Mind is a fraud

The first sutra:

LET GO OF ANGER, LET GO OF PRIDE.

WHEN YOU ARE BOUND BY NOTHING, YOU GO BEYOND SORROW.

The most important thing to be understood is that Buddha is not saying, "Repress anger, repress pride." And he is not saying, "Drop anger, drop pride," either. He is using the words LET GO OF ANGER, LET GO OF PRIDE. The key is in the words 'let go'.

There are people who are full of anger, possessed by anger, possessed by pride. They are insane. Insanity is the climax of pride and anger. And there are people who are afraid of anger and pride; hence they repress them. But a repressed insanity is far more dangerous, because it accumulates. Then you are sitting on a volcano. It can erupt any moment. It will destroy you. It will destroy others who are related to you. It is poison.

If one has to choose between the two, expressing or repressing, then expressing is far better, because at least the poison never accumulates. It is thrown in mild doses, homeopathic doses. But if you accumulate, it is no longer homeopathy, it becomes allopathy. Then the doses are big and, sooner or later, your repressed anger will be so powerful that you will not be able to keep it repressed anymore. Then it simply explodes and you are absolutely helpless.

Humanity has been taught by the priest, the politician, the pedagogue down the ages to repress anger. The society is not concerned with you, it is concerned only with your outer appearance. What happens to your inner world is nobody's business; whether you suffer, live in hell inside, that is left to you. Just keep a beautiful appearance, learn etiquette, behave in a cultured way and if you are carrying a hell that is your problem.

But the person who is carrying a hell within, howsoever cultivated he becomes, sophisticated, cultured, he remains a wild animal within. Scratch him a little bit and his humanity will disappear, his character will disappear and you will find just the opposite kind of man inside. That's what happens when somebody drinks too much. A very cultured man, once he is intoxicated, starts being very uncultured. That is his truer self. Alcohol has not created it; it has only removed the barriers, it has only removed the rocks that were repressing it.

In the East there has been a secret tradition of tantrikas who go on practicing meditation - and side by side they go on taking drugs in greater and greater amounts for a certain reason. They are not interested in drugs, they are interested in meditation. But they go on increasing the amount of the drug slowly slowly, so that they can remain alert with the drug. It takes a long time, it is a very subtle process of awakening.

In the hands of the fools it will be destructive, it will be suicidal. Hence it is a sacred tradition. Only the master gives it to the disciple - and very rarely. If he finds some disciple of such integrity, then only does he give this process: "Meditate and go on increasing the amount of the drug so slowly that it never overpowers you and your watchfulness remains intact."

But the drug will start removing all rocks and it will bring up all that you have repressed down the ages in your many lives. Watching it you will be allowing it to disappear. That is the magic of watching. If you watch something, either it is going to disappear totally from your being, or it is going to be dissolved into your being. If it is something natural, spontaneous, it will be dissolved into your being. That too is beautiful. If it is something not part of your being, extraneous - has come from the outside, is a parasite on you - it will evaporate.

The real definition of good and bad can only be this: the good is that which grows with meditation, watchfulness, and the bad is that which disappears as you grow in watchfulness, as you grow in awareness. Awareness has to be the decisive factor. When you become aware of your anger there happens a let-go, because anger is not part of your natural being, neither is pride. They start evaporating. As the sun of awareness rises in you, they start evaporating like dewdrops in the early morning sun.

And the second thing to remember: Buddha makes these two statements together, LET GO OF ANGER, LET GO OF PRIDE. Why? There is a reason: pride is ego, "I am superior, I am holier, I am greater, I am something special, I am." Ego is the root cause of anger. If you think you are superior, higher, holier, special, you will be constantly angry, because the world is not going to accept it. In fact everybody else also thinks in the same foolish way. And when there are so many great people, conflict is bound to arise. And everybody is trying to prove that, "I am greater than you." How can you avoid conflict? And that conflict brings anger. It is ego hurting, it is ego feeling the wound, it is unsatisfied ego that creates anger. And nobody's ego can be satisfied, that is impossible.

Even a man like Napoleon could not feel his ego absolutely satisfied, for the simple reason that he was not very tall - only five feet five inches. And that was always heavy on him, because he had many servants, guards who were very much taller than himself.

And whenever he would see a tall person he would become angry. He would not be able to control himself.

The great Russian leader, Lenin, had very small legs. His torso was bigger, his upper body was bigger; his lower body was very small, disproportionate. That kept him always angry. Even if somebody looked at his feet - which was natural, because they were so disproportionate that anybody looking would notice - he would become angry immediately. Anybody looking at his feet would create anger.

He used to sit on a big chair - so big that his feet wouldn't touch the ground - so nobody would think that he had small feet. But people had become aware of his big chair; they would look more closely and that would again create anger, because they would see that his feet were not touching the ground at all. Now, to be the dictator of the greatest country in the world, Soviet Russia, the largest country in the world and yet feeling hurt for a very stupid reason... that you have small legs!

You cannot have all and everything. You can arrange to have a few things, but a few other things will be missing. You may be tall, but you may be ugly. Any small thing is enough to hurt the ego. You may be very tall and very handsome, but unintelligent - you may have a very mediocre mind. You may have a very intelligent mind, but a very ill body. You may have a very strong body, a very good physique, but you don't have any intelligence. You can't manage all. You may have intelligence, a beautiful body but no money. The world is vast and there are a thousand and one things and nobody can manage to have it all - nobody has ever been able to.

