Consciousness!

 

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Consciousness!

Many of us wonder about consciousness – what is consciousness? Is there a source of consciousness? And so on…. Let us make an attempt to understand consciousness. Consciousness as explained by various Masters is the source of everything – consciousness is the stuff existence is made of. But there is no source of consciousness itself. Consciousness is another name of God — a better name, more scientific, less mythological.

We never ask for the source of God, do we? We know that God is the source of existence, but never ask for the source of God, believers just accept that God exists. The religions have been saying that existence cannot be without a creator; nothing can be without a creator — that has been the argument of all the religions for centuries. 

Gautam Buddha, who had a greater clarity than anybody else ever had, said that bringing God in is absurd. Existence has always been here. Nobody has created it, and nobody can destroy it. But that does not mean that Gautam Buddha is an atheist. It simply means he has a more scientific and less mythological approach.

He says existence consists of consciousness. Existence itself is made of consciousness. And consciousness has always been here, is here, will be here. It can be asleep, it can be awake, but it is consciousness all the same. When it is asleep you work blindly, unconsciously. When it becomes awake you are enlightened. But there is no source of consciousness. Consciousness itself is the very foundation of the whole of existence. Nothing is deeper than that. We cannot go beyond consciousness.

There are degrees of consciousness. Man is the only being whose unconsciousness has allowed a little bit of consciousness to arise and to be awake. Now this little piece, this little layer of consciousness is enough, if we use it rightly, we can bring more and more of our unconsciousness into a state of consciousness.

As of now, it is one tenth of our whole consciousness. The day it becomes all consciousness and no unconsciousness within us, a pure awareness from abc to xyz, from the beginning to the end - we will find all questions have disappeared, because we are in a state of knowing without questioning. We are consciousness itself and we know that it is the source of everything; it does not need any source for itself.

Even the criminal, even the worst criminal has a little consciousness. But he does not allow his consciousness to grow. On the contrary, he allows his unconsciousness to use his consciousness. The unconscious remains the master and consciousness is being used as a servant.

The day we became sadhaks, the day we embarked on the spiritual path, we took a quantum leap and affirmed: “From now on consciousness will be the master and unconsciousness will be the servant. I will not allow unconsciousness to infiltrate into my consciousness. Howsoever small my consciousness is, I must work only consciously so that slowly, slowly it becomes stronger, more crystallized, and capable of making unconscious parts of me also join hands with it.” People use their consciousness occasionally, but it is not the active part of their being twenty-four hours a day. A sadhak must be conscious twenty-four hours a day. At least he must make the effort.

Slowly, slowly consciousness goes on seeping into the unconscious layers of our being. And it is not just a philosophy or an imaginary idea, because thousands of people have become totally conscious. Those who have become totally conscious have bloomed into blissfulness.

Becoming a Witness

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Becoming a Witness

Before we can transform our suffering our misery into something good, we will have to learn to become a witness. To do this we have to learn to transform ourself from within – we need to change our inner alchemy. We can do this by learning to accept evil - don’t resist it, don’t fight with it, don’t be angry with it; absorb it, because it can be transformed into good.

The art of transforming suffering, pain, evil, into something good is the art of seeing the necessity of the opposite. Light can exist only if darkness exists. Then why hate darkness? Without darkness there will be no light, so those who love light and hate darkness are in a dilemma; they don’t know what they are doing.

Life cannot exist without death. Then why hate death? Because it is death that creates the space for life to exist. This is a great insight, that death is the contrast, the background, the blackboard on which life is written with white chalk. Death is the darkness of night on which life starts twinkling like stars. If we destroy the darkness of the night the stars will disappear. That’s what happens in the day. The stars are still there - have they disappeared? They are still there, but because there is too much light, we cannot see them. They can be seen only in contrast.

The saint is possible only because of the sinner. Hence, realised Masters like Buddha say don’t hate the sinner, he makes it possible for the saint to exist. They are two aspects of the same coin.

Once we realise, one is neither attached to good nor detached from bad. One accepts both as part and parcel of life. In that acceptance we can transform things. Only through that acceptance is transformation possible.

And before we can transform suffering, we will have to become a witness. First: do not resist evil. Second: know that opposites are not opposites but complementary to each other, inevitably joined together, so there is no choice - remain choiceless. And the third is: be a witness, because if we become witness to our suffering, we will be able to absorb it. If we become identified with it, we cannot absorb it.

