LOVE AND AWARENESS ARE TWO PATHS.NOR HIGHER NOR LESSER.''OSHO''

OSHO,

IS AWARENESS A HIGHER VALUE THAN LOVE?

Virendra,

THE HIGHEST PEAK IS THE CULMINATION of all the values: truth, love,

awareness, authenticity, totality. At the highest peak they are indivisible. They are

separate only in the dark valleys of our unconsciousness They are separate only when

they are polluted, mixed with other things. The moment they become pure they become

one; the more pure, the closer they come to each other.

For example, each value exists on many planes; each value is a ladder of many rungs.

Love is lust -- the lowest rung, which touches hell; and love is also prayer -- the highest

rung, which touches paradise. And between these two there are many planes easily

discernible.

In lust, love is only one percent; ninety-nine percent are other things: jealousies, ego

trips, possessiveness, anger, sexuality. It is more physical, more chemical; it has nothing

deeper than that. It is very superficial, not even skin-deep.

As you go higher, things become deeper; they start having new dimensions. That which

was only physiological starts having a psychological dimension to it. That which was

nothing but biology starts becoming psychology. We share biology with all the animals;

we don't share psychology with all the animals.

When love goes still higher -- or deeper, which is the same -- then it starts having

something of the spiritual in it. It becomes metaphysical. Only Buddhas, Krishnas,

Christs, they know that quality of love.

Love is spread all the way and so are other values. When love is one hundred percent

pure you cannot make any distinction between love and awareness; then they are no more

two. You cannot make any distinction between love and God even; they are no more two.

Hence Jesus' statement that God is love. He makes them synonymous. There is great

insight in it.

On the periphery everything appears separate from everything else; on the periphery

existence is many. As you come closer to the center, the manyness starts melting,

dissolving, and oneness starts arising. At the center, everything is one.

Hence your question, Virendra, is right only if you don't understand the highest quality of

love and awareness. It is absolutely irrelevant if you have any glimpse of the Everest, of

the highest peak.

You ask: IS AWARENESS A HIGHER VALUE THAN LOVE?

There is nothing higher and nothing lower. In fact, there are not two values at all. These

are the two paths from the valley leading to the peak. One path is of awareness,

meditation: the path of Zen we have been talking about these days. And the other is the

path of love, the path of the devotees, the BHAKTAS, the Sufis. These two paths are

separate when you start the journey; you have to choose. Whichever you choose is going

to lead to the same peak. And as you come closer to the peak you will be surprised: the

travelers on the other path are coming closer to you. Slowly slowly, the paths start

merging into each other. By the time you have reached the ultimate, they are one.

The person who follows the path of awareness finds love as a consequence of his

awareness, as a by-product, as a shadow. And the person who follows the path of love

finds awareness as a consequence, as a by-product, as a shadow of love. They are two

sides of the same coin.

And remember: if your awareness lacks love then it is still impure; it has not yet known

one hundred percent purity. It is not yet REALLY awareness; it must be mixed with

unawareness. It is not pure light; there must be pockets of darkness inside you still

working, functioning, influencing you, dominating you. If your love is without

awareness, then it is not love yet. It must be something lower, something closer to lust

than to prayer.

So let it be a criterion if you follow the path of awareness, let love be the criterion. When

your awareness suddenly blooms into love, know perfectly well that awareness has

happened, SAMADHI has been achieved. If you follow the path of love, then let

awareness function as a criterion, as a touchstone. When suddenly, from nowhere, at the

very center of your love. a flame of awareness starts arising, know perfectly

well...rejoice! You have come home.

NOT KNOWING IS THE MOST INTIMATE.''OSHO''

WHAT IS GOING ON?

Anand Subhuti,

I AM SURPRISED, because that's exactly what I was going to ask you all! I don't know.

But: NOT KNOWING IS THE MOST INTIMATE.

Ah, This!

THE PROFESSION OF A JOURNALIST LIVES ON LIES.''OSHO''

OSHO,

ARE ALL THE JOURNALISTS BLIND? CAN'T THEY SEE THE TRUTH? WHY

ARE THEY CONTINUOUSLY SPREADING LIES ABOUT YOU?

