CHAPTER 1
For THE AUTHENTIC MAN LIFE is in living. It is not a thing, it is a process.
There is no way to attain to life except by living it, except by being alive, by
flowing, streaming with it. If we are seeking the meaning of life in some
dogma, in some philosophy, that is the sure way to miss life and meaning
both. Life is not somewhere waiting for us, it is happening in us. It is not in
the future as a goal to be arrived at, it is here now, this very moment -- in
our breathing, circulating in our blood, beating in our heart. Whatsoever we
are is our life, and if we start seeking meaning somewhere else, we will miss
it. Nobody can give us the meaning of our life. It is our life; the meaning has
also to be ours. Nobody except us can come upon it. It is our life and it is
only accessible to us. Only in living will the mystery be revealed to us. Life is
already there bubbling within us. It can be contacted only there. The temple
is not outside; we are the shrine of it. The greatest Masters have never said
anything about life -- they have always thrown us back to our self. And once
we know what life is we will know what death is. Death is also part of the
same process. Ordinarily we think death is against life then it simply shows
that we have not been able to know what life is. Death and life are two
polarities of the same energy, of the same phenomenon -- the tide and the
ebb, the day and the night, the summer and the winter. They are not
separate and not opposites, not contraries; but a completion of one life, the
crescendo of one life, the climax, the finale. And once we know our life and
its process, then we understand what death is. Death is an organic, integral
part of life, and it is very friendly to life. Without it life cannot exist. Life
exists because of death; Death is, in fact, a process of renewal. And death
happens each moment. The moment we breathe in and the moment we
breathe out, both happen. Breathing in, life happens; breathing out, death
happens. We live by breathing in as much as we live by breathing out. The
breathing out is part of breathing in. We cannot breathe in if we stop
breathing out. We cannot live if we stop dying. He dies each moment and
each moment he is resurrected. A person who protects himself against death
becomes incapable of living. He is the person, who is afraid of exhaling, then
he cannot inhale and he is stuck. Then he simply drags; his life is no longer
a flow. The ego in us is afraid of death. Life and death are not opposites; ego
and death are opposites. Ego and life are opposites. Ego is against both life
and death. The ego is afraid to live and the ego is afraid to die. The ego
simply drags. There are many people who are neither alive nor dead. This is
worse than anything. A man who is fully alive is full of death also. Everybody
has to carry his death continuously, everybody has to die each moment, and
everybody has to be on the cross because that is the only way to live fully,
totally. The death of the ego is not our death. The death of the ego is really
our possibility of life. The ego is just a dead crust around us, it has to be
broken and thrown away. Death and life both become aflame together, they
are never separate. Without death, life cannot become total. But the ego
always thinks in dualities; it divides everything. Existence is indivisible; it
cannot be divided. We are involved in eternity. Life is a process, timeless,
beyond time. Death is part of it. Death is a continuous revival: a help to life
to resurrect again and again. It seems that everything goes on changing and
yet something remains eternally the same. Something in us is
transcendental but we are too identified with the form -- that creates the
ego. That's what we call 'I'. Everything returns to its original source, has to
return to its original source. If we understand life then we understand death
also. Life is a forgetfulness of the original source, and death is again a
remembrance. Life is going away from the original source, death is coming
back home. Death is beautiful only for those who have lived their life
unhindered, uninhibited unsuppressed. Death is beautiful only for those who
have lived their life beautifully, who have not been afraid to live, who have
been courageous enough to live -- who loved, who danced, who celebrated.
Death becomes the ultimate celebration if our life is a celebration. If we
have touched something of the transcendental in our self, if we have entered
our own nothingness at the centre -- the centre of our being, where we are
no more a body and no more a mind, and are simply, just pure awareness,
consciousness -- then death is going to be a great celebration, a great
understanding, a great revelation. If we have known anything of the
transcendental in us, death will reveal to us the transcendental in the
universe. The ordinary and the worldly man who lives attached to his body,
who has never known anything greater is very primitive, whose life has been
very gross, never entered it, and who had been thinking that this is all life is.
