COMPASSION ...

All that is ill in the human being is because of lack of love. All that is
wrong with man is somewhere associated with love. He has not been
able to love, or he has not been able to receive love. He has not been
able to share his being. That's the misery That creates all sorts of
complexes inside.
     Those wounds inside can surface in many ways. They can become
physical illness, they can become mental illness---but deep down man
suffers from lack of love. Just as food is needed for the body, love is
needed for the soul. The body cannot survive without food, and the
soul cannot survive without love. In fact, without love the soul is never
born---there is no question of its survival.
     You simply think that you have a soul; you believe that you have
a soul because of your fear of death. But you have not known unless
you have loved. Only in love does one come to feel that one is more
than the body, more than the mind.
     And only compassion is therapeutic. What is compassion? Com-
passion is the purest form of love. Sex is the lowest form of love, com-
passion the highest form of love. In sex the contact is basically physical;
in compassion the contact is basically spiritual. In love, compassion and
sex are mixed, the physical and the spiritual are mixed. Love is midway
between sex and compassion.
     You can call compassion meditation, also. The highest form of
energy is compassion.
     The word "compassion" is beautiful: half of it is "passion"---
somehow passion has become so refined that it is no longer like pas-
sion. It has become compassion.
In sex, you use the other, you reduce the other to a means, you
reduce the other to a thing. That's why in a sexual relationship you
feel guilty. And that guilt is deeper than religious teachings. In a sex-
ual relationship as such you feel guilty, and you feel guilty because you
are reducing a human being to a thing, to a commodity to be used
and thrown away.
     That's why in sex you also feel a sort of bondage---you are also
being reduced to a thing. And when you are a thing your freedom
disappears, because your freedom exists only when you are a person.
The more you are a person, the more free; the more you are a thing,
the less free.
     The furniture in your room is not free. If you leave the room
locked and you come back after many years, the furniture will be in
the same place, in the same way; it will not arrange itself in a new way.
It has no freedom. But if you leave a person in the room, you will not
find that person the same---not even the next day, not even the next
moment. You cannot find the same person again. Says old Heraclitus,
"You cannot step in the same river twice." You cannot come across
the same person again. It is impossible to meet the same person twice
because the human being is a river, continuously flowing. You never
know what is going to happen. The future remains open.
     For a thing, the future is closed. A rock will remain a rock will
remain a rock. It has no potential for growth. It cannot change, it
cannot evolve. A human being never remains the same---may fall
back, may go ahead; may go into hell or into heaven, but never re-
mains the same. Goes on moving, this way or that.
     When you have a sexual relationship with somebody, you have
reduced that somebody to a thing. And in reducing the other you
have reduced yourself also to a thing, because it is a mutual compro-
mise: "I allow you to reduce me to a thing, you allow me to reduce
you to a thing. I allow you to use me, you allow me to use you. We
use each other. We both have become things."
     Watch two lovers---when they have not yet settled, when the
romance is still alive, the honeymoon has not ended, you will see two
persons throbbing with life, ready to explode into the unknown.
Then watch a married couple, a husband and the wife, and you will
see two dead things, two graveyards side by side---helping each other
to remain dead, forcing each other to remain dead. That is the con-
stant conflict of the marriage. Nobody wants to be reduced to a thing!
     Sex is the lowest form of that energy "X." If you are religious, call
it "godliness"; if you are scientific, call it "X." This energy, X, can be-
come love. When it becomes love, then you start respecting the other
person. Yes, sometimes you use the other person but you feel thankful.
You never say thank you to a thing. When you are in love with a
woman and you make love to her, you say thank you. When you make
love to your wife, have you ever said thank you? No, you take it for
granted. Has your wife ever said thank you to you? Maybe, many years
ago, you can remember some time when you were just undecided,
were just courting, trying to seduce each other---maybe. But once you
were settled, has she said thank you to you for anything? You have been
doing so many things for her, she has been doing so many things for
you. You are both living for each other---but gratitude has disappeared.
     In love there is gratitude, there is a deep gratefulness. You know
that the other is not a thing. You know that the other has a grandeur,
a soul, an individuality. In love you give total freedom to the other. Of
course, you give and you take; it is a give-and-take relationship---but
with respect. In sex, it is a give-and-take relationship with no respect.
     In compassion, you simply give. There is no idea anywhere in
your mind to get anything back---you simply share. Not that noth-
ing comes to you! A millionfold it is returned, but that is just by the
way, just a natural consequence. There is no hankering for it.
     In love, if you give something, deep down you go on expecting
that it should be returned. If it is not returned, you feel like com-
plaining. You may not say anything but in a thousand and one ways
it can be inferred that you are grumbling, that you are feeling you
have been cheated. Love seems to be a subtle bargain.
