---
section: Library
booktitle: "Ancient Music in the Pines"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "ANCIEN"
dategiven: "28 February 1976 am"
place: " in Buddha Hall"
chapternum: "Chapter #8"
chaptertitle: "Three Mysteries"
acode: "7602280"
shorttitle: "ANCIEN08"
audio: "Yes"
video: "No"
esttime: "95mins"
displaytitle: "Ancient Music in the Pines: Chapter #8"
---

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The first question:
<p class="question">CAN YOU TALK ABOUT FACING THE DEATH OF EACH MOMENT AND LETTING GO?</p>


Death is already happening. Whether you face it or not, whether you look at it or not, it is already there.


It is just like breathing. When a child is born, he inhales. he breathes in for the first time. That is the beginning of life. And when one day he becomes old, dies, he will exhale.


Death always happens with exhalation and birth with inhalation. But exhalation and inhalation are happening continuously. With each inhalation you are born; with each exhalation you die.


So the first thing to understand is that death is not somewhere in the future, waiting for you, as it has been always pictured. It is part of life; it is an ongoing process -- not in the future, here, now.


Life and death are two aspects of existence. simultaneously happening together.


Ordinarily, you have been taught to think of death as being against life. Death is not against life -- life is not possible without death. Death is the very ground on which life exists. Death and life are like two wings: the bird cannot fly with one wing, and the being cannot be without death. So the first thing is a clear understanding of what we mean by death.


Death is an absolutely necessary process for life to be. It is not the enemy, it is the friend. And it is not there somewhere in the future, it is here, now. It is not going to happen, it has been always happening. Since you have been here it has been with you. With each exhalation it happens -- a little death, a small death -- but because of fear we have put it in the future.


The mind always tries to avoid things which it cannot comprehend, and death is one of the most incomprehensible mysteries. There are only three mysteries: life, death and love. All these three are beyond mind.


So mind takes life for granted; then there is no need to inquire. That is a way of avoiding. You never think, you never meditate on life; you have simply accepted it, taken it for granted. It is a tremendous mystery. You are alive, but don't think that you have known life.


For death, mind plays another trick: it postpones it. To accept it here and now would be a constant worry, so the mind puts it somewhere in the future -- then there is no hurry. When it comes, we will see.


And for love, mind has created substitutes which are not love. Sometimes you call your possessiveness your love; sometimes you call your attachment your love; sometimes you call your domination your love -- these are ego games. Love has nothing to do with them. In fact, because of these games, love is not possible.


Between life and death, between the two banks of life and death, flows the river of love. And that is possible only for a person who does not take life for granted, who moves deep into the quality of being alive and becomes existential, authentic. Love is for the person who accepts death here and now and does not postpone it. Then between these two a beautiful phenomenon arises: the river of love.


Life and death are like two banks. The possibility is there for the river of love to flow, but it is only a possibility. You will have to materialize it. Life and death are there, but love has to be materialized -- that is the goal of being a human. Unless love materializes, you have missed -- you have missed the whole point of being.


Death is already happening -- so don't put it in the future. If you don't put it in the future there is no question of defending yourself. If it is already happening  -- and it has been already happening always -- then there is no question of protecting yourself against death. Death has not killed you, it has been happening while you were still alive. It is happening just now and life is not destroyed by it; in fact, because of it, life renews itself each moment. When the old leaves fall, they make space for the new leaves to come. When the old flowers disappear, the new flowers appear. When one door closes, another immediately opens. Each moment you die and each moment there is resurrection.


Once a Christian missionary came to me and he asked, 'Do you believe in Jesus Christ's resurrection?'


I told him that there was no need to go so far. Each moment everybody is resurrected. But he could not understand. It is difficult for people who are too much into their ideology.


He said, 'But do you believe that he was crucified? Is this not just a myth, or is it a reality? What do you think?'


I said to him again that everybody is crucified every moment. That is the whole meaning of Jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection. Whether it is historical or not does not matter a bit. It is simply irrelevant to think whether it happened or not -- it is HAPPENING.


Each moment the past is crucified, the old leaves disappear. And each moment a new being arises in you, resurrects. It is a constant miracle.


The second thing to understand about death is that death is the only certainty. Everything else is uncertain: it may happen, it may not happen. Death is certain because in birth half of it has already happened, so the other end must be somewhere, the other pole must be somewhere in the dark. You have not come across it because you are afraid; you don't move in the dark. But it is certain! With birth, death has become a certainty.


Once this certainty penetrates your understanding, you are relaxed. Whenever something is absolutely certain then there is no worry. Worry arises out of uncertainty.


Watch. A man is dying and he is very worried. The moment death becomes certain and the doctors say, 'Now you cannot be saved,' he is shocked. A shivering goes through his being. But then things settle, and immediately all worries disappear. If the person is allowed to know that he is going to die and that death is certain, with that certainty a peace a silence, comes to his being.


