GUIDA SPIRITAULE - MAX EHRMANN
AND THE DESIDERATA
HEAR THEN THE WISDOM OF THE WISE: "GO
PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE, AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN
SILENCE.
"AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, WITHOUT SURRENDER, BE ON GOOD TERMS WITH ALL PERSONS.
SPEAK YOUR TRUTH QUIETLY AND CLEARLY; AND LISTEN TO OTHERS, EVEN TO THE DULL AND
THE IGNORANT; THEY TOO HAVE THEIR STORY."
WE ENTER TODAY into one of the most beautiful worlds, that of a small document
called the DESIDERATA. It is strange because it has appeared many times and
disappeared many times; hence nobody exactly knows who wrote it. Truth has the
capacity to appear again and again; because of human stupidity it is lost again
and again too.
The Desiderata seems to be one of the most ancient documents available today,
but it is copyrighted by a poet, Max Ehrmann. In his book of poems it is also
given as a poem authored by him, copyrighted in 1927 in America, although in the
first edition he talks about the legend that this small document was discovered
on a plaque installed in St. Paul's Church in Baltimore when built in 1692, but
it was lost. There is no proof any more whether it was installed as a plaque in
St. Paul's Church or not. The legend is there; it has persisted. It seems Max
Ehrmann again had the vision of it. It came to him as a vision. He is not really
its author but only a receptacle, a medium.
This has happened to many other documents too. It happened in the case of
Blavatsky's THE VOICE OF SILENCE: she is known as the authoress of the book, but
the book is very ancient. She discovered it in her meditations; it appeared to
her.
Many parts of Friedrich Nietzsche's THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA are also very
ancient, and the same is the case with Omar Khayyam's RUBAIYAT. Mabel Collins'
Light on THE PATH IS of the same category, Kahlil Gibran's THE PROPHET also.
I have looked into all Max Ehrmann's poems but no other poem has the same
quality, not even a single poem. If the Desiderata was written by him then many
more poems of the same quality would have flowed. It has not happened. In fact,
the DESIDERATA seems to be so different from all his poems that it is impossible
to believe that it has come from the same person.
The same is true about Mabel Collins' LIGHT ON THE PATH. These are strange
documents. The possibility is that they have always existed -- again and again
lost visibly, but truth manifests itself.... Whenever there is a vulnerable
soul, a receptive person, truth again starts flowing through him. And of course
the person will think, "I am writing it."
It is because of this fact that the Upanishads have no names of authors; nobody
knows who wrote them, because the people who received them were very alert and
aware. There were mystics, not only poets.
This is the difference between the poet and the mystic: when something happens
to the mystic he is perfectly aware that it is from the beyond, it is not from
him. He is immensely glad; he rejoices that he has been chosen as a vehicle, as
a medium, but his ego cannot claim it. In fact, you become a mystic only when
you have dropped the ego. But the poet is full of the ego -- not always but
ALMOST always. Once in a while, when he forgets his ego, he touches the same
world that is the mystic's world. But the mystic lives there; the poet once in a
while gets a glimpse of it. And because his ego is not dead he immediately
claims it as creation. But all the ancient seers were aware of it.
The Vedas, the Bible, the Koran, the three greatest scriptures of the world, are
known not to have been written by anyone. The Vedas are known as APAURUSHEYA --
not written by any person. Certainly somebody wrote them, but they are from God,
from the beyond, from some unknown source. The mystic becomes possessed by it,
he dances to its tune. He is no more himself -- he is it. The poet once in a
while gets a glimpse of it, a faraway glimpse.
In Sanskrit we have two words for the poet; in no other language is it so,
because no other part of the world became alert, very alert about this fact. In
Sanskrit one word IS KAVI; KAVI EXActly means the poet. The other word is rishi,
rishi means a mystic poet. The difference is great. The poet has a deep
aesthetic sense, he is very sensitive; he can penetrate into the very core of
things. He has a way of knowing which is not that of the scientist. He does not
analyze, he loves; his love is great, but his ego is alive. So when he looks at
a roseflower he comes closer than the scientist, because the scientist
immediately starts dissecting the flower, and to dissect something is to kin it.
The very effort of knowing is an effort to kill.
Hence whatsoever science knows is about dead things. Now even scientists are
becoming aware of the fact. When blood is taken out of your body and is
examined, analyzed, it is no more the same blood as it was when it was
circulating in your body. Then it was alive; then it was an organic part of your
life. Now it is not the same. It is like your hand, or your eye; when it is part
of the organic unity of your body it can see, but take the eye out -- it is
dead, it cannot see. It is no more alive, it is something else: it is a corpse.
The greatest scientists are becoming aware of the fact that whatsoever we have
known up to now is basically, fundamentally wrong. We know about dead things
only; the alive things we miss. That's why science cannot say there is something
in you which is beyond the body, more than the body. Science cannot say that you
are more than the sum total of your parts, and unless you are something more
than the sum total of your parts you are not. Then you are only a machine --
maybe very sophisticated but that does not matter. You are a computer, you don't
have a soul; you are just a by-product, an epiphenomenon. You don't have any
awareness; you are only behavior.
