October 13, 1974
“There was one man who was disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and who so disliked his own steps that he decided to get rid of both.
To do this, he chose the method that was to run away from them. So he jumped up and ran, but every time he put his foot down, it was another step, and at the same time his shadow held on to him without the slightest difficulty. He attributed his failure to not running fast enough.
So he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until at last he fell down dead.
He failed to understand that if he simply stepped into the shadow, his shadow would disappear, and if he sat down and remained motionless, then there would be no more steps."
Man creates his own confusion only because he continues to reject himself, continues to not accept himself. Then a chain of confusion, internal chaos and unhappiness occurs. Why don't you accept yourself as you are? What's wrong? The whole existence accepts you as you are, but not you. You must achieve some ideal. This ideal is always in the future. It must be there, since no ideal can exist in the present, and the future is nowhere, it has not yet been born. Because of this ideal, you live in a future that is nothing but a dream. Because of this ideal you cannot live here and now, because of it you blame yourself.
All ideologies, all ideals are accused, because then an image is created in your mind, and when you compare yourself with that image, you always feel that something is missing, something is lost.
Nothing is missing, nothing is lost: you are as perfect as you can be. Try to understand this, because only then will you be able to understand the parable of Zhuang Tzu. This is one of the most beautiful parables that anyone has ever told, and it goes very deep into the very mechanism of the human mind. Why continue to carry ideals in your mind? Why are they like gods? Who's stopping? Who is blocking your path? At this very moment why cannot you enjoy and be blissful? Where is this block?
The block comes through ideals... How can you enjoy? You are so filled with anger that first the anger has to go. How can you be blissful? You are so full of sexuality that sex has to go first. How can you be like the gods celebrating this very moment? You are filled with so much greed, passion, anger that first they have to go. Then you will be like gods.
That's how an ideal is created, and because of the ideal you become judgmental. Compare yourself to the ideal and you will never be perfect, it is impossible. If you say "if", then bliss is not possible, because this "if" is the greatest confusion. If you say, “if those conditions are fulfilled, then I will be blessed,” then those conditions will never be fulfilled. And even if these conditions are met, by then you will have lost the ability to celebrate and enjoy. Even more than that: when these conditions are fulfilled, although they cannot be fulfilled, your mind will create new ideals.
This is how you lost life after life. You create an ideal, and then you want to be that ideal, then you feel guilty and lower than before. Because of your dreaming mind, your reality is accused, dreams disturb you.
I am telling you the exact opposite: be like gods every moment. Let there be anger, let there be sex, let there be greed - celebrate life. And again and again you will feel more celebration, less anger, more bliss, less greed, more joy, less sex. Then you have entered the right path. And not otherwise.
When one can celebrate life in its totality, then whatever is wrong disappears, but if you first make preparations for the wrong to disappear, it will never disappear.
It's like fighting the darkness. Your house is filled with darkness and you are asking, “How can I light a candle? Before I light the candle, this darkness must be dispelled.” That's what you do.
You say that first greed must go, and then there will be samadhi, ecstasy. You are stupid! You say that first the darkness must go away, and then you can light the candle, as if the darkness could interfere with you. Darkness is nothingness, it is nothing, it has no substance, it is simply an absence, not a presence, it is simply the absence of light. Turn on the light and the darkness disappears.
Celebrate, become a blissful flame, and all that is wrong will disappear. Anger, greed, sex and whatever else you name are not fundamental, they are just the absence of a blissful, ecstatic life.
Because you cannot enjoy, you are angry. It is not someone who is creating your anger: because you cannot enjoy, you are in great misery - that is why you are angry. Others are just an apology. Because you cannot celebrate, love does not happen to you, hence sex. This is the rationalization of the shadows, and then the mind says: “First destroy this, and then there will be a descent of God.”
