The Journey of a 1000 miles🔗

A small Zen story:

A young disciple had just entered a Zen monastery. He said to the Zen Master, ‘I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me something.’ The Master looked at him and asked, ‘Have you eaten your rice porridge?’ The monk replied, ‘Yes, I have eaten.’ The Master said, ‘Then you better wash your bowl.’ At that moment, the monk was enlightened!

This may sound absurd when you hear it for the first time. The Master was telling the disciple to wash his bowl after he had eaten. What he actually meant was, the disciple was so full with the knowledge he had acquired, with what he had picked up from various places, from various philosophies; there was no room for anything more to enter, for any clarity to happen. Cryptically he says, ‘you better wash your bowl’, and the monk was simply struck by the statement and got enlightened!

This is how Zen Masters caused spiritual awakening in their disciples. In just one moment, the disciple would be awakened. Enlightenment, self-realization, the state of eternal bliss, or whatever you want to call it, is actually as easy as removing your coat and putting it on the coat stand! It is that simple. But because of our layers and layers of social conditioning, we look upon it as something far away from us, something difficult to achieve.

Actually, it is not something to be achieved at all because it is already there in you! How can you achieve something that is already there in you?! All you need to do is drop these layers of illusion, these layers of social conditioning, and you will see that you are already bliss. The concepts like seeking, or traveling in a spiritual journey are just ways to postpone your own flowering. You are banging on a door that is already open.

All that a Master needs to do is, awaken you to this truth, that’s all. That is why Zen Masters adopted abrupt and sometimes harsh methods that will simply shake the disciple from his intellect and illusion, and cause self-realization in a moment’s time.

When a Master starts his work on you, awareness will start to grip you and you will realize with every passing moment, with every action of yours, with every thought of yours, that the Master is only showing you what you already are. He just peels off layers and layers in you like peeling an onion and with every layer getting peeled, you will feel lighter and a beautiful feeling of coming home. That feeling of coming home is only coming closer to your core, to the core from the periphery, from far away from your home to closer to your home. And what do we mean by home? Our true Self.

Of course, when the disciple is really ready, this will happen. In the path of seeking, the space inside is created and kept ready so that awakening can happen. But the problem arises because we get stuck in seeking.

Seeking should create the space in us to flower, else it is not seeking; it is simply a trip to fulfill your ego in the field of spirituality, that’s all. It is simply to tell people that you know a lot about God and great philosophies that you have read and not digested, which you are vomiting on others.

Seeking is not creating something, it is destroying something – your ignorance of your true self. Seeking is not searching. Be very clear: If you seek in the hope of finding something, you will land up in terrible frustration. That is why most often you will find that there is a cynicism, a sarcasm, a disrespect in the tone of some of the exhausted seekers. They will be on the brink of turning their backs on the Truth or they will think they have found it and start convincing you with their own nonsensical philosophies.

If you understand that there is no search here at all, there is only discovering, then every minute is a golden opportunity to peel off yet another layer and take one more step closer to the core. Then, the peeling itself becomes enjoyable; the path itself becomes bliss, because you are on the right path! When you are not in the right path, what happens? Instead of peeling the onion, if you keep it intact and search and add on layers to your already fat self. Then what happens? You will feel suffocated, burdened and you will wonder what life is all about.

So instead of adding on layers of stuff, you need to peel off layers and feel the joy in the path towards the core. This is when bliss becomes the path and the goal. This is what all Masters mean when they tell you that you are bliss and you are yet to only discover it. This is what I mean when I say, ‘your journey inwards’. The journey to bliss is always inward; it is the only way. When your journey goes inward, bliss becomes your lifeline and automatically the outer world happens seamlessly.

And when the outer world happens seamlessly, you start living like a King, like a Paramahamsa. Paramahamsas are the only living Kings, mind you. All the other kings are called so because of their material possessions. They have only wealth not richness. They have quantity, not quality. But a Paramahamsa is the real king who enjoys the richness of the being, the richness of the inner and outer worlds. He lives like a lotus in a pond, untouched by the water and coveted by all.

