An open future with no reverse gear

Question 1:

Anand Nadeen, life is a continuous change. It knows no stop - not even a semicolon. Enlightenment is not to get stuck somewhere. Nobody has talked about beyond enlightenment, because what is the point? People are not even enlightened. But I'm certain my people are going to be enlightened, and I have to make them aware not to get stuck.

Even enlightenment has to be transcended.

Even transcendence has to be transcended.

One has just to go on and on.

Existence is infinite, in multidimensions - and there is no end anywhere. You can never say I have come. You are always coming closer and closer and closer, but you never come, because once you have come what will you do? Then the only way is to go back home.

One has to go beyond enlightenment; otherwise you will find yourself in a very difficult situation - stuck in a waiting room of a railway station. No train goes back, all trains go ahead, and all that is left behind you have experienced. You are tired of it; you don't want to go back. Even if you want to go back nature prohibits it.

Can a young man again become a child? Can a child again be in the womb of the mother? There is no possibility of going back. The young man will become middle aged; the middle aged will become old. There is an open future, but there is no reverse gear in your life-style. Simply nothing can be done about it.

I have heard...

When Henry Ford died he met God, and God asked him, "Are you satisfied with my creation?"

He said, "No, if I had created life, I would have corrected many mistakes. For example, when I created the car there was no reverse gear: you have gone two blocks ahead of your house - you cannot come back. Now you have to go around the whole town to come home!"

The reverse gear was Henry Ford's invention; you can go back. And he said to God, "In life you have missed many things, but especially a reverse gear."

An old man wants to become young but cannot. If God had placed a reverse gear you could have just moved back into your youth again - you have to go on.

When I say one has to go beyond enlightenment, I am saying that enlightenment is not the end. It is the beginning of a new existence, a new universe, a new world. It is difficult even to conceive what enlightenment is; naturally it is more difficult to conceive the beyond, but "theoretically speaking" it can be understood.

While all the others are hanging around, Silvester Sperm is exercising doing push-ups, swimming laps and lifting weights. One of the other sperms asks him: "Silvester, how come you spend so much time exercising?"

"Well," replies Silvester very seriously, "when the time comes, I want to be the one."

"Ah, really," says the sperm. "Well, your chances are about one in a million."

Just then the time comes and all the sperms start swimming. Silvester is way out in front when all of a sudden he turns around and starts swimming back. "What is the matter?" cries another sperm.

"Get back," cries Silvester, "it's a blowjob!"

But you cannot...! That was theoretically speaking. Practically speaking, forget all about the beyond.

First become enlightened.

It is pointless to think about things which are so far away. Take care of first things first: be enlightened. But you are theoretically interested in the beyond... what are you going to gain?

Enlightenment is enough for the time being.

Once you are enlightened you will not need anybody else to say to you to go beyond. You will go - you will have to go. There is nothing static. Nobody can stay young and nobody can remain just enlightened.

I am the first person to talk about the beyond. All the mystics of the world have stopped at enlightenment for the simple reason that they were not talking theoretically. They were practically concerned that you become unidentified with your body, with your mind; that you become a pure consciousness without jealousy, without anger, without fear; that you become a love, a flower of eternity, which brings fragrance and blessings not only to you, but even to those who are fast asleep.

Perhaps the noise of the falling flowers of blessing may wake up somebody, just to see what is happening. Perhaps the fragrance may wake up someone. Perhaps the light may penetrate into somebody's darkness.

Become enlightened, not theoretically but really, existentially, and the beyond will come on its own.

I have talked about it because I want you to be aware of every possibility that is going to happen on the path.

One day Gautam Buddha is passing through the forest. It is fall time and dry leaves are thick on the ground....

Finding him alone, Ananda, his chief disciple, asks, "This question has been arising in me: have you said to us everything that you know of?"

Buddha bent down, took a fistful of dry leaves, showed those dry leaves to Ananda and said, "I have said only this much. What I have not said is as much as all the dry leaves in this forest."

