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a past of thousands of years.
Sannyas means getting rid of the whole past, your past and the past of the collectivity you are born in: the Christian, the Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Indian, the Arabian, the German, the white man's past, the black man's past, man's past, woman's past -- the past as such. It has to be completely burned so it cannot raise it's head again. In a single blow one has to cut all connections with the past. That's what sannyas is, it is becoming thoroughly dead to the past.
The moment you are courageous enough to be thoroughly dead to the past, a miracle happens, the greatest miracle of life, the miracle, the only miracle -- that you are resurrected. And then you are resurrected you don't belong to time, you belong to eternity; you are no more mortal, you are immortal.
The whole art of sannyas is first learning the process of dying to the past and then, second, learning how to live in the present. Within these two steps the whole journey is complete.
And your name, Han, is also beautiful; it comes from a Hebrew root, john. It means god's gracious gift.
Meditation is the greatest gift one can long for, one can pray for, because every other treasure is just rubbish compared to it. And because John was the most beloved disciple of Jesus, it has also become associated symbolically with a new meaning: the beloved disciple.
Sannyas means disciplehood. It means merging and melting into the master, forgetting your self, your separate entity. The master is only an opportunity to help you to get rid of the ego. Once you are free of the ego you have passed through the master, through the gate, you have entered into god. The master is only a gate, but without passing through the gate nobody en into the temple of god.
[Then he talked about meditation as being like a fire because it burns away most of who you think you are and leaves behind only what's really essential, your intrinsic core.]
We cling to the circumference, so much so that we have completely forgotten about the centre. Unless the circumference disappears completely we are not going to be reminded of the centre. And the centre contains
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