Chapter #22 The Sound Of One Hand Clapping #22

awareness is the seed and blissfulness is the flower
and the whole pilgrimage
is between these two points
awareness and blissfulness

we are living in unawareness
hence bliss cannot blossom
in awareness bliss, in unawareness misery
there are the natural by-products
everybody wants to be blissful

but just by wanting it you cannot attain it
you will have to follow the right procedure
you will have to follow the law of nature

one has to begin with awareness
and then bliss comes of its own accord
you need not worry about it
you need not even desire it, it comes inevitably
but the whole work consists
of becoming more aware
slowly slowly getting rid
of unawareness unalertness, unconsciousness
it is possible, it has happened to many people
it can happen to everyone
one just has to work a little
one has to put a little energy into it
it is almost ignored
and when people try to get the flowers
without sowing the seeds
naturally they end up with plastic flowers
and that is a very ugly and frustrating situation
hence millions of people live a pseudo kind of life
and when you live a pseudo kind of life
you also die in a pseudo way
you have never lived authentically
you cannot die even authentically
your whole life
has been artificial, plastic, synthetic
but once you start working on awareness
you are on the right track

then go on moving deeper into it
and one day suddenly, the blossoming
suddenly one hears

the Sound
of one hand
Clapping

and the music of it is tremendous
and the beauty of it is indescribable
and the poetry of it is wordless but it overwhelms
its fragrance starts spreading to others too
whosoever is available and open will be able to feel it

the experience of bliss and the experience of light
are simultaneous
in fact they are not two separate things
they are two sides of the same coin

the moment the flower of bliss opens in you
suddenly you become aware
of immense light surrounding it
a light which needs no fuel
and because it needs no fuel it is eternal
it cannot be exhausted
and to come to know the eternal life
is another way of saying that one has realised god
or one is liberated
liberated from darkness
liberated from the hell that darkness creates
liberated from all the agony
the anguish that is bound to be part
of one's darkness, unconsciousness, unawareness

one is not only liberated
from darkness and its by-products
one is also liberated from one's own self, the ego
the idea of i and it separate from existence
liberation is not of the self
liberation is from the self
and the moment you are liberated from the self
all the benediction of the whole existence is yours

the first thing is to grow towards bliss
wisdom does not come by knowledge
it comes through blissfulness
it has nothing to do with the mind
it has nothing to do even with the heart
it has something to do
with the innermost core of your being
the centre of your existence

there are three concentric circles
around your centre
the first is body
the body has its own kind of knowledge
it is inbuilt, you are born with it
it is already programmed in your very life cells
you are not needed in it
it goes on working on its own
from the cradle to the grave
it is a long journey, but the body goes on working
it is doing a thousand and one things
it is a miracle
in such a small space
the body is doing so much work
that if we want to do all these things
we would need a vast factory
covering hundreds of acres
and it is doing it so noiselessly
you become aware only when you are ill
when something goes wrong

otherwise everything goes smoothly
that is the wisdom of the body, it is biological

then there is the mind, the second concentric circle
it lives on borrowed knowledge
the body lives with a natural, biological programme
and the mind lives with social programming
and that's what the schools, colleges
and universities are for: to programme your mind
so that you can be servile to the society
a good servant, a civil servant
efficient, usable, a commodity, a machine
then there is the third concentric circle
of the heart
it has its own way of knowing
the poet, the musician, the painter, the dancer
they live from that point; they don't think logically
hence they don't use the mind
they use feelings not thoughts
they use love not logic
hence the philosopher can never agree with the poet

one of the greatest greek philosophers, plato
has visualised his utopia -- he calls it the republic
in the republic he does not debar thieves
prostitutes, gamblers, drunkards -- no
but he debars only one kind of people, the poets
the poets will not be allowed to live in his republic
for the simple reason that they are illogical people

he cannot trust love
he trusts logic, calculation, mathematics

these are the three places
where people are hanging somewhere
a few live in the body and follow its programme
they are almost like animals
a few live in the mind
they follow the social programme
they are prisoners of the society
a particular society in which they are born
a few live in the heart
they are better than the first two
but they are also dominated by something
they don't know what it is
they are possessed people
they do things but it is very unconscious
even sometimes they rise to very beautiful heights
but the whole rise is unconscious
hence they have to fall again and again
the poet only once in a while has a glimpse
and then again he is back
into his dark night of the soul

the real wisdom happens only
when you have transcended all three
and you have entered your innermost shrine
it is absolute silence
it is non-physical
it is non-mental

