The Gospel Of Thomas- The Enlightenment Teachings Of Jesus

[Sage_Elias]

 

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said : Whoever finds interpretation of these sayings will not taste death. 

Reading interpretation is not going to help , words never interpret. Only experience can interpret, only experience can be interpretation.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Prabhaker

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said : as for the one who seek, let him continue to seek, until he finds. 

Mind is lethargic, and whenever you move upwards it is more lethargic. If you move downwards it has much energy, because a downward movement needs no effort. To reach hell no effort is needed, you will reach automatically; don't do anything and you will reach.  But if you start moving higher, upwards, then effort will be needed, much effort will be needed.

Many times there will come moments when the mind will say, "What are you doing? Why are you making so much effort? Relax, enjoy, rest!" And if you listen to the mind you will be thrown back. Don't listen to the mind! A seeker should persist and go on making efforts until he finds.

But the saying looks against Zen -- it has to be understood, it is not -- because Zen masters say, "Be effortless. Don't make any effort, otherwise you will miss. A slight movement and you have already missed. Be at rest, be totally relaxed, in a letgo, as if you are not, and you will attain." They say, "Seek and you will miss, don't seek and you will find." Jesus' saying looks against Zen. It is not, because as you are you cannot be in a total letgo. Even if you try, even if you relax, activity continues.

Zen is not for you as you are, Jesus is for you as you are.  And if you follow Jesus, a moment will come when Zen will be for you. When will that moment come? When you have exhausted all your effort, when you have done everything that can be done, when you have come to the last peak of your effort. Now nothing can be done, now there is no more to do; you have put all that you could into it, now nothing is being held back, your whole energy has moved into the effort. And it is not now that you stop, but because the whole energy has moved into the effort, there comes a stop, there comes relaxation. It happens, a letgo happens -- you cannot do it. 

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said : When he finds he will become agitated, when he become agitated, he will be astounded, and he will reign over the all.

Why? When you find, why will you be troubled? You will be troubled because the thing is so great. It is so vast, infinite, that when you find it for the first time you will be completely lost. When you become aware of it for the first time, it is as if a man who has lived all his life in a dark room, in a dark cell, has been brought into the open sky, into the light of the sun. He will be troubled, his eyes will not be able to open. Even if he opens his eyes, he will be so dazzled that the light will look like darkness.

The first encounter with the divine is a crisis, because you have lived many, many lives in a wrong way. You have lived many lives so miserably that when bliss happens you cannot believe it: you will be troubled. You never expected it, you never knew what was going to happen. You talk about God -- do you know? What do you mean? The word god is not God, the theories about God are not God. You may know the definition from the dictionary, from the scripture, but what do you really mean when you say, "I am seeking God"?

And every seeker is in this situation: you don't know what you are seeking, you don't know what the goal is, you don't know where you are going, why you are going. A deep urge is there, that is right: a deep thirst is there, that is right. But you have never tasted that for which this thirst exists. You move, you grope -- when suddenly it happens, you will be troubled.

This sentence shows that Jesus has known. A man who has not known God cannot write this sentence, a man who has not known God cannot say, "When you find him, you will be troubled." He will say, "Then you will be blissful, absolutely blissful."

he will be astounded

But if he has not escaped, not turned his back and run about in the world, then: ... HE WILL BE ASTOUNDED. Then he will feel the mysterium, the mysterious. Then he will laugh and smile, because out of this night such a beautiful morning. Out of this troubled state, out of this hell and fear and anguish, such a blessing! Out of thorns, such beautiful flowers. Then:

he will reign over the all.

Then he is a beggar no more. When desires disappear -- and they disappear only when you have attained to your self, because all desires are basically desires to attain the self, the inner consciousness, the innermost -- when you have attained the innermost, desires disappear, you are a beggar no more. You have become an emperor, you have become a king: ... AND HE WILL REIGN OVER THE ALL. Now this whole existence is his kingdom.

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said: If the ones who lead you should say to you, 'see, the kingdom is in heaven,' then the birds of heaven will proceed you. If they say to you, 'it is in the sea, then the fish will proceed you. But the kingdom is inside of you and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then you will become known and you will understand that you are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.

The kingdom of God has been preached as if it is always somewhere else: in time, in space, but always somewhere else – not here and now.

If the ones who lead you should say to you, 'see, the kingdom is in heaven,

... not here, somewhere high in the skies, somewhere far away; the kingdom of God is somewhere distant, very far away – then the birds of heaven will proceed you. They will reach before you, then you will be at a loss. Jesus is joking, he is saying: Then don’t hope, because the birds of heaven will reach before you! 

If they say to you, 'it is in the sea, then the fish will proceed you. ... and they will reach before you, you will miss.

When Jesus says: If the ones who lead you should say to you,– he is indicating towards the priests – 'see, the kingdom is in heaven,' then the birds of heaven will proceed you. If they say to you, 'it is in the sea, then the fish will proceed you.

And the priests always say it is somewhere else.

Jesus said: If the ones who lead you should say to you, 'see, the kingdom is in heaven, don’t listen to them, otherwise you will miss that kingdom forever and forever.

But the kingdom is inside of you – it is not anywhere else, it is exactly where you are this moment – and it is outside of you. It is within you and it is without you. It is within you like a center, it is without you like a circumference.

What is Jesus saying? Within plus without is the whole world, within plus without is the whole universe – nothing is left.

When you know yourselves, then you will become known

This is the synthesis. If you know yourself, you have known all. 

This is very subtle. What does he mean when he says: ... then you will become known? If you know yourself, the whole existence will know you; in your knowledge, the whole existence will look at you. Not only will you be looking at existence, the whole existence will also respond, because
God is within and without.

and you will understand that you are the sons of the living father.

Everything that exists in this universe is son to the whole, it has to be so. You are born in it, through it. The whole existence has been fathering you.

When Jesus says, ”God is the father,” he means all these things: that the universe cares about you, it helps you. Not only are you in search of God, God is also in search of you. The universe is not dead and detached, it responds with a loving heart. If you cry, it cries with you. If you laugh, it laughs with you. If you are in pain, existence feels the pain. If you are happy, the whole existence feels happy with you. Between you and existence there is a deep relationship. This is the emphasis: the relationship of a father to a son.

But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.

This is the only poverty: ignorance of oneself – there is no other poverty. You may not have riches, you may not have great palaces, you may not have empires, but those are not real riches. Only one thing is real wealth and that is self-knowledge, because it cannot be destroyed. 

You are poor. There is only one poverty: when you don’t know yourself. Why is it poverty? – because you are emperors, sons of a living God! The greatest that is possible has happened to you, and you are unaware of it and you go on begging.

All desires are begging. It is said that if wishes were horses, beggars would be the riders. But all desires are horses, and beggars are riders – you are all riders. Look at your horses: they are your desires, begging, demanding, asking – and you have all within you but you never look within. Once you look, riches will be revealed, eternal, in abundance, you cannot exhaust them. And once you look within the whole existence recognizes your emperorship, the whole existence recognizes who you are: you are the son of the whole. Then all begging disappears, you become rich for the first time.

Edited March 28, 2017 by Prabhaker

[Prabhaker]

The disciples said to Jesus : Tell us what is the kingdom of heaven is like.

There are two types of questioning: one is out of knowledge, and then it is useless because then only a debate is possible, not a dialogue. But when you ask out of ignorance, knowing well that you don’t know, when you know that you don’t know, and ask, you have become a disciple. Now it is not going to be an argument. You are just thirsty and you ask for water; you are hungry and you ask for food. You don’t know and you ask; you are ready to receive. A disciple asks knowing well that he doesn’t know. When you don’t know you are humble. When you know you become egoistic, and a Jesus cannot talk to egos.

Myths are milestones, arrows towards the unknown. They are not the goal, they simply indicate. That is the meaning of the disciples’ question: TELL US WHAT THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE. We cannot ask what the kingdom of heaven is. Look at the quality of the question: we cannot ask what the kingdom of heaven is – that would be too much. We cannot expect the answer for that either. We can only ask what it is like, which means: ”Say something which we know; make some indications through it so we can have a glimpse.”

