Head/Heart/Being

Your individuality can be divided - just for the purpose of understanding
it; otherwise there is no division. It is one single unity, whole: the head,
the heart, and the being.

Intellect is the functioning of the head, instinct is the functioning of your
body, and intuition is the functioning of your heart. And behind these
three is your being, whose only quality is witnessing.

The head only thinks; hence it never comes to any conclusion. It is
verbal, linguistic, logical, but because it has no roots in reality,
thousands of years of philosophical thinking have not given us a single
conclusion. Philosophy has been the greatest exercise in futility. Intellect
is very clever in creating questions and then creating answers, and then
out of those answers, more questions and more answers. It can make
palaces of words, systems of theories, but they are all just hot air.

The body cannot rely on your intellect, because the body has to live.
That’s why all essential functions of the body are in the hands of instinct
- for example breathing, heartbeat, digestion of your food, circulation of
the blood - a thousand and one processes are going inside your body in
which you have no part at all. And it is good that nature has given body
its own wisdom. Otherwise, if your intellect were to take care of the
body, life would have been impossible! Because sometimes you may
forget to breathe - at least in the night, how will you breathe while you
are asleep? You are already so confused just with thoughts; in this
confusion, who will take care about the blood circulation, whether right
amount of oxygen is reaching to your cells or not? Whether the food that
you are eating is being analyzed into its basic constituents, and those
basic constituents are sent where they are needed? And this whole,
tremendous amount of work is done by instinct. You are not needed. You
can remain in a coma; still the body will continue to work.

Nature has left all essential functions of your body to instinct, and it has
left all that makes your life meaningful-because just to exist, just to
survive, has no meaning. To give meaning to your life, existence has
given intuition to your heart. Out of your intuition arises the possibility of
art, of aesthetics, of love, of friendship - all kinds of creativity is
intuitive. But the marketplace does not need your intuition. It does not
deal in love, in your sensibilities; it deals with very solid and mundane
things. For that, your intellect - which is the most superficial part -
functions. Intellect is for the mundane life with others in the
marketplace, in the world, to make you capable of functioning. It is
mathematics, it is geography, it is history, it is chemistry - all science
and all technology is created by your intellect. Your logic and your
geometry are useful - but the intellect is blind. It simply goes on creating
things, but it does not know whether they are being used for destruction
or for creation. A nuclear war will be a war created by intellect. Intellect
has its use, but by some misfortune it has become the master of your
whole being. That has created immense troubles in the world.

The master is hidden behind these three: the body, the mind, the heart.
The master is hidden behind all these three - that is your being. But you
never go inwards; all your roads go outward, all your senses go outward.
All your achievements are out there in the world.

Intellect is useful in the world, and all your educational systems are
techniques to avoid the heart and take your energy directly to your
head. The heart can create troubles for the head - the heart knows
nothing of logic. The heart has a totally different center of functioning,
and that is intuition. It knows love, but love is not a commodity of any
use in the world. It knows beauty, but what are you going to do with
beauty in the marketplace?

The people of the heart - the painters, the poets, the musicians, the
dancers, the actors - are all irrational. They create great beauty, they
are great lovers, but they are absolutely unfit in a society that is
arranged by the head. Your artists are thought by your society to be
almost outcast, a little bit crazy, an insane type of people. Nobody
wants their children to become musicians or painters or dancers. They all
want them to be doctors, engineers, scientists, because those
professions pay. Painting, poetry, dance, are dangerous, risky - you may
end up just a beggar on the street, playing on your flute.

The heart has been denied - and by the way, it will be useful to
remember that the denial of the heart has been the denial of the woman.
And unless the heart is accepted, the woman cannot be accepted.
Unless the heart has the same opportunity to grow as the head, the
woman cannot have liberation. The woman is heart and the man is head.
The distinction is clear.

Instinct, nature has taken in its own hands. And whenever you interfere
with instinct you create perversions. All the religions have been doing
that; every religion has been interfering with the body - and the body is
absolutely innocent, it has never done anything wrong. If you accept the
body in its absolute naturalness, it will help you tremendously. It will help
your heart, nourish your heart. It will help your intelligence to become
sharper, because the nourishment for the intellect comes from the body,
nourishment to the heart comes from the body. And if your head, your
heart and your body are all in a symphony, then to find your being is the
easiest thing in the world. But because they are in conflict, your whole
life goes on being wasted in that conflict, conflict between instinct and
intellect and intuition.

A wise person is one who creates a harmony between the head, the
heart, and the body. In this harmony one comes to the revelation of the
source of one’s life, the very center, the soul. And that is the greatest
ecstasy possible - not only to human beings but in this whole universe,
nothing more is possible.

I am not against anything. I am only against disharmony, and because
your head is creating the most inharmonious situation I want your head
to be put in its right place. It is a servant, not a master. As a servant it
is great, very helpful.

A Dublin milkman has just finished his delivery, so he parks his horse and
cart outside the pub and goes in for a drink. Refreshed after an hour, he
comes out to find his horse painted bright green. Very angry, he strides
back into the pub and demands, "Which of you just painted my horse
green?"

A seven foot Irish giant stood up and, towering over him, said, "I did.
Want to do something about it?"

The milkman gave a sickly grin and said, "I just came in to tell you, the
first coat is dry!"

Intellect is helpful! There are situations where you will be in need of
intellect - but only as a servant, not as a master.