25. JUST AS YOU HAVE THE IMPULSE TO DO SOMETHING, STOP.
26. WHEN SOME DESIRE COMES, CONSIDER IT. THEN, SUDDENLY, QUIT IT.
27. ROAM ABOUT UNTIL EXHAUSTED AND THEN, DROPPING TO THE GROUND, IN THIS DROPPING BE WHOLE.
Life has two balances: one is of being and the other of doing. Your being is your nature. It is with you always; you have not to do anything to get it. It is already the case, you are it. It is not that you possess it, not even that a distance exists between you and it -- you are it. You are your being. Doing is an achievement. Whatsoever you do is not already the case. If you do it, it will happen; if you do not do it, it will not happen. All that is not already the case is not your being.
To exist, to survive, you have to do much. And then, by and by, your activity becomes a barrier to knowing your being. Your activity is your circumference -- you live on it, you cannot live without it. But it is only the circumference; it is not you, it is not the center. Whatsoever you have is the achievement of your doing; having is the result of doing. But the center is surrounded, engulfed by your doing and your having.
The first thing to note before we proceed into these techniques is that whatsoever you have is not your being, and whatsoever you do or can do is not your being. Your being precedes all doing. Your being precedes all your possessions, all your having. But the mind is constantly involved in doing and having. Beyond mind or below mind exists your being. How to penetrate into that center is what religions have been seeking. This is what has always been the search of all those who are interested in knowing the basic reality of human existence, the ultimate core, the substance of your being. Unless you understand this division between the circumference and the center, you will not be able to understand these sutras which we are going to discuss.
So note the distinction. Whatsoever you have -- money, knowledge, prestige, whatsoever you have -- it is not you. You have them, they are your possessions; you are different from them. Secondly, whatsoever you do is not your being. You may do it or you may not do it. For example, you laugh, but you may laugh or you may not laugh. You run, but you may run or you may not run. But you are and there is no choice. You cannot choose your being. You are already there.
Action is a choice. You may choose, you may not choose. You may do "this," you may not do "this." You may become a saint or you may become a thief, but your sainthood and your thiefhood are both doings. You can choose, you can change. A saint can become a thief and a thief can become a saint. But that is not your being: your being precedes your sainthood, your
thiefhood.
Whenever you have to do something, you have to be there already; otherwise you cannot do it. Who runs? Who laughs? Who steals? Who becomes a saint? The being must precede all activity. The activity can be chosen, but being cannot be chosen. The being is the chooser, not the chosen, and you cannot choose the chooser -- he is already there. You cannot do anything about him. Remember this: having, doing, are with you just as a circumference is with the center, but you are the center.
This center is the self, or you may call it the ATMAN or whatsoever name you like. This center is your innermost point. How to reach it? And unless one reaches it, knows it, unless one realizes it, one cannot reach to a blissful state which is eternal, one cannot know the deathless, one cannot know the divine. Unless one realizes this center, one will remain in misery, anguish and suffering. The circumference is the hell. These techniques are the means to enter into this center.
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