Jesus said: It is like a mustard seed which is smaller than all seeds but when it falls on plowed soil that produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for the birds of the sky.

Jesus has used this mustard seed very often, for many reasons. One: the mustard seed is the smallest seed. God is invisible, smaller than the smallest, so how can you indicate him? At the boundary of sight is the mustard seed, the smallest thing.... Beyond that you will not be able to understand because beyond is the invisible. The mustard seed is the boundary, the smallest thing in the world of the visible – you can see it but it is very small. If you go beyond you enter the world of the subtle, that which is smaller than the smallest. This mustard seed exists on the boundary.

When Jesus says, ”The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed,” he is saying millions of things. That’s the beauty of a parable: you say almost nothing, you say nothing much, and yet you say many things. When the seed dies the universe is there; when the seed dies the tree is there. This is the kingdom of God; here is the kingdom of heaven. And if you are looking for it somewhere else, you are looking in vain. If you want to look into the kingdom of God, you also have to become like a seed and die: and suddenly the tree is there – you are no more and God is there. You will never encounter God. If you are there, God is not there because the seed is there. When you disappear, God is there; so there is no encounter really.

... BUT WHEN IT FALLS ON THE PLOWED SOIL.... Right earth is needed. Just a dying of the seed won’t do, because you can die on a stone and then there will be no tree, there will be simple death. You have to find right soil, right earth – and that is the meaning of discipleship. It is a training. Discipleship is a training, a learning to become a tilled, right earth. The seed is there but the right earth has to be found. You have the tree within you; the master can only give you the right earth. He can till you, he can throw the weeds out, he can make the soil worthy to receive. He can make the soil rich with fertilizers – he is a gardener.

You contain all, but still you will need a gardener; otherwise you will go on throwing the seeds anywhere. They may fall on a cement road and they will die there, or they will fall on a path and people will walk over them and they will die. Somebody is needed when you are dying who can protect you. Look: when a child is born you need a midwife. Nobody says that without a midwife it would be good.... A midwife is needed because the moment is very delicate. But greater is the moment when the truth is born; greater is the moment when God is born in you – greater than all births.

... IT PRODUCES A LARGE PLANT AND BECOMES A SHELTER FOR ALL THE BIRDS OF THE SKY.
And when your tree has really grown, when it has become a Buddha-tree, then millions of birds who are in search come and take shelter. Under Jesus many ’birds of heaven’ take shelter; under Buddha many ’birds of heaven’ take shelter. To those who are in search of the deepest, that tree - the Buddha-tree, the Jesus-tree – becomes a shelter and there they can feel the unknown throbbing. There they can trust, there they can come to an understanding with the unknown, and there they can take the jump.

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said: The kingdom is like a shepherd man who had a hundred sheep. One who was the largest went to stray. He left to the 99, and searched for that one until he found it. After having so troubled himself he said to the Sheep: I love you more and the 99.

It is always so – the one who goes astray is always the best. Intelligence is rebellious: the more intelligent, the more rebellious. And those who are not rebellious, who are yea-sayers, are almost dead; you may like them, but they have no life in them. They follow you not because they love you, they follow you because they are weak, they are afraid, they cannot stand alone, they cannot stand against – they are weaklings, impotent.

Only those who are great, who are the best, go astray. The sinners are the most beautiful people in the world – gone wrong, of course. They can become saints any moment. Saints are beautiful, sinners are beautiful, but the people who are just in between, they are ugly... because impotence is the only ugliness: when you don’t have any energy, when you are already a dead thing, a corpse, somehow carrying yourself, or having others carry you.

the word ’largest’, in the world of sheep, carries the meaning of ’the best’. Because the largest sheep is the best sheep – it carries more wool, it carries more fat, so it costs more to purchase – if you sell it you will gain more. The larger the sheep the better, the smaller the sheep the poorer. ’Largest’ means the best – and the best went astray. It is symbolic. The shepherd left behind the ninety-nine – they were not worthwhile.

Why does Jesus always choose the shepherd and the sheep? It is very meaningful, his symbology is meaningful: the whole crowd of mediocre minds is just like sheep, they live in a crowd. Look at sheep moving on the road: they move as if they have a collective mind, not like independent beings – hugging to each other, huddled, afraid to move alone. They move in a crowd.

He left behind the 99, and searched for that one until he found it.

And remember you need not go to seek God, he will come to you. Just become worthy and he will find you, he has to make a path towards you. The moment someone somewhere becomes crystallized, the whole divine energy moves towards him. He may reach you as an enlightened man, he may reach you as a master, as a guru – in millions of ways he can reach you. But how he reaches you is not the point – that is for him to worry about, it is not for you to worry about. First attain the ego, be ready, become individual, and then the universal can happen to you.

After having so troubled himself he said to the Sheep: I love you more and the 99.

The one who has become rebellious, God loves him more. Priests will say, ”What nonsense! One who has gone astray, God loves him more?” The priests cannot believe it, but this is how it happens. Jesus is the lost sheep, Buddha is the lost sheep, Mahavira is the lost sheep. The crowd goes on moving in its mediocrity, while a Mahavira, a Buddha and a Jesus are sought out – God rushes towards them.

And how to be ready? Become individual, be a revolutionary. Go beyond the society, be fearless, break all chains, all relationships. Be alone and exist as if you are the center of the world. Then God rushes towards you, and in his rush your ego is lost, the island disappears into the ocean – suddenly you are no more.

Be courageous! Move beyond the clearing, go to the wild. Life is there, and only then will you grow. There may be suffering, because there is no growth without suffering. There may be a cross, crucifixion, because without it there is no maturity. Society may take revenge through crucifixion – accept it. That is bound to happen, because when the one sheep comes back the ninety-nine will say, ”This is the sinner! This sheep went astray, this one is no part of us, this sheep doesn’t belong to us!”

And those ninety-nine sheep will be absolutely unable to conceive that the shepherd is carrying that sheep on his shoulders – because this is the lost sheep and it has been found.

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said : Blessed is the man who has toiled and found life. Look at the living one while you are alive, lest you die and seek to see him but are not able to do so. That man has encircled the lamb.

Disciples said : He has done so in order that he might kill and eat it.

Jesus said : As long as it is alive he will not eat it rather he will wait until he has killed and it has become a corpse. 

Disciples said : He cannot do it any other way.

Jesus said : So it is to be with you seek a place for yourselves in rest so that you don't become a corpse and be eaten. Two will rest on a bed: One will die, the other will live.

Looks absurd and paradoxical! He says: BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO HAS TOILED.... We always call that man blessed who has never suffered. But have you seen any man who has never suffered? If you ever see such a man, you will find him absolutely juvenile, childish, without any growth, without any depth, without any awareness -- he will be an idiot. And you can never say that he is blessed.

Only one who has never tried to live, who has been avoiding life, can remain without suffering. 

Jesus cannot call a vegetative life blessed, nobody can say that a vegetative life is blessed. That is the greatest misfortune that can happen to a man because he will never grow in awareness and maturity; and he will not have higher layers of consciousness because those higher layers come into existence only when they are challenged. Suffering is a challenge; when you suffer you are challenged, when there is a problem you are challenged. When you encounter the problem, only then do you grow. More insecurity, more growth; more security, less growth. If everything is secure around you, you are already in your grave, you are no longer alive. Life exists in danger, life always exists in the possibility of going astray. But one who goes astray can come back, one who fails can succeed.

Consciousness makes you human. And this is the beauty of it: that whenever you are conscious, suffering disappears. Suffering brings in consciousness, but if you move more and more in consciousness, suffering disappears. This law has to be understood.

Jesus said : So it is to be with you seek a place for yourselves in rest so that you don't become a corpse and be eaten. Two will rest on a bed: One will die, the other will live.

