... of them will reach; others will perish on the way. One of them will reach the egg, will be born into the world. From that moment the search has started, the inquiry has started. Until death the search continues. Socrates was dying. His disciples started crying and weeping; it was natural, but he said to them, "Stop! Don't disturb me - let me inquire into death. Don't distract me! You can cry...

... later on, I will be gone soon. Right now, let me inquire what death is. I have been waiting my whole life for this moment to go into the reality of death." He was poisoned. He was lying on his bed watching what death is, inquiring what death is. And then he said to his disciples, "My feet are getting numb, but I am still as much as I was before. Nothing has been taken away from me. My...

... me." And then he started smiling and he said, "This shows that sooner or later death will take my heart also - but it cannot take me." Then he said, "My hands are gone, now even my heart is sinking, and these will be my last words because my tongue is becoming numb. But I tell you, remember, these are my last words: I am still the same, total." This is the inquiry into...

... death. From the very conception to the very end, man is an inquiry into the search for truth. And if you are not searching for truth, you are not a man. Then you have missed. Then at the most you look like a man, but you are not man. Your humanity is only in appearance but not in your heart. And don't be deceived by appearances: when you look in the mirror you can see that you are a man, that proves...

... utilitarian. Any other name will do just the same. You are called Ram, you can be called Hari, it will not make any difference. What is your real name? What is your original face? Who are you? You will make big houses, you will purchase big cars, you will manage this and that, and when you die you will leave a big account in the bank - all nonessential, and without ever going for the real quest of who you...

... stay with him and he would always say, "I am going to retire; now I have enough. Just a few things have to be arranged, because it is not good to leave things incomplete, and then I will retire." Last time I visited him I asked him, "When? Will you retire after your death? And you go on saying that first you have to complete things but you go on starting new things, so they will never...

... the whole world aware that we are proposing an alternative to the old rotten structure which is dying, every day dying and coming closer to final death. Before it dies we can save the intelligent group of young people from this dying structure. If the old people are too old and cannot change, nothing to be worried about -- they were going to die anyway -- but the whole humanity should not die with...

... conditions for life, he can create them. He has created them. What is the point of having millions and millions of dead planets, and sending people here? Finally, these people will be the cause of the death of the whole planet. The pope is concerned about one person's life, and he is responsible for abortion, all the abortions. Religious people are responsible for it because they are not allowing birth...

.... You have only past and no future. We have to make it clear to them that what we are doing is creating a new man, because the old man has failed, utterly failed. All his efforts have led nowhere. And at least when you are dying, let us, give us a chance. At the most we may also be failures, that's the worst that can happen. But you will not be a loser anyway-you were going to die. So we have to make...

... five miles deep, it makes no difference to the swimmer. It makes a difference only to the non-swimmer. Beyond five feet, everything is death. But the swimming pool is one -- shallow, deep -- it is one. And the boundary line is only a line until you learn to swim. To me, love and meditation are just like that. Love is the shallow space in a swimming pool, for those who cannot meditate. But that is the...

... directorship is gone." And within fifteen days he was sent to Siberia. He is still alive. The best mind in the world is doing nothing. He does not even know that you can change your doing nothing into meditation. He is not aware of it. He will die there, nobody will know when he lived and when he died. But the first thing they did was take away the car to make him go in the buses. They reduced his...

... have been murdered, where Kennedy was murdered, where his brother, who was running for the presidency was murdered, and his other brother -- and there are only three brothers -- is threatened that if he runs for the presidency, he will be assassinated. The poor woman, the mother of these three Kennedys, is ninety years old. She has seen the death of two sons*-young, immensely intelligent. She knows...

... the third has the capacity to become president, but she has taken a promise from the third: "While I am alive, you should not run, because it will be too much. I have suffered too much: the two deaths of my two sons. You are my last son, I would not like you dead before my eyes. Let me first die, then you are free, you can run for president." Now this kind of country, where criminals are...

