Be Still and Know

Responses to Disciples Questions

Talks given from 01/09/79 am to 10/09/79 am

English Discourse series

10 Chapters

Year published: 1981

Be Still and Know

Chapter #1

Chapter title: Always on the Rocks

1 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909010

ShortTitle:

BESTIL01

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, MEDITATIVENESS AND SCIENCE ARE DIFFICULT TO RECONCILE.

YET PAINTING A PICTURE, WRITING A POEM, AND SOLVING A SCIENTIFIC

PROBLEM ALL BRING THE SAME JOY. THE SAME JOY!

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO BE MEDITATIVE AND A SCIENTIST?

WHY HAS THERE NEVER BEEN A SOCIETY IN WHICH THE INNER AND THE

OUTER SCIENCES, THE SCIENCE OF GENTLENESS AND LOVE AND THE

SCIENCE OF AGGRESSION AND DEATH, LIVE IN HARMONY?

Ananda Prabhu,

THE VERY EFFORT TO RECONCILE THE POLAR opposites is wrong -- you will never succeed in it. It is like trying to reconcile day and night, it is like trying to reconcile life and death. You need not reconcile them, you have only to see that they ARE

reconciled. Day and night are moving perfectly in rhythm; life and death are like two wings of existence.

Once you see that the polar opposites can't exist separately, once you have seen that reconciliation is not needed at all, that they are already reconciled, that awareness will help you to move from one pole to another without any problem. They are totally different phenomena -- polar opposites, but all polar opposites are also complementaries.

Science is concentration: it is mind, it is effort.

Meditation or religion is a totally different world: it is relaxation, it is let-go -- it is not concentration at all. It is not one-pointedness, it is no-pointedness. So how can you reconcile them? How do you reconcile work and rest? But you work hard in the day, and at night the rest comes of its own accord. You have earned it; your hard work brings rest.

Philosophically reconciliation is not possible: work cannot be rest, rest cannot be work. If you try to create a synthesis you will destroy both, the beauty of both. Work is work, rest is rest. But work done well brings rest, and if you have rested well in the night; in the morning you will feel so vital, so alive, so full of energy, that work is needed. Rest brings work, work brings rest -- it is a circle. Reconciliation is already there: day brings night, night brings day; life brings death, death brings life. They are half-circles; with both together the circle is perfect and complete. But please don't try to reconcile them in theory, in philosophy.

In existence watch, and see how polar opposites are functioning together, hand in hand, as complementaries. That has not been done yet; in fact, humanity was not mature enough to do it up to now. Everything needs a particular time, a particular maturity, in which to be done.

The East has lived religiously -- that is one pole -- and because IT has lived religiously it has not been able to produce science. The West has lived scientifically, and because of its science it has lost track of religion. Now for the first time, the East is no more East and the West is no more West. The earth is becoming one: the earth is becoming one. global village. This is the time when the reconciliation can be seen, can be understood.

Man is entering into a new phase; a new consciousness is to dawn. For at least ten thousand years, as far as consciousness is concerned, nothing new has happened. There have been Buddhas and there have been Albert Einsteins, but we are still waiting for a Buddha who is also an Albert Einstein or an Albert Einstein who is also a Buddha. The day is coming closer and closer. Albert Einstein in his last days was very much interested in meditation, in religion. His last days were full of wonder. He said in his old age, "I used to think when I was young that sooner or later all the mysteries of existence would be solved, and I worked hard. But now I can say that the more we know, the more existence turns out to be mysterious. The more we know, the less we know and the more we become aware of the vastness...."

Science has not been able to demystify existence. Now this is recognized not by ordinary technicians but by geniuses, because they are the pioneers; they can see the dawn very close by, they are the prophets. Albert Einstein says that science has failed in demystifying existence, that on the contrary it has mystified things even more.

For example, it was so easy in the old days, just a hundred years ago, for the scientist to say that all is matter. Now matter has disappeared; in neo-physics there is no entity called matter. The deeper the physicist went into the world of matter, the more matter was not to be found at all: it is pure energy. How to define energy now? Is it material? Energy cannot be material; energy is something totally different from matter. Matter is static, energy is dynamic; matter is a noun, energy is a verb. Matter is measurable. That is exactly the meaning of the word 'matter': it comes from 'measure', the root means

'measurable'. Matter can be measured, that's why it is called matter. Energy is immeasurable, it cannot be called matter. And as the physicist has entered into the world of energy, he has become more and more puzzled; never before has he been so puzzled.

Mystics have always been in awe before existence. The physicist is for the first time in awe, because he has for the first time touched something very vital otherwise he was just looking from the outside. A stone is just a stone from the outside. The physicist now knows that the stone is not just a stone: it contains universes. A single small pebble that you can hold in your hand contains so much atomic energy that the whole universe can grow out of it, contains so much atomic energy that the whole universe can be destroyed by it. It is not just a pebble any more and it is not solid any more. You are holding it in your hand and you know it is solid, but your knowing is no longer scientific. It only appears solid; it is liquid. And it looks so available, manipulatable; you can do things with it. But you don't know its mysteries which are not manipulatable, and the mysteries are really immense -- almost as immense as the mystery of God itself.

The modern physicist is using the language of the mystics for the first time. Eddington said, "The universe no longer looks like a thing but like a thought." This, from the mouth of a scientist, a Nobel prize-winner -- the universe looks like a thought and not like a thing? That means the universe is more consciousness than matter. And matter has been analyzed, our penetration has become deeper; we have come across atoms, electrons, neutrons -- and we are utterly mystified, at a loss even to express what we have come across. We don't have the language, the right language for it, because we have never known it.

Now the right language has to be found in the words of the mystics: a Buddha will be helpful, a Lao Tzu will be helpful And scientists ARE looking into the words of the Buddhas to find the right language, because these are the people who have been talking about paradox, mystery. And now science is coming across paradoxes.

The greatest paradox is that the electron behaves in such a mysterious way that the scientist has no language to express it. It behaves simultaneously as a particle and as a wave. This is impossible, inconceivable for the mind. Either something is a particle or it is a wave; the same thing cannot be both at the same time.

You know Euclidean geometry: either something is a point or something is a line; one thing cannot be a point and a line together at the same time. A line means many points following each other in sequence; a single point cannot function like a line. But that's now electrons are functioning -- simultaneously as a point and as a line, as a particle and as a wave. What to make of it? How to say it?

The scientist is dumb. Now he knows that the mystics, who have always been talking in paradoxes, who have been saying God is far away and very close by, must be saying something through their experience. The mystics who used to say that life and death are one, not two, for the first time are becoming relevant to the scientist's mind. A new science is arising which says it is a science of uncertainty. NO more certainty! Certainty seems to be too gross.

Mahavira, twenty-five centuries ago, used to make each of his statements with a

'perhaps'. If you asked him, "Is there a God?" he would say, "Perhaps." In those days it was not understood at all -- because how can you say, "Perhaps"? Either God is or is not.

It seems so simple and so logical: "If God is, God is; if he is not, he is not. What do you mean by 'perhaps'?"

Now it can be understood. Mahavira was using the same language in religion that is being used by Albert Einstein in physics. Albert Einstein calls it the theory of relativity.

Mahavira has called his philosophy exactly the same: SAPEKSHAWAD -- the theory of relativity. Nothing is certain, everything is flexible, fluid. The moment you have said something, it is no longer the same. Things don't exist, Mahavira says, but only events.

That's what modern science is saying, that there are no things in the world, but only events. And we cannot say anything absolutely, we cannot say, "This is so." Whenever somebody says absolutely, "This is so," he is behaving foolishly. In the past he was thought to be a man of knowledge; the more certain he was, the more it was thought that he knew. The uncertain person, the hesitating person, was thought to be ignorant.

That's why Mahavira could not influence the world very much; he came too early, he arrived before his time. Now is the time for him -- now he will be understood by the scientist, by the highest intelligence in the world. But he was talking to people, the ordinary masses, who could not understand his SYADAWAD -- his perhaps-ism. People wanted certain knowledge: "Is there a God?" And Mahavira would say, "Perhaps. Yes --

in one way it can be said yes, and in another it can be said no. And both are right together, simultaneously."

Now the time has come. Ananda Prabhu, don't try to reconcile things -- that will be a false phenomenon. Just watch, just look deep into things as they are. They are already reconciled; there is no conflict in existence. All contraries are complementaries.

YOU SAY: MEDITATIVENESS AND SCIENCE ARE DIFFICULT TO RECONCILE.

If you try to reconcile them it is not only difficult but impossible. It cannot be done. You will go mad -- the very effort to reconcile them will drive you crazy. Avoid such an effort. Rather, on the contrary, simply watch.

Life is paradoxical. It is already a synthesis of paradoxes; the opposites are already meeting in it. All that we need is a pure mirror-like consciousness, so that whatsoever life is it is reflected. And you will see in that reflection the meeting of the opposites: the meeting of East and West, the meeting of religion and science.

YOU SAY: YET PAINTING A PICTURE, WRITING A POEM, AND SOLVING A SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM ALL BRING THE SAME JOY. THE SAME JOY!

Yes, they can -- because art is just in the middle between both, equidistant from religion and science. Art has the qualities of both. One aspect of art is scientific, the technological aspect. Hence the scientist can paint and enjoy painting, and will have the same joy; and the mystic can also paint and will have the same joy as in prayer, as in meditation --

although both are doing the same thing, the mystic's painting will be totally different from the scientist's painting.

You can look: modern painting in the West is too much under the influence of technology. It has lost beauty; it is no longer helpful in bringing you to the divine presence that permeates existence. On the contrary, it simply reflects the insane mind of man. Looking at Western painting you will feel dizzy, nauseous, ill.

Zen Masters have also painted, but their painting is totally different. Watching a Zen painting you will feel uplifted; a feeling of subtle joy will arise in you. You would like to dance or sing or play on your flute. Zen painting comes from the other side, the mystic's side. Picasso, Dali, and others come from the side of science. Now, there is no similarity between a Picasso painting and the painting of a Zen Master, no similarity. They are two totally different worlds, and the reason is that the painters are different.

Yes, Ananda Prabhu, you may be feeling the same joy in painting, writing a poem, and solving a scientific problem. It is all mind. Solving a scientific problem is mind; your poem will also be more or less mathematical, logical. It will have only the form of poetry but its spirit will be prose.

That's why in the West poetry is dying, painting has become ugly, sculpture is no longer representative of nature. Something is immensely missing: the spirit, the very spirit of art is missing. Looking at a Zen painting you will be overwhelmed; something from the beyond Will start showering on you.

Have you watched a Zen painting closely? There are a few things you will be surprised to see. Human figures are very small, so small that if you don't look minutely you will miss them. Trees are big, mountains are big, the sun and moon, rivers and waterfalls are big, but human beings are very small.

In Western painting the human being is very big; he covers the whole canvas. Now this is not right, this is not proportionate, this is not true. The human being covering the whole canvas is very egoistic -- but the painter IS egoistic. The Zen Master is right: man is only a tiny part in this great universe. The mountains are big and the waterfalls are big and the trees are big and the stars and the moon and the sun -- and where is man?

Just the other day I was looking at a Zen painting. The men were so small, two small figures crossing a bridge, that I would have missed them because tall mountains and trees were covering the whole painting. But there was a note underneath the painting saying,

"Please don't miss: there are two human figures on the bridge." I had to look very closely

-- yes, they were there, two human figures, very small, walking hand in hand, passing over the bridge. This is the right proportion; this is a non-egoistic painting.

In Western paintings you will find the whole canvas covered. In Zen painting only a small part of the canvas is covered, and the remaining part is empty. It looks like a wastage: if you are going to make such a small painting, why not use a small canvas?

Why use such a big canvas which covers the whole wall, and just in the corner make a small painting? But the Zen people say that's how things are: "Emptiness is so much all around. The whole sky is empty -- how can we leave out the sky? If we leave out the sky the painting will be untrue."

Now no Western painting has that vision, that we are surrounded by emptiness: the earth is very small, humanity a very small part of the earth, and infinite emptiness all around....

To be true, to be existentially true, the emptiness cannot be left outside; it has to be there.

This is a different vision, from a different side.

Zen painting is not done in the Western way. In Western painting you will find that the painter goes on improving: over one coat of paint there will be another coat of paint and still another coat of paint, and he goes on improving and touching up and doing things.

Zen painters cannot do that; that is impossible. They use a certain kind of paper, rice-paper, on which you can make only one stroke. You cannot correct it; you have to leave it as it is. The paper is so thin that if you try to correct it the whole thing will be lost. Why is rice-paper being used? So that the mind has nothing to do -- the mind is constantly trying to improve, to make things better. It has to be from the heart, a single stroke. If your heart is full of it, it will come right. But you cannot correct it; correction comes from the mind.

Zen painting is never corrected; if you correct it your correction will always show that you are not a Master. It has to come out of your meditativeness, your silence. Your feeling of the moment is spread on the rice-paper.

Art is just in the middle, equidistant from science and religion. It can be both. It can be scientific art, as it is in the West -- that's what you mean, Ananda Prabhu. It can be religious art: you don't know anything about that yet, because before you can know anything about it you will have to know what meditation is.

Meditation is not a state of concentration; it is not a state of mind at all. It is a state of total mindlessness -- and not a state of sleep either. No mind, no sleep; no mind, but total awareness. Out of that awareness you bring a different quality to music, to painting, to poetry. And out of that meditativeness you can bring a totally different quality to science too. But before that can happen we will need large numbers of meditative people around the earth.

That's what my work is. That's what I am trying to do here: to create meditators. That is the first requirement. If we want to bring a new world vision where science and religion can meet, we will have to create the foundation first; only then can the temple be raised on it. Meditation has to be the foundation.

And don't try to reconcile things: just become more meditative. In your meditation is reconciliation, because in your meditation you become able to see that the contradictions are only apparent, that the contraries are only enemies on the surface but deep down they are friends. It is like two friends playing chess: on the surface they are enemies, but deep down they are friends. That's why they are playing chess -- they are friends; but because they are playing chess they are pretending to be enemies.

This is the LEELA of existence, the play of existence. God has divided himself into two, because that is the only way to play hide-and-seek. k is a very beautiful play if you understand it as play. Don't take it too seriously because then you will not be able to see the playfulness of it.

You ask me: WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO BE MEDITATIVE AND A SCIENTIST?

It is not. To be meditative is difficult for everybody; it is not only a question of the scientist. Ananda Prabhu is a scientist. But it is the same difficulty as a businessman will feel, it is the same difficulty as the carpenter will feel. It is not just something new to the scientist. Maybe quantitatively it is a little more difficult, because his whole mind knows only one way of functioning, that of concentration. He knows only one way to use the mind: to focus it on a certain object. And meditation means remaining unfocussed, just remaining open, open for everything.

While listening to me you can listen in two ways. The scientific way is to concentrate --

what I am saying, concentrate on it. That means close your mind to everything else: the airplane passes by, and the train makes a noise, and the traffic on the road and the birds singing in the trees...close your mind to everything. Just let there be only a small keyhole available to me; listen only to me. That's how the scientist listens; he looks through a keyhole into existence.

The mystic comes out of the room, stands under the sky, utterly open to everything. That is the other way of listening, the way a meditator listens. Then you go on listening to me, and the chirping of the birds goes on as a background to it. And what I am saying the chirping of the birds cannot disturb -- no, not at all. It enhances its beauty; it gives it color, it gives it music And not only the chirping of the birds but the airplane passing by and sudden noise create more silence in contrast.

When the airplane has passed by, you are suddenly listening to me on a deeper level. And while the airplane is passing and the noise is there, you listen to both. You don't become disturbed. You don't say inside, "This stupid airplane is disturbing me." The airplane cannot disturb you. But if you say inside, "This stupid plane is disturbing me," your SAYING it will be a disturbance; when you are saying it you will lose track of me. The airplane cannot disturb you, but your reaction to it is bound to.

Listening meditatively means all that is is accepted, welcomed. In all its multiplicity the universe is received. You are simply open from all sides to all that is happening. And you will be surprised' It brings such a great silence, such exquisite silence, such profound silence.

Concentration tires you, meditation never tires you. But it is difficult for everybody, not only for the scientist -- because we have become accustomed to a certain pattern of looking at things. You will have to melt your pattern; you will have to become a little more liquid, fluid, and meditation will come to you. Don't be worried about it being difficult for the scientist; that idea can create difficulty. Once you have accepted the idea that it is difficult then it will be difficult. Don't bring that idea; that will become auto-hypnotic, it will become a suggestion. It is not difficult: meditation is the simplest and the easiest thing in the world. We have just become accustomed to concentration. We have been told since childhood to concentrate: from the primary school to the university we have been trained for concentration. This is a kind of habituation; it takes a little time to drop the old habit and to learn something which is not a habit but your very nature.

YOU SAY: WHY HAS THERE NEVER BEEN A SOCIETY IN WHICH THE INNER

AND THE OUTER SCIENCES, THE SCIENCE OF GENTLENESS AND LOVE AND

THE SCIENCE OF AGGRESSION AND DEATH, LIVE IN HARMONY?

Now the time has come. Everything can happen only at a particular time. Religion has come to its ultimate peak in the Buddhas; now science is also coming to an ultimate peak.

And only when two things have grown is a meeting possible.

A seed cannot meet a tree; the seed will have to become a tree. Only then, high in the winds, in the clouds, can they whisper to each other, can they fall in love with each other, can they embrace each other, hug each other -- can they have a dialogue. But a seed cannot have a dialogue with a grown-up tree; it is impossible. The seed will not know the language, the tree will not understand the language of the seed.

Religion has been in a mature state for almost five thousand years. Science is still growing, coming to maturity. Hence I say this time is one of the most precious times.

You are fortunate to be alive today, because something immensely great is going to happen -- and that is the meeting of science and religion, the meeting of West and East, the meeting of the extrovert mind and the introvert mind. It will create the new man who will be able to move easily to the outside or into the inside, who will be able to move easily into the extrovert world of science and into the introvert world of religion -- just as you move outside your house into the garden and back into the house. It is not a problem; you don't need any reconciliation. You need not make a great effort each time you come out of your house onto the lawn -- you simply come out! It is feeling cold inside, and the sun is beautiful and warm outside: you come onto the lawn, you sit on the lawn. Later on when it becomes too hot you simply move in because there is coolness inside.

Just as easily as you come out of your house and go in, a total man will be able to move into science and religion; the inner and outer will both be his.

Carl Gustav Jung has divided human beings into two: the extroverts and the introverts.

His categorization is relevant for the past but will be utterly useless for the future, because the future man will be BOTH together. In the past, we have always been categorizing in this way, but the future man will not be a man and will not be a woman. I am not saying biologically -- biologically the woman will be a woman, and the man will be a man -- but spiritually the future man will have as many feminine qualities as the woman, and the woman will have as many masculine qualities as the man. Spiritually they will never be labeled as man or woman any more. And that will be the real liberation

-- not only the liberation of women, but the liberation of men too: liberation from straitjackets, liberation from imprisoning categories, liberation from all labels.

Man is not going to be Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian; man is not going to be Indian, German, English; man is not going to be white or black. Not that colors will disappear --

the white man will be white and the black will be black -- but these will become irrelevant, trivial, meaningless; they will not be decisive. The new man will have a universal consciousness, and the foundation will be laid by the meeting of science and religion.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, CAN BUDDHA OR CHRIST BE CREATED OR DEVELOPED OUT OF

EVERY COMMON HUMAN BEING? OR IS BUDDHA OR CHRIST ONLY BORN

AS SUCH? EVERY MAN IS BUDDHA, EVERY MAN IS CHRIST: I FEEL IT IS NOT

TRUE.

Bal Krishna Bharti,

THE BUDDHA OR THE CHRIST CANNOT BE CREATED because the Buddha is your intrinsic nature. It need not be created. It has not to be developed either; it is already there, it is already the case. It has only to be unfolded, it has to be discovered.

The treasure is there; you have to find the key to unlock the door. The treasure is not to be created, the treasure is not to be developed; you only have to find the right key. You have forgotten about the key -- the key is also with you. God provides you with everything that is needed on the journey; you come absolutely prepared. But society disturbs every child, distorts every child, because a Buddha or a Christ is useless to the society; they don't serve any utilitarian purpose.

What can you do with a Buddha? What purpose is he going to serve? He will be a beautiful flower, but flowers don't serve any purpose. Flowers have to be enjoyed, appreciated, loved. You can dance around them, you can drink their beauty, but they are not commodities in the marketplace. What can you do with the full moon? You cannot sell it, you cannot purchase it, you cannot be profited by it. You cannot have a bigger bank balance because of the full moon.

Hence the society is not interested in a Buddha or a Christ. Buddha is a full moon, a Buddha is a lotus flower, a Buddha is a bird on the wing. The Buddha is a poem, the Buddha is a song, the Buddha is a celebration. Because they are utterly beyond utility, the society is not interested in them; it is really afraid of these people. It wants you to be slaves, to be cogs in the wheel of the society. It wants you to be servants to the vested interests. It does not want you to be rebels -- and a Buddha is bound to be a rebel.

A Buddha cannot follow stupid commandments given by the politicians or the moralists or the puritans or the priests. And these are the people who are exploiting humanity, oppressing humanity. They start destroying every possibility of every human child ever becoming a Buddha. They start crippling, they start poisoning. And down the centuries they have learnt many ways to poison. It is a miracle that once in a while a child has escaped -- must have somehow been a mistake on the part Of the priests and the politicians that a child escaped from the trap and became a Buddha.

Bal Krishna, every man is born to be a Buddha, every man has the seed of Buddhahood in him. But I can understand your question.

You say: I FEEL IT IS NOT TRUE.

Yes, if you look at the masses it doesn't seem to be true. If it were true there would be many Buddhas, but one rarely hears about a Buddha. We only know that somewhere, twenty-five centuries ago, a certain Siddhartha Gautam became Buddha. Who knows whether it is true or not? It may be just a myth, a beautiful story, a consolation, an opium for the masses, to keep them hoping that one day they will also become Buddhas. Who knows whether Buddha is a historic reality?

And so many stories have been woven around the Buddha that he looks more like a mythological figure than a reality. When he becomes enlightened, gods come from heaven, play beautiful music, dance around him. Now how can this be history? And flowers shower on him from the sky -- flowers of gold and silver, flowers of diamonds and emeralds. Who can believe that this is history?

This is not history, true, I agree. This is poetry. But it symbolizes something historical, because something so unique has happened in Buddha that there is no other way to describe it than to bring poetry in. Real flowers have not showered on Buddha, but whenever somebody becomes enlightened the whole existence rejoices -- because we are not separate from it.

When you have a headache your whole body suffers, and when the headache goes your whole body feels good, a well-being. We are NOT separate from existence. And until you are a Buddha you are a headache -- a headache to yourself, a headache to others, a headache to the whole existence. You are a thorn in the flesh of existence. When the headache disappears, when the thorn becomes a flower, when one man becomes a Buddha, a great pain that he was creating for himself and others disappears.

Certainly -- I vouch for it, I am a witness to it -- certainly the who]e existence rejoices, dances, sings. How to say it? It is nothing visible; photographs cannot be taken of it.

Hence the poetry; hence these metaphors, symbols, similes.

It is said that when Buddha was born his mother immediately died. It may not be a historical fact, it may be. But my feeling is that it is not a historical fact -- because it is said that whenever a Buddha is born, the mother immediately dies. That is not true. There have been many Buddhas -- Jesus' mother did not die, Mahavira's mother did not die, Krishna's mother did not die. Maybe Siddhartha Gautam's mother died, but it cannot be said that whenever a Buddha is born the mother dies, not historically.

But I know it has some significance of its own which is not historical. By 'the mother' is not really meant the mother; by 'the mother' is meant your whole past. You are reborn when you become a Buddha; your whole past functions as a womb, the mother. And the moment a Buddha is born, the moment you become enlightened, your whole past dies.

That death is necessary.

Now, THIS IS absolutely true. It happened with Mahavira, with Krishna, with Jesus; it has happened always. To say it, it is said that whenever a Buddha is born the mother dies.

You will have to be very very sympathetic to understand these things.

I can understand that it is difficult, looking at the greater part of humanity, to see that there is any possibility of every human being becoming a Christ or a Buddha. Looking at a seed can you believe that one day it can become a lotus? Just looking at the seed, dissecting the seed, will you be able to infer, conclude, that each seed is going to become a lotus? There seems to be no relationship at all. The seed looks nothing, and when you dissect it you find nothing in it, only emptiness. Still each seed carries a lotus within it --

and each human being carries the Buddha within him.

YOU ASK ME: CAN BUDDHA OR CHRIST BE CREATED OR DEVELOPED...?

No, they cannot be created and they cannot be developed: they have to be discovered, they have to be uncovered. they are already there. You just have to reach your innermost core and you will find the Buddha enshrined, you will find the Christ. Christ and Buddha mean the same: the ultimate state of consciousness.

And you say:...OUT OF EVERY COMMON HUMAN BEING?

I have never come across a single common human being. I have come across thousands of people, I have looked into the depths of thousands of different people, but I have never come across a common, ordinary man. Every human being is unique, extraordinary, uncommon, exceptional. God never creates common human beings, God only creates unique consciousnesses .

Drop this idea of a common human being. This is an insult to humanity.

And you say: IS BUDDHA OR CHRIST ONLY BORN AS SUCH?

No. Nobody is born as such. We are all born alike. That too is again a trick of the mind to avoid growing. If it is settled that a Buddha is born as a Buddha, and a Christ is the ONLY begotten son of God, and Krishna is a reincarnation of God, this is a beautiful strategy to avoid: "Then what can we do? If we are not Buddhas it is not our fault -- we are not BORN like that. And if Buddha is a Buddha, so what? He is BORN a Buddha. No credit to him; he has not done anything special. If we were born like Buddha we would be Buddhas too. But we are born as COMMON human beings."

This is a strategy. Very cunning is the mind, and subtle is its cunningness: beware of it.

Nobody is born as a Buddha yet everybody brings the potential of being a Buddha. And don't say, "I feel it is not true" -- because how can you feel unless you have become a Buddha? You can only infer, you can only think, you cannot feel.

Listen to me! I FEEL that everybody can become a Buddha. And I feel it because I was also a common human being...and then suddenly this explosion, then suddenly this light, then suddenly this meditativeness blossomed. You can also become a Buddha; it is your birthright. Don't be tricked by your mind -- remain alert, aware.

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, I FIND MYSELF MOSTLY ATTRACTED TO WOMEN AND VERY

RARELY DEEPLY TO A MAN. I AM A LITTLE BOTHERED ABOUT IT. COULD

YOU PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT?

Ma Prem Loka,

SEX HAS BEEN CALLED THE ORIGINAL SIN -- it is neither original nor sin. Even before Adam and Eve ever ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge they were having sex, and all the other animals in the Garden of Eden were having sex. The only thing that happened after the eating of the fruit of knowledge was awareness: they became aware of it. And by becoming aware of it they became ashamed.

Why did they become ashamed? From where did this shame come? They became ashamed because they saw that they were behaving just like other animals. But what is wrong in behaving just like other animals? Man is an animal too. But the ego came in: the fruit of knowledge created the ego. It created superiority, the idea of superiority: "We are superior human beings. These foolish animals, if they do certain things they can be forgiven. But we cannot be forgiven -- this is below our dignity."

Sex is such a fundamental activity in nature that the ego of man started trying to get rid of it.

The first thing I would like you to remember: sex is natural. There is no need to make any effort to get rid of it -- although I know a moment comes when you transcend it, that is something totally different. It is not by your effort that you can get rid of it; if you try to get rid of it you will fall a victim of perversions. Because for centuries man has been trying to get rid of sex he has created many kinds of perversions. Homosexuality has arisen because we have deprived people of heterosexuality. Homosexuality was born as a religious phenomenon in the monasteries because we forced monks to live together in one place and nuns to live in one place, and we separated them by great walls.

Still now there are Catholic monasteries in Europe where for twelve hundred years not a single woman has entered -- not even a six-months baby, female baby, has been allowed to enter. What kind of people are living there who are afraid of a six-month-old girl?

What kind of people? Must have become very much perverted, must be very much afraid they might do something. They cannot trust themselves.

Homosexuality is BOUND to happen. It happens only in monasteries and in the army --

because these are the two places where we don't allow men and women to mix. Or it happens in boys' and girls' hostels; there also we don't allow them to mix. The whole phenomenon of homosexuality is a by-product of this whole stupid upbringing.

Homosexuality will disappear from the world the day we allow men and women to meet naturally.

From their very childhood we start separating them. If a boy is playing with girls we condemn him. We say, "What are you doing? Are you a sissy? You are a boy, you are a man! Be a man, don't play with girls!" If a boy is playing with dolls we immediately condemn him: "This is for girls."

If a girl is trying to climb a tree we stop her immediately: "This is not right; this is against feminine grace." And if a girl tries and persists and is rebellious she is called a tomboy; she is not respected. We start creating these ugly divisions. Girls enjoy climbing trees; it is such a beautiful experience. And what is wrong in playing with dolls? A boy can carry dolls, because in life he will have to meet dolls and then he will be at a loss as to what to do!

Loka, this whole phenomenon has nothing to do with you personally. It is a social disease spread all over the world.

Two English gentlemen of the old school were discussing old acquaintances one evening in their London club. "What," asked one, "ever became of old Cholmondeley?"

"Why, didn't you hear? Cholmondeley went to Africa on a game hunt, and, by Jove, the chap took up with an ape!"

"An ape? Is the old boy queer?"

"Heavens, no! It was a female "

If it is a female, even though an ape, it is perfectly okay.

We create these conditionings so deeply that out of so much conditioning sometimes people start revolting against them. Sex should be taken VERY naturally -- we have been taking IT very seriously. Either we condemn IT as ugly, animalistic, or we raise it to something divine, but we never accept it as human and we never accept it as fun.

Basically it is fun, it is a good sport! And humanity is going to remain burdened with ugly nonsense if we don't accept its beauty as a sport. It is good physical activity too, and the best of exercises.

You can ask the heart specialists. Now they say sexual activity prevents heart attacks.

One thing is certain, that no man has ever had a heart attack while making love. In every other kind of activity heart attacks have happened, but never making love. Have you ever heard that anybody had a heart attack making love and died? No, never. It is a natural physical activity, and fun, a good sport.

If you take it non-seriously, then there is no need to be worried even if you are attracted to women. Don't be worried -- because your worry is not going to help. It's perfectly okay. In a really free world which is unconditioned by the primitive, ignorant past, in a really enlightened world, we will accept all these things. Yes, once in a while you may love a woman or a man. Nothing is wrong in it, because inside you both are there. Each man is both a man and a woman, and each woman is both a woman and a man, because you are born out of the meeting of one man and one woman. So half of you comes from your father and half of you comes from your mother; part of you is man and part of you is woman.

So there is nothing much to be worried about. It may be that your man part is attracted towards other women, but because biologically you are a woman you feel afraid. No need to be afraid! Take things easily -- that is my basic approach. Take it easy. And by taking things easy one can go beyond them more comfortably, conveniently, quickly, than by taking things seriously. If you take them seriously you become entangled with them, you become burdened with them.

And this is not such a big problem. There are bigger problems, Loka.

The famous Greek shipowner, Ori Oristotle, was having a house built on a large piece of land in Greece. He said to the architect, "Don't disturb that tree over there, because directly under that tree is where I had my first love."

"How sentimental, Mr. Oristotle," said the architect "Right under that tree?"

"Yes," continued Ori Oristotle. "And don't touch that tree over there either, because that is where her mother stood watching while I was having my first love affair."

"Her mother just stood there while you were screwing her daughter?" asked the architect.

"Yes," said the Greek shipowner.

"But, Mr. Oristotle, what did her mother say?"

"Baaa."

There are greater problems, Loka. Your problem is nothing -- at least you are attracted to other women, at least to other human beings. Perfectly okay. A little outlandish, but not too serious. Things like that have been happening always. Now people have become more courageous and they ask questions -- particularly in the West people have become more honest. Now no Indian will ask such a question -- not that things like that are not happening in India, they are happening, but no Indian will have courage enough to ask such a question.

Loka, you asked the question. I am happy. This is sincerity, this is authenticity. One should be able to expose oneself as one is. The West is becoming freer; the East is very much repressed. And because the East is very much repressed it will take a longer time for the East to get rid of its perversions. The West is going to transcend sooner.

When the Queen had her baby, she was being offered congratulations by hundreds of people when a certain gentleman walked by.

"What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a photographer," he replied.

"Isn't that remarkable?" said the Queen. "My brother-in-law is a photographer!"

"Isn't that remarkable," he said. "My brother-in-law is a queen."

Things like that are always happening everywhere. It is part of the human scene. So don't make much fuss about it, and don't get disturbed.

You say: I FIND MYSELF MOSTLY ATTRACTED TO WOMEN AND VERY

RARELY DEEPLY TO A MAN.

Good -- at least you find yourself attracted to somebody. There is a possibility of love.

There are people so dull, so dead, so insensitive, that they only feel attracted towards money, or political power, or fame. You are in a far better situation; at least you are not in love with money. Even Ori Oristotle was in a far better situation than the people who are in love with money. But these people are not thought to be perverted. They are the REAL perverts: money is their whole life, their devotion; money is their god.

You are attracted to women: perfectly good. Go deep into relationship with women. If you make an anxiety out of it you will not be able to go deep in relationship with a woman. If you go deep in relationship with women, my understanding is that sooner or later you will find that this relationship cannot be very fulfilling, because two women are alike. And a relationship needs a certain tension to be fulfilling, a certain polarity to be fulfilling. Two women in love, or two men in love, will have a good relationship, but it will not be very spicy. It will be a little dull, monotonous, a little boring.

But if you go deeply, only then will you become aware of these things. Your anxiety will not allow you to go deep, and then your whole life you will remain interested and attracted towards women.

My approach about all problems is that if anything is there, go DEEPLY into it, so either you find the treasure, if it has any treasure, or you find that it is empty. In both cases you are enriched. If you find the treasure, of course you are enriched. If you find it is empty, you are finished with it.

Two women in relationship can't have a very great love affair. It will remain on plain ground; it will not have heights and it will not have depths. So people who are afraid of heights and depths will find it very comfortable, convenient. Hence the homosexuals are called 'gay' people. They look gay; they look far more gay than heterosexuals.

Heterosexuals are always going into turmoils -- more conflict, more fight, less understanding. It is bound to be so, because two women can understand each other far better than one man and one woman can understand each other. Two men can understand each other far better because they are of the same type, but the spark will be missing.

Yes, a certain gayness will be there, but NOT great poetry, not great romance -- mild.

The relationship will be homeopathic. It will not have adventure, surprises: safe, secure, more understanding, less conflict, less nagging.

With a man and a woman there ARE problems -- problems of misunderstanding. They live in totally different worlds; they are two different poles of consciousness. The woman thinks intuitively, the man thinks intellectually, hence there is no meeting. The woman simply jumps to conclusions without going into any process of thought. And the man goes step by step, comes to a conclusion. The man tries hard to come to a conclusion and the woman simply jumps to the conclusion. She has an intuitive feeling. Hence you cannot deceive a woman, particularly not your wife. That IS impossible; nobody has ever been able to do it. She will immediately see through you -- through and through, because her way of seeing is not your way of seeing. She comes from the back door, and you don't know that you have a back door too. You arrange everything at the front door and she comes from the back door and knows all the ins and outs.

The husband comes home prepared. What he is going to say, how he is going to answer --

he rehearses everything. And the moment he looks at the woman all rehearsing goes to the winds and he is almost like a small child, stuttering. Even a very great person like Napoleon was very much afraid of women. His own wife he was very much afraid of, because she would see through and through him.

Man's mind goes zigzag, woman goes direct like an arrow. She does not listen to what you say, she looks into your eyes. She listens to HOW you say it. She sees your trembling hand, she sees your eyes are trying to avoid her. She does not listen to what you are saying; that is irrelevant -- she knows that that is a story; you have managed to put it together on the way from the pub to the house. But she has more attunement with your body language. And your body language is more authentic, because you cannot yet manage to control it, manage to deceive by it. Even great actors are not able to manage the body language.

For example, if somebody talks about women, you may be a celibate and you may be against all relationship and all sex -- that is all in your head -- but somebody can go on watching your eyes. Try this on some friend who is a BRAHMACHARIN, a celibate, against all relationship and sex, and all those ugly things -- just try this on him. Just start describing Sophia Loren naked: all the curves and the beautiful body. And don't listen to what he says, look at his eyes. His pupils will become big -- that he cannot control, that is beyond his control. The moment you say, "Sophia Loren!" his eyes are no more the same.

Watch how he is moving his body: he will sit erect. If he was leaning back he will come forward, closer, to listen. Although he is saying, "Nonsense! What are you talking about?

This is all dirty," he is all alert. Just now he was yawning; now he no longer yawns.

This I have tried. Whenever I see that somebody is yawning somewhere, I know now a joke is needed -- and immediately the yawning disappears. Even Sheela comes back from her sleep! Once she is certain that now I am going to talk metaphysics she falls asleep, she goes to sleep, she takes a rest. But the moment I start a joke, even in her sleep she remains that much alert: immediately she is back.

The body has its own language just as the mind has its own language. The spirit also has its own language. A man and woman are bound to be in conflict, but that conflict takes them far away and again and again creates situations for mini honeymoons.

A homosexual relationship is a little saccharine -- too sweet, a little bit nauseating. But a man/woman relationship is always on the rocks. You cannot fall asleep, the other will not allow it. They go on goading each other. And they are such different worlds; THAT is the attraction.

Loka, go as deeply as possible in your relationships with women -- don't be worried.

Soon you will see that there is a different kind of relationship that can exist only between polar opposites. Then go into a deep relationship with a man, because only by going deep in relationship with a man will you be able to know that all relationships fall short. Even the man/woman relationship falls short; it never brings you the contentment it promises.

And only by your own experience -- not by what Buddhas say, not by what I say -- only by your own experience will you one day be able to go beyond all relationships. Then you can be happy alone. And the person who can be happy alone is REALLY an individual. If your happiness depends on the other, you are a slave; you are not yet free, you are in bondage.

When you are happy alone, when you can live with yourself, there is no intrinsic necessity to be in relationship. That does not mean that you will not relate. But to relate is one thing, and to be in relationship is quite another. Relationship is a kind of bondage, relating is sharing. You will relate with many people, you will share your joy with many people, but you will not depend on anyone in particular and you will not allow anybody else to depend on you. You will not be dependent, and you will not allow anybody to be dependent on you. Then you live out of freedom, out of joy, out of love.

You say: I AM A LITTLE BOTHERED ABOUT IT.

Don't be bothered about it at all, not even a little. En joy it. It is not your fault. You have been brought up by Christians, Jainas, Hindus, Buddhists -- it is not your fault. What can you do? You come into a world which is already conditioned, and you come so innocent, so clean, unaware of what is going to happen to you. And your parents start writing on you, and the whole society starts writing things on you. It is not your fault, it is simply symptomatic of an ill society.

We have to transform the society. But the only way to transform it is to transform individuals; there is no other way, there is no shortcut. Enjoy it, it is good -- not enough but still good. It will lead you into heterosexual relationship; that is a little better. Even that is not going to satisfy. Then that will lead you into meditativeness, into solitude, into that beauty, that benediction, which happens only when you are alone.

That's what sannyas is all about: learning how to be alone and yet joyous.

Be Still and Know

Chapter #2

Chapter title: No Sin, No Virtue

2 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909020

ShortTitle:

BESTIL02

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO DOES WITNESSING ALWAYS BRING JOY? THE MOMENTS THAT I CALL WITNESSING SOMETIMES FEEL DISTANT -- ALMOST COLD IN THEIR

NEUTRALITY. OTHER TIMES IT IS LIKE SPROUTING WINGS AND SOARING

IN JOY OVER THE OPEN SEA.

Deva Abhiyana,

THE STATE OF WITNESSING IS NEITHER COLD NOR hot. It is neither happiness nor unhappiness. It is neither dark nor light. It is neither life nor death. The Upanishads say NETI NETI -- neither this nor that.

If you feel joy you have already become identified; witnessing is gone. If you feel sad you are no more a witness; you have forgotten witnessing, you have become involved.

You are colored by your psychology of the moment. Joy, sadness, all these qualities, are part of your psychology. And witnessing is a transcendence; it is not psychological.

The whole art of meditation consists in witnessing. Then what does it bring? At the most we can say it brings total peace; it simply brings eternal silence. You cannot define it as joy. The moment you define it as joy you have fallen into the world of duality again.

Then you have become part of what is passing, you have started clinging to it.

The state of witnessing remains indefinable. That's why Buddha has not used the word

'bliss' at all, because it can give you a wrong idea -- because in your mind bliss will mean happiness. That's how you are going to translate it, to interpret it. Buddha has not used the word 'bliss', he has not used the word 'God'.

The word that he has used is 'absolute void' -- SHUNYAM. There will be nothing left, just absolute silence, absolute emptiness -- but not emptiness in the English meaning of the word. SHUNYAM has a totally different connotation; it has been translated and can only be translated as emptiness. But emptiness is negative, emptiness means something is missing, emptiness means loneliness. Emptiness is not a life quality but a death quality.

SHUNYAM IS not negative; it is not even positive, how can it be negative? It simply means you are alone -- not lonely, but alone. You are not missing anything. You are spacious, there is great space in you, but it is not empty of something. On the contrary, it is utter plenitude. It is full of emptiness -- if you allow me the expression It is FULL of emptiness, but one is fulfilled.

SHUNYAM IS blossoming in you. There is great peace but not joy, because joy becomes positive; but not sadness, because sadness becomes Negative. Peace is exactly the middle, neither cold nor hot. It is not neutrality, it is not indifference. It is not a state where you turn your back towards something, you are no more interested No, there is no question of disinterest, indifference or neutrality. You are utterly there, absolutely there, totally there, but like a mirror, just reflecting whatsoever is the case.

Joy passes by and the mirror reflects it, but the mirror does not become joy itself; it never becomes identified. And sadness comes like a cloud, a dark cloud, and passes by, and the mirror reflects it. The mirror has no prejudice against it. The mirror is not favorable to joy and unfavorable to sadness. The mirror has no liking, no disliking; it simply reflects whatsoever is the case. It is not neutral, otherwise it will not reflect; it does not turn its back towards things. It is not indifferent, because indifference again means you are already prejudiced; you have a certain conclusion. It is not disinterested and you cannot say it is interested -either. It is a transcendence.

Abhiyana, don't get identified with the joy that comes -- watch it. Remain a watcher on the hills, a mirror. Reflect it but don't cling to it. A bird on the wing...and the lake reflects it.

The Zen people say this is the state of Buddha-hood. The bird has no mind to be reflected in the lake and the lake has no mind to reflect the bird, but the bird on the wing...and the lake reflects it. You see the point: the bird has no mind to be reflected and the lake has no mind to reflect the bird, but the bird IS reflected. It simply happens that the lake is there and the bird is on the wing...the reflection is bound to happen -- it is natural! The bird is gone; the lake does not miss the bird, it does not hanker for it, it does not long for it, it does not hope that it will come again. It does not go into the past, into the memories, or into the future projections. The bird has flown; it never thinks of the lake again, it never desires to be there again. One day it may be there again, and again it will be reflected, but no relationship is created. The HAPPENING IS there but no relationship is there.

This is what I call relating, not relationship. It is a fluid phenomenon. This is witnessing.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, IS IT ABSOLUTELY INEVITABLE THAT A BUDDHA WILL ALWAYS BE

MISUNDERSTOOD?

Prem Madira,

YES, IT IS ABSOLUTELY INEVITABLE. It can't be otherwise. A Buddha is bound to be misunderstood. If a Buddha is not misunderstood then he is not a Buddha at all. Why is it so? -- because the Buddha lives in a state which is beyond mind, and we live IN

minds. To translate something from the beyond to the mind is the most impossible thing in the world. It can t be done, although every Buddha has tried to do it. That too is inevitable; no Buddha can avoid it.

The Buddha HAS to say the unsayable, he has to express the inexpressible, he has to define the indefinable. He has to do this absurd act, because the moment he reaches beyond the mind great compassion arises. He can see people stumbling in the dark, he can see people suffering unnecessarily -- creating their own nightmares, creating their own hell and drowning in their own created hells. How can he avoid feeling compassion?

And the moment compassion arises he wants to communicate to them that this is your own doing, that you can get out of it; that there is a way out of it, that there is a state beyond it; that life is not what you think it is -- your thinking about life is just like the thinking of a blind man about light. The blind man can go on thinking about light, but he will never be able to come to a true conclusion. His conclusions may be very logical, but still they will miss the experience. Light is an experience; you don t need logic for it --

what you need is eyes.

Buddha has eyes -- and eyes are attained only when you have gone beyond the mind, when you have become a witness of the mind, when you have attained to a higher state than psychology; when you know that you are not your thoughts, not your body, when you know that you are only knowing -- the energy that reflects, the energy that is capable of seeing: that you are pure seeing.

Once Buddha was asked, Who are you?" He was such a beautiful man and the Buddhahood had conferred such grace on him, that many times he was asked, Who are you?" He looked like an emperor or a god who had come from heaven, and he lived like a beggar! Again and again he was asked, "Who are you?" And the man who was asking was a great scholar. He said, "Are you from the world of gods? Are you a god?"

Buddha said, "No."

"Then are you a GANDHARVA?

GANDHARVAS are the musicians of the gods. Buddha had such music around him --

the music of silence, the sound of no sound, one hand clapping -- that it was natural to ask him, "Are you a GANDHARVA, a celestial musician?"

Buddha said, "No."

And the man went on asking. There are many categories in Hindu mythology from gods to man. Then finally he asked, "Are you a great king, a CHAKRAVARTIN, one who rules over the whole world?"

And Buddha said, "No."

Annoyed, the scholar asked, "Are you a man, or not even that?"

Buddha said. 'Don't be annoyed, but what can I do? I have to state the truth as it is. I am not a man either."

Now the scholar was very very angry, enraged. He said, Then are you an animal?"

Buddha said, "No, not an animal, not a tree, not a rock."

Then who are you? the man asked.

Buddha said, I am awareness, just pure awareness, just a mirror reflecting all that is. '

When this moment arrives, great compassion happens Buddha has said that those who know are bound to feel compassion for those who don't know. They start trying to help.

And the first thing that has to be done is to communicate to people who are blind that eyes are possible, that you are not really blind but only keeping your eyes closed. You can open your eyes. You are not born blind, you have only been taught to remain blind.

Your society teaches you to be blind because the society needs blind people. They are good slaves because they are always dependent on the leaders, politicians, pundits, priests. They are very convenient people, they never create any trouble. They are never rebels. They are obedient, always ready to submit to any kind of nonsense, to any stupid politician, to any stupid priest.

And in fact, who else wants to be a politician except stupid people, and who wants to be a priest except stupid people? These are the dimensions for the mediocre, for the inferior.

Those who are suffering from an inferiority complex, they become politicians -- just to prove that they are not inferior, to the world and to themselves.

The society, the establishment, wants you to be blind. From the very beginning it teaches every child: "You are blind"; it conditions every child: "You are blind." Your whole educational system is nothing but a conspiracy against every child -- to keep you blind. It does not teach you meditation, because meditation is the art of opening your eyes.

When somebody arrives at awareness he naturally feels great compassion. All around he sees that people who have eyes -- who have inbuilt capacities to see the truth, who are from their very birth capable of becoming Buddhas, enlightened ones, awakened ones --

are suffering. And the whole suffering is ridiculous! It need not be so. Compassion happens and compassion starts communicating. But communication is difficult, impossible.

Buddha speaks from the hilltop and you live in the dark valleys where light never reaches. He talks in words of light; by the time they reach you their meaning changes. By the time your mind catches hold of them it colors them in its own color.

It is not only so about Buddhas -- even ordinary communication seems to be impossible.

The husband cannot communicate with his wife, the parents cannot communicate with their children, the teachers cannot communicate with their students. What to say about Buddhas? People who exist on the same level, even THEY cannot communicate, because words are tricky things. You say one thing, but the moment it reaches the other person then it is in his power how to interpret it.

