Stephen Pollan's revolutionary 1997 best seller "Die Broke" shook traditional retirement planning to its core with its audacious four-step mantra: "Quit today, pay cash, don't retire and die broke." Among the vest-and-wingtip crowd, Pollan might just as well have suggested, "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
At a glance
Name: Stephen Pollan
Hometown: New York
Education: C.W. Post School of Business, Long Island University, B.S. Brooklyn Law School, New York, L.L.B.
Career highlights:
Best-selling author (with Mark Levine) of "Die Broke," "Live Rich" and numerous other books on personal finance.
Television: Financial correspondent for NBC's "Today" show, ABC's "Good Morning, America," CBS "This Morning", PBS "Nightly Business Report" and Wall Street Journal Reports.
Print: Contributing editor, Personal Finance Magazine; columnist, Working Woman magazine.
Business: Practicing lawyer for 35 years; senior vice president of National Westminster Bank; CEO of an American Stock Exchange-listed closed-end investment company.
Teaching: Adjunct professor of Business Management at Marymount Manhattan College and C.W. Post University's School of Business.
Consulting: Small business consultant to AT&T, Irving Trust Company, Commercial Credit Corporation (Prime America), Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Citibank, Intuit.
Member, Small Business Administration Advisory Council.
Ten years later however, "Die Broke" and its companion piece "Live Rich" have become virtual blueprints for baby boomers as they prepare to reinvent retirement. Many boomers have already left the corporate world to gain greater control of their career (quit today), freed themselves from debt (pay cash), and now plan to remain active (don't retire) and safely transfer their assets to their heirs while they're still around to enjoy the giving (die broke).
At 78, Pollan not only espouses the "Die Broke" philosophy, he lives it. He and his wife Corky remain active in their busy careers, they've transferred their property to their four children including actress Tracy Pollan (Mrs. Michael J. Fox) and author Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") and still plan to bounce that final check to the undertaker.
Q. Let's talk about dying broke.
A. Dying broke has caught on. People were horrified when I came out with the concept of dying broke, because this was a time when many people were measured, oddly enough, by the size of their estates. If you left a lot of money, you had a good life. Today, if you die with too much, you're considered a big schmuck.
Q. At first blush, most people thought "Die Broke" was a manifesto of greed and selfishness.
A. Today, the belief is, you want to have your money maximize its productivity, which means if you're going to be giving it, you'll give it when it's needed, not on the arbitrary date of death. If you're thinking of your children, it's when the child gets married, buys a home or starts a business. But when the baby boomer dies, those children are going to be 50-some odd years old; if those kids need the money, then something's wrong with them. All you're doing when you take money with you is giving orders from the grave. I think dying broke today has become more a part of our culture than ever before.
Q. Financial planners today tell us that the biggest difference between baby boomers and their parents is that boomers are more concerned about outliving their money than about leaving a massive estate.
A. That's right. That's the biggest fear now. Which is why, incidentally, annuities are coming back into vogue. What better way to die broke than a charitable annuity or a clean, decent annuity where, even today, if you're 75, you can get yourself an 8 percent yield, and sometimes a little bit more.
Q. You were a voice in the wilderness when you championed the stodgy old annuity back in the roaring 90s.
A. Oh yeah. The only people who really enjoyed what I was saying were the older population in Florida who stopped going to the early bird. I'm serious. Look, money is not an icon, money is not a symbol; it's a tool to do stuff with. The minute you die, it becomes useless as a tool. You want to enjoy life better? See the results of what your money does. You can't hear "thanks" from the grave.
Q. Are you surprised at the changes that "Die Broke" has brought about?
A. I'm sort of very proud now, sincerely, about "Die Broke" because it really came from the corner of one of my closets, and I'm glad that it's accepted. I see so many senior businessmen giving out their money now. We are no longer measured at all by the size of our fortunes; it's what we do with it.
Q. You also rejected the notion of the actuarial dart toss where you guess a date of death and all retirement planning flows backward from that.
A. I never had much regard for the calendar. People should not be living their lives based on the calendar. The calendar is only good to ascertain how many candles you should have on your cake. Two things you should never do are live by the calendar and compare yourself against others.
