27 To be blissful is the greatest courage

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‌CHAPTER 27

To be blissful is the greatest courage

27 January 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means the ultimate state of bliss, mahavira means greatly courageous. And that’s what is needed!

Nothing else but courage is needed, and everything will happen on its own accord. We go on missing many things in life just because we lack courage. In fact, no effort is needed to achieve – just courage – and things start coming to you rather than you going to them... at least in the inner world it is so.

And to me, to be blissful is the greatest courage. To be miserable is very cowardly. In fact to be miserable, nothing is needed. Any coward can do it, any fool can do it. Everybody is capable of being miserable but to be blissful, great courage is needed – it is an uphill task.

Ordinarily we don’t think so – we think, ’What is needed to be happy? Everybody wants to be happy. That is absolutely wrong. Very rarely does a person want to be happy – notwithstanding what they go on saying. Very rarely is a person ready to be happy – people have so much investment in their misery. They love to be unhappy... in fact they are happy in being unhappy.

There are many things to be understood – otherwise it is very difficult to get out of the rut of misery. The first thing – that nobody is holding you there; it is you who has decided to remain in that prison of misery. Nobody holds anybody. A man who is ready to get out of it, can get out of it right this very moment. Nobody else is responsible. If one is miserable, one is responsible, but a miserable person never accepts the responsibility – that is his way of remaining miserable. He says, ‘Somebody else is making me miserable.’

If somebody else is making you miserable, naturally, what can you do? If you are making yourself miserable, something can be done... something can be done immediately. Then it is within your hands to be or not to be miserable. So people go on throwing the responsibility – sometimes on the wife, sometimes on the husband, sometimes on the family, sometimes on the conditioning, the childhood, the mother, the father... sometimes the society, the history, fate, god, but they always go on throwing. The names are different but the trick is the same.

And a man really becomes a man when he accepts total responsibility he is responsible for whatsoever he is.

This is the first courage, the greatest courage. Very difficult to accept it, because the mind goes on saying,‘If you are responsible, why do you create it?’ To avoid this we say that somebody else is responsible: ‘What can I do? I am helpless... I am a victim! I am being tossed from here and there by greater forces than me and I cannot do anything. So at the most I can cry about being miserable and become more miserable by crying.’ And everything grows – if you practise it, it grows. Then you go deeper and deeper... you sink in deeper and deeper.

Nobody, no other force, is doing anything to you. It is you and only you. This is the whole philosophy of karma – that it is your doing; ‘karma’ means doing. You have done it and you can undo it. And there is no need to wait, to delay. Time is not needed – you can simply jump out of it!

But we have become habituated. We will feel very lonely. If we stop being miserable, we will lose our closest companion. It has become our shadow – it follows us everywhere. When nobody is there at least your misery is with you – one is married to it. And it is a long, long marriage; you have remained married to misery for many lives.

Now the time has come to divorce it – and sannyas means a declaration of the divorce. That I call the great courage – to divorce misery, to lose the oldest habit of the human mind, the longest companion.

And this name is also the name of one of the greatest enlightened persons of the world – the twenty- fourth teerthankara of the jainas. His name is Mahavira. He was a contemporary of Buddha and really a very significant man. If ten persons are counted in the whole world as the topmost, he must have a place in those ten persons.

He is not very much known – at least not known in the west – because his whole way of life was so tremendously revolutionary, so radical, that nobody could follow. Or even the people who followed him – a very small group – also followed him in name only.

Christians have not betrayed Jesus as much as jainas have betrayed Mahavir. Buddhist’s have not betrayed Buddha as much as jainas have betrayed mahavir... and the reason is because he is the most courageous of them all! He is so far away, the distance is so big between the ordinary human world and him, that it is impossible to follow him.

He is the first enlightened man in India who remained naked. It was very difficult to move naked in those days. Being nude was very rebellious. Mm? he was chased from one town to another. Nobody would even give him shelter; everybody was afraid of him. Who will follow this naked man? And not only that he was nude – he was so revolutionary in everything that he said and did.

