dem Gedächtnis besser einprägen

Die Verse im Tao Te King, die im chinesischen Original in Reimform verfasst sind, sind weniger als Dichtung zu verstehen, sondern als Denk- und Merkreime, so dass sie sich dem Gedächtnis besser einprägen. In letzter Zeit hat man des Öfteren versucht, das Tao Te King in eine alltägliche, weitschweifige Sprache frei zu übertragen, um das Werk leicht verständlich zu machen. Doch alle diese Versuche mussten fehlschlagen, weil das Tao Te King sich für solche, wenn auch noch so gut gemeinten Modernisierungsversuche nicht eignet. Jeder Versuch, den Text sprachlich zu glätten und durch Hinzufügungen in die Länge zu ziehen, führte unweigerlich dazu, die tiefen mystischen Aussagen des Lao-tse zu verfälschen und in die profane Ebene herabzuziehen. Solche den Text vergewaltigenden Übertragungen sind nicht nur dem mystischen Geist des Tao Te King vollkommen entgegengesetzt, sondern letztlich äußerst peinlich und in keiner Weise sinnvoll. Den Text so zu verwässern, als sei er ein Produkt der heutigen esoterischen Welle, bedeutet das Werk aus seinem historischen Rahmen zu reißen und es seiner lebendigen Ursprünglichkeit zu berauben.
Was die Sprache des Tao Te King anbetrifft, so ist sie geheimnisvoll, tiefgründig und voller Symbolik, so dass sich das Werk unmittelbar an die geistige Intuition des Lesers wendet. Der mystische Gehalt des Tao Te King erschließt sich somit in seiner ganzen Tiefe nur dem inneren Auge des mystischen Schauens. Das heißt, dass man ihn letztlich, über das logische Denken hinaus, nur meditativ ganz erfassen kann. Logik und Intuition bilden so in ihrer Verbindung von Herz und Verstand die ganzheitliche Grundlage zum Verständnis des Tao Te King.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2138193/in_your_eyes_peter_gabriel_tribute_to_heroes/

Taoism is concerned with your beyond

Johnson was a compulsive gambler, but always willing to give and share. So when he lost all his money in a poker game, Brown, one of his cronies, gave him a twenty-dollar bill to tide him over till the next day. On his way home, a shabbily dressed woman approached him with a hard-luck story. "I can't go on," she pleaded. "I haven't eaten all day. If you don't help me, I'm going to drown myself" Generous Johnson handed her the twenty-dollar bill. "I'll never forget your kindness," she said gratefully. "You have restored my faith in mankind." The next morning Johnson noticed a newspaper item about the body of an unknown woman that had been fished out of the river. The description of her clothes fitted the woman he had befriended. He was puzzled. He met Brown at lunch. "What did you do after you left us yesterday?" asked Brown. "I walked home," said Johnson. "Did you spend any money?" "No. Why?" "That's good," said Brown with a smile. "We were wondering what would happen when you tried to spend that phony twenty-dollar bill I gave you." Tao cannot be found by practicing anything -- neither Yoga nor Tantra nor Zen nor Taoism. Tao cannot be known by practicing anything whatsoever. Who will practice? All practices are confined to the mind and the mind practicing something means the mind is strengthened more and more through the practice, the mind is exercising and becoming stronger. Every practice strengthens the mind, and the mind belongs to the relative; t Is the very foundation of the relative.

No fight: no blame

There was once a general of war who had spent his entire life fighting in campaigns for many kings. Now at the end of his career, he became tired of fighting. He had spent a lifetime perfecting his skill in all the arts of war and his skill was famous, but he was weary and had but one wish: to spend the rest of his days studying archery, the one art of war he had not mastered. The general did not want to learn archery in order to be a better fighter, but rather to study and reflect. He had heard of Master archers, living in distant monasteries, who spend a lifetime doing nothing else but perfecting their skill. Their life appealed to him, and so he retired from fighting and began to search for the Master archers. After a long journey the general found a monastery where the monks were devoted to archery. He entered the monastery and begged to join them and pass the remainder of his days on this earth studying archery. For 10 years that is what he did. Then, when he had perfected his skill as an archer, the abbot of the monastery came to the general and said, "It is time to leave." The general was shocked and he protested, saying that his life in the world outside the monastery was over. His only desire was to remain within the monastery walls and continue to meditate on the bow, the arrow, the target. The general argued and pleaded with the abbot, but the abbot was resolute. He insisted that the general must leave. To advance his skill, it was necessary for the general to go out into the world and teach what he had learned. And so he left the monastery. Once outside, the general had nowhere to go; he decided to return to the village of his birth. It was a long journey over many lands, but finally he neared the village. As he walked through the surrounding forest he noticed a bull's-eye on a tree, with an arrow in the exact center. The general was surprised by this and even more so when he noticed more trees with bull's-eyes and arrows in the center. Soon he came to the farmlands and there saw many barns and homes with bull's-eyes and arrows dead center. He became agitated and walked quickly into the village center. There, on every wall of every building was a bull's-eye with an arrow right in the center. The peace he had gained from his years of monastic life was gone. He was indignant to find that after 10 years of study and reflection there lived an archer more skilled than he. Quickly, he approached the elders of the town and demanded that the archer responsible for this perfection met him at the edge of town by the mill, in one hour. The general waited by the mill, but as the hour approached no one came. There was, however, a young girl playing by the river. The girl noticed him and came over. "Are you waiting for someone?" she asked, looking up at the general. "Go away," he said, irritated. "No, no," said the girl, "you look like you're waiting for someone and I was told to come and meet someone here." The general looked unbelieving at the little girl and said, "I'm waiting for the Master archer responsible for the hundreds of perfect shots I have seen." "Well, that's me then," said the girl. The general, feeling more indignant still, looked skeptically at the girl. Finally, he said, "If you are telling the truth, then explain to me how you can get a perfect shot every single time you shoot your arrow." "That's easy," said the girl, brightening. "I take my arrow and I draw it back very tight in the bow. Then I point it very, very straight and let it go. Wherever it lands I draw a bull's-eye."

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5159636580663884360&ei=ZYyPSaohitbbAtrz2bYL&q=

In jeder Erfahrung erfahren wir das Leben

Alle versuchen ihr Glück zu schmieden, und doch macht jeder entsprechend seiner geistig-seelisch-körperlichen Verfassung andere Erfahrungen. Das Einzige, das wir tatsächlich in jeder Erfahrung erfahren können, ist das Leben selbst!
Im Taoismus geht es jedoch darum, sich der eigenen Erfahrung und deren Abhängigkeit von der individuellen Wahrnehmung der Welt bewusst zu werden, kurz, die eigenen Bedingungen zu erkennen. Dabei ist Lachen wie ein Transportmittel, das unseren Organismus mit Lebensfreude anreichert. Die Schritte, die jeder Einzelne in seinem ganz persönlichen Lebensumfeld aufgrund dieser Lebensfreude unternimmt, sind Schritte in Richtung Selbstachtung, Verständnis, Mitgefühl und Nächstenliebe. Der Taoismus ist ein humorvoll-heiterer Übungs- und Erkenntnisweg und dient der Reinigung von Körper, Geist und Seele, der Klärung der Gedanken und Gefühle und so dem ganzheitlich-harmonischen Gleichgewicht der humores, der Lebenssäfte.
Der Freude entsprosst alle Schöpfung. Durch Freude wird sie erhalten. Zur Freude bewegt sie sich hin. Und in die Freude kehrt sie zurück.
Der Wert des Lachens ist unschätzbar!

The notion that mysticism is just quantum physics

"If you have happy thoughts, then you make happy molecules." The notion that ancient Hindu mysticism is just quantum physics wrapped in metaphysicalgarb seems to have originated with Fritjof Capra in his book The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (1975). The book's first two parts are excellent expositions on ancient religions and modern physics. The third part, which tries to connect the two has influenced numerous New Age energy medicine advocates to claim that quantum physics proves the reality of everything from chi and prana to ESP. The idea that there is such a connection is denied by most physicists but books like Capra's and Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics (1976) overshadow and are much more popular than books written by physicists. Chopra and other defenders of Ayurveda, following Capra and Zukav, are fond of claiming that modern physics has substantially validated ancient Hindu metaphysics. However, physicist Heinz R. Pagels, author of The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature vehemently rejects the notion that there is any significant connection between the discoveries of modern physicists and the metaphysical claims of Ayurveda.

http://www.strimoo.com/video/10554703/osho-MySpaceVideos.html

They belonged to the trees and to the stars

The Tao Teh Ching signifies a state of society when civilisation had not yet entered, when people were still living natural lives, when they were more close to the earth, to the rocks, to the rivers, when they were almost part of the ecology. They belonged to the trees and to the stars. The home was not yet lost; they were at home in the universe. Love can do that miracle again. Man has to become capable of living naturally, lovingly, and yet able to use his mind when needed. But he should not become obsessed with the mind. He should live in the heart, and mind should be used only as a mechanism, just as you use your car or your radio or your television. One should not become addicted to the head. A totally new kind of civilisation is needed: a heart-oriented civilisation. Taoism is the beginning of that new kind of civilisation. By becoming a taoist you are becoming part of the future, of that which is going to happen of that which has to happen if man is to survive, if life is to exist on earth. The old has failed, utterly failed; the new is absolutely needed and as quickly as possible, because man is dying, his heart is missing beats. Man is in a state of heart failure -- only a great dose of love, an allopathic dose, can save him, otherwise there is no hope.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-zrwGmWLlpng/matchbox_20_push_storytellers/

But the historians recorded that he was born on such and such a date.

