Chapter 11
So he did not see that which was, he saw that which was not.
This is the reason we find the circle used in many religious symbols.
This shows he is giving up on being a human.
Both things seem worth doing, and both things dont seem worth doing as well -- hence the choice.
Once science gets hold of one ray, it will find out all about it.
If ever they had any validity, if ever any man had even made a meaningful application of them, that meaningfulness lay in their will.
A pseudo illness requires a pseudo treatment; that is the only way it can be cured.
The reason is we have built our houses on the very bridge that was only meant to be crossed.
One who is free from all clinging, attachments, blocks, demands, he alone knows the truth.
There cannot be, otherwise they would cease to function.
He gets ready to do santhara, the religious practice of embracing death voluntarily.
"
In anger you break your leg, in love you mend it.
If one is able to see precisely what is worth doing and what is not, then where is the question of choosing? Then all choosing ends.
As soon as the bird arrives and sits on the leaf, the leaves from all around close in on the bird, press it, and the tree sucks its blood.
The sky is empty.
Let me mention something briefly, and then we will conclude this talk.
I am aware of both things, and I can see the problem.
So when we call this world an illusion, it does not mean the world does not exist.
Hence, I say to you, there can be many sciences, not many religions.
He calls it Tao.
I dont want to be in cool water, I want to stand in the heat, I want to sweat.
One who totally comes to an agreement with the law of nature in the outside world attains vigyana.
It takes him years to make money, and in the process he misses his rest and recreation.
The crowd could not figure out what was going on -- the policeman was ready to kill the dog just a while ago.
In a way it is wrong to say nature becomes agreeable or disagreeable; the right way to put it is whether we are able to take natures help or not.
Naturally.
That truth is outside of both, or before both, or beyond both, or transcending both.
In anger, man wants to jump from the roof.
Somebodys wife dies and he turns into a holy man.
There are infinite choices and nature makes all of them available too.
The question is, who is going to conquer whom?
But if you did make a window, would that mean you conquered the breeze? You simply gave way to the breeze.
Some people are holding on to their riches while others are holding on to their religion.
They saw a crowd gathered near a tea stall.
You would be horrified if a physician were to tell you your body is poisoned and that he is giving you more poison.
And the danger is: he may use a talisman in order to keep the ghost away; however, in doing so, although he succeeds in saving himself from the ghost, he holds on to the charm tightly.
Man is swinging like a pendulum all the time -- sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right.
This is not an unnatural event.
The attitude towards the dog changes many times because many times a change in purpose occurs.
Your logic says, "If one has to get off the ladder eventually, then why climb it in the first place?"
The tree would die if it didnt find the needed height.
This is how gravity works.
What did happen, however, was that the man lost sight of the rope.
"
Their movements in space are circular.
The fact is, you are already dreaming, and you wont be able to come out of it until you have rightly understood what the dream is all about.
When we see, we are looking at something, we are looking for something, while a child just looks.
The other woman no longer need come in his dream, he has taken care of the business during the day.
Not eating is not significant by itself -- it simply works as a peg for the man to hang his will on.
It only means that the existence of a dream is psychological, not real.
because if, at the same time, I am worldly and a renunciate both then the whole meaning is lost.
I have watched him many times.
For one who lives decisively every moment, his consciousness will continue to grow every moment.
Now that will cause him difficulty -- all his inner umbrellas are bound to fall apart.
He went to where he had spotted the snake, found a rope lying there, laughed at himself and threw away the stick.
The only way we live is by dividing things into two -- either this or that.
It always looks easier to turn back.
So what this means is, natures multidimensionality is of two kinds.
The matter is over, the dream is no more.
By and by it makes you inert; you get stuck in the place where you are.
This is very interesting.
Not only once but twice, even three times I feel like going back and checking the lock -- but I feel embarrassed to do it.
There are ways to meet death, but you will have to find the order of death.
Their distances become greater and greater.
The falsity of sadhana is for the purpose of negating the untruth of samsara.
You saved yourself, you saved yourself by a hairs breadth.
Perhaps arithmetic is a part of our awakened state, while anger is a part of our unconscious state.
But you are a very strange type of people.
In a dense forest the trees will widen less; instead, they will grow taller, become conical.
He said, "The snake was indeed false.
And if the dream is already broken, then what I am saying has no meaning.
All its stars, moons, planets and satellites are circular.
" However, by the time the man got hold of the dog the second policeman once again expressed his doubt by saying, "I cant be sure, but he does look like our bosss dog.
Someone tells him it wasnt a snake, that what he saw was all false, that he ran for no reason.
This is how they move forward a little.
Apparently the man has forgotten that the ladder he climbed was for getting off one day.
In a dense forest the tree has to grow higher and higher in order to survive.
If you come across a man telling his wife, with folded hands, that she is the most beautiful woman in the world -- just look into his dreams.
The phony man plans it very well.
Even when people become holy men or women, they do so because they are somehow pushed into it.
We are aware of beautiful children and we know of less beautiful young people, but beautiful old men are very rare to find.
Only he is liberated who hangs on to nothing.
If you can make decisions every moment, in a few days you will find your consciousness shooting up within you like an arrow.
And since I call this mundane world an illusion -- illusion in the sense that it is not what we understand it to be
Then one does what is worth doing and leaves what is not worth doing.
So if the tree has to reach the sun it cant grow its branches wide, it has to grow tall.
Dauntless, the three remained until the water reached their waists.
He continues to find ways and means -- what to drop next? -- and his ladder goes on rising.
Thats why the entire field of todays psychology -- whether it be of Freud, Jung or Adler -- is the psychology of analyzing dreams.
Three of the seekers were crossing the dry canal when suddenly Gurdjieff called from inside the tent, "Stop!" All the three stood in the middle of the canal, motionless.
When he is in a rage he is blind with anger; when he works on a mathematical problem, he does so with great awareness.
It is useless to ask anything about you, hence the need to consult your dreams.
This kind of reasoning is dangerous.
"If this is so then why should we follow them?" you naturally ask.
It is necessary we have a right understanding of the dream in order to come out of it.
The opportunities come your way all the time, all kinds of opportunities
However, there is a difference between the state of no-choice of the first plane and that of this plane.
There is fear in his look.
"Does that mean your labor, all these years, was all in vain?" they asked.
Similarly, when someone asks, "Are you a worldly man?" then too I face the same difficulty, because if I say I am a worldly man, I once again find myself facing the duality that exists between a worldly man and a renunciate.
Now if you bend it forward, no harm will be done, but if you place it backward on your shoulder, the wind will turn it inside out.
So there are infinite dimensions, infinite choices, infinite parts making choices.
Whatsoever did not happen during the day, what you couldnt say, couldnt do, remains dormant within and then attempts to revive itself at night.
Dream analysis has become the means to know a man.
But make a decision: "I want to wait.
He is always in misery.
I am attracted to the woman walking down the street" -- a man who can be so simple and direct -- will stop dreaming.
Or the name given by the Vedic seers is also appropriate.
And in my view, it is only then that he will be a human being in the true sense of the word.
Had the man been authentic, his life itself would have revealed who he is.
So when I talk about all these techniques -- whether it is about kundalini, chakras, the seven bodies -- they are all part of a dream.
So when I say this world is a lie, then a sadhana, a spiritual discipline, cannot be true.
There are ways to become ice, but you will have to come to the point where ice comes into being.
There is a law that governs the moulding, the casting of gold.
Nature is willing to work in both instances, depending upon what you wish to do.
IS SADHANA A NATURAL GROWTH, OR IS IT A JUMP OUTSIDE THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF NATURE? IF SADHANA IS NOT A JUMP AND TRANSCENDENCE OF THE NATURAL EVOLUTION, THEN IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE CAN REACH SPIRITUAL HEIGHTS ALL BY ITSELF? IF IT IS TRUE THAT THE COURSE OF EVOLUTION CONTINUES TO MOVE AHEAD, WHY WERE THE GREATEST SPIRITUAL CULTURES OF THE PAST LEFT BEHIND IN THE WHOLE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS?
The choice is yours.
Being himself the decision-maker, when he decides, when it becomes his own choice, will is created.
It will not stop you.
Now if someone were to persuade me to walk ten steps more in order to get out of it, I would find it very confusing, for in the first place I got inside the room because I walked ten steps.
The application of science does not mean we have conquered nature -- there is no way to conquer nature.
Often it may have even occurred to you that "How can the very ladder which helped me climb so high be thrown away all of a sudden?" So you want to hold fast to the ladder.
