...! - I am ready to kill, I can murder. Look, I have murdered this rose." Even your love is nothing but a power trip. Power always kills. Bacon has said knowledge is power - must be so, because knowledge also kills. When you can kill something, you feel great power. I have heard that the most favourite pastime of people around Stalin was hunting. When Brezhnev took Kissinger on a hunting trip, he...

... truth in it. But you can go on searching and searching. And the more you feel that you are not getting it, the more and more anxious you can become to find it. You can become mad after it. Zen says: There is nowhere to go, so no guidance is needed. Then what is the purpose of a Zen master? His purpose is to bring you herenow. His purpose is to hit you so hard that you awake herenow. You have fallen...

... they philosophize, and they go on polishing their concepts and doctrines, and go on believing. And nothing ever changes in their lives. Their belief never brings any light to their lives. In fact, their belief hinders the light. Zen is not a belief system. It is a way of awakening. And the Zen master is bound to be tough. That is his compassion. He has to hit you. And he goes on finding devices how...

... to hit you. Just listen to this story: A Zen master was worshipping at a statue of the Buddha. A monk came by and said, "Why do you worship the Buddha?" "I like to worship the Buddha." "But I thought you said that one cannot obtain enlightenment by worshipping the Buddha?" "I am not worshipping the Buddha in order to obtain enlightenment." "Then why are...

... gave the monk a good slap in the face! It looks so wild, unexpected. And the monk is not asking any irrelevant question: he is asking a simple human ques-tion out of curiosity. He should not be treated like that; there is no need to hit him. No Hindu priest would hit him, no Catholic priest would hit him. Their purposes are different - only a Zen master can hit him. His purpose IS different. Why...

... didn't he hit him in the first place? Why did he bother to answer so many questions and then hit him? He created the situation, the right situation. He created the heat. He created the curiosity more and more and more. He brought the monk to a state from where the hit could simply shock him to a kind of awareness. He helped the monk to think about it more and more and more, to bring a peak of thinking...

... - because only from the peak can the hit be of any help. But his hitting the monk is neither wild nor arrogant - it is not out of anger, remember. This story I have found in a book written by an American who thinks the master became angry because of the persistent query of the monk, and out of anger he hit him back. This is stupid. You have missed the whole point. It is not out of anger! He is not...

... monk to become a little more alert. And if the monk becomes a little more alert, that slap is not only a slap - it is a Leap of the master's being into the disciple. But for that you need great love for the master, otherwise you will miss the slap. You need great trust in the Master. This happens every day. If I slap somebody, if I say something hard, if I hit somebody's ego, then out of a hundred...

... don't expect that from a friend. When I hit you hard, you will simply be angry; you will retaliate. you will argue, you will fight back. You will simply say, Then I am going!" Sannyas simply means that you are ready to go with me even if I hit you. You are ready to go with me even if I crush you, annihilate you. You are ready to go with me to any limits. Your trust is more. Your trust is more in...

... enlightenment. Then there is innocence. Then there is just simple nature. I have played a joke upon Somendra and he got caught into it. I AM CREATING HERE A CLIMATE OF WORK - many things are happening, many are going to happen. And you have to be ready. And the first readiness is: when I hit you, when I shock you - now Somendra will be shocked - when I shock you, use the shock to become a little more alert, a...

... little more aware. Zen is a device, not an analysis of life. And always remember, the universe is unknowable, absolutely, because it is alive. Analysis kills. And remember also: only dead things can be known. Life remains unknown and unknowable. The moment you know, you have killed something. And people go on killing. They kill love - once they analyze it, it is killed. People are so violent that even...

... in love their violence is dearly there, loudly there. Sending flowers is a form of life sacrifice to show high esteem. When you send a beautiful roseflower to your girlfriend or boyfriend, what are you saying? This is not understanding. What are you saying when you say something with a flower? You give a roseflower to your girl - what are you saying ? You are saying: "I will kill for ya, baby...

... showed his power. It is said that whenever Tito wants to know that he is still in control, he kills stag and bear. Whenever people want to show that they are powerful, they kill. Adolf Hitler had to kill to show his power. And killing goes on on many levels. Knowledge is also a subtle way of killing a thing. Zen people are not interested in knowledge because they are not interested in power. They are...

... laboratories it is nothing but murder and murder - they have murdered nature, they go on murdering. t is a beautiful device to hide violence. Just go and see in a scientific lab how many ways they have devised to torture simple, innocent animals - in the name of experiment! in the name of inquiry, in the name of truth. Unimaginable torture. But when it is for truth's sake, it is allowed - nobody thinks of...