The Queen was traveling in England's back country when she saw a man, his wife, and a flock of children. Impressed, the Queen asked, "Are all of these your children?"

"Yes, Your Highness," answered the man.

"How many children do you have?" asked the English sovereign.

Sixteen, was the reply.

"Sixteen children," repeated Her Highness. "We should give you a knighthood."

"He has one," piped up the lady, "but he won't wear it.

Or, if you have missed, another story for you:

Thor, the Germanic god of thunder, was feeling restless so he decided to have a weekend fling. Taking a handful of jewels from the Valhalla petty cash department he slipped down to earth, got himself an elegant disco suit and a few gold chains, and began hitting the Saturday night dance bars.

After a big night on the town he finally took home the most beautiful woman he had seen and spent the rest of the night and morning satisfying his heroic libido. When he got out of bed and began dressing he realized that the exhausted girl on the bed lacked his godly sexual stamina. By way of explanation, he leaned down over her and whispered, "Honey, I think you should know -- I am Thor."

Wide-eyed, the girl exclaimed, 'Thor! You big thon-of-a-bitch, I can't even thtand up!"

Ordinary communication, very mundane communication, even in the marketplace, is difficult. And a Buddha wants to communicate to you something which he has found in a state of no-mind, which he has found when all thoughts disappear, which he has found when even he himself is no more -- when the ego evaporates, when there is utter silence, absolute peace, the sky is without clouds.

Now how to bring this infinite experience into words? No word is adequate enough --

hence the misunderstanding.

Yes, Madira, it is absolutely inevitable that a Buddha will always be misunderstood. Only those few people can understand a Buddha who are disciples and devotees.

By disciple is meant one who has put aside all his prejudices, one who has put aside all his thoughts, and is ready to listen -- not to his own mind and his mind s interpretations, but to the words of Buddha; who is not in a state of argument with the Buddha, who is not inside thinking about what Buddha is saying, who listens to a Buddha as you listen to classical music, who listens to a Buddha as you listen to the sound of running water, who listens to Buddha as you listen to the wind passing through the pine trees or the cuckoo calling from the distance. That is the state of a disciple, or if you rise a little higher and become a devotee....

A devotee is one who has not only dropped his mind but has brought his heart in, who listens from the heart -- not from logic but from love. The disciple is on the way to being a devotee. The disciple is the beginning of being a devotee, and the devotee is the fulfillment of being a disciple.

Only these few people understand a Buddha. And in understanding a Buddha they are transformed, transported into another world -- the world of liberation, nirvana, light, love, benediction.

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, JESUS SAID THAT HIS SACRIFICE ON THE CROSS WAS FOR THE

SALVATION OF THE WORLD FROM THE SINS OF MAN.

PLEASE WOULD YOU COMMENT ON THIS.

Anand Geetam,

THE FIRST THING TO BE UNDERSTOOD about a man like Jesus is that whatsoever the church that is bound to grow around such a man says about him, it is bound to be wrong. What the Christian church says about Christ cannot be true. In fact the Christian priest does not represent Christ at all. He is the same old rabbi in new garments, the same old rabbi who was responsible for Jesus murder. The Pope is not a different kind of person.

It makes no difference whether it is a Jewish establishment or a Christian establishment or a Hindu establishment; all establishments function in the same way.

Jesus is a rebel, just as Buddha is or Lao Tzu is. When the church starts establishing itself it starts destroying the rebelliousness of Jesus, Buddha, because rebellion cannot go with an establishment. It starts imposing its own ideas -- once Jesus is gone it is very easy to impose your own ideas. It starts selecting what to keep in the Bible and what not to keep.

Many things have been dropped, many things have not been included in it. For example, the Gospel of Thomas has not been included in the New Testament. It was just discovered a few years ago -- and it is the MOST important gospel. The four gospels that have been included are nothing compared to it, but it is very rebellious.

It seems Thomas has simply reported Jesus without polluting, contaminating, his message. That must have been the reason why the gospel has not been included in the authorized version of the New Testament. And those gospels which have been included, they have also been edited. For centuries conferences went on editing them, destroying them, distorting them.

I know Jesus because I know meditation. My knowing of Jesus is not through the Bible, it is not through Christian theology. I know Jesus directly. I know Jesus because I know myself; that s my way of knowing all the Buddhas.

The moment you know your own Buddhahood you have come to know all the Buddhas; the experience is the same. All differences are in the mind; the moment you transcend mind there are no differences left. How can there be differences in absolute void? Two voids can only be exactly the same. Minds are bound to be different because they consist of thoughts. When there are clouds in the sky then each cloud is different, but when there are no clouds at all then the sky is one and the same.

I don't know Jesus through Christian theology; I know him directly. And my knowing is that he cannot talk in terms of sacrifice -- first thing, the very first. A man like Jesus does not talk in terms of sacrifice; it is celebration, not sacrifice. He is going to meet his God dancing, singing. It is not sacrifice; he is not a martyr. The Christian church tries to make him the greatest martyr, the greatest man who has sacrificed himself for the salvation of the world from the sins of man. In the first place it is not sacrifice -- sacrifice looks business-like -- it is celebration! Jesus is celebrating his life and his death.

Secondly: nobody can solve the problems of others, nobody can be the salvation of the world. And you can see it: the world is still the same. Twenty centuries have passed and Christian priests go on talking nonsense, that he sacrificed himself for the salvation of the world. But where is the salvation of the world? Either he failed, he could not manage...

that they cannot accept, that he failed. Then what happened? The world seems to be exactly the same -- nothing has changed! Humanity remains in the same misery. But Jesus cannot have said, I have come for the salvation of the world.

But it happens always when a church starts establishing itself that it has to create such ideas, otherwise who is going to listen to the priests? Jesus is salvation -- not only that but the ONLY salvation!

Just the other night I was looking at a book: JESUS, THE ONLY WAY. Why the only way? Is Buddha not a way? Is Lao Tzu not a way? Is Zarathustra not a way? Is Moses not a way? Is Mohammed not a way? There are infinite ways to reach God. Why make God so poor? -- only one way?

But the Christian priest is not interested in God: he is interested in creating a business. He has to claim that Jesus is the ONLY way, that all other ways are wrong. He is in search of customers.

That's why every religion creates fascists and fanatics. EVERY religion claims, My way is the only right way -- only through me can you arrive at God. If you go on some other way you are destined for hell, you are doomed." This is a fascist way of thinking and this creates fanatics. And all religious people are fanatics, and the world has suffered very much from this fanatical approach. It is TIME, ripe time now, to drop all kinds of fascist and fanatical attitudes.

Jesus is a way, but the way has to be walked. The way can go on lying there; it is not going to help you. Just by being there, just by being crucified, Jesus cannot be the salvation of the world -- otherwise it would have happened! Then what are we doing now? Then what are the priests doing now? What is the Pope doing now?

Just the other day somebody asked: 'Osho, have you heard? The new Pope has done a miracle?

Yes, I have heard: he has made a blind man lame. What else can these popes do? What are these popes doing now? The world's salvation has happened! Now no religion is needed and no church is needed. Even Christ is not needed any more! The work is finished. I have heard:

One young man came from medical college with a gold medal; he had topped the university. His father was also a physician. The father said, "Now that you have come I would like to go to the mountains for a rest. For years I have not taken even a single holiday. Now you look after my practice and for one month I would like to go to the mountains."

So the old man went to the mountains. After one month when he came back the young doctor received the father at the airport and said, 'Dad, do you know? -- the old woman whom you have been treating for thirty years and could not manage to cure -- I have cured her within one month! '

The father simply hit his head with his hand and said, You have destroyed the whole business! It is because of her that you could go to medical college. And I was hoping that your younger brother would also become a doctor. You fool! What have you done? That woman was our business! You have finished my whole life s career!

If Jesus has REALLY done the work of salvation, then there is no point in Mohammed coming -- Mohammed came after Jesus. Then there is no point in Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, coming, no point in Kabir coming. He has closed the shop! But it has not happened.

Buddha says: Buddhas can only point the way."

But the fanatic disciples always want to claim.... What to say about Jesus? -- even Jainas claim that Mahavira came to the world for the salvation of humanity. Now it may be a little bit relevant with Jesus because he speaks in such a way that he can be very easily misinterpreted, but Mahavira is VERY clear. He says in absolutely definite terms that nobody can save another: "I have not come to save anybody. If I can save myself, that is enough." Even a man like Mahavira who has stated this absolutely, his disciples -- the Jaina MUNIS and the Jaina monks and the Jaina pundits -- go on claiming that he came for the salvation of humanity.

Why are people after humanity? And how can you manage it? You have not created the misery for the world so how can you destroy it? If Jesus is the cause of the misery of the world, then certainly he can withdraw it. If HE is the person who has imprisoned you, he can open the gates, unlock the doors and tell you to leave, and you are free. But he is not the person to do it. You have done it; your hell is created by you. What can Jesus do about it?

But this stupid logic has gone very deep in the mind of humanity -- for a certain reason.

We always want somebody else to be responsible -- for our misery, for our happiness, we always want somebody else to be responsible. We don't want to be responsible! To avoid responsibility we become trapped in these kinds of ideas.

Now, Christians say Adam and Eve committed the original sin and the whole of humanity is suffering. It is so patently foolish! Scientists say that humanity has existed for millions of years. Millions of years ago, a couple, Adam and Eve, committed a sin and we are suffering for it. Can you think of a more ridiculous thing? -- that you are imprisoned because millions of years ago somebody committed a crime. You did not commit it, how can you suffer for it? And what original sin are they talking about? It is neither original nor sin! What Adam did was a simple phenomenon: he disobeyed the father.

Every child has to disobey the father. Unless a child disobeys the father he never becomes mature. It is nothing, original, it is very simple and natural. It is very psychological. There comes an age when every child has to say NO to the parents. If he does not say no to the parents he will not have a spine; he will be spineless. If he cannot say no to the parents, he will be a slave his whole life. He will never attain to individuality.

Adam and Eve did not commit any sin; they simply became mature. They said no, they disobeyed. When your child goes behind the house and starts smoking don't be worried too much; he is simply disobeying you That is part of growth. If he never disobeys you, be worried. Take him to the psychoanalyst -- something is wrong with him. If he ALWAYS obeys you then he has no soul; he is abnormal, he is not normal.

Be happy when your child disobeys you. Thank God that now he has started moving towards becoming an individual. It is only by disobeying, rebelling, that a child attains authentic individuality. If parents are wise they will be happy.

And I think God cannot be so foolish as Christian priests are. God must have been happy the day Adam and Eve disobeyed; he must have rejoiced. He must have sung a song saying, "Now my children are be-coming mature." I CAN'T see him being annoyed. I can't conceive a God who cannot understand such a simple psychological phenomenon.

You have to give your God a little more intelligence than Sigmund Freud! It is such a simple fact of life that each child has to disobey. It is not sin -- disobedience is not sin.

And what is original about it? It is nothing unique and it did not only happen millions of years ago: it happens each time a child starts growing. You will see it happening in your child somewhere near the age of three or four the child starts asserting his freedom.

That's why if you want to remember your life you can remember only back to the age of four or at the most three; beyond that all is dark. Why? You had no individuality, hence no memory. You attained your first individuality when you were three or four. Girls attain at nearabout three, boys attain at nearabout four; they are always lagging behind, and this is going to be their whole life pattern. Apparently the husband is walking ahead, but deep down he is always behind the wife.

I have heard a story:

The great King Akbar once asked his ministers, "My wife was saying to me that all my ministers are hen-pecked. Is it true? I want to know the truth and please don't try to deceive me. If I find that you have deceived me, then death will be the penalty. So stand in a row on the right all those who are hen-pecked husbands, and on the left those who are not."

All except one moved to the line of hen-pecked husbands -- embarrassed, hesitating, but they did not want to be false to the King. They knew perfectly well, "He will go into deep research, and sooner or later, if he calls our wives, we will be caught. So it is better to say it once and finish it."

But one man, whom the King had never thought very heroic, who was the most cowardly, was standing alone. The King said, "I am happy. At least there is one person who is not hen-pecked."

The man said, "Wait! Don't misunderstand me. When I was coming from my home my wife said, 'Avoid crowds. That's why I am standing here -- just to avoid the crowd. If she comes to know that I was standing in the crowd there will be difficulty, sir, and I don't want any difficulties."

Nearabout the age of three or four That's why I say this parable of Adam and- Eve has so many aspects; I am never tired of talking about it from different angles. It was Eve who was the first to disobey -- that means one year ahead. Adam came to his senses a little later; in fact he was persuaded by Eve.

If the world is really left free then women will seduce men, not men women; that will be the natural course. And in fact that's exactly what happens right now, but in a very subtle way. The woman seduces the male, but seduces in such a subtle way that the gross male mind cannot understand it. The gross male mind thinks, I am taking all the initiative," and the woman goes on laughing deep down; she knows who is pulling the strings. She never takes a single step on her own visibly; you cannot see it. She always allows the man to approach her; she can wait. She trusts her own capacity to pull the man. She does not want to wag her tail; she always manages, persuades the man to wag his tail.

That's what happened: Eve ate the fruit first, disobeyed God, and then Adam followed.

This is not something that happened once; it happens always. It happens to every child and it is good that it happens. It is nearabout four that the child starts feeling a kind of individuality of his own; he starts defining himself.

Lanahan, an Irish political prisoner, escaped from jail by digging a tunnel that opened into a school playground. As he emerged in the open air Lanahan could not help shouting at a small girl, I am free, I am free!"

"That's nothing," said the girl, "I am four."

There is a time when the child wants to declare to the world that "I am here!" that I am!"

He wants to define himself, and the only way to define himself is by disobedience. So there is nothing original about it and nothing like sin; it is a simple process of growth.

And because Christianity has been denying it as a simple process of growth, it has not helped humanity to become mature.

All the religions have been trying to keep humanity immature, juvenile, childish. They are all afraid that once humanity becomes mature then they will not be of any value; they will lose all luster. They will not be able to exploit a mature humanity; they can exploit only children.

So what sin has humanity committed so that Jesus is needed to come for the salvation of the world?

I would like to make it absolutely clear to you that there is no need for ANY salvation.

Secondly: if there is any need you feel, it can't be done by anybody else except you yourself. Thirdly: you are not living in sin; you are living in nature -- but if nature is condemned you start feeling guilty. And that is the trade-secret of the priests: to make you feel guilty.

I don't think Jesus said that his sacrifice on the cross was for the salvation of the world from the sins of man. Priests must have imposed their ideas on Jesus. The New Testament was written centuries afterwards, and then for centuries it was edited, changed, and the words that Jesus spoke were in a language which is no more alive -- Aramaic. It was not even Hebrew -- a dialect of Hebrew, but different in many ways.

When Jesus' words were translated -- first into Latin -- a great change happened: they lost their original quality, the flavor. They lost something very essential: their soul. And when from Latin they were translated into English, something was again lost. For example, a few words you can meditate over: 'Repentance' is one of the key words because Jesus uses it again and again, says to his disciples: Repent! Repent ye, because the Day of Judgment is very close. He repeats it so many times that it must have been of tremendous value to him. But what does it mean -- 'repent'? Ask the Christian priest; he will say,

"This is a simple word; everybody knows what it means: repent for your sins, repent for your guilt, repent for all that you have done." And the priest can be helpful; he can help you in the ways of repentance. But the word 'repent' has nothing to do with repentance.

Jesus' word for repent simply means 'return'; it does not mean repentance at all. 'Turn in'

it means, 'return to the source', it means, 'return to your own being'. That's what meditation is all about: returning to the source, returning to the center of the cyclone, returning to your very being.

Now you can see the difference. When you use the English word 'repent' it has something very ugly about it: sin, guilt, the priest, confession; this is the climate of the English word

'repent'. But the Aramaic word simply means return to the source, return! Return, don't waste time.

And that's how it is with almost all key words.

It is almost impossible to understand Jesus through the priests. The only pure way, the only possible way, is to go in, return inside. There you will meet Christ-consciousness.

The only way to understand Christ is to become a Christ. Never be a Christian -- be a Christ! Never be a Buddhist -- be a Buddha! Never be a Hindu -- be a Krishna! And if you want to be a Krishna, Christ or Buddha, then you need not go into the scriptures and you need not ask the scholars: you will have to ask the mystics how to go in.

That's exactly what I am doing here: helping you to become aware of yourself. And the moment you know yourself you will be surprised: you have never committed a sin. Sin is the invention of the priest to create guilt in you.

You don't need any salvation. All that you need is a little shaking up so you can wake up.

You don t need priests. You certainly need awakened people, because only the awakened ones can shake those who are fast asleep and dreaming. And humanity needs to be free of guilt, free of the idea of sin, free of the idea of repentance. Humanity needs innocence, and the priests don't allow you to be innocent; they corrupt your minds.

Beware of the priests. They are the people who crucified Jesus -- how can they interpret Jesus? They are the people who have always been against the Buddhas -- and the irony is that finally they become the interpreters.

The fourth question

Question 4

OSHO WHY CAN'T I TOLERATE PEOPLE WHO BELONG TO OTHER

RELIGIONS?

Maria,

IT IS BECAUSE OF YOUR UPBRINGING. You have been brought up as a fascist, as a fanatic -- as Christians, Hindus, Jainas, Mohammedans; you have not been brought up as human beings. You are hypnotized from your very childhood; you are living in a kind of hypnosis. To live as a Christian or as a Mohammedan is to live in a hypnosis, is not to live really.

That's why you cannot tolerate people who belong to other religions, because deep down you know they are wrong, they are stupid, they are committing a great crime. They have to be put right, they have to be brought under your flag, into your flock -- because only Jesus saves or only Buddha saves. You cannot tolerate them because they look like pretenders.

To a Christian, a Buddhist is a pretender, because God has only one son. It is very strange

-- why should God have only one son? Is he in favor of birth control? But Jesus is the only-begotten son of God, and the Buddhists claim that Buddha has arrived, that he has attained. It becomes intolerable, the very idea. It creates suspicion in you, it creates doubt. Maybe the Buddhists are right, and you don t want to see this doubt inside yourself, because doubt is heavy and doubt disturbs your peace and doubt disturbs your sleep.

Hence you would not like to read the Buddhist scriptures, you would not like to read the Koran, you would not like to read Mahavira, because their words can be dangerous. Or even if you read them you will read them as ordinary books, because there is only one holy book, the Bible, or only one holy book, the Koran. Your book is the only holy book and all other books are unholy.

There are many things involved in this attitude, Maria. And this is not only your attitude: this is the attitude of the greater masses. It is good that you have become aware of it.

You ask me: WHY CAN'T I TOLERATE PEOPLE WHO BELONG TO OTHER

RELIGIONS?

First: they create doubt in you, they create suspicion, skepticism, about your own beliefs.

And you are so settled with your beliefs, they are so consoling; they are like tranquilizers.

And the person who lives in a different way, behaves in a different way, worships a different God, meditates in a different way, prays in a different way, certainly creates doubt. Maybe he is right -- who knows? You certainly don't know. Whatsoever you have been told has been told by others; it is not your own knowing so you don't have any trust in it.

You have repressed your doubts deep down inside yourself; those doubts are alive, very much alive. They are ready to explode any moment -- any opportunity and they will surface. The people of other religions become an opportunity for the doubts to surface.

In Jaina scriptures it is written that if you are on a road being followed by a mad elephant and you come across a Hindu temple, you can enter the temple and save your life, but it is better not to enter the temple and be crushed underneath the elephant, be killed by the elephant. Not to enter into the Hindu temple even to save your life! It is better to be killed but to remain a Jaina, then heaven is absolutely guaranteed.

And the same, exactly the same, is written in Hindu scriptures too, about the Jainas: don't enter a Jaina temple. It is better to die, be killed by a mad elephant, than be saved by going inside a Jaina temple. Why? -- because the Jaina priest may be saying something there, you may hear something. That may disturb you, may create doubt inside you. And doubt is dangerous, the door to hell; belief is the door to heaven.

The first thing, Maria: people who are not like you -- not only religiously, but people who dress differently from you -- even they are not liked.

That's why my disciples are disliked by the so-called Indian society . The reason is not that you are doing anything wrong; the reason is simply that you are different. And that is the problem: nobody likes the different person. People like you to be like them, exactly like them. Dress like them, behave like them, use the same language, go to the same temple -- and then you are accepted, because you don't create doubt.

Now my disciples are bound to create doubt, my sannyasins are bound to create doubt.

They are behaving in a totally different way they are behaving with freedom, and the slaves are bound to get disturbed. Slaves of tradition, slaves of orthodoxies, they are bound to get disturbed.

Just seeing a young man and a young woman walking together holding hands and it is enough to disturb the Hindu mind. It has repressed so much that all that repression starts coming up. They would also like to walk hand-in-hand with their beloveds but they cannot. If THEY cannot then they cannot allow anybody else to do the same.

In the West if you are walking hand-in-hand with a woman no problem arises, because the society is also the same. But walk hand-in-hand with a man, two men walking hand-in-hand, and people start looking at you. Something is wrong -- you look homosexual, you look gay. It is dangerous!

Now homosexuals have been one of the tortured minorities in the world, very much tortured. In some countries they are killed. In some countries, for example in Iran, if it is found that two persons are living as homosexuals or lesbians, then the only punishment is death. What nonsense! They have not committed any crime against anybody, they have not harmed anybody! Two men living together, or two women living together, this should be nobody else's business. But there is a great fear of homosexuality, and the reason is that homosexuality has been repressed down the ages.

In fact, in every person homosexuality is repressed, because there are four stages. First the child is auto-erotic, then the child becomes homosexual, then the child becomes heterosexual, and the fourth and the ultimate state is that of brahmacharya -- the person goes beyond sex.

Each child passes the stage of homosexuality. If he passes it naturally there will be no repression, but because he is not allowed to pass it naturally, repression happens; then a hangover remains. Now these people who kill homosexuals are really homosexuals themselves -- repressed homosexuals -- they cannot tolerate it.

It is so about everything: you cannot see the things that you are doing.

For example in India -- just the other day somebody asked: I was saying good-bye to my girlfriend; we hugged and kissed and we were caught by the police. It took two hours for us to manage somehow to get out of the trouble. They were going to put us in jail and they were trying to take us to the court, to make a case.... Now, kissing in a public place!

The questioner has asked, And I see Indians pissing in public places and nobody objects.

Kissing is objectionable, pissing is not?"

You don't know: this country belongs to Morarji Desai. Pissing is a holy act! If you are pissing in a public place you are doing something great -- you are making the earth holy.

It is not urine: it is water of life!

In India you can piss in a public place, you can go and defecate anywhere. The whole country is a latrine! But that is allowed. Nobody takes any note of it. Only Westerners when they come to India, they note it. They immediately note it -- what is happening?

Just coming from Santa Cruz airport to Bombay, the whole way on both sides people are defecating -- but NO Indian takes any note of it!

We only see things which are not accepted by us. We only see things which are strange.

The Indian has lived in the same way for centuries; he is not taking any note. It is just the natural way; no question arises in his mind.

You see beggars on the street. All the Westerners go on writing letters to me: "We feel very much disturbed." And no Indian seems to be disturbed at all -- what is the matter?

The Indians accept the beggars; that is accepted. They are suffering from their past karmas; nobody else is responsible for it. A beautiful strategy, a defense, they have created out of this theory, that everybody has to suffer according to his past lives. These people must have done something wrong, something really ugly; now they are suffering.

Every-body has to pay for their past, so there is no question of compassion.

In fact you will be surprised to know that there is a Jaina sect in India, TERAPANTH, whose head is Acharya Tulsi; this sect believes you should not help the beggar because by helping the beggar you will be disturbing his life pattern. If you help him then he will have to suffer some other time. He HAS to suffer! If a man has fallen into a well don't take him out, because if you take him out he will fall into another well some day -- so what is the point? Let him suffer and let him be finished with the karma so he is free from it -- one thing. And secondly, if you save this man from the well, if you take him out and he goes and kills somebody then you are also responsible for the murder. If you had not taken him out of the well he would not have committed the murder -- so fifty-fifty. Then beware: in some other life you will have to suffer also. You will have to fall in some well

-- maybe not so deep....

So on two grounds Acharya Tulsi and his sect teach: don't help anybody. And if you look, the logic is there. If the theory of karma is right then Acharya Tulsi's conclusion is very logical; the logical conclusion cannot be doubted. But the theory itself is an invention; you don t suffer for your karmas in your next lives.

Life is immediate: if you put your hand in the fire you will be burnt right now, not in your next life. Each karma is immediately finished. You immediately suffer or you immediately enjoy the bliss, but there is no waiting. The whole theory is nonsense. To try to postpone for other lives is a strategy -- political, social.

Indians can accept the beggars but they cannot accept a couple kissing good-bye. But why should you be so much worried? If kissing is something bad, they may be suffering from their past karmas -- let them suffer! Why should you interfere? But interference is there because you are sexually suppressed. Indian society is very much sexually suppressed; it cannot accept people who are sexually free.

So, Maria, it is not only a question of religion -- it is a question of everything. The different person creates doubt, the different person creates suspicion about whether what you are doing is right or wrong. You want to destroy the different person so that you can suppress your doubt again -- one thing.

Secondly: a person belonging to a different religion hurts your ego; you would like your religion to be the suprememost, the only religion. It hurts your ego that there are other religions also claiming the same supremacy

You have a double-bind mind: for yourself you think in one way, for others in a totally different way. If you claim your Bible as the holy book, you don't allow Mohammedans to claim their book as the holy book. And the Mohammedans don't allow the Hindus to call their Vedas the holy book. And the people who believe in the Vedas -- the Hindus --

they laugh at the nonsense of calling the Koran or the Bible holy books. The Vedas is the only holy book -- because the Vedas are written by God himself; all other books are written by human beings. Maybe they contain something good, but written by human beings they are bound to be fallible -- the Vedas are infallible.

This is the way of the ego.

Mrs. Keen and Mrs. Monahan were sitting on their stoop watching the apartment across the street, which was rented by a young Italian girl. As a steady stream of men entered and left at half-hour intervals they kept saying, She is a slut. She is no good. She is a disgrace to the neighborhood!"

Then after ten visitors, Father Gilhooley, the neighborhood priest, went in. "Oh my!" said Mrs. Keen. 'The poor girl must be sick.

Now you see the change! Immediately a different standard is applied.

Walsh stumbled out of a saloon and into a church he thought was a cathedral, and fell asleep. The sexton soon woke him and told him they were closing. "They don't close cathedrals," said Walsh.

"This is not a cathedral," said the sexton. "It is a Presbyterian church."

Walsh looked around and saw stained-glass windows of St. Luke, St. Mark and St.

Thomas.

"And since when," asked the Irishman, "did the saints become Presbyterians?"

All the saints belong to YOUR religion!

Mahavira and Neminath are not even mentioned by Hindu books -- not even mentioned.

A man like Mahavira remains unmentioned in Hindu books. Jesus is not mentioned in any Jewish book. A man like Jesus remains unmentioned?

You apply double standards. For your own religion you have one valuation, for the others, different valuations. You don't weigh on the same weighing machine. This is the way of the ego; it is always doing it in every dimension of life.

And let me repeat again: each religion creates fascism in you. Each religion creates Adolph Hitlers because of this idea that "My way is the only right way." And when you are a fascist and when you are a fanatic you are murderous. You may not murder, but deep down you are murderous. You may not murder anybody, but one thing is certain: you will murder your qualities of love and compassion and brotherhood.

A group of young men -- all Irish Catholics -- go into a pub. They don't greet Abbie, one of the men already standing at the bar. Paddy, one of the young Irish fellows, asks his friends why they don't greet Abbie. "Oh, he is a Jew," they say, "and Jews are awful people. They killed our Lord Jesus Christ."

Paddy is very upset to hear this and goes over to Abbie and starts beating him up.

"Stop, stop!" shouts Abbie. "What are you doing this for?"

"I'm doing it because Jews tortured Jesus and killed him."

"Yes, I know," says Abbie, "but it is nothing to do with me. That happened two thousand years ago."

Paddy gives him another blow and says, "I don't care. I only heard it ten minutes ago!"

I don't want you to be tolerant of other religions. Mahatma Gandhi used to teach people:

"Be tolerant of other religions." But if you become tolerant of other religions that simply means intolerance persists underground.

I don't teach tolerance; tolerance is ugly. It is better to be knowingly intolerant; at least the disease is on the surface and sooner or later you will become aware of it -- as Maria has become aware of it. If you become tolerant, as Gandhians have become tolerant, then the disease goes deep into the unconscious. On the surface you are very polite, sweet, and you say good things, that the Bible and the Gita, they say the same thing: ALLAH

ISHWAR TERE NAM SABKO SANMATI DE BHAGWAN -- all are names of the same God, and let God give understanding to all." You go on saying these things, but deep down it is not so.

Mahatma Gandhi his whole life prayed morning and evening saying that Allah and Ram are the names of the same God. But when he was shot in Delhi...by a Poonaite, remember! Beware of the Poonaites! The man who murdered Gandhi, Nathuram Godse, was a Poonaite; Poona is one of the strongholds of Hindu orthodoxy. I have knowingly chosen a place to create trouble for you!

When Gandhi was shot dead he didn't say Allah. The last words were "Ram -- Hey Ram!

Oh Ram!" He forgot all about Allah. His whole life...but still deep down he knows that he is a Hindu. The Gita he says is his mother. And who is his father -- the Koran? That he never says anything about. The Gita is his mother but the Koran is not his father. And he chooses words from the Koran which are really nothing but echoes of the Gita, and he also chooses words from the Bible which are echoes from the Gita. He is REALLY

clinging to the Gita; the Gita is the criterion. Whatsoever is in the Gita is right; if it is in the Koran, then too it is right because it is in the Gita. He leaves out everything that goes against the Gita. This is tolerance....

I don't teach tolerance. I teach freedom from all the nonsense of being Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian. Be free from all prejudices. Be just a human being! And in that freedom you will find great joy, and in that freedom. for the first time you will feel love for other human beings, compassion, brotherhood. You will start feeling the whole universe as your family, your commune. And not only with human beings -- when the fascist in you has disappeared and the fanatic is gone, even with the trees and the birds and the animals you will have a communion. You will be constantly in a beautiful dialogue with existence.

Maria, drop all this nonsense. To be a Hindu, to be a Mohammedan, to be a Christian, to be a Jaina, to be a Buddhist, these are stupid hangovers from the past. Be finished with them, and in a single blow -- not slowly, not gradually. See the point and be finished with them RIGHT now, this very moment! Because who knows? -- tomorrow may come, may not come. Who knows? -- the next moment may come, may not come. This is the only moment available. Rebel against all nonsense! Be free!

Be Still and Know

Chapter #3

Chapter title: No Question, No Answer

3 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909030

ShortTitle:

BESTIL03

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, ALL QUESTIONS SEEM TO BE POINTLESS. ONLY THE ANSWERLESS

QUESTION OF LIFE REMAINS.

Anand Ali,

IT IS SO. ALL QUESTIONS NOT only seem to be pointless, they are. In your mind there is still a lurking doubt. Hence you say:

ALL QUESTIONS SEEM TO BE POINTLESS.

It is not a question that they SEEM, that they APPEAR -- they are. The moment you understand that they are pointless, even the answerless question of life will not remain.

Then there is mystery -- no questions, no answers. Then there is tremendous mystery.

One is not trying to solve it because it is not a problem. One is not seeking for any answer because it is not a question. One starts LIVING it. And the day you start living life as a mystery you have entered into God.

Life understood as a question creates science; life understood as a mystery creates religion.

And you say: ONLY THE ANSWERLESS QUESTION OF LIFE REMAINS.

If it is answerless, how can it be a question? A question Is always a question in reference to an answer; an answer is only an answer in reference to a question. They are together, halves of one whole. If one REALLY disappears, the other disappears automatically.

That's why I say there is a lurking doubt in you: "Maybe there is some question which is NOT pointless. Maybe I have still to find it. Maybe my questions are pointless, maybe the questions that I know ARE pointless, but who knows? -- there may be a valid question, a real question."

There is none.

When this becomes a trust in you and no lurking doubt remains...because it is doubt that creates the question, it is doubt that becomes a question. When there is no doubt left, when you know that nothing can be known, that knowledge is impossible; when you come to the same understanding as happened to Socrates -- "I know only one thing, that I know nothing" -- if that innocence happens to you, then nothing is left, not even an answerless question. The very word 'question' becomes irrelevant.

A silence is left, a deep silence and a great joy, a benediction is left. Life flows through you, passes through you, not creating any question. You simply live it.

This is simplicity -- not the cultivated simplicity of a SADHU or a monk. This is the simplicity of innocence, uncultivated. One has great wonder about everything, one lives in awe. One can worship a tree, one can worship a rock, because the moment questions are gone and your heart is full of the mysterious and the miraculous, your whole life becomes a prayer, a worship.

It is so tremendously unbelievable that we are alive -- for no reason at all! -- that we are breathing, that we can see, that we can taste, that we can hear, that we can love, that our hearts are beating, that life is passing through us, that life has chosen us as its vehicles.

Just to know it is enough to be grateful, just to feel it is enough to be prayerful.

No God is needed to pray to. If you pray to a God your prayer is false. When there is simply prayer, not addressed to anyone in particular, a kind of prayerfulness, a state of praying...not a prayer to any God, Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan, because they are all manufactured by the mind of man, they are not true. ALL Gods are false. They are bound to be false because they are answers to certain questions -- and questions are false, questioning is false, and the Gods are answers to certain questions.

Somebody asks, "Who created the world?" Now that question becomes a thorn in the flesh; the mind cannot rest at ease unless an answer is found. You have to invent an answer just to console yourself. Either you do it or some cunning priest will do it for you on your behalf, will say, "God created the world." The question was false -- how can a false question lead to a right answer? The very premise was false, hence the conclusion is false.

And people are so stupid that they accept such an answer: "God created the world." And they don t ask "Who created God?" Yes, sometimes small children ask that: "Who created God?" Then we immediately hush them up. We say, "Wait! You are too young for such deep mysteries. When you become grown-up you will know." As if you have known by becoming grown-up. But you cannot accept your ignorance.

You are untrue even to children. You are untrue, deceiving dishonest. insincere, even to innocent children. You go on pretending as if you know and you go on telling them that they will also know when they are grown-up, more experienced. And they will repeat the same stupidity to their own children. That's how stupidities are perpetuated for centuries Ask a question and somebody is bound to supply an answer. If nobody supplies one, YOU are going to invent one yourself. This is not true religion; a religion that is based on a false answer is not true religion. And all the Gods have been created in the same way, and all the scriptures too -- just to console you, just to keep you in a false state of knowledge, because you are so afraid of being innocent, you are so afraid of being ignorant.

Remember: ignorance is not stupidity, knowledge is. Ignorance is innocence. No question, no answer...one simply lives moment-to-moment. And one is grateful because the universe is. One is grateful because the sun rises and the birds sing and the flowers bloom and the clouds float and in the night the sky becomes full of stars. One is simply grateful because there are mountains and rivers and oceans and deserts. One is simply grateful because there are animals and human beings. Such an incredible existence, so far out! Such a celebration, so psychedelic, so colorful! Such a dance of energy!

When feeling it you simply bow down, you simply bow down on the earth. Not in a temple, not in a mosque, not in a GURUDWARA, not in a church -- they are all man-made. When you simply bow down before the sky, before the sunset, with no motive...what can you ask from a sunset? You cannot ask for money, you cannot ask for power, you cannot ask for prestige. It will look so stupid! What can you ask from a tree?

But when you go into a temple, into a church, you start asking for these things. Your prayer is rooted in some motive, and a prayer rooted in any motive is ugly, a prayer addressed to somebody is ugly.

But just a prayerfulness, a thankfulness, a pure gratitude...the sheer joy that we are part of such a mysterious existence!

Anand Ali, you are very close to understanding that all questions are pointless, but you have not yet touched the target; you are going round and round.

You say: ALL QUESTIONS SEEM TO BE POINTLESS.

Why do you use the word 'seem'? There is still some possibility: "Maybe, perhaps there is a question that is not known to me yet which is not pointless." Hence your second statement:

ONLY THE ANSWERLESS QUESTION OF LIFE REMAINS.

Although you say it is answerless, still you call it a question. Be very watchful about words. Be very careful what you say, how you say it -- because it shows your state of consciousness. You are very close, missing the target only by inches. But whether you miss the target by inches or by miles it makes no difference -- you miss it all the same.

Become a little more alert. Let all questions go, and all answers. Remain in that silence that is left behind. Become that silence, BE that silence.

C. E. Bignall says:

Where shall wisdom be found.

be still and know.

seek the strength of no desire.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, WHAT IS TRUE WISDOM?

Prem Samadhi,

WISDOM CANNOT BE TRUE OR UNTRUE. Wisdom is simply wisdom. It is truth.

There is no possibility of there ever being an untrue wisdom. All knowledge is untrue: all wisdom is true. Knowledge is borrowed, hence it is untrue. It is yours, that's why is it untrue. It may have been true to the person who imparted it to you.

The Buddha talking to his disciples is talking wisdom, but the moment it reaches the disciples it becomes knowledge. Wisdom falls from its heights to the level of the listeners and becomes knowledge.

Hence Buddhas have always been very much aware that they impart something of their presence, something of their silence, something of their joy, rather than imparting their wisdom. Even if they have to talk, they talk only in order to persuade you to be silent.

Even if they use words, those words are used to create a wordless state of consciousness in you.

So the first thing, Prem Samadhi: wisdom as such is truth, it cannot be untrue. Just as light is light and cannot be dark, just as life is life and cannot be death, just as logic is love and cannot be hate. If it is hate, it is not love.

Wisdom is intrinsically true because it is an existential experience. It is not something known from others, it is not something gathered from the scriptures; it is something that grows in your heart. It is a growth, not an accumulation. It is experience, not information.

Knowledge makes you learned: wisdom makes you innocent. Knowledge is very ego-fulfilling, very ego-strengthening. The ego feeds on knowledge; it is the best tonic for the ego. But wisdom happens only when ego has disappeared; wisdom appears only on the death of the ego. The death of the ego is the birth of wisdom.

Mind is interested in knowledge not in wisdom, because for wisdom you will have to create a space called no-mind. And, naturally, mind is afraid of your ever becoming interested in wisdom, because mind does not want to commit suicide.

Sannyas is a suicide of the mind, so is meditation, so is wisdom. These are different names for the same phenomenon, different aspects of the same diamond.

Knowledge depends on words. You can easily become knowledgeable by sitting in a library, but you cannot become wise that way. To become wise you will have to be in communion with a wise man. For knowledge all that is required of you is that you should be a student, that you should be full of questions, inquiries; you should be able to learn from scriptures, books, teachers, universities, libraries. Your memory becomes more and more rich, your biocomputer becomes full of information, but wisdom is not arrived at that way.

Wisdom is more or less a love affair with Master. One has to be a disciple, not only a student. The student keeps a distance from the Master. For him the Master is only a teacher; he is interested in the Master because of his teaching. Really he is interested in the teaching, not in the being of the Master. The disciple is not interested in teaching because one thing he has come to understand: that knowledge can be taught but wisdom can only be caught.

Wisdom is contagious. You have to be available to a Master, to his being. He has become afire, your candle of the heart is still unlit; if you become available to the fire of the Master you can also become a lit candle, you can also become aflame.

To be aflame with silence, with joy, is wisdom. It is not through logic but through love. It is not through words but through a wordless state called meditation or a state of no-mind, satori, samadhi.

Beware of learning, otherwise you may never become wise. To be knowledgeable is very easy; it is not risky, it is safe. To move into the dimension of wisdom is risky; it is going into the unknown, into the uncharted. Great courage is needed, guts are needed.

And when you have tasted something of wisdom, knowledge looks so stupid, so utterly stupid. But if you have not tasted anything of wisdom, knowledge seems to be of tremendous value.

Zalewski got a job as a delivery boy in a pet shop. One day he was told to deliver a pet rabbit to Mrs. Caldwell, Route 2 -- Box 4.

"You better write that down in case I forget it," said the boy.

Slipping the address into his pocket, Zalewski started off on his errand. Every few minutes he glanced at the address and said, "I know where I am going: Mrs. Caldwell, Route 2 -- Box 4."

Everything went smoothly until he hit a huge hole in the road. The truck landed in a ditch and the rabbit began to run for its life across an open field.

Zalewski stood there laughing uproariously. A passerby stopped and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Did you see that crazy rabbit running across that field?" said the Polack. "He does not know where he is going because I have got the address in my pocket."

That is the state of the knowledgeable man: he has got the address in his pocket. He knows where God is, he knows where heaven is, he knows where hell is. He knows everything -- all is in his pocket. He carries scriptures, AND he believes in the letter and he misses the spirit. He goes on believing in words, he believes too much in the words.

And words are useful if you can understand the spirit that is hidden behind them, that is not so apparent, not so visible.

In the hands of a meditative person words can become of infinite value, because they can be indicators. But in the hands of non-meditators words are dangerous, very dangerous, because the spirit is completely missed and one starts believing in the hollow, empty word, and one starts following the word.

That is what is happening to the Christians, to the Hindus, to the Mohammedans, to the Jainas, to the Buddhists -- all are believers in words. Somebody believes in the Koran and somebody in the Gita and somebody in the Bible, and they ALL are missing the spirit.

Because to know the spirit of the Bible, you will have to come to certain inner spaces where you become acquainted with Moses, with Jesus.... Unless you have a direct, inner contact with Moses and Jesus you will not understand the Bible.

But following the word you may look Very important -- to people who are just like you, not different in any way. They also believe in words, you also believe in words; both live in the same kind of ignorance. This is not wisdom.

Wisdom is an interior phenomenon. It is the discovery of the spirit of all the Buddhas.

And there is no need to go into the history of the Buddhas. You have only to go within yourself, because you contain the whole past of existence, the infinite past, and you also contain the infinite future.

A mailman was delivering his mail during the Christmas season. At one house the door was opened by a beautiful woman wearing a sheer negligee.

"Would you like to come in?" cooed the woman.

"Sure," replied the startled mailman.

She led him up to her bedroom and made love to him. When they were finished she got up and handed the man a dollar. "Why the dollar?" asked the puzzled mailman. "Well,"

replied the woman, "when I asked my husband what to give the mailman for Christmas he said 'Just give him a buck and fuck him!'"

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, GURDJIEFF TALKS ABOUT THREE ASPECTS OF BEING: ESSENCE, FALSE PERSONALITY AND TRUE PERSONALITY -- FALSE PERSONALITY

BEING A FALSE, CONDITIONED VEHICLE FOR OUR REAL ESSENCE, AND

TRUE PERSONALITY BEING THAT WHICH CAN BE DEVELOPED AND

CONVEYS AND PROTECTS OUR REAL SELF.

PRIMITIVE PEOPLES LIVE IN THE ESSENCE STATE LIKE ANIMALS. THEY

ARE BEAUTIFUL BUT NOT ENLIGHTENED. IF ENLIGHTENMENT IS NATURAL

AND OUR BIRTHRIGHT, WHY ARE NOT THE PRIMITIVE PEOPLES

ENLIGHTENED, OR ARE THEY?

I HEAR YOU TELL US TO ACCEPT THE ANIMAL THAT WE ARE, RETURN TO

ESSENCE. I HAVE READ GURDJIEFF SAYING YOU MUST BECOME YOUR

TRUE SELF -- THE MASTER. HE SAID BEWARE OF BEING SWALLOWED BY

THE ANIMAL. GIVE IT SOME CIGARETTES OR ICE CREAM AND IT WILL BE

CALMED.

WHAT IS TRUE PERSONALITY AND WHAT IS ITS RELATIONSHIP TO

ESSENCE?

Paul Maniloff,

THERE IS NO PERSONALITY. Personality as such is false. The word 'personality' has to be understood. It comes from 'persona'; persona means a mask. In ancient Greek drama the actors used to wear masks; those masks were called persona -- persona because the sound was coming from behind the mask. 'Sona' means sound. The masks were apparent to the audience and from behind the mask the sound was coming. From that word

'persona' has come the word 'personality'.

All personality is false. Good personality, bad personality, the personality of a sinner and the personality of a saint -- all are false. You can wear a beautiful mask or an ugly mask, it doesn't make any difference.

The real thing is your essence. But the question is relevant. If essence is the real thing, as I say, then Maniloff asks:

PRIMITIVE PEOPLES LIVE IN THE ESSENCE STATE JUST LIKE ANIMALS.

THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL BUT NOT ENLIGHTENED.

It is true -- they cannot be enlightened. For them to become enlightened, first they will have to create a personality. Enlightenment is dropping of the personality; they don't have any personality to drop. You will feel a little puzzled: Why can't one become enlightened when one has no personality?

Personality is also a necessary part of growth. It is like if you catch hold of a fish in the sea and you throw it on the shore; the fish jumps back into the sea. Now for the first time it will know that it has always lived in the sea; for the first time it will know that "The sea is my life." Up to now, before it was caught and thrown on the shore, it may not have ever thought of the sea at all; it may have been utterly oblivious of the sea. To know something, first you have to lose it.

To be aware of paradise, first you have to lose it. Unless it is lost AND regained you will not understand the beauty of it.

Adam and Eve had to lose the Garden of Eden; that is part of natural growth. Only Adam leaving the beautiful Garden of God can become a Christ one day -- he can come back.

Adam leaving Eden is just like the fish being caught and thrown on the shore and Jesus is the fish jumping back into the sea.

The primitive people cannot become enlightened. They are beautiful, spontaneous, natural, but utterly unaware of what they are; they don't have any awareness. They live joyously but their joy is unconscious. First they have to lose it. They have to become civilized, educated, knowledgeable; they have to become a culture, a civilization, a religion. They have to lose all their spontaneity, they have to forget all about their essence, and then suddenly one day they start missing it. It is bound to happen.

That is happening all over the world, and it is happening in such great measure because this is the first time that humanity has really become civilized.

The more civilized a country is, the more is the feeling of meaninglessness. The backward countries still don't have that feeling, they can't have. To have that feeling of inner emptiness, meaninglessness, absurdity, one has to become very civilized.

Hence I am all in favor of science, because it helps the fish to be thrown on the shore.

And once on the hot shore, in the hot sand, the fish starts feeling thirsty. It had never felt thirsty before. For the first time it misses the ocean around, the coolness, the life-giving waters. It is dying.

That is the situation of the civilized man, the educated man: he is dying. Great inquiry is born. One wants to know what should be done, how one can enter into the ocean of life again.

In the backward countries, for example in India, there is no such feeling of meaninglessness. Even though a few Indian intellectuals write about it, their writing has no depth because it does not correspond to the situation of the Indian mind. A few Indian intellectuals write about meaninglessness, absurdity, almost in the same way as Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jaspers, Heidegger.... They have read about these people or they may have visited the West, and they start talking about meaninglessness, nausea, absurdity, but it sounds phony.

I have talked to Indian intellectuals -- they sound very phony because it is NOT their OWN feeling; it is borrowed. It is Soren Kierkegaard speaking through them, it is Friedrich Nietzsche speaking through them; it is not their own voice. They are not really aware of what Soren Kierkegaard is saying; they have not suffered the same anguish. The feeling is alien, foreign; they have learnt it like parrots. They talk about it, but their whole life says and shows something else. What they say and what their life shows are diametrically opposite.

It is very very rare that any Indian intellectual ever commits suicide -- I have not heard of it -- but many Western intellectuals HAVE committed suicide. It is very rare to come across an Indian intellectual who goes mad; it is a very common phenomenon in the West, many intellectuals have gone mad. The real intellectuals have almost inevitably gone mad; it is their life experience.

The civilization all around, the over-developed personality, have become an imprisonment. They are being killed by it. The very weight of civilization is too much and unbearable. They are feeling suffocated, they can't breathe. Even suicide seems to be a liberation, or if they cannot commit suicide then madness seems to be an escape. At least by becoming mad one forgets all about civilization, one forgets all about the nonsense that goes on in the name of civilization. Madness is an escape from civilization.

Do you know that primitive people don't go mad? It is only the civilized man's privilege.

Primitive people don't commit suicide; again it is the civilized man's privilege.

