Chapter title: He Died in Samadhi
9 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall Archive
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The first question Question 1
OSHO, WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR FATHER'S DEATH
YESTERDAY?
Vivek,
IT WAS NOT A DEATH AT ALL. Or it was the total death. And both mean the
same thing. I was hoping that he would die in this way. He died a death that everybody should be ambitious for: he died in samadhi, he died utterly detached from the body and the mind.
I went to see him only three times during this whole month he was in the hospital.
Whenever I felt that he was just on the verge, I went to see him. The first two times I was a little afraid that if he died he would have to be born again; a little attachment to the body was there. His meditation was deepening every day, but a few chains with the body were still intact, were not broken.
Yesterday I went to see him: I was immensely happy that now he could die a right death.
He was no more concerned with the body. Yesterday, early in the morning at three o'clock, he attained his first glimpse of the eternal -- and immediately he became aware that now he was going to die. This was the first time he had called me to come; the other two times I had gone on my own. Yesterday he called me to come because he was certain that he was going to die. He wanted to say good- bye, and he said it beautifully -- with no tears in the eyes, with no longing for life any more.
Hence, in a way it is not a death but a birth into eternity. He died in time and was born into eternity. Or it is a total death -- total in the sense that now he will not be coming any more. And that is the ultimate achievement; there is nothing higher than it.
He left the world in utter silence, in joy, in peace. He left the world like a lotus flower --
it was worth celebrating. And these are the occasions for you to learn how to live and how to die. Each death should be a celebration, but it can be a celebration only if it leads you to higher planes of existence.
He died enlightened. And that's how I would like each of my sannyasins to die. Life is ugly if you are unenlightened, and even death becomes beautiful if you are enlightened.
Life is ugly if you are unenlightened because it is a misery, a hell. Death
becomes a door to the divine if you are enlightened; it is no more a misery, it is no more a hell. In fact, on the contrary, it is getting out of all hell, out of all misery.
I am immensely glad that he died the way he died. Remember it: as meditation deepens, you become farther and farther away from your body-mind composite. And when meditation reaches its ultimate peak, you can see everything.
Yesterday morning he was absolutely aware of death, that it had come. And he called me.
This was the first time he had called me, and the moment I saw him I saw that he was no more in the body. All the pains of the body had disappeared. That's why the doctors were puzzled: the body was functioning in an absolutely normal way. This was the last thing the doctors could have imagined, that he could die. He could have died any day before.
He was in deep pain, there were many complexities in the body: his heart was not functioning well, his pulse was missing; there were blood clots in the brain, in the leg, in the hand.
Yesterday he was absolutely normal. They checked, and they said it was impossible; now there was no problem, no danger. But this is how it happens. The day of the danger, according to the physicians, didn't prove dangerous. The first twenty-four hours when he was admitted to the hospital one month before were the most dangerous; they were afraid that he would die. He didn't die. Then for the next twenty-four hours they were still hesitant to say whether he would be saved or not. A suggestion had even come from a surgeon to cut the leg off completely, because if blood clots started happening in other places it would be impossible to save him.
But I was against cutting off the leg, because one has to die one day -- why distort the body and why create more pain? And just living in itself has no meaning, just lengthening the life has no meaning. I said no. They were surprised. And when he survived for almost four weeks they thought I was right, that there had been no need to cut off the leg; the leg was coming back, becoming alive again. He had started walking also, which Dr. Sardesai thought was a miracle. They had not hoped for that much, that he would be able to walk.
Yesterday he was perfectly normal, everything normal. And that gave me the
indication that now death was possible. If meditation happens before death, everything becomes normal. One dies in perfect health, because one is not really dying but entering into a higher plane. The body becomes a stepping-stone.
He was meditating for years. He was a rare man -- it is very rare to find a father like him.
A father becoming a disciple of his own son: it is rare. Jesus' father did not dare to become a disciple, Buddha's father hesitated for years to become a disciple. But he was meditating for years. Three hours each day, in the morning from three to six, he was sitting in meditation. Yesterday also, in the hospital also, he continued.
Yesterday it happened. One never knows when it will happen. One has to go on digging...one day one comes across the source of water, the source of consciousness.
Yesterday it happened; it happened in right time. If he had left his body just one day before he would have been back in the body again soon -- a little clinging was there. But yesterday the slate was completely clean. He attained to no-mind, he died like a Buddha.
What more can one have than Buddhahood?
My effort here is to help you all to live like Buddhas and die like Buddhas. The death of a Buddha is both! It is not a death, because life is eternal. Life does not begin with birth and does not end with death. Millions of times you have been born and died; they are all small episodes In the eternal pilgrimage. But because you are unconscious you cannot see that which is beyond birth and death.
As you become more conscious, you can see your original face. He saw his original face yesterday. He heard the one hand clapping, he heard the soundless sound. Hence it is not a death: it is attaining life eternal. On the other hand it can be called a total death -- total death in the sense that he will not be coming any more.
Rejoice!
The second question
Question 2
OSHO, WHEN HEARING THE STORY OVER DINNER OF DADU AND TWO OF
HIS DISCIPLES, RAJJAB AND SUNDERO. I WAS BAFFLED BY HOW DEEPLY
AFFECTED THEY BOTH WERE BY THE DEATH OF THEIR MASTER. ONE, RAJJAB, NEVER OPENED HIS EYES AGAIN, AND THE OTHER, SUNDERO, DIED IN THE SAME BED AS HIS MASTER, DADU. HOW CAN AN
ENLIGHTENED PERSON BE SO AFFECTED BY THE DEATH OF HIS MASTER
OR BELOVED ONE?
Ambubhai Diwanji,
IT IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STORIES. There is no parallel to it in the whole history of religion, but it has to be understood. You have misunderstood it totally; it is very easy to misunderstand it. Apparently, what you have understood is what is understood by people who read the story.
The question arises: why are two enlightened persons so much affected by the death of their Master? They are not affected at all! It is not happening out of misery; it is a totally different dimension.
Rajjab never opened his eyes again. He was asked once why he had closed his eyes. He said, "Because I have seen the most beautiful thing in the world -- now there is nothing else to see!"
Dadu was the most beautiful flower. Now what is the point of keeping your eyes open?
for what? If you have the Kohinoor with you, you will not go on collecting pebbles on the seashore -- or will you? Rajjab is not affected. It is not out of sadness that he closes his eyes; there is not a single tear in his eyes. He is not weeping, he is not crying.
With closed eyes he continued to dance and sing the songs of Dadu. But he said, "Once you have seen God in human form, then there is nothing else worth seeing. I would like the impact of my Master on my eyes to be the last and the most penetrating. I would not like it to be covered by dust."
Ambubhai, then the whole story takes a totally different turn. It is tremendous love. It is not an attachment to the Master's body, it is great understanding.
Once you have seen a Master...and Rajjab lived very very close to Dadu. The day he became an initiate he was very small, just seven years old. He had come with his parents to participate in a religious festival; he was not even aware of Dadu. Dadu was also there at the festival. The parents had gone to pay their formal respects, because it was known in the country that Dadu was enlightened. They didn't believe, but this country is very traditional and formal: if people hear that somebody is enlightened, whether they believe or not they at least go and touch his feet. Maybe he is, then why miss the opportunity? If he is not, you are not losing anything by touching his feet. This is cunningness, businesslike!
The parents had gone; Rajjab followed the parents. The parents touched his feet, but Rajjab was transformed. The moment he saw Dadu he recognized something from his past lives. This man was not new, this quality was not new. He had known him before.
That almost always happens if you have lived with a Master before -- immediately a recognition!
He fell at his feet. The parents tried to persuade him to come back with them. He said, "I have found my real parents. Now you can go." He touched the feet of his parents and said, "Just as you have touched the feet of Dadu formally, I touch your feet and say good-bye." A seven-year-old child! Must have had a maturity of many lives behind him.
The parents cried and wept, but Rajjab said, "It is impossible! I have found the man -- I cannot leave him even for a single moment!"
And from that time, for twenty years, he was in the service of the Master; looking after his needs, sleeping in the same room, continuously on guard for what he needed.
And the day Dadu died Rajjab simply closed his eyes. It was closing eyes to the
world.
He was saying, Now there is nothing more to see. I have seen that which is really worth seeing. Now why waste your eyes and why collect dust? Once you have mirrored God then there is nothing else -- you have seen the ultimate."
It was not out of attachment, Ambubhai, that Rajjab closed his eyes; it was out of great understanding. And he was not unhappy. He danced, he sang songs, as long as he lived --
but with closed eyes, so that he could still see the Master inside. Twenty years'
continuous communion with the Master...the Master had almost become a part of his soul! By closing his eyes he was still keeping company with the Master. Don't misunderstand him.
Rajjab is one of the most beautiful disciples ever.
And what happened to Sundero, another disciple? When Dadu died he laid himself down on the same bed and remained on the same bed; he never left the bed again. The Master had slept on it his whole life: it was full of his vibe, it was full of his presence, it was soaked with him. He would not leave the bed. "Why?" people would ask him.
And Sundero would say, "There is nowhere to go. I have arrived -- this is my home. This is my MOKSHA, this is my heaven. And I would like to LIVE in this beautiful space that the Master has created in this bed, and I would like to die here."
It is becoming so attuned with the Master that you don't feel your life and your death as separate from him; that is the meaning of it.
Sundero was so attuned with the Master's life that it used to happen sometimes that he would speak in Dadu's name. And he was told by people, "You are not Dadu!"
Then he would say, "Yes, forgive me. I forget! But if you ask in reality, then I am Dadu -
- I have become one with my Master."
