* 譯自奧修書“The Revolution”第3章
    1978年2月13日午前於佛堂的演說

你在找我嗎？我就坐在旁邊：
你的肩膀正倚著我的。
你不會在佛塔裡找到我，
也不會在印度神龕裡，
不會在猶太會堂裡，不會在天主教堂裡，
不在彌撒當中，不在梵唱當中，
不是將雙腿盤到脖子上的時候，
也不是除了植物什麼都不吃的時候，
當你尋找我，你將立刻找到我。
你將在時間最微小的房舍裡找到我。
卡比爾說「學生們，告訴我，神是什麼？
祂就是呼吸裡的呼吸。」
那具有死亡與厚重身軀者
在不具厚重身軀與死亡者面前跳舞。
響亮的聲音說「我就是你。」
崇高的師父前來
向著初學弟子鞠躬致敬。
努力讓自己終能見到這幕！

在演化之中存在著邏輯。一件事情導致另一件事情，一環接一環，一步接一步。有一種必然性在那裡。演化是機械性的，它是連續性的。裡面沒有空隙，沒有跳躍，新的從不曾發生。只有舊的不斷顯現出來。演化是單一面向的移動。它是可預測的，你可以預先見到它。它非常理性，它神智清楚。

然而革命要比神智清楚來得更多，比邏輯來得更多。它不是必然的，有許多令人訝異的事情在它裡面。它會跳起，它會飛躍，它是量子跳躍。量子跳躍就是它內在最深的根本核心。

那就是為什麼我說卡爾‧馬克思並不瞭解革命。他的革命是不可避免的那種；他的革命是某種自行會發生的事情，不需藉助任何屬於人這邊的意向。它自己就會出於過去而發生──就像一粒種子生長成一棵樹：它必須如此，因為種子已經將樹包含在裡面。事實上樹並不是某種新的東西，它已包含在種子裡面──尚未顯現，但仍然含藏於其中；種子是它的藍圖。當樹成形時，這只不過是顯露出那之前被隱藏的──如今它展開來了。然而這棵樹事實上並不是任何新的事物。在種子與樹之間並不存在著革命，只有演化而已。

馬克思說共產主義革命是無可避免的，它是資本主義的自然結果。如果是這樣，那麼這就不是革命。那麼這只不過是演化；為什麼稱它為革命呢？革命意味著某種全新的事情發生了──某種不會自行出現的事情，某種只有透過人的意向，人的意識才會出現的事情。某種事情若沒有人類意識的幫助就不會發生──那才是革命。革命是個驚奇，革命是個奇蹟。它本不該出現的，但還是出現了。它是神祕的。

直到人類為止都屬於演化，從魚到人都屬於演化的過程。然而從人到佛，從人到基督，從人到卡比爾(Kabir)，就不再是演化了。那就是革命—我所謂的革命，唯一的革命。除非你變得有意識，除非你奠定好使它能夠發生的基礎，你並不會成為一個佛。它不像年紀上的衰老—每個年輕人都會變老，但不是每個人都會成佛。你必須選擇它，你必須致力於它，你必須找尋它。在你這邊需要的是一個慎重且有意識的努力──這時候可能性才會出現。

演化是必然的，關於它存在著一種無法改變的邏輯。革命則沒有邏輯能與它相關。它是詩性的跳躍，它是從一個次元進入另個次元。演化是水平的，革命則是垂直的──它穿透到另一個存在的國度。

除非人非常有意識地掌握住自身的存在，革命將不會發生。你會一直長大，但你的成長將是水平式的。猴子變成了人類，人類甚至可以變成超人類──更有力量，技術上更多配備，科學上更加強大──但這不會是任何新的事物。這不會是基督意識；人將繼續停留在同樣的層面。

你可以看出，猴子和人並沒有多大的不同。那個不同最多只是量化的而不是質地上的。也許猴子比人更笨一點，或者說人比猴子更聰明一點──然而空隙並不存在。查爾斯·達爾文是對的，人是從猴子演化而來。這就是演化。給予時間，給予機會，猴子就會變成人類。給予時間，給予機會，人類就會變成超人類。記住，超人類並不等於佛，超人類並不等於基督。超人類與你，與猴子，與魚和其他動物，是在同一條線上。那是同樣的線，同樣的階梯──較高一階沒錯，但梯子本身是相同的。

革命所帶來的是另一個向度。新與舊並非結合在一起；而是有種空隙，有種不連續性。演化可以被瞭解，因為它是邏輯的，它是亞里斯多德式的。革命則是神祕的；它無法被瞭解，你必須穿過它才能知道它。革命是有點瘋狂──因為它既非數學性的也非機械性的。它也不是無意識的，就像演化的過程一樣。它是有意識地抓住真實，有意識地掌握住你的存在。你身上並沒有攜帶著它的藍圖，你必須自己創造出來。

那就是宗教的美──宗教是革命的科學。所有其他科學都只在描述演化是什麼。宗教是唯一關於革命的科學；它讓你準備好去跳躍，量子的跳躍。

也許根本找不到去跳的理由。合理的考量是停在那裡──與腳下所有陳舊的，已知的，以及安全的待在一起，也許才是唯一合理的事情。邏輯上來說，當人來到一種空無的空間，面臨著某種深谷，某種斷裂，他是應該停住。所有的邏輯都會說「等等！停住！快回頭！你已走到了絕路，現在不能再往前了──再一步你就會死。你所面臨的是個無底的深淵，你會永遠消失無蹤。」邏輯會說，種種理由會說，頭腦會說「等等！停住！往回走！找另一條路通往目標。這條路是不能走的，這條路已到盡頭了。」

然而生命是那縱身躍起的。邏輯是那會說「停住！」的。生命是那飛躍出去的。那樣的生命就是宗教。除非你具有能夠躍起的生命，你並無法具有宗教，你不會知道宗教是什麼。基督教並不是宗教。印度教並不是宗教。而這躍起，這勇氣，這冒險，從已知走入未知這般的行動，從光照之路走入未知的黑暗，從熟悉走入陌生，從舒適和便利走入驚險的世界──這樣的生命才是宗教。

卡比爾正是吟唱著這樣的革命，這樣的生命，這樣的宗教。他是描繪人夢想為神的那種詩人。

本質上宗教就只是由這樣的渴望所構成的。你一再一再聽到神學家說宗教的組成要素是認識神是誰。那不是真的。真正的渴望是成為神──而不是認識神。神學家們並不是很勇敢，他們都很懦弱。除非你成為一個神，你是無法感到滿足的。只是知道神並無法實現任何事情──只是認識神甚至可能使你陷入更多的混亂與不滿，因為這時你會明白自己終究不是神。

知識無法令人滿足──必須是存在。東方是這麼說的：那個追尋並非是去認識神。從古至今，生生世世不斷縈繞在人心中的那個渴望，那個夢想，就是成為神。每當有人問「如何認識神？」他就是問了一個錯誤的問題，一個懦弱的問題。勇敢之人會問「如何成為神？」──因為事實上那也是唯一認識祂的方法。因為成為了，所以認識了。只有藉由成為祂才有可能真正認識祂。

禪師們說：「如果你想認識竹子，如果你想畫出竹子，那就變成竹子。那是唯一知道它的方式。你怎麼能從外面去知道竹子呢？從外面只能是猜想，臆測，推論，觀點──而不是真正的認識。只有當你已成為竹子時你才能認識竹子──當你是從它裡面，從它底部去知道竹子，當你感覺自身就像根竹子。當你知道，就在風吹拂而來並使竹子變成跳著舞的小女孩時，那是什麼樣的感受；當你知道，是你自己變成在風中跳著舞的小女孩時，那是什麼樣的感受──到那時你才是真的知道。當你從竹子內在最深的核心處感覺到如竹子一般時，你才會知道。當你感覺到，早晨太陽升起並輕敲著竹子喚醒著竹子時，那是何種感受。當鳥兒唱著歌飛來時是何種感受，當天空滿是星星時是何種感受，對竹子來說那是何種感受──從外面你只能去猜，而且都是人的猜想而已。

不，從外面是無法知道的。而且如果連竹子你都無法從外面知道，更何況是神呢？神意味著全體的存在。你必須溶入這個全體。這只有藉由極大的意願，藉由熱切的想望，才可能辦到。這需要豁出去。只有那些豁出一切的人，才能找到。

對於這般能夠帶來革命的意願必須加以瞭解。這樣你才跟上卡比爾。他的話語是隱秘的。他不作詳述，他不作解釋，他只是宣告出來。他的話語是屬於詩人的那種。他不是條理分明的哲學家；他說了一件事然後又一件事。你必須將這些話語一個一個連結起來，你必須串出一圈花環──當瞭解的細繩串起了這些花朵，這時你才會真的瞭解。

今天我想告訴你們的第一件事情是：只有透過意願的化學作用，一種全然的意願要變成整體，墜入整體，拋棄自己進入整體，革命才會是可能的。

最近翻譯出來的死海手卷記錄了一位門徒問耶穌「師父，我們如何才能進到天國？」耶穌回答「跟著飛鳥，跟著走獸，跟著水裡的魚，他們會帶你進來。」非常奇怪的一句話。耶穌說「跟著飛鳥，跟著走獸，跟著水裡的魚，他們會帶你進來。」的意思是什麼呢？他的意思是你必須丟掉了自己，就像鳥丟掉了自己一樣──他們不具有任何自己在裡面。魚並不知道她與海洋是分開的──她就是海洋。鳥並沒有任何自己，任何自我的想法──當飛在天空時他就是天空。當活著時他就是生命，當死去時他就是死亡。他不會依附，他不會囤積，他不會擔憂，他不會覺得需要承擔什麼。他並不存在：那就是耶穌的意思。如果你想知道神，目前的這個你就必須消失。

那就是我所謂的「革命」：你必須消失掉目前的你。你必須變得純真──純真到沒有自己在你裡面。當有一個自己時你總是狡猾的；那個自己就是狡猾的根源。帶著自己你是無法純真的。如果你是帶著自己而純真，那個純真只不過是一種刻意營造的純真──塑膠的，合成的，虛假的，一種假裝，只是虛偽造作而已。沒錯，你是可以假裝成很純真，但這對你一點幫助也沒有。自我只能假裝。當自我消失時你就是純真的。純真就是靜心，純真就是祈禱，純真就是一切。

