Occult devices and the spiritual search

Question 1:

I deny being a guru, but I do not deny your being a disciple. One should never be a guru, but discipleship is something without which nothing is possible. And when there is no guru, then discipleship is something inner -- an inner discipline. Both these words come from the same root. 'Discipleship' means a mind which is ready to seek, search, learn -- a mind which is open and vulnerable. So I deny being a guru, but I do not deny your being a disciple.

Another point... the mala with a picture has so many reasons behind it. One, the picture is not mine. Had it been mine, I would have hesitated to put it there. No one would be courageous enough to put his own picture. Everyone would think of putting it there, but no one would put it there. The picture only appears as mine, it is not. No picture of me is possible really. The moment one knows himself, one knows he is something which cannot be depicted, described, framed. I exist as an emptiness which cannot be pictured, which cannot be photographed. That is why I could put the picture there.

Two or three things more are to be understood. The more you know that picture, the more you concentrate on it, the more you come in tune with it, then the more you will feel what I am saying. The more you concentrate on it, the more there will not be the first question about the picture. And the moment you remember me, even unknowingly, in a way I am there. But this you will come to experience by and by.

So many more reasons are there, but I will not talk about them. This much is enough.

Other reasons will be revealed, and it is better that they should not be revealed now.

There are things which should not be talked about, because even by talking about them they become superficial. There are things which should remain occult, should remain secret, because they work in secrecy, otherwise they won't work. They are just like roots of a tree: the roots must remain underground, in the dark, unknown to the tree. Only then do they work.

So there are occult things which must remain unconscious, underground. You must not know them -- only then do they work, otherwise they will not work. The roots must not be known. They must remain hidden. So there are many things you ask that I will not answer, or I will answer only up to that limit where the hiddenness is not uncovered. The hidden must remain hidden. You will come to know, but only by experience.

After three months you will not be able to remain a single moment without the mala. You will feel the difference. But that will be your knowing. It is so great, it cannot remain unfelt. And by and by, as the experience grows deeper and richer, you will not feel the picture there. With your deepening consciousness, the locket will become empty.

Everyone will see the picture, but not you. When this happens, then you can communicate with me directly, immediately, without any medium.

I am trying in so many ways to convey things without any medium, because there are things which cannot be conveyed through any medium. So I will have to create devices -- this sannyas is a device, this initiation is a device. Those who are initiated will soon become capable of knowing things which cannot be told to others -- of so many secrets, keys, which no one can ordinarily understand unless he has seasoned, ripened through occult training.

This is only the beginning; much is to follow. If I feel you are receptive, then much will follow. If I feel you are not receptive, then the beginning will be the end. You will gain much even in the beginning, but not the whole thing. So in many ways I try to know your receptivity.

If someone comes, I give him the mala and the picture with it. It is predictable that he should ask, "Why this picture of yours?" This is very predictable. But if he does not ask - - if he simply takes the mala and asks no questions, if he is not curious -- he has given a deeper hint about himself, that things which cannot be questioned can be delivered to him. There are things which cannot be delivered if questioned, because no proof can be given for them, no reasoning can be given for them. There cannot be answers to some questions. They are bare statements of knowing -- with no proofs, with no criteria.

So if I see someone who comes to me, and I have given him things about which the ordinary mind is prone to ask questions and he does not ask them, he has proven capable of being given deeper things which should not be questioned. In so many ways, how tethered you are! How much you are tethered to the reasoning part of the mind must be known. I have to know it because the more you are tethered to reason, the less you are capable of knowing the deeper things... because reason is the most superficial part of your being, the most superficial.

Although it claims to be the deepest -- and only the superficial claims to be the deep -- reason is the most superficial part of your being. It has something to do, it has some utility, but only utility. If you think of it as a vehicle to go into the unknown, then you will never, never be able to know anything that is worth knowing.

So I use so many devices to know you also. And each and everything has so many reasons. For example, the case of a person who resists: someone wrote me a letter fifteen days ago saying, "I can be initiated by you. I want to be initiated by you, but I cannot make you my guru."

I am no one's guru, I myself never claim to be a guru -- but to this man I will claim to be a guru. To this man I cannot say "I allow you not to think of me as your guru." He has shown his incapacity so clearly. If you are not a disciple, then I will have to be a guru. If you are a disciple, then I need not be a guru, there is no necessity. But if you insist on your egoistic non-surrender, then I will have to insist on so many things to destroy your ego. I will have to use so many devices to make you egoless.

