OThe man went into the village and he asked everyone; it
was a small village with only a few people, and they gave
him their answers. He returned in the evening and gave the
list to Buddha. Buddha asked, "How many of these people
seek enlightenment?"
The man was surprised because not a single person had
written that he wanted enlightenment. And Buddha said, "I
say that every man is capable of enlightenment, I do not say
that every man wants enlightenment."
That every man is capable of enlightenment is very differ-
ent from every man wanting to be enlightened. If you want it,
then consider it to be possible. If your quest is for truth, there
is no power on earth that can stop you. But if you don't long
for truth, then too there is no power which can give it to you.
So first you need to ask if your thirst is a real one. If so,
then rest assured that a path is available. If not, then there is
no path - your thirst will be your path to truth.
The second thing I would like to say by way of an intro-
duction is that you often have a thirst for something, but you
are not hopeful of ever getting what you desire. You have a
desire, but you are not optimistic about it. There is the de-
sire, but with a sense of hopelessness.
Now if the first step is taken optimistically, then the last
step will also end optimistically. This too should be under-
stood: if the first step is taken without any optimism, then
the last step will end in despair. If you want the last step to
be a satisfying and successful one, the first step should be
taken with optimism.
I am saying that during these three days - and I will be saying this as long as I live - you should have a very opti-
mistic attitude. Do you realize that as far as your state of con-
sciousness is concerned, much depends on whether your acts
are rooted in positivity or negativity? If you are a pessimist to
begin with, then it is as if you are sitting on the branch of a
tree, and cutting the branch at the same time.
So I say to you that to be open is very important in this
search. To be optimistic means you feel that if there has been
a single person on this earth who has understood truth, if
there has been a single person in the history of mankind who
has experienced divine bliss and peace, then there is no rea-
son why you also cannot experience it.
Don't look at the millions of people whose lives are filled
with darkness, whose hopes have never seen the light of day:
look at the people in history who have experienced truth.
Don't look at the seeds which never grew into trees, which
rotted and were wasted: look at those few who were success-
ful and who experienced the divine. And remember, what was
possible for those seeds is possible for every seed. What one
man can experience, every other man can also experience.
Your capacity as a seed is the same as that of Buddha, of
Mahavira, of Krishna or Christ. Where enlightenment is con-
cerned nature has shown no favoritism; every man has an
equal possibility. But it does not appear to be so because
there are many among us who have never even tried to turn
this possibility into a reality.
So to be optimistic is a basic necessity. Carry this assurance
with you that if anyone has ever experienced peace, if anyone
has ever experienced bliss, it is also possible for you. Don't
humiliate yourself by being pessimistic. To feel pessimistic is
insulting to yourself. It means that you don't see yourself as worthy of experiencing truth. And I say to you, you are wor-
thy and you will certainly achieve it.
Try it and see! You have lived your whole life with a sense
of hopelessness; now for these three days of the meditation
camp nourish a feeling of optimism. Be as optimistic as possi-
ble that the ultimate will happen, that it will definitely hap-
pen. Why? In the outer world it is possible to approach
something with optimism and not be successful. But in the
inner world optimism is a very useful device. Whe n you are
full of optimism, every cell of your body is filled with opti-
mism, every pore of your skin is filled with optimism, every
breath is filled with optimism, every thought is highlighted
with optimism, your lifeforce throbs with optimism and your
heartbeat is suffused with optimism. Whe n your whole being
is filled with optimism, then this will create a climate in you
in which the ultimate can happen.
Pessimism also creates a personality, a character where
every cell is crying, is sad, is weary, is in despair, lifeless, as if
one is living only in name but is dead in spirit. If this person
sets out on a journey to seek something.... And the journey
on the spiritual path is the greatest journey - no man has
climbed a mountain peak higher than this, no man has ever
dived into a deeper ocean. The depth of the self is the deep-
est, and the height is the highest. Someone who wants to
walk this path has to be very optimistic.
So I say to you, for these three days maintain a very opti-
mistic state of mind. Tonight, when you go to bed, fall asleep
filled with optimism. And sleep with the assurance that to-
morrow morning when you get up something will happen,
something can happen, something can be done.
Have an optimistic attitude, and along with it I would also like to say this: after many years of experience I have come to
the conclusion that man's negativity can be so strong that
even if he begins to achieve something, he may not be able to
see it because of his negativity.
Some time ago a man used to come to me, and he would
bring his wife. The first time we met he told me that his wife
could not sleep. He described her condition to me: "She can-
not get any sleep without medicines, and even with medicine
she can only sleep for three or four hours. And my wife is
afraid; strange fears seem to trouble her. She is afraid to step
out of the house, and if she is in the house she is afraid that
the house will collapse. If there is no one around she is afraid
that if she is alone she will die, so she constantly needs some-
one around. At night she keeps all her medicines close to her
just in case there is an emergency."
