... seagull on the wing looks so fantastic, why the roseflower exists at all? If you start asking why, then only the meaningless things will have meaning, and all the meaningful things will start disappearing into meaninglessness. Then money will have meaning, but not love. Then machines will have meaning, but not the dew on the grass leaves in the morning sun. Then weapons will have meaning, but not...

... in love with money and the money starts taking on a beauty. Have you not seen people touching their notes and rupees with such love and such care, almost caressing, kissing? I have heard.... Once upon a time Goldstein was walking along a busy highway when he came upon the scene of an automobile accident. Several injured men were still lying about on the road. The Jew approached one of the victims...

... and asked, "Has the insurance man been around here?" "No." "Well then," said the Jew, "I will just lie down here by your side." He can't see the misery. People are dying... and he can only see money. And another story about the same Goldstein: He was in court. He had caught his wife with a man in the bed. The judge asked him, "You say, Goldstein, that the...

... unwritten law would have justified you in killing Mr. Cohen, and that you had pulled a gun on him, yet you did not fire. Why?" Mr. Goldstein: "Well, Judge, when I pointed my pistol at him, he said, 'How much you want for that gun?' I ask you, Judge, could I kill a man when he was talking business?" If you are in love with money, then suddenly money has something that nobody will be able to...

... see in it. Everybody will laugh at you, but you will be able to see it. Fall in love with anything and you start seeing things which are not available to others. Love creates beauty. Love is creative. Love is the only creative force there is. So even things like money can become significant and meaningful, and can have a grandeur which is simply not there. So when you come across a Christ or a...

... and everything should become the background. Listening to me, I become the figure and everything else becomes the background. If listening to me here you go on driving, or calculating, or thinking of the office or money matters and things like that, then you are missing me. And the joy that arises in you is not because of me. It arises only because here everything else moves into the background, and...

... is a person, a pure person. Maleness, femaleness are irrelevant facts. Who bothers? Otherwise those are the most pertinent and relevant facts. The first thing that you see in the other is a reflection of your nafs. Sufis say nafs is the state where man exists, and through nafs there is no possibility of seeing God - because nafs can only see sexuality, money, power. Nafs is blind to God. Unless you...

.... Nafs is a constant hankering to have more - of whatsoever. If you have money you want to have more money, if you have a beautiful woman you want to have a more beautiful woman, if you have power you want to have more power - always more and more and more. Now this more cannot be satisfied. In the very nature of things the desire for more cannot be satisfied - because whatsoever you have, your desire...

... feeling of fullness. But no food goes into your inner emptiness, it only stuffs your stomach. It is destructive to your body if you eat too much. And you remain empty. Somebody becomes a food addict, somebody becomes a power addict, somebody becomes a money addict - they are all addictions. These are the real drugs. LSD or marijuana are nothing compared to money, compared to power. These are the really...

... destructive elements. And I am not saying that LSD or marijuana are not destructive; they are destructive, but they are nothing compared to money or power. Whenever you are trying to fill your inner emptiness with anything, you are going against God - because that inner emptineSs is the face of God. When you stop stuffing yourself with food, money, power, etcetera, etcetera, then suddenly you become aware...

... America. Jimmy Carter should be told to change the name to Altered States of America. That will be more relevant. The con-sciousness is changing. Man is more interested in consciousness now than ever. NAFS is interested in the content - the content that you can fill your consciousness with. The content may be money or food or knowledge or something else, but NAFS is interested in the content. After...

... future, you are finished with power, money, prestige, because you have seen the futility of it all. Seeing is transformation. Remember this as the very fundamental; then these sutras will have a totally different meaning to you. The meaning depends on the context. If you place these sutras in a wrong context they will have a different meaning, and that's what has happened to Buddha. I repeat: he has...

... FIRE! Fortunate are those who can understand it, not only intellectually but existentially. Can't you see your life is nothing but anguish? Now there are two ways to get rid of this anguish, this fire; one is to become so involved in meaningless things that you can forget your anguish, so that the anguish cannot raise its head because you are so occupied: the whole day occupied with money, power...

... false ideas; it says, "Look how healthy I am, how strong I am, look how beautiful I am." It goes on deceiving you, it goes on telling you that death always happens to others, not to you. Nobody is an exception. And the mind is such a deceiver, so cunning, so crafty that it can make you believe anything. It can make you believe in money, and you will have to leave all your money when you go...

.... But you cling to money, people are ready to die for money. In fact, that's how many people die: their whole lives are spent accumulating money; they sell their lives just to accumulate a few pieces of gold. That gold will remain here and you will be gone, and the gold has no attachment to you. It is you who have created all kinds of attachments. And the mind always goes on creating a future; it goes...

... is not death-obsessed, but he has come to know one thing: that it is only by becoming aware of death that one gets rid of the obsession with the body, the obsession with food, the obsession with sex, the obsession with money, the obsession with the world. You have to live in life, but let there be a consciousness, constantly, that this life is slipping out of your hands and death is coming closer...

