Page 162 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

confined to speech. It can also be so direct and subtle as to be

virtually telepathic. When communication is of this type it
usually indicates rather a high level of awareness of people.

Moreover, such 'telepathic' awareness is usually mutual.

In India there is an important form of awareness of others which

is known as 'darshan'. This means, literally, a sight, or a seeing: a
'vision'; and it is the term used for awareness of the spiritual

teacher. In India spiritual teachers usually have what are called
'ashrams', which are sort of retreat centres where the teacher
lives, where his disciples gather round him, and where people

come to see him. What usually happens is that after they have
had a sort of evening service called 'arati', which involves the

waving of lights in front of the image of whatever deity they
happen to worship, the teacher just sits there and people come.
In the case of famous teachers, people come from all over India.

They come not just in hundreds but in their tens of thousands,
and all that they do is sit and look at the teacher. They 'take his

darshan'. In other words, they do their best to be aware of him,
i.e. aware of him as a spiritual person, or as the living
embodiment of a spiritual ideal. In the case of the celebrated

Ramana Maharshi, whom I mentioned in the lecture on Perfect
Speech, he used to sit in his ashram 'giving darshan' for weeks

and months on end. I believe he sat for about fifty years on that
particular spot and, as I saw myself, people used to come from
all over India just to see, just to look, just to be aware of him.

Very often they didn't ask any questions, or enter into
discussion. Some did, of course, but the majority just sat,

looked, and were aware. They just 'took darshan'. According to
Indian spiritual tradition it is not

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