Top 10 Tips for Teaching Indigos NEW by Wendy H. Chapman
1. Treat them with respect If you do not show it for them, they won't give it to you despite your position of authority.
2. Listen to their opinions They need to know you care and recognize them as people of value.
3. Empower them Give them choices such as what type of product to create to demonstrate learning, what order they do the work in, perhaps between two activities (as a class decision). Having a voice that makes a difference will do wonders for their self-esteem, will usually encourage them to participate in the choice they have made, and consequently will improve their attitude towards you and towards education.
4. Solicit cooperation and avoid giving orders Indigos do not respond (at all or not positively) to those who attempt to control them. They will respond to those who treat them fairly and kindly.
5. Help them do things that make a difference If they are frustrated with the way something is - from homework in the school to homelessness in the world, encourage them to do something positive to change it.. Like writing letters to the school board or the paper, creating poetry about it, making posters, t-shirts, organizing a school or community group to focus on the issue and work to change it.
6. Help them discover and develop their talents and strengths. Encourage their creativity and unique personal expression.
7. Be tolerant of their extreme emotions Help them balance by using aromatherapy, allow them to drink water in the classroom, quiet moments or visualization practice
8. Encourage students to be peacemakers for each other Indigos are here to be peacemakers for the world. Let them practice now. This helps develop communication and compassion. Be a guide in this process.
9. Explain WHY about everything Why certain rules exist, why they need homework (Do they really if they already understand the concept?), why the world has to be the way it is. If you don't have an answer, acknowledge their frustration and show empathy.
10. Discourage medicating for ADD Often it is not ADD, but Indigo nature creating selective attention. If they can focus on a topic of their own choosing for long periods of time, it's probably Indigo, not ADD. Even if there is a problem with attention and distractability, there are alternative methods of therapy that, unlike Ritalin, do not suppress the natural creativity and leadership of Indigos. Encourage organizational aids.
I can already hear some of you saying, "Aren't these good ideas for teachers to use with all children?" and my answer is an unqualified, "Yes! Absolutely!" The point is that an Indigo Child will suffer tremendously and often tragically if they are not treated with respect and fairness, as unique individuals with great things to offer the world. They will rebel. They will start to hate school. They will drop out emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and sometimes physically as well. They may turn to drugs or develop existential depression and become suicidal or violent. Did you know that all the perpetrators of school shootings have been Indigos? This is according to Nancy Ann Tappe, who first observed and documented the Indigo phenomenon. Wouldn't you like to help prevent school violence?
When the children come to your classroom, they may already be so angry with the way they have been treated by the educational system thus far that they may be difficult to work with. They may come with the "don't mess with me" attitude because - guess what? They HAVE been messed with and they don't like it. You need to show them you are different and you are ready for them and willing to work WITH them. When they see this and know it to be true, they will respond.
If these ideas sound like common sense and you are already doing them, Congratulate yourself, You're a VERY good teacher! You're no longer stuck in the Old Energy of traditional educational teacher/student dynamics which just doesn't work any more! If you are not doing these things, but are considering them as a potential change - Congratulations! You are open minded and willing to change with the times and with the children.
http://www.metagifted.org/
What Your Child Really Wants in a Home NEW by Colleen Langenfeld
When you welcome a new child into your family, it is an exciting time. Parents usually spend a great deal of resources - time and money - to prepare for the new family member.
As someone who has been parenting for over two decades and has watched my children grow from tiny babies to productive adults, I can understand that any helpful words of wisdom for new parents need to be about more than just which stroller to buy.
My children can tell you that it is not the toys or furniture or gadgets that got them to where they are today. It was the values in our home. Here are a few of the most important values that we used in our family.
- Stability.
Stability is a value that is in short supply these days. There was a time when families often lived in the same home for years and kids attended the same schools from start to finish. A community provided stability just by being there. Those days, for the most part, are gone.
We moved a few times when our kids were growing up and they had to learn to deal with those realities. A lot of that training was good for them, although difficult at the time. As parents, we learned that it was up to us to provide a home of stability for our kids because the externals in our lives were quite transient.
So we focused on making our marriage strong, so the kids could depend upon our relationship together. We focused on nourishing long term friendships so the kids would have stable adult relationships to relate to as they grew. We committed to choosing a church community we could be a part of for years and years. When the kids developed healthy friendships that supported our family values, we made sacrifices so that the kids could maintain those friendships as long as possible.
