A real man is unpredictable

The first question:

Question 1:

Yes, Amitabh, that's the secret of life and death both, the secret of the secrets: how to allow existence to pass through you totally unhindered, unobstructed, how to be in a state of absolute nonresistance. Buddha calls it TATHATA - suchness.

The ego is resistance. Let-go means disappearance of the ego. When you are just a hollow bamboo, existence sings millions of songs through you. It transforms you into a beautiful flute. But you have to be a hollow bamboo, utterly empty, so there is nothing to obstruct the flow.

A total yes is sannyas, an unconditional yes: yes to all, to life and to death - because death is not against life but is life's ultimate culmination, its highest peak. Yes to joy and yes to sadness too, because joy cannot exist without sadness. Joy is possible only if sadness creates the background. They are joined together so intrinsically that they are inseparable. And man's whole effort is to separate them. Man goes on trying to do the impossible - he wants to live without death. Now that is utter stupidity! Life implies death; death is at the very core of life. The only way to deny death is to deny life too.

So the people who have tried to deny death have died; before death has come they are no longer there. They have not lived at all. In denying death they had to deny life too, because the more you live the more you become available to death. When life is at the peak, death is the closest. Avoid death and you will have to avoid the peaks of life. You will have to live in a lukewarm way, neither dead nor alive, which is far worse than death itself.

And so is the case with all the polar opposites: destroy one and the other is automatically destroyed. You cannot save the other; they are like two aspects of the same coin.

Seeing it, Amitabh, a great understanding arises. One relaxes. One says yes, to life, to death, to darkness, to light, to sadness, to joy, to all that is without any choice. That choiceless understanding is enlightenment, is buddhahood.

You say, "When that moment comes the leaf lets go its tender hold and greets its dying with inner grace...."

That's how YOU have to learn to die. The way of the leaf is the way of the sannyasin too. And your hold has to be tender; otherwise it will be difficult to let go. Your hold has to be almost not a hold at all. Your hold cannot be a clinging. Only those people cling who don't understand this polar game of existence, and their clinging destroys all.

They have to die, but their death becomes graceless. They have to die, as everybody else, but their death becomes agony.

The word 'agony' comes from AGON - agon means struggle. Agony means struggle.

They die fighting. The whole fight is an exercise in futility: they are not going to win, but still they go on trying. Millions of people have tried and failed; still we are such fools, we go on repeating the same pattern. We still hope that "Maybe I am the exception, maybe I can manage somehow."

Nobody has been able to manage, not because they have not tried enough, not because they have not tried strongly, but because it is not possible in the very nature of things.

They have done all that can be done, nothing has been left undone, but death is bound to happen - in fact it has already happened in your very birth. To be born is one pole; the other pole is hidden in it.

One starts dying the moment one starts breathing. The first moment of birth is also the first moment of death. Yes, it takes seventy, eighty years to complete the process. Death does not come suddenly after eighty years; it grows, it grows every moment. It is growing now.... Life is one wing, death is another wing, and both wings are yours. And you are trying to fly with one wing? This is how you create misery for yourself, failure and frustration. Accept both.

Let your hold be tender, so tender that it can be dropped at any moment and there will be no struggle in dropping it, not even a moment's delay - because even a moment's delay is enough to miss the point, to miss the grace of it.

My work here consists of teaching you how to live and how to die, how to be joyous and how to be sad, how to enjoy your youth and how to enjoy your old age, how to enjoy your health and how to enjoy your illness. If I teach you only how to enjoy your health, your joy, your life, and the other part is neglected, then I am teaching you something which is going to create a division in you, a split in you.

I teach you the totality of existence. Don't possess, don't hold anything, don't cling. Let things come and pass. Allow things to pass through you, and you remain always vulnerable, available. And then there is great beauty, great grace, great ecstasy. Your sadness will also bring a depth to you, as much as your joy. Your death will bring great gifts to you, as many as life itself. Then a man knows that this whole existence is his:

nights and days, summers and winters, all are yours.

