子贡说，“我想休息。”受够了理论，受够了学习。我学了所有能学的，我成了一个大知识篓子，你的大弟子，但那并不能使我满足，让我休息一下。
你看到了吗？你知道的理论经典越多，基嘟教、伊斯兰、印度教、弗教，薄伽梵歌、古兰经、圣经、吠陀，就会感觉你的头脑越来越走向疯狂，你被推向所有的方向。一种理论说一些事，另一种理论又说别的，它们互相矛盾，它们总是互相掐着彼此的脖子。精彩的论辩，却没有任何结果。
千百年来，哲学没有得出过一个结论。哲学家们讨论了五千年，没有得出任何结论——任何一个让他们所有人都赞同的结论。从未达成一致，过去没有，以后也不会有。两个哲学家无法一致，因为要达成一致只有当你知道实相才有可能——那么就会形成一致结论。
如果你知道实相，我也知道实相，就会有一致，没有任何问题。你知道同样的实相，我知道同样的实相——怎么会有争论？但如果我有我的理论，你有你的理论，那么争论就有可能，达成一致是不可能的。一致只能透过经验发生，经验是决定性的。争论无法形成结论，一个论点引出另一个论点，依此类推。当两个人争论时，两者都不对，两者可能都是错误的，但不可能都是正确的。
有个故事：
Mulla Nasruddin和他的妻子有一天在吵架——小两口拌嘴——一个自然的结果就是Mulla Nasruddin开始觉得不对劲，“我到底为什么和你吵？”
他肚子饿了，他老婆根本没有做饭的意思。于是他过去道歉，“对不起，我承认是我错了。”
他老婆说，“这不行，你得承认是我对了。只承认你错了这有啥两样，你必须承认对的是我。得说肯定句！因为你可能错了，但你心里肯定以为我也错了，那有啥用。”
两者都是错的。记住，真理是一，非真理你要多少有多少。棕教精神是一——无法是二，因为真理是一。但哲学家要多少有多少，每个人都有自己的哲学。那是你关于真理的幻想，你可以自创一套理论。
你无法捏造实相，那会制造不安。当你没有确定的结论，就像悬在地狱的边缘。吊在中间，前不着村后不着店，那就是哲学对人做的事。他开始感觉他知道，而内心深处他一直觉得他不知道，这是一种非常紧绷的状态。你知道你不知道，但你却感觉你知道，你被撕裂了，你变成一个精神分裂症患者。在这种头脑不确定的状态下，人总是感觉不完整，不完整是很伤人的。一个人想知道完整的真理，全部的真理。
好巧不巧，一家旅馆来了位推销员。经理说，“很难为您安排一个房间，倒是有一个空着，但不能给您。”
推销员说，“什么原因？空着为啥不能给我？”
经理说，“有个大领导就住在那个房间的楼下，空房间在二楼，楼下就是那个领导下榻的房间。他会为一些小事抓狂，如果你在房间走动或制造任何声音，他都会搞出很多麻烦，我不想有任何麻烦。请您去别的旅馆看看吧。”
“但是，”推销员说，“我都找遍了，所有旅馆都满员。麻烦您，慈悲一下我，我向你保证，不在房间里走动。我一整天都在外面跑，就是晚上回来睡个觉。明天一大早就得出去，要去另一个镇上，就把这个房间给我吧。”就这样他住了进去。
半夜，这个推销员回来了，很累，坐在床上，脱下一只鞋扔到地上。突然想起可能会吵到那个大领导，于是他脱下第二只鞋非常轻地一点声音都没有放到地上就去睡了。
一个小时后，这个领导来敲他的门。他打开门看到一个抓狂的人，气鼓鼓地，两眼通红，他不明白咋回事。“有什么事吗？——我睡着了！”他说，“先生，我做错什么了吗？是不是在梦里……？弄出了什么声音或说了什么？对不起，我不是故意的。”
那位领导说，“没别的事，就是另一只鞋呢？一个小时前你把我弄醒，我听到声音——第一只鞋落到地板上，我说，‘这个人回来了！’之后就一直等第二只！但等啊等，等的我都快疯了，也没法睡，另一只鞋呢？”
那就是头脑没有确定结论的状态：有些东西就像剑一样一直悬在那里。你可以理解那个领导的难处，他一定是努力想睡却一直在脑补另一只鞋悬在空中的画面：“怎么回事？”
只有在形成确定的结论时头脑才能止息，否则永远不会。哲学从未导出任何结论，只有实相是结论性的，只有经验、只有存在是结论性的。
子贡学累了，对孔子说，“我想休息。”
“活着就没有休息，”孔子说。
现在来看这个观点——活着就没有休息——它建基于活着就得挣扎、活着就得行动、活着就得争斗、生活是一场关于生存的战斗这样一种哲学——你怎么能休息？这种哲学已经成为西方的主流思想，达尔文适者生存的哲学和尼采关于意志力的哲学，西方对孔子有着深刻的理解。他是一个西方人，虽然生在东方，但本质上是个西方人。
