You can be silent... that you can laugh

When you seek a result, it is the mind; when you don't seek a result, it is meditation. Kick the pot and walk out, meditate and walk out; don't ask for the result. Don't say, "What will happen?" If you think about what will happen you cannot meditate. The mind goes on thinking about the result; it cannot be here and now, it is always in the future. You are meditating and thinking, "When will the happiness come? It has not come yet."

If you forget the result completely, if there is not even a flicker in the mind for the result, not a single vibration moving into the future - when you have become a silent pool, here and now everything happens. In meditation cause and effect are not two -.cause is the effect; the act and the result are not two - the act is the result - they are not divided. In meditation the seed and the tree are not two -, the seed is the tree.

For the mind everything is divided: the seed and the tree are two, the act and the result are two. The result is always in the future and the act is here, you act because of the future. For the mind the present is always sacrificed for the future, and the future does not exist. There is always the present, the eternal now, and you are sacrificing this now for something which is nowhere and cannot be anywhere.

That's what I mean when I tell you to meditate. Meditation is just a situation; silence is not going to be the consequence of it. No, meditation is just creating the soil, the surrounding, preparing the ground. The seed is there, it is always there; you need not put in the seed, the seed has always been with you.
That seed is Brahma; that seed is atma. -- that seed is you. Just create the situation and the seed will become alive. It will sprout and a plant will be born, and you will start growing.

Meditation doesn't lead you to silence; meditation only creates the situation in which the silence happens. And this should be the criterion -- that whenever silence happens laughter will come into your life. A vital celebration will happen all around. You will not become sad, you will not become depressed, you will not escape from the world. You will be here in this world, but taking the whole thing as a game, enjoying the whole thing as a beautiful game, a big drama, no longer serious about it.
Seriousness is a disease.

Buddha must have known Mahakashyap. He must have known when he was looking at the flower silently and everybody was restless, he must have known only one being was there, Mahakashyap, who was not restless. Buddha must have felt the silence coming from Mahakashyap, but he would not call. When he laughed, then he called him and gave him the flower. Why? Silence is only the half of it. Mahakashyap would have missed if he had been innocently silent and didn't laugh. Then the key would not have been given to him. He was only half grown, not yet a fully grown tree, not blossoming. The tree was there, but flowers had not yet come. Buddha waited.

Now, I will tell you why Buddha waited for so many minutes, why for one or two or three hours he waited. Mahakashyap was silent but he was trying to contain laughter, he was trying to control laughter. He was trying not to laugh because it would be so unmannerly: What would Buddha think? What would the others think? But then, the story says, he couldn't contain himself any more. It had to come out as a laugh. The flood became too much, and he couldn't contain it any more. When silence is too much it becomes laughter; it becomes so over flooded that it starts overflowing in all directions. He laughed. It must have been a mad laughter, and in that laughter there was no Mahakashyap. Silence was laughing, silence had come to a blossoming.

Then immediately Buddha called Mahakashyap: "Take this flower -- this is the key. I have given to all others what can be given in words, but to you I give that which cannot be given in words. The message beyond words, the most essential, I give to you." Buddha waited for those hours so that Mahakashyap's silence became over flooded, it became laughter.

Your enlightenment is perfect only when silence has come to be a celebration. Hence my insistence that after you meditate you must celebrate. After you have been silent you must enjoy it, you must have a thanksgiving. A deep gratitude must be shown towards the whole just for the opportunity that you are, that you can meditate, that you can be silent, that you can laugh.

Only you remain...

