What is spirituality?

“Mantra means meditate, or ponder over, be concerned with not becoming. You understand that, sir? Don’t become anything. You may become something in the material world, but don’t become inwardly anything. And if you have any self-centred activity, put away that. That is the real meaning of that. And look what they have reduced it to!”

“In observing the whole movement of thought, in observing the content of consciousness, the essence comes out of it. And in observing the movement of the heart, in that perception, there is the essence. Essence is the same whether it is this or that. When you use the word “essence”, it is the essence of all the flowers that makes the perfume and the quality. In perceiving the whole movement of thought as consciousness – consciousness with its content which is consciousness – and in observing that, in that very observation is the external refinement which is the essence. Right? In the same way there is the perception of the whole movement of the body, love, joy. When you perceive all that, there is the essence.”

“The total denial of the known is the essence of freedom.”

“Denying time is the essence of timelessness.”

“The essence of humility is innocence.”

“Understanding is the very essence of non-conflict.”

“The essence of denial is the freedom in aloneness.”

“The essence of conflict is non-conflict which is maturity.”

“The essence of consciousness is thought.”

“The ‘feeling’ of essence is the negation of thought and its mechanical capacities.”

“Flower is the essence of all flowers.”

“A movement that has no being, is the essence of bliss and death and life.”

“A movement that cannot be followed – for it leaves no path and is still, motionless – is the essence of all motion.”

“The universe is filled with sound, the earth is full of sound. And we seek silence. Meditation is to find some kind of peace or some kind of silence. But if you understand sound, in that hearing the sound, there is silence. Silence is not separate from sound. You won’t understand this because you never listen to sound. Have you ever sat under a tree when the air is very still, quiet, not a leaf dancing? When it is absolutely quiet. Have you ever sat under a tree like that and listened to the sound of the tree? If there was no silence there would be no sound. So, the sound of insecurity makes us seek security because we have never listened to the sound of insecurity.”

“One sees that any movement in any direction, at any level of consciousness only strengthens this area of inertia; and therefore the mind and also the brain has to be totally still. And it is only when there is the totality of silence, that there is action which is not of inertia. But if you say, “I must make my mind silent”, and practise all kinds of tricks, take drugs, then you are still building within the field of that inertia. Only when the mind – including the brain, including the body – is totally still, is there a mind which is not of the inert. You are following all this? So, that silence is something entirely different; and that silence can only come about when the brain, the mind, realizes that any movement within it is strengthening inertia.”

“The flowering of goodness is the release of our total energy. It is not the control or suppression of energy but rather the total freedom of this vast energy. It is limited, narrowed down by thought, by the fragmentation of our senses. Thought itself is this energy manipulating itself into a narrow groove, a centre of the self. Flowering of goodness can only blossom when energy is free, but thought, by its very nature, has limited this energy and so the fragmentation of the senses takes place.”

“Attention flows from awareness when in that awareness there is no choice, no personal choosing, no experiencing but merely observing. And to observe you must have in the mind a great deal of space. You cannot attend if your mind is not highly sensitive, sharp, reasonable, logical, sane, healthy, without the slightest shadow of neuroticism. The mind has to explore every corner of itself, leaving no spot uncovered; because if there is a single dark corner of one’s mind which one is afraid to explore, from that springs illusion.”

“Our consciousness is the common consciousness of all mankind. It is not my consciousness or yours, it is the consciousness of all human beings, for everybody goes through terrible times. And perhaps then one realises that one is not an individual at all. You may have a separate name, a separate form, different superficial culture. But psychologically we are similar, our consciousness is similar, so individuality is, or may be, an illusion.”

“Observer is the observed.”

“Thinker is the thought.”

“Experiencer is the experience.”

“Analyser is the analysed.”

“Controller is the controlled.”

“Perceiver is the perceived.”

“Meditator is the meditation.”

“You can’t eliminate the image because you are the image maker.”

“Worshipper is the worshipped. To worship another is to worship oneself.”

“I am neither low nor high, I am the worshipper and the worshipped. I am free.”

“What is religion? If you have wiped the window clean – which means that you have actually stopped performing ceremonies, given up all beliefs, ceased to follow any leader or guru – then your mind, like the window, is clean, polished, and you can see out of it very clearly. When the mind is swept clean of image of ritual, of belief, of symbol, of all words, mantras and repetitions, and of all fear, then what you see will be the real, the timeless, the everlasting, which may be called God; but this requires enormous insight, understanding, patience, and it is only for those who really inquire into what is religion and pursue it day after day to the end. Only such people will know what is true religion. The rest are merely mouthing words, and all their ornaments and bodily decorations, their pujas and ringing of bells – all that is just superstition without any significance. It is only when the mind is in revolt against all so-called religion that it finds the real.”

“In meditation there can be no thinker, which means that thought must come to an end – the thought which is urged forward by the desire to achieve a result. Meditation has nothing to do with achieving a result. It is not a matter of breathing in a particular way, or looking at your nose, or awakening the power to perform certain tricks, or any of the rest of that immature nonsense. But if you have been listening to these talks with total attention and have more or less grasped the significance of what is being said, I think you will find there is a state of mind which is always meditative. Meditation is not something apart from life. When you are driving a car or sitting in a bus, when you are chatting aimlessly, when you are walking by yourself in a wood or watching a butterfly being carried along by the wind – to be choicelessly aware of all that is part of meditation.”