... commune, and should receive the same food, should receive, as far as possible, everything that he needs: medical care, recreation, entertainment. But this is not forced. It has to come by itself Just as there is enough air -- nobody keeps it locked inside the house because sometimes air may be scarce and he may die of the scarcity of oxygen, so he should keep something stored. There is enough air. In...

... disappears from the earth. Q:* WHICH DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN? DO YOU THINK THAT LIFE IS GOING TO CONTINUE OR DO YOU THINK WE'RE GOING TO COMMIT GLOBAL SUICIDE? A:* I think it is going to continue. Life is always more powerful than death and it will always find ways to continue. And when it comes to such a critical moment, the nations will have to disappear -- not life. The world government is the...

... world is one, the question of war simply disappears and seventy-five percent income of all the nations becomes available to you. All the scientists who are engaged in creating death to humanity can start creating something for life, for people's comfort. This is simply a question of making a worldwide campaign of making people aware. Q:* BUT A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD SAY YOU WERE A UTOPIAN OR A IDEALIST...

... OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. A:* Whatever they say, that does not matter. I am quite notorious, so nothing matters what they say: idealist, utopian. What I am saying is very realistic. Otherwise they can propose. If they have any more realistic idea that can prevent war and that can divert our energies towards making life more comfortable rather than creating death, they should propose some idea. If I...

... FEEL OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE CHANCES OF THE WORLD FOR SURVIVAL AND...? A:* Certainly, because I can see that nobody is ready to die, neither America nor Soviet Union nor anybody else. If they don't want to die, they will have to come to some negotiation that makes war impossible. And the only way is that UNO becomes really the power and everybody surrenders to UNO. Everybody has its representative there...

... it is time that nuclear weapons should be stopped. If these scientists -- just twenty scientists who are the foundation of American nuclear weapons -- can be convinced and they can see it, it is clear that they are creating death. If they can be convinced and they can simply refuse, that, "It is enough and we are not going to do anything any more," the same can happen in Soviet Union. Man...

... has some conscience too. We have never appealed to it. Just the scientists in Soviet Union can be appealed, approached, that, "You stop completely. At the most it may mean your death, but you will save the whole humanity from dying. And you can force the government to come to a certain conclusion. This cannot go on any more." So it is not such a big problem One need not be too optimistic...

... nothing to lose. Either we save the world or we die with the contentment that we did whatever we could. Q:* SO YOU DON'T SEE... WELL, I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD THINK THAT A COMMUNE SUCH AS RAJNEESHPURAM, WHICH IS SOMEWHAT REMOVED FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD, IS RECLUSIVE OR SO FORTH, BUT YOU DON'T PROMOTE THAT TYPE OF A LIFESTYLE? A:* We are promoting. Q:* I MEAN, YOU'RE NOT TELLING YOUR DISCIPLES TO...

... through the tests and only two persons were found to have AIDS. And those two persons were not rejected, were not condemned, because they were simply victims. They have not committed any crime. And they are on a dying point: between six months to two years they will die. So we have given them the best place in the commune, isolated, away, but in the most scenic spot. We have given them literature, music...

..., to other patients. So they simply try to avoid. In fact, it has been known that they simply say that, "You don't have AIDS." Now, they are leaving that person into the society to spread AIDS, which is nothing but death because there is no cure. Every day in L.A. one person is dying of AIDS. But nobody knows how many people are suffering. If one person every day is dying of AIDS, then...

...: N.A. OUR BELOVED MASTER, RYUSUI SAID: EMPTINESS IS A NAME FOR NOTHINGNESS, A NAME FOR UNGRASPABILITY, A NAME FOR MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, THE WHOLE EARTH. IT IS ALSO CALLED THE REAL FORM. IN THE GREEN OF THE PINES, THE TWIST OF THE BRAMBLES, THERE IS NO GOING OR COMING. IN THE RED OF THE FLOWERS AND THE WHITE OF THE SNOW, THERE IS NO BIRTH AND NO DEATH. JOY, ANGER, LOVE, PLEASURE - THESE ARE BEGINNINGLESS...

