one friend was telling me that he was sitting with Mulla Nasruddin and they were talking about many things and enjoying, and suddenly Mulla Nasruddin's dog came in and he said, "Has anybody seen today's newspaper?" So the friend was simply shocked, he couldn't believe it!
Mulla gave the dog the newspaper, and when the dog left then this friend collected his wits again and said, "It is a miracle -- this dog reads?"
Mulla said, "Don't be fooled by him -- he simply looks at the comics."

 

Mulla Nasruddin's doctor sent him a bill. It was too much. His child was ill: Nasruddin's small son was ill. He phoned to the doctor that "This is too much." The doctor said, "But I had to come nine times to see your son, so that has to be accounted for." Nasruddin said, "And don't forget that my son infected the whole village, and you have been earning a lot. In fact you should pay me something."

 

An expedition to Mars came to end. As the Russian crew scrambled aboard, one of the crew members turned out to be missing. After a while the missing man appeared running from behind a tree, followed by a young and pretty Martian woman.
"Why are you late?" the commander demanded.
"You see, I made acquaintance with this lady, and she told me how they make children here on Mars. It turned out they just push a button on a computer, and if they do it once, they get a boy, and if twice, then it's a girl. Then she asked me how we do it on the Earth. I showed her, and now she is running after me and shouting, "Please, sell me your computer."

 

 

 

A French magazine announced a competition for a best short story entitled "My Morning." The main requirement was for the story to be really very short. The first prize was given for the following story, "I wake up early in the morning, have my breakfast, and then go home."

 

Hymie and Becky are celebrating their 20th wedding Anniversery by going to see a movie, It is hot passionate film, and it arouses the animal instinct in Becky. When they get home that night, she snuggles up close to Hymie, but the ignores her. “Why is it, “cries Becky, “that you never make love to me like that hero in the movie?” “Don’t be stupid, “Snaps Hymie, “Do you know how much they pay those guys for doing it?”

 

With Jokes, It is only the EGO which ever gets hurt!!

May your fire burn on for eternity and may your laughter echo in the silence.

Satchidanand and Devi at the Taj Mahal, India

SEPTEMBER IN SPAIN

Stay in the sleepy seaside town of L'Escala on the Costa Brava in a choice of many Hotels and even the campsite. Enjoy the beautiful town and the wonderful Spanish and Itallian cuisine, while you learn most the advanced meditation techniques in the world. Hey it's soon summer in Spain. There are cheaper accommodation options available or stay with us at the SOL centre.

Please visit https://www.energyenhancement.org/EnergyEnhancementCourse.htm for more information. Don't forget India in 2006.

THE FLUTE ON GODS LIPS - THE BEATITUDES OF JESUS

Books like the Bible are not written by ordinary people, they are what George Gurdjieff used to call 'objective art'. The Bible is one of the representative objective works of art in the world. It is not like a book written by a Shakespeare or a Kalidas. These people create subjective art. They write something, they write beautifully, they have the aesthetic sense, but they are as unconscious as any other human being. They have a nose for beauty, but they are as sleepy as anybody else. Their works of art are subjective: they express themselves.

But books like the Vedas, the Koran, the Bible, the Upanishads—they are not written by people who are asleep, they are not written as beautiful poetry or prose; they are written by people who know what truth is, who have awakened themselves to truth. Then whatsoever they write is almost like a map. You have to decipher it, you have to decode it, otherwise you will go on missing it.

Why fourteen generations? No scholar has asked it, no biblical scholar has asked it. Why only fourteen? Why not fifteen? Why not thirteen?

This I am giving you as an example of objective art. It is fourteen for a certain reason. It has to be decoded.

The spirit matures just like the body matures. The body matures in fourteen years—it becomes sexually mature, it can reproduce sexually. At fourteen years the body is ripe as far as sexual reproduction is concerned: the boy can become a father, the girl can become a mother; they can reproduce replicas of themselves.

