---
section: Library
booktitle: "Philosophia Ultima"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "ULTIMA"
dategiven: "11 December 1980 am"
place: " in Buddha Hall"
chapternum: "Chapter #1"
chaptertitle: "This is the Bridge to That"
acode: "8012110"
shorttitle: "ULTIMA01"
audio: "Yes"
video: "Yes"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "Philosophia Ultima: Chapter #1"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
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}
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<p class="sutra">MANDUKYOPANISHAD SANTI-PATHAH
OM BHADRAM KARNEBHIH SRNUYAMA DEVAH
STHIRAIR ANGAIS TUSTUVAMSAS TANUBHIR VYASEMA
DEVA-HITAM YAD AYUH
SVASTI NA INDRO VRIDDHASRAVAH
SVASTI NAH PUSA VISVAVEDAH
SVASTI NASTAKRSYO ARISTANEMIH
SVASTI NO VRHASPATIRDADHATU
OM SANTIH SANTIH SANTIH
OM ITYETAD AKSARAM, IDAM SARVAM
TASYOPAVYAKHYANAM, BHUTAM
BHAVAD BHAVISYAD ITI, SARVAM ONKARA EVA.
YAC CANYAT TRIKALATITAM
TAD APYOMKARA EVA.

SARVAM HYETAD
BRAHMA, AYAM ATMA BRAHMA</p>
<p class="sutra">AUM,
THE IMPERISHABLE SOUND,
IS THE SEED OF ALL THAT EXISTS.
THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE,
-- ALL ARE BUT THE UNFOLDING OF AUM.
AND WHATEVER TRANSCENDS
THE THREE REALMS OF TIME,
THAT INDEED IS THE FLOWING OF AUM.
THIS WHOLE CREATION IS ULTIMATELY BRAHMAN.
AND THE SELF,
THIS ALSO IS BRAHMAN.</p>
<p class="sutra">AUM
PURNAMADAH
PURNAMIDAM
PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE
PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA
PURNAMEVA VASHISYATE.</p>
<p class="sutra">AUM
THAT IS THE WHOLE.
THIS IS THE WHOLE.
FROM WHOLENESS EMERGES WHOLENESS.
WHOLENESS COMING FROM WHOLENESS,
WHOLENESS STILL REMAINS.</p>


THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST significant statements ever made anywhere on the earth at any time. It contains the whole secret of the mystic approach towards life. This small sutra contains the essence of the Upanishadic vision. Neither before nor afterwards has the vision been transcended; it still remains the Everest of human consciousness. And there seems to be no possibility of going beyond it.


The Upanishadic vision is that the universe is a totality, indivisible; it is an organic whole. The parts are not separate, we are all existing in a togetherness: the trees, the mountains, the people, the birds, the stars, howsoever far away they may appear -- don't be deceived by the appearance -- they are all interlinked, all bridged. Even the smallest blade of grass is connected to the farthest star, and it is as significant as the greatest sun.


Nothing is insignificant, nothing is smaller than anything else. The part represents the whole just as the seed contains the whole. The seed contains the past -- because all the trees that may happen through it are potentially there. And of c horsey the seed contains the present. The seed looks so small, but it is not as small as it looks. If you dissect it you will not find the flowers and the colors and the fragrance, and then you may decide that the seed is empty, but in fact your method was wrong.


That's what science has been doing with reality -- dissecting it, analyzing it. Analysis is destructive. What is needed is a unifying vision, a synthesis. And that is the Upanishadic approach: the part becomes the whole, the whole becomes the part. There is no hierarchy in the Upanishadic vision of life. Nothing is lower, nothing is higher, nothing is mundane and nothing is sacred -- all is one.


This vision remained the vision of a few mystics. It never became part of human consciousness. that's why there is so much misery in the world, so much ugliness, insensitivity. People are not flowering; their hidden splendor, their imprisoned splendor is not freed. People are living imprisoned lives, chained. They contain infinity in them but they are not even aware of it.


