Question 1:
Shunyo, it is exactly the meaning of your name.
Shunyo means emptiness, with a special meaning. The English word 'emptiness' does not have that meaning. The English word has a negative connotation: it simply means empty of something.
Shunyo, the Sanskrit equivalent of 'emptiness', has a double meaning: it means empty of something and full of something.
For example, this room is full of people. When you all are gone, it can be said, "This room is empty now" - that is a negative meaning. It can also be said that "Now the room is more full of space."
People were taking the space; now they are gone, the room is spacious. When people were here, there was less emptiness. Now that the people are gone, there is more emptiness.
"The room is full of emptiness" - this is the positive side of the word. And the positive side is of tremendous significance, because everything in existence comes out of emptiness. Certainly that emptiness cannot be simply empty.
If you cut a seed with a knife, you will not find the leaves and the flowers and the fragrance. But given the right soil, the flowers will come, the foliage will come, the fragrance will come - from where? We cannot find it in the seed; as far as we can see, the seed is empty. But certainly the seed is full of something which is invisible to us. It is full of all the possibilities that are going to happen: the foliage, the leaves, the greenery, the flowers, the colors, the fragrance - all is there.
One name has become very important for those who are in search of the miraculous. Strangely enough, the name comes from the Soviet Union. There is a photographer - his whole life he has been developing sensitive plates, sensitive lenses. They are so sensitive that they can catch something of the future. Because the future cannot be just absent - it may be invisible, but in some way it has to be present. The next moment that is coming cannot come out of a negative emptiness.
It can come only out of a fullness, which looks empty to us because we are not so sensitive that we can see the invisible.
And he has succeeded; he has developed a photography called 'Kirlian'; his name is Kirlian. He takes a picture of a bud, of a rosebud, and the picture appears as a fully blossomed flower. He has pictured, caught the future. And when the bud after a few days becomes a flower, it is amazing that it is exactly a true copy of the picture that was taken by Kirlian before the flower was ever in existence.
Certainly the flower was in existence, it was just not available to us. We were not so sensitive, our eyes were not so penetrating, our insight was not so far-reaching.
He has taken pictures of people who are going to be sick, or die, and he has caught their future.
He has told people, "You are going to have cancer." The experts are simply at a loss, because there are no symptoms at all, the man is perfectly healthy; there is no indication that he is going to have cancer. They have tried every experiment to find any far fetched idea of it, but they have not been able to find anything that indicates a cancer. But Kirlian says, "Within six months this man is going to have cancer; his photograph says it" - and in six months' time that man develops cancer. Certainly this cancer was in existence somewhere, somewhere in the physiology of the man; we just don't have the instruments and the ability to look into the future.
Kirlian has taken photographs of people who are going to die, and he has said, "This man is going to die because his picture shows him as dead." And the man is full of life, at the peak of his youth.
The whole idea that he is going to die seems to be absurd.
At first the doctors simply rejected Kirlian as a madman. How can photographs be taken of the future? You can take a photograph of something which is present before the camera. The future is not present before the camera - but the young man dies.
It took thirty years for the orthodox scientists to accept Kirlian, but there was no other way than to accept him. And what Kirlian was saying was only that everything comes out of an invisible emptiness. Where you see emptiness, it simply shows that your insight is not deep enough; otherwise emptiness has a fullness of its own.
He has also proved another thing, which is interesting and has deep implications. If one of my fingers is cut off and he takes a photograph, in his photograph there will be five fingers. Even the one that has been cut off will be present in his photograph, just a little bit different than the others.
The others will be solid; this one will simply be an energy aura, indicating that there had been finger, a physical finger. The physical finger has been cut, but its spiritual part is still there. You cannot cut the spiritual part.
This is what the mystics have been saying for centuries, that you can cut a man's head but you cannot cut the man's soul. They had no Kirlian photographic instruments, but they had a deep insight, a meditative eye.
Alexander threatened one sannyasin that if he did not go with him to Athens he would cut off his head. And he took out his sword, and the naked sannyasin laughed and said, "Do it, don't hesitate.
Never feel guilty - because I am ordering you to do it. I always wanted to see my head falling, and you are giving me a chance. You will see my head being cut from the body, falling on the ground; I will also be seeing it. You cannot cut my consciousness, my witnessing, my watcher."
