Prabhaker

Money can be beautiful — if it is not possessed, if you don’t become obsessed with it. It can be beautiful. If money circulates, moves from one hand to another, goes on moving, the more movement the better. Money should not become the goal, but I am not saying at the same time that you should renounce it and become beggars — use it, it is a good means. One should have money, earn money, produce money — and use it. One should hold it only to use and one should use it only to hold; it becomes a circle. Then a person is both, a miser and a renouncer together. You simply enjoy whatsoever money can give. Money can give many things and money cannot give many things; when you use it then you know what money can give. Money can give all that is outward — things of this world, nothing is wrong in them. Nothing is wrong in having a beautiful house. Nothing is wrong in having a beautiful garden — money can give it to you. But money cannot give you love, that is expecting too much from poor money.

@Loreena If you are happy and you have money, you will become more happy. If you are unhappy and you have money, you will become more unhappy because what will you do with your money? Your money will enhance your pattern, whatsoever it is.

There are two ways to transcend it. One is the way of the world — you can call it desire. Desire is the way to hide this anxiety. You rush into earning money, madly. You become so absorbed in earning money that you forget all existential anxiety. Then there is no point, no time to think about real problems. Then you put aside everything and you just go into the search for money, more money. And as you get money, more and more desire arises. This desiring for money or political power is nothing but a cover for your anxiety. That’s why people are very much frightened when they are left alone and nothing is there to be done. That’s why retired people become very very uneasy, uncomfortable. They die fast. Because the anxiety that he has been repressing through his job asserts itself. He was running after money, chasing after political power; there was no time to give to anxiety. Now there is all the time and nothing to do. Sitting in his armchair he does only one thing — anxieting. Nothing else to do! Now ALL the repressed anxieties of his whole life — that denied existential part takes revenge. It kills. He becomes ill, heart attacks come, he becomes paralyzed. But there is more possibility that all this is happening because of the psychology, not because of the body. When a person is succeeding and his desires are taking him farther and farther away, he remains healthy. Politicians are almost always healthy when they are in power; when they lose power, they suddenly become old. When a person is earning and earning and earning, he remains healthy. When he becomes d failure, when he goes bankrupt, then suddenly, yes, in a single night all his hair can turn white — literally. Desire is a way to avoid anxiety, but only to avoid. You cannot destroy it by desiring. And desire gives you small anxieties, remember, VERY small anxieties, which are not existential. Of course, when you are earning money you will have a few anxieties: the market and the share market, and things like that, and prices. And you have put so much money — are you going to earn out of it or are you going to lose? These small anxieties. These are nothing compared to the real anxiety — these are tricks to avoid the real. Of course, when you are ambitious for politician power, you will have anxieties, a thousand and one. But they are nothing! they are play-things compared to the fundamental anxiety. @Annetta Desire is a cover-up for anxiety. It is a trick, a strategy. And meditation is to uncover it. That’s why people can’t sit silently even for a few minutes. Because when they sit silently, anxieties start raising their heads. They become very much afraid. That’s why people ask, even in meditation, “What should we do? Can we chant a mantra?” Then it is okay; then the mantra becomes your cover. All the old methods - if used directly, without catharsis - will not be of much help. If you just watch the mind, it will take a very long time - years. And nothing is certain because you are not simply watching: every day, you are creating more mind. And there is a past accumulation in the mind, so it can go on and on; you can go on and on. Old methods can help somebody who has not much tension in his body, has not much repression in his mind, but now to find such people is very difficult. Now everybody is full of tensions. Woodcutters, fishermen, farmers – for them old methods may be perfectly good, because already their body is doing so much. Modern civilization people are sitting the whole day in their chairs. Bodies were not made for that. Man is basically a hunter. His body was made to work hard – eight hours, twelve hours – and the question of tensions in the body was out of the question. The whole upbringing, the civilization, the education, is suppressive. You have accumulated anger, sex, violence, greed, everything! Now this accumulation is a madness within you. If you begin with any suppressive meditation, for example, with just sitting, you are suppressing all of this, you are not allowing it to be released. So, begin with a catharsis - dynamic meditation.

Remember, they are shadows. They are, in a sense, and still they are not: that is the meaning of a shadow. It is non-substantial. A shadow is just an absence. If someone says that the shadow is a reality, that darkness is a reality, he is right. Although darkness exists, shadow exists, nevertheless it is only the absence of light. Clash of shadows don't make sound. @Parki Can clash of two light beams make a sound ?