If you are egoless, then I will not use any device. So the problem becomes more puzzling.

To one who is ready to be a disciple, I will say, "I am not your guru. It is enough that you are a disciple." But to the one who says, "I will not believe you, I will not take you as my guru," I will insist. Otherwise, this man cannot be initiated. He is coming with a condition, and you cannot be initiated with your conditions.

Initiation means that you are ready to surrender, ready to trust; otherwise you need not go through the initiation. The initiation is nothing, this mala is nothing, this robe is nothing.

This is only the entrance, now the ways will be darker. There will be things which you have not imagined. You will have to trust, otherwise you cannot take a single step. So it is better to know at the entrance that you are incapable of trust, that any effort to lead you in will be unnecessary and futile.

Religion is basically neither believing nor disbelieving. Religion is trusting, it is trust.

And whenever there is an unknown to be jumped into, there is no other way. Unless you trust, you cannot know it. And you do not know it now. So what can you do? You can only trust and take the jump. This mala will also help you to create this trust.

When I say that if you meditate on the picture the picture will be absent, do not take it on trust. Try it, and it will happen. When I say that when the picture is absent you can communicate with me, do not take it as a trust. Try it. Take it hypothetically and experiment with it. The moment the picture is absent and you can communicate with me, you will be ready for the things which will need your trust. Then you can take further steps with a trusting mind.

The more civilization has progressed, the more the ego has become crystallized. The ego is the only barrier, and now it is the greatest barrier. It was not so always.

Sariputta came to Buddha. He was one of the most learned men of those times. He questioned many things, he asked many questions, he discussed so many things, then he was initiated. From the moment he was initiated, then continuously for thirty years he was with Buddha. But then he would never ask anything.

So someone asked, "Sariputta, you were such a learned man. People say you know even more than Buddha..."as far as information is concerned, he was a Mahapandit, a great scholar. "... When you came, you discussed such deep things, you questioned many things. We were very happy that someone had come who questions Buddha, so that we could come to know many things which might have remained unknown. Through your questions we could know them. But why have you become silent?"

Sariputta said, "The moment I was ready to be initiated, I had to stop my questions, because to question anything is absurd. I questioned everything before -- before taking the trust. Now my mind is settled."

Sometimes Buddha would say such absurd things, just to find out whether Sariputta would ask again. He said such absurd things that anyone would begin to ask, "What are you saying?" But Sariputta would be silent.

Buddha said to him, "Wherever you are, always pay respect to the direction in which I am -- wherever you are." Wherever he was wandering, he would always pay respect in the direction where Buddha was dwelling.

Sariputta became an awakened one after Buddha's death. Someone said, "You have become awakened. Now you need not pay respect to anybody. You yourself have become a buddha." Sariputta said, "I could not pay respect before, because I was not awakened and the ego was there. Now I cannot pay respect because I have become awakened. Then when will I pay respect? I could not pay respect before, and even if I paid respect, it was with very great difficulty, and the respect paid with difficulty is no respect. Then I could not pay respect because of the ego. Now you say I should not pay because I have become awakened. Then when will I pay respect?" Sariputta said, "Buddha does not need it, but now is the moment. Before it was impossible."

But these were times when trust was easy. Now trust has become quite impossible; that is why religion has become impossible. Religion is bound to be irrational and contradictory.

To jump into existence is bound to be irrational, it is a jump from the rational to the irrational. So by and by I will have to make you ready and prepared. Little by little I will make you ready to go into the irrational. Even if I answer you it is not to convince your reason, but just to shatter it. Even if I sometimes appear to be rational, it is only as a beginning. It is only to begin with your mind. If you feel as if I am rational, then your mind is attuned.

The moment I see you are attuned, I will push you into the irrational. There is no way except that one is pushed into the irrational. And this is not much. The more you are ready, the more I will put things on you which will look insane in others' eyes. The moment I see that you are ready to be insane, when you are not afraid of others' eyes and others' opinions, even of your own reason you are not afraid, only then can the deeper keys be handed over to you, not before. Otherwise, you will just throw the keys away, you will not be able to appreciate them. You will not be able even to understand that they are keys.

