1/08/07

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Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

The Shadow of the Whip

Talks given from 8/11/76 to 3/12/76

Darshan Diary

24 Chapters

Year published: 1978

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #1

Chapter title: The Opening of the Door...

8 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611085

ShortTitle: WHIP01

Audio:

No

Video:

No

A SEEKER SAID TO BUDDHA:

'I DO NOT ASK FOR WORDS; I DO NOT ASK FOR SILENCE.'

BUDDHA JUST SAT QUIETLY.

THE SEEKER SAID ADMIRINGLY:

'THE COMPASSION OF THE WORLD-HONOURED ONE

HAS OPENED THE CLOUDS OF MY ILLUSION

AND HAS ENABLED ME TO ENTER ON THE PATH.'

MAKING HIS SALUTATIONS, HE DEPARTED.

ANANDA THEN ASKED BUDDHA:

'WHAT WAS IT THIS STRANGER REALISED

THAT HE SO PRAISED YOU?'

THE WORLD-HONOURED ONE REPLIED:

'A HIGH CLASS HORSE MOVES EVEN AT

THE SHADOW OF THE WHIP.'

Anand means bliss and pragita means a song; a song of bliss. And I would like you to sing, to dance.

Create a life around celebration -- that should become the most fundamental thing; everything else should be secondary. So whenever anything happens, delight in it, accept it as a gift of God. It is through singing and music and dance that you will grow.

And there is no need to be trained in them. Singing needs no training. The birds go on singing without any training. They have never entered any school, never learned anything anywhere. Only man has forgotten the natural way to sing and to dance. So just be natural about it. It is not a performance -- it is just an expression of your joy....

[A sannyasin asks: ... things are going great and everything is okay -- but... the same old uglies keep coming up over and over again: the same impatience, the need to control, the same carelessness, the same absent-mindedness... since this is still happening after two years of silence, maybe I'm stuck, and that I should break out of silence and do a few groups. So that's my question: as to whether I'm stuck, and whether 1/08/07

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Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

this sense of well-being I have is just my mind playing tricks.]

No, no, nothing. It is really happening, but still problems can continue. The being is so vast that problems can continue in a corner. On the whole you can feel a very great well-being, a very great silence and happiness, and still somewhere, in a dark corner of the heart, one's problems can continue and can go on creating their noise. There is nothing wrong in it. Man is vast !

We ordinarily think that we are confined to the body -- that is not true. Man is so vast that he can contain contradictions. So nothing to be worried about. And sometimes it happens that the more silent you become, the more aware you become of the contradiction. If you were not so silent you might not have been aware of it, because the contrast would not arise.

It is as if the whole room is dirty -- then you clean a part of it. Because of this clean part, now the whole room looks very dirty. When this clean part was not there and the whole room was dirty, the same, you were not aware of it. It is just as if on a plain wall you throw black ink: it becomes so clear and so loud.

But a group can still be good. That will help you to bring this problem to its climax. If you feel like doing, you can do one group. Encounter will be perfect. Do Encounter, mm? and in the group come out of silence. After the group you can go into silence again .... Or we will see first. First do the group and see how you feel, because silence has not to be there for your whole life. If your energy starts feeling that it would be good to come out and communicate, you can come out -- nothing is wrong in it. And the well-being will still remain there; it will not be lost. It has happened so it is going to remain. But up to the group, remain in silence, then we will decide, mm? Good.

[The Encounter group is present.

To a member of the group Osho says:]

Something about you? (she remains unspeaking) Come closer. If you don't want to say, just close your eyes and let your energy say it.

Good. The energy is going very well. Just enjoy the energy that is flowing there. You have touched a very silent space -- now don't lose contact with it. It is very difficult to come in contact with; it is very easy to lose.

So don't be afraid. Sometimes it is even very scaring to be really silent. One feels dazed -- that's how you look. One feels as if there is no spine. But don't be scared. Many beautiful things are going to happen.

This is just the opening of the door. And you can never be the same again -- the door has opened. So just enjoy it and feel blissful.

And I am here, so never be afraid of anything. You can go into any space, and whenever you feel that it is becoming too much, just take the locket (that is part of the mala) in your hand and remember me, mm?

Good.

[A sannyasin says: I found out from the Encounter group that there's this split between my head and my feelings. I've been on a path for many years in which one just tries to see the divine in everybody. And what it's done is screened out all the negativity or whatever that I probably have, so I'm just seeing everything falsely... Now I distrust everything. I don't know if it's intellect or feeling... Until I got that feedback from others I wasn't in that space at all. But I feel quite full.]

Mm mm. This too, is because others say. My observation is that this too is only because others have said so, it is still intellectual. You've understood what others are saying, and you have felt that this may be so, but this is not your experience.

For ten days after the group, simply meditate and forget all about it. After ten days come back and tell me how you feel. Forget what others say -- because whatsoever others say can never go deeper than your intellect. The feeling part is available only to you. And when somebody says something about you, it is more about him than about you. It is what they feel -- that you are hollow; you may not be. But ordinarily we live on others' opinions -- that's how our intellect lives; it is constantly in need of feedback. So if others say you are beautiful, you feel beautiful. If others say you are very loving, you feel perfectly good. If others say that this is all bullshit, you start feeling this is all bullshit. But still it is not your feeling. And others may not be right, so don't judge too early.

Let the group be finished. Work two days more as hard as you can so that whatsoever you can become 1/08/07

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aware of, become aware; then forget about it. Have a gap. The whole point is that you should come to see whether it is so. If you come to see that it is so, immediately there will be a change. Or if you come to see that it is not so, there is no need for any change. Both ways it will be beneficial.

Now you will be in trouble. One possibility is that the others may be wrong, and now you will start trying to do something so the others say that you are very loving or this and that. That may create a real falsity. Or the others may be right, but you have not felt it yourself so you will try to do something. Then too, only on the surface will you decorate your being.

The understanding has to go so deep, to such a deep layer, where nobody can say anything else except yourself about how it is. When you have a headache, you don't rely on others' feedback. You don't go on asking, 'Have I a headache? Do you feel that I have a headache?' The whole world may deny it but that doesn't matter -- you will still say that it is there, that it has not gone. Only you can feel. There is no way from the outside to know whether you have a headache or not. And a headache is not very deep. The head itself is not very deep. To go to the heart is very deep. No instruments exist... even the subtlest instruments are not capable of giving any indication about your feelings, cannot make any graph about your feelings.

Only you alone are capable of being there. That's your pure space, absolutely yours. Nobody can trespass. So don't be worried about what others say. Take note of it, don't neglect it, then forget about it for ten days. And after the Encounter group, every night when you go to sleep, just for three minutes relax on the bed, put your hands on the heart and just try to feel. Don't bring in others' opinions. Just try to feel how things are, uncontaminated by others' opinions and judgements. This group can be of tremendous value to you. But it can be valuable only when it helps you to go to your own inner centre, otherwise you miss.

[A group member says: A lot is happening during this group, but I don't trust you and I don't love you. I don't love anybody.]

Mm mm. Don't be worried about that. If something is happening, that will come. There is no need for it to be there right now. If something is happening it is bound to come. How long can you remain without loving me? You can try hard but you will.

You are doomed! You are going to fail. But try, mm? Remain non-trusting, doubting, unloving, and just go on doing camps and the groups, and one day suddenly you will find that it has happened. It is nothing that you can do -- it happens. But if something is happening, it is perfectly good.

There is no need to force any belief. I am not a believer in beliefs, and all belief systems are Poisonous.

With a belief system all that you can do is believe in me. That is not trust -- that is a deception. When trust is missing, one can substitute a belief and one can feel that one trusts, but that's not trust. And in fact if you substitute it with belief, the real trust may not ever arise because you can go on playing with your false coin and you will stop searching for the real coin; the pseudo will satisfy you. That is the misery of many people: they are in such a hurry that they want to trust somebody -- but trust is not so easy. It arises when it arises.

There is no way of predicting it.

But you can create a belief. Belief will be home-made, man-made, and that will obstruct the trust and will not allow it to come in. So don't be worried about it. Be a non-believer and go on doubting me. If there is something in me, the trust is bound to arise. If there is not, then it is good not to trust. So it is for me to do something. Mm? it is not your problem, it is my problem. While you are here enjoy these moments and one day suddenly you will find I am there in your heart. That comes out of the belief -- without even giving any information that it is coming, without notifying you.

In India we call God 'the ultimate guest', and the sanskrit word for guest is 'atithi'. That term is very beautiful: it means one who comes without giving any information, one who comes without giving any date.

'Tithi' means date and 'atithi' means one who comes suddenly without giving any date when he is coming.

God is an old type of guest. New guests inform you that they will be coming and how many days they will be staying. In the old days guests would suddenly.... And in India they still do -- suddenly they are there.

God is an 'atithi', a guest who comes nobody knows when.

It will come. You just have to be joyful, silent. Belief is not a prerequisite, and all beliefs divide people.

That's the difference between a Hindu and a Christian and a Mohammedan their beliefs. There is nothing; just beliefs divide people. Beliefs create conflict. Down the centuries there have been wars upon wars because of foolish beliefs. Somebody believes in God as trinity and somebody believes God is not a trinity

-- and there is war. People argue, and when they cannot prove by argument, they bring their swords and try to prove by violence.

1/08/07

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Query:-

A really religious person is without belief. Because how can you believe? You have not yet known me so how can you trust? This is a good gesture -- that you are making an effort to understand. That's all --

enough! On your part you are doing well. So don't raise this problem in your mind again and again -- that you don't trust and you must trust. It is not a must at all.

And don't feel jealous about others who trust. Of course they will be flowering better than you, that's certain, but don't feel jealous, because what can you do? They trust and you don't trust. It has happened to them. They also cannot tell you how and why it has happened to them. One day it will happen to you also, and you too will not be able to tell somebody how it happened.

So just remain happy, mm? Believe in happiness, that's all. I will be coming by the backdoor !

[One group member says he feels stuck. The leader comments he has much resistance to being told what to do. Osho tells him to "Either surrender or get out of the group". The participant replies: I want to get out]

Get out, mm? There is nothing to be worried about. Because if you don't listen to what is said to you, and if you don't do anything, there is no point. Why waste your energy and why waste their energy? Simply get out of it. Do the camp, and after the camp whenever you feel you are ready to obey certain orders, join another group.

And remember always that only a very grown-up person can obey -- childish people cannot obey. To obey one needs to be very very disciplined, and one needs to be very understanding. And it is not a slavery because it is only a seven-day group. It is just an agreement that for seven days you will listen to the leader.

After seven days he is not going to order you to do something. After seven days you are not expected to listen to him, but for seven days there is a subtle agreement that he knows some techniques, he will be helping you.... And we do it all the time.

You go and sit in a bus, and once you have sat in the bus you trust the driver. The driver is not superior to you -- he is not God -- but you know that he knows driving, so you read your newspaper, smoke a cigarette, gossip, or just go to sleep. When you go in an aeroplane, you trust the pilot. You may not have even seen his face and you may not know anything about him, but you trust. You entrust him with your life.

If every passenger in the aeroplane starts enquiring about the pilot and his credentials, his character certificates and his past, his mind and his body and health and everything, there would be no flight. It would be impossible.

So in a group the leader is just a pilot. It is not an absolute surrender to him. It is not that you are to listen to him for your whole life. It is just a seven-day arrangement. You will be on this journey and you will need a guide. If you cannot, simply get out of it.

And (to the group leader), remember it. Whenever you feel that somebody is finding it difficult to listen, just tell him that this is an agreement and that nothing is wrong -- he can get out of it if he wants. Because why should he feel troubled? You will be feeling troubled and the whole group will be distracted. If there is somebody who is resisting, he creates a vibe of resistance to surrender in others also.

(To the participant) And there is no condemnation in it. If you cannot, simply get out of it. But think about it. It is very immature. Why are you so afraid of obeying? That fear shows you are afraid that anybody can make a slave of you. The resistance is because of fear. A really strong person is never afraid: just by obeying he is not becoming a slave. But if you are a weakling and afraid somewhere that if you listen to somebody who knows, he may start dominating you, and each time you have to show that you are strong --

then your strength is not worth much.

A really strong person is one who never has to show it -- there is no need, he is. And I don't think that you are a weak person; you are a strong person. You must be carrying a wrong notion about yourself.

My suggestion is to try to surrender for a few days. Do whatso-ever is said and see how you feel. That will be an experience. You may have a new vision of your old being and you will see, 'How foolish I was!

Unnecessarily afraid!' But still, if you think that it will be difficult for you, get out of it, mm? Good.

[Another participant says: I'm too clever for my own good. And then, afraid to be soft.]

Both are very dangerous qualities. Cleverness is always a barrier. And it is not intelligence -- it is a false substitute. An intelligent person is innocent. You can cheat an intelligent person very easily, but you cannot cheat a clever person because the clever person himself is a cheat. So never think that cleverness is of any value; it is based on fear. The logic behind cleverness is: if you don't cheat others, others will cheat you. So 1/08/07

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remain clever and always protect yourself, and before somebody attacks you, attack them, because attack is the best defence. This is the logic of cleverness: always pretend that you know, even when you don't.

I had a teacher in my university days. He was a professor of indian philosophy. I became aware that he was not very intelligent but just trying to be clever, so I started playing a game. I would say that I was reading XYZ's such and such a book -- what did he think about it? He would say, 'It is beautiful!' And the book exists not -- neither the author nor the title!

One day I was talking to him and the head of the department was present. He became a little suspicious and he called me later on. He asked, 'What is the matter? I have never heard of these authors you are talking about and that fellow seems to be a very great scholar. He knows everybody and every author and every book.'

I told him, 'They exist not, but he is such a great man that he cannot say that he has never heard of them

-- no, that is impossible. He cannot say that he doesn't know about this book. By being clever he is simply being foolish. The whole class laughs at him and everybody knows now. It has become such a game that every-body is bringing names and authors and books now that exist not, and he will never say that he has not read them.' He was trying to be clever -- but cleverness proves to be foolish finally.

Always remember that intelligence is very innocent, and cleverness is not intelligence. Politicians are clever people but not intelligent. You can deceive intelligent people very easily because they will always be innocent, they will be true. But cleverness functions as a very protective barrier -- so drop cleverness. And nobody can force you to drop it.

The moment that you see that it is not intelligence.... Because you are harming yourself, how can it be intelligence? And you know it! You yourself feel that you are too clever to be good for yourself -- this cleverness is almost suicidal. Drop it -- and drop it without any effort. Simply drop it. Tomorrow morning enter the group as innocently as a small child. Put all rationalisations and cleverness aside. Cleverness has never helped anybody -- it has destroyed many people's lives and opportunities.

And the second thing: if you are not clever, you will be ready very easily to become soft. You are soft --

maybe that's why you are trying to be clever. This is my observation: the softer a man is, the bigger and harder the crust he creates around himself because he is afraid of his softness. He is afraid -- he knows that if the crust is broken he will be too vulnerable in this world. This world is too cunning and he will be too open, he will be robbed, cheated, destroyed. So the softer a person inside, the harder the shell he creates around himself. But the harder the shell, the more and more you live in a grave-like situation; closed in yourself. And all that is beautiful happens only when your softness is available. Love, meditation, God, beauty, truth, joy -- they all happen only when you are open, soft. So drop cleverness.

It will disappear -- don't be worried. First do the camp and then after the camp, book for something else.

[Another participant says: I always thought I was strong. Now it just gets me into trouble. I don't know what I feel.... ]

You don't feel that strong? That strength was nothing. That strength was just the ego, and now you are becoming really strong. But this strength is bound to be fragile. It is like a flower: strong enough to face the whole world and yet very fragile... can be crushed. It can be crushed just by a child who can throw a rock.

Fragile, because by the evening it will be gone. But when it is there it can face wind, it can face sun it can face the whole world! This is a totally different kind of strength. Lao Tzu calls it the strength of the weak, the richness of the poor, the knowledge of the ignorant, the wisdom of the fool. This is a totally different thing.

The strength you used to feel was nothing but ego-strength. There was a crust of strong ego. That's how in the West all strong people feel, mm? because in the West there is only one definition of strength, and that is of ego strength. One has to have a very strong ego, a ripe ego, a crystallised ego, to fight, to struggle. This is a totally different phenomenon that is happening -- it is the strength of surrender.

So you will feel for a few days. . .Teertha is right that you are somewhere in the middle. You will feel for a few days as if you are hanging in the middle, because the past is no more there. That's why you are so confused and you cannot even say why. But soon it will happen. The ego is disappearing; don't try to cling to it. Accept this weakness that has arisen. A child is weak, a flower is weak. When water falls from a hill, it is weak, and the rocks that it falls on are very strong. But in due time the rocks will be gone and the water will still be there. If momentarily you think that the rock is very strong and the water is very weak... can you find anything weaker than water?

1/08/07

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Query:-

Lao Tzu calls his way the watercourse way. He says not to be like a rock. In the moment you will look very strong, but in the long run the rock is bound to disappear into sand, and the water is going to win.

Finally the weaker wins.

Jesus says, 'Those who are last in the world will be the first in my kingdom of God', and 'Blessed are the meek.' This is meekness -- and certainly when it comes one feels really disturbed, because one has always thought that one is very strong and now suddenly one feels so vulnerable... so vulnerable that small things make you cry, small things can make you laugh. So vulnerable -- and you were always thinking that you were a great citadel, nothing could penetrate you. And now everything can penetrate you.

When one becomes open, that's how it happens. But it is a blessing. Be meek... be poor, mm? Good.

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #2

Chapter title: The Essential is One

9 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611095

ShortTitle: WHIP02

Audio:

No

Video:

No

Sannyas is a disidentification with the past... a new beginning, a new being, a fresh breeze, a rebirth. All that is implied in giving you a new name. One name was given to you by your mother and father. Now I am giving you another name. That one name was given to you so you could function well in life. Without a name it would be very difficult to function. One needs a label, one needs some indentification, one needs some identity card. People need some name to call you by, to address you. They have given you one name for the world. I am giving you another name for God, not for the world.

God will also need a name so that He can call you, so He can provoke you, so that whenever He wants to say something it can be addressed to you. The sannyas name is simply a new address -- a new address fundamentally meant for God, for the whole existence. So this is a turning point.

You may not be even aware of what a great jump you are taking. By and by after you have taken it, you will become aware. There are many things that you know only when you have done them. In fact there is no other way to know them. Many people ask me, 'What is sannyas?' It is very difficult to say. It is something that has to be experienced. It is something that has to be tasted.

So you are moving in a new territory from this moment -- with a new name, with a new dress, with a new identity. And now you belong to me and you become part of me from this moment. It is a great responsibility too, because now whatsoever you do I will be associated with it. Good or bad -- whatsoever your action -- now my name will be associated with it. And I never give any discipline. I never say, 'Do this, do that.' I simply want you to be aware that now you have to be responsible. And then move in freedom.

By becoming a sannyasin you are changing your very way of life. Right now it will be just a small stream. Mm? It is just as a great river is born as a very small stream -- not even a stream but just a fountain.

By and by it gathers more and more water and becomes a big river. Right this moment it is just drops. Soon you will become vast....

[A sannyasin says: I appreciated that you read my poetry. Is there anything that you want me to do?]

Much has to be done, and continue creating there whatsoever you feel like. One should always cultivate something that is purely for delight. Your profession is a need -- it has to be done. That may be a delight it 1/08/07

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may not be, but one has always to do something on the side which is sheer delight, for no financial reasons, for no economics, for no politics. You are just doing it for your own delight. Write poetry, paint, or whatsoever you feel like. And always remember that this will rejuvenate you. This will become your real recreation.

The world 'recreation' is very good -- it creates you. And unless it creates you, it is not a recreation. All entertainments are not recreations. Only that in which you are creatively involved is a recreation.

If you are just sitting there and somebody is dancing, that is not a recreation, maybe entertainment. You remain passive, you are not active. Recreation has to be very active -- you have to be involved. Dance, sing, or do whatsoever you feel like doing: gardening, cooking, anything.

It is not being done for any ulterior motive. It is not even done for someone to appreciate. If they appreciate, good. If they don't appreciate, good, because it is not meant for that.

There has been an indian saint, a great poet, who has written the story of Ram. It is a great epic, one of the greatest in the world -- 'Rama-charit-manas'. Somebody asked Tulsidas, 'Why have you written it --

because it must have taken years, it is such a long poem and so superb. Why have you written it? Why have you put so much energy into it? Your whole life into it?'

And Tulsidas said, 'Svantah Sukhaya': 'I have been singing this story of God just for my own delight. It is not meant for any-body. It was my delight.. .1 enjoyed it. The value is intrinsic -- it is an end unto itself.'

That's what recreation is -- 'Svantah Sukha.' -- for one's own delight, and an end unto itself.

So whenever you are tired, whenever you are fed up with the world -- and many times one is fed up with the world, it is natural. The world is too heavy, too boring, too monotonous, too repeti-tive, too routine and trivial. So whenever you feel that, the best way is to do something creative and get involved in it. You will come out of it recreated, rejuvenated... again throbbing with energy. Even more than sleep, poetry can be recreative -- more so than sleep. Just five minutes concentrated creation of a poem can be more than eight hours sleep, can refresh you tremendously, because when you are totally involved in it, God starts functioning through you.

All creation is His -- we become only vehicles. So whenever there is some creation, it is always God's.

The signature is His. We are just vehicles, passages. And when God flows through us, of course -- we are rejuvenated. Just His passing through us is enough. It is a magnetising force, again you are recharged. So allow God to pass through you in any form whatsoever.

And you are going to do much for me because you belong to me. By becoming a sannyasin you become pan of me. Now my work is your work. If you do something and if you succeed, you are not obliging anybody. You are simply obliging yourself because it is your work.

[Osho passed a small wooden box to the sannyasin, one of which He gives to sannyasins, as a reminder of Him.]

Keep this with you, and whenever you write your poetry or you do something creative, just keep it in your lap and it will remind you of me. It can bring you very close to me.

And every night when you go to sleep, put it under your pillow so I can go on haunting you (laughter).

And if sometimes I come in the dark of the night, don't get scared!

[A visitor from Madagascar, Africa, came said, through a translator, he is a contractor and wants Osho's help so that he can make a lot of money for his family.]

(to the translator) Tomorrow morning before he leaves he should do at least one Dynamic meditation.

Tell him to start doing it every day and within three months, things will start happening.

[A visitor says: I'm a B'hai.]

Be a B'hai. Nothing to be worried about...

Nothing is a problem. I give sannyas to all sorts of people -- no problems. It's perfectly good, I will not replace whatsoever you are -- I will simply strengthen it, because whatsoever I am doing here is for the essential religion. So whatsoever is essential, I am with it and for it, and that essential is in B'hai also. It is in Christianity, it is in Mohammedanism -- it is everywhere. Maybe much which is not essential has gathered around it -- I may hammer that -- but I am absolutely for everything. The non-essen-tial I may be against sometimes, and sometimes one may think that I go on shattering things, but those are just non-essential 1/08/07

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Query:-

growths.

The essential is one -- only names differ. So B'hai is perfectly good. If this is hindering you, you are unnecessarily preventing yourself from some experience. And a B'hai should not be such a coward. A B'hai should be very ready to experiment, to explore new spaces. Fear is not of religion -- fear is political, organisational. Religion is just fearlessness. If you are a B'hai, sannyas is not going to take anything -- it will be a plus.

Of course much will change, because you may be a B'hai and you may not know at all what essential B'haism is, because if you have once seen the essential, you will laugh at the ridiculousness of religious people fighting, arguing with each other and trying to prove that they are right and others are wrong. It looks stupid, because the essential is one.

[The visitor takes sannyas]

Now you really become a B'hai!

And this will be your name: Swami Satyananda. Satya means truth, anand means bliss; bliss that comes by the experience of truth. And change to orange !

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #3

Chapter title: When the Dance Dances itself...

10 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611105

ShortTitle: WHIP03

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[In a previous darshan (See "God Is Not For Sale", October 25th, Osho had told a sannyasin to make dance and music his meditation. Now the sannyasin reports: Much has happened.]

It has -- and much that is going to happen is on the way. The more you have, the more is given to you.

The rich become richer, because each experience creates a new receptivity, a new trust. And with each experience you are ready to take a bigger jump, and so on and so forth. So continue to dance.

There is nothing like dancing, because dancing seems to be the only activity when the doer can be easily lost, and the only activity in which body, mind, soul -- all can participate in a harmony. Otherwise there are activities that the body can do, there are activities that the mind can do -- the body is not needed. There are activities that can be done by the soul, by the spirit -- neither the mind is needed nor the body.

Any activity that needs the cooperation of all the three layers of your being will give you the richest crop, because in that harmony, in that synchronicity -- when all the three layers meet together and are not in any conflict, when they are one together -- you become something transcendental. Then you are none of the three -- you have become the fourth. And the fourth is the goal.

[Osho said that in India the fourth state is known only as 'turiya' which means simply 'the fourth'.]

Dancing is the only activity in which all the three can be together, in which all the three are needed. And all the three are needed in such a way that they become one. So continue to dance. Much will happen through dance.

1/08/07

Copyright Osho International Foundation 1994

Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

There is no need to give any form to it, because once you start giving form to it, the mind has become predominant. Let it be spontaneous, let it be formless. Let it be such that it surprises even you. So each day simply stand and let it come. Let it flood you! And then start moving. Let each movement lead you to another not knowing at all where you are going or what is going to happen next. Then the dance dances itself. And when the dance dances itself and there is no dancer, it is tremendously beautiful.

So through dance many things will happen. And humanity has completely lost track of dance. All primitive societies were dancing societies. Still a few primitive tribes exist somewhere; they are still dancing tribes. Their whole religion consists of dance. They find any excuse and they will dance. It may be the birth of a child and the whole tribe dances to receive the new guest. It may be a marriage ceremony, it may be some other festival. It may be that somebody had died, so again they dance. Birth, death, marriage or anything important they mark by their dance.

Even when they go to war, they go dancing. They call it a war dance. Then even wars take on a new meaning, a new quality. Then it is not the ugly war that we have invented. Of course people are killed, but they are killed while they are dancing. And when a person is dancing, death is meaningless. He is deathless, because if he is killed in that harmony, that very experience will become an experience of samadhi. The primitive war dance has not yet been understood rightly. We think it is simply war -- it is not really a war. It is again an excuse to dance -- the ultimate dance, the last dance, the death dance. Both sides come dancing, and dancing they fight, dancing they die. But if you die in dance you will attain to a great new life. You will be born in a totally different altitude. So let this be your meditation.

Put on any music -- sometimes do it even without music. Sometimes life has its own music. This moment it is raining.... There is subtle music in this rain. Rain falling on the leaves and one can dance --

enough music. One has only to be sensitive. Or ocean waves shattering on the beach, on the rocks. One can dance -- enough music. One can have a wild, orgasmic dance. Or maybe there is no sound, only silence --

then too there is music... one can move with that silence.

So whenever you can find time -- but at least once a day, make it a part of your life. Just as you eat and you sleep, dance too. And I will remain available wherever you are. Just don't be shy in asking for my help.

It is your right. By becoming a sannyasin you have all the right to ask for my help in any moment, in any situation. That is the privilege of a sannyasin. So don't be shy about it.

Ask, and it shall be given to you.

[A sannyasin who is leaving says: I'm a little scared to come back. To be too much involved here.]

Afraid of involvement? Then you will miss, because involvement is life, and the deeper you become involved, the deeper you will know the taste of it. From the periphery nothing much is available. If somebody doesn't want to get involved, remains on the periphery, he remains on the bank. He never gets into the stream, afraid that the stream will take him to some unknown space. But then he remains on the bank and he remains thirsty and he remains hungry and he remains frustrated -- because enrichment is through involvement. One grows through commitment.

I'm not saying that one should become attached to one's involvements -- no, not at all. And that's the art: one should get involved but always remain capable of getting out of it. Any moment, if the situation arises and one has to get out, one can. Involvement should not be an attachment, so beware of attach-ment, but never be afraid of involvement. They almost go together -- that's why the fear arises -- but they can be put separately, and that is the whole art of life.

If you don't get involved you will not enjoy life; everywhere the problem is the same. If you love a woman you will be afraid -- you may get involved. In fact you should get involved, otherwise how can you love a woman? Then only peripheries meet and the inner consciousness remains completely aloof. Unless the inner consciousnesses overlap, start penetrating each other, you will not know what love is, you will not know its depth; you will miss.

On the surface there are only waves. The great calm is only in the depth. It may be love, it may be meditation, it may be sannyas, but the problem is the same. You have to go into it headlong; one has to be a little foolish. Wise people always remain hanging on the bank. Their wisdom eventually proves to be stupidity. Fools jump, and finally their foolishness simply proves that they were courageous and wise because they learned. They know new places of being.

So never be afraid of involvement. Never be afraid of commitment. Just one thing has to be remembered

-- never lose your freedom. That does not mean that you don't become intimate with somebody. It simply 1/08/07

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means that you become intimate but you still remain free. In fact a free person is simply aware that he is free, any moment anything can be dropped. If the time arises and the situation is there, the challenge is there and one simply feels stuck -- one can get out of it. It is an agreement that can be broken. It is your choice to be in it or not. But from the very beginning to stand out and become a spectator you will miss the whole of life.

So go deeply into involvement but always remain your own master. There is no need to show your mastery every moment, you just have to know that it is there. And if you want to get out, you can simply slip out; just as a snake slips out of the old skin, one can slip out of any situation. But if you remain afraid just because there is a possibility of getting involved, and you don't grow skin because it may become old and then you may have to get out of it, or it may become a confinement, how will you live? But it happens to everybody.

Once you start enjoying your aloneness and enjoying your freedom, the fear arises, 'Now don't get into anything. Just keep out.' That's why so many people drop out of society. But that is not going to end it. And the days that are wasted, are wasted forever -- you cannot reclaim them.

My whole teaching is to get involved and yet to remain unattached. Walk in the water but don't be touched by the water. Remain like a lotus leaf: in the water but yet untouched. The lotus leaf has functioned as one of the greatest symbols in the East because it remains in the water and yet untouched. That is the ideal for the sannyasin. Not that one escapes, then there is no water. Not that one gets soaked with water, then you are not a lotus leaf.

Be in the water, be in the turmoil of involvement, in the problems that commitment brings, that intimacy brings, love brings; be in it and yet remain aloof. And by and by one learns -- it is a knack. One learns by doing it. Then a great balance arises. With that balance all fear disappears.

Come back and get involved, mm?

[A visitor says: I don't know if I'm ready to stop holding back.]

Nobody knows. Holding back is just a tendency of the mind, a natural tendency. In fact to say that the mind holds back is not right. This holding back is what the mind is. Once you don't hold back, the mind disappears. And with the disappearance of the mind is the appearance of your being, of your true being.

This holding back simply says that one goes on clinging to the past. Of course there is nothing to cling to because the past has gone. If you open your fist there is nothing to hold, the past is gone. It is just in the memory, it is no more part of reality. But we go on holding it, hoping that maybe it is somewhere and can be reclaimed.

And holding back is also a subtle fear of the unknown, the unfamiliar, the strange. By and by you will start living a very dead life, because the unknown is what life is, and each moment one has to take the risk again and again of living. Each morning one has to take a risk again. It is very risky, and there is no security. One never knows where one is going, so that the mind holds back. The mind is a safety measure, mm? -- a key to the known, to the familiar. Make a definition -- don't go beyond it. Make a boundary. But all boundaries are imprisonments. And then one suffers.

Man is made in such a way that unless the whole sky is his boundary he will be miserable. Less than that won't do. One needs to expand, and one has to become the expansion. Then there is enthusiasm and there is zest and there is juice, mm? because each moment is a new victory; you expand. Each moment there is a new challenge. You accept and you go on the unknown journey. Each moment God knocks on your door and calls you in such a way that He has never called you; in such a language He has never used before; onto such paths which you have not even dreamed about, and beckons you to come and follow Him That's what I call a religious life: to always be ready to go into the unknown, the unchartered, with no maps, with no past experiences. Of course there cannot be any past experiences of it. Such a being grows and such a being has a movement.

And I can see that you have infinite possibilities....

(to a sannyasin): I received your letter. Too much eating is the problem? Is it something new or has it always been there?

[The sannyasin replies: Always.]

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Query:-

You can do two things. There are two types of food. One is that which you like, which you have a fancy for, about which you fantasize. There is nothing wrong in it, but you will have to learn a small trick for it.

There are foods which have a tremendous appeal. The appeal is not because you see that the food is available. You go into a hotel, into a restaurant, and you see certain foods -- the smell coming from the backroom, the colour and the aroma of the food. You were not thinking about the food and suddenly you are interested in it -- this is not going to help. This is not your real desire. You can eat this thing -- it will not satisfy you. You will eat and eat and nothing will come out of it; no satisfaction will come out of it. And satisfaction is the most important thing. It is the dissatisfaction that creates the obsession.

Simply meditate every day before you take food. Close your eyes and just feel what your body needs --

whatsoever it is! You have not seen any food -- no food is available; you are simply feeling your own being, what your body needs, what you feel like, what you hanker for.

Dr. Leonard Pearson calls this, 'humming food' -- food that hums to you. Go and eat as much of it as you want, but stick to it. The other food he calls, 'beckoning food': when it becomes available, you become interested in it. Then it is a mind thing and it is not your need. If you listen to your humming food, you can eat as much as you want and you will never suffer, because it will satisfy you. The body simply desires that which it needs; it never desires anything else. That will be satisfactory, and once there is satisfaction, one never eats more. The problem arises only if you are eating foods which are beckoning foods: you see them available and you become interested and you eat. They cannot satisfy you because there is no need in the body for them. When they don't satisfy you, you feel unsatisfied. Feeling unsatisfied, you eat more, but howsoever much you eat, it is not going to satisfy because there is no need in the first place.

The first type of desire has to be fulfilled, then the second will disappear. What people are doing is that they never listen to the first, so the second becomes a problem. If you listen to the hum-ming food, the beckoning food will disappear. The second is a problem only because you have completely forgotten that you have to listen to your inner desire, and people have been taught not to listen to it. They have been taught, 'Eat this -- don't eat that' -- fixed rules. The body knows no fixed rules.

They have found that if small children are left alone with food, they will eat only that which is needed for their body, and they were surprised. Many psychological findings are available now; they were simply surprised. If a child is suffering from some disease, and if apple is good for that disease, the child will choose the apple. All other foods are available but the child will go to the apple.

That's what all animals are doing; only man has forgotten the language. You bring a buffalo and leave her in the garden. The whole garden is there -- all the greenery is available; she will not bother. The flowers and the trees may be beckoning but she won't bother with them. She will go to the grass that hums to her, and she will choose only certain grass that is her need. You cannot deceive a buffalo; you can only deceive man.

Man has fallen even below buffaloes. You cannot befool a donkey -- he will eat his food. Man is befooled. Everywhere through advertisements, coloured pictures, TV, movies, you are being attracted and distracted from your humming body. Some company is interested in selling something to you. That is in the favour of the company, it is beneficial to the company, not to you.

Some Coca Cola company is interested in selling Coca Cola to you. It has nothing to do with your body; it allures you. Wherever you go, there is Coca Cola; Coca Cola seems to be one of the most universal things.

Even in Soviet Russia -- nothing else american is allowed, but Coca Cola is there. From everywhere the bottle is calling you, beckoning, 'Come here.' And suddenly you start feeling thirsty. That thirst is false. I'm not saying don't drink Coca Cola -- but let it hum; make it a point.

It will take a few days, even a few weeks for you to come to feel what appeals to you. Eat as much as you want of what appeals to you. Don't bother about what others say. If ice-cream appeals to you, eat ice-cream. Eat to your satisfaction, to your heart's desire, and then suddenly you will see that there is satisfaction. And when you feel satisfied, the desire to stuff disappears. It is an unsatisfied state that makes you stuff yourself more and more and still to no purpose. You feel full and still unsatisfied, so the problem arises.

So first start learning something which is natural and which will come, mm? because we have only forgotten; it is there in the body. When you are going to take your breakfast, close your eyes and see what you want; what your desire really is. Don't think about what is available; simply think what your desire is, and then go and find that thing and eat it. Eat as much as you want. For a few days just go with it. By and by you will see that now no food beckons you.

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The second thing: when you eat, chew it well. Don't swallow it in a hurry, because if it is oral, you enjoy it in the mouth, so why not chew it more? If you take ten bites of something you can enjoy one bite, chew it ten times more. It will almost be like taking ten bites if your enjoyment is only of the taste.

It happened once that a man drank some hot coffee somewhere in Japan and he burned his throat inside.

Some complication arose and his throat was completely cut from inside; the passage had to be closed otherwise the man was going to die. The doctors fixed a pipe into his stomach so he had to chew the food, throw it into the pipe, and the pipe would take it into the stomach.

The man was surprised because he continued to enjoy his food as much as before. And even the doctors were surprised.

They were at first feeling very sympathetic towards him because the poor man would no longer enjoy his food. But the man continued to enjoy it. In fact he started to enjoy it more because now he would chew it and if he did not want to take it into the stomach, he would simply throw it out. Now he could eat as much as he wanted. There was no need to take it into the stomach; the mouth and the stomach were completely separate.

So whenever you are eating, chew more, because the enjoyment is just above the throat. Below the throat there is no taste -- nothing of the sort -- so why be in a hurry? Just chew it more, taste it more. And to make this taste more intense, do all that can be done. When you are eating something, first smell it. Enjoy the smell of it because half the taste consists of smell.

Many experiments have been done. If your nose is completely closed and then something is given to you, you cannot taste it. Then you will understand that the taste was more smell than taste. If your eyes are closed, you cannot taste it even that much, because the colour, the appeal to the eyes, is no more there. They have done beautiful experiments: eyes closed, nose completely closed, and then they give you something; you cannot even tell what it is. They may give you onion and you cannot say that it is onion because much depends on the smell. That's why when you have a cold you cannot enjoy food, because the smell is not there, the taste is not there. When people are suffering from a cold they start eating spicy food because only then can they feel a little tingling.

So smell the food, look at the food. There is no hurry... take time. Make it a meditation. Even if people think you have gone mad, don't be worried. Just look at it from all sides. Touch it with closed eyes, touch it with your cheek. Feel it in every way; smell it again and again. Then take a small bite and chew it, enjoy it; let it be a meditation. A very small quantity of food will be enough and will give you more satisfaction.

So these few things do for three weeks and then report to me, mm? But try for three weeks. Good!

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #4

Chapter title: You are Freedom

11 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611115

ShortTitle: WHIP04

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[A sannyasin who is leaving for the States: For the last three or four days I feel very lost. I don't know what my position is. I don't know what my role is or anything.]

There is no need to know it and nobody knows exactly. And it is better that you don't know it. If you know who you are, if you know what your role is, you will lose all feeling. You will be fixed: you will be a 1/08/07

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thing and not a person. That's the difference between a thing and a person. A rock is a rock. A man? --

nobody knows what a man is. A man is all possibilities. A rock is an actuality -- there is no possibility. It is simply a rock, absolutely certain of what it is. Its role is predictable: it is a rock.

Man is a potentiality, he can be anything -- he can even be nothing. All doors are open, and each moment you have to decide who you are. Each moment by acting, you decide who you are -- but that decision is only for the moment, it cannot go beyond the moment. If it goes beyond the moment, you destroy all beauty in your life -- you become a thing, you are no more a person. To be a person means to be a freedom. A thousand and one alternatives are there. And you can choose any -- it is your choice.

There is nobody who has fixed your role. When you came into the world you were not given a script to live up to. You have been thrown into the world, absolutely free, to find out who you are -- it is not a given thing. And by doing things, by being a million and one things, you will feel by and by who you are. But when you come to know who you are, again you will not be a thing. Then too, you cannot define yourself.

Then you know that you are a nothing. You know that you are a freedom.

That's what is meant by nirvana, moksha. The word moksha means freedom, absolute freedom; all possibilities and nothing actual. Nothing defines you.

Definition is ugly because definition is a prison. You can define a tree because it has a fixed role, and you can define a dog because it has a fixed role -- but you cannot define man. Man is indefinable -- as indefinable as God. That's the dignity... that's the grandeur. But ordinarily... I can understand your problem

-- it comes to everybody. Everybody has to encounter it some day or other.

If you know who you are you will feel at ease. There is a full stop and the sentence is complete; you can relax. Then there is no growth... there is no journey. You can feel that you have arrived. This search to be certain of who you are is a search for security -- a search to be dead and dull. To be constantly moving is difficult -- certainly difficult, arduous -- because again and again each moment you are faced with emptiness. Again you have to do something to know who you are. Each act defines you, but only for the moment. That's why one should never look into the past of any man.

Somebody says, 'Don't go with that man because he is a thief.' What is he saying? He is saying that he has been caught stealing -- but that is past. That definition no more applies. That act defined a certain moment in the past, but now it is no more a definition; that man is out of that moment. Don't call a man a thief, because he may have turned against stealing by now. He may have become a saint. Then you say that somebody is a saint. Don't call a man a saint, because what do you mean? You mean some acts that he has done in the past? They define his past but they cannot define his present. A saint can become a sinner.

And this is beautiful! That means that even a saint is free. A sinner can become a saint, a saint can become a sinner. Freedom remains untouched -- no definition covers it. But people try to cover themselves with definitions. They feel protected by a definition. Behind a definition they feel perfectly okay, complacent, comfortable. Life is no more an adventure. They are dead people -- they are already in their graves. In fact when a man dies, only then can you define him -- never before.

If you want to know the definition, go to the graveyard, and there on the tombstones you will find definitions. Now those men who are in their graves cannot do anything to be changed; they can be defined.

They are now almost like rocks. But you are alive -- and remain alive! Nobody has given you any role. The whole idea that somebody has given you a role, that you have a fixed purpose, that you are here to do something in particular, is very humiliating. That means that you are born with a script and you have to follow that script. Then life will not have enthusiasm: it will be a very dull and monotonous affair.

No, this is good. This is the right space I would like you to be in. This is the space that I am creating for you here. I am trying to take all the definitions away. You are a Christian, you are a Hindu, you are a Jew --

I am trying to take away all your definitions. You are a man or a woman -- I am trying to even take away that. You are young or old, educated, uneducated.... I am trying to take everything away from you so that you remain just an openness... a freedom to be anything you wish to be in any moment. Nothing holds you, nothing prevents you.

This is what I call a real man -- who has nothing to prevent him from doing anything, who has no considerations and who is not bothered to be consistent with his past. Only a rock is consistent with his past, a dog is consistent with his past. You can never say to a dog that he looks inconsistent -- he's always consistent. His life is a routine, a repetition.

