Chapter 1
Make enough space around you so that in case the body drops, it wont fall on anyone.
The breathing becomes so quiet one doesnt know if it is moving at all.
Death is the shadow that forms behind life, and we never want to look back, to see what it is.
But even then you will not be able to follow me because at the time of death you will become unconscious.
One should not talk about such meaningless and threatening things.
The sentence is very simple.
And what was Socrates doing? He was telling them, "The poison has reached up to my knees.
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We shall go through these three stages and then, in the fourth stage, we shall sit silently.
This means one thing is certain -- I was not my legs.
This country of ours talks untiringly about the immortality of the soul, and yet is there anyone on earth more scared of death than us? There is no one more afraid of death than us! How can we reconcile these two?
Ah! How many times I identified myself with these hands -- the same hands that are leaving now -- but I am still here.
Change my unhappiness for that of anyone else you like, and I will accept it.
What relation is there between a coconut and your answer? What relation is there between the coconut and my question?"
It is possible you may pass it by it.
The fear of death has created society, the nation, family and friends.
But how can I see this unless I am alive?"
" The man also said, "We hear that when Jesus was hanged on the cross he did not feel any pain.
Since we become unconscious at the time, death remains a stranger to us.
So in the second stage you have to relax your breath.
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In fact, I want to see who will die with death -- will death die or will I die? I want to see whether death will survive or whether I will survive.
Once you see the mistake, the matter is over.
Some people do, of course, try to falsify it.
It may not have been this body; then some other body -- but the race must have been the same.
I say both things simultaneously: meditation is entering voluntarily into death, and the one who enters death voluntarily attains to life.
He saw a long shadow chasing him.
We neither climb the peak of Everest nor land on the moon nor explore the depths of the Indian Ocean -- and we are the people who believe in the immortality of the soul! In fact, we are so scared of death, that out of the fear of it we go on repeating, "The soul is immortal.
Fareed asked him to put that coconut away.
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So the first thing is the returning of the vital energy, the prana, back to its source.
And this is an incredible seashore.
But death will never be able to destroy us.
The man said, "It is hard to believe that a person about to be killed could show so much compassion.
No Bigger Lie Than Death
We are less afraid when accompanied by someone and more afraid when left all by ourselves.
He says, "Slowly, everything is becoming peaceful, everything is sinking, but I am still intact.
They are under the impression that death can be falsified by repeating, "The soul is immortal.
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Whenever we see death happening, we become aware of our own death.
Yet how are the other drops to know this until they themselves become the cloud? By now that drop must have fallen into the sea and become a drop again.
Deep inside the breath contains the vital energy, the prana, and thats why a man dies when the breath discontinues.
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So we shall follow these three stages and then in the fourth stage we shall remain in silence for ten minutes.
If we can make our own samadhi before others make it, then we have created the very phenomenon we are longing for.
Everyone should make a space around himself and lie down.
But when we saw that everyones miseries were just the same, we became scared; we had never imagined such a thing.
We have moved within.
the body is relaxing.
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In the first stage of this meditation the entire energy has to be withdrawn from the body.
When someone says he is immortal, that the soul is immortal -- when he repeats this he is simply indicating that he knows, deep down, he will die, he will have to die.
Everyone hurried to get rid of his troubles; no one wanted to carry his miseries even a second longer and if we were to find such opportunity, we would also hang them up right away.
That night, while he slept, he had a strange dream.
The fakir wrote on the gravestone: "Here rests a man who fled from his own shadow all his life, who wasted his whole life escaping from a shadow.
Thus, through feeling it, we can withdraw our energy from the body.
In the third stage the mind is to be relaxed.
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Now let the mind be relaxed and feel that thoughts are calming down.
This looks quite contrary -- you go in search of death and come across life -- but it is not.
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People must have believed that Krishna really died -- since we know death as the only truth; for us everyone dies.
The wise and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick -- the load in everyones bundle was the same.
Socrates was about to die.
The state of total meditation is called samadhi and a grave built after a persons death is also called a samadhi.
Samadhi, remember, is a wonderful word.
If you want to understand, then start learning now how to separate the kernel from the shell -- now, while you are alive.
Gods kingdom is filled with joy and beauty, and the bells of Gods temple ring only for those who are free from all kinds of fears, for those who have become fearless.
The first thing I would like to tell you about death is that there is no bigger lie than death.
Thousands of people watched him run and showered flowers upon him, or someone might hand him a piece of bread or some water.
Fareed gave a hearty laugh and said, "You have raised a good question, but I will answer it later.
Then he went completely mad; he neither ate nor drank.
close your eyes and relax your body.
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The very knowing it becomes freedom, the knowing itself becomes the victory.
the body has become relaxed.
After coming out, they realized the head of their family was trapped inside he could not even run; what would happen to him? Some people had brought torches with them, and they found that the old man was already out.
The house was on fire; everybody was leaving it and for a moment he forgot his paralysis; he put his entire energy back into the body.
Its as if lightning were to strike right now and I were to see all your faces in one moment.
How can you falsify this truth?
The other drops think it is dead, and they are right -- because they had seen the drop just a little while ago, and now it is gone.
You will have to become acquainted with it.
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I hope that, these three days, many people will come to know how to die, will be able to die.
Not that he would be victorious over death -- we can achieve victory only over something which exists.
Fareed said, "Put this coconut away too.
No, he did not make such a mistake.
