7

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‌CHAPTER 7

7 August 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

[Osho gives sannyas.]

Close your eyes, and just feel as if you are dying; just relax the body. If the body falls, don’t be worried: allow it, cooperate. Go on feeling as if you are dying, dying, dying. At the very moment when you are almost dying it is very simple for me to make a contact with you. Just allow it.…

It is very difficult for you to leave yourself in uncontrol, and that is going to be your basic problem to be solved. You have a subtle control system within you. Maybe you are not even conscious of it – that you don’t allow yourself totally into anything. A part of you goes into it but the remaining part, the major part of you, remains outside. Then there will always be conflict, you will never be at peace with yourself. A part will be going to the north, another part will be going to the south; there will be tension. That’s what anxiety is. Man is the only anxious animal because man is the only animal who is never total: he goes so far and then stops.

Either go in totally or don’t go at all, both are good, but remain total, remain whole. If you love then love totally, put everything at stake. Be a gambler; don’t be a business man. Otherwise don’t love, remain a monk, but put everything into your monkhood; again be a gambler. Only gamblers reach somewhere. Business people never arrive; they are lukewarm people, just in the middle.

All revolutions happen from the extremes, all transformations happen from the extremes. From the extreme is the jump. You are a middle-of-the-way walker. Everybody has been trained for that; it is not that something is especially wrong with you. Everybody has been trained to remain in control.

We are so much afraid of nature, hence the control, but if you are afraid of nature you are afraid of life. If you are afraid of life you are afraid of god. Then you will live in fear and you will die in fear, and a great opportunity where every moment could have been a moment of blessing would have been

missed. But that blessing is possible only when you are boiling at the one-hundred-degree point, not lukewarm. From there you evaporate; from there you jump into some new reality, into some new dimension.

And you are very young so it is not going to be difficult to unlearn the control. When a person becomes very old then the control becomes as strong, sometimes even stronger than nature itself.

People say habit is second nature, but if the habit is very long, it becomes the first nature and nature becomes just a secondary habit. Then things are very difficult. It is very difficult to bend an old structure; you are still flexible. You are still only on the way to becoming stagnant. You have come in the right moment to me: things can be easily changed and spontaneity can arise in you, and with spontaneity is sannyas.

My sannyas means nothing but spontaneity: living moment to moment with courage, with utter trust, and going into everything totally, whatsoever it is... going into it without any judgement.

So let this be my message for you on this, your new birthday – to start relaxing. It is not yet difficult; it has not yet settled but it is there around you. Mm ? sooner or later it will close upon you and then it will become more difficult; every day it will become more difficult.

Right now it can be dropped, it can be dropped easily. So while meditating, while moving around here, while listening to me, remember one thing: to uncontrol, relax, be... but don’t manipulate yourself. Do things the way you feel; if you don’t feel, don’t do. There is no need to do everything in the world; only a few things are enough to make a person ecstatic, and those are the things that you would like to do. Do them but do them totally.

Put your whole energy into a few things, don’t scatter it. Scattered, you will be lost in the sands. Put your whole energy into a few things. The best way is to put your whole energy into one thing, one target: then you become a river, a great river. Then the ocean is absolutely your destiny. It can be predicted: you will reach to the ocean. But even if a big river becomes many small streams it will be lost in the desert, in the sands; it will never reach anywhere.

That’s what happens to many people: they fizzle out. They start with great gusto and sooner or later are lost in the world – one fragment going this way and another fragment going that way, one part moving fast with jet speed, another part just Lying there like a rock, not moving at all. Naturally, life becomes very very ugly, a hell.…

So drop control – learn uncontrol. Uncontrol means to be natural, to be spontaneous. Uncontrol means to remain unafraid. There is nothing to fear! It is god’s world and he is everywhere. We are part of him; there is no need to be afraid. We are like fish in the ocean of god; there is no need to be afraid. But fear has been taught, fear has been given; almost from the first day that a child is born the system is being poisoned. Out of fear arises control.

When you control yourself, naturally you will be controlled by others too. You become a slave; then you hanker for somebody to control you. If you find a situation where nobody is to control you, you will be at a loss. That’s why the society teaches control: if you start controlling yourself, sooner or later you will be controlled by many people. The politician, the priest, the parent – a thousand and

one bosses are there who will control you. There is a great hierarchy, bosses upon bosses, and they will all control you.

Once you learn the trick, you will be controlled your whole life. Then your wife will control you, your children, even your children, will control you. Once you are in a rut you know only one way of being, and that is being controlled. And whenever you are free, you will be at a loss; you will not know what to do now, where to go. You will always need somebody to direct you, somebody to tell you to do this, to go there. This is a great slavery – and sannyas is a rebellion against all kinds of slaveries.

