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To me transcendence comes out of your experience.
You see the futility of something and the addiction drops. Then once
in a while, just for a change, if you want to smoke I don't see any
harm; if you want to make love I don't see any harm. The harm is in
the addiction -- the harm is not in the act. And transcendence is
not concerned with the act; transcendence is concerned with the
addiction.
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To be addicted is bad. It gives you a kind of dependence.
And all addictions are bad. There are no good addictions -- addiction as such is
bad.
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I am not against anything -- but nothing should become an
addiction. Otherwise you are in a very very confused state.
- These therapists came from the West to me
because in the West therapy was going out of fashion. People were
tired, because what is the point? -- for a few days you feel great
and then come the dumps. You feel worse than before. Then to go
again to the therapist becomes a kind of addiction.
And there is no end to it. People go on moving from one therapy to
another therapy their whole life, always feeling, "This is going to
work." And it seems to work for a while, but it does not change
anything basic, just superficial touches, so you are again back to
zero.
- People don't believe in what you say,
people believe in the way you say it. And once you have learned the
art of telling lies it becomes an addiction, because people start
believing in you, you start becoming powerful. And then, if you can
manage a few more things, your power will be immense.
- Work is good but it should not become an
addiction. Many people have made their work like a drug so they can
forget themselves in their work -- just like a drunkard forgetting
himself in alcohol.
- The chewing gum keeps them engaged, and
that's how cigarettes keep them engaged. That's how people go on
gossiping with each other. That keeps them engaged. Nobody bothers
whether it is true or false, that is not the point. The question is:
How to keep engaged and away from yourself? So the workaholics are
against meditation. Every addiction is going to prevent you from
becoming a meditator. All addictions have to be dropped. But to be
total in your work is a totally different thing. To be total in your
work is not addiction, it is a kind of meditation. When you are
totally in your work, your work has a possibility of perfection, you
will have a joy arising out of a perfect work.
- A very strange thing about addiction is
that if you have the drug, it is nothing; if you don't have it, you
are missing. You never think what you are missing because when you
have it, it is nothing. Each time you have it you feel that it is
just a futile effort, nothing comes out of it. You don't move a
single inch in evolution. You just jump for a moment in the air and
with a thump you fall back on the ground.
- Addiction has to be dropped only when it
makes you unconscious. Alcoholics are told to drop the addiction,
but here my teaching is of consciousness -- be addicted to it more
and more.
- But what is anger? It is far more
intoxicating than any alcohol can be. What is jealousy? What is
hatred? They are far more addictive. You can be easily taken out of
your drug addiction; any institution like Alcoholics Anonymous can
help you. But to make you unaddicted to your jealousy, to your
ambition, to your competitiveness, to your anger, rage, your
potentiality for violence, no Alcoholics Anonymous can be of any
help. But a few, a very few people, enlightened people, have simply
pushed you upwards. They have distributed themselves. They are not
hoarders -- they cannot be.
- This is what addiction means: if you do
it, nothing is gained; if you don't do it, you feel that something
is missing. This is what a smoker feels. If he smokes, he knows
nothing is gained. He is doing something silly, just a stupid thing
-- taking smoke in and throwing it out.
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