But to feel that life is utterly meaningless is to be on a crossroads: either you choose suicide or you choose sannyas; either you choose madness or you choose meditation. It is a great turning-point!

Maniloff, ALL personality is false. There is an essence inside which is not false, which you bring with your birth, which has always been there.

Somebody asks Jesus: "Do you know anything about Abraham?" And Jesus says, "Before Abraham ever was, I am."

Now what an absurd statement, but also of tremendous significance. Abraham and Jesus -

- there is a big gap between them; Abraham preceded Jesus by almost three thousand years. And Jesus says, "Before Abraham ever was, I am." He is talking about the essence.

He is not talking about Jesus, he is talking about the Christ. He is talking about the eternal. He is not talking about the personal, he is talking about the universal.

The Zen people say that unless you come to know your original face that you had before your father was ever born, you will not become enlightened. What is this original face?

Even before your father was born you had it, and you will have it again when you have died and your body has been burnt and nothing is left except ashes -- then you will have it again.

What is this original face? The essence -- call it the soul, the spirit, the self. These are words signifying the same thing. You are born as an essence, but if you are left as an essence without the society creating a personality for you, you will remain animal-like. It has happened to some people.

Just six months ago, again one child was found somewhere in North India near the Himalayas, a child of eleven years who had been brought up by wolves, a wolf-child -- a human child brought up by wolves. Of course wolves can only give the personality of a wolf; so the child was human, the essence was there, but he had the personality of a wolf.

Many times it has happened. Wolves seem to be capable of bringing up human children; they seem to have a certain love, compassion, for human children. But these children are not enlightened. They don't have any of the corruption that human society is bound to give; their beings are not polluted, they are pure essence. They are like the fish in the ocean -- they don't know who they are. And it is very difficult once they have been brought up by animals to give them a human personality; it is too hard a job.

Almost all the children have died in that effort. They cannot learn human ways, it is too late now. Their mold is cast; they have already become fixed personalities. They have learnt how to be wolves. They run like wolves on all fours and they are strong like wolves. You cannot fight with a wolf-child; he will kill you, he will eat you raw. They are cannibals! They don't know any morality, they don't know any religion. They are not Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan. They don't bother about God -- they have never heard of him. All that they know is the life of a wolf.

If human personality is a barrier, it is a barrier only if you cling to it. It has to be passed through: it is a ladder, it is a bridge. One should not make one's house on the bridge, true, but one has to pass over the bridge.

Human personality is partial. In a better society we will give children personalities but also the capacity to get rid of them. That is what is missing right now: we give them personalities, too tight personalities, so that they become encapsulated, imprisoned, and we never give them a way to get rid of them. It is like giving a child steel clothes and not giving him any idea of how to unlock, how to throw the clothes, one day when he is becoming bigger.

What we are doing with human beings is exactly what was done in ancient China with the feet of women. From the very childhood girls were given iron shoes so that their feet never grew, they remained very small. Small feet were loved very much, they were appreciated very much. Only aristocratic families could afford them, because it was almost impossible for the woman to do anything. The woman could not even walk rightly; the feet were too small and the body was big. The feet were crippled; she had to walk with a support. Now a poor woman could not afford it, so small feet was the symbol of the aristocracy.

We can laugh at it, but we go on doing the same thing. Now in the West women are walking on such absurd shoes, such high heels! It is okay if you do such a thing in a circus, but such high heels are not for walking. But they are appreciated, because when a woman walks on very high heels she becomes more sexually attractive: her buttocks stand out more prominently. And because walking is difficult, her buttocks move more than they would do ordinarily. But this is accepted, then it is okay. Other societies will laugh at it!

All over the world women are using bras and they think that it is very conventional and traditional. My sannyasins are not using bras, and that is one of the greatest criticisms against them from the Hindus. In fact the bra makes the woman look more sexual; it is just to give her body a shape that she has not got. It is to help her so that the breasts can stand out and can look very young, not sagging. And these Hindu women think they are being very religious and orthodox. They are simply befooling themselves and nobody else -- the bra is a sexual symbol.

Just like the bra, there are societies in Africa, a few primitive societies, which use strange things. Lips are made bigger and thicker. From the very childhood weights are hung on the lips so that they become very thick, big. That is a symbol of a very sexual woman --

thicker and bigger lips can of course give a better kiss!

In some primitive societies the man even used to wear a certain sheath on his genital organs to make them look bigger, just as women are using bras. Now we laugh at such foolish people, but it is the SAME story. Even the younger people all over the world are using very tight pants -- that is just to show their genitals. But once a thing is accepted, nobody takes any note of it.

Civilization should not become a tight enclosure. It is absolutely necessary that you should have a personality, but you should have a personality which can be put on and off easily, just like loose garments, not made of steel. Just cotton will do, so that you can put them off and on; you need not continuously wear them.

That's what I call a man of understanding: he who lives in his essence, but as far as the society is concerned he moves with a personality. He uses the personality; he is the master of his own being.

The society needs a certain personality. If you bring your essence into the society you will be creating trouble for yourself and for others. People will not understand your essence; your truth may be too bitter for them, your truth may be too disturbing for them.

There is no need! You need not go naked in the society; you can wear clothes.

But I have heard about a nun who used to take her bath with clothes on. When other nuns came to hear about it they asked, "What nonsense! Why can't you undress in your bathroom? There is nobody looking."

She said, "No, but the Bible says God is watching everywhere." So the nun cannot even undress in the bathroom because God is watching -- as if God is a peeping Tom! And if God can watch even behind locked doors, can't he watch inside your clothes? He can watch there too! If walls cannot prevent him, just your garments, how can they prevent him?

One should be able to be naked in one's own house, playing with one's children; sipping tea on a summer morning in the garden, on the lawn, one should be able to be naked.

There is no need to go to your office naked -- there is no need! Clothes are perfectly good; there is no necessity to expose yourself to each and everybody. That will be exhibitionism, that will be another extreme. One extreme is that people cannot even go to bed without clothes on; another extreme is that there are Jaina DIGAMBARA monks moving naked in the marketplace, or naked Hindu SADHUS. And strange is the thing: that these Jainas and these Hindus, they object to MY people because they are not wearing proper clothes.

Now, in a hot country like India people coming from the West find it really difficult to wear too many clothes. It looks so absurd to the Western seeker who comes here to see Indians with ties and coats. It looks so absurd! It is okay in the West -- it is too cold and the tie is protective -- but in India it is an effort to commit suicide. In the West it is okay to have your shoes and socks on, but in India? But imitative people! They are moving the whole day with shoes and socks on in a hot country like India. The Western dress in India is not relevant -- tight pants and coat and tie and hat -- it simply makes you look ridiculous. India needs loose garments. But there is no need to go to the other extreme, that you start running naked, bicycling naked into the marketplace. It will unnecessarily create trouble for you and for others.

But the strange thing is that the people who have always worshipped naked SADHUS

and have never raised any problem, for them I am creating a trouble. For them I look as if I am a dangerous person because my sannyasins are not wearing proper clothes.

One should be natural, and by being natural I mean one should be capable of putting on the personality when needed, in society. It functions like a lubricant, it helps, because there are thousands of people. Lubricants are needed, otherwise people will be constantly in conflict, clashing against each other. Lubricants help; they keep your life smooth.

Personality is good when you are communicating with others, but personality is a barrier when you start communing with yourself. Personality is good when you are relating with human beings; personality is a barrier when you start relating with existence itself, with God.

Maniloff, to me there are only two things: the essence and the personality. The personality is good as a means, the essence is the end. And personalities are not real and unreal.

You ask: WHY ARE NOT THE PRIMITIVE PEOPLE ENLIGHTENED?

They are not enlightened because they don't have any personalities yet. Unless you have a personality you cannot drop it. Unless you have a properly developed mind you cannot enter into the state of no-mind. Unless you have an ego, well-formed, mature, you cannot surrender.

These things look like puzzles but they are not. If you just contemplate over these things, they are very simple to understand. What do you have to surrender if you don't have any ego? Hence, first the ego has to be developed. But the ego should be developed and side by side another thing has to be developed: the capacity to drop the ego. Man has to learn this paradox so when the need arises you can drop the ego. Then you are always the master, and the mastery is always of the essence. But if you don't have any personality you will not be the master, because you don't have any slave to be a master of. The essence and personality are both needed, then the essence can be the master.

It is not so ordinarily: the personality becomes the master and essence is either completely reduced to a slave or completely forgotten and thrown into the basement of your unconsciousness. The education is faulty.

MY vision of a right education is to teach people how to grow the ego and how to be able to drop it; how to become great minds and yet be ready any moment to put the mind aside. You should be able to just put your personality, your ego, your mind, on and off, because these are good things if you can use them. But you should know the mechanism, how to put them off. Right now you know only how to put them on.

I am reminded:

Sigmund Freud somewhere remembers that a friend came to visit him from a very very faraway village. They had studied together in primary school; since then they had not met. Electricity had just then come; just a few months before, electricity had come to Vienna where Sigmund Freud lived. He forgot to tell the friend how to put off the light in the night and the friend was almost going mad in the night because he could not sleep --

the light was too much. And he tried every possible way that he could conceive to blow it out.

He even stood on a table and studied the lamp, how to blow it out. But you can't blow it out! He tried every possible way. He could not sleep the whole night and because of his ego he could not wake Sigmund Freud and ask him what to do with this light. All that he knew about was kerosene lamps. But an electric bulb functions in a different way; it is not a kerosene lamp.

In the morning Freud asked, "You look tired, your eyes are red. What happened? Couldn't you sleep?"

And the man confessed. He said, "No, I could not sleep, and now I have to tell you. I wanted not to tell you because I wanted not to appear so stupid that I don't know how to put off the light, but I tried my best. The whole night I tried to figure it out, how to put it off, but I could not."

Freud took him in the room. He said, "It is very simple: this is the button" -- the button was behind the door so he could not see it; even if he had seen it he would not have thought that the button had any connection with the light -- "you just put it on and off with the button."

Our situation is like that: our society puts on the ego, the personality, and nobody ever teaches us how to put it off. So day in, day out, we are burdened by it, tortured by it, goaded by it. We become slaves of something false.

I don't want you to drop your personality forever; I simply want you to be capable of putting it off when it is not needed. This is the whole art of real religion: to teach you how to put the mind off and how to put it on.

Talking to you, I have to put my mind on, otherwise how can I talk? The heart cannot talk, the being cannot talk, the essence knows no language. I have to use the personality.

But the moment I have said, "Enough for today," you may not know but that is how I put it off. I tell you the secret! It is not to you that I am saying enough for today; I am saying to my own mind, "Enough for today. Now go to sleep."

You also say, Maniloff: I HEAR YOU TELL US TO ACCEPT THE ANIMAL THAT

WE ARE, RETURN TO ESSENCE. I HAVE READ GURDJIEFF SAYING YOU

MUST BECOME YOUR TRUE SELF -- THE MASTER. HE SAID BEWARE OF

BEING SWALLOWED BY THE ANIMAL.

He is right! -- beware of being swallowed by the animal. But why not swallow the animal yourself? Otherwise you will have to be constantly alert and aware and on guard, because the animal will be there. And the animal is the animal: if the animal finds you off guard, it will jump upon you.

So I don't say only beware of the animal and go on persuading the animal, as Gurdjieff says. You say that he says:

"GIVE IT SOME CIGARETTES OR ICE CREAM AND IT WILL BE CALMED. "

It is not so easy! It will not be calmed by SOME ice cream -- it will ask for more. It always asks for more. It will not be calmed by SOME cigarettes; it will go on asking for more. And it is not only a question of cigarettes and ice cream, otherwise the problem would not have been very complex.

It asks for money, it asks for power; it wants to be the president of the country, the prime minister of the country. The animal has strange ideas to be fulfilled! It wants all the women of the world; it can't be satisfied with one. The animal is mad, the animal is insane! The animal is simply animal; it has no understanding -- you cannot expect understanding from it. Don't believe that it will be calmed just by giving it some cigarettes and ice cream -- don't be so simplistic. It will go on demanding new things and more things, and there is no end to its demanding. If you try to persuade it in this way you will never be able to persuade it.

Why not swallow the animal yourself? Eat it and be finished with it! That's my idea. Why not make ice cream out of the animal? Why not make cigars out of it and smoke it and be finished with it?

That's why I say don't repress -- because if you repress, the animal is there. I say go deep into the very spirit of the animal. Enjoy it! That's what I mean when I say eat it. Be capable of digesting it and you will be more mighty by digesting it. Your sex digested will release so much energy that you can attain to superconsciousness. Hence I say 'from sex to superconsciousness'. Your greed digested will become your love.

You will be surprised to know that the English word 'love' comes from a Sanskrit word LOBHA; LOBHA means greed. It may have been just a coincidence that the English word 'love' grew out of LOBHA; LOBHA means greed. But my feeling is it cannot be just coincidence; there may be something more mysterious behind it, there may be some alchemical reason behind it. In fact greed digested becomes love. It is greed, LOBHA, digested well, which becomes love.

Love is sharing; greed is hoarding. Greed only wants and never gives, and love knows only giving and never asks for anything in return; it is unconditional sharing. There may be some alchemical reason that LOBHA has become 'love' in the English language.

LOBHA becomes love as far as inner alchemy is concerned.

Swallow the animal! That is the way to transform it. That is the way to transmute lower energies into higher energies.

You are given a great opportunity. You have been thrown out of the sea -- this is the opportunity; expelled from the Garden of Eden -- this is the opportunity. Adam can become Christ if he uses the opportunity well. Use the opportunity: eat the animal, digest the animal. Don't try to cut it off, otherwise you will become poorer. Don't try to destroy it as your so-.called saints have been doing down the ages, otherwise you will be dull and dead, insipid. Don't repress it, otherwise it will take revenge -- the animal is animal. One day it will jump upon you with such vengeance that you will be destroyed by it.

And don't try to persuade it because it cannot be persuaded. Its demands are infinite, its thirst cannot be quenched by anything. Give it anything and it immediately asks for something more. The 'more' is its very way of living.

So don't befool yourself that cigarettes and ice cream and things like that will help the animal to subside and to be calmed. No, you will need great insight into the animal, you will need great acquaintance with the animal. You will need very deep awareness of the working of the animal. And you will have to digest it slowly slowly, gradually, so that one day the animal becomes part of your being.

The animal has great energy, that's why it is called animal. 'Anima' means aliveness, power, vitality; 'animal' means one who is vital. The saints cut their roots from the animal; they became non-vital. That's why they have not been able to transform the whole world -- they were not even able to transform their own selves. They became impotent. Rather than becoming more potent, rather than becoming omnipotent, they became impotent. Hence I am not for suppression.

I am for understanding, I am for transformation. And if the animal is transformed and absorbed by the essence, you will feel great power, great fire. Your life will become such a passionate affair with existence, you will have such intensity, that each moment will give you the joy of an eternity.

The fourth question

Question 4

OSHO, BEFORE, WHEN I WAS CLEVER, I WAS REALLY STUPID. NOW I AM

NO LONGER CLEVER, BUT STILL FEEL STUPID. IN FACT, THIS IS A STUPID

LETTER...DOES THAT MEAN I'M STILL CLEVER? OR DO SOME PEOPLE WHEN

THEY DROP THEIR CLEVERNESS FIND THAT THEY ARE SIMPLY STUPID?

PS: I ALWAYS WANTED TO WRITE AN IMPRESSIVE QUESTION, BUT SEEM

TO HAVE WAITED TOO LONG. A JOKE TO ILLUSTRATE MY PROBLEM: A MAN TELEPHONES HIS DOCTOR: "DOCTOR, YOU KNOW THOSE PILLS YOU

PRESCRIBED FOR MY MUSCULAR WEAKNESS...WELL, I CAN'T GET THE TOP

OFF THE BOTTLE."

Devageet,

YOU ARE IN A BEAUTIFUL MESS! Remain this way.

No need to figure it out, whether you are clever or stupid; whatsoever you are, it is perfectly okay. Trying to figure it out is an unnecessary effort. If one is stupid, one is stupid -- so what?! How does it matter? If one is clever, one is clever -- so what! How does it matter?

But we have always been thinking in terms of comparison. Man is very much conditioned to create hierarchies: who is clever, who is stupid, who is beautiful, who is ugly...We can't accept people as they are.

And if you start figuring it out you WILL be in trouble -- because nothing can be figured out. Life is mysterious. If you are clever you are stupid; if you know you are stupid you are clever.... Now you will be moving in a circle; there will be no end to it. It will be like a dog chasing its own tail: the more the dog chases the tail, the more the tail will jump --

with the dog, of course, because it is the dog's tail. And the dog can go crazy! Sometimes you can watch dogs going crazy, just chasing their tails. Philosophers are like dogs chasing their tails.

Devageet, don't be a philosopher. Such problems have arisen in philosophy many times.

They say that before Socrates there was a great school of sophists in Greece; they used to train people in sophistry. Before philosophy, sophistry was the dominant thing in people's minds; the sophist was thought to be the real intellectual. And the fundamental of sophistry was that nothing is true and nothing is false.

You can try anything, and you can prove anything right and you can prove anything wrong. Something can be proved right and the same thing can be proved wrong, it all depends on what you want to prove.

Logic is a whore! -- logic can go with anybody. So whenever someone wins in an argument it does not prove that he has the truth. It only proves that he is more clever in logical gymnastics, that's all; he may not have the truth at all. When someone is defeated in logic, argumentation, it does not prove that he does not have the truth; it may be simply that he is not logically skillful. So there is no truth, no untruth; it is only a game.

Sophistry was a game, and the sophists used to teach people, whosoever wanted to learn the game -- the aristocracy, the rich people, particularly, loved it very much. It was like a chess game.

It happened to a great sophist:

A young man came and he said, "I have heard much about you -- you are the greatest sophist master in the country. If you trust so much in your own intelligence, this is my proposal: that I will pay half of your fees right now and the other half I will pay only when I win in an argument."

The master was so trustful of his own skill, he said, "Perfectly okay. You can give half my fees now and half I will take when you win your first argument. It is bound to happen

-- you are going to win. Never have my students been defeated anywhere."

But the young man was also really clever. He learnt the whole art, but he never argued with anybody. The master was puzzled about what to do: "Unless he argues and wins, half of the fee is gone, and if he never argues..." and he used to avoid. The master told many other disciples, "Create some argument with him." But he would always say, "Yes, you are right." Whatsoever you said he would say, "Yes, you are right." He would never argue. The master was at a loss: "It seems as if the disciple is winning and I am being defeated."

So the master put a case in the court: "This disciple has not paid half my fee which is due to me, and the court should force this young man to give me my fee which he has promised." Now the master thought, "If I win In the court, the court will order the young man to give my fee and I will get the fee. If I am defeated in the court, then too nothing is lost -- outside the court I will say to the young man, "You have won your first argument, now give me the other half of my fee.

But the disciple belonged to this same master. He said, "Okay. If I win in the court I will say this will be an insult to the court if I pay you now. If I am defeated in the court, how can I pay you? -- because my first argument, and I am defeated!"

And this is how it happened. The court decided that the young man is right, because unless he wins how can he pay?

The master said, "Okay. So he has won his first case -- I want my fee."

The young man said, "How can I give it? I have won the case and it will be an insult to the court now. I cannot go against the court, against the law of the country."

How to decide it? It is impossible, it can't be decided.

Another story is told:

A young man from Sicily came to Athens and told Socrates, "All men in Sicily lie."

Socrates looked at the young man and said, "You come from Sicily?"

He said, "Yes."

"Are you lying?"

Now the problem arises: if he is lying then what he is saying is not true; if he is NOT

lying, then too what he is saying is not true -- because one man from Sicily is not lying, is saying a truth. In either case it will be impossible to figure it out, where we stand.

You ask, Devageet: WHEN I WAS CLEVER, I WAS REALLY STUPID. NOW I AM

NO LONGER CLEVER, BUT STILL FEEL STUPID. IN FACT, THIS IS A STUPID

LETTER...DOES THAT MEAN I AM STILL CLEVER?

Forget about it! You are in a beautiful mess -- remain in it. There is no need to decide because we are not labeling people here, who is clever and who is stupid.

The whole effort here is: who lives in the mind and who lives out of the mind.... The stupid and the clever both live in the mind, because cleverness or stupidity, both are qualities of the mind. It does not matter whether you are clever or you are stupid. You are in the mind, that is the real thing. Slip out of the mind. Slip out of cleverness and stupidity both! And the best way to slip out is not to be bothered by these things because if you are bothered by these things you will remain entangled.

Slip out of the mind! Be a no-mind, neither clever nor stupid. Then you will know what truth is, then you will know what bliss is.

And the last question

Question 5

OSHO, ARE YOU REALLY THE FIRST BUDDHA WHO JOKES?

Gangatar,

I AM NOT ONLY THE FIRST BUDDHA WHO JOKES, but the last too...because I am going to tell all the jokes! I am not going to leave a single joke untold!

Be Still and Know

Chapter #4

Chapter title: You Are Ancient Pilgrims

4 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909040

ShortTitle:

BESTIL04

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, I HAVE WORN THE MALA FOR LESS THAN A MONTH, BUT I UNDERSTAND HOW FEELING YOU IS IMPORTANT. BUT THESE FEELINGS

ARE MIXED UP. I RESPECT AND LOVE YOU, BUT I DON'T LOOK AT YOU AS

HIS HOLINESS. STRANGE, BUT I LOOK AT YOU AS A BUDDHA. ONLY THAT, WITHOUT ANYTHING ADDED OR TAKEN AWAY FROM YOUR BEING. AND

WHAT A BUDDHA IS I DON'T KNOW. HOW COME I LOVE YOU, RESPECT YOU

BECAUSE YOU ARE MY MASTER. BUT...LOVE? ALSO I SEE THAT I CAN PLAY

WITH YOU WITH JOY AND YOU ARE SO FAR AWAY. OR SO CLOSE?

RESPECT, LOVE, JOY -- ARE THEY THE SAME?

Anand Mario,

IT IS GOOD THAT YOU CANNOT THINK OF ME AS HIS Holiness, because I am neither His Holiness nor His Unholiness. It is good and beautiful that you think of me as a Buddha, because that's exactly what I am -- simply a Buddha.

A Buddha means one who is awake. It has nothing to do with holiness, nothing to do with unholiness. Holiness, unholiness, both are dreams; for dreams you have to be asleep. A Buddha is awake; all dreams have disappeared. A Buddha is not a saint, is not a sinner either. A Buddha is not God and is not a devil either. All dualities are irrelevant as far as Buddha is concerned. Buddha is simply a witness of all the mystery that surrounds you within and without.

Mario, it is absolutely right, you are moving in the right direction. If you start looking at me as a Buddha, that is a fundamental step to understanding me. If you think of me as a saint you have misunderstood me.

That's one of the fundamental problems with Indians who come here: they start thinking about me as a saint. Then a thousand and one problems arise because they have certain ideas about how a saint should be They have a thousand and one expectations: how I should live, what I should eat, how I should talk, what I should say and what I should not say.

I am not a saint, hence I cannot fulfill any of their expectations. Then they feel very frustrated and out of frustration they become enraged. It has nothing to do with me; it is their own minds, their own expectations. I am not here to fulfill anybody's expectations; I am here to be myself, simply to be myself. I am not here to be somebody else's carbon copy.

A Jaina comes and thinks in terms of Mahavira and compares me with Mahavira --

certainly I am not a Mahavira. The Christian comes with the idea of Christ and starts comparing me with Christ -- certainly I am not a Christ either. I am simply myself. You can understand me only ii you drop all comparisons, if you forget all the ideas that have been imposed on your mind. If you simply look at me without any prejudice things will be very clear.

Mario, it is good that a great clarity is coming to you. But still somewhere deep down in the unconscious there are hangovers, hence you are puzzled. You are puzzled because you cannot understand: "How come I love you?" Because saints are to be respected, not loved. They are so high, there in the heavens, and you are so low, how can you love them? Love means equality. Love means we are standing on the same plane. Saints are so holy and you are so unholy! Yes, respect is okay, but love? -- seems to be impossible.

These are hangovers.

But I would like to say to you: 'respect' is an ugly word; it has more letters than four, but actually it is a four-letter word. Respect is bound to be ugly in two ways: if you respect somebody you degrade yourself into inferiority; unless you start feeling inferior to somebody you cannot respect them. Hence all your saints go on condemning you; unless you are condemned they cannot be respected. The respect from your side is dependent on the condemnation from their side. They call you sinners, only then can you call them saints. They condemn everything that you do: your eating, your drinking, your living....

Your whole life, in every minute detail, has to be condemned. All that is natural has to be condemned; then their unnatural lives become very respectable.

All the saints -- the so-called saints I mean -- have been condemning humanity down the ages. And, slowly slowly, hearing for centuries that you are sinners you have become sinners. They have conditioned you into such inferiority that it has almost become a reality. You have started fulfilling what they have been saying about you.

If you want a man to be a criminal, go on telling him that he is a criminal. Go on repeating it and he will slowly be hypnotized. And if everybody repeats that he is a criminal he will start believing that it must be so: "How can so many people be wrong?

And how can so many SAINTS be wrong? I must be a criminal." And once a person accepts that he is a criminal he becomes one. He starts behaving to PROVE that he is a criminal. How can he prove the saints wrong? The saints have to be proved right, and the only way to prove them right is to behave the way they say you are. Their saintliness depends on your being sinners. The greater you are in your sin, the higher is their saintliness. I am not a saint!

And because they have to condemn your natural instincts THEY become unnatural, pathological They start standing on their heads just to show that they are totally different from you. If you enjoy eating, they hate eating. If you love beauty, they condemn beauty.

If you are enchanted With the world, they call the world illusion, MAYA; they say it does not exist at all. If you love your body, they destroy their bodies. Whatsoever YOU do they have to do just the opposite, because that is the only way to prove their superiority.

Your so-called saints have created a very insane humanity. They have turned you insane and they have turned themselves insane. And because they have to be unnatural they are sitting on volcanoes. They have repressed all that is natural -- and nature wants to assert itself. They are in a constant civil war; they are fighting with themselves. And whatsoever they are fighting with is becoming stronger every day, because the more you fight with something the more you have to pay attention to it. Their minds become focused. If they repress sex, twenty-four hours of their day there is an undercurrent of sexuality. If they fast, they think only of food and nothing else.

These insane people, pathological people, have been very dominant in the past. It is because of these people that the earth has become a hell; they have transformed the whole of humanity into an ugly mess.

I am not a saint. I am simply a man just like you, with only one small difference -- and that difference does not make me superior to you, remember it. It does not make you inferior to me, remember it. Never for a single moment forget that you may be asleep and I may be awake, but one day 1 was asleep just like you and one day you can be awake just like me. Sleep and waking are as much YOUR potential as they are MY potential.

Sleep and waking are two sides of the same coin, and how can one side be superior to the other side? Both sides are of the same coin. You are asleep, I am awake, but this does not make me superior in any way.

In fact, Buddha has said that the day he became a Buddha, the day he became enlightened, the whole universe became enlightened with him. What does he mean? He means the day he became enlightened he became aware that EVERYBODY can become enlightened. This is nothing special; it is an ordinary quality of every being. You may not use it -- that is YOUR choice; you may not actualize your potential -- that is YOUR

decision and you are free to decide that way. You may choose to remain asleep, but you are not committing any sin. You are not doomed just because you are asleep. Any moment you can decide to wake up.

It is your freedom to be a Buddha or not to be a Buddha -- and if you like sleep and the dreams it's perfectly okay with me. I respect your freedom.

You can love me. You cannot love your saints; they are too far away. I am standing just by your side! I am not sitting on a golden throne somewhere high in the heavens; I am walking on the earth with you, I am as earthly as you are. Just a little difference -- I say difference, not superiority -- and the difference is that I am no more asleep, no more dreaming.

And you can come out of your dreams THIS VERY MOMENT, because dreams cannot hold you; they cannot keep you imprisoned in themselves. You can burst forth from them. You are an imprisoned splendor, but you are imprisoned through your own choice.

You have gone into the prison through your own choice -- this is your decision.

There is a beautiful story of a Zen monk who used to steal small things. He was a great enlightened Master and he used to steal small things -- somebody's cigarette case or somebody's shoes -- and then he would be caught and he would be sent to prison. His disciples were very much puzzled; he had many disciples, and they asked him again and again, "Why do you DO such things? And we are here ready -- how many cigarette boxes do you want, how many shoes do you want? We can bring as many as you want. Why do you steal?"

He would laugh and never say anything, but he continued in his own way. In the end when he was dying his disciples asked, "Now tell us: what was the secret? There must be something!"

He said, "There is nothing much in it; it is a simple phenomenon. I wanted to go to jail again and again to help the people who were inside to come out, and that was the only way -- stealing small things, then getting caught. I had to manage both: first stealing things and then getting caught. And then the magistrate would send me for six months to jail and for those six months I would try to help the people who were inside to come out.

And I am happy, tremendously happy, that I have helped many to come out of jail."

Now this man is going knowingly, consciously; it is his choice. Even in the jail he is a free man. He is not imprisoned by anybody else; he has imprisoned himself, for a certain purpose.

So is the case with you: you have imprisoned yourself. This simply proves your freedom.

Any day, if you want to get out of it, you can get out of it. I go on hammering only one thing on your head again and again: that there is another choice also, please don't forget.

You have chosen to be in sleep, you can choose to be awake. You have lived in sleep for many many lives, you have seen all that sleep makes possible, now please see what awakening can give to you.

I have seen both and I tell you that sleep cannot give you anything; it only promises but never delivers any goods. Sleep can give you only dreams, hallucinations; sleep cannot fulfill you. I have known both, you have known only one. Those who have known both, listen to what they are saying. And if you come close to them you are BOUND to fall in love with them.

It is not a question of respect; respect is a formality. You respect the Christian priest, you respect the Hindu mahatma, you respect the Jaina MUNI, YOU respect the Catholic monk, you respect the Pope. You don't respect Christ or Buddha or Krishna -- you love them.

Respect is very ordinary; it brings no revolution in your life. It is a trick of the mind. The mind says, "Look how much I respect the holy people!" and there it is finished. Now what more can you do? You can respect them, sometimes you can go and touch their feet

-- it becomes a formality.

In India it is such a formality that it has lost its beauty, its tremendous power to transform people. People go on touching each and everybody's feet. Children are taught from the very beginning to touch everybody's feet.

In my childhood it was so. Any Tom, Harry, Dick who would come to my house, if he was aged my father would say, "Touch his feet." I was always puzzled: "Why? I don't see anything in the man, I have no feeling for him." But it is a formality, it is a social obligation. You have to do it.

So finally I made it a point -- why wait for my father to say it? Anybody who came, I would touch his feet before he ever said to. Then he started telling me, "You need not touch everybody's feet." I said, "Why make any distinction? And why give you the trouble of telling me again and again? Now I will touch everybody's feet, whosoever comes. It doesn't matter -- it is just a physical exercise! It is good for the body -- just bowing down and standing up again and again. And the whole day people are coming, all kinds of stupid people. And they feel happy, so it is good -- they enjoy it."

In India it is just a formality; it means nothing. Respect means nothing. And it is dangerous too, because when you respect somebody, deep down you start imitating because you would also like to be respected, the ego wants to be respected. So whomsoever you respect, sooner or later, unconsciously, you will start imitating him, because that is the only way to get respect from people. Respect creates in you a desire to imitate; you become carbon copies.

It is good, Mario, that you love me. Forget the word 'respect'; love is absolutely right.

And don't be puzzled.

You say: HOW COME I LOVE YOU? I RESPECT YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE MY

MASTER.

Yes, respect always has a 'because'; love has no 'because'. Love is simply there for no reason at all. Respect is logical; you can say why you respect a person: he eats only once a day; he has renounced the world, his wife, children, family, everything; he sleeps for only three hours or maybe he remains awake the whole night; he is continuously chanting the name of God...things like this. Or he serves the poor, or he goes to the ill people and serves them.

What will happen if poverty disappears? It will be a great loss to your saints! In fact, you will not believe it -- one of the very respected Hindu saints, Karpatri, has written a book AGAINST socialism, and the reasons that he has given against socialism are all so stupid.

The MOST stupid reason of all of them is that socialism will destroy poverty; it will create equal distribution of property and possessions. And if there are no more poor people, whom will you serve? And without service, how can you be a saint? Without service there will be no virtue.

This is a great argument! This means poverty is needed, very essentially needed - needed for the existence of the saints. Ill people are needed, lepers and blind and lame and deaf people are needed, otherwise whom will the missionaries serve? And without serving you cannot reach heaven; service is the ladder. So let people be poor!

And when these people serve poor people, you respect them. In fact they are the causes of poverty in the world. The poverty can be removed any day; now science has made all the technology available that can remove poverty from the earth absolutely. But then how will Christian missionaries be able to convert poor people to Christianity?

In India, not even a single rich person has been converted to Christianity, only poor people, very poor people. And they are converted to Christianity not because they love Christ but because they love bread and butter. The Christian missionaries can supply them with a little food, clothes, shelter, a school, a hospital. Now Christian missionaries will not like it at all if poverty disappears from the world, neither will the Hindu saints like it.

Karpatri also argues the old Hindu argument that the poor people are poor because they are suffering from their past karmas. If you make them rich, if you distribute the property and the land to the poor, you will be interfering with their past karmas. And this is not good, this is a sin, to interfere with somebody's karma. Let them suffer -- they deserve suffering! Helping the poor to become rich is almost like breaking the walls of the prison and letting the prisoners escape -- you will be doing something very illegal. The poor people are suffering, and the rich people are rich because they were virtuous in their past lives. Any effort to take their money from them is going against the law of life, the law of karma. You are going against God!

Socialism is against religion according to Karpatri and the other so-called saints. This is a very strange world! But all these things go on because we are asleep.

If you become a little bit alert and start looking around you will be surprised: your saints need psychoanalysis, your saints need psychological treatment. They are utterly ill! And because they are repressing all their desires, sooner or later they start living a double life.

They start living two lives together: one on the surface, the saintly, and the real underground, from the back door. And you go on respecting the masks.

It is good, Mario. I don't expect your respect for me, no, not at all. Love is enough, love is right, because love gives you equality with me. And as far as I am concerned I see you as equals -- not only you, but the trees and the birds and the animals and the rocks. The whole existence is a brotherhood. Nobody is higher and nobody is lower; there is no hierarchy. It is only ONE God expressing itself in millions of forms. How can there be any hierarchy? There is no BRAHMIN and no SUDRA.

You say: I RESPECT YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE MY MASTER.

Forget the respect! Love me because I am your Master -- and not for any formal reason, because to be a disciple can never be formal; it can only be of the heart.

You say: ALSO I FEEL THAT I CAN PLAY WITH YOU WITH JOY AND YOU ARE

SO FAR AWAY. OR SO CLOSE?

Both are true; simultaneously I am far away and very close -- very close because the awakening is just the other side of the coin, and very far because awakening takes you into a totally different world from sleep. Sleep takes you into dreams, awakening into reality. To be awake is the door to God. Yes, I am far away and yet very close by.

You also ask: RESPECT, JOY, LOVE -- ARE THEY THE SAME?

No, they are not the same -- certainly respect and love are not the same. Respect is a poor substitute for love, a plastic substitute for the real rose. It may appear like the rose but it is not. It has no roots in the earth, no juices flow through it. It has no contact with the sun and the wind and the rain. It is disconnected from existence. It is simply a plastic flower, looks like a rose -- it is an imitation. Respect is a plastic flower, love is a real rose.

And joy never arises out of respect. In fact, out of respect a little sadness arises. If you have observed closely, whenever you respect somebody you feel humiliated. You may not look at your humiliation because it hurts, but whenever you respect somebody there is humiliation -- because if somebody is superior you ARE inferior, and the inferiority hurts. You can avoid it, you may not see it, you may keep it at the back, you may forget all about it, but it is there. If you search for it you will always find it lurking in the darkness of your unconscious.

Respect cannot give you joy, but love certainly gives you joy. Joy is a by-product of love, the aura of love. Wherever love is there is joy, there is silence, there is benediction.

Anybody can see it here. You are sitting in such silence! You may be the only commune on the whole of the earth sitting in such silence, in such love -- engulfed, encompassed, by something of the beyond.

Others who don't know about love, may misunderstand your love as respect because they know only respect. Those who have never seen any real rose may think that the plastic flower is the real rose.

I have heard about an old woman who went to see an exhibition of Picasso paintings. She was very much puzzled looking at a painting; the cost was millions of dollars. She said to her husband, "This is madness! This painting millions of dollars? And in fact it is a copy of a calendar that has been hanging in my bathroom for years!"

The calendar is a copy, but the woman has known the calendar for years. Now the real painting looks like a copy of the calendar -- "And millions of dollars? This man must be mad who is asking millions of dollars! I can give the calendar free to anybody. I am fed up with it, because for years I have been looking at it!"

Those who don't know real roses and have always known the plastic, if you bring them to a rosebush they will think that these are plastic flowers attached to the bush.

People who come from the outside, seeing you sitting with me in deep communion, in deep love, your hearts beating with my heartbeat, will think that you are in deep respect.

It is not respect at all! It is the real thing, not the synthetic flower. It is happening -- it is a rare opportunity.

When there is somebody awake, many people who are groping in their sleep to be awake, longing in their sleep to be awake, start moving towards the source wherever awakening has happened. That's how you have arrived here from faraway countries. You may not even be aware of how you have reached here; you may think it is just accidental. It is not.

Many many lives of longing to find a Buddha, to find a Christ, have brought you here.

You are ancient pilgrims. Now you have found the opportunity.

Mario, you are fortunate to love, fortunate to feel the joy of love, fortunate because this love is going to become a door to the divine.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, WHAT IS PRAYER?

Deva Tatva,

PRAYER IS ONE OF THE INDEFINABLES, because prayer is the fragrance of love.

Even love is indefinable. Love is a flower, tangible, you can see it, you can touch it, you can smell it, you can feel it. You can close your eyes and you can touch the texture of the flower, the softness of it, you can see the beauty of it; it is visible. But prayer is the fragrance released to the winds, offered to the sky. It becomes even more indefinable because you cannot see it, you cannot touch it.

You can only have a very subtle relationship with it, not one of words, not one of philosophy, not one of theology -- only the silence of your heart, the utter silence of your heart, can have a little glimpse of it, of what it is.

What goes on in the name of prayer is not prayer; it is desire disguised. You go to the temple or to the church and you pray to God; your God is part of your imagination. Your God is not true God; it is a Christian God, it is a Hindu God, it is a Mohammedan God.

And how can God be Christian, Hindu or Mohammedan? It is a God that you have created, or your priests on behalf of you. It is a toy, it is not true.

Bowing down before a statue made by man, manufactured by man -- and you think you are in prayer? You are simply being stupid, you are simply showing utter ignorance. This statue has been purchased in the marketplace, and God is not a commodity and God cannot be made. It is God who has made us -- how can we make God? But we are worshipping, praying to man-made Gods.

And what are your prayers? They are also your desires. You want this, you want that; you are trying to use God as a means. You have been told certain prayers from your very childhood and you have crammed it all; you have been forced to cram it. It has become a habit, a mechanical routine; you go on repeating it but your heart is not in it. Your prayer is a corpse, it breathes no more.

Yes, when Jesus called God 'Abba' he meant it. When you call God 'Father' you don't mean anything. And between 'Abba' and 'Father' there is a great difference. 'Father' is an institution, legal, social; 'Abba' is a heart-to-heart relationship. Jesus looked at existence as the source of our life.

A disciple asks Jesus, "What is prayer?" Jesus falls on his knees and starts praying. The disciple says, "I am asking what prayer is, I am not asking you to pray!"

And Jesus says, "There is no other way. I can pray, you can participate. I INVITE you to be a part of my prayer. I cannot say what prayer is, but I can go into prayer -- because prayer is a state of being, not something that you do."

Leo Tolstoy has written a beautiful story:

Three men became very famous saints in Russia.

The highest priest of the country was very much disturbed -- obviously, because people were not coming to him, people were going to those three saints, and he had not even heard their names. And how could they be saints? -- because in Christianity a saint is a saint only when the church recognizes him as a saint. The English word 'saint' comes from 'sanction'; when the church sanctions somebody as a saint, then he is a saint. What nonsense! that a saint has to be certified by the church, by the organized religion, by the priests -- as if it has nothing to do with inner growth but some outer recognition; as if it is a title given by a government, or a degree, an honorary degree, conferred by a university.

The high priest was certainly very angry. He took a boat because those three saints used to live on the far side of a lake. He went in the boat. Those three saints were sitting under a tree. They were very simple people, peasants, uneducated. They touched the feet of the highest priest, and the priest was very happy. He thought, "Now I will put them right --

these are not very dangerous people. I was thinking they would be rebels or something."

He asked them, "How did you become saints?"

They said, "We don't know! We don't know that we are saints either. People have started calling us saints and we go on trying to convince them that we are not, we are very simple people, but they don't listen. The more we argue that we are not, the more they worship us! And we are not very good at arguing either."

The priest was very happy. He said, "What is your prayer? Do you know how to pray?"

They looked at each other. The first said to the second, "You say." The second said to the third, "You say, please."

The priest said, "Say what your prayer is! Are you saying Our Lord's Prayer or not?"

They said, "To be frank with you, we don't know any prayer. We have invented a prayer of our own and we are very embarrassed -- how to say it? But if you ask we have to say it. We have heard that God is a trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. We are three and he is also three, so we have made a small prayer of our own: 'You are three, we are three: Have mercy on us!' "

The priest said, "What nonsense! Is this prayer? You fools, I will teach you the right prayer." And he recited The Lord's Prayer.

And those three poor people said, "Please repeat it once more, because we are uneducated, we may forget."

He repeated it and they asked, "Once more -- we are three, repeat it at least three times."

So he repeated it again, and then very happy, satisfied, he went back in his boat.

Just in the middle of the lake he was surprised, his boatman was surprised: those three poor people were coming running on the water! And they said, "Wait! Please one more time -- we have forgotten the prayer!"

Now it was the turn of the priest to touch their feet, and he said, "Forget what I have said to you. Your prayer has been heard, my prayer has not been heard yet. You continue as you are continuing. I was utterly wrong to say anything to you. Forgive me!"

Prayer is a state of simplicity. It is NOT of words but of silence.

Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, has said that prayer is an I/thou relationship.

It is not. He does not know anything about prayer. An I/thou relationship? In prayer there is no I and in prayer there is no thou. A prayer is not a dialogue between I and thou; a prayer is a merger. The I disappears into the thou, the thou disappears into the I. There is nobody to say anything and there is nobody to say anything to.

The river disappearing into the ocean is prayer. The dewdrop slipping from the lotus leaf into the lake is prayer. Seeing the early morning sun and you are silent, and something starts rising in you too -- that is prayer. A bird on the wing, and YOU are on the wing; you forget that you are separate -- THAT is prayer. Wherever separation disappears, prayer appears. When you become one with the whole of existence, that is prayer.

Ego is a state of no-prayer: egolessness is a state of prayer. It is not a dialogue, it is not even a monologue. It has nothing to do with words; it is wordless silence. It is an open, silent sky; with no clouds, no thoughts. In prayer you are not Hindu or Christian or Mohammedan. In prayer you are not: in prayer God is.

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, WHAT IS DIPLOMACY?

Sandeep,

DIPLOMACY IS A BEAUTIFUL NAME for all kinds of cunningness. It is a beautiful label for all that is ugly. It is an effort to cover human violence, human stupidity, human cunningness, behind a beautiful word. Diplomacy is simply an effort to dominate. It may be between persons, it may be between religions, it may be between countries -- it does not matter. Even husbands and wives are in a diplomatic relationship, parents and children are in a diplomatic relationship. It is not only in politics, it is in our whole life.

When you see somebody and you feel, "Now my whole day is wasted; seeing this bastard early in the morning is a perfect indication that something wrong is going to happen, some calamity is going to happen to me," but you say to the man, "Hello! How are you?

Glad to see you!" -- that is diplomacy.

Diplomacy has entered into our blood. When you don't love your wife and pretend that you love her, it is diplomacy. When without any love you hug your children, just because it has to be done, because Dale Carnegie says so: HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND

INFLUENCE PEOPLE....

Dale Carnegie is the prophet of the modern age. Dale Carnegie's book, HOW TO WIN

FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, has sold next only to the Bible. It seems to be even more important than the Bible, because the Bible is being distributed free by the Christian missionaries and Dale Carnegie's book you have to purchase. And what he teaches is simply diplomacy.

He says that even if you don't mean it, at least a few times in the day remind your wife how much you love her. That's enough, because people don't bother about love; people live in words. If you say, "I love you," that's enough. If you go on repeating, "I love you,"

that becomes a proof that you really love. This is a very ugly state of affairs. Humanity has fallen so low that Dale Carnegie becomes the prophet.

Diplomacy is not only political, not any more -- it has entered into every arena of life.

And wherever it enters it brings pseudoness, falsity; it destroys authenticity, sincerity, honesty. It makes you say things which you don't mean, it makes you do things which you don't mean. It makes you many instead of one; you become a crowd. You go on carrying many masks with you because you never know which mask will be needed in a certain situation.

And not only has man become diplomatic -- even animals who live with man become diplomatic, dogs become diplomatic. Watch a dog.... A stranger comes to your house, knocks on the door. The dog starts two things: he starts barking and at the same time he wags his tail. This is diplomacy! because he is not certain whether the man who has knocked on the door is really a friend of the master or not -- it is better to keep your feet in both the boats, then whatsoever turns out to be right you can withdraw from the wrong one. Then you come out of the house and the dog sees that the stranger is a friend; the barking stops and the tail continues to wag.

Man contaminates everything; even innocent people like dogs are corrupted by human contact. You start teaching small children to be diplomatic. On the one hand you go on telling them, "Be true, be sincere be honest," and then one day a man comes to the door and you tell your son, "Go and say that daddy is out." Now the boy is puzzled. What to do?

My own way in my childhood was to go out and say to the man, "Daddy says he is out."

What else to do? One has to be true and one has to be obedient too. Now either I can be true or I can be obedient....

Small children, we start corrupting their minds. We corrupt animals, and it is possible one day we will discover that we even corrupt trees, because they are also very sensitive.

Living with man they must be learning all kinds of things from humanity.

Alfie and Dan, two Cockney pub crawlers, were in their cups one afternoon when Alfie pointed to a woman sitting at the end of the bar. "Hey!" he said, That woman looks like Queen Elizabeth!"

"Nah," replied Dan. "What would the Queen be doing in a pub in hogtown?"

"I am telling you it is her," insisted Alfie. "Can't you see the resemblance?"

"Look, that ain't the Queen," said Dan. "And I am willing to bet five on it."

"You are on!" came the reply. "I will go ask her." He walked over to the woman sitting at the bar and said, "I beg your pardon, are you the Queen?"

"Get lost, you little runt," growled the woman, before I kick your ass across the room!"

He returned to his seat. "Well?" his friend asked.

"Well, she didn't say she was and she didn't say she wasn't."

This is diplomacy!

A religious person has to drop all diplomacy. He has to be authentic, sincere; he has to be as he is: no pretensions, no false personalities, no facades; just being utterly nude as you are, utterly naked in your reality.

The moment you can gather that much courage you will be so filled with joy...you cannot believe right now, you cannot even conceive right now, because it is our falsities which are like parasites on our being; they go on sucking our blood. The more falsities you create around yourself, the more miserable you become, the more you are in a hell.

To live in falsities is to live in hell: to live authentically is to be in heaven.

The fourth question

Question 4

OSHO, TO ME IT SEEMS THAT THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPT OF THE SOUL IS

THE SAME AS WHAT YOU MEAN BY THE REAL I, THE ONE WHO IS THE

WATCHER. WHY DIDN'T JESUS SPEAK ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF

REINCARNATION OF THE SOUL? THIS SEEMS TO BE A DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN RELIGIONS. CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING

ABOUT IT?

Jaap-Willem,

JESUS KNEW PERFECTLY WELL about reincarnation.

There are indirect hints spread all over the gospels. Just the other day I was saying, quoting Jesus: "I am before Abraham ever was." And Jesus says, "I will be coming back."