That is the ultimate state of disciplehood: when the disciple becomes one with the Master. He used to say that he was Dadu. He has written songs in which his name is not given but Dadu's name -- and people think that is not good. And the scholars go on discarding all that has been written by Sundero; they think that is not from Dadu.
But I say to you: it IS from Dadu! Sundero has become just a hollow bamboo on the lips of Dadu. Sundero exists no more as a separate entity. That is the ultimate goal of a disciple: when the disciple and Master meet and merge and become one. Sundero has become one with the Master, hence he has every right to sign 'Dadu'. He signs his poems as Dadu, not as Sundero -- and I TOTALLY agree with him! And I would like the scholars to be a little more sensitive.
These things are not for scholarship, these things are not for learned people. These things are for lovers! Only lovers can understand these things. Such a beautiful phenomenon: that a disciple cannot sign his name, he has forgotten.
Sometimes people would come to invite Dadu and Sundero would say, "Yes, I will come."
And they would say, "But we have not come to invite you, we have come to invite Dadu!"
Sundero would say, "But who am I? Why give trouble to the old man? I can come -- I am his younger form. I can travel long distances more easily -- why create trouble for him?"
And Dadu sometimes used to send Sundero. People would invite Dadu and he would send Sundero. And people were very much puzzled: "We have invited the Master, not the disciple." But they were not able to understand that the Master and the disciple, at the ultimate peak of their love affair, disappear into each other.
Hence, the day Dadu died, Sundero did not say a single word about his death, did not go to the funeral at all. Everybody left for the funeral. Thousands of disciples had gathered, and they were crying and weeping and they were in great misery. And what did Sundero do? He entered into the bed of the Master, covered himself with his blanket -- became Dadu. When people came back they thought, "This is sacrilegious!" They told Sundero,
"This is not right -- you are going mad! Have you gone crazy or something? This is the Master's bed -- you get out!"
He said, "But I am no more. Sundero has died. Have you not gone to his funeral? You have gone, you have burnt him! I am Dadu. Now Dadu will function through me."
That's why, Ambujibhai, he never left the bed, not even for a single moment. He lived on the bed, he died on the same bed -- because he had become the Master.
I call this game the mad game! By 'mad' I mean: M represents Master and D represents disciple -- 'Master-And-Disciple Game' -- it is a MAD game! Unless you also become mad you will not understand it.
And Ambujibhai, I am happy to see that some madness is entering into you. You are on the way. You will not be out of this Buddhafield for long. I can see you approaching closer and closer. Sooner or later the color orange is going to be your color too -- and I hope that before you leave the body this happens.
Become Rajjab, become Sundero! Don't think about them -- these people are not to be contemplated upon. These people are to be lived! It is only by living that one can understand such tremendous phenomena.
The third question Question 3
OSHO, IF YOU WERE IN A DESERT INSTEAD OF BEING HERE, WOULD YOU
FEEL THE SAME?
Anand Dasi,
I AM IN THE DESERT! Where do you think I am?
This is the desert! To live with unconscious people is to live in a desert. To live with people who are not blooming, flowering, is to live in a desert. It is a human desert -- far more empty than any desert can ever be.
To become enlightened amongst unenlightened people is to live in a desert. That is the fate of all the Buddhas. I say one thing, you understand something; else. Constant misinterpretation is bound to happen, because I talk from a totally different plane. I talk out of a fullness and you receive only through the mind. You receive only the words --
and words cannot convey my message.
My message can be conveyed to you only if you really become committed, involved, in the energy field that I am creating, if you really become a plant in my garden, if you allow me to destroy your ego -- because that is how growth begins. The death of the ego is the beginning of growth. Just as the seed has to die in the soil, the ego has to die in the Master. Once your ego is completely gone, you are a beautiful tree, with much foliage, greenery, flowers, fragrance.
My effort is to make this desert a garden. And there is every possibility of succeeding, because people ARE getting ready. Hesitating, which is natural; waiting, thinking, which is natural. But you cannot be here long thinking and waiting; sooner or later the quantum leap.… You cannot go on misunderstanding me for ever.
If you just remain here, even if you misunderstand my words, I am working on you -- not through the mind; I am playing on the instrument of your heart. Words are just to keep you engaged so that I can enter into your heart.
Yes, the work of a Master is like a thief.
There is a Zen story; Zen Masters have loved it tremendously. When you come across it for the first time you will feel puzzled about the story -- it is about a master thief.
A man was known as a master thief in Japan; he was well-known, famous, all over the country. And, of course, he was a master thief so nobody had ever been able to catch hold of him. He was never caught red-handed -- although everybody knew that he was the one who had stolen -- even from the treasury of the king he had been stealing. And he was always leaving marks of his so everybody would know who had been there.
In fact, it had become the fashion to BRAG about it, if the master thief had thought you worthy to steal something from. It became an aristocratic bragging!
People would brag, saying, "Last night the master thief has been to our house."
But the man was getting older, and one day his young son said to him, "Now you are getting older, teach me your art!"
The father said, "Then come with me tonight -- because this is not something that can be taught. You can only imbibe the spirit of me; if you are intelligent enough you can catch it. I cannot TEACH it to you, but you can catch it. I cannot give it to you, but you can get it. We will see. You come tonight with me."
Naturally the son was afraid -- the first time! The wall was broken, they went into the palace. Even in his old age the father's hands were like a surgeon's, unwavering, unshaking, although he was becoming very old -- with no fear, as if he was working in his own home, breaking the wall. He did not even look here and there he was so certain of his art. And the young man was trembling -- it was a cold winter night and he was perspiring! But the father was doing everything silently.
Then the father entered into the house. The son followed, his knees trembling, and he was feeling he might fall any moment. He was losing all consciousness because the fear was such...if they were caught, then?
The father was moving in the dark house as if it was his house and he knew everything about the house, and even in the dark he could move without stumbling against the furniture, against the doors. Making no noise at all, noiselessly, he reached into the innermost chamber of the palace. He opened a cupboard and told the son to go in and find whatsoever was valuable. The son entered it. The father locked the door, shouted, "A thief! A thief! Wake up!" and escaped through the hole that they had dug in the wall.
Now this was too much! The son could not under-stand it. Now he is locked in the cupboard, trembling, perspiring, and the whole house is awake, people are searching for the thief. "What kind of father is this? He has murdered me!" he thought. "And what kind of teaching is this?" This is the last thing he would have ever imagined: he has created a living nightmare for him! Now he is certain to be caught! And he has locked the door from the outside; he cannot even open the door and escape.
After one hour he reached home -- the son -- and the father was fast asleep and snoring!
He threw aside his blanket and said, "What kind of nonsense is this?!"
The father said, "So you are back! No need to tell the whole story -- you also go to sleep.
Now you know the art, we need not discuss it."
But the son said, "I have to tell you the whole story, what happened."
The father said, "If you want to tell it you can, otherwise I don't require it. Just that you have come is enough proof! Now from tomorrow night you start on your own. You have got the intelligence, the awareness that a thief needs. I am immensely happy with you!"
But the son was so overflowing, he wanted to relate the whole thing -- he had done such a great job. He said, "Just listen, otherwise I will not be able to sleep at all. I am so excited!
You almost killed me!"
The father said, "It is hard, but that's how a master has to act many times. Tell me the whole story. What happened?"
He said, "Out of nowhere -- not from my intellect, certainly not from my mind -- this has happened."
The father said, "This is the key to all mastery in all the fields of life, whether you are a thief or a meditator, whether you are a lover or a scientist or a painter or a poet, it doesn't matter. Whatsoever the field, this is the master key -- that nothing happens from the head, everything happens from somewhere below. Call it intuition, call it no-mind, call it meditation -- these are names, different names for the same thing. It has started functioning, I can see it on your face; I can see the aura around you. You are going to become a master thief! And remember through being a master thief I have attained to meditation. So remember: this is the way for you to attain meditation."
The son said, "When I was standing inside that damned cupboard and people were searching for the thief, a woman servant came with a candle in her hand; I could see from the keyhole. Something from nowhere...I started making noises as if I was a cat -- and I have never done it before! The woman servant, thinking
that there was a cat in the cupboard, unlocked it. As she unlocked it -- I don't know how I did it and who did it -- it happened! I blew the candle out, pushed the woman away, and ran! People followed me -
- the whole house was awake, the neighborhood was awake. And they were coming closer and closer and I was on the verge of being caught.
Then suddenly I came across a well. I saw a rock just by the side of the well -- I don't believe that I have that much strength to pick that rock up now, but it happened."
When you are in such situations your whole energy becomes available to you. You don't live only on the superficial level. When life is at stake, your whole energy becomes available.
"I moved the rock, picked up the rock -- I cannot believe that I could even shake it now! -
- and threw it in the well, then ran away. The noise, the sound of the rock falling in the well...and all the people who were following me stopped following me. They surrounded the well; they thought I had jumped into the well. That's how I am back home."
The father said, "Now you can go to sleep. I am finished! Never ask me anything again.
Now you start on your own.
The work of a Master is a difficult work. He has to shout from the peaks, and you are crawling in the dark valleys of life. You are living in your graves, and he has to shout from eternal life. Misunderstanding is natural; because of that misunderstanding every Buddha lives in a desert.
A couple were applying for a marriage license. "Your name?"
"Ole Olson." "And yours?"
"Lena Olson." "Any connection?"
The bride blushed. "Only once. He jumped me."
"Any connection?" and the woman's mind immediately interprets it in her own way, the only way she can.
Monsieur Foucard was visiting London for the first time. While walking about he felt nature calling and looked around for a public latrine like those in Paris. He could not find one and, in desperation, stepped into a dark building entrance. Immediately a bobby tapped him from behind, "You can't do that here, you know!"
