No yesterday, no tomorrow, no today

The master is calm, but with a difference. Many people are calm, but they are not masters. Calm can be cultivated very easily from the outside; it will deceive others, but it cannot deceive existence. Deep inside you will remain in a turmoil.

Hence, the first thing to be understood is that Buddha is never in favor of anything cultivated. The moral preachers, the moralists, are continuously telling people, "Be this, be that. Try to be calm, practice calm." And for thousands of years these things have been told to you; these qualities have been praised, appreciated, worshipped. Naturally you try to be calm and quiet and collected, but when you practice something it simply means you are creating a facade, you are just creating a face. It can't transform your being - it is an exercise. Yes, it will help you to be more prestigious, to be more respectable; people will look up to you as a holy man. But in fact you have become schizophrenic, you have become a split personality, you are divided. Your surface says one thing, your inner reality is totally the opposite. You will live in a continuous civil war, you will be continuously at daggers with yourself.

It is hell to be a saint in this way. Sinners may go to hell after they die; your so-called saints live in hell here and now. There is no certainty about the future hell, but the saint's hell is very much a reality.

Never try to cultivate any quality.

Then what has to be done? Should one remain violent, disturbed, insane? No, Buddha says there is another way, the right way. The right way is that these things should come as consequences - consequences of inner awareness. The magic of awareness is that the more you become alert, naturally, the more a calm surrounds you. You need not cultivate it, it follows you like a shadow, it is simply your vibe. You are surrounded by a subtle aura of peace, serenity. When you are aware inside, there is a grace radiating from your being. That grace is spontaneous, not cultivated. And when something is spontaneous it has tremendous beauty. It is not an artificial flower, it is not a plastic flower; it is something that has grown in you, that has bloomed in you. It is your own flowering. It has fragrance because it has roots in your being.

Unless calmness comes as a shadow of awareness, beware of it. It is false, it is utterly futile. The whole effort that you have put into cultivating it has been a sheer wastage.

The same effort could have been put into becoming aware.

That is the difference between morality and religion. Morality is a social phenomenon; society needs it because society consists of millions of people. It has to keep a certain order, a certain discipline; otherwise there will be chaos. Morality keeps that order.

Morality creates a conscience in you. Conscience functions as an inner policeman who does not allow you to do anything that is against the law or against the code or against the tradition. Society has imprinted in your heart certain ideas and now you are dominated by those ideas. Even if you go against those ideas they will torture you, they will become a nightmare to you. If you follow them you will feel you are not tortured so much.

So the immoral person finds himself in two difficulties. One comes from the outside because he starts losing people's respect; and in this world respect is the most valuable thing in people's eyes because it is a nourishment for the ego. The moment you lose respect your ego starts dying, your ego is hurt, your ego is wounded. Secondly, something inside you starts creating an inner torture for you - your conscience. That conscience is also created by the same society.

Hence, society pressures you from both sides, outer and inner. You are just crushed between these two rocks. So cowards cannot be immoral people; cowards are always moral people. In fact they are not moral but only cowards; because they are cowards they cannot be immoral - that is too dangerous, too risky. And the moral people, the so-called moral people, live a superficial life. They are bound to live a superficial life because their conscience is not their own - what else can be their own? They don't possess even their own conscience, what else can they possess? They are the poorest people in the world.

And they are not moral because they understand the beauty of being moral; they are moral simply because they don't have guts enough to be immoral. They follow the dictates of the society and the conscience just out of fear. There is fear of the law and there is fear of hell; there is fear of the policeman and there is fear of God. They are constantly trembling, their life is nothing but a constant trembling. Their prayers arise out of that trembling - naturally those prayers are false; they are fear-oriented. Even their conception of God is nothing but a projection of their fear.

That's why these people are rightly called God-fearing people. They are not God-loving people. And remember, one who fears God can never love God, and one who loves God need never fear. Fear and love can't exist together, it is impossible. Their coexistence is not possible in the nature of things.

But society pays you enough to be moral, gives you as much ego as it is possible to give - not only here but in the afterworld too. There are also places, special places reserved for you in heaven. The sinner is suffering here and the sinner will suffer in hell too, and the so-called saint is respected here and he is going to be respected in the other world too.

This is a strategy, a very subtle psychological strategy of society - to exploit you. But because of this strategy you have completely lost track of real morality: a morality that is not dictated by fear, a morality that does not arise out of cowardice, a morality that is not fear-oriented.

A totally different vision of morality has been given by the buddhas, by the awakened ones of all the ages. Their vision is that real morality comes not out of conscience but out of consciousness. Become more conscious, release more conscious energy in your being, explode into consciousness! - and then you will see you are living a life in absolute attunement with existence. Sometimes it may be in tune with society and sometimes it may not be in tune with society, because society itself is not always in tune with existence. Whenever society is in tune with existence you will be in tune with society; whenever society is not in tune with existence you will not be in tune with society.