Nisha,

THE PROFESSION OF A JOURNALIST is such that it lives on lies. Truth is not news;

lies are news, beautiful news. The bigger the lie the better the news, because it has a

certain quality in it: the quality of creating a sensation. Journalism lives on lies. If

journalists decide only to be true, there won't be so many newspapers, so many

magazines. And there will not be much news either. Truth you can write on a postcard.

I have heard that in heaven there are no newspapers because no news ever happens there.

George Bernard Shaw has made a definition: "When a dog bites a man it is not news, but

when a man bites a dog it is news." In heaven no man bites a dog. In the first place it is

very difficult to find a dog there; in the second place nobody is interested in biting

anybody, so what news can you have?

But in hell they have really great newspapers and there circulation is in the millions. They

have news there. Every day, every moment, things are happening -- everybody is biting

everybody else.

When journalists come they come to find something sensational. If they cannot find it

they have to invent it; otherwise their coming and going has been useless. And if a

journalist goes back to his office without any news again and again, his job is gone.

Either find something sensational or invent it.

Journalism depends on invention. And then slowly slowly a journalist starts having a

certain kind of approach towards things: he immediately sees the negative. He can't see

the positive because the positive is not his business.

It is like a shoemaker: he looks only at your shoes, not at your face. What does he have to

do with your face? In fact, looking at your shoe he knows your whole biography; a real

shoemaker just looking at your shoe can say everything about your life far more

accurately than any astrologer can. The condition of the shoe will show the condition, the

financial condition, in which you are. If you have to walk too much, that will show that

you don't have a car, that you don't have any money. The shoe will say so many things.

The shoemaker looks only at the shoe, and the tailor looks only at your clothes, and the

doctor looks only at the diseases. Bring a perfectly healthy man to a doctor and you will

be surprised: he will find many diseases.

I have heard that one doctor friend of Picasso had come to visit him. Picasso had just

finished a portrait. He invited the doctor friend to see the portrait. He looked; he looked

from this side and from that side, and then he asked for a torch -- in the daytime!

Picasso was puzzled, but he was intrigued also so he gave him a torch. He looked into the

eyes of the portrait and he said, "Pneumonia."

A doctor is a doctor! His profession gives him a certain eye.

The journalist comes here with a certain eye, with certain fixed ideas, prejudices. He

comes to pick up on something negative which can become sensational. And then, of

course, he can find it; and if he cannot find it he can invent it. And they look only from

the outside; they are too afraid to get involved deeper. A few journalists have got

involved -- once they get involved they are no more journalists.

You can ask Satyananda. He was a famous journalist in one of the most important

magazines in Germany, STERN. He got so much involved...he didn't function here like a

journalist. He tried to know things from the inside. He participated in groups, in

meditations, and then...he became a sannyasin.

STERN refused to publish his story because they said, "You are no more a journalist.

Now you have become part of this orange movement, so whatsoever you say will be

favorable."

For months he had to insist, "I have worked hard!" They cut his story almost by half.

They destroyed his whole story, distorted the whole story, and only then did they print it.

And he lost his job!

Now he has come here forever. There are a few other journalists also, at least a dozen.

Subhuti is here and others are here....

A journalist is taught by his profession to always remain at a distance: "Look from the

outside." And from the outside you can never know how things are.

A pretty young woman was traveling in a train across Texas. A dapper looking man

walked up to her and whispered something in her ear, whereupon she gave him a stinging

slap in the face.

A tall Texan seated across the aisle stood up and asked her, "Is this man molesting you,

Ma'am?"

"He certainly is," she replied. "He just offered me ten dollars if I would go with him to

his sleeping compartment."

Without hesitation, the Texan pulled out his pistol and shot the man.

"Good God!" cried the woman. "That's no reason to kill him!"

"I will kill any man," replied the Texan, "who tries to raise the prices in Texas."

If you had looked only from the outside you would never have thought about this, what

was inside the mind of the Texan. You would have thought him a great saint or

something.

But the journalist has to keep a distance. He thinks that by keeping a distance he will be

able to know better. No, he will only gather information, bits of information, in fact

irrelevant, unconnected with each other, because he has no approach to the center. And

he is going to distort it more to make it more sensational.

