Confused? You're blessed

 

Blessed are those who are confused. Confusion means your previous knowledge has broken down. Your belief has broken down. That is a step in Knowledge. You are fused to yourself. Space is created. The mind goes blank. This is what is important. Whatever I say, whether you agree or disagree, it doesn't matter.

If you agree, it doesn't matter. If you disagree, then also it doesn't matter. But are you aware of what is happening in your own mind? That is sufficient. This moment some judgment is happening. A certain thing is stirring in the mind. You are agreeing, disagreeing. You like this. You don't like this. Awareness of what is happening within you that is self-study.

If you observe more and more, with a little practice you will see that every emotion, every thought creates a particular sensation in your system, in a particular place in your body.

And the mind becomes like a mirror. The mind becomes so hollow, so empty. Through that empty space truth dawns. That is why "I don't know" is beautiful. The moment you think "I know", then the mind is not yet hollow and empty. Knowledge, labeling things, comes into play. In India you don't find signboards everywhere. If you ask for directions, people will tell you which way to go whether they know or not.

They will tell you to go left or right. It may be completely the opposite direction, but they don't feel comfortable saying "I don't know". So you may travel for hours and discover that you have gone in just the opposite direction from where you wanted to be. The beautiful "I don't know". That is what is needed today. Innocence. And that is love.

Maintaining one's innocence on the path to enlightenment

 

Being in that state of consciousness, which allows knowledge to flow through, without actually knowing, that ability is within every one of us. All intuitions that arise in you arise from an area which you don't know. You cannot call it an intuition if you have already known it. As our intelligence grows, we tend to become crooked. Maintaining innocence in spite of intelligence, is wisdom, is enlightenment.

If our innocence is maintained in spite of intelligence, it has great value, naturalness. You have heard from many books and many people that ego is bad, ego is an obstruction to spiritual growth, ego is an obstruction to knowledge. Ego is nothing but being unnatural. Naturalness is being at home, feeling one, and feeling close to everyone. Distance is ego. Ego means I don't consider you as a part of me sol keep distance.

When I have to show off to you or have to behave a certain way, there is no cordiality there, no love, no connection. Then the ego comes into play. Being like a child, feeling at home, making everybody one's own, dropping all defenses and boundaries, destroying all the walls in between, that is being natural. You can call it being crazy, a little bit crazy. People may think you are a little crazy. It doesn't matter. You feel light, wonderful within you. Your mind is saved.

At any cost you need to save your mind. Just meditating, doing some practices, all these will not help unless you really want to save your mind. Guard the mind from the dust which flies in from the world.

If a person who has a lot of responsibility says, "I do nothing" that has great value. Someone who is very lazy says, "I do nothing", and it has no value. If someone who IS doing all the time and has great responsibility can say, "I do nothing", then that person’s consciousness has taken a shift. An important person being a celebrity has no value.

So an ignorant person being innocent has no value. When intelligence and innocence go together, a beauty dawns - very profound, very essential.

Benefit of feeling helpless

 

Every parent is a door for a new soul to enter into the world. Nothing more than a door. Every artist is a door for some work of art to flow through them. All your virtues, all beauty, all that is truth spring from the same source - one source.

Love is something that is very fresh. It can’t be stale. You can't practice love. No practice can bring love in you. Love is spontaneous. It is the same with beauty. Beauty can't be practiced. You can't practice appreciation.

That is why I say "I don't know what I speak". Knowing, knowledgeability, limits. The highest knowledge is called the end of knowledge. Vedanta means the end of knowledge, truth. 

It is the same with truth as with beauty, truth cannot be practiced. It can be cognized, recognized, felt, experienced and lived moment to moment, moment to moment. Observing the unpredictability of life, the unpredictability of the world creates an awe in you, a sense of wonder in you.

Every person on this earth feels helpless, completely handicapped, at some time or other whether he is John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi or someone on the street. Everyone feels helplessness, feels that things are ruled by something other than what one can logically conceive. Whatever possible conclusions we make, we still feel things happen beyond that. 

