Chapter title: Take No Notice
9 January 1980 am in Buddha Hall Archive
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THE ANCIENTS SAID:
"(SELF-)CULTIVATION TAKES AN UNIMAGINABLE TIME (WHILE) ENLIGHTENMENT IN AN INSTANT IS ATTAINED."
IF THE TRAINING IS EFFICIENT, ENLIGHTENMENT WILL BE ATTAINED IN
ONE FINGERSNAP.
IN DAYS GONE BY CH'AN MASTER HUI CHUEH OF LANG YEH MOUNTAIN, HAD A DISCIPLE WHO CALLED ON HIM FOR INSTRUCTION. THE MASTER
TAUGHT HER TO EXAMINE INTO THE SENTENCE: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
SHE FOLLOWED HIS INSTRUCTION STRICTLY WITHOUT BACKSLIDING.
ONE DAY HER HOUSE CAUGHT FIRE, BUT SHE SAID: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
ANOTHER DAY, HER SON FELL INTO THE WATER AND WHEN A BYSTANDER CALLED HER, SHE SAID: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
SHE OBSERVED EXACTLY HER MASTER'S INSTRUCTION BY LAYING DOWN
ALL CASUAL THOUGHTS.
ONE DAY, AS HER HUSBAND LIT THE FIRE TO MAKE FRITTERS OF TWISTED
DOUGH, SHE THREW INTO THE PAN FULL OF BOILING (VEGETABLE) OIL A BATTER WHICH MADE A NOISE.
UPON HEARING THE NOISE, SHE WAS INSTANTLY ENLIGHTENED. THEN
SHE THREW THE PAN OF OIL ON THE GROUND, CLAPPED HER HANDS AND
LAUGHED.
THINKING SHE WAS INSANE, HER HUSBAND SCOLDED HER AND SAID:
"WHY DO YOU DO THIS? ARE YOU MAD?" SHE REPLIED: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
THEN SHE WENT TO THE MASTER HUI CHUEH AND ASKED HIM TO VERIFY
HER ACHIEVEMENT.
THE MASTER CONFIRMED THAT SHE HAD OBTAINED THE HOLY FRUIT.
THERE ARE TWO PATHS TO THE ULTIMATE TRUTH. The first is of self-
cultivation and the second is of enlightenment. The first is basically wrong. It only appears to be a path; it is not. One goes on and on in circles, but one never arrives. The second does not appear to be a path because there is no space for a path when something happens instantly, when something happens immediately. When something happens without taking any time, how can there be a path?
This paradox has to be understood as deeply as possible: the first appears to be the path but is not; the second appears not to be a path but is. The first appears to be a path because there is infinite time; it is a time phenomenon But anything happening in time cannot lead you beyond time; anything happening in time only strengthens time.
Time means mind. Time IS a projection of mind. It does not exist; it is only an illusion.
Only the present exists -- and the present is not part of time. The present is part of eternity. Past is time, future is time; both are non-existential. The past is only memory and the future is only imagination; memory and imagination, both are non-existential. We create the past because we cling to memory; clinging to the memory is the source of the past. And we create the future because we have so many desires yet to be fulfilled, we have so many imaginations yet to be realized. And desires need a future like a screen onto which they can be projected.
Past and future are mind phenomena; and past and future make your whole idea of time.
Ordinarily you think that time is divided into three divisions: past, present and future.
That is totally wrong. That is not how the awakened ones have seen time. They say time consists only of two divisions: past and future. The present is not part of time at all; the present belongs to the beyond.
The first path -- the path of self-cultivation -- is a time path; it has nothing to do with eternity. And truth is eternity.
The second path -- the path of enlightenment, Zen Masters have always called the pathless path because it does not appear to be a path at all. It cannot appear as a path, but just for the purposes of communication we will call it "the second path," arbitrarily. The second path is not part of time, it is part of eternity. Hence it happens instantaneously; it happens in the present. You cannot desire it, you cannot be ambitious for it.
On the first path, the false path, all is allowed. You can imagine, you can desire, you can be ambitious. You can change all your worldly desires into other- worldly desires. That's what the so-called religious people go on doing. They don't desire money any more --
they are fed up with it, tired of it, frustrated with it, bored with it -- but they start desiring God. Desire persists; it changes its object. Money is no more the object of desire but God; pleasure is no more the object of desire but bliss. But what bliss can you imagine?
Whatsoever you imagine in the name of bliss is nothing but your idea of pleasure
--
maybe a little bit refined, cultivated, sophisticated, but it can't be more than that.
The people who stop desiring worldly things start desiring heaven and heavenly pleasures. But what are they? -- magnified forms of the same old desires, in fact more dangerous than the worldly desires, because with the worldly desires one thing is absolutely certain: you are bound to get frustrated sooner or later. You will get out of them; you Cannot remain in them forever. The very nature of them is such that they promise you, but they never fulfill their promises -- the goods are never delivered. How long can you remain deceived by them? Even the most stupid person has glimpses, once in a while, that he is chasing illusions which cannot be fulfilled by the very nature of existence. The intelligent one comes to the realization sooner.
But with the other-worldly desires there is far greater danger because they are other-worldly, and to see them and to experience them you will have to wait till death. They will happen only after death so you cannot be free of them in life, while you are alive.
And a man who has lived unconsciously his whole life, his death is going to be the culmination of unconsciousness; he will die in unconsciousness. In death also he will not be able to disillusion himself. And the person who dies in unconsciousness is born again in unconsciousness. It is a vicious circle; it goes on and on. And the person who is born in unconsciousness will repeat the same stupidities that he has been repeating for millions of lives.
Unless you become alert and aware IN life, unless you change the quality of your living, you will not die consciously. And only a conscious death can bring you to a conscious birth; and then a far more conscious life opens its doors.
Changing worldly desires into other-worldly desires is the last strategy of the mind to keep you captive, to keep you a prisoner, to keep you in bondage.
So the first path is not really a path but a deception -- but a very alluring deception. In the first place, it is SELF-cultivation. It is not against the ego; it is rooted in the refinement of the ego. Refine your ego of all grossness, then you become a self. The ego is like a raw diamond: you go on cutting it and polishing it and then it becomes a Kohinoor, very precious. That is your idea of "self," but it is nothing but ego with a beautiful name, with a spiritual flavor thrown in. It is the same old illusory ego.
The very idea that "I am" is wrong. The whole is, God is -- I am not. Either I can exist or God can exist; we cannot both exist together -- because if I exist, then I am a separate entity. Then I have my own existence independent of God. But God simply means the total, the whole. HOW can I be independent of it? How can I be separate from it? If I exist, I destroy the very idea of totality.
The people who deny God are the most egoistic people. It is not an accident that Friedrich Nietzsche declared God dead. He was one of the most egoistic persons possible.
It was his ego that made him insane finally. Ego is insanity, the basic insanity, the most fundamental, out of which all other insanities arise. He said: "God is dead and man is free." That sentence is significant. In one sentence he has said the whole thing: Man can be free only if God is dead; if God is alive, then man cannot be free, in fact man cannot exist.
The very idea that "I am" is unspiritual. The idea of the self is unspiritual.
And what is self-cultivation? It is an effort to polish; it is an effort to create a beautiful character, to drop all that is unrespectable and to create all that is respectable. That's why in different countries different things are cultivated by the spiritual people -- the so-called spiritual. It depends on the society; what the society respects, that will be cultivated.
In Soviet Russia, before the revolution, there was a Christian sect which believed that sexual organs should be cut, only then are you real Christians. The statement of Jesus was taken literally. Jesus has said: Be eunuchs of God. And these fools followed it literally.
Every year they would gather in thousands and in a mad frenzy they would cut their sexual organs. Men would cut their genital organs, women would cut their breasts. And those who were able to do it were thought to be saints; they were very much respected --
they had made a great sacrifice. Now, anywhere else they would have been thought utterly insane; but because in that particular society it was respected, they were saints.
In India you can find many people Lying down on beds of thorns or needles, and they are thought to be great sages. If you look into their eyes, they are just stupid people. Lying down on a bed of thorns can't make one spiritual. It will simply deaden your body, your sensitivity. Your body will become more and more dull; it will not feel.
That's how it happens. Your face does not feel the cold because it remains open; it becomes insensitive to the cold. Your hands don't feel the cold so much because they are open; they become insensitive to the cold. Exactly in the same way you can live naked.
Only for the beginning few months will you feel the cold; slowly slowly your body will adjust.
That's how the Jaina monks live naked. And their followers praise them like anything; they think: "This is what real spirituality is. Look, they have gone beyond the body!"
They have gone nowhere; the body has just become dull. And when the body becomes dull it naturally creates a dullness of the mind too, because body and
mind are deeply one. The body is the outer shell of the mind and the mind is the inner core of the body.
If you really want to be a sensitive, intelligent mind, you need a sensitive, intelligent body too. Yes, the body has its own intelligence. Don't kill it, don't destroy it, otherwise you will be destroying your intelligence. But if it is respected, then it becomes something religious, spiritual, holy.
Anything that the society respects becomes a nourishment for your ego. And people are ready to do any stupid thing. The only joy is that it will bring respectability.
Self-cultivation is nothing but another name for ego-cultivation. It is not a real path. In fact, no real path is needed. It looks like a long long, arduous path; it needs many lives.
The people who have been preaching self-cultivation know perfectly well that one life is not enough; otherwise they will be exposed. So they imagine many many lives, a long, arduous journey of many lives. Then finally, after an unimaginable time, you arrive. In fact, you never arrive. You cannot arrive because you are already there. Hence this very idea of a path leading to a goal is meaningless.
Try to understand the paradox; it is very significant in understanding the spirit of Zen.
