“All my life I have been seeking silences. I have not gathered money so that I can distribute it. I have gathered silences. You can take them, but I cannot give them to you.”

This is something immensely important to understand: the greatest treasure can be taken, but cannot be given.

George Gurdjieff, one of the most significant men of this century, has even said that unless a disciple is ready to steal from the master, he will not get anything. It is in the very nature of things. The doors of the master are open; he wants to give, he tries to give in thousands of ways – but it is not in his capacity to give to you if you are not ready to receive it. But if you are ready to see, the treasure and the doors open. The master is calling you: “Take as much as you can” – or perhaps he is pretending to be asleep so that you don’t feel embarrassed.

Gurdjieff was saying something which has never been said in the long history of man: “Unless a disciple is ready even to steal from the master, he is not going to get it,” because the master cannot force it. Anything forced upon you becomes a lie, becomes a bondage. You have to gather courage and take it.

A seeker of silences I am, and what treasure have I found in silences that I may dispense with confidence?

He has found himself. He has found what the world knows by the name of “God.” But the treasure is so vast, so big – and the seeker is no more. The person who had gone in search has found the source – but it happens simultaneously: the moment you find the source, you are no more.

No man has ever been able to see the ultimate, for the simple reason that the ultimate can never be reduced to an object. You cannot be just an observer. The ultimate, as you come closer to it, starts pulling you with such a force and gravitation that you don’t have even time to say, “I have found it!” You don’t have time to shout “Eureka!” Before you say anything, you are gone. What you were seeking is found, but the person who started the search is lost.

Either you or God – both cannot exist together. This is the reason why we have called Gautam Buddha “Bhagwan,” why we have called Mahavira “Bhagwan” – because the person who started the journey is no longer there; he has found, and in the very finding he has become one with it.

And one thing very significant he says: with confidence. He wants to give, but he does not find the confidence that the treasure he has found is possible to give. It has never been given, it has been always found. Each individual has to find it on his own. Nobody can give it to you, it cannot be a gift. You cannot borrow it. You have to die to find it; you have to disappear for godliness to appear. Your disappearance is one side of the coin; on the other side is godliness.