First the so-called religions, the organized religions of the world, destroyed humanity. Then came science. Science is nothing but an organized materialistic approach to life. Just as religion is an organized approach as far as man's subjectivity is concerned, science is also a church, a priesthood, and as superstitious as any religion has ever been. Of course, the dimensions are different: religions are organized superstitions about the inner, and science is organized superstitions about the outer.


The Upanishad and its approach is individual. The word UPANISHAD means: sitting in deep communion with the Master. It has nothing to do with the church. No church can ever be religious, all churches are basically political. You have to understand the definition: politicys means society, collectivity; religion means individuality.


Religion is a rebellion against the collective. Anything that depends on the collectivity, on tradition, on dogma, on ideology, is bound to be against the individual. And the individual is the only reality, the collective is only a word. You never come across the society, you always come across the individual. You never come across humanity, you always come across human beings. You never come across love, you always come across two lovers. You come across loving but never across love.


But we have been conditioned to live with abstractions: society, humanity, love, God. These are all abstractions, empty concepts with no concrete reality behind them.


The Upanishad is very realistic, very pragmatic. It is communion from heart to heart. That's the meaning of UPANISHAD, a very strange meaning -- sitting by the side of a Master, just sitting by the side of a Master... and then something transpires. Something like a flame jumps from the heart of the Master to the heart of the disciple.


The Master has come home, the Master has experienced the truth. The disciple is seeking, but the seeker has to be silent, utterly silent. It is not a question of asking questions, because the ultimate questions can neither be asked nor answered. They are only transmitted -- without asking, without answering. That transmission beyond words is the meaning of the word UPANISHAD. And before we enter into these sutras of the Mandukya Upanishad, this has to be understood.


My whole effort here is to revive the spirit of the Upanishads again. You all sitting in silence with me... this pause, this rest, this relaxed attitude... this silence in which all dualities disappear... I am not here, you are not there, but something pervades, permeates, overwhelms...that overwhelming experience is contained in these sutras.
This mangal sutra --
<p class="sutra">AUM
PURNAMADAH
PURNAMIDAM
PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE
PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA
PURNAMEVA VASHISYATE --</p>


-- can be said to contain the whole approach, the vision. THAT means the beyond, the invisible. THIS means the within, the visible. THAT means the hidden, THIS means the manifest. THAT means the infinite, THIS means the finite. THAT IS the whole, of course, but the insistence of the Upanishads is: THIS too, is the whole.


One is not supposed to renounce life. Renunciation is against the spirit of the Upanishads. The Upanishadic seers were not renunciates, they had not escaped away from life -- because where can you escape to? Wherever you go you will be in the whole as much as you are in the whole here. The marketplace and the monastery both are part of the whole. To be with your wife, your husband, your children, your friends, is as sacred, as holy, as to go to the Himalayas and to live in a cave in absolute solitariness. Both belong to the same existence.


It is Jainism and Buddhism and their emphasis on renunciation that destroyed the Upanishadic flight -- the flight from this to that, the flight of the part to the whole. Jainism and Buddhism are rooted in renunciation; they are life-negative, they are AGAINST life. Their attitude is that of condemnation: THIS is wrong and THAT is right. Leave this for that. If you want to attain to THAT, then you have to renounce this. And the Upanishad says:
<p class="sutra">PURNAMADAH
PURNAMIDAM
PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE
THAT IS THE WHOLE.
THIS IS THE WHOLE.</p>


There is NO difference at all. It is ONE reality. The without and the within are not two, but two aspects of the same phenomenon. Matter and spirit are not to be put in antagonism against each other, they are not opposites. And we know they are not opposites because in you the meeting is happening. Even this very moment your body and your soul are not two, they are one. Your body affects your consciousness, your consciousness affects your body. Your body is only the outermost part of your consciousness, and your consciousness is nothing but the innermost core of your body. The body is the dimension that spreads outwards, and the consciousness, the soul, is the dimension that goes inwards. But it is one spectrum. You are already LIVING the unity of this and that.