This is one of the most patented stupidities of mankind, the oldest, and it follows everyone. It is difficult for you to think that at this very moment you are gods, but I ask you: what is missing? What's lost? You are alive, you are breathing, you are aware - what more do you need? At this very moment, be like the gods. Even if you feel that it is just “as if”, don’t worry, start with “as if” and reality will soon follow, because reality is you, and if you start existing as god, all troubles, all confusion, all darkness disappears. Become light, and this becoming has no conditions to be fulfilled.
Now I come to this beautiful parable.
“There was one man who was so disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and who so disliked his own steps that he decided to get rid of both.”
Remember: this person is you, this person exists in everyone. This is how you behave, this is also your logic - flight from the shadows. This man was excited by the sight of his shadow. Why? What's wrong? Why should he be worried about the shadow? Because, as you may have heard, the dreamers said that the gods have no shadows. When they walk, no shadow is formed. This man was worried about the gods. They say that the sun rises in the heavens and the gods walk, but they do not have any shadows, they are transparent, but I tell you that this is just a dream: nothing exists anywhere and cannot exist without a shadow. If this is there, then the shadow will be created. If this is not the case, then the shadow may disappear.
To be is to create a shadow. Your anger, your sex, your greed are all shadows, but remember they are shadows. They are felt, and yet they are not there - this is the meaning of the shadow. They are not substantial. A shadow is simply an absence: you stand, the sun's rays fall on you, and because of you some rays cannot pass through. Then a figure is created - a shadow figure. It is simply absence: you block the sun, that is why shadow is created.
The shadow is not substantial, and you are substantial, that is why the shadow is created. If you were like a ghost, then there would be no shadow. And the angels in heaven are nothing more than ghosts invented by you and your ideologists - people who create ideals.
This man was worried because he had heard that he would only become a god when the shadow disappeared.
“There was one man who was so disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and who did not like his own steps so much that he decided to get rid of both.”
What is your concern? If you go deep, you will find nothing there except the sound of your own footsteps. Why are you so concerned about the sound of your own footsteps? You are substantial, so there has to be a little sound - you have to accept it! But the man heard the historian "that the gods have no shadow, and when they walk, there is no sound of footsteps.
These gods may be nothing more than objects of dreams; they exist only in the mind. These heavens don't exist anywhere.
When something exists, a sound is created around it - footsteps, shadows. That's the way things are and there's nothing you can do about it - that's nature. If you try to do anything about it, you are going the wrong way; if you try to do anything about it, your whole life will be wasted and in the end you will feel like you are getting nowhere. The shadow remains, footsteps make sounds, and death knocks on the door.
Before death knocks, accept yourself - and then a miracle will happen. The miracle is that when you accept yourself, you don't run away from yourself.
Right now, each of you is running away from yourself. Even if you come to me, you come as part of your own escape from yourself. that's why you can't reach me: that's the gap. If you have come to me to run away from yourself, you cannot come to me because my whole effort is to help you not to run away from yourself.
Don't try to run away from yourself - you cannot be anyone else: you have a purpose and an identity. Just like your finger has a pattern, unique and individual - this type of finger has never existed before and will never exist, it belongs only to you, nothing like it has ever existed. The same is the case with your being: you have a unique and individual being, it is incomparable, it has never existed before and will never exist again. Only you have it. Celebrate it!
Something unique happens to everyone, God gives everyone a unique gift, and you reject it! You want something better! You are trying to be wiser than being; you are trying to be wiser than the Tao, and then you are wrong. Remember: the part can never be wiser than the whole, no matter what it does. The whole is final, you cannot change it. You can make an effort to change it and you can spend your life, but nothing will be achieved by it.
The whole is vast, you are just an atomic cell. The ocean is vast, you are just a drop in it. After all, the ocean is salty, and you are trying to be sweet. It is impossible, but it wants to do the impossible, the difficult, the thing that cannot be done. And Zhuang Tzu says that easy is right.
Why don't you be light and accepting? Why not say yes to the shadow? The moment you say yes, you forget about it - and it disappears, at least from the mind, even if it remains with the body.
What's the problem? How does a shadow create a problem? Why make a problem out of it? The way you are right now, you make a problem out of everything.