In remaining vulnerable, open, relaxed, you become a master. That's a strange phenomenon, very paradoxical: in remaining surrendered to existence you become victorious. And these moments will be coming to you again and again. My whole effort is to bring more and more of such moments, such penetrating moments, for you. Don't behave stupidly, don't go on repeating old strategies, old patterns of your mind. Learn new ways of being.

And the greatest thing to learn is not to hold onto anything: to your love, to your joy, to your body, to your health. Enjoy everything - your health, your body, your love, your woman, your man - but don't cling. Keep your hands open - don't become a fist. If you become a fist you become closed - closed to the winds and the rains and the sun and the moon, closed to God himself. And that is the ugliest way to live; it is creating a grave around yourself. Then your existence is windowless. You go on suffocating inside and you are suffocating because you think you are creating safety and security for yourself.

I have heard an ancient Sufi parable:

A king was very much afraid of death, as everyone is - and the more you have, the more, of course, you are afraid. A poor man is not as much afraid of death. What has he got to lose? What has life given to him? He remains unconcerned.

That's why in poor countries you will see again and again a great indifference about death, poverty, starvation. The reason is, people have lived in such poverty for so long that now they are not so worried about death. Death comes to them as a relief - relief from all the miseries and anxieties, relief from starvation, suffering, poverty.

People coming from richer countries think, "Why are they so indifferent to death?" The reason is simple: there is nothing to cling to. Their life has not given anything to them.

Their life is so poor that death can't take anything away from them; it can't make them poorer than they already are. But the more you have, the more you become afraid of death. The richer the society, the more fear of death.

In poor societies the taboo is sex, and in richer societies the taboo is death. That is an indication whether the society is rich or poor - you can just look at what their taboo is.

If they are very much against sex that means they are poor; if they are very much against death, even afraid to mention it, that simply means they are rich. Hence it is a very difficult encounter between poor countries and richer countries - their taboos clash.

This is happening every day here, because my people have come from all over the world and the poor Indian society has the taboo against sex. Sex is their problem, sex is their fear. Birth is their fear, not death. They think of how to stop birth, they ponder over birth control methods. In richer countries the scientists go on searching how to postpone death. In poor countries the problem is how to postpone birth.

So the king was very much afraid, naturally. He had so much and death would take everything away; and he had wasted his whole life in accumulating. How to protect himself? And in accumulating so much wealth he had created many enemies and they were always in search of an opportunity to cut off his head, to shoot him.

He took advice from old, wise people of his country. They told him to make a castle with only one door - no windows, no other doors, just a single door to enter into and to come out of. He would be safe. And on the door he could place a one-thousand-strong security force so it would be impossible for anybody to enter.

The idea was appealing. He made a big castle with no windows, no doors, except the one door which was guarded by one thousand warriors.

The neighboring king, his friend, was also afraid of death. He heard about this castle and he came to see. He was very much impressed. He said, "I will immediately start working, I will immediately create a castle for myself - this is so safe and so secure!"

When his friend was departing - the king had come out of the castle to say goodbye to him - he again appreciated the castle. While he was appreciating the castle, a beggar sitting by the side of the road started laughing loudly. Both the kings were shocked and they asked him, "Why are you laughing? Have you gone mad? And don't you know how to behave in the presence of kings?"

The beggar said, "I could not control myself. Excuse me! But I used to be a king myself, and let me tell you the truth of why I am laughing. I have been watching, because I beg here on this road. I have been watching... the castle is being built, but I am puzzled: I say to you, there is only one mistake, one error, which is going to prove fatal."

The king said, "What is that mistake? You tell us, we will correct it." The king was ready to listen, and not only to listen but to correct it.

The beggar said, "You do one thing: you go inside and tell your people to close the door also, forever, because this door is going to prove dangerous. Death will enter from here!

These one thousand warriors will not be able to prevent death, they will not even be able to see it. So close the door completely. Instead make a wall, and you be inside the castle and you will be safe forever! Nobody can kill you, not even death can enter in."