他对待生命的态度是作为，这是阳性态度，男性态度——斗争、冲突、挣扎、征服、证明你的意志。你在这里是为了证明你的意志，你必须告诉全世界，你是个人物。你必须在历史上留下浓墨重彩的一笔，否则你的生命就没有意义。你必须竞争，你必须挣扎——只有这样才能在历史上留下你的印迹。如果你保持沉默，休息，怎么能留下自己的痕迹？
老子没有在历史上留下任何痕迹——帖木儿在历史上留下了痕迹。庄子在历史上没有留下任何痕迹——Nadir Shah、亚历山大、拿破仑、希特勒、斯大林，他们在历史上留下了痕迹。
道的态度是合作，而不是冲突。道的态度不是反对自然，而是遵循自然。允许，允许自然有自己的方式，与之合作，与之同行。道的态度是非常放松的。
记住，这不是不作为。它既不是作为，也不是不作为，它超越作为。道家的方式是无为：不为之为。那就是道的目标：作为，但不是作为者。行动，让道透过你来行动——只是合作。那么，透过道，你就可以在生命中放松，休息。
但在孔子眼皮底下你怎么休息？就他的哲学而言他是对的，“活着就没有休息。”
你必须奋力挣扎，你必须证明你的勇气，你必须证明你的意志。生命就在这里，所以你有机会去证明自己。它是一场竞争，你死我活的竞争，每个人都必须扼住别人的喉咙，你一放松就死定了。努力去战斗！保持警惕，不要想着休息。休息这个词在儒家头脑里是逃避主义者。不要静心，那是逃避。不要去喜马拉雅山，不要安静地坐着——那是逃避。做点什么！作为就是生命，不作为就是死亡：这就是他们的逻辑。很自然，有一天你会死，那就可以休息，所以有什么好担心的？他们分的很清楚，这对逻辑头脑很有吸引力。
他说，“活着就没有休息。”
“那我永远都不能休息吗？”弟子问。很自然，如果活着就不能休息，那什么时候能？我什么时候才能歇着？永远都不能吗？这个噩梦要一直永远继续下去吗？没有尽头吗？
孔子说，“你会的，往前看，旷野里那个高大圆顶的土堆，那就是休息的地方。”
“你会的。”注意这句话。这是人类曾发明出来的最大的骗局：“你会的……”不是现在，未来的某处……不是这里，别的什么地方。所有所谓的棕教都使用这种欺骗手段，承诺。他们说，“你会找到所有你想要的，但不是现在……明天。”
而明天永远不会到来——说到底它也不会来。未来从未到来，因为每当它到来，它都是现在。它永远是现在，现在，现在。无论你在哪，它都是现在和这里。
这个承诺是，“你会的。”非常狡猾，那就是所有棕教都在做的。“在天堂里你会找到平静、休息、快乐。在解脱里，在涅槃里……远方某处有和平乐土。”有一天你会抵达，但不是现在。如果你想要去那里，那就牺牲今天的快乐。“必须要有代价，”他们说，“而代价就是：为了将来牺牲现在，为了想象的牺牲真实的，为了死亡牺牲生命。”
他们说服了人们，几乎所有人都牺牲了自己的生命。没有人从天堂回来告诉你它是否发生了，没有人死后回来说，“是的，孔子是对的。”骗局能继续是因为它无法被反证。非常狡猾——反证是不可能的。你无法拆穿它，既不能证实，也不能反证。
“你会的。”只是听听这句话：“你会的。”这就是你全部的制约。童年时，父母说，“不是现在，等你长大点你会的。”当你长大一些，他们又说，“不是现在。等你老了，退休了，银行账号有节余了。但一切都结束了，休息和放松的时间快到了——然后。”当你老了，他们会说，“死后的。”一直拖延。未来就像吊在你眼前的胡萝卜，你离的越近，它就退的越远。与此同时，你一直在错过所有的可能。
一个未来导向的哲学是毒药。一个未来导向的哲学就像鸦片：它麻醉你，不让你过现在当下的生命，而那是你唯一的生命。
Tzu Kung said, “I want to find rest.”Enough of the theories, and enough of the studies.I have studied all that can be studied.I have become a great learned man, your greatest disciple, but that is not satisfying.Help me to find rest.
