Chapter title: None

‌Chapter title: None‌

9 July 1980 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 8007095 ShortTitle: GWIND09 Audio:

No Video:

[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.]

For man there are only two possibilities of existing in the world: one is through the mind and the other is through meditation. Through the mind there is misery, anxiety, anguish, death; through meditation there is bliss, benediction, immortality, godliness. And the choice is always yours.

Man always stands on the crossroad. Each moment is a crossroad. You can turn towards the mind or you can turn towards meditation. And means living in the past. Mind is an accumulation of ail the experiences, memories, which have passed. They are no more in existence; only traces are left on your memory film.

1/08/07

Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

Memory is exactly a recording mechanism. It is very talented and has infinite capacity, almost infinite.

One simple memory system can record all the information contained in all the libraries of the world. But memory means that which is no more.

Because we live in the past we project a future. The future is a by-product of the past. The future also does not exist; it is another non-existential thing just like the past. At least the past has been -- the future has yet to be. And whatsoever you can conceive of the future is just a reflection of your past, a modified past.

You would like all the pleasures that you lived through in the past, magnified, on a bigger scale, and you would like to drop all the miseries that you had to go through in the past. Your future is a selected past: that which you like you project and that which you don't like you reject. But the problem is that in life everything is intertwined with everything else. You cannot choose the nice part and reject the bitter part --

that is impossible. They are one parcel, they come together.

If you choose anything from the past thinking that it was beautiful, you have also chosen the ugly.

Whether you like it or not is not the question; it will come inevitably -- just as days are with nights. You cannot choose the day and drop the night; the night and day are two aspects of the same phenomenon. You cannot choose one aspect of the coin. You can hide the other, but it is there, and sooner or later you will have to give it its due. And if you want your pleasures to be on a bigger scale, your misery will grow in the same proportion. That is the dilemma man goes on living, suffering, hoping that some miracle will happen and he will be able to choose only the roses without the thorns. But they come together!

But there is a totally different way of life, a different style -- and that is to live in the present. That's what I call meditation. Meditation is an opening into the present, dropping the whole past without any choice. If you can drop the whole past, future disappears. Then there is no future, future evaporates, and all that is left is the existential moment. This moment is all there is: now, here. And then life starts moving in a different dimension, altogether different; then you are on an adventure, because you have never know the present. It is the most unknown phenomenon in life.

It seems strange that the only thing that is existential is the most unknown. And the non-existential is very much known; you go on brooding about the past and

the future. Mind is a brooding about the non-existential; meditation is living the existential. And the moment your whole being is herenow, god is.

God is existence, another name for existence, and the present is a door into his temple the only door. There are no other doors.

To be a sannyasin means to live your life moment-to-moment, without any expectation because all expectations come from the past. And when there are no expectations, there are no frustrations either.

Living moment-to-moment means living a life always fresh, young, alive. The past makes you old, dull, dead, the more it gathers on you -- and it is gathering every moment. It is like dust gathering on a mirror: soon you cannot see anything in the mirror.

That's how we are live -- like blind persons because we cannot see a anything, we cannot feel anything, we cannot experience anything. All beautiful things have become mere words; love, god, bliss are just words. People use them but they know that they don't mean anything. Meaning can come only through experience, and the only experience possible is of the present.

But always remember: once you have lived the moment it is past. Then drop it; howsoever beautiful it was, don't cling to it. When it is no more, it is no more. That's what Jesus means when he says 'Let the dead bury their dead.'

The past is dead. Go on dying to the past -- and every moment die to the past so that every moment you are born anew. That's the way of sannyas. Then you know what a gift life, what a splendour, what a joy to be... Just to be is enough, more than enough! It is such a benediction that we cannot repay existence in any way; we can only feel grateful.

Sannyas is a pilgrimage from bliss to bliss, from perfection to perfection, from life to more abundant life.

The ancient seers of the Upanishads have a beautiful prayer. It is one of the most beautiful prayers ever uttered. The prayer is tamsoma jyotirgamaya -- Oh my lord, lead me from darkness to light; astoma sadgamaya -- Oh my lord, lead me from untruth into truth; mrityorma amritam gamaya -- Oh my lord, lead me from death to deathlessness.

This is a beautiful prayer, the most beautiful prayer. But five thousand years have passed. I feel that now it needs a little improvement.

