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‌CHAPTER 5

9 May 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Shahido. It is a sufi name for God and means: one who witnesses all, the great witness]

Nothing is hidden from God because God is the inside of everything. And the inside knows all. You can hide something from others but you cannot hide it from yourself, and it is there that God is hiding. It is not in the object, it is in the subject itself.

There is a sufi story.…

Two disciples came to a master; they wanted to attain to truth. The master gave each of them a dove and told them ‘Go to a place where nobody is witnessing you and kill the dove.’

The first one went just outside the house. There was nobody – it was a hot afternoon and nobody was on the road. He killed the dove, came back. The other disciple never turned up for three years. The master waited and waited and after three years the disciple came with the dove and said ‘I could not find a place where He was not the witness. I have tried all kinds of places, places where there was nobody watching. I had gone into deep dark caves where even if somebody was there he could not have seen it. But everywhere He was watching from inside me. So I closed my eyes but then He was watching from inside the door. In these three years I have tried all that was humanly possible. I am sorry – I cannot fulfill the mission.’

The master was very happy and he said ‘You are accepted and the first is rejected. You have found the very secret of meditation. Live always aware of this witness and God will become available to you. He is available.’

Zahira. That too is a sufi name for God. It means: the manifest one. Shahido means the hidden one who is looking from inside, Zahira means the manifest one who is manifest everywhere – in

the trees, in the rivers, in the mountains, in people, in animals. God is both, the hidden and the unhidden. He is not only the inside, He is the outside too because He is all.

So this is going to be your meditation: looking at a tree, forget the tree – remember God. Seeing a flower, forget the flower and see God. Talking to a friend, forget the friend – start talking to God. It is a knack, it comes slowly. It is a great art. Once you know the art you have magic with you: you can transform everything into God. Then wherever you are you are surrounded by gods and gods in millions of forms.

So this is going to be your work: see God in everything.…

Just being available to me things start happening, things which on your own you may never be able to begin.

The presence of the master functions as a catalytic agent – it triggers. Then there is a chain reaction: one thing leads to another and then it goes on and on. Once the process has started you can be on your own. But the first triggering is of immense value. And that happens to anybody who is ready to trust. I can see great trust in you, so there is no problem. The problem arises with people who want something to happen but won’t allow it to happen. Then they are in a contradiction. They would like it to happen but they won’t open their doors. They would like the sun to come in but they won’t open the doors. The sun goes on waiting outside and they remain behind their doors in darkness, just dreaming about light but doing nothing.

And much is not needed to be done in fact – just opening the door is enough. Just give way to me. You can give way and you can give way so easily that it is not going to be a task, it is going to be just a play.

Sabur. It is a name for God; it means ‘the patient one.’ God is infinite patience, that’s why He goes on creating. He is never frustrated; otherwise He would have stopped long ago, at least in creating man. Man does not deserve to be here. He has been a continuous nuisance in existence but God is not frustrated yet.

A great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore, has written a small song: ‘Whenever I see a new child born I thank God, because I know He still hopes. He is not yet tired, He still believes and trusts, He is not finished with man yet. He will go on creating and will go on hoping.’

It is one of the most beautiful names for God. Sufis have ninety-nine names for God; this is one of the most beautiful: ‘Sabur.’ And it has a message for you also: if you want to attain to God, you have also to learn infinite patience. In some measure, we have to be like Him. Nothing hinders more than impatience – and that is one of the greatest problems for the modern mind. Never before has man been in such haste, in such hurry; people want everything instantaneously. They think God is also coffee or something like that. God needs infinite patience, absolute patience, because He can happen only when you are in an absolute let-go. If you are tense, if you are in a hurry, if you want to do it right now, you cannot be relaxed. Your very expectation will excite you and any excitation is a kind of fever.

God is possible only when you are utterly at peace, at home. If He comes today, good; if He comes tomorrow, good. If He comes in eternity, good; or if He decides never to come, that too is good

because all that He decides is good. This is surrender, this is patience, and in such a state of mind He comes immediately, instantly.

The more patience you have, the faster is the happening – the less patience, the more delayed.

So think of God as patience and create patience in yourself, because only patience can meet patience.

[A sannyasin says: Ohh... so much has happened here. I feel so good! I feel like I want you to take me and swallow me up.]

Right! You have been swallowed already, you are inside me now. And that is the only way to let me in: if you are inside me only then can I be inside you. It is reciprocal, it is mutual.

Something has happened and it will go on growing. Soon it will become a huge, enormous phenomenon.…

[A sannyasin says she has a buzzing sound in her head. Osho checks her energy.]

