"IS IT NOT TRUE THAT AN IMMORAL LIFE CREATES HINDRANCES IN MEDITATION?"

What is meditation? It is not your character, it is not what you do. It is what you are. It is not the character, it is the consciousness that you bring to whatsoever you do. The doing is irrelevant. Whether you are doing it consciously or not is the question, whether moral or immoral. Are you alert? If you are alert, meditation happens. If you are not alert, you live in sleep.

You can be moral while fully asleep, there is no problem. Rather, it is better to be moral if you want to be fully asleep because then society will not disturb you. Then no one will be against you. You can sleep conveniently. The society will help you.

You can be moral without being meditative, but the immorality will always be just behind you. Just like a shadow it will follow, and your morality will be just skin deep because your morality can only be imposed from without when you are asleep. It can only be pseudo, false, a facade, it cannot become your being. You will become moral outwardly, but inwardly you will remain immoral. And the more moral you become outwardly, the more immoral you will be within -- in the same proportion, because your morality is bound to be nothing but a deep suppression. You cannot do anything else while asleep; you can only suppress.

And through this morality you will also become false. You will not be a person, but simply a "persona" -- just a pseudo entity. Misery will follow, and you will consequently be on the verge of explosion -- explosion of all that you have suppressed. It is there waiting for you. And if you are really honest in being moral while asleep, you will go mad. Only a dishonest person can remain moral without being mad. That is what hypocrisy means. Hypocrites just show that they are moral, that they are not, and they find ways and means to be immoral, constantly remaining moral on the surface or pretending to be moral. Then only can you remain sane; otherwise you will go insane.

This so-called morality leaves only two alternatives. If honest, you will become insane; if dishonest, you will become a hypocrite. So those who are clever, cunning, they are hypocrites. Those who are simple, innocent, who become victims of such teachings, go mad.

While asleep, real morality cannot happen to you. And what do you mean by "real morality"? Something which is a spontaneous flowering out of your being, not imposed from without. And real morality is not in opposition to immorality; a real morality is just an absence of immorality, it is not in opposition. For example, you can be taught to love your neighbors, to love everyone, to be loving. It can become a moral attitude, but the hate remains within. You force yourself to be loving, and a forced love cannot be real, cannot be authentic. It is not going to fulfill either you or the other person whom you love. No one is to be fulfilled by this false love.

It is just like false water. No one's thirst can be quenched by it. The hatred is there, and the hatred is trying to assert. And a false love cannot be a real hindrance to it. Rather, the hatred will penetrate the false love and will even poison it, and your loving will become just a sort of hatred. It is very tricky and cunning.

A real morality happens to a person who has gone deep within himself -- and the deeper you move, the more loving you become. It is not something forced against hatred; it is not something antagonistic to hatred. The deeper you move, the more love flows out of you. It has nothing to do with hatred at all; it is not concerned with hatred at all. The moment you reach to your center, you are loving without any moral imposition. You may not even be aware that you are loving. How you can be aware? This love will just be so natural that it will be just like breathing, just like your shadow following you. You will simply be loving.

Tantra teaches the inner journey. Morality will happen, but that will be a consequence, not a prerequisite. Be clear about this distinction. Tantra says don't be entangled with moral and immoral concepts. They are outer. Rather, move within. So the techniques are there for how to move within. And don't be concerned with moral and immoral, pure and impure; don't be concerned with distinctions. Just move within. Forget the outer -- the outer world, the society and whatsoever the society has taught you. All that society teaches is bound to be dualistic, it is bound to be suppressive; it is bound to be a conflict within you. And if the conflict is there, you cannot move within.

So forget the conflict and forget all that creates conflict. Simply move within. The deeper you go, the more moral you will become, but that morality will not be the morality of the society. You will be moral without "being moral" -- without being conscious that you are moral, because there is nothing opposed to it within you. You are simply loving because you feel blissful when you are loving. It is a bliss in itself. There is no end to it; no result is needed. It is not that you will get into the kingdom of God if you love. It is not a bargain. The morality that society preaches and so-called religions preach is a bargain: "Do this and you will get that. If you don't do this you will not get that. You will even be punished."It is a bargain.