The bigger the man, the bigger are his contradictions. The greater the man, the greater are his paradoxes.

Nothing can hold him, he goes on moving -- every time he leaves the past and goes on searching in new fields. He is an explorer.

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So forget about it! There is no need for you to know who you are. Each moment you will know a fragment. In some moment you will be a saint and in some moment you will be a sinner. When you are sitting with your lover, you are a beloved. You are talking to somebody who is just an acquaintance -- you are different, you are not the same person, your very quality is different. Then you go to the office to work, then again you are different. You are sitting alone in your drawing-room and then somebody knocks on the door. A salesman just knocks, and you are different; you change. The salesman enters and you are different.

Each moment brings a new breeze and a new sun and you go on changing. Such is the vastness of a human being. It is tremendous... it has no boundaries. You cannot label it, and the very effort to label it is wrong, ugly. So drop that whole idea. Learn something of what I am saying. And you don't have any role.

You will have many roles but they are your choice. You want to play them -- you play; it is your game.

So take life as an infinite possibility. For man nothing is actual. Man is born completely open... just a great emptiness. You can change him into anything. He is ready to adjust to any act, and all acts are purely games. They are not roles given to you by somebody else -- it is out of your own choice.

A man who is aware becomes his own source of his roles. He is no more an effect then -- he becomes the cause. When you are asking, 'What role have I to play in my life?' you are asking as if the role is to be given by somebody else: you are the effect and he is the cause. Absolutely wrong... that is not how life is.

you are the cause, you are the effect -- you are absolutely responsible. You cannot throw responsibility on anybody else. Of course if you are not courageous, this will create great fear. Then you feel a nothingness and you cannot cope with it. But I know that you have courage and that you can cope with it.

So even if there is fear sometimes, let it be, but never forget that you are the cause of your life, you are at the very source of your life, and that you can change because nobody is forcing any structure on you. To understand this much is to understand what we mean by liberation, freedom, moksha.

Never get caught in any definition. Then your purity, your freedom, always remains uncorrupted. Have you got a box with you? (She shakes her head)

(Osho passes her a box) Now at this moment you are a receiver of a box!

Dhyana means meditation and ananda means bliss; bliss that comes through meditation. This word dhyana is one of the most significant words. In English you have three words: concentration, contemplation, meditation. Concentration means putting your mind, focusing your mind on one object, centering the mind on one object. That is the meaning of concentration. But it brings tension because you have to focus and narrow the mind. It is a forced state, and I am not in support of it. That is not real meditation.

And this is what is thought by people to be meditation: you concentrate on something outside or some imagined light inside or some mantra, but you concentrate. Concentration is not dhyana, because dhyana is a very relaxed state and concentration is very tense. Concentration is very forced, disciplined, and dhyana is very spontaneous.

The second word is contemplation. Concentration is more of the head and contemplation is more of the heart: that is the meaning of 'temple' in it. Contemplation means to become a temple, 'templum' -- from that root comes the word. So it is more prayerful, more compassionate and one is working through the heart.

Better than concentration but still not dhyana, because whether you concentrate through the mind or through the heart, there is some activity going on -- either of the head or of the heart. Meditation is a state of no activity, no ripples arising. One simply is -- neither thinking nor feeling, neither concentrating on anything nor thinking about anything. One is simply a pool of energy.

The third word is better than the other two but still not perfect. The word meditation comes from the same root as medicine: 'med'. It means to care about. Medicine means to take care of the body, and the medical profession means the profession that takes care of the body. Meditation means to take care of the soul. Just as medicine is good for the body, meditation is good for the soul.

So these are the three layers: head -- concentration; heart -- contemplation; the soul, your innermost core

-- that is meditation. Meditation comes closest to dhyana. Dhyana means just to be doing nothing, just sitting silently... just being. It is the absolute relaxed state of consciousness.

And I am giving you that name because I feel that your energy can very easily relax. You can become a great meditator. It is already there -- you just have to work and help it a little. Not much work is needed. So continue doing meditation, do a few groups, but at least every day for half an hour just sit and do nothing.

Just enjoy sitting. Looking at the sky or looking at the earth, or not looking anywhere, just sit silently --

sometimes with open eyes, sometimes with closed eyes; just exactly as you are sitting right now (The sannyasin was sitting with his legs folded under him, back erect). Mm? the heart goes on beating, the 1/08/07

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breathing goes on, but everything slows down and one becomes quiet; a serenity surrounds one.

This is what meditation, what dhyana is. And become really a the sannyasin -- a blissful meditator.

[A sannyasin, said he had various aches and pains in his body and had them for some time. He wondered if he should do Postural Integration.]

It happens many times that the body and the mind are not in tune. Then you start feeling as if the body is some other person. The body hangs and you have to carry it and it becomes a wound. If the body and the mind are coinciding with each other, fitting with each other, you can forget the body; you don't remember it.

You are almost bodiless. And that's the definition of health: one does not feel that one is in the body. Of course if somebody reminds you, you will remember it, otherwise the body simply does not exist. The mechanism is running so smoothly, so hummingly, that one never feels any distance between the body and oneself.

And it happens many times that when you start growing in the mind there is a separation, because the body was adjusted to the old mind; now the mind has changed -- the body remains the old. The body is a very very slow-moving mechanism, and it has a kind of intelligence but certainly it is not very great. So if your mind moves suddenly into some new space, the body is completely at a loss; it cannot follow so easily and so suddenly -- then there is a gap, and that gap will create hurts and aches. That gap can be filled by Postural Integration or Rolfing or the Alexander technique.

For a different mind a different body is needed immediately. So the body and the mind have to go together. One should always take care of it. If your mind grows a little and you feel that there is a distance and the body is lagging behind, bring the body to the state of the mind, otherwise you will not be able to go too far. The distance will be too much and a conflict will come. One cannot go without the body; the body has to be taken care of. And the body is great when it is with you, it helps tremendously. It is a base, the very ground of all your growth.

In the old days the traditional method of working was first the body, then the mind. That's what the yoga system is: first work on the body, first let the body be ready for the jump of the mind, and then let the mind jump. That was the old pattern, but then many problems came because people got so obsessed with the body that they forgot about the jump. The body is a vast thing, so they were lost in postures and asanas and gymnastics, and they completely forgot that this was just to be a jumping board.

You can find in India great yogis as far as their body is concerned, but their mind is ordinary and very stupid. They have become very capable with the body. They can stop their breathing, they can stop their heart-beat. They can go underground for months together and remain alive without oxygen. They can drink poison and will not be killed. These things are good -- you can appreciate them and applaud them -- but ultimately they are meaningless. What are you going to do with these things? You become an exhibitionist, you become a circus.

And these people have completely forgotten that with such a great base, now you take the jump. They don't know how to meditate; they don't think about meditation. And these postures were invented to make you so solid in the body that when you take the jump of the mind, the body simply follows you like a shadow. The idea was good but went wrong. Then by and by people moved to the other extreme: they started working on the mind directly because the body proved to be a great jungle. This is called Raja Yoga

-- the Yoga of the kings. The mind has to be changed, but then this problem arises.

Now the world is living under the Raja Yoga impact. So all these group processes around the world are all Raja Yoga techniques. But then there are problems -- problems like this. Hence Bio-energetics, massage, deep massage, Rolfing, Postural Integration, and things like that are being developed, because that is a must now. People will be taking great trips into the mind and the body will be lagging behind. The body has to be helped. So good -- take Postural Integration.

[A sannyasin says: After the last darshan with the Encounter group I started seeing colours coming from people. I saw feelings as colours and it made me a little bit afraid. Then I began to fight... to fight with the energy... It has gone. I became more and more dead inside and then I became very ill for four days.]

No, you created something wrong. You should have enjoyed it. You are not seeing colours now?

[She answers: No. Now I feel very light and very good.]

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Query:-

Good, but never stop any processes. If something like that begins, just enjoy it. They look very outlandish and eccentric and a little crazy. When you see somebody coming and you see a red light coming from that person, you become afraid and you think that maybe you have gone crazy. Then you see a woman and a green light and you start feeling that something is wrong with you. You have never seen these lights, but in fact those lights are there. You have not seen them before because your eyes were not clear. People have their lights.

The world is really colourful. It is not so black and white as we think. The black and white colour is man-made; the black and white world is man-made. We have divided everything into two -- black and white. Everything is very colourful -- all the colours of the spectrum. And it is not that a person is always green or always blue or red: each moment the person goes on changing, because when the inner energy changes, the colour changes.

It was really a very meaningful experience, but naturally one becomes afraid. Next time if something like this happens, allow it. It will go on its own, it will disappear. That's why you became ill: something was happening and you forced it back. Out of fear you cramped your being and you shrank. That very cramping brought the illness -- never do it again. If it is too frightening or something, come to me. For what am I here? Just come to me or you can write a letter. But never stop anything that is happening. Let it go to its end -- then it will finish. When it does you will feel very very cleansed, purified.

[A sannyasin asks: I have a problem because I am very ungrateful, and I would like to know how I can enjoy being ungrateful... ]

Then you must be having some idea that it is wrong; that will not be allowing you to enjoy it.

[She says: It feels like it creates misery -- the ungratefulness.]

Mm, it does -- that's true. It creates misery, because when you are ungrateful, you become closed to the universe. You are no more open, you are no more flowing because you don't respond. You don't say 'thank you'. The universe goes on giving so much to you and you don't even say 'thank you', so the process stops and you will be miserable.

If you want to enjoy ungratefulness, you will have to enjoy misery too. It is the same package; they go together. If you don't want to enjoy the misery, start being a little more grateful and you will never lose anything by it -- you will get more. By being grateful you will get much more, because when you become able to say 'thank you' to the universe, the universe pours itself into you more happily. Then more flowers will flower for you.

So this is for you to decide, I'm not saying to drop it. I am simply saying that if you want to enjoy ungratefulness, then in the same package misery comes to you. If you want to enjoy blissfulness, you will have to learn the ways of being grateful. And what is the trouble in being grateful? The trouble is the ego, because to be grateful means to be humble.

So whenever you don't feel grateful, that simply shows that you are very egoistic. You take things that the universe gives you for granted and you say 'That's already my right. If you don't give, I will complain. If you do give, there is no "thank you" coming.' But then you will be miserable. Just learn to say 'thank you' --

and it is so easy.

From tomorrow morning just start saying 'thank you' for small things. Somebody smiles -- say 'thank you' and see how good it feels. Then if you start enjoying and cherishing it, even when somebody insults you, say 'thank you' and see what happens, how beautiful it feels. You have come across something meaningful, but you will have to work it out.

From tomorrow morning for ten days just try to be grateful for each and everything, even if sometimes it looks crazy. If the sun is coming and the rays are beautiful, just say, 'thank you... thank you'. Have a little talk to the river, to the sky, to the dewdrops in the morning. For ten days don't miss any opportunity to feel grateful.

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Query:-

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #5

Chapter title: Search for the Undefined

12 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611125

ShortTitle: WHIP05

Audio:

No

Video:

No

Shanti means silence, peace, a state of no mind, and prabhu means lord; lord of silence. And that's how I see your energy moving -- it is moving towards the great silence. You are holding it. If you stop holding it you will simply plunge into a totally different dimension. So uncontrol is going to be your discipline -- don't control it. There is a silence that comes only when you are absolutely uncontrolled; it descends. That is the meaning of the parable when Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist, it is a beautiful way of saying the same thing: a dove, a white dove descended on him. The dove is a symbol of peace. It is just poetry, but beautiful poetry. The meaning is that it descended upon him from nowhere and he was completely transformed, he was no more the old -- the new being was born.

So you have to remember this -- that by your control you will be distracting your energy. The mind is a great dictator -- it tries to control everything. And if it cannot control something it denies it; it says it exists not. That's what all atheism is. The mind denies that God can exist because the mind thinks -- and rightly also -- that if God exists, the mind will not be able to control Him.

So all that is beyond control has to be denied. Then a man lives a very poor life, because all that is beautiful, good, true, is beyond control. One lives a very mundane life then... just a mechanical routine. No flower ever flowers, and no star ever shines, and no song is ever born, because they all come from the unknown, from nowhere like a dove descending. One has to be in a very deep receptive mood -- not in a controlled state. One has to be almost a woman, not a man. The feminine capacity has to be developed so that you can receive it.

This meditation I would like you to do every night before you go to sleep. Just sit in the bed, put the lights off, and be finished with anything that you want to do because after it you have simply to go into sleep. Then don't do anything, the doer should not be allowed after the meditation, mm? Simply relax and move into sleep, because sleep also comes -- you cannot control it. There is one quality in sleep which is almost like meditation, silence -- that it comes. That's why in the West many people are suffering from insomnia. They are trying to control even that; hence the problem. It is nothing that you can do anything about. You can simply wait, you can simply be in a relaxed, receptive mood.

So after this meditation you have simply to relax and go into sleep so that there will be a continuity and the meditation will go on flowing in you. The whole night the vibration will be there. And you will feel in the morning when you open your eyes that you have slept in a totally different way. There has been a qualitative change -- it was not just sleep: something else, deeper than sleep, was present. You have been showered by something and you don't know what it is and how to categorise it.

The meditation is very simple. Sit in the bed, relax the body close the eyes, and just imagine that you are lost in a mountainous region. It is a dark night, no moon in the sky, and it is a very clouded sky -- you cannot see even a single star, it is absolutely dark -- you cannot see even your own hand. You are lost in the mountains and it is very difficult to grope your way. There is every danger -- any moment you can fall into some valley, into some abyss and you will be gone forever. So you are groping very cautiously. You are fully alert because the danger is tremendous, and when the danger is tremendous one has to be very alert.

So the imagination of the dark night and the mountainous region is just to create a very dangerous 1/08/07

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situation. And you are very alert -- even if a pin drops you will be able to hear it. Then suddenly you come near a precipice. One can feel that now there is no way ahead, and one never knows how deep is the abyss.

So you take a rock and throw into the abyss, mm? Just to see how deep it is. Wait and listen for the report of the rock falling on other rocks. But you go on listening, you go on listening, you go on listening, and there is no report -- as if it is an abyss with no bottom. Just listening, listening, listening, a great fear arises in you, and with that fear of course your awareness becomes a flame. Mm? but let it be an actual imagination. Do you follow me?

You throw the rock and you wait -- just your ear close by and you go on listening, listening, and you wait with a beating heart, and no sound. It is utterly silent. In that sound, fall asleep. In that soundless silence: fall asleep. And this you have to practise every day, and after three weeks you have to tell me. Mm?

Good!

[A sannyasin asks: Are drugs helpful in meditation? I had the experience some time ago.... I took LSD

and then I was one with everything I saw. It was a very big adventure. And so I tried to do it again for the second time but it was not the same. Now when I meditate I always think about it and I cannot come to the same point.]

I understand. It can be helpful, it can be a hindrance too -- it depends.... Because LSD or any other drug simply changes the chemistry of your mind -- it does not change you. It simply helps you to withdraw your control on the mind. In that uncontrolled state sometimes you can feel very beautiful and sometimes very ugly. Sometimes it is an opening to God and sometimes you'll be meeting the devil. Sometimes it is heaven and sometimes it is hell. It depends on your mind and if your mind was in a good space -- LSD cannot create your space.

If you were in a good mood and your energy was flowing high and you were at ease, LSD can open the windows. Because you were feeling good and high you will feel tremendously good and high, a thousand-fold. But if you are feeling bad and the energy is not going well and you are angry, sad, or something -- no -- you will be in hell; a thousand-fold will be your experience then too. So LSD only magnifies, it is a magnifier -- it is not a creator. If you feel some good space through it sometimes, then the desire will arise to experience that space again and again. And it is never going to be the same: each time it will be something different because each time you are different. It does not depend on LSD -- it depends on the taker, it depends on you. And if you take it too many times your mind will become dull. Each drug dulls the mind.

Meditation is hard work, and LSD seems to be a very short-cut. Immediately you take it, you are there --

and meditation will take years. But there is a difference to be remembered: meditation really changes you. It is almost as if you are ill . If you want to become healthy you will have to do exercises, take medicine, go for walks, swim, breathe air, run; it will take months for you to become really healthy. Then some hypnotist says, 'You lie down and I will hypnotise you and within minutes you will feel happy.' He can suggest to you, and in a deep hypnosis you can believe also that everything is good, and you are a great man --

Mohammed Ali the Great; you are a very big man and very powerful. Under hypnosis you can feel that, but out of hypnosis again you are the same mouse that you were; you are no more Mohammed.

These are deceptions. But still I say, one experience can be good, but never become an addict. So if you have had a good experience you are blessed -- now forget about it. You had a glimpse -- now try to change your whole life in such a way that this glimpse becomes an ordinary thing, that each moment without any drug, you can live and you can live in it. Meditation is hard work, but real work. LSD is a deception. It is cheating with nature. It is forcing your body chemistry to have certain experiences, but it is violent and ultimately very very frustrating.

So if you had good experiences, thank God. Don t bother about it. Now work! Now you know that there is something like that and you can work for it. In a better world some day in the future, things like LSD will be used in this way: a person who has no idea of the unknown, no conception of the beyond, who is very earthly, can be helped. He can be given LSD or something like that, once -- in very good company, with beautiful music, flowers, gardens, a loving atmosphere -- so that he can have one glimpse of the unearthly, that's all. Then he is not to be given any more. He has to work now.

It is as if from a thousand miles away you have seen the Himalayan peaks with their beautiful eternal snow. Just one day suddenly in the morning, the sky is clear and there are no clouds and from thousands of miles away you can see Everest, and it looks so close that you can touch it. It is so present that you forget 1/08/07

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the distance. But you cannot touch it -- the distance is there. Again the clouds will come and the sky will be covered and the peak will be lost, but now you know that it exists. Now you can trek to the mountains.

To reach to Everest is very difficult. One needs the courage of an Edmund Hillary... one needs to risk one's life. But if it is so beautiful from so far away -- what to say when you are close and you are able to touch, and you are able to sit on top of it? LSD can give you a glimpse. In the East it has been used for centuries that way. In the Vedas they talk about Soma. That was a sort of LSD, but it was used only by masters and it was given to disciples only in rare situations. It was not available in the marketplace. In fact nobody has yet been able to find out what it was exactly. Once the tradition disappeared India completely forgot the mushroom and from where Soma was created. It was a hidden secret, an esoteric secret. The master would only say to his chief disciple where to find it, how to find it, to whom to give, and how much, and only once. Just to give you a glimpse of the unknown -- then there is no need. Now you can move and work it out. In the same way some day it will be used.

Now both the parties the party which is in favour of drugs and the party which is against them -- are foolish. Those who are against are absolutely against; that is foolish. We know in the East that drugs have been used, and used very creatively. The party who are for them, the people like Timothy Leary and others, are also foolish because they are absolutely for them. They think LSD can become a substitute for samadhi

-- there is no need for any meditation. Both parties are just absurd. There seems to be no reasonableness about it.

I am neither on this side nor on that. My own opinion is that under proper guidance, once tried drugs can be of tremendous value. And whenever the political climate is good and the politicians have a little more intelligence to them, this will become possible. But it has to be used only as an opening, mm? not as a habit.

So get out of it.

[A visitor says: I have a fear of my spiritual energy. I don't know where rm going with it... about a year ago I did a Vipassana retreat for fourteen days, and I had a lot of experiences on the retreat. I felt the energy go clear through my spine and out the top of my head. After that I did a lot of reading -- Buddhism, Tibetan, Krishnamurti -- and I started feeling my head was going to split in half . It just came so strong through my head. In the last year I've been trying to get back into my body and out of my head.]

Mm mm. It almost always happens: when energy starts moving, fear arises. To move into any meditation is playing with fire. And one should not move into it just out of curiosity -- it can be dangerous.

If nothing happens there is no problem. And to ninety percent of people nothing happens so the problem does not arise. But for a few people something starts happening -- then there is danger because you have opened the door of some energy and you don't know what it is, and you don't know where to channel it, what to make of it. It can be very disrupting. And without a master one can go mad.

Hence in the East we have never allowed anybody to do something without a master there. Unless somebody is there to look after you who knows the possibilities, all the alternatives that can happen to you, who knows that madness is very close -- just one step and you can go mad.... Because you are moving on a tight rope. If everything goes right there will be a great synthesis, your whole being will become one. For the first time you will know what individuality is. For the first time you will be integrated and a tremendous benediction will shower on you.

But if everything goes right -- and there is no necessity for everything to go right... Without a master there is more possibility of things going wrong than right because you are simply groping in the dark. And if something goes wrong, then a split, schizophrenia, a dual personality will arise. For the modern man this danger is very very close -- and particularly in California, because all the teachings have become available.

That was not the old way, not the ancient way -- to make teachings available to people generally; there was a sort of secrecy.

Teachings were only made available to people who were really ready to go into them and who were not just curious people; who were ready to risk and were ready to surrender. That is one of the greatest problems: it is easy to read a book; it is very difficult to accept a master, because reading, you remain the master. You can play around with things, this and that, and you can do things.

Teachings were never made so generally available as they have become now. Mm? the whole Pandora's box is open. And not only one teaching has become available thousands of teachings have become available which are diametrically opposite. Many people are victims now. They know everything -- and it is a hodge-podge. Each system functions in a different way -- functions on the same energy but in a different 1/08/07

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way; the devices are different. And when you know many things they become confused: one thing becomes associated with another thing, so one becomes a mess. Then it is very difficult to grow. There is more possibility of going berserk.

There are teachings which are for the right side of the mind; there are teachings which are for the left side of the mind. Now you can read both, and one day you will feel suddenly that your head is getting split in two. And you are the cause of it, because you have been using both minds. Only one has to be used. It is better not to know about the other and its techniques. Later on when you have arrived home, you can read all, you can know as much as you want. Then there is no problem, because now you are integrated and nothing can destroy your integration.

But if you are not integrated, anything is dangerous and everything is dangerous. Then it is better to be with a master and to follow one line. Things will be clear-cut. And if somebody is there who knows what is ahead, he can plan. You cannot plan because you don't know what is ahead. So better choose a master rather than going through books.

Be with somebody and follow his instructions. A book is a dead thing. It has not been written particularly for you. It may be just a generalised teaching, abstract, not addressed to anybody in particular.

But if I am talking to you, I am talking to you; I am not talking to anybody else. And whatsoever I am saying to you is not a general statement -- it is addressed to you... it is meant for you. It will take care of your need, of your possibility, potentiality, of your past, of your future. Then you are on a safe path.

So the first thing for a seeker is to find a master. It is very difficult, because how to decide? How to choose? The old eastern way is just to move from one master to another. You cannot decide off-hand --

there is no way and there is no criterion; you have just to move and feel. Somewhere, with somebody, suddenly you feel at ease. A sort of at-onement happens, rhythms meet; there is something that strikes home. It is just like a hunch... something clicks. For a moment you have a vision that here is the man -- now this will do. Then you have taken the greatest step in your growth. To find a master is almost half of the work done -- you have arrived fifty percent of the way. The harder part is already over -- now the journey can be a dance. You will laugh and enjoy because now you are in safe hands.

So rather than going through the books.... If one is simply reading the books for entertainment, it is okay. Then whether you read tibetan or zen books, or Krishnamurti or Gurdjieff, or anybody -- if you are reading only for entertainment then it is as much use as any detective novel. There is no problem in it, you can read. But I don't see that you are reading only for entertainment -- you have a sincere search. You have a great desire, a passion, to find out who you are, to find out why, for what life exists. The passion is there, then it is dangerous to go on reading, and one tends to try.

Vipassana is good, but may not be the right method for you, and how are you going to decide?

Sometimes the method may be right for you, but the right time has not arrived. After three months of working on other meditations, maybe Vipassana suits you, but right now if you go into it, it may not suit you, or it may give such an explosion of energy that you may not be able to control it. You will be thrown off your centre rather than getting centering from it. You can lose whatsoever centering you had before.

Just a few years before a monk was brought to me from Ceylon. For three years he had not been able to sleep. All sorts of medicines were tried, tranquillizers, and nothing would help. Somebody brought him to me, and I told him, 'Simply stop Vipassana for fifteen days and then we will see.'

By the third day, he was fast asleep and snoring -- and for three years he had not slept! He was surprised. He had never thought about it -- that Vipassana can be such a disturbance in sleep. He was a very soft man. The effort to be aware went so deep into his heart, that even in the night he would not be able to sleep -- that awareness continued. It would keep him awake and .alert. He was becoming mad !

For three years if you cannot sleep, naturally you will become . mad. He continued his meditation and nobody told him.... I told him, 'First do some cathartic meditations. For one year simply follow dynamic meditations, and forget about Vipassana, and then come back.'

After one year he started Vipassana again, but now it was not disturbing his sleep. Now he had become a little harder. Now he was a little more integrated, and he could take in Vipassana. So it depends on the individual, on the right timing. Otherwise things can always go wrong. The more possibility is that they will go wrong than not.

So if you are really interested, come back, be here for a few weeks, meditate here and just feel me.

Much is possible... and if you become afraid you will be stuck. The fear is natural, because you opened something for which you were not ready.

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Query:-

[Osho gives her sannyas]

Anand means bliss and arupam means formless; formless bliss. And bliss is formless. Happiness has a form to it, it is limited. Sadness also has a form to it, it is limited. But bliss has no form, it is unlimited, it has no boundary -- it is unbounded. Happiness is of the mind, sadness too, but bliss is not of the mind -- It is of the beyond.

So the deeper you go, the more you come to the formless. If you look at something from the mind, it has a form. If you touch something through the body, it has a form. It is almost as if you are standing at a window and looking at the sky; then the sky also has the same frame as the window. The sky is frameless, but the window is giving it a frame.

A few modern artists have tried not to put their paintings into frames -- a great experiment, because to put a painting into a frame is not right. Its nature is without any frame. It goes on and on.... So when you put a painting into a frame, you destroy, you falsify.

Truth is without a frame -- so is beauty, so is bliss. And only the formless can satisfy you because you are the formless.

That's why we are never satisfied in ordinary life. Whatsoever we get, some dissatisfaction somewhere continues... some frustration follows like a shadow. Even in the most beautiful moments of happiness, you will find a certain shadow of frustration. Something is missing. You may not even be able to finger it, to pinpoint it, but you know that everything is not all right -- something is missing.

Even in very beautiful moments of love, there is something missing. That's why lovers go on fighting with each other. They think the other is cheating -- not giving as much as he should. Nobody is cheating, but through the body things have a limitation -- they are framed. Through the mind they are a little bigger, but still they are framed. And your innermost core is formless. The formless can be fulfilled only by the formless. How can you fulfill the formless with form? Forms are too small. The hunger is for the formless, and you go on feeding it form. Something remains empty.

So remember that -- that one has to search the undefined. And even when you touch somebody's body in deep love always remember that if the touch ends on the body, it is not going to go very deep. So let the body be the vehicle of the formless. Then the body too, is beautiful. When you say something, always remember not to say it only from the mind -- let the mind be in service of the no-mind. When words are in the service of silence they are golden. They have a tremendous grandeur... they are throbbing with life. They simply become poetry. Ordinary words coming with silence, become poetic, transparent -- you can see through them, and you will find the formless there, alive, waiting.

So always remember, do anything with the body but remember the bodiless. Do something with the mind, but remember the mindless. One should continuously remember the formless, the beyond. Use everything -- I am not against anything, but never forget the formless. That is the meaning of Arupam.

Good!

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #6

Chapter title: Childbirth can be orgasmic

13 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611135

ShortTitle: WHIP06

Audio:

No

Video:

No

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Query:-

[A sannyasin, eight months pregnant, asks: There is one thing I wanted to ask -- if there is any possibility, is there something that the mother can do to reduce the break of memory that the child has through the birth and to make it as easy as possible for the child?]

Certainly the mother can do much -- but you can do only by non-doing. So simply relax.

Non-interference has to be remembered, and when you start feeling the pain simply go with the pain. When you start feeling the movements in the womb, and the body starts getting ready to give birth, and there is a rhythmic pulse inside.... That pulse people think is painful; it is not painful -- it is our wrong interpretation that makes it painful.

So when the pulse arises, simply accept it, float with it. It is just like breathing in, breathing out, so --

the womb and the birth channel start expanding, shrinking. That is just a way to make a passage for the child. When you feel it is pain, when you decide it is pain, you start fighting with it because it is very difficult not to fight with pain. When you start fighting you start an interference with the rhythm. That interference is very destructive to the child. If the mother simply helps the child, if whatsoever is happening the mother goes with the body -- expands with the body, shrinks with the body, allows the pulse and simply enjoys it -- it is really a great delight. But it depends how you take it.

For example, now at least in the West people have more advanced ideas about sex. Otherwise in the past all down the centuries the first sexual experience for the woman was very painful. She was just trembling because from the very childhood it was taught that it is very ugly, animalistic, so she was just shaking with fear. The honeymoon would come close and the woman would be trembling. She has to go through the ordeal -- it was an ordeal, and of course then it was painful. But now in the West at least, the pain has disappeared. It is a beautiful experience -- it is orgasmic.

It is exactly the same thing with childbirth. It is greater orgasm than sexual orgasm, because in a sexual orgasm your body takes a rhythm: expands, shrinks, expands, shrinks, but it is nothing com-pared to when you are giving birth to a child. To give birth to a child is a million-fold bigger orgasm. If you take it as an orgasm -- happy, delighted, rejoicing in it, that's all -- then the child simply comes out of the passage, helped by you. Otherwise if the mother is fighting -- the child wants to come out and the mother is fighting, and she is not allowing the movement that is needed for it, the necessary movement. Sometimes the child is stuck the head is stuck. If the head is stuck, the child will suffer his whole life. He will not be as intelligent as he would have been, because his head is very soft and the brain is still developing. Just a little shock. just a little closing, and the brain is no more as healthy as it could have been.

So help it, enjoy it. Just take it as if you are moving in a great orgasm -- nothing else. No interference on your part is the greatest help for a child. Then the child comes easily, relaxed, in a let-go. And then your child will not need Primal therapy, otherwise each person needs Primal therapy because everybody has suffered a birth trauma, and it has been so painful for the child. It is just the first experience, and the first experience is so ugly, suffocating, almost killing the child: the passage is narrow and the mother is tense and the child cannot come out of the passage.

This is his first experience. So the first experience is of hell, and then the whole life becomes miserable.

Let the first experience be of a beautiful flowing, and that will be the foundation for the child.

[The music group was at darshan tonight. They played and people present at darshan danced.]

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #7

Chapter title: In Orgasm You are Part of God

15 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

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Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

Archive code: 7611155

ShortTitle: WHIP07

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[A sannyasin asks if participating in groups together with her husband would help their relationship.]

Groups never help as far as staying together is concerned. If you want to separate, a group is very helpful, because the whole process is to make one aware of certain things that one does not want to become aware of. For example if a marriage has failed, still the mind goes on hoping. The group will make you aware that it has failed, and the hope is futile -- abandon hope. The group never gives you any hope -- it simply makes you aware of the fact that it didn't work. If it didn't work for thirty years, how is it going to work? But the human mind clings... even goes on clinging to misery just in the hope that something may turn up, something may happen. That's how you have remained your whole life, and the more you remain with a certain misery, the more difficult it becomes to get out of it.

So a group process won't help. If you want to try again, it is better not to go to the group -- it will break you immediately, because a group process is a very authentic process. It has nothing to do with your desires, with your wishes, dreams. It has no 'should'. It simply makes you aware -- of the naked fact that if something has not worked for thirty years, it is not going to work. The mind still wants to hope -- that's how you have been hoping for thirty years. You have wasted thirty years. You could have got out after three years, then these twenty-seven years you would have lived totally differently... you would have been a totally different person. But even now the same hope....

So nothing changes -- this hope is old, it is nothing new. It is not for the first time you are hoping; you have been hoping all these years. So the hope is old, and with the old hope you remain the old. So don't go through a group process if you really want to be together, because the group process has nothing to do with your marriage, nothing to do with your 'shoulds' -- how it should be, that once married then you should remain married to the person forever. The group process has nothing to do with any religion, any morality.

It simply brings your naked truth to you and makes you courageous enough to accept it. So if somebody is going for a separation, I always suggest, 'Go and do a group.' But if you are going to try again with your old hope, the group will be the last thing to be suggested by me, because it is not going to help.

So just go and try again! If you want to try, you have to try. It is your life, and if you want to try it again, there is no problem about it. Go and try once more and see what happens. If things work, good... because sometimes that too happens. You may get tired, and if you really want the marriage to work, mm? you may stop creating old tricks, old games that you were playing before. If you drop them, if you really want, authentically want to make it work, and you drop all your old patterns, and you become absolutely new, at least on your side -- on the other's side you cannot do anything, but if you change completely, there is the fifty percent possibility that the other may start changing.

[She answers: This is my hope.]

So just go and try. But because of this hope, I think you will not be different. This hope is old -- this hope is not new. If you listen to me, I will tell you, 'Go without any hope, and try!' But don't go with any hope -- then at least you are doing something new. Just go without hope, because for thirty years you have been hoping, and it has not worked -- so at least drop hope!

I'm not saying don't try -- try, but this time without any hope, because when you try with a hope, you falsify, you project, you imagine; you don't see the fact of it. Hope is a poison, a drug. All these people moving on the streets, living in misery, and going back again to their misery in a vicious circle -- why are they doing all this? They are drugged by hope. They are all addicts -- hope addicts. In the morning they think they are finished. They are not going back home. They will kill themselves or do something, but they are not coming. By the evening again the hope arises. They think, 'Maybe the wife has changed, or I have changed, and who knows about tomorrow? Let us try once more.' And this way it goes on and on and on....

So abandon hope, and simply go free cf hope. You will be freer, more relaxed, because there is no need 1/08/07

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to force it to work. You know that you are not hoping for anything and so there will be no frustration. If it doesn't work there is no problem; no problem arises out of its non-working. You know beforehand that it is not going to work, so there is nothing to cry and weep and create any scene about.

If you go without hope, you are going as a new person. Murti may be surprised and that may start a chain of change. And tell him that you have not come with any hope -- you have come fully aware that the more likely possibility is that it won't work, because thirty years' experience is enough. Maybe you are such a person, he is such a person, that you don't fit. But one last experiment and this time without any hope, and with no expectations. No effort to dominate him, no effort to change him -- that you have done. This time, you have come to experiment on your own -- he will be on the periphery.

You are trying on your own If it is you who are not fitting with him, then you will do your best to fit. If it is he who is not fitting with you, then you are finished, then you are helpless. But there is no frustration in it -- just a last experiment, a last try. But make it very clear that you have not come with any hope.

If you are hoping too much, you start thinking in terms of ideals, and that is cause of much conflict. It is very difficult for a woman to think that her husband is ordinary. She thinks he is a hero, a saint or something

-- all rubbish! And not only does she think, she tries to make a saint out of him. And then there is difficulty

-- he is an ordinary human being. Just by being your husband, he has not decided to become a martyr or a saint or anything, mm? He is just an ordinary human being, with all imperfections, all limitations, all the flaws that human beings are prone to.

So if you don't hope, you will not create an idea that he is a saint or he has to be a saint. This is my experience -- that out of a hundred cases, it is seventy to eighty percent of the time women are who are responsible for destroying their marriage, because they are the more dreamy of the partners in the game.

They dream too much, they romanticise too much. They have great ideas of how the husband should be, and these ideas cannot be fulfilled. If the husband tries to fulfill them, he will be almost on the gallows! He will be under such a strain that he will drop dead because it will be moving out of his normality, his naturalness.

So that is impossible. And if he tries to be natural, as he is, and as he should be, then the woman is not satisfied.

Men look for physical beauty in women, and women look for something spiritual, something moral in men. They can tolerate a very homely looking person -- that is not difficult; they don't bother about physical beauty much, but something of a psychological grace, something of spirituality. That's why women become easily attracted to spiritual people -- very easily. They have a knack, a feeling, for where spirituality is.

That's what they have been continually hankering for. They wanted to see all that in their husband: maybe he is a Jesus or a Buddha. He is not!

And the problem is, if you get Buddha as a husband, you will not be satisfied then too, because he will be too much of the other world; then there is a problem. So impossible is the hope. In the first place, it is not possible that you can find a Buddha for a husband. In the second place, if it happens at all you will not be satisfied, because he will be so other-worldly, so cool, that he will not have any passion.

What a woman is hankering for is the impossible: the man should be rooted in the earth, and should be from the beyond... should be like a Buddha, and yet a husband. This is not possible. Either Buddhas escape, leave their wives and go to the Himalayas, or even if they remain in their houses they become statues, they become so cool. Then too they are almost dead; the wife is a widow. The husband is alive, but the wife is a widow! Then too it is not satisfying.

So look at this: maybe it is your hoping too much, desiring too much, that has destroyed and corrupted the whole relationship.

And always remember that at the source of your misery you must be there, not the other one. If Murti is suffering, that will be his misery -- it has nothing to do with you -- but if you are suffering, it is your responsibility. So this time, go without hope. Go with no idea of changing Murti -- that you have tried. This time go and accept him totally as he is -- howsoever hard it is. If you really want it to work, then accept him as he is, and tell him, 'I have come without any expectations this time. You be as you are -- you be natural. I have dropped all idealism. Just be natural. And if something has to be done, then I have to do it, because now it is my decision to try once more, so it is my responsibility.' If you go with this idea, there is a possibility it may work. But if you go with hope, you go with the old.

I was thinking that when you go I was going to say to you to go without hope. Go completely free, and then the experiment will have beauty to it, and then he will not feel that you have come back again, and just the whole old story starts again. He will not feel that. So from the very beginning just make everything clear. The first moment you see him, tell him everything.

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And if it doesn't work, then simply say good-bye and come back. Then forget all about it. Mm? start anew.

But I have a feeling it can work, mm? Let me hope, but you go without hope! Mm? Good!

[A sannyasin says: My life is rather changed since I've been here. But there is something going wrong, because I feel I'm not at all interested in sex and relationship, and I cannot really be transcending sex through meditating because I've never really been in touch with the in-things, so perhaps I'm avoiding something.]

I have been watching you. There are two problems -- in fact, just two aspects of the one problem. One aspect is that you are very much afraid that maybe you are going to lose your interest in sex forever; that is one. That is absolutely unbased. There is no need to be afraid of it. When in the beginning one starts meditating, it happens. It is the same energy that was involved in sex. The same energy starts moving towards meditation. So for the time being, for a period of at least six, twelve weeks at the most, one feels as if one is not interested in sex, in love. Once the meditation has settled, for the first time you will know that now your sexual quality is totally different -- very deep-going. It is becoming more loving, more tender, soft. It is losing violence and neurosis. It is no more an obsession -- it is a flowering, very natural.

For the first time you will see what sex should be. Ordinarily people are just obsessed by sex. It is not a natural thing. It is almost like a burden... a constant worry about it. It is more like a performance; it is more like a duty that one has to do. If you do it, you don't gain much. If you don't do it, you feel you are losing much; maybe you are missing something. So it is a very vicious circle -- and that's what has been up to now.

So before sex becomes normal and natural, there will be a time in which you will lose interest -- in that time don't be afraid. You are not going to become a buddhist nun -- don't be afraid, mm? And by chance you had to listen to Buddha lectures, mm? so that created much fear in you -- that I am trying to make a buddhist nun of everybody. No, you are not going to become a nun, and I am not in favour of nuns -- that is again another neurosis.

A few are neurotically in favour of sex; a few are neurotically against it. A natural person is neither for nor against. It is not a problem at all. One is simply as attuned to natural things as one is attuned to breathing. One is neither for breathing nor against breathing. One does not even think about it. Sex should be exactly that way.

So within a few weeks it will settle. Now these few weeks will be difficult, and if you don't put your energy into meditation more, it will take a longer time to settle. If you put your whole energy into it... the body is ready to, that's why the interest in sex has disappeared. The body is ready to take the jump -- you are apprehensive. Relax and take the jump. Within a few weeks meditation will settle and there will be no need for this much energy to be engaged there. Then your energy can become available again for sex, and it will be on a new, higher altitude. It will become more meditative.

Sex and meditation are not opposite things. Sex is a sort of meditation, and meditation is a sort of sexual experience. In fact this is my statement: that people have become aware about meditation only because of sex. The first meditator must have come to know about meditation through sex -- there is no other way.

Meditation is born out of deep sexual experience, because that is a natural way to meditate. That is the only natural way available in which you can move totally, without holding anything. You can simply go beyond the mind. Thinking stops in a deep sexual experience -- and time too. One is aware neither of time nor of mind. One is simply a presence -- one is not even aware of the body. One is -- without body, without mind.

In a deep sexual experience, one forgets whether one is man or woman. And when the orgasm really showers, you are part of God.

Sex is a great natural blessing. And through sex people have experienced their first glimpses of meditation. Only then, by and by, they developed the meditation techniques. And once a person becomes able to move into a deep meditative technique suddenly he knows the experience is the same. Then it is for you to choose -- both are available. If you feel like moving into sex and relating to somebody -- good! If you don't feel like it, you can have the same experience through meditation. Meditation is in fact an inner auto-eroticism. In sex the other is needed, and because of the other there are a thousand and one complexities.

In meditation the other is not needed. Your own inner woman and man meet in a deep communion and dissolve. The same happens inside the heart, in your innermost core of being. So right now put all your energies into meditation. And don't be afraid!

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The day you want your sex back, I will just move my hand and it will be back. You just tell me -- the day you want it back, it will be back; there is no problem in it. It is very simple. In fact, to take somebody away from sex is very difficult. To bring them back to sex is very simple -- because it is a fall, it is downhill. So it is very simple. It is just a push and your car goes downhill without any petrol. So don't be worried. But put more of your energies into meditations. Good. Very good!

[A sannyasin says: Last time you told me not to be afraid to feel anything. And I felt the bottom of many things and the top of many things. I felt fear all through my body... And love. A lot of fear and sadness --

and love too.]

Good. Everybody has great fear deep down. We never go that deep so we don't become aware of it.

When a child is born, with the birth, death is born. So the first experience of life is entangled with death.

Once a child is born only one thing is certain -- that he will die; nothing else is certain. He may succeed in the world, may not succeed; he may remain a bachelor or may get married; he may earn much money or become a sannyasin. Nobody knows, nothing is certain. But one thing is absolutely certain -- that he will die... maybe after seventy years, sixty years, or twenty years or a hundred years; that is irrelevant, time is not relevant. One thing is absolutely certain: once you are born, you will die.