Later he tried to go behind a tree, but another bobby stopped him. In a few minutes he was, again prevented by a policeman. Finally he noticed a shingle: "Dr. Dingley, Urologist". Dashing into the office, Foucard said, "Doctor, I cannot
-- how you say? -- relieve myself."
The doctor handed him a bottle and told him to step behind the screen. In a few seconds the Frenchman cried, "Doctor, another container, s'il vous plait!"
The doctor handed him one, and in a few minutes had to repeat the process. When the now happy Frenchman stepped out, the doctor asked, "My good man, who told you that you could not relieve yourself?"
"Ze entire London Police Department!"
It is natural. I speak from one world, you listen from a different world. Between me and you there is a great desert. If you allow, it can become a garden -- but only if you allow; it cannot be imposed on you. You cannot be forced; great things never happen through enforcement. You cannot be regimented, you cannot be ordered, commanded. All commandments have failed. Religion has, not succeeded because the priests have been ordering people: "Do this, don't do that."
I cannot say to you: "Do this, don't do that." I can only relate my understanding
to you. I can open my heart. I can go on playing on my flute. If you become enchanted by it -- yes
'enchanted' is the word -- if you become allured by it, if you become completely oblivious of yourself, your past, your mind, your ideas, your prejudices, your upbringing, if my presence can help you to unburden, your seed will fall in the soil.
The soil is ready, the spring has come. Now it is up to you -- it is ALL up to you! A little courage, and the desert can be transformed into a garden.
The fourth question Question 4
OSHO, YOU SAID TODAY THAT THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A 'GROUP SOUL', BUT I HAVE BEEN STRONGLY FEELING SOMETHING LIKE THAT IN THE
COMMUNE. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT THIS FEELING OF A COLLECTIVE SOUL
IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE INTENSE AND ATTUNED DAY BY DAY. IT
IS SOMETHING NEW FOR ME, AND VERY BEAUTIFUL, AND ACTUALLY L
EXPERIENCE IT AS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING THAT IS HAPPENING FOR
ME HERE. I KNOW THAT EACH OF US HAS TO AWAKEN ALONE, BUT I FEEL
THAT THIS 'COLLECTIVE SOUL' IS A TREMENDOUS HELP, AT LEAST FOR US
NOT TO CREATE OTHER DREAMS AM I DREAMING NOW OF A
'COLLECTIVE SOUL'?
Sarjano,
NO, IT IS A FACT, you just don t know the right word for it. 'Collective soul' is not the right term; it is very misleading. Soul can only be individual. Then what is happening here in this commune? Anybody who enters the ashram for the first time immediately becomes aware of something. He can see it on people's faces, he can see it in their walk, he can see it in the way they are working. He can see that it is no ordinary humanity.
Some grace he can feel, some joy permeating the whole place, some playfulness, some sense of humor. And people are working seven days a week. Nobody is looking at the clock...except the Indians!
People are enjoying the work: it is play, it is creativity. They are not tired. In fact, the deeper they go into this creativity, the more nourished they feel he more energy is released in them.
Anybody can see that something is there like an inner connection that connects all the sannyasins into one whole. It is not a collective soul, it is only falling into the same rhythm. I have a rhythm. The closer you come to me, the more you start falling into the same rhythm. Then my breath and your breath synchronize, then my heart and your heart synchronize.
And all the sannyasins are getting synchronized with me; hence they are also synchronized, as a consequence, with each other. It is a synchronicity. It is an orchestra.
We are all playing different instruments, but in harmony, in accord.
That harmony, Sarjano, you are calling the 'collective soul'. It is not a collective soul. An army has a collective mind, no soul at all, because soul can never be collective. Soul is always individual. It is found in your deepest aloneness; there is no other way to find it.
But n a commune...this is the chemistry of a commune, that it helps you to become harmonious with others. And the more harmonious you are with others, the closer you come to your own soul, because harmony brings you closer to the soul. When a person is absolutely in harmony with the universe he becomes enlightened.
A paradox to be remembered: the Buddha is one who is absolutely in harmony with the universe, and yet a Buddha is one who is an absolutely unique individual. He plays his flute or his guitar, but he plays his flute or guitar in absolute accord with the whole. He does not go in his own egoistic way -- he is not an idiot.
Remember: either you are a Buddha or you are an idiot! The word 'idiot' is beautiful; it simply means: doing something privately. Literally it means doing something privately; hence the words like 'idiosyncrasy'. The idiot does not mean a fool; the idiot is far more potent a word than the fool. The idiot simply means one who is trying to live through his ego, who is playing his instrument AGAINST the whole and trying to succeed. He is an idiot: he is going to fail, he is doomed to fail. His life will never know any blessing, any benediction.
Sarjano, your feeling is right, you are just using a wrong word. Yes, a harmony IS being created. I am in tune with the universe. You don't know what the tune of the universe is; it is invisible. Right now you cannot connect yourself with the universal rhythm directly.
But am in tune with the universe -- call it God, nirvana, enlightenment -- I am utterly lost in it. I have no song of my own to sing; I am singing the song of the universe. YOU can fall in tune with me.
That is how you become a disciple: when you find somebody with whom falling in love brings joy. Falling in love is falling in tune with somebody.
Your ordinary love affairs are ugly, because you are both in discord. Your love affair is superficial. Because you like the blonde hair of a girl, or the shape of the nose, or the color of the eyes, or the curves of the body...and you fall in love. Now curves of the body, color of the eyes, the blonde hair, are not going to last long. Sooner or later you will be fed up with them -- the same curve, the same eyes, the same nose -- sooner or later you will stop seeing them. This is not love! Hence conflict arises immediately. All so-called love affairs are nothing but conflicts disguised -- jealousies, possessiveness, domination, ego trips.
But when you fall in love with a Master it is a totally different phenomenon. You feel the rhythm of the Master; and slowly slowly your heart feels the call and you enter into an adventure. Slowly slowly, more and more people enter into that adventure...a commune is created.
First the Buddha: BUDDHAM SHARNAM GACHCHHAMI -- I go to the feet of the Buddha. Then the disciples arise, those who have gone to the feet of the Buddha: SANGHAM SHARNAM GACHCHHAMI. Then many many disciples gather, and they start feeling attuned not only with the Buddha but a certain attunement with each other also arises naturally: they are all attuned to one center, hence they start feeling an attunement with each other. A brotherhood, a sisterhood, arises; that is the SANGHA --
the commune.
And when you have fallen in love with a Buddha and have fallen in love with a commune, the ultimate surrender arises: DHAMMAM SHARNAM GACHCHHAMI.
Then you know that it is neither the Buddha nor the commune: behind the Buddha is the universal law, the ultimate law -- DHAMMA. Buddha only represents the ultimate law in a visible form; his commune represents it in an even grosser way.
These are the three shelters. First you take shelter in the Buddha, then you take shelter in the commune, and then you take shelter in the ultimate law. This is what is happening here.
Sarjano, you are moving in the right direction; your feeling is perfectly right. Intuitively you are right, just intellectually you are using a wrong word. Drop that word!
The fifth question Question 5
OSHO, I NEVER WANT WHAT I GET; I REJECT IT. I ALWAYS WANT WHAT IS
NOT GIVEN TO ME; THIS I TRY TO GET. I NEVER FEEL SATISFIED WITH
WHAT I HAVE, I ALWAYS WANT SOMETHING ELSE. AND I NEVER SAY WHAT I REALLY WANT. L SUFFER MUCH FROM THIS BUT, IT SEEMS,
NOT
ENOUGH AS I STILL CLING TO IT. CAN YOU PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?
Mandiro,
THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD IS MADE. The world is a great device of God. Just as Masters create small devices for the disciples, God creates the ultimate device for all beings. The world is a device.
It was Christmas time and a professor, a professor of philosophy and logic, went to a toyshop with his wife to purchase something beautiful, a new toy, for their only child as a Christmas gift. They tried many toys but they were all old, a little bit modified here and there. The shopkeeper, seeing that they were not satisfied, went inside the store and brought out an absolutely new toy they had never seen before. It was a jigsaw puzzle.
He said, "This is the latest and the best -- you MUST like it."
They tried to fit the jigsaw puzzle together. First the wife tried -- ladies first. She failed, she could not figure it out. The husband laughed -- the male chauvinist laughter! -- and he said, "Wait! I will do it." And he was a logician, a professor of philosophy; if he cannot do it, then who will be able to do it? He tried hard. First he was very much inspired and finally he was simply perspiring -- the whole inspiration became perspiration! He was drenched in perspiration. And a crowd had gathered, and there was no way to figure it out. The puzzle remained a puzzle, became more and more puzzling.
Finally he asked the shopowner, "What kind of jigsaw puzzle is this? If I cannot do it -- I am the Head of the Department of Logic in the University, mathematics is my hobby -- if I cannot do it, then how do you hope that a five-year-old child will be able to do it?"
The shopkeeper said, "Who told you that anybody can do it? This toy represents the world. It is made in such a way that it cannot be fixed. This is just a lesson for the child about how the world is!"
Do whatsoever you like -- EVERYTHING fails. And when I say everything, I
mean EVERYTHING. But it takes millions of lives for people to arrive at this point, because in one life you cannot try all there is. You try a few things; they fail, but the hope remains: maybe you have not tried the right things.
You earn money, you become the richest man in the world -- you become an Andrew Carnegie. And at the peak, when you have become the richest man in the world, suddenly you see your whole life has been a wastage. Money is there, but there is no contentment inside -- and life has gone down the drain.
You can see the misery of an Andrew Carnegie. When he was dying, somebody who was writing a biography said to him, "You must be the most contented man in the world."
