"The thorns are protective; they have a function, a purpose, a meaning. But you divide: then flowers are beautiful and thorns become ugly. But in the tree itself it is the same juice that goes into the flower and into the thorn. In the existence of the tree there is no division, no judgment.

"The flower is not favored, the thorn is not tolerated. They are both accepted totally.

"And this should be our approach in our own life.

"There are things, small things, which if you judge, look stupid, idiotic. But it is because of your judgment; otherwise they also fulfill something essential.

"For example, many people have asked me, 'Why do we go on smoking cigarettes, cigars, when we know perfectly well that they are dangerous to our health, that they will reduce our life span, that we will suffer. The doctors are telling us…but we are so idiotic that we go on smoking.'

"And I have asked those people, 'Have you observed your doctors?'

"They said, 'That too is true – they all go on smoking!'

"Nobody looks into small things very deeply without any judgment. If you observe…that is not judgment; you are simply a witness while smoking – if you observe, you can see a few things: What are the situations when you smoke? What are the situations when the urge comes to you? And you will be surprised that those are the situations when you are tense, worried, nervous…you don't have anything to do. And we have been brought up by the society to believe that the empty mind is the devil's workshop.

"Something has to be done – you are not to be empty. You have to fill yourself. A cigarette comes in handy: it gives you something to do, and something really significant – because it relaxes you. It has nicotine in it which helps you to become non-tense. It helps you for the moment to forget your worries.

"For the moment, the cigarette gives to a simple, ordinary person a little space you can only call contemplative. He knows it harms, so later on he judges, then condemns it, condemns himself: 'I am stupid, doing something that is not good for me.'

"But he never observes the whole process."