They traveled from one village to another, and when the horses grew tired they exchanged them for fresh horses at an inn, and they changed them again at the next village.
If a person sees death once he becomes free from it, he triumphs over death.
the body has become relaxed.
He did not know, however, that in the face of danger his soul had poured all his energy into his body.
This is very strange, remember: we always accept the opposite of what we go on repeating.
If that man had stopped and seen what was behind him, perhaps he would have laughed and said, "What kind of a person am I, running away from a shadow?" No one can ever escape from a shadow; no one can ever win a fight with a shadow.
With daybreak he would start running again.
And that becomes a problem for him.
Because, if I am still here, even after losing so much of my body, how then would an end come to me if a little more of the body is lost? I may not be able to inform you -- because that is only possible through the body -- but still I will remain.
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Let me explain a few things about it to you.
And if you can die here, on this shore.
Thus, somebody dies every day; every day some drop is lost.
Even though he goes in search of death, instead of meeting death he actually finds ultimate life.
These three days we shall do the meditation of entering into death.
The white lines become clearly visible against the dark background.
It is all right if someone wants to sit, but the person should not control himself if his body begins to fall -- because the body may fall once it becomes completely relaxed, and then your controlling it will not allow the body to be totally relaxed.
We can experience death today, this evening -- because the occurrence of death simply means that our soul and our body will experience, in that journey, the same distinction between the two of them as when the vehicle is left behind and the traveler moves on ahead.
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He often begins to wonder whether he is alive or dead, whether the breath is happening or not.
As long as we tremble with the fear of death, we cannot summon the capacity to live our lives.
No one had brought him out; he had come out on his own.
Such an incident has occurred not with one or two p
九*九*藏*书*网
eople, on this earth hundreds of instances have happened where a man stricken with paralysis has come out of his condition, where he has forgotten his condition in the event of a fire or in the face of another dangerous situation.Hence, I say, you dont have to do anything from your side, just let it be more and more relaxed -- more and more quiet.
No matter how much we escape from it, run away from it, it still surrounds us.
It will feel as if someone elses corpse is lying on the shore -- and yet you exist.
The meditative seeker knows that the shell and the kernel have become separate.
Although it was your body did you ever wonder where the energy came from? You put the energy in -- it was needed, you were in trouble; there was danger, the enemy was facing you.
I am breathing.
Why fall into new miseries? By and by, we get used to the old miseries too.
The entire external world departs -- only we remain, only the self remains, only the consciousness remains aloof.
" Until the final moment of death he kept saying, "I am still alive.
And that which does not die and cannot be killed -- there is no way of its dying.
If, for a while, someone can feel that his energy is withdrawing inside and his body is relaxing, he will find that his body is continuing to relax and relax.
The occurrence of every death is, at the same time, our own death.
Death will have to be known, it will have to be encountered, it will have to be lived.
Only one who is filled with the joy of life reaches the temple of God.
And the people all over the world who believe in Christ repeat it continuously.
Hence it is important we enter death voluntarily.
What happens when a person relaxes his breath completely, allows it to be still and quiet? Slowly, the breath comes to a point where a man doesnt know whether he is breathing inside or not.
When he looked around, however, he found that everyone else had also run and picked up their own bundles; no one had selected a bundle that was not his own.
He said, "Although the soul is immortal, I nevertheless do not wish to talk about death at all.
Our suffering from pain and sorrow is not only over someone elses death but also over the apparent possibility of our own.
And the man who enters death willingly, encounters it and comes to know that, "Death is there, and yet I am still here.
Did you understand?"
Jesus said, "O, Lord, please forgive these people, because they know not what they are doing.
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If you understand rightly, the wall is made of death and the divine is made of life.
"We became frightened.
With curiosity, the fakir asked, "Why did you collect your own bundle? Why didnt you exchange it for another?"
Why are we so preoccupied with the thought of our death? We are alive right now, then why are we so afraid of death? Why are we so very afraid of dying? Actually, behind this fear, there is a secret which we must understand.
What I am saying is that we have put energy into our body, but we have no idea how to withdraw it.
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Why are you in such a hurry to die?"
As he began to run faster, he sensed the sound of running feet coming from behind.
You may shut your eyes, but no matter how far away it is from you, it still remains apparent.
And feel inside.
You have to withdraw the whole energy from your body and take it inside.
And the man did not even know as much as his gravestone does -- because the gravestone is in the shade and does not run, hence no shadow is created.
These three days, during that silence, there will be an effort on your part to see death, to let it descend.
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To know this, however, we will have to descend all the steps of death.
the breathing is becoming calm and relaxed.
He became very confused.
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If, even once, one were to remain conscious, the fear of death would disappear forever.
The man replied, "I have been giving poison my whole life, but I have never seen a crazy man like you before.
We die unconscious, and then we are reborn in a state of unconsciousness.
Afraid of death, there are people who pray to God with folded hands raised towards the sky.
The body is relaxing.
Somewhere, someplace, we should build a temple whose walls have death displayed on it and the deity of life would be sitting inside.
Samadhi is a voluntary invitation to death.
the breathing is becoming calm.
Tonight we shall do the first days meditation.
which is hard to believe.
They said, "Today, each of us had prayed to God, saying we wanted to exchange our bundles of misery.
It seems you are not very skilled.
We can go through an experiment of entering into death of our own free will.
