Meditation is not an Indian method; it is not simply a technique. You
cannot learn it. It is a growth: a growth of your total living, out of your
total living. Meditation is not something that can be added to you as you
are. It cannot be added to you; it can only come to you through a basic
transformation, a mutation. It is a flowering, a growth. Growth is always
from the total; it is not an addition. Just like love, it cannot be added to
you. It grows out of you, out of your totality. You must grow towards
meditation.
The great silence
Silence usually is understood to be something negative, something empty, an
absence of sound, of noises. This misunderstanding is prevalent because very
few people have ever experienced silence.
All that they have experienced in the name of silence is noiselessness. But
silence is a totally different phenomenon. It is utterly positive. It is existential, it
is not empty. It is overflowing with a music that you have never heard before,
with a fragrance that is unfamiliar to you, with a light that can only be seen by
the inner eyes.
It is not something fictitious; it is a reality, and a reality which is already
present in everyone—just we never look in.
Your inner world has its own taste, has its own fragrance, has its own light.
And it is utterly silent, immensely silent, eternally silent. There has never been
any noise, and there will never be any noise. No word can reach there, but you
can reach.
Your very center of being is the center of a cyclone. Whatever happens
around it does not affect it. It is eternal silence: days come and go, years come
and go, ages come and pass. Lives come and go, but the eternal silence of your
being remains exactly the same—the same soundless music, the same fragrance
of godliness, the same transcendence from all that is mortal, from all that is
momentary.
It is not your silence.
You are it.
It is not something in your possession; you are possessed by it, and that’s the
greatness of it. Even you are not there, because even your presence will be a
greatness of it. Even you are not there, because even your presence will be a
disturbance.
The silence is so profound that there is nobody, not even you. And this
silence brings truth, and love, and thousands of other blessings to you.
Growing in sensitivity
Meditation will bring you sensitivity, a great sense of belonging to the
world. It is our world—the stars are ours, and we are not foreigners here. We
belong intrinsically to existence. We are part of it, we are the heart of it.
You become so sensitive that even the smallest blade of grass takes on an
immense importance for you. Your sensitivity makes it clear to you that this
small blade of grass is as important to existence as the biggest star; without this
blade of grass, existence would be less than it is. This small blade of grass is
unique, it is irreplaceable, it has its own individuality.
And this sensitivity will create new friendships for you—friendships with
trees, with birds, with animals, with mountains, with rivers, with oceans, with
stars. Life becomes richer as love grows, as friendliness grows.
Love, the fragrance of meditation
If you meditate, sooner or later you will come upon love. If you meditate
deeply, sooner or later you will start feeling a tremendous love arising in you
that you have never known before—a new quality to your being, a new door
opening. You have become a new flame and now you want to share.
If you love deeply, by and by you will become aware that your love is
becoming more and more meditative. A subtle quality of silence is entering in
you. Thoughts are disappearing, gaps appearing…silences! You are touching
your own depth.
Love makes you meditative if it is on the right lines.
Meditation makes you loving if it is on the right lines. §
YOU WANT A LOVE THAT IS BORN OUT OF MEDITATION, not born out of the mind.
That is the love I continually talk about.
Millions of couples around the world are living as if love is there. They are
living in a world of ‘as if.’ Of course, how can they be joyous? They are drained
of all energy. They are trying to get something out of a false love; it cannot
deliver the goods. Hence the frustration, hence the continuous boredom, hence
the continuous nagging, fighting between the lovers. They are both trying to do
something which is impossible: they are trying to make their love affair
something which is impossible: they are trying to make their love affair
something of the eternal, which it cannot be. It has arisen out of the mind and
mind cannot give you any glimpse of the eternal.
First go into meditation, because love will come out of meditation—it is the
fragrance of meditation. Meditation is the flower, the one-thousand-petaled
lotus. Let it open. Let it help you to move in the dimension of the vertical, nomind,
no-time, and then suddenly you will see the fragrance is there. Then it is
eternal, then it is unconditional. Then it is not even directed to anybody in
particular, it cannot be directed to anybody in particular. It is not a relationship,
it is more a quality that surrounds you. It has nothing to do with the other. You
are loving, you are love; then it is eternal. It is your fragrance. It has been around
a Buddha, around a Zarathustra, around a Jesus. It is a totally different kind of
love, it is qualitatively different.
Compassion
Buddha has defined compassion as ‘love plus meditation.’ When your love
is not just a desire for the other, when your love is not only a need, when your
love is a sharing, when your love is not that of a beggar but that of an emperor,
when your love is not asking for something in return but is ready only to give—
to give for the sheer joy of giving—then add meditation to it and the pure
fragrance is released, the imprisoned splendor is released. That is compassion;
compassion is the highest phenomenon.
Sex is animal, love is human, compassion is divine. Sex is physical, love is
psychological, compassion is spiritual.
Abiding joy for no reason at all
For no reason at all you suddenly feel yourself joyous. In ordinary life, if
there is some reason, you are joyful. You have met a beautiful woman and you
are joyous, or you have got the money that you always wanted and you are
joyous, or you have purchased the house with a beautiful garden and you are
joyous, but these joys cannot last long. They are momentary, they cannot remain
continuous and uninterrupted.
If your joy is caused by something it will disappear, it will be momentary. It
will soon leave you in deep sadness; all joys leave you in deep sadness. But there
is a different kind of joy that is a confirmatory sign: you are suddenly joyous for
no reason at all. You cannot pinpoint why. If somebody asks, “Why are you so
joyous?” you cannot answer.
joyous?” you cannot answer.
I cannot answer why I am joyous. There is no reason. It’s simply so. Now
this joy cannot be disturbed. Now whatsoever happens, it will continue. It is
there, day in, day out. You may be young, you may be old, you may be alive,
you may be dying—it is always there. When you have found some joy that
remains—circumstances change but it abides—then you are certainly coming
closer to buddhahood.
Intelligence: the ability to respond
Intelligence simply means ability to respond, because life is a flux. You have
to be aware and to see what is demanded of you, what is the challenge of the
situation. The intelligent person behaves according to the situation and the stupid
behaves according to the ready-made answers. Whether they come from Buddha,
Christ or Krishna, it does not matter. He always carries scriptures around
himself, he is afraid to depend on himself. The intelligent person depends on his
own insight; he trusts his own being. He loves and respects himself. The
unintelligent person respects others.
Intelligence can be rediscovered. The only method to rediscover it is
meditation. Meditation only does one thing: it destroys all the barriers that the
society has created to prevent you from being intelligent. It simply removes the
blocks. Its function is negative: it removes the rocks that are preventing your
waters from flowing, your springs from becoming alive.
Everybody is carrying the great potential, but society has put great rocks to
prevent it. It has created China Walls around you; it has imprisoned you.
To come out of all prisons is intelligence—and never to get into another
again. Intelligence can be discovered through meditation because all those
prisons exist in your mind; they cannot reach your being, fortunately. They
cannot pollute your being, they can only pollute your mind—they can only cover
your mind. If you can get out of the mind you will get out of Christianity,
Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and all kinds of rubbish will be just finished. You
can come to a full stop.
And when you are out of the mind, watching it, being aware of it, just being
a witness, you are intelligent. Your intelligence is discovered. You have undone
what the society has done to you. You have destroyed the mischief; you have
destroyed the conspiracy of the priests and the politicians. You have come out of
it, you are a free man. In fact you are for the first time a real man, an authentic
man. Now the whole sky is yours.
Intelligence brings freedom, intelligence brings spontaneity.
Intelligence brings freedom, intelligence brings spontaneity.
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.