• MUKUL SHARMA
THIS notion that science seeks to empirically understand the nature of physical reality is not only wearing thin but has begun to beg the question in a big way. That’s because the premise of a “physical reality” — one that is considered to be the sum of all matter-energy patterns in existence — is turning out to be such a dynamic and fast-changing concept that hypotheses regarding it have to be modified almost as soon as they are formulated. What this means is that the goal of objectivity in knowledge can no longer be properly sustained. Before the 20th century, for instance, the “out there” was something which was believed to be static and basically provable and, therefore, considered easy to analyse and investigate. But after Einstein and quantum mechanics, this peaceful worldview underwent a historic transformation. Time turned out to be a fourth dimension, gravitation was the result of curved space, subatomic particles could be at two places at once, one aspect of something could never be measured without compromising another, black holes sucked stuff into the limbo of oblivion — in short nothing was as it appeared to be. Still science soldiered on. Next, two foundational pillars of objectivity began crumbling: causality and the ultimate nature of the medium things are immersed in — spacetime. The flow or arrow of time appeared not to necessarily respect a past to future movement. Meaning, the theoretical statements that describe physical processes at the microscopic level remain true even if the direction of time is reversed. So can effects at this level come into existence before their causes are generated or what? Also, theories suggest that at sufficiently small scales spacetime loses its continuous nature because of things like virtual particles popping in and out of existence in a process called “vacuum fluctuation.” Both space and time then become a grainy foam instead. Of course science doesn’t have to be abandoned because of these momentous discoveries. For one thing, the discoveries themselves were made because of the findings of science. It has also given us awesome and almost magical technological prowess and continues to do so. However, what it needs to develop now is a little respect for what it studies and probably a generous helping of subjectivity, too, in order to justly elaborate on the transcendent nature of its subject.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Don’t be angry, be aware
PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA
WATCH someone who gets angry very quickly. The more he gets angry, the more he seems addicted to being angry. Getting angry does not resolve problems. Biologists tell us that repeated behaviour actually rewires the brain. Neural networks get established with repeated behaviour pattern. What this means is that anger breeds anger. The emotions not only rewire your brain, but they also rewire your body. In their efforts to accommodate these repeated and debilitating emotions, the cells lose the capacity to absorb nutrients. They grow less and they rejuvenate less. These changes affect you and more importantly affect your progeny as well, as your entire cellular and DNA structure can be changed by your behaviour. Biology tells us that your emotions are chemicals, and these chemicals are released by the brain. We control these chemicals. However, over time, these chemicals can change you and control you. Watch yourself getting angry the next time. What are you angry at? Are you angry at someone or are you angry about something? If you say that you are angry at some thing, at some behaviour, watch yourself as someone else repeats that behaviour. Do you get equally angry? Do you allow some people to get away with such behaviour, or even humour such behaviour in some people that would make you blow up at another person? Therefore, are you angry with a person because you have made up your mind to be angry with that person? You will find that 90% of the time you are angry at a person and not a behaviour pattern or an issue. If you are angry with an issue you can learn to use that anger as energy and do something with that energy. If it is behaviour, you can learn to laugh at it. However, if it is a person, you have a deeper problem. You have already made a judgement about that person and all that you do is to collect evidence to support your judgment. Nothing that person does can be right for you. With awareness you can drop these judgments. Awareness makes you realise the truth that you and another person and every other person are the same at a deep level. If you are getting angry with someone, you are in fact getting angry with yourself. It is your negativities that make you see others negatively. It is possible to drop these negativities via meditation. Don’t get angry, become aware.
