beware of the mind.

[Guest guest]

In fact, in all the traditions, mind has been given different names. One

tradition calls it "the Devil," another tradition calls it "Satan," but it is in

fact nothing but a metaphor for the mind.

 

Jesus goes to the mountains, meditates, and then encounters the Devil. Do you

know, who that Devil is? It is not somebody outside you, with two horns popping

out of his head and with a long tail and hooves -- these are just stories

written for children, for grown-up children of course, but all stories. You have

to decode them.

 

Who is this Devil who tempts Jesus in the mountains? It is the mind. The Devil

is an ancient metaphor for the mind. It goes on watching you, what you are

doing. If you are nourishing to it, then it is okay; if you are going away from

it, it starts creating trouble for you. If one strategy does not work, it

immediately changes its strategy. And it is really very clever.

 

Just the other day you heard Kabir's sutras. He said, "I repressed sex and it

became anger; I repressed anger, it became greed; I repressed greed, it became

pride." It is the same mind! If you start fighting with it, it goes on changing

its colors -- just to deceive you. And, yes, it deceives.

 

When repressed sex becomes anger, you are at a loss to understand that this is

sex and nothing else -- now pretending as anger. Anger looks so different from

sex, in fact it looks like the polar opposite. Sex is love: anger is hate -- how

can they be the same? The mind has taken just the polar opposite to hide itself

You will need great intelligence to decipher, otherwise you will be deceived.

And then anger will torture you.

 

And if you repress anger, it becomes greed. Now who can ever think logically

that anger can become greed? They don't seem to be connected at all. Unless you

are a real observer of your inner happenings you will not be able to see the

connection. Mind jumps to such new faces, takes such new masks! And then you

repress greed and it becomes pride, and you go on ad infinitum....

 

Mrs. Fleishman and Mrs. Rutkin were rocking on the porch of their Catskill

Mountain Hotel.

"Oh, my God! exclaimed Mrs. Fleishman. "Look at that boy. Did you ever see such

a big nose? Such a crooked mouth? And look -- he is cockeyed too!"

"That," said Mrs. Rutkin, "happens to be my son."

"Well," said Mrs. Fleishman, "on him, it is very becoming!"

 

Mind is a diplomat, it is a politician -- it is a devil. Unless you are really

alert and watchful, it can go on deceiving you for lives -- it has been doing

that for lives; it can go on doing it for lives still. But a little

intelligence, just a little intelligence, a little candle of light inside you of

watching, of silently watching and seeing what the mind is doing, and slowly

slowly your intelligence will become stronger. And mind becomes impotent as

intelligence grows.

 

Intelligence is not intellect; intellect is part of mind, intelligence is part

of the heart. Intelligence is always part of the heart, it is not

intellectuality. I don't mean by "intelligence" your so-called intelligentsia --

it has nothing to do with intelligence. Your intelligentsia is knowledgeable.

They may have big university degrees, much knowledge, but they know nothing. All

their knowledge is borrowed, all their knowledge is parrot-like, it is

mechanical. They go on talking about it, but it does not affect their life. It

has no relationship with their own source of being; it does not well up within

their own heart. When I talk about intelligence I always mean the heart --

something happening in you, not coming from the outside. If it comes from the

outside, it creates intellect; if it comes from within, it is intelligence. Help

your intelligence to grow.

 

And I am creating this context, this opportunity, this space, and I am giving

you all kinds of challenges. And as the commune grows the challenges will grow.

Those challenges are meant for a certain purpose, they are deliberate -- they

are meant to provoke your intelligence into activity, to bring your intelligence

above your intellect. Only new situations which your intellect cannot cope with,

only such spaces which your knowledge has not heard about, can help to bring

your intelligence to the surface.

 

All that is needed is intelligence, understanding, awareness -- and you will

know you have come home. And great gratitude will arise in your being, and great

thankfulness. That gratitude, that thankfulness, is prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

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