I suggested that she start doing a small meditation that
would be helpful. She began to do the experiment. After
seven days I met him and I asked him, "What happened?
How is your wife?"
He said, "There has not been much progress - she just
sleeps better."
After a week I met him again and asked him, "Any
change?"
And he said, "Her condition has not changed very much,
but she is a bit less afraid."
I met him again after another seven days and asked him,
"Has anything happened?"
"Nothing significant," he said. "She manages to get some
sleep now, is less fearful and doesn't keep the medicines close
to her anymore - nothing much."
I call this a negative outlook. Even if this man were to experience something he would not be able to see it, to rec-
ognize it. And this outlook is built into this person. It means
that a negative person will not experience anything, and even
if he does experience something he will not be able to recog-
nize it - and much that might otherwise be possible will be
obstructed.
In addition to having a positive approach, I also suggest
that during these three days you think only about what
is happening to you - don't try to think about what is not
happening. In these three days whatsoever happens, watch.
And forget about what does not happen, what could not
happen. Just remember what you did experience. If you
have even a little taste of peace, of silence, nourish that. It
will give you hope and it also will push you forward.
Because if you nourish something that didn't happen your
momentum will be lost, and what actually did happen will
also be destroyed.
So in these three days, in your experiments with medita-
tion, pay attention to every little thing you experience and
make that the basis for your progress. Don't give any energy
to what doesn't happen.
Man has always been unhappy because he forgets what he
has and tries to get what he cannot get. To have this kind of
basis for life is absolutely wrong. Be someone who under-
stands what he has and live on the basis of that.
I read somewhere that one man was complaining to an-
other, "I am a very poor man, I don't have anything."
So the second man said, "If you are that poor you can do
one thing: I want your right eye. I will give you five thousand rupees for it. Take these five thousand rupees and give me
your right eye."
And the first man said, "That is very difficult. I cannot
give my right eye."
So then the other man offered, "I will give you ten thou-
sand rupees for both of your eyes."
Again the first man replied, "Ten thousand rupees! But
still, I cannot give my eyes."
At which point the other man offered, "I will give you fifty
thousand rupees if you will give me your life."
At this the first man said, "But that is impossible! I cannot
give my life."
The first man said, "This shows you have many valuable
things. You have two eyes which you will not sell for ten
thousand rupees, and you have your life - and you were say-
ing that you don't have anything!"
I am talking about this kind of person and this kind of
thinking. Value what you have, and also what you experience
through meditation, even the small things. Think about it,
talk about it, because whether or not you will experience
more depends on this way of thinking - and your optimism
will create more. And what you don't get....
A woman used to come to me - she was well educated, a
professor in a college, a Sanskrit scholar. She was attending a
seven-day meditation camp, and on the first day of the camp
after the meditation she came out and said to me, "Forgive
m
e , but I did not have any communion with the divine."
It was just the first day of the experiment and she said she
did not meet with the divine! So I said, "If you had met the divine it would have been
dangerous, because if you could meet the divine so easily
you would not value it." And I also said, "A person would
have to be really stupid to think that by sitting silently with
his eyes closed for ten minutes, he will then be ready to
know the divine."
So if you experience even the smallest ray of silence, con-
sider that you have seen the whole sun because even the
smallest experience of light will help you to reach to the sun.
If I am sitting in a dark room and I see a thin ray of light,
there are two ways I can relate to it. One way would be to
say, "What is this small ray of light compared to the deep
darkness surrounding me? Wha t can one small ray of light
do? - there is so much darkness all around me."
The other way would be to think, "In spite of all this dark-
ness, there is at least one ray of light available to me, and if I
go towards that ray of light I may reach the source where the
sun is." This is why I am telling you not to think about all the
darkness; if there is even the faintest, the tiniest ray of light,
concentrate on that. It will give rise to a positive vision in you.
Usually, your life is just the opposite. If I show you a rose-
bush you might say, "What is there to see? Existence is so un-
fair, there are only three or four roses and thousands
of thorns." This is one approach: to see a rosebush and say,
"Existence is so unfair! There are thousands of thorns and only
a few roses." This is one way of perceiving, one approach.
Another way would be to say, "Existence is so mysterious:
amidst those thousands of thorns it creates a rose." You could
also see it like this and say, "A rose among all those thorns....
Isn't this a mysterious world! It really seems like a miracle, the
possibility of a rose blooming amongst all those thorns." So I would like to ask you to take the second approach. In
these three days make your foundation from the slightest ray
of hope that you see in your meditation, and let it become
stronger.
The third thing is that during these three days of medita-
tion you will not be living in the same way that you have
been living up until this evening. Man is a robot, full of
habits, and if one remains within the confines of one's habits,
the new path to meditation will be very difficult. Hence, I
suggest that you make a few changes.
One change will be that during these three days you are
to talk as little as possible. Talking is the greatest affliction of
this century! And you are not even aware of just how much
you talk. From morning to night, until you go to sleep, you
go on talking. Either you are talking to somebody else, or if
there is nobody to talk to, you talk to yourself.
