The Possibility

Let us take a little time to consider and inquire what is basically required so that the potential in us can be realized. Every human being has somewhere inside an understanding, a feeling, a sensing of the truth that we can be joyous; that we can live a life where there is authentic love; that we can live a life where there is real peacefulness.

Of course when we look at the reality of the world, it looks like a far away dream. It looks like it is just some Utopia somewhere, and that the day to day life process is going more and more toward confusion and complexity rather than toward peacefulness, joyousness, love and harmony.

But the beautiful thing is that even if the whole world appears to be chaotic, or going into some kind of darkness, when there is a clarity inside of us, when there is an understanding of what we are, then we are able to attain a different kind of experience inside. We are able to see not only what is apparent, but also the deeper essence which is behind it.

You may have heard within a different context the expression Òtranscendence.Ó Transcendence is referring to the recognition of a dimension beyond the so- called ÒgoodÓ and the so-called Òbad;Ó beyond the so-called ÒrightÓ and the so-called Òwrong;Ó beyond the so-called ÒbeautyÓ and the so-called Òugliness.Ó There is a quality of beauty, a quality of lovingness, a quality of peacefulness which can be recognized and realized if we take a careful look into what we really are.

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Life is a Game of Polarity

Life has a certain quality which is like a novel, a film, or theater. It is a very creative process. If you observe you can see that, just like in a novel or a film, if every character were just the same kind, if all were agreeing with each other, if all were perfectly harmonious, then it would be a very dull, dead and uninteresting story. The very life process requires the game of polarity and the dynamism which is created from this polarity. Thus one can recognize that as long as life is there, this game of polarity will be there.

We are not trying directly to change the world. We are not trying directly to do something so that everything will be so perfectly harmonious, so perfectly peaceful, so perfectly loving. This it is not possible and it is not even our attempt to try that. But paradoxically, when more and more individuals come to understand the deeper dimension behind this duality, then a certain flexibility, a certain lightness, a certain playfulness can come into the whole life process in a more enriching way.

Just remember for a moment what it is like with all the different sports like basketball, soccer and football that are so popular in our society. Each of the games has its own rules. For example in basketball, there are rules that you cannot kick the ball with your feet, but when you are playing soccer, if you touch the ball with your hand, it is not right.

Just like each game has its game rules, so it is in life that different societies have developed different rules of the game. And when we have inwardly a little distance to see and understand what is the sense behind these rules, then we will also come to recognize that their function is to contribute towards a healthy co-existence. They are developed to make life as beautiful, as interesting, as alive, as dynamic as possible. But the understanding can happen only when we can gain a little distance from our own game.

Some years ago, I heard that after a soccer match, one of the soccer players made a goal to his own team, and when he went back to Columbia he was shot dead. Are they playing a game, or are they being serious to the point where it is no longer a game? And this is what happens when we get too identified with our roles and donÕt have the distance.

The Inquiry into ÒWho am I?Ó

Very often we fail to understand what relevance everything has and to recognize the real nature of our life. This requires a greater and very determined inquiry to discover. What we imagine ourselves to be is just one layer, but it is not our true reality. We are conditioned to believe that we have such-and-such a name, that we are man or woman, that we are of this or that profession, that we belong to a certain country. All of these have a certain relevance, function and pragmatic significance, but they are not the basic reality of our existence.

When we look more courageously, carefully and patiently, we come to recognize that behind these apparent ideas we have about ourselves, there is a much deeper reality. There is a deeper basis which is not only our being good or bad, right or wrong, superior or inferior, healthy or unhealthy, man or woman, but a certain indefinable aspect of what we really are which cannot be reduced into words or concepts. It is beyond the mindÕs comprehension.

