You Belong to Eternity

You exist in time, but you belong to eternity. You are a penetration of
eternity into the world of time. You are deathless, living in a body of death. Your
consciousness knows no death, no birth. It is only your body that is born and
dies. But you are not aware of your consciousness; you are not conscious of your
consciousness. And that is the whole art of meditation: becoming conscious of
consciousness itself.
One has to become more aware than one ordinarily is. To be a sannyasin means
to enter into the phenomenon of the sacred. For that more awareness is needed,
much more, because it is not something mechanical, something routine. It is now
every day. It is moving from the unknown towards the unknowable. It is dropping
the known every day, dying to the known and entering into the unknown. It is an
eternal pilgrimage, because every moment is so full of mystery that one has to
be very alert, otherwise one will miss. Very few people know the beauty of the
stars Very few people know the beauty of the mountains.

There is only one secret which is not part of the mind, and that is witnessing,
watching. Thoughts are passing, desires are moving, memories are coming and
going like clouds in the sky and you are sitting silently simply watching, not
doing anything. If you do anything immediately the mind starts functioning. What
you do does not matter doing is part of mind. A non-doing witnessing, just
witnessing, as if a mirror goes on witnessing whatsoever passes by that is
awareness. And that awareness takes you beyond the mind. It is true meditation.

Be Aware of the Mind

To be aware of the mind is being a witness of the mind. As the witnessing grows
stronger, you already start feeling yourself beyond the mind. Slowly, slowly the
distance grows. Your witness reaches to a sunlit peak and the mind is left in the
dark valleys, far away. You can still hear the echoes, but they dont affect you at
all.

You are beyond their reach

The Ocean is not Far Away

There is no need to run towards the ocean. Just slowly enjoy the trees, and the
birds, and the people, having a trust in your heart that every river has always
reached the ocean. And you cannot be the exception. Existence does not allow
any exceptions. You will also reach the ocean.
Be Still and Know
Meditation is finding the silent space within, the source of peace, contentment,
joy,of harmony of body, mind and spirit and the sense of knowing who you are
and why you are here in this vast wonderful existence. What more is there?

Take the first step, or a few further steps, on your inward journey
You exist in time, but you belong to eternityYou are a penetration of eternity into the world of time.

You are

Deathless, living in a body of death. Your consciousness knows no death, no

Birth. It is only your body that is born and dies-But you are not aware of
your consciousness-You are not conscious of your consciousness. And that is the
whole art of meditation; Becoming conscious of consciousness itself.

Experience life in all possible ways

Good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities.

Don't be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more
mature you become.

Be don't try to become

Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness
gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like
the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the
higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the
bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That's its balance.
To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love
life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more
music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.
Friendship is the purest love. It is the highest form of Love where nothing is
asked for, no condition, where one simply enjoys giving.

Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It
does not shout at you, that is true. And if you are a little silent you will start
feeling your way. Be the person you are. Never try to be another, and you will
become mature. Maturity is accepting the responsibility of being oneself,
whatsoever the cost. Risking all to be oneself, that's what maturity is all about.
Be realistic: Plan for a miracle
Life begins where fear ends.
Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece.
You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it.
One thing: you have to walk, and create the way by your walking; you will not
find a ready-made path. It is not so cheap, to reach to the ultimate realization of
truth. You will have to create the path by walking yourself; the path is not readymade, lying there and waiting for you. It is just like the sky: the birds fly, but they
don't leave any footprints. You cannot follow them; there are no footprints left
behind.
Advaita, consciousness, enlightenment, evolution, guru, healing, love,
meditation, realization, satsang, spirituality, teacher
I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid
of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of
your thought processes.
It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just
witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you
have lost the pure witness. The moment you say this is good, this is bad, you
have already jumped onto the thought process.

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the
gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you
are the witness, a watcher.
And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you
become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start
disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.
Thats the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for
the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.
Enlightenment, meditation
Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny--he has something to
fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You
are not here accidentally--you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind
you. The whole intends to do something through you.
Falling in love you remain a child; rising in love you mature. By and by love
becomes not a relationship, it becomes a state of your being. Not that you are in
love - now you are love.
You feel good, you feel bad, and these feelings are bubbling from your own
unconsciousness, from your own past. Nobody is responsible except you. Nobody
can make you angry, and nobody can make you happy.
Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be
realized.
Buddha Said...: Meeting the Challenge of Life's Difficulties: awareness,
life, truth
Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.
Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within
Intelligence is dangerous. Intelligence means you will start thinking on your
own; you will start looking around on your own. You will not believe in the
scriptures; you will believe only in your own experience.
The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it.
Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about
themselves. But you become very shaky, because you are still clinging to a false
center. That false center depends on others, so you are always looking to what
people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are
always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable, you are
always trying to decorate your ego. This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed
by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself

Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not
conscious of the self at all. You dont know who you are. If you had known, then
there would have been no problem then you are not seeking opinions. Then
you are not worried what others say about you it is irrelevant!