- Respect.
Cultivating respect in a home means cultivating long term benefits. Want to have teens that will listen to you someday? Develop a respectful homelife now.
Being respectful to your spouse and earning his or her respect in return is one of the best things you can do for your marriage, too. And the best thing you can do for your kids is to nurture your marriage.
Teach your kids how to earn respect. Listen to them and honor their opinions. Then be the leader in your home and make the decisions that will take the best care of your family, whatever sacrifices you need to make. When your kids see that you put your family above your own self interests, they will know they can trust you. And the respect will follow.
- Kindness.
Kids argue. Parents bicker. Being a part of a family means learning how to handle day-to-day conflicts and frustrations. The family is the training ground for being human.
Your kids WILL learn something in your family, the question is, WHAT will they learn? It's easy to be sloppy with relationships; it's more difficult to be intentional. Make it a priority in your household to practice random kindnesses. This will smooth out a lot of the daily angst that naturally arises in a family.
You can do simple games such as requiring that family members do two acts of kindness for every act of hurt, whether intentional or accidental. It gets people thinking in terms of being good to each other. It helps people think twice before they're careless with one another. It just works.
As you begin down the rewarding path of parenting, remember these words of wisdom for new parents. Focus on filling your home with stability, respect and kindness and watch your family flourish.
http://www.raisingchildrennaturally.com/
Natural Parenting - Raising Your Kids Naturally! NEW by Leilah McCracken
Raising a natural child is a difficult task. Ask a thousand parents how to do it and you will get one thousand different answers. in fact you will find there is no right or wrong way. What matters the most is that your child is brought up in a happy and healthy environment, an environment where he or she is loved, respected and cared for in every facet of their life, and that they know you will always hold them in your heart and be there for them when needed.
Here are some additional tips in the raising of your child that I try to incorporate in my life:
Be a parent first and a friend second.
Offer praise on a task well done as well as stars for high marks in school.
Hug and kiss your child every day.
If your child makes a mistake, don't demean or punish, but discuss and console. This is a big one. Let kids learn from natural consequences.
Read to your child every night. I do this with my 5 year old and it has helped us bond and grow closer.
Listen to your child, without judgment.
Do not use guilt to make your child do anything he or she does not want to do.
Enjoy a special time with your child. Set aside a few hours a day to laugh and have fun.
Offer advice when asked and keep silent when necessary.
Get physical - what I mean is get outside and play together.
Show interest in anything your child seems to relate to.
Introduce your child to the arts including music, theatre, museums and dance.
Answer questions honestly and openly. Never lie to your kids.
Provide proper nutrition and incorporate exercise in your child's day.
These are only a few tips that you can try in raising a natural child. Every parent, however, has to go through the process of being a parent. It takes time, but it's worth every precious moment.
Today, more than at any other time, raising children is a daunting task. With so many outside influences one hardly knows where to begin. Trust your own instincts, they will never fail you. More importantly, remember that your child is relying on you to counsel, teach, listen and solve most of their problems. At some point you will have to send them out on their own and allow them to learn from their own mistakes. But until then, just love them and keep them always in your heart.
Let's talk about words and silence and what can be pronounced and what can not WORDS AND SILENCE by Osho
If you love a person, love in itself is an experiencing, a
moment-to-moment flow with no past being carried; the river remains fresh. But
the mind says, “Possess this woman, possess this man, because who knows about
the future? Possess! She may escape, she may go to somebody else, she may fall
in love with someone else. Possess her and block all the ways of escape, close
all the doors so she remains always yours.” The mind has entered and now this
woman will be killed, now this man will be murdered. There will be a husband,
there will be a wife, but there will not be two live persons.
And this is the mischief the mind goes on doing everywhere.
The moment you say “I love,” it has become an experience, it is already dead.
Loving is something else; it is a process. Why, when in love, can you not say
“I love”? That would be profane. How can you say “I love”? In love you are not,
the possessor is not, so how can you say “I love”? In love there is no ‘I’;
love is there of course but you are not.
While an experience is alive, experiencing, there is no ego.
