Then the method…and he goes so quick, not a single word wasted, not a single word superfluous. He is so telegraphic; that is the meaning of the word sutra. Sutra means very telegraphic. There was a great need in those days when Atisha was writing these sutras – there was a great need to be very, very short, condensed, telegraphic, because books were not available; people had to remember them. And it is better to make very, very condensed sutras so people can remember. Now these are only seven points we are discussing, and can be easily remembered.

One method will correct all wrong.

That method is awareness. There are many illnesses but there is only one health. The quality of health is one, always the same. Whether I am healthy or you are healthy, the feel of health is the same. Diseases are millions, wrongs are many, but the right key that unlocks all the doors, the master key, is only one. And rather than cutting the branches, rather than pruning the leaves, why not cut the very root? There are many people who go on pruning the leaves or cutting the branches; these people are known as moralists.

The moral person is a little-bit-stupid person, stupid in the sense that he thinks that by cutting the leaves he is going to destroy the tree. He is not going to destroy the tree this way. You cut one leaf and the tree will respond with three leaves instead, the foliage will become thicker. You cut one branch and the tree will pour its sap and juices into another branch, and the other branch will become thicker and bigger. This is what happens in your life.

Somebody is against sex; he represses sex, he cuts that branch. Now the whole energy becomes anger. You will find stories in Indian scriptures, stories like the story of Durvasa – a great so-called mahatma who repressed his sex totally, and then became all anger, just red-hot anger. It is bound to happen. You cannot destroy any energy – never. It is not possible in the very nature of things. Energies can only be transformed, they can never be destroyed. If you close one outlet, the energy will start flowing from another. If you close the front door, then from the back door…and from the back door it is more dangerous, because it makes your life the life of a hypocrite, it makes your life double. You start living in a dual way: you say one thing, you do another; you show one thing, you are another. You become more and more split.

My emphasis is also exactly the same as Atisha’s. You come to me with a thousand and one problems, but my answer is always the same. If you come with anger I say be aware of it, if you come with greed I say be aware of it, if you come with lust I say be aware of it – because awareness cuts the very root. What is the root? Unawareness is the root.