3

< Previous | Contents | Next >

‌CHAPTER 3

7 May 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Halima is a sufi name, a name of God. It means: one who forgives, forebears all. Even if you go against Him, He is not against you. Even if you deny Him, He will not deny you. Even if you go astray, He knows you will come back. His trust in you is absolute. And if one understands this – that God has given freedom, utter freedom to us all, even the freedom to deny Him, even the freedom to do everything which goes against Him – then a new concept of God arises: God as freedom.

The idea that God is a kind of dictator is false. The idea that God wants everybody to obey Him is utter nonsense. An obedience that is enforced from outside will not be a real obedience, it will be a slavery. Yes, a different kind of obedience comes but it comes voluntarily. It is your choice, you choose it. You can disobey, you can obey. As far as God is concerned, all is the same. Adam and Christ are both the same as far as God is concerned. Christ is not more valuable than Adam, who denied God, who disobeyed God.

Once this freedom is felt then God becomes the greatest democratic situation. That is the meaning of ‘Halima’. God loves so much that He loves even your hatred for Him. He loves you unconditionally, irrespective of what you are doing and what you are. His love does not depend on your acts.…

Asima – another sufi name for God. It simply means ‘the great.’ All is great, the small exists not. The small cannot exist because all is interlinked, all is part of an infinity. Even the smallest particle is part of the whole. The particle cannot exist without the whole and vice versa too: the whole cannot exist without the particle. The whole will not be whole without the particle – something will be missing, there will be a gap. So even the smallest blade of grass is as great as any sun.

Once you start looking for the great you will find it everywhere. You will not find a place where the great is not. That is one of the greatest insights of modern physics. Searching for the smallest

they have stumbled upon the greatest source of energy. Looking for the atom they have discovered atomic energy. The small only appears small, it is an appearance. It contains the great.

And you cannot find the great directly. Whenever you search you will find the small: the small is the way of the great to express itself. You cannot see the ocean – you always see this wave or that wave. Only waves are seen; the ocean remains unseen. The ocean has to be inferred because the waves cannot exist without it. So we see the small parts – the man, the woman, the tree, the mountain, the particle of dust, a drop of water; but these are just forms. Penetrate deeply into them and they become doors, doors to the infinite.

That infinity is called ‘Asima’, ‘the great’. Look deeply, within and without, and you will find Him.

Hasibo – a name of God. It means: one who absolutely satisfies. There are many satisfactions in life but they are all momentary. They are just like sandcastles: you make them, you have not even completed them, a breath of wind and they are gone. They are like paper boats: you prepare them with hard work and they all drown. Or they are like writing on water – nothing remains, the whole effort is wasted.

Yes, a glimpse arrives but a glimpse is just a glimpse, it is not going to abide. It is just a dream. And we go on living, moving from one dream to another dream. One desire is fulfilled, there is a little bit of satisfaction, just a little bit – just enough so that one can go on hanging around in the world – and then another desire arises. That’s how we have been hanging around in the world for centuries. But nothing really satisfies. One never comes to a moment when one can say ‘Now I have arrived.’ When one can say ‘Now I have arrived’, that space is God. When one can say ‘Now, there is no more to go, there is no more future needed, I am utterly contented’ – that is the space called ‘Hasibo.’ Only God satisfies, or you can say it in other ways: that which absolutely satisfies is God.

One need not believe in God; all that one needs is a search for infinite contentment. Whenever you have arrived at that state of infinite contentment you will know what God is. God is another name for that utter contentment. In that moment all turmoil disappears. The mind desires no more, thinks no more – thinking is part of desiring. It dreams no more – dreaming is part of desiring. It repents no more. There are no longer any expectations, hence no frustrations. One is simply there with no movement towards past or future. All has stopped, the world has stopped.

That stopping of the world or that stopping of the mind is ‘Hasibo.’ It is one of the most beautiful names for God.

Hafiza – a name of God. It means ‘one who preserves.’ And we remain unnecessarily worried. All worries are futile because that which is going to happen is going to happen. And that which is going to happen is the only thing that is going to happen. There is no way of shirking it, no way of avoiding it, no way to do something else than it. Seeing this, one starts living in a kind of let-go. Realising this – that God preserves – we are no more worried about our securities, safeties. Then whatsoever is, is good, has to be good, because it is from God. Sometimes the mind even says ‘How can it be good ? You are suffering so much, there is so much pain and agony and anguish – how can it be beautiful, how can it be good?’ But sometimes suffering is needed and is good, because people grow through suffering. Sometimes pain is a blessing because it becomes a challenge – one integrates only because of pain. Sometimes agony is a provocation for prayer.