But I don't want to be so miserly. I want to say to you everything that happens on the path in its minute detail. It is time. Twenty-five centuries have passed since Gautam Buddha. Now man's consciousness is far more mature. It will not be satisfied with a fistful of dry leaves. I offer you the whole garden; hence I talk about many things which you may think are too far away, are perhaps not going to happen to you. But I say unto you, if you listen rightly everything that I am saying is going to happen. Because it has happened to me, there is no reason why it should not happen to you.

People are very strange. They want great theories, philosophies, but they don't want a great life.

They want to be convinced about great philosophical conceptions, but they don't want their hearts to become an open flower dancing in the wind, in the sun, in the rain. Whatever they hear they go on accumulating in their memory. First, they never hear the whole thing. Secondly, they hear something else that has not been said at all. Thirdly, they interpret it according to their own prejudice. Fourthly, they simply go on accumulating it. Just becoming a great encyclopedia is not going to help.

Paddy wins some money at the horse races and treats himself to a meal at a fancy restaurant. While his dinner is being served, he notices that the spoons are made of real silver. So he eats quickly, and putting one of the spoons into his pocket, he gets up to leave. Just as he reaches the door, the waiter rushes after him and calls, "Excuse me sir, what about the bill?"

Paddy turns around and shouts, "What spoon?"

His whole mind is concerned about the spoon that he has stolen. Seeing the servant running he knows that he is coming for the spoon. He does not hear the word 'bill', he hears the word 'spoon'.

And we can understand; it is natural. You are so filled with stolen spoons, that when a bill is offered, you immediately react: what spoon?

Question 2:

Fritjof, do you want my comment theoretical or practical? Let us start from theoretical. Theoretically you are a great groupleader; theoretically in the groups great meditative states arise in you. But you know and I know and everybody else knows that practically the situation is different.

Everybody wants to be a leader, everybody wants to dominate, to direct, to guide, it does not matter whether he knows what he is advising people. What matters is that his advice makes him feel good - that he is a wise man. It makes him feel good that so many people are looking up towards him to be guided. And naturally, you have understood the point that when you become involved with the problems of other people you forget your own problems.

Forgetting your own problems creates a certain peace. When you are left alone meditating, it is very difficult, because how to forget your problems...? When you close your eyes they are all standing there in a queue.

One of the Indian Mohammedan emperors was imprisoned by his son because the old man was not dying but was going on and on.... And the son was already old. He had waited too long to become the emperor.

Finally, he decided, "This old guy may live longer than me." He imprisoned his own father. It was easy because they were in the same palace, and all the armies were under the son - he was the commander in chief. The old man was imprisoned in his own palace.

The next day he sent a message to his son: "I have ruled enough. There was no need to imprison me. You should have simply asked me and I would have given you the empire. Now, it does not mean anything to me. I wish you well. Live long and let the empire prosper, but make a little arrangement for me. I want thirty children so that I can teach them the holy KORAN."

His son, who had now declared himself the emperor, said to the court, "Do you see the psychology?

The old man cannot drop the idea of being the guide, the leader, the wise man. Even if it is only of thirty urchins brought from the streets, it does not matter, but he is the leader and the teacher.

Those thirty children will become the substitute for the whole empire."

Sigmund Freud and his company were not born yet but the son was saying something immensely significant as far as psychology is concerned.

If you cannot meditate alone, your meditation in the group is false.

If you cannot be silent alone, then your silence in silencing others is not authentic.

I am reminded of a famous story....

A dog had become enlightened. Now nobody can prevent... anybody can become enlightened.

There is no law that prevents people; it is not a crime to become enlightened. And the dog was very articulate, he went around the capital telling every dog, "Your only problem is that you unnecessarily go on barking. This disease of barking has been preventing your enlightenment. Look at me: I never bark."

From the morning till late in the night he made a round to every dog until they accepted that he was enlightened, and there was no doubt about it. They felt ashamed, but what to do? - a dog is a dog!

