"NIETZSCHE WROTE:" ""HE WHO FIGHTS WITH MONSTERS" "SHOULD LOOK TO IT THAT HE HIMSELF DOES NOT BECOME A MONSTER," "AND WHEN YOU GAZE LONG INTO" "AN ABYSS THE ABYSS ALSO GAZES INTO YOU."" "THE LAST PHRASE SEEMS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DESCRIPTION" "OF THE ART OF MEDITATION." "WOULD YOU COMMENT?" "Maneesha," "Friedrich Nietzsche" "is a strange" "philosopher, poet and a mystic." "His strangeness is" "that his philosophy is not the ordinary" "rational approach to life;" "his strangeness is also that he writes poetry in prose." "And he is also a strange mystic," "because he has never traveled" "the ordinary paths of mysticism." "It seems as if mysticism happened to him." "Perhaps being a philosopher and a poet together," "he became available" "to the experiences of the mystic also." "The philosopher is pure logic," "and the poet is pure irrationality." "The mystic is beyond both." "He cannot be categorized as rational, and he cannot be categorized" "as irrational." "He is both, and he is neither." "It very rarely happens that a philosopher is a poet also," "because they are diametrically opposite dimensions." "And they create a tremendous inner tension in the person." "And Nietzsche lived that tension to its very extreme." "It finally led him into madness," "because on the one hand he is one of the most intelligent" "products of Western philosophy, without any other parallel," "and on the other hand" "so full of poetic vision" "that certainly his heart and his head would have been constantly in fight." "The poet and the philosopher cannot be good bedfellows." "It is easy to be poet, it is easy to be a philosopher, but it is a tremendous strain to be both." "And not in any mediocre way " "his philosopher is as great a genius as his poet." "And the problem becomes more complicated" "because of this tension between the head and the mind." "He starts becoming available to something more " "more than philosophy, more than poetry." "That's what I am calling mysticism." "His statement is of tremendous importance:" ""He who fights with monsters should look to it" "that he himself does not become a monster. "" "I have always been telling you that" "you can choose a friend without being too much cautious," "but you cannot afford an enemy" "without being very alert - because the friend is not going to change you, but the enemy is going to change you." "With the friend there is no fight, with the friend there is no quarrel;" "the friend accepts you as you are, you accept the friend as he is." "But with the enemy the situation is totally different." "You are trying to destroy the enemy and the enemy is trying to destroy you." "And naturally you will affect each other, you will start taking" "methods, means, techniques from each other." "After a while it becomes almost impossible to find who is who." "They both have to behave in the same way, they both have to use the same language," "they both have to be on the same level." "You cannot remain on your heights and fight an enemy who lives in the dark valleys down;" "you will have to come down." "You will have to be as mean, as cunning as your enemy is - perhaps you will have to be more, if you want to win." "Nietzsche is right that:" ""He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster." "And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. "" "The second part of the statement" "is actually the very essence of meditation:" "it is gazing into emptiness, nothingness," "into an abyss." "And when you gaze into an abyss it is not one-sided;" "the abyss is also gazing into your eyes." "When I am looking at you, it is not only I am looking at you;" "you are also looking at me." "The abyss has its own ways of gazing in you." "The empty sky also gazes in you, the faraway star also looks into you." "And if the abyss is allowed to gaze into you, soon you will find" "a great" "harmony between yourself and the silence of the abyss," "you will also become part of the abyss." "The abyss will be outside you and also inside you." "What he is saying" "is immensely beautiful and truthful." "The meditator has to Iearn to gaze into things which he wants to become himself." "Look into the silent sky," "uncIouded." "And look long enough," "and you will come to a point when small clouds of thoughts" "within you disappear, and the two skies become one." "There is no outer, there is no inner:" "there is simply one expanse." "For thousands of years meditators have been gazing" "at the early sun in the morning," "because later it becomes too difficult to gaze into it." "But the early sun, just rising above the horizon," "can be looked into" "without any danger to the eyes." "And if you allow, then the light and the color" "that is spread all over the horizon starts spreading within you " "you become part of the horizon." "You are no more just a gazer;" "you have become part of the scenery." "An ancient parable in China is that" "one emperor who was very much interested in paintings, and had a great collection of paintings," "announced a very great prize for the best painting." "AII great painters of the country arrived into the capital, started working." "One painter