Weblog von Hans-Wolfgang

29.08.2005 um 13:19 Uhr

A man of tao cannot sin

von: tao

Tao is not a gradual process, it is a sudden jump. At one hundred degrees, the water jumps and becomes vapor. Is there any gradual transformation? Does the water first become ten percent, twenty percent, thirty percent? No. Either it is water or it is vapor; there is no middle ground to be divided.

When a person dies, is he dead by and by, in a gradual process? Can you say that he is half-alive and half-dead? What will it mean? How can a person be half-alive? Either he is dead or he is not dead. Half-alive means he is not dead.

When you love a person, do you love ten percent, twenty percent, thirty percent? Either you love or you don't love. Is there any possibility of dividing your love? There is no possibility.

Love, life, death, they all happen suddenly.

When a child is born, he is either born or not born. And the same is true about enlightenment, because that is the ultimate birth, ultimate death, ultimate life, ultimate love -- everything comes to its ultimate peak in enlightenment. It is a sudden thing.

Tantra says: Don't focus your attention on the acts, focus your attention on the person who has done the acts. Yoga focuses on the acts. Tantra focuses on the person, on the consciousness, on you.

If you are ignorant, tantra says you are bound to commit sin. Even if you try to be virtuous, your virtue will be a sort of sin -- because how can an ignorant man, fast asleep, be virtuous? How can virtue arise out of ignorance, unconsciousness? Impossible! Your virtue must be just a mask; behind it will be the real face, the real face of sin.

You may talk about love, but you cannot love -- you will hate. You can talk about compassion, but compassion must be just a covering of your anger, greed, jealousy. Your love is poisonous. Deep inside in your love is the worm of hate, eating it continuously. Your love is like a wound, it hurts. It is not like a flower, it cannot be. And those who expect love from you are fools, they are asking the impossible. Those who ask from you morality are fools, they are asking the impossible. Your morality is bound to be a sort of immorality.

Look at your moral persons, your so-called saints. Watch and observe them and you will find their faces are just the faces of hypocrisy, deception. They say something, they do something else. They do something, and they not only hide it from you -- they have become so clever in hiding, they hide it from themselves.

In ignorance, sin is natural. In enlightenment, virtue is natural. A man of tao cannot sin; you cannot do otherwise -- you can only sin. Sin and virtue are not your decisions, they are not your acts, they are shadows of your being.

19.08.2005 um 15:01 Uhr

Death is part of life

von: tao

People go on philosophizing. They have created things like Christian Science, mind over matter. They think that if you believe that you are not going to die then you will not die.

There was a man who was a Christian Scientist. One day he met a young man. He asked the young man, "Any news about your father?"

The young man said, "He is very ill."

The Christian Scientist said, "All nonsense! Tell him, 'Mind over matter.' He believes he is ill, that's all; it is his belief that is creating illness. Don't believe in illness and you will be healthy."

After a few days again the young man came across this Christian Scientist, and the Christian Scientist asked, "How are things now with your old man? How is he?"

And the young man said, "Now he believes that he is dead."

It is not a question of belief: illness has a reality, and death too has a reality. Yes, by believing also you can create a few illnesses -- which are false, bogus -- and by disbelieving in them you can destroy them. But you cannot destroy a real illness; the illness has to be false in the first place. If you BELIEVE in it and create it, then by disbelieving in it, it can be dropped. But death is not your belief; otherwise why do animals die? They don't believe, they don't believe that they are going to die. Why do trees die? They don't believe that they are going to die, they don't have any belief system. Why do stars and suns and moons die? Why do earths die? They don't believe; death is a universal phenomenon, it happens everywhere. It is part of life; it is the other side of the coin. Christian Science is neither science nor Christian -- it is simply nonsense.

Two middle-aged men were walking off the tennis court after only a few minutes of play. The older, somewhat corpulent fellow was puffing heavily.

"I guess I am in pretty poor shape," he confessed ruefully.

"How long have you been playing, Herbie?" asked the young man.

"About two weeks."

"Then let me give you a little practical advice. Try the Christian Science way -- mind over matter."

"I already have," admitted the fat one. "When my opponent serves the ball to me, my Christian Science mind says, 'Now, Herbie, you just race right up to the net, slam a blistering drive to the far corner of the court and then jump back into position.' That's exactly what my Christian Science mind tells me....

"But my Jewish body says, 'Herbie, to make a schlemiel out of yourself you don't need!'"