The moment we become identified with our suffering we want to discard it, we want to get rid of it, it is so painful. But if we are a witness then suffering loses all thorns, all stings. Then there is suffering, and we are just a witness to it. We are just a mirror; it has nothing to do with us. Happiness comes and goes, unhappiness comes and goes, it is a passing show; we are just there, a mirror reflecting it. Life comes and goes; death comes and goes; the mirror is not affected by either. The mirror reflects but remains unaffected; the mirror is not imprinted by either.

A great distance arises when we witness. And only in that witnessing can we transform the baser metal into gold. Only in that witnessing do we become a scientist of the inner, a detached observer.

Now we know the opposites are not opposites, so they can be changed into each other. Then it is not a question of destroying evil in the world, but of transforming evil into something beneficial; transforming poison into nectar.

Anger to Creativity

 

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Anger to Creativity

We have all observed children – they are so full of energy which needs to be expended – if that opportunity is not there then it results in anger and tantrums – energy gets released, isn’t it!

It is not really anger. It looks like anger only on the surface. Deep in our being we are so full of energy that we don’t know what to do with it; that’s why it takes the form of anger. We have great creative potential. It is creative energy which is not being rightly used; it becomes sour.

We cannot change it by doing anything with anger. It appears to be anger, but it is not. Anger is negative energy and creative people are filled with positive energy. It is just that this creativity is hidden deep within and has still not found an outlet.

When we don’t know what to do with it, we become angry; then we find excuses, any excuse will do. Those excuses are not very important either but we must find an excuse - that we are angry because of this. We find a rationale for our anger, because without a reason for the anger we will not be able to forgive ourselves; we will think that we are going crazy. And in reality, we are sitting on a great energy which can become a great ecstasy.

We should put our energies into creativity. Forget about anger as a problem, ignore it. Channelise the energy towards more creativity. We should pour ourselves into something that we love. Rather than making anger our problem, let creativity be our object of meditation. Shift from anger to creativity and immediately we will see a great change arising within. And tomorrow the same things will not feel like excuses for being angry because now energy is moving, it is channelised, it is being sublimated, it is enjoying itself, its dance. Then, who cares about small things?

Out of one hundred people suffering from anger, nearly half suffer from too much creative energy which they have not been able to put into use. Their problem is not anger, but they will go on thinking for their whole life that their problem is anger. Once a problem is diagnosed rightly, half of it is already solved.

So, jump into work here, now put all the energy into work and meditate at least once - either play music or listen to it, write poems, paint, draw, sing, dance – anything that gives you joy and releases pent up energy. And for two, three months simply watch; enjoy your work, don’t avoid any work. Whatever comes our way, we should pour our whole energy into it as much as we can, don’t withhold. Within three months we will see that anger has simply shrunk. 

Sometimes there may be flare-ups but that is not a problem. Right now, it is a constant presence, and it is just boiling energy. So, this is our home now, we have come home. We should put ourselves to work - the anger will disappear and creative bliss will arise.

From Mind to Meditation

 

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From Mind to Meditation

Mind is misery and cannot be otherwise, because mind lives in desires, ambitions, it is always hankering for more - and that hankering cannot be satisfied. It always goes on jumping ahead of us, wherever we may be, the mind will be asking for more. It is always ahead of us. The distance between us and the mind always remains the same. We have this much money, the distance is there. We can have that much money; the same distance is there.

And it is this distance that creates the misery because it is always frustration, always a wound. It hurts that “I have not been able to fulfil myself,” but nobody has ever been able to fulfil anything through the mind. Mind’s very texture consists of unfulfillment. Hence the people who teach peace of mind are doing simply something very absurd. Nothing like that has ever existed. It cannot exist. Peace of mind is a contradiction in terms.

One can get out of the mind, and that is what meditation is. Meditation is not peace of mind, it is transcendence of mind, and that distinction has to be remembered. Priests of all religions tell us to do this, do that in order to get peace of mind – all that talk is balderdash! That is not the peace of mind the awakened ones talk about.

The awakened ones are all agreed about one thing, that we have to go beyond mind, only then there is peace. In mind there is no peace. Mind is the turmoil, the noise. It is the very hell, but it can be transcended. Because we are not our mind, we are something totally different, so we can step over it, we can go beyond it, we can use it as a stepping stone, as a ladder.

The hell of the mind can become a ladder to the heaven of meditation - and that’s the work that realised Masters are doing today: to help us use the mind in such a way that we can go beyond it. And once we have tasted even a single moment of that beyond-ness, of that transcendence, then everything becomes clear. Then one knows why there has been misery: it was the cause that was causing it.

