From Nothing to nothing

An ancient scene...

It must have been a morning like this. The trees were dancing in the morning sun, and the birds were singing. And the house of a great mystic of those days, Udallaka, was celebrating the coming back of his son, Swetketu, from the house of the Master where he had been sent to study.

Swetketu came. The father received him at the door, but felt that something was missing - something was missing in Swetketu. Something was present which should not have been present: a subtle arrogance, a subtle ego. That was the last thing the father was waiting for.

In those ancient days, education was basically the education of the non-ego. A student was sent to the forest university to live with the Master so that he could dissolve himself and have a taste of existence. Rumours had been coming that Swetketu had become a great scholar. There were rumours that he had won the greatest award. And now he came and Udallaka was not happy.

Yes, he had brought the greatest award that the university could have conferred. He had passed all the examinations, he had obtained the highest degree, and he came loaded with much knowledge.

But something was missing, and the father's eyes were full of tears.

Swetketu could not understand it. He said is something wrong? Why are you unhappy?'

And the father said 'One question: Have you learned that One, by learning which everything is known? And by forgetting which all knowledge is futile, meaningless - just a burden - not a help, but a harm?'

Swetketu said 'I have learned all that was available there. I have learned history, I have learned philosophy, I have learned mathematics, I have learned the Vedas. I have learned language, I have learned art, I have learned this and that...' And he listed all the names of all the sciences of those days. But the unhappiness of the father remained the same. He said 'But have you learned that One, by learning which all is learned?'

And the son was a little annoyed. He said 'Whatsoever my Master could teach, I have learned. And whatsoever is written in the books, I have learned. What are you talking about? That One...? Don't be mysterious. Say it exactly! What do you mean?'

Naturally, there was arrogance. He had come with the idea that now he knew all. Maybe he was thinking - as every student thinks - that that now his father knows nothing. He must have come with the idea that now he had become a great knower. And there was his old father who was not happy, and he was talking about something mysterious: the One.

And the father said 'Do you see the tree yonder, over there? Go and bring a seed from that tree.' It was a nayagrod tree. The son brought a seed of the tree, and the father said 'Where does the tree arise from?'

And the son said 'From this small seed, of course.'

'This big tree... from this small seed? Break the seed and see where that tree arises from - that big tree.' And the seed was broken, but there was nothing. In the seed there was emptiness. And the father said 'Can you see that emptiness from which this big tree arises?'

And the son said 'I can infer it, but I cannot see it. How can you see nothingness?'

And the father said 'That is the One I am talking about. It is out of nothing that all comes, it is out of that creative Void that all is born and one day dissolves back into. Go back and learn SHUNYA.

Go back. Learn this Void, because this is the origin of all: the source. And the source is the goal too. The beginning is the end too. Go and learn this basic, fundamental thing. All else that you have learned is rubbish! Forget about it - it is all memory, it is all mind. Learn no-mind, learn no-memory.

It is all knowledge that you have learned. Learn knowing, learn awareness, learn understanding. It is objective what you have learned, but you have not penetrated to your innermost core.'

The world is thought to be a big tree. And these are the four steps in Tantra. The Void is the first step - the Void in the seed. The seed is nothing but a container of that creative Void; it contains that creative Void. When the seed breaks open down in the earth, that Void starts sprouting into a tree.

This nothingness - what physicists call no-matter - this nothingness, this no-thingness is the source.

Out of this nothingness is born the tree. Then come flowers, fruits, and a thousand and one things.

But each thing again becomes a seed, and the seed falls into the earth and again becomes that Voidness.

This is the circle of existence: from nothing to nothing, from nowhere to nowhere. In the middle of two nowheres is the dream, the SAMSARA. In the middle of two nothings are all things. Hence they are called dream-stuff; hence they are called MAYA; hence they are called nothing but thoughts, fantasies. This is the Tantra Tree.

No-mind is the beginning of all and the end of all. Out of no-mind arises what Tantra calls unorigination. Out of unorigination arises nonmemory. Out of nonmemory arises memory. This is the Tantra Tree.

No-mind, nothingness, means that all is potential, nothing is yet actual. All is possible, probable, but nothing has happened. Existence is fast asleep in the seed, resting - the state of rest, the state of unmanifest being. Remember it, because only then will you be able to understand these sutras.

These sutras are of great importance, because understanding them you can go into your own mind and search for the no-mind.

The first state: no-mind: everything is potential, nothing is actual. The second state: unorigination - still nothing has become actual, but things are getting ready to become actual. In a way it is the same as the first, but with a slight difference. In the first everything is absolutely at rest; the rest is absolute. Nothing may happen for millions of years. In the second nothing has happened yet, but things are ready to happen at any moment. The potentiality is ready to explode into actuality. It is like a runner who is ready to run any moment the whistle is blown. He is on the verge. He is just standing on the line, absolutely ready. Once the signal is given, he will be running.

Unorigination means that nothing has originated yet, but it is ready to be born. Unorigination means the pregnant state. The child is in the womb - the child may come at any moment. Yes, it has not come yet, so in that way it is similar to the first state. But it is very, very ready - in that way it is not similar to the first state.

The third state is called nonmemory. The child is born: the experience has become actual. The world has come in, but there is still no knowledge: nonmemory.

Just think of the first day a child is born. He opens his eyes, he will see these green trees, but he will not be able to recognise that they are green. How can he recognise them as green? He has never known green before. He will not even be able to recognise that they are trees. He will see the trees, but he will not be able to recognise them because he has never known them before. His perception will be pure, uncontaminated by memory, hence this state is called nonmemory.

