Chapter title: None
31 October 1980 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Archive code: 8010315 ShortTitle: THUNK31 Audio:
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[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.]
(All the new sannyasins tonight are German -- save for Eva, she's from Sweden. Osho adds 'Anand' to Eva and talks to her about why life hasn't been blissful up to date.) For centuries man has lived at the minimum of his potential -- that's why there is no bliss anywhere. Life has been conditioned by the priests, the politicians, the demagogues, in such a way that everybody remains at the most lukewarm. But one cannot evaporate unless one starts reaching the maximum, the one-hundred-degree point.
These people who have dominated the scene up to now have great vested interests in keeping man at the minimum. To keep man at the minimum serves two purposes. One is that man remains obedient to the establishment. He hasn't got enough energy to fight, to rebel, to go against the mob psychology. He is so tired, so bored, that at the most he can somehow only manage to live. He cannot have a dance in his life, he can only drag.
Secondly, to keep man at the minimum means to keep man a machine. At the minimum m an is a machine, at the maximum man becomes divine.
To control people who know something of god is impossible, to reduce them to slaves is not possible at all. They would rather decide to die than become
enslaved. So all the vested interests have been in deep conspiracy against humanity as such. People are not living their life at the optimum, and only at the optimum is there joy, overflowing joy. Life becomes so flooded with light, love and blissfulness. But then there is danger for the establishment, because those people will become so intelligent, so sharp, that these mediocre politicians and stupid priests will not be able to dominate the scene at all.
My sannyasins have to live life totally, fully, to the maximum, to the uttermost, because only at that point does the transformation happen, never before it. And if a few people on the earth decide to risk everything to live totally we can bring a new humanity into existence. A new man is possible, in fact is absolutely needed. It is time that the old man is buried and burned and the new man arrives on the scene --
with freedom, with love, with joy, with a song in the heart, with celebration. 1/08/07
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My sannyasins have to prepare the ground for the new man.
(Only the toughies -- the tough of heart, that is, the courageous -- can find truth, Osho reminds Ulf.) One of the most important qualities, the most basic and fundamental quality, for the seeker is courage: courage to drop beliefs, courage to come out of all conditionings, courage to be innocent again, courage to function from a state of not-knowing, courage to live moment to moment, being dominated by neither the past nor the future, courage to be oneself -- and that's exactly what sannyas is all about. And then truth comes of its own accord, to the courageous heart truth happens.
Cowards only believe. Cowards become Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans; courageous people are seekers, they don't belong to any dogma or creed. They enquire, they are inspirited by all the awakened ones
-- Jesus, Buddha, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu -- but they don't belong to any church as
such. And because they don't belong they can get inspiration from all sources; there is no problem for them.
The Christian feels afraid to be influenced by Buddha and the Buddhist feels afraid of Jesus; they are all living in fear because they are clinging. Their clinging gives them fear: who knows? -- something may appeal to you more, then your old clinging will have to be dropped. It is better to keep your eyes closed so there is no question of choice. You can remain clinging to your tradition, to your religion, to your country, to your race -- and all that is sheer nonsense because all that means the past.
A seeker has to learn the way of unclinging. He is not a clinger, he does not take shelter in any tradition.
Those traditions are comfortable, convenient, very consoling. Their beliefs help people because those beliefs give them an idea as if they have come to know the truth. But that 'as if' is very great and one tends to forget that it is only 'as if'.
My whole effort here is to remind you that whatsoever you have believed up to now is only 'as if'. It is as if you know -- and you know not. It is better to know that 'I don't know,' because from that point a real enquiry can start.
The sincere person cannot be a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan. He can only be a seeker of truth. For that, courage is very essential.
(Meditation is the art of mirrorlike stillness, Osho tells Dhyan Mike. And it's through experiencing that state that one comes to know one's godliness -- which is what Mike means.) In that moment of awareness and silence the whole world becomes overflooded with a new fragrance that has always been there but which we were not able to feel because we were in such a turmoil, we were insensitive. Otherwise it was always there. The moment we are sensitive, receptive, available, it reveals itself to us. Then there is only god and nothing else.
