Hassidism, The True Sage Chapter 6: The perfect swimmer, Question 5

Question 5

WHEN DO WE COME TO KNOW LOVE? FOR ME, THE MORE INSIDE I GO, THE LESS LOVE I SEEM TO HAVE. I SEEM TO HAVE LOST THE NEED TO EXPRESS MYSELF LOVINGLY TO OTHERS, ESPECIALLY THOSE I'VE LOVED IN THE PAST, SUCH AS A GIRLFRIEND, MOTHER, OLD FRIENDS AND OTHERS.

WHEN DO WE COME TO KNOW LOVE? It is really a very very difficult thing to understand, because it has nothing to do with understanding.

George Gurdjieff never talked about love in his whole life. He never wrote a single line about love. Once, his disciples pressed him very much and they said: 'Say at least a few words. You have never said anything about love. Why don't you talk about love?'

Gurdjieff said: 'As you are, love is impossible. Unless you know love, whatsoever I say, you will not understand.' He condensed his whole feeling about love in one sentence. He said: 'If you can love, you can be; if you can be, you can do; if you can do, you are.' And he said: 'Don't force me any more. I won't say much.'

Love is not possible ordinarily. Love is a fallacy. Where you are, love is a fallacy. It is not possible. You cannot love! -- because in the first place, you are not; you simply think that you are.

You are not one; you are a crowd. How can you love? One mind falls in love; another mind doesn't know anything about it. One mind says that it loves; another mind, at the same time, is thinking how to hate, another mind is already moving towards hatred.

You are a crowd inside; you are not a crystallized whole, you are not one -- and only one can love who is one.

Love is not a relationship; love is a state of being. So whatsoever you call love is not love. That's why it is happening: the more inside you go, the less love you seem to have -- because whatsoever you have called love was not love; it was a counterfeit, it was not real. It belonged to the personality, to the world of lies, falsifications.

When you move inwards, you go away from the personality. You go away from the love that your personality was thinking to be love.

Don't be afraid. It is good to drop the false, because only when the false disappears, the real arises. Soon a different quality of love will happen when you have settled within. But then it will not be a need. Then it will not be a desire. Then it will not be a relationship. You will be simply loving; it will be just a quality of your being. And then it has a totally different flavour. Then it never creates a bondage. Then you share unconditionally. Then your love is just the way you are. Then you sit lovingly. Then you stand lovingly. Then you move lovingly. Then you look lovingly. Then whatsoever you do has the quality of love.

It happened: A Hassidic mystic was travelling with his disciples. They came to a SARAYA. They rested the whole night. In the morning, the keeper of the SARAYA served tea and breakfast. While they were drinking their tea, suddenly, the keeper fell at the Master's feet, ecstatic -- crying and laughing together.

The disciples were puzzled. How could he know that this man was the Master? -- because this was a secret thing, and the disciples were told that nobody should be told who the Master is. The Master was travelling in a hidden way. Who had told this SARAYA-keeper? The disciples were worried. They inquired, but nobody had told; nobody had even talked to that man.

The Master said: 'Don't be puzzled. Ask this man himself -- how he recognized me. Nobody has told him; he has recognized.'

So they asked: 'We cannot recognize. Even we are suspicious about whether he is truly enlightened or not, and we have lived with him for many years. Still, a suspicion somewhere goes on lurking. How have you recognized?'

The man said: 'I have been serving tea and breakfast and food to thousands of people. I have been watching thousands of people, and I have never come across a man who has looked with such deep love at the teacup. I could not help but recognize. I know all sorts of people passing from here -- millions of people -- but I have never seen anybody looking at the teacup with such love, as if somebody is looking at one's beloved.'

This man must have something of a totally different quality, a being full of love. Otherwise, who looks at a teacup with such love?

A teacup is a teacup. You have to use it. It is a utility. You don't look with love. In fact you don't look at your own wife with love. She is also a utility -- a teacup to be used and thrown away. You don't look at your husband with love. The husband is a means.

Love is possible only when everything becomes the end. Then even a teacup has the quality of the beloved. Love is not a relationship; love is a fragrance that arises in you when you have reached home. Before that, you can talk about love, you can fantasize about love, you can write beautiful poetries about it, but you will not know what it is.

Try to enter within yourself. There will be much difficulty, because your love will start disappearing. It has never been there, so it is good that a false thing disappears. In fact, it is not disappearing; you are only becoming aware that it is false.

It has never been there. You have been deluding yourself. When it has disappeared completely, when your essence is separate from your personality, when that which you have brought into the world is separated from all that the society has given to you, when you are naked in your being and all clothes have been dropped, a new love arises. That is the love Jesus calls'God'.

