Most humans are not going to make it. Not because they don't have potential, but because they are not interested in it. They live in lies, they like falsehoods, they love plastic flowers, they don't have the guts to let the light fall on their blind spots. They are neither thirsty nor wounded enough. All they have are ulterior goals; they are sneakily seeking something else under the disguise of enlightenment, but in truth they are pursuing their future goals: money, possessions, security. Guess what? They may not even get to their future goals. You know why? Because their mind keeps on expanding the horizon..... Have you seen it operating in you?

During my conversation with a couple of friends, I quoted, "Most humans are stupid," and they got offended. I would say if you are a true seeker, and seeking it with all your willingness, then get yourself offended more often. This way, what is false in you reveals itself to you. You increase the chances for the truth to shine forth. While I was penetrating through the layers of their ego, suddenly the door was shut. I could not go any further anymore, because they were offended. Their egos became the blockage! I said many other things, like gurus are fake. I don't mean to say all gurus are fake, but most of them are. You will see for yourself when you arrive. When I say gurus are false, your religious books are not the Truth, but rather they only point to the Truth. My words are true and false at the same time. Investigate for yourself, as Buddha did! Even if the Guru is real, what about the image you are holding in your mind about him? Him being great? Him being superior? Him being an avatar? Him being the Holy Spirit or what not? You have to free yourself from the image of your Guru. Does it matter if the image is good or bad?

Truth is not free; there is a price to pay. You will find this price is nothing compared to what you discover in turn. The price is to sacrifice your pseudo self. Your whole borrowed knowledge is at the line, including the idea of "you." The existence of those old religious books tells me that there was a time when someone had touched the depth of the heart, and they tried to put it in words. But it is something you discover when you drop your questions and wrong ideas that you have accepted about enlightenment and what it can do for you. Turn the enquiry inwards! The message of the book informs you of the same: you are that which you are searching for. Sometimes, I suggest listening to U. G. Krishnamurti if you are stuck at the level of meditation or gurus. Meditation has done its job by giving you glimpses of peace, but it cannot tell what enlightenment is! No method, technique, meditation, or hack will ever be able to put you there, only temporarily, because the mental knots are still unresolved. Meditation is just a crutch (a stick) that is designed to help you see what gurus are pointing to. But unfortunately, you are stuck with crutches. You need to come to the understanding that you are being dependent on the Guru or books. Even if you think you are making progress, it is a delusion created by the mind by comparing yourself with your past. It does not mean you are fully free. It just tells me that you are living in hope. Hope is the future. When you arrive, seeking will stop.

You have to come to the understanding that going to a doctor implies that you are sick! Once you are fine and back to perfect health, you don't hang around doctors. The same is true for gurus. When I understood this, I could not follow Lisa Cairns anymore. But it does not mean I stopped seeking. I was still seeking, but this time independently.

Let me explain with an example: when a child is born, he holds the finger of his father while his legs are weak. Holding the finger of the parents could help him walk a bit earlier. But it is false to assume that he may not discover walking by himself in the future if parents are not around. It is built into the system. If it was not built into the system, you were not given legs. It is just that his legs do not have enough strength. That is the purpose of a Guru or books. The seed of enlightenment is within you; you don't need a Guru at every step. Even if you think you need a Guru, it has to be your own awareness, which is already there. You have not earned it by any hard work. It is just that it has not claimed its power back from the mind, or it is sleeping, so to speak. It is convoluted with the dishonest mind. It is not tired of searching outside; it is just that it is not in investigating mode. It is just accepting ideas from external agencies. It is not investigating those ideas before accepting them.

There are many gurus in the marketplace: those who will comfort you, those who will entertain you, those who won't say anything contrary that will not fit your system, that will go against your mind or ego, or that will offend you. Fake gurus are very easy to identify; it is just that you don't have enough light to do so...... If you are really thirsty, only water will quench the thirst, not meditation. If you want to know yourself, you have to pay the price. Not the price of following them, but of burning your own ideas, your own false thoughts....... your own pseudo-I.

Let me give some examples of false ideas: I heard a friend saying, "Westerners cannot be enlightened. It is the privilege of Hindus or Indians." Some assert with pride that Hindu mythology is rich. These are true and false at the same time. These are disbeliefs. The truth is that "suffering drives you home," not being Hindu or Westerner. If you have seen the world, if you are tired of visiting countries, where do you go to take rest? Home! How difficult is it to arrive at that with logical thinking? These are the ideas that politicians inject in you, that you are special by being Hindu or Muslim. These are the ideas that are limiting you.

The prerequisite to discover the Truth is to be ordinary. Are you ready for that? If you think you don’t think you are special, then let me ask you this: do you celebrate your birthday? Do you expect people to wish you a happy birthday? Do you record the dates of something special that happened in your past?

By the way! Should I explain to you how this idea of importance or speciality has emerged? To me, it is the mathematics of probabilities. In spiritual circles, you might have heard that human birth is rare, you should not waste this opportunity, and so on. Roughly speaking, it is the number of sperms that could have come to life per ejaculation, but you were born against them (1/1 billion)! That is how rare your birth is. So, it is for every human and every animal and every bird and every plant. Why make it personal by saying that Muslims are special or Hindus are special? Approach the Truth! The truth is that everyone around is the same light, the same awareness. Realize this not by repeating my words, but by arriving at this yourself. So when I say humans are stupid, it is true when I view their actions, but it is not true when I perceive their heart.