In you there is one who is a living one and one who is already dead. In you two worlds meet, the world of matter and the world of spirit -- you exist on the boundary. In you two realms meet, the realm of death and the realm of life -- you exist in between. If you pay too much attention to that which belongs to death you will always remain afraid, suffering, fearful. If you pay attention to your center, which belongs to life, to eternal life, to immortality, fear will disappear.

Don't miss, because at the moment of death it will be very, very difficult to look upon the living one.

If for your whole life you have been attentive to the realm of death -- the realm of things, the realm of matter and the world -- if you have been attentive only to the realm of death, it will be difficult, almost impossible, to look at the realm of life when you are dead or when you are dying. How can you suddenly turn your back, how can you suddenly turn your head?

seek a place for yourselves in rest so that you don't become a corpse and be eaten.

Whenever you have a moment of silence, close your eyes and look within so that your neck remains flexible; otherwise, at the moment of death you will be paralyzed. You would like to see the eternal life, but you will not be able to because you cannot turn back. 

When you die, what will happen to your body? The world will use it as food: the worms of the earth will eat you, or the birds of the sky will eat you. It just gives you a fear, you become apprehensive that, "I will be eaten." Because of this, all the world over, people have created ways in order not to be eaten. But they are foolish!

Jesus says, "If you don't realize the inner one, the living one, the conscious one, then you are just going to be eaten, that's all."

Jesus says, "Before you are dead, before you are eaten, realize that which is not food in you, which is not created by food in you."

Seek a state of silence, repose, tranquility, balance, where you can become aware of the living one. - Two will rest on a bed: One will die, the other will live.

TWO WILL REST ON A BED -- you are the bed -- TWO WILL REST ON A BED: THE ONE WILL DIE, THE ONE WILL LIVE. you are the bed, TWO ARE THERE: ... THE ONE WILL DIE, THE ONE WILL LIVE.

Ordinarily, that one who is going to die is your goal. That's why you are always in anxiety, because you are building a house on sands. It is going to fall -- even before it is built it will fall and become a ruin. You are always trembling because you are making your signature on water -- before you have completed it, it is gone.

And it is up to you. If you want to remain in trouble, never pay attention to the inner one; if you want to remain always in anguish then remain on the periphery, don't look within. But if you want repose, a peaceful eternity, truth, the doors of heaven open for you, then look within. It is difficult -- it is difficult because it is very subtle. Where the invisible and the visible meet, where matter and spirit meet, it is very subtle. You can see matter, you cannot see spirit, it cannot be seen. You can see where the visible ends, you cannot see the invisible, it cannot be seen.

Then what is to be done? Just remain at the boundary of the visible, and don't look at the visible, look in the opposite direction. Gradually the invisible can be felt. It is a feeling, it is not an understanding; you cannot see it, you can only feel it. It is just like a breeze: it comes, you feel it, but you cannot see it. It is just like the sky: it is there, but you cannot say where, you cannot pinpoint it, you cannot touch it. It is always there, you are in it but you cannot touch it.

Remain at the boundary of the visible looking in the opposite direction. This is what all meditation is about.

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said: A city built on a high mountain and strengthened, cannot form and it cannot be hidden.

What you will hear in your ear both of them, this is what you are to proclaim from your roof tops, for no one lights a lamp and put it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, rather he sets it on a lampstand so that anyone who enters and goes out to you will see its light.

If a blind man leads a blind man they will both fall into a pit.

A CITY BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN....

You always make something in the valley. These are symbols: 'valley' means the dark night; 'high mountain' means more conscious, more aware; the more aware you are, the higher you go. 

You are building your cities, your houses, in a valley, and ordinary sleep alone is not enough for you, you also seek drugs to fall more asleep; you seek methods of hypnosis to become more sleepy, more unconscious -- because consciousness is pain, it is anguish.

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED, CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

We build our cities in such a way, on such a fleeting existence, on the momentary, the temporal, that by the time they are ready they are falling; by the time they are ready they have already become ruins. Why? -- because we can see only the momentary, we don't have a total vision. We can see only that which is nearest, just very close. Only the moment is close -- you see one moment, then it passes, then another moment, then it passes. You see these passing moments, you cannot have a total vision.

For the total vision a perfect consciousness is needed. In a total vision, you can see the whole of life; not only the whole of life, you can see the whole world.

When the wholeness is clear, only then can you make a fortified city. Otherwise, how can you make one?

You don't know what is going to happen the next moment. Whatsoever you do, the next moment may undo it. And whatsoever you do depends on the momentary, not on the whole. The whole may reject it, it may become absolutely meaningless in the whole.

Your city will always be falling, your city will always be in ruins. It is so! You need not ask Jesus, you can just look at your life: it is a ruin. Before you have built it, it is already a ruin. You are a ruined city. Why is it happening? -- because of the momentary. Have a vision of the eternal, of the timeless.

A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN AND FORTIFIED -- but remember the high altitude is the fortification -- CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

This is very paradoxical: in the valley you constantly fall, on the top never. This is paradoxical because we see people falling from the top. In the valley, why should one fall? One is walking on level ground, people fall from heights -- that is a myth. In the inner world nobody falls from the heights; once the inner height is achieved, one never falls from it. Nothing can be taken from you if you have achieved it in the within. But without, your myth is true.

People fall whenever they are on the heights, but those heights belong to the valley, they are not real heights. If you have fame, you can be certain that sooner or later you will be defamed; if you are on the throne, sooner or later you will be dethroned. Whatsoever you achieve in this world will be taken away. But in the inner world, whatsoever you achieve you achieve forever, it cannot be taken away. Knowing cannot go back; once achieved, it becomes part of you. It is not something you possess -- it becomes your being and you cannot unknow it.

FORTIFIED, A CITY BEING BUILT ON A HIGH MOUNTAIN CANNOT FALL NOR CAN IT EVER BE HIDDEN.

And you cannot hide it. A city built on the top will be known -- for eternities it will be known, there is no way to hide it. How can you hide a Buddha? It is impossible! How can you hide a Jesus? It is impossible! The phenomenon is so tremendous, their existence is so penetrating, that the impact will last.

What you will hear in your ear both of them, this is what you are to proclaim from your roof tops, for no one lights a lamp and put it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, rather he sets it on a lampstand so that anyone who enters and goes out to you will see its light.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Whatsoever you have heard, go and shout it from the housetops so that others can hear it... FOR NO ONE LIGHTS A LAMP AND PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL, NOR DOES HE PUT IT IN A HIDDEN PLACE...."

Jesus says, "Go and tell the good news! Go and tell that the unknown has entered into the known; go and tell that in your routine world the mysterious has entered! Go and tell it from the housetops so that people can hear, and people can come and know and be benefited -- don't be shy about it!"

Jesus says to his disciples, "Go, and cry from the housetops!" Why from the housetops? -- because people are almost deaf, they don't hear, they don't want to hear. Even when they listen they are not hearing, they are somewhere else. Even when they nod they are simply bored. They may tolerate it but they never enjoy the truth, because truth will always make you uncomfortable, bound to do so -- because you live in the valley of lies.

Only rarely does someone become enlightened, only rarely does someone's darkness disappear. It is such a rare phenomenon and it is not going to last forever -- hence Jesus is always in a hurry. He knows well. And Jesus had the most limited time on earth; he died when he was thirty-three. He started preaching when he was thirty, he died when he was thirty-three -- only three years. He was in a great hurry. He knew this crucifixion was going to happen, so he said, "Go and make as many people aware and alert as possible. The door is open, now they can enter into the divine."

JESUS SAID: IF A BLIND MAN LEADS A BLIND MAN, BOTH OF THEM FALL INTO A PIT.

So don't be shy! Go and tell others that there is a man who has eyes; otherwise people will be led astray, because people have a need to be led. If you cannot find a Buddha or a Jesus, you will still follow someone because there is a great need to follow. There is a great need because you don't know where to go. Somebody says, "I know..." so what to do?