Jesus says: 'Love is God.' Your love has been nothing but a hell. It has never been God. It has not even been a heaven. It may have promised a heaven, but it always proved to be a hell. And Jesus says: 'Love is God.' That love only arises when you have arrived to your innermost core.

You will have to lose the false to gain the true. You will have to lose darkness to attain to light. You will have to lose death to become really, authentically alive. That is the price one has to pay! But you are so egoistic that you cling. You feel: 'If this love disappears then I will be empty.' And your ego creates a problem: 'Maybe it is false. Let it be false. Something is there. The ego can feed on it.'

It happened once: A king felt thirsty. He said to his courtiers: 'My throat feels dry.' He could have simply said: 'I am thirsty' -- but a king is a king; they have their own way. It is too common to say: 'I am thirsty.' So he said: 'My throat feels dry.'

His lackeys ran to the market immediately. They thought and pondered over what to do when the throat is dry. Of course, they couldn't think of bringing common water, because that won't suit for a king. So they brought lubricating oil.

The king drank it. His throat was no more dry, but he was in more difficulty than before because his whole mouth was tasting awful and he was feeling nausea.

He said: 'What have you done? Of course, the throat is no more dry, but I am in more of a mess than before.'

So the greatest doctor of the capital was called. He came and suggested pickles and vinegar. So it was taken. It helped a little, but it gave a stomachache.

More medicines were given. Somehow the stomachache disappeared, but again the throat was dry. So somebody brought scented syrups, wine and other things. He drank the wines, the syrups. and everything else that was given. He felt a little relieved, but his digestion was disturbed.

An old man, a wise man who was watching this whole nonsense said: 'I think, your Highness, you need water, common water. You are thirsty.'

Of course the king was very angry, and he said: 'This is an insult -- to suggest common water to a great king. This is for common people -- to feel thirsty and be quenched by common water. I am not a common man. You have been insulting me. And moreover, it is illogical. Look at the illness; it is so complicated. So many medicines have been given and nothing helps. You are a simpleton to think that by common water it can be helped. The greatest doctor has come and even he was not of much help. So what do you think about yourself? Are you a physician?'

The man said: 'No, I am not a physician. I am just a common man, but whenever it happens... but I don't know about kings.... Sorry. Excuse me. I don't know about kings. I am not a king. But whenever it happens to me, common water helps, but that may be because I am a common man.'

The king said: 'You are not only a common man, you are an idiot.'

Amidst idiots, wise people prove to be idiots.

Your disease is very ordinary. Common water will do, but that doesn't suit the ego of the king.

People come to me and they bring their complex illnesses. I say: 'Don't be worried. Just meditation will do.' They look suspicious. They say: 'But why do you go on suggesting and prescribing meditation to everybody, each and everybody? And my problem is different. Maybe it helps others, but it won't help me. Tell me something specific, something special. What should I do? I cannot love. I cannot feel.'

Or somebody says: 'I am very angry, and the anger continues like an undercurrent. What should I do?'

Or somebody says: 'I am too sexual, and the fantasy continues in my mind. What should I do?'

Or somebody is greedy, miserly, with millions of diseases -- very complicated. And they have been to psychoanalysts, and they have failed. And they have been to this saint and that, and everybody has failed. In fact, they feel very good that everybody has failed because they are not ordinary people; their disease is very complex, complicated. If I just suggest common water, if I just suggest that meditation will do, they look suspicious. And I tell you -- meditation will do.

Your ego has to be put aside. It creates all sorts of problems. Only meditation will do.

And what is meditation? -- it is just putting the mind aside. Being without mind for a few moments is meditation.

And once you know for a few moments, you have the key. Then whenever you need, you can move withinwards. It is just like the ingoing and the outgoing breath. You go out in the world, it is the outgoing breath. You come into yourself, it is the ingoing breath. Meditation is the ingoing breath.

Forget about love, anger, greed -- a thousand and one problems. Problems may be a thousand and one, but the medicine is only one. And you may be surprised: the word 'meditation' comes from the same root from where 'medicine' comes. 'Medicine' and 'meditation' come from the same root. Meditation is a medicine; it is THE only medicine. So forget about your problems; just move into meditation. And the deeper you move, the more false things will disappear.

First there will be emptiness, nothingness. You will feel afraid, but don't be afraid. That's how it happens to everybody. I have been in that same state of fear. I know it happens. I can understand. But be courageous and move on.

If you can move on and on, any day, any moment, suddenly it happens -- just a click, something clicks. The old has disappeared, and the new has appeared. You are resurrected.

Hassidism

THE TRUE SAGE

Chapter-6

The perfect swimmer