This was the only time in Alexander's life when he put his sword back into his sheath. You cannot kill such a man, who is taking it so playfully, and even making you free of guilt: "It is not that you are doing it, I am ordering you. And it is going to be a really interesting experience. I have always wanted to see my head falling, but nobody has come to cut it. By chance you have come, a God-sent gift. Just don't put your sword back into the sheath."
Alexander said, "It is very difficult to kill such a man, who is not afraid."
The mystics have said continually, persistently, unanimously, from every corner of the earth that the world has arisen out of nothingness.
The idea that God created it is childish.
Because we cannot conceive the world arising out of nothingness, we have to create a mythology, a hypothesis of God creating the world. And nobody inquires from where God came - and where has he gone? Because nothing has been heard since then, after those six days when he created the world.
He did a great job - in six days, creating such a mess.
Since then nothing has been heard about the fellow... came out of nothingness, disappeared into nothingness.
The question is valid: what was he doing before he created the world? He must have been in existence from eternity, doing nothing - not even a cigarette to smoke, because the world was not created yet. Just think of the poor fellow.
And eternity is not a small thing.
And if he was capable of creating the world, then why did he wait so long? For whom? For some astrologer to tell him that "now is the right time"?
I used to stay with one of the oldest members of parliament in India. It was difficult not to stay with him; he would have felt so hurt... and I never wanted to stay with him. The trouble was his belief in astrology. When I had to leave his house, he would consult the astrologer. Now trains are running, planes are leaving; nobody is bothering about astrology. The plane would be leaving in the middle of the night, but the astrologer had suggested that I should leave before sunset. So he would take me to the airport before sunset, and for six hours I would have to wait there.
I told him, "You are cheating the stars. Do you think they are idiots?"
He said, "This is what the astrologer has suggested - that your journey should start. It has started; you have moved out of the house."
I said, "You know perfectly well, I know perfectly well, the astrologer knows perfectly well that the plane will leave in the middle of the night. And for six hours I have to wait in the airport! We all three know it, and we are trying to deceive the millions of stars. I don't think you will succeed. You are just torturing me; that's why I don't want to stay with you. Because the train will leave... and I am waiting for hours at the station."
I said, "It is good that when I come to your house I don't have to inquire of any astrologer - I simply jump into a taxi and reach your house." I never informed him, because if I had informed him than he would have sent his secretary to keep me waiting at the railway station: according to astrology I should reach his house... How many hours I had to wait was not the question at all.
When this man died it was such a great relief, because with him the whole of astrology died for me.
God is simply a hypothesis just to console our minds, our logic, our rationality - because to conceive the whole world coming out of emptiness, nothingness seems absurd, illogical.
But the mystics are unanimous about it. One of the greatest mystics, who founded the science of yoga, Patanjali says that God is a hypothesis, not a fact, not a truth. The world arises out of nothingness - but that means nothingness is not simply nothingness.
Nothingness does not mean simply noTHINGness.
Nothingness simply means an invisible, pregnant womb.
Out of this, the whole world grows and again it disappears into the same nothingness.
From a small seed a big tree grows, brings millions of seeds.
They say that even a single seed can make the whole earth green because a single seed will bring millions of seeds, and each seed is as potential as the parent seed. And after giving birth to millions of seeds, by and by the tree starts disappearing - the flowers disappear, the branches, the leaves - and one day the tree disappears.
From nothing to nothing is our whole journey.
Shunyo, it is true that I am becoming more and more empty - in other words, more and more full of emptiness, more and more spacious.
Ultimately one has to become as spacious as the whole universe.
That is the moment when the dewdrop disappears into the ocean; or in a better way, the ocean disappears into the dewdrop.
One of the mystics, one of the greatest, was Kabir. He has written... when he was young, he wrote two lines: "My friend, I was searching and searching the truth. I never found the truth; on the contrary the seeker, the searcher disappeared - just as if a dewdrop had fallen into the ocean."
When he was old, he corrected his statement. He said, "My friend, seeking and searching the truth, I have not found the truth; I have lost myself. The seeker is gone as if the ocean has disappeared into the dewdrop."
