To sit in a movie theatre as you sit in a Satsang

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: It is so disappointing to see that even things, behaviors that I personally or in fact most of us think, to be honest, and authentic are revealed as conditioned. When I’m sitting in this session, I would sit with my spine erect, eyes closed, in a particular body posture, and that is my own decision, very authentic. But I would not listen in the same way if I were in a movie theatre. There, my behavior would be entirely different. Why is that so? Please help me understand.

Acharya Prashant (AP): And then your learning would remain incomplete because a movie has as much to teach as a session like this. How will I speak in this session if I don’t watch movies with attention? I can speak here, in the same way as I watch movies. I speak here in the same way as I am when I am playing with you, or sharing a joke or performing in a play, or just shouting at someone.

If you divide, if you say, ‘No, this one is a more serious, holy occasion. It has to be kept on a holy pedestal’, then you are missing out on something very important, which is the wholeness of life, which is the oneness of life.

Watch movies the same way, you listen to me here.

That is called the passionate living; that is called intense living.

Be intense. Be total, not selectively; be total, totally.

We all decide to be intense only on special occasions. No, be total and be total totally. Then you have removed time because time exists only when you divide, classify and make distinctions. When you are intense always even on the commode then time is gone because now there is no distinction. What will time do?

At 8 o’clock you are intense, at 9 o’clock you are intense, at 10 o’clock you are passionate, at 11 o’clock you are passionate. Now, what is the significance of time? It doesn’t matter what is the time. Now you have gone beyond yourself, gone into timelessness.

We don’t usually relate spirituality to commodes — that is the problem. We keep saying, everything is God but everything disappears when it comes to commodes. We must talk of commodes, they are terribly important. Are they not…