He said, "Contented? I am the MOST discontented man in the world! Don't you know I am the wealthiest man in the world? That is my discontent. Now I know there is no more to wealth: all that is possible I have attained, and yet I am dying empty. My life has been just a wastage. Next time, if God gives me another opportunity, I am not going to try money any more -- it has failed."
But the hope is there -- he will try politics...?
Those who attain to political power, they fail. But then they think maybe it is knowledge:
"We should try knowledge." And so on and so forth.…
Mandiro, remember: the world is made as a device by God. EVERYTHING here is bound to fail. You can hope and you try, but nothing is going to succeed. The day you understand that nothing is going to succeed is the day of great transformation. That is the day sannyas is born.
In Detroit, brothels are now automatized. One puts twenty dollars in a slot and a door opens.
A politician decides to have a go. He puts in the twenty bucks and the door opens. He finds himself in a corridor with two doors: one reads "Blonde", the other reads
"Brunette". He chooses the door with "Blonde" written on it. He then finds himself in another corridor with two doors: one reads "Tall" and the other reads
"Small". He opens the door with "Tall" written on it and finds himself in another corridor with two doors: one reads "Big Tits", the other reads "Small Tits"
Immediately he chooses the door with
"Big Tits" on it, and finds himself in another corridor with two doors, the one reading
"Small Ass", the other "Large Ass". He rushes through the door with "Small Ass" written on it, and again finds himself in a corridor with two doors, one with "Real Screw" on it, the other "Fancy Fuck". He throws himself on the door with "Real Screw" on it...and finds himself in the street on the other side of the same building!
But you can try other ways. You will ALWAYS find that you end up in the street on the other side of the building!
The whole of life is like that...otherwise there would have been no reason for sannyas.
There would have been no reason for religion to exist at all. Religion exists only because the world fails. It is the failure of the world that brings you to a new awareness: that if the cherished goal cannot be found in the world, then let us try it inwards.
Mandiro, THERE you have not tried yet. Move inwards! Contentment is a quality of your center; it is not found on the circumference. Fulfillment is when you have arrived at your real, authentic being; it is not found in the ego.
The sixth question Question 6
OSHO, WHEN WE DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU RIGHTLY, HOW DO YOU FEEL?
Virendra,
I SIMPLY FEEL THAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME -- and that is that! It
is not a question of feeling anything else. I say, "Two plus two is four," and you don't understand
-- so I understand that you don't understand. I try again next day. I go on hammering,
"Two plus two is four." If you understand, good; if you don't understand, good. It is not a question of FEELING. I don't feel hurt, I don't feel frustrated, because from the very beginning I am not EXPECTING you to understand.
Frustration comes through expectation. If I am expecting that you are going to understand, then, of course, when you don't understand there will be frustration, deep frustration. If I am hoping that you are going to behave in this way and you don't, then certainly I will feel hurt. You have disobeyed, you have not proved worthy enough, you have not risen to the occasion. But I have no expectation at all, of anybody.
So whatsoever you do, I go on giggling and seeing it all. If you misunderstand then I say,
"Old man, try again!" What ELSE can be done? And this is not a new situation; this has been always so and this is going to be always so.
In fact, to expect that people should understand you is a subtle desire to dominate them.
Why? If they don't want to understand you it is perfectly okay. It is their life! They don't want to go in a certain way -- it is their choice and they are free.
Hence I never give detailed information about how you should live -- although YOU go on asking me: what you should eat, when you should go to bed, when should you get up in the morning.… You go on asking about these stupid details. And these stupid details have been given by your great -- so-called great -- saints down the ages. I don't give you one single detail.
I simply give you my insight, I SHARE my insight. I open up my heart before you. If you can partake of anything, I am obliged, I am thankful that in some way my love, my understanding, helped you to become more loving, more understanding. But misunderstanding is accepted.
Krishnamurti gets very angry -- sometimes even hits his head -- when he sees that people are not understanding him. Why be so worried about it? He is taking things too seriously, he is not playful. You can ask me the same question a
thousand and one times; am not going to be angry. Each time you ask the question I am happily ready to share whatsoever is possible.
Why is Krishnamurti so serious? He was brought up by wrong people: the theosophists.
They are very serious people. They had made a. very mysterious philosophy out of all the religions of the world, a kind of synthesis. It is not a synthesis, it is just hocus-pocus, fragments from one place and a few fragments from another place. They were very serious people, and they wanted Krishnamurti to become the 'World Teacher'.
Now, how can you become the 'World Teacher'? There has never been a world teacher and there will never be. Unless the world decides to be your disciple, how can you be a world teacher?
In India there are many. All the shankaracharyas are called JAGATGURU -- world teachers. I know one shankaracharya who has only one disciple! I asked, "What kind of world teacherhood is this?"
He looked a little embarrassed. I told him, "Don't feel so embarrassed. I will suggest a way out to you."
In Hindi, JAGATGURU means world teacher. JAGAT means the world, GURU means teacher.
I told him, "You do one thing -- you start calling your disciple Jagat -- and then you become JAGATGURU! Don't feel so embarrassed; there is always a way. One can wriggle out of laws and words and.… Call him Jagat, and you are the guru, certainly!"
Theosophists wanted Krishnamurti to be a JAGATGURU -- a world teacher. And they tried hard. They could not make him do it, because he was a really intelligent person. If he had been just a little less intelligent he would have become a JAGATGURU, a world teacher. But he wriggled his way out. But even though he has come out of their grip, the scars are left. The seriousness is still there; he is not playful, he has no sense of humor.
I am not serious! What I am saying to you is said out of playfulness. It is more a gossiping than a gospel!
Watson, a Clevelander in Paris, was unable to find a bordello, so he asked a gendarme to give him directions. The policeman did not understand English very well. Watson tried pidgin English and pointing. "Me," he said, pointing to his chest.
"Ah! You wish to eat?" said the gendarme.
"No, no!" said Watson. He tried again, taking out a twenty-dollar bill. "Ah! You wish to gamble?"
"No, no, no!" shouted the American in disgust, and he unzipped and zipped himself.
"Ah, oui, oui!" said the gendarme.
"Wee-wee, my ass! Where the hell is the nearest whorehouse?"
I am talking a different language, you understand a different-language -- but there is no need to make much fuss about it. It is natural.
A hippie was walking along the road when he saw a big rock by the side of the road, wobbling. Being a strong hippie, he picked up the rock to see what was underneath. To his surprise, out jumped a leprechaun! "To be sure, I am grateful to ye, lad!" he cried.
"And in return for your kindness I will grant you three magic wishes."
"Far out!" drawled the hippie. "Hey man, well, I wanna be uptight, outa sight and in the groove, baby!"
"Okay!" said the leprechaun, and turned him into a Tampax.
There is no problem when you misunderstand me or don't understand me -- there is no problem. I simply enjoy, whether you understand or misunderstand. My enjoyment remains undisturbed.
And I am not a messiah, and I am not a missionary. And I am not here to establish a church or to give a doctrine to the world, a new religion, no. My effort is totally different: a new consciousness not a new religion, a new
consciousness not a new doctrine. Enough of doctrines and enough of religions! Man needs a new consciousness.
And the only way to bring consciousness is to go on hammering from all the sides so that slowly slowly chunks of your mind go on dropping. The statue of a Buddha is hidden in you. Right now you are a rock. If I go on hammering, cutting chunks out of you, slowly slowly the Buddha will emerge. It takes time.…
And there is no hurry either. I am not in a hurry, because the problem with hurry is: the more you are in a hurry, the more the whole thing is delayed. And if you are not in a hurry at all, things start happening sooner. I can wait for ever, I can wait infinitely. But the miracle is: if you can wait infinitely, things can happen instantly.
RIGHT NOW the Buddha can pop up in your consciousness; suddenly a bud can open and become a flower. And one never knows when it is going to happen so one has to simply go on working. And the work should never be thought of as work but as worship.
Working with you I am worshipping you. Talking to you I am loving you -- not giving you a doctrine but my heart. Handle it with care.
Be Still and Know Chapter #10
Chapter title: Me, Enlightened?
10 September 1979 am in Buddha Hall Archive
code: 7909100
ShortTitle: BESTIL10
Audio:
Yes Video:
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The first question Question 1
OSHO, TODAY WHEN YOU TALKED ABOUT YOUR FATHER, FOR THE FIRST
TIME IT BECAME VERY CLEAR AND CLOSE FOR ME THAT EVERYBODY, I ALSO, CAN BECOME ENLIGHTENED. ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE SAID SO MANY
TIMES THAT WE ARE ALL BUDDHAS IN THE CENTER, I ALWAYS FELT IT
VERY VERY FAR AWAY. SUDDENLY ALL YOUR TEACHING FROM THE LAST
TWO AND A HALF YEARS BECAME IMMEDIATE, MAYBE BECAUSE YOUR
FATHER WAS KIND OF CLOSE FOR ME. I SAW HIM IN HIS HOUSE EATING A CHAPATI, SAW HIM TAKING HIS MORNING WALK THROUGH THE ASHRAM -
- AND HE BECAME ENLIGHTENED! TOO MUCH! I WANT TO TELL YOU THAT
I HAD A GREAT REALIZATION IN LECTURE.
Deva Kanchha,
GREAT TRUTHS TAKE TIME TO SINK IN. And this is the greatest of all, that you all are potentially Buddhas. It is impossible for your mind to accept it. You can accept somebody far away, a Siddhartha Gautam, being a Buddha, a Jesus Christ, a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu. They are so far away, millions of light years away; they have become mythological. They are no more thought to be real persons. They have lost all substance, they have become pure shadows -- pure poetry with no words, pure silence with no sound. You can imagine them, but you cannot feel them.