Every person who is dying has the right to know it. Doctors go on hiding it many times, thinking, 'Why disturb?' But uncertainty disturbs; certainty, never. This hanging in-between, this being in limbo, wondering whether one is going to live or die -- this is the root cause of all worry. Once it is certain that you are going to die then there is nothing to do. Then one simply accepts it. And in that acceptance, a calmness, a tranquillity happens. So if the person is allowed to know that he is going to die in the moment of death he becomes peaceful.


In the East we have been practicing that for millennia. Not only that, in countries like Tibet particular techniques were evolved to help a man to die. They called it BARDO TODO. When a person was dying, friends, relatives and acquaintances would gather together around him to give him the absolute certainty that he was going to die, and to help him to relax.


Because if you can die in total relaxation, the quality of death changes and your new birth somewhere will be of a higher quality. The quality of birth is decided by death. And then, in turn, the quality of birth will decide the quality of another death. That's how one goes higher and higher, that's how one evolves. And whenever a person becomes absolutely certain about death a flame arises on his face -- you can see it. In fact, a miracle happens: he becomes alive as he has never been before.


There is a saying in India that before a flame dies, it becomes tremendously intense. Just for a moment it flares up to totality. I was reading a small anecdote.


Once there were two little worms. The first was lazy and improvident, and always stayed in bed late. The other was always up early, going about his business. The early bird caught the early worm. Then along came a fisherman with a flashlight, and caught the night crawler. Moral: You can't win.


Death is certain. Whatsoever you do -- get up early or not -- death is certain. It has already happened, that's why it is certain; it is already happening, that's why it is certain. So why wait for the moment when you are dying on your bed? Why not make it certain right now?


Just watch. If I say death is certain, can't you feel fear disappearing within you? Can't you feel that with the very idea -- and it is just an idea right now, not your experience -- with just an idea that death is certain, you are calm and quiet. If you can experience it.... And you can, because it is a fact. I am not talking about theories; I don't deal in theories. This is a simple fact. Just open your eyes and watch it. And don't try to avoid it; there is no way to avoid it. In avoiding, you miss. Accept it. Embrace it. And live with the consciousness that each moment you die and each moment you are born. Allow it to happen. Don't cling to the past -- it is no more, it is already gone. Why go on carrying dead things? Why be so burdened with corpses? Drop them. And you will feel weightlessness; you will feel unburdened.


And once you drop the past the future drops on its own accord, because the future is nothing but a projection of the past. In the past you had some pleasures; now the mind projects those same pleasures into the future. In the past you had some sufferings; now the mind projects a future in which those sufferings are not allowed to happen. That's what your future is. What else is your future? Pleasures that you enjoyed in the past are projected and miseries are dropped. Your future is a more colorful and modified past, repainted, renovated, but it is the past. Once the past drops, suddenly the future drops -- and then you are left here and now; then you are in existence, you are existential, and that is the only way to be. All other ways are just to avoid life. The more you avoid life, the more you become afraid of death.


A person who is really living is not in any way afraid of death. If you are living rightly you are finished with death, you are already too grateful, fulfilled. But if you have not lived, then the constant worry continues, 'I have not lived yet and death is coming. And death will stop all; with death there will be no future.' So one becomes apprehensive, afraid, and tries to avoid death.


In trying to avoid death, one goes on missing life. Forget about that avoidance. Live life. In living life, death is avoided. In living life, you become so fulfilled that if this very moment death comes and the future stops, you will be ready. You will be happily ready. You have lived your life; you have delighted in existence; you have celebrated it; you are contented. There is no complaint, no grumbling; you don't have any grudge. You welcome death. And unless you can welcome death, one thing is certain -- you have not lived.

I have heard one anecdote.


Two Hungarian noblemen fell into a deadly quarrel. But since neither was anxious to risk his life with either sword or pistol, a bloodless duel was decided upon. Each was to speak a number, and the one presenting the higher number would be adjudged the winner.


The seconds were of course at hand, and the excitement and suspense were extreme as the two noblemen, seated at opposite ends of a long table, bent to the task of thinking of a high number. The challenged party who had the privilege of going first. thought long and hard. The veins on his temples swelled, and the perspiration stood out on his forehead.
'Three,' he said finally.


The other duelist said at once, 'Well, that beats me.'


When you are afraid of death even the number three is the ultimate. When you are afraid of death you go on finding excuses for how to go on living. Whether your life means anything or not one simply goes on finding excuses to prolong it.


In the West now, there is a craze about how to prolong life. That simply shows that somewhere life is being missed. Whenever a country or a culture -- starts thinking about how to prolong life, it simply shows one thing -- that life is not being lived. If you live life, then even a single moment is enough. A single moment can be equal to eternity. It is not a question of length, it is a question of depth; it is not a question of quantity, it is a question of quality.