In compassion you simply give. In love, you are thankful because
the other has given something to you. In compassion, you are thankful
because the other has taken something from you; you are thankful be-
cause the other has not rejected you. You had come with energy to
give, you had come -with many flowers to sliare, and the other allowed
you, the other was receptive. You are thankful because the other was re-
ceptive.
     Compassion is the highest form of love. Much comes back---a
millionfold, I say---but that is not the point, you don't hanker for it. If
it is not coming there is no complamt about it. If it is coming you are
simply surprised! If it is coming, it is unbelievable. If it is not coming
there is no problem---you had never given your heart to anybody as
part of any bargain. You simply shower because you have. You have
so much that if you don't shower you will become burdened. Just like a
cloud full of rainwater has to shower. And next time when a cloud is
showering watch silently, and you will always hear---when the cloud
has showered and the earth has absorbed, you will always hear the
cloud saying to the earth, "Thank you." The earth helped the cloud to
unburden.
     When a flower has bloomed, it has to release its fragrance to the
winds. It is natural! It is not a bargain, it is not a business---it is simply
natural! The flower is full of fragrance---what to do? If the flower
keeps the fragrance to itself then the flower will feel very, very tense, in
deep anguish. The greatest anguish in life is when you cannot express,
when you cannot communicate, when you cannot share. The poorest
person is one who has nothing to share, or who has something to share
but has lost the capacity, the art, of how to share it---then a person is
poor.
     The sexual man is very poor. The loving man is richer, compar-
atively. The man of compassion is the richest---at the top of the
world. He has no confinement, no limitation. He simply gives and
goes on his way. He does not even wait for you to say thank you.
With tremendous love he shares his energy.
     This is what I call therapeutic.
     Christians believe that Jesus did many miracles. I cannot see him
doing any miracle. The miracle was his compassion. If anything hap-
pened, it happened without his doing it. If anything ever happens in
the highest plane of being, it always happens without any effort. He
moved; many sorts of people came to him.. He was there like a tremen-
dous pool of energy---anybody who was ready to share, shared.
     Miracles happened! He was therapeutic. He was one of the great-
est healers the world has ever known. Buddha, or Mahavira, or
Krishna---they are all great healers on different levels. Yes, you cannot
find in Buddha's life any miracle of healing an ill person, or healing a
blind man, or bringing a dead person to life. You will be surprised:
Was Jesus's compassion greater than Buddha's? What happened? Why
were many people not healed through Buddha's energy? No, it is not
a question of more or less. Buddha's compassion functioned on a dif-
ferent level. He had a different type of audience than Jesus, and a
different type of people around him.
     It always happens---almost always---I go on watching as the
stream of people comes to me from the West. They never ask any-
thing about their bodies. They don't come to me and say, "I have a
constant headache, help me, do something!" Or, "My eyes are
weak," or, "My concentration is not good," or, "My memory is go-
ing bad"---no, never. But the Indians come and always bring some-
thing of the physical. Mm? They have had an upset stomach for
many years---", do something!"
Almost always I feel: Why? What has happened to India? Why
do these people come only for some bodily, physical problems? They
have only those problems. A poor country, a very poor country, has
no spiritual problems. A rich country has spiritual problems; a poor
country has physical problems.
     Buddha's time in India was its golden age. That was the time
when India was at its peak. The country was rich, tremendously rich,
affluent. The rest of the world was poor, and India was very rich. The
people coming to Buddha were bringing spiritual problems. Yes, they
were also bringing wounds, but theirs were spiritual wounds.
    Jesus moved around in a very poor country, lived in a very poor
country. The people who were coming to him had no spiritual prob-
lems, in fact, because to have a spiritual problem you have to attain a
certain standard of living. Otherwise, your problems are concerned
with the lower levels. A poor man has different kinds of problems.
     One of my relatives was here for one month---he was meditat-
ing, doing things, and on the last day of his visit I was hoping he
would ask something meaningful. What did he ask? He said that his
son is not doing well financially. Living for one month here, listening
to me for one month, and this was the only question that came to his
mind: his son is not doing well. He drives a taxi, and the car they
have purchased is such that every day there is some problem or
other---he asked me, "do something!"
    I am not a car mechanic! So I told him, "Sell the car and get an-
other one." He said, "Nobody will purchase it, so please---do some-
thing!"
    When people are poor, their problems are of the world. When
people are rich, their problems are of a higher quality. Only an afflu-
ent country can be really spiritual; a poor country cannot be.
    I am not saying that a poor individual cannot be---yes, a poor per-
son can be really spiritual, exceptions are there---but a poor country
cannot be. A poor country, on the whole, thinks in terms of money,
medicine, houses, cars, this and that. And it is natural, it is logical!