Hence, although I go on repeating again and again that you can become a Buddha...in fact you ARE a Buddha, unaware of the fact. On the circumference maybe there is a great storm, just as on the surface the sea is stormy -- sometimes more, sometimes less, but there are always waves, bigger or smaller; there is always turbulence, disturbance. But at the depth there is not even a ripple: all is silence.
You are the center of the cyclone, but you are not aware of your center. And down the ages priests have condemned you so much that it has become almost impossible for you to conceive of yourself as a Buddha. The priests have condemned you according to your circumference; they know only your circumference. In fact they are interested only in condemning you, so whatsoever they can condemn they see very predominantly in you.
They choose that which can be condemned, because through condemnation you are reduced to slaves: slaves of religion -- Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Mohammedan, Jaina, Buddhist; and slaves of societies, cultures, civilizations, political ideologies --
communist, fascist, Gandhian.
The only way to reduce you to a slave is to condemn you so badly that you lose all self-respect. And it can be done because your circumference is there, and you also are aware only of the circumference. You are fast asleep snoring at the center. Only at the circumference are you a little bit awake, and that too because of the disturbance, noise.
In the marketplace you are a little bit more alert. When you sit silently in your meditation room you start falling asleep, because the only kind of alertness that you know is that which is created by the noise around you. You know only one kind of awareness, which is pathological because it is out of disturbance, not out of stillness.
That's why it is one of the basic experiences of all meditators that the moment they start meditating they start falling asleep. Hence the Zen Master has to walk amongst his disciples with a stick in his hand: whenever he sees somebody asleep, he hits him immediately. The hit you can understand, because it is on the circumference. Suddenly the energy rushes upwards in your spine, and you are awake, alert. The Zen tradition says that when the Master hits you, bow down to him in deep respect. He has obliged you; he has taken great trouble to hit you.
You know only one kind of alertness -- when you are hit, when you are in some danger, when you are in some accident. It is because of this that people go mountain climbing, because when they are climbing mountains and the danger is great they become a little alert. It is because of this that people compete in car races, because the speedier the car goes, the more danger is close by: death can happen any moment, you HAVE to become alert.
Danger has an attraction. The only attraction of danger is that you become a little alert, but this is a superficial kind of alertness. Real alertness has to happen at the center, otherwise you can remain alert on the circumference because of the noise, disturbance, but it is coming from others, it is not your own, and your center can go on sleeping.
I go on telling you this again and again. Why do r say it again and again? So that it can sink in and can reach your center. It takes time, and it takes a right moment.
My father's disappearance from the body may have been the right moment for you, Kanchha. Yes, he was a simple man, just like anybody else. So was Buddha and so was Mahavira and so was Jesus -- simple people, innocent people. He was not in any way extraordinary; that was his extraordinariness. I have known him from my very childhood
-- so simple, so innocent, anybody could deceive him.
He used to believe anybody. I have seen many people cheating him, but his trust
was immense; he never distrusted human beings although he was cheated many times. It was so simple to see that people were cheating him that even when I was a small child I used to say to him, "What are you doing? This man is simply cheating you!"
Once he built a house and a contractor was cheating him. I told him, "This house is not going to stand, it will fall, because the cement is not in the right proportion and the wood that is being used is too heavy." But he wouldn't listen; he said, "He is a good man, he cannot cheat us."
And that's what actually happened; the house could not stand the first rains. He was not there, he was in Bombay. I sent him a telegram telling him, "What I have been telling you has happened: the house has fallen." He did not even answer. He came when he was supposed to come, after seven days, and he said, "Why did you unnecessarily waste money on the telegram? The house had fallen, so it had fallen! Now what can I do? That contractor wasted ten thousand rupees and you wasted almost ten rupees unnecessarily --
those could have been saved.
And the first thing that he did was to celebrate that we had not moved -- because we had been going to move within two or three weeks. He celebrated: "God is gracious, he saved us. He made the house fall before we had moved into it." So he invited the whole village.
Everybody was just unable to understand: "Is this a moment to celebrate?" Even the contractor was called invited, because he had done a good job: before we moved, the house fell.
He was a simple man. And if you look deep down, everybody is simple. The society makes you complex, but you are born simple and innocent. Everybody is born a Buddha; the society corrupts you.
And the function of a Master is to take away all the corruption that the society has worked on you. the function of the Master is to undo that the society has done to you, and you will be a Buddha again.
The child when he is born functions from the center; we teach him how to function from the circumference. That is our whole educational system all over the world: teaching the child how to function from the circumference. We pull
him away from his center, we make him more and more accustomed to the circumference, to living on the circumference... twenty-five years of conditioning, education: good names we have given to ugly things. We call it education -- it is not education, nothing can be a greater mis-education.
The very word 'education' means drawing something out, to draw something out. When you draw water out of the well it is education. Just like that, when something is drawn outwards from your center it is education. But this is not what is going on in the name of education; it is forcing things upon you. It is not bringing your center to function. It is not sharpening your center; it is dulling it, making it more and more sleepy, dozy.
The society succeeds the day your center goes into a coma and your circumference remains functioning. Then you are a robot, a machine, no more a man.
Because we function from the circumference Buddhas look so unreal -- of course, because they function from a totally different center. That's why I say that unless you are in contact with a living Buddha, you will never believe that YOU can become a Buddha.
But a living Buddha also, slowly slowly, appears far away. It is because of your mind working; it is a strategy of the mind to save itself from going through that revolution. So you create a distance -- it is imaginary.
There is no distance between me and you, not at all. I am just a neighbor to you; not even a fence divides me from you. But you cannot believe it, because that is too dangerous for you, for your established pattern of life. You can't allow me too close; you will create a distance.
Pradeepa has asked a question: "Osho, when-ever you quote Lao Tzu as saying,
'Everybody is clear, only I am muddleheaded,' I love it, because I am also muddleheaded.
But there must be some difference between my muddleheadedness and Lao Tzu's."
There is none, Pradeepa. But you cannot believe it. Lao Tzu is exactly as muddleheaded as Pradeepa. Lao Tzu will agree with me, Pradeepa will not
agree. There is the problem: how can Pradeepa agree that her muddleheadness...? Lao Tzu must be meaning something very mysterious, something of a totally different dimension.
No. Lao Tzu is simply saying there is no need to be a great genius to know God. God is available to all, unconditionally to all, categorically to all. You do not have to fulfill certain conditions, you do not have to rise to a certain level. God is available to you as you are, because God has BECOME you. There is nobody ELSE inside you. Just a look.…
So it is beautiful in a commune, because when you live in a commune you live with people not knowing whether this man is going to become a Buddha; then one day suddenly the lotus opens: that man has become a Buddha. It gives you great courage. You know this man, he is just like you. You have been drinking tea with him, gossiping with him, reading the same newspaper, listening to the same radio, looking at the same TV, you have been to the same movie. You know him, inside and out; he was just like you. If HE can become a Buddha, then why not YOU? In fact, his becoming a Buddha becomes the greatest uplifting force in your life.
That is the beauty of a commune, because many many people with whom you were working will one day become Buddhas. Somebody was working under you
...for example, one day Deeksha finds that the man who has been washing the pots has become a Buddha! Then Deeksha can believe that "Although I am an Italian, and nobody has ever heard of any Italian becoming a Buddha, still I can become one."
Have you ever heard about any Italian...? At least have not heard of it. But it is going to happen here, because this commune is ninety percent Italian: you eat Italian food, you drink Italian water -- everybody is turning ninety percent Italian. My effort in creating a commune is simply to make you alert and aware that one day the cobbler of the ashram becomes enlightened, another day the guard becomes enlightened, and people go on blossoming. Each blossoming brings new courage, new inspiration, and in that courage and inspiration your spring comes closer to you. A great self-respect arises, and a trust:
"God has not forsaken us. If people like me are becoming Buddhas, then I am also on the way. Sooner or later.…" And it is going to be sooner than later -- because if so many people start flowering, then the season has come and it is
time not to resist. It is time not to fight any more, but to be in a let-go. The second question
Question 2
OSHO, WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU MEAN BY SAYING "BE STILL AND KNOW"
AND ALSO "SEEK THE STRENGTH OF NO-DESIRE"?
BE STILL AND KNOW is one of the most fundamental sutras of the inner alchemy. But by being still is not meant that you have to force stillness upon yourself. A forced stillness is not true stillness. One can sit like a Buddha, almost like a statue, absolutely still, and yet deep down there may be great turmoil, a thousand and one thoughts rushing.
There may be great traffic in the mind. The body can be forced to sit silently for hours, and you can also learn tricks to still the mind.
For example, if you chant any mantra for hours, any name of God, if you simply go on chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah," it functions like a tranquilizer. Repetition of a single word or a single mantra creates a certain melody in your mind soothing, very soothing, very calming. And a kind of stillness will be felt which is not the true kind -- because the sound of a certain mantra is simply changing the chemistry of your mind. The change is not alchemical, it is chemical.
Sound is chemistry. Hence music can help you to become still. And, moreover, when a certain word OR A mantra Is repeated constantly, you become hypnotized by it. That's the secret of all hypnosis. You look at a flame, a candle flame, constantly -- what are you doing? You are repeating the flame through the eyes, again and again and again. It is a repetition, it is a mantra -- through the eyes. Or you can repeat a mantra inside yourself; that is through the ear, through the sound. Any sense can be used. Perfume, incense can be used; the same incense can hypnotize you.
Hypnosis means going into deep sleep, artificial sleep. That's exactly the meaning of the word 'hypnosis': a sleep deliberately created. It can be through a tranquilizer, it can be through a soothing silence, sound, music, perfume, incense
-- there can be a thousand and one ways, but you will become hypnotized. And,
hypnotized, you will feel a kind of stillness which is not true.