I would not say 'Lead me from darkness to light,' because darkness does not exist. I would say 'Lead me 1/08/07

Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

from light to more light.' I would not say, 'Lead me from untruth to truth, because untruth does not exist; I would say 'Lead me from truth to more truth.' I would not say 'Lead me from death to deathlessness,'

because death does not exist: I would say 'Lead me from deathlessness to more deathlessness, from life to more abundant life, from perfection to more perfection' ... if that is possible, because ordinarily we think perfection means the end, but I don't think it is so. Perfection can become more perfect; perfection goes on becoming more and more perfect. At each stage it is perfect, but still that perfection is not a closedness, it is open. It can always become richer, it can always become more colourful, with new songs, with a new dance, with new celebrations. There is no end to evolution.

That is the meaning of your name: a pilgrim of bliss. And don't let it remain just a name, let it become a reality. It can become a reality. All that is needed is just a little conscious effort.

We go on living mechanically, repeating the same stupidity again and again. Man seems to be the only animal who does not learn from experience at all. This is my observation. Even donkeys learn.

In Arabic they have a proverb that even a donkey will not fall in the same ditch again... but man can do that miracle! He can fall in the same ditch thousands of times what to say of twice or thrice? As many times as he passes by the side of the ditch he will fall in' He will say to himself, 'Let us try once more -- maybe things have changed, maybe it is not the same ditch, and certainly I am no more the same person. So much has changed, and that time it was evening and this time it is morning. And what is wrong in it? -- one more try...'

In one of the ancient scriptures of India, MAHABHARATA, there is a story. The story is centred around the fight between Pandavas and Kauravas -- they were cousin-brothers -- and the fight was for the kingdom.

The Pandavas were the rightful, legal rulers -- the kingdom should have gone to them, but the Kauravas were very deceptive and cunning people. They arranged a gambling game and provoked the Pandavas to put everything at stake -- even the kingdom. The game was preplanned, it was a fraud. Everything was settled beforehand: the Pandavas were going to lose. The play was not fair, and they lost. The condition was that for twelve years they would have to go into the forest, so that they wouldn't create any trouble for the Kauravas. So the Pandavas moved to the forest. They lost everything, they became almost beggars -- they moved to the forest.

One day roaming in the forest they lost their way. They were thirsty; there were five brothers so the youngest went to search for water. He found a beautiful lake, but as he was going to fill his pot a voice from a tree -- just a voice, nobody was there -- shouted 'Stop! Before you take the water of the lake -- I am the owner, I am a ghost -- before you take the water you have to answer those five questions, if I am satisfied, you will be allowed to take the water.

(one line missing) you will have to go without water. And if you try to fill your pot without my permission you will fall dead here, now.'

He tried to answer but he could not. The first question was: 'What is the most strange thing about man?

Because he could not answer to the ghost's satisfaction and still he tried to fill the pot, he fell dead then and there. By and by the other three brothers came. Finally Yudishthira, the oldest brother, came, and he saw his four brothers lying dead. The first question, the same question, was repeated: What is the most strange thing about man?

Yudishthira said, 'The most strange thing about man is that he never learns from his experience.' The ghost said, 'There is no need to ask the other four questions -

- I am satisfied. You are a REAL man of observation. You will be able to answer my other questions too. You can fill your pot... And I am so pleased, because for millions of years I have been here, waiting, for a man who can satisfy my question, because this is the curse upon me: If I can be satisfied, I will be

released from my bondage. I am released from my bondage today. And I am so happy with you that I will make all your four brothers alive again.'

This is certainly the most important observation about man, that he never learns from his experience. He goes on in a vicious circle; he functions like a machine.

To be on the path of bliss all that is needed is to learn from your experience. Don't repeat the same stupid things -- the same anger, the greed, the jealousy, the possessiveness. Don't repeat them. You have repeated them enough and you have burned your hands enough. It is time to be aware, to be watchful, to be alert, and not to fall into the old traps again and again.

As you become capable of watchfulness, you become more and more capable of being free of all those old traps. A moment comes when one is absolutely free from all traps and imprisonments -- that is the moment of bliss. Bliss starts showering like flowers from the sky, and it goes on showering. One's life 1/08/07

Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

becomes a blessing to oneself and a blessing to others too.

The Golden Wind

Chapter #10

< Previous | Contents | Next >