Question 1

Maneesha has asked:

OUR BELOVED MASTER,

IS THERE ANY RELATION BETWEEN AWARENESS AND THE INSTINCTIVE ALERTNESS MAN ONCE HAD TO RELY ON FOR HIS SURVIVAL?

There is a certain relationship. There is a physical, biological, instinctive wisdom. You are not aware of it, that your body is doing miracles every moment....

If for just six minutes a certain amount of oxygen does not reach the brain, the mind will dissolve. Those cells depend on oxygen. The body, waking or asleep, is continuously supplying that much oxygen, neither more nor less. Where the blood is needed, how much of it is needed -- the body is working it out, it is not dependent on you. How to transform your food into blood, into flesh, into bones, into nerves -- the body knows all the secrets.

Even our scientists are still far behind. To change bread into blood will be thought a great miracle! Jesus only changed water into wine, and it became a great miracle, and your body is changing thousands of things. What kinds of vitamins have to reach to certain places in the body -- the body does not ask you, it does not bother you at all. It has its own wisdom, and you should be respectful of this great wisdom.

Just as the body has its own wisdom -- it is called instinct -- your soul has its own wisdom. It is called intuition. Your mind is a borrowed thing; it has nothing like instinct or intuition. It is just a computer which goes on collecting all kinds of information. But it has tremendous power over you because it has all that you know. If it is erased you will be simply dumb, not knowing who you are, where you are going -- for what? What is the business?

Mind functions according to the knowledge it has gathered: it is a borrowed thing in you. The body functions according to nature -- and your consciousness functions according to nature. In the middle of these two is the mind, which functions as a computer. It fills a great need. As a servant it is good; as a master it is dangerous.

Once the intuitiveness of your consciousness has started functioning, the mind immediately recognizes who is the master. Once it recognizes the master, it will be a very good servant, very efficient. Because it is only a mechanism, it can do miracles, but it needs a master to guide it. Without the master the mind starts thinking itself to be the master, and that creates problems. The mind is not a master. It has not even any natural wisdom of its own. Even the body is in a far better situation.

You have to bring enlightenment to your consciousness, and make it evident to the mind that it is a far better way of living. The body is always functioning naturally; only the mind sometimes tries to master the body. That's what all the religions have been telling you. All the scriptures are full of teachings on how to force the body into a certain discipline. Celibacy is a mind idea, the body knows nothing of it. And the mind cannot manage it, so the body goes into a repression, functions abnormally, becomes perverted. The body is very innocent. It is the mind -- the priest, the philosopher, the educator -- which tries to interfere in everything.

The enlightened man does not interfere, does not allow the mind to interfere in the body. You become a solid pillar of wisdom. Your body is already in tune with nature, and your mind has stopped interrupting. It has also fallen in tune with your higher consciousness, your enlightenment. Your whole being becomes a pure pillar of light.

This is the function of the whole Zen experiment on man: to turn him into a single whole, a pillar of wisdom.

Before you all become pillars of wisdom, a little foolishness for poor Sardar Gurudayal Singh -- just for his sake. He is again sitting there with that rainbow turban. Where did he get it? (THE MASTER TURNS IN SARDARJI'S DIRECTION AND CHUCKLES....) Yeah, that's great. That's great.

Maureen and Peggy, the wives of Paddy and Sean, are sitting in the Dainty Dandelion pub drinking wine coolers, when Maureen shakes her head and moans, "My husband is so ugly that if I want to make love to him, I have to put a bag over his head."

"That's nothing," says Peggy. "My husband is so ugly that when he was born, the doctor slapped his mother!"

Harold the Hippie is sitting around in his pad smoking a few dozen reefers and grooving to the television program "Daffy Duck" when the phone rings.

"Hullo," says Harold, completely stoned.

"This is the overseas international operator," says the voice on the other end. "I've got a long-distance, collect call from Mabel Beeks -- will you accept the charges?"

"Wow, man!" says Harold, puffing madly on his reefer. "This sounds like a bad connection -- Mabel who?"

"Mabel Beeks! Mabel Beeks!" shouts the operator.

"Ah, no, man," replies Harold, his eyes rolling around in his head. "Mabel is not here."

