7

< Previous | Contents | Next >

‌CHAPTER 7

7 November 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine, agya means order or commandment – a divine order. Man cannot choose god; it is always god who chooses man. Man cannot enquire on his own, it is impossible. The desire to enquire into truth comes from the beyond; it is an order from above, it is a commandment.

And to be initiated is not an ordinary matter. It is a decision to change your priorities, it is a decision to change your path. It is a decision to change your very life and its style. It is not a minor change either: it is a revolution. Sannyas is a revolution. It is not a question of changing a little bit here and a little bit there; it is not patchwork. It is not renovating an old house; it is demolishing the old completely in the hope of creating something totally new. Man cannot have this courage on his own. This much courage needs to have some invisible support. And it is always there: whenever somebody is ready, that support arrives.

An ancient saying says: Whenever the disciple is ready, the master appears. The appearance of the master may look to the disciple as if he has found him. It is just the opposite: it is always the master who finds the disciple. His ways of finding are very subtle, indirect; his ways are exactly the same as the ways of god.

The disciple always thinks that it is he who is choosing. It’s not so; he has been chosen! And once this starts dawning in your consciousness then life has a totally different rhythm to it. Once you understand that the master has chosen you, it is a different matter altogether; then there is no way of going back, it is a point of no return. When you see that it is god who has called you forth, then you can go into any risk; and there are many risks!

Life certainly changes. Life can soar high, as high as one can imagine, but each step is risky, and the risk becomes more and more as you go higher. But once it is understood that god has chosen you then there is no fear; one can go dancing, one can go singing, in any kind of risk. Then the

risk is no more a risk; it is simply a challenge, a play; and it is always good for the soul, because it brings integrity, maturity, ripeness. So let this be the fundamental in your consciousness, that god has chosen you, that it is not your decision to become a sannyasin, that it is a commandment from above, that it is a divine order.

[The new sannyasin has done groups in the West and practised as a therapist using Gestalt and Behaviourism, and then meditations.]

Now you will find what you have been trying to find, because Behaviourism cannot give you real insight.

Mm? it is very superficial, and it is very reductive. It reduces man to a very low status, because its whole study of man depends on the study of rats and animals. It always looks at from where man is coming, but the source cannot always explain the goal. For example, by looking into the seed you will not be able to understand the flower, although the flower comes from the seed and it is true that the seed contains the flower; but it is only as a potential. If you cut the seed you will not find any flower there, and that can become enough ground to say that there is no flower, because it has not been found in the seed. The seed has it in an invisible form.

The rat also has consciousness but in a very invisible form. By analysing the rat and its behaviour you will not understand man. It is like studying manure to understand the fragrance of roses. It is true that something comes from the manure, the manure creates the possibility for the rose to be, but the rose cannot be reduced to the manure.

That is the fallacy of Behaviourism: it reduces man to a very undignified status, it takes all dignity from human beings. Then man is just a mechanism and you can operate on him, you can condition him this way and that, just as one conditions a computer. It can help in some ways because there are many men who are still functioning like machines. So it has a point and it can be helpful, but it is not a real understanding, a true understanding of the hidden consciousness which is the centre and the goal of all human endeavour. So it is good to understand Behaviourism, but it is only a foundation; much has to be erected upon it. Only then is the temple ready.

Doing a few groups here, meditating, being with me, you will be able to find your own approach. And every therapist has to find his own approach; unless you can find something of your own, you will not be of much help, because it is not the therapy that helps but the therapist.

When Sigmund Freud analyses somebody it is not Psychoanalysis that helps the person, it is the charisma of Sigmund Freud. In his hands Psychoanalysis is tremendously powerful. It is his presence, his understanding. He pours his heart into it. It is his discovery, it is not something that he has taken from others; hence his heart is beating there! He is totally committed and involved. His involvement, his commitment and the understanding that he has arrived at through his own efforts, and his confidence... that confidence is infectious. When the patient sees the gleam in the eyes of Sigmund Freud, the joy and his utter confidence that it is going to happen, that is the real miracle, that is infectious.