And the ego is bound to be wounded; the ego is very sensitive, very fragile, because it is very false. It is ego that creates the space in which anger arises. Hence Buddha says, LET GO OF ANGER, and immediately adds, LET GO OF PRIDE. Because unless you let go of the ego you will not be able to let go of anger. Anger is a by-product. And one has to see very clearly the causes of things. Your minds are so jumbled up, in such a mess, you don't know what is the cause and what is the effect.

A woman used to come from a faraway village to the city each year to give birth to a child. When she came for the seventeenth time the doctor said, "We always wait for you. You are the only one we can depend on that each year you will be here. When will you be coming the next year?"

She said, "I'm not coming anymore, because we have just discovered what is the cause of it all."

Seventeen children and they have just discovered the cause of it all! She said, "I am not coming anymore."

But that too is early. You may have lived thousands of lives and you have not yet been able to find the cause... why this anger? Our minds are in such a mess that you cannot make head or tail of it. You cannot sort it out. Everything is so mixed up with everything else: causes pretending to be effects, effects pretending to be causes, things which are not related at all have become accidentally associated with each other.

Betty Engrove, the singer, switched on her radio one morning and tuned in on two stations at once: one broadcasting calisthenic exercises and the other giving out cooking recipes. Here is what she heard:

"Hands on hips, place one cup of flour on your shoulder. Touch your toes and mix them in one half cup of milk, repeat six times. Inhale one half teaspoon of baking powder, lower the legs and mash two hard boiled eggs, exhaling into a bowl and breathe naturally. Lie flat on the floor and roll in the white of an egg until it comes to a boil. In ten minutes lift your head from the fire and scrub briskly with a rough towel. Bend your knees, shake powdered sugar on them and serve it with soup."

And your mind is tuned to so many stations, not just two! All kinds of things are going on inside the mind. One day just sit down and write whatsoever is coming into the mind. And don't cheat, just write exactly whatsoever comes in and you will be surprised that this is your mind, this is where you have been living your life from. You will find it absolutely insane.

It is good that we don't have windows in the head, otherwise other people would look inside and they would be surprised; they would not be able to believe that this is you.

YOU also will not be able to believe that this is what your mind is.

But this is the reality. People never look inside. In fact, as if unconsciously, they suspect that if they look inside they will find insanity there. It is better not to look; avoid, keep the mind in the dark and remain occupied with something in the outside world. People keep themselves busy without business for the simple reason that it helps them not to look in. They have become alienated from their own minds.

If you look in, in the beginning of course it is going to be a chaos; but if you start watching the chaos, slowly slowly things start settling and you will be able to see what are the causes and what are the effects. Once you have known the causes, you are on the right track. Many people are fighting with the effects. You can never win, you are bound to lose. Effects are only symptoms. You cannot fight with anger, because it is only an effect - the cause is ego.

You cannot fight with causes either; unless you find that this is the ultimate cause.

Anger is an effect; for anger, ego is the cause. But if you go deep down, watching your ego you will be surprised, it is also in its own turn an effect - an effect of unawareness.

Unawareness is the cause.

You can go on from anywhere - from greed, from lust, from anger, from jealousy, from possessiveness and you will always come to the ultimate cause: unawareness.

So the only way to get rid of this mess, this chaos, is to be aware. And once you are aware you need not repress anything, you need not even drop; things start dropping on their own, they start disappearing on their own. That's what Buddha means when he says: LET GO OF ANGER, LET GO OF PRIDE. WHEN YOU ARE BOUND BY NOTHING, YOU GO BEYOND SORROW. And these are the two things which are keeping you tethered in an insane state. These are the two things which are creating all your sorrow and misery. Ego, hidden behind, goes on working, poisoning you. Anger is either expressed, then it poisons your relationships with people, or it is repressed, then it poisons your own being.

And slowly slowly, you find yourself in such a state in which many people would like to die; many people contemplate suicide for the simple reason that life is so painful and death seems to be a relief. Millions of people around the earth contemplate suicide - many of them try, many of them succeed too. And those who don't contemplate suicide contemplate murder; they think that others are creating their trouble, so destroy others.

Either they want to destroy others, or they want to destroy themselves, because they find no joy in life. When you don't find joy in life, when you are not blissful, you become destructive, either a sadist or a masochist.

When your life is full of joy, unbounded joy, it is creative, then great creativity is born in you. Then you do something to contribute to the evolution of humanity, to the evolution of the whole universe. You add some beauty to it, you share your celebration with it. You make at least a few flowers bloom.

You leave the world in great contentment, because creativity brings contentment. You leave this world joyously, because it has been such a beautiful opportunity to grow, to mature, to become aware. It has been such a joy to create a few things and share those things with people; otherwise you live in sorrow and you die in sorrow.

ANGER IS LIKE A CHARIOT CAREERING WILDLY.

HE WHO CURBS HIS ANGER IS THE TRUE CHARIOTEER.

OTHERS MERELY HOLD THE REINS.