卡比爾稱他的道路為霎哈嘉瑜珈(Sahaj Yoga)，自發性瑜珈之路。他說：成為純真與自然流暢的，於是那整體就會隨之而來。

神的靜寂與我們日常的跳舞喧鬧並沒有分開，它就在那中心處。並不是得離開這個世界我們才能來到這中心點，相反地是要將我們自己完全丟進舞蹈裡，充分且無懼地活在我們自身的每一個階段，這樣我們才能進入到下一個階段。或者更確切地說，我們會發現自己已經移動到那裡，就像花苞發現自己已成為花朵，或是笨拙地蠕動的毛蟲突然間已張開雙翼，四處舔嘗著花蜜，悠遊在夏日的花園中。

這幾個字必須記住：純真，自然流暢。如蜜蜂和鳥兒般純真，如魚與花兒般自然流暢。完全沒有自己，於是你抵達了。

你一直被教導的是如果你去尋找，你就會找到。但我想對你說：不要相信宣稱曾經尋找然後找到之人，只要相信那不曾尋找就已找到之人。追尋基本上也是種自我。如果你追尋什麼，那意味著自我正在運作。這個旅程是以追尋為起點，然而終點是一個無所追尋的心靈。這個旅程開始於某種意圖，然而結束在自發的流動。你必須學會兩件事情：首先你必須學會帶著極大的強度去尋找，然後，非常矛盾地，你將必須學會放掉那強度和那追尋。沒有強烈的追尋你永遠無法移動。然而帶著那個追尋與那個強度，你會一直被限制在自己裡面。

所以有這兩個步驟──矛盾的，卻極有價值。它們具有某種內在的一致性；從外面是看不出來的。首先你必須去尋找、追尋。耶穌說「你們祈求，就給你們；尋找，就尋見；叩門，就給你們開門。」這是旅程的開始—熱切，意願，追尋。但這只是起點。

第二步是，如老子所說「尋找，你們就尋不見。不尋找，就尋見。」這並不是兩條分開的道路，這兩個步驟是在同一條路徑上。

所以卡比爾要你深深地銘記在心，首先需要一個巨大火焰般的渴望去成為神。然而到最後正是這個渴望變成最終的阻礙──那也是必須放掉的。一旦它被放掉了而你已然純真之時，事情就開始發生。花苞綻放成花朵，毛蟲蛻變成蝴蝶。

經文：

你在找我嗎？

是神在問著。

你在找我嗎？
我就坐在旁邊：
你的肩膀正倚著我的。
你不會在佛塔裡找到我，
也不會在印度神龕裡，
不會在猶太會堂裡，不會在天主教堂裡，
不在彌撒當中，也不在梵唱當中，
不是將雙腿盤到脖子上的時候，
也不是除了植物什麼都不吃的時候，
當你尋找我，你將立刻找到我。
你將在時間最微小的房舍裡找到我。
卡比爾說「學生們，告訴我，神是什麼？
祂就是呼吸裡的呼吸。」

慢慢來。仔細品嘗這位奇人的每一個字

你在找我嗎？

是神在問人。沒錯，一直都是如此──神總是在問著你「你在找我嗎？」當然你沒有聽見，因為你是如此充滿著噪音。你是如此充滿著你自己的噪音，使得你聽不見心中這靜靜微細的聲音。而神一直在問著又問著。在你生命的每一刻祂都在問著──日復一日，年復一年。當你快樂時祂會問，當你不快樂時祂也會問。你醒來的時候祂問，你睡著的時候祂也問。祂不停地問著。在你每一次心跳中這問題都等待著你。

你在找我嗎？

不要走遠了。不要去到別的地方尋找我──因為，神說，我就在這裡。

我就坐在旁邊：
你的肩膀正倚著我的。

這是最意味深遠的話語之一。深深進入它，挖掘它。祂就在你的妻子裡，祂就在你的朋友裡，祂在街上玩耍的孩童裡，祂存在於你的好友裡面，祂存在於你的敵人裡面──因為只有祂存在。祂在那些唱著歌的鳥兒中，在樹林中，在你之中，也在我之中。是的，祂就坐在旁邊，祂就在你隔壁。

而你想跑去哪裡尋找祂呢？人們去到遙遠的地方：他們旅行至喜馬拉雅，他們到了西藏。為的是什麼？為的是誰？是為了神嗎？好像神不在這裡似的。他們研究經典，他們搜尋過往，埋首在吠陀經，聖經，可蘭經中。好像神已不復存在。好像神已不是這個時代的人了，好像為了神你總是必須回到過去。好像祂曾經存在於那些日子裡，而如今祂已不再。或者你會想像神是在某個來世。當你離開了這個身體和這個世間，然後在天堂之中，在某個想像的夢幻國度之中，你就會見到神。

卡比爾說：祂就在這裡！祂就在當下！此時與此地都只是由祂所構成的，沒有別的事物。到別的地方尋找祂只是一種避開祂的方法。那是一種對神的逃避；你是在愚弄你自己。到其他地方尋找祂只是避開祂的一種方式，這只是一個讓你不需看著此時此地的方法。人們去到廟宇，猶太會堂，基督教堂，只是為了避開祂──因為祂就在他們自己的屋子中。

祂就在你每一次的呼吸裡。你不需要去任何地方：回到家中，然後你將發現祂。不要跑去任何地方──那樣做肯定不會找到祂。那正是為什麼到現在你仍無法找到祂，因為你沒有往近處去看。而祂就在角落那裡。祂就在輕拂吹來玩耍著你頭髮的微風中，祂就在你臉上跳著舞的陽光中，祂就在那湖泊中。開始在平常的活動範圍內尋找祂。有一天你將驚訝地發現你的裡面，和外面，都是祂。

你在找我嗎？
我就坐在旁邊：
你的肩膀正倚著我的。

沉思這些話，汲取這些話。就只是感覺你身旁那個人的肩膀──至少有一刻要記得·····

我就坐在旁邊：
你的肩膀正倚著我的。

不，這看起來是不可能的。就是你身旁的人？就是你的太太？就是你的先生？就是你的孩子？你的頭腦會說不。那是把神降到太過凡間的世界了，而我們已習慣將祂擺到遠遠的地方。把祂留在遠處比較安全，這樣你就不需煩惱祂。祂快樂地待在祂的天國，而你快樂地待在這裡，如此遙遠的距離隔在你們中間，所以一點都不用去擔心祂。要是讓祂太靠近的話你就不好過了。看見祂就在你的孩子裡面是困難的，因為小孩有時很調皮，小孩有時讓你抓狂──你怎麼能在他裡面見到神呢？你的女人不停地唸你，你怎麼能在她裡面見到神呢？妳的男人總是在發脾氣，妳怎麼能在他裡面見到神呢？

不，神必須在某個遙遠的地方。你不想讓祂變成真實的，你是與抽象的神活在一起。但抽象的神是已死的神，它只是概念而已。讓祂成為有血有肉的身軀。那就是卡比爾的意思，當他說：

你在找我嗎？
我就坐在旁邊：
你的肩膀正倚著我的。

讓神是有骨有血也有肉的。讓祂是真實的！我們與不真實的神活在一起太久了，我們就是因為這不真實的神而一直受苦。不要去區分這個世界和那個世界。那就是卡比爾的意思──他是說就只有一個世界。看見它的方式有兩種，然而世界只有一個，世界並不是兩個。並沒有另一個與這不同的世界，這就是唯一存在的世界。此就是彼；另一個世界就包含在這一個世界之中。

然而態度是有兩種。你可以只從外面來看這世界──那麼它是物質的，那麼它是凡間的，世俗的。如果你是從裡面去看它，那麼它就是神聖的，崇高的。這時你就不會將神與祂的創造物分開來；這時祂就在此造化之中。這時祂就是那造化，祂就是那創造的能量。

這樣的瞭解是極大的躍進—能夠將神視為真實的人，走獸，飛鳥，樹木，岩石。將你的神帶到這世間來！你已把祂趕去天國，然後卻一直哭喊著「要怎麼找到祂？」你將祂拋得遠遠的，你把祂擋在門外，你不允許祂進入你的世間以及你在這世間的生活方式。打開你的門，丟掉你錯誤的觀念，那就是神出於某種原因是屬於另個世界的。讓祂成為血肉之軀。那就是神以克里希那，以基督，以佛陀之身來到這世間的意義。每當有人領悟了，他就成為神在這世上的一個象徵──他已成為一位神人。

基督徒們錯失了基督的奧義，他們忘掉了含納在此隱喻裡的整個訊息。基督是一個隱喻：如果你瞭解的話，就會明白是神走在這世上，與你一同飲水，與你一同進食，握著你的手，擁抱著你。然而那些與耶穌一起生活過的人，連他們都不很接受這不尋常的情況，他們也很疑惑。「耶穌是神嗎？他真的是神的兒子嗎？」他們清楚地知道他是木匠約瑟夫，以及瑪利亞的兒子。

那就是為什麼耶穌無法在他自己的村子進行工作。那就是為什麼他必須說「先知是永遠無法被他自己的人所接受的。」如果猶太人不能接受他，那只是很人性的一面；並不是猶太人才特別如此。他們怎麼能接受他呢？他們完全知道他是從女人的子宮裡，從凡胎生出來的。「他怎麼能夠是神呢？他只不過跟我們一樣，絲毫沒有不同。他怎麼會是神的兒子呢？」他們所等待的是一位乘雲而來的彌賽亞。而這個人只是從胎裡出來的，就跟大家一樣。

他將乘著雲到來，那真正的彌賽亞。他不會具有軀體，這腐朽的肉身。他會有著光的靈體──那是沒有任何重量的。他不會有血液和骨頭，他不會是血肉之軀。這樣他們就能接受他。

然而每當神到來時，祂都是以肉身而來。於是祂總是被拒絕。人們拒絕耶穌並沒有什麼好訝異的。連他自己的門徒都在懷疑；到最後一刻他們全都遺棄了他。

曾經有位基督教傳教士來見我，他問「你怎麼看──為什麼耶穌會被釘上十字架？」我說「這問題沒什麼大不了的，或者說沒有任何複雜之處。這很簡單：因為他的門徒們不相信他。」這並不是他所期待的答案。於是他說「你的意思是什麼呢？」我說「他們無法保護他。他們無法為他而死，無法站出來支持他，無法對世人作見證。」