Just think: would you like one moment of Buddha's life or would you like a thousand years of your own life? Then you will be able to understand what I mean about the quality, the intensity, the depth. In a single moment fulfillment is possible: you can bloom and blossom. But you may not bloom for one thousand years, you may remain hiding in the seed.


This is the difference between the scientific attitude towards life and the religious attitude. The scientific attitude is concerned with prolongation -- how to prolong life. It is not concerned with significance. So you can find old people in hospitals, particularly in the West, just hanging on. They want to die but the culture won't allow them. They are fed up with just being alive; they are simply vegetating. There is no significance, no meaning, no poetry, because everything has disappeared, and they are a burden to themselves. They are asking for euthanasia but society does not allow it. Society is so afraid of death that it does not allow death even for people who are ready to die.


The very word 'death' is a taboo word, more taboo than sex. Sex has by and by become almost accepted. Now death also needs a Freud to make it by and by accepted. Now death also needs a Freud to make it accepted so that it is no longer a taboo and people can talk about it and share their experiences about it. Then there is no need to hide it and there is no need to force people to live against themselves. In hospitals, in old people's homes, people are simply hanging on because the society, the culture, the law, won't allow them to be.


If they ask that they should be allowed to die, it looks as if they are asking for suicide. They are not asking for suicide. In fact, they have become dead corpses; they are a living suicide and they are asking to be rid of it. The length is not the meaning. How long you live is not the point -- how deep you live, how intensely you live, how totally you live -- the quality -- is.


Science is concerned about quantity; religion is concerned about quality. Religion is concerned with the art of how to live life and how to die life. Seven years, seventy years or seven hundred years -- what difference will it make? You will go on repeating the same vicious circle again and again and again. You will simply get more and more bored.


So change the focus of your being. Learn how to live each moment and learn how to die each moment. Both are together. If you know how to die each moment, you will be able to live each moment -- fresh, young, virgin. Die to the past. Don't allow it to interfere with your present. The moment you have passed it, let it be no longer there. It is no longer there; it only goes on in your memory, it is just a remembrance. Let this remembrance also be released. This psychological hang-up should not be allowed.


I am not saying that you should forget everything that you know. I am not saying that all memory is bad. It has technical uses. You have to know how to drive, you have to know where your home is, you have to recognize your wife and your children. But those are not psychological hang-ups. When you come home of course you recognize that this is your wife. This is factual memory -- useful, enhances life, facilitates it. But if you come home and you look at your wife with all the past experiences with her, then that is a psychological hang-up. Yesterday she was angry... now again you look with that memory in-between; your eyes are clouded by that memory. The day before yesterday she was sad or nasty and nagging -- now if you look through all these psychological impressions then you are not looking at the woman who is right now standing in front of you. You are looking at someone who is not there you are seeing someone who doesn't exist, you are looking at a ghost -- she is not your wife. And she may also be looking at you in the same way.


So ghosts meet, and realities remain separate; ghosts are married, and realities are divorced. Then these two ghosts will make love, these two ghosts will fight, quarrel, and do a thousand and one things, and the realities will be far, far away. There will be no contact; realities will not have any connection. Then there can be no communication, there can be no dialogue. Only realities can love. Ghosts can only make impotent gestures -- movements, but with no life in them.


Drop the past each moment. Remember to drop it. Just as you clean your house every morning, every moment clean your inner house of the past. All psychological memories have to be dropped. Just keep factual things and your mind will be very, very clean and clear.


Don't move ahead of yourself into the future because that is not possible to do. The future remains unknown; that is its beauty, that is its grandeur, glory. If it becomes known it will be useless, because then the whole excitement and the whole surprise will be lost.


Don't expect anything in the future. Don't corrupt it. Because if all your expectations are fulfilled then too you will be miserable... because it is your expectation and it is fulfilled. You will not be happy about it. Happiness is possible only through surprise; happiness is possible only when something happens which you had never expected, when something takes you completely unawares. If your expectations are fulfilled a hundred per cent, you will be living as if you are in the past, not in the future. You come home and you expected your wife to say something and she does. And you expected your child to behave in a certain way and the child does. Just think -- you will be constantly in boredom. Nothing will happen. Everything will be just a repetition, as if you are seeing something which you have seen before, hearing something which you have heard before. Continuously you will see that it is a repetition of something. and repetition can never be satisfying. The new, the novel, the original, is needed.


So if your expectations are fulfilled. you will remain completely unfulfilled.


And if your expectations are not fulfilled. then you feel frustrated. Then you feel constantly as if you propose and God goes on disposing; you feel that God is the enemy; you feel as if everybody is against you and everybody is working against you. If your expectations are never fulfilled you will feel frustrated.