Jesuses are not available every day, Buddhas are not born every day. But the need is there! If you cannot get the right food you will eat the wrong food, because the hunger is there every day. And it is very easy to find a blind man because you are blind -- you understand the language. It is very easy to follow a blind man because you both belong to the same world of darkness, the same valley. It is much easier to be convinced by a blind man that he is the master, than to be convinced by a man who is not blind -- because he uses a different language, he talks about a different world; he is so strange, you cannot understand him.

It is always easy to follow a wrong master, because you are wrong; something is similar between you and the master.

if you follow a blind man: even if you reach heaven, it will turn out to be a hell, because blindness can never reach heaven. Heaven is not really a place to reach, it is a state of consciousness; it is not somewhere in geography, it is not geographical -- it is something in you. Hell and heaven both exist in you. But if you follow a blind man, how can a blind man lead you towards the heights? He will lead you into the valley. But there is a need to be led -- be aware of that need.

You want to be led, because then the responsibility goes to the other. It is better to have a blind leader than none -- this is your state of mind. Hence Jesus says, "Go and tell people from the housetops that the master is here!" Jesus has appeared, and the chance is rare, and there is every possibility you may miss the opportunity.

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said : The kingdom of the father is like a merchant, who having an inventory of goods discovered a pearl. This merchant was prudent, he sells his infantry and bought the pearl alone. Likewise you must seek his unfailing and enduring treasure, where no moth comes near to eat and no worm destroys.

The story is this: One man went to a faraway country to earn money. He earned much, he collected much merchandise, but at the last moment he came upon a pearl. He made an exchange: he sold all the merchandise and purchased the one pearl. When he was coming back, there was an accident and the ship sank. But with one pearl he could swim ashore and he reached his home with his entire treasure.

This is the story to which Jesus refers: that man purchased one instead of many, so even when the ship sank nothing was lost. The one can be saved, not the many. When death comes and your ship sinks, if you have one pearl you will be able to carry it to the other shore; but if you have many, many things, you will not be able to carry them. A pearl can be carried, but how can you carry much merchandise?

The kingdom of the father is like a merchant, who having an inventory of goods discovered a pearl. This merchant was prudent

He was wise, because it is foolishness to sell the one and to purchase the many. This is wisdom: to sell the many and to purchase the one. The pearl is symbolic of the one, the inner.

 This merchant was prudent, he sells his infantry and bought the pearl alone. Likewise you must seek his unfailing and enduring treasure, where no moth comes near to eat and no worm destroys.

Then be like that merchant, the prudent, the wise one. Whatsoever you can get in this world will be snatched away from you. Have you observed the fact that you cannot possess anything in the world, in reality? You simply feel you possess -- but the thing was here when you were not, somebody else possessed it. Soon you will not be here, but the thing will be here and somebody else will possess it. Your possession is just like a dream: sometimes it is there and sometimes it is gone.

Life must be something eternal. But if you are looking for the eternal, then be like the prudent merchant: sell all that you have got. Sell it and purchase the one, the one pearl of your inner being which cannot be drowned, which cannot be snatched away -- because that pearl is you. You can possess only yourself, nothing else can be really possessed.

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said: I took my stand in the midst of the world and in flesh I appeared to them.

I found them all drunk, I found none of them athirst.

And my soul was afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their heart and they do not see that empty they have come into the world, and empty they seek to go out of the world again.

But now they are drunk. When they have shaken off their wine, then they will repent.

Jesus said: If the flesh has come into existence because of the spirit, it is a marvel; but if the spirit has come into existence because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. But i marvel at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.

Jesus never renounced the world, he was standing in the midst of us all. He was not an escapist; he moved in the marketplace, he lived with the crowd. He talked to prostitutes, laborers, farmers, fishermen. He didn't go out of the world, he remained here amidst you. He knew the world better than anybody who has escaped from it.

It is no wonder that Christ's message became so powerful. 

I TOOK MY STAND IN THE MIDST OF THE WORLD AND IN FLESH I APPEARED TO THEM.

And he was not a spirit. Many masters go on continuously visiting you in their spirits. Buddha still knocks at your door, but in the spirit. And if you cannot see a person who has come in the flesh, how can you recognize Buddha?

Jesus says: I appeared in the flesh to them -- I was in the body, they could see me, they could hear me, they could feel me, but still they missed. They missed because... I FOUND THEM ALL DRUNK. They were not there really, no consciousness at all. I knocked at their doors, but they were not at home.

If Jesus comes to your home and knocks, will you be there to receive him? You will be somewhere else; you are never at home. You go on wandering all over the world, except to your home. Where is your home? Inside you, where the center of consciousness is, is your home. You are never there, because only in deep meditation are you there. And when you are deep in meditation you can recognize Jesus immediately -- whether he comes in the body or bodiless makes no difference. If you are at home you will recognize the knock. But if you are not at home, what can be done? Jesus will knock and you will not be there. That is the meaning of the word drunk: not at home.

Jesus said: I FOUND THEM ALL DRUNK; I FOUND NONE OF THEM ATHIRST.

This has to be understood, a very delicate point: if you are drunk with this world, you cannot be thirsty for the other. If you are drunk with ordinary alcohol, with ordinary wine, you cannot be thirsty for the divine wine -- impossible! When a man is not drunk with this world, a thirst arises. And that thirst cannot be fulfilled by anything that belongs to this world. Only the unknown can fulfill it, only the invisible can fulfill it.

So Jesus says a very contradictory thing: I FOUND THEM ALL DRUNK; I FOUND NONE OF THEM ATHIRST. Nobody was thirsty because they thought they had already found the key, the treasure, the kingdom. So then there was no search.This world and its wine can give you only temporary relief, can give you only temporary gaps of forgetfulness.

I FOUND THEM ALL DRUNK; I FOUND NONE OF THEM ATHIRST. AND MY SOUL WAS AFFLICTED FOR THE SONS OF MEN, BECAUSE THEY ARE BLIND IN THEIR HEART AND THEY DO NOT SEE THAT EMPTY THEY HAVE COME INTO THE WORLD, AND EMPTY THEY SEEK TO GO OUT OF THE WORLD AGAIN.

AND MY SOUL WAS AFFLICTED.... You cannot understand what suffering happens to a Jesus or a Buddha when he looks at you, drunk with this world, not thirsty at all for the divine, for the truth; living in lies, and believing in lies as if they were truths -- and missing for nothing, missing all for nothing. Then it happens that the smallest things can become barriers.

AND MY SOUL WAS AFFLICTED FOR THE SONS OF MEN, BECAUSE THEY ARE BLIND IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DO NOT SEE THAT EMPTY THEY HAVE COME INTO THE WORLD, AND EMPTY THEY SEEK TO GO OUT OF THE WORLD AGAIN.

Empty you have come, but not exactly empty: filled with desires. Empty you will go, but not exactly empty: again filled with desires. But desires are dreams -- you remain empty -- they have nothing substantial in them. You are born empty, and then you move in the world and accumulate things, just believing that these things will give you a fulfillment. You remain empty. Death snatches everything, you move again into the grave, again empty.

... BECAUSE THEY ARE BLIND IN THEIR HEARTS AND DO NOT SEE THAT EMPTY THEY HAVE COME INTO THE WORLD, AND EMPTY THEY SEEK TO GO OUT OF THE WORLD AGAIN.

Only the heart can see how empty you are! What have you gained? What maturity, what growth has happened to you? What ecstasy has come to you? -- no benediction yet? The whole past has been a rotten thing. And in the future you are going to repeat the past: what else can you do? This is the affliction of a Jesus, of a Buddha. He feels miserable for you.

BUT NOW THEY ARE DRUNK. WHEN THEY HAVE SHAKEN OFF THEIR WINE, THEN THEY WILL REPENT.

This is about you. Don't think 'they' -- they means you: when you are shaken out of your drunkenness, you will repent. This word repent became very meaningful. Repentance is beautiful if it comes through the heart, if you realize that, "Yes, Jesus is right, we have wasted our lives."