Whenever a dog sees somebody in uniform, he cannot resist barking. Dogs are very much against uniforms - postmen, policemen, sannyasins... The dog, just as he sees the uniform, is immediately against the person. He seems to be a great freedom lover; this uniform represents slavery. There must be some philosophy in the minds of the dogs, because they take so much trouble - they get tired from barking.

Because they could not stop barking, they had to accept the nonbarking dog as the enlightened one.

He is almost the Gautam Buddha of the dogs, his achievement is great: "We are all proud that you are born amongst us; we will worship you. We will remember you, we will teach our children about the golden days when you were alive. But forgive us, we try hard. The more we try hard not to bark, the barking comes more forcibly."

One fullmoon night... and dogs are also against the moon; nobody knows why. In fact, in all the languages there are words for mad people. In English 'lunatic' is synonymous with mad people, a mad person. But in its root meaning 'lunatic' means moonstruck; 'luna' means the moon.

In Hindi the same is the situation: the madman is said to be chaandmara, killed by the moon. The moon drives people mad; it drives even the ocean mad.

Poets get affected, painters get affected. Most of the people who commit suicide do it on a fullmoon night; more people go insane on a fullmoon night.

So if dogs bark the whole night, nobody can condemn them - they have something of the poet, something of the madman, some aesthetic sense, some feeling of the ocean. But they cannot tolerate the full moon, and because we don't understand their language, we call it barking. Who knows, they may be reciting poetries praising the moon... perhaps their barking is their way of prayer....

One fullmoon night all the dogs decided that there is a limit to being condemned continuously: "That enlightened dog is too much. You bark, and suddenly he comes. He goes on hiding here and there, watching dogs. This fullmoon night make a commitment: we may die but we will not bark. And we will not open our eyes so we don't see the moon."

There was such silence as there had never been. The Gautam Buddha went around the town - he did not even meet a dog. All the dogs had disappeared... what happened? - and on a fullmoon night; this was the greatest time of his preaching. But the dogs had disappeared into dark corners behind houses, hiding. They were afraid that if they saw the moon, then commitment or no commitment, they could not resist. They knew...! They were aware of their weakness and their frailty, so it was better they were lying down quiet in darkness, behind houses. But Gautam Buddha was very much concerned, "What has happened...? Has every dog died?"

Then the moon started rising higher. And for the first time - because Gautam Buddha was always concerned with teaching the other dogs, he had no time to see to the sky - he saw the moon. The whole sky fell down. There was such barking - from every corner dogs came out.

That day he realized that because of his continuous teaching there was no time to bark. And you cannot do both the things together: barking and talking. He was badly ashamed ... fallen from the heights. All the dogs surrounded him and asked, "What happened?"

The story is very significant. If alone you cannot be silent, then while leading a group your silence is just an avoidance of your inner noise.

You are focused on other people's problems, so you yourself become hidden behind. Silence is authentic only when you are alone and no thought arises in you. And in fact, this should be a teaching to you. Be more and more meditative, because this is the only criterion.

If you have attained silence, you have the right to tell others to be silent. If you have solved your problems, then you are capable of helping those who cannot figure out how to get out of the mess they have made their lives.

I have heard about a man who had come to a master asking to be a disciple....

And as masters are very colorful people, unpredictable, the master looked at the disciple and said, "Listen, to be a disciple is very difficult. You will have to meditate, you will have to drop your ego; you will have to do this and that... a long process of discipline."

The man said, "I never thought that to be a disciple is so difficult."

The master said, "I cannot help it; that is the way. From eternity disciples have followed the path. I have only indicated a few spotlights."

The man thought for a moment, looked at the master who was relaxing in his chair comfortably. The disciple said, "Then what about if I become a master? If to be a disciple is so difficult, let me become a master."

The master said, "To be a master is very easy."

The man was very happy. He said, "That's what I was thinking. Things should be easy."

But the master said, "You will have to manage a few disciples, and that is very difficult. They are stubborn, very angry, always ready to fight. Sometimes it can prove dangerous."

He said, "But you were saying that to be a master is very easy...?"