... completely in it, you can even have a glimpse of the third through it. And if sex becomes a total orgasmic experience, there are rare moments when you can even have a glimpse of the fourth, the TURIYA, the beyond, through it. But if sex fails, then many perversions happen to the mind. These perversions are expressed in hatred. Hatred is a failure of sex, a failure of love energy. Violence, lust for money...

... to be open. With things there is no need to flow or to be open. Things can be possessed, persons cannot be possessed. Things are dead, persons are not dead. Persons are freedom in essence: you can love them, you can delight in them, but you cannot possess them. People whose natural function of sex has failed become much too possessive about money, things of the world. Science is also part of...

... - particularly destructive science - politics, money and money-oriented search, possessiveness, belong to the body and belong to sex, so, art, poetry, music, painting, sculpture, belong to the second layer of love. When your love is flowing, when you have come to know a certain EN RAPPORTness with a person, a certain oneness with a person, although only for moments - that too is enough to change the whole life...

... anything higher than their body, foolish to those who have not known anything valuable other than money, foolish to those who have not known anything paradoxical, who, in fact, have not known anything mysterious, who have lived with logic, who are Aristotelian. It is said that Aristotle's Master, Plato, used to call Aristotle THE MIND. That was his name for Aristotle - THE MIND. Whenever he wanted to ask...

..., GREATLY RESEMBLES FOLLY. Because whatsoever Lao Tzu is saying he is saying: Live here and now! This is folly! Because a reasonable man always sacrifices today for tomorrow. He says, I will live tomorrow. When things are put right, when the time is right, and I have leisure, enough money, a big palace to live in, then I will live - right now how can I live? Every parent is teaching to every child...

..., you can earn a little money, you can have a bank balance, there it is okay. But not beyond that. BECAUSE IT IS GREAT, that's why it looks like folly. Deep down, if you search within yourself you will also see that if suddenly Mahavir comes and stands here naked you will think that he is a fool, what is he doing here? If Lao Tzu comes here you will not be able to recognize him, it will be impossible...

.... Looking at this, Judas said: What is this? And you are allowing it? (He must have been the first communist, that Judas.) Stop her! She is wasting valuable perfume! The perfume can be sold, and many poor people can be fed. Of course, absolutely reasonable. Who can find a fault with Judas? He said: People are poor, and you are allowing her to waste money like that! Jesus said: Poor people will always be...

... things should be. Deep down we are always discontent; whatsoever is, is not satisfying. We are continuously weaving dreams to change things - to make a better house, to have a better wife, to have a better education, to have more money, to have this, to have that. We are continuously thinking in terms of how to make life better. We go on living in the future which is not. Living in the future is a...

... misery. Whether you desire money or you desire satori, whether you desire some person or you desire enlightenment, whether you desire prestige, power, respectability, or you desire dhyana, samadhi, meditation, enlightenment, desire as such is the same; the nature of desire is the same. Desire means desire, and desire brings misery. What you desire is irrelevant - you desire, that's enough to make you...

... asking you not to drop desire, but asking you to change the object of desire. That is the difference. They say, 'Don't desire worldly things, desire heavenly things. Don't desire money, desire god.' Now you can see the difference, the revolutionary change. Buddha says simply don't desire. It is not a question of what you desire. If you desire you will remain in misery. Don't desire, that's all. Be...

... Gogh was painting at all because his paintings were not selling. Not a single painting was sold while he was alive. And he was dying, starving himself, because he had only enough money to live. Each week his brother was giving him a certain amount of money, enough just to survive. So for three days he would eat, and for four days he would fast every week to save money for colours, brushes, canvases...

... 'lord'. Buddha changed the whole thing. He called his sannyasins bhikkhus, beggars. But he brought a new dimension, a new meaning, a new challenge. He said live moment to moment. Having nothing, you will never be secure - and you will never be stupid. Have you watched? When you have money, you become lethargic. When you don't have money you become alert. If suddenly all is lost you will become very...

... paintings now cost millions of dollars. People had discarded them; people accepted them out of politeness, because as far as they were concerned it was all junk -- so why collect it? Vincent van Gogh committed suicide when he was only thirty-three. It was impossible to live; he could not earn a single pie. His brother used to give him enough money, just enough, to exist, to survive. But he needed money to...

... paint -- for the canvas and the colours and the brushes. So this was his arrangement: out of seven days... he used to get money every Sunday for one week. Every week, for three days he would eat and for four days he would fast, so that money could be saved to purchase canvases, colours, and other things that he needed. To me, van Gogh's fasting is far more significant than all the fasts that have been...

