(deel 2)

Now try to understand:

[In Mahamudra all one’s sins are burned...]
- They are not to be balanced by good acts.

[In Mahamudra all one’s sins are burned...]

What is this Mahamudra again and again? What happens? Mahamudra is a state of your being when you are not separate from the total. Mahamudra is like a deep sexual orgasm with the whole. When two lovers are in deep sexual orgasm, they melt into each other; then the woman is no longer the woman, the man is no longer the man. They become just like the circle of yin and yang, reaching into each other, meeting in each other, melting, their own identities forgotten. That’s why love is so beautiful.

This state is called mudra, this state of deep orgasmic intercourse is called mudra. And the final state of orgasm with the whole is called Mahamudra, the great orgasm.

What happens in orgasm, in sexual orgasm? You have to understand it because only that will give you the key for the final orgasm. What happens? When two lovers are there… And always remember: two lovers, not wife and husband, because with a wife and husband it almost never happens because wives and husbands become more and more fixed roles, they are not melting and flowing. “Husband” has become a role, “wife” has become a role. They act. The wife has to act as a wife whether she likes it or not; the husband has to act as a husband. It has become a legal thing.

Once I asked Mulla Nasruddin, “How many years have you been married, Nasruddin?”
He said, “Twenty odd years.”
So I asked, “Why do you call them ‘odd’?”
He said, “When you see my wife you will understand.”

Wives and husbands are a social phenomenon, an institution; it is not a relationship. It is an institution; it is a forced phenomenon, not for love, but other reasons: economic security, safety, children, society, culture, religion – everything except love.

Orgasm almost never happens between a wife and a husband – unless they are lovers also. That is possible: you can be a wife or a husband and a lover; you can love your wife. Then it is totally different, but then it is not a marriage at all, it is no longer an institution.

In the East, because marriage has existed for thousands of years, people have completely forgotten what orgasm is. I have not come across a single Indian woman who knows what orgasm is. Some Western women, just within a few years, twenty-five years, have become aware that orgasm is something worth achieving; otherwise, women have completely forgotten that they have any possibility of orgasm within their bodies.

This is one of the most unfortunate things that could have happened to humanity. And when the woman cannot have an orgasm, the man cannot really have it because orgasm is a meeting of the two. Only two, when they melt into each other, can have it. It is not that one can have and another may not have; it is not possible. Release is possible, ejaculation is possible, relief is possible, but not orgasm. What is an orgasm?

Orgasm is a state where your body is no longer felt as matter; it vibrates like energy, electricity. It vibrates so deeply, from the very foundation, that you completely forget that it is a material thing. It becomes an electric phenomenon – and it is an electric phenomenon. Now physicists say that there is no matter, all matter is only appearance; deep down, that which exists is electricity, not matter. In orgasm you come to this deepest layer of your body where matter no longer exists, just energy waves; you become a dancing energy, vibrating. No longer any boundaries to you – pulsating, but no longer substantial. And your beloved pulsates also.

And by and by, if they love each other and they surrender to each other, they surrender to this moment of pulsation, of vibration, of being energy. And they are not scared – it is deathlike when the body loses boundaries, when the body becomes like a vaporous thing, when the body evaporates substantially and only energy is left, a very subtle rhythm, but you feel as if you are not. Only in deep love can one move into it. Love is like death; you die as far as your material image is concerned, you die as far as you think you are a body; you die as a body and you evolve as energy, vital energy.

And when the wife and the husband, or the lovers, or the partners, start vibrating in a rhythm, the beats of their hearts and bodies become synchronous, it becomes a harmony – then orgasm happens, then they are no longer two. That is the symbol of yin and yang: yin moving into yang, yang moving into yin; man moving into the woman, the woman moving into the man. Now they are a circle, and they vibrate together, they pulsate together. Their hearts are no longer separate, their beats are no longer separate; they have become a melody, a harmony. It is the greatest music possible; all other music is just a faint thing compared to it, a shadowy thing compared to it.

