..., they are more alike than logic and religion. Because of this likeness religion has always spoken in the way of the poet: Upanishads, Vedas, Kabir, Meera, Zen poets.... Zen poets have written beautiful haikus, so condensed that a vast poetic world becomes like a seed in the haiku. Sometimes they are very simple; you cannot even catch the significance immediately. But if you ponder over them, meditate...

... upon them, then, by and by; the small haiku becomes a door. A few days before I was reading Basho's famous haiku. It is very small, but if you meditate upon it, suddenly a door opens. The haiku is: "Old pond Frog jumps in Water-sound." Just visualize it - an old pond, very ancient, a frog jumps in, the water-sound. Finished. Nothing more to say. A whole situation condensed. If you meditate...

... mountain in China called "Ta". From that "Ta" comes the name "tea". That mountain can be pronounced as "Ta", or "Cha"; that's why in India tea is called "chai", or "cha". Bodhidharma was meditating; he was really a great meditator. He liked to meditate for eighteen hours, but it was difficult. He would feel sleepy again and again, and...

..., everybody knows; then they lose their whole mystery. All these tricks are done in this way. But people's expectations are fulfilled. The pseudo masters speak the language of your desires. They say, "If you meditate, you will become rich, you will become successful." That is absolute nonsense. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says to people, "If you meditate you will become healthy, you will become...

... rich, you will become successful, you will become famous. In whatsoever line you are working you will be at the top." That's what you want, so you say, "Okay, then it is not much of a problem to meditate. Fifteen minutes in the morning, fifteen minutes in the evening..." just half an hour lost and all success is yours. This is the most successful formula for success - and you want to...

... succeed. You want a thousand and one desires to be fulfilled. Now, there are masters who say, "Whatsoever you want, you will get it through meditation. Money will pour in. Just ask in deep meditation and it is going to happen." This is speaking the language of your desire. The truth is just the opposite. If you ask me, if you really meditate you will be a failure in life, an utter failure. If...

... healthy it is. You can reach to the highest peak and you can come down to the lowest world - and there is no problem. You can meditate and you can love. Meditation is going withinwards, love is going without. Meditation is reaching to one's own being. Love is an effort to reach to the other's being. There are religions which say that if you meditate, you cannot love. There are religions which say that...

... if you love, how can you meditate? Christianity is an extrovert religion. The emphasis is on serving people, love, compassion. The emphasis is not on meditation - because if you meditate, that looks selfish. When the world is in such a misery, people are hungry, ill, dying, and you are meditating - the whole thing looks to be too cruel. Somebody is dying on the road, a beggar, and you are sitting...

... a sermon in the church, go to the circus, to any restaurant, but keep yourself busy, from the morning till you fall asleep. And in sleep, also keep yourself busy with your dreams; never leave a gap in which you have to face yourself. And to face yourself is the essence of meditation. People ask, how to meditate? They should simply ask how not to get busy, and they should start cutting out the...

... jailed. Years after, when I became a professor, the governor was very much interested in me, so he wanted me to go to the central jail every Sunday to talk to the prisoners, to help them to meditate. And there I met that young man who had murdered somebody. He was trying to hide in the crowd of other prisoners, but I went directly inside the crowd. The superintendent was preventing me, saying, "...

... Sunday, and after six or seven weeks the superintendent told me, "There has been a strange change in the man you always meet before you talk to everybody. Before, he was the most dangerous person here. He was always creating trouble, always problems; he was always beating, hurting somebody. But during these seven weeks, something has happened to him. He is meditating. Others only meditate when you...

... my energy. That which was violence became love, that was anger became compassion; and I was not even concerned that for the whole of my life I have to live in the jail "In fact I was happy to have no worries of life, no responsibilities of life. Just do your work the whole day, and meditate. I was reading your books, meditating, and slowly, slowly, a group of meditators was formed. We were...

... attainment comes without the guru, but the idea of the guru is effective in destroying the ego so that you are not filled with arrogance for whatever you accomplish. Otherwise you will boast, "I can stand on my head for three hours, and I meditate every morning!" The wife of a Sikh gentleman once complained to me: "Things are getting out of control. My husband comes to see you, so please...

