Chapter title: None

‌Chapter title: None‌

21 January 1981 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 8101215 ShortTitle: POND21 Audio:

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No 1/08/07

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[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.]

We are living in the world of death but we don't belong to it. We are strangers to the world of death, time, change. At the very core of our being we are connected to a totally different dimension. We are a penetration of the beyond. We exist in this world but our roots are in some other world.

The Indian mystic scriptures, the Upanishads, have a beautiful simile for it. They say man is like a tree upside-down: the roots are in the sky and the branches and the flowers have reached to the earth -- just the reverse of an ordinary tree. It is a beautiful symbol, very significant. It says that we are rooted in the beyond, only our branches have reached into this world. We are nourished by the beyond, we are constantly fed by the beyond.

To experience it is to be free from all misery, anxiety, anguish, because when there is no death, how can there be anxiety? And when there is death, how can we avoid anxiety? If we are going to die then whatsoever we are doing is really meaningless. It has no significance at all. Whether we are sinners or saints, it does not matter. Whether we serve or kill, whether we love or hate -- if everything is going to end in death, if everything is to be erased by death, then our writings on the sands of time are absolutely childish, playthings.

It is impossible to live in this meaningless, accidental dimension without anxiety. Something inside will go on being worried, will go on being concerned with what it is all about. But once we know that our beings are immortal beings, that nothing disappears in death -- only dreams disappear, the reality remains as it has always been -- then certainly a great rootedness, centering, happens naturally, spontaneously. One starts feeling meaning, relevance. In the context of the eternal, for the first tire we feel blissful; otherwise life is only a nightmare and it is better if it ends sooner, because it is pointless prolonging it.

Meditation is the way, the means, the door, the bridge, which makes us aware of our eternity. Then we can look at our illness, sickness, death as just peripheral. We can watch them ill a detached way, we can be just a witness, utterly indifferent -- and that's what sannyas is all about: meditation, the experience of eternity, and the detached witnessing of all that goes on happening around us.

One moves through it unconcerned, untouched by it all. One remains virgin, pure, innocent.

The ultimate truth has been called by many names, but the most significant is the beloved, because love's our deepest longing. It cannot be fulfilled by god the father.

God the father seems to be to institutional, so dull -- who wants to live with god the father? (laughter) Everybody feels embarrassed with fathers and mothers and parents. At the most one can tolerate them a few days; even that is a great burden. And to live with god the father for eternity (laughter) -- it is better to live in hell. One can be more friendly with the devil! And also there is much entertainment in hell! (laughter) In heaven there are just phony saints, dull and dead, sitting, counting on their rosaries -- and for eternity, remember! There is no end to it. The boredom must be immense.

'God the father' is not the right name for the ultimate; neither is 'god the mother'. There are many ancient religions, far more ancient than those which believe in god the father; they believe in god the mother. It s a little bit better than god the father but not much, because the mother's love for her children is natural; but the children's love for the mother is cultivated. It is more or less a duty: one has to do it, one is expected to do it, and one tries to do it the best one can. But love always flows like a river: from the mountains towards the valleys, from the valleys towards the plains, from the plains towards the ocean; exactly like that, from the mother to the child and from the child it will go again to her child. It goes on downwards.

The upward phenomenon is artificial. The word that comes very close to describing the ultimate is 'the beloved', because it is our deepest longing in the heart. It can be fulfilled only by the ultimate love affair, with existence. In fact it is better not to use the word 'god'. 'Existence' is enough, and one has to know the art of how to be loving towards all that existence is, from the stars to a small blade of grass. It is the same one organic unity.

Meditation makes this impossible possible. Meditation as far as I know is the only magical phenomenon in the world, the only miracle. Once you become silent, once your mind stops its much ado about nothing, once it cools down a little bit, once there is a gap and a window opens, suddenly you can see the beloved all throughout space: in the trees, in the mountains, in the birds, in the stars; all are manifestations of the same 1/08/07

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energy. And the lover and the beloved are not two either. When you know that all is one suddenly you realise 'I am also part of it!' Then comes the meeting of oneself with the whole, the union, or maybe better to call it reunion, because once we must have been one with it. Somehow we must have fallen asleep and forgotten, somehow we must have got lost into dreams.

It is a reunion, a recognition, a realisation. It is nothing new. It is our ancientmost heritage.

Meditation helps you to learn a forgotten language. My name for that language is love. Meditation makes you more and more loving. Finally it transforms your whole energy into love energy. That very moment, instantly, the beloved is found. When you are really a lover, totally a lover, the beloved is found.

And remember, the beloved is not a person, it is this whole vast universe; and love has to be multi-dimension, it has to be as big as the universe itself -- and it can be. It is the only quality in our being which can be so expansive. Everything else is small. Our mind is small, our cunningness, calculation, cleverness -- all arc very small, good for the marketplace. Our head is very small, but our heart can be as vast as the whole.

P.D. Ouspensky, in one of his most important treatises, TERTIUM ORGANUM, says 'There are two kinds of mathematics -- the lower mathematics in which the part can never be equal to the whole...' We are aware of that kind of mathematics, we have all been taught. And it is logical how can the part be equal to the whole? Ouspensky says 'But there is a higher kind of mathematics' -- and he was a mathematician and a mystic both, which is a rare combination, very rare.

