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ACCIDENTS5man; for years I had been telling him about meditation andhe was a very very learned scholar. But he would alwayssay, "Whatsoever you say, I cannot think that there is apossibility of a mind without thought. How can the mindbe without thought?" And he would argue . . And of course,there is a point: how can the mind be without thought?Content is needed; the mind can only be minding aboutsomething. It is very logical.Consciousness can only be of something. if there isnothing then how can you be conscious? Of what? The veryword consciousness means conscious about something.Content is needed so that you can be conscious of it; consciousness and content go together. That is very verypsychological, logical . . . but it happens. And I wouldexplain to him but he was too much in his mind. And thatday it happened!Just for a few seconds we became aware that the accidentwas going to happen, Mni? We were coming down a hilland the driver lost control, something went wrong in thecar, and for a few seconds we were aware that somethingwas going to happen because the brake was not working,the steering was not working. The car was going on its own;now wherever it was going, nothing could be done. And itwas really a steep hill! So for a few seconds his thoughtsstopped, because in such a strange situation you cannotthink; what to think about?You cannot go on thinking your ordinary thoughts becausethey are too trivial in such a moment—when death is justthere waiting for you down the hill. Within moments youwill be gone! The very shock of it is enough to stop theprocess of thinking. When he fell and when I pulled himout of the car, he was laughing. He said, "But is this the wayto prove it? Couldn't you have done better? It was toodangerous!"Nobody was harmed. It was really dangerous—the wholecar was destroyed—but he had a glimpse. Since then he hasnot argued about it; he knows it. That accident proved agreat revolution in his life; a radical change happened .But he came to see the point—that consciousness can be,and without content. So that accident was a blessing. And

6ACTI thanked the driver and said what I had been trying to tellthis man for years and was not able to, he had simply done!If he had died in that moment he would have been bornon a very high plane. Nothing was wrong—even death wouldhave been good—because in that moment of no-thought hewould have died in a kind of satori. He was saved, but hechanged. Since then he has never argued, he droppedargumentation. He became a totally new man.DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING, SIT THEREACHARYA See Rajneeshism, 3rd SeriesACT Learn to transform your poisons into honey. How arethey transformed? There is a very simple process. In fact,to call it transformation is not right, because you don't doanything, you only need patience. This is one of the greatestsecrets I am telling you. Try it: when anger comes you arenot to do anything; just sit silently and watch it. Don't beagainst it, don't be for it. Don't cooperate with it, don't repressit. Just watch it, be patient, just see what happens . . . letit rise . .Remember one thing: never do anything in the moodwhen the poison is possessing you; just wait. When thepoison has started changing into its other . . . This is oneof the basic laws of life: that everything continuouslychanges into its other. Just as I told you that man changesinto woman, woman changes into man, there are periodicalchanges in you—the good man becomes the bad, the badman becomes the good; the saint has sinners' moments, andthe sinner has saintly moments . . . one has just to wait.Act when the saint is uppermost—that's all. Don't act whenthe sinner is uppermost, don't act when anger is uppermost.otherwise you will repent and you will create a chain of reactions and you will get into karma. That's the whole meaningof getting into karma. Do anything when you are in anegative moment and you will be in a chain, and there isno end to it. When you are negative you do something, theother becomes negative, the other is ready to do something—negativity creates more negativity. Negativity provokes morenegativity, anger brings more anger, hostility brings more

ACTING7hostility, and things go on and on and on . . . and peoplehave been entangled with each other for lives together. Andthey continue! . .Don't repress and don't act according to the anger, andsoon you will see that the face is becoming softer, eyes arebecoming calmer, the energy is changing—the male turninginto female . and soon you will be full of radiance. Thesame redness that was anger, now is a certain radiance—a beauty on your face, in your eyes. Now go out: the timehas come to act.Act when you are positive. Don't force positivity, wait forthe positivity to come on its own. This is the secret—whenI say "learn to transform your poisons into honey" this iswhat I mean.THE DIVINE MELODYACTING Acting is certainly the most spiritual of professions for the simple reason that the actor has to be ina paradox: he has to become identified with the act he isperforming and yet remain a watcher.If he is acting as Hamlet he has to become absolutely involved in being a Hamlet, he has to forget himselftotally in his act, and yet at the deepest core of his beinghe has to remain a spectator, a watcher . .The real actor has to live a paradox: he has to act as ifhe is what he is acting, and yet deep down he knows that"I am not this." That's why I say acting is the most spiritualof professions.The really spiritual person transforms his whole life intoan acting. Then this whole earth is just a stage, and all thepeople are nothing but actors, and we are enacting a play.Then if you are a beggar you play your act as beautifullyas you can, and if you are the king you play your act asbeautifully as you can. But deep down the beggar knows,"I am not it," and the king too knows, "I am not it."If the beggar and the king both know that "What I amdoing and acting is just acting; it is not me, not my reality,"then both are arriving at the very center of their being, whatI call witnessing. Then they are doing certain acts andwitnessing too.

