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‌CHAPTER 28

28 August 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means bliss and haramita is a japanese form of a sanskrit word, ‘paramita’. ‘Paramita’ means going to the other shore. The unknown is the other shore, god is the other shore. The visible is this shore; the invisible is the other shore. So the whole search is for the other shore. This shore is not satisfying – it only creates more and more desires and more and more frustrations; it is utterly futile.

So everybody is seeking in his own way, rightly or wrongly, to attain to a state of absolute contentment where no desire disturbs, where the mind has no wavering, where all is quiet and calm and cool, where one is at rest. That is what ‘haramita’ is – the other shore. Anand means bliss. The full name will mean: bliss that takes one to the other shore... and it is bliss that takes one to the other shore.

So never be serious in the search; be sincere but never be serious. Be authentic, devote your whole energy to it, but not with a long face – otherwise nobody can take you to the other shore. It is the boat of bliss that takes one. Only those who are really cheerful reach... so be cheerful!

The other shore is... this shore proves that the other shore is, because the river cannot be with only one shore. We may not be able to see it – it may be far away, hidden behind haze, clouds, or maybe it is so far away that it is not visible to the eyes – but it must be. Standing on a sea beach you know that the other shore must be – it has to be; even the ocean cannot be shoreless. If one is, the other is bound to be. It may take years or even lives to reach, but it is.

Dissatisfaction proves that the possibility of satisfaction is. Frustration proves that it is possible that one can attain to fulfillment. Otherwise we would not be dissatisfied at all – if there were no possibility to be satisfied; they are both together. We know one, the other is unknown; the other has to be sought.

And the meaning that through your name I want you to be alert of and aware about, is that the other can be sought only by being blissful. So whenever one becomes sad one falls from grace. Whenever one is serious one is not in tune with god. Whenever you are cheerful, joyous, laughing, then suddenly you are very close. That is the new thing I want to introduce in the world of religion. In the past it has not happened. Although there have been masters who have talked about being blissful, somehow man has gone on continuously missing that point. People become very serious about it: they make it more business-like. It is playful fun!

Deva means divine, and hanya is a japanese word which means wisdom – divine wisdom. And divine wisdom is that wisdom that comes to you. You cannot grab it, you can only be a receiver; it is a gift. We can deny, we can reject, but we cannot strive for it.

It is like the sun in the morning: you can keep your doors closed; then it will not enter your room. It will not transgress; it will not even knock on the door to say ‘I am here. Please open the door.’ It will silently wait. But if you open the door it immediately comes in.

Divine wisdom is that wisdom that is always there at the door. We just have to open our heart and it comes dancing in. And it changes you utterly... it liberates. That which man can manage is knowledge, not wisdom. That which comes from god is wisdom. Knowledge burdens, wisdom liberates.

Deva means divine, gambheera means depth – divine depth. And we don’t know what depth we contain. We live on the surface, we have never dived deep into our being. That’s why we go on missing all that is beautiful and all that is profound and all that is great. Because on the surface the profound cannot exist; the profound exists in depth. On the surface you cannot find pearls. You will have to dive deep, and the depth is such that one can go on and on; there is no bottom to it. It is abysmal; it is pure depth. Not that one day it ends and one comes to the bottom; one never comes to the bottom.

So one has to be ready to go into this inner depth, otherwise we can go on floating on the surface and we will be continuously troubled by waves and typhoons; a thousand and one things happen on the surface. In the depth all is silent and dark, all is peace. On the surface is turmoil.

Man is a circle and we are only acquainted with the circumference. On the circumference there is always misery, unhappiness, struggle, because it is an existence of turmoil – waves upon waves and conflict and violence.

Now, there are two ways to attain that peace: one – which is a false one but very appealing and very logical – to somehow make oneself so hard that one remains on the surface but nothing disturbs, to somehow make oneself very thick, insensitive, to surround oneself with an armour. So waves will be there, misery will happen, ugliness will be there, but one disappears into one’s own cave. One hides behind a wall to create a kind of citadel around oneself so that even if there is turmoil it never reaches one.

That’s what people have done because it seems to be easy, without any risk. You need not go anywhere; you can just surround yourself by a wall. That’s why people don’t feel: they can’t afford to feel. If they start feeling they will be disturbed very much, because if you feel you will feel all that is

happening around you. Then somebody is dying and you will feel his death. Somebody is starving and you will feel his hunger.

Somebody is crying and you will feel his crying... and all that will be too much, unbearably too much, and you will be constantly shaken. Life will become impossible.

So the easiest trick and strategy is to create a hard armour, a hard shell, around yourself – a cocoon, and to get into that cocoon. Then you can remain on the surface and the turmoil will continue and the waves will continue and everything will go on happening – because that cannot be changed by your being in the cocoon. But you will not be alert about it, you will be blissfully unaware. So you can avoid trouble in this way but you will not feel bliss. This is a negative way. You can simply hide against the turmoil but from where are you going to get bliss? It is not possible.