Q. You continue to hold with the one "Die Broke" tenet that puzzles some, which is, don't retire.
A. Because leisure is lethal. My wife and I are both 78. Age is a matter of what's between your ears. Most of age is created by attitude; I think attitude is a life-extender, exuberance is a life-extender. You know, you can talk yourself into death. Life is just so great that you should never make plans for anything else. The nicest thing about life, I've discovered, is to have somebody in your life that you would take a bullet for, and that's what you have when you have kids. Then it's all about love.
Q. Here's the $64,000 question. Are you going to die broke?
A. Yep. We've given all of our property away to our kids already and what we're planning to do with our IRAs and defined benefit plans and all that is convert them into annuities based on two lives. The annuity can be immediate. If we bought a $2 million annuity now based on two lives, we would be collecting, starting next week, $175,000 a year. We hope to get the best yield possible, but the last check is going to be to the undertaker. And it's going to bounce.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Suffering by Osho
“Whenever suffering happens, don't collect it. Allow it to happen, but don't nourish it. Why go on talking about it? Everyone talks about his suffering. Why is there so much emphasis on it? Why give so much attention to it? Remember one of the laws: that whatsoever you pay much attention to grows. Attention is a growth helping element. If you pay attention to something, it grows more.”
Yes! I can agreed with this....eg my new car! The more time I spend thinking about how the salesman screw it up for me, the more I can't do any other things and activities. It made me "boil" inside...so angry! So...it is no use to get angry over things beyond my control. I can say hurtful things to them...but at the end of it, I no longer happy to receive and drive the new car now. It has eat into my anger.
Yes! I can agreed with this....eg my new car! The more time I spend thinking about how the salesman screw it up for me, the more I can't do any other things and activities. It made me "boil" inside...so angry! So...it is no use to get angry over things beyond my control. I can say hurtful things to them...but at the end of it, I no longer happy to receive and drive the new car now. It has eat into my anger.
How can one be successful in life in the areas of finance and career? by Osho
"Richness, wealth, treasure -- divine treasure -- is there and you have not claimed it yet -- and it is yours, just for the asking. You need not spread your hands anywhere before anybody. The treasure is hidden within your own heart.
And people go on searching everywhere else except in the heart. They can go to the moon and to mars; and that journey seems to be easy. Man seems somehow to be very stubborn about going into his own heart. Maybe he is afraid that he may find it there.
Psychologists say that there is a very deep-rooted fear of success in the human mind. It looks absurd when you hear for the first time that man is afraid of success, but when you ponder over it, slowly slowly it dawns on you that it has some deep relevance.
Man is afraid of success, because if he succeeds, then what? That is the fear: then what? So in a subtle way he tries to succeed and yet creates such obstacles that he cannot succeed.
On one hand he tries to succeed, on the other hand he disturbs his own success so the game can go on. Just think of a day when you have succeeded and all that you desired has been attained, all that you always longed for is in your hands. Then what? -- that is the fear. Then what will you do? -- because all doing is searching, all doing is desiring, all doing is possible because there are goals which we have not attained yet. One is occupied, happily busy.
Just think of it a moment and even in thinking you will start trembling inside: if all is fulfilled, then what? Would you like to succeed to that point? And when you think about that you will see the point of what psychologists mean when they say there is a deep-rooted fear of success.
And it does not happen only as far as the inner success is concerned: outer success also. It almost always happens that when a person is at the last rung of succeeding, something goes wrong. And he thinks something has gone wrong from the outside, no. He does something -- he takes a wrong step, he moves in an opposite direction. He blames god and he blames fate and he blames society and others, but if you search deep down you will find that people fail only when they were just going to succeed.
There seems to be that deep fear which at the last moment says to them 'What are you doing? Avoid it.' It is very unconscious. They fail, and then they are busy again. That's how people keep themselves busy; life in and life out they keep themselves busy. This is called the wheel, the samsara, in the East; this is the world. That's why people don't go into the heart, which is the closest point to go to. They go on great journeys and pilgrimages, but they don't search within.
Somewhere, hidden, they know perfectly well that if they search there they are bound to find it -- then what? But sannyas means dropping that fear of success. The goal is very near... and within everybody's grasp."
And people go on searching everywhere else except in the heart. They can go to the moon and to mars; and that journey seems to be easy. Man seems somehow to be very stubborn about going into his own heart. Maybe he is afraid that he may find it there.
