Existence is a mystery, it cannot be demystified. And because existence is a mystery, it reveals itself only to the heart of the child. It reveals itself not to knowledge, because knowledge is an aggression. It reveals itself to innocence, because innocence is simply receptivity, not aggression; not violence but keeping your doors open, waiting. If the truth comes in, you are ready to welcome it. Truth cannot be conquered. You have to be available to truth, so that truth can conquer you. This is the reason why simplicity is the most significant religious qualification.

Named after Hermes Trismegistos, the Greek moniker of the Egyptian God Tehuti, alleged author of hundreds of mystical tractates, the Hermetic tradition is an eclectic spiritual tradition that is the father of medieval alchemy, magical/mystical orders, and many other aspects of the western mystery tradition.

The Emerald tablet is short, only thirteen lines of text, but it is the cornerstone of the Hermetic movement. It’s origin is shrouded in mystery, and even its name is a mystery, yet is has been the inspiration for alchemists and magicians for hundreds of years.

The Rosicrucians are the fabled Hermetic brotherhood of the Renaissance.

He is only an imitator who repeats the same work again and again.

People are worshipping a lot, they are praying  --  and they are completely stonelike. There is no kindness, no compassion, no love. Kindness, compassion and love are completely gone. No one has anything to do with anyone else. If someone is dying or living it is no one's business. And people have discovered great doctrines: that each one is suffering the fruits of his own karma, what should we do?  --  we are on our way to worship in the temple. People are suffering the fruits of their own karma. As you have done so you will suffer. As you have sown so you will reap. If your house catches fire, sometime you must have set fire to someone else's house. Now suffer it, who will put it out? You are dying of starvation, die, you must have caused someone to starve in a past life, so now you are suffering the fruit.

These are tricks. These are the snares of doctrine. And remember, just as spiders spinning webs to catch flies, won't sit on their web proclaiming, "Come, flies and be caught, I will eat you." Will any flies be caught then? When a spider spins a web he says to the flies, "Come flies, drink some tea, have breakfast... Come by sometime, lets get together. We'll have satsang, discuss a couple of things." Then the flies will be caught. And if they are caught, they are caught.

Great spider webs of religious doctrine are spread all around you. If you are caught in them you will writhe in agony, the spiders will suck you. These spiders have become your religious teachers, pandits, priests. They have become ones who direct your life, great seers of life. They are giving you paths, they show you the way  --  they who don't know any path. Those who haven't had any experience of themselves are talking about the soul, talking about god. Empty words, false words. There is no breath in their words,  nor is a there a beating heart.

Be selfish. Find out your truth, your love, your compassion -- all that you have brought into the world with your birth. And start giving it to those who need, to those who do not need; to those whom you love, to those whom you don't love. You should not make any distinctions; only then can you expand. When there are no distinctions, no categories, you start expanding. And that expansion is the truth; that expanding consciousness is the truth. And it is right this very moment within you, you have not to go anywhere else. But at least let the question be yours so that you can be helped to find the answer which will be yours. Every other answer is of no help: every other answer will be only words to you. You can make holy scriptures of those words, you can worship those words. That's what humanity has been doing for thousands of years. It is time to stop this garbage. Taoism wants you to find your answer, but that is possible only when you start with your question. So ask, "What is truth?" and don't be so insulting to truth that you ask, "Whatsoever it is, why are people not interested in it?" Don't shift it to somebody else's shoulders. Say sincerely, "Why am I not interested in it?" If there is any difference, this is the difference: Begin with your own questions. And that's almost half the journey finished. The first half is the most difficult, the second half is not so difficult. Accept your ignorance. In that very acceptance you have taken a wise step; perhaps you have had the first glimpse of wisdom. Recognize that "I am not interested in truth." In that very recognition there will be a shocking realization; perhaps a door that was closed may open in that shock. But remember, it is your quest: It has to be your question. And taoism does not want to give you any answer. Taoism can only show you the way to find your own answer. Truth liberates, but it has to be your own. Otherwise, if it is somebody else's, truth binds. Jesus Christ's truth, Mohammed's truth, Buddha's truth, have all become prisons. Taoism doesn't want its truth to become a prison for anybody. Taoism wants to be an inspiration. Taoism wants to trigger something in you which is yours. Taoism simply gives you an assurance that a human being, just like you, can attain to truth. That will give you immense respect towards yourself. You will not feel unworthy sinners, that somebody has to come to save you -- some Christ, some Buddha has to come, and then you will be saved. You don't have to wait for anybody to save you. You are born saved, just a little insight. Taoism doesn't want to become a prison around you. Taoism wants to become a freedom around you, an open sky around you, not a golden cage -- so that you can open your wings and feel the joy of flying higher and higher towards the stars.

If you fall asleep, that is the way the heart will listen. Your head is no more functioning, that is why you will feel sleepy. Be sleepy. You will listen, but you will have to function from a new centre, and you don't know anything about it. The heart can listen even while asleep. The head cannot listen even while awake! The heart has its ways... very mysterious. So if you fall asleep, you fall asleep. In sleep you will be absorbing better. There are a few people who have learned the technique of how to listen in sleep. Just go into sleep -- nothing to be worried about. You have not to do anything, because whatsoever you do will keep you hung up in the head. The head is the doer. Right now you have to do nothing -- allow Tao to do. Simply relax; simply meditate, dance -- and those are not doings. Just enjoy delight here, and remain as relaxed as possible. Don't try to figure out what is happening -- you cannot figure it out. Sooner or later a new centre will start functioning, and clarity will come to you again. And this will be a real clarity -- not a substitute, not a false coin. This will be authentic, and you will know what is good and what is wrong. With the head you know what is good and what is wrong, but you go on doing the wrong. With the head you know what is right and what is wrong, and you go on doing the wrong. So what type of clarity is this? It is verbal, it is meaningless.

