Eyes Wide Open

Enjoy. Enjoy the ride. You’re in a fine, fine, fine automobile of life. Don’t try to figure out how it works. Just drive. And enjoy. Put the top down, crank up the radio, let the hair down, and enjoy as much as you can. But don’t close your eyes. Do it all with eyes wide open. Because if you think doing all that is a license to close your eyes, it’s not. You have to be aware, you have to be awake. No presets. Everything, step-by-step with eyes wide open. You cannot say, “Well, I’ve been driving for six hours, if I close my eyes for five minutes, what would be the harm?”
When you listen to me, I never give you my credentials to say you should listen to me and believe me because I said so. I want you to listen. I want you to think about it. Understand what I am saying. And then do what needs to be done. Do I come here and say, “Just believe what I am saying? Because, you know, I’m connected to this divine thing back there”? I could. Then I could just babble and say, “Well, it’s all divine, so you know, if you don’t understand it, that’s your tough luck.” Because that’s what the world does. I don’t do that. I want everybody to understand this. This is not like, “Baaah,” you know, just stay with the sheep and you’ll get pushed through. This isn’t like that.
There was this person, and they were taking an exam. A written exam. Multiple choice test. And they finished in, like, 15 minutes and there were people, you know, 45 minutes later that hadn’t finished their exam. And then the teacher looks at this kid and he’s got a coin and he’s tossing it up in the air.
“What are you doing?”
He said, “Well, I finished the test, I’m just double-checking the answers.”
People say, “Oh, So-and-so passed away and that was beautiful. I don’t think so.” It’s sad. That’s a human emotion, and that’s how it should be. Beautiful is beautiful. There are things that are beautiful and there are things that are neither good nor bad. And we feel what we feel. We feel what we feel. And when somebody who we love leaves, it’s going to be sad.
And should you take that sadness and try to disguise it? Bad mistake. Big mistake. Don’t disguise it. It is sadness. Because it is something that you need to resolve. There will be the absence of that person. Your expectations of that person, your dreams of that person, your visions that you might have had, “Oh, we will do this,” or, “we will do that,” or, “that person will be there,” all that needs to resolve. And time is a beautiful healer and it heals.
Can you learn from that? Of course, you can learn from it. You can learn about your strength from that. You can learn the most fundamental lesson that the most precious thing about anyone does not die. You know. That, yes, your father is gone, but your father lives in you. That’s what he has done.
And so now he’s not going to be there physically or whatever it is, but his love is with you. And then that becomes learning because then when you start to love other things in this world, other things in this life, you apply that. I am loving not because of this and that, but I want to really love who this person really is. That’s the learning. That’s the learning. That’s the understanding.
And then everything starts to become real. And sometimes we get into it, we don’t see it the way we need to see it. We’re human. And the objective of enlightenment is not to change our innate nature. It is not to change our innate nature. People make all these mistakes. They think that is our purpose. No, no, no, no, no, no. Change the artificial nature that the world has nailed on us. But not the real nature. Real nature — the real nature of a human being is beautiful. And it should be untouched because it is created by someone who knows far better than all the pundits put together.
You need this. This is why you were given this nature. And to try to do things to duck it, to evade it, is stupid. Everybody has got the dreams of heaven, right? Not there, it’s here. So human.
To enjoy, to laugh. Why do you want to take that away? To smile. Why do you want to take that away? To feel. Why do you want to take that away? The vessel is perfect. Take away all that doesn’t belong. Chip away that which does not belong. Who I am, who I should be, how I should be, how this, how that. Be. Exist. In that, you will find your strength, in that you will find your clarity, in that, you will find your understanding. And court those things that are precious in your life.
Because, you know, when you go to change things, you’ve got to be very careful what you change, how you change it. It’s not just a matter of hack it off. You know. All those things that people believe in. Doesn’t work. How do I know this? Take a good look.
We actually hand governance of ourselves to a system that lies. Again and again and again.  How can that be? This is the result of all those things we believe in. This is where it has brought us. Inclusive of all the good books that exist in this world, all the philosophies that exist in this world, all the ideas that exist in this world, all the people who existed — this is where we’re at. Not a good picture. Change something! I mean, anything.
That’s why it is so important to drive this car eyes wide open. It’s important. It really, really is important. This is not a license to become unconscious. It isn’t. You want to sleep, you can sleep, no problem. Pull over. And sleep.
You’re tired? No problem. Not a problem. Not an issue. Because, remember. The issue is: Avoid the accident. That’s the issue. Nowhere it is written how much you should or shouldn’t sleep. So if you’re tired, pull over. And people think life is a juggling act because you got to drive this car and be tired, and be conscious and be sleep-deprived, but don’t sleep. This is what people have come to the conclusion life is all about. And try not to get into an accident.
"Here. Pull over."
“No, I can’t pull over.”
“Pull over. It’s okay.”
There’s two old ladies sitting in a car. They just bought it — big, new car. Big. And they’re driving. Mildred is sitting in the passenger seat. Dorothy is sitting in the driver’s seat. And Mildred is watching. And they come to a crossing. And they drive right through the red light.
Mildred kind of looks at Dorothy. Maybe an accident, maybe, she didn’t really mean to do it.
Come across another intersection, it’s a red light. Dorothy goes right through. Benefit of the doubt — she didn’t really mean to do it. Another intersection, another red light — right through it.
Mildred said, “Dorothy. Why are you driving through these red lights?”
And Dorothy goes, “I thought you were driving. And I was wondering the same thing — why are we going through these red lights?”
Somebody needs to pay attention. Pull over, don’t worry about it. Sleep, get to sleep. When you awaken, we’ll progress on our journey.
That’s how it is. So, eyes wide open.




PREM RAWAT