But Jainism and Buddhism both created a great calamity; the calamity was that they condemned life. And it appealed to the people -- for the simple reason that people don't know the art of living. Hence they are miserable, they are living in suffering; their life is a continuous drag from one suffering to another. And they don't see any hope -- everything seems to be a hopeless despair. So when Buddhism and Jainism started saying that life itself is wrong, it appealed to the people.


People are always ready to throw the responsibility on others' shoulders. Nobody wants to say, "I don't know how to live -- that's why I am suffering." Everybody would like to shirk the responsibility. And this was a beautiful way, and very logical, very appealing, very rational: that life itself is suffering. Buddha says, "Life is suffering, birth is suffering, death is suffering, everything is suffering." And it corresponded with the people's experiences. But the reason is not that LIFE is suffering, the reason is that you don't know how to play the game, you don't know the art of living it.


Of course it is a suffering if you don't know how to play the flute; it will be a suffering to you and to the neighbors and to everybody. And sooner or later you will get fed up and you will want to renounce this flute because it is simply creating trouble for you and for others. But the flute is not at fault. It is simply that you don't know how to play, otherwise it is capable of creating beautiful music. It can nourish you and others.


Life is a very complex phenomenon, far more complex than a flute. Life is the whole orchestra, thousands of musical instruments together. And you have to learn to play all of them in such a way that you can create a harmony. That's the whole art... and life is an opportunity to learn it. It is not to be renounced, it is to be rejoiced.


I belong to the Upanishadic world, the Upanishads belong to me. Their vision is my vision too. I would like to destroy this life-negative approach, to uproot it completely. It has made you suffer and it has helped you to rationalize your suffering -- then the only way is to escape. But do you know the people who have escaped? Are they really blissful? Just look at your so-called saints and mahatmas. Are they really blissful? They look so sad, so serious, so dead. They talk about bliss; that does not mean that they are blissful. In fact, whenever a person talks too much about bliss that simply shows that he is trying to compensate. He is suffering deep down; talking about bliss he is trying to create an illusion for himself.


It is almost always the people who have failed in love who write poetry about love; otherwise, who has time to write poetry about love? One should love, rather. When you know how to cook, you cook; you don't go on writing about how to cook beautiful foods. You simply prepare beautiful food, nourishing food. It is always the people who have missed the train who talk about love and who talk about bliss and who talk about truth. Otherwise there is no need -- one simply lives it. One's life becomes a message! And that is the only true message.


Just look at your saints. They cannot be blissful, they are so egoistic. Their whole mind is full of nothing but ego. If you look into their eyes you will find only one message written in thousands of ways: holier-than-thou, a deep condemnation for you, a deep condemnation for all people, a deep condemnation for everything that exists.


"What a dust I raise!" said the fly on the chariot wheel.


Look into the eyes of your so-called saints and you will see only that:'What a dust I raise!" Just flies raising much dust, making much fuss, much ado about nothing. Yes, they are full of words, theories, hypotheses, but a blind man can be very much acquainted with all the theories about light -- that does not help him to see.


A flea sits down on the flap of a box of corn flakes, takes out a deckchair, sunglasses and suntan lotion, and begins to sun himself.


Suddenly he sees another flea run quickly past him. He settles down into his deckchair when out of nowhere the flea races past from the other direction. This scene -- the flea running past from one direction then the other -- goes on for a while.


Unable to contain his curiosity the first flea grabs the second one as he is running past. "Hey! What's your hurry? What are you doing?"


Gasping for breath the second flea mutters, "Can't stop now. It says,'Tear across the dotted line.'"


Yes, your saints are full of words, scriptures. They have read much, studied a great deal, but that does not make them knowers. Knowing is a totally different phenomenon. It is seeing, it is not believing. They are all believers, and believers always behave foolishly, because a blind man can learn too much about light and then he may start believing that he knows what light is. And then the trouble begins. He may throw his walking-stick; he may stop asking others, "Where is the door?" or,'Where is the way?" because he thinks that he knows himself. "Now enough, there is no need to ask and inquire." He is bound for trouble-the trouble is inevitable.


