My change has taken me higher

My Beloved Ones,

Geeta had to inform Katue Ishida, the seeress and the prophetess of one of the most ancient shrines of the Shinto religion in Japan. Geeta was a little concerned that she would be disturbed and shocked, but on the contrary, Ishida was immensely happy.

She said, "I have not only prophesied that Gautam Buddha would be entering your master's being; I have also prophesied that, just as Buddha himself changed his name four times, your master would also do the same."

She said, "My only concern is your master's health and his work. It does not matter whether Buddha remains in his being or not."

I am immensely grateful to Ishida for understanding the situation with clarity.

Yes, it is true Gautam Buddha changed his name four times. And as I remember it, it was not worthy of him to do that. My change has taken me higher.

I found Buddha too old and too much fixed in his approach to life. Finally I dropped all concern with anyone. I have chosen my own name: Zorba the Buddha.

It has meaning, it is not just a name. It is my whole philosia; it is my whole vision, in which the lowest will meet with the highest, in which materialism and spiritualism will not be two separate and antagonistic things. That division has killed human spirit immensely. It has made man a battlefield, and I want man to be a dance, a harmony, a balance.

But Gautam Buddha's changing of names is a little unworthy of him.

I have no concern to protect anybody; now I am going to be simply stating the truth. Whether it hurts, wounds, or heals, depends on you.

Gautam Buddha's name as given by his parents was Siddharth. It was a perfect name - the name of Buddha does not go higher than Siddharth. Siddharth means "one who has achieved the meaning of life." What more do you want?

Then, at that time there was a great competition which makes me laugh - a competition amongst Mahavira, Gautam Buddha and six others of the same category.

The Jaina lineage is perhaps the most ancient. In one kalpa - which means four million years - there will be only twenty-four Jaina tirthankaras. Twenty-three had already happened, only one last seat was vacant, and all these eight people were competing to be the twenty-fourth jinna. Jinna means "the conqueror of oneself."

Buddha was also in the competition. It makes me feel very ashamed. He wanted to change his name to Siddharth Jinna. Jinna means the conqueror, but he could not defeat Mahavira - not because he was less conscious, but because he was not such a great ascetic. Mahavir was almost a masochist; he disciplined his life along the lines of self-torture. And unfortunately, humanity is still sadistic; it wants people to torture themselves. Just by self-torture they become respectable saints.

Buddha could not manage; neither could the six others, and Mahavira was appointed as the twenty- fourth and the last prophet of Jainism. Feeling defeated... In the first place to be competitive is not a right quality for a religious man. To be competitive is very ordinary and worldly. You have renounced the world - from where does this competition arise? You have not renounced your mind, you have not renounced your ego. This is an expression of ego, to be the last tirthankara of a very respectable lineage.

And then, when he was defeated, he was in utter despair. He changed his name from Siddharth.

Instead of being called the Jinna, he chose another word, similar: the Buddha. Then things become even more complicated, because Mahavira had twenty-three predecessors, and that was hurting to Gautam Buddha's ego. He visualized twenty-three absolutely imaginary Buddhas who had preceded him.

Never in any scripture is there any mention of these Buddhas. Jaina tirthankaras are mentioned in Hindu scriptures too, not only in Jaina scriptures. But the twenty-three Buddhas imagined by Gautam Buddha - just to complete the score of twenty-four - shows that even the greatest minds fall many times before they come to the completion and stop falling.

Katue Ishida is neither Buddhist nor has she any connection with me. She seems to be a woman of immense understanding, love, and search for a man who has arrived home. She is poor, because she has lived along the lines of non-possessiveness. That's why she has been delayed; now she is collecting money to come here to pay her respects.

Geeta could not believe it. She was thinking that Ishida would be disturbed that her prophecy did not come true, or failed on the way. But an authentic seeker is not concerned with individuals. She told Geeta, "Don't feel worried and concerned. With every change your master has reached a higher stage."

This series of talks I would like to be dedicated with love and blessings to Katue Ishida.

Just because of her prophecy about me she has suddenly become a world-famous name. Now the news media are approaching to her to ask about the prophecy - on what grounds, and all kinds of questions. She has lived silently in a shrine deep in the forest, but just a single prophecy has brought her into the light. She needs to be brought into the light, she may be helpful in solving many problems that man is encountering.

