Taoblog

A constant commentary is going on in your minds: while you are reading you are continuously commenting inside you. Your commentary does not allow to reach to your heart. All never reaches. Only fragments reach; much is missed, hence the confusion.

Those fragments you cannot put together. Even if you try to put them together they never fit, because much is missing and then you start feeling confused. You confuse yourself.

They strolled into the park. It was a beautiful day. Perfect for the youth and romance that youth is entitled to enjoy.

'See those humming birds flapping their wings a thousand times a minute?' she said.

'Yes' he answered softly. 'And they have their bills together.'

'Let's do that' she implored.

'Gee' he said breathlessly 'I'm afraid I can't flap my arms that fast.'

This is continuously going on... You go on misunderstanding; your prejudices come in the way. Your philosophies, your religions, your accumulated knowledge, continuously distract you, hence the confusion. So learn how to listen. Become more alert. Become pure awareness, transparent; just a clarity, mirror-like -- don't distort. Just listen to it, there is no hurry to decide.

There is no question of belief or disbelief. If you have listened rightly, things will start happening. So don't be in a hurry to judge whether what is right or what is wrong. In clarity, whatsoever is true reaches deep into your heart, sinks deep; and whatsoever is untrue never penetrates that clarity, that transparence. Transparence is the only protection against the untrue.

What is happening right now? You are not transparent, so only distorted things enter. Whatsoever goes with your prejudices enters in, and whatsoever goes against your prejudices -- you don't allow it, you don't hear it. You don't even want to hear that it has been said, because you feel afraid. If you hear it, your prejudices may become weakened, may become loose. Your whole investment in the past is at stake every moment. And taoism is rebellion, it is not tradition. If you cling to the tradition, there will be great confusion. If you cling to the scripture, there will be great confusion. Don't cling to anything. And out of clarity understanding arises.

What was Jesus doing? He could have moved with his disciples into the mountains, meditated, prayed, talked about God and the kingdom of God. What harm was he doing to people? But they were angry, they were in a rage, they were mad at him. They killed him.

There is a subtle phenomenon that happens. The moment anybody starts moving towards Tao, everybody who is living in the ordinary mundane world becomes afraid, because suddenly the presence of the seeker makes them feel that they are wasting their lives. Suddenly the joy on the faces of those who pray and meditate, suddenly the dance, the change, the transformation in people's lives, in their beings -- the laughter, the love -- and people who are running after money and power become suspicious about their own endeavours. What are they doing? Is it right?

A great doubt arises in them -- that's why they become so angry. It creates doubt in their life. And they were living in such certainty, they were so absolutely certain that their life was the right life. And there comes a Lao Tzu or a Chuang Tzu, and his presence shakes them up. They can never again be so certain: doubt has entered into their being. They are angry because of that doubt.

Taoists are not doing anything to anybody. You can't find more peaceful, more loving people than these; they are not doing any harm to anybody. But the society is against it. And the society is going to try in every way to prevent it. This is strange, very strange, but there is a subtle logic in it...

Taoists are not making any politics -- taoists are the most non-political in the world; taoists think politics is just stupidity.

But that's why. Suspicion arises, doubt arises: if taoism is right, then they are all wrong. And if this idea spreads... and it can spread like fire. Truth has a potential -- even if you crucify it, it spreads.

Jesus was not destroyed by crucifixion. In fact it helped: Jesus became a great force in the world because of the crucifixion. Truth cannot be killed. But it can be delayed.

And taoism cannot give you anything -- except nothing. That's what Ikkyu says: "I would like to give you everything, but we Buddhas don't have anything else except nothing."

Taoism can give you only nothing -- that is its present. And you will be risking your all. Your life, your respectability, your family, your finance -- you will be risking all. Risking all for nothing? You must be crazy.

Precisely because of that. It is a rebellion against Buddhism, and it is for Buddha. It goes against the followers, but not against the Master. The followers were carrying the letter, and Tantra brings back the spirit.

Saraha, the founder of Tantra in Tibet is a reincarnation of the same enlightenment as Buddha was. Saraha is a Buddha.

Saraha must have become aware that the people who said Buddha had said to go beyond sex, were not going beyond at all. Rather, they were becoming more and more obsessed with it and falling deeper into its mire.

A 'difficult' schoolgirl of fifteen was sent to the psychologist, who asked her a number of very personal questions. He was sure that sex lay at the bottom of the trouble, and asked her 'Do you suffer from sexy or erotic dreams?'

'Certainly not!'

'Are you sure?'

'Quite sure' said the girl 'in fact, I enjoy them.'

It depends on you whether you call them beautiful or horrible. In the night they are beautiful, in the morning they become horrible. In the night you enjoy them, in the morning you suffer. And there is a vicious circle created, and your so-called saint goes on moving in this vicious circle: the day he suffers, the night he enjoys, the day he suffers, the night he enjoys -- and he is torn between these two.

And if you look deep down into yourself you will find it easily. Whatsoever you repress will remain there, you cannot get rid of it. The repressed remains, only the expressed disappears. The expressed evaporates, the repressed remains and not only remains, but it becomes more and more powerful. As time passes by, it becomes more and more powerful.

Saraha must have looked at what had happened after two hundred years of Buddha -- wrong interpretations, and people were almost obsessed with sex. Out of that obsession of the Buddhist monks and nuns, Tantra was born as a rebellion a rebellion against Buddhism, not against Buddha. Through that rebellion, Saraha brought Buddha's spirit back. Yes, one has to transcend sex, but the transcendence happens through understanding.

Tantra believes in understanding. Understand a thing totally and you are free of its clutches. Anything not understood rightly will remain as a hangover.