Saint Augustine has said, “God forgive me, because I do what I'm not supposed to do -- and I know that I'm not supposed to do it. I don't do that which I'm supposed to do -- and I know that I have to do it -- but forgive me!'

This is how things are happening. With the head this is how things happen. You always know what is right, and you always do what is wrong. You always repent; you feel guilty. Again you think that now you know better, and again you do the same thing. The head simply plays the game of being clear -- it is not clear. When the heart starts functioning, you will know what is right and what is wrong. And the moment you know what is right, you cannot do the wrong -- that is the beauty of the heart. The very knowing, 'this is right,' is the doing too. The heart-oriented person never has any choice. The moment he knows that this is right, that is the thing to be done, that is the thing he will do. He never repents, he never feels guilty. So you can say whatsoever he does is good, and whatsoever is good he does. They become synonymous.... Knowing and doing become synonymous. They become one; they are no more separate.

If you have a child, protect the child from yourself. Protect the child from others who can influence him: at least up to seven years, protect him.

The child is just like a small plant, weak, soft: just a strong wind can destroy it; any animal can eat it up. You put a protective wiring around it, but that is not imprisoning, you are simply protecting. When the plant is bigger, the wires will be removed.

Protect the child from every kind of influence so that he can remain himself -- and it is only a question of seven years, because then the first circle will be complete. By seven years he will be well-grounded, centred, and strong enough.

You don't know how strong a seven-year-old child can be because you have not seen uncorrupted children; you have seen only corrupted children. They carry the fears, the cowardliness, of their fathers, mothers, and their families. They are not their own selves.

If a child remains uncorrupted for seven years.... You will be surprised to meet such a child. He will be as sharp as a sword. His eyes will be clear, his insight will be clear. And you will see a tremendous strength in him which you cannot find even in a seventy-year-old adult, because the foundations are shaky. So in fact as the building goes on becoming higher and higher, the more and more shaky it becomes.

So you will see, the older a person becomes the more afraid. When he is young he may be an atheist; when he becomes old he starts believing in God. Why is that?

When he is below thirty he is a hippie. He has courage to go against the society, to behave in his own way: to have long hair, to have a beard, to roam around the world, to take all kinds of risks. But by the time he is forty, all that has disappeared. You will see him in some office in a grey suit, clean shaven, well groomed. You will not even be able to recognize that he is an ex-hippie.

Where have all the hippies disappeared to? Suddenly you see them with a great force; then, just like used bullet cases, empty cartridges, impotent, defeated, and depressed -- trying to make something out of life, feeling that all those years of hippiedom were wastage. Others have gone far ahead; somebody has become the president, somebody has become the governor, and "we were stupid; we were just playing the guitar and the whole world passed us by." They repent.

It is really difficult to find an old hippie.

Ego is comparison. Ego is your invention. God has not given you any ego; he has certainly given you individuality. Ego is comparison: you think yourself more intelligent than the other, you think yourself more superior than the other -- or inferior. You think yourself more beautiful than the other. Then you are bringing ego in: the moment you compare yourself with somebody, the conclusion that comes out of the comparison is ego. If you stop comparing then you are there -- tremendously beautiful and unique. All superiority or inferiority, all anxiety of where I am, where I stand, who is above me and who is below me, are ego problems. The superior person suffers, the inferior suffers; both suffer -- because even the superior most cannot have a state where he can be satisfied. People who compare can never be happy. These trees are happy -- the smaller tree does not bother about the higher tree. They never bother about each other: the smaller is smaller and the higher is higher. In fact, the higher and the taller and the smaller and the lower are human terms -- they don't exist in the world of trees. A rosebush is as happy as a big oak tree; there is no problem about it. Not even a rosebush, but just a small leaf of grass is as happy as any lotus flower. It makes no difference. Tao is showering on everybody -- on the rosebush, on the grass leaf, on the lotus flower... he is showering everywhere. And the whole existence is happy; only man has got into trouble. The ego arises with comparison. Individuality you have, unique individuality you have. With comparison how many problems arise! And who has given the idea? How do you decide what is standard? Nobody has any idea what is standard; all averages are just false. How can a person be ugly? Have you ever seen any ugly crow? Impossible! Have you ever seen an ugly cow? Impossible. Have you ever seen an ugly tree? Impossible. All is beautiful as it is... but with human beings you bring comparison, and immediately trouble starts. Don't compare, there is no need. Comparison is one of the greatest calamities that have fallen on humanity. You are perfect as you are. Love yourself, respect yourself. If you are not going to respect yourself, who is going to respect you? If you are not going to love yourself, who is going to love you? People don't respect themselves, and expect everybody else to respect them. They don't love themselves, and want the whole world to fall in love with them. Now you are asking the impossible -- these things cannot happen. Love yourself, respect yourself -- and a person who respects himself never compares. Comparison is disrespect. Now, if you summarize all this, it means: to be an egoist is to be very disrespectful towards yourself. To be an individual is perfectly good, but to be egoistic is disrespectful.