So the first thing is that in the valley of knowledge one has to remain alert that one has to be emphatically concerned with the capacity of knowing – not with the object, not with the content. One should emphasize witnessing, one should become more and more alert and aware, then one becomes a knower. Not by knowing many things but just by becoming more aware, one becomes really a knower.

The path of knowledge has nothing to do with scriptures. opinions, systems, beliefs. It has something to do with the capacity to know – you can know. You have this immense energy of being conscious. So be concerned with the container, the consciousness, and don’t be concerned with the content.

Don’t be concerned with the known, be concerned with the knower. Knowledge is a double-arrowed phenomenon. One arrow points to the known, another arrow points to the knower. If you go on looking to the known you will be lost in the valley. If you start looking to the knower you cannot be lost, you will be able to transcend the valley. And once you transcend the valley of knowledge there is great, great joy – because you have understood something very essential in you, something that is going to remain to the very end, something that is very fundamental: the capacity to know, the capacity to be conscious.

So if you look at the knower, if you become more alert about the knower, you have used the positive.

The second valley is called the valley of repentance.

When you start looking at who you are, naturally great repentance arises. Because of all that you have done wrong, all that you have done and should not have done. you start feeling repentance. So a great peak comes with consciousness – but suddenly, with consciousness, conscience arises. Remember, the conscience that you have is not the true conscience. It is a pseudo-coin; it is given by the society.

People have told you what is right and what is wrong; what is moral, what is immoral. You don’t know exactly what is moral or what is immoral. But after crossing the first valley you will be able to know exactly what is right and what is wrong. And then suddenly you will see what wrong you have done – how many people you have been hurting, how sadistic you have been with others, how masochistic you have been with yourself, how destructive, violent, aggressive, angry, jealous, you have been up to now. All that will come to your vision. That is a natural by-product of becoming conscious – conscience arises.