Luis Chero war 1987 dabei, als der Archäologe Walter Alva, heute Direktor des Sipán-Museums, eine sensationelle Entdeckung machte. Alvas Team stieß damals in der Nähe des Dorfes Sipán im Lambayeque-Tal auf die komplett erhaltene Fürstengruft des Herrschers von Sipán und damit auf den größten Goldschatz, der je auf amerikanischem Boden entdeckt wurde. Ein Glücksfall vor allem für die Wissenschaft, die von diesem und den noch tiefer in der Pyramide Huaca Rajada vorhandenen Gräbern wichtige Erkenntnisse über die komplexe Sozialstruktur und den religiösen Kult der Moche ableiten konnte. Seit der Entdeckung des Grabes von Tut-ench-Amun im Jahr 1922 hat es keinen vergleichbaren Fund gegeben. Eigens um diese Kostbarkeiten würdig präsentieren zu können, wurde das Sipán-Museum am Stadtrand von Lambayeque gebaut.

Wie ein kantiges Ufo liegt der rostrote Bau flach auf einer grünen Wiese. Von Walter Alva selbst kam der Einfall, die Ausstellungsräume unter die Erde zu legen, und er fand einen Architekten, der diese Idee bravourös umsetzte. So wie sich das Archäologen-Team seinerzeit sechs Meter und tiefer durch die Backsteinschichten der Pyramide gegraben hatte, steigen nun die Besucher, umgeben von geheimnisvollem Halbdunkel, von Raum zu Raum immer weiter hinab, sechs Stockwerke tief.

Raffiniert angestrahlt, funkeln in den Vitrinen all die Kostbarkeiten, die dem Fürsten für seine Jenseitsreise mitgegeben wurden. Standesgemäß ausgestattet, hatte der Herrscher von Sipán genügend Gewänder dabei, aber auch sonst genug, um in der anderen Welt öfter mal wechseln zu können. Unter anderem drei junge Frauen, von denen nur eine, vermutlich die Hauptfrau, einen Kopfschmuck trug – nicht aus Gold, sondern aus Kupfer. Zusammen mit vier weiteren Personen, zwei Lamas und dem Lieblingshund des Fürsten waren sie getötet worden, um ihrem Herrn auch im neuen Leben zu dienen.

Das Ereignis von Sipán wirkte als Initialzündung für die gesamte Region Batán Grande, ein 8000 Hektar großes Naturreservat und archäologisches Schutzgebiet, das bis dahin touristisch keine Rolle spielte. Eine so außergewöhnliche Landschaft, wie sie selbst Weitgereiste noch nie gesehen haben. Zwanzig, dreißig Meter hoch ragen die weit im Hinterland von Chiclayo verstreuten Stufenpyramiden, die einmal aus Millionen luftgetrockneter Lehmziegel aufgeschichtet wurden, aus den Zuckerrohr- und Reisfeldern. Bauwerke, deren imposante Monumentalität noch heute in Erstaunen versetzt, obwohl Wind und Regen ihnen schrundige Rillen eingefräst und sie zu bizarren kleinen Gebirgen umgeformt haben.

The king of Varanasi in India went through an operation in 1920 -- just in this century -- and created news all over the world because of his operation. He refused to take any anesthetic. He said, "I have taken a vow not to take anything that makes me unconscious, so I cannot be put under chloroform; but you need not be worried." It was a major operation -- to remove his appendix. Now, to take out somebody's appendix without giving him anesthetics is really dangerous; you may kill the man. He may not be able to bear the pain, because the pain is going to be terrible. You have to cut his stomach; you have to cut out his appendix, you have to remove it. It will take one hour, two hours -- one never knows in what condition his appendix is. But he was no ordinary man either -- otherwise they would have forced him -- he was the king of Varanasi. He said to the doctors, "But don't be worried" -- and the best doctors available in India were there; one expert from England was there. They all consulted: nobody was ready to do this operation, but the operation had to be done, otherwise any moment the appendix could kill the man. The state was serious, and both the alternatives seemed to be serious: if you left him without the operation he might die; if you did the operation without making him unconscious -- which had never been done, there was no precedent.... But the king said, "You don't understand me. There has never been any precedent because you have never operated on a man like the man you are going to operate upon. Just give me my religious book, SHRIMAD BHAGAVAD GITA. I will read it, and after five minutes you can start your work. Once I am involved in the GITA then you can cut any part of my body -- I will not be even aware of it; there is no question of pain." When he insisted -- and anyway he was going to die so there was no harm in trying. Perhaps he was right -- he was well-known for his religious practices. So this was done. He read the GITA for five minutes and closed his eyes; the GITA dropped from his hands, and they did the operation. It took one and a half hours. It was really serious: only a few hours more and the appendix may have exploded and killed the man. They removed the appendix, and the man was completely conscious, silent -- not even a flicker of his eyes. He was somewhere else. That was his life-long practice: just to read for five minutes, then he was on the track. He knew the GITA verbally, he could repeat it without the book. Once he started going into the GITA then he was really in the GITA; his mind was there -- it left his body totally. That operation made news all over the world; it was a rare operation. But the common mistake was committed again. Every newspaper had it that the rajah, the king of Varanasi, was a man of great meditation. He was a man of great concentration, not of meditation. He was in the common confusion; he also thought that he had reached to the state of meditation. It was not. It is just that your mind is so focused that everything else falls out of its focus; you are unaware of it. It is not a state of awareness, it is a state of narrowed consciousness -- so narrowed that it becomes one-pointed and the rest of existence falls out of it.