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Chapter 12 - Life itself is a miracle
Anando, I still say the same: I do not do miracles. But that does not mean that miracles don't happen. I was not doing anything, and Maitreya was levitating. I had to move quickly because if he levitates too much -- he is old and may get hit with the ceiling.
A group of men gave a testimonial dinner to Goldberg, and after they had praised him for an hour, Goldberg finally got up to speak.
"Gentlemen," he said, "when I came to this town forty-one years ago, I walked down a dirt road with one suit of clothes, one pair of shoes, carrying a dirty old suitcase. And to show you what hard work can do, along with the great opportunities this country can offer, today I own three banks, five apartment houses and ten oil wells!"
Everybody applauded, and right after the dinner one salesman walked up to the old man and said, "Pardon me, sir, I would like to ask you a question. When you came here forty-one years ago with just that one suit, a pair of shoes and an old suitcase -- what was in the suitcase?"
The old man said, "I had three million dollars in bonds and two hundred thousand dollars in cash."
Miracles only appear to happen; they do not really happen. When you are totally singing and moving with the energy of the whole, you still cannot levitate -- but you can start hopping.
That's what was happening: old Maitreya was hopping, and Anando was just behind him so she must have been afraid -- What has happened to old Milarepa?... I called him Milarepa by mistake, because it was expected to happen to Milarepa, not to Maitreya!
For centuries it has been observed that when you are silent, joyous, and if you are sitting with closed eyes, you start feeling as if you are levitating. If you open your eyes you will find you are sitting on the ground. You have not levitated, but consciousness can move upwards and that can give you a feeling of levitation.
Thousands of seekers have felt levitation; it is not physical, but with closed eyes you will feel exactly as if your whole body is moving up. It is only your consciousness which is rising up, but you and your consciousness are so identified that unless you open your eyes you will not become aware that the body has not levitated -- only the consciousness went higher than the body, beyond the body. It is a law of consciousness: just as things gravitate, consciousness levitates -- it is simply balance. But there are no miracles.
I have heard that two rabbis and one bishop were very close friends. All three had gone to Israel for a holy pilgrimage, of course for different reasons. The rabbis had gone for their own religion -- that is their holy land. And the bishop had gone because of Jesus Christ; it is also the Christian holy land.
Now all three went to see Lake Galilee, where Jesus is supposed to have walked on water.
They went in a boat on the lake, and the bishop said while they were on the lake, "Do you really believe that Jesus walked on the waters?" The rabbis looked at each other, winked their eyes and said, "Yes!"
The bishop said, "Can you do that miracle also?"
The rabbi said, "It is a very simple thing in these parts; it was nothing special, not a miracle." And the rabbi got out of the boat from his corner, and walked a few feet.
Osho - The Hidden Splendor 127
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