Trust

The great problem with people like Ta Hui is their own intellect. Even if they are talking against intellect, it is nothing but their own intellect. The intellect is capable of creating an illusion that you are going beyond intellect, but the illusion can be easily detected.

The things that Ta Hui is saying in these sutras, he must have heard from a very right source. But he himself is only an intellectual; hence everything that passes through his intellect changes its form. This change is so subtle that unless one becomes enlightened himself, he will never see where the intellect has deceived him.

Just listen to what he is saying: Actively try to clear out your mind. Who are you? Do you know yourself as distinct from the mind? If you know yourself as distinct from the mind, the mind is cleared away. The question of actively trying to clear out your mind does not arise.

The mind is there because you are not there; you are fast asleep, you are not alert. The darkness is there because you have not brought even a single candle, and just a small candle is enough to dispel vast darkness. This is how the mind misinterprets -- and still it feels that one is going on the right path.

The enlightened man can say to you, "Dispel all darkness." But the only way to dispel darkness is to bring light in. The intellectual will understand that dispelling darkness means actively fighting with darkness, throwing it out of the house. But can you manage to empty your room of darkness just by bringing out buckets full of darkness and throwing it away? The room will still remain dark. The only thing that will happen will be a tremendous frustration, tiredness, disgust with the whole idea. But if you had an understanding that is not from the mind, but from the beyond ... that comes only through meditation, and this man is not talking about meditation at all.

It is only through meditation that your inner light, which is dormant, becomes suddenly active and alive. It is an eternal source of light. Once the light is there, darkness is automatically dispelled. Even to say dispelled is wrong, because darkness does not exist; it is only the absence of the light. Darkness does not have its own existence, so you cannot do anything directly with it.

Whatever you want to do with darkness, you will have to do something with light. If you want darkness, put the light off. If you don't want darkness, put the light on. But you can act only with light, because light is a positive existence. Darkness is simply an absence of light -- and so is the state of our mind.

Mind is your absence. The moment you are present, there is no mind.

So the absolute emphasis of all the buddhas of all the centuries has been simply this:

Come to consciousness, become a presence, and there will be no place for the mind and all its ingredients -- greed, anger, delusion, dreams, hallucinations, ambitions, the whole lot.

If you start listening to people like Ta Hui and working according to their idea, you will get more and more in a mess. He is saying, actively try to clear out your mind. He is giving you a wrong direction, without any intention to take you on a wrong path. But intentions don't matter. What matters is whether the indication is in the right direction or not.

Nothing can be done directly with the mind.

He says, actively try to clear out your mind, then you won't go wrong, but the first condition cannot be fulfilled. You will be going wrong all the time. But he is accepting that the first condition can be fulfilled.

Not a single enlightened person has ever said that you can do anything directly with the mind, but because he accepts that idea, he goes on and on ...then you won't go wrong; since you don't go wrong, correct mindfulness stands out alone. Still, it is mindfulness.

Meditation is not mindfulness.

Meditation is a state of no-mind.

Mindfulness is still intelligence. You can be highly intelligent -- that does not mean that you know meditation. A great contemporary British philosopher, C.E.M. Joad, was very much disturbed by the ideas of George Gurdjieff and his disciple, P.D. Ouspensky. He was sick, and he was reading P.D. Ouspensky's book on the teachings of Gurdjieff. He was one of the great philosophers of the century.

Joad told one of his friends, "I hear Ouspensky is in London, but I am not in a good enough condition to go and talk to him. The doctors say I should rest in bed. But I cannot wait, because it may be that I am just counting my last days, any day may be the end. Can you go to Ouspensky and tell him my situation ... and if he can come, it will be very kind of him. I want to talk to him, because I don't understand what this no-mind is. Beyond mind, I cannot understand there is anything."

