGHT, ENTER THAT BLACKNESS AS THE FORM OF FORMS

 077     WHEN A MOONLESS RAINY NIGHT IS NOT PRESENT CLOSE EYES AND FIND BLACKNESS BEFORE YOU. OPENING EYES, SEE BLACKNESS. SO FAULTS DISAPPEAR FOREVER

 078     WHEREVER YOUR ATTENTION ALIGHTS, AT THIS VERY POINT, EXPERIENCE


IMAGINING MEDITATIONS

 079     FOCUS ON FIRE RISING THROUGH YOUR FORM, FROM THE TOES UP, UNTIL THE BODY BURNS TO ASHES BUT NOT YOU

 080     MEDITATE ON THE MAKE-BELIEVE WORLD AS BURNING TO ASHES, AND BECOME BEING ABOVE HUMAN.

 081     AS, SUBJECTIVELY, LETTER FLOW INTO WORDS AND WORDS INTO SENTENCES, AND AS, OBJECTIVELY, CIRCLES FLOW INTO WORLDS AND WORLDS INTO PRINCIPLES, FIND AT LAST THESE CONVERGING IN OUR BEING

 082     FEEL -- MY THOUGHT, I-NESS, INTERNAL ORGANS -- ME

 083     BEFORE DESIRE AND BEFORE KNOWING, HOW CAN I SAY I AM? CONSIDER. DISSOLVE IN THE BEAUTY. BEFORE DESIRE AND BEFORE KNOWING, HOW CAN I SAY I AM?

 084     TOSS ATTACHMENT FOR BODY ASIDE, REALIZING I AM EVERYWHERE. ONE WHO IS EVERYWHERE IS JOYOUS

 085     THINKING NO THING -- WILL LIMITED-SELF UNLIMIT

 086     SUPPOSE YOU CONTEMPLATE SOMETHING BEYOND PERCEPTION, BEYOND GRASPING, BEYOND NOT BEING - YOU

 087     I AM EXISTING. THIS IS MINE. THIS IS THIS. OH BELOVED, EVEN IN SUCH KNOW ILLIMITABLY

 088     EACH THING IS PERCEIVED THROUGH KNOWING. THE SELF SHINES IN SPACE THROUGH KNOWING. PERCEIVE ONE BEING AS KNOWER AND KNOWN

 089     BELOVED, AT THIS MOMENT LET MIND, KNOWING, BREATH, FORM, BE INCLUDED

 090     TOUCHING EYEBALLS AS A FEATHER, LIGHTNESS BETWEEN THEM OPENS INTO HEART AND THERE PERMEATES THE COSMOS

 091     KIND DEVI, ENTER ETHERIC PRESENCE PERVADING FAR ABOVE AND BELOW YOUR FORM

 092     PUT MINDSTUFF IN SUCH INEXPRESSIBLE FINENESS, ABOVE, BELOW AND IN YOUR HEART

 093     CONSIDER ANY AREA OF YOUR PRESENT FORM AS LIMITLESSLY SPACIOUS

 094     FEEL YOUR SUBSTANCE, BONES, FLESH, BLOOD, SATURATED WITH THE COSMIC ESSENCE


MEDITATION FOR WOMEN ONLY



 095     FEEL THE FINE QUALITIES OF CREATIVITY PERMEATING YOUR BREASTS AND ASSUMING DELICATE CONFIGURATIONS

 096     ABIDE IN SOME PLACE ENDLESSLY SPACIOUS, CLEAR OF TREES, HILLS, HABITATIONS. THENCE COMES THE END OF MIND PRESSURES

 097     CONSIDER THE PLENUM TO BE YOUR OWN BODY OF BLISS.

 098     IN ANY EASY POSITION GRADUALLY PERVADE AN AREA BETWEEN THE ARMPITS INTO GREAT PEACE

 099     FEEL YOURSELF AS PERVADING ALL DIRECTIONS, FAR, NEAR

 100     THE APPRECIATION OF OBJECTS AND SUBJECTS IS THE SAME FOR AN ENLIGHTENED AS FOR AN UNENLIGHTENED PERSON. THE FORMER HAS ONE GREATNESS: HE REMAINS IN THE SUBJECTIVE MOOD, NOT LOST IN THINGS