A South American style dictatorship has taken over in the United States: Ronald Reagan, John Anderson, and Jimmy Carter are lined up to be shot. As the firing squad gets ready, Reagan yells, "Earthquake!" and escapes in the commotion. As the executioners ready themselves again, Anderson yells, "Flood!" and he escapes in the confusion. As the firing squad lines up for a third time, Jimmy Carter decides to try the same idea and he yells, "Fire!"


The pundits are the greatest fools in the world. They may talk about great things but they have not even known the little things of life. They may talk about the beyond, about that, but they know nothing about this. And without knowing this you cannot know about that  -- this is the bridge to that. This world has to be lived with such joy that you can discover God in it, because there is no other way to find him. This is the message of the Upanishads.
<p class="sutra">FROM WHOLENESS EMERGES WHOLENESS.
WHOLENESS COMING FROM WHOLENESS,
WHOLENESS STILL REMAINS.</p>


One very important thing to be remembered: the Upanishads don't believe in perfection, they believe in totality. The perfectionist is a neurotic type of person. In fact, every perfectionist is insane; he is bound to be insane. If he is not yet insane that means he is not yet really a perfectionist. To be a real perfectionist and not to be insane is impossible.


Life is perfect in only one sense: it is perfectly imperfect. That's why there is evolution, that's why there is movement, that's why life is possible. If it is Perfect that means the dead end has come. Life remains flowing, always moving from one Peak to another peak. There is no end... no full point ever comes. The goal is never achieved, remember. Life is not goal-oriented, it is JOURNEY-oriented. Life is a pilgrimage.


Enjoy each moment because each moment is a goal unto itself. Don't sacrifice it for another goal. Don't sacrifice this for that, otherwise you will miss both. Live this and the miracle happens: living THIS totally, you find THAT hidden behind it. Each moment lived totally brings you closer and closer to God. The more total you are, the more intense and passionate your approach towards life is, the closer you are to paradise. When nothing is being held back, when each act becomes total... when you are dancing you are simply dancing, so much so that the dancer disappears into the dance. Even that division between the dancer and the dance disappears -- there is only dance and no dancer. The merger, the melting is absolute. You have found the truth, you have found THAT.


When the musician has completely forgotten himself, when he is no more self-conscious, when he becomes selfless -- or to put it more exactly, when he becomes unself-conscious, when he is almost not -- when only the music is there: that totality, that passionate state... and you will discover THAT.


And it is also significant to remember that all the Upanishads start with AUM. AUM simply represents the musical approach towards existence, not the mathematical approach.


The scientific approach is mathematical, the mystic's approach is musical. The musician is very close to mysticism, far closer than the philosopher. In fact, music comes closest as far as expressing the truth is concerned, because music is meaningful without any words; it is meaningful simply because it rings some bells in your heart. The great music is that which creates a synchronicity between you and itself, when your heart starts resonating in the same way, when you start pulsating in the same way.
I have heard a beautiful story:


It happened in Lucknow in the time of Vajid Ali Shah.... He was the king of Lucknow, a very crazy man, a drunkard, but a lover of music, art, sculpture, painting a lover of beauty. He used to invite all kinds of dancers, singers, musicians, poets, to his court.


One musician was constantly refusing to come. Vajid Ali Shah went to him -- that was a rare gesture from him, he had never gone to anybody. His invitation was enough, and he was ready to pay as much as demanded or more. But the musician was reluctant to come.


When Vajid Ali Shah went to him he said, "I can come, but you will have to fulfill my condition. I have only one single condition and that is: when I am playing or singing, nobody can move his head."


Vajid Ali Shah said, "That is not a difficult thing don't be worried. I will inform the people who are going to come to listen that'If you move your head, your head will be chopped off!'" He was a crazy man -- he could have done that, and he actually prepared for it. He informed the whole capital of Lucknow: "Those who want to come, they should be aware that it is risky. Soldiers will be standing with naked swords and whoever moves his head, nods his head in appreciation, his head will be chopped off!"