For example, when you are really relaxed and somebody asks you who you are, you have to make an effort to remember. If you are in a really good sleep and somebody wakes you up and asks you ÒWho are you?Ó you would have to figure out, ÒNow where am I, what is my name?Ó Maybe you have been traveling and you are in a new hotel room somewhere, and when you wake up after having a good sleep, you will need a little time to figure out all these realities you have collected around yourself. Because deep within, you are not this name, you are not this identification, you are not all this that you have been conditioned to believe.

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What is Truth?

There is a very beautiful saying of Lao-Tzu, the Chinese mystic. He says, "The Truth cannot be said, and all what can be said is a lie.Ó With this saying, he is trying to make something visible about life and about the mind.

When we use a word, each person understands the meaning according to his or her past and background. For example, when I say the word ÒteaÓ we will have different people from different backgrounds with a different idea about the word. If you come from India you will think in terms of black tea with milk and sugar. If someone was born in China or Japan, the first association of tea will be green tea. If somebody was born in the Arabian countries, his or her idea of tea is mint tea with a lot of spices and much sugar. Just a word like ÒteaÓ is understood according to our past and our associations.

So with each word, even though we may think we understand it, each person is always understanding it a little differently from the next person. Becoming aware of this, we can start connecting to each other in a little different way. We can be aware that our words are NOT the ultimate truth, that our words are an ATTEMPT to indicate something.

For that which cannot be really put into words how do we make it visible? You can indicate something about it, and through the indication it becomes possible that you yourself experience it. This which needs to be recognized is not something somewhere else. It is your own basic reality. The difficulty in understanding this reality lies in the fact that we are all conditioned to the point of being hypnotized to believe in certain concepts and beliefs about ourselves. These beliefs have a certain impact and unless we are very carefully and wakefully considering them, we are unable even to see, much less move beyond them.

You must have seen or heard some of the television shows with hypnotists. They are hypnotizing someone and giving him an apple and telling the person, ÒThis is a very strong onion, so please eat this.Ó And the person is starting to bite the apple, but his eyes are watering and heÕs making such a sharp face, because in his mind his association is that of a very strong onion. And the same person is given a piece of lemon, a very sour lemon, and told that this is a very tasty apple. And this person is eating it as if it is the most delicious apple! We can observe in this a certain aspect of our way of looking at life. We are not understanding life directly when we are only basing it on concepts and beliefs.

A Different Way

So in order to understand ourselves, we must inquire into life in a very different way.

This different way is the way of being with reality without any effort to change, interfere, or manage anything. This is not to say that one should not take positive action in life. Of course when you are going to build a house, cook a meal or operate a machine, you have to be very practical and pragmatic and use the mind carefully and go with all the analytic and calculative approaches you can.

However, in those personal times when we are wanting to understand ourselves, when we are taking time to look and to experience what we really are, we must approach this from a different perspective. When you want to understand yourself, when you want to explore the deeper dimension of your reality and experience the source of all your joy, all your love, all your compassion, all your peacefulness -- this can be learned; this needs to be inquired into; and this is what naturally is possible through a different approach. I emphasize NATURALLY, because what we are seeking is what is naturally present, naturally our essential reality.

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The Lessons of Nature

Let us remember Lao-Tzu once more. He has said in one of his expressions that when human beings were living in tune with nature, there were no religions and no Masters. People were religious without religion and there was no need for Masters. I find this a very valuable reminder because to be in tune with nature is to be in touch with our own deeper reality. We are not outside of nature, even though we normally think of nature as being the trees, the plants and animals and we donÕt include ourselves.

In nature, the plants, the animals are in harmony. You donÕt see a plant or an animal looking for a therapist or an analyst. They are in perfect harmony, except when we put them in zoos or unnatural conditions, when they get into trouble through our foolishness and misunderstanding.

The animal is unconscious, and in its unconsciousness it is total. The human being, on the other hand, has a little bit of consciousness and along with a lot of unconsciousness. We are programmed for trouble. Let us be very plain about it. When you see the so-called trouble and donÕt get lost in worrying about it but consider it carefully, you will see that this ÒtroubleÓ is also a hidden invitation to unfold a potential.

