Beloved Master,
Could You please pass Your comments on energy? How can we build up our energy and how can it be retained? In what ways do we lose it and how can it be gained?
The first thing that has to be understood is that you are part of an infinite energy. It is a continuous flow of energy. It never loses, and it never gains; it simply is. If you can remember this, you will never lose energy because an infinite source is continuously available to you.
You are a part of this infinite energy. It is continuously accessible to you. But through time, you forget how to access this energy. You forget what you are apart off. It is as if a wave is thinking that it is separate from the ocean. The wave is just one part of the ocean. It is in continuous access to the ocean because if you see, it and the ocean are one.
Continuously remember that you are part of this energy; feel it, become it. Throughout the day, whatever you may be doing, remember it, feel that you are the infinite. If you can feel this, if you can feel intensely, by and by, you will become aware of the fact that you are not losing energy. The source once again becomes available to you.
This idea of losing energy is one more conditioning which has been given to you by society. We have been taught that if we do something, we are going to get tired. This is not the case. It is the idea which creates this feeling in you; nothing else. If this idea disappears, this feeling disappears along with it.
Our relationship with the infinite is just like the roots of a tree. The roots will suck water from the earth whenever the water runs short. In the same why, we have roots in the infinite. But here, the energy will never run low. Here, the more active you are, the more energy you will have. When you do some activity and use some energy, even more energy than you have used will be 'sucked' from the infinite.
Now, understand that you are not just a wave. Understand that you are the ocean. The whole of life is an ocean; it is oceanic. And if you are a part of this ocean, be oceanic!
Never feel as if you are losing energy. Instead, become aware of the energy which is continuously flowing both in and out of you. Simply becoming aware and the energy will lead the river to the ocean.
Understand?
Chapter Nine:
I have tried to be aware and for sometime I will succeed, but then I tend to forget. It has become a very strong effort in me. So must I continue with this effort, or is it alright to let go once in a while? And if I do let go, is there a technique for which I can remain aware?
Awareness should be from moment to moment. And it can be from moment to moment only if it is effortless. As long as you put in effort, you will lose concentration. As long as there is effort, there will need to be rest.
Effort can never be continuous. How can you make an effort continuously? There will have to be some time when you will get tired and need to relax. And this is the reason why you are forgetting. The mind must always play its game, na?! Because the mind is getting tired and needs rest it is creating the illusion is you that you are losing concentration.
So if awareness comes through effort, understand that this is not awareness. Awareness by its very nature is constant. If you are experiencing only bits of it, how can it be called as awareness?
Life moves with opposites. You make an effort, and you must rest again. The effort will move to the opposite, it will have to rest. There is an awareness that moves beyond life. It is completely effortless. It operates through spontaneity. This is awareness.
Effort will always be only at the periphery. It can never move to the center. You can always make an effort to do something on the periphery, but in order for it to touch the center, spontaneity is needed.
You can change your attitude and behavior. You can become anything that you may want, but this so- called change will only be on the periphery. It will not reach your center. Even reaching the periphery can only be reached through effort.
So the center will not be reached through effort. There can be no effort made to reach you. You are already there; there is no need to do anything! You must simply live in silence, in spontaneity. If you can do this, you will suddenly be thrown to you center. You will realize your awareness. You will see that you are awareness. It is your inherent nature.
You have always been consciousness, you are consciousness and you will continue to be consciousness. This consciousness cannot be taken from you. But it does not exist at the periphery. It exists at the very core of your being.
As of now, we are all living at the periphery; hence it is difficult to reach awareness. Now, our effort to reach awareness is something like an imagination. If effort is there, we must imagine and then feel as if we have achieved something very great. Only when these efforts are dropped, awareness can be reached.
Now the question will be, 'How to reach awareness effortlessly?' You must simply slip into it. It must be a spontaneous happening. When you sit down for your meditation, begin with watching all that is happening outside of you. If thoughts come, let them pass. Do not deny them, and do not run behind them. Simply remain aware of them. Once you have mastered the art of becoming aware on the outside; turn your awareness inwards. Now, watch all that is happening within you. You are able to stay aware of all that is outside of you, so continue to stay aware of it. Now you will watch both the outside as well as the inside.
And I am not saying to only become aware at the time of sitting down in meditation. If this is the case, your awareness is only pseudo. You must be able spontaneously slip into it. Even to do this, initially, effort is needed.
The people who you are with play a major role in the quality of your mind. To easily slip into awareness, it will help to be in the presence of one who is also aware. So if the Master is aware, just being around him is infectious. Just sitting in his presence makes you aware. For this, no effort is needed on your part at all. Just being in the same space will do miracles.
The Master is like an ocean of possibilities. Simply sitting by his side will make available these possibilities in you. It will create the same ripples in you. And if one ripple is created, an ocean can be formed.
But this awareness can only happen in you if there is no effort. In the beginning, an effort is required, otherwise, how will you be able to start? The problem starts when this effort is continued past the starting stages. And when it does this, it creates tension. Because of this tension, your mind will simply drop the idea of awareness in the name of forgetting. As long as the effort is there, this awareness will not be light. It will be a very heavy awareness, not a blissful one.
So if you can drop your efforts and live in the beauty of effortlessness, many possibilities will become open to you. When you are not making any effort to reach anywhere, when there is no goal and no effort, when you are not running after anything, when you are acceptant of everything as they are, the quality of your life will become lighter. You will no longer take things so seriously. You can still go about your lives with the same routine, but now, the rat race will be much lighter.
A small story:
Before going to Europe on a business trip, a man drove his Rolls-Royce to a downtown New York City bank and went to ask for an immediate loan of \$5,000. The loan officer requested collateral so the man said, 'Here are the keys to my Rolls-Royce.' The loan officer promptly had the car driven into the bank's underground parking for safe keeping, and gave him \$5000.
Two weeks later, the man walked through the bank's doors, and asked to settle his loan and get his car back. 'That will be \$5000 in principal, and \$15 in interest', the loan officer said. The man wrote out a check and began to walk away. 'Wait sir,' the loan officer said 'while you were away, I found out that you are a millionaire. Why would you need to borrow \$5000?'
The man smiled. 'Where else could I park my Roll-Royce in Manhattan for two weeks and pay only \$15?"
You can continue to run the rat race, but with an easiness. If you can drop your efforts, you will be able to simply flow with life. I am not saying to give up anything. I am not asking you to come out of your routine. No! I am saying to live your life exactly in the same way which you are living. The only thing is that a new quality should be added.
By simply sitting in the Master's presence, much can happen. The infectiousness of awareness can catch hold of you.
Now, I have not really given you a technique to become aware without effort, because every technique will need effort initially. But I have responded to you. I have hit your real necessity. I have given the necessary a blow. I am not bothered about the question. I am bothered about answering you. The question may be one thing, but the answer required is a totally different thing. If the intellect is present, you will miss the juice of these types of answers.
Simply drop the intellect and receive the blow.
That is more than enough.
Chapter Ten: Do Not Miss