Hear this if you can...~RUMI~

Hear this if you can:
If you want to reach him
You have to go beyond yourself
And when you finally arrive at the land of absence
...Be silent
Don’t say a thing
Ecstasy, not words, is the language spoken there.
Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

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We want to know God -- where is God?... ~OSHO~

People come to me and they say, "We want to know God -- where is God?" Now, the question is just absurd. WHERE IS HE NOT? You ask WHERE He is; you must be dead blind. Can't you see Him? Only He is! In the tree and in the bird, in the animal, in the river, in the mountain, in man, in woman... everywhere He is. He has taken so many forms to surround you, to dance around you. From everywhere He is saying "Hello!" and you don't listen. From everywhere He is calling you. From everywhere He is inviting you: "Come to me!" But you are somehow keeping your eyes closed, or you have got blinders on -- you don't look anywhere.
OSHO

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Become aware of the silent...~Eckhart Tolle~

If you go into a forest with your mind only, you'll only notice the sounds and the mind will try to interpret them. You might think you're present; but you're not really, you're simply judging what you hear. But if you become aware of the silent dimension underneath the sounds and in between the sounds, then you become present because the moment you become aware of the silence, you also have become silent.
Eckhart Tolle

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Don't escape from suffering....~Jiddu Krishnamurti~

Forgive me. I never said become compassionate. We are seeing the fact, the `what is', which is suffering. That is an absolute fact. I suffer and the mind is doing everything it can to run away from it. When it does not run away, then it observes. Then the observer, if it observes very very closely, is the observed, and that very pain is transformed into passion, which is compassion. The words are not the reality. So, don't escape from suffering, which does not mean you become morbid. Live with it. You live with pleasure, don't you? Why don't you live with suffering completely? Can you live with it in the sense of not escaping from it? What takes place? Watch. The mind is very clear, very sharp. It is faced with the fact. The very suffering transformed into passion is something enormous. From that arises a mind that can never be hurt. Full stop. That's the secret.
Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Self-protection. ...~Jiddu Krishnamurti~

It is only when the mind, which has taken shelter behind the walls of self-protection, frees itself from its own creations that there can be that exquisite reality. After all, these walls of self-protection are the creations of the mind which, conscious of its insufficiency, builds these walls of protection, and behind them takes shelter. One has built up these barriers unconsciously or consciously, and one's mind is so crippled, bound, held, that action brings greater conflict, further disturbances. So the mere search for the solution of your problems is not going to free the mind from creating further problems. As long as this centre of self-protectiveness, born of insufficiency, exists, there must be disturbances, tremendous sorrow and pain; and you cannot free the mind of sorrow by disciplining it not to be insufficient. That is, you cannot discipline yourself, or be influenced by conditions and environment, in order not to be shallow. You say to yourself, "I am shallow; I recognize the fact, and how am I going to get rid of it?" I say, do not seek to get rid of it, which is merely a process of substitution, but become conscious, become aware of what is causing this insufficiency. You cannot compel it; you cannot force it; it cannot be influenced by an ideal, by a fear, by the pursuit of enjoyment and powers. You can find out the cause of insufficiency only through awareness. That is, by looking into environment and piercing into its significance there will be revealed the cunning subtleties of self-protection.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

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What is the difference between looking and seeing?

There is a great difference. Looking means you are looking for something; you have already some idea to look for. You come here and you say, “I am looking for Teertha” — then you have an idea. Then you look all around for where Teertha is. The idea is there already.

Looking is already prejudiced. If you are looking for God, you will never find Him — because looking means you have a certain idea already of who God is. And your idea is bound to be either Christian or Judaic or Hindu or Mohammedan. Your idea is going to be your concept — and your concept can never be higher than you. And your concept is bound to be your concept. Your concept is bound to be rooted in ignorance, borrowed. At the most, it is just belief; you have been conditioned for it. Then you go on looking.

A person who is looking for truth will never find it, because his eyes are already corrupted, he already has a fixed concept. He is not open. If you have come to me to look for something, then you already have an idea — you will miss me.

Then whatsoever I say you will interpret according to your idea and it will not be my meaning, it will be your meaning. You may find yourself agreeing with me, you may find yourself not agreeing with me — but agreeing or not agreeing is not the question at all, it is not the point at all. You have missed me. You can agree, but you are agreeing with your own idea.

You say: “Yes, this man is right,” because this man fits with your idea. Your idea is right so that’s why this man is right. Or, you don’t agree because it doesn’t fit with your idea. But in both the cases your idea is more important. You will miss me.

A man who is looking for something will always be missing it. Seeing is just clarity — open eyes, open mind, open heart. Not looking for something in particular; just ready and receptive. Whatsoever happens, you will remain alert, receptive, understanding.

Conclusion is not there! Conclusion has to come: by your own eyes you will see — and there will be a conclusion. The conclusion is in the future. When you are seeing, the conclusion is not already there. When you are looking, the conclusion is already there. And we go on interpreting according to our ideas.

Just the other night I was reading a joke:

A small child is reading a pictorial book on wild life, and he becomes very intrigued with the pictures of ferocious lions. He reads whatsoever is there, but one question is not answered there so he asks his mother.

He asks his mother: “Mom, what type of love-life do lions have?”

The mother said, “Son, I don’t know much about Lions because all your father’s friends are Rotarians.”

