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Well, you have to remember one thing—and one thing that you have to remember is, you are not your problems. Whatever the problems may be, whatever the problems may come and go, you are not your problem.

- Prem Rawat

You are a human being. You have a certain power. You have a certain strength.

Problems are like clouds. They come; they go. Sometimes they’re big; sometimes they’re small. Sometimes they’re not there. Sometimes they’re there everywhere.

But the mountain that sits on the ground does not move with the clouds–doesn’t become bigger or smaller with  the clouds. You are the mountain; clouds are your problems.

– Prem Rawat

If I have to come and create a need for peace, then I’m not doing justice to peace, because the need for peace is within you. And you have to feel and understand that need.

What does feeling good do to you? Do you know? Do you know what feeling good does to you? Have you any idea what feeling good does to you?

And I will try and go there—I’ll try to explain what feeling good does to you. And before I go on to that tangent, I just want to say that, of all the things that I can feel that are good, peace is on the top. And so, of the things that make me feel good, peace is on the top, but what happens when I feel good? What happens when I feel good? I transform. I transform. I become forgiving.

– Prem Rawat

Are we honest with ourselves? I mean, we—you know, I tell that story about the guy who’s an archer, and he goes from village to village exhibiting his, you know, archery. And as he goes, people gather and they applaud, and so on—this is one of my favorite stories. So, you know, they all applaud, and everybody’s, you know, “Yay, great guy!” And he—you know, this really, really inflates his ego.

And one day while he’s doing this exhibition, he hears a guy all the way from the back going, “Ah, it’s only a matter of practice.” So this really irks him. So he shoots another arrow, and bla-bla-bla, and everybody claps, and, “Eh, it’s only a matter of practice.”

So after this exhibition is over, he goes looking for this guy; he wants to have a few words with him. And so he finds him. And there’s this oil salesman, a poor guy sitting in the corner—and he’s got a big bamboo pole with two big pots on either end, and a few empty bottles, and he’s just sitting there....

And the guy goes, “Hey, are you the guy who, every time I shoot an arrow and I get the bullseye, you’re the one who keeps saying, ‘Eh, it’s just a matter of practice’?” And he looks up at him and he goes, “Yeah, it’s me.”

And he says, “How dare you? Don’t you know who I am? I’m this expert guy. People come from miles to watch how good I am! And here you are; you just sell oil, and you sit there and you go, ‘It’s just a matter of practice’—so, what do you mean, it’s a matter of practice?”

So the oil salesman said, “Okay, let me show you.” So he picked up one of the big pots full of oil, took an empty bottle, put it down; lifted the pot—without spilling a drop, poured the oil from the big pot through the neck of the bottle and filled the bottle—without spilling a drop. He looked at the archer and he said, “Now, you try.” And the archer says, “I can’t. I’ll spill everywhere.”

So, after I tell that story, I ask my audience, “What do you think of that story? You like it?” It’s a matter of practice. He is good at archery because he practices it; he’s really good at pouring the oil because he practices it. You...you concur?

What are you good at? And the only reason why I asked that is because you practice it. Just.this is reverse engineering—whatever you’re good at, you practice it a lot. Are you good at getting angry?

How long does it take you to get angry? You’re expert! You must practice it a lot. How about getting confused?  How long does it take you to get confused? How long does it take you to lose hope? How long does it take you to lose clarity? How long does it take you to lose your focus? So, this is what you practice?

You don’t have to answer that question. You know the answer; that is sufficient. So maybe now, you want to change your strategy and practice something positive in your life: being aware!

– Prem Rawat

There is something constant. And all the days you’re going to be alive on the face of this earth—all the days—how many are there? Even if you live to be a hundred years old, how many days is that? Thirty-six thousand, five hundred. Take 365, put two zeros at the end, right?

I know I can see disbelief in some of your faces, like, “Whoa, whoa, what, you’re missing a zero. It has got to be three hundred and sixty-five thousand. Couldn’t just be thirty-six thousand, five hundred.”

But unfortunately, or fortunately, that’s all it is—and a big chunk of it is gone. And I only say this, not to scare you, but to provide the spice of urgency of how important it is for you to know yourself, so that the rest of the days that you exist are spent existing to your fullest potential. You have no other choice; you’ve got to live every single day to its fullest—and that’s not “party.” That’s the grand party, the party in which you are happy!

You’re not happy because you are with your friend, but yet, you are happy because you know yourself. You are happy because you have the courage to understand. You are happy because you have chosen, by your own choice, the fifty percent that’s good in you. And you have chosen to tame the fifty percent that’s bad in you.

That you have chosen, you have made a choice in your life to be real. That you have made a choice in your life to find the joy of being alive, to find the joy of existence, to find the joy of understanding, to find the joy of what it really feels like to have courage to know.

– Prem Rawat

You are alive! There is nothing more interesting than being alive. There is nothing more juicy than being alive! There is nothing more profound than being alive!

Because you are alive, all the potential, all the hope, all the clarity, all the light, all the understanding is available to you. When you are dead, this is not possible.

I mean, people get into this whole thing, “Nearly dead, near death.” Problem with death is, it’s absolute. There’s no, like, almost. Kkkhk, you’re done! No response. And one thing? You don’t come back. (That’s why it’s called “death.”)

Is it going to happen? Yes. Should you be concerned? No. What should you be concerned then with? How to extract the potential of every moment that you are alive. That should…that should be your biggest worry when you wake up in the morning. “Now, geez, I got twenty-four hours here. How do I make the most of today?”

This life is a gift. This life is a gift. And the confusion is, “Who gave it to me?” What? You want to know the address? You want your money back? I mean, well, what…well, why?

No! Here it is—here it is! Accept—or reject. Things don’t change. You can feel empty for the rest of your life, or you can feel full for the rest of your life; you choose. That’s what you get to do. You get to choose.

When the sun is shining and you close your eyes, do you think the sun just goes, “Wschooo! He doesn’t want to see. Whshoop!” No, sun just keeps shining. It has nothing to do with that. It is, “What...how, which direction are you looking at?”

So, the question to me was, “Why is it so alluring?” Because I know one thing: on one side of the coin is confusion and the other side of the coin is clarity. On one side of the coin is darkness and one side of the coin is light. On one side of the coin is the question; the other side of the coin is the answer.

I know that. Then why is it we keep choosing that side...that’s the doubt, that’s the confusion?

So, I finally got my answer. (I worked it out.) Confusion is sugar-coated. Clarity isn’t. Clarity doesn’t have to sugar-coat itself. It is what it is.

Truth does not sugar-coat. Lies are sugar-coated. So now, the question becomes (if you even minor-ly agree with me on this sugar-coating business), “Why are you addicted to sugar?”

And ultimately it comes down to the same thing—it feels good! It tastes great. But that’s what the truth does too! That’s what clarity does too—without the harmful effects of the sugar.

But have you made that space in your being, acquired the taste of clarity? Acquired the taste of understanding? Acquired the taste for being alive? Acquired the taste for seeing things how they are? Acquired the taste for being fulfilled?

– Prem Rawat