< Previous | Contents | Next >
CHAPTER 5
Sit in the center of the circle
9 October 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium
BELOVED OSHO,
ONCE, NANSEN TOLD TWO OF HIS DISCIPLES THAT HE WAS GOING TO TAKE THEM WITH HIM TO VISIT THE NATIONAL TEACHER. BUT BEFORE THEY STARTED OUT ON THEIR JOURNEY, NANSEN DREW A CIRCLE ON THE ROAD AND SAID, “AS SOON AS YOU GIVE A RIGHT ANSWER, WE WILL BE ON OUR WAY.”
AT THAT, ONE OF THE DISCIPLES SAT DOWN INSIDE THE CIRCLE AND THE OTHER BOWED LIKE A WOMAN. NANSEN SAID, “JUDGING FROM THIS RESPONSE, IT WILL NOT BE NECESSARY TO GO.”
ON ANOTHER OCCASION, NANSEN WAS WASHING HIS CLOTHES WHEN A MONK CAME ACROSS HIM. SEEING HIM INVOLVED IN SUCH AN ACTIVITY, THE MONK EXCLAIMED, “MASTER, YOU STILL ARE NOT FREE FROM ‘THIS’?”
NANSEN, LIFTING UP THE WET CLOTHES, COMMENTED, “WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT ‘THIS’?”
Maneesha, before I discuss your sutras I have to inaugurate Avirbhava’s new arrivals for the museum of gods. This museum will show to the world how man has been insane. He has worshipped the animals and killed human beings. It is so idiotic that future generations will simply laugh. They could not possibly understand.
In Australia the white man killed almost all the natives of Australia. They used to call it hunting; just as you go hunting animals, they used to go hunting men. And by the evening they would ask each
other how many they had killed. And they never thought for a moment that what they were doing was absolutely insane.
They have done the same with animals. They have worshipped animals on one hand and they have killed and destroyed many species. There have been thousands of species of animals; many have not left even a trace behind. Man has hunted them, killed them. This world used to be more alive, more colorful. It has become almost dead by our own hands; our hands are full of blood.
Just twenty years ago there were only four white lions left in the world. In a small town, Rewa, in India, where Narendra was a professor – because Narendra was a professor there, he invited me to speak – there used to be thousands of white, pure white, lions; their majesty was tremendous. Only four were left, and now I hear two of them have died. The other two may die any day. Because the remaining two are both males, there is no possibility of any children. Slowly slowly, many species have simply disappeared.
The lion used to be the national animal in India, but we have killed so many that they are almost finished. The Indian parliament had to change it; now the tiger is the national animal. The tiger cannot be compared to the lion. There has never been any animal comparable to the lion, its majesty, its power, its strength. But we have killed them. They were not doing any harm to us. They were living in the mountains, in the forest.
Avirbhava has brought a tiger and a lion. I will give you a little note about each. The Tiger.
In Hanoi the tiger is worshipped as a god. In Sumatra the tiger is represented as the abode of the souls of the dead.
In many countries, there are superstitions and beliefs surrounding the tiger. In Mirzapur, Bagheswar, the tiger god is located in a bira tree and is said to take human form at night and to call out to people by name. Beware those who answer the call: they fall sick. In Greece, Dionysius’ chariot is drawn by a tiger. In Japan, the tiger denotes courage. In Nepal, there is a tiger festival, known as Bagh Jatra, in which the worshippers dance disguised as tigers. In India, Durga, the destroyer mother goddess, rides a tiger, and Shiva, as destroyer, also sometimes wears a tiger skin.
There is a belief in India that a garden in which a tiger has been killed loses its fertility. The fangs, claws and whiskers of a tiger are used in love charms, and as measures against possession by evil spirits.
In China, the tiger is the king of the beasts and lord of the land animals. It sometimes depicts authority, courage, military prowess and the fierceness needed for protection.
If you look at this psychologically, the tiger and lion are really worshipped symbolically. The worship of tiger and lion says simply that you worship power – just as there are worshippers of money. In India each year on the festivals particularly on Deepavali, the festival of lights, money is worshipped as god – just notes and coins! And we call these people intelligent! These mediocres who have been worshipping money... because if you worship money, the goddess of wealth, Laxmi, will pour
down money on your house. It has never happened. Money neither grows on trees, nor is it simply dropped on the roof of your house. But still the festival goes on.