This man was stunned, disturbed by the sight of his own shadow. He would like to be like God, he would like to be without a shadow. But you are already like God and you cannot be anything other than what you already are. How can you be different? You can only be what you already are. All becoming is simply movement towards a being that is already there. You can search and knock on the doors of others, but this is just playing hide and seek with yourself. You know how much you knock on others' doors and how much you search here and there. Eventually you will come to yours and realize that yours has always been there. No one can take it away—the nature of Tao cannot be taken away from you.
This man was worried about his shadow. The method he chose was to run away from it. This is the method that everyone chooses. The mind seems to be viciously logical. For example, if you feel angry, what do you do? The mind will say: “Don’t be angry, stick to your vow.” What will you do? You will suppress it, and the more you suppress it, the deeper the anger will move to the very roots of your being. Then you will no longer be angry at times and not at times - if you have suppressed it too much, you will be angry all the time, it will become your blood, poison will be spilled everywhere, which penetrates into all relationships.
Even if you love someone, there will be anger and love will become torture. Even if you try to help someone, there will be poison in that help, because the poison is in you. And all your actions will carry it, they will reflect you. When you feel it again, the mind will say: “You haven’t suppressed it enough yet, suppress it more.” But anger is there because of repression, and the mind says, “Suppress more!” But then there will be more anger.
Your mind is sexual because of repression, and the mind says, “Repress it more, find new methods, ways and means to repress it more, so that brahmacharya will blossom.” But it cannot blossom in this way. Through repression sex goes not only into the body, it goes into the mind, it remains cerebral. Then the person continues to think about it again and again. That's why there is so much pornography in the world.
Why do people love to look at pictures of naked women so much? Aren't women themselves enough? They exist, there are more than enough of them! So what is the need? Pictures are always sexier than real women. A real woman has a body and a shadow, and her steps will be heard and sound will be created, but a photograph is a dream, it is absolutely dreamy. is cerebral and has no shadow.
A real woman will pant and there will be an odor of her body, but the picture never pant, her body will never smell. A real woman may be angry, but a picture is never angry. A real woman has age, she ages, but the picture always remains young and fresh. The picture is just mental. Those who suppress sex in the body become sexual mentally. Then their mind is in sexuality and then it is a disease.
If you feel hungry, great! Eat! But if you constantly think about food, then it is obsession and disease. When you feel hungry it is good if you have eaten and finished with it, but you are never finished with anything - everything goes into the mind.
Mullah Nasreddin's wife was ill and was operated on. A few days ago she returned from the hospital. I asked Nasreddin: “How is your wife? Has she recovered from the hospital?”
He replied, “No, she’s still talking about her.”
If you think about something, talk about something, it is there, and now it is more dangerous because the body will recover and the mind can go on and on forever. The body may recover, but the mind never.
If you suppress hunger in the body, it goes into the mind: the problem has not been thrown away, it has implanted itself in you. Suppress anything and it will go to the very roots. Then the mind will say that if you have not suppressed, then something is wrong - you are not yet making the necessary efforts. Make more effort.
'The method he chose was to escape from them.'
The mind has only two alternatives: fight or run away. When there is a problem, the mind says, “Either fight it or run away.” And both are wrong. If you struggle, you remain with the problem; if you are struggling, the problem will always remain: if you are struggling, you are divided, because the problem is not outside, but within. For example, if there is anger and you fight it, what will happen? Half of your being will be angry and half will be with this idea of fighting. It's as if your hands are fighting each other. Who will win? You will simply dissipate energy; no one will be a winner.
You can fool yourself as if now you have suppressed your anger - because now you are sitting on your anger, but then you cannot sit on it forever without allowing yourself even a moment of rest: if you forget about it even for a moment, you will lose all your victory. Therefore, people who have suppressed something always sit on these suppressed things, and are always afraid. They can't relax. Why has relaxation become so difficult? Why can't you sleep? Why can't you relax? Why can't you be allowed? Because you have repressed so much and you are afraid that if you relax it will reappear.
