The Soul is present inside, it does not have to be got from somewhere else. Its springs are hidden inside; only the obstacles in-between, the stones and the soil, have to be removed by digging then the springs of Soul will start appearing.
But one can have a well (which is Soul or Self), and one can have a pond (which is Ego). Making a pond is different. You do not need to look for springs of water to make a pond. The way of making a pond is completely opposite to that of making a well. To make a pond you do not need to dig out stones and soil, you have to bring them from somewhere else and make a wall of them. And when the wall has been built the water does not come by itself, you have to take water from other people's wells and put it in the pond. On the surface a pond gives the illusion of a well. It appears to be a well. You can see water in a pond and you can see water in a well also, but the difference between a pond and a well is the same as the difference between the earth and sky.
The first difference is that a pond has no water of its own. No thirst in this world is quenched by something that is not one's own. Whatever is in a pond is borrowed and soon becomes stale and rotten because that which is borrowed is not alive, it is dead. The water standing in the pond becomes stagnant, rotten and will soon start stinking. But a well has its own water source; the water never becomes stagnant. A well has its own flowing water.
Two different processes are happening with a pond (Ego) and a well (Soul). A pond is afraid that somebody will take its water away because if its water goes, it will become empty. And a well wants someone to take its water so that more fresh water can fill it fresh and more alive. A well calls out, "Take my water, I want to share it!" And a pond calls out, "Keep away! Don't touch my water, don't take my water!" A pond wants somebody who has water to bring it and pour it into it, so its wealth grows. But if somebody has a container, the well wants that person to take some of its water so that it can get rid of the water which has become old and get new water. A well wants to share, a pond wants to collect. A well has streams which are connected to the ocean. A well seems to be small, but deep inside it is connected with the infinite. And howsoever big a pond may look, it has no relation to anyone, it ends in itself and is closed. It has no streams. It has no way of connecting with the infinite.
If somebody goes to the pond and talks about the ocean, the pond will laugh and say, "There is no such thing as an ocean. Everything is a pond. There is no ocean anywhere!" A pond has no idea of the ocean.
But if somebody praises the beauty of the well, then the well will think, "What is mine? Everything comes from the ocean. What am I? Whatever comes to me is connected far away with something else." A well cannot have any 'I' , but a pond has 'I am'. And the interesting thing is that a well is very big and a pond is very small. A well has its own wealth but a pond has no wealth of its own.
Only a wealth which grows more by sharing is really wealth. The quality of wealth is that it should grow by sharing; if it becomes less by sharing then it is not wealth. And someone who is afraid that their wealth will disappear through sharing must take great care of their wealth.
The accumulation of facts and other people's opinions is not a sign of knowledge, it is only a sign of ignorance. A person who is conscious and awake is free of all this 'knowledge'. There is no question of him collecting any more facts he knows himself. With that self-knowledge the mind is not a disturbed hive of honey bees, it is a mirror.
There is no difficulty in throwing away garbage, but there is difficulty in throwing away gold. As long as you feel that your ego is correct, you cannot throw it away and your soul will remain troubled. You may try thousands of ways to calm it but nothing will work because deep down you want the ego to remain because you think it's gold. The greatest difficulties in life arise from the misunderstanding that we think something is which it is not. Then all kinds of troubles arise. If somebody thinks that a stone is a brick of gold then problems start. If somebody realizes that a stone is a stone, then the matter is over.
Man is caught in a universal deception. And when everybody is caught in the same deception, it becomes difficult to see. You have to find out if the clothes of knowledge which you have thought of as clothes are really clothes, or are you standing naked in invisible clothes? You have to test each of your thoughts according to this criterion "Do I know it?"
we have the habit of comparing we even compare small children with each other. We say, "Look, the other child has gone farther than you. You are left behind." We are being unjust to the child because the other child is the other child and this child is this child! There is no possibility of comparing the two. Their beings are totally different. They are completely different in their uniqueness, in their authenticity; they have no relation to each other. We have habits of comparing our educational systems teach comparison, our systems of thought involve comparison. Without comparing we cannot evaluate. And the result is that we do not understand anybody or any thought directly. Many things stand in-between.
If I am standing in front of a rose flower and if I remember the flowers that I saw yesterday, and if I start thinking of how much similarity there is between this flower and those flowers, then the observation of this flower will stop. One thing is certain the shadow of those flowers which come in-between will not let you see this flower. And if I want to see this flower which is in front of me, then I need to forget all those flowers which I have ever seen. To bring them in between will be unjust to this flower. And there is no need to carry the memory of this flower otherwise tomorrow, looking at some other flower, this one may come in-between.
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