This is unique to Christianity. If you repent totally, if it comes from the heart, if you cry and weep, if your whole being feels and repents that you have been wasting God's given opportunity -- you have not been grateful, you have misbehaved, you have mistreated your own being... you feel the sin. This is the sin! -- not that you have murdered somebody or that you have stolen; that is nothing. Those are minor sins which are born out of this original sin: that you have been drunk. You open your eyes, your heart is filled with repentance, and then a scream, a cry, comes out of your being. There is no need for words, you need not say to God, "I repent, forgive me." No need. Your whole being becomes a repentance. Suddenly, you are cleansed of all the past. This is one of the most secret keys Jesus delivered to the world.

It is one of the oldest keys. But understand what repentance is. Just saying the words won't do, and saying them halfheartedly won't do. When your whole being repents, your whole being throbs and you feel it in every pore, every fiber, that you have done wrong, and you have done wrong because you have been drunk and now you repent -- suddenly there is a transformation. The past disappears and the projection of the future from the past disappears; you are thrown to here and now, you are thrown to your own being. And for the first time you feel the inner nothingness. It is not empty negatively, it is just that the temple is so vast, like space.... You are forgiven, Jesus says, you are forgiven if you repent.

BUT NOW THEY ARE DRUNK. WHEN THEY HAVE SHAKEN OFF THEIR WINE, THEN THEY WILL REPENT.

JESUS SAID: IF THE FLESH HAS COME INTO EXISTENCE BECAUSE OF THE SPIRIT, IT IS A MARVEL; BUT IF THE SPIRIT HAS COME INTO EXISTENCE BECAUSE OF THE BODY, IT IS A MARVEL OF MARVELS.

I think Karl Marx missed this! I wonder what he would have thought if he had come to these saying of Jesus. Jesus says: ... FLESH HAS COME INTO EXISTENCE BECAUSE OF THE SPIRIT... as all religions say -- God created the world. That means flesh has come out of the spirit, matter has come out of the mind; consciousness is the source, the world is just a byproduct. Then, Jesus says: ... IT IS A MARVEL -- it is a mystery.

BUT IF THE SPIRIT HAS COME INTO EXISTENCE BECAUSE OF THE BODY... as atheists say, materialists say, Karl Marx, Charvak and others say.... Marx says that consciousness is a byproduct of matter. This is what all atheists say, that the world is not created out of the spirit, but the spirit is just a 'by-phenomenon', an epiphenomenon of matter; it comes out of matter, it is just a byproduct. Then Jesus says: ... IF THE SPIRIT HAS COME INTO EXISTENCE BECAUSE OF THE BODY, IT IS A MARVEL OF MARVELS. The first is just a marvel: that God created the world. But the second is a marvel of marvels -- if the world created God. To believe the first is difficult; to believe the second is almost impossible.

It is possible that the lower is born out of the higher, just as a man can paint a picture. We can say the painting has come from the painter, it is a marvel, a beautiful painting. But if somebody says the painter has come out of the painting, it is a marvel of marvels. How can spirit come out of matter if it is not already there? How can a flower come if it is not already in the seed? But Jesus says, anyway, both are marvels. But the third thing is the greatest marvel, and that third thing is:

I MARVEL AT HOW THIS GREAT WEALTH HAS MADE ITS HOME IN THIS POVERTY.

You are poor, a beggar, because you are always desiring, always asking to be given more. Desire is begging, and a desiring mind is a beggar's mind. You may be an emperor, it makes no difference -- you just become a big beggar, that's all, a great beggar, that's all. But you go on demanding.

Jesus says this is the marvel of all marvels: ... HOW THIS GREAT WEALTH -- of divine beingness, of divinity of God -- HAS MADE ITS HOME IN SUCH POVERTY. Drunken people, asleep, poor, begging continuously all their lives; asking for ugly things, fighting for ugly things, obsessed with disease and illness -- and God has made it his temple, and God has made it his abode, his abode in you! Jesus says this is the best -- impossible, incomprehensible -- mystery. Marvel of all marvels! Nothing can transcend this.

This is the affliction of a Buddha, of a Jesus: looking at you -- emperors, who have the kingdom of God, begging; asking for worthless things, wasting your time, your life, energy, opportunity.

Repent! Look at what you have been doing. It will look so foolish, you will not even be able to believe that you have been doing this. The whole thing will look nonsense!

Look at what you have been doing with your life, look at what you have done to yourself. You are just a ruin, and the ruin is growing every day. In the end you will be just a ruin, totally ruined. And in your begging heart, in your begging mind, there lives the king, the supreme. This is a marvel!

[Prabhaker]

Jesus saw children who were being suckled. He said to his disciples: these children who are being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.

They said to him: shall we then, being children, enter the kingdom?

Jesus said to them: when you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner, and the above as the below, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female not be female, then shall you enter the kingdom.

This is one of the deepest sayings of Jesus, and one of the most basic to be understood by a seeker. It is also one of the most difficult to achieve, because if this is achieved nothing more is left to achieve. First try to understand a few things and then we will enter into the saying.

Man, if he lives with the mind, can never be innocent -- and only in innocence does the divine descend, or do you ascend to the divine. Innocence is the door. Mind is cunning, calculating, it is clever, and because of this cleverness you miss -- you miss the kingdom of God. You may attain to the kingdom of this world through the mind, because here cunningness is needed. You have to be cunning: the more cunning, the more successful; the more calculating, the more efficient in the ways of the world.

But the door for the kingdom of God is exactly the opposite. There, no calculation is needed, no cleverness is needed. Mind is not needed at all, because mind is just a mechanism to calculate, a mechanism to be clever. If you don't need any cleverness, any calculation, mind is useless. Then the heart becomes the source of your being, and heart is innocence.

Why do we go on being clever? Why does the mind go on thinking about how to deceive? -- because that is the only way in this world to succeed. So those who want to succeed in this world will be failures in the kingdom of God. If you are ready to accept your failure in this world, then you are ready to enter the other world. The moment one is ready to recognize that, "The success of this world is not for me, I am not for it," immediately a conversion happens, a turning. Then the consciousness doesn't move outward, it starts moving inward.

Jesus emphasizes innocence very much. Hence, he goes on talking about the beauty of children, or the innocence of the flowers, of lilies, or the innocence of the birds. But that type of innocence won't help, you have already lost that. So don't imitate him verbally, don't try to understand literally, it is just symbolic.

You cannot be a child again -- how is it possible? Once you have tasted knowledge you cannot fall back. You can transcend it but you cannot go back, there is no way to go back. You can go ahead, you can go beyond it, but you cannot go behind it now -- there is no way. You cannot be an ordinary child again. How? How can you lose that which you have known? But you can go beyond, you can transcend.

Remember this, otherwise you may start imitating a child and that imitation will be a cunningness, it will again be a calculation... because Jesus says, "Be like a child," so you start practicing how to be like a child. But a child never practices. A child is simply a child, he doesn't even know that he is a child, he is not aware of his innocence. His innocence is there, but he is not self-conscious about it. But if you practice then self-consciousness will be there. Then this childhood will be a false thing. You can act it but you cannot be a child again -- in the literal sense.

A saint, a sage, becomes like a child in a totally different sense. He has transcended, he has gone beyond mind, because he has understood the futility of it. He has understood the whole nonsense of being a successful man in this world -- he has renounced that desire to succeed, the desire to impress others; the desire to be the greatest, the most important; the desire to fulfill the ego. He has come to understand the absolute futility of it. The very understanding transcends. The very understanding -- and immediately you are transformed into a different dimension.

JESUS SAW CHILDREN WHO WERE BEING SUCKLED. HE SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES: THESE CHILDREN WHO ARE BEING SUCKLED ARE LIKE THOSE WHO ENTER THE KINGDOM.

THEY SAID TO HIM: SHALL WE THEN, BEING CHILDREN, ENTER THE KINGDOM?

