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power by seven; it is another fragment. And so on it goes, like a wheel moving: one spoke comes up, then another, then another... and life remains a mess.
The search for truth or for god or for the real self, creates a centre, and slowly, slowly all the fragments start falling into the centre, with the centre. That is the whole work called sadhana -- to create a centre and to manage that all the fragments become joined with the centre.
Once that integration takes place you become individual. Before that you are not an individual because you are divided. The word individual means 'that which cannot be divided'. Very few persons are individuals. Once among thousands you will find an individual; otherwise only persons are there, and one person means many persons inside.
That's why you cannot even promise, because you don't know who will be there to fulfill the promise. You cannot say, 'I will love you tomorrow too.' How can you say that? This fragment will be gone. It is like a river flowing: you cannot step in the same river twice. You will not meet this same fragment again, maybe for years. And about tomorrow morning, one never knows; you cannot promise. A promise is possible only when the centre has come into existence. Then you can trust yourself.
Gurdjieff used to say, 'A man who can promise is a man who has arrived.' To promise is a big phenomenon. That means there is some continuity that runs through and through. All your fragments have become beads and there is a thread running inside which keeps them altogether. That is the meaning of 'ama', togetherness... the thread running through all fragments and bringing a kind of unity within you.
[A sannyasin who is leaving says: I'm grateful that I'm enlightened.]
(chuckling) That's very good! That's very good! When were you not enlightened?
[Sannyasin: Before the twenty-sixth of December.]
(chuckling) Mm, good! But now you must know that you were never unenlightened.
[Sannyasin: I knew it before but I knew it again on the twenty-sixth of december.]
That's good! When will you be coming back?
[Sannyasin: I don't know when to go and so I don't
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