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Shusai wrote:

LIKE A LOVELY CLOUD IN A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE, NEW YEAR'S FIRST SUNRISE!

These beautiful people! A small stream, very small, but it has contained the most precious ones.

When Shusai says, "LIKE A LOVELY CLOUD IN A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE, NEW YEAR'S FIRST SUNRISE!" - what an amazement that "I am still alive!" What an amazement that "I don't deserve such a beautiful sunrise."

And yet existence goes on showering from all directions, in thousands of ways. But you are dumb, you are deaf, you are blind. You don't see the sunrise, you don't see the sunset.

I have seen people walking on the road. The sun is setting - such psychedelic colors all over the horizon - and nobody is looking at it. Somebody is talking to himself, you can see the lips moving; somebody is counting something, somebody is looking down on the earth. They are completely unaware that a great sunset, which will never be repeated again...

But a man of aesthetic sensibility, of religious consciousness, will gather all these beauties, will become one with the sunset, will become one with the sunrise, will become one of the stars in the night, will become one of the roses, or the lotuses. He will enjoy this tremendous mystery that is unfolding every moment all around you. Everything is poetry, and everything is music, and everything is a great dance.

But all the religions, the organized ones, have destroyed your sensibility. They have destroyed your perceptivity.

When I was a teacher in the university I used to have a beautiful garden. I have always had a beautiful garden around me. A Hindu monk, very famous among the Hindus, had come to see me. I took him around the garden - because my garden was winning for years, every year, the first prize.

We used to bring such big dahlias, such big roses - almost impossible to believe. And that old fool, the Hindu monk, said to me, "A man of spirituality like you should not indulge in any senses."

Even looking at the roses is indulgence, because if you can appreciate the beauty of a rose, what prevents you from appreciating the beauty of a woman? It is the same sensibility. To destroy the sensibility, to make your skin as thick as possible, to make your skull as thick, as retarded as possible so you don't appreciate anything... you cannot enjoy this beautiful existence.

To my understanding, if you cannot enjoy that which is outer, you are incapable of enjoying that which is inner, because the inner is far deeper. The outer is immediately available.

According to my experience, enjoying the beauty of flowers and stars suddenly makes you aware to look into yourself: what is my beauty? What is my being's light? The outer beauty indicates towards the inner.

I am in favor of a deep balance. Enjoy the outer beauty, the outer sensibility; it will help you in your meditation. It is not going to distract you. It distracts you because you have been inhibiting your outer sensibility. If you have not appreciated the beauty of a woman or a man, then when you will close your eyes you will be surrounded by beautiful women, by beautiful men. This has been your inhibition, this is your suppression, which will come to the surface the moment you start going inwards. You have not fulfilled your responsibility for the outer existence. You are not worthy to enter into the inner sanctum.

I teach you to love the world, not to renounce it, because that is the only way to find yourself. You are part of this existence, you cannot escape from it. All escape is false, and creates only frauds.