Christ comes to a village and a group of people gather around him. While he is talking to them someone from the rear of the crowd shouts, "His mother has arrived. Give her passage."
Jesus laughs and says, "Who is my mother? I was never born." But the historian appointed a date and wrote that Jesus was born on this date. Now this man says, "I was never born. How can I have a mother? I am eternal." But the historians who recorded this saying of his also recorded that he was born on such and such a date.
Those who wrote about Krishna were men of profound insight. They thought it would be doing injustice to Krishna, who says again and again that he is eternal and who tells Arjuna, "What I say to you has been said to many others in past millennia. And don't think that this is the last of it, I will continue to come and say it again and again. And you are mistaken to think that those before you here will die at your hands. They have been born and died countless times in the past and they will be here again and again in the future." It was for this reason a biography of Krishna was not recorded.
It would be hard for history to research and recover the lost records of Krishna's life, because they were deliberately allowed to be lost.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZPHId0Yq0

if any of you can remember

Little Guiseppe, who has just arrived in America from Italy, really wants to do well in his new school. That night, he goes home repeating over and over: "Prussy -- Miss Prussy."
Guiseppe's older brother hears him and asks what he is doing. Guiseppe explains and his brother says with a grin, "That's easy to remember. Just think of `pussy' with an `r'."
The next day in class, Guiseppe is anxiously waiting to be called on. As the teacher walks in, she sees Guiseppe waving his hand.
"Okay, Guiseppe," she says, "do you remember what my name is?"
In a sudden panic, Guiseppe tries to think of what his brother told him and stutters, "It is... mmh, ah... it is Miss CRUNT!"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2354522218050337229&ei=CzXRSK_GJ5Ku2wKW6-W4Ag&q=

What we know need not necessarily be Truth.

Realization of Truth, of the Supreme Soul, and of what we really are, is not a matter of intellectual deliberation or mental reflection. Only those of us are able to comprehend Truth who nurture their worthiness and receptivity by ceaseless practice. Inasmuch as our knowledge of things is restricted by the extent of our capacity to know, it is necessary to remember that the boundaries of Truth are not limited to the extent of our knowledge. The frontiers of Truth are ever beyond our ken, because the more we know the more remains yet to be known. What we know need not necessarily be Truth since Truth is much too large for our capacity to comprehend which is neither complete nor perfect. One who identifies the limits of one's knowledge with those of Truth stops thereat, and does not go further. Even in the case of worldly objects we find our knowledge restricted by our sense-organs. To a person bereft of eyesight there is, indeed, no object like light in his world of experience. A true conception of light cannot find a place in the community that consists entirely of blind persons. Nor can darkness be truly comprehended by them, because an experience of light is essential to a thorough understanding of darkness. If we are devoid of the auditory faculty, sound becomes non-existent for us. Virtually, the existence of only those things is revealed to us which are intelligible to our senses. Our world of experience co-extends with our perceptive ability. We cannot, however, say that the real world is only that much. The frontiers of the world we experience and the real world are not identical. Our world is thus restricted by us ourselves. Surely, there are many worlds within one world. There are as many worlds as there are living organisms. Examining still more minutely, we can say that there are as many worlds as there are individuals constituting the different species. Thus in the universe the individual worlds are numberless, because those who know, perceive, and experience are likewise numberless. Hence, the universe is subdivided into as many imaginary pieces as there are individual cogs in the wheel. Far behind men are quite a large number of animals whose sensory faculty is far inferior to that of man. We know that many of them do not possess the faculty of seeing or hearing. Some are denied the gustatory faculty and some the olfactory. Those beings do not, really, have the experience of light, sound, taste or smell. The world of experience of man extends as far as his sense-organs allow it to do, and it will be sheer ignorance if the real world were to be restricted by us to what is projected by our limited knowledge. Were we blessed with more sense-organs, we might possibly have extended our world of experience still further. Scientific appliances have enabled us to do so. This is mentioned only to emphasize that our knowledge is commensurate with our capacity to know, with the powers of our senses to understand and grasp. What is true of the visible world is also true of the existence of the invisible one. Whenever people ask, "Does God exist?", "Does the soul exist?", I would put this counter-question to them, "Do you possess the ability to experience the soul and God?" The real question is that of ability and not of the existence, or otherwise, of God. If you have the ability you will surely experience those truths which are beyond your reach now; in the absence of that ability, those truths will necessarily seem untruths. If some vague fear compels us to accept truths they cannot be real truths, for real Truth is what is experienced as such.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2113288694355750920&ei=su_DSJL5IZT22wKovI2-BQ&q=

a group of people gather around him

It should be clearly understood that neither Krishna nor Christ wrote anything. Whatever passed for their utterances was all recorded by those who heard them.

Christ comes to a village and a group of people gather around him. While he is talking to them someone from the rear of the crowd shouts, "His mother has arrived. Give her passage."

Jesus laughs and says, "Who is my mother? I was never born." But the historian appointed a date and wrote that Jesus was born on this date. Now this man says, "I was never born. How can I have a mother? I am eternal." But the historians who recorded this saying of his also recorded that he was born on such and such a date.

Those who wrote about Krishna were men of profound insight. They thought it would be doing injustice to Krishna, who says again and again that he is eternal and who tells Arjuna, "What I say to you has been said to many others in past millennia. And don't think that this is the last of it, I will continue to come and say it again and again. And you are mistaken to think that those before you here will die at your hands. They have been born and died countless times in the past and they will be here again and again in the future." It was for this reason a biography of Krishna was not recorded.

It would be hard for history to research and recover the lost records of Krishna's life, because they were deliberately allowed to be lost. Every effort has been made to suppress the chronological account of Krishna and persons like him. Nobody knows who wrote the Upanishads and who wrote the Vedas; their authors are all anonymous. Why? Their anonymity says it is God who is speaking through them and so they need not be mentioned.

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=QdXCsGIuai4

the ultimate in consciousness

Down the ages, many religions have existed on the earth -- invented by man, invented in his unconsciousness, invented according to his misery, invented out of misery. And they have been trying to depict the ultimate in consciousness as if it is dull, dead, no spice at all in it, no joy in it. Christians say that Jesus never laughed. Just ridiculous. If Jesus cannot laugh then who else? Do you think you can laugh? Yes, sometimes you laugh, but your laughter is shallow. It is at the most on the lips, or if it goes very deep it goes to the throat. It does not come from the heart, it does not come from your guts, it does not come from your core. It is just there. superficial, painted. It is shallow.
Only a man of tao can laugh. And when a man of tao laughs he is laughter -- not that he laughs. When you laugh you laugh. When a man of tao laughs he is laughter. When you dance you dance. When a man of tao dances he is dance. When you love YOU love. When a man of tao loves I he is simply love. He doesn't exist apart from it, otherwise there will be a division, split. When you laugh you are standing aloof and laughing -- laughing is an act, your total being is not involved in it.
And Christians say a very foolish thing, that Jesus never laughed. Why do they say it? Out of their miseries, out of their anguish, out of their meaninglessness, they have depicted Jesus sad, gloomy, serious, grave. And because of this your churches have become graveyards; the joy of life no more exists there. And because of this your scriptures have become like you find in museums -- a snake in alcohol. It will live long. But a snake on the grass alive in the sun, on the rock, resting in the afternoon, taking a nap, a snake moving up on a tree or swinging with the branches of a tree, a snake is ALIVE. And a snake in the museum, in the hospital, in the science lab, is in alcohol. The alcohol snake, or call it the alcoholic snake, will live long, because it is dead.
The real snake, the alive snake, will not live long, because it is alive -- death will be coming. But for the alcoholic snake there is no death.
Jesus died. He was a flower -- bloomed in the morning, by the evening gone. But the Christ invented by the Christians, lives. It is an alcoholic snake, bottled, a museum-piece. It can live for ever and for ever. Your scriptures are dead; they are like butterflies pinned. You can collect butterflies and go on pinning them -- they look like butterflies, they are not. Because what is a butterfly if it cannot have freedom, if it is not alive, if it is not roaming from one flower to another, if it is not a vagabond on the wings -- what is it? It is nothing. It is a corpse.
So are your Bibles, so are your Vedas and your Koran. They are invented things. Jesus, the real Jesus, is just an excuse. And you have imposed upon the real Jesus your own Jesus who never laughs.

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=rv6oWhG76pQ

don't joke, they are all mahatmas

A sense of humor is the taoistic contribution to religiousness. All religious people have been sad and serious and sick. You cannot live with them. That's why people simply touch their feet and run away, because they are so boring. Just sitting by their side a little while, you will start feeling bored too. If there is a heaven where these saints and sages and mahatmas have all reached, then I don't want to go there, because that will be the saddest place in the whole existence. And everybody will be trying to be sadder than the other. A sense of humor is something especially human. Buffalos don't laugh, they are all saints. Donkeys don't joke, they are all mahatmas. In their past lives they have been saints and mahatmas. That's why they have attained such a great status. These are the people who will go to heaven. If after death you are asked where you want to go, please remember to say, "Wherever you want to take me, take -- but I don't want to go where saints go!" Even hell will be better. You will find superior, finer, more juicy people.
Now the joke. It is about three journalists. All three were retired: one was eighty, another was eighty-five, and the third was ninety. It was their usual habit to go for an evening walk, sit in a public park and discuss the golden old days. One day it happened that the first journalist, who was eighty, said,"I feel so ashamed, it hurts. It is like a wound." The other two said, "What happened? Who has hurt you?" He said, "Nobody has hurt me. Just I was caught red-handed." They both said, "You are making a mystery of it. Simply tell us the whole thing! What happened?" He said, "I was caught red-handed by my mother." They said, "At what?" He said, "Now, how to say it? I was peeping through the keyhole when a beautiful woman was taking a bath and my mother caught me. I feel ashamed." The two other guys laughed. One said, "Son, don't get disturbed, it happens to everybody. In childhood everybody looks into keyholes, into bathrooms, and what else to do? Keyholes are made for that. Beautiful ladies are made for that. Don't feel ashamed -- we have all been caught but that doesn't mean that...." The man said, "You don't understand at all. You go on saying to me, "Don't feel ashamed, don't feel ashamed." It is not a question of childhood! It happened today!" Then there was silence. This was too much, if it happened today. The second one said, "Yes, we can understand. I will tell you my story which will give you consolation. It is now the third day that I have not made love to my wife. She is such a bitch that whenever I mention love she immediately turns to the other side and says, 'I have a headache, enough is enough. Now no more.'" The other two laughed now. The third, the oldest, said, "Do you know his love? First tell what you mean by love!" He said, "It is a very simple process. Every night I take her hand in my hand and press it three times. By that time I am fast asleep and snoring. But for three days the bitch won't allow me to make love. I can understand you are feeling ashamed, hurt. I am feeling hurt. My own wife, at this age, is betraying me!" The third man said, "What is happening to me will make you forget all your troubles. This morning when I started making arrangements to make love to my wife she said, 'What are you doing?' "I said, 'What am I doing? I am just doing what should be done. I am trying to make love.' "My wife said, 'You idiot! This is the fourth time in the night! Neither you sleep nor you let me sleep! Love, love, love... there is no limit to it.' "I said, 'My God, that means my memory is going. I had completely forgotten that three times already I have made love.' "And you are talking about your troubles. Think of my trouble, my memory disappearing. At least it is good I can still make the distinction between day and night."So everybody has his problems. To look at a problem with humor is human. Except for human beings no animal can laugh. And your religions have been preventing you from laughter.