But the real moral person never cares, he is even ready to risk his life. Socrates did that, Jesus did that. Buddha was constantly living in danger. This has always been the case, for the simple reason that they were living according to their own light. If it fits with society, good; if it does not fit with society it is bad for society but it has nothing to do with you. Society has to change itself. Socrates is not going to change himself, Jesus is not going to change himself according to society, Buddha is not going to live according to the crowd. The crowd consists of blind people, of utterly unconscious people who are fast asleep, who know nothing of themselves. To follow them is the most stupid thing in the world that a man can do. One should be intelligent enough to wake up one's own consciousness.

Religion consists not of conscience but of consciousness. Hence, even an atheist can believe in morality. Of course, in Soviet Russia or communist China they have to follow a certain code of morality. They may not believe in God, but they have to enforce morality on people. In fact, they have to enforce it even more because the fear of God is lost. Now the state has to be really very dangerous, because that is the only fear which will keep people confined within the boundaries of morality.

It is not accidental that the Russian government and the Chinese government don't allow any freedom; they cannot allow it. Capitalist countries can allow a little freedom because God is there to help. You allow a little freedom, God won't allow that freedom - - it compensates. But in a communist country there is no God so there is no fear of the supreme, the ultimate, and no other life so there is no fear of hell.

Communist countries have to create hell here, right now, so they create concentration camps; they use Siberia as a substitute for hell. And they have created all kinds of very complicated tortures, all kinds of inhuman tortures. Even the Devil himself can learn much from them! Now in Russia if you don't agree with the society you are immediately declared a mental case - not that you are politically of a different opinion, no, that is impossible. There can't be any possibility of somebody being politically different from the government policy, from the authoritarian principles, from the recognized ideology. Only an insane person can think that he is different. How can you go against Marx, Engels and Lenin? Impossible! This unholy trinity rules absolutely.

The Russian government is totalitarian; it has to be because it has to function in such a way that the fear of God has to be replaced by something; otherwise people will become unmanageable.

Communist countries are bound to become totalitarian. They cannot be democratic, it is impossible, because who will do the work of keeping people afraid and trembling?

Unless they accept God and hell.... God and hell are very helpful because they do almost all of the work. For a religious person - a so-called religious person - that fear is enough to hold him back, and the rest can be done by the government, but that is a lesser part, not more than twenty or twenty-five percent. Seventy-five percent of fear comes from the psychological creation of a conscience. In a communist country there is no question of conscience, and of course the question of consciousness does not arise at all because no such thing as meditation is accepted.

A few people in Soviet Russia have become interested in my way of thinking. They have started meditating, but they have to meditate hidden underground in their basements. They cannot tell somebody else that they are meditating because meditation means you have gone insane! "There is no need to meditate at all. Why should one meditate? There is no soul to experience, no God to experience. Man is nothing but a by-product of matter. When death comes all ends, nothing remains beyond death, nothing abides." So consciousness cannot be allowed because meditation is not allowed:

meditation is the science of releasing consciousness. And conscience cannot be created because the old ways of creating fear are no more accepted. The whole work has to be done by the government. Of course the government becomes ugly, the government becomes a monster.

But the same is happening in other countries too - in more subtle ways. Communists are gross; the capitalist countries, the so-called democratic countries, are not so gross, they are subtle, but they do the same thing. They keep you tethered to the crowd, but in such an indirect way that it needs great intelligence to become aware of the fact that you are chained. Those chains are invisible.

Religion really consists in creating a different kind of morality, not the so-called ordinary morality, but a morality which is spontaneous, a morality which arises by itself and is not imposed, a morality which is a consequence of your own intelligence.

Buddha is talking about that when he says: The master IS CALM. He means that he has gone deep into his center, he has penetrated his being to the very core, and he has settled there; now he is at rest. All hustle and bustle has dropped, all running hither and thither has disappeared. Now he knows there is nowhere to go. He has arrived home, he has found his ultimate shelter, the ultimate refuge. Now he knows, "This is my shrine." Sitting in that shrine he is absolutely calm. You cannot see where he is, but you can feel his calm. You can feel him like a cool breeze, you can feel him as a shower of silence. If you come close to him, suddenly you will be touched by something invisible.

Your heart will start dancing. Not that he has done anything to you, but your mind can deceive you, your mind can start rationalizing.

Just the other day I was reading a manuscript. One woman came a few months ago, a friend of Pankaja and Savita. She came here just to see what had happened to Pankaja and Savita. Pankaja is a well-known novelist and has published beautiful novels.

Suddenly she became a sannyasin and dropped her beautiful career. There were great possibilities: she could have become world-famous. She was on the way - she was becoming more and more known. Not only did she become a sannyasin, she never went back to England. Not only that - rumors must have reached England that now she functions in the ashram as a toilet cleaner. Her friend must have been puzzled - what had happened to her?