During these three days be conscious about stopping your
habit of continuously talking. And it is just a habit. For a
meditator, this is vital. During these three days I would like
you to talk as little as possible, and when you do talk, it
should be pure, not the ordinary chitchat that you do every
day. What in fact do you talk about every day? Does it have
any value? Would it be harmful to you if you didn't talk? You
are simply chattering; it is not worth much. And if you didn't
talk would it be harmful to others? Would others feel some-
thing is missing by not hearing what you have to say?
During these three days remember that you are not to talk
much with anyone. This will be tremendously helpful. And if
you do talk, it would be better if it were connected with
meditation and nothing else. But it would be so much better
if you did not talk at all: be in silence as much as possible. I don't mean it to be so strict that you force yourself to be in
silence, that you write what you want to say. You are free to
speak, but not to chitchat. Talk consciously, and only when
necessary.
This will help you in two ways. One benefit will be that
you will save all the energy that is wasted by talking. Then
that energy can be used for meditation. And the second
benefit will be that it will disconnect you from the others
and you will be in your aloneness during this time. We have
come to this mountain place, and it would be a waste if all
two hundred people that are gathered here were to just talk
with each other, chat with each other. Then you would still
be in a crowd, as you were before, and you will not be able
to experience silence.
To experience silence just to be in the mountains is not
enough. It is also necessary to separate yourself from others
and be alone. You should make contact only if it is absolutely
necessary. Imagine that you are the only person on this
mountain and there is no one else around. You have to live as
if you have come here alone, you are staying alone and mov-
ing around alone. Sit under a tree, alone. Don't go about in
groups of people. Live separately and alone for these three
days. The truth of life has never been known through living
in a crowd, and it cannot be experienced like that. No experi-
ence of any significance has ever happened in a crowd.
Whosoever has had a taste of silence has tasted it in absolute
solitude, in aloneness.
Whe n you stop talking to others and when all your chat-
tering inside and outside stops, nature starts communicating
with you in a mysterious way. Nature is continuously commu-
nicating with you, but you are so engrossed in your chatter that you don't hear her soft voice. You will have to quieten
yourself so that you can hear the voice speaking within you.
So in these three days, talking has to be consciously re-
duced. If you forget and start talking out of habit and then
remember again, stop right then and apologize. Be alone. You
will be experimenting with this here, but you will also have
to try it on your own.
Go anywhere you like, sit under a tree; you have com-
pletely forgotten that you are part of nature. You also don't
know that being close to nature makes it easier to experience
the ultimate; nowhere else is it easier.
So make full use of these three incredible days. Be in iso-
lation, solitude, and don't talk unless necessary. And even if
everyone is quiet, continue to be alone. A meditator has to be
alone. There are very many people here, so when we all sit
for meditation it may look as if there is a gathering of people
meditating. But all meditation is individual, a group cannot
meditate. Sitting here you are in a large group, but when you
go inside yourself you will all feel alone.
Whe n you close your eyes you will feel alone, and when
you are silent there will no longer be any group. There will
be two hundred people here, but each one will be only
with himself and not with the other one hundred and
ninety-nine meditators. Meditation cannot be done collec-
tively. All prayer, all meditation is individual, is private.
Be alone here, and also when you leave here. And spend
most of your time in silence. Don't talk. But it will not be
enough to simply stop talking, you will also need to make
a conscious effort to stop the constant chattering that goes
on inside you. You talk to yourself, you answer yourself -
quieten yourself and drop that too. If it is difficult to stop this inner chatter, then firmly tell yourself to stop this noise,
tell yourself that you don't like the noise.
Talk to your inner self. As a meditator, it is important to
give suggestions to yourself. Try this sometime. Sit alone
somewhere, tell your mind to stop its chatter, tell your mind
that you don't like it, and you will be surprised to see that for
a moment your inner chattering will stop.
For three days give yourself the suggestion that you will
not talk. In three days you will notice the difference.. .that
step by step, slowly, slowly the chatter is lessening.
The fourth point: you may have some complaints, some
problems - you are not to pay any attention to them. If you
experience a small problem or difficulty, don't give it any
attention. We are not here for entertainment.
Recently, I read the story of a Chinese nun. She was vis-
iting a village where there were only a few houses, and as it
was getting dark and she was all alone she went to the area
in front of all the houses and asked the villagers, "Please let
me stay in one of your houses."
She was a stranger to them, and besides that she was of a
different religion, so the villagers closed their doors to her.
The next village was very far away, and it was dark and
she was alone. So she had to spend the night in a field
and she slept under a cherry tree. In the middle of the night
she woke up - it was cold, and because of this she could not
sleep. She looked up and saw that the flowers had all blos-
somed; the tree was covered with flowers. And the moon
had risen, and the moonlight was very beautiful. She experi-
enced a moment of immense joy.
To be continue.....................
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