Psychologists say that there is a very deep-rooted fear of success in the human mind. It looks absurd when you hear for the first time that man is afraid of success, but when you ponder over it, slowly slowly it dawns on you that it has some deep relevance.
Man is afraid of success, because if he succeeds, then what? That is the fear: then what? So in a subtle way he tries to succeed and yet creates such obstacles that he cannot succeed.
On one hand he tries to succeed, on the other hand he disturbs his own success so the game can go on. Just think of a day when you have succeeded and all that you desired has been attained, all that you always longed for is in your hands. Then what? -- that is the fear. Then what will you do? -- because all doing is searching, all doing is desiring, all doing is possible because there are goals which we have not attained yet. One is occupied, happily busy.
Just think of it a moment and even in thinking you will start trembling inside: if all is fulfilled, then what? Would you like to succeed to that point? And when you think about that you will see the point of what psychologists mean when they say there is a deep-rooted fear of success.
And it does not happen only as far as the inner success is concerned: outer success also. It almost always happens that when a person is at the last rung of succeeding, something goes wrong. And he thinks something has gone wrong from the outside, no. He does something -- he takes a wrong step, he moves in an opposite direction. He blames god and he blames fate and he blames society and others, but if you search deep down you will find that people fail only when they were just going to succeed.
There seems to be that deep fear which at the last moment says to them 'What are you doing? Avoid it.' It is very unconscious. They fail, and then they are busy again. That's how people keep themselves busy; life in and life out they keep themselves busy. This is called the wheel, the samsara, in the East; this is the world. That's why people don't go into the heart, which is the closest point to go to. They go on great journeys and pilgrimages, but they don't search within.
Somewhere, hidden, they know perfectly well that if they search there they are bound to find it -- then what? But sannyas means dropping that fear of success. The goal is very near... and within everybody's grasp."
Will knowing where I was in my past life make it easier to follow the path? by Osho
"The past exists nowhere. Many people write to me, "Give us methods so that we can remember our past lives." What are you going to do? Even if you remember that you were Alexander the Great or Cleopatra, how is that going to help in any way? It will create more complications. You are already in such a mess!
That's why nature closes the door every time you die. This is great compassion, otherwise you will be born mad. Remembering all your past lives you will be in such a state that it will be impossible for you to function at all, because your mother may have been your wife in the past life and in another life she may have been your daughter. Now, how to behave with her? -- as your mother, as your wife, as your daughter? You will get very confused!
There is no need to bother about the past. As you become aware, the first thing to disappear from your mind is the past, and the past is one third of the mind. It is the very base of the mind, the foundation. Once it disappears, then the whole building starts collapsing.
The second to go is tomorrow. When there is no yesterday you cannot conceive of tomorrow. Tomorrow is nothing but a projection of yesterday. You would like to live the joys of yesterday again tomorrow and you would like to avoid the miseries of yesterday; that's what your tomorrow is. If yesterday is gone, tomorrow is finished; soon it will disappear.
And when yesterdays are gone and tomorrows are gone, where is today? It exists between the two. If both the banks have disappeared, the river itself will disappear. If both the banks have disappeared, the bridge will disappear. Chunk by chunk in three pieces, time dissolves: first the past, then the future, and finally the present. Then you are left with no time, a state of timelessness. And this, Buddha says, is nirvana.
To experience timelessness is to experience deathlessness. To experience timelessness is to experience that which really is. It is neither past nor present nor future; it simply is. It cannot be confined to any compartment, into any category; it cannot be categorized. You simply experience each moment with tremendous peace and silence and joy. And each moment becomes so fragrant, so alive! Each moment becomes such a benediction that it is impossible to imagine it, it is impossible to describe it. One has to know it to know it; there is no other way. Nobody can explain it to you. It is not expressible, it is not explainable. It is the greatest mystery. When time disappears, mind disappears, what is left? That which is left, that vastness...that is your real being -- in Buddha's words, your non-being, your no-self.
Jesus will call it the kingdom of God ; that is a positive way of describing it. And Buddha calls it a state of cessation -- all has ceased. And with great gladness he knows that he has finished. He has woken from his sleep."
