A. Spiritual Paths
Let’s begin with the basics. When you say ‘spiritual path’ and when you say that it is taking too long, you surely have some idea of where you want to reach. And that is why you are able to say that you probably have not reached there and that it is taking too long a time. Now, let me say, I am standing at a point A, I am standing at point A, I imagine point B as a point of Peace or enlightenment. I imagine B, standing at A. I am not very satisfied with A; that is why I imagine some other point to be the point of Peace. But B is imagined by A.
Point B is imagined by A. You know what A is? A is the state of mind one is in. So B is a function of A. One imagines B only because one is at A, which means that even though B, ostensibly, is a different point, a point of apparent satisfaction yet B is a point imagined from a state of dissatisfaction. The one who imagines B is a dissatisfied one; that is why he imagines B. So standing at A, I imagine some distant point B, I also imagine a path to B and my idea then is to reach B through that path. I can also dream up a few other alternative paths also. But the idea is to reach somewhere and that somewhere, where I want to reach is a function of where I am standing. Now in a dissatisfied state, whatever I imagine or think of, or target, will that not be a product of dissatisfaction? – I’m not at peace with myself, I feel some fear, I feel unsettled. Now, in this mental situation whatever I will dream of, whatever I will want to achieve will be a product of dissatisfaction. And satisfaction can never be a product of dissatisfaction. Peace can never be a product of noise. Which means that whenever someone will think of God or Truth or Peace as a distant goal and want to move towards it, he will necessarily fail and the result will be frustration. Which means that whenever there would be a spiritual path, a spiritual journey and a spiritual goal, the result would necessarily be frustration.
B. Clarity
Clarity is two things together: One, it is the absence of readymade concepts based on which one lives, one reacts, one sees the world, and parallely, simultaneously, on the other hand, it is the ability to respond greatly. So, on one hand, you do not have any ammunition with you, you do not have anything pre-made with you. When life comes to you with a situation, as it always does, you really have no dependence on experience and concepts from the past. You really have no dependence on memory or imitation.
On the other hand, even though you have no ammunition with which to face life, yet you have a vigorous capacity to respond.
When you have no ammunition with which to face life, then you have a lot of love with which to greet life. So, this clarity is an emptiness in one way, emptiness in the sense that you are empty of all rubbish, and on the other hand, this emptiness is a great fullness. These two, hence, must be called as two but understood as one. I started by saying that clarity is two things. These two must necessarily be called two, but understand as one. On one hand, clarity means absence of dependency on concepts, experience, and memory. So, it is then clarity in the negative sense. Negative in the sense of negation, that clarity is not this, clarity is the absence of something. On the other hand, clarity is something very positive also. It is negative and positive together. These two must be understood as one. It is something very positive because it enables you to have a full response towards life. So, it is a nothingness that is capable of everything. It is a very full emptiness. Scriptures say, that great void from which everything arises, that nothingness which is the mother of everything. That is clarity. Are you getting it? Then you know so much because you do not have any knowledge. Free of knowledge, you are now full of knowing. Do you see how these two are opposites yet one? Free of knowledge, now you are full of knowing. That is clarity. It is obvious that clarity is not knowledge or information or conceptual load.
Clarity means – the ability to stand naked in front of life. I stand in front of you carrying no weapons, no defences. In front of an enemy, you stand all loaded. Have you seen those warriors going to the battlefield, how thickly armoured they are. Clarity is like going to life like a lover – naked! Not like a warrior. Not like a fighter. Not armoured. But, naked! Like a lover. Full of knowledge all that you get is wounds and all that you give is wounds. That’s what concepts are there for, inflicting wounds. If you are not afraid, would you still need knowledge, would you still need to be prepared in advance? If you are not afraid then you can just present yourself empty handed, naked, without preparation, without defences, without armours, without weapons and clothing. Here I am, naked. Unprepared. Not the warrior, but the lover.
Have you seen anybody loving along with his armours? So, clarity is an absence and an overflowing, both together. Rubbish is absent and the Real, the Truth, is overflowing, that is clarity. But that overflowing is spontaneous. Remember, you cannot come prepared with that overflowing. That overflowing is something that arises only as a response, otherwise it remains sleeping as a potential. So, unless life presents you with a situation or a challenge, you have no idea or knowledge as to how to respond to it. But, when it comes, then suddenly from nowhere, the response comes. And the response is totally unpredictable, that’s one characteristic of clarity. It gives you responses that are not predictable because they are not readymade. So I knew nothing, but because you asked me a question so I said so much. I knew nothing. I have no idea what you are going to ask, worst still, I had no idea of what I am going to speak. But because you asked, from somewhere the response came.
That point from where the response comes, without preparation, without past, without motive, without memory, that is clarity. Is that clear?
C. Timelessness
Search for permanence, in the way we search for permanence, is an invitation to more frustration because you will not get it. In the world where you are looking for permanence, you will only find impermanence. Everything is temporal. Where will you find anything that time is not going to destroy?
So yes, you are right. Man’s search for permanence arises from his deep anguish at impermanence. Spirituality does not give you anything permanent. It gives you something which is beyond the dimension of time, and there you don’t have permanence, you don’t have impermanence either.
When you say “eternity”, it is still in the domain of time. It is an indication towards time that never ends, so it is just a metaphor. But you are still talking of time, you are still talking of past and future.
Timelessness is a beyond-ness.
The “now” is timeless, and when the “now” is used to indicate timelessness then we call it the Present. When the “now” is a part of stream of time, then it is just related to the past and future.
Usually, we do not use “now” for timelessness. We use “now” to indicate a particular moment in time. If I say “now”, you would interpret it to mean 11 am.
In essence, “now” is Present; which is timeless, but that is not a colloquial use of “now”, I am reminding you.
D. Myth
Life is the vast expanse that includes religion, career – all the social institutions – the very way one lives. In spite of all the technological and economic progress, in many ways, man’s mind is more deeply conditioned and hence restrained today, limited today than it ever was. By myths, I mean everything that limits the human mind. Everything that man has come to believe, come to assume, come to take as an inexorable truth, without really investigating deeply. You see, we live in times where there is ostensibly a lot of freedom on the outside – man has a lot of power with respect to material objects – but does man have any power, any realization when it comes to himself?
Myths are everything that keep us entrapped in suffering, even when there is no need to suffer.
Whatever one has just come to accept as a fact – without seeing where it is coming from and what it is doing to the quality of one’s life – that is a myth that needs to be debunked, challenged. If that remains, continues, gets reinforced then it only means more conflict in the world, more conflict within the mind, superficial relationships; and man, who may have a lot on the periphery but is essentially very disturbed inside.
