I have heard

Ko Hsuan's sutras always begin with this immensely significant statement:

THE VENERABLE MASTER SAID...

But it seems that the translation is literally true, but not true to the spirit of the sutras. all the Buddhist sutras start in the same way - only with a little difference, but a difference that makes great difference. The Buddhist sutras begin: "I have heard the Master say..." And you can see the difference. The Master may have said it for a different reason, the Master may have meant something totally different. The Master exists on a different plane; he speaks from the peak, the ultimate peak of consciousness. And the disciple hears from the darkest valley of his existence. By the time the words reach to the disciple they are bound to be distorted, they are bound to take many colors which will be imposed and projected by the disciple.

Hence, my feeling is that Ko Hsuan cannot commit this mistake. It must be that the translator has missed the point; the point is very subtle. It seems simply to the ordinary mind to make no difference whether one says, "I have heard the Master say," or "The venerable Master said." But when you say, "The venerable Master said," you are making an absolutely certain statement as if you can report it authentically. It is not possible: you can report only what you have heard.

Now, here you are listening to me, nearabout three thousand sannyasins. Each sannyasin will listen according to his own conditioning, according to his own state of mind, according to his own prejudices, concepts, ideologies, philosophies, according to his own background. If you don't have any background, if you have transcended all concepts, ideologies, philosophies, religions, if you are no more in the mind, then you can hear exactly that which is said. But then there is no need to hear it; then you yourself know it. Then Ko Hsuan will not say, "The venerable Master said," he can simply state the sutras. Then it will be his own experience. He is very close to the peak and finally he reached to the peak, but these notes were made before he himself became an enlightened Master.

These notes are of a disciple, and you should remember it.

Whenever you report me, always remember that you have heard. You cannot be certain whether it was said exactly the way you have heard or not.

In Italy, on the bus next to the driver there is the following note: "Do not talk to the driver."

In Germany there is: "It is FORBIDDEN to talk to the driver."

In England: "It is not polite to talk to the driver."

In Scotland: "What will you gain in talking to the driver?"

The moment a Master says something it comes from his innermost core. When you hear it it is heard on your circumference. By the time it reaches to your innermost core - if it reaches at all, if you are fortunate enough to allow it to sink in to the very core of your being - then too the meaning will not remain the same. It cannot be; it is not in the nature of things. It would have changed: it may have become distorted, it may have lost something, your mind may have added something to it.

The scientists have very recently discovered... Up to now it was thought that our mind and our senses exist only to allow us to be bridged to the existence that surrounds us. But the latest research is that the senses and the mind have double functions. One function is to connect us with the existence, but even far more important than that is the second function: NOT to allow that which can disturb us. They function as screening agents of our mind, of our attitudes, of our life styles, of our conditionings. Only two percent reality is allowed to enter in; ninety-eight percent reality is prevented outside, on the gate, because if all that is available is allowed in you will go berserk, you will not be able to cope with it.

Only in absolute meditativeness one is capable to be able to relax totally, to allow everything in, to be vulnerable without any conditions, to be available to existence with no strings attached.

I would like to change this statement. I would like to make it exactly as Buddhist sutras begin. They are written by Buddha's closest disciple, Ananda. He lived with Buddha for forty-two years; not even for a single moment he left Buddha. Day in, day out, year in, year out he was with Buddha like a shadow. Even shadow sometimes leaves you, but he will not leave Buddha at all. He heard everything that Buddha had said and when he was asked to report it after Buddha's death he said, "I have heard the Buddha say." Each sutra starts with that "I have heard..." A great insight is there in it.

Ko Hsuan cannot do this: he cannot say, "The venerable Master said;" he can only say, "I have heard..." The translator must have changed it to look it more certain, to make it more categorical, more emphatic, more clear-cut, more mathematical. But the enlightened Masters are mysterious; their words are mysterious, not mathematical. They can have thousand-and-one meanings and everyone hears them according to his own capacity.

The egoist will hear the same words but will not hear the same meaning. The egoless person will also hear the same words, but those words will connote a totally different meaning; they will resound in him with a totally different melody. When it rains, it rains on the mountains, it rains in the valleys, it rains everywhere; but the mountains remain as dry as ever - they are already too full. But when it rains into the valleys, the valleys become lakes. They are empty: they can absorb, they can contain.

The valleys are feminine; the mountains are too masculine. The mountains are too egoistic; the valleys are humble.

