Zen

NIRVANA: THE LAST NIGHTMARE

Chapter 8: Collecting seashells

Question 4

 

 

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Question 4

THE OTHER DAY YOU SAID, 'DON'T FOLLOW ME!' LATER, YOU ADVISED US TO BECOME SANNYASINS. IT SEEMS TO ME A CONTRADICTION. I DON'T FOLLOW YOU. PLEASE EXPLAIN.

Whatsoever I am saying is all contradictory. Now drop worrying about contradictions. I accept totally my contradictoriness, so you need not worry; that is finished forever. Now think about something else.

It is so easy to see a contradiction; even a child can do that. It is not of any worth. It does not show a great intelligence. To see a contradiction, intelligence is not needed in fact. Even a stupid mind can see the contradiction. But if you can see something in the contradiction which is not contradictory, you rise in intelligence, you rise higher.

It is easy to see the contradiction between life and death. They are contradictory. No need to prove it, no logic is needed. It is a simple fact... apparently so -- but go a little deeper. Life and death are not contradictory; they are two poles of the same energy, of the same wheel.

Death is not against life; death is the very culmination of life, the very crescendo. Death does not end life; in fact, death allows life to be. If there is no death, there will be no life. Death creates the very possibility for life to be. How can they be contradictory? They are complementary.

If you have intelligence -- not just a logical, trained mind, but intelligence which can see deep, beyond the surfaces, can move to the very center -- then you will see that all great religions and all great religious teachers have always been contradictory and yet consistent.

Now let me tell you how it happens.

THE OTHER DAY YOU SAID, 'DON'T FOLLOW ME.' You have seen the contradiction. Now let me create another contradiction. THE OTHER DAY YOU SAID, 'DON'T FOLLOW ME.' Now, if you don't follow me, you will be following me. Get it? If I say don't follow me and you don't follow me, of course, you are following me. The only way not to follow me is to follow me then. Become a sannyasin.

You can see my contradiction; you cannot see your own? You say, I DON'T FOLLOW YOU. Exactly, precisely that is what all of my followers are expected to do.

Let me tell you one anecdote:

"A stranger came into a bar in which there were only the bartender, a dog and a cat.

As the stranger ordered his drink, the dog rose, yawned, and said, 'Well, so long, Joe,' then walked out.

The stranger's jaw dropped. He said to the bartender, 'Did you hear that! The dog talked.'

'Don't be a jackass,' said the bartender. 'A dog can't talk.'

'But I heard him.'

'You just think you heard him. I tell you dogs can't talk. It's just that wise-guy cat over there. He's a ventriloquist."'

It is easy to see others' contradictions -- very easy. One really relishes it. But a real intelligence tries to see the contradictions in oneself.

Yes, I say don't follow me. But for that, great preparation is needed. Because if you don't follow me, you will follow somebody else. That will not make much of a difference.

When I say don't follow me, I mean don't follow. If you don't follow me and you follow Jesus, if you don't follow me and you follow Buddha, what difference does it make? If you don't follow me and you follow Karl Marx or Mao Zedong, what difference does it make? Or -- let me come to the exact point -- if you don't follow me and you follow yourself, what difference does it make?

When I say don't follow me, I mean don't follow.

But a great preparation will be needed so that all the tendencies within you which help you to follow can be dropped. That is the meaning of sannyas.

Sannyas is nothing but a situation in which all the inner tendencies to follow, to imitate, to believe, by and by drop.

Sannyas is not following me. Sannyas is just being with me. Let the difference be absolutely clear to you. Sannyas is not following me. Sannyas is just being with me, in my presence. Sannyas is not imitating me. Sannyas is just to be with me to follow your own destiny. I am here to help you to be yourself.

Sannyas is just a trust; it is not a belief. I don't promise you anything. I don't give you any system of thought. Hence I am contradictory, because if I am not contradictory, you will create a system of thought around me.

I am continuously contradictory... each moment I go on contradicting. And the reason is that when you look at all of my assertions you will not be able to create any system. And if you follow me, people will laugh at you. They will say, 'You are contradictory.'

Only through intense contradiction, the logic, the system-making mind can be destroyed and shattered. There is no other way.

I am contradictory so that if you really love me and if you are really close to me, by and by you will be able to drop the mind which says it is contradictory, it is illogical.

It is -- because it is beyond logic.

It is -- because it is higher than logic.

There is a logic in it which is higher than all logic. It is a little crazy -- but the craziness is a little higher than what you call sanity.

R. D. Laing has said somewhere that each breakdown is a breakthrough also. I don't agree totally. Each breakdown, he says, is a breakthrough also. I don't agree. I know each breakthrough is preceded by a breakdown, but each breakdown is not followed by a breakthrough. A breakdown is simply a situation in which your so-called logical mind cannot function. It comes to a barrier beyond which there is no go for it -- it simply breaks down. That's when we say a man has become mad.

I also help you to become mad. Of course, my madness is with a method. First you have to break down so that a new breakthrough can be possible. First you have to be dismantled, destroyed, so that you can be recreated.

I am not in favour of renovation of old buildings, no. Laxmi is in favour of it, but I am not. She has her difficulties. I am completely in favour of dismantling and then making a new start from the very A B C.

By becoming a sannyasin, you allow me to destroy you. A great trust is needed. It is not a following; following is very cheap. It is moving in danger, it is taking a tremendous risk. And moving with such a man who is so contradictory that you are going to get crazy sooner or later.

Whatsoever I am saying today, tomorrow I will contradict. Only one thing is certain: that I will remain contradictory. Only with one thing am I consistent, and that is my inconsistency.

But if you allow me... sannyas is simply a gesture that you allow me... then I can dismantle you. And then, out of that dismantling, a totally new being can arise; Whatsoever society has done, I can undo, that's all... I can undo, that's all.

Sannyas is not a following, it is a friendship. You are not going to become my shadows and follow me. You are going to come along with me, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. It is a love-affair, a friendship:

But remember, if you don't follow me, you will be following me. So better take sannyas.

 

Next: Chapter 9: Dead with dignity

 

Energy Enhancement                Enlightened Texts                Zen                 Nirvana: The Last Nightmare

 

 

Chapter 8

 

 

 

 
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