But the king said, "That means I will be already dead! If I cannot come out, what is the point of living?"

And the beggar said, "That's why I am laughing. You are ninety-nine point nine percent dead! Only one door is left, so only that much you are alive."

The more safe you are, the more dead you are. And this is not a beautiful death, the graceful death of the leaf, of the rose petal falling towards the ground, moving back to the source. It is an ugly death, man's invention. A natural death is beautiful; man has made it ugly. Man has made EVERYTHING ugly; whatsoever man touches becomes ugly. If he touches gold it turns into dust.

Amitabh, let this understanding penetrate as deeply as possible. Let this become your very core, your insight. Yes, it is so. Don't possess, don't hold tight. Remain relaxed, remain nonpossessive. If something is available, enjoy it; when it disappears, let it disappear with gratitude - gratitude for all that it has done for you, with no grudge, with no complaint. And you will know the greatest joys of life and death, light and darkness, of being and nonbeing both.

The second question:

Question 2:

Dharma Bhikkhu, the first thing to understand is: don't divide existence into good and bad, into God and Devil, into forces of good and forces of evil. That division is a wrong way to look at reality. Existence is one. In existence Jesus and Judas are not separate, but players in the same drama. Can you think of Jesus without Judas? You think Christianity was founded by Jesus alone? Then you are utterly wrong - fifty percent by Jesus, fifty percent by Judas. And in fact, Judas has played a more important role than Jesus himself.

Hence I don't call Christianity "Christianity"; I call it "Crossianity," because the cross has become the symbol. And who is responsible for the cross? Judas is responsible for the cross. Without Judas, the story of Jesus will lose all its glory. Judas gives the contrast; he is the blackboard on which Jesus becomes a silver line. He is the black cloud, and Jesus shines forth as a lightning energy - but without the black cloud you will not be able to see the lightning either.

Do you see stars during the day? They are there, but you can't see them. To see them you will need the dark night - the darker the night, the more shining are the stars. The night is more starry because more and more stars appear as the darkness deepens. Will you say that darkness is against the stars? It enhances them, it nourishes them.

So the first thing to remember, Dharma Bhikkhu, is that existence is not divided into two camps. It is one game, it is one play; we are all players in it, and the enemy is as much needed as the friend.

It is not accidental that before Jesus was caught he kissed Judas and washed his feet.

Christians think this is just saintliness, holiness. My observation is: it is understanding; it has nothing to do with saintliness or holiness. A tremendous understanding!

Jesus is saying, "Although Judas is going to betray me, he has to fulfill his role and I have to fulfill mine - and we are part of the same drama." This is the Eastern insight:

that the forces of light and the forces of darkness are not really separate, they only appear so.

If Socrates was not poisoned you would have forgotten him long ago. And he was going to die anyway, so the people who poisoned him helped his work, they really served his cause. They made his name immortal.

There have been many Sufi mystics of the same status as al-Hillaj Mansoor, but how many names do you remember? Do you remember even the name of the master of Mansoor? All names have been forgotten. Mansoor has become an eternal light, for the simple reason that he was killed, brutally killed - yes, chopped into parts. Jesus' death compared to Mansoor's looks very human, compassionate. Mansoor was killed part by part. First his legs were cut off, then his hands, then his eyes were taken out, then his tongue was cut out, then his head was cut off - in parts, in pieces.

But Mansoor became the most precious name in the whole Sufi tradition; and the tradition is rich: Bahauddin, Jalaluddin, Hassan, Rabiya, Mansoor's own master, Junnaid, and thousands of others who have become enlightened.

These two traditions in the world have created the most enlightened people: one is Zen, born out of Buddha's insight, and another is Sufism, born out of Mohammed's insight.

These two traditions have created the greatest light in the world. But you cannot find a single name in Zen compared to Mansoor, for the simple reason that no Zen master was chopped up, killed, crucified.

