Away with the Passions!

MAN IS IN MISERY, and man has remained in misery down the centuries.

Rarely can you find a human being who is not miserable. It is so rare that it almost seems unbelievable. That's why Buddhas are never believed. People don't believe that they ever existed. People can't believe it. They can't believe it because of their own misery. The misery is such, and they are entangled into it so deeply, that they don't see that any escape is possible.

The Buddhas must have been imagined - people think - Buddhas are dreams of humanity. That's what Sigmund Freud says: Buddhas are wish-fulfilments. Man wants to be that way, man desires to be out of misery, man would like to have that silence, that peace, that benediction - but it has not happened. And Freud says there is no hope - it CANNOT happen by the very nature of things. Man cannot become happy.

Freud has to be listened to very keenly and very deeply. He cannot be simply rejected outright; he is one of the most penetrating minds ever. And when he says that happiness is not possible, and when he says that hoping for happiness is hoping for the impossible, he means it. His own observation of human misery led him to this conclusion. This conclusion is not that of a philosopher. Freud is not a pessimist. But observing thousands of human beings, getting deeper into their beings, he realised that man is made in such a way that he has a built-in process of being miserable. At the most he can be in comfort, but never in ecstasy. At the most we can make life a little more convenient - through scientific technology, through social change, through better economy, and through other things - but man will remain miserable all the same.

How can Freud believe that a Buddha has ever existed? Such serenity seems to be just a dream. Humanity has been dreaming about Buddha.

This idea arises because Buddha is so rare, so exceptional. He is not the rule.

Why has man remained in so much misery? And the miracle is that everybody wants to be happy. You cannot find a man who wants to be miserable, and yet everybody is in misery. Everybody wants to be happy, blissful, peaceful, silent, everybody wants to be in joy, everybody wants to celebrate - but it seems impossible. Now, there must be some very deep cause, so deep that Freudian analysis could not reach it, so deep that logic cannot penetrate it.

Before we enter into the sutras, that basic thing has to be understood: Man wants happiness, that's why he is miserable. The more you want to be happy, the more miserable you will be. Now this is very absurd, but this is the root cause. And when you understand the process of how the human mind functions you will be able to realise it.

Man wants to be happy, hence he creates misery. If you want to get out of misery, you will have to get out of your desire for happiness - then nobody can make you miserable. Here is where Freud missed. He could not understand that the very desire for happiness can be the cause of misery. How does it happen?

Why in the first place do you desire happiness? And what does it do to you, the desire for happiness?

The moment you desire for happiness, you have moved away from the present, you have moved away from the existential, you have already moved into the future - which is nowhere, which has not come yet. You have moved in a dream.

Now, dreams can never be fulfilling. Your desire for happiness is a dream. The dream is unreal. Through the unreal, nobody has ever been able to reach to the real. You have taken a wrong train.

The desire for happiness simply shows that you are not happy right at this moment. The desire for happiness simply shows that you are a miserable being.

And a miserable being projects in the future that some time, some day, some way, he will be happy. Out of misery comes your projection. It carries the very seeds of misery. It comes out of you - it cannot be different from you. It is your child: its face will be like you; in its body your blood will be circulating. It will be your continuity.

You are unhappy today; you project tomorrow to be happy, but tomorrow is a projection of you, of your today, of whatsoever you are. You are unhappy - the tomorrow will come out of this unhappiness and you will be more unhappy. Of course, out of more unhappiness you will desire for more happiness in the future again. And then you are in a vicious circle: the more unhappy you become, the more you desire for happiness; the more you desire for happiness, the more unhappy you become. Now it is like a dog chasing its own tail.

In Zen they have a certain phrase for it. They say: Whipping the cart. If your horses are not moving and you go on whipping the cart, it is not going to help.

You are miserable, then anything that you can dream and anything that you can project is going to.bring more misery.

So the first thing is not to dream, not to project. The first thing is to be herenow.

Whatsoever it is, just be herenow - and a tremendous revelation is waiting for you. The revelation is that nobody can be unhappy in the herenow.

Have you ever been unhappy herenow? Right this moment you are facing me: is there any possibility of being unhappy right now? You can think about the yesterday and you can become unhappy. You can think about tomorrow and you can become unhappy. But right this very moment, this throbbing, beating, real moment - can you be unhappy right now? without any past, without any future?

You can bring misery from the past, from the memory. Somebody insulted you yesterday and you can still carry the wound, you can still carry the hurt, and you can still feel unhappy about it: Why? Why did it happen to you? Why did the man insult you? And you have been doing so much good for him, and you have been always a help, always a friend - and he insulted you! You are playing with something that is no more. The yesterday is gone.

Or you can be unhappy for tomorrow. Tomorrow your money will be finished - then where are you going to stay? Where are you going to eat? Tomorrow your money will be finished! - then unhappiness enters in.

Either it comes from yesterday, or it comes from tomorrow, but it is never herenow. Right this moment, in the now, unhappiness is impossible. If you have learnt this much, you can become a Buddha. Then nobody is hindering your path. Then you can forget all the Freuds. Then happiness is not only possible - it has already happened, it is just in front of you. And you are missing it because you go on looking sideways.

Happiness is WHERE you are; wherever you are, happiness is there. It surrounds you. It is a natural phenomenon. It is just like air, just like sky. Happiness is not to be sought: it is the very stuff the universe is made of. Joy is the very stuff the universe is made of. But you have to look direct, you have to look in the immediate. If you look sideways then you miss.

You miss because of you. You miss because you have a wrong approach.

THIS IS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH Buddha brought to the world.

This is his contribution. He says: Go on dying to the past and never think of the future - and then try to be miserable. You will fail. You cannot be miserable.

Your failure is absolutely certain; it can be predicted. You cannot manage, howsoever efficient you are in being miserable, howsoever trained, but you cannot create misery this very moment.