...Jewish Ritual Murder, Schramm, Xanten notes...

... Hellmut Schramm's Jewish Ritual Murder - Xanten: footnotes h3 { color: #B50400; text-align: center; } .left { float: left; width: 40%; padding: 4pt 12pt; } AntiMatrix Antimatrix What's New?Theme of the Day Your browser does not support iframes. Jewish Ritual Murder von Hellmut Schramm, Ph. D. 1944 a Historical Investigation a translation by R. Belser of Der jüdische Ritualmord Eine historische...

... Untersuchung Xanten: footnotes [1] Der Xantener Knabenmord vor dem Schwurgericht zu Kleve, 4.-14. Juni 1892. Vollständiger stenographischer Bericht Berlin, 1893. [The Xanten Boy-Murder before the Jury-Court at Cleves, 4-14 June 1892. Complete stenographic report]. [2] See p. 260 and following pages. [3] According to statements of Commissar Wolff before the jury-court at Cleves on 6 July 1892, a Jewish...

... mediator spoke in the Berlin police praesidium and proposed the sending of a crime commissar, "since the child-murder would be blamed on the Jews, who would be in great distress." On 25 September Wolff departed from Berlin in his official capacity, after his being sent had been financed by the Jewish side! These matters brought Stoecker, among others, to speak in the Prussian House of Deputies on 9...

...Jewish Ritual Murder, Schramm...

... necessary to state [further]: Whether it have gored a son, or have gored a daughter; [the repetition of the word 'gored' indicating that no discrimination should be made between] goring in the case of Tam and goring in the case of Mu'ad, between goring in the case of killing and goring in the case of mere injury. MISHNAH. IF AN OX BY RUBBING ITSELF AGAINST A WALL CAUSED IT TO FALL UPON A PERSON [AND KILL...

... HIM], OR IF AN OX WHILE TRYING TO KILL A BEAST [BY ACCIDENT] KILLED A HUMAN BEING, OR WHILE AIMING AT A HEATHEN11  KILLED AN ISRAELITE, OR WHILE AIMING AT NON-VIABLE INFANTS KILLED A VIABLE CHILD, THERE IS NO LIABILITY. GEMARA. Samuel said: There is exemption [for the ox in these cases] only from [the penalty of being stoned to] death, but there is lability [for the owner] to pay kofer.12 ...

... to [be stoned to] death? It is correct in this other case where we can explain that the ox was looking at some vegetables and so came to fall [into a pit],17  but here what ground could we give [for assuming otherwise than an intention to kill on the part of the ox]? — Here also [we may suppose that] the ox had been rubbing itself against the wall for its own gratification.17  But...

.... Johanan, supra p. 248, and still earlier by R. Eliezer, supra p. 237. For the reason v. supra 244 In the case dealt with first in the Mishnah. In killing a human being by rubbing itself against a wall and thus causing it to fall. In the case of Tam no kofer is paid; see Ex. XXI, 28. Infra p. 274. And as intention to kill was lacking, no death penalty could be attached. Seeing that the ox was Mu'ad to...

... was no intention [to kill], so also for damages for injuries there is liability even where there was no intention [to injure]. R. Simeon, on the other hand, derived [the law of damages] from that of the killing of the ox: just as the stoning of the ox is not required where there was no intention [to kill], so also damages are not required where there was no intention [to injure]. But why should R...

... proper to derive a liability regarding the ox7  from another liability that similarly concerns the ox,8  thus excluding kofer which is a liability that concerns only the owner.9 OR IF THE OX WHILE TRYING TO KILL A BEAST [BY ACCIDENT] KILLED A HUMAN BEING … THERE IS NO LIABILITY. Where, however, the ox had aimed at killing one human being and [by accident] killed another human...

... that only] in those cases in which the owner would be subject to be put to death [were he to have committed murder], the ox also would be subject to be put to death. Just as therefore in the case of the owner the liability arises only where he was aiming at the particular person [who was actually killed], so also in the case of the ox the liability will arise only where it was aiming at the...

.... 79. [Kofer is imposed only where death was caused by the body of the ox even as is the case with 'goring'.] And was thus the whole time as it were a part of the body of the ox. Ex. XXI, 29-30. Cf. Tosef. B.K. IV. I.e. a liability to make good the damage done by the ox. Such as the death of the ox for the manslaughter it committed. As kofer is the ransom of his life. Ex. XXI, 29. Committing murder...