ZEN IS NOT A WAY, IS NOT A PATH. Hence they call it the gateless gate, the pathless path, the effortless effort, the actionless action. They use these contradictory terms just to point towards a certain truth: that a path means there is a goal and the goal has to be in the future. You are here, the goal is there, and between you and the goal a path is needed, a bridge, to join you. The very idea of a path means you have yet to arrive home, that you are not at home already.
The second path -- the pathless path, the path of enlightenment -- has a totally different revelation to make, a totally different declaration of immense value: that you are already it. "AH, THIS!" There is nowhere to go, no need to go. There is NO ONE to go. We are already enlightened. Then only can it happen in an instant -- because it is a question of awakening.
For example, if you have fallen asleep and you are dreaming...you can dream
that you are on the moon. Do you think that if somebody wakes you up you will have to come back from the moon? Then it will take time. If you have already reached the moon, then you will have to come back and it will take time. The airship may not be available right now.
There may be no tickets available; it may be full. But you can be awakened because it is only a dream that you are on the moon. In fact you are in your bed, in your home: you had not gone anywhere. Just a little shaking and you are suddenly back -- back from your dreams.
The world is only a dream. We need not go anywhere; we have always been here; we ARE here and we are going to be here. But we can fall asleep and we can dream.
The All-Indian National Guard was out on maneuvers. They were about to begin a mock battle between the "red" team and the "blue" team when they received a telegram from Delhi: "Because of recent budget cuts we cannot supply weapons or ammunition, but please continue with your battle for training purposes."
The General called his troops together and said, "We will simulate the battle. If you are within a hundred yards of the enemy, point your arm and shout 'BANG- BANG' for a rifle. If you are within fifty feet, throw your arms over your head and shout 'BOOM' for a hand grenade. If you are within five feet, wave your arms and shout 'SLASH-SLASH' for a bayonet."
Private Abul was put on scout patrol, and apparently all the action went in another direction. He was out for three days and three nights, but did not see another person.
On the fourth day Abul was sitting under a tree, discouraged, when he saw a figure coming across the hill in his direction. He got down on his hands and knees and crawled through the mud and weeds, as he had been trained. Sure enough, it was a soldier from the other team.
Abul raised his arm and shouted "BANG-BANG!" but he got no response. So he ran up closer, threw his arm over his head, and shouted "BOOM!" very loudly. The other soldier did not even turn in his direction. So he ran right up to the soldier and shouted in his ear
"SLASH-SLASH! SLASH-SLASH!" but still he got no reaction.
Abul was angry. He grabbed the other soldier by the arm and shouted, "Hey! You are not playing according to the rules. I went 'BANG-BANG,' I shouted 'BOOM,' and I came right up to you and said 'SLASH-SLASH,' and you have not even indicated that you have seen me yet."
At this point, the other soldier wheeled around to Abul and said in a deep voice, "RUMBLE-RUMBLE, I am a tank!"
This is the situation. You are not what you think you are, you are not what you believe you are. All your beliefs are dreams. Maybe you have been dreaming for so long that they appear almost like realities.
So the question is not of self-cultivation: the question is of enlightenment.
Zen believes in sudden enlightenment because Zen believes that you are already enlightened; just a certain situation is needed which can wake you up. Just a little alarm may do the work. If you are a little alert, just a little alarm and you are suddenly awake.
And all the dream with all its long long desires, journeys, kingdoms, mountains, oceans...they have all disappeared in a single instant.
This beautiful story:
THE ANCIENTS SAID:
"(SELF-)CULTIVATION TAKES AN UNIMAGINABLE TIME "
It is bound to take an unimaginable time because you will be fighting with shadows. You cannot conquer them, you cannot destroy them either. In fact, the more you fight with them, the more you believe in their existence. If you fight with your own shadow, do you think there is any possibility of your ever becoming victorious? It's impossible. And it is not because the shadow is stronger than you that the victory is impossible. Just the contrary: the shadow has NO power, it has NO existence, and you start fighting with something which is non-existential -- how can you win? You will be dissipating your energy. You will become tired and the shadow will remain unaffected. It will not get tired. You cannot kill it, you cannot burn it, you cannot even escape from it. The faster you run, the faster it comes behind you.
The only way to get rid of it is to SEE that it is not there at all. Seeing that a shadow is a shadow is liberation. Just seeing, no cultivation! And once the shadows disappear, your life has a luminosity of its own. Certainly there will arise great perfume, but it will not be something cultivated; it will not be something painted from the outside.
That's the difference between a saint and a sage. A saint follows the path of self- cultivation. He practices non-violence, like Mahatma Gandhi; he practices truth, truthfulness; he practices sincerity, honesty. But these are all practices. And whenever you are practicing non-violence, what are you doing? What is really happening inside you? You must be repressing violence. When you are practicing -- when you HAVE to practice -- truth, what does it mean? It simply means untruth arises in you and you repress it and you go against it, and you say the truth. But the untruth has not disappeared from your being. You can push it downwards into the very basement of your being; you can throw it into the deep darkness of the unconscious. You can become completely oblivious of it. You can forget that it exists, but it exists and it is bound to function from those deep, dark depths of your being in such a subtle way that you will never be aware that you are still in its grip -- in fact, far more so than before because when it was consciously felt you were not so much in its grip. Now the enemy has become hidden.
That's my observation of Mahatma Gandhi. He observed, cultivated non- violence; but I have looked deeply into his life and he is one of the most violent men this century has known. But his violence is very polished; his violence is so sophisticated that it looks almost like non-violence. And his violence has such subtle ways that you cannot detect it easily. It comes from the back door; it is never at the front door. You will not find it in his drawing-room; it is not there. It has started living somewhere in the servants' quarters at the back of the house where nobody ever goes, but it goes on pulling his strings from there.
For example, if ordinarily you are angry, you are angry with the person who has provoked it. Mahatma Gandhi would be angry with himself, not with the person. He would turn his anger upon himself; he would make it introverted. Now it is very difficult to detect it. He would go on a fast, he would become suicidal, he would start torturing himself. And in a subtle way he would torture the other by torturing himself.
In his ashram, if somebody was found drinking tea Now tea is so innocent, but
it was a sin in Mahatma Gandhi's ashram. These ashrams exist by creating guilt in people; they don't miss any opportunity to create guilt. That is their trade- secret, so no opportunity has to be missed. Even tea is enough; it has to be used. If somebody is found drinking tea, he is a sinner. He is committing a crime -- far more than a crime, because a sin is something far deeper than a crime. If somebody was found.…
And people used to drink tea. They would drink tea in hiding; they had to hide. Just to drink tea they had to be thieves, deceivers, hypocrites! That's what your so-called religions have done to millions of people. Rather than making them spiritual they have simply made them, reduced them to hypocrites.
They would pretend that they didn't drink tea, but once in a while they would be found red-handed. And Gandhi was searching, looking; he had agents planted to find out who was going against the rules. And whenever somebody was found he would be called...and Gandhi would go on a fast to punish himself.
"What kind of logic is this?" you will ask. It is a very simple logic. In India it has been followed for centuries. The trick is that Gandhi used to say, "I must not yet be a perfect Master, that's why a disciple can deceive me. So I must purify myself. You could deceive me because I am not yet perfect. If I was perfect nobody could deceive me. How can you imagine deceiving a perfect Master? So there is some imperfection in me."
Look at the humbleness! And he would torture himself; he would go on a fast. Now Gandhi is fasting because you have taken a cup of tea. How will YOU feel? His three days' fast for you, just for a single cup of tea! It will be too heavy on you. If he had hit you on the head it would not have been so heavy. If he had insulted you, punished you, told you to go on a fast for three days, it would have been far simpler -- and far more compassionate. But the old man himself is fasting, torturing himself, and you are condemned by every eye in the ashram. Everybody is looking at you as a great sinner: "It is because of YOU that the Master is suffering. And just for a cup of tea? How low you have fallen!"
And the person would go and touch his feet and cry and weep, but Gandhi wouldn't listen. He had to purify himself.
This is all violence; I don't call it non-violence. It is violence with a vengeance, but in such a subtle way that it is very difficult to detect. Even Gandhi may not
have been aware at all of what he was doing -- because he was not practicing awareness, he was practicing non-violence.
You can go on practicing...then there are a thousand and one things to be practiced. And when will you be able to get out of all that is wrong in your life? It will take an unimaginable time. And then, too, do you think you will be out of it? It is not possible; you will not be out of it.
I have never seen anybody arriving at truth by self-cultivation. In fact, the people who go for self-cultivation are not very intelligent people because they have missed the most fundamental insight: that we are not going anywhere, that God is not something to be achieved; God is already the CASE in you. You are pregnant with God, you are made of the stuff called God. Nothing has to be achieved -- only a certain awareness, a SELF-awareness.
There is an unusual store in New York where one can buy exotic foods from all over the world.
Mulla Nasruddin visited this store recently. He found rare tropical fruits from the jungles of South America and many strange delicacies from Africa and the Middle East.
In one corner he found a counter with several trays of human brains. There were politicians' brains at $1 per pound, engineers' brains at $2 per pound, and there was one tray Of saints' brains at $50 per pounce.
Since all the brains looked very much alike, he asked the man behind the counter, "Why do you charge so much more for the saints' brains?"
The man peered out from behind his glasses and answered, "Do you have any idea how many saints we have to go through to get a pound of brains?"
My observation of your so-called saints is exactly the same. I don't think they are very intelligent people -- basically stupid, because unless one is stupid one cannot follow the path of self-cultivation. It APPEARS only as a path; it is not. And it is tedious and it is long; in fact, it is unending.