So by and by all those who have been initiated into sannyas will have to be ready to go into the irrational. Existence is such, it does not reply to questions. Life is such, it gives no explanations. It is. And all our questions and all our answers are only deceptions. Even scientific answers are deceptions, because they never really answer anything. They only push the question a step back They only go on pushing questions. You become tired, so you do not ask.

No question is answerable through answers. Through the existential jump every question is solved, but not through intellect. If you ask a scientist why oxygen and hydrogen combined create water, he will say that it just happens, it is so: "We can say only this -- that it just happens." But why does it happen? No one will go to ask the scientist why oxygen and hydrogen can create water. Why? Why not helium and oxygen? There is no answer.

The scientist will say, "We can say only how it happens, not why." But with religion we always ask why. Even science, which claims to be rational, cannot answer why. Religion, which never claims to be rational, is always being asked, "Why?"

You ask me, "Why this mala? Why this picture?" I will say, "Use it in this way, and this will happen," and my answer is as scientific as possible. Religion never claims to be rational, the only claim is of being irrational.

Use the mala in this way: meditate on the picture, then the picture will not be there. It happens so. Then the absent picture becomes a door. Through that door communicate with me. It happens so. After doing meditation, take this mala off and feel, and then put this mala on and feel, and you will see the difference.

Without this mala you will feel totally unprotected, totally in the reins of a force which can be harmful. With this mala on you will feel protected, you will be more confident, settled. Nothing can disturb from the outside. It happens so; you will do the experiment and know. Why it happens cannot even be answered scientifically. And religiously there is no question to answer. Religion never claims, that is why so many rituals of religion become irrelevant.

As time passes by, a very meaningful ritual will become meaningless, because keys are lost and no one can say why this ritual exists. Then it becomes just a dead ritual. You cannot do anything with it. You can perform it, but the key is lost. For example, you can go on wearing the mala, and if you do not know that the picture in it is meant for some inner communication, then it will be just a dead weight. Then the key is lost. The mala may be with you, but the key is lost. Then one day or another you will have to throw away the mala because it is useless.

The mala is a device for meditation. It is a key. But this will come only through experience. I can only help you toward the experience. And unless it happens, you will not know. But it can happen, it is so easy, it is not difficult at all. When I am alive, it is so easy. When I am not there, it will be very difficult.

All these statues that have existed on this earth were used as such devices, but now they are meaningless. Buddha declared that his statue should not be made. But the work that was done by statues still will have to be done. Although the statue is meaningless, the real thing is the work that can be done through it.

Those who follow Mahavira can communicate with Mahavira through his statue even today. So what should Buddha's disciples do? That is why the Bodhi tree became so important; it was used instead of Buddha's statue. For five hundred years after Buddha there was no statue. In the Buddhist temples only a picture of the Bodhi tree and two symbolic footprints were kept, but this was sufficient. That still continues. The tree that exists in Bodhgaya is in continuity with the original tree. So still today those who know the key can communicate with Buddha through the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya. It is not just meaningless that monks from all over the world come to Bodhgaya. But they must know the key, otherwise they will just go and the whole thing will be just a ritual.

So these are keys -- particular mantras chanted in a particular way, pronounced in a particular way, emphasized in a particular way with such-and-such frequencies. A wavelength should be created, the waves should be created. Then the Bodhi tree is not just a Bodhi tree; it becomes a passage, it opens a door. Then twenty-five centuries are no more, the time gap is not there. You come face to face with Buddha. But keys are always lost. So this much can be said: use the locket, and you will know much. All that I have said will be known, and more that I have not said will be known also.

Question 2:

It means two things, primarily. One, that life as it is known outwardly is not fulfilling, life as it is known outwardly is meaningless. The moment one becomes aware of this fact, that this whole life is just a meaningless thing, then the seeking begins. This is the negative part, but unless this negative part is there, the positive cannot follow. Spiritual seeking means primarily a negative feeling, a feeling that life as it is, is meaningless, this whole process just ends in death: "Dust unto dust." Nothing remains conclusively in one's hands. You pass through life with such agony, with such hell, and nothing is achieved conclusively.

This is the negative part of spiritual seeking, and the whole life helps you toward this.

This part -- this negativity, this frustration, this anguish -- is the part the world is to do.

Once you become really aware of this fact of the meaninglessness of life as it exists, then your seeking ordinarily begins, because with a meaningless life you cannot be at ease.

With a meaningless life an abyss is created between you and all that is life. An unbridgeable gap grows, becoming wider and wider. You feel unanchored. Then a search for something which is meaningful, blissful, begins. That is the other part, the positive part.

