... rake it in while knocking back double bourbons. Eventually he wins so much money that he and the crowd move off to a penthouse suite to continue the party. The next day he wakes up with a splitting hangover, lying next to a gorgeous negress who has a serene smile on her face. "Holy cow!" he exclaims to himself. "That was some party!" He gently tucks a couple of hundred dollar...

... much interested in money rather than friendship? If it is a question of choice you will choose money more than friendship; why? Because money seems to be more unchanging. You can depend on it, it is more reliable. If you have a good bank balance it is far more reliable. Who knows about the friend? Today he is a friend, tomorrow he may become the enemy. Machiavelli, in his great book, THE PRINCE...

... can depend on money. People love money more than anything else; more than love, money seems to be significant. You can purchase love; if not love, at least sex you call purchase. But money, if you don't have you simply don't have: you are a beggar. With money everything comes. Money seems to have a certain permanence, a certain stability. People are more interested in things than in people. People...

.... The ring finger is just used for the wedding ring. The little finger is used to clean your ear. Have you understood?" "Yes, Pa," replied the son, "but I would like to know the use of the medium - what you call the power finger." Abraham leans over his son and whispers, "The power finger, son, you use it at night under the blankets... when you count the money!" Why...

... people are so much interested in money? For the simple reason they are in a great need to find something permanent in this life where everything goes on changing every moment; they want something to rely upon. Unless they find their own center they will go on finding these stupid things. These are poor substitutes. The real thing is the unfoldment of consciousness, because that leads you to the...

... taken out through the fruits. It is good poetry, but you cannot live on poetry alone. He is saying, it is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. He is talking about the beginnings of humanity when there was a barter system, when people were exchanging things, when there was no money as a means of exchange. You have a cow and more milk than you need, but...

... when there were very few people on the earth. Now the very idea of exchange is absurd. Just think: for any of your needs you may have to go around the whole country to find the right person. Money is one of the greatest inventions of man, to avoid this whole trouble. Whether you need the milk or not, whether you have the horse or not does not matter; anybody who needs milk can pay in money and...

... anybody who wants to sell a horse, you can purchase it. Money is a shortcut. And just having a single rupee in your pocket... have you ever thought how many things you have in your pocket? If you want a man to massage you, he is in your pocket. If you want to smoke cigarettes, they are in your pocket. If you want to go to see a film, it is in your pocket. Of course you cannot have all the things for one...

... rupee - but you can choose anything that you want. Kahlil Gibran would have been supported by a man like Mahatma Gandhi, because he was talking of a world so primitive that except for barter... money would have been impossible. And you will be surprised to know that it is not the West that invented money and currency, it was China. And for three thousand years they have been using currency notes. When...

... Marco Polo discovered currency notes he could not believe, because although in European countries in the West, money had come into existence, it was in gold coins. If you were carrying ten thousand gold coins, either their weight would kill you or you would be robbed, because anybody can see that you are carrying ten thousand gold coins. And what is the need of carrying such burden from one place to...

... from China to Europe. The printing press was invented in China at the same time, because without a printing press how can you have notes? He brought notes to show to the pope, because at that time the pope was the decisive factor for the whole Western world. And the whole court of the pope laughed at Marco Polo. They said, "You call it money? Do you want to deceive us?" And the pope took...

... population became thicker and thicker. Money came into existence, but solid gold. Then gold disappeared, silver disappeared; notes came into existence. In fact they are also out of date. In our commune in America we had just currency cards, because a note is a dirty thing. It goes on passing through so many people - somebody may have AIDS, somebody may have tuberculosis, somebody may be suffering from...

.... There is no justice in the world, there is no love in the world - there is only greed and hunger. The hunger is because of greed, because a few people are so hypnotized by money that they go on collecting without bothering that the more money you collect, the more people will be dying in Ethiopia, in India, in the whole poor East. All your money is soaked in blood. Your bank balances show how many...

... yourself - but look around, look at people. A man is constantly occupied with money. What is he really doing? Focusing his mind on money so he can avoid himself. He goes on thinking about money, morning, evening and night. Even on his bed he thinks about money and the bank balance. What is he doing with the money? That's why when he gets the money he is at a loss - what to do now? So the moment he gets...