So understand the real meaning of seeking. Don’t allow your mind to get caught in the game of seeking. The mind itself is a myth and the game of seeking can take your mind to a complex web of mythology. Understand that your mind and the concept of seeking are the only two things that keep you away from God. If you understand this experientially, you will automatically drop seeking and start shedding all that is not you.

Seeking is simply shedding all that is not you, all that is keeping you away from the Truth, all that is keeping you in bondage to any place, person or thing, all that is ready to grab you and put you inside a frame. This is seeking.

So many religions and so many teachings have come into being over the past. Enlightened Masters and ancient seers have laid down formulae for people to experience what they experienced themselves. Each formula is one religion, one teaching. It is enough if you follow any one religion, any one teaching which works for you.

See for yourself if you are experiencing more clarity, more awareness inside you and better interpersonal relationships. See if you are able to watch what is happening without getting involved in everything around you. Then you have found the right teaching, the right path.

What people generally do is, they get confused by the different religious teachings and get stuck in following them instead of using them as a tool to flower. And because of so many complex teachings and religious fanaticism, many people doubt if they are even qualified for a spiritual awakening! It seems like some complex thing which you need courage to choose and have an option to skip choosing until next life.

Very often, I have heard people say, ‘I am not ready for it. Maybe not this time, next time. I have to become a lot more mature to get into all this. This is too early for me. Let me finish my responsibilities and I will come to the ashram.’

First of all, no one is calling these people to the ashram. Secondly, they have a totally wrong concept of spirituality itself. There is nothing called ‘being mature’ and ‘being ready’. All these are mere play of the mind. But one thing, when someone says these things, the Master waits for a while and allows them to settle before making the next move, because the mind can play havoc otherwise.

They fail to understand that spirituality is a way of living life at its peak in all aspects – 360 degrees, from the being level. It can make life so rich that one will not have a hangover in anything. Spirituality is an attitude. Spirituality is infusing spirit into life. Because people have misunderstood religion, they have misunderstood spirituality also.

If it is an attitude, then is there any sense in waiting for the right time to wear it? It is ridiculous to say that, is it not? To wear an attitude, you need not wait for anything to happen, for your children to grow or your retirement to approach or anything. It is just changing the way you are by bringing in awareness and shedding all that you are not, that’s all.

A man came to Ramana Maharishi, a great enlightened Master from India and asked, ‘Bhagavan, when will I be qualified to be able to follow your spiritual path?’ Ramana Maharishi looked at him silently for a while and asked, ‘Are you alive?’ The questioner said, ‘Yes, of course I am!’ Ramana declared, ‘If you are alive, you are fully qualified to be spiritually awakened.’

The only interest of an enlightened Master is our inner growth. He has no interest in controlling us. He is interested in removing our doubts about our own potential. He is interested in uncovering the veil of ignorance and helping us discover that we are one with the whole of Existence, that we are not separate from it, that we are an integral part of this grand show that is going on!

We are constantly in doubt about our own potential. This doubt is there all the time because we think we are separate from Existence. We limit ourselves, our potential, our capacity, because we fail to understand that we are part of the infinite Existential energy.

Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not, want it or not, we are part of the Divine. But we are not ready to believe it. When someone tells us that we too are Divine, we think that they are crazy. I always tell people: I am not here to prove that I am God, I am here to prove that you are God! They look at me with shock when I tell them that!

I tell people, ‘you are already enlightened, just express it!’ They think I am crazy when I say this! Actually, the core of the onion is within it, am I right? In the same way, your core is within you. You only need to experience it and express it from your experience. Why are Masters so graceful, so stately, so joyful to look at even if they lift a small finger? It is because every expression of theirs is from their blissful inner core that they have realized. When the core is realized, the boundaries disappear, and you become one with Existence. And when you become one with

Existence, you radiate the Existential energy around you and automatically all that you do becomes beautiful, which is why you are here for hours together watching me undauntedly!

