It is true that you cannot renounce if you have not made any effort. So, you are in a good position: you are making effort and you are making use of your will power. But remember, all these will lead you to fake experiences. And when the time comes, don’t be a coward: renounce all these experiences of joy and peace and awareness, because they are produced by will and effort. Then is the real miracle, because your very being is eternally awake. It has never fallen asleep, but you have lost the track to reach to it.

Only in relaxation can you find your center of being. If you go on making effort and running after some goal, to achieve awareness, you will go farther and farther away from your reality. Just don’t do anything. At least for a few moments every day, simply be. The heart will be beating, the breathing will be going on – you are not doing anything, not even thinking. And in these moments, the whole sky opens up.

It is one of the greatest wonders that what we are seeking and searching for lives together is just present, eternally present within ourselves. But because of our efforts and because of our mind to achieve, we go on missing it.

Our life is a very stupid mess. And the same life can be a great splendor, but we won’t allow it. We go on doing something or other, and all our doings are disturbances. This is the greatest lesson in life to learn: that the ultimate phenomenon happens only when we are not doing anything, when we are almost absent, when we are just an open door and the sun rays come dancing in and the fresh breeze passes through us. Suddenly, the whole existence starts helping us to be our true self.

Witnessing is the quality of our true self. It is not a question of creating it, it is a discovery.

I have heard…God is making all the creatures of the earth and is giving out sex lives to each animal. First he turns to the human. “I am giving you ten years of a good sex life,” says God.

The man’s face falls. “Is that all?” he asks.

“I only have so much to go around, fella,” says God. He then turns to the monkey and says, “I’m giving you twenty years of a good sex life.”

The monkey says, “Oh, I don’t really need that much. Ten years would be more than enough for me.”

The man, standing nearby, overhears this and says excitedly, “I will take it! I will take those extra ten years.”

“All right,” says God. “You got it.” He then turns to the lion. “I’m going to give you twenty years of good sex life.”

The lion replies, “You know, God, I really think I would be happier with just ten.”

The man starts hopping up and down. “I will take them! I will take the other ten years!”

“You can have them,” says God to the man.

He turns to the donkey and says, “Now, I am going to give you twenty years of a good sex life. Is that all right with you?”