... OSTENTATIOUS, BUT WHEN DEEP INSIDE YOU THERE IS A LOADED GUN, HOW CAN YOU HAVE GOD? You can go on doing rituals, but if your heart is full of violence. if you have a loaded gun in the heart... and that's what the case is. Mohammedans have been fighting with Hindus. Hindus have been fighting with Mohammedans; Christians have been killing Mohammedans, Mohammedans have been killing Christians. Religions have...

... been a calamity to the world, not a blessing, a curse, not a benediction. More people have been killed, butchered, murdered, raped, in the name of religion than in any other name. This is very strange! Prayer is on the lips, and a loaded gun in the heart. Unless your inner violence disappears, you cannot be prayerful. And why is there inner violence? Because there is competition: everybody is trying...

... to outdo others; everybody is trying to go ahead of others. That's what you have been taught: to be ambitious. Ambition is the root cause of all violence, and ALL your education is that of ambition: "Be the first! Attain to the gold medal!" And then your whole life you are trying to be the first, to become the prime minister or the president. We teach people ambition, competition. And...

... - four hours, six hours - after that it is unclean. The Jainas will not drink in the night, will not eat in the night - it is unclean, because a mosquito may fall in. Some insect may creep in the food and there will be violence, bloodshed. So they will eat only in the day. The people who eat in the night are all unclean, dirty people. And the same Jainas will defecate anywhere. The whole India is being...

.... So their nose is covered, their mouth is covered, so nothing unfiltered reaches. Moreover, there is one more idea in it: when you breathe out your breath is warm, and that warm breath can kill few live cells floating in the air. Again bloodshed, violence, and you will suffer in hell. Now, if you watch people's ideas about purity, cleanliness, you will go crazy. If you follow all their ideas, life...

... will become impossible. Then the only clean thing will be suicide. But these ideas have been developed only as part of a program. The program is to make you sexually afraid. In Jaina scriptures, making love to a woman is violence. Why it is a violence? - because when the genitals meet, there are many small, alive people inside the woman's genitals, small cells of life - they will be killed. It is a...

... hundred people is not a big number. Just in this commune we can manage two hundred enlightened people! Question 3: BELOVED MASTER, COULD AMERICA SURVIVE THE DESTRUCTION OF RAJNEESHPURAM? CAN THE WORLD? No, America cannot survive the destruction of Rajneeshpuram, nor can the world, for the simple reason that we are creating the energy that can stop the destruction that is looming larger and larger and...

... painters, by the mystics - from all kinds of creative people every protest is needed to save this beautiful planet from bloodthirsty, barbarious people. America knows only one argument, and that is destruction. We have to spread the idea that the only real power comes out of creation, not out of destruction. Destruction just shows your madness. Only creation shows your power. A few more mundane affairs...

.... Esalen is almost dead, it has seen its days of glory. People have deserted it - only a few people once in a while go there - because they could see the point: that in becoming egoistic they are creating a more miserable life for themselves. What is the point of growing up? - misery, agony, jealousy, competitiveness, violence... because if you are assertive, violence is not very far away from you. It is...

... just behind you like a shadow; your assertiveness can become violence any moment. And with a strong ego it is bound to become your very way of life. I am not trying here to polish your egoistic mind. I am trying to demolish, not polish. I am trying to help camels to become lions! Of course, it is difficult for a camel to become a lion, but it is not impossible, because I have made many camels into...

... IS PRECISELY WHERE YOU ARE LOST; WHERE YOU HAVE DOUBTS IS EXACTLY WHERE THESE TWO MONKS ASKED THEIR QUESTIONS. "PHENOMENA ARE BORN FROM DISCRIMINATION AND ALSO PERISH THROUGH DISCRIMINATION. WIPE OUT ALL PHENOMENA OF DISCRIMINATION -- THIS DHARMA HAS NO BIRTH OR DESTRUCTION." Zen is special in many ways from other traditions of the mystics. But one thing that stands out, very unique, is...

... immensely ... AT THESE WORDS, THE MONK WAS GREATLY ENLIGHTENED. THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THESE TWO MONKS IS PRECISELY WHERE YOU ARE LOST; WHERE YOU HAVE DOUBTS IS EXACTLY WHERE THESE TWO MONKS ASKED THEIR QUESTIONS. "PHENOMENA ARE BORN FROM DISCRIMINATION AND ALSO PERISH THROUGH DISCRIMINATION. WIPE OUT ALL PHENOMENA OF DISCRIMINATION -- THIS DHARMA HAS NO BIRTH OR DESTRUCTION." This path, this...