Tantric morality is not a bargain, it is a happening. The deeper you move, the more you start living in the moment. You feel that to love is bliss. It is not a step, a condition, a bargain towards something else; it is enough unto itself. You love because you feel blissful in loving. You are not doing anything for your neighbor; you are not obliging anyone else. It is a pleasure to be loving. It is good for you right here and now. There is no future heaven or hell. Just now it creates the heaven, and the kingdom of God enters you. And this happens with all the virtues; they flower spontaneously.

Now look at the question: "IS IS NOT TRUE THAT AN IMMORAL LIFE CREATES HINDRANCES IN MEDITATION?" Really, the contrary is the truth. A meditative life creates hindrances in immoral life. Immoral life cannot create any hindrances. Immoral life means that you are non-meditative -- nothing else; you are fast asleep. That is why you are doing harm to yourself.

For tantra, the basic thing is meditation, alertness, awareness. Nothing else is more basic than that. When someone is immoral, it shows that he is not alert. It is just a symptom. The immoral life is just a symptom that he is not alert. What is ordinary teaching doing? Ordinary teachers will tell to this sleeping man who is immoral to be moral. He may change from immorality to morality, but the sleep continues.

So the whole effort is wasted because the real disease was not immorality; immorality was just a symptom. The disease was non-alertness, non-meditativeness. That is why he was immoral. You can convert him to morality. You can create fear, and you can make afraid only that person who is asleep; otherwise you cannot create fear. You can create a fear about hell and you can create a profit motive for heaven. Both of these things are possible only while you are asleep. If you are not asleep, you cannot be threatened and you cannot be motivated because of profit. Those two things are meaningful only to the mind that is asleep.

So create the fear of punishment, and a person will move from immorality to morality -- but he will move because of fear. Create a profit motive, and then he can move from immorality to morality -- but he will move because of lust, greed, profit motivation. Greed and fear are part of the sleeping mind. He remains asleep, nothing basic is changed.

He is good for the society; that is okay. For the society the immoral person is a problem, but the moral person is not a problem. So society has solved its problems, but the man remains asleep. For himself, nothing is solved; he is now more convenient for the society. Previously, he was inconvenient. Try to observe the fact: an immoral person is inconvenient to the society, but he is convenient for himself. A moral person becomes convenient to the society, but he becomes inconvenient to himself.

So it is only that the coin is put upside down. That is why immoral persons look more happy and gay, and a moral person is serious, sad, burdened. The immoral person is fighting with the society and the moral person is fighting with himself. The immoral person feels worried only because there is always a fear of being caught. He is afraid of being caught, but he is enjoying. If no one catches him, if there is no fear of being caught, he is okay.

The moral person is caught in a struggle with himself. Nothing is okay with him; he is only okay with the society. Morality is a lubricant, it helps you to move easily with others. But then you become uneasy with yourself. Uneasiness remains either with the society or with yourself. Only when you become awakened does uneasiness leave you.

Tantra is concerned with the basic disease, not with the symptoms. Morality is removing symptoms. So tantra says don't be concerned with moral or immoral concepts. It does not mean that tantra says become immoral. How can tantra tell you to become immoral when tantra cannot even tell you to become moral? Tantra says the whole thing is irrelevant: don't talk about morality and immorality; come to the root. You can be moral or immoral, but that is only the symptom. Come to the root! The root is that you are asleep -- fast asleep.

How to break this sleeping pattern? How to be aware and how not to fall again and again into sleep? That is what tantra is concerned with -- and once you become alert your character will change. But that is a consequence. Tantra says you need not worry about it.; that is a consequence. Inevitably, it happens, so you need not worry about it. You are not to bring it, it will happen. You simply become more and more alert, and you will be less and less immoral. But this morality that will happen to you is not forced; it is not something done by you on your part. You are just trying to be alert, and it happens.

How can an alert man be violent? How can an alert man feel hatred and anger? It may look paradoxical, but it is so. One who is asleep cannot be without hatred. It is impossible. He can only pretend that there is no anger, no hatred. He can only pretend that there is love, compassion, kindness, sympathy. Those are all pretensions. Quite the contrary happens to the one who has awakened. If anger is needed, he can only pretend. He cannot be angry.; he can only pretend! If anger is needed -- and sometimes it is needed -- he can only pretend. He cannot be sad, but if it is needed he can pretend that he is sad. Now these are impossible.

