WHO IS NOT, YET LIVES WITH A DEEP COMMITMENT TO TRUTH.
Lynne Stevens, do you know what truth is? Otherwise, how can there be a commitment?
Commitment is possible only if you know. The sannyasin is one who knows that he
knows not, the sannyasin is one whose commitment is not to truth but to the inquiry into
truth. And the inquiry is possible only with someone who knows, who has arrived. The
sannyasin is one who is committed to the person, or to the no-person, around whom he
feels the vibe of truth, the vibe of authenticity.
Lynne Stevens, your commitment to truth is just an idea. Your truth is just a word, a mind
trip. If you want to make it a real pilgrimage you will have to be a disciple -- and to be a
disciple is to be a sannyasin.
To be a disciple means to be ready to learn, ready to go into the unknown with someone
who has been in it. Alone, very rarely one has attained to truth. Not that it has not
happened -- alone, also, it has happened, but very rarely, just an exception; otherwise one
has to learn in communion with a master.
Then too, it does not happen easily. It is an arduous journey. Dropping the clinging to the
known is not easy. That is our whole investment, that is our whole identity. Dropping the
clinging to the known is dropping the ego, is committing a kind of spiritual suicide;
alone, you will not be able to do it. Unless you see somebody who has committed that
suicide and still is -- in fact for the first time is.... You will have to look into those eyes
which have seen truth, and a glimpse of the truth will be caught through those eyes. You
will have to hold hands with someone who has known, receive the warmth and the love...
and the unknown will start flowing into you.
That's what it means to be with a master, to be a disciple. If you are really committed to
truth you are bound to become a sannyasin. If your commitment to truth is an inquiry
then you will have to learn the ways of learning. And the first thing to learn is to
surrender, to trust, to love.
The sannyasin is one who has fallen in love with a person, or a no-person, where he feels
a gut feeling: "Yes, it has happened here." To be with someone who has known is
contagious -- and truth is not taught, it is caught.
Your truth is nothing but an idea in your mind -- maybe a philosophical inquiry, but a
philosophical inquiry is not going to help. It has to become existential, you have to give
proofs in your life that you are really committed. Otherwise you can go on playing the
game of words, beautiful games of theories, systems of thought -- and there are
thousands. You can also make a private system of thought of your own, and you will
think this is truth.
Truth is not of your making, truth has nothing to do with your mind. Truth happens, and
it happens only when you have become a no-mind. But how are you going to become a
no-mind? On your own you will remain the mind. You may think about the no-mind, you
may philosophize about the no-mind, you may read the scriptures about no-mind, but you
will remain a mind. On your own, seeking and searching, your ego will feel very good --
but that is the barrier. It is like pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.
If somewhere you find help is available, don't miss it -- because the opportunity is rare,
the buddhafield is rare. Only once in a while, somewhere, a buddha arises, a bodhichitta
happens. Then don't miss the opportunity. If your commitment is really towards truth,
you cannot avoid becoming a sannyasin. It is inevitable, because no-mind is learned only
by sitting by the side of a no-mind.
If you sit by my side, slowly slowly your mind will start dispersing like the morning mist.
Slowly slowly a silence will start penetrating you -- not of your doing, but coming on its
own. A stillness will pervade you.
And the moment you are utterly still, not even a thought moving inside you, that is the
moment of illumination. For the first time you have a glimpse of truth -- not the idea of
truth, but truth itself.
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