So the first circle around the child is of death. And it remains there -- the fear of death. So you do many things, mm? You get involved in many things, occupied in many ways, but behind it all somewhere, death waits. And when you start encountering your inner feelings, fear will arise again. Don't be escaping from it

-- accept it. If it is so, it is.

If you accept it and still go on looking deeper, you will find that behind fear is death, and you will pass through an experience of death. That's why sadness is just lurking behind fear. That is the shadow of death.

And if you can live with death too, you will penetrate into a new world that is of life. So the first centre is life, the first circle around life is death, and of course with death is sadness, fear, and then layer upon layer like an onion.

If you go on peeling an onion, the onion of man, these things will happen. But finally at the very core of it is life, so one just has to go on digging.

One day suddenly, all layers are broken, there is a break-through, and you are standing face to face with life, with eternal life. Call it God, truth or whatever.

So, good! Don't be disturbed by it; you are on the right track. But accept these things -- there is no need to escape from them or hide yourself somewhere.

[She answers: But I felt myself fighting so much... so many no's inside me.]

That may be because of fear. Fear always says 'no'. It is only fearlessness which says 'yes'. To say yes, one needs to be very brave. To say no is nothing, even a coward can say no. To say yes, one needs great intelligence; to say no, no intelligence is needed. That fear may be the cause of all your no's. But stick to it.

Don't waver here and there, and don't look sideways -- go on looking into it. It will be painful, but if you can prolong this process for a few days more, one day suddenly you will see that fear has gone and there is death, darkness... abysmal dark, an infinite darkness and you are lost in it as if you are dying.

When death is there, fear will disappear -- this is one of the most beautiful things. When a person is really facing death all fear disappears because now there is no point. Fear is always of the future. If somebody comes with a dagger and puts it on your heart, you will not be afraid. In that moment you will simply look like a child, innocent, there will be no fear at all. But if somebody says, 'I will kill you tomorrow', the whole night you will be afraid because tomorrow is in the future.

So go on facing this fear, and one day suddenly there will be a great explosion of darkness. Christian mystics have the right name for it: they call it 'the dark night of the soul'. If one can pass through the darkness of the soul, then there is the mom, the dawn, the sunrise, and one is for the first time, really alive.

But one has to pay for it -- and for all these things a price is to be paid. It is not cheap -- it is arduous and hard. Just go on with it. Mm?

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The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #8

Chapter title: Celebration -- the Only Rule

16 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611165

ShortTitle: WHIP08

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[A visitor, who is a film star asks: If you can help me in any way... ]

In every way I am going to help, mm? The first thing first: become a sannyasin (the visitor nods slowly).

That connects you with me -- and before the work can start a deep connection is needed, a deep involvement with me is needed because the help is not going to be an outer help. I need a passage into the heart. And by becoming a sannyasin you become available, you become vulnerable. Then it becomes very easy, you don't create obstacles. Otherwise ordinarily the human mind goes on creating obstacles in a thousand and one ways... unconsciously of course.

A man is his own undoing. So if you really want help, the first need is to get involved with my family --

immediately many things start happening. The first thing -- you become relaxed with me. Otherwise whenever a new person comes here, he's afraid of sannyas -- desirous and afraid too. There is a part which wants to move into this new space that I am making available here, and there is a part, naturally from the past, which is suspicious of everything -- everything new at least; that part holds back.

So if you are here and not a sannyasin, to become a sannyasin or not to become a sannyasin remains a constant worry on the head -- a very subtle tension. Once you have become a sannyasin that tension is gone.

You can relax, and only when you are in a relaxed state can I penetrate you. By becoming relaxed you become feminine; then penetration is possible. By surrendering you are no more a male energy -- that's why surrender is so difficult. The male energy is aggressive... it wants to conquer. Hence the West has given birth to science -- science is an aggressive attack, almost a rape on truth.

In the East we have never thought in terms of conquering, we have thought in terms of surrendering. We surrender to nature, to God, or whatsoever one calls it, and then nature starts revealing its mystery.

So this sannyas is nothing but a first step towards the ultimate surrender which will be coming by and by. I am just a door. By surrendering to me you enter into the temple.

And I can help in every way, but I can help only if you allow me to help.

There is a very famous story about a sufi mystic, Bayazid. When he went to his master he was a young man, desirous of knowing. He went to his master and he asked the master, 'Would you teach me, sir?'

The master looked at him and said, 'Would you allow me to teach you?'

And that very saying became a transformation.

I am ready to help but will you allow me to help you?... because nothing can be done without your cooperation. I never interfere in anybody's life unless the life has become part of my life -- that's what the meaning of sannyas is. Then you are no more [your name]: you don't belong to your past -- you belong to me. You can simply come out of your past as a snake comes out of the old skin -- and it is tremendously beautiful to come out of the past. For a man like you who has lived a public life, who has become famous in a way, who is well-known, it is a must to get out of it.

This is one of the greatest human dilemmas -- that when a person is not known, not famous, he hankers to become famous because walking on the road as a nonentity hurts. Nobody looks at you, nobody even says 'hello', nobody pays any attention. Whether you exist or not does not matter. If you die, there will not 1/08/07

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even be a ripple, you will simply disappear as if you had never existed -- it hurts. One starts in every way to make one's mark, to leave one's signature, so that even when death comes one can live in people's memories. And one wants that people should pay attention... people should know who you are! So there is a great urge to become famous. Somebody becomes a politician, somebody becomes an actor, somebody becomes an author, a painter, a poet... somebody becomes a saint.

The day you are famous -- and it takes long effort; tired, exhausted you arrive, you become famous --

suddenly you recognise that now it is almost impossible to walk on the road, to be, because no privacy is available. Wherever you go people know who you are. Everybody is staring at you. One becomes a public show.

So when one becomes famous, one finds that one has lost one's privacy, one's own space. Then one wants to be anonymous, you want to go somewhere where nobody knows you. So first we create fame, when it is there... and by the time it is there much has been lost; much energy has been wasted, one has suffered much: many headaches and many ulcers, and everything has happened. And then by the time one becomes famous, it is futile. First one hankers for riches -- when they are there, one simply sees the futility of it all.

... Sannyas is just a leap of understanding. that now fame does not mean anything, richness does not mean anything; that you would like to live a natural, simple, spontaneous life. I am not saying to escape from the world, I'm not saying drop out of your work, but once this ambition disappears, you can remain in whatsoever you are doing, but the quality will change.

... And that's what I can see -- you need a space to be alone, you need a space, a private space, a private sky where you are left alone and you can be silently growing, doing something or not doing something, just enjoying being. You are tired of doing. Sannyas will be a great help: it will make a discontinuity.

On the surface it is very difficult to say what sannyas is. It is an experience. And there are two ways to become a sannyasin: one is -- you think about it, you decide about it. The other and the better is that you simply go into it in deep trust without thinking about it, without making a decision about it. When you make a decision, sannyas is not so valuable because it is the past making decision. Then the break is not so abrupt.

Mm? you will think -- who is this thinking? Your past will think and calculate and watch and talk to people and meet people and see whether something happens or not. This whole thing will go on and then there is a conclusion, a decision -- you take or you don't take. But this decision comes out of the past, and the past remains continuous, then the quantum leap is missed.

If you simply take a jump, not knowing where you are going, not making any effort to know where you are going -- if you simply go into this darkness, into this vast darkness of existence, without any map, without any plan -- then it has a tremendous beauty. You will have a thrill, an adventure.

So it is for you to decide ! Would you like to decide or would you simply like to go into it?

... Close your eyes and feel me surrounding you from everywhere as if you are just in my womb, relaxed, contented -- and whatsoever form your body starts taking, let it take.

This will be your name... so consciously, deliberately make a break with the old name. For your business purposes you can continue the old, but as far as you are concerned the old name becomes fictitious, the old name becomes pseudo, and this new name becomes your reality -- Swami Deva Veeten.

Deva means divine -- the word comes from the same root as divine. Divine comes from a sanskrit root, deva -- they both mean light. From dev comes day and divine both -- it means light. And veeten means beyond; the light beyond or the God beyond. And the reality is beyond you. The reality is beyond the body, beyond the mind. That's what one is ordinarily identified with -- either the body or the mind -- but reality is beyond both. Reality is in the witnessing of both.

If you can observe the body, you are more real than you are when you are in the body. If you are eating, you are not as real as if you are watching yourself eating. When you are thinking, you are not so real: but if you can watch the thoughts passing by you become more real.

Reality happens to you only when you are not identified with the body and mind. So Veeten means trying to be beyond, trying to be constantly beyond any identity that can confine you. That's what Gurdjieff calls 'self-remembering', but self-remembering is not such a good word because the self in fact does not exist when there is remembering. So the word is not a very fortunate choice; self-remembering somehow makes it a self-centred thing. There is every possibility... and I have come across many Gurdjieff people who have mistaken self-remembering for self-consciousness.

They become more self-conscious -- that creates more tension. Self-remembering has nothing to do with self-consciousness because it has nothing to do with self, it is simple remembering. Remembering is also 1/08/07

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not a very good choice of words, mm? because it means that you are remembering something from the past.

It has nothing to do with the past either. You have never known it. It is going to be for the first time. It is not a rediscovery -- it is a discovery ! So it is a witnessing, it is pure consciousness, it is just seeing things as they are.

So these are the three layers upon one's being. One is the world outside, the outermost layer: the sun, the trees, the people, the society. It is very easy to get out of it, because there is a gap between you and it; it is not very difficult. And there is no need to escape to the Himalayas or to a cave, because wherever you go the world is there -- the outer world is there. It is very simple, because the distance is vast so one is never identified with the outer world. There are a few people very neurotic, who have become identified.

Somebody is so much identified with his car that if a car is dented, he is dented. Or with the house -- if the house is gone, he may start thinking of committing suicide. Or there are people who are very much identified with money, wife, children, but ordinarily that is not such a big problem, because you know that you are separate.

The problem starts with the body -- the body is very close. The outer world is like a dream -- you can drop it and you can become naked. The body is like skin -- it is not so easy to peel it away, but it is not impossible. So just watching helps. You are walking on the road just become the witness. see the body walking.

And don't make it a tense thing: strain is not needed. If it becomes strenuous, you miss the point. So be perfectly at ease and relaxed. It is fun -- it is not a serious thing. That is one of the other problems which Gurdjieff people have imbibed -- they become very serious, and they don't take it as fun. That creates anxiety.

Even when Gurdjieff was there many people became ill, many people died, many people went mad, and the reason was that it was thought to be such a great work ! The very word 'work' makes it very serious.

What I am doing here is play -- it is not work. When I am gone, my work is to be known as play, never as work. So take it non-seriously. Seriousness is a disease and through seriousness no one has ever gone beyond. Seriousness is so heavy that it makes you rooted in the gravitation. One needs to be very playful, then one can go beyond gravitation -- one can fly!

A great unburdening is needed, so just be playful about it. When I say, 'when walking, watch,' I mean be playful. If sometimes you forget, nothing is wrong in it. Watch that too -- you have forgotten, good! Then again you remember, good! Both are good. In fact there is a rhythm. You cannot constantly watch; it is just like breathing in, breathing out.

... And that has been one of the missing points in Gurdjieff's system.

People are trying to be continuously watching. It is foolish!

When you breathe out the air goes out, when you breathe in the air goes in, and there is a rhythm. The eyes go on blinking, there is a rhythm. And everything is a rhythm: the day and night, the summer-winter, the whole of life is rhythmic. So watchfulness cannot be a continuity. One should not strive for it. It is foolish, and it can create a neurosis! It can create cancer, tuberculosis, and it can create many things, because you strain too much.

So just let it be a natural rhythm. Sometimes you forget; that means it is exhalation. When you remember it is inhalation. And then it becomes very simple... very simple, child-like. And when you start enjoying it, forgetfulness, remembering, forgetfulness, remembering.... And both are good, because the forgetfulness gives you respite and rest -- that is needed, it prepares you again to remember.

So walking, eating, sitting, just be watchful, but in a playful mood, with the body. And the same has to be done with the mind. Sometimes sitting silently, just watch. And that watching has not to be with a staring inside -- with very relaxed eyes. One is simply sitting, a thought passes by -- one looks at it.

[The new sannyasin says: Yes, because when I look at it, it stops.]

No, you must be straining. If you strain, then it stops. Let it float, it has its own right to be. Let it float just as clouds float in the sky. Just watch. So, watchfulness without any tension in it. That's why I am not using the word attention, because it has tension in it.

Just an unfocused watchfulness. So whatsoever it is, one is looking at it. There is no desire to stop, because if you are desiring to stop it you cannot watch it. The very desire becomes again subtle identification -- you are afraid of the thought. There is no need to be afraid. The thought is the thought, you are you. The thought is not hindering you. The clouds are moving in the sky. The thoughts are moving in 1/08/07

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the mind. The thoughts are as far away from you as clouds, and they have nothing to do with you. In fact they are not even yours -- they are just passing. That's why one thought comes, another comes, and sometimes you will become aware that if you are with a certain person a certain type of thought enters in you, mm? because that person is constantly broadcasting. So they are not exactly yours; thoughts are collective.

The society exists in an atmosphere of thoughts -- just as air is social. Mm? I breathe out, you breathe in.

You breathe out, I breathe in. One thought passes my head, it enters in your head, it passes into somebody else's head and it goes on.

So nothing to be worried about. You are not to stop it. Simply watch, and in a very relaxed, calm, quiet mood. And learn to sit silently. Whenever you can find time, just relax in the chair -- no need for any posture. The only thing to be remembered is that you are at ease. Any posture that makes you at ease, at home, is good. So just relax, just close your eyes, and just be.

By and by you will see you are neither the society, nor the body, nor the mind. And then a new sensation... a new feeling of being arises, and you know you are this. Not that you make that type of statement inside -- no. It simply arises existentially: 'Now this is me.'

This witnessing, this consciousness, is our innermost core. And all the religions have been working to achieve this state. Many people try but miss, because they try too hard. That is the problem with Krishnamurti -- trying too hard... making it such a problem. People are already burdened with problems, and you bring another problem, and an almost impossible problem too. And Krishnamurti goes on hammering on their heads, and becomes angry too... rages!

But that is not going to help anybody. Life is playful... God is playful. And one comes closer to God as one becomes more playful.

So mix with people here, change to orange, forget your past for the days you are here. Dance, meditate

-- but everything has to be done absolutely non-seriously. Sincerely, yes! -- but seriously, no.

And enjoyment, delight, has to be imbibed. Laughter has to be learned and enjoyment in small things: drinking a cup of tea, talking to a friend, holding hands with a stranger or just sitting looking at the sky. Life is marvellous! And if we miss, only we are responsible -- nobody else.

And all that man needs to be happy is available. All that man needs to be happy is always available. You just have to relax and enjoy it and participate in it. So let celebration be the only rule!

And I would like you to do a few groups here. A few groups will be very helpful.

... Rolfing is good, mm? Do that, and book for Encounter... and these days you are here just mix with people and dance and enjoy.... And forget everything. Much is going to happen. You just have to allow --

and I have started working, mm? Good!

[To another sannyasin]

Come here. Mm, so great energy is happening? Very good. Something has exploded in you.

Now, three things have to be remembered. First, in the lecture try to control it, remain centred. Let the energy be there; it will rise with a great force and you will have every temptation to cry or move, sway, shake -- every temptation, because when the energy is there the temptation is there. But at least in the lecture drop that temptation. If you can drop that temptation and you remain silent and sit silently and watch it, you will see that soon, if you don't get tempted it will cool down, and then there will be a great showering of bliss on you, because when you shriek or you scream the energy is lost.

So there are two different types of screams: one I allow. one I don't allow. One type is of catharsis: you are full of anger and a scream comes -- it is good, healthy. Mm? you have thrown anger out, you have thrown a toxic element from your system, it is good. Hence in all my meditations, catharsis is a part. If your body wants to move, let it move so the body can drop all wrong vibrations accumulated in it. For example, if you are angry you want to hit somebody but you cannot. The situation does not permit -- he is your boss or something and it will be too costly. It is uneconomical to hit him, so you hold the energy in your hand, now your hand keeps that energy. In the body there is no way for the energy to go back to its original source. It can come to the hand but it cannot go back. There is no reverse gear because when God created man, He had not thought about saints -- that these people will come and teach people to repress -- so there has been no reverse gear.

You know when Ford made his first car there was no reverse gear (laughter). Only later on when he found that it was difficult.... If you wanted to come back you had to go miles around and then you had to come back... he thought about it. God has not. yet thought about it! (laughter) He still hopes that some day 1/08/07

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these saints will disappear and people will be natural. So there is only one gear. The energy comes to the hand; if you don't hit, the energy clings there.

In Kundalini, in Dynamic, when your hand shakes, that energy falls away. It is good -- it gives you a new quality. As dust drops your mirror becomes clear. So as far as catharsis is concerned, good. But then when catharsis has happened and new energy arises and it is there near your navel and it bursts forth with great power, it is not good to express it, otherwise it will be lost. So keep quiet and let it accumulate there.

Let it become a great reservoir.

Mm. First it will come to your heart and there will be great temptation to cry and weep. Don't weep, don't cry; you will see that it is coming to your throat. When it comes to your throat there will be a great temptation to shout and say something. Don't say anything and you will see that it has gone beyond the throat; it has come to your third eye.

When it comes to your third eye, your eyes will start being pulled upwards and you will feel that there is a pull. Up to this point you can help the energy to come, beyond that it goes by itself. But if you start crying, weeping, it will never go above the heart. If you shout it will never go above the throat. And it has to reach to the third eye -- only from the third eye is there transformation, never before it. When the kundalini, the energy, the snake inside you, uncoils and reaches to the third eye, your work is finished Now you are available to God -- now He will pull you. It is almost as if you go to the roof and you want to jump: you need to take one step, then the rest will be done by gravitation. You don't do anything afterwards -- you simply jump!

Up to the third eye you have to come, and from there you need not work. Then the seventh centre starts pulling the energy automatically.

So this energy is not a cathartic energy. The first day you started screaming I told you to stop, and that was just to see whether you could stop it or not.

[The sannyasin answers: I couldn't hear you.]

You could not, I know. You could not -- that proved that it was not catharsis. If it was catharsis you would have immediately stopped, because catharsis is in control. You have been doing that for your whole life, so it is nothing new to stop it. One is angry and one can smile; you have learned that! One wants to shout, but stops. The husband and wife were just going to quarrel, and throw things at each other, and a guest knocks -- mm? They are smiling and all smiles! (laughter) So you know it. But that day you could not.

That proved that it was nothing that you can do anything about. You will have to learn.

So from tomorrow morning, sit very far away there in the corner so that nobody is disturbed and just keep quiet -- become a Buddha statue -- and when the energy arises just keep quiet. Within two or three days you will become able -- no shaking of the body, and no shouting -- and then you will be benefitted, so blessed. A great benediction will surround you.

Continue in the meditations -- that is catharsis. But in lectures simply sit silently, mm? And then later on I will tell you something else. This is the first thing to do. Two things I will tell you, so when you come next, you remind me about the other two things. First you do this, mm? And things are going very well.

Mm?

[A sannyasin says: I wrote that I was really angry with you, and that it was about something to do with the Buddha lectures... I felt you wanted so much of me and I couldn't live up to your expectations, and I wanted you to leave me alone...

Mm! I cannot leave you alone! (laughter. Osho chuckles)

[She continues: But it just made me feel angry... you have sticking your nose into my affairs. I was so angry!]

Mm mm, that's a good sign (laughter). That's really beautiful -- because anger arises only when something hits hard and deep. And these lectures on Buddha have hit many people, and they have hit only because they have a truth in them. The problem is, if you accept their truth then what about your illusions that you are living in? So this is the difficulty: if Buddha is right, then your whole life is wrong -- and that is too much. And then you say, 'What right has Buddha?'

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But he is right! (laughter) Nothing can be done about it!

And if you understand him rightly, he is not saying to leave your illusions or anything like that -- no! No master of that quality ever interferes in anybody's life. He is simply saying his truth. If you can understand, good. If you cannot understand, there is no need to be worried about it. Continue! Some day you will realise that yes, he is right, and then you will repent.

But it takes time -- and everybody is not ripe at that moment to understand it. There is a difference: when the fruit is ripe it falls down easily. And if he starts talking about falling down... and fruit which is not ripe and which still wants to cling to the tree and live his dreams out certainly feels angry.

Ouspensky has dedicated his book 'In Search of the Miraculous' to Gurdjieff, with the words: 'To the man who disturbed my sleep.' It is a disturbance, and when somebody is asleep, and really enjoying a good dream, a nice dream, and you go and shake him....

So your anger is natural -- I am not saying anything against it, but I will go on shaking you! (laughter) And keep coming, keep being angry -- that is not a problem, mm? That is not a problem. It simply shows love and nothing else. If you love you become angry too. And it is good -- it gives spice (laughter). So many people love me, and if they don't get angry, it becomes too sweet (laughter). Allow it, mm? So you are the salty type of sannyasin, mm? Good, Shraddha. Don't be worried. Continue hating and being angry, and you can write as long letters as you want -- because who reads? (much laughter) Mm? Good!

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #9

Chapter title: Laughter is Prayer

17 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611175

ShortTitle: WHIP09

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[Osho gives sannyas to a five-year-old girl and she skips back to her seat. Osho speaks to her parents:]

Anand means bliss, joy, and hasya means laughter. Teach her to laugh more and more. And when you play with her, keep the atmosphere of laughter around her. If you can avoid seriousness, you will be fulfilling your duty. Children are crushed under seriousness. Certainly older people are more serious and children are laughter-like, but by and by they start imitating; they start feeling as if laughter is something wrong. And older people create an impression in their minds that to be serious, to keep quiet, to be silent, is something good, virtuous. That is wrong, because once the child loses contact with laughter it is very difficult to gel back the contact. So many therapies are needed, and even then it is difficult to get your childhood back. So many religions are needed. In fact there is no need for any religion in the world.

If children are allowed to be natural, laughing, allowed fun, spontaneity, no religion is needed, no church is needed. People will be religious without any religion, and people will be religious without any church. They may not know the name of God, they may not go somewhere to worship, but their whole life will be worship, because laughter is a prayer.

The moment the child loses fun, death has settled in, and near the age of three, a child starts dying.

That's why even in old age people remember that there was paradise in childhood -- childhood was heaven.

That feeling that something has been lost continues -- the garden of Eden has been lost... Adam has been expelled.

In fact, it is beautiful -- the story that he ate the fruit of knowledge is beautiful -- he ate knowledge. He 1/08/07

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must have become serious, because the moment you become knowledgeable you lose laughter, you lose fun.

His laughter must have stopped. And he was hiding from God. The moment you stop playing, you start hiding from God. He was expelled because of his knowledge, his seriousness. He had become a saint -- he was no more a child. That's why Jesus goes on insisting that unless you become a child again, you will not enter the kingdom of God.

So whenever you have a child, you have a garden of Eden around you. So don't force him to become serious. No child should be forced to become serious. Rather you should lose seriousness when you are with her. Laugh and become a child. If you can help that much, she will grow into a beautiful sannyasin. Mm?

Good!

[to a visitor]:

Close your eyes and if something happens in the body -- the body starts moving and swaying, your hands start moving in a mudra, a gesture, your head leans forward, backward -- allow it, as if you are not there but only energy is.

Open your eyes and enter into another world, mm? Just feel me.

This will be your name: Ma Deva Aneesha.

I am giving you a very paradoxical name, but life is paradoxical and I love paradox. Only lies are not paradoxical -- truth always is. Deva means divine, and aneesha means godlessness; divine godlessness. And that is exactly the case -- God is not a person. In fact there is no God -- there is only divine energy. It is better to call it godliness rather than God. Life is divine, but there is no God like a father-figure, there is nobody who is manipulating, controlling -- nobody has ever created life, it is eternal. In this sense Christianity, Judaism, Islam are very childish religions. Their concept of God is the concept of a child who looks at the father and cannot believe that the world can be without a father... who goes on thinking that there must be somebody just like his father who protects, shelters.

But in the East we have developed great religions -- religions for the grown-up person. The Buddha's teaching is without any God. It teaches you divinity, but there is no God in it. H.G. Wells has said about Buddha that he is both the godliest man and the most godless. Never has anybody walked on this earth who was more godly and more godless.

If Nietzsche were born in India, if he had known anything about Buddha, he may not have gone mad. He said, 'God is dead.' But then he could not manage -- he himself was not yet so grown-up as to be able to accept a world without any centre, to conceive of a world without somebody controlling it -- he was shattered. His own mind was still that of a child, and he stumbled upon a very great concept -- that there is no God. Now it was impossible for him to be quiet, to be silent -- he was split. A part of him was demanding that God is needed, and another part was saying that there is no God.

In the same situation, if he were in India, if he had known something about Buddha, he would have become another Buddha. Buddha never went mad -- he denied God absolutely but there was no problem in it. He simply became so grown-up that the childhood concept was left behind like toys, meaningless.

Christianity in that sense remains a beginner's religion: if Christianity is the ABC of religion then Buddhism is the XYZ; if Christianity is the alpha then Buddhism is the omega.

And this name is a buddhist name: Ma Deva Aneesha. I would like you to become more and more divine, and yet godless. Then divinity is a freedom. Otherwise even God becomes a bondage and a prison.

So a christian monk or a christian nun has no taste of freedom, of what freedom is. Their bowing down to some God in heaven is a sort of mental slavery. Not that bowing down is wrong, but to bow down out of fear or out of greed is juvenile. To bow down out of love is another thing. But then love is not for some person in particular -- love is for the whole existence.

So this is my message for you: don't look for God -- look for divinity. And you will find it everywhere --

in the trees, in the rivers, in the laughter of children, in the wrinkles of an old face, in the birds, in the sky --

you will find it everywhere! If you are looking for God you will never find it. In God you can believe, but it never becomes an experience. If you are looking for godliness, it is everywhere. Then wherever you touch there is godliness, because the whole stuff that the universe is made of is godliness.

So don't look for a God in an anthropomorphic sense, don't think of God in a human form -- just think of godliness. Mm? it is an ocean of godliness taking so many forms and so many waves. All ripples are His, but when I say His I don't mean a person. I have to use language so I use it, but I mean a no-person, just a quality. God is more like a fragrance than like a flower... more diffused, more formless, more nebulous.

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Prem means love, and rachana means creation. And to me, only love is creative. All else is destructive.

Creation is out of love, and whatsoever you do with love becomes creative. Anything that is touched by love is golden. Even small ordinary things im-mediately have a different quality to them. So a person who lives a life of love, lives a creative life. In fact only he lives. Loving is living -- and to live a life without love is to drag.

Love has been destroyed very badly by religions. They talk about love, but they talk about something abstract -- that abstraction is not possible. Love is a reality, a very concrete phenomenon. For example, religions say, 'Love humanity.' Now this is foolish! You cannot love humanity. Whenever you love, you love a human being, not humanity. Where will you find humanity to hug and to kiss and to love? --

impossible! But abstraction looks beautiful -- 'Love humanity.' And there are many people who are incapable of loving human beings. They hide behind humanity -- they say they love humanity, they love God.

It is very easy to love God because you are not going to enounter Him. It is very difficult to love a human being because to love a human being is to go through fire, and growth comes out of fire. To love God is almost impotent, it is meaningless. And unless you have loved human beings, real human beings, there is no possibility to reach to higher altitudes of love. One needs a foundation in the earth.

I am very earthly that way. I know one has to go higher and higher, but every height needs depth. A tree goes high, but then simultaneously it is going deep through the roots -- it is almost the same proportion. If the tree goes fifty feet high, it goes fifty feet deep in the earth. It is not possible that a tree should go only two feet depth, and fifty feet high -- it will fall down, it will not have foundations.

So first grow your. roots in the earth. Based on the earth one can rise high into heaven. And heaven and earth are not enemies -- but religions have made that trick. They have managed to create the idea that heaven and earth are enemies, and if you want to love heaven, you have to hate earth. This is absurd, and not only absurd -- it is poisonous. If you want to love heaven you have to love earth as deeply as possible, as totally as possible. The more total your love for earth, the greater will be your flight into heaven. Even a bird that goes far away into the sky knows that there is a nest waiting for him; by the evening he will be able to come back and rest. He can go so far only because he has a nest somewhere on the earth. One can go as far as one wants, but one should have a foundation in the earth.

So love concrete human beings, concrete animals, concrete trees, love the real, and then your life by and by will become more and more creative.

[A sannyasin, who has trained in and practiced massage, says: I'm very attracted to doing massage. I have some resistance to it as well. I'd like your guidance on that.]

Mm. That's very good. So would you like to start massage immediately or would you first like to do a few groups and then start massage?

... I think it will be better, mm? A little work on you, and then you do massage. And massage is not simply massage. You are sharing energy; and unless you have energy flowing in you, soon you will become tired. Then it is very risky. It is not physical tiredness that comes -- that is not important; you will sleep, you will eat, and it will go. But massage is a deeper sharing of energy. When you are massaging somebody's body, not only are your bodies involved -- your subtle bodies, two energy bodies, two bio-plasmas. The person who is taking massage can take too much of your bio-plasma, and unless you have a constant inner supply, unless you are joined to the source, you will become very much dissipated by it. It may not immediately affect you because you are young. Even for months and years you may not feel it, but one day suddenly you will feel you have collapsed.

So my understanding is that first one should work upon oneself, and one should become very very centred. When you are centred, you are not. When you are centred, the source starts functioning. Then you are just a passage. The cosmos starts flowing through you -- then there is no problem. You can share as much energy as you want, and you will be constantly getting new energy, mm? Then you are not like a reservoir of water which has no springs to it. You are like a well which has many springs to it; you go on taking the water out and new water is flowing in -- you cannot exhaust it. In fact you take the old, rotten, stale water out and the fresh and alive water comes in. So the well is very happy -- you are unburdening it from the past and the old and the stagnant.

So if you are in a flow and your energy is flowering then there is no problem. But right now I see that 1/08/07

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you will be taking a risk. So first do one or two camps, do a few groups, and then wait for me. But go on reminding me, so that when I feel that now the right moment has come and you can move into massage, you will move. Otherwise later you will repent. When somebody is young it is not difficult. But later on, when one is going downhill -- after thirty-five years, and the downhill slope comes -- one starts feeling many problems. And you may not even connect them with your massage unless you know. This happens to many healers: they heal people, but one day they fall very badly ill, and then nobody can heal them because their own energy is almost spent, exhausted.

So massage and healing and these phenomena are very subtle. And it is not only a question of knowing the technique. The bigger question is how to be at the source -- then there is no problem. Then I don't bother even about the technique and whether you know it or not. Mm? you can simply start playing with somebody's body and energy will be flowing, and there will be great benefits. But there is only real benefit when the person who is massaging is also benefitted through it -- then there is a real benefit. Then the healer is benefitted, and the healee too -- both are benefitted. Nobody is at loss.

Do the camp, and then I will see. After each group you will be seeing me, then I will see how things are going. Once your energy is flowing, start massage in the ashram. Mm? Good!

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #10

Chapter title: Be a Pure Hedonist

18 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611185

ShortTitle: WHIP10

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[To a sannyasin, newly arrived:]

Do a few groups here, mm? Join the music group and become part of the family here. Music melts people very easily. Otherwise something remains frozen and one is not even aware of it. So the first necessity of all growth is to be relaxed. Nobody can grow with a tense mind, and sometimes it happens very paradoxically that even the growth itself becomes a tension -- one has to grow. Then the very idea of growth becomes the barrier. So start with music.

And the dance is unstructured, it is just natural -- whatsoever comes to you, the way it comes to you -- it is not a performance. You are not dancing for anybody else, you are simply dancing for yourself or for God

-- which means the same. When I say 'or for God', I really mean it. And when I say 'it means the same', that too I really mean, because when you dance naturally it is God dancing -- you disappear. When you perform you come in, the ego enters in. God is no more there.

Whenever you are not, God is. Your absence is His presence.

And this is the basic arithmetic for any possible growth -- that you have to disappear. So for the first ten days you dance and sing, and after that you have to do two groups. First Tathata. Tathata means 'suchness'...

whatsoever is. The 'should' creates all the problems. Once you have an idea how things should be you are going to be in trouble. Then you go on proposing and God will go on disposing -- because your idea is your idea. It doesn't fit -- it doesn't fit with the whole. The whole is vast and you are very tiny. The tiny wants the whole to take a shape according to his ideas -- as if a leaf on the tree wants to have a certain destiny which is not possible, or a drop in the ocean wants to have a certain destiny which is not possible. The drop has to be just a part of the ocean so that whatsoever is the ocean's destiny is the drop's destiny; there is no 1/08/07

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'should' on the part of the drop. When there is no 'should' there is no boundary. When there is no 'should'

you can simply relax and melt.

So this will be your first group, Tathata. This word is very significant -- that's why I have chosen it. It is the essential word of Buddha. He says to live in the suchness of things. And by suchness he means that whatsoever happens, happens such is the case. Your wife leaves you, so Buddha says 'Such is the case -- she has left.' So accept it and live it. If she comes back, good -- such is the case. If she never comes, that too is good -- what can be done?

So to live in suchness is one of the most significant experiences. And if you can learn it, it is not only to be used in the group, it has to become your very life.

I am using these groups just to give you a glimpse of how things change. If you just change your attitude you see how things suddenly change, how things have always been beautiful but because of your attitude you were unable to see their beauty, you were missing them. Once you relax in the idea of suchness there is no anxiety, there is nothing to be done, you have no task to fulfill. Nothing is left except delight, except celebration.

And celebration, once it starts, never ends. It goes on accelerating. In fact the word acceleration comes from the same root as celebration; both have the same root. Once you start celebrating, it accelerates, it goes on and on, deeper and deeper, and higher and higher -- there is no end to it.

So the first group, Tathata, Ist to 3rd December, and the second group is Tao, 6th to 10th. That is a further step of Tathata. Tao means the eternal law -- what in India we call the dhamma, or what the christian theologians call logos, the eternal law, the law of all things: the law according to which trees grow and flower, and the law according to which water flows and moves to the ocean, and the clouds float, and the sun rises, and the birds sing, and the man falls in love with a woman, and a child is born... the law of a thousand and one things; the law of the total. Once you start feeling the taste of suchness, you are very close to tao. Once you accept life as it is, suddenly you fall in line with tao, with the eternal law.

And this is what I mean by a religious person: a person who lives according to nature, not according to any philosophy; who simply trusts nature and its ways. They are mysterious, unpredictable, one never knows what is going to happen. ..but that is the beauty of it -- that one is constantly thrilled, surprised. Each moment brings a new, amazing experience, a new wonder. So first Tathata, then Tao, these two. Then there will be a camp, and I will tell you what else to do then, mm? Would you like to say something to me?

[A visitor says: I've come to see if I can get out of myself -- that's the easiest way I can say it. I'll be here three months or so and I hope that will happen.]

Mm mm. Hope is always dangerous. You want to get out of yourself, but who is hoping this? Now this is the dilemma. The hope comes from the same source that you want to get out of. So if your hope is fulfilled you will never get out of it, and if you get out of it you will feel frustrated because your hope will not be fulfilled -- these are the dilemmas that we create. And a dilemma is such a problem that whatsoever happens you will be frustrated, this way or that. So it is foreordained.

The first thing I would like to suggest to you is to abandon hope, drop hope, because the hope comes from you -- it comes from the old mind. It is a projection of the old mind into the future. You want to drop the old mind and the very idea is of the old mind. So you will fall into an absurdity, and then there will be no way out. You will be chasing your own tail like a dog. The dog sometimes sits in winter and enjoys the sun, and then goes on chasing its own tail... jumps and then feels very frustrated, because the tail also jumps. It is his tail.

So the first thing is: be here without any hope. Just be here, for the first time in your life, without any projection about the future. Let us see what happens. Why should we project? Why should we, from the very beginning, start managing the future? Let it be open and then there is a possibility, otherwise there is no possibility.

The second thing: why do you want to get out of yourself?

[The visitor answers: I don't feel... good. I'm too much in the mind, too many thoughts, projections, I find it very hard to be calm, quiet, relaxed. Sometimes that's all right, but it's too much.]

That too has to be understood, because through this idea of getting out of yourself, you are creating a dichotomy, you are dividing yourself in two, you are becoming split.

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It is as if you want to get rid of the right hand. The left hand wants to get rid of the right hand, the right hand wants to get rid of the left hand, and nobody is thinking of the total body. The head is as much yours as your heart. And to be in the head is needed as much as it is needed to be in the heart. To be calm is good but if you are incapable of becoming disturbed, your calmness will be dead. So these are the actual facts to be understood: to be silent is good but sometimes to be disturbed is also good, otherwise the silence will be dead, there will be no life in it. Unless you can move to the polar opposite, you cannot be alive. Life lives by polarity, just like a pendulum of an old clock -- moving left, right, left, right. And because of the movement into polar opposites, the clock ticks. Hold the pendulum in the middle, make it quiet -- the clock stops.

So real understanding is never against anything. Real understanding is an acceptance. It has nothing to do with getting out of anything or becoming something else, somebody else. Real understanding simply accepts the polarity that, yes, there are moments when you are low, and there are moments when you are high. This is how life is. It moves between the low and the high. Sometimes there are moments you are sad, and sometimes there are moments, beautiful moments of happiness. This is how life moves, between happiness, unhappiness. It is a constant movement between hell and heaven.

And life is the movement between the two. If you are stuck in hell, you are dead. If you are stuck in heaven, you are dead. To be stuck is to be dead. To be on the move, to be always moving, journeying, exploring, is the meaning of being alive. Then suddenly you have a silence which is not opposite to tensions, which is not opposite to worries. There is a great silence which comprehends worries too. Do you follow me? There is a very great silence which is not opposite to worries -- it comprehends worries too. And there is a bliss which is not against suffering -- it comprehends suffering too. It is so vast, it can contain contradictions.

My whole approach is to make you so aware of the reality of life that you become capable of accepting each and everything, whatsoever life brings. Not only accepting it, but welcoming; not only welcoming, but feeling grateful for it -- even if sometimes it brings pain. And pain too is great. It too is a gift. It sharpens your consciousness; it is not useless.

So this split that you are carrying within you is your problem; not that one part is your problem and another part is your solution -- no! This very split -- that you say, 'I want to get out of myself' -- this very split is your problem. And my suggestion is: relax, and see both and accept both. Both these, both are your hands, your two wings, and with one wing you will not be able to fly. Pain is needed as much as pleasure, and death is needed as much as life. The devil is another wing just as God is. And both help each other.

Mm? you can see that God could not do without the devil -- He needed a Beelzebub, He could not run this whole business without him. It was a must -- He depends on him.

This I call the perfect understanding, the total understanding. And a total understanding need not do anything, it need not go anywhere, it need not drop anything, it need not change anything. A total understanding can be happy right this moment. It is not an improvement -- it is a sudden illumination.

So abandon hope -- the first thing. And the second thing -- rather than getting out of yourself, start loving yourself as you are. And start loving all the aspects that you are carrying within yourself. Painful spaces too, are yours.

It is almost as when you eat delicious food. It is so tasty, it is so satisfying, but next day after twenty-four hours you have to throw it out of your system -- it is stinking. Now if somebody says, 'I want to get rid of the whole process of defecation -- it is ugly.' Just think about what he is saying. Then you will not be able to eat, you will have to leave food completely -- you will start dying.

It is the same process. That which starts on your tongue and after twenty-four hows you have to throw it out -- it is the same process. These are not two things. And in an alive body, both processes will be there: one will eat, and one will enjoy food, and then one will enjoy getting rid of it too. But the process itself cannot be cut in two. And that which you are throwing out of the system again becomes manure, again goes to the trees, rises high with the sap of a tree and becomes an apple again; again you ear it. This is a circle --

and everything is a circle.

So sometimes when you feel that something is too heavy on you, don't make any judgement in a hurried way -- it must be part of a big circle. Look at the whole thing, and then you will become more accepting.

Don't look only at the part. Abandon hope, simply be here with no idea of any improvement. I don't promise improvement because that is a very small promise -- the idea of improvement. Even if you become improved, you will remain the same -- a little modified here and there, decorated, white-washed, but you will remain the same.

I don't promise any improvement, because as I see you, I see you as perfect. You are as you should be. I 1/08/07

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can promise something greater -- and that is a sudden illumination. But one cannot work for it. You have to work on other planes. It sometimes happens whenever The right moment comes -- and nobody knows when it comes.

So do a few groups, meditate, be here, and drop this constant anxiety to improve. That will not allow you to be in such a relaxed state where sudden illumination is possible. And take a jump into sannyas!

[the visitor nods and Osho gives him sannyas]

Ready for the jump?...

Let this moment be a dropping of your split ideas.

This will be your new name -- so forget the old name, mm? Just by forgetting it, it will be easier for you to have a new identity, a new vision.

Anand means bliss and purnesh means the god of the perfection; god of perfection and bliss. I am giving you this name so that it reminds you continuously that you are perfect as you are. If this seed settles in your heart it will do many things. To accept oneself as one is, is the beginning of a journey that never ends.

The whole western mind is a little schizophrenic. Christianity is the cause of it -- too much condemnation. Now people have even forgotten Christianity. Now Christians are no more Christians; it is just a formality and even that is not true for the new generation.

Those ideas go on lingering in the unconscious. You may not condemn the body, but the condemnation becomes focused on something else -- you may start condemning being in the head, but condemnation continues. You may start condemning something else but condemnation continues.

This very moment you are whatsoever you can ever be. This very moment everything is ready as you need it to be -- just start enjoying it. So drop programmes of improvement and start delighting in the moment.

Forget Christianity for these three months. Be an epicurean, be a pure hedonist. No other religious person is going to say for you do to that, but I say to you to be absolutely hedonistic. Enjoy small things of life -- they are all gifts of God, and through the happiness that they will bring, you will become more and more prayerful.

[An Indian sannyasin who works in the movie industry asks about his problems in being creative, and about expressing his anger and emotions.]

I think you do a few groups.

Mm. Good. And nothing to be worried about. These things come when you change your work. You were doing a certain work you had become perfectly efficient in it. Your whole identity was with that work.

You were efficient, you were capable, you knew where you were, what you were doing, you had a certainty, a confidence. Now suddenly at this age, you change the work. Now in the new work you cannot be so efficient. In the new work you will be an amateur, a beginner. Your identity will have to start from the very beginning as if you have just now come out of your school and are starting something new.