Just meditate upon your expectations: if they are fulfilled you will feel bored, if they are not fulfilled you will feel cheated. You will feel as if a conspiracy is going on against you. as if the whole existence is conspiring against you. You will feel exploited, you will feel rejected, you will not be able to feel at home. And the whole problem arises because you expect.
Don't go ahead into the future. Drop expectations.


Once you drop expectations you have learned how to live. Then everything that happens fulfills you, whatsoever it is. For one thing, you never feel frustrated because in the first place you never expected. So frustration is impossible. Frustration is a shadow of expectation. With the expectation dropped, frustration drops on its own accord.


You cannot frustrate me, because I never expect anything. Whatsoever you do, I will say, 'Good.' I always say, 'Good,' except for only a few times when I say, 'Very good.'


Once expectations are not there you are free to move into the unknown and to accept the unknown -- whatsoever it brings. And to accept it with deep gratitude. Complaints disappear; grumbling disappears; whatsoever the situation, you always feel accepted, at home. Nobody is against you, existence is not a conspiracy against you -- it is your home.


The second thing: when everything happens unexpectedly, everything becomes new. It brings a freshness to your life; a fresh breeze is continuously blowing and it does not allow dust to gather on you. Your doors and your windows are open: in comes sunshine, in comes the breeze, in comes the fragrance of flowers -- everything unexpected. You never asked for it, and existence goes on showering it on you. One feels God Is.


The proposition 'God is', is not a proposition; it is a statement of someone who has lived unexpectedly, without any expectations, who has lived in wonder. God is not a logical hypothesis; it is an exclamation of joy. It is just like, 'Aha!' -- It doesn't mean anything more. It simply means, 'Aha!' so beautiful, so wonderful, so new, so novel, and beyond anything that you could have dreamed. Yes, life is more adventurous than any adventure that you can imagine. And life is pregnant, always pregnant, with the unknown.


Once you expect, everything is destroyed. Drop the past; that is the way to die each moment. Never plan for the future; that is the way to allow life to flow through you. And then you remain in an unfrozen state, flowing. This is what I call a sannyasin -- no past, no future, just at this moment alive, intensely alive, a flame burning from both the ends, a torch burning from both the ends. This is what let-go is.

The second question:
<p class="question">A SHORT TIME AGO I HEARD YOU SAY THAT YOU SAW YOURSELF STANDING IN THE MARKETPLACE WITH A BOTTLE OF ALCOHOL IN YOUR HAND. TODAY L WAS REFUSED DARSHAN BECAUSE ALCOHOL WAS ON MY BREATH.</p>


This is from Vedanta.


What I say and what you hear are not necessarily the same. My alcohol is my alcohol; your alcohol is your alcohol. When I am talking about alcohol, I am not talking about your alcohol. I am talking about the alcohol of Buddhas. Yes, they are drunk -- drunk with the Divine.


But I can understand. You go on hearing that which you want to hear. You don't hear me; you manipulate. You manage to hear whatsoever you want to hear. Your unconscious goes on interfering, it goes on confusing you. Yes, I said that I am in the marketplace and not only in the marketplace, but with a bottle in my hand. This. is an old Zen saying.


Zen says that one who has finally understood himself comes back to the world -- and comes completely drunk. But why a bottle in the hand? The meaning is clear. Not only is he drunk, he has something to offer to you also. That is the meaning of the bottle in the hand. If you are ready, he can also make you drunk -- he has something to offer you. It is not only that he is drunk, he can share his drunkenness with you. Hence the bottle. He has an invitation, an invitation for you. That's why he has come to the marketplace.


You go to the marketplace to get something, he has come to the marketplace to give something. He has found something, and this finding is such that it has to be shared. Sharing is its intrinsic nature. You cannot keep your bliss to yourself -- it would be like a flower trying to keep its fragrance to itself or a star trying to keep its light to itself. It is not possible. When there is light it spreads, it goes to others; it helps even those who are not even prepared to take its help. The fragrance disperses into the winds for friends and for foes alike.


Once a man has attained, he has to share. Not that he has to do something to share; he simply finds himself sharing because he cannot do otherwise. He moves to the marketplace where people are -- where people are stumbling in darkness, he brings his light to them; where people are thirsty, he brings his own drunkenness to be shared with them.


Yes, I am drunk and I have a bottle in my hand -- can't you see it! But it is not your bottle. But people have an unconscious tendency to hear something which is not said.

I have heard one anecdote.


A cavewoman came running to her husband in the greatest possible agitation.
'Wok!' she called out. 'Something terrible has just happened. A saber-toothed tiger has just gone into my mother's cave and she is in there. Do something! Do something!'


Wok looked up from the macedon drumstick which he was gnawing and said, 'Why should I do I something? What the devil do I care what happens to a saber-toothed tiger?'