... suffering too much from people -- the stress of being in a crowd continuously. Psychoanalysis may not be the real cause of help, but the length of time -- two years, three years, four years, the psychoanalysis continues. It continues as long as you can afford it; it depends on you. If you have enough money, it can continue your whole life. In fact, psychoanalysis never comes to a termination. It cannot...

...; money, power, prestige, are still haunting you. And you cannot be a sannyasin unless you are utterly frustrated with the world. And remember, I am not teaching escapism from the world: I teach transcendence, not escape. Be in the world, but don't be of it. A sannyasin is a person who lives in the world but lives meditatively, and meditation creates a distance. Then you can go on doing all kinds of...

... things but you don't become intoxicated, you don't become identified with them. To live in awareness, without any intoxication with money, power, prestige, is the way of the sannyasin. Hallihan and Flannigan were having a few at a new tavern in town. After an hour of heavy imbibing, Hallihan asked the bartender for the washroom. "Go to the door, left of the elevator," said the barkeeper...

...-mannered, mincing little man had all the money he could possibly use. Bravely he snapped his fingers, clicked his heels, and decided to become a swinger. He bought expensive, mod clothes, had his hair styled, rented a lavish beach villa in Florida, and got a dark, virile tan. Driving home from the Rolls Royce dealer in his new car, wearing his flashiest sports clothes and swingiest sunglasses, he was...

... is what makes this type of knowledge esoteric. This is what mystery means: one knows and still remains ignorant. Money continues to circulate, just like blood in the body. Knowledge cannot be circulated like money; this knowledge cannot be transferred. Then what to do? What should the master do with the disciple? The master only prays, "Give us strength. We should endeavor together, we should...

... hunting, and he became a cultivator. He started creating small villages which turned into big cities. When he was just a hunter, there were neither rich men nor poor men. When he became a cultivator he soon had to discover money, because he could not go on accumulating his products from the field - he had to sell them. The barter system that started in the beginning proved to be too complicated. For...

... tomorrow it will be spoiled. Fruits are such a product... maybe they can keep a little longer, but they will also become rotten. It became more and more difficult; and when things become difficult, a solution is always bound to appear on the horizon. Man has intelligence enough to solve his problems; he just needs a challenge. He invented money, currency. You need not find another man to exchange your...

... product with; you can simply sell your product to anybody. The invention of money was a tremendous change for the whole structure of society. There were powerful people; stronger people, weaker people. Those who were stronger managed to become kings or big landlords - these are beautiful names for robbers, thieves, murderers. In England the lords are still respected. They are the children of people who...

... had taken possession of the land from many other people, expelling them from their lands. Slowly slowly, they started accumulating arms, armies and security forces. One of the things that came with private property, with money, with land, with houses, was the private ownership of women. Before that, the woman was not under private ownership; she was a free individual just as man was. But now the...

... people who had money wanted it absolutely guaranteed that their son was really their son, not somebody else's. And the beauty of their woman had to be kept hidden; her body had to be kept hidden. For the first time she was not for all, she was private property. Clothing started with private property. First it was the woman who was forced not to be nude. And as the woman became clothed, man started...

... most. So the hypnotist opens the eyelid and sees whether underneath it is white, and all that used to be there, your pupil, has moved upwards. Then he is certain that you are no longer capable of hearing anybody, you are no longer capable of disobeying him; whatever he will say, you will do. This is the danger. He can say to you, "Just take out all your money and hand it over to me," and...

... you will immediately take out all your money and hand it over to him. He can take your ornaments or he can tell you to sign any document that may create trouble for you, for example that you have sold your house, or donated your house. There is one thing more to be understood, which is very dangerous: he can give a post-hypnotic suggestion. A post-hypnotic suggestion means that he can say to you...

..., "After ten days you will come to me, you will have to come to me, bringing all your money, all your ornaments, anything valuable that you have. Leave it on my table and simply go back." It is possible to give a post-hypnotic suggestion that after twenty-four hours you will shoot somebody. All these orders will be followed because the person does not know... as far as his consciousness is...

... any disease and you will not harass your children with diseases that don't exist!'" And the old man remained silent. His sons were very happy: "Why have we never thought of the hypnotist? We have been wasting so much money paying the doctors, and all that they say is 'You harass us. Although you give us money, it is sheer harassment. The man is not sick at all.' This man is the right man...

... society is based on misery. If people are blissful you cannot lead them to war - to Vietnam, or to Egypt, or to Israel. No. Someone who is blissful will just laugh and say: This is nonsense! If people are blissful you cannot make them obsessed with money. They will not waste their whole lives just accumulating money. It will look like madness to them that a person is destroying his whole life, just...

... exchanging his life for dead money, dying and accumulating money. And the money will be there when he is dead. This is absolute madness! But this madness cannot be seen unless you are ecstatic. If people are ecstatic then the whole pattern of this society will have to change. This society exists on misery. Misery is a great investment for this society. So we bring up children...from the very beginning we...