Let me give another example: generally, compassion arises as a side effect of enlightenment. You view humans and other creatures with compassion. But that does not mean that by becoming enlightened you will become immune to the negative words of your family members or friends who are unconscious. Those words don't go deeper in you; you don't take those words and repeat them in your head over and over again. You don't play the victim identity. But these ideas are either injected into you by someone or generated by your own mind, because the mind is clever at twisting and distorting ideas. Once you know some kind of food makes you sick, you don't repeat that. Neither do you keep eating some food forever just because you like it! Isn't it? But seriously, is this the motivation you have to find the Truth? To tolerate others? You can do that anyway by choosing not to live next to them; you don't need enlightenment for that. You are stuck with them because you are trying to obey the norms of society. You have a self-image of being a good person. This tells me that you are bound. Truth seekers are rebellious. They cannot be bound by the norms of society. Why do you want to fix yourself to live next to unconscious people? Why are you thinking about them when they are not even around? Do you think enlightenment will give you some magical powers to handle such people? No, it will not. You will simply not think about them. You will choose peace over conflict. This is what I call ulterior motives. Sometimes there are motives to make money or become famous after enlightenment. But if you are not honest enough to admit these things, then there is no scope that you are going to make it!

Let me give you another idea that I once accepted; it came from Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now. Eckhart asked why the majority of scientists are not creative. He answered: not because they don't know how to think, but because they don't know how to stop thinking. And it is a fact. But after reading this, my mind made a goal to become enlightened and then pursue research so that I could be creative. I was not aware of this for several years! My mind had twisted Eckhart's statement. Enlightenment does not give any special powers. The rules to do science are the same. I have to do what I used to do before, face challenges more often, learn more, read more, try more, and fail often to find something new. It is just that you can take rest at any moment you want, out of which sometimes new ideas emerge. You are no longer a compulsive thinker. Does it make me any good at science? No, in terms of scientific discoveries. Probably yes, in terms of focus. Self-generated negativity is not there. Because I do not have any expectation from this work, I am not doing it to secure a job in the future. I live spontaneously. I just do it. Period!

When a professor is teaching in a class, how long does it take you to identify if he is resonating with you? I have met several professors of physics in my life. Just having some conversation with them will tell you whether they understand the subject or not, or whether they are above your level of understanding of physics or not. Of course, they may have big egos, but that is a different matter....... Everyone around you is sick with this dysfunction. Even your near and dear ones are not free from it. This is why I call them stupid. They never ask fundamental questions; they keep on running forever even if they have crossed the finish line. Even the richest people have the same dysfunction, asking for more, never enough. They are always seeking a horizon to arrive at, until death arrives. Period!

It might seem to you that I am making contradictory statements until now.

Let me put it straight: you are the Truth! "What is" is the Truth. Everything else is your imagination. But to realize who you are, you must drop what is limiting you in this moment. All the wrong ideas must cease and leave your system. You must figure out why your mind is seeking. What are you seeking? Will the mind stop if I get those toys? Or is it going to expand the horizon?

You must ask yourself: who is standing in between you (the unrealized one) and you (the realized one)? I would say your own ego. Your "I know" attitude. Your self-conflicting attitude. Your ideas about what enlightenment is, your experiences of meditation, and so on.... These are the questions which every individual has to ask himself and discover for himself or herself. These ideas are unique to every individual. When a self-realized man sees them operating in you and points them out to you, hear him out. At least, be open. Not open to change yourself, not to get yourself manipulated. He is not trying to fix your ego; it is an impossible goal. Self-help books try that all the time, and they are doomed to fail. I am just trying to explain how to question your own thoughts, not examine your thoughts. Examination is the work of a psychologist; questioning is the attitude of a seeker, to know whether thoughts are true. So that you can come out of the thinking process. If you cannot conclude whether something is true or false, leave it at "I don't know." Gradually, you will run out of questions. It is like using thinking to destroy thinking! Isn't it a contradiction? Remember, the mind is a sea; it has countless questions and is never-ending. But if peace and clarity are emerging in your life, you are going in the right direction. If you walk towards the sun, light must increase on your way. If you walk opposite to the sun, light diminishes, as Osho puts it. There will come a day when you question the "I-thought" and witness your pseudo self contingent on this "I-thought." Then things start to shift in reality. Now you approach knowing who you are in reality. But figure it out on a piece of paper or on a computer, not in your mind. The latter is a slower process. Someone who never questions his thoughts and actions is actually stupid. You know why? Otherwise, he believes them until he dies in misery. In fact, most humans never even acknowledge that they are responsible for their misery. Remember, misery has nothing to do with your money. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor; your life stays miserable until you discover who you are. You will find such people everywhere. They need instructions and orders from outside. Politicians, media, and industrialists control them.

Osho expressed the same in different words: he said there is no bigger enemy of you than you.

Your wrong ideas are in between you (unrealized) and you (realized).

I would say if you are searching for the truth for the sake of truth alone, sooner or later you are going to reach there. But if you are searching for truth with ulterior motives, you are not going to make it. If you are thirsty, you knock on all the doors and explore every possibility.