Question & Answer

Question #1:

Evolution is unconscious. No volition is needed, no conscious effort: it is just natural. But once consciousness evolves, then it is a totally different matter. Once consciousness is there, evolution stops. Evolution is only up to consciousness; the work of evolution is to create consciousness. Once consciousness is there, evolution stops. Then the whole responsibility falls upon consciousness itself. So this has to be understood in many ways.

Man is not evolving now. Since long, man has not been evolving. Evolution has stopped as far as man is concerned. The body has come to its peak, the human body has not evolved since long. The most ancient bones and the most ancient human bodies that have been found are not basically different from our bodies; there is no basic difference. If a human body which is one hundred thousand years old can be revived and trained, it will be just like yours; there will be no difference at all.

The human body has stopped evolving. When did it stop? When consciousness comes in, evolution's work is over. Now it is up to you to evolve. So man remains static, not evolving, unless he himself endeavours. Now, beyond man, everything will be conscious. Below man everything is unconscious. With man a new factor has entered - the factor of awareness, the factor of consciousness. With this factor, evolution's work is over. Evolution is to create a situation in which consciousness evolves. Once consciousness enters in, then the whole responsibility is on consciousness. So now man will not evolve naturally. There will be no evolution.

Consciousness is the peak of evolution - the last step. But it is not the last step of life. Consciousness is the last step of evolution - of all animal heritage. It is the last step - the c1imax, the peak - but for further growth, it has to be the first step. And when I say that evolution has stopped, I mean that now an inner effort is needed. Now, unless you do something, you will not evolve. Nature has brought you to a point which is the last for unconscious growth. Now you are aware; now you know. When you know, you are responsible.

A child is not responsible for his acts, but an adult is. A madman is not responsible for his acts, but a sane man is. If you are under an alcoholic intoxicant and you are not behaving consciously, you are not responsible. With consciousness, with the faculty of knowing, you become responsible for yourself.

With consciousness, one becomes
responsible for everything.

Sartre has said somewhere that responsibility is the only human burden. No animal is responsible. Evolution is responsible for all that the animal is. The animal is not responsible for anything: man is responsible. So whatsoever you do will now be your responsibility. If you want to create a hell and go down, it is up to you. If you want to evolve, if you want to grow and create a blissful state, it is up to you.

Existentialists have made a very fine distinction - a beautiful one - which is meaningful also. They say that for animals essence is first and existence is a later growth. This is difficult to understand, but try: they say for animals, for trees, essence is first and existence follows. There is a seed: the seed, in essence, is the tree. The essence is there and the existence will follow. The essential thing is there; it surely has to be manifested, expressed. The tree will follow! The tree is not going to be a new thing. In a way, it was already there. So, really, the seed has no freedom: the tree exists in it. And the tree is also without freedom: it is predestined by the seed. This is what is meant by essence being first, below man, and then existence follows.

With man, the whole thing is just the opposite: existence comes first and then essence follows. You are not born with any fixed future: you will have to create it. You are born, so you have an existence - a simple existence with no essence. Now you will create the essence. So man creates himself. A tree is created by nature, but man creates himself.

Man is simply born as an existence with no essence. Then whatsoever you do will make your essence. Your acts will create you, and the freedom is multi-dimensional. A man can become anything or he may not become anything. He may remain just an existence without any essence; he may just remain a body without any soul. The soul is, in a way, to be created.

Gurdjieff used to say that you have no soul; you are without a soul. Unless you create it, how can you have it? It looks contradictory to all the teachings of religion, but it is not. When religion says that everyone has a soul, it only means that everyone can have a soul. That is a possibility. You can grow to be a soul. If you already have a soul, then there is no distinction between a seed and you. And if you are growing like a seed into a tree, if you are growing just like a seed into a man, then there is no difference between man and all that exists below man.

Man is a freedom - a freedom to be. He can be many things; he can be anything. But it may be that he will remain just a possibility without being anything. That creates a dizziness and that creates fear.

Kierkegaard has given the concept of "dread". He says that man Lives in dread. What is this dread, this fear? This is the fear: that you are simply a possibility and nothing else. You have only existence, no essence. You can create it, but you may miss it. The responsibility is yours. This is a very dreadful state. Nothing is certain; man is insecure. Every moment many directions open, and you have to move in some way, somewhere, without knowing where you are moving, without knowing what the result will be, without knowing what you will be tomorrow.

Your tomorrow will not come out automatically from your today, but the tomorrow of a seed will come out automatically from its today. The death of an animal will be the automatic result of his life, but not so with you: that is the difference. Your death will be your achievement; you will be responsible for it. And that is why every man dies in a specific way. No man's death is similar to anyone else's; it cannot be.

Dog A, Dog B, Dog C, they all die in one way. This death is just part of their life. They are not responsible for their life, they are not responsible for their death. When someone says that he will die a dog's death, it means that he will die without being evolved, without being an essence. He will be just a possibility. Two dogs die similarly; never two men. They cannot die similarly - and if they die similarly, that means they have missed the opportunity to evolve.

With consciousness entering, you are responsible for everything, no matter what. This is a great burden and a deep anguish. It creates fear. You are just over an abyss. This is what I mean when I say that man now needs a conscious effort. To be a man means entering a field of conscious evolution. Millions and millions of years have created you, but now nature will not help. This is the peak for natural growth. Now nature cannot do anything for you. It has done att it can already. Because of this, there is bound to be a deep inner tension every moment.

Man is in a tension. It is natural and it is good. Do not try to forget it: use it! You can try to forget it; then you miss the opportunity. So any effort to forget your tense state of mind is erroneous, dangerous. You are falling back. Use this inner tension to grow, to move further. Now you cannot move further in the body. The body has come to a dead end, a cul-de-sac. There is no further movement.

The body moves in a horizontal way. It is just like this: an aeroplane running on the earth, on the ground, along a strip, in order to take off. There is a moment when the horizontal running will stop. It will have to run for a mile or two or three just to gather momentum. Then a moment comes when no horizontal running is of any use. And if an aeroplane goes on running on the ground, it is not an aeroplane; it is behaving like a car. When the momentum comes, the aeroplane leaves the ground and a vertical upward movement takes place.

This is what has happened with man. Up to man, evolution has been running on the ground, so to speak. Now man is the momentum. Now with man, an upward vertical movement is the only movement. If you look at this point and think: "We must continue running on the ground because we were doing so for so many millions of years," you miss the whole thing - because this whole running was just for this moment when you could take off.

Animals are running toward man, trees are running toward animals, matter is running toward trees - everything on this earth is running toward man. So for what can man run? Man is the central focus. Everything is growing toward man. Horizontally, for man there is no movement. And if you continue horizontally, then your life will not really be a human life. Your life will consist of many layers which are not human.

Sometimes you will behave like an animal. If you go on horizontally, sometimes you may be just like a vegetable and sometimes you may be just dead matter, but never a man. So look deep down inside your life. It has not taken the vertical turn. Then what are you doing? If you think about each and every act. then you can know that one act belongs to the animal world, another act belongs to the vegetable kingdom, etc. Consider your activity, your life, and then you will know that something is just like dead matter, something is just like a vegetable growing and something is just like an animal.

Where is the man?

 

Tweet