If you look at people or at yourself, you will find that anger is as if it is a chariot without a driver.

Just the other day I was reading a book:

A man has lived in the desert and he writes of many experiences he had there. He tried one experiment:

There were no roads, there were no people, no trees, no rocks, no hills; just a desert, spread out for thousands of miles. And for centuries it had been so infertile, it had become hard. It was not a sand desert, the crust was very hard.

He was driving his car, suddenly a whimsical idea arose in him. He moved to the seat next to the driver's - he was the only one in the car. He left the driver's seat and let the car run on its own, because there was no road, no people, there was no fear of any accident. The car started moving. It was a rare experience. Then he jumped out of the car.

Greater ideas came to his mind... and the car was still going on. Then he ran after the car, jumped in again, took out his bicycle and went exactly opposite to the car on his bicycle till the car was just a speck far away on the horizon. It was still moving, going nowhere, still going.

Then he again bicycled towards the car. It was strange. He writes it was thrilling that the car was still moving, going nowhere.

Reading his notes, I suddenly remembered Buddha's sutra: ANGER IS LIKE A CHARIOT CAREERING WILDLY. HE WHO CURBS HIS ANGER IS THE TRUE CHARIOTEER. OTHERS MERELY HOLD THE REINS. They may not even be holding the reins - they may be simply sitting there. The car is running on its own. Your body is running on its own, your mind is running on its own. You are not needed at all. You can jump out of the window, take your bicycle, go away from the car and it will still be moving. And one day you can come back to meet yourself.

Yes, this has been tried. People down the ages have tried out-of-the-body experiences; they are exactly the same. You can try it. If you go a little deeper into meditation, one day you can find a way to get out of the body, to run in the room. Even running is not needed, you can float in the air, look at the body lying down there, sleeping, snoring; you can listen to the snoring. Everything is functioning perfectly well, the engine is humming, you can come close to the heart and listen to the beat. The body is breathing.

You are not needed at all. You can escape from the window, go around the neighborhood, come back, enter into the body, you are still fast asleep. It makes no difference, as if the body does not care much whether you are in or out.

The body is a very complicated, subtle mechanism; it is automatic, it does not need you.

You have not done anything, that's why you are not needed.

If you become a real charioteer then you will be needed. If you are a meditator you will be needed. Then there are a few things the body cannot do. It cannot meditate on its own - that is impossible. It can snore, it can sleep on its own, but it cannot be aware on its own. For awareness you are needed.

Remember it: only that thing is worth doing for which YOU are needed. Things which can be done without you are nonessential things. To devote your whole life to them is to miss the whole point.

"Take me to the railway station," said the drunk, stumbling into a waiting taxi.

"Look mate, we are at the railway station," said the cabby.

"Thanks," murmured the drunk, handing over a five-dollar bill. "And next time, don't drive so bloody fast."

The taxi had not moved even an inch. Your life may remain exactly where it was when you were born. It may not move even an inch. Millions die exactly as they are born. No growth happens, no flowering comes to their lives. Whether they are or are not simply makes no difference. They come and go like shadows. Their life is not worth calling life; they simply vegetate.

A farmer munching on a cookie was watching a big rooster chasing a hen and gaining ground at every lap. The farmer threw a piece of cookie in front of the racing pair.

The rooster came to a sliding stop and gobbled up the tidbit.

"Gosh," said the farmer, "I hope I never get that hungry."

But the rooster, the lion, the tiger, the dog, the cat and you, are not in any way different - unless something of buddhahood starts arising in you. The rooster is dominated by his hunger, by his lust; so are you.

B.F. Skinner, the modern prophet of the behaviorist school of psychology, says that man is a machine. And about ninety-nine point nine per cent of people he is correct. George Gurdjieff used to say that man is a machine. And he was not a behavioral psychologist.

He was one of the greatest spiritual giants who has ever walked on the earth. But still he used to say that not everybody has got a soul. It is very rarely that a person has a soul.

And I can understand B.F. Skinner. It is impossible for him to come across a buddha and to study a buddha. He studied rats and you; and he finds no difference. The instincts possessed by the rat are the same instincts possessed by man. Of course man is a little more complicated, true, a more complicated machine, that's all; a computer.

One day I was reading a fictitious story about the future, when scientists will be able to make mechanical men, robots. They look exactly like men, except that they have no soul. But from the outside you can't see any difference: they talk, they make love, they eat, they get tired and they go to sleep. And if you meet a robot - who looks exactly like a man - how are you going to judge whether he is a robot? Are you holding the hand of a robot or a man? Only once in a while will you be able to know: when the battery runs down and the robot starts, "Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr." Otherwise there is no difference.

You were making love to the robot and the robot says, "Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr." Then suddenly you become aware that this is not a man! But up to now he was perfectly alright. He was reciting great poetry, discussing great ideas, philosophy, quoting Socrates and Aristotle and he was hugging you and telling you, "I love you, and I will love you forever."

And these are all recorded things that he has been saying to every woman he meets.

The moment he sees a woman something triggers in him and he starts talking poetically and saying, "I love you and I will die without you."

I have heard of a psychoanalyst who was very much puzzled. He was in love with a woman, but the woman was a little strange. Whenever he would say to her, "I love you," she would look down.