When there is a challenge, until you have faced it as a challenge, it looks like some problem and you want to be finished with it. But if you accept the challenge and stay with it, then you are finding a solution and a way to move through it. In that very process you are becoming more creative, more alive, more dynamic, and you are bringing something of the hidden in you into flowering. And this is what we need to recognize -- that we carry all our potential as seeds. But these seeds need our careful attention, understanding and initiative in order to blossom.

In the book VIHAP - The Secret of Ecstatic Living: The Vital Harmonizing Phenomenon, I have tried to make visible the expression VIHAP, the Vital harmonizing Phenomenon, which refers to moments of joy, fulfillment, happiness and bliss. In these moments the human being becomes available to nature, available to life without interfering or trying to change anything. Thus nature is able to bring about a vital harmonizing process into manifestation, and this is called VIHAP.

Every human being has experienced moments of joy, moments of pleasure, moments where one has been totally peaceful and content. Children come to this world with that dynamic creativity, aliveness and vitality. That is why most people remember their childhood as the Ògolden childhood.Ó At that stage we have not yet been caught in the conditioning and duality of the mind. We are still more fully with the life, more available to life, more open to experience it without being caught in the categorizing, analyzing and defining approach of the mind.

Getting Lost

But as we grow older we become more and more conditioned and we get ÒhookedÓ into our achievements, goals, wishes of becoming this or that, and desiring power positions. The more we get blindly caught in these areas, the more everything seems to become so serious. It is not that we should not be participating in all these areas of life. It is not that we should not go into looking for something which we enjoy doing, or finding some profession which we would like to be in. It is not that we should not to be creative in one way or another.

The point is to become aware of what we really are doing to ourselves. Are we deeply considering our real needs and going about fulfilling them or are we simply getting caught in our actions automatically and going about it blindly? When you are in touch with your real needs and aware of what is happening in accordance with your deeper understanding, you will not get into confusion. We get into confusion because we start something and then forget what we are doing and why we are doing it. We get caught in certain parts of the game, and then lose all orientation.

Very often we are running from morning to evening, as if our whole world is just to clear the rent, pay the telephone companies, or handle our medical expenses. When we lose our orientation, these apparent goals become the focal point. Then becoming more rich, having a little more power, having a little more position, becoming a little more famous become the main goals. Very often we forget what is it that we really need; what is it that can truly fulfill us.

This requires careful consideration. This requires a very plain and honest confrontation with ourselves, without trying to cover up in one way or another -- we have to be utterly naked and plain with ourselves. Sometimes itÕs not easy, because we have gotten so settled into our roles and goals. We feel that when we do not follow our conditioned program it may be dangerous, it may be problematic.

But consider it carefully: Can you be really fulfilled without recognizing who you truly are, and what your true needs are? Because you can recognize your true needs only when you recognize who you are. For example, if somebody believes he is a rabbit and is just running after carrots it may be interesting for a rabbit, but we are not just rabbits. We can get caught in different identifications and conditionings and become like the rabbit.

I have come across an anecdote which I believe is a true story: during the 100 year centennial of Abraham LincolnÕs death, there was a theater group traveling throughout the country performing the life story of Abraham Lincoln. The actor who was playing the role of Abraham Lincoln had gotten so identified with this role that he went around everywhere as if he were Abraham Lincoln himself. While the theater was still playing, people had fun calling him Abraham Lincoln because he liked that so much. But when the theater year was over he was still in that role. His friends told him, ÒLook, you are not Abraham Lincoln, you are Williams.Ó He said, ÒWhat do you mean? CanÕt you see that IÕm Abraham Lincoln?Ó

Now the director of the theater piece took him aside and said, ÒWillie, you are not Abraham Lincoln. We started with the theater piece one year ago, we did the play and now itÕs over.Ó So they brought him to a psychotherapist. The psychotherapist tried everything he knew to do, but it was difficult to get Willie out of this identification. So the therapist had an idea, ÒIf I give him a lie detector test, then maybe he can be shown that he is telling a lie, and he might come to realize his real identity.Ó So he was given a lie detector test and asked the question, ÒAre you Abraham Lincoln?Ó The man was totally fed up with this whole situation and said, ÒNo!Ó and the lie detector showed that he was telling a lie!