This is how disciples always miss: they take things literally, they understand words too much -- and the message is wordless. They cling to the symbols too much, they make them too concrete, while when a Jesus speaks his symbols are not concrete, they are liquid. They show something, they don't say anything. They are like indications, fingers pointing to the moon, not saying anything.

Once Jesus says: THESE CHILDREN... ARE LIKE THOSE WHO ENTER THE KINGDOM, immediately we think that if we become like these children, then we will be capable, then we will be able, then we can enter into the kingdom of God.

The disciples said: SHALL WE THEN, BEING CHILDREN, ENTER THE KINGDOM?"

Jesus said, "No! Just being children won't help."

JESUS SAID TO THEM: WHEN YOU MAKE THE TWO ONE, AND WHEN YOU MAKE THE INNER AS THE OUTER AND THE OUTER AS THE INNER, AND THE ABOVE AS THE BELOW, AND WHEN YOU MAKE THE MALE AND THE FEMALE INTO A SINGLE ONE, SO THAT THE MALE WILL NOT BE MALE AND THE FEMALE NOT BE FEMALE, THEN SHALL YOU ENTER THE KINGDOM.

This is what he means by being children again. Try to understand every sentence: WHEN YOU MAKE THE TWO ONE....

How can the two disappear? What should you do? Nothing can be done through the mind because if the mind is there the two will remain. How should the rainbow disappear? How can it disappear? You just throw the prism and there is no rainbow; just take away the drop hanging in the air and the rainbow disappears. Don't look through the mind and the world of the many disappears; look through the mind and it is there.

Don't look through the mind, put it aside and see. Children look at the world without the mind, because the mind takes time to develop. The body comes first, then later on mind follows -- it takes many years really. When the child is born, on the first day he looks at the world and the world is one, he cannot make any distinctions. How can he make any? He cannot say, "This is green and that is red." He does not know red, he does not know green, he simply looks -- the world is one.

And a sage's innocence comes when he has dropped making distinctions. Not that he cannot see that green is green and red is red, not that he cannot make the distinction that this is bread and that is a stone -- but he has dropped the mind. Now he lives through the look and not through thinking.

WHEN YOU MAKE THE TWO ONE, AND WHEN YOU MAKE THE INNER AS THE OUTER.... Because this 'inner' and outer' is also a distinction.

I myself have to say: Leave the outer, come to the inner; move within, drop the without. But you can misunderstand the whole thing, because when you drop the without, the within will be dropped automatically. When the outer is no more, how can the inner exist? They are relative terms: the inner exists only as the opposite of the outer; when there is no more outer there is no more inner. First you drop the outer, and then the inner drops automatically by itself; there is no 'in', no 'out' -- you have become one. If there is still inner and outer then you are still two, not yet one, you are still divided.

AND WHEN YOU MAKE THE MALE AND THE FEMALE INTO A SINGLE ONE, SO THAT THE MALE WILL NOT BE MALE AND THE FEMALE WILL NOT BE FEMALE, THEN SHALL YOU ENTER THE KINGDOM.

So what is to be done? Inside, a circle has to be made. Jesus has not said exactly what is to be done because those secrets cannot be given openly, those secrets can be given only to disciples. Jesus must have given them to his disciples, because just by saying, "Become one!" no one is going to become one. Just by saying that the male should be female and the female should be male, no one is going to become one -- because this is the goal, what is the method?

Jesus must have kept that method secret. He must have given it to his disciples as a secret key, because those greater secrets which can make you one are also very dangerous. If you miss, if you apply them in even a slightly wrong way, you will go mad. That is the problem, and that is the fear.

Normally, as you are, you are a divided being: your male energy seeking female energy outside, your female energy seeking male energy outside -- this is the normal human being. The whole thing has to be transformed: your male energy seeking female energy within. The man within you trying to meet the woman within you is very dangerous, because nature has not provided for it. Nature has given you an urge to meet the woman, to meet the man, and that urge is natural. But to try for this happening to occur within you alone, is not natural. The key has to be applied very, very delicately. It can be done only under a master, one who has traveled the path. That's why the deepest secrets of religion cannot be given through scripture, they can be given only through initiation.

AND WHEN YOU MAKE THE MALE AND THE FEMALE INTO A SINGLE ONE, SO THAT THE MALE WILL NOT BE MALE AND THE FEMALE NOT BE FEMALE, THEN SHALL YOU ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

Then you have entered: you have become perfect, you are not divided, you have become indivisible. Now you have a self: now you have freedom and independence, now you lack nothing, you are complete in yourself. Unless this circle happens you will lack something and you will depend on others to fulfill it.

That sadness is always present with lovers, because no woman can fulfill a man. Even if you get all the women of the world it will not be a fulfillment, because the inner is greater than the 'all'. All the men in the world will not be able to fulfill a woman -- no. It is not possible. Something or other will always be lacking, because no man can be exactly like the inner man. And this problem of time.... Only for a single moment can the meeting happen, and then separation, because no man can be exactly like the inner.

Unless you attain to the inner unity you will move from one misery to another; from one woman to another, from one man to another; from one life of misery to another life of misery. The change may give you the hope -- but it is hopeless, the whole affair is hopeless.

When this circle happens you again become one, innocent like a child -- more than the child, more than any child can ever be -- you have become a sage.

That's the fear of becoming a sage: if you fall, you fall to the very bottom, you become mad. If you reach, you reach to the very top, you become a sage. It is always so. If someone wants to walk on the heights he has to have courage, because if you fall, you fall to the depths. Near the heights the abyss is always there.

That's why Jesus talks about the goal, but never talks about the method. The method is to be given personally, it is an initiation.

[Prabhaker]

Jesus said: It is impossible for a man to mount two horses and to stretch two bows; and it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters, otherwise he will honor the one and offend the other.

Everybody is already mounted on two horses, everybody is stretching two bows -- not only two but many. That's how anguish is created, that's why you are constantly in anxiety. Anxiety shows that somehow you are mounted on two horses. How can you be at ease? Impossible, because the two horses are moving in two directions, and you cannot move anywhere.

With one horse movement is possible, you can reach somewhere. With two horses movement is impossible, they will negate each other and you will not reach anywhere. And this is the anxiety -- that you are not reaching anywhere. Deep down this is the anguish: that life is slipping out of your hands, time is becoming less and less, death is coming near and you are not reaching anywhere. It is as if you have become a stagnant pool, just getting dryer and dryer and dying. There is no goal, no fulfillment. But why is it happening? -- because you have been trying to do the impossible.

Try to understand the mind as it functions in you, then you will be able to understand what Jesus means. You want to be as free as a poor man because only a poor man can be free -- he has no burden, he has nothing to protect, you cannot rob him. He is unafraid. You cannot snatch anything from him because he has nothing; with nothing, he is at ease; with nothing as his possession, nothing can be stolen from him. Nobody is his enemy because he is not a competitor at all, he is not competing with anybody.

You want to be as free as a poor man, as a beggar, but you also want to be as secure as a rich man, as safe as an emperor. The rich man is safe, the rich man is secure, he feels more rooted. Outwardly, he has made all the arrangements, he is not vulnerable: he has protections against death, you cannot murder him so easily, he has an armor. And you would like to be free like the beggar and to be secure like an emperor -- then you are mounted on two horses and it is impossible to reach anywhere.

You love a person, but you want the person to behave like a thing, completely in your hands. But you cannot love a thing, because a thing is dead and cannot respond to you. So if the other is really a person he cannot be possessed, he is like mercury: the more you try to keep him in your fist, the more he goes out -- because to be a person means to be free. If he is a person, you cannot possess him; if you can possess him, he is no longer a person and you will not be able to love him. Then he is just a dead thing. Who can love a dead thing?

You are mounted on two horses. You want a person like a thing, which is impossible! A person has to be free and alive, and only then can you love him. But then you feel difficult, you start possessing, and then you start killing him; you are poisoning. If he allows you this poisoning, sooner or later he will be just a thing. So wives become decorative pieces in the houses, husbands become just watchmen -- but love disappears. And this is happening in all directions.