.... Deut. XIX, II. Who differ from R. Simeon on this point. v. Sanh. 79a. And a person was killed. For in matters of judgment the principle of 'majority' is as a rule the deciding factor. [That does not mean to imply that the killing of a heathen was no murder. The Mekilta in Ex. XXI, 12 states explicitly that the crime is equally condemnable irrespective of the religion and nationality of the victim...

.... But what it does mean is that the Biblical legislation in regard to crime did not apply to heathens. As foreigners they fully enjoyed their own autonomous right of self-help, i.e., blood feuds or ransom, prohibited by the Law to the Jews, and accordingly were not governed by the provisions made in the Bible relating to murder, v. Guttmann, loc. cit. p. 16 ff and supra p. 211, n. 6.] Lit., 'fixed...

... has also a wife, has also children, has also an old father and mother. And he has done no harm to you; neither have you done any harm to him. If the world becomes a little more conscious, soldiers will throw away their arms and hug each other, sit down together under a tree and gossip. The politicians cannot force all the armies to kill, to murder. Neither can the popes, the religious leaders...

... man's eyes the prince remained, and he said, "When are my lessons going to start?" The old man said, "Just now they have started. Patience is your first lesson. And about the second lesson I should make you aware. The second lesson is that you will be cleaning the floors, cleaning in the garden, collecting the old leaves, throwing them out. Be very careful, because I may hit you with a...

... enraged. He had to learn. On both sides two mad, old people.... "And this man is trying to teach me morality by hitting me! But let us see what happens." And the master started hitting him. He would be washing the floor, and suddenly a hit would come. He would be cleaning the path in the garden, and suddenly a hit would come. But he became surprised, within a week, that a certain intuition was...

.... But in one month he became so capable that the old man was no longer able to hit him. The old man said, "You are really the son of your father. He was also very keen, intense, and total in learning; it won't take much time. Your first lesson is finished today, because for twenty-four hours I have been trying to hit you, but you have been found always alert, and saved yourself. "From...

... trained, well-trained intellectually, but he had no idea of any intuitiveness. And he was not afraid even of the real sword, because he said, "It is the same. If you cannot hit me with the wooden sword, you cannot hit me with the real sword either. It makes no difference to me." For one month the old man was trying in every possible way to hit him with the real sword, and naturally the prince...

... became more and more alert - had to become, there was no other alternative. And one complete month passed, and the old man could not even touch him. He was very happy, and he said, "I am immensely satisfied. Now the third lesson. Up to now I was hitting you only while you were awake. From this evening, remember that in the night when you are asleep I may hit you at any time. Again it will start...

... the intuition is always awake; its very nature is awareness, but we never look at it He had to look, he had to remain alert, even asleep. The old man started hitting him, and a few times he got really bad hits. But he was grateful, not angry, because after each hit he was becoming more and more alert, even in sleep - just like a small flame, something remained alive in him, alert and watchful. And...

... hitting you with a real sword. And you know my sword, just a single hit and you are finished. You have to gather all your consciousness." The young man was a little worried, a little afraid, because the game was becoming more and more dangerous. In the early morning sun the old man was reading a book, sitting under a tree in the rising sun, and the young man was gathering the old leaves from the...

... garden. Suddenly a thought came to him, "This old man has been hitting me for months; it will be a great idea... I should try to hit him and see whether he is alert or not." And he was just twenty or twenty-five feet away, when he was just thinking this in his mind - he had not done anything yet - and the old man said, "Boy, I am very old, and your teaching is not finished yet. Don't...

... capable of the same - just a little more patience ." And soon the day came when he started suddenly becoming aware that the old man was thinking of hitting him... for no reason. The old man was sitting reading his book, but the idea came so clearly that he went to the master, and said, "So you are going to hit me again? Just a few seconds before I heard the idea." The master said, "...

... convince anybody that for God's sake you have to kill. Strange... because God has created everybody. Whomsoever you are killing, you are killing God's creation. If it is true that God created the world, then there should be no war - it is one family; there should be no nations. These are immoral things: the nations, the religions, anything that discriminates against people and creates conflict. A man of...

.... "No? And why not?" says the Polish man, opening and closing his fist, "Are you scared?" "No," says the man, "I just don't feel like having to explain it to five men." People are very clever with words. They can hide any kind of reality. He is afraid - those five men can kill him - but he finds a beautiful excuse: "I don't want to bother myself, explaining...