Science reduces man to a machine -- not only to an animal, remember. Those days
are gone when science used to think, like Charles Darwin and others, that man is
nothing but another animal. Now Skinner, Delgado, Pavlov, don't say that, that
man is another animal -- because there is no anima, no life, no consciousness --
they say man is another machine.
Religion says man is more than the body, more than the mind, but science cannot
believe it because of its very methodology. The way it tries to know things
prohibits it from going deeper than the material, than the dead.
Hence the poet reached closer than the scientist. The poet does not dissect the
flower, he fails in love. He is immensely glad, he rejoices in the flower, ant
out of that rejoicing a song is born. But he is still far away from the mystic,
the rishi. The mystic becomes one with the flower. The observer becomes the
observed; there is no distinction left.
It happened once:
Ramakrishna was crossing the Ganges in a small boat with a few of his disciples.
Suddenly in the middle of the river he started shouting, "Why are you beating
me?"
The disciples were puzzled. They said, "Paramahansa Deva, what are you saying?
We, and beating you?!"
And Ramakrishna said, "Look!" He uncovered his back and there were marks on it
as if somebody had beaten him badly with a stick. Blood was oozing out.
The disciples were puzzled what had happened? And then Ramakrishna pointed to
the other shore: a few people were beating a person. When they reached the other
shore they went to the person, they uncovered his back -- and the marks were
exactly the same as on Ramarishna's back! Without any difference, exactly the
same! Ramakrishna became one with the person who was being beaten. He was not an
observer, he was not separate; he became one with the observed.
This is the meaning of the English word "empathy." Sympathy the poet Knows,
empathy the mystic knows. When the mystic sings it is a totally different flavor,
a different beauty, because it is not a faraway glimpse of the truth -- he is
inside the truth, at the very core of it.
But there are many things to be understood. The mystic may not be able to sing
at all, because he becomes so one with the truth that he may forget to sing the
song. It has happened to many mystics -- they have never said anything. It is
like if you ask sugar: the sugar may not be able to know that it is sweet; a
little difference is needed to know the sweetness of the sugar. The mystic
becomes the sugar.
Once in a while the mystic is also a poet; that is a coincidence. Whenever it
happens -- as in the case of Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Mohammed -- then we have
something of the beyond available to us. But a mystic is not necessarily a poet;
to be a poet is a different talent. One can be a mystic without being a poet,
one can be a poet without being a mystic.
When a mystic is a poet an Upanishad is born, a Srimad Bhagavad Gita is born, a
Koran comes to the earth. But it is not always so. So many times it happens that
the truth has to find the way through the poet because the mystic is not
available.
That's what happened with this small document, the DESIDERATA. No mystic seems
to be available who can sing this song; hence Max Ehrmann is chosen to be a
vehicle -- but he is an unconscious person. He thinks he is writing a poem of
his own; it is not his own, it has nobody's signature on it. And as you enter
into this small document you will understand: it cannot be from a poet. It has
the same quality as the Koran, the same quality as the Upanishads.
It is also a strange document because in such a small space it says so much. It
is really made of sutras -- just a few hints. Nothing is said very solidly: just
a few hints, fingers pointing to the moon. It is so small that after Adlai
Stevenson's death in 1965 it was discovered that he had intended to send out the
DESIDERATA as a Christmas card to his friends. It can be printed on a small
card, a postcard, but it contains infinity -- a dewdrop that contains all the
oceans.
It can be of immense help to you on the path; hence I call it GUIDA SPIRITUALE.
It begins:
HEAR THEN THE WISDOM OF THE WISE...
Jesus used to say to his disciples again and again: If you have ears, hear. If
you have eyes, see. He says it so many times, as if he was not seeing people as
having ears and eyes. And that's my experience too: you ALL have eyes, but very
few people are capable of seeing; you ALL have ears, but it is rare, very rare,
to come across a person who is capable of hearing -- because just to hear the
words is not hearing and just to see figures is not seeing. Unless you see the
meaning, the content, unless you hear the silence which is the soul of the
words, you have not heard.
One has to listen in deep silence, in deep AGNOSIA. Remember Dionysius' word
AGNOSIA: a state of not-knowing. If you know, your very knowledge is a
disturbance; you cannot hear. That's why pundits, scholars, are incapable of
hearing: they are too full of rubbish. Their minds are continuously chattering
inside; Maybe they are reciting SHASTRAS, scriptures, but that makes no
difference; what is going on inside is of no-value.
Unless you are absolutely silent, not even a thought stirring inside, not even a
small ripple in the lake of consciousness, you will not be able to hear. And if
you cannot hear, then whatsoever you think you hear is going to be wrong.
That's how Jesus was misunderstood, Socrates was misunderstood, Buddha was
misunderstood. They were speaking very clearly. It is impossible to improve upon
the statements on Socrates; his statements are very clear, almost perfect, as
near perfect as language can be. Buddha's statements are very simple; there is
no complexity in them, but still misunderstanding arises.