You can change one habit; it will start asserting itself in something else. You can close one door and another door immediately opens. By the time you close that door a third door is bound to open -- because basically you remain the same, the
same old unconscious person. Trying to be humble you will be simply becoming more and more egoistic and nothing else. Your humbleness will be simply a new way of fulfilling your ego. Deep down you will imagine yourself to be the humblest person in the world -- there is nobody who is more humble than you. Now, this is ego speaking a new language, but the meaning is the same. The language is changed but the meaning is the same; translated into a different language it does not change. First you were the greatest man in the world, now you are the humblest man in the world, but you remain special, you remain extraordinary, you remain superior. First you were this, now you are that, but deep down nothing has changed. Nothing can ever change by self-cultivation.
A man spent thousands of dollars going from doctor to doctor trying to find a cure for his insomnia. Finally a doctor was able to help him.
"You must be terribly relieved," said one of his friends sympathetically.
"You said it!" replied the former insomniac. "Why, sometimes I lie awake all night thinking of how I used to suffer."
So what has changed? Self-cultivation only gives you a deception: the deception that something is happening, that you are doing something, that something great is on the way; that if not today, tomorrow it is going to happen.
Hornstein manufactured coats, but business was so bad the poor man could not sleep.
"Count sheep," advised Slodnick, his friend. "It is the best-known cure." "What can I lose?" said Hornstein. "I will try tonight."
The next morning he looked more bleary-eyed than ever. "What happened?" asked Slodnick.
"Sheep I could count," moaned Hornstein. "I counted up to fifty thousand. Then I sheared the sheep and made up fifty thousand overcoats. Then came the problem that kept me awake all the rest of the night: where could I get fifty thousand linings?"
No such things are going to help because if the MIND is the same, it will go on
creating the same problem in different ways. Basically the roots have to be transformed; just pruning the leaves is not going to help. And self-cultivation is only pruning of the leaves.
THE ANCIENTS SAID:
"(SELF-)CULTIVATION TAKES AN UNIMAGINABLE TIME (WHILE) ENLIGHTENMENT IN AN INSTANT IS ATTAINED."
ENLIGHTENMENT IS ATTAINED IN A SINGLE MOMENT. Why? --
because you are already enlightened. You have simply forgotten it. You have to be reminded, that's all.
The function of the Master is to remind you, not to give you a path but to give you a remembrance; not to give you methods of cultivation, not to give you a character, virtue, but only awareness, intelligence, awakening.
In a single moment it can be attained because you have never lost it in the first place. You are dreaming that you are unenlightened. You can dream you are in heaven, you can dream you are in hell. And you know! -- you dream sometimes you are in heaven and sometimes in hell. In the morning you can be in heaven and by the evening you can be in hell. One moment you can be in heaven, another moment you can be in hell. It all depends on you. It is something to do with your psyche; it is not something outside you.
A man died, arrived at the Pearly Gates, and was shown by St. Peter to a waiting room.
He sat there, naturally anxious to know whether he would be sent to Heaven or to Hell.
The door opened and a famous saint walked in. The man rejoiced, "I must be in Heaven!"
Just then the door opened again and a famous prostitute walked in. The man was confused. "In that case I must be in Hell!" he thought.
While he was still wondering, the saint grabbed the prostitute and started making love to her. The man, flabbergasted, ran to St. Peter and asked, "You MUST tell
me: is this Heaven or Hell?"
"Can't you see?" answered St. Peter. "It is Heaven for him and Hell for her!"
Heaven and hell are not geographical; they are not something outside you, they are something that belongs to your interiority. If you are awake, then you are in a totally different universe; it is as if in your awakening the whole existence becomes awakened. It takes a new color, a new flavor, a new fragrance. When you are asleep, the whole existence sleeps with you. It all depends on you.
So the question is not of cultivating any character, of becoming virtuous, of becoming a saint. The question is how to come out of dreams, how to come out of the past and the future, how to be just herenow.
That's what enlightenment is... "AH, THIS!"
When Alice was at the Mad Hatter's tea party, she noticed that no jam was available. She asked for jam, and the Mad Hatter said, "Jam is served every other day."
Alice protested, "But there was no jam yesterday either!"
"That's right," said the Mad Hatter. "The rule is: always jam yesterday and jam tomorrow, never jam today...because today is not every other day!"
And that's how you are living: jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, never jam today. And that's where jam is! So you only imagine; you go on in a drugged, sleepy state. You have forgotten completely that this moment is the ONLY real moment there is. And if you want to have any contact with reality, wake up herenow!
Hence this strange idea of Zen that enlightenment happens in an instant. Many people become puzzled: "How can it happen in an instant?" Indians particularly become very puzzled because they have the idea that first you have to get rid of all the past karmas, and now this foolish idea has reached to the West. Now in the West people are talking about past karma: first you have to get rid of the past karma.
Do you know how long the past is? It is eternity! And if you are to get rid of all past karma you are never going to get rid of it -- that much is certain. And meanwhile you will be creating other karmas, and the past will go on becoming
bigger and bigger every day.
If that is the only way out -- that one has to get rid of all past karmas -- then there is no possibility of enlightenment. Then there has never been any Buddha and there is never going to be any Buddha; it is impossible. Just think of all the past lives and all the karmas that you have built up -- first you have to get rid of them. And how are you going to get rid of them? In trying to get rid of them you will have to create other karmas. And this is a vicious circle.
"And to be totally enlightened," the people who believe in the philosophy of karma say,
"not only are you to get rid of the bad karmas, you have to get rid of the good karmas too
-- because bad karmas create iron chains and good karmas create golden chains. But chains are chains, and you have to get rid of all kinds of chains." Now things become even more complicated. And how can you get rid of bad karmas? If you ask them they say, "Create good karma to get rid of bad karmas." And how can you get rid of good karmas? Then the saints become angry. They say, "Stop! You are arguing too much. This is not a question of argument. Believe, trust, have faith!"
It is not really a question of getting rid of karmas. When in the morning you wake up, do you have to get rid of all the dreams first? You have been a thief in the dreams, a murderer, a rapist, or a saint...you can be all kinds of things in a dream. Do you have to get rid of all those dreams first? The MOMENT you are awake you are out of all those dreams -- they are finished! There is no question of getting rid of them.
That is the essential message of Zen: that you need not be worried about the past karmas; they were all dream acts. Just wake up and they are all finished.
But we are sleepy people and anything that fits with our sleep has great appeal. We listen only according to our state of mind. The whole world is asleep. There is rarely, once in a while, a person who is not asleep, who is awake. When he speaks to you there is misunderstanding, obviously. He speaks from his standpoint, from his awakening, and he says, "Forget all about your dreams -- that is all nonsense! Good and bad, they are all alike; saint and sinner, they are all alike. Simply wake up! Don't be worried that first you have to become a saint
in your dream, that you have to change your being a sinner into being a saint first, then you can wake up. Why go by such a long route? You can wake up directly! You can wake up while you are committing a sin; while you are murdering somebody in your dream you can wake up. There is no problem.
In fact, if you are a saint you may not like to wake up. A murderer will find it easier to wake up because he has nothing to lose, but the saint has great prestige to lose. Maybe he is being garlanded and a Nobel prize is being given and people are clapping and touching his feet...and suddenly the alarm goes. Is this the time for the alarm? Can't the alarm wait a little more? When things are going so sweetly and beautifully the alarm can wait a little.
A murderer has nothing to lose. He is already suffering; he is in a deep inner torture. In fact, he will feel relieved if the alarm goes off. He will feel a great freedom coming out of that nightmare.
Hence it happens more often that sinners wake up earlier than the saints, because the sinners go through nightmares and saints are having such sweet dreams. Who wants to wake up when you are a king with a golden palace and enjoying all kinds of things?
Maybe you are in paradise in your dream.
But one thing is certain: when you are asleep you have a certain language -- the language of sleep -- and you can understand other people who are asleep and speak the same language. That's why the philosophy of karma became so important, so prevalent, so dominant. It has ruled almost all the religions of the world in different ways.
In India there have been three great religions: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism. They disagree on every point EXCEPT on the philosophy of karma; they disagree on EVERY
point possible. They disagree on the existence of God, they disagree even on the existence of the soul, they disagree on the existence of the world, but they don't disagree on the philosophy of karma. It must have some deep appeal for the sleeping mind. And these people cannot understand Zen.
When a Hindu pundit or a Jaina MUNI comes to me he is very much puzzled. He says,
"Are you teaching instant, sudden enlightenment? Then what about Mahavira who had to struggle for many many lives to become enlightened?"
I say to them, "Those stories are invented by you. The Mahavira that YOU talk about is an invention of your dream; you don't know about the real Mahavira. How can you know about his past lives? You don't even know about YOUR past lives!" And there is not even any agreement on his last life amongst his followers
-- what to say about his past lives?
On such factual matters...for example, whether he was married or not: one sect of Jainas says he was not married, because to them a man like Mahavira getting married looks insulting, humiliating. And the other sect of the Jainas says he was not only married, but he had a daughter too. Now that is going too far -- having a daughter! That means he must have indulged in sex -- because at that time the story of Jesus had not happened.
Virgin birth was not yet known!
They can't agree...the disciples can't agree about Mahavira's last life on factual matters like marriage, daughter, etcetera, and they talk about his past lives!
Anything that helps you to go on sleeping, postponing, appeals. "Even Mahavira had to work hard for many many lives, so how can WE become enlightened in this life? It will take many lives, so there is no need to do anything right now. We can wait! And it is NOT going to happen right now anyway; it will take many many lives. Meanwhile, why not do other things? Accumulate more money, prestige, power. Do other things: eat, drink, be merry -- because this is not going to happen, this enlightenment, right now; it will take many many lives. And meanwhile you cannot just go on sitting and waiting; one has to do something."