one who gives meaning to the word

The East has approached reality in an almost diametrically opposite way to the West. All Eastern scriptures begin with OM, Shantih shantih shantih and they also end with the same. OM is the symbol of the universal heartbeat; it is not a word. And as you come closer and closer to the universal heartbeat, the by-product is a deepening silence. Shantih means silence and it is always repeated three times because by the time you reach to the fourth, you are no more -- just the silence has remained. You have disappeared as an entity separate from the universe. The West has not been able to begin even a single scripture with this intention. It is understandable. They never went into the deeper communion between your heart and the bigger heart of the universe. They have taken a wrong route, that of fighting, that of conquering, that of being victorious. They have chosen to be extroverts. Their world is true, but they don't know anything about themselves. The outside is true and the inside has not been explored. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the word." Now this can be said only by somebody who is absolutely ignorant, because the word means a sound with a meaning. These sounds made by the words are just sounds; you cannot call them words. The moment you say, "In the beginning was the word," unknowingly you have accepted that there is someone who gives meaning to it, but then the word is not in the beginning. In the beginning is one who gives meaning to the word. And the Bible says, "God was with the word." Anyone who wrote it must have felt uneasy that the world should begin only with a word. Immediately he needed someone to give meaning to it; hence the second statement that God was with the word. If you look into things very impartially, deeply, you will be amazed how much they can reveal. Then he must have become aware to ask, "Who is first? God or the word?" The third sentence then tries to make a compromise. It says, "God and the word were one." Nobody in the whole Eastern search will agree with it. The East has not experienced the beginning because naturally you cannot see the beginning: you are already there, the beginning has happened. In your being you have preceded the beginning, so there is no possibility of any witness of the beginning. But there is a possibility to be a witness of the end. The Eastern meditators found as they entered into their inner being, they are first surrounded with a tremendously beautiful and musical sound. It is not the sound of any music being played, it is simply the heartbeat of the universe. And once they come in tune with the heartbeat of the universe, silence descends.

Look at a child

This is how a tense man is: there is no flow of energy-many blocks, many dry beds, and somewhere a little pool exists and that pool is bound to become dirty. When energy is flowing you are fresh. When energy is moving without any blocks you are river-like, and the ocean is not far away. When you are a summer river; when everything is dried and only pools of energy exist, and there is no interlink between your energy pools, then you can never reach to the ocean; then God is the farthest thing possible. Flowing, He is near -- non-flowing, He is very, very far away. Flow is needed, and when you flow you are beautiful. Look at a child, watch a child; he is a flow, a river-like flow. He moves like wind and he never tires. They have been doing some experiments at Harvard University. One very, very healthy person was told to follow a child for twenty-four hours. Whatsoever the child did, he had to do -- whatsoever. If the child jumped he had to jump, if the child went out, he had to go out, the child lay down, he had to lie down. Within eight hours he was completely exhausted; he couldn't follow for twenty-four hours. And the child was never tired. What was happening? -- the river was flowing. When a river is flowing, a constant source of energy is available. The man simply said: I cannot follow any more. This boy is driving me crazy and I am tired, exhausted. I feel that my mind will crack any moment, because he is doing such absurd things, without any rhyme or reason, and I have to follow him. And the boy enjoyed tremendously, that somebody was following him and he had become the leader. Just watch a small boy. What is happening? Nothing, just a simple thing: he is not a dry river in the summer -- he is a flood. He is a river in the rainy season, millions of streams are falling into him, and you can be the same. But the more you become self-conscious, the more a deep tension goes into you. Self-conscious, you start shrinking; unself-conscious you open and spread. And everybody has two concubines. Everybody is himself the two concubines.
WHEN YANG CHU WAS PASSING THROUGH SUNG HE SPENT THE NIGHT AT AN INN. THE INNKEEPER HAD TWO CONCUBINES -- ONE BEAUTIFUL, AND THE OTHER UGLY. THE UGLY ONE HE VALUED, AND THE BEAUTIFUL ONE HE NEGLECTED. This looks irrational, but it has a deep reason. WHEN YANG CHU ASKED THE REASON, THE FELLOW ANSWERED: THE BEAUTIFUL ONE THINKS HERSELF BEAUTIFUL, AND I DO NOT NOTICE HER BEAUTY: THE UGLY ONE THINKS HERSELF UGLY, AND I DO NOT NOTICE HER UGLINESS.
Try to understand this arithmetic of existence, paradoxical, but real. And if you can understand it many things will change in you immediately. If you demand something it will not be given to you. If you don't demand, you will suddenly find millions of streams falling into you -- every door is open. Demand and you will be denied; don't demand and the whole existence belongs to you. Possess and you will lose; don't possess and nobody can take it from you. Be self-conscious and you will not be a Self; be unself-conscious and you attain to the inner crystallization, the integrity which is the Self.

become part of the communion

If your body were an organization, scientists would have been immensely happy, but man is not a mechanism put together, man is an organism. Everything in man is connected with everything else; the whole body is functioning in tremendous harmony. You love a person -- you want to touch the person, hug the person, and kiss the person. Why do you do all these things? To get as close to the person as possible. Kissing is unhygienic. A word is a bridge. If you allow yourself to become part of the communion, you cannot be bored; you will be in immense rejoicing, you will be blissful. But nobody can force you to be blissful. Why get miserable? Do something that makes you happy. And I don't know what makes you happy. It is a great art to be blissful. One has to learn it. Become more and more organic. You are bored with yourself.
A man was sitting in a chair in a waiting room on the railway station. Many other people were also waiting in the waiting room. They all became interested in this man, because what he was doing appeared very strange. Sometimes he would smile for no reason at all. Sometimes he would burst into laughter. Sometimes he would throw away something which was not there, but his hands, his face, expressed the idea that he wanted to get rid of something. He was saying, "No, no" -- not in words, in gestures. The whole waiting room fell into silence. What was this man doing? And he looked rich, well-dressed, educated. Finally one man got up to ask him, "What are you doing? -- because we are getting more and more curious. Now it is too much; and the train is late -- we will have to watch you for at least two hours more. It is becoming mysterious." The man said, "There is nothing mysterious. I was just telling jokes to myself. And whenever I came across an old joke, I threw it away -- I have heard it so many times. When something really juicy comes into my mind, there is a smile. Sometimes just a smile is not enough; the joke is so wonderful that I burst out into laughter. But all this I am doing to myself. How are you concerned? You do your work."
If you are bored, you are doing it to yourself. Please stop doing it. Making love is a way of getting close, so close that you are in each other. But what a communion can do, even lovemaking cannot do. A genital meeting is not a great meeting. It is the lowest form of meeting -- even buffalos are doing it. Only man is capable, at the highest sophisticated level, of touching your very heart. After a big storm there is a deep silence following it. This is the law of nature: day follows night, life is followed by death, and word follows wordlessness. On both sides....

our unguarded scientific experiments

AIDS is going to kill the larger part of humanity, because it is spreading so fast. And it will spread... just one contact with a person who has AIDS is enough, and then those contacts will go on spreading. That's why remain with one partner. It is nothing to do with monogamy, it is just pure hygiene, health, on medical grounds, and there is no religious basis to it.
Jesus must have been suicidal.
Jesus had only twelve fools -- uneducated, unintelligent fishermen, carpenters -- and he himself was uneducated, uncultured. And when he was crucified they all escaped. They were not in love with Jesus; they were hoping that through Jesus they would enter into paradise and enjoy paradise.
Religions have been talking about peace and fighting and killing and murdering, burning people alive. On the one hand they will say God is love, on the other hand they will be burning living people. Christians have been killing, Mohammedans have been killing, and Hindus have been killing. It is a strange phenomenon that Buddha was born in India, but in India there are no Buddhists. For twenty-five centuries there have been no Buddhists. They had to escape because Hindus were killing them.
We have destroyed the harmony of nature through our unguarded scientific experiments. We have now in the hands of politicians, who are the most mediocre people in the world, such immense energy to destroy that they can destroy this whole earth seven hundred times. Now if just one politician goes nuts, that's enough -- and they are all nuts.
If something has become so rotten, it is better to be finished with it.
The world has become almost a madhouse. If we cannot change people's consciousness, if we cannot destroy the boundaries between nations, the boundaries between colours, and the boundaries between religions -- if that is not going to happen....
One cannot simply forget the reality. The world is divided into nations, into religions, all fighting and trying to kill each other. One cannot forget America and Russia, ready to destroy the whole world any moment. This is simple realism. This humanity, if it is not going to change, is not worth saving.
Either change or the world is going to be destroyed. So your change is absolutely necessary. It is not something that can wait, that tomorrow we will change.
Traditions just rubbish. They have done enough harm.
All religions of the world up to now have been sado-masochistic.

