Ознакомительная версия.
Go and find her and bring her here quickly;
such a sight she will never see again!
The next day, walking amidst the ashes
of his hopes and dreams,
the 67 year-old inventor said:
What benefit there is in destruction!
All our mistakes have been burnt to ashes, thank God!
Now we can begin afresh, all over again!
God’s grace is endless.
We just need the eyes to see it.
135. Love.
Wittgenstein has said somewhere:
Of that which one cannot speak,
one should remain silent.
Oh, if only this advice was heeded
there would be no useless arguments about truth!
That-which-is cannot be spoken of.
Whatever is said in words is not,
cannot be,
that-which-is.
Truth is beyond words,
only silence is related to truth.
But silence is very difficult;
the mind wants to speak even of that
which is beyond words.
Really, the mind is the only barrier to silence.
Silence belongs to the state of no-mind.
A preacher came to address some small children.
Before beginning he put a question to them:
If you were asked to address a gathering
of such intelligent boys and girls
who expect a good lecture from you,
and if you had nothing to speak on,
what would you say?
A small child replied: I would keep quiet.
I would keep quiet.
This child-like simplicity is needed to experiment with silence.
136. Love.
Sannyas is a pilgrimage to Mt. Everest –
naturally there are difficulties on the way.
But the fruits of determination are sweet too,
so bear everything calmly and joyously
but don’t give up your commitment.
Serve your mother even more than before –
sannyas is not a running away from responsibility.
Your family is not to be given up,
rather you have to make the whole world your family.
Encourage your mother to take sannyas too.
Tell her: You have seen enough of the world,
now raise your eyes towards God.
But make sure she is caused no trouble on your account.
This doesn’t mean giving in or compromising –
sannyas knows no compromise.
Strong, bold and resolute is the soul of sannyas.
137. Love.
Love does not discriminate
even in dreams,
and in that love which is prayer too,
there are no distinctions at all.
Now I am no more.
The word I is simply a convenience
and as such causes many difficulties.
When the clouds of the I disappear
nothing remains but love –
love without cause,
unconditional love.
Here I stand in the marketplace:
who is ready to come and take it from me?
Kabir stands in the marketplace, torch in hand.
If you are ready to burn your house down, come with me.
138. Love.
Ah, if the veena were outside you could hear its music,
but it is inside
and we do not hear it.
But we can become one with it.
And how much is music worth that ends with listening?
Ultimately the musician, the veena, the music,
the listener
are not separate.
Look inside,
go within,
and see who is waiting there for you.
139. Love.
The springs of meditation are close at hand
but the layers of suppressed sex work like rocks.
The repression of sex has choked your life with anger,
its smoke pervades your whole personality.
When you were meditating in front of me the other day
I saw all this very clearly,
but I could also see that your will is very strong too,
your thirst for God is also strong
and you are working hard,
so there is no need to be disheartened.
Difficulties are there,
blocks are there,
but they will disintegrate
because the breaker is not yet broken.
Meditate totally and soon the springs will be reached.
But you have to put your whole being at stake –
nothing less will do.
Hold back a bit and you will miss.
Time is short so gather all your strength;
whilst the opportunity is here
your effort must be total.
It is difficult to say whether you will have such an opportunity
in another life, so everything must be finished in this one.
If the gates don’t open this time
you will have to start from the very beginning next time –
and then it is far from sure that I will be with you.
In your last life you worked for it
but the work was not completed;
and it was the same in the life before that.
For three lives you have repeated the same cycle
again and again –
it is time now to break it.
It is already late,
any further delay would be foolish.
My regards to all.
140. Love.
The meaning of sadhana
is to enter into one’s own nature,
to live in it,
to be it.
One must therefore know what is not one’s nature
so as to be aware what one wants to be free of.
Recognizing it becomes freedom from it.
A disciple of Bankei asked him:
I become overwhelmed by anger.
I want to be rid of it but I cannot be.
What shall I do?
Bankei did not say a word,
just stared deep into the eyes of the disciple,
who began to sweat
in those few heavy minutes of silence.
He wanted to break the silence
but couldn’t gather the courage.
Then Bankei laughed and said: It’s strange!
I searched and searched but could find
no anger within you.
Still, show me a little of it, here and now.
The disciple said: It is not always here.
It comes all of a sudden, how can I produce it now?
Bankei laughed again and said:
Then it is not your true nature.
That remains with you always,
and if your anger had been part of it
you could have shown it to me.
When you were born it was not with you,
when you die it will not be with you.
No, this anger is not you.
There is a mistake somewhere.
Go away and think again,
search again, meditate again.
141. Love.
God purifies in every way.
It is not only gold that has to pass through fire
to be purified
but man too.
For man this fire is the anguish of love.
It is a blessing when this fire enters a person’s life;
it is the fruit of infinite prayers, infinite births.
It is the intensity of thirst that turns finally into love,
but unfortunately few are able to welcome it
because few can recognize love in the form of anguish.
Love is not a throne, it is a cross;
but those who gladly offer
themselves to it attain the very highest throne.
The cross can be seen, the throne cannot –
it is always hidden behind the cross.
And even Jesus hesitated for a moment;
even his heart cried out: Father, why hast thou forsaken me?
But the next moment he remembered and said:
Thy will be done.
That was enough:
the cross became a throne
and death a new life.
In the moment of revolution
between one statement and the next
Christ descended into Jesus.
