A journey of a thousand li begins at one’s feet

On beginning and end, Lao Tzu says: That which lies still is easy to hold;that which is not yet manifest is easy to forestall;that which is brittle (like ice) easily melts; that which is minute easily scatters. Deal with a thing before it is there;check disorder before it is rife. A tree with a full span’s girth begins from a tiny sprout. A nine-story terrace begins with a clod of earth. A journey of a thousand li begins at one’s feet.

You will be able to resolve only when you start looking at that which is about to happen, which has not yet happened; otherwise you will not be able to resolve. That which is about to happen, which has not yet come into existence.

Try to understand the inner self. If you study the inner self a little, things will start becoming very clear. A little self-study is necessary. Because whatever I am saying is not a theory, it is information for your self-study. Try to see within, how an event happens, how a thought is created. Sit empty, see how a thought is created, where it comes from.

So first you will find that there is no thought, there is a feeling. Only a feeling. The feeling is very vague; not clear. It is as if something is about to happen, some sprout is about to sprout; but it is not clear – where it is, from where it is sprouting, what is happening. It is still in the heart. Right now the feeling is at the level of feeling. In a little while, it will rise above the level of emotion and come to the level of thought. Then you will be able to recognize more easily what it is, what is happening inside. Then as soon as it has come to the level of thought, it will insist on going to the level of action. These are three levels: emotion, thought, action.

Anger will remain in the first emotion; you are also not clear about what it is. Then it will become a thought; then it will gradually become clear to you what it is. Right now it is not at all clear to the other person. Then it will become an action. Then the other person will know what it is.

If you catch it before the emotion, then you will be able to resolve it -- pre-resolve it.

Then it is very difficult. Right now your awareness is not even on the thought. Right now even the thoughts are going on unaware. If someone suddenly asks you, what are you thinking? Then you are not able to answer immediately. People say, nothing. What is the reason for that? If someone is sitting, ask him, what are you thinking? That is already his answer, he is not thinking anything, he is just sitting like this.

Can anyone sit like this? Only Buddhas sit. There cannot be so many Buddhas in the world as to answer nothing.

No, he is thinking. He does not know. Thoughts are going on, but he does not know anything. Everything is happening in the dark. Tell him no, just close your eyes and say it properly, you must be thinking something! Then perhaps he tries a little and will be surprised that he is thinking nothing, but a lot. Thoughts are going on – random, irrelevant, absurd, not in any sequence; there is no reason visible as to why they are going on. Just like flies are buzzing around, thoughts are buzzing all around you. Their buzzing is so much that you have gradually become accustomed to it, just like a person sitting in the market becomes accustomed to the buzzing of the market. He does not even know that something is happening all around. He will know only when suddenly the entire market becomes silent for a second. Then he suddenly becomes alert and wonders what has happened! If you drive a car, you are not aware of the sound of the engine unless there is some difference. If the sound stops completely, you are aware, or if a new sound is added, you are aware. Otherwise, you are not aware of anything. You become used to it. You are used to thoughts. So if someone suddenly asks you, you say, "Nothing." That answer is not right. Start looking inside a little. First, become a witness to the thoughts. Start recognizing that whatever is happening should be known. Many times you will miss it. Because it will be difficult to remain aware for more than a second. Awareness is a very valuable thing; it is not attained so easily. Awareness is not just about having open eyes. What is going on inside can be seen, only then is it awareness. What is visible outside is not awareness. So, close your eyes and start watching your thoughts.

The play of thoughts is also very amazing, and if you are able to see it, it is very entertaining. Inside you are running a big drama; and only you can see it, no one else can see it. Big images arise; Big stories are played, big dramas are going on. Just make a habit of watching.

