The Power That Shall Make You Nothing

WE WILL BE MOVING more and more in contradictions. The language of religion is bound to be contradictory. On the face, it looks irrational. In a way it is, because it goes beyond reason, it transcends reason. This sutra says DESIRE POWER ARDENTLY - but that power which makes you nothing. You become a non-being.

We desire power in order to become something. The power that wealth can give, the power that politics can give, the power that prestige can give. We desire power to be something, and this sutra says DESIRE POWER ARDENTLY - but that power which makes you nobody, nothing.

There are two types of power. One, that power that you can accumulate from others - that which can be given to you by others or can be taken by you from others. It depends on others. The power that depends on others will make you somebody in the eyes of others. You will remain the same as you were, but in the eyes of others you will become somebody. This somebody-ness is what is meant by the ego. And ego is the barrier.

Desire that power - the second type - that allows you to feel that you are nobody. It is difficult to feel that "I am nobody." Everyone thinks that he is somebody, whether others agree or not. Everyone thinks that he is somebody! This is ordinariness; every ordinary mind thinks that he is somebody.

The moment you come to realize that you are nobody, you have become extraordinary, rare, a unique flower, incomparable. The feeling of nobodyness creates a space within you. The ego dissolves, your false center is no longer there. You have become roomy. Now the eternal can enter in you.

This space, this emptiness, can allow the existence to flower in you.

You are filled with your somebodyness. You are this and that. The mind is so cunning that you can even create this somebodyness through nobodyness. I will tell you one anecdote:

An emperor, a Mohammedan emperor, was praying in the mosque on some religious day. He was talking to the divine and saying, "I am nobody. I am nothing. Have mercy on me."

Then suddenly he heard a beggar who was also praying nearby. He was also saying, "I am nobody.

Have mercy on me."

The emperor felt offended! He looked at the beggar and said, "Listen, who is trying to compete with me? When I say, 'I am nobody,' who else dares to say, 'I am nobody'? Who is trying to compete with me?"

Even in nobodyness you can be a competitor. Then the whole point is missed. The emperor could not tolerate someone else claiming nobodyness for himself in front of him. When he is saying to God that he is nobody, he doesn't mean that he is nobody. Through nobodyness he is creating somebodyness. You can create ego out of nothing also.

Remember that ego is power in the world and impotence as far as the divine is concerned.

Everything that seems to be power in the world is impotence in the divine dimension. There, powerlessness is power. Jesus goes on saying to his disciples, "Be poor in spirit." Not only poor, because you can be poor without being poor in spirit. Then even poverty will become a sort of richness. If you feel egoistic about it then your poverty is not poverty. It is not poverty in spirit.

So Jesus goes on repeating, "Be poor, poor in spirit." Otherwise you can be a beggar on the street - you have left everything - but now you cling to having left everything; you cling to your renunciation.

You have made a richness out of your poverty; you are arrogant about it. Look at sannyasins, monks, bhikkhus. Look in their eyes. They have a deep arrogance that comes from having left the world, from having renounced. They have renounced the world, but now their renunciation has become a bank balance. They are arrogant about it; they feel superior because of it. When Jesus says, "Be poor in spirit," he means: don't be superior to anyone.

He doesn't mean to be inferior, remember. This is the problem. He doesn't mean be inferior because if you are inferior - if you feel that you are inferior - it is again superiority standing on its head, nothing else. Superiority that is standing on its head becomes inferiority. If you feel yourself to be inferior, the longing to be superior is there.

When Jesus says, "Be poor in spirit," he doesn't only mean don't be superior. He means that, but he also means don't be inferior: just be yourself. Don't compare yourself with others; just be at ease with yourself.

Then you will be nobody, because somebodyness needs comparison. How can you be somebody if there is no comparison? You are more beautiful, never simply beautiful. You can never be simply beautiful; you are always more beautiful in comparison to someone else. You are rich in comparison to someone else, you are more knowledgeable in comparison to someone else. Superiority and inferiority are always comparisons. You are somebody when compared to others. If there is no comparison then who are you? You cannot be just beautiful. can you? You cannot be just wise, can you?

Think about this: you are alone on earth; the whole humanity has disappeared. What will you be?

