all support and then you will receive his.
He is the only help for the helpless.
There is no other guide but him –
all other guides are obstacles on the path.
If you want to reach the master avoid all teachers.
Don’t be afraid to make yourself empty
for that alone is the door,
that alone is the path –
and that alone is the destination.
The courage to be empty
is all that is needed to become one with the all.
Those who are full stay empty,
and those who are empty become filled –
such are his mathematics.
Do not consider doing anything –
through doing you can never reach him,
nor through chanting,
nor through austerity,
for he is already here!
Stop and see!
To do is to run,
not to do is to halt.
Yes! If he were far away we could run to meet him,
but he is the nearest of the near!
If we had lost him we could search for and find him,
but to us he has never been lost!
85. Love.
I am glad to have received your letter.
The I is not to be given up because how can you drop that which is not?
The I has to be looked into, understood.
It is like taking a lamp to search for darkness –
the darkness vanishes!
Darkness cannot be stamped out because it doesn’t exist.
You just have to bring a light and darkness is unmasked.
It is the same with your thoughts – do not fight with them.
The effort to be free of thought
comes itself from a thought.
Know your thoughts, watch them, be aware of them,
then they quieten down without difficulty.
Witnessing finally leads to emptiness, and where there is emptiness –
there is the all.
86. Love.
Why does man suffer so much?
Because in his life there is pandemonium
but no soundless music.
Because in his life there is a babble of thoughts
but no emptiness.
Because in his life there is a turmoil of feeling
but no equanimity.
Because in his life there is a mad rushing around
but no stillness which knows no directions.
And finally, because in his life there is much of himself
but of God, nothing at all.
87. Love.
The time is ripe.
The hour draws nearer every day.
Innumerable souls are restless.
A path has to be created for them.
So hurry!
Work hard!
Surrender totally!
Forget yourself!
Plunge into God’s work like a madman.
Here, only madness will do –
and there is no greater wisdom
than such madness for God.
88. Love.
Non-attachment is not concerned with things
but with thoughts.
Non-attachment is not related to the outside
but to the within.
Non-attachment is not to do with the world
but with oneself.
One day a beggar went to see a Sufi fakir
and found him seated on a velvet cushion inside a beautiful tent
with its ropes tied to golden pegs.
Seeing all this the beggar cried: What is this!
Honorable Fakir, I have heard much about your
spirituality and non-attachment,
but I am completely disillusioned by all this ostentation around you.
The fakir laughed, replying:
I am ready to leave all this behind and come with you.
So saying, he immediately got up and walked off with the beggar
not even waiting to put his sandals on!
After a short while the beggar became distressed.
I left my begging bowl in your tent, he said.
What shall I do without it?
Please wait here while I go and fetch it.
The Sufi laughed. My friend, he said,
the gold pegs of my tent were stuck in the earth
not in my heart,
but your begging bowl is still chasing after you!
To be in the world is not attachment.
The presence of the world in the mind is the attachment,
and when the world disappears from the mind – this is non-attachment.
89. Love.
Once the ego is surrendered there is no suffering, no sorrow,
for the ego is basically the cause of all suffering,
and the moment it is seen that everything is God
there is no more cause for complaint.
Where complaining has ended, there is prayer.
It is a feeling of gratitude, it is trust in God.
In this trust in God, benediction pours.
Trust and know.
It is very difficult to trust – there is no austerity greater
than accepting life as it is.
90. Love.
Do not look for results in meditation –
this is an obstruction.
Do not seek to repeat any meditative experience,
for this too is a hindrance.
When meditating, just meditate;
the rest then happens by itself.
The way to God does not lie in our hands
so leave yourself in his.
Surrender, surrender, surrender!
Remember always – surrender!
Sleeping or waking – remember!
Surrender is the only door to God.
Emptiness is the only boat that sails to him.
91. Love.
How much longer will you go on
letting your energy sleep?
How much longer are you going to stay oblivious
of