Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 5 Chapter-10

Not answers, no questions

Question 1

IS IT A VERY GOOD SIGN THAT ONE HAS NO QUESTIONS TO ASK?

If really it happens that you have no questions to ask, it is a tremendous phenomenon. It is one of the most beautiful _ states of mind; because when there are no questions, that nonquestioning consciousness is the answer to all questions. Not that you get the answers, but, simply, questions dissolve. The mind becomes nontense, because each question is a tension, is a worry; it is an anxiety.

And no answer is going to solve the question. The questioning mind is the problem, not the question. Your question can be answered, but from the answer your questioning mind will create a thousand and one more questions; you will reduce every answer into many more questions. It never helps. It helps only when all questions drop, when consciousness transcends questioning, when you understand that there is nothing to be asked, nothing to be answered.

Life is a mystery, not a problem -- you cannot ask anything about it. If it really happens, this is samadhi. This is what my whole effort is all about. You should come to a point where no question arises. In that silence, in that total beatitude, in that peace, you are transformed: all anxiety, anguish, disappears.

But the question is if it is real, because you may not be asking questions and questions are there; then it is of no use. Then it is better to ask. If questions are in the mind and you don't ask, then you feel shy, that won't help. It is better to ask and be finished with them. Not that by asking you will get the answers -- nobody has got the answer -- nobody ever had it -- nobody will ever have it. The answer is impossible because life is a mystery. It cannot be solved. The more you solve it, the more you find that it is impossible to solve it. But by questioning, by and by, you become aware of the futility of questioning.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 5 Chapter-09

The law is for you

32. PURITY, CONTENTMENT, AUSTERITY, SELF-STUDY, AND SURRENDER TO GOD ARE THE LAWS TO BE OBSERVED.

33. WHEN THE MIND IS DISTURBED BY WRONG THOUGHTS, PONDER ON THE OPPOSITES.

34. IT IS NECESSARY TO PONDER ON THE OPPOSITES BECAUSE WRONG THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS, AND ACTIONS, SUCH AS VIOLENCE, RESULT IN IGNORANCE AND INTENSE MISERY WHETHER THEY BE PERFORMED, CAUSED, OR APPROVED THROUGH GREED, ANGER, OR DELUSION IN MILD, MEDIUM, OR INTENSE DEGREES.

THERE are laws, and laws: laws to suppress man, laws to help him bloom; laws to Prohibit, restrict, and laws to help him expand, increase. A law which simply prohibits is destructive; a law that helps to grow and increase is creative. The Old Testament Ten Commandments are different from Patanjali's laws. Those ten commandments prohibit, restrict, suppress. The whole emphasis is: you should not do this, you must not do this, this is not allowed. Patanjali's laws are totally different; they are creative. The emphasis is not on what should not be done; the emphasis is on what should be done. And there is a vast difference between the two.

In the Old Testament it seems as if the laws are the goal -- as if man exists for them, not that they exist for man. For Patanjali there is a utility in the laws, but they are not ultimate or absolute in any sense. Man doesn't exist for them; they exist for man. They are means, and one has to go through them -- and go beyond them. That has to be remembered; otherwise you can carry a wrong impression about Patanjali.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 5 Chapter-08

Male mind, female mind, no-mind

Question 1

LISTENING TO YOU MORNING AFTER MORNING, I FEEL OVERSATURATED WITH THE THOUGHT OF NEEDING TO LOOK INWARDS AND SEE. IN FACT I FEEL LIKE A DOG CHASING HIS OWN TAIL: THE HARDER HE TRIES, THE LESS HE HAS A CHANCE OF SUCCESS.

BUT GIVING UP TRYING HAS NOT HELPED MUCH EITHER, BECAUSE BEING MORE ALERT AND AWARE IS TURNING OUT TO BE ANOTHER SUBTLE DOING, AND I AM BACK IN THE SAME RUT.

THIS is good, that you are becoming aware that neither doing can help nor nondoing, because your nondoing is a subtle doing. With this awareness a new door will open any day, any moment. When you neither do nor not-do, when you are simply there, when you are a being -- not a doer or a nondoer, because a nondoer is also a doer -- the duality disappears. Then suddenly you find you have always been in the home, you have never left it -- you had never gone out anywhere else. Then the dog realizes there is no need to chase the tail, the tail belongs to him already. There is no need to chase the tail because the tail follows the dog already. But one has to do to reach to nondoing. Then one has to do the nondoing to reach being. And everything helps. Even failures, frustrations -- everything helps. Finally, when you reach, you understand that everything helped -- going astray, falling into old ruts and traps -- everything helped; nothing goes useless. And everything becomes a step to another.

Just yesterday I was reading an article from Swami Agehananda Bharti. He relates that once he asked Ravishankar how well George Harrison plays the sitar.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 5 Chapter-07

Death and discipline

30. SELF-RESTRAINT, THE FIRST STEP OF YOGA, IS COMPRISED OF THE FOLLOWING FIVE VOWS: NONVIOLENCE, TRUTHFULNESS, HONESTY, SEXUAL CONTINENCE, AND NONPOSSESSIVENESS.

31. THESE FIVE VOWS, WHICH CONSTITUTE THE GREAT VOW, EXTEND TO ALL THE SEVEN STAGES OF ENLIGHTENMENT REGARDLESS OF CLASS, PLACE, TIME, OR CIRCUMSTANCE.