Wise or foolish? Beautiful or ugly? A great man or just an ordinary man? What will you be? Alone on the earth - the whole humanity has disappeared - you will just be yourself. You will not be able to say, "I am this or that." You will not be anybody. You will be nobody.

Real sannyas real renunciation, means that it is as if the whole universe, the whole humanity, has disappeared and you are alone. There is no possibility to compare. Then who are you? Nobody.

This nobodyness is power - power in the world of the divine.

Jesus says, "Those who are first in this world will be last in the kingdom of God, and those who are last here will be first in the kingdom of God." That which is power in the world is powerlessness in the divine journey, and that which is powerlessness in the world is power in the divine journey.

This sutra says Desire POWER ARDENTLY but remember the meaning of 'power'. It is powerlessness. It is a feeling of nobodyness, nothingness, of emptiness. AND THAT POWER WHICH THE DISCIPLE SHALL COVET IS THAT WHICH SHALL APPEAR AS NOTHING IN THE EYES OF MEN.

DESIRE PEACE FERVENTLY.

THE PEACE YOU SHALL DESIRE IS THAT SACRED PEACE WHICH NOTHING CAN DISTURB AND IN WHICH THE SOUL GROWS AS DOES THE HOLY FLOWER UPON THE STILL LAGOONS.

DESIRE PEACE FERVENTLY. No one desires peace. You go on talking about it, and go on deceiving yourself that you desire peace but no one desires it - because once it is desired, peace happens. and it has not happened to you.

No one desires peace. Even if you say that you desire peace you don't desire it. because this is one of the ultimate laws: if you DESIRE PEACE it happens. Then where have things gone wrong?

Many people come to me. One student came to me - he was just going to appear in his final M.A.

examination. He asked me, "How can I be peaceful? How can I be silent? Help me. I desire peace.

I am so disturbed, so tense."

I asked him, "Why do you desire peace?"

He said, "I want to achieve the gold medal. The examination is about to happen. I am a first class student but this is going to be my last examination and I desire the gold medal. And if my mind is so tense, how can I achieve it? So help me to be peaceful."

Look at the contradiction! And this is happening to everyone. I told him, "If there was to be no examination, if you had no desire to achieve the gold medal, if you had no ambition to be first class first, would there be any disturbance within you? Would your peace be disturbed?"

He said, "No. Why should it be? Then there would be no problem. I would be at peace. But right now the examination is there and I desire the gold medal. So help me to be peaceful."

Ambition is destroying his peace. He goes on clinging to his ambition and still he desires peace.

Peace in the service of ambition is impossible; it is contradictory. Ambition cannot be peaceful. The greed to succeed cannot be peaceful.

If you desire peace, desire peace for itself. Don't make it a means to something else. It cannot be made a means. When this sutra says DESIRE PEACE FERVENTLY, it means peace as an end not as a means. No one desires means. Ends are desired and, because of the ends. means are desired. But peace can never be made a means. All that is beautiful, all that is true, all that is good, all that is deep in existence cannot be made into a means. It is always the end. But we desire even God as a means. No one desires God for his own sake; we desire God for some other purpose.

Then, the desire is false.

That's what I mean when I say that no one desires peace unless he desires it for its own sake. You can attain it easily if you desire it as an end. Desire it for itself and it happens, because in the very desire for peace, ambition falls; in the very desire for peace, anxiety disappears; in the very desire for peace, anguish disappears. If you go on being ambitious - desiring success. desiring to be this or that, to be somebody - then peace will not hap-pen to you. Then you will remain anxious, anxiety-ridden, tense.

You will remain in anguish and whatever you do will not be of any help. So be clear about it. If you want peace, desire it directly as an end. Then the very desire for peace transforms you.

Really, peace is natural. It is not something that has to be desired. You, yourself, disturb it. It is already there. Peace is natural to you; it is your very being. You disturb it by ambition, you disturb it by greed, you disturb it by anger, you disturb it by violence. It is already there, but you have disturbed it.

Don't disturb it! If you really desire it, you will not disturb it. Then you will begin to feel it.

To attain peace, one has to remove the obstacles to it. Find out why you are not at peace. Why?

