You always want to be somebody else; you want to imitate the life of
somebody else -- you want to imitate the life of Jesus, you want to
imitate the life of Buddha, you want to imitate the life of Shamkara.
You can't do it, because you don't know what is there behind. You will
end up changing your robes, from rose to saffron, saffron to yellow, or
from yellow to rose, depending upon your particular fancy. How can
you ask for a thing which you do not know? How can you search for a
thing which you do not know? That is my question. So, search has no
meaning at all. Only when the search comes to an end, what there is
will express itself, in its own way.
How can you run away from this world? Because you are that world.
Mind is a Myth
As long as you think you have something to renounce, you are lost. Not
to think of money and the necessities of life is an illness. It is a
perversion to deny yourself the basic needs of life. You think that
through a self-imposed asceticism you will increase your awareness
and then be able to use that awareness to be happy. No chance. You
will be peaceful when all your ideas about awareness are dropped and
you begin to function like a computer. You must be a machine, function
automatically in this world, never questioning your actions before,
during, or after they occur.
You can't come into your own being until you are free from the whole
thing surrounding the concept of "self".
I renounce the only thing worth renouncing -- the idea that there is
renunciation at all. There is nothing to renounce.
You are blind. You see nothing. When you actually do see and perceive
for the first time that there is no self to realize, no psyche to purify, no
soul to liberate, it will come as a tremendous shock to that instrument.
You have invested everything in that--the soul, mind, psyche, whatever
you wish to call it--and suddenly it is exploded as a myth. It is difficult
for you to look at reality, at your actual situation. One look does the
trick; you are finished.
Wanting has to go. Wanting to be free from something that is not there
is what you call "sorrow". Wanting to be free from sorrow is sorrow.
There is no other sorrow.
You are using effort to be in an effortless state. How the hell can you
use effort to be in an effortless state? You think that you can live an
effortless life through volition, struggle, and effort. Unfortunately, that
is all you can do. Effort is all you know. The "you", and everything it
has achieved, has been a result of effort. Effortlessness through effort
is like peace through war. How can you have peace through war?