A still Mind: The Door to the Divine

MAN IS neither a body, nor a mind alone - he is both. Even to say that he is both is wrong in a way because body and mind are separate only as two words. Existence is one. Body is nothing but the outermost core of your consciousness, the grossest expression of consciousness. And consciousness, on the other hand, is nothing more than the subtlest body, the most refined part of the body. You exist in between.

These are not two things, but two ends of one thing. So whenever knowing becomes non-wavering, body is also affected; non-wavering knowing creates a non-wavering body. But the vice versa is not true. You can impose non-wavering on the body, but the knowing will not become non-wavering. It can help - a very little. It can be helpful, but not much.

Body posture became very important because we are bodyoriented. Even those who say that we are not bodies think in terms of body. Even those who say, "We are not bodies," their thinking, their mind, remains tethered to the body. Even they begin with body postures. Asana means giving your body a posture in which the body becomes non-wavering, still. It is supposed that if the body is still, then the mind will go into stillness.

This is not true - the contrary is true! If the mind becomes still, then the body becomes still. And then a very mysterious phenomenon happens: if the mind is still, you can go on dancing but your body will remain still. And if your mind is not still, you can be just dead but still the body will be wavering, because the mind wavering creates subtle vibrations which come to the body and the body goes on wavering inside. Try it. You can sit just like a statue - dead, stonelike. Close your eyes and feel. Outwardly, no one can say that your body is wavering, but inwardly you will know that it is. A subtle trembling is there. Even if it cannot be detected from the outside, you can feel it from the inside.

If your mind is totally still, then even if you are dancing you win feel from inside that the body is still.

A Buddha is still even when he is walking, and a non-Buddha is not still even when he is dead. The vibrations come from your center, they originate from you, and then they spread towards the body.

The body is not the originator, it is not the source, so you cannot stop them from the periphery. You can impose, you can practice, but inside there will be turmoil - and this imposing will create more conflict than stillness.

So this sutra says that to practise meditation, posture - a still posture - is needed. But what do we mean by a posture? This sutra says that "a non-wavering knowing" is the posture. If the mind is non-wavering, then you are in the right posture. In that right posture everything can happen.

So don't deceive yourself by creating bodily imitations. You can create them; that is very easy. On the circumference, on the periphery, to impose stillness is very easy. But that is not your stillness.

You remain in turmoil, you remain wavering. From the center the waves must not come.

What is this non-wavering knowledge? It is one of the deepest secrets. To understand it we will have to go deep into the very construction of mind, so let us begin.

Mind has many types of thoughts. Every thought is a wavering, every thought is a wave. If there are no thoughts, then the mind will be non-wavering. A single thought, and you have trembled. A single thought, and you are not still. And a single thought is not a single thought: it is a very complex phenomenon. A single thought is created by many waves; a single word even is created by many waves. So only when many waves are there in the mind is a single word created, and a single thought has many words. Thousands and thousands of ripples create one thought.

Thought is the outermost, but waves have preceded. You become aware only when waves become thoughts because your awareness is so gross. You cannot be aware when waves are pure waves still in the formation of becoming a thought. The more you will become aware, the more you will feel that thought has many layers. Thought form is the last. Before thought there are seed waves which create the thought, and before the seed waves there are still deeper roots which create seeds.

Seeds create thought. At least three layers are very easily visible for a conscious mind. But we are not conscious: we are asleep. So we become aware only when waves take the grossest form - thought. As far as we know, thought seems to be the most subtle thing. It is not. Thought really has become a thing. When there are pure waves you cannot even detect what is going to happen, what thought is going to be created in you. So we become aware only when waves become thought.

A single thought implies thousands of waves, so we can conceive how much we are wavering - continuous thinking, not a single moment of no thought, one thought followed by another constantly, no gap. So we are really a wavering, a trembling phenomenon. Soren Kierkegaard has said that man is a trembling - just a trembling and nothing else. And he is right in a way. As far as we are concerned, man is a trembling. A Buddha may not be, but then Buddha is not a man.

This thought process is the process of wavering. So non-wavering means a no-thought state of mind. Really, the sutra says "non-wavering knowing" - mind is not even mentioned. So first, three layers of mind have to be distinctly understood.