Actually, you are identifying with your own blissful self in my presence, through watching me. That is why it is so joyful for you. The deep and unconscious yearning in you to experience the self is what causes you to experience and enjoy me. But instead of attributing it to your own beautiful Self, you attribute it to me, my form, and that is where the problem starts!

If you understood for a moment that what you are enjoying through me is actually yourself, you will automatically love me, you and everyone around with the same intensity as you feel for me because you would have then understood that the divinity that you see in me is actually there in every other animate and inanimate object.

After all, the universally accepted statement, be it the Holy Bible or the Bhagavad Gita or the Holy Quran, is that God is in everything and everything is divinity, is it not? Then how can you see God only in me? You should be able to see God in everyone else. Through me, you can be lead to seeing God in everyone else. Only when that happens, the purpose of my mission is fulfilled as far as you are concerned.

And mind you, it will happen with time, depending on your willingness to allow intelligence to step in and make it happen for you. If you function with deep awareness around a Master, you will catch the smell of Existence in him and automatically in everyone and everything around him. Awareness is the master key.

The problem is, although religions were created with the single purpose of helping man realize that he is God, for man to experience God in him, over the years, religious priests started using religion as a tool to distance man from God and to create a permanent doubt in him about realizing God so that he may become dependent on them for it. This is how they have been playing with us.

Once they sow the seed of doubt in us, we start looking to them for solutions, for techniques. Then they pose to be mediums between God and us and start controlling us! The whole purpose of religion then gets defeated. But these people continue to carry on their business.

I tell you, just ask these people what qualification they possess to control you in this fashion. As long as they are offering you some clarity on the fact that you are part of Existence, it is all right. The moment they start telling you what you should do and should not do to please God, be very clear, they are not qualified in any way to guide you.

When we go on the yearly pilgrimage to the Himalayas, I see people breaking away from our group and going behind the pandas, the priests there to give offering to the Lord. It really amuses me. They leave a live Master and place their faith on a panda to reach God!

They pay them huge amounts of money and sit with the panda who gives a small offering on their behalf to the Lord. The only intent of the panda will be to grab the maximum money from them. These people, unconcerned about that, will be sitting in all earnestness, trying to feel the non-existent spiritual fervor in the panda's chants.

I try telling people not to go behind these pandas, at least when they come with me. But, even after my telling them, if they want to do these things then it is up to them.

And sometimes, in the name of religion, people bring in rules and condemn others from doing certain things. They bring in divisions of some sort and make you feel spiritually inferior; they condemn you in the name of man-made barriers. No one is inferior or superior to any one. If a religion cannot accept you for what you are, the whole purpose of following it is lost.

We follow a religion or teaching because we want to overcome our shortcomings, our blocks, and continuously cleanse our consciousness. When this is the case, if the religion is going to condemn us for what we are, how can even make a beginning with it?! It sounds ridiculous, is it not? We are not even given a chance! It is like saying, ‘Become pure, then I will cleanse you’! We are turning towards religion to purify ourselves, to empty our conditioning and acquire deeper understanding. Then what is the purpose in laying these conditions?

Organized religions over the years create this sort of confusion. They even counter spirituality. Spirituality is about discovering who we are. It is the search for the ultimate Truth about our self and our relationship with Existence or God or whatever you wish to call it. The problem is, religions, once organized, are more concerned about power and whatever leads to power. All organized religions exploit us through greed and fear, through clever manipulation of heaven and hell. It is the confusion between religion and spirituality that also leads to the question of whether we are qualified. We are constantly told that we are sinners and as such incompetent to realize God.

But with a Master, a real Master, he will never ask you whether you are qualified, what your qualities are, what was your past, what is your economic and social background. He never instills guilt in you to have control over you; he never makes you feel like a sinner; he simply welcomes you for what you are and directs every ounce of energy in cleansing your consciousness. That is the reason he draws people irrespective of religion, caste, creed and what not. He gives what the being needs, with endless compassion, with no strings attached.

