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‌9 March 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means bliss, or blissful, and Subhuti is the name of one the chief disciples of Buddha. The literal meaning is, one who is well-known, world famous, mm?

[A sannyasin who is involved in a clothes design business in the West, said that she was afraid it would be a distraction now she was back in Poona.]

The distraction is not in anything outside you. It is in the mind. So if you avoid one situation, it will bubble up in some other situation. It is in you – so where can you go? So rather than escaping from situations, face them. Facing them, by and by, the fear of them dissolves.

Make it a rule: wherever you fear, go into it. Whenever you feel there is fear, then that is exactly the place to go – then fear drops. So don’t be worried.

[Another returning sannyasin said that while he was in the West he was not hanging on to Osho or meditation or anything: I felt a distinct change in me. In that way it was really wonderful.]

Mm mm, it has been so. Good.

If you cling, only then you lose. If you don’t cling, there is nothing to lose, there is nobody who can disturb you. Whatsoever happens, you remain unscratched, untouched.

That’s the whole secret, the very key. If you cling, you are getting into misery by yourself, and sooner or later you will be in trouble. You are sowing the seeds of trouble. No clinging and no trouble – because nothing can be taken away from you. You don’t have anything in the first place.

That’s what sannyas is – remaining in such a state where there is nothing to lose, and one is not clinging to anything. So one cannot be frustrated because there is no expectation.

One cannot be forced to think about the past – there is no past. And one is not projecting for the future – there is none. One remains herenow.

It has been a good experience... continue floating in the same way, mm? If you feel in some moments like doing meditation, do it. But let that be your inner feeling – it is nothing to be enforced; don’t make it a discipline. If you have the urge, do it. But if even in the middle you feel the urge has gone, stop immediately, then and there. Not even for a single moment go against yourself. If you feel like being aware, be aware. If you feel that it is becoming a tension, drop it immediately. Float this way – just moment to moment, and let the decision come from your innermost core.

I know it is difficult not to do anything, but once you have known how not to do anything, you have known all. There is nothing else then. Doing is childish. Non-doing is great.

Meditation which comes by doing is nothing compared to the meditation which comes by non-doing. Awareness that you can create is just superficial compared to the awareness that will come to you, happen to you, that will surface in your being.

[A sannyas couple were present. The wife said she was pregnant and wished to keep the child but her husband did not. She asked what was the best thing to do for both of them and the child.]

You meditate for six days, mm? and the evening of the sixteenth, see me. Then we will decide... because the body may be ready for a child, and you may also like to have it, but whether you are really ready is another thing.

To be a mother is a totally different thing from giving birth to a child. To be a mother is a great responsibility and a great commitment. One should not behasty about it, mm?

It is very natural for the woman to want a child, very natural. Because the woman feels that only when she becomes a mother she has become creative. The desire is very deep-rooted in the mind.

For the man it is just the opposite. He would like to avoid the responsibility. Because to be a father is just a social institution... to be a mother is a natural phenomenon. So a man always thinks of responsibility, of the burden, economy, and this and that. The woman never thinks of these things. Naturally, instinctively, she wants to be a mother. But the decision has to be taken very very carefully.

The moment you give birth to a child, you are giving birth to a world – of unknown potentialities, possibilities. You are, in a way, taking a great responsibility. It should be taken very meditatively, mm?

So for six days, you meditate. Drop your decision right now – because if you have a decision, meditation won’t help much. Just remain open and meditate – and whatsoever happens will be good, mm?

[A sannyasin said she didn’t like wearing her mala when it felt horrible to her.]

Let it feel horriblebecause the whole effort is how to help the mind to drop. If you go on deciding

by your mind, then it is never going to drop. The mala and orange are nothing but to help the mind to drop.

You leave it to me – I say wear the mala so you wear it. Listen more to me than to your own mind. and your mind is more horrible than the mala.

[She says that she tried to drop her mind.]

I’m not saying to try. If you try you will be a failure. Be here a few days, and whatsoever I say, you do. You leave the decision to me – I make it so simple. Meditate, listen to me, be a sannyasin, move in orange and wear a mala.

The mind will continue for a few days, but don’t listen to it. Just say that it can go to Osho, and not to come to you.

... this moment it can happen. It has happened to so many people, why not to you? You don’t have the most horrible mind – I know many more people... You cannot be proud of your horrible mind – there are many people who have greater horrible minds.

Just take it easy. There is no need to drop anything, no need to fight. The mind is going to be dropped, mm? I take it out. (Osho leant forward and put his right hand to her head as if to draw her mind out. The sannyasin laughs.)

You just forget all about it!

[A sannyasin said that Ma Vipassana who is seriously ill is his friend; he would like to do something but feels helpless.]

It is good to feel helpless... prayer arises out of helplessness. And that helplessness will help your ego to drop.

If you can do something in every situation then the ego never drops. You have to come to face certain situations where you are absolutely impotent. You would like to do something but you cannot do anything... it is simply impossible to do anything. Vipassana’s situation may be very very helpful to you.

Just see the helplessness of man... and all the nonsense that ego goes on thinking. Neither birth nor death are in our hands. Nothing is in our hands. Once you realise this, prayer arises.

Prayer is a cry, a deep cry, of helplessness. And prayer makes a person religious.

... it is not a question of Vipassana suffering for you... she is not suffering for you. But she has given you a chance, mm?

This is how things are... but man has created a facade of power. We try in many ways – our doctors, our medicine, our this and that... this is all a power trip. It gives a feeling that everything is in control – and nothing is in control. It is just a mask. It is not only that you are feeling helpless – the doctor who is watching her, the doctor who is going to operate – he is also feeling helpless. He will not say, mm? because it is not good to say so. He will try to pretend that he is in power, in control, that he is doing whatsoever is needed. He will create a deception around himself. He is also helpless, he is also trembling inside.

Science has created a pretension, and it has helped the human ego so that man feels less helpless. Prayer by and by has disappeared. And God feels very very far away.

In these moments when you suddenly become helpless and you cannot do anything, in that impotence, two possibilities open: either you become suicidal, or you can become prayerful.

So use this opportunity for prayer. Go and sit beside Vipassana and pray. [The sannyasin answers: I don’t really know if I know how to pray, Osho.]

No, no, there is no need to know how. Helplessness will give you.It is not a question of words.

Just sit helplessly by her side. And just feel your helplessness. Something will start arising. You may start bowing down to the earth, or you may start looking up at the sky. You may start saying something which you will be surprised that you can say. You will become like a small child – and what can a child do when he feels helpless, unhappy, suffers, and finds no way? The child cries for the father or mother. And that cry is tremendously meaningful. It will be tremendously meaningful for you, and for Vipassana too.

I am not saying that you have to use certain cliches, or you have to repeat some christian prayer or this and that. No, nothing – just what you can do when you feel helpless and lost. Let this opportunity be a great experience for you. Let prayer happen.let communication be there.

[The sannyasin says: I feel that I communicate with her on an astral level.but I think that this is

just my imagination.]

Don’t be worried. Don’t doubt it – let it be imagination.

Imagination is a faculty, and it is more potent than reason. There are many things which can happen through imagination which can never happen through reason. But in the modern mind, the moment we say something is imagination it is already condemned. We think of it as if it is unreal.

Imagination is as real as anything else. It is more real than reason, because it is more primal. Reason is just the latest arrival... just a child. Imagination is ancient. We share imagination with animals, with trees, with rocks. Reason we share with nobody. It is just a local thing – human.

So don’t be worried about it – let it be imagination. Imagination simply means that you are not thinking in language, but in pictures, that’s all. It is as real, more real in fact, than the verbal mind – because it is more deep-rooted in your being than the verbal mind. The verbal mind is just a superficial layer. So don’t interfere with the imagination.

And it is not much of a question whether somebody survives or not. Because how long can one survive? We are fighting a losing battle. One day, one year, ten years – it doesn’t matter much.

These few months she has been here she has changed tremendously. If she dies there is not much of a problem. She has used this life. If she lives – good. If she dies I will not feel unhappy for her. She has earned something – a certain integration – and she will be able to use it in her next life.

For me it is not a question of whether she lives or not. The whole question is whether she has earned some integration, some centring – and she has. She has been going well... she has grown much. I am happy, mm? I can say goodbye to her with happiness. There is no repentance that she missed something.

So you just be prayerful by her side... it has helped you.

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