Enough for today
That's why nature closes the door every time you die. This is great compassion, otherwise you will be born mad. Remembering all your past lives you will be in such a state that it will be impossible for you to function at all, because your mother may have been your wife in the past life and in another life she may have been your daughter. Now, how to behave with her? -- as your mother, as your wife, as your daughter? You will get very confused!
There is no need to bother about the past. As you become aware, the first thing to disappear from your mind is the past, and the past is one third of the mind. It is the very base of the mind, the foundation. Once it disappears, then the whole building starts collapsing.
The second to go is tomorrow. When there is no yesterday you cannot conceive of tomorrow. Tomorrow is nothing but a projection of yesterday. You would like to live the joys of yesterday again tomorrow and you would like to avoid the miseries of yesterday; that's what your tomorrow is. If yesterday is gone, tomorrow is finished; soon it will disappear.
And when yesterdays are gone and tomorrows are gone, where is today? It exists between the two. If both the banks have disappeared, the river itself will disappear. If both the banks have disappeared, the bridge will disappear. Chunk by chunk in three pieces, time dissolves: first the past, then the future, and finally the present. Then you are left with no time, a state of timelessness. And this, Buddha says, is nirvana.
To experience timelessness is to experience deathlessness. To experience timelessness is to experience that which really is. It is neither past nor present nor future; it simply is. It cannot be confined to any compartment, into any category; it cannot be categorized. You simply experience each moment with tremendous peace and silence and joy. And each moment becomes so fragrant, so alive! Each moment becomes such a benediction that it is impossible to imagine it, it is impossible to describe it. One has to know it to know it; there is no other way. Nobody can explain it to you. It is not expressible, it is not explainable. It is the greatest mystery. When time disappears, mind disappears, what is left? That which is left, that vastness...that is your real being -- in Buddha's words, your non-being, your no-self.
Jesus will call it the kingdom of God ; that is a positive way of describing it. And Buddha calls it a state of cessation -- all has ceased. And with great gladness he knows that he has finished. He has woken from his sleep."
Enough for today
What is true intelligence and how does it manifest? by Osho
"There is a lot of difference between intellect and intelligence.
Intellect is logical; intelligence is paradoxical. Intellect is analytical; intelligence is synthetical. Intellect divides, cuts into pieces to understand a thing. Science is based on intellect, dissection, division, analysis. Intelligence joins things together, makes a whole out of parts -- because this is one of the greatest understandings: that the part exists through the whole, not vice versa. And the whole is not just the sum of the parts, it is more than the sum.
For example, you can have a rose flower, and you can go to a scientist, to a logician. You can ask him, "I want to understand this rose flower"; what will he do? He will dissect it, he will separate all the elements that are making it a flower. When you go next you will find the flower gone. Instead of the flower there will be a few labelled bottles. The elements have been separated, but one thing is certain -- there will not be any bottle on which will be the label "beauty."
Beauty is not matter and beauty does not belong to parts. Once you dissect a flower, once the wholeness of the flower is gone, beauty is also gone. Beauty belongs to the whole, it is the grace that comes to the whole. It is more than the sum. Then only parts are there. You can dissect a man; the moment you dissect, life disappears. Then you know only a dead body, a corpse. You can find out how much aluminium is there and how much iron and how much water; you can find the whole mechanism the lungs, the kidneys, everything -- but one thing is not there: life. One thing is not there that was the most valuable. One thing is not there that we wanted to understand really, and everything else is there.
Now even scientists are becoming alert that when you take blood out of a man's bloodstream and you examine it, it is no longer the same blood. Inside the bloodstream of the man it was alive, throbbing with life. Now it is just a corpse. It cannot be the same because the gestalt has changed. You can take the color of the rose flower from it, but is it the same color? It looks the same but it cannot be the same. Where is that fragility? Where is that aliveness, that throb of life? When it was in the rose flower it was in a totally different arrangement and life was present. It was full of presence; God was there beating in its heart. Taken out, the part is there but you cannot say the part is the same. It cannot be because the part exists in the whole.
Intellect dissects, analyzes. It is the instrument of science. Intelligence is the instrument of religion; it joins together. Hence, the greatest science of spirituality we have called Yoga. Yoga means the methodology to join. Yoga means to put things together. God is the greatest totality, all things together. God is not a person, God is a presence, the presence when the total is functioning in a great harmony -- the trees and the birds and the earth and the stars and the moon and the sun and the rivers and the ocean -- all together. That togetherness is God. If you dissect, you will never find God. Dissect a man; you cannot find the presence that was making him alive. Dissect the world; you cannot find the presence that is God.