This vibration of two as one is orgasm. When the same thing happens, not with another person, but with the whole of existence, then it is Mahamudra; then it is the great orgasm. It happens. I would like to tell you how you can try it, so that the Mahamudra becomes possible, the great orgasm.

In Indonesia, there is a very rare man, Bapak Subud. He has come unknowingly to a method known as Latihan. He stumbled upon it, but Latihan is one of the oldest Tantra methods. It is not a new phenomenon; Latihan is the first step toward Mahamudra. It is allowing the body to vibrate, allowing the body to become energy, non-substantial, non-material: allowing the body to melt and dissolve the boundaries.

Bapak Subud is a Mohammedan but his movement is known as Subud. That word is Buddhist. Subud comes from three words: su, bu, dha: su stands for sushil, bu stands for Buddha, dha stands for dharma. Subud means sushil-Buddha-dharma. The meaning is: the law of great virtue derived from Buddha, Buddha’s law of great virtue. This is what Tilopa calls the great teaching.

Latihan is simple. It is the first step. One has to stand relaxed, loose and natural. It is good if you stand alone, and nobody is there to disturb you. Close your room and be alone. If you can find someone who has already stepped into Latihan, his presence can be helpful, his very presence works like a catalytic agent; he becomes the opener. So somebody who is already a little advanced can open you very easily; otherwise, you can open yourself also. A little more time will be needed, that’s all. Otherwise an opener is good.

If an opener is standing just by your side, and he starts his Latihan, you simply stand and his energy starts pulsating with you, his energy starts moving around you. Like a fragrance he surrounds you – suddenly you feel the music. Just as if there is a good singer, or somebody is playing on an instrument, you start beating your feet, or you start tapping the chair, or you start pulsating with it – just like that, a deep energy inside him moves and the whole room and the quality of the room is changed immediately.

You have not to do anything; you have simply to be there, loose and natural, just waiting for something to happen. And if your body starts moving, you have to allow it, you just have to cooperate and allow. The cooperation should not become too direct, it should not become a pushing; it should remain just an allowing. Suddenly your body starts moving, as if you are possessed, as if a great energy from above has descended on you, as if a cloud has come and has surrounded you – and now you are possessed by that cloud, and the cloud is penetrating within your body, and your body starts making movements. Your hands are raised, you make subtle movements, you start a small dance, soft gestures; your body is taken up.

If you know anything about automatic writing it will be easy to follow what happens in Latihan. In automatic writing you take a pencil in your hand; you close your eyes, you wait. Suddenly you feel a jerk in the hand: your hand is possessed, as if something has entered. You are not to do anything because if you do then it will not be from the beyond; it will be your doing. You simply have to allow. Loose and natural – Tilopa’s words are wonderful; they cannot be improved upon. Loose and natural, you wait with the pencil, with closed eyes; when the jerk comes and the hand starts moving, you have to allow it, that’s all. You have not to resist it because you can resist. The energy is very subtle, and, in the beginning, not very powerful. If you just stop it, it can be stopped.

And the energy is not aggressive; if you don’t allow, it will not come. If you doubt, it will not happen because with doubt your hand will be resisting. With doubt, you will not allow; you will fight. So that’s why trust is so meaningful, shraddha. You simply trust and leave your hand there; by and by the hand starts moving, now the hand starts making wiggles on the paper. Allow it! Then somebody simply asks a question, or you yourself ask a question; let the question be there, loose in the mind, not very persistent, not forcing, just raise the question and wait. And suddenly the answer is written.

If ten persons try, at least three persons will be absolutely capable of automatic writing. Thirty percent of people are not aware that they can become so receptive. And this can become a great force in your life. Explanations, what happens, differ; that is not important. The deepest explanation that I find true is: your own highest center possesses your lowest center; your own highest peak of consciousness catches hold of your lowest unconscious mind. You ask and your own inner being answers. Nobody else is there, but your inner being, which you don’t know, is very superior to you.

Your own innermost being is your ultimate flowering possibility. As if the flower takes possession of the seed and answers. The seed doesn’t know, but the flower…as if your possibility takes possession of your actuality and answers; as if your ultimate potentiality takes possession of whatsoever you are, and answers. Or the future takes possession of the past, the unknown takes possession of the known, the formless takes possession of the form – all metaphors, but I feel you will understand the significance – as if your old age takes possession of your childhood, and answers.