Jesus moved in a very poor world. People were seeking their own
solutions. Many were helped---not that Jesus was helping but they
were helped. And Jesus says again and again: "It is your faith that has
healed you." When you have faith, compassion can pour into you.
When you have faith, you are open to compassion. Buddha did mira-
cles, but those miracles are of the invisible. Mahavira did miracles, but
those miracles are of the invisible. You cannot see them---they can only
be seen by the person to whom they have happened.
      But compassion is always therapeutic; whatever your level, it
helps you. Compassion is love purified---so much so that you simply
give and don't ask anything in return.
      Buddha used to say to his disciples, "After each meditation, be
compassionate---immediately---because when you meditate, love
grows, the heart becomes full. After each meditation, feel compas-
sion for the whole world so that you share your love and you re-
lease the energy into the atmosphere and that energy can be used
by others."
     I would also like to say that to you: After each meditation, when
you are celebrating, have compassion. Just feel that your energy should
go and help people in whatsoever ways they need it. Just release it! You
will be unburdened, you will feel very relaxed, you will feel very calm
and quiet, and the vibrations that you have released will help many.
End your meditations always with compassion.
     And compassion is unconditional. You cannot have compassion
only for those who are friendly towards you, only for those who are
related to you.
     It happened in China:
     When Bodhidharma went to China, a man came to him. He said,
"I have followed your teachings: I meditate and then I feel compassion
tor the whole universe---not only for men, but for animals, for rocks
and rivers also. But there is one problem: I cannot feel compassion for
my neighbor. No---it is impossible! So you please tell me: can I exclude
my neighbor from my compassion? I include the whole existence,
known and unknown, but can I exclude my neighbor?---because it is
very difficult, impossible. I cannot feel compassion for him."
      Bodhidharma said, "Then forget about meditation, because if
compassion excludes anybody then it is no longer there."
      Compassion is all-inclusive---intrinsically all-inclusive. So if you
cannot feel compassion for your neighbor, then forget all about it---
because it has nothing to do with somebody in particular. It has some-
thing to do with your inner state. Be compassion---unconditionally,
undirected, unaddressed. Then you become a healing force in this
world of misery.
     Jesus says: "Love thy neighbor as thyself "---again and again. And
he also says: "Love thine enemy as thyself." If you analyze both
sentences together, you will come to find that the neighbor and the
enemy are almost always the same person! "Love thy neighbor as
thyself" and "Love thine enemy as thyself." What does he mean?
He simply means: don't have any barriers for your compassion, for
your love. As you love yourself, love the whole existence---because in
the ultimate analysis the whole existence is you, reflected in many
mirrors. It is you---it is not separate from you. Your
neighbor is just a form of you; your enemy is also a form of you.
Whatever you come across, you come across yourself. You may not
recognize it because you are not very alert; you may not be able to see
yourself in the other, but then something is wrong with your vision,
something is wrong with your eyes.
      Compassion is therapeutic. And to be compassionate one has to
have compassion for oneself in the first place. If you don't love your-
self you will never be able to love anybody else. If you are not kind to
yourself you cannot be kind to anybody else. Your so-called saints,
who are so very hard on themselves, are just pretending that they are
kind to others. It is not possible; psychologically it is impossible. If
you cannot be kind to yourself, how can you be kind to others?
     Whatever you are with yourself, you are with others. Let that be
a basic understanding. If you hate yourself you will hate others---and
you have been taught to hate yourself. Nobody has ever said to you,
"Love yourself!" The very idea seems absurd---loving oneself? The
very idea makes no sense---loving oneself? We always think that to
love, one needs somebody else. But if you don't learn it with yourself
you will not be able to practice it with others.
     You have been told, constantly conditioned, that you are not of
any worth. From every direction you have been shown, you have
been told that you are unworthy, that you are not what you should
be, that you are not accepted as you are. There are many shoulds
hanging over your head---and those shoulds are almost impossible
to fulfill. And when you cannot fulfill them, when you fall short,
you feel condemned. A deep hatred arises in you about yourself.
     How can you love others? So full of hatred, where are you go-
ing to find love? So you only pretend, you only show that you are in
love. Deep down you are not in love with anybody---you cannot be.
Those pretensions are good for a few days, then the color disappears,
then reality asserts itself.
     Every love affair is on the rocks. Sooner or later, every love affair
becomes poisoned. How does it become so poisoned? Both people
pretend that they are loving, both go on saying that they love. The
father says he loves the child; the child says he loves the father. The
mother says she loves her daughter and the daughter goes on saving
the same thing. Brothers say they love each other. The whole world
talks about love, sings about love---and can you find any other place
so loveless? Not an iota of love exists---only mountains of talk,
Himalayas of poetry about love.
