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Chapter 12 - Life itself is a miracle
The bishop could not believe his eyes. The rabbi got in. The second rabbi also walked a few feet and he also came back. They said to him, "We are not Christians and we don't believe in Jesus, but as far as walking on this lake is concerned, anybody who lives around here can do it. Would you like to give it a try?"
The bishop said, "Certainly -- since you two have walked, and I am a believer in Jesus Christ..." So he stepped out into the lake from his side, and the moment he stepped out he started drowning and shouting, "Save me, save me!"
Both the rabbis laughed, and they said, "Should we tell the poor boy about the stones --
that he has stepped out on the wrong side of the boat? If you want to walk on water, there are rocks, hidden just under the surface!"
There are no miracles in the world in the sense people think about miracles. Otherwise everything is a miracle. Just that we are here is a miracle; just that the sun has again risen today is a miracle. That roses bloom, that lotuses open, that trees sway and dance in the wind
-- everything is a miracle.
You can choose between the two: either there are no miracles, or everything is a miracle.
My preference is for the second, because the first is a very dry attitude towards life, and that attitude will make your life flat, without any mystery and without anything miraculous. My preference is the second.
Everything is a miracle: a seed turning into a sprout, growing into a huge tree, flowering, bringing fruits -- it is a miracle.
Just the other day, Shunyo said to me that it is strange that old leaves are falling and new leaves have already arrived in the same place where the old leaves used to be; one has just fallen and a new leaf has started growing in its place, fresh
and young...
Life itself is a miracle.
But I am not interested in miracles like Jesus walking on water, or bringing the dead back to life. Those are only fictions. It is strange... you can easily understand, if somebody walks on water, then he will be reported all over the world, in all the newspapers; he will make a mark in history. If somebody makes people come back to life historians cannot ignore such a person, and such a person cannot be crucified; he should be worshipped like a God.
But strangely enough, Jesus, who was a man of miracles according to Christians, was thought by his contemporaries to be only a nuisance, someone who should be destroyed. Not a single Jewish contemporary book, scripture or inscription even mentions his name. He is mentioned only by his four disciples in the New Testament. Other than those four gospels the whole of Judea did not bother about the man -- and he was a man of such qualities, at least his name must have been referred to. Even if they were against him, as an enemy his name must have been mentioned. But there is no reference in any Jewish scripture.
This gave an idea to George Gurdjieff, and his idea seems to be plausible. He used to say that Jesus Christ never existed; that there used to be a drama, and Jesus Christ was only an actor in that drama that was played year by year -- just as in India, the story of Rama is played as drama all over the country every year. That drama became a reality, or was made a reality by a Christian priest to create a new religion. The fiction in the drama of Jesus Christ was perfect for creating a religion, and because they created the religion, the Jews stopped the drama.
Osho - The Hidden Splendor 128
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