Art of dying

WHEN RABBI BIRNHAM LAY DYING, HIS WIFE BURST INTO TEARS.

HE SAID, 'WHAT ARE YOU CRYING FOR?

MY WHOLE LIFE WAS ONLY THAT I MIGHT LEARN HOW TO DIE.'

LIFE is in living. It is not a thing, it is a process. There is no way to attain to life except

by living it, except by being alive, by flowing, streaming with it. If you are seeking the

meaning of life in some dogma, in some philosophy, in some theology, that Is the sure

way to miss life and meaning both.

Life is not somewhere waiting for you, it is happening in you. It is not in the future as

goal to be arrived at, it is herenow, this very moment -- in your breathing, circulating in

your blood, beating in your heart. Whatsoever you are is your life, and if you start

seeking meaning somewhere else, you will miss it. Man has done that for centuries.

Concepts have become very important, explanations have become very important -- and

the real has been completely forgotten. We don't look to that which is already here, we

want rationalisations.

I have heard a very beautiful story.

Some years ago a successful American had a serious identity crisis. He sought help from

psychiatrists but nothing came of it, for there were none who could tell him the meaning

of life -- which is what he wanted to know. By and by he learned of a venerable and

incredibly wise guru who lived in a mysterious and most inaccessible region of the

Himalayas. Only that guru, he came to believe, would tell him what life meant and what

his role in it ought to be. So he sold all his worldly possessions and began his search for

the all-knowing guru. He spent eight years wandering from village to village throughout

the Himalayas in an effort to find him. And then one day he chanced upon a shepherd

who told him where the guru lived and how to reach the place.

It took him almost a year to find him, but he eventually did. There he came upon his

guru, who was indeed venerable, in fact well over one hundred years old. The guru

consented to help him, especially when he learned of all the sacrifices the man had made

towards this end. 'What can I do for you, my son?' asked the guru. 'I need to know

the meaning of life,' said the man.

To this the guru replied, without hesitation, 'Life,' he said, 'is a river without end.' 'A

river without end?' said the man in a startled surprise. 'After coming all this way to find

you, all you have to tell me is that life is a river without end?'

The guru was shaken, shocked. He became very angry and he said, 'You mean it is not?'

Nobody can give you the meaning of your life. It is your life, the meaning has also to be

yours. Himalayas won't help. Nobody except you can come upon it. It is your life and it is

only accessible to you. Only in living will the mystery be revealed to you.

The first thing I would like to tell you is: don't seek it anywhere else. Don't seek it in me,

don't seek it in scriptures, don't seek it in clever explanations -- they all explain away,

they don't explain. They simply stuff your empty mind, they don't make you aware of

what is. And the more the mind is stuffed with dead knowledge, the more dull and stupid

you become. Knowledge makes people stupid; it dulls their sensitivity. It stuffs them, it

becomes a weight on them, it strengthens their ego but it does not give light and it does

not show them the way. It is not possible.