151. Meditation happens when the mind is not separate from the emptiness that exists between thoughts.
152. Contemplate what is your deepest interest. Forget what anyone else says you must do. Discard all the pressures of society that tell you to be this or that. Listen only to yourself. Find your greatest interest and then carefully, seriously, and with all the energy you can muster, slowly go into it. Take great care not to fall prey to trickery, and that the first step you take is not on the wrong path, because people are easy to fool. It is important to follow the truth. No matter where the truth leads, regardless what it implies, and independent of any calamity that may come, follow it. Follow the truth. Only then can you come upon your deepest interest, what gives life purpose, and makes life infinitely meaningful, precious, and therefore sacred.
153. Away with you, thought!
154. To be free means to be alone, not lonely, but to have a feeling of aloneness. That means having no sense of attachment to anything or anyone. One must feel that one knows nobody. One may have a family and friends, but one does not know them with certainty. They cannot be known because they change from moment to moment. When you say you know someone what you know is the knowledge about a past experience of that person. The knowledge is stored in memory, and that knowledge is you. That means what you know is not the other person but it is yourself. You must learn what it is to know nothing, which means to discard all of the knowledge you hold dear about other people, things and ideas. Discard the whole of knowledge means to release the totality of the known. It means to open the door to freedom. Freedom comes about when the whole structure and activity of seeking and embracing the known comes to a stop. Only in freedom can one discover that great unknown which is aloneness. To be alone is to be like a candle in a dark room. The light does not come from anything that is not the candle or from something outside the room. It comes from the candle. It is the same with freedom. Freedom does not come from anything that exists outside the brain. It comes from within.
155. Belief is thought, and thought is memory. Memory is limited. That means belief cannot be used to come upon that which is unlimited, eternal, and therefore sacred. It means belief prevents that sacred other from manifesting. Discard belief and the whole of thought, and that which is sacred appears. It comes out of nowhere, unexpectedly, suddenly. It just comes.
156. It is never too late to find out what is love. You may be old with most of your life behind you. You may be on your death bed. That does not matter. What is important is that you find out what is love, because love completes life. It finishes life. Fail to come upon what is love and life remains incomplete, unfinished, which means all the ignorance and sorrow that goes with it continues. It continues after death.
157. As the idea of a tree is not the tree, so is any idea about what is love not love. That means any idea you have about love it is not it. Belief is an idea. Opinion is an idea. That means every belief, opinion, mental image, or psychological picture one has about love is not love. All of that is thought and thought is memory. Memory has a beginning and end, which means it is finite. Love is not finite. That which is finite has no relationship with that which is infinite. Love is infinite. Therefore thought is the barrier that denies love. The whole of human memory cannot be used to come upon love. This insight results in freedom from thought. It brings freedom from looking for love in memory. Everyone is fooled into thinking that love somehow exists in memory, in the past, and therefore time. Thought and memory are bound to the past, the psychological past, which implies time. This is critical to see. Love exists only in the present, which means love has nothing to do with time. Love is timeless. You either have that love which is infinite or not. You either love now, or not. There is no in between.
158. There is meaning in the smallest of things, a fallen leaf, a bird in flight, an unknown person in a crowd, an unexpected telephone call, a television news program. There is tremendous meaning and significance in everything. One need only to look. There is a field of existence that is intelligence, which it is by nature unlimited, and therefore envelopes the whole of life, plants, animals, man, and the stars. It is what gives meaning to things. Find out what is intelligence, which means to end the limitation within, and the extraordinary meaning of things is revealed.