WATCH someone who gets angry very quickly. The more he gets angry, the more he seems addicted to being angry. Getting angry does not resolve problems. Biologists tell us that repeated behaviour actually rewires the brain. Neural networks get established with repeated behaviour pattern. What this means is that anger breeds anger. The emotions not only rewire your brain, but they also rewire your body. In their efforts to accommodate these repeated and debilitating emotions, the cells lose the capacity to absorb nutrients. They grow less and they rejuvenate less. These changes affect you and more importantly affect your progeny as well, as your entire cellular and DNA structure can be changed by your behaviour. Biology tells us that your emotions are chemicals, and these chemicals are released by the brain. We control these chemicals. However, over time, these chemicals can change you and control you. Watch yourself getting angry the next time. What are you angry at? Are you angry at someone or are you angry about something? If you say that you are angry at some thing, at some behaviour, watch yourself as someone else repeats that behaviour. Do you get equally angry? Do you allow some people to get away with such behaviour, or even humour such behaviour in some people that would make you blow up at another person? Therefore, are you angry with a person because you have made up your mind to be angry with that person? You will find that 90% of the time you are angry at a person and not a behaviour pattern or an issue. If you are angry with an issue you can learn to use that anger as energy and do something with that energy. If it is behaviour, you can learn to laugh at it. However, if it is a person, you have a deeper problem. You have already made a judgement about that person and all that you do is to collect evidence to support your judgment. Nothing that person does can be right for you. With awareness you can drop these judgments. Awareness makes you realise the truth that you and another person and every other person are the same at a deep level. If you are getting angry with someone, you are in fact getting angry with yourself. It is your negativities that make you see others negatively. It is possible to drop these negativities via meditation. Don’t get angry, become aware.
The Golden Mean Is Well Within Reach
Indu Jain
In governance, the core idea is to ensure the positive alignment of the pancha tattvas. For this, action has to first spring from within, from the inner core that all of us have, including those of us who are in the business of governance. India’s growth rate is computed on the basis of material resource development. This involves spending these resources. The focus is on production and consumption. However, resource management ought to give sufficient importance to the regeneration and revitalisation of these material resources as well as the subtle resource that resides within us. As individuals we need to align outer growth with inner growth through inner engineering. We expend our physical,mental and spiritual energies without making a conscious effort to rejuvenate ourselves through the preservation and enhancing of these energies. Our failure to look at resource rejuvenation and not just resource mobilisation and exploitation arises from our weakness for tamasic activity. Conservation, preservation and rejuvenation are intrinsic to sustainable inner and outer development. Pre-industrial India was considered Soney ki Chidiya or the golden bird because people were content. Lifestyles were environment-friendly and there was room for reflection and introspection that enabled people to seek the truth without encroaching on another’s path. There was greater scope for creative pursuits in the fields of art, philosophy, culture and spirituality. And there was greater tolerance and understanding of different perspectives. What was the secret of a system that allowed for both inner and outer growth? How did people find the Golden Mean? Achieving this ought to be easier with technological advances that are meant to make life easier, our chores simpler, and so leave us with enough time for meditation and deep thinking. However, this does not seem to be happening. Technology and other advancements seem to have made our lives more hectic and stress-ridden. Life has become a race against time. Therefore, inner growth is intrinsic to sustainable development. Earlier, conditions fostered the flowering and growth of different schools of thought. Diversity was celebrated, even respected. Today, the trend is towards uniformity of thought, word and deed. There are greater conveniences but less comfort. There are more time-saving devices but we seem to have less time at our disposal to think about what we are doing. The Kumbh Mela, a congregation of people of various persuasions on a given day every year, happened despite the absence of sophisticated communication tools like TV, newspapers or the internet. In Haridwar, for instance, everyday is a celebration of sorts for people from across the country. Those in governance could take the initiative to revive our ancient knowledge systems that are rich in healing techniques besides containing a wealth of wisdom on a variety of subjects. Tradition and culture are as much a part of our heritage as are stone monuments. In ancient India the individual was encouraged to live in harmony with himself, his environment and community, by bringing about a balance between his inner and outer realities. It was recognised that growth on the material plane must be balanced with growth on the subtle plane. As individuals and as members of society we need to strive towards achieving the right balance, inside out.
