In understanding is the very dropping. There is no ”and to drop them.”
There is no action after understanding.
Understanding is the action itself.
It is not that you bring the light inside the room, then you throw the darkness out. You don’t say, ”I
will bring the lamp in and then throw the darkness out.” If you say that, anybody will know that you
are blind. You don’t know what you are saying. When you bring light in you will not find darkness at
all. What are you going to throw out?
Understanding is light.
The moment you understand, there is no suffering to be thrown out, to be dropped, to be got rid of.
Understanding simply cleanses you.
You may have a laugh after it, but there is no action. You may have a good laugh because you will
see how stupid you have been. You have been trying to get rid of things which only need to be
understood, and that very understanding becomes freedom from them.
No doing other than understanding is needed.
But perhaps you don’t have a clear-cut idea of knowing and knowledge. It is knowledge: you have
heard, you have listened, you have read.
Yes, you are knowledgeable, but knowledge helps nobody.
Sigmund Freud, a man of great knowledge, was afraid of ghosts – although he said continually,
”There are no ghosts, there is no evidence, no proof.” He was so much afraid of ghosts that a simple
incident became the breaking point between his chief disciple, Carl Gustav Jung, and himself.
Carl Gustav Jung was going to be his successor. Freud had already declared, ”Jung is going to
be my successor.” And Jung was the most intelligent, scholarly, impressive, charismatic personality
amongst all Freud’s disciples, but there were a few things which were troublesome. One was that
Jung was interested in ghosts; that was a constant trouble.
One day Sigmund Freud was sitting in his office with Jung in front of him; they were talking and
somehow the topic of ghosts came up. Jung said, ”Whatever you say, I still suspect that something
like ghosts exists.” Sigmund Freud became red with anger – and at that very time, in the cupboard
behind, there was a sound almost like an explosion. Sigmund Freud fell from his seat.
Jung opened the cupboard: there was nothing. He closed it again, put the seat right, placed Freud
there and said, ”There is nothing. I don’t know what happened, what caused this explosion.” They
started talking again, and again the ghost thing came up. Sigmund Freud said, ”I don’t believe in it
and you stop talking about it” – and the explosion!
This was too much: Sigmund Freud fell into unconsciousness. And that was the breaking point. He
simply informed Jung, ”Either you drop me, or you drop your ghosts.”
So knowledgeable, so much a pioneer, a great scientific mind .... But if you really know that there
are no ghosts then there will be a different response. You will not fall unconscious, you will not fall
from your seat. It is just knowledge, belief. Freud wants to believe that there are no ghosts, but deep
down he is just an ordinary human being like anybody else, with all the fears.
Jung was not different either. He was interested in ghosts, but he was very much afraid of death.
Now look at this strange thing. You are interested in ghosts; if you are really interested in ghosts,
you should be interested in death too, because without death ghosts can’t exist. A ghost is nothing
but a man who was once in the body and is no more in the body. If you are interested in ghosts, you
should be logically interested in death, in the very process of death.
But Jung was so afraid, more afraid than Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud at least had some excuse
in the explosion to fall unconscious. Jung was so afraid that even the word ”death” was enough.
Thrice in his life he became unconscious just because the word ”death” came into the conversation.
He was very much interested in seeing in Egypt the mummies of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, queens,
kings – which were very recently discovered, excavated, and were now available for the public to
see. He booked at least a dozen times to go to Egypt but at the very last moment he would find
some excuse not to go.
One time Jung even reached the airport in Zurich; finding no excuse not to go, he was very much
in trouble. He was trying to find some excuse not to go but there was no excuse. People had even
come to give him a good send-off and say, ”Have a good journey.” And finally he said, ”I am not
going.”
”But,” they said, ”why?”
He said, ”I have tried to find an excuse not to go – there is none. But if I don’t want to go, who are
you to force me to go? You have come with flowers, and I am dying with fear. I cannot look at a
corpse.”
It is the strange mind of man. You are obsessed with things of which you are afraid. Perhaps you
are obsessed only because you are afraid. Your fear and your obsession are almost always pointed
to the same thing. Jung never managed in his life to reach Egypt, and this was one of his cherished
desires. He was very knowledgeable, but as far as knowing was concerned – just nil.
Knowing transforms you.
Knowledge only gives you a false idea that you are wise.
It is better to be sincerely ignorant – because there is a chance of change – than to be a hypocrite
insincerely believing that you know.