Lemuria und die Menschenaffen

Nach der Begründerin der Theosophical Society, Helena Blavatsky, lebte der erste Mensch auf dem Kontinent Lemuria, er war “ein ungeheurer vortertiärer Riese”, der “vor achtzehn Millionen Jahren existierte”, war doppelgeschlechtig, vierarmig und mit drei Augen ausgestattet, das dritte für “geistiges Schauen”. Aus ihm entwickelten sich dann durch Sodomie die Menschenaffen. Lemuria habe sich schließlich in Einzelteile aufgespalten und wurde dann durch “unterirdische Feuer” zerstört. Teile der okkulten Rassentheorien Helena Blavatskys hatten auch die Rassentheorien der sogenannten “Ariosophen” beeinflusst - die bedeutendsten Vertreter waren zwei Österreicher: der Schriftsteller Guido von List und der Mystiker Adolf Lanz, der sich selbst Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels nannte - und wirkten sich durch diese vermittelt auf die Weltanschauung der Nationalsozialisten aus, die das Motiv der “lemurischen Rassenmischung” aufgriffen und es antisemitisch umdefinierten. Später spielte Lemuria bei der amerikanischen Ufo-Sekte der “Unarier” eine Rolle. Sie wurde von Ruth Norman gegründet, die sich selbst “Erzengel Uriel” nannte. Die Religionssoziologin Diana Tumminia schreibt, dass die Sekte 1976 in den “Lemurian Cycle” eintrat. Im Verlaufe von Gruppensitzungen, den “Readings”, “erinnerten” sich Sektenmitglieder an frühere Leben in Lemuria, auch daran, dass lemurische Herrscher die Massen durch in die Stirn implantierte elektronische Geräte kontrollierten und die Menschen dadurch nur ein Leben willenloser Roboter führten. Ursula Seiler reichert die Geschichte mit einem eigenen Element an: “Die Geschlechtskrankheit der Syphilis entstand übrigens auch auf Lemuria.” Doch sie weiß angeblich noch mehr: Die Wiege der Menschheit stehe mit Sicherheit nicht in Afrika, auch wenn sehr alte Skelette dies vermuten ließen. Als Beleg dafür wird sogar Haeckel zitiert. “Der Naturforscher Ernst Haeckel lag schon im 19. Jahrhundert bemerkenswert richtig mit seiner These: ‘Die Entwicklung des Urmenschen erfolgte entweder in Südasien oder Lemurien’.” Der entsprechende Text Haeckels ist ein Abschnitt aus seinem 1865 gehaltenen Vortrag ‘Stammbaum des Menschengeschlechts’. Dort heißt es: “Derjenige Theil der Erdoberfläche, auf welchem die Entwicklung des Urmenschen aus dem nächststehenden schmalnasigen Affen erfolgte, scheint entweder in Südasien, oder in Ostafrika, oder in Lemurien gesucht werden zu müssen.” Während Haeckel ausdrücklich Ostafrika als mögliche Region der Entstehung des Menschen aus dem Affen anführt, verfälscht sie den Text durch Weglassen dieser Passage, um genau das Gegenteil, nämlich den Ausschluss Afrikas, in Form eines “Autoritätenbeweises” zu belegen.

is there anything to be put at stake

When somebody says that he did the best he could and it was not good enough, then this fellow is in the same class as the motorcycle cop who stopped a motorist and started to write a ticket. 'Officer,' this motorist protested with great indignation, 'I was not speeding! You are permitted to go fifty miles an hour, and I was only going forty.' 'I know that,' the motorcycle cop answered defensively, 'but I can't catch up with the really fast ones.'
If you want to know reality directly, it is very arduous. It asks for total sacrifice. The fool only tries up to a certain limit. The limit is: if he can get knowledge cheaply he is ready, but if there is anything to be put at stake then he recoils back. Be courageous. Unless you have infinite courage you will not be able to become the blessed fool. Ordinarily nobody remains in the state that is only a theoretical state. Everybody has to pass out of it, more or less -- the difference is of degrees, of quantity but not quality.
Don't have a closed mind. Be like the old maid who caught a burglar in her room. He pleaded with her, 'Please, lady, let me go. I ain't never did anything wrong.' The old maid answered him, 'Well, it is never too late to learn.'
If you think you are the intelligentsia, then it is never too late to learn. Knowledge you have enough, now learn knowing. Knowledge clutters the mind as dust gathers on the mirror. Knowledge is not knowing -- knowing has a totally different quality and flavour to it. It has the flavour of learning. Knowledge means that you go on gathering information, experience, categorising, memorising, learning means you don't gather anything; you simply remain available to what is happening or is going to happen. Learning is a state of open mind. The more you know, the more you become closed because then you cannot avoid the knowledge that you have, it always comes in-between. Deep inside you are judging, evaluating, criticising -- there is no dialogue, there is a debate. You may look silent but you are not silent, your knowledge goes on revolving. It destroys everything. It distorts. And whatsoever reaches you is not the real thing; whatsoever reaches you is only that which your knowledge allows to reach to you. A learning mind is one which listens attentively with no interference from the past, which is just an opening, a mirror-like phenomenon, which simply reflects whatsoever is. If you start learning, you will attain knowing. And knowing will help you to see that you don't know at all. A person who has come to know reality becomes aware of his ignorance -- he knows that he knows not. In this knowing, ignorance is the mutation, the transfiguration, the revolution. So take a jump from the state of foolishness to the state of being a blessed fool.

the chakras become available

The introvert person becomes very lopsided. He closes the door of the heart because he becomes afraid. From that door opens the world. So he goes on denying. He becomes a renunciate, a monk, anti-life, condemnatory, repressive, afraid -- continuously afraid of relationship, of moving with people, of creating any sort of love, because who knows? -- love may bring in sex. Once you open the door of love, then the whole three chakras become available -- the chakras of the below. It is better not to open the doors so you can forget all about the lower world. Then one remains just inside -- but one's life becomes morbidity. One becomes like an island -- cut off from everything . . . a dry bone. No juice remains. The very shape of life disappears, because if you don't love, life starts disappearing. Life exists when you love. Love becomes the very foundation for life to exist. It can have its foothold there. The introvert becomes more and more sad -- silent of course, but not happy. The extrovert is very excited; the introvert is never excited. He remains calm and quiet, but calmness and quietude are not the goals of life. Ecstasy is the goal of life. Just to be calm and quiet can mean death, can mean suicide. You can dry up all the sources of life in you. You will become calm and quiet, all the fever gone, all the passion gone, all the lust gone -- but then you are also gone. You are just an empty room, negativity, a sort of absence, not a presence. You are not fulfilled. You cannot dance -- you have nothing to dance about. You cannot sing. No song arises in your life because all songs dry up when love dries up. The extrovert seems sometimes to be very happy . . . is more happy than the introvert, but never silent. More joyful -- it is a joy to be with an extrovert. You cannot live with an introvert long; that's why saints are so boring. It is good to pay respect to them, but you cannot live with them for twenty-four hours; they are really boring. And just to think about heaven where all the saints have gathered down the centuries.... One cannot believe how boring that place must now have become. It will be sheer boredom. You can be with an extrovert, happily; you can relate with him. He is an excited being. He sings, he plays around... many games. He enjoys. Of course he is tense. He is never silent; that is his problem. Happiness is at a cost -- that he loses tranquillity, equilibrium, balance. His excitement becomes more and more feverish, and there is every possibility of it turning into a delirium. The extrovert can be mad at any time; the breakdown can come very easily to him. He is so excited and so tense. He has no centre -- just the revolving periphery.

very difficult not to be impressed

Second-hand knowledge acquired from others will not do in the quest for truth. You have to lay down the load, unburden yourself of all concepts. You have to enter within as if your boat has capsized and you are thrown on an unknown island. You do not know where you are; you know nothing about this place. Each step is an adventure in a strange land. Like Robinson Crusoe, you will have to discover everything yourself. This is the meaning of the simple self. With each step you will discover things as they are within, you will taste the original taste of the emptiness. Pseudo-tastes can also be created outside. You must have seen a hypnotist working. If you have not, you can try this experiment. Make a child lie down and suggest to him that he is falling asleep. It is not only with children that you can do this. Thirty per cent of people can be worked upon in this way. In a short while, the child will fall asleep. Hold an onion before him and say, "This is an apple, a delicious apple. Eat it." The child will eat it and smack his lips. He will say it is tasty. This is hypnotism. But in everyday things we also hypnotise ourselves. Do you remember what you felt when you took the first puff from a cigarette? But since everybody smokes, it must be enjoyable. When you took your first sip of coffee did you enjoy it? This is nothing but hypnotism. And we are told taste has to be cultivated! When you drink coffee for the first time you will find it bitter. It is no fault of the coffee. You are not refined; you are uncultured. Keep taking coffee over a period of time and you will develop the taste. Then it will be difficult for you to remain without coffee. What has happened? You have hypnotised yourself, you have been hypnotised by your friends and even by the advertisements of the Coffee Board. Now coffee has become delicious. But this taste is false; it is not authentic. In the same way, the inner taste can also be false. Therefore Lao Tzu exhorts us to embrace the simple self within. If you are impressed by Buddha -- and people like Buddha are impressive; it is very difficult not to be impressed by them -- then you sway to his music, you get carried away by his fragrance, you lose yourself in him. Then you catch hold of his words. You take these words and go within. You will get the same taste that Buddha has spoken about. But this taste will be false. It will be like the taste of coffee -- cultivated. The words echo within you. Buddha's image is established within you.