The second comes from a more mature, from a more conscious, more alert Kabir. But whatever way you see it - the dewdrop disappearing into the ocean or the ocean disappearing into the dewdrop - it means exactly the same.
The real and authentic religious search is not of finding, but of losing - the idea of finding is still greed. The idea of finding the truth or God or the ultimate still carries something of greed.
The true mystic, the true religious person, is finding a way to lose himself, how not to be - because those few chosen ones who have attained to the state of 'not to be' have experienced the greatest ecstasy possible. From 'to be' towards 'not to be' is the pilgrimage.
Your feeling, Shunyo - you have been with me for many years - is absolutely correct, that I am becoming more and more full of emptiness.
My presence is becoming more and more a kind of absence.
I am, and I am not.
The more I disappear, the more I can be of some help to you.
The mystics have been failures in the world for the simple reason that they could not encourage your greed. Religions have succeeded because they were not based on the teachings of the mystics, they were based on the cunning minds of the priesthood. And the priest knows what appeals to you; whatever appeals to you the priest is ready to give to you. Of course he cannot give it here, but he can give you a promise for the future, in paradise, in heaven.
It is of tremendous importance to understand different religions and their ideas about heaven and paradise, and to compare them. And you will be amazed at how they have exploited man.
For example, the Indian hell is just eternally burning fire. India is a hot country. In hell you cannot find ice or a cold drink; that is not possible. In the Indian heaven it is always cool. In those days there was no idea of air conditioning, but the way they have described it, it is almost air-conditioned:
fresh, cool air, the early morning freshness and coolness remains the whole day. The sun is never hot. It simply gives light, not heat - the Indian is so burned with the hot sun - and cool rivers are available...
The Indian religion is against women; all the Indian religions are against all pleasures of the flesh.
But in heaven - and nobody sees the contradiction - for saints all kinds of pleasures are made available. Beautiful women... Cleopatra, Noorjahan, Mumtaz Mahal, Hema Malini... The greater the saint, the more beautiful a woman he is going to get.
I have heard that when Muktananda died - and it is not history, just a few years ago - one of his disciples, in sheer despair, committed suicide. "Without Muktananda, there is no meaning in life."
His suicide was no ordinary suicide, it was spiritual; he had sacrificed himself for his master. He reached directly to paradise, and under a tree, he saw Muktananda lying naked. At first he felt to close his eyes because this was not right, what was happening was not right - the whole old habit.
He had just now died, and a beautiful woman... Later on he discovered that she was nobody else but Marilyn Monroe, with Muktananda... enjoying each other.
First he said, "This is absolutely wrong; this should not be so." But then he remembered that in heaven your virtues are rewarded, so this must be a reward. And naturally his master was one of the greatest masters. So he went close, touched his feet - while the master was making love, he touched his feet and he said, "Master, I had never realized that you were so great that you would get such a beautiful woman. Marilyn Monroe! - even Robert Kennedy was after her. But you deserve it. In the house of God, justice is always done."
At that moment the woman said, "You idiot, I am not his reward, he is my punishment!"
But all the religions are prohibiting here... sex is sin; and in their heaven it becomes a reward, and nobody sees the contradiction. If it is a reward in heaven, then practice, do some homework, be ready! Otherwise you are getting ready for things like standing on your head, doing yoga asanas, which will not be of any use in paradise. Unless you are determined to go to hell... that is up to you.
Perhaps in hell they put people on their heads, just to torture them.
I have never heard and never come across any scripture in which it is written that in any religion's paradise people stand on their heads. Why unnecessarily practice it? Practice something that is going to be useful.
My people practice exactly the right thing.
It is a small life, given to you as a school.
Train yourself for all the pleasures.
Mohammedans condemn alchol: it is a great sin. And in their heaven you cannot find water - all rivers are of alchohol. Now, anybody who has not practiced something here is bound to get sick; the heaven is going to turn into hell. You don't get pure water even, just the best champagne. Drink it, swim in it, get drowned in it, do whatever you want. It is a reward, a reward for those who remained disciplined in life, who never touched any alcoholic beverage. But a strange kind of reward...
You will not believe how much the Mohammedan hell and the Mohammedan heaven differ from the hells of the Hindus and the Christians and the Jews. But in one thing they are all exactly the same:
they are all preaching contradictions.