If Jesus has conquered almost the whole world - because almost half of humanity is under his impact - what is the reason? Is Mahavira in any way lagging behind in his enlightenment? Is Kanad not capable of transforming the whole world? They are as capable as Jesus, but they don't have their Judas - the cross is missing. They died in their beds, they died in an ordinary way. As far as their inner being is concerned they died in an extraordinary way, but who is going to see and understand it? Jesus' death becomes such an historical phenomenon, so significant, that history is divided at that point: before Jesus and after Jesus. Jesus becomes the line of division. Nobody else has been so significant. Why?

And you say, Dharma Bhikkhu, "Often the bad forces win."

No, never. In the first place, the good and the bad are not enemies - playing a game of hide-and-seek. And in the second place, the good always wins because the good is bigger than the bad. Jesus is far bigger than Judas, and Socrates is far bigger than the people who poisoned him, and Mansoor is far bigger than the people who killed him.

Good is infinite; bad is just a part in it, a small part - intrinsic, necessary, inevitable, but a small part. It serves good.

No, by Jesus' crucifixion the forces of evil have not won - they can't win, it is impossible. God is always victorious. His ways are strange: sometimes he conquers you in such a strange way that you can't see the point immediately. He conquers through Jesus by crucifying Jesus - a strange method, a mysterious way, but such are the ways of God.

And thirdly, it is always going to remain the same; about that, there is going to be no change. And I don't think that there is any need for any change either; it is perfectly right. It is far more beautiful to die on the cross than to die in Sassoon Hospital!* Just the idea of dying in Sassoon Hospital is frightening. I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of Sassoon Hospital!

The third question:

Question 3:

Sudhiro, maybe... but before I can help you to find a soulmate I will have to create a soul in you, which is far more difficult! You may be physically strong; that does not mean that you have a soul.

Soul is only a seed; you don't have actual souls within you, just possibilities. And without a soul, people start searching for a soulmate! Only a SOUL can attract another soul. If you have a soul, then some soul is bound to be attracted towards you; you will find the soulmate.

But one never thinks that way. And the idea that you are a strong man may become an obstruction, because a strong man ordinarily is one who is more animalistic. That's our idea of strength: a man who looks more like an animal.

Whenever I see the pictures of Mr. Universe I am simply puzzled - I can't see any beauty, they look utterly ugly; all muscles and nothing else! They look more like animals than men.

And this is not health either, because they all die early and they all die with dangerous diseases, for the simple reason that they force their bodies in a certain mold. They don't love their bodies; their bodies are tense. By the time these Mr. Universes are forty they are on the verge of dying and they succumb to great illnesses, incurable, because they themselves have created those illnesses. They have been forcing their bodies, manipulating their bodies. They have succeeded, but at a great cost.

Strength, in the ordinary mind, means aggressiveness. And a woman needs a little more tenderness, not aggressiveness. And who knows, Sudhiro? You may just be carrying this idea that you are a strong man and you may not even be that. It may be just an ego idea, a fantasy.

Moe and Sophie had been married for twelve years. One night in bed Moe said, "Lift up your nightgown."

Sophie did not answer.

Moe tried once again. "Hey, be a good girl. Lift up your nightgown."

Sophie still did not reply.

Moe stormed out of the room, slamming the door. Sophie got up and locked it. For half an hour Moe walked the living room. Then he strode back to the bedroom, pushed on the door, and found it was locked.

"Open the door," he pleaded. "I am sorry I got sore. Open the door!"

Sophie did not answer.

"If you don't open the door I will break it down!"

"Look at my athlete!" shouted Sophie. "A nightgown he can't lift up, but a door he will break down!"

So I don't know how strong you are. Maybe you are able to break doors - that won't help. You will have to learn the other art! And I don't know, Sudhiro, how old you are - because you must have been searching long; otherwise you would not have reached here. And if you have been failing for your whole life you must have become crystallized into certain patterns. You may be aggressive, you may be a pretender, you may be less interested in love and more in conquering a woman.

