Adi Suyash: Because the mind has already created fixed categories: this should be enjoyed, that should not; this is good, that is bad. Remove these categories, and possessiveness (parigraha) will dissolve on its own. Isn’t that so?
Simply enjoy everything. Even if you do not consider something “yours,” still enjoy it. Therefore, first, do not become possessive, and do not maintain rigid categories. Remove one, and the other will also disappear. If possessiveness is removed, categories will vanish; if categories are dissolved, possessiveness will vanish as well.
Then observe how naturally you begin to enjoy everything. You will not need to ask, “How should I enjoy this?” Do you understand? Children do not need to be taught how to enjoy something. Give dolls to adults, and they will ask, “How do we enjoy this?” But look at children.
Seeker 1: They will immediately create stories with the dolls.
Seeker 2: Meaning, adults need an excuse in order to enjoy.
Adi Suyash: If you give a child a small toy car, like a Hot Wheels car, the child will delightfully roll it around and play with it for hours. Give the same toy to an adult, and the adult will wonder, “What am I supposed to do with this? How do I enjoy it? Where is the enjoyment in this?” They keep searching: “What enjoyment is there here?”
Children are enjoying it, adults are not. Why is that?
Seeker 1: Children can even enjoy a blank sheet of paper.
Seeker 2: Yes, they will make a paper airplane and fly it.
Adi Suyash: There is actually no intellectual answer to the question, “What is enjoyable in this?” When you are playing—as I used to play in childhood—there is a time when you go to the playground every evening at four and play joyfully day after day. Then a time comes when someone suddenly says, “What is the fun in this?” At that moment, you may understand that you have grown old. Understand that something has ended.
When you begin asking, “What is the fun in this? How should I enjoy this?” you may realize that something has gone wrong. Earlier, you were enjoying things effortlessly every day, and suddenly one day you find yourself asking, “What is the fun in this?”
Seeker 1: He used to play cricket every day and loved it.
Adi Suyash: Yes, and suddenly one day he says, “What is the fun in this anymore?”
Seeker 2: This happened with my brother.
Adi Suyash: If you observe carefully, what “fun” is actually contained in the game? Nothing at all. What pleasure is there, objectively speaking, in hitting a ball with a bat? If I ask you: how exactly would you define the enjoyment in striking a ball with a bat? How would you explain how to enjoy it?
That is precisely what you were asking me just now—“How can one enjoy (a so-called tragic situation)?” What I truly do not understand is: how can one not enjoy? What else is there, after all? Existence itself is enjoyment. We are made of bliss—ānanda itself. Why should we not enjoy? We can enjoy everything. Tell me instead: why should we not enjoy? Why should we mourn? Why not celebrate and enjoy? In any case, the action still had to be done.
You always have two options: do it with laughter, or do it with tears. Then why choose to do it while crying? Tell me that.
Seeker 1: Yes, exactly…that is what needs to be realised. Precisely this.
