... all! And when you are on the left, don't miss anything -- enjoy! Being on the left has its own beauty; you will not find it when you are on the right. It will be a different scene. And, yes, to be in the middle has its own silence, peace, and you will not find it on any extreme. So enjoy all! Go on enriching your life. Can't you see any beauty in sadness? Meditate over it. Next time when you are sad...

... inner world becomes totally empty. In that emptiness your consciousness turns upon yourself and the reality is known. Truth is neither a thought nor a feeling nor an emotion. Truth is the experience of consciousness of itself. Soren Kierkegaard is right when he says: "Truth is subjectivity." Meditate and go on dropping... there are layers and layers and layers. Man is like an onion -- go on...

.... Understand it. Be more and more meditative about it. But drop all prejudices, drop all condemnations. because when you carry a condemnation you cannot understand a thing. Drop all judgements. Sex is sex -- it is a pure natural energy. With great acceptance, love, respect, meditate over it. Go deeper and deeper into it to see what exactly it is. And in that very seeing you will be going beyond it. The day...

... are born. If someone imagines his kundalini rising, he may begin to see light or see colors, and when this happens, faith increases in the man who proclaims himself the guru. That is why we find so many gurus. I know many such gurus who have no knowledge of meditation. When they meet me in private their question is the same: How does one meditate? What is meditation? And these persons have...

... thing; it was what it was because of its very nature, its quality. The sun is the sun because it gives light; fire is fire because it gives heat. And man is man because of meditation - that is his nature! The person who loses the quality to meditate is a person in name only. Though he still looks like a human being he is actually an animal, because he lives like an animal. We never criticize an animal...

... do something within yourself also. No matter how many difficulties you endure to serve the downtrodden and the sick, if you do not cultivate contemplation within, awaken your remembrance and meditate, you can reach nowhere. If you have not found the One within the five senses, you yourself are still an ill person. Just as you walk on two feet and birds need two wings to fly, just as you need two...

... RISK THEIR LIVES BECAUSE HIM, COUNTLESS WHO VOW TO SILENCE AND MEDITATE ON HIM. NANAK SAYS, HOW SHALL I PRAISE HIM? HOWEVER MUCH I OFFER MYSELF COULD NEVER BE ENOUGH! WHATEVER PLEASES YOU, O LORD, IS BEST BECAUSE ME. YOU ARE THE FORMLESS, THE ALMIGHTY - YOU WHO ABIDE FOREVER! THERE ARE COUNTLESS IGNORANT FOOLS AND COUNTLESS WHO ARE BLIND, COUNTLESS THIEVES AND SHIRKERS. THERE ARE COUNTLESS NUMBERS...

... WORSHIP AND PURIFICATION. THERE ARE COUNTLESS SCRIPTURES AND COUNTLESS MOUTHS TO RECITE THEM, COUNTLESS WAYS OF YOGA TO MAKE THE MIND DISPASSIONATE. THERE ARE COUNTLESS DEVOTEES WHO SING HIS PRAISES AND CONTEMPLATE THE KNOWLEDGE, COUNTLESS WHO ARE VIRTUOUS AND GENEROUS. THERE ARE COUNTLESS BRAVE MEN WHO RISK THEIR LIVES BECAUSE HIM, COUNTLESS WHO VOW TO SILENCE AND MEDITATE ON HIM. What is the seeker to...

... SILENCE AND MEDITATE ON HIM. NANAK SAYS, HOW SHALL I PRAISE HIM? HOWEVER MUCH I OFFER MYSELF COULD NEVER BE ENOUGH! WHATEVER PLEASES YOU, O LORD, IS BEST FOR ME. YOU ARE THE FORMLESS, THE ALMIGHTY - YOU WHO ABIDE FOREVER! On the one hand is the congregation of saints and philosophers who have with great deliberation devised untold methods for finding truth; but unfortunately, just because of the...

... might do if I saved your life? If you kill someone I shall be a partner in your crime, for had I not saved you you wouldn't have committed the crime. Or if you set fire to someone's house? Why should I trap myself by your misdeeds? Besides, please be quiet, I have come here to meditate. You go through your experiences and I shall go through mine. No one can walk on another's path." Since the...

... drowning man was making so much noise the bhikshu got up and left to meditate. Meditation is a great thing. If one is to go around pulling people out of wells, imagine how many wells there are in the village; and there are so many people, so many fairs, you would never get around to meditate. So what can you do? It is better to take care of one's own meditation, then everything else is taken care of...

... happening never takes place. It is necessary to understand this inverse logic of life. People come to me and say: "I desire peace." I tell them, "Forget all about peace and begin to meditate." But then they ask, "If I meditate, will I get peace?" I tell them again to concentrate on meditation and forget about peace but they keep on asking. Then I tell them, "You have...

