VBT – Meditation 64.0
AT THE START OF SNEEZING, DURING FRIGHT, IN ANXIETY, ABOVE A CHASM, FLYING IN BATTLE, IN EXTREME CURIOSITY, AT THE BEGINNING OF HUNGER, AT THE END OF HUNGER, BE UNINTERRUPTEDLY AWARE.
Be Uninterruptedly Aware
It looks so simple: at the start of sneezing, during fright, in anxiety or before hunger or after hunger, “BE UNINTERRUPTEDLY AWARE.” Many things have to be understood. Very simple acts like sneezing can be used as devices, because howsoever simple they look, they are very complex, and the inner mechanism is a very delicate thing. Whenever you feel that a sneeze is coming, become alert, and the sneeze may not come at all. It may simply disappear, because a sneeze is a non – voluntary thing – unconscious, non-voluntary.
You cannot sneeze voluntarily; you cannot “will” it. How can you? How helpless a man is! You cannot “will” a single sneeze. Howsoever you may try, you cannot bring it out. A single sneeze – such a small thing, but you cannot “will” it. It is non-voluntary; volition is not needed. It does not happen because of your mind; it is because of your total organism, your total body.
And the second thing: when you become alert, when the sneeze is coming – you cannot bring it, but when it is coming – if you become alert, it may not come, because you are bringing something new to the process: the alertness. It may disappear, but when the sneeze disappears and you are alert, there is a third thing. First, a sneeze is non-voluntary. You bring in a new thing – alertness. When the alertness comes, the sneeze may not come. If really you are really, it will not; it may not happen at all. Then a third thing happens. The energy that was going to be released through a sneeze, where does it move? It moves to your alertness. Suddenly there is a flash, a lightning. You become more alert. The energy that was going to be thrown by the sneeze moves into alertness. Suddenly you become more alert.
In that flash, in that lightning, even enlightenment is possible. That is why I say that these matters are so simple, they look absurd. Their promise seems to be too much. Just through sneezing, how can one become enlightened? But sneezing is not just sneezing; you are totally involved in it.
Whatsoever you do or whatsoever happens to you is a total involvement. Observe again: whenever a sneeze happens, you are totally in it with the whole body, the whole mind. It is not just your nose in which the sneeze is happening; every fiber, every cell of your body is involved in it. A subtle trembling, a subtle wavering goes all over the body, and with it the whole body becomes concentrated. And when the sneeze happens, the whole body relaxes. But it is difficult to bring alertness to it. If you bring alertness to it, it will not happen, and if it happens you can know that the alertness was not there. That is why you should be alert.
“AT THE START OF SNEEZING…”, because if it has started, nothing can be done. The arrow has gone; you cannot change it now. The mechanism has started. The energy is on its way to being released, it cannot be stopped. Can you stop sneezing in the middle? How can you stop it in the middle? By the time you are ready, it has already happened. You cannot stop it in the middle.
Tags: Be Uninterruptedly Aware