Lucknow had at least ten thousand music lovers -- only one hundred people turned up. It was dangerous! You may be simply moving your head because a mosquito has been torturing you, or for some other reason... you may forget because the musician is great and to remember it continuously will be difficult. Even snakes start moving, dancing -- it will be difficult. So people avoided, but a hundred people came. They were real lovers of music, they risked their lives -- it was worth it. And the people were standing with naked swords. It was a strange gathering!


The musician started playing, and he was such a great musician that within fifteen minutes' time a few heads started moving. Vajid Ali Shah became very much worried because it was not only one head: a few heads, then a few more joined in, then a few more. Then he became very much concerned: "Is he going to kill all these one hundred people? And these are the most appreciative people in the whole capital!" He knew them; they were lovers of music.


By the time the musician finished in the middle of the night, all the hundred people were swaying. Vajid Ali asked, "Now what do you say? Should I cut these people's heads? My soldiers are ready, and because I have given you my promise I am ready to fulfill it."


The musician laughed and he said, "Don't be worried! This condition was made only so that people who are real lovers would come. One who is ready to risk his life must be a passionate lover. Now these are the people I would like to sing and play for. Withdraw your soldiers! I was waiting: if there had been a few people whose heads had not moved, then those people would have had to be removed from the gathering. Now I will play because all the heads have moved; this is the right gathering I have waited for my whole life. These are the people who forgot completely, forgot even the question of life -- it was a question of life and death."


All the Upanishads begin with AUM; AUM means the primordial sound. The RIG VEDA says -- the most ancient scripture of the world -- "First the absolute, the Brahman, then WAAK, the sound, the vibrating energy which becomes the universe." The Bible also says the same thing, but has missed the point in translation. It says: In the beginning there was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word and the God were one.'The word' is not the right translation, it cannot be. I don't know what the original Hebrew or Aramaic word for'word' is, but one thing I know, it cannot be'word', it can only be'sound'; it can only be a musical sound. It will be something like AUM, because'word' means sound with meaning and the moment meaning comes in it brings a limitation, it brings a definition. Sound is unlimited; it is simply vibration.


Now scientists, physicists particularly, have discovered that existence consists only of vibrations. They call it'vibrations of electricity'. It does not matter what name you give, what jargon you use, but vibration means sound. That is the meaning of AUM.


AUM is the primordial sound of which the whole universe consists; we are made of music. Hence if we move into anything totally, only the music is left and everything else disappears because music is the stuff we are made of; all else is arbitrary, artificial, invented. Only the music hidden in our souls is not invented; it is part of God. God is the musician and we are his music. He is the dancer and we are his dance. He is the poet and we are his poetry. He is the singer and we are his song. This is the meaning of AUM.


But the pundits, the scholars have been constantly missing the point. They think AUM is a mantra and just by repeating it you will attain to God. That is sheer nonsense! You can repeat it your whole life, it is not going to help you.


It is just like a thirsty person goes on repeating, "H20, H20, H20...." Of course what he is saying is right -- H20 means water -- he is not wrong. But H20 and its repetition is not going to quench his thirst. He misses the point. AUM is exactly the H20 of mysticism!


And there are fools in this country... and now those fools are traveling all over the world and teaching people Transcendental Meditation. It is neither transcendental nor meditation. Just by repeating the sound AUM, nothing is going to be achieved. In fact, something totally different has to be done: you have to become so silent, so absolutely silent, that you can hear the sound within your innermost core. It has to be heard, not repeated. If you repeat it, it will be a head thing; it will only be your head playing a gramophone record. Let the head rest, let all noise from the head be gone, let the mind stop functioning, and then suddenly you will hear the sound. That is a totally different phenomenon; it has to be heard, not repeated.


But the scholars are the most unconscious people, full of unnecessary philosophies, very complicated systems of thought, and ready to argue, to prove, to comment, but absolutely unconscious. They have not discovered the AUM within themselves.