... tried all these years to attain peace. You have been after peace for so long and yet it has eluded you. Now you forget about peace and just meditate." But again they ask, "By forgetting all about tranquility, will it be attained?" So the matter ends where it was. It is said that when Mulla Nasruddin was 100 years old he suddenly became so very contented, so very blissful that people...

... puja. For what? You renounce one thing and another, you meditate, you donate to charity. For what? If you have an answer to this question, desires still remain. If you say there is no reason, no reason whatever, then you do not bargain. Then prayer in itself is enough joy. Prayer is bliss in itself. There is joy in giving. If you give with the idea of attaining happiness, then it is a desire. If...

... happy! If desires alone are our pleasure there is no place for us at the entrance of religion. If to be desireless is our only pleasure, then only can we enter. Desirelessness is a necessary state for religion, It is not a matter of petty desires alone; deep and mysterious desires hold the mind captive. A man came up to Buddha and said, "If I meditate, perform sadhanas, how long will I take to...

... become like you?" Buddha replied, "As long as the thought of becoming like me persists, it will be difficult. This thought is a hindrance. Leave it, Meditate but not with the thought of becoming like me." Some other person came and asked Buddha, "Amongst your 10,000 bhikshus, how many are like you?" Buddha replied, "Many." "But they cannot be seen," the man...

... this dreamlike world there is nothing worth making the mind restless for. Peace is the greatest bliss and there is nothing worth losing it for. Meditate on it. Just being aware of the truth brings about inner change. I think you won't be coming to Udaipur to assist me and that's on your mind. Come if you can, if you can't - never mind, you are helping me all the time. Isn't one's love help enough? If...

... this too is a hindrance. When meditating, just meditate, the rest then happens by itself. The way to God does not lie in our hands so leave yourself in His. Surrender, surrender, surrender! Remember always - surrender! Sleeping or waking - remember! Surrender is the only door to God. Emptiness is the only boat that sails to Him. 90. Love. How much longer will you go on letting your energy sleep? How...

..., bliss and freedom. So meditate on sexual desire. Whenever the desire arises, watch it mindfully. Do not resist it, do not escape from it, encountering it leads you to unique experiences. And whatever you have learned or heard about celibacy - throw it once and for all into the dustbin, for there is no other way than this of reaching to brahmacharya. My regards to all there. 127. Love. Be like steel...

... need to be disheartened. Difficulties are there, blocks are there, but they will break up because the breaker is not yet broken. Meditate totally and soon the springs will be reached But you have to put your whole being at stake - nothing less will do; hold back a bit and you will miss. Time is short so gather all your strength; whilst the opportunity is here your effort must be total. It is...

... is a mistake somewhere. Go away and think again, search again, meditate again. Love. 140. God purifies in every way. It is not only gold that has to pass through fire to be purified but man too. For man this fire is the anguish of love. It is a blessing when this fire enters a person's life, it is the fruit of infinite prayers, infinite births. It is the intensity of thirst that turns finally into...

... you try to meditate. On the contrary, every effort hinders its smooth and silent coming. There is no place in it for action or aggression - and action is ways aggressive. Meditation is passive receptivity. Mind is aggressive, meditation is passive. Be passive nd receptive and open and vulnerable and WAIT. The real miracle happens through waiting. The moment that waiting is total there is happening...

... be done with oneself knowingly. Love. The universe cares for little but play. But man in his life does hardly anything but work, and because of this everything has become upside down. Hence the agony. The law, the TAO of the universe, is play - leela, and the law of the human reason is work because reason cannot think beyond utility. But existence exists beyond utility. Meditate on this gap and you...

... (NETI, NETI). and ultimately when nothing remains to be discarded - then is the explosion. Do not cling to anything, to any thought. Go on and on until the nothingness. I have heard about a little boy Toyo and his meditations. He was only twelve years old but he wanted to be given something to ponder, to meditate on, so one evening he went to Mokurai, the Zen master, struck the gong softly to announce...

... his presence, and sat before the master in respectful silence. Finally the master said: Toyo, show me the sound of two hands. Toyo clapped his hands. Good, said the master. Now show me the sound of one hand clapping. Toyo was silent. Finally he bowed and left to meditate on the problem. The next night he returned and struck the gong with one palm. That is not right, said the master. The next night...

...-life is just ugly. Meditate on death because there is no way to know life unless you stand face to face with death - and it is everywhere; wherever life is death is also; they are really two aspects of one and the same phenomenon, and when one comes to know this, he transcends both. Only in that transcendence is the total flowering of consciousness and the ecstasy of being. Love. Man adds everything...

... - even the possessor, because that too will not be able to stand the final shipwreck. Then find out what is left. Turn in and meditate. Discard all that is vulnerable to death. Say: Not this, not that and go deep to the point where nothing more remains to be discarded - and the illumination. Love. Nothing great is ever accomplished without going mad, that is, without breaking through the ordinary level...