Sleeping people can understand a language which appeals to their sleep. We understand only that which triggers some process in our being.
The Sisters of Mercy were about to be sent as missionaries out into the world of sin.
Mother Superior had one last question to ask each nun before deciding which of them were best fitted for the hazardous tasks ahead.
"Sister Agatha," she asked the first. "What would you do if you were walking
along a deserted street at night and a strange man approached you and made indecent advances?"
"Oh, Holy Mother of God!" gasped the nun. "May all the saints forbid! Why, I would get down on my knees and pray to the Holy Virgin that my soul might be saved."
Mother Superior noted that Sister Agatha might be better suited to more domestic work.
The same question was asked of Sister Agnes, who replied, "Why, I would punch him in the nose...and then start running down the street as fast as I could, shouting 'Help, help!'"
Mother Superior noted Sister Agnes as one of the possible candidates for the missionary work.
Next she asked Sister Theresa, who began, "Well, first I would pull his trousers down "
Mother Superior choked a little, but Sister Theresa continued. "And then I would pull my dress up, and then "
"Sister Theresa," interrupted the senior nun. "Now what kind of an answer is that?"
"Well," said the other, "I just figure that I can run faster with my dress up than he can with his trousers down !"
We understand only that which we CAN understand. The sleeping humanity can understand only certain things; it can HEAR only certain things. The other things are not heard or even if heard they are not understood; they are misunderstood.
Zen has been misunderstood very much. You will be surprised to know that even Buddhists don't understand Zen.
Many orthodox Buddhists have come to me asking why I emphasize Zen so much, because it is not the main Buddhist tradition. That is true; the main Buddhist tradition is against Zen. Zen seems to be a little outlandish, a little
eccentric, for the simple reason that it brings such a totally new truth to you: INSTANT enlightenment Never has any other religion emphasized it so much: that you are capable of becoming enlightened right now -- it is all up to you.
IF THE TRAINING IS EFFICIENT, ENLIGHTENMENT WILL BE ATTAINED IN
ONE FINGERSNAP.
There is no path as such, but there is a certain discipline to wake you up. That is called
"training." Training has nothing to do with your character but something to do with your consciousness. Training simply means a certain space, a certain context has to be created around you in which awakening is easier than falling asleep -- just like when you want somebody to be awake you throw cold water into his eyes. Not that you teach him to be virtuous, not that you teach him to be non-violent -- those things are not going to help him to be awake. But cold water, that is a totally different phenomenon; that is creating a context. Or you give him a cup of tea; that helps him to wake up. Or you tell him to jog, run, shout; that will help him to wake up more quickly.
All Zen methods are like that: cold water thrown in your eyes, a hammer hit on your head. Zen is totally different from other religions. It does not give you a certain character; it certainly gives you a context.
IN DAYS GONE BY, CH'AN MASTER HUI CHUEH OF LANG YEH MOUNTAIN, HAD A WOMAN DISCIPLE WHO CALLED ON HIM FOR INSTRUCTION. THE
MASTER TAUGHT HER TO EXAMINE INTO THE SENTENCE: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
NOW, THIS IS CREATING A CONTEXT. The Master told her to meditate on this small sentence: "Take no notice." And it has to be meditated on in different situations, in all possible situations. It has not to be forgotten any time; it has to be remembered continuously, whatsoever happens.
SHE FOLLOWED HIS INSTRUCTION STRICTLY WITHOUT
BACKSLIDING.
ONE DAY HER HOUSE CAUGHT FIRE, BUT SHE SAID: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
Now, this is creating a context. This is real training, this is discipline. The house is on fire and she remembers the instruction: "Take no notice." It is easy when the house is not on fire and everything is running smoothly, well, and you can sit silently in a small corner you have made in the house to meditate -- then you can say, "Take no notice." It is easy, but it is not going to wake you up; it may even help you to fall asleep. But when the house is on fire it is difficult, very difficult. Your possessiveness is at stake, your life is in danger, your security is gone, your safety is gone. You may be just a beggar the next day on the street with nothing left
But the woman must have been a real disciple. SHE SAID: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
And not only did she say it, she took no notice. She relaxed, as if nothing was happening.
And the moment you can see your house on fire and can see it as if nothing is happening, nothing happens. The house will be burned, but you will come out of that experience for the first time with clarity, with no dust on your mirror, with great insight. Everything is on fire! The whole life is on fire because we are dying every moment. Nothing is secure, nothing is safe. We only go on believing that everything is secure and safe. In this world of flux and change, where death is the ultimate end of everything, how can there be any security?
If you can see your own house on fire and go on meditating silently, relaxedly, in a deep let-go -- take no notice -- you will come out of it a totally different person, with a new consciousness, reborn.
ANOTHER DAY, HER SON FELL INTO THE WATER AND WHEN A BYSTANDER CALLED HER, SHE SAID, "TAKE NO NOTICE."
Now even more difficult -- because a house is, after all, a dead thing. We can make another house, money can be earned again. But your son falls into the
water, is drowning...this is a more difficult situation, more attachment -- your own son. And for the mother, the son is her extension, part of her, part of her soul, of her being. Still she says, "Take no notice."
SHE OBSERVED EXACTLY HER MASTER'S INSTRUCTION BY LAYING DOWN
ALL CASUAL THOUGHTS.
If this is possible...because these are the two problems in the world: possessiveness of things and relationship with people. These are YOUR problems too. That's where people are asleep: either they are possessive with things or they are in heavy relationships with people. These are the two points which keep you clouded, confused, unaware.
She passed both the tests. And if you can pass these two things: if you can become aware that you possess nothing.… Use everything but possess nothing, and relate with people but don't become part of any relationship.
Relating is one thing, relationship quite another. Relating does not take you into any bondage; relationship is a bondage. Love people, but don't be jealous, don't be possessive.
Relate with as many people as possible, but remain free and let them also be free of you.
Don't try to dominate and don't allow anybody to dominate you either.
Use things, but remember: you come into the world with empty hands and you will go from the world again with empty hands, so you cannot possess anything.
If these two insights become clear and you start taking no note, all casual thoughts will disappear from your mind. And all thoughts are casual, no thought is essential. The essential is silence; thoughts are all casual. When thoughts disappear, the essential surfaces. Great silence explodes in a tremendous melody. And that experience is liberating, that experience is divine.
ONE DAY, AS HER HUSBAND LIT THE FIRE TO MAKE FRITTERS OF TWISTED
DOUGH, SHE THREW INTO THE PAN FULL OF BOILING (VEGETABLE) OIL A BATTER WHICH MADE A NOISE.
UPON HEARING THE NOISE, SHE WAS INSTANTLY ENLIGHTENED.
THAT'S WHAT I CALL...if you are ready, if the context is ready, then ANYTHING can trigger the process of enlightenment -- ANYTHING. Just: UPON HEARING THE NOISE, SHE WAS INSTANTLY ENLIGHTENED.
Nothing special was happening, just an ordinary noise. You come across that kind of noise every day many times But if the right context is there, you are in a right space...and she was in a right space: non-possessive, unrelated to anything, to any person, non-dominating. She was in a state of liberation, just on the borderline. One step more and she would move into the world of the Buddhas. And that small step can be caused by anything whatsoever.
UPON HEARING THE NOISE.…
That noise became the last alarm, the last straw on the back of the camel.
...SHE WAS INSTANTLY ENLIGHTENED. THEN SHE THREW THE PAN OF OIL
ON THE GROUND, CLAPPED HER HANDS AND LAUGHED.
Why did she do that: CLAPPED HER HANDS AND LAUGHED? When one becomes enlightened, laughter is almost a natural by-product; spontaneously it comes -- for the simple reason that we have been searching and searching for lives for something which was already there inside. Our whole effort was ridiculous! Our whole effort was absurd.
One laughs at the great cosmic joke. One laughs at the sense of humor that God must have or the existence: that we have it with us already and we are searching for it. One laughs at one's own ridiculous efforts, long long journeys, pilgrimages, for something which was never lost in the first place. Hence the laughter, hence the clapping.
THINKING SHE WAS INSANE, HER HUSBAND SCOLDED HER AND SAID...
And of course, anybody who is still asleep seeing somebody suddenly becoming enlightened, clapping hands and laughing, is bound to think that the person has gone insane. This breakthrough will look to the sleeping person like a breakdown; it is not a break-down. But the sleeping person can't help it; he can understand only according to his values, criterions.
...HE SCOLDED HER AND SAID: "WHY DO YOU DO THIS? ARE YOU MAD?"
SHE REPLIED: "TAKE NO NOTICE."
She continues: her meditation is still there. She is following her Master's instruction to the very end. The husband is calling her mad and she says: "Take no notice."
The world WILL call you mad. The world has always been calling Buddhas mad. Take no notice. It is natural; it should be accepted as a matter of course.
THEN SHE WENT TO MASTER HUI CHUEH AND ASKED HIM TO VERIFY HER
ACHIEVEMENT.
THE MASTER'S FUNCTIONS ARE MANY. First: to help you to wake up, to provoke you into an awakening; to create the situation in which sleep becomes more and more difficult and awakening becomes more and more easy; and when for the first time you ARE awakened, to confirm it, because it is very difficult for the person himself. The territory is so unknown. The ego is lost, all old values are gone, the old mind is no more functioning. Everything is so new; nothing seems to be continuous with the old. There seems to be no way to judge, evaluate, be certain. One is in deep awe and wonder. One does not know what is happening, what has happened, what it is all about. One is simply at a loss.
Hence the last function of the Master is to confirm, to say, "Yes, this is it."
THE MASTER CONFIRMED THAT SHE HAD OBTAINED THE HOLY FRUIT.