Desiring for happiness helps you look somewhere else, and then you go on missing. Happiness is not to be created - happiness is just to be seen. It is already present. This very moment, you can become happy, tremendously happy.

This is how it happened to Buddha. He was the son of a king. He had everything but was not happy. He became more and more unhappy - the more you have, the more unhappy you become. That is the misery of a rich man. That's what is happening in America today: the more rich they are getting, the more unhappy they are becoming; the more rich they are getting, the more they are completely at a loss what to do.

Poor people are always certain about what to do: they have to earn money, they have to make a good house, they have to buy a car; they have to send their children to the university. They always have a programme waiting for them.

They are occupied. They have a future. They have hope: some day or other....

They REMAIN in misery, but the hope is there.

The rich man is in misery and the hope has also disappeared. His misery is double. You cannot find a poorer man than a rich man; he is doubly poor. He remains projected in the future, and now he knows the future is not going to supply anything - because whatsoever he needs, he has it. He becomes troubled, his mind becomes more and more anxious, apprehensive. He becomes anguish.

That's what happened to Buddha.

He was rich. He had everything that it was possible to have. He became very unhappy. One day he escaped from his palace, left all the riches, his beautiful wife, his newly born child - he escaped. He became a beggar. He started seeking for happiness. He went to this guru, to that guru; he asked everybody what to do to be happy - and of course there were a thousand and one people ready to advise him and he followed everybody's advice. And the more he followed their advice, the more confused he became.

Buddha tried whatsoever was said to him. Somebody said: "Do HATHA yoga" - he became a HATHA yogi. He did yoga postures and he did them to the very extreme. Nothing came out of it. Maybe you can have a better body with HATHA yoga, but you cannot become happy. Just a better body, a more healthy body, makes no difference. With more energy you will have more energy at your disposal to become unhappy - but you will become unhappy. What will you do with it? If you have more money, what are you going to do with it? - you will do that which you can do. And if a little money makes you so miserable, more money will make you more miserable. It is simple arithmetic.

Buddha dropped all yoga. He went to other teachers, the RAJA yogis, who teach no body postures, who teach only mantras, chantings, meditations. He did that too, but nothing came out of it. He was really in search. When you are really in search then nothing can help, then there is no remedy.

Mediocre people stop somewhere on the way; they are not real seekers. A real seeker is one who goes to the very end of the search, and comes to realise that all search is nonsense. Searching itself is a way of desire - that he recognized one day. One day he had left his palace, he had left his worldly possessions; after six years of spiritual search, he dropped all search. The material search was dropped before, now he dropped the spiritual search. This world was dropped before, now he dropped the other world too.

He was completely rid of desire... and that very moment it happened. THAT very moment there was benediction. When he was completely rid of desire, when he had lost all hope, the future disappeared - because the future exists because of your hope. Future is not part of time, remember. Future is part of your hope, desire; future is part of your greed. Future is not part of time.

Time is always present. Time is never past, never future. Time is ALWAYS here.

The now is infinite. The time never goes anywhere and never comes from anywhere. It is already here and always here. It is your greed, it is your desire, it is your hope, that some way, in some situation, you are going to be happy.

All desire dropped, all hope dropped, all hope abandoned, suddenly Gautam Siddartha became a Buddha. It was always there but he was looking somewhere else. It was there, inside, outside. It is how the universe is made. It is blissful, it is truth, it is divine.

Man remains miserable because man goes on missing this fundamental truth about his desiring. This has to be understood, then these sutras will be very simple.

THE BUDDHA SAID:

"THERE WAS ONCE A MAN WHO, BEING IN DESPAIR OVER HIS INABILITY TO CONTROL HIS PASSIONS, WISHED TO MUTILATE HIMSELF.

THE BUDDHA SAID TO HIM, 'BETTER DESTROY YOUR OWN EVIL THOUGHTS THAN DO HARM TO YOUR OWN PERSON. THE MIND IS LORD. WHEN THE LORD HIMSELF IS CALMED, THE SERVANTS WILL OF THEMSELVES BE YIELDING. IF YOUR MIND IS NOT CLEANSED OF EVIL PASSIONS, WHAT AVAILS IT TO MUTILATE YOURSELF?'" MANY THINGS TO BE UNDERSTOOD. First: a great misunderstanding exists about Buddha that he was anti-body. That is absolutely wrong. He was never anti-body. He was not FOR the body, that's true; but he was never anti-body.

This sutra will make it clear. He says:

"THERE WAS ONCE A MAN WHO, BEING IN DESPAIR OVER HIS INABILITY TO CONTROL HIS PASSIONS, WISHED TO MUTILATE HIMSELF."

And there have been many persons like that, not only one person. Millions of people have destroyed their bodies in the search for truth, God, ecstasy, or whatsoever you call it. Millions of people have concluded that the body is the enemy. There is a certain logic in it.

People think it is because of the body that you are in misery. People think it is because of the body that you have sexuality; it is because of the body that you have greed; it is because of the body that you need money; it is because of the body that you need relationship. People think it is because of the body that the whole trouble arises, so why not destroy the body? why not commit suicide?

There have been many religious sects which are suicidal, which really teach suicide; which say, "This body has to be dropped. If you are courageous enough, then in one leap, drop this body. If you are not courageous, then slowly, in parts, cut the body, drop the body."

There was a VERY popular sect in Russia before the revolution - it was very popular - that used to teach people to cut their sexual organs. And there were thousands and thousands of people who followed it - just to mutilate the sexual organs. The idea is that by cutting the sexual organ you will go beyond sex. This is simply foolish, because the sex does not exist in the sexual organ - it exists in the mind. You can cut the sexual organ and sex will still exist in fact, now it will become more neurotic because there will be no way to fulfil it.