And also, if you repeat a certain mantra again and again, you will feel bored. Boredom also brings sleep. That's why doctors suggest to people who cannot sleep that they count sheep from one to a hundred, and then backwards from a hundred -- ninety-nine, ninety-eight, back to one -- and then go up the ladder again...go on coming up and down. How long can you do it? Somewhere after going three or four times up and down the ladder you will fall asleep. It is the most ancient formula for falling asleep: count sheep from one to a hundred and then come back -- because it is such a boring job that you lose all interest in it. And the moment you lose all interest in it, there is nowhere to escape except in sleep.
Mothers know it perfectly well. Hence the lullaby: the mother goes on repeating a single note again and again and the child falls asleep. And children have their own mantras: they can suck on their thumbs -- that is a mantra. The child goes on sucking on the thumb; it is very consoling, soothing. He believes that it is the breast of the mother, and he-falls asleep. Children invent their own methods -- the teddy bear, or just the corner of the blanket, and the child holds it; if you take the blanket away from him he cannot sleep.
Even grownups are not really grownups; they have their own ritual of going into sleep.
For example, if every day you clean your teeth before going to sleep, try it one day without cleaning the teeth and you will be surprised: you cannot fall asleep. Something is missing. You have created a mantra. You change the dress, a different dress than you use in the daytime...you go into a subtle ritual.
A few people who are religious, so-called religious, they will do some prayer. That too is a ritual. Grownups are not really grownups; they have grown in age, but not psychologically, not spiritually. The world is full of children of many ages: one year, two years, up to seventy, eighty, ninety -- all children.
I am not talking about their stillness. When I say "Be still and know" I mean a stillness that comes out of understanding, not out of any kind of hypnosis. And out of understanding the first thing that happens is: "Seek the strength of no- desire." The more you look into your life, you will find your life is in a mess because of desiring.
Why are you in such a storm continuously? It is because of the desire -- not only one desire but a thousand and one desires. And no desire can ever be fulfilled, no desire has ever been fulfilled. Desire as such is incapable of being fulfilled, intrinsically it is unfulfillable. Hence each desire creates turmoil, expectation, hope, then frustration, hopelessness. And you have a thousand and one desires surrounding you, and you go on supporting your own enemies.
When you look in, when you watch, you become aware that desire is the cause of your whole misery. Seeing it, desiring disappears -- JUST BY SEEING IT, desiring disappears. Seeing that desire never leads anywhere, but that you go on moving in circles and desire goes on goading you in the same repetitive patterns, seeing this -- not because I am saying it, but seeing it on your own -- desire disappears. And the disappearance of desire is the stillness, the real stillness, I am talking about.
It brings two things to you: great strength, because all the energy that was involved in a thousand and one desires is released. Now energy no more leaks from you; you don't have any holes for it to leak from. You become a reservoir of great energy. And the second thing: because now there is no noise of desires clashing, conflicting with each other, there is no civil war going on...what to do? to be or not to be? to do this or to do that? When there is no conflict, no desire, when all the storm is gone, the silence that follows the storm, that is the stillness I am talking about.
Be still and know.
And I am not saying that by being still you will be ready to know -- no. Just by being still you will know. Being still and knowing are the same phenomenon, because when you are still like a mirror, a still lake, no ripples, then the whole firmament, the whole sky, is reflected in the lake. The stars come down, and the moon, and the clouds -- all are reflected in tremendous beauty in the lake. When your consciousness becomes a still mirror, a still lake, a silent reservoir of energy, God is reflected in it.
You will not attain to knowledge, remember. You will become wise, you will become a Buddha. You will not become a great scholar, a great pundit, a great theologian or a philosopher. You will be a Buddha. You will have an innocent kind of knowing: you will know how to live, you will know how to die, you will know how to love -- you will know the real art of life. And the real art of life
consists only of three things: how to live, how to love, how to die. And these things you will not know from scriptures; these things you will know from your innermost core.
I call this education. "Be still and know, seek the strength of no-desire." It is desire that is making you weak, it is no-desire that will make you strong. It is desire that is creating continuous storms in you, it is no-desire that will bring stillness -- and a stillness that comes on its own is authentic; it is not a kind of hypnosis. It is not through mantra, it is not through any device, it is not through any trick. You are not trying to pretend to be still: you are simply still. This will give you a new birth, you will be reborn.
Jesus says: "Unless you are born again, you shall not enter into my kingdom of God." I say the same to you -- but the rebirth is a state of no-desire, a state of no- mind, a state of total stillness.
The third question Question 3
OSHO, I ALWAYS THINK OF COMMITTING SUICIDE, AND WONDER WHAT
YOU WOULD SAY ABOUT MY DEATH?
Prashant,
I AM REMINDED OF A BEAUTIFUL ANECDOTE:
The minister, who got himself a little mixed up now and again, was standing over the open casket of the dearly departed, Joe Hall.
"Our friend Joe Hall is not dead," he orated. "Only the shell is here to be buried; the nut has departed."
Why should you think of suicide? Are you a nut or something? If you have become a sannyasin you have already committed suicide. Sannyas is a suicide -- the real one. It is not destroying the body, because destroying the body is not going to help; you will be immediately born again somewhere in some other womb. It will only be renewing the body; it is not real suicide.
Sannyas is real suicide, because it destroys the mind, it takes you beyond the mind. And if you are beyond the mind you will not be born again. Why be born again and again?
Why go on in this vicious circle?
I know you are bored with life. If you are really bored, then meditation is the way, not suicide -- because suicide will bring you to the SAME life, maybe an uglier life than you have right now, because suicide will create its own ugliness in you. To commit suicide is such an ungrateful act towards God. He gives you life as an opportunity to grow, and you throw away the opportunity.
And unless you grow, unless you grow and become a Buddha, you will be thrown back into life again and again. Millions of times it has happened before: it is time now you should become aware. Don't miss this opportunity.
Being here with me, learn the real art of suicide. The real art consists not in destroying the body...the body is beautiful, the body has not done any wrong. It is the ugly mind.
The body is beautiful, the soul is beautiful, but between the body and the soul there is something which is neither body nor soul. This in-between phenomenon is the mind.
It is mind that goes on dragging you back into the womb. When you die, if you commit suicide you will be thinking of life. Committing suicide means you are thinking of life.
You are bored, fed up with life; you would like a totally different kind of life, that's why you are committing suicide -- not that you are really against life. THIS life you are against. Maybe you don't want to be the way you are: you would like to be an Alexander, a Napoleon, an Adolph Hitler; maybe you want to be the richest man in the world, and you are not. This life has failed, and you would like to be famous, successful -- destroy it!
People commit suicide not because they are really finished with life but because life is not fulfilling their demands. But no life ever fulfills anybody's demands. You will always go on missing something or other: if you have money, you may not be beautiful; if you are beautiful, you may not be intelligent; if you are intelligent, you may not have money.
Once a man stopped Andrew Carnegie, who had gone for a morning walk in the garden.
Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in America; the man who stopped him was looking like the very incarnation of a beggar. And the man said, "Please don't be deceived by my appearance. I am an author, I have also written a book."
Andrew Carnegie asked, "What kind of book have you written?" The man said, "I have written a book entitled ONE HUNDRED WAYS TO BECOME RICH."
Andrew Carnegie could not stop himself laughing. He said, "ONE HUNDRED WAYS
TO BECOME RICH? And you are a beggar! What kind of book is this?"
The beggar started laughing, and he said, "This is the hundredth way of becoming rich --
it is included in my book."
The beggar also thinks of becoming rich, writes books about how to become rich
-- even thinks that by begging he will become rich. But Andrew Carnegie is not happy either; he was one of the most unhappy men ever born on the earth. He lived in unhappiness, he died in unhappiness. The day he died somebody asked, "You must be dying fully contented -- because you are leaving such a lot of money behind you. You are the richest man in the world."
Andrew Carnegie opened his eyes and said, very sadly said, "I am not fulfilled in my desires. My target was far higher -- I have not been able to reach it. I could accumulate only ten percent of my target."
But even if you achieve one hundred percent of your target, how is it going to help? One is going to remain unfulfilled. Each life you will find the same thing repeated; forms change, but the discontent remains.
People think that those who commit suicide are against life -- they are not. They are too lusty for life, they have great lust for life; and because life is not fulfilling their lust, in anger, in despair, they destroy themselves.
Prashant, I will teach you the right way to commit suicide. Not the destruction of
the body; the body is a beautiful gift from God. The mind is not a gift from God; the mind is a conditioning by the society. The soul is a gift, the body is a gift, and sandwiched between the two, the society has played tricks with you: it has created your mind. It gives you ambition, it gives you jealousy, competition, violence, it gives you all kinds of ugly diseases. But this mind can be transcended, this mind can be put aside. This mind is not a must.
I am sitting before you and I say it through my own experience, I say it on my own authority: that mind can be put aside. It is so simple, you just have to know the knack of it.
And remember, whenever I say that I say it on my own authority I am not saying that I am saying it AUTHORITATIVELY. Those two expressions are totally different. When something is said AUTHORITATIVELY it is a commandment; you have to believe in it.
If you don't believe in it you will suffer, here or hereafter. The priest speaks with authoritativeness, the politician speaks with authoritativeness.
A realized man speaks not with authoritativeness but on his own authority -- because he KNOWS it. I am not saying follow me, I am not saying believe in me. I am simply stating a fact: that I have KNOWN it this way, it has happened to me...it can happen to you.
Life is very precious and the greatest treasure is hidden in it -- and that treasure is of becoming a witness.