Spiritual seeking means to come to terms with actual reality, not with the dream projection. Our whole life is just a projection, our dream projection. It is not to know what is, it is to achieve what is desired. You can take the word `desire' as a symbol of our so-called life -- it is a desired projection. You are not in search of what is, you are in search of what is desired. So you go on desiring, and life will go on being frustrating, because it is as it is. It cannot be as you like it. You will be disillusioned. It is not that reality is antagonistic to you, but that you are not in tune with reality, only in tune with all your dreams. Your dreams will have a shattering disillusionment. So when you are dreaming, it is all right. When any dream is achieved, everything becomes disillusioning.

Spiritual seeking means knowing this negative part: that desiring is the root cause of frustration. To desire is to create, of one's own accord, a shell. Desiring is the world. To be worldly is to desire and to go on desiring, never becoming aware that each desire comes to nothing but frustration. Once you become aware of this, then you do not desire, or your only desire is to know what is.

I am not to project myself but to know what is. Not that I should be this way or the reality should be that way, but only this -- that whatever reality may be, I want to know it, naked as it is. I should not project. I should not come in. I want to encounter it as it is.

Spiritual seeking positively means encountering existence as it is without any desire. The moment there is no desire, the projecting mechanism is not there working, then you can see what is. This "what is" -- that which is -- once known, gives you all.

Desires always promise and never give. Desires always promise bliss, ecstasy, but the end never comes, and each desire only terminates into more desire. Each desire only creates in its place more desires that are still greater and, of course, in the end, more frustrating.

A no-desiring mind is one that is in spiritual seeking. A spiritual seeker is one who is completely aware of the nonsense of desire and is ready to know what is. Once one is ready to know what is, reality is always by the corner, just by the corner. But you are never there, you are in the desire, in the future. Reality is always in the present -- here and now -- and you are never in the present. You are always in the future, in your desires, in your dreams. In dreams, in desires, we are asleep. And the reality is here and now.

Once this sleep has been broken, the dream has been broken and you become awakened to the reality that is here and now, just in the present. You are reborn. You come to ecstasy, to fulfillment, to all that has always been desired but never achieved. Spiritual seeking is to be here and now, and you can only be here and now when there is no desiring mind; otherwise the desiring mind will create wavering. Just like a pendulum, the mind goes either to the past, in the memory, or to the future, in desires, in dreams. But it is never here and now, it always misses the point of here and now. It just goes to the one extreme, the past, or to the other, the future. We miss the reality between these waverings of past and future.

Reality is here and now. It is never past and never future; it is always present. Now is the only moment. Now is the only time. It never passes. Now is eternal. It is always here, but we are not here. So to be a spiritual seeker means to be here. You may call it meditation, you may call it yoga, you may call it prayer. Whatever name is given it makes no difference, the mind must not be. And the mind exists only when there is past or future, otherwise there is no mind.

I was talking to someone yesterday. You cannot think in the present, I was telling him.

The moment you think, it has become the past. So the mind cannot exist in the present. It exists only in the memory of the past, or it projects into the future. It never comes in contact with the present -- it cannot come, that is impossible. So if there is no thought, there is no mind. This no-mindness is meditation. Then you are here and now. Then you explode into reality. Then the reality explodes into you.

Spiritual seeking is not for moksha, salvation after death. Again, that is a desire, even more greedy than the desire for wealth, the desire for prestige, the desire for power. The desire for moksha is even more greedy, because it goes even beyond death.

Spiritual seeking is not to seek God, because again that is greed. If you are seeking God, then again your mind is greedy. You must be seeking God for something. However deep and unknown to you and unconscious to you, you must be seeking God for something.

But I do not mean by this that when spiritual seeking comes to fulfillment, there is no God. I am not saying that when you have come to meditation and the mind is not, moksha is not. Moksha is there. You have liberation but it is not your desire. It is just the consequence of knowing the reality as it is.

God is there, but it is not because of your desiring. He is the reality. So when you know the reality, you know it is divine. The reality is divine. But seeking is not for God or moksha or bliss, because whenever there is desire you will project again into the future.

Spiritual seeking is disillusionment with the future and remaining in the present, being in the present, being ready to face whatsoever comes here and now. The divine explodes, the freedom comes, but these are not your objects. They are consequences, shadows of the realization of the real.