When the Master speaks there are many categories of listeners. The first category is that of the curious person, who has just come out of curiosity; he will hear only something very ordinary, something very unessential, something even meaningless, and that will become most important for him. He is there for a wrong reason. He will collect all kinds of data, but they will all belong to the surface.

Then there is the student who has come to gather more knowledge, more information. He will hear a little better than the first one, the curious one, but still his interest is in information. He is not ready to be transformed, to be converted; he is not ready to go that far. He has a certain limit beyond which he won't move a single inch. He will go with a little knowledge, with a little more accumulation, thinking that now he knows more. He knows nothing; he has become simply more informed - and information is not knowledge. TRANSFORMATION IS only knowledge, real knowledge; information is pseudo.

Then there is the disciple who listens in a deeper way than the first two categories. He listens not to gather knowledge; he wants to be changed, but he has a certain idea of what change means.

He wants to go into the beyond, but he has a certain direction, a conclusion which he has already decided. He comes with a decision, an A PRIORI conclusion that this is what conversion is. He is not all open - open only on one side, open only in one direction.

There are people here who write to me that, "We would like you to speak more on great lovers of God like Meera, Chaitanya, Kabir, because when you speak on Kabir, Meera, Chaitanya, our hearts are moved, our eyes start showering tears of joy, of bliss; we are thrilled to the very core of our being.

But when you talk about Buddhist sutras they look dry, logical, but seem to be more appealing to the intelligence than to the world of feelings." Now, they are open only on one side.

When I speak on Meera, Kabir, Rumi, then there are people who are lovers of Buddha and they start writing letters to me, that "These are beautiful words, but not so profound as the Buddhist sutras.

Each sutra has such depth! You can go on digging it; you never come to the bottom rock." They are also open only on one side.

These are disciples. One is open to love, another is open to awareness, but they are not totally open. They will hear, but they will hear with this A PRIORI conclusion. They will hear in a far better way than the student, they will learn deeply, but it will be a partial learning. They will know more than the student, but it cannot be a total knowing.

Then there is the fourth kind, the devotee, which is open from all the sides, which has come with no A PRIORI conclusion, which has come just to be with the Master in all the seasons, in all the climates. He makes no conditions, he has no conditions. He will hear more totally, his hearing will be multidimensional, but still he will not hear exactly what the Master is saying. He will be the best hearer out of all others, but still he is not on the same plane as the Master.

That is the fifth category, nameless category... Then there is no need to speak even, no need to hear.

One sits with the Master and that's enough. Whether he speaks or not is not the point, just BEING with the Master is enough, just to be with him is enough. And there is some movement between the two centers - invisible, intangible. Something transpires which is unspeakable, inexpressible.

Only this fifth type person is capable of reporting, but he will be very conscious in reporting. He will always say, "I have heard..."

And my feeling is Ko Hsuan cannot say, "The venerable Master said;" he can only say, "I have heard the venerable Master say."

A veterinarian came to a small Italian farm to give artificial insemination to some cows.

"Lady," he says, "have you everything ready? A towel, soap, a bucket of hot water?"

"Of course, everything is here, and on this hook you can hang your trousers," replied the woman.

The teacher asks the class to mention an object round and hairy. A boy raises his hand and says, "The coconut!"

"Very good!" says the teacher.

Then Pierino raises his hand and says, "Billiard's balls!"

"No, Pierino," replies the teacher. "Billiards balls are smooth not hairy."

"No, it is not true - I saw them!" cries Pierino. "Look!" and turning to the boy next to him says, "Billiard, show your balls to the teacher!"

Young officer joining his first regiment is being interviewed by the colonel. The usual conversation concerning family connections is in progress.

"So your name is Fortescue," says the colonel. "Tell me, young man, was your grandfather Fortescue of the 68th Leicestershire Rifles?"

"Yes, sir, actually," replies the young officer.

"Splendid! So your father's a Fortescue - might I guess Major Fortescue of the 9th Cumberland Infantry Regiment?"

"Why, yes, sir!"

Are you married?" asks the colonel.

"Yes, sir. But my wife is joining me later - she is in bed with cramps."

"Not Cramps of the 33rd?"

A little boy and his father are listening to a speaker.

"Comrades!" starts the speaker.

"What does 'comrade' mean, Daddy?" asks the little boy .

"'Comrade' indicates all those who think and act alike," answers the father.

"Our government..." continues the speaker, and again the little boy asks, "What is 'government', Daddy?"

"'Government' are those who are responsible for the well-being of everybody and make decisions accordingly. At home, for instance, your mum is the government."

"... and the people..." goes on the speaker.

"What is 'people'?" asks again the boy.

