Yoga The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 2 Discourses on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Chapter #4, Find the Ever-Present Flower Question 1

The first question:

Question 1

PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW A SEED CAN FLOWER WITHOUT THE BIT IN BETWEEN.

THE SEED CAN FLOWER without the gap, without the time gap in between, because the seed is already flowering. You are already that which you can become. If it was not so, then the seed cannot flower right now.

Then time would be needed. Then Zen is not possible. Then only Patanjali is the way. If you are to become something, a time process will be a must. But this is the point to understand: all those who have known, they have also known that becoming is a dream. You are already the being; you are perfect as you are.

Imperfection appears because you are fast asleep. The flower is already flowering; only your eyes are closed. If the seed has to reach to the flower, then much time will be needed, and this is no ordinary flower: God has to flower in you. Then even eternity will not be enough, then it is almost impossible. If you have to flower, then it is almost impossible. It is not going to happen; it cannot happen. eternity will be needed.

No, that is not the thing. It can happen right now, this very moment Not even a single moment has to be lost. The question is not of seed becoming a flower. The question is of opening the eyes. You can open your eyes right now, and then you find the flower has always been flowering. It was never otherwise; it could not have been otherwise.

God is always there within you; just a look, and it is manifested. Not that it was hidden in a seed; you were not looking at it. So only this much is needed -- that you look at it. Whatsoever you are, look at it, become aware of it. Don't move like a sleepwalker.

That's why it is related that many Zen Masters, when they became awakened, they roared with laughter. Their disciples couldn't understand, their fellow travelers couldn't understand, what happened. Why they are roaring madly? Why this laughter? They were laughing because of the whole absurdity. They were seeking that which was already achieved; they were running after something which was already there within them; they were seeking something somewhere else which was hidden in the seeker himself.

The seeker is the sought; the traveler is the goal. You are not to reach somewhere else. You are to reach only to yourself. This can happen in a single moment; even a fraction of a moment is enough. If the seed has to become a flower, then eternity is not enough because it is a flower of God. If you are already the God, then just a look back, just a look within, then it can happen.

Then why Patanjali? Patanjali is needed because of you. You take such a long time to get out of your sleep, you take such a long time to get out of your dreams, you are so much involved in the dreams, you have so much invested in your dreams, that is why time is needed. Time is not needed because the seed has to become a flower; time is needed because you cannot open your eyes. With closed eyes you have become so much accustomed, it has become a deep habit. Not only that: you have completely forgotten that you are living with closed eyes. You have completely forgotten it You think that, "What nonsense you are talking. My eyes are already open." And your eyes are closed.

If I say, "Get out of your dreams," you say, "I am already awake," and this too is a dream. You can dream that you are awake; you can dream that your eyes are open. Then much time will be needed -- not that the flower was not already flowering -- but it was so difficult for you to awake. There are many investments. Those investments have to be understood. The ego is the basic involvement. If you open your eyes, you disappear. Opening the eyes looks like death. It is. So you talk about it, you listen about it, you think about it, but you never open the eyes because if you really open the eyes you also know that you will disappear. Then who will be you? A nobody A nothingness This nothingness is there if you open the eyes; so it is better to believe that the eyes are already open, and you remain somebody.

The ego is the first involvement. The ego can exist only while you are asleep, just like dreams can exist only while you are asleep. The ego can exist only while you are asleep -- metaphysically asleep, existentially asleep. Open the eyes First you disappear; then God appears: this is the problem. And you are afraid that you may disappear, but that is the door, so you listen about it, you think about it, but you go on postponing -- tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow.

That's why Patanjali is needed. Patanjali says no need to open the eyes immediately; there are many steps. You can come out of your sleep in steps, in degrees. Certain things you do today, certain tomorrow, then day after tomorrow, and it is going to take a long time. Patanjali appeals because he gives you time to sleep. He says no need to come out of your sleep right now; just a turning over will do. Then have a little more sleep; then do something else. Then by and by, in degrees...

