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Chapter title: None
16 November 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Archive code: 7711165 ShortTitle: OPENSE16 Audio:
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Deva means divine, parivartan means change -- a divine change. I am giving you this name for a specific purpose: from this moment start accepting change. And the more you accept change, the less will be your misery, the less will be the pain. Once you have understood the secret of it and the acceptance has become total, pain simply disappears as if it had never existed.
We create our misery and our hell. Life will change into death; one has to accept it. To accept it is courage, to welcome it is bravery. To live as life changes, with it, not against, in a let-go, is the whole art of life.
So never think for a single moment that anything is going to be permanent. Nothing is going to be permanent. And it is good that nothing can be permanent; hence things are fresh, young. Through death life rejuvenates itself; through change life goes on renewing itself. It is renewable.
Buddha emphasises this flux-like quality of life very much. He says that even your soul is not permanent. Heraclitus says that you cannot step into the same river twice because the river is changing.
Buddha says that you cannot step twice into the river because you are changing! His penetration goes deeper than Heraclitus'; Heraclitus looks at the outward change. Buddha says, 'What are you talking about?
-- because the next time you step in the river you will not be the same, you cannot be the same; you are 1/08/07
Copyright Osho International Foundation 1994
Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished
Query:-
changing each moment. Something is disappearing, something new is being added to you.'
The metaphor that Buddha liked very much is of a flame: it looks the same but it is constantly changing.
You kindle a lamp in the evening and when you blow it out in the morning you will think it is the same flame. Then you are wrong. It is not the same flame that the lamp started with. That disappeared long ago.
Every moment the flame is disappearing into the smoke and a new flame is taking its place. But the change when one flame goes out and another comes in is so fast that you cannot see the gap; the change is so fast.
By the morning when you blow out the lamp it is not the same flame. Millions of flames were born and have disappeared. Yes, it is the same continuity but not the same flame.
So even your innermost being is not a permanent thing. Once this vision becomes clear you don't have any expectations of life. You don't hold onto things, you don't cling; you don't become possessive, because nothing can be possessed. Where everything is a flux how can you possess anything? By the moment you possess it, it will be gone. By the moment you close your fist it will not be there, it will not be the same.
I would like you to go deep into this insight. [Osho gives sannyas to someone.]
Raise your hands and close your eyes, and feel that you are a bird flying into the sky. Get into the feel of it. These are your wings and you are going higher and
higher. If the body starts moving upwards and you start feeling like standing on your knees or on your feet, allow it. Just feel that you are a bird: you can fly! If your hands start moving like wings, allow them, cooperate with them.
Agni means fire, deva means god -- god of fire. And many things have to be understood about it, mm?
The first thing: fire is the very substance of life, life exists through fire. It may be in the form of sun energy, it may be in the form of love energy but life exists through fire.
When you eat food you are simply eating condensed fire. The trees and the fruits you eat go on absorbing the sun. It is fire made ready for you to absorb. And when you hanker for the warmth of a woman's body, you are hankering for fire. Life cannot exist without fire because basically life is fire. But fire can have two forms: it can become destructive, it can become creative. The fire can burn your home and can warm it too. So one has to be very very alert conscious, aware about using fire in the right direction, in the right way; one has to be very mindful.
Ordinarily people are destroyed by their own fire. Sex is fire. If it doesn't change into love it can become destructive. It can keep you at the lowest point, at the lowest rung of your being; then you remain tethered to the earth. You cannot become a bird and you cannot go into the sky. You cannot be free. Sex can become a bondage. You can go on overeating, that too is fire, but then you are obsessed with food and it is destructive.
Buddha has said that there are three forms of fire which are destructive: desire, anger and greed. Desire always hankers for something more and it drives you crazy with ambition, with plans for the future; it never allows you to be herenow. Fire has gone wrong: it has moved into dream. If your desires are not fulfilled then anger arises. Or if your desires are hindered, obstructed, then anger arises. Obstructed desire becomes anger. If somebody comes in your way, you are full of rage, violence; aggression arises. Then fire has become even more dangerous. If you are successful in your desire and you had not been obstructed then your fire becomes greed. Whatsoever you attain you hoard; you become a hoarder, you go on hoarding.