One is the conscious mind, and one type of thought belongs to the conscious level. These thoughts are the least important. They constitute moment-to-moment reactions, reflexes. You are on the road and a snake passes and you jump. The snake gives you a stimulus and you respond. So one type of thought is like this: stimulus outside and a response from the periphery. Really, you don't think:

you just act. A snake is there: you act; you become aware and you act. You don't go inside to ask what to do. The house is on fire and you run. This is a peripheral reaction.

So one type of thought is the moment-to-moment reflex type. Even a Buddha has to react in this way. This is natural; nothing is wrong with it. If you react moment-to-moment, then nothing is wrong with the mind - but that is not the only layer.

Then there is a second layer. This second layer is the subconscious. Religions call it "conscience".

Really, this second layer is created by the society; it is a society in you. Society penetrates everyone, because society cannot control you unless it penetrates you; so it becomes a part of you. The upbringing, the education, the parents, the teachers - what are they doing? They are doing one thing: they are creating the subconscious mind. They are giving you thoughts. structures, ideals, values. These thoughts belong to the second layer They are helpful, they have their utility, but they are harmful also. They are instruments to move easily, conveniently in the society, but they are barriers also.

This second layer has to be understood more. This second layer consists of ideas within, fixed ideas, fixations. So whenever your peripheral mind is working moment-to-moment, it is not pure. Only a child is pure, innocent - he is working moment-to-moment. There is no subconscious to interfere.

You are not working moment-to-moment. The subconscious is constantly interfering. It is giving you choice: what to choose, what not to choose. Every moment it is making you narrow. You become just unaware of many things because of the subconscious. It will not allow you to be aware of everything. And about many things you become too much aware because this subconscious mind forces you constantly to be aware of them.

Every society creates a different type of subconscious, so, really, one's being a Hindu or a Christian or a Jain belongs to the subconscious mind. As far as the peripheral mind is concerned, everyone reacts in the same way; it is natural. But the subconscious mind is not natural; it is a social product.

So we behave in different ways. You see a church. A Hindu can pass without even becoming aware that there is a church. He need not be aware. But a Christian cannot pass without becoming aware that there is a church. He may even be anti-Christian - consciously he may even be like Bertrand Russell who can write a book called WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN - but he will become aware.

The subconscious is working there.

A Brahmin, he can intellectually understand that the problem of untouchability is just violent, cruel, and intellectually he can think that it is not good, but this is the conscious mind. The subconscious is working there. If you ask him to marry a Sudra girl, somewhere deeply he is struck. He cannot conceive of it. Even to eat with an untouchable becomes difficult. Intellectually he understands nothing is wrong in it, but the subconscious goes on projecting and pushing. And he cannot react naturally: the subconscious distorts, perverts.

This subconscious is supplying you constantly with many ideas which you think are your own. They are not. They have been fed to you just like a computer is fed. You can get information out of a computer only if you have previously fed it. The same is the case with man also, with mind also.

Whatsoever you are getting out is just because of what has been fed in before. Everything has been fed in. This is what we mean by education, the so-called education: feeding information. So it is ready in the unconscious every moment. It is so ready, really, that even when you don't need it, it comes up. It constantly overfloods your mind, and it becomes a constant wavering, a constant trembling. This subconscious mind is the root cause of so many social evils.

Really, the world could be one if there were no subconscious mind. Then there would be no distinction between a Hindu and a Mohammedan. The distinction is of the subconscious feeding, and it goes so deep that you cannot even feel how it works. You cannot go behind it. It goes so deep that you always remain in front and you feel helpless. But the society is also helpless. It is a substitute - a poor substitute, but a substitute. Unless man becomes totally aware, the society cannot dispense with the subconscious.

For example, if a man becomes totally aware, he cannot be a thief. But man, as he is, is not aware at all, so society has to create a substitute for awareness: it must put a strong suggestion inside that theft is bad, evil, sin, that you must not be a thief. This idea must be put deep in the subconscious so that when you begin to think of theft the subconscious comes up and says, "No. this is sin," and you are stopped. This is a social substitute for awareness - and unless man comes to awareness the society cannot dispense with the subconscious, because it has to give you some rules. Unless you are so aware that rules are not needed at all, the subconscious will have to be maintained.

