And you are continuously using it – uselessly, unnecessarily! You have forgotten how to put it off. For seventy, eighty years it remains on, working, working, tired. That’s why people lose intelligence: for the simple reason that they are so tired. If the mind can have a little rest, if you can leave the mind alone for a few hours every day, if once in a while you can give the mind a holiday, it will be rejuvenated; it will come out more intelligent, more efficient, more skillful.

So I am not saying that you are not to use your mind, but don’t be used by the mind. Right now the mind is the master and you are only a slave.

Meditation makes you a master and the mind becomes a slave. And remember: the mind as a master is dangerous because, after all, it is a machine; but the mind as a slave is tremendously significant, useful. A machine should function as a machine, not as a master. Our priorities are all upside – down – your consciousness should be the master.

So whenever you want to use it, in the East or in the West – of course you will need it in the marketplace – use it! But when you don’t need it, when you are resting at home by the side of your swimming – pool or in your garden, there is no need. Put it aside. Forget all about it! Then just be.

And the same is the case with the ego. Don’t be identified with it, that’s all. Remember that you are part of the whole; you are not separate from it.

That does not mean that if somebody is stealing from your house you have simply to watch – because you are just part of the whole and he is also part of the whole, so what is wrong? And somebody is taking money from your pocket, so there is no problem – the other’s hand is as much yours as his! I am not saying that.

Remember that you are part of the whole so that you can relax, merge; once in a while you can be utterly drowned in the whole. And that will give you a new lease of life. The inexhaustible sources of the whole will become available to you. You will come out of it refreshed; you will come out of it reborn, again as a child, full of joy, inquiry, adventure, ecstasy.

Don’t get identified with the ego, although, as far as the world is concerned, you have to function as an ego – that is only utilitarian! You have to use the word I – use the word I, but remember that it is only a word. It has a certain utility, and without it life will become impossible. If you stop using the word I completely, life will become impossible. We know names are only utilitarian, nobody is born with a name. But I am not saying to drop the name and throw your passport into the river. Then you will be in trouble! You need a name; that is a necessity because you live with so many people.

If you are alone in the world, then of course there is no need to carry a passport. If you are alone…for example, if the third world war happens and Joyce is left alone, then there will be no need to carry a passport; you can throw it anywhere. Then there will be no need to have any name. Even if you have one it will be useless – nobody will ever call you. Then there will be no need to even use the word “I” because “I” needs a “thou”; without a “thou” the “I” is meaningless. It has meaning only in the context of others.