There have been sects all over the world which teach fasting. Once in a while, once a month, fasting can be of help, can be very healthy, can be a cleansing process. But to go on long fasts is destroying the body. But there have been sects:

in Buddha's time there was this sect of the Jains which was obsessed with the idea of fasting. "Go on fasting - one month, two months, three months - and if you die while you are on a fast, you will reach to the highest heaven."

Why did this idea of fasting become so deep-rooted? Food and sex seem to be the two obsessions of man. And the people who think, "How to get out of the misery?" think these two things are the reasons why they are miserable. In fact, just the opposite is the case.

I have heard:

One airline received this letter: "Gentlemen - may I please suggest that your pilots do not turn on the little light that says 'Fasten Seat Belts', because every time they do, the ride gets bumpy."

Now you can misunderstand the effect for the cause and the cause for the effect - - and it seems logical! This man who wrote the letter, must have watched again and again: whenever it is announced that you should fasten your seat belts, suddenly the ride gets jumpy, bumpy, rough. He had watched it many times. He must have been a professor of logic. Watching it again and again: whenever the light comes on and the announcement, immediately something goes wrong. His suggestion is very logical - and yet absurd. The announcement comes only because the ride is going to be bumpy. The announcement is not the cause; the announcement does not create it. It is going to be bumpy - the announcement tries to help you.

But it happens in ordinary life too. Your mind is sexual. The cause is there. The body simply follows it. But when the body follows then you become aware. You are not yet so aware that you can see it when it is in the mind. When it enters into the body, it becomes very solid - then you become aware. Your awareness is not sharp. You cannot catch it in the cause. When it has already moved into the effect, then you catch it.

You catch it when it is already beyond control. You catch it only, you become alert about it only, when it has already become solidified.

There are three states of any idea arising in you. First, the idea is wordless; it is not formulated in thoughts. That is the subtlest thing. If you can catch hold of it there, you will become free of it. The second stage is when it has entered into words; it is formulated - there is a thought arising in you. People are so sleepy that they don't become aware even at the second stage. When the thought has become a thing, when it has already entered into the gross body and the body has become possessed by it, then you become aware. It simply shows your unawareness.

Hence Buddha says if you really want to get rid of the misery, the pain, that life that is almost like hell, you have to become more and more aware. The more aware you become, the deeper the cause you can see. The deeper the cause known, the more capable you become to get out of it. If you can catch some desire when it has not even entered into your conscious mind, and it is still just a feeling with no words, just in the unconscious striving to get to the conscious, there it is very simple to stop it.

It is just like: you can throw a small seed very easily. There is no trouble about it.

But when it has taken root and has become a great tree, it will be difficult to uproot it.

First the idea arises in the innermost core. Then it enters into the mind. Then it enters into the body. You feel it only when it has entered into the body. There are even more sleepy people who don't even feel it there. When it has entered into the world, then they feel it.

For example, anger arises first in your deepest core, wordless, undefined. Then it comes to be a thought. Then it enters in your body; adrenaline and other poisons are released in the bloodstream - you are ready to kill somebody or beat somebody, bite somebody. You are getting mad. But you may not even become aware. When you hit somebody it has entered into the world. That is the fourth stage. Then you become aware: "What have I done?"

Haven't you observed it many times? When you have hit somebody - your child, your friend, your wife - then suddenly you become aware: "What have I done? I never wanted to do it! It has happened in spite of me," you say. This simply shows your unawareness.

Go deeper and catch hold of anything arising in the first step. And then it is so easy - just like you can destroy a seed very easily, but to destroy a tree will be difficult. And when the tree has sent its millions of seeds into the air, then it is almost beyond your control. The winds have taken the seeds to faraway fields; now it is impossible to find out where they have fallen. Now the tree is not one; it has created many possibilities of its own being. It will be imitated in many fields.

BUDDHA SAYS THAT DESTROYING THE BODY IS NOT GOING TO HELP. If your eyes make you desirous of beautiful women or beautiful men, it is not going to help if you destroy your eyes.

There is a story in India about a saint, Surdas. I don't think it is true. If it is true then Surdas is not a saint. Surdas can only be a saint if the story is untrue. I am ready to say that the story is untrue; I cannot say Surdas is untrue. He is so authentic, his insight is so pure - then the story must be wrong.

The story is: Surdas left the world. He was moving in a town. He saw a beautiful woman - he followed almost as if a magnet was pulling him. Started feeling guilty too! He is a sannyasin, renounced the world - what is he doing? But he was incapable of controlling himself, so the story goes.

He went to the woman, he asked for food - but that was just an excuse. Then he started to go to the same woman every day: just to have a look at her face, just to have a look into her eyes, just to have a little contact. He started dreaming about her. The whole day he was continuously thinking and fantasizing, and was waiting for the next day when he would be able to go to the woman again.

Then, by and by, he became aware that he was getting into a trap. And the story says that because it was his eyes that made him aware of the beauty of the woman, he destroyed his eyes and became a blind man.

I say, and I say it categorically, this story is simply invented - because this is so foolish! Surdas cannot do it. It must have been invented by other blind people; it must have been invented by other stupid people who always go on inventing stupid things. It is stupid because eyes cannot do anything - it is the mind. It is the mind that approaches through the eyes. It is the mind that approaches through the hand.

When you hit somebody or you kill somebody, it is not the hand that is the murderer - it is you. And it is not going to help if you cut your hand. And you cannot go to the court and say to the magistrate, "It was my hand."

It happened once in a court that a man argued this way. He said, "It is my hand which has killed." The magistrate was also very clever and cunning - they have to be clever and cunning because they have to deal with clever and cunning people. They have the same logic.

The magistrate said, "You are right, you are absolutely logical: you have not killed - your hands have killed. So your hands will remain in the prison. You can go home, but the hands cannot go." So the hands were chained and the magistrate said, "Why don't you go now?"