 101     BELIEVE OMNISCIENT, OMNIPOTENT, PERVADING

 102     IMAGINE SPIRIT SIMULTANEOUSLY WITHIN AND AROUND YOU UNTIL THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE SPIRITUALIZES

 103     WITH YOUR ENTIRE CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE VERY START OF DESIRE, OF KNOWING, KNOW

 104     O SHAKTI, EACH PARTICULAR PERCEPTION IS LIMITED, DISAPPEARING IN OMNIPOTENCE

MEDITATION ON ONENESS WITH ALL

 105     IN TRUTH FORMS ARE INSEPARATE. INSEPARATE ARE OMNIPRESENT BEING AND YOUR OWN FORM. REALIZE EACH AS MADE OF THIS CONSCIOUSNESS

 106     FEEL THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF EACH PERSON AS YOUR OWN CONSCIOUSNESS. SO, LEAVING ASIDE CONCERN FOR SELF, BECOME EACH BEING

 107     THIS CONSCIOUSNESS EXISTS AS EACH BEING, AND NOTHING ELSE EXISTS

 108     THIS CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE SPIRIT OF GUIDANCE OF EACH ONE. BE THIS ONE

MEDITATIONS ON EMPTINESS

 109     SUPPOSE YOUR PASSIVE FORM TO BE AN EMPTY ROOM WITH WALLS OF SKIN -- EMPTY

 110     GRACIOUS ONE, PLAY. THE UNIVERSE IS AN EMPTY SHELL WHEREIN YOUR MIND FROLICS INFINITELY

 111     SWEET-HEARTED ONE, MEDITATE ON KNOWING AND NOT-KNOWING, EXISTING AND NOT-EXISTING. THEN LEAVE BOTH ASIDE THAT YOU MAY BE

 112     ENTER SPACE, SUPPORTLESS, ETERNAL, STILL

Encounter the Sleep & Unconsciousness

You can try this. You have been sleeping every day, but you have not encountered sleep yet. You have not seen it - what it is, how it comes, how you drop into it. You have not known anything about it. You have been dropping into it daily, coming out of it, but you have not felt the moment when sleep comes on the mind - what happens.

So try this, and with three months' effort, suddenly, one day, you will enter sleep knowingly: drop on your bed, close your eyes, and then remember, remember that sleep is coming and "I am to remain awake when the sleep comes." It is very arduous, but it happens. One day it will not happen, one week it will not happen. Persist every day, constantly remembering that sleep is coming and, "I am not to allow it without knowing. I must be aware when sleep enters. I must go on feeling how sleep takes over, what it is."

And one day, suddenly, sleep is there and you are still awake. That very moment you become aware of your unconscious also. And once you become aware of your unconscious you will never be asleep again in the old way. Sleep will be there, but you will be awake simultaneously. A center in you will go on knowing. All around will be sleep, and a center will go on knowing. When this center knows dreams become impossible. And when dreams become impossible, daydreams also become impossible. Then you are asleep in a different sense, and then you will be awake in the morning in a different sense. That different quality comes by the encounter.

But this may look difficult, so I suggest to you a more simple exercise to encounter the unconscious.

Close the doors of your room and put a big mirror just in front of you. The room must be dark. And then put a small flame by the side of the mirror in such a way that it is not directly reflected in it. Just your face is reflected in the mirror, not the flame. Then constantly stare into your own eyes in the mirror. Do not blink. This is a forty-minute experiment, and within two or three days you will be able to keep your eyes unblinking.

Even if tears come, let them come, but persist in not blinking and go on staring constantly into your eyes. Do not change the stare. Go on staring into the eyes, your own, and within two or three days you will become aware of a very strange phenomenon. Your face will begin to take new shapes. You may even be scared. The face in the mirror will begin to change. Sometimes a very different face will be there which you have never known as yours.

But, really, all these faces belong to you. Now the subconscious mind is beginning to explode.

These faces, these masks, are yours. Sometimes even a face that belongs to a past life may come in. After one week of constant staring for forty minutes, your face will become a flux, just a film-like flux. Many faces will be coming and going constantly. After three weeks, you will not be able to remember which is your face. You will not be able to remember your own face, because you have seen so many faces coming and going.