So first be aware of the whole process of life as frustrating. Not a single illusion should be there, otherwise you will be tethered to it. Go deep in each experience of life. Do not escape from it. Know it so deeply that you know its disillusionment. Do not escape; do not renounce. Only then this part is complete, and you can take the jump into the here and now.

If you have become aware that the future is the root cause of all the nonsense that the human mind creates, then you have taken the basic step; you have traveled. Now you can be ready to be aware of what is. In the first part, the negative part, life helps much. So go to every experience, to every desire; know it. Never renounce prematurely.

This happens: you are not really frustrated with life, but have become greedy for religious promises. You have not known that life is divine, but you have become enchanted with religious heavens. Then everything will be difficult, because you have not gone through the first part. The second part will be very difficult.

So go through the first part and the second is very easy. The second is only difficult when the first has not been traveled completely. Then you ask, "How to meditate?" Then you say, "The mind goes on working." Then you say, "The thought process is continuing. It cannot be stopped. How can it be stopped?" Desire is there, so desire will go on creating thoughts. The first part has not been fulfilled.

A mature spiritual seeker is one who has gone without any fear in life, and knows every nook and corner. He has known it so much that nothing has remained unknown. Then meditation is easy, because there is no one to create thoughts, there is no one to create desires. Just by shouting Hoo! you are in the present. Any simple device will make you stand still. The staff of the Zen masters is raised and you are in the present. Even such a simple device can help if the first part is fulfilled.

One day the Zen monk Rinzai is speaking in a temple. He has gone into a sermon, but someone is disturbing him there. So Rinzai stops and asks, "What is the matter?" The man stands up and says, "What is soul?" Rinzai takes his staff and asks the people to give him way. The man begins to tremble. He never expected that such will be the answer.

Rinzai comes to him, takes hold of his neck with both hands and presses it. The man's eyes bulge out. He goes on pressing and asks, "Who are you? Close your eyes!" The man closes his eyes. Rinzai goes on asking, "Who are you?" The man opens his eyes and laughs and bows down. He says, "I know you have really answered what is soul."

Such a simple device! But the man was ready. Someone asks Rinzai, "Would you do the same thing when anybody asks?" He says, "That man was ready. He was not just asking for the question's sake, he was ready. The first part was fulfilled; he was really asking.

This was a life and death question to him: `What is soul?' The first part was fulfilled completely. He was disillusioned completely of life, and he was asking, `What is soul?'

This life has proved just a death to him; now he is asking, `What is life?' So no answer from me would have been meaningful. I helped him to just stand still in the present."

Of course, when someone presses your neck just on the verge of killing you, you cannot be in the future, you cannot be in the past. You will be here and now. It is dangerous to miss the moment. If you just say to such a man, "Go deep and know who you are," the man becomes transformed. He goes into samadhi; he stands still in the moment.

If you are in the present, even for a single moment, you have known, you have encountered, and you will never be able to lose the track again.

Spiritual feeling is to know what is -- what is all this. Not that, this. What is all this -- this me speaking, this you hearing, this whole? What is this? Just stand, be deep in this. Let it open to you, and let yourself open to it. Then there is a meeting. That meeting is the seeking.

That meeting is the whole search. That is why we have called it yoga. Yoga means meeting. The very word yoga means meeting -- joining again, becoming one once more.

But so-called spiritual seekers are not seeking any spirituality. They are only projecting their desires in a new dimension. And no desire can be projected in this spiritual dimension, because this spiritual dimension is only open to those who are not desiring. So those who desire go on creating new illusions, new dreams.

First know that desire is just running and reaching nowhere. Then stand still, and know what is. Everything is open. Only we are closed in our desires. The whole existence is open. All doors are open, but we are running with such a speed that we cannot see. And the more we become frustrated, the more we increase the speed, because the mind says, "You are not running fast enough. That is why you are not reaching." The mind will not say, "Because you are running, you will not reach." How can it say that? It is illogical.

The mind says, "Because you are not running fast enough, that is why you are not reaching. So run faster. Those who are running faster, they are reaching." And ask those who are running faster. Their minds are saying the same thing: "Run faster still. Those who are really running, they are reaching."

No one is reaching, but always someone is ahead of you and someone is behind. You have gone ahead of someone, but wherever you are, someone is always ahead. Why?

