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GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
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THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
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THE KARMA CLEARING
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ZEN: THE PATH OF PARADOX
VOL. 2
Chapter 4: Slipping Lazily into Divinity
Question 1
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 2
Question 1
YOU OFTEN SPEAK ABOUT THE REAL, THE AUTHENTIC MAN. COULD YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE REAL AND AUTHENTIC WOMAN... OR EVEN YOUR IDEAL WOMAN?
This old rotten habit of thinking about man and woman separately has to be dropped. They are not separate. Authenticity is authenticity -- it does not matter whether a man is authentic or a woman is authentic. Spontaneity is spontaneity -- it does not become feminine, it is not masculine.
The very idea of thinking of man and woman as separate beings has created a split in the human mind. Man is a unisex. Each man is woman and each woman is man too. We are human beings. Nobody is a man as such and nobody is a woman as such.
Once you divide, you are in trouble. Once you divide, then a thousand and one questions arise: who is superior? and who is to dominate? and who is to be dominate? Then humanity suffered long from male chauvinism. And there is a possibility that sooner or later humanity will suffer again -- from female chauvinism. The Lib. people are working hard for it. They would like to do all the nasty things that men have done to them -- they would like to do them to men. This is not going to help! You go on replacing one disease with another disease.
Woman has suffered much, that is true. But just by putting things upside-down, nothing is going to happen. Then man will start suffering. And this way the wheel goes on moving. If we really want to stop all this nonsense then we should start thinking about human beings, not about man and woman. That should be a very basic approach.
So when I am talking about authenticity or spontaneity or love, I am not considering man and woman as separate. They are one. They are parts of one whole, they are together. That's why there is a constant attraction between man and woman -- because they both feel half. Man alone feels deprived, something is missing. Woman alone feels deprived, something is missing.
And it is so on many planes. There have been men, there have been women, we can think about them as if they were not in any need of the other. For example, a Buddha or a Mahavir. Now, we can think about Buddha that he does not need a woman, but that is not true. That is only so on the surface. His gestalt has changed -- he is the master now, and he needs the disciples. Now the disciples function as the feminine -- the active and the passive. He does not need a wife -- that is true, that's certainly true -- but that does not mean that he does not need the feminine. That simply means that on another plane the feminine has started asserting itself. Now the master needs the disciples, otherwise the master feels something is missing.
The disciple is the feminine. Even male disciples are feminine, because the attitude of a disciple is that of a receiver and the attitude of the master is that of a donor. The master gives, the disciple receives -- that is the male/female asserting on a new plane.
It goes on in that way. It will be so always. Don't be deceived by the fact that Buddha no more needs a woman. Now he gets the feminine energy on a more subtle plane. And don't think that a Meera does not need the man. Now the man of her dream has become Krishna himself. She may not need the husband -- who bothers about an ordinary husband when you can have Krishna as your husband? Now she lives on another plane; the ordinary husbands have disappeared, the ordinary lovers don't mean anything. But the male is there. Now the male is functioning as pure energy -- as Krishna.
This is so. Never does it happen, never can it happen, that a man can be full alone or a woman can be full alone, because man-woman is a unity. Action-passivity is a unity, day-night is a unity, life-and-death is a unity. Life cannot exist without death, and death of course cannot exist without life. And so on and so forth.
So whenever I am talking about spontaneity, authenticity, love, I am not talking about men, I am not talking about women -- I don't divide them. That is my fundamental approach. All divisions are dangerous, and all divisions create a kind of schizophrenia. Enough of it! Drop that very idea! Don't start moving to the other extreme. Man has suffered much -- by 'man' I mean 'human being' -- humanity has suffered much because of the division. The people who think they are trying to bring a new world, a new humanity, still go on thinking in the same old rotten way of division.
Just think of humanity. Don't think of east and west, don't think of black and white, and don't think of the oppressed and the oppressor. Start thinking in terms of oneness. That very approach will dissolve many problems.
But the question is significant: COULD YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE REAL AND AUTHENTIC WOMAN... Woman or man -- that doesn't matter... OR EVEN YOUR IDEAL WOMAN?
