Be Aware...!?!

If you remember, at this same place I have shared a story about Buddha that when asked ‘who are you?’ he answered ‘I am Aware…!’ I am absolutely fascinated by this and that’s why I have this ritual to end all my daily mails with these two words… Be Aware…! Among all the questions I am confronted with every now and then from my friends, relatives, readers and well(?)wishers, the majority ones are –
What do you mean by ‘Be Aware’ when you convey it regularly…?

Why do you do what you do when there are absolutely no returns from it…?

Why don’t you do what you can do to earn recognition, wealth and status…?

For the first question the answer is ‘It is loud thinking and I say it to myself…!’

And for the collective response to all the sympathies as a whole, I am borrowing a story of Buddha by OSHO…

There was one great master, a Buddhist master, Nagarjuna. A thief came to him. The thief had fallen in love with the master because he had never seen such a beautiful person, such infinite grace. He asked Nagarjuna, “Is there some possibility of my growth also? But one thing I must make clear to you: I am a thief. And another thing: I cannot leave it, so please don’t make it a condition. I will do whatsoever you say, but I cannot stop being a thief. That I have tried many times — it never works, so I have left the whole sport. I have accepted my destiny, that I am going to be a thief and remain a thief, so don’t talk about it. From the very beginning let it be clear.”

Nagarjuna said, “Why are you afraid? Who is going to talk about your being a thief?”

The thief said, “But whenever I go to a monk, to a religious priest or to a religious saint, they always say, ‘First stop stealing.’”

Nagarjuna laughed and he said, “Then you must have gone to thieves; otherwise, why? Why should they be concerned? I am not concerned!”

The thief was very happy. He said, “Then it is okay. It seems that now I can become a disciple. You are the right master.”

Nagarjuna accepted him. He said, “Now you can go and do whatsoever you like. Only one condition has to be followed: Be aware! Go, break into houses, enter, bring things, steal; do whatsoever you like, that is of no concern to me, I am not a thief — but do it with full awareness.”

The thief couldn’t understand that he was falling into the trap. He said, “Then everything is okay. I will try.”

After three weeks he came and said, “You are tricky because if I become aware, I cannot steal. If I steal, awareness disappears. I am in a fix.”

Nagarjuna said, “No more talk about your being a thief and stealing. I am not concerned, I am not a thief. Now you decide! If you want awareness then you decide. If you don’t want it, then too you decide.”

The man said, “But now it is difficult. I have tasted it a little, and it is so beautiful — I will leave anything, whatsoever you say.” The thief said, “Just the other night for the first time I was able to enter the palace of the king. I opened the treasure. I could have become the richest man in the world — but you were following me and I had to be aware. When I became aware, suddenly — no motivation, no desire! When I became aware, diamonds looked just like stones, ordinary stones. When I lost awareness the treasure was there. And I waited and did this many times. I would become aware and I became like a buddha, and I could not even touch it because the whole thing looked foolish, stupid — just stones, what am I doing? Losing myself for stones? But then I would lose awareness; they would become again beautiful, the whole illusion. But finally I decided that they were not worth it…”

Stay tuned and B-E A-W-A-R-E…!