And there are a thousand and one indirect references to reincarnation. He knew about it perfectly well, but there is some other reason why he did not talk about it, why he did not preach it.

Jesus had been to India and he had seen what had happened because of the theory of reincarnation. In India for almost five thousand years before Jesus the theory was taught.

And it is a truth, it is not only a theory; the theory is based in truth. Man has millions of lives. It was taught by Mahavira, by Buddha, by Krishna, by Rama; all the Indian religions agree upon it. You will be surprised to know: they don't agree on anything else except this theory.

Hindus believe in God and the soul. Jainas don't believe in God at all but only in the soul.

And Buddhists don't believe in the soul or God either. But about reincarnation all three agree -- even Buddhists agree, who don't believe in the soul. A very strange thing...then who reincarnates? Even THEY could not deny the phenomenon of reincarnation, although they could deny the existence of the soul; they say the soul does not exist but reincarnation exists. And it was very difficult for them to prove reincarnation without the soul; it seems almost impossible. But they found a way -- of course it is very subtle and very difficult to comprehend, but they seem to be closer, the closest to the truth.

It is easy to understand that there is a soul and when you die the body is left on the earth and the soul enters into another body, into another womb; it is a simple, logical, mathematical thing. But Buddha says there is no soul but only a continuum. It is like when you kindle a candle in the evening and in the morning when you are blowing it out a question can be asked of you: Are you blowing out the same light that you started in the evening? No, it is not the same light, and yet a continuity is there. In the night when you lit the candle... that flame is no more there, that flame is continuously disappearing; it is being replaced by another flame. The replacement is so quick that you can't see the gaps, but with sophisticated scientific instruments it is possible to see the gaps: one flame going out, another coming up, that going out, another coming up. There are bound to be small intervals, but you can't see them with bare eyes.

Buddha says that just as the candle flame is not the same -- it is changing constantly, although in another sense it is the same because it is the same continuum -- exactly like that, there is no soul entity in you like a thing but one like a flame. It is continuously changing, it is a river.

Buddha does not believe in nouns, he only believes in verbs, and I perfectly agree with him. He has come closest to the truth; at least in his expression he is the most profound.

But why did Jesus, Moses, Mohammed -- the sources of all the three religions that have been born outside India -- not talk about reincarnation directly? For a certain reason, and the reason is that Moses was aware... because Egypt and India have been in constant contact. It is suspected that once Africa was part of Asia and that the continent has slowly shifted away. India and Egypt were joined together, hence there are so many similarities.

And it is not strange that South India is black; it has partly Negro blood in its veins, it is negroid -- not totally, but if Africa was joined with Asia then certainly the mingling of the Aryans with the Negroes must have happened, and then South India became black.

Moses must have been perfectly aware of India. You will be surprised that Kashmir claims that both Moses and Jesus are buried there. The tombs are there, one tomb for Moses and one tomb for Jesus. They saw what happened to India through the theory of reincarnation.

Because of the theory of reincarnation India became very lethargic; there is no hurry.

India has no time sense, not even now. Even though everybody is wearing a wristwatch there is no time sense. If somebody says, "I will be coming at five o'clock in the evening to see you," it can mean anything. He may turn up at four, he may turn up at six, he may not turn up at all -- and it is not taken seriously! It is not that he is not fulfilling his promise -- there is no time sense! How can you have time sense when eternity is available? When there are so many many lives, why be in such a hurry? One can go on slowly; one is bound to reach some day or other.

The theory of reincarnation made India very lethargic, dull. It made India utterly time-unconscious. It helped people to postpone. And if you can postpone for tomorrow, then today you will remain the same as you have been and the tomorrow never comes. And India knows how to postpone not only to tomorrow but even to the next life.

Moses and Jesus both visited India, both were aware. Mohammed never visited India but was perfectly aware, because he was very close to India and there was constant traffic between India and Arabia. They decided that it was better to tell people, "There is only one life, this is the LAST chance -- the first and the last -- if you miss it, you miss forever." This is a device to create intense longing, to create such intensity in people that they can be transformed easily.

Then the question arises: Were Mahavira, Buddha and Krishna not aware? Were they not aware that this theory of reincarnation would create lethargy? They were trying a totally different device. And each device has its time; once it is used...it cannot be used forever.

People become accustomed to it. When Buddha, Mahavira and Krishna tried the device of reincarnation they were trying it from a totally different angle.

India was a very rich country in those days. It was thought to be the golden country of the world, the richest. And in a rich country the real problem, the greatest problem, is boredom. That is happening now in the West. Now America is in the same situation, and boredom has become the greatest problem. People are utterly bored, so bored that they would like to die.

Krishna, Mahavira and Buddha used this situation. They told people, "This is nothing, one life's boredom is nothing. You have lived for many lives, and remember, if you don't listen you are going to live many more lives; you will be bored again and again and again. It is the same wheel of life and death moving."

They painted boredom in such dark colors that people who were already bored with even one life became really very deeply involved with religion. One has to get rid of life and death; one has to get out of this wheel, this vicious circle of birth and death. Hence it was relevant in those days.

Then India became poor. Once the country became poor boredom disappeared. A poor man is never bored, remember; only a rich man can afford boredom, it is a rich man's privilege. It is impossible for a poor man to feel boredom; he has no time. The whole day he is working; when he comes home he is so tired he falls asleep. He need not have many many entertainments -- television and movies and music and art and museums -- he need not have all these things, he CANNOT have them. His only entertainment is sex: a natural thing, inbuilt. That's why poor countries go on reproducing more children than rich countries -- the only entertainment.

If you want to reduce the population of poor countries, give them more entertainment.

Give them television sets, give them radios, movies -- something that can keep them distracted from sex.

I have heard about American couples that they become so much obsessed with the television that even while making love they go on watching the television. Love becomes secondary, television becomes primary. They don't want to miss the program that is going on.

A poor country knows only one entertainment because it cannot afford any other; it can afford only the natural, inbuilt one. So a poor country goes on producing people; it becomes more and more crowded. And they are not fed up with life. What life do they have? First you have to have life to be fed up with it. You have to have money to be fed up with it. You have to have many women to be fed up with them. You have to have many experiences of the world to be finished with it.

The moment India became poor the theory of reincarnation became an escape, a hope --

rather than a boredom it became a hope, a possibility to postpone. "I am poor in this life.

Nothing to be worried about; there are many lives. Next life I am going to strive a little harder and I will be richer. This life I have got an ugly woman. Nothing to be worried about; it is only a question of one life. Next time I am not going to make the same mistake again. This time I am suffering from my past karmas. This life I will not commit any wrong things so that I can enjoy the coming life." It became postponement.

Jesus saw it, that the device was no longer working in the way it was meant to work. The situation had changed. Now Jesus had to create another device: there is only one life -- so if you want to be religious, if you want to meditate, if you want to become a sannyasin, BE ONE RIGHT NOW -- because the tomorrow is not reliable. There may be no tomorrow.

Hence the West has become too conscious of time; everybody is in a hurry. This hurry is because of Christianity. The device has again failed. No device can work forever.

My own experience is that a particular device works only while the Master is alive, because he is the soul of it; he manages it in such a way that it works once the Master is gone, the device falls out of use or people start finding new interpretations for it.

Now in the West the device has failed utterly; now it has become a problem. People are in a constant hurry, tension, anxiety, because there is only one life. Jesus wanted them to remember: because there is one life, remember God. And what are they doing? Seeing that there is only one life they want to drink, eat and be merry, because there is no other life. So indulge as much as you can. Squeeze the whole juice of life right now! And who cares about what will happen on the Judgment Day? Who knows whether the Judgment Day is there or not?

The professor at a girls' college was a really dirty old man. He could not give a lecture without making some kind of obscene remark. Eventually the girls decided that the next time he did it they would all get up from their desks and leave the classroom.

The next morning the professor entered the room and started in right away: "Hey, girls, I heard that just yesterday a ship came into the harbor with thirty Negro sailors on deck.

Just imagine, girls, thirty huge Negro pricks...."

At this point the whole class got up and started to go out of the room.

"Hey, girls," shouted the professor after them, "no need to hurry. They are gonna stay here for another two weeks."

A great hurry has arisen in the West about everything, because there is no other life.

Mary and John are both living in a big apartment-house in New York City. One day they meet and instantly fall in love with each other, but they don't make any contact. This goes on for six months until John just can't bear the tension any more and asks her to come to his apartment for a drink. Hesitatingly she says yes and as soon as they reach his flat they close the door behind them and rush into the bedroom and throw themselves on the bed.

After a few minutes John explains with a hoarse voice, "Listen, I am very sorry, but if I had known that you were a virgin I would have taken more time."

Mary replies, "Well, if I had known that you had more time, I would have taken my pants off!"

Such a hurry! Speed is the mania, faster and faster. Nobody is bothered where you are going, but you have to go fast; invent speedier vehicles.

And this whole thing has happened because of the device. It worked in Jesus' time. He was continuously telling his people, "Beware! The Day of Judgment is very close by.

You are going to see the end of the world in your very own life and there is no other life.

And if you miss you will be thrown into hell for eternity!" He was simply creating a psychological atmosphere. It worked when he was alive and it worked for a few more days when he was gone. It continued to work for a few days because of the closest disciples who had something of the climate of Jesus with them, some aura, but then it created just the opposite effect.

It has created the MOST worldly civilization the world has ever known. And the desire was that the idea of one life would make people so alert and aware that they would seek and search for God and they would drop ALL other desires and ALL other occupations.

Their whole life would become one-pointedly a search, an inquiry, for God. That was the idea behind the device. But the ultimate result is that people have become absolutely worldly, because there is no other life, only one life -- enjoy it the most you can! Enjoy it, don't postpone it for tomorrow.

The Indian device failed because people became lethargic. It worked with Buddha. He really created one of the greatest movements in the world. Thousands of people renounced their lives, became sannyasins. That means they devoted their whole energy to the search for truth, because he created such an atmosphere of boredom that you would be bored if you missed.

But what happened later on was just the opposite. It is always going to be so. The Masters are bound to be misunderstood. And people are so cunning, so diplomatic, they can always find ways to destroy the whole device.

Jesus knows perfectly that life is eternal, reincarnation is a fact. He mentions it in indirect ways, maybe to his very close disciples he mentions it, but not to the masses -- for a simple reason: he has seen that it failed in India, something else has to be tried.

I am creating many devices because others have failed. I know perfectly well that my devices will function only while I am here; they are bound to fail as every other device has failed. I am not living in any fool's paradise thinking that my devices will remain as I create them forever. When I am not there, people are going to distort them. But that is natural, it has to be accepted; there is nothing to worry about.

Hence those who are here, please be alert and use these devices as deeply as possible.

While I am here these devices will function perfectly well. In my hands they can be great situations for inner transformation, but once my hands are no more visible these same devices will be in the hands of the pundits and the scholars, and then the same story will be repeated as it has been in the past.

Beware, be watchful. Don't waste time.

Be Still and Know

Chapter #5

Chapter title: Watch This! Stranger than Fiction

5 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909050

ShortTitle:

BESTIL05

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, YOU TALKED YESTERDAY OF CHILDREN ASSERTING THEIR EGOS

AND REBELLING AGAINST THEIR PARENTS, OF BEING ABLE TO SAY NO!

AND THUS CREATING A SPINE, AN INDIVIDUALITY, A FREEDOM.

OSHO, DO WE NOW COME TO YOU AND SAY YES! SO THAT WE CAN DROP

THAT EGO? BY DOING SO, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO OUR INDIVIDUALITY, FREEDOM AND SPINE?

Nitin Bharti,

IF THE EGO IS LIKE A LADDER: you have to use it but you cannot make your house on it. Or, the ego is like a boat: you can use it to go to the other shore but then you need not carry it on your head for your whole life. It has something essential to do, but it should not become a burden forever; when its purpose is fulfilled it has to be dropped.

Just as a child needs to say no, the mature person one day needs to say yes. If the child cannot say no to the parents, to the authorities, to the teachers, if the child is unable to disobey, he will not attain to any individuality; he will not have any form, shape. He will be just part of the mob mind, the crowd. He will be impotent; he will not be able to stand on his own. He will not have any self-respect. He will remain hotchpotch, an ugly mess.

He will not really be born; he will remain in a psychological womb his whole life, ungrown-up. He has to learn how to disobey. And the wise parents will help him to disobey in such a way that disobeying does not distort him. They will give him opportunities to disobey, they will give him opportunities to say no.

That's exactly the meaning of the biblical parable. God said to Adam, "Don't eat the fruit of this tree, the tree of knowledge. If you eat the fruit of this tree you will be expelled from paradise." It is a great temptation! It is giving Adam an opportunity to disobey.

And also God said to Adam, "If you eat the fruit of this tree you will become a mortal; right now you are immortal. Secondly, if you eat the fruit of this tree you will become like gods, all-knowing." You see the temptation, the multi-dimensional temptation? First:

"You will be able to become like gods, all-knowing." Who would not like to become like gods, all-knowing? And the second, the danger, the risk: "If you eat from this tree you will become mortal; death will start happening to you." Now it is a challenge! Danger always attracts, and death is the greatest danger.

God did not leave any possibility for Adam to remain obedient. There must have been millions of trees in the Garden of Eden and only one tree of knowledge; if Adam had been left alone, on his own he might not have discovered it up to now. But God didn't leave it up to him; he pointed out the tree and created the temptation. You think the serpent did it? If the serpent did it, then he must have been in the service of God.

A small child was telling his mother...the mother had asked, "What have you been taught today in Sunday school?"

He said, "We have been told the biblical story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion.

Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, then the servant of God came and tempted them."

The mother said, "Servant? You must have misunderstood -- it is not servant, it is serpent!"

But my feeling is that the child is right: the serpent must have been in the service of God, must have been in the secret police department of God, the FBI or something like that.

And in all civilizations the serpent has always represented wisdom. Jesus says: "Be wise like serpents and innocent like doves." Wise like serpents? God must have used the most wise animal to convey the message, the temptation, to Adam and Eve.

The message was given to Eve, not to Adam; since then it has been always so. The salesman comes to the wife not to the husband. The moment the husband leaves for the office the salesman comes and knocks on the door, because the woman can be tempted more easily. The husband will argue, will be stubborn, will not listen, but the wife is easily tempted.

One advertising company was told by a big manufacturer of television sets, "Find out some new way to tempt people to purchase our product." The advertising company suggested, "Send letters to all the addresses given in the telephone directory. The letters should be in the husbands' names but on top of the letters there should be a note in red letters: 'Personal. Private. Not to be read by anybody else.' Then the wives are bound to read them; then you cannot miss." And once they read them, once THEY are impressed...all husbands are henpecked -- universally so, categorically so. To be a husband and to be henpecked are synonymous, and I cannot do anything about it. It has been so since Adam; that is the way things are.

Once Eve was convinced, tempted, Adam followed suit.

If parents are really wise they will create opportunities for the children to say no -- and beautiful opportunities. Right now, unknowingly, they give ugly opportunities. For example, you say to the child, "Don't smoke cigarettes." This is an ugly opportunity because the child WILL smoke -- you have tempted the child to smoke cigarettes. You should have told him something better -- "Don't go out in the sun. Don't climb the tree."

But you say to the children, "Don't eat ice cream." You should say to them, "Don't eat fruit" -- that will be a wise temptation! "Eat as much ice cream as you want, but don't eat fruit." Give them such a temptation as leads them to say no to you but does not harm their lives; otherwise they will remain deformed their whole lives.

Two old men -- one was seventy, the other was eighty -- were talking. They were talking about the most embarrassing moments in their lives. The seventy-year-old man said, "I have never told anybody, but you are my bosom friend and I know you will keep it a secret. The most embarrassing moment of my life was when I was caught looking through the keyhole of a bathroom when a young woman was taking a bath."

The other said, "Forget all about it -- each child does that. There is nothing to be so much embarrassed about."

And the old man said, "I know -- but it was yesterday."

Once wrong habits are formed they continue; they remain like hangovers and they become more and more ingrained, more and more deep they go into your unconscious.

Nitin, I am perfectly in favor of creating an ego in the child, because without an ego the child will remain a part of the parents; he will never be an individual on his own. But the no and the no-saying creates only a superficial individuality; because no is negative it cannot create REAL individuality.

The superficial individuality is called personality; the ego gives you a personality. But it is better than having nothing at all at least it gives you a sense of your being, it defines you. But don't remain in it forever; it is a passing phase, a stepping-stone. From the personality you have to reach individuality. From the superficial individuality you have to attain to a core individuality. That is possible only by saying yes. But yes is significant only when you have become able to say no. If you say yes from the very beginning, your yes carries no meaning at all; it is meaningless. If you are capable of saying no then your yes has meaning, as much meaning as your no has strength.

Hence the society teaches you a false, superficial personality. But when you come to a Buddha, to a Jesus, to a Krishna, to a Mahavira -- to a MASTER, to a real Master -- he will teach you how to say yes. He will take away your no, he will take away your personality.

The personality is like the shell of an egg -- the ego is the shell of the egg. It protects the life within for the time being only; beyond that it will be destructive. The egg has to be broken one day so the bird can come out. No only creates a shell around you. It is good, it is needed, it is protective, but one day you have to come out of it. That's the function of religion.

Hence religion is possible only in a civilized, cultured, sophisticated society. The more educated the society is, cultured, civilized, the higher the religion that is possible. The primitive people also have religion, but their religion is not yet religion; it is magic, it is ritual. Hence they have not produced Buddhas. They are good people, simple, beautiful, innocent....

You can go around India; there are many tribes still, aboriginals, very beautiful people. I have been to them, I have lived with them, I have enjoyed their beauty and their innocence. But they have never created a Buddha in their whole history; at the most they create magicians. Their religion consists only of rituals, formalities; it never attains to the heights of prayer and meditation; it never reaches to the heights of a Patanjali or a Lao Tzu or a Mohammed. They have not produced any Koran, Upanishads, Bible; they cannot. They are people who have not yet said no, they are people who have not yet disobeyed. They have not eaten the fruit of knowledge, they are simply ignorant.

Eat the fruit of knowledge! Become knowledge-able, and one day renounce your knowledge. Then wisdom is born. Wisdom is not ignorance; wisdom is renunciation of knowledge -- but first the knowledge is required.

Before you can become a Christ you will have to become a disobedient Adam and Eve, otherwise Christ is not possible. Christ is the higher stage of Adam. Adam says no, creates a personality; Christ says yes, drops the old personality and attains to a new individuality which is eternal. By saying no Adam becomes a mortal; by saying yes Christ becomes an immortal. By saying no Adam becomes only apparently a god; by saying yes Christ REALLY becomes a god.

The process is paradoxical, hence the question. I can understand your question, Nitin: WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO OUR INDIVIDUALITY, FREEDOM AND SPINE?

The spine, the individuality, the freedom, that is created by no is only a transitory process. You have to go beyond it; it is a boat that has to be left behind. When you have reached the roof you leave the ladder; it is a bridge to be crossed.

Now learn how to say yes. No you know perfectly well. In fact, Nitin has come from Africa to be here with me forever -- against his parents. This was your ultimate no! Those who come to me, they have to come against their parents, because parents are Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, Buddhists, Jainas...I am nobody! Coming to me, a Christian will become a non-Christian and a Hindu will become a non-Hindu and a Mohammedan will become a non-Mohammedan.

I am not creating a new religion here, but a new man, a new consciousness. I am not creating a new philosophy or theology, but a new vision, a new humanity. You have to come out of your old, rotten ideologies. Hence parents are bound to be against you; they will not like you to be here. I can understand them -- they are worried about you, they care for you. Their worry is utterly wrong, but still it shows their care and their love.

They would like you to remain in the fold in which they and their forefathers have always lived. They are worried you may go astray -- they have not attained to anything by being in the fold, but still they would like you to be in the fold. It is safer, familiar, more secure.

Nitin has come with his wife against the desires of his parents; that was the ultimate no.

Now I will teach you how to say the ultimate yes. The function of the no is complete; if you go on saying no here too, then you are misunderstanding me completely. I am not your father, I am not your mother! I have to take this no away from you and create yes.

The work of the no is complete; now you need a higher flight, now you need a higher altitude of being. That is possible only through yes, because yes is positive.

No gives you a negative kind of individuality, yes gives you a positive individuality. A negative individuality is not real individuality, it is only personality, a mask -- good in its own time. But remember always that every means has to be transcended some day or other. If you want to reach the goal, one day you will have to leave the way.

Buddha used to say, "Once I saw five fools carrying a boat on their heads in the marketplace. I asked them, 'What is the matter with you? Why are you carrying this boat?'

"They said, 'This boat helped us to come from the other shore to this shore; this boat has helped our lives.

If this boat had not been available... on the other shore there were wild animals, and if we had had to remain there even only for one night we would be dead by now. We can never forget the great blessing that the boat has bestowed upon us. Out of sheer thankfulness we will carry the boat forever on our heads!'"

Buddha said, "This is the way of the stupid people. They carry scriptures, they carry ideologies, they carry philosophies, on their heads. Rather than becoming a help, the boat has become a hindrance. It would have been better if they had died on the other shore; at least they would have been saved carrying this weight their whole lives. Now this WEIGHT will kill them!"

No is good, but nobody can live in the no, nobody can make a home out of the no. No is suicidal -- use it, but go beyond it. Be alert and conscious that you don't become encaged in the no-saying. Attain to yes; use no as a stepping-stone.

By being part of this commune you have to learn how to say yes with totality. That is trust, that is surrender, that is faith. That's what will become a bridge, the final bridge between you and God. It will not destroy your freedom; it will simply make your freedom positive.

There are three kinds of freedom. One is 'freedom from'; that is a negative freedom: freedom from the father, freedom from the mother, freedom from the church, freedom from the society. That is a negative kind of freedom -- freedom from -- good in the beginning, but that can't be the goal. Once you are free from your parents, what are you going to do? Once you are free from your society then you will be at loss. You will lose all meaning and significance because your whole life had meaning in saying no. Now whom to say no to?

A young man came to me; he wanted to marry a girl. He was a brahmin, a very high-caste brahmin, very respected in the city, and he wanted to marry a Parsi girl. The parents were obviously against it, absolutely against it. They had told him that if he married that girl they would disown him -- and he was the only son. The more stubborn the parents became, the more the young man became determined to marry the girl. He had come to ask my advice.

I said, "Just meditate for three days on one thing: are you really interested in the girl or are you simply interested in saying no to your parents?"

He said, "Why do you say this to me? I LOVE the girl, I am absolutely in love!"

I said, "If you say so, then get married. But I don't see any love in your eyes, I don't see any love in your heart. I don't see any fragrance of love. I only see some negative aura around you, a black aura around your face. It says you are determined to go against your parents -- the girl is only an excuse."

But he wouldn't listen. If he was not going to listen to his parents, how was he going to listen to me? He got married. After six months he came to see me, crying and weeping.

He fell at my feet and said, "You were right -- I don't love that woman, that love was false. You were right, your diagnosis was right. Now that I have got married to her and I have denied my parents' order, all love has disappeared."

This is 'freedom from'. This is not much of a freedom, but better than nothing.

The second kind of freedom is 'freedom for'; that is positive freedom. Your interest is not in denying something, rather you want to create something. For example, you want to be a poet, and just because you want to be a poet you have to say no to your parents. But your basic orientation is that you want to be a poet and your parents would like you to be a plumber. "Better be a plumber! That is far more paying, far more economical, far more respectable too. Poet?! People will think you are crazy! And how are you going to live?

And how are you going to support your wife and your children? Poetry can't pay!"

But if you are for poetry, ready to risk all, this is a higher freedom, better than the first. It is positive freedom -- 'freedom for'. Even if you have to live a life of poverty you will be happy, you will be cheerful. Even if you have to chop wood to remain a poet you will be utterly blissful, fulfilled, because you are doing what you wanted to do, you are doing your own thing. This is positive freedom.

And then there is a third freedom, the highest; in the East we have called it MOKSHA --

the ultimate freedom, which goes beyond both the negative and the positive. First learn saying no, then learn saying yes, and then just forget both, just be. The third freedom is not freedom against something, not for something, but just freedom. One is simply free --

no question of going against, no question of going for. 'Freedom from' is political, hence all political revolutions fail -- when they succeed. If they don't succeed they can go on hoping, but the moment they succeed they fail, because then they don't know what to do.

That happened in the French Revolution, that happened in the Russian Revolution...that happens to every revolution. A political revolution is 'freedom from'. Once the Czar is gone, then you are at a loss: What to do now? Your whole life was devoted to fighting the Czar; you know only one thing, how to fight the Czar. Once the Czar is gone you are at a loss; your whole skill is useless. You will find yourself very empty. 'Freedom for' is artistic, creative, scientific. And 'just freedom' is religious.

Nitin, before I can teach you MOKSHA -- just freedom, neither for nor against, NETI NETI, neither this nor that, but pure freedom, just the fragrance of freedom -- before I can teach it to you, you will have to know the positive one: 'freedom for'.

Hence the commune. It is a creative commune; we are going to be creative in a thousand and one ways. In every possible way we are going to be creative, so that you can learn how to say yes to life.

When the yes has destroyed your no, both can be thrown away. That is the ultimate in joy, in freedom, in realization.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, IS LIFE NOT SOMETIMES FAR MORE SURPRISING THAN FICTIONS

THEMSELVES?

Praghosh,

NOT ONLY SOMETIMES BUT ALWAYS. Fictions are only reflections of life -- how can they be more surprising? No fiction is so fictitious as life itself; life is made of the stuff called dreams. Hence the mystic says life is illusion, MAYA, a mirage. It is a mystery, unfathomable, infinite, beginningless, endless.

So I will not say that only sometimes it is surprising; each moment of it is a surprise, but you don't feel it. You feel it only once in a while when something really extraordinary happens and you are shocked into wakefulness. Only then do you understand that life is far more surprising -- because you are fast asleep. Unless something out of the way, very outlandish, far out, happens, and you are shaken and shocked into a little bit of awareness, only then do you see what a miracle life is, how much surprise it contains.

But to the Buddhas each moment of it is a surprise, because it is each moment new, renewing itself. Everything is extraordinary if you are alert, if you are sensitive enough, if you are open enough. Then the whole of life, from the mundane to the sacred, from the lowest to the highest, the whole of life is such a mystery that you are always in for a surprise. It depends on your sensitivity, it depends on your awareness, it depends how conscious you are.

A Zen Master was asked, "What did you use to do before you became enlightened?"

He said, "I used to chop wood and carry water from the well for my Master's house."

The inquirer asked, "And now that you have become enlightened, what do you do?"

He said, "I chop wood and carry water."

The inquirer was obviously puzzled. "Then what is the difference? You used to chop wood and carry water, you still chop wood and still carry water -- then what is the difference?"

The Master laughed. He said, "The difference is infinite! Before I simply used to chop wood not knowing the beauties that surrounded me. Now chopping wood is not the same because I am not the same. My eyes are not the same, my heart beats in a different rhythm -- my heart beats with the heart of the whole. There is a synchronicity, there is harmony.

"Carrying water from the well is the same from the outside, but my interior has become totally different. I am a new man, I am born again! Now I can see in depth, I can see into the very core of things, and each pebble has become a diamond, and each song of a bird is nothing but a call from God, and whenever a flower blooms, God blooms for me.

Looking into people's eyes I am looking into God's eyes. Yes, on the surface I am carrying on the same activity, but because I am not the same the world is not the same."

Start becoming a little more alert and watch things, and you will be surprised. Life is mysterious, unexplainable -- life is absurd. You cannot prove anything for or against.

Tertullian says: I believe in God because God is absurd -- CREDO QUIA ABSURDUM.

WHY do I believe in God? -- because God is absurd! No logic can prove him, no logic can disprove him. It is a love affair. And life is very hilarious because it is very ridiculous too.

If you become a little alert you will find love, light, laughter, everywhere!

It is said that when Hotei attained enlightenment he started laughing. He lived at least thirty years afterwards; he continued laughing for thirty years. Even in sleep his disciples would hear him giggling. His whole message to the world was laughter; he would go from one town to another just laughing. He would stand in one marketplace, then in another, just laughing, and people would gather. His laughter had something of the beyond -- a Buddha's laughter. He is known in Japan as 'the laughing Buddha'.

His laughter was so contagious that whosoever heard it would start laughing. Soon the whole marketplace would be laughing; crowds would gather and laugh and they would ask him, "Just give us a few instructions."

He would say, "Nothing more, this is enough. If you can laugh, if you can laugh totally, it is meditation."

Laughter was his device. It is said many people became enlightened through Hotei's laughter. That was his only meditation: to laugh and help people laugh.

Just watch life, and you will be surprised.

A Scot, an Italian and a Jewish man were dining together in an expensive restaurant.

When the bill arrived, the Scotsman promptly declared that he would take it.

Now this is impossible! "The Scotsman promptly declared that he would take it." Can you believe it? Is it possible? It has never happened, it is not going to happen -- but that day it happened.

The next day the newspapers carried the headline: "JEWISH VENTRILOQUIST SHOT

IN RESTAURANT."

McLeod and his wife visited one of the circus airfields where they charge fifty dollars for a plane ride just around the town. Naturally he would not spend the money until the pilot approached him.

"I will take you and your wife up for nothing," he said. "It will be a rough ride -- but if you and your wife let out one single word, one sound, while we are up there, then it is double."

McLeod accepted the challenge and up they went. It really was a rough ride -- dives, loops, turnovers. Finally they landed.

"You win," said the pilot. "Not a word out of you."

"No," said the Scotsman. "But I almost did speak when my wife fell out."

Just look at people! And each person is a fiction, and each person carries so many stories in his heart. Love people, search in their souls, and you will not need to go to the movies and you will not need to read novels. EACH person contains many novels and many movies, but we don't listen to people. We don't see people face to face, we don't hold their hands, we don't allow them to open their hearts.

For the first time humanity has become very closed. Each person is living a windowless life, completely encapsulated. Open up! Throw your doors and windows open. Let wind and rain and sun come in Let people enter into you and you enter into people's lives. That is the only way to become aware of the tremendous mystery of life. And to be aware of the mystery of life is to be aware of God.

One day King Arthur decided to go in search of the Holy Grail, but he hesitated to leave his knight, Sir Lancelot, with his wife, Queen Guinevere, so he went to ask the wise Merlin for advice. Merlin told him to give him a few days to think it over.

A few days later King Arthur returned to see Merlin who proudly showed him his new invention -- a chastity belt. Puzzled, King Arthur looked at it and said, "But this is no good -- it has the hole in the wrong place! "

Merlin said, "No, no! You just watch this." And he picked up a pencil and put it in the hole. The pencil snapped in half.

King Arthur was absolutely delighted and departed with the belt. After putting it on his wife he set off in search of the Holy Grail, his mind at peace about Guinevere and Sir Lancelot.

Many weeks later he returned -- and immediately lined up all his knights in the castle courtyard and told them to pull down their trousers. Lo and behold, all the knights were castrated except the one at the end of the line, Sir Lancelot.

King Arthur, distraught at having mistrusted his gallant knight -- the only one to have upheld the honor of Queen Guinevere -- went up to him and said, "I give you my humble apologies. You are the knight that I mistrusted the most, but in fact you are the most loyal. I will grant you anything that you ask for. Say what it is that you desire."

And Sir Lancelot went, "Mm mm mm...."

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, IN A LECTURE YOU SPOKE ABOUT NON-IDENTIFICATION, THAT ONE

SHOULD BECOME A WITNESS. BUT IN THE WEST MANY PEOPLE ARE

ALIENATED, THEY CANNOT GET INVOLVED. THEY ARE SIMPLY

INDIFFERENT TO EVERYTHING. THAT IS ALSO MY EXPERIENCE. PLEASE

CAN YOU MAKE CLEAR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NON-IDENTIFICATION

AND ALIENATION?

Nicolaas,

THE DIFFERENCE IS VERY CLEARCUT, but subtle and delicate To be indifferent means to be dead; it does not mean that you are a witness, it simply means you are disconnected from life and all the sources that nourish you. You are only uprooted; that is alienation.

Uproot a tree and it will start dying. Its greenness will be gone, soon the foliage will wither away, flowers will not come any more. The spring will come and go but the tree will know nothing of it; it has become alienated from existence. It is no longer rooted in the earth, it is no longer related to the sun, it no longer has any bridge. It is surrounded by walls, all bridges are broken.

That's what has happened to the modern man: he is an uprooted tree. He has forgotten how to relate with existence, he has forgotten how to whisper with the clouds and the trees and the mountains. He has completely forgotten the language of silence... because it is the language of silence that becomes a bridge between you and the universe that surrounds you. The universe knows no other language. On the earth there are three thousand languages; existence knows no language except the language of silence.

An English general was talking to a German general after the Second World War. The German was very puzzled; he said, "We had the best equipped army in the world, the best war technology, the greatest leader that history has ever known, the best of generals, and such a devoted army. Why? -- why couldn't we win? It seems simply Impossible that we have been defeated! It is unbelievable -- although it has happened -- but we cannot believe it!"

The English general laughed and said, "There is one thing you have forgotten: before starting any battle we used to pray to God; that is the secret of our victory."

The German said, "But we also used to pray to God, every morning!"

The English general laughed and he said, "We know that you used to pray, but you pray in German and we pray in English -- and who told you that God knows German?"

Everybody thinks his language is the language of God. Hindus say Sanskrit is the holy language, the divine language -- DEVA VANI -- God understands only Sanskrit. And ask the Mohammedans -- then God understands only Arabic; otherwise, why should he have revealed the Koran in Arabic? And ask the Jews -- then God understands only Hebrew.

God understands no language because God means this total existence. God understands only silence -- and we have forgotten silence.

Nicolaas, because we have forgotten silence, forgotten the art of meditation, we have become alienated. We have become small, dirty, muddy pools and we don't know how to go and be one with the ocean. We go on becoming dirtier every day, shallower every day, because the water goes on evaporating. We are just muddy, our life has no clarity. Our eyes cannot see and our hearts cannot feel.

This state is the state of indifference; it is a negative state. The mystics have called it 'the dark night of the soul'. It is not witnessing, it is just the opposite of witnessing.

When I say be a witness I am not saying become uprooted from life. I am saying live life in all its multi-dimensionality, and YET remain aware. Drink the juices of life, but remember that while you are drinking the juices of life there is a consciousness in you beyond all action, all doing. Drinking, eating, walking, sleeping, are all acts, and there is a consciousness in you which simply reflects, a mirrorlike phenomenon. It is not indifference. The mirror is not indifferent to you, otherwise why should it bother to reflect you at all? It is immensely interested in you, it reflects you, but it does not become attached. The moment you are gone, you are gone; the mirror does not remain remembering you; the mirror now reflects that which is in front of it.

A witnessing consciousness lives in life but with tremendous non-attachment, with great non-possessiveness; it possesses nothing. It lives totally, it lives passionately, but still knowing that "I don't possess anything."

The witnessing consciousness is not an island separate from the ocean; it is ONE with the ocean. But still a miracle, a paradox: even being one with the ocean there is a part that remains above the ocean like the tip of the iceberg. That part is your witnessing soul. To create it is the greatest treasure in the world; one becomes a Buddha by creating it Falling into indifference you become simply unconscious, you go into a coma. You lose all joy in life; the celebration of life stops for you. Then you don't exist, you only vegetate. Then you are not a man but only a cabbage -- and that too uprooted. You become more and more rotten every day, you stink; no fragrance comes out of you. The same energy that could have become fragrance passing through a witnessing soul becomes a stinking phenomenon by becoming indifferent.

But I can understand your question, Nicolaas. From the outside sometimes indifference and witnessing may appear alike. This has been one of the greatest calamities -- because they APPEAR alike. Hence true sannyas was lost and a phony sannyas became predominant. I call sannyas phony if it lives in indifference.

The phony sannyas is escapist. It teaches you not to enjoy ,life, it teaches you not to love music, it teaches you not to cherish beauty. It teaches you to destroy all the sources that beautify your existence. It teaches you to escape to the caves, ugly caves, to turn your back towards the world that God has given as a gift to you.

The phony sannyas is not only against the world, it is against God too, because to be against the world is to be against the creator of the world. If you hate the painting you are bound to hate the painter. If you dislike the dance, how can you like the dancer? God is the painter, the world is his painting. God is the musician, the world is his music. God is the dancer, NATARAJ, and the world is his dance. If you renounce the world, indirectly you are renouncing God.

The phony sannyas is escapist; cheap it is, easy it is. It is very easy to escape from the world and live in a cave and feel holy -- because there is no opportunity for you to be unholy, no challenge. Nobody insults you, nobody criticizes you. There is nobody present, so you can think that now there is no anger in you, you can feel that now there is no ego in you. Come back to the world!...

I know people who have lived for thirty years in the Himalayas, and when they come back to the world they are surprised to find that they are the same people, nothing has changed. Thirty years of Himalayas -- a sheer wastage! But while they were in the Himalayas they were thinking they had become very sacred, very holy, they had become great saints. And there were reasons for them to think so, because no anger, no ego, no greed... there is nothing to possess so you feel non-possessive, nobody to compete with so you feel non-competitive, nobody hurts your ego so you don't feel the ego at all.

Things are felt only when there is some hurt. For example, you feel your head only when there is a headache. When the headache disappears, the head also disappears from your consciousness; you cannot feel your head without a headache. You become headless when there is no headache.

Living in the Himalayan cave you have escaped from all the hurts of the world which make you aware again and again of the ego, of the anger, of the greed, of jealousy....

Coming back into the world you will find everything is back again -- and back with a vengeance, because for thirty years it has been accumulating. You will bring a bigger ego than you had ever taken with you to the Himalayas.

The sannyas that teaches indifference is phony.

The sannyas that teaches you how to live in the world and yet float above it like a lotus flower, like a lotus leaf, remaining in the water and yet untouched by the water, remaining in the world and yet not allowing the world to enter into you, being in the world yet not being OF the world, that is true renunciation.

That true renunciation comes through witnessing; it is not indifference. Indifference will make you alienated, being alienated you will feel meaningless, joyless, accidental.

Feeling accidental, the desire to commit suicide will arise, is bound to arise. Why go on living a meaningless life? Why go on repeating the same rut, the same routine, every day? If there is no meaning, why not end it all, why not be finished with it all?

Hence many many more people are committing suicide every day, many many people are going mad every day. The rate of suicide and madness is increasing. Psychoanalysis seems to be of no help. Psychoanalysts, in fact, commit suicide more, go mad more, than any other profession.

Nothing seems to help the modern man -- because the indifference is too heavy; it has created a dark cloud around him. He cannot see beyond his own nose; he is suffocating in his lonely world. The walls are so thick, thicker than the China Wall, that even when you love you are hidden behind your wall, your beloved is hidden behind her wall. There are two China Walls between you. You shout, but no communication seems to be possible.

You say one thing, something else is understood; she says something, you understand something else. Husbands and wives sooner or later come to one understanding: that it is better not to talk. It is better to keep silent, because the moment you utter a word misunderstanding is bound to follow.

All communication has disappeared from the world. Everybody is living a lonely life --

lonely in the crowd; the crowd is becoming bigger and bigger every day. The world population is exploding; there have never been so many human beings as there are today

-- and man has never been so lonely. Strange! Why are we so lonely amidst such a crowd? Communication has failed.

Gaffney staggered into a bar crying. "What happened?" asked Brady the bartender.

"I did a horrible thing," sniffed the drunk. "Just a few hours ago I sold my wife to someone for a bottle of Scotch."

"That's awful," said Brady. "Now she is gone and you want her back, right?"

"Right," said Gaffney, still crying.

"You are sorry you sold her because you realized too late that you love her, right?"

"Oh, no," said the Irishman, "I want her back because I am thirsty again!"

It is becoming more and more difficult to understand people, because such thick, dense indifference surrounds everybody that even if you shout you can't be heard, or they hear something which you have not said at all. They hear that which they want to hear or they hear that which they CAN hear. They hear not what is said but what their mind interprets.

Two black teenage girls wandered into a photographer's shop in Alabama to have their photos taken.

The photographer sat them down and then busied himself under the black cloth behind his camera.

"What's he doin'?" whispered one girl to her friend.

"He's gonna focus," she whispered back.

"What, both of us?"

D'Angelo, the immigrant, had to travel by train from New York to Raleigh, North Carolina. When he was met by a cousin it was obvious that D'Angelo was in a very bad mood.

"What happened?" asked his relative.

"Ah, that goddamn-a conductor he tell-a me no do this and no do that!" exclaimed the Italian. "I take out-a my sand-a-wich and he say, 'No -- inna dining car.' I start-a drink-a some vino and he say, 'No -- inna cluba car.' So I go inna club-a car, meet-a girl, and she take-a me back to her empty compartment and then the goddamn conductor he come along ana yell, 'No'foka Virginia, no'foka Virginia!'"

You understand that which you can understand. Your mind is always there to interpret, and the interpretation is yours. It has nothing to do with what you have been told People are becoming more and more lonely, and out of desperation they are trying every possible way to communicate. Nothing seems to help. Nothing can help unless they start learning the art of silence. Unless a man and woman know what silence is, unless they can sit together in deep silence, they cannot merge into each other's being. Their bodies may penetrate each other, but their souls will remain far apart. And when souls meet there is communion, there is understanding.

Indifference makes you dull, makes you mediocre, makes you unintelligent. If you are indifferent your sword will lose all sharpness. That's how it happens to the monks in the monasteries. Look at their faces, in their eyes, and you can see that something is dead.

They are like corpses walking, doing things robotlike because those things have to be done. They are not really involved; they have become utterly incapable of getting involved in anything.

This is a very sad situation, and if it continues, man has no future. If it continues, then the third world war is bound to happen -- so that we can commit a global suicide; so there is no need to commit suicide retail, we can commit it wholesale. In one single moment the whole earth can die.

Hence meditation has become something absolutely needed, the only hope for humanity to be saved, for the earth to still remain alive. Meditation simply means the capacity to get involved yet remain unattached. It looks paradoxical -- all great truths ARE

paradoxical. You have to experience the paradox; that is the only way to understand it.

You can do a thing joyously and yet just be a witness that you are doing it, that you are not the doer.

Try with small things, Nicolaas, and you will understand. Tomorrow when you go for a morning walk, enjoy the walk -- the birds in the trees and the sunrays and the clouds and the wind. Enjoy, and still remember that you are a mirror; you are reflecting the clouds and the trees and the birds and the people.

This self-remembering Buddha calls sammasati -- right mindfulness. Krishnamurti calls it

'choiceless awareness', the Upanishads call it 'witnessing', Gurdjieff calls it 'self-remembering', but they all mean the same. But it does not mean that you have to become indifferent; if you become indifferent you lose the opportunity to self-remember.

Go on a morning walk and still remember that you are not it You are not the walker but the watcher And slowly slowly you will have the taste of it -- it is a taste, it comes slowly. And it is the most delicate phenomenon in the world; you cannot get it in a hurry.

Patience is needed.

Eat, taste the food, and still remember that you are the watcher. In the beginning it will create a little trouble in you because you have not done these two things together. In the beginning, I know, if you start watching you will feel like stopping eating, or if you start eating you will forget watching.

Our consciousness is one-way -- right now, as it is -- it goes only towards the target. But it can become two-way: it can eat and yet watch. You can remain settled in your center and you can see the storm around you; you can become the center of the cyclone. And that is the greatest miracle that can happen to a human being, because that brings freedom, liberation, truth, God, bliss, benediction.

The last question

Question 4

OSHO, CAN YOU ALSO MAKE MISTAKES?

Darshan,

NOT A FEW BUT MANY...PLENTY! because I don't take anything seriously. So many times my sannyasins write to me, "Osho..." Subhuti wrote just a few days ago; when I said that Napoleon was obsessed with food, he wrote to me, "Is it Napoleon or Nero?"

Who cares; Subhuti? Whichever you like! Sometimes I say Nero, sometimes I say Napoleon. I am not a very learned mm, and I am absolutely happy in being utterly unlearned.

The other day somebody wrote: "You said that the gospels were written a few centuries after Jesus. This is not correct!" But I have not told you that this is correct! If it is incorrect it makes no difference to me. He has also written -- must be a learned man!...you have fallen in wrong company! -- he has also written: "You said that it was translated into Latin first." To me Latin and Greek are all the same! I don't understand Latin, I don't understand Greek, so all that I meant was that it was translated into something that I don't understand!

Teertha understands it perfectly well. He has written a story. He has written to me: Osho, I was walking down M.G. Road one day when I saw a very strange sight: there was this man, right in the middle of the road, moving his arms as though he was rowing a boat. (Demonstrate, but mind the microphone!)

I watched for a while, and eventually had to call out to him to find out what was going on.

"What are you doing?" I shouted.

"Rowing a boat, of course!" he replied.

"But you are not in a boat" I called back.

"I am not?!" he yelled, looking panic-stricken; and then started swimming as hard as he could. (Demonstrate, but mind the microphone.)

Now he knows that I can hit the microphone -- and he is much more concerned about the microphone!

I can commit mistakes a-plenty, but I am not deterred by them, I go on committing them -

- because if I start thinking that no mistake has to be committed then I cannot relate to you what I want to relate. Then I will have to be absolutely silent, because the truth that I have known can only be related if I am ready to commit many mistakes. Then too it is not related as it is.

A telephone operator in San Francisco says that the city's Chinatown receives fewer calls than any other area of similar size in the city. And with a straight face she explained the reason: "I guess there are so many people named Wing and Wong that people are afraid they will wing the wong number."

I am not afraid -- I go on winging the wong number! And it is not only that I can commit mistakes...the world is proof enough that God also commits mistakes. Otherwise, do you think you would have had any chance of being here in the world?

Mulla Nasruddin was speaking to Morarjibhai Desai. Seeing Mulla Nasruddin in orange, Morarjibhai Desai was obviously annoyed. He said to Nasruddin, "Mulla, what turned you on to Rajneesh?"

'The day I saw him walking out with his hands folded, I knew then that God exists,"

replied Mulla.

Morarji, looking at Mulla from the corner of his eye, asked, "Hmmm, and what do you feel when you see me?"

Mulla said, "That God can also make mistakes."

Be Still and Know

Chapter #6

Chapter title: Only Now

6 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909060

ShortTitle:

BESTIL06

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, CAN YOU CLEAR THIS CONFUSION IN ME? THE OTHER DAY AT

DISCOURSE YOU TALKED ABOUT THE DIFFERENT WAYS AND PATHS TO

GOD. THE CHRISTIAN FEELS HIS IS THE ONLY WAY, THE MOSLEM FEELS

HIS IS THE ONLY WAY, AND SO ON. NOW ALL OF US HERE, YOUR ENTIRE

FOLLOWING -- DON'T WE TOO BELIEVE THAT YOURS IS THE MOST

APPEALING AND THEREFORE THE ONLY WAY? THEN WHAT IS THE

DIFFERENCE? I CANNOT SEEM TO FIGURE IT OUT AND YET I AM SURE

THERE IS DIFFERENCE.

GOD IS NOT A GOAL, hence there can be no way to God. All ways are wrong. God is right now, this very moment. God is always in the present, now and here, and always now and here. There can be no way to God.

The very idea of the way is fallacious. The way means you have postponed; the way leads to tomorrow, and the tomorrow never comes. The way means you have projected into the future: God is somewhere else and you have to travel. Then religion becomes a journey. And religion is not a journey, it is already the case.

God has not to happen to you. God has happened because you are alive. What is life?

Who is breathing in you and who is conscious in you? God is not to be known, God is the knower. God is not the object that you have to see, God is the SEER in you. This is the most fundamental thing I would like you to remember.

What I am teaching here is not a way, it is a totally different phenomenon. Hence I am not creating a religion, I am not creating a sect -- I am simply waking you up to the reality of God. Even while you are asleep God is within and without; even in your sleep you are in God.

It is like if a man is asleep and it is spring and the flowers are blooming and the birds are singing and the trees are green, celebrating -- but the man is asleep. He is unaware of the spring, he is unaware of the flowers, of the birds' songs; he is unaware of everything that is happening. But that does not mean that it is not happening. He may be unaware, he may be asleep, but the spring has come, it is there. Any moment the man can open his eyes; any situation may help him to be awake. And suddenly he will be surprised that there was no need to go anywhere -- all was already here.