He asked her, "What is the matter? Whenever I say, 'I love you,' are you feeling ashamed, embarrassed or what? Why do you start looking down?"

She said, "I look down to see whether you really mean it. ... Because I can't trust your mind. I can only trust your body."

It is very difficult to lie through the body. One can learn it, actors do that - but very few are actors. Otherwise it is a very difficult art to make the body lie. The mind is perfectly at ease in lying; it can say things which it doesn't mean. But the body is still far more authentic, far more true. What irony, that the body seems to be more authentic and your mind seems to be simply a fraud!

You can attain to the soul only by becoming more watchful of all that is happening in your body and in your mind. Unless and until the witness arises in you, you are a robot.

Sheela has written a question to me: "When I go away from you, I am such a rat, but when I come back to you I become just a mouse."

I know what she means. People think there is much difference between rats and mice; there is not much. The mouse is just a sophisticated rat, college-educated, a hypocrite.

The rat is far more authentic, the rat is whatsoever he is. The mouse has a facade. But there is not much difference between the rat and the mouse. There is not much difference between the mouse and man, and there is not much difference between man and the machine.

The difference arises - the only difference that makes a difference - in meditation.

Before it, you can never have any differences. All differences are only formal.

That's why psychologists study rats, particularly white rats, because they are simple people and it is easier to understand them. Once you have understood the mind of the rat, you have understood the mind of man too. They infer all their knowledge about man through studying rats. It is really a condemnation of man that rats supply information about you. And that information works, it is perfectly applicable to you - you behave in the same way.

That information will not be applicable to a Buddha, to a Jesus, to a Krishna. But where is B.F. Skinner going to find a buddha? And even if he can find a buddha, who is going to study whom? The buddha will study Skinner, not vice versa. Skinner will not be able to study a buddha; he will not have the right context, he knows only how to study rats.

A buddha will be absolutely incomprehensible to him. And when something is incomprehensible, the ego simply denies it. That is the ego's way of protecting itself.

The incomprehensible, the mysterious has to be denied, overlooked, bypassed. One does not take note of the incomprehensible, because to take note of the incomprehensible means you are taking note of the limitation of your mind, and that hurts the ego.

Hence, buddhas are born once in a while, but nobody takes note of them. That is the difference between the Eastern and the Western psychology. Western psychology is based on the understanding of rats. Eastern psychology is not based on the understanding of rats or even on the understanding of man.

Eastern psychology is rooted in the psychology of the buddhas. We think from the highest and then we come downwards. First we think of the ultimate and from there we infer about those who are on lower ranks - it is respectful.

Trying to observe the lowest and inferring about the higher is humiliating; it is ugly and it is going to be wrong. It is like studying a seed and inferring about a flower. Now, studying a seed, how can you infer about a flower? You can dissect the seed, you can look into it; you will not find any color and you will not find any beauty and you will not find any fragrance. Although it contains them all, but they are still in the unmanifest.

And if you decide by the seed about the flower and you say that the flowers don't have any fragrance - can't have, because when it is not in the seed, how it can be in the flower? And the flowers are not beautiful, because the seed is not beautiful... then everything has to be reduced to the lowest denominator; then the flower has to be simply denied - that it is just poetic imagination and nothing else. That's what has been done about buddhas. The materialists go on denying their existence, they say it is poetic imagination. Such people have not existed, cannot exist; it is impossible for them to exist, because the seed does not show any sign of them.

The psychology of the buddhas starts from the other extreme. It starts from the highest:

it studies the flower and then infers about the seed. Because the flower has fragrance, it says the seed MUST have it; it is unmanifest. The flower is beautiful, the seed must have beauty in it, covered, hidden. The flower has color, the seed must have it, just waiting for its right time, for the spring, to explode into color, into fragrance, into beauty. Now this is the right way to understand man: not through rats, not even through ordinary man, but through buddhas.

This is the difference between the Eastern and the Western approach. The Western approach has reduced man to a very ugly phenomenon. The Eastern psychology has raised man to the height of the gods. And then the very process of both the psychologies becomes different. Western psychology goes through analysis, thinking - that is its method. Eastern psychology follows the method of no-mind, of meditation; not of analysis, not of thinking, but of silence. Because to see the beauty of the flower you need silence, not analysis; beauty can never be understood through analysis. The dance of the flower in the wind, in the sun, in the rain, cannot be understood by the head; the heart has to be open for it.

WITH GENTLENESS OVERCOME ANGER....

This sutra is also tremendously important. Now Buddha is saying.... Anger contains energy. You cannot simply throw it away. It is your energy. Throwing it away will make you weak. Energies are not to be thrown away, but to be transformed. WITH GENTLENESS OVERCOME ANGER.... Let your anger be transformed into gentleness.

WITH GENEROSITY OVERCOME MEANNESS, WITH TRUTH OVERCOME DECEIT.

He is saying that meditation is an alchemical process - it is not morality, it is alchemy.

It is the science of the soul. Through meditation anger slowly slowly disappears, and its energy becomes available and becomes gentleness.