"The 'people' are we who are in need of organization and defense. At home, your baby sister is the people."

That night the father is awakened by the little boy who whispers, "Listen, comrade, tell the government that the people are full of shit up to here!"

Man lives in a state of immaturity; he is childish. He goes on growing physiologically but not psychologically. What to say about his spiritual growth - even his psychological growth is retarded, very much retarded.

Only in the First World War, for the first time in human history, we became aware that the average man's mental age is not more than thirteen years, because for the first time in the army people were psychologically tested. It was a shock all the world over. People who think about humanity and its progress were really in a great shock: thirteen years is the only average psychological age...?

The person may be seventy years old or eighty years old and his age, psychological age, is only thirteen. What about his soul? Nothing can be said about his spiritual growth because only when the body and the mind grow together in synchronicity, when the chronological age and the psychological age go together simultaneously, THEN ONLY there is a possibility of spiritual growth, never before it.

People are immature, people are childish. And they talk about God and they talk about NIRVANA, enlightenment, and they talk about Tao, Dharma, they talk about truth - they talk about great things without being at all aware that their psychological age is that of a child. All they need is toys to play with. And that's what they have done with their religion: their churches, their temples their mosques are nothing but big toys; their popes, their SHANKARACHARYAS, their AYATOLLAHS are nothing but people who go on giving them new games to play with. All they need is some new game so that they can remain engaged and occupied.

The scientists also go on giving them new gadgets, sometimes absolutely useless gadgets, but people are ready to purchase anything to fill their inner emptiness. And there is great emptiness because of the gap. Thirteen years psychological age and seventy years physiological age - the gap is big. How to fill that gap? How to bridge that gap? On the surface they look very grown up, but just scratch them a little bit and you will find a child inside, and immediately they go through a tantrum.

You see people when they are in anger, and you will not see any difference between them and children. You see people when they are fighting - the husband fighting with the wife, the wife fighting with the husband, throwing pillows and things - you simply watch. You may be doing the same thing yourself, then watch. Once in a while just watch - what are you doing?

Is this act that of a grown-up person? You may be growing old, but you are not growing up, and growing old has no value: growing old simply means you are coming closer to death. Growing up is a totally different phenomenon: it means you are coming closer to immortality, to deathlessness.

Growing old means coming closer to your grave and growing up means coming closer to God, to Tao, to eternity. They are not synonymous; not only that they are not synonymous, they are diametrically opposite to each other.

And when there is a deep rhythm between your body-mind complex, then your soul can start growing for the first time. Your body and mind being in tune become the soil in which your soul for the first time starts moving upwards. Otherwise you will hang around the body-mind phenomenon; you will never go beyond it.

It is not an accident that the psychologists don't believe in the soul - for the simple reason because they have no glimpse of the soul. Sigmund Freud himself was very childish in his behavior, utterly childish, very much afraid, just like a small child. He was afraid of ghosts, he was afraid of death, darkness - not even the word "death" was allowed to be uttered in his presence. Twice it had happened in his life that somebody started talking about death and he fainted. Just the talk about death and he fainted! Now, this man becomes a prophet of the twentieth century.

The twentieth century has been dominated by three prophets. One is Friedrich Nietzsche, who was utterly mad. Adolf Hitler and his Nazism and all the fascist ideologies in the world are offshoots of that madman.

The other prophet was Karl Marx, who was absolutely atheist. He never believed in any consciousness, he never believed in any possibility of the growth of consciousness, because he had no glimpse of it. He called it an epiphenomenon - it is nothing but a byproduct of matter. Just like a clock functions mechanically, the same is the way that man functions: he is only a machine.

He reduced man into a machine.

He himself lived a very mechanical life, utterly mechanical life. There was no joy in his life, no laughter, no song in his heart. He never came to know any experience of meditativeness; he lived just on the periphery. But he became the prophet. Communism, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung, Tito and Fidel Castro - these are his byproducts. Joseph Stalin could kill millions of people tor the simple reason because "Man is a machine. What is wrong...?" If you kill a bicycle or if you kill a clock or if you kill an electric fan there is no harm; nobody can blame you, that you are a murderer. He could kill millions of people think nobody before him has been able to kill so many people without even a prick of the conscience. There was no question of any conscience - there is no consciousness, there is no conscience either. Man is a byproduct of matter, so when you kill somebody, matter disappears into matter.

And the third prophet of this century is Sigmund Freud, who himself is pathological, and he has projected his pathology into his philosophy.