His original name was ‘Vardhamana’, but because of his courage, by and by people started calling him mahavira. Mahavira is not his original name – it is the name given by the people who started loving him and who felt his great courage, his tremendous courage. His revolution is very radical.

If you can find some books on Mahavira, read them, mm? it will help you.…

[A sannyasin said: The last few days in meditation I felt energy coming up and getting stuck somewhere in my arms. I was looking for a way to let it out and I started to do deep massages – which felt very good. It comes up and it stops somewhere here (indicating upper arms).]

Massage can be really helpful... it will release the energy. Anything with the hands will release, and if you can do something lovingly the energy will start flowing. Energy always flows towards the object of love.

So whenever you feel energy stuck anywhere, that is the secret to make it flow. Find an object of love – any object will do; that is just an excuse. If you can touch a tree very lovingly the energy will start flowing, because wherever love is energy pours towards that. It is just like water flowing downwards – so wherever the sea is, the water seeks the sea-level and goes on moving.

Wherever there is love, energy seeks the love-level; it goes on moving.

So massage can help. Mm? if you do it very lovingly it can help. But anything can help, so don’t get addicted to massage, because then you will think that only massage can help.

Take a rock in your hand with deep love, with a deep concern. Close your eyes and feel tremendous love for the rock... grateful that the rock exists, grateful that it accepts your love, and suddenly you will see a pulsation and the energy is moving. Then by and by there is no need to have any object really – just the idea that you love somebody, and energy will be flowing. Then even the idea can be dropped. Just be loving and energy will be flowing. Love is flow, and whenever we are frozen it is because we don’t love.

Love is warmth, and the frozenness cannot happen if the warmth is there. When love is not there, everything is cold. You start falling below zero point.

So one of the very important things to remember: love is warm – so is hate; indifference is cold. So sometimes even when you hate, energy starts flowing. Of course that flow is destructive. In anger energy starts flowing. That’s why people feel somehow good after anger... something was released. It is very destructive. It could have been creative if it had been released through love, but it is better than not being released. If you are indifferent you don’t flow.

A man who hates can be converted into love, but with a man who is simply indifferent, there is no go. So if somebody hates you it is possible to make friendship with him. But if somebody is indifferent, there is no possibility; friendship cannot grow. It never grows on the soil of indifference. It can grow even on the soil of hate but never on the soil of indifference.

So anything that melts you and warms you up is good. The first choice always must be love. If that is not possible, the second choice is anger. And these are the only two choices – the third is not a choice. That is where people are, already are.

That’s why you see so many dead people, walking corpsesThey are alive only for the name’s

sake – because they are indifferent. They don’t look at the trees, they don’t look at the moon, they don’t look at the clouds, they don’t look at the dewdrops, they don’t look at the rainbows, they don’t listen to the birds. They are insensitive, indifferent. They exist closed inside themselves in a capsule of indifference. They are not yet born – they are still in the womb.

Once you start flowing.… Mm? by experience you have discovered a very basic law. It is not massage really – it is your concern for the other person... that you want to helpthat love. Massage

is not the real thing.

If somebody becomes very much trained in massage, becomes technically trained – a professional – this will not happen, because there will be no love; he will do it professionally. He will remain indifferent.he will not be there at all; he will do it only physically. Because you are not a professional

and you just wanted to release the energy somehow, you have stumbled upon a very significant fact.

On the path many facts are discovered – sometimes just by coincidence, sometimes accidentally. And one should be very alert. Whenever you find that something works, remember it: there must be something hidden in it.

For example, it is not massage that works – it is your concern, your love. Now try the same thing on a rock: just massage the rock and see what happens, and be loving. Try it on a tree. When you feel that it is happening, just sit silently and try. Remember somebody you love – a man, a woman, a child, a flower. Remember that flower – just the idea – and you will see suddenly that energy is flowing. Then drop that idea too.

One day simply sit silently just being loving – not addressed, not to anybody in particular. In a loving mood, just sit silently, lovingly, and you will see that it is flowing. Then you know the key: love is the keyLove is the flow.