said, "It will take at Ieast three years for me. "" "The king said, "But I'm too old. "" "The painter said, "You need not be worried." "You can give me the award right now." "If you are not certain of your life," "I am certain about my painting." "But I'm not asking either." "I am just saying that I am going to do a job that has never been done." "I want to show you what really a painting should be;" "so forget about your death and forget about the award." "You allow me three years and a separate place in the palace." "And nobody has to come while I'm working;" "for three years I have to be left alone. "" "Each day was such an excitement for the emperor." "He was a weII-known painter, not only a painter - he was a Zen master too." "And finally those three years passed, and the painter invited the emperor... the painter took him into the room." "On the whole wall he has painted beautiful forest" "with mountains, with watertaIIs," "and a small footpath" "going round about and then getting lost into the trees behind the mountains." "The painting was so alive," "so three-dimensionaI," "that the king forgot completely that it is a painting and asked the painter," ""Where this footpath leads to?"" "The painter said, "I have never gone on it, but we can go and have a look where it goes. "" "And the story is that the painter and the king both walked on the path, entered into the forest, and have not returned since then." "The painting is still preserved;" "it shows the footprints of two persons on the footpath." "It seems to be absolutely unbelievable," "but the meaning is" "of tremendous importance." "The painter is saying that unless you can be lost into a painting, it is not a painting." "unless you can become part of the scene," "something is dividing you;" "you are not allowing yourself, totally, to be one with it, whether it is a sunrise or a sunset..." "A meditator has to Iearn" "in different ways, from different sides of Iife," "to be lost." "Those are the moments when you are no more," "but just a pure silence, an abyss, a sky," "a silent lake without any ripples on it." "And you have become one with it." "And all that is needed is " "just don't be" "a passer-by, don't be a tourist," "don't be in a hurry." "Sit down and relax." "And gaze into the silence, into the depth," "and allow that depth to enter into your eyes," "so that it can reach to your very being." "A moment comes when the gazer and the gazed become one," "the observer and the observed become one." "And that is the moment of meditation " "and there is no more" "golden experiences in existence." "And these golden moments can be yours... just a little art," "or rather a little knack, of losing yourself into something vast," "something so big" "that you cannot contain it." "But it can contain you" "And you can experience it only if you allow it to contain you." "Friedrich Nietzsche is right;" "he must have said" "what he had experienced himself." "It was unfortunate that he was born in the West." "In the East he would have been in the same category as Gautam Buddha or Mahavira or Bodhidharma or Lao Tzu." "In the West" "he had to be forced into a madhouse." "He himself could not figure it out." "It was too much:" "on the one hand his great philosophical rationality, on the other hand his" "insights into poetry, and those sudden glimpses of mystic experiences... it was too much." "He could not manage and started falling apart." "They were all so different from each other," "so diametrically opposite... that he tried hard" "somehow to keep them together, but the very effort" "of trying to keep them together became a nervous breakdown." "The same experience in the East" "would have been a totally" "different phenomenon." "Instead of being a nervous breakdown, it wouId have been a breakthrough." "Because the East has been working for thousands of years;" "its whole genius has been devoted to only one thing, and that is meditation." "And it has looked into all possible nooks and corners of meditation, and it has become capable" "to allow poetry," "to allow philosophy, without any problem," "without any opposition and tension." "But on the contrary they all become, under meditation," "a kind of orchestra - different musical instruments, but playing the same tune." "There have been many misfortunes in the world," "but I feel sorry the most for Friedrich Nietzsche" "because I can see" "what great potential he had." "But being in a wrong atmosphere," "having no precedent" "and having no way to work it out by himself, alone..." "It was certainly too much for an individual, for any individual, to work it alone." "Thousands of people have worked from different corners," "and now, in the East, we have a whole" "atmosphere" "in which" "any kind of genius can be absorbed." "And meditation will not be disturbed by it;" "meditation will be enhanced, and his own particular dimension - poetry, literature, science " "will also be enhanced." "Just he was in a wrong place, surrounded by wrong people" "who could only think him as mad." "And to them, he appeared mad." "Two kids were playing on the sea beach." "One of them asked the other," ""What do you want to be when you grow