Existentialism

Existence needs no philosophy. Birds don’t need philosophy, flowers don’t
need philosophy, rivers and oceans don’t need philosophy -- but they are all
existential; they exist, and they exist with totality and intensity.

I am not a philosopher. To be a philosopher is just to be a "foolosopher." It is
a sheer waste of time. Down the centuries philosophers have been struggling
intellectually to find the truth. Not a single one of them has found it, for the
simple reason that intellect and its way goes round and round, about and
about, but it never penetrates to the center.

To love, you do not have to be a philosopher of love. Love needs no
philosophy; love is an existential experience.

I call myself an existentialist. I call you existentialists.
It is not a philosophy but a way of life -- not
according to any dogma, cult, doctrine, discipline, no! -- Just living without
any idea of how to live. The moment the "how" enters, it opens the door for
all the philosophies to come in, all the theologies to come in.

Live like the trees, like the birds, like the clouds. Without man,
do you think existence will disappear? Without man, after the third world
war, do you think the sun will not rise? And the nights will not rejoice in
millions of stars?

My insistence is: live spontaneously. Live in freedom
and live in totality, because one never knows the next moment. I may not
be here, you may not be here. The next moment is meaningless.

As far as existence is concerned, it knows only one tense, and that is the
present tense. The past is no more, the future is not yet.

My approach has nothing to do with philosophy. It has something to do with
you. And it has something to do with now, because to me there is only one
time, that is now; and only one space, that is here. Once you have learned
the art, the knack of being herenow, you will be so fulfilled, so contented --
you will not need any opium for yourself, you will not find what the
so-called existentialists in
Europe have found: meaninglessness, anguish, anxiety, despair.

Do you ever think what meaning taste has? Eating spaghetti, do you ask
what meaning the taste has? Having a beautiful shower, the freshness of it,
have you ever asked what the meaning of freshness is? Looking at the
sunset with so many colors spread all over the horizon, have you asked what
meaning the sunset has?

Ask the wrong question and you will find the wrong answer. Life is such a
beautiful experience, who bothers whether that beautiful experience has any
meaning or not? Love is such an ecstasy, who bothers whether love has any
meaning or not?

To be silent and meditative is so ecstatic, you will forget all about your
search for meaning, truth, God. And once you have dropped the wrong
questions, the wrong answers disappear of their own accord. Then between
you and existence there is no question, there is no answer, but there is a
communion. Your heart slowly slowly starts beating in the same rhythm as
the whole existence. You start feeling yourself part of this immense organic
whole. You enjoy tremendously. How can there be anguish?

Those existentialists were feeling anxiety, anguish, despair, because death is
there, and death will destroy everything. Life has no meaning, and facing
them, there is just death closing in on them. The darkness of death makes
them feel lost. They start trembling deep inside their being. Their life has
been empty, and now comes death. What kind of existence is this? -- Just
despair. Looking at the world, the existentialists of
Europe found nothing but despair.

God is watching you round the clock. Perhaps, deep in the unconscious of
the existentialists the same conditioning still prevails. So on the conscious
level they go on saying that this is worthless, this life is accidental, that it
has no meaning, that all that it gives is anguish, despair, death, and the only
way out is suicide. But none of them committed suicide, they all lived long
lives. It is just a game with words.

Taste from the cup of existence. There is no meaning. There is no
meaninglessness either. There is no hope. There is no hopelessness either.

These things are absolutely irrelevant if you enter into existence. And
the miracle is you cannot enter existence through the mind. Mind consists
only of past and future -- both are non-existential.

If you want to enter existence, you will have to shut up your mind
completely. And in that small gap -- when there are no past memories
surrounding your consciousness, and no future imaginations or hopes present
-- in that small moment of pure silence you meet existence for the first time.
And immediately all questions disappear. You are so abundantly fulfilled, so
content, so whole, that who bothers about meanings?

Have you watched a simple thing? When you are sick, then you ask: "Why
am I sick? What is the cause of it?" You go to the doctor to find out the
cause so that some medicine can be given to you. But when you are
healthy, have you ever asked: "Why am I healthy?" Have you become
worried that: "I am healthy?" Have you gone to the doctor to say: "Please
tell me the cause of my health?" No, when you are healthy and feeling a
great well-being, you don’t ask such questions. Health is natural; disease is
a disturbance.