VBT – Meditation 65.1
Interpretation
“THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US:” Tantra says, “What is very pure for other teachings, a virtue, is a sin for us, because their concept of purity divides. For them something becomes impure.”
If you call a man a saint, you have created the sinner. Now you will have to condemn someone somewhere because the saint cannot exist without the sinner. And look now at the absurdity of our efforts: we go on trying to destroy sinners, and we conceive of and hope for a world where there will be no sinners – only saints. This is nonsense because saints cannot exist without sinners. They are the other aspect of the same coin. You cannot destroy one aspect of the coin, they both will exist. Sinners and saints are both part and parcel of one thing. If you destroy the sinners, saints will disappear from the world. But don’t be afraid; let them disappear because they have not proved to be of any worth.
Sinners and saints are both part of one interpretation, of one attitude towards the world, in which one says, “This is good and that is bad.” And you cannot say that “This is good” unless you say that “That is bad.” The bad is needed to define the good. So the good depends on the bad, your virtue depends on sin, and your saints are impossible; they cannot exist without the sinners. So they must be grateful to the sinners; they cannot exist without them. In relation to them, in comparison to them, howsoever much they condemn the sinners, they are part and parcel of the same phenomenon.
Sinners can disappear from the world only when saints disappear – not before that; and sin will not be there when there is no concept of virtue.
Tantra says that the fact is real and the interpretation is unreal. Don’t interpret. “IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE.” Why? Because purity and impurity are OUR attitudes imposed on reality. Try this. This technique is arduous, not simple – because we are so much oriented towards dual thinking, based, rooted in dual thinking, that we are not even aware of our condemnations and justifications. If someone starts smoking here, you may not have consciously felt anything, but you have condemned. Deep down within you, you have condemned. Your look may have condemned or no look may have condemned. You may not have looked at the person, and you have condemned.
This is going to be difficult because the habit has become so deep-rooted. You go on – just by your gestures, your sitting, your standing – you go on condemning, justifying, not even aware of what you are doing. When you smile at a person or when you don’t smile at a person, when you look at someone or you don’t look, you just ignore someone, what are you doing? You are imposing your attitudes. You say something is beautiful; then you will have to condemn something as ugly. And this dual attitude is simultaneously dividing you, so within you there will be two persons.
Tags: Interpretation
