16

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‌CHAPTER 16

16 April 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

[A sannyasin asks if fasting would be of any valve to him.]

No need for long fasts but small fasts will be good just once in a while for not more than twenty hours, not more than twice a month. Don’t go on long fasts – that is destructive to the body – but once in a while, after two weeks, you can go on a one-day fast.

Rather than fasting, eat less; that is far more helpful. Don’t make the body heavy with food because food functions like an intoxicant. If you eat too much then it is no more a nourishment; it becomes an intoxicant. And when food is an intoxicant it is against meditation; hence people started fasting. But to fast long is destructive to the body, and the body is the vehicle. We have to use it, even to go to God it will be needed. So don’t weaken it, keep it strong.

But once in a while it is perfectly good, it is a purification.

[A sannyasin asks which leg to place on top in the lotus posture. He likes it differently from in pictures he has seen.]

No, no, don’t be worried about pictures. Whatsoever feels good to you is good. Just listen to your body, always listen to your body. And keep it in mind not only about this posture but about everything: the ultimate decisive factor is your own inner experience. Somebody may have liked to put the right leg first and then it may have become a tradition. In the East there is such an attitude that once you start one thing, others will simply go on doing the same thing for centuries. Nobody will ever ask ‘Why?’; that is simply not asked. Then sometimes great harm happens. For somebody it may be good, his energy may move better that way. It may not be good for you. You can force yourself and if you do, the body will adjust to it. But you will never enjoy it and it will become arduous and unnecessary trouble. If one listens to one’s own body things go easily, smoothly, relaxedly. And the

body has its own wisdom. Listen to what others are saying, give it attention but the final deciding factor is you and your own inner experience.

In the books it is written ‘Get up early in the morning at five o’clock.’ A few people get up because it is written in the books and for the whole day they feel sleepy. It doesn’t suit their body rhythm. Those books were written by old people and it happens in old age that you cannot sleep long. If somebody is writing a book at the age of eighty, he cannot sleep more than three or four hours at the most. So if he goes to sleep even at twelve o’clock, by three or four he is awake. And an old person writing a book for everybody!

When the child is in the mother’s womb it sleeps for twenty-four hours. Thank God he cannot read these books! Otherwise he will try to get up early in the morning! When the child is born he will sleep twenty-three hours, twenty-two hours, twenty hours, eighteen hours, sixteen... slowly, slowlyBy

the time you are sexually mature you will sleep near about seven to eight hours; that is natural. By the time you are forty-two, sleep will start falling more – five, six, four hours. By the time you are past seventy sleep dwindles almost to nothing.

But those books were written by old people. In those days, only old people used to write books. Who would read a young person’s book? People ask ‘What experience have you got?’ And all those books were written by men. Now, there is a different rhythm with a woman but women also read the same books and follow them. There is a gap of two hours between man and woman’s rhythm.

The woman wants to sleep in a little longer than the man in the morning. Now these are scientific facts. If man can easily get up at six, the woman will find it easier to get up at about seven or eight. So the morning tea should be prepared by the husband, not by the wife if we follow the natural rhythm.

Always listen to the rhythm, and always follow it. So whatsoever you feel good, is good. Both legs are yours and both are perfectly good legs, mm? One is not higher and the other lower. Never think that the right is right and the left is wrong; both are right!

[A therapist, newly returned from the West, says that Osho helped him very much the last time he was in Poona. Now he feels good energy when he works with people, but one person became unconscious when he touched them, and he felt scared about that.He feels his energy is still not

the way it should be. Osho checks his energy.] No, no, never be scared.…

Nothing is the problem. The energy is perfect, as it should be. You just became frightened because he became unconscious. But many more people will become unconscious and it is very good for them. Never be afraid. Whenever somebody is unconscious, just wait – sit silently. He can remain in unconsciousness for at the most forty to forty-five minutes. And the longer it is, the better, because that will be such a great relaxation for the person.

If you become too afraid just rub his third eye – if you become too much afraid; it is not to be done often. If two, three hours have passed and you become frightened, then just rub on the third eye and tell the person ‘Your eyes are opening.’ Within three minutes he will open his eyes. Then tell him that the energy is flowing and he can get up. Nothing to be worried about.

At the most it happens only once in a million cases; it may not happen in your life again. It may happen once that a person falls asleep, into that unconsciousness. Then he can remain unconscious for six to eight hours. But that will be a transformation in his life, he will never be the same person again.