So each society has to create a subconscious. And I call that society good - remember it - I call that society good which creates a subconscious that can be dispensed with very easily; and I call a society bad which creates such a subconscious that cannot be dispensed with: because if it cannot be dispensed with, then it becomes a hindrance when you try to be aware. And, really, no such good society exists now which gives you a dispensable substitute, a dispensable subconscious, which gives you a subconscious as a utilitarian instrument so that the moment you become aware, you can throw it.

To me, that society is good and religious which gives you an inherent freedom about the subconscious. But no society gives it. so. no society is religious, really. Every society is totalitarian, and every society takes your mind in such a way that you become just an automaton - and you go on thinking and deceiving yourself that your thoughts are yours. They are not! Even the very language we use is contaminated, the words we use are contaminated. We cannot use a single word without the subconscious being there. It comes suddenly. Society uses it very cunningly, and then your reactions, your reflexes, are not spontaneous.

You are passing along the road, and you see in the distance a woman coming out of a shop. Your mind begins to feel and say that she is beautiful, and then suddenly you recognize that the woman is your sister. Now, suddenly, she is not a woman at all. What has happened? The word "sister" has come in. Now she is not a woman at all! And with the word "sister" the subconscious has many, many deep associations. Suddenly something has happened. What has happened? The woman is not a woman now. because a sister is not a woman. How can a sister be a woman? Nothing has changed outwardly, but a word has dropped in.

Then you recognize that you were deceived by the dress: she is not your sister. Again something else comes up: she is not your sister! Now she again becomes beautiful. How can a sister be beautiful? And when you say "beautiful", you mean now you are sexually interested. Now she can potentially be a sexual object. The possibility grows.

Even the words we use are loaded with the subconscious. That is why in the hospitals, for nurses we use the word "sister" - just so that they cannot be made objects for sexual interest. Otherwise it will be difficult for them and more difficult for the patients. Constantly, nurses are moving here and there. If they constantly become sexual objects, then it will be very difficult for the patients also. So we just play a trick: we call them sisters. The moment they are sisters they are not women. The very word is loaded.

This subconscious mind is constantly working, day and night. The mind's working is double. One working belongs to your conscious mind. It is concerned with how to control the subconscious consciously, constantly. Then the subconscious is controlling the conscious mind. It is working to control your reactions, your actions, your reflexes, everything. Whatsoever you are doing must be controlled! This is the society's grip on you. You are just moving in society's hands. No value is yours. How can it be? How can a value be yours when you are not at all aware? Only awareness can give you authentic, individual values.

All these values are supplied. If the society is vegetarian, then you have vegetarian values. If the society is non-vegetarian, then you have non-vegetarian values. If the society believes in this, then you are a believer in it. If the society doesn't believe, then you are a disbeliever. But you are not; only society is there.

This is a double control: one control is on your conscious mind, your behaviour. Another control is more deep and more dangerous, and that is the control on your instinctive nature. The first part is conscious, the second is subconscious. The subconscious is created by society. And the third is the instinctive. which is given by biological nature: that which you really are biologically, that which you are born with. That's a third part, the deepest: the biological instinctive nature.

This second, subconscious mind is controlling outward behaviour and also controlling inward instincts. Nothing should be allowed to come up to the conscious mind from your instinctive nature if the society is against it. Nothing should be allowed to come up - even up to your consciousness.

So this subconscious creates a great barrier for the instinctive nature.

For example, sex is an instinct, the deepest, because without it life cannot exist on earth. So life depends on sex. It is not easily dispensable; obviously, it must not be - otherwise life will become just impossible. So it has a deep grip. But the society is anti-sex; it is bound to be. The more a society is organized, the more it will be anti-sex - because if your sex instinct can be controlled then everything can be controlled, and if your sex instinct cannot be controlled then nothing can be controlled. So it becomes a fighting ground.

You must be aware that whenever a society becomes sexually free, that society cannot exist. It is defeated. When Greek culture became sexually free, Greek civilization had to die. When Roman civilization became sexually free, it had to die. Now America cannot exist any more. America has begun to be sexually free. The moment a society becomes sexually free, the individual is not in its grip. You cannot force him.

Really, unless you suppress sex you cannot force your youth to war. It is impossible. You can force your youth into war only if you suppress sex. So the hippie slogan is really meaningful: "Make love, not war!" So society has to suppress the deepest instinct. Once it is suppressed, you can never rebel. Many things have to be understood about it.