想想看──好幾百位門徒，如果他們準備好與他一起死在十字架上，這個世界就會完全改觀。他們原本可以作為一層防護。他們原本可以表明「我們信任這個人。我們活著時信任他，我們死去時也會信任他。我們曾與他一起慶祝生命，現在我們已準備好與他一起死去。」

結果他們全都跑掉了。耶穌被釘上十字架的那天沒有任何人留下。只有一個門徒躲在人群後面──連他都說了三次「我不是耶穌的門徒」。當他被移下十字架時只有三個女人出來將他扶下。有一個妓女在那裡──抹大拉的馬利亞──但那些門徒，那些使徒到哪去了？他們全都逃走了；他們很害怕。他們的懷疑浮出了水面，他們的信任不是全然的，他們的臣服是虛偽的。他們無法保護這個人。

印度從來不曾發生這樣的事情；這令人感到驚訝。耶穌之所以這麼輕易就被釘上十字架是因為那些門徒無法保護他。這從來沒有在印度發生過──佛陀沒有被釘上十字架，馬哈維亞也沒有被釘上去，克里希那也沒有。比起耶穌他們並不是較不危險之人，他們是更危險的。卡比爾沒有被釘上十字架──什麼原因呢？印度知道如何去保護。

當某種神性的事情出現時，它是非常脆弱的。就像花朵一樣它可以輕易被摧毀──你只要往玫瑰花上扔一顆石頭，它就沒了。然而這並非證明玫瑰沒有石頭來得重要，來得真實。這只證明玫瑰是非常纖細的，屬於生命的另個層面，與此處這些石頭不在同個宇宙裡。

佛陀被拯救了。那一萬個弟子始終圍繞在他身邊。他們十分清楚他說的話很危險，這個社會是不能容忍的──這個社會已經不能容忍了──然而他們高高地築起一道防護牆。他們的信任是極致的。佛陀比耶穌幸運得多。

在東方，師徒的傳統是如此古老，有那麼多師父曾走在這片土地上，所以東方知道怎麼保護一位師父。耶穌並非因為猶太人的殘忍才被釘在十字架上，不是這樣的。印度教徒就像猶太人一樣的殘忍，伊斯蘭教徒也是一樣殘忍。並沒有多大差別。是因為他的門徒無能他才會被殺死。他們逃走了，他們沒有準備好為他犧牲自己。只有在一切都很美好時他們才是朋友。當旅途變得艱難時他們就連邊都不想沾。就這樣他們逃走了；就這樣他們完全不去認他。

神以清楚可見的形式走過這世上許多次，但那時你也是不接受祂；十分明確的形體，但那時你一樣不接受祂──就因為祂必須選用與你相同的形體。因為你譴責你自己，所以你無法接受神也在身體裡。然而那是唯一讓祂能夠存在的方式──那是唯一讓任何事情能夠存在的方式。

卡比爾宣告著神是在血肉之軀裡發現的。祂與你一樣的真實。

你的肩膀正倚著我的。
你不會在佛塔裡找到我‧‧‧

不要浪費你的時間。不要去尋找那些聖地。

也不會在印度神龕裡，
不會在猶太會堂裡，不會在天主教堂裡，
不在彌撒當中，不在梵唱當中，
不是將雙腿盤到脖子上的時候‧‧‧

卡比爾說：你可以花上好幾輩子練習瑜珈，然而你不會找到祂。當然瑜珈會給你更好的健康──那是另一回事；那與神無關。瑜珈可以幫助你活得更久，但那是另一回事──那與神有什麼關係呢？

你可以去到廟宇，清真寺，和教堂，它們會給你安慰與慰藉。但慰藉一樣不會有所幫助。事實上它是破壞性的，因為所有的慰藉都會有損你去追尋和尋找的強度。廟宇是假冒神聖之地──它們被創造出來作為替代品，這樣人們就能得到廉價的宗教。沒有人想要冒險，沒有人想付出代價。人們想要的是一種容易取得的廉價宗教，這樣的話每當他們感覺到一種對神的渴求時，他們就可以去寺廟裡找師父們，因此得到慰藉：「好了，我有做些事情了。」

那只是在熄滅他們動身探尋的火焰；這是將火熄掉。所有的慰藉都在破壞你去追尋的衝動──當你能如此廉價地找到慰藉時，那還有什麼意義呢？所有的慰藉都必須從你身上拿開。那就是卡比爾的革命：摧毀所有的安慰。而你們所謂的宗教都只不過是種安慰。當安慰沒有了，你就必須去尋找──它將變成你裡面一個持續不斷的衝動。這個火會燒得越來越強，它將燃燒你的存在。

你也不會找到祂
在除了植物什麼都不吃的時候。

你看，這些都是愚蠢的事情。但人們是愚蠢的，他們想相信的是一些很平庸的事情。所以，有人認為如果你能持續吃素，只吃蔬果其它都不碰，你就會達到神的境界。我並不是說作一個素食者不好──那是好的。卡比爾的意思並非如此。他是說：這是不相關的。成為素食者是好的，更有人性，更有美感—但這與對神的追尋無關。如果你認為這樣就夠了，那麼正是這樣的想法會變成阻礙。於是你會開始沾沾自喜。於是你會坐在家中吃著你的青菜水果，然後想著「所有能做的事情，我都在做了。」

再次記得，卡比爾並不是說素食主義不好──他自己就是素食者。但這些都是不相關的細節。你可以做瑜珈練習，你可以成為素食者──很好，但這些與神沒有關係。而且如果你認為這樣就夠了，太足夠了，就是所有能夠做的，那麼你就會卡住。於是你就不會前進，於是革命就不會出現在你的生命裡──你將活在不幸之中，也死在不幸之中。然而神是那麼地靠近。只要碰觸一下，只要體會一下，只是去看一眼，就足以將你蛻變成全然的喜悅。

當你尋找我，你將立刻找到我。

卡比爾說：當你尋找我·····當存在著那樣的意願，渴望，徹底渴望去知道──當你準備好為了那樣的渴望賭下一切──那就是這些話的意思：

當你尋找我，
你將立刻找到我。

連一刻都不須等待──因為神並非是遙遠的，所以不需要耗費任何時間。你並不是得長途跋涉才能到祂那裏，你只是必須醒來。而你那充滿強度的追尋將會使你清醒過來。

你做過一個簡單的實驗嗎？你想明天一大早就起床，譬如5點，於是晚上睡覺時你就下定決心。你在自己的心中埋下一顆種子：「我會在5點鐘醒來。沒有什麼能阻止我，我將忽然發現自己已醒過來了。」如果你沒試過這樣作，試試看，你會很驚訝──只是在心中想著5點要醒來，到了5點你就發現自己是醒著的，你的眼睛是睜開的。睡眠一下子就消失了。

還有另一件更令人驚訝的事情等著你，那就是它會剛好5點整。身體裡面有個時鐘；身體有著某種對於時間的瞭解，某種對於時間非常精確的瞭解。不過得要那個強度，得要那個誠實，那個真誠──唯一要記得的事情就是真誠。當你在說「我會5點起來」時不能是不真誠的。心裡不能還想著「管它的！──只不過是個實驗，而且這是不會成功的，天氣這麼冷····算了，就看到時會不會發生吧····」如果這些念頭存在的話，那麼事情的確不會發生；你已破壞它了。信任它，它就會出現。

至於你形而上的睡眠也是同樣的情形。形而上來說你也睡著了，因為你不知道自己是誰。那就是形而上的昏睡。你不知道這個存在是什麼──那就是形而上的沉睡。然而如果你是全心地強烈地想要醒來，這個片刻你就能立即醒來。是你自己決定要繼續沉睡，也是你自己能脫離那樣的狀態；沒有其他人必須對這負責。不要總是將責任丟到別人身上，因為那正是使你一直昏睡下去的原因──如果是別人要對你的昏睡負責的話，那麼你能做什麼呢？要等到別人改變心意了，等到他們決定叫醒你了，那時候你才能醒過來。

頭腦是如此狡猾，它不斷在找藉口。有的人會說「當神想要我們醒來時，祂就會喚醒我們。至於這個時間，我們就繼續睡吧。我們能做什麼呢？這是命運。」這些都是狡猾的伎倆。神一直呼喚著你，然而祂從不會干預你的自由。祂尊敬你的自由；你的自由遠比其他任何事情更為珍貴。所以如果你決定睡著，你就繼續睡著。祂會一直呼喚，但祂不會打擾你。祂不會過來搖醒你嚇醒你。那就是為什麼祂的聲音被稱為「靜靜微細之聲」。祂一直是以如此寧靜的方式在說話，所以如果你想聽，你就會聽見，如果你不想聽，那也沒有需要聽見。

當你尋找我，
你將立刻找到我。

在卡比爾的詩裡，在他的哲學裡，這個概念「如果你尋找我」是非常核心的。他真正要說的是那個尋找不能只是溫溫的。只有在你沸騰到100度時你才會遇見神──只有這個時候你才會真的蒸發掉。只有這個時候那可見的才會真的遇上那不可見的──地面開始移向天空，而這只出現在溫度達到100度的時候。99度是不行的──雖然你會滾燙起來，但你仍然不會化為蒸氣。全然的強度是需要的，那個全然是必需的。所有只是部份的努力都不會有用。如果你是在做部份的努力，那麼不做反而較好。為什麼要浪費時間呢？──因為那不會有什麼結果；你原本還可以做些別的事情。每當你是全然在它之中，它立刻就會發生。當你尋找神時，那個尋找必須如此全然，以致於那尋找的人已經不在裡面──就像當舞蹈是全然的，舞者就不在裡面了，只有舞蹈存在。

當你是全然地聆聽著我，就不會有聆聽的人在裡面，只有那個聽。當我在對你說話時，並沒有說話的人在裡面，只有那個說。每當舞者和舞蹈同時存在，那就不會有全然性。那麼能量就被分為兩邊，舞者和舞蹈；那麼這裡面就會互相牴觸。然而每當舞者消失在舞蹈之中，這就是所有關於靜心的一切。