It is called ANAHAT NAD; ANAHAT NAD means unstruck sound. There are two kinds of sounds. When you play on a sitar it is a struck sound; duality is involved, your hands and the strings, and you have to strike, then the sound is created. It is a little bit violent -- you are being violent with the strings. You are not allowing them to rest, you are disturbing their sleep. And there is a conflict involved with your hands; there is a fight going on between the musician and his instrument.


AUM is the unstruck sound; there is no instrument. When you become absolutely silent, suddenly it is there.


Zen people have the right expression for it; they call it'the sound of one hand clapping'. If two hands are there, of course, the clapping is easy, but one hand clapping and the sound of one hand clapping seems to be absurd  -- but they are truly expressing the reality. When you go inside and you are absolutely silent you hear for the first time the inner music.


The agitated barfly rushed from his car into the nearest pub and gulped down a double scotch. "Jack," he called out to the barman, "how big is a penguin?"


"Well," replied the barman, "about two feet, I suppose."


The barfly was visibly shaken. He persisted, "How about a really big penguin, Jack?"
"About two feet, six inches," came the reply.


"What about the biggest penguin in the world?" demanded the barfly.


After a moment's pause the barman answered, "About three feet -- no more."


"Oh shit!" gasped the barfly, "then I've just run over a nun!"


The scholars, the pundits are drunk with knowledge, knowing nothing but full of words. And their words are almost intoxicating because those words are beautiful, and they know the art of how to go on splitting hairs.


Beware of the scholars if you want to understand the Upanishads. These are the words of the Masters, of the Buddhas, of the awakened ones; these are not the words of the pundits and the scholars and the priests.
<p class="sutra">THE IMPERISHABLE SOUND,
IS THE SEED OF ALL THAT EXISTS.</p>


AUM is the imperishable sound; it is the seed of all that exists.
<p class="sutra">THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE
-- ALL ARE BUT THE UNFOLDING OF AUM.
AND WHATEVER TRANSCENDS THE THREE REALMS OF TIME,
THAT INDEED IS THE FLOWERING OF AUM.
THIS WHOLE CREATION IS ULTIMATELY BRAHMAN.
AND THE SELF,
THIS ALSO IS BRAHMAN.</p>


Simple words, direct, but you can make much dust around them, you can create many clouds around them. Thousands of commentaries exist on the Upanishads; in fact, no commentary is needed. I am not giving you a commentary on the Upanishad, I am simply expressing my own experience THROUGH the Upanishad. It is not a commentary on the Upanishad, I am just a witness to the Upanishad. I am saying that what the Upanishad is saying is true, because I have also seen it the same way. It is the eternal truth.


Whenever anybody comes to realize his own being suddenly he becomes a witness -- a witness to all that is true. Yes, the sound is heard, but you have to learn silence and that is the paradox. The sound is heard only in silence; if you are full of sound you will not hear it. You have to drop all sound and then suddenly it is heard.


You are so full of sound. If you just close your eyes and watch your mind for a few moments you will become aware: "What kind of mind is this? Am I insane or something?" Thousands of things are going on, and it is working twenty-four hours, day in, day out; from the cradle to the grave it goes on and on. It is a very tiring process, exhausting, but you don't know how to put it off.


Meditation simply means the art of putting it off, and it is VERY simple. It is as simple as putting the light on and off.


When for the first time electricity was discovered, a friend of Sigmund Freud came to visit him. He was a farmer, came from a faraway village. He had heard about electricity but he had not seen it.


In the night when Sigmund Freud left him in his room and asked him if he needed anything, he said, "No, everything is perfectly okay and I don't need anything, thank you. You can go to sleep."


Freud went to sleep and the man was at a loss as to what to do with the electricity, because he had no idea that there are some buttons; all that he knew about was lamps. So he tried in every possible way to blow it out. It was so far away on the ceiling that he stood on the bed; still it was far away, so he dragged a table onto the bed and stood on the table and tried hard, looked from every side: "There seems to be not even a single hole! And what to do with this electricity? And how can one go to sleep in such blaring light?"


The whole night he turned and tossed, again and again tried this way and that, but nothing helped. And he was feeling bad about waking up Sigmund Freud and asking him, and it also looked humiliating: you don't know such a simple thing!


