"A man is born only with an opportunity. It can be used, it can be wasted, so all depends on you. One has to become a creator of oneself. The parents have given you a body and a possibility, but the real birth has yet to happen. And for that real birth you will have to become your own mother, your own father. That real birth is an inner creativity. You have to move withinwards to find your own source of energy, and not only that, but to change the mechanical channels of that energy, to make conscious channels for it.

"Ordinarily, energy flows downwards. That's what Bauls call lust. When they call it lust they are not denouncing it, condemning it. It is just a fact, just as water flows downwards. It is natural for water to flow downwards, down the hill. But water can rise upwards; just a little heat is needed. The water has to be heated; it can evaporate. At a certain degree of heat, a hundred degrees, it starts rising towards the heavens. The same water that was always going downhill starts going uphill. A conversion has happened; just heat was needed. In the East this heat is known as tap. The word tap means heat; the word tap means 'heating yourself.'

"The Bauls sing,

'While desire burns in the limbs
still there is time.
Boil the juice
on the fire of longing
to condense the fruit.
The sweetness of syrup
will ferment and sour
unless it is stirred
on controlled heat.

'Feelings evolve from desire,
and love shoots forth from lust.'

"Lust is the same energy as love; the difference is only of direction. Lust moves downwards, love has started the uphill task. Lust is like the roots of a tree, love is like wings of a bird – but the energy is the same. All energy is the same. Energy as such is neutral. Unless you become conscious about it you cannot be creative.

"And the downhill movement is very destructive: you are simply dissipating yourself. You are not getting any integration through it – what Gurdjieff used to call crystallization. Every moment you are poured with energy. Existence goes on pouring energy into you: through air, through water, food; through the sunlight, through the moonlight, and through a thousand and one other subtle influences."