In governance, the core idea is to ensure the positive alignment of the pancha tattvas. For this, action has to first spring from within, from the inner core that all of us have, including those of us who are in the business of governance. India’s growth rate is computed on the basis of material resource development. This involves spending these resources. The focus is on production and consumption. However, resource management ought to give sufficient importance to the regeneration and revitalisation of these material resources as well as the subtle resource that resides within us. As individuals we need to align outer growth with inner growth through inner engineering. We expend our physical,mental and spiritual energies without making a conscious effort to rejuvenate ourselves through the preservation and enhancing of these energies. Our failure to look at resource rejuvenation and not just resource mobilisation and exploitation arises from our weakness for tamasic activity. Conservation, preservation and rejuvenation are intrinsic to sustainable inner and outer development. Pre-industrial India was considered Soney ki Chidiya or the golden bird because people were content. Lifestyles were environment-friendly and there was room for reflection and introspection that enabled people to seek the truth without encroaching on another’s path. There was greater scope for creative pursuits in the fields of art, philosophy, culture and spirituality. And there was greater tolerance and understanding of different perspectives. What was the secret of a system that allowed for both inner and outer growth? How did people find the Golden Mean? Achieving this ought to be easier with technological advances that are meant to make life easier, our chores simpler, and so leave us with enough time for meditation and deep thinking. However, this does not seem to be happening. Technology and other advancements seem to have made our lives more hectic and stress-ridden. Life has become a race against time. Therefore, inner growth is intrinsic to sustainable development. Earlier, conditions fostered the flowering and growth of different schools of thought. Diversity was celebrated, even respected. Today, the trend is towards uniformity of thought, word and deed. There are greater conveniences but less comfort. There are more time-saving devices but we seem to have less time at our disposal to think about what we are doing. The Kumbh Mela, a congregation of people of various persuasions on a given day every year, happened despite the absence of sophisticated communication tools like TV, newspapers or the internet. In Haridwar, for instance, everyday is a celebration of sorts for people from across the country. Those in governance could take the initiative to revive our ancient knowledge systems that are rich in healing techniques besides containing a wealth of wisdom on a variety of subjects. Tradition and culture are as much a part of our heritage as are stone monuments. In ancient India the individual was encouraged to live in harmony with himself, his environment and community, by bringing about a balance between his inner and outer realities. It was recognised that growth on the material plane must be balanced with growth on the subtle plane. As individuals and as members of society we need to strive towards achieving the right balance, inside out.
Let’s Be Enthusiastic About Life & Living
Swami Sukhabodhananda
Study the life story of successful people and you’ll find that they have tremendous enthusiasm or passion to live life. Edmund Hillary who was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay, had failed thrice earlier. Later at a party hosted in his honour in New Zealand, he looked at the portrait of Mount Everest and said: “Mount Everest has a problem. The problem is, it cannot grow more than about 29,000 feet, whereas i have the ability to grow in my ability to climb Everest”. Every one of us has a lower self called jeevatma and a higher self called paramatma. When you operate from the lower self you find your life is not powerful unlike when you function from the higher self. This is the choice before us. Living from the lower self makes life threatening. Living from the higher self makes you enthusiastic and opens up opportunities. Any situation viewed as a threat is an example of something that involves the lower self. The lower self operates as an interfering or obstructing thought whereas the higher self operates as a supporting thought. If your body’s immune system is weak, your system is vulnerable to disease. Similarly, if your psychological immune system is weak... you get upset, hurt, frustrated. Like our genes, our minds are also products of evolution of many years. When our psychological immune system is weak, we are prone to perceive external situations as dangerous or as obstructions. It only calls for strengthening the psychological immune system so as to be powerful individuals. How do you make your mind powerful? We strengthen the physical body with exercise and diet. The psychological immune system can be made powerful by not allowing the lower self in us to operate... instead we should encourage the higher centre to operate in our daily lives. Where do we draw our identity from? Mostly from acquired knowledge because that’s how ego, identity and address are established. Ego is established in the ‘I’. Acquired knowledge is the lower self. The knowledge from which we are born — the cell evolution — is the higher self. Acquired knowledge should support the higher self, not obstruct it. For example, in a game of tennis, when you see a ball coming from an opponent, your thought should not interfere with it and obstruct your spontaneous effort to hit a ball. But if you think, “Oh, i am going to miss it because i missed a stroke last time”, then acquired knowledge is obstructive. As a player, you cannot succeed. The higher self would look at the ball in a different way — “With a focused awareness i allow my being that has evolved to guide me in hitting a ball. In case i miss it, the higher self being a learning and evolving being, makes required corrections the next time i face a ball... whereas the acquired or lower self creates an image that i am not good and i am not lucky. This image makes me look at a ball next time as a threat and acts as an obstruction. The lower self is rigid, while the higher self is flexible in learning and growing. So say to yourself: “I will not allow my static conclusions to decide my action. Instead, i will allow my flow to decide a response”.