up?"" "He said, "When I grow up I want to be a great prophet." "I'm going to speak of profound truths. "" "The first boy said," ""But they say nobody listens to the prophets, so why become a prophet?"" ""Ah," he said," ""us prophets are very obstinate. "" "This very obstinacy" "became a problem," "because the whole society was against," "and a single man" "singIe-handedIy fighting for truths which people cannot even understand," "but they are absolutely ready to misunderstand." "If a man is sincere and if he cannot understand a thing he should say, "I do not understand it. "" "But people are not so sincere." "When they don't understand a thing they immediately start misunderstanding it." "Misunderstanding is their way of hiding their ignorance." "And the people" "who had come to know some truth are certainly obstinate." "You can crucify them, but you cannot change their minds." "You can throw them into madhouses, but they will go on repeating" "their insights." "Their insights become more valuable than their lives themselves." "East, at Ieast in the past, has been the best soil for prophets," "for philosophers, for poets, for mystics." "It is no more the case, but still something of the past" "goes on echoing in the atmosphere." "The West has corrupted the East too." "The West knows the tradition of Socrates being poisoned, it knows" "Jesus Christ's crucifixion;" "the East was absolutely" "innocent." "It was an accepted fact that everybody has the right to say his truth." "If you don't agree with him, that does not mean that you have to kill him." "Don't agree - that is your right;" "at Ieast we can agree to disagree with each other, but there is no need to bring swords" "when you don't have arguments." "Swords cannot become arguments." "But the atmosphere has been changing for almost two thousand years, since this country became" "invaded again and again by barbarians, uncivilized, uncultured... people who had no idea what philosophy is." "And finally, the three hundred years" "the West has" "tried in every possible way to corrupt the mind of the East" "through its educational system - through schools, through colleges, through universities." "Now even in the East crucifixion is possible." "Just the other day" "one of the great Hindu religious leaders, equivalent to the pope of the catholics," "Shankaracharya Svarupananda," "he was here for few days." "And I had told NeeIam, when she informed me, that he will speak something against me certainly." "But he spoke against me only on the Iast day, before leaving," "so when it came to me, he had already gone." "And what he has spoken against me" "is so poor" "that one feels great pity." "What has happened" "to the great philosophic" "traditions of the East?" " and these people represent those tradition." "He said about me that: "He is the most unparaIIeI dangerous man in the history of mankind. "" "He has not given any reason why." "To me this is a compliment." "But at Ieast I have the right to ask what is the reason to give me such a great compliment-"unparaIIeIIed in the whole history of mankind. "" "And what danger I am?" "This was not the way of the East." "When I was listening to his statement" "I remembered about his" "original shankaracharya," "Adi Shankaracharya." "He is a successor" "nearabout fourteen hundred years before." "A young man, he died when he was thirty-three." "He created" "a new tradition of sannyasins," "and he created four temples in all the four" "directions, and four shankaracharyas he appointed," "one for each direction." "I remembered about him, he traveled all over country" "defeating weII-known great philosophers - that was a totally different atmosphere." "One great philosopher was Mandan Mishra;" "he had a great following." "still in his memory his town exist." "I have been there many times." "It is on a beautiful" "bank of Narmada, one of the most beautiful rivers." "And that is the place where the river descends from the mountains, so" "it has tremendous beauty." "The city is called MandaIa, in memory of Mandan Mishra." "Shankara must have been at the age thirty" "when he reached MandaIa." "And just on the outskirts of the town," "on a well, few women were drawing water out of it." "And he asked them that, "I want to know" "where the great philosopher" "Mandan Mishra lives. "" "And those women started giggling and they said," ""Don't be worried, you just go inside." "You will find it. "" "Shankara said, "How I will find it?"" "They said, "You will find it, because even the parrots around his house " "he has a big garden and there are so many parrots in the garden " "they repeat poetries from the UPANISHADS, from the VEDAS." "If you hear parrots repeating, singing beautiful poetries from Upanishads, you can be certain that this is the house of Mandan Mishra. "" "He could not believe, but when he went and he saw, he had to believe." "He asked Mandan Mishra - he was old, nearabout seventy that - "I have come" "from very long distance from South India to have a discussion with you," "with a condition" "that:" "If I am defeated, I will become your disciple," "and if you are defeated, you will have to become my disciple." "And