Nothing to choose, nothing to discard

Friends,

One absolutely innocent man has been hanged yesterday morning. The High Court had no evidence against him - not even circumstantial evidence, not even any technical loophole - but he was sentenced to death because he was the uncle of one of the terrorists who murdered Srimati Indira Gandhi. His only crime was to be the uncle of the man. One simply cannot believe that to be an uncle to a terrorist is enough to hang him.

The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal to reconsider, without giving any evidence or any reasoning why they have rejected the appeal. The president has rejected the mercy appeal without giving any reason why he is rejecting it.

The attorney who was working hard to save this innocent man is my attorney also. I know him intimately; he has been fighting for me in many courts, in many cases. I know his honesty, integrity.

His name is Ram Jethmalani. He tried hard in every possible way, saying that there is no evidence; you cannot murder an innocent man. But power is blind, and when blind power becomes revengeful then it is absolutely destructive.

I am not concerned that one man has been hanged. My concern is, as a citizen of this country, that hanging an innocent man is hanging justice itself, is hanging democracy, freedom of individuality, freedom of expression - even freedom to be innocent! And these politicians go on talking about justice and democracy, and under these beautiful names everything corrupt and inhuman goes on, beautifully. Not a single intellectual, or a single freedom lover, nor a single man who would like equal justice for all, has raised any protest.

Ram Jethmalani, as a final effort, approached the World Court. The World Court said, "Put us in contact with the president." The secretary of the president said, "It is too late" - it was only eight- thirty in the evening - "and we cannot disturb the president at this late hour, and in the morning the man will be hanged." When the man was hanged, Rajiv Gandhi was playing on the grounds as if nothing was happening.

This country has been fighting for freedom - not for this freedom. It has been fighting for justice - not for this justice, where you don't have any evidence of any kind. You are murdering the constitution of the country, its justice; you are destroying its freedom. And there is no protest.

People are so conditioned to be slaves, that when the whole country should have risen against this criminal act of the Supreme Court and the president of India, there is not even a single sign. It seems the whole country has been castrated.

But I protest with my whole heart!

In the first place, death is not a right way of punishment, even to the person who has murdered somebody. This is the law of the jungle, an eye for an eye. It is not justice. The man has murdered somebody, and you murder the man! Can blood wash your hands which are full of blood?

And as far as talking is concerned, all the leaders, all the politicians go on talking about beautiful things, giving hope and consolation to the masses, but the fact is that there is no law, no constitution.

If you can murder an innocent man you can do anything - and the country will remain silent.

But I, as an individual, alone, protest this murder of the innocent man.

Secondly, all these past few days I have been exposing Indian intelligence, but nobody seems to come forward and accept the truth. On the contrary, they become angry. Just today I have received from Amaravati a newspaper editorial saying about me, "You are creating your own dictionary" - because I have explained that the word 'bhagwan' is a pornographic word. But the stupid editor does not produce any other meaning of the word from any dictionary.

I challenge anybody to produce any other meaning of the word 'bhag'. It means vagina. And you can see in every nook and corner of every city the statue of Shivalinga; it is a phallic statue. It is a man's genitals, based in a feminine vagina, and the whole country goes on worshipping it. Nobody even wonders - what are you worshipping? You are not even ashamed!

Shiva is called by the Hindus not a small god, but mahadeva - the great god. And the great god is represented by male genitals. I am not creating any dictionary; I am simply bringing to your notice the authentic meaning of the word, and if you are intelligent, from now onwards nobody should be called Bhagwan - neither Mahavira, nor Buddha, nor Krishna, nor Rama - nobody should be called Bhagwan. It is abusive; it is ugly and obscene.

I had carried that word in front of my name for thirty years just as a challenge, but nobody even came to challenge it. The pundits of this country, the priests of this country, must have understood deep down in their hearts that if they challenged me, I was going to expose the meaning of the word.

Now I have denied even Gautam Buddha, for the simple reason that I don't accept Gautam Buddha as a whole man. He has renounced the world, he has renounced the outer - and a man who is living only with the inner cannot be complete or perfect. Hence, I call myself Zorba The Buddha.

But even that is hurting unintelligent people; they don't understand the meaning of Zorba. Even the Sri Lankan ambassador to America has written me a letter, saying that I should not use the word 'Buddha' with 'Zorba'; it is insulting to Buddha.

