The_Secret of Totality

Question 2:

Three points to be understood. First, mind has two meanings: one - the content; another - the container. When I say "content", I mean thoughts, memories, the dead past, the accumulation of it. But that is only the content. If the whole content is thrown out, then the container remains. That container you can offer. These thoughts, memories, the past, are really worthless, not worth offering - but the container is. Mind has two meanings, so whenever mind is written with a capital M it means "the container". That container you can offer, and that is the meaning of the sutra: "The mind constantly arrowed towards That" -- the container.

"Constantly arrowed towards That" means now the container has no other contents than That - no thought, no memory, no past, no desires, no future, nothing. Now the mind as container has only one content - That. This is the offering.

These contents are really dead, because your mind absorbs them only when they are dead. For example, your mind either moves in the past or in the future. When it moves in the past, it moves among the dead - everything has died, nothing is alive. The past is nowhere except in your memory.

Where is the past? It is nowhere! You cannot find it anywhere. It is only in your memory. If I have some memory that is private, secret to me, and if it is just my memory and no one knows about it, then if I die, where will that memory be? It will not be anywhere. What will be the difference? Whether it ever was or not - what will be the difference? Whether it ever existed or not, there will be no difference.

The dead past is only in the memory. It is nowhere else. And because of this past, future becomes projected. Future is there only because of past. I loved you yesterday, so I want to love you tomorrow. I want to repeat the experience. I heard your song, so I want to hear it again, I want to repeat. The past wants to repeat itself, the dead wants to be born again, so the future is created.

These are the contents of the mind - past and future. If both these contents drop and your mind becomes just vacant, thoughtless, contentless, then you are just here and now, in the present, with no past, with no future. And here and now, That is present. In everything, simultaneously, That is present. When your past and future are not, you become aware of That. And in that awareness the experience of the That is the only content. This is what is meant by "Mind constantly arrowed is the offering" - nothing should be a content of the mind except the universal Existence.

When I say "offer the mind", I mean the container - because you can offer the contents, but they are meaningless, they are dead. When you offer the container - the living mind, the living capacity to know, the living capacity to be - when you offer that, it is an offering. And it is not ordinary: it is rare because it is arduous. And it is worth offering. And whenever there is a happening, whenever a Buddha or a Krishna or a Christ offers himself, offers the mind to the Divine, it is not only that a Buddha or a Jesus is enriched: the Divine is also enriched.

This will be very difficult to understand. When a Buddha is offered to the Divine, the Divine is enriched also - because even in Buddha the Divine flowers, even in Buddha the Divine reaches to a peak. So the Divine is not something set apart. It is not something which is not in us. So offering is not something made to someone else. It is to the common pool of consciousness, it is to the common Existence, the common Being. So when a Buddha is offered, Buddha is enriched because Buddha becomes the Total. But the Total is also enriched, because through Buddha a peak has been touched.

The Divine lives through you, so when you fall, the Divine falls. When you rise, the Divine rises. When you laugh the Divine laughs. When you weep the Divine weeps - because, He is not something set apart. He is not an observer sitting far off in heaven just looking. He is in you. So every act, every gesture is His. So whatsoever is done, is done with Him, through Him, by Him, to Him.

Stories are there. They are beautiful, they are poetic, and they show much. It is said that when Buddha achieved Enlightenment the whole universe became blissful: flowers were showered from the sky, deities began to dance around Him, Indra himself - the king of all the DEVAS - came down with folded palms. He surrendered at Buddha's feet. Trees began to flower out of season; birds began to sing out of season. The whole Existence became a celebration.

This is poetic. It has never happened like that, but in a deep sense it has happened. And it is symbolic - because it is how it should be. When somewhere someone achieves Buddhahood, how is it possible that the whole Existence is not enriched? And it will feel the vibrations; the whole universe will become happy. So through poetic symbols a fact has been shown.

