Tantra: Know Nothing as Pure or Impure – The Book of Secrets

THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE.

This is one of the basic messages of tantra. It is very difficult to conceive of it because it is absolutely non-ethical, non-moral. I will not say immoral because tantra is not concerned with morality or immorality. Tantra says it is irrelevant. This message is to help you to grow beyond purity and impurity, beyond division really, beyond dichotomy, duality. Tantra says, existence is non-dual, it is one, and all distinctions are man-created — all distinctions, remember. Distinctions as such are man-created. Good-bad, pure-impure, moral-immoral, virtue-sin: all these concepts are man-created. They are attitudes of man; they are not real. What is impure and what is pure? It depends on your interpretation. What is immoral and what is moral? It depends on your interpretation. Nietzsche has said somewhere that all morality is interpretation. So something can be moral in this country and immoral in the neighboring country, something can be moral to a Mohammedan and immoral to a Hindu, moral to a Christian and immoral to a Jaina. Or something can even be moral to the older generation and immoral to the younger generation. It depends; it is an attitude. Basically, it is a fiction. The fact is simply the fact. The naked fact is simply the fact; it is neither moral nor immoral, pure nor impure. Think of the earth without human beings. Then what will be pure and what will be impure? Everything will be — simply “be.” Nothing will be pure and nothing will be impure; nothing will be good and nothing will be bad. With man, mind comes in. Mind divides. It says “this” is good and “that” is bad. This division not only creates a division in the world; this division creates a division in the divider also. If you divide, you are also divided in that division, and you cannot transcend your inner division unless you forget outer divisions. Whatsoever you do to the world, you have done to yourself also. Naropa, one of the greatest masters of Siddha Yoga, says, “An inch division, and hell and heaven are set apart” — an inch division! But we go on dividing; we go on labeling, condemning, justifying. Look at the bare fact of existence and don’t label it. Only then can tantra’s teachings be understood. Don’t say good or bad; don’t bring your mind to the fact. The moment you bring your mind to the fact, you have created a fiction. Now it is not a fact, it is not a reality: it is your projection. This sutra says, “THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE.”

“THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US:” Tantra says, “What is very pure for other teachings, a virtue, is a sin for us, because their concept of purity divides. For them something becomes impure.”

If you call a man a saint, you have created the sinner. Now you will have to condemn someone somewhere because the saint cannot exist without the sinner. And look now at the absurdity of our efforts: we go on trying to destroy sinners, and we conceive of and hope for a world where there will be no sinners — only saints. This is nonsense because saints cannot exist without sinners. They are the other aspect of the same coin. You cannot destroy one aspect of the coin, they both will exist. Sinners and saints are both part and parcel of one thing. If you destroy the sinners, saints will disappear from the world. But don’t be afraid; let them disappear because they have not proved to be of any worth.

Sinners and saints are both part of one interpretation, of one attitude towards the world, in which one says, “This is good and that is bad.” And you cannot say that “This is good” unless you say that “That is bad.” The bad is needed to define the good. So the good depends on the bad, your virtue depends on sin, and your saints are impossible; they cannot exist without the sinners. So they must be grateful to the sinners; they cannot exist without them.

In relation to them, in comparison to them, howsoever much they condemn the sinners, they are part and parcel of the same phenomenon. Sinners can disappear from the world only when saints disappear — not before that; and sin will not be there when there is no concept of virtue.

Tantra says that the fact is real and the interpretation is unreal. Don’t interpret. “IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE.” Why? Because purity and impurity are OUR attitudes imposed on reality. Try this. This technique is arduous, not simple — because we are so much oriented towards dual thinking, based, rooted in dual thinking, that we are not even aware of our condemnations and justifications. If someone starts smoking here, you may not have consciously felt anything, but you have condemned. Deep down within you, you have condemned. Your look may have condemned or no look may have condemned. You may not have looked at the person, and you have condemned.

This is going to be difficult because the habit has become so deep-rooted. You go on — just by your gestures, your sitting, your standing — you go on condemning, justifying, not even aware of what you are doing. When you smile at a person or when you don’t smile at a person, when you look at someone or you don’t look, you just ignore someone, what are you doing? You are imposing your attitudes. You say something is beautiful; then you will have to condemn something as ugly.

And this dual attitude is simultaneously dividing you, so within you there will be two persons.

If you say that someone is angry and anger is bad, what will you do when you will feel angry? You will say that this is bad, then there will be problems because you say that “This is bad: this anger in me is bad.” Then you have started to divide yourself into two persons — a bad person, an evil person within, and a good person, a saint. Of course, you are bound to be identified with the saint within, so the devil, Satan, the evil within you is to be condemned. You are divided in two. Now there will be a constant fight, a conflict. Now you cannot be an individual; you will be a crowd, a house divided against itself. Now there will be no peace, no silence. You will feel only tensions and anguish. This is what you are feeling, but you don’t know why.