That s how it happens when a man really wakes up -- not that one has to travel somewhere. All traveling is dreaming, all pilgrimage is dreaming, desiring. And your so-called religions have made God a goal, and your mind is perfectly satisfied with that because mind can exist only if there is a goal. The mind needs a tension, the mind needs a way to remain tense. If there is a goal then mind can remain desiring -- unfulfilled, frustrated, hoping one day to get it.

This is how mind can nourish itself, and it can dream about the joys of finding God and the beauties and the blessings. It can create paradise in imagination -- and all these are simply dreams of the mind. The moment you think of the future, you have slipped out of reality and fallen into the ditch of dreaming. My effort here is to bring you out of your sleep and dreaming.

Zareen, I am not teaching a way, so you cannot claim that my way is the best way -- it is not a way at all. You cannot say that this is the only way, because I am saying there is no way at all. I am simply trying to make you alert to that which is already there. It is beating in your heart, it is God beating in your heart. It is pulsating in your being; every fiber of your body, of your being, is alive. That aliveness is God.

God is not a person but only the presence. Feel it now! If you can ever feel it you can only feel it now -- now or never. Hence I don't give any opportunity for your mind. You would like me to say something about how to find God, where to find God, where to go.

You will be perfectly happy if I give you ways, goals, faraway, distant goals; you will be tremendously happy. Why? Because the goal helps you to remain the same as you are, the goal helps you to remain asleep and dreaming. It becomes a new dream, a new desire, a new ambition: How to attain God? It becomes a new ego trip.

I am shattering your egos, because your egos are a kind of shell that surrounds you and keeps you oblivious of the reality. It keeps you encapsulated within yourself, does not allow you to open your eyes and see what is happening.

God is this total existence happening. Be silent and know. There is nowhere to go, there is nothing to achieve, no ambition has to be fulfilled. God has already decided to be inside you; that's why you are alive.

So, Zareen, don't get unnecessarily confused. I am not proposing a way in competition with the Mohammedan and the Christian and the Hindu and the Parsi. What I am saying has nothing to do with Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism. What I am saying is simply a statement, a naked, bare statement of the fact that YOU ARE GOD! already, as you are.

Nothing has to be changed at all. Only one thing has to happen and that is not a change really but just the other side of you. One side is sleep, the other side is awakening. One side of you, one aspect of your coin, is sleep, darkness, the night part; the other side is the day part. Just wake up...and you will 'he surprised that there was no need to desire anything. God has already given it to you. He has given himself: he lives in you, he resides in you. If I can help you to remember this, that's all.

Zareen, that's why you feel the difference but you cannot figure it out. This is the difference. All religions are ways; all religions are new directions for the ego, new projections, new desires, and sometimes far more dangerous than the ordinary desire is. A man desiring money is not in such a mess as a man who desires God, because money can be FOUND by desiring; money can ONLY be found by desiring, and God can never be found by desiring. God can only be found by non-desiring.

So miserable is the man, most miserable is the man who desires God. The man who is greedy for money is not in such a great mess; he is far more sane -- because money can be found only if you desire and work hard for it, compete, struggle. If you desire political power, then be madly after it; that is the only way to attain it. It will not come if you go on sitting IN your room waiting for it; it will never knock on your door. You can wait for millions of lives -- nobody will come and knock on your door and say to you that you have been chosen to be the prime minister of the country or the president. You will have to fight for it, you will have to be very violent, aggressive; only then is it possible.

But if you go in search of God you will miss. The very search will be the cause of your missing. Where are you going? He is inside and you are going outside. All going is going outside. Go to Jerusalem or Kaaba or Kashi or Girnar or Bodh Gaya: wherever you go, it is outside. All going is extrovert. Ingoing is not a going at all.

What is ingoing? When you don't go outside, you are in. It is not really a going at all; not even a single step has to be taken. There is no space inside where you can walk and go in.

When it is said, "Go in," it is said only metaphorically. What is actually meant is: Stop going out. Stop completely, a full point, no more going outside. Then suddenly you are in

-- where else can you be when you are not going outside? When you are not going to Kaaba and to Jerusalem and to Kashi, where will you be? You will simply be inside, you will find yourself inside. Your outgoing was preventing you from finding yourself.

Stop seeking: that is the only way to find God. Stop desiring: that is the only way to find God.

I am giving you an insight, not a religion. And you are not my followers, remember, Zareen. Nobody here is my follower -- -friends, of course, but nobody is a follower. The orange color creates the illusion that people are following me. Just to avoid that, I cannot wear orange myself. I love the color, but if I start wearing orange then it will become a logical proof that you are following me. Certainly, you are not following me; I am a white person, you are orange people -- what connection can there be?

You are not my followers but friends. And because I love orange, out of your love you have accepted it. It is not a uniform; it is not that by wearing orange you become part of a certain sect or church. There is no church, no sect. Because I love orange, just out of love for me you are wearing orange. That is just a gesture of love, nothing else.

Zareen, you are not my follower, nobody is. But certainly you have chosen to be with me.

That is your choice. You have fallen in love with a madman, and when you fall in love with a madman a little bit of madness is bound to enter in your heart. That's what is happening here. I am drunk, I am making you drunk. What else can I do? But this is not a religion. Hence you can love me and you can love Jesus, and there is no conflict. In fact by loving me you are bound to love Jesus. By loving me you will find for the first time the real taste of Jesus. By being with me you can love Buddha. In fact for the first time you will have an insight of what Buddha is. By being with me, in communion with me, you will be in communion with Zarathustra, with Lao Tzu, with Mahavira, with Mohammed. But this is a totally different approach I become the door, and when you enter in me you find all the Buddhas -- because it is like the ocean: you can taste it from anywhere, it is salty. If you taste me, you have tasted all the Buddhas; it is the SAME

taste.

You cannot find Mohammed in the Koran, and you cannot find Jesus in the Bible. You cannot become really religious by becoming part of a church -- Catholic, Protestant -- it is impossible. These are the mischievous people who have been creating a very ugly humanity. You can be a Jew only if you hate Jesus. You can be with Moses only if you are not with Jesus; that is a condition. And if you are with Jesus then you cannot be with Buddha; that's a condition.

That's why they go on claiming, "This is the ONLY way" -- so even the idea that there are other possible ways drops from your mind. You are conditioned in such a way by every religion that "This is the only truth THE ONLY truth, THE truth," and the conditioning becomes so strong, steel-like, that it becomes impossible for you to think that there can be other ways, absolutely impossible. Unless you are very intelligent, alert, watchful, unless you look at your conditioning and become a witness, it is impossible.

I was born in a Jaina family and, naturally, just as everybody else is conditioned, the conditioning was imposed on me. But I was continuously watchful, continuously alert, hence I was not caught by the conditioning. And the conditioning is so subtle that once you are caught in it you become incapable of thinking, seeing; anything that goes against your conditioning, you become deaf to it.

For example, a Jaina cannot think that Jesus is enlightened -- impossible. His conditioning will not allow him. And his conditioning is very logical in his mind, and you cannot argue with him. He will say, "Jesus eats meat: how can an enlightened person eat meat?" And how are you going to convince him? He has some logic there.

Jesus drinks wine. He not only drinks wine but he also turns the whole sea into wine so the whole world can become drunk. It is a beautiful story, Jesus turning the whole sea into wine. Can an enlightened person do that? Not according to the Jainas. If there was a sea full of wine the Jaina TEERTHANKARA would come and do the miracle and turn it into water -- and pure water, mind you, filtered water. And that too you are allowed to drink only in the day, not in the night. If you are really a Jaina you won't drink it at night, not even water.

My grandmother would not even allow poor tomatoes in the house, because they look like meat -- just the appearance! Only when she died could tomatoes enter into the house.

You will be surprised Jainas don't eat potatoes. Now, what have these poor potatoes done? But their ideas: anything that grows under the earth has not to be eaten; only things that grow in the open, in the sun, because anything that grows in darkness creates darkness in you. Logic! It is TAMAS; it will create TAMASIC energy in you; it will create a certain energy that will pull you towards the earth, downwards. The potato is a secret agent of the earth -- beware! Eat things that grow upwards towards the sun; they will help you to be uplifted, your energy will be sattvic, pure. You will be under the law of levitation. The potato pulls you downwards, it is heavy.

And once you are conditioned from your very childhood, that's how it starts appearing.

Then eat a potato and you w ill feel very heavy and pulled downwards -- all these things will happen and then you will know that the teaching is right.

Up to my eighteenth year I had not eaten in the night. Then I went with a few friends to see a fort, far away in the jungles. They were all Hindus, and the fort was such a beauty that the whole day they were not interested in preparing food. I was the only Jaina, and I could not insist, because thirty people were not interested in cooking food in the day. So I kept quiet. In the night they cooked food. Now, the whole day's wandering in the forest, in the ruins of that old ancient castle -- I was tired, hungry; I had never known such hunger. But my eighteen years' conditioning: you cannot eat in the night....

And then they started preparing beautiful food, and the smell of the food and so close by.... And they all started persuading me; they said. "Nobody is here, and nobody will tell your family, your parents. Nobody will ever know." I resisted -- but the more I resisted, the more I was tempted. Finally I yielded, I ate. The food was delicious, but the whole night I suffered hell. I vomited at least seven times. That eighteen years' conditioning is not an easy thing to get rid of. I could not digest that food; my whole body revolted. Until all the food was thrown out I could not sleep. And then it was certainly a proof that whatsoever I had been told was right.

But those thirty people, they slept well. I had only one consolation -- that they would all suffer in hell. The whole night I was preparing for their hell, as bad a hell as possible. I was suffering my hell, and they were sound asleep and snoring. I was consoling myself,

"It's okay -- just a few days more, then I will be in paradise and you will be in hellfire.

Then you will know. The pleasures of this life are momentary," I was telling myself.

Your so-called religions only condition you against other religions. They make you antagonistic, they create conflict. They don't allow you to create a brotherhood, they don't allow you to create a humanity.

Godfarb was invited to a birthday party for the parish priest. Wanting to show his desire to be a good member of the community, he went to a jewelry store to get the good father a birthday present.

"What would you recommend?" asked Godfarb of the store clerk.

"How about this lovely crucifix with Christ on it?"

"Do you think he would like that?"

"Absolutely."

"How much is it?"

"One hundred and fifty dollars."

"One hundred and fifty dollars!" exclaimed Godfarb. "Have you got one without the acrobat on it?"

Jesus looks like an acrobat -- if you are a Jew, that's how it is. To a Jaina. Mohammed is not even worthy of being counted among the saints -- what to say about the messengers of God? According to the Buddhists, even Mahavira, the TEERTHANKARA of the Jainas, is not worthy of being counted as a holy man, not even a moral man, because he moves naked -- this is utter immorality. Buddhists cannot forgive him. This is exhibitionism, this is neurosis; the man is pathological!

You have been given ideas in the name of religions. I am not giving you any idea; I am trying to take all ideas away from you.

Just the other day there was a question saying: "Osho, sometimes you give wrong information to US." SOMETIMES? My whole effort here is to destroy all the information that you have. All information is wrong. So I am not interested in giving you RIGHT information, because all information has to be taken out. You have to be left without information. When you are without information, without knowledge, not knowing what is what, in that state of not-knowing you bloom. God starts opening up within your being.

I am not teaching a way, I am not giving you a system of thought, a philosophy -- just the contrary. I am against all knowledge, all philosophy, all systems of thought, all theologies, all religions. And by dropping all, you can be in communion with me. It is a communion, not a following.

A communion means I respect you, I love you as equals. You are NOT inferior, just asleep! Your sleep does not make you inferior at all, your sleep simply gives you dreams.

In fact, when Buddha became enlightened somebody asked him, "What have you gained?"

He said, "I have not gained anything, but I have lost many things. I have lost my desires, my dreams, my sleep, my anger, my greed, my ambition, my ego -- I have lost so many things. And I have gained nothing, nothing at all. But by losing all those things I have come home. I have become just myself -- a purity, a clarity, a cloudless sky."

I am not giving you anything; on the contrary I am taking things away from you. In fact, if you think in terms of things, you are far superior to me, because you have many more things which I don't have. You have a big ego...I cannot compete with you. You have great greed, possessiveness, jealousy, anger. You have a thousand and one things. I am a poor man compared to you, very poor, nothing to claim -- or ONLY nothing to claim.

And if you are courageous enough, you are going to become a nothing yourself sooner or later.

Zareen, I am not teaching a way, I am not giving you a goal. I am taking all ways away, all goals away.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, WHY DON'T YOU GIVE YOUR DISCIPLES A CERTAIN MODE OF

CONDUCT? ISN'T A MORAL CHARACTER NECESSARY FOR A SPIRITUAL

LIFE?

Mahendra Singh,

MY WHOLE EFFORT is to give you a consciousness, not a character. Consciousness is the real thing, character the false entity. Character is needed by those who don't have consciousness. If you have eyes, you don't need a walking-stick to find your way, to grope your way. If you can see you don't ask others, "Where is the doer?" Character is needed because people are unconscious. Character is just a lubricant; it helps you to run your life in a smooth way.

George Gurdjieff used to say character is like a buffet. Buffers are used in railway trains; between two compartments there are buffers. If something happens, those two compartments cannot clash with each other; these buffers prevent them from clashing with each other. Or it is like springs: cars have springs so you can move smoothly -- even on an Indian road. Those springs go on absorbing the shocks; they are called shock absorbers.

That's what character is: it is a shock absorber. People are told to be humble. If you learn how to be humble it is a shock absorber. By learning how to be humble you will be able to protect yourself against other people's egos. They will not hurt you so much; you are a humble man. If you are egoistic you are bound to be hurt again and again. The ego is very sensitive, so you cover up your ego with a blanket of humbleness. It helps, it gives you a kind of smoothness, but it does not transform you.

My work consists of transformation. This is an alchemical school: I want to transform you from unconsciousness into consciousness, from darkness into light. I cannot give you a character; I can only give you insight, awareness. I would like you to live moment-tomoment, not according to a set pattern given by me or given by the society, the church, the state. I would like you to live according to your own small light of awareness, according to your own consciousness. Be responsive to each moment.

Character means you have a certain ready-made answer for all the questions of life, so whenever a situation arises you respond according to the set pattern. Because you respond according to the ready-made answer it is not a true response, it is only a reaction.

The man of character reacts, the man of consciousness responds: he takes the situation in, he reflects the reality as it is, and out of that reflection he acts. The man of character reacts, the man of consciousness acts. The man of character is mechanical; robotlike he functions. He has a computer in his mind, full of information; ask him anything and a ready-made answer rolls down from his computer.

A man of consciousness simply acts in the moment, not out of the past and out of the memory. His response has a beauty, a naturalness, and his response is true to the situation. The man of character always falls short, because life is continuously changing; it is never the same. And your answers are always the same, they never grow -- they can't grow, they are dead.

You have been told a certain thing in your childhood; it has remained there. You have grown, life has changed, but that answer that was given by your parents or by your teachers or by your priests is still there. And if something happens you will function according to that answer which was given to you fifty years before. And in fifty years so much water has gone down the Ganges; it is a totally different life.

Heraclitus says: You cannot step in the same river twice. And I say to you: You cannot step in the same river even once, the river is so fast-flowing.

Character is stagnant; it is a dirty pool of water. Consciousness is a river.

Mahendra Singh, that's why I don't give my people ANY code of conduct. I give them eyes to see, a consciousness to reflect, a mirrorlike being to be able to respond to any situation that arises. I don't give them detailed information about what to do and what not to do; I don't give them ten commandments. And if you start giving them commandments then you cannot stop at ten, because life is far more complex.

In Buddhist scriptures there are thirty-three thousand rules for a Buddhist monk. Thirty-three thousand rules! For every possible situation that may ever arise, they have given a ready-made answer. But how are you going to remember thirty-three thousand rules of conduct? And a man who is cunning enough to remember thirty-three thousand rules of conduct will be clever enough to find a way out always; if he does not want to do a certain thing he will find a way out. If he wants to do a certain thing he will find a way out.

I have heard about a Christian saint: somebody hit him on his face, because just that day in his morning discourse he had said, "Jesus says if somebody slaps you on one cheek, give him the other." And the man wanted to try it, so he hit him, really hit him hard on one cheek. And the saint was really true, true to his word: he gave him the other cheek.

But that man was also something: he hit even harder on the other cheek. Then he was surprised: the saint jumped on the man, started beating him so hard that the man said,

"What are you doing? You are a saint, and just this morning you were saying that if somebody hits you on one cheek, give him the other."

He said, "Yes -- but I don't have a third cheek. And Jesus stops there. Now I am free; now I will do what I want to do. Jesus has no more information about it."

It happened exactly like that in Jesus' life also. Once he told a disciple, "Forgive seven times." The disciple said, "Okay." The way he said, "Okay," Jesus became suspicious; he said, "Seventy-seven times I say."

The disciple was a little disturbed, but he said, "Okay -- because numbers don't end at seventy-seven. What about seventy-eight? Then I am free, then I can do what I want to do!"

How many rules can you make for people? It is stupid, meaningless. That's how people are religious, and still they are not religious: they always find a way to get out of those rules of conduct and commandments. They can always find a way through the back door.

And character can at the most give you only a skin-deep, pseudo mask -- not even skin-deep: just scratch your saints a little bit and you will find the animal hidden behind. On the surface they look beautiful, but only on the surface.

I don't want you to be superficial; I want you to REALLY change. But a real change happens through the center of your being, not through the circumference. Character is painting the circumference, consciousness is transformation of the center.

Once a carpenter was working in a church and he hit his thumb with a hammer. "Fuck's sake!" he yelled.

The Vicar happened to be passing and heard him. "You cannot use that kind of language here. This is a house of God," he admonished.

"Pardon, Vicar, but what's a man to say when he whacks his thumb with a hammer?"

"You can say, 'God preserve me,' or 'Jesus help me,'" suggested the Vicar.

Later, when the carpenter was sawing a piece of wood, he sawed right through his finger, which dropped to the floor. "God preserve me!" cried the carpenter, and the finger jumped back upon the hand and healed itself.

"Fuck's sake!" exclaimed the Vicar.

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, ONCE SOMEONE ASKED ME THE MEANING OF THE CHRISTIAN GOD, AND I ANSWERED SPONTANEOUSLY, "LOVE, TRUST, FEAR OF DEATH."

AT THAT TIME, AFTER YEARS OF A WELL-CONDITIONED OUTSIDE LIFE

AND A REPRESSED INNER WORLD, LOVE AND TRUST HAPPENED TO ME AS

AN INTENSE INNER OPENING AND AN OVERFLOWING OF ENERGY. IT

HAPPENED JUST WHEN I HEARD OF YOU AND STARTED DOING THE

MEDITATIONS. FROM THE OUTSIDE IT SEEMED LIKE MADNESS, BUT IN ALL

THE CRAZINESS I GOT A CLEAR, STRONG FEELING OF AN ENERGY WHICH

MOVES ME SOMEWHERE I HAVE SEARCHED FOR ALL THE TIME.

ON THE OTHER SIDE, GREAT FEAR CAME UP. FEAR OF DEATH, CONNECTED

WITH A CHILDHOOD PICTURE OF AN ANCIENT GOD WHO HAD THE POWER

TO PUNISH HUMAN BEINGS WITH DEATH AND ETERNAL DARKNESS. THIS

FEELING OF FEAR STILL CREATES A CERTAIN HEAVINESS IN MY MIND

AND STOPS THE NATURAL FLOW OF ENERGY.

OSHO, CAN YOU SPEAK ABOUT FEAR AND DEATH.

Anand Marita,

THE ORDINARY GOD is nothing but a projection of your fear. It is not love, it is not trust -- because love knows nothing of fear, and trust knows nothing of fear. Just as light has never seen darkness, love and trust have never met fear But in all the languages of the world there are expressions like 'godfearing'; the religious person is known as

'godfearing'. That is sheer nonsense. A religious person cannot be godfearing, he can only be godloving. If he is godfearing he is not religious yet. How can you fear God?

But your priests have made so much fuss about hell, punishment, karma; they have made so much fuss about a God who is a very angry God -- if you disobey him he will throw you into hellfire, and for eternity. It is the priest's work to create fear in you, because once fear is there you can be exploited. A fearful person will go to the church, to the mosque, to the temple, but he is not going to God, he is going to the priest really, and the priest exploits his fear.

A really religious person has a totally different approach towards life: it is not of fear, it is of tremendous love. His God comes out of his love, his God is nothing but another name for his total love. His God is another name for his total orgasmic joy with existence.

And that's what is happening to you, Marita. Here, being with me, a sannyasin, meditating, love is arising, trust is arising. But at the same time you are feeling fear. This fear is totally different; it is not the fear created by the priests, because I don't create any fear in you. And it is not the fear of death either, because you don't know anything about death -- how can you be afraid of something you don t know at all? To be afraid you have to be at least acquainted a little bit -- you cannot be afraid of the absolutely unknown, and death is absolutely unknown.

It is not fear of death either. It is something else which you have not yet been able-to figure out -- it is the fear of a dying ego which appears like death. It is a death in a way, because you are so much identified with the ego, with the idea of 'I', that when the 'I'

starts evaporating you feel as if you are dying -- obviously. Your identification is disappearing, you are passing through an identity crisis. Don't cling to the ego, let it go --

because the death of the ego is not your death. The death of the ego, on the contrary, is your real birth.

Marita, you are coming closer and closer to the birth, to the real birth. You will be reborn.

But you can be reborn only when death is gone, when ego is gone. With ego, death also disappears, remember -- because you have never died. How can you die? You are not born either. You are God! You are divine energy! You have been here forever, and you will be here forever. Birth and death are only of the body and the mind, and between the body and the mind exists the ego. It is a creation, a conspiracy of body/mind: When the ego disappears your death disappears too. Once the ego is gone, you will be surprised that you are eternal, that you have been here always and always, and you will be here always and always. You are part of the truth which cannot die.

Marita, you are coming close to something immensely valuable. But your mind is creating a problem; it is saying to you that it is fear of death. It is not fear of death, it is fear of ego disappearing. Allow it to go.

I say to you: This is how it has happened to me. This is how it is happening to many of my people. This is how it has always happened to all the Buddhas, down the ages: the ego dies -- but everybody hesitates before the ego dies. We are so much identified with it that the death of the ego appears as if WE are dying. We are not dying.

It is like when the child is getting ready to be born when nine months in the mother's womb are over. The child must be feeling a great fear -- because this was his life. This nine months' womb life, this is the only life he knows. And he is being thrown out of the womb: he must be feeling like he is being expelled from the Garden of Eden. He clings; he does not want to get out of the womb. He is afraid of the unknown.

But nature does not allow him to succeed. He can cling for a few hours and create pain for the mother -- because he clings to the womb and the womb is ready to expel the child because he is ready to go into the wider world. He is now mature enough; there is no need for him to be protected in a womb. And what kind of life can one have in a womb?

There is no life at all. Twenty-four hours the child is asleep; he is as if in a coma. But still this is the only life he knows, hence the clinging.

Marita, you know only one life, the life of the ego. It is not much of a life -- it is only suffering, misery, sleep, dream -- but that's the only life you know. A moment comes when one becomes mature through meditation and you have to be expelled out of the ego.

That is the second birth. In India we call such a person DVIJ -- twice-born. A Buddha is a DVIJ. One birth is from the mother, the physical, the biological birth. Another birth is through the Master, the spiritual birth, the religious birth.

Marita, feel blessed. You are coming closer to a very vital point, a turning-point in your life. Don't cling to the ego -- relay, let go. Let the ego disappear; it is not you. And then for the first time you will know who you are. For the first time the mystery of your being will be revealed to you. And from there onwards you start living; before that you were just sleeping.

The fourth question

Question 4

OSHO, WHY DO YOU SPEAK A STRANGE KIND OF ENGLISH? -- ALTHOUGH I LOVE IT.

Shivananda,

I DON'T KNOW ENGLISH AT ALL. In fact I don t know any language really. That's why I can go on speaking so easily, unafraid, unworried, undeterred by languages grammar, etcetera. I am not a great orator. I simply go on saying to you whatsoever happens in the moment.

That's why sometimes Napoleon turns into Nero, Nero turns into Napoleon; Greek becomes Latin, Latin becomes Greek. You are listening to a drunkard! It is a miracle that I can utter a few sensible words and you can make some sense out of it.

Sometimes I even laugh about what I have said to you. Just the other day...whenever I see Pradeepa bowing her head down, then I know that I must have told something wrong.

Just a few days ago I was saying 'cropping the reap' instead of 'reaping the crop'.

Pradeepa is my criterion: then I just look at her and I know I have done it again.

But what more can you expect from someone who is utterly drunk?

An elderly gentleman with a walrus mustache, frock coat, and bowler hat jiggled the telephone receiver. "I say, operator," he said, "I want to talk to Sir Reginald Barrett in Grosvenor Square, London."

"I'm afraid I can't hear you, sir," said the operator.

"Sir Reginald Barrett, Grosvenor Square, London," said the party.

"I still can't hear you," said the operator. "I guess you are English, aren't you?"

"My dear madam," said the gentleman, "if I were any more English I could not talk at all."

Fortunately I don't know much English. Hence I can talk undeterred by any linguistic barriers. This is not English English, this is not American English, this is not even Indian English -- it is simply Rajneesh English. It HAS to be strange.

And what about my Italian!

Scene: Father visiting his son in jail.

Father: "You-a no-a good-a bumma, you! I raise you to be-a a good-a kid-a!"

Son: "Please, Father, don't talk like that."

Father: "I'm-a ashame-a. You-a, you-a no good-a son!"

Son: "Father, please, don't talk that way."

Father: "Why-a I no talk-a this-a way?"

Son: "Because you are not Italian!"

I am neither Italian nor English nor Indian nor Chinese, and I have to talk all these languages. So I go on winging the wong number.

The fifth question

Question 5

OSHO, WHO ARE YOU?

Samadhi,

I DON'T KNOW AT ALL. If some time you come to know, please tell me.

The sixth question

Question 6

OSHO, THE DEVIL SEEMS TO BE AS POPULAR AS MAO TSE TUNG THESE

DAYS. WHY? WHY IS THE DEVIL SO ATTRACTIVE?

Bodhi,

THE DEVIL IS NOTHING BUT THE OTHER SIDE OF God. The religions have been praising God and condemning the Devil, and the Devil is the other side of God. The word

'devil' is beautiful; it comes from a Sanskrit root which means divine. 'Divine' and 'devil'

both come from the same root, DEV: in Sanskrit it becomes DEVADATA -- gods. The Devil and the Divine, both are the same -- but if you repress one part of God, one aspect of his being, sooner or later it is going to assert itself.

Now there are churches, in the West particularly, churches devoted to the Devil.

Disciples of the Devil are growing, mushrooming all over the world. The First Church of Satan is there in America, where people gather and worship Satan. Satan means 'devil', that is Arabic for 'devil'. All kinds of bizarre things are going on in the world, but the reason for them and the responsibility is that of the priests. For centuries they have been repressing God's aspects. You cannot repress anything forever; sooner or later it will assert itself.

In the East, particularly in India, there is no Devil worship at all. It cannot happen --

because we have accepted it, we have never rejected it. The Indian trinity, TRIMURTI, the three faces of God, have to be understood. Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh: these are the three faces of God. Brahma is the creator God, the aspect that creates, Vishnu, the aspect that maintains the world, the existence, keeps it running, and Mahesh, the destroyer who destroys the world.

Now, Christians cannot conceive of Mahesh as God. God has to be always the creator.

The Christian concept of God as creator makes it a very limited one. Then whose responsibility is it to destroy things? -- because there is destruction too, and no creation is possible without destruction. Creation is possible only through destruction. God gives life

-- and who gives death? Somebody has to be responsible for death too, but God cannot be responsible for death.

Christians are so afraid; their God is partial. The Indian idea of God is more total: with one hand he creates, with the other hand he destroys too. He is good and he is bad too; he is light and darkness both, life and death both. And if God is both, then only can God be transcendental. When you are both, you transcend both.

You ask me: THE DEVIL SEEMS TO BE AS POPULAR AS MAO TSE TUNG THESE

DAYS. WHY? WHY IS THE DEVIL SO ATTRACTIVE?

It is because of a long long repression through Christianity. The Devil aspect of God has been completely denied. Now after twenty centuries of repression it has become very strong, it has gathered too much energy -- it is exploding all over the place. It is certainly becoming more and more attractive. God seems to be poor compared to the Devil.

Christians, particularly the priests, have been talking so much about God that they have made the word almost sickening, nauseating. They have talked so much about God and their God is so sweet, only sweetness is allowed to God. Their God has no salt; it is pure white sugar, which is another name for poison. So the Christian God has created a kind of diabetes all over the world. It is false because it is partial, and the other part will take revenge.

God has to be accepted in its totality. This whole existence is divine: don't reject anything. Everything is good in its place. Salt is needed as much as sweetness. Even bitterness has its own place, its own joy, its own taste. The thorn on the rosebush has its own function; it is a bodyguard to the rose, it protects the rose. Don't deny it, don't prune all the thorns, otherwise the roses will die.

Life exists through polar opposites. And this has been a fallacious step, that we have chosen only one pole: God is only positive Then the negative has to be given to some entity, some fictitious entity, the Devil. The Devil does not exist. There is no hell, all is paradise. Yes, there are two situations: you can fall asleep in the paradise or you can be awake, but there is no hell.

I deny hell absolutely. And if there is misery in life, it is part of life. If there is death, it is a process of life, it is a renewal of life; it gives you a new body, a new model. The old rotten body is taken away and you are given a fresh new model. Death is not against life but in the service of life. Even what we know as bad is in the service of good. Yes, if you are wise enough you can transform poison into medicine. And if you are foolish even medicine can be dangerous, it can become poison.

The West will have to change its idea of God. And the Western idea is no longer Western

-- it has spread all over the world. Christian missionaries have done such mischief; they have drowned all other kinds of religion; almost half the earth they have changed into Christianity. They have destroyed all variety. They have given a very singular, one-dimensional idea of God to humanity. And their idea of God is very juvenile, it is not even mature. And their idea of God is anthropocentric, it is made in the image of man.

And they have been trying hard to make God a great saint. Their whole effort has created this situation: the denied part is ready now to explode. Denial is always dangerous; repression is dangerous. We have to pay tremendously for it.

Accept both the polarities. The negative and the positive are both needed for the electricity to happen; the good and bad are both needed for the world to go on; they are like the two wheels of a bullock cart. The sinner and the saint are both needed. That's my approach I love the sinner as much as the saint -- and if I have to choose, if I am forced to choose, I will choose the sinner rather than the saint, because the sinner is at least authentic. You cannot find a pseudo-sinner -- have you ever heard the word 'pseudo-sinner'? Pseudo-saints are there; in fact ninety-nine point nine percent of saints are pseudo -- because there is rarely a Jesus or a Buddha. That phenomenon is very rare; WE

have made it rare. We have made it almost impossible for anybody to be a Jesus or a Buddha; we create all kinds of hurdles. And even if somebody becomes a Jesus, we don't tolerate him -- we kill the man the moment we become aware....

Jesus lived only three years as Christ. For thirty years he was in preparation, in meditation, in search. After thirty years when he attained his satori, he went to the marketplace and started giving the message that he had attained. It took three years for it to become known to people that this man had attained. They killed him immediately.

When Mansoor attained godhood he declared, "Ana'l Haq! am God!" His Master, Junaid, said, "Keep quiet. I know, you know, that's enough. No need to tell it to anybody --

otherwise you will be in danger and you will create danger for me and for other disciples also. Yes, I accept," said Junaid, "I can see you have attained. But let it be a secret between me and you."

But Mansoor could not keep it a secret; it is very difficult to keep it a secret. Nobody has ever been able to keep it a secret. There would be moments when he was in deep ecstasy and he would start shouting again "I am God!" Soon the news spread. The priests went to the king and they said, "This is sacrilegious. This man has to be destroyed, this man has to be killed!"

First you don't allow anybody to become a Jesus or Mansoor, and if one somehow escapes from your bondage and becomes one you kill him. And you go on preaching something which is absurd, pseudo. You create a saint against the sinner; he is bound to be pseudo because he has not absorbed the sinner into himself. He has no foundation --

he is a house without any foundation, he is a house made on the sands. The sinner becomes the foundation. Unless the sinner is absorbed and transformed you will not find a true Buddha. Your saints are pseudo, bogus. only on the surface, pretenders.

If I am forced to choose I will choose the sinner, because the sinner has all the energies which can be transformed into a saint. But the saint has cut himself from all the sources of energies; he has become a plastic flower. He is almost hopeless; his case is hopeless.

This calamity has happened -- this Devil becoming too attractive -- because of the priests denying God all reality, making God an abstraction. God is not an abstraction, God is not a person; God is the total harmony of existence. And in that harmony, in that orchestra, all the instruments are involved -- the bad, the dark, the death, they also have to play their parts. They become the background, they become the context.

You don't see stars in the day -- why? Do you think all the stars disappear? They are there in the sky; they have not disappeared. It would be too much work every morning to disappear and every evening to come back; it would create unnecessary trouble. They are there! Just because of the sunlight, the background is missing in which you could see them. When the night comes and the darkness comes, the background becomes available.

In the dark night they shine forth. The darker the night, the more shining stars and the more stars you will be able to see.

God is both -- the darkest depth and the lightest height. Once this is accepted the Devil loses all attraction, the Devil dies. The Devil becomes a fertile land for God to grow; the Devil becomes a fertilizer. You can accumulate fertilizers in your house, you can accumulate manure in your house, and your house will stink. Spread the manure in the garden, and the same manure will sprout into beautiful flowers, the same manure will release great fragrance. Manure has not to be accumulated in the basement of your house, it has to be spread in the garden, in the open, in the sun.

We have been repressing anger, greed, sex -- everything that has been thought to be bad in some way we have been repressing in the basement of our being, in the unconscious.

And that's why every human being is stinking. Bring it into the light! Let it become manure, let it be a fertilizing phenomenon in your life, and you will have great flowers blossoming in you. You will attain to the one-thousand-petalled lotus.

The last question

Question 7

OSHO, WHY ARE YOU AGAINST THE PUNDITS AND THE LEARNED PEOPLE?

AREN'T THEY THE EXPERTS THAT ARE RUNNING THE WORLD?

Madira,

HAVE A LOOK AT THE WORLD -- and certainly they are running the world! that's why the world is in a mess. The knowledgeable people are running the world and they are the most ignorant people -- knowledgeable about superficial things. And sometimes these knowledgeable people are so ridiculous.

Once I was talking on Mahavira. A great scholar, well-known all over the world, particularly on Mahavira, came to listen to me. After the discourse he stood up and he said, "I have one question to ask. My question is: Mahavira and Buddha were contemporaries -- who was older and who was younger? I have spent thirty years of research on this project, but I have not been able to come to a clear-cut decision. A few scriptures say Buddha was older and a few scriptures say Mahavira was older, and there seems to be no way to decide. I am very much impressed," he said, "by what you said about Mahavira. Can you throw some light on my problem?"

I said, "You wasted thirty years of your life! How does it matter who was older and who was younger? What are you going to do if you come to a clear-cut conclusion? One thing is certain: whosoever was younger or older, you have wasted your life -- thirty years! In these thirty years you could have become a Buddha or a Mahavira. Mahavira became a Mahavira in twelve years' meditation, Buddha became a Buddha in six years' meditation."

I said to the man, "If you had worked on meditation you would have become Buddha five times! Thirty years wasted -- and Buddha became Buddha in six years. You would have been a Buddha five times over. And don't ask such foolish questions; it doesn't matter."

But that's how knowledgeable people are concerned. He was very angry at me, he became very antagonistic to me. He started writing articles against me. Now he is dead. So first he was wasting his life in searching for who was older, Buddha or Mahavira, and then he wasted his life in writing articles against me. The poor man, I really feel sorry for him.

The learned people know only the superficial, which has no significance.

Carruthers was visiting a small English town to do business. As his first appointment was not until twelve noon he decided to play a round of golf early in the morning. The golf course was right on the edge of town, and he was first off.

He sliced his first ball, and it went over the hedge that ran parallel to the first fairway. He did not bother to go and look for it; he played another ball which went straight down the middle.

On returning to the club house at the end of the game the club professional approached him saying, "Excuse me, sir, were you by any chance the first off this morning?"

"Yes, I was," replied the businessman.

"And did you slice your first ball over the hedge to the right?"

"Yes, I did, as a matter of fact, old man," replied the businessman.

"Well," said the professional, "that hedge runs parallel to a very busy street, and your ball landed on the head of a cyclist. The cyclist swerved into the middle of the road, and in order to miss the cyclist a car swerved in front of a bus; and in order to miss the car, shopfront of a jeweler's. The shop collapsed, and in the process a lot of very valuable jewelry has disappeared."

"Oh, my God!" cried the businessman, shaking at the knees. "What shall I do?"

"Oh, no problem, old man," said the professional. "Just make sure that you keep your right hand a little further round the handle, and everything will be fine."

That's how the professional, the expert, the knowledgeable person, works. He knows everything about the meaningless, the insignificant; he goes into insignificant details and he goes on missing the central thing.

I am not against the pundits and the learned people, I am simply compassionate towards them.

Semyonov, a local party secretary, stopped Kagonovich on the street. "Comrade," he asked, "why don't you come for ideological instruction every Tuesday and Thursday evening?"

"I don't need it," said Kagonovich.

"Who was Karl Marx?" asked Semyonov.

"I don't know."

"Who was Vladimir Lenin?"

"I don't know."

Semyonov went on and on. Finally Kagonovich interrupted, "You ask me who is this and who is that. Let me ask you! Who is Rudolf Ulyanov?"

"I don't know," replied the secretary.

"Ah!" said Kagonovich. "But I know that one. While you are at ideological instruction every Tuesday and Thursday night, Rudolf Ulyanov is screwing your wife!"

Be Still and Know

Chapter #7

Chapter title: Thanks for the Compliment!

7 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909070

ShortTitle:

BESTIL07

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, I KNOW THAT YOU LOVE CONTRADICTIONS. A LOT OF IT I CAN

ACCEPT NOW AS TWO SIDES OF ONE COIN. BUT TODAY AFTER LECTURE

SOME QUESTIONS STILL AROSE.

ON THE ONE SIDE YOU SAY THE GOOD AND THE BAD ARE TWO SIDES OF

THE SAME COIN AND BOTH HAVE TO BE AND THE ONE CAN'T BE WITHOUT

THE OTHER. ON THE OTHER SIDE YOU WANT TO CREATE A BETTER

WORLD WITH YOUR SANNYASINS.

ON THE ONE SIDE YOU TELL US NOT TO THINK IN TERMS OF THE FUTURE.

ON THE OTHER SIDE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THE COMING THIRD

WORLD WAR.

ON THE ONE SIDE YOU TELL US NOT TO WISH ANYTHING. ON THE OTHER

SIDE IT SEEMS YOU WANT TO AVOID THE THIRD WORLD WAR.

ON THE ONE SIDE YOU SAY THINGS ARE OKAY AS THEY ARE, THERE IS NO

GOAL, NOTHING TO ACHIEVE, TO CHANGE. ON THE OTHER SIDE: WHAT

ARE YOU DOING HERE? WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?

I CAN FEEL THERE IS AN ANSWER, BUT I CAN'T POINT IT OUT. CAN YOU?

Anand Suresh,

IT IS NOT THAT I LOVE CONTRADICTIONS: life is contradictory. Existence itself is possible only through contradictions. It is the mind that has been trained in Aristotelian logic that becomes disturbed because of contradictions. The Aristotelian logic gives you a linear mind, a one-dimensional mind. It says: A can only be A and can never be B, and B

can only be B and can never be A, and for two thousand years our minds have been conditioned by this logic.

This logic never had any sway over the mystics, and now even scientists are escaping from the Aristotelian prison. If you want to be true to life you cannot be a follower of Aristotle; to be true to life you will have to say things as they are. If you want to be true to Aristotle then you will have to repress a few things of life, deny, at least avoid, not look at them, choose only what fits with your logic.

The whole world has existed up to now according to one-dimensional logic -- and existence is multi-dimensional, it is rooted in contradictions. In fact, to call it a contradiction is again to use a word from Aristotle.

The mystics use the word 'paradox', not 'contradiction'. In the very word 'contradiction'

there is condemnation: something is wrong, something has to be put right. But a paradox is a totally different phenomenon: nothing has to be put right. A paradox is a mystery, elusive, inexplicable.

Existence is a mystery. Mathematics is incapable of understanding it; mind is utterly impotent in understanding it, because mind knows only one way. The Aristotelian way is the mind's way. And anybody who knows life knows that Aristotle has been a calamity, the greatest that has ever existed in the world. And he is the father of modern philosophy, the father of modern science! But there are revolts against him. Mystics have always been revolting, now physicists are revolting.

According to Aristotle there is no mystery: everything is explainable in logical terms --

that is his fundamental tenet. And my fundamental tenet is: nothing is explainable in terms of logic. If you try to explain life in terms of logic you destroy life.

It is as if to explain the beauty of a rose you take the rose to the chemist to dissect it, to analyze it, and to find out where the beauty is. The chemist is capable of analyzing the rose, but he will find only chemicals, not beauty. Beauty will evaporate. Beauty was in the paradox of the rose. It should NOT be according to logic -- hence logic is very blind.

Your problem, Suresh, is that you suffer from Aristotelitis. It is one of the most deep-rooted diseases.

You say: I KNOW THAT YOU LOVE CONTRADICTIONS.

It is not so that I love contradictions. What can I do? Contradictions are there! If I have to be true to the totality of existence I have to love them, otherwise something will have to be denied. And the moment you deny something you miss something immensely valuable, and the denial will never allow you to know the whole. And only the whole is true; the parts are only parts. They have some meaning only in the context of the whole; in themselves they are meaningless.

That's why science has created great meaninglessness in the world. It was bound to happen; it is a by-product of scientific methodology. Science tries to explain everything cleanly, with no vagueness; it wants to reduce everything to clear-cut categories. And it has succeeded, but in its success man and his spirit has failed.

The success of science is rooted in Aristotle, but man's failure -- the failure of his joy, the failure of his love, the failure of his capacity to sing, dance and celebrate -- is also rooted in Aristotle. But there are clear-cut signs of revolt, particularly within these last thirty, forty years -- many great scientists have revolted against Aristotle. The first one to revolt was Albert Einstein.

Aristotle is very absolutistic: A is absolutely A and never B, man is absolutely man and never a woman. He believes in the absolutes, and Einstein brought the idea of relativity.

He said absolutes don't exist; there are only relative things. A man is relatively more a man than a woman and a woman is relatively more a woman than a man, but the question is not one of absolute distinction -- they overlap. And you may be a man in the morning and you may not be a man by the evening; you may be a woman in the evening and you may not be a woman by the morning. You are not one-sided, you have many sides.

Have you not seen a woman in anger? Then she is more masculine than any male. And have you not seen a man when he is in love? -- his tenderness, his feminineness. He is MORE feminine than any woman can ever be. When a woman is in anger, enraged, her whole denied part starts functioning, and the denied part is very vital and alive because it has never been used.

I have heard a future story:

A man went into a hospital to purchase a brain; because his own was not functioning well he wanted to replace it. The surgeon took him around; there were many brains available.

He showed him the brain of a scientist, the price only a hundred rupees; the brain of a great, famous, well-known mathematician, and the price only two hundred rupees; and the brain of a great general, and the price only three hundred rupees -- so on and so forth.

And then he came to the brain of a great political leader, and the price- was ten thousand rupees!

The customer was a little puzzled. He said, "What do you mean? Do you mean that the politician has a greater brain than a great, Nobel prize-winning scientist?"

The surgeon said, "Please don't misunderstand us. It is not that the politician has a greater brain than the scientist or the general or the mathematician or the poet, but this is a brain which has never been used. It is brand new, hence the price!"

Whatsoever is not used and denied in you remains very vital. Hence a woman enraged is far more dangerous than a man; and if you have been in relationship with a woman you know it perfectly well -- she can drive you crazy! because that is the denied part, the unused part. When it is used it has vitality, newness. And when a man is tender, loving, he is more tender and loving than a woman. He can be more womanly because that is his denied part.

Carl Gustav Jung accepted that man is bi-sexual: no man is simply man and no woman is simply woman. Man has a woman part, a very intrinsic part, and woman has a man inside her, very intrinsic. Now this is a totally different world: old categories lose meaning, old absolutes disappear.

And then came the theory of uncertainty -- because up to now science was aware only of the superficial world of matter. It has not penetrated into the mysteries of matter as mystics have done in the inner world; they have penetrated into the mysteries of consciousness. And when they penetrated the mysteries of consciousness they became aware that it is not Aristotelian at all. Sometimes A is A and sometimes A is B; and not only that -- that sometimes A is B -- there are times when A is both A and not A simultaneously.

Mahavira said that; his philosophy is known as SAPTABHANGI -- sevenfold. He must have appeared a very strange man. You asked one question and he would always answer your one question with seven answers, because his philosophy was sevenfold. He said, "I have come to see the seven aspects of the inner world." You asked him, "Does God exist?" and he would say, "First: perhaps he exists. Second: perhaps he does not. Third: perhaps he exists and yet does not exist. And fourth: perhaps he neither exists nor does not exist." And so on and so forth. He would give you seven answers. You would leave him more confused than you had come. That's why he could not influence many people.

His religion remained one of the smallest although it had the potential of becoming one of the greatest religions of the world.

But now the days of Mahavira are coming: Albert Einstein has made the way for it. As the physicist entered deeper into the mysteries of matter he was very much puzzled --

Aristotle works no more, helps no more. On the contrary, if you remain hung up with Aristotle you have to deny a few things which you cannot deny -- they are there!

For example: matter does not exist at the deepest level of matter; matter is only apparent, it is MAYA. Shankara said it thousands of years ago: it is illusion. By 'illusion' he does not mean that it does not exist; by 'illusion' he simply means it APPEARS to exist --

something ELSE exists. Don't be deceived by the appearance. And the scientist found himself entering more into the world of Shankara than into the world of Aristotle. Matter disappears, there is only energy -- energy moving so fast that you cannot see its movement and it gives you the idea of solid matter.

Nothing is solid, everything is liquid. And when there is nothing solid, what meaning can the word 'liquid' have? Then a new problem arises: if there is nothing solid, what do you mean by 'liquid'? Liquidity had meaning only in reference to solidity; the moment solidity disappears, liquidity disappears...and you are dumb, in awe.

Only energy is, and the ways of energy are very paradoxical, very mystic. One particle of energy jumps from its place to another place; it is continuously lumping. It IS taking quantum leaps. The term 'quantum leap' comes from QUANTA. 'Quanta' means the ultimate particle of energy, and 'quantum leap' means a very different leap from what you understand by the word 'leap'.

When the ultimate particle of energy jumps from place A to B the phenomenon is very mysterious: it simply disappears from A and appears at B and you cannot find it anywhere in between. You come from your place to me; you will be found in between.

How can you just jump from your place to my place? Even if you jump, you will have to pass through. Even if you take the fastest plane, still you will be in between. But the ultimate particle of matter simply disappears from one place and appears at another place and you cannot find it in between at all. Now what to make out of it? It should not be so, but it is so.

First scientists figured, "We must be missing it -- maybe we don't have sophisticated enough instruments. How can it be?" The old Aristotle was haunting them: "It MUST be somewhere in between." But now we have more sophisticated instruments -- it simply disappears. It becomes unmanifest in one place and becomes manifest again in another place. What happens in between nothing can be known about, because it becomes unmanifest; it simply disappears from existence. It moves into a totally different dimension which is not known at all and may never be known at all, because it is the unknowable.

And it was thought always, according to Aristotle and Euclid, that a point can never be a line. It was found by the physicists that the point can be both together: it can be a particle and a wave, it can be a point and a line. Euclidean geometry used to say -- you must have read it at school -- that two parallel lines never meet. Now there is something like non-Euclidean geometry which says they meet. What to make out of it? Euclidean geometry says you can draw a straight line: a straight line is the shortest distance between two points -- a well-known definition, every schoolboy knows about it. But non-Euclidean geometry has come with great force and is changing the whole course of scientific thinking.

