Chapter 10 Chapter Nine: Sannyas ①: Letting the past die

For me, sannyas is not a serious business.Life itself is not very serious, serious people are always lifeless.Life itself is just full of energy without any purpose.So for me, sannyas is about living a purposeless life, seeing life as a game, not a job.If you can see your whole life as just a game, you are a sannyasin.You have given up everything.Giving up is not leaving the world, but changing your attitude.This is how I can turn anyone into a sannyas.For me, attunement itself is a game.i won't ask Any qualifications - whether you qualify or not.Because qualifications are only required when doing serious things.As long as there is, everyone is qualified enough to play; even if he is not qualified to be a sannyasin, it doesn't matter, because the whole thing is just a game.

① Sannyas (sannyas): refers to a certain realm of practice. ——Editor's note So I don't ask for any qualifications and my sannyas does not involve any obligations.Once you become a male sannyasin (sannyasin), or a female sannyasin (sannyasi-ni), you are completely free.It means that you have made a decision, and it is final: to live in indecision, to live in freedom. Once you are initiated into a sannyasin, you enter a future without a map, without a plan.Now you are no longer bound by the past and you are free to live.So, for me, sannyas is a person who decides to live to the limit, to live to the best, to live to the fullest.You live from one moment to the next, act from one moment to the next, and each moment is complete in itself.You don't decide how to act, the moment comes, you act.There is no pre-decision and no pre-planning.

Sannyas means living from one moment to another without any bondage to the past.If I give you a rosary, if I give you new clothes, it's just for your memory: to remind you that now you don't have to make any decisions, that you are no longer who you are, and when you feel When the knowledge has become so deep that you don't need to remember it anymore, then throw away the robe, throw away the rosary.But this is not until the awareness becomes very deep, then even in sleep you know you are a sannyasin.So, a new name, a new robe, a rosary, these are just designed to help you, to help you towards freedom, to help you towards the whole of being, to help you towards total action.

Recluse means you have recognized yourself as a seed, a potential.Now that you have made up your mind to grow, this is the final decision.Deciding to grow is a great renunciation, giving up the safety of the seed, giving up the "integrity" of the seed.But this security comes at a great price.The seed is dead, it is only potentially alive.Unless it becomes a tree, unless it grows, it is dead, only potentially alive.As far as I know, human beings are like seeds unless they decide to grow, unless they jump into the unknown: dead, closed. To be a sannyasin is to decide to grow, to decide to go into the unknown, to decide to live indecision.This is jumping into the unknown, which is not a religion, not bound by any religion; it is religion itself.

At first glance, sannyas looks like something that restricts one's activities. Why does a person have to change into red clothes?Since sannyas is an inner and not an outer thing, why does one have to change his appearance? Sannyas is not negative.The word sannyas indicates negativity, but it is not pure negativity.It means leaving something, but it is only leaving something because you have got something else.Something has to go, not in itself meaningful, but it will create a space for something new to come in.Negativity just creates a space.If you're going to grow, you need space.

As we are now, we have no space inside, we are full of unnecessary things and thoughts.Sannyas, in its negative sense, just means creating a space to put aside the trivial, the useless, the worthless, so that you can grow in it. Growth is debilitating, but growth is also positive.I want to emphasize: sannyas is active.Negativity is only about clearing, it is just about clearing the ground for growth to come in.Negativity is just something outside, something outside, but growth is inside.Positivity is the center and negativity is the periphery. Actually, there is nothing that is only negative or only positive.That's impossible because they are poles.Existence exists between two poles: Positivity and negativity are the two banks of the river between which Existence flows.No river can exist with only one bank, nor can existence.It is wrong when we emphasize only one side, one bank, or one end.But when you accept the whole, then nothing is emphasized.You accept the polarity, and you grow in it; you use the dialectical movement of the polarity, and you move through it.

Sannyas is understood as negative.Its meaning has become negative, because you have to start from the negative, you have to start from the surroundings.This has to be understood because sannyas is inner: there is something to grow inside, so why do you start outside?Since you have to grow from within, why not start from within? But, you can't start from within, because as far as you're concerned, you're around, you're outside.You can only start with who you are now, you cannot start where you are not. For example, health is something that grows within.But now you are sick and uncomfortable, so we have to start with your sickness instead of your health, we have to eliminate the sickness.By eliminating disease, we simply create a space for health to grow; however, the beginning is negative.