From where does all this misunderstanding come? Why have all the great prophets,
TEERTHANKARAS, all the great enlightened Masters been misunderstood down the
ages? -- for the simple reason that people cannot hear. They have ears, hence
they believe they are capable of hearing. They are not deaf, they have the
instrument to hear, but behind their ears there is so much noise and their minds
are standing behind their ears to interpret what is being said, to compare, to
analyze, to argue, to doubt -- they get lost in all the processes.
Just a small word, and watch your mind, what happens -- not even a word, just a
sound. This airplane passing by... and watch your mind. You cannot hear it
simply; you start thinking of many things. Maybe you are reminded of your own
journeys, some friend who died in a plane crash. somebody you loved very much,
and all the memories associated with the person... and you have gone far away
into the memories. And one thing leads to another -- you are no more herenow.
You have not heard THE plane passing by. This plane simply triggered a process
in you -- of thought, of memories, of desires. Maybe suddenly you thought, "It
would be nice if I had a plane of my own!" Or maybe you simply thought, "What a
distraction! This noise is a disturbance. I was listening so silently, and here
comes this stupid airplane!"
It is not the airplane that is disturbing you; it is your own mind which is
calling it stupid, a distraction, a disturbance. If you don't call it anything,
nothing is disturbed. If you simply hear the noise you will be surprised: it
deepens your silence; it is not a distraction at all. When it passes by you fall
into a deeper valley of silence than you were in before.
Hence the first word of the DESIDERATA:
HEAR THEN THE WISDOM OF THE WISE...
A strange beginning, particularly from a Western poet, from an American poet.
This is how all the Eastern sutras begin. Just a little difference is there, and
that seems to be because of the Western medium. He has not been able to relate
exactly what was happening in his innermost being.
All the great Eastern sutras begin with NOW. "ATHATO brahma jigyasa" -- the
Brahma Sutras begin this way: "Now the enquiry into the ultimate" -- not THEN
but NOW. The Bhakti Sutras of Narada begin: "ATHATO BHAKTIJIGYASA -- now the
enquiry into the universe of devotion." It is never then, it is always now. In
fact THEN does not exist, only NOW exists.
THERE does not exist, only only here exists. You will never find THERE and THEN
anywhere. Wherever you go you will always .find NOW and HERE. If it had come
through a mystic there would have been no THEN, there would have been NOW.
HEAR NOW THE WISDOM OF THE WISE....
And that makes more sense. But the logical mind functions in a different way,
and when you use a logical mind as a vehicle it interpolates something of its
own: THEN, THEREFORE..... NOW is is never part of the logical mind, now is part
of the meditative mind. And Ehrmann is not a meditator, is not a mystic, hence
he has missed with that word. He says:
HEAR THEN THE WISDOM OF THE WISE....
Just change THEN to NOW and see how the quality becomes totally different: HEAR
now the wisdom OF THE WISE.. . because except now there is no time and except
here there is no space. THEN and THERE are part of our noisy mind. When the
noise ceases and the mind is put aside, what is left? -- just herenow.
Swami Ramtirtha used to ten a beautiful story:
There was a very great atheist and he was continuously talking against God. He
had written on the wall of his drawing-room in big golden letters: "God is
nowhere." And then a child was born to him, and one day he was playing with the
child and the child was learning language. He was not capable OF reading such a
big word -- "no-where" -- so he divided it in two. The child read the sentence:
"God is now-here." "Nowhere" was too big a word; he divided it in two:
"now-here."
It must have been a rare moment for the atheist. In fact, when you are playing
with a child you forget your seriousness, you forget your ideologies, you forget
your religion, you forget your philosophy, you forget your theology. When you
are playing with a child, something of meditativeness happens to you, hence
playing with children is of great value. Playing with a child, for a moment you
become a child. And remember Jesus' saying again and again: Unless you are like
small children you will not enter into my kingdom of God.
In that moment something happened. The child said, "God is now-here," and the
father was taken unawares. He heard it and he was in a playful mood with the
child. And you cannot argue with a small child by saying, "There is no God." And
because he was playful, silent, enjoying, the statement from the child became
something of tremendous importance, became very pregnant, as if God had spoken
through him.
He looked at the wall for the first time. His whole life he had been looking at
that sentence. It was never: "God is now-here." It was always: "God is nowhere."
He had never conceived that "nowhere" could be divided into "now-here," that
"nowhere" consists of "now-here." He was transformed. It became almost a satori.
He was no more an atheist.
People were puzzled. They could not believe what had happened because he had
been so argumentative and he had had so many proofs against God. "What has
happened?" And when they asked him he would shrug his shoulders. He would say,
"I can also understand why you look so puzzled. I myself am puzzled. Ask this
child -- he has done something. Hearing this sentence from him, something has
changed in me. Looking into the eyes of the child, something has been
transformed in me. And it is not only that logically I am a different person, I
am existentially different too. Since then I have been seeing God now-here: in
the wind passing through the trees, in the rain falling on the roof, I hear his
footsteps, I hear his song. The birds sing, and I am reminded God is now-here.
The sun rises, and I am reminded God is now-here. Now it is no more question of
argumentation, it has become something of my experience.