Then Savita also disappeared. She was also doing well in her profession. She was a therapist, earning a lot of money and moving ahead. And she also never returned to England.

Their friend came here just to see what was happening to these people - "They must have been hypnotized." What else can the mind think? The simple explanation comes to the mind: "These people have been hypnotized." Otherwise why should one leave one's prosperous career, good livelihood - a career which was full of possibilities? Why should one suddenly leave? Either one has gone insane or one has become hypnotized.

She came here just to observe what is happening. Then she also became a sannyasin.

But she escaped immediately - I gave her the name Kanan. She escaped. Now she writes a book about the whole experience and she says, "I don't know what happened, why I became a sannyasin. There is something which pulls you. There is something intangible - one cannot figure it out, what it is exactly - but something like hypnosis."

She infers, "It may be in the eyes of this man or in the sound of his voice that one feels to become a sannyasin. Even I became a sannyasin, but then I became very much afraid:

now I am being pulled the same way into this orange whirlpool in which Pankaja has disappeared, Savita has disappeared. It is better to go before I am too much in it and escape becomes impossible. I escaped. I dropped sannyas immediately because I was afraid - carrying this man's mala and his picture around my neck was dangerous. Who knows what is hidden in it?"

Now, this woman thinks she is very clever, she thinks she is very rational, she thinks she has done the right thing. All that she has done is she has missed an opportunity which comes only once in a while; maybe for many lives she will not come across such a man again.

There is no hypnotism. Nobody is trying to pull you, nobody is trying to influence you.

But certainly there is a fragrance which affects you, which affects you deeply. There is a calm which goes into the heart and stirs the fast-sleeping heart into a kind of wakefulness. But if you are too much in your dreams, and you have invested too much even in your nightmares, you may become afraid - you may become afraid of being awakened. You may miss the opportunity, you may escape from the opportunity. But then you try to rationalize. You HAVE to rationalize, otherwise how will you console yourself?

Now, by writing this book she is trying to convince herself that she has done the right thing. She has done the most stupid thing in her life.

And the opportunity is still not lost, Kanan. Wherever you are in the world my eyes are reaching there too. And whatsoever I am saying here, the sound of my voice goes on resounding around the earth. If you have even a little bit of intelligence you will be pulled back into the orange whirlpool!

HE IS CALM.

IN HIM THE SEED OF RENEWING LIFE HAS BEEN CONSUMED.

HE HAS CONQUERED ALL THE INNER WORLDS.

What has happened in the master? What has really happened in the inner world of the master? Buddha says: The first, most fundamental thing is that the seed of renewing life is burnt, utterly burnt, is consumed in the fire of awareness. Yes, awareness is a fire. It burns all that is rubbish, but it also purifies all that is gold. It does two things: burns the rubbish and purifies the gold. It is alchemy.

"The seed of renewing life" is desire. Buddha used to call it TANHA. Tanha means one wants to be born again and again, one wants more and more. In this life you want more and more, but that more is never fulfilled. When you are dying, all desires are standing there unfulfilled so you start desiring another life, one more chance.

There is a beautiful story, a great parable in the Upanishads:

One of the great kings, Yayati, was dying. He was a hundred years old, ripe enough to die - one should be ready by that time - but not grown-up enough; the seed of renewing life was not yet burnt. So when death came, Yayati fell at the feet of Death - a great king, a great conqueror! - and he said to Death, "Spare me only one hundred years more. I don't ask for more, just one hundred years more. And it is nothing for you, you can do it. All my desires are still unfulfilled because I had never thought about you. I was simply preparing and preparing. I have not enjoyed my life. Now that everything is ready - I have conquered the whole world, I have all the riches, the most beautiful women, the most intelligent and courageous sons, the best army in the world, everything is settled, all enemies killed - I was just thinking to relax and enjoy. Is this the time to come? All these hundred years have been spent simply in preparing for these moments. Spare me just one hundred years more so that I can live to my heart's content."

Death laughed and said, "I am ready to spare one hundred years more to you, but I will have to take one of your sons because I have to go with somebody who resembles you; if not you, at least one of your sons. I can't go empty-handed, I have to give the account to my boss himself. He will ask, 'Where is Yayati?' What am I going to say? Such a thing has never been done before, but I feel sorry for you. Just ask one of your sons."

Yayati had a hundred sons; he must have had a hundred wives too. He asked his sons.

The oldest was eighty, but he started looking downwards, was not ready to say yes.

Why should he? He had lived only eighty years; if his father is not contented with a hundred years, how can he be contented with only eighty years? At least twenty years more he is entitled to live. In those days, the story says, people used to live a hundred years. Why should he die a premature death, an untimely death? And this old fellow has lived enough! He did not want to hurt the old man so he didn't say anything, he kept quiet.

