YOUNG man has asked why there seems to be no meaning in life. Meaning does
not exist a priori. There is no meaning existing in life - one has to create
it. Only if you create it will you discover it. It has to be invented first.
It is not lying there like a rock, it has to be created like a song. It is
not a thing, it is a significance that you bring through your consciousness.
Don't wait for it. It never comes by just waiting. One has to become a lab,
one has to become a womb, one has to give birth to it.
This is one of the most significant things to be understood - otherwise you
will go on missing meaning. People have a wrong notion. They think that
meaning is already there existing somewhere. It is not so. Buddha creates
the meaning and then he discovers it. That's why his meaning will never
become your meaning. The meaning remains individual. Each one has to create
it for himself, it cannot be borrowed.
That's the difference between the scientific truth and the religious truth.
The scientific truth is a dead thing. Once discovered by one it is
discovered for all. Once Newton has discovered something - for example, the
law of gravitation - then you need not discover it again and again. Then it
becomes a collective property. Newton may have worked for many years to
discover it, may have devoted his whole life to it, but now a school child
will learn it within minutes. He will not have to go through all the bother.
Scientific truth is a dead thing - it is a thing. Hence once discovered, it
is discovered forever.
When one person has discovered it then it becomes the
property of all.
Religious truth is not a thing.
It is a significance, it is a meaning.
Each one has to discover it, each one has to go on the exploration.
Buddha's truth disappears with Buddha.
Mohammed's truth disappears with Mohammed.
It was a fragrance of a flower that had opened in the heart of Mohammed -
how can the fragrance remain when the flower has gone?
Now the Koran is dead, so is the Dhammapada, so is the Geeta, and so are all
the scriptures.
A scripture is alive only when the flower is there. With the flower the
fragance is alive;
when the flower is gone, all is gone.
...
The meaning has to be projected, the meaning has to be created. You have to sing your meaning, you have to dance your meaning, you have to paint your meaning, you have to live your meaning. Through living it will arise, through dancing it will start penetrating your being, through singing it will come to you. It is not like a rock lying there, it has to bloom in your being. It has to become an inner lotus.
Now this beautiful parable.
A MAN CAME TO BAHAUDIN SHAH AND SAID, 'FIRST I FOLLOWED THIS TEACHER, AND THEN THAT ONE. NEXT I STUDIED THESE BOOKS, AND THEN THOSE. I FEEL THAT ALTHOUGH I KNOW NOTHING OF YOU AND YOUR TEACHINGS, THIS EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN SLOWLY PREPARING ME TO LEARN FROM YOU.'
When you
go to a man like Bahaudin you are coming close to danger, you are coming
close to fire, you are coming close to death.
This man must have gone to this teacher and that.
Of teachers there are millions, Masters are rare.
You can find teachers by the dozen very easily, they are cheap.
To go to a Master you are taking a risk.
This man says to Bahaudin - as he must have said to other teachers - 'FIRST
I FOLLOWED THIS TEACHER, AND THEN THAT ONE.' People are like that. They
think that this is something very glorious.
People come to me and they say, 'First I have been to Guru Maharaji and then
I went to Muktananda and then I went to this and that - now I have come to
you.' They think that they are great pilgrims, they think they are great
seekers. By enumerating all the names they feel very good. They are simply
showing that they are still stupid.
A real seeker will not be bothered by teachers, will not become attached to
teachers.
Even if he goes to a teacher he will see through and through that this is
just a teaching.
And he will escape as fast as possible.
And he will not go on bragging about it because there is nothing to brag
about.
One has to find, ...