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Chapter 11 - A noah's ark of consciousness
Question 3
BELOVED OSHO,
ROCKS EASILY DESTROY FLOWERS. THE POLITICIANS AND RELIGIONS
SENSE THAT ENLIGHTENMENT, FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUALITY THREATEN
THEIR POWER. IS IT FEAR ALONE THAT IS THE BASIS OF THE DARK USE OF
INTELLIGENCE TO CRUSH MAN'S FINEST BLOSSOMS? OR IS THERE AN
UNCONSCIOUS URGE FOR "ENDARKENMENT" TOO?
Devageet, there is an unconscious urge for endarkenment too. It was only a hundred years ago that Sigmund Freud stumbled, in the unconsciousness of man, on a very strange instinct.
Man has been, for almost ten thousand years, working on himself, on his consciousness, but it was left to Freud to find a totally new idea. He himself was shocked, but when he came, across it again and again, in different patients, he had to give it recognition. And the idea was, that just as there is a lust for life, to balance it in the unconscious of the human mind, there is an instinct for death. Perhaps this was one of the great contributions of Sigmund Freud to human knowledge, and for the future transformation of man.
Slowly, slowly, then he started gathering facts, and now it is almost an established thing that in life, everything exists with its opposite balancing it. If there is a lust for life -- that one wants to live -- somewhere hidden, there is bound to be a lust for death. In certain situations, it may get a grip on you -- that's why so many people commit suicide. Otherwise, suicide has no explanation.
Devageet is asking: "Rocks easily destroy flowers. The politicians and religions sense that enlightenment, freedom and individuality threaten their power. Is it fear alone that is the basis of the dark use of intelligence to crush man's finest blossoms? or is there an unconscious urge for 'endarkenment' too?"
There is; there has to be. Just as there is a longing for enlightenment, to reach to the highest peak of consciousness, there is certainly, parallel to it in the unconscious of human mind, a deep urge to drown oneself into darkness, into death.
It has been observed, although never made clear, by all the physicians of all the ages, that there are people who can be helped by medicine but it seems impossible to help them because they have completely lost the willpower, the will to live, -- completely. They don't support the medicine. But none of the physicians found the thing that Sigmund Freud discovered. Perhaps this had some sense in it: a man who loses the will to live is bound to replace it by something of its opposite: -- the will to die.
And now medicine accepts that the physician can only help by his medicines and other things, if the person wants to live. If the person has dropped the idea of living, then all those medicines are useless. Medicines don't cure you. Your will to live cures you -- medicines are only a secondary help, a support. But if somebody has moved to the opposite pole -- the instinct for death, for darkness -
- then no medicine can pull him out.
As I was reading the question, I thought about AIDS. Perhaps someday it may be found that AIDS is nothing but an unconscious desire to die; that's why scientists are unable to find any cure for it.
Osho - The Hidden Splendor 117
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