He said, "How can I go without the hands?"

And the magistrate said, "If you cannot go without the hands, how can the hands do something without you? You are both partners. And in fact the hand is simply a servant - you are the master."

"THERE WAS ONCE A MAN WHO, BEING IN DESPAIR OVER HIS INABILITY TO CONTROL HIS PASSIONS WISHED TO MUTILATE HIMSELF."

Buddha is not against the body; he is not anti-body. He cannot be! - because the body is so innocent. It has never done anything wrong. It is so pure; you cannot find a purer thing in existence.

Yes, one thing is certain, that whatsoever you want to do, the body follows you.

It is a servant and very obedient. Even if you are going to murder somebody, the body follows; it never says no. If you are going to the temple to pray, the body follows. It never says no. Whether you are going to commit a crime or going to pray in the temple, the body follows you so obediently, like a shadow.

No, the body is never responsible.

And one thing has to be understood about the body. The body is a unique thing in the world; nothing can be compared to it. It has one unique situation and that is: it is the only object in the world that you can look at from both the sides, from without and from within. If you look at a rock, you look from the without. If you look at the moon, you look from the without. Except for the body, your body, everything else you look at from the without. Your body is the only object in the world you can look at from the without and you can look at from within.

Hence, the body is the door for the within, the body is the door for the inner journey - how can Buddha be against it? And you can see Buddha's body - so beautiful, so graceful - how can he be against it? Watch Buddha's statues: he must have loved his body, he must have had tremendous compassion for his body. His body is flower-like - it is a rose-flower or a lotus. No, he cannot be against the body.

And if people interpret that Buddha is against the body, those people are putting their own interpretations on him.

"The Buddha said to him, 'Better destroy your own evil thoughts than do harm to your own person. The mind is lord. When the lord himself is calmed, the servants will of themselves be yielding.'" BUDDHA'S WHOLE EFFORT IS TO MAKE YOU AWARE that whatsoever you are, the cause is your mind. If you are miserable, the mind is functioning in a wrong pattern. If you are happy, the mind is functioning in the right pattern.

Happiness is nothing but the humming of the mechanism of mind when it functions perfectly. When the mind is simply in tune with the universe, you are happy. When the mind goes against the nature, against the natural law - what Buddha calls DHAMMA - when the mind goes against Tao, when the mind goes against the current, when the mind tries to swim upstream, then there are problems, there is misery. When the mind simply follows the stream like a driftwood, just goes with the stream wherever it is going, it is happy. And one day it reaches to the ultimate, the oceanic bliss. There is no need to reach to it, there is no need to make any effort - effortlessly it happens.

So Buddha says the basic question is not of the body, and it is not of the soul. The soul has no problems, and the body also has no problems. The problem is just in between the two. This mind which links the body and the soul is the problem; this mind that bridges the unknown to the known, the invisible to the visible, the formless to the form - this bridge is the only problem. If you can solve the mind, suddenly you are at home.

The mind is the problem. What can we do to change the mind? What can we do to have a better functioning mind? Again a desire arises, and again you are in the trap of the mind.

If I teach to you that you should become desireless and you will be happy, immediately a desire arises in the mind: how to become desireless? Immediately you start looking for clues, methods, techniques, how to become desireless. Now, to become desireless is again a desire. If I say mind is the problem, you immediately ask how to solve it, how to dissolve it, how to get rid of it - but the one who is asking the question is mind itself. And the one who is going to try is mind itself. So whatsoever you do you will never get out of the mind by doing anything. Still your question is relevant: Then what should we do?

We should look into the nature of the mind and not try to do anything. Just a great insight into the nature of your mind is all that is needed. Let me try to explain it to you.

Buddha says: Desire and you will be miserable. Suddenly a desire arises: "How to be desireless? because we want to be happy and we don't want to be miserable." And desire arises and new misery arises. When Buddha says desire creates misery, he means simply to watch how desire arises, how it creates misery. Just go on watching. Each desire brings its own misery.

You are passing down the road; you see a beautiful car just pass by - a flash - and a desire arises to possess this car. Now you become miserable. Just a moment before you were perfectly okay, there was no misery, and here passes this car and misery arises. Buddha says, "Watch."

Just a moment before you were humming a song and going for a morning walk.

And everything was beautiful: the birds were singing, and the trees were green, and the morning breeze was cool, and the sun was fantastic - everything was beautiful. You were in a poetic world full of joy and verve and gusto, and you were juicy and you were part of this beautiful morning. Everything was simply just as it should be... and there passes a car.

It is not that the owner of the car has come to disturb you; he may not even be aware about you. He is not trying to create any misery for you - don't be angry at him. It is not that the car is creating misery in you, because how can the car create misery in you? It is your desire.

Seeing the car a desire arises: "I should become the possessor of the car; this car has to be in my garage." And suddenly, trees are no longer green, birds are no longer singing, the sun is no longer there - it is already sunset. From morning the sunrise has disappeared; everything is dismal and dark. You are full of desire, you are surrounded by smoke. You have lost contact with life - immediately! Just a flicker of desire and you are millions of miles away from beauty, from truth, from joy.

Just watch. Buddha says simply watch. Stand by the side of the road - watch:

what has happened? Just a small desire arising and you are thrown into hell, and you were almost in heaven. You change from heaven to hell so many times in twenty-four hours; you don't watch.

People come to me and they ask, "Is there any heaven? Is there any hell?" And I am surprised because they go on shunting like a goods train between heaven and hell - continuously! Just a second is needed, a split second - in no time they are in hell and in no time they are in heaven.

Just watch how desire brings hell, how desire is hell. And then don't ask how to attain to desirelessness, there is no need. If you have looked into the nature of desire and you have felt it brings misery, that very understanding will be the dropping of desire. Just go on watching. If it is not dropping that simply shows that your insight is still not deep enough, so make your insight deep.