This sutra says: MEDITATION IS THE SEED.
On your great journey, your quest for life, your pilgrimage to the temple of truth, meditation is the seed. What is meditation? Why is it so valuable -- so valuable that if it flowers you will become God, and if it rots you will rot in hell? What is meditation? Meditation is the state of no-thought consciousness, where you are fully conscious but thoughts are absent. You are, but the mind is not. The death of the mind is meditation.
At present, you are not. There is the mind and mind alone. It should be just the opposite: there should be only you, without any mind. Right now the mind consumes all your energy. All your life-energy is being sucked by the mind.
Have you ever seen the air plant? the amar-bel? It is a parasite that attaches itself to a tree and lives off of it, sucking its energy. The tree ultimately dries up and dies. It is called amar-bel, the immortal creeper. It is just like the mind. It has no roots. It needs no roots, for it lives off the parent plant. It sucks the tree dry as it nourishes itself. The Hindus have given it an apt name, the immortal creeper.
Your mind is also an immortal creeper. It does not die. It lives on indefinitely. It follows you for countless lives. What is interesting is that it has no roots, no seeds. Its existence is rootless. It should be dead, but it lives on you.
Your mind envelops you. You are completely smothered by it. All your life-energy is sapped by the mind. You are almost dried-up. Your mind lets you have just enough to keep you alive. The parasite does not kill its host tree outright; the host is allowed to retain enough for its most basic needs. A master treats his slave similarly: the slave is given just enough to stay alive.
Your mind gives you just enough to permit your survival. It gobbles up ninety-nine percent of your energy and allows you just one percent so that you can maintain the body. In a non-meditating state, the mind is ninety-nine percent and you are one percent; in a meditative individual the individual is ninety-nine percent and the mind only one percent. If you become one hundred percent and the mind is zero, that is the state of samadhi.
Then you are completely liberated; the seed has developed into a full-grown tree. There is nothing left to be achieved now. All that was to be attained is already attained. All potentiality has turned into reality; all that was hidden is now manifest. Then existence becomes filled with your fragrance; then the music of your dance is heard in all corners of the earth, and even far away in the moon and the stars. It is not that you alone are thrilled -- the life-stream of all existence throbs within you. Then existence becomes filled with celebration. Whenever a Buddha is born all of existence celebrates. All of existence yearns to see your seed turn into a spreading tree.
Meditation means: where the mind is as good as gone. Samadhi means: where the mind is completely void and only you remain.

This sutra of Shiva says: MEDITATION IS THE SEED.
Therefore we have to start with meditation. Right now, in sleeping and in wakefulness, in consciousness and unconsciousness, the mind has you in its grip. Thoughts invade you in the day and dreams in the night. All the twenty-four hours the mind argues and debates and the most amazing thing is: it all leads to nothing. What have you attained by all your reasoning and thinking? Where has it taken you? What goals have you reached?

Be This One

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

Question 1
SOME OF THE TECHNIQUES IN THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE METHODS SEEM TO BE END RESULTS AND NOT TECHNIQUES, SUCH AS THOSE THAT SAY TO "BECOME UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS" OR "BE THIS ONE" ETC. IT SEEMS THAT WE NEED TECHNIQUES TO ACHIEVE THESE TECHNIQUES. WERE TECHNIQUES LIKE THESE MEANT FOR VERY ADVANCED PERSONS WHO COULD JUST BECOME COSMIC AT A MERE SUGGESTION?