These people have missed; they have not been able to know all the
dimensions of life. They have not been able to touch the depths of life and
they have not been able to fly to the height of life. They missed the
benediction. Then there is a very small section of people Poets, philosophers,
who have sometimes said that death is nothing bad, it is just restful -- like
sleep. At least these people have known something beyond the body and
something of the mind. They have a little sophistication of the soul; they are
a little more aristocratic, more cultured. But they too are far away from the
truth. The AUTHENTIC MAN known's life in its deepest core. It is not only a
rest but a resurrection, a new life, a new beginning; a new door opens.
THE AUTHENTIC MAN known's the transcendental in himself, then death is
nothing but another face of God. Then death has a dance to it. And unless
we become capable of celebrating death itself, we have missed life. The
whole life is a preparation for this ultimate. Our life is our life, it is nobody
else's. So we should not allow our self to be dominated by others, and not
allow our self to be dictated to by others, that is a betrayal of life. If we
allow our self to be dictated to by others - whosoever they are we will miss
our life. Because the domination comes from outside and life is within us.
They never meet. The Worldly man is an obedient type, ready to surrender
to any and everybody. They don't have any independent soul in them; they
are immature, always searching for somebody to tell them what to do and
what not to do. They are not able to trust their own being. These people are
the greater part of the world, the masses. Then there are small minorities
who reject the values of the society. They think they are rebellious. They are
not, they are only reactionaries. THE AUTHENTIC MAN is neither for society
nor against society, who simply lives his life according to his own
understanding. Whether it goes against society or it goes with society is not
a consideration, it is irrelevant. He lives according to his understanding,
according to his small light. He doesn't become very egoistic about it rather
he is very humble. He knows that his light is very small, but that is all the
light that there is. To commit mistakes is the only way to learn. To move
according to one's own understanding is the only way to grow and become
mature. If we are looking at somebody else to dictate to us, to decide for or
against, we will never be able to know what our life is. It has to be lived, and
we have to follow our own small light. We have to find a way out of our
confusion. Certainty should not be sought; understanding should be sought.
Certainty can be given to us by anybody but in the final analysis we will be a
loser. We will lose our life just to remain secure and certain, and life is not
certain, life is not secure. Life is insecurity. Each moment is a move into
more and more insecurity. It is a gamble. One never knows what is going to
happen. And it is beautiful that one never knows. If it was predictable, life
would not be worth living. If everything was as we would like it to be, and
everything was certain, we would not be a man at all. Man lives in freedom.
Freedom needs insecurity and uncertainty. THE AUTHENTIC MAN is the real
man of intelligence and is always hesitant because he has no dogma to rely
upon, to lean upon. He has to look and respond. He has to decide every
moment and be responsive. That's what responsibility is. Responsibility is
not an obligation, responsibility is not a duty -- it is a capacity to respond. A
man who wants to know what life is has to be responsive. Majority of people
have lost their manhood and have bargained for security. This is all
absolutely foolish because life cannot be measured, it is immeasurable. Life
is in constant flux. Everything goes on changing. Nothing is permanent
except change. And that's the beauty of it, the glory of it, the poetry of it,
the music of it -- that it is always a surprise. If we are seeking for security,
we will lose the capacity to wonder and once we lose the capacity to wonder,
we have lost life. Life is the opening of our wondering heart and the mystery
that surrounds us. Life is so precious. We should live it. Seeking truth in
scriptures, seeking truth in philosophies, is looking at the reflection. And
centuries pass and people go on reflecting the reflection of the reflection of
the reflection. Understanding is only that which has been experienced by the
person himself. Reality needs no language; it is available to us on a nonverbal
level. The whole of life is available -- we just have to learn how to
communicate with it non-verbally. People live and go on missing life. It
needs courage. It needs courage to be realistic, it needs courage to move
with life wherever it leads, because the paths are uncharted, there exists no
map. One has to go into the unknown. Life can be understood only if we are
ready to go into the unknown. Life is non-mental, nonintellectual, because
life is total. Our totality has to be involved in it. We need to live our life
whatsoever the cost. Be ready to gamble with it. Life has no insurance to it;
it is simply an opening, a wild opening, a chaotic opening. If we can
understand our inner divinity we have understood what life is. Otherwise we
have not been able yet to decode life. The whole life is just a training for
how to go back home, how to disappear. Because the moment we disappear,
God appears in us. Our presence is God's absence; our absence is God's
presence.