In life, we are disappointed not because of the world, but because of the illusion of the world. The unconscious is so strong that it resists change. People fail to recognise their desires. Their hopes create hell, yet they still expect joy. When expectations fail to bring joy, they change their desires—unaware that desire itself is the real problem. Desire always means wanting more.
When one is constantly seeking more, one has not yet arrived. One dwells in the future, while life exists in the present. It is the ‘abiding mind’, not the ‘desiring mind’, that is truly available in the moment. Life reveals itself in the present, but desire always pushes one into the future.
In all your endeavours, let intelligence take the lead. Ego disrupts and distorts, often turning life into greed. A greedy person is always a danger to the welfare of humanity. When you are in your mother’s womb, it is her intelligence that nourishes you. The very functioning of our bodies is sustained by a subtle mechanism called intelligence. We should not interfere with this natural flow. When ego is dropped, intelligence guides our actions effortlessly. Ego, drunk with arrogance, ensures that whatever it does is nothing but an extension of that arrogance.
If you look closely, most of the time our identity is defined by others. Who we are is so often what others have said about us. If you are a good speaker, it is because many have told you so. You get confined by others’ definitions of who you are. Those who define you are usually in an unconscious state. Thus, your identity becomes a product of their unconsciousness.
When you are in a drunken state, whatever you do is simply an expression of that drunkenness. Ego is nothing but ‘edging God out’. Man believes he lives through the ego, yet the ego itself is an illusion; thus, all action born of it is an expression of delusion. One can truly live only with awareness, never with unawareness. In unawareness, the ego is in a state of insecurity, and out of that insecurity, it endlessly seeks security. Even when security is attained, the insecure still feel insecure.
With awareness, the ego dissolves. Life may seem unprotected, yet you feel the thrill of that very unprotection. Deep within, trust that existence itself will care for you. You no longer worry about being unprotected. It becomes part of the deep love that existence is constantly showering upon you.
When you are awake, you use awareness wisely. You allow ‘no mind’to be your guide. The mind fills you with insecurity, while ‘no mind’ reveals insecurity as part of the dance of life. In this way, you become secure even within insecurity.
True spirituality is a wake-up call. The greatest calamity is that we live in dreams and imagine them to be real. Dreaming itself is not a problem, but dreaming unconsciously is the real one. The marvel of creativity lies in consciously turning a dream into a destination. But to dream unconsciously is nothing but an illusion.
The mind dreams of an ideal husband, an ideal wife, an ideal boss—and in this dream state, it misses the real husband, the real wife and the real boss. To be alert is to be awake. An alert person does not blame others but awakens himself.