There is doubt in you because doubt has its benefits: it gives you more calculating power, it gives you more protection, nobody can deceive you easily. So you doubt -- but then doubt creates anxiety because deep down you are uneasy. Doubt is just like illness. Unless you have trust you cannot be at ease, because doubt means wavering and wavering is uneasy. Doubt means, "What to do -- this or that?" Doubt means, "To be or not to be?" -- and it is impossible to decide.

Not even on a single point is decision possible through doubt. At the most, you can decide with the part of the mind which becomes the majority. But the minority is there, and it is not a small minority. And because you have chosen against the minority, the minority will always be looking for the situation when it can say you have chosen wrongly. The minority is there to rebel; it is a constant turmoil within you.

With doubt there is uneasiness. It is an illness, it is just like any illness -- it is a mental illness. So a man who doubts becomes more and more ill. But you cannot deceive him easily because he is more cunning, he is more clever in the ways of the world. You cannot deceive him, but he is ill. So there is a benefit -- he cannot be deceived -- but there is a loss, a great loss. The benefit is at a very great cost: he remains wavering, uneasy, he cannot decide. Even if he decides, that decision is just the major portion deciding against the minor. He is divided, there is always conflict.

Trust you also want. You also want to be in faith, because faith gives you health; there is no indecisiveness, you are completely certain. Certainty gives you a happiness: there is no wavering, you are unwavering; you are whole, not divided -- and wholeness is health. Trust gives you health, but then you become vulnerable, anybody can deceive you. If you trust you are in danger, because there are people all around who would like to exploit you, and they can exploit you only when you trust. If you doubt, they cannot exploit.

So you are mounted on two horses, doubt and faith -- but you are doing the impossible. You will remain constantly in anxiety and anguish, you will deteriorate. In this conflict of the two horses you will die. Some day or other there is going to be an accident -- that accident will be your death: you will be finished before you have reached anywhere; you will be finished before the flowers come; you will be finished before you come to know what life is, what it means to be. The being will have disappeared.

 

JESUS SAID: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES....

But every man is trying to do the impossible, that is why every man is in trouble. And I say to you: this is in every direction. So there are not only two horses, there are millions of horses altogether, and every moment you are living a contradiction. Why does it happen? The mechanism has to be understood, only then can you drop it. Why does it happen? The way every child is brought up is the cause. The way every child enters into this world of mad people all around is the cause. They create contradictions, they teach you contradictory things.

For example, you have been taught: Love the whole of humanity, be brotherly to each and everyone, love thy neighbor as thyself. And simultaneously you have been educated, brought up, conditioned, to compete, to compete with everyone. When you compete, the other is the enemy, not the friend. He has to be defeated, he has to be conquered; really, he has to be destroyed. And you have to be ruthless, otherwise the other will destroy you. If you are a competitor, then the whole society is the enemy, nobody is a neighbor, nobody is a brother. And you cannot love -- you have to hate, you have to be jealous, you have to be angry. You have to be continuously ready to fight and win, and it is a hard struggle -- if you are tender-hearted you are lost.

So be strong and violent and aggressive. Before the other attacks, you attack him. Before it is too late, you attack and win; otherwise you will be lost because millions are competing for the same thing, you are not alone. And how can a mind which is in competition be in love with its neighbor? It is impossible! But both teachings have been given to you: you have been taught that honesty is the best policy, and also that business is business! Both things together, both horses have been given to you together. And a child, unaware of the ways of the world, cannot see and feel the contradiction.

To feel the contradiction a very mature intelligence is needed; a Jesus, a Buddha is needed to feel the contradiction. A child is unaware of the ways of the world, and the teachers -- the father, the mother, the family -- are persons he loves. He loves them -- how can he think that they are creating contradictions in him? He cannot even imagine it because they are his benefactors: they are kind to him, they are bringing him up. They are his source of energy, life, everything. So why should they create contradictions? A father loves, a mother loves, but the problem is that they were also brought up in the same wrong way and they don't know what to do except to repeat. Whatsoever their parents taught them, they are teaching their children. They are simply transferring a disease; from one generation to another the disease is being transferred. You may call it the 'treasure', the 'tradition', but it is a disease. It is a disease because no one becomes healthy through it.

The whole society goes more and more neurotic. And a child is so simple, so innocent, that he can be conditioned into contradictory ways. By the time he realizes the contradiction it is too late. And it happens that almost your whole life is lost, and you never realize that you are mounted on two horses. Think about this contradiction and find it, try to find it in your life. You will find millions of contradictions there -- you are a confusion, a mess, a chaos.

Look at the so-called religious man: he is more confused than the worldly because new horses have been added. The man who lives in the market, the world of the market, is less confused because he may have many horses, but at least they all belong to this world; at least one thing is the same, similar -- they all belong to this world. And this religious man, he has so many horses: those which belong to this world and some new horses he has added which don't belong to this world. He has created a greater rift: the other world, God, the kingdom of God, and he continues to move in this world. He becomes more confused, more conflict arises in his being. He is rent apart, he is not together; every fragment is falling apart, all his togetherness is gone -- this is what neurosis is.

The way you are brought up is wrong, but nothing can be done now because you have already been brought up, you cannot move back. So you have to understand it and drop it through understanding. If you drop it because I say so, then you will add more horses. If you drop it through understanding -- because you understand the whole thing and hence it is dropped -- then no more horses will be added. On the contrary, old horses will be released to their freedom, so they can move and reach their goals... and you can move and reach your own goal.

For not only are you in difficulty, your horses are also in very great difficulty because of you; they cannot reach anywhere either. Have pity on yourself and on your horses, both. But this should be done through understanding -- your understanding, not my teaching or Jesus' or Buddha's. They can show the path, but if you follow without understanding you will never reach the goal.

Now try to understand.

JESUS SAID: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES AND STRETCH TWO BOWS; AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SERVANT TO SERVE TWO MASTERS, OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER.

Why is it impossible, and what is impossibility? An impossibility is not something which is very difficult, no. Howsoever difficult a thing may be it is not impossible, you can achieve it. By impossibility is meant something which cannot be achieved whatsoever you do; there is no way, no possibility to do it. When Jesus says impossible he means impossible, he doesn't mean very difficult -- and you are trying to do the impossible. What will happen? It cannot be done, but you will be undone through it. It cannot be done, but what will happen to you who have been making an effort to do the impossible? You will fall apart. It is not possible to do it, but doing it, you are undoing your own life. This will happen, this has happened.

Look at people who doubt. Have you seen a man who has doubt and who does not have faith? If you see a man who only has doubt you will see he cannot live, it is impossible to live. Go to the madhouses: there you will find people who have doubts about everything. Then they cannot even move, because they doubt even a simple action.

A man who doubts cannot move innocently. Before he moves he will think, and sometimes he will think so much that the opportunity is lost. That's why thinkers never do much. They cannot act, they become simply cerebral, because before action they must decide, they must come to a conclusion; and they cannot come to a conclusion, so how can they act? Then it is better not to act, and wait. But life will not wait for you.

Or you become faithful, believing, a blind man. Then anybody, any politician, any madman, any pope, any priest can lead you anywhere. They themselves are blind, and when the blind lead the blind there is bound to be catastrophe. What to do? Reasoning says, ordinary reasoning says, "Make a compromise."

Just understand the problem and get down from both horses -- don't make any compromise. Then a totally different sort of being, a totally different quality to your consciousness happens. But why are you not doing that? -- because that quality needs alertness, that quality needs awareness. Then you need not doubt anybody, you simply have to be fully alert. Your alertness will be the protection against exploitation.

If a fully alert man looks at you, you cannot deceive him; his very look will disarm you. And if he allows exploitation, it is not because you are cunning and cheating him, but because he is kind and allows you. You cannot cheat a fully alert man. It is impossible because he looks through you, you are transparent; he has such consciousness that you are transparent. If he allows you to cheat him it is because of his compassion. You cannot cheat him.