In exactly the same way the spirit also matures. Just as it takes fourteen years for the body to mature sexually, it takes fourteen generations for the spirit to mature spiritually. That is the meaning of fourteen generations: from Abraham to David, from David to the exile in Babylon, and from the exile in Babylon to Jesus. And when the spirit has come to its maturity, when the fruit is ripe, it falls from the tree. Unripe, it clings to the tree. Unripe, it has to cling—if unripe it falls, then it will never become sweet; it will remain bitter, sour. It will be useless. To ripen, it needs to cling. Clinging simply shows that 'I am not yet ready to leave you'. Whenever somebody is ripe, that very ripeness becomes freedom, then clinging disappears.

Jesus disappears into God, Jesus disappears from this tree of life: the fruit is ripe. That's what we in the East say that whenever a man has become perfect—perfect in the sense that he has grown all that he could grow on this earth, in this situation—then he will not return again. Then he crosses to the beyond: he passes beyond the point of no return. Then he never comes back. We call him a Buddha, or a Jain.

Jews used to call that state 'Christ': one who has gone beyond and will be here only for a time. The fruit is ripe and waiting to drop any moment—any small breeze and the fruit will be gone forever, and it will disappear into existence. Hence, the tree stops at Jesus: he remains unmarried, he does not reproduce. That celibacy has nothing to do with ordinary, repressed celibacy. He is not against love, he is not against sex, he is not a puritan, he is not a moralist.

I was reading the other night what Dostoevsky has said: that moralists are always very miserable people. That seems to be an absolutely true observation. Moralists are miserable people. In fact, only miserable people become moralists. They are so miserable that they would like to make everybody else miserable also. And the best way to make people feel miserable is to make them feel guilty.

Jesus is not a moralist. His brahmacharya, his celibacy has a totally different quality to it. It simply says that he is no more interested in reproducing on the physical plane, he is interested in reproducing on the spiritual plane. He does not give birth to children, he gives birth to disciples. He creates more abodes in the world for God to descend into. He does not create bodies, he creates souls. And he is a miracle Master: he created many enlightened people on the earth—he had that magic touch. And he created them Out of nobodies.

Buddha created many enlightened people, but those were very very grown-up souls. A Sariputta was already a very grown-up soul; the fruit was ripe. My own feeling is that even if Buddha had not come into the life of Sariputta, he would have become enlightened sooner or later; Buddha was not very essential. He helped, he speeded up things, but was not very essential. If Sariputta had not met him, maybe in one life or two lives he would have come around the corner by himself; he was already coming, he was just on the verge. So was Mahakashyap, so was Moggalyayan, and so were Buddha's other disciples.

But Jesus really did miracles. He touched ordinary stones and transformed them into diamonds. He moved among very ordinary people. A fisherman throwing his net... and Jesus comes, stands behind him, puts his hand on his shoulder and says 'Look in my eyes. How long are you going to catch fish? I can make you a catcher of men. Look into my eyes.' And the poor, ordinary fisherman—uneducated, unsophisticated, uncultured; has never heard about anything, may not have ever been interested in spiritual growth; was contented with catching fish and selling them, and was happy in his day-to-day life—looks into the eyes of Jesus, throws his net and follows him. And that fisherman becomes an enlightened person. Or a farmer, or a tax—collector, or even a prostitute, Mary Magdalene...

Jesus transforms ordinary metal into gold. He is really the philosopher's stone. His touch is magical: wherever he touches, suddenly the spirit arises.

Buddha enlightened many people, but those people were already on the path. Buddha moved with sophisticated people: learned, virtuous, special. Jesus moved with very ordinary people: down-trodden, oppressed, poor. This was one of the crimes against him put by the priests: that he moves with gamblers, with drunkards, with prostitutes. He stays with prostitutes, he stays with anybody, he eats with anybody. He is a fallen man. And on the surface, to all appearances; he looked like a fallen man. But he was falling only with those people to help them rise; he was going to the lowest to turn them into the highest. And there is a reason.

