Yoga The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 5 Discourses on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Chapter #4, Because you are Buddhas Question 4

Question 4

YOU SAID THAT YOU "SPEAK LAO TZU AND YOU SPEAK "ABOUT" PATANJALI. DOES THIS DEPEND ON YOU, OR ON US, OR WHAT?

If I were alone, you were not there, I would never speak on Patanjali; because that would be absolutely absurd. If only you were there and I were not, then I would continuously speak on Patanjali; because then it would not be possible to speak on Lao Tzu. But because you are there and I am here it is a fifty-fifty case -- on condition that if you hear me on Lao Tzu I will talk on Patanjali. You have to hear me on Lao Tzu, then I will talk on Patanjali; and because you want to hear me on Patanjali. you will have to hear me on Lao Tzu also.

Your whole mind would like to think in gradual steps. That what I mean when I say Patanjali. I'm not saying anything about Patanjali -- don't misunderstand. Patanjali means that you would like to grow gradually, slowly. step by step: that means you would like to postpone, prepare. Patanjali means postponement, preparation. Remember the "p's" -- Patanjali and postponement, preparation. With Patanjali time is possible, tomorrow is possible, future is possible. He is not saying to you, "Just now, right now, jump." He is very, very logical, scientific, gradual -- does not talk nonsense; he talks sense. You can understand him easily; he starts from where you are.

Lao Tzu is simply absurd: looks more like a poet and less like a scientific mind; looks more like you can delight in him, but you cannot do anything with whatsoever he is saying. How can you do it? The distance is so vast.

I talk to you on Patanjali so that you become, by and by, aware, alert; and I go on talking on Lao Tzu also: that if you are really understanding Patanjali you will become more and more prepared. Patanjali prepares; again remember the "p's." Patanjali prepares, he is a preparation, but if you go on listening to Patanjali you may go on preparing and preparing and preparing, and the moment never comes when you jump. It is like a man who always prepares, consults maps and guides, and never goes on a journey. In fact, that becomes his whole business, the whole hobby. He thinks about going, he purchases books about the Himalayas -- maps, guides, pictorial books -- he goes to see films, he talks to people who have been to the Himalayas and he prepares -- he purchases clothes and anything that may be required for the journey -- but he always prepares and then dies. Listening to Patanjali that danger is there: you may get addicted with preparation.

There are many people -- "many" is not good, almost all -- who are addicted to preparation. They earn money with the idea that some day they are going to enjoy; and they never enjoy. By and by they forget about enjoyment and they become so addicted to earning money that money becomes the goal. Money is a means. And in the beginning they also had the idea that when the money is there they will enjoy -- they will do whatsoever they always wanted to do and could not do because the money was not there; when the money is there they are going to live really. But by the time money is there: now they are disciplined to earn and they have forgotten how to spend; then money becomes the goal. Then they go on earning, earning, and they die.

Patanjali can become an addiction -- then you prepare, then you go on earning money, methods, but you are never ready to dance and enjoy. That's why I go on talking about Lao Tzu, so that whenever you feel that now you are ready, suddenly Lao Tzu hits deep in the heart and you take the jump.

When I talk on Lao Tzu I say I "talk Lao Tzu,' because from where he is talking, I am standing there. Whatsoever he says I would like to have said myself. I have never come across a single point where I can say I disagree with him. I agree totally. With Patanjali I agree conditionally, relatively, not absolutely, because Patanjali is a means and Lao Tzu is the goal.

If you can drop the means and right now take the jump, beautiful. If you cannot, then prepare a little. That preparation is not preparing you to take the jump; that preparation only prepares you to get courage. The jump is possible right now, but you don't have the courage. If you have the courage: right now, no need -- you can drop Patanjali completely. Patanjali his to be dropped someday -- the journey has to be dropped when the goal is achieved; the means have to be dropped when you have reached the end -- but you can never drop Lao Tzu; that is the very goal. So it is a fifty-fifty arrangement.

You will be surprised that sometimes you also like Lao Tzu very much, but liking is not the question. You can look at the stars in the night, and you like them, but what to do? How to reach? They are so far away.... One has to start from where one is. Patanjali is useful. Lao Tzu is absolutely useless. Use Patanjali so that someday you can use the useless Lao Tzu also; that is a luxury, a let-go. Yes, Lao Tzu is a luxury, a let-go. Remember the "I's" -- he is a luxury, a let-go. If you can afford, beautiful. If you cannot afford, it simply creates a desire and a frustration and nothing else: a desire, of how things would be if you could take the jump. A tremendous desire arises. You feel him so near in your desire, but you cannot take the jump because the courage is not there; and, suddenly, he is so far away, like a star. Frustration falls on you.

Patanjali-and-Lao Tzu is a deep balance between means and ends, between the way and the goal.

Chapter-4

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

Because you are Buddhas

Fourth Question