Dear friends!

We continue to share the wisdom given by the Teachers to their close pupils during the Satsang.

- What is ‘wisdom of the heart’?

- These is the wisdom of the emotional centre, which is more sensitive and developed, than the intellectual. Therefore, when we can hear it and can receive more precise and accurate information. For example, when we see a shabby and rough man we immediately feel disgust, but when he begins to get stuck to us, to show an interest and it turns up that he is not married, our mind may suggest: “May be he will change…. ; may be he will become good….” The mind tries to deceive us when emotionally we had already felt that he was a non-entity. This is the ‘Wisdom of heart’.

- For me it is very important to have faith in God and in the Teacher, and to try to strengthen it. Osho said that faith makes people blind. How could I understand Osho’s words correctly?

- Osho was referring to the faith of those who believe in every thing:  they cannot see the nonsense in what someone else says or in what they read: they believe in everything. People should not be gullible. As for faith in God, this is there when people are emotionally open to God, are emotionally tuned in with Him and believe in Him even thought they cannot see Him.  What is absolutely not necessary is to have faith in social cheating, like television and newspapers.

There is a story about Tolstoy, about how he got to know God. It is said that,  although  he could not see God, one day thinking about Him he felt Him  and ever since he  became good.

- In order to achieve something in life one has to make several efforts.  However, Osho writes that people should not strain themselves and that efforts prevent self-understanding in meditation and in enlightenment. How to know when one should make an effort and when not? Indeed Osho, Gurdjeff and the Teacher have put a lot of effort in their life. Where is the golden thread between effort and effortless.

When you sit in meditation, you should do it effortlessly, and be relaxed. If you, however, build a house, for example, how could the house be build up if you sit down and do it effortlessly? Would the house build itself up?  No! In this case you should make efforts. Meditation, on the other hand should be done effortlessly. There you are, in meditation you need to know how to be without effort.

There are good efforts, and foolish efforts (from social programs).

- What is “Zen”? 

“Zen” is esoteric Buddhism. There is also exoteric Buddhism, with rituals and the worship to Buddhist monks and then there is esoteric knowledge, through which someone is directly guided to enlightenment. This is “Zen”, no dead or foolish rituals.

- What is Koan Zen and how to understand it? What is the meaning of this practice?

- It is not possible to understand Koan Zen intellectually. When people can be disconnected from their intellect then at that moment appears in them a spontaneous reaction for Koan. If this spontaneous reaction appears, then everything is in the right place.

“What is a ‘one hand’ clapping?”  is asked in Zen. If the student thinks: “What is that? This or that?” the Teacher sees that the student gives an intellectual answer, whether correct or incorrect. But when the student suddenly jumps and something spontaneous comes up, this indicates that the answer arose from his essence. At this point the Teacher can see: “Yes, the answer is no longer coming from the mind, but from the essence. This shows that the student has correctly understood Koan.