Joad had worked his whole life with the mind, and he knew what the mind was, but he had never gone beyond the boundary. "In fact," he said to the friend, "the people who go beyond the mind go into an insane asylum. We say mad people are 'out of their mind.' And this strange man Gurdjieff goes on talking about no-mind. You go and persuade Ouspensky!

Perhaps, knowing my name, he may come."

Ouspensky came, and Joad said to him, "I cannot understand at all what this no-mind is. I can understand mind, I can even understand mindfulness, but no-mind is simply beyond my conceivability."

Ouspensky said, "It is a very simple matter. I am sitting here. You just close your eyes and remember one thing: whatever is going before your inner eye is the mind, and the presence in front of which the mind is passing is the no-mind."

Joad had never done any such thing. He closed his eyes ... a half hour passed, one hour passed, and his face was looking so silent, so serene. Ouspensky had some other appointment, so he had to wake him up. He told him, "I am sorry to disturb you -- you were going really deep."

And Joad said, "I am immensely grateful. I cannot express my gratitude ... I had never thought about the possibility that I can watch the mind; that certainly means I am not the mind. The watcher is certainly different from the watched. And rather than explaining it to me intellectually, you gave me the experience itself. It was so beautiful and so silent. These last days, staying in bed, I have nothing else to do. I am going to continue watching my mind.

"Perhaps Gurdjieff is right, and perhaps the Eastern mystics are right. And this is the right time for me. If I can get away from the mind into myself, into my witnessing, into my watching -- what they call no-mind -- perhaps I will go from life not feeling that I lived meaninglessly."

After just ten days he died. But before his death, he dictated to his secretary a small statement to be delivered to George Gurdjieff and to Ouspensky. He said, "I am dying with great gratitude -- you showed me the way. Now death does not matter, now nothing matters. I have tasted something of the beyond, of the eternal. Mind was the barrier. I was thinking mind is all that we have, but I never thought that mind is just an instrument, like any other instrument."

You have kidneys, you have hands, you have legs; if your hand is cut off, that does not mean that you are destroyed. You are more than the total sum of your parts -- that is the meaning of no-mind. You are not an arithmetical entity, you are a spiritual being.

I would like to repeat so that you remember it: You are more than the sum total of your parts, and that which is more than the sum total of your parts is your real being. A machine is not more than the sum total; a machine is exactly equal to the sum total of its parts.

It is only life which is more than its sum total.

And when life becomes conscious, it is even more.

And when consciousness becomes absolute illumination, it is tremendously more. The sum total of your parts remains far behind, a very small, tiny thing. You become as vast as the sky itself.

But Ta Hui has no understanding yet. He is still talking like a thinker.

WHEN CORRECT MINDFULNESS STANDS OUT ALONE, INNER TRUTH ADAPTS TO PHENOMENA; WHEN INNER TRUTH ADAPTS TO EVENTS AND THINGS, EVENTS AND THINGS COME TO FUSE IN INNER TRUTH. WHEN PHENOMENA FUSE WITH THEIR INNER TRUTH, YOU SAVE POWER.

That too has to be understood. Power from the lips of Ta Hui is not the same power about which a Gautam Buddha may talk.

Power -- according to the mind -- is always power over others. Mind is continuously trying to dominate, to enslave, to be powerful over others, because mind has no power of its own.

All its power is borrowed. What does the prime minister of any country have as his power?

Just the votes that he has begged. He is really the greatest beggar in the country. All his power belongs to the people; he does not have any power of his own.

So when the mind talks about power, it talks about politics, it talks about domination, it talks about possessiveness; it talks about increasing your empire of riches, of power, of prestige, in whatever way, so you can become a dominant figure.

But the power that the awakened one talks about is not power over others. He talks about it as an intrinsic explosion, just like the atomic explosion. It is not the power that is coming from outside; it is the power that was deep inside the atomic cell. Because the atom has exploded, the power is all over the place.