The moment we are no more on the mind suddenly there is bliss. Not that we have to look for it - it is already there – it is just that we are so engrossed in the mind that we cannot look at our own centre. At the centre there is absolute bliss and nothing else. It is waiting for us. All that is needed is a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn. Right now, our back is towards our centre and our face is toward the world - this is the state of mind.

Just the opposite is the state of meditation: when our back is towards the world and our face is towards the centre, suddenly we become aware of something that has always been there. We have not lost it even for a single moment. It is our very nature to be blissful. Meditation gives us only that which we have had always. It simply makes us aware of our reality. It does not bring anything new in. It simply reveals we have the treasure that is lying there ignored and neglected, and we are running all over the world for it. We will not find it anywhere else because it is within us.

Mind is misery, meditation is bliss. Mind is misery because it takes us away from our true nature and meditation is bliss because it brings us back to our true nature, it brings us back home.

Confusion in Spirituality

 

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Confusion in Spirituality

When we embark on the spiritual path, it is very important that the spiritual aspirant is not trying to reach some particular ‘place’, because the moment we want to get to something particular, the mind will immediately start creating that place. We will create our own private heaven.

The spiritual process is not about giving up one level of hallucination and moving into another level. This is about giving up hallucination altogether and being able to live with reality just the way it is, because the effort is about truth.

Truth means something that is existential, not what we make up in our ever-fertile mind. One may see a God or a devil in the mind – both do not matter. What we see is a question of culture and what we are exposed to; it is a question of whether we are an optimist or pessimist – when we see people, whether we see God or devil in them. It has nothing to do with reality. The reality is, we are here right now and we don’t know what the hell we are here for, where the hell we came from and where we will go. That is the reality of life. 

Learning to live with reality is the most important thing. We don’t have to do anything else. If we stop distorting things in our mind and just see everything the way it is, moksha is just one step away. We don’t have to do anything. Just time will do it. Time will mature us and take us into another place.

We just have to ensure that we don’t make up anything – either positive or negative. We don’t create a God or a devil, heaven or hell, good or bad – we just accept things the way they are, that’s it. At certain times, for the purpose of activity, we may have to recognise these things. But the rest of the time, we can just look at things as they are. 

If we see things as they are, we will see life is not just in this form or that form. It is exploding across the universe. The cosmos is a living cosmos. This is what we will see if we stop identifying, “This is life, this is not life, this is animate, this is inanimate, this is man, this is woman.” Simply look at everything the way it is. 

Once we identify ourselves with a global mass, life is different. Is it beautiful? No. Is it ugly? No. How is it? Like life, as it should be! It is just as it should be, not this way or that way. Everything is as it should be. It is only our mind that keeps distorting everything. As we stop our distortions and simply look at everything the way it is, we will see there is an explosion of life.

Modern physicists say that the universe is ever-expanding – what they mean is there is nothing conclusive about anything. So, there is no ‘this is it.’ It is a never-ending process of absorption. Suppose there is a ‘this is it.’ What will we do after that? We must understand, if we arrive at a station called reality, there is no such thing as ‘this is it.’

Conclusions happen only in our mind, never in existence. Conclusion is the nature of the mind. It wants to close one chapter and say, ‘I got it.’ But life is a limitless happening. That’s what is beautiful about life.

Ego Makes Us Miserable

 

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Ego Makes Us Miserable

Whenever we listen to the voice of our ego, sooner or later there will be trouble. We will fall into the trap of misery. We have to watch this - ego always leads into misery, always, unconditionally; always, categorically, absolutely. And whenever we listen to nature, it leads us to well-being, contentment, silence, bliss. So, this should be the criterion. We will have to make many errors; there is no other way. We have to watch our own choice, from where the voice is coming, and then you have to see what happens — because the fruit is the criterion.

When we do something, watch, be alert. And if it leads to misery, then we should realise that it was our ego. Then the next time, we should be alert, and not listen to that voice. If it is nature, it will lead us towards a blissful state of mind. Nature is always beautiful; ego is always ugly. There is no other way but trial and error. There is no criterion so that we can judge everything, no - Iife is subtle and complex and all criteria fall short. We will have to make our own efforts to judge. So, whenever it leads us to misery, it was certainly from the ego.

If our love leads to misery, it was from the ego. If our love leads to a beautiful sense of blessedness, it was from nature. If our friendship, even our meditation, leads us to misery, it was from the ego. If it were from nature everything would fit in, everything would become harmonious. Nature is wonderful, nature is beautiful, but we have to work it out.

We should always make a note of what we are doing and where it leads. By and by, we will become aware of that which is ego and that which is nature; which is real and which is false. It will take time and alertness, observation on our part. And we shouldn’t deceive ourselves - because the ego only leads to misery, nothing else.