Such techniques were meant, not for very advanced persons, but for very innocent persons -- simple, innocent, trusting. Then just a suggestion is enough. You have to have something to do because you cannot trust.You don't have faith. Unless you do something, nothing can happen to you because you believe in action. If something happens to you suddenly without any doing on your part, you will be scared and you will not believe it. You may even bypass it; you may not even record in the mind that it happened. Unless you DO, you cannot feel something happening to you -- this is the way of the ego. But for an innocent person, for an innocent, open mind, just a suggestion is enough. Why? Because really, the innermost being is not something to be achieved in the future -- it is here and now, it is already the case. Whatsoever is to be attained is here, present in you right this very moment. If you can trust without any effort, it can become revealed. It is not a question of time, of you having to work it out. It is not somewhere far away that you have to travel to. It is you. You may call it God, you may call it nirvana or whatsoever you like -- it is you already. So even a suggestion , if believed totally, can reveal it to you. That's why so much significance is given to SHRADDHA, trust, faith. If a person can believe in the master, just a hint, a suggestion, an indication -- and in a flash everything will be revealed.
The basic point to be understood is this: there are things which you cannot attain right now because time will be needed to produce them. They are not with you. If I give you a seed, it cannot immediately become a tree. Time will be needed, and you will have to wait and work. Then the seed cannot become the tree immediately. But you are really the tree already. It is not a seed which has to be worked, it is a tree hidden in darkness, it is a tree which is covered, it is a tree which you are inattentive too -- that's all. Your inattention is the cover. You are not looking at it, that's all. You are looking somewhere else and that's why you are missing it. In a trusting moment the master can tell you, just by a suggestion, that it is here. And if you can believe, if you can look in that dimension in trust, it will be revealed to you.
These techniques are not for advanced people; they are for simple, innocent people. Advanced people are, in a way, difficult. They are not innocent, they have been working, they have attained something, and they have a subtle ego behind it. They know something so they are not innocent, they cannot believe. You will have to argue and convince them -- and then too they will have to make some efforts. By an innocent mind, I mean a mind which is not arguing. It is just like a small child. The child goes with his father hand in hand, he is not afraid. Whatsoever the father is leading, he must be leading in the right direction. The father knows -- so the child need not worry about it. He is not thinking of the future, what is going to happen is not his concern. He is enjoying the very journey; the end is not the problem at all. For the father it may be a problem. He may be afraid. He may be wondering whether they have lost the path or not, whether they are on the right path or not. But for the child it is not a problem. He knows that the father knows. That's all. And wherever the father leads, he will follow -- and he is happy at this very moment.
A trusting disciple, an innocent mind is just like a child -- and the master is more than a father. Once the disciple surrenders, he trusts. Then at any moment, when the master feels that the disciple is tuned, that the disciple is in harmony, he will just give a hint.
I have heard about a Zen master, Bokuju. He struggled hard to attain enlightenment, but nothing happened. Really, with a hard struggle sometimes nothing will happen, because the hard struggle is through the ego. And through hard struggle the ego becomes more hard. He did whatsoever could be done but the goal was no nearer. Rather, on the contrary, it was further away; further away than when he had started the journey. He was puzzled, confused, so he came to his master. The master said, "For a few years just completely stop any effort, any goal, any destination. Just forget, and live moment to moment near me. Don't do anything. Simply eat, sleep, walk, and just be near me. And don't raise any question... just see me, my presence. And don't make any effort because nothing is to be achieved. Forget the achieving mind because the achieving mind is always in the future -- that's why it goes on missing the present. Just forget that you have to achieve anything."
Bokuju believed in his master. He started living with him. For a few days, a few months, ideas floated in, thoughts came, and sometimes he would become uneasy and would think, "I am wasting time. I am not doing anything. How can it happen without doing anything? If it couldn't happen through such hard effort, how is it going to be easily attained by not doing anything?" But, still, he believed in the master. By and by the mind slowed down, and in the present of his master he started to feel a subtle calm flowing -- a silence would fall from the master onto him. He started feeling a merging. Years passed. He completely forgot that he was. The master became the center and he started to live like a shadow.
Then the miracle is possible -- this happening itself is the miracle. One day, suddenly, the master called his name, "Bokuju, are you here?" Just this, "Bokuju, are you here?" And he said, "Yes, master." And, it is said, he became enlightened.