Love is natural now, as hatred was before. Love was a pretension before. Now hatred can only be a pretension -- if it is needed. Jesus fighting with the moneychangers in the great temple was pretending. He cannot be angry, but he has chosen to pretend. He cannot be really angry. He cannot be angry, but he can use anger -- as you use love and cannot be loving.

You use love for certain purposes. Your love is just to get something else; it is never simply love. You may be trying to get money, you may be trying to get sex, you may be trying to get something -- ego fulfillment, a victory, a feeling that you are very powerful. You may be trying to get anything else, but it is never love.

A buddha can be angry if he thinks that it is going to help. Because of his love sometimes he may be angry, but that is only a pretension and only fools are befooled by it. Those who know, they will simply laugh. As meditation deepens, says tantra, you start changing. And it is beautiful when change happens to you. If you "do" it, it can never be something very deep because doing is just on the surface. So tantra says, allow it to happen from the being, from the very center. Let it flow from the center towards the periphery; don't force it from the periphery to the center. That is impossible.

Tantra will not say moral or immoral. The only thing is if you are asleep try to change it. Allow yourself to become more and more alert, wherever you are. If you are immoral, tantra says, "It is okay. We are not concerned with your immorality, we are concerned with your sleep and with how to transform it into alertness." Don't fight with the immorality. Just try to transform your sleep.

If you are moral it is okay. Tantra is not going to tell you first to become immoral and then to try. Neither does the immoral one have any need to transform himself into a moral person, nor does the moral person have to transform himself into an immoral one in order to get into meditation. All that they need is to change their quality of consciousness. So wherever you are, a sinner or a saint, for tantra there is no distinction. If you are asleep, then try the techniques for alertness. And don't try to change symptoms. The sinner is ill and the so-called saint is also ill because both are asleep.

The illness is the sleep, not your character. Your character is just a by-product. And whatsoever you do while remaining asleep will not make any basic change. Only one thing can change you and create a mutation and that is alertness. The question is one of how to become more and more alert. So whatsoever you do, make it an object of alertness. If you do some immoral act, do it meditatively. It will not be long before the act will dissolve by itself and disappear. Then you will not be able to do it -- not because you have created an armor against it, but because now you are more alert. And how can you do a thing which needs sleep as a requisite? You cannot do it.

Understand well this basic distinction between tantra and what others teach. Tantra is more scientific. It goes to the very root of the problem, transforms you from the very being -- not from your outer sheath of character, of morality and immorality, of acts and doings. Whatsoever you do is just on the periphery; whatsoever you are is never on the periphery. The quality of the act, not the act itself, is meaningful for tantra.

For example, one butcher came to Nan-in. He was a butcher and Nan-in was a Buddhist monk who believed in non-violence. His whole profession was of violence. The whole day he was killing animals. But when the butcher came to Nan-in, he asked him, "What am I to do? My profession is one of violence. So am I to leave my profession first and is it that only then I can be a new man, or is there some other way?"

Nan-in said, "We are not concerned with what you do. We are concerned with what you are. So you go on doing whatsoever you are doing, but be more alert. While killing, remain alert, meditative, and go on doing whatsoever you are doing. We are not concerned."

Nan-in's followers became disturbed -- because here was a person who was a follower of Buddha, a believer in non-violence, allowing a butcher to continue. One disciple said, "This is not good. And we never expected that a person like you would allow a butcher to remain a butcher. And when he was asking, you should have told him to drop this. He himself was ready."

Nan-in is reported to have said, "You can change the butcher's profession easily; he was himself ready. But in that way you cannot change his quality of consciousness. He will remain a butcher."

He may become a saint, but the quality of the mind will remain that of a butcher. That will be a deception for others and for himself also. Go and look at your so-called saints. Many of them remain butchers. The quality, the attitude, the violence, their very look towards you, is condemning, violent. You are a sinner and they are saints. When they see you, the very look is such that you are condemned, you are thrown into hell.

Nan-in said, "So it is not good to change his outer life; it is better to bring a new quality to his mind. And it is good to let him remain a butcher, because he is disturbed by his butchery and violence. If he becomes a saint he will remain a butcher, but then he will not be disturbed. His ego will be strengthened. So this is good. He is disturbed that violence is there, and he has become at least this much aware -- that this is not good. He is ready to change, but just readiness to change will not help. A new quality of the mind has to be developed. Let him meditate."