The lowest may be unsophisticated, uncultured, but he has a purity of heart; he has more love in him. Now you will be able to understand the difference. Buddha's path is of intelligence. He cannot go to a fisherman and say 'Come to me and I will make you enlightened.' That is not possible for him. His path is that of awareness, intelligence, understanding. The fisherman will not even understand his language; it is too much above him, it is beyond his grasp.

The path of Jesus is the path of love, and the poor people have more love than the rich. Maybe that is why they are poor, because when you have much love you cannot accumulate much money—they don't go together. When you have much love you share. A rich man cannot be a loving man because love will always be dangerous to his riches. If he loves people then he will have to share. Therefore he becomes miserly and will not spend on anything, even if it is necessary to his wellbeing. We say if the EE course is cheap it is not worth anything. If the EE course is expensive then they are thieves! Thus he refuses to spend, and lives rich in money but with an impoverished Heart.

I used to live in a family for seven years. The man was very rich, and he was interested in my ideas—that's why he invited me to stay with him. He had made all the arrangements for me in a beautiful way. He had provided a big bungalow and a big garden. And just to be with me he came to live with me with his family. But I was surprised: I had never seen him talking to his wife or to his children. When we had become more and more accustomed to each other, one day I asked him 'I never see you sitting with your wife or with your children. I never see you talking to anybody in your family. What is the matter?'

He said 'If I talk to my wife, immediately she starts demanding. "There is a beautiful ornament in the shop", or "Better sarees have come", or this and that. Immediately she jumps on my pocket. If I talk to my children, their hands start groping into my pocket. I have learnt that it is better to keep quiet, and remain stiff and have a hard face. It protects you. Then nobody asks for anything.'

And I understood his idea. That is the idea of all the rich people in the world. The person who becomes too obsessed with money is really obsessed with the money because he cannot love. Money becomes a substitute love. He starts hoarding money because he thinks there is no other thing to be happy about. 'Hoard money, then at least you have the money and you can purchase everything.' He even believes that he can purchase love with his money.

He can purchase sex but not love. But then many people think that sex is love. He can purchase bodies, but he cannot have any intimacy with a person. Many people think that to have the body of the other, to possess the body of the other is enough. 'What more is needed? Why bother about any thing more?' Many people are interested only in casual sex, not in intimacy, not in going into depth, not moving into a deep dialogue. They are afraid of the deep dialogue because then there is commitment, and commitment brings responsibility. Then they have to be very sensitive, alive. 'Who bothers? Just casual sex is good, and casual sex can be purchased, it is available in the market—place.' The man who is after money thinks that all can be purchased through the money. 'So why bother about anything else? You can have the most beautiful woman, you can have the most beautiful house, you can have this and that...' He thinks that this is going to satisfy him. This never satisfies. Only love satisfies, no substitute can ever satisfy. A substitute is a substitute; it is pseudo.

Poor people have more love, because poor people have not grown their head so their whole energy revolves around the heart. These are the two centres: either the energy moves into the heart or the energy moves into the head. It is very rare to find a balanced being whose energy moves into both or who is capable of moving energy wherever it is needed— diverting it. When he wants to have intelligence, he moves, channelises his energy into the head. When he wants to love, he channelises his energy—his whole energy—into his heart. This is the perfect man.

But ordinarily people are not so perfect. Either they are hung-up in the head or they are available to the heart.

Jesus' path is of love, hence he worked miracles in poor people, in ordinary people whose intelligence was not yet very developed. But that opportunity could be used: their energy was raw and yet in the heart. They were more like children.

Just as the body matures in fourteen years, so the spirit matures in fourteen generations; that is the minimum limit. It depends on you. It may not grow even in one hundred and forty generations—you can be very lazy or you can remain unaware. Then you can go on and on for millions of lives and it may not grow. But fourteen generations is a natural time limit; that much is needed.