159. It was the middle of the afternoon and a clear blue sky peeked threw the cracks in the window blinds. The blinds were drawn and a light breeze gently pushed them back and forth. In the distance was faint music, the sound of a television, passing cars, and wind chimes. The body was resting on a soft bed next to the open window. The room was quiet. Breathing was soft and steady. The eyelids closed and inwardly there was no movement or idle activity. The brain was free of the mindless chatter of thought and image making. A great vacancy and intimate emptiness filled the brain. The vacancy, intimate other, or whatever it was, had nothing to do with the self or ego. It was pure nothingness, and therefore a contentment and peace that comes when the ego is no more. It comes when the ego dies. Psychological death means the cessation of the ego in the brain. It takes place when the addiction to idea making is kicked, which happens when the mind learns what it is to live in silence. The silent mind is free from the totality of idea making and psychological embrace of ideas. People embrace all sorts of ideas, the idea of God, work, justice, happiness, power, money, pleasure, sex, and all that. When the mind stops to embrace idea making the ego ends. It extinguishes and vanishes instantly, spontaneously. There is no will or effort involved which means the end of the ego cannot be compelled, urged or forced. The mind that ends the ego comes upon an entirely new energy and dimension of life where there is great lucidity and vitality. The mind is thereby thrust into a vast expanse. It is an expanse of energy without boundary, and therefore limitless. The mind comes upon this expanse and it is not separate from it. The vastness of what the mind encounters is ineffable. Any description of it fails to come close to the magnitude and enormity of it. No words or image can approach the essence of the thing. It is the same with contentment. Any mental image of what it is, is not it. Contentment is not an image. It is not a theory, belief idiotic ideology, or something one struggled to attain, which means it is real. It is the real deal. Do not accept any of this as true. Doubt it. Explore it for yourself. Only then can it come about.
160. Make death a best friend and not an enemy. Embrace death daily, which means to die and let go of the whole of memory throughout the day and from moment to moment. Do that and you will discover that death is life. They are the same.
161. The ocean waves appeared twenty feet high, blue, green and powerful. They crashed into the rocks splashing up water drops and white sparkling foam. The horseshoe bay waters were deep blue and the wide open sky was filled with brisk, clean air. Children and dogs played with each other happily on the distant beach. The dirt path snaked around the edge of the bluff above the white sand, next to the narrow road, and across from the large homes overlooking the water. Several hikers were on the path walking their dogs. One walker passed by with lifeless eyes and wrinkles on his brow. He looked down as he walked and appeared oblivious to the beauty of the sky, waters, and waves. His face expressed a dull pain and sorrow that comes with loss and heartache. The world is filled with heartache. People tolerate living with sorrow. They are completely unaware that the whole of every inner hurt and sorrow that a person has ever experienced in life, the loss of a job or home, a divorce, the death of a spouse, and more, can all come to an end. It can come to an instant and complete stop. The beauty of the end of sorrow is that it costs nothing, depends on nothing, and takes no time. The key is attention. It is a quality of mental aliveness and alertness, which is not a superficial or casual. Instead it is an alertness that is extraordinarily serious and penetrating. When the mind comes upon that quality of attentiveness, then one must live it. Do that and the mind is no longer caught up in the trappings of inner sorrow. It steps out of the river of human sorrow, and thereby enters into a new field of life that knows no hurt of any kind. As the walker passed suddenly it happened. Without any sense of want or expectation the sacred other opened up around a corner beneath a lone cypress tree and revealed itself. It continued along the path and filled the ground, the air, and the space between everything. It was in the dirt, the eyes of a dog, the skin of a woman, the road, the gutter, the sewer. It touched and enveloped everything. The mind was empty of the past and memory. No trace of sorrow touched the mind. All sorrow was unapproachable to this sacred, infinite, and unspeakable other. Soon after rounding the corner of the dirt path it left. It disappeared as suddenly as it came. The mind was cleansed like a hard, steady, long rain cleans the streets, trees, and air. Whatever it was remained as an echo throughout the day. Hours later it was barely felt. It seemed to be hidden and waiting with infinite patience. Later it was gone. There was no desire to repeat it or seek it out. The whole of mental seeking and struggle had no meaning, and therefore did not exist. A large noisy truck rumbled down the street and disappeared around a corner. The leaves and branches of the trees were swaying in a light breeze. The sidewalks were empty, a plane flew overhead, and the large room overlooking the street was silent.
162. One must be careful not to fool oneself when one explores what is the self, what is love, death, God, or whatever. It is easy for the mind to fool itself, to make things up for purposes of attention, ambition, to feel a sense of psychological security, self worth, and all the rest of it. The moment desire enters the picture, deception takes place. Desire is the root of deception because it involves the self. Desire is the assertion of the self and therefore thought. The entire mechanics of thought as the self must be scrapped. Otherwise whatever comes of any investigation one makes into such matters will be shallow, warped, and therefore without any real meaning at all.