Study the life story of successful people and you’ll find that they have tremendous enthusiasm or passion to live life. Edmund Hillary who was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay, had failed thrice earlier. Later at a party hosted in his honour in New Zealand, he looked at the portrait of Mount Everest and said: “Mount Everest has a problem. The problem is, it cannot grow more than about 29,000 feet, whereas i have the ability to grow in my ability to climb Everest”. Every one of us has a lower self called jeevatma and a higher self called paramatma. When you operate from the lower self you find your life is not powerful unlike when you function from the higher self. This is the choice before us. Living from the lower self makes life threatening. Living from the higher self makes you enthusiastic and opens up opportunities. Any situation viewed as a threat is an example of something that involves the lower self. The lower self operates as an interfering or obstructing thought whereas the higher self operates as a supporting thought. If your body’s immune system is weak, your system is vulnerable to disease. Similarly, if your psychological immune system is weak... you get upset, hurt, frustrated. Like our genes, our minds are also products of evolution of many years. When our psychological immune system is weak, we are prone to perceive external situations as dangerous or as obstructions. It only calls for strengthening the psychological immune system so as to be powerful individuals. How do you make your mind powerful? We strengthen the physical body with exercise and diet. The psychological immune system can be made powerful by not allowing the lower self in us to operate... instead we should encourage the higher centre to operate in our daily lives. Where do we draw our identity from? Mostly from acquired knowledge because that’s how ego, identity and address are established. Ego is established in the ‘I’. Acquired knowledge is the lower self. The knowledge from which we are born — the cell evolution — is the higher self. Acquired knowledge should support the higher self, not obstruct it. For example, in a game of tennis, when you see a ball coming from an opponent, your thought should not interfere with it and obstruct your spontaneous effort to hit a ball. But if you think, “Oh, i am going to miss it because i missed a stroke last time”, then acquired knowledge is obstructive. As a player, you cannot succeed. The higher self would look at the ball in a different way — “With a focused awareness i allow my being that has evolved to guide me in hitting a ball. In case i miss it, the higher self being a learning and evolving being, makes required corrections the next time i face a ball... whereas the acquired or lower self creates an image that i am not good and i am not lucky. This image makes me look at a ball next time as a threat and acts as an obstruction. The lower self is rigid, while the higher self is flexible in learning and growing. So say to yourself: “I will not allow my static conclusions to decide my action. Instead, i will allow my flow to decide a response”.
Love The Whole, You Will Love The Parts Too
B Dayita Madhav Maharaj
Pure love or prema is the love of the atma for the Supreme Being. He who is for the Whole is for all parts of the Whole. That which attempts to hinder love for the Supreme Lord is known as violence. This violence acts against my interest as well as yours. To love someone means to not harm him or his parts in even the slightest way. One who loves the Supreme Lord has genuine universal love. He loves all living beings. In contrast, what some understand as “universal love” turns out to be just an extended version of lust or kama. Socalled ‘universal lovers’ have, in fact, simply identified their own selfishness with the whole world. This may be understood as being merely an extended form of self-interest. They are ready to harm the rest of the world for the sake of their own selfish idea of the world. The one who loves Bhagavan, however, cannot nurse hatred for anyone under any circumstance. He has equal love for all, but his outward behaviour towards each person will differ, depending on the degree of manifestation of love for Bhagavan in each of these individuals. Violence and non-violence cannot be judged by external behaviour alone. If the father reprimands the son, it is not reasonable to jump to the conclusion that the father hates the son. It is the love of the parent for the child that makes him enforce discipline. The father has love and affection for all of his children, but he acts differently towards each of them according to their particular needs. Hanuman was a great devotee of Rama. His action of setting fire to Sri Lanka, and thus of taking many lives, may seem to be an act of violence. However, Hanuman’s actions were fuelled by love for Rama, and not hatred for the people of Sri Lanka. Ultimately, Hanuman’s actions led to the welfare of all. “One who has no false ego, whose intellect is not clouded by mundane, material works, may destroy the whole world and yet not cause any actual destruction, or be destroyed”, say scriptures. Such a person has gone beyond the roles of the destroyer and the destroyed. What is achieved from the love of the Whole, or Bhagavan, is conducive to the welfare of the self as well as others. Thus, it is only by means of bhagavadprema — love for God — that genuine nonviolence is possible. Since one jivatama is not the cause of another jivatama, the pleasure of one does not lead to the happiness of the other; nourishing one does not lead to the satisfaction of the other. For example, one spark of light cannot sustain the glow of another, but all sparks can be nourished by stoking the flame of their source lamp. Similarly, all living entities, or sparks of consciousness, have emanated from the One Supreme Consciousness. Without satisfying the Cause of all causes, Sri Hari, nobody can be satisfied or nourished. By ignoring the roots and watering only the branches, leaves and flowers, can a tree stay alive? In like manner, “watering” or nourishing individuals or even groups of living beings will be in vain if Bhagavan Sri Krishna is excluded. This is the essential mantra of Vedic teachings: “The essence of dharma is satisfaction of Sri Hari”. The writer is founder-acharya, All India Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math.