'In the higher mathematics,' he says 'the part is equal to the whole and sometimes even bigger than the whole.' Now that is absolutely illogical but it is true! Truth need not be according to our logic; logic is our invention. Truth is not our invention and truth has no obligation to fulfil our expectations.

We have to adjust to truth, truth has not to adjust to us. This is my own experience too, that there are possibilities where the part is equal to the whole, and sometimes even bigger than the whole. And that possibility opens in the heart, and the name of that possibility is love. It is only love which can take you to the higher mathematics. Logic keeps you in the world of the lower mathematics and love takes you to the beyond.

Love can be as big as the whole universe and it can even be bigger than it. Love is our only treasure, the real kingdom of our being. So my emphasis is that the universe should be thought of in terms of the beloved, so that you can become a lover. The whole emphasis really is so that you can become a lover. If the universe is hypothetically accepted as the beloved, then the possibility opens, the enquiry is possible: you can become a lover.

If the universe is thought of as god the father then you can only be a retarded child, a dependent child, fixated on the father figure. If god is thought to be a mother, then you can cling to the skirt and call yourself Catholic, Hindu, Mohammedan, but all that you have got is just a skirt.

A naked woman in a supermarket asked the manager, 'Have you seen five kids holding onto a skirt?'

(laughter) But that is the situation: Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans -- they are all snatching as much of the skirt as possible. Nobody is worried whether god is naked... who cares about god? Everybody wants to have as much of a hold on the skirt as possible.

Think of the universe as the beloved -- that's what the Sufis have done. And the Sufis have given the most beautiful vision of reality. Love creates a miracle world; but love can grow in you only if you start thinking in terms of the beloved.

The idea of the beloved surrounding you function like a right climate, a right season, for flowering. It is like the spring and your heart opens up: suddenly there are flowers, suddenly there is fragrance.

We are aware of a reality which is constantly changing. Hidden behind this reality there is also another reality which is absolutely unchanging. This changing world is possible only because of that unchanging centre, otherwise it would fall apart. It is the unchanging centre that holds it together.

It is just like a wheel of a bullock cart -- that's how the Upanishads describe it: when the wheel moves it moves only because at the very centre of the wheel there is the axle that does not move; on that unmoving axle the wheel goes on moving. That's the centre of the cyclone.

We are acquainted only with the cyclone. Meditation makes us aware of the centre. It changes our whole gestalt: it takes us from time to eternity, from death to real life, from the fluxlike dream world to that which is eternal, forever. And this can happen very easily through meditation, because each man is a miniature universe. His body is changing -- it is part of the wheel; his mind is changing -- it is a wheel within a wheel; his heart, moods, emotions, are changing -- that is a wheel within a wheel within a wheel. These are the 1/08/07

Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

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three concentric wheels and hidden behind these three wheels is our centre, our awareness, consciousness, our witnessing, which is absolutely unchanging.

Meditation gives you the perspective in which you can see 'I am not the body; I am not the mind, I am not the heart either;' then only one thing remains: 'I am consciousness' -- and that cannot be denied, that is impossible to deny.

One cannot say 'I am not consciousness,' because if you are not consciousness, how can you ay even this, that 'I am not consciousness'? Even to deny it, consciousness will be needed, so even the denial will be just one more proof. It is indubitable.

Descartes says 'Only one thing is indubitable and that is "I am"; everything else can be doubted, but "I am", this cannot be doubted.' And this, because it is indubitable, can become the foundation of our whole new life.

This foundation has to be found. It is there, waiting for us. It has always been there, we have just been roaming around and around in circles. A few people are attached to the body. They are the farthest, they are living only like animals. A few people are attached to the mind. They are a little closer, but still far away; they are living like human beings -- thinkers, philosophers, poets -- but their world consists only of thoughts and thoughts are just soap-bubbles, the same stuff as dreams are made of. And a very few have reached to the heart, very few. It is a rare phenomenon to find a person who lives in the heart, because it is so mad to live in the heart -- it looks so crazy, it is so illogical that it becomes almost impossible to deal with the people who are living either in the body or in the mind. The man who lives in the heart becomes immediately disconnected.

There are many people who are thought to be mad simply because they are heart people and they cannot communicate with the world which has been created by the head. Their only problem is that they are in a far better space than the rest of the world. It is like a man who has eyes living with people who don't have eyes: he will be in constant difficulty. Nobody will listen to him, nobody will ever understand him; he is inevitably going to be misunderstood, on each point, on

each account.

Hence very few people dare to live in the heart: they are the mystics, they have come very close -- but still, to be close means a little far away. One more quantum leap is needed, one more jump, and then you reach to the indescribable. In the East we have called it the fourth, turiya -- simply the fourth. We have not given it any name because no name can be given to it. It is neither the body nor the mind nor the heart, and our whole language consists of words which belong either to the body or to the mind or to the heart. No Word exists for the fourth; hence a number has been used the fourth.