But in that case the ray will keep on becoming thinner and thinner -- the greater the distance, the narrower it will be.
It is like giving an antidote to someone who has taken a wrong medicine.
Only once in a while does one come across someone who has grown into a beautiful old man.
First of all, when I refer to something as false, as untruth, it does not mean it is nonexistent.
If man is evolving spiritually, it is because of his natural potential.
"
The word anant-anant means infinite in infinite directions.
There is no way for anything unnatural to happen; whatsoever happens is natural.
Why would nature stop you from turning water into ice, if you wish to do so, and have you rather turn it into vapor? Nature will be happy to clear your way if you wish to go to hell, or heaven: whether you wish to live or die, nature will always be willing to cooperate.
And whosoever makes such a decision -- which proves to be a point of no return -- in the life of such a man nothing remains asleep, everything is awakened.
He is guided by a purpose, he is looking through his unconscious mind to see if there is any snake on the street -- and that makes him see a snake instead of a rope.
It was pressing against the umbrella when you bent it forward, but its force was towards you.
You say, "We dont want to jump in the ocean.
Actually, what someone needs to show me is the way to get out of the room without proceeding further inside the room.
It is filled with consciousness and is connected to the world that lies ahead -- the world of wholeness, the world of the divine, where everything is fully conscious.
You remain divided in two.
Hence, on this plane a man cannot say he did something he never wanted to do -- the question doesnt arise.
For example, you are walking with an umbrella over your head and the wind is blowing against you.
You have moved so much on the side of falsehood that even while coming back, this much ground -- the distance you have traveled going into lies -- will have to be covered.
Rather, its like spring water which has burst forth through its own inner power and is flowing.
What can a man who is asleep choose? He will continue to remain asleep.
We either see darkness or light -- there is no room in our lives for dusk, which is neither.
And what is the energy doing? It is bursting forth, it is flowing.
When the dream is broken anyway, then whats the point in interpreting it? The interpretation is valid only as long as the dream is happening.
The master asked him to sit beside him and said, "I liked what you said.
Sometimes he is perceived as the bosss dog, and sometimes not.
So we hear these voices coming from far away, and with folded hands we salute and say to the people of the other shore, "You are gods, you are avataras, you are tirthankaras, you are great! We will worship you, but we want to go back!"
It is like drawing lines away from one point.
This is very much like the law of gravity.
Keeping this law in mind, you have to choose whether you wish to break your bone -- then you may jump from the roof.
For example, if Gurdjieff were to address people sitting here, all of a sudden in the middle of the talk he would say "Stop!" It would mean everyone sitting here would freeze -- your hands, head, legs, the whole body would remain motionless, like a statue.
For example, nature was willing to run this fan a long time ago.
When both falsehoods attain parity and neutralize each other, then what remains is the truth.
Even if we were to choose a wrong path, nature will bring us to the very end of it.
What he saw inwardly was different from what existed outside.
Which welcome sign to choose is ultimately your decision.
There are an infinite number of people who are indeterminable parts of nature its
九九藏书elf.
So there is neither any choice on the plane of total awareness, nor any choice on the plane of total unconsciousness.
While we go on sweating, the ocean will keep calling, "Come if you like, its your pleasure.
Leaving the world meant becoming a sannyasin; not accepting the life of a renunciate meant being a worldly man.
" He went running and brought a cup of tea.
The illness and the cure belong to the same plane, there is no difference between the two.
And one who is on the ladder is definitely not on the roof.
We have started living there.
It is not that one event is natural while the other is not -- both are natural.
There is already a word anant, infinite; it means infinite in one direction.
But none of them is willing to get off the ladder.
Your making the decision alone will bring an end to the state of unconsciousness, because a decision cannot emerge in an unconscious state.
"
In both cases he is far away from the roof.
To put it rightly, his seeing is purposeless.
If you show your absolute will even for a single moment, that very moment you attain to a total consciousness.
All of this, however, is not being controlled from above -- it is regulated from within.
If nature had not been equipped to make the water heat up to a hundred degrees, the water itself did not have the capacity to heat up to a hundred degrees.
They couldnt figure out what to do.
If you can grasp this multidimensionality of nature, you will have no difficulty in understanding what I am saying.
It exists when both are not.
Only what is natural takes place in this universe.
Let me tell you a story.
Mind and meditation both have to be given up.
To me, science has only one meaning.
If you wish to walk, you will need to lift your feet appropriately.
They have leaves the size of a plate.
The same difficulty arises if I say I am not both, because we have no idea there is something beyond the two, that there can be a third.
What I call meditation, or kundalini, or the technique of spiritual discipline are essentially means of searching for that which does not exist.
I believe, if you did this, then even that decisive act would show you have grown.
If people were to write honestly in their biographies only about what happened when they were asleep and leave out the time they were awake, the world would become a much better place to live in, and we would come to know much truer facts about men.
What is gained through science we call vigyana.
If we understand this, then it would mean that the laws exist, that we exist, and what we do with the laws and with ourselves -- that capacity to choose -- also exists.
" At once the first policeman, who had been urging that the dog be killed, went up to the man holding the dog, grabbed his collar and said, "You rogue! What do you mean by drawing a crowd in the middle of the street and holding up traffic? What do you mean by creating this nuisance? Come with us to the police station!" He immediately picked up the dog in his arms and began petting him.
For him the snake is real.
The ocean is waving down below.
The more conscious man becomes, the more his choices will lead him towards happiness; the more unconscious he is, the closer he will move towards misery.
He finds the talisman the savior of his life.
If we conduct ourselves in a manner that nature cannot be helpful, we stand to lose from it.
When a purpose enters your view, a rope begins to look like a snake; the rope ceases to exist.
Only when one is fully aware can one see the truth of life.
There is a difference between how we see things and how children do.
This too is a trees choice.
He waits until the last moment and lets go only when death finally snatches everything away.
A falsehood has its own existence and so does a dream.
But since you are not taking the jump, the diving board is quiet.
A dream is a lingering phenomenon.
But the human mind says, "If you want to hold on to something then hold to it completely; if you want to drop it then drop it absolutely.
Our being able to run the fan and burn the light with electricity does not mean we have found victory over nature.
There is no one else you can hold responsible, who can answer why a certain thing happened -- there is no one at all.
Remember, if one is free from the illness alone but still continues the cure then one is not really free.
Since we came across more misery trying to find happiness, we take the state of bliss to be more or less similar to the state of happiness -- perhaps as a little more intense state of happiness.
Although this area has not been researched yet, I feel, however, that in the near future science may discover there are trees which have suicidal tendencies -- trees who may not be choosing to live, who may be wanting to stay short in the dense forest and eventually die.
Rit means the law.
So what I am saying is that sadhana
The water cant decide whether to become vapor or not.
His aim was to live in comfort which, without having money, was naturally impossible.
So the question is, can we see without the use of mind? Seeing without the mind is the ultimate state.
Dont misunderstand me when I say the choice is ours because, essentially, we are part and parcel of nature.
When the dream is over, there will be neither samsara nor sannyas.
Rather, the infinite energy within is the only source that causes everything to expand.
No matter how much you persuade him, "Its enough, now its time to get off," he persists by saying, "How can that be possible? I will have to build the ladder before I sit down and relax.
Meanwhile, somebody released the canal waters.
So be decisive.
Here is a man who fasts, but he does not know what fasting means.
There are trees which actually move a few feet every year.
The tree has to exercise its choice a little.
That truth is neither of this world, the samsara, nor of the sadhana.
Regardless, I will surely have to walk ten steps; although now my attitude will be different, my course will not be the same, I will not be facing the same direction -- my back will be towards what I was facing before, and vice versa.
He holds tight.
As such, it was a very small exercise, but it used to prove very effective in raising consciousness.
He comes to such understanding that to him stealing seems foolish.
It certainly is, and it is making some plans as well: it is on the lookout for something.
So when you offer him a stick for his safety someone may ask, "If the snake is not really there, then why do you give him the stick? That shows you believe the snake is there as well.
I was following it because of you.
Putting it in ultimate terms, it means we are the infinite possibilities of nature itself; we are the infinite openings of nature.
It would be better if we say man is the tension itself -- half of him being pulled to one side, half to the other.
There are trees that are carnivorous.
In twenty to twenty-five years his habit becomes so solid that now he cant give up the habit of renouncing.
He holds his possessions firmly, lest his grip loosen.
Science only means that we have discovered certain ways and means of living in accord with nature.
Both words are very meaningful.