Pure love or prema is the love of the atma for the Supreme Being. He who is for the Whole is for all parts of the Whole. That which attempts to hinder love for the Supreme Lord is known as violence. This violence acts against my interest as well as yours. To love someone means to not harm him or his parts in even the slightest way. One who loves the Supreme Lord has genuine universal love. He loves all living beings. In contrast, what some understand as “universal love” turns out to be just an extended version of lust or kama. Socalled ‘universal lovers’ have, in fact, simply identified their own selfishness with the whole world. This may be understood as being merely an extended form of self-interest. They are ready to harm the rest of the world for the sake of their own selfish idea of the world. The one who loves Bhagavan, however, cannot nurse hatred for anyone under any circumstance. He has equal love for all, but his outward behaviour towards each person will differ, depending on the degree of manifestation of love for Bhagavan in each of these individuals. Violence and non-violence cannot be judged by external behaviour alone. If the father reprimands the son, it is not reasonable to jump to the conclusion that the father hates the son. It is the love of the parent for the child that makes him enforce discipline. The father has love and affection for all of his children, but he acts differently towards each of them according to their particular needs. Hanuman was a great devotee of Rama. His action of setting fire to Sri Lanka, and thus of taking many lives, may seem to be an act of violence. However, Hanuman’s actions were fuelled by love for Rama, and not hatred for the people of Sri Lanka. Ultimately, Hanuman’s actions led to the welfare of all. “One who has no false ego, whose intellect is not clouded by mundane, material works, may destroy the whole world and yet not cause any actual destruction, or be destroyed”, say scriptures. Such a person has gone beyond the roles of the destroyer and the destroyed. What is achieved from the love of the Whole, or Bhagavan, is conducive to the welfare of the self as well as others. Thus, it is only by means of bhagavadprema — love for God — that genuine nonviolence is possible. Since one jivatama is not the cause of another jivatama, the pleasure of one does not lead to the happiness of the other; nourishing one does not lead to the satisfaction of the other. For example, one spark of light cannot sustain the glow of another, but all sparks can be nourished by stoking the flame of their source lamp. Similarly, all living entities, or sparks of consciousness, have emanated from the One Supreme Consciousness. Without satisfying the Cause of all causes, Sri Hari, nobody can be satisfied or nourished. By ignoring the roots and watering only the branches, leaves and flowers, can a tree stay alive? In like manner, “watering” or nourishing individuals or even groups of living beings will be in vain if Bhagavan Sri Krishna is excluded. This is the essential mantra of Vedic teachings: “The essence of dharma is satisfaction of Sri Hari”. The writer is founder-acharya, All India Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math.