But mind is always going somewhere else. It is never now-here; it is always
then-there. Mind exists only in THEN and there. That's why Max Ehrmann has
missed. He says: HEAR THEN... THEN looks more logical, but it is not
existential. Now is existential, although very illogical -- because you cannot
catch hold of NOW with logic. The moment you think you have caught hold OF it,
it is already gone, it is already past. You can be in the now, but you cannot
try to understand, to know NOW. By the time you try to continuously.
Heraclitus says: You cannot step in the same river twice. And I say to you: You
cannot step in the same river even once because when your foot touches the
surface of the river, the water underneath is rushing by. By the moment you
touch a little deeper it is different water: the surface is rushing by. By the
time you reach to the rock bottom of the river so much water has flowed by, you
have not touched the same water even once!
And such is life: except change, nothing is permanent. Only change is eternal.
It looks paradoxical, that's why I say it is illogical.
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CONTINUED...
HEAR THEN THE WISDOM OF THE WISE...
A STRANGE STATEMENT. in fact: THE WISDOM OF THE WISE...? Seems to be
tautological. Of course, wisdom can be only of the wise. What is the point of
repeating it? Why say "wisdom of the wise"? Can wisdom be of the unwise too? But
there is a very subtle point to be understood: because there are so many
knowledgeable people in the world and the knowledgeable person appears almost as
if he is wise, and he is not. He speaks in the same way. The scholar who has
studied the Srimad Bhagavad Gita his whole life speaks the same language as
Krishna, but when Krishna speaks it, it is the wisdom of the wise, and when the
scholar, the pundit speaks, it is not the wisdom of the wise, it is the wisdom
of the unwise. It is mere knowledge; it is not even wisdom. How can it be
wisdom?
Remember the distinction between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is a pseudo
coin. Knowledge is easy; it can be borrowed from anybody. You can go to the
university, to the library, you can ask the knowledgeable people, and you can
accumulate it. It is very cheap. You need not go through any transformation, you
need not be reborn for it. You will remain as you are, and knowledge can be
accumulated. It will be added to you, but it will not be of any value because
you will remain the same. In fact, it can even be dangerous. It will deceive
others; they will think you know. And if many people think you know, you can
fall into a self-deception. You can also start thinking, "How can so many people
be wrong? If they think I know, I must know."
I have heard a story:
A journalist died and reached heaven. St. Peter opened the door and told the
journalist, "Please, our quota for journalists is fun. We have only twelve
journalists in heaven, not more than that. Even those twelve are almost always
unemployed, because there is no news. Nothing happens!"
What will happen in heaven? No riot, no rape, no politicians, no toppling of
governments, no divorces, no murder. Nothing happens there! George Bernard Shaw
has defined news as: If a dog bites a man it is not news, but if a man bites the
dog then it is news. Now in heaven who is going to bite the dog and for what? In
the first place where will you find a dog in heaven? And to find the person who
will bite the dog will be almost impossible. So there is no newspaper there, or
maybe just empty sheets distributed early in the morning, and saints sit and
look at the empty paper and feel very happy that nothing has happened -- good.
Nothing is always better than something.
So St. Peter said, "You please go to hell. There are thousands of journalists
and hundreds of newspapers, and there is so much news!"
But the journalist was adamant, as journalists tend to be. He said, "No. You
give me at least twenty-four hours' time, please. And if I can convince one
journalist to go to hell then one place will be vacant, that you can give to me.
Just twenty-four hours' time, otherwise I will go to hell."
St. Peter saw the logic of it and he said, "Okay, you can try."
And the journalist tried. And journalists are experts in lying. Truth is not
their business, truth cannot be their business, because truth is so simple and
so plain. You cannot make any story out of it; there is nothing much in it. It
is simply so. Lies are very complicated and you can make many stories out of
them, and you can go on making stones from one story to another. But in the
foundation you need a lie, not truth.
The whole art of journalism is the art of Lying in such a way that people think
it is true. So he was an expert. He started spreading a rumor. The moment he
entered he started saying to people, "Have you heard that a new newspaper, a
very big project, is being started in hell? The chief editor is needed with a
great salary and all facilities. Assistant editors are needed, news reporters
are needed." And he spread so much rumor around in twenty-four hours' time that
when he came back to the door to ask St. Peter, "Has any journalist left for
hell?" St. Peter closed the door and said, "You get in! Now you cannot get out.
All the twelve have escaped! Ant we should have at least one journalist in case
something some time happens. So now I cannot allow you out."
The journalist was mad. He said, "This is not right! This is not according to
our contract; I had asked only for twenty-four hours. I want to go to hell!"
St. Peter said, "Why? For what? -- because you spread the rumor. It was all
Lying! You invented it!"
He said, "Yes, I invented it -- but there must be something in it when twelve
journalists have believed it. There must be something in it! It may be a
coincidence that I invented it and there really is going to be the beginning of
a big newspaper. I cannot stay here! When twelve people have believed it... a
great doubt has arisen in me. Maybe it was not a lie at all."
This you can experience in your own life. Start telling a lie to a few people
and when they start believing it you will be surprised that slowly slowly you
are believing it too. Hence I say that many people live in lies knowing
perfectly well that they are lies, but just because so many people believe...
how can so many people be wrong?
