WHAT IS SO ATTRACTIVE ABOUT MISSING?
Devaraj, it has a tremendous attraction, because it is only through missing that the ego
can survive. It is only through searching, seeking, desiring, that the ego exists; it exists in
the tension between that which is and that which should be.
The moment the "should" disappears, the ego collapses. Hence all ethical systems, all
moralities, are nourishments for the ego. The moral man is the most egoistic man in the
world. And the mechanism is very simple. Seeking, searching, you live in the future,
which is not; and the ego can exist only with that which is not, because it itself is not.
If you are in the moment, in the present, the ego has no possibility of surviving even for a
single moment. The present is and the ego is not, like light is and darkness is not. Bring
light in, and darkness disappears. Even to say that it disappears is not right, because it
was not there in the first place, so how can it disappear? It was a pure absence. The
absence of light, that's what darkness is.
The absence of the present, that's what the ego is. Not to be herenow, that's what the ego
is -- not to be herenow, to be somewhere else, seeking and searching for a faraway goal,
looking at a faraway distant star. The farther away the goal, the bigger the ego.
Hence people who are not worldly have bigger egos than the so-called poor worldly
people. Spiritual people have bigger egos, naturally; their goal is very far away, distant,
beyond death, above the seven skies. God is their goal, or moksha or nirvana -- goals
which look almost impossible.
The possible goal can give you only a small ego, and that too only for the time being.
Once the goal is achieved you will start feeling frustrated. That's what happens every day.
You wanted a beautiful house, now you have got it, and suddenly frustration sets in. The
ego needs a new goal to survive; now it starts fantasizing about a bigger palace.
You were seeking and searching for a woman; now you have got her, and the moment
you have got her you are finished with her. It may take a few days for you to recognize
the fact, that is another matter, but you are finished with her. Now your ego needs another
woman so that the journey can continue.
The ego is constantly journeying from the present to some nonexistential future. If you
ask me, this is my definition of samsara, the world. The ego journeying from the present
to the future is the world. And the ego not journeying at all, simply being herenow, is the
end of samsara: you are in nirvana, samadhi, enlightenment. Hence enlightenment cannot
be reduced to a goal. If you reduce it to a goal, you have missed the whole point.
All the buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be -- don't try to
become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is
enlightenment, becoming is ignorance. But you have been taught to become this, to
become that. And the mind is so cunning, and the ways of the ego are so subtle that it
even turns God, nirvana, enlightenment, truth, into goals; it starts asking how to achieve
them. They are not to be achieved, they cannot be achieved; the achieving mind is the
only barrier. They are already here. You have to drop the achieving mind, you have to
forget journeying from this point to that, you simply have to relax and be, and all is
attained.
Lao Tzu calls it wu-wei, action without action. You have not moved a single inch, and
you have arrived; this is wu-wei. You have not gone anywhere, you have not even
thought of going anywhere, and you are already there. Suddenly the recognition comes,
"I never lost the home, I only fell asleep and started dreaming about achieving."
Those who give you goals are your enemies. Those who tell you what to become and
how to become it, are the poisoners. The real master simply says, "There is nothing to
become. You are already that, it is already the case. Stop running after shadows. Sit
silently and BE. Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by
itself.
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