And to know this is the ultimate in knowing and being. There is nothing beyond it. To know it means to come to the ultimate rest. Then all desires disappear. One feels utterly fulfilled, contented. Then one comes to know this is the most perfect existence that can ever be. And then certainly one feels grateful, grateful to all that is. That gratefulness is religiousness, the essential core of religiousness.
(Gabriele means god is my strength -- and you can only experience that when
your ego has evaporated in love.)
Love is a poison to the ego and nectar to the soul. The ego is the false centre in us and the soul is the real centre in us, because we don't know the real we have to invent the false. It is impossible to function without a centre, so something is better than nothing; even though the centre is false it is workable, it has a certain utility.
To discover the real centre is a long, arduous enquiry, but to create the false is simple, cheap, easy; hence society has decided to choose the easier. Our whole education is managed in such a way that from the first moment of the child's birth up to the time he returns from university, he is taught only one thing, the false ego. He is taught ambitiousness, he is taught greed, he is taught cunningness, he is taught competitiveness. He is told you have to become famous, you have to become this and that, you have to defeat others. He is told continuously that life is a struggle and if you don't fight you will be nowhere, nobody.
The parents tell him to become respectable, become honourable. The teachers tell him to be the first in the class, in the school, in the university, to win the gold medal, to top the list; and in subtle ways they are creating a false centre. Twenty- five years -- almost one-third of life and the most important one-third -- are wasted in creating it. Never again will the person be so alive, so full of intelligence, so adventurous, so 1/08/07
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ready to risk -- never again. As time passes he will become more and more conventional, he will become more and more of a coward, he will start only doing things that society expects.
The most important period of our life is wasted in creating a false centre -- and it is because of the ego that the world lacks love. Love is a natural need, but the egoist cannot love because for love the basic requirement is to put the ego aside and you don't know how to put the ego aside; in fact you have become identified with the ego. And ego will bring only frustration because all those ambitions are
not going to be fulfilled. Even if they are fulfilled they will not bring you any contentment. Fulfilled or not fulfilled, frustration is certain.
The ego will never allow you to love, to rejoice, to relax, to play. It will make you always look serious, holier-than-thou, it will keep you uptight, tense -- and that is the greatest calamity that can happen to anybody.
Once you know how to drop the identity with the ego love explodes and in that explosion of love one comes to know 'I am not, god is.'I am only a small wave in the ocean of god so god is my strength. I need not worry, I need not be uptight, I need not hanker for certain goals because I am not separate from the whole so there is no need to have separate goals.' Then one is in tune with the whole.
That is the meaning of Gabriele: god is my strength. God is your strength only when the ego has been dropped. Then the block is removed, then the energy from the beyond starts descending in you like a waterfall. It cleanses you, purifies you. It makes you innocent again and it gives you for the first time a glimpse of real life.
(Then, using Deva Roswitha's name as an excuse, Osho talks on another aspect of divine power.) All power comes from the divine but we can deceive others and ourselves that it is coming from us. That is one of the most canceric phenomena happening to everybody. That gives you a false beginning, and once the first step goos wrong everything else goes wrong.
Our life is not ours, it is a gift. You have not created yourself. Even to breathe is not within our capacity.
We go on saying... we have expressions in every language like this: 'I am breathing.' That is sheer nonsense, you are not breathing. If you are breathing then death cannot come to you. Death may come and you will go on breathing. What can death do if one continues to breathe, if one insists on breathing? But we know that when death comes suddenly the breath disappears; you were not breathing in the first place.
In fact if you are breathing then in the night when you are fast asleep you may forget to breathe and in the morning people will discover that you are gone. How can you continue breathing in sleep? Even if a person is in deep unconsciousness he goes on breathing. Your conscious effort is not needed at all; even our breath is not our own.
You eat food but you don't digest it The hunger is not yours, the desire to eat is not yours, the power to digest is not yours; it is a miracle how the bread and butter becomes blood and bones. Science has yet to discover how it happens. It is the greatest miracle that is happening in everybody's belly every day, but nobody takes any notice of it, of how bread becomes your blood. Even spaghetti becomes your blood -- that is the greatest miracle! (laughter) Not only does it become your blood, it becomes your brain! I have been trying to look into Italians minds -- they are full of spaghetti, their minds really look like spaghetti. The inside of the brain looks like spaghetti.