... name, their fame, their respectability, all will be gone; hence, the fear. But death is going to take them away from you anyway. Those who are wise allow these things to drop by themselves. Then nothing is left for death to take away. Then all fear disappears, because death cannot come to you; you don't have anything for death. Death cannot kill a nobody. Once you feel your nobodiness you have become...

... Israelite's daughter, is stoned] as [if a priest's daughter] not excepted [from the usual punishment, i.e., she is stoned likewise].2  Now since [in a case of a priest's daughter] an arusah is singled out by the Divine Law [and punished] by stoning [instead of burning], we may conclude that stoning is more severe than burning.3  Stoning is severer than slaying by the sword, since it is the...

... slaying by the sword, since it is the penalty of a priest's adulterous daughter, the greater enormity of whose offence lies in the fact that she thereby profanes her father. On the contrary, is not the sword severer, since this is the penalty of the inhabitants of a seduced city, the enormity of whose crime is shewn by the fact that their property is destroyed? — 'Her father' is mentioned in...

... connection with stoning;10  'her father' is also mentioned in reference to burning:11  just as when 'her father' is mentioned in connection with stoning, stoning is severer than the sword; so 'her father', when mentioned in connection with burning, shews that burning is severer than slaying by the sword.12 Burning is severer than strangulation, since it is the punishment of a priest's adulterous...

... an Israelite's daughter, from strangling to burning, we may conclude that burning is severer.13 Slaying is severer than strangling, since thereby the inhabitants of a seduced city are punished, the severity of whose punishment is attested by the fact that their property is destroyed. On the contrary, is not strangulation severer, being the punishment of one who smites his father or mother, the...

... her death from strangling to burning, it follows that burning is severer. Burning is severer than slaying, since it is the punishment of a priest's adulterous daughter, the enormity of whose offence has already been stated. On the contrary, is not the sword more severe, since it is the penalty of the inhabitants of a seduced city, the gravity of whose offence is shewn by the fact that their property...

..., since the former profanes her father in addition to disgracing herself. Tractate List / Glossary / / Bible Reference Sanhedrin 50b Surely that of the seducer! This affords an argument from a major to a minor premise. If burning is severer than strangulation [as has already been shewn], though1  the latter is severer than the sword,2  it [burning] is surely severer than slaying, which is a...

... arusah, the daughter of an Israelite, from the penalty of a nesu'ah, the daughter of an Israelite, changing it from strangling to stoning,3  it follows that stoning is severer. Stoning is severer than slaying, being the penalty of a blasphemer, etc. On the contrary, is not slaying severer than stoning, since it is the penalty of the inhabitants of a seduced city, the gravity of whose offence is...

... proved by the fact that their property is destroyed? — Now consider, whose offence is greater: the seducer's or the seduced? Surely that of the seducer! Hence you may argue from a major to a minor premise. If stoning is severer than strangulation, though the latter be severer than slaying,4  surely it is severer than slaying itself. Strangulation is severer than slaying, since it is the...

... penalty of one who smites his father or mother, the gravity of whose offence has already been stated — On the contrary, is not slaying severer, since it is the penalty of the inhabitants of a seduced city, the enormity of whose crime is attested by the fact that their property is destroyed? — Now consider: whose offence is greater, the seducer's or the seduced? Surely the seducer's! And it...

... Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. LIEH TZU WAS STUDYING ARCHERY, AND HIT THE TARGET. HE SOUGHT ADVICE FROM KUAN-YIN WHO ASKED HIM: 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' 'NO.' 'IT WON'T DO YET.' HE WENT AWAY TO PRACTICE AND AFTER THREE YEARS AGAIN REPORTED TO KUAN-YIN. 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' 'I KNOW.' 'IT WILL DO. HOLD ONTO THIS AWARENESS AND DO NOT LOSE IT.' THIS APPLIES...

... information, his knowledge is an explosion, an inner explosion of light. That's why we call it enlightenment. He has become more aware - that is his knowing. He no longer walks unalert and unattentive. If you hit him he will not react the way an unconscious man will react. He will respond, he will not react at all. And his response will not be because you have insulted him, his response will be out of his...