You will be surprised to know that if you suffer from great anger you have great potential for gentleness. Anger simply shows that you have great energy. A man without anger is impotent, he has no energy. A man who cannot be angry cannot be gentle either. WITH GENEROSITY OVERCOME MEANNESS. Don't repress meanness, don't destroy meanness, but with generosity transform it into a generous consciousness, into sharing.

WITH TRUTH OVERCOME DECEIT. Don't fight with darkness, bring light in. That is the essence of this sutra. Don't fight with the negative, bring the positive in. And the positive comes through watchfulness - the negative is already there. Your society prepares you for the negative, your society needs you to be negative. Your society wants you to be angry, full of anger, so that you can be forced into war, into crusades:

religious, political, ideological conflicts; so you can be manipulated into killing people.

Or, you can be manipulated into becoming martyrs; destructive to yourself.

Millions of Christians have died, Mohammedans have died, killing each other for the simple reason that so much anger is repressed, it needs some outlet. You will be surprised to know that Buddhism is the only religion in the world which has not shed blood, the only religion in the world which has converted millions of people without coercion of any kind.

Christianity has converted thousands of people, but with coercion. In the beginning it was by the sword. Mohammedans have converted millions of people, but it is through the sword, forcibly, violently. This is not conversion, this is something absolutely ugly and irreligious.

Now the sword is no longer used, because to use the sword directly will be condemned all over the world, so subtle means of coercion are used. In poor countries you can go with bread and butter, with clothes, with better facilities for life and you can convert people. Christian missionaries are doing this all over the world, particularly in the poor countries. It is not a conversion to Christ - it is not at all a conversion - it is simply purchasing people with bread and butter. People are starving - whosoever can give them food, they are ready to go with him.

Buddhism is the only religion in the world which has really converted people without the sword, without bread and butter, without any coercion, positive or negative; which has simply converted through its understanding of people, bringing them more light, bringing them more understanding of their minds, their bodies.

And this is of great importance. Never fight with the negative. Your society prepares you for the negative. Transform the negative into the positive; transformation is possible. The medium that has to be used is meditation. Just become more watchful of all your mind things - anger, greed, meanness; otherwise you can cultivate, you can deceive others and you can deceive yourself, but you will remain mean. A miser can donate, giving charity, but he is giving with calculation. His miserliness is there. Now he is opening a bank account in the other world. He wants to have a bank balance there too.

A blind man was standing in a bus queue, when his neighbor was startled to see a dog calmly cock his leg and piss all down the blind man's trousers.

When the blind man realized what was happening, he put his hand into his pocket and produced a bar of chocolate that he held downwards for the dog.

"That's a very charitable thing to do," said his neighbor.

"Oh," replied the blind man, "I am just finding out where his mouth is so I can kick him in the balls."

So don't be deceived about what people are doing on the outside, deep inside they may be calculating something else. Their act may be generous, but their motive is the real thing that matters; not the act, but the intention.

A man picked up a woman in a bar one night and took her home to his apartment.

When they got there, she started to disrobe, but he stopped her, saying, "No, let us just sit here on the couch together, and if you will keep both of your hands on my head while you are here, I will give you twenty dollars."

The girl thought this a little unusual, but did as he requested. Finally, she could not restrain her curiosity any longer and asked, "But what kind of a thrill do you get out of having my hands on your head?"

"No thrill," he answered. "I just get a sense of security knowing that your hands are on my head and not in my pocket - for twenty dollars it is worth it."

The people who are miserly will remain miserly, even in their sharing. If you look deep down you will find they are trying to bargain for something, there is some business hidden in it. The priests go on telling people, "If you give to poor people here, you will get a thousandfold in the other world" - a thousandfold, it is like a lottery! And who would not like to have it? Give a little bit here and you will get a thousandfold there.

Priests have been cheating people, because people are mean, because people are miserly; otherwise priests would disappear from the world. If people are really generous there will be no need for the priests, nobody can exploit generous people.

They give for the sheer joy of giving. They don't think that giving is a means to some end. If you think giving is a means to some end you miss the whole point. Unless giving becomes a joy in itself, you don't know what it is.

SPEAK THE TRUTH, GIVE WHATEVER YOU CAN, NEVER BE ANGRY.

THESE THREE STEPS WILL LEAD YOU INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE GODS.

Speak the truth, whatsoever the cost. It is going to cost you much, because the world lives in lies. People are brought up in such a way that truth never crosses their paths.

And they are forced to believe in something which their society, their church, their state wants them to believe in; it is not a question of truth. People love lies, because lies are very consoling. And people love lies because others are also believers in the same lies - and you feel part of others, you feel a kind of belonging, you don't feel alone.

The man of truth feels alone. A Socrates, a Pythagoras, a Heraclitus find themselves alone, very alone. In this world if you say the truth and you live the truth, you will have to live alone. You will not find many people who would like to be with you. You will not find great company in the world. You will find few people who are lovers of truth.

And you will always be in danger, because your truth will be a dangerous thing for those who live in lies. They will not tolerate you. You will become an unbearable phenomenon for them. They will be bent upon destroying you.

But still, even if life is sacrificed, truth is worth it. A moment of truth is more valuable than a hundred years of life, because a moment of truth makes you part of eternity, part of God.