And it is the fourth which is the unmoving centre of the moving world. Once you are settled there, a great contentment showers on you, you have found the home.

That's the search of sannyas.

We are living separated from existence -- not really separated, because if we are really separated we will be dead, but as far as our mind is concerned we are living with this notion, this idea that we are separate.

This is only an idea, but even the idea can create great problems.

For example, if you see a rope in the dark and you think that it is a snake. There is no snake at all, just a rope, but if you think it is a snake and you start running away, you may stumble on a rock, you may fall, you may break a few bones, you may have a heart attack, you say go crazy -- anything is possible. And there was no snake at all; it was just an idea, but the idea started functioning on you.

Buddha defines reality as that which works. His definition has a significance, very pragmatic. So it is not a question of whether the sake exists or not; the question is whether it works or not. If it works it is AS if it exists. It is almost there for the person who is deluded.

It is the same situation: we are living as egos, separated from existence. Those egos are just an idea, like the snake which is not there at all, but because of those ego, we create a thousand and one problems, conflicts, so many miseries, so many anxieties -- they all arise out of a false notion. And the greatest problem that it creates is that it gives you an illusory separation from existence, and living in separation from the whole is misery. It is like a fish trying to live outside the ocean: it will be miserable, because the ocean is its life. The ego is the root cause

of all our miseries. Once we drop the ego the union happens. And in fact when the union happens are come to know that what we have dropped, we never had in the first place. One laughs at the whole ridiculousness of it!

Meditation makes you aware enough to drop the ego. Meditation brings a light so that you can see that the snake does not exist and there is only an old rope lying on the road. And all the problems that were 1/08/07

Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

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created by the illusory snake disappear -- with the snake they are gone.

In the same way meditation creates a light, a vision, a clarity, an insight -- and that helps you to get rid of the ego. That is one side of the story, getting rid of the ego. The other side is union with the whole. If ego is misery then union is bliss!

I don't believe in a God, because I have searched everywhere, in and out. I have not found God, but I have found something far more important: I have found godliness!

When I say I have not found God, I mean there is no God as a person. The whole idea of a person is our invention. It is anthropocentric. Man has created the idea of God in his own image. The Bible says God created man in his own image -- that is not true. Man has created God in his own image -- that is far more true.

If donkeys become theologians, and I think they are! They look very serious, always brooding, contemplating. Watch a donkey and you are watching a saint! So deadly serious, I don't think you have ever seen a donkey laughing. They don't laugh, they don't even smile. If donkeys are theologians then their God must be a donkey -- of course, a very big donkey! They cannot conceive that God is a man. That will be the last thing a donkey will conceive, that God is a man. What has man done to the donkeys? He tortured them in every way.

If trees could think, they would think of God as a tree. This is how mind functions: we go on creating our own image and that fulfills a certain ego. When we think of God as a human being -- as father, as mother -- our ego is satisfied

that God is just like us.

God does not exist as a person at all. There is certainly something more than matter, but that is not a personality; it is a presence. That is the meaning of Bhagvato. Bhagvato means a godly presence, just like a fragrance surrounding a flower or a light surrounding a flame, exactly like that.

You cannot catch hold of the fragrance. You can enjoy it, you can take a deep breath, it can fill your very heart, but you cannot catch hold of it, you cannot have it in your fist, you cannot possess it. Exactly the same way there is godliness. And those who experience godliness become it!

My experience of God is more like love or freedom or awareness. These are all qualities.

Freedom is not a person, love is not a person, compassion is not a person, awareness is not a person, and God is the sum total of all these qualities.

Meditation makes you aware that the whole of existence is full of godliness, that from the smallest pebble to the biggest star it is all one. But it is a presence: you can feel it, you can drink it; it can give you a new pulsation, a new life, a new light, a new heartbeat. It can become a song in you, a dance in you, but it is not a person.

The idea of God as a person is the invention of the cunning priests. And to go on emphasizing God as a person, they emphasize prayer and all kinds of rituals. All those rituals are just methods to go on emphasizing the idea of God as a person. When you pray, certainly, you cannot pray to freedom -- or can you? You cannot pray to love -- or can you? It will look absurd. Prayer is addressed to a person, not to a quality. But meditation is not addressed to anybody at all, it is just becoming silent for no reason at all. To be silent is enough, a reason unto itself. It is so beautiful, it is so ecstatic, it is so wonderful, that it is enough to be silent. There is no need to be rewarded for it.

It is such a great reward that no other reward is needed, nothing else is needed. And in that silence, suddenly, the feeling of God as a presence arises. Then you need not go to a temple because those temples, those churches are all created around the idea of God as a person.

So whenever you want to go to God -- in my word, to godliness -- you have to

go inward. You have to just become silent, peaceful, aware, loving, and you are there. It is not that you encounter God, it is that you experience a peak of joy in your being. And that very peak is godliness.

I teach godliness, not God; hence I teach a kind of mysticism, not religion. I teach a certain divine poetry and dance and celebration, but not theology.

1/08/07

Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished

Query:-

The Old Pond ... Plop

Chapter #22

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