If you have some idea in the mind, you corrupt. Then you are not listening to what is being said — then you are listening according to yourself. Then your mind is playing an active role. When you are looking, mind is active. When you are seeing, mind is passive. That is the difference. When you are looking, mind is trying to manipulate. When you are seeing, mind is silent — just watching, available, open, with no idea in particular to enforce on reality.

Seeing is nude. And you can come to truth only when you are absolutely nude; when you have discarded all clothes, all philosophies, all theologies, all religions; when you have dropped all that has been given to you; when you come empty-handed, not knowing in any way.

When you come with knowledge you come already corrupted. When you come in innocence, knowing that you don’t know, then the doors are open — then you will be able to know. Only that person who has no knowledge is capable of knowing.

Source – Osho Book “A Sudden Clash of Thunder”

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Watching. ~OSHO~

You think, you imagine, but you never watch. Watching is a totally different process. It means you don’t have any likes, any dislikes. You don’t condemn anything, you don’t appreciate either. You simply see and you are aware and you are alert — not dead like a mirror. You are aware. You are watching what is happening.

You see a roseflower; you reflect it and you watch it. You don’t say anything about the rose. You don’t bring words between you and the rose because all those words are useless. When you are confronting a real rose why bring words in? Why destroy the reality of the rose by bringing interpretations of the past? You may be quoting great poets — Shelley and Yeats — but by quoting them you are bringing between you and the rose a barrier. Leave your eyes utterly empty — but don’t fall asleep. Watch, just look silently. Be a witness.

Watching means looking at things without any evaluation, neither saying it is good nor saying it is bad — because nothing is good and nothing is bad. Things are simply what they are. A rose is a rose and a thorn is a thorn; neither the thorn is bad nor the rose is good. If man disappears from the earth, roses will be there, thorns will be there, but there will be nobody to say that roses are good and thorns are bad. It is our mind that creates these values. And these go on changing.

Just a hundred years ago nobody would have ever thought to put a cactus in one’s home. A cactus is all thorns. If you had brought a cactus into your home, people would have thought you were mad, something had gone wrong with you! But now to grow roses in your home is orthodox. The avant-garde people grow cactuses; they are the really cultured people. They keep cactus plants in their bedrooms too — poisonous, dangerous, but the cactus is “in” and the rose is “out.” Fashions change.

In this century, ugly things have become beautiful and beautiful things have become ugly. Picasso is valuable — one of the ugliest painters the world has ever known! Just two hundred or three hundred years ago he would have been forced to live in a mental asylum if he had painted things like this. He would have been thought insane, utterly insane, because the world of Michelangelo is a totally different world; a different valuation existed. The world of Leonardo da Vinci is a totally different world.

Fashions go on changing. Every day man goes on changing. Nothing is, in fact, good or bad, beautiful or ugly. It all depends on you. Whatsoever you start thinking is good, beautiful, becomes good and beautiful. A Jaina monk moving naked is thought to be great by the Jainas, but others think it a little obscene. Many times problems arise.

Just a few days ago in a village, there was a riot because one Jaina monk entered in the town and the non-Jainas objected that a naked man walking inside the town…. “This is bad for our children and our wives and our daughters.”

I am not against nudity, but I am also not in favor of Jaina monks moving naked. My reason is totally different; my reason is that they look so ugly. Unless you have a beautiful body you don’t have the right to be naked. I can accept Mahavira moving naked. It is said that he had one of the most beautiful bodies — and it seems so because all his statues are so beautiful. He must have had a very beautiful body, very proportionate. If he moved naked, that can be understood.

To cover his beautiful body with clothes will not be right. But Jaina monks deliberately destroy their bodies. They are masochistic people: they cripple their bodies in many ways. They make them as ugly as they can, because the uglier your body is, the more respected you are. So they become caricatures. They are cartoons, not real people. It is better to cover them in beautiful clothes.

It depends what your criteria are, what your values are. But in reality, nothing is good and nothing is bad; things are simply what they are. If you witness then there is no question of choice. Then a choiceless awareness arises in you.

That’s what J. Krishnamurti goes on saying; it is basically the message of Buddha. The followers of Krishnamurti think that he is teaching something very original. It has nothing original in it; it is essentially the message of Buddha. It is not J. Krishnamurti’s invention. In a different sense it is original; it is original in the sense that it is his experience. He also knows it as much as Buddha knew, but it is not new — not original in the sense of being new. It is original in the sense that it has originated in him.

He is not repeating Buddha, that is true. He is not imitating Buddha, that is true. He is simply saying what HE has known. But whatsoever he has known is the same truth as Buddha’s truth.

In fact, there are not two truths in the world, so all the awakened ones know the same truth again and again. Their language is different, their expression is different; it is bound to be so. Twenty-five centuries have passed since Buddha. How can I speak the same language? And how could Buddha have spoken the language that I speak? That is impossible. But as the followers of Krishnamurti go on claiming that his teaching is absolutely original, new — that is utter nonsense. It is basically the same teaching as Buddha’s: choiceless awareness. That is the meaning of “reflect” and “watch.”

Be aware, but don’t choose. If you choose, you lose watching. If you start clinging — because the moment you choose you will start clinging — then reflection is lost. And once you have fulfilled these two simple things — reflection and watchfulness.

Source – Osho Book “Dhammapada, Vol 10″

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