These three wrong uses of fire create the ego. The more desires you have, the
more you can possess, the more anger you have, the more egoistic you are.
Buddha says this is how people are always destroyed by their own energy. He is reported to have said that everybody's house is on fire. He has said that for his whole life he has been shouting to people that their house is on fire. They should escape from it, get out of it, otherwise they will be burned. He is talking about these three fires.
These three fires can become creative too. If desire becomes desirelessness, if the dreaming mind stops and you don't move into the future, you start enjoying life in the present and you don't think of the morrow
-- you become the lilies in the field, as Jesus says -- then the fire is no more going outwards.
So when there is no desire there is no possibility of anger or greed. Your whole fire turns inwards and it burns the ego, it consumes the ego. That is the creative use of fire -- that it should consume your ego. When the ego is consumed and fire has been absorbed inside it becomes love and at the highest point it becomes prayer.
1/08/07
Copyright Osho International Foundation 1994
Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished
Query:-
So meditate on fire. Think of its creative ways and avoid the destructive way. It is the same energy that creates hell or heaven. The energy is not different; it is the same energy that makes an Adolf Hitler or a Gautam Buddha. Adolf Hitler is as much capable of becoming a Gautam Buddha as Gautam Buddha is capable of becoming an Adolf Hitler. The sinner and the saint are not really two phenomena; it is the one energy rightly used or wrongly used. And we have been given the same amount of energy. Life is very impartial; the only difference that happens later on is our choice.
And this orange is the colour of fire.…
Prem means love, vihanga means a bird -- a love bird. And become one. Let love be your whole climate, let love be your sky. There is no other god, there has never been: love is the only god. All other gods are born and die, only love remains. And that's why in this century they say that God is dead, because love has not taken another incarnation. It cannot take another incarnation unless we invite it.
That's what I am doing here, that is my whole purpose and work here: to create people who can invite love into life again, who can live in love and take all the risks that come with it, who can live dangerously.…
Because to be loving is to live in danger, to be loving is to live in continuous risk. A lover is a gambler and is always staking his whole. A lover knows that there is something higher and more valuable than life itself. Only lovers know it, and that's what God is: something more valuable than life. Even life can be sacrificed for it.
[A sannyasin, who is leaving, refers to a letter she had written earlier: I asked if I could have a baby and you said I could. Then I began to think that Osho is putting a responsibility on me and was I ready for it.]
If you can avoid it that is very good. When people ask, they create trouble for me. If I say no then it feels as if I am hurting your motherhood. If I say yes then certainly there are going to be troubles and responsibilities and you may get into a mess. The best thing is to remain alone a little longer. First finish your work upon yourself. When you have come to a certain state where you know now nothing can disturb you, then it is perfectly good to have children. Then you will be able to help them also: you will be really mothering them.
Right now you yourself need mothering and you will be simply giving them all the diseases that you're carrying. One psychoanalyst has called the disease that parents give to children 'NDD' -- neurosis, disease, depression. That's what people are going to give. You don't have anything else to give! Wait, you can wait it will be far better.
[She adds: Doctors say I sbouldn't have a baby because of my epilepsy... because the child may carry the epilepsy.]
Mm mm, that is just a possibility; that is not much... epilepsy is not hereditary, no. That is not the big problem; but neurosis and all the confusion of your mind,
that is the problem. You will be bringing up the child and you will pour all that you have into the child. First, become a little more blissful. And you are on the right track; things are happening. You are moving into it slowly, step by step. You will become very very cheerful; just a little patience is needed.
Epilepsy is not that much of a problem. If you can really love the child without possessiveness, if you can give the child total freedom without neglecting him, if you can understand that the child comes through you but does not belong to you
-- that it is God's gift -- if you can be respectful to the child, then it is perfectly good... no problem.