Because desire runs in a circle. We are running in a circle. So if you run very fast, even the person who was behind may come to be ahead of you. Because we are running in a circle, someone is going to be ahead always, and the feeling will be there that you are not running fast enough, that someone else is reaching and you are losing.

We in this land knew so many truths. We called this world sansar. Sansar means the wheel -- not only are you running, but the wheel itself is also running. It is not a steady circle. Even if you stand, the wheel will go on. So one has not only to stop, but to step out of the wheel.

This stepping out is sannyas. Stopping is not enough. You must step off the wheel, because even if you are not running, the wheel will go on rotating. And it is such a great wheel, with such a force, that you will be running even though you are standing in one place. To step off means sannyas -- not only to stop running, but to step off. Do not be on the wheel. Just come out of the rut. Be a witness to it. Only then will you know what this wheel is made of , why it goes on running even when you are not running.

The wheel is created by infinite desires, by all desires that have ever existed, that are in existence today -- all the desires of all persons, of all beings who have ever existed. You will die, but your desires have created waves which will go on. You will not be here, but your desires have created ripples in the noesphere. You will not be here, but I have said something; these words, these sounds, will go on vibrating infinitely.

Whatever you have desired -- fulfilled, unfulfilled, it makes no difference -- the moment the desire has come into your mind, into your heart, you have created ripples, waves.

They will go on. This wheel, this sansar, is constituted of all the desires that have existed and all the desires that are in existence. This is such a great force, of all the dead and of all the living, that you cannot stand still. They will push you, you have to run.

It is just like in a crowd. When the whole crowd is running you cannot stand still. You are just pushed to run. You are safe if you are running ; if you are not running you will be killed. It is not that your energy is needed to run. If you do not make any effort, the crowd will push you. This is the wheel -- the wheel of desires. You must have seen the Tibetan picture of the wheel. It is beautifully depicted -- the whole wheel of desires.

To step out of the wheel is sannyas. You just come out of the crowd. You just step down.

You just sit by the side of the road, you say goodbye. Only then do you know the phenomenon of what is the wheel. Only then do you know that some persons are running in a circle, they will pass you so many times -- then you know that this is a wheel.

A Buddha, a Mahavira, could call this world sansar, a wheel, because they knew that it was a wheel when they stepped aside. It is not that you are running in a line, it is a circle - - repeating the same desires, the same days, the same nights, the same disillusionments, and going on in the whirlwind. Pushed from behind, pulled from the front, you go on.

Sannyas means to step aside, to step out. This is the second part of sannyas. Sannyas has two parts. The first part is knowing the frustration, knowing the anguish. This is the miracle: once you know that the world is anguish, the world is frustration, you are not frustrated at all. The frustration comes because you think the world is not frustrating. The anguish comes because you hope even when you know it is hopeless. That hoping is nonsense. When you know this, then you do not feel hopeless at all. Then there is no need to feel so. Then there is nothing to feel hopeless about -- there is no hope.

That is why Buddhism could not be understood. The Western mind could only interpret it as pessimism. It was a natural fallacy. Buddhism is not pessimistic. But to the Western mind it appeared pessimistic, because of the saying that the world is frustrating, the world is dukkha -- misery. This makes you pessimistic. But this is not the case. The earth has not known so happy, so blissful a person as Buddha, or, it has known very few such people. He was not a pessimist at all. So what is the secret? The secret is this: if you know this world is dukkha, then you do not expect anything except dukkha. Expectation only creates pessimism. When there is no expectation, then there is no need to be in misery. Once life is known as miserable, you will never be in misery, you will be out of it.

So a sannyasin is not one who is frustrated. A sannyasin is one who has known the world as frustrating. He is not frustrated, he is most at ease. There is nothing to frustrate him.

Everything that happens, he knows it happens so. Even death is not an anguish to him, because death is a certainty.

Once you know the nature of this whirling wheel -- of this world, of this so-called life, of this repetitive vicious circle -- then you will become a silent and a blissful person. Now you do not hope, so there is no feeling of hopelessness. You are at ease, composed. The more you are at ease, the more you are composed. The more you are in the moment, the more you are non-wavering, standing still.

In this very moment, here and now, is all that is to be known and realized -- moksha, God, the reality -- in this moment. So in a way, spiritual seeking is not for something. It is not for some object. It is to know what is, and the knowing comes once you are in the moment.

To be in the moment is the secret door, or you may say the open secret. To be in the moment is the open secret.