CHAPTER 2
We can live our life in two ways. Either we can become a man of being, or
we can become a man of doing/having. Either we can have ourselves or we
can have many worldly things instead. Either we can possess many things
and be possessed by them, or we can possess our self and be not possessed
by anything. The man of having has a totally different direction. We call
them 'the worldly man'. They think in terms of things and thinks that the
more he has, the more he is. We can have the whole world and we can
remain a beggar. We can have all that the world can give and yet remain
empty. The great Alexander is the very symbol of the worldly man. He
wanted to conquer the whole world, and he had done it, almost but on his
deathbed said "I came with empty hands, I am going with empty hands, and
my whole life has been a waste." He must have been very perceptive,
because everyone even today dies, still clinging, still not aware that their
hands are empty, their hearts are empty, still not aware that they have
wasted their whole lives, that it has been just a nightmare. The man of
having continues to accumulate more and more. His soul exists in his
accumulations. He may accumulate money, knowledge, ego, humility; he
may accumulate things of this world, or he may start accumulating virtues,
things of the other world, but he accumulates. He exists through things. He
feels good when he has much, when he feels his hands are full, at least
apparently full. He feels good, he feels he is achieving, he is being
successful. It has always existed. This is the rotten man, this is the diseased
man. It is a sort of illness, this very idea of having too many things, wasting
our time and energy and not knowing at all who we are. The whole purpose
of our life rather should be in thinking in terms of being, of a certain inner
solidity, of a certain inner consciousness, of a certain rootedness, centering,
of a certain realization of who we are. There is a center of our being, hidden
within us, where EXISTENCE/GOD is known, where we get a glimpse of truth
and where we relate with the primordial energy of life. It is this center from
where the celestial music is heard, a music that is created without the help
of any instruments, and from where such fragrance becomes available which
is not of this earth. It is again this very center which knows no bondage
whatsoever and which is the door to freedom, absolute freedom. And it is
this center that leads us to the beyond which has no frontiers, which is a
limitless and infinite expanse, which knows no sorrow and which is nothing
but bliss and more bliss; nothing but abounding bliss. Sometimes we come
across a mystic, a sage or even a ordinary person who may not have
anything visible, but still we feel a tremendous energy surrounding him? His
impact is almost magnetic, mesmeric. He looks into our eyes with a great
power. It is not the power of things; he may not have any. I personally have
come across sages and enlightened beings whose power is not derived from
the outside, whose power comes from some inner spring, some inner source.
He is a reservoir of power. His eyes are turned within. He is no longer
dependent on the outside world. His glory is not a reflected glory; it is his
own, authentic self. The man of being is as old as humanity; but he is so
rare that whenever he comes he is always new -- rarely a Buddha, a Jesus,
a Krishna -- very rarely. In this rotten mass of humanity, very rarely does
somebody arise with an authentic being and declare that his kingdom is of
the within. The man who is after having more and more will go on losing his
being -- because the only way to have more is to pay with being. Then we
have to cut our being and throw it away. Everything has to be paid for,
nothing is free. Even futile things have to be paid for. One day the man of
having is almost gone. He has much but he is no more. He has bargained
with his soul. Just a negative emptiness exists. We should never be deceived
by appearances. They may have achieved much which can be counted,
which can be shown and exhibited, but they have lost something of the
invisible, something of their being. Have we not observed it? The inner
kingdom knows no competition. We can simply delight in it this very
moment. It needs no future; it needs no achievement on our part. Nothing is
missing. Everything is absolutely available; as it should be, it is. We just
have to drop our ambitious mind, and the celebration starts. "The man who
has understood the futility of things becomes spiritual." If we are running
after having, we will constantly be in conflict with others, trying to crush
others, by any way and any means to reach to the top. We will lose all
spontaneity. The man of being is spontaneous. He lives in the moment, he
lives here now. He knows no other way to live. The mind of one who is
moving inwards, the man of being is almost dissolving – he simply lives in