There are many people who go on doing that: they go on counting how many women they have conquered. There are women also - now only in the West but soon they will be in the East too - who go on counting, as if love is a question of quantity!

A man was making love to a woman and he asked her, "Am I the first man to make love to you?"

And a long silence followed. The man asked, "Have you heard me or not?"

She said, "I have heard, but I am counting."

There are people who keep count: how many women they have conquered, how many men they have conquered. If you are interested in conquest you are not interested in love. And when slowly slowly, life starts slipping out of your hands, when death starts knocking on your doors, you become frightened. Suddenly you become alert that you have missed something beautiful.

Love is one of the greatest experiences in life - and many miss it. They may reproduce children, they may have married many times, but love is a totally different phenomenon. It needs a great sensitivity, it needs a soul. And when time passes and energies starts waning and death comes closer, you are in a panic.

That's exactly my feeling reading your question, Sudhiro - that you are in a panic.

Two little old ladies were chatting over the backyard fence. The first one boasted, "I went out with old man Cain last night and I had to slap him twice."

"To stop him?" asked her friend.

"No," she giggled, "to start him!"

But it is good that you have come here. If you cannot start, we can slap you! Something is always possible. One thing that you need is: rather than searching for a soulmate, become a soul, become more conscious.

When love is unconscious it is only lust and nothing else - a beautiful name for an ugly thing. When love is conscious, only then it is love. But how many people are conscious?

When love is meditative, only then it is love.

And a meditative love will attract a meditative love energy. You get only what you deserve, remember, neither less nor more. You always get exactly that which you deserve. Existence is very just and very fair. So if you are not getting a soulmate, it is not going to help to frantically search for one. Rather look in. You are missing something in you - you are missing love qualities. You are not tender, you are not sensitive, you are not conscious. And you don't know how to give without asking anything in return. Your love is a demand, there is a condition to it. It is a kind of exploitation. You want to use the other's body, and no woman is ever happy if she is used - she hates it.

Millions of women hate their husbands for the simple reason that they feel used, as if they are just machines for your sexual lust to be relieved so that you can have a good night's sleep. No woman can ever respect you if she feels she is being used. Each being is an end unto himself. Never use a woman, never use a man, never use anybody.

Nobody is a means for your purposes. Respect - love is a sharing, it is not using the other, it is not trying to snatch something from the other. On the contrary, it is giving wholeheartedly for no reason at all, just for the sheer joy of giving.

And then suddenly you will find one day you have found someone with whom your energies are in harmony, in accord. And it is a beautiful experience even to find a single person with whom you are in accord. And here you can find many persons with whom you are in accord.

You can't imagine my ecstasy, because I am in accord with all of my sannyasins, in deep accord, a tremendous harmony. Then love reaches its highest peak. It is no more sexual, it is pure prayer. And when love is prayer, you have found the soulmate.

But if your love is lust you can't find a soulmate, you can only find some woman's body.

And the body is not going to help fulfill your longing. You need attunement with the soul, with the inner being, with the interiority of the woman or of the man. At least with one person if it happens, great joy arises. And then when you know the art, it can happen with many more people. And that's what friendship is.

My effort here is to create a commune where thousands of souls are in such deep friendship, in such love, as if they are all soulmates. We can release such great light into the world through that energy field! We can start such a revolution in the world, we can ignite such fire, that it will go on burning in the future, down the centuries, helping people to be transformed, to be reborn.

The fourth question:

Question 4:

Krishna Teertha Bharti, R.D. Laing is bringing a radical change into the world of therapy. He is not an ordinary psychiatrist, he is a revolutionary psychiatrist. He understands me and what I am doing here. He goes on sending his books to me. He reads what is happening here, what I am saying, what I am teaching. He has been meeting with sannyasins in London - he is immensely interested. But he is a revolutionary and his insight is great, and I agree with him in toto. He is right: madness is not a breakdown, it is a breakthrough.