當你尋找神時，要成為那個尋找並消失在那個尋找。就只是成為那雙眼睛，忘掉其他一切，頓時祂就會顯現出來。

你將在時間最微小的房舍裡找到我。

卡比爾用來描述「時間最微小的房舍」的詞語是帕爾(PAL)，在東方一直是如此使用。帕爾的意思是兩個片刻間的空隙。一個片刻過去了，另一個到來了，在這兩者之間有個細微的空隙—必須是如此，不然一個片刻就會重疊到另一個上頭。那是個非常非常微小的空間，但它必須在那裡，好讓那兩個片刻是分明的，分開的。雖然它瞬間就掠過去了，然而那空隙是一道門—穿過那空隙你就進入永恆。那空隙被稱為「帕爾」。英文裡面沒有和它對等的字；在英文裡「時間最微小的房舍」就是片刻。但在兩個片刻之間的是什麼呢？看著我這兩根手指：在兩根手指之間有一個空隙—這兩根手指可以貼近到不能再近，但還是有個空隙存在。在兩個片刻間的那個空隙被稱為「帕爾」。那是最微小的，那是時間的原子。

那個帕爾是通往此刻的門戶。那個空隙就是當下。一個片刻成為了過去，另個片刻還存在於未來，而在兩者之間的就是那個空隙，那個當下。

你將在時間最微小的房舍裡找到我。
卡比爾說「學生們，告訴我，神是什麼？
祂就是呼吸裡的呼吸。」

每當你問起神時，你都問得好像神是一個擺在那裡得去面對的問題。你都問得好像你是站在神的外面然後去推敲，觀察著祂。你問得好像神是一個客體。神並不是客體，神是你的主體性。神並不在外面某個地方，神是在你的底層，你的內部。那就是卡比爾說這句話的意思：

祂就是呼吸裡的呼吸。

觀照你的呼吸，於是你將會知道他指的是什麼──你將看見一件除非你觀照你的呼吸否則無法看見的事情。佛陀使其成為一個偉大的靜心技巧，觀照呼吸，因為透過觀照它你將會知道呼吸裡的呼吸。

「呼吸」這個字意味著生命。梵文裡用來指呼吸的字是普拉那(PRANA)：普拉那的意思是生命。希伯來文裡表示呼吸的字有心靈的意思。世上所有的語言中，呼吸都被認為與生命或心靈或靈魂同義。但呼吸還不是真正的靈魂──只有當你觀照時你才會來到這般的體驗。

嘗試一個小小的實驗：靜靜地坐著，然後就這樣開始觀照你的呼吸。最容易的觀照方式是從鼻端的通道。當氣進來時，感覺氣息在鼻端通道的碰觸──在那地方觀照它。碰觸較容易觀照，氣息會太細微；一開始只要觀照那個碰觸。氣息進來了，你感覺到它在進來：觀照它。然後跟著它，隨著它一起移動，你將發現有個點會出現，在那裡氣息停止了。就在靠近你肚臍的某處它停了下來──在一個微小，極短的片刻裡，在一個帕爾裡，它停止了。然後它再度往外移動；這時跟著它──再次感覺那個碰觸，氣息正在離開鼻孔出去。跟著它，隨著它一起走到外面──再次地你將來到一個點，呼吸會停止一個非常微小的片刻。然後重新展開這樣的循環。

吸氣，空隙，吐氣，空隙，吸氣，空隙。那個空隙是你裡面最神秘的現象。當氣進來然後停止，沒有任何移動時，那就是人能遇見神的位置。或者是在氣出去然後停止，沒有任何移動的時候。

記住，不是你去停止它；是它自己停下來。如果是你去停止它的話，你將錯過整個重點，因為做者就會進來而見證就會消失。對於它你不用做任何事情。你不是去改變呼吸的模式，你沒有特別在吸氣也沒有特別吐在氣。這不像瑜珈的普拉那揚(PRANAYAM)，在那個方式中你開始操作呼吸；不是那樣的。你完全不去管怎麼呼吸──你容許它的自然性，它的自然流動。當它出去時你跟著它，當它進來時你也跟著它。

很快地你將開始覺知到有兩個空隙。在這兩個空隙之中就是那道門。而且在這兩個空隙中你將瞭解，你將看見，呼吸本身並不是生命──也許是生命的一種食物，就像其他的食物一樣，但並非生命本身。因為當呼吸停止時你就在那裡，完完全全地在那裡──你是絕對地有意識，徹底地有意識。呼吸已經停止了，呼吸已經不存在了，而你仍在那裡。

一旦你持續這呼吸的觀照──佛陀稱為味帕沙那(VIPASSANA)或安那般那念(ANAPANASATI)瑜珈──如果你一直觀照它，觀照它，觀照它，慢慢慢慢地你會看見那空隙在增加，變得更大了。最後會出現那個空隙一次就能維持好幾分鐘。一個氣息進來，然後是那空隙····幾分鐘的時間氣息都沒有出去。一切都停止下來。世界停止了，時間停止了，思想停止了。因為當呼吸停止時，思想是不可能的。當呼吸一次停止好幾分鐘時，思想是不可能的，絕對不可能的──因為思想過程需要持續的氧氣，你的思想運作與你的呼吸是很深地關聯著。

當你在生氣時你的呼吸有著不同的節奏，當你性慾被激起時你有著不同的呼吸節奏，當你很平靜時又是不同的呼吸節奏。當你快樂時是另一個呼吸節奏。當你傷心時又是另一個呼吸節奏。你的呼吸一直在隨著內在心情而改變。反過來也是如此──當呼吸改變時，內在心境就會隨之改變。而當呼吸停止時，內心的流動就會停止。

在那內心流動的停止中，整個世界也停止了──因為心即世界。在那停止當中你首度知道什麼是呼吸裡的呼吸：生命裡的生命。那樣的體驗能令人解脫。那樣的體驗使你全然意識到神──神並非某個具體的人，而是生命自身的體驗。

那具有死亡與厚重身軀者
在不具厚重身軀與死亡者面前跳舞。

在這樣的體驗之中，你將看見兩件事情在你裡面：那不死的和那會死的。身體是會死的，充滿著死亡。然而身體裡面存在著某種超越，而那是不死的。

那具有死亡與厚重身軀者。

這粗重的身體，這肉身，是會死的。這將死之身體一直在某種不會死亡也沒有厚重身體，沒有粗重身體的事物面前跳舞。在你裡面具有一種覺察，一種永恆的見證──在那永恆的見證面前所有的舞蹈都會持續進行。身體一直以千百種方式在舞動：當你仍是個孩子時的舞，當你正值青春處在愛與激情時的舞，當你已老激情不再，智慧卻在升起時的舞──這麼多的舞動。

但所有這些舞動都是屬於那將死的身體，由物質元素構成終將消失的身體。那只是暫時性的結合；那是種複合物，它無法永遠持續下去。它是部機器──然而在這機器背後，在這會腐朽的身體背後，有某樣東西是不朽的，不死的。那就是你的意識──將它稱為神，稱為靈魂，或者任何你喜歡的名字。在你的存在裡面最深處的核心就是神。

祂就是呼吸裡的呼吸。’
那具有死亡與厚重身軀者
在不具厚重身軀與死亡者面前跳舞。

這是你真正的生命。你太過執著於身體，認同於身體，那就是為什麼你會這麼害怕死亡。要不然，害怕死亡是荒謬的──因為你並不會死；在你內在最深的核心處你是無法死去的。你只是一直在換房子，從一個身體到另一個。你已活過許多身體，你已經歷過許多身體。

當佛陀成道時，他對天地所說的第一件事就是這個──他看著天空然後說「現在你不需要再為我準備另一間房子了。」很奇怪的話。他是在對誰說呢？他只是在對普遍的，全體的自然說話：「你不用再費事了，你不需再為我做出一個身體。我已瞭解我是誰了。」

在那樣的瞭解中，人從死亡的身軀解脫出來。在那樣的時刻裡·····

響亮的聲音說「我就是你。」

在那樣的時刻裡整個存在，神，都在對你說：我就是你。

崇高的師父前來
向著初學弟子鞠躬致敬。

此時對你來說這仍是第一次發生。你只是一個初學者，還在神之殿堂的入口處──然而當它發生時·····

崇高的師父前來
向著初學弟子鞠躬致敬。

神前來向你鞠躬致敬，整個存在都向你鞠躬致敬。偉大的奇蹟已然發生；你不再了，自我消失了。整個存在都慶祝它，禮敬它，向你鞠躬致敬。

崇高的師父前來
向著初學弟子鞠躬致敬。
努力讓自己終能見到這幕！

卡比爾說：努力活到讓自己看見這場景──不要沒見到它就離開了。實現這一幕，這就是所有靈性旅程的目標。

記得麥可‧亞當的這些話：

生命是場舞蹈·····不論有沒有我們這舞蹈一直在持續。這舞蹈存在著：它一直存在著·····石頭和星星一樣肯定都在跳舞。石頭是緩慢的舞：花朵較快一些·····選擇在於我們：是要與那活絡的共舞，還是加入那已死事物的行列。已死事物的方式會帶來安全，舒適，乃至名聲，所以可能找不到好理由加入這場舞蹈。然而將此生命的方式，也就是愛的方式訴諸於動機，那是輕視它了。整個重點就是它沒有重點。人不需理由地跳起舞來，如同玫瑰在早晨綻放且毫無理由地鮮紅。並沒有偉大的情操在其中。

生命的舞蹈就是神的舞蹈。你可以加入它或者你可以克制你自己。有各種理由要去克制──這個社會害怕所有那些開始與神共舞之人，因為他們變得很危險，他們變得很叛逆，他們變成是自由的。他們不再是奴隸，他們拋開了自身的枷鎖，他們逃出了所有的監牢。他們在大街上跳舞，他們在星空下跳舞，他們加入了神的舞蹈。他們不畏懼死亡，所以他們無法被貶為奴隸。

對死亡的恐懼是你會變成奴隸的根本原因。若沒有恐懼，誰能把你貶成奴隸呢？一個無懼之人是無法被貶為奴隸的，所以這個社會嘗試各種方法要使你感到害怕。這個社會不想要你知道你是永恆的生命。它不想要你知道死亡是個幻象，事實上它並不會發生，它只是看起來在發生──死亡完全是虛假的，那是個謊言。然而這個社會並不想要承認這點，這個社會想要你活在幻象裡面。真理是它無法容忍之事。

「選擇在於我們：是要與那活絡的共舞，還是加入已死事物的行列。」但這社會是在已死事物的行列中。那些屍體──四處行走，四處移動，操弄著彼此，支配著彼此。選擇是我們的。要記住：如果你尊重生命，你就不該允許任何死亡安頓在你裡面，你就不該允許任何恐懼安頓在你裡面。你不該妥協──不需如此。