... parable. LIEH TZU WAS STUDYING ARCHERY, AND HIT THE TARGET. HE SOUGHT ADVICE FROM KUAN-YIN WHO ASKED HIM, 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' Each word has to be understood. Have the taste of each single word - because each single word is significant. These parables are not just to be read in one stroke and forgotten about, these parables were written to meditate upon. These are meditative devices...

... technically expert but he will miss the deeper art of it. LIEH TZU WAS STUDYING ARCHERY, AND HIT THE TARGET. Now this is the man's understanding. If you hit the target you have learned the art. What more is needed? If out of a hundred you can hit the target all hundred times, a hundred per cent correctly, what more is needed? In Japan a German professor, Herrigel, was learning archery with a Zen Master. He...

... thing. If you hit the target you have touched the farthest, you have touched the periphery. You have to touch the source. You can become technically expert in hitting the target but that is not much - not much if you are trying to get into deeper waters. You are an expert, you are a man of knowledge, but not a man of knowing. The arrow moves from you but you don't know from what source the arrow moves...

... guest gratefully so that it starts coming more and more often. Tao says that the real happens only when you are in such a state of diffused relaxedness that you cannot say I am. 'I am' means you are tense. LIEH TZU WAS STUDYING ARCHERY, AND HIT THE TARGET. HE SOUGHT ADVICE FROM KUAN-YIN WHO ASKED HIM, 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' This Kuan-yin is a Taoist Master and an archer. Lieh Tzu asked...

... him about his archery and he said, 'I have become an expert; technically, technologically, I have attained my goal. I have hit the target.' The Master asked, 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET? From where? Who are you? Who is this one who has hit the target? Have you looked deep into the source of your energies? Forget the target and look at the archer. Archery you have learned, what about the...

... YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' Why? That's what Socrates means when he says to his disciples, 'An unexamined life is not worth living. You may succeed, but it is not worth living if it has not been examined so deeply that you know the very source of it, the very foundation of it.' You see the flowers of a tree but that is not real knowledge unless you go deep and you know the roots. The flowers...

... because the tree is in the roots. Where are the roots of the archer? You have succeeded in hitting the target - that is a flowering - but where are your roots? Do you know why you hit the target? Do you know why these flowers have bloomed? Do you know from where, from what source? The flower is the last activity, the most peripheral. The roots are the seed, the first primary activity, the most basic...

... is gone. The Master asked, 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' The disciple said, without any hesitation, without waiting for a single moment, 'NO.' This is honesty. The disciple is really a disciple. It is Lieh Tzu himself, the man we have been talking about all these days. He said, 'NO.' This is honesty. If I ask you, 'Do you know who you are?' only the very, very honest will say no. The...

... attained his target so what was he doing for three years? The parable does not say. because this is a parable to be meditated upon. A parable is one which says only a few things and leaves many things unsaid. So you have to meditate and fill in the gaps. You have to find where the intervals are. And in those intervals is the real thing. What did he do for three years? When you have hit the target then...

... what more can you do? Now he was unlearning. Learning was finished, he had hit the target, learning was complete - so what else can you do? He was unlearning, or, he was turning his eyes inwards. Watch. When an archer takes the bow and the arrow in his hand his eyes are on the target, naturally. But what was Lieh Tzu doing for three years? When he took up his bow and arrow he would look at the target...

... makes you cultivated, cultured - but it creates a hard crust around your heart and you lose your real nature, Tao. HE WENT AWAY TO PRACTICE AND AFTER THREE YEARS AGAIN REPORTED TO KUAN-YIN. 'DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU HIT THE TARGET?' - again the same question - 'I KNOW,' said Lieh Tzu. Again it is simple, as simple as the first 'NO'. It is not a pretension. When a person pretends, he thinks before he says...

... saying, 'Who are you to think about what is right and what is wrong? Leave it to God. Don't come in. Just put yourself aside. Don't stand in the way.' But Arjuna said, 'How can I kill these people? It is violence.' And Krishna said to him, 'If you don't kill them then somebody else will kill them, because I can see that they are already dead. Somebody has to be instrumental in putting them into their...

... somebody says you are a thief and you feel humiliated that simply means that you have always been thinking that you are a great moralist, virtuous, this and that - but deep down you know also that you are a thief. He has hit the soft point in your being, the fragile point. So now there are two possibilities: either you jump on him and prove that you are not a thief, or you look inside yourself. Always go...

... person. It wants to hit the other person, to insult the other person. Don't be deceived by it. Let it move in a circle. Let it come one hundred and eighty degrees back to you - to where it started, to where you felt the turmoil. Let it come back there; look there. This can become the key of an inner transformation. A new being is possible. Archery is just a device. Taoists have devised many devices...

