3 Steps to Awakening

There are only three steps: freedom of consciousness, simplicity of mind, and emptiness of mind. One who sharpens his freedom, simplicity, and emptiness, will attain enlightenment.

When our feelings are complex, we cannot know truth. If thoughts are complex, we cannot know truth. When thoughts are simple, if feelings are simple, an inner preparation takes place that opens our eyes so we can know truth.

I told you to be a witness of your thoughts, and freedom will follow. Be a witness of your feelings, and simplicity will follow. Someone who starts to know thought becomes free from thought. Someone who starts to know feelings becomes free from feelings. Knowing thought is freedom from thought; knowing feelings is freedom from feelings.

Everything in life flows. Nothing is brought about. I have told you that there should be simplicity in life, that there should be no complexity in it. You should not take it to mean you have to bring about simplicity. It only means you have to know your complexity and enter it. The way to enter complexity is to be aware of the complexity and all the movements of the mind.

Do you bring about anger? Have you ever brought about anger? You always find anger has come. Have you ever brought about anger? Have you ever brought about hatred? You always find it has come. What does “it has come” mean? If it comes, that means there is inner ignorance, and wrong behavior follows. In the same way, if there is inner knowledge, right behavior arises. It does not have to be cultivated. If there is inner knowledge, love will follow in the same way as hate comes now; compassion will follow in the same way as cruelty comes now; nonviolence will follow in the same way as violence comes now. Inner ignorance flows into wrong behavior. Inner knowledge flows into right behavior. Right behavior cannot be imposed; it springs, flows, and comes into being through inner knowledge.

We would tell him, “That means you have not understood the meaning of light.” The very meaning of turning on the light is that there is no more darkness. Having inner knowledge means that there is no ignorance. When the ignorance is gone, the behavior that comes out of ignorance is not there. How can it be? Inner ignorance brings about bad conduct; inner knowledge brings about good conduct. Knowledge doesn’t have to be brought into the behavior, just like when there is ignorance, bad conduct happens on its own.

While we were coming here, on the way someone asked, “If we have inner knowledge, what will we do? Once we have knowledge, what will be our behavior? If we achieve knowledge, how will we implement it in our daily life?” The very question is wrong. The very question is wrong. It would be as if someone would ask, “When there is light, what should we do with the darkness?”

There is a third way: it is neither a question of having anger nor a question of fighting with anger. It is a question of knowing anger. It is not a question of being angry, allowing the anger to lead you. Nor is it a question of forcing non-anger to be there, out of the fear of anger. It is a question of knowing anger and thus ending it. By knowing it, it disappears. By knowing, complexities disappear. There is no revolution greater than knowing.

Bad people die from anger, and good people die from the fear of anger.

The one who enters his greed reaches non-greed. The one who enters his anger reaches non-anger. The one who enters his sex has the experience of celibacy. We remain outside only out of fear and agitation, and we never enter them. We never wish to know them. We never make an effort to reach their innermost roots by entering them. We remain outside out of fear.

Evil people destroy themselves by doing bad things. Good people destroy themselves through the fear of doing bad things.