And don't fight. Otherwise you won't be able to watch. Just watch as you watch a film sitting in a cinema hall. Just watch. Take interest in one thing so that nothing goes by unseen, unseen, unmissed. Like sometimes when you go to watch a very sensational film, you sit very straight, you don't even sit firmly on the chair, so that you don't miss anything by sitting firmly. Then you remain bent forward, alert, so that you catch everything; not a single word is missed. Or when you listen to something that is very interesting, you listen with such alertness that if you miss even a single word, it will be difficult to catch the chain, the thread will slip out of your hand. Watch the thoughts within with the same alertness.

And this is very useful. There is no event in the world of greater benefit than this. You will not be able to get such a valuable thing by seeing anything else as you will get by seeing thoughts. Because by seeing thoughts your awareness will deepen, your witnessing will intensify, your meditation will stop. You will become a light of wisdom within, in which everything will be visible. The light will gradually increase and each thought will become transparent.

When thoughts become transparent and you start seeing each thought, then you will gradually start getting a glimpse of the feelings hidden beneath the thought. Feeling is hidden beneath every thought, just like the roots are hidden beneath every tree. They are beneath the ground. When you recognize the thought correctly, then you will know that there is a feeling hidden behind it.

And when the feeling starts appearing, then you have entered a very deep world. Now your wisdom has definitely started becoming still, its vibration has started disappearing, it has started becoming steady. The day you will see the feeling after seeing the thought also... Feeling means: the state of feeling only; No thought has been formed, only a feeling is there. Anger has not yet come, there is only a restlessness, which is not visible, which is provoking you to do something. But it is not clear yet, where to go. The thought of sex has not yet arisen, but sex is flowing in the body, it is pushing the body to form a thought. It wants to come to the level of thought.

Just like a bubble rises in water. So you see, the bubble rises from below. It was hidden, lying in the mud under the water. It rises from there. Slowly, slowly as it comes up, it starts becoming bigger, because the pressure of the water starts decreasing. The pressure decreases, the bubble grows bigger. Then it comes right to the surface. When it starts coming right to the surface, then you can see it. And when the bubble comes right to the surface and settles down, then you can see it properly.

This coming right to the surface is the act. Being in the middle is the thought. There, being hidden under the layer of soil in the water is the feeling. And the day you see the feeling, a unique event happens – you will become a visionary about yourself. Because before the feeling comes, the seed comes inside you. That seed always comes from outside. Because the bubble was hidden under water; before that air must come into the ground, otherwise how will the bubble hide? So after the feeling awakens, you can then see which feeling is going to come. That is the most subtle state of the mind, very subtle, where you become a visionary, where you can predict about yourself that now this is going to happen, that today evening I will get angry, that the feeling of anger will become strong by noon, the seed has been sown.

And the day you become so subtle that you can see the future, what is going to happen tomorrow, that very day Lao Tzu's formula will be useful to you. The solution can be found before the feeling is formed. Because the feeling is inert. And what comes before the feeling, for which we have no words; because no one sees so subtly; Or those who do something are sometimes so lonely that there is no way to tell anyone, no one else understands them. The pre-feeling state, the pre-emotional state, is the seed. And that seed always comes from outside. Thoughts come from outside; feelings come from outside; seeds come from outside. Everything comes from outside. And you get engrossed in that which comes from outside. The day you see all this and your observer becomes complete, that day there will be a solution. That day you will close the door before it comes. That day there will be no disturbance in your life.

'That which is lying quiet is easy to control. That which has not yet manifested is easy to resolve. That which lies still, is easy to hold. That which is not yet manifested, is easy to foreclose.'

That which is not yet manifested, changing it is a very easy thing to do. Let me tell you something in this regard, some parallel example, so that you can understand. Kirlian has developed a new type of photography in Russia. And that is to capture the disease in its latent state. If a person is a cancer patient six months from now, no doctor can detect it right now. Because no mark has been made anywhere in the body yet. Even a psychologist cannot detect it because no mark has been made in the mind yet. Kirlian can detect it.