Death will keep on coming, but then it will be just like a stopover -- it will be like changing clothes, it will be like when we take new horses and ride in new bodies and set out on a new journey, on new paths, into new worlds.
Who knows what kinds of miseries were contained in the other peoples bundles? Familiar misery is still a lesser kind of misery -- it is a known misery, a recognizable misery.
Seeing that others are happy, we continue becoming unhappy.
And, like this, Socrates continues talking while dying.
" Then the fakir laughed and he said, "But how will you ask those who are already dead? And if you ask me to give you the address of a dead person, I cannot do it.
Watch! Here is an opportunity for you: a man is dying and informing you that he is still alive.
One day the kernel and the shell will be separated, but at that moment you will become unconscious.
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Just because of their fear of death people believe in the immortality of the soul -- just out of fear.
Then what is the way now? And if one sees death only while dying, then there is no way to understand it -- because at the time of death one will be unconscious.
We dont realize that the man has simply evaporated, that he has entered the subtle, and then set out on a new journey -- that he is a drop which has evaporated, only to become a drop once again.
If he cannot really be happy then at least he wants to show that he has become happy, because to show oneself as unhappy is a matter of great humiliation, loss and defeat.
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One night, in his prayers to God, he said, "I am not asking you not to give me unhappiness because if I deserve unhappiness then I should certainly get it -- but at least I can pray to you not to give me so much suffering.
Similarly, there are thorns around the blooming roses.
Deep down, the breath keeps us connected to the body.
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You knew your life could be in danger unless you picked up the rock, and you put all your energy into the body.
I want to see what death is like.
One needs to know death.
The body has become relaxed.
And you will see that people are more scared of death in those countries, in those societies which talk the most about the immortality of the soul.
There is no need to break it or anything.
There is the feeling that we are alive and there is also the feeling that we are dead.
the mind has calmed.
Now you say, even after breaking open the shell, the kernel can be saved.
the body has become relaxed.
The man said, "How could I have walked? How did it happen?" But he certainly had walked; there was no question.
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Then one night his house caught fire and everyone ran out.
The body is relaxing.
And one who escapes from the mansion of death never reaches the temple of life.
Following a persons death we make a grave and call it a samadhi.
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But there are people who even worship madmen.
" Then a fear takes hold: "I will die.
Yes, there is a way now.
So, the first thing I say to you is that as long as you keep running away from death you will continue to be defeated by it -- and the day you stand up and encounter death, that very day death will leave you, but you will remain.
Every day someone or other dies; every day death occurs somewhere, and it shakes the very foundation of our lives.
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Then he comes to realize that there is someone else within; outside there is only darkness.
However, the people changing the horses never felt that what they were doing was like dying and being born again, because when they changed horses they were fully conscious.
What the bleeding, naked Jesus -- hanged on a cross, pierced with thorns, hands stuck with nails -- said in the final moments can hardly be believed!"
My hands are also drifting away; my hands will die too.
The fakir wrote one line on it.
But both these acts take place in our state of unconsciousness.
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If you are ever able to get beyond these walls, then you will also attain to brahmacharya.
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We live watching others, and that is our problem.
Everyone appears cheerful; I am the only one who is sad, lost in darkness.
" The cremation ground is put outside the town so it rarely meets your eyes, so that death wont be there, right in front of you.
Yes, be seated.
But the drop still exists in the clouds.
Now it is beyond him to comprehend how this phenomenon occurred.
And so long as we remain surrounded by death, how can we live? Like that, living is impossible.
And if you ever mention death to somebody, he will for99lib•netbid you to talk about it.
Knowing death causes it to dissolve; then suddenly, for the first time, we become connected with life.
And then another voice sounded, saying: "Now, each of you should pick up whichever bundle he pleases.
" The fakir said, "Go, die and understand -- without that you cannot follow what I am saying.
And who knows, that phenomenon might occur on this very seashore and you may have your samadhi -- not the samadhi others make, but the one you create of your own will.
We believe so because we are always haunted by the thought of our own death.
They depicted a profound fact of life: they have conveyed that sex is there, on the outside wall, and if you are to run away from there, then you will never be able to attain to brahmacharya to celibacy -- because brahmacharya is inside.
The experience of entering death voluntarily is meditation, samadhi.
The fear of death is the basic reason why people cannot go into meditation -- there is no other reason.
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The deity of life dwells within the walls of death; the images of death are engraved all over the temple of life.
But both are steps of one greater life -- life and death, walking side by side.
In death the body drops, feelings drop, thoughts drop, friendship drops, enmity drops -- everything drops.
the body is relaxing.
A breath comes out; a breath goes in.
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Thats why we keep a smiling face outwardly, and inside, we remain as we are.
However, if you come closer and closer to me, without being frightened of my clothes, then beneath my clothes you will find my body.
No need to stop it or slow it down; just let it be relaxed.
How can I be free of five?" The man would not ask for such freedom, because as soon as one finds out that two plus two equal four, the matter is over.
If, after seeing them, a man simply runs away, then he will not be able to reach the deity of the temple inside.
How interesting it is that the wall is made of the body and the divine is seated graciously inside.
Every morning, sitting in a temple or a mosque, some people repeat, "No one dies; the soul is immortal.
The man replied, "I didnt understand anything.
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Those who are afraid of death can never enter into samadhi.
Once a Jewish fakir became very upset by his troubles -- who doesnt get upset? We are all bothered by our woes, and our greatest bother is seeing others happy.