In Mohammedan countries homosexuality is such a crime that if you are caught red-handed you will be beheaded - no other punishment, you will be killed. There is no chance for you to change your character. But in heaven, in the Mohammedan heaven, even saints are provided with beautiful young boys. That I cannot believe. It seems the people who are writing these books are people who are projecting their unfulfilled desires into heaven: homosexuality is a reward in heaven.
No matter what people have wanted, desired, the priests have always been ready to exploit and manipulate their desires, their instincts, their biology. They have done it in a double way: repress all that is natural to you here so that you can be rewarded a thousandfold with the same thing in heaven.
It is a good bargain, just pure business, and they are killing two birds with one stone. Repress here...
the people who repress their desires here are bound to be miserable, are bound to be in continuous anxiety, tension, because they have to fight with themselves. Their life is a nightmare. And because they are miserable, they are in anguish, their life is a nightmare, they are bound to go to the priest for some consolation, to remind themselves again that "Don't be worried, it is only a question of a few days and great rewards are waiting for you."
If people are blissful here, who is going to bother with the priests or listen to them? Who has time? And who has energy? There is no need. Only a miserable world can be Hindu, can be Mohammedan, can be Christian. A happy world cannot be Christian, cannot be Hindu. The desire, the need for the priest, simply disappears.
So the priest is doing two things: first he is making sure of his profession of exploiting you here. And he is sure you do not revolt against your misery - "Wait, be patient; the more patient you are the more will be your reward."
Religions have created the greatest crime against humanity, and the priests are the worst criminals.
They have taken away all your joy, all your laughter, all your songs, all your dances, all your love.
They have poisoned everything that is beautiful in life and they have given you fictitious rewards in the other world. Not a single person has come back as an eyewitness that what these people are saying is right or wrong. And they are all saying different things, they cannot all be right. They can all be wrong.
My basic approach is, existence comes out of overflowing nothingness.
Then there is dance and song and love and flowers - this is the day of existence.
Then follows the rest period, the night - existence dissolves into nothingness again. Again there will be a morning, again there will be songs and birds and sunrise.
And the wheel of existence goes on moving from being through non-being. Non-being is the rest period, and because it is the rest period it is the most beautiful. It is relaxation, it is serenity, it is silence, it is disappearance.
I cannot give you any fictitious idea that you are going to get this, to get that. I can only say to you that you are going to disappear.
Help yourself. Don't cling. When the moment of disappearance comes, allow it joyously, welcome it.
You have learned the most significant secret of life.
Question 2:
The words can only reach to the mind.
Your heart is not available to the words.
And mind is superficial, very superficial; it is the circumference of your personality, skin deep. It has no depth.
But you have come here - that much the mind can do, that is more than it can do. That is enough.
Be thankful to the mind; it has brought you here.
As you come closer to me, my presence will start reaching to your heart and my emptiness will start reaching to your being.
Words will go on playing with your mind so that the mind does not disturb my presence reaching to your heart, my nothingness reaching to your being. Your mind is engaged with the words and underneath, underground, the real work is happening.
Sannyas is really coming closer to a master. The old definition of sannyas was going away from the world, renouncing the world. To me, that definition has been a calamity. You can renounce the world, you can escape into the mountains - but where are you going? Because you will be with yourself wherever you go, and you are the problem.
The world is not the problem.
The mountains are not the solution.
Because I have seen people living on the mountains; they have not become Gautam Buddhas. And I have lived in the world, I have not renounced anything - because in fact I don't have anything.
I have come without anything into the world, I will leave the world without anything. Just in the interval between coming and going, I have just to remember that nothing belongs to me. There is no question of renouncing. The very idea of renouncing means you believe that you own it, that you possess it, that it is yours.
We come naked, we go naked.
In the interval we can use things.
If you don't possess them, there is no harm in using them. If you don't become attached to them, there is no harm in using them. You come by plane or by train here - you don't possess the train, so when you get out of the train you don't declare to the whole railway station staff and the passengers, "I renounce this train now." You will be thought just an idiot. The train never belonged to you; you have used it.
This world is not to be renounced because this world is not yours.
I have not renounced anything for the simple reason that I don't have anything. I have used everything, and I will go on using everything to the last breath. And I don't see any problem in it - one just has to remember that one is traveling in a train.
