"Nobody else is trying to go ahead of you; nobody is pulling your legs from behind.

"And the inner world is so delicate that if you are aggressive you will destroy it. It is like being aggressive to a roseflower: you may get it, but it will not be the same roseflower that you had seen dancing in the wind, in the rain, in the sun. It will be something dead – just a corpse, a memory, and nothing more.

"The inner reality is even more delicate. The very desire is enough to prevent you from getting it. Hence a totally different approach is needed: that is, of silent awaiting.

"The guest comes.

"The host just has to be patient.

"And in the subjective field of consciousness, there is nothing to grab. It is not a quantity, it is a quality. If you are silently waiting – with no desire, no expectation – there comes one moment when your silence is total and your waiting is unpolluted. Then the doors open. You are taken into your own innermost shrine. That has been my teaching.

"And this is a good opportunity to give a chance to silent waiting. While you were with me you were so filled with me, with my presence, with my words, that you never thought about waiting: I was available. Now I can be available not from the outside but only from the inside. And that is a great meeting – of utter fulfillment, of absolute joy. So don't make it a despair, don't fall into anguish. Don't feel that you are far away from me.

"You are far away only when you are not silent. You are far away only when waiting is not there; otherwise you are very close to me. Wherever you are, the silence will join you with me. And your waiting will prepare the whole ground for the meeting, which is nonphysical, nonspatial, nontemporal.

"Use this opportunity – and remember always that whatever happens has to be used as an opportunity. There is no situation in the world which cannot be used as an opportunity.

"It is sad that you are far away; that is a natural reaction, but not a very alert use of the opportunity."