163. Every urge to pursue thought must stop. The whole activity of inner struggle must end. Only then can the selfless other come. Only then can that which is sacred unveil itself.
164. Death is not something that exists in the future, but it is something that happens every moment of every day. When a person learns to die each day, which means to let go of the whole of every memory, experience, and thought that one accumulates during the day, then death is no longer a mystery. It is no longer something to be feared. Failure to let go of a memory shows attachment. It is the attachment to memory that creates fear, the fear to lose the memory, the fear that it will someday be gone. To die each day means to live without the attachment to memory, which means the memory of a person, family, job, bank account, religious belief, or whatever else. Life without attachment to memory is a life of freedom. The end of attachment is freedom. They are the same. To live in freedom means to live without the inward attachment to any idea whatsoever. To do this brings about a tremendous awakening. One sees the world with new, fresh eyes. Suddenly one lives life in the present which means with great energy and interest. One no longer wastes energy with fear, which means one has an abundance of energy. This awakening brings about the discovery that death completes life. It gives wholeness to everyday life and thereby makes possible for a full, passionate, and therefore fearless way of living.
165. The huge sky was filled with white and gray clouds. The rain was light and steady. The wet grass was a jungle of dark, light and yellow greens. The house gutters overflowed with running water and opened out onto the street. Rain drops made pulsating waves in the large puddle that crashed into and merged with the other waves. The collection of rain drops formed a large puddle in the street. The collection of drops was the content of the puddle. The content of the puddle was the puddle. They were the same. It is the same with the mind. The content of the mind is the mind. The content of the mind is ideas, mental pictures, opinions, images, beliefs, and thoughts. It is the whole of education, upbringing, and past experiences that reside in memory. It is all that. That means the content of the mind is thought. It is memory. However, there is something else in the mind. There is one other thing. There is an emptiness present. The emptiness is not thought but it is a part of the content of the mind. It is a part of the content of the mind that exists in the space between thoughts. It is outside the grasp of thought, which means it is something that cannot be touched in any way. It is an untouchable thing. Also thought and memory are partial, bias, and therefore grounded in ignorance. The emptiness is not partial, which means it is outside the field of ignorance. The mind that empties itself of the whole of thought as opinion, belief, ideology, fantasy, and all that, brings an end to the ignorance within. It comes upon an entirely different dimension to life that is not partial or bias. It comes upon a field of life in which ignorance has no place. The absence of ignorance is intelligence. They are the same. The mind that no longer any place for ignorance comes upon intelligence, which means it has found what ends the partiality and bias within. The end of partiality is wholeness. It is what makes life complete. That means the emptiness within is not a blank void. It is not an abyss, lifeless, or without meaning. Instead it is an extraordinary fullness and richness that gives tremendous meaning to life. It gives meaning to life because it makes life whole. Love is like that. Love gives meaning to life. It makes life whole and complete. This is important to understand. The emptiness within and love are not different. They are the same thing.
166. The man who knows the whole of science, art, business and literature, but does not know himself, is an ignorant man.
167. Meditation comes about when the mind is silent, absent of the movement of thought, and therefore devoid of analysis, mental image making, and the repetition of ideas as they go in and out of memory. Meditation is silence. It is a complete, thick and inner silence, and therefore it means listening. It means listening without direction, desire, or any intent. It is not a casual listening, but it is a listening that is intense, powerful, and filled with immense energy. Meditation means energy. It is the same.