It seems all these poetries are just compensations. Because we
cannot love, we have somehow to believe through poetry, through
singing, that we love. What we miss in life we put into our poetry.
What we go on missing in life, we put into the film, in the novel. Love
is absolutely absent, because the first step has not been taken yet.
     The first step is to accept yourself as you are; drop all shoulds.
Don't carry any "ought" in your heart! You are not to be somebody
else; you are not expected to do something that doesn't belong to
you---you are just to be yourself. Relax, and just be yourself. Be re-
spectful to your individuality and have the courage to sign your own
signature. Don't go on copying others' signatures.
    You are not expected to become a Jesus or a Buddha or a
Ramakrishna---you are simply expected to become yourself. It was
good that Ramakrishna never tried to become somebody else, so he
became Ramakrishna. It was good that Jesus never tried to become
like Abraham or Moses, so he became Jesus. It is good that Buddha
never tried to become a Patanjali or Krishna---that's why he became
a Buddha.
    When you are not trying to become anybody else, then you sim-
ply relax---then a grace arises. Then you are full of grandeur, splendor,
harmony---because then there is no conflict, nowhere to go, nothing
to fight for; nothing to enforce upon yourself violently. You become
innocent. In that innocence you will feel compassion and love for
yourself. You will feel so happy with yourself that even if God. comes
and knocks at your door and says, "Would you like to become some-
body else?" you will say, "Have you gone mad?! I am perfect! Thank
you, but never try anything like that---I am perfect as I am."
     The moment you can say to existence, "I am perfect as I am,
I am happy as I am," this is what in the East we call shraddha, trust.
Then you have accepted yourself, and in accepting yourself you have
accepted existence.
    Denying yourself you deny the existence that created you. The
moment you say, "I should be like this," you are trying to improve
upon existence. You are saying, "You committed blunders---I should
have been like this, and you have made me like this?" You are trying
to improve upon existence. It is not possible. Your struggle is in vain--
you are doomed to failure.
      And the more you fail, the more you hate. The more you fail, the
more you feel condemned. The more you fail, the more you feel
yourself impotent. And out of this hatred, impotency, how can com-
passion arise? Compassion arises when you are perfectly grounded
in your being. You say, "Yes, this is the way I am." You have no ideals
to fulfill. And immediately fulfillment starts happening! The roses
bloom so beautifully because they are not trying to become lotuses.
And the lotuses bloom so beautifully because they have not heard any
legends about other flowers. Everything in nature goes so beautifully
in accord, because nobody is trying to compete with anybody, nobody
is trying to become anybody else. Everything is the way it is.
     Just see the point! Just be yourself and remember you cannot be
anything else, whatsoever you do. All effort is futile. You have to be
just yourself.
     There are only two ways. One is that by rejecting, you can re-
main the same; condemning, you can remain the same. Or accepting,
surrendering, enjoying, delighting, you can be the same. Your atti-
tude can be different, but you are going to remain the way you are,
the person you are. Once you accept, compassion arises. And then
you start accepting others!
     Have you watched it?---it is very difficult to live with a saint,
very difficult. You can live with a sinner but you cannot live with a
saint---because a saint will be condemning you continuously: with his
gestures, with his eyes, the way he looks at you, the way he talks at
you. A saint never talks wth you---he talks at you. He never just looks
at you; he always has some ideals in his eyes, clouding his vision. He
never sees you. He has something far away in his mind, and he goes on
comparing you with it---and, of course, you always fall short. His
very look makes you a sinner! It is very difficult to live with a saint---
because he does not accept himself, how can he accept you? He has
many things in him, jarring notes that he feels he has to go beyond.
Of course, he sees the same things in you in a magnified way.
     But to me, only that person is a saint who has accepted himself,
and in his acceptance has accepted the whole world. To me, that state
of mind is what sainthood is: the state of total acceptance. And that is
healing, therapeutic. Just being with somebody who accepts you to-
tally is therapeutic. You will be healed.
     So move slowly, alert, watching, be loving. If you are sexual I
don't say drop sex: I say make it more alert, make it more prayerful,
make it more profound, so that it can become love. If you are loving,
then make it even more grateful; bring deeper gratitude, joy, celebra-
tion, meditation to it, so that it can become compassion.
      Unless compassion has happened to you, don't think that you
have lived rightly or that you have lived at all. Compassion is the
flowering. And when compassion happens to one person, millions
are healed. Whoever comes around him is healed.
      Compassion is therapeutic.


				*COMPASSION ...*