Then, afraid, he glanced behind out of the corner of his eye.
I have heard that once a drunk horseman even said, "Could it be that I am changed too? This doesnt seem to be the same horse I was riding.
His friends began to mourn; they were not in their right senses.
The legs must have been the same; the race must have been the same.
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How can we see it? We close our eyes when we see death.
The body has become totally relaxed, as if there is no life in it.
And with regard to our perception of life and death the same kind of wrong arithmetic is at work.
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The fakir as dumbfounded.
Now everyone started explaining to him that he was not really paralyzed, that if he could walk that much he could walk the rest of his life.
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The wall is made of matter and inside is the divine, the consciousness seated in glory.
Afraid of death, there are people who pray on their knees.
And so, by leaving the body from the inside, we can experience the event of death, we can experience the occurrence of death.
Let go completely, as if you are not alive anymore.
So we figured it was better to pick up our own bundle.
We also triumph over that which we have known.
no one should leave in the middle.
Begin to feel.
In the meantime, however, the lightning has occurred and I have been lost in my thoughts.
We have died many times before, but whenever death has occurred we have become unconscious.
You must have understood my point of view by now: we have to reach a point within, deep inside, where there is no possibility of dying.
The breath is quieting down.
Have you ever noticed something? When you get into a fight with somebody, where does your body get the additional energy from? In that state of anger you can lift a rock so big that you couldnt even budge it when you were calm.
It was a hot afternoon and the man was walking along a lonely road all alone.
That man was alone.
When an artist paints a picture he provides a dark background to bring out the white color.
And may I say that meditation or samadhi is nothing else but that.
the breath has calmed down.
Let go, let go completely, as if the body is no longer there.
The final moments were approaching; the poison was being ground to kill him.
Instead, we keep running away from death.
They can be separated because they are separate.
When people saw him running like that through their villages, they thought he was engaged in some great ascetic practice.
We see our misery and we see the faces of others.
It is familiar and known.
The phenomenon that will automatically occur one day with the dropping of the body -- we can willingly make that happen by creating a distance, inside, between the self and the body.
relax it completely.
The bundles brought by other people were very similar to his own.
In fact, nowhere is there any room for death in life, but we have all believed that Krishna died.
No matter to what extent we may remain oblivious to death, it is never really forgotten.
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Once it happened: a man was paralyzed for two years and was bedridden.
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But he doesnt know that it is the black that brings out the white.
Breathing in is life, breathing out is death.
let it be totally loose.
Is it ever possible for people who believe in the immortality of the soul to become slaves? They would rather die; they would be ready to die because they know there is no death.
Those who wish to lie down should make a space around themselves.
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He could not get up; he could not move.
No one wants to show he is unhappy.
We have seen others dying, and that reinforces the idea that we will have to die too.
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Now how is the dry coconut different from the raw coconut? There is a slight difference: the kernel of the dry coconut has shrunk inside and become separated from the shell; a distance has occurred between the kernel and the shell.
These two things cannot exist simultaneously.
He became scared and began running.
After all, what wrong have I done to you? Please do me a favor -- give me some other persons unhappiness in exchange for mine.
Then, when someone looks at us from the outside, he finds us smiling; however, when that person looks within himself he finds misery there.
Socrates is saying, "Dont cry.
Through many lives we live, carrying the fear of death, and yet we are neither able to recognize it nor to see it.
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let go.
Socrates went out and said to the man who was grinding the poison, "You are taking too long.
What Jesus meant was that "These senseless people do not know that the person they are killing cannot die.
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That will make the body lie still -- just like a shell -- and it will be observed throughout that a distance has been created between the shell and the kernel within the coconut -- that we have become separate and the body is lying outside us, just like a shell, just like cast-off clothes.
It was on these very sands that Krishna once walked -- the same Krishna who told Arjuna in a certain war, "Dont be worried; have no fear.
Even though, for the purpose of his search he enters the mansion of death, he actually ends up in the temple of life.
" We might suspect that the fakir quickly picked up someone elses bundle.
Nothing within me has faded yet.
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You have seen other people die, but you have never seen yourself dying.
Up to the knees my legs are totally dead -- I will not even know if you cut them off.
Thats why people keep facing defeat by death -- because death is merely a shadow of life.
He said, "Dont say such ominous things.
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thoughts are calming down.
Like that, we cannot reach the temple of God, the supreme truth of life.
" Socrates continued, "Now both my legs are gone; up to my thighs everything is finished.
the body has become relaxed.
And decided never to make such a prayer again.
The man said, "I still dont get it.
When we see somebody dying around us, we think the person is no more, that yet another man has died.
Dont be afraid of killing or of being killed, because I tell you that neither does anyone die nor does anyone kill.
They dont know; they simply believe.
We neither see death, nor do we see birth -- and hence we are never able to understand that life is eternal.
Everything was still and quiet -- it was afternoon; there was no one around.
He was seeing the bundles for the first time; up to now he had only seen peoples faces.
It not only appears to be true but even seems like the cardinal truth of life -- it appears as if the whole of life is surrounded by death.
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You keep talking like a crazy man, saying it is getting late.
It was his own shadow -- but seeing that some long shadow was pursuing him, he ran even faster.
We have never died, nor can we ever die.
Now, the interesting thing is that just by feeling it the energy returns.
He grew frightened
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-- maybe someone was following him..
feel it.
They can be known separately because they are separate.