I wrote him: in the first place you don't have any monopoly over the word 'Buddha'. In the second place, anyone who is awakened has the right to call himself The Buddha, and my effort to bring Zorba and Buddha together is indicative of my whole philosophical approach. I want the world and your inner being to be in tune. The inner and the outer should be balanced.

Zorba the Buddha is my philosophy. But if it hurts, I am helpless.

But I would like my editors not to put it behind my name. I don't want to irritate ignorant, blind, unintelligent people around the world. You are my only world; I am living just for you. I renounce the whole world completely.

You should take note of it, Maneesha, that "Shree Rajneesh" is enough to indicate towards me.

As far you are concerned, you can address me as "My Beloved Master."

I have something more important to do than to bother about these idiots. They don't understand even their own scriptures. They are so ugly, they are so pornographic - but they have never read SHIVPURAN or VAYUPURAN. They don't know anything about their own religion, but they get hurt very easily - that shows their conditioned mind. And they have lost all capacity to understand anything new.

I have invited Morarji Desai to the ashram. He has been cheating the owner of the Oceana Building - once I have been in that building with him. He has not been paying, but because he was sometimes chief minister of Bombay, sometimes chief minister of Gujarat, sometimes deputy prime minister of India, and finally he became the prime minister of India, the building owner could not do anything about him. It was at his whim whether to pay the rent or not. Once in a while he would pay.

But now that he is no one, the owner has dragged him to the court, and the court has decided in favor of the building owner. All his followers have simply deserted him. The people who made him chief minister and prime minister - where have they gone? All those CHAMCHAS... It is a special Indian word; it means all those "spoons" who were sucking his blood - they have all disappeared.

Not a single one has invited Moraji Desai to be with him in his house. And he had all the richest people of the country as his friends; they were surrounding him and praising him like anything. Now he has only five hundred and sixty rupees in the bank account, and it is so humiliating that Bombay has collected eleven thousand rupees for him to live - for his whole life.

But I invited him, making it clear that in my campus two conditions have to be fulfilled. You have to stop drinking urine; my people don't like such disgusting habits. And you have to come with a negative AIDS certificate.

One man, M.V. Kamath - one of the oldest journalists, intellectual - immediately reacted, and he gave an interview to a newspaper stating, "I was going to write something good about Bhagwan, but because he has insulted Morarji Desai, now I am not going to write what I was going to write."

Strange...

And yesterday I received his review of my book ZARATHUSTRA - that's the "something good" he was writing about me. Now, he was in an absolute confusion. He has written such absurd things just to be revengeful, and it has nothing to do with the book ZARATHUSTRA. If he was angry at me, it was enough that he had shown his anger in the newspapers. But he writes about ZARATHUSTRA that it is contradictory. He does not give any example - a single example would have been enough - "It is inconsistent," he says, but without any example.

Just because M.V. Kamath says it is inconsistent or self-contradictory it does not become self- contradictory or inconsistent. And he says that there are repetitions in the book. Yes, there are repetitions because it is not a written book. These are lectures, running for months, and one has to understand that a written book is different.

When a person is writing, he can cut; he can remove some passages if there is any tautology, any repetition. He can give the book to a few people to look into to see if they find anything inconsistent.

But these are spontaneous talks given to the disciples, and sometimes it is absolutely necessary to repeat a few things again in a different context. They are not repetitions because the context is different.

But just in his own statement, he has made himself a fool - saying, "I was going to write something good," and just because I have invited Morarji Desai, with conditions, he became angry. Because Morarji Desai had made him an international reporter based in Washington. Just to pay him respect, if he was so much offended, he could have invited Morarji Desai to live in his own house!

Now Morarji Desai is hanging... The government had given him a house. First he refused, because it is the opposition who is in power, and he does not belong to this opposition party. To take refuge and support from them he felt was undignified, and he was hoping that he would have so many friends who would come to help him. Nobody has come to help him.

Finally he accepted - this is even more humiliating - the government's offer to him. Until his death he can occupy a certain bungalow. But that bungalow is already occupied by a woman who used to be the education minister in Chavan's cabinet. Now she is no longer the minister, but she insists she will not vacate the bungalow.

And there are no rules for government bungalows, so she is in a good position. At the most, the government can ask her for the rent, and she is willing to pay the rent. Now there is no way, so the government is searching for another bungalow that somebody can vacate for Morarji Desai. And he is hanging in the air.

Still, because of the courtesy of the owner of Oceana, he has extended, saying to Morarji Desai that "Until you get another bungalow, you can stay a few months."

