Self-Realization

Allow The Unknown

That is the moment where meditation starts happening. To remain confined into the known is to be in the mind; to allow the unknown to enter into your being is the beginning of meditation, beginning of Zen. The present can be approached only through the no-mind. If you have any conclusions you are still carrying the past; conclusions come from the past prejudices come from the past. You have to put aside everything that you have known. You have to look into the present in a state of not knowing. The mind will tremble – let it tremble. Let it die out of trembling. Don’t listen to it.

The mind will create many doubts. There are doubts…. It is natural the mind will create many doubts. The mind will say “You are perfectly happy, you are perfectly comfortable. Why are you risking? For what? You may lose even that which you have; you may not gain anything. Don’t take the risk!” Mind teaches you to be calculating, to be cautious.

And sannyas is for the gamblers; it is not for the businesslike, it is not for the calculators, it is not for the computers. It is for men, real men, authentic men who are always ready to listen to the challenge of the unknown, who are ready to go into the uncharted sea. There is no guarantee of the other shore; there cannot be any guarantee in sannyas.

Religion cannot provide any guarantee. And the moment any religion starts providing guarantees it is no more religion; it becomes part of certain vested interests. It becomes part of the establishment; it loses all rebellion. Jesus cannot give you any guarantee; the Christian church can give you all kinds of guarantees. Buddha could not have given you any guarantee; the Buddhist church provides you all kinds of guarantees, here and hereafter, even in the other world.

The people who follow are always looking for guarantees, consciously, unconsciously; they are waiting for certain indications that truth should be ensured. “Then we can go into any adventure” – but it is no more adventure if it is guaranteed.

Bliss cannot be guaranteed, truth cannot be guaranteed, ecstasy cannot be guaranteed. Yes, it can be said it happens. The man who has tasted it can say, “I have tasted it, and there is a possibility that you may also taste it. If I have tasted it, why not you?” But there is no guarantee: you may, you may not.

And the mind lives on these doubts. The mind says, “Who knows? This man may be deceiving. Maybe he is not deceiving, but he himself may be deceived. He may be hallucinating about ecstasy, samadhi – dreaming, believing. Maybe he has auto-hypnotized himself or maybe he is just a fraud deceiving others, exploiting their gullibility.” The mind will create all these questions, thousands of questions. In mind questions arise like leaves grow on trees; the mind goes on growing many and many questions every moment. No answer is of any help; out of every answer the mind will create many more questions.

It is natural to feel doubt. If there is no doubt, then there is no growth either.

The more you feel full of doubts and still you go on the journey, that makes the difference. The stupid person, the imbecile, the idiot may not feel any doubts, he may simply believe, but he is not going on any adventure; he cannot understand what adventure is. He is just accidental, he is at the mercy of the winds. But the intelligent person is bound to feel doubts. In spite of the doubts one has to go; that’s how life is. Ais dhammo sanantano – this is the law of life. In spite of all the doubts one has to go.