A very strange piece of information has come to me just the other day ... a Japanese scientist had been continuously watching, studying the effects of atomic energy and its radiation in and around Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Forty years have passed since the atomic explosion happened there, when the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

This one scientist really risked his life; nobody goes to Hiroshima because everything is full of radiation, but he went and lived there for a few weeks, just to see what effect the radiation would have. And when he came back he brought a great surprise to his fellow scientists. He looked ten years younger, and healthier than he had ever been.

They were all surprised, because nobody had thought ... it had always been thought that radiation will kill, but he has discovered that radiation will kill only in a certain great quantity.

It is a question of degrees. In small quantities it can help to destroy disease, to give man a longer life, to keep him young until his death. Now he has prepared a small ceramic paper, with a very small dose of radiation coming out of it. He thinks that keeping that in your room will be enough for you to remain healthy and younger!

I have always been saying that energy is neutral: that which can destroy, can also create; we just have to discover how it destroys and how it creates.

This Japanese scientist has done a tremendous service to the coming humanity. It means that if the nations are willing, and if their stupid politicians don't hinder it, then all the atomic energy and nuclear weapons that they have gathered can be brought to the service of life -- to bring more health to the world, to dispel illness, to dispel hunger, to dispel old age, to make man live longer and remain younger.

The power of the atomic bomb is not power coming from outside; it is the power of the atom which was dormant, sleeping, and has been awakened. If this is possible through the atom -- which is part of electricity, just a small particle -- what is possible if we can explode the living being of a man? A small particle of his consciousness, if it explodes, is going to bring so much light and so much power.

Perhaps the mystics who have always been talking about power were talking about the power that they were feeling inside themselves. It has nothing to do with dominating anybody.

Their power has been used as compassion, their power has been used for showering flowers over others. Their power has not ever been used for any destructive purpose, in the service of death.

But the word 'power' itself is dangerous, because ordinarily its association is with politics.

When Ta Hui uses the word power he does not understand that the mystics have used it in a different way, totally opposite. He says,

The way he is saying it is clear: unlimited power -- over whom? Why this emphasis on power?

The power that comes out of meditation does not come as power. It comes as if flowers are showering on you; it comes as fragrance, it comes as love, it comes as compassion. It brings all the great qualities and all the great values of life suddenly to their blossoming. It is the spring of your consciousness. Everything suddenly becomes green, everything becomes cool; the breeze becomes full of fragrance, because you are bursting forth into flowers which cannot be seen by the eye. But those who have the heart and the courage to open to it will certainly feel it. They will feel its song, they will feel its dance.

But the word power is not to be used. It has been associated with wrong people -- they have contaminated it.

THIS MATTER MAY BE TAKEN UP BY BRILLIANT, QUICK-WITTED FOLKS ...

and he himself is nothing but a brilliant, quick-witted folk

Ta Hui has a misunderstanding. Mind has only one power and that is the discriminating intellect; it has no other power.

Because of its discriminating intellect, mind is so useful in science, and it is absolutely a hindrance in spiritual growth. There you don't need any intellect. All that you need is a deep trust in existence, a deep reverence for life.

Intellect is never trust, it is always doubt. Spiritual growth is hindered more by doubt than anything else, but how can you gain trust? Doubt is natural to the mind; trust is not part of the mind. How can you come to trust?

That's why all spiritual teachings emphasize a deep intimate relationship with someone who has gone ahead of you. You need to be related to one who is already awakened. His very awakening will become an evidence, an argument for you to dispel all doubt, and to dispel all mind.

You have to come in contact with a man who lives as a no-mind, who lives as silence.

His silence is luminous. It is contagious. If you come close to such a man, you are bound to be caught in the net of his radiating love, his radiating awareness. Only that experience will create trust in you, will give you the feeling that if this beautiful flowering can happen to one man ... and I am also a man. It will remind you of your own potential: there is no need to doubt; if this man can blossom into such a beautiful flower ... I am also a man.

The presence of the enlightened person brings a great dignity to you, a great pride, which is not ego ... a pride that you are a human being full of the potential of being a buddha.