SPEAK THE TRUTH, GIVE WHATEVER YOU CAN. It is not a question that you have to give money or you have to give this and that; whatever you can, whatever you have - - if you have a song, sing the song, share it. If you can dance, dance and share it. GIVE WHATEVER YOU CAN. And, NEVER BE ANGRY, because people may not accept your gift. Don't get angry about that. People may never thank you, they may not feel grateful to you. On the contrary, they may feel offended by you.

It has always been so; they were offended by Jesus, they were offended by Buddha.

Why? - because those people look so different from the ordinary, that people become aware of their own ordinariness and it hurts. They bring great treasures to share - but it hurts, because they have that great treasure and we don't have anything. People will not be thankful to you, in fact they will never be able to forgive you. They may crucify you, they may stone you to death.

Hence Buddha reminds you again: remember, don't expect anything, otherwise anger will be natural. If you expect even gratefulness from people and they don't show any gratefulness - on the contrary, they show great ungratefulness - you may feel angry.

Beware, your joy is in giving. It is not for you to be worried about whether what you give is accepted or is not accepted; is accepted with gratefulness or is accepted indifferently.

You do good to people, they may do bad to you... still, don't be angry. Remember this is how things are, this is how people are. Remembering it will help you not to become enraged.

THE WISE HARM NO ONE... but the fools enjoy harming others. And who is wise?

Not the one who knows much, but the one who understands much. The wise is not one who has all the scriptures at the tip of his tongue; the wise is one who has seen his own reality, and seeing it has become aware of the universe and its beauty and its intelligence. The wise is one who has seen the wisdom of existence; he is not knowledgeable, but he is absolutely innocent. How can he harm anyone? - that is impossible, because he can't see others as different from himself. He sees the whole as one.

Beware of knowledgeable people, beware of the so-called experienced, they are not wise.

Two women were sitting in the doctor's waiting room, comparing notes on their various disorders.

"I want a baby more than anything in the world," said the first, "but I guess it's impossible."

"I used to feel just the same way," said the second, "but then everything changed. That's why I'm here; I'm going to have a baby in three months."

"You must tell me what you did!"

"I went to a faith healer."

"But I have tried that. My husband and I went to one for nearly a year and it didn't help a bit."

The other woman smiled and whispered, "Try going alone next time, dearie!"

The experienced people, the people who have lived life... they appear wise; they are not wise, they are only mature fools. And mature fools are more dangerous than the immature fools, because the mature fool has all the arguments to support his foolishness, all his experience is at his disposal.

The professor of criminal law was concluding his final lecture before the holidays.

"Remember, gentlemen, if you have an affair with an underage girl, with or without her consent, it is rape! If you have an affair with a girl of age without her consent, that is rape; but if you have an affair with a girl of age with her consent, Merry Christmas!"

These people are wise in a way, wise in the ways of the world; they can give you good advice, but they are not wise in the sense Buddha uses the word. They are as foolish as you are, just a little bit more experienced. And foolishness does not disappear with experience.

"I am looking for adventure, excitement, beautiful women," cried the young man to his father as he prepared to leave home. "Don't try to stop me! I'm on my way."

"Who is trying to stop you?" yelled the father, "take me along!"

THE WISE HARM NO ONE, THEY ARE MASTERS OF THEIR BODIES AND THEY GO TO THE BOUNDLESS COUNTRY, THEY GO BEYOND SORROW.

As you become a witness, as you become aware, you simply come to know that you are not the body, not the mind, not even the heart. You are simply a watcher, different from all that surrounds you. The body is your outermost boundary; the mind a little more inner, the heart still more inner, but at the innermost core you are just a consciousness.

Knowing this you become detached from your own body, your mind, your heart; and that detachment brings mastery. Not that you become destructive to the body - you take every care of it, it is a beautiful instrument, it is a great gift of God. But now you know that it is only the house you live in. Just as you take care of your house, you take care of your body; it is the temple.

Your consciousness is your reality; you become disidentified, and to be disidentified is to be the master.

THOSE WHO SEEK PERFECTION KEEP WATCH BY DAY AND NIGHT TILL ALL DESIRES VANISH.

Buddha expects only one thing from you: keep watch day and night till all desires vanish. Make your watchfulness so integrated, so powerful, so strong and so unwavering that it helps all the desires to evaporate, vanish. Desires are not to be dropped, but allowed to evaporate. LET GO OF ANGER, LET GO OF PRIDE. WHEN YOU ARE BOUND BY NOTHING, YOU GO BEYOND SORROW.

LISTEN, ATULA, THIS IS NOT NEW....

Atula is a disciple of Buddha. Buddha is saying to Atula: LISTEN, ATULA, THIS IS NOT NEW....

IT IS AN OLD SAYING.

THEY BLAME YOU FOR BEING SILENT, THEY BLAME YOU WHEN YOU TALK TOO MUCH AND WHEN YOU TALK TOO LITTLE.

WHATEVER YOU DO THEY BLAME YOU.

Why does Buddha suddenly address Atula? He was addressing all his sannyasins, and out of nowhere he suddenly addresses Atula. You may not be able to see the point immediately. Atula may be the one who was not listening, who was hearing, but not listening. And when you are in communion with a buddha, he knows perfectly well who is listening and who is only hearing. This happens here every day. When new people come, it is so clear that they are only hearing, not listening. As you live here a little longer, slowly slowly you start listening.

