"GOOD"&"GREAT"

Tremendously beautiful is his definition of the great. Understand it as deeply
as possible. Good is to practice the way . . . First one has to know the way - no
greed, no violence, no desire. In a way, all are negatives. Because whatsoever you
know as positive has been the door to come in. Eliminate the positive and you
will find the door to go out.
Good is to practice the way .. . Buddha says, knowing the way, recognizing
the way in a clear, mirrorlike consciousness, the first thing that one has to do is
to practice it. just by recognizing, it won't help. just by recognizing, it is not
going to transform you. You have to walk, you have to have discipline.

    When you are practicing, there is bound to be a little struggle. When you are
disciplining yourself, there is bound to be a little conflict, because the old habits
will come in the way. You have always been greedy, now suddenly you decide
not to be greedy. The whole past will come in the way, will distract you. Old
habits will again and again possess you; again and again you will forget and
waver. There is bound to be struggle.
    So Buddha says it is good but not great. Great is the man whose struggle is
gone, whose discipline also is gone. One who is simply moving spontaneously
in accord with the way is great. That's what Buddha calls great - being in accord;
the person is so surrendered that following the way is now natural. Not to desire
has become as natural to the person as it is ordinarily natural to desire. Not to
be ambitious has become as natural as it is natural for people to be ambitious.
People are habitually in discord with the way, and the great person becomes
naturally in accord.
    Pythagoras calls this state harmonia. That is the right word - in accord.
Harmonia, in harmony ... Lao Tzu calls this Tao. Buddha calls it dhamma. To
be in accord ... as if you are not swimming, not struggling; you are completely
relaxed and floating with the river. You are so one with the river that there is
not even a slight distance between you and the river. You don't have any of your
desires, you don't have any private goals. You go with the river to the ocean.
    A man of harmonia, accord, Tao, dhamma, is the most beautiful flowering in
this world. He is the lotus flower of consciousness.

    But it cannot happen immediately. First you will have to discipline yourself,
and then you will have to drop discipline also. First you will have to make it a
point to relax, and then you will have to forget relaxation also. First you will
have to fight with your old, ingrained habits, and once you have got over them,
you have to drop new habits that you must have created in fighting with the
old. First you have to meditate, then one day you have to drop meditation also.
   Meditation is good. Dropping of meditation is great. Being a saint is good,
being holy is great. Being a good person is good, but not great. Because a good
person still carries a subtle fight with the bad. He is constantly conflicting with
the devil, with the evil inside himself. He is not at ease, he cannot relax. He
knows that if he relaxes, the old, the past, is big and powerful and he will be
possessed and he will be thrown off balance. He has to continuously balance
himself. A good man, a saint, is still not in absolute accord. He is trying hard, he
is trying his best, and it should be appreciated that he is trying - that's why
Buddha calls him good.
   So never be satisfied by good. Remember, to be great is the goal... to be so
deeply in accord that you simply disappear and only the dhamma remains, only
the Tao remains, only nature remains. You are just a wave in the ocean and you
don't exist separately. Your separate existence, your self, has to be dropped.
   The bad man has a self. The self is created by fighting against the law, against
nature. The bad man has a self; he creates the self by fighting against the
dhamma. Whatsoever is good, he fights against it and creates a self. The good
man also has a self. He fights against his bad habits that he has created in the
past. Because of the fight, he has also a self. The bad man has an ego, the good
man has an ego. The bad man's ego is based on his mischief, the good man's
ego is based on his virtue, but both have egos.
   The great is one whose ego has disappeared, who is completely immersed,
merged into the whole. To be so merged into the whole, to be in such a
harmony, is to be great. That is what is required. That is what has to be
remembered continuously. Never lose sight of it.
   Life is just a training. One has to become so transcendental that not even
good satisfies. One has to be continuously in a divine discontent to attain to
this excellent transcendence where you are lost and only the whole is ... when
you have completely surrendered, when you have given way to the whole ...
you have become just a space.
   If you want to use non-Buddhist terms, you can call it surrender to God. You
are so empty that God can descend in you. If you want to use Buddhist terms,
then he says, you are not there - now only the law functions, now only the
dhamma, the Tao goes on functioning. To function in such accord is bliss.


				*"GOOD"&"GREAT"*