There was nothing like a technique, not even a suggestion -- just, "Bokuju, are you here?" The total presence had been called, "Are you here, not moving anywhere, not gone somewhere else? With total intensity, are you present here?" And Bokuju said, "Yes, master." In that "yes" he became totally present there.
It is said that the master started laughing and Bokuju started laughing, and the master said, "Now you can go. Now you can move out there and help people by your presence." Bokuju never taught any method. He would simply ask this much, "Just be near. Remain present." And whenever a disciple was in tune, he would call the name of the disciple and ask, "Are you here?" This was the whole technique.
But this technique will need a grounding of your mind, a deep innocence. There are many techniques which are simple, the simplest possible: just a saying, "Be this one" -- just a hint. But it must have been said by the master in a certain moment. "Be this one" cannot always be said. It must have been said in a certain tuning, when the disciple was totally one with the master, or totally with the universe, merged. Then the master says, "Be this one" -- and suddenly the focus will change and the last part of the ego will dissolve.
These methods worked in the past but now it is difficult, very difficult, because you are so calculating, you are so clever. And being clever is just against being innocent. You are so calculating, you know too much arithmetic. This calculation goes on and on in the mind: whatsoever you do, it is always calculated, planned. You are never innocent, never open, receptive; you believe too much in yourself. Hence you go on missing. These methods won't be helpful for you unless you prepare. That preparation can be very long, and you are very impatient.
This age is basically the most impatient age that has ever happened on this earth. Everyone is impatient, everyone is too time-conscious, and everyone wants to do everything immediately. Not that it cannot be done -- it can be done immediately. But with such time-consciousness it is impossible. People come to me and they say that they have come only for one day. The next day they are going to Sai Baba, and after meeting him they will go to Rishikesh, and then they will go somewhere else. Then they return frustrated and they think there is nothing India can give. It is not a question of whether India can give something or not, the question is always whether you can receive it or not. You are in such a hurry and you want something immediately. Just like instant coffee, you think of instant meditation, instant nirvana. It is not possible. Nirvana cannot be packed, cannot be made instant. Not that it is impossible to make it instant, it can become instant -- but it can become instant only with the mind which is not after the instant. That's the problem. It can become instant. Immediately, this moment, it can happen. Not even a single moment is needed. But only to one who is relaxed about time completely, to one who can wait for infinity -- for him it will happen instantly.
This looks paradoxical but this is the case. If you can wait for eternity, you will not need to wait at all. But if you cannot wait for even a single moment, you will have to wait for eternity. You will have to wait because the mind which says, "Let it happen immediately," is a mind which has already moved from the moment. It is running, it is standing nowhere, it is just on the move. A mind which is on the move, on the way, cannot be innocent.
You may not be aware of it but innocent people are always without time-consciousness. Time lingers slowly. There is no hurry to go anywhere, they are not running. They are enjoying moment to moment. They are chewing each moment. And each moment has its own ecstasy to deliver. But you are in such a hurry that it cannot be delivered. While you are here, your hands are in the future, your mind is in the future -- you will miss this moment. And this will be always the case; you will always miss the now. And NOW is the only time! The future is false, the past is just memory. The past is no more, the future is yet to be -- and all that ever happens is the now. Now is the only time.
So if you can be prepared to slow down a little, to become non-calculating, playing like children, here and now, then these simple techniques can work miracles. But this century is too time-conscious. That's why you ask, IT SEEMS THAT WE NEED TECHNIQUES TO ACHIEVE THESE TECHNIQUES. No. These are techniques, not end-results. They look like end-results because you cannot conceive of how they can work. They can work in particular mind; they cannot work in other types of mind. And really, those who know, they say that all the techniques will ultimately bring you to the innocence where the phenomenon happens. When the phenomenon happens, it will be because the techniques will have brought you to that innocence -- if the innocence is there.
But it is difficult now because nowhere is innocence taught; everywhere we are teaching cleverness. Universities are not to make you innocent, they are to make you clever, cunning, calculating. The more clever you are, the better you will be in the struggle of life. You can gain much wealth, prestige, power, if you are calculating. If you are innocent, you will prove to be stupid; if you are innocent, then you will be nowhere in this competitive world. This is the problem: in this competitive world you may not be anywhere, but in that non-competitive world of nirvana, if you are innocent, you will be somewhere. If you are calculating you will not be anywhere in the world of nirvana, but in this world you will be somewhere. And we have chosen this world to be our goal.