naturally, when I become your disciple all my disciples will become your disciples and the same will be true if you become my disciple - all your disciples will be becoming my disciple. "" "old Mandan Mishra looked at the young man and he said," ""You are too young and" "I feel a little hesitant" "whether to accept this challenge or not." "But if you are insistent, then there is no way;" "I have to accept it." "But it does not look right a seventy year old man who has fought thousands of debates" "should be fighting with a young man of thirty." "But to balance, I would suggest one thing" - and this was the atmosphere that" "has a tremendous value " ""to substitute, I will give you the chance to choose the judge who will decide." "So you find out a judge." "And you are too young, and I feel" "that if you are defeated" "at Ieast you should have the satisfaction that the judge was your choice. "" "Now where to find a judge?" "He has heard much about Mandan Mishra's wife." "Her name was Bharti." "She was also old, sixty-five." "He said, "I will choose your wife to be the judge. "" "This is the atmosphere," "so human, so loving." "First Mandan Mishra gave him chance to choose, and then he chooses Maridan Mishra's own wife" "And Bharti said, "But this is not right, I'm his wife," "and if you are defeated you may think because" "I may have been prejudiced, favorable towards my husband. "" "Shankara said," ""There is no question" "of any suspicion." "I have heard much about your sincerity." "If I'm defeated, I'm defeated." "And I know pertectIy well if your husband is defeated, you will be the Iast person to hide the fact. "" "Six months it took for the discussion." "On each single point" "that man has thought about they quarreled, argued, quoted, interpreted," "and after six months the wife said that, "Shankara is declared victorious." "Mandan Mishra is defeated. "" "Thousands of people were listening for these six months." "It was a great" "experience to listen to these two so refined Iogicians," "and this was" "a tremendous experience, that the wife declared Shankara to be the winner." "There was great silence for few moments, and then Bharti said, "But remember" "that you are only half a winner," "because according to the scriptures the wife and husband make one whole." "I'm half of Mandan Mishra." "You have defeated my half;" "now you will have to discuss with me. "" "Shankara was at a loss." "Six months he tried so hard;" "many times he was thinking to give up - the old man was really" "very sharp even in his old age." "Nobody has been able to stand against Shankara for six months," "and now the wife says his victory is only half." "And Bharti said, "But I will give you also" "the chance to choose your judge. "" "He said, "Where I am going to find a better judge than Mandan Mishra?" "Because you are such simple and fair and sincere people." "But Bharti was very clever, more clever than Shankara had imagined," "because she started asking questions about the science of sex." "Shankara said, "Forgive me," "I am a celibate and I don't know anything about sex. "" "Bharti said, "Then you will have to accept your defeat," "or if you want some time to study and experience," "I'm willing to give you some time. "" "He was caught in a such" "strange situation;" "he asked for six months and six months were given." "That: "You can go and" "learn as much as you can because this will be the subject to begin with, then later on, other subjects." "It is not easy," Bharti said to him, "to win Mandan Mishra." "The half was easier" "But I am much harder a woman." "If I can declare the defeat of my husband, you can understand that I am a hard woman." "It is not going to be easy." "If you feel afraid don't come back;" "otherwise we will wait for six months. "" "This atmosphere continued for thousands of years." "There was no question of being angry, there was no question of being abusive," "there was no question of trying to prove" "that you are right by your physical strength" "or by your arms or by your armies." "These were thought to be barbarous methods;" "these were not for the cultured people." "Nietzsche was" "in a very wrong place in a wrong time;" "he was not understood by his contemporaries." "Now, slowly, interest is arising in him;" "more and more people are becoming interested in him." "Perhaps it wouId have been better for him to delay his coming a little." "But it is not in our hands when to come and when to go." "And people of his genius always come before their time." "But he should" "get his respected place in the category of the Buddhas." "That day is not far away." "When all other so-caIIed great philosophers of the West will be forgotten, Friedrich Nietzsche will still be remembered," "because he has depths which have still to be explored," "and he has insights which have been only ignored;" "he has been just put aside as a madman." "Even if he is a madman, that does not matter." "What he is saying is so truthful that if to get those truths one has to become mad," "it is pertectIy a good bargain." "RECENTLY YOU SPOKE ABOUT THE WILL TO POWER." "YOU EXPLAINED THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING THIS