Don’t throw the responsibility on the other; the other is irrelevant. Our ego leads us to misery, nobody else leads us into misery. Ego is the gateway to hell, and the natural, the authentic, the real that comes from our centre within, that is the door to heaven. We will have to find it and work it out. If we work it out diligently, soon we will be absolutely certain of what is from nature and what is from the ego. Then don’t follow the ego. In fact, we ourselves will consciously not follow the ego. There will be no need to make an effort; we will be simply following the natural. The natural is Divine. And in nature the supernature is hidden. If we follow the natural, by and by, slowly and surely, without even making any noise, suddenly one day the natural will disappear and the supernatural will appear. Nature leads to God, because God is hidden in nature.

First, we should learn to be natural. Then we will be flowing in the river of the natural. And one day the river will fall into the ocean of the supernatural.

Pain Can Become Samadhi

 

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Pain Can Become Samadhi

Every pain and suffering in life can lead us on to attaining a state of samadhi – this is simply because the points of pain become breakthroughs. It is through pain that one transcends, never through pleasure, because in pleasure one indulges and one becomes more and more oblivious of one’s being. When everything is going well, who bothers? Then one is on a merry-go-round, lost. But when pain is there, suffering is there, one naturally becomes more alert, more aware – one has to be: the pain is a great challenge.

If we accept pain, if we don’t deny it, if we are not scared of it, if we accept it as part of life with no judgement, with no idea of whether it is good or bad – it is simply there, it is a fact, neither good nor bad. Once we accept this as true, we start transcending, we become more alert, more a witness. The pain is there but we are no more identified with it.

If we suffer an accident and the leg can’t be saved, then the leg may be cut but we will remain intact. Nothing will be cut from us; our consciousness will not lose anything in it… and that is the real thing. The cutting of the leg is almost just as if we cut the sleeve of the shirt – mm? inside we remain intact: we are not our shirt, the sleeve is not our hand. In exactly the same way, the leg is not us, the body is not us. Even if the whole body disappears nothing disappears – one remains. So let this be a great experience.

Our whole approach should be to accept whatsoever life brings: accept it with gratefulness, with thankfulness. Don’t have a grudge. It is very natural to have a grudge but through having a grudge we will miss the point.

Life itself is a mystery – that’s why it exists for no reason at all. If there is a reason there is no mystery. It is mysterious… it is unknown. And all those who claim that they know are just on ego-trips. Not a single thing is known and not a single thing can be known. All our knowledge remains superficial, just an acquaintance; it never solves the mystery. So, we have to understand this – that not a single thing is known and not a single thing can be known… that ignorance is utter and ultimate but it is innocent and very intimate.

Things are as they are, and we have to accept; what else is there to do? In that acceptance is transcendence. Then we don’t have any grudge; we are happy the way we are. And who knows? Life is so mysterious that one never knows – all one can do is flow with the tide – go where life takes us happily.

Forgetting God’s Love

 

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Forgetting God’s Love

One of the most fundamental tenets of life is that God loves each and every one of His creations. Most of us tend to forget this basic fact and only call God in an emergency.

There are problems in life and there are agonies to be encountered and to be surpassed. Life is not just a bed of roses; hence many times one tends to forget that God loves us. In fact, great doubt arises: “How can there be a God if I am in such suffering? How can God allow such suffering? If he is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, then why does suffering exist at all? Why always me? Then why does the world go on living in suffering?”

There is every reason not to believe in God and there is no reason to believe in God. The mind can supply a thousand and one reasons why God cannot be, but the mind cannot supply even a single reason for God’s existence. In fact, from the mind there is no way towards God. Mind is just the opposite of God: it keeps our back towards God - and if we keep our back towards God how can we see? Hence the importance of constantly remembering that God loves us, that if there is suffering then there must be meaning in suffering, otherwise there would be no suffering. And there is meaning in suffering. It is through suffering that one becomes integrated.

Suffering is a challenge. It is not a disease to be destroyed, it is a challenge to be accepted, it is an adventure. In the very effort to transcend suffering one arrives at one’s real being. It has a purpose: without it there will be no evolution of consciousness. Pain is not without purpose; hence whatever the world is, it is as it should be. It is the most perfect world there can be. It cannot be improved upon.

It is very human to forget that God loves us. When we are in misery how can we remember it? But those are the moments to remember that God loves us. And if misery has come to us, then it is because He has sent it. It has to be accepted with gratitude.