And it is not a question that somebody else can enlighten you about - it is your desire and only you can watch. I cannot watch your desire. You cannot watch anybody else's desire. It is your private world. Hell or heaven are private things.

And within a split second you can shift from one to another.

Just watch....

Buddha's word is 'watch'. Be watchful. Don't create any desire for desirelessness, otherwise you are simply behaving in a very stupid way. Now you are creating a new desire - and this will create misery. You simply go into the nature of the desire, look deep into it. Watch... how it creates darkness, how it brings misery, how suddenly it takes you, overpowers you. Just go on watching.

One day it is going to happen: a car will pass by and before the desire has arisen you will become watchful, and suddenly a laughter will come to you. You have become watchful; the desire has not arisen. It was just going to be, it was just ready to jump upon you and take you to hell - but you were watchful. And you will feel so happy.

For the first time you will have a key. You will know now that just being watchful, the desire has not arisen, the car has passed. The car has nothing to do with desire. Desire arises because you are unconscious, unaware, sleepy; you are living the life of a somnambulist, drunk.

Awareness is desirelessness. Awareness of the desire brings desirelessness. And this key has to be used to open many locks.

If you are greedy, don't ask how to get rid of it - because that is greed again, under another name, in another form. You have heard saints, mahatmas, you have read scriptures, and they say if you are greedy you will go to hell. Now a greed arises to go to heaven. And those scriptures go on saying that in heaven everything is just beautiful, fabulous. They create greed. And now you ask how to get rid of greed because a new greed has arisen in you: how to achieve heaven? how to enter paradise? how to live there for ever and ever, eternally, ecstatically, blissfully? Now this is a new greed.

This is not the way. The Buddha's way is really the best that has ever been brought to earth. The Buddha's way is the most penetrating and the most revolutionary way possible. He says; watch greed. Just watch greed and see what it is and how it creates misery for you. In that watching, a light will start arising in you; your inner flame will burn bright, and the darkness of greed will disappear.

And the same with violence, the same with anger, the same with possessiveness - - and the same with ALL that makes you miserable.

A maidservant happened to belch in front of her master - of course, the master must have been Western because in India nobody takes any notice of belching - the master became very angry and was going to strike her, but seeing her young and beautiful body his anger suddenly abated, and he took his pleasure with her.

The next day when he was in his study there was a knock on the door. It was the maidservant. "What is it? What do you want?"

"Please, sir, I belched again a little while ago."

NOW, ONCE YOU TASTE SOMETHING, whatsoever it is, the desire arises again and again to repeat it. Whatsoever you have known in your past, you go on asking for again and again in the future. Your future is nothing but your modified past. Your future is nothing but the desire to repeat your past.

And, of course, if you live a bored life, nobody else is responsible for it but you.

You ask for boredom. And boredom is misery. You ask for boredom because you ask for repetition. Something happened; for example, you were sitting, and the first star of the evening was becoming visible. And you watched. And it was a quiet evening; and it was cool and birds were returning back to their nests. And it was silent and it was very musical and you were in tune. Just watching the star becoming visible you felt beautiful. Now, you have tasted something - you will gather it like a treasure. THIS treasure will make you miserable.

First, you will hanker for it again and again. That hankering will create misery.

And it cannot be repeated by your hankering, remember - because it happened only because there was no hankering in you. You were simply sitting there not knowing what was going to happen. It happened in a state of innocence. It happened in a state of non-expectation. It happened because you were not looking for it. That is a basic ingredient in it. You were not looking, you were not asking. In fact, you were not desiring - you were simply there. Suddenly you became aware: the first star. And IN that moment when you became aware of the first star, you were not thinking that it was happiness, remember that too. That comes later on; that is a recapitulation. In that moment you were simply there - not happy, not unhappy, nothing. These words don't mean anything. Existence is so vast that no word is meaningful about it.

But then it is gone and there remains a memory. And you say again and again, "It was beautiful - how beautiful! how divine!" Now a desire arises to repeat it every evening. Next day you are waiting again, but now the whole situation has changed: you are waiting for it, you are looking for it. You want to repeat the old experience. Now, this is something new which was not present in the previous experience. So this won't allow you. You are looking too much. You are not relaxed; you are tense - you are afraid you may miss the first star. You are apprehensive. You are worried whether it is going to be again or not. It is not going to be.

First, it is not possible now because you have lost that innocence, that unexperienced state where no memory existed, where past was not, where future was not. Secondly, if some day it is repeated it will be boring because it will be a repetition. You have already known it. The beauty is in the new, it is never in the old. The beauty is in the fresh, it is never in the dead. The beauty belongs to the original, never to the carbon copy. The beauty is when an experience is firsthand, not secondhand. Now, if it happens at all, it will not make you happy; it will be a secondhand experience. And remember: God is never secondhand. God is always fresh.

To know that God in the beauty of the evening, or in the beauty of a bird on the wing, means you have to be absolutely innocent. The past has to be completely dropped and the future is not to be allowed to interfere. Then, and only then, there is beauty and there is benediction, there is blessing, there is happiness and bliss.

Once you experience something, you start asking for it, you become a beggar.

Then it will never happen. And you will carry the memory like a wound.

Have you watched it? Watch it: whenever you are happy, in that moment you don't know it is happiness. It is only afterwards, when the experience is gone, faded away, is no more, then mind comes in and starts looking for it, starts comparing, evaluating, judging, and says, "Yes, it was beautiful! so beautiful!"

When the experience itself was present, mind was not present.

Happiness is when mind is not.

And when mind comes in, happiness is no more there. Now there is only a memory, a dead memory. Your lover is gone; you are just carrying a letter written by your lover. The flower has faded; just an image in your mind. This image will not allow happiness to enter again in your being - this image will be the barrier, will be the rock.