But there are foolish, stupid minds, who go on thinking that either this should be a historic fact; otherwise it must be a lie - they have only two alternatives. They say, "This must be a historic fact, so where is the proof that flowers came upon the trees out of season? Where is the proof? Historic proof is needed, and if it is not there, then it is a lie!" They don't know that there is a realm beyond fact and beyond lies - the realm of poetry that expresses many things which cannot be expressed otherwise. It is just an indication that the whole world became a celebration. It must be so, it has to be so, it has been so!

So when this mind is offered, the contentless mind, simply the container - purified, pure, empty - when this container is offered, it is worth offering. Even the Divine is enriched, because the Divine becomes more divine. So another thing: God is not a static entity. He is a creative force, a dynamic force. So it is not only that man is evolving: God is evolving also. For those of us who are confined to ordinary logic, God cannot evolve, because to us, if he evolves, then He is not perfect. How can perfection evolve? Ordinary logic cannot conceive that something can be more perfect than perfect. It cannot conceive - it looks illogical!

But life is not confined to your logic, and there are possibilities that a perfection can be more perfect, more enriched. A perfection can evolve. It is perfection at every moment; still, it is not static. For example, a dancer: every gesture is perfect. Every moment, every gesture, is perfect. Still, there is a dynamic movement, and the total is more perfect than the parts. Each dance is perfect; still, another dance can be more perfect.

Mahavir has a very beautiful concept. He says that there are infinite perfections, multi-perfections, so God is evolving. To me, God is an evolving force; otherwise there can be no evolution. If He is not evolving, then there is no evolution, because through evolution He evolves. This is the concept of That: if there is a flower, then He is flowering there; if there is a man, then He is "manning" there. So whatsoever happens, it happens to Him; and nothing can happen without Him, outside of Him. So when Buddha happens, the Total becomes more.

Buddha says, "Do not go to any deity to worship. Be Enlightened, and they will come to worship you." And he shows and he says it not as a theory - he knows it! Deities have come to worship him. This has been an experience. So this is something to be pondered over. Only Buddhists and Jains have said this: that when you are Enlightened, the deities will come and worship you - because, they say, deities are not without desires, and when you are Enlightened you are desireless.

Even an Indra is not without desires. Deities may be living m heaven, but they are with desires. So with Buddha and Mahavir, human dignity was raised to its ultimate. If you can become desireless then everything will worship you, because the desireless consciousness is one with That. That contentless mind is not only worth offering: the Divine needs it, the Divine waits for it. When a child returns Enlightened, the father is enriched, the home is enriched.

Really, when a child returns Enlightened, when the father sees his child Enlightened, the father cannot be the same. So when a Buddha flowers, the whole universe flowers with him. He shows the potentiality, the peak possibility. Now you may not attain it, but you may rest assured that you can attain it. The whole universe becomes confident with a Buddha happening. The whole universe becomes a promise, a certainty. The same can happen to each particle, to each "monad", to each mind - and now it is up to you.

When Buddha is dying, Ananda says to Buddha, "When will you be back?"

Buddha says, "It is impossible. I will not be back again." Ananda begins to weep. Buddha asks him, "Why are you weeping? You have been with me for forty years continuously. If you are yet not profited by me, why do you ask for my next coming?" Ananda says, "It is not for me that I am asking. Even if we have not attained to That, you have attained, and we have become certain. And it is more than enough. We have become certain! Now this certainty cannot be lost. I am asking for others who have not seen you. So when will you be coming back? Because if they get a glimpse of such a certainty as you, only then can they proceed on the path.

"I am not asking for myself. For lives together I may wander, but this certainty cannot be lost. I have seen you, and I have seen the peak possibility. So it is not for me but for others. When will you be coming back? Because you are the only certainty - we look at you and doubts drop. We look at you - we may not be capable of doing the same, so we follow you - but in that moment of looking at you, we are you in a sense. So when will you be coming back?"

So the offering is not only worthwhile; it is being awaited. The Divine waits, the Total waits, for you to come enriched, to come back home with your potentiality actualized, for the seed to come not as a seed but as a full manifestation. But with a "content-full" mind, offering is worthless - you are offering rubbish.