TAO UPANISHAD: CHAPTER 3

 

If you over esteem great men, people become powerless. 

If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal. 

The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. 

He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know. 

Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.

 Ancient Texts were simple. Simple in the sense that they did not have any intricate counter-intuitive logic. The Thinker did not wish to surprise you with his wit, He, Buddha, Lao Tzu or anyone, never wished that he should leave an effect on your mind, they never wanted to impress you. Neither they wanted to express. Most of the times, they did not even want to speak about these things. They were forced, in a way, by other people to do that. 

I write commentaries on them for a different reason. I really want to express myself through them. I really think that the wise men were as ordinary as us, and the way to live life with peace is very simple, so simple that we, intelligent species on earth, just overlook it thinking, "Oh! Life cannot be that simple". 

This tendency of ours to over interpret life or make it a complex within our minds is part of the problem. If you wish to solve your personal dilemmas, first of all you need to really feel that it can be solved. I think without this feeling; you will just end up mystifying things for yourself or philosophizing. 

बताने वाले वहीं पर बताते हैं मंज़िल
हज़ार बार जहाँ से गुज़र चुका हूँ मैं

~ Majaz 

Let us start to observe what Lao Tzu knows and writes.

If you over esteem great men, people become powerless. Great men are those who understand the secret. The Mystery of existence. The dilemma is that the mystery exists, this is the extent to which it can be known. Anything further than that will be an exaggeration. If you know the mystery with certainty, then there is no mystery left for you. 

It is a tendency of this world to start valuing great men too much. Nietzsche has said somewhere, 

Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood.

This means, if your ideas are readily accepted without any challenge, it means people have over-idealized your ideas and nobody is going to implement them in their lives. 

Powerless people are those who lose agency in their lives. What is there in over valuing great men that makes people powerless? It is again in the classification. If you make again a dichotomy, that these are great men and we are ordinary, what you are doing is normalizing your lifestyle and trying to escape from the need to implement them in your life. 

People, who I tell to meditate, first judge me for my "Anti-scientific" stance. Then I show them some neuroscience research papers on Buddhist meditation techniques. Then they get convinced, but next day when I ask them whether they did meditate or not? They say, oh no, I got busy. Oh no! I am at ease. I do not feel like doing it. 

I do not say anything further. I just wonder. How hard is it to sit for 5 minutes your eyes closed. You anyway close your eyes at night and try to sleep and may be more than that. But their minds are like haunted places where no Godly behavior is allowed. Their mind resists meditation like a ghost resists exorcism. 

People say, I do not see any difference in your life because of meditation. Please understand that this is your mind fooling you. You keep on arguing that meditation is something I cannot do since you can no longer argue that it does not work. I just showed you the research papers. 

The problem with powerless people is that they want a pre-planned everything known path for this. They are not willing to move in the unknown. The path of mystery is the path of unknown. You move there like you move in a dark room, feeling stuff with your hands and legs, so that you don't collide with anything. Sometimes you even do, you get traumatized. You suffer. You fall ill. But you continue because the drive to know the truth is so high. 

I do not know if they will benefit with these arguments. This cynicism, this skepticism. I feel it is really not for everyone. Only those who are God given, come to this path. 'Spiritual Quotient" must be a thing. They do not have it. They do not use it. I think it is better to pretend blindness in a world full of blinds. 

I am sorry to end this at a pessimistic end, but what to do. I really do not believe that I can ever convince anyone to meditate. Even when people agree to meditate, like one girl texted me in desperation yesterday at night, that she is now ready to meditate. People come to me in pain. In depression. Nobody wants to meditate when it is all sunny and happy. People are selfish. People just want cure of their pains. Nobody wants to know the truth. 

If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal. 

Lao tzu is telling you perhaps the most important insight of economics. Our whole system of economics is false. It is based on scarcity. It is based on demand and what is less rather than what is essential for survival. 

Our economics values diamond because it is found less and water less because it is found more. In a sane world, where people value their needs more than their scarcity, Water would have been costlier since it is on which we live. Diamonds are stones. Why is a diamond so important really? 

The question to ask is why did he write it here? He writes here to remind that when you overvalue something more than its need, People want it without realizing that they need it. That is the definition of Stealing. Stealing is the act of wanting your needs more than you need. 

I over value meditation, honestly, too much, because probably I am new to this. I have been doing it since 8th grade, and it has only been 11 years. It is a short span for dhyana. People meditate for 50-60 years. When I overvalue meditation, people start stealing it. How can you steal meditation? You can, when you do not do it yourself, but just keep on arguing how is it useful? Is it useful to you? You do not look peaceful. You look normal only. No changes I see in you, Vibhat. That is how you steal anyone's meditation. You somehow justify in your head, that whatever he is saying is a facade, either he is a fool, or he is making me one. 

I should stop selling meditation. I should just mind my own business and keep on doing it. And why should I care if people benefit or not? do hell with people. This might not seem spiritual, but It really is. When you realize that you can cure no one. And people really believe their own mind more than you, because they somehow think, their mind is their friend. No one's mind has ever been anyone's best friend. 