the moment, he responds to the moment. The man of having has a
destination, very clear, cut. The man of being has a direction, but no
destination. He has a quality: he has a light inside, and wherever he moves
that light falls on his path. He has eyes to see, a direction, but no
destination. A destination is a very clear-cut thing; whereas a direction is
very intuitive. A destination is something outside us. A direction is an inner
feeling; not an object, but our very subjectivity. We can feel direction, we
cannot know it. We can know the destination, we cannot feel it. Destination
is in the future. Once decided, we start manipulating and steering our life
towards it. A man of being does not decide the future because he knows that
the future is an open possibility and by fixing a destination his future is no
more a future, because it is no more open. A man of having chooses one
alternative out of many, because when all the alternatives were open it was
future but when all alternatives have been dropped and only one alternative
has been chosen, it is no longer future, it is our past. The past decides when
we decide a destination. Our experience and knowledge of the past decides
and then we kill the future and we go on repeating our own past - - maybe a
little modified, a little changed here and there according to our comfort,
convenience; repainted, renovated -- but still it comes out of the past. This
is the way one loses track of future: by deciding a destination one loses
track of future. One becomes dead. One starts functioning like a mechanism.
Direction is something alive, in the moment. It knows nothing of the future,
it knows nothing of the past, but it throbs, pulsates here and now. And out
of this pulsating moment, the next moment is created. Not by any decision
on our part -- but just because we live this moment and we live it so totally,
and we love this moment so wholly, out of this wholeness the next moment
is born. It is going to have a direction. That direction is not given by us, it is
not imposed by us; it is spontaneous. That's whom we call a man of being,
the spontaneous man. The spontaneous man is the way to the spiritual man,
the real man, to the essential man, to the consciousness within us. We
cannot decide direction, we can only live this moment that is available to us.
By living it, direction arises. If we dance, the next moment is going to be of
a deeper dance. Not that we decide but we simply dance this moment. We
have created a direction: we are not manipulating it. The next moment will
be fuller of dancing, and still more will be following. Destination is fixed by
the mind; direction is earned by living. Destination is logical while in
direction one simply lives the moment in deep trust that life will decide. One
lives this moment so totally that out of this totality freshness is born. Out of
this totality the past dissolves and the future starts taking shape. But this
shape is not given by us; this shape is earned by us. Direction comes out of
living this moment. It is not something that we manage and plan. It
happens, it is very subtle, and we will never be certain about it. We can only
feel it. That's why it is more like poetry, not like prose; more like love, not
like logic; more like art than like science. Direction is very subtle, delicate,
and fragile. That's why everybody has chosen destination. Future should be
a direction, not a destination. The mediocre mind demands clear-cut goals
because he is so insecure -- he cannot trust his own awareness, and he
cannot trust life. The mediocre mind is very afraid of discovery, and
discovery is the greatest secret in life. A man of being is ready to be
surprised because he is innocent and trying to discover. And life is such that
we can go on discovering. The more we discover it, the more we come to
know that much more is still left. It is a non-ending process. Direction is a
non-ending process, it is a process, movement; destination is a dead thing.
Destination belongs to the ego; direction belongs to life, to being. To move
in the world of direction one needs tremendous trust, because one is moving
in insecurity, one is moving in darkness. But the darkness has a thrill in it:
without any map, without any guide we are moving into the unknown. Each
step is a discovery, and it is not only a discovery of the outside world.
Simultaneously, something is discovered in us also. A discoverer not only
discovers things. As he goes on discovering more and more unknown worlds,
he goes on discovering himself also, simultaneously. Each discovery is an
inner discovery also. The more we know, the more we know about the
knower. The more we love, the more we know about the lover. We don't
need a destination in life but only a direction -- awake, throbbing with life;
unknown, always surprising, unpredictable. We need no map but only a
great passion and desire to discover.