We dont even know what sort of thing it is that people call bliss.
That means, whenever he looks at things, he looks out of fear.
" Make this your choice and then wait.
There are ways to live, but you will have to explore the order of life.
A practice of twenty-five years is behind him.
"
Do you follow what I am saying? How can an explanation of a dream have any real meaning whatsoever when the dream itself is never true? An explanation of a dream, however, can be helpful in putting an end to the dream -- and should that ever happen, you will wake up.
Dreams are, of course, very useful; they give much information about man.
Its faultless.
In reality he might have nothing to do with God.
So when I say both things simultaneously it obviously creates a difficulty.
Being surrounded by lies, what I had assumed to be nonexistent -- thats what I found.
" He may come back and be amazed at you for having had him carry the stick all that way unnecessarily -- the snake was not there.
You are just pulled and pushed from all sides.
Calling this world maya simply means the world is not what it looks like; rather, it is merely an appearance.
He is responsible for the good as well as the bad.
If this man eats even once in his mind, the whole thing is finished, it becomes totally useless.
In the pursuit of earning money he has lost his ability to relax, he got hooked to the habit of not relaxing.
These are just two ways of expressing the same thing.
Nevertheless, as compared to the choices made by man, their choices are very ordinary.
If you want to be on the roof, you will have to do two things: you will have to climb the ladder, and after reaching the roof, get rid of it.
Now if you ask him to stay home and relax, he cant do it.
So the rope undoubtedly gave credence to his illusion.
Nature is a cumulation of infinite possibilities.
Then there wont be anything to worry about.
Falling down is natural and so is rising up.
Obviously there does exist a gap between the state of anger and finding the solution to an arithmetic problem.
It does a totally perfect job; it never falls short.
He should make it clear, "I intend to be a thief, and I want to say to all the holy men they should stop all their nonsense.
It has to explore each and every direction in order to find out what would be agreeable to this law of nature and that law of nature.
They strengthen the roots that lie in the direction where they wish to move, and relax the roots of the area they wish to abandon.
Either you have a friend or an enemy -- there is no third place in between.
How could I be both? If I say I am neither, even then it turns out to be meaningless, because my answer carries no sense.
But ultimately, both are worth giving up.
The consciousness I attained to when the water went over my head was simply the ultimate.
The second one held out until the water reached his nose, in the hope Gurdjieff might call off the stop exercise.
"
He is extremely dangerous.
In other words, he does not have any individuality.
He would keep watching, and if anyone moved he would say, "Cant you muster enough will to stay as you are for a while?"
What is sadhana, spiritual discipline really? Sadhana means becoming free from this mind.
I am not only talking against the disease, I am talking against the cure as well, because my experience is that, for the last thousands of years, a great deal has been said against the disease.
As I was telling you yesterday, science means to know more and more about less and less.
Man says there was no misery in childhood.
The master would ask his disciples to keep a diary of their dreams.
If you are willing to jump, the diving board is ready to help you; it has springs, they can toss you below.
In a thick forest it is dangerous for a tree to grow wide; that will cause it to die.
Similarly, there are inner laws of nature too.
So remember, compared to a person who has become a holy man without his own decision, a man who has become a thief through his own decision would live a far superior life.
The mother finds you a job, so you take that job.
Hence the choice is in your hands.
Given this state of affairs, you will have to choose decisively, you will have to make the decision.
We exist under the same law too.
We dont even understand the language of the voices that come from afar because we have no idea what bliss is.
In such a case the man will neither be a foe nor a friend.
We are living in lies.
There are millions of laws working in the outside world.
You may climb almost the entire ladder, but if you stop at the last rung, it doesnt mean you have reached the roof -- you are still on the ladder.
Right then the other policeman took his partner aside and said, "Watch it, I think it looks like thats our bosss dog.
Everyone says how blissful childhood was, so if man could, he would immediately return to the state of childhood.
When we say the world is maya, illusion, it does not mean the world is nonexistent, because if the world does not exist then whom are you addressing? Who is talking? Why? When one calls this world an illusion, he at least assumes that the speaker exists and so does the listener.
The fact is, we have discovered the ways of living in accord with nature.
For example, there is no way that water lying in the sun cannot turn into vapor -- it would be difficult for it not to.
You will say the same thing tomorrow as well, that you would like to jump the next day.
Question 1
To be awake is natural, and to stay asleep is natural as well.
It was dry at the time; the water had not run through the canal yet.
So either I should say I am both simultaneously -- which is meaningless
Suffering is natural, and so is happiness.
But it happened only when I stood firm in my resolve.
Religion stands for the search for natures laws agreeable to the inner world.
"You are doing the right thing.
The platelike leaves contain a very fragrant juice, and the fragrance naturally attracts birds from far away.
Choice is not there because the man is fully awake.
A womans husband dies and she ends up being a holy woman.
We took so long to put the fan in the right place and make it work.
And, had the rope not been there, he could not have seen the snake in an empty space.
Even this much of a condition -- that you would rather be in the temple worshipping than attending to your store -- can prevent you from knowing the truth.
What does this mean? It means that the anger arises from your unconscious part, while the thought about not wanting to be angry comes from the conscious part of you.
For example, while walking on the street you also make use of the law of gravitation.
We complain, "What kind of nature is this? It broke the poor mans bone!" But nature simply does its job.
Since the poison, the wrong medicine, has already entered his body, it is necessary to give the man another poison to counteract the former one.
To live is natural, to die is natural, and your ability to choose either of the two is natural too.
People find thousands of arguments a99lib.netgainst the possibility of growth, but where they are certain of decay people keep moving head on in that direction.
Lacking decisiveness, you will simply go on drifting here and there, pushed by the society.
And the interesting thing is that we are not living outside of nature, we are part of nature.
Moving ahead means only one thing: become more and more aware.
The purpose of fasting is to bring decisiveness, to bring a decision-making power.
Here, whatsoever happens, happens because of our choice.
It is not that the infinity is only in a couple of directions -- it is in all directions; there are infinities in all infinities.
The whole discipline of psychology is based on the analysis of dreams.
Nature has put the sign everywhere.
So the psychoanalyst wants to peek into your dreams.
Put conquering aside.
.
A man who lives with anger has his umbrella resting on the shoulder.
I like your interpretation.
And in my view, truth lies where ladders cease to exist and you land on plain ground, where there is no longer the need to climb up or down.
For an adult even the simple act of looking is not without purpose.
Do you see my point? The bridge is ready to take you forward too; it allows you to go ahead.
When we say a dream is false, it does not mean a dream has no existence.
Just think: what does this mean? If you visit a psychoanalyst, he doesnt show much concern about you, he becomes interested in your dreams -- because, as you are, you are a lie.
It is indeed a poison, but antithetical to the former one.
Religion can only be one because it is knowledge -- not a specialized knowledge.
But we are afraid of facing trouble as well.
Then whatsoever will be, will be the truth.
Similarly, dharma also means the law.
He may drop the marketplace but seize upon the temple.
Everyone in the crowd was having fun and encouraging the man to kill the dog who was a menace and had bitten many people before.
A canal was situated nearby.
Hence my emphasis on sadhana, and my telling you repeatedly: get on with it, take a jump; the laws are firmly rooted.
Suppose you were to ask me, "Are you my friend, or an enemy?" If I answer, "I am both," you will have difficulty in following me.
We do not use any prefix before gyana, we do not put any adjective before it.
Now we fix our bulbs and switches, lay out electric wires in such a way that electricity can pass through them.
It has a tremendous power, tremendous energy.
You will have to tell your mind, "Take this sadhana with you.
They grow in height.
For one thing, what appears to us is not the reality.
Here it is all up to you -- you can go in either direction.
What is achieved through dharma we call gyana.
Then there wont be two left.
Gurdjieff was still in the tent; they were not sure whether he even knew the canal was filling up.
So when you apply words such as falsehood, untruth, illusion, appearance, do keep one thing in mind: it does not mean something is nonexistent.
Even a falsehood has its own existence.
One half of you is joined with the lower world -- the world of rocks and mountains where everything is in a state of unconsciousness.
You cant make anyone else responsible for it, because there is no one sitting up above who can be blamed for causing you to make a wrong choice.
What kind of craziness is this? If God alone is the decision-maker, and if he alone creates someone good and someone bad -- makes one man Rama and the other Ravana -- then whats the point? Then everything becomes nonsense, carries no meaning.
He has not reached the roof yet.
The bridge is already there; it is natural too.