Old universities differed completely, their orientation was totally different. Nalanda, Takshila -- they did not teach calculation, they did not teach cleverness. They were teaching innocence. Their orientation was different from Oxford or Kashi or Cambridge. Their orientation was totally different -- they were creating a different type of mind. So it almost always happened that a person who studied in Takshshila or Nalanda would become a BHIKKHU, a SANNYASIN, in the end. By the time he graduated from university he would renounce this world. Those universities were anti-world; they were preparing for some other dimension. They were preparing you for something else which cannot be measured in terms of this world. These techniques were for those type of people. Either they were innocent by their nature or they were training themselves to be innocent.
When Jesus said to his followers, "If someone hits you on one cheek, you give him the other," what is he intending to do? He is trying to make you innocent. Only a foolish person would do this. When someone hits you on one cheek, a calculating mind will say, "Hit him hard, immediately." And a really calculating mind will say, "Before someone hits you, hit him. Because attack is the best defense." Ask Machiavelli -- he is the cleverest mind. He says, "Before someone attacks you, you attack him, because attack is the best defense. Once someone has attacked you, you are already weak; he has already gained over you. Now the race is not equal. He is ahead of you. So don't allow the enemy to go ahead. Attack before anybody attacks you."
This is a calculating mind; this is a clever mind. Machiavelli was read by every prince and every king in medieval Europe -- but he was such a clever person that no king would employ him. He was read -- his book was the bible for power-politics, every prince would read his book The Prince and they would follow it -- but no king was ready to employ him because he was such a clever man. It was better to keep him away -- he was dangerous; he knew too much. He said, "Virtue is not good, but pretending to be virtuous is. Don't be virtuous, but pretend always that you are virtuous. That is the real good because then you gain from both the ends: from vice you gain, and from virtue also." This is the calculating mind. Go on pretending that you are virtuous, and always praise virtue. But never be really virtuous. Always praise virtue so others know that you are a virtuous person. Always condemn vice -- but don't be afraid to use it.
Jesus says, "When someone hits you on one cheek, give him the other. And if someone takes your coat, snatches it, give him your shirt also. And if someone forces you to carry his load for one mile, tell him that you are ready to carry it for two miles." This is patent foolishness, but very meaningful. If you can do this, these techniques will be for you. Jesus is preparing his disciples for sudden enlightenment. Just think about it. If you can be so innocent, so trusting, that if the other is hitting you, he must be hitting you for your good -- so give him the other cheek also, and let him hit it. The other's goodness is believed in, trusted in; no one is your enemy. When Jesus says, "Love your enemies," this is the meaning. No one is your enemy; don't see the enemy anywhere. That doesn't mean that there will not be enemies and there will not be people who will exploit you. There will be. They will exploit you. But be exploited -- and don't be cunning. Just look at that dimension: be exploited but don't be cunning. Be exploited but don't be mistrusting, don't disbelieve, don't lose faith. That is more valuable than anything others can cheat you of. Nothing else is so valuable.
But how do our minds function? If one man deceives you, the whole of humanity is evil. If one man is dishonest or you think that he is dishonest, then you don't believe in man at all. Then the whole of humanity has become dishonest. If one Jew is a miser, then the whole race of Jews is miserly. If one Mohammedan is bigoted, then all Mohammedans are. Just one is enough for us to lose our faith in all. Jesus says, "Even if all are dishonest, you should not lose faith, because faith is more valuable than what these dishonest people can take from you by their dishonesty." So really, if you lose faith you are losing something; otherwise nothing is lost.
For such innocent people these techniques are enough, they will not ask for anything more. You say, and it happens to them. Just on hearing the master many have become illumined -- but in the past, not in this age.
I have heard a story about Rinzai. He was a very poor BHIKKHU, a poor SANNYASIN, a beggar. As he was sleeping in his hut a thief entered. There was nothing in the hut except a blanket that he himself was using. He was sleeping on the floor, covered with his blanket. Then he became very uncomfortable and stared to think, "What an unfortunate fellow! He has come so far from the village to find something, and there is nothing in my hut. What misery! How to help him? The only thing is this blanket." And he was under it and the thief would not have the courage to snatch the blanket, so he slipped out from under it, left it there and slipped into a dark corner. The thief took the blanket and went away. The night was very cold, but Rinzai was happy that the thief had not gone back empty-handed.
Then he sat at the window of his hut. The night was cool, and the full moon was in the sky. He wrote a small haiku, a small poem. In the haiku he said, "If I could have given this moon to that thief, I would have." This mind! What has he lost? Just a blanket. What has he gained? The whole world, all that can be gained. He has gained innocence, trust, love.
For this man no technique is needed. His master would say, "Just look. Be aware. Be alert." And that would do.