The father was very much shocked; he used to think that his sons were ready to sacrifice themselves. But in this world nobody is ready to sacrifice himself for anybody else. He looked around. His sons also started looking at each other, meaning "Why don't YOU go?"

The youngest, who was only twenty years old, stood up and he said, "I am ready. Take me with you, I am coming with you."

Even Death felt sorry for the boy. Death came close to the young man and said, "Are you a fool or something? Your other brothers - one is eighty, one is seventy-five, one is seventy, sixty, sixty-five, fifty - these people are not ready to go and you are the youngest, you have not lived at all. Why are you ready to go?"

The young man said, "If my father could not live in a hundred years, if my eldest brother could not live in eighty years, if my other brothers... nobody has been able to live, then the whole project is nonsense. I don't want to waste time. If I have to die it is better to die now. Why wait for eighty years? If THESE people have not been able to manage, it is absolutely certain it is unmanageable. And let my father try a hundred years more."

Death tried to convince him, but he wouldn't listen. Death had to take him away.

After a hundred years, Death came back and the situation was the same. Again Yayati fell at his feet and started crying and weeping and he said, "I know that now I should be ready, but nothing is fulfilled yet; all the desires are the same. I have LIVED all the desires, I cannot say that I have not lived them, but nothing is fulfilled. I want more!

Now that I have lived a hundred years a new desire has arisen - I want more! I want to live at least one time more, a hundred years more, just one time more."

And this went on happening again and again. When Yayati became one thousand years old and Death came, he was just going to fall at his feet. Death said, "Wait - enough is enough! Can't you see the point, Yayati? Are you so blind? You have lived one thousand years, and you have been doing the same things again and again. You have done nothing new in these one thousand years, and still you want more? Can't you see the simple point that mind lives in the more, it goes on asking for more? There is no end to it. Now you come with me - I am not going to listen anymore. Now even my boss is feeling angry with me. He says, 'This is too much! This man has been given too much time.' But I also wanted to try - let us see what you can make out of one thousand years. You have not made any progress, you are exactly in the same place, going in circles."

Buddha calls this tanha - going in circles - this constant desire for more. One becomes a master when this desire for more disappears, when the seed is burnt in the fire of awareness. HE IS CALM. Then of course he is calm.

When there is no desire, when the winds of desire are blowing no more, there are no waves in the inner ocean, then the ocean becomes absolutely calm. In fact, the ocean is not the cause of waves - the cause is the invisible winds. You see the waves in the ocean so you think the waves are caused by the ocean; they are not. The waves are caused by invisible winds blowing over the ocean. If the winds stop the ocean will be absolutely calm.

Why are you in a turmoil? Why are there constantly so many waves inside you, so many thoughts and so many memories, fantasies? Why does this whole circus go on?

For the simple reason that there are invisible winds of desire blowing upon you.

The watchful person, the intelligent person, becomes aware of the root cause: it is in the winds, the winds of desire. He stops desiring. Seeing the futility of desire he drops desiring. The seed is burnt and then there is calm. This calm is not the calm of your so- called polished, cultured man. This calm is totally different, its quality is different, its source is different - it comes from the innermost core. The Buddha is calm because the winds are not blowing anymore. And they cannot blow because the very seed has been burnt. HE HAS CONQUERED ALL THE INNER WORLDS. There are worlds upon worlds inside you too, just as outside there are worlds upon worlds. Scientists go on discovering new solar systems, new stars, new galaxies of stars, new milky ways. They go on discovering, there seems to be no end. There seem to be universes and universes unending. So it is in the inner world: there are also many planes and many universes, but all are rooted in a single seed.

Out of a single seed a big tree can grow. You can't see it in the seed, but if you put it in the soil soon a tree starts growing. A small seed brings such a big tree with such thick foliage that thousands of people can sit underneath it, thousands of birds can make their nests in it. And millions of seeds will grow in this tree and each seed contains again millions of trees, and so on and so forth. The scientists say a single seed can make the whole earth green; not only this earth but all the earths in the universe can be made green by a single seed. What potential!

You are all carrying frozen seeds within you which are just waiting for their right opportunity. Maybe you have forgotten completely about a certain desire because there has not been an opportunity to provoke it. That's why monks and nuns and the traditional sannyasins used to escape from the world, simply to deceive themselves - because when they went to the caves in the mountains they were going away from the opportunities where they would have become aware of the seed, where the seed would have had a chance to grow.

But remember, the seed is there whether you give it a chance to grow or not, and the seed can remain there for years; for lives it will wait. Give it an opportunity, an accidental opportunity, and immediately the seed becomes alive. The seed can remain frozen, almost dead for millions of lives.