Poverty is not the cause of suicides in India. A poor person who has not his life yet, don't think of dying. When whole society is poor, you don't complain much about it. Indian think poverty as a result of past lives karma. Causes for suicide in India In 2014 Causes No of people Bankruptcy or indebtedness 2,308 Marriage Related Issues 6,773 Non Settlement of Marriage 1,096 Dowry Related Issues 2,261 Extra Marital affairs 476 Divorce 333 Others 2,607 Failure in Examination 2,403 Impotency/Infertility 332 Other Family problems 28,602 Illness 23,746 AIDS/STD 233 Cancer 582 Paralysis 408 Insanity/Mental illness 7,104 Other prolonged illness 15,419 Death of dear person 981 Drug abuse/addiction 3,647 Fall in social reputation 490 Ideological causes/Hero worshipping 56 Love affairs 4,168 Poverty 1,699 Unemployment 2,207 Property dispute 1,067 Suspected/Illicit relation 458

Enlightenment has no purpose, it has no utility, it is not a means to some end. It is enough unto itself. It is such a contentment, such deep satisfaction with oneself and the cosmos, such a strong let-go, that you don’t have to do anything. Just being is more than you can have conceived – the joy of just being, the blissfulness of just being. Non-doing awareness has no function in the world but is simply a blissfulness, an ecstasy, a drunkenness utterly centered in the present moment… That is the whole idea of the Buddhas: to make you aware that something is hiding inside you. But because it is of no use, you don’t care about it. The world consists of utility, and your consciousness is of no utility. You cannot earn by it, you cannot sell it, you cannot do anything by it. It is not a doing energy. Spirituality is not morality. Spirituality is not a question of morality, it is a question of vision. Spirituality is not the practicing of virtues - because if you practice a virtue it is no longer a virtue. A practiced virtue is a dead thing, a dead weight. Virtue is virtue only when it is spontaneous, virtue is virtue only when it is natural, unpracticed - when it comes out of your vision, out of your awareness, out of your understanding. You can practice non-violence, but you will still remain violent, because your vision has not changed. A greedy person can practice sharing, but the greed will remain the same. Even the sharing will be corrupted by the greed, because you cannot practice anything against your understanding.

Times of crisis are both dangerous and immensely important -- dangerous for those who have no courage to explore new dimensions of life. They are bound to disintegrate into different kinds of madness, because their mind was made by the society. Now the society is disintegrating, the mind cannot remain; its roots are in the society. It is constantly nourished by the society -- now that nourishment is disappearing. But times of crisis are of tremendous significance for those daring souls who have never bothered about society's respectability, its honors; who have never bothered about what others think about them, but have done only that which they felt right to do; who have in a certain way been always rebellious, individualistic. For these people the times of crisis are just golden, because the society is disintegrating. The daring individual can use this opportunity to go beyond mind, because now the society cannot prevent him, cannot hinder him. Now he is free. This is the situation of many people of intelligence. Either they are going insane... you can see it or find some way, some method, some meditation -- Yoga, Zen. Somewhere somebody must know how to get over this critical stage, how to go beyond the traditional mind and still remain centered, sane, and intelligent. But it is a beautiful time. The grip of society is lost. Yes, the mediocre will suffer, but anyway they were not enjoying, they were not really living; they were simply being hypocrites. By being insane at least they will be real, authentic. They won't lose anything -- of course they won't gain much.... The people who will go beyond mind will create the new man.

If you meditate, love will follow; if you love, meditation will follow. Meditation is easier, love is difficult. Meditation means living with oneself, forgetting the other completely – it is a less difficult dimension than love. Love and meditation are two aspects of the same coin; if you have gained control of the one aspect, the other follows. A glimpse of bliss, love, means you had come close. But glimpses are bound to be lost. Meditation can, at the most, give only a glimpse. But do not stop there; do not get stuck looking for that same glimpse again and again. Then one has to go ahead.

Everybody is both. But up to now, the society has been conditioned in such a way, we have been taught and brought up in such a way, that man is man, woman is woman. This is a very false arrangement, untrue to nature. If a man starts crying and weeping, people start telling him, “Don’t weep like a woman, don’t cry like a woman; don’t be sissy.” This is nonsense — because a man has as many tear-glands in his eye as a woman. If nature had not meant for him to cry and weep then there would have been no tear-glands. Now this is very repressive. If a girl starts behaving like a man, is ambitious, aggressive — mm? — people start thinking that something is wrong: something hormonal is wrong. They call her a tomboy; she is not a girl. This is nonsense! This division is not natural; this division is political, social. A woman is more woman, less man and a man is more man, less woman. Trouble arises when someone deliberately tries to behave like other, instead of living naturally , spontaneously.