Buddha says: Don't carry the past and don't ask for the future - just be herenow.

And then there is no-mind. And the body simply follows that no-mindness.

Right now the body follows the mind, and the mind is the culprit - and you go on punishing the body. It is almost like a small child: he comes running into the room, gets hit by the door, becomes angry at the door, starts beating the door - as if the door is the culprit.

Not only children but even grown-up people do such things. You are writing and your fountain-pen is not flowing well; you become angry and you throw it on the floor - you punish the fountain-pen! And still you think man is rational?

And still you believe man is a rational being?

When you come home angry, have you watched? You open the door in such anger, you bang it. Now, the door has not done anything to you.

It happened once: A man came to see a Zen Master; he banged the door, he threw his shoes. He came to the Master, bowed down, touched his feet. The Master said, "I cannot accept your greeting. You first go and ask the door to forgive you, and the shoes."

The man said, "What are you talking about?! Do you want me to become a laughing stock?" - and there were so many people sitting around.

The Master said, "If you don't do this then I am not going to allow you to be here - you simply get out! If you can insult the door and if you can insult the shoes, then you have to ask for their forgiveness. When you insulted them, then you never felt that you were doing something ridiculous? Now you feel ridiculous?

Go and do it!"

And the man went. He asked - first he looked a little foolish, felt a little foolish, and people were watching - but he asked to be forgiven. He said, "Sir, please, I was not conscious and I have done something wrong unconsciously, forgive me."

And he was talking to the shoes and to the door, and when he came back he was a totally different man.

The Master took him close and hugged him. And the man said, "It is tremendous!

When I was asking to be forgiven, first I looked foolish, then suddenly I felt so good - I have never felt. I actually felt they have forgiven me. I felt their compassion and their sympathy and their love."

You go on behaving in such unconscious manners. That unconscious mannerism of your behaviour is all that Buddha means by the word 'mind'. Mind is your sleep. Mind is your absence. And if the body follows this mind, this sleepy, drunk mind, don't get angry at the body.

"THE MIND IS LORD. WHEN THE LORD HIMSELF IS CALMED, THE SERVANTS WILL OF THEMSELVES BE YIELDING."

When the mind is calm it becomes no-mind. No-mind and a calm mind mean exactly the same thing; they don't mean two different things. A calm mind, a cool mind, is a no-mind - because mind is the fever. Mind is the continuous anxiety, tension, the disease - yes, the disease is the mind. When the disease has disappeared, you function from a state which is of no mind, and then the body follows it.

The body is a follower. If you have mind, the body follows the mind; if you have no-mind, the body follows the no-mind.

But don't start fighting with the body. Don't be stupid.

"IF YOUR MIND IS NOT CLEANSED OF EVIL PASSIONS, WHAT AVAILS IT TO MUTILATE YOURSELF?" THEREUPON THE BUDDHA RECITED THE GATHA: "PASSIONS GROW FROM THE WILL, THE WILL GROWS FROM THOUGHT AND IMAGINATION: WHEN BOTH ARE CALMED, THERE IS NEITHER SENSUALISM NOR TRANSMIGRATION." THE BUDDHA SAID, "THIS GATHA WAS TAUGHT BEFORE BY KASHYAPABUDDHA."

BUDDHA SAYS,"There have been millions of Buddhas before me and there will be millions of Buddhas after me."

This is something very new in the world of religions.

Mahavir says, "There have been only twenty-three TEERTHANKARAS before me, and there will be no TEERTHANKARA any more."

Mohammed says, "There have been only four prophets before me and there will be no prophet any more after me."

Jesus says, "I am the only begotten son of God."

Buddha is rare. He says, "There have been millions of Buddhas before me, and millions of Buddhas will be after me." And this seems to be truer - because only twenty-three TEERTHANKARAS in the whole infinity? Then what about Ram, then what about Krishna? They are not included in the Jain TEERTHANKARAS.

Mohammed says, "There have been only four prophets before me" - then what about Mahavir? and what about Krishna? and what about Buddha? They are not included in it.

And Jesus says, "I am the only begotten son." This looks absurd, that God should have only one son. And what has He been doing afterwards? Following birth control? This looks absurd, and creates fanaticism. Then the Christians think they are superior because they are the followers of the only son that God has. Others are prophets, at the most, if they recognize them at all. But theirs is the only son of God. That creates ego, superiority.

Hindus say they have only twenty-four AVATARAS. A few centuries ago they had the idea of ten avataras. Then they expanded it a little - mm? - because Jains were claiming twenty-four TEERTHANKARAS so there was great competition. So they said, "Okay, we will also have twenty-four." The number twenty-four became very standard; even Buddhists started saying that there are only twenty-four Buddhas. And when TEERTHANKARAS are twenty-four and Buddhas are twenty-four then to have only ten AVATARAS looks a little poor.

So Hindus extended the idea; they dropped the idea of ten AVATARAS; they also claimed they have twenty-four AVATARAS. But what about Mahavir? What about Adinatha? They are not included.

Buddha includes all. He is tremendously inclusive. And he creates no superiority; he says millions of Buddhas have been before and millions will be afterwards. The world has never lacked Buddhas - and that is how it should be!

because to be a Buddha is just to be aware of your nature. It is nothing special. It looks special because you have not tried it; otherwise it is your own treasure, it has only to be claimed.

And look at the beauty of it: Buddha claims nothing special for himself. He says many Buddhas have been, millions; and millions will be afterwards. Look at the beauty of his declaration: about himself he is saying, "I am just one in millions - nothing special about me!" This is how a really religious person should be:

nothing special, very ordinary. When there are millions of Buddhas, then how can you be special? You can be special if there is a limited number.