Intelligence is the method to join things together. An intelligent person is very synthetical. He always looks for a higher whole, because the meaning is always in the higher whole. He always looks for something higher in which the lower is dissolved and functions as a part, functions as a note in the harmony of the whole, gives its own contribution to the orchestra of the whole but is not separate from it. Intelligence moves upwards, intellect moves downwards. Intellect goes to the cause.
Please follow it; the point is delicate.
Intellect goes to the cause; intelligence goes to the goal. Intelligence moves into the future, intellect moves in the past. Intellect reduces everything to the lowest denominator. If you ask what love is, intellect will say it is nothing but -- the lowest denominator. If you ask what prayer is, the intellect will say it is nothing but repressed sex.
Ask intelligence what sex is, and intelligence will say it is nothing but the seed of prayer. It is the potential love. Intellect reduces to the lowest; it reduces everything to the lowest. Ask intellect what a lotus is, and it will say it is nothing, just an illusion; the reality is the mud -- because the lotus comes out of the mud and again falls back into the mud. The mud is the real, the lotus is just an illusion. Mud remains, the lotus comes and goes.
Ask intelligence what mud is, and intelligence will say, "It is the potentiality of being a lotus." Then mud disappears and millions of lotuses flower.
Intelligence goes to the higher and higher and the higher, and the whole effort is to reach to the ultimate, to the pinnacle of existence. Because things can be explained only through the higher, not through the lower. You don't explain through the lower, you explain away. And when the lower becomes too important, all beauty is lost, all truth, all good. Everything that has any significance is lost. Then you start crying, "Where is meaning in life?"
In the West, science destroyed every value and reduced everything to matter. Now everybody is worried about what is the meaning of life, because meaning exists in the higher whole. See, you are alone; you feel, "What is the meaning of life?" Then you fall in love with a woman; a certain meaning arises. Now two have become one -- a little higher. A single man is a little. Lower than a couple. A couple is a little higher. Two things have joined together. Two opposite forces have mingled, the feminine and the male energies. Now it is more of a circle.
That's why in India we have the concept of ardhanarishwar. Shiva is painted as half woman and half man. The concept of ardhanarishwar says that man is half, and woman is half. When a man and woman meet in deep love, a higher reality arises: certainly greater, more complex, because two energies are meeting.
Then a child is born; now there is a family -- more meaning. Now the father feels a meaning in his life: the child has to be brought up. He loves the child, he works hard, but work is now no longer work. He is working for his child, for his beloved, for his home. He works, but the hardness of the work has disappeared. He is not dragging it. Tired of the whole day, he comes home dancing. Seeing the smile on his child's face, he is tremendously happy. A family is a higher unit than the couple, and so on and so forth. And God is nothing but the communion of all, the greatest family of all.
That's why I go on calling these orange people my family. I would like you to disappear in the whole. I would like you to be so absorbed in the whole that you remain individual, but you become part of a greater unity, bigger than you. Meaning arises immediately whenever you become part of a greater unity.
When a poet writes a poem, meaning arises -- because the poet is not alone; he has created something. When a dancer dances, meaning arises. When a mother gives birth to a child, meaning arises. Left alone, cut from everything else, isolated like an island, you are meaningless. Joined together you are meaningful. The bigger the whole, the bigger is the meaning. That's why I say God is the biggest conceivable whole, and without God you cannot attain to the highest meaning. God is not a person; God is not sitting somewhere. Those ideas are just stupid. God is the total presence of existence, the being, the very ground of being.
God exists wherever there is union; wherever there is Yoga, God comes into existence. You are walking alone; God is fast asleep. Then suddenly you see somebody and you smile; God is awakened, the other has come in. Your smile is not isolated, it is a bridge. You have thrown a bridge towards the other. The other has also smiled, there has been a response. Between you both arises that space I call God -- a little throb. When you come to the tree and you sit by the side of the tree, completely oblivious to the existence of the tree, God is fast asleep. Then suddenly you look at the tree, and an upsurge of feeling for the tree and God has arisen.