The same happens in Latihan with the whole body. In automatic writing you leave only your hand loose and natural. In Latihan you leave your whole body loose, and you wait and you cooperate, and suddenly you feel an urge. The hand is rising by itself, as if somebody is pulling it by some invisible strings. Allow it! And the leg moves; you take a turn, you start a small dance; very chaotic, with no rhythm, with no manipulation, but by and by, as you get deeper, it takes on its own rhythm. Then it is no longer chaotic, it takes on its own order, it becomes a discipline, but not forced by you. This is your highest possibility taking possession of your lowest body and moving it.

Latihan is the first step. And, by and by, you will feel so beautiful doing it that you will feel a meeting is happening between you and the cosmos. But this is only the first step. That’s why in Subud something is missing. The first step in itself is very beautiful, but it is not the last step. I would like you to complete it. For thirty minutes at least – sixty will be wonderful – by and by from thirty you reach to sixty minutes of Latihan dancing.

In sixty minutes your body, from pore to pore, from cell to cell, is cleansed; it is a catharsis, you are completely renewed, all the dirt is burned. That’s what Tilopa says: [In Mahamudra all one’s sins are burned...] The past is thrown into the fire. It is a new birth, a rebirth. And you feel a showering energy all over you, in and out. And the dance is not only outside. Soon, when you get attuned to it, you will feel an inner dance also. It is not only that your body is dancing; inside the energy is dancing and they both cooperate with each other. And then a pulsation happens, and you feel yourself pulsating with the universe, you have found the universal rhythm.

Thirty to sixty minutes is the time: start at thirty and end at sixty. Somewhere in between you will have the right time. And you will come to know: if you feel attuned near about forty minutes, then that is your right time; if you feel attuned at twenty minutes, then that is your right time. Then your meditation must go beyond that: if you feel attuned at ten minutes, twenty minutes will do; if you feel attuned at fifteen minutes, thirty minutes will do. Do it double, don’t take any chances, so really you are completely cleaned. And end it with prayer.

When you are completely cleaned and feeling that your body is refreshed – you have been under a shower of energy, and your whole body is feeling one, undivided; and the substantialness of the body is lost, you feel it more like an energy, a movement, a process, not material – now you are ready. Then kneel down on the earth.

Kneeling down is beautiful; just like Sufis kneel down, or Mohammedans do their prayer in the mosque, kneel down like them because that is the best posture for Latihan. Then raise both your hands toward the sky with closed eyes, and feel yourself like a hollow vessel, hollow bamboo: inside, hollow, just like an earthen pot. Your head is the mouth of the pot, and tremendous energy is falling on your head as if you are standing under a waterfall. And you will be standing actually… After the Latihan you will feel it; it is like a waterfall, not like a shower. When you are ready it falls in greater strength, strong, and your body will start trembling, shaking, like a leaf in a strong wind; or, if you have stood under a waterfall sometime, then you will know. If you have never stood under one, go to a waterfall and stand under it and feel how it feels. That same feel will come after Latihan. Feel yourself hollow inside, nothing inside, just emptiness, and the energy is filling you, filling you completely.

Allow it to fall into you as deeply as possible, so it can reach to the farthest corner of your body and mind and soul. And when you feel it – you are so filled, and the whole body is shaking – kneel down, put your head down on the earth, and pour the energy into the earth. When you feel the energy is overflowing, pour it down into the earth. Take from the sky; give it back to the earth, and you just be a hollow bamboo in between.

This has to be done seven times. Take from the sky and pour down into the earth and kiss the earth, and pour down – and be empty completely. Pour down as completely as you did for filling; be completely empty. Then raise your hands again, fill again, pour down again. Seven times it has to be done because each time it penetrates one chakra of the body, one center of the body; each time it goes deeper in you. And if you do less than five times, then you will feel restless after it because the energy will be hanging somewhere in-between.