The process is there and you can say love is there, but you cannot say “I
love.” In that love you have dissolved, you are merged, melted. Love is greater
than you. Anything live, alive, is greater than you. Dead…the mind can jump,
just like a cat jumps on a mouse and catches hold of it. Truth cannot be
delivered, there is no way to deliver it. Once delivered it is dead, it has
already become untrue.
Lao Tzu insisted on not saying anything about truth his
whole life. Whenever someone asked about truth he would say many things, but he
would not say anything about truth; he would avoid it. In the end he was
forced: disciples, lovers, forced him to write, because, “You have known
something which is rarely known, you have become something which is unique –
there will be no Lao Tzu again.” So he wrote a small book, Tao Te Ching, but
the first thing he said in it was, “Tao cannot be said, truth cannot be
uttered. And the moment you utter it, it is already false.” And then he said,
“Now I can write at ease. I have declared the basic fact: uttered, truth
becomes false; written, it has already gone wrong. Now I can write at ease.”
Why is the word false?One thing: it always belongs to the past. Another thing: the word in itself cannot carry the experience to you. I say I am silent. You hear the words; the word in itself cannot carry the experience to you. I say I am silent. You hear the words – the word silent is heard, but what do you understand? If you have never been silent, if you have never tasted it, if it has never stirred your heart, if it has never overwhelmed you, overpowered you, how can you understand? And if it has overpowered you, if there has been a gap when you disappeared and silence was there, there will be no need for me to talk about silence. The moment you see me you will know; the moment you come near me you will feel. The word will not be needed.
The word is needed because you don’t know, this is the problem. Because you don’t know the word is needed, so how can the word ex-press? That which you don’t know the word cannot say to you. The word may be heard, you may memorize it, you may understand the meaning written in the dictionary – what silence means is written in the dictionary, and you know it already – but that is not the meaning.
Can silence be heard and understood? Only silence can be heard and understood. Words can be heard but only superficially, and can be understood—but only intellectually. Silence is heard existentially and is understood from your innermost being. It is a total understanding. I can see why you have asked the question, because ordinarily we understand only words. We are prepared to understand only words, not silence. We are educated to understand language and all its complexities. Nobody helps us to go beyond language, to go beyond words, to reach the wordless space within us. The society is against it, because if you can hear silence you will not be a part of the crowd mind, of the collective mind. You will become an individual immediately. And an individual is a danger to the state, to the church, to the society. An individual is always dangerous, because an individual is nothing but rebellion. His very presence is a risk for all the vested interests, for the establishment. The establishment wants you to be obedient: he wants you to understand the orders. The establishment wants you to be slaves, servants—efficient, of course, but not too intelligent; just intellectual, not intelligent. Silence is the explosion of intelligence. Silence means: inside you, you are just spaciousness, uncluttered spaciousness. Silence means you have put aside the whole furniture of the mind—the thoughts, the desires, the memories, the fantasies, the dreams, you have all pushed aside. You are just looking into existence directly, immediately. You are in contact with existence without anything in between you and existence. That is silence. And to be in tune with existence even for a single moment—is enough to make you aware of many things. One is that you, are deathless, and the person who is deathless cannot be forced to be a slave. He would rather like to die than to become a slave. He would rather like to risk everything than to risk his freedom because death means nothing to him…. The moment you understand that you are eternal, all fear disappears. And the society exists through exploiting your fear; hence, it teaches you from the school to the university, it devotes almost one-third of your life in learning words, language, logic. It is not concerned at all that you should understand silence. That's the function of a Master: to undo all that the society has done to you, to help you to go beyond words. And you can experience it happening here—you can hear the silence. And when you hear it, there is immediate understanding. Understanding comes like a shadow following silence. To understand words and to hear words is very simple. Anybody can do it; just a little education about language is needed, nothing much. But a tremendous transformation is needed to hear silence and to understand silence…. Silence is the basic requirement of understanding God, the basic requirement to know truth….
