Appendix #14 Catharsis and Meditation: Steps on The Path The New Alchemy To Turn You On #31
Questions in this Discourse
YOU SAY, "I HAVE COME NOT TO TEACH BUT TO AWAKEN." WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY IT?
TEACHING IS NOT THE BASIC THING, because teaching can give you knowledge but not wisdom, teaching can give you doctrines but not transformation. You may become more knowledgeable but that makes no difference to the quality of your consciousness. You can be taught many things but you will remain the same.
Information is gathered; you know more. Knowledge is accumulated, but the being within remains the same. The being cannot be changed through knowledge. It can be changed only through awareness, greater awareness, expanding consciousness.
So when I say I have come not to teach but to awaken, I mean I am not a teacher. I am not interested in giving you more knowledge, in making you more informed. That is futile. I am not interested in making your head more burdened; you are already too burdened. I want to make you unburdened, so I am not going to give you more knowledge. Rather, on the contrary, I will destroy your knowledge.
You must be freed of all the nonsense you know. You know too much about God, too much about religion, too much about the soul. You know too much. And it has not helped, it has not led you anywhere. Scriptures weigh heavily upon you. doctrines have become a dead weight. Throw all that. When I say that I have come to awaken I mean: throw all that. Be unburdened, be free from knowledge so that you can know.
When one is freed from knowledge, one can know. Knowing is a quality of your being. Man can grow in two dimensions: the dimension of knowledge or the dimension of being.
For example, if you were to meet Kabir or you were to meet Mohammed, they were not men of knowledge, men of letters. They were not even educated; they were totally uneducated. If you were to meet Kabir you would not be meeting a man who 'knows'; you would be meeting a man who is. This is the difference between being and knowledge. He will affect you. he will change you by his being. If you were to ask him a question he might not be able to answer it. Or, even if he was able to, he might not be interested in answering it. His being, his very being, is his only teaching. Even if he talks, he talks in order to make you silent. Even if he teaches, he teaches in order to destroy all your knowledge .
Gurdjieff used to say, "Come to me only if you are ready to leave your knowledge, come to me only if you are ready to renounce what you know, because I can only work with a child, with someone who is fresh, innocent."
You have too much written on your being -- unnecessary. unessential, contradictory, inconsistent. Too much is written there and now that writing on your soul is destroying you. Throw it. Be a clean slate again. That's what I mean when I say I am here to awaken you.
I teach, I talk, because you can only understand the language of words; you are not yet capable of understanding the language of silence. When you are able to understand it. I will not teach, I will not talk. This is just to help you, through your own language.
For example, if there is a thorn in your foot and I want to pull it out, I may use another thorn. But that doesn't mean that I believe in the other thorn. The thorn in your foot can be pulled out by another thorn, but then I will throw them both; they are the same.
I teach, because you are so burdened with teachings My teaching is just a thorn to pull out your thorn. The moment it is pulled out, both will be thrown. I'm not going to replace your knowledge. It is not that you have to throw what you know and put what I am teaching in its place. Throw both! Be totally unburdened and clean, fresh, empty, because only in emptiness can the divine descend in you.
Create room within yourself for the divine. Because of your knowledge, there is no room within you. You don't have any empty space; you are a junkyard. Create some space. Throw out everything that is in the mind, throw it out. Create some room. Only that room.can become a host, a host for the divine guest.
Information is gathered; you know more. Knowledge is accumulated, but the being within remains the same. The being cannot be changed through knowledge. It can be changed only through awareness, greater awareness, expanding consciousness.
So when I say I have come not to teach but to awaken, I mean I am not a teacher. I am not interested in giving you more knowledge, in making you more informed. That is futile. I am not interested in making your head more burdened; you are already too burdened. I want to make you unburdened, so I am not going to give you more knowledge. Rather, on the contrary, I will destroy your knowledge.
You must be freed of all the nonsense you know. You know too much about God, too much about religion, too much about the soul. You know too much. And it has not helped, it has not led you anywhere. Scriptures weigh heavily upon you. doctrines have become a dead weight. Throw all that. When I say that I have come to awaken I mean: throw all that. Be unburdened, be free from knowledge so that you can know.
When one is freed from knowledge, one can know. Knowing is a quality of your being. Man can grow in two dimensions: the dimension of knowledge or the dimension of being.
For example, if you were to meet Kabir or you were to meet Mohammed, they were not men of knowledge, men of letters. They were not even educated; they were totally uneducated. If you were to meet Kabir you would not be meeting a man who 'knows'; you would be meeting a man who is. This is the difference between being and knowledge. He will affect you. he will change you by his being. If you were to ask him a question he might not be able to answer it. Or, even if he was able to, he might not be interested in answering it. His being, his very being, is his only teaching. Even if he talks, he talks in order to make you silent. Even if he teaches, he teaches in order to destroy all your knowledge .
Gurdjieff used to say, "Come to me only if you are ready to leave your knowledge, come to me only if you are ready to renounce what you know, because I can only work with a child, with someone who is fresh, innocent."
You have too much written on your being -- unnecessary. unessential, contradictory, inconsistent. Too much is written there and now that writing on your soul is destroying you. Throw it. Be a clean slate again. That's what I mean when I say I am here to awaken you.
I teach, I talk, because you can only understand the language of words; you are not yet capable of understanding the language of silence. When you are able to understand it. I will not teach, I will not talk. This is just to help you, through your own language.
For example, if there is a thorn in your foot and I want to pull it out, I may use another thorn. But that doesn't mean that I believe in the other thorn. The thorn in your foot can be pulled out by another thorn, but then I will throw them both; they are the same.
I teach, because you are so burdened with teachings My teaching is just a thorn to pull out your thorn. The moment it is pulled out, both will be thrown. I'm not going to replace your knowledge. It is not that you have to throw what you know and put what I am teaching in its place. Throw both! Be totally unburdened and clean, fresh, empty, because only in emptiness can the divine descend in you.
Create room within yourself for the divine. Because of your knowledge, there is no room within you. You don't have any empty space; you are a junkyard. Create some space. Throw out everything that is in the mind, throw it out. Create some room. Only that room.can become a host, a host for the divine guest.