Question 4

YOU SAY, "DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE." HOW CAN I KEEP FROM DOING THAT UNLESS I BRING THE MIND IN -- TO EVALUATE, COMPARE, AND JUDGE? AND THEN I HAVE TO SAY NO.

When I say don't make a mistake twice, I am not saying to evaluate, to judge, to compare. I am saying to see -- when you are making a mistake see it so totally that you see that it is a mistake. In that very seeing it is dropped; you will never be able to repeat it.

For example, if you put your hand in the fire and it is burned. Next time when you will be near fire, will you do an Aristotelean syllogism, that this too is a fire, all fires bum, therefore I have not to put my hand in it? Are you going to compare with the past eXperienCe? Are you going to evaluate? If you are doing that, then you cannot avoid committing the mistake again because then the mind will say, "Maybe this fire is different. And who knows, the fire may have changed its way of life. It may not behave the same this time. Maybe it was angry that time, and this time it is not angry. And who knows?"

The mind who evaluates, judges, compares, is already showing that it has not understood the point. Otherwise what is the need of evaluation, Comparison? If you have seen a fact, the very fact is enough. You will avoid the fire.

So when you are passing through experiences, remain alert, don't be deaf and blind. I am not saying to look back. I am saying just look right now, wherever you are, and if it is a mistake, it will be dropped on its own accord. Knowing a mistake as a mistake, it drops. If it is not dropping on its own, that simply shows you have not yet known totally that it is a mistake. Somewhere or other the illusion continues that it is not.

People come and say to me, "We know anger is bad, and we know it is poisonous, and we know it is destructive to ourselves, but what to do? We go on being angry." What are they saying? They are saying that they have heard people say that anger is bad, they have read in the scriptures that anger is poisonous; but they have not known themselves. Otherwise finished.

Socrates has said, "Knowledge is virtue" A great dictum. He says to know is to be. Once you have known this is a wall and not a door, you are not going to knock your head against it again and again. Once you have known it is a wall, then you search for the door. Once you have found the door, you always pass through the door. It is not a question of again and again thinking about the past experiences, comparing, deciding, concluding.

I have heard:

A deaf priest was hearing confessions, when a man came into the box, dropped onto his knees and said, "Oh, Father, I have done a terrible thing. I have murdered my mother."

"What?" said the old priest, cupping his hand to his ear.

"I have murdered my mother!" said the penitent, rather louder.

"What is that? Speak up," ordered the man of God.

"I have murdered my mother!!!" roared the poor distraught sinner.

"Ah," said the priest, "how many times?"

A deaf person is a deaf person, a blind person is a blind person. If you don't listen to experience, if you are deaf to your experience, then you will go on repeating the same, again and again and again. In fact to say that you are repeating is not right: you are doing it again, as a new thing -- because the last time you missed. It is not a repetition.

This is my understanding: that no mistake is ever repeated once you have understood it as a mistake. If you repeat it, it simply shows you are doing it fresh, because the past has not entered in your consciousness yet. You are doing it for the first time again; but it is not a repetition. If you have understood it, then it cannot be repeated. Understanding is alchemical; it transforms you.

So I am not telling you to become very clever, calculating, and always thinking what is good and what is bad and what to do and what not to do, what is moral, what is immoral -- I am not saying that. I am simply saying to you: from wherever you are passing, pass with full alertness, so nothing that is wrong is repeated again.

This is the beauty of awareness: that which is right is enhanced through it; that that which is wrong is destroyed through it. Awareness functions as life energy to good and as death energy to bad. Awareness functions as a blessing to good and as a curse to bad. If you ask me  my definition of sin, this is my definition: that which can be done with full awareness is not sin; that which cannot be done with full awareness is sin. Or that which can only be done in unawareness is sin, and that which can only be done in awareness is virtue. So forget about sin and virtue. Remember awareness, that's all.

The whole point of evolution is between awareness, unawareness. Become more aware and less unaware. Bring your energy to be more aflame with awareness, that's all.