Younger people than you will find faults with you. They will say, 'What have you done? This is just ordinary or nonsense, or change it, and do this and make it like this.' They are more experienced in their work. They may be younger than you, they may be just of your age, they may have great respect for you, but as far as the new work is concerned they are better than you. And new bosses, the same people who were your friends will become boss-like... and it hurts. And it is no easy thing to suddenly start a new work.

And not an ordinary work. To write a story needs a long training. a certain discipline of the mind -- writing is not so easy.

Just now I was telling Vivek an anecdote.

A man wanted to become a writer. He had some fancy that he would become famous as a writer, so he went to the novelist Somerset Maugham, and he said, 'I want to become a great writer but how do you start?

-- that's the problem.' So Maugham said, 'It is not difficult. I can tell you how I start. I simply sit on my chair, face the typewriter and just write the first word 'the', or type the word 'the', then I wait for inspiration to come. It comes and then off I go. In fact beginning is not the problem. The real pro-blem is how to end it.'

So the man said, 'It is so simple. Nobody told me.' He went home, fixed his place -- he was very happy.

He took out the type-writer, the paper, and wrote 'the', and then he waited and waited and waited. The whole 1/08/07

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night was passing and nothing was coming -- no inspiration. In fact, his head was always full of thoughts and suddenly all thoughts disappeared. He was feeling empty. Finally he wrote, 'The hell with it.' (laughter) So it is not an easy thing. You are avoiding -- by eating, by drinking, by fighting, quarrelling with [your wife -- so you can find excuses as to why you are not doing your work. The pen is ready, the pencil is there, the paper there, but they are not going to write -- you are going to write! So you can always find excuses --

because your wife was not in a good mood and you were fighting so you could not write, and you had drunk too much so you could not write, you had eaten like a pig so you could not write. These are just tricks of the mind so that you car! find excuses. But this happens... this is natural.

It is very difficult to change your work at a later stage; it becomes more and more difficult. But it is courageous! To do it is very good! It is difficult, but if you can do it you will have a new lease of life. Once you get into the new work you will become younger again and you will again be enjoying life afresh. In fact a courageous man should go on changing, should never get settled into anything, should always remain a vagabond. Then he will remain very very fresh and young, and always learning, learning.

All the great things that have ever happened in the world, have happened through vagabonds who have been changing. A mathematician suddenly becomes a poet -- now he is a fool as far as poetry is concerned, but suddenly he becomes a poet. He is foolhardy and people will laugh, but he will bring something to poetry if he goes into it because all his knowledge will remain there somewhere in the unconscious. His poetry will have arithmetic in it. Even if it will not be so plain on the surface, it will have a different rhythm, a different quality. If a poet becomes a mathematician, he will bring his poetry to it. So it is very good.

This is cross-breeding. And the child that comes out of cross-breeding is always better -- better than both the parents. I am all for cross-breeding. The whole world should be mixing in every way possible. A scientist, suddenly at the age when he has become famous and is settling, should change immediately because now he is dying. The moment he has got a nobel prize he should immediately change from it, should start painting. Now it is finished, now there is no more to it.

It is said about an american president, Coolidge, that when he was asked, 'Why are you not standing next time?' he said, 'There is no more progress there now. What is the point of becoming a president again? I have been a president -- finished! Now I would like to become somebody else -- even a farmer is better, because it is something new. What is the point of becoming the president again?'

His party bosses could not believe, because he is a fool! Everybody was ready to give him another chance and he was not ready. They tried to persuade but he wouldn't listen. He would say, 'What is the point? I have been a president and I have known it. Now the White House is not for me. There is no goal.

The end of the ladder has come.'

I believe this man is a beautiful man. He is not a politician and he is not dead either, he is very alive. He went to the farm, he started gardening. That's beautiful. That's something that shows mettle.

So I am happy you changed... but problems will be there, you will be in trouble for a few months. And the more you dissipate your energy in fighting and drinking and this and that, the longer will be the period.

So put your whole energy to the work. Now it is a gamble. Put your whole energy into it, and within six months you will be flowing in your new work as you were in your old work. And once you are flowing, you will bring something new to it that only you can bring because of your old experience.

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #11

Chapter title: Every Choice is a Limitation

19 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611195

ShortTitle: WHIP11

Audio:

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[A sannyasin asks: Is there anything you could say about what sort of path I should follow? I feel unsure of what direction I should be going in.]

Whenever you're unsure, it is better not to choose but rather float and let life decide itself, because whatsoever you choose will be against your natural unsureness. It will be trying to make sure something which is not. Never jump ahead. Go with life. If at this moment your consciousness is unsure, then that's what has to be -- remain unsure. Nothing is wrong in being unsure. It is a freedom.

When you are unsure.... To use the word unsure makes it look a little problematic; rather, use the word freedom. When you are unsure you are freer, more liquid, not solid. More is possible when you are unsure.

When you are sure, you have chosen -- and every choice is a limitation. Whenever you choose, you choose against something. Whenever you choose, you drop something. So every choice is a limitation.

If you choose the path of awareness, you drop love. If you choose the path of love, you drop awareness.

If you choose to be a Christian, you cannot be a Hindu and cannot be a Mohammedan. Whatsoever you choose, in that very moment your consciousness is narrowed down. You become like a tunnel: only a very small portion of the sky is available at the far end but the whole sky is lost. When you are unsure the whole sky is available.

So don't take unsureness as a problem, rather take it as a flowing, liquid, fluid state of being. And there is no need to be sure. If the sureness comes by itself, good -- then it is not your choice and it will not be a limitation.

This distinction has to be understood deeply: when you choose, it becomes a limitation. When life itself brings you to a certain thing, it is not a limitation on you -- not at all. You can move through a tunnel -- you have not chosen it, it is only temporary -- and you know the whole sky is available once you have passed.

That small portion of the sky that you can see far away you know belongs to the total sky -- it is not the whole sky because you have not chosen.

So if love happens by itself, awareness remains part of love. If awareness happens by itself, love remains part of it. If you choose, there is limitation. So let God choose. That is the meaning of Jesus' saying,

'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.' He's saying that he is not choosing now -- God should choose --

because whatsoever he chooses is bound to be wrong. It cannot be right in the very nature of things. Your choice will be your choice -- hence wrong! Your choice will be the choice of the mind -- hence wrong!

Your choice will be the choice from the past -- hence wrong! God's choice is from the future, not from the past.

When you start feeling a certain sureness arising -- good, enjoy that too. If it again melts and things become unsure, enjoy that too. Move with life, with no prejudice, with no idea of your own. Give total freedom to life then life gives total freedom to you -- it is always in proportion. If you hanker for security, certainty, sureness, it is coming out of fear. And fear kills freedom! Why does the mind hanker so much to be sure? -- because with sureness, certainty, there seems to be security. One knows where one is -- but does one really know? And what is the need to know? How can one ever know?

The moment you say, 'I am this,' you are no more this -- it is already passed. Each identity that you think has arisen is already gone, it is already dead -- you have moved from that. The moment you say, 'I love,' it has changed. Now it is not the same state and not the same space. You may be just declaring something which does not exist any more. It may be just a declaration of something dead -- a post-mortem declaration, a posthumous declaration.

The moment you make anything sure, you have moved from it because life is movement, a continuous flux, river-like; it knows no limitation. So one can never be really certain. And to live with this uncertainty is really to live. To live at all is to live with uncertainty, with openness -- vague, nebulous; in a certain way, in chaos. And it is beautiful to be in a chaos.

Order is always ugly because order is always petty. And order is always ugly because order is man-made, home-made. God is a chaos: stars disappearing, new stars being born... old people disappearing, new babies being born. It is a chaos! It is very un-economical. For seventy, eighty years, a person has learned, been educated, experienced life and then suddenly God dismantles him and brings a baby -- again unsure what he is going to be: a doctor, an engineer, or a vagabond; will be able to earn his bread or will become a thief; will be a murderer or a saint -- nobody knows.

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And the person who was getting settled, whom everybody knew, who had an identity card, is taken away. And God goes on sending chaotic babies -- screaming and crying and knowing nothing! They take the place of people who knew so many things -- were wise, learned, respected. He goes on toppling them, and brings babies and puts them on the throne -- very chaotic, uneconomical.

But that's how things are: big trees disappear and seeds sprout. The whole of life is a tremendous chaos

-- and it is good that it is so. If there were order there would have been ancient, old people, and no babies.

Everything would have been dead long ago. Nothing new would happen then, because the new can happen only out of chaos. Everything would have been so perfect, so efficient, so mechanical, that life would not have had any meaning. Life is significant because there is chaos. The new is possible -- that is the meaning of chaos. The old is not necessarily going to be repeated -- that is the meaning of being unsure.

So my whole teaching is to learn how to be happy with unsureness, and how to go on moving with an open mind and open being and let things come, let things happen. Never allow anything to become stagnant.

If you can remember this much -- that you should not become a stagnant pool -- you are bound to reach to the ocean; nothing can prevent you. And to reach to the ocean is to reach to God. A river is more orderly than the ocean. A canal is even more orderly than a river. The canal is man-made. The river is more orderly because it is limited by both the sides, by the banks. The ocean is absolutely chaotic. And to be oceanic is the goal.

So live in freedom, live in unsureness, live in uncertainty, and never hanker for anything against this river-like quality. Millions of things will happen to you and nothing will ever hold you. You will pass through many things but you will always pass beyond. Things come and go -- the movement remains. And when you are simply starting to love the movement and delighting in it with no goal at all, with no motivation -- when the movement is there and motivation is not -- that's what I call celebration, joy. Then nobody can make you miserable. Even if you are thrown in hell you will be dancing there, you will be able to enjoy hell -- it is a beautiful grace.

Otherwise your so-called saints -- certain, sure, dogmatic -- even if they go to heaven.... I suspect that they don't go because God won't allow such boring, monotonous company -- but if they ever go, by hook or by crook or in some way... they will be in hell there too. They cannot laugh.

A rock is certain, a flower is not so. If you go in the morning the rock is there, the flower is there. If you go in the evening the rock is still there -- the flower is gone. But still, would you like to be a rock because a rock is very certain ? One should like to be a flower -- even if only for a moment, but it is worth it. To be a rock for millions of years and just to be a flower for a single hour, then too it is worth it to be a flower -- to play with the wind, to take the challenge of the sun, to spread fragrance, to live intensely, passionately, and then wither away and be gone with no regret....

[A visitor asks: I lost a finger while dancing, and since then I began yoga -- I changed from dance to Yoga, and I've had chronic infections and very bad health.]

Sometimes it can happen through Yoga because anything that can be good can also be bad -- it depends.

Always remember it as a basic rule: anything that can be good can also be bad. And if there is something which can never be bad, then it can never be good either. So it depends on the person, the situation, his bodily structure, in fact there are many problems.

In the first place, Yoga has never been invented for women. So that is a foolishness really to teach Yoga to women. It was invented by man and for man. So the whole idea is for the man's physiology, not the woman's -- and their physiology is different, totally different, their chemistry is different. So the same posture may be good for man and may not be good for woman. And I have seen this happening many times.

Women become very fragile -- they are fragile! Yoga puts such pressure on their glands, their hormonal system, their chemistry. And it is so different -- it was basically meant for man so woman has never been considered. It can make them ill and sometimes many other things also happen.

If a woman persists for many days, maybe illness will disappear, but then male traits will start appearing in her, a moustache will start growing. If you go to Shree Aurobindo's ashram and see the girls you will be surprised: out of all proportion they all are growing moustaches -- too many yoga exercises. Their breasts will start becoming smaller and it will be difficult for them to carry a pregnancy -- their womb becomes smaller and will become very tense. It needs to be very relaxed, really very elastic so the child can grow in it. The womb has to be very elastic so it goes on expanding with the child. If it becomes very tight the child will be killed or will not be really grown, will be retarded, and then childbirth will be very very painful. So I 1/08/07

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have watched a thousand and one problems.

In the East women really have never tried so there was no problem. Now in the West whatsoever is available to men, women are also trying. In fact they are trying more than men. In the East you will not find many women trying Yoga -- rarely, very rarely. I have not come across any woman practising Yoga. But in the West now the old structure is gone, the social differences are gone. Woman is as free and everything is as available to woman as man -- now there are dangers.

A totally new technology of Yoga has to be developed for woman -- and that can be done only by women. This traditional Hatha Yoga won't do. It is really dangerous! So my first suggestion is drop it, completely stop it.

... Move to dancing. Dancing is perfectly suited to a woman's physiology and chemistry, dancing is meant for her. If a man dances he starts becoming feminine. Dance is the Yoga for women. It fits with their body, their curvature, their grace -- it fits with them perfectly well. So move to dancing. Join the dancing group, the music group -- simply dance. Dance will bring your health back. And forget Yoga forever -- it is not for you. The disease is simply created by your change, so there is no problem about it. Once you shift your energy into dance, within six months you will be perfectly well. This illness will disappear.

So while you are here, dance, sing, and do a few groups they will be very helpful. T'ai Chi you can continue -- back home also. T'ai Chi is very good.... Anything graceful, not drastic. Dancing, T'ai Chi are good but not Aikido or Karate -- no. Something in which you can flow naturally and there is no need to force your body. These yoga contortions are not good, mm? Good.

[A sannyasin asks: I always feel that I keep working and trying to make things happen in my life, with my job, with my relationships with people... I don't believe that if I let go of those things that everything will be okay. I don't have that feeling, that trust.... ]

Mm mm. I can see.... The first thing: whatsoever comes naturally to you, is good. If this comes naturally to you -- striving, holding, making everything sure that it happens the way you wanted it to happen, managing, planning, if this comes naturally to you -- surrender to your nature. Why create this contrary opposite that you have to let go? This will be let-go -- what I am saying. Simply accept that this is your nature. This is the way that [you are] -- that [you] cannot trust that things will be okay if they are left to themselves.

You -- not the striving -- are creating the problem. You are creating the problem having an ideal against striving. On the one hand you strive, on the other hand you have an ideal of non-striving, so you create a polarity. Then you will be pulled apart. Now if you don't strive your nature will say nothing is going to be okay. If you strive your mind will say, 'Again you are striving and life happens only when one is in a let-go.'

So you are creating your own trouble.

My suggestion is: first, there is no need to create this new ideal, there is no need -- relax in your nature. I am not saying that this is your nature. I am simply saying that whatsoever happens to be your nature right now -- that you strive and you like to strive and make certain and plan -- simply relax into it, and do whatsoever you want to do totally. Strive totally! You cannot trust? Then don't trust! Work hard on your own. For one month, drop the ideal and simply go with your nature. And in one month there will be much change.

By and by you will see that the striving is disappearing and the let-go is happening... because it is a beginning of let-go! You follow me? If you surrender to your nature -- whatsoever it is, XYZ -- you have started surrendering. If it is your nature, you will be happy. If it is not, by and by it will disappear and your real nature will come out.

And I don't think it is your nature. That's why the idea arises again and again to be in a let-go, to surrender, trust, and to let things happen in their own course, not to strive, not to push the river. That comes to your mind because deep down that is hidden -- your nature is that. But if you start striving for that, that will again be a striving -- you follow me? So I don't want you to strive for that. At least strive for things you have been striving for in the past. Don't create a new goal -- old goals are enough. You just go with it and forget about let-go.

For one month do hard work, and after one month tell me how you feel. By and by you will see that after the third week a deep silence is arising. A let-go is happening without your doing anything about it.

What I am telling you is a method of let-go, but a very unconscious method -- not deliberate. A deliberate method will never help you. You would like to have some deliberate method so you can strive for it but I 1/08/07

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am not going to be a party in that game, mm? -- that will be your undoing. So this is always my approach --

that if somebody likes running I say 'Run, run as much as you can so you fall down!' I will go on pushing you, 'Run more! Run more!' and one day you will see that you cannot run any more and you sit down. Then that sitting will be something beautiful. Right now your whole energy is running -- and you want to sit down. Then it becomes an opposite goal, it creates a split -- and it is never good to create any split.

All splits are dangerous, they can lead to schizophrenia; they can create two personalities in you. So in the morning you are striving, by the evening you are surrendering; in the morning you are striving. Then you become two separate things -- this is very bad. Then it becomes very difficult to integrate them. So be one. Strive... strive hard. Push the river.

I know that one day you will be tired and the river will push you, but then you will not be able to do anything. You will be so tired, so dead tired that there will be no energy to fight with the river. You will have to float... and then a sudden experience of how beautiful it is to float with the river. When it becomes your own experience, existential, mm?... there is no problem. Then you will never strive again.

So for one month do everything as deliberately as possible. For one month don't forgive yourself for anything that you are not doing forcibly. Do forcibly, no rest for you for one month. Get dead tired, exhausted, then one crust will be broken....

You will need to come and for a little longer time because there is much work to be done. And alone it will be difficult for you to do it there. Once your energy has started moving in the right direction there is no problem -- then you can go anywhere and it will be growing. But right now it will be difficult on your own.

But we will see, mm?

Just join the music group then you will be doing [a group], then see. And make every effort -- at least in the music group meditations and [group]. Put your total energy in it. If you can put total energy into it, maybe the breakthrough can happen here. Because the time is short so you have to make more effort, more intensely. Something is bound to happen, mm? Don't be worried!

[A therapist in the Alexander technique says: I find myself really getting into meditation through the work... and then when I walk out the head gets back in the way. If there's anything you can suggest.... ]

Just continue. Things are going very well, mm? And... you have changed a lot. You really love your work and so work changes the whole personality. If you love your work there is no need for any other meditation. Meditation really exists for people who have not been able to find a work that they could love.

Meditation is a substitute. If you can love your work it is your meditation, a natural meditation -- there is no need to do any other meditation.

And don't be worried about these thoughts, don't pay too much attention to them. They are okay, nothing wrong in them. Just as the blood circulates in the body, so thoughts circulate in the mind. You are not worried about the blood circulating so why should we be worried about thoughts circulating? It's okay. The mechanism of the mind has to keep functioning and rehearsing to remain efficient. It is homework. When you are thinking something, it is homework, so that when there is some situation you can be ready for it.

When awareness becomes perfect then this work is not needed, this homework stops automatically, because then your awareness is so perfect you can be certain that you can rely upon it. Whenever there is a situation there will be a response, and the response is going to be so true and so total that there is no need to prepare for it.

My understanding about thinking is that it is a rehearsal, mm? You are going to give an interview so you rehearse in the mind what the official will ask, what you will say, how you will go, how you will present yourself, how you will enter into the office; you have to be calm and quiet -- you are rehearsing. Many times you will go into the office in your mind and many times you will face the person who is going to interview you. Many times you will ask many questions and you will answer. This is a rehearsal because you cannot rely yet on your awareness. Your awareness is not yet reliable so you want to make sure that nothing goes amiss. When awareness is perfect nothing goes amiss, so what is the point?

By and by this rehearsing stops. One simply goes to the interview.... But that comes.

So it is not a question of how to stop thinking. The more basic question is how to become more and more aware. So while working, enjoy it, and become more and more aware. When thoughts are passing, then too just remain aware that thoughts are passing. There is no need to make any effort to stop them -- let them be there. When their need disappears, they will disappear. And in life you cannot make anything disappear unless its need disappears. So many people unnecessarily get into trouble. They want to make 1/08/07

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something disappear for which need still exists -- it cannot go, it is not possible. Howsoever you fight with it, it will not go -- it will go only when the need has gone.

Then even if you want it to be there, it cannot. The need functions like the roots, and these thoughts are just leaves on the tree. You can go on cutting; that is not going to help -- the roots are continuously feeding the tree and the sap is flowing and new leaves will be coming. And if you cut, one tree will come out of that same place and the bush will become even thicker and denser. No need to fight with these leaves -- let them be, let them flutter in the wind -- good! Nothing wrong in it.

A little noise of the mechanism... and it is a big mechanism! It is the biggest thing in the world. Millions of millions of cells, and as many combinations are possible in one head as there are atoms in the whole existence; the same number of combinations is possible in the head. It is a big phenomenon, and if it makes a little noise it can be forgiven.

Man has not yet created anything more silent than the mind, and the work is so tremendous -- even the biggest computer is nothing compared to mind. And it never can be anything compared to the mind because it is created by the mind, and no computer can create a human mind. Unless a computer can create a human mind -- and that is not possible -- it will never be equal to the human mind.

So a little noise.... You are walking and your body is engaged and the mind is free -- it clicks, mm? It links a few things that have been hanging there... and before there was no time and you were engaged so much in work. Now there is no work and you are released from it, and the mind was waiting whenever there was space to work out a few things in the mind... it goes on. When you fall asleep the mind is completely freed, it can go dreaming, fantasizing. Many things are waiting on the list and it has to go into them and prepare. It is continuously preparing for you.

It disappears -- and I say disappears through my own experience; whatsoever I say is through my own experience. It disappears, but it disappears only when one day your awareness is so impeccable that now you don't require it. Then the mind says, 'Now there is no need for any homework.' Then you can simply go into any situation and face it! And a perfect response comes -- or whatsoever is a response is total and perfect and you never repent for it. Whatsoever happens -- good! You move ahead. You never repent for the past, for the gone, and you never prepare for that which is coming -- you simply move.

It will come. Things are going well. Just go on meditating more and more in your work.

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #12

Chapter title: We are Born at the Goal

20 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611205

ShortTitle: WHIP12

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[A visitor, who is a group leader and author, says: I want to know where to go next.... I need to know where to go next.]

Mm. (a pause) Drop going...(the visitor laughs) and there is no next. The very idea of going is basically wrong. The very idea to go anywhere is the cause of all misery We are at the very point where we want to be. In fact we are born at the goal and all journey is futile. The more you try to reach to the goal, the more you are far away from it.

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So as it is you have done enough -- relax! The place that we are seeking is the place we are standing upon. The space that we are looking for is the space from which we are looking.

But the effort to improve, the effort to grow, to go somewhere, to be somewhere, has its own relevance

-- it is needed. It is needed only so that one day you can see the whole absurdity of it. And in that vision it drops and suddenly you are at home. So there is no next....

But the mind always creates the next -- beware of the mind because the mind cannot exist without the next. The mind exists in the future, it exists with some plan, it exists for something to do, something to be --

it cannot exist just herenow. The mind knows no present. It cannot know the present. Either it is in the past or in the future. Either it is somewhere where it was or it is somewhere where it would like to be -- but it is never where it is.

So this 'next' is always there in the mind, mm? It goes on and on.... And it is such an effort that as you move towards it, another next is present like the horizon. Mm? you go slower and it goes on receding. So as I see, there is no next now.

... Just be... just be.... And everything is perfectly good. How long will you be here?

[Osho gives the visitor sannyas]

This will be your name now, so forget the old. It is always very difficult to drop the old name. It becomes part of the unconscious -- but that is the significance of giving a new name. As the new by and by enters into the unconscious, the old disappears. Then with the old name the whole past simply becomes discontinuous with you, and a very fresh beginning, very empty....

This will be your new name: Swami Deva Amit Prem.

Deva means divine, and amit prem means eternal love; divine eternal love. And everything else dies only love lives. We go on changing, but love goes on living. We are almost like vehicles through which the eternal love goes on flowing, takes many forms as man and woman, as trees and animals.

In Indian mythology we have a very beautiful story. Hindus avoid telling it even because it looks a little dangerous. And at least Christians will not be able to understand and they will immediately misinterpret it.

The story is that God, Brahma, created the world. Then He created the cow -- Hindus love the cow very much so He created the cow -- but He fell in love with her so He became a bull and He chased the cow.

Mm? Just to escape from the bull, the cow goes on taking other forms -- she becomes a peacock, and the bull becomes a male peacock, and this is how it goes on and on. She becomes a woman and the bull becomes a man, and this is how it goes on. And the whole creation is created only by female energy escaping and the male energy chasing.

But the story is tremendously beautiful. It simply says: all are just forms -- only love continues. Maybe it is a cow, maybe it is a tree, maybe it is a peacock, maybe it is a man or woman -- these are just forms...

God chasing His own creation. God has fallen in love with His own creation.

So everything comes and goes, only love remains. You will be gone, I will be gone, but the love that we lived will continue. It will enter into other beings, into other forms, into other vehicles, but it continues.

Amit Prem means the eternal love -- and amit has many other meanings also. It also means immeasurable -- that which cannot be measured. And in the eastern mind, the measurable is matter. In fact the word matter comes from a root which means that which can be measured. And that which cannot be measured is immaterial, that which cannot be measured is unlimited, has no form. So from this moment, think yourself more as formless love -- neither male nor female... not measurable. And that's what to me is to be in prayer.

If you can remind yourself again and again about the formless, the immeasurable, the eternal, in those moments when you forget your form, your limitation -- in those insights the infinite opens, you are transported, transfigured. And by and by those insights settle and they become almost part of you. It is not that they happen and go -- they are simply there... they become natural. They start following you like your climate.

So I know your old name has associations, an identity. It will be difficult but then it will be more paying too... to drop it completely as if the old man has died. Bernie is no more now, and you enter into a fresh world... with no past; again you are a child. And this is your birthday. From now onwards this will be your birthday and count your age from this day. Next year you will be one year old!

[The new sannyasin says: It seems to me that your books are one way of letting people know what you 1/08/07

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have to say. But there are going to be some who are not open. And my function in the past has been to open doors. I would like to serve in that way.]

You will have to! You have to do much more! You have to become an ambassador-at-large for me. You have to open many people's doors, and all the people with whom you have been in contact in your past, you have to bring them to me... you have to share me with them, so you do whatsoever you can. And much has to be done, because in the name of spirituality so much hocus-pocus is going on in America, and fools from the East are almost worshipped as sages. Mm? just anybody who comes from the East.

Prem means love and aneeta means amoral, beyond morality; love that is beyond morality. And because of too much emphasis on character, love has been sacrificed. Love is a flowing energy and character is a dead structure. Love is neither moral nor immoral -- it is amoral. Aneeta means amoral. And that's what I teach: don't be moral and don't be immoral. There are people who are moral -- then they are in a strait jacket

-- and there are people who are immoral; they move to the opposite polarity.

When you move opposite to a lie, you again become a victim of another lie. Just somewhere in the middle is the truth.

So love in itself is enough -- it needs no character. Character always comes from the past and love is always of the present, it is always here now. If you are a wife to somebody, that is a past relation. If you are a husband to somebody, it is a past relationship. Love has to be lived moment to moment. One never knows

-- the life of love is a very insecure life, but tremendously beautiful. Dangerous, adventurous, but the only way to live is to live in danger, and to live in adventure.

So never allow any character to accumulate around you and become an armour. Each moment the past goes on growing and the armour goes on becoming bigger and bigger, more solid and concrete -- and the soul is crippled, paralysed in it. The imprisonment goes on becoming bigger and bigger and the freedom is less every day: a child is more free, a young man less, the old man has almost no freedom at all.

To remain absolutely free is what a true and authentic life is. So never gather any character -- remain characterless. And that's what I mean when I say a man is religious. A religious man is characterless, unreliable, unpredictable but very alive, very spontaneous, very creative.

[The leader of the Soma group, who had come to darshan some nights ago about her relationship with her assistants (see 'God Is Not For Sale', Sunday, November 7th), returned to darshan tonight. She had asked one assistant to leave and said to Osho that in doing so she felt she had 'missed'.

She wondered if there was anything she needed to do or if she needed to change.... ]

Your problem is that deep inside you are very soft, but on the outside you have gathered a very hard crust -- and it happens for certain reasons.

When one is very soft inside, just to protect oneself one creates a crust around oneself of hardness, of steel. And it works in life but it won't work with me. In life there is a struggle; with me there is surrender. In life you need to be hard, otherwise you will be nowhere. There is a constant fight to survive and a soft person will be destroyed, will be crushed.

So soft people become very hard -- harder than the hard people. They compensate too much and they lose contact with their softness. Then there are many problems. Deep down you feel that you are soft, but whatsoever you do to people is hard and you don't understand it because that hardness is only on the outer periphery. So people come to know it because they are in contact with the outer periphery of your being, and you are in contact with your inner so inside you feel you are very soft and loving. So there is always a problem.

In all your relationships that problem has been there, and it reflects in any relationship. On the outside you are hard, a perfectionist, trying to drive people. So people around you start feeling that you are crushing them, destroying their freedom, turning them into slaves. And you don't understand it because this is just your outer crust -- but you have to look into relationships; relationships are mirrors.

And here there is no question of survival, there is no fight going on, there is no competition, nothing.

You are not part of a society any more -- you are part of a family, and everybody is together here. So all that you have developed in your past hangs around you -- that has to be dropped, but one drops it only when there is some problem, otherwise one never becomes aware.

I was watching it: in every group all the assistants by and by leave, and nobody feels at ease with you.

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People feel you are heavy, too dominating -- and they are true. You are also true when you say that you are loving and not heavy, and you don't try to crush anybody's freedom; you simply want the work to be done; you care for the work. So you are also right, but you have to deliberately drop this hard crust. It is just a crust so it can be dropped very easily. And it has given you enough pain. You cannot succeed in any love relationship either because of this.

And there is a vicious circle. When you feel that you are failing in your love relationship, or in any relationship, you start being more dominating so that it should not fail -- and it is failing be-cause of your domination. When you see that again the same thing is happening and somebody is going away from you, you try to pull him too hard -- and he is escaping because you are too much. Simply drop this. And in a group many things have to be learned....

A groupleader is not only a leader -- a groupleader has to be a father, has to be a mother, a lover, a beloved, a child, a brother, a sister. A groupleader has to be so many things together, otherwise a groupleader is not really a groupleader. If you. are just a leader you know the technological aspect of it, but that won't help much. You have to be many more things. You have to be all aspects of humanity. They all will be needed. Sometimes the group will need you as a mother -- then be a mother. And you will have to be very flexible so you can fit into any role.

You should not have a very fixed attitude -- be flowing. And the assistants particularly have to be taken care of. Mm? there is a problem: when somebody assists, he feels humiliated just by the very fact that he is an assistant. Just the very idea that he is simply an assistant is humiliating. So the leader has to look after this -- that the person should not feel humiliated. A respect, deep respect should be given to him, and then you can take as much work from your assistants as you want and they will never feel hurt. They will be happy to do work. In fact the more you require, the more you demand, the more they will feel happy -- but a deep respect is needed so they don't just feel as if they are being used as means.

The groupleader has one thing -- he is the leader, so automatically he is in the centre; the assistant is in the shadow. A good groupleader will help the assistant to be more and more in the light so his humiliation is not there and by and by he can drop it and forget about it. So more and more the assistant becomes a co-leader, not an assistant. A co-leadership should develop in our groups, otherwise this problem is bound to arise again and again. And it will happen: in the beginning you will find a new person; he will be happy.

After a few months when he has learned all the techniques, he will want to participate in the leadership.

That desire is human and natural. And if you don't allow, he will start reacting, rebelling, will start resisting you, will not like to work or will work just anyhow, doing it as a duty; he will lose interest in it. So you have to remember this.

You always bring new people and for a few days you feel very good with them and they feel very good with you. After two, three groups when they have become alert and aware, they start creating trouble. And this is bad because again you have to teach new people, so your energy is wasted. Those who become ready leave, and again you bring new people, again teach them -- and you know it is going to happen. After two, three months they will leave because the same problem will arise again. So my feeling is that you have to be a little deliberate about it. Your crust has become almost unconscious, you are not aware of it.

So whenever you feel that somebody is feeling hurt, become more aware, become more loving... care more. A little care goes very deep and helps tremendously. Give the idea to the assistants that they are co-leaders: they co-operate with you, they don't assist you. Just a change of words sometimes can be of tremendous significance.

A little change is needed -- nothing is the problem. Your work is going well... everything is going well.

Your group is growing very beautifully, many people are being benefited, and you are growing -- but this is just an old crust. Particularly in the West, and for women more so, it is happening. Women have a very soft core, and now in the West they are fighting with men so they are becoming as hard as men. They are trying to be as hard competitors as men are, they are trying to be aggressive. In fact they don't want to be feminine any more, they feel hurt by their very softness. It is very dangerous -- a woman has to be soft -- and this competition with man and imitation of man is very destructive. It is suicidal -- but it is happening.

You have been moving in that direction in your past... and this is some coincidence that many lib women are coming to me. All have the same problem, mm? They have grown a hard crust, and when you become too hard you lose your softness, your femininity -- you lose love. And then it becomes difficult. So you drop this, mm? Just for two, three months you have to be very conscious about it. And if you have dropped Chidananda, okay, nothing to be worried about. But don't make the same mistake with new people otherwise the same will happen after a few days. So try new people, but this time from the very beginning 1/08/07

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remain alert, mm? And it will be okay. Nothing to be worried about.

[A sannyasin says: I feel very much some sort of power coming up, and I feel I like to dominate people and just to nag them, talk to them and I feel that they get hurt. But at that moment I still enjoy it -- that they get hurt -- but then the consequence is that I hurt myself.

It is -- you are hurting yourself.

[The sannyasin replies: I haven't got to the roots of it yet. I don't see it. It takes me over.]

I think you can do [Soma] group and [the group leader] will dominate and show you. Do Soma. You try to dominate her and she will try to dominate you (laughter).

It comes to everybody, mm? because we have been brought up in that way. Deep down we have been conditioned that if you don't dominate others, others will dominate you -- so before others dominate you, it is better to dominate them. We have been brought up in a climate where there are only two possibilities: either you become a master or you become a slave. If you don't become a master, then woe to you -- you will be a slave. And it is better to be a master than to be a slave, so everybody tries: before anybody else dominates you, dominate! But whenever you dominate anybody, you hurt him, because nobody wants to be dominated. And when you hurt somebody you are basically hurting yourself because he is just like you! We are not separate! We are not like islands -- we are connected, members of each other, we are like a continent

-- so when I hurt you, I hurt myself.

It is as if you are angry with your leg and you throw a rock at the leg. Sometimes people do that! They are angry at the wall and they will beat the wall and then their hand hurts.

Trying to dominate somebody simply shows that you are afraid of being dominated. So it is fear -- and this is no way to go beyond it. If you try to dominate others, others will try to dominate you. Maybe you can hurt them; then somebody else will come and hurt you. And this trying to be on top is such a tension that you will never be relaxed. And there is an alternative: there is no need to be either dominated or a dominator. There is a third alternative: one can simply be free of it -- neither dominated nor a dominator.

That's what I call a sannyasin -- one whose will is not ready to dominate anybody and will not allow anybody to dominate him. He simply does not speak that language of aggression, he's simply not part of it --

he simply laughs at the foolishness of it. You do Soma, mm? Then we will see. It will go....

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #13

Chapter title: Nothing Fails Like Success

21 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611215

ShortTitle: WHIP13

Audio:

No

Video:

No

It is raining today so I remember Indra; Indra is the indian mythological god of rains. In India we have changed everything into a god. The river is a god, a tree is a god; the thundering clouds, the rain --

everything is divine. Indra is the name of the rain, the clouds, the lightning. Anand means bliss. So the name will mean blissful rain -- and remember it.

Whenever it is raining just sit silently, close your eyes, feel the rain falling... the sound of it, the music 1/08/07

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of it. Be soaked by its sound and its music. And sometimes it is good to go for long walks when it is raining.

Just be soaked by it and you will feel very very cleansed. You will feel almost like a god, like an Indra.

Because of very foolish things, people are missing many beautiful things in life. And I have walked miles in rain; it was one of my most loved things. Whenever it was raining I would go for a long walk. In my university days people used to think that I was mad because who goes when it is raining? And I would always feel pity for these people.

One Professor, a professor of economics, once told me, 'Nobody says it to you, but we think you are crazy. When it is raining you always come. When it starts raining, my wife starts waiting for you.' His house used to be the last in the university campus so I used to come to their house and just sit somewhere under a tree in front of their house. So he said, 'It has become a part of a routine -- you never miss. Are you mad?' I said, 'One day come with me. Then only can we compare notes. Right now you don't have any experience.'

He was almost fifty and he said, 'That's true... I have never walked in the rain because who will walk and for what?'

I said, 'You just give me one chance. Tomorrow I will be coming -- you follow. For one hour you be with me in the rain and then later on you can sit under a tree and talk about it.' After one hour he started crying. He touched my feet! He said, 'I am sorry that I said you are mad. How much I have missed in my life!' He said, 'It was the greatest experience I have ever had of such freshness, of such freedom, and so much in tune with nature.'

So whenever you can, just go for a walk in the rain. Whenever you cannot -- you are feeling cold or something -- then just sit under the roof and listen to the rain. Indians are right -- everything is divine. And when it is raining Indra is very much around.

[A sannyasin returning to the West says: A lot has happened to me since I've been here. I feel scared. I feel like I'm escaping.]

No, no, not at all. A lot has happened and a lot has to happen. And always remember that I have given you a discontent -- a discontent which can never be totally satisfied. I call this discontent divine. It is a thirst which the more you quench, the more it grows -- one can never be satisfied with God. The more you have it, the more you hanker -- it is a non-ending journey, you go on and on but you never arrive. And that's the beauty of it -- because if you arrive, you will be bored. That's the problem in the world -- people arrive; that's the problem.

Ordinary religious preachers go on saying that in the world desires cannot be fulfilled. My own understanding is just the opposite. The world is in a tremendous boredom because desires are fulfilled. If you want money, if you really want money you will, have it, that is the problem. The day you have it you will see; now what to do? You desire a woman: if you really desire you will have her -- beware! Whatsoever one desires, in a subtle way one starts moving towards it. And one day -- maybe there is a time gap, bound to be -- one arrives. And nothing fails like success -- it fails absolutely. When you have arrived, suddenly you see it is pointless. One is bored, it is so monotonous.

The beauty of God is that you never arrive. And the journey continues. A thousand and one things happen and every day you are on a new altitude, and every day you achieve something -- but you never arrive. Each new opening proves only a new challenge. And whenever you have arrived on one peak, suddenly you become aware that there is another -- a higher one waiting for you, challenging you, inviting you.

So this going will be helpful -- nothing to be.... You are not escaping. There are people who escape, but you are not escaping. In fact it is time you should go and just be there. Mm? much has happened to you --

now see whether you can retain it.

[The sannyasin replies: Yes, I'm a little worried about that.]

Don't be worried -- you will be able to retain it. Nothing to be worried about. But it is a challenge. There will be problems, mm? It is a different rhythm altogether. You live amongst meditators the whole vibe is of meditation, of love, of openness, of relationship, no struggle, no competition, no fights. Everybody is growing in his own way, and nobody is trying to compete with anybody else -- this is a non-competitive world. When you go into the world, you move into a competitive world where everybody is after everybody else's neck... where people are almost neurotically rushing -- not knowing where, but rushing at speed. You 1/08/07

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will be in the turmoil -- you are going to the marketplace -- but it is part of meditation sometimes to go to the marketplace and see what happens. Just be watchful, be alert, and whenever you feel that you are getting infected by other people's wrong-moving energies, slow down, sit down, breathe slowly, again move into your inner consciousness, catch hold of your peace, silence, then start moving again.

Whenever you feel that somebody is affecting you too much, is distracting you from your centre, then remember nothing is more valuable. Now you have a precious stone and you have to protect it. There are thieves and it can be very easily stolen. It is very difficult to get it; it is very easy to lose it. That's why the worry is there -- that too is natural -- but there is no need to be worried.

[A sannyasin says: When my energy comes up it doesn't have a direction. I've been trying to watch it. I start behaving like a little four-year-old and showing off. Sometimes it feels there's a lot of love coming up for people I love to be with, and I don't know what to do with it.]

It is good -- nothing to be worried about mm? Just make it more centred. Direction is not important --

centering is important. And there is a great difference between direction and centering. Direction is outwards -- centering is inwards. Directions can be many -- centering can be only one.

Ordinarily we have been taught, everybody has been taught, to put our energy in a direction -- that means towards a goal. That is not my teaching. That's what is driving people crazy... because life has no direction. It is exploding in all directions simultaneously, it is a simultaneous explosion -- it is not directed towards any goal whatsoever. It is not linear, not like a line; it is not a railway line. It is exploding in all directions, in every possible way. Life is like that. So to put direction to your life may mean you will be struggling with life -- and a man who starts forcing himself, channelises, becomes out of contact with life.

So somebody is after money -- he has a direction. And somebody is after political power -- he has a direction. But these are the stupid people. All people who have direction are stupid.

Centering is needed -- that is totally different. When you explode, you must have a centre from where there will be expression all over the place. You become a flower and the petals open in all directions. What will be the case if the petals -- all the petals -- open in one direction? The flower will not be there. They open in all directions and the fragrance released, goes to all directions -- it has no direction, it is not addressed at all. It does not know where it is going, but one thing is certain, it is centred. The flower has a centre to it.

So become more like a flower be centred. Whenever you feel this energy, don't be worried about the direction. Just sit silently or stand silently, breathe slowly, and feel your energy centred just below the navel, mm? two inches below the navel. And if by and by you can feel it centred there, the energy will become a circle around you -- going in all the directions, all the petals moving all over the circle -- but there will be a centre in you and you will not feel lost. You will feel tremendously happy and at ease and at home.

But people have been taught about direction and nobody has been taught about centering. No culture has yet existed which teaches centering, and that's what is needed. Direction drives people crazy because you lose contact with life. It is unreal -- direction is unreal. Direction moves into the future. And life knows no straight line -- it knows only circles, life is very circular. The seasons move in a circle, and the stars, and the earth and the moon and the sun and life itself. Birth, youth, old age, death, birth; it goes on moving in a circle, it is a cycle.

So when you start thinking of direction you go against life, you make a line, you become linear, you become one-dimensional -- and that's what madness is. Obsession is one-dimensional: an obsessed person is one who can only move on one line. That's not natural; that is not close to reality.

So don't bother about direction -- there is no need. Simply think of one thing: when you start feeling energy, just remain centred so that you will have a centre, a hub and the wheel... the wheel can move on the hub, and all its movements are beautiful. It is a pure play of energy.

Life has no goal. It is just leela -- a pure play of energy.

So never become goal-directed -- never ! We are not going anywhere; we are simply here to delight, to dance, and to enjoy.

This moment is all -- the whole existence converges on this moment -- we are not going anywhere. All going is wrong. Just being here is right.

So next time you feel energy, just centre it. And soon -- within two, three weeks -- you will be able to feel the centre. Once you feel the centering, there is great delight, a great benediction.

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The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #14

Chapter title: The Body has its own Wisdom

22 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611225

ShortTitle: WHIP14

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[A sannyasin returning from Germany says: I got myself pretty lost there. I don't seem to be able to get a relationship together. Can you give me any kind of advice?]

