I am no longer a teacher. I spent fifty-five years in teaching; now I’ve retired. Now I
only meditate and write. However, Janaki and Janaka [Silvana and Silvano Brunelli] have
asked me to say a few words. So I will talk for four hours. Not today. Just one. Another
hour tomorrow. And two more hours on the weekend at the end of August.
I have chosen to talk about the road to liberation. What I have to say is to only
share the experiences that I have had. Not to tell you what you should and should not do.
Why am I talking to you about liberation? You are people who are householders, have
families, are in business, earning a living. Why should I talk to you about liberation?
Before we are finished this weekend, I think you will understand why.
This is part one – dharmic success in life. And today I want to talk to you about why
is dharmic success necessary to liberation. I could talk to you about how to be successful
so you can earn – make lots of money, have a very happy family, have a lot of enjoyment
in life. But if this is not related to liberation, you will just go in a circle. Yes, you will have
some pleasure, and a family, and some money, but if it is not related to liberation, you will
just go over, and over, and over the same thing again, and say, “What was that all about?”
Now I’m fifty years old, my family is grown, I have enough money to live – what is the
meaning of it? What is it for? Why are we alive? To have meaning to ordinary life, no
matter how successful, that living must be aimed toward liberation eventually. So, I’m
going to talk to you first about what liberation is, and then later how to move in that
direction as you become very rich and enjoy life. What more could you want? Happiness,
health, enjoyment, family, and liberation later. But you have to listen closely to a long,
boring talk about liberation first.
Liberation from what? I’m not a slave. I’m not a prisoner. Oh, yes you are. You are
a prisoner. A prisoner in what? A prisoner in life. Here we are living … says here I am –
this is me. I was born, I grew up, now I’m living and someday I’ll die, but I don’t think about
that. So my children will live, and my grandchildren, and on and on and on, and this is life.
But life is a prison. I will have to tell you a story, so that you can see that it is true that life
is a prison.