presents
Risk Everything for Awareness
It is good
that you are becoming aware
of a very essential phenomenon:
that in the marketplace
you had become mechanical,
robot-like.
Coming here,
you are more relaxed.
The speed of the mind is slowly, slowly
getting less.
And as
your awareness
is becoming
clear,
your mechanicalness is disappearing.
You have to see
that awareness and mechanicalness cannot exist together;
there is no coexistence possible between those two factors.
In the marketplace
you are not expected to be
aware –
you are expected to be efficient.
Efficiency is a quality
of machines;
machines are more efficient
than human beings.
Because efficiency is required,
you become more mechanical,
and as you become more mechanical
your awareness
disappears.
And your awareness is your real being.
By efficiency and mechanicalness,
you may succeed
in earning more money,
more power,
more prestige,
more respectability,
but you will lose yourself.
And you are losing yourself very cheaply;
what you are gaining in return
is worthless.
Do you know how many people have lived before you on this earth?
Do you realize the fact that millions of them
were successful people?
Millions of them
were famous in their time,
and now
people don't even remember their names.
They have disappeared like dreams,
without leaving any trace behind.
We are also going to disappear in the same way.
The only few people
who have died and yet
continue to live on
in people's love,
in people's trust,
are not
the very successful –
the emperors,
the world conquerors,
the richest.
These few people who,
in spite of their deaths,
still beat in the hearts of man
belong to a totally different category:
they were the people of awareness,
people with soul.
Their impact
has been so deep
that it will remain
unto the last man.
Gautam Buddha,
Lao Tzu,
Kabir,
Christ,
Al-Hillaj Mansoor –
these people cannot be forgotten.
They will go on living
in the deepest
parts of your being
for the simple reason
that they never compromised
their awareness
for the expectations of the marketplace.
So the first thing – you have become aware.
Make your awareness more sharp,
and next time when you go to the marketplace there is no need
to become robot-like.
Perhaps you will not be as efficient as robots –
so what?
Perhaps you will not be as successful
as the mechanical ones – so what?
Let them have their day,
and then they will disappear
like soap bubbles.
Don't feel jealous of them.
Be compassionate towards them,
and remain contented
with your awareness.
Risk everything for awareness,
but never risk awareness for anything.
There is no other value which is higher than awareness.
Awareness
is the seed of godliness in you.
When it comes to its
full growth,
you have come
to the fulfillment of your destiny.
As your awareness goes deeper,
your actions may not be efficient
but they will have a new quality –
the quality of grace –
which is far more valuable.
No machine can have the quality of grace.
Your actions, your words
will have a beauty of their own.
The way a man of awareness lives,
each moment
is filled
with tremendous grace and beauty.
It is reflected
in his actions,
even in the smallest actions –
just in the gesture of his hand
or just the way he looks;
in the depth of his eyes
or the authority of his words
or the music of his silence.
His very presence
is a celebration.
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