死亡是注定的。必须如此，因为它是源头——你来自于死亡也回归死亡。生命只是两个空无之间的一个片刻，只是一只鸟儿在两个非存在状态下短暂的飞行。
如果死亡是注定的，正如它本来之所是，那么整个生命就变成一个准备，一个练习——一个怎样正确地死去，怎样全然而完整地死去的训练。但不知何故一个关于死亡的错误认知进入了人类的头脑，那就是死亡是一个敌人。这是所有错误认知的基础，这也是人类误入歧途、错失永恒法则、错失道的基础。这是怎么发生的呢？这一点必须加以了解。
人对待死亡就像是生命的敌人，就像死亡的存在就是为了摧毁生命，就像死亡是反对生命的。如果这就是你的认知，那么当然你会与死亡搏斗，生命就变成一种战胜死亡的努力。那么，你就是在与自己的源头对抗，你就是在与你的命运对抗，与某些注定要发生的事对抗。这一整个的斗争都是荒谬的，因为死亡是无法避免的。
如果它是你外在的东西，你或许能避免，但它是内在的。你在初生之始就携带着它，从你开始呼吸的那一刻你就开始走向死亡。说死亡在生命的终点到来是不对的，它从一开始就一直与你同在。它是你的一部分，是你最内在的核心，它和你一起成长，有一天它会来到顶点，有一天它会开花。死亡的那一天并不是死神到来的那一天，它是一个开花。死亡一直在你内在成长，现在它来到了顶峰，一旦死亡抵达顶峰你就会消失回到源头。
但人们有一种错误的态度，那个错误的态度制造了挣扎、斗争、暴力。认为死亡反对生命的人永远不会是非暴力的，不可能。把死亡当作敌人的人永远不会放松自在，不可能。如果敌人随时随地都在等着你你怎么放松？它会跳出来摧毁你，死亡一直如影随形，它每时每刻都可能发生。当死亡就在那里你怎么休息？你怎么放松？敌人不会允许你放松。
因此，人类紧张、焦虑、痛苦。你越是与死亡斗争就越焦虑不安，注定如此。那是一个自然结果。如果你与死亡斗争，你知道你终究会被打败。一个终将被打败的生命怎么能快乐？你知道不管你怎么努力，与死亡对抗都没有任何胜算。内心深处你唯一能确定的事就是死亡，生命中其它每件事都是不确定的，只有死亡是确定的。只有这一个确定性，在这个确定性里你拥有的是一个敌人。与确定性搏斗，寄希望于不确定，你如何能有片刻的休息？怎么能放松、平静、泰然自若？不可能。
人们来到我这里说他们想要安宁，想要以这个世界为家，他们想要安静，需要放松。但当我看进他们的眼睛，对死亡的恐惧就在那里。也许他们只是想放松一下好继续与死亡再战，也许他们只是想小憩一下然后越战越勇。但如果死亡就在那里你怎么能放松、安宁、平和、自在？如果死亡是个敌人，那基本上整个生命都是你的敌人。
那么每时每刻，死亡都会如影随形，每时每刻，死亡都在你身边回响。整个生命充满了恶意，你开始战斗。整个西方头脑的观念就是为生存而战。他们说，“适者生存”、“生活就是一场战斗”。为什么是一场战斗？那是因为死亡似乎站在了对立面。一旦你了解死亡不是生命的对立面而是它的一部分，内在的一部分，永远不会与生命分离——一旦你接受了死亡是一个朋友，那么突然间转变就发生了。你被蜕变了，现在你的观点有了新的品质。现在没有战斗，没有战争，你不再与任何人作对，现在你是放松的，现在你自在安心。一旦死亡变成一个朋友，只有这时生命才会变成朋友。这看起来很矛盾但它就是如此，矛盾是表面的。如果死亡是敌人，那么内在深处生命也是敌人，因为生命导向死亡。
每一种生命都导向死亡——穷人的生命、富人的生命，成功的生命、失败的生命，智慧的生命、无知的生命，罪人的生命、圣人的生命。各种生命，不管它们多么不同都将导向死亡。如果你与死亡对抗，你如何热爱生命？那么你的爱无非就是占有、执著。对抗死亡使你执著于生命，但你能够了解正是生命本身在一天天向死亡靠近。所以你是注定失败的，你所有的努力都注定会失败。于是焦虑出现了，你的整个存在都颤抖不已。你活在颤抖中，变得疯狂、暴力。
西方人的疯狂程度远比东方严重得多，原因是很明显的。西方用死亡来对抗生命，但东方的立场是完全不同的——生命与死亡是一，同一种现象的两个面向。一旦你接受了死亡，很多事都会立刻被接受。事实上，如果你接受死亡是生命的一部分，那么所有其他的敌人也都会以友谊的一部分被接受，因为那个基本的二分性得到了解决，生命与死亡的二分性，存在与非存在的二分性。如果那个基本的二分性解决了，所有其它的二分都只是表面，都解决了。突然间你就回到了家——目光清澈，没有烟雾在其间缭绕，认知绝对清晰，没有黑暗。
但是为什么？为什么它会发生在西方？现在东方也是如此，因为东方正在一天一天变得西化。所有教育的观点和科学的态度都表明，东方已不再是纯粹的东方，它已经被污染了。现在，东方也变得焦虑、恐惧。你可曾观察过，西方更有时间意识，东方没有这么多，即便有，也只是那些受过教育的文化人。如果你到农村去看，那里是没有时间意识的。事实上，时间意识就是死亡意识：如果你恐惧死亡时间就是短暂的。有那么多事要做，时间只有这么一点点，你意识到每一秒都在流失。如果你这么紧绷，东奔西走，有做不完的事，试图享受所有的东西，从一个地方跑到另一个地方，从一种享受到另一种享受，那么你的生命就会变短——什么都没享受到，因为你的意识被时间占据了。
在东方人们不是那么有时间意识，因为他们接受生命。你可能没意识到在印度我们把死亡称为时间，我们称死亡为“kal”，我们也称时间为“kal”。“kal”意味着时间，也意味着死亡。一词两用是很有意义的，有着很深的了解。时间就是死亡，死亡就是时间：你越有死亡意识就越有时间意识；你的死亡意识越少，时间意识也越少，那么就没有时间的问题。如果你将死亡完全吸收进入生命，时间意识会直接消失。为什么西方和现在的东方对死亡有如此多的焦虑，如此之多，以至于根本无法享受生命？
活在没有时间的世界里，石头都比人快乐；活在一个不知道死亡的世界里，树都比人更喜乐；并不是说它们是不死的，而是不知道有死亡。动物快乐地庆祝着，鸟儿在歌唱，整个存在除了人都是喜乐的，没有觉知到死亡。只有人觉知到了死亡，而那制造了其它所有的问题；那就是问题的根源，那就是基本的裂痕。
本不该如此，因为人是最高阶、最精炼的存在，是存在的顶峰——为什么人会如此这般？每当你抵达一个山峰，几乎同时山谷也会越来越深。高峰能够存在，只是因为有低谷。对于石头来说，没有不快乐，没有低谷，因为他们的快乐也在同一个层面上。人是一个山峰，他有高度，但因为这个高度，同时也有深度，一个低谷。向下看你会头晕目眩，会恐惧。山谷是山峰的一部分，没有山峰山谷无法存在，没有山谷山峰也无法存在，它们是一体的，密不可分。但如果人站在山峰的高处向下看，他会觉得眩晕、恶心、恐惧、害怕。
人就是意识——那就是全部问题之所在。
意识是一把双刃剑，它是双向的。它可以使你无比快乐，那种快乐是哪里都找不到的；它也可以让你非常不快乐，非常痛苦，那种痛苦也是世界上哪里都找不到的。这是人的双重可能，作为意识突然间有两条路在他面前展开了。
意识可以成为一个祝福，但它也可以成为一个诅咒。每一个祝福都伴随着诅咒，问题在于你如何选择。