A person who spreads love is placing his umbrella forward; he is being agreeable to nature.
In other words, one who is agreeable in every way, one who is nowhere in conflict with life; one who is at no point separate from life; one who has become harmonious with all the laws of life, he attains to the ultimate truth, the ultimate life, the ultimate bliss.
We are always standing on the crossroads from where an infinite number of paths emerge.
Thats why in the eyes of an adult you dont see the innocence you see in the eyes of a child.
If one is a thief, it is his choice; if one is honest, that too is his choice.
You are standing on the diving board.
Just as the earth pulls the left and the right foot, it pulls the jumping man too.
We come from there; the place does not hold much of a threat.
The same gravity which helped you walk will break your bone and make you a cripple.
He goes on playing with ideas as to what he should renounce next -- whether he should give up sleep, or stop bathing.
" So you give him the stick and tell him, "If there is a snake, kill it.
There are infinite possibilities in nature.
Gurdjieff said, "This was all planned by me.
He was a great believer in analyzing dreams.
Nature is prepared to greet you under every condition.
2 August 1970 pm in Bombay, India
This too is nature.
Religion means having an understanding of how to become spontaneous, how to be one with the inner nature of life.
Whatsoever is, whatsoever is visible, he just looks at it.
The Zen master was very keenly interested in dreams too.
This is the way we all live.
His dream will tell you more exactly about him.
You cant be sure about him because the man moves back and forth like the pendulum of a clock.
The sun will continue to shine, he will welcome you and invite you to enjoy him.
Some are clinging to the samsara, while some are holding tight to the idea of moksha -- but basically the holding remains.
He not only chooses to travel on earth, he also chooses to travel vertically, in space.
He goes on climbing -- raising one ladder on top of another.
Hence, it is just knowing -- not a specialized knowledge.
Dharma means your inner nature, the law.
The choice is almost none.
His wife hardly ever comes into his dreams -- other women you will find most certainly.
For example, a man begins to earn money so that he can live a comfortable life later on.
So this universe is not just infinite.
If we conform to these laws, nature becomes agreeable; if we go against them, it becomes disagreeable.
So when one points out to a person who is asleep that everything is false, that it is illusion, he refuses to believe you.
He said, "Often I am not sure whether I locked it or not, so I come back to double check.
Now he finds himself in a very difficult situation.
You will have to watch that you dont go against the law of nature.
He did not see the rope as a rope -- which it was; the rope appeared to him like a snake, which it was not.
A cure is desirable indeed for a man who is ill, but what meaning can it have for a person who is healthy? For a healthy person, a cure is totally worthless.
I want to remain in a state of stupor -- where I may remain lying in a gutter, languishing on the roadside, talking filthy if I want to, not talking filthy if I dont want to.
" The diving board will keep saying, "I am ready to bounce, but you need to make a choice first -- you need to take off.
Why? -- because the place to which we return is known territory.
How can we rush into it? We will do it tomorrow, or the day after.
" You will have to raise consciousness in order to move forward, because as you move ahead on the bridge, youll become more and more aware -- only then will you be able to advance.
He is not fixed on the idea that what he sees should only appear in a particular way.
Meditation is the ultimate agreeability of the inner life, the uttermost harmony, the most profound of all.
Actually, that which did not exist was superimposed on that which did.
So although the pressure was the same, the difference was in how you had positioned the umbrella.
If the earth did not have gravity, you wouldnt be able to walk on the earth.
Grey has no place in our lives.
He unquestionably sees that which is right, hence he has no reason to choose.
So he says, "Leave everything, renounce everything that creates bondage!" He starts disowning his home, his business, his family, his wealth, his clothes -- he goes on dropping things.
They kept their courage until the water came up to their necks.
The rope was lying there all along.
To welcome means to allow freedom.
Rather, one should say the universe consists of infinite infinities.
Would you give any further interpretation?"
On all her doors is a Welcome sign -- which is dangerous too.
Now you are adding more to it!" The doctor explains, "This is an antidote.
At least this much truth is established.
The water went over his head.
Question 2
It is perfect, an exact antithetical lie meant to counter another lie.
So if I say I am both, the words lose their meaning.
So something has to be done.
Then he felt it was dangerous to hold on any longer, and he jumped out of the water too.
A dream, a lie, has its own existence too.
He gives things up so he can arrive at a point where his mind will be free of all attachments.
You become used to this sweating, the heat, and to the nonsense that you would like to jump -- but tomorrow.
The next moment, the second policeman looked at the dog a little more closely and said, "No, this doesnt look like our bosss dog!" Right away the first policeman got rid of the dog and yelled at the man, "Take hold of this dog and kill him.
And the laws keep on increasing as we move more and more in the outer world.
The illness and the cure both need to be dropped.
When Jesus was asked who would inherit the truth, he replied, "Those who are like children.
So you may not hold on to anything, so you may not have any clinging, so you may not become subject to any complexes, so you may not become attached, I say to you: neither the samsara is true nor is the sadhana.
They couldnt utter a word because that would have meant breaking the "Stop" command.
Your reflection comes through clearly, your picture emerges sharply in the dreams -- which are false.
One who decides with a total mind attains so much consciousness that he can no longer steal.
Now if I were to take ten steps more, I would have walked twenty steps inside the room.
"
It becomes obvious that moving ahead means leaving behind whatsoever we now have.
Thats why I say, on the one hand, that meditation is useful.
It is also possible he might be seeking God so that some day he might ask him the whereabouts of the diamond mine.
We simply learned the way to be in agreement with nature.
Furthermore, you and nature are not two separate entities -- you are nature.
Without finding the rope the snake will not be killed.
So the man was busy making money.
"
I wanted to see if you were capable of something more than merely stopping the movements of your hands and feet.
If you care to take the jump, they are anxious to help you.
The disciple said, "If you will wait for just one minute I will be back soon.
The greater the intensity of will, the more profound the feeling of resolve, the more ones consciousness comes closer to being total.
" He dismissed the other two seekers and told them never to think of coming back -- never at all.
The rope was always present, right there.
The chooser is not present, hence there is no question of making a choice.
He would not have escaped had he not seen it -- he did see the snake.
As death approaches we close our fists more tightly.
Man is in between, and thats the reason he is in a state of tension.
All the preparations are geared toward attaining this total consciousness; they are meant for creating that absolute will.
"Your years of penance, years of seeking, did they not yield any results?"
If I wish to get out of this room I will have to walk back at least ten steps -- in this very room.
Then what shall be done about it? Some device will have to be found to awaken this man.
Gurdjieff asked how he had felt inside at that moment when the water went over his head.
The third young man stood there without budging.
You dont want to get angry, but you do get angry.
Since he cannot, he stays where he is.
How can I believe all these things are illusion? I have a body.
One who has learned how to love has actually mastered one law of the inner science.
The other half is awakened.
Now that the dream is broken, whats the sense in interpreting it? Please wash your face so that whatsoever little illusion, whatsoever little trace of your dream that may still be left can be cleaned away.
When it began rising even further, one of them exclaimed, "This is foolishness!" and jumped out of the canal.
It so happened that once, along with his followers, he was experimenting in Tiflis.
Make sure you have a false sword to kill an imaginary ghost.
The seekers stood there, unmoving.
That too is within his power to choose.
If we choose the road to hell, it begins to clear the way and invites us to proceed.
There is no pain in parting with things voluntarily.
Nevertheless, you wont be able to hold it responsible, because nature merely does its job.
I lost something which was not there at all, something I had believed to be there.
The antidote was not needed; it was only used because the man took the wrong medicine.
Since man never likes to let go of things, it hurts when they are taken away.
He said, "How did you know? It does occur to me indeed.
And the bridge is ready to provide you passage to move backwards.
Then it cant remain asleep any longer.
There is no one up there to be held responsible; the entire responsibility rests with man.
The word Lao Tzu has used for it is beautiful.
Darkness is natural and so is light.
If you have money in your pocket, he looks at you in a particular way; if your pocket is empty, he looks at you differently.
The more unconscious an individual is, the less profound is his ability to choose.
Trees in India wont grow to such heights, because in India there arent forests that thick.
That means, intrinsically, nature is absolutely free.
Vigyana means a specialized knowledge; gyana means just knowledge, natural -- not any special knowledge.
So nature is a circular phenomenon.
Dogs harass policemen too, they pay special attention to them!
They lure birds, trap them, and once the birds have landed on them, they close their leaves.
And when you have to make money you can99lib.nett afford to relax.
He keeps on climbing the ladder, refuses to get off the ladder.