A real story for you, Prashant:
One day in 1928 Bucky Fuller stood on the shore of Lake Michigan and planned to throw himself in. He was ready to give up because he was a failure financially, by the standards of the upper middle class which he had been born into.
As a construction engineer he had not succeeded. And because his daughter had just died of polio, the whole universe did not make any sense to him and he was ready to throw himself in. He stopped himself and said, "Wait, I can't be sure. Maybe there is something I can do in this universe that is important." He said, "Well, what can I do? Let us see what a man of average intelligence can do if he starts questioning everything that is taken for granted and starts looking for alternatives."
I don't know if he ever was a man of only average intelligence -- IN FACT NO ONE
EVER IS -- but by questioning everything he came to realize, as he said, that when you don't accept anything except that which can be experimentally verified, you are overwhelmed by the inherent integrity and rationality of the universe. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible, as Einstein said.
And that gives you faith in the sane, sound center of the universe we mentioned earlier.
As Ezra Pound wrote in the death-cells at Pisa, looking at the stars, out of all this beauty something must come."
Now Bucky Fuller is one of the most wise men in the West -- not yet a Buddha, but on the way, very close. And the art that has brought him so close to becoming a Buddha is the art of questioning everything that is accepted by the society: it is the art of becoming an inquirer.
Transform your life, Prashant, into a quest. Question the values that you have accepted.
Question all that you have been brought up to believe in. Question the way you have lived up to now. Question your mechanicalness, question your robotlike existence.
Yes, something drastic has to be done, but it is not suicide. It won't help, it won't change you; you will be back again in another womb somewhere. Millions of stupid couples are making love every moment. Beware! You will be caught in some net somewhere. And you will get only what you deserve, remember; you can't get more than you deserve. You get the womb that is right for you.
And dying in suicide is dying in such anguish, because it is one of the most unnatural things to do, most abnormal things to do. No animal commits suicide, no tree ever commits suicide -- only man. Only man can go that insane. Nature knows nothing of suicide; it is man's invention. It is the most ugly act. And when you do something ugly to yourself you cannot hope that you will get a better life. You will die in an ugly state of mind and you will enter an uglier womb.
But what is the need to commit suicide? Just question: you must have lived in a wrong way, that's why life has not become a song. You must have lived foolishly, stupidly, unintelligently; that's why life has not attained to celebration. You cannot dance with joy with the stars and with the flowers and with the wind and with the rain, because you have lived with wrong kinds of ideas imposed on you by the same kind of people as you are.
It is a perpetual phenomenon; stupidity goes on perpetuating itself. Parents go on giving stupidity to their children and the children in their turn will hand over their stupidity to THEIR children. This is the heritage. This is called tradition, heritage, culture... great names!
Question all that you have lived without questioning up to now, and your life will have a new intelligence arising in it. Your life will become more sharp Sheela has asked a question: "Osho, you say 'Drop the mind.' The more I drop the mind, the sharper and sharper my brain is becoming." She is puzzled There is no need to be puzzled: the brain is a totally different thing from the mind. The mind is given by the society, the brain is part of your body. The brain is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian; the mind is a Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian. The brain is simply a beautiful biocomputer. The more you drop the mind, the sharper your brain will be, the more intelligent. It is the mind that is creating your mediocrity.
Sheela, you need not be puzzled by it: this is how it is going to happen. The more and more people drop their minds, the more and more they will be able to function intelligently, because the brain will be unburdened. The brain will not be expected to carry unnecessary luggage.
Right now your brain is carrying so much rubbish! That it functions at all is a miracle.
Just look how much rubbish you are carrying: of being a Hindu, of being an Indian, of being a Japanese, of being a Buddhist, of being this, of being that, a fascist, a communist...religious ideologies, philosophical ideologies, political ideologies. They are heaped upon you, layer upon layer. Your brain has lost all its functioning. Once the mind is dropped, the brain will come to its total functioning.
And every being is born intelligent. It is society that creates unintelligence. No
child is born unintelligent. Have you ever seen a bird which is unintelligent or a bird which is wise, intelligent? All birds are alike. Have you seen a rosebush which is foolish or a rosebush which is a genius? All rosebushes are alike. So are all human beings: they come with the same potential but fall into different gangs.
These are all gangs: Indians, Chinese, British, American. These are all gangs, and politicians are the criminals. Then there are religious gangs.… And their whole effort is not to allow your intelligence to function, because an intelligent person is bound to become rebellious.
Prashant, question your values. If you have been a Catholic, question it; if you have been a Protestant, question it; if you have been a Hindu, question it. Question all that you have lived up to now; something is basically wrong somewhere.
Ezra Pound is right. And do you know from where he is writing this? From his death-cell! "Out of all this beauty something must come." Ezra Pound in a dark cell, just waiting for death to come, can write such a tremendously important sutra: "Out of all this beauty something must come."
The birds singing, and the trees, and the flowers...this infinite universe -- is it the place to commit suicide? It is the place to dance, to sing, to celebrate, to love and to be loved.
And if you can love this existence, if you can feel blessed with this existence, I promise you that when you die you will not be coming back again...because you will have learnt the lesson. God never sends anybody back to the school if once they have learnt their lesson.
If you can learn to rejoice, you will be accepted. Doors of higher mysteries will be opened to you. You will be welcomed into the innermost mysteries of life. That's what I call the true art of committing suicide: my name for it is sannyas.
The fourth question Question 4
OSHO, SUDDENLY THERE YOU WERE YESTERDAY JUST BENDING OVER
YOUR FATHER, AND I FELT SUCH LOVE AND JOY AND CLOSENESS SEEING
YOU IN THIS NATURAL SITUATION THAT IT IS HAUNTING ME. IT IS AS IF A DOOR OPENED AND I SAW SOMETHING THROUGH IT, SOMETHING
FAMILIAR AND TREMENDOUS, AND NOW IT IS GONE. WHAT WAS IT?
Somendra,
IT IS NOT GONE, and it will never go. Things like this come, and come for ever. They are not momentary glimpses. Your heart opened suddenly; it needed such a situation for the opening. I immediately felt something happening in your heart -- a great cry arose in your heart, you exploded into a totally different plane.
It is not gone, it can't go. It is there. It will come now in different situations, appear in different situations. You are just keeping your back towards the door; the door is open.
But more and more often you will encounter the door. Once it happens you know it is there, you cannot avoid it. The mind will say it is gone; the mind would like to persuade you that it is gone. And the mind will ask questions about it so that the whole thing can become intellectual.
It is the mind which is asking "What was it?" The heart knows; the mind asks and knows nothing. The heart has known what it was, but the heart and its knowing is so deep that it cannot be conveyed to the mind. And mind feels a little puzzled.
And it has not happened only to you, it has happened to many people. It was such a situation. Many people had suddenly cried -- not out of sadness, no. There was celebration in their tears; they could not contain it. It was a spiritual experience for many of the sannyasins.
And it will remain with you -- don't ask what it was. There are things one should not ask questions about, because questions drag them to the level of the mind. There are things which should be left as they are: mysterious, miraculous. With wonder, with awe, accept The moment the question mark is put, the plane of
experience changes. The question mark brings them to the mind. The heart knows no questioning, it knows only how to trust. In that moment, Somendra, you loved, you trusted. In that moment, you were so blissful you could have died laughing.
But to die laughing is one thing; it is easier. To live laughing is far more difficult. Now that is the task, now that should be your SADHANA. Live with that vision. Yes, many times you will forget about it -- but it is there. Just a little groping and you will find the door again.
Don't let it become just a memory in the mind. Let it remain a reality. It IS a reality, but mind will try to make it a memory. Once something is made a memory, the mind can put it in the safe deposit, in the biocomputer, and you can forget all about it. Once in a while you can remember, and later on you will start feeling, "Maybe it happened -- or did I just imagine it? Maybe it was just because of the whole situation and the impact of it that I felt something which was not really happening in my heart." These things mind goes on doing.
Somendra, be careful about the mind. Mind will drag you many times from the very door of God. Mind is your basic enemy. Listen to the heart, because the heart is the friend.
The fifth question Question 5
OSHO, THIS IS NOT A QUESTION, RATHER A STATEMENT WHICH SHOULD
NOT OFFEND YOU AT ALL. KRISHNAMURTI SAID LATELY IN SAANEN, SWITZERLAND: A ROSE IS NOT LIKELY TO BLOOM NEXT TO A GUIDEPOST.
I LOVE ROSES, BUT ALSO OTHER FLOWERS.
Hilke Schmitz,
FIRST, THERE IS NOTHING that can ever offend me. There is no way to offend me; it is impossible because only the ego can be offended. If the wound of the ego is there then small things offend. But there is no wound any more; I
am absolutely healed and whole.
The ego is very touchy because it is a wound. Once the ego is not there you cannot offend that person -- impossible.
So the first thing for you to remember: you can make any kind of statement you like, but you cannot offend me. Try, and try again!
Secondly, you say:
KRISHNAMURTI SAID: A ROSE IS NOT LIKELY TO BLOOM NEXT TO A GUIDEPOST.
Roses bloom everywhere, and unless you know that they can even bloom ON the guidepost, let alone by the side, roses can bloom even on the guidepost -- unless you know it, you know nothing.
A Zen story:
A disciple came to the Master. He had gone to see a polo game. The Master asked him,
"Tell me a few things. Were the riders on the horses tired?"
The disciple said, "Yes, at the end of the game they looked tired." Secondly the Master said, "Were the horses tired ?"
The disciple said, "Yes, a little bit, not as much as the riders, but even the horses were tired."
Then the Master said, "The last and the final question: were the posts, the wooden posts which are needed in the game, were they tired too?"
Now this was too much! The disciple hesitated a little.