I am still here, I am totally here.
Hence, the third thing is to relax the mind.
The fakir said, "You are welcome to know about life; my doors are open.
In fact, a smile is a way to hide the misery.
There are three steps.
At night we feel rested because the energy is drawn inside and the body lies in a relaxed state, and in the morning we are fresh again.
If we look at ourselves, we will see, in spite of being troubled inside, we go on smiling outwardly.
The same breath that comes out goes back in after a while, and the breath that goes in comes out after a while.
the body has become relaxed.
If one becomes frightened of the thorns he wont be able to reach the roses; if he goes on escaping from the thorns he will be deprived of the flowers too.
Death is our own shadow.
Several techniques are applied in this respect.
And it slowly becomes a certainty for us that we too will have to die, that, "I too will die.
In meditation, too, one has to enter slowly within.
I have heard that a man went to see a Mohammedan fakir, Sheikh Fareed, and said, "We have heard that when Mansoors hands and legs were cut off he felt no pain.
But when people saw him in the torchlight and asked how he had managed to come out, he exclaimed, "Oh, I am paralyzed!" and fell down.
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And the man replied, "Yes, the kernel can be saved.
Slowly, at one point, the breath comes to rest.
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Tonight, we have unexpectedly gathered on this seashore where that very Krishna once walked.
But my friends, let me tell you, even though my legs are dead, I am still alive.
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If ever we could enter death, we would reach the temple of life.
Our failure and defeat are only because of our ignorance.
In meditation too, we have to drop everything and die leaving only the observer, the witness within.
He saw a huge mansion which had millions of hanging pegs.
Thats why I call meditation a voluntary entry into death.
In that mansion, whomsoever the fakir asked, the reply was that theyd always believed everyone else was happy.
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Up to now wed believed that everyone else was happy, that only we were miserable," they replied.
We may wonder how a man can run from his shadow, but we too run from shadows.
Defeat is because of darkness; when there is light, defeat is impossible -- light itself will bring triumph.
But if you want to know about death then go somewhere else, because I have never died nor will I ever die.
He had always seen his neighbor smiling -- and every morning when the fakir asked him how things were, he would say, "Everything is just fine" -- and this same man was now carrying the same amount of unhappiness.
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Could it be that I have become a different man?"
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the body is relaxing.
With the creation of that distance, you come to know that the shell and the kernel are two separate things -- that you will continue to survive in spite of the breaking of the shell, that there is no question of you breaking, of you disappearing.
The physicians gave up, declaring the paralysis would remain with him for the rest of his life.
Remember, if life is true then death cannot be true -- and if death is true then life will be nothing but a dream, a lie; then life cannot be true.
Because ever since I have come to know that I cannot die, I have also come to know that no one dies, that no one has ever died.
I see people laughing in the world, and I am the only one crying.
Birth and death are nothing more than stopping places where we change clothes or horses.
These are contrary things indeed -- the wall of matter and the divinity of life.
After a while I may not be able to inform you, but dont let that make you think I am no more.
Many people come to me and say that they are unable to meditate.
The lightning will strike, of course, as soon as the breath pauses, but it will only be noticed if thoughts have ceased; otherwise it wont be noticed and the opportunity will be lost.
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I wont be able to speak a single word further, but still I am saying, I exist.
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We are so scared and frightened that when death approaches, when its total shadow closes in on us, out of fear we become unconscious.
We are so very afraid of dying that at the time of death we become unconscious willingly.
" This fear grips us because we are looking at others.
We have bribed the person who is grinding the poison; we have persuaded him to go slowly.
The prayers which have been composed out of the fear of death are not prayers to God either.
We become unconscious just a little before dying.
Even if the breath is relaxed but the mind is not, the lightning will of course strike, but you wont be able to know what happened because the mind will remain occupied with its thoughts.
Every day he would talk about the immortality of the soul.
The body has become relaxed.
This is how the truth is.
Just by knowing death, it disappears.
Let the breath come in as much as it can.
This can only be known by encountering death.
But the man became more and more crazy, and finally one day, he fell down on the ground and died.
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There is more mathematics behind this, the same kind of mathematics I spoke about in reference to death.
The second thing I would like to say is that one who enters into death willingly, finds, all of a sudden, entrance into life.
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The body is relaxing.
An invitation is given to death: "Come, I am ready to die.
In fact, both have a common secret, a common meeting point.
You will remain still, in silence, watching whatsoever is going on inside.
And this death will happen.
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I said, "If, on the one hand, a person says that the soul is immortal, but also he finds it ominous to talk about death, then this fouls up the whole thing.
Those who know that life is eternal, that the soul is immortal, would be the first to land on the moon! They would be the first to climb Mount Everest! They would be the first to explore the depths of the Pacific Ocean! But no, we are not among those.
relax every part of your body.
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If you try to do so, the breath will never be controlled -- it will try to force itself out, and if you control it from outside, it will try to force itself in.
Others will have the occasion to make our grave for certain, but we may perhaps lose the opportunity of creating our own samadhi.
There is no five any more.
The energy still remains locked in the body and then it becomes difficult for them to sleep.
We also run.
As soon as the breathing stops, the prana leaves.
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Have you ever thought about this? -- both are called samadhi.
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Seeing so many bundles of unhappiness, he got very scared, he grew puzzled.
I want to know whether or not I will survive after death.