[Osho invites a seeker to take sannyas. She answers: I hesitate the whole time. I don’t know why. I think about it and I ask everybody what it is to be a sannyasin, and.Nobody can really tell me.]

Mm! Nobody knows really... not even l! Nobody knows. This is something that has to be experienced. If you know it beforehand, you miss much.

There are things which one should not know beforehand. For example, you want to go to see a movie and somebody tells you the story. He is your enemy – he has spoiled the whole thing! Then what is the point of going now? Why not go directly, firsthand? Why not see for yourself?

That’s why I go on talking about sannyas but I manage it in such a way that nobody can exactly say what it is. I talk every day about it but nobody can explain to you what it is.

[A sannyasin says: I feel like I’ve been in a dark tunnel for so long now. And when I come out and it’s light I feel.I feel afraid. But I still want to be here, working.]

Mm, work here. No problem is worthwhile. We unnecessarily become concerned about small things. And when you become too much concerned about small things, it becomes too big.it appears too

big out of all proportion. Just you are focused on it, you magnify it; otherwise it is nothing. If you see the world in its total perspective, what are our problems?

There is a story of Bertrand Rrussell’sA catholic priest dreams one night that he has died. He has

reached paradise and he is very happy. He has been waiting for many years, he has been praying and praying and fasting and doing a thousand and one things. Now he has arrived.

So he knocks on the door, but day in, day out, he knocks and knocks. The door is so big that by and by he becomes suspicious that his knock will never be heard, because he cannot see the other end of the door. But after a few days knocking, a window opens in the door and somebody looks at him. The priest thinks he is god because he has one thousand eyes.

So he simply falls down on his head, he bows down, and he says, ‘My god, I am happy to see you!’

But the man laughs and says, ‘I am not god – I am just the doorkeeper! And as far as god is concerned, I have never seen him. I am the lowest doorkeeper here, and god is far away. But what do you want?’

The priest becomes very much afraid, because he feels like an ant and those one thousand eyes are so penetrating and the man is so big and he is just a doorkeeper... and the lowest! But still the priest gathers courage. For the whole life he has been a public speaker and has been sermonising to thousands of people. So he gathers courage, and he says, ‘Okay. Then tell god, send a message, that I have come from such-and-such a great city. I am a great priest, and my name must be known there.’

The man with one thousand eyes says, ‘We have never heard about this city and this church. And what do you mean by catholicism? Never heard of it before! First you tell us from what planet you are coming.’

So he says, ‘From earth!’

The doorkeeper says, ‘There are millions of earths! From what earth? You have to give the index number.’

Now the priest is at a loss – what is the index number of the earth? – because he has known only one earth! Seeing that he is very puzzled, the doorkeeper tries to help him. He says, ‘At least you can tell me to which sun your earth belongs – the index number of the sun, because there are millions and millions of suns.’

Now it is very difficult... so what to say about christianity and what to say about catholicism, and what to say about a town and a church, and the priest of that church, mm? Now the priest is so insignificant. But he says, ‘Try to find out some way.’

So the doorkeeper says, ‘Wait. I will go to the library and we will enquire.’

It takes many years, and the priest is waiting and waiting and waiting. He becomes hopeless – by and by he feels there is no possibility. After years the man comes, and he says, ’We have been able

to find out the number of your sun, and now we can figure out from where you are coming, but what do you want? For what have you come here?’

Now the priest has forgotten all – all the ideas that he used to dream about: that he will be received by god in paradise and angels will dance and play on their harps. God is impossible – because even this gatekeeper has not seen him!

But the gatekeeper said, ‘The librarian is interested. He wants to see you because he has never seen a man. In fact, we have never seen one – you are the first man who somehow managed to come here!’

So the librarian comes. He has ten thousand eyes and so much light pouring from them that the poor priest simply closes his eyes and shrinks into a corner... is shivering and trembling. He says, ‘Let me go. I don’t want to come in! This is only the librarian?’ (laughter) And in that trembling, his dream is broken. He was just dreaming it!