service to the establishment

What the pope is doing is simply currying favour with the masses.
And he said: IT IS THE CHURCH'S DUTY...
To whom? Duty to whom? He means duty to the poor. That's wrong. It is duty to the vested interests; it is service to the establishment.
"…DEFENDING THE HUMAN DIGNITY OF THE POOR AND THEIR HOPE FOR A HUMAN FUTURE IS NOT A LUXURY FOR THE CHURCH...” It is not a luxury; it is its very life, its basic need. And he says: “IT IS HER DUTY...”
That too is true. It is duty to the establishment, duty to all that is ugly, to all that is dead, to all that is past.
The outraged husband, having caught his wife in another man's arms, shouted, "Sir! This is my wife, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" The man replied, "If that is your wife, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

It was eleven-thirty, and Hunchback Harry wanted to be home in time for the midnight movie, so he took the shortcut through the graveyard. He was very nervous as he walked among the gravestones. Suddenly there was a flash of lightning, and a loud clap of thunder, and a voice boomed: "I am Lucifer! I am the devil!" Terrified out of his wits, Hunchback Harry cowered behind a tombstone shivering. "Dost thou have a desire?!" thundered Lucifer. "Y-y-yes," mumbled Hunchback Harry. "I want to lose my hunchback." "Right! It shall be done!" shouted Lucifer, and vanished. And thus Harry lost his hunchback. The next night in the pub the lads were amazed. "Hey, Harry," said Charlie, "what happened to your hunchback?" So Harry told about how he had walked home through the graveyard and met Lucifer. "Mm, that's interesting," said Charlie, and he decided he was going to walk home through the graveyard that night. As he crept along there was a blinding flash and loud thunder. "I am Lucifer! I am the devil!" Charlie dived in panic behind the nearest tombstone and shuddered with fear. "Dost thou have a hunch-back?" roared Lucifer. "N-n-no," stuttered Charlie. "Right! Take this one!"

before the child is even awake

There is no need to develop a conscience at all. What is needed is consciousness, not conscience. Conscience is a pseudo thing. Conscience is created in you by the society. It is a subtle method of slavery. The society teaches you what is right and what is wrong. And it starts teaching the child before the child is aware, before the child can decide on his own what is right and what is wrong, before the child is even conscious of what is happening to him, before the child is even awake. In a kind of sleep, in a kind of dream, the child lives in the beginning. In the mother's womb the child sleeps for twenty-four hours. Then after the birth he sleeps for twenty-three hours, twenty-two hours, twenty-one hours, twenty hours... slowly slowly. But he remains in a kind of limbo, neither awake nor asleep. The child cannot make any distinction between what is real and what is unreal. And we start teaching the child what is right, what is wrong -- we are conditioning him. We are conditioning him according to our ideas. All these ideas -- from parents, from priests, teachers, politicians, saints -- -all these ideas jumble together inside him. They become his conscience. And because of this conscience he will never be able to grow consciousness -- because conscience is a pseudo consciousness. And if you are satisfied with the pseudo you will never even think of the real. It is very deceptive; the way we have been bringing up children is very deceptive. It is ugly, it is violent, and it is against humanity. That's why millions of people live without any consciousness. Before they could have grown into consciousness, we gave them pseudo toys to play with. And their whole lives they think this is all that is needed to live a good life. And their whole lives they will be rewarded if they follow the conscience, and they will be punished if they don't follow the conscience. From the outside they will be punished and rewarded, and from the inside also. Whenever you do something that your conscience says is wrong, you feel guilty, you suffer, and you feel inner pain. You are afraid, you are trembling... it creates anxiety. And the fear about heaven, that you may lose heaven, and the fear of hell, that you may fall into hell... and with great inventiveness your saints have painted the joys of heaven and the miseries of hell. This is conscience. Conscience is artificial, arbitrary. Conscience is needed because the society does not want you to be intelligent.

that was his commune

All educational systems take you outwards. Listening to the person -- it will look strange, because the teacher's function is to make you listen to him. The Socratic method is listening to the person respectfully, patiently, so that he can open up. He need not repress anything, he need not inhibit anything; he can be utterly naked and yet remain dignified.
If a therapist can do that -- help a man to be utterly nude, open, with no secret, hiding nothing -- the therapist has succeeded, because in this nudity one realizes one's innocence. One is born again. This nudity is symbolic. Just as a child is born nude, you are born again -- now spiritually nude.
Socrates was punished because he was teaching the truth. He had a school -- that was his commune -- where the whole function was to be respectful to everyone who comes to the school and help him uncondition himself, deprogram himself so he becomes again an innocent child.
Socrates has nothing to teach. He simply cleans you and leaves you to yourself, to grow according to your own potential. He does not give you even any guideline, because nobody knows what is hidden in your seed, what kind of flower is going to blossom in you. All guidelines are dangerous -- they may distract you from becoming yourself.
This was his crime, and he was dragged to the court. The crime was: "You are spoiling the youth of Athens." Certainly, in the minds of the mob, he was spoiling them. The mob wanted the people just to follow the well-trodden path of their forefathers. And Socrates was teaching them to be themselves and to find out the path on their own, with no scripture, no holy book, no God, no guide. Socrates was taking all these things away from you, unburdening you, making you a tabula rasa; nothing is written on you, and you are free now to be whatsoever your nature intends to be. He leaves your future open.
Naturally, the masses were against him. Their youth were being destroyed; they were being taken away from the religion, the philosophy, the ideology which had been followed for centuries. "They should carry it, it is their inheritance" -- and Socrates was insisting that you are a totally new being, with no inheritance.

the unsuccessful become unhappy

First of all I should know who I am. I should ascertain whether I am trying to discover what I am, or whether I am trying to discover what I am not. If I fail to discover what I am not, I shall certainly be miserable. Still more interesting is the fact that if I actually succeed in discovering what I am not, I shall still be miserable. Those who are unsuccessful in life certainly become miserable, but there is no end to the miseries of those who succeed either. That unsuccessful people become miserable can be understood. But the successful ones also become unhappy. Just go and find out from successful people. Then it appears that life is a great joke, a mockery. In this world the unsuccessful become unhappy, which seems quite logical; it seems just and proper. But those who succeed in life also are unhappy. In such circumstances this world appears very crazy and unbalanced. When both the successful and the unsuccessful have to be unhappy, then there seems no way to be happy. So let us first of all ask the successful people why they are unhappy, as there is nothing surprising about the unsuccessful being unhappy. Let us ask people like Alexander the Great and Stalin; let us inquire of multimillionaires like Carnegie and Ford. Ask those who got what they wanted. Ask them, "Did you find happiness?" and you will be very puzzled to hear their replies. They say, "We have been successful, but successful in finding unhappiness." Those who are unsuccessful also say, "We failed to achieve happiness; we found unhappiness instead." Those who achieved success say, "We succeeded in becoming unhappy; we found only unhappiness in our hands." Those who run fast in the race of life reach their destination only to arrive at unhappiness; and those who reach nowhere and wander here and there in the wilderness also wander in misery. When such is the case, what is the difference between the destination and the path? What is the difference between roaming about and reaching the destination? There appears to be no difference. The difference cannot be seen, because the person who does not know who he is will be made miserable even by his success. The day on which he becomes successful he will realize that the building which he constructed -- his great achievement -- has not fulfilled his need. It gives his nature no nourishment. The building has been constructed, he has accumulated wealth, he has found fame and fortune; but these achievements fail to nourish any part of his inner life, they fail to bring contentment. He should have sought to discover, "What is my true desire, what is my longing? What do I really wish for?" Without knowing your true desire you will simply go on and on desiring, jumping from one desire to another.

an ancient Hindi scripture written by Manu

Rama is not of great spiritual height, because whatever he has done is almost inhuman.
First the son of a Brahmin dies in Ayodhya...
And the Brahmin comes to Rama and says that there must be happening some great sin, otherwise the son of a Brahmin cannot die before his father. So a great search.... thousand miles away it has been found that a sudra -- an untouchable -- has heard few Brahmins reading Vedas, hiding behind trees. That was the great sin, thousand miles away from Ayodhya, where the Brahmin's son has died. The sudra was caught, and Manu Smrati (an ancient Hindi scripture written by Manu) provides only one punishment: that melted lead, absolute fire, should be poured into both his ears. And that's what Rama did. I cannot conceive Rama even human. To talk of him as incarnation of God is simply nonsense.
In Russia they had created communism through a very dictatorial regime, forcing people, and they killed almost one million people after revolution; and then too when freedom was given again, the communism disappeared, because there is something intrinsically wrong in Marxian understanding.
Man is not equal. You cannot make another Albert Einstein and you cannot create another Karl Marx. People are unique. So the whole idea of equality and inequality is baseless. You cannot compare two unique beings. You don't compare a man with a chair. It is stupid -- they are simply different. People are different, so they should be given equal opportunity to be different, but they should not be forced to be equal -- which is against human nature, against human psychology.
Communism is not necessarily connected with the dictatorship of the proletariat; in fact it is not connected with government at all.
Education means a man with a balanced growth -- of body, mind, heart and soul. So up to now there has never been any education which is total. It is at the most a training of the mind, at the cost of the body, at the cost of the heart, and finally at the cost of the man's innermost being.
This education has proved dangerous. It creates only clerks; it cannot create anything else.

truth has to be discovered

It happened that one of Picasso's paintings was purchased by an American for one million dollars. Naturally, he wanted to know whether it was an authentic Picasso or not. He approached Picasso himself -- because that was the only way to find out -- and he asked Picasso, "Is this painting authentically yours, or has somebody made a copy of your painting?"
Picasso looked at the painting, and he said, "It is not authentic."
Picasso's girlfriend was amazed by the answer, because Picasso had painted that painting in front of her. She said to Picasso, "This is an inhuman joke! That man has spent one million dollars! He has come from America to France to ask you -- and you are lying, because I am an eyewitness. You have painted this painting; this is absolutely authentic!"
Picasso said, "You are not wrong. I have painted it, but still I say it is not authentic."
Now the man who had purchased the painting was absolutely in confusion. The girlfriend was also puzzled. What does Picasso mean? If he says he has painted the painting, and still insists it is not an authentic Picasso, this is a contradiction.
The man said, "This is even more confusing. It was good that it was not authentic; at least things were settled. But now you are saying you have painted it, and still it is not authentic. What do you mean then?"
Picasso said, "It is very simple, there is no contradiction. I have copied it from one of my old paintings. It is not authentic, it is just a copy. I have painted it, but it is not original. Somebody was insisting that he wants a painting, and I was not getting any ideas, so I simply used an old painting of mine and painted -- it is a copy. Now it does not matter who copies, Picasso or somebody else: a copy is a copy, it cannot be authentic."
This incident can remind you that existence never produces copies. It only produces authentic individuals -- never again the same person, never before. You are unique: you have never been in the whole eternity that has passed before you, and you will never be in the coming whole eternity. This uniqueness is something to be proud of.
Your truth has to be discovered only by you.

