And where to all these highways go Now that we are free? Why are the armies marching still That were coming home to me? O lady with your legs so fine O stranger at your wheel You are locked into your suffering And your pleasures are the seal
seeker of truth follow no path all paths lead where truth is here
All paths are the same: they lead nowhere . . . They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths but I am not anywhere. My benefactor’s question has meaning now. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
The flame started first by amazement over subject matter, that flame which only a great artist can have — not the emotional pleasure of the layman — but the intuitive understanding and recognition relating obvious reality to the esoteric, must then be confined to a form within which it can burn with a focused intensity: otherwise it flares, smokes and is lost like in an open bonfire.
When there is no desire to satisfy yourself, there is no aggression or speed . . . Because there is no rush to achieve, you can afford to relax. Because you can afford to relax, you can afford to keep company with yourself, you can afford to make love with yourself, to be friends with yourself.
In constantly seeking to actualize your ideal, you will have no time for composure. But if you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from nothing . . . then at that moment you will have perfect composure.
That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible conclusions.
You try being alone, without any form of distraction, and you will see how quickly you want to get away from yourself and forget what you are. That is why this enormous structure of professional amusement, of automated distraction, is so prominent a part of what we call civilization. If you observe you will see that people the world over are becoming more and more distracted, increasingly sophisticated and worldly. The multiplication of pleasures, the innumberable books that are being published, the newspaper pages filled with sporting events — surely, all these indicate that we constantly want to be amused. Because we are inwardly empty, dull, mediocre, we use our relationships and our social reforms as a means of escaping from ourselves. I wonder if you have noticed how lonely most people are? And to escape from loneliness we run to temples, churches or mosques, we dress up and attend social functions, we watch television, listen to the radio, read, and so on. . . . If you inquire a little into boredom you will find that the cause of it is loneliness. It is in order to escape from loneliness that we want to be together, we want to be entertained, to have distractions of every kind: gurus, religious ceremonies, prayers, or the latest novel. Being inwardly lonely we become mere spectators in life; and we can be the players only when we understand loneliness and go beyond it.
. . . because beyond it lies the real treasure.