168. The self is the problem. It is the mischief maker and the cause of every war, crime, social violence, disorder and human suffering that has gone on for thousands of years. The end of the self is the answer that brings a stop to all that. Where there is no self there is no ambition, no struggle, no authority, and no fear. The absence of the self means no anger, competition, or loneliness. It means no identification to any religious or political belief, and all the division and conflict it creates. The brain must find out what it means for the entire movement and activity of the self to end. The self cannot be renounced with force, because it is the self that is behind the force. It cannot be refused or denied because it is the self that is the refuser, the denier. The abnegation and total destruction of the self can only be carried out by that which has nothing to with the self. Therefore the entire activity of the self, which means the mental activity of opinion, belief, desire, all that, must be quiet. It must be still. The brain that is quiet has the capacity to bring an end to the movement of the self. Only the brain that learns what it is to be still and totally silent, learns what it means for the movement of these activities to shutdown. It learns what stops the whole machinery of personal belief, and what terminates desire. It is critical to see that there is something inside the brain that does that. When the brain is quiet, there is something within the quietness, emptiness and silence that brings an end to the self. The brain that is silent is not dull, sluggish, mechanical, or insensitive. It is highly sensitive. It is vitally alert and watchful. There is tremendous energy in a brain that no longer contains personal belief, desire, struggle, ambition, fear, and all the rest of it. It is this energy that operates in the silent mind. It is this energy that ends the self. If you find out what it is to come upon this vast field of energy, then every form of struggle, ambition, fear, and all the insane misery that goes with it, ends. It evaporates all at once, and what remains is entirely new and different. What remains is indescribable.
169. Make your body your temple. Wash it daily. Make it an ablution. Clean it with great care and thoroughness. Give it heathy food, clean water, and fresh air to breathe. Be good to it, but do not give it supreme importance. The body is a physical, material, and therefore a limited thing. What is most important is not limited. Only that which is unlimited, immeasurable, and therefore holy, has supreme importance. Nothing else does.
170. Don't put up with or tolerate living with psychological conflict. If there is stress, anxiety, or frustration in your life, then step back and look at it. Watch it as it arises, occupies the brain, and reacts. Learn what is its cause. If there is possessiveness, jealousy, anger, emotional hurt, and misery in your life, then closely observe it as it manifests by thought, and how thought sustains it. Learn what it means to eradicate it, so that it is no longer a part of you. Find out what abolishes the whole of that craziness instantly and totally. The abolition of inner conflict must not be merely a fanciful idea or distant goal that requires study and hours of analysis. It has nothing to do with study. It cannot be achieved by analysis. Both study and analysis imply time, and the end of conflict has nothing to do with time. There is only one thing that ends conflict, and that one thing is love. Love ends conflict. It does away with it completely and it does not take time. Love has nothing to do with time. That means when you come upon what is love, which means that timeless dimension to existence that knows no conflict of any kind, you will discover that every form of psychological hurt, anxiety, and sorrow ends all at once. It ends in a flash.
171. When watching ideas enter the brain, do not try to change, suppress, translate or in any way judge them. Simply observe them. Watch them carefully, closely, so that they are exposed. The more ideas are exposed the more they are not a mystery, which means the more they fall away and not carry over in daily life. Ideas that carry over into daily life deny the present. They deny relationship which can only exist in the present. Where there is no relationship, there is no love.
172. There is a field of existence outside the boundary of time, which is timeless, unlimited. This field can only reveal itself when one finds out what it is to bring an end to the whole mechanics of inward attachment to mental images, ideas, and thoughts. The end of attachment to the whole of thought means freedom. They are the same. Freedom is something no words, book, or person can give you. It is something you must do completely on your own. It is a door you must go through yourself. The first and last step to freedom is to find out what it means to be completely, utterly alone, and secure in that aloneness. One may live with a family or group of people, but one is not attached. One may own a car, work at a job, and have a bank account, but there is no attachment to the idea of any of that. The entire structure and framework of mental attachment to ideas of things must be totally destroyed. It must be obliterated. Only then can one discover what it means to be free. The attachment to ideas constricts the mind to memory. Memory is the past, and therefore it implies time. The end of attachment brings an end to the past. It brings a stop to living in time. To learn what it is to end the whole of attachment to ideas in one's everyday life is the key that opens the door to that which is outside the field of time. It opens the door to that timeless other. That which is timeless is not an idea. Ideas can be twisted and adulterated. That which is timeless cannot be adulterated, which means there is a purity and innocence about it. A timeless life comes about when one finds out what it means to be free. The person who finds out what it is to be inwardly free at the same time comes upon that timeless other.
173. It is all right if none of this interests you or you do not understand it. It is all right.
174. Intelligence does not operate in the ignorant person, because the ignorant person lives with ambition, greed, envy, fear, sorrow, and all the rest of it. Intelligence does not operate but it must be at hand. The potential for it exists, which means it must be at hand for all mankind. If it is at hand, then it must envelope and surround all mankind even though it is not apparent. That means life has tremendous meaning for the greedy, lonely, frustrated, fearful, dying, crippled, and insane. It has meaning for every human being on earth.