He is a great persuader. He persuades you out of your sleep. Zen shocks you out of your sleep. That's why a Zen Master can hit you on your head; never a Patanjali. A Zen Master can throw you out of the window; never a Patanjali. Because a Zen Master uses shock treatment -- you can be shocked out of a sleep, so why go on trying and persuading you? Why waste time?

Patanjali brings you by and by, by and by. He brings you out and you are not even aware what he is doing. He is just like a mother. He does just the opposite, but just like the mother. A mother persuades a child into sleep. She may sing a lullaby, let the child feel she is there, no need to be afraid. Repeating the same line again and again, the child feels seduced into sleep. He falls into sleep holding the hand of the mother. No need to be worried. The mother is there and she is singing, and singing is beautiful. And the mother is not saying that, "Go into sleep," because that will disturb. She is simply persuading indirectly. And then by and by she will take her hand out, and she will cover the blanket and move from the room, and the child is fast asleep.

Just the same Patanjali does in the reverse order. By and by he brings you out of your sleep. That's why time is needed; otherwise the flower is already flowering. Look It is already there. Open the eyes and it is there; open the door and he is standing there waiting for you. He has been always standing there.

It depends on you. If you like a shock treatment, then Zen is the path. If you like a very gradual process, then yoga is the path. Choose! In choosing also you are very deceptive. You say to me, "How I can choose?" That too is a trick. Everything is plain. If you need time, choose Patanjali. If you are afraid of shocks, choose Patanjali. But choose! Otherwise non-choosing will become the postponement. Then you say, "It is difficult to choose, and unless I choose how I can move?"

A shock treatment is immediate. It brings you down to the earth immediately. My own methods are shock treatment. They are not gradual. With me you can hope to attain in this life; with Patanjali many lives will be needed. With me you can hope to attain right now also, but you have many things to do before you attain.

You know ego will disappear, you know sex will disappear. There is no possibility of sex, once you attain; it becomes absurd, silly. So you think, "A little more. What is wrong in waiting? Let me enjoy a little more." Anger will not be possible, violence will not be possible, jealousy will not be there; possessiveness, manipulating, they all will disappear.

You suddenly feel, "If all these disappear, then what I will be?" -- because you are nothing but a combination, of all these, a bundle of all these and if all these disappear, then only nothingness is left. That nothingness ll scares you. It looks like an abyss. You would like to close your eyes and dream a little more, just as in the I morning you are awake but you would like to turn the 31 side just for five minutes and have a little dream more it was so beautiful.

One night Mulla Nasruddin woke up his wife and ' told her, "Bring my specs immediately. I was having such a beautiful dream, and more is promised."

And desires go on promising you -- more is always promised -- and they say, "Do this and that, and why be in a hurry when enlightenment is always possible? You can attain any time; there is no hurry. You can postpone it. It is a question of eternity, a concern of eternity; why not enjoy this moment?

You are not enjoying but the mind says, "Why not enjoy this moment?" And you have never enjoyed; because a man without inner understanding cannot enjoy anything. He simply suffers; everything becomes a suffering to him. Love -- a thing like love -- he suffers even that. The most beautiful phenomenon possible to a man asleep is love, but he suffers even through that. Nothing better is possible when you are asleep. Love is the greatest possibility, but even you suffer from that. Because it is not a question of love or something else -- sleep is suffering, so whatsoever happens you will suffer. Sleep turns every dream into a nightmare. It starts beautifully, but something somewhere goes always wrong. In the end you reach to hell.

Every desire leads to hell. They say every road leads to Rome -- I don't know, but of one thing I am certain: every desire leads to hell. In the beginning desire gives you much hope, dreams: that is the trick. That's how you are trapped. If the desire from the very beginning says, "Be alert: I am leading you to hell," you won't follow it. The desire promises you the heaven, and promises you -- "Just a few steps and you will reach it; just come with me" -- allures you, hypnotizes you and promises you many things, and you, being in suffering, think, "What is wrong in trying? Let us try a little this desire also."

That too will lead you to the hell because desire as such is a path to hell. Hence, Buddha says, "Unless you become desireless, you cannot be blissful." Desire is suffering, desire is a dream, and desire exists only when you are asleep. When you are awake and alert, desires cannot befool you. Then you see through; then everything is so clear that you cannot be befooled. How money can befool you and say that you will be very, very happy when there is money? Then look to rich people: they are in hell also -- maybe a rich hell, but it makes no difference. A richer hell is going to be worse than a poor hell. Now they have attained money, and they are simply in a state of constant nervousness.

