Zen

THE FIRST PRINCIPLE

Chapter 2: Greed behind greed behind greed

Question 5

 

 

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Question 5

I AM NO POLITICIAN, NO DIPLOMAT, AND I FEEL LIKE A CLOWN. I WANT TO DANCE ON THE DESK AND SING ON THE PHONE "HELLO-LUJAH " RATHER THAN "HELLO." MAY I SIGN UP FOR THE ASHRAM FOOL?

The question is from Vani.

Vani, it is too early. To be really a fool one needs to be very wise. To be a fool one needs to be TRULY wise. That's why all wise people have something of foolishness in them. Jesus was known as a fool, so was Buddha, so was Francis of Assisi. They were known as fools.

There is a certain quality of foolishness in a real wise man. Why? Because a real wise man contains the opposite. He is both together. He is more comprehensive. A wise man who has no foolishness in him will be dry, dead. His juice will not be flowing. He will not be green. He will not be able to laugh; he will be serious; he will be a long face. A wise man who is just wise and in whose being the fool has not been integrated will be very heavy. It will be difficult to live with such a wise man. He will be very boring. He will be boring to you and he will be boring to himself. He will not have any fun; his life will not know any joy. He will be completely unacquainted with laughter. And when laughter is missed, much is missed.

And one can never know God without laughter. One can never know God without joy. One can never know reality just by being wise.

The fool has something to contribute too -- the laughter, the joy, the nonseriousness, the quality of fun, delight. The fool can dance, and the fool can dance for any reason whatsoever -- any excuse will do. The fool can laugh. And the fool can laugh not only at others, he can laugh at himself.

When the wise man and the fool meet together in a consciousness, then something of tremendous value happens. There are foolish people and there are wise people. The fool is shallow; the wise man is serious. The fool does not know what truth is, and the wise man does not know what joy is. And a truth without joy is worse than a lie. And a joy without truth is not reliable. A joy without truth is momentary, cannot be of the eternal.

My approach is that of great balance. You have to be very, very balanced. Delicate is the balance, difficult to achieve, but once achieved you will know that there is a quality of consciousness which can absorb wisdom and foolishness together, and there is no contradiction. They both become two aspects of your energy.

Then you are sincere, but not serious. Then you are truthful, but not joyless. Then you have joy, but the joy is not of the momentary, it is of the eternal. It is not within time; it is beyond time.

So Vani, it is too early. To really become the ashram fool, you will have to become almost enlightened. Don't think that it is easy to become a fool.

I am not talking about the common variety of fools. Gurdjieff used to talk about eighteen varieties of idiots; they come in all sizes and all shapes. But I am talking about the ultimate. Gurdjieff used to say God is the ultimate idiot. Looks very profane. The ultimate idiot, God? And Gurdjieff used to say if he was not an idiot, why should he have created you all? Some idiocy, some trait of foolishness must exist in him; otherwise why man? And not only you. Men like Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Nadir Shah; men like Joseph Stalin, Mao Tsetung. Why in the first place? God must have some trait of foolishness. He must be fooling around; he must be trying trial and error. Yes, sometimes he turns up with a Buddha too, that's okay -- but rarely, very rarely.

God must be a fool. Otherwise there cannot be so much joy in existence. Just think: a mahatma ruling the world. All joy will be simply prohibited. Can you laugh in a Christian heaven.? Have you asked this question to your ministers, priests? Can you laugh in a Christian heaven.? Can you have a belly laugh, standing in front of God? No, that doesn't seem proper.

But I tell you, you can have. And if you don't have, God will have, looking at your seriousness.

Look at trees, the birds, the animals, the stars. There seems to be tremendous joy. Life is not serious. Life is very, very playful.

So when I say become a fool and wise together, I mean don't think of life as a duty, but as a play. Always remember, if your prayer is without laughter, you are missing something. If your laughter is without prayer, you are again missing something. A prayer without laughter is dead, and a laughter without prayer has no depth. Can you pray and laugh together? Can you be prayerful and dance too? Can you meditate and love together?

That is the synthesis I am trying. That is the highest possibility a man can arrive at, the greatest symphony, when you can love and meditate together. There have been meditators, but they were against love, and there have been lovers who were against meditation. There have been people who say eat, drink, be merry, but they are against God. The Charvakas, the Epicureans -- they say eat, drink, be merry, there is no God. They help you to be joyful, but that joy cannot be very deep. Without God your joy cannot go very deep.

Your joy -- on your own -- cannot be real joy. It will be very shallow and superficial. It will not have the quality of the ultimate in it. It will not throb with eternity. And you will get fed up with it sooner or later.

That's what is happening in the West. The West has followed the Epicurean tradition -- eat, drink, be merry. Now people are fed up, really fed up; nothing seems to satisfy. The superficial cannot satisfy long. One day or other it is exposed; you come to know that it is not much and it is a repetition. The West is fed up with the Epicurean ideology, the ideology that says, "Just enjoy. There is no need to seek and search."

And the East is fed up with the opposite ideology, the other polarity that says, "Don't enjoy," that says, "'Eat, drink, be merry' is the ideology of the sinners. Wear long faces, be ascetics, mahatmas. Do yoga. Fast. Destroy the body and the senses. And be seriously after God: the only thing that is worth achieving is God-realization; everything else has to be sacrificed."

The East is fed up, tired. The West is fed up and tired. It is natural because both have chosen one aspect. God is all the aspects together. God means totality.

My approach towards God is Epicurus plus Buddha. Be as Epicurean as possible, and be a meditator, a seeker, as authentic as possible. And I don't see that there is any conflict. There is no conflict in meditation and love. In fact, the more you meditate, the more you become capable of love; the more you love, the more you become capable of meditation.

And there is no conflict between being a fool and being wise. If you can have both, that is the best. And don't settle for one; otherwise one day you will repent. The missing one will take its revenge, and with vengeance.

But to Vani I would like to say it is too early. Get a little ready.

I have heard:

Once there was a fellow who was too forward. He would meet a girl and within two seconds say, "Honey, let us make love." His buddy took him aside and explained that he should act suave and carry on a friendly conversation for a while before he suggested such things. On his next date he remembered the words of wisdom. He started the conversation by saying, "Honey, have you ever been to Africa?" just to create a conversation.

She said, "No." So he said, "Well, let us make love."

Vani, it is too early. Wait a little more. The hello has to become hello-lujah, but wait a little more.

 

Next: Chapter 2: Greed behind greed behind greed, Question 6

 

Energy Enhancement                Enlightened Texts                Zen                 The First Principle

 

 

Chapter 2

 

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