He is perspiring – it is a cold night, but he is perspiring all over, and his whole body is trembling.

.… This is a beautiful story.

Our problems are so insignificant – they are almost non-existential. Once you see this vastness, this infinity, this timelessness, what are your problems?

In the east this has been our basic framework. Whenever a person has a problem, rather than solving his problem we tell him to look at the infinity of existence, so in the proportion his problem comes to its right size. But then you cannot even see it. It becomes so small – you start laughing. It is so ridiculous to be worried about it... it is simply meaningless.

So whenever you have a problem, look at the stars, look at the vast sky, look at the ocean, look at the Himalayas! And then just figure out how important your problem is. Then you will be able to laugh, and if a person can laugh at his own problem, it is solved.

I have never come across a problem which is of any worth – and every day I deal in problems. But I have never come across any problem which was really a problem. There is no problem – we have just lost the perspective.

When things are so big and we are so small, so tiny, and our life – a life of seventy years – is almost just like a split second... just listen to the vastness, and suddenly there is no problem – you have transcended. This is what meditation is.

[A participant in the Encounter groups says: I just don’t want to fight, and the groupleader tells me I’m in a cloud of anger and should get it out. But I don’t want to get it out by fighting.]

I understand. It is painful to get rid of the poison from the system but there is no way, no other way; otherwise you will repress it and you will carry it. You can carry it – it is your decision – but some day or other you will have to settle accounts with this anger, and the sooner done, the better.

Understand that because you have too much anger, you become afraid. You can murder somebody – so you become afraid. You want not to fight any more and you start trembling and deep down a fear arises that you may do something that you don’t want to do.

[She replies: Also that somebody does something to me.]

Yes, that too is there... that too is a reflection of your own possibility. We only imagine things being done to us that we can do to others, otherwise we don’t even imagine. A man who can murder always thinks that somebody may murder him – otherwise that idea never arises. That idea is a projected idea reflected back. understand – it is very painful, your plight is understandable – but this is the only way to get rid of it... and it will not take long. I think only one more group and you will be out of it. It will not take long and there is not much of a problem in it.

And that’s why you don’t want to fight – because you are not basically an aggressive person; you are not! That’s why you don’t want to fight. Because there are people who love fighting. In fact they go to an encounter group just to fight, to have a beautiful fight! So there they can explode and do things which they cannot do outside because the police are there and the court is there. In the encounter group these things are allowed.

You are basically a soft person – you are not aggressive, not violent – but some aggression has been repressed in your childhood, and that is there in the corner of your unconscious. Allow it. Once it is gone you will become very very beautiful. Otherwise it will always remain there and you will always remain afraid of it. It is good to get rid of it. Once it is gone the fear will also be gone. When the anger is gone fear is also gone.

And it is very bad to carry this fear – that you can become angry. It is hard work, but all growth is hard.

My feeling is that your upbringing has been such that you have never been allowed to be angry, ..to be aggressive, mm? but always to be soft and polite, and feminine... that’s why. But the other part is there!

Carl Gustav Jung has the right classification – he calls the classification ‘anima’ and the ‘animus’. ‘Anima’ means the feminine, ‘animus’ means the male. It is exactly the same as the taoist classification of yin and yang, or the indian parable of Shakti and Shiva.

If a man is not allowed to be woman, by and by he loses contact with his woman part, with his anima. Once a man loses his contact with his anima, he becomes homosexual. If he cannot meet the woman within, he starts hating the woman outside; then he can love only man. If a woman cannot love the man within herself and cannot respect the man within herself, has become condemnatory, she becomes a lesbian. She can love only a woman; she cannot love a man.

If you cannot accept the inner man, how can you accept the outer? The outer and the inner go together. So this happens in the military, in the army, the navy – people become homosexuals, because they are all-male groups. In the army they are taught to be men, so they become homosexuals. Monks become homosexuals and nuns in the nunneries become lesbians. It has to be so, otherwise where will their love flow? The love needs to flow somewhere.