That's why I am absolutely against escapism - for the simple reason that if you want to burn the seed the best place is in the world, in the marketplace, because there are all kinds of opportunities. You cannot avoid seeing the seed and seeing it means you have to do something about it. If you stop seeing it, if you put a seed on a rock, you will forget about the seed because it cannot grow on the rock.

That's why monks and nuns used to move to the monasteries, nunneries; those were rocks. And they chose to be in the mountains. Have you observed it? - that all the monasteries of the world have been made in rocky mountains, not beautiful mountains where there are great trees and animals and birds - because there is danger: even two birds making love is enough of an opportunity to give you the idea! Just two animals in foreplay, and the monks and the nuns will have a great desire arising in them.

Suddenly the seed will start sprouting. So they chose to be in rocks, utter rocks where not a tree grows. Or the monasteries were built somewhere in the desert. All Christian monasteries were made in the desert. The ancient Christians lived in the desert, for the simple reason that, in a desert, life is so absent, so utterly absent, that you can forget all about it.

Jaina monks chose mountains, but ugly mountains, just rocks and nothing else, because anything beautiful can create trouble. The distant call of a cuckoo can drive you cuckoo!

- because it has a sexuality of its own, it has a sensuality of its own, it is a sensual call.

Do you know? - it is the male cuckoo who is calling; the female simply waits. She simply waits for the male to come closer. Yes, she gives hints that "I am available," and yet keeps herself very aloof, very proud - available, but not so easily available either!

Have you seen in the animals one strange phenomenon? - that it is always the male who is taking the initiative. The peacock with beautiful feathers is the male; one should have thought otherwise, but it is the male not the female. The female has no feathers; the female is ordinary, does not look so beautiful. The male looks very beautiful and the male dances with great exhibition of all his feathers - they are really beautiful feathers - - and he dances a great dance. He tries to allure.

Something strange has happened in man only; it seems unnatural. In fact, ornaments should be used by men, not by women. Men should use more colorful clothes than women. There is no need for women to bother about anything else, just to be female is enough! That's the whole story of nature if you look around: all the strategies have been used by males.

The monks and nuns have to be protected, but this kind of protection is not going to help. Even if the seed can remain protected for many lives it is there, it is not burnt yet.

An old maid had been going to sit in the park each day for years. As she fed the pigeons, which always roosted and fluttered around the bronze statue of a young Apollo, her eyes would wander over his nude form and she would dream of holding him alive in her arms.

One day as she sat there, a good fairy took pity on her.

Appearing by her side, the fairy offered her three wishes. Without delay the old maid began, "First I want to be young and very desirable."

This was no sooner said than done.

"Second, I wish that the statue of Apollo would come to life."

A wave of the fairy's wand and instantly he sprang down from the pedestal, vibrantly alive. The new voluptuous maid faltered and began to blush. Fluttering her eyelashes coyly she murmured, "I would like to give the third wish to Apollo."

Turning to the naked young god, the good fairy said, "What is your wish?"

"I want to shit on a pigeon," he answered.

Now the marble statue had been carrying this seed maybe for hundreds of years. Those pigeons were continuously doing this thing to him. Waiting, waiting, waiting... one day the time arrived - all that he wants to do is this.

Buddha says: HE IS CALM. IN HIM THE SEED OF RENEWING LIFE HAS BEEN CONSUMED. HE HAS CONQUERED ALL THE INNER WORLDS.

There are three worlds, and within those three there are many worlds within worlds.

The first is the world of the body, the mysteries of the body. The second is the world of the mind, the mysteries of the mind. And the third is the world of the heart, the mysteries of the heart. And each contains many worlds. Because of these three layers there have arisen three yogas, three sciences. One is HATHA yoga. Hatha yoga means going into the mysteries of the body. And the body has many mysteries; if you go into the mysteries of the body they are unending. You can go on and on forever, it is an infinity in itself.

But that is not the way to freedom and that is not the way to nirvana: you are caught in a new net. You are no more interested in money and you are no more interested in being a president, you are no more interested in worldly name or fame, but now your whole interest is how to become a superman, how to attain the powers that your body contains. For thousands of years so many yogis have been wasting time in that.

Buddha is not concerned with that type of inquiry at all. He wants you to cut through it.

He wants you to remember that, if you go into the mysteries of the body, you may be able to walk on water, you may be able to walk in fire, but what is the point of walking on water or in fire? It is simply stupid! Even if you can walk in fire, so what? What is gained? You can fly in the air like a bird, so what? Birds are doing it already - nothing special.

Three yogis were eating their lunch on the seventeenth-floor girder of a new skyscraper.

They were working on their bodies, talking about it continuously, discovering new mysteries.

"Wow," said the second man, who was new on the job. "I see why you guys like to eat your lunch here. The view of the city is beautiful!"

"Yes, the view is nice," said the first man. "But do you want to know why we really like to eat lunch here?"