There was much conflict, because when Mahavir claimed that he was the twenty- fourth, there were eight others who were claiming that they were the twenty- fourth. There was trouble! Nobody was ready to believe in the other, and there are no ways to prove it really. How can you prove who is the real TEERTHANKARA?

A few chose Gaushalak and followed him; a few chose Mahavir and followed him. A few chose others - Ajit Keshkambal, Sanjay Vilethiputta, and there were other claimers - how do you decide? Christians say that Jesus is the only son of God - and Jews crucified him. How do you decide? They thought he was a cheat.

Jews are also waiting for a Messiah, they have been waiting for centuries, but they never allow anybody to become that Messiah - because then for whom will they wait? They are hoping and hoping and hoping, and they have waited so long that now it has become habitual for Jews - they don't allow anybody. Jesus claimed; many others have claimed after Jesus - but whosoever claims that "I am the Messiah" has to be destroyed, has to be rejected, has to be proved a cheat.

The Messiah is certainly to come, but they don't allow anybody to claim it.

Centuries of waiting and they have become addicted. Now they will wait - even if God comes they will crucify Him, because they will say, "Who wants you? We love waiting, we exist in our hope." Jews go on hoping.

But everybody tries - Jews think they are the chosen race, that God has chosen them specially; Hindus think they are the chosen race; Jains think they are the chosen ones. Buddha is rare. Buddha says there were millions of Buddhas before, countless. In fact, he has said that if you count the grains of sand in the Ganges, there have been more than that many Buddhas before, and there will be more later on. This makes his own stature very ordinary, but this is his beauty.

Not to claim for any extraordinariness is what extraordinariness is. And when you claim, when you claim you are superior, you are simply showing that you suffer from an inferiority complex.

Now, Mohammed says there will be no prophet any more. Why are you closing the door? Now if somebody claims "I am the prophet," Mohammedans will kill him - because Mohammed has closed the door. But who is he to close the door?

The door belongs to nobody, or it belongs to all. How can he close it?

And why in the first place this idea? Mahavir thinks he is the last, Mohammed thinks he is the last, Jesus thinks he is the last - then what do you mean by this?

You simply don't allow evolution, you don't allow any new idea to evolve. You close the door, you make a closed dogma, so that nobody can disturb the dogma Buddha keeps all doors open: he says millions.... He remembers this GATHA from some past Buddha, Kashyapabuddha was his name. He says, "This gatha was told by Kashyapabuddha."

"PASSIONS GROW FROM THE WILL, THE WILL GROWS FROM THOUGHT AND IMAGINATION: WHEN BOTH ARE CALMED, THERE IS NEITHER SENSUALISM NOR TRANSMIGRATION."

THE WILL MEANS THE EGO. The will means to fight against existence.

Whenever you see somebody fighting upstream, you say, "He is the man of will- power." What do you mean by will-power? All will is against God. You fight with it. You try to do something which is not in the nature of things. You try to force something. If you are violent with nature, then you have will.

Many people come to me and they say, "Osho, somehow help us to have more will-power." Why? Am I your enemy? Should I help you to become more mad?

Will-power? But in the West, will-power is very important; because the whole West thinks that to have a strong ego is a must, you should have will-power, you should develop will-power. Thousands of books exist in the market on how to develop will-power. And they are sold, because people want to be more and more refined in their egos.

Buddha says: "PASSIONS GROW FROM THE WILL... desires grow from the will." The I, the ego, is the root of your mind. Your whole mind is centred around the I.

"THE WILL GROWS FROM THOUGHT AND IMAGINATION..." Thought comes from the past; imagination means movement in the future. Whatsoever you have experienced, thought, learnt, that is your ego. And whatsoever you want to experience in your future, would like to have in your future, is your will.

These are two aspects of the same phenomenon.

"WHEN BOTH ARE CALMED..." when thought is no more there, means when past is no more there, and when imagination, projection, dreaming, future is no more there: "WHEN BOTH ARE CALMED, THERE IS NEITHER SENSUALISM NOR TRANSMIGRATION. " Buddha says then ALL sensualism disappears; then one is no more greedy for senses and the experience of the senses.

Remember: by the disappearance of sensualism he does not mean that your sensitivity disappears - you become tremendously sensitive. A sensual person is not a sensitive person; a sensual person is very gross, very rough, very primitive.

A sensitive person is very developed, highly developed; he is very receptive. A sensual person is after pleasure, and the sensitive person is one who knows bliss is here and he is open to it, and he goes on being showered by the divine bliss.

He soaks it up like a sponge. He is sensitive.

The sensual person is always after something, trying to achieve - money, power, prestige. The sensitive person is simply alive herenow, enjoying the beauty that is available. When tomorrow comes then tomorrow will take care of itself.

That's what Jesus means when he says, "Think not of the morrow." That's what Jesus says when he shows to his disciples the lilies in the field and says, "Look, how beautiful they are! And they toil not. They are simply here; they don't worry about what is going to happen tomorrow. Even Solomon, in all his glory, was not so beautiful," says Jesus, "as these poor flowers of the lilies."

A sensitive person is a flowerlike person, open to existence, enjoying it - enjoying it tremendously - but not seeking anything. His search has dissolved.

He is not chasing anything.

I have heard:

A man lost everything at the casinos in Vegas. He tried every one in town and each was a disaster. All he had left now was a Kennedy fifty-cent piece. He kept tossing it in the air - a la George Raft - as he walked along the street trying to figure out a way to get another stake, when his coin slipped out of his fingers and fell into a grating in the middle of the street.

Our hero was after it like a shot, but before he could grab it he was hit by a taxi and carried off to the hospital with a broken leg.

He was out in a couple of months, and with the settlement from the insurance company he started back to the casinos. On the way, he limped past the same grating where he had lost his coin. He started to look down to see if he could find it when he was hit by another taxi, and he was back in the hospital with his other leg broken.

