A rose is a rose

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Talks given from 28/6/76 to 27/7/76 Darshan Diary

CHAPTER 1

28 June 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

[A sannyasin leaving for the West says: I feel deep gratitude for all that has happened to me since I’ve been here.] I know.... Much will be happening, much more, and gratitude prepares the way. Feel as grateful to existence as possible – for small things,not only for great things... just for sheer breathing. We don’t have any claim on existence, so whatsoever is given is a gift. If it is not given we don’t have any court for appeal. So grow more and more in gratitude and thankfulness – not only towards me; let it become your very style. Be grateful to everybody. If one understands gratitude then one is grateful for things that have been donepositively. And one even feels grateful for things which could have been done negatively. You feel grateful that somebody helped you; this is just the beginning. Then you start feeling grateful that somebody has not harmed you – he could have; it was so kind of him. Once you understand the feeling of gratitude and allow it to sink deeply within you, you will start feeling grateful for everything. Andthe more grateful you are, the less complaining, grumbling. Once complaining disappears, misery disappears. It exists with complaints. It is hooked with complaints and with the complaining mind. Misery is impossible with gratefulness. So that is one of the most important secrets to learn. [The Hypnotherapy Group was at darshan tonight. A group member said: It was very good for me. I felt that I wasallowing myself more and no longer fighting. I felt less guilty – because I used to feel very guilty. And I also feel more balanced, so I feel very good.] 2

CHAPTER 1.

You look good! All things happen together. If you feel less guilty, immediately you start feeling more happy. If you feel more, happy, you feel less in conflict, more harmonious, together. If you feel together, more harmonious,suddenly you feel a certain grace surrounding you. These things function like a chain reaction: one starts the other, the other starts another, and they go on spreading. But to begin with, feeling less guilty is very very important. The whole of humanity has been made to feel guilty – centuries of conditioning, of telling people to do this and not to do that... and not only that, but forcing themby saying that if they do something that is not allowed by the society or by the church, then they are sinners. If they do something which is appreciated by the society and the church, then they are saints.So everybody has been fooled into doing things that society wants them to do, and not to do things that society does not want them to do. Nobody has bothered about whether this is your thing ornot. Nobody has bothered about the individual. The thinking up to now has been this – that the individual exists for the society so the individual has to follow just what the society says. He has to fit with the society. That is the definition of the normal human being – to fit with the society. Even if the society is insane, you have to fit with it; then you are normal. Even if the society isneurotic and you try to be sane, you will be thought neurotic because the society is the majority. They have power so they can make anybody feel guilty. They have put a deep mechanism inside you which they call a conscience which, if you move slightly away from the norm, the accepted rules of the game, immediately says, ’Wrong! Wrong! You are doing something wrong!’ Now the problem for the individual isthat nature demands one thing and society demands something contrary. If the society was demanding the same as nature demands, there would have been no conflict. Man would still have remained in the garden of Eden. The problem arises because society has its own interests which are not necessarily in tune with the individual and his interests. Society has its own investments. The individual has...