Now, these three people have become your background. You may be aware of it, you may not be aware of it, but behind you these three are always standing. These three persons are responsible in many ways for the deterioration of human consciousness in this age. Because of these three persons, Buddhas have almost disappeared. People like Lao Tzu are not possible anymore even in China; communism won't allow them. Taoist monasteries have been destroyed, converted into schools and hospitals. Taoist meditators have been forced to work in the fields or in the factories.

Even old mystics, seventy years old, eighty years old mystics, have been forced to do ordinary work just because the government cannot allow anybody to live without work; you have the right to get bread only if you work. Buddhists have disappeared.

In Russia, Jesus is no more possible. and the same is going to happen almost everywhere sooner or later.

With this background whatsoever I say will be interpreted inside you without you ever becoming aware, because you are not that watchful; you are almost in a state of drunkenness. Each ideology intoxicates; and the really conscious person gets rid of all ideologies, then only he goes beyond intoxication.

One day a guy decided he was an alcoholic. So he went to the doctor and the doctor said to him, "The treatment has to be based on self-control. You go home and try not to drink. If by chance you cannot hold yourself, next day you come to my office and inform me. This is fundamental."

"Okay," said the guy.

After some days the guy comes to the doctor's office already very drunk.

"Doc, i came here to inform you that yesterday I got very drunk."

"But you are drunk now!" said the doctor.

"Yes," said the drunkard, "but this I will inform you of tomorrow!"

The drunkard has his own logic and to him it seems to be perfectly right.

Two drunks were walking along a railway line. one said to the other, "I hope these stairs come to an end soon!"

The other replied, "Ya! The height of the handrail is killing my back!"

A Texan travels to Las Vegas to let off some steam Texas style. He starts off at the flashiest casino he can find and soon starts winning at blackjack.

After a while he heads for the roulette table where he resumes his winning streak. Soon a crowd gathers to watch him rake it in while knocking back double bourbons.

Eventually he wins so much money that he and the crowd move off to a penthouse suite to continue the party.

The next day he wakes up with a splitting hangover, lying next to a gorgeous negress who has a serene smile on her face.

"Holy cow!" he exclaims to himself. "That was some party!"

He gently tucks a couple of hundred dollar bills under the pillow and tiptoes out of the room. As he crosses the living room, he stops short as he sees two more gorgeous girls wearing little else than the same serene smile.

"Son of a gun!" he says as he drops a few more bills down beside them.

As one of the bills flutters down it brushes a cheek of the last girl. She slowly opens her eyes and says, "You don't have to tip the bridesmaids!"

You go on doing things... You will get married, you will move into a profession, you will become educated, you will become Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan - you will do thousand-and-one things absolutely in a state of unconsciousness. If by chance you come across a Master you will hear him from your unconsciousness.

Hence, before I begin this last sutra I would like you to remember always: never say what the Master has said; always say that this is what you have HEARD him say. And it is not only a mannerism; it has tremendous truth in it.

THE UNFOLDMENT OF MAN'S MIND LEADS HIM TO THIS UNCHANGING TRUTH.

The translator goes on wrong on many points. And I can understand why he goes on wrong, particularly on points which are of very great significance. He can't help; he has no understanding of meditation. He says:

THE UNFOLDMENT OF MAN'S MIND...

Ko Hsuan must have said: THE UNFOLDMENT OF MAN'S consciousness, not man's mind. The mind has to be dropped, not unfolded. In fact, the moment you drop the mind, the unfoldment of your consciousness begins. But we believe in mind - we don't know anything else than the mind - we are addicted with the mind.

In western languages there are not many words for the mind, but in eastern languages there are many words for the mind, for different purposes, because mind can function in many ways. And the East has gone very deep into the phenomenon of the mind, and beyond it.

It is just like if you look into the language of the Eskimos you will be surprised: there are one dozen words for ice; no other language has one dozen words for ice. Only Eskimos have one dozen words for ice, because they have lived with ice for thousands of years and they have known all its possibilities; and they know that there are differences, minute differences which are not visible to those who have not lived in the world of an Eskimo. No other language has so many words.

Sanskrit has at least one dozen words for mind, because as you go deeper into mind you come upon different layers. They are so different that it is not possible to call them all with the same name; they are qualitatively different. And as you go on moving deeper and deeper, a point comes when mind is left behind and pure consciousness remains. That consciousness knows unfoldment. Mind cannot unfold; it can only close. The more you become addicted with the mind, the more closed you become. Mind in fact is a prison, and the stronger the mind, more unfortunate the person, because then it will be very difficult for him to get out of it. And our whole educational system enforces the mind, strengthens the mind.