But man's way of encountering problems is always strange and blind. For example, just now one of the most organized Jaina sects, terapanth, is bombarded - particularly the head of the sect, Acharya Tulsi - with exposures upon exposures, almost in a chain.

Two disciples of Acharya Tulsi left the fold and exposed all the perversion, the sexual exploitation in the name of religion. Acharya Tulsi has more than seventeen hundred monks and double that number of nuns. It is a vast community of monks and nuns, and the exposures from these two - and since then others have joined - reveal all kinds of perverted practices, homosexuality, heterosexuality, and the nuns are being treated almost like prostitutes. The monks are either heterosexual, exploiting the nuns, or many of them are homosexual. And they all have taken the vow of celibacy!

Acharya Tulsi tried, through the government, to have the book banned. But the publisher was very insistent, and he was ready to go to the court against the government. Seeing the situation, that to be in the court would mean more exposures, more dirt, Acharya Tulsi stopped the action. The books have been released.

One of these monks, Satish Kumar, had come to me when he left Acharya Tulsi's camp, thinking that I have been always against Acharya Tulsi and his whole philosophy. But I told him, "It does not matter, I will not exploit the situation, because to me it is not a question of Acharya Tulsi. That's how for centuries we have been treating symptoms, and we never go deep to the roots."

Acharya Tulsi is not at fault. Neither are his monks and nuns at fault. The fault is centuries old - as long as celibacy has been preached there has been sexual perversion.

I would like Acharya Tulsi to gather courage and come into the open, rather than trying to hide. It is not his fault, it is the fault of the society that imposes on their monks and nuns unnatural things like celibacy.

I will support Acharya Tulsi. I am always ready for any unpopular challenge! But he has to gather courage. Of course he will lose his respect, but it is better to lose your respect than to lose the truth.

All these monks - Jaina or Hindu, Christian or or any other religion - have lived in deep hypocrisy down the ages, and they are afraid that if they say the truth they will lose their prestige. Nobody will respect their truth.

This is a strange society. Everybody talks about truth and respect for truth, but just try one truth, and immediately you will see how you are condemned and your truth is distorted.

But there are only two possibilities for Acharya Tulsi and his thousands of monks and nuns: either to remain in the ancient hypocrisy or to come out and declare clearly that "It is not our fault. It is the fault of the tradition, of the religion which has imposed on us something unnatural." And whenever there is something unnatural, perversion is bound to happen.

But strangely enough, everybody is against Acharya Tulsi but nobody is against celibacy. And the fault is in the idea of celibacy, not in Acharya Tulsi or some other shankaracharya or the pope. It does not matter who the person is; the problem is whether in some way your society helps him to be unnatural, respects him if he becomes unnatural. Then you are distorting his very being. And to gain respect, people are ready; to be saints, people are ready. But from the back door once in a while you will see these same saints in situations you cannot conceive.

The problem is, the saint tries to keep his respect - and the society that follows him also tries to hide all perversions, because if all the saints that they have worshipped are exposed, that will degrade their religion, their respectability also. So both the society, the organized religion, and the unnatural, perverted hypocrites are always joining together to protect an unnatural style of living.

It is good that Acharya Tulsi is exposed, but I don't think it is his fault. He was ordained when he was only fourteen years old. Now what does a fourteen-year-old understand about celibacy? All that he understands is that the whole society is respecting him, he is carried on their shoulders; his own elders are touching his feet. Not only has he become a hero, his family has also become holy with him.

Now converting a fourteen-year-old child - do you think he will be able to remain unnatural his whole life? That will be such a torture and a nightmare. He will have to find some solution, in such a way that his respectability remains and everything that he does is being done in darkness. But once in a while somebody comes out and exposes it - has to.

Satish Kumar, when he came to see me in 1960, was a young man with tremendous fire, and he told me the story of what happened to him - all kinds of sexual perversion. He became so ugly in his own eyes. He said, "I had gone to seek truth there, and I am being used and abused in every possible way."

You will be surprised to know that the nuns are being used sexually, and when they become old, the acharya in Jainism has the power to order them to commit suicide. Of course it has a beautiful religious name, it is not called suicide. But just by changing names things don't change. It is called santhara, and santhara means dying by fasting - a slow kind of torturous death. When a woman becomes too old, and to carry her is now useless - she has been used utterly, she has no other purpose - she is ordered to commit suicide through fasting. And she has to follow the order of the acharya: disobedience is sin.