The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. 

I am not a master. Lao Tzu is. He says, a master, leads by emptying people's minds. and filling their cores. 

How can you empty minds and fill cores? Understand, what is cores? It is the source within all. It is the Tao that he talks about. When the mind is filled with thoughts, core is empty. I see people arguing about things and feel a little bit sad, that how empty their cores are. Like a candle not lit yet. Mind is the source of all problems. People still keep on thinking, using their minds. 

Javed Akhtar says, "Spiritual people are frauds, they want to use their own minds, but they do not let you use yours". I feel sad that Javed Akhtar, such a great man will die without knowing the nature of his mind. His whole life went in struggles, and he could not find peace. Only if he could have left thoughts, Only if he could have closed his eyes, bas itna hi toh karna hota hai, Thak jaana hota hai apne aap se, maaf kar dena hota hai khudko, ki thik hai, bahut soch liya iss janam ke liye, ab nahi sochna hai, ab bas aaraam karna hai, mind ko keh do, ab tum jaao, Jeevan bhar tum humko bas daraya hai, khali pareshan kiya hai,

ab marna hoga toh mar jayenge, tumhara baat nahi maanenge, Tum hi hai problem. 

Weakening ambition and toughening resolve means? 

Resolution....Sankalp. 

That is the basis of all dhyana. You close your eyes and say, 1 ghanta se pahle toh nahi kholenge. Ab humko batao, kaun rok sakta hai tumko? 

Kya tum apni kamzori se hi dukh mein nahi ho? Sach bolo? 

Weakening ambition. Ambition is for people who want to keep thinking what they want to do instead of actually doing it. People like to romanticize their journeys. Ki dekho, hum kitna ambitious aadmi hain. 

Ambitions should not exist for a working man. A working man works so absorbed that he cares not about the goal. Goal achieve ho toh uski bala se, na ho toh uski bala se. 

Ya toh I can work or I can think. Dono nahi ho sakta. 

He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know. 

Do people really want to lose everything they know? Everything they desire? Yes, I am talking to you. You, who is reading this! Can you lose desires? Someday just give up. Nahi hoga ab humse chahna. 

Nahi chahenge ab kuch bhi. Can you lose your knowledge? Can you genuinely just accept that whatever you knew until now, was bullshit. You wasted 50 years of your life. Can you? 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

~ "If" By Rudyard Kipling 

The Master cannot do these for you. Ye toh aapko hi karna padega. Master itna kar dega, ki wo Confuse

kar dega aapko ki kam se kam aap doubt toh karo. 

The Master confuses you. It makes you doubt your own knowledge. But, people start doubting their masters. Because people do not wish to be fooled. But that is the paradox of life. People who do not want to get fooled, people who are too cautious, are fooled but by themselves. 

Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.

कुछ जीवन का मान करो जी, ध्यान करो! 

इतना ना अभिमान करो जी, ध्यान करो! 

विभात तो ठेठ गँवार था यारों समझो भी, 

तुम ज्ञानी हो ज्ञान करो जी, ध्यान करो |

भीतर बाहर एक समान की तृष्णा फैली, 

जीना थोड़ा आसान करो जी, ध्यान करो | 

मैंने कब बोला किसी बाबा के पाँव धरो, 

तुम बस केवल ध्यान करो जी, ध्यान करो |

हज़ार तर्क़ तुम दे दोगे, मैं जानूँ हूँ प्यारे, 

कर के थोड़ा विद्वान करो जी, ध्यान करो |

तुमको लगता होगा, छलने की कोशिश है, 

जासूस बन ही छान करो जी, ध्यान करो|

"विभात" की बात में नाद है रे अज्ञात की, 

अज्ञात को मत अज्ञान करो जी, ध्यान करो |

This is what he means. Dhyana karo. Even Lao tzu says it. Meditate. Practice non-doing. 

You know people say, "Oh, this is not what he means. He means do the work like it is done by God. Do like non-doing." 

Like how do you know? Have you ever meditated? Aap 5 minute toh sthir baith nahi sakte. Aapko lagta hai ki Aapko pata hai ki non-doing kya hota hai? 

Aap kodiya hain. Lazy aadmi hain. Bakchod hain. Aapke liye nahi hain Meditation. Meditation is for the man who is diligent. A diligent man never asks this question that why should I meditate? 

The master says to him, Meditate and he starts meditation. Simple as that. 

Lekin, aap kaahil hain. Aapko apna laziness justify karna hai. Toh aap Lao Tzu ko over-interpret kar diye. Lao tzu hota toh muh par thuk deta aapke. 

On this happy note, We end this. What did we learn from this? 

One word, "Meditate!" 

How will you do it? aankh band karlo jitan der ho sake, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minute, 5 minutes, 1 ghanta. 

Kahte hain, "Ghee ke laddooo tedhon bhala!" 

or "Laddoos of Ghee are better even if they are not in proper form". 

Do not aim perfection. Just do, galat sahi, kuch bhi, Bas daily.