Zen people call this "the holy fruit," the fruition, the flowering -- coming to the ultimate awakening, coming to the ultimate experience of yourself and existence.
But remember: it can only happen in the moment. It can only happen in the instant. It can only happen now -- now or never.
You will ask: "Then why all these methods, trainings?" They are just to bring you back to the now. You have gone too far away in the memories and in imagination. They are not to create any cultivation; they are not for self- cultivation but for bringing you back home.
Here we are using all kinds of methods, and as many more people will be coming we will be devising new methods, because different people will need different methods. In the new commune we are going to have all possible methods. It has never been tried on such a scale. Every religion has a few methods, but we are going to have ALL the methods of all the religions of the past and of all the religions that are going to happen in the future.
We are going to create a space for ALL kinds of people, not for any particular type. The old religions are missing in that way.
For example, only a particular type of person can be helped by Mahavira's methods --
only the type who belongs to Mahavira's type can be helped. It is a very limited methodology. Mahavira attained to the holy fruit; he taught the same method by which he attained. Jesus had his own method, Mohammed had his own method. So no religion of the past could be universal because it belonged to a certain type and only that type could be benefited by it.
Hence one problem has arisen: you may be born in a Jaina family and you may not be of the same type which the Jaina method can help. Then you are in a difficulty; your whole life will be a wastage. You will try the method; it won't suit you -- and you will not change your method. You will think it is because of your past karmas that the method is not working, that it will take time. You will rationalize. You may be born in a Hindu family and Hindu methods may not work.
There are so many types of people in the world, and as the world has grown and people's consciousnesses have grown, more and more new types, more and more crossbreeds have come into existence which were never there before -- which never existed in Mahavira's time, which never existed in Krishna's time. There are many new types, crossbreeds. And in the future this is going to happen more
and more; the world is becoming a small village.
My effort is to use all the methods of the past, to make them up-to-date, to make them contemporary, and to create new methods for the future -- for the future of humanity.
Hence what I am teaching is neither Hinduism nor Buddhism nor Christianity, and yet I am teaching the essence of all the religions.
You are here not to cultivate a certain spiritual ego but to dissolve all the ego, to dissolve all sleep. You are here to wake up. The situation is being created -- use this situation as totally as possible.
Remember this woman who was meditating on "Take no notice." Such totality is needed.
The house is on fire and she says: "Take no notice." Her son falls into the water and she says: "Take no notice." Her husband calls her mad and she says: "Take no notice." Then such a simple meditation -- of taking no notice -- creates the necessary milieu in which she becomes aflame, afire. Her inner being explodes. She is no more the same old person; she is reborn. She is reborn as enlightened. She becomes a Buddha.
You are all Buddhas -- sleeping, dreaming, but you are Buddhas all the same. My function is not to MAKE Buddhas out of you, because you are already that, but just to help you remember it, to remind you.
Ah, This! Chapter #8
Chapter title: Not Knowing is the Most Intimate 10 January 1980 am in Buddha Hall
Archive code: 8001100
ShortTitle:
AHTHIS08
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The first question Question 1 OSHO,
IS AWARENESS A HIGHER VALUE THAN LOVE?
Virendra,
THE HIGHEST PEAK IS THE CULMINATION of all the values: truth, love, awareness, authenticity, totality. At the highest peak they are indivisible. They are separate only in the dark valleys of our unconsciousness They are separate only when they are polluted, mixed with other things. The moment they become pure they become one; the more pure, the closer they come to each other.
For example, each value exists on many planes; each value is a ladder of many rungs.
Love is lust -- the lowest rung, which touches hell; and love is also prayer -- the highest rung, which touches paradise. And between these two there are many planes easily discernible.
In lust, love is only one percent; ninety-nine percent are other things: jealousies, ego trips, possessiveness, anger, sexuality. It is more physical, more chemical; it
has nothing deeper than that. It is very superficial, not even skin-deep.
As you go higher, things become deeper; they start having new dimensions. That which was only physiological starts having a psychological dimension to it. That which was nothing but biology starts becoming psychology. We share biology with all the animals; we don't share psychology with all the animals.
When love goes still higher -- or deeper, which is the same -- then it starts having something of the spiritual in it. It becomes metaphysical. Only Buddhas, Krishnas, Christs, they know that quality of love.
Love is spread all the way and so are other values. When love is one hundred percent pure you cannot make any distinction between love and awareness; then they are no more two. You cannot make any distinction between love and God even; they are no more two.
Hence Jesus' statement that God is love. He makes them synonymous. There is great insight in it.
On the periphery everything appears separate from everything else; on the periphery existence is many. As you come closer to the center, the manyness starts melting, dissolving, and oneness starts arising. At the center, everything is one.
Hence your question, Virendra, is right only if you don't understand the highest quality of love and awareness. It is absolutely irrelevant if you have any glimpse of the Everest, of the highest peak.
You ask: IS AWARENESS A HIGHER VALUE THAN LOVE?
There is nothing higher and nothing lower. In fact, there are not two values at all. These are the two paths from the valley leading to the peak. One path is of awareness, meditation: the path of Zen we have been talking about these days. And the other is the path of love, the path of the devotees, the BHAKTAS, the Sufis. These two paths are separate when you start the journey; you have to choose. Whichever you choose is going to lead to the same peak. And as you come closer to the peak you will be surprised: the travelers on the other path are coming closer to you. Slowly slowly, the paths start merging into each other. By the time you have reached the ultimate, they are one.
The person who follows the path of awareness finds love as a consequence of his awareness, as a by-product, as a shadow. And the person who follows the path of love finds awareness as a consequence, as a by-product, as a shadow of love. They are two sides of the same coin.
And remember: if your awareness lacks love then it is still impure; it has not yet known one hundred percent purity. It is not yet REALLY awareness; it must be mixed with unawareness. It is not pure light; there must be pockets of darkness inside you still working, functioning, influencing you, dominating you. If your love is without awareness, then it is not love yet. It must be something lower, something closer to lust than to prayer.
So let it be a criterion if you follow the path of awareness, let love be the criterion. When your awareness suddenly blooms into love, know perfectly well that awareness has happened, SAMADHI has been achieved. If you follow the path of love, then let awareness function as a criterion, as a touchstone. When suddenly, from nowhere, at the very center of your love. a flame of awareness starts arising, know perfectly well...rejoice! You have come home.
The second question Question 2
WHY, OSHO, ISN'T KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES HELPFUL IN FINDING
THE TRUTH?
Maneeshi,
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT YOURS, THAT'S WHY. It is borrowed. And can you borrow truth? Truth is untransferable; nobody can give it to you. Not even an alive Master can transmit it to you. You can learn, but it cannot be taught. So what to say about dead scriptures, howsoever holy they may be? They must have come from some original source; some Master, someone awakened must have been at the very source of them --
but now they are only words. They are only words about truth, information about truth.
To be with Krishna is a totally different matter from reading the Bhagavad Gita. To be with Mohammed, attuned, in deep harmony, overlapping with his being, allowing his being to stir and move your heart, is one thing. And just to read the Koran is a far, faraway cry; it is an echo in the mountains. It is not the truth itself; it is a reflection, a full moon reflected in the lake. If you jump into the lake you are not going to get to the moon; in fact, if you jump into the lake even the reflection will disappear. Scriptures are only mirrors reflecting faraway truths.
Now the Vedas have existed for at least five thousand years; they reflect something five thousand years old. Much dust has gathered on the mirror, much interpretation, commentary -- that's what I mean by dust. Now you cannot know exactly what the Vedas say; you know only the commentators, the interpreters, and they are thousands. There is a thick wall of commentaries and it is impossible to just put it aside. You will know only ABOUT truth, and not only that: you will know commentaries and interpretations of people who have not experienced at all.
Knowledge is imparted for other purposes. Yes, there is a possibility of imparting knowledge about the world because the world is outside you, it is objective. Science is knowledge; science, the very word, means exactly knowledge. But religion is not knowledge.
Religion is experience -- for the simple reason that its whole concern is your interiority, your subjectivity, which is available only to you and to nobody else. You cannot invite even your beloved into your inner being. There you are utterly alone -- and there resides the truth.
Knowledge will go on enhancing, decorating, enriching your memory, but not your being. Your being is a totally different phenomenon. In fact, knowledge will create barriers. One has to unlearn all that one has learned -- only then does one reach the being.
One has to be innocent Not knowing is the most intimate. Knowing creates distance.
You ask me, Maneeshi: WHY ISN'T KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES HELPFUL
IN FINDING THE TRUTH?
For the simple reason that if you accumulate knowledge you will be starting to believe in conclusions. You will already conclude what truth is without KNOWING it, and your conclusion will become the greatest hindrance. Truth has to be approached in utter nudity, in utter purity, in silence, in a state of innocence, child-like wonder and awe; not knowing already, not full of the rubbish called knowledge, not full of the Vedas and the Bibles and the Korans, but utterly silent...without any thought, without any conclusion, without knowing anything about truth. When you approach in this way, suddenly truth is revealed. And truth is revealed here and now: "AH, THIS!" A great rejoicing starts happening inside you.
Truth is not separate from you; it is your innermost core. So you need not to learn it from somebody else. Then what's the function of the Masters?
The function of the Masters is to help you drop your knowledge, to help you unlearn, to help you towards a state of unconditioning. Your knowledge means you will be always looking through a curtain and that curtain will distort everything. And knowledge is dead.
Consciousness is needed, knowing is needed, a state of seeing is needed, but not knowledge. How can you know the alive through the dead?
A man stepped into a very crowded bus. After a while he took out his glass eye, threw it up in the air, then put it back in again. Ten minutes later he again took out his glass eye, threw it up in the air, then put it back in again.
