That every man is capable of enlightenment is very different from every man wanting to be enlightened. If you want it, then consider it to be possible. If your quest is for truth, there is no power on earth that can stop you. But if you don't long for truth, then too ther eis no power which can give it to you.
So first you need to ask if your thirst is a real one. If so, then rest assuredthat a parth is available. If not, then ther eis no path -- your thirst will be your path to truth.
The second thing I would like to say by way of an introduction is that you often have a thirst for something, but you are not hopeful of ever getting what you desire. You have a desire, but you are not optimistic about it. There is the desire, but with a sense of hopelessness.
Now if the first step is taken optimistically, then the last step will also end optimistically. This too should be understood: if the first step is taken without any optimism, then the last step will end in despair. If you want the last step to be a satisfying and successful one, the first step should be taken with optimism.
I am saying that during these three days -- and I will be saying this as long as I live -- you should have a very optimistic attitude. Do you realize that as far as your state of consciousness is concerned, much depends on whether your acts are rooted in positivity or negativity? If you are a pessimist to being with, then it is as if you are sitting on the breach of a tree, and cutting the branch at the same time.
So I say to you that to be open is very important in this search. To be optimistic means you feel that if there has been a single person on this earthwho has understood truth, if there has been a single person in the history of manking who has experienced divine bliss and peace, then there is no reason why you also cannot experience it.
Don't look at the millions of people whose lives are filled with darkness, whose hopes have never seen the light of day look at the people in history who have experienced truth. Don't look at the seeds which never grew into trees, which rottted and were wasted: look at those few who were successful and who experienced the divine. And remember, what was possible for those sweeds is possible for every seed. What one man can experience, every other man can also experience.
Your capacity as a seed is the same as that of Buddha, of Mahavira, of Krishna or Christ. Where enlightenment is concerned has shown no favouritsm; every man has an equal possibility. But it does not appear to be so because there are many among us who have never even tried to turn this possibility into a reality.
So to be optimistic is a basic necessity. Carry this assurance with you that if anyone has ever experienced peace, if anyone has ever experienced bliss, it is also possible for you. Don't humiliate yourself by being pessimistic. To feel pessimistic is insulting to yourself. It means that you don't see yourself as worthy of experiencing truth. And I say to you, you are worthy and you will certainly achieve it.
Try it and see. You have lived your whole life with a sense of hoplessness; now for these three days of the meditation camp nourish a feeling of optimism. Be as optimistic as possible that the ultimate will happen, that it will definitely happen. Why? In the outer world it is possible to approach something with optimism and not be successful. But in the inner world it is possible to approach something with optimism is a very useful device. When you are full of optimism , ever cell of your body is filled with optimis, every pore of your skin is filled with optimism, every breath is filled with optimism, every thought is highlighted with optimism, your lifeforce throbs with optimism and your heartbeat is suffused with optimism. When your whole being is filled with optimism, then this wil crete a climate in you in which the ultimate can happen.
Pessimism also creates a personality, a character where every cell is crying, is sad, is weary, is in despair, lifeless, as if one is living only in name but is dead in spirit. If this person sets out on a journey to seek something .... And the journey on the spiritual parth is the greatest journey -- no man has climebd a mountain peak higher than this, no man has ever dived in to a deeper ocean. The depth of the slef is the deepest, and the height is the highest. Someone who wnats to walk this path has to be very optimistic.
So I say to you, for these three days maintain a very optimistic state of mind. Tonight, when you go to bed, fall asleeep filled with optimism. And sleep with the assurance that to morrow morning when you get up something will happen, something can happen, something can be done.
Have an Optimistic attitude, and along with it I would lso like to say this after many years of experience I have come to the conclusion that man's negativity can be so strong that even if he begins to achieve something, he may not be able to see it becaue of his negativity.