This is the state Christians talk about when Adam lived in the Garden of Eden - no knowledge, he has not yet tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. This is the state in which every child lives early in life. For a few months the child sees, listens, touches, tastes, but no recognition arises, no memory is formed. That's why it is very difficult to remember the early days of your life. If you try to remember, you can easily go up to the fifth year. A little more effort - the fourth; a little more effort - and hard effort - and you can go up to the third. Then suddenly there is a blank, then you cannot remember. Why not? You were alive. In fact you were so alive that you will never be alive as much again. Those first three years were the most alive time of your life. Why is the memory of them not there? Why can't you penetrate into them? Because the recognition was not there. Impressions were there, but there was no recognition.

That's why Tantra calls this state nonmemory. You see, but by seeing, knowledge is not created.

You don't gather anything. You live moment to moment: you slip from one moment into another without carrying the first moment into the other. You don't have any past. Each moment arises absolutely fresh. That's why children are so alive and so fresh, and their life is so full of joy, delight, wonder. Small things make them so happy. And small incidents make them so tremendously excited, ecstatic. And they are continuously surprised - just a dog passing by, and they are surprised. A cat comes in the room, and they are surprised. You bring a flower and the colour is tremendous. They live in the psychedelic world; everything is luminous. Their eyes are clear - no dust has gathered yet; their mirror reflects perfectly. This is the state of nonmemory: the third state.

And then comes the fourth state: memory, the state of mind. Adam has eaten the fruit of knowledge; he has fallen, he has come into the world. From no-mind to mind is the passage into the world. No- mind is NIRVANA; mind IS SAMSARA. If you want to go back again to that original purity, that primal innocence, that primordial purity of consciousness, then you will have to go backwards.

And these same steps will be the steps: memory has to be dissolved into non-memory - hence the insistence of all meditations that the mind has to be dropped, thoughts have to be dropped. Move from thought to no-thought, then from no-thought to unorigination, and then from unorigination to no-mind... and the drop drops into the ocean. You are again the ocean; you are again the infinite, you are again the eternal. No-mind is eternity, mind is time.

Now, the other day I talked about four MUDRAS. KARMA MUDRA, the action gesture, GYANA MUDRA, the knowledge gesture, SAMAYA MUDRA, the pure time gesture, and MAHAMUDRA, the great gesture, the space gesture. They are also connected with these four states.

The first, KARMA MUDRA, is memory. Tantra says: Whatsoever you think of as action is nothing but memory. In fact, action has never happened. It is a dream that you have looked through; it is your projection. Action happens not. Action cannot happen in the very nature of things. Action is just a mind-dream; you project it.

So the first, KARMA MUDRA, is exactly parallel to memory. The day you drop memory, you go beyond action. Then too, things happen through you, but you are no longer the actor, you are no longer the doer of them: the ego disappears. Things flow through you, but you are not the doer of them.

The trees don't try to grow; growth happens, but they are not trying to grow. Flowers bloom, but there is no effort involved. Rivers flow, but they are not tired. Stars move, but they are not worried.

Things are happening, but there is no doer.

The second state is GYANA MUDRA, the knowing gesture. You simply watch, you simply know, you don't do anything. Things happen, you are just a watcher; you don't become identified as a doer.

Then the third MUDRA is SAMAYA MUDRA. Then, by and by, even the knower is not needed; there is nothing to know. First, action disappears, then knowledge also disappears. Then there is pure now-ness; time just flows in its purity. All IS; nothing has to be done and nothing has to be known.

You are a simple being. Time goes on flowing by the side; you are undisturbed, unperturbed. All desire to do or to know has disappeared.

There are only two kinds of desires: the lower kind is to do something; the higher kind is to know something. The lower kind needs the body to do; the higher kind needs only the mind to know - but both are desires.

Both have gone. Now you sit alone. Things move, time flows, everything goes on happening. You are neither a doer nor a knower.

And then the fourth gesture: the MAHAMUDRA, the great gesture. Even YOU are no more. Action dropped, knowledge dropped, then even time dropped... and then you also disappear. Then there is silence. This is what silence is. What you call silence is not silence. Your silence is just a faraway reflection, a very poor silence. Sometimes you feel a little relaxed and the mind is not spinning as fast as it does ordinarily; the mind is a little relaxed - you feel silence. That's nothing.

Silence is when action has gone, knowledge has gone, time has disappeared... and you too. Finally you are gone. One day,. suddenly you find that everything has disappeared, nothing remains. In that nothingness - the great gesture - you are infinite.

With the first, KARMA MUDRA, there are thoughts - and naturally with thoughts, past and future, because thoughts are either of the past or they are of the future. With thoughts... the anxiety, tension, anguish.

With the second, GYANA MUDRA, memory dissolves into nonmemory: no past, no future - only now. Mind asleep, not dead yet, can wake up again. So many times GYANA MUDRA happens and is lost. That is the meaning of gaining meditation and losing it. In the second case, mind is not destroyed, it simply goes to sleep. It has a little sleep, that's all, it goes into sleep. Then again it comes back, sometimes with a vengeance, with tremendous energy - of course, it has rested. So, after each deep meditation you will find that the mind is spinning more, has got more energy now; it has been at rest and has become more active. In the second. GYANA MUDRA, mind goes to sleep but has not disappeared yet - but you can have a little taste of no-mind for a moment. For a split second, the ray enters; you are thrilled. And the taste creates trust. This is where trust arises.

Trust is not a belief, it is a taste. When you have seen this light, even for a single moment, then you can never be the same man again. You may lose it, but it will haunt you. You may not be able to get it again, but neither will you be able to forget it: it will always be there. And whenever you have time and energy, it will start knocking on your door.