When we feel helpless, we tend to become frustrated, cynical. This is the junction point. The feeling of helplessness can turn into prayer, or it can turn into frustration. Divinity can be perceived in the prayerfulness. In frustration we become more and more disheartened, dejected. Do you see that?

Prayer is not a practice, it is a happening. When from the very core of your heart, your mind, you feel helplessness that is prayer. When you are successful, you Know it. A sense of doership comes.

But when the feeling of helplessness arises, prayer can be very authentic. This authentic prayer can transform life, can bring such a force or power within us. I don't mean that we should all be miserable in order to pray. Gratefulness is very essential. 

When we recognise our helplessness, we need to put a distance between ourselves and what is happening, a distance from every action. I'm talking and yet I am watching myself talk. I'm sitting here, yet I'm not just sitting here. I have entered all the things here-the cushions, the carpet, the walls, the photograph. All over it is me, an expanded awareness living life from that area beyond calculations.

We measure and talk. We calculate, we prepare and we talk. But when we talk of something which we don't know, it is very adventurous. I have never read the Bible, but I can speak on the Bible. Nor have I ever read Buddha, but I can speak about Buddha.

Letting words flow through you when you speak

 

What is the difference between a question and wonder? For a question we seek an answer, in wonder we don’t seek an answer. A question is related to sorrow; wonder is related to joy.

No one ever asks, ‘Why am I happy?’ When we become miserable, we ask ‘Why has this misery come to me?’ No one ever questions why there is so much beauty in the world, in creation. But why there is dishonesty?’

This ‘Why’ comes from that area of our mind that seeks to know, that seeks knowledgeability. Knowledgeability is labeling things. I don’t know what I am speaking. What you know you speak from your intellect, you speak from your knowledge. But the purpose of knowledge is to make you aware of how ignorant you are. The more you know, the more unknown remains. So, in fact, the unknown grows. What we don’t know grows.

We are born in ignorance. When we mature and we go through the process of acquiring knowledge, we again become ignorant. But there is this difference – this second “I don’t know” becomes a beautiful “I don’t know”. It is wonder. “Why this creation?” “I don’t know” “What is happening?” “I don’t know”.

An ignorant person talks and he doesn't know what he says. So also an enlightened person talks and he doesn’t know what he says. If he knows and talks, it is coming from limitation. If he doesn’t know and talks, he allows the words to flow through. He's open. He remains available to that are of the self, the consciousness, from which the words will come. An enlightened person can speak on any subject which he doesn’t know. He can sit and talk, but only if he doesn’t start thinking about it.

If you ask an enlightened person to prepare a thesis, he would fail to do it. Kabir or St. Francis would be unable to write a thesis or to write a poem, but they could sit and let the poetry flow through.

What you have known and you speak is stale. It is not fresh. But when you speak something that you don’t know, it is something fresh, it is something new. It is the most creative thing.

Talking about what you know may be creative, but definitely less creative than when you talk about something that you don’t know. In that very moment that is being created, you allow yourself to be a doorway for the creative process to spring through you. We are all just doors.

Everyone is your teacher

 

Know that you are a student forever. Do not underestimate anybody. Knowledge may come to you from any corner. Remember the ancient saying – let knowledge flow to me from all the sides.  

Each occasion teaches you and each person teaches you. The world is your teacher. When you are always looking to learn, you will stop underestimating others. Humility will dawn in your life.  

There is a nice story. A man earned a lot of money and then gave all his property to his son. The son then built a small house behind his big house and told his parents, “Now you have to stay there.” So the old couple stayed there, while the son and his family lived in the bungalow.  

One day, while playing, the grandchild came to his grandfather's home, where everything was in a pathetic condition. The grandchild said, “Grandpa, be careful with your plate and chair. Don't break them.”  

When he asked why, the child said, “Because tomorrow, my father will need them.” One does not realise this fact. You are also going to be old one day.