After one year had passed, the man came. He had become a different man. He was still a killer, but the man had changed although the doing remained the same. He came to Nan-in again and he said, "Now I am a different man. I meditated and meditated and meditated, and my whole life has become a meditation because you told me to meditate in whatsoever I am doing. I am butchering animals, but the whole day I am meditating. Now what do you tell me to do?"

So Nan-in said, "Now do not come to me. Allow your awareness to make a path for you. You need not come to me."

So the butcher said, "Now, only if you say remain in the profession will I pretend to be there. But as far as I am concerned, I am no more there. So if you allow me, I am not going back. But if you say to go, then it is okay. I will go and pretend, and I will continue."

This is how, when your quality changes -- your quality of consciousness -- you become a different person altogether. And tantra is concerned with you, not with what you do.

The second question:

"IF ONE FOLLOWS CERTAIN LAWS OF LIFE AND CALLS THIS MORAL, THEN IS THERE ANY OBJECTION FROM A TANTRIC?"

Tantra has no objections, but this having no objection is the problem. Tantra has no objection whatsoever; tantra is not in any way condemning. It is not concerned to tell you, "Do this," or "Don't do that." If you feel good, if you feel happy following certain principles, then follow them. But following certain principles can never lead you to happiness because you are not going to change through principles and through following them. You will remain the same.

Principles are always borrowed, ideals are always borrowed. Someone else has given them to you. They are not your own; they have not grown out of your own experience. They are without roots. The society, the religion to which you are born, the teachers you happened to be near, they have given them to you. You can follow them and you can force yourself accordingly, but then you will be a dead person -- not alive. You may create a certain peace around yourself, but that will be the peace of the cemetery -- dead. You may be less vulnerable to disturbances, more closed in because of the principles, but then you will become less sensitive and less alive. So so-called principled men are always dead.

Look at them: they look silent, still, peaceful, at ease, but a certain deadness is always around them. The aura of death is always there. You cannot feel the feast of life around them, the festivity of being alive, the celebration of being alive. You can never feel that around them. They have created an armor around them -- a safety armor. Nothing can penetrate them. The walls of their principles and character stop everything, but then they are behind the walls, imprisoned, and they are their own prisoners. If you choose this, tantra has no objection. You are free to choose a life which is not a life at all.

Once Mulla Nasruddin visited a cemetery, and he saw a very beautiful marble mausoleum. Inscribed on it was the name "Rothschild." Mulla is reported to have said, "Aha! Ahhh! This is what I call life. This is what I called living -- a beautiful marble mausoleum.

But howsoever beautiful it is, it is not life. It is marble -- beautiful, rich -- but not life. You can create a mausoleum out of your life through principles, ideals, impositions, but then you will be dead, although less vulnerable because death is not vulnerable.

Death is a security; life is always insecure. Anything can happen to a live person; nothing can happen to a dead person. He is secure. There is no future, no possibility for change. The last thing has happened to him -- death. Now nothing can happen.

Principled personalities are dead personalities. Tantra is not interested in them. Tantra has no objection -- if you feel good being dead, it is your choice. You can commit suicide, and this is a suicide. But tantra is for those who want to be more alive, and the truth, the ultimate, is not death, it is life. Remember that: the ultimate is not death. It is life -- more life. Jesus has said, "Abundant life, infinite life."

So by being dead you can never reach to the ultimate. If it is life, and "abundant life," then by being dead you will never be in contact with it. Just by being more alive, more vulnerable, more sensitive, less principled and more alert, you will reach it. Why do you seek principles? You may not have observed why. It is because with principles you need not be alert. You need not be alert! If you live through principles you need not be alert.

Suppose I make a principle out of non-violence and then I stick to it, or I make it a principle to be truthful and I stick to it; then it becomes a habit. I create a habit of being truthful, of always speaking the truth. It becomes a mechanical habit; now there is no need to be alert. I cannot speak lies because a principle, a habit, will always create a barrier. The society depends on principles, on inculcating and educating the children with principles. Then they become incapable, really, of being otherwise. If a person becomes incapable, he is dead.

Your truth can be alive only if it comes through alertness, not through principle. Each moment you have to be alert in order to be true. Truth is not a principle; it is something born out of your alertness. Non-violence is not a principle; if you are alert you cannot be violent. But that is difficult and arduous. You will have to transform yourself totally. It is easy to create a life according to principles, rules and regulations. Then you need not worry. You need not worry about being more alert and aware; you can follow the principles.