And once trust has arisen in you, you are on the path.

Trust is another name of the path.

Doubt is the name of going astray.

Intellect is nothing but another name of doubt. Doubt is a beautiful instrument as far as science is concerned, but doubt is not of any help to go beyond the mind. To go beyond the mind you need trust, and trust has a beauty of its own. Doubt has no beauty, it is ugly. It does not give you integrity, it always keeps you suspicious.

Once trust has arisen in you, you are beyond the dangers of the mind.

But Ta Hui has not understood, although he has been from one master to another -- to many masters. Perhaps that has created the whole confusion in him. In those many masters, a few may have been just teachers, a few may not have even been teachers, but people who love to advise -- whether they know anything or not. They enjoy advising, because in advising they become higher than you; you are ignorant, and they are knowledgeable.

I have been part of a psychology department in a university. There were four other psychologists in the department, and they were all practicing psychoanalysis, except me. I never believed in any kind of analysis, any kind of psychology, because I don't want to do anything with the mind at all. But you will be surprised, they were giving counseling to sick people -- mentally sick, psychologically sick. They were analyzing, and they were earning much money, but they were suffering from the same problems.

I was the only one available, so they were all asking me, "What to do with this problem that never leaves us?"

I said, "You are great psychoanalysts; you counsel people, you help people."

They said, "Don't make a laughingstock of us! We know the technique, we have learned psychoanalysis, and we advise."

But I said, "If you cannot follow your own advice, what right have you got to give it to somebody else?"

I used to tell them an ancient Sufi story. A woman was very much disturbed by her young child -- she had only one child, and her husband had died. She was rich, but she had lost all interest in life. She was living simply because of this small child, and certainly in such circumstances, children are spoiled; the child would not eat anything except sweets. The doctors were saying, "This is bad, his whole health will be spoiled." But the child was not listening.

The woman used to go to the Sufi mystic, so one day she thought, "He does not listen to me, but perhaps he may listen to the mystic, because the man is so radiant that anybody who goes close to him feels impressed."

She took the child and she told the mystic, "He does not listen to anybody. Doctors tell him that his health will be spoiled, and I am telling him every day. His whole food consists only of sweets; otherwise he prefers to remain hungry. He is my only child, my husband is dead, and I am only living for him. I cannot see him hungry, so I have to give him sweets, knowing well that I am giving poison to him -- white sugar is white poison. So I have brought him. You tell him something! You are a man of God, perhaps your words may have a different impact."

The mystic looked at the child. He said, "My son, I am not in a position to answer you right now because I myself love to eat sweets. You come back after two weeks. For two weeks I will not eat sweets, if I can manage it. Only then can I advise; otherwise, I am not the right person to advise."

The woman could not believe it. This could even be dangerous ... but the child was immensely impressed. He touched the feet of the mystic. He said, "I have been taken to many people; my mother goes on taking me to this wise guy, to that wise guy, and they all go on advising immediately. You are the first man who is sincere. I will come after two weeks, and whatever you say, I will do. I can trust you."

A man who confesses before a child ..."Right now I am not in the right position even to advise you, because I myself like sweets; so for two weeks I will have to try my advice on myself, and then you come.

"If I fail, I will say, 'I am sorry, I cannot advise you.' If I succeed, then I will say, 'Don't be worried, if I can succeed -- an old man -- you are so young and so powerful, and so intelligent, you can succeed also. Just give it a try!'" The mother was shocked. If the mystic says after two weeks that he cannot succeed, then the whole thing is finished; then there is nobody else to whom she can take the child.

After two weeks, they came back. The mystic said, "My son, it is difficult but not impossible. I managed not to eat sweets for two weeks, and I promise you that my whole life I will not touch sweets again. Do you think I can advise you? If you allow me to advise, only then will I do so."