Now M. V. Kamath was going to write a beautiful press review on ZARATHUSTRA, but out of anger he writes absolute absurdities.

I was simply amazed that nobody seems to understand the difference between reaction and response. You react with your old conditionings, without ever giving a second thought to any new approach.

Hence, I will be simply my own name. I hope nobody objects to it. Otherwise, I can manage without a name.

I have to live with these blind people and all kinds of idiots, but I am not living for them; they should know. I am living for only my people, whose hearts have melted with me.

These few breaths that are left to be here on the earth,

I have to devote to my own people,

with the hope that they will use this opportunity

to become aflame with joy and blissfulness,

to find their roots in eternity, immortality...

to become in their own right

one with the cosmos,

dancing with the stars

and the flowers and the rivers and the oceans.

Maneesha has brought a few beautiful sutras.

First, a small biographical note:

What must have transpired? Koji was going to ask the question, "WHO IS HE THAT IS INDEPENDENT OF ALL THINGS?"

Your innermost being, the witness... but it is not a word, it is an experience.

That's why, before he could finish his question, Sekito covered Koji's mouth with his hand. "Don't ask such a question which cannot be answered. Don't ask such a question which can only be experienced. Go inwards. Close your mouth, and close your mind. Move into the space of no-mind."

This closing of the mouth was very symbolic, and Koji went through an experience... and could not believe that such a simple act of a master can manage to ignite a fire within you.

For the first time he saw his own no-mind - the vast space of the inner being.

It is as big as the outer sky; otherwise there will be no balance between the outer and the inner.

He expressed his experience in a verse:

What he is saying is the experience of every meditator.

DAILY, NOTHING PARTICULAR...

These words are applicable to you.

Nothing in particular, daily, ONLY NODDING TO MYSELF.

When you see your being,

when you see the vast sky,

the freedom, the joy, the blissfulness,

have you ever thought? -

you cannot say anything about it

to anyone.

You cannot say anything about it

even to yourself.

All that you can do is nod your head,

"Yes, this is it."

Nodding, not words.

ONLY NODDING TO MYSELF.

NOTHING TO CHOOSE, NOTHING TO DISCARD.

That's what I mean by Zorba the Buddha:

nothing to choose.

Buddha had chosen: he had chosen to escape from the world, he had chosen to leave his wife and child and old father, he had chosen to run away instead of encountering the world and facing the reality. It was a clear-cut choice against the world, against the material, in favor of the spiritual.

A man of totality has nothing to choose. His life is a life of choicelessness. NOTHING TO CHOOSE, NOTHING TO DISCARD; they are two sides of the same coin. If you choose something, you will have to discard something.

"In ordinary life," Koji is saying, "I am exercising what is called 'occult power.' In carrying water, I am being a witness. Shouldering firewood, I am a witness."

And the moment you are a witness you are in meditation. Whatever you are doing or not doing, it is irrelevant.

What again transpired?

Ma Tzu said, "I will tell you. First, you have to drink all the water in the Yangtze River - a vast river, it will take eternity for you to drink all the water." Ma Tzu is saying, "Don't ask impossible things."

You are asking the impossible thing which cannot be answered, but only can be experienced. You are asking, "WHO IS HE THAT IS INDEPENDENT OF ALL THINGS?" - the witness, the mirrorlike reflecting consciousness. But there is no way to make you understand just by words.

You have to go through the experience of witnessing. That is the only way to dissolve the mystery.

Otherwise you can go on collecting answers from masters, from scriptures, from all around the world. But all that you will collect will be simply rubbish.

Anybody else's experience is not going to be your experience. If you drink water, your thirst is quenched, not mine. I will have to drink water to quench my thirst; the experience is absolutely individual.

He recognized the fact that he is asking an impossible question. It is not the master's fault that he is talking of an absurdity:

"WHEN YOU HAVE DRUNK ALL THE WATER IN THE YANGTZE RIVER, I WILL TELL YOU."

Zen has a way of saying things which nobody else in the world has used. Rather than saying, "You are asking me an impossible question," Ma Tzu says for him first to do something impossible - "Then come and ask me. If you can manage to drink all the water of the Yangtze River, I will manage the experience to be translated into words."

Nothing is possible: neither can you drink all the water of Yangtze...

Immediately, Koji understood and underwent another enlightening experience. He composed another verse:

At the very center of your being, ten directions are converging - the whole universe is meeting within you.