Silence can be profane too. Silence can be sacred too. Silence has as many nuances, as many dimensions as your being has. It is multidimensional, and it is tremendously pregnant. Being here with me, being a sannyasin, can be defined very simply as learning to be silent—sitting in silence with me. I am using so many words for the simple reason so that words can give you the gaps. I can simply sit here…one day I am going to do that, when I will be just sitting with you. It is really a torture for me to talk. I would like as quickly as possible just to sit silently with you. But if you are not ready to understand it, you will fall asleep: you will start dreaming, you will start dozing away. You will not be able to understand it. My words keep you awake, and just between the words I give you gaps. And those are the real, essential things. Waiting for another word, you have to listen to silence. I tell you one joke, that wakes you up, then just searching for another joke…. Not that I have to search for it—I know where it is. And it does not matter much, any joke will do, I can manage—but just searching for another joke, you are awaiting breathlessly, utterly silent…even though sometimes Monkeyjibhai Desai comes with his colleagues on the roof and they start doing their thing.* But you are not distracted; in fact, those monkeys help you to become more silent, more alert, so that you cannot miss any word that I am going to say to you. All this situation is being used to hand over to you few pieces of silence. It will look very strange to the newcomers that I am talking just to make you able to hear silence and to understand silence. But that has been always the way of the Buddhas. The day you are ready…and slowly slowly many people are getting ready. The day is not far away when I will have enough people ready; a certain quantity is needed. Just as at a certain temperature, a hundred degrees, water evaporates, there is a certain quantity which is needed for silence. And when so many people are here, then anybody who wants to fall asleep when I am sitting silent will not be able to fall asleep either. The silence all around will go on goading him to keep alert. The silence all around will not in any way allow him to fall asleep. Silence has its own tremendous force, its own power. So I am waiting for the right quantity—and people are coming. The moment I see that my commune has enough silent people and I can sit silently, and the newcomers will be transformed by the silent people—just sitting amongst them will be enough for them to have a taste, they will be drowned in your silence—then there will be no need for me to talk at all. *Note: a group of monkeys sometimes make a noise on the roof of Buddha Hall during discourse
meditation means becoming detached from the mind becoming a witness of the mind looking at the mind as separate from you that's what actually it is you can see thoughts passing by you can see desires passing by you can see the whole traffic that goes on in the mind the memories, the fantasies, the past, the future all kinds of things are passing you can just stand by the side of the road and you can see the whole traffic—you are not it you are the watcher, you are the witness and the witness is beyond the seer is never the seen the observer is never the observed this very experience is transcendence and once you know that you are not the mind the fear of death simply disappears as if it has never been there in the first place suddenly you are in the world of the deathless, the eternal there is no anxiety any more one is at ease with existence in a deep let-go a tremendous relaxation that relaxation is the ultimate goal of sannyas to know it is to know all to miss it is to miss all
Buddha represents the dhamma in two ways: one, through his communication, verbal, and second, through his presence, through his silence, through his communion: nonverbal. The verbal communication is only an introduction for the nonverbal. The nonverbal is an energy communication. The verbal is only preparatory; it simply prepares you so you can allow the master to communicate with you energywise, because energywise it is really moving into the unknown. Energywise it needs great trust, because you will be completely unaware where you are going—aware that you are going somewhere, aware that you are being led somewhere, aware that something is happening of tremendous import; but what exactly it is you don't yet have the language for, you don't have any experience to recognize. You will be moving into the uncharted. The buddha represents dhamma, truth, in two ways. Verbally he communicates with the students; nonverbally, through silence, through energy, he communicates with the disciples. And then there comes the ultimate unity where neither communication nor communion is needed, but oneness has been achieved—where the master and the disciple become one, when the disciple is just a shadow, when there is no separation. These are the three stages of growth: student, disciple, devotee.
“How to give people a taste of meditation was my basic reason to speak, so I can go on speaking eternally — it does not matter what I am saying. All that matters is that I give you a few chances to be silent, which you find difficult on your own in the beginning.” “These discourses are the foundations of your meditation.” “I am making you aware of silences without any effort on your part. My speaking is for the first time being used as a strategy to create silence in you.” “I don't speak to teach something; I speak to create something. These are not lectures; these are simply a device for you to become silent, because if you are told to become silent without making any effort you will find great difficulty.” “I don't have any doctrine; my talking is really a process of dehypnosis. Just listening to me, slowly, slowly you will be free of all the programs that the society has forced you to believe in.” “These questions and answers are really just a game to help you to get rid of words, thoughts.
