Yoga The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 7 Discourses on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Chapter #4, Be a seed Question 6

Question 6

WHEN YOU TALK OF TAKING THE JUMP, I FEEL THAT I WANT TO TAKE THE JUMP, BUT I ALSO FEEL THAT I AM NOT AT THE EDGE FROM WHICH THE JUMP IS TAKEN.

I SEE YOU SHAKING US BUT CANNOT FEEL IT.

HOW DO I COME TO THE EDGE?

HOW CAN I LET YOU TEACH ME?

Everybody is always on the edge because each moment, if you dare, the jump is possible. Each moment gives you the edge; and when you ask how to come to the edge, you are being clever. Don't try to be clever. Your question is a trick so you can console yourself that you are not a coward because the edge is not there, so "from where to take the jump?" So first the edge has to be found -- and it will never be found, because it is right in front of you. Wherever you are standing, you are always at the sharp edge from where you can take the jump. And you ask a very clever question: that first teach me how to find the edge.

Just look in front of you. Just look. Wherever you are that doesn't matter.

And you say, "I see you shaking us but I cannot feel it." The problem is not that you are asleep. If you are asleep, it is easy to shake you up out of your sleep. You are pretending that you are asleep; then it becomes impossible. You can see that I am shaking, but nothing is happening. How can you see if you are asleep?

Let me tell you one anecdote. It happened one summer afternoon. The father had promised the children to go for a walk, and he didn't want it. For months he was waiting for this day to rest, so he played, he pretended, that he is fast asleep:

The rather played possum while his youngsters tried their best to rouse him from a Sunday-afternoon nap to take them for a promised walk, but in vain. They did all sorts of things to wake him. They shook him, they shouted at him, but to no avail. All efforts failed. They even became afraid, what has happened. And the father was pretending to be asleep. Finally, his four-year-old daughter pried open one of his eyelids, peered carefully, then reported, "He is still in there."

And I know you are also in there.

And you also know that you are pretending.

It is up to you. You can prolong the game as far as you like, because it is at your cost. I am not worried by it. If you want to pretend, okay. Perfectly okay. Do it. But I can see... I can see all of you pretending to be asleep -- afraid of getting up, afraid of realizing your being, afraid to move.

Just see the truth of it. Don't ask about ways how you can find the edge. You are standing on it.

Don't try to be clever, because in the inner world to he clever is to be stupid. In the inner world to be stupid is to be clever. In the inner world, those who are ignorant achieve faster than those who are knowledgeable. In the inner world, those who are innocent -- and ignorance is innocence.... Ignorance is beautiful; ignorance is tremendously beautiful and innocent.

Just realize what I am saying! I know you are listening. I can peer into your eyes: I can open your eyelids. I have been doing so every day, and I can see you are still in there. You are not dead, you are not asleep. You are pretending that you are asleep.

And whenever -- it is up to you -- whenever you decide not to pretend. I am there to help you. I cannot push you against yourself. That is not allowed. God does not allow it, because it gives you total freedom; and total freedom includes everything -- to go astray, to fall asleep, to commit sin, to deny God, to commit suicide, to destroy yourself. Total freedom includes all. And God loves freedom, because God is freedom.

Chapter-4

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

Be a seed

Sixth Question