Thinking is like the stick of a blind man which he carries to grope his way along. It is just as a blind man carries a stick in his hand, groping for his way. But if his eyes are cured, will he still grope with the stick? He will throw the stick away. If a blind man gropes with his stick when he walks; he can ask, “When one's eyes are cured does one carry a stick to grope, or not?”

Traditional methods of meditation have an appeal because they are so ancient and so many people have achieved through them in the past. They may have become irrelevant to most of us. We are in an altogether different situation now. The whole atmosphere, the whole thought-sphere, has changed. Every method is organic to a particular situation, to a particular mind, to a particular man. The fact that the old methods don't work doesn't mean that no method is useful. It only means that the methods themselves must change. As I see the situation, modern man has changed so much that he needs new methods, new techniques. A catharsis is needed because your heart is so suppressed, due to your brain. Your brain has taken over so much of your being that it dominates you. There is no place for the heart, so the longings of the heart are suppressed. You have never laughed heartily, never lived heartily, never done anything heartily. The brain always comes in to systematize, to make things mathematical, and the heart is suppressed. So firstly, a chaotic method is needed to push the center of consciousness from the brain toward the heart. Remember you have much madness within you. When the madness is released you will feel unburdened, you will feel weightless. You will feel a subtle newness entering in you, as if your childhood has come back. You are again a child: newborn, fresh…. This freshness is very essential; this innocence is very essential if you are to move further. Act out all your madnesses ! If you want to scream, scream. If you want to weep, weep. If you want to jump, jump. If you want to dance, dance. If you just want to be like a child – playing with your body, jumping, dancing, screaming – do it! Do it playfully; don't be serious about it. If you are serious you cannot be totally released. Be playful. Enjoy the madness that is coming out of you. Help it, enjoy it, cooperate with it. If you are really interested in going beyond your madness, this is the way. The second step is to go mad consciously. Those who are intelligent will go mad consciously; those who are stupid will go on holding. So don't be stupid – be a man of understanding and try it! Learn Osho dynamic meditation. http://www.oshodynamic.com/five-stages.html

The phenomenon of enlightenment is very rare. It should be just the contrary; most of the people should be enlightened, to find unenlightened people should be difficult. But that's not what has been happening down the ages. The society is not interested in enlightened people. They are dangerous, contagious. They cannot be enslaved - and all societies want people to be enslaved, exploited, oppressed. The enlightened person is rebellious, against all that man has been doing to other human beings. That's why all the societies from the very beginning start closing the doors and the windows from where any light can enter the child. They will start making him a Hindu or Christian. Now, no Hindu or Christian can be enlightened. He will have to drop his Hinduism or Christianity before he becomes enlightened. The same is true about Mohammedanism, Buddhism, communism, fascism. The enlightened person has no "ism." He need not be concerned with any ideology. He has his own eyes open, he can see; he need not think. Only a blind man thinks about where the door is to get out, where the road is to move on. Please understand the difference between seeing and thinking. Thinking is a very poor substitute for seeing. If you have not seen a lotus flower, howsoever you think about it, you will not be able to figure out what a lotus flower is. The moment you see it, thinking stops. There is nothing to think about; the thing itself is in front of you. And a lotus flower is so beautiful that it is bound to stop your thinking process at least for a second. Only in that second will you experience the beauty, the grandeur, the godliness of the flower. The world is divided into civilizations, societies, cultures. They all do the same thing to the visitors coming into the world, the new people - the children. Mankind has committed the greatest crime against its own children. The children are dependent on you, they think you know all - and you know perfectly well that you know nothing. The children are very curious about each and every thing. They are continuously asking, their enquiry is constant. You try to shut them up - not because their questions are irrelevant, but because you don't have answers. And you know perfectly well that by the time they reach your age, they will understand the situation - and they will do the same with their own children. This goes on and on, generation to generation; hence very rarely have there been enlightened people. Eighty percent of so-called enlightened people have been either Christians or Hindus or Mohammedans or Buddhists. A man is enlightened and is still a Mohammedan? Then what is the difference between blind people and enlightened people? At least he should renounce Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Christianity. He should simply say, "I am myself. I am not a sheep, and I don't need any shepherd. I am a man of my own consciousness, and I have a light of my own. An enlightened person cannot belong to any religion. He belongs to existence. So you can cut off eighty percent of your enlightened people without any difficulty. Ten percent of enlightened people remain silent. You never come to know about them, for the simple reason that you cannot understand silence. And to be enlightened is one thing; to give it an expression is totally different. And unless the enlightened person starts expressing his vision, his experience, his realization, how are you going to know about him? Why do ten percent choose to remain silent? It is because to be articulate is a different quality, it does not come in the same parcel as enlightenment. You don't expect an enlightened man to be a painter necessarily. You don't expect him to be a poet necessarily. Why should you expect that he will be able to be articulate with words? And it is a very difficult job. Perhaps the hardest job in the world is to tell you about something you know nothing about.