The only thing to be learned is not to do anything, but just be. Doing moves you. Doing, in the beginning at least, may take you away from witnessing; you may forget to witness. So in the beginning, just be - silent, utterly immobile, as if dead, so that you can experience being in its purity.

Once experienced, you can bring the same quality, the same grace, the same bliss, to your actions in the ordinary life.

Then there is no difference between meditation and life. Then whatever you are doing is your meditation. If you are not doing anything, that is your meditation, because all along, twenty-four hours, you are rooted in your being. You are luminous. Your light, your fire is burning so high that there is no way to forget it. It is radiating all around you. Those who are perceptive, receptive, sensitive, will experience your fire, your life, your song... your dance, even though you are not moving at all.

All that is needed is, mind should be empty. The ultimate experience is the experience of no mind.

Mind is a faculty to work in the world. It has no way to reach to your very center which is far away, back. Mind cannot go backwards, it has no reverse gears; it can only go forward. You can take it to the mountains, to the stars, wherever you want, but you cannot take it to your own being.

If you want to go to your own being, you will have to leave the mind; you will have to go alone. You will have to go in silence, without thought.

And once, just once you know what freedom, what joy, what eternity, what tremendous life bursts forth in you as no-mind is entered, the spring has come to you. Thousands of flowers of eternity blossom. You have come to know the master key which opens all the doors of all the mysteries of existence.

But it has nothing to do with the mind or thinking.

No thought, no mind, no choice - just being silent, rooted in yourself, rejoicing. Thrilled with the experience, overflowing with great benediction to the whole universe - this is the only religion I know of.

All other religions are just frauds.

Ho-o wrote:

SUN SHOWER MIRRORED IN A GLOBE OF RAIN HANGS FOR ONE MOMENT - he is talking about the rainbow, not mentioning the name. SUN SHOWER MIRRORED IN A GLOBE OF RAIN HANGS FOR ONE MOMENT, NEVER SEEN AGAIN.

Have you ever seen the same rainbow again? Such is our so-called mundane life: just rainbows, the same stuff dreams are made of. There is no need to abandon rainbows - enjoy. But know perfectly well that it is a momentary phenomenon.

I wonder that people like Gautam Buddha, Mahavira and others, have insisted that the quality of the outer world is just like rainbows, dreams, and still they renounce it! Only one thing can be right.

Either they understand exactly that the world is just a dream... then there is no point in renouncing it. Do you renounce your dreams every morning? You know they were dreams, it is finished!

But on the one hand they say this whole world is just like dreams, and on the other hand they renounce it and go through all kinds of austerities in renouncing it. Certainly something is wrong.

Either they don't understand what they are saying, that the world is just like rainbows... So what?

Enjoy the rainbows!

You need not escape from the rainbows. They are beautiful for the moment - why long and desire that they should be permanent? What is wrong in their being momentary?

Just rejoice! When it rains, just dance in the rains.

When I was a postgraduate student in the university, there was a small street, only for deans of faculties - arts, commerce, science - and renowned professors of different subjects. It was very silent, peaceful, with great trees, ancient trees. It had been a special section built for the British people, so the trees were very ancient, the bungalows beautiful. And the street ended, it did not go anywhere. After a mile of beautiful bungalows and high trees, there was suddenly a stop; you were facing a deep valley. The street was on top of a hill.

Whenever it used to rain, I used to go on that street, because there was no traffic. The last bungalow belonged to the dean of science, a certain Doctor Shrivastava; he was very friendly with me. We used to discuss about the possibility of there being some day a meeting between mysticism and physics - he was a professor of physics, and a world-renowned professor.

But he had never seen... he used to be in the university when I would go singing and dancing in the rain. And I always had to stop at the last bungalow. The last bungalow was his; his wife and his children always waited for me. Whenever there was rain, they were all standing on the verandah waiting for me. I waved at them and they waved at me... we were not introduced to each other; I did not know that they were the family of Professor Shrivastava. But they thought that I must be mad....

One day Professor Shrivastava said to me, "I want you to meet my family before you leave the university." I said, "I will come along whenever you want." He said, "Why not today?"

So he took me in his car, and he had phoned the family to say, "I am bringing a special guest." The family was waiting for the special guest. When they saw me, they all laughed and ran inside the house!

Professor Shrivastava was very much embarrassed. He said to me, "Forgive me, there seems to be some misunderstanding."

I said, "No, there is some understanding!"

He said, "Understanding?" I said, "This is your family? We are well-acquainted. They think me mad, I think them mad - we wave at each other..."