Listening is a totally different phenomenon than hearing. Hearing is physiological.

Because you have ears, so you can hear. Listening is a deep phenomenon. You listen only when you are in absolute silence. Those who have been here long enough are falling into that silence.

Atula must have been hearing only, must have been a new disciple; hence Buddha specifically mentions his name, LISTEN, ATULA.... And it is also possible that Atula was thinking that Buddha was saying something very new, very strange. In fact what buddhas say is, in a way, the eternal truth, as ancient as the Himalayas; and in another way it is as fresh as the flower that has blossomed just this morning, as fresh as the dewdrops and as old as the Himalayas.

And all the buddhas in the past have said the same thing; maybe in different languages, with different expressions, in different ways. "There is nothing new under the sun." It is a truth - but only half. The other half is, "There is everything new under the sun."

Because truth has the capacity to renew itself continuously, to be reborn again and again. So buddhas always speak the ancientmost truth, and yet they speak the most rebellious truth possible.

Buddha says: THIS IS NOT NEW, ATULA, IT IS AN OLD SAYING. People are such that they will always find reasons to blame you. They blame you for being silent - if you are silent they will blame you: "Why are you silent?" If you are talking too much they will blame you: "Why do you talk so much?" If you talk too little, they will blame you: "Why do you talk so little?"

Whatever you do, they blame you, because by blaming you their egos feel satisfied.

Nobody looks at his own faults and everybody is capable of seeing the faults of others; not only seeing them, but magnifying them as much as possible.

Mother called upstairs, "Caroline, please stop that shouting and screaming. Why can't you play quietly like Tommy, who is not making a sound?"

"He's not supposed to make a sound," said Caroline. "We're playing our family. He's Daddy, after getting home late for dinner, and I'm you."

It is very simple to see others' faults, because one wants to see the faults of others. If they are not there, then one invents them. Your ego can live only by feeling superior; so you make every possible use of others' faults to feel superior. Blaming others is nothing but a strategy of the ego to feel superior. Beware of it.

The world always finds a way to praise and a way to blame. It always has and it always will. Yes, sometimes it praises too, but it praises only when you are helping other people's ego - then it praises you. For example, if you say to the Hindus that their religion is the greatest religion in the world, they will praise you.

How can they praise me? Impossible! Because I am simply saying the truth: that no religion is greater than any other religion; that all religions are in the same trap of the priests. You may call the priest the shankaracharya, you may call the priest the pope, it does not matter. All the religions are in the grip of politicians. Hindus and Christians and Mohammedans, they are all no longer religions, but just politics - power politics hiding behind the name of religion. No religion is greater than any other, superior to any other. In fact, a really religious person is neither Christian, nor Hindu, nor Mohammedan. He is simply religious.

Indians will praise you if you praise India: if you say that this is the greatest land in the world, the most spiritual land in the world - then their egos are puffed up, they will praise you. They will blame you to puff up their egos, and they will praise you if you puff them up. The whole game is of the ego.

BUT WHO DARES BLAME THE MAN WHOM THE WISE CONTINUALLY PRAISE, WHOSE LIFE IS VIRTUOUS AND WISE, WHO SHINES LIKE A COIN OF PURE GOLD?

Don't be worried about the praise and the blame of the ordinary masses, of the crowd.

Yes, if you have to pay attention, then pay attention to the wise. If they say that something is wrong with you, listen carefully, because they are trying to help you. They have no egos to fulfill from your faults. They are just like mirrors; they reflect your face.

If you have an ugly face, don't destroy the mirror; simply try to change your face.

And the wise ones praise too, but they praise not to puff up your ego. In fact they praise you only when they see that you are becoming a nobody; their praise showers like flowers on you. When you are becoming a nobody, when you are becoming a nothingness, you are coming closer and closer to the divinity hidden within you.

EVEN THE GODS PRAISE HIM, EVEN BRAHMA PRAISES HIM.

A person who is praised by the wise, by the enlightened ones, is praised by the gods, is praised by the whole universe - by the creator himself, by Brahma. Their praise is worth... even if a single buddha smiles at you, it is enough. The whole world may condemn you; don't be worried about it. If all the blind people of the world gather together and praise your beauty, will you be happy about it? They can't see, they have no eyes to see; you will not be very happy by being praised by the blind.

In India we have a saying that the best couple is when the husband is deaf and the wife is blind. The husband can go on doing whatsoever he wants - fooling around - and the wife can go on saying whatsoever she wants; the husband is deaf and the wife is blind.

The saying says it happens only very rarely, with the blessings of God. It doesn't happen ordinarily. But what is the point of being praised by blind people? They can't see. And why be worried by their condemnation? They can't see your faults either.

But a buddha, an enlightened one, if he praises you, that means he has seen ego disappearing. If he finds fault with you, that simply shows he is trying to help you so you can drop the fault.

BE AWARE OF THE ANGER OF THE BODY, MASTER THE BODY, LET IT SERVE TRUTH.

Anger has three layers. The first layer is the anger of the body. BE AWARE OF THE ANGER OF THE BODY. You may not have watched it: that the body accumulates anger, that the body has its own ways of accumulating anger. When you feel angry you gnash your teeth, you clench your fists - why?

