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it be able to survive? It tries to avoid it, it tries to remain away from it; it wants to escape, hide somewhere. But that is not right. That's why people have become dull and dead. All springs of life are in the unconscious. The conscious is only utilitarian, it is a utility, but it is not life's joy, it is not celebration. The conscious is good if you are thinking of livelihood but not of life. Life comes from the unconscious, from the unknown, and the unknown is always scary.
Allow it. That's my whole work here: to help you to allow the unconscious. And once you start enjoying it, nervousness will disappear. There is no need to control it; one need not be in harness twenty-four hours.
Once it happened that a great Chinese emperor went to see a great Zen master. The Zen master was rolling on the floor and laughing, and his disciples were laughing too -- he must have told a joke or something. The emperor was embarrassed. He could not believe his eyes because the behaviour was so unmannerly; he could not prevent himself from saying so. He told the master, 'This is unmannerly! It is not expected of a master like you; some etiquette has to be there. You are rolling on the floor, laughing like a madman.'
The master looked at the emperor. He had a bow; in those old days they used to carry bows and arrows. The master said, 'Tell me one thing: do you keep this bow always strained, stretched, tense, or do you allow it to relax too?'
The emperor said, 'If we keep it stretched continuously it will lose elasticity, it will not be of any use then. It has to be left relaxed so that whenever we need it, it has elasticity.' And the master said, 'That's what I'm doing.'
There are moments when people should be so relaxed, so wildly relaxed, that they don't have any formality to follow. And love is that relaxation. One need not be in harness for twenty-four hours. While working, be in the conscious, be alert, be calculative, be intelligent, be skilful, be efficient. But that is only the utilitarian part of life. Out of the office relax and be overflooded by the unconscious; be possessed by it and go wild. And you have great energies to go wild
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