You might cry out, "As it is, I am dying of poison.
He immediately believes it to be a snake, because he is looking out of fear.
Now this whole matter of moving ahead is essentially our own choice.
It is true that the disease and the cure stand with their backs to each other; however, the plane on which they exist is the same.
One could not call it a falsehood if that were not true.
One who renounces and one who clings are of the same kind.
He sleeps at night and becomes part of nature; he wakes up in the morning and begins his journey towards the divine.
Wherever they see defeat they are drawn towards it as if hypnotized, but when they see victory they look for scores of excuses.
Those who got attached to the cure turned out to be even more dangerous than the ones who were ill.
At least in the dream a kind of truth exists, because the dream is unplanned: it happens on its own, it has its own reality.
Ultimately the individual is responsible.
One is holding on to the ladder meant for renouncing things, while the other has seized upon the ladder meant for latching on to things.
This is the principle of inner science.
The meaning existed because of the duality: the meaning was in the dichotomy.
The first plane consists of the unconscious state.
They will be one at the point of origin, but as they move away from the point their number will go on increasing, their distances will go on increasing.
Choice exists on the human plane, which consists of half consciousness and half awareness.
And the day you wake up, you wont say the dream was true; you wont say the explanation was right, you will say it was just a play which ended.
Then you will get used to saying this, you will keep on repeating the same thing, and all the laws of nature will wait patiently.
The canal began to fill up, while Gurdjieff stayed inside the tent.
There is no choice in the world of unconsciousness, because the chooser is asleep.
You are standing in the middle of the bridge -- you can either turn back or move ahead.
He cant even say, "I regret what I have done," because the question doesnt arise at all.
One man was holding a dog by his leg.
" Nevertheless, you reiterate, "There is no snake, the snake is false.
The characters remain unchanged, but the story takes turns a few times because each time there is a change in motive.
When someone hits me with a stone I hurt, my body bleeds and I feel pain.
Now this obviously creates a stalemate, a rather complicated situation.
A man files bankruptcy and becomes a holy man.
"
Nature is very cooperative.
" You wont be able to say, "Things would have worked out better had you kept yourself out of it.
In fact, electricity was always ready to pass through them.
" They say this, shouting aloud, but their voices sound strange to us because the place from where they speak is unknown to us.
We are afraid of the unknown.
The sun is hot, the heat is intense, you are sweating, and the cool ocean is rolling below.
The heating of water, as well as the water turning into vapor by taking a jump, are natural phenomena.
There is no harm if one has to make a decision -- even for the wrong reasons.
When a person is free from both the mind and the sadhana, free from the disease as well as the cure
The same law works.
So if you stay indecisive, the state of unconsciousness will become more and more condensed.
One will be on the roof while the other will be on the ground below.
We divide things either into black or white, while the reality consists mostly of grey.
Buddha replied, "I didnt achieve anything, of course, but I lost for certain, I lost something that was not really there.
" If there is none, then there is no question.
The door to hell says Welcome, and so does the door to heaven.
Gurdjieff used to have his followers go through a small experiment.
One needs to arrive at a point where nothing is left -- either to hold on to or to drop.
If it stays in the sun, then it is sure to become vapor, and lying in the cold, it is sure to become ice.
" But as far as anger is concerned, a man admits he didnt want to be angry and yet became angry.
We also know the more we tried to attain happiness, the more we found misery.
" If he could, he would love to be back there, but he cannot.
For example, if we heat water to a hundred degrees, on the hundredth degree the water takes a jump and turns into vapor.
Thats why I am talking about a third type of man who is neither worldly nor a renunciate.
Truth lies where you drop your attachment, where you drop your conditions, where you stop seeing things through your conditioned mind, where you begin to perceive things with a mind free of all conditioning -- thats where the truth lies.
Now we are afraid lest, in our quest for bliss, we land ourselves in more trouble.
As the policeman started showing affection to the dog, and as the man holding the dog was apprehended, the entire crowd grew very puzzled.
It is a false cure, it is an antidote too.
And an antidote for a lie will inevitably have to be a lie.
He sees whatsoever there is.
" But the closer we come to death, the stronger the grip becomes.
What I mean to say is, nothing unnatural can ever happen in this universe.
Initially you were on the first rung, now you are on the hundredth rung, but you are on the ladder nevertheless.
DOES THAT MEAN THE STATE OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS IS FALSE? IS THE GROWTH OF BODY AND MIND FALSE? IS THE CESSATION OF CONDITIONING FALSE? IS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MOVING FROM THE GROSS TO THE SUBTLE FALSE? IS ALL THE PREPARATION FOR THE JOURNEY FROM THE FIRST BODY TO THE SEVENTH BODY FALSE? IS THE LONG PROCESS OF THE DISCIPLINE OF KUNDALINI ALL A SHAM? KINDLY EXPLAIN.
It is essential to bring this point home to a seeker, otherwise he may succeed in dropping the samsara, but grab on to sannyas, to renunciation.
This, the water will have to live through, although it will have no knowledge that it is living through it, because its consciousness is low, or not at all, or dormant.
Now this is meaningless, this doesnt serve any purpose.
When you see a man in the marketplace, in the middle of the day, he is not as authentic as he is in his dream -- in a dream which is totally a lie.
Two falsehoods negate each other.
You can start from anywhere and reach anywhere you like -- the choice is always yours.
Now that you are leaving, kindly take this sadhana with you too!"
The second potion is a poison too, except that it is meant to work in the opposite direction.
Of course those who have gone ahead say, crying loudly, "Dont turn back in fear, because much joy lies ahead of you.
The entire system in nature is circular.
Animals make even greater choices -- they run, they move swiftly.
The dog is the same, the man is the same, the policemen are the same -- everything is the same.
You can, of course, take a jump and be in cool waters.
They said, "Are you out of your mind? Why should we do something which was so fruitless?"
Freedom is beautiful, attachment is slavery.
He spots something lying on the road, it looks like something is moving.
We prevented it by raising the wall; we did not make a window.
Religion expands, it becomes more and more vast, it keeps on becoming formless until advaita, nonduality, oneness remains at the end.
It means the world appears to have an existence.
Twenty-four hours a day, a seeker will look forward to making even ordinary decisions -- it doesnt matter how insignificant they are.
Actually, there cannot be a cure for a pseudo illness -- or can there be? If the illness is false the cure can never be right.
There is no choice involved in what a fully awakened person does.
The daytime world is full of lies.
The fear is we will lose whatever little happinesses we have collected; they seem to be dropping away as we move ahead.
This means there are trees which move their roots as we move our feet.
When I am old, when death is at hand, when all I have begins to drop, thats when I will come forward right away.
What I found was something I always had, which was already found, something which did not have to be found.
His assumption is that as long as there is attachment, there will be bondage.
It has its own place in this world, and there are means to get rid of it.
The terrain is familiar.
Truth is adulterated with falsehood in the same proportion to which one is unconscious.
As a matter of fact, the third place is the really true place -- but it has no room in our language, our way of thinking, our way of life.
We are familiar with what misery is -- all too familiar, as a matter of fact.
Most of them would appear to be criminals -- of course, criminals of the kind which do not commit crimes in the marketplace, but in their minds.
There was no question of finding it, it was there all along.
These words are so beautiful they are worth understanding.
He also assumes that somebody needs to explain, and someone needs to understand.
The branches of the nearby trees will get entangled with each other and the trees wont be able to reach the sun.
We find this happening all around us.
One should remain in search of making just minor, very ordinary decisions.
By the time you lift your other foot, if the first foot did not remain steady on the ground and were to lift on its own, where would you end up? Where would you stand? When you lift your left foot, the earth holds the right foot -- thats how you are able to lift your left foot.
Had there not been a natural law for the water to take a leap and turn into vapor, by itself the water hadnt the means to become vapor.
A natural phenomenon such as the freezing of water at zero does not negate the natural phenomenon of water turning into vapor at a hundred degrees.
I want to reach a point where one doesnt have to make any choice.
This too is nature.
Very often the illness does not prove to be as dangerous as getting hooked on the cure.
It is simply his projection -- the man is scared.
So the policemen were pleased to see someone taking care of the dog.
No, the individual is the decision-maker -- there is no one imposing a decision on you from above.
He chooses not only through his body, he chooses through his mind as well.
An old man becomes a miser in every way.
As far as the question of his seeing the snake is concerned, the snake was there.
He thinks, how can he relax? So he goes on piling up money.
The day meditation is not needed, the day it becomes meaningless, that is when the sadhana becomes real.
