Naturally, it never allowed itself to become a church. You ask, “Where does educating the subconsciousness conflict or harmonize with Tao, as it implies discipline with self-effort from an external expression?” Tao never allowed itself to become even an organic religion. Now religion is very old and some day, somewhere, the religion dies but the church continues. Now the circumference tries to exist without the center – it becomes a church, a creed, a theology. It is now no longer organic because the center has disappeared. Then, the third stage: when the master is gone the religion becomes an organized religion. It becomes knowledge, it becomes discipline, dogma, but still a little light comes through all these screens. The farther away the circumference goes from the center, the further away it goes from truth, innocence. The bigger it is, the less true it will be. In the first stage there was only the center now there is a circumference, and the circumference will go on becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. The master is there, the disciples have come, there is an organic unity but… This is the second stage – still alive I call this stage the organic stage of religion. The greedy disciple immediately creates a discipline. The real disciple is one who does not interpret, who does not translate, who listens passively, who is not asking “how,” who is not in a hurry to get some result, who is not goal-oriented, who is not greedy. If you interpret at all, you will misinterpret. They start interpreting, and of course they interpret according to their minds – there is no other way. When disciples have gathered around a master, they start translating what he is saying, what he means. The words disciple and discipline come from the same root. Let me say it in this way: the master brings spontaneity, the disciples bring discipline. The master says, “Just be.” They ask, “How to be?” Their question of the “how” by and by brings discipline in they create the discipline. The master goes on talking of spontaneity, but the followers cannot understand spontaneity they translate it in terms of disciplining themselves. The second stage is not so rebellious for these people, and because of these people, by and by discipline arises. God is in the nude truth is as it is – no camouflage, no dressings. The first stage is individual religion – rebellious, spontaneous there is no question of any effort, any discipline, any scripture. The second stage comes: the stage of organic religion. That is bound to happen – a magnet is there, people start gathering. Then, people start gathering close to a master. It is as fresh as the dewdrops in the morning, fresh as the roseflower, fresh as the stars, innocent it knows no discipline, it knows only spontaneity. When Buddha is alive, or Lao Tzu is alive, or Jesus is alive, then religion has its first, virgin, innocent state: the childhood. When religion is born – the childhood of religion is when a master is alive, fresh, the energy is flowing from the source, and the fragrance is coming. Just as there is childhood, youth and old age in the life of a man or a woman, so there are three stages in the life of a religion. The moment a religion starts becoming a discipline, it has already fallen very low. Tao is spontaneity, it is not discipline, hence Tao is the ultimate in religion – no religion touches that peak. Happiness is the music that happens when you are in unity, when everything fits together, when everything harmonizes, when there is no conflict, not even a trace of it, when you are an orchestra, not a crowd nobody is trying to manipulate, nobody is trying to become the master, nobody is trying to exploit, oppress. And when you are not one, you cannot be happy. You go on fighting and fighting, and by and by you are no longer one individual, you become many – at least two, and if worse happens, then many – then you become a crowd. The ultimate result can only be schizophrenia. Because of conflict the fusion cannot happen: you cannot be one, you cannot be fused into one, hence confusion. This conflict creates confusion: all conflict is confusion. The mind tries to manipulate the body, and the body tries to manipulate the mind in subtle ways, or at least tries to sabotage it. One part starts manipulating the other part then a rift is created. Discipline is man-created, man-made, and because of discipline man becomes split. Trees and rivers and animals and stars don’t know anything of discipline. Nature needs no discipline, it is sufficient unto itself. All disciplines are unnatural – they have to be. Tao is anarchic, spontaneous, effortless. Where does educating the subconsciousness conflict or harmonize with Tao, as it implies discipline with self-effort from an external expression?
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