of these hills is the same path that will take you back. There is only one path for coming as well as for going. The same path will serve both purposes. The path will be the same but the direction will not be the same.
The path to sansara, the world, and the path to the self is one and the same. The same path leads either to sansara or to the self: only the direction changes. What has been in front of you so far will now be behind you and you will have to direct your attention to what was at your back. The road is the same, you must simply turn, do an about-face. You must turn your back on what you were facing and face that which was behind you.
Ask yourself where you are facing now. What are you seeing now? In what direction is the current of your vision, of your consciousness flowing? Experience it. Observe it. You will find it is flowing outwardly. All your thoughts are about the outer. All the time you are thinking about the outer, about the world outside. When your eyes are open you see the outside. When you close them you still see the outside because the imprints of the outside forms and images surround you once again. There is a world of objects outside you; there is another world inside you, a world of thoughts – the echo of these outer things. Although it is found inside, this world of thoughts is still the outer because the “I” as a witness is also apart from it. Your “I” sees it as well, so therefore this world of thoughts is also outside.
We are surrounded by things and by thoughts. But on looking more deeply, you will find that it is not being encircled by things that hinders us on the path of self-realization, it is being encircled by thoughts. In the first place, how can things encircle the soul – matter can only encircle matter. Thoughts encircle the soul. The current of seeing, of consciousness, is flowing toward thoughts. Thoughts and thoughts alone are in front of us; our entire seeing is veiled by them.
We have to turn from thoughts toward thoughtlessness. This change of direction is the revolution! How can it be done? First we must know how thoughts are born and only then can they be stopped from being born. Generally seekers set about suppressing thoughts without bothering to understand the process of how they are born. This can certainly bring madness, but not liberation. The suppression of thoughts makes no difference because new thoughts are being born every moment. They are like those demons of mythology who, when one head was chopped off, grew ten more.
I don’t ask you to kill thoughts because they go on dying each moment of their own accord. Thoughts are very short-lived; no thought endures for long. A particular thought does not endure, but the thought process does. Thoughts die on their own one after another, but the flow of thoughts does not. Hardly has one thought died before another one takes its place. This replacement is very quick, and this is the problem. The real problem does not concern the death of a thought but its quick rebirth. So I don’t ask you to kill thoughts, I ask you to understand the process of their conception and be rid of it. One who understands the process of the conception of thoughts easily finds the path to be free of it. But one who does not understand the process goes on creating fresh thoughts and at the same time tries to resist them. Instead of thoughts coming to an end, the consequence is that the person who is fighting them breaks down himself.
Again I repeat: thoughts are not the problem, the birth of thoughts is the problem. How they are born is the question. If we can stop their coming into being, if we can exercise thought birth control, then the thoughts that have already been born will disappear in a moment. Thoughts are dying out every second, but their total destruction does not happen because new thoughts keep springing up continuously.
I want to say it is not that we have to destroy thoughts but that we have to stop their coming into being. Stopping their birth is their complete elimination. We all know that the mind is constantly in motion, changing. But what does this mean? It means that a thought doesn’t live long. It only has a momentary life: it is born and it passes away. If we can only stop its birth, we will be saved from the violence involved in killing it and it will have ceased of its own accord.
How is thought born? The conception and birth of a thought is the result of our reaction to the outside world. There is a world of events and objects outside and our reaction to this world is alone responsible for the birth of thoughts. I look at a flower. Looking is not a thinking, and if I simply go on looking, no thought will arise. But as soon as we look at it we say, “It is a very beautiful flower,” and a thought has been born. If on the other hand I merely look at the flower, I will experience its beauty, but no thought will be born. But as soon as we glimpse an experience we begin to give it words. As soon as an experience is given words, thought has taken birth.
This reaction, this habit of giving words to experience covers up the experience, the seeing, with thoughts. The experience is suppressed, the seeing is suppressed and only words are left floating in the mind. These words themselves are our thoughts. These thoughts are very short-lived so before one thought dies away we transform another experience into thoughts. This process continues throughout our lifetimes, and we become so filled with words and so burdened under them that we lose ourselves in them. To drop the habit of giving words to our experiences is to eliminate the birth of thoughts. Try and understand this.
I am looking at you, and if I just keep on looking at you without giving any word to this seeing, what will happen? As you are now you cannot even imagine what will happen. There will be such a great revolution in your life that it has no parallel. Words get in the way and stop that revolution from taking place. The birth of thoughts becomes a barrier to that revolution. If I keep on looking at you and do not give any words to it, if I simply keep on looking, I will find during the process that a peace from beyond this world is descending upon me and that an emptiness, a void is spreading all over, because the absence of words is the void.
In this emptiness, in this void, the direction of consciousness takes a new turning and then I do not see only you, but gradually the one who is seeing also begins to emerge. There is a new awakening on the horizon of one’s consciousness, as if one is waking from a dream, and one’s heart is filled with pure light and infinite peace. It is in this light that the self is seen. It is in this void that the truth is experienced.
Lastly, in this meditation camp, do not let your seeing be covered by words – this is what we will practice. I call this the experiment of right remembrance, right mindfulness. You must keep this remembrance, this awareness that words are not formulated, that words do not come in between. It is possible, because words are only our habit. A newborn child sees the world without the intermediary of words. This is pure, direct seeing. Later he gradually learns the habit of using words, because words are helpful and useful in his external life, in his outer life. But what is useful in the outer life becomes a hindrance to knowing the inner life. And that is why an old man must reawaken in himself the child’s capacity of pure seeing in order to know his “self.” He has known the world with the help of words, and now he must come to know his self with the help of the void, the emptiness.
What are you to do in this experiment? You will sit quietly, keeping the body relaxed and the spine erect. You will stop all movement of the body. You will breathe slowly and deeply and without any excitement. You will silently observe your own breathing. You will listen to any sounds coming to your ears from outside and you will not react to them in any way; you will not give them any thought. You will let go into a state of being where there are no words but only a witnessing: standing at a distance one is aware of whatever is going on. Do not concentrate on something. Simply go on remaining watchful and alert to whatever is happening.
Listen. Just close your eyes and listen. Listen quietly, in silence. Listen to the chirping of the birds, to the gusts of the winds swaying the trees, to the cry of a child, to the sound of the water wheel at the well. Simply listen, to the movement of the breath and to your heartbeat.
A new kind of peace and serenity will descend upon you. You will find that although there is noise outside there is silence inside. You will find you have entered a new dimension of peace. Then, there are no thoughts, only pure consciousness remains. And in this medium of emptiness