Then you are just like a railway train running on the tracks. Those tracks are your principles. You are not afraid because you cannot miss the path. Really, you don't have any path.; you have just mechanical rails on which your train is running. You will reach the destination, you need not be afraid. You will be asleep and the train will reach. It is running on dead paths; they are not alive.

But tantra says that life is not like that, it is more like a river. It is not running on iron rails, on tracks; really, it is like a river. The path has not even been charted before. As the river flows, the path is created. As the river moves, the path is created. The river will reach to the sea, and this is how life should be if you understand the tantra way.

Life is like a river. There is no precharted way; there are no maps to be given to you which are to be followed. Just be alive and alert, and then wheresoever life leads you go with full confidence in it. Tantra is a trust -- a trust in the life force. Allow it to lead you, don't force it. Surrender to it and allow it to lead you towards the sea. Just be alert, that is all. While life leads you towards the sea just be alert so that you don't miss anything.

It is very important to remember that tantra is not simply concerned with the end; it is also concerned with the means. It is also concerned with the path, not only the destination. If you are alert, even this life will be a bliss. The very movement of the river is a bliss in itself. Passing through the valleys, through the rocks, falling down from the hills, moving into the unknown is itself a bliss.

Be alert here also, because the ocean, the ultimate, cannot just be a happening in the end. It cannot be. It is a growth. The river is "growing" to be the sea. It is not simply going to meet the sea, it is "growing" to be the sea, and this is possible only through rich experience, alert experiences, moving, trusting. This is how tantra looks at the search -- at the human search. Of course, it is dangerous. If rivers can be run through predetermined paths, there would be less danger, fewer errors. But the whole beauty of aliveness would be lost.

So don't be a follower of principles. Just be a creator of more and more consciousness. Those principles will happen to you, but you will never feel imprisoned in them.

The third question:

"THE SECOND SUTRA DISCUSSED YESTERDAY SAYS, `THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE.' IF NOTHING IS IMPURE, THEN HOW CAN THE TEACHINGS OF OTHERS BE IMPURE?"

Really, nothing is impure, but the teaching that something is pure and something is impure has to be discarded. Only in that sense does the sutra mean, "The purity of other teachings is an impurity to us." Nothing is pure and nothing is impure, but if someone teaches that something is pure and something is impure, tantra says that this has to be discarded. Only in this sense does the sutra say that "The purity of other teachings is an impurity to us." This is just a discarding. It is just saying don't make any distinctions, remain innocent.

But look at the complexity of life. If I say remain innocent, and if you then try innocence, that innocence will not be innocent. How can it be? If you have "tried" it, it has become a calculated thing. Then it cannot be innocent. If you try it, it cannot be! So what is to be done? Just discard those things which create cunningness. Don't try to create any innocence; you cannot. Just discard those things which create cunningness in your mind. This is negative. When you have discarded the root causes of cunningness, innocence will have happened to you. Nothing is pure or impure. But what is to be done then? Your mind is filled with distinctions: "This is pure and That is impure." So tantra says, "For us this is the only impurity. This mind filled with concepts of purity and impurity is the only impurity. If you can discard it, you have become pure."

This sutra is meaningful in another sense also. There are teachings with very fixed rules. For example, Catholic Christian teachings or Jaina teachings in India are against sex.; they say that sex is impure, ugly, sin. Tantra says that nothing is ugly, nothing is impure, nothing is sin. Even sex can become a path; even sex can become a path toward salvation. It depends on you. It is not sex, it is you who determines the quality of it.

Even prayer can become a sin -- and sex can become a virtue. It depends on you. The value is not in the object, the value is brought to it by you. Look at it -- at this phenomenon -- in a different way. Tantra says that even sex can become salvation, but then come to sex without any notions of purity and impurity, good or bad, morality and immorality. Come to sex as pure energy, just energy. Move in that energy as if you are moving into the unknown. Don't fall asleep: be alert! When sex brings you to the very root of your being, be alert. Don't fall asleep, on the path. Be alert and experience everything, whatsoever is happening -- the relaxation that comes, the tension that happens, the peak that comes, and the valley in which you are thrown back.