He has prepared such subtle photographic plates, so sensitive, that he can capture that which is deeper than the body and mind, which spiritual people have been calling aura, the aura of the body, the electric field of the body. For example, if this finger of my hand is going to get sick after six months, then there is an electric field around this finger which has become sick right now. First the disease enters the electric field; then through that field it enters the mind. Then through the mind it reaches the body. Emotions, thoughts, actions; electric field, mind, body. Kirlian detects it six months in advance. And he says, if the treatment is done now, then this disease will never come. And now the treatment is very easy, because nothing has to be done now. Now the electric field of this person has to be corrected, which has been done by many means. In China, it has been done through acupuncture. Kirlian's photography has given great glory to the five thousand year old acupuncture. People used to think that this is just the imagination of the Eastern people. Acupuncture has proved to be very scientific. It is five thousand years old. Acupuncture was born when the ideology of Tao was becoming profound. It is a part of Tao. Acupuncture is a part of Tao, just as Ayurveda is a part of Yoga in India. Acupuncture is a part of the same sadhana system of Tao. These words of Lao Tzu are its basis that take pre-emptive measures. This very idea is planned for the disease of the body – that when the disease comes, it is very difficult to fight it, and when it reaches the body, it is very difficult and incurable to remove it, but if the disease is got rid of in the primary stage itself…

So what does acupuncture do? Acupuncture only changes the electric field of the body. Acupuncture has discovered seven hundred points in the body from where changes can be made. And acupuncture simply pricks a needle at those points, a slightly heated needle is pricked. Because of that heated needle, the electric current changes in the electric field at the place where the hole was being made. Due to the change in that current, the disease that was about to occur is cured.

Now this thing will remain imaginary. It will remain imaginary because this disease was latent. Right now even the patient did not know; right now even the doctor was not ready to accept that he had any disease. Only acupuncturists, whose entire initiation is to give birth to very subtle eyes, who try to see the electricity near the body. That is why the training of acupuncture is very difficult. Ten-twenty years, twenty-five years, even then it is not sure. Because it will depend on the speed of your eyes and attention that you start seeing the electricity around the body. This Kirlian has made the work easy. The camera catches it and tells. The camera takes a photo of the whole body; Electric lines appear around the body. And wherever the lines are broken, some disease is going to appear there. If that electric field is corrected, the disease will never appear.

Now there is a problem in this. If the disease does not appear, is it certain whether it was going to occur or not? If it does appear, then it is clear that the people who practice acupuncture were saying wrong things. If they succeed, then it is clear that it is nonsense, because the disease did not occur. How is it certain that it was going to occur?

But Kirlian photography has made big things clear. Now the plate can be seen in the same way as a doctor sees an X-ray plate. Just as X-ray plates have become necessary in every big hospital, in the coming ten years Kirlian instruments will become necessary in every hospital. Then it will be appropriate that instead of falling ill, you go there beforehand, get a check-up done every month to see if any problem has started.

And it can be cured there very easily. Because basically the things are very small. Gangotri is very small, it falls from Gaumukh, it is a small waterfall. Water seeps out drop by drop. Any change that needs to be made there is easy. It will be difficult in Haridwar. Very difficult in Prayag. Banaras is impossible. The disease has become incurable in Banaras. Now nothing can be done. Now there is no way to do anything. Why are you waiting for Banaras when treatment can be done in Gangotri itself?

As is true about the body, so is true about the soul. You should solve your inner life at the time when things were about to happen but had not happened; things were about to come but had not come. You should solve the future today itself. But for this solution, it is necessary for you to be very conscious and aware.

‘that which is brittle (like ice) easily melts; that which is minute easily scatters.’

Deal with something before it comes into existence. Stop the trouble before it matures.

‘A tree with a full span’s girth begins from a tiny sprout.. A nine-storey balcony starts from a handful of soil. A journey of a thousand miles starts from the feet of the traveller.’

It becomes difficult to change after walking a lot. Think a lot before walking, so that things can be kept right at the first step. Think well before building a house, so that the foundation can be filled properly. The mistake left there will always haunt you. It becomes very difficult to correct it when you return. Some things cannot be corrected when you return. And this is the problem of your life that you have walked thousands of journeys. You walked unconsciously at the first step, now you have the desire to correct it. You yourself are afraid, how will it improve?