He said, "You never told me!"

I said, "I never knew that this was your family."

He took me inside, he called everybody, and he asked, "Why are you laughing?"

They said, "We have been laughing for almost two years! This young man is strange." His wife said, "Whenever it rains, he always comes singing, dancing, alone on the street, and he stops just in front of our bungalow and we wave at each other. We are well-acquainted in a way. We think he is mad, and we know he thinks we are mad, because why should we wait? We wait for hours."

Doctor Shrivastava said, "It is strange. I was thinking to introduce you to my family, but they know you better than me! Why have you never told me?"

I said, "I have been asking many professors to come along with me, it is such a joy, but they say, 'It looks very embarrassing. If some students see, or some professors see, even our jobs can be at risk. You don't have anything to lose, and anyway the whole university thinks that you are a stranger.

You can afford it, we cannot.' That's why I did not say anything to you. You are an old fellow, you might not like the idea."

He said, "I like the idea immensely, but I cannot come dancing in the rain - even my family will think, 'My God! That young man has corrupted our father, our husband.'"

I said, "This is my whole business, to corrupt. This was the business of Socrates, to corrupt - this is my business also."

The poet is saying, "Just because it is momentary and you will never come across it again, there is no reason to abandon it. Rejoice in it. The moon, the sun, the rain... they are all so beautiful."

There is no need to renounce anything.

You should be centered in your being; then the whole world is yours. That's why I call my philosophy Zorba the Buddha. Zorba enjoyed everything of the outer world, but he had no idea of the inner. He danced under the rain, he danced on the beach in the full-moon night....

His boss was a thin man, always suffering from headache, stomachache, this or that. And Zorba was a poor servant. One full-moon night, Zorba went to his boss and said, "Boss, only one thing is wrong with you: you think too much. Just come along with me!" And before the boss could have said no, Zorba just pulled him towards the beach.

It was absolutely silent. There was nobody on the beach in the middle of the night, with the full moon showering. And Zorba started playing on his instrument and dancing, and holding the hand of the boss so the boss also had to dance, looking all around to see that nobody is watching.

Finally he got the message. It passed through Zorba's hand. His dance, his joy, his playing on the instrument... something happened to the boss. Zorba left him, and he continued dancing. Zorba went back to the cottage, but the boss continued dancing.

Early in the morning, Zorba came back and said, "Now, come back. Soon people will be awakening."

The boss said, "You have cured me of all my diseases. They were all mind-created. You were right, I think too much. From now onwards I will try not to think. I would also like to see that space which opens up when there is no thinking at all."

Zorba was not aware of the inner; he lived in the outer. It is perfectly good, but it is only half.

Buddha lived in the inner; it is perfectly good, but it is only half.

I want to give you the whole because to me only the whole is holy; everything else is profane.

Question 1:

Maneesha has asked:

Maneesha, the appeal of destruction over creation is very simple. Destruction needs no intelligence, destruction needs no discipline, destruction needs no education, destruction needs no meditation, no love.

Creation needs intelligence. It needs meditativeness, it needs love - love in its purity. It needs the perceptivity of beauty, it needs the joy of creating something - maybe just a rose bush or a painting, or a small poem, but creation needs your total being to be involved in it. It needs your whole consciousness to be dissolved in it.

Destruction does not require anything of you. Even animals can destroy, even insane people can destroy, even retarded people can destroy. That is the appeal of destruction over creation.

But it is ugly. When you are destroying something, you are also destroying yourself, remember.

And when you are creating something - a song, a dance - you are also creating yourself. You are discovering new dimensions of your being.

The more you create, the closer you come to your being, the closer to your potential. Your flights into the open sky... that blissfulness is not available to the destructive person. Only the creative knows the Himalayan peaks of love, of bliss, of splendor... of truth, of beauty, of all that is good, of all that is God.

It is time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh.

It is afternoon at the Washington Zoo.

"Look at that one," says Martha, "the one staring at us through the bars. Doesn't he look intelligent?"

"Yeah," says George. "There is something quite strange about it."

"Yes, he looks like he understands every word we are saying," says Martha.

"Yeah, he walks on his hind legs, too," observes George, "and swings his arms."

"There," says Martha, "he has got a peanut. Let us see what he does with it."

"My God!" says George. "Would you believe it? He knows enough to take the shell off before he eats it - just like we do."

"That other one is a female, isn't it?" asks Martha. "Just listen to her chatter at him. He does not seem to be paying much attention to her, though."