A group of Rajneesh sannyasins in Bonn, Germany, were taking a boatride down the

Rhine river when they noticed that a well-known journalist was aboard the boat. They

decided to do something to give sannyasins a more positive image in Germany. So,

before the eyes of the journalist, they stepped off into the water and did a whirling Sufi

dance all the way around the moving boat. Then, completely dry, they climbed back onto

the boat's deck.

The next day the sannyasins eagerly scanned the newspaper to see what the journalist had

written about their fantastic feat.

There, in the back pages, they found a small article with the headline: WHEN WILL

RAJNEESH SANNYASINS FINALLY LEARN TO SWIM?

EVERYTHING IN UNCONSCIOUSNESS IS A SIN.''OSHO''

OSHO,

I CANNOT DROP THE HABIT OF CHAIN-SMOKING. I HAVE TRIED HARD BUT

I HAVE FAILED ALWAYS. IS IT A SIN TO SMOKE?

Gurucharan,

DON'T MAKE A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL! Religious people are very

skillful in doing that. Now, what are you really doing when you are smoking? Just taking

some smoke inside your lungs and letting it out. It is a kind of PRANAYAMA -- filthy,

dirty, but still a PRANAYAMA! You are doing yoga, in a stupid way. It is not sin. It may

be foolish but it is not a sin, certainly.

There is only one sin and that is unawareness, and only one virtue and that is awareness.

Do whatsoever you are doing, but remain a witness to it, and immediately the quality of

your doing is transformed. I will not tell you not to smoke; that you have tried. You must

have been told by many so-called saints not to smoke: "Because if you smoke you will

fall into hell." God is not so stupid as your saints are. Throwing somebody into hell just

because he was smoking cigarettes will be absolutely unnecessary.

One morning, Weintraub went to a restaurant and ordered bacon with his eggs. He was an

orthodox Jew and his wife kept a strictly kosher home, but Weintraub felt the need just

this once.

As Weintraub was about to leave the restaurant, he stopped in the door frozen with terror.

The sky was filled with black clouds, there was lightning, and the ground shook with the

rumble of thunder.

"Can you imagine!" he exclaimed. "All that fuss over a little piece of bacon!"

But that's what your so-called saints have been telling you down the ages, for centuries.

Smoking is unhealthy, unhygienic, but not a sin. It becomes a sin only if you are doing it

unconsciously -- it is not smoking that makes it a sin but unconsciousness.

Let me emphasize the fact. You can do your prayer every day unconsciously; then your

prayer is a sin. You can become addicted to your prayer. If you miss the prayer one day,

the whole day you will feel something is wrong, something is missing, some gap. It is the

same with smoking or with drinking; there is no difference in it. Your prayer has become

a mechanical habit; it has become a master over you. It bosses you; you are just a servant,

a slave to it. If you don't do it, it forces you to do it.

So it is not a question of smoking. You may be doing your Transcendental Meditation

every day regularly, and it may be just the same. If the quality of unconsciousness is

there, if mechanicalness is there, if it has become a fixed routine, if it has become a habit

and you are a victim of the habit and you cannot put it aside, you are no more a master of

yourself, then it is a sin. But its being a sin comes out of your unconsciousness, not out of

the act itself.

No act is virtuous, no act is a sin. What consciousness is behind the act -- everything

depends on that.

EVERYBODY IS SAME AT THE CENTRE BUT NOT ON CIRCUMFERENCE.''OSHO''

AREN'T ALL PEOPLE REALLY THE SAME?

Sudarsho,

ESSENTIALLY YES, BUT ACCIDENTALLY NO. At the center yes, on the

circumference no. Essentially we are made of the same stuff called God, but on the

circumference God comes in every shape and size, in every color, in every form. There is

much difference And it is beautiful because if people were really the same, both at the

center and on the circumference, the world would be a very boring place. But it is not a

boring place. It is immensely interesting; it is immensely beautiful, rich. And the richness

comes because of variety.

No two persons are the same on the circumference, although everybody is the same at the

center -- not only people but trees and rocks, they are also the same at the center. Call that

center the soul and it will be easier for you to understand. Our souls are the same, there

we meet and are one, but our bodies and minds are different, there we are separate.