If you continue, then any day, after three weeks, the most strange thing happens: suddenly there is no face in the mirror. The mirror is vacant, you are staring into emptiness. There is no face at all.

This is the moment: close your eyes, and encounter the unconscious. When there is no face in the mirror, just close the eyes - this is the most significant moment - close the eyes, look inside, and you will face the unconscious. You will be naked - completely naked, as you are. All deceptions will fall.

This is the reality, but the society has created many, many layers in order that you will not be aware of it. Once you know yourself in your nakedness, your total nakedness, you begin to be a different person. Then you cannot deceive yourself. Then you know what you are. And unless you know what you are you can never become transformed, because any transformation becomes possible only in this naked reality: this naked reality is potential for any transformation. No deception can be transformed. Your original face is now here and you can transform it. And, really, just a will to transform it will effect the transformation.

But you cannot become transformed! You cannot transform your false faces. You can change them, but you cannot transform them: by "change" I mean you can replace them with another false face.

Transformation means becoming that which you really are. So the moment you face the unconscious, encounter the unconscious, you are face to face with your reality, with your authentic being.

Many, many methods have been invented. There are sudden methods, there are gradual methods.

I have told you about a gradual method. There are sudden methods, but with a sudden method it is always very difficult - because with a sudden method it can happen that you may simply die. With a sudden method it can happen that you may suddenly go mad - because the phenomenon is so sudden that you cannot conceive of it. You just drop, shattered.

This happened in the Gita. Arjuna is forcing Krishna to reveal his cosmic form. Krishna goes on talking about other things, but Arjuna is persistent and he says, "I must see. I cannot believe unless I see. If you are really a god, then reveal to me your cosmic from!" Krishna reveals it, but it is so sudden, and Arjuna is not prepared at all. He begins to cry and says to Krishna, "Close it! Close it!

I am scared to death!" So if you come to it through some sudden method, it is dangerous. Sudden methods are there, but they can be practised only in a group - in a group where others can help you. Really, ashrams were created for these sudden methods because they cannot be practised alone. A group is needed, adepts are needed, and a constant vigilance is needed, because sometimes you may drop unconscious for months continuously. Then if there is no one who knows what to do, you may be taken for dead. You may be buried or burnt. Many times Ramakrishna happened to go into deep Samadhi. For six days or for two weeks continuously he had to be forcefully spoon-fed because he was just as if unconscious. A group is needed for sudden methods, and a teacher becomes an absolute necessity.

With gradual methods you can proceed alone because there is no danger. You have to proceed inch by inch, and as far as a one-inch happening is concerned, you can control it yourself. But if you have to take a jump with no steps in between, then you will need someone who knows where you are going to fall, who knows what can happen. A teacher is not really needed to show you the methods; he is needed really, afterwards when the method has done something and you have moved into the unknown.

Poras Vs Alexander

Alexander the Great conquered the frontier land of India. The man who was fighting him was a man of immense insight and immense power – but not physical power. Alexander had a bigger army,  more developed techniques of destruction.

Poras – that was the name of the man who ruled on the boundary of India – was really a brave man. His very name ”Poras” means a real man, an authentic man. And Alexander, for the first time, was afraid; although he had more armies, he did not have that spiritual quality that Poras had,that meditativeness, that presence.

Alexander had heard many stories about Poras: nobody has ever been able to conquer his land although bigger armies have attacked it. The man has something in him, so that his very presence makes his army ten times bigger. His people feel that their victory is certain because Poras is leading them, and Poras knows no defeat.

Alexander was, for the first time, trembling inside, and for the first time he behaved as a politician – ugly. Up to that point he had simply been a great warrior, but hearing about Poras, he thought, ”He is a far greater warrior, not only physically but spiritually; and just an army won’t do.” So Alexander played a cunning strategy.

In India, in the month of Shravan in the rainy season, there is a day, the day of brothers and sisters. The sister binds a thread to the brother’s wrist. It is called rakshabandhan, a contract that ”You will protect me.” The brother promises her that even if he has to lose his life he will protect her.

And Alexander sent his wife on that day to the palace of Poras. Of course she was received with great honor. Everybody was surprised that she had come, because on the other side of the Sindhu River Alexander was waiting for the right time to attack. And his wife came alone. She said, ”I want to see Poras.”
   
