INTENSITY LEADS TO REALIZATION
When your thirst for realization becomes intense, you are ready to pay with your life for the Truth.
If you are in a desert and your thirst for water becomes really intense, you are ready to pay with your life for a glass of water. Same way, when your thirst for realization becomes intense, you are ready to pay with your life for the Truth.
A beautiful Zen story:
A student approached a Zen teacher to learn Zen. The teacher told him, 'Listen to the sound of one hand clapping.'
The student tried for three years and did not succeed. He was depressed that he could not do what his teacher had told him. He came in tears to the teacher saying he had to leave because he could not do what he had been told.
The teacher said, 'Wait for one more week. Meditate constantly.' The student stayed for one more week and meditated. Nothing happened. The teacher said, 'Try for another five more days.'
The student stayed further, yet nothing happened. The student came in despair begging to be released. Then the teacher said, 'Meditate for three more days. If you don't get enlightened, you better kill yourself.' The second day, the student was enlightened.
When your whole being is burning with the single, intense desire to realize the Ultimate, you will simply absorb the Master's instructions. The magic of transformation is bound to happen. Only then will you be open to receive him.
There is another beautiful story from one of the ancient Vedic texts:
A disciple goes to a Master and asks Him, 'Master, give me enlightenment.' The Master just says, 'Tat tvam asi' nine times.
'Tat tvam asi' means 'That Art Thou'. It is called a mahavakya, the statement that straightaway gives enlightenment. The 'vakya' or the statement that straightaway leads you to the experience of the 'mahat', the cosmos, is mahavakya.
Nine times, the Master repeats 'Tat tvam asi' and the disciple gets enlightened. The story ends.
The disciple was fully integrated and burning to receive the truth. Is it so simple? Then why is it not happening in us? What is missing in us? What is the difference between that disciple and us? The disciple was fully integrated and burning to receive the truth.
INTENSITY: THE KEY TO ENLIGHTENMENT
There are different techniques, different methods, different deities, and different paths. Then what is the point that decides a person's enlightenment? Intensity!
Intensity decides a person's enlightenment, the higher experiences. Intensity in whatever you do will be meditation, without intensity even if you meditate it will just be a ritual. Whenever I teach meditation to a hundred people, I will learn hundred versions of the same meditation.
Success depends on the person, not what he is doing, but what he is. It depends on the intensity he carries. I just want to drill this one point again and again, and again, you can become intensely intense. You will become intensely intense.
BE OPEN WITH INTENSITY
Look at the oyster. It is waiting for the rainwater to make the pearl. When the rainwater falls, she just carries the rainwater into her womb and goes down into the ocean.
The process happens on the rainwater, and the pearl results. The oyster will be waiting with the mouth wide open on the waters of the ocean. She will be just waiting for the rainwater.
She cannot take the salt water and make the pearl. She needs pure rainwater. The moment one drop of rainwater falls on her, immediately she will go into the deepest layer of the ocean, and she will start doing the process. She will come out with the pearl.
When the words of the Master enter the being of the disciple who is intensely burning for the Truth, the pearl of enlightenment happens!
In the same way, the words of the Master will straight away enter only into the person who is seeking intensely with his being fully open for the initiation. He carries those words with him and it sits inside his inner space.
The process happens and out comes the pearl of enlightenment.
For the intense seeker, even a few words are enough. He will suddenly see the being blossoming, expanding and expressing itself.
The intensity and the openness of the disciple are like the wide-open mouth of the oyster. The words of the Master are like the rainwater.
When the words of the Master enter the being of the disciple intensely burning for the truth, the pearl of enlightenment happens.
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DURATION
TECHNIQUE: MEDITATION TO BE OPEN TO LIFE
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
Why do you carry your body like a shield?
If you look closely, you will see that you are carrying your body like, a defense against the world.
We never release our body. We are so afraid to be vulnerable, to be open.
If you observe children, they are so light, so comfortable inside their body. They don't feel their body as a load. They don't have an idea of 'body' in their mind!
You feel the solidity, the load of your body because you are clinging to it.
It is not clinging to you; you are clinging to it!
Not only are you carrying your body as a shield against the world, you are feeding and nourishing this idea continuously. When you become aware of this, you can simply drop it.
I don't mean that you should drop the body! Drop the idea you have of it in your mind. If you don't carry it as a protective shield, your body will disappear from your mind.
INSTRUCTIONS
In the night, when you go to sleep, just imagine that you are dropping the shield of your body. At least at night, you don't need to wear a shield!
Your body feels so stiff and solid! Just release it! Let it drop away from you.
Take a few deep breaths. Feel the weight of the body falling away. Don't imagine that you don't have a body. Just experience your body as soft and vulnerable, not as a shield.
Feel your body to be as delicate as the body of a newborn baby.
Let your body fall gently on the bed, like a flower dropping on the grass. Go to sleep in this way, light and free.
7. INTENSITY: GLIMPSES FROM MY LIFE