The lady next to him was horrified. "What are you doing?" she cried. "I am just trying to see if there is any room up front."
That's what knowledge is: a glass eye. You cannot see through it, it is impossible to see through it.
Drop all your conclusions -- Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan, Jaina, Jewish. Drop all the knowledge that has been forced upon you. Every child has been poisoned -- poisoned by knowledge, poisoned by the parents, the society, the church, the state. Every child has been distracted from his innocence, from his not-knowing. And that's why every child, slowly slowly, becomes so burdened that he loses all joy of life, all ecstasy of being, and he becomes just like the crowd, part of the crowd.
In fact, the moment a child is perfectly conditioned by you, you are very happy; you call it "religious education." You are very happy that the child has been initiated into the religion of his parents. All that you have done is you have destroyed his capacity to know on his own. You have destroyed his authenticity. You have destroyed his very precious innocence. You have closed his doors and windows. Now he will live an encapsulated existence. He will live in his inner darkness, surrounded by all kinds of stupid theories, systems of thought, philosophies, ideologies. He will be lost in a jungle of words and he will not be able to come out of it easily.
Even if he comes across a Master, if he meets a Buddha, then too it will take years for him to unlearn -- because learning becomes almost your blood, your bones, your marrow.
And to go against your own knowledge seems to be going against yourself, against your tradition, against your country, against your religion. It seems as if you are a traitor, as if you are betraying. In fact, your society has betrayed you, has contaminated your soul.
Every society has been doing that up to now, and every society has been very successfully doing it. That's why it is so rare to find a Buddha; it is so rare to escape from the traps the society puts all around the child. And the child is so unaware; he can easily be conditioned, hypnotized. And that's what goes on and on in the temples, in the churches, in the schools, colleges, universities. They all serve the past; they don't serve the future. Their function is to perpetuate the past, the dead past.
My work here is just the opposite. I am not here to perpetuate the past; hence I am against all knowledge. I am all for learning, but learning means innocence, learning means openness, learning means receptivity. Learning means a non- egoistic approach towards reality. Learning means: "I don't know and I am ready
-- ready to know." Knowledge means: "I know already." Knowledge is the greatest deception that society creates in people's minds.
My function is to serve the future, not the past. The past is no more, but the future is coming every moment. I want you to become innocent, seers, knowers -
- not knowledgeable -- alert, aware, not unconsciously clinging to conclusions. The third question
Question 3 OSHO,
WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG FOR ME TO GET IT?
Pankaja,
IT T IS BECAUSE OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE. Pankaja has written many books; she has been a well-known author. And here I have given her the work of cleaning. In the beginning it was very hurtful to her ego. She must have been hoping some day to get a Nobel prize! And she has been wondering what she is doing here. Her books have been praised and appreciated, and rather than giving her some work nourishing to her ego I have given her very ego-shattering work: cleaning the toilets of the ashram. It was difficult for her to swallow, but she is a courageous soul, she swallowed it. And slowly slowly she has become relaxed.
Pankaja, it is not special to you; it takes time for everybody. And the more successful you have been in life, the more it takes for you to get it, because your very success is nothing but a prop, a new prop for the ego -- and ego is the barrier. The ego has to be shattered, uprooted totally, smashed, burned, so nothing remains of it. It is arduous work, hard work.
And sometimes it looks as if the Master is cruel. But the Master has to be cruel because he loves you, because he has compassion for you. It may appear paradoxical in the beginning -- because if you have compassion, then you can't be cruel. That is the complexity of the work: that if the Master is really compassionate he cannot sympathize with anything that nourishes your ego.
So I have been in every way shattering Pankaja's ego. She has been crying and weeping and freaking out...but slowly slowly things have settled. The storm is no more and a great silence has come in.
In fact, if you think of your many past lives -- such a long long sleep, such a long long dreaming -- then just being here with me for two, three years is not a long time if the silence has started permeating your being. Even if it happens in thirty years' time it is happening soon.
Many people come to me and ask, "Osho, when is my satori going to happen?"
I say, "Very soon" -- but remember what I mean by "very soon." It may take thirty years, forty years, fifty years, but that is very soon. Looking at your long long journey of darkness, if within thirty years we can create the light it is really as fast as it can be.
But things are happening far more quickly. Every situation is being created here so processes can be quickened. It is not too late, Pankaja, it is too early. And I can see the change happening. The spring is not far away; the first flowers have already appeared.
In fact, this was your vocation, but it took so many years of your life to reach me. What you were doing before you came to me was not really part of your heart; it was just a head trip -- hence it was not a fulfillment. Successful you could become; famous, yes, that was possible. But it would not have been a contentment, it would not have been a deep deep joy -- because unless something that belongs to your heart starts growing, contentment is not possible, fulfillment is not possible.
Now you are on the right track. Now things will happen with a faster pace. Speed also is accumulative. If you have watched the spring, first only one flower blooms, and then ten flowers, then hundreds of flowers, and then thousands, and then millions.…
Just like that it happens in spiritual growth too. But everybody is stumbling in darkness, groping in darkness. Somebody becomes a poet not knowing whether that is his vocation, his heart's real desire. Somebody becomes a musician not knowing whether that is going to fulfill his life. Somebody becomes a painter.… And people have to become something; some earning is needed and one has to do something to prove oneself. So people go on groping and they become something.
And you are fortunate, Pankaja, that you came to realize that what you were doing was not the real thing for you. There are many unfortunate people -- after their whole lives are wasted, then they recognize that they have been into something which was not their real work. They were doing somebody else's work.
I have heard about a famous surgeon, one of the world's most famous surgeons. He was retiring. Even at the age of seventy-five his hands were as young as they
had been before.
He was able to do brain surgery even at the age of seventy-five; his hands were not yet shaky.
Everybody was happy -- his disciples, students, colleagues -- and they were celebrating.
But he was sad. Somebody asked him, "Why are you sad? You are the world's most famous brain surgeon. You should be happy!"
He said, "Yes, I should be happy, I also think so, but what can I do? I never wanted to be a famous surgeon in the first place. I wanted to be a dancer -- and I am the lousiest dancer you can find. My father FORCED me to be a surgeon -- and he was right in a way, because by dancing what can you get? The very idea was silly in his eyes, so he forced me to be a surgeon. I became a surgeon, I became famous. NOW I am retiring, but I am sad -- my whole life has gone down the drain. I never wanted to be a surgeon in the first place, so who cares whether I am famous or not? I would have loved to be just a good dancer, even if unknown, anonymous -- that would have been enough."
While questioning a suspect, the police detective leafed through the man's folder. "I see here," he said, "that you have a string of previous arrests. Here is one for armed robbery, breaking and entering, sexual assault, sexual assault, sexual assault "
"Yes, sir," replied the felon modestly, "it took me a little while to find out what I do best."
Pankaja, you came to me in the right time. Rejoice! Celebrate! And things have started happening. You were like a hard rock when you came; now you are becoming soft like a flower. The spring is not far away.
The fourth question Question 4
OSHO,
MOST RELIGIONS HAVE A NEGATIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS WORK,
AS IF IT
IS A PUNISHMENT AND A LABOR AND NOT AT ALL SPIRITUAL. COULD YOU
SPEAK TO US MORE ABOUT WORKING?
Parmananda,
THE BUDDHAS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LIFE-AFFIRMATIVE, but the
religions that arose afterwards have all been life-negative. This is a strange phenomenon, but there is something which has to be understood -- why it happened in the first place. And it happened again and again.
It seems that the moment a Buddha speaks he is bound to be misunderstood. If you don't understand him, that's okay, but people don't stop there: they misunderstand him --
because people cannot tolerate the idea that they don't understand. It is better to misunderstand than not to understand; at least you have some kind of understanding. All the Buddhas have been misunderstood, wrongly interpreted. And whatsoever they were standing for has been forgotten as soon as they were gone, and just the opposite was organized.
Jesus was a lover of life, a very affirmative person, but Christianity is life- negative. The seers of the Upanishads were absolutely life-affirmative people, they loved life tremendously, but Hinduism is life-negative, Buddhism and Jainism are life-negative.
Just look at the statue of Mahavira and you will see that he must have loved his body, he must have loved life and existence. He is so beautiful! It is said about Mahavira that it is possible that never before and never again has a more beautiful person walked on the earth. But look at the Jaina MUNIS, the Jaina monks, and you will find them the ugliest.
What has happened?
Buddha is very life-affirmative. Of course, he does not affirm YOUR life, because your life is not life at all; it is death in disguise. He CONDEMNS your life, but he affirms the real life, the eternal life. But that's how he was
misunderstood His condemnation of your false life was taken to be condemnation of life itself. And nobody bothered that he was affirming life -- real life, eternal life, divine life, the life of the awakened ones. That is true life. What life do YOU have? It is just a nightmarish experience. But the Buddhists --
the Buddhist monks and nuns -- have lived AGAINST life.
Parmananda, it is because of this misunderstanding, which seems to be inevitable.… I can see it happening with me. Whatsoever I say is immediately misunderstood all over the world. I really enjoy it! Strange, but somehow seems to be natural. The moment you say something you can be sure that it is going to be misunderstood, for the simple reason that people are going to interpret it according to THEIR minds. And their minds are fast asleep. They are hearing in their sleep; they can't hear rightly, they can't hear the whole thing. Only fragments they hear.
Even a man like P.D. Ouspensky, who lived with Gurdjieff for years, could not hear the whole teaching as it was. When he wrote his famous book IN SEARCH OF THE
MIRACULOUS and he showed it to George Gurdjieff, his Master, he said, "It is beautiful, but it needs a subtitle: FRAGMENTS OF AN UNKNOWN TEACHING."