This is the state that can happen in the presence of a Master very easily: this is a contact-high. This second state, GYANA MUDRA, can happen in the presence of a.man who has attained to the fourth stage, to no-mind.

Hence, down the ages seekers have been searching for a Master. Where to get the taste from?

You cannot get it through books, books will only supply belief. Where to get a living experience from? And you cannot have that living experience because you don't know what it is exactly, in what direction to move, what to do. And doubt is always there whether it exists at all. Maybe it is just the dream of a few mad people? And they are in a small minority - a Buddha, a Christ, a Saraha; they are a very small portion of humanity. The great majority lives without such experiences. Who knows? These people may be mad. Who knows? These people may have a certain perversion.

Who knows? These people may be cheats, frauds; they may be deceiving others. Or maybe they are not cheats - honest people - but they are deceived themselves. They may have auto-hypnotised themselves, they may have created a hallucination or maybe they have dreamt it. Maybe these are dreamers, and good dreamers.

There are good dreamers and bad dreamers. Bad dreamers are those whose dreams are always in black and white - flat, two-dimensional. Good dreamers are those whose dreams are in three dimensions, always colourful. These three-dimensional dreamers become poets. Do you remember any time having a dream in colour? Very rarely does a person see a dream in colour, otherwise they are in black and white. If you see your dreams in colour, then there is a possibility of your being a poet, a painter, otherwise not.

Who knows? These mystics are great dreamers and they dream in three dimensions, so their dream looks absolutely actual. And naturally they devote so much time to their dreams that it is possible they may become obsessed with the dream and that nothing like this is really real: this doubt persists, this doubt follows every seeker. It is natural - nothing to be worried about. How to drop this doubt? The scriptures simply say 'Drop it and believe.' But how to drop it? You can believe, but deep down the doubt will continue.

St. Augustine has a prayer which he used to pray every day to God: 'God, I believe. I absolutely believe. But take care, have mercy on me, so the doubt does not arise again.' But why? If the belief is absolute, then where does this fear arise from? Where does this prayer come from?

'I believe' says St. Augustine 'and you take care of my unbelief.' But the unbelief is there. Maybe you have repressed it. Out of greed, out of lust for God, out of lust and desire for the other world, you may have repressed it; but it is there, and it goes on gnawing at your heart. You cannot drop it UNLESS some experience happens to you.

But how can the experience happen? The scriptures say 'Unless you believe, the experience will not happen.' Now this is a very complex phenomenon. They say that the experience will not happen unless you believe. And how can the experience happen? - because you cannot believe until the experience happens. Only experience can create belief - a belief without doubt, a doubtless trust.

This doubtless trust is possible only if you are in the presence of someone to whom it has happened.

In the presence, some day - sitting silently, not knowing, not trying, not desiring - it happens. It happens like a flash of light... and your whole life is transformed. This is what is meant by conversion.

You are converted, you are transformed; you have moved to a new plane.

The presence of somebody who lives higher than you has uplifted you.. Unawares, in spite of yourself, you have been dragged. Once you have tasted, then there is trust. And when there is trust you can move into the third and the fourth. The presence of the Master can lead you only to the second, GYANA MUDRA. Yes, he can give you a little knowing, a little taste of his being.

When Jesus was departing, he broke the bread and said to his disciples: Eat it, it is me, poured wine and said: Drink it. This is my blood, this is me. This is very symbolic, it is a metaphor. This is GYANA MUDRA. Jesus was saying: You can have a little taste of me; you can drink me, you can eat me.

Each disciple is a cannibal. He eats of the Master; he absorbs the Master - that's what eating means. What do you do when you eat something? You digest it, you absorb it; it becomes your blood, it becomes your bone, it becomes your marrow, it becomes your consciousness. That's what eating is.

What do you do with a Master? You eat his presence, you eat his vibe, and you digest it. And, by and by, it becomes YOUR consciousness. The day it becomes your consciousness, you are a sannyasin, not before it. Before it, sannyas is formal. Before it, sannyas is just a beginning towards this phenomenon. Without being a sannyasin it will be difficult for this to happen, because with sannyas you become open and vulnerable. When you are open and vulnerable, some day, in some moment, things fall together. In some moment your energy is in such a state that the Master's energy can pull it. In some moment you come very close. In some love moment, in some joy moment, in some celebration, you come close to the Master, and you can be hooked. And just a glimpse, just a drop of that nectar goes down your throat, and you are converted.

Now you know. Now YOU know yourself. Now there is no need to believe. Now even if the whole world says that God does not exist, it does not matter; you will be able to fight against the whole world because YOU know. How can you deny your own knowledge? How can you deny your own experience? - that small drop is more powerful than the whole world. That small drop is more potent than your whole past. Millions of lives are nothing compared with the small drop.

But this can happen only when you are close. People come to me and they ask 'Why sannyas?

Can't we be here without taking sannyas?' Yes, you can be here as long as you want, but you will not be close. You can sit exactly by my side. I can hold your hand. That will not do. Vulnerability on your part, openness on your part...

Just a few days ago a young man was asking me 'What is the basic reason for the ochre robes, for the mala, for the locket? What is the rationale?'

'There is none' I told him. 'It is just absurd.'

He was puzzled. He said 'But if it is absurd, then why do you impose it?'

And I told him 'Precisely - that's why.'

If I say something which is rational and you do it, that will not surrender you to me, that will not be the gesture. If something is rational and you are convinced of its rationality and then you follow it, then you are following your reason not me. If something is rational and can be proved rationally, scientifically, and you follow it, you are not vulnerable to me, you are not available to me. That will not be of any use - you will still be following your reason. So each Master down the ages has developed a few absurd things. They are simply symbolic. They simply show that, yes, you are ready and you are not asking for the reason. You are ready to go with this man, and if he has some eccentric ideas, that too you allow. This loosens your head: it just makes you a little more open.