Once George Bernard Shaw said something and then he argued against it. He was a
beautiful man; in many ways his insights were great. He used to say that science
is all wrong. The earth does not go around the sun -- the sun goes around the
earth. And he was telling this to a friend.
The friend said, "What nonsense are you talking? What proof have you got? Now
science has proved it completely and I cannot believe a man like you -- so
intelligent, so contemporary -- believing in such nonsense, that the sun goes
around the earth?''
Bernard Shaw said, "Yes, the sun goes around the earth. It has to, because
Bernard Shaw lives on the earth! MY earth cannot go around the sun."
The man said, "But now almost the whole world, so many people, millions of
people, believe that the earth goes around the sun."
Bernard Shaw said, "When so many people believe in a thing I always suspect it
must be a lie. Otherwise, how can so many people believe in it?"
Truth has always been in the possession of very rare people. Only once in a
while is there a person who has truth; otherwise the masses live in lies, all
kinds of lies. But if they have been propagated for centuries they become truth.
Adolf Hitler says in his book MEIN KAMPF that the difference between a truth and
a lie is only that of time, nothing else. The truth is a lie which has been
propagated for a long time; the lie is a new truth which will become a truth
finally if somebody goes on propagating it.
You believe in hell -- have you ever thought it is a lie? you believe in heaven
-- have you ever thought it is a lie? You believe in a thousand and one things
without ever giving it a thought that they may be lies, only lies given by
others to you. Authoritative people have given them to you so you believe them
-- your parents, your teachers, your priests, authoritative people, those who
have power. Such people cannot lie. In fact, such people ALWAYS lie! Their whole
POWER depends on lying. Truth is humble, not powerful. Lies become very
powerful; very competitive they are. Lies are an politicians struggling,
fighting, trying to prove that "I am the truth."
Knowledge is nothing but lies you have collected from others. Remember, unless
something is of your own experience it is a lie. Truth has to be your own
authentic experience.
Buddha says, "Don't believe because I say so; believe only when you know. Don't
believe because it is written in the scriptures; believe it only when you know."
And I say to you, too, if you are a real seeker of truth you will not believe in
knowledge. Knowledge is very superficial. One can talk about God without knowing
anything of God, without ever tasting anything of God. One can talk about love
without ever knowing through experience what love is. Even a blind man can talk
about light and can explain to you the whole physics of light; that does not
mean that he is not blind -- he is still blind. And these scholars and pundits,
ayatollahs, IMAMS, popes, they are all knowledgeable people. They PRETEND to be
wise -- they are not wise.
Unless one is fully awakened, unless one's whole being becomes awareness, unless
all darkness, all unconsciousness disappears, you are not wise. Knowledge is
information, wisdom is transformation. Hence it is meaningful:
HEAR THEN THE WISDOM OF THE WISE... not
of the knowledgeable: "GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE, AND REMEMBER
WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE."
A very significant sutra. This is how the seeker of truth begins his journey.
The first thing is: Go PLACIDLY... don't make much fuss. Go peacefully... don't
create much dust. There is no need.
Sufis say, if you really want to pray, pray in such a way that nobody knows that
you are a man of prayer. In the middle of the night when even your wife is
snoring, sit silently in the bed and pray, and so silently that nobody comes to
know..Don't make a fuss.
The real man of prayer hides and prays, and the pseudo makes much noise about
it. In fact, his prayer is nothing but noise; he goes to the temple shouting. In
India every temple has a big bell; he rings the bell so the whole neighborhood
knows. And if there are many people in the temple, then his prayer becomes very
long; if there is nobody he finishes quickly. What is the point? -- there is
nobody to see. If there is a photographer, then see how prayerful he is, how his
face becomes divine! If the news reporters are there then he will do REAL
prayer. You will see his humbleness, his simplicity. He will fall down on the
ground, he will roll on the ground, he will cry and weep -- and all are
crocodile tears, because when nobody is there he does not care a bit.
I have heard about a man who used to say a prayer every night to God, just one
word. He would look at the sky and say, "Ditto!" and cover himself under his
blanket and go to sleep. What is the point of repeating the same thing again and
again? Isn't God intelligent enough to understand "ditto"? Once some time he had
prayed; now what is the point of repeating it again and again, the same prayer?
And God knows it anyway. Just to remind him that "I am praying" he says "Ditto."
Sufis say, pray in such a way that nobody knows. Why? For the simple reason that
ego is very cunning. It wants to brag; it wants to brag even about religion,
about spirituality, about prayer, about meditation. It wants to brag; it does
not matter what it brags about. It will brag about money, it will brag about
meditation, it will brag about power, it will brag about prayer. The ego wants
to brag: "I am doing something special, something great, something
extraordinary. Don't think that I am nobody -- I am somebody!"
"GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE
HASTE..."
The world is fun of noise and haste. Why is the world so full of noise? --
because each mind is noisy, and the world consists of minds; hence there is so
much noise. The whole world has become almost a madhouse. Everybody is shouting
and nobody is hearing. Everybody is talking almost to himself; the other is only
an excuse.