And no effort should be made to make us similar on the surface. Down the ages people

have been trying to do that; that creates only fascism. That's what Adolph Hitler was

trying to do. That's what happens in every army: we try to make people similar even on

the surface. In the army names disappear, numbers take their place. If a person dies you

read on the board, "Number 14 has fallen." Now, number 14 has no personality. Anybody

can replace number 14, anybody can be given number 14; number 14 is replaceable. But

the person who has died, is he replaceable? Can anybody in the world ever replace him?

Who will be the husband of his wife and who will be the father of his children? And who

will be the son of his old parents? And who will be the friend of his friends? Number 14

cannot do that. Number 14 is perfectly okay in the army; he will carry the gun and he will

do the same things -- the same stupid things -- that the other number 14 was doing before.

But as far as their real personality is concerned, number 14 is a different person.

All the military leaders of the world have been trying to force a certain pattern on people.

They would like machines, not men. They would like God to make men the way Ford

cars are made, on an assembly line, so similar Fords go on coming. God does not work

with an assembly line; he creates each individual with uniqueness.

So, Sudarsho, you have to understand two things. One: the variety, the difference, and

love the variety and love the difference....

Mohammedans have been trying to convert the whole world to one religion; Hindus have

been trying to do the same, Christians have been doing the same, Buddhists have been

doing the same. The whole effort is to make all the world similar, so there are all

Christians and Christians. It will be a poor world where no temple exists and no mosque,

where there are only churches and churches, and the same prayer and the same scripture

and the same silly Pope...it won't be good! It is beautiful that there are three hundred

religions in the world; more are needed.

In my vision, each person should have his own religion. There should be as many

religions as there are people. Only then this conflict, this continuous conflict, will stop,

this fight between religions will stop: when everybody has a religion and it is something

unique like your signature, like the print of your thumb -- unique. Then there will be no

problem, no conflict; nobody will try to convert anybody. You don't try to convert people

saying, "Make your signature just as I do." In fact, if somebody does it you will inform

the police: "This man is trying to imitate me."

Religion should be a personal, intimate phenomenon. But there are people who want to

change the whole world into Christianity or communism. They want to make the whole

world Catholic or Mohammedan or Hindu.

Mohammedans say there is only one God and only one prophet of God, that is

Mohammed. Then God seems to be very poor -- just ONE prophet? Can't he create more

prophets? Mohammed has not exhausted all the possibilities; nobody can exhaust them,

neither Buddha nor Jesus. They are all unique peaks, but no peak can exhaust all the

peaks. The Himalayas have their own beauty, but it is different from the beauty of the

Alps; and the Alps have their own beauty, but it is different from the beauty of the

Vindhyas. Each mountain has its own beauty, each peak has its own beauty, and it

contributes to the richness of the world.

I would not like all people to become Christians or Hindus or Mohammedans. I would

like everybody to be free from these prisons, everybody to be just himself. This is a

fascist idea, that everybody should be like everybody else. And this fascist idea is being

imposed in different ways on different aspects of humanity.

The heterosexuals will not allow anybody to be homosexual. Why? Who are you to

decide? Who has given you the right to decide? If two persons are feeling joyous in being

homosexual, it is nobody else's business to interfere. But every society interferes.

Just the other day Aditya said Hamid had suggested that there was no reason why he

should not think of turning into a gay person. Hamid must have joked. And when I talked

about it Hamid was very much disturbed: "What will people think about me now?" He

must have been joking with Aditya. Now he is very much disturbed about his reputation.

And of course, he is our Ayatollah Hamidullah Khomaniac! So his prestige.... Even

Divya wept when she heard that Hamid had invited Aditya! He must have been joking

because Iranians are very much against homosexuality.

In Iran, the punishment for homosexuality is death -- although because of this

punishment, more Iranians are homosexual than anybody else. Because when something

is so dangerous, people become interested: "Naturally there must be something in it.

When the punishment is death, that means there must be something higher than life in it,

more than life in it. It is worth taking the risk!"

But why should people be worried about others? About everything the society remains

alert: nobody should have his own individual way about his sex, about his love, about his

clothes, about his way of talking, manners. Every society imposes a fascist rule on its

members. It destroys much that is beautiful.