"She must be his mate," says George.

"They look a bit sad, don't they?" asks Martha.

"Yeah, they do," agrees George. "I guess they wish they were in here with us gorillas!"

Paddy and Seamus are in town one day and go for lunch at a smart restaurant. They enjoy a typical Irish seven-course lunch, six beers and a piece of cheese, and receive their bill.

Paddy feels in his pockets for his wallet.

"Ah! B'Jesus!" he says, "I have left my money behind. Seamus, can you lend me some?"

Seamus fumbles in his own pockets and then looks up.

"Can you imagine that, Paddy, I've left my money behind too!" he says. "What are we going to do?"

A few minutes later, Paddy and Seamus reach the cashier's table arguing loudly.

"Let me pay for this," says Paddy.

"No!" demands Seamus, "I want to pay!"

They argue for about five minutes in front of the embarrassed cashier, and then Paddy turns to him and says, "Look here - you don't mind who pays for this, do you?"

"No," replies the cashier, "it does not matter who pays for it."

"Well, in that case," says Paddy, waving from the door, "you pay for it!"

The Temperature of Marriage:

Wedding Day - one hundred degrees. Feverish.

Jimmy: "My own sweetie sugarpie."

Judy: "My own darling honeybunch."

One day later - fifty degrees. Hot.

Jimmy: "My own precious."

Judy: "My own love."

Two days later - twenty-five degrees. Warm.

Jimmy: "Dearest."

Judy: "Dearie."

Three days later - fifteen degrees. Tepid.

Jimmy: "Sweetheart."

Judy: "Dear."

Four days later - five degrees. Cool.

Jimmy: "Judith."

Judy: "James."

Five days later - zero degrees. Very cool.

Jimmy: "Madam!"

Judy: "Sir!"

Six days later - below freezing. Icy.

Jimmy: "Bitch!"

Judy: "Bastard!"

On the seventh day - minus twenty degrees! Very cold.

Jimmy: "GET LOST!" - Pow!

Judy: "FUCK YOU!" - Crash!

Two days after the storm - meltdown.

Jimmy: "Oh Judy, OH! OH! OH!"

Judy: "Ah Jimmy, AH! AH! AH!"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent.

Close your eyes.

Feel your body to be completely frozen.

This is the right moment to look inwards with your total consciousness, and with an urgency as if this is the last moment of your life.

Deeper and deeper...

You are certain to reach to the center of your being - it is not far away.

As you come closer to the center, everything becomes cool, calm, silent.

As you come even closer, everything becomes joyful.

As you reach the center, there is an explosion of light, a tremendous revolution takes place. You have found the eternal in you.

I have been calling this eternal the witness.

From life to life since eternity you have been going on and on, carrying only the witness. Every thing, every life, you have to leave behind; only the witness opens its wings and flies into another life.

Ultimately, when you become enlightened, the same witness flies into the very source of life, disappears, melts down into the universe. This is nirvana - to disappear just like a dewdrop into the ocean.

But for the moment, remember the witness.

You have to live this witness twenty-four hours, without any tension. Whenever you remember, okay; whenever you forget, okay. Slowly slowly, every moment will become a mirror, reflecting spontaneously the beauty of existence - outer and inner both.

Nivedano, to make it more clear...

(Drumbeat)

Relax.

Rest.

But remember the witness.

You are not the body.

You are not the mind.

You are just the witness, and suddenly flowers start raining on you. A great ecstasy takes over; as you relax, all separation disappears.

Gautama the Buddha Auditorium has become

this moment

just a lake of consciousness

without any ripples,

reflecting the faraway stars.

You are the most fortunate human beings at this moment upon the whole planet earth, because you are at your center. This is the most precious, the greatest glory and splendor one can find in life, in existence.

Collect as much joy, bliss, ecstasy...

And persuade the center, the witness, to come along with you.

The witness has to become your very life.

That very moment you will be awakened, you will be the buddha.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back, but peacefully, silently, gracefully.

Sit down for a few moments, remembering the golden path you have traveled, and reminding yourself that the experience of witnessing at the center of your being has to become your very life.

Drawing water from the well,

chopping wood - whatever you are doing,

you have to remember

that you are only a witness.

Nothing has to be renounced,

nothing has to be chosen.

Choicelessly, relaxed,

live both sides of your being:

the outer and the inner.

Be Zorba the Buddha!

Okay, Maneesha?