然而「已死事物的方式會帶來安全，舒適，乃至名聲，所以可能找不到好理由加入這場舞蹈。」這個社會所顧慮的是那些殘缺的人，麻痺的人，遲鈍的人，愚蠢的人，死去的人──他們都是好人，他們都是文明人。這個社會害死了一位耶穌，毒死了一位蘇格拉底，試過所有辦法要毀掉一位佛陀。但它卻看重那些平常的，平庸的，那些布爾喬亞，中產階級──這裡面其實是一種投資。然而如果你想享受生命的舞蹈──若是沒有享受過它，你就錯失了整個機會，很大的機會，很大的恩賜──如果你想享受生命之舞的話，你就必須去冒這個險。你將必須放掉所有贏得名聲的欲望，你將必須放掉所有提升身分地位的欲望。

如果你能放掉那對於身分地位的欲望，有一天它就會發生──那是個奇蹟：

崇高的師父前來
向著初學弟子鞠躬致敬。
努力讓自己終能見到這幕！

你一定聽過有句哲學名言：「涅提，涅提(Neti，Neti)」。它的意思是「不是這個，不是那個。」哲學家不停地說「這不是神，那不是神。」問一位哲學家「神是什麼？」他永遠不會作出回答。他只會一直說什麼不是神。「涅提，涅提：這不是神，那不是神。」—他的方法是刪去式的。他說「當我否定掉所有不是神的，到那時無論留下來的是什麼，那就是神。」這是非常繞圈圈的方式，非常漫長，沒有盡頭。

這就好像你問一個人「誰叫做拉瑪？」—而這個人開始帶你環遊世界一圈，並且告訴你「這不是拉瑪，這不是拉瑪，這不是拉瑪·····」數以百萬的人們，而他只是不斷不斷地否定每一位不是拉瑪之人。然後—如果那一天真能到來—他會說「現在無論是哪一位還留著，沒有被指出來否定掉的，他就是拉瑪。」到那時你可能早已忘掉你的問題是什麼了。

卡比爾所說的與此正好相反。哲學家說「涅提，涅提—不是這個，不是那個。」卡比爾說「依提，依提(Iti, Iti)—它在這裡，它在這裡，就是這個，就是這個。」卡比爾說「祂就在每一個地方。沒有需要否定，沒有需要一直說『這不是神，那不是神。』它就是這個。一切都是這個。依提，依提。」

這樣的途徑非常切實，非常屬於這個世界。那就是為什麼他說：

你在找我嗎？
我就坐在旁邊。

依提，依提。

你的肩膀正倚著我的。
你不會在佛塔裡找到我，
也不會在印度神龕裡，
不會在猶太會堂裡，不會在天主教堂裡，
不在彌撒當中，不在梵唱當中，
不是將雙腿盤到脖子上的時候。

依提，依提：我在這裡，我在這裡。

不是除了植物什麼都不吃的時候。
當你尋找我，你將立刻找到我。

依提，依提──因為我就在這裡，因為我始終都在這裡，因為我從來沒有去到別的地方──依提，依提。

你將在時間最微小的房舍裡找到我。
卡比爾說「學生們，告訴我，神是什麼？
祂就是呼吸裡的呼吸。」
那具有死亡與厚重身軀者
在不具厚重身軀與死亡者面前跳舞。
響亮的聲音說「我就是你。」

依提，依提。

崇高的師父前來，
向著初學弟子鞠躬致敬。
努力讓自己終能見到這幕！

依提，依提。

今天就到這裡。

Excerpt from OSHO’s book“The Revolution”, Chpater3
13 February 1978 am in Buddha Hall


ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME? I AM IN THE NEXT SEAT:
YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.
YOU WILL NOT FIND ME IN STUPAS,
NOR IN INDIAN SHRINE ROOMS,
NOR IN THE SYNAGOGUE, NOR IN CATHEDRALS,
NOT IN MASSES, NOR KIRTANS,
NOT IN LEGS TWISTING AROUND THE NECK,
NOR IN EATING NOTHING BUT VEGETABLES.
WHEN YOU LOOK FOR ME, YOU WILL FIND ME INSTANTLY.
YOU WILL FIND ME IN THE TINIEST HOUSE OF TIME.
KABIR SAYS, “STUDENT, TELL ME, WHAT IS GOD?
HE IS THE BREATH INSIDE THE BREATH.”
WHAT HAS DEATH AND A THICK BODY DANCES BEFORE
WHAT HAS NO THICK BODY AND NO DEATH.
THE TRUMPET SAYS, “I AM YOU.”
THE SPIRITUAL MASTER ARRIVES AND BOWS DOWN
TO THE BEGINNING STUDENT.
TRY TO LIVE TO SEE THIS!

Evolution has a logic in it. One thing leads to another, rung by rung, step by step. There is a kind of inevitability. Evolution is mechanical, it is continuous. There are no gaps in it, no leaps in it, nothing new ever happens. Only the old goes on becoming manifest. Evolution moves in one dimension. It is predictable, you could have seen it before. It is very rational, it is sane.

But revolution is more than sanity, it is more than logic. It is not inevitable, it has many surprises in it. It jumps, it leaps, it is a quantum leap. The quantum leap is its basic innermost core.

That’s why I say Karl Marx has no understanding about revolution. His revolution is inevitable; his revolution is something that is going to happen on its own accord, without any intention on man’s part. It is going to happen out of the past by itself—just as a seed becomes a tree: it has to, because the seed already contains the tree. The tree is not really something new, it is contained in the seed-–-unmanifest, but still it is contained; the seed is the blueprint of it. When the tree arrives it is only a revelation of that which was hidden—it has come into the open. But the tree is not anything really new. There is no revolution between the seed and the tree, there is evolution.

Marx says that the communist revolution is inevitable, it is a natural consequence of capitalism. If it is so, then it is not revolution. Then it is simply evolution; why call it revolution? Revolution means something new happens—something that was not going to happen on its own accord, something that can happen only through human intention, human consciousness. Something that cannot happen without the help of human consciousness—that is revolution. Revolution is a surprise, revolution is a miracle. It should not have happened but it has happened. It is mysterious.

Up to man there has been evolution, from the fish to the man there has been evolution. But from man to a Buddha, from man to a Christ, from man to a Kabir, it is not evolution. It is revolution—the revolution I call it, the only revolution. You will not become a Buddha unless you become conscious, unless you prepare the ground for it to happen. It is not like old age—every young man will become old, but every man is not going to become a Buddha. You will have to choose it, you will have to work for it, you will have to look for it. A deliberate conscious effort will be needed on your part—only then is there a possibility.

Evolution is inevitable, it has a kind of inexorable logic about it. Revolution has no logic about it. It is a poetic leap, it is from one dimension into another dimension. Evolution is horizontal, revolution is vertical—it penetrates other realms of being.

Unless one takes possession of one’s own being very consciously, the revolution is not going to happen. You will go on growing but your growth will be horizontal. The monkey becomes man, the man may even become a superman—more powerful, technically more equipped, scientifically stronger—but it will not be anything new. It will not be Christ consciousness; man will remain on the same plane.

You can see it, monkeys and man are not very different. The difference can at the most be quantitative but not qualitative. Maybe the monkey is more stupid than man, or man is a little more intelligent than the monkey—but there is no gap. And Charles Darwin is right that man has evolved out of the monkey. It is evolution. Given time, given opportunity, the monkey was going to become man. Given time, given opportunity, the man is going to become superman. Remember, the superman is not equivalent to a Buddha, the superman is not equivalent to Christ. The superman is in the same line where you are, where monkeys are, where fish and other animals are. It is the same line, the same ladder—of course on a higher rung, but the ladder is the same.

Revolution brings another dimension. The old and the new are not joined together; there is a gap, a discontinuity. Evolution is understandable, because it is logical, it is Aristotelian. Revolution is mysterious; it is not understandable, you have to go through it to know it. Revolution is a little crazy—because it is neither mathematical nor mechanical. It is not unconscious either, as the evolutionary process is. It is a conscious grip upon reality, a conscious hold of your being. You don’t carry the blueprint for it, you have to create it.

That is the beauty of religion—religion is the science of revolution. All other sciences only describe what evolution is. Religion is the only science of revolution; it prepares you for the jump, the quantum leap.

There can be no reason to jump. Reasoning is remaining—there can only be reasons to remain with all that is old and known and secure underfoot. Logically, when one comes to an empty space, encounters an abyss, a discontinuity, one ought to halt. All logic will say “Halt! Stop! Turn back! You have come to a cul-de-sac, now there is no more going—if you take another step you will die. Facing you is an abysmal depth, you will be lost forever.” Logic will say, reason will say, mind will say, “Halt! Stop! Go back! Find another way towards achievement. This is not the way, this way has ended.’”

But life is that which leaps. Logic is that which says “Stop!” And life is that which leaps. That life is religion. And unless you have that life which leaps, you can’t have religion, you don’t know what religion is. Christianity is not religion, Hinduism is not religion. This leap, this courage, this adventure, this movement from the known into the unknown, from the lighted path into the darkness of the unknown, from the familiar into the unfamiliar, from the comfortable and the convenient into the hazardous—this life is religion.

Kabir sings of this revolution, of this life, of this religion. He is the poet of man’s dream of becoming God.

Religion essentially consists only of this desire. You have been told again and again by the theologians that religion consists in knowing who God is. That is not true. The real desire is to become God—not to know God. Theologians are not very courageous, they are cowardly. You cannot be satisfied unless you have become a God. By knowing God nothing will be fulfilled—by knowing God you may even be in more turmoil and discontent, because then you will know that you are not God.

Knowledge cannot satisfy—only being. The East says: Knowing God is not the search. The desire, the dream, that haunts man and goes on haunting him down the ages, life after life, is to become God. Whenever somebody asks ‘How to know God?’ he is asking a wrong question, a cowardly question. The courageous person will ask ‘How to become God?’—because in fact that is the only way to know Him too. By becoming, knowing happens. The real knowing is possible only by becoming.