“These are not ordinary discourses or talks. I am not interested in any philosophy or any political ideology. I am interested directly in transforming you.” I have been a teacher of philosophy for nine years, and finding that there was nothing except words, I entered into the world of mysticism. There I have found what was missing in all the philosophies, in all the logical treatises. But now it is impossible to say it. Still I speak. I have been speaking for thirty years continuously – round and round, hoping that somebody may get caught into the net of words and may be pulled out of the misery in which he is drowning. The words can do that much. They can pull you out of your logical world, your linguistic world, your world of philosophies. That too is great. Half the work is done, the remaining can be done by meditation. I am speaking with love on the one hand, and on the other hand I am speaking with great bitterness for all those people who have been preventing human evolution towards buddhahood. I cannot forgive them, neither can I forget them. I repeat again: the music of my voice is not my music, neither is the voice my voice. I am simply available to existence. Whatsoever it wants to say to you, I don’t hinder it, I don’t edit it, I don’t add anything to it. Just as in a mine you find raw gold, raw diamonds – uncut, unpolished: the same way I never polish anything. I never know what I am going to say to you. I simply allow the mine – for you to pick up all the raw diamonds. They belong to existence. And you say, “I relax more and more and then the gaps….” Those gaps are almost inevitable. You may have heard many orators and many speakers: I am not an orator, I am not a speaker. The orator prepares what he is going to say: it is his own mind. And you will not find the orator leaving gaps; that is against the art of oratory. I am not a master orator. I have never learned oratory. I just know how to communicate simply, straightforwardly, with human beings. I am simply talking to you. I am not an orator. Orators are politicians; orators are missionaries. I am not a missionary; I am not trying to convince anything; I am not trying to attract voters to me. I am simply talking to you. And I know that if you can talk heart to heart, it reaches to the deepest core of human beings. But I am not an orator. The real question is not the understanding, but to become silent. Hearing is not the point, becoming silent is the point. So many times what happens is that what you have understood becomes a barrier, and it is good to listen to something that you do not understand at all; then thinking cannot interfere. When something is not understood there is no way for thoughts to move; they simply stop.
I have been a teacher of philosophy for nine years, and finding that there was nothing except words, I entered into the world of mysticism. There I have found what was missing in all the philosophies, in all the logical treatises. But now it is impossible to say it. Still I speak. I have been speaking for thirty years continuously – round and round, hoping that somebody may get caught into the net of words and may be pulled out of the misery in which he is drowning. The words can do that much. They can pull you out of your logical world, your linguistic world, your world of philosophies. That too is great. Half the work is done, the remaining can be done by meditation. I am speaking with love on the one hand, and on the other hand I am speaking with great bitterness for all those people who have been preventing human evolution towards buddhahood. I cannot forgive them, neither can I forget them. I repeat again: the music of my voice is not my music, neither is the voice my voice. I am simply available to existence. Whatsoever it wants to say to you, I don’t hinder it, I don’t edit it, I don’t add anything to it. Just as in a mine you find raw gold, raw diamonds – uncut, unpolished: the same way I never polish anything. I never know what I am going to say to you. I simply allow the mine – for you to pick up all the raw diamonds. They belong to existence. And you say, “I relax more and more and then the gaps….” Those gaps are almost inevitable. You may have heard many orators and many speakers: I am not an orator, I am not a speaker. The orator prepares what he is going to say: it is his own mind. And you will not find the orator leaving gaps; that is against the art of oratory. I am not a master orator. I have never learned oratory. I just know how to communicate simply, straightforwardly, with human beings. I am simply talking to you. I am not an orator. Orators are politicians; orators are missionaries. I am not a missionary; I am not trying to convince anything; I am not trying to attract voters to me. I am simply talking to you. And I know that if you can talk heart to heart, it reaches to the deepest core of human beings. But I am not an orator. The real question is not the understanding, but to become silent. Hearing is not the point, becoming silent is the point. So many times what happens is that what you have understood becomes a barrier, and it is good to listen to something that you do not understand at all; then thinking cannot interfere. When something is not understood there is no way for thoughts to move; they simply stop. These discourses are the foundations of your meditation. Sitting with me in these discourses is nothing but creating more and more meditativeness in you. I don't speak to teach something; I speak to create something. These are not lectures; these are simply a device for you to become silent. So when I say “listen” I am not saying “be attentive” – because in attention there is tension. The very word is out of “tension” – “attention” means “at tension.” Your mind is narrowed. When I say “listen,” I mean be relaxed, open; become a sponge. Soak it up. Let it sink into you. Listen to me as you listen to the birds singing in the trees or to the sound of running water. There is no meaning in it. Or, listen to me as you listen to music. Music has no intellectual meaning. You listen to it – you simply drink it, you let it in, you allow it into your very innermost core. And you enjoy it. If somebody later on asks if you remember what music you have heard, you will not be able to say anything. You will say, “I enjoyed it, it was beautiful, it was something that thrilled me to the very core. I was refreshed through it. I became more alive through it, I felt a sudden joy bursting in my heart.” But these are the impacts that happen to you: there is nothing to say about the music. Listen to me as you do to music. So don’t be worried. If you forget, good. I am not saying these things to be remembered. I am not here to make you knowledgeable, professional pundits, no. I am not here to give you a memory training. But an upsurge of understanding can happen. You can respond. To whatsoever I am saying you can respond, you can vibrate with it. And that will be real hearing. That is the first step.
