Knowledge/Personality

    Being never develops. Being simply is. There is no evolution,
there is no time involved in it. It is eternity, it is not "becoming."
Spiritually, you never develop; you cannot. As far as the ultimate
goal is concerned, you are already there. You have never been any-
where else.
    Then what is development? Development is only a kind of
awakening to the truth that you are. The truth does not grow; only
recognition grows, remembrance grows.
    That's why I don't talk about the "development of being." I
talk about all the hindrances that are preventing your recogni-
tion. And knowledge is the greatest hindrance; hence I have
talked about it extensively. It is the barrier.
    If you think you already know, you will never know. If you
think you already know, what is the point of searching? You can
go on sleeping and dreaming. The moment you recognize that you
don't know, that recognition of ignorance goes like an arrow into
the heart, it pierces you like a spear. In that very piercing, one be-
comes aware--in that very shock.
    Knowledge is a kind of shock absorber. It does not allow you to
be shaken and shocked. It goes on protecting you, it is an armor
around you. I speak against knowledge so that you can drop the
armor, so that life can shock you into awareness.
    Life is there, ready to shock you every moment. Your being is
there inside you, ready to be awakened any moment. But between
these two there is knowledge. And the more of it there is, the more
your self-awakening will be delayed.
     Become unknowledgeable.
     And never think of spirituality as a process of growth. It is not
a growth. You are already gods, buddhas from the very beginning.
It is not that you have to become buddhas--the treasure is there,
only you don't know where you have put it. You have forgotten the
key, or you have forgotten how to use the key You are so drunk
with knowledge that you have become oblivious of all that you are.
Knowledge is alcoholic; it makes people drunk. Then their percep-
tion is blurred, then their remembrance is at the minimum. Then
they start seeing things that are not, and they stop seeing things
that are.
     That's why I have not talked about how to evolve your being.
Being is already as it should be, it is perfect. Nothing needs to be
added to it, nothing can be added to it. It's a creation of existence.
It comes out of perfection, hence it is perfect. Just withdraw all
the hindrances that you have created.
      And our whole society goes on working, endeavoring to create
hindrances. A child is born and immediately we start creating
hindrances in him. We create comparison in him: "Somebody is
more beautiful than you, and somebody else is healthier than
you, and somebody else's child--look, look at their grades, at
their intelligence, and what are you doing?" We start creating
comparison. Comparison brings with it the idea of inferiority and
superiority--and both are illnesses, hindrances. Now the child
will never think just about himself; he will always think in com-
parison to somebody else. The poison of comparison has entered.
Now the person is going to remain miserable; now the bliss of
being will become more and more impossible.
    Everyone is born unique. No comparison is possible. You are
you, and I am I. A Buddha is a Buddha, and a Christ is a Christ, and
no comparison is possible. If you compare, you create superiority,
inferiority@the ways of the ego. And then, of course, a great de-
sire arises to compete, a great desire arises to defeat others. You re-
main in fear of whether you are going to make it or not, because it
is a violent struggle and everybody is trying to do the same, to be-
come the first. Millions of people are trying to become the first.
Great violence, aggression, hatred, enmity arise. Life becomes a
hell. If you are defeated, you are miserable . . . and there are many
more chances of being defeated than of winning. And even if you
succeed you are not happy because the moment you succeed you
become afraid: Now somebody else might take it from you. Com-
petitors are all around, violently coming after you.
    Before you succeeded you were afraid about whether you were
going to make it or not; now you have succeeded, you have the
money and the power, and you are afraid somebody is going to
take it away from you. Before you were trembling and now you are
trembling. Those who are failures are miserable, and those who
succeed are miserable.
    In this world, it is very difficult to find a happy person, be-
cause nobody is fulfilling the conditions for being happy. The first
condition is that one has to drop all comparison. Drop all these
stupid ideas of being superior and inferior. You are neither supe-
rior nor inferior. You are simply yourself! There exists no one like
you, no one with whom you can be compared. Then, suddenly, you
are at home.
    But we start poisoning the children's minds with knowledge.
We start teaching them things they don't know and haven't expe-
rienced. We teach them about God-we are teaching them a lie.
This God is not going to he a true God-they don't know; we are
forcing them to believe, and this belief will become their knowl-
edge. Belief cannot become real knowing; it will be only a preten-
sion. Their whole life they will think they know, and they will
never know. The foundation has been laid in untruth.
