| |
is only in the depth. It may be love, it may be meditation, it may be sannyas, but the problem is the same. You have to go into it headlong; one has to be a little foolish. Wise people always remain hanging on the bank. Their wisdom eventually proves to be stupidity. Fools jump, and finally their foolishness simply proves that they were courageous and wise because they learned. They know new places of being.
So never be afraid of involvement. Never be afraid of commitment. Just one thing has to be remembered -- never lose your freedom. That does not mean that you don't become intimate with somebody. It simply means that you become intimate but you still remain free. In fact a free person is simply aware that he is free, any moment anything can be dropped. If the time arises and the situation is there, the challenge is there and one simply feels stuck -- one can get out of it. It is an agreement that can be broken. It is your choice to be in it or not. But from the very beginning to stand out and become a spectator you will miss the whole of life.
So go deeply into involvement but always remain your own master. There is no need to show your mastery every moment, you just have to know that it is there. And if you want to get out, you can simply slip out; just as a snake slips out of the old skin, one can slip out of any situation. But if you remain afraid just because there is a possibility of getting involved, and you don't grow skin because it may become old and then you may have to get out of it, or it may become a confinement, how will you live? But it happens to everybody.
Once you start enjoying your aloneness and enjoying your freedom, the fear arises, 'Now don't get into anything. Just keep out.' That's why so many people drop out of society. But that is not going to end it. And the days that are wasted, are wasted forever -- you cannot reclaim them.
My whole teaching is to get involved and yet to remain unattached. Walk in the water but don't be touched by the water. Remain like a lotus leaf: in the water but yet untouched. The lotus leaf has functioned as one of the greatest symbols in the East because it remains in the water
|
|
|