"How could you get knocked twice in exactly the same place?" the nurse asked him. "I mean, what in the world made you go back to that stupid grating?"

"That was my good luck charm," he explained, "and I didn't want to lose it."

People go on chasing, go on being hit every time. Their whole life becomes just wounds and wounds and wounds, but again and again they go on chasing the same things - as if they don't see what is happening to them.

A man of sensitivity remains wherever he is - and God seeks him. And a man of sensualism rushes from here to there, from there to somewhere else, chasing and chasing. And this is the beauty of the whole process: if you are chasing God you will never meet Him, because you don't know where He is. If you are chasing happiness you will never meet it, because you don't know the whereabouts, you don't even know the face of happiness - even if you come across her, you will not be able to recognize her. The person who is sensitive simply sits wherever he is and happiness comes to him, and bliss comes to him, and God comes to him.

This is to be remembered: It is not only you who are seeking God - God is also seeking you. And the case is such that He comes and knocks at your door, but you are never there. You are somewhere else. He goes on knocking at your door but you are never found there - because the door is in the present and you are in the future or in the past.

The Buddha said:

"FROM THE PASSIONS ARISES WORRY, AND FROM WORRY ARISES FEAR.

AWAY WITH THE PASSIONS, AND NO FEAR, NO WORRY."

OBSERVE IT. These are not theories. These are facts of life. Buddha is not a theoretician, not a metaphysician - not at all. He is just a scientist of the basic facts of life. He talks only about a fact. You need not believe in it. You have simply to watch and you will find the truth of it.

He says: "FROM PASSIONS ARISES WORRY..." Whenever desire arises, worry arises: how to get it? how to reach it? how to achieve? You are worried. When you are worried there are a thousand and one alternatives. Then more worry arises: which will be the right alternative to reach to it? which will be the right path? And then fear arises: whether you will be able to reach? There are so many competitors in the world, and so many people have tried and failed. Look at Alexander and Genghis Khan and Nadir Shah - and so many people have tried, and tried so powerfully, tried so hard, and still they have failed. What is the guarantee that you will succeed? Then fear arises. These are simple facts!

A man comes into a store to buy a suit. The salesman tries one jacket on him after another. He says to the customer, "Turn around, let's see it in this light; now let's look at it in the rear-view mirror; now from this angle, now this angle." Still the man asks to try on other jackets.

Finally the boss comes up to them and picks out a jacket. The customer puts it on and buys it immediately. Says the boss, "See how easy it is to make a sale?"

"Okay," says the salesman, "you made the sale - but who made him dizzy?"

Once a passion is there it will make you dizzy - worries, apprehensions; what to choose, what not to choose; where to go, how to go; what will be the right technique, the right method, the right approach? And then the fear: whether you will be able to make it? A constant fear. One becomes dizzy.

Passion is the salesman. And then comes the devil: the boss. Then you are thrown in hell. Desire makes you dizzy. And nobody can be certain, nobody.

I was reading a beautiful anecdote:

Father O'Malley and Rabbi Cohen were playing golf. On the third hole, Father O'Malley hit one into the rough, and he hollered, "Oh, shit!" And he looked up to heaven and said, "Dear Lord, I'm terribly sorry. It was an oversight." On the fifth hole he made another terrible shot into the rough. Again he shouted, "Oh, shit!"

Again he looked up to heaven and said, "Dear Lord, again please excuse me. I'm terribly sorry." On the ninth hole, same thing again, into the rough. He hollered "Oh, shit!"

Just then there was a bolt of lightning and Rabbi Cohen was struck and killed. A loud rumbling was heard in heaven and a voice saying, "Oh, shit!"

Even a God can miss! so what is the guarantee of your ever being successful?

One goes on being afraid, trembling, shaking with fear.

Passions create worry; worry creates fear - AWAY WITH THE PASSIONS, AND NO FEAR, NO WORRY.

But people have only passions in their lives, that's why they have only worries and fear and nothing else. They come to me - so many people - and they want to get some peace of mind, they want a way to get OUT of their worries. But if you tell them, "Get out of your passions," then they are not ready to follow you.

They want some mantra, some cheap thing, so they can go on desiring, they can go on chasing their passions - and still remain unworried.

A politician used to come to me, and he would always say, "Somehow, Osho, help me to have some peace of mind."

I said, "Being a politician you should not ask for it - it never comes in the way of a politician. Peace of mind? If it can happen to a politician, then are the saints fools? What are they doing? Then why should they leave ambition? It can never come. Ambition creates tension, worry. You get out of your politics!"

And he would say, "You may be right, but right now I cannot get out of it."

Then I told him, "Then you be at ease with your tensions, accept them. You are trying to do something which is not possible. You want to eat the cake and have it too."

Then he started going to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. For many days he didn't turn up. One day, suddenly we met in a train. I asked him, "You have not been coming to me for many days."

He said, "What is the point of coming to you? You say get out of politics. Mahesh Yogi is better. He says, 'Wherever you are, I will make you more efficient. You are a politician? You will become a better politician - just do TM.'" Now that fits, that completely fits. You are not to change anything; just repeating some foolish thing - blah, blah, blah - and that's all. Twenty minutes you repeat it and wherever you are, all success is guaranteed to you, all efficiency is guaranteed to you. Even thieves are doing TM, smugglers are doing TM, politicians are doing TM. The smuggler thinks that if he does TM he will never be caught, he will become more efficient.

Meditation is not so cheap. Meditation is a total transformation of your being.

And a great understanding is needed and a great intelligence.

Buddha's sutras are only for those who are really intelligent people and who really want to get out of the misery that they have created around themselves. It is only for those who are really fed up with misery and are ready to get out of the trap.

It is up to you, it depends on you. You have created it! Once you understand how you have created it, it will disappear - because then you will not be able to create it any more.