ENERGY OF PASSION AND JEALOUSLY IS SAME TO COMPASSION BUT NEXT DIRECTION.''OSHO''

NO PASSION, NO JEALOUSY, AND SO MUCH LOVING. CAN IT BE TRUE THAT
THIS SUFFERING IS OVER?
Prem Turiya,

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL THINGS to be remembered, and you
will have to be constantly aware: you cannot take it for granted that the suffering is over.
If you take it for granted that the suffering is over, the suffering will be back by the back
door. You have to be constantly alert and aware.
Yes, for the moment there is no jealousy, no passion, and yet so much loving -- naturally.
When there is no passion and no jealousy, all the energies move into the direction of love.
It is the same energy that becomes passion, that becomes jealousy. When there is no
jealousy, no passion, all the energy is available for the flowers of love to bloom. But don't
take it for granted. Don't think that the suffering is over for ever.

Life is a continuous evolution and you have to be constantly alert, otherwise you can fall
back into the old patterns very easily. And the old patterns have persisted so long, they
have become so ingrained in your blood, in your bones, in your very marrow, that one
moment of unconsciousness and you are back. You have to go on being aware.
Something beautiful is happening...much more is going to happen. One never knows how
much more is possible. We are never aware of our potential unless it becomes actual.
You have seen a beautiful space of non-jealous love. Passion is a kind of fever and it
consumes much energy. Fever naturally consumes energy -- and passion is fever. When
passion disappears, compassion arises. And compassion is cool. Passion is hot, it burns
you. Compassion is cool -- not cold, remember. Hatred is cold, lust is hot. Exactly
between the two is the golden mean, neither hot nor cold. Then you are in a state of cool
warmth. Very paradoxical it seems -- cool warmth. It is not hot, but it is warm; it is not
cold, but it is cool.
And the real flower of love opens up only in that climate of warmth-coolness. A warm
coolness is the right climate for the lotus of love to blossom.
But don't take it for granted. Never take anything for granted! Each moment you have to
conquer it again and again. Life is a continuous conquest. It is not that once and for all it
is settled and then you can fall asleep and stay unconscious and there is no worry left.
Again you will be back in the same rut.
Turiya, I am happy -- I have been watching you. You are looking both warm and cool. It
is a non-ending process. Be alert, be watchful. Don't destroy this beautiful flower that is
growing in you.
When you have something precious you have to be more aware. When you have nothing
to lose you can be unconscious, you can fall asleep; there is no problem. But when you
have something to lose -- and this is something precious -- be more conscious, be more
alert. You have discovered a treasure.

MIND BEAUTIFUL SERVANT BUT DANGEROUS MASTER.''OSHO''

OSHO,

I KNOW YOU WANT US ALL TO RID OURSELVES OF OUR EGOS AND MINDS,

AND IN MY CASE, I KNOW THAT THIS IS VERY NECESSARY, BUT FOR

THOSE OF US WHO WILL BE RETURNING TO THE WEST, WOULD NOT A

TOTAL ABSENCE OF MIND OR EGO MAKE LIFE MUCH MORE DIFFICULT?

Prem Joyce,

WHEN I SAY, "DROP THE EGO, DROP THE MIND," I don't mean that you cannot

use the mind any more. In fact, when you don't cling to the mind you can use it in a far

better, far more efficient way, because the energy that was involved in clinging becomes

available. And when you are not continuously in the mind, twenty-four hours a day in the

mind, the mind also gets a little time to rest.

Do you know? -- even metals need rest, even metals get tired. So what to say about this

subtle mechanism of the mind? It is the MOST subtle mechanism in the world. In such a

small skull you are carrying such a complicated biocomputer that no computer made by

man is yet capable of competing with it. The scientists say a single man's brain can

contain all the libraries of the world and yet there will be space enough to contain more.

And you are continuously using it -- uselessly, unnecessarily! You have forgotten how to

put it off. For seventy, eighty years it remains on, working, working, tired. That's why

people lose intelligence: for the simple reason that they are so tired. If the mind can have

a little rest, if you can leave the mind alone for a few hours every day, if once in a while

you can give the mind a holiday, it will be rejuvenated; it will come out more intelligent,

more efficient, more skillful.

So I am NOT saying that you are NOT to use your mind, but don't be USED by the mind.

Right now the mind is the master and you are only a slave.