The Zen masters say: If you want to know a bamboo, if you want to paint a bamboo, become a bamboo. That is the only way to know it. How can you know the bamboo from the outside? From the outside there will be only guesswork, speculation, inference, philosophy—but not knowledge. You can know the bamboo only when you have become the bamboo—when you know the bamboo from its inside, from its inferiority, when you feel like a bamboo. When you know how it feels when the wind comes and makes the bamboo a dancing girl, how it feels when you become a dancing girl in the wind—only then do you know. You know only when you come to feel from the innermost core of the bamboo as the bamboo. When you feel how it feels in the morning when the sun rises and knocks on the bamboo, wakes the bamboo. How it feels when a bird comes and sings, how it feels when the sky is full of stars, how it feels to the bamboo—from the outside you can only guess, and that will be a human guess.

No, there is no way to know from the outside. And if you cannot know even a bamboo from the outside, what to say about God? God means the totality of existence. You have to dissolve into this totality. This can be done only by great intention, by a fiery intention. It needs risking. Only those who risk totally, find.

This intention that brings revolution has to be understood. Only then will you be able to follow Kabir. His sayings are cryptic. He does not expound, he does not explain, he simply declares. His sayings are that of a poet. He is not a systematic philosopher; he says one thing and then another. You will have to link those sayings with each other, you will have to make a garland—when the thread of understanding runs through the flowers, then only will you understand.

The first thing I would like to tell you today is: Revolution becomes possible only through the chemistry of intention, a total intention to become the whole, to fall into the whole, to abandon oneself into the whole.

A recently translated Dead Sea Scroll records a disciple asking Jesus “Master, how can we get into the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus answers “Follow the birds, the beasts, the fish, and they will lead you in.” A very strange saying. What does Jesus mean by saying “Follow the birds, the beasts, the fish, and they will lead you in”? He means you have to be lost like the birds are lost—they don’t have any self in them. The fish does not know that she is separate from the ocean—she is the ocean. The bird has no idea of any self, of any ego—when flying in the sky he is the sky. When alive he is life, when dead he is death. He does not cling, he does not hoard, he is not worried, he feels no responsibility. He is not: that’s what Jesus means. If you want to know God you will have to disappear as you are.

That’s what I mean by ‘The Revolution’: you will have to disappear as you are. You will have to become innocent—so much so that there is no self in you. When there is a self you are always cunning; the self is the root cunningness. With the self you cannot be innocent. If with the self you are innocent, that innocence will be nothing but a cultivated innocence—plastic, synthetic, false, a pretension, nothing but hypocrisy. Yes, you can pretend to be innocent, but that is not going to help you at all. The self can only pretend. When the self disappears you are innocent. Innocence is meditation, innocence is prayer, innocence is all.

Kabir calls his path the path of sahaj yoga, the yoga of spontaneity. He says: Be innocent and spontaneous, and the totality will follow.

The stillness of God is not apart from the dance of our every day, it is at the heart of it. It is not by leaving the world that we come upon the heart of it, but rather by abandoning ourselves to the dance, by living fully and fearlessly at each and every stage of ourselves, that we move to the next stage. Or rather, we find ourselves moved as the bud finds itself a flower or the ungainly caterpillar is suddenly a winged thing, a honey-taster, a wanderer in summer gardens.

These words have to be remembered: innocence, spontaneity. Innocence like the bees and the birds, spontaneity like the fish and the flower. Utter selflessness, and you have arrived.

You have been told that if you seek you shall find. But I say unto you: Don’t believe he who claims to have sought and found, but only he who has found without seeking. Seeking is basically the self. If you seek, that means the self is functioning. The journey starts in seeking but ends in a non-seeking mind. The journey starts with intention but ends in spontaneity. You have to learn two things: first you have to learn a great intensity to search, and then, very paradoxically, you will have to learn to drop that intensity and that seeking. Without intense search you will never move. And with that search and that intensity you will remain confined in the self.

So these are the two steps—paradoxical, but immensely valuable. And they have an inner consistency; from the outside it is not visible. First you have to seek and search. Jesus says “Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” This is the beginning of the journey—intensity, intention, search. But this is only the beginning.

The second step is, Lao Tzu says “Seek and you shall not find. Don’t seek, and find.”These are not two separate paths, these two steps are on the same path.

So Kabir drives the point deep into your heart that first a great flame-like desire is needed to be God. But then finally that very desire becomes the last barrier—that has to be dropped too. Once that is dropped and you are innocent, things start happening. The bud opens and becomes a flower, the caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

The sutras:

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?

God is asking.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?
I AM IN THE NEXT SEAT:
YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.
YOU WILL NOT FIND ME IN STUPAS,
NOR IN INDIAN SHRINE ROOMS,
NOR IN THE SYNAGOGUE, NOR IN CATHEDRALS,
NOT IN MASSES, NOR KIRTANS,
NOT IN LEGS TWISTED AROUND THE NECK,
NOR IN EATING NOTHING BUT VEGETABLES.
WHEN YOU LOOK FOR ME, YOU WILL FIND ME INSTANTLY.
YOU WILL FIND ME IN THE TINIEST HOUSE OF TIME.
KABIR SAYS, “STUDENT, TELL ME, WHAT IS GOD?
HE IS THE BREATH INSIDE THE BREATH.”

Go slowly. Savor each word of this strange man.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?

GOD asking man. Yes, that has been always so—God is always asking you ‘Are you looking for me?’ Of course you don’t hear, because you are so full of noise. You are so full of your own noise you can’t hear this still small voice within your heart. And God has been asking and asking. He asks every moment of your life—day in, day out, year in, year out. He asks when you are happy, he asks when you are not happy. He asks when you are awake, he asks when you are asleep. He goes on asking. In each beat of your heart the question waits for you.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?

Don’t go far away. Don’t search for me somewhere else—because, God says, I am here.

I AM IN THE NEXT SEAT:
YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.

This is one of the most profound sayings. Get deep into it, dig it. He is in your wife, He is in your friend, He is in the children playing on the street, He is in your friend, He is in your foe—because only He IS. He is in these birds singing, and in the trees, in me and in you. Yes, He is in the next seat, He is in your neighbor.

And where are you going to seek Him? People go far away. They travel to the Himalayas, they go to Tibet. For what? For whom? For God? As if God is not here. They look into the scriptures, they search in the past, in the Vedas and in the Bible and in the Koran. As if God has ceased to be. As if God is no more a contemporary, as if for God you always have to go into the past. As if in those days He used to exist and now He has ceased to exist. Or you imagine God in some afterlife. When you have left this body and this earth then in heaven, in some imagined dreamland, you will find God.

Kabir says: He is here! He is now! The here and the now consist only of Him and nothing else. To look for Him somewhere else is just a way to avoid Him. That’s an escape from God; you are be fooling yourself. Looking for Him somewhere else is just a way of avoiding Him, it is just a way so that you need not look here now. People go to the temples and to the synagogue and to the churches just to avoid Him—because He is there in their houses.

He is in your every breath. You need not go anywhere: come home and you will find Him. Don’t go anywhere—that is the sure way of not finding Him. That’s why you have not been able to find Him up to now, because you don’t look close by. And He is in the corner. He is in the breeze that comes and plays with your hair, and He is in the sun rays dancing on your face, and He is in the lake. Start looking for Him at close quarters. And one day you will be surprised to find that He is your within, beyond.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?
I AM IN THE NEXT SEAT:
YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.

Contemplate on this, imbibe this. Just feel the shoulder of your neighbor—for a moment remember it…

I AM IN THE NEXT SEAT:
YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.

No, it looks not possible. In the neighbor? In your wife? In your husband? In your child? Your mind says no. That is bringing God too much down on the earth, and we have become accustomed to keep Him far away. It is safer to keep Him far away, you need not worry about Him. He is happy in His heaven and you are happy here, and there is such a long distance between you two that there is no need to worry about Him. To have Him so close you will feel uncomfortable. To see Him in your child will be difficult, because the child sometimes is naughty and the child sometimes drives you nuts—how can you see God in him? How can you see God in your woman who is constantly nagging you? How can you see God in your man who is always angry?

No, God has to be somewhere far away. You don’t want Him to become real, you live with an abstract God. But the abstract God is a dead God, it is only a concept. Let Him become flesh. That is the meaning of Kabir when he says:

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?
I AM IN THE NEXT SEAT:
YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.

Let God be of bones and flesh and blood. Let Him be real! We have lived with the unreal God too long and we have suffered because of this unreal God. Don’t divide the world and the other world. That is the meaning of Kabir—he is saying that there is only one world. There are two ways to look at it, but the world is one, the world is not two. There is no other world than this, this is the only world there is. This is that; the other world is contained in this world.

But there are two attitudes. You can see this world just from the outside—then it is material, then it is mundane, profane. If you look at it from the inside then it is sacred, holy. Then you don’t divide God and His creation; then He is in the creation. Then He is the creation, He is the creative energy.

This is a great jump into understanding—to conceive of God as real human beings, beasts, birds, trees, rocks. Bring your God to the earth! You have exiled Him in heaven and then you go on crying “How to find Him?” You have thrown Him away, you have debarred Him, you don’t allow Him to enter into your earth and your earthly existence. Open your doors, drop your wrong conceptions that God is somehow other-worldly. Let Him become flesh. That is the meaning of God coming to earth in Krishna, in Christ, in Buddha. Whenever somebody has understood it he has become a symbol of God on the earth—he has become a God-man.

Christians missed the mystery of Christ, they forgot the whole message contained in the metaphor. Christ is a metaphor: if you know, God walks on the earth, drinks with you, eats with you, holds your hands, hugs you. The people who lived with Jesus, even they were not very accepting of the phenomenon, they were also very doubtful. “Is Jesus God? Is he really the son of God?” They knew perfectly well that he was the son of the carpenter Joseph, and Mary.

That’s why it was impossible for Jesus to work in his own village. That’s why he had to say “A prophet is never accepted by his own people.”If Jews could not accept him, that is just part of human nature; it is nothing special to Jews. How could they accept him? They knew perfectly well he was born out of the womb of a woman, an earthly womb. “How can he be God? He is just like us, not at all different. How can he be the son of God?” They were waiting for a messiah who would come from the clouds. And this man comes from the womb, as everybody else comes.

He will come sitting on the clouds, the real messiah. He will not have the body, this rotten physical body. He will have a spiritual body of light—it will not have any weight; he will not have blood and bones, he will not be flesh. Then they will accept him.

But whenever God comes, He comes in flesh. And He is always rejected. It is not surprising that people rejected Jesus. Even his own disciples were doubtful; they all abandoned him in the last moment.