Now whether you make ornaments or chains is entirely up to you.
It feels rather easy getting rid of illness because the illness is painful.
So there are three planes.
Actually, our mistake is that we use the word nature in the sense of a single potentiality.
Only he can know the truth who makes no conditions.
Beyond the human plane lies the third plane -- that of total awakening.
Then another disciple passed by and the master called him and said, "Last night I had a dream.
If you happen to be beautiful, the man has a look of one kind; if you are not beautiful, he has a different look in his eyes.
As long as the mind exists, we shall continue to live like this.
This is yet to be discovered.
"
The only way to make money is to give up rest and relaxation for years at a time.
What we have named as sacrifice, austerity -- and who knows what other foolish words -- are all nonsense.
This would amount to holding on to the ladder after having climbed to the top rung.
So if you need to drive out a ghost it would be good to wear a talisman; it is neither a sword nor a gun.
And the truth of the matter is that a healthy man will either be both or neither.
" This is how the situation is.
They were staying in a tent outside the village.
Your conscious part says, "Dont be angry," while the unconscious part goes on being angry.
This stops your growth.
The wife asks you to stand on your head, so you stand on your head.
Perhaps he didnt even know his disciples were standing in the middle of the canal.
" Now what can this mean, "like children"? What it means is: the one who looks at things without any preconditioning.
What I am talking to you about is only for the purpose of breaking your dream.
Now I dont need to learn anything further -- my resolve has come to its completion!"
Now it is useless even to carry the stick.
If I were to say one of them is true, how will you drop it? Then you will hold fast to it.
The situation for choosing arises only when things appear hazy; that is, when one is in a quandary, whether to do this or that; when one is caught in the situation of either/or.
Buddha said, "The question is meaningless, I attained nothing.
And each one has a free choice whether to choose or not to choose.
Someones father is about to become a renunciate; the son has no choice but to follow his father -- the father initiates him too.
Only a poison can act against another poison.
So the question is: What can we do to remove this illusion? We need to retrace our steps to the same extent we have gone deeply into the illusion.
Whatsoever needs to be done, it happens.
What man sees in life is not the truth of life.
Vigyana is a specialized knowledge.
Samsara and religion are both to be renounced.
Neither is anyone pulling it forward, nor is anyone pushing it from behind; neither is anyone giving it a call, nor is anyone forcing it to move ahead.
As the individual becomes more and more conscious, his ability to choose becomes more and more profound.
One who totally establishes ones agreeability with the inner law of nature attains dharma.
Not a single door has a sign, No Admission; each and every door has a Welcome sign.
He has learned that love brings agreeability, harmony in the inner life; whereas anger creates discord, disharmony within.
Not even for a moment did the rope change into a snake, but for the man it became a snake -- a snake which did not exist even for a second.
This man stood firm in his resolve even in the face of death.
It would not have mattered much had this been true only in regard to money.
Then the children surround you; you are more and more confined.
As soon as we see man separate fr九九藏书网om the universe, questions such as these begin to come up.
Whether you move your feet, or break your neck -- whatsoever you wish to do, the law of nature works as always.
Among human beings we can see clearly that there are people who are suicidal -- they dont choose to live; they keep looking for ways of dying.
One who is intelligent, however, continues to work towards enhancing the direction of bliss.
As soon as a man enters this fully awakened world, there is no more choice here as well.
So all my explanations are explanations of dreams, and the explanations of a dream can never be true.
"
In both instances nature was working in the same way.
However, the man has seen it and is scared to go there again.
The diving board, the springs, are shedding tears beneath you.
Once you reach there, all worries, all restlessness, all misery comes to an end.
However, if water has consciousness it can either save itself from heating or it can give itself up to the fire -- and in either case it would be a natural phenomenon.
If we were to uncover the dreams of all the holy men, we would find a great many of these holy men of no worth.
There is no god or goddess, no divine being sitting up in heaven whom you can drag into the court and say, "We were moving along on a right path; you made us go astray a little.
And you will say there were two sides to the game: one of indulging in the dream, the other of destroying it.
Chekhov has written a short story.
The snake has to be killed and the rope has to be found -- without killing the snake the rope cannot be found.
" So he goes on building his ladder and keeps climbing.
Consequently, although people got rid of the disease, they latched on to the cure.
I said, "Having already checked once, doesnt it occur to you the second time whether or not you have indeed gone back once and seen to the lock?"
And whenever such opportunities arise
Not eating means not only abstaining from eating physically, but even mentally.
Here is a jug filled with water.
His seeing is purposive.
You know very well there is no snake and carrying a stick is meaningless, but the man is sure of the snake and finds the stick useful.
The earth holding the right foot is responsible for your left foot lifting.
You may persuade him to go back and look once again, but he wont agree unless you lend him a stick for his safety.
Moving ahead always looks dangerous because we dont even have any sense of direction.
He is walking down the street in the dark, and there is fear in his eyes.
Addressing the master he said, "Please have this cup of tea and the whole matter will be over.
The policemen changed their attitude at once when the dog was seen not to belong to their boss.
Remember, however, the antidote is a poison too.
There is no God sitting above and giving directions; there is no engineer.
One who is determined to choose stupidity continuously goes on diminishing the capacity to attain bliss.
You will find it rising, gaining speed every day, simply through very ordinary decisions.
There are many things that need to be taken into account.
Interpret it for me, will you?"
He told them they didnt have any business there.
A man enters the world of religion, and begins to renounce things.
Make decisions in small matters, and learn how to stick to them.
Now it is difficult to accept that the tree is not exercising a choice.
It is a whim of the mind, not a fact.
He lives across from my house.
If he still insists the ladder is useful to him and clings to it, then understand he has not yet reached the roof, he must still be standing somewhere on the ladder.
Obviously, the more you go inside, you ultimately end up with only one law.
He doesnt look for something in particular; his eyes simply move.
We can choose to regress in life; we can return to the unconscious state; we can find ways of becoming unconscious -- if thats what we want.
After twelve hours the quality of his being is sure to change.
We will have to live in lies, that is unavoidable.
So when I say all methods of spiritual discipline are false, it does not mean that you dont have to do them.
Meditation means that, from within, one is now in complete harmony with the ultimate law of life.
To say that we occasionally choose things we didnt wish to choose in the first place sounds very contrary, but in fact we do so every day.
Not relaxing at all becomes a habit to him, and that creates the problem.
Since you are so determined to embrace illness, you are forced to accept the cure too.
He is continuously looking for ways to renounce things.
In following a spiritual discipline, only the direction you face will change.
If God is having us dance like puppets -- making some as sinners and others saints -- then the whole thing becomes useless, absolutely useless.
Hence, both things need to be considered.
When grey becomes a little dense it turns into darkness; when it becomes sparse it turns into white -- but there is no room for grey.
It is conceivable one may reach the top rung of the ladder and yet hold tight to it.
Because the decision enhances his consciousness, the decision lends weight to his being, the decision raises his level of responsibility.
His sole aim was to make money so he could retire.
On the human plane whatsoever occurs, it is because of choice.
How can a true sadhana be applied to counter a false world? You cannot use a real sword in order to kill an imaginary ghost -- you will hurt yourself if you do.
This is how his dream tells what his real search is all about.
But had you tried to give an interpretation to my dream, I would have thrown you out of the ashram.
He is not attached to seeing a particular thing.
Only a poison can counter another poison -- for it works in the opposite direction.
Things appear distorted, perverted, to the same degree one is asleep.
The same thing happens with regard to religion as well.
He was saying he would kill the dog because it had bitten him.
You did not place the umbrella agreeably to the wind -- thats all youll be accountable for.
All spiritual disciplines are nothing but ways of getting out of the samsara, the mundane world.
He has been fasting all through his life -- going through this fast and that fast -- and yet nowhere does he show any change of quality.
His roof never comes closer.
Its sheer compassion on the part of nature that it does not prevent you from entering any door.
It says, "Welcome to you, come and get your bone broken.
This is how he is always in tension.
He fasts, worships regularly, but he is a man of such poor will.
If they want to be holy, then let them be.
This too is a matter of choice, and it is up to you and up to everyone else what to choose.
How can he afford to lose something that saved his life? So he is freed from the ghost but gets hooked to the talisman.
He will neither have enmity with anyone, nor friendship; he will neither follow any act of renunciation, nor will he have any attachment to samsara.
But fighting against the very law, we end up in ultimate bondage -- fighting against the very law.
If he is jumping out, then that too is his natural potential.