Sometimes you get identified too

The metaphor of the mirror is tremendously meaningful. It will be very helpful on the Way if you can understand it. The consciousness is just standing behind, watching. It is a witness. Things come and go... just like a movie. You sit in a movie house; on the screen many things come and go. Sometimes you get identified too. Sometimes you become identified with an actor. Maybe he is beautiful, powerful, has a charm, a grace of personality, is impressive, and has some charisma: you get identified, you forget yourself. For a moment you start thinking as if he is you. Sometimes it happens that there is a very sad scene, and you start crying, your eyes are wet... and there is nothing on the screen -- just light and shadow passing. And you know it, but you have forgotten for a moment. If you remember it, you will start laughing at yourself: "What are you doing? Crying? Weeping?" But it happens when you read a novel too. At least there is something on the screen. Reading a novel there is nothing -- no screen, no actors, nothing. Just in your own fantasy the novel goes on and on and on. And suddenly sometimes you feel very happy, and sometimes you feel very sad; the climate of the novel starts possessing you.
This is exactly what is happening in life. Life is a great stage, a great drama. And it is very complex -- because you are the actor, and you are the director, and you are the film, and you are the screen, and you are the projector, and you are the audience too. Now you are all layers: one part playing the role of an actor, another part directing, another part functioning as a screen, another part working as a projector. And behind it all is your real reality -- the witness who is just watching.
This watcher....
Once you start feeling its existence, once you start getting settled with it, more and more in tune with it, then you will see what Buddha means when he says consciousness is a mirror. The mirror is never contaminated, it only appears to be. You can put a heap of dung before a mirror; of course, it will reflect it. But still the mirror is not contaminated, it is not polluted. It doesn't become impure because a heap of manure or dung is reflected in it. It remains still pure. Remove the dung and the mirror is there in all its purity.

saying things so simple

If you compare.... that's why Jung was afraid. Jung was studying Eastern religions his whole life, and as he became more and more acquainted with them, a great fear arose in him; and the fear was that one day, sooner or later, the East is going to take over the West completely: "Religiously we cannot argue with such sharp, ten-thousand-year-old, very intricate, complicated systems. Our systems in the West are very poor." There is not a single commentary on Jesus' gospels. In two thousand years Christians have not even written one commentary, for the simple reason that there is nothing to comment on. Jesus was saying things so simple that Osho became the first commentator on Jesus, because he could make simple statements into complex philosophies. It is not difficult. It works both ways: you can make very complex philosophy into simple statements; you can do vice versa -- simple statements you can make into a great philosophy. When Osho spoke first on Jesus in THE MUSTARD SEED, it was accepted all over the Christian world as something unique, because in two thousand years nobody had bothered; nobody had even thought that there is any philosophy in it. Philosophy is not something that is ready-made, present anywhere; you have to create it. It does not exist. It is not that you simply open the door and philosophy is sitting there. No need to open the door -- you can simply create the hallucination of philosophy. Philosophy is just a linguistic game. It is a gimmick. You have only to learn to play with words -- and just being born in India is enough to know the game. It is in the very air. Everybody is talking great philosophy, it is not something rare. Even villagers are talking great philosophy, reading great philosophical treatises. So when Osho spoke on Jesus it had nothing to do with Jesus, it had nothing to do with anybody else; he enjoyed playing with words. But it is a very dangerous game. He can play for, he can play against. So when Osho was playing for, even Christian publishers published his books. Sheldon Press in London is a Christian publishing house. They published THE MUSTARD SEED and eight other books and, when in one of his talks Osho said that there are sources which say that Jesus was ugly, that he was four foot five inches high and that he was a hunchback, they freaked out! Their board of directors decided to withdraw all his books immediately.

the egoist in its utter nudity

The disease called will-to-power is the greatest disease, as far as man's consciousness and its growth is concerned. It is just like cancer; it is the cancer of the soul. Will-to-power can express itself in many ways. The easiest is politics, because it does not need much intelligence. All that it needs is the capacity to create false hopes in the masses, hopes which have never been fulfilled, which were never meant to be fulfilled; their purpose was something else. And the masses are in suffering. They are poor, they are ignorant. They also need all the comforts of life, they also want to live like human beings, with dignity. The politician gives them the hope, and exploits the hope for his own purpose, because once he gets the power, once he becomes somebody -- a prime minister, a president -- then something in him feels at ease. It was his psychological need.
These people are basically, deep down, impotent -- hence the urge to power. They feel their weakness and powerlessness; they know they are nobodies. But if they can convince the mediocre mob that they will be fulfilling their needs, then it is a mutual understanding, a bargain. Then the masses give them power. Once they have got the power, they forget all their promises; in fact, they never meant them, and once they have the power, then you see their real face. Lord Acton was absolutely right when he said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But he was not aware of why power corrupts, how power can corrupt. The man must be carrying the seeds of corruption already but was incapable of doing anything; he needed power. Once he has the power, then slowly his mask starts falling away and you will see within him the egoist in its utter nudity. The politician is nothing but an egoist. Inside he feels empty -- and afraid of that emptiness. He wants to be somebody so that he can forget his own emptiness. Power gives him the chance. He can see that millions of people are under his thumb. He can convince himself that he is not a nobody, he is somebody special. And he starts behaving that way. He starts misusing the power. Once he is in power, then he never wants to be out of it. Then he always wants to remain in power, because now he knows perfectly well that out of power he will be more aware than ever of his emptiness and his impotence.

Rejoice that existence cannot be without you

Taken as a prisoner into paradise, do you think you can enjoy it? Going into paradise following Jesus Christ, or Moses, or Buddha, or Krishna -- what kind of paradise will that be, where you are expected to be blind believers; you cannot ask a question, you cannot inquire about anything. That paradise will be worse than hell. But people have been distracted from their very source. Come back home. Respect yourself. Feel the joy and the pride that existence needs you; otherwise you would not have been here. Rejoice that existence cannot be without you. In the first place that's why you are here: existence has given you an opportunity, a life with tremendous treasures hidden within you -- of beauty, of ecstasy, of freedom. But you are not existential! You are Christian, you are Buddhist, you are Hindu. And only believe in one thing: existence. There is no need to go to any synagogue or any church. If you cannot experience the sky, the stars, the sunset, the sunrise, the flowers blossoming, the birds singing.... The whole of existence is a sermon! Not prepared by some stupid priest -- it is all over the place. You just need to trust yourself; that is another name for loving yourself. And when you trust and love yourself, obviously you have taken all the responsibility of whatever you are, whoever you are, upon your own shoulders. That gives such a tremendous experience of being that nobody can enslave you again. Don't dump your responsibility on anybody. Can you see the beauty of an individual who is capable of standing on his own feet? And whatever happens -- joy or sorrow, life or death -- the man who has loved himself is so integrated that he will be able not only to enjoy life, he will be able to enjoy death too. But the individual is missing, so you have to take responsibility for yourself. But you will be able to take it only if you start loving whatever you are: this is the way existence wanted you to be. If existence wanted another Jesus Christ, it would have created one. To be Christian is ugly, to be Mohammedan is ugly, to be Hindu is ugly. Be yourself, just yourself, simply yourself. And remember, you are taking a great risk when you declare that you are simply yourself. You don't belong to any crowd, any herd. These are all herds: Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, communists. You are declaring yourself an individual, knowing perfectly well that it is risky. The crowd may not forgive you at all. But it is so beautiful to take the risk, to move on the razor's edge where every step is dangerous. The more dangerously you live, the more you live. And it is possible to live, in a single moment, the whole eternity, if you are ready to live with totality, risking all and everything. Don't be a businessman, be a gambler. And when you are gambling, put everything at stake. Don't save anything for the next moment. Then whatever happens will bring great blessing to you. Even if you become a beggar, your being will be far more dignified than that of an emperor.