That means: one who encounters death ultimately finds that death has disappeared and he is in lifes embrace.
The temples which have been created out of the fear of death are not the temples of God.
Death cannot be denied by repeating that death does not exist.
In panic, he ran to pick up his own bundle before anyone else could reach it -- otherwise, it could have become a problem for him, because all the bundles looked the same.
Finally the man went mad.
That night, nobody picked up a bundle that belonged to someone else.
What I wish to say is that it is essential to see death, to understand it, to recognize it.
It is not that you have come to this shore for the first time, you must have been here before -- maybe it was not this shore; then some other shore.
Do read the line.
Then the next thing is to relax your breath.
If the shell, the body, and the kernel, the consciousness, separate at this very instant, death is finished.
But some people are not even able to draw their energy inwards at night.
Feel it like this: the breathing is becoming calm.
As you keep feeling, your body will become more and more relaxed -- then the body will be Lying down, totally relaxed, as if there is no life in it.
And gradually, one after another, things begin to drop away.
In fact, we are afraid of ourselves, and when we are alone the fear is even greater.
If you were not to become frightened of the body and continued your journey inside, knowing that the body is a garment too, then you would certainly come across that one who sits inside, that one everyone is desirous of meeting.
For example, a raindrop lives in the ocean with thousands of other drops, and one day the suns rays fall on it and it turns into vapor, it disappears.
We have even structured our lives out of our fear of death.
" You must have heard this sentence.
the energy is withdrawing.
The first step is to relax your body.
But the coconut was unripe, so the man said, "Pardon me, I cannot do this.
No, that was not what Jesus meant.
And I shall speak to you on many of its dimensions.
Death is even closer to us than our shadow.
How do we know the falsity of death? How can we know there is no death? Until we know that, our fear of death will not go.
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Even if it comes to rest just for a moment, then in that moment one can see an infinite distance between the soul and the body -- in th九九藏书at very moment the distance is seen.
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"We even believed that you were happy too.
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It means only that which you are not will die.
I am telling you exactly the same thing.
The only difference is that the dead man reaches there in an unconscious state, while we reach consciously.
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So, in a state of panic, he ran and retrieved his own bundle before anyone else could lay his hands on it.
Except in the darkness of night, when the shadow would disappear and he would think there was no one behind him, he never stopped.
The man kept saying, "I could not lift my hand; I could not even lift my foot -- then how did it happen?" He couldnt say; he did not even know who had brought him out.
I am pointing out to you that there is one raw coconut which still has the kernel and the shell joined together -- if you hit the shell, the kernel will also break.
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the body is relaxing.
When we cry over somebodys death, it is not just for that persons death alone, but also for the hint we get of our own.
If you have ever been to Khajuraho, you must have noticed a strange thing -- all around its walls scenes of sex have been sculpted.
" We are all doing the same thing -- turning our backs on death and escaping from it.
Once we experience seeing death face-to-face while alive, we will never have anything to do with death again.
relax your breathing also.
And I also want to see, even when death has happened, whether I survive or not.
Birth is one step, death is another step.
and meditation is a process of death.
We have never seen ourselves dying.
Then he gave him another coconut, one which was dry, and asked him to break that one open.
Jesus said, "Forgive these people, they dont know what they are doing.
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28 October 1969 pm in Meditation Camp at Dwarka, Gurujat, India We become free from that which we have known.
You cannot win against that which does not exist.
The coconut is completely raw, and if I break open the shell the kernel will break too.
The dead man has no knowledge of what happened, of how the shell broke open and the kernel survived.
The flower is blooming in the middle of the thorns; the thorns are not the flowers enemy.
And that which we run away from starts pursuing us itself.
But one who accepts the thorns and approaches them without fear finds to his amazement that the thorns are simply meant to protect the flower; they merely serve the purpose of being the outer wall for the flower -- the wall of protection.
Now if you come in search of me, first you will come across my clothes -- although I am not the clothes.
Let the body drop as it is.
This is the very meaning of meditation or samadhi: learning how to separate the shell from the kernel.
" They are wrong in believing that just by repeating this, the soul will become immortal.
In fact, he will be filled with anger.
keep relaxing it.
Wont it hurt if ones hands and legs are cut off? It seems that these are all fantastic stories.
Making it five was his error, it was his illusion -- his calculation was wrong, the total was four; he understood it as five, that was his mistake.
You also walked down the street with a smile on your face.
First, do me a little favor.
I will give suggestions for you to feel that the body is relaxing, that the breath is relaxing, that the mind is relaxing -- then I will remain quiet, the lights will be turned off, and, lying down quietly, you will remain for ten minutes.
Socrates said, "I am in a great hurry because I want to see death.
He kept asking, "It is getting late, how long will it take to grind the poison?"
let it come out as much as it can.
We dont see the misery in others; we see their smiling eyes, the smiles on their lips.
And that is life itself.
But how can we believe this fakir? Every day we see someone dying; every day death happens.
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People began worshipping him more and more; thousands paid their respects to him.
In fact, the arithmetic behind it is the same.
Then there is the dry coconut.
Death is the supreme truth; it makes itself apparent by penetrating the center of our being.
If I dont survive, then the whole affair is finished -- and if I do survive, then death is finished.
Fareed said, "I have given you an answer.
Breath is the bridge between the soul and the body; thats where the link is.
When a funeral passes by on the road, a mother shuts her child behind closed doors and says, "Dont go out; someone has died.