"Yes," said the new yogi.

"Well," explained the first, "there's the most incredible updraft right at the fourth floor, and when we finish lunch we like to jump off and ride back up on that air current. It puts you right back on the very spot you jumped from."

"Bullshit!" said the second man. "I don't believe you."

"You don't?" said the first, putting down his coffee thermos. "Then I'll show you."

He jumped. Down he went, and sure enough, right at the fourth floor - whoosh! He was turned back and landed on the seventeenth-floor girder on the exact spot from which he had leaped.

"Wow!" said the second man in total amazement. "That beats the hell out of hang- gliding or anything! Let me do it next!"

He stood up and jumped. Down he went - then fourth floor, third floor, second floor...

splat! All over the sidewalk! Finished!

Back up on the seventeenth floor, the third man, who had been silent until now, turned to the first and said, "You know, Superman, sometimes you're a real prick!"

What is the point of it all?

Buddha is not interested in the yoga of the body, neither is he interested in the yoga of the mind - MANTRA yoga and other methods which work on the mind and create mental powers, SIDDHIS. Yes, you can do miracles... you can read others' thoughts, but are not one's own thoughts enough? You can predict others' futures, but what is there to predict? It is going to be almost the same as their past.

Just the other day one sannyasin asked... he had been to some Hindu astrologer, very famous. And the astrologer said to him, after great deliberation, brooding, thinking about his chart and meditating about his future, that in this lifetime he cannot become enlightened. Now, this much can be said by any fool about you, because a man who goes to an astrologer to ask about his future is bound to remain unenlightened! That is enough proof. And what does that foolish astrologer know about enlightenment? Is HE enlightened? You should have asked him, "What about you? Are you enlightened, and still doing astrology?"

Because of these fools I have to appoint Kabir here! Why go to other places? Somebody right on the spot is available here. Kabir makes beautiful charts, very colorful! He is doing a good job. Fools need... what to do? And if they are going to go somewhere, it is better to finish them here.

Only fools are interested in the future. The intelligent person is interested only in the present. And enlightenment is not predictable; enlightenment is absolutely unpredictable. It is such a mysterious phenomenon that there is no possibility of predicting it.

But now this idea has been put into his head. Now he will feel at ease: "This time it is not going to happen, so why bother?" So this man will stop meditating, he may even think of dropping sannyas. What is the point when you are not going to become enlightened this lifetime? "So we will see next lifetime when the time comes, we will meditate again and become enlightened."

But I tell you one thing: next lifetime you will go again to an astrologer - I can predict it right now! And last time also you had done this! Are you really interested in becoming enlightened or not? Why go on finding excuses? And people can find any kind of excuse - people are great rationalizers. Now you have a reason not to meditate - because this time around it is not going to happen, so why waste time? But then how is it going to happen? And why should you go to an astrologer in the first place? Even stars are not enlightened! At least one thing is absolutely certain: that enlightenment is not determined by any causes, it is a sudden phenomenon. Your death may be predictable, your illnesses may be predictable, your foolishnesses may be predictable, but not enlightenment. You see? (AT THIS MOMENT THE VIDEO LIGHTS SUDDENLY COME ON...!) How does it happen? - for no reason at all!

Somebody asked Picasso, "You seem to be so much interested in art studies in the nude.

Why?"

"Well," said Picasso, "I guess it's because I was born that way."

One can always find some reason.

Julie: "And if I refuse you, Edward, will you kill yourself?"

Edward: "That has been my usual custom."

The third world is of the mysteries of the heart, BHAKTI yoga. First is hatha yoga, second is mantra yoga, third is bhakti yoga. Buddha says: Go on cutting across them; don't move sideways, otherwise you will be lost in the inner worlds. Hence Buddha is neither interested in yoga, nor in mantra, nor in bhakti, devotion, prayer - nothing. His simple interest, one-pointed interest, is awareness.

And I absolutely agree with him because that is the only possibility for you to get rid of all this nonsense that you have been living for millions of lives. And you will go on repeating it, because just by living through it again and again you don't become intelligent. You change a little bit, but the basic foolishness remains the same.

A telegram arrived at the army camp saying that Private Smith's father had died. The sergeant was told by the colonel to break the news gently to Private Smith. With the colonel watching, the sergeant went over to the private and said, "Smith, your father died."

The colonel called the sergeant over and said, "If it ever happens again you must be more gentle - break the news easier!"

Two weeks later another telegram arrived saying that Private Smith's mother had died.

The sergeant lined up the whole platoon and said, "Anyone who has a mother take two steps forward.... Not so fast, Private Smith!"

Now, just the strategy has changed, but it is the same! And that's what has been going on in your life, life after life. A little bit, of course, you change in the details, but the fundamental foolishness persists.

