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The two realities I have talked about above – the reality of the root

and the reality of the branches; the law of the intransient

and the law of the transient – it is only in the harmonious balance

of these two that such a culture can be born

which will neither be polar nor lopsided,

which will use the tension of the opposite poles, the same

as architecture

uses opposing bricks in creation of an arched door.

The truth of life is pluralism.

And, the stream of life always flows taking the opposite poles

as its banks.

160. Love.

We just do not know life, that is why we get bored.

We make life mechanical, that is why we get bored.

We are not living life, we only drag along with it, that is why we get bored.

Boredom is not in life, rather it comes out of our fear of living.

We are not only afraid of death – we are afraid of life as well.

In fact, we fear death because we fear life.

Otherwise, death is not the end of life – it is the completion of life.

This is why I say: live – live fearlessly.

Let go of the past: man goes on carrying it because of fear.

And do not invite dreams of the future, because in order to avoid living today

man plans for living in the future.

Live today, and now, and here.

‘Tomorrow’ is a deception –

the ‘tomorrow’ that has passed as yesterday, as well as the tomorrow

that is yet to come.

Only this moment is.

Only this moment is eternal.

161. Love.

Life is a mystery.

It can be lived.

It can also be known by living it.

But it cannot be solved like a mathematical problem.

It is not a problem – it is a challenge.

It is not a question – it is an adventure.

Hence, those who only go on asking questions about life remain,

by this action, deprived of the answer forever.

Or acquire answers which are not answers at all.

It is such answers that one acquires from scriptures.

In fact, an answer acquired from any other source

cannot be an answer.

Because the truth of life cannot be borrowed.

Or such questioners fabricate answers of their own;

thus they certainly gain consolation, but not solutions.

Because fabricated answers are not answers.

Only the experience can be an answer.

Hence, I say: do not ask – live and know.

This is the difference between philosophy and religion.

To ask is philosophy, to live is religiousness.

And, the interesting thing is that philosophy asks but never gets the answer,

and religion does not ask at all and yet attains the answer.

162. Love.

Society is only a collectivity of individuals.

Hence, finally and essentially, it is a reflection of the minds

of the individuals.

If the individual mind is without peace, the society cannot be at peace.

Only a radical transformation of the individual mind can become the peace

of the society.

There is no other alternative.

Nor is there any shortcut.

The technique for individual transformation is meditation.

With more and more people moving into meditation; only then

is something possible.

To take shelter in the divine is the only way.

1971

163. Love.

You ask for the way to make the invisible visible?

Pay attention to the visible.

Do not just see, pay attention.

It means, when you see a flower,

let your whole being become the eye.

When you listen to the birds, let your entire body-soul become the ear.

When you look at a flower, do not think.

When you listen to birds, do not ponder.

Let the total consciousness

either see or hear or smell or taste or touch.

Because it is due to a shallowness of sensitivity that the invisible is unable

to become visible,

and the unknown remains unknown.

Deepen the sensitivity. Do not just swim in sensitivity, drown in it.

This I call meditation.

And, in meditation, the seen disappears

and finally the seer too. There remains only the seeing.

It is in this seeing that the invisible becomes visible

and the unknown becomes known.

Not only this – even the unknowable becomes knowable.

And remember that whatever I am writing –

do not start thinking about this as well: act.

Nothing has ever been nor can be attained

by creating theories.

There is no other door except ‘seeing for oneself’.

164. Love.

You ask: how far is the destination?

Ah! The destination is very far, and very near too.

And the distance or the nearness of the destination

is not dependent on the destination but upon you yourself.

The deeper the will, the nearer the destination.

If the will is total, then you yourself are the destination.

165. Love.

The word is not the thing –

the word God is not God.

But the mind goes on accumulating words and

words and words,

and then the words become the barrier.

See this as a fact with you:

can you see anything without the word?

Can you feel anything without the word?

Can you live even for a single moment without the word?

Do not think but see

and then you will be in meditation.

To exist wordlessly is to be in meditation.

166. Love.

Always see what is –

the facts.

That which is.

Do not project anything,

do not interpret,

do not impose any meaning:

that is, do not allow your mind to interfere,

and you will begin to encounter reality.

Otherwise everyone lives in his own world of dreaming.

And meditation is the coming out of these worlds,