Words of a Guru

Roger Housden was taking a tour party down the river Ganges. Half way they stopped in Lucknow and Roger took the participants to visit one of the truly insightful gurus of modern India, a man of no-nonsense clarity. All but one of his party stayed on. Even the Ganges was forgotten. Poonja is a Hindu without a label. Whether derived from Sankaracharya or the Buddha or both his thought is direct, immediate, personal, touching the present. Only in one respect does his insight veer off from Buddhism. On a taped interview he was asked. "Poonja, who are you?" Quick as a flash, he replied. "I am THAT!" A Zen master would have said "I am THIS." No dualism. Listening to this taped interview, I was inspired by much of what Poonja had to say. Here is a brief summary for your reflection.

However much you have practised, whether for five years, forty years or two days, when you wake up it takes two seconds. So what is the use of all those years of practising? why not wake up immediately?

You are in a dream, the dream of life, all these preoccupations, occupations, relations, work and play all are the dream. suddenly you turn over and awake. What is this moment? You can do it now. why wait? Practice is waiting. No need to wait. No need for shepherds or preachers. the true teacher knows emptiness and, when you fall into it together, two minds are one mind and one mind is empty. Then you both see it.

The teacher's mind is empty. When he hears the questioner the reply comes from emptiness - not the teacher. The teacher is only a vehicle of emptiness. However deep the karma of many years standing, on awakening it is all cleared up. But what if you go to sleep again?

Staying awake is not practice, it is continuous realising. Continuous realising requires attention. Who is it who dreams the dream of life? Can you get to him? When you fall into a doze at night what is there at the moment of that falling? What happens when you give it all up.

What is this giving up? no need to hold on. no such necessity. other than the imputed there never was a reality, past, present or future, so what is it that is? Realisation is just perceiving that you are not bound. Such a freedom is the awakening. Nothing else has changed. What you think - you are. If you do not think the dream then you are awake.