It can improve. No matter how difficult it is, it is not impossible. Nothing has been spoilt yet. It is not too late yet. Time is in hand. And even now if you wake up, nothing is lost. When you wake up, then there is dawn, when you wake up, then there is morning.

But now you have to understand each and every sutra properly and then take steps. Keep one thing in mind from today: do not postpone. Whatever problem comes, try to solve it. Do not say, we will deal with it tomorrow. If you are angry with your wife, then sit and talk to her right now. Right now you are in Gangotri. Right now things are very simple. Right now there is no sting in anger, no poison. Right now anger is just a state of mind. Tell her that I am feeling angry. Tell her the reason. Talk to her. Right now you are not that angry; a conversation can happen. Can there be a conversation in anger? Then there is only a fight. Then there can be a dispute; there cannot be a discussion. Right now the first glimpse of anger has come, the first smoke has risen. Sit down right now. If there are a thousand important things, leave them. Nothing is more important than this. Sit down and talk. Do not say that we will do it in the evening, or we will do it tomorrow, and who knows, it is a wind that has come, it may go away, it may pass without being done. Nothing gets done without being done. Everything remains stuck. If you become skilled in catching in Gangotri, you will find that things have become so simple, so light that they do not become a problem. If greed has arisen in the mind, do not let it lie there, sit with closed eyes, lift your greed completely and see. Whatever will rise gradually on its own, you yourself pull it out, bring it from the unmanifest to the manifest. The tree that will grow over the years, you can do magic.

Have you seen magicians? They hide the mango seed under the basket; recite Jantar-Mantar; lift the basket -- it has become a plant. Then put the basket back; then read Jantar-Mantar; then play the damru a little, then lift the basket -- the tree is growing. Then cover the basket; then recite Jantar-Mantar; then play the damru; then lift it -- the tree has borne fruits. Then put the basket back; then do magic; lift the basket -- the fruits have ripened. They pluck the fruits and give them to you. All this is sleight of hand. But you can certainly do this within yourself. Do this Jantar-Mantar.

If greed arises, don't put it off. Sit down; darken the room; close all doors; cover yourself in a basket; throw Jantar-Mantar; say it is big! And there is no problem inside; say it is big, it becomes big. Say anger is big, greed is big, I want to see you completely. Tomorrow you will grow on your own, grow now! What do you want? Do you want a palace? Do you want an empire? What do you want? Say everything now! Reveal everything now! Why wait for tomorrow? Take up anger completely. Anger will grow with great happiness; the tree will grow big; fruits will appear soon; they will ripen. You have become Alexander. The kingdom of the whole world is yours. See this. Take it up completely. Recognize it completely. And be aware all the time what game the mind is playing!

The failure that Alexander saw later in his life, you will see it in a moment. What will happen if you get the kingdom of the world? What will happen if you get all the wealth? What will you do? Will you eat the wealth? Will you drink the wealth? And your whole life will be wasted in getting it. Alexander felt while dying that his hands are empty. You meditate for a moment and increase your greed completely, take it to its fruition; become Alexander; conquer the whole world. You don't have to kill anyone, you don't have to commit any violence, you don't have to go anywhere. You just have to do a trick of magic. What Alexander felt at the last moment after losing his life that his hands are empty, you will feel it in this small game itself that your hands are empty. Your hands are empty; this race is useless. And if this race becomes useless, then you have stopped what is coming, you have changed what is going to happen.

Whatever be the problem inside, don't delay. Don't create a seed. Don't give time. Don't give it a chance to grow. Grow it now, see. This is called self-introspection. And in self-introspection, your capacity will increase twofold. On one hand, the futility of greed will be proved, and by observing, your awareness will also be proved. These will be double benefits. You can make every problem a ladder. If you do not delay, then every problem can become a means to bring maturity in your life. The problem exists only so that you can solve it. Because by solving it, you will grow, you will mature. By solving it, you will become strong. Do not postpone the problem. Do not run away. One thing.