Innocent mistakes

 

Whenever a boundary is broken, it creates some fear. The fear creates dislike. This dislike puts us back in the boundary; you put forth defenses.

When you try to defend your position, it is such a stress. Every time you try to defend your position, it makes you more and more weak. Drop all your defenses. When you are totally defenseless, that's when you'll be strong.

Your knowledge of a mistake comes to you when you are innocent. Whatever mistake has happened, do not consider yourself a sinner because in the present moment you are again new, pure and clear. Mistakes of the past are past. When this knowledge comes, you are again perfect.

Often, mothers scold their children and afterwards feel so guilty. Okay, you got angry at your kid once or twice. Why? Because of the lack of awareness. Awareness was missing so anger came up. Knowledge of the self, truth and skill can bring out the best in you.

So, don't be afraid to make mistakes, but not the same mistakes.

It's funny, how useful humour can be

 

You are endowed with certain naughtiness as a child. Keep it alive. Humour will grease all tough situations. One who has humour can sail through any conflict.  

Humour is the buffer that saves you from humiliation. If you refuse to be humiliated, you become invincible. Humour brings everyone together, while humiliation tears them apart. In a society torn with humiliation and insult, humour is like a breath of fresh air.  

Humour should be coupled with care and concern. Humour can keep the spirit high, yet if overdone it leaves a bad taste. Humour without wisdom is shallow. Humour without sensitivity is satire – it comes back to you with more problems.  

The wise use humour to bring wisdom and to lighten situations. The intelligent use humour as a shield against humiliation. The cruel use humour as a sword to insult others. The irresponsible use humour to escape from responsibility. And fools take humour too seriously.  

How does one cultivate a sense of humour? Humour is not just words, it is lightness of your being. You do not have to read and repeat jokes.  You can start by:

• Taking life not too seriously (because you will never come out of it alive)
• Having a sense of belongingness with everybody, including those who are not friendly
• Practicing yoga and meditation
• Having unshakable faith in the Divine and in the laws of karma
• Being in the company of those who live in knowledge and are humorous, and
• A willingness to be a clown.

Understanding an atheist - I

 

It is difficult to see God as formless and it is difficult to see God as having a form. The formless is so abstract and God in a form appears to be too limited so some people prefer to be atheists. Atheism is not a reality; it is just a matter of convenience. 

When you have a spirit of inquiry or when you search for truth, atheism falls apart. With a spirit of inquiry, you cannot deny something that you cannot disprove. An atheist denies God without first disproving God’s existence. In order to disprove God, you must have enormous knowledge and when you have enormous knowledge, you cannot disprove it. 

To say that something does not exist, you must know about the whole universe. So you can never be one hundred percent atheistic. An atheist is only a believer who is sleeping. For a person to say, “I don’t believe in anything,” means he must believe in himself. So he believes in a self that he does not even know. 

An atheist can never be sincere because sincerity needs depth and an atheist refuses to go to his depth. The deeper he goes, he finds a void, a field of all possibilities, and he has to accept that there are many secrets he does not know. He would then need to acknowledge his ignorance – which he refuses to do – because the moment he is sincere, he seriously starts doubting his atheism. 

A doubt-free atheist is nearly impossible. An atheist can never be sincere and doubt-free. When an atheist realizes his ignorance, what does he do? Where does he go? Does he go to a guru? What does a guru do to him?

Restlessness and its remedies

 

There are five types of restlessness. The first type of restlessness is caused by a particular place. When you move away from that place – the street or the house – you immediately feel better. Chanting, singing, laughing and children playing can change this atmospheric restlessness. If you chant and sing, the vibration in the place changes. 

The second type of restlessness is in the body. Eating the wrong food, eating vata-aggravating food, eating at odd times, not exercising and overworking can all cause physical restlessness. The remedy for this is exercise, moderation in work habits and going on a vegetable or juice diet for one or two days. 