8ACTIONSo acting is certainly the most spiritual of professions, andall spiritual persons are nothing but actors. The whole earthis their stage, and the whole of life is nothing but a dramaenacted.THE BOOK OF THE BOOKS, Vol. VACTION The path of action is very paradoxical. Theparadox is that you have to act and yet deep down you haveto remain absolutely inactive; at the center there is absolutestillness, no action, not even a wave, not even a ripple, andon the circumference much action.The path of action is being in the world and yet not beingof it, remaining in the world and yet surpassing it, transcending it. Krishna has called it action without action. Zenpeople in Japan call it effortless effort, actionless action.Doing is there but the doer is not there. One simply becomesthe center of the cyclone but the cyclone remains only one'scircumference .It is one of the most beautiful paths to follow. And mysannyasins have to understand it very deeply because I a mnot telling them to renounce the world, to escape to themountains, to the deserts, to the monasteries. I am tellingthem to remain in the world. I am not taking them out ofthe world, because that is escapist and that is cowardly, andone cannot be religious through cowardliness.GOING ALL THE WAYYou have to use action to attain non-action. You have tomake effort to become effortless. You have to go and putin all your energies, you have to become so active thatnothing is left behind. All energy becomes involved into thatcreativity, and then, suddenly, when all energy is involved,there happens a transformation. Just as at a hundred degreeswater evaporates, action, when it becomes total, evaporates,and non-action is left behind.First you have to learn how to dance, and you have toput all your energies into dancing. And one day that strangeexperience happens when suddenly the dancer disappearsin the dance, and the dance happens without any effort.Then it is inaction. First you have to learn action to go intoinaction. That's what meditation is all about.

ACTIVITYPeople come and ask me why I teach active meditations—because that is the only way to find inaction. Dance to theuttermost, dance in a frenzy, dance madly, and if your wholeenergy is involved in it, a moment comes when suddenlyyou see the dance is happening on its own—there is no effortin it. It is action without action.THE SECRET OF SECRETS, Vol. IACTIVITY If you see the impotence of the mind, the minddisappears but action becomes for the first time tremendously beautiful. There is no question of utility at all. Lifehas no utility in itself. What is the use of a rose flower? Butstill it goes on growing, still it goes on opening, still it goeson releasing its fragrance. What is the use of it? What is theuse of the sun rising every day? Is there any use for the sunitself? What is the use of the starry night?The word "use" is part of the paraphernalia of the mind;mind always thinks in terms of utility. The mind is a Jew;it always thinks in terms of purpose, profit, utility. Whenthe mind disappears action does not disappear, activitydisappears—and there is a great difference between the two.Activity has utility, action is pure joy, pure beauty. You actnot because something has to be achieved, you act becauseaction is a dance, is a song. You act because you are so fullof energy.Have you seen any child running on the beach? You askhim, "Why are you running? What is the purpose of yourrunning? What are you going to gain out of it?" Have youwatched the child collecting seashells on the beach? Youask him, "What is the utility of it all? You can use your timein a more utilitarian way. Why waste your time?" But thechild is not concerned about utility at all, he is enjoyinghis energy. He is so full of energy, so bubbling with energythat it is a sheer dance—any excuse will do. These are justexcuses—seashells, pebbles, colored stones. These are justexcuses—the sun, the beautiful beach—just excuses to runand to jump and to shout with joy. There is no utility at all."Energy is delight." That is a statement made by WilliamBlake, one of the most mystical poets of the West: "Energyis delight." When there is great energy, what are you goingto do with it? It is bound to explode.