Death is destiny.It has to be so because it is the origin--you come from death and you go to death. Life is just a moment between two nothingnesses, just a flight of a bird between two states of non-being.
If death is destiny, as it is, then the whole of life becomes a preparation, a training for it--a discipline in how to die rightly and how to die totally and utterly. The whole of life consists in learning how to die. But somehow a wrong conception about death has entered humanity, the conception that death is the enemy. This is the basis of all wrong conceptions, and this is the basis of humanity going astray from the eternal law, from Tao. How has this happened? It has to be understood.
Man has taken death as the enemy of life, as if death is there to destroy life, as if death is against life. If this is the conception then of course you have to fight death, and life becomes an effort to survive death. Then you are fighting against your own origin, you are fighting against your destiny, you are fighting against something which is going to happen. The whole fight is absurd because death cannot be avoided.
If it were something outside you it could be avoided, but it is inside. You carry it from the very moment you are born. You start dying really when you start breathing, at the same moment. It is not right to say that death comes in the end, it has always been with you from the very beginning. It is part of you, it is your innermost center, it grows with you, and one day it comes to a culmination, one day it comes to flowering. The day of death is not the day of death’s coming, it is the flowering. Death was growing within you all this time, now it has reached a peak; and once death reaches a peak you disappear back into the origin.
But man has taken a wrong attitude and that wrong attitude creates struggle, fight, violence. A man who thinks that death is against life can never be non-violent. It is impossible. A man who thinks that death is the enemy can never be at ease, at home. That is impossible. How can you be at ease when the enemy is waiting for you any moment? It will jump on you and destroy you, and the shadow of death is always falling on you? It can happen any moment. How can you rest when death is there? How can you relax? The enemy won’t allow you to relax.
Hence the tension, the anxiety, the anguish of humanity. The more you fight with death, the more anxiety-ridden you will become, you are bound to become. It is a natural consequence. If you fight with death you know that you are going to be defeated. How can you be happy with a life which is going to end in defeat? You know that whatsoever effort you make, nothing is going to succeed against death. Deep down you are certain about only one thing and that is death. In life everything else is uncertain, only death is certain. There is only one certainty, and in that certainty you have an enemy. Fighting with certainty and hoping for uncertainties how can you be in a repose? How can you be relaxed, calm, collected? Impossible.
