Second thing, when you leave your shoes outside this room, please leave your mind also there.🔗

(Astonished laughter from audience)

What I mean is – you might have attended so many meditation classes, read so many spiritual books, listened to so many spiritual discourses – I'm sure you must have done all these things! Not that these things haven't helped you, surely they have their benefits – but now, here, the system is going to be totally different. I want you to be prepared to receive it as it is. Come with a fresh mind. Listen without comparison.

You will be able to receive my message totally.

Because - for example - when I use the word atman, I give it a completely different meaning.

If you have heard it earlier, from another master - he must have interpreted it in a totally different way. If you carry that interpretation with you into this class, how can you listen to me? You will be too busy listening to your own mind!

If you already have some ideas, some understanding (or what you think is understanding!), those ideas are going to be confused with my own. Then how can things be worked out?

I think we are all already quite confused, that's why we are here!

Is there anyone here who feels no confusion?

If you aren't confused, if you are already in clarity – there is no need for this meditation class. If you already know your way, if you've already attained in the spiritual world, you don't need to be here…

I think all of us have come here to pick up something?

The third thing… let me tell you a small story, a beautiful story:

Once there was a great Zen Buddhist monk, an enlightened master. Once the Japanese governor came to visit the monk. When his turn came, the governor sent in his visiting card to the monk. It bore the words, 'Zak-San - Governor of Japan'. The master took one look at the card and said – (Zen masters can be very harsh sometimes, when they want to break somebody's mind, they use ugly words) – he said, I have no business with this idiot! Ask him to leave this very minute! But the governor was a very intelligent man… not just intellectual, but intelligent!

When the card and message were returned to him, he quietly struck out the words, Governor of Japan, and returned the card to the master.

Seeing the card, the master now exclaimed, What? Zak-San waits outside? Show him in!

Just see this story. It means, these posts, these designations which we carry on us, are just labels pasted on us by society. They can have nothing to do with the spiritual world. What the Governor did cannot be called wrong… it was the correct attitude with regard to society, but the wrong way to approach the master.

So I tell you, when you come in, leave your governorship outside. Otherwise you won't be able to learn anything from here… here governors have no duty, only seekers! Here something between master and seeker is going to transpire.

We are going to share something of the inner world. Labels of the outer world are completely unnecessary here. So don't waste your time, and my time, with these labels!

Let us get introduced to one another! After all we are going to live as a family these few days.

Here we are a group of seekers, we are not even individuals! Forgetting individuality is the path of meditation.

Just be willing to dissolve in the group consciousness, the spiritual consciousness.

So, who is going to start the introduction? That corner, hmmm… just your name, and where you're from.

(A doctor introduces himself)

Did you hear his name? He adds the name Doctor before his

No, no – nothing wrong! (laughs)

You have achieved something in the outer world, just like I have achieved something in the inner world. You could say I have tested some spiritual hypotheses in my life, in my inner laboratory. I am here to share my research report with you all, that's all.

But there is one difference - this is not an intellectual class. You don't have to listen with your head. Just be relaxed – concentration will happen on its own. Because I'm not going to share any information with you all. No communication will happen here – only a deep communion between you and me.

Another thing – don't practise what I preach here. Ha, ha – sounds paradoxical?

What I mean is, don't plan to practise anything. Don't create a plan of action right away and limit yourself.

Also, don't be silent. I want you to come forward with your opinions and comments. Be like a schoolboy! Full of mischief and curiosity in life.

I am not giving you an ideology. I am giving you a live, practical system that will transform your life.

So be aware.

Be interactive.

Make comments, even mistaken ones are fine. Leap before you look!

Be open, and even without your knowledge, you will receive what I teach.

(suddenly)

See, someone's sleeping!

(the class becomes suddenly alert)

Swamiji (laughing mischievously) : No no, no one's sleeping yet. I just said that to wake up some people who are almost asleep! See, this is what happens if you just keep hearing me talk, without actually listening, without interacting!

There are two ways in which I don't want you to listen to me: One is, with doubt.

Doubt is the way of the intellectual mind. Too much logic and reason will come in the way of your receiving me into yourself.

The second is, with belief.

If you believe in me, you are lost. Don't believe in anybody, not even me. If you believe, you will not practise. The so-called believers are the weakest people. Because it takes great courage to live without beliefs. Then you don't need a readymade idea to tell you what to think and how to act. Both faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin – your Mind. At a very deep level, your greatest doubt will carry some faith, your greatest faith will have some doubt in it. I assure you!

Then what to do? A third way exists: listen with trust. Trust is the energy, the ability to translate teachings into practical life.

When I tell you, The sun rises in the east, you neither need to believe nor doubt – you know. Or if it is something you haven't noticed, you get up the next morning and check it out – as an experiment! This is the attitude I want from you. So have trust, not faith. Take what I say as a hypothesis, integrate it into your life and see for yourself whether it works or not.

Drop the coin of the Mind!