Mulla Nasruddin accumulated much wealth, and then he entered a hospital, because he couldn't sleep and he was nervous and constantly trembling and afraid -- afraid of nothing in particular. A poor man is afraid of something in particular; a rich man is simply afraid. If you are afraid about something in particular, something can be done. But he is simply afraid. he does not know why, because he has everything; there is no need to be afraid, but he is simply afraid and trembling.

He was entered into the hospital, and for the breakfast few things were brought, and in those few things was a bowl of quivering gelatin. He said, "No. I cannot eat this." The doctor asked, "Why you are so adamant about it?" He said, "I cannot eat anything more nervous than me!"

But a rich man is nervous. What is his nervousness, the fear? Why he is so scared? Because every desire fulfilled, and still the frustration remains. Now he cannot even dream, because all dreams he has passed through; they lead nowhere. He cannot dream and he cannot gather courage to open the eyes also, because there are involvements. He has promised many things in his sleep.

When Buddha disappeared one night from his palace, he wanted to tell his wife that, "I am going." He wanted to touch the child who was just a day before born, because he would not be back again. He went to the very door of the room. He looked at the wife. She was so fast asleep, must have been dreaming; her face was beautiful, smiling, child in her arms. Then he waited for few seconds on the door; then he turned. He wanted to say, but then he became afraid. If he said something, then the wife is bound to cry and weep and create a scene.

And he is afraid of himself also, because if she weeps and cries, then he may become aware of his own promises, that "I will love you forever and ever, and I will be with you forever and ever." And what about this child who is only one day born? And she will, of course, bring the child before me, and she will say, "Look what you have done to me. Then why you gave birth to this child? And now who will be his father? And am I alone responsible for him? And you are escaping like a coward." A,ll these thoughts came to him, because in sleep everybody promises. Everybody goes on giving promises not knowing how he can fulfill them, but in sleep it happens because nobody is conscious what is happening.

Suddenly he became aware that these things will be brought and then the family will gather -- and the father and everybody else -- and he is the only son of the father, and the father is looking at him, and in his sleep he has promised him also. Then he simply escaped: he simply escaped like a thief.

After twelve years, when he came back, the wife asked him the first thing that had come to his mind that night when he was leaving. The wife asked, "Why didn't you tell me? The first thing I would like to ask -- for these twelve years I was waiting for you -- why didn't you tell me? What type of love is this? You simply left me. You are a coward."

And Buddha listened silently. And the wife was silent and he said, "These all thoughts had come to me. I had come just to the door, I had even opened the door. I looked at you; in sleep I had promised many things. But if I am going to be awake, if I am getting out of the sleep, then I cannot keep the promises given in sleep. And if I try to keep the promises, then I cannot awake.

"So you are right. You may think I am a coward; you may think that I escaped from the palace like a thief, not like a warrior, not like a man of courage. But I tell you, exactly opposite is the case, because when I was escaping, to me at that moment, that was the moment of greatest bravery because my whole being was saying, 'This is not good. Don't be a coward.' And if I had stopped, if I had listened to my sleepy being, then there was no possibility for me to awake.

"And now I come to you; now I can fulfill something, because only a man who is enlightened can fulfill. A man who is ignorant, how he can fulfill anything? Now I come to you. That moment if I had stopped I couldn't give you anything, but now I bring a great treasure with me, and now I can give it to you. Don't weep, don't cry; open the eyes and look at me. I am not the same man who had left that night. A totally different being has come to your door. I am not your husband. You may be my wife, because that is your attitude. Look at me -- I am totally a different person. Now I bring treasures for you. I can make you also aware and enlightened."