Deva means divine and siddhanta means principle. This name is a declaration that you are a divine principle, that you need not be afraid... that you can go with your total trust into life... that the enemy exists not, that the universe is friendly.

[Osho gives sannyas to someone, instructing her to close her eyesShe closes her eyes for a few

moments and opens them again.] In such a hurry to open your eyes!...

But learn to close your eyes a little bit more! Whenever you have time, just sit silently with closed eyes. It will help, it will help you to be more at ease with yourself.

But I can understand: your trouble is not only yours, it is the trouble of the whole west. People have forgotten how to close their eyes because they have forgotten how to go inwards. Our whole interest is outside. It is really a wonder how people manage to sleep with closed eyes! Sooner or later they will start sleeping with open eyesand they will have their glasses on! Our eyes have become very

fixed on the outside... almost paralysed. They cannot move inwards, and that is the most essential thing in life to learn, because we go on missing our real treasure. In the cast that real treasure is called, ‘dharma’. We don’t call the church religion, we don’t call ritual religion; we call the inner experience of one’s being religion.

[A new sannyasin says that she has been travelling for the past three years. If you travel too much you land up with me! chuckles Osho. There is no need to go; you have travelled enough. Now start a new journey inwards – that’s the real pilgrimage! He suggests the two newest groups for her.]

The first group is anatta; it means no-self, mm ? That is the beginning of the inner journey that one has to drop the idea of the ego. Because the ego functions as a barrier; it blocks. When you feel too much of the ‘I’, you become solid; when you feel a little less of the ‘I’, you become liquid. When you don’t feel ‘I’ at all, you start evaporating. Then you are free and the whole sky is yours.

So the first is anatta, and the second is urja.

Urja means energy, so learn something about the energy – how it functions, what it is exactly – because you arc that energy. The whole universe is also that energy, and if we know exactly what energy is we can start making friends with existence. We can start moving in tune with existence... we can start embracing existence, we can fall in love with the total – because we are small parts of the same energy. And when the part falls into the whole there is great joy.

If the part goes on moving away from the whole there is misery. To go away from the whole is misery, to separate from the whole is misery. To fall into union again is joy. The word ‘yoga’ means union and that is exactly the meaning of the english word ‘religio’ it means to relate again, it means to join again, to become one with the whole.

[To a new sannyasin Osho says:]

Relax and start enjoying things here; don’t remain in the head. You come closer to me if you come into your heart; you remain far away if you remain in the head. Two heads can be very close? but they can never be really close. Physically they can be close but spiritually they are worlds apart.

Two hearts can be far away, but can be very close. The heart knows how to be close and the head knows how to be away. So listen to me from the heart, contact me from the heart.

... Tantra. It comes from two sanskrit roots, ‘tan’ and ‘tra’.

‘Tan’ means expansion, and ‘tra’ means explosion. Tantra means explosion by expanding your consciousness. In the new hippie jargon they have a word which means exactly tantra – mind- blowing; that is what tantra is. And when you start expanding your consciousness it cannot be contained in the head. The head is a very small place, very crowded, already too crowded. A thousand thoughts and desires are clamouring, it is a marketplace. Even while you are asleep it goes on functioning, it goes on chattering.When you start expanding then naturally you have to find a bigger place for yourself, and that is the heart. Then you start slipping from the head into the heart. The heart has great possibilities. It is an infinity.

So start slowly, slowly, relaxing into the heart... dance and sing. And this is your family. Meet people, be loving, create friends, mm ? This is a constantly on-going group. Much is possible; just remain available! Good!

[A visitor, who is leaving, asks Osho to recommend groups for him in the West. Osho replies, groups here have a totally different quality. In the West you cannot go very far or very deep because the danger is always there that you may not be able to come back; nobody is ready to take that responsibility. Here I am ready to take responsibility for you because you cannot go further than me, so wherever you are, you will be behind me! I can force you back to your original structure, to your original reality. Groupleaders can only take you so far. They have some expertise, perhaps a little more understanding than you, but basically they have the same problems as you.]

[A sannyasin says: I really want to be in a relationship. I don’t know what to do.] But nothing happens?..

It is so difficult for women here to find men: all the men have become so afraid! But sometimes you find a man so then what happens? The man escapes?...

So you have to learn a few things.… What do you do? How do you help him escape? Observe yourself; you must be doing something. And sometimes we go on doing things unconsciously. If you

don’t learn what you do it will be difficult for you, so just watch! This is a great opportunity to watch and transform.

A few people start putting a heavy trip on the relationship; then here it is not going to happen because nobody is interested in heavy emotional relationships. People are ready to be loving but nobody is ready to be crippled by love; nobody is ready to be imprisoned by love.