Nothing is ours. To know it becomes a great relief. Then all is god's, so who are we to worry about it?
Success is his, failure is his. Life is his, death is his. To be in the body or not to be in the body, it is his business. That's how a sannyasin looks at existence, with a deep surrender to the whole. Then all power is divine. In fact we don't exist at all; we are just small manifestations of that power.
The moment it is experienced, understood -- not only intellectually but existentially -- your life goes through a transformation: a great tranquillity, a great equilibrium, starts happening. Then all is good, then you don't have any complaint because in the first place you were not expecting anything to happen. Then whatsoever happens is good. It is happening through the will of the whole -
- it can't be wrong.
To live with this attitude is to live a religious life.
(Not many people really want to know truth even though they profess to, Osho declares.)
... because if they really loved truth they would not believe. A believer is not searching for truth, he is looking for some consolation. He wants to believe because he is afraid.
For example, in India people believe in the immortality of the soul and for twenty-two centuries they have been slaves. Now this is unexplainable: a country that believes that the soul is immortal should be 1/08/07
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absolutely fearless, nobody can enslave it, because what can you do? -- at the most you can kill the body but the soul is immortal.
But India has behaved just the contrary to its belief -- very cowardly, clinging to life, afraid of death.
But I can see a deep logic in it. It is not apparent, it is hidden, but if you just dig a little bit you can discover it. People believe in the immortality of the soul because they are afraid of death. It is not their experience, it is their consolation. They are basically cowards.
Poor people have always believed in heaven for the simple reason that here they are suffering so much --
they need some consolation somewhere after life, a divine carrot hanging there beyond the clouds. It keeps them running after it, it helps them to comfort themselves. It helps them to overlook the misery because they can always say it is momentary -- just a few days more and then there is eternal joy in heaven. It is worth suffering!
We could have made the earth a paradise but that golden carrot hanging above the clouds has been one of the greatest hindrances in transforming the earth.
People go on believing in things because they don't want to search for the truth. Not only do they not love truth, they are afraid of truth, because who knows? -- truth may be consolatory or may not be consolatory. Truth has no obligation to be according to our expectations. It may be totally different than how we were expecting it to be.
Friedrich Nietzsche has said it is better not to tell people the truth because they will be very much disturbed; let them believe. Their beliefs keep them happy. It does not matter whether their beliefs are only illusory; at least for the moment they are enjoying the dream -- why disturb them?
He has a point there. Millions of people don't want the truth and whenever there has been somebody like Socrates who insisted on telling them the truth they
have killed such a man -- they could not tolerate him.
But my sannyasins have to seek the-truth whatsoever the cost. It may not be according to your expectations but there is no need to have any expectations in the first place. Truth has to be known because only through truth does one become free, one attains freedom.
Jesus says truth liberates -- and he is absolutely right. Belief creates a bondage, truth liberates. And the greatest thing that the heart of man longs for is freedom, freedom from all limitations -- and that is possible only through truth.
So I don't teach any beliefs here. I simply take away all your beliefs and leave you utterly empty so that you can start your journey afresh. If one is ready to be empty half the journey is already complete. And the magic of the journey is that the other half is done by truth itself. You remain empty and waiting, just with a welcoming heart, and truth comes. And the moment truth becomes a guest in your house your life becomes luminous, meaningful, significant.
(A loveless life is no life at all, Osho tells Prem Shivani.) The moment you enter into the dimension of love life becomes divine, then one is a god or a goddess.
The first taste of the divine happens through love, and the first taste is enough because then everything else becomes irrelevant. Then the only thing that has any significance and meaning is love. Then you go on doing a thousand and one things but now there is no other motive except love.
You do something because you love. You take care of your children because you love them -- for no other motive, not even because they are your children. You take care of your husband or lover because you love him with no expectation, with no demand, with no possessiveness, because now love in itself is the end. To love is so joyful -- who bothers whether it is returned or not? If it is returned, good; if it is not returned that too is perfectly good. The reward is not outside the act of love, the reward is intrinsic to it.
Love is not a means to something else, it is an end unto itself.