Your ego dissolves for a moment; you become one with your beloved or with your partner. For a moment, the two are not there. The bodies are two, but deep down there is a communion and they have become one. Be alert! Don't miss this moment in sleep. Be alert; see what is happening. This oneness is what was hidden in the sex act. The sex was just the outer core. Now this is the meaning -- the central point. This is what you were longing for, this is what the hankering was for. This was for what there was the search -- this unity, this dissolving of the ego, this feeling of oneness, this ecstasy of non-tension, this ecstasy of relaxation. This was the meaning, the goal, and this is what you were searching for through this woman and that, through this man and that. You were searching and searching, but no woman can fulfill it, no man can give it.

Only through a deep tantric awareness does the sex act completely disappear, and a deep ecstasy is revealed. So tantra says it is you: if you can bring meditation to your love, to your sex, the sex is transformed. So tantra doesn't say that this is pure or that is impure -- and if you want to use the old terminology of purity and impurity, then I will say that for tantra sleep is impure, alertness is pure, and all else is just meaningless.

The fourth question:

"IF AN EMOTIONAL DESIRE OR MOOD BECOMES EXHILARATING FOR US, AND IF WE DO NOT EXPRESS IT OUTWARDLY, DOES THIS ENERGY NECESSARILY GO BACK TO THE SOURCE AND MAKE THE PERSON FRESH AND ENERGETIC?"

Not necessarily! But if you are aware, then it is so, necessarily. Any energy, any energy, needs roots to move, and no energy can be destroyed. Energy is indestructible. It can only change into different forms; it can never become nothing. So when you try to suppress any energy, you are doing absolute nonsense with yourself. Energy cannot be suppressed: it can only be transformed. A suppressed energy will become a cancer. If you feel anger, two ordinary routes are available: either express it or suppress it. If you express it, then it becomes a chain, because then you create anger in the other person and he will express it -- and there is no end to it. Then you will express it, and it can continue for years. It continues! That is how everyone is living. It goes on and on.

Those who know deeply, they say that for lives also, for lives together, it goes on and on. You have been angry with a person in your past life, and still in this life you are repeating the same pattern with the same person. You are not aware, you are blissfully unaware. So it is good if you think something new is happening. Ninety-nine percent of the time nothing new is happening; old patterns are just being repeated again and again.

Sometimes you suddenly see a stranger, and you become angry. He has not done anything -- you have not even met him before -- but you feel depressed or angry or violent, or you want just to escape from this person. You feel bad. Why? It is some old pattern. Energy never dies, it remains, so if you express it, you are falling into an eternal chain. Someday you will have to come out of it. And the whole thing is useless, it is just wastage. Don't start the chain.

Then the other ordinary alternative is to suppress it, and when you suppress it you are creating a wound within yourself. That will be a suffering. That will create problems. And the anger will go on being suppressed, and you will become a volcano of anger.

So it may be that you are not now expressing your anger, but now your whole personality will become angry. There will be no eruptions, no one will see you beating someone and being violent, but now your whole personality will become angry because so much anger within poisons you. Now whatsoever you do the angry part is there. Even while you are loving someone, the angry part is there -- in everything. If you are eating your food, the angry part will be there. You will be violent with your food, you will not be loving. If you are opening a door, the angry part will be there. You will be violent with the door.

One day in the morning, Mulla Nasruddin was passing down a street shouting oaths and saying very angrily, "The devil will take possession of your spirit and beets will grow in your belly" -- and so it went on and on.

One man looked at him and said, "Mulla, whom are you cursing so much so early in the morning?"

Mulla said, "Who? I don't know. But don't worry, someone will turn up sooner or later."

If you are filled with anger, this happens: you are just waiting, and sooner or later someone will turn up. Inside you are bubbling with fire, just waiting for some objects, some medium, someone who should help you to unburden yourself. Then your whole personality becomes angry or violent or sexual. You can suppress sex, and then the suppressed sex becomes your whole personality. Then wherever you look you will see sex, in whatsoever you touch you will see sex, whatsoever you do will be a sexual act. You can suppress sex very easily; it is not difficult. But then sex will spread all over you. Your every fiber, every cell will become sexual.