Medicine does not have a definition of health, they cannot have a definition.All they can have is a definition of disease and a science of how to get rid of it.Health remains undefined, disease is defined negatively, because you can only start with disease, you cannot start with health.When healthy, you don't need to start at all. So if you have that inner space, you don't need sannyas.Sannyas is to deny the world (thesamsara), which is disease.When I say the world (samsara), I don't mean the world is sick, I mean the world that you create around yourself.Everyone lives in a world of their own creation.

I do not deny the world that exists outside, it cannot be denied, it is there.But you have a world of fantasy, a world of dreams surrounding you.And that dream world has become you.The periphery has become your center, and you have completely forgotten the center.So when one begins, one has to negate this dream world, because this negation is the beginning.This becomes negative, and thus sannyas appears negative.We give it a negative connotation because it means to deny this dream world.So sannyas is really curative: it is just medicine to get rid of disease.When the disease is removed, the possibility of inner growth arises.So sannyas is just creating a situation.

You must clearly understand that when I say: "Negiate the world," I do not mean the world that exists, but the world that each individual creates around him.Because with this world of dreams, we cannot know the world that really exists; this constant dreaming becomes a barrier, it becomes a double barrier, you cannot go inwards because there is something that exists There you cannot go out, because there is also something that exists there.You are trapped in your dreaming head, unable to advance or retreat. When this dreaming block was removed, miracles occurred.There is no more disease, you start to exist in two worlds at the same time, only then they are not two worlds anymore, because it is the barrier that separates them into two worlds.You become a being within; you become a being without; that's why the negative approach is chosen.