One psychologist was observing two of his patients; both were professors of
philosophy. And because they were both friends and hat gone mad they were put in
a single cell in the madhouse, and the psychologist was watching them. He was
very much puzzled. The most puzzling thing was that although they were
absolutely insane, about one thing they were very sane: when one was talking the
other would remain silent; when the other would start speaking the first would
be silent. This is strange -- two madmen! Why should they bother whether the
other is silent or not, whether he is talking or not? So he enquired.
He said, "I am very much puzzled. Why when one talks does the other become
silent?"
They said, "We know how to converse. That's how we used to do it when we were
thought to be sane -- just old habit." "It is not really that I am silent," one
man said. "Just on the surface I have to be silent because I know the rules and
regulations of conversation. Inside I am chattering, talking, waiting for the
right opportunity when this fool stops, waiting for the right moment when he
says something which I can use as an excuse and start on what I want to say to
him."
In fact, that's what you all are doing. Just look at your conversations: when
the other is talking you are simply pretending to listen, just pretending to
listen. Inside you are working on your own. And then you will find a word, a
sentence, a statement that you can use as a jumping-board, and then you start
talking. Your talking is nothing to do with what he has said; it has a
connection with what was going on inside you, it is a continuum inside you; he
is just an excuse.
That's why people never agree, because they never HEAR. Husbands never hear what
the wife is saying, wives never hear what the husband is saying, children never
hear what the parents are saying. Nobody hears! Everybody at the most pretends.
The world is full of noise because the world is full of insane minds.
The world can be really silent only when there are many many meditators. Only
when the world consists of a great majority of meditators will there be a
profound silence, an almost tangible silence. You can touch it, you can taste
it, you can smell its perfume.
We are living out of noise and everybody is in a hurry. There is great haste,
everybody is rushing. Nobody knows where, nobody knows why -- just a deep
restlessness. You can't sit; if you sit, others won't allow you. They will say,
"Don't just sit there, do something!" And I say to you, "Don't just do
something, sit there!" Nothing is better than something. But people say just the
opposite; they say, "Something is better than nothing. Do something!"
One woman was saying to another woman, "I have heard that your son has become a
Rajneeshee. He meditates?"
The other woman said, "It's better than doing nothing."
Now the poor woman does not know what meditation is. Meditation means doing
nothing! That's what I teach here: doing nothing, just sitting there, just
being.
Why is there this hurry? Are you really trying to reach somewhere? Are you
conscious about the goal, the target?
One pilot said to the passengers, "All our engines are okay, the plane is
functioning perfectly well. There is only one bad piece of news, otherwise
everything is good. The bad news is that we have lost contact with the earth so
we don't know where we are and we don't know where we are going. The good news
is that we are going with full speed!"
Everybody is going with full speed; that is the good news. Who cares? Who has
time to think about where he is going? When you see the whole world rushing, you
start rushing. We force children to run. That's what our whole educational
system is meant for, from the primary school to the university. Twenty-five
years we waste on every person -- almost one-third of the life to teach him to
rush. Then twenty-four hours in his day it is rush hour! He is never anywhere
for a single moment. He cannot see the beauty of the trees because he cannot sit
underneath the trees -- Buddha must have known the beauty of the trees -- he
cannot see the beauty of the stars, he cannot see the beauty of people. In fact,
when he is in Kabul he is rushing to Katmandu, when he is in Katmandu he is
rushing to Poona, when he is in Poona he is rushing to Goa! He is never where he
is; his mind is always ahead of him, planning how to reach there. And if you ask
him, "For what?" he will say, "We will enjoy!" And he is not enjoying this
moment -- how can he enjoy any other moment? He has lost all capacity to enjoy
herenow; his only enjoyment is planning, always planning, planning to enjoy.
There are people who are working their whole lives just waiting for their
retirement; then they will relax and enjoy. And they know perfectly well: six
days they work in the office and wait for the seventh day, the holiday, and hop,
"Soon Sunday will come and we will relax and enjoy." And they cannot relax and
they cannot enjoy. In fact, the holiday seems to be so long and so boring; they
have to fill it with something.
They go for a picnic. The same things that they would have eaten at home,
relaxedly, now they rush towards a picnic spot miles away to eat. And they are
sitting in the grass, and ants are very clever; they know perfectly well where
the picnic spots are. Their astrologers tell them, "Go ahead, that is the
place!" And the mosquitoes, they are always there waiting for you. They say,
"Hello, so you have come!" And then quickly people finish because they have to
reach home, and they rush. And cars are going there bumper to bumper. And many
more accidents happen on Sunday than on any other day, many more deaths on the
road than on any other day. Strange! Some holiday!
And the whole city is going towards the same picnic spot, the same beach! I have
seen pictures of beaches and I cannot believe what is happening. There is not
even space to walk! They are packed -- no marketplace is so packed! And all
kinds of fools are there. Six hours it takes them to reach the beach, then for
one hour they lie down amidst this whole mass of fools under the sun, and then
back home... And the whole way they were quarrelling with the wife and the wife
is quarrelling with... This you can do at home more at ease, relaxed in an
armchair -- nag each other, do whatsoever you want! What is the point of going
to the beach? Nobody is seeing the sea, nobody is seeing the sun. Nobody has
time.
