Chapter title: None

‌Chapter title: None‌

3 November 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Archive code: 7711035 ShortTitle: OPENSE03 Audio:

No Video:

[A sannyasin asks: I was taught as a child to pray and the prayer was of thanksgiving. Now I don't know who I'm praying to any more. Am I praying to Osho? I've heard you say that God is just a name for one's innermost core. Am I praying then to myself?]

Prayer need not be addressed, it need not have any address. In fact the addressed prayer is not very deep.

It should just be a song of the heart, unaddressed, to the whole of existence: to the trees, to the mountains, to the stars, to all that is. And that is the meaning of the word 'God'. God does not mean a person. If we make God a person we are simply imagining God as being in our own image. That is very anthropomorphic.

Then we think that he has a nose like us, eyes like us and hands and A little

better, a little bigger, more beautiful, stronger, but the difference is of quantity not of quality. So we are just magnifying ourselves; through a magnifying glass we are looking at our own self and creating God. So God is our imagination in that way.

But the real meaning of God is the totality, all that is, all that has been, all that will be. The totality of the whole time and space.… And prayer is nothing but gratitude to the whole. Because we belong to the whole. We come from it, we live in it, we live as it, and one day we dissolve back into it and disappear into it.

It is our home, it is our source and our goal. So in prayer we are simply remembering our source, remembering our goal. In prayer we are reminding ourselves that we are not separate. One tends tO forget that. In the mundane life one has to use the word 'I, I...' again and again. It is a must: without it it would be very difficult to live. You have to relate to people and of course you have to relate as an individual, as an ego, as a self. You have to struggle and fight and protect and naturally all these things make you a separate entity.

Prayer is just relaxing again into non-separation with existence, for a moment forgetting that one is, for a moment dissolving, for a moment melting... for a moment remembering the real. The real thing is that we are one with the whole.

[The sannyasin asks: So it is a meditation?]

Prayer is meditation... with love. That's the difference. Meditation is purely scientific, mathematical.

Prayer has a little poetry in it. It is the same but the formulation is poetic. Meditation is also the same but the formulation is mathematical. The difference is of formulation; the reality is one.

It is just as when a scientist looks at a rose and a poet looks at the same rose. Their descriptions will be different; the rose is the same. They both looked at the rose at the same time, they may have been standing holding each others' hand. But the scientist looks through science; his description is going to be completely different.

Meditation is God seen through the scientific vision the mathematical vision. Prayer is poetry. It is the same reality but seen with loving eyes, seen with a loving heart. Prayer is richer than meditation because it has something more than meditation.

So prayer can move you. Meditation can only make you silent. It will give utter silence but it cannot give you ecstasy. Prayer can give you ecstasy because prayer can give you great passion. It can move you, it can make your energy dance, sing. So if prayer is possible then don't settle for meditation; go into prayer. If prayer is not possible then I say go into meditation.

[A sannyasin says that he is feeling some resistance to being here. In the last few weeks he noticed he 1/08/07

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

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was forgetting his mala, and to wear orange.]

Very good! This is great! Things like that happen because it is very difficult to remain constant in anything. Even in your trust, even in your love, you go on falling back again and again. Only after a very long time does it become possible to remain in the same state. It is natural, so nothing to be worried about.

And when you love me many times you will fight with me too; that is part of it. Many times you will be angry, many times you will resist. Many times you will go against me; that is part of it ! So never think that it is something wrong. It is perfectly understandable and is accepted. This is how you will grow beyond it by and by. If you can persevere then these things will become less and less. They will happen in small gaps and then they will disappear. One day you will suddenly find they have disappeared forever. When they disappear forever there will be great joy and great tranquility because then one starts moving smoothly.

When you are fighting with me you are really fighting with your own being. When you are fighting with me you are fighting with your own bliss, your own silence, your own peace. By fighting with me you are not harming me. How can you harm me by fighting with me? By fighting with me you are harming yourself You are creating a process which is self-defeating. You want to grow and you are fighting growth. with one hand you go on making the building and with another hand you go on pulling the bricks down so the house will never be ready. But this is what everybody does in the beginning So it is nothing unnatural, nothing unexpected -- just understanding is needed. Do a few groups; they will be helpful.…

You cannot escape! You can try, but mala or no mala, orange or no orange, you cannot escape. You are trapped. And when one is trapped one tries to escape; that too is right! But don't be worried... good!

[A visitor says he can only stay three weeks because of his job.]

So next time. You will have to come again, because much is possible here, many

things are available. If you go through them you will encounter new facets of your being. You will come to know yourself in new ways, and that knowing transforms one's very life.

Many people try to transform their life but they never succeed. The only reason they can't succeed is that they don't know themselves enough. They know just one aspect and they try to change. If you know many aspects of yourself then you know that many alternatives are possible. Then you can simply change your gears from one aspect to another aspect and you are a different person. By and by, as more aspects become available to you, the richer you become. You have a variety. And you need not be contaminated by one aspect continuously. That one aspect creates boredom, creates monotony.

It is as if you are just standing at one window forever and looking at the same sky and the same tree while the house has many windows, many doors, opening in different dimensions, in different directions. At one window there is sun, at another window there is sea, at one window there is desert, at another window there is a garden; and there are many windows. Once we start knowing our house perfectly well things become very easy. One need not remain fixed and obsessed with one thing.