WILL," "THIS LONGING, TO BECOME A MASTER OVER YOURSELF." "YOU ALSO OFTEN DECLARE THAT EVERY DESIRE" "IS THE BASIC REASON FOR MAN'S FRUSTRATION." "CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WILL AND DESIRE?" "Gyan Saahaba," "the difference between will" "and desire is great," "although they appear almost similar." "Desire is always for things." "More money, more prestige," "more respectability, more knowledge," "more virtue," "a better place in the afterlife - these are all desires." "Desires can be millions," "because there are millions of things in the world which can become objects of desire." "A desire needs always an object." "will is not objective;" "it does not want something else to be added to it." "will is simply your very life force, which wants to assert itself" "in its totality, in its wholeness," "to bring all the flowers that are hidden in you, to be yourself." "The will knows only one thing and that is you" "and your golden future." "You, right now, are only seeds." "But you can become" "great trees, reaching to the stars." "Vincent van Gogh, one of the most significant Dutch painters," "was also thought just like Nietzsche - a madman." "He had also to live in a madhouse," "and he was not a harmful man;" "just his paintings were not according to the ideas of people." "Strange... in this world you are not even free to paint something according to your own idea, which is not harming anybody." "He has painted his trees so long that stars are left far behind " "they go above the stars." "naturally" "people used to ask him that, "This is sheer madness." "Where have you seen these trees going beyond the stars?"" "And what" "was his answer always is immensely significant." "He used to say," ""To me, trees represent the will of the earth." "The earth is trying to reach beyond the stars, and" "you will see one day the earth has succeeded." "It is just the beginning, that's why you don't see the trees that high." "But I can see far away in the future. "" "But we cannot even forgive poets, we cannot forgive even visionaries," "harmless visions." "But what a beautiful idea - that the earth wants to reach beyond the stars." "That defines will." "Desire is always for possessions." "will is always for consciousness." "will is a life force; a flame of your very being." "It does not want anything else - it simply wants itself to be actualized in its totality." "It does not want to remain a seed, it does not want just to remain a dream;" "it wants to become a reality," "it wants to become" "an actual phenomenon." "Gyan Saahaba," "I can understand your problem." "It may have arisen in many people's mind," "because I have always spoken against desire," "and while speaking on Friedrich Nietzsche's ZARATHUSTRA" "I supported" "totally his idea of the will." "When on a rosebush flowers blossom, it is the will." "They were hidden inside the bush" "and they were trying to come into manifestation " "just as a Gautam Buddha is hidden in you, or a Zarathustra is hidden in you" "and is trying" "to come out." "You are a seed." "Once this idea settles in you, you will find inside the seed" "a serpent starts uncoiIing itself - that is the will." "Nietzsche has called it will to power." "I myself would Iike to call it will to realization," "will to actualization," "will to become absolutely yourself." "Desire" "is a very dangerous thing, because you can get lost into desire," "millions are lost." "And the jungle of desires is very thick," "and there is no end;" "one after another you will find desires and desires and desires." "And no desire is fulfilling." "Every desire only gives you a new frustration," "every desire gives you a new desire." "But this whole process of desiring takes away your energy" "from becoming a will to realization, a will to bring your potential" "into flowering, into its ultimate expression." "Desire is going astray from will." "And my effort here is to pull you back from your wills, from your desires" "to one singIe-pointed will " "the will that wants to know yourself, the will that wants to be yourself, the will" "that wants whatever is hidden in you should become manifest." "MendeI saves up for years to buy a really fine taiIor-made suit," "his very first, but after he has been out in it for an hour or so he notices there are things wrong with it." "He goes back to the tailor." ""The arms are too long," says MendeI." ""No problem." "Just hold your arms out further and bend at the elbows. "" ""But the trouser legs are too long. "" ""Right, no problem." "walk with your knees bent. "" ""The collar is too high;" "it is halfway up the back of my head. "" ""Okay." "Just poke your head out further. "" "So MendeI goes out into the world with his first taiIor-made suit." "As he is passing a couple in the street the woman says," ""Look at that poor man, he must have had polio. "" "The man says, "But what a fine suit he is wearing "" "Your desires may give you a fine suit," "but they will also make you suffer from polio;" "everything will be wrong." "Your desires will not allow you to be simply yourself," "exactly to be your destiny." "will is a longing to achieve one's destiny." "Okay Maneesha?" "Yes."