Buddha says: Know thyself. Socrates says: Know thyself. They all say: Know thyself. All the awakened ones have only one message: Know thyself. We listen and yet we don’t listen. We go on moving on the same rotten tracks, we go on living in the same old miserable way. And the reason is, the old, miserable way has one thing to give to you – the ego.

And if you go in you will have to pay the price. The price is, you will have to lose your ego.

Sweeney met Brecon on the road. “Where are you off to?” he asked.

“I am going to Connemara,” replied Brecon.

“You mean you are going to Connemara, God willing?”

“No, I am going to Connemara, God willing or not.”

Because of this presumptuous remark Brecon was turned into a frog and kept in a pond for several days. When he had completed his penance Brecon was changed back to his original form. Returning home, he began packing his belongings again.

“Where are you going now?” asked Sweeney.

“I am going to Connemara.”

“You mean you are going to Connemara, God willing?”

“No!” shouted Brecon. “I am going to Connemara or back to the frog pond!”

One cannot leave one’s ego. It is better to be a frog! One is ready to be anything. We have become rocks. We only appear to be alive – ninety-nine percent we are dead. Yes, we breathe and we eat and we propagate, but we are not alive.

If you are alive you will not ask the question, “From where does freshness come?” You will know; there will be no need to ask the question. You will experience it moment to moment. It is arising in you.

That’s how I feel. That’s how all the buddhas have always felt. It does not come from anywhere; it simply wells up within you, and each moment. It is never the same. It is as fresh as dewdrops in the early morning sun. Tremendous is the beauty of it and great is its benediction.

But nothing is without a price. You will have to lose the ego, you will have to lose your idea of who you are. In the first place, it is false. You are not really losing anything, just an idea, a very non-substantial idea. But, repeated so often, the idea has become very deeply rooted in you; you have become hypnotized by it.

The ego is nothing but a deep hypnosis. And meditation is the process of dehypnosis. It is the process of bringing you back to that innocent state where you were not yet hypnotized.

Hence, Jesus says again and again: Unless you are like small children you will not enter into my kingdom of God. What does he mean? He means you have to be unconditioned again, you have to be dehypnotized.