Children, when they mature sexually, begin to be rebellious - never before. The moment a boy is mature he will begin to be rebellious against his parents, never before - because with sex comes individuality. With sex he really becomes a man, never before. Now he can be independent. Now he has the initial energy with him, because he can propagate, he can reproduce. Now he is complete.

At fourteen, a boy is complete, a girl is complete. They can be independent of their fathers and mothers, so rebellion begins to take shape. If the society has to control them, sex must be suppressed. All instincts have to be suppressed because we have not been able yet to create a society in which freedom is not against all, in which one individual's freedom is not against all. We have not yet been able!

We are still primitive, not yet civilized, because a society can be called civilized and cultured only when each individual grows to his total potentiality, is not suppressed. But politics will not allow it, religions will not allow it, because once you give total freedom to instinctive nature, then churches and temples and the so-called religious business cannot continue. Religion will be there, more authentic, but religions cannot continue: because if you cannot create fear, then no one will come to this religious business.

People come because of fear; and if you suppress their instincts they become fearful - fearful of themselves. A child feels existential fear for the first time when his sex is suppressed. He feels guilty. He begins to feel that something is wrong, and he begins to feel also that "No one has this evil that I am having inside. I am guilty." You create guilt; then you can control. Then he feels inferior inside, afraid. This fear is then exploited by religious heads, by political leadership, because they all want to dominate.

You can dominate only when people are fearful. And how can you create fear? If you can convince them that something which is constantly within them is sin, they will be fearful. They will be fearful!

All the time sex will be there, and they will become afraid - afraid of themselves and guilty. They cannot enjoy anything then. Then the whole life becomes a frustration. Then they go on seeking somewhere help, guidance, someone to take away their responsibility, someone to lead them to heaven, someone to protect them from hell.

This third, instinctive layer is the unconscious. The subconscious is controlling it every moment - EVERY MOMENT! And it controls so fanatically that everything is destroyed - or at least distorted.

We never feel from the third layer what real instinct is. We never feel! Everything is distorted. From this subconscious mind - the most suppressed, the most distorted, the most destroyed - come all the miseries. All the miseries, all the paranoia, all the schizophrenia, all mental diseases, they come from this third layer.

These three - conscious, subconscious and unconscious - these are the three types of thoughts.

The deeper the layer from where the thought comes, the more irrelevant it looks. So if you just write down your thoughts as they happen, you will feel that you are just mad. What is going on in your mind? What type of thinking is going on? Most of it looks irrelevant. It is not! It is relevant, only with missing links - because the subconscious will not allow everything to come up. Something escapes and comes to the mind, and the gaps are there.

That's why you cannot understand your dreams: because even in dreams the subconscious is always alert not to allow everything, and the unconscious has to try symbolic routes. It has to change everything just to escape the censor of the subconscious. So it goes on giving you messages in symbolic, pictorial forms.

Your mind is flooded: first, with outward reactions and reflections which are natural; second, by subconscious thoughts which have been produced by the society; and third, by instinctive nature which has been suppressed totally. These three constantly flood the mind. And because of these you are constantly wavering - constantly wavering and trembling. You cannot even sleep. Dreams will continue; that means mind will continue wavering. Twenty-four hours a day, the mind is just a mad thing going round and round and round.

In this state of affairs, how can you be still? How can you attain the posture, the non-wavering mind?

How can you achieve it? And when the rishi says that non-wavering knowing is the posture - the right posture - he means that unless these layers are broken and the contents released, you will never be in a state of pure knowing. The mind will not be cleansed; you will not attain the purity of perception. So what to do? What to do to achieve this non-wavering knowing?

Three things: one, whenever you are living moment-to-moment, don't allow your subconscious to interfere constantly. Sometimes, just drop the subconscious and live in the moment. It is not needed.

sometimes it is needed. When you are driving, the subconscious is needed, because the skill of driving becomes a part of the subconscious. That's why you can talk and you can smoke and you can think and you can drive. The driving is now not a conscious effort. It has been taken over by the subconscious. So it is good to use it whenever it is needed, but when it is not needed, just drop it - put it aside! Without any murmur, just put it aside and be in the moment.

There are many moments when the subconscious is not needed, but only because of old habit you go On using it. You have come back from the office and you are sitting in your garden: why should the subconscious come in now? You can listen to the birds just as once you listened when you were a child without a subconscious. Relax in these moments, and just be there near the reality. Don't allow your subconscious mind to come in. Just put it aside! Play with children, put the subconscious aside.