Non-Euclidean geometry says you CANNOT draw a straight line at all; it is impossible to draw a straight line. Why? -- because you are sitting on an earth which is round. So whatsoever you draw, it appears straight because you don't know that you are sitting on a round globe. Go on drawing the line, go on drawing the line, and soon you will see that it becomes a circle, because it will cover the whole earth. And a straight line cannot be a part of a circle, obviously; if it is a part of a circle it is not straight. No straight line can create a circle, but every straight line that you know, if drawn to its ultimate, will become part of a circle. Then it is an are, not a straight line.

And the whole universe is circular. The whole universe, all the movement, is circular; everything is a circle. Straight lines are not possible; they are imaginary lines.

Mystics have always talked in paradoxes; now physicists are talking in paradoxes. And the reason is the same: mystics entered reality through their being and came across the mystery; physicists are coming across the same reality from another door -- the outward door.

I am not in love with contradictions -- they can't be helped. Existence is a paradox.

You say: A LOT OF IT I CAN ACCEPT NOW AS TWO SIDES OF ONE COIN.

That is again a hangover from Aristotle. I have to say to you many times, just not to disturb you too much too early, that these are two aspects of the same coin. Then it becomes a little acceptable to you. You can accept that one coin can have two aspects and they must be facing in opposite directions. You can accept the negative and the positive, you can accept the dark night and the bright day, you can accept life and death, as two sides of one coin. But when I am using the simile of the coin I am not really being true to the reality; I am compromising -- compromising with your Aristotelian mind.

Sooner or later, when you become more accustomed, when you start seeing the paradoxicalness, I will not say to you that they are two aspects, two sides of one coin.

The negative is the positive and the positive is the negative. Life and death are not two sides of one coin -- life IS death. But that will be a little more difficult to accept, although the truth is so. The day you were born you started dying. The process may be completed in seventy years, that is another thing -- that it takes time -- but time matters not. The day you were born you started dying -- IMMEDIATELY. It is not the other side of the coin, it is the same side of the coin. Life is death, and day is night, and love is hate, and friendship is enmity. Then it becomes more difficult.

But if I look at your difficulty, then I cannot take you into the world of truth. I have to persuade you slowly slowly, so first I say, "These are two aspects of the same coin." The day I feel that now you are ready to accept the paradox without questioning I will say,

"Life is death." I will not say that God and the Devil are two aspects of one energy, I will say God IS the Devil -- two names of the SAME energy, not two aspects.

You say: A LOT OF IT I CAN ACCEPT NOW AS TWO SIDES OF ONE COIN.

That is not understanding, just acceptance. Listening to me again and again you start figuring out that it must be that each phenomenon has two sides. It is not a question of sides. And each phenomenon has many dimensions, not only two sides.

BUT TODAY, you say, AFTER LECTURE SOME QUESTIONS STILL AROSE. ON

THE ONE SIDE YOU SAY THE GOOD AND THE BAD ARE TWO SIDES OF THE

SAME COIN AND BOTH HAVE TO BE AND THE ONE CAN'T BE WITHOUT THE

OTHER. ON THE OTHER SIDE YOU WANT TO CREATE A BETTER WORLD

WITH YOUR SANNYASINS.

Certainly! A better world will be a world where good and bad are absolutely accepted and absorbed. I don't mean by using the word 'better' that it will be a good world against the bad. My concept of a better world is a world which will be multi-dimensional, a world which will accept the earth and the sky so totally that the sky is not higher and the earth is not lower; which will accept the body and the soul so wholly that there is no question of who should be the master.

I have said to you many times, "Let consciousness be the master of the body and mind."

That is just to persuade you towards a quantum leap. I know you cannot take that leap immediately; you will have to be seduced into it.

The better world will be where the duality of body and spirit is dissolved: the body becomes the manifest spirit and the spirit becomes the unmanifest body, they are both one. How can one of these two be the master? The very idea of twoness is wrong, so there cannot be anybody who is the master and anybody else who is the slave. You are one entity.

I talk to you in terms of 'from sex to super-consciousness' because you cannot understand right now unless some hierarchy is brought to you. 'From sex to superconsciousness' --

even that becomes very difficult for rotten, old minds, orthodox, conventional people to understand why I say 'from sex to superconsciousness'. But please don't tell others: sex is superconsciousness! Not 'from sex to superconsciousness', but sex is superconsciousness.

There is no higher, no lower, there is no 'from' and no 'to'; there is no journey, you are already there as you are.

But to assert such pregnant truths I have to prepare you.

My vision of a better world is not the vision of a good world, where people are virtuous, have good character, don't cheat each other, don't lie, are very compassionate towards each other, very loving, great servants of humanity. That is not my vision of a better world. That has been the vision for centuries, and it has not been fulfilled because it cannot be fulfilled in the very nature of things. It is not possible -- you have been denying the bad part.

For me, a real sannyasin will neither be good nor bad in the old sense of the words. He will simply be. And whatsoever he is in a certain moment, he will be totally in it. If he is angry his anger will be total; if he is loving his love will be total.

The old idea of a good man was that he would never be angry. That brought repression into the world -- and once you are repressed you go on and on living with your repressed part. The repressed part remains a burden because it has not been absorbed. Once absorbed it releases great energy in you. It makes you vital, it makes you passionate, it makes you throbbing with infinite life. Repressed you are divided in two, you are cut into two; you live, but your life is only so-so.

Sisters Maria Theresa and Mary Elizabeth were walking down a street when they were grabbed by two men, dragged into an alley and raped. Twenty minutes later the nuns continued their stroll.

"What is Father going to say," said Sister Maria Theresa, "when we tell him we have been raped twice?"

"What do you mean, twice ?" asked her companion.

"Well, we are coming back this way, aren't we?"

Repress something and it will come by the back door. It will find its way: it will control you from the unconscious. You cannot get rid of it so easily, in fact there is no way to get rid of it. It is PART of you, such an organic part that you cannot be alive if you cut it off.

That's why your saints look so dead, and the deadlier they are, the more you respect them.

Just a few days ago a man came to me and he was talking about a saint, Devraha Baba, who is known in the North of India as the ageless saint, because at least this much is certain, that he is a hundred and fifty years old, maybe more. Now that is his only great quality, nothing else! The man was very much impressed. He said, "I am a disciple of Devraha Baba."

I asked him, "What is great in it, to live a hundred and fifty years? Many animals live that long, many trees live for thousands of years. There are trees four thousand years old.

There are animals who easily live a hundred years, a hundred and fifty, two hundred years."

And I told the man about an experiment. Scientists have discovered about rats.... First they work on rats because they have found one thing: that men and rats behave similarly.

They are the most ancient companions: wherever man is found, rats are found, and wherever rats are found, man is found. Their companionship seems to be eternal. Only two are man's eternal companions: rats and cockroaches! Wherever man is, these two things are always there. And rats behave very similarly.

Many experiments have been done on rats. If you give them half their normal food they live double. If you give them double their normal food they live only half the span of their life.

Now these people like Devraha Baba, Jaina monks, they are living on half their normal food. They eat only once, and that too in a very miserly way, yet they can live double.

How does it happen? -- because when you don't get enough food your life flame burns low; instead of gaining intensity it starts gaining length. In colder countries people live longer than in the hotter countries, because in colder countries you cannot live so passionately so intensely; the cold prevents you. In hotter countries you are more passionate.

Hence it is not strange that the first book on sexology was written in India: the KAMA SUTRA of Vatsyayana, and it is not strange that the most strange sexual stories have been written in the very hot countries like Arabia. The reason is: when the sun is hot you also live in a hot way. When there is no sun and it is all cloudy, your life also burns low.

Food is fuel: if you eat less you will be thin, if you eat less you will have less sexual desire, if you eat less you will have less possibility of being angry, if you eat less you will live at a very minimum level of life. You can live long, but this is not life. Then why not get frozen in a deep freeze? Then you can live forever!

And that was one of the reasons why the escapist monks found it a great attraction to go to the Himalayan caves; it is a natural way of living a frozen life. And not only did they escape to the Himalayas, they also tried to live without clothes, naked or almost naked. If your body remains too cold your blood is nothing but frozen; then you can live long, but length has no value. time has no value, and length is in time. Depth has value, and depth is a totally different matter.

When I say 'a better world' I don't mean people will be living for two hundred years, three hundred years, because they will be great saints. I simply mean people WILL be living passionately, totally, wholly. Even if they live a very short life their life will be a fulfillment.

My idea of a better world is not your idea of a better world, Suresh. Listening to me always remember: my words have MY meaning, and become capable of separating your meaning from my meaning.

You say: ON THE ONE SIDE YOU TELL US NOT TO THINK IN TERMS OF THE

FUTURE. ON THE OTHER SIDE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THE COMING

THIRD WORLD WAR.

For me there is no future, no past; all is present. To you I say, "Don't think of the future,"

because if you think of the future you will miss the present. I am SO rooted in the present that it is only the present that extends into the past and into the future.

It is like you are hiding in your room and looking from the keyhole at what is happening outside. You see a man suddenly appearing from nowhere, because just a moment before he was not there because he was not in front of your keyhole -- he was in the future. Now suddenly he appears before the keyhole; you can see him for a moment and then he is gone again. Now he is in the past.

But I am outside the room. When for you he was in the future, for me he was in the present; when for you he has again become in the past, he is still for me in the present.

Once you have known how to live in the present then all is present. So if I sometimes talk about past or about future, don't misunderstand me. For me there is no past and no future but only the present. I live in the present.

For you the third world war is in the future; for me it is already there, it has arrived. It may take a little time to come before you can see it, before it comes in front of your keyhole, but then it will be too late, then nothing can be done about it.

And you say: ON THE ONE SIDE YOU TELL US NOT TO WISH FOR ANYTHING.

ON THE OTHER SIDE IT SEEMS YOU WANT TO AVOID THE THIRD WORLD

WAR.

I don't want to avoid anything, not even the third world war, but I want to become a help to you so that you can be aware of it. And the third world war can be used as a device for your awareness. If you become alert that this earth is going to die, your life will be transformed.

Jesus used to say again and again: "Watch, beware! The Day of Judgment is very close by. In your life, this very life you will see it happening!" It has not happened up to now, but it was a device Jesus was creating a situation in which people could become aware that the time is very short and much has to be done, and we should not go on playing with stupid games -- money, power, prestige.

It happened in the life of a great mystic, Eknath: A man used to come to him for years, must have been a man of a very philosophic bent. He would ask Eknath again and again,

"I cannot believe that a man can be so innocent as you, so saintly, so holy. Sometimes great doubts arise in me -- maybe you are holy only on the surface; maybe deep inside your mind you still desire things that we desire, you are still ambitious. Maybe your ambition is very subtle and we cannot see it; maybe deep down in your dreams you still commit sin. Help me to get rid of this doubt, because this has become a barrier between me and you."

Eknath would laugh and would never answer.

One day early in the morning the man came and he said, "I could not sleep the whole night. Now it is too much -- it is becoming a nightmare! Seeing you I see such beauty, such grace, that I cannot believe it is possible in a human body. Seeing you I believe God is, but the moment I go home doubt starts sprouting, mushrooming: 'How can it be? After all he is also made of body and mind. Maybe there is still some sexual desire hidden in his unconscious.'"

That day Eknath did not laugh. On the contrary, he looked very serious and sad. He said,

"Friend, today I have to impart something very essential, urgent, to you. And before I discuss your question I would like to say what I have to give to you, because I may forget. If I go on discussing with you I may not remember."

The man said, "What is it? What is that which is so urgent?"

Eknath said, "Just the other day by chance I looked at your hand, and your life line is finished. Just a little fragment is left, seven days at the most. Today is Sunday -- I don't think you will be able to survive next Sunday.

By next Sunday evening you will be gone. Now you can ask your question."

The man stood up. He said, "What question? I will come again."

Eknath said, "Wait! Why is there so much hurry? It is enough time -- seven days."

The man said, "You say it is enough time? -- seven days? I can't waste it on stupid doubts! And what am I to do about you? Whether you suffer from sexuality or sin, that is your business. I am going home!"

Eknath tried to hold him but he escaped. He said, "I have no time for philosophical matters any more!"

Just a moment before when he had come he was so strong, so young -- and just a moment afterwards when he was going down the steps of the temple of Eknath he was shaking and trembling. He had to take the support of the wall.

He went home, he gathered his family, and he said, "Only seven days are left and I am going to die. Tell all my friends and all my enemies to come -- I would like to forgive and be forgiven. Only seven days are there, so what is the point of quarreling with people and fighting and competing? Finished, the game is finished!"

He laid himself on the bed. He became so weak that he could not get up from the bed. He was fed on the bed and continuously he was chanting, "Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama,"

remembering God for the first time in his life. And every day he was asking, "How many days are still left?" And as the seventh day started coming closer and closer he became more and more oblivious of the world. He started looking at people indifferently, he started forgetting people's names, their faces. He stopped recognizing people: he stopped recognizing his own wife and children, his own father and mother!

And the seventh day came and he was crying, and he was chanting the whole day and asking again and again, "How far is the sunset? -- because Eknath has said, 'The moment the sun sets, you are finished!' Exactly at sunset I am going to die."

And the sun was coming down every moment, coming closer and closer to the western horizon. Just a few minutes more...and Eknath arrived. The whole family started crying and weeping. Eknath said, 'Wait! Let me see the person!"

Eknath went there, shook the man. It was very difficult for the man to recognize even Eknath -- and he used to call him his Master, and for at least twenty years he had been sitting in SATSANG with him, in communion with him. And he could not recognize him!

Eknath said, "Can't you recognize me? I am Eknath, your Master!"

Then a little recognition arose and he said, "Yes, vaguely. I am in a very cloudy state.

How far is the sun from the western horizon?"

Eknath said, "Forget all this nonsense! I have come to ask you one question: in these seven days what was going on inside you? Sex, greed, anger, jealousy? What was going on inside you? I have come to ask that question."

The man said, "I am dying and you are talking philosophy! Death was so close to me that I could only remember God. I don't remember even for a single moment that sex was there, greed was there, enmity was there, anger was there. No, they had all disappeared."

Eknath said, "You are not going to die -- get up! This was just an answer to your question. The day I became aware that death is, since that day my inner being has changed. How does it matter whether death is to come in seven days or seventy years?

Once you become aware that this life is going to slip out of your hands, it has already slipped! Then you have to prepare for the other shore, then you have to prepare for something beyond."

The third world war is coming closer, but I am not interested in avoiding it or bringing it.

Who cares? My whole interest is in you, and I want you to become aware that this earth is not going to live for long. If this becomes an awareness in you it will be a transforming force. And if millions of people are transformed in this way, this earth may be saved --

but that will be just a payoff, a consequence.

I am not desiring that the world should be saved. It is such a stupid world, it is such a stupid humanity -- if it is gone it is good! I am not very much interested in saving this stupid lot -- they have lived here for millions of years and they have proved only a burden and a corruption, they have polluted everything.

But I am certainly interested in using this as a device, which is far more potential than Jesus' statement that the Day of Judgment is close, because that is an abstraction. But the third world war IS coming closer every day, because Russia is preparing, America is preparing; they go on piling up atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, death bombs, and they go on inventing new ways for killing humanity instantly. So it is a very very real danger.

Why not use it as a device? It can shake you up, it can wake you up. And if millions of people become meditators, there is a possibility the world war may not happen. But that is not my interest. My interest is to save people -- people who are worth saving.

And the last thing you ask: ON THE ONE SIDE YOU SAY THINGS ARE OKAY AS

THEY ARE, THERE IS NO GOAL, NOTHING TO ACHIEVE, TO CHANGE. ON

THE OTHER SIDE: WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?

Just explaining this to you: that there is no goal, that there is nothing to achieve, that everything is good as it is.

I will tell you a Sufi story:

There is a story told by Sufis about a man who read that certain dervishes, on the orders of their Master, never touched meat and did not smoke. Since this tends to fit in with certain well-established beliefs, especially in the West, this man made his way to the ZAWIA -- assembly place -- of the illuminated ones, to sit at their feet. They were all over ninety years old.

Sure enough, there they were, not a spot of nicotine or shred of animal protein among them, and our hero gasped with delight as he sat drinking in the unpolluted air and tasting the bean-curd soup which they provided. He hoped that he would at least live to a hundred.

Suddenly one of them whispered, "Here comes the great Master!" And all stood up as the venerable sage came in. He smiled benignly and went into the house, heading for his quarters. He did not look a day over fifty.

"How old is he, and what does he eat?" asked the enraptured visitor.

"He is one hundred and fifty years old, and I don't suppose any of us will reach that venerable age and station," wheezed one of the ancients. "But, of course, he is allowed twenty cigars and three steaks a day, since he is now beyond being affected by frivolities and temptations!"

It is a beautiful story. There comes a moment when a man goes beyond all duality -- then he is allowed everything.

I can talk about the future because I live in the present -- it is allowed! And I can talk about saving the world from the third world war because I have no desires left -- it is allowed. I can go on teaching you day in, day out, year in, year out, saying continuously, hammering continuously: "There is no goal, no purpose, nothing to achieve." Still it is allowed to me to teach you.

Why is it allowed to me to teach you? -- because I am not a teacher any more. And I am not giving you a doctrine, and I am not giving you a character, and I am not giving you a discipline. I am simply imparting my joy that has happened to me. With me all is okay --

third world war or no world war. If the third world war happens I will be the same, if it doesn't happen I am the same.

If the third world war happens, if you are alive and I am alive, I will continue the morning discourse, the evening darshan...everything will continue. The third world war will go on destroying the earth and I will go on doing my own thing, not being bothered by it at all. It does not matter.

Suresh, drop the Aristotelian mind. Only then will you be able to understand me well, to understand me at all.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, I HAVE BEEN SO MUCH CONDITIONED AS A CATHOLIC THAT I SEE

NO HOPE FOR MYSELF: CAN YOU STILL HELP ME?

Maria,

CATHOLIC OR COMMUNIST, Mohammedan or Maoist, Jaina or Jew, it makes no difference, it is all the same. Of course, Catholics do it more systematically than Hindus, more scientifically. They have developed a great expertise for how to condition people.

But all the religions are doing it more or less, all the societies are doing it in their own way: everybody is conditioned.

The moment you are born, conditioning starts, from your very first breath; it cannot be avoided. The parents will condition you, the children you play with will condition you, the neighborhood will condition you, the school, the church, the state. And consciously not much conditioning is being done, but unconsciously the child goes on and on accumulating it. The child learns by imitating.

So don't be worried. This is the normal situation in the world: everybody is conditioned.

And everybody has to come out of the conditioning. It is difficult. It is not like undressing

-- it is like peeling your skin. It is hard, it is arduous, because we have become identified with our conditioning. We know ourselves only as Catholics, communists, Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians. And the greatest fear of dropping the conditioning is the fear that you may fall into an identity crisis. Hence sannyas.

Sannyas is just a device to help you so that you don't start feeling that you are falling into an abyss, a bottomless abyss. I take away your conditionings -- you will feel very empty -

- I have to give you something to play with for the time being. Sannyas is that toy to play with for the time being. But sannyas is given to you in such a way that it never becomes a conditioning; it remains fun, it remains sport -- involved yet you remain a witness to it.

Maria, it is difficult to drop the conditioning, because that is your whole past, your mind, your ego, all that you are. But if you are ready, if you are courageous, if you have guts enough to come along with me it is possible, it is not impossible.

The local procurer in Mexico grabbed the distraught tourist stepping down the gangplank.

"I got a nice young girl for you -- twelve years old, a virgin."

When the tourist refused the procurer said, "Then I got a nice young boy for you, twelve years old, a virg -- "

"Look!" roared the tourist, "I don't want a young girl, I don't want a young boy... I just want the American consul!"

"Hmmm!" murmured the procurer, "A little difficult, but I try."

It is a little difficult, but I try. Maria, give me a chance to try! It has happened to so many people. I have so many Marias! Become part of this happening, don't remain a spectator.

Join the dance! My invitation is for all, my invitation is unconditional.

Whatever conditioning you have got can be dropped, because it has been forced on you from the outside -- and because it has been forced on you from the outside it can be taken away from you from the outside.

I cannot give you God, I cannot give you truth, I cannot give you your inner core, but I can take all the rubbish that has been heaped upon you. And once that rubbish is removed, God starts becoming alive in you. Once all the obstacles are removed, the spring of your life starts flowing, the innocence is regained. Innocence regained is paradise regained; you enter again into the Garden of Eden.

And one thing is certain, Maria, that you are not contented with being a Catholic. How can anybody who has any intelligence be contented with being a Catholic or a Hindu or a Jaina or a Buddhist? All these sects are

dead! It was beautiful when Jesus walked on the earth; to have followed a few steps with him would have been a tremendous transformation. Those few people were fortunate who broke bread with him, drank wine with him -- must have laughed, danced, sung, celebrated. Those few people were real Christians.

How can you be a Christian if Christ is missing? And how can you be a Buddhist if Buddha is not present?

A Master is absolutely necessary for the disciple to go through the mutation. I am available, my heart is open for you. Please come in! And all the junk that you are carrying will be dropped. Difficult it is always, but not impossible. I can save at least the essential core and that is the real thing. If I can save your very center, then let the circumference remain Catholic, communist, Hindu or Mohammedan -- it cannot affect you.

There was this King Edward potato who one night decided that he fancied a night out on the town. So he jumped in the tub and had a scrub, put on his best red jacket and went up West.

Sitting in a bar he spied this luscious young tomato, so he thought to himself, "I fancy that -- I will chat it up!"

In the corner of the pub was a bunch of punk carrots -- green hair, everything. One of them turns to the other and says, "Hey, yon potato is chatting up your tomato!"

The other says, "I am not having that. We will get him at chucking out time!"

So come closing time they get this potato outside. What a mess! They kick in his eyes, rip up his jacket -- totally mash him up!

When he wakes up in the hospital the surgeon says, "I have got good news and bad news for you."

So the potato says, "Well, let me have the good first."

The surgeon says, "We managed to save your eyes.

"And what is the bad?"

"You will be a cabbage for the rest of your life!"

I can save your eyes, and that's what matters. Then you can be a cabbage or a Catholic, whatsoever you want. On the circumference you can be anything, but at the center become consciousness, become a witness. Your being a Catholic or Hindu or Mohammedan is a content of your consciousness. Don't get identified with the content; remember that you are the watcher. There is Catholic upbringing, there is Mohammedan conditioning, there is Hindu hypnosis -- watch! They are separate from you. You are a pure consciousness, a mirror, reflecting all that has been put upon you from the outside.

Once you know that you are separate you are free from all conditioning, and then you can use your conditioning. I am not saying to become unnecessarily a nuisance in your society; I am not saying to get into unnecessary trouble for yourself and others. You can go on acting being a Catholic -- it is beautiful! You can go to the church every Sunday and enjoy it, but remember that you are not a Catholic -- the Catholic upbringing is just on the circumference. You are only a witness.

Be a witness in the church, be a witness in the temple, be a witness while you are reading the Gita and be a witness while you are reading the Bible -- and this witnessing will become the foundation of your liberation.

The third question Sarjano,

Question 3

OSHO, ONCE I THOUGHT ABOUT ENERGY AS IF ENERGY WAS MINE AND I LIKED TO THINK THAT I HAD A LOT OF ENERGY. NOW I HAVE REALIZED

THAT I AM ONLY A PASSAGE, A MEDIUM, A VEHICLE FOR THE ENERGY OF

THE DIVINE. SO HOW COME THAT SOMETIMES I AM SO FULL OF ENERGY

AND OVERFLOWING FROM EACH PORE, FEELING THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

TO CONTAIN THAT MUCH AND I WILL EXPLODE -- AND AFTER A FEW

HOURS I AM EMPTY WITH NO ENERGY EVEN TO SAY THAT I WOULD LIKE

TO HAVE MORE ENERGY? IS THERE NO WAY TO KEEP THE FLOW OF

ENERGY CONSTANT? AND AGAIN, SOMETIMES I FEEL SUCH APPETITE FOR

LIFE THAT LITERALLY I AM GOING AROUND HUGGING EVERYBODY, AND I WOULD LIKE TO HUG TREES AND STARS AND FLOWERS, AND THEN AFTER

A FEW HOURS I FEEL THAT LIFE IS NO LONGER WORTH LIVING AND IT IS

ONLY OUT OF RESPECT FOR LIFE THAT I DON'T KILL MYSELF. BUT I START

ASKING GOD, "PLEASE, TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE -- IT IS TOO PAINFUL AND

BORING." IS THERE SOME RELATION BETWEEN THESE PHENOMENA?

WOULD YOU PLEASE TALK MORE ABOUT ENERGY?

YOU ARE COMING CLOSER TO THE POINT, to the target of understanding, but you have not come exactly to the point yet; you are missing only by inches.

You say: ONCE I THOUGHT ABOUT ENERGY AS IF ENERGY WAS MINE AND I LIKED TO THINK THAT I HAD A LOT OF ENERGY. NOW I HAVE REALIZED...

Still that 'I' continues; before it was identified with energy, now it is identified with realization.

NOW I HAVE REALIZED, you say, THAT I AM ONLY A PASSAGE, A MEDIUM, A VEHICLE FOR THE ENERGY OF THE DIVINE.

To be a passage means you are no more. You cannot realize that "I am only a passage,"

otherwise you are still there -- and if you are there you cannot be a passage. You have to disappear completely. Nobody remains there to realize that "I am a passage" -- then you are a passage.

That's why this problem is arising. Sometimes you are less and sometimes you are more: when you are less, more energy is flowing; when you are more, the flow stops. When you are a little more there as a realizer, as a spiritual being who has understood the flow of energy, when you are there identified with this new idea of being a passage and a medium, energy disappears because you obstruct it. Sometimes when you are not there --

not even as a realizer, not even as a medium, when simply you are not there -- the energy starts flowing.

You ask: SO HOW COME THAT SOMETIMES I AM SO FULL OF ENERGY...?

Whenever you are not, you are full of energy; whenever you are, energy disappears. God can exist only in your absence; you cannot coexist with God. But you are still there in a subtle way.

You ask: HOW COME THAT SOMETIMES I AM SO FULL OF ENERGY...?

Who is this 'I am'? You are enjoying this: "I am so full of energy." Energy comes when you are not, and immediately you jump in and you say, "I am so full of energy," and energy starts disappearing.

You say:...OVERFLOWING FROM EACH PORE, FEELING THAT IT IS

IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTAIN THAT MUCH...?

Who is there to contain? Who is there to count how much it is? Who is there to weigh? In a subtle way you are hiding by the side or looking from the corner of your eye.

A guest had come to Mulla Nasruddin's house. Mulla Nasruddin was giving him food.

The guest was saying, "Now it is enough -- I have taken five PURIS, now no more."

Nasruddin said, "Five? You have taken eleven, but who is counting?"

This is also counting! Who is there to contain? You jump in -- it always happens. Not only with you, Sarjano, it happens with everybody. Whenever those rare moments come when you are not, energy flows, suddenly the mind recoils, comes back, feels great: "So much energy, impossible to contain!" And immediately you fall to the opposite polarity.

You say:...AND AFTER A FEW HOURS I AM EMPTY, WITH NO ENERGY EVEN

TO SAY THAT I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE MORE ENERGY? IS THERE NO WAY

TO KEEP THE FLOW OF ENERGY CONSTANT?

Who wants to keep the flow of energy constant? Just see the point: it is you. The old habit goes on coming back in new ways.

Rosenfeld, a New York men's clothing manufacturer, was returning to America after a business trip to Israel. On the way back he decided to stop off in Rome and take in the sights.

Two weeks later he finally arrived home. "How was the trip?" asked his sales manager.

"Fantastic!" replied Rosenfeld. "In Israel I sold a thousand more suits than any of us expected. Then I stopped off in Rome and saw all the historical sights. I got in with a sightseeing group and we had an audience with the Pope."

"The Pope himself? You don't say!" exclaimed the sales manager. "What does he look like?"

"Oh," said Rosenfeld, "I would say about a forty-four short."

A tailor is a tailor, a businessman is a businessman. Even if he goes to see a Buddha he will come with this information -- a forty-four short.

They say that a shoemaker never looks at people's faces, he goes on looking at their shoes. In fact, that is his only way to judge about people. Seeing the shoe he knows whether you have money in your pocket or not. He knows how things are going in your life, whether you are happy or unhappy. In fact, a good shoemaker can predict everything about you just by looking at your shoes; the psychoanalysis of the shoe will show everything about you.

Old habits, Sarjano, and it is so with everybody....The 'I' is the most ancient habit; for millions of lives we have carried it, so I comes again and again. You will have to be a little more watchful, a little more alert. Who wants to keep the flow of energy constant? --

Exactly the same entity that wants the flow to remain constant is the cause of it not being constant. Be a little more alert.

Mrs Hatton wanted to scare her husband out of his terrible drinking habit. One night she dressed up like the Devil and waited for him in an alley.

Soon the bar closed for the night and Hatton staggered towards home. Mrs. Hatton jumped out at him and yelled, "Yah! I am the Devil!"

Hatton held out his hand and said, "How da ya do? I married your sister!"

This is awareness -- even drunk!

Learn a little more awareness, be aware. The 'I' will come in many forms, shapes, disguises. It can become spiritual, it can become holy, it can become saintly, godly. It can try every possible way to save itself.

When you are feeling full of energy you are not, hence great love arises. The ego poisons love; you start hugging people, trees. People have complained to me and trees too, because they may not be in the same energy space as you are, Sarjano. Be a little watchful!

But I know, when the energy flows one is constantly in a sharing state; one would like to share with everybody, even with trees and rocks. But when it disappears you will feel very very empty, so empty that you would like to commit suicide. This happens only when you reach a peak of energy, and then coming back to the valley is very disturbing.

People who live in the valley and never go to the peak never think of suicide.

That's why in poor countries suicide is rare, in primitive countries absolutely non-existent. Animals don't commit suicide -- they never go to the peak. Because they don't know anything about the peak they never feel the ugliness, the darkness of the valley.

Because they have never smelt the fragrance of the divine they can never smell the stinking existence that they are living.

So this is going to happen to every sannyasin: you will reach peaks of joy and then when you fall from the peaks the only desire will be to be finished with it all. But the fall is not happening on its own -- you are the cause of it, it can be stopped.

And the only way to stop it is: when you are on the peak, enjoy the peak, enjoy the sunlit peak, the pure air, the whispering of the clouds, the closeness of the stars, enjoy that; and when you fall into the valley, enjoy the darkness of the valley, the dangers of the valley --

and don't bring yourself in -- both are good. In fact, the valley will allow you a little rest so that you can again be ready to go to the peak. The valley is a kind of sleep; it is needed after a day's hard work. Tomorrow morning you will be again rejuvenated, you can again track your path towards the peak.

Enjoy both -- and you can enjoy both if the 'I' disappears. And if the 'I' disappears -- I would like to give you the real mystic statement about it -- if the 'I' disappears there is no peak, no valley; everything is the same. Wherever you are, God is flowing through you; wherever you are, you are in a state of blessedness. Wherever you are, not only are YOU

blessed, you bless the whole existence too.

The last question

Question 4

OSHO, ARE ALL ENLIGHTENED MASTERS RASCALS LIKE YOU? TO ME, YOUR RASCALINESS IS EVEN MORE PREDOMINANT THAN YOUR JOKE-TELLING. ARE YOU TRYING TO TRICK US ALL INTO ENLIGHTENMENT.

Satya,

A thousand and one thanks for the compliment!

Be Still and Know

Chapter #8

Chapter title: Just For Your Sake

8 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909080

ShortTitle:

BESTIL08

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, IN THE WEST MANY GROUP-PSYCHOANALYSTS, SUCH AS BION, EZRIEL, ANZIEN, PICHON-PRIVIERE, TREAT A GROUP AS A UNITY AND

THEY ANALYZE THE GROUP MENTALITY, MOOD AND RESISTANCES, BUT

NOT AS INDIVIDUALS. FOR THEM, AS A MAN IS MADE OF MANY ASPECTS

AND PARTS, BUT IS A UNITY, SO A GROUP IS MADE OF MANY PERSONS BUT

IS A UNITY TOO.

HERE WITH YOU, THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GROUP IS VERY MUCH

STRESSED IN THERAPY, WORK, MEDITATION, ENERGY DARSHAN; ON THE

OTHER HAND GREAT IMPORTANCE IS GIVEN TO INDIVIDUALITY. OSHO, PLEASE, HAS A GROUP A KIND OF UNIQUE SOUL BEYOND INDIVIDUALS, OR IS IT ONLY A BUNCH OF PEOPLE OCCASIONALLY GATHERED

TOGETHER? ARE DIFFERENT SOCIAL AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS

CONCERNED IN SUCH A CASE? PLEASE COMMENT.

Ramadas,

THIS IS ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FASCISM, that individuals don't exist, only groups are real. But then the problem arises: where will you put the full point? If the group is real and individuals are not real, or are just parts of the group, then the church is far more real -- it is a bigger group; then the nation is far more real because it is an even bigger group; then the whole of humanity is still more real because it is an even bigger group. And the individual is completely lost. And whenever there is a conflict between the individual and the group, of course the individual has to sacrifice himself -- because he is unreal. He exists only as a part of the group.

This is the way to destroy revolution completely, totally. This is not psychoanalysis; this is trying to bring fascism from the back door. But all the societies love fascism. No society wants individuals, because the very existence of the individual is a question mark on many things the society goes on doing.

An individual is bound to be a rebel. An individual is a non-conformist, he cannot conform. He can say yes only to things which he feels are worth saying yes to, but it depends on his own feeling, his own intuitive understanding, his own intelligence. He cannot be forced to yield. He can surrender out of love, but he cannot be made to surrender; he would rather die than surrender. He cannot be an obedient slave -- not that he does not know how to obey. When he feels for something, when he is committed to something, involved with something, he obeys, he obeys totally, but he is really obeying his own inner light; he is not following any commandments from the outside.

To be an individual is to be non-political. The whole of politics depends on people who are not individuals, who are only phony individuals, who appear to be separate but are not separate -- dependent on the group, utterly dependent, for their safety, security, respectability, power, prestige: for their ego.

The real individual has no ego, hence he need not depend on the society he society gives you the ego, and if you want to be on an ego trip you have to depend on people; only they can nourish your ego. The individual knows his real self, hence he needs no ego.

But, Ramadas, the individual will not go to a psychoanalyst; there is no need for him. To be an individual is to be whole and healthy.

The problem arises...psychoanalysis has become very important and significant because we have taken away people's individuality. We have given them phony egos which DON'T satisfy. They are like unnourishing food -- colorful, appealing, but not giving you any nourishment.

And the man who lives with the ego is always missing himself; he is always feeling empty, meaningless. He wants to fill his being with something: he may become obsessed with food just as a way to feel full; he can eat too much, he can become obsessed with food. Or he can become obsessed with money, with gold, with power. These are all ways to somehow feel significant. But nothing succeeds, everything fails. You can hope only while things are far away; when you achieve them, suddenly you see you have been chasing shadows.

You are not feeling empty because you don't have much money. You are feeling empty because you have not yet encountered your real self, you have not come to your authentic individuality. Meditation is the way to individuality. It makes you a light unto yourself.

No, an individual is not a part; an individual is a universe in himself. But no society wants individuals, hence for centuries individuality has been destroyed and a plastic thing has replaced it. That plastic thing is called 'personality'.

People are very much confused about personality and individuality. They think personality is individuality. It is not -- in fact it is the barrier. You will never attain to individuality if you are not ready to drop your personality. Here the group therapies, meditations, work, this communion...all is devised in such a way that it destroys your personality, the plastic self, and throws you back to your real individuality.

Individuality is born with you, it is your being. Personality is a social phenomenon, it is given to you. When you are sitting in a cave in the Himalayas you don't have any personality, but you have individuality. Personality can exist only in reference to others.

The more people know you, the more personality you have -- hence the desire to have name and fame. The more people respect you, the more you enjoy the personality; it becomes strengthened.

Hence a great longing for respectability. You can attain it through money, you can attain it by renouncing money. You can attain it by eating too much or you can attain it by eating too little, by fasting. You can attain it by accumulating things or you can attain it by accumulating knowledge. But the whole idea is: you are looking in the others' eyes to see how they are feeling about you. You can become very virtuous, very moral, just to attain a personality, but the personality is not going to fulfill you. And down the centuries the individuality has been destroyed, people are carrying personalities .

In these group-psychotherapies about which you are asking me, and the people like Bion, Ezriel, Anzien, Pichon-Priviere, and their psychoanalysis -- who goes to these people?

The people who have lost contact with their beings, the people who are too much confined to their personalities and have no idea of any individuality. They ate ready to become part of a group. They feel very at ease in becoming part of a group, because the moment they become part of a group they have no responsibility. They can relax, they have no anxiety. Now the group takes the responsibility.

That's why people are Hindus and Christians and Mohammedans. Why? Why do people belong to rotten, utterly out-of-date, so-called ideologies? For a single reason: it gives you security, a feeling that you belong, that there are people who are with you -- you are not alone. The Christian knows that millions of people are Christians. The Hindu knows that he is not alone, millions of people are with him -- how can he be wrong? How can millions of people be wrong? He must be right! He knows nothing of what is right and what is wrong, but the crowd around him gives him the feeling that he does -- a false feeling, obviously.

Truth has nothing to do with the crowd; truth has always been attained by individuals. A Buddha attains it, a Jesus, a Mohammed, a Moses, a Zarathustra. But they attain to truth when they are absolutely alone in their deep meditative states, when they forget all about the world and the other, when they are no more obsessed by the other in any possible way, when they are utterly alone drowning in their own consciousness and reaching the very bottom core of it. Then they know what truth is.

But the crowd keeps you away from yourself. The crowd is an escape from your real being. The crowd makes it possible for you to remain interested in others; it never allows you any self-encounter.

The groups in this commune have a totally different orientation. It is not to force you to become part of the group. On the contrary, the group is just a help for you to drop your personality and BE individuals. If by dropping your individuality you become part of a group, you are committing suicide. And that's what these people are helping people to do.

People are tired of themselves; they want to commit suicide. If they cannot commit suicide physiologically, at least psychologically they can commit it. They may not be courageous enough to really commit suicide, hence these group-psychoanalysts are giving them ways to commit psychological suicide: "Become part of the group."

Becoming part of the group you are no more anxious, no more burdened. For a few days while you are in the group you feel a certain kind of relaxation; out of the group you will be back in your personality. Hence you will need the groups again and again; after a few days, a few weeks, you will again feel to participate in a group. Now the group becomes like an intoxicant which helps you to forget yourself.

This is not the purpose here. Here the purpose is totally different: you have to be helped to stand on your own feet, to be yourself.

You ask me: IN THE WEST MANY GROUP-PSYCHOANALYSTS TREAT A GROUP AS A UNITY. .

No group can ever be a unity; a group can at the most be a union. And the difference between union and unity is great. In unity you become one, you dissolve yourself completely, you are no more separate. In union you remain separate but you are together for a certain purpose. Once the purpose is fulfilled the union disappears. But the unity, once attained, never disappears -- it is not purposive.

With people you need only unions with God you need unity.

Even a love affair is a union not a unity, a friendship is a union not a unity. Once the purpose is fulfilled the love affair will disappear. You may cling for a fear days just out of a sense of gratitude, out of a sense of responsibility, duty, out of a sense of all the promises that you have given in the past -- you may cling for a few days, but that clinging cannot go on for long. Sooner or later it is finished, the purpose is fulfilled.

Unity means there is no way to finish it; it can only be with God. Unity with God, union with people. In unity you become one, inseparably one, but in a group you are not inseparably one. It is a temporary commitment: you can drop out of it any moment, you can say no any moment; you still remain capable of separating yourself. Remember the difference between unity and union.

When a group, a psychotherapeutic group, meets together, it is a kind of union. You have met for a certain purpose for a few days: to help each other, to be helped by the wisdom of the psychoanalyst -- if he has any.... He may not have any. His psychotherapy may be just an escape for him to avoid his own problems.

It happens many times: listening to other people's problems you can easily forget your own problems. Getting involved with other people's anxieties you can avoid your own anxieties; they look very small compared to other people's problems. You can even feel a little good inside: "My problems are not so great." Listening to other people's problems you become focused on others.

Your so-called psychoanalysts, more or less, are simply avoiding their own problems --

because I know them! Many of them have become sannyasins, many more are on the way. They are in the same misery, in the same mess, as you are. But they are knowledgeable, they are experts, they have studied. They can help a little, they can supply a kind of expertise; maybe a little bit of help IS possible. Sometimes they may not be able to give you any help, but they may function as a placebo.

A placebo literally means 'that which pleases'; it is a medical term. Sometimes there are people who come to the physicians who have no problems, no real problems, just imaginary problems. They are given placeboes -- just sugar pills -- they have no medicinal quality in them, but the patient believes that he has been given a great medicine. His illness is imaginary; he needs an imaginary medicine. A real medicine will create some trouble. Taking those imaginary medicines he is helped, he feels good.

Sometimes it happens: the moment the doctor comes to see you, half your disease is already gone. He has not given you any medicine, but he just comes smiling, holds your hand, and now you know that you are in the hands of an authority. That's enough to feel relief. And his smile, and his authoritative manner, and all the gadgets that he brings --

the cardiogram, the stethoscope, the thermometer -- and a few things he does on your body... and then he smiles and says, "Don't be worried. This will be gone within two days." Half of it is already gone!

Hence a doctor has to take big fees. If he takes no fee from you, you will not be helped.

The bigger the fee, the greater the doctor! When you come to the highest authority, certainly you know you are going to be helped, it is going to happen. This man is a magician -- whomsoever he touches he cures! This very belief is medicinal, and then any medicine will do. Much depends on the physician and his demeanor.

These group-psychotherapists -- and there are now many kinds all around the world --

they are a kind of placebo. You feel good knowing that somebody knows; he may know, he may not know. My own observation is that they are much more in a mess than you are, but they have found a way. The psychoanalysis may not help you but it helps them.

I have heard:

A young woman entered into the office of a psychoanalyst. The psychoanalyst immediately said, "Undress!"

The woman said, "But I have no physical problem; it is a question of my mind."

The psychoanalyst said, "Did you hear me or not? Undress! If you don't want to undress, get out! Then I won't take the case at all."

Now what do you do when some authority says "Undress"? You undress! Reluctantly the woman did it. And the psychoanalyst jumped on the woman, made love to her, and when they were off the couch he said to her, "Now this takes care of my problem -- what is your problem?"

Blind people are being led by other blind people!

I am not a psychoanalyst. I am not here to treat your minds and cure them. I am here to bring you out of your minds -- healthy, unhealthy, neurotic, non-neurotic, it doesn't matter. I don't take any note of your mind, what kind of mind you have. ANY kind of mind...you have to be taken out of it! So I don't go into the details, I simply start hammering! Once you are out of your mind, once you have an awareness that you are a witness of your mind, the mind disappears with all its diseases.

And in fact, to tell you the truth, MIND is the disease. It is not a question of ill minds and healthy minds -- there are no healthy minds at all. MIND AS SUCH is the disease!

But these people -- psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychiatrists -- they are fixing your minds. They may help a little bit, but their whole effort is to make you well-adjusted to the society. Now the real problem is: Is the society healthy? Is the society natural? Is the society as it should be? If the society ITSELF is insane, helping you to be adjusted to this insane society is not a real help.

And as I see it, the people who become psychologically ill are more sensitive people than the others. The others who are never psychologically ill are not healthy but only insensitive people, dull. They don't have much intelligence, they can't see the problems of life. That's why they remain undisturbed.

Those who feel the problems of life, those who see the ugliness we have created all around, the violence, the war, the way we have lived up to now, against each other, destructive to nature, to people, to birds, to animals... the way we have behaved up to now is absolutely insane! Those who are more sensitive amongst us, they become disturbed because they can feel. The less sensitive are not disturbed because they can't feel; they have rocklike hearts. They look sane.

It is a very strange world! The really sensitive people become insane and the utterly insane people look sane, for the simple reason that they have grown a stonelike shell around their beings; they can't feel anything. They go on dragging their lives in the normal way. The normal is not really normal, it is only average. To be normal is very rare.

A Buddha is normal, a Jesus is normal. But ask Sigmund Freud -- Sigmund Freud thinks Jesus is neurotic! Now whom are you going to choose, Jesus or Sigmund Freud? Who is neurotic?

Sigmund Freud is utterly neurotic, very much afraid of death -- and he calls Jesus neurotic, who goes to his death with a prayer on his lips, who can pray from the cross,

"God, forgive these people because they know not what they are doing." This man is neurotic? And Sigmund Freud? -- it is reported that at least three times- in his life he fainted, fell into a coma, became unconscious, just at the mention of the word 'death' --

just at the mention of the word. Nobody was crucifying him! And Jesus is neurotic?!

Mansoor is neurotic? When his hands were cut he laughed. He looked at the sky and said,

"You cannot befool me!" and had a hearty laugh.

Somebody in the crowd asked, "Why are you laughing? Have you gone mad? They are killing you! They have cut your hands, now they will cur your feet, and then they will cut your tongue and they will destroy your eyes!"

No man was ever tortured so much as Mansoor, not even Jesus, not Socrates. Part by part he was killed very cruelly killed, but he laughed to the last.

He said, "I am laughing because you are not killing me; the man you are killing is not me.

That's why I am laughing -- you are killing the body and I am NOT the body. It is so ridiculous! I had never thought that you would be so foolish, and I am telling God, looking upwards to the sky: You cannot befool me. Even if you have come in the form of the murderers, I recognize you -- because only God exists and nobody else. Today he has come in the form of murderers, as death -- it is my ultimate test."

This person is neurotic? And just the mention of the word 'death' is enough to make Freud tremble and fall from his chair and faint! And this is the founder of psychoanalysis!

Psychoanalysts are avoiding their own problems. Except a man enters into meditation, he goes on avoiding his problems.

You ask me, Ramadas: HERE WITH YOU, THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GROUP IS

VERY MUCH STRESSED IN THERAPY...

Yes, but always as a union, not as unity. It is a temporary arrangement, an experiment.

You are not to become one with the group. You have to function in harmony with the group, but you remain the individual. Just like in an orchestra different instruments are being played, but each instrument remains different, unique. Each contributes to the whole, but you can contribute to the whole only if you are separate, otherwise who is going to contribute and to whom?

In an orchestra the flute-player is contributing, the guitarist is contributing, the pianist is contributing -- but the pianist is a pianist and the flute-player is a flute-player. The flute is a flute and the piano is a piano; they retain their individualities. But for the moment they have joined hands together -- it is a union not a unity. The flute has not become part of the piano- if it does become the whole beauty will be lost.

Here in the groups, Ramadas, the emphasis is that you should be individuals and yet capable of functioning in harmony with others. That's what is happening on a greater scale in the whole commune: everybody should remain an individual, yet be capable of participating in the communal life -- participating in the work, in the play, in the music, of the commune. But it is not expected that you should destroy your individuality; that will be suicidal, that will be a murder. On the contrary, the whole effort is to sharpen your individuality, to give you more and more uniqueness The more meditative you become, the more unique, incomparable, you become.

The Buddha is a peak: part of the infinite universe but not part in the sense that he is replaceable; not like a part in a car that you can replace. He is unique, he is irreplaceable; nobody can replace him. The higher you rise in awareness, the more you are in tune with the universe, and at the same time the more unique you go on becoming. Hence the uniqueness of a Buddha in contrast to Jesus, the uniqueness of Mohammed in contrast to Mahavira. Where else can you find such unique individuals?

But we have lived in a society which destroys individuality and gives us false toys in the name of individuality -- gives us a personality. This personality is a burden, and you are always ready, absolutely willing, to put this burden aside.