Ignorance has done no harm to anybody.
There is no action after understanding.
Understanding is the action itself.
It is not that you bring the light inside the room, then you throw the darkness out. You don’t say, ”I
will bring the lamp in and then throw the darkness out.” If you say that, anybody will know that you
are blind. You don’t know what you are saying. When you bring light in you will not find darkness at
all. What are you going to throw out?
Understanding is light.
The moment you understand, there is no suffering to be thrown out, to be dropped, to be got rid of.
Understanding simply cleanses you.
You may have a laugh after it, but there is no action. You may have a good laugh because you will
see how stupid you have been. You have been trying to get rid of things which only need to be
understood, and that very understanding becomes freedom from them.
No doing other than understanding is needed.
But perhaps you don’t have a clear-cut idea of knowing and knowledge. It is knowledge: you have
heard, you have listened, you have read.
Yes, you are knowledgeable, but knowledge helps nobody.
Sigmund Freud, a man of great knowledge, was afraid of ghosts – although he said continually,
”There are no ghosts, there is no evidence, no proof.” He was so much afraid of ghosts that a simple
incident became the breaking point between his chief disciple, Carl Gustav Jung, and himself.
Carl Gustav Jung was going to be his successor. Freud had already declared, ”Jung is going to
be my successor.” And Jung was the most intelligent, scholarly, impressive, charismatic personality
amongst all Freud’s disciples, but there were a few things which were troublesome. One was that
Jung was interested in ghosts; that was a constant trouble.
One day Sigmund Freud was sitting in his office with Jung in front of him; they were talking and
somehow the topic of ghosts came up. Jung said, ”Whatever you say, I still suspect that something
like ghosts exists.” Sigmund Freud became red with anger – and at that very time, in the cupboard
behind, there was a sound almost like an explosion. Sigmund Freud fell from his seat.
Jung opened the cupboard: there was nothing. He closed it again, put the seat right, placed Freud
there and said, ”There is nothing. I don’t know what happened, what caused this explosion.” They
started talking again, and again the ghost thing came up. Sigmund Freud said, ”I don’t believe in it
and you stop talking about it” – and the explosion!
This was too much: Sigmund Freud fell into unconsciousness. And that was the breaking point. He
simply informed Jung, ”Either you drop me, or you drop your ghosts.”
So knowledgeable, so much a pioneer, a great scientific mind .... But if you really know that there
are no ghosts then there will be a different response. You will not fall unconscious, you will not fall
from your seat. It is just knowledge, belief. Freud wants to believe that there are no ghosts, but deep
down he is just an ordinary human being like anybody else, with all the fears.
Jung was not different either. He was interested in ghosts, but he was very much afraid of death.
Now look at this strange thing. You are interested in ghosts; if you are really interested in ghosts,
you should be interested in death too, because without death ghosts can’t exist. A ghost is nothing
but a man who was once in the body and is no more in the body. If you are interested in ghosts, you
should be logically interested in death, in the very process of death.
But Jung was so afraid, more afraid than Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud at least had some excuse
in the explosion to fall unconscious. Jung was so afraid that even the word ”death” was enough.
Thrice in his life he became unconscious just because the word ”death” came into the conversation.
He was very much interested in seeing in Egypt the mummies of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, queens,
kings – which were very recently discovered, excavated, and were now available for the public to
see. He booked at least a dozen times to go to Egypt but at the very last moment he would find
some excuse not to go.
One time Jung even reached the airport in Zurich; finding no excuse not to go, he was very much
in trouble. He was trying to find some excuse not to go but there was no excuse. People had even
come to give him a good send-off and say, ”Have a good journey.” And finally he said, ”I am not
going.”
”But,” they said, ”why?”
He said, ”I have tried to find an excuse not to go – there is none. But if I don’t want to go, who are
you to force me to go? You have come with flowers, and I am dying with fear. I cannot look at a
corpse.”
It is the strange mind of man. You are obsessed with things of which you are afraid. Perhaps you
are obsessed only because you are afraid. Your fear and your obsession are almost always pointed
to the same thing. Jung never managed in his life to reach Egypt, and this was one of his cherished
desires. He was very knowledgeable, but as far as knowing was concerned – just nil.
Knowing transforms you.
Knowledge only gives you a false idea that you are wise.
It is better to be sincerely ignorant – because there is a chance of change – than to be a hypocrite
insincerely believing that you know.
Ignorance has done no harm to anybody.
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