Real Teaching – In Gita Verse 11.28 As the many waves of the rivers flow into the ocean, so do all these great warriors enter blazing into Your mouths.
Now Arjuna started looking as the river flows into the ocean, meaning meeting to its original source the same way all the warriors enter Krishna’s mouth, which means going into its original source.
Arjuna’s heart has become silent. It is whispering something when he sees through the divine eyes. He started understanding which Krishna through his words couldn’t make him understand.
The real teaching cannot be taught, but still it is called a teaching. It cannot be taught, but it can be shown, indicated. There is no way to say it directly, but there are millions of ways to indicate it indirectly.
When the heart is silent, it says something; when the mind is silent, it says nothing. Words are the vehicle of the mind. No words, silence, is the vehicle of the heart. Silence is a language without words, but one has to learn it. Just as one has to learn the languages of the mind, one has to learn the language of the heart: how to be silent, how to be wordless, how to be without a mind, how to be a no-mind. When the mind stops functioning, immediately the whole energy moves towards the heart. When the mind is not functioning the heart functions; when the heart functions, only then can something be taught to you. The real teaching can be taught through the heart. You MUST be near the heart. The nearer you are, the more capable you become of understanding the silence. Remember, silence is not emptiness. For this reason, it may appear that silence is emptiness – it is not. Silence is the most fulfilling moment possible. It is not only fulfilled, it is overflowing. But it is of a felt significance. The heart is not empty; it is the only thing which is full. The mind is just empty because the mind has nothing but words. And what are words? – Ripples in emptiness. And what is silence? – Silence is the Total. When you think, you are separate from Existence. When you don’t think, you are one. In a non-thinking moment you lose all boundaries; suddenly you disappear, and still you are. And this felt moment of non-ego, of no-mind, of no-thought is the situation in which it becomes possible for the Truth to descend into you. When you are empty of yourself, you will be filled by Truth. So all that a Master has to do is to kill you utterly and completely; is to destroy your ego utterly and completely; is to cut your head so that you can become the heart. And then the whole energy moves into the heart. Can you be headless? If you can be, only then can you be a disciple. If you cling to the head, then you cannot be a disciple. Can you live without the head? If you cannot live without the head, then you are closed to the Truth. Head is the barrier, and the heart is the opening.
So how can the real teaching be taught? It cannot be taught, it is not learning. You cannot learn it from somebody; it is an inner discipline. You have to become a receptive vehicle, a medium. It is not something which you can learn while remaining as you are. It cannot be an accumulation. You have to go through a transformation, you have to be different. You have to bring a different quality to your being. Only then does communication become possible – not exactly communication but rather, communion.
Through the head there is communication; through the heart there is a communion – it is not a dialogue. In fact, it is a meeting of the Master with the disciple. It is less a dialogue, more a merging, a melting, where the Master and the disciple merge into each other just as lovers merge. But lovers merge in the body, at the most lovers can merge in the mind, but a disciple and a Master is the greatest love affair in the world. They merge in the spirit – they become one. Only when they are one can the Truth be shown; it cannot be taught, it cannot be learned, nobody can teach you. You can get it from nobody. The whole effort of getting it from somebody, alive or dead, from scriptures or from teachings, is futile. And the sooner you understand it the better, because the time wasted will simply be wasted. Nothing can be achieved by it. You have to pass through a transformation. You have to die and be reborn. You have to be completely new, totally new. With that ‘new’ – when the old has gone, when you have disappeared and a new being has taken place – then there is communion.
To teach Arjuna that I am the source of everything. Krishna gave him divine eyes. To teach Mahakashyap the truth that everything ultimately merges into its source, Buddha remained silent.
Buddha said many things, but he never said a single word about Truth. He talked his whole life; for forty years after his Enlightenment he talked every day continually, but he never said a single word about Truth. Whenever somebody would ask: What is Truth? He would remain silent. Then one day it happened. He sat under a tree; many people had gathered. All his disciples were present and they were waiting for him to say something. But he would not say anything, he simply sat there. He had a flower in his hand, a lotus flower. It is very significant, because in the East the lotus flower is the symbol of ultimate flowering. In the East, the highest peak of your being is thought to be like a lotus – it is. When your final peak comes, inside your being a flower starts opening. And then it goes on opening and opening and opening, from perfection to more perfection and still more perfection; there is no end to it. This lotus is called SAHASRARA, the one-thousand-petalled lotus. Buddha came with a lotus; he sat under a tree and he looked at the lotus as if he had forgotten about the ten thousand people who had gathered there – who were there. And they were waiting impatiently. Moments passed, then hours started passing and people became very uneasy. Buddha had forgotten completely about them. He is there, the flower is there and he is so attentive to the flower that it seems that even the boundaries between Buddha and the flower are lost. Then suddenly one disciple, his name is Mahakashyap, starts laughing loudly. It is unbelievable because this Mahakashyapa is such a silent one, nobody has ever seen him laughing; and such a belly laugh, as if he has gone mad. Everybody looks at him. Buddha calls him near, Mahakashyap comes. Buddha gives the flower to Mahakashyapa and tells the assembly: Whatsoever can be said I have told you, and whatsoever cannot be said I have given to Mahakashyapa – and this is the real teaching.
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