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remains the same. The higher the qualities that arise, the more one has to be alert, aware and watchful. But I will not say to protect, because that can become a dangerous thing again.
People know only one way of protection and that is to become hard on the outside, to create an armor, a hard crust so nothing enters inside. That's what many monks in the past have been doing. That seems to be the easier way. Inside is very delicate, very soft, feminine, so outside they become very masculine. But that too is dangerous because then you become closed. And that soft energy needs flow, that soft energy needs constant communion with the universe. All the windows and the doors should be open so that the sun can come in and the wind can come in and even rain can come in and you are constantly exchanging energy with the existence. Otherwise the inner energy becomes stagnant. If you grow a hard crust to protect it, that will destroy it. It will become stagnant, stale, and soon you will see that the hard crust has won over it and slowly slowly it has also become part of the hard crust. A constant exchange with existence is needed so that the energy continues renewing itself, remains fresh, just as flowing water remains fresh, alive; stagnant water goes dead and becomes poisonous sometimes.
So "protection" is not the right word. It is dangerous to use that word because that will mean to close yourself, to become hard, not to listen, not to be sensitive, to just bypass people, remain indifferent. Yes, in a way it will be protection -- you will not be disturbed from the outside, but the inner has started dying. You have become a prisoner, afraid of life.
That's how the monks have lived down the ages -- Christian, Hindu, Jaina, Buddhist -- all the monks. Why have they moved into the monasteries? So that they can protect themselves there. In the world they felt unprotected; they disappeared behind the monastery walls and they started growing a very hard crust. They became stony, and the more stonelike a monk was, the more he was praised. They became utterly insensitive, their poetry died. Their whole life became just a calculation -- how to reach heaven -- just
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