SWEET-HEARTED ONE, MEDITATE ON KNOWING AND NOT-KNOWING, EXISTING AND NOT-EXISTING. THEN LEAVE BOTH ASIDE THAT YOU MAY BE


... MEDITATE ON KNOWING AND NOT-KNOWING, EXISTING AND NOT-EXISTING. Meditate on the positive aspect of life and then on the negative -- then put both aside because you are neither. THEN LEAVE BOTH ASIDE THAT YOU MAY BE.

Look at it this way. Meditate on a birth: a child is born, you are born. Then you grow, you become young -- meditate on this whole growth. Then you become old, then you die. From the very beginning, imagine the very moment when your father and mother conceived you, and into the womb of the mother you came. Just the first cell. From there look to the very end, where your body is burning on a funeral pyre and all your relative are standing around you. Then put both aside -- the one who was born and the one who has died. Just put both aside and then look within. There you are -- that which is never born and which is never going to die.

... knowing and not-knowing, existing and not-existing. Then leave both aside that you may be. You can do it with any positive-negative polarity. You are sitting here. I look at you. I know you. When I close my eyes, you are no longer there, I don't know you. Then put aside both the knowledge that I have known and the knowledge that I don't know -- you will be empty. Because when you put both knowledge and no-knowledge aside, you will be empty.

There are two types of people: some are filled with knowledge and some are filled with ignorance. There are people who say, "We know." Their ego is bound up with their knowledge. And there are people who say, "We are ignorant." They are filled with their ignorance. They say, "We are ignorant. We don't know." One is identified with knowledge, the other is identified with ignorance, but both possess something, both cherish something. Push both aside, knowing and not-knowing, so that you are neither -- neither ignorant nor knowing. Put aside both positive and negative. Then who are you? Suddenly the who will be revealed to you. You will become aware of the beyond, that which transcends. Putting aside both positive and negative, you will be empty. You will be no one, neither wise nor ignorant. Put both hate and love aside, put both friendship and enmity aside... when both the polarities are put aside you are empty.

But this is a trick of the mind: it can put one aside but never the two together. It can put one aside -- you can put ignorance aside, then you cling to knowledge. You can put pain aside, but then you cling to pleasure. You can put enemies aside, but then you cling to friends. And there are a few people who do just the verse: they will be put friends aside and cling to the enemies, they will put love aside and cling to hate, they will put wealth aside and cling to poverty, and they put knowledge, scriptures, aside and cling to ignorance. These people are great renouncers. Whatsoever you cling to they put it aside and cling to the opposite -- but they cling all the same

Clinging is the problem, because if you cling you cannot be empty. Don't cling -- this is the message of this technique. Just don't cling to anything positive or negative because with non-clinging you will find yourself. You are there but because of the clinging, you are hidden. With non-clinging you will be exposed, you will be uncovered. You will explode.