Meditation makes you a master and the mind becomes a slave. And remember: the mind

as a master is dangerous because, after all, it is a machine; but the mind as a slave is

tremendously significant, useful. A machine should function as a machine, not as a

master. Our priorities are all upside-down -- your CONSCIOUSNESS should be the

master.

So whenever you want to use it, in the East or in the West -- of course you will need it in

the marketplace -- USE it! But when you don't need it, when you are resting at home by

the side of your swimming-pool or in your garden, there is no need. Put it aside. Forget

all about it! Then just be.

And the same is the case with the ego. Don't be identified with it, that's all. Remember

that you are part of the whole; you are not separate from it.

That does not mean that if somebody is stealing from your house you have simply to

watch -- because you are just part of the whole and he is also part of the whole, so what is

wrong? And somebody is taking money from your pocket, so there is no problem -- the

other's hand is as much yours as his! I am not saying that.

Remember that you are part of the whole so that you can relax, merge; once in a while

you can be utterly drowned in the whole. And that will give you a new lease of life. The

inexhaustible sources of the whole will become available to you. You will come out of it

refreshed; you will come out of it reborn, again as a child, full of joy, inquiry, adventure,

ecstasy.

Don't get identified with the ego, although, as far as the world is concerned, you have to

function as an ego -- that is only utilitarian! You have to use the word "I" -- use the word

"I," but remember that it is only a word. It has a certain utility, and without it life will

become impossible. If you stop using the word "I" completely, life will become

impossible. We know names are only utilitarian, nobody is born with a name. But I am

not saying to drop the name and throw your passport into the river. Then you will be in

trouble! You NEED a name; that is a necessity because you live with so many people.

If you are alone in the world, then of course there is no need to carry a passport. If you

are alone...for example, if the third world war happens and Joyce is left alone, then there

will be no need to carry a passport; you can throw it anywhere. Then there will be no

need to have any name. Even if you have one it will be useless -- nobody will ever call

you. Then there will be no need to even use the word "I" because "I" needs a "thou";

without a "thou" the "I" is meaningless. It has meaning only in the context of others.

So don't misunderstand me. USE your ego, but use it just like you use your shoes and

your umbrella and your clothes. When it is raining, use the umbrella, but don't go on

carrying it unnecessarily. And don't go to bed with the umbrella, and don't be afraid that

in a dream it may rain.... The umbrella has a utility, so use it when it is needed; but don't

become so identified with the umbrella that you cannot put it aside. Use the shoes, use the

clothes, use the name -- they are all utilities, not realities.

In the world, when so many people are there, we need a few labels, a few symbols, just to

demark, just to make sure who is who.

You ask me: I KNOW YOU WANT US ALL TO RID OURSELVES OF OUR EGOS

AND MINDS....

I am not saying to "get rid"; I am simply saying to be master of your minds. I am not

telling you to be mindless; I am only saying: don't just be minds -- you are far more. Be

consciousnesses! Then the mind becomes a small thing. You can use it whenever needed,

and whenever not needed you can put it off.

I am using my mind when I am talking to you. The mind has to be used; there is no other

way. But the moment I enter my room, then I don't go on using it -- there is no point.

Then I am simply silent. With you I am using the language, the words, but when I am

with myself there is no need for any language, for any words. When I am settled into

myself and there is no question of communication, language disappears. Then there is a

totally different kind of consciousness.

Right now my consciousness is flowing through the mind, using the mechanism of the

mind to approach you. I can reach for you with my hand, but I am not the hand. And

when I touch you with my hand, the hand is only a means; something else is touching you

through the hand. The body has to be used, the mind has to be used, the ego, the

language, and all kinds of things have to be used. And you are allowed to use them with

only one condition: remain the master.

LIFE IS NOT BORING BUT MIND IS BORING.''OSHO''

I FEEL LIFE IS VERY BORING. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Brij Mohan,

AS IT IS, YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE ENOUGH. You have made life boring --

some achievement! Life is such a dance of ecstasy and you have reduced it to boredom.

You have done a miracle! What else do you want to do? You can't do anything bigger

than this. Life and boring? You must have a tremendous capacity to IGNORE life.