"No! No!" screams the operator. "Mabel Beeks is here! This is a long-distance call from Mabel Beeks...!"

"Really?" says Harold, completely confused. "Where the hell is Mabel Beeks?"

"No!" shouts the voice. "This is Mabel Beeks!"

"Hey, sorry," says Harold. "Mabel's not here."

"No! You idiot! This is Mabel Beeks!" cries the operator.

Then Mabel Beeks herself interrupts and says, "Never mind, operator. Let me try. Hello, this is Mabel Beeks -- is June there?"

"June?" cries Harold, scratching his head, and looking out the window. "I don't know where you are, but here it is still November!"

Big Leroy and Ruby get married and go to the Humping Hippo Honeymoon Hotel in Mexico. Ruby is a virgin and she is very worried about the size of Big Leroy's machinery.

"Don't worry, baby," comforts Leroy. "I will just show it to you a bit at a time, so it doesn't scare you."

"Okay, precious," says Ruby, shyly. "Now you go outside and wait in the hallway, while I get undressed and ready for bed."

A few minutes later, Ruby is tucked under the sheets in the bridal bed. "Come on in honey!" she cries nervously. "I'm ready!"

"Now, sweetheart," says Big Leroy, from the hallway, "before I come in, I'm going to poke my prick around the bedroom door, bit by bit, just so you can get used to the idea."

Leroy pushes the head of his machinery inside the doorway.

"Are you scared, darling?" he asks.

"No, baby," replies Ruby. "I'm not scared."

So Leroy pushes another two inches inside the doorway.

"Are you scared now, sugar-pie?" asks Leroy.

"No, honey, I'm not," replies Ruby, wide-eyed.

Then Leroy pushes another six inches through the open doorway.

"Are you scared now, sweetie?" he asks.

"No, baby-cake," replies Ruby, "I'm not scared. You can come to bed now!"

"Okay, then!" cries Leroy, "I'm coming up the stairs!"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes, feel your body to be frozen, completely frozen.

Now look inwards. You have to reach to the center of your being. Collect all your consciousness, your whole life energy, like a spear piercing towards the center of your being.

At the very center you are a buddha. Your only quality at the center is witnessing, watching, awareness.

As your insight deepens, suddenly the whole universe starts rejoicing with you because your center is also the center of the whole cosmos. At your very center you are a buddha. And from this moment onwards you have to persuade the buddha to come to your daily activities -- not remain hidden inside, but come to the surface, to the circumference, to actions, to words, to silences....

To know the buddha is to know your eternal being; to know the buddha is to know your disappearance. Here you disappear -- and suddenly the buddha appears.

Everyone is pregnant with the buddha.

This silence, this tremendously beautiful serenity... you are fortunate to be here. Nowhere else in the world are thousands of people trying to discover their hidden splendor.

To make this golden space more clear to you,

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax. But remain a witness. The body is lying there as an object, the mind is there as an object. You are the witness. You are neither the mind, nor the body. You are a pure consciousness. This pure consciousness we have been calling the buddha. The buddha is only a symbol.

So many flowers have blossomed, so much fragrance... all boundaries have disappeared and the Buddha Auditorium has become a lake of consciousnesses without any ripples. You have to bring all this fragrance with you, all these flowers with you.

Now I have brought the Buddha statue, just in front of the Buddha Auditorium. He is waiting there. When you pass by, remember: he was also one day just a human being, as you are. Pay your respects; pay your gratitude, because this man alone introduced the world to a new dimension -- of beautitude, of truth, of dignity. This man alone declared that man is God, and other than man there is no god. This was the greatest revolutionary statement ever made.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back, but with the same gesture of peace, silence and grace. Bring the buddha with you. Sit for a few moments silently, reminding yourself of your potential, and the glimpse, the center and the silence. Remember the beauty of eternity in the moment and the encounter with your buddha.

You have brought a few invisible flowers; while going out of the Buddha Auditorium you can shower Buddha with flowers in gratitude.

At this moment you have become his contemporary. I want to make everyone in the world a contemporary of Buddha. This is the only possibility for humanity to survive on a higher plane.

You are not working only for yourself, you are also working for the survival of this beautiful earth.

Okay, Maneesha?