... have come to understand.... New stars are born every day; old stars die every day. One can ask, from where do the new stars come...? As far as God is concerned, he started creation six thousand years ago and he did his job in six days. The seventh day he went on holiday and since then he has not been seen anywhere. Such a long holiday! One thing is certain: that the world he created must have been...

... help. And you have put man's pleasure-point in such an ugly and dirty place - between two exhaust pipes! And you think yourself a great creator... and anyway, where have you been all this time?" But I don't know - this is a gossip. I don't want to hurt anybody's religious feelings. As far as physics is concerned, all the great stars come out of nothing, and all the great stars die and disappear...

... again those circles will disappear and the lake will be silent. We are made of the stuff 'nothingness'. Nothingness is not nothingness, as it is usually understood; nothingness is the womb of everything. It gives birth to everything and ultimately it goes back to its womb. Hence, birth and death both prove only one thing: that existence consists only of nothingness. Birth and death are simply ripples...

... comes and goes, only nothingness remains. IN THE GREEN OF THE PINES, THE TWIST OF THE BRAMBLES, THERE IS NO GOING OR COMING. IN THE RED OF THE FLOWERS AND THE WHITE OF THE SNOW, THERE IS NO BIRTH AND NO DEATH. JOY, ANGER, LOVE, PLEASURE - THESE ARE BEGINNINGLESS AND ENDLESS DELUSION. By calling them 'delusion' he does not mean that they are condemned. That is a misconception which even followers of...

... knows Hebrew. But the world powers are collecting nuclear weapons for ordinary people who only die once; they never resurrect. Only here do they resurrect - every night! There are enough nuclear weapons. But it is out of fear - the mind is still the old mind repeating old fears, dangers - that if you stop making nuclear weapons, the enemy is not going to stop. And the enemy is also thinking in the...

... for something in your consciousness which is higher than your mind, which can dictate to the mind, which can rearrange the mind. Mind is just a bio-computer; it needs new data, that's all. Instead of fear it can learn to love; instead of being in danger it can start enjoying the eternity of its life source. There is no death. Only forms change, life continues on and on. This is what we are trying to...

... people killed, there was no harm. But now the destructive mind has brought us to a situation where we have to re-code the mind for construction, for creation. And if the mind can be so destructive, it can be transformed in the same way to great creativity, with the same energy. Energy is neutral: you can put it in the service of death or you can put it in the service of life. Our effort here is to put...

... sink into every cell and nerve of your being. Nivedano... (Drumbeat) Now relax. See the body as dead, there, far away from you and the mind is also part of it, a mechanism; you are just a watcher. A simple watchfulness and you reach to the beyond. You transcend life and death, you transcend duality. You come to feel the eternity, the immortality, your cosmic wholeness. You are not just a part, you...

... are going to die. It is so useless a thing. Your death is irrelevant to the universe. Do not think yourself so important that the whole universe is determining your day of death - the time, the minute, the moment - no! You are NOT the center. It makes no difference to the universe whether you are or you are not. But this fallacy goes on working in the mind. It is created in childhood and it becomes...

... awakening. But it can be too much, and you may not be capable of bearing it. You may just explode. You may die even, because you have lived with dreaming so long that you have no memory of who you are if there is no dreaming. If this whole world should suddenly disappear and you alone are left, it would be such a great shock that you would die. The same would happen if suddenly all dreaming disappeared...

.... They are making you capable, strong, so that when the happening happens you can bear it. There are seven methods through which immediately you can force your way into enlightenment. But you will not be capable of bearing it. You may go blind - too much of light. Or you may suddenly die - too much of bliss. This dreaming, this deep sleep we are in, how can it be transcended? This question is...