I have no ideals. I am a man without ideals. I am utterly iconoclastic -- I destroy ideals. I believe that when there will be no ideal, man will be free. When there will be no goal, man will be free -- never before it.
All ideals create slavery -- because the ideal stands there in the future, it starts dominating you from the future. It starts condemning your present. It starts telling you that you are falling short: Become perfect! be this! be that! It brings a thousand and one shoulds and should-nots. With all those shoulds and should-nots, how can you imagine to live in freedom? They hamper you from everywhere, they limit you from every direction, they destroy you in every possible way -- because they condemn your present. And there is only one way to live and that is in the present.
There is only one life and that is in this moment. If THIS moment is condemned in any way, by any method, your life is being destroyed. That's why there are millions of people on the earth but very few are alive. Ideals have poisoned their life. And the idealists are the great poisoners.
I am not an idealist, I believe in the real. And in fact you need not believe in the real; it is so. Belief is needed only for the ideal. For the real, what belief is needed? The sun rises -- you don't say, 'I believe in the sunrise.' And the birds are singing -- you don't say, 'I believe in the birds.' You believe in God because you can't see God, because God is not a reality. I don't believe in God, because for me God is as much a reality as the sunrise and these birds singing and these flowers and these trees and these people, you.
I don't believe in God. Belief presupposes that you don't know; belief presupposes ignorance. The very word 'belief' makes one thing certain -- that it is not real. I am all for reality. That's what I mean when I say I believe in the real. I don't put any ideal in contrast with reality.
Down the ages, the ideal has been the most subtle trick to manipulate man -- because the ideal creates guilt. You continuously think you are not coming up to the mark -- you are falling short, you are below the level, you are not as you should be. And this becomes a rock on your heart. It cripples you, it paralyzes you. It does not allow you to move in freedom, it does not allow you to dance.
How can you celebrate life when there are so many ideals everywhere? And everywhere you feel limited -- those limitations are created by the ideals. Whatsoever you do is never perfect. So whatsoever you do, it never makes you happy. In fact, whenever you do something it makes you unhappy -- again you have proved your imperfection. Again you failed, again there is guilt, again there is condemnation, again you hate yourself. Each act brings more hatred, each act brings more and more self condemnation, rejection.
And if you don't love yourself, you are virtually dead -- worse than being dead! If you don't love yourself, nobody is going to love you. How can anybody love you if you don't love yourself?
And the idealist cannot love himself; he is very hard, he is a masochist. And when a person is a masochist, when a person goes on torturing himself in the name of ideals -- 'I should be like this'... and he is not, so he tortures himself. And he goes on pulling himself towards this impossible ideal. And all those ideals are impossible -- their very nature is such, they cannot be fulfilled. That is the whole trick; if they can be fulfilled, they won't be ideals.
The ideal is by inner necessity unfulfillable; it is not possible to achieve it. Hence, it remains a dangling carrot in front of your eyes. And the donkey goes on moving... and the carrot goes on dangling. It is illusory. It is like the horizon far away -- you go on moving, but you never reach; the horizon also goes on moving.
I am a realist. I am very down-to-earth. I want you to be grounded in the earth, it is your home. It is the way God is -- God is very earthly. There is no other world, this is the only world. And there is no other way to be, this is the only way to be. This acceptance, this utter joy in being oneself -- that's what I call the man of reality or the woman of reality. Utter joy in being oneself, as one is -- with no guilt surrounding it, with no condemnation arising, with no idea how you should be. This is the way you are; this is the only way you can be. So you don't bring any opposition -- you don't create a conflict, you don't create a friction between your reality and the ideal.
Out of friction, only ego is born and nothing else. The ego exists through friction. Have an ideal, and you will become an egoist. The idealist is an egoist. Have a bigger ideal, and you will be a bigger egoist. The greater the ideal, the greater the ego, because the greater is the friction. The ego is created by friction between the real and the ideal. Now you may have the ideal of egolessness -- that doesn't matter. You may say, 'But I have the ideal of being egoless' -- it does not matter, the ideal brings the ego. Now your idea of egolessness will bring great ego. So the REAL egoists are those who think they are humble people, who pretend that they are egoless.