People are ready to go into deeper freedom through love but not at the cost of freedom. Here people are really in search of freedom. They can use love to go towards freedom, they will be happy, but if they see that freedom is to be denied for love they will choose freedom, they will not choose love. This is one of the basic things to understand.

So here around me if you really want to love a person you will have to be non-possessive and you will have to learn not to cling; you will have to learn how to give freedom to the other. You cannot find a husband here, that’s perfectly true, but you can find a great friend, and that is far more valuable. A husband is an ugly phenomenon. To live with a husband or a wife is to live in a hell.

Friendship has a fragrance. So learn one thing – not to try to possess anybody. Make it very clear to the person that he remains free and you remain free; then you will find many friendships growing.

[Osho reminds her that people enter into love, into relationship, to be happy. But the human mind has become conditioned to a certain pattern of misery: you start fighting for things that don’t matter; then love is destroyed for trivia. Always keep in mind, he says, that love is so valuable everything else can be lost for it.]

Can you say something about what you feel is the cause? – because if you can it will be very good. That will show that you are becoming a little observant about your own personality.

[She replies: Jealousy, possessiveness.]

So that has to be dropped... Here, if you are jealous and possessive, then you cannot find any man. These people are tired; that’s why they have come to me! They are tired of all such relationships and trips; they don’t want to get into any other trouble. If they just want to have a jealous wife, they can have one anywhere else. Why should they come here, so far away ? Here they come to grow in a new dimension, in a new freedom.

[Help the person you love to be free, says Osho. Every woman wants a real man but she turns him into a henpecked husband once she has got him! If you let the other remain free, you remain free. A person will only get into your prison if you are ready to get into his. Osho says if she needs to she can cathart on a pillow but no need to take it out on the man – otherwise she will cripple him... ]

And... you are young: you can drop these things! If you were old, eighty years or something, I would not have bothered. I would have said, ‘Okay, you just go on,’ but you have your whole life ahead! Mm ? And you have fallen in love with me, so here jealousy won’t do!...

You will be able this time, mm? Try!... My prestige is at stake! Good!

[A visitor says she is confused, has difficulty doing the meditations, is unconscious. Osho suggests she take sannyas. She replies: Please! I have many problems already without the mala and orange!]

That will help to drop all your problems! That will be a decision – a beginning of choosing something.

[She answers that she feels that sannyas for her is very serious, so she doesn’t know if going back to Italy she can keep the orange and the mala.]

I trust you: you will. At least look at me: one person trusts you! I trust you. You may not trust me, but I trust you.

This is going to help to break the ice. At least one thing – you will be taking a decision, and that very decision will help your meditations to go deep. Because here, if you are not a sannyasin, in your consciousness there will remain a barrier to going deep into meditation. If you go deeper in the meditation, you will have to go into sannyas. That is there in the mind; I can read it right now. You will not be able to participate in a group deeply because you will be continuously afraid and you will be ready to escape; you will remain on the boundary. To go deeper will be dangerous. You will have to become a sannyasin.

So that’s why I am saying first solve the problem: the problem is that you become a sannyasin! [She says: Can I wait ?]

That is for you: if you want to remain in confusion, remain! I am not confused! Wait! For what are you going to wait ? What will you do by waiting ? You will think and think, and then you say, ‘How to get out of thinking ?’ Just take a Jump! Ready ?

It is so simple to get out of the mind!

... Otherwise you remain with your mind; it is perfectly okay. Mm ? remain with your mind and you remain with your confusion. Then you are creating it; don’t say that it is a problem. You are clinging to it. You are feeding it, you want it to be there. You are not ready to drop it – because I suggest a thing which can help you to drop it. That will be the beginning of many more things.

[She still hesitates and asks for groups, which Osho gives her – and then asks her about sannyas again.]

I am ready right now! Because my whole approach is that it is better to do something without thinking. At least do one thing without thinking; that will be a new beginning. You have never done anything without thinking. In fact you have not done much because if you think, you cannot do; that opportunity passes by.

You can live your whole life thinking and thinking and you will die. You will never do anything because whenever you have to do something, thinking has to be put aside. You follow me?

Thinking has to be pushed aside if you want to do something, because doing needs an immediate response. If somebody comes to kill you, are you going to think? And that’s what I am doing! I am

ready to kill you, and you say, ‘I will think.’ You will not even ask which is the right door! Even from the window you will jump.

Thinking never helps; thinking hinders. So my suggestion is that if you wait for seven days that will be doing your old pattern again.

[She refuses.]

Then you wait, mm? But next time when you come, I will also have to think – whether to give sannyas to you or not.

Wait. Because next time I will not be so much trusting; it will not be your decison...

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