When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you
are really showing symptoms that you dont know who you are. Your very selfconsciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.
The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely
new." and so in you the child your mother lives on and through your family
continues to live... so at this time look after yourself and your family as you
would your mother for through you all she will truly never die.
I love this world because it is imperfect. It is imperfect, and that's why it is
growing; if it was perfect it would have been dead. Growth is possible only if
there is imperfection. I would like you to remember again and again, I am
imperfect, the whole universe is imperfect, and to love this imperfection, to
rejoice in this imperfection is my whole message.
Take hold of your own life. See that the whole existence is celebrating.
These trees are not serious, these birds are not serious. The rivers and the
oceans are wild, and everywhere there is fun, everywhere there is joy and
delight. Watch existence, listen to the existence and become part of it.
With me, illusions are bound to be shattered. I am here to shatter all illusions.
Yes, it will irritate you, it will annoy you - that's my way of functioning and
working. I will sabotage you from your very roots! Unless you are totally
destroyed as a mind, there is no hope for you.
Many people have come and left, and it has been always good because they
emptied some space for better people. It is a strange experience, that those who
have left me have always left places for a better quality of people. I have never
been a loser
Courage Is a Love Affair with the Unknown
That is the simple secret of happiness. Whatever you are doing, dont let past
move your mind; dont let future disturb you. Because the past is no more, and
the future is not yet. To live in the memories, to live in the imagination, is to live
in the non-existential. And when you are living in the non-existential, you are
missing that which is existential. Naturally you will be miserable, because you
will miss your whole life.
My meditation is simple. It does not require any complex practices. It is simple.
It is singing. It is dancing. It is sitting silently
Millions of people are suffering: they want to be loved but they don't know how
to love. And love cannot exist as a monologue; it is a dialogue, a very
harmonious dialogue.
Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is
inside you and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself.

Time is that in which we live -- it is horizontal. It is from A to B to C to D; it is in a

line. Eternity is vertical. It is not from A to B and from B to C. It is from A to more

A to still more A. It goes on upwards. The moment is rare because it happens

only when meditation has reached ripening, maturity, when you have touched
your innermost core.
Then suddenly you become aware that you are a crossroad. One line goes
horizontal; in other words, mediocre, ordinary, meaningless, and leading finally
to death. The horizontal line is continuously moving towards the graveyard.

I have told you the story, significant in many ways:

A great king in his dreams saw a shadow and became afraid even in the dream.
And he asked, "What do you want?" The shadow said, "I have not come to ask for
anything. I have come just to inform you that this evening at the right place,
when the sun is setting, you will breathe your last breath. Ordinarily I don't come
to inform people, but you are a great emperor; it is just to pay respect to you."
The emperor became so afraid that he woke up, perspiring, could not think what
to do. The only thing he could think of was to call all the wise men, astrologers,
prophets and to find out the meaning of the dream. Dream analysis is thought to
have originated with Sigmund Freud -- that is not true. It originated with this
emperor, one thousand years ago. In the middle of the night, all the prophets of
his capital, all the wise men, all those who were concerned in some way with the
future -- dream readers...they were told the story. The story was simple. They
had brought their scriptures and they started arguing with each other: "This
cannot be the meaning," or, "This is bound to be the meaning...."
They wasted time; the sun started rising. The king had an old servant whom he
treated just as a father -- because his father had died very early. He was too
young, and his father had given the guardianship to this servant and told him:
"Take care that he becomes my successor and does not lose the kingdom." And
the servant managed. Now he was very old, but he was not treated as a servant.
He was almost as respected as a father. He came close to the emperor and said:
"I want to say two things to you. You have always listened to me. I am not a
prophet and I am not an astrologer and I don't know what all this nonsense is
that's going on...the scriptures are being consulted.... One thing is certain, that
once the sun has risen, the sunset is not very far away.
"And these people, the so-called knowledgeable people, have never come to any
conclusion in centuries. Just in one day...they will quarrel, argue, destroy each
other's arguments, but you cannot hope that they will come to a consensus, a
conclusion.
"Let them have their discussions. My suggestion is, you have the best horse in
the world." Those were the days of horses. "You take the horse and escape from
this palace as fast as possible. This much is certain, that you should not be here;
you should be far away."
It was logical, rational, although very simple. The king left the great intelligent
and wise people arguing -- they did not even notice that the emperor had left.
And he certainly had a horse worth an empire. He was very proud of the horse;