13.08.2005 um 18:59 Uhr

Stonehenge in Amerika

von: tao

Stonehenge gehört zu einer dunklen Epoche Europas: der so genannten Megalithkultur. In ganz Europa, von Schottland bis Nordafrika, finden sich vor allem nahe den Küsten gewaltige Steinkreise, Alleen aus riesigen Steinblöcken und andere Bauten, die zum Teil 6.000 Jahre und mehr alt sein sollen. Sie stammen aus der Steinzeit Europas, als es angeblich mehrheitlich nur wenige, nicht organisierte Jäger und Sammler gab. Einige sehen, da sich die meisten dieser Orte in Küstennähe befinden, hier die Reste von einer Kultur aus Atlantis, andere betrachten die Monumente astronomische Kalender oder schlicht Sonnenheiligtümer. Genaues weiß man nicht.Doch auch jenseits des Atlantischen Ozeans setzt sich diese Kultur offenbar fort. Auch in Amerika gibt es monolithische Bauten, die jenen in der alten Welt ähneln. In Nordamerika ist vor allem das "America´s Stonehenge" berühmt. Auch wenn die Anlage mit dem original in Engaland nicht zu vergleichen ist, ähnelt sie dennoch den europäischen Anlagen der Steinzeit. Der rätselhafte Ort, auch bekannt als Mystery Hill, liegt 40 Meilen nördlich von Boston auf einem 30 Morgen großen Hügel in North Salem im Bundesstaat New Hampshire; 25 Meilen von der atlantischen Küste entfernt. Hier erstrecken sich steinerne Tunnel, Gebäude, Steinkreise und Monolithen, wie sie zum Beispiel aus der Bretagne gut bekannt sind. Wie in Europa sind auch hier die Erbauer, das Alter und der genaue Zweck der Anlagen rätselhaft. Untersuchungen am Mystery Hill von uralten Feuerstellen haben gezeigt, dass dort bereits vor 4.000 Jahren Menschen lebten. Fragmente von Tongefäßen wurden auf rund 1.000 vor Christus datiert. Die weitläufigen Anlagen sind gewaltig. Auch wenn der mächtigste Stein nur elf Tonnen wiegt und damit im Vergleich zu Anlagen wie Stonehenge in England oder Carnac in der französischen Bretagne wesentlich kleiner sind, beeindruckt der Mystery Hill bis heute. Schon früh kam die Idee auf, dass Einwanderer aus Europa vor vielen Jahrtausenden hier am Werk waren. Die Ähnlichkeit zwischen europäischen Monolithen und denen bei North Salem sind in der Tat augenscheinlich. Im Jahre 1936 beispielsweise vertrat William B. Goodwin die These, dass Iren lange vor Kolumbus nach Amerika kamen und diese Anlagen bauten. Auch Wikinger wurden als Urheber der Anlage in Betracht gezogen, die mit ihren Drachenbooten bereits Jahrhunderte vor anderen Europäern Nordamerika erreichten. Ebenso dachte man an die großartigen Seeleute der Phönizier oder sogar an Griechen, die hier ihre Spuren hinterlassen haben. Doch die Datierungen der Tonscherben und der Holzkohlereste widersprechen dieser Annahme. Sehr deutliche Ähnlichkeiten gibt es jedoch zwischen den vergleichbar alten Tempeln aus den Inseln Malta und Gozo im Mittelmeer. Doch ob es in der Steinzeit Europäern möglich war, den gewaltigen Atlantik zu überqueren, weiß heute niemand. Als sicher gilt, dass – ganz wie in Europa – das amerikanische Stonehenge auch nach der Sonne ausgerichtet wurde.

06.08.2005 um 20:58 Uhr

education liberates

von: tao

Education is certainly the process of liberation, but it has not been actualized anywhere in the world. Liberation means liberating the mind from the past, liberating the mind from theologies, liberating the mind from political ideologies; liberating the mind in such a way that when a student comes out of education he is just a clean pure seeker with no prejudice. At the gates of universities in india, it is written, "education is that which liberates." That beautiful sentence at the gates of the universities in India, simply shows how man can be unaware and a hypocrite. In India, there are Mohammedan universities, Hindu universities. The first step should be that there should be no Mohammedan university. How can it liberate people? -- it is going to program people into Mohammedanism. There should be no Hindu university. This is simply ugly. Now Jainas have been trying to create a new university, a Jaina university. In the West there are Catholic universities. Liberation becomes impossible by the very fact that the university itself has a certain prejudice, a certain program to put into the minds of the students. So first dissolve Hindu, Mohammedan, Jaina, Catholic -- these names, from the universities. Secondly: India is a poor country yet it has more than one hundred universities, which is simply futile, meaningless. At the most, each state in India can have one university. Right now each state has almost five, six, seven universities. There are thirty states and there is a competition to have more and more universities. The ultimate result is that the standard of their education goes on falling. Consolidate universities so that each state has one university, all other universities become colleges affiliated to that university. There is no need for so many universities. It is a wastage of money; and when you have so many universities you cannot get the best geniuses as professors. To do that, India has many services, for example, the Indian Administrative Service -- IAS. It should have an Indian Educational Service -- IES. Just because somebody has a university degree does not mean that he becomes automatically capable of teaching. Teaching is a totally different art. Passing an examination is one thing; teaching is totally different. It needs articulateness, it needs a vast range of knowledge -- not only the textbooks that you have read in the university -- it needs you to be constantly in touch with the growing knowledge. Thirty years ago somebody passed his master's degree or became a Ph.D, became a professor; and for thirty years he has not bothered about what has happened in his subject. In thirty years human knowledge has increased more than has been possible in the past even three thousand years. In thirty years we have discovered, known more, than in three thousand years. Now a professor who is unaware of these thirty years of development is absolutely incapable. He should not be a professor in the university because he will be teaching his students something which is already out of date, already proved wrong. Something else has taken its place.