Do not fight with the past problems, which you have postponed, which you have been running away from. Give them a chance to spread in your mind. You sit on the bank of the river and let the flow of your problems flow. You keep watching as a witness, full of indifference, indifferent. Neither this side, nor that side; neither in favor, nor against. The flow of lust flows, let it flow. You are sitting on the bank; there is nothing to be done about it. Neither you are in favor, nor against. Neither you are a worldly person nor a saint. This is the meaning of my sannyas that neither you are a worldly person nor a saint. Neither you are a pleasure-seeker, nor you are a renunciate. You are not on either side.

Kabir says, forget the whole world in the sight of the bird. The whole world is lost in the turmoil of the pros and cons.

You are neither on the side nor on the other. You have sat down. You are watching. You say, let whatever is, come. Let the form be formed. Do not be afraid. If the mind starts enjoying beautiful women, let it be. Just remember that you are sitting on the other side and watching. You do not do anything. You did an act and it was a mistake, you picked up the sword, you said that you are observing celibacy, what is happening? You did an act and it was a mistake. You fought and you missed. You fought and you laid the foundation of defeat. You do not pick up the sword. You just sit with both hands tied. That is why Buddha, Mahavira, all are sitting with both hands tied. Otherwise, the hands may rise by mistake. You sit with both hands tied. Do not move the body. Do not move the action inside. And whatever the mind wants to do, let it do it. Let the angels of heaven enjoy; there is no harm in it, let them enjoy. Nothing is going wrong either; it is a drama, let it happen. What do you have to do with it?

There are particles of lust hidden in the body; there is a desire of lust hidden in the mind; it is a play of the body and the mind. The body is the stage; the mind is the actors. You are only a witness, you are only a spectator. You do not need to get up and go on stage. You do not need to join. You just sit. The play will end in a little while, you will go to your home. This is not your home. Neither are you the actor nor the stage. The body is the stage. There is a biological hunger hidden in the body, which becomes lust, anger, greed. Then the mind gives form to all this hunger hidden in the body, gives it thoughts, gives it color, gives it style, writes the story. The script is of the mind; the mind gives it actors. You unnecessarily come in between.

Don't come in between. Keep your distance and keep watching. And then you will be very happy. The kind of drama that goes on in the mind is not seen anywhere else. It is beautiful, entertaining. And it is free. You don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to stand in a queue in front of a ticket counter. The play is already going on when you close your eyes. And the more quietly you sit, the more colourful the play will become. In the beginning, the play may be in black and white, like an old kind of film. Soon multicolour, many colours, multiple colours will appear - if you keep sitting. First the worldly play will go on. If you keep sitting, soon the worldly play will fall away and what are called spiritual play will start. Kundalini is awakening; light is visible; Ram is standing with a bow; Krishna is playing the flute; Jesus is hanging on the cross - these are spiritual plays. These are also plays. Their whole play is of the mind. And their stage is also the body. You keep watching them too. Just as the world has passed, this play will also pass. You just keep watching. Do not become anything more than an inch more than a spectator.

It is very difficult. Sometimes you will feel like jumping in the middle. Sometimes you will find that you have forgotten and you have jumped. As soon as you find that you have jumped, then return to your chair and sit down. Many times you will make this mistake. It is an old habit. There is no need to worry about this. When you have forgotten, you have forgotten; what to do now? When you remember, return and sit down again and start watching. First the world will pass, then spirituality will pass.

It is very easy to escape from the world, but it is very difficult to escape from spirituality. Because it is even more entertaining. It is multicoloured; its colours are not visible in the world. You have seen the blue colour, but it is nothing. The day you will see the blue star within you, when you will see in your own third eye that the blue star is appearing, that blueness is supernatural. You will be drenched in it, you will drown in it, you will forget that you are a spectator, keep sitting on your chair. You will become a pleasure-seeker. Because there is nothing in Apsaras, and nothing in the treasure chest, when the subtle colours within are revealed. And they are revealed only to the one who has let go of the world. They do not get a chance to be revealed to the one who is entangled in the world. Spiritual pictures start appearing in front of the one who has let go of the worldly pictures.