Hence I can understand the difficulty of the translator. But you have to remember, because you are working on meditation here you can understand in a far better way.

THE UNFOLDMENT OF MAN'S CONSCIOUSNESS LEADS HIM TO THIS UNCHANGING TRUTH.

Everything is changing in the world; you cannot find anything in the world which is unchanging unless you go deep within yourself and reach to the very center of your being. There only you will find the center, the center of the cyclone, which remains absolutely unchanging. It is on that very center that the whole change depends, the whole wheel of life and death moves. Without that center, the world will disappear. That center, that unchanging truth is the very foundation of this changing world; it is rooted there. Not to know it is to live a lie which is not worth calling life. Not to know it you will have to go on doing foolish things all your lie in order to give a certain fallacy to yourself of the unchanging truth.

For example, why people are so much interested in money rather than friendship? If it is a question of choice you will choose money more than friendship; why? Because money seems to be more unchanging. You can depend on it, it is more reliable. If you have a good bank balance it is far more reliable. Who knows about the friend? Today he is a friend, tomorrow he may become the enemy.

Machiavelli, in his great book, THE PRINCE, writes: Don't say anything, even to your friend, which you would not like to be known by your enemy. Why? Because your friend can become enemy any day. And he also says: Don't say anything against your enemy either which you would not like to say against your friend, because the enemy can become your friend any day. Things go on changing:

the friend becomes the enemy, the enemy becomes the friend.

You can depend on money. People love money more than anything else; more than love, money seems to be significant. You can purchase love; if not love, at least sex you call purchase. But money, if you don't have you simply don't have: you are a beggar. With money everything comes.

Money seems to have a certain permanence, a certain stability.

People are more interested in things than in people. People die; things don't die. People go on accumulating things for the simple reason that a good furniture, a good painting, a good house are far more lasting - they may last longer than you - but you cannot say the same about people. You love somebody, and tomorrow the person dies. Then you are left empty, with a great wound which will take years to heal or may not heal ever, and it will always hurt.

Hence people are afraid of love, people are afraid of people. People make friends with animals rather than with people. They would like to have a good dog - more predictable, more reliable.

Whenever you come home he is there to welcome you, wagging his tail. You can hit him, you can shout at him, you can scream at him, you can scold him, but he never changes his loyalty to you, his obedience to you. You can't do the same with people - people are dangerous. Hence you see more and more persons becoming interested into birds, dogs, horses, for The simple reason that they give a certain feel of permanence.

Carlo and Elena are in love and want to spend a night together.

"Have you understood, my love?" says Elena. "When my parents are asleep I will throw down a cent and that will be the signal. I will leave the door open and you can come up."

Carlo waits under the window. Finally Elena throws the cent down, then eagerly lies down in the bed wearing a flimsy nightgown, and waits... and waits... and waits...

After about half an hour she goes to the window and exclaims impatiently, "But, Carlo, are you coming up or not?"

"Yes, my love," replies Carlo, "as soon as I find the cent."

On his tenth birthday, Abraham calls his son.

"Now, my son," he says, "it is time for me to explain the facts of life. We will start from the hands. Be very careful and don't forget.

"So, the thumb is used to show that a bargain is good. The index finger is used to show what is the best in a bargain. The medium finger is used to show power. The ring finger is just used for the wedding ring. The little finger is used to clean your ear. Have you understood?"

"Yes, Pa," replied the son, "but I would like to know the use of the medium - what you call the power finger."

Abraham leans over his son and whispers, "The power finger, son, you use it at night under the blankets... when you count the money!"

Why people are so much interested in money? For the simple reason they are in a great need to find something permanent in this life where everything goes on changing every moment; they want something to rely upon. Unless they find their own center they will go on finding these stupid things.

These are poor substitutes.

The real thing is the unfoldment of consciousness, because that leads you to the unchanging truth.

IN UNCHANGING STILLNESS, UNCHANGING PURITY AND REST ARE FOUND.

And when you have found your innermost core, when your lotus of consciousness has blossomed - the Indian mystics have called it the one-thousand-petaled lotus - when all the petals have opened and you have found the enter of the lotus, there is great stillness, a stillness which is unchanging, there is great purity, great innocence and deep rest. You have come home. The pilgrimage is over.

In finding yourself you have found God. In reaching to your own center you have reached the center of the whole universe. Now there is no need to go anywhere; you have found the infinite treasure - what Jesus calls the kingdom of God.