Even Jesus had doubts when he was being crucified – he questioned God for his suffering. But he immediately remembered – only for a moment did his agony, suffering, pain possess him, and then he transcended it all and said, “Let thy kingdom come, let thy will be done.” He remembered that God loves, that if the cross has happened, if he is crucified, then it is because of God’s will; then there must be something hidden behind it, then it must be a blessing in disguise. He has become surrendered. Just a moment before, the last part of the human mind was still trying to struggle; now he has dropped that too. He dies enlightened, he dies a Christ.

But the whole of life is like a crucifixion. Each moment, at each step, there is suffering, there is agony. All we need to do is remember God loves us, and all that happens has to be accepted with gratefulness. That’s what being a sadhak (a person who practices spirituality) is all about.

Bliss Helps to Serve Selflessly

 

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Bliss Helps to Serve Selflessly

One can become a helper for two reasons: either out of misery or out of bliss. One can be a servant to humanity out of misery. One can become interested in others’ misery just to avoid one’s own misery. Just to remain occupied with others’ problems, so that one need not look at one’s own problems. One can become too involved with others’ problems, for the simple reason that their problems are so big, so great, so complicated, that in comparison our problems look very tiny, small, meaningless.

Many people enter public service just to hide from their own misery. Such people don’t have the guts to face their own misery, so they drown themselves in other people’s problems; they don’t have the courage to face their own situations, so the best way is to get involved in others’ misery. This provides consolation that we are not the only one’s who are miserable. Our issues are nothing compared to those of others – that itself is a great consolation.

But people who become helpers or servants out of misery are never really helpers, they harm people. Because we can give to people only that which we have got in the first place. If we are miserable, we will carry infections of misery with us, we will vibrate misery, we will pulsate misery, we will create misery in people in such subtle ways that we may not even become aware of what we are doing.

That’s what missionaries of all so-called religions have been doing down the ages and continue to do today. They go to help people but they simply make them feel more guilty. They create misery for others. In the name of service, they destroy people’s integrity, their confidence, their self-respect. In the name of service, they create such guilt in them that they lose all confidence in themselves. They become self-condemners. They start feeling that they are sinners and that they are doomed… their sins are so much that they are bound to go to hell. Their lives become burdened. And this is because of the people who wanted to help them.

If one is spiritual, one will realise that only a blissful person can be a helper of mankind, because a blissful person can share bliss and a blissful person can accept people with all their limitations. Such a person understands and is capable of understanding. And such people are so blissful that they cannot call people sinners, they cannot see any sin anywhere. They see only Gods and Goddesses everywhere. It is impossible for them to believe that there is a hell. If there is a god there cannot be a hell. If there is hell then there can be no god, because God means compassion. If God cannot forgive small sins… who will be able to forgive if even God is incapable of forgiving?

And what are people’s sins? Somebody is smoking cigarettes… and that is sin. It may be a little stupid, silly, taking the smoke in and out, but it is a kind of pranayama, a stupid kind of pranayama. We could have taken fresh air in and out and it would have been far more hygienic and healthier medically too. It may be a little suicidal but it is not sin. But people have been condemned for small things – drinking tea has been labelled sin by some religions!  

Once we become blissful, we are bound to share our bliss. Nobody can contain it. If we are blissful, we are bound to serve people selflessly. And when service comes out of bliss it has a fragrance of its own, a beauty, a grace. It is something divine. The very touch is healing. It transforms dust into gold. So, first we have to become blissful persons.

The Sun’s Energy

 

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The Sun’s Energy

Before the sun begins to come up on the horizon, at approximately 3:20 to 4:00 a.m., the sun’s energy starts reaching us. Light will not yet come, but the solar energy significantly rises on the planet at that time. In the night, the solar energy actually goes down well before sunset. In different parts of the world, the sun sets at different times, also depending on the time of the year. As you get closer to the equator, the sunset is somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m.

In India the sun usually starts setting around six o’clock. Somewhere around 5:20 p.m., the solar energies start dwindling away. Light is still seen, but the energy will recede. Because of the turning of the planet, the sun is moving away from us and energy begins to withdraw. It is that withdrawal of energy that people experience as a kind of ethereal happening. If we really pay attention to the sunset, we will see there is a transcendent nature to it because what was there and at full blast around noon is suddenly gone. It almost takes our breath away.

In the morning, somewhere from 3:20 a.m. onwards, the solar energy begins to rise. We call this brahma muhurta. Brahman is an abstract source of creation. As far as we are concerned, in this solar system, the fundamental source of our energy and creation is the sun. Trillions of chemical reactions that are being conducted every second in our body would not happen without solar power. The moment the brahma muhurta starts, our body wakes up by itself in a deep way within ourselves.