it is beyond the heart
it is not action, not thought, not feeling
it is just pure silence, virgin silence
and with this virgin silence both things explode
first blissfulness
and following it comes wisdom
a great insight into things
a tremendous perception
into the mystery of existence
that is revelation, revelation of the divine
of the godly, of the ultimate

a man without bliss
is a tree without flowers
a sky without stars
a man without bliss lives somehow
carrying a great load of meaningless things
he drags, he cannot dance; he has nothing to dance
he has not experienced any splendour
any joy, any meaning

only the person who comes to know bliss
comes to know the splendour
the immense splendour of existence
then life is lived as a dance, then there is beauty
then one is not an outsider, one becomes an insider
a partner in the great play of existence
then one is part of the flowers and the clouds

and the mountains and the stars
then one is not alienated
but this can happen only through blissfulness
and bliss happens through meditation

this is the whole science

meditation means silence
and silence brings bliss

and bliss releases the hidden splendour in you
and the moment you have seen your splendour
you become capable of seeing
the splendour of the whole
then life is a sheer celebration
each moment of it is an eternity of joy

failure comes or success, it makes no difference
neither does failure bring misery
nor does success bring any excitement
one remains calm and cool
one can see the enemy and the friend
in the same way
because one knows
that the enemy can become the friend
the friend can become the enemy
they are convertible
in fact the man who is enemy was a friend one day
there is no way to make an enemy

without making a friend first
and if a friend can become an enemy
the enemy can become a friend
so they are not so separate as people think

all dualities are complementaries
they are not opposites
love and hate are not contraries
they belong to the same energy
two extremes of the same energy, like hot and cold
but measurable by the same thermometer
that thermometer shows they are one energy
it can measure both

blissfulness brings this insight
this tranquillity, this equilibrium, this vision
that there is nothing contradictory in existence
that there are no opposites
hence there is no need to be anxious, worried
life and death mean the same

and the moment life and death are the same
your cool becomes undisturbed
nothing can distract, nothing can disturb
but this immense possibility opens up only
with blissfulness, never before it
a miserable person cannot think
there is no question of seeing
he cannot even think, he cannot even conceptualise
that misery and bliss belong to the same spectrum

it is impossible for him to think
he only knows the bitter taste of misery
he has not known bliss at all
it is only by knowing the bliss
that you suddenly realise that it is the same energy
that was being felt as misery
it is not a different energy
then what has made it possible to become bliss?
there has been a bridge
and that bridge i call meditation

meditation is the alchemy
of transforming the baser metal into gold

scientists say that the ingredients of a coal piece
are the same as the ingredients of a diamond
they are not chemically different
any piece of coal under a certain heat pressure
will become diamond
just that heat pressure is needed
that's why now there are false diamonds available
the only way to judge a false diamond
from the real diamond
is in a very strange way
the only way is: the false diamond has no flaws
while the real diamond has a few flaws
man has improved upon nature

the same is true about misery and bliss
about hate and love
about birth and death
it is the same energy
it just has to pass through the alchemy of meditation
it has to pass through silence
and silence functions as fire
it burns all that is ugly, unnecessary
and out comes the purest gold
that purest gold can only be described as
absolute coolness -- that is the flavour of sannyas

the essential core of the existence is bliss
existence is made of the stuff called bliss
if we are not blissful
the simple reason is we have forgotten
the way to our own essential core
just forgotten -- it is there
and we are searching everywhere, except within
meditation changes this course
meditation means
a one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn
from without to within
and the moment you face yourself
you start laughing
laughing at the whole ridiculousness of your search
you were searching for something
that was already within you
and the moment you know your own inner core
and its blissfulness
the whole existence becomes blissful instantly

it looks miserable because you are miserable
it simply reflects you, it is a mirror, it echoes you
if you are blissful the whole existence is blissful

then all the trees join in dance with you
and all the birds join in songs with you
all the rainbows have your colours
then the stars are not without, they are within too
then the distinction between
without and within disappears
there comes a melting
one becomes an intrinsic part of the whole
that is the ultimate goal

gautam the buddha has said that the taste of bliss
is the taste of the purest sweetness

misery is bitter, very bitter
because it is part of your unconscious life
it is as if a blind man is trying to find a way
he stumbles, hurts himself
breaks his leg or gets a fracture
again starts groping
hits his head against a wall
and there is no one to ask
because all others are blind too
they are constantly running into each other
hitting each other
a few cunning ones start becoming political leaders
gathering blind people
giving them beautiful names
giving them a flag and a slogan
and then gangs fight -- gangs of blind people
christians, hindus, mohammedans
or communists, fascists, socialists
it may be politics or religion
but the crowd consists of blind people
and the leaders are far more blind than the followers
only then can they lead
they are more perfectly blind
just think of the polack pope or ayatollah khomaniac
now he has brought the islamic revolution to iran
thousands of people have been killed
the whole country is being destroyed
because of this maniac
he is not only blind but mad too
but that is perfection
ayatollah khomaniac is a perfect man
blindness plus madness is a rare combination
once in a while it creates an adolf hitler, a mussolini
joseph stalin, mao tse tung -- monsters not men