So don’t be worried at all – I will take care. If you become too much afraid, just remember me.

[The sannyasin then says: I feel very responsible when I work. I’m not wearing orange when I work because I feel I’m delegating something to you.]

It will be helpful if you wear orange and the work will go infinitely more deep. You will be surprised at what miracles you can do.

So just be in orange, wear your mala, and don’t be worried about it. Things will go deeper, very much deeper.

[The sannyasin then asks about a group he is working with who have discovered something higher than enlightenment, and through that group, man have already taken sannyas.]

I talked this morning about it. It s just... nothing!...

It is perfectly good but it has nothing to with enlightenment.…

You can work with them. It is a good process but the claim is too much. The work is perfectly good and on the right lines. If they drop that claim it will be very helpful. The claim is too much. Sometimes it happens: even the good that could have happened through it stops if you start claiming too much.

There is nothing higher than enlightenment and there cannot be. Their process is good and the work is good and I am perfectly in agreement with it, just their claim is stupid. But that happens: when you start doing something, the ego takes possession and it starts thinking that this is the last word. It has always happened: the claim comes and the claim becomes an obstruction.

No need to disturb them either, mm? It is perfectly good, let them work. Help them.

[A sannyasin who has been running a centre, where they had trouble with the authorities, says he is glad to be back.]

Good. Things are going great there! Much more will be happening, so prepare yourself and prepare more people for the work. Australia is going to be possessed by me and you are my apostle there, so just...

Difficulties will be there – don’t be worried about them. They are always there and they always help: they become a challenge. If difficulties don’t arise, work can’t happen. Each difficulty becomes a challenge and creates more energy, it makes you capable of facing things. So accept all difficulties and all foes as friends, they are friends in disguise. They will create trouble for you but their trouble will be of great help. Enemies always help: they spread the word. They try to destroy the work but many more people become interested through them.

So never be worried about those people and when difficulties come, always think that it is a blessing in disguise. Each difficulty will prove a blessing. Once you have learned the process, that a difficulty can become a blessing, you will be surprised. Then life is all a bed of roses, thorns simply don’t exist; you have transformed them into roses. And I am happy with your work – things are going so well.

[A sannyasin couple have returned from the West. The man needed to go, and the woman had asked Osho if she could accompany him. Now she says it was rough there.]

I knew it would be but you were hankering to go for so long. It was really useless – it was a sheer wastage. You have disturbed your whole energy.

But sometimes you people start insisting and if I stop you then fantasies arise more. So once I try to stop you, you become more and more interested and obsessed. The first time you asked I told you not to go, but then again... Then I said, ‘Okay, now [you have] to go through the experience.’ It was really meaningless. The energy is created with such effort and can be lost so easily. The centering takes so much to happen and you can become distracted from it very easily. Months’ work can be lost within days.

But slowly, slowly my people will become aware. This is how they will become aware: they will see that [you] went and cameAnd you look empty. Just before you left there was a radiant energy

about you. It will come back but the trip was an unnecessary wastage. The ordinary world won’t suit my sannyasins who are really growing. The more you grow, the more you are a foreigner in the world. That’s why I am so concerned to create a commune as fast as possible. There are a thousand and one hindrances but it has to happen and it is going to happen. Once it is created I would not like my people, who are really growing and going deep, to even move out of the commune. Even to go to Poona, to the marketplace is meaningless.

So now remember it, mm? – and when this same type of foolish idea arises in others, help them because it is of no use.…

It will be back within three days. Don’t be worried! But never do such a thing again! [A sannyasin, newly returned, tells Osho she loves him.]

That I know. That’s why you are a sannyasin. This mad step can be taken only in deep love because it is so crazy to become a sannyasin, there is no logic in it. It is possible only out of the madness of love. That’s why you cannot explain it to anybody else either. If somebody insists ‘Why sannyas? Why this orange?’ it is impossible to explain. You remain absolutely indefensive, you can’t defend yourself. You can just shrug your shoulders and can only say ‘I love this man.’ But that is not an answer for others.…

[Osho suggests to a young seeker that he takes part in a few groups here to have a feel of what is happening.]