In my childhood I refused to sit while they were worshipping money. I said it was so insane that even a child could see it. Money is dead, just a method of exchanging things; it has no divinity. But the fear is that if you don’t worship, then Laxmi may turn back from your home. She may be coming just to shower money and you are not worshipping; she may turn back.
I asked my father, “Have you ever heard that she has showered money? Just a single case will be enough to convince me.”
He said, “On that point I cannot say anything because it has never happened.”
But the lust, the desire for money, for more money, has made even money a god, a dead thing, without any meaning. The same is the case with lions and tigers, because they represent strength and power. Everybody is hankering for power: power to dominate others, to become a prime minister, to become a president, to become a king or a queen. A deep desire in everyone is to conquer the whole world.
Not only is Alexander the Great sick, everybody is. Alexander was stupid enough to bring his sickness into activity. Most of the Alexanders keep it hidden inside themselves; but the desire to conquer the world is there.
When Alexander was coming to India, he met on the way the most beautiful man Greece has ever produced, Diogenes. Diogenes asked Alexander, “What will you do if you conquer the world? Let us assume it for argument’s sake. Even if you conquer the world what are you going to do next?”
Alexander said, “I have never given thought to it, but I assume that I will then relax and rest.”
Diogenes was resting by the side of a river, taking a sunbath naked. He laughed and he said, “If after conquering the whole world, massacring millions of people, you are just going to relax, why not relax now? This bank of the river is big enough. We both can reside here. It will be good company.”
Alexander was first very much shocked because nobody had ever talked to him the way Diogenes talked. But he had to concede that, “You are right. If after conquering the world one is just going to rest and relax, then why not rest and relax now? Who knows whether I will be able to conquer the world or not?”
And that’s what happened. He could not complete his conquest of the world. He returned just from the frontiers of India by the side of Sindhu river. He fought with a king named Poras, a man of tremendous courage and honesty, representative of the golden days of humanity.
Alexander tried cunning on Poras. He knew perfectly well it was not easy to conquer that man. So he sent his wife to Poras. It was the month of sawan, when in India sisters bind a thread on the hand of the brothers. It is called raksha bandhan. That thread reminds the brother that he has to protect his sister in every circumstance; even if he has to stake his own life, he will; that is a promise. And after binding the thread on Poras’ hand she said, “Do you know who I am? I am the wife of your
enemy, Alexander, who is camping on the other side of the Sindhu river. Now remember and keep the thread on your hand. Do whatever you want to do, but don’t kill my husband.”
Poras promised. This was a strange strategy. But when fighting, Poras had the chance, when he killed Alexander’s horse and Alexander fell on the earth and Poras jumped on him from his elephant with a spear. But as he was going to put the spear into the chest of Alexander, he saw the thread. He simply stopped. Alexander asked, “What has happened?”
He said, “I have given your wife a promise. She has become my sister. I cannot kill you.”
That way Alexander became the conqueror. This is not conquest. This is pure cunningness. And from there he returned. Seeing the way Poras behaved, he did not have the guts to enter deeper into India, because he would have to face more, courageous, great warriors, and there was a whole continent to conquer. So he turned back, the world remained unconquered and he died by coincidence the same day as Diogenes died.
Now here is a beautiful story. It cannot be said to be factual, but it is certainly truthful. And you always have to make a distinction between fact and truth. Truth need not always be fact, even a fiction can have a truth.
The story is, they both met on the boundary line of this world and paradise. There is a river which makes the boundary line. Ahead was Alexander, nude, because you cannot take anything with you, just a skeleton. Suddenly he heard a belly laugh behind him. He looked back and he could not believe it. He thought, “My God, this is Diogenes.”
But to keep his face, he said to Diogenes, “It is a great coincidence that an emperor is meeting a beggar by this river which is the boundary line of the world and paradise.” He was saying that, “I am the emperor and you are the beggar.”
Diogenes said, “You are absolutely right. But there is some misunderstanding. The beggar is ahead of me and the emperor is behind you. I was as free when I was on the earth. I had no possessions, no power, no prestige. I simply enjoyed my life in utter freedom without bothering about what people say. You were concerned about conquering the world, so you had to compromise, you had to give thousands of concessions of all kinds, you had to be cunning, diplomatic. You were a beggar there too, and here now you are still a beggar. I was an emperor there also. Nobody ever challenged my emperorhood and I told you – have you forgotten? – that your conquest may not be completed and you may not have time to rest and relax. Now, what have you to say about it?”