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A divided person cannot be at peace. How can he be? Where to put your devil? You have to destroy it, and it is you; you cannot destroy it. You are not two. The reality is one, but because of your divisive attitude you have divided the outer reality. Now the inner is also divided accordingly — so everyone is fighting with himself. It is as if you are fighting against one hand — fighting the right hand with the left hand — and the energy is one. In my right hand and left hand, I am; I am flowing in both. But I can oppose one against the other, my right hand against my left hand, and I can create a conflict, a bogus fight.

Sometimes I can deceive myself that the right hand has won, and now the left is down. But this is a deception, because I know that it is me in both and any moment I can put the left up and the right down. I am in both; both the hands are mine.

So howsoever much you think you have put your saint above and crushed the devil down, know that at any moment you can change the positions, and the saint will be down and the devil will be up. That creates fear, insecurity, because you know that nothing is certain. You know you are so loving this moment and you have crushed your hatred down, but you are afraid because at any moment the hatred can come up and the love will be just crushed down. And it can happen at any moment because you are within both. Tantra says don’t divide, be undivided; only then will you be victorious. How to be undivided? You don’t condemn, don’t say “this” is good and “that” is bad. Just withdraw all conceptions of purity and impurity. Look at the world, but don’t say what it is. Be ignorant, don’t be too much wise. Don’t label, remain silent, non-condemnatory, non-justifying. If you can remain silent about the world, by and by this silence will penetrate within. And if the division is not there outwardly, the division will disappear from the inner consciousness, because both CAN exist together.

But this is dangerous for society. That is why tantra was suppressed.

This is dangerous! Nothing is immoral, nothing is moral; nothing is pure, nothing is impure. Things are as they are. A real tantric will not say that a thief is bad; he will say that he is a thief; that is all. And by using the word `thief’ there is no condemnation in his mind. This “thief” is just a fact, not a condemnation. If someone says that “Here is a man who is a great saint,” he will say, “Okay! He is a saint.” But there is no evaluation in it. He will not say, “He is good”, he will say, “Okay! He is a saint and that man is a thief,” just like this is a rose and that is not a rose, this tree is high and that tree is low, night is dark and day is light — but without comparison.

But this is dangerous. Society cannot exist without condemning one thing and without appreciating the other — society cannot exist! Society exists on duality. That is why tantra was suppressed. It was thought to be anti-social, but it is not. It is not! But that very attitude of non-duality is transcendental. It is not anti-society, it is transcendental; it is beyond society.

Try this. Just move in the world without any values, just with natural facts: someone is this, someone is that. And then, by and by, you will feel a non-division within yourself. Your polarities will be coming together, your “bad” and your “good” will be coming together. They will merge into one, and you will become one unity. There will be nothing as pure, nothing as impure. Know the reality.

“THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US:” Tantra says that “What is basic for others is poisonous for us.” For example, there are teachings which are based on non-violence. They say violence is bad, non-violence is good. Tantra says that non-violence is non-violence, violence is violence; nothing is good and nothing is bad. There are teachings which are based on celibacy — BRAHMACHARYA. They say that BRAHMACHARYA is good, sex is bad. Tantra says sex is sex, BRAHMACHARYA is BRAHMACHARYA. One is a BRAHMACHARI and one is not. But these are simple facts, no values are attached to them. And tantra will never say that BRAHMACHARYA is good — the celibate is good — and that the one who is in sex is bad. Tantra will not say that. Tantra accepts things as they are. And why? Just to create a unity within you. This is a technique to create a unity within you, to have a total existence within, undivided, non-conflicting, not opposed. Only then is silence possible. One who is trying to move to some place against something can never be at peace. How can he be? And one who is divided within himself, fighting with himself, how can he win? It is impossible. You are both, so who is going to win? No one is going to win, and you will be at loss because you will dissipate your energy in fighting unnecessarily.

This is a technique to create a unity in yourself. Allow valleys to disappear; don’t judge. Jesus says somewhere, “Judge ye not so that ye may not be judged.” But this was impossible for the Jews to understand, because the whole Jewish conception is morality oriented: “This is good and that is not good.” Jesus in his teaching, “Judge ye not,” is talking in terms of tantra. If he was murdered, crucified, it is because of this. He had a tantra attitude — “Judge ye not.”

So don’t say that a prostitute is bad — who knows? and don’t say that a puritan is good. Who knows? And ultimately they both are part of one game. They are based on each other — on a mutual existence. So Jesus says, “Judge ye not,” and this is what this sutra means: “Judge ye not so that ye may not be judged.”

If you are non-judging, not taking any moral standpoint, simply observing facts as they are, not interpreting them according to yourself, then you cannot be judged. You are transformed completely. Now there is no need for YOU to be judged by any divine power — there is no need! You have become divine yourself; you have become God yourself. Be a witness, not a judge.