But one thing I would like to say: all madnesses are not breakthroughs. But every madness can be transformed into a breakthrough - and that should be the work of the therapist. Even if the madness is a breakdown, the function of the therapist is to help the breakdown to be transformed into a breakthrough. Otherwise, what is your purpose? What are you doing?

Up to now, the function of the therapist has been to normalize the person, to bring him back to his old self. And what was his old self in the first place? It is his old self that has brought this state of madness. If you bring him back to the old self you are simply postponing the same thing happening again. Sooner or later he will again become mad.

Maybe you are helping him for temporary relief. Unless his breakdown becomes a breakthrough you have not been a real help to him.

My methods of meditation are methods for future psychotherapy. The orthodox, the ordinary psychiatrists will be against my methods, because they cling to the old idea.

They are afraid of the breakdown - I am not afraid of the breakdown. Breakdown simply means the change has started. Breakdown simply means all the old strategies, all the old securities, have failed. Breakdown simply means that your old personality is of no use anymore. You need a new being, a new birth.

When the child is born out of the womb he must be thinking - if he can think - that this is a breakdown, because his whole world is disappearing. The womb, its coziness, its warmth, its safety, security - no worry, no responsibility - all that is disappearing. And the child has to pass such a narrow passage, he must be feeling that he is dying. And then he has to learn a new way of life from ABC. It takes twenty-five years for us to educate him to function rightly in the society.

But our society is abnormal, our society is neurotic. It has been dominated by neurotic politicians, neurotic priests, for centuries. So we convert each child into a neurotic - Hindu neurotics, Mohammedan neurotics, Christian neurotics. We change every child into a fanatic, and the more fanatic he is the more we praise him. The more he says, "Hinduism is the only religion, the only right religion, the only true religion," Hindus will praise him.

That's how Ayatollah Khomeini is being praised by foolish people in Iran. He is a lunatic - he needs a breakdown! - but he is being praised as a great leader, a revolutionary leader. Down the centuries, fanatics have been praised.

If somebody says, "India is the greatest country in the world, the most religious, the most sacred land," people will praise him. They will say, "Look how devoted he is to the country." He is simply mad - he needs therapy!

Because we have praised these kinds of neurotic attitudes, approaches, and we have condemned others... if somebody does not praise Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Christianity, we think he is a traitor. If somebody is not a great nationalist we think he is a traitor. We have condemned the sane people and we have praised the insane.

Naturally, the crowd has remained insane.

The whole world needs a breakdown! But just a breakdown is not going to help. Before the world goes through that breakdown - and the day is coming closer every day - methods and devices have to be invented, innovated, which can transform the breakdown into a breakthrough.

That's what my meditation techniques are: a preparation for the future, a preparation, an absolutely necessary preparation, for something which is going to happen.

Humanity IS on the verge of a breakdown - we have come to the very end of the tether.

Now there is no more, we cannot go on any longer in this way. The old patterns have been outlived; they are all outdated.

Your psychiatrists and your psychoanalysts will be against me, because they serve the past and I have no love for the past, not at all. I love the present, and through the present I prepare for the future. The past is so ugly, it is not even worth looking at. In a better future we will stop teaching people about past history, about Alexanders, Genghis Khans, Nadirshahs, Tamerlanes, because even to mention them to the children is wrong. Even to give them an idea that such people have existed, that man can fall into such degradation, is poisoning their minds.

But your psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, are in the service of the past; hence they will be against my methods. Their whole effort is somehow to patch up people. If some hole appears they simply patch it up, if some wound appears they cover it up. They keep you functioning efficiently as a clerk in an office, as a deputy collector, as a police inspector, as a stationmaster, etcetera. They are not interested in your humanity. Their interest is only that you should remain a functioning member of society, mechanically useful, that's all.

My purpose is totally different: I want you to be a human being. I want you not only to be a human being but to rise towards being divine.

You ask me, Krishna Teertha Bharti.... He is a surgeon, a doctor; naturally this question has arisen in his mind. You ask me, "Is it justified and ethical for patients of depression to be given Dynamic Meditation?"