Your so-called religious people cannot relax, they are tense, and this is the tension: they have suppressed something, and you are telling them to relax. They know that if they relax, the enemy will come. They can't relax. They are afraid to fall asleep.
Go to your Mahatmas: they are more afraid of sleep than of anything else. In their minds they think that someday they will be able to not sleep at all. They cut their sleep hours from 8 to 6 hours, from 6 to 5, from 5 to 3, to 2. And if an old monk, sannyasin can sleep only 2 hours a day, they think of this as some kind of achievement. This is stupid. This is not an achievement. And this is not what Krishna means when he says in the Gita that when the world sleeps, the yogis are awake.
That's not the point. The meaning is that the body is relaxed, the body is asleep, but the inner consciousness remains alert even in sleep. This is completely different, it has nothing to do with the ordinary. In fact, yogis sleep better than you. The yogi will sleep because he can relax, he is not afraid, but these so-called religious people are afraid that in their dreams everything that they have suppressed will come out.
Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his autobiography: “I became a conqueror of sex, but only during my waking hours, and in my sleep the sexual dreams continued to linger.” They will remain as the repressed enters the dream. Why in a dream? Because now, when you are sleeping, the censor has relaxed, but the fighter is not there, he is sleeping. And the enemy will hammer you with the key.
The mind thinks: either fight, and if you fight, then suppress, or run. But where should you run? Even if you go to the Himalayas, anger will follow you - it is your shadow; sex will follow you - it is your shadow. Wherever you go, your shadow will be with you.
"The method he chose was to get away from them. So he jumped up and ran, but every time he put his foot down it was another step, while his shadow stayed with him without any difficulty."
He was surprised - after all, he ran so fast, but there were no difficulties for the shadow: the shadow followed him with ease, without even gasping for breath, without breathing heavily.
There is no difficulty on the part of the shadow, since the shadow is not substantial, the shadow is no one. A person can suffocate, he can breathe with difficulty, but the shadow is always not a step away from him. The shadow cannot leave you in this way: neither fight nor flight will help. Where should you run? Wherever you run, you will carry yourself with you - and your shadow will be there too.
"He explained his failure by saying that he wasn't running fast enough, so he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until he eventually fell over dead."
You need to understand the logic of the mind. If you don't understand this, you will become its victim. The mind has a vicious logic, it is a vicious circle - it is circular. If you listen to it, then each step will take you further and further in a circle. This person is completely logical; you cannot find a single mistake, not a single flaw in his logic. There are no flaws: he is as perfect in logic as Aristotle. He says that if a shadow follows him, it shows that he is not running fast enough. This means he must run faster and faster - and then the moment will come when the shadow will not be able to follow him. But the shadow is yours, and the shadow is no one’s. It's not someone else following you. If that were the case, then the logic would be correct.
Remember: when there is someone else, the mind is always right; when you are alone the mind is always wrong. In society, with others, the mind is almost always right; with itself, in isolation, the mind is always wrong. Why? Because the mind is just a tool to exist with others, it is just a technique to help you be with others, but it has nothing to do with you. Intelligence is needed because of society.
If a child is born and is not associated with any society, then the mind does not develop, then there will be no mind. This has happened many times. It happened near Calcutta, 30 or 40 years ago: one girl was kidnapped by wolves who took care of her, and she grew up. She was 14 years old. when she was returned to society again, but she was just a wolf cub - she had no human mind at all. She ran on all fours and was very dangerous. She needed to eat raw meat. And she was very strong: even 8 strong men could not hold her. She had the mind of a wolf. She had to grow up with wolves, in the company of wolves, so she grew up with a wolf's mind. It was impossible to teach her to stand on two legs. She tried to take 2-3 steps and again fell on all fours, but on all fours she could run so that no one could catch up with her.