Beware of the halo, watch out for horn
VITHAL C NADKARNI
FOR all his fame as a philosopher with an inquisitive style, Socrates was physically unattractive. Some psychologists speculate that this could explain why fellow Athenians bumped him off: they forced him to drink hemlock in jail after having been unconsciously repulsed by the philosopher’s crabby troll-like looks! Had he been handsome, the same people might have feted him with wine and cheese at candle-lit public readings! The moral of the story is to watch out for the halo effect, which often tempts us into making extreme, black-andwhite judgements. So if you meet a charismatic fellow, the first impression of his sheer physical appeal might lead you to cast a halo around all his other attributes. According to Harold Kelley’s implicit personality theory, therefore, the first traits that we recognise in other people tend to colour all our later perceptions, if only because of our initial cognitive bias. This explains why celebrities are employed in reel-life to endorse products that they have no reallife expertise in evaluating. Also, why do we need to watch out for the halo effect during recruitment interviews? You could be influenced by one of the attributes and ignore the other weaknesses of the candidate. Conversely, an unfavourable first impression can eclipse even brilliantly positive, but not so immediately apparent attributes. This is the antithesis of the halo effect, the so-called devil effect, or the horns effect, where individuals judged to have a single undesirable trait are subsequently demonised to have many poor traits, allowing a single weak point or negative trait to influence others’ perception of the person in general. That explains why the entry of the physically deformed sage Ashtavakra into King Janaka’s assembly was immediately greeted with derisive laughter from the courtiers. So great was their shock at encountering his eight deformities that it immediately led the courtiers to conclude that the sage was intellectually challenged as well. Ironically, experts say people’s perceptions about their own selves tend to be highly exaggerated — riddled as they are with self-serving biases. The Bible describes it with the parable of a person who was quick to notice a mote in the neighbour’s eye while being blind to the beam in his own! With enlightened persistence, one can be taught to rise above the biases
FOR all his fame as a philosopher with an inquisitive style, Socrates was physically unattractive. Some psychologists speculate that this could explain why fellow Athenians bumped him off: they forced him to drink hemlock in jail after having been unconsciously repulsed by the philosopher’s crabby troll-like looks! Had he been handsome, the same people might have feted him with wine and cheese at candle-lit public readings! The moral of the story is to watch out for the halo effect, which often tempts us into making extreme, black-andwhite judgements. So if you meet a charismatic fellow, the first impression of his sheer physical appeal might lead you to cast a halo around all his other attributes. According to Harold Kelley’s implicit personality theory, therefore, the first traits that we recognise in other people tend to colour all our later perceptions, if only because of our initial cognitive bias. This explains why celebrities are employed in reel-life to endorse products that they have no reallife expertise in evaluating. Also, why do we need to watch out for the halo effect during recruitment interviews? You could be influenced by one of the attributes and ignore the other weaknesses of the candidate. Conversely, an unfavourable first impression can eclipse even brilliantly positive, but not so immediately apparent attributes. This is the antithesis of the halo effect, the so-called devil effect, or the horns effect, where individuals judged to have a single undesirable trait are subsequently demonised to have many poor traits, allowing a single weak point or negative trait to influence others’ perception of the person in general. That explains why the entry of the physically deformed sage Ashtavakra into King Janaka’s assembly was immediately greeted with derisive laughter from the courtiers. So great was their shock at encountering his eight deformities that it immediately led the courtiers to conclude that the sage was intellectually challenged as well. Ironically, experts say people’s perceptions about their own selves tend to be highly exaggerated — riddled as they are with self-serving biases. The Bible describes it with the parable of a person who was quick to notice a mote in the neighbour’s eye while being blind to the beam in his own! With enlightened persistence, one can be taught to rise above the biases
Knowledge Is A Barrier, It Inhibits Creativity
Satsang: Osho
Why can’t i see any meaning in life? Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create a meaning. You will find meaning only if you create it. It is a poem to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced. Buddha finds meaning because he creates it. I found it because i created it. God is not a thing but a creation. And only those who create find. And it is good that meaning is not lying somewhere there, otherwise one person would have discovered it — then what would be the need for everybody else to discover it? Albert Einstein discovered the theory of relativity; now, do you have to discover it again and again? One man has done it; he has given you the map. It may have taken years for him, but for you to understand it will take hours. Buddha also discovered something, Zarathustra also discovered something, but it is not like Einstein’s discovery. It is not there that you have just to follow