there was no other horse known of that strength. And there was such a love
between the horse and the emperor, such a deep affinity, a kind of synchronicity.
The king said to the horse: "It seems my death is coming. That shadow was
nothing but death. You have to take me as far away from this palace as you can
manage."
The horse nodded his head. And he fulfilled his promise. By the evening, as the
sun was setting, they were hundreds of miles away from their kingdom. They had
entered into another kingdom in disguise. The king was very happy; he got down
from his horse. He was tying the horse to a tree -- because neither had he eaten
anything, nor had the horse. So he said to the horse: "Thank you my friend. Now
I will make arrangements for your food, for my food. We are so far away, there is
no fear. But you proved the stories that were told about you. You became almost
like a cloud, with such a speed."
And as he was tying the horse to the tree, the dark shadow appeared and said to
the emperor: "I was afraid that you might not be able to make it, but your horse
is great. I also thank him. This is the place and this is the time. And I was worried
-- you were so far away, how could I manage to bring you? The horse served
destiny."
It is a strange story, but it shows that wherever you are going horizontally, with
whatever speed, you will end up in some graveyard. It is strange that every
moment our graves are coming closer to us -- even if you don't move, your grave
is moving towards you. The horizontal line of time is, in other words, the
mortality of man. But if you can reach to the center of your being, the silences of
your innermost center, you can see two roads: one horizontal, another vertical.
You will be surprised to know that the Christian cross is not Christian at all. It is
an ancient, Eastern, Aryan symbol, the swastika. That's why Adolf Hitler, who
was thinking that he was of the purest Aryan blood, chose the swastika as his
symbol. A swastika is nothing but two lines crossing. In India, without knowing
why, at the beginning of every year, business people will write in their books,
begin their new books with a swastika. The Christian cross is simply a part of the
swastika. But it also represents the same thing: the vertical, the horizontal.
Christ's hands are horizontal; his head and his being are pointing in a different
direction. In a moment of meditation, you suddenly see that you can move in two
directions -- either horizontal or vertical.
The vertical consists of silences, blissfulness, ecstasies; the horizontal consists of
hands, work, the world.
Once a man has known himself as a crossroad, he cannot be disinterested, he
cannot be un-intrigued about the vertical. The horizontal he knows, but the
vertical opens a door to eternity, where death does not exist; where one simply
becomes more and more part of the cosmic whole; where one loses all
bondages, even the bondage of the body.
Gautam Buddha used to say: "Birth is pain, life is pain, death is pain." What he
was saying was, to move on the horizontal line, you are continuously miserable,
in pain. Your life cannot be a life of dance, of joy. If this is all, then suicide is the
only solution.

That's the conclusion the contemporary, Western philosophy of existentialism -of Jean-Paul Sartre, Jaspers, Heidegger, Kierkegaard and others -- has come to,
that life is meaningless. On the horizontal plane it is, because it is simply agony
and pain and disease and sickness and old age. And you are encaged in a small
body while your consciousness is as vast as the whole universe.

Once the vertical is discovered, one starts moving on the vertical line.

That vertical line does not mean you have to renounce the world. But it certainly
means that you are no more of the world, that the world becomes ephemeral,
loses importance. It does not mean that you have to renounce the world and
escape to the mountains and the monasteries. It simply means that you start -wherever you are -- living an inner life which was not possible before.
Before you were an extrovert; now, suddenly you become introvert. As far as the
body is concerned, you can manage very easily, if the remembrance is there that
you are not the body. But the body can be used in many ways to help you to
move on the vertical line. The penetration of the vertical line, just a ray of light
coming into your darkness of horizontal life, is the beginning of enlightenment.
You will look the same, but you will not be the same. Those who have a clarity of
seeing, to them you will not look the same either. And at least for yourself, you
will never look the same. And you can never be the same. You will be in the
world, but the world will not be in you.
Ambitions, desires, jealousies will start evaporating. No effort will be needed to
drop them, just your movement on the vertical line and they start disappearing -because they cannot exist on the vertical line. They can exist only in the
darkness of the horizontal, where everybody is in competition, everybody is full
of lust, full of will to power, a great desire to dominate, to become somebody
special.
On the vertical line all these stupidities simply disappear. You become so light, so
weightless, just like a lotus flower: it is in the water, but the water does not touch
it. You remain in the world, but the world has no longer any impact on you. On
the contrary, you start influencing the world -- not with conscious effort, but just
by your sheer being, your presence, your grace, your beauty. As it grows inside it
starts spreading around you.
It will touch people who have an open heart and it will make people afraid who
have lived with a closed heart -- all windows, all doors closed. They will not come
in contact with such a person. And to convince themselves why they are not
coming in contact with such a person, they will find a thousand and one excuses,
a thousand and one lies. But the basic fact is that they are afraid to be exposed.
The man who is moving vertically becomes almost a mirror. If you come close to
him, you will see your real face -- you will see your ugliness, you will see your
continuous ambitiousness, you will see your begging bowl.
Perhaps another story will help you.

A man, early in the morning, a beggar with a begging bowl, entered the king's
garden. The king used to come for a morning walk; otherwise it was impossible
to meet the king -- particularly for the beggar, the whole bureaucracy would
prevent him. So he had chosen a time when there was no bureaucracy, and
when the king wanted to be alone, in silence with nature, to drink as much
beauty and aliveness as nature was showering. The beggar encountered him
there.