I have to be real

The moment something has passed it has passed. Be completely clean of it and be free and fresh again; then you will be real, authentically real, and there will be joy, and there will be celebration and song. That does not mean you will not ever be sad, no. You will be sad. The false man is never sad -- because he is never happy. The false man just remains in the middle, never happy, never sad. He is simply so-so, lukewarm; he is never too cold and never too hot. He is just "okay". He somehow manages. He has a comfortable life, but no real life. Not that the real man will always be happy. The real man will always be real. When he is sad he will be really sad. He will sing a song -- of sadness. He will accept his sadness as part of life, as part of growth. He will not reject it. If he feels like crying he will cry; he will not say, "What am I doing? This is not good. Only women cry, and I am a man." He will not say that. He will say, "If my eyes want to cry and the tears are rolling down, good. I have to be real. I am only whatsoever I am." He will cry. His tears will be true. Your smiles are false, your tears are false. You manage to smile, and you manage to cry too. So you live an empty life. The real man's life will be full, sometimes full of joy and sometimes full of sadness. And the real man one day becomes enlightened. The unreal man never becomes enlightened. When the real man becomes enlightened, then there is no joy and no sadness. Then his being is just a witness. Joy comes: he watches it. Sadness comes: he watches it. Now, these are the three stages. The false man: his joy is just a show, a mask, his sadness too; he pretends. The real man, the second stage: he is natural, spontaneous; his joy is true, his sadness is true. You can trust him. When he is crying, his whole heart is crying; and when he smiles, his whole heart is smiling. And the second stage is a must to attain to the third, the enlightened man. The enlightened man is neither sad nor happy. He has attained to the witnessing soul; he simply watches. He knows the sadness has come, the happiness has come, but these are like climates that come and go and change, and he remains centered. The false man cannot jump to the enlightened state; hence taoism teaches the real man, but the real man is not the goal. The Gestalt ideology or the Encounter ideology stops at the real man. Good. Better than the unreal. But not enough. Something has yet to happen. One can use Encounter groups, Gestalt groups, and all the therapies that have become available. They are perfectly beautiful; they bring you from the first, false state to the authentic, real state. But taoism goes beyond them. But you can go beyond only if you have gone through the second stage. From the first there is no way, from the false there is no way, to enlightenment; only from the real is there a way. You will have to go through the ecstasy of the real and the agony of the real. When you have lived deeply all the realities of life, the witness will arise. It arises naturally.

You got a hammer ?

A woman was seriously ill. Her husband summoned the doctor, who dashed inside the sickroom and came out a minute later asking for a chisel. The stunned but anxious husband didn't ask questions. He found a chisel. Minutes later the doctor poked his head out and asked, 'You got a hammer?' The husband was puzzled, but not wanting to doubt the doctor, gave him a hammer. Five minutes later out came the doctor asking for a hacksaw. By now the husband was completely upset and screamed hysterically, 'Doctor, you asked for a hammer, a chisel and a hacksaw. What are you doing to my wife? 'What wife?' asked the doctor. 'I'm trying to open my satchel!'
The doctor is just opening his box. Scriptures can't help you more than that. And there is every possibility that whatsoever you read in the scriptures may not be in the scriptures at all. How can you read something that you don't know already? You can read only that which you know. So people go on reading themselves in their books. They don't read the books. When you read books you cannot read them. You will be reading only something about your own mind into it. You will interpret it in your own way. You will be the interpreter. To understand Christ you will have to attain to Christ consciousness. To understand Krishna you will have to attain Krishna consciousness. Just by learning, you will not be able to understand -- you will misunderstand. All your interpretations are going to be wrong. They will be your interpretations out of your ignorance and out of all your kinds of stupidities.
Parson Sloan, with a nervous habit of winking his eye, was sent by his parish to New York City. Sloan asked the taxi driver for a good hotel -- as he winked -- and the cabbie mistook the wink and took him to a bawdy-house. The parson asked the madam for a nice room -- as he winked -- and she took him by the hand to a room filled with her girls, telling him to take his pick. But Parson Sloan said -- as he winked -- that he didn't want any girls. The madam went to the head of the stairs and shouted, 'Oh, Clarence, here's one for you!'
People understand only according to their state of mind. And that is natural. It has to be forgiven. Through knowledge knowing is not possible, through knowledge wisdom is not possible.
Farthington and Smythe, two Englishmen, went on holiday to Ireland. Farthington had a reputation for tactlessness, so Smythe warned him not to say anything disparaging about the Catholic Church. One evening they were playing darts in the local pub when news came over the radio that the pope was ill. Immediately everyone crowded around the radio to listen. 'Oh, to hell with the pope,' said Farthington. 'Let's get on with the game.' He woke up in the hospital to find Smythe sitting next to him. 'I warned you not to say anything about their religion,' said Smythe. 'Yes, I know,' said Farthington. 'But you didn't tell me the pope was a Catholic.'

the merits of their religion

Moshe Kapoyer was the only Jew in a small town and since business was bad he decided to change his name. There were other reasons also to change his name: because he was a Jew and the only Jew, people were avoiding him and his business was suffering. And secondly because his name, Moshe Kapoyer, means Mr. Topsy-turvy or Mr. Upside-down, so he was not very happy with his name either.
He went to a judge and became Mr. Jones. One week later he was back before the same judge asking that his name be changed to Murphy.
"Why do you want your name changed? I just changed it last week."
"So that when people ask me what my name was before it was Murphy, I can say it was Jones."
In fact you ARE a god; even if you want to be somebody else you cannot. Everybody is trying to be somebody else, but nobody has ever succeeded in being somebody else. God is our nature. You can forget all about it, but you cannot change it.

Flaherty and Gluckstein were discussing the merits of their religion.
"Answer me this," said the Irishman, "could one of your boys be pope?"
"No," answered Gluckstein. "Could one of your boys be God?"
"Why, of course not!" replied Flaherty.
"Well," said Gluckstein, "one of our boys made it!"
If Jesus can make it, if Buddha can make it, why not you? In fact, they could make it because it is not something to be achieved, it is something to be only discovered. We have forgotten it; it is already there like an undercurrent. Our godliness is always there; wherever you go it goes with you. It is you. It is in the sinner, it is even in the saint!
Anna: "Is it true what I hear about your husband cutting down on his smoking?"
Hannah: "Yes, now he is smoking only after meals -- his meal, my meal, the children's meals, everybody's meal!"

The defendant was accused of sullying the honor of a pure young maiden, according to the lady's testimony, and he was having a difficult time explaining the circumstances.
"I am innocent, Your Honor," he declared. "All I did was offer her a scotch and soda, and she reclined!"

hence the fear

Death is the greatest mystery of life. Life has many mysteries, but there is nothing comparable to death. Death is the climax, the crescendo. One is afraid of it because one will be lost, one will dissolve in it. One is afraid of it because of the ego -- the ego cannot survive death. It will be left on this shore when you start moving towards the other; it cannot go with you.
And the ego is all that you know about yourself, hence the fear, great fear: "I will not exist in death." But there is great attraction too. The ego will be lost, but not your reality. In fact, death will reveal to you your true identity; death will take away all your masks and will reveal your original face.
Death will for the first time make it possible for you to encounter your innermost, interiormost subjectivity as it is, without any camouflage, without any pretense, without any pseudo personality.
Hence, everybody is afraid of death and everybody is attracted. This attraction was misunderstood by Sigmund Freud and he thought that there is a death-wish in man -- he called it thanatos. He said, "Man has two basic, fundamental instincts: one is eros -- a deep desire to live, to be alive for ever, a desire for immortality -- and the other is thanatos, the desire to die, to be finished with it all." He misunderstood the whole point because he was not a mystic; He knew only one face of death -- that it ends life -- he knew only one thing: that death is an end. He was not aware that death is also a beginning. Each end is always a beginning, because nothing ever ends totally, nothing can ever end. Everything continues, only forms change.
Your form will die, but you have something formless in you too. Your body will not be there, but you have something in you, within your body, which is not part of your body. Your earthly part will drop into the earth, dust unto dust, but you have something of the sky in you, something of the beyond, which will take a new journey, a new pilgrimage.
Death creates fear if you think of the ego, and death appeals to you, attracts you, if you think of your true self. So vaguely one remains attracted towards death; if you become clearly aware of it, it can become a transforming understanding, it can become a mutant force.
Try to understand both the fear and the attraction. And don't think that they are opposites -- they don't overlap, they are not opposites either; they don't interfere with each other. The fear is directed in one direction: the ego; and the attraction is directed into a totally different dimension: the egoless self. And the attraction is far more important than the fear.

What does the lion's skin have to do with celibacy ?

Religion seems to give a certain stupidity to people who were born intelligent.
The Hindu monks sit on the skin of a lion -- and of course, one lion has to be killed for one monk -- and the ideology that they preach is that by sitting on the lion's skin you can remain celibate. Stupidity has no limit.
What does the lion's skin have to do with your celibacy? Lions are not celibate; one has never heard about a lion who was celibate. What scientific proof is there? There is not a single monk who is a celibate, and there are thousands of monks -- Hindus, Jainas....
Two books had come out about one of the richest sects of the Jainas, Terapanth. The sect is headed by Acharya Tulsi. Seventeen hundred monks are under him, and three times more nuns -- and all are sexually perverted.
These two books Acharya Tulsi tried hard to get the government to ban them. But the publisher of the books is also a follower of the same sect. He knows that what is written in those two books by ex-monks of Acharya Tulsi is absolutely true. He said, "I will fight against the government and go to the Supreme Court. They cannot prevent a truth!"
Once Osho was in Acharya Tulsi's camp for seven days. Osho could not believe... so many monks, so many nuns came in contact with him, and they told him that such perversion is going on behind the scenes -- and even Acharya Tulsi is not an exception. Homosexuality is widely prevalent, heterosexuality is widely prevalent. Those nuns are used almost like prostitutes. They go on preaching about celibacy, and their own reality is all kinds of perversions.
One of the ex-members of the cult had come to Osho directly when he left the cult. He wanted to write the book, but Osho said, "Wait a little. Nobody will listen to you. You just create some status for yourself and then write the book. The book is absolutely essential" -- because he himself was the victim of Acharya Tulsi's sexuality, not to say of other monks.
Beautiful Jaina girls are invited to become nuns. It is thought, it is preached, it has been propagated for hundreds of years that to become a nun is to become holy: you bring prestige and blessings to your family too. So when they see a beautiful girl, they invite the family: "The girl has such spiritual powers that she needs to be initiated as a nun." The family is happy, the community is happy, the girl is happy that she has been chosen as a spiritual being of tremendous possibilities. But the reality is totally different. She has been chosen because she is beautiful, young, and the monks are sitting there hungry.