In group therapies you can do that, you can put the personality aside -- you don't do anything about your individuality and you put the personality aside. Then what do you become? You are simply drowned in the group mind, you start functioning as a part of the group. You don't attain to a soul -- in fact you lose much. Of course! Because the personality is discarded, the anxiety that was there is no longer felt; but this is not a way to get rid of anxiety -- it will come back. How long can you live in a group? Sooner or later you will be back in the society and there you will again cling to the personality, it will be needed. And soon the desire will arise to go to another group for a few days to put the personality aside so you can feel free -- but that freedom is at a great cost. Freedom is god only if it happens around the center of your individuality; otherwise it is not helpful, it is harmful.

The group that takes your individuality awaits destroys you, destroys something very essential in you. It functions like an intoxicant.

You say, Ramadas: ON THE OTHER HAND, HERE GREAT IMPORTANCE IS

GIVEN TO INDIVIDUALITY TOO.

Yes, in the group you learn how to be in tune with others and at the same time you learn how to remain yourself. It is a paradoxical process: remain yourself mole and more and yet become a great contribution to the orchestra of life. Between these two poles your real being will become more and more sharpened.

YOU SAY: OSHO, PLEASE, HAS A GROUP A KIND OF UNIQUE SOUL BEYOND

INDIVIDUALS?

No, but a group can have a mind -- not a soul. A group can easily have a mind; that's how people are. All the Mohammedans have a certain kind of mind.

I was a student at a university and I was staying with one of my professors. He loved me tremendously. Not only did he love me -- he was a rare man, very old, must have been almost of the same age as my father -- he not only loved me, he respected me to. I had to tell him again and again, "I am just your student -- you need not be so respectful towards me." It was embarrassing for me sometimes, because whenever I would enter the room he would stand up, even if there were other people. Once the Vice Chancellor was present; I entered the room, he stood up. The Vice Chancellor could not believe his eyes! I had to ask the Vice Chancellor to forgive me, "It is all my fault -- I should not have entered!"

I was staying with the professor. It was a winter morning; in the sun outside on the lawn I was reading a book. The professor's mother came -- very old, must have been eighty she asked me, "What are you reading?"

Just to tease her, because she was a fanatical Hindu I said, "This is the holy Koran."

That old woman simply forgot that she was eighty! She snatched the book away from me, threw it away, outside on the road, and told me, "How dare you bring such a book in MY

house!"

I said, "Now you have committed a sin. It was not the holy Koran, it was the Bhagavad Gita -- I was just joking! "

She ran, brought the book, touched it seven times with her head, cried and wept, and I said, "What are you doing? It is the holy Koran! I am just teasing you!"

She threw the book in the fire! I told her, "You have the mind of a Mohammedan."

Mohammedans have a very obstinate, stubborn mind. Hindus also have an obstinate, stubborn mind -- but it is not so tight, it is a little loose. The reason is that so many Buddhas have happened in this country and they have been hammering on the society, they have made it loose in many places. But Mohammedans have not known anybody else except Mohammed.

That's what has happened to Catholics. The word 'catholic' means one who is very liberal, but that is not the case -- Catholics are worse than communists!

Just the other day a friend from Rome sent me a letter saying that the new Pope has released a five-page epistle, very stern, very hard, cruel. And the friend writes, "It seems that the epistle has been written keeping YOU in mind." Of course the name is nor mentioned, but whatsoever is said seems to show that the Pope must have some idea of me in his mind. He must be reading THE MUSTARD SEED, COME FOLLOW ME...

because he says, "There are people now on the earth who are claiming that THEIR

interpretation of Jesus is more right than the Vatican's interpretation. Beware of these people! Don't even listen to them and don't read them. If you read and listen to them you are bound for eternal hell."

Now these people create a certain mind -- but not a soul. Catholics have a certain mind, Mohammedans have a certain mind, Hindus have a certain mind. People who have no individuality start having a certain mind -- the mob mind.

In the army you will find there are no individuals. The whole effort in the army is to destroy the individual and give you a uniform, a number. Now, to give you a number is a subtle way of destroying your individuality: a name gives you a uniqueness, 'No. 11'

takes all individuality from you.

RAMADAS is a totally different matter -- if Ramadas dies, a person dies; if No. 11 dies, who cares? Ramadas cannot be replaced by anybody else, but No. 11? -- there is no problem. You can fix 'No. 11' on anybody and he becomes No. 11.

In the army, scientifically, technologically, the individuality is destroyed. Your name disappears, you become a number. Your hair is cut in the same way. You are forced to follow stupid orders year in, year out: left turn, right turn, about turn...for what?!

Once a philosopher got recruited into the army. The first thing was the morning parade, and the captain said, "Right turn!" Everybody turned towards the right except the philosopher.

The captain said, "Are you deaf?"

He said, "No. I can hear you are saying, 'Right turn,' but why? I cannot do anything unless I can explain to myself the reason."

Now you don't say such things in the army -- and the professor was very well-known.

The captain said, "This will be difficult. I myself don't know why, but this has to be done, and for three hours every morning. And not only right turn -- left turn, about turn, go forward, come back -- and I don't know why. And nobody has ever asked -- people simply do it! This is a training in obedience."

The professor said, "Then it is impossible for me!"

He was given another job, in the kitchen, something that he could do creating no problem for others. He was given a full bag of peas and told to sort them out, smaller ones on one side and bigger ones on the other side. After two hours when the captain came, the philosopher was sitting in the Rodin posture -- with his hand on his chin in great thought

-- and the peas were exactly there as they had been left.

The captain said, "What are you doing? Have you not started yet?"

He said, "How can I start? -- because there are a few big ones and a few smaller ones and a few which are in between. Unless I know exactly where those which are in between go, how can I start?"

He had to be discharged immediately from the army! This type of person is not needed in the army, and they can become contagious.

In the army there is no 'why'. You are simply told to do such a thing and you have to do it. In fact; the more stupid a thing it is, the better it prepares you for the work of the army.

Following stupid orders for years, one day they say, "Shoot this man!" and you shoot the man, robotlike, without asking why -- you have forgotten how to ask why. In the army, the group mind arises -- not a group soul, remember.

The soul is always individual; mind is always group. ANY mind, watch carefully, and you will find it belongs to some group. If you believe in God, that means you belong to a certain group which believes in God; they have given the idea, the conditioning, to you.

What are your beliefs? From where do they come? They come from the social mind --

from the church, from the state; you can find the source from where they come.

You can watch your mind and you will be surprised that all that you carry in your mind and think is yours is NOT yours. It has all come from different sources -- from parents, teachers, priests, politicians -- others have given it to you. There is something like a Hindu mind and there is something like a Mohammedan mind and something like a Jaina mind and something like a Buddhist mind -- but there is no Buddhist soul, there is no Christian soul.

Minds, Ramadas, certainly belong to groups. And it can happen that if you participate in a psychotherapy group you may become part of the mind of the group leader, the ideology.

It happens -- it is now a well-known fact -- if you go to a Freudian psychoanalyst, slowly slowly you start bringing dreams which are needed for Freudian psychoanalysis. You start adjusting to the psychoanalyst. It is a very subtle process. If you go to the Jungian psychoanalyst you bring other kinds of dreams to him. If you go to the Adlerian, again different kind of dreams you dream as if somehow you start buttressing the ego of the psychoanalyst. He buttresses your ego, you buttress his ego; it becomes a mutual arrangement. He interprets your foolish dreams in such great detail and brings such beautiful meanings to them, such profound significance to them, that naturally you would love to bring more and more dreams of the same kind -- which make HIM happy!

When the doctor comes to see you, you want to make him happy. If he makes you happy, it is a natural understanding that you want to tell the doctor, "Your medicine is helping --

I am getting better." And you are not lying! You are not consciously, deliberately, cheating him. This is a simple process of becoming part of another mind. In the army it is very very prominent but in the society also it is very prominent.

Sergeant Major MacGregor walked into a Glasgow drugstore and took a beat-up condom out of his kilt. "How much, mon," he asked the proprietor, "would it cost to fix this?"

"Let us see," murmured the druggist. "I could launder and disinfect it, heat-weld the holes and tears and insert a new elastic in the top. That would cost you two shillings, the same price as a new one."

MacGregor said that he would think it over.

He returned the next day. "You have convinced me, mon," he announced. "The regiment has decided to replace."

The regiment....

In the army you will find it absolutely clear-cut that the people have lost their minds. The regiment has the mind. And on a smaller scale the same is the case in the society.

But my effort here, Ramadas, is to create individuals. And the soul is always individual; it cannot be given to you by anybody. It is already in you: it has to be discovered.

In a group, function as a union but never as a unity. In a group, drop your personality but never your individuality. Say yes, but remain capable of saying no.

The no has not to be killed completely. If you become utterly incapable of saying no, your yes is meaningless.

What I am doing here is not psychoanalysis; it is alchemy, pure and simple alchemy. It is an effort to transform your being from the level of mind to the level of the soul. It is a journey, a pilgrimage.

The greatest adventure that can happen to a human being is the movement from mind to no-mind, the movement from personality to individuality. The no-mind has an individuality: the mind is social.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, WHAT IS HELL? IS THERE REALLY SUCH A PLACE?

RELIGION HAS SURVIVED UP TO NOW because of your fear and greed -- the false religion I mean, of course. The true religion has nothing to do with fear and greed. In fact, the true religion means transcending fear and greed. Fear and greed are not two things, they are one. Fear standing on its head becomes greed; it is one energy, two poles of the same energy.

The priests must have discovered it very early, that man can be dominated easily if he is made afraid. They created hell. It is imaginary, it is pure imagination -- there is no place like hell. Of course, there is a SPACE like hell, but no place.

Hell is not geographical, it is psychological. It is not somewhere down underneath the earth. If you dig a hole from here and you go on digging and digging, you will reach America, and the American will come to India. And the American believes somewhere down in the earth there is hell and the Indian believes somewhere down in the earth... and the earth is round!

And there is no heaven either -- that is to satisfy your greed. Hell is to create fear and heaven is to create greed. And these are the two strategies of the priests to dominate you, to oppress you, to exploit you.

One day a great Sufi mystic Rabiya was seen running in the marketplace, with a burning torch in one hand and a pot full of water in the other hand. People stopped her and they said, "What are you doing? Where are you going? We have heard stories about you, that you are a little crazy, but this is going too far!"

She said, "Don't stop me! I am going to burn your heaven -- this torch is for that -- and I am going to drown your hell -- this water is for that. And unless your hell and heaven are taken away from you you will not find God, because God cannot be found by those who live in fear or those who live in greed."

So the first thing, Krishna Deva: there is no hell, no heaven, as places somewhere. But still they exist -- in a totally different way: they exist within you: Whenever you are in anger you are in hell, but that is psychology not geography. And whenever you are in love you are in heaven; that too is again psychology not geography.

The Western religions know only two words: heaven and hell. The East has a third word also: MOKSHA. That means absolute freedom from both heaven and hell. That means transcending psychology. No fear, no greed, no mind... and suddenly you enter into the world of eternity, immortality, into the world of God.

You carry your hell within you and you carry your heaven within you, and each moment it is up to you to be in hell or in heaven.

I have heard about a great saint who was never known to be sad. He was nearing ninety years of age but he was always happy, always cheerful, always bubbling with joy, like a small child overflowing with joy. People gathered; they were celebrating his ninetieth birthday, and maybe this was going to be the last so all the disciples had come from faraway places. They asked him, "We have only one question -- and soon you may leave us, your body is getting older and older. Before you leave, please satisfy our inquiry: What is the secret of your joy? Nobody has ever seen you sad."

The old man laughed. He said, "There is not much of a secret in it. Early in my life I discovered that it is up to me to be in hell or to be in heaven, so every morning when I wake up, the first thing I ask myself is: 'What do you want today? -- heaven or hell?' And I always decide for heaven! That is my simple secret."

A whole bus-load of women from the Hadassah and the United Jewish Appeal overturned on a Miami freeway and everybody was killed. In Heaven, Saint Peter, without thinking, assigned them to Hell They had hardly been there a week, however, when Satan phoned Peter and demanded that he remove the women to Heaven. They were a disrupting influence.

"Why, what have they done?" asked Peter.

"They have banded together, collected money, and employed engineers to install air-conditioning."

If you have intelligence, awareness, even in hell you can manage to air-condition it.

That's what I am doing. Can't you see the hell all around? But somehow I have got a few people banded together and we are trying to create a small heaven of our own. What to do? People have decided to live in hell, they are not ready to listen, then the only wise choice is: we can create our own heaven. And if we can create our own heaven, that will become an example, a model, that this way also one can live.

When people come for the first time to our commune they are surprised. Just the other day a young priest wrote a letter to me, a Catholic priest, who now has become interested in me, and wants to get married, and wants to get rid of the Catholic church. He has written a letter to me saying, "I have heard that you have got the most beautiful people in the whole of the world around you. Can you find a wife for me?"

I have told Laxmi to write to him, "Why one? Just come here. And I need not find any wife for you -- the women will chase you, they will find you!"

We have got the most alive lot of women in the whole of the world here.

Heaven and hell are not realities but ways of living. You can live in jealousy -- that's how people live. You can live in competition, you can live in conflict, you can live in ambition. That's how you have been brought up to live. This is the way to hell!

A Zen Master was asked by the Emperor of Japan.... The Emperor had come and asked the same question, Krishna Deva. Maybe you are the reincarnation of the same Emperor!

Because the Japanese tend to be reborn in India -- this is the land of their Master, Buddha. Every Japanese keeps the desire to come to India some day. If they die without coming in this life, they are reborn here. They die with the desire.

The Emperor reached the Zen Master and asked him, "What is hell and what is heaven?"

The Zen Master looked at the Emperor and said "You son-of-a-bitch! Have you looked at your face in the mirror lately? I have never seen such a dirty-looking fellow before!"

The Emperor was enraged! He had not expected such a thing from such a great saint. You don't know great saints! You know only small, puny saints. A real saint is not a cat, he is a tiger!

The Emperor was so enraged that he pulled his sword out of its sheath. He was going to cut the head of the Master. Just as the sword was coming closer, the Master said, "Wait!

You are entering hell. This is the gate to hell."

The way the Master said "Wait!" was so powerful that the Emperor's hand was stopped in the middle, and he understood -- "True!" He threw the sword away, fell at the feet of the Master, and the Master laughed and said, "This is the way to heaven! You have already experienced both within a single moment. The distance is not far."

Whenever you are surrendered to existence, whenever you live in trust, love, prayer, joy, celebration, you are in heaven.

But what I am doing here is to help you to go beyond both -- because the person who lives in heaven can fall into hell any moment. They are not far away, they are very close by...just a small fence and that too is tattered because it is very old. And for centuries there has been an argument as to who should repair it. The Devil is not ready. Why should he be worried about it? Nobody wants to enter hell! If it is God' worry that hell people may enter into heaven, then he should repair it. But God is a miser, and they go on quarreling.

One day it happened: God said, "If you don't repair the fence -- which has really been destroyed by your people and your nuisance on the other side, our people have not done anything -- I am going to court!"

The Devil said, "You can go, but where are you going to find an advocate? They are all here on my side! Go to court!"

Hell is a state of mind when you live in plenty and yet you live in poverty, when life is such a blessing and yet you live in sadness. When the flowers bloom you don't bloom.

When the stars shine you don't shine. When the clouds are in the sky floating in freedom don't enjoy the freedom. When the cuckoo calls from a distant wood and you remain deaf. When the peacock dances you don't dance. This is hell! And you are the creator of it.

Mahatma Gandhi died and went to heaven. He was royally welcomed by St. Peter as a great saint and told that any request of his would be granted. Gandhi said, "All my life I have been non-violent. Now I would like to live a life like Adolph Hitler."

That seems to be absolutely psychological, right. If you live a repressed life this is going to happen. Adolph Hitler would like to live like Mahatma Gandhi, and Mahatma Gandhi would like to live like Adolph Hitler; the rejected, the denied part will take revenge. So I see a point in this fictitious story.

St. Peter replied, "This is too horrible a wish to be granted -- but we will let you see Hitler in hell. That will give you an idea and you may drop your desire."

Gandhi was taken to hell where he saw Hitler surrounded by beautiful naked dancing girls and many bottles of wine. "How can this be hell?" cried Gandhi "This is heaven!"

"Of course it is hell," said St. Peter. "The bottles all have holes and the women don't!"

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, WHY IS IT THAT ONE BECOMES SO ATTACHED TO THE PHYSICAL

PECULIARITIES OF A MASTER: HIS BEAUTY, HIS GENTLENESS, HIS

LANGUAGE, HIS MISPRONUNCIATION -- SO THAT ALONGSIDE THE AWE

AND RESPECT HE INSPIRES THERE GROWS SUCH A FEELING OF

TENDERNESS AND FAMILIARITY? IF THIS IS A DEVICE I WANT TO BE

CAUGHT BY IT FOREVER.

Prem Nirada,

LOVE AFFAIR IS A LOVE AFFAIR! It is not logical. When you love a person, you love his wholeness, you love him as he is. And to be with a Master the ONLY way is to fall in total love. Hence you start liking everything of the Master -- yes, even his mispronunciations! Of course it is easy to love his beauty, his grace, his wisdom, but that is not enough -- unless you start loving him in his totality....

I know that if sometimes I don't mispronounce a few words, you miss -- when I mispronounce I can see the joy!

Vivek goes on telling me every day, "Don't say 'aunt', it is 'ain't'." And whenever I come across it, just to be compassionate to you, I again say 'aunt'.

And there is one more difficulty: there are a few things I cannot figure out. My whole life I have been unable to figure out what is left and what is right. In school when I used to go to the parade I used to write on my hands, "This is right, this is left." So whenever this question of 'aunt' and 'ain't' arises I am puzzled -- whether it is 'aunt' or 'ain't', or vice versa!

Yes, it is a device. If you can't love me in my totality you will miss me.

A man with a rosary around his neck, wearing a hooded cloak and sandals, carrying a begging bowl and with a long white beard, was surrounded by a crowd in a certain town.

They clamored for his blessings and he led them to the top of a hill where he sat in silence for several hours.

Finally someone approached timidly and asked him to address them.

"I know that you have all been waiting for the words of the Great Teacher so-and-so," he said, "and I hope that his visit to this town, which is now over, has conferred the customary blessings upon it. But MY own job is now finished, as he will have passed through the streets in our absence...."

"Then who are you?" shouted a frenzied worshipper.

"Me? Oh, I am the decoy...."

He was just a device of the Master, so that the foolish people could go with him outside the town and the Master could pass through the town unhindered, undisturbed -- or would be met only by those who had eyes. All those who were blind followed this man because they could only see the outer garb. He LOOKED like a Master, they followed him. Only a very few people must have remained in the town, who were not deceived by the personality.

My mind is just a mechanism. For me now it is absolutely useless: it is just for your sake that I go on feeding it a little bit. Just for your sake I am speaking, otherwise now there is no point for me. In fact there is no point for me even to breathe! It is only for you that I am breathing, speaking, living. Those who have eyes will be able to see it.

EVERYTHING IS a device. Remember it: you have to SEE the device to grow beyond it.

And as far as the pronunciation is concerned, it is a miracle that I don't mispronounce all the words, or that even when I mispronounce you can still understand...because language is very alien to my being now -- not English, but my own mother tongue is alien. I have become a stranger to my own mind; the distance is infinite between me and the mind. I am surprised myself that the mind goes on functioning. What I have known has been known in silence; no language can express it.

And from my very childhood I was not interested in any subject that was taught in the school -- hence my poor history! I was always puzzled why these stupid names have to be remembered. Why, for what sin, are we punished, to remember the names of some people, dates, exact dates, exact names...? And all that these people have done is ugly!

History is bunk! Why should we be punished? So I was never present in the history class.

I was never interested in language, any language.

My whole interest was from the very beginning, how to transcend mind. Neither history can help, nor geography, nor mathematics, nor language -- nothing can help. All these things are irrelevant. My whole being was moving in a totally different direction.

So it is just a miracle happening, that I go on speaking to you, conveying to you something which cannot be conveyed, expressing something which is inexpressible, saying the unsayable. And you have to forgive many things.

Landers and his girlfriend were dining at the famous House of Hung Lo. Landers said to the waiter, "Bling us some flied lice."

The waiter left and returned with won ton soup. They ate it, and Landers again said to the waiter, "We want flied lice."

This time the waiter brought them two orders of egg roll. As the waiter walked away, Landers called loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear, "How about the flied lice?"

The Chinese waiter came back to the table and said, "Can't you pronounce fried rice, you plick?"

Somehow I am managing.... So if I manage and say 'fried rice', then I slip somewhere else

-- 'you plick'! you have to forgive me.

But everything is a device, remember...and as you get closer and closer to me, more and more subtle devices will be used. The day is not far off when we will be simply sitting in silence and there will be no question of language, words Get ready for it, because that which I REALLY want to communicate can only be communicated in silence.

Be Still and Know

Chapter #9

Chapter title: He Died in Samadhi

9 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909090

ShortTitle:

BESTIL09

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR FATHER'S DEATH

YESTERDAY?

Vivek,

IT WAS NOT A DEATH AT ALL. Or it was the total death. And both mean the same thing. I was hoping that he would die in this way. He died a death that everybody should be ambitious for: he died in samadhi, he died utterly detached from the body and the mind.

I went to see him only three times during this whole month he was in the hospital.

Whenever I felt that he was just on the verge, I went to see him. The first two times I was a little afraid that if he died he would have to be born again; a little attachment to the body was there. His meditation was deepening every day, but a few chains with the body were still intact, were not broken.

Yesterday I went to see him: I was immensely happy that now he could die a right death.

He was no more concerned with the body. Yesterday, early in the morning at three o'clock, he attained his first glimpse of the eternal -- and immediately he became aware that now he was going to die. This was the first time he had called me to come; the other two times I had gone on my own. Yesterday he called me to come because he was certain that he was going to die. He wanted to say good-bye, and he said it beautifully -- with no tears in the eyes, with no longing for life any more.

Hence, in a way it is not a death but a birth into eternity. He died in time and was born into eternity. Or it is a total death -- total in the sense that now he will not be coming any more. And that is the ultimate achievement; there is nothing higher than it.

He left the world in utter silence, in joy, in peace. He left the world like a lotus flower --

it was worth celebrating. And these are the occasions for you to learn how to live and how to die. Each death should be a celebration, but it can be a celebration only if it leads you to higher planes of existence.

He died enlightened. And that's how I would like each of my sannyasins to die. Life is ugly if you are unenlightened, and even death becomes beautiful if you are enlightened.

Life is ugly if you are unenlightened because it is a misery, a hell. Death becomes a door to the divine if you are enlightened; it is no more a misery, it is no more a hell. In fact, on the contrary, it is getting out of all hell, out of all misery.

I am immensely glad that he died the way he died. Remember it: as meditation deepens, you become farther and farther away from your body-mind composite. And when meditation reaches its ultimate peak, you can see everything.

Yesterday morning he was absolutely aware of death, that it had come. And he called me.

This was the first time he had called me, and the moment I saw him I saw that he was no more in the body. All the pains of the body had disappeared. That's why the doctors were puzzled: the body was functioning in an absolutely normal way. This was the last thing the doctors could have imagined, that he could die. He could have died any day before.

He was in deep pain, there were many complexities in the body: his heart was not functioning well, his pulse was missing; there were blood clots in the brain, in the leg, in the hand.

Yesterday he was absolutely normal. They checked, and they said it was impossible; now there was no problem, no danger. But this is how it happens. The day of the danger, according to the physicians, didn't prove dangerous. The first twenty-four hours when he was admitted to the hospital one month before were the most dangerous; they were afraid that he would die. He didn't die. Then for the next twenty-four hours they were still hesitant to say whether he would be saved or not. A suggestion had even come from a surgeon to cut the leg off completely, because if blood clots started happening in other places it would be impossible to save him.

But I was against cutting off the leg, because one has to die one day -- why distort the body and why create more pain? And just living in itself has no meaning, just lengthening the life has no meaning. I said no. They were surprised. And when he survived for almost four weeks they thought I was right, that there had been no need to cut off the leg; the leg was coming back, becoming alive again. He had started walking also, which Dr. Sardesai thought was a miracle. They had not hoped for that much, that he would be able to walk.

Yesterday he was perfectly normal, everything normal. And that gave me the indication that now death was possible. If meditation happens before death, everything becomes normal. One dies in perfect health, because one is not really dying but entering into a higher plane. The body becomes a stepping-stone.

He was meditating for years. He was a rare man -- it is very rare to find a father like him.

A father becoming a disciple of his own son: it is rare. Jesus' father did not dare to become a disciple, Buddha's father hesitated for years to become a disciple. But he was meditating for years. Three hours each day, in the morning from three to six, he was sitting in meditation. Yesterday also, in the hospital also, he continued.

Yesterday it happened. One never knows when it will happen. One has to go on digging...one day one comes across the source of water, the source of consciousness.

Yesterday it happened; it happened in right time. If he had left his body just one day before he would have been back in the body again soon -- a little clinging was there. But yesterday the slate was completely clean. He attained to no-mind, he died like a Buddha.

What more can one have than Buddhahood?

My effort here is to help you all to live like Buddhas and die like Buddhas. The death of a Buddha is both! It is not a death, because life is eternal. Life does not begin with birth and does not end with death. Millions of times you have been born and died; they are all small episodes In the eternal pilgrimage. But because you are unconscious you cannot see that which is beyond birth and death.

As you become more conscious, you can see your original face. He saw his original face yesterday. He heard the one hand clapping, he heard the soundless sound. Hence it is not a death: it is attaining life eternal. On the other hand it can be called a total death -- total death in the sense that he will not be coming any more.

Rejoice!

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, WHEN HEARING THE STORY OVER DINNER OF DADU AND TWO OF

HIS DISCIPLES, RAJJAB AND SUNDERO. I WAS BAFFLED BY HOW DEEPLY

AFFECTED THEY BOTH WERE BY THE DEATH OF THEIR MASTER. ONE, RAJJAB, NEVER OPENED HIS EYES AGAIN, AND THE OTHER, SUNDERO, DIED IN THE SAME BED AS HIS MASTER, DADU. HOW CAN AN

ENLIGHTENED PERSON BE SO AFFECTED BY THE DEATH OF HIS MASTER

OR BELOVED ONE?

Ambubhai Diwanji,

IT IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STORIES. There is no parallel to it in the whole history of religion, but it has to be understood. You have misunderstood it totally; it is very easy to misunderstand it. Apparently, what you have understood is what is understood by people who read the story.

The question arises: why are two enlightened persons so much affected by the death of their Master? They are not affected at all! It is not happening out of misery; it is a totally different dimension.

Rajjab never opened his eyes again. He was asked once why he had closed his eyes. He said, "Because I have seen the most beautiful thing in the world -- now there is nothing else to see!"

Dadu was the most beautiful flower. Now what is the point of keeping your eyes open?

for what? If you have the Kohinoor with you, you will not go on collecting pebbles on the seashore -- or will you? Rajjab is not affected. It is not out of sadness that he closes his eyes; there is not a single tear in his eyes. He is not weeping, he is not crying.

With closed eyes he continued to dance and sing the songs of Dadu. But he said, "Once you have seen God in human form, then there is nothing else worth seeing. I would like the impact of my Master on my eyes to be the last and the most penetrating. I would not like it to be covered by dust."

Ambubhai, then the whole story takes a totally different turn. It is tremendous love. It is not an attachment to the Master's body, it is great understanding.

Once you have seen a Master...and Rajjab lived very very close to Dadu. The day he became an initiate he was very small, just seven years old. He had come with his parents to participate in a religious festival; he was not even aware of Dadu. Dadu was also there at the festival. The parents had gone to pay their formal respects, because it was known in the country that Dadu was enlightened. They didn't believe, but this country is very traditional and formal: if people hear that somebody is enlightened, whether they believe or not they at least go and touch his feet. Maybe he is, then why miss the opportunity? If he is not, you are not losing anything by touching his feet. This is cunningness, businesslike!

The parents had gone; Rajjab followed the parents. The parents touched his feet, but Rajjab was transformed. The moment he saw Dadu he recognized something from his past lives. This man was not new, this quality was not new. He had known him before.

That almost always happens if you have lived with a Master before -- immediately a recognition!

He fell at his feet. The parents tried to persuade him to come back with them. He said, "I have found my real parents. Now you can go." He touched the feet of his parents and said, "Just as you have touched the feet of Dadu formally, I touch your feet and say good-bye." A seven-year-old child! Must have had a maturity of many lives behind him.

The parents cried and wept, but Rajjab said, "It is impossible! I have found the man -- I cannot leave him even for a single moment!"

And from that time, for twenty years, he was in the service of the Master; looking after his needs, sleeping in the same room, continuously on guard for what he needed.

And the day Dadu died Rajjab simply closed his eyes. It was closing eyes to the world.

He was saying, Now there is nothing more to see. I have seen that which is really worth seeing. Now why waste your eyes and why collect dust? Once you have mirrored God then there is nothing else -- you have seen the ultimate."

It was not out of attachment, Ambubhai, that Rajjab closed his eyes; it was out of great understanding. And he was not unhappy. He danced, he sang songs, as long as he lived --

but with closed eyes, so that he could still see the Master inside. Twenty years'

continuous communion with the Master...the Master had almost become a part of his soul! By closing his eyes he was still keeping company with the Master. Don't misunderstand him.

Rajjab is one of the most beautiful disciples ever.

And what happened to Sundero, another disciple? When Dadu died he laid himself down on the same bed and remained on the same bed; he never left the bed again. The Master had slept on it his whole life: it was full of his vibe, it was full of his presence, it was soaked with him. He would not leave the bed. "Why?" people would ask him.

And Sundero would say, "There is nowhere to go. I have arrived -- this is my home. This is my MOKSHA, this is my heaven. And I would like to LIVE in this beautiful space that the Master has created in this bed, and I would like to die here."

It is becoming so attuned with the Master that you don't feel your life and your death as separate from him; that is the meaning of it.

Sundero was so attuned with the Master's life that it used to happen sometimes that he would speak in Dadu's name. And he was told by people, "You are not Dadu!"

Then he would say, "Yes, forgive me. I forget! But if you ask in reality, then I am Dadu -

- I have become one with my Master."

That is the ultimate state of disciplehood: when the disciple becomes one with the Master. He used to say that he was Dadu. He has written songs in which his name is not given but Dadu's name -- and people think that is not good. And the scholars go on discarding all that has been written by Sundero; they think that is not from Dadu.

But I say to you: it IS from Dadu! Sundero has become just a hollow bamboo on the lips of Dadu. Sundero exists no more as a separate entity. That is the ultimate goal of a disciple: when the disciple and Master meet and merge and become one. Sundero has become one with the Master, hence he has every right to sign 'Dadu'. He signs his poems as Dadu, not as Sundero -- and I TOTALLY agree with him! And I would like the scholars to be a little more sensitive.

These things are not for scholarship, these things are not for learned people. These things are for lovers! Only lovers can understand these things. Such a beautiful phenomenon: that a disciple cannot sign his name, he has forgotten.

Sometimes people would come to invite Dadu and Sundero would say, "Yes, I will come."

And they would say, "But we have not come to invite you, we have come to invite Dadu!"

Sundero would say, "But who am I? Why give trouble to the old man? I can come -- I am his younger form. I can travel long distances more easily -- why create trouble for him?"

And Dadu sometimes used to send Sundero. People would invite Dadu and he would send Sundero. And people were very much puzzled: "We have invited the Master, not the disciple." But they were not able to understand that the Master and the disciple, at the ultimate peak of their love affair, disappear into each other.

Hence, the day Dadu died, Sundero did not say a single word about his death, did not go to the funeral at all. Everybody left for the funeral. Thousands of disciples had gathered, and they were crying and weeping and they were in great misery. And what did Sundero do? He entered into the bed of the Master, covered himself with his blanket -- became Dadu. When people came back they thought, "This is sacrilegious!" They told Sundero,

"This is not right -- you are going mad! Have you gone crazy or something? This is the Master's bed -- you get out!"

He said, "But I am no more. Sundero has died. Have you not gone to his funeral? You have gone, you have burnt him! I am Dadu. Now Dadu will function through me."

That's why, Ambujibhai, he never left the bed, not even for a single moment. He lived on the bed, he died on the same bed -- because he had become the Master.

I call this game the mad game! By 'mad' I mean: M represents Master and D represents disciple -- 'Master-And-Disciple Game' -- it is a MAD game! Unless you also become mad you will not understand it.

And Ambujibhai, I am happy to see that some madness is entering into you. You are on the way. You will not be out of this Buddhafield for long. I can see you approaching closer and closer. Sooner or later the color orange is going to be your color too -- and I hope that before you leave the body this happens.

Become Rajjab, become Sundero! Don't think about them -- these people are not to be contemplated upon. These people are to be lived! It is only by living that one can understand such tremendous phenomena.

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, IF YOU WERE IN A DESERT INSTEAD OF BEING HERE, WOULD YOU

FEEL THE SAME?

Anand Dasi,

I AM IN THE DESERT! Where do you think I am?

This is the desert! To live with unconscious people is to live in a desert. To live with people who are not blooming, flowering, is to live in a desert. It is a human desert -- far more empty than any desert can ever be.

To become enlightened amongst unenlightened people is to live in a desert. That is the fate of all the Buddhas. I say one thing, you understand something; else. Constant misinterpretation is bound to happen, because I talk from a totally different plane. I talk out of a fullness and you receive only through the mind. You receive only the words --

and words cannot convey my message.

My message can be conveyed to you only if you really become committed, involved, in the energy field that I am creating, if you really become a plant in my garden, if you allow me to destroy your ego -- because that is how growth begins. The death of the ego is the beginning of growth. Just as the seed has to die in the soil, the ego has to die in the Master. Once your ego is completely gone, you are a beautiful tree, with much foliage, greenery, flowers, fragrance.

My effort is to make this desert a garden. And there is every possibility of succeeding, because people ARE getting ready. Hesitating, which is natural; waiting, thinking, which is natural. But you cannot be here long thinking and waiting; sooner or later the quantum leap.... You cannot go on misunderstanding me for ever.

If you just remain here, even if you misunderstand my words, I am working on you -- not through the mind; I am playing on the instrument of your heart. Words are just to keep you engaged so that I can enter into your heart.

Yes, the work of a Master is like a thief.

There is a Zen story; Zen Masters have loved it tremendously. When you come across it for the first time you will feel puzzled about the story -- it is about a master thief.

A man was known as a master thief in Japan; he was well-known, famous, all over the country. And, of course, he was a master thief so nobody had ever been able to catch hold of him. He was never caught red-handed -- although everybody knew that he was the one who had stolen -- even from the treasury of the king he had been stealing. And he was always leaving marks of his so everybody would know who had been there.

In fact, it had become the fashion to BRAG about it, if the master thief had thought you worthy to steal something from. It became an aristocratic bragging! People would brag, saying, "Last night the master thief has been to our house."

But the man was getting older, and one day his young son said to him, "Now you are getting older, teach me your art!"

The father said, "Then come with me tonight -- because this is not something that can be taught. You can only imbibe the spirit of me; if you are intelligent enough you can catch it. I cannot TEACH it to you, but you can catch it. I cannot give it to you, but you can get it. We will see. You come tonight with me."

Naturally the son was afraid -- the first time! The wall was broken, they went into the palace. Even in his old age the father's hands were like a surgeon's, unwavering, unshaking, although he was becoming very old -- with no fear, as if he was working in his own home, breaking the wall. He did not even look here and there he was so certain of his art. And the young man was trembling -- it was a cold winter night and he was perspiring! But the father was doing everything silently.

Then the father entered into the house. The son followed, his knees trembling, and he was feeling he might fall any moment. He was losing all consciousness because the fear was such...if they were caught, then?

The father was moving in the dark house as if it was his house and he knew everything about the house, and even in the dark he could move without stumbling against the furniture, against the doors. Making no noise at all, noiselessly, he reached into the innermost chamber of the palace. He opened a cupboard and told the son to go in and find whatsoever was valuable. The son entered it. The father locked the door, shouted, "A thief! A thief! Wake up!" and escaped through the hole that they had dug in the wall.

Now this was too much! The son could not under-stand it. Now he is locked in the cupboard, trembling, perspiring, and the whole house is awake, people are searching for the thief. "What kind of father is this? He has murdered me!" he thought. "And what kind of teaching is this?" This is the last thing he would have ever imagined: he has created a living nightmare for him! Now he is certain to be caught! And he has locked the door from the outside; he cannot even open the door and escape.

After one hour he reached home -- the son -- and the father was fast asleep and snoring!

He threw aside his blanket and said, "What kind of nonsense is this?!"

The father said, "So you are back! No need to tell the whole story -- you also go to sleep.

Now you know the art, we need not discuss it."

But the son said, "I have to tell you the whole story, what happened."

The father said, "If you want to tell it you can, otherwise I don't require it. Just that you have come is enough proof! Now from tomorrow night you start on your own. You have got the intelligence, the awareness that a thief needs. I am immensely happy with you!"

But the son was so overflowing, he wanted to relate the whole thing -- he had done such a great job. He said, "Just listen, otherwise I will not be able to sleep at all. I am so excited!

You almost killed me!"

The father said, "It is hard, but that's how a master has to act many times. Tell me the whole story. What happened?"

He said, "Out of nowhere -- not from my intellect, certainly not from my mind -- this has happened."

The father said, "This is the key to all mastery in all the fields of life, whether you are a thief or a meditator, whether you are a lover or a scientist or a painter or a poet, it doesn't matter. Whatsoever the field, this is the master key -- that nothing happens from the head, everything happens from somewhere below. Call it intuition, call it no-mind, call it meditation -- these are names, different names for the same thing. It has started functioning, I can see it on your face; I can see the aura around you. You are going to become a master thief! And remember through being a master thief I have attained to meditation. So remember: this is the way for you to attain meditation."

The son said, "When I was standing inside that damned cupboard and people were searching for the thief, a woman servant came with a candle in her hand; I could see from the keyhole. Something from nowhere...I started making noises as if I was a cat -- and I have never done it before! The woman servant, thinking that there was a cat in the cupboard, unlocked it. As she unlocked it -- I don't know how I did it and who did it -- it happened! I blew the candle out, pushed the woman away, and ran! People followed me -

- the whole house was awake, the neighborhood was awake. And they were coming closer and closer and I was on the verge of being caught.

Then suddenly I came across a well. I saw a rock just by the side of the well -- I don't believe that I have that much strength to pick that rock up now, but it happened."

When you are in such situations your whole energy becomes available to you. You don't live only on the superficial level. When life is at stake, your whole energy becomes available.

"I moved the rock, picked up the rock -- I cannot believe that I could even shake it now! -

- and threw it in the well, then ran away. The noise, the sound of the rock falling in the well...and all the people who were following me stopped following me. They surrounded the well; they thought I had jumped into the well. That's how I am back home."

The father said, "Now you can go to sleep. I am finished! Never ask me anything again.

Now you start on your own.

The work of a Master is a difficult work. He has to shout from the peaks, and you are crawling in the dark valleys of life. You are living in your graves, and he has to shout from eternal life. Misunderstanding is natural; because of that misunderstanding every Buddha lives in a desert.

A couple were applying for a marriage license.

"Your name?"

"Ole Olson."

"And yours?"

"Lena Olson."

"Any connection?"

The bride blushed. "Only once. He jumped me."

"Any connection?" and the woman's mind immediately interprets it in her own way, the only way she can.

Monsieur Foucard was visiting London for the first time. While walking about he felt nature calling and looked around for a public latrine like those in Paris. He could not find one and, in desperation, stepped into a dark building entrance. Immediately a bobby tapped him from behind, "You can't do that here, you know!"

Later he tried to go behind a tree, but another bobby stopped him. In a few minutes he was, again prevented by a policeman. Finally he noticed a shingle: "Dr. Dingley, Urologist". Dashing into the office, Foucard said, "Doctor, I cannot -- how you say? --

relieve myself."

The doctor handed him a bottle and told him to step behind the screen. In a few seconds the Frenchman cried, "Doctor, another container, s'il vous plait!"

The doctor handed him one, and in a few minutes had to repeat the process. When the now happy Frenchman stepped out, the doctor asked, "My good man, who told you that you could not relieve yourself?"

"Ze entire London Police Department!"

It is natural. I speak from one world, you listen from a different world. Between me and you there is a great desert. If you allow, it can become a garden -- but only if you allow; it cannot be imposed on you. You cannot be forced; great things never happen through enforcement. You cannot be regimented, you cannot be ordered, commanded. All commandments have failed. Religion has, not succeeded because the priests have been ordering people: "Do this, don't do that."

I cannot say to you: "Do this, don't do that." I can only relate my understanding to you. I can open my heart. I can go on playing on my flute. If you become enchanted by it -- yes

'enchanted' is the word -- if you become allured by it, if you become completely oblivious of yourself, your past, your mind, your ideas, your prejudices, your upbringing, if my presence can help you to unburden, your seed will fall in the soil.

The soil is ready, the spring has come. Now it is up to you -- it is ALL up to you! A little courage, and the desert can be transformed into a garden.

The fourth question

Question 4

OSHO, YOU SAID TODAY THAT THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A 'GROUP SOUL', BUT I HAVE BEEN STRONGLY FEELING SOMETHING LIKE THAT IN THE

COMMUNE. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT THIS FEELING OF A COLLECTIVE SOUL

IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE INTENSE AND ATTUNED DAY BY DAY. IT

IS SOMETHING NEW FOR ME, AND VERY BEAUTIFUL, AND ACTUALLY L

EXPERIENCE IT AS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING THAT IS HAPPENING FOR

ME HERE. I KNOW THAT EACH OF US HAS TO AWAKEN ALONE, BUT I FEEL

THAT THIS 'COLLECTIVE SOUL' IS A TREMENDOUS HELP, AT LEAST FOR US

NOT TO CREATE OTHER DREAMS.... AM I DREAMING NOW OF A

'COLLECTIVE SOUL'?

Sarjano,

NO, IT IS A FACT, you just don t know the right word for it. 'Collective soul' is not the right term; it is very misleading. Soul can only be individual. Then what is happening here in this commune? Anybody who enters the ashram for the first time immediately becomes aware of something. He can see it on people's faces, he can see it in their walk, he can see it in the way they are working. He can see that it is no ordinary humanity.

Some grace he can feel, some joy permeating the whole place, some playfulness, some sense of humor. And people are working seven days a week. Nobody is looking at the clock...except the Indians!

People are enjoying the work: it is play, it is creativity. They are not tired. In fact, the deeper they go into this creativity, the more nourished they feel he more energy is released in them.

Anybody can see that something is there like an inner connection that connects all the sannyasins into one whole. It is not a collective soul, it is only falling into the same rhythm. I have a rhythm. The closer you come to me, the more you start falling into the same rhythm. Then my breath and your breath synchronize, then my heart and your heart synchronize.

And all the sannyasins are getting synchronized with me; hence they are also synchronized, as a consequence, with each other. It is a synchronicity. It is an orchestra.

We are all playing different instruments, but in harmony, in accord.

That harmony, Sarjano, you are calling the 'collective soul'. It is not a collective soul. An army has a collective mind, no soul at all, because soul can never be collective. Soul is always individual. It is found in your deepest aloneness; there is no other way to find it.

But n a commune...this is the chemistry of a commune, that it helps you to become harmonious with others. And the more harmonious you are with others, the closer you come to your own soul, because harmony brings you closer to the soul. When a person is absolutely in harmony with the universe he becomes enlightened.

A paradox to be remembered: the Buddha is one who is absolutely in harmony with the universe, and yet a Buddha is one who is an absolutely unique individual. He plays his flute or his guitar, but he plays his flute or guitar in absolute accord with the whole. He does not go in his own egoistic way -- he is not an idiot.

Remember: either you are a Buddha or you are an idiot! The word 'idiot' is beautiful; it simply means: doing something privately. Literally it means doing something privately; hence the words like 'idiosyncrasy'. The idiot does not mean a fool; the idiot is far more potent a word than the fool. The idiot simply means one who is trying to live through his ego, who is playing his instrument AGAINST the whole and trying to succeed. He is an idiot: he is going to fail, he is doomed to fail. His life will never know any blessing, any benediction.

Sarjano, your feeling is right, you are just using a wrong word. Yes, a harmony IS being created. I am in tune with the universe. You don't know what the tune of the universe is; it is invisible. Right now you cannot connect yourself with the universal rhythm directly.

But am in tune with the universe -- call it God, nirvana, enlightenment -- I am utterly lost in it. I have no song of my own to sing; I am singing the song of the universe. YOU can fall in tune with me.

That is how you become a disciple: when you find somebody with whom falling in love brings joy. Falling in love is falling in tune with somebody.

Your ordinary love affairs are ugly, because you are both in discord. Your love affair is superficial. Because you like the blonde hair of a girl, or the shape of the nose, or the color of the eyes, or the curves of the body...and you fall in love. Now curves of the body, color of the eyes, the blonde hair, are not going to last long. Sooner or later you will be fed up with them -- the same curve, the same eyes, the same nose -- sooner or later you will stop seeing them. This is not love! Hence conflict arises immediately. All so-called love affairs are nothing but conflicts disguised -- jealousies, possessiveness, domination, ego trips.

But when you fall in love with a Master it is a totally different phenomenon. You feel the rhythm of the Master; and slowly slowly your heart feels the call and you enter into an adventure. Slowly slowly, more and more people enter into that adventure...a commune is created.

First the Buddha: BUDDHAM SHARNAM GACHCHHAMI -- I go to the feet of the Buddha. Then the disciples arise, those who have gone to the feet of the Buddha: SANGHAM SHARNAM GACHCHHAMI. Then many many disciples gather, and they start feeling attuned not only with the Buddha but a certain attunement with each other also arises naturally: they are all attuned to one center, hence they start feeling an attunement with each other. A brotherhood, a sisterhood, arises; that is the SANGHA --

the commune.

And when you have fallen in love with a Buddha and have fallen in love with a commune, the ultimate surrender arises: DHAMMAM SHARNAM GACHCHHAMI.

Then you know that it is neither the Buddha nor the commune: behind the Buddha is the universal law, the ultimate law -- DHAMMA. Buddha only represents the ultimate law in a visible form; his commune represents it in an even grosser way.

These are the three shelters. First you take shelter in the Buddha, then you take shelter in the commune, and then you take shelter in the ultimate law. This is what is happening here.

Sarjano, you are moving in the right direction; your feeling is perfectly right. Intuitively you are right, just intellectually you are using a wrong word. Drop that word!

The fifth question

Question 5

OSHO, I NEVER WANT WHAT I GET; I REJECT IT. I ALWAYS WANT WHAT IS

NOT GIVEN TO ME; THIS I TRY TO GET. I NEVER FEEL SATISFIED WITH

WHAT I HAVE, I ALWAYS WANT SOMETHING ELSE. AND I NEVER SAY

WHAT I REALLY WANT. L SUFFER MUCH FROM THIS BUT, IT SEEMS, NOT

ENOUGH AS I STILL CLING TO IT. CAN YOU PLEASE SAY SOMETHING

ABOUT THIS?

Mandiro,

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD IS MADE. The world is a great device of God. Just as Masters create small devices for the disciples, God creates the ultimate device for all beings. The world is a device.

It was Christmas time and a professor, a professor of philosophy and logic, went to a toyshop with his wife to purchase something beautiful, a new toy, for their only child as a Christmas gift. They tried many toys but they were all old, a little bit modified here and there. The shopkeeper, seeing that they were not satisfied, went inside the store and brought out an absolutely new toy they had never seen before. It was a jigsaw puzzle.

He said, "This is the latest and the best -- you MUST like it."

They tried to fit the jigsaw puzzle together. First the wife tried -- ladies first. She failed, she could not figure it out. The husband laughed -- the male chauvinist laughter! -- and he said, "Wait! I will do it." And he was a logician, a professor of philosophy; if he cannot do it, then who will be able to do it? He tried hard. First he was very much inspired and finally he was simply perspiring -- the whole inspiration became perspiration! He was drenched in perspiration. And a crowd had gathered, and there was no way to figure it out. The puzzle remained a puzzle, became more and more puzzling.

Finally he asked the shopowner, "What kind of jigsaw puzzle is this? If I cannot do it -- I am the Head of the Department of Logic in the University, mathematics is my hobby -- if I cannot do it, then how do you hope that a five-year-old child will be able to do it?"