... alchemy of Zen, has no birth and no destruction. It is one of the most direct transmissions from the master to the disciple. It does not go into long verbiage, it does not discuss unnecessary problems. Zen has reduced everything to the very essential; it has cut out everything that was not necessary. Zen is like a telegram. Have you noticed that when you write a letter, it goes on becoming longer and...

... mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to the undiscerning multitudes and to those who seek our destruction, from now on, the mysteries of the kingdom shall be presented in parables. And this we will do so that those who really desire to enter the kingdom may discern the meaning of the teaching and thus find salvation, while those who listen only to ensnare us may be the more confounded in that they will...

... curing of the lunatic, that gave origin to the legend that Jesus had cured Amos by casting a legion of devils out of him, and that these devils had entered into the herd of swine, causing them forthwith to rush headlong to their destruction in the sea below. Before the day was over, this episode was published abroad by the swine tenders, and the whole village believed it. Amos most certainly believed...

... had cast a legion of devils out of his troubled soul, and that these evil spirits had entered into a herd of swine, driving them to quick destruction. And he did not stop until he had gone into all the cities of the Decapolis, declaring what great things Jesus had done for him. What are you going to do about it? Your browser does not support iframes. var sc_project=10522331; var sc_invisible=1; var...

..., because out of that suffering is transformation. But it should not be done as a masochist - that's altogether a different matter, a very diseased thing. You can make your body suffer and enjoy it. If you are enjoying it, then you are suicidal: then it is not austerity. Then it is not austerity; then you are really a very impotent, violent mind. You cannot do violence to others, so you are doing violence...

... is unnatural. It is winter, and one is shivering, and would like to sit by the side of a fire - but a Jaina monk cannot sit by the side of a fire, because fire is violence. Fire kills, because trees are needed for it, so they are killed. The ecologists perhaps may agree. And when you are burning a fire, many very small creatures, alive but invisible to the naked eye, are burned. And sometimes even...

... the wood carries ants within it, and other kinds of insects which have made their houses in it. So, in short, the Jaina monk is not allowed to come close to a fire. Of course he cannot use a blanket - it is made of wool; that is again violence. Of course something else could be found, but because he cannot possess anything... Non-possessiveness is very fundamental, and the Jainas are extremists...

... can kill, because the existence of death is no longer a reality for them. But those who preach the immortality of the soul over and over again are nonetheless afraid of death. Not only do they spout the doctrine of the eternal soul, they loudly support the principle of non-violence as well. They do not advocate this because they are not prepared not to kill anyone, but so that no one will step...

... forward and kill them . The world, they say, should follow the principle of non-violence. Outwardly they profess it is bad to kill, but in fact they are afraid they may become someone else's prey. But if they really come to know death does not exist, they there will be no fear of killing or of being killed, and then all this talk will cease to have any meaning or importance whatsoever. In BHAGAVAD GITA...

... so there need be no fear of dying or of being killed. There is no death and so there can be no destruction. The question is of living one's own life. As far as life is concerned, those who are afraid of dying or of being killed are impotent. Those who can neither kill nor die do not know the truth of immortality - that what is cannot die, cannot be destroyed." What a world it will be when...

... everyone realizes the soul is eternal, indestructible! That will be the day when the whole fear of death vanishes forever and, with it, the empty threats of destruction that are now so effective. That day wars will disappear. But not before. As long as man thinks he can kill or be killed war will never cease in this world. Until then war will continue, unhampered, whether it is Mahatma Gandhi or Buddha...

... or Mahavira who preaches non-violence. Millions of lessons in non-violence can be taught throughout the world, but they will be ineffectual until mankind realizes in the innermost depths of his being that what he is, is divine and therefore deathless. War will never stop in this world until them. And to not think that those who carry swords in their hands are brave. A sword may well be evidence of...

... spirits has been totally destroyed. And the cause of the destruction is that there are no men among us who can form a bridge between men and the gods. There are no men who can declare their existence to the world, who can describe their form and appearance to mankind. And the responsibility for the disappearance of such men can chiefly be laid at the door of our matrimonial system. It has become...

... godly lives, they will lead lives of sin, contempt and violence. One small thing changes the whole picture, however, if the foundation of the union is based on personalities that live in harmony and beauty, amazing changes take place. You probably have no idea why the woman is more beautiful than the man, why there is a shapeliness, a roundness to her person. Why isn't this to be found in a man...

... humanity is not their principle of non-violence, but the knowledge of the art of entering past lives. They are the first men who stressed that anyone who wants to know reality of this soul must also explore the past. When a man learns the truth about his past he will know when he is repeating the same thoughts and actions as he has done in past lives and will then realize the futility of those thoughts...