YOU CAN BE ONLY YOURSELF

DWELLING IN ONE'S TRUE ABODE, UNCONCERNED WITH THAT WITHOUT --

THE RIVER FLOWS TRANQUILLY ON AND THE FLOWERS ARE RED.

Look at the river: unconcerned with whatsoever is happening all around, it flows on in deep tranquillity, in deep calmness, undistracted by what is happening on the banks. Undistracted, it moves on. It remains tuned to its own nature, it never goes out of its nature. It remains true to itself. Nothing distracts it, nothing calls it away, away from itself. Whatsoever happens in the world around, the river goes on being a river -- true to itself, it goes on moving. Even if a war is going on, even if bombs are being dropped, whatsoever is happening, good or bad, the river remains true to itself. It goes on moving. Movement is its intrinsic nature. And tranquillity is a shadow when you are true to yourself.

And watch the flowers on the trees... AND THE FLOWERS ARE RED. The trees are also true to themselves. No flower is trying in any way to imitate any other flower. There is no imitation, no competition, no jealousy. The red flower is just red, and tremendously happy in being red. It has never thought about being somebody else. Where has man been missing?

Man misses his true nature because of desire, imitation, jealousy, competition. Man is the only being on earth who is not true to himself, whose river is not in tune with itself; who is always moving somewhere else, who is always looking at somebody else; who is always trying to be somebody else. That's the misery, the calamity. You can be only yourself. There is no other possibility, it simply does not exist. The sooner you understand it the better. You cannot be a Buddha, you cannot be a Jesus, and there is no need. You can be only yourself.

But everybody is trying to be somebody else. Hence we go on, away and away from the original source. The distance is created because of the desire. You see somebody moving in a beautiful car and you want the car. Not that that car is needed -- just a moment before there was no need. Suddenly, seeing somebody else moving in the car, a desire has arisen. If you had not seen the car, the desire would never have arisen. So it is not intrinsic to you, but something from the outside. It is as if the river was moving towards the ocean, and just on the bank the river has seen something and the flow is broken; the river does not want to go to the ocean now. Now, on this bank, she would like to cling to something, possess something. Now the river has moved away from its intrinsic nature. It has fallen from its trueness, authenticity, from its truth.

[….]

Remember one thing: you can be only yourself; there is no other way. All other ways simply lead you away from yourself. Once you realize this the basic understanding has been achieved, and then immediately your river starts flowing. There are no blocks. People come to me and they say that they have so many blocks here and there. All blocks exist because of deep-rooted desires to be something other than you can be. All blocks exist because energy becomes frozen -- because the energy knows only one way to flow, that's its natural flow.

Just think of a rose who has become neurotic and thinks to become a lotus. Now what will happen? There will simply be misery, and in that misery the rose will not be able to become a rose. One thing is certain: the rose cannot become a lotus -- that is absolutely certain. The rose will not be able to become a rose either; that too is almost certain, because now the whole desire will be going far away. The rose will dream of the lotus, and the rose will think of the lotus, and the rose will start condemning itself.

How can you grow if you condemn yourself? The rose will not be able to love itself. How can you grow if you cannot love yourself? The energy will not be flowing. Now there will be blocks. Now the rose will be constantly in trouble. One day there is a headache; another day there is something else. The rose is ill.

Once the rose comes to understand that there is only one possibility, and that is to be a rose, and there is no need to be a lotus, and it is perfectly beautiful to be a rose -- once the rose accepts itself and the condemnation disappears, once the rose loves itself, the grace returns, the dignity comes back. Now there are no blocks, they will melt. The rose will start flowing like a river. The rose will be red, happy, tremendously delighted in whatsoever is naturally available to it.

Roses never go neurotic. They laugh at man. Lotuses never go neurotic. The whole world laughs at man. Man is the only animal who goes neurotic. And the neurosis arises once you try to do something unnatural to yourself; then neurosis arises. Once you have an ideal, you are going to be neurotic.

You are the ideal, you are the destiny.

DWELLING IN ONE'S TRUE ABODE... that means just being oneself, not trying to be anybody else.

... UNCONCERNED WITH THAT WITHOUT --

THE RIVER FLOWS TRANQUILLY ON AND THE FLOWERS ARE RED.

The Search, # 10

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 1313