... even aware of having done something, it just happens. But you are not they. Whatever you do, a voice within constantly repeats : "I have done this, I have done that...." If you sing hymns, you are conscious that you are singing the hymns. If you meditate, the feeling within is: "I am meditating." With your prayer or your worship your ego is replenished and recreated every moment...

... reaped. "Now please tell me, did you offer your prayers so that I could offer mine?" You force yourself to pray, you force yourself to worship, to meditate - it is all meaningless. By bending the body into certain postures you cannot force the mind to follow suit. The cacophony of the mind continues, and in fact it becomes louder and more intense. When the body was engaged in some activity...

... the energy was divided. Now when the body sits absolutely inactive, all the energy flows to the mind and the thoughts spin at even greater speed! This is why when people sit to meditate, the mind becomes more and more active... a real avalanche of thoughts cascading one upon the other! You sit to worship, but the marketplace still grips your thoughts. You go to the temple and ring the bells, but the...

...: this is your anxiety, and then you suffer because of it. With all these troubles plaguing you, you sit down to meditate. What can you do but go on reaping your harvest or buying a horse in Kabul! Your anxieties infiltrate and take over your meditation. Then how can you possibly become tranquil? There is only one formula for this: Accept whatever is. If you grasp it, you have understood the entire...

.... The first is: awareness, meditation. Concentration is just the beginning. Concentration is not relaxed, it is tense. One cannot concentrate twenty-four hours a day; one will go mad. So concentration can never become natural, but one can meditate twenty-four hours a day. One can live in meditation. It can become natural, it can become like breathing. It can be relaxed. Concentration is focused...

... consciousness there is no friend, no enemy. But the disciples were feeling a little bit scared. Rumours were around; and when Jesus said 'Only a little while more and I will be gone - gone to my Father' they became very frightened, afraid, sad. To comfort them, to give them hope, to give them courage, these sutras were spoken. These are of immense value. Meditate on these. JESUS SAID UNTO HIS DISCIPLES: LET...

... there comes a revolution. Meditate very very silently over it. IF YE HAD KNOWN ME... Jesus is saying to Thomas IF YE HAD KNOWN ME, YE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN MY FATHER ALSO... Because I and my Father are one. While Jesus is saying IF YE HAD KNOWN ME. YE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN MY FATHER ALSO, something has changed in Thomas' being. While Jesus is saying this... And you know, when I say some things to you...

... it sink deep in you. Let it become your heartbeat. That is the only way to meditate upon it. That is the only way to come to its meaning. Forget all that Christians have been saying. Those dogmatic assertions are all chauvinistic. Forget what the theologians have put on top of Jesus' pure statements. Put aside all that has been taught and go directly into these sayings, and meditate. And immense...

... parable. LIEH TZU WAS STUDYING ARCHERY, AND HIT THE TARGET. HE SOUGHT ADVICE FROM KUAN-YIN WHO ASKED HIM, 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' Each word has to be understood. Have the taste of each single word - because each single word is significant. These parables are not just to be read in one stroke and forgotten about, these parables were written to meditate upon. These are meditative devices...

... real thing, it is the consciousness you bring to it that is. For example, you may be wrestling. The Taoist wrestler first bows down to the opponent. The Taoist wrestler first has to bow down to his opponent and meditate on the opponent as being God. as being divine - not as the enemy. If he cannot meditate on the enemy as being God, as being a friend then he is not Taoist. Then it is ordinary...

... attained his target so what was he doing for three years? The parable does not say. because this is a parable to be meditated upon. A parable is one which says only a few things and leaves many things unsaid. So you have to meditate and fill in the gaps. You have to find where the intervals are. And in those intervals is the real thing. What did he do for three years? When you have hit the target then...

.... But in all the devices the basic thing, the essential thing, is to turn to one's own nature. Meditate on this parable and start using it in your life. First, look for moments of let-go, wait for them, receive them with great welcome and rejoicing, invite them again and again, become more feminine. Second, if any opportunity arises when your arrow starts to move outwards, remember immediately and...