Zarathustra and his map and you will find it. You will never find it. You will have to become a Zarathustra. Each individual has to give birth to God, to meaning, to truth; each man has to become pregnant with it and pass through the pains of birth. Each one has to carry it in one’s womb, feed it by one’s own blood, and only then does one discover. You don’t expect a religious person to be creative. You just expect him to fast, sit in a cave, get up early in the morning, chant mantras. And you are perfectly satisfied! Praise a man because he has created a song, a beautiful sculpture. Praise a man because he plays such a beautiful flute. Let these be religious qualities from now onwards. Praise a man because he is such a lover — love is religion. Because of him the world is becoming more graceful. The inquiry has to be pure, without any conclusion. If you are looking for a certain meaning, you will not find it — because from the very beginning your inquiry is polluted, it is impure. You have already decided. For example, if a man comes into my garden and thinks he can find a diamond there then to him this garden is beautiful. He cannot find the diamond, so he says there is no meaning in the garden... And there are so many beautiful flowers, and so many birds singing, and so many colours, and the wind blowing through the pines, and the moss on the rocks. But he cannot see any meaning because he has a certain idea: he has to find the diamond, only then there will be a meaning. He is missing meaning because of his idea. Let your inquiry be pure. Don’t move with any fixed idea. Go naked. Go open and empty. And you will find not only one meaning — you will find a thousand and one meanings. Then each thing will become meaningful. Just a coloured stone shining in the rays of the sun... or a dewdrop creating a small rainbow around itself... or just a small flower dancing in the wind... What meaning are you searching for? Go without a conclusion! That’s what i mean when i say go without knowledge if you want to find the truth. The knowledgeable person never finds it. His knowledge is a barrier. Drop the knowledge and become more creative. Remember, knowledge is gathered — you need not be creative about it; you have only to be receptive. And that’s what man has become: man is reduced to being a spectator. Extract from The Silence Of The Heart: Talks on Sufi Stories .
Why can’t i see any meaning in life? Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create a meaning. You will find meaning only if you create it. It is a poem to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced. Buddha finds meaning because he creates it. I found it because i created it. God is not a thing but a creation. And only those who create find. And it is good that meaning is not lying somewhere there, otherwise one person would have discovered it — then what would be the need for everybody else to discover it? Albert Einstein discovered the theory of relativity; now, do you have to discover it again and again? One man has done it; he has given you the map. It may have taken years for him, but for you to understand it will take hours. Buddha also discovered something, Zarathustra also discovered something, but it is not like Einstein’s discovery. It is not there that you have just to follow Zarathustra and his map and you will find it. You will never find it. You will have to become a Zarathustra. Each individual has to give birth to God, to meaning, to truth; each man has to become pregnant with it and pass through the pains of birth. Each one has to carry it in one’s womb, feed it by one’s own blood, and only then does one discover. You don’t expect a religious person to be creative. You just expect him to fast, sit in a cave, get up early in the morning, chant mantras. And you are perfectly satisfied! Praise a man because he has created a song, a beautiful sculpture. Praise a man because he plays such a beautiful flute. Let these be religious qualities from now onwards. Praise a man because he is such a lover — love is religion. Because of him the world is becoming more graceful. The inquiry has to be pure, without any conclusion. If you are looking for a certain meaning, you will not find it — because from the very beginning your inquiry is polluted, it is impure. You have already decided. For example, if a man comes into my garden and thinks he can find a diamond there then to him this garden is beautiful. He cannot find the diamond, so he says there is no meaning in the garden... And there are so many beautiful flowers, and so many birds singing, and so many colours, and the wind blowing through the pines, and the moss on the rocks. But he cannot see any meaning because he has a certain idea: he has to find the diamond, only then there will be a meaning. He is missing meaning because of his idea. Let your inquiry be pure. Don’t move with any fixed idea. Go naked. Go open and empty. And you will find not only one meaning — you will find a thousand and one meanings. Then each thing will become meaningful. Just a coloured stone shining in the rays of the sun... or a dewdrop creating a small rainbow around itself... or just a small flower dancing in the wind... What meaning are you searching for? Go without a conclusion! That’s what i mean when i say go without knowledge if you want to find the truth. The knowledgeable person never finds it. His knowledge is a barrier. Drop the knowledge and become more creative. Remember, knowledge is gathered — you need not be creative about it; you have only to be receptive. And that’s what man has become: man is reduced to being a spectator. Extract from The Silence Of The Heart: Talks on Sufi Stories .
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