Poras had no sister. She went to Poras and she said, ”You don’t have any sister; I don’t have any brother. I want to become your sister.” And she had brought the traditional thread. She put the thread on the wrist of Poras, and Poras touched the feet of the woman and said, ”You need not be afraid of anything. As long as I am alive I will protect you. If you want to ask for anything that I can give to you, I will be honored.” And she said, ”In the war that is going to happen please don’t kill my husband; he is your brother-in-law. You will be destroying my lover. Remember this   thread. You have promised to protect me.”

Poras could see the strategy, but he was a man of his word. He said, ”Don’t be worried.” And she was sent with security so that she could reach her camp on the other side.
   
And this was the reason that Poras was defeated. History books written by Westerners simply don’t mention the fact; it was not a victory for Alexander, it was a victory for Poras.

There came a time when Poras attacked Alexander, and Alexander fell from his horse. Poras was on his elephant – Indian armies fought on elephants – and he was just going to kill Alexander when he saw the thread on his own wrist. The spear that was going to kill turned back in a second, and   Poras said to Alexander, ”I cannot kill you. I have promised your wife that I will not harm anything that harms her, that I will protect her.”

This was the reason that Poras lost the war. But Alexander still could not understand, because he could not understand the way of the East, that Eastern people have been thinking in totally different terms. It was really a spiritual victory, a great victory for Poras.

Poras was brought in chains, handcuffed, into the court of Alexander, but he came there like a lion – of course encaged.

And this is the sentence that I want you to understand. Alexander said to him... Remember that this man Poras is certainly rare: his spear had reached just near Alexander’s heart; one second more and he would have been dead, and he pulled it back because of a promise given to an unknown   woman.

Alexander asked Poras, ”How do you want to be treated?”

Poras laughed, and he said, ”I should be treated as an emperor is treated by another emperor.”

There was silence in the hall. In Alexander’s court they had never heard such a thing – that a king who has been enslaved should laugh and say, ”There is no question. You should have learned manners. An emperor should be treated as an emperor.”

For a moment Alexander was indecisive, but then his better self came over him. He remembered, because seeing on the wrist of Poras the same thread... It was still there; it is not removed until it falls off by itself.

He told the people, ”Make him free. Give his kingdom back to him. And we cannot go deeper into India. It is dangerous. If on the frontier this episode happened, what will happen in the interior parts we don’t know. We are going back. It is enough that we have conquered.”

Three ways of Doing Vipassana meditation

"All meditations ... hundreds of techniques are available, but the essence of all those techniques is the same, just their forms differ. And the essence is contained in the meditation vipassana. That is the meditation that has made more people in the world enlightened than any other, because it is the very essence.

All other meditations have the same essence, but in different forms; something nonessential is also joined with them. But vipassana is pure essence. You cannot drop anything out of it and you cannot add anything to improve it. Vipassana is such a simple thing that even a small child can do it. In fact, the smallest child can do it better than you, because he is not yet filled with the garbage of the mind; he is still clean and innocent.

I would suggest vipassana as the technique for you. Vipassana can be done in three ways – you can choose which one suits you the best.

The first is: Awareness of your actions, your body, your mind, your heart. Walking, you should walk with awareness. Moving your hand, you should move with awareness, knowing perfectly that you are moving the hand.

You can move it without any consciousness, like a mechanical thing. You are on a morning walk; you can go on walking without being aware of your feet. Be alert of the movements of your body. While eating, be alert of the movements that are needed for eating. Taking a shower, be alert of the coolness that is coming to you, the water falling on you and the tremendous joy of it .... Just be alert.

It should not go on happening in an unconscious state. And the same about your mind: whatever thought passes on the screen of your mind, just be a watcher. Whatever emotion passes on the screen of your heart, just remain a witness – don’t get involved, don’t get identified, don’t evaluate what is good, what is bad; that is not part of your meditation. Your meditation has to be choiceless awareness.

You will be able one day even to see very subtle moods: how sadness settles in you just like the night is slowly, slowly settling around the world, how suddenly a small thing makes you joyous. Just be a witness. Don’t think, ”I am sad.” Just know, ”There is sadness around me, there is joy around me. I am confronting a certain emotion or a certain mood.” But you are always far away: a watcher on the hills, and everything else is going on in the valley. This is one of the ways vipassana can be done.