It is not necessarily that you don't hear that which is said, your unconscious continuously colors whatsoever you hear, It continuously interprets in its own ways. The words may be the same, but a slight jerk to the meaning, a slight turning, and everything changes.


After ten years of marriage, a man was consulting a marriage counselor.
'When I first married,' he said, 'I was very happy. When I would come at night, my little dog would race around barking, and my wife would bring me my slippers. Now, after all these years, when I come home, my dog brings me my slippers, and my wife barks at me.'
'What is the complaint?' asked the counselor. 'You are still getting the same service!'


Yes, the service is the same, but still, not the same. You may hear my words and you may think the meaning is the same -- it is not. So please be careful. Handle my words very carefully; they are very delicate. And before you decide what they mean, don't be in a hurry. Meditate. Otherwise not only will you miss, you may misunderstand, and not only will my words not be able to help you, they can be harmful.

The third question:
<p class="question">IS IT POSSIBLE FOR A POLITICIAN TO BE ENLIGHTENED?</p>


Never heard of it. It has never happened. There are intrinsic problems. The very dimension the politician moves in is against enlightenment.


A few things have to be understood. Politics is a diametrically opposite phenomenon to religion. A scientist can easily become religious; his approach is different but not opposite. He may have been working with matter, with the objective world, but his working is a sort of meditation. He needs a certain space in his consciousness, a silent space, to work and to discover. It is not very difficult to move from the objective towards subjectivity because the same space can be used for the inner journey.


A poet can very easily become religious -- he is very close, very, very close; almost in the neighborhood. A painter or a sculptor can very easily become religious; they are already religious, unknowingly. They are already worshippers though they have not yet worshipped. They may not have thought about God. they may not have consciously been religious at all, they may not go to the church or to the temple they may not be concerned with the Bible and the Koran and the Gita -- but that is not the point. A painter goes on seeing something Divine in nature: colors are Divine for him. A poet goes on feeling something of the religious romance all around. All creative arts are very closely related -- any moment consciousness can dawn, any ray can become a transformation.


But a politician moves in a diametrically opposite direction. His whole training is against religion.

I have heard an anecdote:


The Congressman had delivered a stirring speech against a controversial bill. He was promptly buried in mountains of mail from back home as constituents wrote condemning his stand. Next day he was back on his feet in the house, this time making a speech in favor of the bill. When he finished, a colleague collared him.
'Yesterday,' said the colleague, 'you made an eloquent explanation of the principles which motivated your stand. I wonder, what has happened to change your mind?'
'Someday,' said the Congressman, 'you will learn that there comes a time in every man's life when he must rise above mere principles.'


A politician is an opportunist; in fact, he has no principles. He talks about principles, but he has no principles. He pretends that he has principles but if he is a politician worth the name, he cannot have any principles. Those principles are just to fool people. He is on an ego trip. He uses all sorts of principles.


I have heard about one politician. In an election campaign he was speaking in his constituency. There was a great controversy about prohibition: about whether alcohol should be totally prohibited or not. When he was speaking, a man stood up and asked, 'What is your stand on prohibition?'


Now he became a little shaky because half the population was for it and half was against it. And he could see that half the crowd was for it and half the crowd was against it. Whatsoever he said was going to lose half the votes. It was really difficult. He was in a dilemma.


And then he said, 'You are all my friends. Please raise their hands those who are in favor and those who are against.' Half the people raised their hands in favor, and half against.


Then he said, 'Good. I am with my friends. I am all for my friends. You are all my friends and I am for you.'
Now he is saying neither yes nor no.


The trip is of the ego: how to become more powerful, how to control others. Religion is just the opposite. It is not in any way an ego trip -- one has to lose the ego. And one is not trying to be powerful. In fact, one is trying to understand the total helplessness of the part against the whole; one is learning how to surrender, not how to conquer; and one is not concerned with others, one is totally concerned with himself. If this much is possible, that 'I can become aware of my own being' it is enough, more than enough.


The politician is concerned with the outside world, he is an extrovert. The religious person is an introvert. He is not concerned with things, with the world with situations; he is concerned with the quality of his consciousness. A religious person is trying to find out how to be fulfilled; a politician is trying to show to the world that he is somebody. He may not be fulfilled but he pretends that he is fulfilled; he has opted for pretensions, hypocrisy. He simply wants the whole world to know that he is somebody special. extraordinary, very happy. Deep inside he may be carrying a hell but he believes that if he can fool everybody else, he will be able to fool himself. That dream is never fulfilled.


You can fool everybody else by smiling a false smile, but how can you fool yourself? Deep down you know that everything is getting cold and dead; deep down you know that everything is empty, in vain. But one goes on thinking, 'If I can convince everybody else that I am somebody, then somehow I will be able to convince myself that I am somebody.


The politician is a liar. He's trying to lie -- to himself and to the whole world. The religious dimension is the dimension of being true, authentic.


