The witness is simply like a mirror; it reflects. Whatever comes in front of it, it reflects – without any reaction, without any attachment, without any identity. A beautiful face or an ugly one, all are just reflections, without any difference. When the beautiful face goes away, the mirror does not try to prevent it, to cling to it. And when an ugly face comes before it, it does not want to get rid of it, it does not close its eyes. It has no evaluation, no judgment; it remains simply a witness of whatsoever is the case.

A man of enlightenment has no problem as far as the self is concerned – the self was lost long before. You cannot attain to enlightenment before you have lost your self. That is a necessary step to attain to enlightenment.

Let me say it this way:

You cannot be enlightened.

When you are not, enlightenment is.

You have to give way for enlightenment to descend, for that great awakening to fill your whole sky, to fill your whole consciousness.

If you are there, then whatsoever happens is only mental gymnastics. You can manage to create an illusion of everything except enlightenment. You can see Jesus Christ, you can create the illusion; your mind has every capacity. You may just have to make the right arrangement – a three week fast and isolation, and the continuous repetition of the name of Jesus Christ – and you will start seeing Jesus Christ with you in the cave. You will start talking with Jesus Christ – and not only will you be talking, he will be answering you too! And nobody is there except you.

All the religions of the world have insisted on fasting. The reason is that when you are fasting your capacity to judge between the real and the unreal is lost after three weeks. Your mind needs the continuous nourishment of certain proteins; just a three week fast, and those proteins are finished. The mind keeps a certain emergency reserve and that emergency reserve is finished in three weeks – and that is if you are a non-vegetarian. If you are a vegetarian, then within a week all your proteins are gone, because vegetarian food is not sufficient food as far as the mind is concerned.

It is no coincidence that not a single vegetarian has received the Nobel prize! It is strange; it should be otherwise. Vegetarians think that since they are eating the purest food, they must have the purest minds, but even the three persons from India who have received the Nobel prize – all were non-vegetarians.

Being a vegetarian and fasting and isolation are all strategies to bring your mind to a position where you cannot distinguish whether what you are seeing is real or unreal. It happens to small children. At an early age, when they wake up they start crying for something they had in their dream. They ask, “Where has it gone? It was just now here with me.” It takes a little time for children to grow to understand that what they see in sleep is a dream and what they see when they are awake is not a dream.

The distinction between dream and reality needs a certain development of the mind. And what happens in this development? Those proteins which make your intellect…