... the money he was thinking about, he starts thinking about more money - because money is not the thing he was asking for. Otherwise, when he gets it he should feel fulfilled, but not even a Rockefeller or a Ford is fulfilled. When you get money you immediately demand more, because the basic motivation is not the money, the basic motivation is how to remain occupied. Whenever occupation is not there...

... anything, soon you will become enlightened. An unoccupied state of mind is meditation. An occupied state of mind is the world, the sansar. It doesn't matter what type of occupation - whether you are interested in money or politics, or social service or revolution, it makes no difference: your sanity is the same. Even if you leave Lenin alone he will go mad: he needs the society and the revolution; if...

... become great. Sometimes through money he wants to become great - yes, money also gives you a feeling of expansion; it is a drug. When you have much money, you feel your boundaries are not so close to you - they are far away. You can have as many cars as you want; you are not limited. If suddenly you want to have a Rolls Royce, you can have it - you feel free. When the money is not there, a Rolls Royce...

... passes by, the desire arises... but the limitation. Your pocket is empty. You don't have any bank balance. You feel hurt - the wall; you cannot go beyond it. The car is there; you see the car; you can have it right now - but there is a wall between you and the car: the wall of poverty. Money gives you a feeling of expansion, a feeling of freedom. But that too is a false freedom. You can have many more...

...: Politics and money are as much drugs as LSD and marijuana - and far more dangerous. If one has to choose between LSD and money, LSD is far better. If one has to choose between politics and LSD, then LSD is far better and far more religious. Why do I say so? because through LSD you will only be destroying yourself, but through money you destroy others too. Through LSD you will be simply destroying your...

...." Money, politics, are far more dangerous drugs. Now, this is very ironical: politicians are always against drugs, people who have money are always against drugs - and they are not aware that they themselves are drug-addicts. And they are on a far more dangerous trip, because their trip implies others' lives too. A man is free to do whatsoever he wants to do. LSD can at the most be a suicidal...

... thing, but it is never murder. It is suicide! And one IS free to commit suicide, at least one HAS to be free to commit suicide because it is your life; if you don't want to live, it is okay. But money is murder; so is power-politics murder - it kills others. I am not saying to choose drugs. I am saying ALL drugs are bad: money, politics, LSD, marijuana. You choose these things because you have a false...

... experience a totally different history from anybody else. They have lived for centuries without a country, they have wandered all over the world, they have lived without security, without a home; naturally that has made them very money-minded. When you don't have a home, when you don't have a country, then all your security becomes focused on money; then it is only money that can save you. And when you...

... become focused on money, naturally you become more clever than others in earning it. Your whole being turns into a money-making machine. That's what a Jew is - a money-making machine. Nobody can defeat him in that because they have lived a totally different past. When you are living in your home surrounded by the same kind of people, the same race, protected by the country, by the society, you need not...

... worry too much about money. Even without money you are not going to die, people will support you, you can depend on that. But the Jews had no way to depend on anything else; hence money became their country, money became their religion, money became their home, money became their security. That was bound to happen. In a country like India where for thousands of years everybody has been told to seek...

... LYING UPON IT? There is no meaning, no purpose, in the sense purpose is understood in the marketplace. But the rosebud is immensely joyful - the dewdrop and the rising sun and the morning breeze. The moment is precious - it is a moment of dance. This dance is not going to bring money; this dance is not going to bring fame; this dance is not going to make the rosebud respectable. This dance is not for...

... students started dancing on those roads. The manager of the university canteen approached me and he said, "I will not take any money from you for your food, for your milk, for your tea - even for your guests. But stop what you have started! These twenty boys used to eat two, three chapatis at the most; now they are eating twenty chapatis. You will kill me; I am a poor contractor: now twenty boys are...

... because you cannot prove why you love. You cannot give any reasonable answer for your love. You can say you do a certain business because you need money; you need money because you need a house; you need a house because how can you live without a house? In your ordinary life, everything has some purpose, but love - you cannot give any reason. You can simply say, "I don't know. All I know is that to...

... about this: the Nobel Prize is being given to people who create peace, who serve the poor, who create great literature, or scientific inventions - and with each Prize goes almost one quarter million dollars. But do you know from where this money has come? The man in whose name the Nobel Prize is being given earned the whole money in the first world war by creating weapons. He was the greatest weapon...