But this whole humanity seems to be so asleep that nobody wants to go to the roots. And things are absolutely clear: except with brain surgery you cannot be celibate, unless you are born impotent.

But do you understand? Has any impotent person contributed anything to the world down the ages?

- a painting, a poetry, a song, a music, a dance? Is there any impotent person around the world in the whole history of man who has contributed anything?

In fact all creation is part of sexual energy. Sexual energy is nothing but the creative force. If it can generate new life, it can generate millions of things. All creative people are oversexual; only mediocre people have average sexuality. That's why great poets cannot remain with one woman, great painters cannot remain with one woman. They have so much sensitivity, so much perception, that once is enough. Twice is stupid.

But one thing is certain: that even if you cut off the genitals - which has been done; in Russia before the revolution there was a vast Christian sect which was cutting off the genitals. And the person who was cutting his genitals was received as a great saint. Poor women, finding nothing to cut, started cutting off their breasts, and they were also respected as great and holy.

But I want you to know that by cutting off the genitals you cannot destroy sexuality. It will become cerebral, it will move in your mind, because the real center of sexual energy is not in the genitals.

The real center is in your brain. Stimulating that center, you can immediately feel your genitals being stimulated. Just imagine a beautiful woman... you are thinking in the head, and there is a wireless service!

Unless a man's mind is surgically operated upon, nobody can be celibate. But the moment you surgically operate the sexual center, the person will become absolutely useless, utterly lousy - you will put him up and he will sit back down! He has lost his life energy, he has no more spine.

But such... And there are many practices of the same category which have been promoted by all the religions all over the world. I condemn them all without any exception, categorically, with absolute authority!

Medical science should be consulted before you give initiation into celibacy. Unfortunately, even our doctors are so impotent they won't speak the truth. They know it! Even our doctors I have seen going to touch the feet of a saint who is thought to be celibate. Doctors? One simply wants to cry!

These idiots have been carrying degrees from western universities; they know perfectly that celibacy is not possible. But their minds are so conditioned that through mantra, through yoga, through some device, some spiritual worship, prayer, perhaps celibacy is possible.

I want to challenge on this occasion the medical association of India to investigate the case of Tulsi and his followers. And that will be very definitive - because it will be the same with your shankaracharyas, your bishops and your popes.

Once and for all it has to be decided that fighting with sex is self-destructive. Use the sexual energy in a multi-dimensional way. Everything is created by the same energy. It is not only for reproduction, it is also for the creation of music, painting, poetry.

Just because of celibacy two things have happened in all the religions: they have become uncreative, and they have all become perverted. And they are the people dominating the society: they preach to you and they do just the opposite, just the very contrary.

It is time! It is the end of the twentieth century, and your saints and your religions and your bishops and your priests are still living in primitive ages, barbarious. Then when somebody is exposed, the person is condemned, it is not that the roots are found.

I am absolutely with Acharya Tulsi. He should come out and expose the whole tradition: "It is not our fault. We have been forced to be unnatural, and the outcome is perversion."

Rather than taking it personally, he should make it a point to indicate to the whole of humanity that being unnatural is almost equal to being unreligious. The only way to religion is to be more and more natural.

You will be wondering that if monks and nuns are allowed to have sexual relationships, then what will be the difference between us and them? What is the need of making a distinction?

The difference will be of consciousness. The difference will be of meditation. And their small affairs are not going to distract their meditation, but are going to give them a little time to relax and play and then move back to their meditations.

Now, as the situation is, this underground sexuality running all over religious sects... They go on preaching against birth control methods, so they cannot use them and they cannot find anybody who is going to supply them. So many women, young women become pregnant, and the only way is in some way to commit suicide. Call it santhara, call it whatever you want, but I want to be direct and straightforward.

Maneesha has brought a beautiful anecdote:

At first the monk was thinking that Ikan, a disciple of Ma Tzu, would hesitate a little in saying that a dog has a buddha-nature. But Ikan was almost coming to his spring. He said, "The dog has the buddha-nature, although hidden very deep. Perhaps it will take many many lives for the dog to discover it, but that does not matter. At the very center of the dog's being, the buddha is."

Ikan replied "Yes," and the monk was a little worried. He provoked him more; he said, "Okay, what about you? Do you have it or not?"

It was a very strange answer, but of ultimate importance.

Even the dog has; you yourself said so.

When I say the 'buddha-nature' it is exactly equivalent to saying the mysterious nature, the ultimate mystery of existence.

