Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 10

Wisdom And Understanding

The first question:

Question 1:

DO WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING INCREASE GRADUALLY OR DO THEY COME AS EXPLOSIONS?

UNDERSTANDING NEVER COMES, neither as a sudden phenomenon nor as a gradual one, because it is always there. You have it right now. It is not going to happen somewhere in the future. You are carrying it within you, just as a seed carries the tree, a woman carries a child. You are carrying it right now. Now it depends on you: if your intensity is total you will achieve it suddenly, if your intensity is not total you will achieve it by and by, in steps. But understanding never comes to you - you are understanding. Enlightenment is not something that happens to you - you are enlightenment.

Remember this; then it is a choice, your choice. If you desire it totally, in that fire of total desire all that covers that understanding burns; suddenly the light is there. But it is up to you. It is not part of the nature of enlightenment to happen gradually or to happen suddenly.

Don't throw off the responsibility, that's how people create philosophies and schools. In Japan two schools of Zen exist: one believes in sudden enlightenment, another believes in gradual enlightenment - as if these are the qualities of enlightenment, as if they belong to enlightenment.

They don't belong to enlightenment. Enlightenment is always there; it is for you to choose. If your desire is total not even a single moment is lost. But if your desire is not total it means that you yourself are not willing it to happen right now. You want to postpone it, you want it tomorrow, some other day. Then you go on playing tricks.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 09

On The Wise Ones Of Old

ON THE WISE ONES OF OLD

THE WISE ONES OF OLD HAD SUBTLE WISDOM

AND DEPTH OF UNDERSTANDING,

SO PROFOUND THAT THEY COULD NOT BE UNDERSTOOD

AND BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT BE UNDERSTOOD,

PERFORCE MUST THEY BE SO DESCRIBED:

CAUTIOUS, LIKE CROSSING A WINTRY STREAM,

IRRESOLUTE, LIKE ONE FEARING DANGER ALL AROUND,

GRAVE, LIKE ONE ACTING AS GUEST,

SELF-EFFACING, LIKE ICE BEGINNING TO MELT,

GENUINE, LIKE A PIECE OF UNDRESSED WOOD,

OPEN-MINDED, LIKE A VALLEY,

AND MIXING FREELY, LIKE MURKY WATER.

WHO CAN FIND REPOSE IN A MUDDY WORLD?

BY LYING STILL, IT BECOMES CLEAR.

WHO CAN MAINTAIN HIS CALM FOR LONG?

BY ACTIVITY, IT COMES BACK TO LIFE.

HE WHO EMBRACES THIS TAO

GUARDS AGAINST BEING OVERFULL.

BECAUSE HE GUARDS AGAINST BEING OVERFULL

HE IS BEYOND WEARING OUT AND RENEWAL

ON THE WISE ONES OF OLD

SOCRATES WAS DYING.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 08

Attaining Absolute Indifference

The first question:

Question 1:

YOU HAVE SAID MUCH LATELY ABOUT INNER SILENCE AND EMPTINESS. AFTER TWO YEARS AS YOUR DISCIPLE, MUCH OF THE TIME, PARTICULARLY DURING THE MEDITATIONS AT THE ASHRAM, MY MIND SEEMS MORE THAN EVER TO BE OUT OF CONTROL AND WORKING LIKE A COMPUTER GONE MAD. I TRY TO BE A WITNESS TO THE WHOLE ABSURDITY, BUT THE MONSTER GOES ON AND ON!

LET THE MONSTER GO on and on and don't you be worried. The very worry is the problem, not the monster.

The whole world is going on and on: rivers go on flowing, clouds go on moving in the sky, birds go on chattering in the trees. Just why are you so against only the mind? Let it also go on and on - you be unconcerned.

Witnessing is not an effort. When you are unconcerned the witness arises. Be indifferent to the mind; in the climate of indifference the witness arises. The very idea that you have to stop it is wrong, that you have to still it is wrong, that you have to do something about this constant ongoing process is wrong. You are not required to do anything. If you do anything it won't help - it will help the trouble, not you. That's why when you meditate you feel the mind going more mad; when you don't meditate it is not so mad. When you are meditating you are too concerned with the mind, trying your hardest to make it still. Who are you? And why should you be worried about the mind?

What is wrong with it? Allow the thoughts, let them move like clouds.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 07

On The Utility Of Not Being

ON THE UTILITY OF NOT-BEING:

THIRTY SPOKES UNITE AROUND THE NAVE;

FROM THEIR NOT-BEING (LOSS OF THEIR INDIVIDUALITY)

ARISES THE UTILITY OF THE WHEEL.