     We teach children, "You have an immortal soul." What non-
sense you are teaching to them! And I am not saying there is no
immortal soul, I am not saying there is no such thing as godliness,
mind you. I am saying these things should not be taught as beliefs.
They are existential experiences. The child has to be helped to ex-
plore into his inner world.
     Rather than helping children in exploration we hand them
ready-made knowledge. That ready-made knowledge becomes the
greatest problem. How to drop it?
      That's why I have spoken on the stupidity of knowledge--
because it is ignorance masquerading as knowledge. The moment
you drop it you will be again a child-fresh, alive, vibrant, curi-
ous- your eyes will be full of wonder and your heart will start
throbbing again with the mystery of life. Then the exploration be-
gins, and with that, the awareness. More and more you become
   aware of this inner consciousness that you have been carrying all
   along, but it has become too stuffed with knowledge, so whenever
   you go in you never find consciousness; you always find some con-
   tent floating in consciousness.
       Knowledge is like clouds in the sky. Right now, there are so
   many clouds in the sky. If you look at the sky you will not find
   the sky at all, only clouds and clouds. That is the state of a knowl-
   edgeable person's mind: thoughts, scriptures, great theories, dog-
   mas, doctrines-they all float like clouds, and you cannot see the
   pure sky.
    Let these clouds disappear. And they are there because you are
clinging to them. They are there because you go on holding on to
them. Loosen your grip, let them go. Then there is a pristine clar-
ity of the sky, the absolute infinity of the sky. That is freedom.
That is consciousness. That is true knowing.
    A great Western philosopher, David Hume, has written, hear-
ing again and again from the great mystics, "Know thyself!" he
says, "I also tried one day to know myself. I closed my eyes and
went in. I found a few desires, a few thoughts, memories, dreams,
imaginations and things like that. But I could not find anybody
else there. I could not find myself."
    This is the true depiction of almost everybody's mind, except a
few buddhas. If you go in, what will you find? Contents, clouds
moving around.
    Even such an intelligent person as David Hume could not see
the point: Who is it that is looking at the contents? Who is this
awareness that finds a few memories, desires floating around? Of
course, this witness cannot be a desire, this witness cannot be an
imagination. This witness cannot be any thought. All is passing in
front of this witness . . . and Hume was looking for the witness!
Now, you cannot look for the witness as an object. The only way
to know the witness is to drop all content and become utterly
empty. When there is nothing to see, your capacity to see turns
upon itself.
    That's what Jesus calls conversion. When there is nothing
there to see, one starts seeing oneself. When there is nothing to
hinder, the consciousness is pure, and in that purity it becomes
self-conscious.
    And when I use the term "self-conscious" I don't mean your
"self-consciousness." Your self-consciousness is not the conscious-
ness of your self, it is just ego-consciousness. You don't know who
you are; how can you be self-conscious? Your self-consciousness
is a disease. You become self-conscious only when you are facing
other people. If you are to deliver a speech you become self-
conscious, and because of that self-consciousness you become dis-
turbed, almost paralyzed. Or if you are playing a part in a drama,
you become self-conscious. Your self-consciousness is nothing but
the desire of the ego to perform a thing so perfectly that everybody
appreciates it.
    When I say "self-consciousness," I mean when all has disap-
peared and there is no other content left--when the mirror re-
flects itself. It is like a small candle burning in a room. It reflects
off the walls, it reflects off the furniture, it reflects off the paint-
ing on the wall, it reflects off the ceiling. For a moment imagine
that the walls have disappeared, the painting is no more, the roof
has disappeared--all has disappeared, only the small candle is
burning. Now what will reflect its light? It will only reflect itself;
it will only be self-luminous.
    This is the state of being.
    Drop knowledge. Drop comparison. Drop false identities. This
whole process is negative! Drop this, drop that, and go on drop-
ping. Go on dropping till nothing is left to drop--and then it is
there, your pure consciousness is there.

    The personality has to be dropped so that your individuality
can be discovered. What we call the personality is not you; it is a
mask people have put over you. It is not your authentic reality, it
is not your original face. You are asking me, "Is it really worth put-
ting any energy into improving my personality?" Put your energy
into destroying your personality! Put your energy into discovering
your individuality, and make the distinction very clear: individu-
ality is that which you have brought from your very birth. Indi-
viduality is your essential being, and personality is what the soci-
ety has made of you, what they wanted to make of you.