Have you watched it? The more you know of words, scriptures, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Bhagavad Gita, Koran, Bible, Vedas, the more you will feel your mind is getting more and more mad; you are being pulled in all directions. One theory says something, another theory says something else; they contradict each other, they are always at each other’s throats. Great argument and no conclusion.
Down the centuries, philosophy has not come to a single conclusion. For five thousand years philosophers have been discussing, but there has never been any conclusion–any conclusion on which they could all agree. There has never been any agreement.It has not happened and it is not going to happen. Two philosophers cannot agree,because agreement is possible only when you know the reality–then there is agreement. If you know the reality and I know the reality,there is agreement because then there is no problem. You know the same reality, I know the same reality–how can there be any argument? But argument is possible if I have my theory and you have your theory; then there is no possibility of agreement. Agreement happens only through experience. Experience is conclusive. Argumentation is nonconclusive. One argument leads to another and so on and so forth. When two persons are arguing, both cannot be right. Both can be wrong, but both cannot be right.
It happened:
Mulla Nasruddin and his wife were arguing one day–the husband-and-wife argument–and it came to the natural conclusion that by and by Mulla started feeling,“Why did I start at all?”
He was feeling hungry and the wife was not even thinking of cooking the food. So he went to the wife and said, “Sorry, I confess I was wrong.”
The wife said,“That won’t do. You will have to confess that I was right. Just your being in the wrong does not make much difference, you will have to confess that I was right. Give a positive statement! Because you may be wrong and still you may think inside yourself that I am also wrong, so that is not of much use.”
Both persons can be wrong. Remember, truth is one; untruths can be as many as you want. Religiousness is one–cannot be two because truth is one. But philosophies can be as many as you want.Everybody can have his own philosophy. It is your dream about reality; you can manufacture a theory on your own.
You cannot manufacture reality. It creates restlessness.And when you are nonconclusive, you are hanging in a limbo.And that hanging in the middle, neither here nor there, is what philosophy creates in a man. He starts feeling that he knows,and he also goes on feeling deep down that he doesn’t know. Now this is a very tense state.You know that you don’t know and jet you feel that you know. You feel that you know and yet you know that you don’t know. Now you are getting split, you are becoming schizophrenic. And in this state of nonconclusive mind one always feels incomplete, and incompletion hurts. One wants to know the complete truth, the whole truth.
It happened in a hotel that a salesman came.The manager said,“It will be difficult for me to find a room for you, though there is a room vacant that I cannot give you.”
The salesman said,“But what is the reason? Why can’t you give it if the room is empty?”
The hotel manager said,“A great politician is staying just beneath that room. A room is vacant on the second floor, but on the ground floor beneath the room, a great political leader is staying. And he gets mad at small things. If you walk in your room or if you make some noise, then he will create much fuss and I don’t want any trouble. Please go to another hotel.”
“But,”the salesman said,“I have looked all around. All the hotels are booked. So please, have mercy on me, and I promise you that I will not even move in the room. The whole day I will be working in the town and at night I will simply come and go to sleep. By the morning I will be gone, gone to another town, but give me the room.”So the room was given.
In the middle of the night, the salesman came back, tired, sat on his bed, took off one of his shoes and dropped it on the floor. Then he suddenly remembered that the great political leader might get disturbed, so he took off the second shoe very silently and without making any sound he put it on the floor and went to sleep.
After one hour, the politician came and knocked on his door.He opened the door and saw the man mad,red with anger, and he could not understand. “What could I have done?–because I have been asleep for one hour!” And he said,“Sir, have I done anything wrong? Maybe in my dream…? Or maybe I have made some sound or said something? But I am sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
The politician said, “That is not the thing. What happened to the other shoe? For one hour you have been keeping me awake. I heard the noise–the first shoe fell on the floor and I said, ‘So this man has come!’ And then I was waiting for the second! And then, by and by, I became almost insane.I couldn’t sleep. What happened to the second shoe?”
That happens to a mind that remains in an inconclusive state:something goes on hanging like a sword. You can understand the difficulty of the politician.He must have tried to go to sleep but he must have been visualizing the second shoe hanging in the air:“What happened?”