And for a woman, my feeling is that it is the easiest, because a woman is more alert of her body than a man. It is just her nature. She is more conscious of how she looks, she is more conscious of how she moves, she is more conscious of how she sits; she is always conscious of being graceful. And it is not only a conditioning; it is something natural and biological.

The second form is breathing, becoming aware of breathing. As the breath goes in, your belly starts rising up, and as the breath goes out, your belly starts settling down again. So the second method is to be aware of the belly, its rising and falling. Just the very awareness of the belly rising and falling

... And the belly is very close to the life sources because the child is joined with the mother’s life through the navel. Behind the navel is his life’s source. So when the belly rises up, it is really the life energy, the spring of life that is rising up and falling down with each breath. That too is not difficult, and perhaps may be even easier, because it is a single technique.

In the first, you have to be aware of the body, you have to be aware of the mind, you have to be aware of your emotions, moods. So it has three steps. The second sort has a single step: just the belly, moving up and down. And the result is the same. As you become more aware of the belly, the mind becomes silent, the heart becomes silent, the moods disappear.

And the third is to be aware of the breath at the entrance, when the breath goes in through your nostrils. Feel it at that extreme – the other polarity from the belly – feel it from the nose. The breath going in gives a certain coolness to your nostrils. Then the breath going out ... breath going in, breath going out ....

That too is possible. It is easier for men than for women. The woman is more aware of the belly. Most men don’t even breathe as deep as the belly. Their chest rises up and falls down, because a wrong kind of athletics prevails over the world. Certainly it gives a more beautiful form to the body if your chest is high and your belly is almost non-existent.

Man has chosen to breathe only up to the chest, so the chest becomes bigger and bigger and the belly shrinks down. That appears to him to be more athletic. Around the world, except in Japan, all athletes and teachers of athletes emphasize breathing by filling your lungs, expanding your chest, and pulling the belly in. The ideal is the lion whose chest is big and whose belly is very small. So be like a lion; that has become the rule of athletic gymnasts and the people who have been working with the body.

Japan is the only exception, where they don’t care that the chest should be broad and the belly should be pulled in. It needs a certain discipline to pull the belly in; it is not natural. Japan has chosen the natural way; hence you will be surprised to see a Japanese statue of Buddha. That is the way you can immediately discriminate whether the statue is Indian or Japanese.

The Indian statues of Gautam Buddha have a very athletic body: the belly is very small and the chest is very broad. But the Japanese Buddha is totally different; his chest is almost silent, because he breathes from the belly, but his belly is bigger. It doesn’t look very good because the idea prevalent in the world is the other way round, and it is so old. But breathing from the belly is more natural, more relaxed.

In the night it happens when you sleep: you don’t breathe from the chest, you breathe from the belly. That’s why the night is such a relaxed experience. After your sleep, in the morning you feel so fresh, so young, because the whole night you were breathing naturally ... you were in Japan! These are the two points: if you are afraid that breathing from the belly and being attentive to its rising and falling will destroy your athletic form ... men may be more interested in that athletic  form.

Then for them it is easier to watch near the nostrils where the breath enters. Watch, and when the breath goes out, watch. These are the three forms. Any one will do. And if you want to do two forms together, you can do two forms together; then the effort will become more intense. If you want to do all three forms together, you can do all three forms together. Then the process will be quicker. But it all depends on you, whatever feels easy.

Remember: Easy is Right and Right is Easy. As meditation becomes settled, mind silent, the ego will disappear. You will be there, but there will be no feeling of ”I.” Then the doors are open. Just wait with a loving longing, with a welcome in the heart for that great moment, the greatest moment in anybody’s life – enlightenment. It comes ... it certainly comes. It has never delayed for a single moment. Once you are in the right tuning, it suddenly explodes in you, transforms you. The old man is dead and the new man has arrived."

WU-WEI and LAO TZU

It is only through searching, seeking, desiring, that the ego exists; it exists in the tension between that which is and that which should be.