... you are no more. For the first time you become aware; for the first time in the whole world that is asleep, you are awake. You become a buddha, an awakened one. With this awakening there is no misery, after this awakening there is no death, through this awakening there is no more fear. You become for the first time free of everything. To be free of sleep, to be free of dreaming, is to be free of...

... this is that if you take it that everything is determined, everything becomes a dream. If you take things in this way, if you believe this way - that everything is predetermined; that, for example, you are going to die on a particular day - EVERYTHING becomes a dream. It is not determined, it is not fixed! No one is that much interested in you. The universe is completely unaware of you and when you...

... why no animal creates a family - there is no need. But man's child is so helpless, so absolutely helpless, he cannot exist without there being a mother to protect, a father, a family, a society. He cannot exist alone. He would die immediately. He is so much dependent. He will need love, he will need food, he will need everything, and he will demand everything. And the mother will supply, the father...

... for him to come and demand. And everything will be fulfilled. This is a necessity, that his demands should be fulfilled; otherwise he will die. But this necessity becomes very dangerous. He grows up with this attitude that "I am the center." By and by he will demand more. A child's demands are very simple; they can be supplied. But as he will grow his demands will become more and more...

... dissipated, still your energy is moving out. When the energy moves out you are just being emptied of energy, dissipated. Ultimately you will become impotent. Really, when death comes you have already died; you are just a dead cell. You have been constantly throwing energy outward - so whatsoever may be the quantity of energy, within a period you will become empty. Outgoing energy means death. You are dying...

... every moment; your energy is being emptied; you are throwing your energy, dissipating it. They say that even the sun which has been there for millions and millions of years, such a great reservoir of energy, is being emptied constantly. And within four billion years it will die. The sun will die simply because there will be no energy to radiate. Every day it is dying because the rays are carrying its...

... energy toward the boundaries of the universe, if there are any boundaries. The energy is going out. Only man is capable of transforming and changing the direction of energy. Otherwise death is a natural phenomenon - everything dies. Only man is capable of knowing the immortal, the deathless. So you can reduce this whole thing into a law. If energy is moving out, death will be the result and you will...

... never know what life means. You can only know a slow dying. You can never feel the intensity of being alive. If energy moves out then death is the automatic result - of anything, whatsoever. If you can change the direction of energy - energy not moving out, but moving in - then a mutation, a transformation happens. Then this energy coming in becomes centered at one point in you. That point is just...

...; you cannot say "I." Now there is no ego. A Buddha, a Krishna, goes on talking and using the word 'I'. That is simply formal; they do not have any ego. They are NOT. Buddha was dying. The day he was to die, many, many people, disciples, sannyasi, gathered, and they were sad; they were weeping and crying. So Buddha asked, "Why are you weeping?" Someone said, "Because soon you...

... known I have known already." For thirty years he has been imagining, desiring - desiring bliss, divine experiences - and now, at this late age, he has become weak and death is near. Now he is creating hallucinations that he has experienced. So I told him, "If you have experienced, then keep silent. Be here with me for a few moments because then there is no need to talk." Then he became...

.... Because of this dependence and helplessness, the parents, the society, go on forcing things on the child, and he has to yield. Otherwise he cannot remain alive, he will die. So he has to give many things in this bargain. The first very deep and significant thing is sensitivity: he has to leave it. Why? Because the more the child is sensitive, the more he is in trouble, the more he is vulnerable. A...

... past toward their present state of being - that is wrong, they should go backward. If they can go backward many times, by and by they will feel that their whole past is washed away from them. And then a person can die without the past clinging to him. If you can die without the past clinging to you, you will die consciously; you will die fully aware. Then death will not be a death to you. Rather, it...