WITH DISPASSIONATE EYE HE SEES EVERYWHERE THE FALLING AND THE UPRISING.

One who has become aware, he sees everywhere only one thing: that everything is born and dies, everything begins and ends, that everything is a flux. Nothing is worth clinging to, nothing is worth holding, nothing is worth possessing, because it is bound to disappear sooner or later. Hence he remains nonpossessive. He moves through the world detached, calm, cool, seeing everywhere the falling and the uprising. He knows things come and go; he watches. When something arises he watches and knows perfectly well it will go. Misery comes - he is not worried because he knows it will go.

Happiness comes - he is not excited because he knows it has come, it will go.

WITH DISPASSIONATE EYE.... Awareness gives him a new kind of eye, a new vision - dispassionate. He simply looks with no desire; it is a totally different vision. When you look with no desire, the world appears totally different; when you look with desire you are confined in your desire and you color everything according to your desire.

"What are you thinking about, John?"

"The same as you, Jane."

"Oh, if you do, I'll scream!"

Not even a single word can you hear which is not colored by your inner processes of thought.

A farmer persuaded one of his cowhands to buy two raffle tickets for which the draw was to be held that night at a dance. The next day the cowhand asked the farmer who had won the draw.

"Oh, I won the first prize," said the farmer. "Aren't I lucky?"

"And who won second prize, farmer?" asked the cowhand.

"My wife won that. Wasn't she lucky?"

"Arr, she were that. And what about third prize?"

"Oh, my daughter won that. Wasn't she lucky? By the way, you haven't paid me for your tickets yet, have you?"

"No," replied the cowman. "Aren't I lucky?"

Everybody is looking with his own world of desires, expectations, passions, lust, greed, anger. There are a thousand and one things standing between you and your world; that's why you don't ever see it as it is.

Once your eye is completely clean, clean of all the dust, once it becomes a pure mirror, it reflects that which is. And that is truth and truth liberates, but it has to be your own. My truth cannot liberate you, Buddha's truth cannot liberate you. There is only one possibility of liberation, that is your own truth. And all that you have to do is to create a dispassionate eye.

AND WITH GREAT GLADNESS HE KNOWS THAT HE HAS FINISHED.

HE HAS WOKEN FROM HIS SLEEP.

The master is glad that he is finished with all the nonsense, with all the stupidity, with all the games of life. He is glad that he is finished, he is out of it, he has transcended. HE HAS WOKEN FROM HIS SLEEP.

Willie D. left Harlem to visit friends in Mobile. On his second night there he met Laura Mae, a beautiful lady whom he soon led out in the woods. As they prepared to make love, Willie removed his pants and hung them neatly on a tree.

"You must be from the North," said Laura Mae.

"Right on, baby," said Willie, "but how could you tell?"

"A Southern boy don't hang up his clothes 'cause when we're finished we're gonna be three miles from here!"

And these games are there... and where are your pants and where are you? Three miles away! Where are your senses? Where is your intelligence? You must have hung it up somewhere and you have completely forgotten where.

The nurse took the gentleman standing by the bed of a woman in the maternity ward aside and asked, "Would you like to see the baby?"

The gentleman nodded. "Looks just like you!" she enthused when they finally came out of the baby room.

Later the nurse told the woman about her husband's delight at seeing the baby. The woman was horrified. "Husband? My husband is on duty in the next town and hasn't arrived yet to see the baby! That man was here to collect the overdue installment on my refrigerator!"

People are asleep. What is happening to them is almost accidental. Why you have fallen in love with somebody is accidental. Your birth is accidental, your death is going to be accidental.

Buddha says: The master looks at everything falling and rising, rising and falling. All are accidents. There is only one thing which is not accidental, which is intrinsic, and that is your awareness of it all. That awareness makes you awake.

The couple evolved a perfect plan for spending their time. One night a week he goes out with the boys, the other six nights SHE does.

Here is a flash from Detroit: They have come up with a fast car with equally fast brakes - you can come to a standstill in just the car's length from a hundred miles per hour. It is equipped with a device which automatically wipes your remains from the windscreen.

Altie and Big Bertha stood before the altar. Big Bertha weighed two hundred pounds, her groom a mere one hundred.

"Does you take dis woman for your lawful wedded wife?" asked the minister.

"Ah takes nothin'," replied Altie. "Ah's bein' took!"

Just watch your life, what is happening.

After a long, boring sermon, the minister asks Sandy, "Well, how did you like my sermon, Sandy?"

Sandy replies, "Oh, a bit like outer space, Minister."

"What do you mean, 'a bit like outer space'?"

"Well," says Sandy, "plenty of it but not much in it!"

And that's exactly what your life is: plenty of it, but nothing much in it. Just accidents and nothing else. You have not yet known the intrinsic. That's what Buddha calls sleep.