    No society up to now has been able to give freedom to their
children to be themselves. It seems risky. They may prove rebel-
lious. They may not follow the religion of their forefathers; they
may not think the great politicians are really great; they may not
trust in your moral values. They will find their own morality, and
they will find their own lifestyle. They will not be replicas, they
will not repeat the past; they will be beings of the future.
    This has created fear that they may go astray. Before they go
astray, every society tries to give them a certain direction how to
live, a certain ideology of what is good and what is evil, a certain
religion, a certain holy scripture. These are ways to create the per-
sonality, and the personality functions like an imprisonment.
    But millions of people in the world know only their per-
sonality; they don't know that there is anything more. They have
completely forgotten themselves, and they have forgotten even
the way to reach themselves. They have all become actors, hypo-
crites. They are doing things they never wanted to do, and they
are not doing things they are hankering to do. Their life is so split
that they can never be at peace. Their nature will assert itself
again and again, will not leave them at peace. And their so-called
personality will go on repressing it, forcing it deeper into the
unconscious. This conflict divides you and your energy--and a
house divided cannot stand long. This is the whole misery of
human beings--why there is not much dance, much song, much
joyfulness.
     People are so engaged in warfare with themselves. They don't
have energy, and they don't have time to do anything else except
fight with themselves. Their sensuality they have to fight, their
sexuality they have to fight against, their individuality they have
to fight against, their originality they have to fight against. And
they have to fight for something that they don't want to be, which
is not part of their nature, which is not their destiny. So they
can pretend to be false for a time--but again and again the real
asserts.
    Their whole life goes on, up and down, and they cannot figure
out who they really are: the represser or the repressed? the oppres-
sor or the oppressed? And whatever they do, they cannot destroy
their nature. They can certainly poison it; they can certainly de-
stroy its joy, they can destroy its dance, they can destroy its love.
They can make their life a mess, but they cannot destroy their na-
ture completely. And they cannot throw away their personality
because their personality carries their forefathers, their parents,
their teachers, their priests, their whole past. It is their heritage;
they cling to it.
    My whole teaching is, don't cling to personality. It is not
yours, and it is never going to be yours. Allow your nature full
freedom. And respect yourself, be proud of being yourself, what-
ever you are. Have some dignity! Don't be destroyed by the dead.
    People who have been dead for thousands of years are sitting
on your head. They are your personality--and you want to im-
prove on them? So call in a few more of the dead! Dig up more
graves, bring out more skeletons, surround yourself with all kinds
of ghosts. You will be respected by the society. You will be honored,
rewarded; you will have prestige, you will be thought to be a saint.
But surrounded by the dead, you will not be able to laugh--it will
be so out of place--you will not be able to dance, you will not be
able to sing, you will not be able to love.
    Personality is a dead thing. Drop it! In a single blow, not in
fragments, not slowly, today a little bit and then tomorrow a little
bit, because life is short and tomorrow is not certain. The false is
false. Discard it totally!
    Every real human being has to be a rebel. . . and rebel against
whom? Against his own personality.

    How long can you go on pretending? The reality is going to
come up some day or other, and it is better that it comes sooner.
There is no need to improve your diction--just drop that whole
personality thing. Just be yourself. However raw and however
wild it appears to be in the beginning, soon it starts having its own
grace, its own beauty.
    And the personality . . . you can go on polishing it, but it is just
polishing a dead thing, which is going to destroy not only your
time, your energy, your life, but also the people around you. We
are all affecting each other. When everybody is doing something,
you also start doing it. Life is very contagious, and everybody is
improving his personality--that's why the idea has arisen in
your mind.
    But there is no need to do that. You are not part of a herd, not
part of a mob. Be respectful of yourself, and be respectful of
others. Be proud of your freedom. When you are proud of your
freedom you want everybody else to be free, because your freedom
has given you so much love and so much grace. You would like
everybody else in the world to be free, loving, and graceful.
    This is possible only if you are original--not something put to-
gether, not something false, but something that grows within you,
which has roots in your being, which brings flowers in its time.
And to have one's own flowers is the only destiny, is the only sig-
nificant way of life.
    But the personality has no roots; it is plastic, it is phony. Drop-
ping it is not difficult; it needs just a little courage. And my feeling
of thousands of people is that everybody has that much courage,
just people are not using it. Once you start using your courage,
sources within you that are dormant become active, and you be-
come capable of having even more courage, more rebelliousness.
You become a revolution in yourself.
    When you are a revolution unto yourself it is a joy to see, be-
cause you have fulfilled your destiny. You have transcended the or-
dinary mob, the sleeping crowd.
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				*Knowledge/Personality*