The third type of restlessness is mental restlessness. It is caused by ambition, strong thoughts, likes or dislikes. Only knowledge can cure this restlessness – seeing life from a broader perspective, having knowledge of the Self and awareness of the impermanence of everything around you. If you achieve everything, so what? After your achievement, you will die. Knowledge of your death and life, confidence in the Self and confidence in the Divine all calm down mental restlessness. 

The fourth type is emotional restlessness. Any amount of knowledge cannot help here – only Kriya helps. With Kriya, all emotional restlessness vanishes. The presence of your guru, a wise person, or a saint will also help to calm your emotional restlessness. 

The final type of restlessness is rare. It is the restlessness of the soul. When everything feels empty and meaningless, know you are very fortunate. That longing is the restlessness of the soul. Do not try to get rid of it – embrace it, welcome it. People do all sorts of things to get rid of it. They change places, jobs, or partners, they do this, they do that. It seems to help for some time, but it does not last. 

Only this restlessness of the soul can bring authentic prayer in you. It brings perfection, siddhis and miracles in life. It is so precious to get that innermost longing for the Divine. Satsang and the presence of an enlightened one soothe the restlessness of the soul.

Why be with a guru

 

The main reasons to be with a guru (spiritual master) are: 

• You want to have your wishes fulfilled. You find it more pleasurable. 
• You come for comfort as everything else is more painful to you. 
• You want to evolve and become enlightened; you want to attain higher knowledge. 
• You have a vision or a goal in common with a guru, whom you see as a missionary or visionary, who can help you achieve your goal. 
• You are there just to serve and to give comfort. 
• You belong to your guru. You have no choice.

Two types of knowledge

 

There are two types of knowledge. The first one is pure knowledge and the second one is applied knowledge. Applied knowledge may benefit you immediately and directly, but pure knowledge benefits you indirectly in the long run. 

If there are some things that you have studied or understood which you are unable to put into practice, do not get disheartened. Sometime in the future, if you do not discard as impractical the knowledge you have, it will be of use to you.

Often people discard pure knowledge for its lack of immediate application. In fact these two types of knowledge complement each other. Applied knowledge without pure knowledge remains weak. And pure knowledge without application will remain unfulfilled. Do not discard or label knowledge as impractical, and do not label yourself as weak or unworthy because you are unable to apply the knowledge in your day-today life.

Sometimes when you are alone in nature, silent, taking a walk, looking at the sand on the beach, a bird in the sky, or while meditating – suddenly knowledge will emerge and you will recognize knowledge dawning in your life.

Arguments can run counter to knowledge

 

A person who argues should not be given knowledge. An argumentative mind is not receptive to knowledge. 

When someone is in an argumentative mood, then giving knowledge or advice is in vain. A person in an argumentative mood feels he knows it all, so he is not ready for knowledge. That is why wise people do not give advice when they are in an argumentative environment. 

Argument has a purpose. It can bring out the truth if there is no emotion or sense of “I” attached to it. Argument can also be a disadvantage. It can make untruth appear to be truth. 

A wise man will not take arguments seriously; he will just have fun with them. Wisdom is beyond all arguments.    

One more step to knowing yourself

 

To be able to know yourself or to judge your actions, you need to understand tarka, vitarka and kutarka. 

Kutarka is wrong logic. Most people use this logic and get caught up in ignorance. For example, the door is half open means the door is half closed. Therefore, when the door is fully open means the door is fully closed. Another example – God is love. Love is blind. Therefore God is blind. 

Tarka is sequential logical understanding which increases scientific knowledge. When sequential logical understanding changes, then scientific conclusions change. For example, pesticides and antibiotics were considered to be very useful and harmless, but they are now proven to be harmful. In tarka, paradigms change. 

Vitarka is asking questions to which there are no evident answers such as “Who am I?” “Where am I?” “What do I really want?” These philosophical questions bring forth spiritual knowledge, increase your awareness and bring about the blossoming of consciousness. Atma gyan (self-knowledge) increases. The wise know how to distinguish between these three. They will not apply kutarka or tarka for vitarka, or use vitarka for tarka.