The child said, "There is no need to say anything. I have received the message. I am grateful to you. A man like you who is ready to drop eating sweets for his whole life just to give me the advice that he himself practices, is worthy of trust. I trust you. I also promise you that I will not eat sweets from this moment onwards."

I used to tell these psychologists, "When you advise other people, have you ever thought that the advice is coming from somebody who himself suffers from the same problem?"

So this Ta Hui must have gone to learned people, to the knowledgeable, to teachers of all kinds. Once in a while perhaps he may have accidentally met an awakened man, a master, a mystic, and he has collected from all these sources; so once in a while there is a statement that seems to be absolutely right. But mostly he has collected all kinds of pieces from sources which are as ignorant as he is, but they were as willing to advise as he is willing to advise.

I would like my people to remember it: never advise unless it is your experience. In the world, advice is the only thing which everybody gives and nobody takes, so why bother?

Everybody enjoys giving advice and nobody ever takes it, and the reason is that everybody knows that advice is meant for others -- not for yourself.

I would like my people to remember: never advise, unless it has been your own authentic experience. Then too you can simply say, "This has been my experience. It is not necessary that it will be right for you -- you can experiment. If you feel that it brings more harmony to your life, more joy, you can go ahead. If you feel it is not bringing anything ... because individuals are different. What fits me may not fit you, what is medicine to me may be simply poison to you."

An absolutely alert man is always alert about what advice to give and what not to give.

Even if he gives advice, it is always conditional -- conditional upon experiment. He says it only as a hypothesis: "You try a little bit -- perhaps it works. If it works, good. If it does not work, don't go on doing it. It has helped me, that's true, but that does not mean that it will help everybody on the earth."

People are different; each individual is unique, and each individual needs a unique way that suits him.

He is giving good advice, but he has no experience. I am so certain that he has no experience because so many sentences, so many sutras, give clear-cut indications of ignorance.

What he is saying is right, but he himself is not the right person to say it. All his understanding is based on intellect.

The statement of Yung Chia is absolutely right:

Yung Chia was an enlightened master. He is saying that because of the mind, the world has become irreligious; because of the mind, all that is great has disappeared. It was perfectly true for Yung Chia to say it; it was his own experience. But Ta Hui is simply repeating it. The words are beautiful, the sentence is beautiful -- he is collecting beautiful flowers from everywhere.

One simply cannot believe that a man is saying things which he has not experienced! And he has not gone beyond them.

All that he is saying is right -- but he is not. This has to be understood clearly: a wrong man can say right things, although a right man can never say wrong things. For the right man to say wrong things is impossible, but for the wrong man to say right things is very possible because it hides his wrongness. It becomes a cover-up to his ignorance.

In the world there are millions of teachers, priests, monks, belonging to different religions and different paths; they are all repeating beautiful words, but because they come from them, they lose all beauty.

They are the same words spoken by Zarathustra, by Lao Tzu, by Jesus Christ, by Gautam Buddha; they are the same words, but the man who is speaking is not the same. And those words have significance only if they are supported by an existential individual standing behind them. Those words are living only if they come from a living source. Hence, my insistence is:

never bother about dead saints, never bother about holy scriptures.

Try to find a living master.

The living master contains all the scriptures and all the dead saints. Through the living master, whatever comes to you goes directly into your heart.

The living master never misses the target.

A beautiful story for the end. There was a carnival going on in the town, and Mulla Nasruddin asked all his disciples to come with him. He would take them to the carnival to teach them a few things; that was his usual method, to take his disciples to actual situations.

As they entered, the whole crowd there became interested, because they always knew that wherever Nasruddin is, something interesting is going to happen.

He was there with his fifty disciples following him. He went directly into a stall, where people were putting down money; if they could hit the bull's-eye with the arrow, the stall keeper would give them three times as much money, and if they missed, their money was gone. Many people were trying, but it is not easy unless you are an archer.

Mulla Nasruddin went there, put ten rupees on the table, and took the bow and arrow.