No, it has to penetrate all the seven chakras of your body so that you become completely hollow, a passage. The energy falls from the sky and goes into the earth, you are earthed; you simply pass the energy to the earth, just like electricity. For electricity we have to put an earth wire. The energy comes from the sky and goes into the earth, you become earthed: just a vessel, a hollow bamboo passing the energy. Seven times. You can do more, but not less. And this will be a complete Mahamudra.

If you do it every day, soon within three months, somewhere one day you will feel you are not there. Just the energy is pulsating with the universe. Nobody is there, the ego is completely lost, the doer is not. The universe is there, and you are there, the wave pulsating with the ocean: that is Mahamudra. That is the final orgasm, the most blissful state of consciousness that is possible.

This is just like two lovers making love, but a million-fold, and the same phenomenon multiplied by millions because now you are making love with the whole universe. That’s why Tantra is known as the yoga of sex; Tantra is known as the path of love.

[In Mahamudra all one’s sins are burned;
in Mahamudra one is released
from the prison of this world.
This is the dharma’s supreme torch.
Those who disbelieve it are fools
who ever wallow in misery and sorrow.]

And Tilopa is perfectly clear. He is absolutely frank. He says: [Those who disbelieve it are fools…]

Why call them fools? He does not call them sinners, he does not call them irreligious, he simply calls them fools because not believing it they are missing the greatest bliss that life can give them. They are simply fools. And it cannot happen unless you trust. Unless you trust so much that you can surrender completely, it cannot happen. All bliss, all moments of bliss, happen only when you surrender. Even death becomes beautiful if you can surrender to it, then what to say about life? If you surrender, of course life is the greatest blessing; it is a benediction. You are missing the ultimate gift because you cannot trust.

If you want to learn anything, learn trust. Nothing else is needed. If you are miserable, nothing else will help – learn trust. If you don’t feel any meaning in life and you feel meaninglessness, nothing will help – learn trust. Trust gives meaning because trust makes you capable of allowing the whole to descend upon you.

[Those who disbelieve it are fools
who ever wallow in misery and sorrow.

To strive for liberation
one should rely on a guru.
When your mind receives his blessing
emancipation is at hand.]

Why believe in a guru? Why believe in a master? It is because the unknown is very far from you. It is just a dream, a hope at the most, a wish fulfillment. You listen to me; I may talk about the bliss, but that bliss remains a word. You may desire it, but you don’t know what it is, you don’t know the taste of it. It is very, very far away from you. You are deep in misery, in anguish. In your misery and anguish you may start hoping, expecting, desiring bliss, but that will not help – you need a real taste of it.

Who will give it to you? Only one who has tasted it: he can become the opener. He can act like a catalytic agent. He will not do anything; just his presence, and from him the unknown flows toward you. He is just like a window. Your doors are closed; his doors are not closed. Your windows are closed and you have forgotten how to open them; his windows are not closed. Through his window you can have a look at the sky; through him you can have a glimpse. A master, a guru, is nothing but a window. One has to pass through him, one has to have a little taste – then, then you can also open your own windows; otherwise the whole thing remains verbal.

You can read Tilopa, but unless you find Tilopa nothing will happen to you. Your mind may go on, saying, “Maybe this man is mad, in some hallucination, dreaming, a philosopher thinking, a poet.” But how can this happen? How is it possible for you to be blissful? You have known only misery and suffering, you have known only poison. You cannot believe in elixir; you have not known it, how can you believe it?

A master is nothing but a personified phenomenon of the total bliss. In him it is there, vibrating. If you trust him, his vibrations can reach you. A master is not a teacher, he doesn’t teach you. A master is not concerned with doctrines and principles; a master is a presence. If you trust him, he is available. A master is an availability. Through him you will have the first glimpse of the divine. Then you can go on your own.

[To strive for liberation
one should rely – on a master – on a guru.
When your mind receives his blessing
emancipation is at hand.]