Knowledge is like a coconut tree

 

Knowledge must be digested properly, and an inability to do so causes: 

• False ego, which has no cure. 
• Disinterest, taking things for granted, lack of awareness. 
• Familiarity without understanding, without depth – shallowness. 
• A tendency to preach. “Heart” burn. 
• Using knowledge for one’s own small ends. 
• Adamancy, stubbornness.

If you are in love with the Divine, then you can digest knowledge. Love is the appetizer, knowledge is the main course and seva is the exercise. Without love and seva, knowledge becomes indigestible.

A coconut tree is a natural desalination plant. It takes salt water from the earth and makes fresh water inside the coconut. Knowledge is like that tree – it takes us from salty mud to pure bliss.

The right vision needed for knowledge

 

Knowledge will be different at different levels of consciousness. At a particular level of consciousness, you will achieve anasuya, which is a state of mind that is devoid of fault-finding eyes. If a mirror is dusty, you need to clean it. But if your eyes have cataracts, any amount of dusting the mirror will not help. First you have to remove the cataracts, then you can see that the mirror is clean. 

There is a type of mindset that always finds fault, even in the best of conditions. Even when people with this mindset have the best, they still find faults. With the best possible companion, or the most beautiful painting, they will still find something wrong. That kind of mindset cannot know sacred knowledge. 

Krishna tells Arjuna that he is giving him a royal secret because he achieved the state of anasuya. “You find no fault in me even though you are so close.” From a distance, even craters cannot be seen, and up close, even on a smooth surface there will be holes. If you are only interested in the holes, you will not see the magnanimity of things. If you are not in anasuya, knowledge cannot blossom and there is no point in giving knowledge to you. 

What about discrimination – wisdom? If it is in your vision, your perception, then you will find discrimination. The moment you are off the path, everything will be wrong. That is not anasuya. For example, after ten years of friendship you no longer see the good in that relationship; you only find faults. However, once you discover you have the wrong vision – you have discovered your cataracts – then half of the problem disappears. 

There is a fine line here. Instead of saying, “My vision is blurred,” you say, “The whole world is not sharp.” Suppose someone is coming through a door but it is windy, so you shut the door. If the person thinks the door has been slammed in his face, then this is asuya, not anasuya. 

Most people are like this. Asuya is finding fault. It is seeing malicious intent everywhere. It is like a child who says, “Mother, you do not love me!” The child’s vision is wrong. If a mother does not love her child, who will? It is the same when someone comes and says, “Guruji, you do not love me!” If I do not love him, then nobody else in the world will. Where else will they find love? Nowhere. A mother may get frustrated but not a master. 

Can a person achieve anasuya without being enlightened? Not always. Such questions are only excuses. To find enlightenment, you must have this vision.

Rising above attraction and delusion

 

Those you associate with can either elevate you or pull you down. 

At first there is an attraction but then delusion. This keeps your mind swinging between the two extremes causing love and hatred. 

With the power of knowledge and satsang you can rise above this dilemma.

Erasing impressions and improving expression

 

Do not make an effort to impress others or to express yourself. Your effort to impress someone will be futile. Your effort to express yourself becomes an impediment. If you do not try to impress, expression comes naturally. 

When you come from the Self, your expression will be perfect and your impression lasts for ages. 

Often you do not seem to have a control over your impressions and expressions. Wisdom is selecting your impressions and expressions. Enlightenment is when you do not have any impressions at all, whether good or bad. Then you “master” the art of expression. 

Many impressions in the mind cause confusion, distraction, chaos, an inability to focus, and ultimately, derangement of the mind. Nature has built into us a system through which we release some of the impressions – through dreams and meditation. 

You lose depth, luster, and your serenity with excessive expression. Meditation erases the impressions and improves the expression.

Cleanse your body and cleanse your soul. Cleanse your body with water, your soul with knowledge and your spirit with pranayama and Sudarshan Kriya. There is no penance higher than pranayama. It is the greatest penance.