That is a good sign. It tells that you have become a little calm, you have been sitting on the chair for a while, you have not jumped around for a while to reach the stage. That is why now these colours have started appearing. And when you find the colours within--very unique. Everything becomes supernatural. Sounds are heard, which even the greatest musicians cannot create. Whatever the greatest musician can do, even that will seem like an echo of those sounds. Thousands of moons and stars, millions of suns! A very unique world appears.

As you become calm, a world of very unique forms and colours appears. And it appears so real that this world will seem like an illusion. To one who has seen the blue star within, all the blue colours of the world will seem just dull, just some impression of it, that too blurred, a carbon copy. To one who has seen the beautiful nymph within, all the women outside will seem dull, desolate, ruins. To one who has got a glimpse of the wealth within, all the vaults will seem empty.

But remember that even that is still outside; all the scenes are outside. Inside there is only the observer. So let these too pass. Many are entangled in the world; many get entangled in spirituality. Those people who are entangled in spirituality come to me. They want me to testify for them.

Now I have a big problem. If I tell them that yes, a great work is happening, then they get entangled in it even more. If I tell them not to worry about it, then they become sad. They say that I am not helping, on the contrary I am making them sad. We had come with great hope. If I tell them that these blue stars, these thousands of suns, all these are also imaginations; this Krishna of yours playing the flute, this is also a play of your mind; this Buddha, Mahavira, you are creating them, this is the ultimate illusion of the mind; then they feel pain that I am telling their Krishna that this is an imagination of the mind. And they have found him with great difficulty, and I am snatching this also from them.

So either they run away; then they do not return again; why go to such a man! They look for those men who say, it is amazing! You have become a perfect man; you have found it. This is the real secret. This is spirituality.

No, neither is this the real secret nor is it real spirituality. This is also a play of the mind. When the mind sees that you are not being entangled in the world, the mind throws new temptations. The mind says, the old greed is gone, no worries. You have mastered the trick of the juggler, the juggler says, wait, I will show you another trick; even better than this. This is nothing, I just showed it like that. The mind is the juggler. And the mind will show you till the end. And you have to keep your senses intact.

There comes a time when you are not tired of being conscious but the mind is tired of pretending. That is the moment when the revolution happens. Then the juggler of the mind takes his basket, his equipment and his acrobat and says, "Come on son!" He left. He left you. The play ended. The stage disappeared. You are left alone on your chair.

That is what Mahavira has called Siddhashila; nothing is left, you are left sitting alone. That sitting is siddhi. Now nothing is visible. Now only the observer is there. Now there is no object, only subjectivity. Now only the soul is left, no experience is left.

That is why Kabir says: Shunya mare, Ajapa mare, anhad hu mar jaye.

Shunya also dies. Because Shunya is also an experience. If you say that I am experiencing Shunya, this is also a play of the mind. Experience is only of the mind. Experience as truth is of the mind. When all experiences go away. Shunya dies, Aajapa dies, Anhad hu dies.

Nothing remains, that is the real Shunya. Where no experience remains, that is the real void. Where you cannot even say that I am experiencing the void. Nothing is left; experience of what? Only the experiencer remains -- established in his ultimate glory, in his ultimate energy. Everything is lost. The drama is over. You have come home. This coming home is salvation.

That is why Lao Tzu says, 'Deal with something before it comes into existence.'

This is what has to be dealt with. All the subtle seeds are hidden in the mind. You deal with them. Let them manifest in the mind; do not make them into acts. As soon as acts are made, the web of karma begins. Let them manifest in the mind. You watch them and become a witness.

'Stop the disturbance before it matures. The tree whose trunk is full, starts from a small sprout.'

