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Transformation

Enlightenment has nothing to do with knowledge. It is freedom from knowledge, it is absolute transcendence of knowledge. It is going beyond knowing.

Buddhahood is a transcendence of both. In buddhahood there is no object, no subject; all duality has disappeared. There is no knower, no known; there is no observer and nothing as observed – there is only one. Whatsoever you want to call it, you can call it: you can call it God, you can call it nirvana, you can call it samadhi, satori… or whatever, but only one remains. The two have melted into one.

Buddha gave to the world a non metaphysical religion, a psychological religion. He simply helps you to go beyond your mind. He helps you to understand the mind because it is only through understanding that transcendence happens.

If you become – a transcendence of the mind, a witness to the mind, and you know that you are separate, and the mind no longer has any sway over you, you are no longer hypnotized by it, then you will be able to really appreciate it. I appreciate it. And you will also be able to use it, and you will never be able to abuse it. A conscious person cannot abuse anything.

Transformation means to change the plane of your understanding. It comes through transcendence. If you want to change your mind, you have to go to the state of no-mind. Only from that height will you be able to change your mind, because from that height you will be the master. Remaining in the mind and trying to change the mind by mind itself is a futile process. It is like pulling yourself up by your own shoestrings. It is like a dog trying to catch hold of its own tail; sometimes they do, sometimes they behave very humanly. The dog is sitting in the warm sun early in the morning and he looks at the tail just resting by his side – naturally, the curiosity arises: Why not catch hold of it? He tries, fails, feels offended, annoyed; tries hard, fails harder, becomes mad, crazy. But he will never be able to catch hold of the tail – it is his own tail. The more he jumps, the more the tail will jump. Psychology can give you a few insights into the mind, but because it cannot take you beyond the mind it can’t be of any help.

First go deep into love so you can have a few tastes of death. Then death will come one day – then go dancingly into it, because you know it is going to be the greatest orgasm that you have ever known, that it is going to be the deepest of love. And that’s how one transcends – knowing that both are one. That very knowing is transcendence.

These two words have to be understood because the difference is very delicate and subtle: ‘indifference’ and ‘transcendence’. Indifference simply means you avoid the positive to avoid the negative. Transcendence means you avoid nothing, neither the positive nor the negative. You live the positive in its totality and you live the negative in its totality, with a new quality – and that quality is that of a witness. You live totally but at the same time you remain silently alert, aware.

Joy is a state of transcendence. One is neither happy nor unhappy, but utterly peaceful, quiet, in absolute equilibrium; so silent and so alive that his silence is a song, that his song is nothing but his silence. Joy is forever; happiness is momentary. Happiness is caused by the outside, hence can be taken away from the outside – you have to depend on others. And any dependence is ugly, any dependence is a bondage. Joy arises within, it has nothing to do with the outside. It is not caused by others, it is not caused at all. It is the spontaneous flow of your own energy.