A master cannot give you emancipation, but he can bring you to the very brink of it. He cannot give you the emancipation – that has to be achieved by you, because a thing given by one person can be taken away by someone else. Only that which is yours can be yours. A master cannot give you, he can only bless you – but his blessing is a vital phenomenon. Through him you can look into your own future. Through him you can be aware of your own destiny. Through him the farthest peaks come nearer, closer. Through him you start coming up, like a seed trying to sprout toward the sky. His blessing can water your seed.

In the East, the blessing of the master is very, very significant. The West has remained completely unaware of the phenomenon. The West knows teachers, not masters. Teachers are those who teach you about truth. A master is one who gives you the taste of it. A teacher may be someone who does not know himself, he may have learned from other teachers. Seek a master. Teachers are many; masters are few.

And how will you seek a master? Just move. Whenever you hear a rumor that somebody has become enlightened, go and remain available. Don’t be much of a thinker, be more of a lover because a master is found through feeling. A teacher is found through thinking. Listen to the teacher; his logical appeal will be there, his arguments. Eat the master; drink the master. Listening won’t help because he is a living phenomenon; the energy is there. If you drink and eat him, only then you will become aware of a different quality of being.

A great receptivity is needed; a great feminine receptivity is needed to find the master. And if you are available and a living master is there, suddenly something clicks. There is nothing to do on your part – simply be there. It is such a vital energy phenomenon that if you are available, something simply clicks; you are caught. It is a love phenomenon. You cannot prove to anybody else: “I have found the master.” There is no proof. Don’t try that because anybody can prove against it. You have found and you know it; you have tasted and you know it. This knowledge is of the heart, of the feeling.

Says Tilopa:
[To strive for liberation
one should rely on a guru.
When your mind receives his blessing
emancipation is at hand.]

The very word guru is meaningful. The master doesn’t carry that significance. The master seems to be as if someone has mastered a thing, gone under a long training, has become disciplined, has become a master. Guru is totally different. The word guru means one who is very, very heavy, a heavy cloud and just waiting for your thirst to pour down; a flower heavy with perfume just waiting for your nostrils to be there, and it will penetrate. The word guru means heavy, very heavy, heavy with energy and the unknown, heavy with the divine, heavy like a woman who is pregnant.

A master is pregnant with God. That’s why in the East we call the guru: God itself. The West cannot understand it because they think God means the creator of the world. We don’t bother much about the creator here. We call the guru God. Why? – because he is pregnant with the divine, he is heavy with the divine. He is ready to pour down; only your thirst, a thirsty earth, is needed.

In fact, he has not mastered anything, he has not gone through any training, he has not disciplined himself. It is not an art that he has become a master of, no. He has lived life in its totality, not as a discipline, but natural and loose. He has not forced himself. He has been moving with the winds; he has allowed nature to have its own course. And through millions of experiences of suffering and pain, and bliss and happiness, he has become mature; he has become ripe. A guru is a ripe fruit just waiting to fall, heavy. If you are ready to receive, he can fall into you.

A guru is a totally Eastern phenomenon. The West is not yet aware of it. In the West it is difficult to feel. Why go and bow down to a guru? Why put your head at his feet? Looks humiliating! But if you want to receive, you have to bow down. He is heavy, he can pour, but then you have to bow down, otherwise you won’t receive it.

When a disciple with total trust bows down at the feet of his master, something is happening there which is not visible to the eyes. Energy is falling from the master, entering the disciple. Something invisible to the eyes is happening there. If you become aware you can see it also: the aura of the master, his rainbow, pouring himself down into the disciple. You will see it in fact happening.

The master is heavy with divine energy. And he has infinite energy now; he can pour it down to infinite disciples. He can work with millions of disciples alone. He is never exhausted because now he is connected with the whole; he has found the source of all. Through him you can also take the jump into that abyss.

Surrender toward God is difficult because you don’t know where God is. He has never given his address to anybody ever. But a guru can be found. If you ask me what a guru is, I will tell you: a guru is the address of God.

[When your mind receives his blessing
emancipation is at hand.]

Then you can be certain that you have been accepted. When you can feel the master’s blessings pouring on you, showering on you like flowers, you can be certain emancipation is at hand.