But if you can wait a little it is good. If I say no then people feel hurt; if I say yes they start feeling that I am putting some responsibility on them. They don't leave any alternative for me.
If you leave an alternative for me then I will say no, wait two, three years more; there is no hurry. Either the desire will disappear, that is the best thing, or if the desire persists, by that time you will be ready, mm?
[A visitor asks which groups to do, but hesitates to take sannyas: I'm afraid I will have a new belief system.]
It is not a belief system at all, because I go on contradicting myself every day, every moment. You cannot create any belief system around me; it is impossible. A belief system can be created only if I am 1/08/07
Copyright Osho International Foundation 1994
Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished
Query:-
consistent. That's why I am not consistent, because I am against all belief systems. But I go on contradicting: one day I say one thing; another day I say just the opposite. How can you create a belief system? By and by you will understand the whole point of my talking. Talking is not really the main thing; something else is important. Talking is just to keep your mind occupied so that I can work and your mind does not disturb you.
While I am talking to you that is just the outside of my work; I am continuously
working on your heart.
And when your mind is engaged in listening, your heart is available. If your mind is not engaged it does not allow anybody to approach your heart. It protects, it defends, it guards. I am not a philosopher; I am not trying to create a philosophy. And I am not a theologian either. So I don't have any belief system. You can believe in God; it is perfectly good. If you don't believe in God it is perfectly good. If you believe in the soul, okay; if you don't believe in the soul, okay. All types of people are here and everybody is acceptable to me. I make no conditions because I know the real work has nothing to do with belief.
In fact all beliefs are poisonous. And all beliefs kill your consciousness and destroy your awareness.
A belief system is a consolation. It is a lie but very sweet, consoling, comfortable, convenient, gives you security. Belief is not truth, never truth. Truth arises only when all beliefs are shattered.
So don't be afraid, for that reason don't be afraid. If some other reason is there, find it; otherwise for that reason there is no question of being afraid. And becoming a sannyasin will help your groups and your work here because then you will be intimate, close; otherwise you will remain an outsider. Things will happen but it will take a longer time.
But think about it. If you want to think about it, think about it. In fact there is no need to think about it because thinking can only lead you to a belief system. It is only non-thinking that can lead you beyond belief systems. What will you think? You will think about what I am saying... and if it appeals to you it becomes a belief. And that's what you are saying -- that what I say is beautiful. That is dangerous. Don't listen to what I say! Just listen to me... the unsaid me, that which cannot be said. And sannyas is an opening for that which cannot be said.
Those who are not sannyasins will only listen to my words and those who are sannyasins will listen to my being. Because it is a love affair and only in a love affair can being be transferred. If you are not a sannyasin you will remain a student here. Mm? you will learn many things, you will become more knowledgeable but you will miss the real thing. You will simply be collecting crumbs which have fallen from the table but you will not be a guest. A disciple becomes a guest. He is not worried about words; his whole concern is with the
being. And what I say, that I am not. What I say is just a device.
When people have become ready I will stop saying anything. When it is possible to have sannyasins who can listen to my silence then I will be just sitting with them in silence. I am using words just to prepare ground for that silence. So don't be worried about my words -- whether they are beautiful, logical or illogical. Don't be worried about them; they are non-essential.
So what should I do? Should I make you a sannyasin right now? Mm? Close your eyes!
Prem means love, asmitam means being -- love being. And everything else is secondary, superficial, because nothing else can touch your innermost core. Nothing else except love can stir your being; only love penetrates. Love is like an x-ray. Everything else remains outside you. So love has to become your very style. Sit in love, walk in love, talk in love, listen in love, look in love; in short, be in love.
Asmitam means exactly what 'am-ness' means. When you say 'I am', you are using two words. 'I' is the ego, and 'am' is your real being. Ordinarily the 'I' has become more important and the 'am' has become the shadow. The I has to be dropped so that the am becomes your totality.
The English word 'am' comes from asmi: that is the Sanskrit root. Love leads to being, love is the door to being... And this is the beginning of a great love. After this moment you will immediately find a different attitude -- in yourself, in others. You will become an insider, and things will flow easily, move easily, bloom easily.