Mm (a pause). It is not only a question of relationship. When you are here you are in a certain atmosphere, it is very nourishing to your inner growth. When you go away, you're in a totally different world, uprooted, in a different soil, in a different climate. And the whole atmosphere there is non-meditative. So when a person is growing he needs a constant nourishment. Once he has become grown-up there is no need for it.

It is almost like a small child -- he constantly needs the nourishment from the mother, the milk from the mother, the warmth, the protection, the caring. One day he will become capable of going away from the mother. In fact the whole effort of the mother is that one day he should be able to be on his own. So here it is a mother-atmosphere. When you go away you have to be on your own. Many things that are supporting you disappear, and many things appear that are destructive and it becomes a constant fight. Here you are floating.

Many people here are simply growing without any effort on their part. And that's my whole effort: to make this community so big that it almost becomes a world in itself. Then many people will be growing without any effort of their own. They will be simply riding on the tide, on the wave, mm? They will be simply moving with the total energy of the community. That is the meaning of a commune.

From the ancient days people have always tried to create a commune. And whenever a commune was created there was tremendous growth. Humanity was forged into a new world, in a new altitude.

A community simply means people who are moving in the same direction, holding each other's hands.

So sometimes somebody who cannot run on his own also starts running. Somebody who would be left alone, if left alone would feel lost, feels in tune. Where people are dancing, you start dancing easily. Where people are laughing, you start laughing easily.

Once a professor tried an experiment. He decided with one of his students that the student should try to laugh, mm? and the professor should observe him in many situations. So the student went to the station, purchased a ticket, smiled at the clerk, laughed and was very happy, and the clerk also smiled and started laughing. When the student left, while the professor was watching the clerk another passenger came, and the clerk smiled -- he was still bubbling with energy that had been released by the student -- and the passenger started laughing.

Then the professor followed the passenger. The passenger went into the compartment, into the train, talked to somebody and started laughing, and he was smiling; it became infectious. And in this way he followed many people from one to another up to the evening. And he reports that a single person can have the whole town laughing.

We set things moving. And when there are many people laughing, of course it is very difficult to be sad... almost impossible, it is going against the grain. In the first place, who wants to be sad? In the second place, when it is difficult, who would like to take that difficulty and that arduousness and be sad? And when 1/08/07

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everybody is laughing your vibe changes.

Mm? have you watched? -- if there is somebody beating a drum, your feet start beating with it, your hand starts beating with it; suddenly your heart starts beating with it. You would like to dance. Just a single moment before there was no idea of dancing, but just the drum and the beating of it has entered you. You are no more your ordinary self.

So a commune is a deliberate effort to create a certain pattern of energy. That's why you were feeling lost. It has nothing to do with relationship, but relationship is always good. You are back here; just be happy. Move happily -- laugh more, dance more. And there are always people who would like to have a relationship with somebody who is happy and dancing and singing. Just don't be sad, then you are open to relationship, so whomsoever you deserve, you get. Never complain -- there are no complaints; there is no need -- if you get an ugly person, that you deserved. It is always the right person that comes to you. So if you want to find a better person become better; then a better person will be coming to you.

As I have been watching thousands of people, I have never come across any relationship which was not deserved. You create it, you are the cause of it, so just be happy and somebody is bound to knock... because people are born to be related, they are born in relationship; relationship is a must. An unrelated person is no more human -- he falls below humanity.

That's why monks who move out of society and drop all relationships look a little stupid, retarded. Put a human child in isolation from the very beginning and he will never become a human being. He will never learn how to speak, he will never learn how to sing, he will never learn how to dance. He will never learn how to relate because there is nobody to relate to. He will remain like a rock, he will not flower. He will not be a human being at all -- he will be subhuman. And he will be in a worse state than animals, because at least animals have their own society -- they relate, they are not isolated. The child will be dull, closed.

So the more you relate, the more human you are. And to reach to God means to reach to the peak of your relationship. Prayer is the ultimate relationship -- a relationship with the whole universe. Mm? you loved so many persons -- now they are not fulfilling. Now a person is a limited thing. A limitation, a boundary always comes; then you want to relate to the whole, to this whole universe. Then there is prayer.

So people start from sex, move into love, and reach to prayer.

Never be afraid of sex, but never be content with it. Always move beyond sex towards love. But love is a bridge, not the goal. The goal is prayer. When you can relate to the whole universe, then you can never be isolated. So sometimes it has happened... a Buddha, a Mahavira, they moved from the world, but they were not retarded and they never became subhuman. They became super-human because they learned the art of love in the world. Then there was nothing to learn -- all that the world could give, it had given them. Then they went into isolation. But it was no more isolation because the whole universe was there -- how can you be isolated? If you know how to relate with the universe, trees and rocks and stars, you are never alone.

Then wherever you are, you are amidst your family. So they never fell below humanity; they became super-human.

So I am not against going into the forest. I am in favour of it ,only when the society has given you all that it can give. When one has learned love, one can be alone -- or one can be in the society anywhere; then everything is good. One is never uprooted. You can throw that person into a desert and he will be as happy.

You can throw him anywhere, alone on an island, and he will be as prayerful as anywhere else.

So never be afraid of sex -- but never be contented with it. Always strive for love -- but love is not the goal. Love is a bridge -- the goal is prayer.

[A sannyasin asks: Sometimes I find it difficult to distinguish between the genuine need to sleep and laziness. I wondered if you could shed some light.]

Then do one thing: whenever you feel like it, go to sleep. If it is not genuine you will not fall asleep. So nothing wrong -- you simply rest. If it is genuine, you will fall asleep. And it is difficult to know whether it is genuine or not, because we have lost track of our natural instincts -- and this is the case with everybody.

There are people who cannot make any distinction between the hunger which is genuine and the hunger which is simply psychological; they cannot make any distinction. Maybe it is just the time that they eat every day, so they feel hungry; or maybe it is just the smell that is coming from the kitchen that makes them feel hungry. Maybe it is just the food that they have seen, and the colour is appealing and their memories are revived: in the past they liked that kind of food and suddenly there is hunger. It is difficult because we have lost track of the natural instinct. No animal has that difficulty. When the animal feels hungry he knows, 1/08/07

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when the animal feels sleepy he knows; and there is no problem because there is never false sleep and there is never false hunger. But with man there is a problem, because man has a great imagination -- the imagination is the problem, that makes the trouble. The imagination can create such situations that it looks almost real.

That is the problem and that is the glory too -- it is only because of imagination that man has thought about God, that man has thought about meditation, that man has thought about churches and temples, bibles and korans, and the philosophies and art and music and painting. It is only because of imagination. No animal has painted, no animal has created any music.

Even when we say that the birds are singing, it is not true -- they are not singing, they are simply making noise! And if you listen long enough you will see they are making the same noise again and again and again, there is no singing in it. And this noise is unconscious; there is no deliberate creation. So man's imagination is his richness and his problem too. With every richness problems arise. So this is a basic problem... and not only with you. Maybe it has become more focused on sleep.

My suggestion is: never repress. So if there is any indecision in the mind as to whether the need to sleep is real or just imaginary -- if there is any suspicion -- go to sleep. Otherwise there will be repression and that is more dangerous. If the need was real and you repressed, that's very bad. That's how we have lost contact with our instincts. Repressing the real is creating a barrier; then you will be losing contact more and more.

A moment comes when one knows nothing about one's natural needs. Then the society goes on teaching you, 'This is your need.' The advertisement in the newspaper or on the radio or on the TV creates the need.

In the old days they used to say, 'Whenever there is a demand there is a supply.' Now the law has completely changed: you create supply and there is demand. You simply bring anything into the world, manufacture it first -- don't be bothered whether people need it or not -- then advertise it. If rightly advertised you will find people as if waiting for it, hungry for it -- anything whatsoever! Any foolish thing will do and people will always be ready to purchase it, because people have lost track of their natural instincts.

So my suggestion is: if you are ever in any suspicion, then always err on the side of nature; never err against it. So if you feel sleepy, go to sleep. Being lazy is better than being repressive.

Lazy people have not done anything wrong in the world. I have not come across any crime that lazy people have done, but repressive people have been very dangerous, murderers. They have murdered themselves and they have taken revenge on others too.

For one month whenever you feel sleepy just go to sleep. And within one month you will be able to feel real need. It will simply come to you and then there will be no problem about it. But for a few days -- even if there is any danger of being lazy -- take the risk, be lazy, but never repress. If the need is real and you pull on, somehow you force yourself, and the eyes become tired and the body feels tired, that is not a big problem because in the night you will sleep and tomorrow the tiredness will go. The real problem is that you are falling away from your natural needs: you are not listening to your needs, you are not listening to your nature. You are becoming deaf to your nature, so there will be more and more problems.

And as I see, many people have completely lost all moorings. They don't know exactly who they are, what they want -- everything has to be told to them. They are almost like zombies. They need somebody to tell them that this is time to get up,' so get up; this is time to go to sleep, so go to sleep; this is time to pray, so pray. They need somebody to order them -- then they can manage. There is no spontaneity.

So for one month, simply whenever you feel -- maybe it is lazy, sometimes it may be laziness; I am not saying it is not laziness -- just go to sleep. After one month, tell me again. You will have the taste of the real and then you will have the distinction, clear-cut. Right now I can tell you how to distinguish but there is danger, so I will talk to you after one month.

There is a very famous story about a sufi mystic, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi.

A woman came to him and brought her child and she said, 'You are a great teacher -- do something. She eats too much sugar and her teeth are getting bad and her stomach is disturbed. We are constantly in trouble and she is almost obsessed: sugar and sugar and sugar. Though she does not understand you, she respects you, so if you say something she will listen.'

Rumi said, 'Bring her after three weeks.' The woman was puzzled -- it was such a simple thing, but okay. Three weeks afterward, she brought the child and Rumi said, 'Three weeks more -- bring her after three weeks.' After three weeks she brought, and Rumi said to the child, 'Stop eating sugar. It is bad.'

The woman said, 'Just to have you say this we had to wait for six weeks?'

Rumi said, 'There are many things implied in it. First, I also like eating sugar very much, so I had to try 1/08/07

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on my own to see whether I could say to this child or not -- how can I say? Secondly, it will be too aggressive to jump upon a child; it will be too early. Let the child feel that I am considering -- I am not in a hurry. Let the child feel that I am thinking about it I am not inconsiderate. You have been telling her, "Don't eat... don't eat..." Just repeating that won't have helped. Let there be a deep relationship between me and the child. Now the child must be able to see that I'm not just supporting her mother. I have taken six weeks and now I say to the child....'

And he said to the child, 'I am also an addict, I love sweet things, so it was very difficult to say anything to you. Unless I can renounce, how can I ask you to renounce? You are such a small child, and I am so old and still I love sugar! So I had to renounce it -- now I have renounced. And I tell you it can be renounced.

So don't be worried, it is my experience that it can be renounced. And if I can do it -- such an old man; you are so young -- you certainly can do it.' And the child renounced.

Right now I can say something to you about how to distinguish but that won't be right because whatsoever I say will become an intellectual understanding to you. And there is every danger that your intellectual understanding will make you repressive. The intellect is very repressive, dominating, dictatorial.

That's how it has disconnected you from your own body. So first put that intellect aside -- that's what I am trying to say. Just put it aside. If it is saying it is lazy, it is lazy -- okay. But if the body is saying something, you are going to listen to the body and not to the intellect.

There is one way to make the distinction -- through the intellect; that will always be repressive. There is another way to make the distinction -- through the body; that will never be repressive. The body is more wise. In fact the body is so wise that it does not need intellect at all -- it can function without it.

I was just reading a few days ago in a medical journal that when a man dies, within four minutes his intellect disappears. Then you cannot revive it -- the brain is gone, it cannot be repaired; four minutes is enough. The heart can be revived but the brain cannot be revived any more. So in a heart attack, if within four minutes the heart can be revived the intellect will be functioning, but then too much will be lost.

Immediately as the heart stops the brain starts disappearing. It is a very fragile thing -- exists with great difficulty.

But I was surprised to know that when the heart stops the stomach continues for twenty-four hours. The person is dead for twenty-four hours and the stomach continues to digest. The man is dead, the brain is gone, the heart has stopped. The doctor has given the death certificate, but the stomach goes on absorbing juices, and work continues. For twenty-four hours the body works on its own -- with no brain, with no heart

-- and remains perfectly okay. If the brain can be substituted and the heart can be substituted, the body will function again.

So the body has its own wisdom... deeper than the brain, very much deeper than the brain. The brain is just the surface. So the distinction has to come from the body, from the stomach. And food and sleep both are stomach needs: when you have a full stomach you feel sleepy; when you are fasting there is no sleep.

Food and sleep are both stomach needs. So if you are hungry you cannot sleep. You will turn and toss in the bed and no sleep comes. And when you have taken a good meal, immediately you feel sleepy, because when the stomach has food to digest it wants all brain functioning to stop.

The functioning of the brain is a disturbance to the stomach, hence after food one wants to sleep a little.

After a good meal a little sleep is a must. Just fifteen minutes will do, but it is a must, because when the stomach has food a very basic thing happens: the head cannot function -- the energy is called back to the stomach. All energy has to get involved into digestion, mm? so the head feels sleepy. That's why if you are on a fast you will not be able to sleep, but your head will rush and run and think of so many things.

For people who write and do mental work, fasting is very good. They think more and more clearly, because when the stomach has no need for energy, all the energy is released to the head. So simply for one month, go with the body. And after one month, report to me. And I will also try (a chuckle) and then we will see what happens. Good! (chuckling) Good!

[A sannyasin asks: Since I've been in Poona, my body's just been as though it were a hundred years old.

It's got to the extent now where I can hardly function. I just stay in my room all the time. Physical activities tire me out to the point of exhaustion. And sometimes I've gone through groups while I've been here, even though I've been very tired, because I thought, 'Well, it's just the mind.' But I'm pushing myself into a brick wall.

Osho checks his energy.]

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You do a few things: one is -- and the most fundamental -- accept it. Your rejection of it is making things worse. Accept! Mm? the first thing is to accept it and follow the body -- whatsoever the body says. If it feels exhausted, don't go, don't do anything, mm? So the first thing: drop the rejection and the idea that you have to do something to become more energyful. Forget about it -- that very idea may be one of the basic causes.

The second thing: whenever you are lying down or sitting silently, just feel that you are not the body, but energy. Just with closed eyes, simply feel your body as a moving energy, a fluidity. Energy is moving; the blood circulation is energy, the breathing is energy. You are simply sitting there as an energy pool.

Lying down on the bed, again become more and more identified with energy. Move the hand and feel that it is not matter, but energy.

And do every act very slowly so you can feel it. You go to the bath -- go very slowly, feeling that your energy is moving. You eat -- eat very slowly, feeling that you are eating energy. Breathing in, feel you are breathing energy -- and in fact that is what we are breathing: it is prana, it is bio-energy.

So while breathing in, feel you are taking energy in; and breathing out, feel you are throwing out all sadness, all dullness.

Whatsoever you do, do very very slowly. Slow down every process. In fact that idea is very good -- that you are one hundred years old. Let that idea -- that you are one hundred years old and you have to move like a one hundred-year-old person -- be accepted. For three weeks be one hundred years old, and do whatsoever at that age would be right, mm? Don't run like a young man, and don't do Dynamic Meditation and don't do Kundalini. Sitting silently, if you feel like doing any meditation, then do Nadabrahma. You can come to the music group if you feel like it -- just sit and listen to the music. Swaying will do -- but do everything very very softly so that it does not exhaust energy in any way. Do this for three weeks, and after three weeks tell me how you are feeling.

It will be possible to get out of it, but drop the idea of getting out of it; accept it. What to do? If one has become one hundred years old, one has become one hundred years old. Sometimes it happens. Everybody has his own pace. A few people become a hundred years old when they are thirty, a few become when they are forty, a few become when they are a hundred, mm? And a few don't become even when they are a hundred and ten. Time is not by the clock. The body has its own time. So if you have become hundred years old, perfectly good. Mm?

And I need old people here, mm? (laughter) There is so much young energy, I need a few old people.

You can make friends with Paritosh (a sixty-eight-year-old resident sannyasin present at darshan). You can treat him just like a younger brother (laughter). Just for three weeks you have to be a hundred years old, so let it be known to everybody. You can have a walking stick and things like that and in three weeks you tell me! Mm?

[A sannyasin says: I found out in the group (the Tathata group) that I'm a big fool. I have a sense of a higher self -- occasionally I act it out -- but mostly I'm in my ego, my personality. I meditated on this all day and I think it's fear.]

Mmm... you seem to be right. The ego is always out of fear. A really fearless person has no ego. The ego is a protection, an armour. Because you are afraid, you create an impression around you that you are so and so and this and that, mm? So nobody dares... otherwise fear, it is basically fear. Good! You looked into it deeply and rightly. And once you see the basic cause, things become very simple. Otherwise people go on fighting with the ego -- and the ego is not a real problem. So you are fighting with a symptom, not with the real disease. The real disease is fear. You can go on fighting with the ego and you will go on missing the target because the ego is not the real enemy, it is bogus. Even if you win, you will not win anything. And you cannot win. Only a real enemy can be defeated -- not a false enemy that does not exist at all; it is a facade. It is as if you have a wound and it looks ugly and you put some ornament on it.

Once it happened that I was staying at a filmstar's house and he had asked many people to come and see me. A film actress was also there and she had a really beautiful watch with a beautiful and very big band.

Somebody who was sitting by her side started asking about the watch and she became a little worried. I was simply watching. He wanted to see the watch -- and she was not willing to take it off. But the man insisted and she had to take it off. Then I could see what was the problem. She had a big white spot, a leprosy spot.

She was hiding that leprosy spot under the band of that beautiful watch. Now she was exposed -- and she started perspiring and became so nervous.

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The ego is just like that. There is fear, but nobody wants to show his fear, because if you show that you are afraid many people will be there who will make you more afraid. Once they come to know that you are in deep fear, then everybody will hit you hard. They will enjoy humiliating you, finding that someone is weaker. People enjoy exploiting; to kick that person.

So every person who is afraid, deep down creates a big ego around the fear and goes on pumping more air in that balloon of the ego and becomes too big. Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin of Uganda -- that type of person becomes very puffed. Then he starts making others afraid. Anybody who tries to make anybody afraid, know well that he must himself be deep down afraid, otherwise why? What is the point? Who bothers to make you afraid if he is not afraid?

People full of fear make others afraid so they can rest at ease. They know well that now you will not touch them, you will not trespass their boundaries. .

You looked well -- that is exactly the case. So don't fight with the ego. Rather watch fear and try to accept it. It is natural... it is part of life. There is no need to hide it; there is no need to pretend otherwise. It is there -- all human beings are full of fear. It is part of humanity. Accept it, and the moment you accept it the ego will disappear, because then there is no point for the ego to be there. Fighting with the ego will not help; accepting the fear will immediately help. Then you know that yes, we are so tiny in such a vast universe -- how is it possible not to be afraid? And life is surrounded by death -- how is it possible not to be afraid? Any moment we can disappear... a small thing goes wrong and we disappear -- so how is it possible not to be afraid? When you accept, by and by fear disappears because now there is no point. You accept it, you have taken it for granted -- it is so!

So don't create something against it to hide it, and when you don't create anything against it, it simply subsides. I'm not saying you will not have any fear -- I am saying that you will not be afraid. Fear will be there but you will not be afraid. You follow me? To be afraid means that you are against fear -- you don't want it to be there, and it is there.

When you accept it.... Just as trees are green, humanity is full of fear. Then what to do? Trees are not hiding. Everybody is prone to die. Fear is the shadow of death. Accept it !

[A sannyasin says: I feel very happy. I'm feeling tremendously happy since I took sannyas.]

It happens (he chuckles). Sannyas helps. It simply changes the very current of your consciousness. Trust is a great change: if you can trust somebody, a thousand and one burdens simply disappear. Then you are not fighting alone. In the dark night of life you are not alone. Somebody is there, you are with somebody.

And if you can feel that somebody has an inner light, you can move more trustfully, more totally.

It happens, but the problem is that it is only when people take sannyas that they understand. Those who have not taken sannyas go on wondering whether there is something in it or not. And it is very difficult to tell them there is something unless they take it. There are a few things you come to know only when you have tasted. So now tell others about your taste, mm?

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #15

Chapter title: Sex is the Beauty of Total Release

23 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611235

ShortTitle: WHIP15

Audio:

No

Video:

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[A sannyasin, returning from the West says: It's very good to be back. It feels like my home.]

It is! Home is where you belong, and home is where you can be at home. Home is where you can relax and can be accepted as you are... where nobody tries to change you, nobody expects anything from you and everybody is ready to love you as you are. And there is no bargain in love... just for love's sake.

Home has nothing to do with parents; home has nothing to do with a particular house, with a birthplace

-- it has nothing to do with those things. Home is a great psychological experience... the experience of belonging. Home means that you are not alone... that somebody understands you, and whatsoever you do, there will be no condemnation. This is your home.

And this is my effort -- to make a home for millions. We will make it!

[Osho checks the energy of a sannyasin who practices massage in the West.]

Good... very good. The energy is flowing very well. You can be really deep in massage -- you can go very far. Up to now you have been only swimming on the surface. You can dive very deeply, and it will be a great help for your inner growth.

Massage is not an ordinary thing. It has tremendous meaning. There are a few people who are born to massage -- you are one of them. Your energy can go very very deep. But always remember a few things while massaging. One -- the person you are massaging has no body. Conceive of him as bodyless and your massage will go very very deep. First think of him as having no body, then think of yourself as having no body. By body I mean neither he nor you are matter -- both are energies.

When two material things come close, they collide. When two energies come close they simply mix and mingle and melt into each other -- there is no collision. Two physical bodies are bound to collide. And whenever you touch somebody's body as a body, and he also feels himself as a body, there is a shrinking, a defence. 1 he defense armour starts working.

So the first thing is to feel that the other is just an energy; you are also an energy. And then start playing with the energy as one plays on a guitar. Make it more music than massage. Make it more play than work.

Let it be more from the heart than from the mind.

The technique has to be known, but then forgotten. One should know the technique and then one should not bother about it. It remains deep in the unconscious and functions from there but you move by hunches.

So you feel the energy, of the other person, you present yourself as an energy phenomenon, and then two energies start playing. Massage is almost like love.

And if you can move into it that way you will have very orgasmic experiences and you will be benefited tremendously. The massaged may not be benefited so deeply -- it depends on him or on her. If the massaged also drops all body consciousness, forgets the body and remembers only a subtle play of energy -- waves of energy and nothing else -- then he will also be benefited. And the benefit will not only be relaxation -- the benefit will become deeply spiritual. The body will be automatically benefited, but deeper layers will be touched. And some day it becomes possible -- when you and the person you are massaging are both lost, and there is an inner energy orgasm, and both orgasms explode simultaneously -- that you will know for the first time what it is. It is something very transcendental....

[Another sannyasin says: It's great to be here again.]

You will be here again and again. It is always good to go for some time and then come back, otherwise one tends to take things for granted. It is good for the fish sometimes to jump out of the water and be on the sand and then thirst for the water, and again jump into it. Then for the first time the fish knows what a benediction it is to be in the water.

So this is a small oasis, mm? Go into the desert of the world, feel the hot winds, and the conflicts and the violence all around. And whenever you feel tired, exhausted, come back again. Rest in the oasis, then be ready and move again.

[The sannyasin continues: I learned when I was in England that I was born by caesarean. I seek that kind 1/08/07

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of situation in my life everywhere.]

Mm mm. Many things at the time of the birth become very much determining factors. Whatsoever happens at the time of birth is very very important for the whole life. If you were born by caesarean, in every situation you will find something like that.

... But that will disappear... that will disappear. Mm? because you are now being reborn again, so the old birth will become irrelevant soon.

That's the meaning of sannyas: to be born again. It takes a little time. The first day when you take initiation is not the birth really. That is the beginning of the pregnancy. Then somewhere later on.... And it depends, it is not so mechanical as the bodily birth -- not always nine months, sometimes less, sometimes more... sometimes years.

The day you take sannyas, the pregnancy has started. Now nobody knows how much time you will take to become mature and come out of the womb. And everybody will be different. So you are in the womb again -- and this time it is not going to be a caesarean operation. You will be born naturally. You have fallen into the right hands. Otherwise there are many people in the world of spirituality who force, who are almost violent, aggressive.

My whole effort here is to help you to be so relaxed -- as if there is not a thing to worry about.

Whenever things happen, good; if they don't happen, that too is good.

To allow nature to take its course, to allow it so patiently that there is no interference of any sort, is the approach of the religious mind. One simply watches and moves, and helps nature to take its course.

So this time you will not be a caesarean -- because I don't believe in operations, in forced births. And once that has happened, the impact of your caesarean birth will disappear completely, because then it will not belong to you -- it was somebody else's birth.

[A sannyasin says she has nothing to say. Osho gives her an 'energy darshan']

That's a better way to say it. There are things words cannot convey but the energy can convey. There are things to convey about which you are not even aware, but the body, the energy, can communicate. Much is going to happen? So really be ready this way, mm..., to welcome and receive it. Be ready. All that is needed is just being receptive.

God is searching... we need not search for Him at all. And even if we search, we cannot find, because we don't know where He is, who He is. And even if He comes just in front of you, you will not be able to recognise Him, because recognition is possible only when cognition has happened before. Recognition means that you are seeing somebody again -- but you have not seen God before so how can you seek and how can you recognise?

Truth cannot be sought -- one can simply be receptive, that's all. One can open the doors and wait... and wait prayerfully. One can say only this much, 'If you come, you will be received, welcomed. I don't know who you are, and I don't know your address and I cannot even send an invitation. But whosoever you are, and whomsoever it concerns, if you come, my doors will be open -- you will not find them closed.' That's all that a seeker can do... that's all that is needed to be done. More than that is not possible and is not needed.

So let this posture be your deep attitude. One has to become receptive. Hence I go on emphasising that the search for truth is not a male search; it is a feminine search -- just like feminine energy... receptive. Not like a male -- aggressive.

The male mind has created science. Science is aggressive. It is almost a rape on nature. It is a violent effort to force nature to yield its secrets. It is not graceful. There is no prayer in it. There is conflict. Hence they call it the 'conquest of nature', 'conquering nature'. But this is absurd! How can you conquer nature? --

you are part of it. How can my hand conquer me? -- the hand is part of me. How can a leaf conquer the tree?

Foolish, just foolish!

And out of that foolishness we have created a whole civilization which is trying to conquer everything.

It is the male-dominated world. And when I say male-dominated, I mean the aggressive mind. A woman can be male if she has an aggressive mind and a man can be feminine if he has a receptive mind. Science is male, religion is female.

Religion is simply a deep receptivity... a readiness, an open door. If God comes as a guest He will not be refused, that's all, and He will be received with great gratitude, He will be a welcome guest.

So meditate, dance and sing, but remain deep inside with a welcoming heart. And everything will come 1/08/07

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in its own right time... nothing happens before its right time. And it is good -- it should not happen before the right time has come. If it happens before its time you will never be able to understand it, to digest it. It will never become part of you, it will even become a burden -- may prove poisonous.

So just one thing I would like to tell you: while you are here do everything that is available. But do in a receptive mood. Is the difference clear to you? Rushing is not good -- waiting. Hurry is not good -- grace.

[A sannyasin: Before you talked about expecting God, to be always waiting for God, but when He comes as a cockroach I don't like to receive Him.]

Mm! Then don't receive. Just say to the cockroach, 'You should not approach me in this way. This is not the way I am going to receive you' -- that's all. Nothing wrong in it, mm? One day you will be able to receive a cockroach too (chuckling), mm?

But nothing to be worried about. One can have a choice. God comes in so many ways, so there is no need to receive Him in only one form -- you can receive His many forms. Trees are there, and men and women and cows and dogs and cats and so many things are there -- you receive. If you don't like cockroaches no need to be worried!

But cockroaches are one of the great friends of humanity. They have lived as long as humanity. They are great companions. And wherever man is found, cockroaches are found. Wherever man goes, cockroaches reach. But some day you will... a vision will appear, mm? (Osho chuckling) You will see a cockroach as a god, but there's no need right now. Mm? Right now you love other forms of God. Keep it for the last, the ultimate.

Mm? that will be your last barrier. When you can worship a cockroach too, that day you will become enlightened (laughter).

[A sannyasin says: I have a sexual problem... of wishing that no one had ever told me that sex existed.

And I feel there's something very wrong with me all the time.... I think before I never allowed myself to look at it. I wanted to pretend I enjoyed it.]

(after a pause) Something has to be done, mm? Because this is a wrong attitude, and you will unnecessarily create trouble for yourself and will miss many things which are necessary. One has to go beyond sex one day, but the way beyond goes through it, and if you never go into it rightly, it is very difficult to go beyond it. So going through it is part of going beyond. You may have learned some attitude, you may have been conditioned.

All over the world somehow, humanity is being corrupted by people -- and the greatest corruption is that everybody is taught to feel guilty about enjoying themselves... as if something is wrong when you are happy. When you are miserable, everything is okay, but when you are happy, something is wrong. So happiness has been crushed and repressed -- and unless you explode into happiness, you miss the whole opportunity of life.

Life exists for that -- so that one learns how to be absolutely happy... how to explode in it.

And certainly sex brings you the greatest possibility of explosion. It is one of the most natural ways to have a glimpse of samadhi, of deep meditation, of benediction. There are other ways to go into benediction but they are not so natural. Sex is the most natural way -- biologically built-in. It is a gift of God so that any person -- he may be religious, irreligious, Hindu, Mohammedan, may believe God exists, may not believe, be a communist, atheist, whatsoever.... But one thing is naturally there that will give a glimpse of something beyond -- beyond the body, beyond the mind.

So three things you have to remember and try. First, when you are making love, be active. If you are inactive this thing will happen easily. When you are active this will not happen so easily. So tell your boyfriend that he has to play the role of a woman and you will play the role of a man. Let it be a game. So let him be more passive and you become more active. When one is more active, the activity is more involved, your energy is more involved -- it is difficult to stop it in the middle. But when you are passive you can stop any time because you are almost out of it. You are just there like a spectator. So become more active, mm? And this is just a temporary measure. Once you have attained to orgasmic experience, then there is no need -- you can start playing your old role of being a woman. This is just temporary. So tell your boy-friend that he has to be the woman, and you have to be the man and be active.

And second thing: before you make love, dance together. Let it be a wild dance. Sing loudly, dance, 1/08/07

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Query:-

play music if you want to. Have incense in the room. Make it an elaborate ritual... almost religious.

People don't move towards love-making in steps. Two persons are sitting, and suddenly they start making love. It is so abrupt -- and it is very abrupt for the woman. For the man it is not so abrupt because man's energy is a different type of energy, and man's sexuality is more local. The woman's sexuality is more total; her whole body has to be involved in it. So unless it is preceded by a foreplay, a woman never goes deeply into it.

So first dance, sing, let the energy bubble up, and then be the active partner. And go wild! Don't have any pattern -- go wild. If you want to scream while making love, don't be worried. If you want to sing, don't be worried. If you want to just utter some jibberish, utter it -- that will function like a mantra.

And the third thing: every day from the morning to the evening, you have to watch -- in other things also you must be repressing your joy. So it has to be changed altogether. When you are eating, eat joyfully, because everything is interconnected. When you are dancing, joy has to be there. Meditating, be joyful.

Talking to a person, be joyful, be radiant, flowing. Walking on the road, be joyful. We don't know how much we are missing. Just an ordinary walk on the road coming to the ashram -- you can enjoy it so tremendously. Who knows? -- there may not be another day again. Tomorrow you may not be able to walk on the road. Tomorrow you may not be there to receive the sun. The wind will be there, but you may not be there. Who knows about tomorrow? So this may be the last day.

So always enjoy each moment of it as if it is going to be the last. Take the whole of it, squeeze it completely, don't leave anything in it. Then one lives intensely and passionately. And sex is just a by-product of your total attitude, so you cannot just change your sex -- that is not possible. Everything is interconnected, mm? so you will have to change everything.

Eat joyously! Just don't go on eating as if you have to do it so you just stuff the body -- enjoy it! It is a sacrament. Walk -- enjoy it. It is God's gift, and one has to be thankful for it. Talking to somebody, enjoy it.

So from this moment start enjoying things also which have nothing to do on the surface with sex, mm?

But the total result will be that if you enjoy other things, you will enjoy sex too. If you don't enjoy other things you will not enjoy sex either.

This is my observation -- that the attitude towards sex is a very symbolic attitude; it shows everything about your whole life. So you will not be enjoying other things either, or only to a certain extent and then you will be stopping. A man who is afraid of happiness, joy, is always afraid of many things. You will go to a certain extent and then stop.

These three things, and report to me after three weeks. Three weeks of wild life, mm? (She laughs) Forget all humanity -- be an animal, pure animal, and then I can make you a human being very easily. But to be an animal one needs to go deep into things.

Unless you are a real animal, you cannot become a real human being. And unless you are a real human being, you cannot become a divine being.

Everything has a hierarchy: the animal is the base of the temple, humanity is the walls of the temple, and divinity is the roof. So the roof cannot exist without the base. One can have the roof, and if there are no walls, then too it cannot exist. Man is a three storey building: the first storey is animal, the second is human, the third is divine. So you start from the first, from the very beginning -- lay down the foundation stone.

Right? Good!

[The last five pages of this chapter is a compilation and explanation of Osho's guidance about sex, giving as examples several situations which arose during darshans where people asked his advice about their sexual energy.]

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #16

Chapter title: Live at the Maximum

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25 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611255

ShortTitle: WHIP16

Audio:

No

Video:

No

Anand means bliss and amara means eternal, deathless, immortal. And in the East we define bliss as that which is eternal. Happiness is that which is momentary. When happiness becomes eternal, it becomes bliss.

Happiness is just a glimpse of that bliss -- as if you have seen the far away Himalayan mountain peaks in a dream... or in a dark night there is a sudden lightning and you have seen the vision -- mm? Everything was clear for a moment, then again the darkness -- and even darker than before.

Happiness is a far away glimpse of bliss. -And by its very nature it is momentary. You cannot make lightning permanent -- by its very nature it is momentary. People hanker for happiness and they want to make it permanent. That is the whole desire of the human mind -- to make happiness something permanent, which abides, which remains. But by its very nature it is non-abiding, by its very nature it is momentary.

Human beings go on struggling for the impossible. And then of course there is frustration. You can look everywhere -- there is frustration, misery.

So don't hanker for happiness, rather search for bliss -- and that is a totally different dimension. That's what meditation is all about -- the technology of the inner search for something which is eternal in you.

Only on the base of that can one come to a point where one can relax and be really happy. This ordinary happiness makes you really more and more unhappy. By the time you are settling with your unhappiness, again there is a moment of lightning -- again there is happiness, again you are unsettled, again desire arises... then there is frustration. By the time you are settling again, another moment of happiness.

So these moments of happiness are far between -- and between two moments of happiness there is great misery. We suffer that misery in the hope that the moment will be coming. It has not come today --

tomorrow it will be coming, or the day after tomorrow, but it must be coming. We live by hope.

To enter into meditation is to enter into another dimension -- the dimension of no hope, no desire... the dimension of no time. And the search is not for happiness at all -- the search is for that which is eternal. By the time you recognise the eternal in you, suddenly there is bliss, and then bliss is no more like lightning --

it is a permanent light in you that abides. Then happiness is not something that comes and goes -- you are happiness then.

When happiness becomes just your nature, it is bliss. When it comes and goes it is of no use. It is just like a toy, mm? The child becomes engaged, occupied, enjoys playing with it, but meanwhile misery goes on growing and it goes on exploring again and again....

Anand means bliss and jagdeesh means god, lord of the world; so, god of bliss. And everybody is this --

the ultimate. We may know it, we may not know it. We may recognise, we may not recognise, but the reality remains the same -- only God is, and everything else is just a dream. This name will remind you continuously. So be a god, live like a god, move like a god.

God has not to be realised -- God is already there. It is your reality... it is you. One has just to start living it on the way.

And that is the basic teaching that I am bringing to you -- that God has not to be searched for. It is not somewhere far away -- it is already the case. Just start living it.

Whatsoever you do, do with the conscious idea that you are God -- love like a god, move, walk like a god. Mm? just let that feeling arise more and more. And once you start living that vibration, suddenly you become aware that you have always been that. And not only you -- the moment you recognise that you have been always divine, the whole existence suddenly turns into a totally different world; everything becomes divine.

.... And do a few groups here.

First Tathata. Tathata means to be in a state of suchness -- it is a buddhist word... to live life as it is without hankering for any improvement, because all improvement is a desire of the ego. To think of oneself in terms of becoming is to create misery. So Tathata means whatsoever is, is -- live it. Don't compare it with 1/08/07

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the past and don't compare it with the future. Let that moment, the present moment, be all, as if there is no other time -- in fact there is not, only the present is. Tathata means living in the present, and living so totally that the past and the future disappear, so you are passionately herenow, intensely herenow. You become a burning flame -- your torch burns from both ends together. And in those moments one exists at the optimum.

We are living at the minimum, that's why we are missing the joy. We are not meant to live at the minimum. We are made to live at the optimum, we are made to live at a hundred degrees -- from there is evaporation, transformation. But we live near about ten degrees: just lukewarm -- neither cold nor hot.

Tathata means that this moment is all, so you cannot dissipate your energy and you cannot spread your life. There is no past -- it is already gone; and there is no future -- because it has not come yet. So all that you have got is this atomic moment. There is no way to spread your life. You cannot be horizontal, you have to be vertical -- because this is the only moment there is, and you have to live in depth. That creates intensity... that creates passion. Life becomes a passionate affair. Then each moment has its own flame, and there is no smoke.

Smoke comes when you are not burning totally. If you burn a new, freshly-cut log, it smokes because it resists, it fights the fire. It is not ready to burn, the sap is still alive; the log is not dry. The log is not ready to move with the flames -- it fights. There is resistance, struggle, conflict, so there is no fire, only smoke; the log smokes. When the log is dry, there is no smoke -- there is pure fire. When there is no past, when there is no future, you are not wet with desire -- you are dry.

And this moment is all. There is no way to spread yourself anywhere, so you dive deep. And in that depth one starts living at the optimum -- and to live at the optimum is to live like a god. So Tathata will be your first step towards it. And the second is Sahaj....

Sahaj means spontaneity. That which happens on its own accord -- only that is true and that is beautiful and that is good. That which you do is wrong. Whenever you are the doer you have erred. Being spontaneous means that whatsoever life wants, it happens. You cooperate with it -- with no condemnation, with no judgement, with no good/bad. Nothing is moral, nothing is immoral.

There are only two types of things: either natural or unnatural. So if you go on dropping the unnatural, the natural becomes a bigger stream by and by. That will be the second step, and then I will tell you what else to do... and the camp is there.

And fundamentally I am here, mm? So just drink me as deep as you can. And you are not new here.

Some day you will recognise that you have been with me before.

So it is a continuity of an old story....

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #17

Chapter title: Now is the Season to Explode

26 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611265

ShortTitle: WHIP17

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[The Sajah -- spontaneity -- group is at darshan. The group leader said it was a very exciting group with a tremendous amount of life energy. However, one woman who seemed to have a breakthrough, left the group.]

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Query:-

Sometimes some people leave. If they feel like leaving that is their spontaneity, so let them leave.

Nothing to worry about. We are not to force anybody -- that is their choice, mm? And when somebody leaves, help him not to feel guilty about it -- that is to be remembered. Don't feel it as a rejection -- that he has rejected the group or the group process; no don't take it that way.

This is how it evolved in his or her being -- to leave. So if it has come into somebody's mind to leave, then that is the spontaneous thing to do. Then forcing him or her to be in the group will be against the group, against the very philosophy of the group. Even if the person forces himself to be there and you come to know, just tell him not to force, because that is against the whole process. The process is to float... and who knows? Surprises will be there! Sometimes somebody comes floating to a point. where he simply jumps out of the river. That's how it happens to him -- so say good-bye! But don't make it in any way be felt as a rejection of the group -- because if you feel that it is a rejection of the group, then knowingly, unknowingly, you will create a guilt feeling in the person who has left. He will start feeling that he has done something wrong, that he should not have done it. No.

One thing has to be absolutely clear about my work: I don't want anybody to feel guilty about anything.

I want humanity to be completely free from guilt. Now all the religions of the world have done just the opposite: they have made people feel very very guilty. They have made all people feel like sinners. That's why the world is so miserable. The ceremony has lost its music, its dance. Everybody is so sad and the whole thing has become ugly because everybody is so guilty. If you eat this, you are guilty; if you drink that, you are guilty. If you make love to this woman, you are guilty. If you have some revolutionary ideas, you are guilty. If you have some eccentric sexuality, you are guilty... a thousand and one traps to make you guilty!

Unless you completely deaden yourself you cannot be respected. So the society respects only the dead people, and the alive people are all guilty and sinners.

My whole approach is just the contrary, the diametrically opposite -- I would like you to feel happy.

Whatsoever you do, you are accepted. The way you want to do it is good for you -- good that for three days, four days, you were with the group. We are happy that for four days we continued to be together.

When next time somebody leaves, give him a good farewell so that he leaves without any guilt. And it the person leaves without any guilt, your group has worked tremendously for him. If he comes next time to do the group, he will not come out of guilt. He will come out of a feeling that this is the group where hc belongs, that this group has to be completed not out of guilt that he has done anything wrong, but out of a feeling that he has missed something.

The original meaning of the word sin is 'missing the mark'. It is tremendously beautiful. It has lost its original meaning. A sinner is one who missed the mark -- nothing else!

So next time when somebody leaves, give him a good farewell. Let him leave with good feelings that he has left a beautiful group, a friendly one behind -- and a great desire arises in him or her to come back next time.

The group worked well. That was my feeling about it -- that it should become very very spontaneous.

That's why I have given the name Sahaj; it means spontaneity, natural; whatsoever is, is good and we accept it totally.

It will go on changing because a spontaneous group will change every time. It will bring many surprises to you too. You will never be fed up with it, because if it is structured, participants change but the leader remains the same, and every time he is repeating the same. But that will not happen in your group. It will be as new to you as it will be to the participants.

In fact the group has no leader really -- you are just a coordinator, just to be there to help, that's all... a midwife.

And that is the real function of a leader -- to be a midwife. If something is being born, you help. You cannot produce the child and you are not supposed to make a pregnancy. If somebody is carrying a pregnancy, you help. You just facilitate the process, and whatsoever is.... You are not worried whether a girl is born or a boy, or a fool or a wise man; you are not worried about it. That's not the point -- you simply help.