Commitment vs convenience

 

What should you do if your commitment is boring? Commitment has value when things are not so charming. When things are interesting you do not need commitment at all. You never say you are committed to doing something that is very interesting or charming.

A commitment can only be felt when it oversteps convenience. When something is convenient, it is not called commitment. If you are driven by your convenience, your commitment falls apart causing more inconvenience! 

If you keep dropping your commitment because it is inconvenient, can you be comfortable? Often what is convenient does not bring comfort but just gives an illusion of comfort. Also if you are too stuck in commitment, and it is inconvenient too often, you will be unable to fulfill your commitment and it will only generate frustration. 

Wisdom is to strike a balance between convenience and commitment because both bring comfort to the body, mind and spirit. A seeker of knowledge should forget about convenience, as should soldiers, rulers, students, seekers of wealth and all essential service providers. Those who want to be creative and adventurous need to transcend convenience. Those who are ambitious and have a passion for a goal will not care for convenience.

Commitment is comfort to the wise. Whenever their commitment is shaken, their comfort is also shaken. To the lazy, commitment is torture though it is their best remedy. In the long run, commitment will always bring comfort.

Are there any commitments that can be given up? Yes. Sometimes when you make a commitment without a vision, you feel stifled when your vision expands. Such commitments made with shortsightedness can be given up. A smaller, less important commitment can be given up for a greater commitment. Commitment to the means can be given up for the sake of a commitment to the goals. When in the long run, your commitment brings misery to many it can be given up.

There is only one way to experience real pleasure

 

There is pleasure in rest and pleasure in activity. The pleasure in activity is momentary and causes fatigue while the pleasure in rest is magnanimous and energizing. 

So, to the one who has tasted pleasure in rest (samadhi), the pleasure in activity is insignificant. All activities that you do, you do so that you can have deep rest. Activity is part of the system.

However, the real pleasure is in samadhi. In order to have deep rest one must be active. The proper balance of both is essential. 

Many seek pleasure in this or that, but the wise man just smiles. The real rest is only in knowledge.

Seven principles to effectively build teams and organizations

 

Knowledge has organizing power. Only knowledge can organize. The more steeped you are in knowledge, the better you can organize. 

These seven principles will make you effective and will build a strong team, within any organization:

• Never underestimate your organization. If you underestimate your organization, you will not be able to build it.

• Defend your intentions, not your actions. Often people defend their actions and lose sight of their intentions. Then they feel sorry and weak. There is no need to feel sorry. Defend your intention to do right.

• Teamwork. With teamwork you achieve more than you do individually. Some work is best done alone and other work is best done with a team. Find the balance between walking alone and working with a team. In either case, alone or with a team, you will face obstacles. For your growth, both are essential. Each has its disadvantages and advantages. Drop either one, and you will be at a loss. The skill is not to have an aversion to either and to focus on the goal. 

• Not defending friends. Suppose you have introduced a friend to a job and they make a mistake. Do not try to defend them. That is where the team breaks up. When you defend a friend, you are not friendly to everybody. Defending someone’s mistakes does not do justice to the team and stops the person from learning. Soft-heartedness and compassion in an organization can be detrimental to both the teamwork and the organization. 

• Never justify a mistake with intimidation or logic. Raising your voice, intimidation, anger, shouting, and applying erroneous logic make a wrong appear right. Someone may do something wrong, but with shouting he makes the wrong appear right. Raising your voice and asserting through intimidation may make a wrong appear right. Do not give in to that. Do not give into aggression, intimidation, wrong logic and soft-heartedness. 

• Volunteers often act as though everyone is a boss and not a worker. When working with such volunteers, be calm and quiet. Ask, “Have you finished your work?” 

• Solutions will always be ad hoc. The more dynamic an institution is, the more the solutions will be ad hoc. It’s not like a nine-to-five company job where roles are designed and planned for a year. With volunteers, the productivity is more intense. The more dynamic a group, the quicker things happen. Maintaining a margin for confusion and chaos can prevent stress.