... manufacturer in the world. By his weapons, millions of people were killed. And with all the money that he accumulated, he created a foundation, a charity, and now every year just from the interest on the money, all the Nobel Prizes are given. The original money remains in the bank, just the interest... and nobody bothers that this money is blood-soaked. And the name of Nobel has become one of the greatest...

... names in history. Charity is a strange game: First you cripple people and then you help them. First you destroy their environment, their ecology, and then from the same people, who have been destroying the ecology of the earth, comes the money for charity. The pope goes on teaching against birth control. And it is only the poor people who create more children; rich people don't create more children...

..., because they have other enjoyments in life. The poor man has nowhere else to go when he comes back home, because everywhere - if he goes to a disco, or a restaurant, or a movie - money is needed. Only sex is his entertainment which is free. He creates dozens of children; the pope goes on telling people that to prevent children is an act against God; and then poverty goes on growing; then charity is...

... things out of date. Old factories will close, old industries will close. There are many inventions which are never marketed in the world because the people whose business will be affected by them purchase their patents. And the scientist has not the money to make his own conception into a reality. Now there are... for example, in Japan a few scientists have discovered that railway trains need not go at...

... driver, and it can take thousands of passengers. But it is not being marketed. No country is interested in the invention, because so much money is involved in the old railway trains, old railway stations. If these new trains are accepted, that whole business will go bankrupt. It is just an example. There are at least a thousand inventions which can help humanity to be more comfortable, to be more...

... priests, everybody is against it. Have you gone mad, just for a breakfast and a lunch, staking your life? I will give you the money, just get out!" But those eight persons said, "We are not going to get out. We have seen enough of the world, now let us see what happens if the train does not stop - something is bound to happen. And if the driver is driving, he will also be concerned about...

...: you should be paid, paid more, because now you have vacated the place for a robot which produces a hundred times more. So if your salary is doubled there is no loss. And if the whole world is unemployed and has enough money to enjoy, do you think anybody is going to join the army? People will join carnivals, circuses... All kinds of celebrations will happen, but there is no need for war. And even if...

...? I don't have any money." The doctor will think, "It is better to cure him and get rid of him." But when a rich man is sick, then it becomes professionally a very strange dilemma in the mind of the physician: to cure him or to have him linger on - because the more he lingers on, the more money you get. If you cure him, you don't get that money. But if computers can manage, then many...

... Gogh's first works are just coal sketches - but they are tremendously beautiful. Now even those coal sketches have a value of millions of dollars. But his parents would not give him money for paints, for canvases, and finally they had to turn him out. One of his friends took pity on van Gogh and asked him to stay with him until he got some employment. And he fell in love with the sister of the friend...

... his hand for his whole life - and he was turned out of the house the next day. A man of great sensitivity - but no woman was ready to love him, because he looked crazy. Nobody was buying his paintings, and still he went on painting. His brother was employed - his younger brother - and was sending van Gogh the exact amount of money so that he could have his food every day. Each week he would send...

... money - enough for one week only. And Vincent van Gogh would only eat four days in the week, and three days he would fast and purchase canvases and paints. And nobody was buying his paintings. People were simply laughing and saying, "He is simply mad! We have never seen such paintings. What is he doing?" But it seems whatever he was doing is going to come true, slowly, slowly. If his vision...

... they also could see the stars but they didn't see spirals. This tremendous sensitivity... but he was misunderstood everywhere. And finally. when he was only thirty-three, they drove him mad. Hungry, starving, and everybody laughing and condemning... not a single painting was sold. His brother tried to send a man with money and said, "At least purchase one painting. He will have the consolation...

... that somebody has purchased one painting." The man went - he had no idea about painting. Van Gogh was so ecstatic that somebody had come finally to purchase a painting - so he was showing him all his paintings. And the man said, "Don't waste my time - any will do. This is the money." You can understand how much van Gogh would have been shocked. He simply said, "That means this...

... money has been given to you by my brother - because you are not even looking at the paintings. I cannot sell any painting to you. These paintings are not for people who cannot understand them. And just tell my brother never to do such a thing to me - it hurts more." And it was found actually that that was the case. Van Gogh died without selling a single painting. Now only two hundred paintings...