And each time there will be different things, because different people will be coming with different pregnancies. It is going to be a continuous surprise, and it will remain very very alive.

[A group member says: I often feel totally restless -- wanting to go somewhere and not knowing where to go.]

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And what are you doing for twenty-four hours? I think you need a little more creativity, more action. It is just energy -- nothing else -- and energy needs work.

This is how man makes problems. When a child is a child he hankers to be a young man because he looks all around -- older people are so powerful, and doing many things which he would also like to do. He wants to grow up fast -- as fast as possible. In fact he prays to God, 'By the morning make me bigger, stronger.' When one is young this problem arises -- so much energy, what to do? It constantly goes on driving you mad: do something!

One does not know what to do and where to go and anywhere you go it makes no difference -- it is there again. So young people go on moving from one town to another, from one country to another, from one guru to another.... Again they become restless. They are constantly on the move. The young energy is a vagabond... it is vagrant. Then it creates problems. One becomes so anxious with energy. And then there is old age.

Old people come to me and they say, 'We cannot meditate. We would like to, but the energy is not there.

We would like to dance like these young people -- we cannot.' So it seems that whatsoever happens, there are problems.

A wise person is one who uses all the situations of life. When he is a child he enjoys childhood. He does not bother a bit for growing up soon or anything -- he does not think about it. When he is a child, he is a child. He enjoys that innocent, irresponsible state of mind. When he is a young man he becomes creative.

He does not go rushing from one place to another; rather he starts using the energy to move from one space to another space -- the journey becomes inner. And you have a thousand and one spaces yet unexplored.

So it is pointless to go to Kathmandu and to Goa and to Kabul -- it is meaningless. There are Kathmandus within you and Goas within you and vast tremendous beautiful beaches of being -- you need to go there.

So when a person is wise and young, he uses, rides on the waves... dances, laughs, lives, loves, and does not make any problem out of it. When he is old, he uses that too; when the energy is gone he can sit silently.

Now he can follow the zen maxim: sitting silently, doing nothing, and the grass grows by itself.

This is how a wise man should be -- using all opportunities as they come. And each opportunity has its own beauty and it opens its own door.

So right now dance, sing, love -- use your energy! Invest it in inner exploration -- paint, make poems, write a novel. This is the time when one needs to do many many things, because once energy is gone if you have not done many, many things, you will repent -- but then it will be too late. So use this time to do a thousand and one Things. Enjoy doing them and then the restlessness will disappear.

This is how I have lived. When I was a child I was never worried about growing up. Why? Why should one? Then I lived like a whirlwind.

Somebody, a young man, asked Confucius, 'How to be silent?' Confucius looked at him and he said,

'Have you gone mad? When you die you will rest in your grave -- then you will be silent! What is the hurry?

Right now enjoy! Right now don't be worried about silence. Everybody is to die, that much is certain. Then in your grave there will be eternal silence -- you enjoy it then!'

Confucius is right. This is no time to become grave-like. This is time to flower! This is the season to explode! If you are not exploding, there will be trouble, mm? It is just like a tree which is somehow hoarding its flowers and fruits inside it, and does not allow them out. It will go mad! Sooner or later the tree will be on the psychiatrist's couch, going through psychoanalysis. But trees don't do that -- they are not that foolish.

When it is time, they flower. When it is time, many fruits come. They become so heavy with fruit that their branches start touching the earth. When it is time to drop the fruits, they drop. When it is time to drop the leaves, the leaves drop and they stand naked against the sky. When it is time to die, they die silently.

They live each moment as it comes.

This is my essential teaching: live each moment as it comes. You have energy -- be creative, mm?

[Another group member says: The fourth day leader had been saying to everybody to go crazy, and at the first moment a fear came into me -- like being oppressed by violence... going into a space where I didn't feel like going. Then the group entirely focused on me saying, 'Get angry! Get angry!' And they started slapping me and fighting me.... And I didn't know how to cope with this violence... So how to cope with the aggression? -- because I didn't feel any anger against anybody or anything to get into stuff like that. The 1/08/07

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first three and a half days were really spontaneous, and then after these days, this fear.]

Mm mm. In such a situation you should listen to your own spontaneity, and then you would have enjoyed the last days tremendously. They were hitting you -- let them hit -- but you didn't feel anger, so what could you do? If you didn't feel, you didn't.

There is no need to create a feeling. Nobody has ever been able to create a feeling. You can pretend, you can act, but how can you feel? If you are not feeling, you are not feeling.

So this was a good opportunity -- that they are slapping your face, and hitting and saying things and provoking you, and you were just sitting there. This was your craziness!

Just sitting there... Buddha-like. And sooner or later they would have felt that they were crazy and what were they doing to this poor man? He is simply sitting there looking at the whole scene, enjoying it or smiling.

They could have killed you -- and even if they kill, what is wrong in it? (Osho chuckles. ..laughter) I don't see the point -- what is wrong? One day you will die... and you will not find such a beautiful group to die in! (laughter) You missed an opportunity!

Next time it happens, just listen to your spontaneity. This may be their spontaneity -- and of course when somebody is hitting you and you don't get angry, he becomes more angry because this man is defeating him. So that is his problem. If you could have watched, it would have given you such a great insight into your being and such a transcendence. All this craziness around you and you were sitting there.

This is what is happening to me! (laughter) What else can I do?

But it happens the first time. In the next group you look at it again. Otherwise some time repeat Sahaj.

And just let them. What are they doing? What can they do? At the most they can kill, that's all. Once you accept the worst, then there is no problem. You should have lain down there amidst them and let those crazy people do what they were doing -- shouting and screaming -- and they would have worshipped you finally!

They would have touched your feet! (laughter) You would have simply attained! You would have become enlightened or something! This is how enlightenment happens! (chuckling... laughter) The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #18

Chapter title: Know You are the Universe

27 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611275

ShortTitle: WHIP18

Audio:

No

Video:

No

Deva means divine and niseema means without any boundaries -- unbounded, unlimited, infinite. And this name is to remind you continuously that nothing is limited. All limitation is imposed by the mind, otherwise everything is unlimited. It begins nowhere -- it ends nowhere. It is almost as if you stand at a window and look at the sky -- the frame of the window becomes the frame of the sky. But the sky is unlimited -- it is your window that gives it a limitation. The mind is very limited, existence is unlimited.

So whenever you look through the mind you will see boundaries, definitions. Whenever you can see something without the mind, all boundaries disappear. Hence the insistence of all the great meditators that one has to achieve a state of no-mind, because only then you know the real as it is. Otherwise you know something as it is not, as the mind manipulates it, as the mind makes it appear. You know that, but that is not real.

1/08/07

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Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

If you look at a tree it looks limited. But if you penetrate a little deeper, the roots have gone into the earth, they are joined with the earth, and the leaves are joined with the sun, with the sun rays. Every leaf is continuously in a tremendous play with the air. Without the air, without the sun and without the earth, the tree won't exist. It can't exist for a single moment.

So to define the tree is not right. In the definition of the tree, the earth has to be there, the sun has to be there, the air has to be there. And then there are more subtle layers....

Now even scientific researchers show that if you love the tree, when you come to it, the tree feels very happy. It sways... it welcomes you... it spreads its arms towards you. So even it is connected with love.

If you come to the tree with hatred and you want to cut the tree, it shrinks, becomes afraid, hates you from its very guts. Now there are scientific ways to know it. And not only when you hate the tree does it hate you -- even that somebody is coming with the idea to cut the tree... the very idea is enough! So it means that the tree is connected even with ideas.

And not only that.... When you are going to cut a particular pine tree, the other trees will also be antagonistic to you. You are not going to harm them, but the rosebush will be angry at you. You are going to cut the pine tree -- they have lived together for so long. They have an affinity, a family, a communion.

The garden will miss the pine tree -- the whole garden will miss it.

If you go deeper and deeper, you see that things are so interconnected that it is difficult to define anything. That's why God is indefinable -- because God simply means the totality of all the interconnections, of all the positive interconnections, impossible interconnections -- past, present, future.

The totality of all the interconnections is what God is. It is impossible to define.

But the mind tends to define, categorise, label. The mind says, 'This is a man, this is a woman' -- and this is all nonsense because in every man there exists a woman, and in every woman there exists a man. This is utter nonsense to say, 'This is a man, and this is a woman.' Maybe there is a little difference of emphasis that's all. Because each child is born out of two parents, man and woman; the child inherits both. Your mother goes on living in you, your father goes on living in you, so how can you be just a woman?

And you cannot be only that which you look on the surface. There are layers upon layers of your being not even known to you, so how can you define?

Just a few days ago one old woman came -- of course old, so an old pattern of thinking. And she said, 'I am very much impressed by you Osho, but I cannot take sannyas because I have accepted Jesus as my teacher. I am a Christian and I am an orthodox Christian. I am tremendously impressed, I love what you say, but I cannot follow you, I cannot come with you.'

I told her, 'If you really love Jesus, you have to come with me. If you are really a Christian, how can you avoid me, how can you escape? But if you are not a Christian, it is another thing. Then you can go on playing with the label "Christian", and "Christ", and this and that.'

By giving you this name, Niseema, I would like you to go deeper into things, and to drop the old habit of the mind. Nothing is clear-cut -- that's the beauty. That is the mystery of life -- that nothing is clear-cut.

Everything penetrates everything else and everything is a member of everything else... everything is overlapping everything else. It is almost like waves on the surface of the ocean. Have you ever seen a single wave? It is impossible to see a single wave on the ocean. Whenever a wave exists, it exists in a great pattern of waves.

You cannot exist alone. You exist in this universe!

This word universe is beautiful -- it means unity: uni means unity. We exist in unity, and the unity is multi-dimensional. We are joined with the past. You are joined with your father, with your mother, with your mother's mother, your father's father, and so on and so forth up to Adam and Eve, and to God who created Adam and Eve. You are joined to all that is ever going to happen in the world. You may disappear, but you are joined, because you will create a certain ripple which will continue.

I may be gone, but I am creating a certain ripple that will remain. You may be gone, but you loved somebody and that love created a ripple that will remain and remain and remain. It can never disappear, it will have its own repercussions... it will go on vibrating. You throw a small pebble in the lake and ripples arise. The pebble settles very soon at the bottom, but the ripples continue. They go on moving towards the shore -- and there is no shore to this existence.

I am talking to you.... In this moment something is transpiring between me and you. I will be gone, you will be gone, but that which is transpiring will abide. So these words will go on echoing, reechoing. The speaker will not be there, the listener will not be there, but what is transpiring between the two in this moment has become part of eternity. And there is no shore, so these ripples will go on and on and on.

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Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

Now scientists say that if we can invent something more speedy than the speed of light, we can catch many things from the past. For example, Krishna talked to Arjuna -- those vibrations must be somewhere, passing near some star. If we can reach and catch them there, we can listen to it again.

Jesus can be photographed still. The only problem is how to invent a vehicle that goes faster than light.

Some day it may be possible. For example, Krishna (the ashram's photographer) is taking a photograph.

When he takes a photograph it takes time for the light to reach to the plate. When his photograph comes it is not exactly of the present; it is of the past. A split second has passed -- so a thousand years have passed; that makes no difference. If we can run ahead and from there we can take a photograph, we can take Jesus surrounded' by his disciples by Lake Galilee, talking to them and telling his parables. Nothing is lost!

This is the meaning of universe -- it is a unity. Whatsoever has happened, has happened, whatsoever is happening, is happening, and whatsoever will happen... they are all connected.

This is the meaning of niseema. So feel this more and more.

And just by feeling it, you will feel tremendous joy arising in you. Limitation is misery. To think of oneself as a woman is to become miserable. To think of oneself as a Christian or a Mohammedan is to become miserable. To think of oneself as this or that is to become miserable. Dropping all identity, one becomes blissful.

So let your sannyas be a great dropping of all the identities. Know that you are the universe. This is the meaning of saying that you are God....

[The Encounter group is at darshan. One group member says: You gave me a message last time that I should take more initiative... I find it more difficult than I thought it would be.]

Mm mm. I was also thinking it would be difficult. It is difficult to take initiative because to take initiative is to take risk. One never knows where it will lead and what will happen. And the basic fear is that if you take the initiative, maybe the other is going to reject.

The fear of rejection is there, so people don't take initiative -- they simply wait. They simply wait for something to happen: somebody will turn up, somebody will knock at the door. Then you live at the minimum. Maybe some day somebody turns up but you will never live at the optimum.

And to live at the minimum is not to live at all -- live at the optimum. So make each moment an adventure. Take the risk! At the most you can be rejected. What is wrong in it? -- nothing. At least you will have the satisfaction that you tried. I'm not saying there is a guarantee that you will succeed, but to fail is better than not to try -- at least you know that you tried.

And if you fail you are not responsible for it -- you tried your best. Then when God encounters you finally in the final encounter -- you can say to Him, 'It is you! I have tried my best. Whatsoever I could do, I did. And if I failed, you have failed, not me.' And that is something worth saying. But if you have not tried at all how will you face your God? What will you say?

The opportunity was given but you were afraid -- afraid of what? At the most, the worst possibility is that you may be rejected. So accept the worst and hope for the best... and continue. You will start enjoying.

Once you take the risk, by and by you start enjoying the thrill of initiative. In fact, if each time you take the initiative you are accepted, there will be no thrill. The thrill comes because there is a possibility, fifty/fifty.... Maybe you go to somebody and you tell him, 'I love you.' Mm? There is a thrill, because who knows? He may say, 'Forget all about it. I am not interested.' Or he may say, 'Thank you! I was also waiting, and I was afraid to take the initiative.'

If each time it turns out to be 'yes', it will be meaningless. If whomsoever you approach says 'yes', there is no thrill. That moment between yes and no is the moment of thrill, of sensation, aliveness... throbbing.

That is the moment when you burn like a flame. So try!

It is hard. It is hard only because you have not tried it before. Once you enjoy it, once you have learned the taste of it, it will be hard not to take the initiative. It is just an old habit, that's why. In this group, try more.

One has nothing to lose. What have you got to lose? Nothing to lose except your misery. So if you fail you can have your misery back... nothing to be worried about. Who can take your misery? If you want to be miserable you can always be, nobody can take your misery. But if you simply go on sitting, waiting for something to happen, it may happen, it may not happen. And even if it happens it will be the very very minimal.

Because this is my feeling: when you move enthusiastically towards life then enthusiastic people move 1/08/07

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towards you -- the same challenges the same. If you simply sit, then a lazy bum some day may move towards you. He may be sitting by your side -- sitting and feeling tired -- and you are also tired, and he will say, 'Hey! What are you doing there? Wanna fall in love or something?' (laughter) So you will find some bum... some lazy fellow -- just like you! And then too you will both sit. Now who should initiate? Who should hold the hand first? And who should say, 'I love you,' or this and that?

Many people I see that way -- sitting closed, not knowing what to do... from where to begin. So if you remain closed in that way, you will find some day that some. closed person has landed upon you. Before it happens, take initiative. When you take initiative and you are enthusiastic, moving, full of energy, riding radiantly on the wave of life, then you will find some adventurous people. Somebody who is courageous will become interested in you.

I have seen it happen -- even a very homely woman can become very beautiful if she has initiative. And a very beautiful woman can become very ordinary if she has no initiative. Initiative gives you a glow.

Certainly a corpse cannot take any initiative. So when you don't take any initiative, by and by you will become more and more corpse-like.

Have you seen it? Once a woman gets married she starts becoming ugly, fat, loses proportion, loses charm. What happens? She is settling. The old enthusiasm, the old urge to explore, to take the initiative, to find someone, is finished. She has arrived, so now what is the point?

In a society where divorce has a bigger rate, women are more beautiful than in a society where divorce has a very low rate. In a society where women have the possibility of getting married again and again, they keep younger. In India, after twenty-eight, thirty, the woman is finished. In America she keeps young at least up to forty-five. And you can even find a woman of fifty who is still young. The reason? Still the initiative is possible; things have not settled.

The day marriage disappears from the world people will be more beautiful because each day there will be a possibility. You follow me? If the marriage completely disappears you cannot afford to be fat you cannot afford to be ugly, you cannot afford to be stupid. You have to be on guard, alert, throbbing with life.

You have to remain attractive -- you cannot afford to be unattractive. You cannot be lazy, otherwise you will not be in the flow of life -- you will be thrown out, discarded... thrown in some out of the way place.

You will no more be a part of the main current.

If marriage disappears people will be more alive because they will be less settled. More opportunities will be there, and things will be changing more. There will be more of a flux-like quality, liquidity, movement. But people don't want to take initiative. Immediately they find somebody -- anybody whom by chance they can grab -- they settle immediately.

Don't be in such a hurry to settle. You have not even grabbed anybody and you are trying to settle. Don't settle. This settlement is a suicide -- move out of it. Be more playful. Life is fun! Don't be too serious about it -- there is nothing to lose!

The only losers I have come across are those people who have never tried -- otherwise all are winners; whoever tries is a winner. Even if you lose, I say you win something. Maybe you don't win the first prize, you win the second or the third or there are always booby prizes... something (laughter). Try! What other group are you going to do ?

[Another group member says: The group's been very hard for me. The leader comments: She is tremendously strong -- no matter what happens she still won't show. Osho says to the leader:]

She will not be hard... Two days are still there -- two days, so she will be very soft. She is very soft inside -- just a strong will. So once she can surrender her will to her heart, she can become as soft as is possible for a human being.

There are two types of possibilities: one is, a person is soft because he has no will -- but his softness cannot be very big, it will be very tiny, very small. The quantity cannot be very explosive. He is soft because he is weak, the softness comes because of the weakness. These people will be very sentimental, emotional. Anger will come easily, love will come easy, and nothing will be abiding. It will be just a mood.

These people will be very flux-like, they won't have any integrity. Soft they will be -- but their softness is part of their weakness. That softness is not going to help much.

But she can become soft in a totally different way. There are people who have a will. If they want to be hard, they can be hard. If they want to be soft they can be soft -- but their softness will have a strength; it will not be part of their weakness. And then it is tremendously beautiful.

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She can be soft and strong in her softness. If she decides not to be soft, then there is no way. But if she decides to be soft, she can become the softest person in the world. She has a very clear-cut will. The only question is that if the will is against the heart, she will remain hard. If the will surrenders to the heart, she can become a flower.

And this is a real softness. Mm? Weakness is just a simulation: it just appears soft because the person is weak, it is a sort of impotence. She will be from tomorrow, mm? I have put her head right on the way. (to the group member) Don't betray me.... I am promising them! (laughter) Right?

[Another group member says: I can't let go totally -- and of course that applies to other things also.]

I think you have some impossible concept of totality that is bugging you. We can create impossible concepts and then we can be very unhappy. Now you have a perfectionist's idea about totality.

And in fact, totality and perfection are just the contrary -- opposite goals. A perfectionist can never be total. And a person who wants to be total should never think in terms of perfection.

A perfectionist is an idealist. He has some idea, ideal, and he has to fulfill that ideal. So an idealist is always miserable because he always falls short. Whatsoever he does there is something missing -- and he has made some ideal which is impossible. And only the impossible looks to him to be the ideal, that which cannot be achieved becomes very attractive. It is an ego trip -- he has to do something which nobody can do.

He has to do something which cannot really be done. He tries for it and he falls short of it again and again...

feels miserable. Out of his misery he again tries... again tries... and his whole life becomes a wasteland.

Now totality is a totally different question.

A person who believes in totalily is not a perfectionist, he has no ideal -- he simply believes in The natural Whatsoever happens is good. Everything satisfies him because There is nothing to com-pare.

Now you say that you are not capable of expressing your anger totally. What do you mean by totally?

You. have some ideal -- that this should be this way. Whatsoever you are doing is enough! That's all that you can do right now. You cannot go ahead of yourself. You can only go the way and to the extent that you can go! All that you are doing is all that you can do.

This acceptance is part of the concept of totality. One accepts one's limitations and one knows that the impossible is not possible. And the possible is human -- it has flaws, limitations. Be human! Don't ask for the super-human. The super-human is always inhuman. Just be human, relax -- and in that relaxation more will become possible.

Now you are tense, you feel that you are not doing as you should do, but from where is this 'should'

coming ? Maybe you are watching others, comparing, but that may be possible for them. They are not you --

you are not them. You are you and they are they.

Somebody is crying to his heart's desire and you cannot cry -- now a comparison arises that this is how one should cry totally. But this may be natural to the person and may be unnatural to you -- because you are not alike; nobody is like anybody else. Each individual is so unique -- and one has to be respectful of this uniqueness. That's what I call religiousness: respect your uniqueness! It is nothing to brag about, it is not an ego trip. It is a simple acceptance... a recognition that everybody is different -- just like fingerprints. Your fingerprint is different to mine, but there is no good, no bad. It is not that mine is better and yours is not good -- there is no comparison. Yours is yours, mine is mine.

So stop watching others. Start accepting yourself. And whatsoever is coming, that's right for you! Relax into it, and you will see more is coming. But that comes by relaxation, not by creating an ideal and a strained effort. No need! This is the idea in your mind -- a 'should' exists somewhere. You have some vague concept.

The philosophy of totality has no idea of perfection. It is very human. Relax for these two days, and whatsoever comes naturally is good. More is not needed -- there may not be any more! Always listen to your nature, and never try to impose anything on top of it -- that is very cruel, that is a sort of masochism.

Then you become miserable, and when you become miserable you make more effort. When you make more effort, you are still more miserable... so on and so forth. Relax!

My whole effort here is to help you to accept yourself... whosoever you are! If I can take your guilt away from you, I have helped you tremendously. If I can take your ideals away from you, I have helped you tremendously. If I can make you simple and natural, ordinary, I have helped you tremendously. And just the opposite has been done by the so-called religious people up to now....

They create guilt. Whatsoever you do. they are ready to condemn it -- that this is nothing! Improve!

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They go on creating the tempo. And of course you feel that this is good for your ego, so you go on improving yourself. The ego is never fulfilled, and your life is wasted. For these two days, simply relax.

Whatsoever comes is right....

Easy is right!

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #19

Chapter title: Meditation -- the Ultimate Music

28 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611285

ShortTitle: WHIP19

Audio:

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[A sannyasin asks: Would give me any guidance on places that might be good for me to visit. I wish to go on a pilgrimage in India.]

Go to all the buddhist places: Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Sanchi, Ajanta, Ellora -- all the buddhist places. And if you are close to some other place you can go, mm? But your whole plan should be to visit all the buddhist places. They will give you great insight into things, and you may start remembering your past lives. (Osho had said to this sannyasin that he had been a Buddhist in past lives.) But before you go, you meditate well, do a few groups -- and particularly the buddhist meditation group here, mm ? That will prepare your mind.

And then you start from Ajanta, Ellora, Sanchi, Sarnath, Bodh Gaya -- the buddhist places, mm? and keep Buddha in mind. Dream about Buddha... think about Buddha. It will be a great help.

[Osho said one could visit places as a tourist but one would miss much.... ]

You can go and you can visit -- then they are ruins. Something in you can make them again alive, then they are no more ruins. But that depends on you. If you want to visit just ruins, there is no problem you can go. You can go to Bodh Gaya but you will not feel Buddha there at all. And he can be felt there.

When once such a person exists, he leaves such tremendous energy there. He became enlightened in that place -- Bodh Gaya -- under the same tree that still exists. He continuously walked for years around the temple; those stones are still there on which he would walk and meditate, and under the tree he would rest and meditate.

If you have a feel, and if you have some understanding of how a Buddhist meditates while walking, how a Buddhist sits silently and where he goes into his inner world, those stones will not be ordinary stones. If you can also go into that space, you will have a tremendous realisation.

This is my approach: if you want to go and see Lake Galilee and you want to visit Jerusalem; do some christian prayer -- otherwise it is meaningless. If you want to go to some hindu places, then do some hindu meditation -- because these places open their doors only to those who are ready.. They are not really for visitors.

In the East visitors have never existed -- this is a western phenomenon. Unless somebody has a feel for some place, he will never go. A Mohammedan will go to Mecca -- nobody else will go. For centuries Mohammedans have not allowed anybody else to enter, because it is pointless! Unless you have a love affair with Mohammed, it is pointless. Why crowd the place? In fact your presence creates a wrong vibration. If somebody is there who is just a visitor, a tourist -- which is a very ugly phenomenon -- he 1/08/07

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creates a certain vibe.

I have seen tourists -- just moving with their cameras, and foolish chit-chat, and with their radios, where one needs to be absolutely silent. And within one hour they have visited the whole place and they have gone

-- finished! They have taken the pictures for their albums. Now they can go back and tell others that they have been to Bodh Gaya, they have seen the place.

This is absurd -- because the place is not an outer thing. Unless you are in tune with it, the sound will not happen. You may go and you may miss. So it is futile !

My feeling is: first do a few groups here -- particularly the buddhist group -- and after the buddhist group immediately go with that same quality inside you. Walk the way that Buddha taught his disciples to walk... with that grace, with that silence, with that contentment, with that awareness. Breathe as the Buddha has taught his disciples -- in a certain rhythmic way. And then don't be in a hurry. When you go there, be there for two, three days. It is not a question of just seeing the temple -- it can be seen within fifteen minutes.

And don't rush to another place -- just stay there for two, three days. In many moods sit under the tree.

Sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening... sometimes deep in the night. Bribe the priest and go in the night -- in the middle of the night when nobody goes there, and all visitors are gone, and guides and tourists are no more there, and the place is absolutely silent as it must have been when Buddha was sitting there. Deep in the middle of the night, in the dark night, just sit under the tree.

Just remain available there, and there is a possibility that you may come in contact with something.

Then it is worth making that effort....

Anand means bliss, blissfulness, and gandharva means the celestial musician. In the indian mythology, Gandharva is the musician of the gods. In heaven, Gandharva is the musician of the gods -- he plays for the gods. So it has become synonymous with music. And that is going to be your path. So listen to music in all the various forms, in all the varieties. Birds singing, or the rain falling, or a waterfall, or just the wind passing through the pines... dancing... instruments; if you want to play, play, otherwise listen. And you also sing sometimes. There is no need to sing anything meaningfully, mm? Just a sound, a babbling will do... just a chanting of anything -- meaninglessly -- just as one chants the alphabet. But let music be your very centre, and you will be tremendously benefited.

Music is one of the most natural ways to grow. And if one can understand music, there is no need to understand anything else. The whole existence is musical. There is a music... eternal music. It is there even in silence. In fact it is more so when there is silence. The stars are singing -- One has just to develop a receptivity.

So I am not saying that you have to become a musician. If you feel, good.... Otherwise the music is available. You can become just a receiver, a total receptor, and that will do. But .creating a little music is also helpful and good. And it is not a performance, so it is not meant for anybody -- it is just for your own joy.

What have you been doing?

[The new sannyasin says he is a sculptor working with stone.]

Mm, mm ! It is music -- music in the stones.... That's very good... that's very good. It is music. All art is music... only medias differ.

Meditation is the ultimate music -- it is medium-less. And when there is no medium there is perfection, because the medium, whatsoever it is, creates hindrances. You can work as much as you want, but still you will feel that if there were no medium then the thing would have been perfect. If the medium stands there against your work.... Mm? if you are working on a stone and the stone resists.... In every possible way it gives you a good fight -- nobody wants to yield, nobody wants to surrender. The stone also has its own will

-- it wants to keep its shape, it is not ready to be altered so easily. You can do it, but still you will feel the medium is a barrier.

The medium is needed to express, but the very medium of expression becomes the barrier. You can use beautiful words to express truth, but they become the barrier.

In China they say that when a musician becomes perfect, he throws his instrument, because then the instrument creates disturbance. When an archer is perfect, he breaks his bow. And when a poet has come to perfection, he no more says anything -- he keeps quiet. Then his poetry is silence.

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So meditation is the ultimate music because the medium disappears. Music is there but there is no medium. Only those who can hear without the medium will hear it, and only those who can see without the medium will see it.

That's why Jesus goes on saying to his disciples, 'Those who have ears, hear, and those who have eyes, see.' He was talking not to blind men, not to deaf people -- they were as normal as we. But he goes on saying again and again, 'If you have eyes...' He is talking about some message which cannot be expressed...

which remains unexpressed. And one who can see something invisible, only he can understand that message, otherwise not. So your meditations will help you tremendously. Your art will be transformed -- it will reach new altitudes.

In the East we have always been working in every way, in every possible way, to reach God. It may be religion, or it may be music, or it may be dancing -- whatsoever -- but in the East our effort has been to reach God from everywhere. So everything eastern has a quality of religiousness to it: Sculpture has a tremendous religious quality. The western sculpture lacks much. It is more sexual, more physical, more earthly. And if sometimes it moves away from the physical, at the most it reaches to the psychological. And then too out of one hundred, ninety percent becomes pathological: Picasso and others --

Chagall -- look a little pathological... as if the mind were not quiet, as if the mind were neurotic. Things are topsy-turvy; the symmetry is lost. It seems a crowd inside. Picasso doesn't seem to be one man -- seems to be many men, and all painting together. So the painting comes, but it is a collage -- it is not one piece, it is not unity. It is not cosmos, it is a chaos... a neurotic thing.

And if you watch Picasso's painting too long, it will create pathology, nausea, apprehension and fear. If you watch an eastern painting -- japanese, chinese or indian -- just by watching it you will become quiet and peaceful.

[Osho recounted a taoist story about a king who commissioned an artist to paint a picture. Months passed, during which the king would impatiently enquire as to whether the painting was ready to be seen yet.

Finally the artist finished his work and showed it to the king -- it was a picture of a forest with a track going through it and into a hill. The track disappeared into the horizon as far as one could see. It was a beautiful picture -- almost lifelike -- and the king asked the artist where the track led to.

'I don't know myself,' said the artist, 'I'm going to find out.' And with that, the story goes, he went along the track and disappeared into the painting.... ]

I love this story!

If you really watch a painting, you should disappear. Just by watching it your mind will subside, thoughts will disappear. And when mind is not there, you are not there -- then you disappear. So, much is going to happen!

And for short you can simply use Katya. Anand means bliss and Katyayani is a name of the mother goddess. In India we conceive of God in both ways. A few religions conceive of Him as man, a few religions conceive of Him as woman... a few as 'he' and few as 'she'. In India the male chauvinist attitude has never been very predominant, so down the centuries both the traditions have continued: a few think of Him as father, and few think of Him as mother. Katyayani means mother goddess; a name of God -- in the form of a woman. So the whole name will mean blissful mother goddess.

Forget the old name completely, mm? The old is gone, and this this is the beginning of a long journey.

And the journey is such that it is sweet in the beginning, it is sweet in the middle, it is sweet-in the end. But it is a long journey.... So a great pilgrimage starts this moment. Feel blessed ! Good, Katya. Good! (Osho touches her head in blessing, smiling warmly.)

It is a name of an ancient Buddha. Gautam is only one Buddha; many have preceded him and many have followed him. Buddhahood is a state of consciousness; it has nothing to do with Gautam Buddha. Buddha is just like Christ -- Jesus is his name, Christ is his state of consciousness; Gautam is his name, Buddha is his state of consciousness, hence he is called Gautam Buddha.

This is the name: Samantbhadra -- he is an ancient Buddha. Samant means infinitely, and bhadra means graceful; infinite grace -- that is the literal meaning of the word. But it is a name of an ancient Buddha, very significant. And I am giving it to you because I see the possibility that you will be growing on buddhist 1/08/07

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lines, potentially you are a Buddhist. So if you know it consciously, many pitfalls can be avoided and the path can become very straight and direct.

[In answer to Osho's invitation to take sannyas, a visitor replies: I feel very confused about it. I don't know myself what to do. I can't get hold of anything.]

You will never be able to get hold of anything that I say (laughter). I am so contradictory (a chuckle in his voice) that it is very difficult. I don't allow any hold... I am almost like mercury. So if you want to get in, get in -- don't bother about the hold. You will never have it -- and there is no need.

You have entered life without having any hold on it. One falls in love without having any hold on love.

And one day one dies -- and without even understanding the ABC's of death. My sannyas is almost like that.

I don't even try to explain it, because explanation makes things ugly. Explanation is not needed.

The whole effort is to drop reason and all the games reason goes on playing. It is an absurd step. Mm?

sannyas is an absurdity, a sort of voluntary madness -- willingly one becomes a little mad. You try it! It will lead you into new spaces. And it will be very helpful. You can do the same meditations without becoming a sannyasin, but you will miss much because you will feel that you are an outsider and you will never be able to get into the very spirit of it.

All great things happen when you have become an insider. Then you float easily, you open easily --

otherwise one remains on guard. If you are here without becoming a sannyasin, you will continuously remain on guard, and my sannyasins will go on attacking you, 'Why are you not becoming a sannyasin?' So you will remain on the defence and that will create a fear. You will be afraid to communicate, afraid to make friends, because the fear will always be there -- if you become too friendly, these people are going to seduce you into sannyas. And you will be a little afraid of me too.

Once you have taken sannyas, all fear disappears -- now there is nothing else. The worst has happened!

(laughter)

Just do it right now!

[The visitor says: Yes, please.]

Prem means love and buddha means consciousness, intelligence; loving intelligence, loving consciousness, or love awareness. Love is the first thing to be done and the second thing will be awareness.

So the name is just a condensed formula for your whole work: first warming up through love, and when you are floating, flowing, you have melted, and you are no more frozen and cold, no more indifferent, compassion has arisen -- then the next step is to become aware.

Feel more loving, affectionate, caring. Mix with people, hold hands, hug people -- people are beautiful.

Don't miss any opportunities in which you can be loving -- never miss any opportunity of love. Then you have created the right jumping board for awareness, and then your awareness will not make you cold. Your awareness will be like a flame -- alive; it will not be dead.

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #20

Chapter title: God is also Darkness

29 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611295

ShortTitle: WHIP20

Audio:

No

Video:

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[A visitor asks which groups he needed to do.]

You book for [three groups] and then I will tell you what else to do. The camp will reveal many things about you -- how your energy is moving and where, and what is needed.

In fact all techniques are good. All techniques are good -- but not for everybody. With some personalities some technique fits, with some personalities the same technique may not work. So once you have found a right track, and once it is exactly known how your energy is moving, things become very simple. Then you can move in a progression, one group after another.

Otherwise sometimes it happens that you can move in a circle, and finally you find you are back in the same place where you have always been, so you have not moved at all. Sometimes you can do groups in such a way that they contradict each other. That too is dangerous, because one group sets your energy in one direction, another group sets your energy in another direction, and then you are pulled apart, then you have a split.

Many people are suffering because in the western spiritual market everything is available, so whatsoever is available one wants to try it. And when one has tried one, then one wants to try another and another and there is no clear-cut guidance on how one should proceed, step-wise and gradually.

The groups should not be contradictory. They should create a linear progression in you so that you can see something growing, otherwise great confusion can result.

For example, if you are doing some old eastern techniques, which are in a subtle way repressive, and then you do Encounter and cathartic techniques which are expressive, then they move in opposite directions.

Both are good, but for different people. If you don't have any repression, eastern groups can be of tremendous value, but if you have something repressed already, then first it has to be released -- a cathartic group is needed.

So groups are like medicine: all medicines are good, but that doesn't mean that you have to take all medicines. You have to take only that medicine which fits with you, which is for your illness. Otherwise medicine can prove more fatal than the illness itself, because it will be poison. If it has to kill something in you -- your enemy -- it will. If it has nobody to kill, it will kill you -- it has to kill somebody!

If there are germs to kill, it will kill those germs. If they are not there, it will kill some other germs which are very essential for your life and for your body. So here we are trying to make a scientific approach

-- not in a haphazard way and not in a circular way, and never contradictory.

Sometimes it happens that some group which today is contradictory for you may not be contradictory after a few groups -- you may come to a point from where it fits.

So you do these three groups and the camp. The camp will decide many things. In the camp do all the five meditations, and after the camp you tell me which meditation you liked the most, which meditation you hated the most, and which meditation went deepest in you -- these three things.

Sometimes it happens it is the same meditation that goes the deepest, that you love most, and that you hate most. Sometimes these are three different meditations -- one never knows. But if you can feel it clear-cutly, then it will be very decisive.

Ordinarily human beings exist in a nebulous state -- like a cloud -- and it is very difficult to see their form. Not that the form cannot be seen -- I can see it right now, I am seeing what form your energy has --

but it is a nebulous form. In a moment it will change. It is just like a cloud: one moment it is like an elephant, another moment the elephant has disappeared. By the time you decide it is an elephant, it is not there -- the form has changed; the form is not fixed.

So ordinarily the human mind is like a nebula, a very clouded state, and by and by with meditations and with a few groups, you will start taking a certain shape -- a shape which is not just a style but a stability.

And with that you become an individual -- never before it.

Before it you have personality. Personality is a style, individuality is a stability. Personality is just on the surface, like your dress. Stability is something deeper, that persists in you, and by and by that tends to become a crystallised form. And in fact that is what everybody is searching for -- an integration, something integrated, something about which you can say, 'This is what I am!' Right now you cannot say who you are.

But in the four months that you will be here, much can be done.

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Query:-

Anand means bliss, and akshara means the eternal -- that which is, was, and will be. And in the eastern search the eternal is true, and the momentary, the temporary, is just an illusion, a dream. That which happens is not true. That which remains, only that is true.

Anand Akshara will mean eternal bliss -- and it is there in you right in this very moment. It is not something that you have to achieve. It is not something that you have to invent, create. It is you! Just a turning, just a leaning back into your own being. That is the exact meaning of the christian word

'conversion' -- to turn in, to turn back, to look into one's own self. Suddenly it is there, and one starts laughing because it has been always there, and it was just foolish to go on looking.

[Another visitor says: I'm studying acupuncture.]

That's very good... very meditative. It will be helpful. And if by and by you start feeling your own energy, or the working of the energy in your own body, acupuncture will not remain just a technique -- it will become an instrument.

And it is an insight. You can learn the technique -- nothing will come out of it. Rather it is more a hunch than an art. That is one of the most difficult things about ancient techniques -- they are not scientific, and if you approach through the scientific outlook you may get some inkling, but the major part will be missing.

And whatsoever you will be able to get hold of will not be much, and it will be frustrating.

The whole ancient approach was totally different -- it was not logical at all; it was more feminine, more intuitive, more illogical.

One was not thinking in syllogism as the scientific mind thinks. Rather one was in a deep participation with existence... more in a sort of dreaming state, in a reverie, and allowing nature to release its secrets and mysteries. It was not an aggression on nature -- a persuasion at the most. And the approach is from the interior.

If you go to study modern medicine, the approach is from the outside. You dissect a dead body -- it is there as an object. You can study it, but you are studying a dead body -- and a dead is qualitatively different from an alive body. With the alive body, something of tremendous value exists which has left the dead body. A dead body only looks like a body -- it is no more a body, because it embodies nothing. So even to say it is a body is not right. Even linguistically it is wrong, because it embodies nothing.

It is as if the god of the temple has disappeared, and you still go on calling the house a temple -- it is no more a temple. It was a temple only because God was in residence.

And when you cut a body you come to know certain facts which are of the dead body. Even modern medicine is becoming aware of the fact that we will have to find out some way to know more about the living body. But it is easier to approach from the outside. Mm? students can stand around the table and the professor can teach.

Now it is not the same way for acupuncture. One has to approach one's own body from the interior-most core. Those seven hundred points were not known objectively -- they were known in deep meditation. When one goes deep inside and looks from inside -- a tremendous experience -- one can see all the acupuncture points surrounding oneself, as if the night is full of stars. And when you have seen those energy points, then only are you ready. Now you have an inner grasp, and you will be able, just by touching the body of the other person, to feel where the body energy is missing and where it is; where it is moving, where it is not moving; where it is cold and where it is warm; where it is alive and where it has gone dead. There are points from where it responds, and there are points from where it has no response at all.

Meditation can be of tremendous value -- and both are parallel growths. You have chosen something good, but simultaneously you will have to grow. You will be able to know acupuncture only to the extent that you become capable of knowing yourself... and when both coincide there is great light. In that light you can see everything -- not only about yourself -- about others' bodies. A new vision arises as if a third eye has opened.

What about your sannyas?

[She replies: I don't know.]

Mm mm! Then you are ready for it (she laughs). One should be adventurous enough to go into the unknown.... Because there is only one way of knowing, and that is by going into it. There is no other way.

So go into it and see what it is, mm?

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Query:-

... You are holding your energy deep down, so something will have to be done about it. You may not be even aware, mm? but you are controlling. Control is very bad -- but we have been taught to control. So you may not be responsible at all for it. Everybody has been taught to control. Control is thought to be the great value -- it is not. One should be more spontaneous than controlled.

And spontaneity has its own discipline, but it is not control -- it is very flowing. If you remain controlled too much it will be very difficult for you to go inside, because when you control something, the first need is go outside. Just think of it in this way.

If you are controlling air inside -- if you inhale and you control it inside -- then you cannot go in because the whole breathing wants to go out. You will have to control it and you cannot go in. The air wants to go out, so first it has to be released. When you have really exhaled, you are ready for inhalation. Then it goes in naturally, and with that natural in-flow, you can also go in. There is a rhythm, in and out.

So here we have both types of groups -- and I have suggested a few to you. A few groups are such that take you out, and a few groups are such that take you in. You will need both, in a rhythm. You are holding much energy, and that holding can become very heavy -- it can become almost like a rock. There is no trembling... the energy is not vibrating. So much has to be done -- but it will be done. Change to orange --

that will be helpful.

This will be your name: Ma Deva Chandan.

Deva means divine, and chandan means sandalwood. In India the perfume of sandalwood is one of the most respected, revered perfumes -- it is divine. So divine sandalwood perfume -- that will be the name.

And I feel you have a certain affinity with sandalwood -- that's why I am giving you this name. That perfume will help you very much. So you can have sandalwood around you, you can use sandal perfume, sandal oil. You can burn sandal incense and it will take you very far -- it can take you far out! It has been chosen for particular people... and small things are of tremendous value.

Just the other day I was reading.... There is a bridge in London where people used to commit suicide in big numbers. They have changed the colour of the bridge from grey to red, and since they changed the colour, the suicide rate has fallen very low. You see the point of orange people? (Osho chuckles) The colour grey is suicidal -- red is more alive, red is the colour of life. So even colour can be of such importance. They were simply surprised!

They could not figure it out -- that just by changing the colour it happens... but it happens!