How has sannyas affected your behaviour?There are two possibilities: one is to consciously change your behavior, and the other is to consciously change your consciousness.Behavior is nothing but the expression of consciousness.However, if you start with behavior, you may continue the old consciousness, and you can adjust any new behavior to the old consciousness.Well, outwardly the behavior has changed, but nothing has really changed. For example, your mind can continue to be violent, but your behavior can be nonviolent.You can be non-violent in your actions, but the consciousness is still the same as before when you acted violently.In doing so, you begin to suppress your own consciousness.You have to repress it because you have to act like it wasn't your conscious action.Consciousness has to be suppressed, and when you suppress consciousness you create unconsciousness in yourself. When you start allowing your consciousness not to act, then you are denying a part of your consciousness, you are pushing it away.This part becomes your unconscious, and it becomes more powerful than your conscious, because you have to go on denying your actions.You become false, a false personality is created.This false personality exists as long as the unconscious exists.If you try to change behavior directly, you become less and less conscious and more and more unconscious. A person who becomes fully behavior-oriented is only automatic.Only the tiny part of consciousness that is needed for automatic functioning is there; besides, the whole mind becomes unconscious.This unconscious mind is the disease of your conscious mind. You can start by changing behavior in the same way that more or less "moral" people do.All so-called religions start with changing your behavior.But I don't start by changing your behavior, I start by changing your consciousness, because actually consciousness is behavior.It is behavior.Outward actions are meaningless. So, start by changing your consciousness. That's why my emphasis is on meditation, not on behavior.Meditation changes your consciousness.First, it breaks down the barrier between your conscious and unconscious, you become more fluid, you start moving in less fixed ways, you become one with your conscious.Therefore, meditation must first destroy inner obstacles, and the elimination of obstacles means the expansion of your consciousness. You have to become more conscious, so the first thing is to become more conscious of whatever you are doing, I am not interested in the content of what you are doing, but in the awareness of what you are doing.You have to do it more consciously. For example, if you are violent, so-called moralists and religious people say, "Be nonviolent, develop your nonviolence".I'm not going to say that, I'm going to say: Be violent, but use violence consciously.Don't change your behavior, be conscious of your violence, and you will find that it is impossible for you to use violence consciously, because the more conscious you are, the less likely you are to use violence. Violence has an inner process that exists only when you are not aware of it.This awareness of yours changes the whole thing. If you are aware you cannot be violent.Unawareness is a necessary condition for violence to exist, and it is also necessary for anger, sex, or things that people want to change in their behavior. The stronger the inner psychological mechanism, the less aware you are of what you are doing, and the more likely you are to do evil things.When I say something is sinful, I don't mean its content.I say a thing is evil when it unnecessarily creates the unconscious: this is my definition.I'm not saying violence is bad because it kills someone.I say violence is bad because you cannot use violence without being unconscious.That unconsciousness is evil, because that unconsciousness is the background and foundation of all ignorance, dreams, illusions and nonsense that we can create.Sin is just an unconscious mind. So, for a sannyasin, for someone who has become a sannyasin, I stress that you do whatever you are doing.Don't change your behavior, change your consciousness.Consciously do whatever you are doing.Be angry, don't worry about your anger, but be conscious about it.This awareness becomes qualitative and your whole behavior changes.You can't stay the same.Now this change is not only a change in behaviour, not only a change in what you do, it is also a change in your being. You don't have to create a false personality, a mask.You can be with yourself in complete poise.But this "possibility of being with yourself" comes only when you become fully conscious.You live with a mask, and that's why there's tension.You are violent and you have to be non-violent; you are angry and you have to act dead; you are sexual and you have to act non-sexual.This creates tension, which creates anxiety.This is pain, all pain; you have to be something you are not, so you are destined to be in deep anxiety all the time.This "becoming something you are not" makes all your life energies decay, consumed in tension and conflict.In fact, the conflict is never with anyone else, it is always with yourself. So I emphasize being equanimously with myself.You can only be at ease when your actions are conscious.So, be conscious; be meditative, be conscious in your actions.Then things start to change without you knowing it. Because your consciousness is different, you will be different. Why, you ask, do I emphasize changing clothes, changing names—these external things.They are the outer, the outermost things. As far as I know man, as far as human existence is concerned, he is clothes.For a person, clothes are very important.You put a man in uniform, his face changes, his attitude changes; something different arises in him.Look at a policeman, he's not the same person at all when he's in plain clothes and when he's in uniform.Why?What is on the outside creates a change on the inside, because you are only on the outside.There is nothing "inside" yet. Gurdierev once said a very meaningful thing: as far as you are now, you have no soul.He was both right and wrong.You have a soul, but you don't know it.You are external, so clothes are very important.Because of clothes, one becomes beautiful; because of clothes, one becomes ugly.Because of the clothes, he is respected; because of the clothes, he is not respected.A judge has to wear certain clothes, Supreme Court justices have to wear special robes, and no one asks why.With that robe on, he's a Supreme Court justice; without that robe, he's nothing. That's how people are.When I look at a person, he's more about the clothes than the mind.This is the case because we belong to the body, we identify with the body. This identification with the body becomes identification with the clothes. If I ask a man to put on women's clothes and walk down the street, do you think it's just a change of clothes?No!First, he wasn't prepared to do it.No man is prepared to do this.Why not ready?Why resist?It is only a change of clothes, and clothes are neither masculine nor feminine.How can clothes be male or female?But in fact, clothes are not just clothes, psychologically, they have become male or female identification, if even clothes have gender, then what type of our mind? If you walk around in feminine clothes, you will