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You
are not speaking of meditation, you are speaking
of concentration. Meditation only takes place
when you are not concentrating on any object.
If you can manage not to bring any object of the
past into the mind, that is called meditation.
Do not use your mind — that is called meditation.
If you use your mind to meditate, it is not meditation,
it is concentration. The mind can only cling to
some object that belongs to the past. Have you
been told to meditate without the aid of the mind?
That
is hard to answer. Most of the meditation that
I have done involves techniques for dealing with
thoughts that arise. But the aim of the meditation
seems to be a thoughtless state, where no thoughts
arise.
Yes,
that is called meditation. When no thoughts arise,
that is called meditation.
But
thoughts arise, inevitably. How does one deal
with thoughts that arise?
I
will tell you how to deal with them. I think you
can devote an amount of time equal to a finger
snap. That is all the time I need to stop your
thoughts. What is a thought? What is mind? There
is no difference between thought and mind. Thought
arises from mind and mind is merely a bundle of
thoughts. Without thoughts there is no mind. What
is mind? 'I' is mind. Mind is past, it is clinging
to past, present and future. It is clinging to
time, clinging to objects. This is called mind.
Now, where does the mind arise from? When the
'I' rises, mind rises, senses rise, the world
rises. Now, find out where the 'I' rises from
and then tell me if you are not quiet. Go on,
comment on what is happening while you do it.
I
am listening to you speak.
After
that. We have arrived at the fact that the mind
is 'I', and that mind arises from 'I'. When the
'I' rises, the mind rises. This is what happens
in the transition from sleeping to waking. Now,
find out that reservoir, the place where the 'I'
rises. Where does the 'I' rise from?
It
is the name.
Wait,
wait. You don't follow. I will repeat it again.
If there is a canal which comes out of a reservoir,
you can follow this canal back to the place where
it emerges from the reservoir. I am telling you,
follow the 'I'-thought in the same way. Where
does it rise from? I will tell you how to do it,
how to find the answer. You don't have to box
like Mohammed Ali for this. It is very simple.
To know yourself is as simple as rubbing a rose
petal. This knowledge or realisation is as simple
as a rose petal in your fingers. It is not difficult
at all. Difficulties only arise when you make
an effort. So, you don't have to make any effort
to go to the reservoir which is the source of
'I'. Don't make any effort and don't think either.
Reject effort and reject thought. When I say reject
thought, I mean, 'Reject the 'I'-thought and any
kind of effort'.
It
feels like a comet that is skirting the atmosphere.
It flashes briefly and then disappears back into
space. It is like a momentary spark of flame which
is followed by the darkness of 'I' again.
Not
again. For 'again' you have to go to the past.
'Again' is past. I am telling you to get rid of
this 'I'. Don't make an effort and don't think
either for one single second. Even half of a second
or a quarter of a second is quite enough. My dear
young Jeff, you have not spent this much time
on yourself in thirty-five million years! Here
and now is the time to do it.
I
find it impossible not to make an effort. There
is always a trying. There is an expectation, a
sense of trying, always.
All
this 'doing' has been taught to you by your parents,
by your priests, by your teachers, by your preachers.
Now, instead, keep quiet for a quarter of a second
and see what happens. You have inherited doing
from your parents: 'Do this and do that.' You
went to the priest and he told you, 'Do this and
don't do that'. Then you heard the same thing
from society and from everywhere else. I am telling
you to get rid of both doing and of not doing.
When you indulge in doing, you are back in your
parents' world. You first learned doing from your
mother. If you did not handle your spoon and fork
correctly, she slapped you at the dinner table
and said, 'Don't do this!' Do's and don'ts first
came from your mother. And then from the priest:
'You have to go to a particular church. Don't
go to somebody else's church. If you do, you will
go to heaven. If you don't, you will go to hell.
You are a sinner.'
I
say, 'Get rid of both doing and not doing'. Have
at least a taste of it. You have already had a
taste of doing. There are six billion people and
they are all tasting doing. Tell me, what is the
result of all this doing? Recently we have seen
the result of doing in the Gulf. We have also
seen three wars. The result of this doing is hatred
between man and man, and lots of killing. Let
us instead see what can be done by not doing.
In not doing, there will be love, not hatred.
Let this love spring up once again as it did in
the time of Buddha and Ashoka.
Papaji,
now that I am calling you 'Papaji', I am putting
you in a parental role. It feels a little awkward.
This
parent tells you: 'Don't make any effort.' Listen
to this Papaji, to only one of his words. If you
don't listen to this Papaji, you will have many
other Papaji's for another thirty-five million
years!
I
am a writer and I find it very natural to write.
People are always coming to me, asking for advice
on writing and I tell them: 'Just do it naturally.
Just write as you would speak. There is nothing
that is easier.' But they can't do it. They need
to make some effort to do it.
Papaji,
you awakened spontaneously and completely naturally
at the age of eight. Why are you so confident
that it will be so easy and so natural for others?
We have spent thirty-five million years trying
with little success.
I
must also have spent that long. I know it because
I have seen many of my past lives. Buddha also
said that he spent many, many incarnations trying
to wake up. He also knew them very well. He remembered
very clearly a slight mistake he had made 253
incarnations ago. He also had been doing and doing.
You
asked me a direct question. I do not know what
caused my awakening. It was very spontaneous.
I did not have any background, I did not do any
meditation, I had not read any book about enlightenment.
I was in Pakistan, so these books were not available.
They are mostly written in Sanskrit, but I had
not studied Sanskrit. I had only studied Persian.
It came to me, but how I do not know. Perhaps
it chose me. The Truth reveals Itself to a holy
person. I did not have any qualification. I was
not educated at that time. I was only eight years
old, studying in the second standard. What I saw
then I am still seeing. What is it? What is it?
What is it? I am more and more in love with It
with each passing moment.
All
my life I have wondered what it would have been
like to have lived in the time of the Buddha,
and to have sat at his feet. Here with you, I
feel I know the answer to that question.
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