
If surprise is lost, all is lost
excerpt
series:
The Beloved
Volume 1 / Chapter 1
June 21, 1976 Chuang Tzu Auditorium

024



(no question)
And that’s what religion really is: it is an individual approach towards truth.
One has to go alone, one has to go in his own way; one has to find one’s own way. You cannot follow another, you cannot move on a ready-made track. The more you search your own way, the closer you will be to God, or to truth, or to reality.
In fact, the way is created by walking. You create it as you walk. It is not ready there for you, waiting to be walked on. You walk and you create it.
It is as if you are lost in a forest. What do you do? You have no map and there is no way leading anywhere – trees and trees and trees all around, and you are lost. What do you do? You start walking, searching, seeking. By your very walk, by your very search, a path is created.
Life is wild, and it is good that it is wild. It is good that it has no map, that it is not charted, that it is still unknown. And its unknowability is such that there is no way to make it known; otherwise all charm will be lost, all beauty will be lost. Then life will not surprise you – and if surprise is lost, all is lost.
Then there will be no wonder, no wondering. Then your eyes will go dead and your heart will stop beating, the passion will disappear. Love will not be possible. Awe, wonder, surprise: these are the ingredients of the charisma, of the mystery of life.
So it is good that there are no scriptures, it is good that there are no ritualized religions, it is good that you are not on a superhighway.
The Beloved
Volume 1 / Chapter 1