... have anything that makes us not worry, and we have everything that would make you commit suicide." Don't argue - simply make it clear to them, "We are homeless, we don't have any money, we don't belong to any society, we have abandoned all the nations, all the religions. Still, we are happy. We don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, but today is enough. When tomorrow comes it will...

.... By money, by power, by prestige, by social conformity, by belonging to a herd -- religious, political -- by being part of a family, a nation, what are you seeking? Just an unknown fear surrounds you, and you start creating as many barriers as possible between you and the fear. But those same barriers are going to prevent you from living. Once this is understood, you will know the meaning of sannyas...

... a dance becomes involved in creating more money, more power, more ambition, more security. The same energy that could have been a tremendously beautiful flower of love becomes just an imprisonment in a marriage. Marriage is secure -- by law, by social convention, by your own idea of respectability and what people will say. Everybody is afraid of everybody else ... so people go on pretending. Love...

... people can do ... the community is very rich and very intelligent; all are educated people. Just talking to him I came to know that in their society, when somebody dies, his friends and his family give money to the high priest. Sometimes lakhs of rupees are given to the priest as a representative of God; because the man is going on a pilgrimage, his life after death should be taken care of. The priest...

... writes a letter to God, a letter of recommendation: "This man has to be taken care of. A good place" -- according to the donations -- "should be arranged for him in heaven." That letter is put in the pocket of the dead man, the dead man is put in the grave, and the money -- of course -- goes in the pocket of the priest. I asked the friend, "Do you think that money in some...

... whole life's money to have a secure place in the other world, but they have not lived HERE." He could not deny it to me: "This is not good -- but I am just a representative of a long heritage. My father was a priest, my grandfather was a priest. It is our family profession." I said, "It may be your family profession, but it is more of a crime than a profession. You are an...

... intelligent man, you should expose this hypocrisy." But he said, "I have thought about it many times. As far as I'm concerned, I'm already too rich ... centuries of accumulation. I can expose it -- that the whole money goes into the pocket of the priest -- but I stop myself because this gives people great consolation and security. I don't want to disturb their consolation and their security."...

... THERE'S SOMETHING CONSIDERED IMPORTANT, IT BECOMES A NEST." The moment you think something is important -- money, knowledge, power -- it becomes a cozy nest, and you start living within that small nest. You become a prisoner. A man of ambition cannot be a free man. A man of desires cannot taste the beauty of freedom. His desires are his chains. And whatever has become important -- Yen T'ou is right...

... forgotten themselves. Words have become their whole life; they go on accumulating more and more beautiful quotes, statements, but what they are? -- just imprisoned in scriptures. THOSE WHO TAKE DELIGHT IN THE VERBAL MEANING OF THE SCRIPTURES TAKE THE SCRIPTURES AS THEIR NEST. It does not matter what it is -- it may be money, it may even be enlightenment -- if you make it a distant goal, something to be...

... been prohibited by Prophet Mohammed that interest is a sin, so never give money on interest, one thing. Never take money on interest. This is the reason they are poor, because they cannot take money on interest and they cannot give money on interest. And the whole economy functions on interest. You take money from the bank on interest, you take loan from the government on interest, but they cannot...

... cannot do anything, they cannot be well educated because the money is not there. They have to do very unskilled work which cannot pay much. Now who is responsible for this? And why Mohammedan priests go on telling them to marry four women? Because that increases the number of Mohammedans. That's how they have become the second biggest religion in the world. Christianity is first, Mohammedanism is...

... efficiently, in a far better way. And only very few people are involved in the work. Few people can take care of the whole commune's laundry. There is no need for them to worry about it. Few people can take care of the cleaning of the whole commune. Economically it saves much. Economically money becomes irrelevant. In the commune there is no transfer of money. There is no need. Clothes we purchase wholesale...

... because they know they are working for themselves. If they are making houses, they are making for themselves. In the outside world everybody is working for somebody else. That makes work a burden, a necessity, a slavery. You have to work because you need money. Here you work because you want your commune to live more comfortably, have all modern equipments available. The world has passed the family. It...