In the morning when Freud asked, "You look very tired. What is the matter?" he said, "I have never been so tired in my life and I have to ask -- I cannot contain it any more -- what is the secret of this light? How to put it off?"


And Freud said, "Why didn't you knock on my door? It is so simple! Come and I will show you." And he showed him the button.


And the man said, "This is strange! I could never have imagined that just behind the door there is a button. I have never seen anything like this!"


Meditation is a very simple process: all that you need to know is the right button. The Upanishads call it'witnessing' -- the right button. Just witness your mind process, don't do anything at all. Nothing needs to be done, just be a witness, an observer, a watcher, looking at the traffic of the mind -- thoughts passing by, desires, memories, dreams, fantasies. Simply stand aloof, cool  -- watching it, seeing it, with no judgment, with no condemnation, neither saying, "This is good," nor saying, "This is bad." Don't bring your moral concepts in, otherwise you will never be able to meditate.


That's why I am against the so-called morality: it is anti-meditation, because a so-called moral person is so full of his moral ideas, shoulds and should-nots, that he cannot watch, he cannot simply watch. He jumps to conclusions: "This is not right and this is right." And whatsoever he feels is right, he wants to cling to it; and whatsoever he thinks is wrong, he wants to throw it out. He jumps among the thoughts, starts fighting, grabbing, and that's where he loses all witnessing.


Witnessing simply means a detached observation, unprejudiced; that's the whole secret of meditation. It is simple! Once you have known the knack of it it is the most simple thing in the world, because each child is born in that innocence. You have known it in your mother's womb, you have known it when you were a small child, so it is only a rediscovery. Meditation is not something NEW; you had come with it into the world. MIND IS something new; meditation is your nature, it is your very being. How can it be difficult? You just have to know the knack: watch.


Sit by the side of a river and watch the river flowing. Yes, sometimes driftwood passes by and sometimes a boat comes and sometimes a dead body and sometimes a beautiful woman may be swimming in the river -- you simply watch, you don't get bothered, you remain cool, you don't get excited. You are not supposed to do anything, you have nothing to do. It is the river and it is the river's business. You simply sit silently. Sitting silently, slowly slowly the art is learnt... and one day, the moment your watchfulness is total, the mind evaporates.


If you are fifty percent watchful, fifty percent of the traffic disappears; if you are ninety percent watchful, ninety percent of the traffic disappears; if you are one hundred percent watchful, totally watchful, the mind totally disappears, the river is no more there. And in that moment when the mind is no more there, the sound is heard:
<p class="sutra">A U M
PURNAMADAH
PURNAMIDAM
PURNATPURNAMUDACHYATE
PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA
PURNAMEVA VASHISYATE --</p>


And in that very moment you know THIS and THAT. This is whole, that is whole, the whole comes from the whole. Although the whole comes from the whole, still the whole remains behind.


It is because of this that I am not against anything: not against sex, not against love, not against money, not against matter, not against at all. I would like my people to live life in its totality. If you don't live it in totality you become a hypocrite, and the hypocrite is incapable of knowing the truth.


Little Peter and little Johnny asked their grandma, "How are children born, granny?"
"The stork brings them in his beak, my children," said the grandmother.
Little Peter and little Johnny looked at each other and then little Johnny said, "What do you think, Peter? Shall we tell her?"
'No! No!" said Peter. "Leave her in her innocence!"


The husband and wife decided never to fight in front of their children, so all their fights were wreathed in smiles and full of endearments such as'dear' and'darling'.


It was only when one day they heard their two sons fighting viciously that they then realized what the effect of their charades had been. When asked who had started the fight, one of the little boys exclaimed, "He called me'darling' first, mommy, honest, he did!"


Did you hear about the Polack priest? Everybody calls him Father, except his sons -- they call him Uncle!


The hypocrite's mind becomes very upside-down; he cannot see things as they are. He wants to see one thing, but he tries to show that he is seeing something else. He says one thing, he means another. He wants to do one thing, but he goes on doing something else. His life becomes unnecessarily complicated, unnecessarily he creates conflict within himself. He becomes divided and there is a constant civil war.