He said, "To be a master is very easy. Just look at me, I am at ease. But first one has to either lead disciples or to become a disciple."

The man said, "Both seem to be difficult. What is your suggestion?"

The master said, "My suggestion is rather than getting troubled by so many people, it is better just to be a disciple because you will have your own troubles and not be burdened by other people's troubles."

Just as I was coming here, Kaveesha came to see me. She is a very understanding woman and has a clarity of seeing through problems and helps many people. Many people depend on her because I am not available, personally available, to anybody. You know I am lazy. I became a master because it is the easiest job. I have never been a disciple - I don't have any problems.

So when somebody has problems, I direct them to go to Kaveesha, to go to somebody else, because I have never suffered from any problem and I have never solved any problems. If they were there I left them there unsolved - they died. How long can they live if you don't pay attention to them?

Kaveesha has a small group of people around her; Avirbhava belongs to her group. You hear her scream every day. She is a beautiful woman. She screams just to announce that I have come.

When she is not there even I miss her - and she is not an ordinary woman. Just yesterday she gave Kaveesha all her money with the checkbook - that is three and a half million dollars - and said, "You take it."

Kaveesha is poor. She thought that this was a good chance in a lifetime to have so much money. But she was not aware that Avirbhava is tricky! She accepted the checkbook, then Avirbhava explained to her, "These are the problems attached to the checkbook - you take them too. I am completely free!" So many problems... In America sales have gone down... Avirbhava has coal mines - and nobody is purchasing coal mines. Nothing in cash... all in problems - three and a half million dollars!

So Kaveesha became afraid, saying, "I'm perfectly happy as I am. Now this Avirbhava is making me fall into a hell of problems."

And Avirbhava was very happy, "For the first time I'm feeling free - free of problems, free of money, unburdened."

Kaveesha could not reject the offer because that would be insulting; she could not accept the offer because that would be destructive. So she told Avirbhava, "Wait, first I have to see my master."

Just before I came here she came to me and she said, "This Avirbhava has created a trouble. First she said to me, 'I'm giving you three and a half million dollars. You take it. I'm burdened, I want to be free of money. Our Beloved Master has been telling me again and again to be free - I have decided.'

"And later on she came back and said, 'But listen, these are the problems attached: there is no cash.'"

Kaveesha came to me to ask what to do. I said, "You do one thing. Rejecting is not nice; accepting is dangerous because you have never taken such problems as are attached to those three and a half million dollars. You just go to Avirbhava and say, "I have offered the money and the problems to my master. And he said to me, 'I appoint Avirbhava as my agent to take care.'"

In a simple way nobody is harmed. Avirbhava remains with her coal mines and three and a half million dollars. But now she is no longer the owner. Whenever those coal mines are transferred into dollars, I am the owner. So they come to the commune; there is no problem.

You need a clarity.

Just something beautiful to make this silence a living, a dancing silence....

Grandma Saperstein and Grandpa Rabinowitz are sitting on the veranda of the old folks home rocking back and forth in their rocking chairs. Grandpa Rabinowitz rocks forward in his chair and says to Grandma, "Fuck you!"

Grandma Saperstein rocks forward in her chair and says to Grandpa, "I fuck you too!"

Grandpa becomes very much excited and shouts, "Fuck you!" swinging more forward again.

Grandma remains graceful but leans forward and says, "I fuck you again."

This goes on. Finally Grandpa says, "You know something, Grandma, this sex thing ain't all it is cracked up to be."

It is just oral... theoretical.

Zabriski is hired to wash the windows of an eighteen-story building.

When he arrives at the job, he finds Paddy and Sean there to help him. The three of them climb the scaffolding to the top of the building and start to work. But after an hour passes, suddenly Zabriski climbs over the scaffolding and jumps eighteen stories to the street below.

The police arrive, and one of the officers asks Paddy and Sean what happened.

"I don't know," says Sean.

"Well," says Paddy, "maybe it was because of his deformity."

"What do you mean?" asks the cop.

"Well," says Paddy, "he kept on saying that he couldn't work with two assholes."

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.