Your suffering is intense and a new birth is at hand;
be happy, be grateful.
Don’t be afraid of death,
be thankful.
It is the tidings of a new birth.
And the old must die to give birth to the new;
the seed must break to blossom into the flower.
142. Love.
What is suppressed becomes attractive,
what is negated, beckons!
Only alertness to the mind’s games brings freedom.
Negation does not really negate,
on the contrary, it beckons.
The mind plays around the forbidden
like the tongue around the gap of an extracted tooth.
A small shopkeeper in London once caused a sensation.
He hung in his show window
a black curtain with a small hole at the center;
under the hole was written in large letters:
Peeping strictly forbidden.
Naturally, it brought the traffic to a standstill!
Crowds gathered around the shop
jostling one another for a peep through the curtain.
There they saw nothing but a few towels –
it was just a small towel shop
and the shopkeeper had devised this sure-fire method
of increasing his sales.
It worked like magic.
Man’s mind works the same way
and he becomes trapped by it.
Therefore – always be wary of negation,
opposition, suppression.
143. Love and blessings.
Live the truth,
for there is no other way to find it.
Become the truth,
for there is no other way to know it.
You cannot know truth through words,
not through the scriptures,
nor through learning, study, contemplation.
Truth is within, in the emptiness within.
In the state of no-mind,
in the mind free of desires where only awareness is,
there truth manifests itself.
Truth simply is;
it has not to be found,
simply uncovered.
The lid of gold covering it is the ego.
Ego is darkness;
die, and become light!
Where the darkness of the ego is no more
there, in that emptiness, truth is;
and that is truth,
and that is bliss,
and that is immortality.
Do not seek it,
just die and it is there.
144. Love.
I am glad to receive your letter.
Yes, this much suffering has to be gone through –
it is the birth pangs of our own rebirth.
And going back is not possible
for where is the past to which to return?
Time demolishes the steps we climb to reach the present.
There is no going back –
only going forward is possible,
forward and forward –
and the journey is endless!
There is no goal, no destination,
only resting places,
where the tents are dismantled as soon as they are pitched.
But why this fear of anarchy?
All systems are false –
life is anarchic, insecure.
He who seeks security dies before his death.
Why this hurry to die?
Death itself will take care of that for us
so is it not right that we learn to live?
And the miracle is
that death does not call
on the one who learns how to live –
and this alone is needed.
Doesn’t the gardener silently wait after sowing the seed?
Whenever you need me you will find me beside you.
Regards to all there.
145. Love.
Atheism is the first step towards theism,
and a must.
If you haven’t been through the fire of atheism
you’ll never know the light of theism.
If you haven’t the true strength to say No
your Yes will always be impotent.
So I am glad you are an atheist –
something that can be said only by a theist.
So I say: Go deeper into atheism.
Superficiality won’t do,
so don’t just think atheism, live it –
and it will ultimately lead you to God.
Atheism isn’t it,
it is just a doubting.
Doubt is good but it isn’t it.
Actually, doubt is a search for trust.
So go on, make your journey,
for the path to truth starts with this doubt.
Doubt is sadhana
because doubt eventually exposes the incontestable truth.
Inside the seed of doubt is the tree of trust,
so if you plant the seed of questioning
and work on it
you are bound to harvest trust.
And beware all religions!
Only religions obstruct the true path of religion.
146. Love.
Dreams too are true
because what we call truth is only a dream –
it is just the difference between open and closed eyes.
Understand this fully
and then one can go beyond both,
and the way lies beyond both.
Both are the seen and beyond both is the seer.
147. Love.
Not only is a seed a seed,
man is also a seed.
Not only seeds bloom,
man also blooms.
Not only seeds blossom into flowers.
148. Love.
How can the search begin unless there is doubt?
How will the heart awaken to know the truth
unless there is doubt?
Remember – belief and faith bind man,
doubt liberates him.
149. Love.
I was glad to receive your letter.
Make love your prayer now.
Love alone is worship, is God.
Let there be love with every breath –
this is your only sadhana.
Sitting, rising, sleeping, waking
just remember: love.
Then you will see that his temple is not far off.
150. Love.
God is testing you every moment.
Laugh and take the test –
it is beautiful that he considers you worth testing!
But don’t be in a hurry
for the more you hurry the more some goals recede,
and without doubt the temple of God is a goal like that.
He who travels with patience travels fastest on this journey.
The mind will roam again and again –
that is its way;
the day its roaming stops it will be dead.
Sometimes it sleeps –
do not mistake this for death.
Sometimes it gets tired –
don’t mistake this for death either.
Some rest and sleep and it is strong and alive again.
So stop bothering about it altogether
for even this worry gives it strength.
Surrender even this to God.
Say to him: Whatever it’s like, good or bad,
take care of it.
And then just be a witness,
simply watch the whole play.
Watch the play of the mind with detachment
and then suddenly –
there is the consciousness which is no-mind.
151. Love.
God is far off because we don’t know
how to see him close by.
Actually there is nothing closer than him.
More than that – he is the here and now.
The name God is just for those
who can’t find the here and now.
Words, names, doctrines, scriptures, religion, philosophy,
all these are created for those who can see him
only at a distance.
Hence they have no connection with God
but only with those who are blind to the near.
That’s why I say: Drop the distant.
Drop paradises in the sky.
Drop hopes in the future,
and see the near in time and in space.
Be here and now and see!
See the instant in time,
Ознакомительная версия.