The Master said, "Go into your room and meditate over it. Tomorrow morning you can answer."
The whole night he could not sleep; he tossed and turned. "The wooden posts -- how can they be tired? What a stupid question to ask! But when the Master asks,
it can't be stupid; there must be something in it." The whole night he tried hard. Early in the morning as the sun was rising he rushed to the Master, fell at his feet, and he said, "Yes, Master, they were tired."
The Master said, "I am happy. Your going to the polo game has not been useless." Others who were present, they could not understand what was going on. Wooden posts tired?!
Somebody asked the Master, "What nonsense is this? How can wooden posts be tired?"
And the Master said, "If wooden posts cannot be tired then nobody can be tired, because this whole existence is one."
If man gets tired, if horses get tired, then wooden posts also get tired. The whole existence is a manifestation of one energy.
I know why Krishnamurti has made that statement. But my own suggestion is unless you come to know that roses can bloom not only next to a guidepost, they can even bloom ON the guidepost, you have not known anything.
And thirdly you say:
I LOVE ROSES, BUT ALSO OTHER FLOWERS.
Why only roses and why only flowers? Love should be unaddressed. Love need not be oriented towards the other. Love oriented towards the other is not true love, love as relationship is not true love. Love as a state of being is true love. One can love a woman, one can love a man, one can love one's children, one can love one's parents, one can love roses, one can love other flowers, one can love a thousand and one things -- but these are all relationships.
Learn how to be love! So it is not a question of to whom your love is addressed, it is simply a question of your being loving. Sitting alone, still love goes on flowing.
Absolutely alone, still, what can you do? Just as you breathe...you don't breathe for your wife; it is not a relationship. You don't breathe for your children; it is not a relationship.
You simply breathe! -- it is life. Just as breathing is life for the body, love is the life of the soul -- one is simply love! And then only does one know that love is God.
Jesus says: "God is love." I say to you: "Love is God." The words are the same, but the significance is very different. Jesus says: "God is love." Then love becomes only one of the qualities of God. He is wise also, powerful also, a judge also, and many things more.
Amidst all those qualities he is love too. Jesus' statement was very revolutionary in those days, but not any more.
I say: "Love is God." Then it is not a question of God having many other qualities. In fact God disappears -- love itself becomes God. Love is the real thing. God is the name given by the theologians to something they know nothing about. There is no God; the whole existence is made of the stuff called love.
But if you love the word 'God' it's perfectly okay, you can call it God. But remember always it is LOVE, and you will know this love only when love has become a state of your being, a simple state of your being.
The sixth question Question 6
OSHO, WHY DO I HATE HOMOSEXUALS?
Sargam,
DEEP DOWN YOU MUST BE A HOMOSEXUAL, otherwise why should you hate them? Hate is love upside-down, hate is love doing SIRSHASAN -- headstand. Hate knows yoga postures. And do you think you are a different person just by standing on your head? Many fools think that way: standing on their heads they think they are yogis; otherwise they were just ordinary people. Now, standing on their heads they are special people; distorting their bodies they think they are coming closer to God. They may be useful in a circus, but it has nothing to do with spirituality -- otherwise the people in circuses would be the most enlightened people in the world. You have seen girls in circuses doing such postures -- almost unbelievable, as if they are not made of blood and bone and flesh but of rubber. Do you think they become enlightened?
Hate is a trick: you hate because you want to repress. And hate is not good, because it does not harm the other, it simply harms you.
There are millions of people who hate homosexuals. That simply means millions of people have the capacity of becoming homosexuals if the opportunity is given to them.
They have a deep longing for the forbidden fruit. Just to keep themselves in control, they create a great wall of hatred.
Sargam, that may be the case; or it may be a simple, ordinary phenomenon of life that we don't like people who are not like us. People who are unlike us we hate. Why? -- because they create suspicion in us. Hindus hate Mohammedans -- not that there is anything specific to hate in Mohammedans. Mohammedans hate Hindus -- not that there is anything special in Hindus which has to be hated. But whosoever is not like us has to be hated because he is a stranger, an outsider, and the outsider creates fear. And who knows?
-- maybe he is right. To protect yourself from this doubt you create a safety measure; that hate functions as safety, a shelter.
It is not a question of homosexuality. If you don't dress like other people, as they dress, they hate you, they don't like you.
Now my sannyasins are in great trouble all over the world. Just a few days ago many letters have come that in Australia, the school, college, university authorities are very much disturbed by my orange-people, because many teachers, many professors, have become sannyasins. And a problem is being created by the parents and their leagues. The problem is being created that these orange people and their presence may corrupt their children, so the parents are against them. The Catholic priest comes in his robe; he is accepted, he does not corrupt. But my sannyasins, just because they are coming in orange robes, can be a dangerous influence.
Anybody who is not behaving like you, not living like you, is hated. This is your experience in Poona too. The people are not really in any way HARMED by you
-- my sannyasins are the most harmless people you can find anywhere -- but people are against you just because you look different.
The homosexual has a very different lifestyle, and you are heterosexual. He
belongs to another religion, he has another politics, he is not a man like you. The moment somebody says that he is gay, a gap arises, a great gap. Now how can you communicate?
But all these fears have to be dropped; these are all defense measures. They simply show that you are not yet settled in your being -- afraid any outside influence may take you away, off your ground.
A little Hollywood fruit was following a husky, good-looking man down the street murmuring, "My, what a pretty man!" Unable to resist temptation, he went up and felt his ass.
The man swung round. "What the hell is coming off here? Beat it, will you?"
Sadly the queer retired, but kept following, and unable to control himself, felt his ass again.
"I thought I told you to beat it," the man snarled.
A third time, however, the queer could not resist, and lovingly felt the attractive can. The man swung round and knocked him to the ground.
The injured fruit looked up at the big brute and said sarcastically, "Tourist!"
It is not only that YOU hate the homosexual, the homosexual also hates the heterosexual; he also thinks that he does not belong to him.
We have created unnecessary labels. We have put labels on every man, and not one label
-- a thousand and one labels on every man. Remove all the labels! Man is simply man --
homosexual, heterosexual, autosexual, doesn't matter -- man is simply man.
Respect man, love man. Respect his individuality, respect his differences. And that is possible only if you respect your individuality. That is possible only if you are grounded in your own being and you are unafraid.
I would like a world utterly fearless, where all labels can be removed.
Once it happened:
I entered an air-conditioned train compartment in Bombay. The only passenger in my cabin immediately fell on the floor and touched my feet -- -a traditional Hindu SASHTANG when your whole body touches the floor. I told him, "Wait, wait! I am not a Hindu!
But he had already touched my feet. He was shaken; he said, "Then who are you?"
I told him, "Can't you see my beard? I am a Mohammedan! "
He said, "My God! And I have touched your feet! Why didn't you say so before?"
I said, "But you didn't give me any time. The moment I entered you jumped in such a hurry. Excuse me, but I am a Mohammedan. You can go to the Ganges and take a dip and you will be purified."
But now the thing was that we had to live in the same compartment for twenty- four hours. And he was very much worried about what he had done -- such a sin, never heard of before. And he said, "Do you know? I am the highest brahmin caste, and I thought that you were a mahatma."
I said, "Just a little difference between a mahatma and a Mohammed. My name is Mohammed."
But he would look at me again and again -- pretending to read his newspaper but he would look again and again. He was making sure -- I didn't look like a Mohammedan.
Finally he said, "You are joking! You don't look like a Mohammedan." I said, "So you have got it!"
He jumped again, touched my feet, and said, "I was watching you -- you don't look like a Mohammedan. The very vibe is that of the purest saint."
I said, "If it satisfies you, perfectly good, but if you ask MY opinion, now you will have to take two dips! In fact, I AM a Mohammedan! I was just trying to
help you, to console you; I was not hoping that you would touch my feet again."
The man was angry. He called the conductor immediately and he said, "Change my compartment! I cannot sleep in this compartment -- twenty-four hours with this man will be a torture, a hell. I don't know what kind of man he is. Sometimes he says he is Hindu, sometimes he says he is Mohammedan."
I told him, "The fact is, I am simply crazy"
He said, "That's right! So you are not Mohammedan? It is better to be crazy than to be a Mohammedan. Just crazy but Hindu?"
I said, "Of course! I am a Hindu of the highest brahmin caste, but a little crazy. Once in a while this idea comes to me that I am Mohammed -- but I am not! "
A third time he touched my feet!
People live by labels.… Drop all labels from your being and drop labels from others'
beings. Look at people as they are, don't bring labels. Then we will have a better humanity, a more human humanity.
The last question Question 7
OSHO, EACH DAY YOU GET MORE AND MORE CRAZY. IN THE DAYTIME
WHEN I THINK OF YOU, I START LAUGHING AND THINK WHAT A CRAZY, BEAUTIFUL MASTER I HAVE. OSHO, I JUST LOVE YOU.
Prem Akal,
JUST A CRAZY JOKE FOR YOU:
Karpinsky went to Rabbi Roth for advice. "Rabbi," he said, "I am ruined. I am a salesman, a respectable married man, but my life is ruined."
"What happened?" asked the Rabbi.
"I was in Mobile, Alabama, coming home from dinner in a restaurant, and this big black man dragged me by the neck and said to me, 'You are gonna suck me off, you mocky son-of-a-bitch, or I am gonna bust your head!' Rabbi, I am ruined!"
"No, no," said the Rabbi. "The Talmud rules that a man can do anything but spit on the Bible to save his life."
"No, Rabbi, I am ruined," moaned Karpinsky. "I liked it!"
Table of Contents
Chapter title: Always on the [Rocks]{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: You Are Ancient [Pilgrims]{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: Only Now