The moment the "should" disappears, the ego collapses. Hence all ethical systems, all moralities, are nourishment for the ego. The moral man is the most egoistic man in the world. And the mechanism is very simple. Seeking, searching, you live in the future, which is not; and the ego can exist only with that which is not, because it itself is not.

If you are in the moment, in the present, the ego has no possibility of surviving even for a single moment. The present is and the ego is not, like light is and darkness is not. Bring light in, and darkness disappears. Even to say that it disappears is not right, because it was not there in the first place, so how can it disappear? It was a pure absence. The absence of light, that's what darkness is.

The absence of the present, that's what the ego is. Not to be herenow, that's what the ego is -- not to be here now, to be somewhere else, seeking and searching for a faraway goal, looking at a faraway distant star. The farther away the goal, the bigger the ego.

The possible goal can give you only a small ego, and that too only for the time being.

Once the goal is achieved you will start feeling frustrated. That's what happens every day.

You wanted a beautiful car, now you have got it, and suddenly frustration sets in. The ego needs a new goal to survive; now it starts fantasizing about a bigger palace.

You were seeking and searching for a woman; now you have got her, and the moment you have got her you are finished with her. It may take a few days for you to recognize the fact, that is another matter, but you are finished with her. Now your ego needs another woman so that the journey can continue.

The ego is constantly journeying from the present to some nonexistential future. If you ask me, this is my definition of samsara, the world. The ego journeying from the present to the future is the world. And the ego not journeying at all, simply being herenow, is the end of samsara: you are in nirvana, samadhi, enlightenment. Hence enlightenment cannot be reduced to a goal. If you reduce it to a goal, you have missed the whole point.

All the buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be -- don't try to become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance. But you have been taught to become this, to become that. And the mind is so cunning, and the ways of the ego are so subtle that it even turns God, nirvana, enlightenment, truth, into goals; it starts asking how to achieve them. They are not to be achieved, they cannot be achieved; the achieving mind is the only barrier. They are already here. You have to drop the achieving mind, you have to forget journeying from this point to that, you simply have to relax and be, and all is attained.

Lao Tzu calls it wu-wei, action without action. You have not moved a single inch, and you have arrived; this is wu-wei. You have not gone anywhere, you have not even thought of going anywhere, and you are already there. Suddenly the recognition comes, "I never lost the home, I only fell asleep and started dreaming about achieving."

Those who give you goals are your enemies. Those who tell you what to become and how to become it, are the poisoners. The real master simply says, "There is nothing to become. You are already that, it is already the case. Stop running after shadows. Sit silently and BE. Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.

DO YOU AGREE WITH ME - PLEASE DROP THAT.

WHATSOEVER YOU SAY, I ALWAYS AGREE WITH IT.
THEN WHY IS MY LIFE NOT CHANGING?

MAYBE BECAUSE OF THE AGREEMENT. If you agree with me, or if you disagree with me, your life will not change. It is not a question of agreement or disagreement - it is a question of understanding.

And understanding is beyond both agreement and disagreement.

Ordinarily, when you agree you think you have understood me. If you have understood me then there will be no question of agreement and disagreement. How can you agree with truth? or disagree?

The sun has risen - do you agree or do you disagree? You will say the question is irrelevant.

Agreement, disagreement, is about theories, not about truth. So when you agree with me you are not really agreeing with me - you start feeling that I agree with your theory that you have already been carrying with yourself. Whenever you feel that is in agreement with you, you feel that you agree with.  Whenever I am not in agreement with you, then there is trouble, then you don't agree with me. Or, you don't listen to that, you don't hear that. You simply close yourself when I am saying something which does not agree with you.

It is not a question of agreement and disagreement. Drop this! I am not here in search of any converts; I am not trying any philosophy; I am not here proposing any theology; I am not seeking followers. I am seeking disciples - and that is a totally different thing, utterly different. A disciple is not one who agrees: a disciple is one who listens, who learns. The very word'disciple' comes from learning, discipline.

A disciple is one who is open to learn. A follower is closed. A follower thinks he has agreed; now there is nothing and no need to remain open - he can close, he can afford to close. A disciple can never afford to close; there is so much to learn. How can you agree or disagree? And a disciple has no ego, so who will agree and who will not agree. A disciple is just an opening there is nobody inside to agree or not agree. Your very agreement is creating the trouble.