Once a Christian missionary came to see me and he asked “What do you think—why was Jesus crucified?” I said “It is not such a great question or any complicated problem. It is simple: because his disciples did not believe in him.’ He was not waiting for that answer. He said “What do you mean?” I said “They could not protect him. They could not die for him, they could not stand for him, they could not be witnesses to the world.”

Just think—a few hundred disciples, if they were ready to die with him on the cross, it would have been a totally different world. They would have been a proof. They would have said “We trusted this man. We trusted in him in life, we trust in him in death. We celebrated with him, now we are ready to die with him.”

They all escaped. The day Jesus was crucified there was nobody. Only one disciple was lurking behind the crowd—even he said thrice “I am not a disciple of Jesus.” When he was brought down from the cross only three women were there to take him down. A prostitute was there—Mary Magdalene was there—but where were the disciples, the apostles? They had all escaped; they were afraid. Their doubt surfaced, their trust was not total, their surrender was phony. They could not protect this man.

This has never happened in India; this is a surprise. Jesus was crucified so easily because the disciples could not protect him. In India it has never happened—Buddha was not crucified, nor was Mahavir crucified, nor Krishna. And they were not less dangerous people than Jesus, they were more dangerous. Kabir was not crucified—why? India knows how to protect.

When something of the divine comes it is very fragile. It can be destroyed very easily like a flower—you can just throw a stone on a rose and it is gone. It does not prove that the rose was not as significant, as real, as the rock. It simply proves that the rose was very delicate, belonged to some other dimension of life, was alien here amongst rocks.

Buddha was saved. Those ten thousand disciples were continuously around him. They knew perfectly well that what he was saying was dangerous, the society would not tolerate it—the society was not tolerating it—but they created a great wall of protection. Their trust was immense. Buddha was more fortunate than Jesus.

In the East, the tradition of the master and the disciple is so ancient and so many masters have walked on the earth that the East knows how to protect a master. Jesus was not crucified because the Jews were cruel, no. Hindus are just as cruel as Jews, Mohammedans just as cruel; there is not much difference. He was killed because his disciples were impotent. They escaped, they were not ready to sacrifice themselves for him. They were friends only when everything was going well. When the journey became rough then it was not their cup of tea. Then they escaped; then they simply denied him.

God walks many times on the earth in a very visible form but then too you cannot accept Him, in a very luminous form but then too you cannot accept Him—because He has to take the same form as you. Because you condemn yourself, you cannot accept God in the body. But that is the only way for Him to exist—that is the only way for anything to exist.

Kabir is declaring that God is found in flesh. He is as real as you are.

YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.
YOU WILL NOT FIND ME IN STUPAS…

Don’t waste your time. Don’t go in search of sacred places.

NOR IN INDIAN SHRINE ROOMS,
NOR IN THE SYNAGOGUE, NOR IN CATHEDRALS,
NOT IN MASSES, NOR IN KIRTANS,
NOT IN LEGS TWISTING AROUND THE NECK…

Kabir says: You can go on practicing yoga for lives, and you will not find Him. Of course yoga will give you better health—that is another matter; that has nothing to do with God. Yoga may help you to live longer, that is another matter—what has that to do with God?

And you can go to the temples and the mosques and the churches, and they will give you comfort and consolation. But consolation is not going to help either. In fact that will be destructive, because all consolation hinders your intensity to seek and search. The temples are pseudo-places—they have been created as substitutes so people can have cheap religion. Nobody wants to risk, nobody wants to pay the price. People want some cheap religion available to them, so whenever they feel a hunger for God they can go to the temple and to the priest and can have consolation: “Yes, I have done something.”

That simply puts the fire of their search out; it puts out the fire. All consolations destroy your urge to search—what is the point when you can find consolations so cheaply? All consolations have to be taken away from you. That is the revolution of Kabir: Destroy all consolations. And your so-called religion is nothing but a consolation. When there is no consolation you will have to search—it will become a continuous urge in you. The fire will grow and grow and it will enflame your being.

NOR CAN YOU FIND HIM
IN EATING NOTHING BUT VEGETABLES.

Now, these are all stupid things. But people are stupid, and they want something very mediocre to believe in. Now, there are people who think that if you go on eating vegetables, just vegetables and nothing else, you will attain to God. And I am not saying that to be a vegetarian is bad—it is good. That is not what Kabir means. He says: It is irrelevant. To be a vegetarian is good, more human, more aesthetic—but it has nothing to do with the search for God. And if you think that this is enough, then your very idea will become a barrier. Then you will be complacent. Then you will sit in your home eating your vegetables and you will think “All that can be done, I am doing.”

But you can go on eating vegetables and you can go on vegetating. That is not going to help.

And remember again, Kabir is not saying that vegetarianism is not good—he was a vegetarian. But these are irrelevant points. You can do yoga exercise, you can be a vegetarian—good, but nothing to do with God as such. And if you think this is enough, more than enough, all that one can do, then you are stuck. Then you will not move, then there will be no revolution in your life—you will live in misery and you will die in misery. And God was so close by. And just a touch, just one experience, one glimpse, would have transformed you to utter joy.

WHEN YOU LOOK FOR ME, YOU WILL FIND ME INSTANTLY.

Kabir says: When you look for me… When there is the intention, the desire, the utter desire to know—when you are ready to stake all for that desire—that is the meaning of:

WHEN YOU LOOK FUR ME,
YOU WILL FINAL ME INSTANTLY.

Not even a single moment do you have to wait—because God is not far away, so there is no need for any time to elapse. You are not to journey to Him, you have just to be awake. And your great intensity for the search will make you awake.

Have you ever tried a simple experiment? You want to get up early in the morning, five o’clock, and at night when you go to sleep you simply make a deep desire. You put a seed in your being: “At five o’clock I am going to be awake. Nothing is going to hinder me, I will suddenly find myself awake.” If you have not tried it, try and you will be surprised—just a deep desire to be awake at five, and at five you will find you are awake, your eyes are open. Suddenly sleep disappears.

And one more surprise will be waiting for you, that it is exactly five. The body has a clock inside it; the body has an understanding of time, a very accurate understanding of time. Just the intensity, just the honesty, the sincerity—the only thing to remember is the sincerity. When you are saying “I will get up at five,” don’t be insincere. Underneath, don’t go on saying ‘Who bothers?—this is just an experiment, and it is not going to happen, and it is so cold… anyway, just to see whether it happens or not…” If these things are there then it will not happen; you will have destroyed it. Trust it and it will happen.

And the same is true about your metaphysical sleep. You are asleep metaphysically, because you don’t know who you are. That is the metaphysical sleep. You don’t know what this existence is—that is the metaphysical sleep. If you make an intense total desire to wake up, you can wake up instantly this moment. It is you who have decided to remain asleep, it is you who can come out of it; nobody else is responsible for it. And don’t go on throwing responsibility on others, because that is what keeps you asleep—if others are responsible for your sleep then what can you do? When others change, when they decide to wake you, then you will wake up.

Mind is so cunning, it goes on finding explanations. There are people who say “When God wants us to be awake He will wake us. Meanwhile, we sleep. What can we do? It is fate.” These are cunning tricks. God is constantly calling you, but He never interferes with your freedom. He respects your freedom; your freedom is far more valuable than anything else. So if you decide to be asleep, you remain asleep. He goes on calling but He does not disturb you, He does not come and shake you and shock you. That’s why His voice is called ‘the still small voice’. He goes on speaking in such silent ways that if you want to hear you will hear, if you don’t want to hear there is no need to hear.

WHEN YOU LOOK FOR ME,
YOU WILL FIND ME INSTANTLY.

In the poetry of Kabir, in his philosophy, this idea ‘If you look for me’ is very central. What exactly he means is that the look has not to be lukewarm. You can meet with God only when you are boiling at a hundred degrees—only then do you evaporate. Only then does the visible meet with the invisible—the earth starts moving into the sky, only at a hundred degrees’ temperature. Ninety-nine won’t do—you will become hot but you will not evaporate. Total intensity is needed, totality is needed. All partial efforts are useless. If you are doing partial efforts it is better not to. Why waste time?—because it is not going to happen; you could have done something else. Whenever you are total in it, it happens instantly. And when you look for God the look has to be so total that there is no looker in it—just as when the dance is total there is no dancer in it, only dance.

When you are listening to me totally there is no listener in it, only listening. When I am speaking to you there is no speaker in it, only speaking. Whenever the dancer is there and the dance, then there is not totality. Then the energy is divided into two, the dancer and the dance; then there is a contradiction in it. But whenever the dancer disappears into the dance, it is what meditation is all about.

When you are looking for God, be the look and disappear in the look. Just become the eyes and forget everything else, and instantly it is revealed.

YOU WILL FIND ME IN THE TINIEST HOUSE OF TIME.

The word that Kabir uses for ‘the tiniest house of time’ and that has always been used in the East is PAL. Pal means the gap between two moments. One moment passes, another comes, between the two there is a tiny gap—has to be, otherwise one moment will overlap the other. It is a very very tiny space, but it has to be there to make those two moments distinct and separate. It is very swift, but that gap is the door—through that gap you enter into eternity. That gap is called ‘Pal’. In English there is no word for it; in English ‘the tiniest house of time’ is the moment. But what is between two moments? Look at my two fingers: between the two fingers there is a gap—those two fingers can be as close as possible but there is a gap. That gap between two moments is called ‘pal’. That is the tiniest, that is the atom of time.

That pal is the door to now. That gap is the present. One moment has become past, another moment is still in the future, and between the two is the gap, the present.

YOU WILL FIND ME IN THE TINIEST HOUSE OF TIME.
KABIR SAYS, “STUDENT, TELL ME, WHAT IS GOD?
HE IS THE BREATH INSIDE THE BREATH.”

Whenever you ask about God you ask as if God is there like a problem to be encountered. You ask as if you are standing outside God and speculating, observing Him. You ask as if God is an object. God is not an object, God is your subjectivity. God is not there outside, God is your inferiority, your innerness. That is the meaning when Kabir says:

HE IS THE BREATH INSIDE THE BREATH.

Watch your breath and you will come to know what he means—you will see one thing which cannot be seen unless you watch your breath. Buddha made it a great technique for meditation, watching the breath, because through watching it you will come to know the breath inside the breath.

The word ‘breath’ means life. In Sanskrit the word for breath is PRANA: Prana means life. In Hebrew the word for breath means spirit. In all the languages of the world, breath is thought to be synonymous with life or spirit or soul. But breath is not the real soul—you will come to this experience only when you watch.