The art of listening is based on silence in the mind, so that the mind does not interfere, it simply allows whatever is coming to you. I am not saying you have to agree with it. Listening does not mean that you have to agree with it, neither does it mean that you have to disagree with it. The art of listening is just pure listening, factual, undistorted. And once you have listened then comes the point whether you agree or not, but the first thing is to listen. One has to learn very earnestly the art of listening. It is a difficult art, and the greatest difficulty is that everybody thinks he knows it. Just because you can hear, you think you can also listen. And these are two differing things, so different that unless you start listening you will never know the difference. I am speaking to you and I am fully aware from where these words are coming they are coming from my nothingness. I don't find any other place from where they are coming. Nothingness is not nothing. Nothingness is all. And to recognize nothingness as all, as an experience, is the only way to find your unity with the universe. I have to start with your language, and slowly slowly, you will start learning my language. I am bilingual and I will make you also bilingual. There are two languages: the language of words and the language of silence. Right now I have to use the language of words to translate the poetry of silence, the music of silence. Later on, when you have developed a little meditativeness, you will be able to understand the poetry of silence.
I am using words just to create silent gaps. The words are secondary; the silences between those words are primary. This is simply a device to give you a glimpse of meditation. And once you know that it is possible for you, you have traveled far in the direction of your own being.
Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It does not shout at you, that is true. And if you are a little silent you will start feeling your way.
I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.
It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.
It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great suprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, A watcher.
And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.
That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.
If you escape to the Himalayas you will start feeling a little still, but at the same time a little stupid also. You will start feeling more silent, but that silence belongs to the Himalayas, not to you. Come back and your silence will be left behind - you will come alone. And back in the world you will be even more disturbed than before, because you will have become more vulnerable, soft. And you will come with a prejudice, with this idea that you have attained to silence. You will have become more egoistic. That’s why people who have escaped to the monasteries become afraid of coming back to the world.
The world is the test. The world is the criterion. And it is easier to be in the world and, by and by, grow into a silence, then the Himalayan silence comes into your being. You don’t go to the Himalayas: the Himalayas themselves come to you. Then it is something of your own, then you are the master of it.
Words are figures; silence is the background. Words come and go; silence remains. When you were born you were born as a silence - just intervals and intervals, gaps and gaps. Infinite emptiness you came with, unbounded emptiness you brought with you in life - then you started collecting words.
Mind means the turmoil, the illness, the disease; mind means the tense, the anguished state. The mind cannot be silent; when there is silence there is no mind. When silence comes, mind disappears; when mind is there, silence is no more. So there cannot be any silent mind, just as there cannot be any healthy disease. Only silence is beyond negation and affirmation; only silence is neither atheistic nor theistic; only silence is religious; only silence is sacred.
A silence is needed before death, before life, before love. If you love a person you sit silently with the person. You would not like to chatter, you would like to just hold their hand and live and be silent in that moment. If you chatter, that means you are avoiding the person - love is not really there. If you love life, chattering will drop, because every moment is so filled with life that there is no way, no space to chatter. Each moment life is flooding you so vitally - where is the time to gossip and chatter? Each moment you live totally, mind becomes silent. Eat, and eat so totally - because life is entering you through food - that mind becomes silent. Drink, and drink totally: life is entering through water, it will quench your thirst; move with it as it touches your thirst, as the thirst disappears. Be silent and watch. How can you chatter when you are drinking a cup of tea? Warm life is flowing within you. Be filled with it. Be respectful.