Alexander said, “Forgive me, I was too egoistic. Had I listened to you and rested by your side, at least a few years would have been of joy, silence, meditation, peace, love. But I did not listen to you.”
There are thousands of ways of getting into this trip of power, politics, money, knowledge, anything where man starts bragging about himself as special.
The psychology behind this worshipping of tigers and lions symbolizes the worship of power. So man on the one hand worshipped them and on the other hand killed them. I was a guest of the Maharaja of Bhavnagar. He took me around his palace. And I saw all over the palace hundreds of
heads of lions hanging on the walls or the full lion stuffed standing in the corridors. I said, “Who has done this?”
He said, “My father was a great hunter. He has killed more lions than anybody else in India.”
I said, “You call it hunting. And if a lion had killed your father, what would you have called it? A disaster. You would not call it hunting. And what is this hunting? From far away sitting on a tree with a machine gun, a poor animal with no arms to defend himself or to fight... killing him and rejoicing in this killing!”
I told the Maharaja, “Your father must have been mad. Are you still continuing this madness? These things come as a heritage. I see in your eyes while you are showing me all this nonsense a great pride, as if your father had done some good to humanity. You should be ashamed of being the son of a man who unnecessarily destroyed such beautiful animals.”
A note about the lions.
Universally the lion is known as the king of beasts, and in several countries is worshipped as a symbol of the sun, and that of a destroyer. In Baalbek, the lion was worshipped as a god. A calf would be presented to the lion and while it was devouring the calf, adoring spectators would sing songs of praise to the lion. In Persia, Mythras, the Persian god of light, was always accompanied by a lion, and the Arabs had a lion-god, Yaghuth. In Egypt, there was a lion-headed goddess, Sekhmet. And the ancient Egyptian god, Ammit, was part lion and was believed to eat the souls of the sinful.
In modern Africa there is a lion-idol among the Balondas. It is made of grass covered in clay and is placed in the forest. In case of sickness, prayers are offered and drums beaten before it.
In India, the fourth incarnation of Vishnu, was as the man-lion, called Narasinha – half man, half lion.
It is good to be conscious of how humanity has been behaving unconsciously. It is good to know the ugly spots of man’s behavior because then you can avoid much ugliness in your life, and your energy can move in more graceful, in more loving, in more compassionate ways.
Avirbhava, bring your tiger and lion.
(IN COME AVIRBHAVA IN A LION COSTUME, AND ANANDO IN A TIGER COSTUME, DANCING AROUND THE PODIUM. )
The sutra:
BELOVED OSHO,
ONCE, NANSEN TOLD TWO OF HIS DISCIPLES THAT HE WAS GOING TO TAKE THEM WITH HIM TO VISIT THE NATIONAL TEACHER.
In those days, particularly in Japan, a certain Zen master was declared as the National Master of Zen. There were so many masters, but the National Master was attached to the palace of the king.
And all the masters used to meet the National Master. Most probably he was old and well respected, a man who had helped many people to become enlightened. Nansen was enlightened; with his two disciples he was going to visit the National Teacher.
BUT BEFORE THEY STARTED OUT ON THEIR JOURNEY – this is how Nansen worked. He is unique in his devices. BUT BEFORE THEY STARTED OUT ON THEIR JOURNEY, NANSEN DREW A CIRCLE ON THE ROAD AND SAID, “AS SOON AS YOU GIVE A RIGHT ANSWER, WE WILL
BE ON OUR WAY.” Now, drawing a circle on the road, what answer can you give?
But the disciples did certainly the best that was possible. AT THAT, ONE OF THE DISCIPLES SAT DOWN INSIDE THE CIRCLE AND THE OTHER BOWED LIKE A WOMAN. NANSEN SAID, “JUDGING FROM THIS RESPONSE, IT WILL NOT BE NECESSARY TO GO.” In fact he was not
intending to go anywhere, this was just his strange way of working. But the answers that the disciples managed are tremendously beautiful.
First, one disciple sat down in the center of the circle. That is the whole effort of all religion, to be at the center of your being. At the center of your being you are at the center of the whole universe. That is the only shrine, the only temple. The door is at the very center of your being; you are only a circumference.
And the other bowed down to the disciple who was sitting in the center. In Japan the woman behaves in a very graceful way. The man is not expected to have that much grace. But the woman is expected to be very graceful. So the other bowed like a woman; with great grace he bowed down to the disciple who was sitting at the center. He also showed some insight that, unless you bow down to somebody who is at the center of his being, in great humbleness, with great peace, with totality, with love, with receptivity, which are all the qualities of the woman, you can never reach to your own center.
Seeing this NANSEN SAID, “JUDGING FROM THIS RESPONSE, IT WILL NOT BE NECESSARY
TO GO.” The journey is cancelled because you both understand exactly the very process of how one becomes religious.
ON ANOTHER OCCASION, NANSEN WAS WASHING HIS CLOTHES WHEN A MONK CAME ACROSS HIM. SEEING HIM INVOLVED IN SUCH AN ACTIVITY, THE MONK EXCLAIMED,
“MASTER, YOU ARE STILL NOT FREE FROM ‘THIS’?” The word ‘this’ has a special significance for the fellow-travelers of Gautam Buddha.
Gautam Buddha insisted on the ‘thisness’ of things. You become old and you complain, and Buddha will say, “There is no need to complain. This is the way nature works.”
Even if you are dying, he will not show any sympathy. On the contrary he will show his understanding. He will tell you, “Don’t be worried. Die peacefully; everything that is born one day dies. Take death with graceful receptivity, no grudge, no complaint. Life should be without any grudge and without any complaint; so should death be. The word that he used was tathata. It can be translated in English as thisness or suchness. Such is the way of life, or this is the way of life; there is nothing to complain of; you cannot go against the current, just float with it. This is the right way: such is the way of those who know.
Although Nansen was washing his clothes when the monk came across him, seeing him involved in such an ordinary activity – a great master with thousands of disciples is washing clothes? – THE MONK EXCLAIMED, “MASTER, YOU STILL ARE NOT FREE FROM ‘THIS’?” Nansen was always
ready to use any situation to give a greater insight into things. The monk was pointing to the washing saying, “It is time you should be free from all these small things, anybody else can do it.” But Nansen transformed the word ‘this’ immediately.
NANSEN, LIFTING UP THE WET CLOTHES, COMMENTED, “WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT
‘THIS’?” The whole episode about washing the clothes changes its very color, its very meaning. It becomes a question of thisness. You cannot do anything about this. ‘This’ means the present moment. You can think about the past, that it could have been something else; you could think about the future, how it should be; but what can you do about the present moment? What can you do about this? In the present moment one can do only one thing, only one thing: one can simply be silent and witness. More than that... there is not space enough in the present moment.
But the witness fits perfectly well. You can watch. The master is saying, “I am washing the clothes and watching. What more can be done with this?” Secondly he is also indicating... And this was one of the new things that he introduced; I have called it a point of great departure: he made Zen monks work. “If you don’t work one day, then another day you don’t eat. Work today, only then are you allowed to eat tomorrow.”
It was very new and the society was very angry at Nansen because monks had always been given their food, their clothes and other comforts by society. Nansen told the monks that you have not to be beggars. He was a very revolutionary character. Buddhist monks carry a begging bowl; Nansen forced his monks to throw away all begging bowls. In his monastery no begging bowl, because in his monastery there are only emperors, no beggars!
“We will work it out, our necessities are very simple: a cup or two cups of tea, just rice for food, and we have enough land around the monastery; just three, four hours work and transform the work into meditation. While working, work so totally that you forget the whole world, so that only the work remains, not even you; you are also gone, forgotten. So deep down you are involved in the work that the work becomes a great meditation, a great transformation.”
So he introduced a new thing. Buddha had introduced a sitting and walking meditation, because you cannot sit the whole day and meditate; your bones will start hurting. So he had given a one- hour-sitting and one-hour-walking meditation, so the balance and the health of the meditator could be maintained.
Nansen said, “A few hours of sitting meditation and a few hours of working meditation.” He dropped the walking meditation. When you can work what is the need of walking? The working will be enough exercise for you, it will also be productive and it will change the face of the sannyasin. He should not be a parasite on society; he should become independent.
He saw that far away in the future the problem was going to be great. Just a few years back in Thailand the government had to make a law that nobody could become a monk without government permission. The monks had increased on such a large scale that for every four persons one was a monk. Now the other three have to carry the whole burden of the one, and the three themselves are
on the edge of starvation. Thailand is a poor country, but this man does nothing, contributes nothing to the society and asks for everything, asks for respect, honor.
Nansen must have been very clear that the way monks were increasing in the Far East, they would soon overrun ordinary society. It would be impossible to feed them; they would lose all respect and become near beggars. His foresight was absolutely right. That is the situation in many Buddhist countries.
So this small incident not only shows the idea of thisness. It also shows that, “I have to work. It does not matter that I am enlightened, I have to wash my clothes and I have to work in the field for my food.”
When he became very old, he insisted on working. And he was so old and fragile, the disciples became very much concerned. At a certain point they stole all his working tools. Nansen looked for his tools but could not find them. He did not eat on that day; the poor disciples had to give his tools back. He worked till the very last moment of his life. He raised the value of work, and he raised the respectability of the sannyasin. He brought many new ideas against, in opposition to the whole tradition.
Finally he was the winner because he foresaw the future. A man of enlightenment has a perceptivity, a clarity that can look far away into the future. And if you want to prepare for the future you have to begin now.
I am reminded of a Sufi mystic who used to work in his garden and he had become very old, almost ancient, one hundred and twenty years old; but he still used to work in the garden. The king used to come every day around the town in disguise to see if everything was all right. He was very much concerned looking at this old man, the oldest in his kingdom, still working in the field, in the garden.
He could not resist the temptation. The old man had a really beautiful garden with great cedar trees, perhaps four hundred years old and he was planting new cedar trees, just small plants. The king could not resist the temptation; he got down from his horse, went to the old man and asked him, “How old are you?”
The man said, “Old? People say that I must be nearabout one hundred and twenty. But I have never counted. It could be a little more, it could be a little less. But why do you ask?”
The king said, “I am asking this because you are planting trees. You will not be able to see these trees grow. You are planting fruit trees which will bring fruit after forty or fifty years. You will not be here. And you work the whole day. I cannot understand your logic.”
The old man said, “You will understand. If my parents had not planted trees which they were not going to see in their full bloom, I would not have seen them. I would not have enjoyed the fruits of those trees. I would not have seen these four-hundred-year-old cedars almost reaching to the stars, their beauty and strength. If my forefathers four hundred years ago had not planted them, I would not have been able to enjoy their shadow, their beauty, their grandeur. Have I to answer more or have you understood?”
The king said humbly, “I understand. If you see clearly the future, then this is the moment to begin, now or never.”
A poem by Sekiso:
IN THESE MOUNTAIN VILLAGES AND HARBOR TOWNS
I’M HAPPY TO HAVE FOUND GOOD COMPANY,
A CROWD OF FISHERMEN
IN AND OUT OF MY HUT THE WHOLE TIME. SINCE I HAVE NEVER HELD OUT THE LEAST THING BY WAY OF BAIT
I’VE MANAGED NOT TO BETRAY THE FISH WHO HAVE APPROACHED AT THE RISK OF THEIR LIVES.
It is said about Sekiso that he lived in a hut in a fishermen’s village. He had a hut just by the side of the lake, and whenever he used to come to the lake hundreds of fish would come to greet him. Just as it is said about Saint Francis of Assisi, so it was about Sekiso.
And in this poem he is saying, SINCE I HAVE NEVER HELD OUT THE LEAST THING BY WAY OF BAIT I’VE MANAGED NOT TO BETRAY THE FISH WHO HAVE APPROACHED AT THE RISK
OF THEIR LIVES. The fish who used to approach him were approaching at the risk of their lives. But it happens if your heart is full of love. If your whole being is nonviolent so that you cannot even imagine killing a living thing, even trees understand it, even birds understand it, animals understand it.
And in a deeper sense, if you make it a metaphorical expression, then every master is approached by thousands of disciples risking their lives. It is possible only if the master radiates trust, if the master radiates love, if you can see in the eyes of the master nothing but a pure witness, a mirror. Otherwise you cannot approach too close to the master; you will keep at a distance, because, who knows, he may cheat you, he may deceive you.
But with the authentic master it is not a question of mental discrimination. It is just that suddenly as you come close to the authentic master, something in your heart starts dancing. Nobody will see it; only, you will find that your heart has entered into a different kind of energy, that your heart has entered into a different climate, a new fragrance which pulls you magnetically.
It is true that the closer you come to the master, the more and more your so-called personality will disappear. Only that which is authentic and natural, that which you had brought from your birth will remain, not that which has been given to you by the society.
It is true that the master is a death and a resurrection. Passing through the master, you are passing through fire; only pure gold will be saved. All that is false in you is going to be burned. So only very courageous people take the step of coming close to a master.
Question 1
Maneesha has asked a question:
BELOVED OSHO,
IS IT CONCEIVABLE THAT A REAL MASTER COULD BETRAY HIS DISCIPLES?
Maneesha, it is conceivable. If the real master feels that by betraying the disciples he will be helping them, he will betray. The real master can do anything to help the disciple. It is a little difficult to conceive it – and while Maneesha was writing the question, she could not have thought that this would be my answer – but a real master can do anything. He can betray if he feels that betraying is going to help your spiritual growth. Otherwise there is no question of betraying.
In the first place the master is not committed to you. Before betraying a commitment is needed. A real master never commits himself to you and never forces you to commit, because every commitment is a spiritual slavery. Neither is the disciple forced to commitment nor is the master; they come close as fellow-travelers on the same path. Perhaps the master is a little ahead, but that does not mean that you are lower and he is higher.
Anyone who thinks in terms of superiority and inferiority is not a master at all. He is just playing the same ego game which is being played in every place around the world in different ways. The authentic master is out of the game of ego. So there is no question of surrendering to him, no question of committing to him.
You are asking, “Can a real master betray the disciple?” and I am even saying that a disciple cannot betray a real master because there is no commitment. We move together on the path.
At a certain point you feel to move in a different direction. An authentic master will simply bless you and will give you assurance that if you find any difficulty, “I am always available. You can explore in any direction, this whole universe is ours. And there are thousands of ways to reach to the truth. So if a desire has arisen in you to move in a certain direction, you can leave me. Don’t think for a single moment that you are betraying me. Don’t feel guilty because there was no commitment in the first place.”
And as far as the master is concerned, obviously, why should he be committed to the disciples? For what reason? He has it. The disciple is searching, he has found it.
It reminds me of a very beautiful story in Gautam Buddha’s life.
A certain disciple of Gautam Buddha, named Manjushri, always remained sitting under a tree. Buddha may be going to speak but he will not move from the tree to the assembly hall. And people asked him again and again, “Manjushri, you are a man of intelligence. If you have renounced the world to be with Gautam Buddha, is your commitment with Gautam Buddha or with this tree? He is speaking and you are sitting here.” More often he will simply laugh and will not say anything. Finally he said, “Why don’t you ask Gautam Buddha himself? I know, he knows.”
The people who were asking could not see the mystery of it. They asked Gautam Buddha, “Why does Manjushri go on sitting under that tree? You move, you go to different places, but he remains there.”
Buddha said, “He has found. Now there is no question of any movement. Everything has become still in him and it is perfectly beautiful. You have only seen him from the outside sitting under the tree. You have not seen thousands of flowers falling from the tree over Manjushri rejoicing in his enlightenment.
“And you never wondered why Buddha does not ask him. You should have thought about it. Be a little more alert. I am also aware that he is sitting under the tree, that he does not come to the assemblies. There is no need; he has found it. Now he is free; he can sit under the tree or he can go anywhere. There is no commitment.”
An authentic master has no commitment of any kind either from the disciple’s side or from his own side. That is ninety-nine point nine percent of the answer; point one percent, I say a real master in a certain situation could betray his disciples if he feels, if he sees that his betrayal may help the growth, may make the disciple more free, more independent. The possibility is there; it is not inconceivable. But it will always be for the welfare of the disciple.
Now something serious in honor of the lion and the tiger...
Old Gronk, the hunchback, is about to retire. He has been ringing the huge bell of Trinity Cathedral for forty years, and he is getting too old to make the long climb up the bell tower steps.
He advertises for a replacement in the newspaper, and the next day another hunchback appears. “I’ve come,” says the young hunchback, “to take the job.”
Both hunchbacks make the long climb up into the bell tower. “It is a tough job,” gasps old Gronk, puffing. “Watch this!”
Then the old hunchback runs back, turns, and races towards the bell rope. He leaps twenty feet in the air, catches hold of the rope, and swinging wildly on it, rings the giant, thunderous bell – Clang! Clang! Clang!
The young hunchback watches this and is eager to try. He backs up, sprints towards the bell rope, leaps twenty feet in the air, misses the rope, and smashes his face against the side of the bell, making a small ‘Ding’ sound.
“Wait! Wait!” says the young hunchback, dusting himself off. “Let me try again.”
He runs, leaps twenty feet into the air, misses the rope, and again smashes his face into the bell – Ding!
“Wait! One more try!” splutters the battered, young hunchback.
He runs all the way back into the corner of the bell tower, and with full speed, lunges towards the bell rope. He jumps thirty feet in the air, misses the rope, misses the bell, and sails out of the window, two hundred feet to the street below.
Old Gronk looks down at the small crowd gathered around a tiny blotch on the ground. “Hey, up there!” shouts a police constable. “Does anybody know who this guy is?” “No, I don’t know who he is!” Gronk shouts back, “but his face rings a bell!”
“How can you possibly say that I am absent-minded?” blinks Ronald Reagan at Nancy Reagan across the breakfast table, while he spreads butter on his tie, and looks at his toast.
“Well, Ronnie,” inquires Nancy, “can you explain to me why you forgot to put your pants on yesterday, before you went to meet Mr. Gorbachev?”
“Meet Mr. who? Did I do that?” asks Reagan, scratching his head. “How odd! I don’t remember doing that at all.”In fact, there are only three things I can’t remember. I can’t remember names, I can’t remember faces... and I can’t remember what the third thing is!”
Mrs. Wimple, the headmistress of Bedding Down College, the all-girls’ boarding school, is giving her final speech of the year to the graduating class.
“Remember, girls,” says Mrs. Wimple, stiffly, “keep your body and mind healthy and clean. You have a new responsibility as you enter womanhood. Love is the base on which the family is built, so don’t cast yourselves away to loose and wanton sex. Only dangers will come from it, and its pleasures are only transient. While you lose grace and respectability, you may gain disease and pregnancy... and all for what? An hour’s worth of pleasure!”
Suddenly, a voice from the back shouts out, “How do you make it last an hour?” Nivedano...
(Drumbeat) (Gibberish) (Drumbeat)
Be silent. Close your eyes and feel your body to be completely frozen. Now look inwards with deep urgency, as if this is the last moment of your life. This urgency is absolutely needed because only then can you reach to the center of your being.
Deeper and deeper like a spear go to the center of your being. That is the source of life. At the center of your being everybody is a buddha. And the moment you reach to the center and you feel the buddhahood filling your consciousness completely, a tremendous joy arises. Thousands of flowers start showering on you. A serenity, a silence, a blissfulness, a deep ecstasy... just watch everything. You are entering into the very mystery of life.
To make it more clear, Nivedano... (Drumbeat)
Relax. You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are only the witness. This witness is the point of departure. From this witness you can enter into the universal, into the eternal. This is the door to all that is great – the truth, the beauty, the good – satyam, shivam, sundram.
Gather as many flowers, as much fragrance, as much gold as possible, because you have to bring the buddha with you. Slowly slowly, you have to act around the clock as a buddha; not as if, but authentically a buddha, remembering the grace, the love, the compassion, remembering the balance of everything and always remaining in the middle, the golden mean. Witnessing makes all this possible.
The evening was beautiful on its own, but your presence, your silence, your witnessing, your melting into each other... This Buddha Auditorium is no more filled with ten thousand people. It has become just a lake of consciousness.
Losing the boundaries is the greatest joy; melting into the universe is the greatest splendor.
Before I call you back, have a good look at this space where you are, because you have to visit this space again and again.
Take a good look at the path you have followed to reach to your center from the circumference. The same path, you will be traveling again coming back. It is a small path, just one step. But what a miracle in a single step! The ordinary becomes extraordinary, the nobody becomes a buddha.
Nivedano... (Drumbeat)
Come back, but come back as buddhas without any fear and without any doubt. The buddha is your essential self. Sit down silently for a few moments just to recollect the experience you have gone through. And live it out in your gestures, in your activities, in your words, in your silences.
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.
Can we celebrate the ten thousand buddhas? Yes, Osho.
< Previous | Contents | Next >