Enlightenment can happen in any colour; orange is not a must. It can happen in any colour. It can happen without any locket. It can happen without any mala. But then why? The 'why' is its absurdity.

The reason is that it is meaningless. It is just a gesture on your part: that you are ready to go into something even if it is absurd. You are ready to go beyond your reason - that's the meaning of it.

This is a very small beginning, but small beginnings can end in big things. When the Ganges comes out of the Himalayas, it is just a drip-drop; you can hold it in your hand, it is such a small phenomenon. But by the time it reaches the ocean, it is so vast.and so huge and so enormous that it will drown you; you cannot hold it any more.

This is a small gesture - wearing orange and the mala and the locket - a very absurd thing, a small gesture, the beginning of something. You love a man so much that you are ready to do something absurd for him, that's all. This makes you vulnerable to me, and you can get the measles more easily then.

Truth is infectious, and you have to be available to it. Doubt is a sort of inoculation: it protects.

Reason protects. Protected, you will never move anywhere. Protected, you will die only. Protected, you are in your grave. Unprotected, you are available to God.

To be in close proximity to a Master the phenomenon can happen one day - you are uplifted.

Suddenly you have wings, a little taste of the freedom and the sky. And then... then things can be done on your own.

Then the third becomes possible: SAMAYA MUDRA. Then you can start looking in the direction which has opened within you, and you can start moving. Now you know where to move, where to go. Now you have a certain intuitive grasp of it. Now you know a certain knack. Religion is not a science, religion is not an art, it is a knack. But the knack comes through taste, through experience.

SAMAYA MUDRA is unorigination, parallel to unorigination: ANUTPANNA. Then mind is not just asleep, mind has dropped. But with the second, mind will come back; it is only asleep. With the third, mind will not come back easily, but it is still possible to bring it back. With the second it will come back, it will happen; with GYANA MUDRA, it will come back on its own. With the third, SAMAYA MUDRA, if you want to bring it back, you can bring it back - but otherwise it won't come on its own.

With the fourth, MAHAMUDRA, even if you want to bring it back, it is impossible. You have gone beyond, you have transcended. This fourth stage, which is the beginning of existence, is the goal of Tantra.

Three things more, then we can enter into the sutra.

From memory to non-memory you will need 'awareness one'. You will have to become more watchful about the thoughts, dreams, memories, flicking by, moving around you. You will have to have more attention focused on the thoughts. Thoughts are the objects and you will have to become aware of them. This is the first awareness: 'awareness one'.

Krishnamurti talks about this, he calls it 'choiceless awareness'. Don't choose. Don't judge whatsoever thought is passing by, just watch it, just see that it is moving. If you go on watching, one day, thoughts don't move that fast; their speed has slowed down. Then, some day, gaps start coming: one thought goes and another does not come for a long time. Then, after some time, thoughts simply disappear for hours... and the road is just empty of traffic.

Ordinarily you are always in a rush-hour. Thoughts are jamming in, one thought upon another, track behind track. It is not only one track, there are many tracks going on. And the man you call a thinker has more tracks than the ordinary man. If you know anything about chess, then you know that the chess-player needs a five-track mind. He has to think at least about five moves ahead: If he is going to do this, then what will the other do? Then what will he do? Then what will the other do...? - this way. He has to go at least five moves ahead. Unless he can hold these five moves in his mind, he cannot be a great chess player.

The people you call thinkers have a many-track mind, a very complex mind, and all the tracks are jammed. From every direction there is always a rush, and there is always rush hour - even in the night. When you are asleep, the mind goes on and on; it goes on working. It is a twenty-four hour worker: it does not ask for any holiday. Even God got tired after six days and had to rest on Sunday.

But mind needs no Sunday. For seventy, eighty years, it goes on working and working and working.

It is maddening. No rest...

You must have seen a photograph of Rodin's statue, THE THINKER. In the East we laugh about the statue... so anxiety-ridden! Rodin's THINKER... you can see his head even in the marble statue, you can feel his anxiety - that is Rodin's art. You can think of how Aristotle would have been, or Bertrand Russel, or Friedrich Nietzsche. And there is no surprise if Nietzsche goes mad. The way it is, this statue of Rodin is bound to go mad one day - thinking, thinking, thinking...

In the East we have not bothered much about thinkers, we have loved the non-thinkers. Buddha is a non-thinker, so is Mahavir, so is Saraha - these are non-thinkers. Even if they do think, they think only to move towards non-thinking. They use thinking as a jumping-board for non-thinking.

The bridge from memory to non-memory is 'awareness one'. It is awareness of the object. From non-memory to unorigination you will need a second awareness: that's what Gurdjieff calls 'self- remembering'.

Krishnamurti's work is totally based on 'awareness one'. Gurdjieff's work is totally based on 'awareness two'. With 'awareness one', you look at the object, at the thought. You become attentive to the object. With 'awareness two', you become doubly attentive: to both the object and the subject.

Your arrow of consciousness is double-headed. On the one side you have to become aware of the thought, and on the other side you have to become aware of the thinker: the object, subjectivity - both have to be in the light of awareness. Gurdjieff's work goes deeper than Krishnamurti's. He calls it 'self-remembering'.

A thought is moving in your mind. For example, a cloud of anger is moving. You can watch the cloud of anger without watching the watcher, then this is 'awareness one'. If you watch the cloud and at the same time you continuously remember who is watching - 'I am watching' - then this is 'awareness two': what Gurdjieff calls 'self-remembering'.