I suspect that now I cannot walk on the water

Marpa, one of Tibet's great mystics, went to a master who was well-known for his learning, his scholarship. Marpa was a very humble and simple person, very clear as to what he knows and what he does not know, never pretending, "I know it," when he knew perfectly well that he did not know. He surrendered to the master. Seeing his great knowledge, learning, so many thousands of disciples, he surrendered totally. After a few days the disciples became upset with Marpa, because he was walking on water, flying in the air, jumping from the high peaks of Himalayan mountains into the valleys without any trouble. They reported to the master, "This man seems to be very strange. He must be a magician or perhaps the devil incarnate." And they were all jealous of him.
The master inquired of Marpa, "What is your secret? How do you walk on water?" Marpa said, "you are asking me? I just use your name; and I am surrendered to you, and you make me walk on water. Just your name is enough, and I can fly in the air. Your name is enough, and I can jump from the highest mountain peak!"
The master was not an enlightened person, but certainly a great scholar. He thought to himself -- which was logical -- "If my name has so much magic in it, I should try it."
But the first step in the water -- and he started to drown. He was shouting his name loudly, but nothing happened. His disciples saved him.
And Marpa said, "This is strange. But now I understand what has happened: It is not the master; it is my surrender, it is my egolessness. The master was only a device. It does not matter to me whether he is enlightened or not -- I am grateful to him. His name helped me. I suspect that now I cannot walk on the water with his name, and I am not going to do that anymore.
"But perhaps now there is no need. I can walk without any name, because I know the secret. The secret is egolessness. The master was only a device that helped."
In life there are only two possibilities, and they are polar opposites, as you say: ego and egolessness.
The word `surrender' brings the other person in, and you start thinking in polar opposites. Both the polar opposites are within you, so ego and egolessness let become things simple. Drop the ego and be egoless. No surrender is needed.
In egolessness, you are surrendered to existence itself.
And that is the greatest miracle that can happen to a man.
Then nothing is impossible.

unterhalb dieser anderen Wolken

Blondinenwitz: Was macht eine Blondine mit heißem Wasser? Einfrieren, heißes Wasser kann man immer brauchen. Sex: In Rom wird Viagra für den Vatikan in Pulverform hergestellt. Weshalb? Damit der Papst es unter seine Arme streichen kann, damit beim Urbi et Orbi die Arme länger oben bleiben. Anmache: Wenn du weinst, weine ich mit dir, wenn du lachst, lache ich mit dir und wenn du geil drauf bist... ruf' mich an. Fußballerspruch: Wir haben ein Abstimmungsproblem - das müssen wir automatisieren. (Berti Vogts) Beleidigung: Als die Götter dich zum ersten Mal sahen, mussten sie lächeln; als sie genauer hinsahen, mussten sie lachen. Fieser Spruch: Hallo hier ist dein Handy, die einzige Energiequelle in deiner Hose. Das Folgende ist eine Darstellung des merkwürdigen Vorfalls, der morgens am 12. August 1915 während der schweren Kämpfe geschah, die auf Höhe 17, Bucht von Suvla, ANZAC, stattfanden. Der Tagesanbruch war klar, ohne eine Wolke am Himmel, wie man es bei einem schönen Tag am Mittelmeer erwarten kann. Eine Ausnahme bildete jedoch sechs bis acht brotlaibförmige Wolken, die alle exakt gleich waren und über Höhe 60 schwebten. Es war zu bemerken, dass sie trotz einer Windstärke von sechs bis acht Kilometern pro Stunde aus südlicher Richtung ihre Position nicht veränderten und auch nicht mit der Brise abtrieben. Vom Beobachtungspunkt 150 Meter darüber aus gesehen, schwebten sie in einem Höhenwinkel von 60 Grad. Ebenfalls stationär und auf dem Boden direkt unterhalb dieser anderen Wolken liegend befand sich eine ähnliche Wolke. Sie maß etwa 245 Meter in der Klänge, 65 Meter in der Höhe und erreichte 60 Meter in der Breite. Diese Wolke war völlig dicht und sah von der Struktur her fest aus und war etwa 900 bis 1100 Meter von den Kampfhandlungen im britisch besetzten Gebiet entfernt. All das wurde von 22 Männern der Sektion Nr. 3 Feldkompanie Nr.1, N. Z. E. beobachtet. Sie lagen 13.500 Meter südwestlich dieser Wolke am Boden. Der Beobachtungspunkt befand sich etwa 90 Meter oberhalb des Hügels 60. Wie sich später herausstellte, hüllte die Wolke ein trockenes Bachbett oder einen abgesackten Weg (Kaiajik Dere) ein und sie hatten perfekte Sicht auf alle Seiten der Wolke. Ihre Farbe war ein leichtes Grau, ebenso wie die der anderen Wolken. Ein britisches Regiment, die 1./4. Norfolk mit einigen hundert Leuten, kam dann diesen abgesackten Weg oder das Bachbett entlang in Richtung Höhe 610. Als sie die Wolke erreicht hatten, marschierten sie ohne zu zögern direkt hinein, keiner von ihnen kam wieder heraus. Etwa eine Stunde später, nachdem die letzten darin verschwunden waren, hob die Wolke von Boden ab und stieg langsam auf, bis sie die anderen Wolken erreicht hatte. Beim nochmaligen Hinsehen glichen sie sich wie ein Ei dem anderen. Die ganze Zeit über hatten sie an derselben Stelle geschwebt. Sobald die einzelne Wolke aber ihre Ebene erreicht hatte, bewegten sich alle nordwärts in Richtung Bulgarien. Innerhalb einer Dreiviertelstunde waren alle außer Sichtweite.

nothing comes close to Coca-Cola

Either it is a coincidence, or it is a conspiracy, or it is just a myth created when the person is gone. But you can judge very easily.
Jesus can revive a dead man, but when he is feeling thirsty on the cross he cannot materialize a single glass of water, or just a Coca-Cola. That would have been a real miracle -- if he had produced Coca-Cola. Then nobody would ever say that miracles don't exist, because to produce Coca-Cola at that time would not have been possible. Even today you cannot make it, because the secret of Coca-Cola is absolutely preserved, there is no way.... There are so many cold drinks available in the world, but nothing comes close to Coca-Cola.
If Jesus had produced that, with the label of Coca-cola and the bottle and everything, then there would have been no need for any other proof; they could have just preserved the Coca-Cola bottle in the Vatican.
But whatever he did is not of much significance, and he could not do it when he was himself in need. He could revive the dead but he could not change those apostles, transform their beings. What to say of transformation -- even on the last night when Jesus is to depart he says to them again and again, "Remain awake, don't fall asleep! This is my last night; tonight they are going to catch me. Remain awake so that I can pray silently -- and be watchful!" And after each hour he comes and he finds his disciples are fast asleep, snoring. He wakes them up and tells them again, "Have you forgotten?" Now, with these stupid people Jesus wasted his whole life -- people who were not even capable of remaining awake just one night. When the master is going to be crucified the next day, even out of curiosity one would have remained awake; but even curiosity is not there. The moment Jesus goes back behind the bushes to pray... and why does he go behind the bushes? That I don't understand. You can go behind the bushes to piss, not to pray, but it would stink. He should have remained just in the middle of those fools and prayed there; that would have kept them awake at least. But going behind the bushes.... Again and again, the whole night that drama continues, but they are not ready. You can't change people's minds just a little bit but you can raise people from the dead? It doesn't seem to be possible.

innocent

It is the mind that tempts you to go wrong because the mind can exist only when you are wrong. The mind is not needed at all when you are moving towards truth, when you are right. When you are on the right track, mind has no utility; it simply loses its power over you. Go on becoming more and more stupid -- stupid in the sense of innocent.
Jesus was called a fool. Saint Francis was called a fool; used to call himself "the fool of God." Why have Jesus and Francis and people like these been called fools? Even they themselves have called themselves fools for the simple reason that there is something which the fool can know and the knowledgeable can never know. The foo. The fool is not so foolish as the knowledgeable person is. Sometimes he seems to be wiser than your so-called wise people. It was an ancient custom in almost all the countries of the world that every great king used to have a fool in his court. Why? -- for the simple reason that sometimes the fool says things which the wise – so called wise -- cannot say. The fool is so innocent that he simply utters the truth. The so-called wise are cunning; they will not say the truth, they will say that which appeals. It may be a lie -- and lies have great appeal because people live in lies. And particularly in the courts, all kinds of lies remain prevalent. The king is surrounded by all kinds of cheats, all kinds of cunning people; hence a fool was needed, so that he can depend on the fool. The fool will not be cunning and he will say whatsoever is the case. He is so foolish that he will not be bothered about the consequences of it. This is strange, but something significant to be understood. The fool was a necessary part in every great king's court, and the fools have saved many kings many times. They have saved their kingdoms because their advice came from a state of not-knowing, utterly innocent. They have a clarity that the knowledgeable person cannot afford; he is clouded. But because you are calling it stupidity, condemning it, giving it a negative name, you are feeling sad, hopeless. We live through words; we have become so much attached to words that we are deceived by words. Just change the word and you will see the change in your inner climate. Call it innocence and just feel the texture, the taste. Call it stupid and feel the texture and the taste. When you call it stupid you suddenly feel surrounded by darkness; when you call it innocence, as if a flower starts opening within your heart, a fragrance surrounds you. Beware about words, what words you use, because we have lived so long with words, through words.... People live through words. In a crowded theater, if somebody suddenly shouts, "Fire! Fire!" people will start running. Nobody will bother whether there is any fire. The very word 'fire' and your imagination starts working.