Once it happened that a man entered a bar and said, 'Bartender, I want you to meet my dog. He talks. I will sell him to you for only ten dollars.'
'Who do you think you are kidding?' said the bartender.


The dog, tears in his eyes looked up. 'Please buy me,' he said. 'This man treats me cruelly. He never gives me a bone. He never bathes me. He is always kicking me around. And once I was the richest trick-dog in the country. I performed before presidents and kings. My name was in the papers every day, and....'
'So he does talk,' said the bartender. 'But why sell a valuable dog like that for only ten dollars?'
'Because,' said the customer, 'l hate liars.'


A politician is a liar, and he is trying to convince himself through convincing others.


A politician is almost mad -- mad for power. Many people are in the madhouses in the world: somebody thinks he is Adolph Hitler, somebody thinks he is Napoleon, somebody thinks he is Ford or Mao Tse Tung. They are in the jails, or in the madhouses, or in the hospitals, because we think they have gone mad. Somebody thinking that he is Adolph Hitler is thought to be mad, but what about Adolph Hitler himself? The only difference is this: -this man, this madman who thinks himself to be Adolph Hitler, has not been able to prove it, that's all. He's innocent. His madness is just innocence. Adolph Hitler proved to the world that, yes, he is. Adolph Hitler is more mad than this man. His madness was such that he proved to the whole world that he was somebody and if he could not create, then he could destroy.


There are only two possibilities. you can be a creator, then you feel a certain fulfillment -- that comes to a mother when she gives birth to a child, that comes to a poet when poetry is born, that comes to a sculptor when he has created something a beautiful piece in marble, in stone, in wood. Whenever you create something, you feel enhanced; you reach towards peaks. you get high.


All people who are creative are close to religion. Religion is the greatest creativity because it is an effort to give birth to yourself, to become a father and mother to yourself, to be born again, to be reborn through meditation, through awareness. Poetry is good, painting is good -- but when you give birth to your own consciousness, there is no comparison. Then you have given birth to the ultimate poetry, the ultimate music, the ultimate dance. This is the dimension of creativity. On the rung of creativity, religion is the last. It is the greatest art, the ultimate art -- that's why I call it 'the ultimate alchemy'.


On the opposite end of the ladder is destruction. People who cannot be creative become destructive because through destruction they can have a vicarious feeling that they are powerful. When Hitler destroyed millions of people, of course he had a very powerful feeling that, 'I am somebody. I can destroy the whole world.' He was almost ready to destroy the whole world -- he had almost destroyed it.


A politician is a destructive mind. He may talk about the nation, the country; he may talk about utopias, socialism, communism, but basically a politician is a destructive mind. And a destructive mind cannot become enlightened.


First, the whole energy should move towards Construction, towards creation. Then only is there the possibility that by and by you participate in the ultimate creation -- that is nirvana, the ultimate creation, in which you are born Divine, infinite, unlimited. Then you expand, you spread all over existence; then you are no longer a wave, you have become the ocean.


The politician can never become enlightened. I am not saying that the politician cannot move towards enlightenment -- he can. But as he moves, he will have to drop politics. A politician is also a human being, but he will have to drop the politics, and by the time he comes to meditate he will be no more a politician. Remaining a politician, a politician cannot become enlightened. But his humanity is there. Even a Hitler can become a Buddha -- some day. One hopes he will. Some day, far away in the future, even an Adolph Hitler is going to become a Buddha; that is his potentiality. But then, by that time, he will not be an Adolph Hitler.


Nuclear war had come and gone. Only one tiny monkey in one isolated part of the world remained alive. After weeks of wandering about, he finally came across a little female monkey. He threw his arms around her in greeting.
'I am starved,' he said. 'Have you found anything to eat?'
'Well,' she said. 'I found this little old apple.'
'Oh, no, you don't!' he snapped. 'We are not going to start that all over again!'


Even monkeys are worried about humanity. And I have heard monkeys talking. They don't believe in Darwin, they don't say that man has-evolved out of monkeys, they don't think that man is a developed form -- they think man has fallen from the monkeys. Of course -- fallen from the trees, fallen from the height, fallen from the monkeys.


And this is true in a way, because man has up to now remained political. The whole history up to now has been political; no civilization has yet existed which has been religious -- not even Indian civilization. Not a single nation has become like a being which is religious -- only rare individuals, here and there, far apart. Somewhere a Buddha, a Jesus, a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu -- islands. Otherwise, ordinarily, the main current of humanity has remained political.


Politics is basically ambition. Politics is basically wrong because ambition is wrong. You are not to become somebody, says religion, you are already. You are not to become powerful -- you are already. You are extensions of God. You need not be worried about being powerful and being somebody on a throne; those are all stupid games, childish, very juvenile, immature. And you cannot find more immature people than politicians.