Becoming so identified, one gets so much into a settled way, and these are the hypnotic beliefs in which we are getting trapped. If we would take the initiative to look at ÒWhat is my reality?Ó and ÒWhat is behind all my success and failure, ups and downs, superiority and inferiority, being special and being ordinary? What is my reality?Ó

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Self Remembering

In Zen, there is a very beautiful reminder: ÒFind your original face. The face that you had before your parents have seen you.Ó This is a very beautiful question, because intellectually you cannot find an answer to it. To the intellect it looks like an absurd question. It is a reminder to look at life without being caught in the logic of the mind; to experience yourself in a deeper different way.

Everyone has experienced at some time just being yourself without trying to reach anywhere or do anything. Sometimes when you have a quiet moment, ask yourself, ÒWho are you?Ó YOU ARE -- there is no doubt of your being, but you are not just any of these roles. This is why when you can get away from this idea of being this or that and you go inside yourself, it is like adeep relaxation.

You have to find the art of relaxation; the art of dis-entangling yourself from these roles, these goals, these identifications which are keeping you divided and in some kind of tension. We can even become too serious about relaxing, and this can make us tense. The whole process of understanding life is a paradoxical process -- it is not something of the mind. It is not just a logical process. It is not some information which you can put into the computer and say it is right or wrong, good or bad.

Many seminars and workshops are attempts to get the feeling and experience this state of being from the inside. There are different exercises, meditations, different playful ways of bringing attention and awareness into this inner state of being. Through these means it becomes possible to get a taste of the many ways we can approach and confront ourselves to come to a real understanding and experiencing of who we are.

In the Hindu background there is a saying that our true nature is sat chit anan, which means the truth, consciousness and joy or bliss. Every mystical tradition, every inquiry into the nature of oneÕs self has in one way or another come to this.

It is said that Jesus said to some of the people close to him, ÒMy Father and I are one.Ó This is to say that all that appears as many is of the same source.

The Islamic prayer ÒLa illahe il Allahu,Ó which means that there is nothing other than Allah, or God, or Dharma, or Tao, or Existence. There is nothing else. The whole reality arises from the same source. That is why there is the possibility of true Fulfillment, true Freedom.

Duality or --- ?

As long as we are caught in duality, we are bound to be in fear. If we are separate from whatever else is outside of us, there will always be cause for conflict. Because deep within you are not divided, there exists the possibility to become free from all entanglements, anxiety and fear, and to discover the joy and peacefulness -- to experience that which you truly are.

What we are talking about is not something which somebody else has to give to you. It is your own essential reality which you have to consciously discover. This is the challenge for the human being. The human being cannot go backwards into the animal state. This is what we try to do when we take alcohol or drugs. We are trying to make ourselves completely unconscious, so that we can behave like an animal. It affects the organism and destroys a personÕs sensibilities when we overdo it, but it is still impossible to fall back into the animal state and become fulfilled.

You have to discover your true reality to come to the heights of the full flowering of your potential; to find all your joy, love, beauty, and compassion. Go inside for a moment and feel that state when you are totally at ease and joyous within yourself. Do you want to hurt somebody then? Do you want to hate somebody? Do you want to be ugly to somebody? When you are feeling deeply yourself, you cannot be destructive.

Two things happen. The very nature of your fulfillment and joyousness make you capable of seeing the true state of reality. The second thing is you donÕt have any restlessness or unhappiness which you have to get rid of by being destructive or hateful to someone else.