In fact, in the East there have been devices to help you. Those are temporary helps, but of great value because they can make you aware of many things. When you feel angry, just gnash your teeth, clench your fists and you will be surprised: that as you gnash your teeth and clench your fists and just fight with the air - a shadow boxing - within five minutes the anger is gone. Something has happened, something has been released.

Now, Postural Integration, Rolfing, and methods like that are becoming very much aware that your repressed angers, sexuality, greed and all kinds of poisons accumulate in the body, in the muscles. By deep massage those poisons can be released. Rolfing is really a great contribution. Deep massage of the body can be of great help. It can make you aware that your body is carrying many things; and your body drives you into things which you may not have gone into if the body was not driving you there.

BE AWARE OF THE ANGER OF THE BODY, Buddha says, MASTER THE BODY, LET IT SERVE TRUTH.

How to master the body? The first thing is to learn relaxation. Buddha taught his disciples how to relax. In the East, particularly, in the science of yoga, there is a special posture, SHAVASANA. This is the posture: lie down on the ground as if you are dead.

Let the body slowly slowly die. Start from the feet. In fact, communicate with your body; say to the feet, "Die, please die." And then go on upwards.

A psychoanalyst had told one of his patients, "All that you need is relaxation, so from tonight you start relaxing. Start from the feet; say to your toes, 'Toes relax, feet relax,'

and go on upwards, talking to each limb and then finally, tell your mind to relax."

The man went home. He was very much thrilled by the idea; the whole day he waited for the night. The night came, he was lying on the bed. He had taken a good, hot shower as the psychiatrist had suggested, was feeling a little relaxed lying down on the bed.

He started: "Toes relax, feet relax, legs relax, thighs relax," and so on, and so forth.

He was just coming to the mind to say, "Mind relax," and his wife came out of the bathroom absolutely naked, ready to go to sleep. Suddenly the man shouted, "Wake up!

Everybody wake up!"

This won't help. Hence Buddha does not say to relax, to go to sleep, because then you can wake up and you can call everybody else to wake up. He says, "Feel dead. Let the body die for the moment, as if you are just a corpse." You cannot do anything. An ant starts crawling on you; you can't do anything.

And it is really a great experience, to feel like a corpse, and the ant crawling on your face or a mosquito biting; but you can't do anything, you are simply a watcher. It is a rare experience to go through it. Slowly slowly, you become a master by relaxing your body. The more tense your body is, the more it is a master of you.

BE AWARE OF THE ANGER OF THE MOUTH....

And when you have learned how to relax the anger of the body, the rage of the body, then start becoming aware of what you say. Sometimes, unconsciously, you say a word.

You were not aware of the implications of the word. You may not have ever thought that it would create such trouble for you.

A young man arranged for his fiancee to meet his parents over cocktails at a swanky hotel. After his family left, the girl asked if she had made a good impression on them.

"Well, frankly, darling," he said, "my mother told me privately that she found you a little vulgar."

"But did you tell her that I went to one of the best finishing schools?" she asked.

"Yes, of course I did."

"And did you tell her of my interest in art and culture?"

"Certainly."

"And did you tell her how important my family is in the neighborhood?"

"Naturally, I did," he replied.

"Then what is this 'vulgar' crap all about?" the delicate young lady asked.

People go on saying things, not really aware of what they are saying. In fact, their minds are like gramophone records. They simply repeat.

Now science has discovered that holes can be made in your head and electrodes can be put in; certain points can be pushed and a very strange thing happens. For example, an electrode is pushed into your brain at a certain center and you start saying something for no reason at all. Nobody has asked it, there is no context for it, but you start saying it. Then the electrode is taken out and you stop saying it. Again the electrode is pushed in; you start the same thing again from the very beginning - again the same sentences, the same words. It can be done a hundred times and each time you will do it again, as if the electrode is nothing but a needle on the gramophone record.

Your mind is a great recording mechanism. You have recorded all kinds of things and you go on saying them, thinking that YOU are saying; that is not true. Unless you are really watchful, YOU are not saying things. Your mind goes on repeating old patterns and you go on getting into old problems, again and again. BE AWARE OF THE ANGER OF THE MOUTH....

MASTER YOUR WORDS, LET THEM SERVE TRUTH.

BE AWARE OF THE ANGER OF THE MIND....

And finally, slowly, first the body, then the word, then the mind.

MASTER YOUR THOUGHTS LET THEM SERVE TRUTH.

THE WISE HAVE MASTERED BODY, WORD AND MIND, THEY ARE THE TRUE MASTERS.

If you can watch the body, the mind and all their functionings, you will become so separate from them that you can master them.

You can master something only when you have a distance from it. If you are identified with it you cannot master it. And Buddha says one who is master of his own self is the master of the whole existence; he has entered into a different plane of life. You are slaves, he is a master; you are machines, he is a real man; you function unconsciously, he functions consciously.

And to function consciously is to go beyond all sorrow, is to go beyond all misery, is to go beyond all anguish, is to go into the beyond. Other religions call that beyond "God"; Buddha calls it simply "the beyond." Prepare for the beyond.... Become masters of your own beings.

Enough for today.

The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 6