And again, just 10 years ago, in Uttar Pradesh, a boy was found near Lucknow. The same thing happened: wolves seem to love small children. They raised the boy. He was about 12 years old when he was discovered. This time the doctors tried even harder: they hospitalized him, gave him a massage, they tried to make a man out of him, but his whole being evaded, and as a result, after 6 months the child was dead. When he was caught he was so healthy that no human being could ever be so healthy. He was wild, he was a wolf, and when he was hospitalized and treated, he became sick. Within 6 months they killed him. They tried to create a human mind in him, but it was impossible. They succeeded in only one thing: he began to pronounce one word - his name. They named him Rom.
For 6 months this was their only success. If they asked him “what is your name?”, the wolf cub says: Rum. That's it.
The mind is a social function. The wolf needs intelligence for wolf society, man needs intelligence for human society. And because of this, there are so many types of human minds because there are so many societies on earth.
The Hindu has a different mind from the Mohammedan; a Christian differs in intelligence from a native; The Russian mind is different from the American mind. They see differently, they have different perspective and interpretation. The same thing is seen in different ways. Why? Because in order to exist in a particular society, you need a particular mind. In Russia, if you believe in God, they will think you are crazy. In India, if you don't believe in God. they will think you are crazy.
One day it happened that I was teaching at a medical camp and two dogs were watching people doing dynamic meditation with chaotic expressiveness. And then I heard one dog say to the other: “When I do this, the owner gives me deworming pills! He thinks I’m crazy!” Wherever you are in the world, be careful not to do dynamic meditation in front of others: they will think you are crazy.
Everyone is rooted in the mind, and every mind is fragmentary. You have to drop the mind - only then the cosmic mind, the universal mind, will happen to you.
This fragmentary mind is simply a method, a function of society. You need a language to speak with others: you need a mind to relate to others. Remember: the mind is always right when you use it with others, and almost always wrong when you start using it with yourself.
This man was right. If someone else followed him, then he was right, absolutely right; he was not running fast enough yet and so the other one followed him. But he was wrong, because no one else was there. The mind was useless. The mind is for others, meditation is for yourself. Mind is for others, no-mind is for oneself. This is the whole emphasis of Chuang Tzu, or Zen, or Hasidim, or Sufis - all those who know - Buddha. Jesus, Muhammad. everyone who was famous. The whole emphasis is on this: mind is for others, no-mind is for oneself.
This man was in trouble because he was using the mind for himself, and the mind has its own purpose. The mind said, “Faster, faster! If you run even faster, this shadow will not be able to follow you.”
"He attributed his failure to the fact that he wasn't running fast enough."
Failure was the first thing because he ran, but the mind cannot say that, you cannot feed the mind with it. It is a computer and you have to feed it, it is a mechanism, it cannot give you anything new, it can only give you what you feed it. The mind cannot give anything new: everything it gives you is borrowed, and if you are attached to listening to what it tells you, you will be in trouble when you turn it on yourself. When conversion comes, turning to the source, then you will feel difficulty, because then the mind is completely useless, not only useless, but it is a definite hindrance, it is harmful, so drop it.
I heard: it happened that one day the son of Mulla Nasrudin came home from his progressive school and brought a book on sexology. The mother was very alarmed, but waited for Nasreddin to come. Something had to be done - this progressive school had gone too far! When Nasruddin arrived, his wife showed him the book. Nasreddin went upstairs to look for his son. He found him in the room kissing the maid. And Nasreddin said: “Son, when you finish your homework, come down to me.”
But it's logical! Logic has its own steps, and each step follows from the other, and there is no end to it.
This man followed his mind, so he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until finally he fell down dead. Faster and faster without stopping - only then can death happen.
Have you ever noticed that life has not happened to you yet? Have you observed that there was never even a single moment when life as such happened to you? You have not yet experienced the simple moment of bliss that Chuang Tzu and Buddha talk about. What keeps happening to you? Nothing but death, and the closer you come to death, the faster you run, because you think that the faster you run, the greater the chance of escaping.
Where are you running so fast? Man and the human mind have always gone crazy with speed, as if they were moving somewhere and speed was needed. So we are becoming faster and faster. Where are you running? In the end, whether you move slowly or quickly, you will reach death.