THE five vows of ahimsa, satya, achaurya, brahmacharya, aparigra, are the very base, the foundation. They have to be understood as deeply as possible because there is a possibility to move without fulfilling these five steps which constitute the first step of yam.

You can find yogis and fakirs all over the world who have moved without fulfilling these five steps of the first step. Then they become powerful, but their power is violent. Then they are very, very powerful, but their power is not spiritual. Then they become sort of black magicians; they can harm others. Power is dangerous; it can help, it can harm. Not only to others is it dangerous, it is dangerous to the person himself. It can destroy you; it can give you a rebirth. It depends. These five vows are just a guarantee so that the power which arises out of discipline is not misused.

You can see "yogis" displaying their power. That is impossible for a yogi, because if the yogi has really fulfilled these five vows he will no longer be an exhibitionist; he cannot display. He can no longer try to play with miracles -- that is not possible for him. Miracles happen around him, but he is not the doer.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 5 Chapter-06

Does the universe love me?

Question 1

WHAT IS YOUR PATH, THE PATH THAT YOU REVEAL TO US?

IT is not a path at all; you are not to travel it. Rather, it is a simple understanding.

You have to stop all travelling. A path is to travel and to go somewhere; a path is to reach somewhere, to attain something; a path is a means and the end is far away in the future. That's what I mean when I say whatsoever I am talking to you about is not a path; it is a simple understanding. If you understand, you have already reached to the goal. If you understand, you have always been in the goal, never for a single moment have you been away from it. You may have been dreaming that you have gone away, but you have not left your home for a single moment.

This is a no-path. Or, if you insist for the word, or if you are so fascinated with the word, call it a pathless path. But try to understand me: this is not a path. I am giving you not the means but the end itself.

Question 2

SINCE COMING TO YOU, LIVING A MEDITATIVE LIFE HAS BECOME AN EASIER AND MORE NATURAL PHENOMENON. HOWEVER, I HAVE PRACTICALLY GIVEN UP ALL HOPE FOR ENLIGHTENMENT ARE THESE TENDENCIES CONTRADICTORY?

Not at all. To attain to enlightenment that is a must -- that you should lose all hope and desire for it. Otherwise the desire for enlightenment becomes a nightmare in itself. And the more you desire it, the further away you are from it - - greater the desire, greater will be the distance. Drop all desiring for it, all hoping for it. If you have really become desireless about enlightenment, any moment it is possible to happen. Give space; don't be filled with the desire for it.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 5 Chapter-05

The eight limbs of yoga

28. BY PRACTISING THE DIFFERENT STEPS OF YOGA FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF IMPURITY, THERE ARISES SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION WHICH DEVELOPS INTO AWARENESS OF REALITY.

29. THE EIGHT STEPS OF YOGA ARE: SELF-RESTRAINT, FIXED OBSERVANCE, POSTURE, BREATH REGULATION, ABSTRACTION, CONCENTRATION, CONTEMPLATION AND TRANCE.

THE light that you seek is within you. So the search is going to be an inward search. It is not a journey to some goal in the outer space; it is a journey in the inner space. You have to reach your core. That which you are seeking is already within you. You just have to peel the onion: layers and layers of ignorance are there. The diamond is hidden in the mud; the diamond is not to be created. The diamond is already there -- -only the layers of mud have to be removed.

This is very basic to understand: the treasure is already there. Maybe you don't have the key. The key has to be found, but not the treasure. This is basic, very radical, because the whole effort will depend on this understanding. If the treasure has to be created. then it is going to be a very long process; and nobody can be certain whether it can be created or not. Only the key has to be found. The treasure is there, just nearby. A few layers of locks have to be removed.

That's why the search for truth is negative. It is not a positive search. You are not to add something to your being; rather you have to delete something. You have to cut something from you. The search for truth is surgical. It is not medical; it is surgical. Nothing is to be added to you; rather on the contrary, something has to be removed from you, negated. Hence, the method of the Upanishads: neti, neti.

Yoga : The Alpha and the Omega Volume - 5 Chapter-04

Because you are buddhas

Question 1

YOU SAY ONE CAN TAKE A JUMP FOR QUICK ATTAINMENT OF ENLIGHTENMENT. IS IT POSSIBLE? ENLIGHTENMENT MEANS GOING UPWARD, ISN'T IT? BUT A JUMP CAN ONLY BE TAKEN IF WE WANT TO GO DOWNWARD, LIKE JUMPING FROM A MULTISTORIED MANSION ONTO THE GROUND. HOW CAN ONE JUMP FROM THE GROUND TO THE TOP OF THE MANSION? ONE CAN ONLY GO UPWARD, ASCENDING SOMETHING. PLEASE EXPLAIN.

YOU miss the whole point, and you miss it in the analogy. Enlightenment is "going nowhere," neither upward nor downward. Enlightenment is to be where you are -- right now, this very moment. It is not a going; it is being. You don t go anywhere in enlightenment. Buddha is not going, climbing, to the Everest. You go inward; and that dimension of inwardness is neither upward nor downward.

It doesn't belong to the upward or the downward; those are the outer directions.

Inside, you are exactly where you are. Enlightenment is not going, but being -- being totally still. Hence, the jump is possible.

You are true. If it is going upward, how can you jump? In fact, even if it is going downward, to jump from the Everest will be simple stupidity. You will die. No, it is neither downward nor upward. You simply close yourself from all directions. You by and by settle within.