Wherever there is love, God is; wherever there is response, God is. God is the space; it exists wherever union exists. That's why I say love is the purest possibility of God, because it is the subtlest union of energies.
Hence the insistence of the Bauls that love is God. Forget God, love will do. But never forget love, because God alone won't do.
Intelligence is discrimination, understanding. Truth is the key word, sat. The man who moves through intelligence moves towards sat, truth.
Higher than intelligence is the sixth type of religion. I call it the religion of meditation.
Meditation is awareness, spontaneity, what the Bauls call sahaja manush, the spontaneous man. Freedom -- it is non-traditional, it is radical, revolutionary, individual. The key word is chit, consciousness. Intelligence is still the highest form of intellect, intelligence is the purest form of intellect. The ladder is the same. Intellect is going downwards on the same ladder, intelligence is going upwards, but the ladder is the same. In meditation the ladder is thrown. Now, no more movement on the same ladder, neither upwards nor downwards. Now, no more movement, but a state of no-movement inside, a drowning into oneself, a sinking in."
Intellect is logical; intelligence is paradoxical. Intellect is analytical; intelligence is synthetical. Intellect divides, cuts into pieces to understand a thing. Science is based on intellect, dissection, division, analysis. Intelligence joins things together, makes a whole out of parts -- because this is one of the greatest understandings: that the part exists through the whole, not vice versa. And the whole is not just the sum of the parts, it is more than the sum.
For example, you can have a rose flower, and you can go to a scientist, to a logician. You can ask him, "I want to understand this rose flower"; what will he do? He will dissect it, he will separate all the elements that are making it a flower. When you go next you will find the flower gone. Instead of the flower there will be a few labelled bottles. The elements have been separated, but one thing is certain -- there will not be any bottle on which will be the label "beauty."
Beauty is not matter and beauty does not belong to parts. Once you dissect a flower, once the wholeness of the flower is gone, beauty is also gone. Beauty belongs to the whole, it is the grace that comes to the whole. It is more than the sum. Then only parts are there. You can dissect a man; the moment you dissect, life disappears. Then you know only a dead body, a corpse. You can find out how much aluminium is there and how much iron and how much water; you can find the whole mechanism the lungs, the kidneys, everything -- but one thing is not there: life. One thing is not there that was the most valuable. One thing is not there that we wanted to understand really, and everything else is there.
Now even scientists are becoming alert that when you take blood out of a man's bloodstream and you examine it, it is no longer the same blood. Inside the bloodstream of the man it was alive, throbbing with life. Now it is just a corpse. It cannot be the same because the gestalt has changed. You can take the color of the rose flower from it, but is it the same color? It looks the same but it cannot be the same. Where is that fragility? Where is that aliveness, that throb of life? When it was in the rose flower it was in a totally different arrangement and life was present. It was full of presence; God was there beating in its heart. Taken out, the part is there but you cannot say the part is the same. It cannot be because the part exists in the whole.
Intellect dissects, analyzes. It is the instrument of science. Intelligence is the instrument of religion; it joins together. Hence, the greatest science of spirituality we have called Yoga. Yoga means the methodology to join. Yoga means to put things together. God is the greatest totality, all things together. God is not a person, God is a presence, the presence when the total is functioning in a great harmony -- the trees and the birds and the earth and the stars and the moon and the sun and the rivers and the ocean -- all together. That togetherness is God. If you dissect, you will never find God. Dissect a man; you cannot find the presence that was making him alive. Dissect the world; you cannot find the presence that is God.
Intelligence is the method to join things together. An intelligent person is very synthetical. He always looks for a higher whole, because the meaning is always in the higher whole. He always looks for something higher in which the lower is dissolved and functions as a part, functions as a note in the harmony of the whole, gives its own contribution to the orchestra of the whole but is not separate from it. Intelligence moves upwards, intellect moves downwards. Intellect goes to the cause.
Please follow it; the point is delicate.
Intellect goes to the cause; intelligence goes to the goal. Intelligence moves into the future, intellect moves in the past. Intellect reduces everything to the lowest denominator. If you ask what love is, intellect will say it is nothing but -- the lowest denominator. If you ask what prayer is, the intellect will say it is nothing but repressed sex.