There was great silence. His fifty disciples were standing behind him, and a great crowd watching and thinking, "We never thought that this Mulla Nasruddin is an archer also. Now let us see what happens!" He took a shot, and the arrow simply went far away beyond the bull's-eye.

Everybody laughed! He said, "Stop!" He turned towards his disciples and said, "Look, this is the arrow of a man who is too ambitious. He always misses the point, he goes far away."

Even the stall keeper became interested ...

Nasruddin took out another arrow, took a shot, and the arrow fell just in front of him.

Again people laughed. He said, "You idiots, stop! I have brought my disciples here to teach them something." And he turned to the disciples, and said, "Look, this is the arrow of a man who is always hesitant, wishy-washy -- to die or not to die? Because of this either/or situation, he always falls short; he never hits the bull's-eye." The people became silent -- "He is right."

He pulled out the third arrow, and the stall keeper was also silent -- "This man has some ideas and he is not wrong." And Mulla hit the bull's-eye, took his ten rupee note, and asked for twenty more.

The stall keeper said, "What!"

Mulla said, "This is Mulla Nasruddin's arrow; he never misses the target. You just bring twenty rupees!"

People laughed, but the stall keeper had to give twenty rupees. The disciples also said, "This is too much! In fact, if he had missed again, he would again have brought some explanation; this is just accidental. But he is a great man, there is no doubt about it."

He was able to bring as many explanations as possible. If you go on shooting, one time it is going to hit; whenever it hits, it is Mulla Nasruddin's arrow.

Mulla Nasruddin walked away with his thirty rupees and his disciples. He said, "Come on, you can enjoy some sweets, some fruits. Take these twenty rupees. Just leave my ten rupees, because only those ten belong to me; the other twenty came only from tricks."

The so-called teachers like Ta Hui go on saying things, and among so many things, once in a while there may be one arrow hitting the target. But my concern is to show you how humanity has been deceived by teachers. Ta Hui was honored by the emperor of China as a great Ch'an master, a great Zen master, and he has been accepted as a great Zen master since then. When the emperor honored him with the title, who is going to dispute it?

It is now almost one thousand years ago, and nobody has raised the question that these are not the words of a man who is enlightened. It is basically to teach you a certain awareness and clarity, so that when you hear someone or read someone you can feel whether it is coming from an enlightened source or from a dark source -- from someone who knows how to collect beautiful words, someone who is knowledgeable, someone who can deceive even emperors.

But emperors are nothing but human beings -- just like you!

For one thousand years, even Zen people have not taken Ta Hui to task. That is also something to be understood. Every tradition goes on protecting its people; whether they are right or wrong is not the question. The question is that they belong to their tradition; they have to be right.

This has messed up the whole atmosphere of the world. It has created such confusion for the whole of humanity. It seems that people are not interested in helping humanity grow into consciousness; they are more interested in their own line, in their own heritage, and in proving that it is right.

Naturally nobody else interferes. Perhaps I am the only man who goes on searching. I don't care whether the person is Hindu, or a Mohammedan, or a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Jew, or a Jaina.

To me the whole humanity is one.

And the whole heritage of the past is mind.

I would like to make a clear-cut distinction for the future, so that all those who are not right should be known as not right, and those who are right -- to whichever tradition they belong -- should be declared right.

In fact, in other words: I would like in the world only two traditions -- the people who are right and the people who are wrong -- to simplify things. Their future generations don't have to worry; otherwise it is such a confusing mess. You are not supposed to say that anything wrong is wrong, because it belongs to your heritage.

It happened that in my village, between my house and a temple, there was a piece of land.

For some technical reason, my father was able to win the case if he took it to court -- only on technical reasons. The land was not ours, the land belonged to the temple. But the technical reason was this: the map of the temple did not show that the land was in their territory. It was some fault of the municipal committee's clerical staff; they had put the land onto my father's property.

