Can you quietly be in the heart, just quietly? Centre yourself. This is a very relaxed state of being. There is a way where you can be aware of everything, be one with space, and then kind of attend in the heart; and if there is a thought, let it come and pass away. Just quietly be. You have the sound of this stream that is flowing by. Everything is there: you have the sounds of vehicles moving, of water flowing, and silence is also there. Every one of these sounds is silence: it is silence that has become the sound. Sound is the manifestation of silence, it is from silence. All your thoughts, feelings, and emotions are expressions of your being – but now compulsive, not in freedom. And there is conceit in them: ‘This is my thought; this is how I feel; this is my space!’ Really, can this space be anybody’s?

This is the small I. The small I is also required for life, as it were: it is like a survival kit, this ego. This is how life has survived so far, through struggle and conflict. But we are seeking that I which lives in harmony, not only within, but without also; an I that lives a life of giving – because it is full within! When we are not full within, then there is conflict within and conflict without.

Then you may have your space, but that space is also in harmony with other personalized spaces. So you would watch all that moves, very impartially, and then at the same time be aware of the one who is watching; just being that, more of that, rather than coming forth in the front again and again – becoming thoughts, feelings, emotions.

Then you are the master. You are your own master and your own disciple, I say.

Silence is free of all expressions: it is free to express, free not to express. All expressions live in silence, are founded in silence, are fulfilled in silence and reach to silence. Life is not denied in silence; it is founded in silence, it is funded by silence – it is silence! Even thought is silence in manifestation. Then in your expressions there would be silence, there would be beauty: it will be complete, it will be total. Now in your expressions there is only noise, conflict, agitation, aggression; then there would be harmony, then there would be symphony.

Then we are thinker, feeler, the passionate one – all that, and yet in freedom. Then we can think, we are capable, qualified to think – because we are free of thinking. Then you are a Master of thought, rather than a slave to thought. You are the being; you are the ground wherein thought grows. So, as the ground, just observe that which flowers in you – thoughts, feelings, emotions. When we watch, can we be a witness to that watching also? There is one who is the watcher, there is watching and there is the witness to the watcher. The Self has many faces – all in One, One in all.

Are we aware of everything now? The sounds outside, the movements within… Can we be aware of both – in freedom? Just be aware, like the space is aware of everything which is within it: everything, the entire creation. It will bring you to a very relaxed state of being. Just be aware: it is a letting go, letting go of all that you hold. There you are – that which always is – your awareness. Then within that, you can see the green pea. You can play with it also; you can eat it, and then bring it out again!

In that silence you would be blessed. And remember, silence is not a denial of life; it is a confirmation – of everything! It is that wherein everything is founded, fulfilled and complete.

We have very little room for silence in our lives, because we have empty spaces – silence is always full – so therefore we fill those empty spaces with activity. Noise it is, reactivity, reactions, ‘nuclear’ reactions, explosions! But when we truly find the silence, then the spaces are filled and not empty. Then you have actions that are like flowers in full bloom, with the fragrance of eternity.

Can there be a garden as we see outside, with many flowers in full bloom and many more in the process of blooming? So also this gathering must be, for we are sitting here in one garden, flowers in bloom, blooming together, not to the exclusion of the other. And yet, some may bloom today and some tomorrow. Then the garden will be full of flowers in bloom.

V: Blooming comes with spring, does it not?

 Here we are talking about Eternal Spring!

Pa: This blooming, is it natural or is there something to do?

It is natural – and we are doing! That too is within nature, natural – through a conscious will, through a self-unfolding, through a self-initiation.

Pa: Who is having that will?

The Self, the very Self that which you are! The Self is will itself; the Self is consciousness itself.

Pa: It takes a lot of willpower to remain in the space of witnessing the witness. If you do not use the willpower you drop out of the space.

Can you just watch it, not out of effort but of a letting go? And yet, when the effort is there can you watch the effort? That watching is being relaxed, even when there is effort. So your intensification can reach to infinity in time, progressively. Can we watch a thought from beginning to end? Where it ends, can we stop there? Another thought may arise – try to get to the origin of that thought: use it like a chain, a link to reach to the original thought, that original space, that ground wherein thought grows like a flower in the garden.

A time will come when there comes this silence, this stop, as it were – not a stop that is suppression, but the thoughts have quietened. Stay there as long as you can. Then if a thought after a while would rise again, do the same. Then you would get hold of that silent space, and also of thought; then you would know how to watch. Be in that silence. There is another dimension… Can we attend in the heart? Just stop ourselves, with all our attention in the heart, heart of the Being. It can be a location, in the heart, centred in the Being, ultimately opening out into infinite space.

Manali

29 August 1992