But there are fools I have seen - they will write their name inside the bathroom in a train. Just idiots are idiots; what to do? But that does not mean that by writing your name in the bathroom the train has become yours.
I always enjoy the graffiti in the bathrooms in trains, in airplanes, in railway stations, in airports. It simply shows what kind of insane humanity we are living in, what kind of insane people, and what trouble they take. Now in an airport in the bathroom you are writing, wasting your time, wasting somebody else's time who will have to clean it and whitewash it again.
The old idea of sannyas was renouncing the world. The very idea of renouncing is wrong; it is escaping from the world. Where are you going to escape? Nobody ever thought about the fact that wherever you go you will be in the world. You cannot escape out of the world.
It is not that old an idea - three hundred years ago it was believed that the world is like a chappatti, so you can escape and jump out; there comes a place where it is written: The End. It is not like a chappatti, it is a globe. Wherever you go you will be in the world, you cannot fall out of it. Neither have your saints gone out of the world. In fact, they are more dependent on the world than you are - because you have to supply their food, they don't produce anything. You have to supply their clothes, they don't produce anything. You have to supply everything that they need. They are simply sucking your blood, they are parasites. These parasites you have called saints - and they have not gone anywhere, they are just here.
In Jainism, one of the religions in India, Mahavira was asked this question: "Your sannyasins will become a burden to the world because you don't allow them to do anything, because every action in some way involves some kind of violence... "
You will be surprised that Mahavira is not against sex in the same way as other religions are. He is against it because sex kills millions of living sperm. It is a question of violence, not of sex. If you look at his reasoning, it is not sex that he is against. He is against making love because you are going to kill millions of sperm.
Once the sperm is out of the male, its life span is only two hours. In a single ejaculation millions of sperm are released, and only once in a while will one of the sperm reach the mother's egg. The passage seems to be very small to you, but not to the sperm. Sexologists have measured: if a sperm were the size of an average man, and the passage to the mother's womb were enlarged in the same proportion, it would be two miles. So each sperm has to travel two miles - a long journey for a little, small soul.
And Mahavira is very compassionate: "Don't kill these poor people" - although he is not aware that they will be killed anyway.
He was against any action, even cultivation. That's why Jains don't cultivate - because if you cultivate you will have to cut the trees, the plants, and that will be violence.
You cannot be warriors, you cannot be soldiers. And brahmins won't allow you to be brahmins. A brahmin is only born a brahmin. You cannot be a brahmin, no matter how learned you are.
Naturally, all the Jainas became businessmen. There was nothing else left; that seemed to be the least violent way. In fact it is not so. Because they became the richest people in the country - that means they sucked more blood than anybody else, they exploited people more than anybody else.
It seems that because their violence was not allowed in any other way, their whole violence was focused on the poor customer.
Mahavira was asked again and again, "Your sannyasins will be a burden... "
So he said, "My sannyasins should not stay for more than three days in one place."
In Bombay, the Jaina monks... once they enter Bombay they never leave. I was puzzled when I came for the first time in 1960. I inquired, "What is the matter? These people should leave in three days."
They said, "They leave; they go from one suburb to another suburb, from Dadar to Matunga, from Matunga to Marine Drive. Their whole life they go on changing places in Bombay. But they don't leave Bombay, because no other place is so comfortable."
Man's mind is such... it will find a loophole in anything.
So Mahavira thought that he had managed so that his sannyasins would not be a burden. He was wrong - he can come to Bombay and see. In fact, if he comes to Bombay he will never go anywhere else again. He will start moving on the same route.
These people never left the world, so the idea that they escaped from the world is absolutely nonsense. They lived in the world; it is just that they became parasites.
My definition of sannyas is coming closer to a master, coming closer to a light. Your candle is unlit.
You bring your candle closer to a candle that is burning bright.
Come closer... there is a certain moment when, from the burning candle, the flame jumps to the unlit candle and suddenly you are enlightened. And the beauty is, the burning candle loses nothing and the unlit candle gains everything - the whole universe.
Sannyas is a journey from darkness towards light, from death towards immortality, from ignorance towards an explosion of knowing.
The books or any other medium are just a net thrown into the sea with the hope that somebody will be caught in it. People are caught, and as they come closer to the master, their life starts changing.