In fact, in a better world, politicians will be kept in madhouses, and mad people will be allowed to move into the world. Those mad people have not done anything wrong. They may be a little off the track but they have not been harmful. Politicians are dangerously mad people, tremendously dangerous.


I have heard that before Richard Nixon renounced his throne, he called a meeting of his colleagues and he threatened that he had the power to go into the other room, push a button, and the whole world could be destroyed in twenty minutes.


And, yes, he had that power. Millions of atom bombs are ready -- a button has just to be pushed. The power of the atom and H-bombs already made is seven times more than is needed to destroy this earth -- seven times morel We have become so skilled, super-skilled, in destruction that seven earths of this size could be destroyed. And nobody can say -- any day any president of America, or Soviet Russia, or China, can go mad.


And politicians are almost mad...any day, anybody can push the button. It is now only a question of pushing a button. And everybody has mad moments, angry moments. The threat is very, very real.


Politics has been the disease of humanity, the cancer of consciousness.


Drop all politics within you. And remember, when I am talking about politicians, I don't mean particularly those people who are in politics -- I mean all those who are ambitious. Wherever ambition is, politics comes in; wherever you are trying to get ahead of somebody, politics comes in; wherever you are trying to dominate somebody -- maybe your wife, or your husband -- politics comes in. Politics is a very common disease, like the common cold.

The last question:
<p class="question">SINCE I HAVE BEEN HERE, I HAVE LOST MY ABILITY TO CONCENTRATE. IT IS HARD FOR ME TO UTTER A LOGICAL SENTENCE. AND I HAVE BECOME VERY FORGETFUL. I FEEL MYSELF AS A STUPID CHILD. IS THAT THE WAY TO ME INTELLIGENCE YOU TALK ABOUT?</p>


The ability to concentrate is not something to feel blessed about. It is a frozen state of mind, a very narrow state of mind. Useful, of course, useful -- for others. Useful in scientific inquiry, useful in business, useful in the market, useful in politics -- but absolutely useless for yourself. If you become too attuned with concentration you will become very, very tense. Concentration is a tense state of mind; you will never be relaxed. Concentration is like a torch, focused, and consciousness is like a lamp, unfocused.


My whole effort here is to teach you consciousness, not concentration. And this is the point to be remembered: if you become conscious, any moment you want to concentrate on a particular problem, you can. It is not a problem. But if you become too focused with concentration the vice versa is not true: you cannot relax. A relaxed mind can always concentrate. easily, there is no trouble about it. But a focused mind becomes obsessed. narrow. It is not easy for it to relax and leave the tension. It remains tense.


If you meditate. first concentration will disappear and you will be feeling a little at a loss. But if you go on, by and by you will attain to an unfocused state of light -- that's what meditation is. Once meditation is attained. concentration is child's play -- whenever you need to, you can concentrate. There will be no problem about it and it will be easy and without any tension.


Right now, you are being used by society. Society wants efficient people. It is not worried about your soul, it is worried about your productivity. I am not worried about your productivity: man has already too much, more than he can enjoy -- there is no need to go on producing more. Now there is more need to play around more and there is more need to be more conscious. Science has developed enough. Now, whatsoever science is doing is almost futile. Now, going to the moon is simply useless. But tremendous energy is wasted. Why? Because scientists are now obsessed -- they have to do something. They have learned a trick of concentration and they have to do something. They have to produce, they have to go on producing something -- they cannot relax. They will go to the moon, they will go to Mars, and they will persuade people that whatsoever they are doing is tremendously important. It is absolutely useless. But this happens.


Once you become trained in a certain thing, you go on in that line, blind, unless a cul de sac comes and you cannot go on anymore. But life is infinite. There comes no cul de sac. You can go on and on and on.


And now scientific activity has almost become ridiculous.


Religious activity is totally different. It is not worried about being more efficient; the whole point is how to be more joyful, how to be more celebrating. So if you 90 with me, by and by, concentration will relax. And in the beginning you will feel afraid because you will see your skill disappearing, your efficiency disappearing. You will feel you are losing something that you have gained with so much effort. In the beginning it will happen. The ice is melting and becoming water. The ice was solid, something concentrated; now it is water -- loose, relaxed, flowing in all directions. But anytime you need ice, the water can be turned into ice again. There is no problem -- just a little more cooling is needed.


This is my own experience. Whatsoever I say, I say from my own experience -- the same has happened to me. First, concentration disappeared; but now I can concentrate on anything. There is no problem. But I don't remain in concentration; I can concentrate and relax -- whenever the need arises. Just as whenever the need arises, you walk; you don't sit on the chair and go on moving your Legs. There are a few people who go on moving because they cannot sit relaxed -- you will call this man restless!


Legs in perfect order are needed so that whenever you need to, you can walk, you can run. But when there Is no need, you can relax, and the legs will no longer be functioning.