People come to me and they say they would like to be at peace, they would like to be at home in the world, they would like to be silent, they need a certain relaxation. But I look into their eyes and the fear of death is there. Maybe they are just trying to be relaxed to fight against death more easily; maybe they are trying to find a repose so that they can become stronger against death. But if death is there how can you be relaxed, silent, at peace, at home? If death is the enemy, then basically the whole of life becomes your enemy.
Then every moment, everywhere, the shadow falls; then every moment, from everywhere, death echoes. The whole life becomes inimical, and you start fighting.The whole concept of the Western mind is to fight to survive. They say,’survival of the fittest’,’life is a struggle’. Why is it a struggle? It is a struggle because death is taken as the opposite. Once you understand that death is not the opposite of life but part of it, an intrinsic part of it, which can never be separated from it--once you accept death as a friend, suddenly a transformation happens. You are transfigured, your vision now has a new quality in it. Now there is no fight, no war, you are not fighting against anybody, now you can relax, now you can be at home. Once death becomes a friend only then does life become a friend also. This may look paradoxical but it is so, only the appearance is paradoxical. If death is the enemy, then deep down life is also the enemy, because life leads to death.
Every type of life leads to death--the poor man’s life, the rich man’s life, a life of success and a life of failure, the life of the wise man and the life of an ignorant one, the life of a sinner and a saint. All sorts of lives, whatsoever their differences, lead to death. How can you be in love with life if you are against death? Then your love is just nothing but a possessiveness, your love is nothing but a clinging. Against death you cling to life, but you can understand that this very life is bringing death nearer every day. So you are doomed, all your efforts are doomed. And then anxiety arises, the whole being trembles. You live in a trembling and then you become violent and mad.
In the West the proportion of mad people is much higher than in the East. The reason is clear. The West takes death against life but the East has a totally different standpoint--life and death are one, two faces of the same phenomenon. Once you accept death many things are immediately accepted. In fact if you accept death as part of life, then all other enemies are also accepted as part of friendship because the basic duality dissolves, the duality of life and death, being and non-being. If the basic duality is resolved, then all other dualities are just superficial, they dissolve. Suddenly you are at home--eyes are clear, no smoke is in them, perception is absolutely clear, and no darkness is around.
But why, why has it happened in the West? And it is happening in the East also because the East is turning more Western every day. In all education, in scientific attitudes the East is no longer purely Eastern, it is already contaminated. The East is now also becoming anxious, afraid. Have you observed that in the West there is much time consciousness but in the East it is not so much, and even if it is, it is only in the cultured, educated parts? If you move to the villages there is no time consciousness. In fact, time consciousness is death consciousness: when you are afraid of death then time is short. With so many things to do and so little time given, you are conscious of every second passing. Life is being shortened so you are tense, running around, doing many things, trying to enjoy the whole of it, running from one place to another, one enjoyment to another--and enjoying nothing because you are so time conscious.
In the East people are not so time conscious because they have accepted life. You may not be aware that in India we have named death as time. We call death‘kal’, and we also call time‘kal’; kal means time and kal means death as well. To use the same word for both means a very deep understanding, it is very meaningful. Time is death, death is time: the more death conscious you are, the more time conscious you will be, the less death conscious, the less time conscious. Then there is no question of time. If you have completely absorbed death into life time consciousness simply disappears. Why in the West and now in the East is there so much anxiety about death, so much so, that life cannot be enjoyed at all?
Living in a timeless world rocks are more happy than man; living in a world where death is not known the trees are more blissful than man; not that they don’t die, but death is not known. Animals happy, celebrating, birds singing, the whole existence except man is blissfully unaware of death. Only man is aware of death and that creates all the other problems; that is the source problem, the basic rift.
It should not be so because man is the highest, the most refined, the peak of existence--why should it be so with man? Whenever you attain to a peak, almost side by side the valley becomes deeper. A high peak can exist only with a deep valley. For rocks there is no unhappiness, no valley part, because their happiness is also on the plain ground. Man is a peak, he has risen high, but because of this rise, side by side there is a depth, a valley. You look down and you feel nauseous, you look down and you feel afraid. The valley is part of the peak, the valley cannot exist without the peak and the peak cannot exist without the valley, they are together, they are a togetherness. But a man standing at the height of the peak looks down and feels nauseous, giddy, afraid, fearful.
Man is conscious--that is where the whole trouble lies.
Consciousness is a two-edged sword; it cuts both ways. It can make you so utterly happy that that type of happiness is not known anywhere in existence; it can make you so unhappy and miserable that that type of unhappiness is also not known anywhere else in the world. Man is a double possibility; by being conscious two roads suddenly open before him.
Consciousness can become a blessing, but it can become a curse also. Every blessing comes with a curse, the problem is that it depends on you how you choose. Let me explain it to you, then we can enter the sutra easily.
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