The master has woken from his sleep. He has come to see that which is eternal in him.

He has come to see his own consciousness, he has become aware of his own awareness.

And that is the ultimate truth, the ultimate awakening.

AND THE WAY HE HAS TAKEN IS HIDDEN FROM MEN, EVEN FROM SPIRITS AND GODS, BY VIRTUE OF HIS PURITY.

And the way he has taken is invisible. It is not that of fasting; people can see that you are fasting, starving, killing your body. It is not that of torturing your body, it is not that of distorting your body through so-called yoga postures. The way of the buddha is so subtle; nobody can see it except you yourself - unless you come across another buddha.

Only another buddha can see it because it is simply the way of being watchful. How can anybody else see it? It has no ritual.

Buddha's religion is tremendously beautiful - no ritual, no so-called ordinary religious performances - simply, you remain watchful. But that is something inside you, nobody else can even detect what you are doing. You can be driving your car, you can be sitting in your office and you can be doing it. It is not even deep breathing - that others can feel, that you are doing some deep breathing. It is simply vipassana, it is simply watching, watching everything - outside, inside.

Buddha has given the purest way and the simplest and the subtlest - but the most fundamental. He has given the golden key, the master key which can unlock all the mysteries of life and existence.

IN HIM THERE IS NO YESTERDAY, NO TOMORROW, NO TODAY.

Time has disappeared, because when you become absolute awareness there is no time left. Not only yesterdays disappear... they disappear first. In that order they disappear.

IN HIM THERE IS NO YESTERDAY.... First yesterdays disappear; you become more and more unconcerned about the past. What is gone is gone, only fools care for it. And there are fools who are so worried about their past - they even write letters to me....

One man from Switzerland has written a letter just the other day, saying, "Seeing your picture and reading a few of your books I have recognized you, that we have met in our past lives. I recognize you absolutely. I am sending my picture - do you recognize me?

If you recognize me, then I will come."

I have told Laxmi, "Inform that fellow that I don't recognize anybody from the past. The past is finished! You have not read my books and you have not seen me yet. And why should you be concerned about being recognized - that I had seen you in the past?

What purpose is it going to fulfill?" Some ego-fulfillment is involved: "Then I will come" - if I recognize him, that I have seen him in the past.

Now, this type of foolish person is caught by people like Muktananda. They will immediately say, "Yes, we have been together in the past. You have been a disciple to me in the past too and you were working so beautifully and you were growing so high.

Just a little bit is left that can be done now, so get initiated into siddha yoga."

The past exists nowhere. Many people write to me, "Give us methods so that we can remember our past lives." What are you going to do? Even if you remember that you were Alexander the Great or Cleopatra, how is that going to help in any way? It will create more complications. You are already in such a mess!

That's why nature closes the door every time you die. This is great compassion, otherwise you will be born mad. Remembering all your past lives you will be in such a state that it will be impossible for you to function at all, because your mother may have been your wife in the past life and in another life she may have been your daughter.

Now, how to behave with her? - as your mother, as your wife, as your daughter? You will get very confused!

There is no need to bother about the past. As you become aware, the first thing to disappear from your mind is the past, and the past is one third of the mind. It is the very base of the mind, the foundation. Once it disappears, then the whole building starts collapsing.

The second to go is tomorrow. When there is no yesterday you cannot conceive of tomorrow. Tomorrow is nothing but a projection of yesterday. You would like to live the joys of yesterday again tomorrow and you would like to avoid the miseries of yesterday; that's what your tomorrow is. If yesterday is gone, tomorrow is finished; soon it will disappear.

And when yesterdays are gone and tomorrows are gone, where is today? It exists between the two. If both the banks have disappeared, the river itself will disappear. If both the banks have disappeared, the bridge will disappear. Chunk by chunk in three pieces, time dissolves: first the past, then the future, and finally the present. Then you are left with no time, a state of timelessness. And this, Buddha says, is nirvana.

To experience timelessness is to experience deathlessness. To experience timelessness is to experience that which really is. It is neither past nor present nor future; it simply is. It cannot be confined to any compartment, into any category; it cannot be categorized.

You simply experience each moment with tremendous peace and silence and joy. And each moment becomes so fragrant, so alive! Each moment becomes such a benediction that it is impossible to imagine it, it is impossible to describe it. One has to know it to know it; there is no other way. Nobody can explain it to you. It is not expressible, it is not explainable. It is the greatest mystery. When time disappears, mind disappears, what is left? That which is left, that vastness... that is your real being - in Buddha's words, your nonbeing, your no-self.

Jesus will call it the kingdom of God; that is a positive way of describing it. And Buddha calls it a state of cessation - all has ceased. AND WITH GREAT GLADNESS HE KNOWS THAT HE HAS FINISHED. HE HAS WOKEN FROM HIS SLEEP.

Enough for today.