People have tried to create substitutes. You can create a cert.lin stillness by learning some yoga posture. If your body is still you will feel a certain stillness, but that is not the real stillness; it will be disturbed. It can be disturbed very easily by anything - just an ant crawling up your body is enough to disturb it. Anything can distract it: just a bird calling and you will be distracted. A child starts crying, a small girl starts giggling, a dog starts barking, and that's enough. And the world is full of so many things continuously happening. You cannot remain still for long; sooner or later it will be disturbed. Because of this, people have moved to the monasteries, people have escaped to the mountains, to the caves. But there too something or other will disturb you.

Rather than escaping from the world, escape into yourself: Remain in the world because the world is a great opportunity; it is a constant testing ground. It gives you thousand-and-one opportunities to see whether you have attained the real stillness or it is just an imposed phenomenon, only skin-deep and can be disturbed by anything.

Your so-called religious people are only superficially still; anything can disturb them. In fact, things disturb them more than other people. Even if one person in your house becomes religious he becomes a torture to the whole family - because children cannot play because he is doing Transcendental Meditation, he is "doing his TM". Children cannot play, the wife cannot work - everything has to stop for him. And even then he will be disturbed by any small thing. Just the clock ticking is enough, and the TM disappears, because what he is doing is just imposing a mantra, a constant repetition of a certain sound or word. Anything far more interesting is bound to attract him. If somebody puts on beautiful music or somebody starts playing guitar he will be disturbed, he will be immediately disturbed. The reason is not the guitar, the reason is what he is doing is boring and the guitar is far more attractive. Naturally the mind moves towards that which is more attractive. He is concentrating on Jesus Christ, and a beautiful woman passes by... Now, looking at a man crucified... Who wants to look at a man on the cross? One wants to avoid such things. And a beautiful woman passing by immediately attracts; that becomes a distraction.

That's why your so-called saints have always been against women; that simply shows the women have been disturbing their meditations. In fact, it simply shows their meditations were so boring that any woman could have disturbed it.

One person in the family becomes religious, starts praying or meditating or doing something stupid, and the whole family becomes afraid because he is doing something great. In fact, if he is really a meditator there is no question of getting distracted.

You cannot distract MY meditators - they will distract you! The whole family will be distracted. Just start doing Dynamic Meditation or Kundalini, and not only the family but the whole neighborhood is distracted: they start phoning to the police. This is something! Rather than being distracted by any small thing, they are all distracted by your meditation.

Real rest - real relaxation, real purity and stillness - is not imposed by any artificial means; it is a spontaneous unfoldment. Then how it happens? It happens through understanding. Tao believes in understanding. Try to understand Nobody wants to understand - we want to avoid, we want somehow to bypass our problems. You have problems - you go to somebody like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and you ask him that, "I am very much worried, anxious, tense. What should I do?"

And he says, "You do TM. You repeat this mantra: Coca Cola, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola. Go on repeating fifteen minutes morning, fifteen minutes evening. It will help." It will help you to repress the problem, but only to repress; the problem is not solved. How the problem can be solved by repeating "Coca-Cola"? Or maybe "Aum", which is the same; it makes no difference. In fact, "Coca- Cola" seems to be far more sweeter, far more appealing! Both are the same - any word will do. How it is going to solve your problems? Your problems will remain there; you will have to solve them still.

Sooner or later they will surface again. And repressing them is dangerous because they will gain more energy, and the time that is being lost meanwhile is wasted.

Tao depends on understanding. Now in the world there are only two things prevalent. One is analysis, Freudian analysis, and many offshoots of it: analyze the problem, go on analyzing it. It is like peeling an onion: one layer is removed, another layer is there, far more fresher. Remove it, another is there. And all the time tears will be coming from your eyes. Some bargain! And your problems are not so small as an onion, because sooner or later the onions will be finished, you will come to the very end the last layer, and then... emptiness in your hand. But your problems are not so easy. Hence psychoanalysis needs seven years, ten years; still it is never complete.

I have never come across a single person - and I have hundreds of my sannyasins who are psychoanalysts, therapists, well-known therapists - but I have never Come across a single person whose analysis is complete. It cannot be complete; it is an unending process. You go on, go on, and each layer will reveal another layer.

Sigmund Freud used to reach to your childhood. At the age four or three you start collecting memories, so he will reach to that point. Then Arthur Janov found that that doesn't help, you have to go beyond that, so Primal Therapy came into existence. Now you have to go beyond that.

Naturally, a three-year-old child or two-year-old child cannot tell about his problems; he can only scream and kick and throw things. So the Primal Therapy is kicking, shouting, screaming. And Janov thought that there will be a final scream - the primal scream, the first scream.