... identification. The tenth sutra: LET ATTENTION BE AT A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE SEEING SOME PAST HAPPENING, AND EVEN YOUR FORM, HAVING LOST ITS PRESENT CHARACTERISTICS, IS TRANSFORMED. You are remembering your past - any happening. Your childhood, your love affairs, the death of your father or mother... anything. Look at it, but do not get involved in it. Remember it as if you are remembering someone else's life...

... come and go upon it without touching it in the least. You remain innocent, untouched; you remain virgin. The whole thing passes, the whole life passes: good and bad, success and failure, praise and blame - everything passes. Disease and health, youth and old age, birth and death - everything passes, and you are untouched by it. But how to know this untouched reality within you? That is the purpose of...

... past. For young men it may be good to look into the future. It is easier for them to look into the future because youth is future-oriented. For old men there is no future except death. They cannot look into the future; they are afraid. That is why old men always start thinking about the past. They always go again and again into their memories, but they commit the same mistake. They start from the...

... moment when you entered the womb. Only because of this remembrance, Mahavir and Buddha could say that there are past lives, rebirth. Rebirth is not really a principle, it is just a deep psychological experience. And if you can remember the first moment you entered the womb of your mother, then you can penetrate more and you can remember the death of your past life. Once you touch that point then the...

... in a seventy-year life you can find even seven minutes which were just yours unoccupied, undistracted, relaxed, resting in your own being, that will be enough. But even those seven minutes are missing, hence the hurry: life is short and it is running by -- and there is no other life. Death will come and you will die utterly empty, unfulfilled. And this hurry is not going to help, this hurry simply...

... religion, the Christian religion and the Mohammedan religion -- they all live with the idea of one life. That idea of one life creates hurry, worry, a constant rush to reach, not knowing exactly where you want to reach or for what or what you will do even if you do reach. A craziness has been created because time is short and it is slipping out of your hands and soon death will knock on the doors and you...

... people. It has kept people in a drugged state, almost in such a sleep that they can tolerate an intolerable existence, that they can tolerate all kinds of slavery, starvation, in the hope of a better tomorrow. Religions used to give this better tomorrow in the other world, after death. People come to me and ask, "What will happen after death?" I don't answer them, I ask them another question...

... instead. I ask them, "Forget all about after death, let me ask you one thing: what is happening before death?" Because whatsoever is happening before death will continue to happen after death. It is a continuum: your consciousness will be the same -- before or after will not make any difference. The body may not be the same, the container may change, but the content will remain the same...

...;tomorrow," "after death." Millions of people remained in that state of druggedness, under that chloroform -- religious chloroform. Now politics is doing the same. Even communism has proved nothing but a new opium for the masses -- communism is a new kind of religion. The strategy is the same: "Tomorrow will come the revolution, and everything will be all right." You have to...

... ABANDON YOUR SORROWS FOR THE WAY. ABANDON YESTERDAY, AND TOMORROW, AND TODAY. CROSS OVER TO THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. DO YOUR THOUGHTS TROUBLE YOU? DOES PASSION DISTURB YOU? BEWARE OF THIRSTINESS LEST YOUR WISHES BECOME DESIRES AND DESIRE BINDS YOU. The most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha is not God, is not soul... it is freedom: freedom absolute, total, unconditional. He does...

... concern is your interiority. He wants to change your unconsciousness into consciousness, he wants to change your darkness into light, he wants to change your death into deathlessness. He is really doing the work of the seers of the Upanishads who have been praying to God, "ASATO MA SADGAMAYA. O God, O Lord, take us away from the false, from the untrue, to the truth. TAMASO MA JYOTIRGAMAYA. O God, O...

... Lord, take us away from darkness into light. MRITYOR MA AMRITAMGAMAYA. O God, O Lord, take us away from death to eternal life." But they were praying to God. Buddha says: No prayer is going to help. Unless YOU do something, your prayer is impotent. There is no need to pray, but there is great need to meditate. His religion is not a religion of prayer. His religion is very scientific in the sense...