Look at the celibates. Their minds become totally sexual; they dream about sex, they fight with sex; constantly they fantasize about sex. They are obsessed. That which could have been natural has become perverted. If you express it you create a chain, if you suppress you create a wound, and both are not good. So tantra says that whatsoever you do -- for example, if you are angry, when you feel that anger is coming -- be uninterruptedly aware. Don't suppress it and don't express it. Do a third thing, take the third alternative: be suddenly aware that anger is coming. This awareness changes the energy that is moving as anger into a different energy. The very energy that is known as anger becomes compassion. Through alertness there is the transmutation.

The same energy which is known as sex becomes BRAHMACHARYA, spirituality, through awareness. Alertness is the alchemy. Through it everything changes. Try it, and you will come to know. When you bring alertness, awareness, to any mood, any feeling, any energy, it changes its nature and quality. It is never the same again, and a new route opens. It is not going back again to the same place where it was, from where it came; it is not moving outwards The horizontal movement has stopped. With alertness it becomes vertical, it moves upwards. That is a different dimension. A bullock cart moves horizontally; an airplane moves vertically -- upwards.

I would like to tell you one parable. One fakir, a Sufi, used to say that someone was presented an airplane, a very small aircraft, by a friend, who was a great king. But the man was poor. He had heard about airplanes, but he had never seen one. He knew only bullock carts, so he thought that this was a new device -- a new type of bullock cart. He used his two bullocks to bring the airplane home, and then he used the airplane as a bullock cart. He was very happy. Of course, the small aircraft worked as a bullock cart. But then, by and by, just from being curious he started studying it. Then he came to understand that bullocks were not needed. It had a motor and it was able to go by itself, so he fueled it and used it as a motor car.

But then by and by, he became aware of the wings, and he thought "Why are they there?" And it seemed to him that the man who had devised this machine must have been very intelligent, a genius; thus, he could not have added something unnecessarily. The wings showed that the machine could fly also. So he tried. Then the airplane came to its own; it became vertical.

You are using the mind that you have as a bullock cart. The same mind can become a motor car; then bullocks will not be needed. It has an inbuilt mechanism, but then too it will be moving horizontally. However, the same mind has wings. You have not observed, that is why you don't know that it has wings. It can fly! It can move upwards! And once it moves upwards, once your energies start moving upwards, the whole world is different. Your old questions simply fall down and your old problems are no more there, because you are now moving vertically.

All those problems were there because you were moving horizontally. The problems of a bullock cart are not problems for an airplane. The road was not good, so there was a problem. The road was blocked, so there was a problem. Now this is not a problem because the road is not used at all. Whether blocked or not, whether good or not, it is irrelevant.

Moral teachings are bullock-cart teachings; tantra's teaching is vertical. That's why all those problems are irrelevant for tantra. The energy that you know as anger, sex, greed or whatsoever, is moving horizontally. Once you bring your alertness to it, you have brought a new dimension. Just by being alert, you move upwards.

Why? Observe the fact: when you are alert, you are always above the fact. Become alert about anything, and you are always above the fact. The fact is somewhere below, down, and you are looking from above, from a peak. Whenever you have witnessed something you have moved upwards, and the thing has remained below. If this attention is really authentic and you can be uninterruptedly aware, then the energy that was moving horizontally as anger, as sex, will move into this new dimension. It will come near to you, to the witness. Then you have started flying. And for lives and lives you have been using the device which is meant for flying as a bullock cart, unnecessarily creating problems because you were just not knowing what is possible for you.

The fifth question:

"YOU SAID THAT ONE SHOULD NEITHER SUPPRESS NOR INDULGE IN ANGER, BUT THAT ONE SHOULD REMAIN PASSIVELY ALERT AND MEDITATIVE. OBVIOUSLY, IT WILL NEED A SORT OF INNER EFFORT TO AVOID SUPPRESSION OR INDULGENCE, BUT THEN IS THIS NOT ALSO A SORT OF SUPPRESSION?"

No! It is an effort, but not."a sort of suppression." Every effort is not suppression. There are three types of effort. One is the effort which is expression. When you express your anger, it is an effort. Then the second type of effort is when you suppress it. When you express what you are doing, you are forcing your energy outwards to the person, to the object; you are throwing out your energy, the other is the target. Energy moves to the other; it is an effort. When you suppress, you return the energy back to the original source, to your own heart. You force it back. It is an effort, but the direction is different. In expression it moves away from you; in suppression it again moves near you.