"How can we attain bliss?" is how it appears to us.
It needs to overcome other trees in height so it can receive the sunlight.
And there is only one virtue -- to be decisive.
It is of no use to me; none of their talk has any meaning for me.
And at the same time I also say that meditation is nothing more than an antidote.
Then, only that which is, remains.
Trees in Africa rise hundreds of feet in search of the sun.
Nor is it like someone lashing and shoving the ox from behind.
It is dangerous to cling to anything, because whatsoever one hangs on to becomes a bondage -- regardless of whether it is money or meditation.
They call him, "Come back, you were fine in your previous location.
The policemen also stood in the crowd.
He used to ask his disciples, the seekers, about their dreams, because it was possible a seeker might come and say he wished to find God, but instead might dream of finding a diamond mine.
A rope was lying there and he thought it was a snake.
Now, the value of this does not rest as much in the act of not eating, as it does in his coming to a resolution.
The master said, "Sit beside me.
And yet I say to you: follow the same path I did, do what I did.
Man faces much greater choices because his consciousness is much more evolved.
In such a case you will end up knowing only the truth that is born out of a lie -- such as the temple itself.
Remember, however, that one who doesnt climb the ladder stays off it, and one who has climbed it and stepped out on the roof is also off the ladder -- but both exist on totally different planes.
Since the man lived all day long in lies, the very lies will keep appearing as realities at night in his dreams.
And since man is a liar, only a lie such as the dream can tell us about his lies.
There are ways to become vapor, but you will have to reach to the point where vapor comes into being.
There is nobody up there.
But this is a very circular way of putting things -- there are no nooks and corners.
Thats why, when I say all techniques of spiritual discipline are false I mean it in the sense that what we are seeking was never lost in the first place.
The fact remains that in attempting to gain happiness we encountered pain, so now, in an effort to find bliss, the fear is we may have to face even more trouble, even greater misery.
Since this plane consists of the state which is half-conscious and half-unconscious, we occasionally choose things we dont want to choose.
The first thing.
To live like a blind man is natural, and to live with open eyes is natural too.
I am looking for this third type of man.
The Choice is Always Yours
No doubt he creates wealth, but he loses the habit of relaxing.
People say, "Either you belong here, or there.
He may give up money but latch onto meditation.
Do you follow me? The breeze was always ready to blow from outside.
Someone decides, for example, that he will not eat for a day.
Even this much of a condition on your part -- that you would live only in a particular way, that you wish to live like a sannyasin -- if this too became a condition, you would never come to know the truth.
It doesnt matter if you decide to be a thief, but make the decision with a total mind -- then you wont stay a thief for long.
And they began petting it with a totally different attitude once it was perceived that the dog was owned by the boss.
I had the canal water released.
I want to be in a condition where whatsoever is happening is happening, where I dont have to make any choice.
"
Our act simply amounts to opening the window.
Once it is understood that the choice is always yours, then one can use the laws of nature in a right manner.
"
An adult sees things with a reason.
The cool waters are ready to receive you.
Now he is as afraid of losing the charm as he was of the ghost.
Even when his house is on fire he wont be able to decide whether to stay in or go out until he wakes up.
This fellow has given a little interpretation.
The term Mahavira has used is anant-anant -- infinite infinities.
Indulgence in the dream is samsara; explanations that break the dream make up sannyas -- although, basically, both are happenings of the dream state.
Our choosing is also due to the natural capability we have within us.
It is fine if you wish to wait, there is no problem.
It is natural you feel that on the one hand I say, do this, do that, and then I declare all sadhanas are false.
The master asked, "Youll go and bring the interpretation?" But he waited.
The idea was to earn enough so that someday he could quietly slip off.
Our mind functions exactly the same way -- regardless.
Within these possibilities the heating of water to a hundred degrees is a natural happening, and the freezing of water at zero is also a natural happening.
But once you have become free, of what use will the sadhana be? You will need to bury it along with your mind.
The father enrolls you in a school, so you go there.
So he moves on ahead.
He begins to try to figure out whether to drop food, water, salt, butter, sugar, whatever.
Rather, one should say that if we conduct ourselves in a manner that nature can be helpful to us, we stand to gain from it.
Science stands for the search for natures laws favorable to the external world.
Now that the ghost is gone, he had better throw the charm away as well.
Now what does this mean? How to convey that that which was already present was found again, that that which was already attained was found, that that which was never attained was lost?
This means there are multi-potentialities in nature.
AT THE DWARKA MEDITATION CAMP YOU MENTIONED THAT ALL SADHANAS, ALL SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES ARE FALSE, BECAUSE WE HAVE NEVER BEEN SEPARATE FROM GOD.
The cool ocean down below is watching you sweat.
When I see a man has fasted for years and yet the quality of his being has not changed, I know he must have been eating in his mind, otherwise the quality would have changed.
I have decided to be a thief.
The cure exists on the same plane as the illness: the germs present in the drugs are opposite to the germs that cause illness.
This infinity, or one should say this infinite infinities, is not like someone pulling an ox forward with a rope tied around its neck.
Now what does this mean? To say the snake was false does not mean the man did not see the snake.
A decision must be there.
His choice whether to jump or not to jump is a natural possibility too.
But does that make the cure something worth hanging on to?
The master called him and said, "Last night I had a dream.
"
The breeze was always ready to pass through.
No one has been heard to say, while doing arithmetic, "I wanted to add two and two to make four, but I added them up as five.
The story continues like this.
It is indeed a rope but it looks like a snake.
The man has remained the same.
Here nature will not be at fault.
It also pressed against the umbrella when it was resting on your shoulder, but this time it was being pressed away from you.
But gravity also works when a man jumps from the roof.
The objective was to get off at some level, and relax.
"
And the day this
藏书网
realization dawns on us, will we say we attained something? Will we be able to say we lost the snake and found the rope? Not in the least -- because there was no possibility of losing the snake; the rope was there all the time.And all these devices will be similar in nature to the stick.
And the problem is that all the ways of nature are circular -- none of its modes is angular, none of its courses is square.
"If you ask me in terms of attainment -- my efforts have certainly been in vain, because I gained nothing.
You are free to go wherever you feel like.
Hence I say to you, both are false, the samsara as well as the sadhana.
In my view, the real harm is not because of the fact that you are suffering from misery, it is due more to the reality that your misery is not the product of your decision.
You will be amazed if you watch how children look at things.
Should the right foot also lift at the same time, youve had it! While the earth holds the right foot, you lift the left foot.
Your back will be towards what you were facing before, and your face will be where your back was.
He said, "The thing I was waiting for happened.
He sees a piece of rope lying there and, mistaking it for a snake, runs for his life.
I know such a man.
When somebody asks me, "Are you a sannyasin?" I find myself in great difficulty, because if I say I am a sannyasin, I see myself caught in the same duality which exists between a worldly man and a monk.
I am merely saying that you are so deeply steeped in falsehoods that there is no other alternative but to use equally false methods in order to neutralize them.
One plane consists of the state of unconsciousness, where, because of unconsciousness, whatsoever happens just happens.
The disciple went inside, brought a jug of water, and said, "Here, just wash your face.
You will have to let go of the spiritual discipline as well, along with the mind.
Then there would be no need to go into his dreams; his face would show it.
And when will is created, the consciousness is awakened.
He is like one who sets a lock and then comes back again to check whether it is locked or not.
Nature is assisting us in all our actions, but the choice is always ours.
Now, this is the way it is.
Either affirm that you are alive, or admit that you are dead.
The real gun can cause you harm.
We are a part of nature, hence we are absolutely free.
And whats the harm in checking at least once?"
Hence, I maintain, follow a spiritual discipline, and then drop it too.
At the time of his departure the old man becomes paranoid lest everything he is holding on to might slip through his hands.
Should this be the case, then remember the man is still as far away from the roof as he was when he was standing on the first rung of the ladder.
There are certain laws of nature that exist in the outer world.
When he makes the decision he becomes responsible.
So lets assume this man gives up his holidays and vacations for the next twenty to twenty-five years and earns a lot of money.
The disciple said, "Please wait, let me go and bring the interpretation!"
There is a law that works on gold.
It is a matter of life and death for the tree.
In fact, that which can never happen is the unnatural.
Take, for instance, this man who fled, believing he had seen a snake.
Nature had no problem, it did not create any hindrance.
Now, when the bone of the falling man hits the ground, it breaks.
A child does not look with a purpose.
The day he will wake up he will do the same thing with these devices that the other man did with the stick you gave him.