They may not understand what is happening, they may not be able to explain what is happening, but their life goes through a thousand and one transformations.
It has to be remembered that words - either through books or radio or television or video - are significant only if the master is alive; otherwise they will be simply burdening your mind with more knowledge.
So if you are fortunate enough to be caught in the net of a master in the right time, then don't hesitate, come closer.
There is fear in coming closer because you have lived in darkness for so many lives that now to be in light, your eyes feel uncomfortable. You have lived in death again and again, so that the very idea of immortality has become inconceivable to you. Your whole life is surrounded by lies - to come close to a master means dropping all those lies because they are the barriers between you and the master. Before you can realize the truth the lies have to be dropped, however valuable you think they are, and however ancient you think they are.
Hence, I always say: This is the way of the gambler.
Now you are here. Don't be a businessman. Remember you have come here to lose yourself, not to gain something. If that remembrance continues in you, you may find a shortcut and be aflame with a new light, a new life, with a new joy.
Question 3:
Turiya, I am reminded of an Egyptian king who sent an order throughout the kingdom that nobody should dare to enter into his dreams, and that if somebody should try to enter into his dreams, he would be beheaded.
His counselors could not believe it - how to convince him that nobody enters your dream, that it is your dream, you project it? And they were very much afraid because they were with the king constantly; naturally, people who he had never seen could not enter into his dreams - only these people... His queens, his ministers, his counselors all gathered together. They said, "This is very dangerous. This man is going to kill a few of us any day, and we will be absolutely innocent. We won't even know that he has dreamed about us, it is his dream."
And a few counselors were killed by him; he beheaded them the next morning - "This idiot did not listen to me. Last night he disturbed my sleep, he entered into my dream."
Finally they all gathered and they said, "You don't understand a simple thing: nobody enters into anybody's dream. How can anyone enter? You are guarded, your room is closed, it is locked from inside. How can anyone enter into your dream? And the dream happens inside you - do you think that in your small skull such big people can enter?" It was with great difficulty that he was convinced that it was his own projection.
Turiya, I do not enter into your dreams either. Just please forgive me.
You love me, and the deeper you love the more there is a possibility of dreaming about me. It is your unfulfilled desire to be close to me. Dreams are simply unfulfilled desires. They are very helpful, kind people. They help you so that your sleep is not disturbed.
If your bladder is full, you will dream that you are in your bathroom. You have not gone anywhere, you are just in your bed - but in the dream you are having a good, great relief. That saves your sleep; otherwise, sleep will have to be broken and you will have to go to the bathroom. The dream simply manages to give you an idea that there is no need to go anywhere. You are hungry and you are invited by friends, and you are presented with the delicious dishes that you like - it is a strategy of your mind so that your sleep is not disturbed.
People ordinarily think that dreams are a disturbance. It is not true. The latest findings of psychologists are that dreams are not disturbances; in fact, they are avoiding the disturbances.
They are creating hallucinatory satisfactions.
And naturally you cannot be so open to me when you are conscious, because you think of many things... sometimes to be open is so embarrassing. You have such an ugly idea in you, it is better to let sleeping dogs lie.
But in sleep, there is no fear. I am part of your dream, part of your mind. I am not there. You can open your unconscious more honestly, more sincerely - there is no fear, because you are alone there.
It was one of the greatest contributions of Sigmund Freud to the modern man: he never believed what you say, he believed in what you dream. He never bothered much about asking questions to you, interrogating you; he simply told you, "You lie down on the couch." And he would not be visible to you; he would sit behind the couch so you could not see him. And he would say, "You can just feel relaxed, almost sleepy, and start saying anything that you come up with. Don't bother about how it will be interpreted, how it will be judged. I am not going to judge, I am not going to interpret. It is simply to unburden you. You simply go on saying things as if you are talking to yourself, and bring your dreams to me."
And he would listen to the dreams more than to the person.
It was strange in the beginning because nobody had ever done it - why bother about dreams?
Dreams are dreams; they didn't mean anything. Sigmund Freud said, "They mean much more than you understand. What you say consciously is censored, your mind is always screening: what to say, what not to say, how to present yourself, to present the best side of your being. In a dream you are more relaxed. Asleep you are more truthful. Strange... your dreams are truer than you are.
