That is why I have said so many things -- because the techniques are very easy, and you can do them and nothing will result. Then you will say, "What type of techniques are these? We can do them, they are so simple. SIMPLY BY LOOKING INTO THE SKY, THE BLUE SKY, BEYOND THE CLOUDS, THE SERENITY: one will become silent and serene, fulfilled."

You can look at the blue sky beyond the clouds and nothing will happen. Then you will say, "What type of technique is this? Shiva is not talking rationally, reasonably. He is saying anything, whatsoever comes to his mind. What kind of technique is this -- SIMPLY BY LOOKING INTO THE BLUE SKY BEYOND CLOUDS, THE SERENITY. One will become serene!"

But if you remember: death, meaning, learning, this technique will help you immediately to turn in.

LOOKING INTO THE BLUE SKY BEYOND CLOUDS... Just looking, not thinking. The sky is infinite; it ends nowhere. Just look into it. There is no object; that is why the sky is chosen. The sky is not an object. Linguistically it is; existentially, the sky is not an object because an object begins and ends. You can go around an object; you cannot go around the sky. You are in the sky, but you cannot go around it. So you may be the object for the sky, but the sky cannot be your object. You can look into it, but you cannot look at it, and that looking into it goes on and on... it never ends.

So look into the blue sky and go on looking. The object is infinite, there is no boundary to it. Do not think about it; do not say it is beautiful. Do not say, "How lovely!" Do not appreciate the color; do not start thinking. If you start thinking, you have stopped. Now your eyes are not moving into the blue, the infinite blue. Just move, just look -- do not think. Do not create words; they will become barriers. Not even "blue sky" should be said. Do not verbalize.

There should be just a pure, innocent look into the blue sky. It never ends. You will go on and on and on and on, and suddenly, because there is no object, just a vacuum, suddenly you will become aware of yourself. Why? Because if there is any vacuum your senses become useless. Senses are only useful if there is an object.

If you are looking at a flower, then you are looking at something -- the flower is there. The sky is not there. What do we mean by a sky? That which is not there. Sky means the space. All objects are in the sky, but the sky is not an object. It is just the vacuum, the space in which objects can exist. The sky itself is just pure emptiness. Look at this pure emptiness. That is why the sutra says: BEYOND THE CLOUDS. Because clouds are not the sky, they are objects floating in the sky. You can look at the clouds, but that will not help. Look into the blue sky -- not at the stars, not at the moon, not at the clouds, but at objectlessness, emptiness. Look into it.

What will happen? In emptiness, there is no object to be grasped by the senses. Because there is no object to be grasped, clung to, senses become futile. And if you are looking into the blue sky without thinking, without thinking, suddenly you will feel that everything has disappeared; there is nothing. In that disappearance you will become aware of yourself. Looking into this emptiness, you will become empty. Why? Because your eyes are like a mirror. Whatsoever is before them is reflected. I see you and you are sad -- then a sudden sadness enters into me. If a sad person enters into your room, you become sad. What has happened? You have looked at sadness. You are like a mirror: the sadness is reflected in you.

Someone laughs heartily -- suddenly you feel a laughter coming to you also. It has become infectious. What has happened? You are like a mirror, you are reflecting things. You look at a beautiful object -- it is reflected in you. You look at an ugly object -- it is reflected in you. Whatsoever you are seeing penetrates deep into you. It becomes part of your consciousness.

If you are looking into the emptiness, there is nothing to be reflected - or only the blue infinite sky. If it is reflected, if you feel the blue infinite sky within, you will become serene, you will find serenity. That is there. And if really you can conceive of emptiness - where sky, blue, everything disappears: just at emptiness - inside also emptiness will be reflected. And in emptiness, how can you be worried, how can you be tense?

In emptiness, how can the mind function? It stops; it disappears. In the disappearance of the mind - the mind that is tense, worried, filled with thoughts that are relevant, irrelevant - in that disappearance of the mind, THE SERENITY.

One thing more. Emptiness, if reflected in, becomes desirelessness. Desire is tension. You desire and you become worried. You look at a beautiful woman -- a sudden desire arises. You look at a beautiful house -- you want to possess it. You look at a beautiful car just passing by your side -- you want to be in it, you want to drive it. A desire has come in, and with the desire mind becomes worried: "How to get it? What to do to get it?" The mind becomes frustrated or hopeless or hopeful, but it is all dreaming. Many things can happen.

When desire is there, you are disturbed. The mind is shattered into fragments, and many plans, dreams, projections start; you become mad. Desire is the seed of madness.

But emptiness is not an object; it is just emptiness. When you look at emptiness, no desire arises; it cannot arise. You do not want to possess emptiness, you do not want to love emptiness, you do not want to make a house out of it. Emptiness? You cannot do anything with it! All movement of the mind stops, no desire arises, and with the non-arising of desire, THE SERENITY. You become silent, serene. A sudden peace explodes in you. You have become like the sky.

Another thing. Whatsoever you contemplate, you become like it, you become that, because mind can take infinite forms. Whatsoever you desire, your mind takes its form, you become it. That is why a person who is just after riches, gold, after money, his mind becomes just a treasure - nothing else. Shake him, and you will feel the rupees inside - the sound of rupees, nothing else. Whatsoever you desire, you become that. So be conscious of what you are desiring because you are becoming that.

The sky is the most empty thing. It is just near you and it costs nothing, and you do not have to go somewhere -- to the Himalayas or to Tibet -- to find the sky. They have destroyed everything, technology has destroyed everything, but the sky is still there; you can use it. Use it before they destroy it -- any day they will destroy it. Look, penetrate into it. And the look must be a non-thinking one, remember this. Then you will feel the same sky within, the same dimension within, the same space and blueness and emptiness. That is why Shiva says, SIMPLY.

SIMPLY BY LOOKING INTO THE BLUE SKY BEYOND CLOUDS, THE SERENITY.

Ps.

And THE SERENITY is the same as AWARENESS…

Rest as awareness, for short moments,

until it becomes automatic and continious.

Ds.