Meditacion is that seed

BIJAVDHANAM
ASNASTHAH SUKHAM HRIDAE NIMAJJATI
SVAMATRA NIRMANAPADAYATI
VIDYA-AVINASHE JANMAVINASHAH.
MEDITATION IS THE SEED.
JUST SITTING, RELAXED WITHIN HIMSELF,
HE ENTERS SPONTANEOUSLY INTO THE LAKE OF
SUPREME BEING.
HE ATTAINS TO SELF-CREATION OR BECOMES
'TWICE-BORN'.
ETERNAL KNOWLEDGE LEADS TO CESSATION
OF BIRTH AND DEATH.

Jesus' disciples said to him, "Tell us about the Kingdom of God." And Jesus replied, "The Kingdom of God is like a seed." In our discussion today we shall talk about this very seed that Jesus speaks of.
Meditation is that seed. The seed in itself has no meaning. The seed is only a means; it is a potential tree. The seed is not a state of being; it is a stage on the journey. When a seed grows and becomes a tree, it reaches the goal. It flowers and bears fruit. This is its success. In a like manner, when the seed of meditation becomes a tree, it also flowers and bears fruit, and that blossoming is God.
It is necessary to understand the state of the seed. You constantly ask about God, but this is a futile enquiry. Why ask about the tree when you haven't cared for the seed? Without sowing the seed, how do you expect to see the tree? And God is not an external happening that you can see with your eyes. God is your own purified state; God is your own development. You will not be able to see God in others until the seed hidden inside you sprouts and becomes the tree.
No matter how hard they try, no Mahavir, Buddha, Shiva or Krishna can reveal God to you, for your God is hidden within yourself. At present He is in seed form; He is not yet a tree. You can see nothing in a seed. When the seed bursts and the tree sprouts, when it develops, you will manifest yourself. The flame within you will be kindled, and then you will know that God is.
It is difficult to defeat an atheist for this very reason. He always asks, "Where is your God. Show Him to me." His very question is wrong, so whatever answer is given will also be wrong. God is hidden with you. He hides within the questioner. And you cannot see the other man's God, for it is an internal happening. When your own seed sprouts you will know.
Right now you are like the seed, but you do not understand this seed, so you seek outside. As long as you seek without, your seed will lie dormant; it will not sprout, for it needs water and soil. It needs light and love, just like a small child. When you turn your eyes within, when your attention flows inward and your life-energy turns within, the seed will get that energy; it will become alive, it will sprout. MEDITATION IS THE SEED.

If you refuse to bathe and if the desire for a bath catches hold of you, then the desire is not the problem; the problem is you. You are restless. You do not know. You have never meditated. You have never indulged in this troublesome practice, and you want to eradicate your restlessness? It can never be eradicated without bathing in meditation.
Meditation is an internal bath. As the body is rid of dust and dirt, and becomes clean and fresh after a bath, so is meditation a bath of the inner soul; and when everything becomes fresh within, then where is the turmoil? Where is the sorrow and worry? Then you are thrilled. You are cheerful and blooming. There are bells on your ankles and your life becomes a dance. Before that you are sad, tired and distressed. And if you think that the cause of your distress is outside you are mistaken.
There is only one cause for your restlessness: you have not let your seed of meditation develop into a tree. Try as hard as you will, you will remain restless. Perhaps you imagine that peace will come if you accumulate the right things -- wealth, status, honor, health, sons and daughters... but there is no end to your restlessness. The more of these things you gather, the more your life will be filled with restlessness, and the more intense it will be.
A poor man is restless, a rich man more! Why is this so? Why does restlessness increase with wealth? It doesn't! The poor man is also restless, but he doesn't have enough time to know it. The rich man has the time to notice it; it pricks him like a thorn, and he sees it all around him.

When you have gratified all your needs, you will suddenly realize that the actual need is for meditation. All other needs were for the body, not for your self.

Beloved

The Bauls say,

Scanning the cosmos
you waste your hours.
He is present
in this little vessel.
In this little body
He has made His abode.

He is here
in this little vessel;
in you.
He is there,
the God of Gods,
the King of Kings,
the Beloved.

Permanence... Eternity

NOTHING HAS HAPPENED,
AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.
WHAT IS THERE, IS THERE.