[A visitor asks: I don't know if you can tell me that I am on my way. Maybe you can agree; I don't know.]
There is no way! The very idea of being on a way is false. There is no way because we are not going anywhere: we are just here. The very concept of the way means that truth is distant and we have to go there so the way has to connect with us. You are already there, everybody is there; just a recognition is needed, 1/08/07
Copyright Osho International Foundation 1994
Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished
Query:-
not a journey. One has simply to see it -- that one is God, not that one has to become God. All becoming is misery, because when you are trying to become you are always struggling. Whenever you are trying to become something that means that you are trying to become something that you are not, so there is tension, conflict. It creates neurosis, it creates schizophrenia; man becomes split.
So people who are on the way are all split and schizophrenic. Please don't be on any way. Just be! That is more than enough. Just enjoy and be. God is available herenow.
So the first thing is: there is no way to he on. And the second thing -- which is far more important: there is nobody to be on the way. That is just egoistic, the very idea of 'I'. So let the way disappear and the wayfarer too and then all is available. When you are not, God is.
You cannot come to that point of disappearing by effort, by travelling, by trying; trying itself is the problem. If we can leave trying and just be, paradise is herenow.
And it is time now! Leave all ways and everything and just delight moment to moment. Everything is so eternally beautiful. Where are you going and for what? Going always creates the future, so you live in tomorrow. Today goes on slipping by and tomorrow never comes.
So next time you come here... come so that we can take all away from you, the way and the wayfarer both. And when everything has disappeared, there is immense delight. Come again and be here for a few more days.
... So enjoy dances, meditations, and my orange people. These are the most beautiful people on the earth. Enjoy them!...
But they are not on the way. I distract people from their ways!
[A sannyasin describes an experience in a group: We were doing an exercise to feel the chakras. The leader asked us to say 'yes ' with the whole body and suddenly I felt a sensation here (indicating the sex centre). It was like a fountain,
a great energy flowing. Osho checks his energy.]
It is there, and something beautiful is ready to explode, so when it comes next time go completely into it. Only something like madness will be helpful. If you think about it, you rationalize it, you will repress it.
All rationalization is a kind of repression; reason is repression. Be thrilled by it, be shaken by it, let the whole body be possessed by it. Drop control and allow it to become your control: it controls you.
But something really good has started. Don't become afraid, don't be frightened because if you become frightened it will be stopped.
... Good. But if it comes sometimes, just allow it.…
Mm mm, it is exactly electricity. Go into it, mm? It will cleanse you, purify you. It is fire, but fire purifies and one becomes real, pure gold. Go into it.
[A visitor says: About sannyas... I have no idea. I'm completely confused about it
-- inside and out!]
I have never seen a person who is completely confused... because nothing is ever complete!
Mm, just confused. That will disappear... and sannyas will help to make it disappear.
[She answers: I feel a lot of blackness about me... a lot of blackness and negativity.]
Nothing to be worried about; they are natural. They are there and sannyas is the method to bring you out of them. So don't wait and think that when confusion and blackness and negativity are gone, then you will take sannyas; then there will be no need.
It is as if a person goes to the doctor and says, 'Right now I am ill so I will not take the medicine.'...
When one takes the medicine one knows!... This is a really big dose!
Prem means love, puja means worship -- love is worship.… If you love you are worshipping God, and to whomsoever you give love, it always goes to God. Love reaches him: pour it anywhere and it reaches him.
There is no need to go to the temple or to the church or to the mosque. Wherever your heart is full of love and you are pouring it out, it reaches to God; it cannot go anywhere else.
Just as rivers go on floating, moving towards the ocean, love goes on moving towards God because God is the source of love and everything moves back to its source. So it is love that joins you, bridges you with 1/08/07
Copyright Osho International Foundation 1994
Osho's books on CD-ROM, published and unpublished
Query:- God.…
Good! And it will happen... tomorrow morning you will see! (laughter) The Open Secret
Chapter #17
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