When we practice yoga and then meditate, it is more about bringing our own body in alignment with nature. We may do Surya Kriya or any other sun related exercise – the basic objective is to absorb the solar energy, tune in with nature.

It was not the exercise. It is just that we get in tune with that energy, and suddenly everything is on. This is what kriyas are about. A kriya is not about driving us in some direction – it is about getting into proper alignment with everything. When everything is in alignment, it is so smooth, there is no friction. Where there is no friction, there is no wear and tear, no stress. Where there is no friction, it can go on continuously, non-stop! Where there is friction, it needs more breaks.

The process of yoga is just this – on many levels – to create an alignment with the rest of the existence. The only way we will know yoga is when we are in perfect alignment. We do not have to create an alignment with something outside. If we come into perfect alignment with our own system, naturally, there will be a perfect alignment with everything. When this happens, everything will happen according to the natural order.

There will be no struggle about how much to eat, how many calories to consume, how much to exercise, what to do – all this nonsense will disappear. We will just know what to do with our life, without even a thought, because the necessary intelligence is invested in this life. It is the same intelligence that manufactures our body and our brains from within.

People Cannot Accept Bliss Easily

 

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People Cannot Accept Bliss Easily

Embarking as a spiritual practitioner is not prayer with sadness, seriousness. It is not prayer as a ritual, as a formality. It is prayer as playfulness. It is prayer as cheerfulness. The birds in the morning singing - that is prayer. They are not Christians, they are not Hindus, they are not Muslims; they don’t know anything about the church and the temple and the mosque, and they have never heard that there are scriptures - but their singing is prayer. The wind passing through the pine trees is prayer; although it knows nothing of prayer, it is filled with prayer.

Space is filled with prayer. The stars are prayerful, the trees are prayerful, the oceans are prayerful. Except for humans, the whole of existence is always in a state of prayer; only humans need to move towards it consciously - for a certain reason: humans are the only conscious beings. Hence humans have a choice: they can fall out of the natural flow of existence or they can become part of it. No other animal has that freedom. The birds in the morning are not singing out of their own choice, they are simply singing instinctively. The trees are prayerful and the mountains are prayerful, but that prayer is just a natural phenomenon.

Human’s dignity is that they can choose to be prayerful — but that can also become their fall because they can also choose not to be prayerful. Humans are always at the crossroads: each step and there is a choice, each step and we can go wrong or right. When sadness and cheerfulness confront us, always choose cheerfulness. When seriousness and playfulness confront us, always choose playfulness. And remember: we become whatever we choose. It is simply a question of choice.

A Sufi saint was once asked how he appeared to be happy all the time. He replied – when I wake up every morning I ask myself whether I should be happy or sad, everyday I choose to be happy – it is that simple! If it is simply a question of choice, then why shouldn’t every rational being choose happiness?!

If we know that it is a question of choice, we are bound to choose happiness always. People think that we are victims; that is wrong, we are not victims. It is not that situations go on dragging us into unhappiness and sometimes into happiness, that we are just at the mercy of blind forces — no, not at all, a thousand times no. Every moment we are choosing. Maybe our choice is unconscious, we may not be consciously choosing, but choice is there.

From this moment start becoming aware of it and we will be surprised: sometimes in the middle of our sadness suddenly the clouds disperse and it is sunny, because suddenly we see the point - that we have chosen to be sad and there is no need to be sad! Life is such a beautiful gift that one should not waste a single moment in sadness, in anger, in jealousy, in possessiveness. One should dance one’s way to God. One should laugh one’s way to God!

People cannot accept bliss easily; misery is okay. Remember that it is only a question of our decision; in a single blow one can cut the Gordian knot, and one can be free with a single quantum leap. Becoming a sadhak is not practicing bliss, it is simply renouncing misery. Bliss takes a lion’s heart.

Living in a Mental Hell

 

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Living in a Mental Hell

Hell is always our own creation – whether we wish to live in heaven or in hell, we live in our own creation. This creative capacity and propensity lie between our ears – in our minds only. Nobody else is responsible. Don’t throw the responsibility onto God, fate, luck, society, economic structure. Don’t throw the responsibility on past lives, on others. We should take the whole responsibility on ourselves, because that is the only way to move, to change, to go beyond. The only cause of hell, the only cause of misery is us and nobody else. Except us, nobody can cause it. And it is not the past; we are creating it every moment.