... a situation! ... But as far as invisible hits and shouts are concerned, they happen on their own. I may just look at you, or I may call Master Niskriya - and he was so beautiful. He functioned exactly the way... Even Basho would have felt ashamed! When I told him to hit Maneesha hard he kissed her head. No hit can go deeper than a kiss. And when I said to hit anybody with his staff he hit his own...

...? Maneesha, I am not even one step ahead of you, I am with you shoulder to shoulder. But I have found more sophisticated, more conscious ways of working on people then Basho himself. I love him; he is my predecessor - but he has to learn much if he comes back. There is no need to hit somebody's head, because my understanding is that an idiot's head will become even harder. An idiot is not a donkey - that...

... you give a hit of the stick on the donkey's head and you can get the donkey's attention. The ordinary human man lives in such deep unconsciousness that your hit will be misunderstood. Hyakujo may not understand, but at least he understands that he is missing something. But today, you pinch somebody's nose and you will get a bigger hit on your nose - and the person will say, "I came here to know...

... Commissioner's office: "Why did you hit poor Hyakujo's nose? What kind of master are you?" But I hit you in my own way... very legal, constitutional, without moving - I have refined much on Basho. I have told you a story.... An emperor of Japan was very much interested in swordsmanship. Every year he used to give huge awards to the winners. One year it happened that three swordsmen were chosen from...

... and the third warrior flashed his sword, but the fly went away. So everybody started laughing, that this is stupid, he could not even kill the fly. Even the emperor could not believe why he had been chosen from a province as a great master. The swordsman said, "Stop laughing! You don't understand. This fly will never reproduce." Such a fine cut. My flies don't reproduce. Now a few...

... got a separate country. Whatever their demands were, they have been fulfilled. Why should they kill Mahatma Gandhi, who is not in their way at all? He was certainly killed by a Hindu." And unfortunately that Hindu came from Poona. But the day Gandhi was killed, and the news reached Karachi... That whole year Muhammadali Jinnah had not had guards, security, because he could not think that any...

... Mohammedan could kill him. He had given them a whole country which did not belong to them. He was sitting in the garden talking to his secretary when the news came on the radio that Gandhi had been assassinated by a Hindu. Suddenly Muhammadali stood up, and his secretary had to support him because he was staggering. He was so much shocked by the very idea: a Hindu killing Mahatma Gandhi! Then what was...

... nurse or a servant to look after him. And the doctor's remembrance is, "It was a political murder done in a very diplomatic way." There would be periods of three weeks when there was no medicine. The doctor would go on giving information that medicine was needed absolutely immediately, and after three weeks the urgent medicine would arrive. My own feeling is also that Jinnah was killed. And...

... not arise. My effort is to demolish all the rubbish that you have collected down the ages. If I can remove all that rubbish from your mind and can give you a clean sky, my work is done. Without knowing, you will know. The mystery, the mysterious, the poetry of life, the music and the dance... all will become available to you. A truck driver is racing down the freeway at seventy miles per hour when...

... you'll kill yourself." "No, I won't," replies the biker, "I only smoke three a day." Logic is not the way to life - it leads away. The path that leads to life consists of a clarity just like that of a mirror: it reflects everything but holds on to nothing. Aristotle, although considered to be the father of Western logic, was not much of a logician. He has written in his books...

... thing. People want definite answers. But existence is a flux, it is not definite; it is changing, it is moving. It has all aspects possible. In some way you can say, "Yes, it is true." And in some way you can say, "It is not true." In a court, a man was on the witness stand. There had been a murder. Another witness had said that the murder had happened inside the house, and this...

... witness said that the murder happened under the open sky. The judge was a little puzzled. Both men were trustworthy, of integrity. Then his clerk told him, "Don't be puzzled, both are right. The house was being built, but the roof had not been put on it. So the murder happened in the house, but it happened under the open sky." If you watch life, you will find so many things which logically...

..., his dog ran up and I hit him again." "Hit the dog?" asks the judge. "No, your honor, I hit Dennis. Then I picked up a stone and threw it at him and it rolled him over and over." "Threw a stone at Dennis?" asks the judge. "At the dog, your honor. Then he got up and hit me again." "The dog?" asks the judge. "No, Dennis. And with that he stuck...

