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Main Index
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is part of the center, and secondly, what will change the periphery but the center? What will change the periphery? The center will change the periphery.
But my emphasis on starting the work from the center is still there because if you start changing the periphery it will take a longer time to reach to the center. That which can be done in a single moment may take many lives, because you have to travel from the periphery to the center -- backwards from the superficial to the depth. If you start work from the center, the periphery automatically changes. When the center is different, the periphery will follow it because the periphery cannot go away from you. For example, I will not tell you to try to be non-violent at the periphery -- it is an unnecessary wastage of time and effort. Be non-violent at the heart, be compassionate, loving, at the heart -- and the periphery will follow. You can forget it completely because whatsoever happens at the periphery comes from the center, so if at the center you are compassionate, the periphery will follow. And this compassion will be totally different because the periphery will not know that this is compassion; the periphery will not feel elated that this is compassion; the periphery will be blissfully unaware -- the compassion will follow you like a shadow. This is the easiest course.
What I mean is this: if you want to change a tree, change the roots. Of course, the leaves of the tree are also the tree, and you can also try to change the leaves. If you change the leaves the roots will be affected but it is going to be a very long process because the flow is from the roots to the leaves, the flow is not from the leaves to the roots. You are following a reverse direction from that of nature. If you go on changing the leaves, after many, many lives you may affect the pattern of the roots, but this is going to be unnecessarily long. You can do it immediately if you change the pattern at the roots. The leaves will change and will become different.
So when I emphasize the center, I don't mean that the periphery is separate from the center. And when I emphasize the center, I don't mean that you cannot affect
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