Three criminals are standing in front of a cross-eyed judge in the courtroom. The judge says to the first, "Where were you yesterday at eleven o'clock?"


The second criminal answers, "At home sleeping, sir."
"I didn't ask you," says the judge to the second.


"I didn't say anything," replies the third criminal.


The hypocrite becomes cross-eyed -- avoid being a hypocrite! But our society all over the world, the so-called civilization and culture only create hypocrites. The earth is full of hypocrites, pretenders, deceivers. That is not the way to hear the primordial sound; one has to be simple and innocent.


And why this hypocrisy? Why in the first place does it start? It starts because of our condemnation. If you condemn something, of course that has to be denied, ignored, overlooked. You have to forget all about it as if it does not exist.


If some being from some other planet comes to earth he will be very much puzzled and surprised as to how children are produced, because he will never see what is happening, he will never see the truth. And all kinds of nonsense will be told to him which will be as far away from reality as possible.


The Upanishads are life-affirmative -- life in its totality. The Upanishadic seers lived as ordinarily as you live. They were not mahatmas, they were not saints. They were seers but not saints, they were sages but not saints. They lived a very ordinary life, of course with a very extraordinary intensity and passion.


It is afternoon tea in a country mansion. The lady of the house and the vicar have been discussing arrangements for the yearly fete to be held in the mansion's vast gardens.


The vicar, a country bumpkin, manages to be polite despite getting a bit hot under the collar at the way the nose-in-the-air wife of an aristocrat beats down his every suggestion of something new. At last, the arrangements are over and the lady of the house, having got her way as usual, lifts the teapot and says,'More tea, vicar?"


"No!"


"No what, vicar?" asks the lady as her eyebrows arch, shocked at his lack of manners and determined to hear him say thank you properly, as a gentleman of the frock should do. She prompts him again, "No what?"
To which the vicar replies, "No more fucking tea!"


People should be simple, people should be ordinary and live the ordinary life with extraordinary intensity.


The Upanishads are not knowledgeable; they don't give you much knowledge. They simply tell the experience of the seers:
<p class="sutra">AUM,
THE IMPERISHABLE SOUND,
IS THE SEED OF ALL THAT EXISTS.
THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE,
-- ALL ARE BUT THE UNFOLDING OF AUM.</p>


The unfolding of the music. The existence is music, like


Heraclitus says: the hidden harmony. It is an orchestra.
<p class="sutra">AND WHATEVER TRANSCENDS THE THREE REALMS OF TIME,
THAT INDEED IS THE FLOWERING OF AUM.</p>


And the ultimate flowering comes when you have gone beyond time, and the moment you go beyond mind you have gone beyond time. It is mind which lives in the past, it is mind which projects the future, and because of the past and the future the present is created. When the mind is no more there, there is no time at all.


Jesus was asked, "What will be the special thing in the kingdom of God, the MOST special?"
And he said, "There shall be time no longer."


Patanjali defines meditation as transcendence of time, because it is the same. Time and mind are two aspects of the same coin. The ultimate flowering happens when you have gone beyond mind, beyond time.
<p class="sutra">THIS WHOLE CREATION THEN IS NOTHING BUT BRAHMAN.
AND THE SELF,
THIS ALSO IS BRAHMAN.</p>


The consciousness within you and the existence without you are not separate -- it is all one. The Upanishads are not knowledgeable, the Upanishads are not statements of wise guys, not like the great Murphy. Look at his sutras:


The great Murphy, the wise guy, says: The secret of success is sincerity -- once you can fake that, you have got it made.


To err is human -- to blame it on someone else is even more human.


If you have a difficult task, give it to a lazy man -- he will find an easier way to do it.

The one who snores will fall asleep first.

Most people deserve each other.

Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.


Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral, fattening or married.

If you don't care where you are, you ain't lost.


How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you are on.


Now this great Murphy has reminded me of the bathroom, so excuse me, please....!
			

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