When the child is born the first thing he does is scream; that is a physiological necessity. By screaming he cleans his whole breathing system; by screaming he throws his mucus out. That's why the children's noses go on flowing... because when he is in the mother's womb all his breathing system collects mucus - naturally, he is not breathing; he lives on mother's breathing. And when he comes out of the womb he has to breathe on his own, and, the system has never worked and the breathing mechanism is full of mucus; that mucus has to come out. Doctors hang the child upside down; they make him do SIRSHASAN, headstand, so that the mucus starts flowing downwards because of gravitation. And naturally when you hang somebody upside down he screams, and that very scream helps: the mucus is thrown out and he starts breathing. That is the primal scream.

Janov thought, "If we can reach to the primal scream we have come to the very bottom of it; then, problems will be solved." But now there are other therapists who say, "That won't help, because there is still nine months' conditioning in mother's womb. Now we have to go into that - then, problems can be solved."

But I would like to tell you, problems will not be solved then too, because after those nine months you will come across another layer that will be of the previous life. Then start again Freudian psychoanalysis and then Primal Therapy, and so on, so forth.

Indian mystics who have tried to enter into the whole realm of consciousness say there have been at least eighty-four million lives before you became man. Now, if you somehow finish eighty-four million lives analyzed, then you will find you have to enter into the world of the monkeys... So monkey analysis! And then go on and on... Then finally you will find you have been a fish in the ocean; that is the beginning of life. Then fish and the problems of the fish... I don't think that there can be any end to psychoanalysis - it is an exercise in utter futility. That is one thing, the western thing.

And the eastern approach has been: Seeing that this thing is too long and will never end, bypass it.

Just repeat a mantra and forget all about it. But by forgetting all about it you cannot solve anything.

Tao is absolutely right: neither analysis will help nor forgetting, but witnessing, understanding, seeing - seeing clearly. It is neither analysis nor a repetition of a mantra. Tao does not believe in either; its approach is totally new. And then only you will find, in that understanding a transformation happens.

You will find stillness, purity and rest.

HE WHO ATTAINS PURITY AND STILLNESS ENTERS INTO THE IMMUTABLE TAO.

And through that witnessing, through that understanding, awareness, you enter into the eternal Tao.

Tao means the ultimate law of nature, what Buddha calls Ais DHAMMO SANANTANO. This is the ultimate law of existence, Tao.

HAVING ENTERED INTO THE IMMUTABLE TAO HE IS NAMED THE POSSESSOR OF TAO.

He is only NAMED, Ko Hsuan says, remember. We have to say something, we have to give that experience a certain name But he immediately adds:

ALTHOUGH HE IS NAMED THE POSSESSOR OF TAO HE KNOWS THAT HE DOES NOT POSSESS IT.

Because he is no more an ego, how can he possess anything? I here is nobody inside him, just a mirror, a pure mirror that reflects; the mirror cannot possess anything. Do you think the mirror can possess anything? You look in the mirror: it reflects your face, but it does not possess it. For the moment it appears it possesses, but that is only an appearance; it does not possess you. You move away, the reflection is gone and the mirror remains in its stillness, in its purity. Whether it reflects or not, its purity remains unaffected.

This mirrorlike duality of consciousness cannot he said to possess anything - there is no ego to possess in the first place. Secondly, there is nothing to possess - the very idea of possession divides existence into two: the possessor and the possessed, the subject and the object, the owner and the owned, the observer and the observed. But when you enter into ultimate rest, stillness, all duality is transcended; there is only one.

In fact, saying that one possesses Tao... it will be far better and far more true to say that one is possessed by Tao. Tao fills you, totally fills you; you become part of it. Not that Tao is in your hands, but that you are in the hands of Tao. But our language is such... our language is made by people who are interested in possessing things.

Just the other day somebody has asked that, "Osho, my whole mind always goes on thinking how to possess more, bigger things, how to have a big house, a palace, how to have a bigger bank balance, how to have a longer life."

If you ask Freud, if you ask the western approach they will say, "This is nothing. This is just the desire to have a bigger sexual organ, that's all." Freud reduces everything to sexuality; he seems to be obsessed with it. In fact, it is a revolt against the Christian obsession with sex. Two thousand years of Christianity made people so sex-repressive that somebody had to revolt against it, and Sigmund Freud revolted against it. But the revolt went to the other extreme; again everything is colored by sexuality. He thinks people like bigger things - a big house, a big name, fame, a taller body - but these are all just substitutes for having a bigger sexual organ. In a way it is true, but only in a way. It is true particularly to the eighteenth-century western man; the Victorian morality was rooted in it.