They will make things clear. They will make you more available to me and me more available to you. They will give you a few clues of what is happening here. From the outside it can’t be seen. It is

something inner and hidden. It is happening all the time but if somebody comes just as a tourist or a visitor he will miss it. He will see everything and yet he will miss it. To see it one has to become a participant. So first start participating in a few groups and then if the longing arises to participate even more deeply, become a sannyasin.

A door is open and if one really wants to enter into reality one can. The door rarely opens, only once in a while, and then for centuries people talk about it. But then it is pointless. It opens, it closes. It opened with Jesus, it closed with him. Friedrich Nietzsche was right when he said ‘The only Christian died on the cross.’ All other Christians are just pseudo. There was only one Christian, Christ. In fact there cannot be two. But the door was open and in those moments very few people dared to enter through it. Since the door closed, thousands and thousands of churches are full of millions of people all around the earth. Now it is much ado about nothing – the door is no more open! That door disappeared with the body of Jesus.

I can see that something is possible. Don’t get frightened! Because people long for something and when it begins to happen they become frightened, they run away. So if you hang around here a little bit, you will be a sannyasin.

Prem means love, Jaya means victory – victory that comes through love. And all other victories are not real victories. They are only pseudo. The real victory comes through love and only through love. Love conquers without defeating. In fact, on the contrary, love conquers through surrendering. Love is the most magical process in life. If one understands the process of love, one becomes a magician. The whole of life takes on a magical flavour and then you can create out of nothing. You can transform baser things into higher metal.…

[A visitor asks: I’m interested in astrology, not predictive astrology but psychological astrology. Do you think it’s worth pursuing?]

If you are really interested you can go into it. But it is a long, long process, your whole life will have to be devoted to it. Then you will be able to find only a few truths.

Astrology is so mixed with nonsense... that it is really difficult. It is just searching for a gem in a heap of rubbish and the heap is very big, mountainous. So if you are really interested... Otherwise forget about it, because it will be a whole life’s work. If you want to devote that much, if your interest is so much, if your love for it is such that you are ready to stake your whole life for it, then you may be able to find a few fragments. Those too will remain fragmentary.

Astrology cannot become a science yet. I think it will still take centuries for it to have some scientific structure. It has been in the hands of con-men so long that it is a very very pseudo science... as it is right now. But the possibilities are there; if people work possibilities are there. Because we are linked with everything. That much in it is true, that we are all interlinked, that existence is interdependent, that even if a leaf of grass is destroyed then something in the stars is destroyed. It is a totally joined network. It is like a spider’s web: you touch one thread at one place and the whole web vibrates. It is just like that. But it has to be discovered; it is not yet a scientific...

The time is also not right. Because psychology itself is not a science, so there are difficulties: first, astrology is ninety-nine percent hocus-pocus; psychology is ninety-five percent hocus-pocus. Out of

these two hocus-pocus things you want to create something. It is going to be arduous. The direction is not wrong, that I cannot say. If you have a love for it you can go into it. But if you don’t have that much love for it then don’t bother, put your energy into something else, because you may not be able to arrive at any results.

Sifting the chaff from the wheat is such a difficult job and the chaff is so traditional and so much talked about that one gets confused by it. And the con-man lives on it. He is not worried about the scientific truth in it. In fact he is worried that nobody should really look into it, because once astrology becomes a science, astrologers are gone. Their whole investment is this: to make it more and more esoteric so that nobody can find out if there is any truth in it or not. So you decide.

[Osho gives a name for a new centre: This will be the name for the centre: Bhavana. It means feeling. And that is the work. Change people from thinking to feeling, shift their minds from logic to love. Cut off their heads, literally! Let them start living through their hearts]

[A sannyasin has separated from his girlfriend of two years. Osho says it is a good thing to get out of a relationship when it has become stale.

The sannyasin says: The hard thing for me is to accept that I’m all right. And Osho answers: That is the most difficult thing for everybody, you reply, nobody can accept that. That’s my whole effort, the whole refrain, to tell you again and again that you are perfectly all right. For a moment you listen but you don’t believe it. Or even if for a moment you start believing it, the old mind comes in and says ‘How can you be all right?’ And you start putting interpretations on my statement. But I am simply saying that you are all right with no conditions attached.

The sannyasin says: But this voice keeps coming back again and again. And Osho tells him: That too will go slowly, slowly. How long can it continue to come? That is the struggle between the master and the disciple, it is a constant wrestling. Hopefully you will be defeated!]

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