Educating the Heart Event
Prem spoke to students at Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Prem Rawat:
Did you ever ask the question, “What is the heart?” Did you? Is it this thing that pumps the blood, “Thum-thum, phum-phum, phum-phum?” Is that the heart? Is that where peace lives?
Nothing lives there except blood—and valves, “tou-ku-tou-ku, tou-ku-tou-ku, tou-ku-tou-ka....” Sometimes it stops; they give it, you know—the paramedics come and give it an electric shock, “Dzunk,” and it starts up again. Sometimes it stops; they put stents into the arteries. Is that the heart?
No. Let me tell you what a heart is. The good in you is the heart. The courageous in you is the heart. The place where the clarity dwells is the heart. The place which is the spring of understanding is the heart. The place where the thirst to feel the Divine comes from is the heart. That is the heart. And its address is you. Is you!
Every human being is fifty percent good, fifty percent bad—exactly. Not forty-nine/fifty-one. Exactly fifty percent good, fifty percent bad. Always.
If you are in touch with your good, the good is what will shine. If you are in touch with your bad, then bad is what will shine. There are no favors. If I don’t use this arm, and only use this arm every day, what will happen? This arm will become weak; this arm will become strong.
So, I ask you again, which arm in you is strong, and which arm in you is weak? Which fifty percent is strong and which fifty percent is weak?
Let that fifty percent that is darkness.... You have to remember one thing—darkness is never away from light. When you light a lamp, right underneath it—you know where the wick comes out and it burns and gives the light? Right underneath it is darkness.
It’s never far. It’s never far. But what’s going to effect, has to be the light, because the light removes the darkness. You, if you allow in your life, welcome in your life the good, the conscious, the reality—what is the reality? Is reality...?
In one sense, it’s very simple. One day you were born—and you had no control over that day—you had no control over that day. You did not decide, “Uhm, I would like to be born on a certain time, certain date....”
No. And one day you have to go. Young people don’t like to hear that. “Aah-aaaah, don’t talk about going.” One day you have to go—and you have no control over that day either.
You have no control over the day you came and you have no control over the day you’re going to go—but you have control over every single day in the middle of the day you’re going to come and go. That’s all.
Do you know that? Do you know that? Do you understand that? That every...? And how many days is that, by the way?
Even if you live to be a hundred years old, you know how many days that is? Thirty-six thousand five hundred, that’s all. Not three hundred and sixty-five thousand, nah-nah-nah-nah, nah. Just thirty-six thousand five hundred. A hundred years, two zeroes? Just add it to 365; what do you get? Thirty-six thousand five hundred—not three hundred and sixty-five thousand.
You wish it was three hundred and sixty-five thousand. And you have been living your life like you’re going to live forever—but you’re not. Thirty-six thousand five hundred is not that many days. But you have control over every single one of those days.
Are you dependent for your happiness on you—or somebody else? It’s a good question. Because most of us work on our friends; we would like to have certain kinds of friends for our happiness. We would like to go to party for something like that. That we, our happiness depends on that. Our happiness depends on success.
But it doesn’t. Your happiness depends on you. And unless you understand that your happiness depends on you, not on other people, you will never truly be happy.
We can give up everything—but what really matters is what we have given up, here. If we have given up the anger, then that matters. If we have given up ignorance, then that matters. If we have given up anger, then that matters. But if we have not given up those things, then we haven’t given up anything. If we haven’t given up ignorance, then we haven’t surrendered anything.
Today there is a possibility. When you woke up this morning—when you woke up this morning, what was the first thought that came to your head?
How many of you woke up to an alarm clock this morning: “Drrrrdrdrdrrring, drrrring-aring-aring-aring-aring-aring-aring”? How many? Quite a few. So, I know exactly what your first thought was. “Not already!?”
I know how that works. If you wake up before your alarm clock, you turn it off. [Audience: Yeah, we do that.] You don’t want to hear that stupid sound. This is how you start your day? And you want peace? And you want life to grab you and embrace you? And you want to be conscious? You want to be aware? You want to celebrate your existence?
And you want “Five more minutes, ahaaaarrrr’huuuhhhh....” [Audience: Yeah.]
What if the sun did that: “Oh, give me five more minutes”? The world would be in chaos. Nature works methodically—in harmony.
I went; I was—very, very recently I was in Japan. And when I was in Japan, I went to this most beautiful garden, very beautiful garden. And I was with a professor, and he was also in charge of that garden.
So he said, “It’s very peaceful here.” And I started thinking about that. And I listened—and it wasn’t quiet. There were crickets; there was a waterfall; there was rustling of the wind. There were a lot of noises! There were birds chirping. There were crickets going at it; there was a waterfall; there were the trees in the winds....
And I realized, it wasn’t that it was quiet—but it was harmonious. The sound of the crickets chirping went with the sound that the birds were singing—and the sound of the birds went with the water falling, and the sound of the water falling went beautifully with the leaves rustling in the wind. It was harmonious.
So, have you been to a concert, or have you seen on television, people playing music? Somebody playing drums, somebody playing flute, somebody playing guitar, somebody playing cymbals, somebody playing, you know, piano?
You know that all that could sound really absurd—you know that, right? If the drummer was playing to some other song; the guitar was playing some other song; the piano was playing some other song, how would it sound? Would it sound good? No. The same instruments playing to the same song—sounds harmonious.
How harmonious is your life? How harmonious is your life? Do you feel that your life is a symphony—or do you feel like your life is, every day, somebody is playing another song on the piano; somebody is playing another song on the flute; somebody is doing something; somebody’s doing something, and there you are going, “Oh my God, I feel so tired....”
How many of you ultimately end up saying, “Oh, God help me; please, help me; help me”?
Consider one thing: when you were born, what allowed you to come home? If you were born in a hospital, what allowed you to come home? If you were born at home, what allowed you to stay home? Do you know? Do you know? You don’t know? I’ll tell you. That’s why I’m here; that’s why I’m asking the questions. This is not a quiz.
“Your breathing, your breath.” When you were born, everybody in that room was only paying attention to one thing. Not what your lines were on your hands, not if you were a boy or a girl. They were paying attention to only one thing: “Are you breathing or not?”
And as soon as they found out you were breathing, “H’eaah, aaaah. Okay—is it a boy; is it a girl?” And because you were breathing, you could come home. Because you were breathing, you could stay home. If you were not breathing, you’re not going to come home. And if you are not breathing and you are home, you’re not going to stay home—you’re going to go away.
That’s how powerful this breath coming into you is. So far this breath is coming into you, you are somebody’s daughter; you are somebody’s mother; you are somebody’s aunt; you are somebody’s uncle; you are somebody’s friend. And if this breath is not coming into you, you are nobody. Nobody wants you.
Do you understand the power of this breath? Do you understand the power of this breath? Would you say that the coming and the going of this breath is a blessing? What do you think? Is it a blessing? A blessing?
Do you recognize the blessing? Do you? Right now. Right now! Just now! Just now, the breath came. And there comes another one. And there comes another one! And don’t you find it remarkable that the first breath you ever take begins with you taking the breath in? And the last breath you will ever take will be the breath going out.
This blessing—in your bad times it comes; in your good times, it comes. And if you have, ever you have a doubt—ever, whether you are blessed or not, there is your proof. There is your proof!
And that’s what you need to be thankful for: “I am alive. I have a choice. Because I am alive I have a choice! And the choice I have is either I can live in ignorance or I can live with knowledge.” Make the choice. Make the choice. And every day, you have to make the choice.