MOLD CLAY INTO A VESSEL;

FROM ITS NOT-BEING (IN THE VESSEL'S HOLLOW)

ARISES THE UTILITY OF THE VESSEL.

CUT OUT DOORS AND WINDOWS IN THE HOUSE (WALL),

FROM THEIR NOT-BEING (EMPTY SPACE)

ARISES THE UTILITY OF THE HOUSE.

THEREFORE BY THE EXISTENCE OF THINGS WE PROFIT.

AND BY THE NON-EXISTENCE OF THINGS WE ARE SERVED.

THE DEEPEST CORE of being is non-being. The foundation of isness is nothingness. And when I say nothingness I don't mean nothingness - I only mean no-thingness.

Form exists on the base of the formless. The form comes out of the formless just as waves come out of the sea, and then the form drops, dissolves into the formless again. The name arises out of the nameless, falls back, returns to the original source, becomes nameless again. Life arises out of death and moves to death again. The very basic thing to remember is that these opposites are not opposites, they are complementary. Death is not against life, nonexistence is not against existence, non-being is not against being. They are two polarities of the same phenomenon, which transcends all understanding.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 06

There Is No Meaning

The first question:

Question 1:

YOU HAVE SAID THAT EVERY GESTURE FROM A MASTER IS SIGNIFICANT, AND OFTEN THE ANSWER IS GIVEN IN WHAT IS NOT SAID RATHER THAN WHAT IS SAID. BUT OFTEN WHEN YOU LOOK OR GLANCE AT ME, AND I FEEL THERE IS A MESSAGE, I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO IDENTIFY THE MESSAGE WITHOUT USING MY MIND. AND EVEN WHEN I DO USE MY MIND I AM NOT SURE.

THE MIND CANNOT BE USED. Once you use the mind you have missed the point. Silence has to be understood in silence; a no-word message is to be understood wordlessly. If you try to understand through words and through mind you will miss it, you will misunderstand it. Then your own mind has come in. Then you will interpret it. Then it will not be pure, it will not be the same.

And if you ask, "Then what to do?" you ask a wrong question. The question of how arises from the mind. There is no question of how. You be silent. Don't do anything, don't try to interpret it, don't try in any way to interfere with it - let it spread over your being. You may not be able to identify it right now because it is vaster than the mind and all identifications are from the mind. You may not be able to know exactly what it is, but there is no need. You may not be able to decipher, decode the meaning of it, but there is no need. Let the wordless message reach to your wordless center. It is a deep contact, and the contact is the meaning. It is a deep penetration, and the penetration is the meaning.

You pass by a rosebush and you look at a roseflower. What is the meaning? If-you start thinking about the roseflower, the mind enters and the roseflower is lost. Then the mind creates a wall of words, thoughts, concepts and you cannot even see the roseflower there.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 05

On The Danger Of Overweening Success

ON THE DANGER OF OVERWEENING SUCCESS

STRETCH A BOW TO THE VERY FULL

AND YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD STOPPED IN TIME.

TEMPER A SWORD TO ITS VERY SHARPEST,

AND THE EDGE WILL NOT LAST LONG.

WHEN GOLD AND JADE FILL YOUR HALL,

YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP THEM SAFE.

TO BE PROUD WITH WEALTH AND HONOR

IS TO SOW THE SEEDS OF ONE'S OWN DOWNFALL.

RETIRE WHEN YOUR WORK IS DONE,

SUCH IS HEAVEN'S WAY.

ON THE DANGER OF OVERWEENING SUCCESS

LOGIC MOVES to the very extreme - life never. That's how logic misses life. Logic has a tendency to reach to a conclusion - life is never concluding.

Life has no conclusion. It goes on and on and on without any conclusion; it is without any beginning and without any end, it is always in the middle, it is always in the present, it is an on-going process.

That's how a logical mind becomes by and by dead; that's how logic becomes its own downfall.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 04

Emptiness

The first question:

Question 1:

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

NO Sir, NOT AT ALL. Because you are not. You are an emptiness - anatta. No sir. On the surface you may be somebody, but I am not concerned with your surface. In the deepest core you are simply a nobodiness, not even a nobody - nobodiness. How can I know you?

And that's the beauty, because if I can know you I have defined you, I have made you limited by my knowledge. If you can be known, immediately you become an object, you are no more a consciousness. If you can be known you cannot be infinite, and you are - infinite in your emptiness.

How can I know you? Even you yourself cannot know. There exists nothing like self-knowledge.

When you come to realize it, it is a NO-SELF-knowledge. When you come to settle with it, suddenly you become aware that the knower and the known have disappeared - there is only emptiness, a vast space, with no beginning, no end - an infinity. That's what you are - how can it be known?