... morning, I take it; when you serve me a meal, I accept it and when you bow to me I return it with a nod. How else do you expect to be taught in meditation? Soshin hung his head and began to think about the puzzling words of the Master, but at this the Master said again: If you want to see, SEE, RIGHT AT ONCE, because when you begin to think you miss the point altogether. Love. Meditate, pray and wait...

.... traveller stops at an inn He passes the night there, takes his meal, and as soon as he has done so he packs and continues his journey again. As for the host of the inn, he has nowhere to go. The one who does not stay is the guest, and the one who stays is the host. Now who are you - the guest or the host Meditate. No answer is required, rather - REALIZE. because all answers belong to the guest and...

... awareness that no one has anything to give; everyone is so poor that there is nothing they can give, and that is why there is compassion. There is no demand in compassion. In this state there is no desire even to give, but all the doors of the heart become wide open and something spontaneously begins to be distributed. Buddha told his disciples, "When you meditate, worship or pray, remember to...

... only of stone and unsanctified; life has not been invoked in it. If you want to meditate on the idol of Buddha, the center has to be the heart. If you want to meditate on Mahavira, there is a different center; for Jesus, a third center and for Krishna, a fourth.... All idols are made with a different center as the basis. Even though a society may have been worshiping a certain idol for thousands pf...

... has only the capacity to say no. Such a person will go on shrinking and contracting and will ultimately decay. But saying yes makes a person open up and expand so much that he merges with the infinite. Idol worship is a very positive method. But you have to meditate and go so deep into the idol, into the worship, that you come to know that there is no idol, only worship. The idol is just the...

... listening to Ashtavakra and attaining? It has already happened: this must be your own experience. The recognition, the blessing, must be yours, it is not an intellectual conclusion. Intellect will quickly accept it. What could be easier than, "It has already happened. Good, our troubles are over. Now there is no need to search, no need to meditate, no need to worship or pray - it has already happened...

... expect to attain something - bliss, God, atma - meditation will not go deep, because thinking of attaining is greed. It is ambition, it is politics. It is not yet religion." They say, "Okay, we'll meditate without thinking about it, but we will attain, won't we?" There is no difference. They are ready to stop desiring because, "You say this is the way to attain, so we won't think of...

... already attained!" But if it could happen just by reading Ashtavakra then it would be very convenient. What is hard about reading Ashtavakra? The sutra is so clear and simple. Remember, to understand simple things is the most difficult thing in the world. And the difficulty comes from within you. You hope you won't have to do anything. It is very hard for people to accept the need to meditate. This...

..., we will meditate - in old age, when death has come and stands at the door. When one foot is already in the grave we will lift the other foot for meditation. "Cry out a little longer, O heart! Receive the embrace of the charmed twilight with a smile, there is still plenty of time before night falls." We go on postponing. Night is drawing near. There isn't plenty of time, night has already...

... COMPASSIONATE LOOK. Epilogue WIND IS THE GURU; WATER IS THE FATHER; THE GREAT EARTH IS THE MOTHER; NIGHT AND DAY ARE MIDWIFE AND GROOM; AND THE WHOLE WORLD IS PLAYING WITH THEM. GOOD AND BAD DEEDS ARE READ OUT IN HIS COURT BY DHARMA, AND OUR OWN ACTIONS DETERMINE WHETHER WE ARE NEAR TO HIM OR FAR. THOSE WHO MEDITATE ON HIS NAME AND LABOR SINCERELY EARN MERIT; THEIR FACES ARE RADIANT WITH SUCCESS, AND MANY...

...; THE GREAT EARTH IS THE MOTHER; NIGHT AND DAY ARE MIDWIFE AND GROOM; AND THE WHOLE WORLD IS PLAYING WITH THEM. GOOD AND BAD DEEDS ARE READ OUT IN HIS COURT BY DHARMA, AND OUR OWN ACTIONS DETERMINE WHETHER WE ARE NEAR TO HIM OR FAR. THOSE WHO MEDITATE ON HIS NAME AND LABOR SINCERELY EARN MERIT; THEIR FACES ARE RADIANT WITH SUCCESS, AND MANY OTHERS ARE LIBERATED BY CONTACT WITH THEM. Nanak's symbols...

... want to meditate but have no time. You have no time for meditation? Is time your servant or are you time's slave? People complain they don't know how to pass the time, but when it comes to meditation, where has the time gone? And it is the same people! They have a lot of time - watching television, going to movies and clubs - and yet there is no time to spare. The question arises how to spend it. On...

.... Bring about a little change within yourself and you shall become worthy. For there is only one difference between you and the worthy; the worthy person stands facing towards God, while the unworthy stands with their backs to Him. THOSE WHO MEDITATE ON HIS NAME AND LABOR SINCERELY EARN MERIT; THEIR FACES ARE RADIANT WITH SUCCESS, AND MANY OTHERS ARE LIBERATED BY CONTACT WITH THEM. Nanak says whenever a...