I heard on some of Your tapes that you recommend not mixing practices.
Perhaps You can clarify for us what You intended by that.
M:
Only
when it has anything to do with the breath control. That's all.
Otherwise there is not much there. For example, there are many kinds of
meditation. So, there are some kinds of so-called meditation. People say
anything is meditation, so we are confused. But actually there are
different types. There is a kind of mantra practice; they recite
something. People also call that meditation, so that's confusing. People
tell you to pay attention to your breathing _ you breathe in and breathe
out. On that they also call meditation. Some people say you have to pay
attention to the solar plexus, abdomen, here all the time. That they
also call meditation. Fine, nothing wrong with that. But we abuse the
word "meditation" too much and confuse the people; because otherwise, I
would say that everyone meditates anyhow. I said this morning when some
of the ladies said, "We are not used to meditation. We don't know what's
meditation, and you tell us to meditate" _ you know when I was
interviewed on TV this morning. I said "Yes, you meditate all the time;
some people meditate on money, some people meditate on girls, some
people meditate on drugs when they don't have enough of them." That's
their meditation. When you pay attention to something in a very
extravagant degree, that is when you meditate.
Therefore
I said to you, be concentrated, be one-pointed with my teachings. That's
why you get the best results. If you meditate on my teachings and meditated
on money at the same time or meditate on mantra at the same time, of
course you are divided and that's very logical. I am not a dictator.
I just tell you what's good for you. Whatever you want to do, you have
to pay all your attention to that point. Whether you meditate, you fix
the car, or you drive a taxi, if you don't pay attention to your driving,
you will get into trouble.
That's very simple.
And people think I am forbidding you this and that. No, everything I
tell you is just good advice as a duty of a teacher. Whatever you know,
you have to tell them. Of course, you make the choice. If you don't
follow me, it's okay. You are responsible for your actions, the success
of your meditational practice. But I am responsible to tell you what
is good for you. So don't misunderstand that it's a kind of prohibiting,
or dictating. No, no, nothing. Everything I tell you is an age-old essence
of a practitioner who wants to get away from all the traps of this materialism
and to rise above this mind-matter controlling power, so that he can
realize there is something greater than his own body and his own machine,
brain, computer.
That's
it. So all these are kind of secret codes, secret methods to speed yourself
on the highway of spirituality. There is nothing dictating about that.
Because if you don't do it, I never say anything to you. I never scold
you. I never ring you and say, "Hey, you didn't do it." Or I never check
up on it. It's all your choice. The path of freedom is a path of responsibility,
self-responsibility. So I never impose anything. Just suggest, just
to tell you, "This is a good way. If you do it, you surely will get
that. If you don't, okay, you'll get half or maybe three quarters."
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