A Demanding Mind

 

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A Demanding Mind

Expectation always creates misery. If we expect something, that very expectation will become the barrier. So, live a life without any expectations. Our expectations are our demands on life and a demanding mind always becomes miserable. Bliss is where demand is absent, because only in a non-demanding state can we relax and receive it. So, this is not a problem which is personal to us; this happens to many people.

Naturally, we come with great expectation – that this is going to happen, that is going to happen… many fantasies are there in the mind. Because of those fantasies we cannot relax; we are always waiting for the result. The journey is no more important; the goal has become important. If the goal is not arising within us, we become miserable. And the more miserable we become, the farther away the goal goes on receding. It’s a vicious circle.

We cannot demand anything of life; it has no obligation to fulfil our demands. That whole pattern has to be broken, so in a way it has been good that we have been shocked. Now we can learn something beautiful out of it – to never again expect. Expectation is out of misery, and naturally when a thing arises out of misery it will create misery.

The tree is nothing but an unfolding of the seed; the tree cannot be anything else. Why do we expect to be more loving? – because we must be suffering and feeling that we are not loving. Now out of the non-loving mind the desire comes to be loving. Watch the mechanism and from where it comes. The seed is poisoned, the source is poisoned. We are unloving so we desire to be loving. Now the desire is coming from an unloving mind. It cannot change us – it will be a continuity with our mind; it will make us more miserable. And when the demand is there, expectation is there, comparison is there. The greater the demand, the more miserable we will feel, the more of a failure we will feel. Make a big deal and then we fall short.

If we go to any Master, go without any desire, without any demand, without any expectation, that is the right way to go. Next time, go without any demand. Just go for the sheer joy of being there – not that something is going to result out of it. There is nothing to result out of it; it is the thing in itself. This is it! And if we can be in this moment without any expectation then there is no misery; then we are open. Then we simply unfold; our flower blooms. There is no barrier to it… nothing can hold it.

But it happens to many people. By and by they learn that expectations are not helpful. So, we suffered because we sowed the seeds for it. Next time go just for the sheer joy of being there – with not even a single idea, no demand about what should happen. Whatever happens is good. If nothing happens, that too is good. With no future in the mind, go to the Master. Next time create no future, no fantasy, no dream. And then suddenly we will be surprised: the past is slipping out of us! It cannot keep glued to us; it needs the future to remain with us.

So, drop the future and drop the past, and when the past and future are not there, there is no way to be miserable and there is no way to be closed. It is impossible to be closed and miserable; then one is simply blissful. Not really blissful, but one is simply bliss!