As your understanding of love deepens, your feeling of yourself as being part of god and of others also being part of god, becomes more and more clear. Then the whole mist disappears from your eyes, then life becomes synonymous with god. The moment life is synonymous with god, one is enlightened, one has become a
Buddha, a Christ.
I don't want you to become Christian but I would certainly like you to become a Christ. I don't want you to become Buddhist but I would certainly like you to become a Buddha.
In the West 'Christ' represents the same ultimate state of consciousness as the word 'Buddha' represents in the East; Buddha means the awakened one, one who has come out of his sleep and can see clearly, absolutely clearly; and Christ means the crowned one. Awakening, total awakening, is the crowning ceremony, one becomes an emperor.
1/08/07
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Learn the art of love and follow the way of love and you will be moving towards god.
(Richman, poorman, beggarman or Buddha -- it's our choice what we become.) God creates everybody absolutely free. He neither makes you an emperor nor a beggar, he simply gives you a clean slate. You have to write your fate on it.
If you start living a life of desires you will be a beggar. Even if you accumulate the whole wealth of the earth you will still be a beggar -- a rich beggar but still a beggar, because those desires go on and on. One desire leads to another; it is a chain phenomenon, it is a vicious circle, unending.
If you start living a life of awareness, meditativeness, desirelessness, you are immediately an emperor.
Then each moment is golden because you don't sacrifice it for any future goal, you live it totally here and now. And that very living releases the imprisoned splendour in you.
My sannyasins have to be emperors -- whether you possess anything or not is
irrelevant. I am not against possessions, I am not against physical comforts -- they are perfectly good as far as they go, but they don't go far enough.
Wherever you are, in whatsoever situation, live a life without any future -- that means without any desire, because desires need a future. To live in the present is to live a desireless life because in the present there is not enough space for desires to arise. The moment is so small that it cannot contain desires, you can only live it. If you are dancing you can only dance, if you are singing you can only sing, if you are eating you can only eat, if you morning walk you can only walk. There is not enough space in the present moment for many many desires, not even for a single desire.
To be in the present is to be desireless and that's the way to be an emperor. And only emperors know god -- beggars miss everything.
(A dancer -- Natraj.)
Natraj is one of the most beautiful names given to god ever in any country, in any language at any time in history. Natraj means the dance, the ultimate dancer, the king of the dancers.
Christians could not think of such a name for god. It would look too worldly, too mundane. Jews could not think of such a name for god. Their god is very jealous, a very angry god. He looks more like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini or Ayatollah Khomaniac -- someone like that. He could not be a dancer. You cannot think of Ayatollah Khomeini dancing. But in the East, of the many names that we have given to god this seems to be the most significant -- Natraj.
Why have we called god a dancer? -- for the simple reason that dance comes closest to the divine experience. You cannot divide the dancer and the dance, it is indivisible. In the same way existence and god are indivisible. God is not separate; he is not a creator above and beyond the creation. That's the idea of Christians, Mohammedans and other religions: god is separate from creation. In six days he created the world and on the seventh day he rested and one has never heard what he has been doing since then!
(laughter) If he is still sleeping it seems a long sleep... or maybe he had a heart failure while he was asleep or... what happened? Because Monday has to come after Sunday -- what happened? With Sunday everything ended... he went to a picnic and never returned or had a car accident? -- something!
The whole idea is stupid: he finished the whole creation in six days and then gets so tired that on the seventh day he has to have a holiday.
No, in the East we think of god not as a creator separate from creation, not like a painter who paints and then the painting and the painter are different, but like a dancer. The dance and the dancer are one. You cannot have only the dance and you cannot have only the dancer because when he is not dancing he is not a dancer either; he is a dancer only when he is not dancing he is not a dancer either; he is a dancer only when he is dancing.
It is not that he breathed only in the beginning and since then everybody is breathing on his own. He is still our breath, our very breath, he is still our heart, our very heartbeat. God and existence are not two; god is the very soul of existence -- and existence is a dance, it is celebration, it is festivity.
1/08/07
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And that's what my sannyasins have to learn: to know life as a festival, as a carnival -- rejoicing, dancing, singing. The more deeply you rejoice, the closer you are to god. When you disappear in your rejoicing you melt into god. And that is the moment of experiencing realisation, attainment.
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