I Cried a Pond of Tears. It Never Made Me Spiritual.

There is an idiotic idea that has entered the spiritual world. People have started believing that the more intensely they cry, the more deeply they feel, or the more emotionally they become, the more spiritual they must be. I have seen this many times. Someone sits in a room, tears running down their face, speaking about how deeply they feel the universe or how much pain they carry, and immediately, people around them think this person must be spiritual. But why? Why should crying be the proof of wisdom? Why should emotional intensity be proof of truth? For me, this is where we have to slow down and examine the whole thing. Crying is not spirituality. Emotion is not spirituality. Intensity is not wisdom. And suffering by itself is certainly not wisdom. A person can cry because they are grieving. That has got nothing to do with spirituality. They can cry because they're afraid. The tears are real. But the story behind the tears may still be completely confused. That distinction matters.

Suppose somebody loses a relationship and spends six months crying every night. Their suffering is genuine. I would never mock that suffering. I would never say, "You're not the body and mind, stop crying." I too have cried. I too have cried over my past lover millions of times. I could make a pond out of the tears that I shed for her. But imagine that every night, they repeat the same thought: "That person was my entire life. Without them, I'm nothing." Now, the tears are not necessarily taking them toward the truth, right? The tears may actually be strengthening the illusion that their existence depended upon another person. So what is spiritual about that? Because people confuse: if you cry or have intense emotion, you must be a great spiritual person. The emotion is real. The conclusion may be false.

This is why I do not measure wisdom by how much someone feels, or how much someone talks about how much they are the vessel of consciousness and they are an instrument at the hands of the divine, and all those unwanted poetry words. I look at what their understanding does to their life. If somebody claims to have profound wisdom but cannot handle a simple disagreement, I become suspicious. If somebody talks for hours about detachment but becomes furious when someone criticizes them, I become suspicious. Are you seeing what I'm seeing? These are all very narrow-minded stuff, because there is an uncomfortable possibility here. Maybe the spiritual identity has simply become a new ego. The old ego wanted money. Now, the new ego wants enlightenment. Before, it chased the world, material stuff, and all the blah blah blah stuff. Now, it wants spiritual status. The old ego wanted people to say you are successful. Now, the new ego wants people to say you are awakened. The costume changed, but the mechanism did not.

This is why I think we need to be brutally honest about the word authenticity. People often say, "I am just being authentic. I'm expressing what I feel." Fine. But should I obey everything I feel? If I feel jealous, should I become jealous? If I feel afraid, should I run away from every difficult situation in this world? Absolutely not. Then why do we suddenly become philosophical when the emotion is dressed in spiritual language? An emotion can be authentic and still be destructive. A thought can be genuine and still be false, right? Imagine I'm driving a car and the steering wheel suddenly turns because the road is uneven. I do not say, "This is authentic movement of the car, so I must surrender to the moment." Nobody does that. What do we all do? We correct the steering. Why? Because the purpose is not to obey every moment. The purpose is to reach somewhere safely. So, to think that somebody coming and slapping you, and thinking that to be all divine miracle, is your stupidity. That has got nothing to do with God or goddesses of spirituality at all. You must respond to situations, not react to situations.

Many spiritual people think that if you cry, if you think your soul to be vessel of consciousness, you will attain divinity. That is like a wave saying, "If I think that I'm an instrument of ocean, I will become ocean." What stupidity is that? A wave is ocean from day one, and nothing else. To differentiate itself is stupidity. If anyone claims themselves to be the vessel of consciousness or divinity, and if they claim they can give you peace of mind, run away from them. Because they are all devils disguised as gods. They are all devils disguised with wings and things like that. Because a wave cannot become ocean. A wave is ocean. A woman cannot become woman. A woman is woman from day one. Similarly, you cannot become divine. You are divine from day one.

Many people tell that is impossible. Some people ask me, "So you mean, crime is also divine?" You know, for them, I give this answer, because I never said crime is divine. Consider this: if there is an AI robot, and it starts behaving stupidly and weirdly, do you blame the robot, or do you blame the electricity, or do you blame the one who created it? Things like that. Are you seeing what I'm saying? If the robot behaves improperly, do you blame the condition of the robot, or do you blame the electricity? You blame the condition, not the electricity. Similarly, the divinity is the thing that is running the entire show. You cannot blame the screen for a stupid movie. You cannot blame the electricity for the bulb getting fused, right? You have to blame the conditioning.

This is the thing with narrow-minded spiritual people. Sorry for bringing this up with the heat, but I'm telling this from the bottom of my heart. Please run away from those spiritual people who claim themselves to be vessel of consciousness, or who think that they are the character in this world performing a different story. What nonsense is that? Because they have this mentality that they are the instruments, and the rest of the people around the world are not the instruments. Are you seeing what I'm saying? So, coming to the main point, that same thing applies to the mind. I do not have to fight every emotion, but I also do not have to worship every emotion. If sadness comes, I can allow sadness. There is nothing spiritual about it. If tears come, I can cry. If grief comes, I can grieve. But I do not build my identity around that emotion. That is what we all must see.

You see, the difference between a narrow-minded spiritual person and a normal spiritual person is that when a dog comes, they think the dog is coming, and they cuddle with the dog, they feed the dog, and they go back. But a narrow-minded spiritual person will say, "The universe brought the consciousness in the dog to meet the consciousness in me. Therefore, I must feed the dog so that the consciousness in me will become the good consciousness," and all the poetry words and blah blah blah. Are you seeing what I'm seeing? The dog came maybe because it was hungry or it felt safe around you. That has got nothing to do with the divine or your god. And an emotion can rise in me without becoming what I am. And this is where genuine understanding becomes practical, because what is the point of philosophy that only works when inside a quiet meditation room?

Imagine a person who meditates for two hours every morning. They sit peacefully. They breathe slowly. They speak beautifully about inner silence and conduct Zoom meetings and all these calls to tell everyone how awareness is running the show. Then their mother asks them to do something they do not want to do. Suddenly, they become furious. Or their partner disagrees with them. Suddenly, they become defensive. Or somebody says something insulting. Suddenly, they spend the entire day thinking about revenge. What happened to all the wisdom? Let me tell you something. If your spirituality is not letting you live in this world, it is not spirituality at all. If your wisdom is not letting you live in the world, go through the world's ups and downs, it is not wisdom at all. Anyone can run away from this world and live a covered life, but it takes true courage to live in the world, go through the ups and downs, right? A ship is always safe near the harbor, but it is not meant to stay there. It is meant to cross the ocean. Your wisdom is meant to help you live in the world, not run away to some ashram, live at somebody else's feet, and eat food on somebody else's money. Please keep that in your mind.

Turn your mind within and see the truth for yourself. Enough is enough. How long are you people going to listen to me, talk to me, or spend time with people like us? We are all just maps pointing out the treasure. We are all not treasure. And anyone who tells you, "I am a treasure, come to me," don't go to that fellow. He's fooling you from day one. He has fooled you in daylight. Oh god, I better stop here.