Chapter 6

Samadhi is the ultimate state of being, the ultimate flowering of consciousness. Man lives in the mind, animals live below the mind. Samadhi is the state above the mind where thinking disappears, and with the thinking, all wavering of consciousness disappears also.

Thinking is like ripples in a lake, and because of the ripples, the reflection cannot be true; the moon is reflected but the ripples distort it. God is reflected in everybody, we mirror him, but our mind is so full of thoughts, waverings, clouds, that whatsoever we come to see is no more the same; it is not that which is. The mind has imposed its own thoughts upon it, it has interpreted it, and all interpretation is a distortion. Reality needs no interpretation; it needs only reflection. There is no point in interpreting, the interpreter goes on missing the point.

If you see a rose flower, it is there: there is no need to interpret it, there is no need to dissect it, there is no need to know about its meaning. It is its meaning. It is not a metaphor, it does not stand for something else. It is simply there! It is reality, it is not a symbol. A symbol needs to be interpreted, a dream needs to be interpreted. So psychoanalysis is right because it goes on interpreting the dreams, but philosophers are not right because they go on interpreting the reality. A dream is symbolic: it stands for something else; an interpretation may be helpful to find out what it stands for. But a rose flower is a rose flower; it stands only for itself. It does not indicate anything else, it is not an arrow towards anything else; it is self-evident.

So is reality, but our mind is in the habit of interpreting. Thinking is nothing but a habit of interpreting.

When thinking disappears the lake is silent, calm and quiet. Then there are no more waves, no more ripples - nothing is distorted: the moon is reflected perfectly.

So samadhi means the ultimate state of pure reflection, and raka means moonlight. Moonlight reflected in pure consciousness - that is the meaning of your name.

[A visitor says he's not sure how long he'll stay because he feels disturbed by all the noise here: It's like in the big cities at home; I find myself defending against the noise.]

That will create much trouble for you for your whole life, because life is noisy and the world is too crowded. But this is not the way to get rid of it. To fight with noise is not the way to get rid of it; the way to get rid of it is to accept it totally. The more you fight, the more nervous you will be, because the more you fight, the more it will disturb you. Open up, accept it; it is part of life, this noise too.

And once you start accepting it, you will be surprised: it no more disturbs you. Disturbance does not come from the noise, it comes from our attitude towards the noise. The noise is not the disturbance; it is the attitude that is the disturbance. If you are antagonistic to it, you are disturbed; if you are not antagonistic to it, you are not disturbed.

And where will you go? Wherever you go some kind of noise is bound to be there; the whole world is noisy. Even if you can find a cave in the Himalayas and sit there, you will miss life. Noise will not be there, but all the growth possibilities that life makes available will not be there either, and soon that silence will look dull and dead.

There is a way to remain silent in noise; that's what I teach. There is a way to be in the crowd and not be of the crowd, that's possible.

First, be here for seven weeks; do a few groups and it will be gone. It will be good that it is gone; then only can you live easily. The noise is going to remain, it will increase more and more; unless the third world war happens it will go on increasing. The world will never be less noisy than now, it will be more noisy and more noisy. We have to learn to accept it, we have to learn to absorb it; we have to learn not to be disturbed and distracted by it. It will create a stronger human being; the greater the challenge is, the better. It creates some steel in your being, and it is good to have some steel and some spine.

I am not saying don't enjoy silence. I am saying enjoy silence; but silence is not against noise.

Silence can exist IN noise. In fact when it exists in noise only then is it real silence, otherwise it is plastic, synthetic, it is not true.

The silence that you feel in the Himalayas or in the Alps is not your silence; it belongs to the Himalayas. But if in the marketplace you can feel silence, you can be utterly at ease and relaxed, it is yours. Then you have a Himalaya in your heart, and that's the true thing!

[A sannyasin says: Any efforts to accept myself only seem to strengthen my ego; so it's a circle. I want to get out of the circle. I feel I'm missing a lot - of life, of you - by being in that circle.]

That's true! If you accept yourself you feel it brings some ego?

Forget about the ego. Accept yourself, mm? We will see about the ego later on; first accept yourself totally. Let the ego come; the ego is not such a big problem, and the bigger it iS, the easier it Is burst. It is like a balloon, mm? - it becomes big then just a prick and it is gone! Let the ego be there, that is allowed, but accept yourself and things will start changing. In fact acceptance means acceptance of the ego too, then it is total acceptance. Start by accepting.

But start accepting. I need a few great egoists around here too. I need all kinds of people! Right?

Good!