If you want to destroy it, destroy the small sprout. It will be difficult to destroy a big tree. Then why make big that which is to be destroyed? Then why nurture that which is to be crossed? Then why develop attachment to that which is to be distanced from? Then why develop any kind of attachment with that from which you have to be free? When you have to move away from this place, then consider it as a Dharamshala, why make it a home? Do not make the halt a destination. Before the halt becomes the destination, move away. Before something catches hold of you, before you get tied down, then only become cautious.

'A terrace  of nine-storied begins with a clod of earth. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the feet of the traveler. A journey of a thousand li begins at once feet.'

This is one of the most famous sayings of Lao Tzu.

There is a story - an old Chinese story - that a man had been thinking for many years that there was a pilgrimage place on a nearby mountain and he had to visit it. But it was far away. It was about twenty miles away. So people used to go very early in the morning; they used to leave at two in the night so that they could reach there in the cool of the night. Going on foot was the only way to that mountain. He kept putting it off for many days. Travelers from far and wide used to pass through his village. Finally he could not resist. One day he decided. He asked the old travelers what equipment they would have to take? They told him all the other things and said that they should also take a lantern. Because it becomes dark at two in the night. The path is rugged. Walking without light is dangerous. Many people have fallen and died.

So that man woke up at two in the night. He lit the lantern. He came out of the village. He must have been a great mathematician. He was a man of great calculations. He came out of the village and looked at the lantern, how far does it light up? The light hardly reached ten steps. He said, the light falls ten steps and the journey is twenty miles. I am doomed. It is very dark and the light is less. The calculation is clear. The light falls ten steps; the journey is twenty miles. How will we cross? He sat there, thinking what to do? Returning also does not seem appropriate, he left the house with great difficulty. He thought and discussed for many years, at last the people of the house also got fed up with him that if you want to go, then go, what is the point of talking! So he sat down.

Another Fakir was coming on a pilgrimage. He had an even smaller lantern. He stopped the Fakir saying wait, you will get into trouble. We have a big lantern; the light falls ten steps. You are carrying such a lantern that you can barely see four steps. How will you reach? It is a journey of twenty miles!

The Fakir laughed out loud. He said, you fool, if one step gets light then it is enough. Because no one walks more than one step! And with one step of light people can complete the journey of thousands of miles. Just that much light is enough, one step can be seen. You took one step, then another step became visible, you took another step. No one can take two steps at once.

The mathematician said, "Don't try to explain it to me. I am an expert in mathematics. It is clear that you divide ten miles by ten steps. You will not be able to deceive me in this way. And I am not a religious man, I am a logical man." Lao Tzu says that such a man will never be able to go on a journey.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step; it is also completed with one step. That is why Lao Tzu calls it the beginning and the end. The journey begins with the first step and the journey ends with the first step. What is the first step? That you solve the problems before they come; this is the first, this is the last. You have done this much, everything is done. You have achieved this much, everything is accomplished. If you achieve one step -- the first step of Gangotri, the first step -- then nothing gets complicated. Things keep getting solved. And you know how to solve one step. Nobody ever takes more than one step. Whenever you take one step, you will solve it. If you solve it today, you will solve it tomorrow, and you will solve it the day after. One step will keep on rising, it will keep on getting solved; one step will keep on getting illuminated. Then no matter how far the pilgrimage is, who cares? The one who has taken the first step correctly, solved, his destination is near.

That is why Lao Tzu says, this is the end, this is the beginning. And the one who goes astray in the beginning never reaches the end. It is like a river that gets lost in the desert, which cannot reach the ocean. If you want to reach the ocean, then don't keep your eyes on the ocean, keep your eyes on one step. One step is enough. Just take it solved. Stay solved in this moment. All moments will emerge from this moment. All steps will emerge from this step. One is solved, the other will emerge from that solution only. That is why don't worry about it. Don't worry about tomorrow. Don't think about the future. Don't worry about whether you will reach the destination or not. You solve one step. Those who have solved one, have always reached the destination. Because that is the beginning and that is the end.

English Translation from tao-upanishad-104