And these same people think that when they are retired they will rest -- they
cannot. Sixty years of habits, how can you drop them? Impossible. They have
become so deep-rooted that people suffer more when they are retired than they
have ever suffered, because nobody knows how to rest, how to relax. This is
sheer madness!
And these people go on saying beautiful things. They say, "Time is money." They
have beautiful proverbs to drive you crazy: "Time is money, so save time." And
everybody is always looking at his watch -- as if they are missing something.
They have to reach somewhere, and there too they will do the same thing. If the
train is five minutes late everybody is complaining, all are angry.
I had been traveling for twenty years all over this country and I was puzzled.
Just if the train is one hour late, everybody is so angry and condemning the
government and the society and everything. Why can't you rest? If the train is
one hour late it is a great opportunity. One hour is yours! -- you can relax.
You have at least one excuse: "The train is late, what to do? So I rested,
relaxed." But no, they cannot; they become more and more boiled up. They start
spitting fire.
And these same people when they reach home will sit before the idiot body -- TV
-- for five hours. The average American is doing that for five hours per day.
There is a great danger for America through this idiot box. If you look at an
idiot box for five hours it has a hypnotic effect -- you are bound to become
idiotic! And only an idiot can look at a box for five hours. And they are glued
to their chairs; they cannot get up. I have heard they will take their food just
sitting before the TV. Not only that -- they will even make love just before the
TV so they can do both the things, making love and watching the TV, because
something may be missed!
Now these idiots are in the majority. And they will play cards and if you ask
why they will say, "Killing time." One minute the train is late and they are
angry, and then what do they do with the saved time? They kill it! Going to the
movie, killing time... sometimes going to see the same picture again! Stupidity
seems to be infinite. Now what are you going for? The same picture again? But
the time has to be killed.
They will go to the Rotary Club, to the I,ions Club. And all these clubs exist
for people to kill time, to meet the same fools, to say the same foolish things,
to gossip about the same old nonsense -- to kill time. They will go to the
restaurants, to the hotels, to the parties -- to kill time.
And look at their faces -- they are bored everywhere. Whatsoever they are doing
they are bored, obviously, because they are not into it. They are trying somehow
to finish it to save time, And then they have to kill time. Killing time, saving
time, killing time, saving time.... The whole life is gone! And you come
empty-handed into the world and you go empty-handed.
"GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE
HASTE, AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE."
The only thing worth remembering again and again is: WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN
SILENCE. Give a little time, energy, to silent moments, because only in silent
moments will you know what peace is. And the person who has tasted something of
peace is rich, is immensely rich -- all others are beggars -- because he starts
knowing the inner kingdom of God. Peace is the door to the inner kingdom of God.
Silence helps you to know peace and peace leads you into God.
"AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, WITHOUT SURRENDER,
BE ON GOOD TERMS WITH ALL PERSONS."
Just to avoid unnecessary troubles.
"AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, WITHOUT
SURRENDER..."
DON'T COMPROMISE. don t surrender to people. That s why the DESIDERATA says AS
FAR AS POSSIBLE -- without any compromise -- because if you compromise with the
mass mind you will never be able to become that which you ARE HERE to become.
You will remain un-grownup, you will remain retarded. You will never come to a
flowering, you will never know fruitfulness. Your life will be barren,
uncreative.
"AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, WITHOUT
SURRENDER..."
So two things have to be remembered. Don't surrender to the mass mind; but that
does not mean continuously fight with people, that everything has to be argued
about because if you do that then you will be wasting your time in that.
Be exactly in the middle. Without compromising, avoid unnecessary quarrels. BE
ON GOOD TERMS WITH ALL PERSONS, AS FAR AS POSSIBLE without selling your soul,
without compromising on any ground, without surrendering at all. But there are
many things which can be avoided. In fact, ninety-nine percent of the problems
which create fighting, argument, can be avoided.
The child asks you, "Daddy, can I go out and play?" and the immediate response
of almost all daddies is "No!" Now the quarrel starts. And all children know how
great your patience is. They will tramp their feet in front of you, they will go
into a tantrum, they will cry, they will start throwing their toys, tearing
their books. And then finally you will say, "Go OUT and play!" This you could
have done before, you could have said yes, because there was nothing wrong. But
somehow our whole upbringing is quarrelsome, argumentative.
The wife says, "We should go to this movie," and the husband immediately says,
"No, that is not worth going to. We should go to another." And the husband knows
perfectly well, the wife knows perfectly well, that when the wife has spoken she
HAS spoken -- it has to be done. But now before it is to be done there will be a
few hours' argumentation, nagging, and a thousand other things will come up
which could have been avoided. And finally you will see the husband following
the wife to the same movie, just hiding his tail between his legs, following the
wife. Now you are going to the same movie, so what was the whole fuss about?
It seems we never learn anything. Just watch and you will be able to cut out
many unessential things in your life. The word "desiderata" is beautiful: it
means the essentials.