The shopkeeper said, "Who told you that anybody can do it? This toy represents the world. It is made in such a way that it cannot be fixed. This is just a lesson for the child about how the world is!"

Do whatsoever you like -- EVERYTHING fails. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. But it takes millions of lives for people to arrive at this point, because in one life you cannot try all there is. You try a few things; they fail, but the hope remains: maybe you have not tried the right things.

You earn money, you become the richest man in the world -- you become an Andrew Carnegie. And at the peak, when you have become the richest man in the world, suddenly you see your whole life has been a wastage. Money is there, but there is no contentment inside -- and life has gone down the drain.

You can see the misery of an Andrew Carnegie. When he was dying, somebody who was writing a biography said to him, "You must be the most contented man in the world."

He said, "Contented? I am the MOST discontented man in the world! Don't you know I am the wealthiest man in the world? That is my discontent. Now I know there is no more to wealth: all that is possible I have attained, and yet I am dying empty. My life has been just a wastage. Next time, if God gives me another opportunity, I am not going to try money any more -- it has failed."

But the hope is there -- he will try politics...?

Those who attain to political power, they fail. But then they think maybe it is knowledge:

"We should try knowledge." And so on and so forth....

Mandiro, remember: the world is made as a device by God. EVERYTHING here is bound to fail. You can hope and you try, but nothing is going to succeed. The day you understand that nothing is going to succeed is the day of great transformation. That is the day sannyas is born.

In Detroit, brothels are now automatized. One puts twenty dollars in a slot and a door opens.

A politician decides to have a go. He puts in the twenty bucks and the door opens. He finds himself in a corridor with two doors: one reads "Blonde", the other reads

"Brunette". He chooses the door with "Blonde" written on it. He then finds himself in another corridor with two doors: one reads "Tall" and the other reads "Small". He opens the door with "Tall" written on it and finds himself in another corridor with two doors: one reads "Big Tits", the other reads "Small Tits" Immediately he chooses the door with

"Big Tits" on it, and finds himself in another corridor with two doors, the one reading

"Small Ass", the other "Large Ass". He rushes through the door with "Small Ass" written on it, and again finds himself in a corridor with two doors, one with "Real Screw" on it, the other "Fancy Fuck". He throws himself on the door with "Real Screw" on it...and finds himself in the street on the other side of the same building!

But you can try other ways. You will ALWAYS find that you end up in the street on the other side of the building!

The whole of life is like that...otherwise there would have been no reason for sannyas.

There would have been no reason for religion to exist at all. Religion exists only because the world fails. It is the failure of the world that brings you to a new awareness: that if the cherished goal cannot be found in the world, then let us try it inwards.

Mandiro, THERE you have not tried yet. Move inwards! Contentment is a quality of your center; it is not found on the circumference. Fulfillment is when you have arrived at your real, authentic being; it is not found in the ego.

The sixth question

Question 6

OSHO, WHEN WE DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU RIGHTLY, HOW DO YOU FEEL?

Virendra,

I SIMPLY FEEL THAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME -- and that is that! It is not a question of feeling anything else. I say, "Two plus two is four," and you don't understand

-- so I understand that you don't understand. I try again next day. I go on hammering,

"Two plus two is four." If you understand, good; if you don't understand, good. It is not a question of FEELING. I don't feel hurt, I don't feel frustrated, because from the very beginning I am not EXPECTING you to understand.

Frustration comes through expectation. If I am expecting that you are going to understand, then, of course, when you don't understand there will be frustration, deep frustration. If I am hoping that you are going to behave in this way and you don't, then certainly I will feel hurt. You have disobeyed, you have not proved worthy enough, you have not risen to the occasion. But I have no expectation at all, of anybody.

So whatsoever you do, I go on giggling and seeing it all. If you misunderstand then I say,

"Old man, try again!" What ELSE can be done? And this is not a new situation; this has been always so and this is going to be always so.

In fact, to expect that people should understand you is a subtle desire to dominate them.

Why? If they don't want to understand you it is perfectly okay. It is their life! They don't want to go in a certain way -- it is their choice and they are free.

Hence I never give detailed information about how you should live -- although YOU go on asking me: what you should eat, when you should go to bed, when should you get up in the morning.... You go on asking about these stupid details. And these stupid details have been given by your great -- so-called great -- saints down the ages. I don't give you one single detail.

I simply give you my insight, I SHARE my insight. I open up my heart before you. If you can partake of anything, I am obliged, I am thankful that in some way my love, my understanding, helped you to become more loving, more understanding. But misunderstanding is accepted.

Krishnamurti gets very angry -- sometimes even hits his head -- when he sees that people are not understanding him. Why be so worried about it? He is taking things too seriously, he is not playful. You can ask me the same question a thousand and one times; am not going to be angry. Each time you ask the question I am happily ready to share whatsoever is possible.

Why is Krishnamurti so serious? He was brought up by wrong people: the theosophists.

They are very serious people. They had made a. very mysterious philosophy out of all the religions of the world, a kind of synthesis. It is not a synthesis, it is just hocus-pocus, fragments from one place and a few fragments from another place. They were very serious people, and they wanted Krishnamurti to become the 'World Teacher'.

Now, how can you become the 'World Teacher'? There has never been a world teacher and there will never be. Unless the world decides to be your disciple, how can you be a world teacher?

In India there are many. All the shankaracharyas are called JAGATGURU -- world teachers. I know one shankaracharya who has only one disciple! I asked, "What kind of world teacherhood is this?"

He looked a little embarrassed. I told him, "Don't feel so embarrassed. I will suggest a way out to you."

In Hindi, JAGATGURU means world teacher. JAGAT means the world, GURU means teacher.

I told him, "You do one thing -- you start calling your disciple Jagat -- and then you become JAGATGURU! Don't feel so embarrassed; there is always a way. One can wriggle out of laws and words and.... Call him Jagat, and you are the guru, certainly!"

Theosophists wanted Krishnamurti to be a JAGATGURU -- a world teacher. And they tried hard. They could not make him do it, because he was a really intelligent person. If he had been just a little less intelligent he would have become a JAGATGURU, a world teacher. But he wriggled his way out. But even though he has come out of their grip, the scars are left. The seriousness is still there; he is not playful, he has no sense of humor.

I am not serious! What I am saying to you is said out of playfulness. It is more a gossiping than a gospel!

Watson, a Clevelander in Paris, was unable to find a bordello, so he asked a gendarme to give him directions. The policeman did not understand English very well. Watson tried pidgin English and pointing. "Me," he said, pointing to his chest.

"Ah! You wish to eat?" said the gendarme.

"No, no!" said Watson. He tried again, taking out a twenty-dollar bill.

"Ah! You wish to gamble?"

"No, no, no!" shouted the American in disgust, and he unzipped and zipped himself.

"Ah, oui, oui!" said the gendarme.

"Wee-wee, my ass! Where the hell is the nearest whorehouse?"

I am talking a different language, you understand a different-language -- but there is no need to make much fuss about it. It is natural.

A hippie was walking along the road when he saw a big rock by the side of the road, wobbling. Being a strong hippie, he picked up the rock to see what was underneath. To his surprise, out jumped a leprechaun! "To be sure, I am grateful to ye, lad!" he cried.

"And in return for your kindness I will grant you three magic wishes."

"Far out!" drawled the hippie. "Hey man, well, I wanna be uptight, outa sight and in the groove, baby!"

"Okay!" said the leprechaun, and turned him into a Tampax.

There is no problem when you misunderstand me or don't understand me -- there is no problem. I simply enjoy, whether you understand or misunderstand. My enjoyment remains undisturbed.

And I am not a messiah, and I am not a missionary. And I am not here to establish a church or to give a doctrine to the world, a new religion, no. My effort is totally different: a new consciousness not a new religion, a new consciousness not a new doctrine. Enough of doctrines and enough of religions! Man needs a new consciousness.

And the only way to bring consciousness is to go on hammering from all the sides so that slowly slowly chunks of your mind go on dropping. The statue of a Buddha is hidden in you. Right now you are a rock. If I go on hammering, cutting chunks out of you, slowly slowly the Buddha will emerge. It takes time....

And there is no hurry either. I am not in a hurry, because the problem with hurry is: the more you are in a hurry, the more the whole thing is delayed. And if you are not in a hurry at all, things start happening sooner. I can wait for ever, I can wait infinitely. But the miracle is: if you can wait infinitely, things can happen instantly.

RIGHT NOW the Buddha can pop up in your consciousness; suddenly a bud can open and become a flower. And one never knows when it is going to happen so one has to simply go on working. And the work should never be thought of as work but as worship.

Working with you I am worshipping you. Talking to you I am loving you -- not giving you a doctrine but my heart. Handle it with care.

Be Still and Know

Chapter #10

Chapter title: Me, Enlightened?

10 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Archive

code:

7909100

ShortTitle:

BESTIL10

Audio:

Yes

Video:

Yes

Length:

0

mins

The first question

Question 1

OSHO, TODAY WHEN YOU TALKED ABOUT YOUR FATHER, FOR THE FIRST

TIME IT BECAME VERY CLEAR AND CLOSE FOR ME THAT EVERYBODY, I ALSO, CAN BECOME ENLIGHTENED. ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE SAID SO MANY

TIMES THAT WE ARE ALL BUDDHAS IN THE CENTER, I ALWAYS FELT IT

VERY VERY FAR AWAY. SUDDENLY ALL YOUR TEACHING FROM THE LAST

TWO AND A HALF YEARS BECAME IMMEDIATE, MAYBE BECAUSE YOUR

FATHER WAS KIND OF CLOSE FOR ME. I SAW HIM IN HIS HOUSE EATING A CHAPATI, SAW HIM TAKING HIS MORNING WALK THROUGH THE ASHRAM -

- AND HE BECAME ENLIGHTENED! TOO MUCH! I WANT TO TELL YOU THAT

I HAD A GREAT REALIZATION IN LECTURE.

Deva Kanchha,

GREAT TRUTHS TAKE TIME TO SINK IN. And this is the greatest of all, that you all are potentially Buddhas. It is impossible for your mind to accept it. You can accept somebody far away, a Siddhartha Gautam, being a Buddha, a Jesus Christ, a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu. They are so far away, millions of light years away; they have become mythological. They are no more thought to be real persons. They have lost all substance, they have become pure shadows -- pure poetry with no words, pure silence with no sound. You can imagine them, but you cannot feel them.

Hence, although I go on repeating again and again that you can become a Buddha...in fact you ARE a Buddha, unaware of the fact. On the circumference maybe there is a great storm, just as on the surface the sea is stormy -- sometimes more, sometimes less, but there are always waves, bigger or smaller; there is always turbulence, disturbance. But at the depth there is not even a ripple: all is silence.

You are the center of the cyclone, but you are not aware of your center. And down the ages priests have condemned you so much that it has become almost impossible for you to conceive of yourself as a Buddha. The priests have condemned you according to your circumference; they know only your circumference. In fact they are interested only in condemning you, so whatsoever they can condemn they see very predominantly in you.

They choose that which can be condemned, because through condemnation you are reduced to slaves: slaves of religion -- Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Mohammedan, Jaina, Buddhist; and slaves of societies, cultures, civilizations, political ideologies --

communist, fascist, Gandhian.

The only way to reduce you to a slave is to condemn you so badly that you lose all self-respect. And it can be done because your circumference is there, and you also are aware only of the circumference. You are fast asleep snoring at the center. Only at the circumference are you a little bit awake, and that too because of the disturbance, noise.

In the marketplace you are a little bit more alert. When you sit silently in your meditation room you start falling asleep, because the only kind of alertness that you know is that which is created by the noise around you. You know only one kind of awareness, which is pathological because it is out of disturbance, not out of stillness.

That's why it is one of the basic experiences of all meditators that the moment they start meditating they start falling asleep. Hence the Zen Master has to walk amongst his disciples with a stick in his hand: whenever he sees somebody asleep, he hits him immediately. The hit you can understand, because it is on the circumference. Suddenly the energy rushes upwards in your spine, and you are awake, alert. The Zen tradition says that when the Master hits you, bow down to him in deep respect. He has obliged you; he has taken great trouble to hit you.

You know only one kind of alertness -- when you are hit, when you are in some danger, when you are in some accident. It is because of this that people go mountain climbing, because when they are climbing mountains and the danger is great they become a little alert. It is because of this that people compete in car races, because the speedier the car goes, the more danger is close by: death can happen any moment, you HAVE to become alert.

Danger has an attraction. The only attraction of danger is that you become a little alert, but this is a superficial kind of alertness. Real alertness has to happen at the center, otherwise you can remain alert on the circumference because of the noise, disturbance, but it is coming from others, it is not your own, and your center can go on sleeping.

I go on telling you this again and again. Why do r say it again and again? So that it can sink in and can reach your center. It takes time, and it takes a right moment.

My father's disappearance from the body may have been the right moment for you, Kanchha. Yes, he was a simple man, just like anybody else. So was Buddha and so was Mahavira and so was Jesus -- simple people, innocent people. He was not in any way extraordinary; that was his extraordinariness. I have known him from my very childhood

-- so simple, so innocent, anybody could deceive him.

He used to believe anybody. I have seen many people cheating him, but his trust was immense; he never distrusted human beings although he was cheated many times. It was so simple to see that people were cheating him that even when I was a small child I used to say to him, "What are you doing? This man is simply cheating you!"

Once he built a house and a contractor was cheating him. I told him, "This house is not going to stand, it will fall, because the cement is not in the right proportion and the wood that is being used is too heavy." But he wouldn't listen; he said, "He is a good man, he cannot cheat us."

And that's what actually happened; the house could not stand the first rains. He was not there, he was in Bombay. I sent him a telegram telling him, "What I have been telling you has happened: the house has fallen." He did not even answer. He came when he was supposed to come, after seven days, and he said, "Why did you unnecessarily waste money on the telegram? The house had fallen, so it had fallen! Now what can I do? That contractor wasted ten thousand rupees and you wasted almost ten rupees unnecessarily --

those could have been saved.

And the first thing that he did was to celebrate that we had not moved -- because we had been going to move within two or three weeks. He celebrated: "God is gracious, he saved us. He made the house fall before we had moved into it." So he invited the whole village.

Everybody was just unable to understand: "Is this a moment to celebrate?" Even the contractor was called invited, because he had done a good job: before we moved, the house fell.

He was a simple man. And if you look deep down, everybody is simple. The society makes you complex, but you are born simple and innocent. Everybody is born a Buddha; the society corrupts you.

And the function of a Master is to take away all the corruption that the society has worked on you. the function of the Master is to undo that the society has done to you, and you will be a Buddha again.

The child when he is born functions from the center; we teach him how to function from the circumference. That is our whole educational system all over the world: teaching the child how to function from the circumference. We pull him away from his center, we make him more and more accustomed to the circumference, to living on the circumference... twenty-five years of conditioning, education: good names we have given to ugly things. We call it education -- it is not education, nothing can be a greater mis-education.

The very word 'education' means drawing something out, to draw something out. When you draw water out of the well it is education. Just like that, when something is drawn outwards from your center it is education. But this is not what is going on in the name of education; it is forcing things upon you. It is not bringing your center to function. It is not sharpening your center; it is dulling it, making it more and more sleepy, dozy.

The society succeeds the day your center goes into a coma and your circumference remains functioning. Then you are a robot, a machine, no more a man.

Because we function from the circumference Buddhas look so unreal -- of course, because they function from a totally different center. That's why I say that unless you are in contact with a living Buddha, you will never believe that YOU can become a Buddha.

But a living Buddha also, slowly slowly, appears far away. It is because of your mind working; it is a strategy of the mind to save itself from going through that revolution. So you create a distance -- it is imaginary.

There is no distance between me and you, not at all. I am just a neighbor to you; not even a fence divides me from you. But you cannot believe it, because that is too dangerous for you, for your established pattern of life. You can't allow me too close; you will create a distance.

Pradeepa has asked a question: "Osho, when-ever you quote Lao Tzu as saying,

'Everybody is clear, only I am muddleheaded,' I love it, because I am also muddleheaded.

But there must be some difference between my muddleheadedness and Lao Tzu's."

There is none, Pradeepa. But you cannot believe it. Lao Tzu is exactly as muddleheaded as Pradeepa. Lao Tzu will agree with me, Pradeepa will not agree. There is the problem: how can Pradeepa agree that her muddleheadness...? Lao Tzu must be meaning something very mysterious, something of a totally different dimension.

No. Lao Tzu is simply saying there is no need to be a great genius to know God. God is available to all, unconditionally to all, categorically to all. You do not have to fulfill certain conditions, you do not have to rise to a certain level. God is available to you as you are, because God has BECOME you. There is nobody ELSE inside you. Just a look....

So it is beautiful in a commune, because when you live in a commune you live with people not knowing whether this man is going to become a Buddha; then one day suddenly the lotus opens: that man has become a Buddha. It gives you great courage. You know this man, he is just like you. You have been drinking tea with him, gossiping with him, reading the same newspaper, listening to the same radio, looking at the same TV, you have been to the same movie. You know him, inside and out; he was just like you. If HE can become a Buddha, then why not YOU? In fact, his becoming a Buddha becomes the greatest uplifting force in your life.

That is the beauty of a commune, because many many people with whom you were working will one day become Buddhas. Somebody was working under you ...for example, one day Deeksha finds that the man who has been washing the pots has become a Buddha! Then Deeksha can believe that "Although I am an Italian, and nobody has ever heard of any Italian becoming a Buddha, still I can become one."

Have you ever heard about any Italian...? At least have not heard of it. But it is going to happen here, because this commune is ninety percent Italian: you eat Italian food, you drink Italian water -- everybody is turning ninety percent Italian. My effort in creating a commune is simply to make you alert and aware that one day the cobbler of the ashram becomes enlightened, another day the guard becomes enlightened, and people go on blossoming. Each blossoming brings new courage, new inspiration, and in that courage and inspiration your spring comes closer to you. A great self-respect arises, and a trust:

"God has not forsaken us. If people like me are becoming Buddhas, then I am also on the way. Sooner or later...." And it is going to be sooner than later -- because if so many people start flowering, then the season has come and it is time not to resist. It is time not to fight any more, but to be in a let-go.

The second question

Question 2

OSHO, WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU MEAN BY SAYING "BE STILL AND KNOW"

AND ALSO "SEEK THE STRENGTH OF NO-DESIRE"?

BE STILL AND KNOW is one of the most fundamental sutras of the inner alchemy. But by being still is not meant that you have to force stillness upon yourself. A forced stillness is not true stillness. One can sit like a Buddha, almost like a statue, absolutely still, and yet deep down there may be great turmoil, a thousand and one thoughts rushing.

There may be great traffic in the mind. The body can be forced to sit silently for hours, and you can also learn tricks to still the mind.

For example, if you chant any mantra for hours, any name of God, if you simply go on chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah," it functions like a tranquilizer. Repetition of a single word or a single mantra creates a certain melody in your mind soothing, very soothing, very calming. And a kind of stillness will be felt which is not the true kind -- because the sound of a certain mantra is simply changing the chemistry of your mind. The change is not alchemical, it is chemical.

Sound is chemistry. Hence music can help you to become still. And, moreover, when a certain word OR A mantra Is repeated constantly, you become hypnotized by it. That's the secret of all hypnosis. You look at a flame, a candle flame, constantly -- what are you doing? You are repeating the flame through the eyes, again and again and again. It is a repetition, it is a mantra -- through the eyes. Or you can repeat a mantra inside yourself; that is through the ear, through the sound. Any sense can be used. Perfume, incense can be used; the same incense can hypnotize you.

Hypnosis means going into deep sleep, artificial sleep. That's exactly the meaning of the word 'hypnosis': a sleep deliberately created. It can be through a tranquilizer, it can be through a soothing silence, sound, music, perfume, incense -- there can be a thousand and one ways, but you will become hypnotized. And, hypnotized, you will feel a kind of stillness which is not true.

And also, if you repeat a certain mantra again and again, you will feel bored. Boredom also brings sleep. That's why doctors suggest to people who cannot sleep that they count sheep from one to a hundred, and then backwards from a hundred -- ninety-nine, ninety-eight, back to one -- and then go up the ladder again...go on coming up and down. How long can you do it? Somewhere after going three or four times up and down the ladder you will fall asleep. It is the most ancient formula for falling asleep: count sheep from one to a hundred and then come back -- because it is such a boring job that you lose all interest in it. And the moment you lose all interest in it, there is nowhere to escape except in sleep.

Mothers know it perfectly well. Hence the lullaby: the mother goes on repeating a single note again and again and the child falls asleep. And children have their own mantras: they can suck on their thumbs -- that is a mantra. The child goes on sucking on the thumb; it is very consoling, soothing. He believes that it is the breast of the mother, and he-falls asleep. Children invent their own methods -- the teddy bear, or just the corner of the blanket, and the child holds it; if you take the blanket away from him he cannot sleep.

Even grownups are not really grownups; they have their own ritual of going into sleep.

For example, if every day you clean your teeth before going to sleep, try it one day without cleaning the teeth and you will be surprised: you cannot fall asleep. Something is missing. You have created a mantra. You change the dress, a different dress than you use in the daytime...you go into a subtle ritual.

A few people who are religious, so-called religious, they will do some prayer. That too is a ritual. Grownups are not really grownups; they have grown in age, but not psychologically, not spiritually. The world is full of children of many ages: one year, two years, up to seventy, eighty, ninety -- all children.

I am not talking about their stillness. When I say "Be still and know" I mean a stillness that comes out of understanding, not out of any kind of hypnosis. And out of understanding the first thing that happens is: "Seek the strength of no-desire." The more you look into your life, you will find your life is in a mess because of desiring.

Why are you in such a storm continuously? It is because of the desire -- not only one desire but a thousand and one desires. And no desire can ever be fulfilled, no desire has ever been fulfilled. Desire as such is incapable of being fulfilled, intrinsically it is unfulfillable. Hence each desire creates turmoil, expectation, hope, then frustration, hopelessness. And you have a thousand and one desires surrounding you, and you go on supporting your own enemies.

When you look in, when you watch, you become aware that desire is the cause of your whole misery. Seeing it, desiring disappears -- JUST BY SEEING IT, desiring disappears. Seeing that desire never leads anywhere, but that you go on moving in circles and desire goes on goading you in the same repetitive patterns, seeing this -- not because I am saying it, but seeing it on your own -- desire disappears. And the disappearance of desire is the stillness, the real stillness, I am talking about.

It brings two things to you: great strength, because all the energy that was involved in a thousand and one desires is released. Now energy no more leaks from you; you don't have any holes for it to leak from. You become a reservoir of great energy. And the second thing: because now there is no noise of desires clashing, conflicting with each other, there is no civil war going on...what to do? to be or not to be? to do this or to do that? When there is no conflict, no desire, when all the storm is gone, the silence that follows the storm, that is the stillness I am talking about.

Be still and know.

And I am not saying that by being still you will be ready to know -- no. Just by being still you will know. Being still and knowing are the same phenomenon, because when you are still like a mirror, a still lake, no ripples, then the whole firmament, the whole sky, is reflected in the lake. The stars come down, and the moon, and the clouds -- all are reflected in tremendous beauty in the lake. When your consciousness becomes a still mirror, a still lake, a silent reservoir of energy, God is reflected in it.

You will not attain to knowledge, remember. You will become wise, you will become a Buddha. You will not become a great scholar, a great pundit, a great theologian or a philosopher. You will be a Buddha. You will have an innocent kind of knowing: you will know how to live, you will know how to die, you will know how to love -- you will know the real art of life. And the real art of life consists only of three things: how to live, how to love, how to die. And these things you will not know from scriptures; these things you will know from your innermost core.

I call this education. "Be still and know, seek the strength of no-desire." It is desire that is making you weak, it is no-desire that will make you strong. It is desire that is creating continuous storms in you, it is no-desire that will bring stillness -- and a stillness that comes on its own is authentic; it is not a kind of hypnosis. It is not through mantra, it is not through any device, it is not through any trick. You are not trying to pretend to be still: you are simply still. This will give you a new birth, you will be reborn.

Jesus says: "Unless you are born again, you shall not enter into my kingdom of God." I say the same to you -- but the rebirth is a state of no-desire, a state of no-mind, a state of total stillness.

The third question

Question 3

OSHO, I ALWAYS THINK OF COMMITTING SUICIDE, AND WONDER WHAT

YOU WOULD SAY ABOUT MY DEATH?

Prashant,

I AM REMINDED OF A BEAUTIFUL ANECDOTE:

The minister, who got himself a little mixed up now and again, was standing over the open casket of the dearly departed, Joe Hall.

"Our friend Joe Hall is not dead," he orated. "Only the shell is here to be buried; the nut has departed."

Why should you think of suicide? Are you a nut or something? If you have become a sannyasin you have already committed suicide. Sannyas is a suicide -- the real one. It is not destroying the body, because destroying the body is not going to help; you will be immediately born again somewhere in some other womb. It will only be renewing the body; it is not real suicide.

Sannyas is real suicide, because it destroys the mind, it takes you beyond the mind. And if you are beyond the mind you will not be born again. Why be born again and again?

Why go on in this vicious circle?

I know you are bored with life. If you are really bored, then meditation is the way, not suicide -- because suicide will bring you to the SAME life, maybe an uglier life than you have right now, because suicide will create its own ugliness in you. To commit suicide is such an ungrateful act towards God. He gives you life as an opportunity to grow, and you throw away the opportunity.

And unless you grow, unless you grow and become a Buddha, you will be thrown back into life again and again. Millions of times it has happened before: it is time now you should become aware. Don't miss this opportunity.

Being here with me, learn the real art of suicide. The real art consists not in destroying the body...the body is beautiful, the body has not done any wrong. It is the ugly mind.

The body is beautiful, the soul is beautiful, but between the body and the soul there is something which is neither body nor soul. This in-between phenomenon is the mind.

It is mind that goes on dragging you back into the womb. When you die, if you commit suicide you will be thinking of life. Committing suicide means you are thinking of life.

You are bored, fed up with life; you would like a totally different kind of life, that's why you are committing suicide -- not that you are really against life. THIS life you are against. Maybe you don't want to be the way you are: you would like to be an Alexander, a Napoleon, an Adolph Hitler; maybe you want to be the richest man in the world, and you are not. This life has failed, and you would like to be famous, successful -- destroy it!

People commit suicide not because they are really finished with life but because life is not fulfilling their demands. But no life ever fulfills anybody's demands. You will always go on missing something or other: if you have money, you may not be beautiful; if you are beautiful, you may not be intelligent; if you are intelligent, you may not have money.

Once a man stopped Andrew Carnegie, who had gone for a morning walk in the garden.

Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in America; the man who stopped him was looking like the very incarnation of a beggar. And the man said, "Please don't be deceived by my appearance. I am an author, I have also written a book."

Andrew Carnegie asked, "What kind of book have you written?" The man said, "I have written a book entitled ONE HUNDRED WAYS TO BECOME RICH."

Andrew Carnegie could not stop himself laughing. He said, "ONE HUNDRED WAYS

TO BECOME RICH? And you are a beggar! What kind of book is this?"

The beggar started laughing, and he said, "This is the hundredth way of becoming rich --

it is included in my book."

The beggar also thinks of becoming rich, writes books about how to become rich -- even thinks that by begging he will become rich. But Andrew Carnegie is not happy either; he was one of the most unhappy men ever born on the earth. He lived in unhappiness, he died in unhappiness. The day he died somebody asked, "You must be dying fully contented -- because you are leaving such a lot of money behind you. You are the richest man in the world."

Andrew Carnegie opened his eyes and said, very sadly said, "I am not fulfilled in my desires. My target was far higher -- I have not been able to reach it. I could accumulate only ten percent of my target."

But even if you achieve one hundred percent of your target, how is it going to help? One is going to remain unfulfilled. Each life you will find the same thing repeated; forms change, but the discontent remains.

People think that those who commit suicide are against life -- they are not. They are too lusty for life, they have great lust for life; and because life is not fulfilling their lust, in anger, in despair, they destroy themselves.

Prashant, I will teach you the right way to commit suicide. Not the destruction of the body; the body is a beautiful gift from God. The mind is not a gift from God; the mind is a conditioning by the society. The soul is a gift, the body is a gift, and sandwiched between the two, the society has played tricks with you: it has created your mind. It gives you ambition, it gives you jealousy, competition, violence, it gives you all kinds of ugly diseases. But this mind can be transcended, this mind can be put aside. This mind is not a must.

I am sitting before you and I say it through my own experience, I say it on my own authority: that mind can be put aside. It is so simple, you just have to know the knack of it.

And remember, whenever I say that I say it on my own authority I am not saying that I am saying it AUTHORITATIVELY. Those two expressions are totally different. When something is said AUTHORITATIVELY it is a commandment; you have to believe in it.

If you don't believe in it you will suffer, here or hereafter. The priest speaks with authoritativeness, the politician speaks with authoritativeness.

A realized man speaks not with authoritativeness but on his own authority -- because he KNOWS it. I am not saying follow me, I am not saying believe in me. I am simply stating a fact: that I have KNOWN it this way, it has happened to me...it can happen to you.

Life is very precious and the greatest treasure is hidden in it -- and that treasure is of becoming a witness.

A real story for you, Prashant:

One day in 1928 Bucky Fuller stood on the shore of Lake Michigan and planned to throw himself in. He was ready to give up because he was a failure financially, by the standards of the upper middle class which he had been born into.

As a construction engineer he had not succeeded. And because his daughter had just died of polio, the whole universe did not make any sense to him and he was ready to throw himself in. He stopped himself and said, "Wait, I can't be sure. Maybe there is something I can do in this universe that is important." He said, "Well, what can I do? Let us see what a man of average intelligence can do if he starts questioning everything that is taken for granted and starts looking for alternatives."

I don't know if he ever was a man of only average intelligence -- IN FACT NO ONE

EVER IS -- but by questioning everything he came to realize, as he said, that when you don't accept anything except that which can be experimentally verified, you are overwhelmed by the inherent integrity and rationality of the universe. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible, as Einstein said.

And that gives you faith in the sane, sound center of the universe we mentioned earlier.

As Ezra Pound wrote in the death-cells at Pisa, looking at the stars, out of all this beauty something must come."

Now Bucky Fuller is one of the most wise men in the West -- not yet a Buddha, but on the way, very close. And the art that has brought him so close to becoming a Buddha is the art of questioning everything that is accepted by the society: it is the art of becoming an inquirer.

Transform your life, Prashant, into a quest. Question the values that you have accepted.

Question all that you have been brought up to believe in. Question the way you have lived up to now. Question your mechanicalness, question your robotlike existence.

Yes, something drastic has to be done, but it is not suicide. It won't help, it won't change you; you will be back again in another womb somewhere. Millions of stupid couples are making love every moment. Beware! You will be caught in some net somewhere. And you will get only what you deserve, remember; you can't get more than you deserve. You get the womb that is right for you.

And dying in suicide is dying in such anguish, because it is one of the most unnatural things to do, most abnormal things to do. No animal commits suicide, no tree ever commits suicide -- only man. Only man can go that insane. Nature knows nothing of suicide; it is man's invention. It is the most ugly act. And when you do something ugly to yourself you cannot hope that you will get a better life. You will die in an ugly state of mind and you will enter an uglier womb.

But what is the need to commit suicide? Just question: you must have lived in a wrong way, that's why life has not become a song. You must have lived foolishly, stupidly, unintelligently; that's why life has not attained to celebration. You cannot dance with joy with the stars and with the flowers and with the wind and with the rain, because you have lived with wrong kinds of ideas imposed on you by the same kind of people as you are.

It is a perpetual phenomenon; stupidity goes on perpetuating itself. Parents go on giving stupidity to their children and the children in their turn will hand over their stupidity to THEIR children. This is the heritage. This is called tradition, heritage, culture... great names!

Question all that you have lived without questioning up to now, and your life will have a new intelligence arising in it. Your life will become more sharp Sheela has asked a question: "Osho, you say 'Drop the mind.' The more I drop the mind, the sharper and sharper my brain is becoming." She is puzzled There is no need to be puzzled: the brain is a totally different thing from the mind. The mind is given by the society, the brain is part of your body. The brain is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian; the mind is a Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian. The brain is simply a beautiful biocomputer. The more you drop the mind, the sharper your brain will be, the more intelligent. It is the mind that is creating your mediocrity.

Sheela, you need not be puzzled by it: this is how it is going to happen. The more and more people drop their minds, the more and more they will be able to function intelligently, because the brain will be unburdened. The brain will not be expected to carry unnecessary luggage.

Right now your brain is carrying so much rubbish! That it functions at all is a miracle.

Just look how much rubbish you are carrying: of being a Hindu, of being an Indian, of being a Japanese, of being a Buddhist, of being this, of being that, a fascist, a communist...religious ideologies, philosophical ideologies, political ideologies. They are heaped upon you, layer upon layer. Your brain has lost all its functioning. Once the mind is dropped, the brain will come to its total functioning.

And every being is born intelligent. It is society that creates unintelligence. No child is born unintelligent. Have you ever seen a bird which is unintelligent or a bird which is wise, intelligent? All birds are alike. Have you seen a rosebush which is foolish or a rosebush which is a genius? All rosebushes are alike. So are all human beings: they come with the same potential but fall into different gangs.

These are all gangs: Indians, Chinese, British, American. These are all gangs, and politicians are the criminals. Then there are religious gangs.... And their whole effort is not to allow your intelligence to function, because an intelligent person is bound to become rebellious.

Prashant, question your values. If you have been a Catholic, question it; if you have been a Protestant, question it; if you have been a Hindu, question it. Question all that you have lived up to now; something is basically wrong somewhere.

Ezra Pound is right. And do you know from where he is writing this? From his death-cell! "Out of all this beauty something must come." Ezra Pound in a dark cell, just waiting for death to come, can write such a tremendously important sutra: "Out of all this beauty something must come."

The birds singing, and the trees, and the flowers...this infinite universe -- is it the place to commit suicide? It is the place to dance, to sing, to celebrate, to love and to be loved.

And if you can love this existence, if you can feel blessed with this existence, I promise you that when you die you will not be coming back again...because you will have learnt the lesson. God never sends anybody back to the school if once they have learnt their lesson.

If you can learn to rejoice, you will be accepted. Doors of higher mysteries will be opened to you. You will be welcomed into the innermost mysteries of life. That's what I call the true art of committing suicide: my name for it is sannyas.

The fourth question

Question 4

OSHO, SUDDENLY THERE YOU WERE YESTERDAY JUST BENDING OVER

YOUR FATHER, AND I FELT SUCH LOVE AND JOY AND CLOSENESS SEEING

YOU IN THIS NATURAL SITUATION THAT IT IS HAUNTING ME. IT IS AS IF A DOOR OPENED AND I SAW SOMETHING THROUGH IT, SOMETHING

FAMILIAR AND TREMENDOUS, AND NOW IT IS GONE. WHAT WAS IT?

Somendra,

IT IS NOT GONE, and it will never go. Things like this come, and come for ever. They are not momentary glimpses. Your heart opened suddenly; it needed such a situation for the opening. I immediately felt something happening in your heart -- a great cry arose in your heart, you exploded into a totally different plane.

It is not gone, it can't go. It is there. It will come now in different situations, appear in different situations. You are just keeping your back towards the door; the door is open.

But more and more often you will encounter the door. Once it happens you know it is there, you cannot avoid it. The mind will say it is gone; the mind would like to persuade you that it is gone. And the mind will ask questions about it so that the whole thing can become intellectual.

It is the mind which is asking "What was it?" The heart knows; the mind asks and knows nothing. The heart has known what it was, but the heart and its knowing is so deep that it cannot be conveyed to the mind. And mind feels a little puzzled.

And it has not happened only to you, it has happened to many people. It was such a situation. Many people had suddenly cried -- not out of sadness, no. There was celebration in their tears; they could not contain it. It was a spiritual experience for many of the sannyasins.

And it will remain with you -- don't ask what it was. There are things one should not ask questions about, because questions drag them to the level of the mind. There are things which should be left as they are: mysterious, miraculous. With wonder, with awe, accept The moment the question mark is put, the plane of experience changes. The question mark brings them to the mind. The heart knows no questioning, it knows only how to trust. In that moment, Somendra, you loved, you trusted. In that moment, you were so blissful you could have died laughing.

But to die laughing is one thing; it is easier. To live laughing is far more difficult. Now that is the task, now that should be your SADHANA. Live with that vision. Yes, many times you will forget about it -- but it is there. Just a little groping and you will find the door again.

Don't let it become just a memory in the mind. Let it remain a reality. It IS a reality, but mind will try to make it a memory. Once something is made a memory, the mind can put it in the safe deposit, in the biocomputer, and you can forget all about it. Once in a while you can remember, and later on you will start feeling, "Maybe it happened -- or did I just imagine it? Maybe it was just because of the whole situation and the impact of it that I felt something which was not really happening in my heart." These things mind goes on doing.

Somendra, be careful about the mind. Mind will drag you many times from the very door of God. Mind is your basic enemy. Listen to the heart, because the heart is the friend.

The fifth question

Question 5

OSHO, THIS IS NOT A QUESTION, RATHER A STATEMENT WHICH SHOULD

NOT OFFEND YOU AT ALL. KRISHNAMURTI SAID LATELY IN SAANEN, SWITZERLAND: A ROSE IS NOT LIKELY TO BLOOM NEXT TO A GUIDEPOST.

I LOVE ROSES, BUT ALSO OTHER FLOWERS.

Hilke Schmitz,

FIRST, THERE IS NOTHING that can ever offend me. There is no way to offend me; it is impossible because only the ego can be offended. If the wound of the ego is there then small things offend. But there is no wound any more; I am absolutely healed and whole.

The ego is very touchy because it is a wound. Once the ego is not there you cannot offend that person -- impossible.

So the first thing for you to remember: you can make any kind of statement you like, but you cannot offend me. Try, and try again!

Secondly, you say:

KRISHNAMURTI SAID: A ROSE IS NOT LIKELY TO BLOOM NEXT TO A GUIDEPOST.

Roses bloom everywhere, and unless you know that they can even bloom ON the guidepost, let alone by the side, roses can bloom even on the guidepost -- unless you know it, you know nothing.

A Zen story:

A disciple came to the Master. He had gone to see a polo game. The Master asked him,

"Tell me a few things. Were the riders on the horses tired?"

The disciple said, "Yes, at the end of the game they looked tired."

Secondly the Master said, "Were the horses tired ?"

The disciple said, "Yes, a little bit, not as much as the riders, but even the horses were tired."

Then the Master said, "The last and the final question: were the posts, the wooden posts which are needed in the game, were they tired too?"

Now this was too much! The disciple hesitated a little.

The Master said, "Go into your room and meditate over it. Tomorrow morning you can answer."

The whole night he could not sleep; he tossed and turned. "The wooden posts -- how can they be tired? What a stupid question to ask! But when the Master asks, it can't be stupid; there must be something in it." The whole night he tried hard. Early in the morning as the sun was rising he rushed to the Master, fell at his feet, and he said, "Yes, Master, they were tired."

The Master said, "I am happy. Your going to the polo game has not been useless." Others who were present, they could not understand what was going on. Wooden posts tired?!

Somebody asked the Master, "What nonsense is this? How can wooden posts be tired?"

And the Master said, "If wooden posts cannot be tired then nobody can be tired, because this whole existence is one."

If man gets tired, if horses get tired, then wooden posts also get tired. The whole existence is a manifestation of one energy.

I know why Krishnamurti has made that statement. But my own suggestion is unless you come to know that roses can bloom not only next to a guidepost, they can even bloom ON the guidepost, you have not known anything.

And thirdly you say:

I LOVE ROSES, BUT ALSO OTHER FLOWERS.

Why only roses and why only flowers? Love should be unaddressed. Love need not be oriented towards the other. Love oriented towards the other is not true love, love as relationship is not true love. Love as a state of being is true love. One can love a woman, one can love a man, one can love one's children, one can love one's parents, one can love roses, one can love other flowers, one can love a thousand and one things -- but these are all relationships.

Learn how to be love! So it is not a question of to whom your love is addressed, it is simply a question of your being loving. Sitting alone, still love goes on flowing.

Absolutely alone, still, what can you do? Just as you breathe...you don't breathe for your wife; it is not a relationship. You don't breathe for your children; it is not a relationship.

You simply breathe! -- it is life. Just as breathing is life for the body, love is the life of the soul -- one is simply love! And then only does one know that love is God.

Jesus says: "God is love." I say to you: "Love is God." The words are the same, but the significance is very different. Jesus says: "God is love." Then love becomes only one of the qualities of God. He is wise also, powerful also, a judge also, and many things more.

Amidst all those qualities he is love too. Jesus' statement was very revolutionary in those days, but not any more.

I say: "Love is God." Then it is not a question of God having many other qualities. In fact God disappears -- love itself becomes God. Love is the real thing. God is the name given by the theologians to something they know nothing about. There is no God; the whole existence is made of the stuff called love.

But if you love the word 'God' it's perfectly okay, you can call it God. But remember always it is LOVE, and you will know this love only when love has become a state of your being, a simple state of your being.

The sixth question

Question 6

OSHO, WHY DO I HATE HOMOSEXUALS?

Sargam,

DEEP DOWN YOU MUST BE A HOMOSEXUAL, otherwise why should you hate them? Hate is love upside-down, hate is love doing SIRSHASAN -- headstand. Hate knows yoga postures. And do you think you are a different person just by standing on your head? Many fools think that way: standing on their heads they think they are yogis; otherwise they were just ordinary people. Now, standing on their heads they are special people; distorting their bodies they think they are coming closer to God. They may be useful in a circus, but it has nothing to do with spirituality -- otherwise the people in circuses would be the most enlightened people in the world. You have seen girls in circuses doing such postures -- almost unbelievable, as if they are not made of blood and bone and flesh but of rubber. Do you think they become enlightened?

Hate is a trick: you hate because you want to repress. And hate is not good, because it does not harm the other, it simply harms you.

There are millions of people who hate homosexuals. That simply means millions of people have the capacity of becoming homosexuals if the opportunity is given to them.

They have a deep longing for the forbidden fruit. Just to keep themselves in control, they create a great wall of hatred.

Sargam, that may be the case; or it may be a simple, ordinary phenomenon of life that we don't like people who are not like us. People who are unlike us we hate. Why? -- because they create suspicion in us. Hindus hate Mohammedans -- not that there is anything specific to hate in Mohammedans. Mohammedans hate Hindus -- not that there is anything special in Hindus which has to be hated. But whosoever is not like us has to be hated because he is a stranger, an outsider, and the outsider creates fear. And who knows?

-- maybe he is right. To protect yourself from this doubt you create a safety measure; that hate functions as safety, a shelter.

It is not a question of homosexuality. If you don't dress like other people, as they dress, they hate you, they don't like you.

Now my sannyasins are in great trouble all over the world. Just a few days ago many letters have come that in Australia, the school, college, university authorities are very much disturbed by my orange-people, because many teachers, many professors, have become sannyasins. And a problem is being created by the parents and their leagues. The problem is being created that these orange people and their presence may corrupt their children, so the parents are against them. The Catholic priest comes in his robe; he is accepted, he does not corrupt. But my sannyasins, just because they are coming in orange robes, can be a dangerous influence.

Anybody who is not behaving like you, not living like you, is hated. This is your experience in Poona too. The people are not really in any way HARMED by you -- my sannyasins are the most harmless people you can find anywhere -- but people are against you just because you look different.

The homosexual has a very different lifestyle, and you are heterosexual. He belongs to another religion, he has another politics, he is not a man like you. The moment somebody says that he is gay, a gap arises, a great gap. Now how can you communicate?

But all these fears have to be dropped; these are all defense measures. They simply show that you are not yet settled in your being -- afraid any outside influence may take you away, off your ground.

A little Hollywood fruit was following a husky, good-looking man down the street murmuring, "My, what a pretty man!" Unable to resist temptation, he went up and felt his ass.

The man swung round. "What the hell is coming off here? Beat it, will you?"

Sadly the queer retired, but kept following, and unable to control himself, felt his ass again.

"I thought I told you to beat it," the man snarled.

A third time, however, the queer could not resist, and lovingly felt the attractive can. The man swung round and knocked him to the ground.

The injured fruit looked up at the big brute and said sarcastically, "Tourist!"

It is not only that YOU hate the homosexual, the homosexual also hates the heterosexual; he also thinks that he does not belong to him.

We have created unnecessary labels. We have put labels on every man, and not one label

-- a thousand and one labels on every man. Remove all the labels! Man is simply man --

homosexual, heterosexual, autosexual, doesn't matter -- man is simply man.

Respect man, love man. Respect his individuality, respect his differences. And that is possible only if you respect your individuality. That is possible only if you are grounded in your own being and you are unafraid.

I would like a world utterly fearless, where all labels can be removed.

Once it happened:

I entered an air-conditioned train compartment in Bombay. The only passenger in my cabin immediately fell on the floor and touched my feet -- -a traditional Hindu SASHTANG when your whole body touches the floor. I told him, "Wait, wait! I am not a Hindu!

But he had already touched my feet. He was shaken; he said, "Then who are you?"

I told him, "Can't you see my beard? I am a Mohammedan! "

He said, "My God! And I have touched your feet! Why didn't you say so before?"

I said, "But you didn't give me any time. The moment I entered you jumped in such a hurry. Excuse me, but I am a Mohammedan. You can go to the Ganges and take a dip and you will be purified."

But now the thing was that we had to live in the same compartment for twenty-four hours. And he was very much worried about what he had done -- such a sin, never heard of before. And he said, "Do you know? I am the highest brahmin caste, and I thought that you were a mahatma."

I said, "Just a little difference between a mahatma and a Mohammed. My name is Mohammed."

But he would look at me again and again -- pretending to read his newspaper but he would look again and again. He was making sure -- I didn't look like a Mohammedan.

Finally he said, "You are joking! You don't look like a Mohammedan."

I said, "So you have got it!"

He jumped again, touched my feet, and said, "I was watching you -- you don't look like a Mohammedan. The very vibe is that of the purest saint."

I said, "If it satisfies you, perfectly good, but if you ask MY opinion, now you will have to take two dips! In fact, I AM a Mohammedan! I was just trying to help you, to console you; I was not hoping that you would touch my feet again."

The man was angry. He called the conductor immediately and he said, "Change my compartment! I cannot sleep in this compartment -- twenty-four hours with this man will be a torture, a hell. I don't know what kind of man he is. Sometimes he says he is Hindu, sometimes he says he is Mohammedan."

I told him, "The fact is, I am simply crazy"

He said, "That's right! So you are not Mohammedan? It is better to be crazy than to be a Mohammedan. Just crazy but Hindu?"

I said, "Of course! I am a Hindu of the highest brahmin caste, but a little crazy. Once in a while this idea comes to me that I am Mohammed -- but I am not! "

A third time he touched my feet!

People live by labels.... Drop all labels from your being and drop labels from others'

beings. Look at people as they are, don't bring labels. Then we will have a better humanity, a more human humanity.

The last question

Question 7

OSHO, EACH DAY YOU GET MORE AND MORE CRAZY. IN THE DAYTIME

WHEN I THINK OF YOU, I START LAUGHING AND THINK WHAT A CRAZY, BEAUTIFUL MASTER I HAVE. OSHO, I JUST LOVE YOU.

Prem Akal,

JUST A CRAZY JOKE FOR YOU:

Karpinsky went to Rabbi Roth for advice. "Rabbi," he said, "I am ruined. I am a salesman, a respectable married man, but my life is ruined."

"What happened?" asked the Rabbi.

"I was in Mobile, Alabama, coming home from dinner in a restaurant, and this big black man dragged me by the neck and said to me, 'You are gonna suck me off, you mocky son-of-a-bitch, or I am gonna bust your head!' Rabbi, I am ruined!"

"No, no," said the Rabbi. "The Talmud rules that a man can do anything but spit on the Bible to save his life."

"No, Rabbi, I am ruined," moaned Karpinsky. "I liked it!"

Table of Contents

Chapter title: Always on the Rocks

Chapter title: You Are Ancient Pilgrims

Chapter title: Only Now

Chapter title: Just For Your Sake

Chapter title: He Died in Samadhi