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How To Experience Nothingness?

Speaker: This question is from Vasini, "If one has a deep yearning for nothingness and one is doing all the sadhanas and becoming emptier each stage, but the experience still has not happened. What is one to do Sadhguru?" Sadhguru: (Laughs) Emptiness does not come in installments. (Laughs) Because emptiness means "That which is not." Why emptiness is, because fullness – there is no such thing; it's just a word. If you really look at it, let us say, I will put one-billion dollars into your pocket. No, I have no such plans; I'm raising funds right now, okay? Suppose, just to titillate you, I will put one-billion dollars into your pocket. It feels very full for one day, but then you see her walking with ten-billion dollars. (Talks aside) Huh, you have? (Laughter) Then suddenly your pocket feels empty with one-billion dollars. Then let's say we'll put another nine for you; you have ten-billion dollars. Then he is walking with hundred-billion dollars. Suddenly it again feels empty. So your pocket can never be full, no matter how much we put. We'll take your head; when you passed your first standard, you felt like… what's more… what is there more to know in this world? (Laughter) You know? Then they told you there is a goddamn second standard. (Laughter) And you went through this, went through this, then they told you, tenth standard is public exam, "That's it, if you do that…" This is the… your parents went on telling you, "This is the key aspect of your life; tenth standard is very crucial." You believed. (Laughter) And you finished your twenth… tenth standard, and you're feeling chest puffed up, and you thought you really know it. Then the next day, they started bothering you, "Which college will you join? Which college will you join?" "What college? I thought I… Number ten I reached, perfect number!” (Laughs) Champion number, but no good; like this at every point. So how much ever we put into your head, your head will never become full, tch. Well, initially you just fell in love with only one person. Then when you fall in love with one person, you know, she produces one or two or three. Then you fell in love with all of them, but then they produce grandchildren like this. That also you loved, actually more than this one… (Gestures to the imaginary spouse) So your heart also cannot become full. You go in constipated installments, that's different. If you fall in love with everything in the universe, still it is not full, still it is capable of taking more. So your pocket cannot become full, your head cannot become full, your heart cannot become full. So fullness is an illusion that you chase; there is no such thing. But emptiness is possible. What is empty is never partially empty. Fullness is always partial. Emptiness is always total – when something is empty, it is absolutely empty. So you don't do that in installments. If you try to do it in installments, then you… you will never catch emptiness, because you cannot catch emptiness. This happened one day. A lady was having a neighboring woman, another lady from the neighborhood, who is also about her same age. Both of them have children. So of course she wanted to, you know, boast a little bit. She said, "We bought a few liters of olive oil, and we soaked our baby in this olive oil." Then the other lady asked, "Really? It must be very expensive, but his skin quality has must have really changed?" Then the man in the house came out and said, "I don't know about that, we've not been able to catch him till now." (Laughter/Applause) So don't try to catch emptiness; you can't catch emptiness; it's not anywhere, but it's total. So, what do I do? How do I empty myself? You understand this. If I take a bucket, I can empty it by throwing a mug after mug out. If I take a well, I can take uh, you know, take buckets and buckets and buckets and empty it. Well, that is not the way it happens. You become empty not because you have nothing; you become empty because you're dispossessed. You're not possessed by the things that you carry. Right now you're possessed; your money, your home, your relationships, your god, your religion, your philosophies, your love affairs – anything and everything. Everything possesses you! When you're dispossessed, you are empty. So this is the purpose of sitting with eyes closed, not (Laughs) praying to somebody, not calling out some God, not something – just cut off, lockdown! Tch. This is… you know, all over the world the governments are now initiating you into a spiritual process, so that you are not possessed by what is around you. You're simply all by yourself, but of course, many of you are behaving as if you're possessed. When you're dispossessed, you are empty. Otherwise, you will go on and on and on. I am saying you're looking in the wrong direction. You're looking at a few ti… tidbits that you have gathered in your life; yes that's all you gathered and thinking, "If I leave one, I will become empty; okay, I leave one more, I'll become empty." People go to Kashi, tch. It's a tradition that in ancient times they said, "When you go to Kashi, you must become dispossessed, there's nothing more. Everyday you see hundreds of bodies burning there; you sit there for a few days or a few months, when you come back, you're dispossessed; you are not entangled with anything." Then people made it little more, "You must leave some money and come. You must leave something else and come." These days they give… leave only pavakkai and come – tch, the bitter gourd; anyway they were not eating it. So that one they will leave it and come. "You must leave something and come. So I left bitter gourd because I don't like it anyway." Ah.. That is not the way to leave it, because you are aiming at the lo… wrong target. Even if you shoot it, not going to go away. This happened tch, one day Shankaran Pillai was newly married. So he made it a point, when he's coming back from his office, he always stopped in a restaurant and made sure he ate reasonably well and then came home because home was an experiment still. (Laughter) So he came home, and his wife was… As soon as he came home, she opened the door; she hugged him and cried bitterly. He asked, "What happened?" She said, "Just for you, I went through so mu… From morning, I've been online taking instructions from a cooking – ah, you know – instructor, and I made chicken biryani for you. I think it turned out well, but the dog, our dog ate it up! I just went for a shower; by the time I came out, our dog ate it up. Shankaran Pillai said, "It's okay; don't cry; I will buy a new dog." (Laughter) So what's her name? Speaker: Vasini. Sadhguru: Huh? Speaker: Vasini. Sadhguru: Ah if you want to become empty, what is needed is to get dispossessed. There are methods for that: how to do it. Don't try to empty on

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