Osho narrates a story which explains our predicament – there are two drunkards talking to each other in a pub. “My name is Viking”, says one. That’s strange says the other, “My name too is Viking, where do you live?” “Just across the street”, responds the first one. “Wowee! me too! Which floor?”, asks the second. “Third”. “Gosh! That’s where I live too.” At this point the bartender turns to another customer, and shaking his head says, “Every Saturday it is the same thing. They are father and son!”

We need to become a little more conscious. Watch how we create our hell. Watch carefully each step, and we will be able to find out how we create it. People only reap the crop they have sown themselves. To become aware of it is the greatest moment in one’s life, because from there transformation begins, from there a new life starts.

We have to take the whole responsibility of whatever we are, and wherever we are. This is the first principle of becoming sadhaks on the spiritual path. The whole responsibility is ours, don’t blame anybody, and don’t try to find causes somewhere else. It is easy, and it is the strategy of the ego always to find causes somewhere else, because then there is no need to change. What can we do? The society is wrong, the social structure is wrong, the political ideology is wrong, the government is wrong, the economic structure is wrong – everything and everyone else is wrong except us. We are beautiful persons having fallen into everything that is wrong. What can we do? Then we have to suffer, and then we have to learn how to tolerate.

That’s what people have been doing for centuries – learning tolerance. Swamiji doesn’t teach us tolerance; he teaches us transformation. Enough of tolerance! Tolerance means we have misunderstood the whole thing. Transformation means we have started to begin – at least the first ray of understanding has entered into us.

Now whatever it is, watch each step how it comes. If it is anger watch; if it is lust, watch; if it is greed, watch – these are the three poisons we need to be aware of. And through watchfulness we will be able to get rid of them. In fact, through watchfulness they simply start disappearing.

Why Can’t We Create Joy?

 

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Why Can’t We Create Joy?

We should learn to live in a climate of divine delight, breathe in it. It is only a question of remembering, and it comes. And we can do it very easily. We can easily become miserable; we can easily become blissful; bliss is one’s own creation.

And once we have learned the fact – that it is our own creation, heaven or hell – then there is no point in being miserable, no point in choosing hell. We go on choosing hell because we are not aware that we are the creators. We think we are forced to be in it, somebody else is doing it, and we go on finding scapegoats. We go on avoiding the real factor that is behind it: it is us. When we are in misery, remember, we are its creators, and we can uncreate it immediately because it is just imagination. So, we can attain inner realisation if we sincerely follow these three steps.

Firstly, recognise that misery is our own creation.  People are such great artists in creating misery – they have become so skilled. That’s all that they create; they don’t create anything else. And naturally, life after life they have been in the profession of creating misery for themselves; they have become proficient. They are not amateurs; they are professionals.

Once we recognise that misery is our own creation, with that very recognition it starts disappearing like smoke. It is no more solid. How can it be solid when we see that we are creating it? How can we go on creating it when we recognise the fact that we are creating it! In that very recognition something clicks; the misery becomes separate from us. The bridge is broken. And that is one of the greatest steps.

The second step is that we can create our joy, our delight. If we can create misery, then why can’t we create joy? That follows like a shadow to the first. In fact, to create misery is more difficult than to create joy. If we can do the difficult job then the second is easier, far easier, because it is far more in tune with our nature; that’s what we desire.

We don’t desire misery and yet we create it. It is against us, so if we can create that which is against us then the second thing is child’s play: to create joy, delight. That is the second step – when we create a climate and we live in it; we create our own world. We paint our own world; we sing our own song. For the first time we become individuals and for the first time we become free; now nobody can disturb us. If we want to get disturbed, that’s another thing; that too is our choice. But we are never a victim again so we never make anybody else feel guilty for it.

The final step is when we have understood that we create misery, we create joy; then we must be separate from both because the creator cannot be his own creation. We can paint a picture but we cannot become the painting. We can write a novel but we don’t become the novel. We can sculpt a beautiful statue but we don’t become it. The creator can’t become his own creation.

Thus, misery and joy both disappear… then there is utter silence. We can’t define it as joy. No, not even that is possible. It is so much more than joy, it cannot be confined to the word joy, bliss, no. No word will be able to express it; it is just a wordless silence. 

Ecstasy but with no movement. Nothing moves in it because nothing is in it. It is total silence, total absence. First misery disappears, joy, delight arrives; then joy disappears, the witness arrives, and finally the witness is gone. That is moksha, that is the great nothingness.

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!

Worrying About Small Things

 

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Worrying About Small Things

I remember my mother was a born worrier – if everything with the family, extended family, society, city, state and country was fine, then she would worry about global politics – it was like an intoxicant for her; in the end any kind of worrying is poison for the system.

