Darshan 6 April 1977
... Dweepam - and this is a special word in the buddhist tradition.
Buddha says to his disciples again and again 'Become an island' - and by that he means to remain in your aloneness totally. Just like an island unconnected to anything, just you yourself in your absolute aloneness - then you become an island. And that very possibility of becoming absolutely alone becomes the door to the divine.
If you are related to the world too much, you cannot be related to god. If you are related to things too much, you cannot be related to yourself. If you are related too much without, you cannot be within.
So a feeling of unrelatedness has to be developed, and this is going to help you tremendously. Not that you have to leave all relationship - no, not at all - not that you have to leave your parents, your wife, your child, your friend. Nothing has to be left, just the idea of relationship has to be dropped.
Be with your woman but let there be no idea of relationship. Let there be two alonenesses together, let there be two individuals together, but don't lose your independence and don't force the other to lose her independence.
Two islands can be together, very close, but yet they remain islands.
Kahlil Gibran used to say that lovers should be like pillars of a temple: they hold the same roof. In a way they are together and yet far apart.
So be in the world but not of the world; that is the meaning of being an island. Move in the world but unconcerned, unidentified.
The East has developed a symbol for it, the lotus flower - it remains in water but remains untouched by the water. And that is what Buddha means when he says to become an island.
This word 'dweepam' comes from the buddhist tradition, and I am giving it to you for a certain purpose. The buddhist way of life is going to suit you perfectly - so read more about Buddha, imbibe the spirit. Read more about Zen, Zen methods of meditation, and they will be of tremendous value to you.
... Deva gatha. It means a divine story... and life is a divine story! We may understand, we may not understand: if we don't understand it we remain miserable, if we understand it suddenly all misery disappears. The moment you start feeling the hand of god in your life as if he is writing your story, then things have a totally different meaning. Without god's hand life has no meaning.
The moment it becomes clear to you that it is god who is writing you, the story that you are, then suddenly everything becomes meaningful. Everything falls into a gestalt, together, and all the pieces that were fragmentary before become a whole - an organic unity arises out of it.
The purpose of meditation is to make the hand of god visible to you. It is there, but invisible; one has to learn how to make it visible. Once you can see god's hand in your life, all fear disappears, all pain disappears, all negativity disappears. Then the dark night of the soul is over. The morning has knocked at your door....