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Chapter 8 - The taste of your being
He said, "What do you mean?"
I said, "If you snore, then I will snore loudly. I cannot snore while I am asleep; so I have to pretend that I am asleep; and I will snore loudly unless you stop your snoring. If you don't snore, there is no problem: there is a lot of space here, and I am going on my way after just two hours.
"But I must say to you, that you have left the world, but the world is still within your heart.
The very idea of 'my tree' is not different in any way from my kingdom, my palace, my wife. It is not a question of what you are claiming as mine; the question is that you are possessing."
Humanity has to face two problems from the past. People renounce the world, but nothing is renounced. You can leave your house, you can leave your wife, you can leave your friends, you can leave your money -- but where will you leave your mind, and how will you leave your mind? And if you can leave your mind, then there is no need to go anywhere; then your very house becomes the temple, because the real question is transcending the mind. These monks who left the world lived in a very illusory idea that they were no longer concerned about the world. They missed the chance to grow.
Secondly, living in a mountain cave you may not get angry, because anger needs somebody to provoke it; there is nobody to provoke you...
I have heard... a man lived for thirty years in the Himalayas, and he had gone there because of his too-angry mind; his mind was so angry that when he was in anger he was almost mad.
One day he had pushed his wife into the well, and then as he became aware of what he had done, he decided that now he would renounce this world. And for thirty years anger never happened, because there was no wife, no children, no customers, no friends, no enemies --
there was nobody. Slowly, slowly, his fame spread to the plains: "A man has
been living for thirty years in the caves, and we have never seen such a silent man."
There was going to be a great fair, the Kumbha Mela, in Prayag -- it happens every twelve years. It is the biggest gathering in the whole world; millions of people come. A few people went to this silent monk, saying, "Now all the great saints and monks are coming to the fair to give their teachings to the people who are going to participate in it. It is time you came down: you have not come down for thirty years; now you are ripe." It was very ego-fulfilling, this invitation.
He came down to the plains. As he entered the crowd of millions -- and they did not know anything about him -- somebody stepped on his feet, and all those thirty years disappeared. He grabbed the man by his neck and he said, "You idiot, don't you see that I am a saint?" It was very difficult to take him away, he was going to kill the man. He was the same man who had killed his wife thirty years before. It was not such a great crime; the crowd was so thick that if somebody stepped on your feet, it was not intentional. But it made him aware of one thing: that even thirty years in the Himalayas had not changed him a little bit.
So this is the second problem. Your real test is in the world -- whether you are becoming silent or not; whether you are becoming more loving and compassionate or not; whether you are growing spiritually or not.
Sunshine, go to the marketplace, but remember not to get lost in it. Remain a watcher. It is very easy to get lost.
You have asked me, "Is there anything that I can do for You out there?" Osho - The Hidden Splendor
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