But your concentration has become almost as focused as if you are continuously preparing for an Olympic! Runners in an Olympic cannot relax. They have to run a particular amount every morning and evening; they are continuously on the go. If they relax for a few days they will lose their skill. But I call all Olympics political, ambitious, foolish. There is no need.


Competition is foolish. There is no need. If you enjoy running -- perfectly good. Run. and enjoy. But why compete? What is the point of competition? Competition brings illness, unhealthiness; competition brings jealousy, and a thousand and one diseases.


Meditation will allow you to concentrate whenever the need arises, but if there is no need you will remain relaxed, flowing in all directions like water.

IT IS HARD FOR ME TO UTTER A LOGICAL SENTENCE.


Feel blissful, blessed. What is the point of uttering logical sentences! Utter nonsense; make sounds, gibberish, like birds... Like trees! (At this moment a nearby tree decided, with the help of a passing breeze, to illustrate Osho's words by shaking its branches and causing hundreds of leaves to fall with loud rustling sounds to the ground.) Look! This way! Is this logical? The tree is enjoying. Delighting. Simply shedding away the past.


Delight. Sing. Utter sounds. Forget all logic! And by and by you will become more alive. Less logical of course that is the price one has to pay -- but you become dead if you become more logical and you become more alive if you become less logical.


Life is the goal, not logic. What are you going to do with logic? If you are hungry, logic is not going to feed you; if you need love, logic is not going to hug you; if you are thirsty, logic will tell you that water is H20! It is not going to give you water, real water. No. It simply functions in formulas, maxims.


Look at life, and by and by you will understand that life has its own very logical logic. Be attuned to it and that will become the door for your ecstasy, samadhi, nirvana.

AND I HAVE BECOME VERY FORGETFUL.


Perfectly good! If you can forget, you will be able to remember more. Forgetfulness is a great capacity -- it simply means getting the past dusted off. There is no need to remember everything that happens because almost ninety-nine per cent of it is trivia. What do you go on remembering?


Just think... what do you go on remembering? Write it down and just look at it. It is trivia. What goes on in your mind? You will not be able to show it to your intimate friend because he will think you are mad. This goes on in your mind?


It is good. Forget. Forgetfulness is a great capacity because it will allow you to remember. It is part of remembrance. The useless has to be forgotten so that the useful is remembered -- and the useful is very, very small, the useless i5 too much. In twenty-four hours, millions of bits of information are collected by the mind. If you collect them and remember them all, you will be mad.


I have heard about a man. He was once presented to the Governor-General in India because he was a man of rare memory. He knew only one language, Rajasthani-Hindi. He was a poor man, uneducated, but if you told him anything in any language, he would never forget it. But he would repeat it like a parrot, not knowing what it meant.


To the Governor-General's palace he was called, and the Governor-General was surprised to hear about his capacity. Thirty other persons were called, and in thirty languages they uttered a few sentences. It was arranged in the following manner: the man would go to the first person, and the first person would say the first word of his sentence. Then he would go to another person and he would say the first word of his sentence, in another language. Then he will go to the third. In this way he would go to thirty people. Then he would come back to the first who would now say his second word. This was repeated -- many rounds, many hours it took. And then he repeated all the sentences separately.


The Governor-General was simply puzzled. He could not believe it.
But this man went mad.


This much memory is dangerous. This type of person is almost always idiotic.


Too much memory is not a good sign; it simply says that you have a very mechanical mind. It is not a sign of intelligence. Hence you hear so many stories of absent-mindedness about great scientists, philosophers. They are people of great memory, and great intelligence has nothing to do with great memory. Memory is mechanical, intelligence is non-mechanical -- they are totally different.


So don't be worried. It is good. The memory is relaxing, many things will disappear, space will be created in you. And in that space you will be able to become more brilliant, more intelligent, more understanding. Intelligence means understanding; memory means a quality, a mechanical quality of repetition. Parrots have good memories. Don't be worried about your memory. In the beginning it happens: you have accumulated much rubbish and when you meditate that rubbish starts disappearing, falling away.

AND I FEEL MYSELF A STUPID CHILD.


That is the way, the way to the kingdom of God. Lao Tzu says, 'Be like an idiot in this world so that you can understand the illogical ways of Tao.' Jesus says, 'Be like a child -- because only those who are like children will be able to enter into the kingdom of God.' Don't be worried about those things; the non-essential is dropping away. Feel happy and grateful. Once the rubbish has dropped, the real will arise; non-essential gone, the essential will arise. This is the way to reach to one's own source.


But many times you will get scared because you are losing your grip on what you have valued up till now. But I can tell you only one thing: I have traveled the same path and have passed through the same phases. They are phases -- they come and go. And your consciousness will become more and more purified, virgin -- pure, uncorrupted. That uncorrupted consciousness is God.
			

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> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
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