To be with truth there is only one possibility: drop words. Language lags behind. Language is lame. Only silence can go with truth, hand in hand. Only silence can move with truth. Only silence can be so fast, because silence has no weight to carry. Words are loaded; they carry weight. So when you are carrying words, great theologies in your head, great abstractions, then you cannot walk with truth. To walk with truth one has to be weightless. Silence is weightless; it has nothing to carry. Silence has wings. So only in silence is the truth known, and only in silence is the truth transferred, transmitted.
My whole teaching consists of two words, meditation and love. Meditate so that you can feel immense silence, and love so that your life can become a song, a dance, a celebration. You will have to move between the two, and if you can move easily, if you can move without any effort, you have learned the greatest thing in life.
My words are not important. What is important is your silent listening. What is important is that my words are not coming from the mind, but from my deepest silence. Although they cannot contain silence, when they come from the deepest silence something of that silence surrounds them. They cannot contain it, but something of the silence surrounds them. It is as if you have taken a bath in a lake. You cannot contain the lake, but when you come out of it, something of the lake – the freshness, the coolness – comes with you. The lake is left behind, but some quality of the lake is carried with you.
You are listening in silence. I am speaking in silence. My words reach to you with some freshness, with some fragrance and because you are silent, that fragrance, that silence, deepens your silence – makes it fragrant.
Silence usually is understood to be something negative, something empty, an absence of sound, of noises. This misunderstanding is prevalent because few people have ever experienced silence. All that they have experienced in the name of silence is noiselessness. But silence is a totally different phenomenon. It is utterly positive. It is existential, it is not empty. It is overflowing with a music that you have never heard before, with a fragrance that is unfamiliar to you, with a light that can only be seen with your inner eyes. It is not something fictitious; it is a reality, and a reality which is already present in everyone-just we never look in. Your inner world has a taste of its own, has its own fragrance, has its own light. And it is utterly silent, immensely silent, eternally silent.
When you are not doing anything at all – bodily, mentally, on no level – when all activity has ceased & you simply are, just being, that’s what meditation is.
You are not your experiences
One of the most fundamental things to remember – not by you but by everyone – is that whatever you come across in your inner journey, you are not it. You are the one who is witnessing it – it may be nothingness, it may be blissful, it may be silence. But one thing has to be remembered – however beautiful & however enchanting an experience you come by, you are not it. You are the one who is experiencing it, & if you go on & on & on, the ultimate in the journey is the point when there is no experience left – neither silence, nor blissfulness, nor nothingness. There is nothing as an object for you but only your subjectivity. The mirror is empty. It is not reflecting anything. It is you.
You feel a deep harmony with me, moments of peace, love & silence, & naturally the question has arisen in you that if this is possible with me, why is it not possible with the man you love? The difference has to be understood. You love me, but you don’t love me in the same way you love your husband, your wife. Your love towards me is not biological; with me your love is a totally different phenomena – it is of the spirit, not of the body. & secondly, you are connected with me because of your search for truth. My relationship with you is that of meditation. Meditation is the only bridge between me & you. Your love will deepen as your meditation deepens, & vice-versa: as your meditation blossoms, your love will blossom. But it is on a totally different level. With your husband, you are not connected in meditation. You never sit silently for one hour together just to feel each other’s consciousness. Either you are fighting or you are making love, but in both cases, you are related with the body, the physical part, the biological, the hormones. You are not related with the innermost core of the other. Your soul remains separate. In the temples & in the churches & in the courts, only your bodies are married. Your souls are miles apart.
These are the three things: relaxation, watching & no-judgment - & slowly, slowly a great silence descends over you. All movement in you ceases. You are, but there is no sense of ‘I am’ – just a pure space.
When the mind remains silent for hours, it becomes so fresh, young, more creative, more sensitive, rejuvenated through rest.
Death is just beautiful, because nothing is like death – so silent, so relaxing, so calm, so unperturbed. But we are afraid of death. Why are we afraid of death? Why is there so much fear of death? We are afraid of death not because of death – because we don’t know it. how can you be afraid of something that you don’t know? At least you must know it to be afraid of it. so really you are not afraid of death; the fear is something else. You have never really lived – that creates the fear of death.