A father who cannot play with his children as their equal cannot really be a right father, because no communication is possible unless you are equal to them. A mother cannot really be a mother unless she can become a child again with her child. Then there is a rapport. Then both become equal.

Then there is a friendship. Then a different quality of love comes in. So, really, a child never feels independent, free, at liberty with his parents - never! He begins to feel freedom for the first time when he goes to his chums - not with his parents.

So remember constantly that whenever you can relax your subconscious, relax it! It is not needed to be there every moment.

There are many moments, but you will not relax it even in your bed. You have gone to sleep and it is working. You want to sleep and it will not allow you. It says, "I am to do much work." It goes on thinking, it goes on working. You can put off the light - mm? - that means you stop the first, the peripheral mind. Now there will be no light; you will not be able to see. You can close the doors.

Now there will be no noise, no sound. You have completely closed yourself off from outside stimuli.

That means now you need not react, so the first layer of the mind is relaxed.

But what to do with the second layer? You put off the light, close the doors, close your ears, close your eyes, but it goes on working - because you have never allowed it not to work. And, really. a man is not the master of his mind unless he achieves this: that when he wants to work with the mind he works; when he doesn't want to work the mind he doesn't. And the second capacity is the greater.

I am reminded: Leih Tzu was asked by a Chinese emperor, "I have heard many, many miracles about a particular saint. I have heard that he can walk on water and fly in the sky, that gravitation has no effect on him and he can produce things from out of the blue. So I want to ask, Leih Tzu, can your Master Lao Tzu also do such miracles?" Leih Tzu said, "Yes, he can do them. He is capable of doing any miracle." Then the emperor said, "But I have never heard that he has ever done any. Why is he not doing them?" Leih Tzu said, "He is also capable of a greater miracle. That is, he is capable of not doing also. He is capable of doing a miracle, and he is even capable of not doing it." And the second is greater, because to do a miracle is, of course, a power. But when you have the power, then not to use it is a greater power. And it is really impossible. The second miracle is really impossible! And because of that second miracle, Buddha never did any miracle, Mahavir never did any miracle - because of that second capacity. That is greater!

You think that a miracle is a miracle, but if you can be in a nonthinking state it is a greater one.

It needs only the breaking of an old habit. But you have never tried it. You have used your subconscious constantly; your subconscious mind doesn't have any memory of when you have allowed it not to work. So the first thing to do is to allow your subconscious mind sometimes to be put aside. Don't use it, and soon you will have a less wavering mind. You can become capable of this, and it is not difficult. You must only become conscious of your subconscious workings. Don't allow - just relax sometimes and tell your subconscious mind: "Stop!" One thing more to remember: never fight with it; otherwise you will never be capable of this non- wavering. Never fight with it, because when a master begins to fight with his servant he accepts equality. When a master begins to fight with a servant, he has accepted him as the master. So please remember: never fight with the subconscious mind; otherwise you will be defeated. Just order it - never fight.

And know the difference - what I mean when I say just order it. Just say to it, "Stop!" and begin to work. Never fight with it! This is a mantra, and the mind begins to follow it. Just say, "Stop!" Nothing more, nothing less. Say, "Stop totally!" and begin to behave as if the mind had stopped. And soon you will become capable, and you will be just wonder-struck at how this mind stops by just saying "Stop!" It is because mind has no will.

You might have seen someone in a hypnotic trance. What happens? In a hypnotic trance, the hypnotist goes on simply giving orders and The mind follows - the man follows. Absurd orders!

and the man begins to follow, the hypnotized subject follows them. Why? Because the conscious mind has only been put to sleep, and the subconscious mind has no will of its own. Just tell it to do something and it will do it.

But we are not aware of our own capacity, so rather than ordering we go on begging, or, at the most, we begin to fight. When you fight, you are divided. Your own will begins to fight with you.

The subconscious mind has no will at all. So, if you want to stop smoking, don't try. Just order and stop. Don't try at all. If you fall in the trap of trying you will never win, because you have accepted something which is not there. You just say to the mind, "Now I stop this very moment," and soon you will become aware that things begin to happen. It is natural! Nothing is strange about it: it is just natural. Once you have to be aware of it, that's all. So just put the subconscious mind aside and begin to live in the moment.