Naturally in court there was no question; the temple had no right to say that it was their land. Everybody knew it was their land, my father knew it was their land. But the land was precious, it was just on the main street, and every technical and legal support was on my father's side. He brought the case to the court.

I told him, "Listen" -- I must have been not more than eleven years old -- "I will go to the court to support the temple. I don't have anything to do with the temple, I have never even gone inside the temple, whatever it is, but you know perfectly well that the land is not yours."

He said, "What kind of son are you? You will witness against your own father?"

I said, "It is not a question of father and son; in the court it is a question of what is true.

And not only will your son be there; your father I have also convinced."

He said, "What!"

I had a very deep friendship with my grandfather, so we had consulted. I had told him, "You have to support me because I am only eleven years old. The court may not accept my witnessing because I am not an adult, so you have to support me. You know perfectly well that the land is not ours."

He said, "I am with you."

So I told my father, "Just listen, from both sides, from your father and from your son ...

you simply withdraw the case; otherwise you will be in such a trouble, you will lose the case.

It is only technically that you are able to claim. But we are not going to support a technical mistake on the part of the municipal clerk."

He said, "You don't understand a simple thing, that a family means ... you have to support your family."

I said, "No, I will support the family only if the family is right. I will support whoever is right."

He talked to my grandfather who said, "I have already promised your son that I will be going with him."

My father said, "That means I will have to withdraw the case and lose that valuable piece of land!"

He said, "What can be done about it? Your son is going to create trouble for you, and seeing the situation, that he will not in any way be persuaded, I have agreed with him -- just to make his position stronger so that you can withdraw; it is better to withdraw than to get defeated."

My father said, "But this is a strange family! I am working for you all. I am working for you, I am working for my son -- I am not working for myself. If we can have a beautiful shop on that land you will have a better, more comfortable old age; he will have a better education in a better university. And you are against me."

My grandfather said, "I am not against anybody, but he has taken my promise, and I cannot go against my word -- at least as far as he is concerned -- because he is dangerous, he may put me in some trouble. So I cannot deceive him; I will say whatever he is saying. And he is saying the truth -- and you know it."

So my father had to withdraw the case -- reluctantly ... but he had to withdraw the case. I asked my grandfather to bring some sweets so we can distribute them in the neighborhood.

My father has come to his senses, it has to be celebrated. He said, "That seems to be the right thing to do."

When my father saw that I was distributing sweets, he asked, "What are you doing? -- for what? What has happened?"

I said, "You have come back to your senses. Truth is victorious." And I gave him a sweet also.

He laughed. He said, "I can understand your standpoint, and my own father is with you, so I thought it is better that I should also be with you. It is better to withdraw without any problem. But I have learned a lesson." He said to me, "I cannot depend on my family. If there is any trouble they are not going to support me just because they belong to me as father, as son, as brother. They are going to support whatever is true."

And since that time no other situation ever arose, because he never did anything in which we had to disagree. He remained truthful and sincere.

Many times in his life he told me, "It was so good of you; otherwise I was going to take that land, and I would have committed a crime knowingly. You prevented me, and not only from that crime, you prevented me from then onwards. Whenever there was a similar situation, I always decided in favor of truth, whatever the loss. But now I can see: truth is the only treasure. You can lose your whole life, but don't lose your truth."

This is what I want you to learn from Ta Hui's teachings: to experiment in seeing what is right and why it is right, what is wrong and why it is wrong, and also to know that even right becomes wrong when it comes from a wrong mind, from a wrong person.

Truth needs to be born out of an experience of truthfulness. It is a very delicate flower but the most precious treasure in life, because it brings liberation, it brings freedom, it brings to you your own immortality.

But never be a borrower, never depend on the other's knowledge. A small piece of your own experience is far more important than all the VEDAS, all the KORANS, all the BIBLES, all the TALMUDS. A little experience of your own inner being is more valuable than all the buddhas of all the ages.

Truth has to be your own.

Only then is it alive, with a beating heart.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.