The other way and the real way and the only way is: disappear into the depth of the ocean where no waves are possible, where no turmoil exists. Then you can remain sensitive... you can become absolutely sensitive. Then you need not become hard, you need not become stone. You can remain flower-like, fragile. And once you have known your depth then you can come back on the surface.

I am not against the surface and I am not saying that somebody has to disappear forever in the depth and should not come to the surface. I am all for the world, but first you should go into the depth; you should see what depth contains. From there you can come back to the surface, but you will bring something of the depth in you – and that’s what is needed. Then a man can live in the world and not be of the world; one can exist in the marketplace and remain meditative. One can love, relate and yet be alone. One can have as many things as one needs and yet remain non-possessive. One can live joyfully and one can die joyfully and there is no anxiety, either about life or about death.

But this state comes only when you have known your profound depth. That death is called ‘gambheera’. And that’s what meditation is all about: searching for that depth.

[A sannyasin who is leaving says he is unsure whether to return or stay in the West and work to support his wife and children. He would prefer to be here.]

Just go and see what is possible. But don’t be hard, mm? If it can be arranged in such a way that they don’t suffer, arrange it and come. If you feel that it will be too much for them and they will suffer too much, then be there for a few more months and settle things by and by. Don’t be in a hurry. By and by settle things.…

Just go and see. Just explain the whole thing to them – that you would like to come here.…

It is important for you to stay here, but that responsibility is there and those children will unnecessarily suffer, so that has also to be looked into And sometimes to fulfill your responsibility is a great meditation... because you are sacrificing. They are your children and this is your responsibility, because you have given birth to them, to help them so that they can be on their own. Don’t make it just a duty but a joy.

Just go and see. If it is possible that nobody is hurt and things can settle, help them to settle and come back. If you feel it is difficult and it will not be possible, then wait, within a year, things will settle. Don’t be worried, mm? – something will happen!

Just see how things work out, but don’t be in a hurry and don’t be hard. Be loving and try to manage, I think within a year things will settle. Good!

[A sannyasin says: The problem is about this imbalance in my body. The left part of the body is much more sensitive and much more supple and the right side is heavier and.]

That will disappear – nothing to be worried about. Don’t take much note of it. Simply forget about it, it will disappear. Continue the rebirthing process and this will settle on its own. Your being too much conscious about it will become a hindrance. All self-consciousness is a hindrance.

It is better not to be too much concerned about a few things. The body has its own wisdom; you need not be worried about it. Simply go on doing the rebirthing process and the body will start having its own harmony. One day suddenly you will be surprised that for a few days you have not noted any imbalance. But drop it as a problem. If you carry the problem in the head, that very carrying is a constant kind of auto-suggestion and that auto-suggestion will keep it as it is.

Changes happen so slowly that you cannot be aware of those changes within a day. For example, if you do some meditation today you will not find the change happening tomorrow. So you will say that nothing has happened; yom imbalance is still there. Now you again suggest that it is still there, that it is the same and nothing has happened.

If some slight change has happened, and it is going to be very slight, almost undetectable, you have destroyed it. That small part has been burdened by this suggestion that nothing has happened, the problem is still there. You go on doing meditation every day and the change will always be small and you will always destroy it by your suggestions.

It is better to forget about it. I will take care, mm? – that is my function. Just leave it to me. Once you have given any problem to me you need not worry about it.and I never worry about anything.

You see the point?!

It will change but change will come very slowly, slowly. It is going to come... it is coming. You have learned so much in such a small period. So much has happened – it rarely happens so much; you are fortunate.

You have come very close to me, and this closeness is going to remain there forever.…

[A sannyasin says: My sons did not understand my coming to the ashram so I would like to be a witness for them that it was not dangerous for me.]

It was not! No, they will be happy!.Help them – some time they will come also. Just share me with

them. And when they see you so happy and flowing, they will understand. You will be a witness. Every sannyasin has to become a witness to me!

[Another sannyasin who is leaving says: I felt very at home here.] It is your home!

People who don’t feel at home here are in some way neurotic. All healthy people will feel at home here. All uninhibited people, all people who have dropped their obsessions and taboos will feel at home here. The people who belong to the future will feel at home here. The people who are not contemporaries and belong to the past, they will not feel at home. That’s very good!

[A sannyasin who is a neo-reichian therapist has recently arrived with her boyfriend. Osho tells her to lead groups in the ashram, and the boyfriend to assist. The man says: I always feel cast in the roll of helper.]

Mm. It can be of great benefit. If you lead a group it is one thing, if you participate in a group it is another, and if you are a helper it is a third dimension. The participant learns something but there are limitations for him. The leader learns something but there are limitations for the leader too because he has to lead. The helper is in a way not involved: he is neither a participant nor a leader. He can be more of a witness of the whole phenomenon that is transpiring. And sometimes if he is alert he can learn more than either of them. He is totally out of it. The leader is confronting the participants, the participants are confronting the leader, and the helper is a witness.

