THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 The ...

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 47
Jung said, ”If that is so, then it has already destroyed your prestige, at least for me. If you are so much afraid
to talk about your dreams, that simply shows what kind of dreams you must be having.”
There is not a single person in the world who is totally psychoanalyzed. And unless dreams disappear, your
mind will remain in a turmoil. Dreams simply say you don’t know how to put your mind off; you don’t know
where the switch exists so that you can put it on and off according to your needs. When you are going to sleep
you can’t put if off; it goes on chattering. Even if you say to it, ”Shut up!” it does not listen to you at all; it does
not care. And you know perfectly well it won’t listen. You feel so impotent as far as your own mind is concerned
that you have to move according to it, it does not move according to you. If it wants to chatter it will chatter;
when you fall asleep, still it goes on chattering.
The art of meditation makes you aware where the switch is: it is in witnessing. Witnessing is the switch that
can put your mind on or off. You become the master, so when you want to use it you use it and when you don’t
want to use it you simply put it off and it gives rest to the mind.
Hence the mind of a meditator is far more brilliant, far more intelligent, far more alive, sensitive, than the mind
of a non-meditator, because the mind of a meditator has a few periods of deep, deep rest that rejuvenates it. If
you see a meditator and he is not intelligent, that simply means he is not a meditator at all. A meditator cannot
be stupid, a meditator cannot be mediocre; that is impossible. If he is a meditator, then he will radiate sharpness,
intelligence, brilliance. He will be a genius, he will be creative.
In fact, if we can create more and more meditators in the world, in every dimension of life there will be more
creativity, more intelligence, less stupidity, less lethargy. But it has not happened down the ages. Just the opposite
has happened because in the name of meditation, something else has continued. In the name of meditation people
either have been concentrating or contemplating. Both are not meditation.
Concentration is just the opposite of meditation and so is contemplation, in a different way. Concentration
means closing your mind, focusing your mind, on a certain point, on a certain object. You are so focused on a
certain object that you become unaware of everything else; that is concentration. It excludes everything else; it
includes only one thing: the object of your concentration, whatsoever it is.
And meditation means absolute openness. It includes all, it excludes nothing. Hence it is not concentration at
all. It is a state of vulnerability, openness, availability.
The person who is trying to concentrate can be distracted. He can be easily distracted by anything. Just a dog
in the neighborhood starts barking and he is distracted, a child starts giggling and he is distracted, a bird starts
singing and he is distracted. Anything will do, as if he is just waiting for anything to distract him; he is tired of
focusing his mind. It is a tension, it is a strain.
Meditation is not a tension, it is not a strain. One is never tired of meditation. It is relaxation how you can
be tired of it? It is deep rest, it is utter restfulness. One is available to everything; nothing can distract you.
You can listen to me either as concentration or as meditation. If you listen to me as concentration, then
anything can distract. A car passes by... the cuckoo starts calling from the distance the chattering of the birds.
Anything can distract you, any small thing. Not that the birds are interested in distracting you; they are not
concerned with you at all. But you will feel anger arising in you.
That’s why so-called religious people become more angry than anybody else. They live almost in rage. If a
single person in your house becomes religious, he is enough to create trouble for everybody, because each small
thing distracts him and then he takes revenge.
You can listen to me in meditation. Then you are not concentrating on me; you are simply sitting available,
open. The birds go on chattering; that too comes to you, but because you are not concentrating it is not a
distraction it enriches. What I am saying to you is enriched. The singing of the birds becomes a background to
it. And you never feel angry and you never feel tense.
Contemplation is also not meditation. Contemplation means thinking. Thinking can be of two types. One is
zigzag, in jumps from one object to another, a little crazy; that is ordinary thinking. Anything leads to anything.
A dog starts barking and you start thinking about your girlfriend. There seems to be no relationship, but maybe
your girl had said once, ”I go on barking at you and you don’t listen!” Suddenly the dog reminds you. Or maybe
she also has a dog who barks at you whenever you go to see her. And then from one thing to another... you
will not stay with anything long. The girlfriend reminds you of her mother, and so on, so forth. Nobody knows
where you are going to end. When you will look retrospectively you will be surprised: just the dog barking in the
neighborhood started the whole process of thought.
Contemplation means remaining concerned with one object, thinking about it and only about it. Thinking has
a consistency. If you are thinking about love, then you are thinking about love and all its aspects. You don’t
jump from one thing to another. Yes, you have a little rope just so that you can move around the subject of love,