Ouspensky said, "But why? -- why fragments?"
He said, "Because these are only fragments. What I have told you you have not heard in its totality. And whatsoever you have written is beautiful "
Ouspensky was really one of the most skillful writers the world has ever known, very artistic, very logical, a superb artist with words.
So he said, "You have written well, you have written beautifully, but these are only fragments -- and the fragments cannot reveal the truth. On the contrary, they conceal it.
So call it: FRAGMENTS OF AN UNKNOWN TEACHING. The teaching still remains unknown. You just had a few glimpses here and there, and you have put all those glimpses together, you have somehow made a whole out of them, but it is not the truth, it is not the real teaching."
Ouspensky understood it. Hence the book still carries the subtitle: FRAGMENTS OF AN
UNKNOWN TEACHING.
What to say about ordinary people? Ouspensky cannot be called an ordinary person; extraordinarily intelligent he was. If fact, it was because of him that Gurdjieff became famous in the world; otherwise nobody may have heard about him. His own writings are very difficult to understand. There are very few people in the world who have read HIS
books -- they are very difficult to read. Gurdjieff writes in such a way that he makes it in every possible way difficult for you to grasp what he is saying, what he wants to say.
Sentences go on and on...by the time the sentence comes to a full stop you have forgotten the beginning! And he uses words of his own invention which exist nowhere; nobody knows what the meaning of those words is. No dictionary has those words. In fact, they never existed before; he invented them.
And he writes in such a boring way that if you suffer from insomnia they are good, those books. You read three...four pages at the most you can read and you are bound to fall asleep. I have never come across a single person who has read his books from the beginning to the end.
When for the first time his first book was published -- ALL AND EVERYTHING -- one hundred pages were open and the remaining nine hundred pages were not cut yet. And with a note the book was sold saying, "Read the first hundred pages, the introductory part. If you still feel like reading, then you can open the other pages. Otherwise return the book and take your money back." Even to read those hundred pages is very difficult.
It was a device. It needs great awareness to read. The book is not written to inform you about something; the book is only a device to make you aware. You can read it only if you are very conscious, if you have decided consciously, "I have to go through it from the beginning to the end, and I am not going to fall asleep, and I am not going to stop, whatsoever happens, and whatsoever my mind says I am going to finish it."
If you make that decision...and it is very difficult to keep it for one thousand
pages of such nonsense. Yes, here and there there are beautiful truths, but then you will come across those truths only if you go through much nonsense. Gems you will find, but they are few and far between. Once in a while you will come across a diamond, but for that you will have to read fifty, sixty very boring pages.
I have seen thousands of books, but Gurdjieff is extraordinary Nobody have I seen who can create such boring stuff. But he is deliberately doing it; that was his method.
If you went to see him, the first thing he would tell you was to read fifty pages of his book loudly in front of him. That was the greatest task! You don't understand a single word, a single sentence, and it goes on and on and on, and he sits there looking at you.
You have to finish fifty pages, then you can be accepted as a disciple. If you cannot manage this simple feat, then you are rejected.
Ouspensky made him famous in the world, but even Ouspensky could not get to the very core of his teaching -- only fragments. And he understood only in part.
And remember always: truth cannot be divided into fragments; you cannot understand only parts of it. Either you understand the whole of it or you don't understand it at all. But it is very difficult to recognize the fact that "I don't understand." And knowledgeable people -- scholars, professors -- they cannot accept that they don't understand, so they go on misinterpreting.
And the most fatal misinterpretation has been that all affirmative teachings have been turned into negative ones. In fact, you live in a negative darkness. When Buddha speaks he speaks from a positive state of light; by the time his words reach you they have reached into a negative darkness. Your negative darkness changes the color of those words, the meaning of those words, the connotations of those words, the nuances of those words. And then YOU create the church. You create Christianity, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Jainism; you create all kinds of "isms" and you create all kinds of religions.
Yes, Parmananda, most religions have a negative attitude towards work because they are against life. Hence they can't be FOR work, they can't be creative. They teach renunciation of life -- how can they teach creativity? And they teach that life is a punishment, so how can they say life is spiritual? You are being
punished for your past life karmas, that's why you are born. It is a punishment -- just as in Soviet Russia if you are punished you are sent to Siberia.
In the days of the British Raj in India, if somebody was to be really punished they used to send him to faraway islands: Andaman, Nicobar. The climate is bad, not healthy at all; no facilities to live, nothing grows, hard work. That was punishment.
All these life-negative religions have been telling you, directly or indirectly, that this earth is like Andaman and Nicobar, or like Siberia, and you are prisoners. You have been thrown here, thrown into life, to be punished. This is utter nonsense.
Life is not a prison, it is a school. You are sent here to learn, you are sent here to grow.
You are sent here to become more conscious, more aware. This earth is a great device of God.
This is my approach towards life: life is not a punishment but a reward. You are rewarded by being given a great opportunity to grow, to see, to know, to understand, to be. I call life spiritual. In fact, to me, life and God are synonymous.
The fifth question Question 5 OSHO,
WHY DO INDIANS THINK THEY ARE MORE SPIRITUAL THAN OTHERS?
John,
PLEASE FORGIVE THE POOR INDIANS. They don t have anything else to brag about. You can brag about other things: money, power, atomic or hydrogen bombs, airplanes, that you have walked on the moon, that you have penetrated to the very secrets of life, your science, technology; you can brag about your affluence. Poor India has nothing else to brag about; it can only brag about
something invisible so there is no need to prove it. Spirituality is such a thing you can brag about it and nobody can prove it, nobody can disprove it.
For thousands of years India has suffered starvation, poverty, so much so that it has to rationalize it. It has rationalized it so that to be poor is something spiritual. The Indian spiritual man renounces all comforts and becomes poor. When he becomes poor, only then do Indians recognize him as spiritual. If he does not become poor, how can he be spiritual?
Poverty has become the very foundation of Indian spirituality. The more poor you are, the more spiritual you are. Even if you are unhealthy, that is good for being spiritual; that shows your antagonism towards the body. Torture your body, fast, don't eat, don't fulfill the needs of the body, and you are doing some spiritual work.
So you will look at Indian so-called spiritual saints and many of them will look physically ill, in deep suffering, in self-torture; their faces are pale because of fasting. But if you ask their disciples they will say, "Look, what a golden aura around the face of our saint!" I know such people -- just a feverish aura around their faces, nothing else! But their disciples will say, "A golden aura -- this is spirituality!"
Count Keyserling writes in his diary that when he came to India he understood for the first time that poverty, starvation, ill health, these are necessary requirements for spirituality. These are rationalizations. And everybody wants to be higher than the other, superior to the other.
Now, there is no other way for Indians to declare their superiority. They cannot compete in science, in technology, in industry, but they can compete in spirituality. They are more able to fast, to starve themselves. For thousands of years they have practiced starvation, so they have become very very accustomed to it; it is easy for them.
For the American to go on a fast is very difficult. Eating five times a day -- that means almost the whole day you are eating -- and I am not counting things that you eat in between.… For the American it is difficult to fast, but for the Indian it has become almost natural. His body has become accustomed to it. The body has a tremendous capacity to adjust itself.
The Indian can sit in the hot sun, almost in a state of fire from the showering of
the sun, undisturbed. You cannot sit there -- you have become accustomed to air conditioning.
The Indian can sit in the cold weather, naked in the Himalayas. YOU cannot; you have become accustomed to central heating. The body becomes accustomed.
And then India can claim: "This is spirituality. Come and compete with us!" And you cannot compete. And certainly, when you cannot compete, you have to bow down to the Indians and you have to accept that they must have some clue. There is no clue, nothing, just a long long history of poverty.
In a cannibal village in the heart of Africa, the wife of the chief head-hunter went to the local butcher's shop in search of a choice rib for her husband's dinner. Inspecting the goods, she asked the butcher, "What is that one?"
The butcher replied, "That is an American -- seventy cents a pound." "Well, then what about that one?" asked the woman.
The butcher replied, "That is an Italian -- ninety-five cents a pound. He is a little spicy."
"And," asked the woman, "what about that one there in the corner?" "He is an Indian,' replied the butcher. "two dollars a pound."
The woman gasped, "Two dollars a pound? What makes him so expensive?" "Well, lady," the butcher replied, "have you ever tried cleaning an Indian?"
But that has become spirituality. Do you know? -- Jaina monks never take a bath. To take a bath is thought to be a luxury. They don't clean their teeth; that is thought to be a luxury. Now, to be spiritual in the Jaina sense of the term you have to stop taking a bath, cleaning your teeth, even combing your hair, even cutting your hair. If it becomes too messy, too dirty, you have to pull it out by hand. You can't use any razor or any other mechanical device, because a spiritual person should be independent of all machines. So Jaina monks pull their own hair out. And when a Jaina monk pulls his hair out, mostly once a year, then a great gathering happens because it is thought to be something very special.
I have been to such gatherings. Thousands of Jainas gather together simply to see this poor man, hungry, dirty, pulling his hair out -- crazy! And you will see people watching with great joy and with great superiority: "This is our saint! Who ELSE can compete with us?"
No nation is spiritual. It has not happened yet. One can hope that it may happen some day, but it has not happened yet. In fact, only individuals can be spiritual, not nations And individuals have been spiritual all over the world, everywhere. But ignorance prevents people from recognizing others' spirituality.
One day I was talking to an Indian and I told him that everywhere spirituality has been happening; it is nothing to do with India as such.
He said, "But so many saints have happened here. Where else have so many saints happened?"
I said, "Do you know how many saints have happened in China? Just tell me a few names."
He had not even heard of a single name. He does not know anything about Lao Tzu, he does not know about Chuang Tzu, he does not know about Lieh Tzu.
