My Beloved Ones
First, I would like to welcome you,because you have a longing for the divine; because you desire to rise above ordinary life towards the life of a seeker and because, despite your worldly desires, you have a thirst for truth.
The people who have felt the thirst for truth are fortunate; out of the millions of people who are born, only a few ever feel the longing for truth. To know truth is a great blessing - but even to have the longing for it is as great a blessing. Even if you don't atttain it that is okay, but to never have experienced the thirst at all would be a great misfortune.
I would like to say that it is not important to know truth. What is important is that you have the longing for it, that you make every effort towards experiencing it, that you work hard for it and yearn for it, and that you are determined and do everything you can possibly do towards this end. If in spite of this you don't attain it that does not matter. But never to have experienced this thirst at all - that would be the greatest tragedy.
I would also like to say that to know truth is not as important as to have an authentic yearning for it. That yearning is a joy in itself. If the desire is for something insignificant, there will be no joy even if you get it; but if you long for the significant, the ultimate and you don't get it, then you will be filled with joy even if you don't get it. I repeat: if you desire a small thiing and you get it, you will still not be as happy as when you long for the ultimate and you don't get it.... you will still be filled with joy and happiness.
The divine will be born in you according to the intensity with which you seek it.That doesnot mean that some supreme soul or energy from outside will enter your being. The seed is already present within you, and it will start growing. But it will grow only if you are able to give some warmth to your thirst, some heat and some fire to your thirst.
The more you long for the divine, the more is the possibility that the seed which is hidden within your heart will grow, that it will sprout and become the divine, that it will break open, that it will blossom.
If you have ever thought of experiencing the divine, if you have ever experienced a desire for silence, for truth, then know that the seed within you is longing to sprout. It means that some hidden thirst within you is longing to sprout. It means that some hidden thirst within you wants to be fulfilled. Try to understand that a very significant struggle is taking place within you; you will have to help this struggle is taking place within you; you will have to help this struggle and support it. You will have to support it because it is not enought that the seed has sprouted; a more nourishing environment is also needed. And even if the seed has sprouted, it does not mean that it will also bloom. For that, much more is needed.
Out of the many seeds scattered on the ground, only a few will grow into trees. There is this possibility in all of them: they could all sprout and grow into trees and each could in turn produce many more seeds. One small seed has the power, the potential to produce a whole forest; it contains the potential to cover the whole earth with trees. But it is also possible that the seed with this immense power and potential will be destroyed and that nothing will come out of it.
And this is only the capacity of a seed -- man is capable of much more than this. One seed can create something so vast..... If a small stone can be used to create an atomic explosion.....immense energy can be produced out of it. When someone experiences this fusion within his being, within his consciousnes, this blossoming, this explosion, the energy and light are the experience of the divine. We don't experience the divine from the outside. The energy that we produce through this explosion of consciousness, the growth, the flowering of our being, that energy itself is the divine. And you have a thirst for this energy: this is why I welcome you.
But it does not necessarily follow that just because you have come here that you have this thirst. It is possible that you are here merely as a spectator. It is possible that you are here out of some vague curiosity -- but no doors can be opened through superficial curiosity, and no secrets will be revealed to mere spectators. In life, one has to pay for everything one receives, and much has to be sacrificed.
Curiosity is of no value; that is why curiosity will not get you anywhere. Curiosity will not help you to enter into meditation. What is needed is an essential thirst for freedom, not curiosity.
Last evening I was saying to someone that if you are near an oasis and you are dying of thirst, if your thirst is intense and you reach a state where you feel that soon you will die if you don't get water, and if at that point someone offers you water but with the condition that after drinking the water you will die -- that the price of the water will be your life -- you willeven be willing to accept this condition. When death is certain, then why not die with your thirst quenches?
If you carry this intense longing and hope within you then under this tremendous pressure the seed within you will break open and start growing. The seed will not sprout on its own, it needs certain conditions.It needsmuch pressure, much warmth for its hard outer sking to crak and the tender sprout inside to grow. Each of us has this hard covering and if we wan to come out of it, just curiosity will not do. So remember this: if you are here simply out of curiosity you will leave with that curiosity, and nothing can be doneto help you. And if you are here as a spectator you will leave as one, and nothing can be done fr you.
So it is necessary that ech one of you look within himself to see whether or not he has an authentic longing for the divine. Each of you should ask himself thi squestion: "Do I want to know truth?' Be very clear if your thirst for the divine is authentic, whether you have a yearning for truth, for silence, for bliss. If not, then understand that whatsoever you do here will have no meaning; it will be meaningless, without any purpose. If your meaningless efforts don't bear any fruits, meditation will not be responsible -- you will be responsible for it.
So to begin, it is necessary that you look for an authentic seeker wtihin you. And be clear about it: do you really seek something? And if you do, then there is a way to find it.
Buddha was once visiting a village. A man asked him, "Every day you say that everyone can become enlightened. Then why doesn't everyone become engightened?"
"My friend," Buddha replied, "do one thing: in the evening make a list of all th epeople in the village and write down their desires next to their names."
That man went into the villageand he asked everone, it was a smal village with only a few people and the gave him their answers, He returned in the evening and gave the list to Buddha. Buddha asked, "How many of these people seek enlightenment?'
The man was surprised because not a single person had written thta he wanted enlightenment. And Buddha said, "I say that every man is capable of enlightenment, I do not say that every man wants enlightment."