This consciousness seems to be difficult; that's why you have chosen the impossible. But the impossible is impossible -- you only make believe that it can happen; it has never happened, it will never happen. You have chosen the impossible because it looks easier. Compromise always looks easier -- whenever you are in difficulty you compromise. But compromise never helps anybody, because compromise means two contraries will exist within you; they will always be in tension and they will divide you. And a divided man can never be happy.

This is what Jesus means, but Christians have misunderstood him. Christians have completely missed Jesus, because the mind goes on interpreting. What have they interpreted? They think Jesus is saying, "Choose one horse! Either this world or that -- choose one! Don't mount two horses, because you will be in difficulty and it is impossible. So choose one horse." That's what they have come to conclude and interpret.

Your mind sticks to its own conclusions, because if one conclusion is lost, your confidence is lost. So whatsoever the situation you stick to your conclusions. That gives you ground for your ego and your mind to stand on.

Your reasoning can be suicidal. It is! You think it is reasoning, but it is not reasoning, it is just deceiving -- deceiving yourself. But you don't want to lose ground, you want to be confident; and all confidence that comes through mind is false, because mind cannot give you confidence. It can only give you false things, it can only supply you with false things. It has not got the real thing with it, it is just a shadow. Mind is just thoughts, shadows, nothing substantial in it. But it can go on playing rationalizations, and you will feel good.

Christians miss the whole point. They think Jesus is saying, "Choose!" Jesus can never say, "Choose!" -- Jesus means choicelessness. ... Because if you choose, the choosing mind is strengthened, not destroyed; the mind which is choosing becomes stronger through the choice. No, it is not a question of choice. And through choice you can never be total, because you have to deny something.

If you choose faith you will have to deny doubt. Where will this doubt go? It is not something outward that you can throw, it is deep in you. Where will it go? You can simply close your eyes, that's all; you can simply repress it in the unconscious, that's all. But it is there, like a worm, eating your consciousness. It will be there, and someday or other it will come to the surface. What can you do? How can you drop it? If you choose doubt, where will your faith go? It is part of you. So compromise will happen: you will become an amalgam of many things somehow put together; not a synthesis but a compromise.

Jesus means quite the contrary. He means, "Don't choose."

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES AND STRETCH TWO BOWS; AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SERVANT TO SERVE TWO MASTERS, OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER.

Look at the last phrase: ... OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER. If you choose one, you honor the one and offend the other -- and the offended part of you will take revenge, it will become rebellious.

Jesus is not saying, "Choose one against the other." If you choose one against the other, the other part will be offended, and the offended part of your being will take revenge. And it makes it very difficult, it makes life almost impossible to live. The more you try to live with one part, the more the other part disturbs all your planning, all your scheming; it comes up again and again. Then what to do?

The way, the thing to be done, is not to choose. The thing is to understand the whole contradiction of your being. Not choosing, but becoming choiceless; not dropping one against the other -- because you cannot drop one aspect of a thing.

You have a rupee coin, it has two aspects. You cannot drop one aspect, you cannot drop one side of it. You may not like the other side, but you have to carry both; if you want to carry one you have to carry two, then the whole rupee will be with you. The only thing that you can manage is that you can hide the aspect you don't like, and the aspect you like you can put on the surface, that's all. That's how the conscious and the unconscious are created.

The conscious is that part, that horse that you like, and the unconscious is that horse, that part that you don't like. The conscious is that which you have chosen, the unconscious is that against which you have chosen. These are the two churches -- the one you go to and the one you don't go to. Otherwise, in a man like Buddha, the conscious and the unconscious both disappear, because he has not chosen for, he has not chosen against. The whole coin drops. And only the whole coin can drop, half can never be dropped.

If you do that, your being will be divided: the dropped, the repressed, the denied part will become the unconscious; the accepted, the welcomed part will become the conscious. And then there will be a continuous struggle between the conscious and the unconscious.

But you are still mounted on two horses. The only way is to drop the whole thing, and the secret is not in dropping -- because dropping can also become a choice. This is the most complex and subtle thing: you can drop, and choose dropping against not dropping -- then again there are two horses. No, this is to be done through understanding. Dropping is not the thing, understanding is the thing.

Understand the whole madness: what you have done to yourself, what you have allowed to happen to yourself, what type of contradictions you have been accumulating -- just see through the whole thing. Don't be for and against, don't condemn, don't judge -- just look through the whole thing that you are. Don't hide, don't offend, don't judge: "This is good and that is bad." Don't evaluate. Don't be a judge but just an onlooker, detached, a witness. Just see the whole thing that you are, whatsoever you are; whatsoever mess you are in, just see it as it is.

Suddenly, an understanding arises which becomes the dropping. It is just as if you have been trying to enter a wall, and suddenly you become aware that this is a wall and there is no door. Do you need to drop the effort now? You simply move! That movement is simple, it is not for and against -- you simply understand that this is absolutely useless, impossible. That is the meaning of Jesus: you simply look; it is impossible, you move. There is no choice on the part of the mind, you don't make any effort.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A MAN TO MOUNT TWO HORSES AND TO STRETCH TWO BOWS, AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A SERVANT TO SERVE TWO MASTERS, OTHERWISE HE WILL HONOR THE ONE AND OFFEND THE OTHER.

The ordinary meaning will be, "Choose one master, don't choose two." But through choice you will never be whole, so it is not a question of choosing one master against another, because you will still remain a slave, you cannot be free. Only choicelessness can give you freedom. Then you don't choose, you simply drop the whole effort -- it drops by itself when you understand. Then you are the master.

When the impossible effort is gone, anxiety disappears, then you are no longer in anguish. And when you are no longer in anguish, bliss arises. Bliss is not something to be achieved. You only have to create the capacity. When you are not in anguish, bliss happens. You have created the capacity, you have opened the door and the sunrays enter and fill you. As you are, anxiety-ridden, divided, mounted on two horses, trying to stretch two bows together, you are schizophrenic, you are ill, you are wavering. Or, at the most, you have made a compromise and you have become normally neurotic.

A normal being somehow carries on his work; the neurosis does not come in the way, that's all -- an adjusted citizen, that's all. But it is not worthwhile. Even if you are an adjusted citizen, a good citizen, a normal human being, no ecstasy will happen to you. You will remain sad, and whatsoever you achieve in this world will give you more sadness. Look at the people who have succeeded, who are ahead of you, who have reached the top, and you will see they are more sad than people who are not so successful -- because their hope is lost.

In a poor country there is not so much madness. People can still hope. And when you can hope, nothing comes up -- you go on running and running. When the goal is achieved, then you stand still and you have to look at yourself and at what a mess you have created in your being, what chaos. You suddenly go out of your mind. You have always been out of your mind, but it is revealed when you succeed, because when there is no more to dream about, you have to encounter yourself. As you are, bliss is not possible, happiness is impossible. You can only hope for it and tolerate the pain, the suffering that you have brought upon yourself.

But bliss is possible; it has happened to a Jesus, to a Buddha, it can happen to you -- but then you have to leave the impossible aside. Think of the natural, the possible, the easy. Don't think of the impossible, the difficult, the challenging. The ego always likes to do the impossible, but it is a failure, it has to be a failure. But the ego likes to take the challenge of the impossible, because then you feel you are something. Against an impossible goal you become a great fighter.

And religion is simple, easy, natural -- it is not riding on a horse at all. It is just a morning walk not going anywhere. Just walking is the end; not doing anything in particular, just enjoying the morning breeze, the sun, the birds -- just enjoying yourself.

[Prabhaker]

Osho English Speech | Gospel Of Jesus Christ

 

 

[Sage_Elias]

2 hours ago, Prabhaker said:

Osho English Speech | Gospel Of Jesus Christ

 

 

Very nice bro! Bless

[Prabhaker]

The Mustard Seed: My Most Loved Gospel on Jesus - by Osho

http://www.oshorajneesh.com/download/osho-books/western_mystics/The_Mustard_Seed_My_Most_Loved_Gospel_on_Jesus.pdf

(free download in pdf format)