... eighty verses; and The Royal Song of Saraha which we are going to meditate upon forty verses. One hundred and sixty verses for the people because their understanding was not great; eighty for the queen - she was a little higher, her understanding was a little higher; forty for the king because he was really a man of intelligence, of awareness, of understanding. Because the king was converted, the whole...

... name of the God. He is not even heard to meditate. And he is indulging in strange, ugly, shameful practices." Tantra looks shameful to people who are very much sexually repressed. They cannot understand - because of their repressions they cannot understand what is happening. So all these things are like a great wind in the mind of the king. One part of him loves and respects; one part of him is...

... is only in thought, not in deed. He has fallen." And you will not miss the opportunity. But what is he really doing? It is a secret science. By watching, for months together... the tantrika will watch the woman, meditate on her body form, meditate on her beauty, will look at everything, whatsoever he wants to look at. Breasts have some appeal? - he will look and meditate on the breasts. He has...

... - they all follow naturally. You live in belief; belief is unintelligent. Live through knowing; knowing is intelligence. And Saraha is absolutely right: Intelligence is meditation. Unintelligent people also meditate, but certainly they meditate in an unintelligent way. They think that you have to go to the church every Sunday for one hour - that is to be given to religion. This is an unintelligent way...

... - if you suffer from insomnia, it is good. But it has nothing to do with spirituality; it is a very unintelligent way to meditate. Then what is the intelligent way to meditate? The intelligent way is to bring intelligence into everything that you do. Walking, walk intelligently with awareness; eating, eat intelligently with awareness. Do you remember ever eating intelligently? Ever thinking about...

... world, of your existence. So, be intelligent. Bring in the quality of intelligence. And the more intelligent you become, the more capable you will be of bringing more intelligence into your life. Each single moment can become so luminous with intelligence... Then there is no need for any religion, no need to meditate, no need to go to the church, no need to go to any temple, no need for anything extra...

.... Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. THE LORD IS TRUTH. TRUTH IS HIS NAME. HIS PRAISES ARE SUNG IN ENDLESS WAYS. EVEN WHILE PRAISING THEY ASK FOR MORE AND MORE, AND THE LORD KEEPS ON GIVING. THEN WHAT OFFERING CAN WE MAKE TO GAIN A GLIMPSE OF HIS COURT? AND WHAT LANGUAGE SHALL WE SPEAK TO ENDEAR US TO HIM? NANAK SAYS, REMEMBER THE TRUE NAME AND MEDITATE ON ITS GLORY IN THE AMBROSIAL HOUR. THROUGH YOUR...

... satnam, the true name, and its glories in the ambrosial hour. There is nothing else to be done. What is the wise one, the sensible person to do? REMEMBER THE TRUE NAME AND MEDITATE ON ITS GLORY IN THE AMBROSIAL HOUR. The Hindus call it sandhya which literally means evening; it is used to designate the hour of prayer at twilight and at dawn. Nanak calls it amrit vela which means nectar or ambrosia time...

... sandhya kal, you will come to know of the bodiless within the body; you will know the master hidden behind the slave. You are both. If you look at the body alone, you are the slave; if you look at the master within, you become the master. So, says Nanak, there is only one thing worth doing and that is to meditate on the glory of satnam, the true name, in amrit vela. You will gain nothing by going to...

... subtle sight will develop gradually and you will be able to see the present moment. It is only after this, that you can meditate in the nectar hour, because that is a very subtle moment. It passes by in a flash. You may be thinking of something else and the moment has come and gone! Before falling to sleep, lie in bed completely relaxed. Still the mind in every way, don't let any thoughts drag you here...

... - overfull; you want nothing. Let thankfulness, gratitude flow from you. WHAT LANGUAGE SHALL WE SPEAK TO ENDEAR HIM TO US? There is nothing to say, what can we say to Him? All words are useless. Meditate on satnam. Be filled with the true name and you will feel you have established a rhythm with the amrit vela. Be alert and you will be shocked! You will feel you have become a flame of light without...