VBT – Meditation 74.2
How To Be
If you are aware that somehow you are missing… you exist but you don’t know why, you don’t know how, you don’t know even who exists within you. This unawareness creates all suffering, because, unknowingly, whatsoever you do will bring suffering. It is not what you do that is basic; it is whether you do it with your presence or with your absence that is significant.
Whatsoever you do, if you can do it with your total presence, your life will become ecstatic; it will be a bliss. If you do something without your presence there, absently, your life will be a suffering – bound to be. Hell means your absence.
So there are two types of seekers: one type of seeker is always in search of what to do. That seeker is on the wrong path, because the question is not of doing at all. The question is of being – what to be, how to be. So never think in terms of action and doing, because whatsoever you do, if you are absent it will be meaningless.
Whether you move in the world or you live in a monastery; whether you function in the crowd or you move to an isolated spot in the Himalayas will make no difference. You will be absent here and you will be absent there, and whatsoever you do – in the crowd or in isolation – will bring suffering.
If you are not there, then whatsoever you do is wrong.
The second type, and the right type of seeker, is not in search of what to do, he is in search of how to be. The first thing is how to be.
For this technique it is good to be with someone: to be with a teacher, or to be with a friend. Don’t do it alone. Someone must be there to take care of you, to watch you. This is a school method.
Where many people are working in a school, it is very easy, less harmful, less dangerous – because sometimes when the sky explodes within, for many days you may not become aware of your body.
You may not come out, you may be so absorbed in the feeling, because time disappears; you cannot feel how much time has elapsed. The body disappears, you cannot feel the body. You become the sky. Someone must take care of your body; very loving care will be needed.
So with a master, or with a group, this technique is less harmful and less dangerous. And with a group that knows what is possible – what can happen and what should be done… because if in such a state of mind you are suddenly awakened, you may go mad, because time will be needed for your mind to come back. If suddenly brought back to the body, your nervous system cannot bear it. It is not made for that. It has to be trained. So don’t do it alone. You can do it in a group, with a few friends, in a lonely place. And do it in steps, not suddenly.
Tags: How To Be