Ask intelligence what sex is, and intelligence will say it is nothing but the seed of prayer. It is the potential love. Intellect reduces to the lowest; it reduces everything to the lowest. Ask intellect what a lotus is, and it will say it is nothing, just an illusion; the reality is the mud -- because the lotus comes out of the mud and again falls back into the mud. The mud is the real, the lotus is just an illusion. Mud remains, the lotus comes and goes.
Ask intelligence what mud is, and intelligence will say, "It is the potentiality of being a lotus." Then mud disappears and millions of lotuses flower.
Intelligence goes to the higher and higher and the higher, and the whole effort is to reach to the ultimate, to the pinnacle of existence. Because things can be explained only through the higher, not through the lower. You don't explain through the lower, you explain away. And when the lower becomes too important, all beauty is lost, all truth, all good. Everything that has any significance is lost. Then you start crying, "Where is meaning in life?"
In the West, science destroyed every value and reduced everything to matter. Now everybody is worried about what is the meaning of life, because meaning exists in the higher whole. See, you are alone; you feel, "What is the meaning of life?" Then you fall in love with a woman; a certain meaning arises. Now two have become one -- a little higher. A single man is a little. Lower than a couple. A couple is a little higher. Two things have joined together. Two opposite forces have mingled, the feminine and the male energies. Now it is more of a circle.
That's why in India we have the concept of ardhanarishwar. Shiva is painted as half woman and half man. The concept of ardhanarishwar says that man is half, and woman is half. When a man and woman meet in deep love, a higher reality arises: certainly greater, more complex, because two energies are meeting.
Then a child is born; now there is a family -- more meaning. Now the father feels a meaning in his life: the child has to be brought up. He loves the child, he works hard, but work is now no longer work. He is working for his child, for his beloved, for his home. He works, but the hardness of the work has disappeared. He is not dragging it. Tired of the whole day, he comes home dancing. Seeing the smile on his child's face, he is tremendously happy. A family is a higher unit than the couple, and so on and so forth. And God is nothing but the communion of all, the greatest family of all.
That's why I go on calling these orange people my family. I would like you to disappear in the whole. I would like you to be so absorbed in the whole that you remain individual, but you become part of a greater unity, bigger than you. Meaning arises immediately whenever you become part of a greater unity.
When a poet writes a poem, meaning arises -- because the poet is not alone; he has created something. When a dancer dances, meaning arises. When a mother gives birth to a child, meaning arises. Left alone, cut from everything else, isolated like an island, you are meaningless. Joined together you are meaningful. The bigger the whole, the bigger is the meaning. That's why I say God is the biggest conceivable whole, and without God you cannot attain to the highest meaning. God is not a person; God is not sitting somewhere. Those ideas are just stupid. God is the total presence of existence, the being, the very ground of being.
God exists wherever there is union; wherever there is Yoga, God comes into existence. You are walking alone; God is fast asleep. Then suddenly you see somebody and you smile; God is awakened, the other has come in. Your smile is not isolated, it is a bridge. You have thrown a bridge towards the other. The other has also smiled, there has been a response. Between you both arises that space I call God -- a little throb. When you come to the tree and you sit by the side of the tree, completely oblivious to the existence of the tree, God is fast asleep. Then suddenly you look at the tree, and an upsurge of feeling for the tree and God has arisen.
Wherever there is love, God is; wherever there is response, God is. God is the space; it exists wherever union exists. That's why I say love is the purest possibility of God, because it is the subtlest union of energies.
Hence the insistence of the Bauls that love is God. Forget God, love will do. But never forget love, because God alone won't do.
Intelligence is discrimination, understanding. Truth is the key word, sat. The man who moves through intelligence moves towards sat, truth.
Higher than intelligence is the sixth type of religion. I call it the religion of meditation.
Meditation is awareness, spontaneity, what the Bauls call sahaja manush, the spontaneous man. Freedom -- it is non-traditional, it is radical, revolutionary, individual. The key word is chit, consciousness. Intelligence is still the highest form of intellect, intelligence is the purest form of intellect. The ladder is the same. Intellect is going downwards on the same ladder, intelligence is going upwards, but the ladder is the same. In meditation the ladder is thrown. Now, no more movement on the same ladder, neither upwards nor downwards. Now, no more movement, but a state of no-movement inside, a drowning into oneself, a sinking in."
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