... the coroner's office. I am sorry to tell you this, but we have a traffic death here. We found your telephone number in his pocket. Would you please come down here to the morgue and identify the body?" Mrs. Saperstein arrived within half an hour and an attendant escorted her to a figure covered with a white sheet. The attendant then lifted a corner of the sheet and uncovered the victim's face...

... as you can. Let your life be fun! I don't want you to be serious, I don't want you to have long faces. Enough of that! Religious people have suffered much; there is no need. You can laugh and you can enjoy, but remember one thing: that all is just a game. Death will come and the curtain falls and the game disappears and the play is finished. THERE ARE THOSE WHO CAN, WHO SURRENDER THE WORLD, FORSAKE...

... mood. "Honey," she began, "if I should die before you do, will you promise me something important?" "Yeah," grunted Herman, without lifting his eyes from the page he was reading. "Promise me you'll always keep my grave green." "Aw, don't be so morbid," he replied. "What's the use of talking about dying? You look pretty healthy to me." He...

... because only that is going with you. Only your awareness will pass through the fires of death; everything else will be left behind. And one thing very important, Buddha says: OR ELSE ABANDON YOUR SORROWS FOR THE WAY. People find it very difficult to abandon their sorrows. It looks, on the surface, somehow not right. Why should people hesitate to abandon their sorrows for the way? A real master never...

... THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. If you really want to reach to the ultimate, to the deathless, to the timeless, you will have to abandon yesterday. That which is gone is gone forever. Don't look back and don't look ahead. That which is not yet is not yet. Don't look for the tomorrow. And people are so foolish: they are not only looking for tomorrow, they are looking for life after death...

..., and all that is stupid and all that is false disappears, and you start living your ordinary life with more awareness. ABANDON YESTERDAY, abandon TOMORROW, abandon TODAY. Buddha says: Abandon time - past, future, present, abandon everything. Forget about time; that's the way to enter into a timeless space within yourself. That is meditation. CROSS OVER TO THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. DO...

... become attracted to something: he saw a flower and he asked about it, and then he heard the noise of an airplane and he started asking about airplanes, and then something else caught his eye.... A seeker means one for whom the inquiry is not only curiosity, not a childish phenomenon, but a mature inquiry, for whom it has become a question of life and death. Unless truth becomes a question of life and...

... death you are not a seeker. Buddha is saying to his bodhisattvas, his apostles: Talk only to seekers, address yourself only to seekers. Don't waste your time with childish people who are curious about each and everything. Their questions may look very great, but their hearts are not in their questions. They have asked just to ask; they are not interested in finding the answer and they are not ready to...

... juggling with words, the art of hairsplitting, arguing endlessly about abstract ideas, arriving nowhere. Religion is more like science: it experiments, it emphasizes experience. Science is the religion of the objective world, and religion is the science of the subjective world. Philosophy is going to die one day; it is already on its deathbed. You can go to the universities and see: every year less and...

...; Naturally, one thinks that when breathing stops death is close by. It is only a question of moments - you are dying. Breathing stops in death; breathing also stops in deep meditation. Hence deep meditation and death have one thing similar: in both the breathing stops. Therefore, if a man knows meditation he has also known death. That's why the meditator becomes free of the fear of death: he knows...

... RELEASES AND LETS FALL ITS WITHERED FLOWERS. LET FALL WILLFULNESS AND HATRED. Buddha says: As the jasmine flowers fall when they have withered away or leaves fall from the trees when they die, dead leaves. Just like that, LET FALL WILLFULNESS AND HATRED. The first thing he says that has to be dropped - easily, without effort, just like a withered jasmine flower falling of its own accord - is willfulness...

..., more and more dust. As you become older you become more and more burdened with experience, knowledge and all kinds of stupid things. As you become older you start losing the vigor, the energy, the courage to experiment with the unknown, to explore the unknown. As you become older you become so afraid of death that out of fear you go to God, and those who go out of fear to God never reach God. Fear is...