It happened…

One of Buddha’s disciples, Sariputta, one day bowed down at Buddha’s feet. Suddenly he felt the energy falling on him. He felt a sudden transformation, a mutation of his whole mind, as if he was being destroyed and created again. He cried, “No! Wait a little.” The whole assembly of Buddha’s disciples could not understand what was happening. And he said, “Wait a little, not so soon!”
Buddha said, “But why?”
He said, “Then these feet will be lost to me. Wait a little. Emancipation is at hand and I would like to be with you a little longer. Don’t push me away so soon” – because once the master has blessed and the emancipation is at hand, this is the last thing: one has to say goodbye to the master.
Says Sariputta, “Wait!”

Sariputta became enlightened later on. Buddha told him, “Now go. I waited long enough. Now go and spread whatsoever I have given to you; go and give it to others.”
Sariputta had to go, weeping and crying. Somebody asked, “You have become enlightened and you weep and cry?”
He said, “Yes, I have become enlightened, but I can throw away the bliss of enlightenment if Buddha allows me to live at his feet.”

Such deep gratitude – and then wherever Sariputta lived, every day, in the morning, he would bow down in the direction where he knew Buddha was moving. And people asked him again and again, “Why do you do this? To whom do you bow down?”
He said, “Buddha is moving in the south.”
When the last days of Sariputta came, he inquired, “Where is Buddha right now because I would like to die bowing down in that direction?” And he died bowing down in the direction where Buddha was.

When the energy is received, when the final benediction comes from the master, the emancipation is at hand – one has to say goodbye.

In Zen, when a disciple comes to a master in Japan, he brings his mat. He unrolls his mat before the master, sits on the mat, listens to the master; every day he comes, follows whatsoever the master says, leaves the mat there, for years together. Then the day he receives the final blessing, he rolls the mat again, takes the mat back, bows down and leaves the master. That mat is symbolic. Whenever a disciple rolls the mat again, others know he has received the benediction. Now this is the final goodbye.

[Alas, all things in this world are meaningless,
they are but sorrow’s seeds.
Small teachings lead to acts ...
one should only follow teachings that are great.]

Tantra is the great teaching. Small teachings tell you what to do, what not to do. They give you Ten Commandments: do this; don’t do that – small teachings! Great teaching doesn’t give you any commandments. It is not concerned with what you do; it is concerned with what you are, your being, your center, your consciousness; that is the only significant thing.

Says Tilopa:
[Alas, all things in this world are meaningless,
they are but sorrow’s seeds.
Small teachings lead to acts ...
one should only follow teachings that are great.]

In this world, everything is the seed of sorrow. But a ray of light enters the world whenever a person becomes enlightened. In this world, everything is a seed of sorrow, but a light ray comes from the above whenever a person becomes enlightened. Follow that ray of light and you can reach to the very source of the light: the sun.

“And remember,” says Tilopa, “don’t become a victim of small teachings.”

Many are. People come to me, they say, “We are vegetarians, will it lead us to enlightenment?” It is a very small teaching. They say, “We don’t eat in the night, will it lead us to enlightenment?” – a very small teaching. They say, “We believe in celibacy” – a very small teaching. They do many things, but one thing they never touch: their being. They manage their character, they try to be as sagely as possible, but the whole thing remains a decoration. A discipline from without is a decoration. It should come from within; it should spread toward the periphery from the center. It should not be forced from the periphery toward the center.

The great teaching is: You are already that which you can be – realize this. You are already the goal – be aware of this. This very moment your destiny can be fulfilled. For what are you waiting? Don’t believe in gradual steps, take the jump – be courageous. Only one who is courageous can follow the great teaching of Tantra.

Afraid, scared – afraid of dying, scared of losing yourself, fearful of surrender – you will become a victim of small teachings because you can manage small teachings. Not to eat this, not to do this, you can manage; you remain in control.

The great teaching is to surrender, to surrender your control and let the whole take you away wherever it would like to take you. Don’t swim against the current. Leave yourself into the river, become the river; and the river is already going to the sea. This is the great teaching.

Enough for today.