Turiya, listen to your dreams. What you are saying to me in your dreams needs to be said to me, and you have not done it. That incomplete work is being completed in the dream.
But dreams are tremendously significant. Take note of them; make a diary, note down your dreams.
As you wake in the morning, within three seconds you will start forgetting your dreams. So if you really want to remember them, the first thing as you wake up immediately catch hold of the tail of a dream - because it will be the tail. You will have to go backwards; first the tail, then the elephant.
And you will be immensely enriched because this will make you understand your own unconscious, it will bring light to your unconscious. You will understand many things that you have been doing, but with no explanation of why you are doing them.
You have been falling in love with a certain type of person - why? Perhaps a dream may give you the secret. You have a certain disease again and again - why? Perhaps the dream may open up the secret.
There are people who, if they can understand their whole unconscious, will be relieved of a burden which is Himalayan, and they will feel so light. And unless this unconscious is unburdened, you cannot go beyond the conscious, you cannot reach to the superconscious. The only way to reach to the superconscious is to unburden the unconscious. In the middle is a small place for the conscious mind in which you live.
But you go on forcing things into the unconscious. In twenty-four hours' time you don't know how much rubbish you have thrown into the unconscious - your unconscious is not a wastepaper basket, but you are using it that way. It becomes cluttered and heavy, and its repressed fragments go on affecting your conscious life. You go on doing the same stupid things again and again. You decide not to do them, but you repeat, because it is not in your hands, it is in the hands of the unconscious.
Dream and remember the dream. Write it down, try to understand it, and it becomes a self- psychoanalysis. And there is no other psychoanalysis which is better than self-psychoanalysis, because if you are analyzed by somebody else his mind comes in. He interprets it, and things become more complex.
I have heard that a rich man was being psychoanalyzed by a very busy psychoanalyst. His fee was enormous, but the rich man was so rich that he would go on and on - two hours, three hours... And the psychoanalyst could not say anything because the man was paying for it, but it was very boring.
Finally he said, "I have come to a conclusion. You need more time, and I have many more patients, so I will turn on my tape recorder. You talk as much as you want to my tape recorder, and at night when I have time and silence, at ease in my bed, I will listen to it more honestly than I can in the office."
The rich man said, "That's perfectly alright, there is no problem."
The next day when the psychoanalyst was entering his office he saw the rich man going out of the office. He said, "Where are you going?"
He said, "I got your idea - so last night I told everything to my tape recorder. And now my tape recorder is telling your tape recorder. My tape recorder is lying on the couch, your tape recorder is sitting on the chair. You are free, I am free - now let those two idiots do whatsoever they want to do."
Others cannot listen to all the garbage that you have - and you have it the whole night! And in eight hours' sleep, for six hours you are dreaming. Only for two hours are you not dreaming, and not in one block of time. A few minutes here, a few minutes there you are without dreams; otherwise, the whole night is full of dreams.
In the beginning it was thought that if there were less dreams you would have a better sleep, so they tried one experiment on many people. Whenever you are dreaming your eyes start moving, so that even from the outside it can be judged whether you are dreaming or not. When you are not dreaming, your eyelids are still.
When you are dreaming, then you are seeing a film - naturally your eyes are moving inside.
So what they did was that whenever the person was dreaming they would disturb him, they would wake him. And whenever he was not dreaming they would allow him to sleep. It was strange - they stopped all his dreams and allowed him to sleep, but in the morning he was dead tired.
They did the other, vice-versa - they stopped him while he was in his dreamless sleep. Each time he was asleep they would disturb him, wake him up, but they allowed him to dream. And it was a tremendous discovery: if he was allowed to dream, in the morning he was waking up fresh, young, rejuvenated. The thousands of years old idea that dreams are a disturbance has proved to be wrong.
Dreams are a tremendous help. They are a release.
Turiya herself is a therapist; hence, she will understand it better. Let your dreams become a psychoanalysis, a self-psychoanalysis. Particularly when you see me and something opens up in you, remember it, and go on writing it down. If you feel that it is something that should be told to me you can put it in a question. And don't be shy, don't be embarrassed.
You should not make questions which are simply showing your intellect; you should be making questions which are showing your authentic desire for spiritual growth.