175. Feel deeply that you will physically die today and watch how you suddenly notice nature, the trees, flowers, birds, insects, clouds, and sky. Watch how you see these things as if for the very first time. Now see what happens when you die to every memory, thought, and experience as it passes through the brain from moment to moment. The same feeling occurs. there is seeing things as if for the first time. Watch how the brain awakens, feels renewed, alive, sensitive to the smallest things. Suddenly there is awareness to what before was concealed and hidden. That is what death does. It unveils a realm of existence life that for most people lies totally hidden.
176. You can teach yourself by questioning yourself. Everything known and unknown lies within you.
177. The depth and intensity of the perception of things, which means shapes, positions, textures, colors, sounds, and all that, increases when one feels that today is the last day of life. It increases further when one senses that death comes within the hour. It increases even more when one feels that death is at hand within minutes. Find out what it is to know with certainty that death is happening now and you will come upon a perception of things that is filled with immense energy and vitality. Learn to die to a sunset, song of a bird, the sky, clouds, and trees, and you will understand what it is to perceive things as if for the first time.
178. Let the earth be your house of worship, and let the body be your temple.
179. The immense sky was filled with light grey clouds. The rain was steady and cleaned everything in the small town, the trees, the grass, the green and yellow leaves of bushes, the cars parked along the streets, and the roof tops and windows of the large homes. Passing cars splashed through the wet, empty streets. Streams of water flowed through the gutters, and fallen pink and deep, dark red cherry blossom leaves covered the sidewalk. The room was quiet. The body was still and sensitive to the littlest things in the room, the strands of carpet, weaves of colored fabric on the chairs, furniture, brush strokes on paintings, wood grain on floors, and the great empty space that penetrates everything. Late last night while approaching the window in the dark, empty room, something demanded the body to halt and be completely, utterly still and motionless. The sense of a past teacher and brother appeared in the emptiness of the room. They had past away years ago and yet there was the presence of each. There was a deep feeling of approval and happiness that the writings continue regardless that they may never be read or understood. It was as though what was important was not the writings, because they were small and insignificant, but instead it was for the mental condition that created it. What pleased the others was the awareness, watchfulness, and mental sensitivity within the brain. What was important was the sensitivity and not the description of it. One must be careful not to be fooled by any mental projection. The brain is easy to fool, and terribly vulnerable to imagination, fantasy, and therefore illusion. Whatever happened seemed real, actual. It lasted for an unknown time. The feeling of the communication touched one deep down. The body could not sleep for hours afterwards. The next day the brain could not help but look for the others in order to see if they were still present. There was no sign of anything. Only a memory of what happened remained, but it was not it. The memory had no value, and was discarded along with the household trash. The rain continued throughout the day, and gently wiped away the dirt from everything it touched.
180. The air was perky, fresh, and clean. A soft breeze blew through the empty streets littered with fallen leaves. In the small park people walked their dogs, children played, and birds hovered high above the tree tops. The grass throughout the park was deep, rich green and the sun warmed the pathway across the tennis courts. Cement pathways moved in and around the park and the trees. The roots of the trees pushed up the cement creating deep, long cracks. A small group of trees stood ahead along the path. The branches and leaves curled around over the path like a protective hand or umbrella. As one entered the embrace of the tree’s protective cover a sense of a gentle and holy other suddenly appeared. It was a holiness and sacredness. It was a reverence that revealed itself in the empty space above the path and beneath the trees. It demanded silence. It forced the body to walk softly, pass carefully, with the deepest respect and humility. One could not help but ask for forgiveness for the intrusion. Nobody seemed to noticed it. Everyone appeared to be wrapped up in their own activities. The children played on, people continued to play with their dogs, and the tennis game went on uninterrupted. The holiness, reverence, or whatever, was infinite. It was infinite and at the same time it was more. It was solemn, and emanated a grace and softness that touched everything, and filled one through and through. It disappeared in an instant and left the brain vacant and stunned. The next day upon returning to the scene, there was no evidence or trace of it. Only a worthless memory of it remained and the memory was not it. The wind began to blow hard and leaves covered the path. It was a glorious day.