The third thing, alertness, passive alertness, is also an effort, but the dimension is different. The energy moves upwards. In the beginning it is an effort. When I say be passively alert, in the beginning even passivity is bound to be an effort. Only by and by, as you become more acquainted with it, will it not be an effort. And when it is not an effort, it becomes more passive -- and the more passive, the more magnetic. It pulls the energy upwards.

But in the beginning everything is going to be an effort, so don't become a victim of words. It creates problems. Mystics have always been talking about effortlessness. They say don't make any effort. But in the beginning even this is going to be an effort. When we say be effortless we only mean don't force the effort. Allow it to come through awareness. If you force it, you will become tense. If you become tense, anger cannot move upwards. Tension is horizontal; only a non-tense mind can be above, hovering like a cloud.

Look at the clouds floating with no effort. Just bring your witnessing in like a floating cloud. In the beginning it is going to be an effort, but remember only that it is going to become effortless. You will be forcing it and allowing it more and more.

This is difficult because language creates the difficulty. If I tell you to relax, what will you do? You will make a sort of effort. But then I tell you don't make any effort, because if you make any effort that will create tension and you will not be able to relax. I tell you to simply relax. Then you are at a loss, and you are bound to ask, "Then what do you mean? If I am not going to make any effort then what am I supposed to do?"

You are not supposed to do anything, but in the beginning that non-doing will look like a doing. So I will say, "Okay! Make a little effort, but remember that the effort is to be left behind. Use it as a starter just in the beginning. You cannot understand non-doing; you can only understand doing. So use the language of doing and action. Start, but use effort only as a starter. And remember, the sooner you leave it behind, the better.

I have heard that when Mulla Nasruddin became very old, he became a victim of insomnia, he couldn't sleep. Everything was tried -- hot baths, pills, tranquilizers, syrups -- but nothing was of any help. Everything was of no avail. And the children were disturbed because Mulla would not sleep himself, and he would not allow anyone in the house to sleep. So the whole night had become a nightmare for the whole family.

They searched desperately for any method, any medicine that would help Mulla to sleep, because the whole family was going crazy. So finally they brought a hypnotist. The children came very happily, and they told old Mulla, "Now you need not be worried, papa. This is a miracle man. He creates sleep within minutes. He knows the very magic of it, so don't be worried. Now there is no fear, and you will sleep."

The hypnotist showed a watch with a chain to Nasruddin and said, "Only very little faith will do the miracle. You need a little trust towards me. Just trust me, and you will fall like a small babe into deep sleep. Look at this watch."

He started moving that watch left and right. Nasruddin looked at it, and the hypnotist said, "Left-right, left-right. Your eyes are becoming tired, tired, tired. You are falling asleep, asleep, asleep, asleep."

Everyone was in joy -- happy. Mulla's eyes closed, his head moved down, and he felt like a small babe going into deep sleep. A very rhythmic breathing came. The hypnotist took his fee, and he put his finger on his lips, just to indicate to the children not to be disturbed now. Then he sneaked out. The moment he was out, Mulla opened one eye and said, "That nut! Has he gone yet?"

He was making an effort to relax, so he relaxed "like a babe." He had started breathing rhythmically and closed his eyes, but it was all an effort. He was helping the hypnotist. He thought that he was helping the hypnotist. But it was effort on his part, so nothing happened. Nothing could happen. He was awake. If he could have just been passive, if he could have heard what was being said, looked at what was being shown, the sleep would have happened. No effort on his part was necessary; only passive acceptance was necessary. But even for you to bring your mind to that passive acceptance, in the beginning you will need effort.

So don't be afraid of effort. Start with effort, and just remember that effort has to be left behind and you have to move beyond effort. Only when you have moved beyond will you be passive, and that passive awareness brings the miracle.

With passive awareness, mind is no more there. For the first time your inner center of being is revealed, and there is a reason. Effort is needed for anything that is to be done in the world. If you want to do something in the world, anything, effort is needed. But if you want to do something in the inner, no effort is needed. Just relaxation is needed. Non-doing is the art there just as doing is the art in the outward, the outside world.

This passive alertness is the key. But don't become disturbed by language. Start with effort. Just keep in mind that you have to leave it, and go on leaving it. Even leaving will be an effort -- but a moment comes when everything has gone. Then you are there, simply there not doing anything -- just there, being. That "beingness" is SAMADHI, and all that is worth knowing, worth having, worth being, happens to you in that state.