Mind is at rest only when there is conclusion, otherwise never. And philosophy never leads to any conclusion. Only reality is conclusive; only experience, only existence, is conclusive.
Tzu Kung grew weary of study and told Confucius,”I want to find rest.”
“There is no rest for the living,”said Confucius.
Now this standpoint–that there is no rest for the living–is based on a certain philosophy that life is struggle, that life is action, that life is conflict, that life is a war to survive–how can you rest? The same philosophy has become predominant in the West. Darwin, the philosophy of the survival of the fittest and Nietzsche,the will to power.Confucius is deeply understood in the West; he is a Western man. He was born in the East, but he is not Eastern at all. His attitude toward life is that of activity. It is a yang attitude, a male attitude–fight, conflict, struggle, conquer, prove your will. You are here to prove your will; you have to show the world that you are somebody. You have to leave a mark on history; otherwise your life is meaningless. You have to compete, you have to struggle–only then can you leave your mark on history. If you remain silent and restful, how are you going to leave your mark?
Lao Tzu has not left any mark on history–Tamerlane has left his mark on history. Chuang Tzu has not left his mark on history–Nadir Shah, Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler,Stalin, Mao, they have left their marks on history.
The attitude of Tao is of cooperation, not conflict. The attitude of Tao is not to be against nature but to be with it, to allow nature,to let it have its way, to cooperate with it, to go with it. The attitude of Tao is of great relaxation.
Remember,it is not of inactivity. It is neither of activity nor of inactivity; it is transcendental. The Taoist term is wu wei: it means action through inaction. That is the goal of Tao: Do, but don’t be the doer. Act, but let Tao act through you–simply be cooperative. Then, through Tao, you can be restful in life.
But how you can be restful with Confucius? He’s right; he says that as far as his philosophy is concerned,”There is no rest for the living.”
You have to struggle hard, you have to prove your mettle, you have to prove your will. Life is here so that you can take the opportunity and prove yourself. It is a competition, cutthroat competition; everybody is at each other’s throat, and if you relax, you are gone. Fight hard! In every way remain alert and don’t think of rest. The word rest to the Confucian mind is escapist. Don’t ask for meditation; that is escapism. Don’t go to the Himalayas, and don’t sit silently–that is escapism. Do something! Life is for doing and death is for nondoing: that is their logic. Naturally, one day you will be dead and then you will be at rest, so why worry about it? Their division is clear-cut, and it appeals to logical minds.
He said,“There is no rest for the living.”
“Then shall I never find it?” asked the disciple. Naturally, if there is no rest for the living, then when? When am I going to be at rest?Am I not going to find it ever? Is this nightmare to continue forever and ever? And is there no end to it?
Confucius said, “You shall look forward to the lofty and domed mound of your tomb and know where you shall find rest.”
“You shall.”Mind these words. This is the greatest deception ever invented by man: “You shall”…not now, somewhere in the future…not here, somewhere else. All the so-called religions have used this deceptive device. They promise. They say,“You will find everything that you want, but not now…tomorrow.”
And the tomorrow never comes–it cannot come by its very nature. The future never comes because whenever it comes, it is the present. It is always now, and now, and now. Wherever you will be, it will be now and here.
And the promise is,“You shall.”The promise is very cunning. That’s what all the religions have done.“In heaven you will find peace, rest, happiness. In moksha, in nirvana…somewhere far away exists the land of peace and happiness.” You will reach one day, but not now. And if you want to reach there, sacrifice your present-day happiness for it.”The price has to be paid,” they say. “And the price is this: Sacrifice your present for the future. Sacrifice the real for the imaginary. Sacrifice life for after death.”
And they have convinced humanity and almost all have sacrificed their lives. Nobody comes back from heaven to relate whether it happens. Nobody comes after death to say, “Yes, Confucius is right.” So the deception remains because it cannot be contradicted. It is very clever–it is impossible to contradict it. You cannot disprove it, though you cannot, prove it; but you cannot disprove it either.
“You shall.” Just listen to these words:“You shall.”This is your whole conditioning. In childhood the parents say, “Not now. When you are older you shall.”When you are older, they start saying, “Not now. When you are old, retired, with a good bank balance; all is done and the time to rest and to relax has come–then.” And when you are old, they say, “After death.” They go on postponing. The carrot of the future goes on dangling in front of you and the closer you come to it, the more it goes on receding. And, meanwhile, you go on missing all that was possible.
A future-oriented philosophy is poisonous. A future-oriented philosophy is like opium: it drugs you and it does not allow you to live your life right now, here now. And that is the only life.
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