If you are alert you can learn more than even the leader... because there is bound to be a kind of self-consciousness in the leader. He has to lead, he has to plan, he has to manage, manipulate, provoke, challenge – a thousand and one things. He has a responsibility; a sense of responsibility is there.

The participant naturally is very much concerned that something happens, he is there for that. If nothing happens he has missed another opportunity, so he is too expectant, too full of desire and greed. And the leader also wants that something should happen – otherwise he seems to be a failure.

But you don’t have any responsibility, you don’t have any desire that something is going to happen; you are just a helper. You don’t have any responsibility that something should happen otherwise people will think that this leader is a failure. You can simply be there and you can have double the benefit. So be in that space and you will be immensely benefited.

And sooner or later you are going to become a leader, so don’t miss the opportunity of being a helper because it may not come again, right? Good... good!

[A sannyasin says that after the encounter group he had eczema very badly on his hands. He feels separate from his hands. He has been trying to be more creative and responsible... so now he feels confused about himself. Osho checks his energy.]

First the handsThey are in a deep healing process, that’s why you feel them as separate. The

eczema was not just physical; something from the mind has been released through the hands. And the hands are very deeply involved in the mind; they are the mind’s extensions. The right hand is joined with the left mind and the left hand with the right mind; they are joined together, cross-wise.

Eczema is a mind phenomenon. It was good that it happened. Something, a poison that you have always been carrying in your mind, has been released through -the body system. Now the hands are in healing process; that’s why you are feeling them as separate from the body. Once the healing

is completed you will not be feeling them separate. It is perfectly good; nothing to be worried about. In fact it is something to be happy about. Much work is going on there. Much energy is there – almost a kind of electric field around the hand.

In Russia they have developed a certain kind of photography they call Kirlian. It photographs the energy field of the body. They use very sensitive plates. If they take a photograph of your hand, the hand will be shown and the electric field around the hand will also be in the photograph. If the hand is going to be ill within six months in the future, they can predict it because the energy field starts changing. If the hand is healing the energy field is different.

Great work is there – much more energy than the hand can contain: only then can there be healing. Ordinary energy is used by the hand for its day to day existence. Now much more energy is there; only that surplus energy can be the healing thing. So that’s why you feel dislocation. The energy is not the same: in the hands it is more, in the body it is not that much. Just be happy about it and enjoy it.

And the second thing: you are very close to a breakthrough... just on the threshold of something.…

So be very very thrilled by it and be in a deep welcoming mood. Be expectant like when a woman is pregnant and the pregnancy is coming to term; nine months are being completed and she becomes really expectant.

And only after that breakthrough will your creativity be released. It is there – you have immense capacities to be creative – but something has been blocking it. That block is going to disappear.

[A sannyasin says she would like to stay here, but will need to give up a good student place in Germany, studying sculpture and pottery for two years.]

Mm mm, that’s really good! I would like you to finish it.…

Nothing to worry about! You will become more helpful here in the community once you have learned it. Pottery is good, sculpture is good, and we will need all kinds of people, mm? If you can finish it... you can come for a few weeks each year and then go and come back and go again. Two years is not too long, within two, three trips it will be finished, but it is a good thing to learn.

If you were studying something else, something nonsensical like law, then I would say to drop! But this is immensely beautiful and it will be helpful for your whole life. You will have a feeling of significance because you will be able to contribute something creatively.

Always remember: a person feels good if he can contribute to the world; any kind of creativity gives a well-being. If you cannot contribute anything to the world you feel somehow like a burden on the earth. And I don’t mean that you have to be a very great artist. If just in your own capacity you can produce a small thing... there is no need to become world famous – that is again a kind of ego trip. There is no need for that, but if in the work you do, you work with such contentment and happiness so that whosoever looks at it feels good, you feel good, one feels some significance, life seems to be worth living. Meaning comes out of creativity.

And you belong here, so think only that I have sent you to study for two years, right? Finish it!...

Or if you feel that it is very very difficult, impossible to go and do it and finish it, there is no need to go, mm?... because I don’t want to be hard.

So you think over it and next time you see me, tell me. What is your mind? You don’t want to go at all to study there? If you don’t want to go then nothing to.…

Mm mm... so you think about it and then tell me next time. Good!

[The sannyasin then says on one occasion she felt like killing her boyfriend, and in the encounter group she felt like killing.]

That’s a very natural thing: everybody wants to kill the boyfriend! It is so normal. Nobody does, that’s another thing, but everybody wants to kill. It will go; nothing to worry about.

[A sannyasin says I feel it’s very difficult to love myself... ] Start loving others.…

One has to start somewhere! It is difficult, that I know. Either love yourself or love others – whichever is less difficult. Start by loving others, that will be easier for you. It is difficult, that is true, but it is only through difficulty that one grows.

And you have great energy to love. Once it starts flowing you will become a great river. Right now it is frozen ice, but it will melt!

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