From memory to nonmemory, 'awareness one' will be helpful. But from nonmemory you can very easily fall back again into memory, because mind only goes to sleep. With the first awareness, you simply tranquillise the mind, you drug the mind: the mind goes into sleep. It is a great rest and a good beginning, but not the end. Necessary, but not enough.

With the second awareness, the mind falls into unorigination, ANUTPANNA; now it will be very difficult to bring it back. You CAN bring it back, but it will not come on its own. It is not impossible to bring it back, but it is not easy.

With Gurdjieff the work goes still deeper. And Tantra says that there is a third awareness: 'awareness three'.

What is this 'awareness three'? When you forget about the object and you forget about the subject and there is just pure awareness. You are not focused on anything - just pure awareness; not attentive about anything, just attentive, unfocused, unconcentrated. With the first, you are concentrated on the object. With the second, you are concentrated on the object and the subject too. With the third, you drop all concentration; you are simply alert. This third leads you to the state of no-mind.

Now, the sutras:

NONMEMORY IS CONVENTION'S TRUTH AND MIND WHICH HAS BECOME NO-MIND (IS ULTIMATE TRUTH).

Tantra divides truth in two ways: the first it calls hypothetical truth, VYAVHARIKA; the second, it calls ultimate truth, PARMARTHIKA.

Hypothetical truth is called truth only for the name's sake: it is called truth because it looks like truth.

It is so just in practice; it has a certain glimpse of the truth. It is almost like this: if somebody shows you a picture of me and you say 'Yes, it is a true picture', what do you mean by a 'true picture'? How can the picture be true? The statement that the picture is true simply means that it resembles the original. The picture in itself is untrue - all pictures are untrue - it is just a paper. How can I be on the paper? How can I be the paper? How can I be the lines? Even a true photograph is just a photograph. But by saying 'It is a true photograph', we say that, yes, it resembles the original.

I have heard one anecdote:

A very beautiful but talkative woman once came to see Pablo Picasso, and she talked too much.

Pablo Picasso was bored, but she was very rich so he could not throw her out either. She was a great customer of his paintings so he had to listen. And she was going on and on and on.

Then finally she said 'Just the other day I saw your photograph in a friend's house. It was so alive, and I loved it so much that I kissed it.'

Picasso said 'Wait! Did it kiss back?'

The woman said 'What are you saying? Have you gone mad? How can a picture kiss back?'

Picasso said 'Then, it was not me. It was certainly NOT me!'

A picture is true because is resembles. It is untrue because it is a picture. This is what Tantra calls VYAVHARIKA truth.

NONMEMORY IS CONVENTION'S TRUTH...

It is just so-so; it is just called truth conventionally. Memory, you know. Nonmemory happens sometimes in the presence of a Master, or while meditating or praying. But even nonmemory is just a hypothetical truth; it is a photograph. Yes, it resembles the true no-mind, but only in resemblance.

It is not yet the true mind.

To make you aware of it and to keep it in your mind, Tantra insists again and again that this has not to be taken as the goal; it is just the beginning. Many people become stuck when they attain to nonmemory. When they can have a few glimpses of no-mind, they think they have arrived. It is tremendously beautiful, it is very alive - in comparison to memory, it is ecstatic. But it is nothing in comparison to the real no-mind state, because memory is still there, fast asleep, snoring; it can wake at any moment. Mind is still there waiting for its opportunity to come back. Yes, the traffic has stopped for a moment, but the traffic will start again.

It is good to have these glimpses because they will lead you further, but it is not good to get stuck.

This is what happens through drugs - LSD, marijuana, mescaline - this is what happens: this second state, nonmemory. Under the impact of the drug, memory disappears for. a moment. It is a chemically enforced state: in chemical shock, memory disappears.

This is what happens through electro-shock. We give electroshock to mad people whose memories have become such a burden to them that they cannot get out of it by themselves. We give them electro-shock or insulin shock. Why? Because through the shock - electricity passing through their brainwaves, giving them such a shock - for a moment, they become uprooted. They lose track. They forget what they were thinking, what was there. For a moment they are dazzled by the shock, and when they come back they cannot recapture it. That's why electroshock helps. But electro-shock or chemical shocks don't give you the real thing; they give you only a photograph.

NONMEMORY IS CONVENTION'S TRUTH AND MIND WHICH HAS BECOME NO-MIND (IS THE ULTIMATE TRUTH).

So don't be contented unless you attain to no-mind, the fourth state.

THIS IS FULFILLMENT, says Saraha, THIS IS THE HIGHEST GOOD. FRIENDS, OF THIS HIGHEST GOOD, BECOME AWARE.

This no-mind is fulfillment, because you have arrived at the very source of life and existence.

And unless it happens, there is no contentment and no fulfillment. This is real flowering, this is SAHASRAR: the one-thousand-petalled lotus has bloomed. Your life is released in fragrance and celebration and joy.

This is what God is. This is the highest good, the SUMMUM BONUM. There is nothing higher than this. This is NIRVANA.

FRIENDS, OF THIS HIGHEST GOOD, BECOME AWARE.

Saraha says: Remember, there are three kinds of awareness: 'awareness one' of the object, 'awareness two' of the object and the subject, 'awareness three', pure awareness. Go into these three stages of awareness so that you can attain the SUMMUM BONUM.

And, he says to the king and to the others who must have gathered to listen to this great discourse:

FRIENDS... He calls them friends. This has to be understood.

From the side of the Master the disciple is the friend, but not from the side of the disciple. Sometimes, a few sannyasins write to me. Just the other day there was a question. One sannyasin had written 'Osho, I cannot think of you as my Master, but I think of you as my friend. Is there something wrong in it'?

Nothing from my side. It is perfectly okay. But something is missing from your side and you will be at a loss. Why is it so?