On the inside, tears keep collecting; on the outside, we practice our smiles.
Until we know the falsity of death, our lives will also remain false.
There is a certain mathematics behind it, and this mathematics is very interesting.
Why are you in so much of a hurry? I am grinding it slowly so that you may breathe a little more, live a little longer, remain in life a little more.
In fact, it is meaningless to call him victorious because there is nothing to win -- then death becomes false; then death simply doesnt exist.
If we keep running away from it we will not be able to stand before it and recognize what it is.
But if we could see, if we could penetrate inside, then we would attain the vision of the greater life.
We see other peoples deaths, but we never come to know if anything within these people survives.
These three days, all my talks will be on the techniques of how you can encounter death.
Allow me to point out to you that the walls of the temple of life are engraved with the shadows of death.
He lost the energy.
In olden times there were no railroads and people traveled in horse-drawn carriages.
This is similar to when a physician or a surgeon gives anesthesia before an operation so you wont feel the pain.
Your energy is returning inside.
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Samsara,the mortal world, is displayed on the walls, and running away from it will never bring you to God, because the one who is sitting inside the walls of samsara is God himself.
If one were to get scared of the black, he wouldnt be able to reach the white.
I have no experience of death.
But the body too, in a deeper sense, is a garment, and if you were to run away from my body, then you would not find the one who is seated inside me.
Let go.
We have to drop the whole outer circumference, as happens in death.
Because we like to live in fear this seems difficult.
" And we are under the illusion that perhaps by repeating it, it will become true.
Be seated wherever you are or lie down.
When he would look around in that state, it would make him wonder how everything had changed, how everything appeared so different.
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Thats why I stated earlier that knowing is power, that knowing is freedom, that knowing is victory.
And he was permitted to say his final prayers.
When we look at other peoples faces and at our own reality -- that is where we commit a great error.
But this is possible only when we die; one can only see it while dying.
In a state of total meditation we reach the same point a dead man does.
Then he didnt even stop at night -- he figured that in spite of the distance he had covered during the day, while he rested at night the shadow had caught up with him and would follow him in the morning once again.
Generally, no one remains conscious at the moment of death.
Close your eyes.
This sea, these sands, have never felt that Krishna died; this sky, these stars and the moon have never believed in Krishnas death.
And yet, death appears to be true.
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If you want to know about death men ask those who have died, ask those who are already dead.
Keep relaxing your body and feel that it is relaxing.
the body has become relaxed.
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How can a frightened and trembling mind live? And when death seems to be approaching every second, how is it possible to live? How can we live?
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But I am still here! And here are my friends who go on crying!"
Many people would go to him with questions.
Let it come and go on its own.
If you wish, you may either lie down or sit.
However, since we keep escaping from death, we miss the divinity of life as well.
In some village, someplace, that grave is still there.
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Hence, we call breath prana.
The images look naked and obscene.
For example, I am wearing clothes.
let it be loose.
"Can you save the kernel of this one?" he asked.
If lightning should strike right now and I were to remain lost in my thoughts, I would only come to know of it after it had happened.
And one whose birth and death happens in this unconscious state cannot live a conscious life -- he functions in an almost half-conscious state, in an almost half-awakened state of life.
You may cut off my legs entirely -- even then I wont be dead, even then I will still remain.
What we call life and what we call death -- both are part of one greater life.
The entire energy of the body has reached inside.
It makes no difference if we put the cemetery outside the town -- death still shows its face.
I have heard: Once a man went mad in a village.
Millions of people were coming in and every one was carrying a bundle of unhappiness on his back.
If, just once, a man could see what dying is like, what happens in death, then the next time he would have no fear of death because there would be no death.
I99lib•netf after adding two and two a person writes down five, and the next day he comes to know that two plus two equals four, would he say hed triumphed over five and made it four? He would say, in fact, that there was no question of triumph -- there was no five.
We will have to know it; we will have to pass through it.
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In that state, even though death will occur, it cannot penetrate inside you -- it will occur outside you.
the body has become relaxed.
And if you become frightened of my clothes and run away, then you will never be able to know me.
" Reading this sentence, people ordinarily understand Jesus is saying that the poor people didnt know they were killing a good man like him.
Like that, we cannot know what life is -- neither its joy, nor its beauty, nor its benediction.
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We have simply been running away at the very sight of them.
Because we are so very afraid of death, we are not even able to meditate.
Even a thorn hurts when it pricks the foot.
That is why whatever system of life we have created, believing death to be true, has become false.
This does not mean, however, that the shadow is stronger than we are and that we can never be victorious; it simply means that there is no shadow, that there is no question of being victorious.
the energy from your body is withdrawing, turning in.
" And at the very last moment he says, "Now, perhaps I am telling you the final thing: my tongue is failing.
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I would like to show you three steps we shall follow.
His friends were crying and saying to him, "Are you crazy? We want you to live a little longer.
If we can create our own samadhi, then, in that state, only the body will die and there will be no question of our consciousness dying.
We have given the energy to our bodies -- whatever amount of energy we pour into the body goes into it; whatever amount we withdraw gets pulled inward.
The breathing is becoming relaxed.
There is no one we fear more than ourselves.
The flowers are part of the thorns and the thorns are part of the flowers -- both have emerged from the same life-giving force of the plant.
Socrates was given the poison.
We never imagined that you carried a bundle of miseries inside you too," they said.