feel feminine.Your posture will be different, your walk will be different, your eyes will be different, your awareness of what is happening in the street will be different.You will be aware of things that you have never been aware of before, even though you have been walking down the same street your whole life.Because everything about you will be different, others will see you differently, and you will react differently to their eyes.You won't be the same person anymore. So when I say that clothes are our outside, they just look outside, they have gone deep inside, they have penetrated inside.So, I emphasize the change of clothes.To be ready to change clothes is to be ready to drop the old mind, which is associated with the clothes.To be ready to make this change is to be ready to change your identity. When someone refuses to change clothes, I know why he refuses.He keeps asking, "Why are you emphasizing the clothes?" But I am not emphasizing them, he is emphasizing them.He kept saying, "Why do you have to emphasize the clothes? They are just external. If I keep wearing the same clothes, what difference does it make?" I am not emphasizing the clothes at all, he is emphasizing them, he is not even aware that he is rejecting.So I asked him, "Why are you refusing?" If someone came to me and didn't refuse at all, I might not even ask him to change his clothes.If I ask him to change his clothes and he says "okay" then I probably won't ask him to change because he doesn't really identify with the clothes. So I might ask you to change your clothes: put on a special robe, a special color.When you change your clothes, you also change.Sometimes you are this color, sometimes you are that color.If I just ask you to change the style of your clothes without specifying any particular color, it may not be a change at all, because you are already constantly changing the style of clothes.So, only by putting on a non-transformable robe does the change take place, and then there is a real change.If I give you a robe that cannot be changed, then the change can take place in you. Why should we really change clothes?It's a deep thing, not just an external thing.Why do we get bored with one style, one color, one fabric?Why do we get bored?The mind is always after something new, something different.We keep asking how to stop our mind from going on and on while we keep feeding it new things.We keep asking how to stop our constantly wobbling mind—how to still it, how to quiet it down—but we go on feeding it in subtle ways.We keep changing clothes, we keep changing things, we keep changing everything.We are weary of anything that stays the same, but the more you feed your mind with variety, the more it needs to be fed. Putting on a constant robe, for the first time your mind has to struggle with its changing identity every moment of every day.If you can wear an unchanging robe with poise, soon you will be poised to face a unchanging world.This is just the beginning.The more poised you are with the unchanging, the more likely the mind will stop. So it is important to become more and more at ease with the unchanging, only then will you be able to reach eternity.How can you reach eternity with a mind that is constantly demanding change?You have to start with constants. Wearing this unchanging garment, at some point you will cease to be aware of the garment.When you use the same robe, the same color, you quickly lose awareness of the clothes.Walking down the street, you will no longer be aware of those clothing stores.Your awareness of these things will disappear because it is the mind that is paying attention to such things.If your mind is looking at the clothes and clothing stores again, be aware of it, what is your mind asking for? We think it's great to keep changing clothes, but with a constant robe, you get a kind of graceful beauty.This cannot be obtained by constantly changing robes.In changing robes you are hiding your ugliness and nothing else.But put on a constant robe and everything about who you are now is revealed. When you change your clothes, others become aware of your clothes.That's why everyone keeps asking about your new clothes.But when you keep wearing the same robe, no one asks about your clothes, that question disappears.That's when people notice you, not your clothes. This is a fact every woman knows.If she wears ornaments, if she wears fine clothes, you become aware of her ornaments, her clothes, and you forget who she is.It's a cover up.Clothes are not something that shows, but something that conceals.The more expensive the jewelry, the more you can cover it up, because people pay more attention to the jewelry. A jewel is worn on my finger and my finger is hidden.The diamond is so attractive, its brilliance is somehow connected to my finger, but it is not part of the finger at all.A naked finger reveals its true colors.If it is beautiful, it is beautiful; if it is ugly, it is ugly. There is beauty in a man who does not hide his ugliness.There's a certain grace to a person who doesn't hide anything that only shows up when you're completely naked.When you are poised, a certain grace emerges, and even an ugly face can become beautiful.But with concealment, a beautiful face can also become ugly. To me, beauty is being who you really are.Be who you are and relax completely within yourself.If you are ugly, let it be ugly, be at ease with it; then a subtle beauty will begin to emerge in your face.With relaxation and comfort, there is a subtle flow that begins to emerge, and it does not come from diamonds, it now comes from within you. A person who is not at ease with himself will not be at ease with others.A man who does not love himself and hides himself cannot be loved by anyone else.He is deceiving others, and others are deceiving him.We never really meet, then, just two faces meet - distant faces.I have a face made up, and you have a face made up.I am covering myself and you are covering yourself.Two faces meet in this room, but there is no real meeting and communication between the two faces. But why do you want to change your face?Because if you don't change, you won't pay enough attention to the face you're showing, and the real face will be revealed.That's why when a lover becomes your wife it's a completely different person.Now she is not the same person anymore, because she can no longer put on a new face.She is so close to you, that truth must come out.In the morning, it will just be who she is, and she is ugly.On the beach, you are attracted to her.But in the morning, in bed, through the night, she'll just be who she is.Once you see your wife just waking up in the morning, you already know her ugly face.But it's not because she is ugly, her face is ugly, but because now there is no hiding, you see everything, and she sees everything. So, when I say that a sannyasin has to wear a kind of robe, it means being free from changing clothes and changing identities, being who you are, being who you are, just accepting who you are.When you accept yourself, others will start accepting you; but that is irrelevant.If you're going to think about being accepted by others, you're going to create a false face.Nothing to think about, it just happens. So, I changed my name, I changed my clothes, just to help someone living on the periphery.