I have seen his YouTube channel , 'Discover how to ... Stop suffering and live in peace'.

A teacher teaches you, he has a doctrine, he has a philosophy. He argues, discusses, proves. A Master is himself the proof. He does not argue, he does not propose any philosophy, he does not give you any ethos. He has no commandments. He does not create any should, he does not give you any ideals. In fact, he takes all ideals away. He does not give you a scripture. He teaches you how to burn all scriptures, how to be free of the word, how to be free of theory – because once you are free of the word and the theory and the scripture, you are free to be. A Master is basically a presence. Even if he speaks, he speaks only to lead you towards the wordless. Even if he talks, he talks you out of language. He tries to talk so that you can be led into a world of no-thought. A Master’s teaching is a no-teaching. He does not propose any ideas so that you can cling to them. We need a Master.

None, Out of millions of men one becomes enlightened . Many people start the search and then drop out. It is arduous, it is moving into the unknown; nobody knows whether there is anything like enlightenment or just a fiction created by a few people like Gautam Buddha. Perhaps they are not lying, perhaps they themselves are deceived -- who knows? There is no guarantee. So many start, but very few remain. Most of them return to the world. Sooner or later, finding that they are going into an unknown territory without a map, without any guide, they start feeling crazy. Because the whole world is going in a totally different direction, and they are left alone. Their whole strength was in the crowd. Alone, a thousand and one doubts arise. Alone, one starts feeling that millions of people cannot be wrong, "And I am alone, thinking that I am right -- I must be getting crazy."

One of the most famous actresses, Marilyn Monroe, committed suicide. She was one of the beautiful women ever, one of the most successful. Even the President of America Kennedy, was in love with here, and she had thousands of lovers. One cannot think of what more you can have. She had everything. While she was at the top of her success and fame, she committed suicide. No beggar ever thinks of committing suicide. Logically it should be just the other way: every beggar should think of committing suicide, but no beggar ever thinks. Suicide rate has nothing to do with poverty. Even developed economies like Japan and South Korea have higher suicide rate than India.

Start some light aerobic exercises, walking , jogging etc so that you can feel good and build self confidence.

If you don´t escape, if you allow fear to be there, if you are ready to face it, if you are not trying somehow to forget it, then you are different. I faced it because I started living meditatively first. Now I prefer to live alone.

It can happen to other meditators too, don't resist , every meditator has to pass through catharsis. Many emotions are suppressed: they are uncoiling, they are coming up, bubbling up. And after the screaming you feel relieved, as if a burden has disappeared. You feel weightless; you feel more at ease, calmed down, slowed down. If you don't want to disturb others , you can do it at home, or at an isolated place. Learn catharsis. Watch this video at 2.30

@Frank B I do nothing, I have enough money. This forum keeps me busy all day. You can also do the same, enlighten world with your wisdom !

@harisankartj Everybody thinks about committing suicide in his life, few times, it's a momentary phase. Consult a psychiatrist, if you are really miserable. Why do you want to commit suicide? - death is coming on its own. Why are you in such a hurry?

Once it happened: Jesus was walking and a woman -- a very poor woman, afraid and apprehensive about whether Jesus would treat her or not, because he was always crowded by so many people -- the woman thought to herself, "Just touch Jesus' garment from behind." She did, and she was cured. Jesus looked back and the woman started thanking him. She fell at his feet and was very grateful. Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." The world was deep in trust; people were rooted in faith. Then just the idea that "If Jesus touches my eyes, they will be cured" -- the very idea becomes the root cause of the cure. His insistence is on faith. And remember the distinction between belief and faith: belief is in an idea; faith is in total reality, faith is a reverence for the whole. Belief is of the mind; faith is of your totality. Faith is not of the head. When you have faith, you have faith in your blood, in your bones, in your marrow, in your heart. In your whole being. Jesus told his disciples. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." Jesus' miracles happened because the people were very trusting.

The real miracle is changing hate into love, changing your unconscious into consciousness - that is the real miracle, and that has to be done by yourself. Nobody else can do it. Buddhas can only show the way, they cannot do it on your behalf. There are things which cannot be done on your behalf.

May be you are right and I am utterly wrong, still I will do what I see from my intuition.

Every argument can't be replied through logic. If you state that , "Some people need up to 23,000 hours to achieve mastery in a skill. Enlightenment is no different. " How can I give you a logical reply? I have lived my whole life in company of mystics, I live in India. I also know many things which I have learned from my long journey. I am not a young person, who has learned mysticism from internet.