10ACUPUNCTUREAction conies out of energy, out of delight; activity isbusinesslike, action is poetry . .Activity means there is a goal; activity is only a meansto that end. Action means that the means and the end aretogether in it. That's the difference between action andactivity.COME, COME, YET AGAIN COMEACUPUNCTURE A man was suffering from headaches formany years, and somebody, his enemy, wanted to kill him.Hiding behind a tree, the enemy shot an arrow. The arrowhit the man's leg; he fell down—hut his headache disappeared. The people who were looking after him, the doctorof the town, were very much puzzled as to how it happened.They started studying. By chance, by coincidence, the manhad hit one acupuncture point just on the leg; some pointwas touched on the leg by the arrow, was hit by the arrow,and the inner electric flow of the man's body energychanged. And because the inner flow of the electricitychanged, his headache disappeared.That's why when you go to the acupuncturist and you say,"I have a headache," he may not touch your head at all. Hemay start pressing your feet or your hand, or he may needleyour hand or your hack. And you will be surprised: "Whatare you doing? because my head is wrong, not my back!"But he knows better. The whole body is an interconnectedelectric phenomenon; there are seven hundred points, andhe knows where to push the energy to change the flow.Everything is interconnected . but this is how acupunc ture was born.THE TANTRA VISION, Vol. 1When you come to an acupuncturist the disease is notimportant, the patient is important—because it is thepatient who has created the disease: the cause is in thepatient, the disease is only a symptom. You can change thesymptom; another symptom will come up. You can forcethis disease by drugs, you can stop its expression; thensomewhere else and with more danger, more force, with avengeance, the disease will assert itself. The next diseasewill be more difficult to tackle than the first. You drug ittoo, then the third disease will be even more difficult.

ADEQUATENESS11That's how allopathy has created cancer. You go on forcingthe disease back from one side, it asserts itself from another:then you force it from that side. The disease starts becomingvery very angry . . . and you don't change the patient, thepatient remains the same so the cause exists and the causegoes on creating the effect.Acupuncture deals with the cause. Never deal with theeffect, always go to the cause. And how can you go to thecause? Reason cannot go to the cause, the cause is too bigfor the reason: it can only tackle the effect. Only meditationcan go to the cause.So the acupuncturist will feel the patient. He will forgetabout the illness, he will forget about treating him, he willforget his knowledge; he will just try to get in tune withthe patient. He will fall en rapport, he will start feeling abridge with the patient. He will start feeling the disease ofthe patient in his own body, in his own energy system. Thatis the only way for him to know intuitively where the causeis because the cause is hidden. He will become the mirrorand he will find the reflection in himself.This is the whole process of it, and this is not being taughtbecause it cannot be taught. So my suggestion is that it isreally worth going into. First learn in the West for two years,then for at least six months go to some far eastern countryand be with some acupuncturist. Just be in his presence,just let him work and you watch . just absorb his energy.And then you will be able to do something, otherwise itwill be difficult.FAR BEYOND THE STARSADAM'S APPLE This gland in the throat is called Adam'sapple, because Adam ate the apple and he could not swallowit.It got stuck in the throat because he was feeling divided:half of him wanted to eat and explore and half of him wasafraid. And he did it in conflict.So don't create more Adam's apples, never! Do thingstotally so you can swallow them and digest them.DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING, SIT THEREADEQUATENESS One has to develop a certain vision it:

12ADMIRATIONoneself, a certain grounding, centering, a certain clarity inoneself. When the clarity is there, suddenly you start seeingthings which you have never seen before. The world is nomore the same because you are no more the same.In the ancient western tradition there is a word for it, adecacio—adequateness. You can see only that for which you haveadequate capacity. There are many things in existence ofwhich we arc not aware at all. Each according to hiscapacity . The rock knows only a little bit. When it rainsmaybe it feels a little bit; when it is hot, maybe . . . Thetree feels more. the animal feels still more, man feel s stillmore. but even man as he exists ordinarily, naturally, is notadequate enough, has not that adecacio to k n ow God. A fewmore capacities have to be developed, and they are lyingthere dormant. Everybody has come with the capacity butit is not actual yet; it is just potential. It has to bed evelop ed . .The mineral kingdom is simply existence, the vegetableis existence plus life, the animal kingdom is existence pluslife plus consciousness. The human kingdom is existenceplus life plus consciousness, plus self-consciousness . buteven self-consciousness is not enough. Witnessing has tobe grown; that will be the fifth and the final stage of growth.That's what happens in a Buddha, in a Christ. Call it Christ consciousness or call it Buddha -consciousness; it is thesame. One goes beyond self and the ego, one becomes purelyconscious. The rock is purely object, Christ is purely subject,and we arc somewhere in between. One has to go from therock to the Christ.THE OPEN SECRETADMIRATION One wants to be admired bec ause one ha sno respect for oneself. We arc brought up with guilt feelingsdeeply rooted in us. From the very beginning we are condemned by the parents, by the teachers, by the priests, bythe politicians, by the whole establishment.A single note is continuously repeated to every child: that"Whatsoever you are doing is not right. You are doing whatshould not be done and you are not doing what should bed one." E ver y c hild is g iven d ir ec tly a nd ind ir ec tly t heimpression that he is not really wanted, that his parents are

ADVERTISING13tired, that he is being somehow tolerated, that he is anuisance.This creates a deep wound in every person, and a rejectionof oneself arises. To cover up that wound we expect admiration; admiration is a compensation. If you respect yourselfthat is more than enough; if you love yourself there is noneed for any admiration, there is no desire at all, becauseonce you start expecting admiration from others you startcompromising with them. You have to fulfill their expectations, only then will they admire you. You have to beaccording to their dictates. you cannot live a life of freedom.You become crippled and paralyzed. you become retarded.you don't grow up. You become so afraid of )0iir own selfthat you are constantly on guard, because you know if youallow yourself you are bound to do something wrong—because all that you have ever done was labeled %viong andnow there is a trembling inside. You cannot depend onyourself, you have to depend on others.ZEN: ZEST. ZIP. ZAP AND ZINGADULTERY The meaning—the ordinary meaning— of theword "adultery" is making love to a woman you are notmarried to. But the real meaning of adultery is making lovewhile you are not in love. She may be your own wife. butif you are not in love, then making love to her is adultery.And man is a very complex phenomenon: today you maybe in love with your wife—yes, even with your wife . . .know it is difficult, it is hard. and it is very rare too. butit happens. Today you may be in love with your own wife.and then making love to her is a prayer, is worship: it iscommunion with God. And this communion can happeneven with some other woman with whom you are notmarried. If love is there then it is not adultery. And if loveis not there, then even with a woman you are married towhatsoever you are doing is adultery.THE BOOK OF THE BOOKS. Vol. VIIADVERTISING That's the way the whole art of advertisement exists: just through repetition. When neon lightswere discovered and advertisements were put in neonlights—"Lux Toilet Soap" or "Haman" or something else-

14.11)vICEin the beginning it was a fixed light: you could read it once.Soon psychologists sug gested. "Let it he flickering. - It comeson. goes off. comes on. goes oft so by the time a personpasses it he %vill have to read it at least twenty, thirty times,because it goes off. then again it comes on—you have to readit again. So it is better to put it on and off: because twentyrepetitions. thirty repetitions each time a person passes bywill be more effective. Repeat it on the television, on theradio, in the magazines. in the newspapers. re peat iteverywhere. Wherever a person goes. let him come across"Lux Toilet Soap". and soon he is hypnotized. He goes tothe market. to the shop. and he starts asking for Lox toiletsoap. and lie believes that he is choosing it. Somebody elsehas chosen it for him.ZEN: ZEST, ZIP. ZAP AND ZINGADVICE Listen, but don't follow. listen well, but followyour own insight, don't fellow others' advice. Listen cer tainly. very meditatively, try to understand what they arewanting to convey to you. They may really he well-wishers,but if you start following blindly you will never attain toyour own inte

agonies and ecstasies. Loving humanity, there will he no ecstasy and no agony. In fact, loving humanity is a way of avoiding human beings; because you can't love human beings you start loving humanity just to deceive yourself. Avoid abstractions. THE WISDOM OF THE SANDS, Vol. 1 ABSURD The absurd is nothing but another name of God —