[Osho asks him if he loves his job. He replies that he wouldn't want to lose it.]

That is another thing! But do you love it or not? -- that's the point. You may like it because of security and things like that but do you love it? That is a different thing.

Because if you love your job that will be very helpful in bringing peace. My feeling is that many people go on doing things that they don't love and that creates a constant tension in them. I'm not saying that it is not financially good; that is not the point. Financially it may be good and still you may not like it. It may be a well-paid job, respectable, but that is not the point. Whether it fits with your being is the point. If it fits that will be very helpful.

There are a few things which create this state of unpeace. One is the work that you do, because it takes at least one-third of your time. Another is the people you live with -- the wife, the mother, the father, the brother. If you are living with people you don't like, you don't love, then life becomes very nightmarish.

And the third thing: the person that you are and who you think you are. These

are the three things: you live with your job, you live with your family and you live with yourself... and without loving yourself you cannot be at peace. That is the most fundamental thing -- to love oneself. Then the second fundamental thing is to love people you are living with so harmony arises. And then the work that you do, love it! If 1/08/07

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

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these three things are fulfilled I don't see that there is any cause to be tense, in anxiety.

But the time you have chosen is really too short. Still, we will try. For at least two, three weeks, meditate, do the Centering group, listen to me, feel me, and next time you come, come at least for two, three months. Those three months will cleanse your mind completely. Just time is needed; nothing much is the problem.

And what about your sannyas? Do you have to think about it or can you take the jump?

[The visitor replies: I can't jump.]

When would you like to jump? -- tomorrow? It will be a jump whenever you.… It will be a jump. And one should be capable sometimes of doing something almost irrational. It has no reason. Why you should be a sannyasin has no reason; that's why the jump.

One should be able to take a few things without any reasoning and should be able to go into a few things through feeling. One should live at least a few moments intuitively... and that will help much. Now if you start thinking about it it will create more unrest in your mind.…

Come close to me! Just look at me There are not great problems in your head -

- small problems... just small people, crowded together. They can be dispersed very easily. But you have become too involved with this crowd, mm? One is pulling you to one side, another is pulling you to another. They are Lilliputians,

nothing big. If you shout loudly they will escape!

In these twenty days that you are here dance as totally as possible, sing, meditate. In the night they have a music group. Go there and just blow your head!

They are not big problems, mm? I have more difficult people here! They are just very small problems but you may have gone on accumulating them so they have become too many... small but too many. Just a good shout.…

Anand means bliss, and prarthi means one who is praying for -- one who is praying for bliss, one who is asking for bliss, one who is knocking at the door of God. Jesus says, 'Seek and you shall find. Ask and it shall be given unto you. Knock and the door shall be opened.…' That is prarthi: one who asks, one who seeks, one who knocks.

And bliss is the goal. Forget the word peace; become more concentrated on bliss. Peace is a negative goal. It is always good to work for something positive; it comes easier. It is as if you are sitting in darkness and you start fighting with darkness. That is negative and you will not win; one cannot defeat darkness. It is better to search for a candle rather than fighting with the darkness. If the candle is there the darkness will go on its own. You just have to bring in a lamp, a candle -- light. Search for light.

Peace is a negative thing: it simply wants tension not to be there. Bliss is a positive goal: not that tension should not be there but joy should be there. And remember, when joy comes peace comes automatically as a shadow. Peace is the shadow of joy and you cannot seek the shadow directly. You can invite me to your home. My shadow will come but you cannot invite my shadow. You can go on inviting; my shadow cannot come.

So remember, never make peace your goal; that is a wrong goal. You are not asking for something positive. Ask for something positive, bliss, joy, and peace comes on its own! Good, Prarthi!

[A sannyasin describes two energy experiences: When she goes to a strange space she feels very lost and in a darkness; and after hypnotherapy group her heart was beating quickly and there was much ecstasy.

Osho checks her energy.]

Good... very good! It has been really significant. Both things are good; even that darkness is good.

We have been brought up in such a way that we have wrong associations with darkness so it becomes a frightening experience; otherwise it is not. Darkness is immense silence. The silence is so thick; that's why it looks dark. The silence is so tangible; that's why it looks dark. It is because of depth. It is as when a river is shallow it looks clear. If it is deep it looks bluish. If it is very deep it becomes dark.

And that first experience prepared you for the second. Everybody has to go through deep darkness; only then is there light. It is only after the dark night that there is dawn. The dark night prepares the dawn. It is not against it, remember. The dawn comes out of the dark womb of the night; it gets ready there. It is like the way a seed has to go into the dark soil. Only then can it sprout and come back to light.

1/08/07

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

Query:-

Everything is made of two things: mud and sun. Mud is dark. The seed first has to go into the mud and disappear there. Only then is it worthy enough, capable of coming to the light. Then it starts growing towards the sun. But when it has reached a height and can have a whispering dialogue with the sun, even then its roots are deep in the darkness. It is a kind of bridge between sun and mud. It is between these two that a tree lives.

And so is the situation with man. Earth and sky meet in him. Earth is dark, sky is light. But first one has to go into darkness.

Your energy is really beautiful. Feel grateful and feel very happy, mm? Good.

The Open Secret

Chapter #4

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