What else can be more justified and more ethical - because to be a sufferer of depression simply means he has repressed too much. Depression is nothing but repression. He is depressed so much because he has not been allowed to express himself. Dynamic Meditation is expression. In expressing himself, in catharting all that has been repressed in his unconscious, he will be unburdened, he will become saner, healthier.

Two robbers broke into a bank in a small town.

"Alright," said the bigger man. "Line up! We are gonna rob all the men and rape all the women!"

"Wait a second!" snapped his partner. "Let us just grab the dough and beat it!"

"Shut up and mind your own business," said the spinster from behind the counter. "The big fella knows what he is doing!"

We have made everybody repressed, pushing down all kinds of things. They are boiling within.

Before she left a friend's house Aunt Emma was warned that a sex maniac was loose in the neighborhood. That evening when she returned to her apartment, she cautiously looked under her bed, in her closet and behind the draperies.

Then Emma switched on the light. "Well, he is not here!" she sighed. "Damn it!"

Everybody who has been brought up in our societies needs some methods to vomit anger, sex, greed, jealousies, envies. You are sitting on a volcano... and the volcano can erupt at any moment! If catharsis is allowed - and that's what Dynamic Meditation is all about - the volcano will disappear. You will become saner.

I am not saying you will become more normal, but I am saying you will become more sane. Now, the two may not coincide; in fact they cannot - because by the normal we really don't mean the normal but we mean the average. It is a wrong use of the word.

'Normal' should mean one who lives according to the norm, one who lives according to the natural, spontaneous - he is normal. But people are not allowed to live naturally and spontaneously. They are forced to live an average life as others are living - and the average is thought to be normal.

That's why I say I make people saner. They will be normal REALLY, but they may not coincide with your idea of the normal. They will not be average, certainly - they will be higher than the average. They will have more insight into life, more joy in their lives, more freedom in their lives, more rebellion too - more freedom and more rebellion.

And the society and church are against freedom. They don't want you to be free, they want you to be slaves. Their whole vested interest is in your being always a slave.

Hence they are all against me. I can understand, I am not at all surprised by their anger against me. Their anger is natural, because whatsoever I am doing here is going to sabotage their whole structure, and sometimes just a hole in the boat is enough to sink it. And my effort is to make as many holes as possible!

The last question:

Question 5:

Tosho, man is not predictable - if he is a man. But very few men are really men - they are machines. Machines are predictable. Man has freedom. You cannot predict Buddha, but you can predict the so-called ordinary people. They are predictable - they go on doing the same thing again and again. You know what they have been doing up to now and according to that you can predict what they are going to do tomorrow.

Small children are not predictable because they are not yet converted into machines.

Preparing to give a small boy an aptitude test, a psychiatrist told his nurse to put a pitchfork, a wrench and a hammer on the table.

"If he grabs the pitchfork he will be a farmer. If he grabs the wrench he will be a mechanic. And if he grabs the hammer he will be a carpenter," the doctor explained.

The boy fooled everyone - he grabbed the nurse.

Man has become so mechanical that even animals sometimes behave in a more unpredictable way than man.

Experimental psychologists like to tell a story about a professor who investigated the ability of chimpanzees to solve problems. A banana was suspended from the center of the ceiling, at a height that the chimp could not reach by jumping. The room was bare of all objects except several packing crates placed around the room at random. The test was to see whether a lady chimp would think of first stacking the crates in the center of the room and then of climbing on top of the crates to get the banana.

The chimp sat quietly in a corner, watching the psychologist arrange the crates. She waited patiently until the professor crossed the middle of the room. When he was directly below the fruit, the chimp suddenly jumped on his shoulder, then leaped into the air and grabbed the banana.

Tosho, man - a real man - is not predictable, because he lives moment to moment. He does not live out of the past and he does not live out of any ideology for the future. He simply lives THIS moment. He responds to the situation, he is responsible; hence he is not predictable.

My sannyasins have to become unpredictable. The more unpredictable you are, the more you are human.

Enough for today.

The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 7