There is such a Sufi story. One king dreamed that his death had come. In a dream, he saw a standing shadow and asked: “Who are you?” The shadow said: “I am your death, and tomorrow at sunset I will come for you.”
The king wanted to ask if there was any way to escape, but he could not, because he was very afraid that the dream would be destroyed. And the shadow disappeared.
The king was breathing heavily and trembling. In the middle of the night he called his wise men and said: “Find the meaning of this dream.” And as you know, you cannot find more stupid people than wise men. They ran home and brought their scriptures. These were large, large volumes. And they began to consult and argue, discuss and fight with each other and prove.
Listening to their conversation, the king became more and more disappointed: they did not agree on any point, they belonged to different sects, as is always the case with sages. They did not belong to themselves, they belonged to some dead tradition; one was a Hindu, another a Mohammedan, the third a Christian. They brought their scriptures with them and tried and tried, and when they got into an argument, they went completely mad and argued more and more.
The king was very alarmed, since the sun was already rising, and when the sun rises, it will not be long before it sets, since the sunrise is actually a sunset - it has already begun: the journey has begun, and in 12 hours the sun will set. He tried to interrupt them, but they said: “Don’t interrupt us, this is a serious matter.”
One old man, who served the king all his life, came up to him and whispered in his ear: “You better run away, because these people will never come to any conclusion. They will discuss and argue until their own death comes, but they will not come to a conclusion. It seems to me that since death has warned you, it is better for you to disappear from this palace. Run somewhere quickly!”
This proposal was attractive, it was absolutely correct: when a person cannot do something, he thinks of escaping.
The king had a very fast horse, and he jumped on it and ran. He told the sages: “If I come back alive and you decide, tell me, but now I’m leaving.” He was very happy and he rode faster and faster, as it was a matter of life and death.
Again and again he looked around to see if the shadow was approaching, but there was no shadow. He was happy - there was no death, he escaped, but by the time the sun set, he was hundreds of miles from the capital. He stopped under a large banyan tree and dismounted from his horse. thanked him and said: “You are the one who saved my life.”
But at this time he felt the same hand that he felt in the dream. He looked back. The same shadow was there and death said, “I also thank your horse, he is so fast! I waited all day under this banyan tree and was worried whether you could get here or not. The distance is so long, but this horse is wonderful! You have arrived just at the very moment when you were needed here.”
Where are you running? What are you aiming for? All your victories will take you under the banyan tree, and when you thank your horse or your car, you will feel the hand of Death on your shoulder. Death will say: “I have been waiting here for you for so long, and now you have come.”
And everyone arrives at the right moment, without being a moment late. Everyone gets there at the right moment, no one is ever late. I've heard of some people getting there early, but I've never heard of anyone being late. Some people get there before their due date because of their doctors.
"He attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running fast enough, so he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until eventually he fell over dead. He failed to understand that if he simply stepped into the shadow, his shadow would disappear."
It was easy - the easiest!
If you just go into the shade. where there is no sun, the shadow disappears, because the shadow is created by the sun, it is the absence of the sun's rays. If you are in the shadow of a tree, your shadow will disappear.
"He couldn't understand that if he just stepped into the shadow, his shadow would disappear."
This shadow is called silence, this shadow is called inner peace. But listen to the mind. just step into the shadow, into the inner silence where the rays of the sun do not enter.
You remain on the periphery, and that's the problem. There you are in the light of the outside world, and a shadow is created. Close your eyes, step into the shadows. The moment you close your eyes, the sun is no longer there, so all meditations are done with your eyes closed - you enter your own shadow. Inside there is no sun and no shadow, outside there is society and outside there are all kinds of shadows.
Have you ever realized that your anger, your sex, your greed, your ambition - everything is part of society? If you really go in and leave society outside, where is the anger? Where's the sex? But remember: in the beginning, when you close your eyes, they are not truly closed - you carry external images inside and there you will find the same society reflected. But if you go on simply moving and moving inward, then sooner or later the society will be left. You are inside, society is outside. You have moved from the periphery to the center, and in this center there is silence: there is no anger and no anti-anger, no sex and also no brahmacharya, no greed and no non-greed, no cruelty and no non-cruelty, since they are all outside. The opposite is always out there, remember that. Inside you are neither this nor that, you are just being, pure.