Just the other day I was telling you that ignorance means the capacity to ignore. You

must be ignoring the birds, the trees, the flowers, the people. Otherwise, life is so

tremendously beautiful, so ABSURDLY beautiful, that if you can see it as it is you will

never stop laughing. You will go on giggling -- at least inside.

Life is not boring, but MIND is boring. And we create such a mind, such a strong mind,

like a China Wall around ourselves, that it does not allow life to enter into us. It

disconnects us from life. We become isolated, encapsulated, windowless. Living behind a

prison wall you don't see the morning sun, you don't see the birds on the wing, you don't

see the sky in the night full of stars. And, of course, you start thinking that life is boring.

Your conclusion is wrong. YOU are in a wrong space; you are living in a wrong context.

You must be a religious person, Brij Mohan, because to make life boring one has to be

religious; one has to be very scholarly. One has to know Christianity, Hinduism, Islam.

One has to learn much from the Vedas and the Koran and the Bible. You must be very

well-informed. A man who is too well-informed, too knowledgeable, creates such a thick

wall of words -- futile words, empty words -- around himself that he becomes incapable

of seeing life.

Knowledge is a barrier to life.

Put aside your knowledge! And then look with empty eyes...and life is a CONSTANT

surprise. And I am not talking about some divine life -- the ORDINARY life is so

extraordinary. In small incidents you will find the presence of God -- a child giggling, a

dog barking, a peacock dancing. But you can't see if your eyes are covered with

knowledge. The poorest man in the world is the man who lives behind a curtain of

knowledge.

The poorest are those who live through the mind. The richest are those who have opened

the windows of no-mind and approached life with the no-mind.

Brij Mohan, this is not only YOUR experience; you are not alone in it. In fact, the

majority of people will agree with you. They don't find any surprise anywhere. And each

moment there are surprises and surprises because life is never the same; it is constantly

changing, and it takes such unpredictable turns. How can you remain unaffected by the

very wonder of it? The only way to remain unaffected is to cling to your past, to your

experience, to your knowledge, to your memories, to your mind. Then you cannot see

that which is; you go on missing the present.

Miss the present and you live in boredom. BE in the present and you will be surprised

that there is no boredom at all. Start by looking around a little more like a child. Be a

child again! That's what meditation is all about: being a child again -- a rebirth, being

innocent again, not-knowing. That's what we were saying the other day. The Master said:

NOT-KNOWING IS THE MOST INTIMATE.

Yes, you must have become very alienated from life, hence boredom. You have forgotten

the intimacy, the immediacy You are no longer bridged. Knowledge functions as a wall:

innocence functions as a bridge.

Start looking like a child again. Go to the seashore and again start collecting seashells.

See a child collecting seashells -- as if he has found a mine of diamonds. So thrilled he is!

See a child making sandcastles and how absorbed he is, utterly lost, as if there is nothing

more important than making sandcastles. See a child running after a butterfly...and be a

child again. Start running after butterflies again. Make sandcastles, collect seashells.

Don't live as if you know. You know nothing! All that you know is about and about. The

moment you KNOW something, boredom disappears. Knowing is such an adventure that

boredom cannot exist. With knowledge of course it can exist; with knowing it cannot

exist.

And let me remind you: I am not talking about some divine knowledge, some esoteric

knowledge; I am simply talking about THIS life. Just look around with a little more

clarity, with a little more transparency...and life is hilarious!

A downtown store featured a plaque in its window reading: BUY AMERICAN. Printed

in small letters at the bottom was: MADE IN JAPAN.

Just start looking around a little more carefully.

A German in the Soviet Zone reported to the police that his parrot was missing. He was

asked whether the parrot talked.

"Yes," he replied, "but any political opinions he expresses are strictly his own."

Molly, aged seventy-nine, complained of abdominal swelling and pain to the doctor. He

examined her thoroughly, put her through a series of laboratory tests, and then announced

the results.

"The plain fact, madam," said the medical man, "is that you are pregnant."

"That's impossible!" said Molly. "Why, I am seventy-nine years old and my husband,

although he still works, is eighty-six!"

The doctor insisted, so the aging mother-to-be pulled over his desk telephone and dialed

her husband's office. When he was on the line she shouted, "You old goat, you have got

me pregnant!" "Please," quavered the old man, "who did you say was calling?"