Basho wrote:

Preparing the ground, preparing the stage for the spring to come soon... he is not talking about the outside spring; he is talking about the inside spring. That has also to be soon, but you should be preparing just like the plum tree and the moon are preparing for the outer spring. Except you, nobody can prepare the inner spring.

Question 1:

Maneesha has asked a question:

Maneesha, please try to prevent them, because I have burned my fingers with Gautam Buddha - that's enough! No more disturbance in my sleep; no more knocking on my doors. These fellows are good from far away. To live in the same room or in the same body... those four days I will never forget!

After many many days, the time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh has come.

Father Fumble is thumbing through the church records one day, when he notices that one of his flock, Hamish McTavish, does not seem to have given any money to the church charities. The young priest decides to pay a call on Hamish, who is rumored to be very rich, and see if he can squeeze any money out of him.

"The records show," says Father Fumble, "that you have never donated any money to our charities."

"That's right," says Hamish. "And do your records also show that I have a crippled uncle who is completely unable to take care of himself? Furthermore," continues Hamish, "do they show that my sister was left a widow with ten children to take care of and no insurance or other means of support?"

"Well, no," says Father Fumble, a little embarrassed. "Our records do not show that."

"So," replies Hamish, "why should I give anything to you, when I don't give anything to them?"

Old Grandpa Babblebrain is finally persuaded to take his grandchildren, Biff and Bippy, to the zoo for the day. Biff and Bippy are really having a great time as they drag Grandpa here and there, pointing out the animals.

Grandpa is going a little senile, and is not always too sure where he is, or what he is doing. Then Bippy points into one cage and shouts, "Oh! Grandpa, look! That is a laughing hyena!"

Grandpa looks at the animal, and does not recognize it at all. "I don't believe it," says Grandpa. So he goes over to the zookeeper and asks what kind of animal it is.

"Yup," says the zookeeper, "it is a laughing hyena, alright."

"What is so special about this animal?" asks Grandpa.

"Well," says the zookeeper, "he only eats once a day."

"Hm," says Grandpa, "just like me."

"And," continues the zookeeper, "he only takes a bath once a week."

"Hm," says Grandpa, "just like me."

"And," says the zookeeper, "he only makes love once a year."

"Hm," says Grandpa, shaking his head. "Then why is he laughing?"

Chief Boonga, the head of a primitive African tribe, writes a letter to Pope the Polack at the Vatican.

The Polack pope had sent three missionaries to the Boonga tribe a few months before.

"Your Holiness," writes Chief Boonga, "I would like to thank you personally for sending out the three Catholic missionaries to us. I and my tribe found them kind, compassionate, loving, wise, sensitive - and absolutely delicious!"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes, and feel your body to be completely frozen.

This is the moment you can look inwards with your total consciousness, and with an urgency as if this is going to be your last moment. Only with such urgency can you reach to your very center immediately! And to be at your very center is to be a buddha. There is nothing beyond it.

In this silence, in this blissfulness, this night becomes golden, something of the beyond.

Just remember one thing: the only quality of a buddha is to be a witness. The moment you are just a witness... looking at the body, you are not it; looking at the mind, you are not it. You are just the witness. Immediately you are transformed into a totally different world.

To make it clear, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax, but remember your witness. Whether you are sitting or lying or walking, your witness is always at the center, utterly still - just like a statue of a buddha. Flowers will start showering over you, the spring has come so suddenly. The Buddha Auditorium has become a lake of consciousness without any ripples.

Collect as much life energy, collect as many flowers as the spring breeze has brought within you.

You have to bring them back and persuade the buddha to come along with you. It is your very nature.

There is no question that it will not be persuaded; it has always been persuaded.

Unless the buddha becomes your very life - your walking, your working, your speaking, your silence - unless it becomes all that you are, you are not awakened. And without being awakened you miss life, its meaning, and you will miss your death and its meaning.

Only a buddha does not miss even a single drop of existential beauty, blissfulness and ecstasy.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back. But come back like a buddha - silently, peacefully, with a great grace. Sit just for a few minutes to remember and to recall the golden path you have traveled upon, the ultimate peace at the center of your being, and the experience of buddha nature, another name for the eternity of your being.

Inch by inch, buddha is coming closer to you. Just arrange the path for him. The spring is guaranteed to come; so is buddha.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Buddha.