A beautiful Zen story:

A disciple asks his Master, ‘Master, am I qualified for spiritual progress? I feel there are many obstructions.’ The Master replies, ‘The word obstruction is the only obstruction, nothing else!’

A Master is a living example to show you that you can experience what he has experienced. He is there to remove your doubts about yourself. All that is needed from your side is a little trust in him.

Patanjali, an enlightened Master lived in India over 5000 years ago. Patanjali’s book Yoga Sutra is the greatest compilation of techniques to liberate the being from the mind and unite the being with the cosmic energy, of which it is a part.

In his book of instructions, he defines various paths to enlightenment. He defines eight paths in all: yama – which deals with 5 important virtues, niyama – which deals with 5 rules of conduct, pratyahara – which is the path of detachment, pranayama – techniques to do with the breath, asana – techniques to do with one’s sitting posture, dharana – consciousness, dhyana – meditation, and finally samadhi – which is the enlightenment state or no-mind state.

The first step yama, lays down guidelines for one’s behavior and this alone consists of five parts: celibacy, truth, non-violence, not stealing, and not wanting to possess. Only after you practice all

these parts and master them, are you qualified to move up to the next step in yogic accomplishment.

A man came and asked me, ‘Swamiji, I am not qualified in these steps. I have never practiced yama and niyama; how can I learn Yoga? I said to him, ‘If you are already qualified in these steps, you do not need Yoga!’

Patanjali laid down techniques thousands of years ago. Over time, many great Masters have updated them to suit man’s changing ways.

It is like this: In our own lives, don’t we find that what worked for our children does not work for our grand children and what worked for our grand children does not work for our great grand children? If we kept our children quiet through some basic threats and it worked well with them, then our grand children would probably threaten us back with the same statements and carry on with their pranks, is it not so? So, we find that we need new ways of handling them.

A lady was asking her three-year-old son what he wanted from America. He said, ‘I want a watch that tells the time.’ She asked him, ‘What are you talking? You already have a watch that tells the time.’ The three year old replied, ‘No it doesn’t. I have to look at it.’

Children are so updated these days. So, what Patanjali devised was for men of that age and time. Today, man is made differently. We need different types of techniques to handle him. But understand, we are not blaming Patanjali’s techniques or saying that it is inadequate. It was devised for the man of that age and time and it worked well then, that’s all. We need to understand that clearly.

Meditation and maturity go hand in hand. With meditation, spiritual maturity and release of energy happens in us. This maturity and energy release further propels us into deeper meditation. Spiritual maturity is enhanced under the tutelage of a Master. The Master’s grace accelerates the spiritual growth and guides the disciple in the right path.

Meditation connects us to the cosmic energy, of which we are a part and as a process, helps us focus the energy in the right direction to progress spiritually.

In the present day world, Patanjali’s techniques take a lot of time. In today’s world, we don’t have time for anything, especially for ourselves, our personal growth. At the same time, as human beings, by our very nature, we find ourselves facing fundamental questions like ‘Who am I?’ When everything in the material world has been reached, when all the burning desires have been fulfilled, there is still a void in us. That void prompts us to look inwards, to ask these questions. These questions have the potential to become burning quests; they can take us from questions to quest, from urge to urgency – to understand the truth.

In this age, more than spiritual practices, Dhyana or meditation is the answer to enlightenment. It is a shortcut method which is foolproof and without side effects. The only side effect is bliss and realization of your own Self! If you are a being with consciousness, it is enough to embark upon the spiritual path. The very desire that you wish to start on this path is a true indication that you are qualified.

It is said in Tao, ‘A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.’ I tell you, this is not even a journey of a 1000 miles, it is a journey of a single step onto the path, that’s all! Once you are on the path, you are in the goal! That is why I say, ‘Bliss is the path and the goal!’ Bliss is not any goal to be achieved by traveling. Once you are on the path, the path itself is bliss. It is the first step that breaks the inertia. That is enough! So just decide and take that step now! You are qualified!

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