The first question:
Question 1
I HAVE TAKEN LATELY TO DAYDREAMING ABOUT ENLIGHTENMENT -- EVEN MORE DELICIOUS THAN LOVE AND FAME.
HAVE YOU ANY COMMENT TO MAKE ABOUT DAYDREAMING?

THE QUESTION IS FROM PREM PANKAJA. Daydreaming is perfectly okay as far as love and fame are concerned -- they are part of a dream world. You can dream as much as you like. Love is a dream, so is fame; they are not against dreaming. In fact, when dreaming stops, they disappear. They exist in the same dimension, the dimension of dream.
But you cannot dream about Enlightenment. Enlightenment is possible only when dreaming disappears. Enlightenment is absence of dreaming -- day or night, that doesn't matter. Enlightenment means now your consciousness is fully aware. In an aware consciousness dreaming cannot exist. Dreaming is like darkness. It exists when the light is not there. When the light is there, darkness simply cannot exist.
Dreaming exists because life is dark, dim, dismal. Dreaming exists as a substitute -- because we don't have real joy, hence we dream; because we don't really have anything in life, hence we dream; otherwise, how will we be able to tolerate the emptiness that we are? how will we be able to tolerate our existence? It will be absolutely unbearable. Dreams make it bearable. Dreams help us. They say to us, "Wait. Today things are not going right? Don't be worried: tomorrow everything will be put right. Everything HAS to be right. We will try -- maybe we have not tried enough yet. Maybe we have not worked in the right direction. Maybe fate was not with us, God was against us, but it cannot be for ever." And God is compassionate, kind; all the religions of the world say God is very kind, very compassionate. It is a hope!
Mohammedans continuously repeat: God is Rahim, Rehman  -- compassionate, kind. Why? For what do they repeat again and again? Each time they utter the word'God' they will repeat'the compassionate, the kind'. Why? If He is not kind then where will our hope and dreaming exist. He HAS to be kind for our dreams to exist, because THERE exists our hope: in His kindness, in His compassion. Tomorrow things will be okay; tomorrow they are going to be okay.
Daydreaming is good as far as love and fame are concerned, as far as outgoing energies are concerned -- because outgoing, we are going in a dream. The world is a dream phenomenon; that is what Hindus mean when they call it MAYA illusion. It is made of the same stuff dreams are made of. It is a daydream seen with open eyes.
But Enlightenment is a totally different plane of being. Dreams don't exist there. And if you continue to dream, Enlightenment will not be possible.
Just the other day I was reading a beautiful anecdote:

A parson had a parrot, but despite all efforts to try and teach it to speak the bird remained dumb. The parson mentioned this one day to an elderly lady parishioner who visited him. She was interested and said, "I also have a parrot which does not speak. It might be a good idea to put the two birds together and see what happens."
Well, this they did, the parrots being put in a large cage while the parson and his lady parishioner withdrew out of sight but not out of hearing. At first all was quiet, then came some fluttering and the old lady's parrot was heard to exclaim, "What about a spot of love, deary?" to which the parson's parrot replied, "That's what I have been silently praying and waiting for for years today my dream is fulfilled. I can speak today."

If you are waiting and praying and dreaming for love and fame, it will happen one day! It is not a difficult phenomenon. One just needs stubbornness... and it happens. One just needs to go on and on and on... it is bound to happen, because it is YOUR dream. You will find some place or other where you can project it and you can see it, almost as if it has become a reality.
When you fall in love with a woman or a man, what are you doing exactly? You were carrying a dream inside you; now suddenly the woman functions as a screen -- you project your dream on her. You start feeling, "My dream is fulfilled." The woman projects her dream on you; you function as a screen, and she feels her dream is fulfilled. If you go on dreaming, some day or other you will find a screen, somebody will become a screen, and your dream will be fulfilled.
But Enlightenment is not a dream. It is a dropping of all dreams. So please don't dream about Enlightenment. Love is possible through dreaming in fact, it is possible only through dreaming. Fame is possible through dreaming -- in fact, it is only possible through dreaming, it happens ONLY to dreamers. But Enlightenment is not possible through dreaming -- the very existence of dreaming will make it impossible.
Dream for it and you will miss. Wait for it and you will miss. Hope for it and you will miss. Then what are you supposed to do? What you are supposed to do is to understand the mechanism of dreaming. You can leave Enlightenment aside; it is none of your business. You just look deep into the faculty of dreaming, understand how dreaming functions. That very understanding will bring a clarity. In that clarity dreaming stops, disappears.
When dreaming is not, Enlightenment is.
You forget about Enlightenment! You are not to even think about it -- how can you think about it? And whatsoever you think is going to be wrong. How can you hope for it? -- ALL hopes about it are going to be wrong. How can you desire it? It cannot be desired. Then WHAT are we supposed to do?
Try to understand desiring. Try to understand hoping. Try to understand dreaming. That's what is needed. You simply try to understand how your mind has been functioning up to now. Seeing into the functioning of the mind, mind disappears. Just a good look into the inner mechanism of the mind, and suddenly it comes to a halt. In that halt, there is Enlightenment. In that halt, there is a taste of a totally new dimension of existence.
Dreaming is one dimension: existence is another dimension. Existence is: dreaming is simply a belief.