And then the second thing you have to do is: when you have become capable of putting the mind aside when something outside is working as a stimulus, then try the other way - when some instinct is coming up, just put the subconscious mind aside. It will be a bit difficult, but when the first thing is achieved it will not be difficult at all. Just see now that again the sex is coming up, the anger is coming up, and just say to the subconscious mind, "Let me face it directly. Don't come in - let me face it directly! You are not needed." Just order the mind and face the instinct directly. And once you begin to encounter your own instincts directly, you will be the master without the need of any control.

When you need control, you are really not the master. A master never needs control. If you say, "I can control my anger," you are not the master - because a controlled thing can erupt any moment, and you will remain constantly in fear of that which you have controlled. There will be a constant fight. In any weak moment you will be defeated. So, please, don't control. Be a master! - don t control. These are two completely different dimensions.

When I say be a master, this mastery comes only when you encounter your nature, your biological nature as it is, in its purity. I wonder, have you ever seen your sex in its purity without moral teachings coming in, without the gurus and mahatmas dropping in, without the scriptures? Have you seen your sex instinct in its purity, in its pure fire? If you have seen it, you will become the master of it. If you have not seen it, you will remain a cripple and you will remain a defeated one. And howsoever you try to control, you will never be able to control it. That is impossible!

Control is impossible: mastery is possible. But mastery has a different root. Mastery means knowledge; control means fear. When you fear something, you begin to control. When you know something, you become the master: there is no need to control. And knowledge means direct encounter. Instincts should be known in their purity. Drop the subconscious, because it is a constantly disturbing factor. It goes on distorting things; it will never allow you to see things as they are. It will always put the society in between, and you will see things through the society as they are not.

And, really, this is the miracle of the subconscious mind - that if you look through it things begin to be as you see them. The subconscious mind can impose any colour, any shape on things. Just put it aside; face your biological nature directly. It is beautiful! It is wonderful! Just face it directly. It is Divine! Don't allow any moralistic nonsense to distort it. See it as it is.

Science observes things, and the basis of its observation is that the observer must not come in: he must remain just an observer. And whatsoever the thing reveals should be allowed. The observer must not come in to disturb and destroy or distort or give a shape or a colour. A scientist is working in his lab: even if something comes up which destroys his whole concept, his whole philosophy, his whole religion, he must not allow his mind to come in. He must allow the truth to be revealed as it is.

The same goes for inner working, inner research: allow your biological nature to reveal itself in its pure being. And once you know it you will be the master - because knowledge means mastery, knowledge means power. Only ignorance is weak. And through control there is no knowledge, because the whole concept of control is brought in by the subconscious, by the society.

So if you can do two things with your subconscious: one, allowing the fact of the outside Existence to come to you directly; and then, two, allowing the "facticity" of the inside Existence to be realized in its purity, in its innocence - then a miracle happens. It is a miracle, and that miracle is this: that subconscious and unconscious drop. Then mind is not divided in three. Then mind becomes one.

That oneness of mind, undivided oneness, is what the Upanishads call "the knowing" - because even the knower is not there. When these three divisions have dropped, when even this division of knower is not there, then only pure knowing, only mirrorlike knowing remains.

With this knowing, you have two centers: one, the outside periphery where you unite with the universe; and another, the inside where again you unite with the universe. And this knowing joins both the inner and the outer - the atma and the brahma.

This pure knowing is without any trembling. This pure knowing is the posture, the right posture, in which the Enlightenment happens, the Realization happens, in which you become one with Truth.

This is the door - but how to cleanse? It is not simply a theory, it is not a theoretical statement at all.

It is just a scientific procedure, it is a process. Do something to dissolve the divisions of the mind.

And if you want to dissolve the mind, concentrate on the subconscious, the middle portion of the mind, which is society. Drop it!

It is, of course, necessary for a child to be brought up in a society. It is necessary! So the subconscious is a necessary evil: the society has to teach him many things - but they should not become fetters. That's why I say that a better society, a real, moral society, will also teach, side by side, how to break this subconscious. A better society will give its children the subconscious with a conscious methodology of how to drop it when it is not needed and how to be free of it.

It is needed up to the point when you become aware, when you achieve an awakened state of mind.

