I must be the first enlightened person who is using therapeutic groups as a help to meditation, for the simple reason that in the past man was so simple there was no need for him to pass through therapies first. He was healthy in a way, saner in a way, authentic, truer, sincere and honest.

Modern man is cunning, very cunning, and very repressed, so much so that he himself is not aware what he has repressed in his being. And modern man is very clever, he is not simple. He is so clever that he can go on deceiving even himself. By deceiving others continuously he has become skillful in deceiving. The skill has become so ingrained that now no conscious, deliberate effort is needed for him to be cunning. He can simply be cunning without any effort on his own.

This changed situation demands new methods, new approaches, new windows, so new that your mind is at a loss what to do. If your mind knows what to do, the device cannot be of any help. The mind, when it is unable to find a way out, is at a loss – that is the great, precious moment when something of the beyond can happen.

A little old bearded Jew accidentally brushed by a Nazi officer and knocked him off balance.

“Schwein!” roared the German, clicking his heels.

“Solomon,” said the Jew, bowing politely. “Pleased to meet you.”

You see the cunningness, the cleverness!

Liddell walked into a Chinatown tavern and said to the Oriental behind the bar, “Hey, Chink, give me a drink!”

Ten minutes later Liddell called out again, “Alright, Chink, give me a drink!”

A short time passed and once again Liddell shouted, “Say, Chink, give me a drink!”

“Listen,” said the Chinese bartender, “I have held my temper, but you come behind the bar and see how you like to be insulted.”

The two men exchanged places. “Okay,” said the Oriental. “Now, you Nigger, give me a jigger!”

The modern man cannot be helped by Patanjali or Moses. It will need a totally new approach.

That’s exactly what I am doing here. You need therapies so that much garbage can be thrown out of you. Therapy is catharsis; it brings you face-to-face with your own unconscious. No old method has ever been able to do it – it was not needed in the first place, it was unnecessary. Sitting silently, doing nothing was enough. But now, if you sit silently doing nothing, that is not going to help.