He does not know anything of the long long tradition of Chinese mysticism. But he knows about Nanak, Kabir, Mahavira, Krishna, Buddha, so he thinks all the great saints have happened only in India. That is sheer stupidity. They have happened in Japan, they have happened in Egypt, they have happened in Jerusalem. They have happened everywhere! But you don't know -- and you don't want to know either. You simply remain confined to your own sect.
In fact, you may have lived in the neighborhood of the Jainas your whole life, but you cannot tell the twenty-four names of their great TEERTHANKARAS. Who bothers to know about the others? Only one name -- Mahavira -- is known; the twenty-three other names are almost unknown. Even Jainas themselves cannot give the twenty-four names in exact sequence. They know three names: the first, Adinatha; the last, Mahavira; and the one before Mahavira, a cousin- brother of Krishna, Neminath. These three are known; the remaining twenty-one are almost unknown even to the Jainas. And this is how it is.
Do you know how many Hassid mystics have attained to God? Do you know how many Zen Masters have attained to Buddhahood? Do you know how many
Sufis have attained to the ultimate state? Nobody cares, nobody wants to know. People live in a small, cozy corner of their own religion and they think this is all.
Neither Indians nor anybody else is specially spiritual or holy. Spirituality is something that happens to individuals. It is the individual becoming aflame with God. It has nothing to do with any collectivity -- nation, race, church.
The sixth question Question 6 OSHO,
WHY ARE THE JEWS SO NOTORIOUS FOR THEIR MONEY-GREED?
Narotam,
DO YOU I THINK OTHERS ARE IN ANY WAY DIFFERENT from the Jews?
Unless love flowers in your being you are bound to remain greedy. Greed is the absence of love.
If you love, greed disappears; if you don't love, greed remains.
Greed is rooted in fear. And of course, Jews have lived in tremendous fear for centuries.
For the two thousand years since Jesus they have lived in constant fear. Fear creates greed. And because they lost their nation -- they lost everything, they became uprooted, they became wanderers -- the only thing they could trust was money; they could not trust anybody else. Hence, naturally, they became greedy. Don't be too hard on them for that.
They are greedy, maybe a little more than others, but that is only a difference of quantity, not of quality.
In India we have MARWARIS, who are the Indian Jews. Jainas are not less greedy...and others too! Maybe they are not so notorious. Jews become notorious because whatsoever they do, they do with a flavor; whatsoever they do, they do without any disguise. They are not very deceptive people -- intelligent but not deceptive. Whatsoever they want to do, they do it directly And they are very
earthly people. And that is one of the qualities I appreciate. The earth is our home and we have to be earthly.
A real spirituality must be rooted in earthliness. Any spirituality that denies the earth, rejects the earth, becomes abstract, becomes airy-fairy. It has no more blood in it; it is no more alive. Yes, Jews are very earth-bound.
And what is wrong in having money? One should not be possessive; one should be able to use it. And Jews know how to use it! One should not be miserly. Money has to be created and money has to be used. Money is a beautiful invention, a great blessing, if rightly used. It makes many things possible. Money is a magical phenomenon.
If you have a ten-rupee note in your pocket, you have thousands of things in your pocket.
You can have anything with those ten rupees. You can materialize a man who will massage your body the whole night! Or you can materialize food or you can materialize ANYTHING! That ten-rupee note carries many possibilities. You cannot carry all those possibilities with you if there is no note; then your life will be very limited. You can have a man who can massage your body, but then that is the only possibility you have with you. If you suddenly feel hungry or thirsty, then that man cannot do anything else. But a ten-rupee note can do many things, millions of things; it has infinite possibilities. It is one of the greatest inventions of man; there is no need to be against it. I am not against it.
Use it. Don't cling to it. Clinging is bad. The more you cling to money, the poorer the world becomes because of your clinging, because money is multiplied if it is always moving from one hand to another hand.
In English we have another name for money which is more significant -- it is "currency."
That simply indicates that money should always remain moving like a current. It should always be on the move from one hand to another hand. The more it moves the better.
For example, if I have a ten-rupee note and I keep it to myself, then there is only one ten-rupee note in the world. If I give it to you and you give it to somebody else and each person goes on giving, if it goes through ten hands then we have a
hundred rupees, we have used a hundred rupees' worth of utilities; the ten rupees is multiplied by ten.
And Jews know how to use money; nothing is wrong in it. Yes, greed is bad. Greed means you become obsessed with money; you don't use it as a means, it becomes the end.
That is bad, and it is bad whether you are a Jew or a Jaina, Hindu or Mohammedan; it doesn't matter.
Four Jewish mothers were talking, naturally of their sons.
One said, "My son is studying to be a doctor, and when he graduates he will make $50,000 a year."
Said the second, "My son is studying dentistry, and when he graduates he will make $100,000 a year."
The third said, "My son is studying to be a psycho-analyst, and when he graduates he will make $200,000 a year."
The fourth one remained silent. The other ones asked her, "And what about your son?"
"He is studying to become a rabbi," she answered. "And how much does a rabbi make?"
"$10,000 a year."
"$10,000? Is this a job for a Jewish boy?"
Gropestein's clothing store stood on New York's Lower East Side. One day, Gropestein went out for lunch and left Salter, his new salesman, in charge.
When he came back Salter proudly announced, "I sold that black cloth coat." "For how much?" asked Gropestein.
"Ninety-eight cents, like it said on the tag."
"Ninety-eight cents?" screamed the owner. "The tag said ninety-eight dollars, you idiot!"
The clerk looked as if he would die of embarrassment.
"Let this be a lesson to you," said Gropestein. "But don't feel bad -- we made ten percent profit."
A famous anti-Semite was dying. He gathered his sons around his deathbed and said,
"Sons, my last wish and command is that whenever you need anything, go buy it from a Jew and give him the first price he asks."
The sons in surprise said, "Father, has your mind gone crazy in this your last hour?"
"Ah, no," smiled the anti-Semite wickedly, "he is going to eat himself up he has not asked for more."
The seventh question Question 7
OSHO,
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF MORALITY CONCERNING SEX?
Divendra,
THERE IS NO FUTURE OF ANY MORALITY concerning sex. In fact, the very combination of sex and morality has poisoned the whole past of morality. Morality became so much sex-oriented that it lost all other dimensions -- which are far more important. Sex should not really be so much of a concern for moral thinking.
Truth, sincerity, authenticity, totality -- these things should be the real concerns of morality. Consciousness, meditation, awareness, love, compassion -- these should be the real concerns of morality.
But sex and morality became almost synonymous in the past; sex became overpowering, overwhelming. So whenever you say somebody is immoral you simply mean that something is wrong with his sexual life. And when you say somebody is a very moral person, all that you mean is that he follows the rules of sexuality laid down by the society in which he lives. Morality became one- dimensional; it has not been good. There is no future for that morality; that is dying. In fact, it is dead. You are carrying a corpse.
Sex should be more fun than such a serious affair as it has been made in the past. It should be like a game, a play: two persons playing with each other's bodily energies. If they both are happy, it should be nobody else's concern. They are not harming anybody; they are simply rejoicing in each other's energy. It is a dance of two energies together. It should not be a concern of the society at all. Unless somebody interferes in somebody else's life -- imposes himself, forces somebody, is violent, violates somebody's life, then only should society come in. Otherwise there is no problem; it should not be any concern at all.
The future will have a totally different vision of sex. It will be more fun, more joy, more friendship, more a play than a serious affair as it has been in the past. It has destroyed people's lives, has burdened them so much -- unnecessarily! It has created so much jealousy, possessiveness domination, nagging, quarreling, fighting, condemnation -- for NO reason at all.
Sexuality is a simple, biological phenomenon. It should not be given so much importance. Its only significance is that the energy can be transformed into higher planes; it can become more and more spiritual. And the way to make it more spiritual is to make it a less serious affair.
Doctor Biber was perplexed by the case at hand. He had given the sorority girl all sorts of tests, but his results were still inconclusive. "I am not sure what it is," he finally admitted.
"You either have a cold or you are pregnant."
"I must be pregnant," said the girl. "I don't know anybody who could have given me a cold."
This is something of the future.
Clarice and Sheffield were having a mid-afternoon breakfast. Their Park Avenue
apartment was completely askew after a wild, all-night party.
"Dear, this is rather embarrassing," said Sheffield, "but was it you I made love to in the library last night?"
"About what time?" asked Clarice. Another story about the future:
The schoolteacher was complaining rather bitterly to Cornelia about the behavior of little Nathaniel. "He is always picking on boys smaller than he is and beating them up," she said.
"My goodness!" said Cornelia, "That boy is just like his pappy."
"And several times I have caught him in the cloak-room with one of the little girls,"
continued the teacher.
"Just the sort of thing his pappy would do."
"Not only that, but he steals things from the other children."
"The very same as his pappy -- Lord, I sure am glad I didn't marry that man!"
Don't be worried about the future of morality concerning sex. It is going to disappear completely. The future will know a totally different vision of sex. And once sex no longer overwhelms morality so powerfully, morality will be free to have some other concerns which are far more important.
Truth, sincerity, honesty, totality, compassion, service, meditation, these should be the real concerns of morality -- because these are things which transform your life, these are things which bring you closer to God.
And the last question Question 8
OSHO,
WHY DO YOU SPEAK AT ALL IF THE TRUTH IS INEXPRESSIBLE?
Paramahansa,
TAKE NO NOTICE!
Table of Contents
[Chapter title: Neti Neti]{style=” color: #00F; font-family:"Times New Roman", serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; font-size: 14pt;“} {style=” color: #00F; font-family:"Times New Roman", serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 14pt;“} Chapter title: I am Higher