Until then it is needed. It is just like a blind man's staff. A staff cannot substitute for eyes: it is just a groping in the dark. But a blind man needs it, and it is helpful - but a blind man can become so much attached to his staff that when his eyes are healed and he has begun to see, he still cannot throw away his staff, and goes on groping. Because groping is easier when the eyes are closed, he remains with closed eyes and goes on groping with his staff.

This subconscious is like a blind man's staff. A child is born, but he is not born aware. The society has to give him something so that he can move and grope - some values, some ideals, some thoughts. But they should not become the eyes. And what I am saying is: if you drop the divisions and create more awareness within yourself, you will have eyes, and with those eyes this staff is not needed.

But it is a related thing. If you drop the subconscious you will become aware; if you become aware then the subconscious will drop. So begin from anywhere. You can begin by being more aware, then the subconscious will drop. Mm? This is a samkhya process, this is a samkhya methodology:

just be aware and, by and by, the subconscious will drop. The yoga process is a second way - the other, the contrary: drop the subconscious, and you will become more aware. Both are related.

So wherever you want to begin, the important thing is to begin. Begin from anywhere, either from being more conscious or from being less obsessed with the subconscious. And when these divisions drop, you will have a pure knowing. That pure knowing is the posture. With that pure knowing, with that non-wavering knowing, your body will achieve a stillness you have not known at all.

We are not aware: that's why we don't know how disturbed we are in our bodies. You cannot sit still, and if you try to sit still then for the first time you will become aware of subtle movements in the body:

the leg will begin to say something, the hand will begin to say something, the neck will begin to say something, every part of the body will begin to give you information. Why? It is not that when you sit still the body begins to move; it is moving every moment. It is only because you are otherwise occupied that you are not aware. There are subtle movements continuously: your body is constantly moving and moving. This constant wavering really doesn't belong to your body. It belongs to your mind. The body only reflects. You cannot even sleep in a non-moving posture. The whole night you are moving this way and that, moving and moving and moving.

Now we have pictures from some American "sleep labs". Now they have taken pictures, movies - movies of sleeping persons. If you could see your own movie - how much you move in the night - you will see that the whole night you are disturbed. And by your body movements it can be seen that much is going on inside - much! There are so many facial gestures, so many gestures of the hands, fingers, the whole body. This shows that much is happening inside. A madman must be inside; otherwise these gestures are impossible. But you are never aware of what is happening to you. No one is aware! Everyone is asleep; no one is aware. So you don't know what you are doing in your sleep with your body. But that doing is because of the mind. A disturbed mind is reflected by the body.

A Buddha sits just like a statue. It is not that he has forced his body to be still. The mind is still, and the body need not reflect because there is nothing to reflect.

Once Buddha stayed outside a big capital with his ten thousand monks. The king became interested.

Someone said, "You must come to see this man." The name of the king was Ajata Shatru. The name means "someone whose enemy is not born at all". Mm? Ajata Shatru means one who has no enemies in the world - no enemy is born, no enemy can be born. But this Ajata Shatru was very fearful of enemies. He became interested because so many people came and said, "You must come! This is something strange, this man is something strange. Come and see!" So he came.

He has reached the grove, the garden. The evening has fallen. He asks his courtiers, "You said that he is staying with ten thousand monks, but no noise is heard - are you deceiving me?" He pulls out his sword. He thinks that some deception is there, that they have brought him to this forest and now someone is going to kill him. "You say ten thousand monks are staying just beyond these trees? - and there is not a bit of noise!" The forest is absolutely silent, and Ajata Shatru says, "I have seen this forest many times - it has never been so silent before. Even when no one was staying here it has never been so silent - even the birds are silent! What do you mean? Do you want to deceive me?" They say, "Don't be afraid. He is staying here; that's why the forest is so silent and even the birds are so silent. You come!" But he puts his sword in his hand. He is afraid and trembling. When he reaches the forest, Buddha is sitting under a tree and ten thousand monks are also sitting under trees - everyone just like a stone statue. He asks Buddha, "What has happened to all these people? Are they dead? I have become afraid. They look like ghosts - no one moving, not even eyes moving. What has happened to them?" Buddha says, "Much has happened to them - they are not mad now." Unless one can be so silent, one can never feel what Existence means, what life means, what the bliss of it is, the benediction. Only in such silence does life descend. You become aware of the music, of the nectar. You begin to feel it, but only in silence. And that silence comes only when you are non-wavering. If you are wavering, if the mind is just wavering and there is trembling inside, you cannot feel that silence.