The man who is egoless is the man who has no ideals. Let this be the criterion, and you have stumbled upon a fundamental. The man of no ego is the man of no ideals. Then how can the ego be created? -- the very energy is missing. The energy comes out of friction, conflict, struggle, will.
When you accept your life -- when you take your breakfast, and when you sleep and when you walk and when you take your bath -- how can you create an ego out of these things? Sleeping when feeling sleepy, eating when feeling hungry, how can you create your ego? No -- if you fast, you can create ego. If you are on a vigilance for the whole night, and you say, 'I am not going to sleep,' you can create the ego.
By the morning, the person who has slept well will have no ego, you will have a great ego. You were awake the whole night, and the sleep tried and tried and tried but you fought it. You are a warrior. You proved to your body, 'Mind over matter.' You proved that 'I am the master. Sleep cannot overtake me.' Then you can have the ego. Somebody is eating well -- how can he have the ego? You are fasting. You are a Jain monk, you are fasting, a twenty-one days' fast. Every day, the ego is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. And with the ego, obviously, everybody else becomes a sinner. All those people who are eating and enjoying their food are sinners. You condemn them. Only condemning them can you feel good. Only through condemnation can you feel the ego arising in you.
So first conflict, friction, brings ego. And ego brings condemnation of others, and you start feeling 'holier than thou'.
A man who has understood that the ideal brings the ego will drop all ideals. He will live a very natural life. Yes, natural, I say -- not religious. To me, to be natural is to be religious. If your religion goes against nature it is not religion, you are simply in the service of the ego -- you can call it whatsoever you like.
So I am all for the real, for that which is. And whatsoever you are, I would like you to accept it with great gratitude, and enjoy, and celebrate that you are. Don't ask for the impossible. By asking the impossible you miss the possible too. I say: Live the possible. And by living the possible, one day the impossible is simply attained with no effort.
If you think of the impossible you miss the possible, because your energy starts moving towards the impossible. If you don't think of the impossible at all, if you have nothing to think of at all, if you live the possible -- a simple, natural, innocent life -- how can the impossible escape you? Your whole energy moves into the present. And to be in the present is to be at the door of God. Your whole energy goes on knocking at the door... one day or other, like a flood you enter the divine. And the impossible becomes possible.
My idea of a real authentic man or woman is that of a natural being. Simple, not complicated. Complication comes from ideals. Innocent. And don't make innocence an ideal -- remember, I am not talking about ideals. I am simply saying: Be like a child or like an animal, like the trees and the rocks.
And remember, I have to use a language which is very much polluted. So please don't misunderstand me. When I am saying be natural, don't create an ideal immediately in your mind -- 'So now I have to be natural.' 'Have to be'? -- you missed. You got hooked by the old language. I have to use language, so I say: Be like the trees -- but I am not saying to go and stand outside in the garden and become a tree. Otherwise, again you have created an ideal. And again you will look... the leaves are not growing! So you start feeling guilty. And one never knows -- one day suddenly you see leaves are growing. Then you become very egoistic. Then whosoever has no leaves growing is a sinner, destined to be thrown into hellfire. And you are going directly to heaven -- you are growing leaves.
Look! Either way you will be in trouble. If you don't grow leaves you will be in trouble, if you grow leaves you will be in trouble. Either way you will be in hell. If you don't grow leaves you feel guilty, frustrated -- again and again you open your eyes, and they are not growing yet. Or, one day -- and miracles happen, remember -- suddenly you see leaves are growing. Maybe they are not growing, you have simply imagined. For long you have been standing there, year in, year out, just thinking of one thing -- how to grow leaves, you have to become a tree. And naturally, mind, by and by and by and by, becomes auto-hypnotized. A suggestion, continuous suggestion... by and by you start imagining things. One day you see leaves are growing. You have gone mad -- the miracle has happened! Again you are in hell, because now you are mad.