From the side of the Master you are friends, because he can see that it is only a question of time - otherwise you have already arrived. It is only a question of time and one day you will become awake.

You are all Buddhas! From the side of the Master the whole existence is already enlightened. The rocks and the trees and the stars, and the animals and the birds, and men and women - the whole existence is enlightened from the side of the Master. It is only a question of time, and time is irrelevant. You are all there. You don't know it - that is true, but the Master knows.

The day I knew my own self, I knew the very self of existence. Since then I have not looked at anybody as unenlightened; I cannot that is impossible. Yes, you don't recognise your fact, but I cannot deny it. From my side you are friends. You are me. But from your side if you think that you cannot accept me as your Master and you can only think about me as a friend, then it is up to you.

But know that you will miss.

What is the difference? When you accept a person as a friend you mean that you accept him as your equal: a friend is equal to you. Yes, you are friends to me because I see that you are just equal to me - there is no difference. But if you see me as an equal to you, then your growth will stop.

When I see you as equal to me, I am raising you to my being. When you see me as equal to you, you are pulling me down to your level. Just see the difference. When I say that you are equal to me I am trying to pull you to me. When you say 'Osho, you are equal to us', you pull me to your level.

Naturally, you cannot pull anywhere else. You don't know any other level.

And why is it difficult to accept somebody as your Master? The ego. At most the ego wants you to accept me as the friend.

It is up to you, it is your choice. If that is the way you want it to be, let it be that way - but then I am not responsible if nothing happens to you. Then it is your responsibility, utterly your responsibility, if nothing happens to you - because you have created the barrier. I can flow towards you only when you look upwards at me, because the flow of energy is possible only downwards.

I am not losing anything if you think of me as your friend, I am not losing anything even if you think of me as your enemy - that doesn't matter. You will be losing. The man who thinks that I am his enemy, is making me equal to him, and the man who thinks I am his friend is doing the same. They are not different people.-When you look upwards you can be hooked by the upward energy; you can be pulled.

Saraha says FRIENDS, OF THIS HIGHEST GOOD, BECOME AWARE.

From the Master's side everybody is a friend. Those who think they are friends, they are friends; and those who think they are enemies, they also are friends.

IN NONMEMORY IS MIND ABSORBED; JUST THIS IS EMOTIONALITY PERFECT AND PURE.

IT IS UNPOLLUTED BY THE GOOD OR BAD OF WORLDLINESS LIKE A LOTUS UNAFFECTED BY THE MUD FROM WHICH IT GROWS.

IN NONMEMORY IS MIND ABSORBED... Memory watched is absorbed into nonmemory. In nonmemory, mind starts disappearing. And when the mind starts disappearing, there arises a new quality of energy in you - the heart energy.

JUST THIS IS EMOTIONALITY PERFECT AND PURE.

Then the heart starts functioning. When the mind is dissolved, the energy that was involved in the mind becomes love. It has to become something - energy cannot be destroyed. No energy is ever destroyed, it is only transformed. It changes its form.

Mind is taking almost eighty per cent of your energy, giving you back nothing. returning nothing - -it just goes on absorbing eighty per cent of your energy. It is like a desert. The river goes on flowing and the desert goes on absorbing it, and nothing comes back. And the desert does not even become green, does not even grow grass, does not even grow trees, does not even become a small pool of water - nothing! It remains dry and dead, and it goes on soaking up the life energy.

Mind is a great exploiter. That is where, in the desert of the mind, in the waste land of the mind, you are lost.

Saraha says: When this happens - that the memory is dissolved and you attain to nonmemory - suddenly, your total quality changes. You become more loving: compassion arises in you. The same energy that was going into the desert moves into a fertile land. The heart is the land of fertility.

JUST THIS IS EMOTIONALITY PERFECT AND PURE.

IT IS UNPOLLUTED BY THE GOOD OR BAD OF WORLDLINESS...

And in the heart there is no distinction between good and bad. The heart knows no distinctions; all distinctions belong to the mind. The heart simply loves without any distinctions. The heart simply flows without any categories, without any judgement. The heart is innocent.

IT IS UNPOLLUTED BY THE GOOD OR BAD...

LIKE A LOTUS UNAFFECTED BY THE MUD FROM WHICH IT GROWS.

It grows from the same mind energy, from the same mud of thoughts, thinking, desire, lust - but it is a lotus; it grows out of the mud, but remains unpolluted by the mud.

Says Saraha to the king YET WITH CERTAINTY MUST ALL THINGS BE VIEWED AS IF THEY WERE A MAGIC SPELL.

IF WITHOUT DISTINCTION YOU CAN ACCEPT OR REJECT SAMSARA OR NIRVANA, STEADFAST IS YOUR MIND, FREE FROM THE SHROUD OF DARKNESS.

IN YOU WILL BE SELF-BEING, BEYOND THOUGHT AND SELF-ORIGINATED.

A great technique he is giving to him. Listen to it, meditate over it, and try it.

You know well that you have dreamed millions of dreams, but in the dream, again and again, you forget that it is a dream - again it becomes reality. Tonight you are going to dream again. What kind of unconsciousness is this? Each night you dream and in the morning you find it was false; it was not there, it was just images, just imagination - again you are a victim. Again you dream, and again you think that this is real. Why can't you see that it is unreal in the dream? What prevents you from seeing? So much experience of so many dreams and so many conclusions - and all without exception proving one thing: that dreams are not true. Again tonight you will be a victim. The dream will be there and you will think that it is true. You will live it as if it were true.

Tantra develops a technique. The technique is: while you are awake, think of the world as a dream.