The wife listened. The same problem always came to everybody. She started thinking about the child. If she becomes a sannyasin and moves with this beggar -- her ex-husband, now he is a beggar -- if she moves... and what will happen to the child? She has not said anything, but Buddha said, "I know what you are thinking, because I have passed that period where promises given in the sleepy state all crowd together and say, 'What are you doing? -- your child...' You are thinking that, 'Let the child become a little more aged, let him be married, then he can take over the palace and the kingdom,' and then you will follow. But remember, there is no future, no tomorrow. Either you follow me right now or you don't follow me."

But the wife... And a feminine mind is more asleep than a male mind. There are reasons for it, because a woman is a greater dreamer, she lives more in hopes and dreams. She has to be a greater sleeper, otherwise it will be difficult for nature to use her as the mother. A woman must be in deep hypnotic state, only then she can carry a child nine months in the womb and suffer, and then give birth and suffer, and then bring up this child and suffer, and then one day this child simply leaves her and goes to another woman... and suffer.

It is such a long suffering, a woman is bound to be a greater sleeper than man. Otherwise, how can you suffer so much? And she always hopes. Then she hopes with another child, then with another child, and her whole life is wasted.

So Buddha said, "I know what you are thinking, and I know you are a greater dreamer than me. But now I have come to cut all the roots of your sleep. Bring the child. Where is my son? Bring him." The feminine mind played a trick again. She brought Rahul, the child who was twelve years of age now, and she said, "This is your father. Look at him -- he has become a beggar -- and ask him what is your heritage, what he can give to you. This is your father; he is a coward! He escaped like a thief not even telling me, and he left a one-day-old child. Ask him your heritage!"

Buddha laughed, and he told Ananda, "Bring my begging bowl." And he gave the begging bowl to Rahul, and he said, "This is my heritage. I make you a beggar. You are initiated. You become a sannyasin." And he said to his wife, "I cut the very root. Now there is no need to dream. You also awake because this was the root. Rahul is already a sannyasin; you also awake. Yashodhara, you also awake, and become a sannyasin."

The moment always comes when you are in the transit period from where sleep turns into awakening. The whole past will hold you back, and past is powerful. Future is powerless for a sleepy man. For a man who is not sleepy, future is powerful; for a man who is fast asleep, past is powerful, because a man who is fast asleep knows only dreams that he had dreamed in the past. He is not aware of any future. Even if he thinks about future, it is nothing but past reflected again; it is just past projected again. Only a man who is aware becomes aware of the future. Then past is nothing.

Keep it in the mind. You may not be able to understand right now, but some day you may understand. For a sleepy man, cause is more powerful than the effect; seed is more powerful than the flower. For a man who is awake, effect is more powerful than the cause, flower is more powerful than the seed. The logic of sleep is: the cause produces the effect, seed produces the flower. The logic of awakening is just the reverse: it is flower who produces the seed; it is effect who produces the cause; it is future who produces the past, not the past that produces the future. But for a sleepy mind, the past, the dead, the gone, is more powerful. It is not...

The yet-to-be is more powerful: the yet-to-be-born is more powerful because life is there. Past has no life. How it can be powerful? Past is already graveyard. Life has already moved from there: that's why it is past. Life has left it, but graveyards are very powerful for you. The yet-to-be, the yet-to-be-born, the fresh, that which is going to happen, for a man of awakening that becomes more powerful. The past cannot hold him back.

The past holds you back. You always think about past commitments; you always linger around the graveyard. You go again and again to visit the graveyard and pay your respects to the dead. Always pay respects to the yet-to-be-born, because life is there.

PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW A SEED CAN FLOWER WITHOUT THE BIT IN BETWEEN.

Yes, it can flower because it is already flowering. It creates the seed, not the seed the flower. It is flower that is going to be, has created the whole seed. But for you to remember is: only an opening is needed. Open the doors; the sun is there waiting for you. Life is not, in fact, a progress in reality. It appears like progress in sleep.

The being is already there -- everything as it is already, perfect, absolute, ecstatic -- nothing can be added, there is no way to improve upon it. Then what is needed? Only one thing, that you become conscious and see it. This can happen in two ways. Either you can be shocked out of your sleep: that is Zen. Or, you can be brought, persuaded, out of your sleep: that is yoga. Choose! Just don't hang in between.

Chapter-4

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

Find the Ever-Present Flower

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