Once you touch your source of permanence, your eternity, you have touched the eternity of life also. Parallel to you, things happen. If you are at the center, you are capable of looking into the very center of life. If you are on the periphery, you are capable of only looking at the periphery of life. The periphery goes on changing.
Have you seen a bullock-cart moving? The wheel moves, goes on moving, but at the center of the wheel something remains permanent. On that permanent hub the wheel moves. On that unmoving hub the wheel's movement exists. Exactly like that, you have a hub -- that hub is unmoving; and you have a wheel-like personality that goes on moving. You have travelled far, thousands of miles and thousands of lives, and the wheel knows many roads and many paths, but the hub has remained where it is. Now you can look at reality in two ways: either from the wheel -- then everything is changing every moment; or from the hub -- then nothing is changing.
"Nothing has happened and nothing will happen. What is there, is there."
How to find this hub of life? -- by becoming a witness, one finds it. Eating, eat -- but remember that there is a point inside you which has never eaten. Food goes into the body; your consciousness remains watching. Somebody insults you, anger arises; you remain a witness. The insult comes from outside, the anger arises on the periphery, and you remain at the center, watching. Yes, somebody has done something, provoked your periphery, and there is anger on the periphery, and the anger is surrounding you like a smoke cloud, but you are at the hub, watching. You are not identified with the periphery. Then the insult is outside, and the anger is also outside of you. Both are separate and far away. Both are different from you.
When this awareness grows, dreaming stops, by and by. When this awareness grows, the wheel moves slower and slower, because there is no point. You never move, so what is the point of travelling the whole earth? You remain the same; then desires slow down. One day it happens: the wheel is as silent, as unmoving as the hub. That is the point when enlightenment happens.

Nothing can be added to truth...

It is very difficult to see; when truth knocks at your door, it is very difficult to open the door and receive the guest, and welcome the guest -- because when truth knocks at your door, suddenly you become aware that you have been living up to now with lies, that up to now you have been untrue, that all your declarations were false and all your dogmas were false. When truth comes face to face with you, suddenly your whole life is nullified. Your whole past has been just a darkness. It is too much for the ego to accept. It is better to deny the truth, it is better to close the door, and say that truth never knocked at your door. It is better to say that there has been never a Buddha, never a Jesus, never a Krishna. It is better to say that to save your own face.

There is nothing wrong in being worldly. Be worldly, and yet remain unworldly -- that is the very art, the art of living between two opposites, balancing oneself between two opposites. It is a very narrow path, like a razor's edge -- but this is the only path. If you miss this balance, you miss truth.

And remember, and always keep it in your heart: truth, love, life, meditation, ecstasy, bliss, all that is true and beautiful and good, always exists as a paradox: in the world, and not of it; with people, yet alone; doing everything, and being inactive; moving and not moving; living an ordinary life, and yet not being identified with it; working as everybody else is working, yet remaining aloof deep down. Being in the world and not of the world, that is the paradox. And when you attain this paradox, the greatest peak happens to you: the peak experience.

The moment you also start living like a rosebush, rising like a sun, floating like a white cloud, you have come to a profound understanding of the mysterious, of the miraculous truth of existence.

Nothing can be added to truth.
Truth is always pure, nude, alone.
And there is great beauty, because truth is the very essence of life, existence, nature. Except for man, nobody lies. A rosebush cannot lie. It has to produce roses; it cannot produce marigolds -- it cannot deceive. It is not possible for it to be other than it is. Except for man, the whole existence lives in truth.
Truth is the religion of the whole of existence -- except man.
And the moment a man also decides to become part of existence, truth becomes his religion. It is the glorious moment.

When I say that except for man everything is living truth -- the ocean, the clouds, the stars, the stones, the flowers -- that everything is nothing but truthfulness, nothing but just itself, with no mask, and only man is capable of deceiving others, of deceiving himself -- it has to be remembered that this is a great opportunity. It has not to be condemned, it has to be praised, because even if a rosebush or a lotus wants to lie, it cannot. Its truth is not freedom; its truth is a bondage. It cannot go beyond the boundaries