For example, right now you are listening to me - think of it as a dream. It is easy to think it right now, rather than while in a dream. Many times you will listen to me in your dreams, then it will be too difficult: you will be fast asleep. Right now it can be done more easily. Right now you can think that you are in a dream - Osho is your dream, he is talking in your dream, these trees are dream trees, these gulmohar flowers are dream flowers, these birds are singing in your dream - all is just a magic spell. Think it while you are awake. Continue thinking it for at least two or three months and you will be surprised. One day, because you have practised it, suddenly, in the dream, you will recognise it as a dream.

And when the real trees also look like dream through practice, what to say about unreal trees? They will look unreal.

And Tantra says: Even these trees are basically just dream. They are not real stuff.

What does Tantra mean by reality? Tantra means: That which remains always and always. That which comes and goes is unreal. That which is born and dies is unreal. This is the definition of unreality in Tantra: That which is momentary is unreal. That which is eternal is real.

These trees were not here a few days ago, and they will not be here after a few years. We were not here a few years ago and we will not be here after a few years. So it is a long dream.

In the night the dream persists for only one, two, or six hours, and this dream persists for sixty years or seventy years. But just the duration of time cannot make much difference. Whether a dream is of one hour or one hundred years does not make much difference. The difference is only of duration - but it disappears.

How many people have lived on the earth? Do you know? Where are they? If they had not existed, what difference would it have made? Whether they existed or not does not make much difference - they have all disappeared.

That which appears and disappears is the dream.

Saraha says YET WITH CERTAINTY MUST ALL THINGS BE VIEWED AS IF THEY WERE A MAGIC SPELL.

He is giving a technique: view everything as if it were a magic spell, as if a magician had hypnotised you: all is false, and you are seeing it through hypnosis.

IF WITHOUT DISTINCTION YOU CAN ACCEPT OR REJECT SAMSARA OR NIRVANA...

If it is just a dream, then there is nothing to accept and reject. Then who bothers? You bother too much because you think it is real.

Whether you are poor or rich does not make much difference. Whether you are beautiful or ugly does not make much difference. Whether you are respected or not does not make much difference.

If it is just unreal, a dream world, a MAYA, then what is there to choose, and what is there to reject?

Then acceptance and rejection both drop. Then one lives purely, without entanglements, without disturbances, without in any way going off-centre. Then one settles, then everything is okay.

IF WITHOUT DISTINCTION YOU CAN ACCEPT OR REJECT SAMSARA OR NIRVANA, STEADFAST IS YOUR MIND...

Then whether you accept or reject does not make much difference. Then you can renounce the world or you can live in the world. If you know this much: that all is just a dream, if you remain in this climate that all is a dream...

Why is Saraha saying this to the king? Saraha is saying: Sir, you live in the palace, I live in the cemetery. You live with beautiful people, I live with ordinary, ugly people. You live in richness, I live in poverty. You live in the capital, I live here at the cremation ground... but it is all the same. That palace is a dream and this cremation ground is a dream. Your beautiful queen is a dream and my arrowsmith woman is a dream. So what is the difference?

If in the dream you become rich or you become poor, is there are any difference in the morning? Do you feel very happy in the morning because you have been very rich in the dream? Do you feel very unhappy in the morning because you have been a beggar in the dream? It does not matter when you are awake. It does not matter.

Saraha says: Sir, I am awake. The third consciousness has happened. To me all is dream - dream and all. To me all is dream... dream within dream within dream. Now I don't make any distinction. I have gone beyond distinctions. No-mind has arisen. So whether people respect me or insult me - whether they think Saraha is a great brahmin, a great mystic, a great knower, or they think that he is a pervert, that he is mad, crazy, insane - is perfectly okay.

This is true understanding. Then nobody's opinion can distract you. Then nothing can distract you - neither success nor failure, neither respect nor humiliation, neither life nor death. This is what the state of no-distraction is: One has come home.

Then, once STEADFAST IS YOUR MIND, FREE FROM THE SHROUD OF DARKNESS.

IN YOU WILL BE SELF-BEING...

I have come home, says Saraha. My self-being has arisen. I have my centre now. I have lost everything, except for one thing: my self-nature, my self-being. Now I know my origin, now I know my very source, now I know my reality.

... BEYOND THOUGHT AND SELF-ORIGINATED.

I have moved beyond thought. These things don't distract me, sir. Everything is okay as it is.

This is the attitude of a real sannyasin: All is perfectly okay as it is.

The last sutra:

THIS WORLD OF APPEARANCE HAS FROM ITS RADIANT BEGINNING NEVER COME TO BE; UNPATTERNED, IT HAS DISCARDED PATTERNING.

AS SUCH IT IS CONTINUOUS AND UNIQUE MEDITATION; IT IS NONMENTATION, STAINLESS CONTEMPLATION, AND NO-MIND.

THIS WORLD OF APPEARANCE HAS FROM ITS RADIANT BEGINNING NEVER COME TO BE...

Says Saraha: This world that you are seeing has never been there; it only appears so. Just as a dream arises from nowhere and disappears back into nowhereness, so is this world.

THIS WORLD OF APPEARANCE HAS FROM ITS RADIANT BEGINNING NEVER COME TO BE...

From the very beginning nothing is... Just a ripple on the silent lake... and the ripple disappears.

And you cannot catch hold of a ripple - just like a thought wave, just like a vibration.

UNPATTERNED, IT HAS DISCARDED PATTERNING.

And there is no pattern in it. It is not solid - how can it have any pattern? It is very liquid, it is very fluid; it has no pattern. Nobody knows what is good and what is bad. Nobody knows who is a saint and who is a sinner. Nobody knows what is virtue and what is sin. It is not patterned.