..., but man has completely forgotten about it. Have you ever seen any animal killing its own species? No animal kills its own kind - only man. No dog will kill another dog. They fight, they can fight very violently, but they will never kill. They will go up to a certain extent. One dog may hold another dog's throat in his mouth and you will be thinking that now he is going to kill the other dog, but at...

... a certain moment the whole energy turns back; something stops the dog from within. The same happens in human beings if repressions are allowed. And that's the whole theory behind Encounter groups. If you are allowed your violence, you may feel that it is going to be too much, that you can murder. But you cannot murder because you are a human being and you also carry, howsoever repressed, an inner...

... Encounter group. So you may go to a point and then suddenly - and it happens only when you are at the extreme point - the inner mechanism that has been non-functioning, starts functioning and you see the whole nonsense of it and a deep compassion arises. Many people become afraid, but nowhere, not even in the West, has any Encounter group come across a murder yet. Just two or three days ago I was reading...

... the memoirs of one of the very perceptive men in the West, Fritz Perls, who started Gestalt therapy. He was a very strong man; tall, well-built and very powerful. One very tiny man in a group told him that he had an obsession that some day or other he would kill someone by suffocating them. He said this came to his mind so much that he was almost afraid to come near people because any provocation...

... and he might suffocate and kill them. So Perls said, 'I will lie down here and you suffocate me, kill me. Be finished with your obsession - you have carried it too long!' Perls lay down and the man started suffocating him, holding his throat and pressing it really hard. Even Fritz Perls says that there was a moment when he thought this man was really going to kill him! He went to the very extreme...

... of the worst possibility and it goes on repressing you. The encounter philosophy believes and trusts in your deep humanity, in the divinity of your innermost grace, in the dignity of your being, so it allows. Risk is there. Sometimes if somebody is really mad, maybe out of one million, there is a chance that somebody may commit a murder. But that risk has to be taken, otherwise the whole...

... group is trying to undo. It is risky certainly, but the risk is because of society and its repressions, not because of the group. If the whole world functions on the philosophy of Encounter, there will be no murder, no violence, no war. But it is not, so there is murder, war, and every violence going on, and we are prepared for that violence. Moving in an Encounter group, violence sometimes arises...

... be no one even to take those corpses to the funeral grounds? And all kinds of diseases will spread. But they will not listen to me. Thirty-five years ago, I started telling Indian people that it is time they stopped producing so many children. At that time the population of the country was only four hundred million. But I was stoned, my meetings were disturbed, efforts to kill me were made - and...

... allowed those saints to be exposed. But those who have renounced everything are still carrying money, are still carrying the desire to have more, are still ready to fight, hit each other, be violent. It is a strange country: it has forgotten all the great teachings of the mystics, it lives following the stupid priests who know nothing as far as experience is concerned. And they are against me, because I...

... ULTIMATE CREATIVITY AND THE HIGHEST ART ARE BORN OUT OF A KNACK - MEDITATION. MASTER, ISN'T THIS THE WHOLE OF THE REBEL? Satyadharma, last night I received your note asking that your question should be returned because you were afraid I may hit you. So a few things for you and for all: once you have given the question to me, you cannot ask for it back. Secondly, I don't hit everybody: I hit only very...

... special people like Dhyan Om, who has turned into a coconut. I have to hit, and the person who gets the hit should be grateful, because I am taking every trouble to hit him. I hit only when I see somebody deserves it, has earned it, is worthy of it. I will not hit each and every person, only very special people. Dhyan Om has something unique in him that has to be brought out; so if it is necessary, I...

... will hit him again and again. But each hit is out of love and out of compassion; no one should take it as an exposure before everybody. You are here in a commune of friends and fellow travelers. Nobody is going to take advantage of your vulnerability or your exposure. In fact, everybody will feel enriched because he also has something similar - perhaps not in such a great measure - and he can throw...

... it away. Seeing how I have been hitting Dhyan Om, you should feel more loving towards him, more compassionate. Between you and me there should not be any secrets, and you should not be afraid of other sannyasins. So although you have asked that the question should be withdrawn, I have refused to withdraw it. And the most interesting thing is that there is nothing in your question which needs a hit...

.... But I can understand why you became afraid. You became afraid that I am going to hit you because your question is only intellectual. It is a beautiful question; it contains my whole message. I was not going to hit you, but now I have to hit; otherwise you will feel frustrated. Your question is only an intellectual question. I will read it and you can see that it has not come out of your experience...