Your saints are mad people. And your sinners are suffering because of these mad people. These mad people are the idealists. If you enjoy your food, there are people who will condemn. Mahatma Gandhi condemns -- he preaches ASWAD, no taste. Now if you are tasting you are a sinner. Such a simple joy as taste is condemned. If you are in love with your woman you are a sinner. Down the ages, your mad saints have been condemning love. If you love your child you are a sinner.
I have heard about a Muslim saint, he must have been utterly neurotic. One day he was sitting with his grandchild in his lap -- an old man talking to the boy, a small boy, must have been four, or five years old. And the boy asks, 'Grandpa, do you love God more, or me?' Because he sees this old man continuously repeating 'Allah, Allah, Allah!' So he asks, 'Do you love Allah more, or me?'
And the man was going to say, 'Of course, I love you!' The idea had arisen and then he became afraid -- what is he saying! So he pushed the boy, threw the boy away from himself, and said, 'You nasty fellow! The Devil is speaking through you. I love God!'
And it is said, since that day he never talked to the boy. And it is praised in the books -- that he was a great saint. He lived for twenty years still, but he never touched the boy again. The boy had become devilish, evil.
And the story says he went to heaven when he died. I suspect; I cannot purchase this. He must be in hell. Could he not see a simple thing -- that the love of God does not deny any other love? In fact, the love of God is all your loves put together. This is a simple phenomenon. You love your wife, you love your child, you love your mother, you love your brother, you love your friend. These are not against God, these are ways of approaching God through different directions.
To me, that man is religious who can see it in this way. For him, aU love is just like rivers falling into the same ocean. From all the directions love comes and falls into the same ocean.
If I had been there instead of that old man, I would have hugged the boy, kissed the boy. And I would tell him, 'I love you, and that is my way of loving God. You are part of God -- there is no conflict between you and God! '
No two loves are ever in conflict, cannot be. If they are, then remember, they are not loves. Love is never in conflict. Other things are in conflict: ego, jealousy, possessiveness -- yes, they are in conflict. But love is never in conflict.
Love knows no conflict. I don't condemn anything. When you eat, eat with great taste and sensitivity, and let that taste be your God in that moment. It is God in that moment. If you are eating an apple you are eating God, and this will be sheer insult not to eat with taste. Your mahatmas are always against God -- that's my way of looking at things. If you are eating an apple, eat it with total taste. Be absorbed in the taste -- because it is God that has come to you in the form of an apple. It is God! crystallized as an apple. The juice of the apple is God's juice: receive it in deep gratitude, love, joy, celebration.
Hold the apple in your hand, smell the apple. Hold the apple close to your cheeks and feel the coolness of it. Dance with the apple a little bit... soon the apple will become you. Receive it. Receive it with prayer and love and gratitude, let your heart be in total thankfulness. God has come to you as an apple, and God wants to become you. Soon you will digest God, and he will be running in your blood, and he will become your bone and your marrow, and he will become your thoughts and your dreams and your meditations and your love and your prayer.
Look in this way! This is what I mean by being real. God, to me, is not an ideal. God, to me, is the fundamental reality of life.
So, to me, there is no ideal man and no ideal woman. The ideal man and woman are neurotics -- they need to be hospitalized. I don't carry any idea of perfection. I am very much against the idea of perfection, because that is the greatest calamity that has happened to man. I am for totality. Be total in your acts. Be total, whatsoever you are doing. And never think of perfection -- because totality is in the present, and perfection is in the future.
The moment you bring in the future, you bring conflict. The moment you bring in the future, you bring tension, anguish, anxiety. The moment you bring in the future, you open the door of hell. Just be herenow! Be real, and be herenow, and live your life moment to moment in deep gratitude.
And whether you are a man or a woman, how does it matter? Authenticity, spontaneity, totality, are not feminine or masculine.
Next: Chapter 4: Slipping Lazily into Divinity, Question 2
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Zen Paradox, Vol. 2
| ENERGY
|
GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
|
THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
|
THE KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3
|
MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4
|
|
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT TESTIMONIALS EE LEVEL1 EE LEVEL2 EE LEVEL3 EE LEVEL4 EE FAQS |