This is the Tantra understanding of the very core of reality: It is unpatterned. It is a creative chaos.

Ultimately, finally, nothing has to be condemned and nothing has to be appreciated.

UNPATTERNED, IT HAS DISCARDED PATTERNING.

AS SUCH IT IS CONTINUOUS AND UNIQUE MEDITATION...

This is a beautiful sutra. Saraha says: But forget about its reality-unreality:

AS SUCH IT IS CONTINUOUS AND UNIQUE MEDITATION...

This existence all around... these trees, these birds, this cuckoo going mad - it IS CONTINUOUS AND UNIQUE MEDITATION. If you can become aware of it, it can help you come home - IT IS CONTINUOUS AND UNIQUE MEDITATION.

IT IS NONMENTATION...

Don't bring your mind in. Just listen to it, see it, touch it. Don't bring your mind in.

IT IS NONMENTATION, STAINLESS CONTEMPLATION...

Contemplate - but not through thoughts, just through transparency. Watch, look, be - not through analysis, not through logic. Relate through silence. That is stainless contemplation. Relate through silence, relate through love. Relate. Relate to this cuckoo. Relate to the trees, to the sun, but don't think about them. Don't become a thinker.

... AND NO-MIND.

So first, think of the world as a dream, and then think of the dreamer also as a dream. First the object is a dream, then the subject is a dream. When the subject and the object are both dropped, when the dream disappears and also the dreamer, then there is no-mind.

This no-mind is the very origin of all.

This is what Udallaka was saying to his son. He was asking 'Have you learned that One, by learning which all is learned and by forgetting which all is forgotten? Have you seen that One? Have you come to that One?'

And the son was disturbed and he said 'I have known all. But what are you talking about? My Master never talked about this One.'

So Udallaka said 'Then you go back, because all that you have brought is rubbish. You go back! In my family we have always been REAL brahmins.'

By 'real brahmin' he meant: We have known BRAHMA, we have known the truth. We are not just brahmins by birth only.

'You go back. You go back immediately!' The welcome was stopped, the music was stopped. With tears... but Udallaka sent his son back. He had come from the Master's house after many years, and was immediately sent back - not even one day's rest.

Very disturbed, the young man went back to the Master. He said 'But why didn't you teach me that One my father asks about? All these years wasted! And my father thinks that all of this is nonsense - I don't know MYSELF. My father says "If you don't know yourself, of what value is all your knowing?

What are we going to do with your knowing of the Vedas? You can recite the Vedas, but what are we going to do with it? And in my family" my father says "we have always been REAL brahmins.

Go back, and before I die become a real brahmin. Don't come back unless you have become a real brahmin." So, sir, teach me that One.'

The Master laughed. He said 'That One cannot be taught. Yes, it can be caught, but it cannot be taught. That's why I had not taught it. But if you insist, then a situation can be created.'

That's what all Masters do - they just create a situation.

This commune is a situation. I cannot teach you truth, but I can create a situation in which you can start catching glimpses of it. My being here is a situation. My talking to you continuously is a situation - not that I can teach you truth by talking, but it is just a situation in which a tremor goes into you sometimes. In which, sometimes, you catch hold of a vibe, and it thrills you and takes you far away, on a long journey inwards.

So the Master said 'I can create a situation. And this is the situation: you take hold of all the cows of the ashram' - four hundred cows were there - 'and you take them to the deepest forest. Go away as far as you can, as far as possible, so that you are absolutely inaccessible to other human beings.

Then come back only when your herd has grown to one thousand cows and bulls. It will take many years, but you go. And remember, don't see any human being. Cows will be your friends and family.

You can talk to them if you like.'

And Swetketu went into the deepest forest where no human being had ever entered, and he lived with his cows for many years.

The story is of tremendous beauty. Naturally, what can you talk about with the cows? In the beginning he must have tried, and by and by thought that it was meaningless - the cows simply look at you; their eyes remain empty. There is no dialogue.

Yes, in the beginning, just out of habit, he may have recited his Vedas... and the cows would have continued munching their grass. They would not be interested in the Vedas at all, and they would not have praised him for being a great knower. He must have talked about astrology and the stars, but the cows were uninterested. What can you do with an audience of cows? By and by he stopped talking. By and by he started forgetting. By and by a great unlearning began.

Years passed. And, the story says, a moment came when the cows numbered one thousand. But by that time Swetketu had completely forgotten about going back. He had really forgotten how to count! So he had not been counting for many years.

The cows became very disturbed - the time had come. Then one cow dared and she said 'Listen, now that we are one thousand, it is time - the Master must be waiting. We should go home. This is the time.' So when the cows said that it was time, Swetketu followed them.

When he came with those one thousand cows to the Master's house, the Master came out to receive him and said to his other disciples 'Look at these one thousand and one cows!'

But the disciples said 'There are only one thousand cows, and one is Swetketu.' The Master said 'He has disappeared. He is no longer there. He is a cow - so innocent. Look into his eyes.'

This is the state of no-mind. And this has been the goal in the East - this state where you are not, and, in fact, for the first time you are.

This state of death and this state of life, this state of the disappearance of the ego and the false, and the appearance of the true and the authentic - this is the state we call realisation, Godrealisation, self-realisation. This is the state Saraha calls, SELFBEING, BEYOND THOUGHT, beyond mind.

Tantra means expansion. This is the state when you have expanded to the uttermost. Your boundaries and the boundaries of existence are no longer separate, they are the same. Less than that will not satisfy. When you become universal, you come home. When you become all, when you become one with all, when you are as huge as this universe, when you contain all - when stars start moving within you and earths are born in you and disappear - when you have this COSMIC expansion, then the work is finished. You have come home. This is the goal of Tantra.