There is no possibility of knowledge. And it is good that you cannot be known, otherwise science will know you, and once known you are an object, a thing. Then the mystery is lost. That's why I say again and again that science will never be able to know the innermost core of being, because the innermost core is a non-being. You are just like an onion - go on peeling the layers. Go on peeling the layers; a new layer comes, another new layer, another new layer, and then suddenly the whole onion is gone: emptiness in the hands. That is you.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 03

On The Character of Tao

ON THE CHARACTER OF TAO:

TAO IS A HOLLOW VESSEL,

AND ITS USE IS INEXHAUSTIBLE,

FATHOMLESS.

ON THE SPIRIT OF THE VALLEY:

THE SPIRIT OF THE VALLEY NEVER DIES.

IT IS CALLED THE MYSTIC FEMALE.

THE DOOR OF THE MYSTIC FEMALE

IS THE ROOT OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.

CONTINUOUSLY, CONTINUOUSLY,

IT SEEMS TO REMAIN.

DRAW UPON IT

AND IT SERVES YOU WITH EASE.

ON THE CHARACTER OF TAO

THE WORLD OF LAO TZU is totally different from the worlds of philosophy, religion, ethics. It is not even a way of life. Lao Tzu is not teaching something - he is that something. He is not a preacher, he is a presence. He has no doctrine for you - he has only himself to offer and share.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 02

Ordinariness

The first question:

Question 1:

HAVE I COME TO THE WRONG PLACE? I JUST WANT TO BE ORDINARY AND HAPPY. I WANT A WOMAN TO LOVE, AND TO LOVE ME; FRIENDS TO SPEND TIME WITH AND ENJOY. I DON'T WANT ENLIGHTENMENT. HAVE I COME TO THE WRONG PLACE?

CENTURIES OF WRONG upbringing have completely confused your mind about enlightenment.

The very word seems to be unearthly, other-worldly; the very word seems to be something which is after death or for those who are already dead. This is absolutely wrong. If you want to be happy there is no other way than enlightenment. If you want to be ordinary nobody has ever been ordinary without enlightenment. If you want to love and be loved it is impossible without enlightenment. So you will have to understand my concept of enlightenment. It is just to be ordinary, healthy, aware, whole, total.

Every mind is seeking some extraordinariness. That is what the ego is: always trying to be somebody in particular, always afraid of being nobody, always afraid of emptiness, always trying to fill the inner void by anything and everything. Every human being is seeking extraordinariness - and that creates misery. It is not possible. Nobodiness is your very nature, nonbeing is the very stuff you are made of. Howsoever you try you will never succeed; even Alexanders fail. You cannot be somebody because that is not possible in the nature of things. You can only be nobody. But there is nothing wrong in being nobody; in fact, the moment you accept your nobodiness, immediately bliss starts flowing from you in all directions - because misery disappears. Misery is the shadow of the ego, the shadow of the ambitious mind. Misery means you are doing something impossible and because you are failing in it you are miserable. You are doing something unnatural, trying to do it and failing, so you feel frustrated, miserable. Hell is nothing but the end result of an impossible, unnatural effort. Heaven is nothing but to be natural.

Tao The Three Treasures Volume-1 Chapter - 01

On The Absolute Tao

ON THE ABSOLUTE TAO

THE TAO THAT CAN BE TOLD OF

IS NOT THE ABSOLUTE TAO

ON THE RISE OF RELATIVE OPPOSITES

WHEN THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH ALL KNOW BEAUTY AS BEAUTY,

THERE ARISES (THE RECOGNITION OF) UGLINESS.

WHEN THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH ALL KNOW GOOD AS GOOD,

THERE ARISES (THE RECOGNITION OF) EVIL.

THEREFORE:

BEING AND NON-BEING INTERDEPEND IN GROWTH;

DIFFICULT AND EASY INTERDEPEND IN COMPLETION;

LONG AND SHORT INTERDEPEND IN CONTRAST;

HIGH AND LOW INTERDEPEND IN POSITION;

TONES AND VOICE INTERDEPEND IN HARMONY;

FRONT AND BEHIND INTERDEPEND IN COMPANY.

THEREFORE THE SAGE:

MANAGES AFFAIRS WITHOUT ACTION;

PREACHES THE DOCTRINE WITHOUT WORDS;

ALL THINGS TAKE THEIR RISE,

BUT HE DOES NOT TURN AWAY FROM THEM;

HE GIVES THEM LIFE, BUT DOES NOT TAKE POSSESSION OF THEM;

HE ACTS, BUT DOES NOT APPROPRIATE;

ACCOMPLISHES, BUT CLAIMS NO CREDIT.