But the East has a different approach which is far more true. The East says people are interested in bigger things because they see such hollowness in themselves, such emptiness in themselves that they want to fill it somehow. And they go on putting things into it but they disappear - those things disappear and more and more things are needed. hence the desire comes to have such big things that somehow the inner emptiness can be filled.

But it cannot be filled: that inner emptiness is your nature. It has to be loved, lived, understood. Once understood, you will start rejoicing in it; there is no need to fill it. It is beautiful, it is tremendously beautiful; there is nothing more beautiful than that inner emptiness. You are just afraid of the word, of the idea of emptiness, and just because of the idea you go on asking for bigger things. in fact, the desire to have a bigger sexual organ may be nothing but to fill the inner emptiness!

Freud was so much obsessed with it that he started thinking that women suffer very much from phallic jealousy! That is utterly wrong. If they suffer from phallic jealousy then it should be stated, to keep the balance right, that man suffers from breast jealousy. But that Freud never said; he remains a male chauvinist pig. He would have loved this story:

The Danish king and the Swedish king and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, are sitting in a pub having a few beers together. Somehow they end up having a competition to see whose prick is the longest.

The Danish king puts his prick on the table. Twelve inches! Everyone applauds and vigorously sings the Danish national anthem.

Then the Swedish king puts his prick on the table. Sixteen inches! Everyone screams and shouts and jumps around and sings the Swedish national anthem.

Lastly, Prince Philip puts his prick on the table. Twenty-five inches long! And everyone starts singing:

"God save the Queen!"

ONLY WHEN HE CAN TRANSMUTE ALL LIVING THINGS CAN HE BE TRULY NAMED THE POSSESSOR OF TAO.

Who can be called a possessor of Tao? One who knows that he does not possess - that is the first condition to be fulfilled - one who knows that he is possessed by Tao, that he is no more, only Tao is. But what will be the indication? How we will recognize that he possesses the Tao? He gives a beautiful symbol to recognize the man of Tao. Ko Hsuan says:

ONLY WHEN HE CAN TRANSMUTE ALL LIVING THINGS CAN HE BE TRULY NAMED THE POSSESSOR OF TAO.

The translation is again a little wrong. Ko Hsuan must have meant all living beings, not living things.

Things are not living, that's why they are called things. Living beings... But why call living beings?

- because beings are naturally living. But things are complicated: all living beings are neither living nor beings. Many living beings are dead - apparently living, only apparently, not really living.

Mrs. Carrot had a very bad car accident and was hospitalized.

Her concerned husband, Mr. Carrot, asked the doctor what her fate would be.

The doctor reassuringly said, "Do not worry, she will live, but she will probably be a vegetable for the rest of her life!"

Many people are just vegetating... and you know three are here: Banana, Potato, Tomato! These people cannot be called living. And even if people are living they don't have beings. Being is only when you have reached the unfoldment of your consciousness. Being means when becoming is finished, when becoming is no more needed, when you have arrived home.

The man of Tao is one whose touch transmutes people into living, first, and then into being. That's the miracle of a Master: If you allow him to touch you, if you become available to him, he can stir life in you and, finally, he can make you aware of your own being.

The only proof of somebody's being the man of Tao is that in his proximity people start living on a totally different plane, become more and more livelier, start attaining a certain crystallization of being. The man of Tao is one who can impart his Tao to others, who can function like a catalytic agent, that if you fall in tune with him you go through a transformation, a mutation.

HE WHO IS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THIS CAN LEAD OTHERS TO SACRED TAO.

One who understands the alchemy of how to transform the dead into living and how to help the becoming into being, who knows this art of alchemy, can lead people to the sacred Tao.

The word "sacred" is used only in the last sutra. This is very significant because when you use the word "sacred Tao" it becomes synonymous to God. But he has not mentioned it before because to mention it before will make you worshippers. And all worshippers have gone wrong: they have become Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans; They are not transmuted. Hence he has kept this beautiful word "sacred" for the very end; this is his last word: "sacred Tao". This can be said only when you have understood all the sutras; now you will not become a worshipper.

Worshipping is not going to help, praying is not going to help - only meditation, only understanding, only awareness. And calling Tao sacred means everything is sacred, because Tao fills everything.

The whole existence is the manifestation of Tao. There is no other God than the universe. There is no other God than this very life. There is no other God than this moment, this now, this here.