You cannot attain silence directly: you have to attain non-wavering, then silence comes as a shadow.

If non-wavering comes, then silence comes. So Buddha says, "Much has happened to these fellows.

They are not mad now. They have become silent and now they are one with these trees, with this earth, with this sky" - because you can be divided only by noise. Silence never divides: silence joins you.

For example, if we are sitting here and everyone becomes so silent that not a thought has any existence, not a single ripple is there in the mind, everyone silent, totally silent, will you be different from anyone else? Will you be different from your neighbour? How can you be different? The feeling of difference is a thought. Do I mean you will feel one with them? No, because the feeling of oneness is a thought. You will simply be one, not a feeling. Really, there will be no one here - just silence.

So Buddha says, "They are now one with the trees, with the earth, with the sky. Really, they are not here. Only silence prevails, and that's why even birds have caught the infection." Ten thousand people so silent that even the birds in the trees have become aware! They have felt - the silence has become infectious. "So you are right, Ajata Shatru," Buddha says, "that you might have passed through this grove many times, and it has been never so silent. It will never again be so silent because, for the first time, in ten thousand minds silence is present here." So silence has become ten thousandfold, and everything is affected. Even trees are afraid to move. Even birds are afraid to tremble, to make noise. It is evening, they are coming back, and when birds come back they create much noise - but not a single ripple.

When you begin to be silent you begin to be in deep communion with Existence. Thoughts and thoughts are noises. Waves and waves are thoughts and tremblings inside. They create a barrier, they disrupt - they make you alone. Then you begin to be alone in this whole universe, and that loneliness creates meaninglessness. The more lonely you are, the more you will feel meaningless, futile, useless, and then you will begin to fill yourself with more noise. With radio, television, with anything, you will try to fill yourself, to be occupied. You run from here to there, from this club to that club. Go on running! Don't leave any gap in which you might become aware of your loneliness! So this whole life just becomes a running from one point to another. This is madness, and the whole earth has become a madhouse.

So attain to this posture - and don't begin with the body. Begin with the subconscious mind, and then your body will reflect what is happening within. Even now it is reflecting what is happening within. The body is a mirror; it is transparent. Those who have eyes, they know that the body is transparent. You enter here, and I know what is happening inside you - because you cannot enter without showing it. You look at me, and I know what is happening inside your eyes - because how can you raise your eyes without expressing that which is within? It is being shown every moment!

Every moment is an indication. It is related; nothing is irrelevant. Your body is showing every moment, but you don't know the body language. The body has a language of its own, and it shows - everything! You cannot deceive. You can deceive with your language. but not with your body - not with your body! You can smile, but your lips will say that there is no smile within. You can show something by your face, you can try, but still the face will give hints that this is false.

This body is just giving information every moment. You cannot change it. You can try, but you cannot change it. And even if you succeed in changing your body, you can succeed only in deceiving others not yourself, because the inside cannot change by the outside change. It is not basic. You can cut a tree by the roots, but not by the leaves. If you cut the leaves, new leaves will come up again and one leaf will be replaced by two. Cut two, and four leaves will come out of that spot. The tree will take revenge, the roots will take revenge. They will say, "You are cutting one leaf - we will put two.

We are capable of constantly supplying - infinitely." So don't be bothered by leaves. And body has only leaves: roots are deep within. Cut the roots, and the leaves will wither away by themselves. When there are no roots to feed, the leaves will drop by themselves. Your body will change. Change the mind and the body will change. Mind is the root!

Attain a non-wavering knowing, and the door will be open and you will be able to have a glimpse into the unknown. The unknown is not far off: only you are closed. The unknown is here, but you are running. The unknown is here, but you are in such a hurry and in such speed that you cannot look at it.

Stand still! I don't mean your body: let your mind stand still, your consciousness, and suddenly you will become aware of something which has always been there. You have been seeking for it, seeking and searching, lives and lives running for it - and it was here. It is so near, and that's why you have missed it. It is just by the corner, and you have sought it everywhere except this place where you are standing.

Non-wavering reveals to you the here and now. That standing still in consciousness reveals to you the presence which is here.