Tao means the law.
Life is a great mystery wherein one needs to climb up certain things and climb down other things; wherein one needs to cling to certain things and drop certain other things.
They call it rit.
Now when someone tells us to move ahead, we feel worried about losing the things we have gathered around us.
How could he have succeeded in creating his wealth otherwise? He had assumed at that moment he would earn a great deal and live in comfort and ease later.
He cannot even say he committed a mistake which he never should have -- that too is out of the question.
Now that you are up from your sleep and have washed your face, why do you want to get me into the trap?"
Mahavira has used a term which is worth considering.
Hence, in my view, it is always good to make a choice.
"
It is not that he feels he has to do it.
Again and again, I would like to remind every seeker that, whatever sadhana he may be following, basically it is an antidote for his getting himself into a falsehood.
This way he makes it evident, in fact, that, "I want to get out of the bother of choosing.
You can take a jump.
If you try and convince him there is no snake on the street he will refuse to believe you; he will insist he has seen the snake.
Gurdjieff came running from the tent, jumped in the canal and brought the man out.
If there is any purpose, any expectation, any fear in what we see
We are doing what we want to do.
You are already on the diving board, but just standing there.
Since man himself is a lie, a lie will have to be used to find out the truth about him.
He says, "How can I believe everything is illusion? My son is sick -- how can that be an illusion? I am hungry -- how can I take it as an illusion? I need a house.
He does what he does not want to do, and he cannot do what he really wants to do.
But you are standing there sweating in the sun.
adharma, an unrighteous act, is that which would go against the law and cause you unhappiness.
Right from the morning you should be continuously anxious to find opportunities for making decisions.
This shows he is unable to see clearly; everything looks hazy to him.
Otherwise, ordinarily, with the increasing miserliness and holding fast to possessions, everything starts becoming uglier and uglier.
Thats why an old man becomes utterly miserly; a young man is never so miserly.
Having made the decision once, a man should not turn back.
And yet, in a case like this what do you think will result from doing anything about it? At the most we will come to see that that which never was, was not there; and that which is, will be visible right before us.
Thats why he needs to be reminded that just as the ghost was unreal so is the talisman.
Why do I feel like reminding you of this? -- because a seeker constantly faces a danger.
If one wants to steal, then he should do so decisively, by becoming a thief.
He arrives at his office an hour earlier than his secretary; his staff quits at five oclock, he leaves at seven.
A child wont see a snake superimposed on a rope.
But there is no controller-type God supervising from above.
Its kind of like this: there are people who understand the value of gold and make ornaments out of it, and there are others who do not understand its value and make shackles out of it.
For example, a man is walking down the street when it is almost dark.
They are one on the sun, but in moving away from it, the one becomes two, four, a thousand, millions, and billions -- they go on spreading.
Thats why you cant trust him -- now he is to the right, now he is to the left.
Everyone thinks he will give up his attachments sometime in the future, at the right opportunity.
We have settled down there, we have turned it into our living room.
The fact remains, we will have to retrace the same route to the same extent we have walked ourselves forward into lies.
Although neither is on the ladder, there is a fundamental difference between the two.
He acts only upon what he sees, upon what is worth doing.
The habit hangs around his neck like a rock.
So when I say to you, you will have to make a choice
Dharma means: if you act according to the law, you will attain happiness.
An open hand looks beautiful, a closed fist looks ugly.
Kill this dog; he is a great trouble to us at night," one policeman said.
"
Obviously, one who has reached the roof should find the ladder useless.
Thats why science becomes more and more narrow.
All our motives, our fears, our desires, our passions are stored in the mind.
You will obviously create a problem for yourself if you go to kill a nonexistent ghost with a real gun.
It was called the stop exercise.
This very clinging to things so firmly turns one into an ugly old man; otherwise, the beauty and grace of an old man can be matchless.
Hence all the intoxicants pull man back from the bridge.
Here, we cant hold anyone else responsible for it.
At that moment the earth welcomes him and pulls him down too.
For example, I walk ten steps into this room.
We do wish to jump, to leap forward, but please wait.
Meditation, in the ultimate sense, in the innermost sense, means to be agreeable -- agreeability.
How can you say both are not true? That wont be acceptable.
But if you stop insisting on falling sick, the cure will become totally meaningless.
He looks at you in a special way if he is interested in you; otherwise he looks differently, or doesnt look at you at all.
He may even go a step further and say, "It was so blissful being in the mothers womb.
Perhaps thats precisely what Jesus means
Actually, just reflect, if you will, as to why a rope appears to someone like a snake.
One is off the ladder because he didnt climb it, while the other is off because he did climb the ladder and then got off.
If you were to plant the same tree in a country where there are no dense forests, its height would be shorter.
What I am saying is, first, there are infinite directions, and nature provides the opportunity for all of them.
That day you will realize the illness was false and so was the cure for it.
Vigyan, science, is a specialized knowledge -- knowledge of each and every ray, hence specialized.
The moments when the decision comes from within you are the moments of awakening.
Thats all it means.
And the interesting thing is that whatsoever we choose, the capability to choose will itself be a gift from nature.
Understand well, if you are seeing through the mind, you will distort the object of your perception.
It is strange we have to resort to analyzing dreams in order to understand man.
The second plane, where choice exists, is the human plane, the plane of consciousness.
A dream, which is essentially a lie.
It cannot help bring about any dynamism in life.
Since he saw
At least you made a decision.
All choices are open to man.
Samsara signifies indulgence in the dream, while sannyas is an effort to destroy the dream -- but both happenings are of the dream.
" That such a man does not exist among us is beside the point, but if there were to be such a person, dreams would stop coming to him.
As I see it, there is only one wrongdoing -- not to make a decision.
If a man could mindfully stay without eating food for twelve hours, he would have gone a long way in maintaining his resolve.
There is no one you can address like that; hence there is no way to do it.
.
In that case you wont be able to hold nature responsible for putting out the welcome sign.
This is the reason why man is in continuous anxiety, why he is always plagued by worries, tension, anguish.
He is schizophrenic.
If, advancing this far, so much pain has been our lot, how much more of the same will not come to us if we move even further ahead? So a man feels he should turn back to where misery did not exist.
When Buddha attained enlightenment people came to him and asked, "What did you attain?"
Not only does everything become useless, even God himself turns out to be very foolish.
A swampy area makes this movement easier.
An impetus can be given towards making this choice; there are laws for that too.
So we say, "Let the time come.
The day we return on the same path, the whole thing will look very amusing.
So man arrives at a point where he no longer has to bear the tension and burden of making a decision.
As the water began rising further up, they became worried.
Two policemen were patrolling a street.
A husband who can tell his wife, "I feel no love for you today.
He will lock his door, walk ten steps, then come back and shake the lock to be sure.
An authentic man would tell his wife, "You dont look too beautiful to me, the woman next door looks very beautiful.
Suffer decisively! The suffering should be your decision too.
I dont want to jump, Ill stay right here.
Ultimately he even arrives at a point where he talks of giving up his life, begins to think in terms of committing suicide.
Thats its inner expansion.
Nature contains endless possibilities.
Thats why man drinks, becomes unconscious, regresses.
On this plane whatsoever one is, it is ultimately his choice.
These trees have developed quite a system for luring birds.
There is no choice on this plane either.
We would like to enter the cool water; we know the sun is hot and we are sweating profusely, but we cant take a jump right now.
Basically it is nature which, seeking through its infinite parts, knocks on its infinite doors -- chooses, wanders, goes astray, and reaches.
It does not look the way it actually is, it appears like what it really is not.
This is similar to the sun rays that spread all around.
I asked him, "Why do you do this? You locked the door yourself!"
"How can truth be dropped? Truth has to be embraced," you might say.
The day you find, for certain, that what you saw did not even exist, is the day all techniques become meaningless, all means become useless.
Wherever they see a thorn, they rush towards it like a madman; flowers dont appeal to them.
The world of consciousness, of awareness -- which I call God -- is the awakened state of nature.
And that makes the difference.
Once a Zen master got up from his sleep.
One feels good about going through the cure, hence one never wants to drop it.
One morning the master had just got up when a disciple of his happened to pass by.
The rope, in our example, was always a rope; not for a second did it ever turn into a snake.
You put the left foot down and nature holds it until you have lifted the right foot.
Whatsoever we do, we have the capability of living it through as well.
Often, what is possible is that if a snake stays still, a child may take it to be a rope; he may not see it as a snake and may actually pick it up.