So all blessings are not blessings and all curses are not curses either, but for a man who trusts and who thinks God preserves, all is good. If it is a curse, he accepts it in total gratitude. If it is a blessing he accepts it with the same attitude. He makes no choice – he does not say ‘This should be and that should not be.’ He withdraws himself. He simply becomes a recipient, and in that receptivity is transformation. That receptivity is trust, that receptivity is initiation into sannyas.

So from this moment forget that you have to worry about yourself. Forget that you have to carry your burden on your own shoulders. God is doing that already and doing it perfectly; there cannot be a more perfect world than there is.

This I call the religious consciousness. It has nothing to do with Christianity or with Hinduism or Islam. It is just pure religious consciousness and immense trust in the goodness of God, immense trust in existence, that it mothers us all, that we are part of it, its progenies; how can it be antagonistic to us ? Then not only does life become a benediction, even death becomes a benediction.…

[A sannyasin, leaving says he has a ‘crazy idea’ to cultivate herbs to make sleeping potions. Osho says that all ideas are crazy, and that in actual fact God creates many crazy people but very rarely sane people.]

[A sannyasin, leaving, says: Since I’ve been here I feel as if I’m dreaming... everything seems blurry around me. It’s as if something in me is asleep.]

You have never felt like that before?...

You are awakening! And it always happens; if you have been asleep for a long time... And everybody has been asleep for a long time and everybody has been dreaming for a long time, for many lives, so when one starts awakening for the first time reality looks as if it is a dream. Because with dreams you are acquainted and with reality you are unfamiliar. The dreams are old, ancient, and reality is new. The new always looks fragile compared to the old; the old is always solid, concrete, looks more real.

Something beautiful is happening – I can see it: your eyes are opening for the first time. And the old mind will try to say ‘This is all dream – what are you doing here ? Go back to your old reality.’ Just wait a little and soon you will see what is real and what is unreal.

There is only one criterion: the real is that which gives you silence, which makes you absolutely tranquil and still. The real is that which takes all fears away and all desires away from you. The real is that which explodes like a tremendous contentment and the unreal is that which is always followed by misery, anxiety, tension, strain. But what happens is: if we have lived for a long time in a dream and have lived for a long time followed by misery, we become attached to the misery. It looks as if it is the only life there is. Without it we feel almost nude, without clothes, something seems to be missing.

It is as if a prisoner has been in the prison for forty years with heavy chains on his hands and feet, then one day suddenly he is made free. He will not be able to sleep that night. He will miss those chains and the sound of the chains. Each time he turns in his bed he will know that something is missing. Forty years is a long time. Those chains were no more chains now – they had become part of his being, part of his identity. Now suddenly he is without identity.

That’s what happens: when you come here for the first time your old identity starts slipping away. That’s what you are feeling, that something is slipping away. And naturally, unless the old has completely gone, the new cannot arrive. There cannot be a meeting of the old and the new. When the old ceases to be, the new begins. But you are on the verge – if you can take a little courage you will never be the same again. You can awake but you can escape too! You can become very much afraid of awakening.

... The dream is going to go! Just keep a little alert. And you are coming close to home!

[The Primal Therapy group is present. One leader says: I don’t know quite how much to just allow things to happen – which I prefer – or how much to do and structure and direct the thing so that it creates a space where other things can happen.]

No. A little structure is good. Too much structure is not good but without structure you will not come to any results. An unstructured group is good if it goes on for at least three months. Then something is bound to happen! How can you escape.… Mm? But if it is only for ten, twelve, fifteen days, then an unstructured group will be just a dissipation of energy. If it is too structured, then freedom is destroyed – people feel repressed, regimented, and that too is not good. So one has to keep a balance – fifty-fifty: fifty percent structured, but always with possibilities, open possibilities. Then much will be the result.

Later on we can have long, three-month groups, then there is no need for any structure. But things are bound to happen then, because how long can you avoid them ? But in a shorter time period if there is no structure, then everything will simply fizzle out. A little structure is a must.

And think more of primal. Don’t think of other groups because there are other groups already. If you start doing rebirthing processes there, then Rebirthing will not be of any use. You need not bring other groups into it. A little bit is okay but your main work should be on primal screaming; you should insist on that. That should remain the main body of the work. And fifty percent structure is perfectly good.

And it is nothing to do with the group energy – it is just too hot now so everybody is low.

It is just that the climate is too heavy and everybody is feeling tired. It is not just an accident that the east is lazy: it is because of the heat. The heat is such that just to survive is enough work. When it is cold, one wants to do something to keep oneself warm; when it is hot one simply wants to rest to keep oneself cool. That’s why – otherwise there is no problem.

But remember, fifty percent structure. Don’t be too obsessed with structure. So freedom is there – allow a few things to happen on their own – but not one hundred percent freedom, otherwise you won’t come to any results. People may enjoy but enjoyment is not the real thing. The real thing is that some insights should happen to them.

But it is just summer and nothing else. Soon it will be gone and things will start flowing.

< Previous | Contents | Next >