Then, remove the cause. If ambition is disturbing it, get rid of the ambition and peace will happen.

Peace is already there; you need not try for it. Just be aware of why you are disturbing it and don't disturb it, that's all. And it will happen. That's why I say that when peace is really desired it happens immediately. Not even for a single moment does one have to wait.

DESIRE POSSESSIONS ABOVE ALL.

This sutra seems very dangerous: Desire possessions ABOVE ALL. Possessions? The very word will create a disturbance in your mind because all the great teachers have taught: don't desire possessions Buddha says. "Be nonpossessive." Mahavir says. "Aparigraha: nonpossession." Jesus says, "Leave all riches, all possessions."

Jesus says, "Even a camel can pass through the eye of a needle but a rich man cannot pass through the gate of the kingdom of my God." and this sutra says DESIRE POSSESSIONS ABOVE ALL. But the sutra is beautiful. It means the same thing that Mahavir and Buddha and Jesus are saying but it says it in a very contradictory way.

It says that all the things that you think are possessions are not possessions because you cannot really possess them. Can you possess things? Can you possess others? Can you possess anything in the world? You can only deceive yourself that you possess something. You cannot really possess anything because death will destroy everything.

Another thing: whatsoever you possess becomes your possessor. The possessor is possessed by his possessions. You become a slave; you are not the master. So what's the use of saying that you possess the world? No one possesses anything. Only one thing can be possessed and that is your own self. Nothing else can be possessed.

You can become the master only of your own self. If you try to be the master of someone else you will just be a slave. You may call this slavery 'mastery', you may label it 'mastery', but you are just deceiving yourself. Deceptions are deceptions. Just by changing the label, nothing is changed.

Look at your possessions. Do you possess them? If your house is destroyed you will weep, you will scream, you will go mad; but if you die, your house is not going to weep. it is not going to go mad.

So who was the real owner? The house owns you. It doesn't care a bit about you: whether you live in it or not. Really it will feel very good if you leave. It will be more at ease It is not dependent on you. You are just disturbing its peace. If you are dead. the house will feel good. So who is the possessor?

This sutra is meaningful in this sense that only the self can be possessed and nothing else. And if you cannot possess your self, what else do you think you can possess?

So be a master - the master of your own self - and don't make any effort to possess anything. I don't mean to leave everything. That's not the point. Use everything, but don't think in terms of possessing. Use the house, but don't be the owner. Use wealth; don't be the owner of it. Use the whole world, but don't think that you possess it. You are just a traveller passing through Tired, you rest under a tree. But you don't possess the tree. And if you don't possess it, you will feel a deep gratitude toward the tree. When you leave in the evening, you will thank it. You will feel grateful because when you were tired and the road was hot, the tree gave you shelter; the tree was cool.

But don't try to possess the tree or you will not feel grateful.

When you possess, you don't feel gratitude. Don't possess your wife, don't possess your husband.

When you are tired, your wife gives you her love. Feel grateful for it.

And if you don't possess your wife, you will not be possessed by her. Relationship happens only when there is no possession. If there is possession, there is always conflict. Husbands and wives go on fighting; you cannot find more deeply related enemies. They are intimate enemies; they coexist just to fight with each other. The whole relationship is poisoned because the husband is trying to possess the wife and the wife is trying to possess the husband, and no one can possess anyone; possession is impossible. You can only possess yourself; that's all that is possible, everything else is impossible. But when one tries to possess and to do the impossible, everything goes wrong; the relationship is poisoned Life becomes a misery.

DESIRE POSSESSIONS ABOVE ALL.

BUT THOSE POSSESSIONS MUST BELONG TO THE PURE SOUL ONLY, AND BE POSSESSED THEREFORE BY ALL PURE SOULS EQUALLY. AND THUS BE THE ESPECIAL PROPERTY OF THE WHOLE ONLY WHEN UNITED. HUNGER FOR SUCH POSSESSIONS AS CAN BE HELD BY THE PURE SOUL, THAT YOU MAY ACCUMULATE WEALTH FOR THAT UNITED SPIRIT OF LIFE WHICH IS YOUR ONLY TRUE SELF.