This is what I mean by “being like God” - pure being without opposites around. There is no fight, no flight! Just being. You have entered the shadows.
"He couldn't understand that if he just walked into the shadow, then his shadow would disappear, and if he sat and stayed there, there would be no more footsteps."
It was really so simple, but what is simple is so difficult for the mind, because the mind always finds it easier to run, to fight, because then there is something to do. If you tell the mind "don't do anything," that is the most difficult thing. The mind will ask: “Finally, give me a mantra so that I can say with my eyes closed om, om... Ram, Ram...”. Something needs to be done, because how can we remain without action, without running after something, hunting?
The mind is activity, and the essence is complete inactivity. The mind is running, and the essence is sitting. The periphery moves, but the center does not move. Look at a moving bullock cart: the wheel is moving, but the center around which the wheel rotates is static, absolutely static, motionless. Your essence is eternally motionless, and your periphery is constantly moving. This is the main thing to remember about the Dervish dance. When you do this, let the body be the periphery: the body moves, but you are eternally motionless.
Become a wheel. The body becomes a wheel, the periphery, and you become the center. You will soon realize that although the body is moving faster and faster, inside you may feel that you are not moving. And the faster the body moves, the better, because then a contrast is created, and suddenly you and the body are separate. But you are constantly moving with the body, so there is no separation. Go ahead and sit down. Just sitting is enough, don't do anything. Just close your eyes and sit and sit and sit and let everything settle. This will take time because you have been unsettled for so many lives. You have tried to create all kinds of disturbance. This will take time, but only time. You don't have to do anything else: you just sit and watch, sit and watch... Zen people call it za-zen, which means just sitting without doing anything. This is what Chuang Tzu says:
"He failed to understand that if he simply stepped into the shadow, his shadow would disappear, and if he sat down and remained motionless, there would be no more footsteps."
There is no need to fight and there is no need to run. The only thing you need is to just go into the shade and sit down. And this needs to be done throughout your life. Don't fight anything and don't try to run from anything. Let things take their course, and you just close your eyes and move inward, towards the center, where the sun's rays cannot reach.
There's no shadow there. And indeed, this is the meaning of the myth that the gods have no shadow: not that gods somewhere do not have shadows, but that God is something that has no shadow inside you, since nothing external penetrates there. It cannot penetrate; it is always in the shadows.
This shadow Zhuang Tzu calls Tao, your inner nature - completely internal, absolutely internal.
So what should you do? First: don't listen to the mind. He is a good device for the external, but a perfect barrier for the internal. Logic is good for people, but not good for yourself. Faith, on the contrary, is better because it is illogical. Faith is dangerous in society because it will deceive you. There you need logic, you need doubt. In conditioned things, logic and doubt are necessary. Science depends on doubt, and religion depends on faith, shramha. Just sit with deep faith that your inner nature will become dominant.
It is always like this, you just have to wait, you just need patience. And whatever your mind says, just don't listen to it, because the mind says: "Leave it!" And the mind will continue to say different things, because you have always listened to it, you have given it great importance. Even where he is completely useless, he will continue to inspire and advise.
I heard that one bank was trying to decide if they needed to install computers and automate their management. And they invited an efficiency expert to do some research: which people are needed, which ones are not, and which ones can be gotten rid of.
The examiner asked one clerk, "What are you doing here?"
“Nothing,” replied the clerk.
Then he asked the leader: “What are you doing here?”
The manager replied: “Nothing.”
A very happy, triumphant efficiency expert came back to the directors and said, “I told you there was a lot of duplication. Two people doing nothing—too much duplication!”
An efficiency expert is an efficiency expert - he uses logic, he has been trained. If two people do the same thing, then there are duplicates
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru