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‌CHAPTER 4

16 February 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

[A sannyasin says: Now I know I am not... and this comes to me all the time. Not only when I’m meditating, but when I’m alone in the hotel room, it takes over. Can I let go of it?]

Let go of it. Don’t resist it, don’t fight it. That is the whole effort we are making here – so that you disappear and something bigger than you takes possession. The host has to go before the guest can enter, because it is the same space in which the host exists. When the host disappears, the space is ready and the guest can enter. So don’t be afraid.

It is natural to get afraid because one is falling into an abyss. Allow it, and if you become too much afraid take the locket in the hand and relax – and I will be helping you.

... Never be afraid of nothingness, because that is the nature of the innermost being. It looks paradoxical, but the innermost being is just like non-being. That is the meaning of the buddhist concept of anatta – no-self.

One is empty within, and the deeper you go, the more empty you become. At the very core there is infinite emptiness. Out of that nothingness everything has evolved, and back into that nothingness everything disappears. So it is a great death, and fear is natural. But by and by you will become acquainted with the beauty of it, the blessing and the benediction of it.

Then one takes courage, and every day one goes a little deeper, a little deeper. One day you leave all fears and simply drown yourself in it. Here you disappear, and there is God. Man never meets God; when man disappears, God is, and while man remains, God is not. God is nothingness.

It has been good. Feel grateful, tremendously grateful – and go into it.

[A sannyasin says: I feel very much depressed when I come to the ashram – I don’t know why. But I come because I feel very much love for you and I want to do all the meditations.

It seems all the people around here are very jealousThere are rules and regulations everywhere.]

Rules and regulations are imposed by me. Nobody else is imposing them. If you love me, you love my rules and regulations also. You don’t understand. Without rules and regulations, you won’t be able to even see me.

For fifteen years I lived without rules and regulations, and there was always a crowd of thousands of people around me. I saw it was not possible to help anyone this way. I had become a marketplace. Even one afternoon when I was asleep, I opened my eyes and saw somebody on the roof – he had removed a tile. I said, What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘I was curious, and because I couldn’t reach you, I came this way.’

Without rules and regulations it will be just as if there are no rules and regulations for the traffic. You are a driver – you will understand what will happen. There will be no possibility to go anywhere; all the roads will be blocked. This much is possible – that here you can talk with me. You can have your problems solved, I can suggest something to you. It is possible because of rules and regulations, otherwise not.

So don’t take it the wrong way. It is to help you. The day I decide I am not interested in you now, not interested in helping people, I will remove all rules and regulations – and then you will repent. I will be happy with this – because this is a big problem, and then there will be no problem for me – but then I will not be of any help to you. So don’t take it wrongly. This is your misunderstanding.

[A visitor says he is enjoying all the meditation except Gourishankar.]

Drop it – because if one out of five suits, that’s enough. If two suit, then that’s more than enough. There is no need to do all.

Those five meditations are made in such a way that at least one out of those five will suit every person. There are types, five types, so if one suits, that’s perfectly okay...

... The problem arises if the heart is closed. But conditioning never reaches to the heart, never. the heart remains unconditioned. and we can by-pass that head – that is not such a big thing. I can go on hammering on it – don’t be worried.

[A visitor says he has been practicing Vipassana and likes the Nadabrahma meditation. He asks if he should try other meditations.]

If Vipassana suits you there is no need to go on trying. Vipassana goes to the very core. Nadabrahma will be very helpful, because between it and Vipassana there is no contradiction. So you can do two sittings of Vipassana and one of Nadabrahma.Once Vipassana suits – and it is a

perfect method – there is no need to go on seeking and searching, unless you come to a plateau and you feel that you are stuck and that growth is going no further.

[The visitor asks if Vipassana will open the heart. Osho says: It will. The visitor adds: I feel just.]

Emptiness is the goal of Vipassana. But if you go on being empty and being empty, and you disappear in the emptiness, suddenly that emptiness becomes a fulfillment, a positive state.

In the beginning it will feel like emptiness because the ego disappears, the mind disappears, thinking disappears. All the constituents of the ego disappear by and by. So you are taking the furniture out of the room by and by, and the room feels empty. But simultaneously the room is becoming more roomful. You remove a chair. That chair was occupying a certain room – now the room is free. So furniture is going out, but the room is becoming more and more roomful. Once everything is removed and only roominess is there, emptiness, there comes a transformation, a transfiguration. The gestalt changes. Suddenly you see that the loom is not empty, it is only full of room.

You are emptying your ego, and something greater than you is entering you, but you will become aware only when you have completely emptied it. So continue. Nothing is a problem.

And Nadabrahma will help. Otherwise, doing Vipassana one can become a little sad, a little morose and depressed, because nothing comes and everything is going... the whole method is negative. So the Nadabrahma will be good because it will fill you with sound. Your emptiness will vibrate with the inner sound, and it will give good exercise to the inner emptiness.

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