Everybody is trying to be perfect. And the moment somebody starts trying to be perfect, he starts expecting everybody else to be perfect. He becomes a condemner. He starts humiliating people. That’s what all your so-called saints have been doing down the ages. That’s what your religions have done to you – poisoned your being with an idea of perfection.

Because you cannot be perfect, you start feeling guilty, you lose respect for yourself. And the man who has lost respect for himself has lost all the dignity of being human. Your pride has been crushed, your humanity has been destroyed by beautiful words like perfection.

Man cannot be perfect. Yes, there is something that man can experience but which is beyond the ordinary conception of man. Unless man also experiences something of the divine, he cannot know perfection.

Perfection is not something like a discipline, it is not something that you can practice, it is not something for which you have to go through rehearsals – but that is what is being taught to everybody. And the result is a world full of hypocrites, who know perfectly well that they are hollow and empty, but go on pretending all kinds of qualities which are nothing but empty words.

When you say to someone, “I love you,” have you ever thought what you mean? Is it just biological infatuation between the two sexes? Then once you have satisfied your animal appetite, all so-called love will disappear. It was just a hunger and you have fulfilled your hunger and you are finished. The same woman who was looking the most beautiful in the world, the same man who was looking like Alexander the Great…you start thinking how to get rid of this fellow!

It will be very enlightening for you, to understand this letter written by Paddy to his beloved Maureen.

My darling Maureen,

I met you last night but you did not show up. Next time I will meet you again whether you show up or not. If I am there first, I will write my name on the gatepost to let you know. And if it is you that is first, rub out my name and nobody will be any the wiser.

Darling Maureen, I would climb the highest mountain for your sake, and swim the wildest sea. I would endure any hardships to spend a moment by your side.

Your ever-loving

Paddy.

PS I’ll be over to see you on Friday night if it is not raining.

The moment you say to someone “I love you,” you don’t know what you are saying. You don’t know that it is just lust hiding behind a beautiful word, love. It will disappear. It is very momentary.

Love is something eternal. It is the experience of the buddhas, not the unconscious people of whom the whole world is full. Only very few people have known what love is – and these same people are the most awakened, the most enlightened, the highest peaks of human consciousness.