Colour enters your eyes, changes you. Mm? just looking at green suddenly you feel peaceful --

something happens inside. It is the same with smell: a certain smell and you start floating into a certain space. And this is my feeling -- that sandal perfume will help you tremendously. It will make you more alive, more throbbing, more vibrating, more pulsating....

Anand is bliss or blissful, nisheetha means the hour of midnight, the most empty hour. And whenever you can manage, midnight will be your best time for meditation. For people who like emptiness, the midnight hour is the best -- it simply corresponds with nothingness. Just as in the midmorning activity is at its peak -- opposite to it, at midnight activity is as low as possible; inactivity is at its peak. It is the most passive moment. So all people who have been following the path of nothingness -- what Buddhists call shunyata -- their hour for meditation has been the midnight hour. Nisheeth means midnight. Just to remind you, I'm giving you that name, Nisheetha.

And whenever you can manage, never miss. You can just sit in your bed at midnight when everything has become silent, the traffic has stopped and people have fallen asleep. When millions of people fall asleep, their very sleep is a help for a person who is moving into nothingness, because they are no more creating turmoil, they are no more creating vibrations, they are no more creating neurosis all around. All neurotic people are asleep -- all politicians, all mischief-mongers, all are asleep. Mm? they have fallen into oblivion. At that moment the climate, the spiritual climate, is the purest, and one can simply use that space and move into it.

If you can keep awake, get up and go to the terrace -- just look at the stars, sit silently. Just twenty minutes will do, and you will feel so calm and so quiet. If you want to repeat the same experience in the middle of the day it will take at least three hours. It is very easy at midnight. It is almost as if you are moving with the tide, so you don't need to make much effort... you can ride on the tide. And change to orange.

'Sound is the vehicle to move to the other. Become absolutely deaf and dumb -- suddenly you will find 1/08/07

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that you are standing within. That is why silence was practised so much -- all the bridges to the other were broken.'

[There follows a description of the 21-day silence and isolation technique. A sannyasin reports on her experience after completing this. She found that she went through several changes; some of the time it was easy, and later more difficult.]

It always changes when you have touched the rock-bottom of misery; only then it changes, never before.

And remember -- it is one of the most fundamental things: if you are sad, become as sad as you can. And when you have come to the last point where you think that it is impossible to bear it, just a little more and then suddenly you will see the turning point -- you are no more sad; the same energy is becoming joy. If you had stopped then you would have remained hanging in the sadness.

And in silence this always happens -- the beginning few days become very heavy because it is so new.

[The sannyasin says she enjoyed being outside and playing with children during the silence. But at night was afraid of the darkness.]

This has been good. Next time when you go into silence, the whole day also, don't play with children because that is not good. Mm? that is a sort of communication. And if you enjoy hills and trees and animals and birds, then it is no more silence. These trees are people...

Just close the room the whole day... just lie down on the floor, look at the room. For seven days, day, night, no communication with the outside world -- and you will fall in love with darkness.

At first it may become very very difficult, but then the turning point will come. And once you can love darkness you have achieved something valuable, because darkness is more primal than light.

Darkness is more fundamental than light. Light comes and goes; darkness always remains. Light is limited; darkness is unlimited. Light can be created; darkness cannot be created. You can bring light here and there; darkness you cannot touch even, it is so beyond. In the day there is light, the sun is there, the sun comes and disappears, but the darkness continues eternally; it is always there. So light is momentary, darkness is eternal.

There is only one occult school... in which Jesus trained and John the Baptist was trained; the school is called the Essenes... that is the only school in the whole world that defines God as darkness -- and I love it.

Their definition is far better than god as light. You will have to learn to love darkness. With that love many things will grow in you.

With darkness one becomes very silent. In fact darkness is more like silence -- light is more like words.... But fear arises, that's true, because darkness is more like death too.

So next time just take your food... if you want to walk, walk in the room, but close all the windows so you remain in the room absolutely alone -- no book to read, nothing to write on, no tape to listen to --

nothing! Just for seven days, absolute zero. But not now -- sometime later.

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #21

Chapter title: Life is Through 'Yes'

30 November 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7611305

ShortTitle: WHIP21

Audio:

No

Video:

No

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Query:-

[A sannyasin who was leaving with her father, who had come from Germany to take her home, says: I surrender to anything that is happening.... ]

That's perfectly good. It is good to surrender to your father.... You can come again. Whenever he allows you, you can come. And if you surrender, he will be allowing you to come. Listen to him, because he cares for you, he loves you -- that's why he has taken so much trouble to come. And don't do it unwillingly, because sometimes we can even surrender unwillingly, but then we miss the whole opportunity. Surrender willingly, happily, joyfully, then every opportunity becomes golden. And this is how one learns in life.

There is something in rebellion and there is something in surrender too. There are times to say 'no'. Mm?

it gives you a spine, it makes you bold. And eveiy child sometimes wants to say no to the parents -- that is part of growth. But if one goes on saying no continuously, and becomes fixed in the no, then it is dangerous, because then one lives in the negative -- and one cannot live in the negative.

Lile is always in the positive. One can live oniy through the yes.

And if you learn too much of the no -- today you will say no to your father, to your mother, to your family, and if you become addicted with the no... because it is like an addiction -- it has an intoxication in it because it makes you very egoistic. When you say 'No!' you feel you are somebody -- you can say no to anybody. And when you say no to your parents, of course you feel very egoistic. You feel as if you have defeated thern. But then you have said no to love!

Some day you will fall in love with somebody and again the no will come, because it will become associated with love. Parents are not just parents -- they are many more things. They are your first love. If you say no to them, in a subtle way you are saying no to love. You may not be aware of that right now, but one day you will find that you fall in love with somebody and again the same problem arises.

This is my observation -- that every woman when she falls in love with a man, falls in love with her father again, because her idea of man deep down comes from her father. Or when a man falls in Iove with a woman, he falls again in love with his mother, because his idea of woman, his very image, is from his mother. He has learned about woman from the mother. That was the first woman in his life, and the first things are tremendously important -- the impact continues the whole life.

So if you say no -- and I know that sometimes no is needed, but there is a limit to it -- if you say an absolute no, and you break away from your parents, that will be dangerous. Then your love will be disturbed.

[She repleis: But when I say 'yes' to something, I have to say 'no' to the other thing.]

Yes, that I know. So just always remember: life is a deep rhythm between 'yes' and 'no'. One cannot live with only one. So one has to sav both the 'yes' and 'no' many times. It is just like breathing: you breathe in.

then you breathe out: you breathe in. then vou breathe out. If you say, 'I will only breathe in', then you will die. If you say, 'I will only breathe out', then too you will die. And you say, 'Why should I do these contradictory things -- breathing in and breathing out?' They are not contradictory -- they are part of a great rhythm.

When you listen to music, there is beat and then there is rest; beat, rest; beat, rest. If there is only beat, there will be noise; there will be no music. If there is only rest, there will be silence; there will be no music.

Beat and rest -- that makes the music. The whole of life is a continuous balance between no and yes.

And one has to be very alert about what one is saying. Sometimes say 'no' -- I'm not saying to always say 'yes'. If you always say 'yes', you will be dead. Then you don't have any stamina in you, you won't have spine. Many times say 'no', but don't get addicted to 'no'. Sometimes say 'yes' too. And make a balance. Then your parents will also uriderstand.

This was my situation with my parents. They knew well that if I say 'yes', I mean 'yes'; if I say 'no', I mean 'no'. Once my father said to me, 'Do you say "yes" and "no" in a very mathematical way? Because sometimes you suddenly say "yes", and we were not expecting it. And sometimes you say "no", and we were not expecting it. How do you manage when to say "no" and when to say "yes" ?'

I said, 'I keep balance. I never say "no" too much, because that breaks relationship. I never say "yes" too much, because that breaks me. I have to keep you alive, and I have to keep myself alive too, and it is like 1/08/07

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tightrope walking.'

When you are leaning too much to the right, lean to the left immediately, otherwise you will fall. And when you start feeling you are falling to the left, lean to the right, otherwise you will fall. Nobody can say when -- you will have to feel it. You will have to go by your own feeling.

So go -- nothing to be worried about. I am coming with you. And say "yes" happily, then next time when you want to come, they will happily send you. Keep this with you (passing her a box) and continue to meditate. Good... And help my work there.

[to the father] Next time come and be here for a few days, few weeks, and it will be good, mm?

[A sannyasin said that he had been a therapist for eight years, but had become very ill and stopped work.

Later he did other manual work. Now he feels he could continue psychotherapy with guidance, but does not have any medical qualifications.]

There is no need, because in fact psychotherapy is still not a science, and there is nothing official about it. All official certificates are bogus, because it is still not a science. Freud simply created a big jewish business, that's all (laughter). But you can work. I can feel that you have that type of energy which a healer needs, and you can become a good therapist.

A little work on yourself will be of tremendous value, because when you are going to help others you have to be in a certain space. Unless you are in a certain space, have a certain depth, your help will remain superficial. And sometimes it happens that even through superficial help you can help many people, because many people are only superficially ill. They don't need much depth work.

And another thing about illness is that if you don't do anything about it, then too, it goes by a certain time. And that's why all schools of psychotherapy succeed -- the Jungian, the Freudian, the Adlerian... and now there are a thousand and one. They all succeed -- and the basic reason of their success is that if you prolong your analytical work for a long period, the patient cures himself.

It is almost like the common cold. They say that if you take medicine, it will go in seven days; if you don't take medicine, it will go in one week -- but it goes.

People suffer.... If you can just manage to give them hope, they are going to heal by themselves. You are just to sit by the couch. That's why so many schools are successful.

In Zen, they found it out centuries ago. When somebody goes mad in Japan, traditionally they will take him to the zen temple. If something is wrong mentally, they will take him to the priest. Each zen temple has a hut far away for such people. They are left there; nothing is done about them. Food is given, care is taken, nobody talks to them. They are simply left to themselvesj alone, and within three or four weeks they are cured. And it is thought that the god of the temple helped. Nobody is helping; nobody is doing anything.

Just time was needed... and a hope.

That's why Mesmer helped so many people -- and there was nothing in it. Coue helped many people, and there is nothing -- just auto-suggestion. And even charlatans can help -- not that their help is in any way wrong. They help many people, otherwise they would not be in business. They remain in business.

So one thing: while you are here, do a few groups and you will become ready. A certain space will soon arise in you, a certain meditative state, and out of that state, energy starts flowing. You can help many people -- and a real help, in depth; not just post-poning, and waiting for time to heal them.

It is a hunch... it has nothing to do with knowledge. If you know something about it, good -- it helps a little bit -- but basically it remains a hunch. One should simply be available to the patient. One should be able to feel the patient. One should be able to be sensitive to the patient and have a compassion, and a meditative energy... a loving touch, an understanding about his problem, so that he can reveal his problems.

These are all hunches. And one should not make a formula, because each patient is different. One should simply face the patient and let energy do the work. And it is good... it is of tremendous value.

When you help others, you help yourself too. And there is nothing like seeing a person growing healthy, coming back to his natural self. It is beautiful. It is as beautiful as when a gardener sees his trees flowering, and he dances. Humanity is the supreme-most flowering. So whenever you see somebody has flowered, it is a tremendous joy.

Just close your eyes, and let me feel your energy. Sit and raise both hands this way.

[Osho checks his energy.]

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The energy is perfectly good; it just needs a little more flow to be more streaming -- it is there. So you will be doing all the groups, and between the groups, whenever you have time, you can do the African dance, or another dance group, or T'ai Chi. So for these four months, continuous work on the energy. You will explode.

Each human being carries such tremendous power, and we simply waste the whole power in problems.

Each problem can become a power, because each problem is really power. If the energy moves in a non-problematic way, then all problems disappear and only energy is left. Problems are like knots -- the energy gets stuck. But there are not many knots either. Your energy is ready -- just a little push, and you will go far. Good!

[A sannyasin asks: I'd like to know what you have to say on epilepsy?

In reply to Osho's questions he says he used to have it very strongly, but it has not been there for three to four years, but his fear remains.]

Then there is no need to be worried. Three years is the limit, mm? Then you are out of it. If you were within three years, there would be a possibility -- but the fear is natural. These things are such that once you have known them, once you haYe tasted them, fear remains. But there is no need now. You can be completely unafraid. You are unnecessarily carrying a fear now because the time has passed. It will not be coming. You need not worry.

And it is not always bad. In fact all epileptic people can go into meditation very easily... better than others. Sometimes it has happened that deep meditators have been thought by medical people to be epileptic

-- because both phenomena are very close: in both cases, the mind stops functioning. So they have some similarities; they overlap. There are many cures....

Ramakrishna Paramhansa -- you must have heard the name? Psychologists said he was epileptic. He was not, but his meditation would take such a tum that for hours he would be almost uncon-scious. He was not unconscious -- he was perfectly conscious -- but for those who were standing outside, he was absolutely unconscious. He was very conscious inside -- but inside. The outside completely disappeared as if the bridge of the mind were broken.

Once he remained for six days continuously in that state. And doctors would say that this is an epileptic fit, and very dangerous. But it was not! Nobody had seen such a beautiful person.... In thousands of years, once in a while, such a beautiful person is bom. But the scientific mind has its own attitudes.

Exactly the same thing happens in epilepsy. You are suddenly no more in contact with your mind, so you fall unconscious. The same can happen through meditation, but then you are knowingly going into it --

and that makes a lot of difference. It comes by and by, and even when you are out of the mind, you know that you are in control -- but that's the difference only. In epilepsy you are not in control at all.

It happened that one very famous english novelist, Somerset Maugham, came to India and went to see Ramana Maharshi, a great sage. Maugham was a man of rational outlook -- he had gone there just out of curiosity; he had no religious search as such, no spiritual quest. He was staying in the ashram taking his breakfast, and suddenly Ramana himself came. He was going to see Ramana in the place where he used to sit for many years, but Ramana, hearing that Somerset Maugham had come -- somebody told him -- said,

'Okay, I am going to see him!'

He came so suddenly that Somerset Maugham could not believe that Ramana Maharshi himself had come. The shock was so sudden, and the impact was so great that he fell in a swoon... he became unconscious!

Now in the whole ashram Ramana's coming was thought to be a great blessing -- it was rare that he should come to see a guest... and then this happening that Somerset fell in a swoon and became unconscious. So the whole ashram gathered and people started singing and were very joyous; they started dancing.

They thought -- and it was right -- that under Ramana's impact, Maugham had moved into samadhi, into deep meditation. And that's exactly what had happened. But when Somerset Maugham came back he could not believe what was going on. He said, 'This is nothing -- no meditation, nothing. It is just because I was tired and because it is too hot -- that's why I fell into unconsciousness.'

He found this rationalisation: too hot, tired from the journey. And when he wrote an article about his visit, he wrote this: 'People are foolish there! Just out of tiredness and too much heat I had fallen unconscious, and they thought that I had entered some samadhi because of Ramana's blessings or his 1/08/07

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presence. This is absurd! And I deny it!'

I know that when he is denying, he is honest -- he is not dishonest. That is his explanation -- because he simply became unconscious so he did not know what happened. And when he came back this is the rationalisation that he made. That looks scientific: tired, long journey, climbing up the mountain, then too much heat, hot sun -- maybe a heat stroke or something. Any explanation would do, but this explanation that Ramana's impact.... The sun's impact is okay, the journey's impact is okay, but the presence of this sage? That is not acceptable: the rational mind cannot accept that.

And Somerset Maugham missed a great opportunity by refusing it. He could have entered into a deeper space. He became so much afraid of it; consciously he denied it, but then he became afraid. Then he escaped from the ashram -- he wouldn't stay there for long.

When he went to see Ramana to take his leave, he wouldn't enter the room. And again he found a rationalisation -- that he would have to remove his shoes, so he would take leave from the outside. You see the point? (chuckling) So from the window, standing outside the room, he took his leave. I know what fear.... And he may still not be aware that the fear is still there -- that he may fall into that unconsciousness, and then it will be too difficult, because now he is neither tired, nor it is hot, and the sun has set. Now the old explanation won't do. But the mind can play tricks. He said, 'Just to remove the shoes -- it is better that I take leave from the outside, and go.'

Don't be worried about it. And whatsoever it was, it has made a passage in you and meditation will use that passage. But drop the fear, mm? Good!

[The Tao group is present at darshan. A group member says: I feel really good. But I just feel my ego growing. I am proud of myself, and the ego says to me, 'Make a lot of effort and fight, and you will attain by yourself. Don't expect anything from other people.' And I have this problem with you. The ego says to me,

'He doesn't know you. How can he help you ?' So the ego is growing.]

Mm mm. Let it grow. Go on pumping (laughter), then it will burst. It is like a balloon: the bigger it is, the easier it is to burst. So go on, just go on puffing it. And tell it that it is perfectly right. Let it become bigger, bigger, and one day you will suddenly see that it has burst. Mm? that is the only way to get rid of it.

Let it be big!

A small ego is very difficult to get rid of, because it is so small it can hide anywhere. A small ego can pretend to be humble, and then it is very difficult to detect it. A big ego cannot pretend and it cannot hide anywhere -- it is so big. So, very good! Don't be worried about it. Go on helping it and enjoy it. Let there be a little flirtation -- nothing wrong in it. One day it is going to burst. And it will burst only when it is too big

-- not before it. It is very easy then on its own accord it falls and disappears. Then humbleness arises -- and that has a totally different flavour. It is not a humbleness that you have practised. It has simply arisen because there is no ego any more.

So nothing to be worried about. Just go on doing groups and making effort and meditating, and tell your ego that there is no need for any help from anybody's side and that you will do it on your own, and go on, mm? Any day, when it has come to a bursting point you will see it bursting -- and that will be a great experience. Don't try to get rid of it right now -- you cannot. Let it be ripe.

This is one of the very basic problems to be faced. In the East people are not so egoistic. Surrender seems to be very easy -- but meaningless because people don't have anything to surrender. In the West people are more egoistic. Surrender seems to be very difficult, but then surrender is meaningful becawe it is very difficult; they have something to surrender.

And in a right education, in a right culture, this will be the balance: first we will teach every child to be as egoistic as possible and then we will teach him how to allow this ego to burst on its own accord so he can become humble. Then humbleness is a happening. And when the ego is ripe, and falls from the tree on its own, there is beauty, grace, benediction.

So nothing wrong in it. You can go on fighting with me. Let that game be there -- no need to be worried.

But you are trapped! This ego is going to be destroyed, mm? Good! Very good!

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The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #22

Chapter title: All I Represent is Love

1 December 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7612015

ShortTitle: WHIP22

Audio:

No

Video:

No

Orange is symbolic -- symbolic of death because it represents fire. In India we burn the dead body.

Actually in the old days, in the traditional days, when sannyas was given to somebody he was put down on the funeral pyre. The master would stand by the side, and other disciples would say good-bye to him. The fire would be lit, and then he would be taken away from the pyre and be given a new name and the orange dress -- to indicate that he has passed through death... that the old is gone.

Orange is also symbolic of blood, of birth, so the new is born, the new baby is born in blood.

Orange is symbolic of death and birth, of crucifixion and resurrection.

So change to orange, and start looking at yourself in an absolutely new way, as you have never looked.

This moment becomes a new beginning. Start from ABC... as if you are again a child and again learning the ways of life.

And much is going to happen -- I can see you ready for many things....

[A sannyasin brings his mother to take sannyas]

Deva means divine, and kanksha means desire; desire for the divine, desire for god. And I can see that the desire is there. It is still a seed, but it will sprout soon.

In fact it is not that you have come to see [your son] -- that desire has brought you here; that is just an excuse. Right? I have caught you!

[A sannyasin who has returned says: I couldn't get it together financially and I fell in two. Now I don't know how long I can stay. I would like to stay a longer period. I'm really frightened of going back.]

No, I will put you together -- don't be worried. If you want to stay, you will stay. So forget that, mm?

And I will put you together. Nobody ever falls apart really. One simply feels... it is just an idea -- because basically you cannot fall apart. Every being is such a unity that there is no way to fall apart.

Many times we imagine that we are falling apart, but we never fall apart. Even people who are schizophrenic, split, in madhouses -- even they are not fallen apart. They have just taken the idea, a fancy, and the whole society helps them to keep the fancy. Maybe there is some politics in it, maybe the family wants them to remain mad, the society wants them to remain mad. Maybe they are scapegoats and the society, wants to throw its own garbage on them, but in fact they are not.

In a madhouse they tried one experiment. They made it clear that unless every inmate came and stood in a queue before the mess, nobody would get food. For just two days they waited, and by the third day all the mad people were standing in the queue -- and just one day before, two days before they wouldn't listen to anything! Then they made another thing: they fixed switches on the wall. There were one hundred and twenty mad people. and they said that they all had to push the switches together -- one hundred and twenty people -- only then the doors of the mess would open, otherwise they would remain hungry. They managed

-- one hundred and twenty people, and mad -- they managed to push the button together! And the people 1/08/07

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who were experimenting were simply surprised. They were thinking that these people were mad!

One of the greatest seers of India, Ramana Maharshi, never used to be very kind to mad people. One of his biographers, Chadwick, writes: 'I was very much surprised that he is such a great saint and he has no compassion for mad people.' Whenever he would raise the question, Ramana Maharshi would simply laugh, and drop the subject and never discuss it.

One day Chadwick persisted. He said, 'I want a clear-cut answer. Why don't you have any compassion for mad people?' Ramana said, 'I have never come across any mad people -- they are all playing!' Just see what he says -- 'They are all playing the game.' They have chosen to be mad! Nobody is mad, because nobody can be mad.

In the West many more people are going mad -- every year many more -- because madness is now an accepted thing; almost a way, a style of life, for many people. In the East so many people never go mad.

In my home town there was one mad person. In fact, in every village there is one. It seems he is needed

-- maybe like an outlet, a safety valve. The whole town remains sane, and he becomes the leakage for insanity. Children would run after him, throw stones, and he would throw stones, and it was such a scene whenever he passed.

I continuously watched him. I never tortured him. I had some deep feeling for the madman. And sometimes I would go and sit by his side -- he used to live under a tree. By and by he became aware of this fact that I had never tortured him as every child of the town, every boy, even grown up people, did. So he one day asked me, 'Why don't you torture me? Why don't you throw stones? Don't you think I am mad?' I said, 'I have never thought that you were mad.'

He laughed, and he said, 'Come close to me. I will tell you a secret -- I am not! But don't tell it to anybody. This is my way of living. This is how I get my food, my clothing. This is an agreement between me and the village -- that I will play the role of a madman. It's okay, and things are going very well!'

[The sannyasin answers: But at the same time I feel better than ever.]

Mm, You are better! I have put you together. Start meditating, dancing, and forget all about it!

[A sannyasin says: I'm feeling very happy... Sometimes I can't take it.]

Yes, it can become unbearable too. Only pain is not unbearable -- pleasure, happiness, can become unbearable.

So whenever you cannot take it in, dance, sing... go a little berserk. Express it... cry, let the tears come.

Then you will be able to hold it. Whenever it is too much, let it flow... share it.

[The sannyasin continued that she found she felt happier outside the ashram and that she was in love with an indian sadhu.]

Mm. Love is good. Whomsoever you are in love with, it is good. Love is good! It is irrelevant with whom you are in love. If you love, you love me, so simply love! Mm? don't create any conflict.

This is the mind that comes again and again in between. It says, 'Why, what are you doing? If you fall in love with this man, you will be going away from Osho!' If you are going towards love, you are coming closer to me. If you are not coming closer to love, you may be here just sitting in front of me and you are far away, far, far away. You are on some other planet, not on this one -- because all that I represent is love.

My whole effort is to make you more loving.

Remember -- if you love, you love me.

And if you are happy, you are in my ashram, mm? Good!

[A sannyasin says: I wrote to you about having a fever when doing meditation. I feel a lot has happened to me.]

You are feeling very weightless, light? -- that's good. Sometimes meditations can bring fever, but if fever is brought by meditation, then after the fever you will feel very very light, almost as if you can fly.

Mm? because then that fever was something psychological that has left you. It was nothing to do with your body. It was something feverish inside you that exploded.

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Sometimes meditation brings a few things: it can bring fever, it can bring headaches, stomach disturbances, it can bring diarrhoea. And they are all tremendously helpful -- but one comes to know only when they are gone, not before it. Meditation is a cleansing process and whatsoever is stuck in your system has to be thrown out. But this has been very good.

[Osho checks her energy.]

You are in a state of levitation... very good. In this state, sometimes if you sit and meditate, you may feel you have risen above the earth. Not actually -- not that the body rises above the earth -- but your subtle, your energy body, rises above the earth. If you open your eyes, you will find yourself sitting on the earth. If you close your eyes, you will find that you are almost two or three feet above the earth.

There are two laws: one is of gravitation -- science knows about it. The other law, levitation, science still has to discover. But Yoga has always known it, and it has to be so, because each law can exist only with a contrary law -- no law can exist alone. If birth exists then death exists. If day exists then night exists.

If man exists then woman exists. If love exists then hate exists. Each law has to function with its opposite which is also complementary to it.

So science has discovered gravitation -- that things, material things, fall towards the earth. Yoga says there is a law of levitation -- that spiritual things fall upwards. If they are allowed, they will start moving upwards. It is not just metaphorical that we look upwards for God. It is not just metaphorical that when we pray, we pray towards someone who is there high in the heavens. No, it is an indication of the law of levitation.

So you are exactly in the ray of the law of levitation -- enjoy it! Mm? this is the moment when one can pray, and can feel prayerful, and can simply be happy for no reason at an. This is the moment that one can dance, really dance and dance with the soul -- not only with the body. The dance can go to your very core, and it will not be just a movement, physical movement; it will be a spiritual experience. So you start praying.

In the night when you go to sleep, just sit in the bed with folded hands looking upwards. Put the light off and in deep darkness, just look upwards. Feel that you can fly, and then anything that comes, anything that you would like to say to God, say it -- anything! Don't make it a formal affair: don't say the christian prayer, or the hindu prayer, or any prayer. If it happens, good... it is beautiful. If it comes spontaneously, that too is good, but let it be spontaneous -- don't prepare for it. You can say anything at this moment: just 'hello' is enough of a prayer, or, 'How are you, God?' is enough prayer.

Have you heard about the three mystics? Tolstoy has written a story, that in Russia before the revolution, there were three famous mystics who used to live on a small island in a big lake. They became so famous that the pope, the highest religious authority of the Russian Orthodox Church, became very much worried -- the masses were going towards them. So finally he decided to go and see what is happening.

He went by motorboat... landed. Those three poor people -- they were very poor people -- rushed and fell at his feet. He could not believe that these ordinary people had fallen at his feet. He said, 'What's your secret? Why are people coming to you?' They said, 'We don't know.'

He said, 'What is your religious practice, what is your sadhana?'

They said, 'That too we don't know. We are very ignorant, illiterate persons. We know just one prayer --

we do that.'

So he asked, 'What is your prayer?'

They looked at each other... they felt very ashamed and shy. Then one said, 'Forgive us father, because we don't know really how to pray, so we have invented one. We should not have done this, but we are ignorant people -- forgive us. We have invented our own prayer. Knowing that God is a trinity -- God the Father, the Holy Ghost, and the Son -- and we are also three, we have made a prayer: "You are three, we are three -- have mercy on us." This is our prayer.'

The head priest was very angry. He said, 'Who told you this is prayer? Has anybody ever heard of any prayer like that? You should learn a christian prayer -- Our Lord's prayer.' So he taught them.

They asked again, they asked again -- twice he repeated. They said, 'Okay, now we will remember.'

Mm? Happy, he set off in his boat. Then just in the middle of the lake, he was surprised to see that those three were coming -- almost like a storm -- running on the water!

He trembled! He started saying, 'What is happening? This is a miracle!' And they came and said, 'Father, once more please repeat that prayer -- we have forgotten!'

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He fell at the feet of those three and he said, 'Your prayer is right -- my prayer is just formal. You continue your prayer. I should not have disturbed you. Your prayer has been heard. Now who am I to say that this is not right? You simply continue your prayer.'

So just a 'hello' sometimes will do. Prayer has to be something of the heart... spontaneous, with no preparation.

So every night, just a five minute prayer will be very helpful in this moment, mm? and then go to sleep.

In a deep prayerful mood fall into sleep, and in the morning when you get up, again get up prayerfully.

Good.

[A sannyasin therapist who has recently returned says: I've been working very hard. When I'm teaching there is nobody there, and it's very beautiful. But in my life I seem to have lost all of my self-confidence.

But now I'm here with you... ]

In fact, it depends how you look at it. Otherwise losing self-confidence can be a great privilege. It may be just the beginning of losing the ego...

Only the beginning.... Because self-confidence is basically nothing but ego-confidence. And self-confidence is not of much help. If it disappears, it is good. You will feel more free. Of course you will not feel so secure -- but with security there is no freedom. Freedom exists only with insecurity. You will not feel so certain and so smug... but who can be certain? How is certainty possible? Life is so vast, so unpredictable -- how can one have self-confidence in the first place?

In fact only stupid people can have self-confidence. The more wise you become, the more it disappears.

[The sannyasin says: When I feel confident, then I feel that I move with a kind of authority.]

That's what stupidity is -- authority. When you are authoritative, you are no more alive, you are no more free, you are no more spontaneous, and you are no more in tune with existence. How can you have authority?.... Because life is such a mystery -- nothing is known about life and nothing can be known about life. It is not only unknown -- it is unknowable. How can you be authoritative about it? The authority simply means that you are not aware of the tremendousness, of the vastness, of the hugeness of life, and you are not aware of the mystery.

Socrates says, 'When I was young, I used to think I knew all. When I became older, I became suspicious, I lost my confidence and many loop-holes erupted in my knowledge. And when I am really on the verge of death, only one certainty is left -- that I am ignorant, that I don't know anything.'

Socrates is really one of the wisest men, and whatsoever he says, he means.

So... your self-confidence disappearing is a blessing. In fact one should start living without authority. I know it is difficult -- that's why people choose authority. Authority seems to be clear-cut. It is as if in the vast jungle of life you have cleared a small space -- neat, clean... that's what authority is. But .look around a little. Nothing is neat and everything is mysterious. Man knows nothing.

So I don't think your self-confidence is going to come back -- no! You will have to live without it. And once you have decided to live without it, you will have such beautiful freedom available. But I know your problem. You have been trying to live through knowledge. You have been trying to live through information, through the scripture, you have been trying to live through the mind. Now try to live without the mind. You have been trying to live in a rational way and now doubts are arising about reason.

The disappearing self-confidence simply means that now you are becoming aware that life is bigger than reason. When somebody asks you a question -- somebody says, 'Is there a God?' only a foolish person can say yes or no. He can say with confidence! And you can judge by the confidence how foolish he is.

I go on looking into christian missionaries' books -- I have never seen such stupid literature. So confident -- and without knowing anything!

Somebody asks, 'Is there a God?'... a small child asks you, 'Is there God?' and you say, 'Yes.' Just look behind your 'yes'. What are you trying to pretend before the child? Who are you kidding?

Be humble, and say to the child, 'I don't know.' You will be truer, and closer to God. And when you say,

'Yes, God is,' and you try to say it with deep confidence so that the child is convinced, and through the conviction of the child you are convinced that you know.... When you see that yes, you have convinced the child -- at least silenced the child, if not convinced -- then you feel good. But life is not so easy. It is not a question of two plus two being four. Sometimes in life two plus two is five, and sometimes two plus two is 1/08/07

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three. And sometimes whatsoever you do, you cannot make two plus two -- they don't join. That plus becomes impossible.

Who can speak authoritatively? You can speak only in deep humbleness. You can say 'perhaps'. How can you be certain?

I know the difficulty -- because when you are not certain, you become afraid whether the other will be convinced. If you are not certain, you become afraid inside; the other has touched your uncertainty.

I have heard that a man was travelling in a train. He came into the compartment and he was very much worried and trembling. He asked the man who was sitting just in front of him, 'Where does this train go?

Does this train go to London?' The man said, 'Yes.' He started reading his newspaper again, but he was not yet certain. He asked again, 'Sir, can I ask you again?' The man said, 'Are you mad? All over the compartment it is written that the train is going to London. The train is going to London -- and keep quiet!'

He started reading his newspaper again. The man kept quiet.

Then at another station somebody else entered the compartment and asked the man who was worried whether the train was going to London or not, 'Is this train going to London? The man jumped and he said,

'Now you have made me uncertain again!'

We are all uncertain. So when somebody asks, '... is there a God?' you become afraid deep down: he is making you uncertain again! Somehow you were managing to believe that there is a God and everything is okay -- God in heaven and we on the earth, and everything is going well and He is taking care of this whole mess, this chaos, and things eventually will be right. And now here comes a man, a small child, and says, 'Is there a God? Does God really exist?' And he is asking so innocently -- again he is provoking your uncertainty.

You shout loudly, 'Yes, there is a God!' Against whom are you shouting? Against this child or against your own fear? Just as you are trying to make this child keep quiet, your parents had made you keep quiet.

Your childhood is still there... uncertain.

This is all absurd! There is no need to carry such self-confidence. If you know, you know -- there is no need for self-confidence. If you don't know, you don't know. What is the need for self-confidence? You see the point? If you know, you know. There is no need for self-confidence. If you don't know, you don't know.

What will self-confidence do? So in either case, it is not needed -- it is an unnecessary burden. Forget about it!

And this time when you go from here, just go free. Let the spontaneity decide. Of course then you will become very inconsis-tent -- you will be inconsistent like me -- because then you cannot be consistent.

Each moment has its own spontaneity... each moment has its own say.

Deep down there will be a consistency, but that will not be on the surface. Your freedom will be consistently there, but your statements will all be different. A real man of understanding is bound to be contradictory, because a real man of understanding only lives the moment.

For example, I am saying to you that there is no need for self-confidence. I am not saying that tomorrow also I will say the same and I am not saying that yesterday I said the same -- that is none of my concern.

This moment -- looking into you, looking into myself -- this is how I feel... that there is no need. One can simply be oneself -- there is no need for any self-confidence. And I am not saying that when self-confidence disappears, you will have an unself-confidence -- that disappears with it too. It is its shadow. How can you be unself-confident when there is no self-confidence? They both go together. You are simply there then --

naturally there... responsive. And your response is authentic, not authoritative.

An authoritative response is never authentic, and an authentic response is never authoritative. But to be authentic is more valuable. If you don't get confused I will say that to be authentic carries its own authority

-- but it is not authoritative. It is sincere.

You look in my eyes.... Whatsoever I am saying is not authoritative -- it is sincere. And sincerity has its own weight, it goes deeper... touches the very core of your being. Authority is very superficial, authority is borrowed -- sincerity is your own flowering.

So forget about it! There is no need.

[The sannyasin says: I know... the difference between the authority or sincerity that's there, and the authority that comes from the mind. But it seems that in my own life, I can't let go of that yet, though in my work I can.]

I understand. That will happen in your life too.... Because when you are working, you can be more 1/08/07

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objective; the problem is somebody else's. When it is your own life, the problem is yours.

Somebody comes to you, and he has a problem. You can be very objective, very sincere -- sincere to the core -- because you are not risking anything. You can be sincere, there is no risk -- but when the problem is your own, the question is your own -- then the answer is not so objective. You are not two, you are one.

Now the question is arising in you!

The day Amit Prem [a therapist friend with whom the sannyasin had originally come to see Osho] took sannyas, I asked him, 'Have. you something to say?' He said, 'Osho, what next?' I said, 'There is nothing.

Drop all hope. The very hope that one has to gain something and improve, advance, become spiritual, adept, siddha, this and that -- all nonsense! Drop all hope!'

He said, 'This is what I say to other people!'

Now if you have said it to other people and it was authentic, you should not ask, 'What next?' Then there is no next -- this moment is all, and one is not going anywhere. We are already here! And here is all that is.

There is no future, no space to grow. The world is perfect each moment -- it is not going from imperfection towards perfection, and each individual is perfect as he is. And Amit says, 'Yes, this is what I say to other people.'

Then just to make it an experiment, I didn't suggest that he do any group or any meditation or anything.

Now today he writes a letter to me saying, 'I think that by being here nothing is going to happen.' Again the same desire -- something should happen. And I was just creating a situation. I was just making it clear to him that whatsoever he has been saying to others is not authentic, otherwise it should enter his own life too!

It is very easy to advise others. It is very difficult when it comes to your own problems. Then you become uncertain, because you know your answers are just answers. How can you deceive yourself? You can deceive somebody else -- it is easier. The other does not know whether [you have] attained or not, mm?

But this Amit Prem tells somebody that there is nowhere to go; herenow is the goal. Now how is the other supposed to know whether he is talking from some inner experience of the herenow, or whether he is just philosophical, he has learned a doctrine? The other will be impressed.

But when the question arises to Amit Prem himself -- sitting in his chair or lying down in his bed and suffering from dysentery and this and that, and the problem arises, 'Amit Prem, what are you doing here?

Why are you wasting your time here?' -- the question is real. The question is more real than your answer.

Then the self-confidence.... You will feel that something is missing. The question is more real, deeper than your answer. Now your answer has to be deeper too.

So this is my suggestion: whatsoever you say to people, before you say it to them, after you have said it to them, meditate on those answers, compare notes with your own question. And by and by, if you feel that you have not answered any question that is yours, then your answer is not really authentic, not sincere. It looks sincere, it may be a beautiful answer -- that's okay. Very logical, pertinent, penetrating -- but it is not authentic....

Because the real test is within you. There is the crucible... there you have to test everything. There is the real fire. If the answer is real it will pass through the fire. If the answer is not real it will not be able to solve your question, and if it cannot solve your question, please remember that it is not sincere -- then better not to say it to anybody.

At the most say, 'I have not been able to solve my own question, but this is the way I would like my question to be solved. This is just my suggestion, not my answer... just my intellectual approach towards it.

This is my intellectual understanding, but it is not spiritual.' Say it! Then you will be more sincere.

Sincerity simply means that whatsoever you are saying to others you ask of yourself, 'Has it happened to me? Is it really happening to me?'

That's what the problem is: you know the right answer, and when you are teaching you are a good teacher. So you teach well -- you satisfy your students. They feel very good -- they have received something. But when you come home, your own questions are there (a chuckle); you cannot deceive those questions! They are there.

So when you go back, tell Amit that this has been a situation for him.

This has been a situation -- and I was putting him into that situation to give him a real feel that whatsoever he has been saying is just absurd. I'm not saying wrong -- I am saying absurd. It may be right --

because it looks right -- but it is absurd.

Deep down in him there is a great desire to grow, to become, to be something, to be somebody. I simply suggested nothing to him for those few days he has been here. In fact I suggested that he conduct a group --

not to participate, but lead. So he felt that if he is leading groups here and he was leading groups there, this 1/08/07

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ashram has nothing to give to him.

This was just a situation. And tell him that is worked! It has brought his whole heart to the surface. Now the real work will start. And tell [the sannyasin ma who was with him] she proved to be of a more grounded nature than Amit Prem... proved to be more centered. But god! Now things are clear...

[A group leader who had to return to the West for health reasons, said he gave groups there and many participants will be coming to see Osho. He then says: It's difficult when I experience that part in me that stops me from coming here forever.]

Accept that too. There is no need to fight it. If it is there, it is there. One day it will disappear, but you need not make it disappear. Then it will never disappear. It is bound to be there in everybody who is close to me; it is bound to be there, otherwise you will simply disappear. You will disappear into my emptiness. You have to cling to something against me. That is your security.

Nothing wrong in it -- it is natural. It is part of the whole heritage. We have been trying to survive, and we have been fighting in every way against disappearing. Down the centuries for millions of years, every being has been fighting and fighting to survive. Then that becomes part of our nature -- that effort to survive.

When you fall in love it creates trouble, because love is possible only when you disappear. So that whole conditioning of the mind, of centuries, has gone to the very cells. That becomes a barrier to all kinds of love.

And to be in love with me is dangerous. So it is a natural tendency to fight, to find some way or other, and to be scared and afraid. But it is natural -- accept it... let it be there!

In spite of it you are going to disappear. So we are not worried about it. It cannot prevent you... it cannot even delay you. It is almost irrelevant, so don't pay much attention to it. In fact the more attention you pay to it, the more you feed it. It is there, so accept it just like your back: it is also there, a part of you.

And don't in any way try to drop it. If you try to drop it, it will give you a great fight. Simply accept, and in spite of that, things are growing, things are moving -- nothing to be worried about.

That's why when you are there, you feel me more and more easily, because then there is no problem --

you are alone there, and the fear is not there.

It always happens: whenever lovers are separate, they feel.... And when they are close they nag, and fight, and conflict arises. And it seems absurd, because when they are separate and far away, they long to see each other, to be with each other, and once they are together, again the whole nonsense starts. But this is part of growth, so don't be worried. Let it be so! That is for me to look after it, mm?

And you look good. Your health is really good!

[The groupleader's girlfriend then says she feels a conflict between being in the ashram and being with her boyfriend when he was in the West.]

It is natural, mm? You love me, you love [him]. Both loves are of a totally different quality and a different dimension, and you are torn apart between the two. It is natural, the difficulty is bound to be there

-- but that difficulty will help you to grow. It is not going to be harmful; that's why you also feel good.

Remember only one thing: you can have both, because there is no problem about it. The only question is where to stay. Stay with [him] wherever he stays -- if he stays here you stay here, if he goes to the West you go to the West.... Because it is not only a question of your being with me; it is easier for me to work on him through you, so that too is part of the game.

If he is left alone he can be lost, so I cannot leave him alone, mm? And you are my representative to follow him; wherever he goes, you be there. And your growth is going very well -- nothing to be worried about. So whenever he is here, you be here. And drop this conflict completely. You simply be with [him]

wherever he is. And I am with you! -- don't be worried about it. You are not making a choice. There is no choice in fact!

Your love for [your boyfriend] is on one plane, your love for me is on a totally different plane -- there is no choice. If you are here and Amitabh is not, you can fall apart. But you can be anywhere and you will not fall apart from me, because it is not a question of physical closeness. With [your boyfriend] it is a question of physical closeness. If you are not with him, there is a possibility you may move away, he may move away. That's why I say to remain with him. And I am with you.

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Sooner or later he is going to settle here. Where else will he settle? And once you drop this conflict, he will settle sooner. Now this too works on his mind, knowingly, unknowingly. That too is somewhere in the unconscious. He goes on watching what [you are] going to choose. He is afraid -- a certain fear is there that you can choose me. And he knows if I say to you, 'Stay here,' you are going to stay here -- that he knows.