in darkness, in blindness, nothing else is possible
one has to attain to a little awareness
awareness gives you insight, vision
and the moment you have awareness
you start tasting bliss and its sweetness
life becomes a totally different phenomenon
luminous, fragrant

bliss is the everest
there is nothing higher than that
and unless you reach the everest of bliss
you have not fulfilled your mission in life
your destiny in life
hence one feels always as if something is missing
one cannot pinpoint exactly what it is
because how to pinpoint?
you have never known it
but you can see the gap
you can see something empty inside you
something is certainly missing
you are not whole -- that much is certain
and that which is missing keeps you in agony
in despair, in depression, in a pessimistic attitude
because you are unfulfilled
because you have not blossomed
you are missing your opportunity in life
and death is coming closer every day
so as death comes closer
one becomes more and more miserable

don't be angry at old men: feel compassion for them
because they have missed their life
and that's why they are continuously irritated
for small things they throw a tantrum
the basic reason is something else
they find any excuse
they go on trying to find faults with everybody
the real thing is they know they have missed

and even to recognise it is too painful, so they go on
finding other excuses for their being miserable
but the real thing is they are miserable
because they could have been blissful
but they never travelled to the peak, to the everest
which was always possible
just a decisiveness was needed

sannyas is a decision, a commitment
not to me but to yourself
that from now onwards
you will put more and more energy
towards becoming aware, blissful, silent
because that is the only way you will be able
to reach to the goal of your life
and when it is reached
suddenly the whole jigsaw puzzle of life disappears
all fits so perfectly
that one starts dancing
one has arrived home

bliss is a strange wine
strange, because on the one hand
it makes you fully aware
and on the other hand it makes you fully intoxicated
intoxicated with the divine
fully aware in your being
but the moment you are fully aware in your being

the divine wine starts showering on you
and it is one of the most miraculous events
when awareness becomes intoxicated
it still remains aware
that is the mystery in it
it is absolute intoxication and absolute awareness
and both are together, both are one
hence the word mystic

the mystic is called a mystic
because he lives the greatest mystery of life
incalculable, immeasurable
incomprehensible through the mind
but mind is not all
mind is the most superficial thing
it is good for the marketplace
the marketplace is not a mystery
it is good for mathematical calculations
it is a good biocomputer
but it knows nothing of the mystery
it cannot know by its very nature
hence one has to drop out of the mind
and to drop out of the mind is the only way
to drop out of the stupidity of society
by dropping out of the society
you cannot drop out of the mind
but by dropping out of the mind
you naturally drop out of the society
and all the great people of the world are drop-outs
jesus, socrates, lao tzu, zarathustra, buddha

all are drop-outs
but not drop-outs like hippies, real drop-outs
dropping out of the mind
is only the superficial part of their dropping
then they drop in
dropping out is only the first step
then they drop in
and that dropping in brings bliss
and bliss brings the mysterious, the miraculous
awareness and intoxication both together

blissfulness is our birthright
we just have to claim it
and meditation is our claim

meditation is simply preparing
your home for the guest
the guest is already waiting on the door
but your inner side is so cluttered
that there is no space for the guest to come in
and the guest is no ordinary guest
it is the whole infinity
all the stars and the whole sky
and the infinite universe
is waiting as a guest to come in
so you will need immense space
you will need bigger space than the whole universe
only then the universe can be accommodated

and meditation does that magic
it throws out all rubbish, all junk
and in fact it is all junk, it has no value at all
it has not given you anything, it has been destructive
it has been simply occupying the space
for no reason at all
and because it is occupying the space
nothing else can come in

the cup has to be emptied, totally emptied
meditation is the process of emptying yourself
slowly slowly throwing thoughts
desires, memories, fantasies, out
then feelings, moods
the moment you are totally a zero
that very moment the guest comes in
without even knocking on the door
without even declaring that i am here
may i come in -- that much time is not lost
once you are empty
here you are empty and there the guest appears
and that guest is blissfulness

so we have to prepare only one thing
an empty mind, a no-mind
that's what i call meditation: a no-mind
and the no-mind is the purest state of our being
it is virgin consciousness
and only in a virgin consciousness is god possible