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The body is lying there and still you exist -- separate, totally distinct and different.
I asked him, "Do you ever realize that you are coming closer to death?"
Only those can live for whom the shadow of death has disappeared forever.
Forgive them because they dont know what they are doing.
It would be better if you were to lie down on the sand quietly.
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But we hold on to both together.
These sands have seen Krishna walk.
No one has ever died, nor can anyone ever die.
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He thinks the whole world is happy, that he alone is unhappy.
Would that man then say, "How can I get rid of five? Now I see two and two are four, but before, I had added them up as five.
Inside is the image of God, and outside are engravings, images, of sex, passion, and copulation.
Birth and death are simply stations where vehicles are changed -- where the old vehicles are left behind, where tired horses are abandoned and fresh ones are acquired.
How shall I tell them that their real problem is something else? Their real problem is the fear of death.
Everyone seems to be happy; I am the only one who is unhappy.
the mind has calmed.
Whether we forget about it, or become oblivious to it, everywhere death remains close to us.
But this is not possible -- only one of the two things can be right.
Then that man could never stop, because the faster he ran, the faster the shadow ran after him.
the body has become relaxed.
" Neither has anyone ever died, nor can anyone ever die and that which dies, that which can die, is already dead.
Then what does one have to be free of?
I have heard about a fakir who lived in a faraway valley.
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But how can the other drops know this until they themselves set out on that journey?
When the breath pauses for a moment, exactly right in the middle, then in that moment a lightning strikes within ones entire being and it becomes apparent that the body is separate and that you are separate -- then death has happened.
The fakir woke up, thanked merciful God for letting him have his own miseries back.
the breath has calmed down.
But this samadhi is made by others.
Actually, for a person who attains to the state of samadhi, his body remains just like a grave -- nothing else.
He was walking rather fast, trying not to be scared: it is possible to be scared when someone is already there, but how can anyone be scared when there is no one around? But we do feel scared when there is no one around.
We have fallen, exhausted, so many times -- after having run this race again and again.
The breath has calmed down.
Sometimes it used to happen that a horseman would travel after drinking.
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May I also point out to you that the maps of death are drawn on the walls of the temple of life, and since we run away from death we are also, in effect, running away from the temple of life! Only when we accept death will we be able to accept these walls.
And it is better that I know it consciously, because I wont be able to know anything if this event occurs in an unconscious state.
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" He picked up a coconut lying nearby, gave it to him and asked him to break it open, cautioning him not to break the kernel.
The faster we run, the faster it follows because it is our own shadow.
Once I stayed with a sannyasin.
And nothing is more false than death.
the breathing is relaxing.
How are we to see this? All we feel is that one more person is lost, that one more person is dead.
Once a man came and asked him to explain something about life and death.
The fear of death has caused us to chase money and has made us ambitious of higher positions.
He saw politicians and their followers, gurus and their disciples -- everyone coming with the same size load.
Last night I was telling some friends a story.
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And the biggest surprise is that our gods and our temples have also been raised out of the fear of death.
He shouldnt see any fear, any omen, anything wrong in talking about death -- because for him there is no death.
As life moves forward, its shadow moves along with it too.
Nobody should talk.
That which you are will survive.
If he knows he will not die then there is no need to go on about immortality; only one who is frightened keeps on repeating it.
Let it be loose.
As long as there is fear of death, there cannot be authentic life.
The size and shape of everyones bundle was exactly the same.
The people of the village where he died made his grave under the shade of a tree, and they asked an old fakir of the village what they would inscribe on his gravestone.
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You dont have to control breathing.
The body has become relaxed.
Insomnia is an indication that the energy put into the body earlier cannot find the way to return to its source.
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The same thing happened with this fakir.
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They must have been a wonderful people who built the temples of Khajuraho.
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The body will reach to a point where the person will not be able to lift his hand even if he wants to -- everything will be relaxed.
They are doing something which is impossible -- they are committing the act of killing, which is impossible.
They asked him if he had walked out of the house.
Thats why I told you that the first thing about meditation is that it is a voluntary entry into death.
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This is the only difference.
The body has become relaxed.
He thought it was better to have his own bundle -- at least the miseries in it were familiar.
" Death never becomes false by such reiterations -- only by knowing death can it be falsified.
Suddenly a loud voice filled the room: "Hang up your bundles!" Everyone, including the fakir, did as commanded.
I wouldnt feel anything if you cut me right up to the thighs.
You have to relax your body so much that you begin to feel as if your body is lying far away from you, as if you have nothing to do with it.
So even at night he continued running.
Afterwards, the lightning might no longer be there, yet I have seen your faces.
Nothing becomes true by repetition.
the breath is calming down.
So I have answered your question!"
He asked, "Why are you in such a hurry to collect your own bundles?"
Throughout these three days of meditation, if you will show the courage of dying and drop your self a phenomenon can occur which is called samadhi.
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And then, because of his feeling of being paralyzed, the soul drew its energy inside again and the man became paralyzed once more.
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It is not good to talk about such things.
Are you very new to this? Have you never ground it before? Have you never given poison to a condemned person?"
A distance is created with each and every thing, and a moment arrives when it feels as if everything is lying far away at a distance.
Then nothing remains over which to be victorious.
Then as I give suggestions, begin to feel with me.
One neither has to be free from death nor does one have to triumph over it.
It will be easier lying down -- this is such a beautiful beach; it can be put to good use.