1. Introduction to Intensity🔗

Whether we lead or whether we follow, in order to be fulfilled in whatever we do, we need to be intense.

A small story: A Zen master and a disciple were walking along the banks of a river. The disciple, as he had done a few times before, asked the master very longingly, ‘Master, please give me enlightenment.’ Suddenly the master turned, held the disciple’s head in his hand and pushed it into the river. The disciple was shocked and started struggling to get his head above water. The master continued to strongly hold his head in the water. Now the disciple started gasping for breath. The master then released the surprised and completely shaken disciple.

The master asked, ‘Do you feel you want enlightenment with the same intensity that you felt you needed air to breathe when your head was in the water?’

Only when the urge becomes urgent, when the question becomes a quest, does the Ultimate happen. The key factor needed for enlightenment to happen is intensity.

You see, usually we feel a terrible restlessness towards the outer world, ‘I have not done this, I have not done that’ and so on. The same restlessness when directed to the inner world is called intensity.

You do not know what is happening, you do not know what should be done, but the deep dissatisfaction about what is there in the inner space is what I call intensity. You may be wondering why I am teaching dissatisfaction. I am supposed to teach satisfaction, right? I tell you, your dissatisfaction, which is now directed towards the outer world, has to turn towards the inner world, and only then it will lead to satisfaction.

First thing which needs to happen is not satisfaction but the turning of direction, the psychological revolution.

Restlessness should become intensity. If it is towards the outer world, if your consciousness is constantly moving towards the outer world, it is called restlessness. If it is moving towards the inner world, it is called intensity.

The meaning of intensity is that desperate feeling that something needs to be done immediately, to break free from the clutches, or to break free in the inner world.

Intensity is not emotion. When you are intense, one part of it may be emotional. But intensity cannot be called emotion. It is like heat. The part of intensity that melts and comes out can be called emotion. For example, when you integrate yourself with intensity, one part of you melts.

Let us say the heart melts, then that can be called emotion. Along with your heart, your intellect will also melt, your being will also melt. The side-effect of intensity is emotion. Do not bother about what your intensity should be about. Do not bother about ‘towards what’. It should become a quality.

Anything you do, whether you touch something or somebody or some object, let the intensity be there, even in that touch. If you are talking, let the intensity be there. In your relationships, in your decisions, in your memory, in your thinking, in your desires, even in your fears, be intense without escaping from this moment. That is what I call intensity.

Intensity means radiating the energy that does not create any conflict inside and outside. Intensity is intensely being inside you.

Intensity does not create conflict inside or outside. It flows smoothly and yet very strongly. We always think if it is flowing smoothly like a river, it will not have intensity, and if it is intense like a stone it will not be flowing freely. No. Intensity is like a flood which is intense and flowing.

I have seen some people intensely creating conflict every moment! Anything you tell them to do, they will be ready to create a conflict.

A small story:

A prisoner escaped from prison after twelve years and reached his home. The moment his wife opened the door she started shouting, 'How dare you come so late! You escaped from prison twenty four hours before. Where have you been? You should have come straight back home!'

All that the woman was bothered about was why he was not back home right after he had escaped. She certainly was intense, but only in creating conflicts.

Real intensity does not create conflicts. It is flowing but intense. Intensity is integration. Intensity is focus. Intensity is sincerity.

The father of Yoga, Patanjali, says, 'Success is nearest to those whose efforts are intense and sincere.' You see, no river needs a navigator to the ocean. There are no signboards needed for any river, 'Here is the ocean.' Yet all rivers reach the ocean. They reach the destination. When your whole energy moves in one direction as a whole, you can move easily. When you are intense and ready to flow you will achieve the goal, that's all.

Usually intensity leads to a solid feeling. You may be intense but you may have lost the ability to flow. Or you may be flowing but may have lost the intensity. See, you may be intense but you may have lost the ability to flow, because you are driven by your ego.

You are determined to achieve what you want but you have your own rigid ideas about how to get there. You fail to understand then that Existence can make events happen in a much more beautiful and effective way than you can plan.

I tell my disciples, plan in the best way to the best of your ability. Then, leave it. It may seem that all your plans are being completely trampled. Don't get frustrated at that point. Something much more beautiful than what you had planned will come to life.

The other possibility is that you may be flowing but may have lost the intensity. This is the case with people who have no focus and waste their energies getting distracted by anything that comes by.

Understand, water becomes steam only at 100 degrees Celsius. Even at 99 degrees C, it is still water. It does not transform to steam. In the same way, if you are not integrated in seeking, all your energies are not integrated. The total transformation cannot happen.

Take up something and follow it with full intensity. Intensity does not mean acting rigidly without scope for updating and change. Only when you are open to change you can make your way like the river flowing intensely towards the ocean.

A small story: A man moved into a small, remote county. One day while driving he stopped at a gas station to fill gas. The gas station owner started talking casually and started complaining about the local mayor. This man who had come to the city newly just heard him and did not reply. After some time, he drove further and stopped at another place to ask for directions. There also, he started enquiring about the county. That person also started complaining about the mayor. After half an hour, he reached his destination. There also the people were talking ill and complaining about the mayor. The next day, the man decided to meet the mayor. He got an appointment with the mayor. In his conversation, he asked the mayor curiously, 'Sir, if I may ask, how much do you get paid for your job?' The mayor replied, 'Money? I accepted this job just for the honor of it!'

Understand, the mayor is thinking he is doing the job for the honor of it but the people who are living in the county are experiencing something totally different. You decide and take up something to do. You do not verify whether that decision is being executed or not and whether the purpose for which you decided is still relevant or not.

There is a beautiful story from one of the ancient vedic texts:

A disciple goes to a master and asks him, ‘Master, give me enlightenment.’ The master just says, ‘Tat tvam asi’ nine times. ‘Tat tvam asi’ means ‘That Art Thou’. It is called a mahavakya, the statement that straightaway gives enlightenment. The ‘vakya’ or the statement that straightaway leads you to the experience of the ‘mahat’, the cosmos, is mahavakya. Nine times, the master repeats ‘Tat tvam asi’ and the disciple is enlightened. The story ends.

Is it so simple?

Then why is it not happening in us? What is missing in us? What is the difference between us and that disciple? The disciple was fully integrated, burning to receive the truth. Look at the oyster. It is waiting for the rain water to make the pearl. When the rain water falls, she just carries the rain water into her womb and goes down into the ocean. The process happens on the rain water, and the pearl results.

The oyster will be waiting with the mouth wide open on the waters of the ocean. She will be just waiting for the rain water. She cannot take the salt water and make the pearl. She needs pure rain water. The moment one drop of rain water falls on her, immediately she will go into the deepest layer of the ocean and she will start doing the process. She will come out with the pearl. In the same way, those words the master utters will straightaway enter only into that person who is seeking intensely with open being for the initiation. He carries those words with him and sits inside his inner space. The process happens and out comes the pearl of enlightenment.

For the intense seeker, even a few words are enough. He will suddenly see the being blossoming, expanding and expressing itself. The intensity and the openness of the disciple are like the wide open mouth of the oyster. The words of the master are like the rain water. When the words of the master enter the being of the disciple intensely burning for the Truth, the pearl of enlightenment happens.