And this too he knows, because I am saying to you to follow [your boyfriend] you are following -- that too he knows. So there is in his mind ambiguity -- whether you are really with him, or you are with him only because I have said to be with him. He will be at ease only when your whole conflict disappears. Then he can stay here -- there is no problem.

Once he knows that he is not going to lose you by staying here.... His fear is double: his first fear is that he is going to lose himself, his second fear is that he is going to lose [you]. So think of poor [boyfriend] --

he is really in difficulty.

So you simply drop this conflict forever. If you are here I am working on you, if you are there I am working on you -- you are close to me so wherever you go there is no problem about it. And finally and eventually you will settle here. That is not the problem.

Once [he] becomes perfectly certain about you -- that you are with him -- then what is the point of moving between India and America? And it is also good to move a little, so one really settles. Before one settles, little movement is good.

This is my feeling, people who have come for the first time and settle forever, sometimes feel a little difficulty. The desire sometimes arises to go away. So let him come and go, come and go. By and by that will tire him, and then you will be really settled. But everything is going well.

[She adds: I feel afraid that you will die when I'm not here.]

No, no. When I'm dying, I will call you immediately, so you need not be afraid. You will be here when I am dying. Nothing to be worried about. And I am not going to die so soon. I will have to look after so many people, mm? People I have initiated I have to bring to a certain state -- only then can I go, not before. I can manage... don't worry.

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #23

Chapter title: Get Lost in My People

2 December 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7612025

ShortTitle: WHIP23

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[To a new sannyasin who said she hoped to stay two years, Osho said that she could be completely transformed..... ]

So do a few groups here, mm? We have two years, so we can move very slowly. And there is no hurry --

we can enjoy the journey. People who are in a hurry cannot enjoy the journey. Their eyes are fixed on the goal. They cannot enjoy the roadside view -- and it is tremendously beautiful.

The goal is beautiful, but the journey is beautiful too. God is beautiful, but waiting for Him is also beautiful.

One should not miss the roadside view. In fact if somebody suddenly reaches God, he will not be able to 1/08/07

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recognise Him. The road prepares one. Slowly, slowly God radiates Himself in many ways -- in the valleys, in the trees, in the birds, in the waterfalls -- in many experiences on the way He comes to you, very slowly.

Sometimes you can only hear His footsteps. Sometimes He whispers. Sometimes it is very vague whether He has been there or not. Sometimes you see only His footprints when He is gone.

But this is how one becomes by and by acquainted with the unknown. In a thousand and one ways, you gather bits and pieces of divinity. That's how you become capable of recognising Him when He reveals Himself in His totality.

So it is better to follow a bullock cart way and go slowly, rather than in a jet plane. Because if God is suddenly there you will not be able to recognise Him, you will not be able even to see Him. There will be no link between you and Him. You will be poles apart -- so much so that there will be no possibility of any bridge.

So this is good that you will be here for two years. Enjoy everything that is available here.... And by becoming a sannyasin you have become part of my community.

The word community is very beautiful. It means a unit of people and persons who have something in common -- from 'common' comes 'community'. This is not an organisation. You are related to me, other sannyasins are related to me -- I am the common factor. You are all sharing me and my presence -- hence it becomes a community.

So become more and more part of this family. Get in tune with the ashram, meditations, groups . . .

make friendships, relationships, relate to my people. The more you get lost in my people, the closer you will come to me, because they all have one thing in common -- and that is me.

And from this moment you become part of my community.... Good!

[Another sannyasin says: I keep getting involved with people but I don't feel love for anyone.]

What do you mean by love? What is your expectation of love? Sometimes it can happen that you have some fantasy about love. You have some very perfectionist idea about love, and in comparison to it all your relationships will look superficial.

[She replies: I mean warm feelings that are very strong.

That's what I am saying -- that again is the same problem. How strong do you want feelings -- almost feverish? The problem is created by you. If you have some absurd idea of love, some romantic idea of love, some poetic idea, then reality will always look pale. That's why poets can never love. They have such high ideas that everything looks superficial, dirty, earthly. They want to fly.

For example, if you have an idea that you should be able to fly in the sky, and you cannot -- you can at the most run on the earth -- then you will feel very disturbed. 'What type of flying is this? I continue to run on the earth.'

My suggestion is that you forget all about your romantic ideas -- they are childish. Listen to reality. And whatsoever is happening is good! Enjoy it! Why disturb it? You can disturb everything.

Forget the idea of love. You must be carrying some philosophy. Be realistic: this is what love is -- and if you go into it and enjoy it, it will grow more and more, but because of your idea from the very beginning it is condemned.

The myth of love is very deep-rooted in humanity. For centuries people have been taught what love is.

Nobody knows anything about what love is, but they go on teaching people what love is. They have raised the whole thing to absurdity, so whatsoever you do will fall short. And then you are condemned... you are in a hell.

My suggestion is -- forget the idealism. Don't say that it is not warm enough. It is warm -- good! At least it is not cold. Lukewarm -- it will do. Just a little spark is there -- it will do. Just by a little spark you can create such a big fire; the whole forest can be on fire just by a little spark. But don't condemn the spark, otherwise there will be no possibility for growth.

It is good that you fall in love with people. Maybe it is just sexual -- let it be. Nothing is wrong in sex...

it is the spark. But what happens when you fall in love with a person is that you start thinking this is just sexual; divine love is not happening -- there is condemnation. Then the love will never happen, because through condemnation you will kill the very possibility -- the seed will be burned. Nothing is wrong in it!

You are a body too -- and every-thing starts from the body.

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When you are eating, if you have some absurd idea about divine energy, you will say, 'What material things am I eating? Just ordinary food -- butter and bread and vegetables. I need divine energy -- and this is all material. You can purchase it in a hotel. This cannot be divine.'

But eat it, digest it, and there will be a transformation in you. The material will become mental, the physical will become psychological, and if you digest your psychological energy, it will become divine.

Divine energy is not available in the marketplace; all that is available is physical energy. Then you have to transform it into divine energy.

Love that is available is sexual, so accept the. facticity of it, and don't condemn it -- that it is just sexual.

It is sexual, but sex is the door. Don't get stuck in sexuality, but don't be against it either. Enjoy it! Let it become a little higher and deeper -- then it will be more like love. And if love grows even deeper, it will become more like prayer. But those will be inner transformations that you have to bring to it. The available is raw material.

It is just like a raw diamond. You may not even recognise that it is a diamond. You have to cut it, you have to polish it, you have to give it shape, and then it is there -- tremendously valuable.

It is exactly like that: sex is just a raw diamond, physicalness is a raw diamond. So you will have to cut, you will have to work on it -- hard it is... arduous it is. You will have to give it a polishing -- it will take years -- and then one day the precious is in your hands. But the precious does not come directly, it comes very indirectly.

In the world you exist as a body... in the world you are a body. Ninety percent you are a body, nine percent you are a mind, one percent you are a soul. That is the proportion -- so of course the ninety percent is going to be very very important.

My understanding is that you are creating your problem, you are responsible for it -- there is no problem in fact.

So start looking afresh, have a new vision. And nothing is wrong. If you feel to move with many people, nothing is wrong. Maybe that is your need right now. In the beginning it is natural that one wants to move with many people -- because how to select the right one? The right one is not available there. It is not written on the forehead of somebody that this is the right person for you. Nobody knows who is the right person. You have to meet and mix and see in many situations, and then only can you come to know who is the right person. Once you have found the right person there will be no need to move with many people. But right now it is natural... it should be so.

It is just a search. You are in search, so whosoever meets you, you look into him. How can you know beforehand whether he is for you or not? A priori there is no way to know. You will have to move into some living situation with the person, only then will you be able to judge whether you exist for him, whether he exists for you... only through experience. So if you don't exist for him and he does not exist for you -- if you don't fit with each other, and you don't have a feeling that you are made for each other -- then move away...

the sooner the better. Sometimes it happens that one can get entangled with a person for whom one is not meant. Then the whole life is wasted. So play around, fool around -- nothing wrong in it. This is your search!

It is almost as if one is lost in a jungle and there is no map available, there is nobody whom you can even ask: What will you do? Will you simply sit? You will rush this side and that -- you will go to east, to west, to south, to north, mm? You will start exploring the territory. Some way you will try to find from where to get out of the jungle -- and you will find a way ! If you sit, there is no possibility. You may be just sitting by the side of a highway... or just a few trees may be hiding the highway, and you can simply sit there, lost forever.

So get up and be going, and look around. This is how things are, mm? This whole humanity is almost like a jungle. So many trees, human trees, all around -- just go and sit and shake hands with people, say,

'Hello'... be with people. One day with some-body you simply fit ! It happens so perfectly that you cannot believe it -- but it happens!

Before it happens you will have to experiment. This is the experimental stage of your life, so experiment

-- nothing is wrong in it. And whosoever allows you to be with him, feel grateful! Whether he fits with you or not, when you move away feel thankful -- he has made you more aware... he has given you some experience. Now you know life more than you had ever known before you met him, so feel grateful.

Never move in anger -- always move in gratefulness, and sooner or later you will come upon the person.

But first thing, drop your ideals, mm? Good.

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[A member of the Primal group says: I have a feeling that I am going rather deeply, and... there's much more still for me to discover, but it's just so very hard for me. Sometimes I can't find a way to move and I feel stuck.]

No, you are going well, and you are going deeper. But the inner depth is immeasurable. You will never come to the bottom -- remember it -- because there is no bottom. And the deeper you go, the more you will feel that you can go deeper. You are going .well. I'm not saying that you have to stop there -- you have to go further. One has to go on going. It is a journey that begins but never ends... and that is the beauty of it.

You will be able to fall deeper by and by -- you are not stuck. You are in a totally different situation, but that too feels like being stuck. When you move inwards, you come to a certain depth to which you have never come before; then your being takes a little time. It needs to get rooted in that depth. That time is not a time when you can say you are stuck -- you are not stuck! Your being takes a little time... a plateau happens.

Once your being has got roots in it, you can go again deeper. So that is a time of being established at a certain depth. If you simply go on deeper continuously, there will be no establishment of anything, there will be no stability in it. You will go and you will come back, and it will become just a memory, and by and by the memory will fade away.

But there is an economic structure in the growth. You go to a certain state, then everything stops, so the whole energy that is involved in going further is no more involved in going further. Rather, it is used for this space to be established; it becomes solid, crystallised. Then again you move.

So one moves, then rests a little. In that rest you are not stuck, but you can interpret it as your being stuck -- that is a wrong interpretation. I can see you are not stuck at all.

... but don't be worried. Simply let the energy settle there, get it centred there, and then you will again find that a flow has come, again you are moving. It is just a rest.

One has journeyed the whole day, walked miles the whole day, then in the night one needs to rest --

under a tree, one has to rest for the night. By the morning one will be able to move again. And if you continuously move, within two, three days you will fall, and you will never be able to move again. So that's a natural system, a very automatic system: you go only up to a certain point, then your whole structure says, now enough -- you rest. Let the energy be revived again. Let the body relax so that you can move tomorrow morning.

So there is a rhythm of movement, rest; movement, rest. This is just a rest period. Soon you will see that the movement will come. Go on doing whatsoever you are doing -- the movement will come. And by the end this group will also give you a new depth.

Things are going well....

[Another group member says: This is the deepest I have ever gone -- I really went into my feelings... I didn't get into anything heavy... There was so much energy that I really felt and did not think.]

This has been very good. Things are going well. More -- much more -- will be coming.

And don't think that something heavy is coming. You may not have something heavy repressed. So one should not expect anything -- that creates the problem. One should simply remain without expectation, so whatsoever happens is okay.

If you have some expectation that something heavy should happen and is not, then there are two possibilities: either you will start creating that heavy thing because you want it so desperately.... And that will be false -- and your unconscious can deceive you. Just to satisfy you, if you want something heavy you have something heavy. The unconscious can create something heavy which will be false -- and you will not be benefited by it. In fact, you will feel exhausted -- not replenished, not rejuvenated.

When something really heavy is broken, one feels very very light -- not exhausted... one feels full of energy. But if the unconscious has to pretend -- mm? just to fulfill your expectation -- you will feel very exhausted. So whatsoever comes is good. If nothing comes, that too is good.

This is one of the problems with growth groups -- because everybody looks at everybody else.

Somebody is going into something heavy and you are not, so you feel comparative -- that something is missing, he is going into such a heavy thing. But he may have to go, and you may not have to.

I have come across people who have been in Primal Therapy with Janov or with others, and because it is insisted upon that there is a primal scream, people manage to scream one day. It looks like primal and it is not -- because after that primal scream they remain the same. If it is really a primal, they will be totally 1/08/07

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different.... But their unconscious played the trick. The unconscious helps you, and if you demand too much, it will create an illusion, a hallucination.

Have you seen? Sometimes it happens to women. Some woman wants to have a child very desperately

-- she can create a false pregnancy and her stomach becomes big. She goes on filling her stomach with air --

and not consciously! Her period stops. Now the unconscious is really playing great tricks. Because she wants the child so desperately, the unconscious says, 'Okay, have it!' How can the unconscious give you the child?

Now she is three months, four months in pregnancy, and starts vomiting, and all the symptoms of pregnancy are there. When she goes to the doctor and he says there is nothing, within two days the stomach settles down and the air disappears, and the period comes again, and all the symptoms disappear.

The unconscious is a great energy, and if you ask too much, the unconscious can give, can deliver -- it can deliver any goods. If you want to see Christ, you will see Christ there. If you want to see Krishna, he will have to play his flute -- and you will see him! These are all hallucinations. So don't expect!

This should be one of the basic rules -- that one should not expect and one should not look at others.

Whatsoever is happening is their thing, mm? It has nothing to do with you -- you are different. So just let things happen, and don't put any expectation in your mind, otherwise you can have a false pregnancy! But things are going well, mm? Much more will be happening. Very good !

[Another group member says he worked through his father relationship and now feels as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders. In reply to Osho's query, he says the weight had been on his left shoulder.]

Very good. If your left shoulder was heavy, your right brain must have been burdened. That's how it goes: they are joined cross-wise -- the left hand is joined with the right brain.

Soon you will see new qualities of the right brain arising in you. The right brain is intuitive, poetic...

more capable of religious experiences. The left brain which is joined with the right hand, is more rational, logical. So if the burden is less there, suddenly after a few days you will feel some new insights arising in you -- and when they arise, help them. Be careful about them because they will be very new and you can neglect them.

Many things die through negligence. One has to be careful. That's why I asked you which shoulder was feeling unburdened. So if you start feeling more intuitive -- more hunches happen to you, you become more imaginative, more poetic, and things look more colourful, you become more loving, more feeling arises --

don't be afraid, Mm? otherwise the mind will again close, and if the mind closes, again your left shoulder will become heavy.

And now you will be working with your mother. You don't have any problem with your mother?

[He answers: The nice part of my mother came up -- not the heavy part.]

Maybe... sometimes it happens that if the heavy part is with your father, the nice part will be with your mother. They are enemies -- so if the father is heavy, the mother must have been nice to you....

That's natural -- because you can have only one friend; either mother or the father; you cannot have both. The world is still not so aware. Even the child cannOt have both a father and a mother -- he has to choose. And from that very moment choice starts.

If he chooses the father, the mother is against. If he chooses the mother, the father is against -- he is mama's boy, and the father is not interested. And in most of the cases it happens that the father is hard on the boy, nice to the girls -- nice to the daughter -- and the mother is nice to the boy, and harder on the daughter.

But still go into it, mm? It is better to clean all the relationships with the past. Once you have closed the accounts with the past, you become free, you become liberated into the future... you have more space.

Otherwise the past goes on narrowing you.

If you have settled your accounts with your father, suddenly you will feel a new upsurge of love for men. Don't be afraid of that -- because a fear arises that one is becoming homosexual or something. That will come, because when the father's account is closed and you start feeling good about your father -- that yes, everything is gone and finished, and you don't carry the wounds -- you will start feeling good about men. You will become more friendly with men, because each man somehow represents your father.

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[Another group member says: I played around for about four days and for the last couple of days I have really been getting into it. I can get so far and then I get scared to go any further... today I feel sort of more into a softer space . But I just get scared and that's it. And I can head-trip about it, or else I start clowning, and then it stops.]

I know you will do that because the day I suggested Primal Therapy, you turned and you said, 'Ah, shit!'

(she laughs) I didn't say anything -- you were trying to be funny -- but it was foolish. That shows your whole attitude, and if you go into something with that attitude, you will be clowning -- it will not be of much use.

Nobody likes to be advised. And I have to do that sin continuously -- I have to advise people, 'Do this, do that.' Nobody wants to be advised, because it is very against the ego. Even to accept somebody's advice means that you don't know and somebody else knows. So in many ways one wants to avoid -- jokingly maybe, but that is a trick !

That very moment I knew you had missed that Primal group... I knew that it would be difficult for you !

The group had not started, nothing had started, but I could have predicted then that you would miss, because your attitude would be there. It was very unconscious -- not that you did it knowingly, it was unconscious --

but foolish things are supported by people.

You were here with the Soma group, and even [the leader] and others started laughing, thinking that you have done something very nice. So you also enjoyed the trick -- you thought you have done something nice... but nobody knows what people are doing.

Then you cannot be sincere; the whole work is a wastage. So you must have been fooling and pretending and clowning.

[One of the leaders comments: It seems that she can handle the heavier feelings but when it gets to softer spaces, it is difficult. She's really afraid of being a child. She's already well-developed in very sophisticated games and can joke and turn things to her advantage.]

Tomorrow something is going to happen. I have hit hard on her head (with a chuckle). Tomorrow something is going to happen! Mm? She will be able. These sophisticated games are just protections.

She is a child -- and she is simply protecting. She knows that if she goes sincerely into it, she will be childish -- that's what the fear is. She has not grown up in that way. Maybe her height (she is tall) has played some role in it. She must have been taller than other children when she was a child, and that very length has given her a sense that she is a grown-up. So she has never really been a child. She has never allowed herself that freedom.

Now it is there boiling inside, and she knows that if she relaxes suddenly that will erupt -- and for the whole life she has repressed it! So now she tries to manipulate every situation in her favour, by humour, by this and that, rationalisation, intellectualisation. Those are all props -- but they can all be thrown.

Just say to her -- whenever you see that she is doing something, just make it clear to her what she is doing. If she wants to do it, it is good, she can -- it is her game -- otherwise she need not do it. And from tomorrow she will enter; she is ready now. In fact her group will start from tomorrow, and she will enter into that space. And once she becomes a child, she will be tremendously beautiful. Great happiness will arise in her.

Sometimes it happens -- just very accidental things.... For example, her height is accidental. It is not her fault -- what can she do? She must have always been taller than other children of the same age, so she must have been feeling always that she is more grown-up than others, and that has made a gap. That gap has to be broken. And once it is broken she will become very very soft, flowing -- and that is her fear, too.

In the modern world it is happening more. Even small children are becoming very sophisticated. Each generation they are becoming more sophisticated. The world is becoming more informed, more knowledgeable. Children are glued to the TV for six hours a day. They are getting masses of information which was never possible at any other age or any other time. Of course they are very very sophisticated.

Modern media have made many things possible.

For example, a child cannot read a novel like 'Anna Karenina', but he can see the film on the TV. To read 'Anna Karenina' he would have to wait for many years. But on the TV he can see and he can understand it and he can follow it. He can see Tolstoy, he can see Dostoevsky, he can see Turgenev, Gogol, Gorky. The whole world of literature which was not available to him before is available. He becomes very 1/08/07

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sophisticated. Even small children start feeling very egoistic.

Just the other day I was reading a joke. A doctor told a small child that if one eats an apple a day, it keeps the doctor away.

The child said, 'Ah, nuts ! This is nothing !'

The doctor was a little shocked. He said, 'What do you mean, "This is nothing?"'

The child said, 'I have got a better advice to give.'

The doctor said, 'What is that?'

The child said, 'Eat one onion a day, and it keeps everybody away! Not only the doctor -- everybody!'

Even small children are no more ready to receive any advice from anybody... they have become very subtle egoists.

So that barrier has to be broken... and she is carrying that barrier. But from tomorrow all the three musketeers (the leaders) jump on her! She has to be destroyed -- anyhow, mm? So finish the job.

And once you have finished the job you will see something very very soft, flower-like, delicate, arising.

It is there. It will happen....

The Shadow of the Whip

Chapter #24

Chapter title: The Magic is Here

3 December 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7612035

ShortTitle: WHIP24

Audio:

No

Video:

No

[Osho asks a visitor how long he has been here. The visitor replies that he has lost track of time.]

That's very good, mm? When one can really lose track of time, one has really arrived! Very good. Being here one loses track of time and space both.

Time is an illusion. Through the illusion -- and particularly in the West -- people have become too time-conscious. And in fact time is nothing but the mind -- the movement is just an idea. Nothing is going anywhere. The whole existence simply is; simultaneously it is.

Time exists because we cannot see clearly. It is just as if you look out onto the street from the keyhole.

A man is coming but you cannot see him. Suddenly he is there -- but he was before. Suddenly he disappears again -- he is still somewhere but your keyhole makes it difficult to see. Your keyhole creates the past, the present and the future.

Just a moment before the man was not there, so the person who has never left his keyhole will think that the man has appeared out of nothingness. That's what future is. And when the man has gone a little further from the keyhole you cannot see him, and now you say that he has disappeared into the past.

The past is that which you cannot see any more, and the future is that which you cannot see yet.

But the man was there, is there, will be there. It is your key-hole that has created time. If you can come out, then you will see that the past was also present, the present is also present, and the future too, is present.

Only the present is. Only now is. But remember the present is not part of time. The present is timeless...

eternal.

Time is a concept because we are looking through the mind. The mind is the keyhole. It is created... very limited. When the mind is dropped there is simply eternity... no-mind. Then the now is just eternal. The now goes on spreading to both sides, backwards and forwards. And in that now there is peace.

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The whole effort of meditation is how to enter that now... how to drop out of time, and how to enter eternity. That is what meditation is all about. And one can get there because in fact one is already in it.

So my whole effort here is that by and by we drop these mind concepts, mind games.

Have you meditated before? What type of meditation were you doing?

[The visitor replies: Oh, several different types. The type I do now is on the breath -- similar to Vipassana meditation... lots of thoughts come too and I watch them. Then they slow down a bit so I watch the breath and the thoughts. Then also I feel things in my body -- forces. I'm just trying to be aware of everything, and just letting my mind slow down.]

It will be good if you proceed in a more scientific way. Vipassana is good, but your procedure is a little unscientific.

Scientific research divides mind waves into four types. Ordinarily in the waking state we are in beta --

they call it beta: too many thoughts, imagination, dreaming, reveries, plans, reasoning, logic... and it is a constant turmoil. Your mind is like a computer -- it is working, humming, and it gets hot. Any mechanism gets hot, and if it has to work continuously for twenty-four hours, it gets tired -- and you never give it any rest.

In fact you have completely forgotten how to give it rest, or nobody has taught you how to rest it. So even if you try, it continues its old habits -- thinking and going into thought, chasing this thought and that. It is almost like chasing your own tail, mm? -- it is very vicious. One thought leads to another, and that will lead to another, and it goes on unending.

This beta state of mind has a certain wave-length. They say it is fourteen to thirty-two cycles per second.

This is a state that is very feverish, trembling. Not that something is wrong in it -- when needed it is very useful... it is a great instrument, but only when needed. If it goes on without any particular need for it, it is a very tiring process. Then it creates anxiety, stress, strain, and the ultimate result can only be madness.

So whenever a person is caught in the beta he is moving towards that -- and everybody is caught in it...

we are born in it. Because this state of mind has given many benefits to humanity, we have become addicted to it. The whole scientific process has come out of beta. All that you see around -- prosperity, richness, affluence, big beautiful buildings, asphalt roads, cars and aeroplanes and space travel and atomic energy --

have all come through the beta state. Of course it pays tremendously, so humanity is very much addicted to it.

From kindergarten, from school to university level, we teach only one thing -- the beta: how to use it more and more, how to be proficient in it, how to become more logical, rational. The more logical, rational you are, the more you will succeed in this world, because this world is created by the beta state of mind.

Animals cannot compete with man because they live below beta. They have not developed it yet.

The whole civilisation depends on beta, so it is not very easy to get out of it. We are deeply involved in it, and there is a great investment in it. So if you really want to get out of it, you have to proceed in a very very scientific, methodological way.

The second state -- just below beta -- is alpha. Alpha is like twilight. In beta there are too many thoughts

-- you are awake but your waking consciousness is completely clouded by thoughts. In alpha, thoughts disappear -- you are still awake. It is like a calm lake -- no ripples... a silver moon in a silent pond.

This second state has the range from seven to fourteen cycles per second. The first has fourteen to thirty-two -- the second has seven to fourteen. It is just below the fourteenth. Once you start getting to alpha, the first disappears and you enter the second state. Alpha is just below beta -- it is hiding in you. It is just a question of how to approach it. . .just a little right movement towards it. It is your treasure.

This second state alpha -- is the state of meditation. Thoughts disappear, thinking disappears, but you have not fallen asleep. You are fully aware... a deep peace surrounds you, and one's whole being is replenished, rejuvenated.

Each person needs it for at least forty minutes every day. It is a must. It you really want to be alive as a soul, as a spiritual person, it is a must. It is the food for the soul.

Below alpha is theta -- the third state. The range of theta is from four to seven cycles per second. It is the state of falling into sleep, becoming unconscious. You are slowing down so much that you cannot keep alert; the alertness disappears. In the first there are thoughts and wakefulness, in the second thoughts have disappeared -- only wakefulness, in the third the wakefulness disappears. You become sleepy... you start dozing.

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And then there is the fourth state -- delta. The range of delta is from one half to four cycles per second.

It is the deepest sleep -- where everything is forgotten. It is the dreamless sleep -- what Hindus have called

'sushupti'.

These are the four stages, and you have to be very scientific in approaching them. My suggestion is that you start this way.... I call this meditation the alpha meditation.

It can be done without any beliefs. It has nothing to do with religion. You can be a Hindu or a Christian or a Mohammedan -- it doesn't matter; You can be an atheist, a Communist -- it doesn't matter. It has nothing to do with any belief -- it is simply a psy-chological procedure. But if you start this way, great will be the benefit and results will become more solid. Otherwise you can continue Vipassana and you will remain a little confused and fuddled. Sometimes there will be a few moments of silence, and then again thoughts will come.

Let there be a one year programme of meditation. For three months, simply sit. If you can sit in this posture, good, otherwise you can sit in a chair. If you can sit in this lotus posture, that's the best.

Sit in this posture, let your spine be straight, and put your left hand on the right hand, letting both thumbs touch each other. Mm? that will keep you alert. It gives a certain circulation to the body energy --

this touching of the thumbs -- and will not allow you to fall asleep.

When somebody is moving into alpha, there are two dangers: one danger comes from beta -- that you may not be able to drop thoughts, another danger comes from theta -- that you may be able to drop them so suddenly that you fall asleep. So one has to avoid these two things -- sleep and thought.

This pressure will make your body energy move in such a way that you cannot fall asleep. This is also one of the best postures in which it is most difficult to fall asleep. Again, a straight spine is a protection against sleep. This is the whole protection so that you don't fall below alpha. If you fall below alpha, you will be asleep. The sleep will be good and you will feel very fresh, but meditation will be missed.

If your spine is leaning forwards or backwards, or you are in a chair and very restful, it is more possible that you will fall asleep because that is more a part of your habit. Whenever you drop thinking, suddenly you take a jump -- you bypass alpha -- and you go into theta and fall asleep. Every day you do that, so that is more natural and more possible. This posture protects you.

... You can use a cushion. The spine should be straight. You can make yourself as comfortable as possible, because comfort is not the ingredient. If you are uncomfortable, that discomfort won't allow you to fall into alpha; you will continue to think about the discomfort. No, it has not to be uncomfortable. It has to be comfortable, but not too comfortable -- comfortable as far as the body is concerned. So this is good --

you can use a cushion.

Then fix your eyes on your left hand... look at the left hand. If you look at the left hand continuously, that again stimulates your right side mind which is meditative. Your left hand is connected with the right side mind, and if you look at the left hand, your eyes and your left hand sooner or later fall in tune and an energy cycle arises, your right side mind starts functioning.

So this is tremendously helpful. This will help you to drop thoughts more easily. It will not be needed that you do anything, because the right side mind never thinks. It is the part from where you feel. It is the part from where you love. It is the part from where poetry is born -- not logic, not theology, not philosophy, not science. That comes from the left side brain.

To continuously watch is of tremendous significance. You need not gaze at it continuously, but just go on looking into it in a very empty way... just have your eyes on the left hand, and that will do the work.

Then start with an inhalation. Inhale deeply, and with the inhalation, say inside 'one', and then exhale deeply and say 'two', inhale again, say 'three', exhale, say 'four', inhale, 'five', exhale, 'six'. Go on up to ten, then again start from one.

If you lose count somewhere, then start from one, but go from one to ten. Inhalation -- one, exhalation --

two: do it in that way. The first ten breaths should be as deep as possible. From the second cycle you can relax and let the breathing be natural, silent and quiet -- but continue to count. Just by counting, within three months you will be able to attain to the alpha so tremendously... thoughts will disappear.

Thoughts will come sometimes but you are not to pay any attention to them. Neither have you to fight with them nor to acknowledge them. Just remain indifferent. Let them be there -- that is none of your business. Let them be there, and they will subside by themselves. You continue counting.

For three months, count this way, forty minutes every day. After three months, change your counting.

Only count exhalations. Exhale -- count one, inhale -- keep quiet, exhale -- count two, inhale -- keep quiet.

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counting. So for three months, count inhalation and exhalation, for three months only exhalations, then for three months no counting -- just watch.

... Just watch the breath. Then for three months, forget watching too. This is how one should proceed --

very slowly, gradually. Within one year you will be simply surprised. Man is carrying such tremendous possibility.

But if you don't start from the very beginning, it will be difficult and more time will be wasted. This is my observation -- that many people start meditation, but they drop it because results are not coming, so they get fed up. So one should proceed very scientifically -- this is the procedure.

If you proceed this way, within three months there will be definite results, and then you can drop a little

-- half the process is dropped. You don't count inhalations -- now you are getting beyond the technique a little. After six months you drop counting completely -- you are getting even higher. Then drop everything after six months -- even watchfulness. You simply sit. Sitting silently, doing nothing -- that is what Zazen is.

That is the peak.

So let it be a one-year programme, and don't be in a hurry.

... Only once a day -- forty minutes will do. But if you have time and you can do it twice, perfectly good.

Mm? You can never do too much meditation.

And what about your sannyas?

[The seeker replies: I think it would make life too difficult for me in the West to have to wear orange all the time. And I don't think that I could find a job, and I think it would cut me off from a lot of people -- a lot of my friends and family. It would make it harder to relate to everybody -- that's the main reason. Also I don't know that much about the movement yet to be sure that I want to be in it.]

These are not the true reasons -- these are rationalisations... think about them. These are tricks of the mind. Whatsoever you want to do, you find a reason for -- that it will be difficult to find a job, that it will be difficult to relate to people, that it will be hard on your friends. I have not seen it happen -- and I have so many sannyasins in the West. Neither is getting a job difficult nor relating -- in fact they relate better because they love more.

But there is something else inside.... You cannot simply say that you are afraid, so fear takes a garb, a rationalisation -- that this will be very difficult.

First you have to relate to yourself -- only then can you relate to anybody. Otherwise it is just a game that one goes on playing -- and a meaningless game. The first contact has to be with your interior, and then you will be able to relate with people.

Orange clothes cannot prevent you -- only one thing can prevent relationship, and that is if you are not related to yourself. The whole effort of sannyas is to make you capable of relating with yourself, then everything follows.

So think about it... brood on it. Those are not the real causes, because otherwise so many people couldn't do it. You are not the first Westerner here, mm? So that cannot be the reason. There must be some other reason -- some other fear. So find it and then encounter that fear.

And the second thing: it is not a movement; it is not a mission. These orange people are not part of any religion. They are not creating a church, and they don't believe in any dogma -- because I have none. They are related to me -- they are not related to each other really. They are not part of an organisation -- they are related to me. Just as the spokes of the wheel are related to the hub, so is their relationship to me. They are sharing something with me. It is a personal relationship.

It is just as Jesus' disciples were related to him -- they were not Christians; they were simply related to Christ. It was a personal relationship... a love affair.

Sannyas is a love affair. Somebody who has fallen in love with me and wants to share, wants to move with me for a little while if it is possible, wants to linger with me a little longer. It is not a movement at all, and it has nothing to do with any organisation; it is not organisational.

The approach is totally personal. I believe in individuals, and I don't believe in organisations. Each organisation has proved fatal to religion.

So these people are simply related to me, and they are not part of any movement. They are not fighting against any religion, any sect or any tradition, and they are not worried about the society. They are not trying to change the world -- they are not concerned with it at all. They are only concerned with celebrating with me for a few moments.

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Think about it -- because one can miss that celebration... one can miss some great opportunity.

And whenever love knocks at your door, open the door and drop fear.

When I invite you to sannyas, it is simply love knocking at your door. You can say 'No' and I will say,

'Thank you' -- there is no problem about it. You can perfectly well say 'No' and be here -- but you will have missed an opportunity.

[The seeker asks: Is the taking of sannyas necessary for love?]

Sannyas is not necessary for love, but once you are in love many things become necessary. And if you are in love with me, you have to do many crazy things! (laughter) Sannyas is one of the crazy things. It is almost mad! And I have no rationalisation for it -- nothing. I don't argue for it... I don't say that there is any argument for it -- there is none. It is simply a crazy affair.

I am mad, and those who are mad would like to join hands with me. So if you are mad enough, you can take sannyas right now, otherwise you can think a little.

[Another visitor says: I'm a biologist. But I think one can be meditative about science too... ]

One can be. In fact a scientist can meditate better than anybody else, because when you have gone to one extreme, it is very easy to move to the other extreme. It is just like the pendulum of a clock: when it is going to the left, it is gaining momentum to go to the right. So when one becomes very very rational, one is gaining momentum to be irrational. And if a scientist really goes far into his scientific outlook, one day he will become religious.

In his last days, Albert Einstein started becoming more and more religious... started feeling more and more for religion. Only a mediocre scientist never becomes religious. A mediocre man is one who never goes far enough. If you can go far enough in any direction, one day or other you will swing to the other polarity -- that comes naturally. A man who has been thinking very logically, is very logical, one day comes to see that logic itself is illogical.

If one goes deep into logic, one comes to a few axioms which have simply been accepted -- have been accepted with no foundation to them. The whole structure is very logical, but the foundation is illogical. If one goes deep into mathematics, one finds that mathematics is an invention of man. That's why it is so scientific -- because it has nothing to do with life. Mathematics is a purely human invention -- that's why it is so pure a science, because existence does not interfere in it. But then become aware of what you are doing. You are playing a game! You invent your laws, you invent your premises, you invent your structure, and you play a game. And one who has been playing a game is one day bound to become aware that there is more than this game.

A biologist working continuously on biological problems is bound to become aware one day of asking himself; 'Who am I?' Because no biology can reveal it. Who is this one who is searching? Man can create many mechanisms, can create almost as perfect a mechanism as the mind, can create a beautiful computer --

but no computer can create a human mind.

One day this idea -- who are you and who is it inside you who has created such a perfect thing -- will arise.

There is an anecdote in Ramakrishna's life.... He was a very rare being... very simple, uneducated. A great logician came to see him who was very well-known all over the world. His name was Keshava Chandra Sen and he was famous for his argumentative-ness. He came with his followers and he was absolutely certain -- and rightly so -- that he would defeat this illiterate man.

He argued beautifully that there is no God. Ramakrishna listened to him very attentively, and he enjoyed it -- Ramakrishna enjoyed it tremendously. When Keshva finished, Ramakrishna simply jumped up and hugged him and said, 'So beautiful!'

Keshava was very puzzled. He said, 'What is the matter with you? I came to fight and argue with you, and you don't argue with me. Why?'

Ramakrishna said, 'In fact, looking at you and seeing such beautiful logic, seeing such beautiful argumentativeness, I have got more proof for God ! If there is no God, how is this beautiful consciousness, this beautiful mind, possible? You are proof, Keshava.'

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Ramakrishna had said that such beautiful intelligence would be impossible if there were no God.

The whole of scientific research is going to culminate ultimately in a religious upsurge in the whole world, because every scientific invention, every discovery, simply proves the infinite capacity that is hidden behind the human mind. Reaching to the stars simply proves that our hands are not small -- our reach is vast. We must be vast! Maybe we are confined to a very small body and to a very limited mind, but even with a limited mind we are doing so many miracles.

Just go on in your scientific work and start meditating, mm? There is no contradiction. In fact in life there is never any contradiction. Everything can lead to everything else -- it simply depends on you.

My observation is that people who are priests, popes, shankaracharyas, religious people, are the most irreligious people in the world because religion has not been a discovery for them. They have not worked for it, they have just borrowed it -- it is almost a business to them.

Scientists, poets, painters, musicians, who are not really in any way related to religion, are more religious, because religiousness is nothing but a capacity to wonder, a capacity to praise. And how, if you are looking into life, can you remain without praising it? How miraculous it is!

And praise becomes proof. If you start praising, one day it becomes the proof of something hidden.

A wondering consciousness is all that is needed. An unprejudiced consciousness is all that is needed --

and the whole scientific training is for that... that one should be unprejudiced. One should not be a Hindu, should not be a Christian, should not be a Mohammedan. One should not have any concepts... one should not carry any a priori ideas -- one should experiment and see. One should believe in the fact and not in any sort of fiction.

Religion is something that is hidden behind the fact. It is not in the bible, it is not in the koran -- it is hidden behind existence. Behind every fact it is throbbing there.

So if you really go deep into the fact, one day or other you are certain to come upon God. You cannot escape!

So meditate here, and come next time for a longer time. Much is possible!

[A sannyasin returning from the West says he is confused because: I was with you in Bombay two and a half years ago. I find myself back here, but somehow the magic isn't there, and it feels odd that I'm back.]

Wait... the magic will come with a flood. It always happens.... The magic is there -- you have simply lost the eyes that can see it. The magic is there -- more than before -- but you can see only that which you can see. You have lost some innocence.... And sometimes it happens that just by experiencing something, we become experienced and the innocence is lost.

For example, the first time you came to me, I was something new. Now you come with an expectation --

and that is destroying the whole thing. Now you have a fixed idea about me. And I am never fulfilling anybody's ideas -- never! -- because I go on changing.

I am not dead! When I am dead, you can have expectations from me and they will always be fulfilled because there will be nobody to change.

That's why whenever a person like Christ or Buddha dies, the religion grows by leaps and bounds. It becomes a great force... millions of people join it. Why? Because now Buddha is predictable. Now you can have Buddha according to you.

When you came for the first time, you had no expectations about me. You were completely unknown to me, I was unknown to you. You had come with innocent eyes. Then there was magic!

This magic has nothing to do with me -- that magic has nothing to do with you. Whenever there is an innocent state of mind, the magic is there.

Look at a rose flower with innocent eyes and the magic is there. Look with eyes full of knowledge, and the magic has disappeared. Science has destroyed much magic in the world because science has given people knowledge, and people think that now they know. Nobody knows anything! That they know is just a false idea. Now they know what is what so the magic is gone, and with the magic, God has disappeared from the world. Not that He has disappeared -- how can He? He is there just in front of your eyes -- but you have become knowledgeable. That is creating the trouble.

Sometimes it happens that our eyes are clouded by our expectations. Then you look for something... you want to repeat some experience. You want me the way I was two years ago. How can I be? You come with your expectations, fixed ideas -- and nobody is ever going to fulfill them. I will go on changing -- I am not predictable. And if you come without expectations, suddenly you will find that the magic is there... more 1/08/07

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than before. It is always there.... But it takes a little time.

Just meditate, dance in the music group, sing, and forget your past. What happened two years ago, forget it ! Much more is going to happen. Don't cling to it. Don't ask for repetition, because life never repeats.

They say that history never repeats -- that's not right. History always repeats, because history is made by fools, and fools are very repetitive. Politicians and generals and warmongers -- they are the most stupid people in the world -- they cannot do anything new, they simply go on repeating. But life never repeats...

life is pure eternity. Why should it repeat anything?

It will take a few days. Once your past experience has been dropped and you are again fresh and new, the magic will arise and explode in you. It is natural -- it happens to many people. Nothing to be worried about.

And confusion is part of life. Only dead people are never confused. They are certain -- but their certainty is worthless. Confusion is more valuable. It simply says that you are still alive... you are still growing. There is still possibility in you -- that's what confusion means. You would like to commit suicide. You don't want confusion -- you want certainty. Certainty means committing suicide, so once and forever, one is finished.

I am not going to give you any certainty. I am going to give you clarity -- not certainty. And this is the difference: certainty is against confusion, clarity is not against confusion. Clarity always finds a way through confusion -- it is not against it.

Certainty is against confusion, certainty never allows any confusion to take possession of you. It is so afraid that it simply avoids it, it escapes from it -- then of course one remains stupid and mediocre. I am for clarity, not for certainty. And each new confusion has to be welcomed, because each new confusion will bring a new challenge to you to be more clear, to have more clarity, to have more transparency.

I am not here to give you any belief -- hence I go on contradicting myself. I don't allow you any foothold because I don't want you to cling to any foothold. The moment I see that you are settling, I take the earth away from you. Of course you fall in a heap and you are confused. You collapse and you become angry --

you want to settle. Look at this !

The mind always wants to settle -- life always wants to love. Life is movement -- the mind is a stagnant pool. Life is river-like.

It is your mind that wants to remain in a stagnant state -- that is creating the trouble. Life wants to move

-- so there is a struggle.

You are all for the mind, unfortunately. You should not be -- you should be for life. You should say,

'Okay. If there is confusion, good! That means that my old ideas are shattered, my old beliefs are gone. Now I will have to find some new vision. I have to move. This house is no more my house -- I will have to find another. I no more belong to this state of mind -- hence the confusion.' But good -- confusion is very throbbing!

Do a few groups here, mm? And make these four months here four months of tremendous engagement.

And wait -- the magic is going to happen to you. Just wait....

Table of Contents

Chapter title: The Essential is One

Chapter title: You are Freedom

Chapter title: Search for the Undefined

Chapter title: Childbirth can be orgasmic

Chapter title: Laughter is Prayer

Chapter title: Be a Pure Hedonist

Chapter title: Nothing Fails Like Success

Chapter title: Live at the Maximum

Chapter title: God is also Darkness

Chapter title: The Magic is Here