The spirit is not a seasonal flower: it is like a great cedar of Lebanon. It takes time—fourteen generations for the tree to grow, to reach to the sky. It is not a seasonal flower that comes within weeks but is gone within weeks too. The spirit means the eternal; the eternal needs time, patience. These fourteen generations are just a symbolic number.

Jesus cannot be born before fourteen generations. That state is possible only after a time—after a few steps have been crossed. And that is so in other dimensions too.

For example, the caveman could not have given us the Platonic Dialogues or the symphonies of Beethoven or the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci or the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore. It was not possible for the caveman to give these things. The caveman could not have given us an Albert Einstein either, or a Dostoevsky or a Picasso. The caveman could not have given us a Buddha or a Lao Tzu or a Jesus. It needs time, and it needs preparation, and it needs a certain milieu in which to grow, only then is Jesus possible.

For Jesus to exist many things are needed; he can only exist in those circumstances. For Jesus to say what he wants to say a certain kind of person is needed who can understand it.

What I am saying to you can only be said now. It can only be said now, not before; it was not possible before. And what I will be saying to you tomorrow will only be possible tomorrow, not today. You have to become receptive, you have to grow. If you are not in a certain state to receive it, it cannot be uttered.

Jesus is the culmination of the whole Jewish consciousness, and the strange thing is that the Jews rejected him. And that has always been happening. Buddha was the culmination of Hindu consciousness, and the Hindus rejected him. And Socrates was the culmination of the Greek consciousness, and the Greeks killed him. This is very strange, but this has always been happening. Why can we not accept our own culmination? What goes wrong? Why could the Jews not accept Jesus? They had been waiting for Jesus, they had been waiting for the Messiah, for Christ to come. They are still waiting, and the Messiah has already come and gone too. They helped him to go, and they are still waiting for him.

What went wrong? What always goes wrong? Jesus is the culmination of the Jewish consciousness. All the prophets of the Jews that had preceded Jesus were preparing the ground for him to come. That's what John the Baptist was saying to the people. 'I am nothing compared to the person for whom I am preparing the way. I am just a sweeper. I am simply cleaning the path for him to come. The one higher than me is going to come.' John the Baptist and the other prophets were simply preparing the way for this ultimate culmination, for this peak, this Everest. And then the Everest comes, and something goes wrong. What goes wrong? The other peaks start feeling small.

They have all helped. Just think: Everest cannot stand alone if the other peaks of the Himalayas disappear; Everest cannot stand alone. It needs the whole Himalaya to support it, to be there. It cannot rise so high alone—no peak can rise so high alone. It will need the support of thousands of other peaks—smaller, bigger, and all kinds. But once the peak has come up, the other peaks start feeling hurt. Their egos ache; it is very painful. And they have supported it—this is the paradox—they have supported the happening of this peak! It could not have happened without them, and now that it has happened, they are feeling very low, depressed. If all the peaks of the Himalayas were to conspire against Everest, it would be very logical. If they crucified Everest, it would be very logical.

That's what happened to Jesus. Once he was there, the Jews, the rabbis, the religious leaders, the priests started feeling very offended. His very presence was offensive; not that he offended anybody, not that he hurt anybody. How could he hurt ?—but his very presence, that Everest-like height, that plenitude, that height—and everybody looked low and small.

Now Everest cannot do anything about it. It is not arrogant, it is not egoistic, but it is high—that is certainly so. And every other peak is hurt, feels pained, wants to take revenge. Hence Jesus was crucified. So was Buddha rejected— thrown out of this country completely. He has become a foreigner in his own land.

And this has been so down the ages, this is so still. And it seems this is going to remain so forever because man is, after all, man. In his sleep, in his egoistic attitudes, this is how he functions.

Jesus' Beatitudes are God's songs through him. Remember, he is just a medium. He is not the author of these Gospels, he is just the messenger. He is simply giving you that which he is receiving.

Now, let us go into these Beatitudes.

And seeing the multitudes,

he went up into a mountain:

and when he was set, his disciples came unto him...

more....
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