Mahavira has said that the most fundamental quality needed by the seeker is to
know what is essential and what is non-essential. He calls it VIVEK --
discrimination -- because if you don't know what is essential and what is
non-essential you may be lost into the non-essential, because the non-essential
is ninety-nine percent and the essential is only one percent. The non-essential
is a vast, thick jungle; once you get lost into it you may never find the
essential. And people get in every way entangled with the non-essential.
Just watch how many things can be avoided without compromising, then avoid them;
how many words can be avoided without any trouble, then avoid them, because each
single word uttered may bring some trouble for you. In fact, except words, what
brings trouble to you?
You say something and the wife jumps up, and she says, "Why did you say this?"
And you go on explaining, "I didn't mean that," and now it is impossible to come
to a conclusion. Soon there will be a banging of the doors and throwing of the
pots and pillows. And you simply uttered a word which could have been kept
inside; there was no need to utter it. Just a single word can cause so much
trouble which was not essential at all. If it is essential utter it, say it;
otherwise, avoid it.
"SPEAK YOUR TRUTH QUIETLY AND CLEARLY;
AND LISTEN TO OTHERS, EVEN TO THE DULL AND THE IGNORANT; THEY TOO HAVE THEIR
STORY."
The man who is in search of truth learns listening not only to the wise; he
learns listening even to the unwise -- or the otherwise -- because everybody has
a story to tell and everybody has passed through a life, and something of his
life may be of tremendous help to you, may give you an insight.
It is easier to have an insight into your own life watching others because
others are like mirrors. Every other person is a walking mirror around you. If
you are capable of listening you will see some of your own qualities reflected
in them which you were not aware of directly, but via the other you become
immediately aware. You can see the stupidity of the other person more easily
than your own stupidity. But seeing his stupidity you will become aware that
"These are the things I have been doing myself. This is the foolishness that I
go on and on doing myself."
When somebody else is angry you say he is insane. It is easy to see that he is
insane; it is a momentary insanity. But how many times do you get angry? But
then you are so much involved in the anger you cannot watch it. Watching others
is a way of watching yourself, and it is easier because you are not involved.
That's why a very strange thing becomes possible: the psychotherapist can help
his patient but he cannot help himself, because he can see the faults of the
patient very easily but he cannot see his own faults. He can give good advice to
the patient; he may not be able to follow that advice himself.
You can watch it. Everybody is a good adviser to others; when it comes to his
own life he is as much a fool as anybody else. Much can be learned by observing,
by listening, by seeing, even from those who are ignorant -- because you are
also ignorant -- even from those who are dull -- because you are also not very
intelligent. And this will be the beginning of intelligence, the beginning of
wisdom.
The intelligent person is one who learns from every opportunity, who never
misses a single opportunity to learn something, who makes his whole life a
school, a learning, a discipline, a search, an enquiry.
But remember not to compromise, not to surrender. As far as the essential is
concerned, beware. Even if you have to risk your life, risk it, but don't
surrender as far as the essential is concerned. And as far as the non-essential
is concerned, don't even waste a single moment on it -- agree.
This was one of the agreements between me and my father. When I was a very small
child I told him, "Listen, I will agree to every non-essential thing. You can
tell me what clothes to wear, what shoes to wear; what to eat, what not to eat,
you can tell me. But as far as any essential is concerned, beware -- I am not
going to agree to it."
And slowly he watched and he was convinced, because whenever it was a
non-essential thing I was always ready to agree with him. He would say, "Go to
this college, not to that," so, "Okay, because to me each college is like any
other college -- they are all stupid so it doesn't matter. I will go to this
college." "Study this subject." "Okay, because what does it matter? -- economics
or politics or history or geography or philosophy or psychology, anything will
do.
But as far as any essential is concerned I told him, "This is an essential
point, I will not agree with you, so you better not say anything about it
because that will be an unnecessary misery for you."
When, I came back from the university it was a natural thing to ask whether I
wanted to get married or not. I to1d him, "This is an essential," and that was
the last time he enquired about it; then he never enquired again. "If it is an
essential then you have to leave it to me -- I will not compromise. I will not
compromise at any cost." He never asked again; he kept his contract. "For
non-essentials," I told him, "you can ten me anything -- I will do it."
Any fool would come into the house and he would say, "Touch his feet," and I
would, because he was an old fool, an old relation: "Okay, it doesn't matter, it
is just an exercise."
Once you become very clear about what is essential and what is non-essential,
things are never so confusing as they seem. You go on fighting for
non-essentials, wasting your energy and others' energy, and then when the
question of the essential arises you don't have any energy to fight. And then
sometimes you have to compromise on the essential.
This has been my approach:
"AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, WITHOUT SURRENDER,
BE ON GOOD TERMS WITH ALL PERSONS."
But AS FAR AS POSSIBLE... That does not mean that I have to be absolutely on
good terms. I am on good terms with everybody, but AS FAR AS POSSIBLE. Whenever
the question of the essential arises, then it is not a question of being good or
bad, it is a question of life and death. Then I can rebel, then I can fight
back, then I can sacrifice everything.
And the advice of the DESIDERATA IS of great significance to all those who want
to find truth, because the very finding needs great energy. If you become I
reservoir of energy, only then is it possible to know, to be, to come to the
ultimate realization of life's mystery.
By OSHO...Guida Spirituale
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