This has happened all over the world and it has to be changed, totally changed. One has to find how to make a balance between the anima and the animus, between yin and yang – how to make a harmony out of these two polarities, how to meet the inner other, the inner opposite, how to get married in your inner being and become one whole. Then a man is both. He is as feminine and graceful as a woman. He can fight as a man and he can love as a woman... he can be as strong as a sword, and as soft as a roseflower.

In Japan there exists a statue of Buddha in which he is holding a sword in one hand and in another hand a small earthen lamp. This statue is really beautiful. On the side where he is holding a sword, if you look at his face, half of his face is that of a warrior – sharp, ready to fight. On the side where he is holding the earthen lamp, the light is falling – it is so soft and feminineAnd this is the whole

man!

You must have come across some picture of Ardhanarishvar. In India we have a symbol that Shiva is half man and half woman; there are statues of Shiva in which half of his body is that of a man, and half of his body is that of a woman. He has a breast on one side and is feminine – another part is male. That is the meeting of yin and yang, anima and animus.

Allow your animus – that will make you more balanced. You can repress it but that repression will become a hindrance in your growth. My suggestion is not to be afraid. There is nothing to be worried about – I am protecting you – just go ahead.

[Another group member says: I see that I want to cling to my misery.

The group leader comments that she gets stuck in a tantrum and shuts off instead of breaking through.]

It will go. Everybody clings – because we have nothing else to cling to. The question is not really that it is misery you are clinging to – you want to cling to something and you have nothing else, so you cling to misery.

The basic thing is that one wants to cling to something, otherwise one will be left in emptiness and one will start falling into the abyss; so one clings to anything!

There is a buddhist storyA lion is chasing a man and the man is running away. And of course he

is afraid and death is following.the lion is very ferocious. The man goes on running and then he

comes to a point that there is no way ahead – he has come to a precipice.

The lion is coming closer and closer and the man starts feeling that he is just breathing on his neck, so he takes hold of a root of a tree and hangs in the abyss.

Now, the tree is very small and the root is very fragile and he knows that he is in a dangerous position, but what to do? It is better at least than the lion! He will take him in one gulp and he will be gone! At least for a few minutes more he can be alive. The abyss is very very big – if he falls he is gone!

Then he looks at the tree, and the lion comes and stands and roars on top of it – he trembles. The root is very fragile and just near it two mice are cutting the tree. One is white and one is black –

the symbol of day and night. They are working fast, and within half an hour the root is going to be broken and he will fall.

Then he looks down – it is such a big abyss that there is no possibility of survival. Then he becomes aware that two lions are standing there too! If somehow – by chance, by accident – he is saved, those two lions will eat him. Now what to do?

And then he sees that some bees are collecting honey on the tree. Just a drop of the honey falls and he takes it on his tongue. The honey is really sweet. For one moment he forgets everything in the sweetness of the honey!

It is a buddhist parable, mm? Buddha says,’Every moment death is coming closer – you cannot escape! There is no escape! This side – the lion; that side – two lions. And day and night – time – is cutting the very roots of your life, but still man is so foolish that if he gets a single drop of honey, he is very happy. For that moment at least, he forgets everything.

One has to cling to something, otherwise this vast emptiness... and you will not know where you will fall. You don’t have anything else other than the misery, so you cling to misery. Not that you want to cling to misery – you want to cling, that’s all, and misery is all that’s available.

Soon, your meditations will grow and you will have something better to cling to. Then one starts dropping never before it! The positive has first to grow, only then is the negative thrown away never before. You have to have a little happiness, then you will start moving. Your focus will change – you will have something better. Right now you don’t have anything, so it is natural. Don’t get worried about it – it is human and humanly natural... naturally human.

Just go on working – you have become aware of something important. Everybody is doing that – more or less; everybody is doing that. So don’t think that you are doing something perverted... it is natural. The only thing that you are doing more is that you have become aware, and others are not aware. This awareness is good. This has hope in it... this is a great progress.

It will go. Continue to meditate, mm?

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