And nobody is ever transformed through agreement. Agreement is very superficial, very intellectual.

To be transformed, one needs understanding. It is always understanding that transforms, that mutates. AND, when you understand, you are not to do anything - the understanding will start doing things. It is not that first you understand, then you practise - no. The VERY understanding, the very fact of understanding, goes deep into your heart, sinks, and there is transformation.

Transformation is a consequence of understanding.

If you agree then the problem arises: Now what to do? I have agreed, now something has to be practised. Agreement is very stupid, as stupid as disagreement.

And then mind is very cunning! You never know what you mean by agreement... -

first:

Mind is very cunning. Watch... when you agree with me, do you really agree with me? or do you find that I am agreeable to you? And then mind is very legal, mind is a lawyer: it can find ways to agree and yet remain the same. Not only that, but when you agree you start feeling as if now it is my duty to transform you - what more can you do'? - you are agreeing, you have done your part. What more can you do? - you have agreed. you have become, you have surrendered. What more can you do'?

Now, if nothing is happening, you start getting angry at me. Then when I say something to you, it is not exactly the same thing that you hear. You hear in your own way. You hear with all Your interpretations. You hear through your past, through memories, through knowledge, through your conditionings. YOU HEAR THROUGH THE MIND! And the mind gives a color to everything that you hear. It immediately Jumps on it, changes it, makes it agreeable to you; drops a few things, exaggerates a few other things, fills the gaps. Only part of what I have said remains in it and the part can never transform, only the whole.

But the whole can remain whole only when you are not making any effort to agree or disagree. When you are not making any effort to agree or disagree, you can put the mind aside. If you are trying to make an effort to agree, how can you put the mind aside? It is MIND which agrees or disagrees.

Understanding is something bigger than mind. Understanding happens in your total being. It is as much in your head as it is in your toe. Understanding is something total. Mind is a very tiny part, but very dictatorial. And it goes on pretending that it is the whole.

Second:

Your understanding is your understanding. Your interpretation is your interpretation. You will look from your angle.

Whatsoever you hear is your interpretation, always remember - beware of it! It is NOT what I have said: it is what you have thought that you have heard - and they are not the same things. You agree with your own echo; you don't agree with me. You agree with your own idea. Then how can you change? The idea is yours, the agreement is yours, so there is no possibility of change.

You please stop agreeing, disagreeing. You just listen to me. Your method of agreement may be a sort of trick to protect yourself, so that you don't get the shock. It functions like a buffer. I say something: you agree immediately. The shock is avoided. If you were not agreeing with me, it may have shocked you to your very roots, it may have shaken you to your very guts. I say something; you say, "Yes, I agree." With this agreement you cut. Now there is no need to be shocked - you agree.


We have created so many buffers around ourselves, protections. These protections will not allow you to change. To change you will need to be shocked - shocked tremendously, terribly. It is going to be painful - transformation is going to be painful. Agreement is very comfortable, so is disagreement.

I don't make much difference between agreement and disagreement; they are two aspects of the same coin.

The REAL person will not agree, will not disagree. He will simply listen - pure listening, absolutely pure listening, with no interpretation. He will put himself aside. He will give me way.

The third :

All your agreements, all your disagreements, are just finding ways to remain the way you are, not to change.

In fact, this express desire that they want to change is again a trick not to change; so they can say to the world, "I am trying to change and I am saying loudly and shouting loudly I want to change, and still if nothing is happening what can I do?"

You cannot change - the last thing I would like to say about this question - YOU cannot change.

You can only allow change to happen. Trying to change, you will never change. Who is trying? The old? Look at the inner logic of it: you are trying to change yourself. It is almost like pulling yourself up by your own shoe-strings. What can happen out of it? Nothing is possible. You cannot change yourself, because WHO is this one who is trying to change? It is your past. It is you.

You can allow a change to happen. What can you do to allow it? Please don't agree and disagree with me. You just listen! You just be here. You just let my presence function as a catalytic agent. You just get infected by me. You just catch the disease that I am having, the measles that I am having.

You just allow me. You don't try to change yourself.

This allowing is what surrender is all about.