On the contrary, when we are unhappy, hateful and bitter, someone just has to provoke us a little, and we are ready to strike out at this person. This is what often happens in human relationships. Even though no one really wants to be ugly to the other, when we are caught in our own unclarity, when we are unhappy, unfulfilled, or bitter, then little things irritate us and we get into a vicious cycle. In our relationships and our connections with other people we can multiply this unclarity.

And when we are in that negative state, whether we hurt someone else or not, we hurt ourselves. It is like carrying poison in your hand. You may intend to throw it at someone else, but you are automatically hurting yourself by simply carrying it in your hand. And we do that in our states of unclarity and by not understanding what we are and what we are doing to ourselves and others.

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Choosing Your Reality

How can we break this chain of events? When we take the initiative to understand ourselves and to see who we really are, then we are also claiming responsibility for our own freedom and fulfillment. We are claiming our capacity which we carry as a potential. I can assure you that when you really look carefully, you can recognize that when we take responsibility for the energy we manifest, we come to realize that we are capable of going differently with our energy. We donÕt have to get caught up in negativity. We donÕt have to get caught in hatefulness.

Observing the nature of the energy, one can come to recognize that it is the same energy that is manifesting as hatefulness, anger, bitterness, and violence which can also manifest as love, compassion, friendship, caring and joyousness. Just like you can use the same electricity as a cooling process or a heating process. You can make light from it, you can cook a meal with it, or you can also use it for the electric chair and kill somebody. So, the energy in its true state is neither good nor bad, right nor wrong. It is the consciousness and understanding with which we go about using it which can make it a blessing or a curse.

There is an anecdote coming from the Zen tradition. It is said that a samurai came to a Zen Master. He was a high official from the palace of the Shogun and he came to ask the Zen master, ÒIs there a heaven and a hell?Ó The Zen Master was known as a very loving, compassionate and friendly person, but when he was asked this question he made a very serious face as if he were a very arrogant person. Looking at the samurai, he shouted, ÒWhat? You? An ordinary samurai? You want to know about heaven and hell?Ó You can imagine what happened -- naturally the samuraiÕs ego was hurt. Automatically his hand went for his sword. At this point the Zen master shouted, ÒHere opens the gates of hell!!Ó

Hearing that, the samurai recognized, ÒWhat am I doing? I have come to the Zen Master to learn from him, to receive from him, and just because he hurt my ego, IÕm ready to take my sword and kill him!Ó Recognizing this, his hand loosened and the sword slipped back into its case. At this point, the Zen Master shouted, ÒAnd here opens the gates of heaven!Ó

We create our heaven. We create our hell. It is not someplace somewhere else. If we live consciously, we understand our responsibility in going with our energy one way or another. When we are deeply responsible we make this life a blessing. But when we donÕt take the initiative to inquire or confront, then we just REACT mechanically. We go about life as if we are just victims of others. As long as you imagine that you are a poor victim, you cannot be free because you have given the responsibility to someone else.

When you start taking responsibility and looking -- ÒWho am I? What is my reality? What is my true nature?Ó -- then you experience a different dimension of reality. It is not a question of how difficult or how easy the inquiry is. There is no substitute for the truth. And you cannot be fulfilled in being caught in one role or another. All roles are just passing shows that come and go.

There is a very beautiful saying of the Buddha: ÒLies may be sweet in the beginning, but it is bitter in the end. Truth may not be sweet in the beginning, but it is sweet in the end.Ó

By being willing to LOOK and FACE and BE that which is, we become AVAILABLE and OPEN. Then life and nature is able to transmit the grace of this harmonizing, vitalizing process, revealing the Truth of who we really are.

Once you inquire and come to recognize what you are and become rooted in this reality, nothing can frustrate you. You are no more living in false expectations and illusions. You recognize what is life, and you become rooted in that which is. This is the truth that can truly fulfill us. This is the basic inquiry which can make our life a joyous celebrative process.