Try a small experiment: sitting silently, just start watching your breath. The easiest way to watch is from the entrance of the nose. When the breath comes in, feel the touch of the breath at the entrance of the nose—watch it there. The touch will be easier to watch, breath will be too subtle; in the beginning just watch the touch. The breath goes in, and you feel it going in: watch it. And then follow it, go with it. You will find there comes a point where it stops. Just somewhere near your navel it stops—for a tiny, tiny moment, for a pal, it stops. Then it moves outwards again; then follow it—again feel the touch, the breath going out of the nose. Follow it, go with it outside—again you will come to a point, the breath stops for a very tiny moment. Then again the cycle starts.

Inhalation, gap, exhalation, gap, inhalation, gap. That gap is the most mysterious phenomenon inside you. When the breath comes in and stops and there is no movement, that is the point where one can meet God. Or when the breath goes out and stops and there is no movement.

Remember, you are not to stop it; it stops on its own. If you stop it you will miss the whole point, because the doer will come in and witnessing will disappear. You are not to do anything about it. You are not to change the breath pattern, you are neither to inhale nor to exhale. It is not like PRANAYAM of yoga, where you start manipulating the breath; it is not that. You don’t touch the breath at all—you allow its naturalness, its natural flow. When it goes out you follow it, when it comes in you follow it.

And soon you will become aware that there are two gaps. In those two gaps is the door. And in those two gaps you will understand, you will see, that breath itself is not life—maybe a food for life, just like other foods, but not life itself. Because when the breathing stops you are there, perfectly there—you are perfectly conscious, utterly conscious. And the breath has stopped, breathing is no more there, and you are there.

And once you continue this watching of the breath—what Buddha calls VIPASSANA or ANAPANASATI yoga—if you go on watching it, watching it, watching it, slowly slowly you will see the gap is increasing and becoming bigger. Finally it happens that for minutes together the gap remains. One breath goes in, and the gap… and for minutes the breath does not go out. All has stopped. The world has stopped, time has stopped, thinking has stopped. Because when the breath stops, thinking is not possible. And when the breath stops for minutes together, thinking is impossible, absolutely impossible—because the thought process needs continuous oxygen, and your thought process and your breathing are very deeply related.

When you are angry your breath has a different rhythm, when you are sexually stimulated you have a different breath rhythm, when you are silent a different breath rhythm again. When you are happy a different breath rhythm, when you are sad a different rhythm again. Your breathing goes on changing with the moods of the mind. The vice versa is also true—when the breath changes, the moods of the mind change. And when breath stops, mind stops.

In that stopping of the mind the whole world stops—because the mind is the world. And in that stopping you come to know for the first time what is the breath inside the breath: life inside life. That experience is liberating. That experience makes you alert of God—and God is not a person but the experience of life itself.

WHAT HAS DEATH AND A THICK BODY DANCES BEFORE
WHAT HAS NO THICK BODY AND NO DEATH.

In this experience you will see that there are two things within you: the deathless and the mortal. The body is mortal, full of death. And inside the body there is a transcendence which is deathless.

WHAT HAS DEATH AND A THICK BODY.

The gross body, the physical body, is mortal. This mortal body goes on dancing before something which has no death and no thick body, no gross body. Inside you there is a witness, an eternal witness—before that eternal witness all dance continues. The body goes on dancing in a thousand and one ways: the dance when you were a child, and the dance when you were young and in love and in passion, and the dance when you become old and the passion disappears and wisdom arises—and so many dances.

But all these dances are of the mortal body, the body that is made of physical elements and will disappear. It is only a combination for the time being; it is a compound, it cannot last forever. It is a machine—but behind the machine, behind this mortal body, there is something immortal, deathless. That is your consciousness—call it God, call it the soul, or call it whatsoever you feel like. This innermost core of your existence is God.

HE IS THE BREATH INSIDE THE BREATH.
WHAT HAS DEATH AND A THICK BODY DANCES BEFORE
WHAT HAS NO THICK BODY AND NO DEATH.

This is your real life. You are too much attached with the body, identified with the body, that’s why you are so much afraid of death. Otherwise, to be afraid of death is ridiculous—because you cannot die; you in your innermost core cannot die. You only go on changing houses, from one body to another. You have lived in many bodies, you have passed through many bodies.

When Buddha became enlightened, the first thing he said to nature was this—he looked at the sky and said “Now you will not need to create another house for me.” Strange words. To whom was he talking? He was just saying to nature in general, at large: “You will not have to trouble yourself again, you will not need to make a body for me. I have understood who I am.”

In that understanding, one is freed from the body of death. In that moment…

THE TRUMPET SAYS, “I AM YOU.”

In that moment the whole existence, God, says to you: I am you.

THE SPIRITUAL MASTER ARRIVES AND BOWS DOWN
TO THE BEGINNING STUDENT.

And now this has happened for the first time to you. You are just a beginning student, just on the threshold of the temple of God—but when it happens…

THE SPIRITUAL MASTER ARRIVES AND BOWS DOWN
TO THE BEGINNING STUDENT.

God comes and bows down to you, the whole existence bows down to you. The great miracle has happened: you are no more, the self has disappeared. The whole existence celebrates it, worships it, bows down to you.

THE SPIRITUAL MASTER ARRIVES AND BOWS DOWN
TO THE BEGINNING STUDENT.
TRY TO LIVE TO SEE THIS!

Kabir says: Try to live to see this—don’t go without seeing it. Realize this, this is the goal of all spirituality.

And remember these words of Michael Adam:

Life is a dance… the dance goes on with us and without us. The dance is: it always is… stones dance as surely as stars. A rock is a slow dance; a flower is a little faster… The choice is ours: to dance with the quick, or to join the procession of the dead. The way of the dead brings security, comfort, fame, so that there can be no good reason to join the dance. To give a motive to this way of life, which is the way of love, is to belittle it. The whole point is its pointlessness. One dances for no reason, as the rose opens in the morning and is for no reason red. There is no virtue in it.

The dance of life is God’s dance. You can participate in it or you can withhold yourself. There is every reason to withhold—the society is afraid of all those people who start dancing with God, because they become dangerous, they become rebellious, they become free. They are no more slaves, they throw their chains, they get out of all prisons. They dance in the streets, they dance under the stars, they participate in God’s dance. They are not afraid of death, so they cannot be reduced to slaves.

The fear of death is the root cause that you can be converted into a slave. Without fear, who can reduce you to a slave? A fearless man cannot be reduced to a slave, so society tries in every way to make you afraid. The society does not want you to know that you are life eternal. It does not want you to know that death is illusory, that it doesn’t happen really, that it only appears to happen—that death is utterly false, that it is a lie. The society does not want it, the society wants you to live in illusions. The truth is too much.

“The choice is ours: to dance with the quick, or to join the procession of the dead.” But the society is the procession of the dead. Corpses—walking around, moving around, manipulating each other, bossing each other about. The choice is ours. Remember: if you respect life you should not allow any death to settle in you, you should not allow any fear to settle in you. And you should not compromise—there is no need.

“But “The way of the dead brings security, comfort, fame, so that there can be no good reason to join the dance.” The society respects the crippled, the paralyzed, the dull, the stupid, the dead—they are good people, they are civilized people. It kills a Christ, it poisons a Socrates, it tries in every way to destroy a Buddha. But it respects the ordinary, the mediocre, the bourgeois, the middle-class—there is an investment in it. If you want to enjoy the dance of life—and without enjoying it you will be missing the whole opportunity, a great opportunity, a great benediction—if you want to enjoy the dance of life you will have to take this risk. You will have to drop all desire for fame, you will have to drop all desire for respectability.

If you can drop the desire for respectability, one day it happens—the miracle:

THE SPIRITUAL MASTER ARRIVES AND BOWS DOWN
TO THE BEGINNING STUDENT.
TRY TO LIVE TO SEE THIS!

You must have heard a famous philosophic saying: “NETI, NETI.” It means “not this, not that.” The philosopher goes on saying “This is not God, that is not God.” Ask the philosopher “What is God?” and he never answers it. He simply goes on saying what is not God. “Neti neti: this is not God, that is not God”—his method is that of elimination. He says “When I have denied all that is not God then whatsoever is left is God.” This is a very roundabout way, very long, unending.

It is as if you ask somebody “Who is the man named Rama?”—and the person starts taking you on a tour of the world and he says “This is not Rama, this is not Rama, this is not Rama…” Millions and millions of people are there, and he goes on and goes on and denies everybody who is not Rama. And then—if that day ever comes—he says “Now whosoever is left and has not been pointedly denied is Rama.” By that time you may have forgotten your question.

Kabir says just the polar opposite. The philosopher says: “Neti neti—not this, not that.” Kabir says: “ITI ITI—it is here, it is here, this, this.” Kabir says: “He is everywhere. There is no need to deny, there is no need to go on saying ‘This is not God, that is not God.’ This is it. Everything is it. Iti iti.”

This approach is very realistic, very earthly. That’s why he says:

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?

I AM HERE IN THE NEXT SEAT.

Iti, iti.

YOUR SHOULDER IS AGAINST MINE.

YOU WILL NOT FIND ME IN THE STUPAS,

NOR IN INDIAN SHRINE ROOMS,

NOR IN THE SYNAGOGUE, NOR IN CATHEDRALS,

NOT IN MASSES, NOR KIRTANS,

NOT IN LEGS TWISTING AROUND THE NECK.

Iti, iti: I am here, I am here.

NOR IN EATING NOTHING BUT VEGETABLES.

WHEN YOU LOOK FOR ME, YOU WILL FIND ME INSTANTLY.

Iti, iti—because I am here, because I have always been here, because I have never gone anywhere else. Iti Iti.

YOU WILL FIND ME IN THE TINIEST HOUSE OF TIME.

KABIR SAYS, “STUDENT, TELL ME, WHAT IS GOD?

HE IS IN THE BREATH INSIDE THE BREATH.”

WHAT HAS DEATH AND A THICK BODY DANCES BEFORE

WHAT HAS NO THICK BODY AND NO DEATH.

THE TRUMPET SAYS, “I AM YOU.”

Iti, iti.

THE SPIRITUAL MASTER ARRIVES AND BOWS DOWN

TO THE BEGINNING STUDENT.

TRY TO LIVE TO SEE THIS!

Iti, iti.

Enough for today.