So to follow is a way to avoid change. Please don't follow me. You simply listen to what is happening here, you see what is happening here. You just look into me, and you give me way - so my energy can start functioning on your energy. It is not a mind thing: it is a total affair... so that you can start vibrating in the same wavelength - even for a few moments.

Those moments will bring change, those moments will bring glimpses of the unknown. Those moments will make you aware that there is eternity beyond time. Those moments will give you a feel of what it is to be in meditation. Those moments will allow you a little taste of God, of Tao, of Tantra, of Zen. Those moments will bring the possibility of change, because those moments will come, not from your past but from your future.

Agreeing it is your past which agrees with me. Opening, allowing, it is your future which opens - opens with me. Your possibility of transformation is in your future. The past is dead and gone and finished. Bury it! It has no meaning any more. Don't go on carrying it; it is unnecessary luggage.

Because of THIS luggage, you cannot go very high.

What do you mean when you say, "I agree with you"? It means your past agreeing, your past feeling good and nodding, and saying, "Yes, that's what I have always been thinking." This is a way to avoid the future. Be aware....

Just being with me - that's satsang, that's contact high. Just being with me... in spite of you, a few rays will enter in your being and will start playing. And then you will become aware that whatever life you have lived was not life at all, that you have been in an illusion, that you have been dreaming.

Those few glimpses of reality will shatter your whole past. And then there is transformation.

It comes naturally of its own accord - it follows understanding.

Lao Tzu and WU_WEI

It has a tremendous attraction, because it is only through missing that the ego can survive. It is only through searching, seeking, desiring, that the ego exists; it exists in the tension between that which is and that which should be.

The moment the "should" disappears, the ego collapses. Hence all ethical systems, all moralities, are nourishment for the ego. The moral man is the most egoistic man in the world. And the mechanism is very simple. Seeking, searching, you live in the future, which is not; and the ego can exist only with that which is not, because it itself is not.

If you are in the moment, in the present, the ego has no possibility of surviving even for a single moment. The present is and the ego is not, like light is and darkness is not. Bring light in, and darkness disappears. Even to say that it disappears is not right, because it was not there in the first place, so how can it disappear? It was a pure absence. The absence of light, that's what darkness is.

The absence of the present, that's what the ego is. Not to be herenow, that's what the ego is -- not to be here now, to be somewhere else, seeking and searching for a faraway goal, looking at a faraway distant star. The farther away the goal, the bigger the ego.

Hence people who are not worldly have bigger egos than the so-called poor worldly people.

The possible goal can give you only a small ego, and that too only for the time being.

Once the goal is achieved you will start feeling frustrated. That's what happens every day.

You wanted a beautiful car, now you have got it, and suddenly frustration sets in. The ego needs a new goal to survive; now it starts fantasizing about a bigger palace.

You were seeking and searching for a woman; now you have got her, and the moment you have got her you are finished with her. It may take a few days for you to recognize the fact, that is another matter, but you are finished with her. Now your ego needs another woman so that the journey can continue.

The ego is constantly journeying from the present to some nonexistential future. If you ask me, this is my definition of samsara, the world. The ego journeying from the present to the future is the world. And the ego not journeying at all, simply being herenow, is the end of samsara: you are in nirvana, samadhi, enlightenment. Hence enlightenment cannot be reduced to a goal. If you reduce it to a goal, you have missed the whole point.

All the buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be -- don't try to become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance. But you have been taught to become this, to become that. And the mind is so cunning, and the ways of the ego are so subtle that it even turns God, nirvana, enlightenment, truth, into goals; it starts asking how to achieve them. They are not to be achieved, they cannot be achieved; the achieving mind is the only barrier. They are already here. You have to drop the achieving mind, you have to forget journeying from this point to that, you simply have to relax and be, and all is attained.

Lao Tzu calls it wu-wei, action without action. You have not moved a single inch, and you have arrived; this is wu-wei. You have not gone anywhere, you have not even thought of going anywhere, and you are already there. Suddenly the recognition comes, "I never lost the home, I only fell asleep and started dreaming about achieving."

Those who give you goals are your enemies. Those who tell you what to become and how to become it, are the poisoners. The real master simply says, "There is nothing to become. You are already that, it is already the case. Stop running after shadows. Sit silently and BE. Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.