Whenever it happens, listen to it very very lovingly and attentively. It is the sound of the cosmos. It is the sound meditators have always been hearing, have always been searching to hear, praying to God so that they can hear. And if you listen attentively, it will become more and more clear. And when it becomes more clear you will start hearing it not only as noise but as a very harmonious thing, a subtle rhythm, and that is the rhythm of life itself. This sound is known in the East as ‘Omkar’, as the sound of the cosmos itself.

When all sounds disappear, this is heard. It is a great blessing.

So, whenever you are not doing anything, sitting silently, just close your eyes and listen to it. Leave everything in the background and become totally attentive to it. It will become more clear every day you will hear it in more detail and the rhythm will become a great blessing. Slowly slowly you will be able to hear It everywhere; even in the marketplace, in a noisy place, it will surround you and it will protect you.

This is beautiful – continue it. Good!

[A sannyasin says she only feels really alive when in love, the rest of the time she is not really aware, is making plans... ]

In fact one only feels life when one loves. Only love makes you aware of life, nothing else. Love is the light in which life becomes known. Love means a mirror to reflect you. When you are in love with a person, what actually happens is this: that the other person, his consciousness, his presence, becomes a mirror to you. You are reflected in it, so you can see yourself; then you are aware. When there is no love, there is no mirror. Things cannot reflect you, only being can reflect you. A being can be reflected only by a being.

They say that if you go to the sun and you stand on it you will not see its light. You will not know that there is any light from the sun going and filling the whole universe – not at all. You will be standing

in darkness. It is very dark there, and the reason is that light can be known only when it is reflected. So you will see the earth reflecting light, the moon reflecting light, Mars reflecting light, but the sun will be dark. And that’s exactly what is happening here: you don’t the earth reflecting light because you are on the earth, but when people go to the moon they see the earth so luminous, as luminous as the moon.

Light needs to be reflected, only then can it be seen. And your consciousness is the highest quality of light, the subtlest light, the most refined light – it can be reflected only in love, and then only are you aware. That’s why in love people become very beautiful... suddenly! They are no more ordinary, a grace descends. Everything changes – their eyes, their gestures, their walk, the way they sit, the way they talk, their sound; everything is immediately transformed.

So the observation is very accurate: only in love does one feel alive. But now the question is: how to remain in love for twenty-four hours so that you can remain alive for twenty-four hours? Because this is not much of a life – that once in a while you are alive and then you are dead. Long periods of death and then one flare-up of life; this is not much, not good enough. But one can remain in love continuously.

If you are watering a plant you can water without love, you can water with love. You can treat the plant just as a thing or you can treat the plant as a person – they are people! Just say hello to the plant and you see the difference. Hug a tree and see the difference. Have a little chit-chat with it. In the beginning it may not respond, but slowly slowly it will become friendly. Slowly slowly it will understand your love, and when you come close to it there will be ecstasy in the tree. And I am not talking poetry, I am talking actual science. Being with the tree then is experiencing as much love as being with your beloved. Then cooking food can give as much love or cleaning the floor can give as much love. Because this whole earth is divine.

The story goes that when Moses reached Mount Sinai, God shouted at him ‘Take your shoes off – you are walking on the holy ground!’ But those who know know that all ground is holy ground, wherever you walk it is holy ground. You can walk on an ordinary street feeling the holy ground underneath your feet and then there is love, and love makes one alive, aflame.

Your observation is right – now implement it in many more ways in your life. Just don’t depend on the so-called love. Let love spread, let love become your very climate.

[A sannyasin has a problem she cannot explain, Osho checks her energy.]

Everything is perfectly good! Your energy is absolutely as it should be. And it is moving into new spaces in your being, that’s why you feel puzzled. It is not moving in the same groove; otherwise there would have been no problem. It is finding new outlets for itself, it is expanding. It is getting new territories under its control, territories of which you have not even been aware. That’s why you feel a little puzzled, confused, about what is happening and you feel a kind of haze surrounding you for a few days, a cloudiness. Everything will remain vague. It always happens whenever energy moves into a new dimension. Before it becomes settled there one cannot be certain about what is happening. But everything is on the right lines.

And whenever you need me, just remember me. Close your eyes, put your hands on your heart and remember me. Whenever you feel puzzled, whenever you feel that you are not centered, not

rooted, whenever you feel some question is there and there is no answer to it, just close your eyes, remember me, feel me close. Feel my energy surrounding you – be drowned in it. And now it is possible. It is not possible for everybody but now you have come to the point where it is possible.

So make use of it. The contact has happened; now there is no need to be worried. And you are not alone, mm? Those spaces will be new and you will feel many times that you are alone and like a child lost, but you are not alone. Soon you will find me everywhere, wherever you move inside.

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