We need to go deep into our worries and find out the root cause – that is the only way to get rid of them and if that is not possible– suffer them and let them go. Suffering liberates us, it sets us free. We want to get out of it without getting into it; that won’t be possible, we have to pay the price. The way is through, remember. Never escape from anything. If this worrying is happening then it must be something essential that our being has to go through. 

And don’t call those things small. They are important, otherwise the worry wouldn’t happen. The worry always happens around something important. Those things may not be important for somebody else but for the individual they are.

So, whatsoever we are worrying about is natural at this stage. So, worry! Nothing to be worried about – worrying…. Worry! Accept it. Play with this teddy-bear like worry a little more and soon we will come to a point where it disappears of its own accord; we need not drop it. If we have to drop it, it will come back, because dropping it will mean violently, forcibly, dropping it. The work was not yet complete, we were not ripe yet. For one or two days we may remain enlightened and then we will fall again. We will be holding our teddy-bear and say, “To hell with god and to hell with enlightenment; I don’t want them, I don’t care about them!”

Nothing can happen unless the time for it has come, nothing ever happens unless the time is right. The problem arises because we go on listening to many kinds of people. Somebody says, “Think of humanity; humanity is in such trouble and we are playing cards? Think of humanity, think of the violence in the world; and we are playing cards?’ This can create trouble in our minds. We can start thinking, “What am I doing? – playing cards and people are dying all over the world. Millions are dying from starvation and we are playing cards?’

We can drop those cards but sooner or later we will come back. In fact, the more worried we become about the violence in the world, the more we will feel that it is better to play cards. Just to forget all about this violence, we will have to play cards! 

Just do whatsoever comes naturally. Just respect nature and respect it absolutely. Relax and worry… and things will change. Acceptance and trust are the vehicles of fundamental change within us.

Can We Live Without Misery?

 

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Can We Live Without Misery?

Very few people can live without misery. Very few people can afford to live without misery. Misery gives us a sense of being, misery defines us. Misery gives us the ego, the self-identity. Misery gives us something to hold on to, we can cling to it.

Bliss is very elusive. We can possess misery, but we cannot possess bliss - on the contrary, bliss possesses us – it is a happening. We can control misery; we cannot control bliss. In bliss we have to disappear, the controller has to disappear. Very few people can afford that much, they are so afraid to go into the unknown. Misery is known; we are well-acquainted with it. A thousand and one times we have suffered the same thing, the same nauseous thing. But by and by we have become accustomed to it. A kind of familiarity has grown between us and the misery.

The ego, the ‘I’ cannot exist without misery. We will not be there without our misery – just recall Descartes’ famous saying – ‘I think, therefore I am’. Realise this – the moment thinking ceases, our existence ceases – in that sense it is true: I think, therefore I am. So, we cannot afford to lose our power to think.

But when we attain to bliss, thinking disappears – there is no thought in bliss. Even when we recognise that we are blissful it is only later on when the bliss has gone, when the moment has disappeared. When the bird has again flown back into the unknown and we are left in our misery - then we remember. It is always a memory. Yes, we say ’I was blissful.’ We never know the state of ‘I AM blissful.’ No, nobody has ever known that, ‘I am blissful.’ Because when bliss is, I am not. It is simple – when we are in bliss, our I-sense disappears, we disappear, we become non-existence.

Bliss is so vast it simply throws us away. The flood comes and we are gone. If we are ready to die, if we are ready to disappear, if we are ready to lose ourselves – only then will we be able to drop misery. Misery works, it has some utility for us. We have much investment in it. And because it works, we go on clinging to it. In fact, our misery becomes a kind of investment for us.

For example, if we are miserable, it is easy to have people’s sympathy. Now, that is an investment. If we are ill everybody pays attention to us, everybody takes care of us. Once that has happened it becomes very difficult to be healthy again. Because once we are healthy the care, the attention, the sympathy, that we were getting will disappear also. Naturally – it was not given to us; it was given to our disease. Now the disease has a subtle attraction – then why not remain in it? 

When we are miserable the whole world is sympathetic towards us. When we are happy everybody is jealous of us. When we are happy nobody can forgive us. When we are unhappy everybody is so polite to us, everybody is so friendly, everybody is so generous. When we are happy everybody becomes the enemy.

We are miserable because we have decided to be miserable – maybe the decision is unconscious. And we have to be conscious about the decision, only then can it be dropped. Because nothing can be dropped from the unconscious. The unconscious is a great preserver, it preserves everything. Become conscious, become aware for misery to go and bliss to stay.