When you are just doing something that you have learned and not discovered on your own, you cannot have that charisma. You are simply doing something. Technically you are an expert, but no

technician can be the master, in anything. He can do things here and there and he can help people to a certain extent but miracles will not happen, and unless a therapy is miraculous, it is nothing.

That miracle can happen only when you start doing something totally on your own, when it is your own painting, when it is your own poetry, when it is your own song. Then you are into it and the patient can feel that it is not only professionally that you are interested in him, your interest is much deeper. It is not only that you are interested because he is paying. It is as if your whole life is at stake with him: if he does not get healed, then you will be a failure; then your whole vision will flop.

So it is not a question of the patient being healed, more than that it is a question of the therapist. And when it becomes such an involvement therapy can do miracles. All kinds of methods are helpful but the real thing is the therapist, the healer; he should have roots and integrity and his own vision.

Learn from all therapies, and slowly slowly a synthesis arises in you, and that synthesis will be helpful. Everybody has to sing his own song!

Sat means truth, viharo means dwelling in – dwelling in truth. Truth is not something logical. I don’t mean by truth a conclusion arrived at by logical, rational methods. By truth I mean the authenticity of being, not imposing anything that you are not, just being that which you are at whatsoever the risk, never becoming a hypocrite.

If you are sad, you are sad; that is the truth in that moment. Don’t hide it. Don’t bring a false smile on your face, because that false smile is going to create a split in you. You will become two: a part of you will be smiling, and of course it is only going to be a minor part, and the major part will remain sad. Now a division has arisen, and if you go on doing it again and again.When you are angry

and you don’t show your anger you are afraid; it may destroy your image because people think you are so compassionate, and people say that you are never angry. They appreciate it and it is so gratifying to the ego. Now, being angry will destroy your beautiful image. So rather than destroying the image, you repress the anger. It is boiling within, but on the surface you remain compassionate, kind, polite, sweet.

Now the division is being practised, people are practising it through their whole lives; then the division becomes absolutely settled. Even when you are sitting alone and there is nobody and there is no need to pretend, you go on pretending; it has become second nature. People are not true even in their bathrooms; even when they are utterly alone they are untrue. Now it is not a question of being true or untrue: it has just become their habit. For the whole of their lives they have practised and, as you practise more and more, the distance between two parts of you becomes bigger and bigger.

When it becomes unbridgeable we call it schizophrenia. When you cannot contact your own other part, you almost become two persons instead of one, then it is severe mental illness. But everybody is divided, so the difference between the schizophrenic and the normal is only of degree. It is not very basic, not of quality but only of quantity.

By truth I mean not to pretend. Just be whatsoever you are: one moment you are sad, so that moment you are sad, and next moment if you become happy there is no need now to continue to remain sad. Because that too has been taught, to always be consistent, to remain consistent. It

happens, you can observe: you were sad and then suddenly sadness is gone but you cannot laugh immediately, because what will people think? Are you mad? Just before you were sad; now you immediately start laughing. This is done only by mad people or small children, it is not expected of you. You will have to wait for a certain situation in which slowly slowly you can relax and start smiling and laughing again.

So it is not only that when you are sad you pretend smiles; when you want to smile then too you pretend sadness because of that whole stupid idea of remaining consistent. Each moment has its own way and no moment needs to be consistent with any other moment. Life is a flux, it is a river: it goes on changing its moods. So one need not be worried about consistency. Anybody who becomes worried about consistency will become untrue, because only lies can be consistent; truth is always changing. Truth contains its own contradictions, and that is the richness of truth, that’s its vastness, that’s its beauty.

So if you are feeling sad then be sad, with no condemnation, with no evaluation of it being good or bad. There is no question of good or bad, it is simply so. And when it goes let it go. When again you start smiling don’t feel guilty because just now you were sad and so how can you smile? Let somebody first tell a joke, let somebody first break the ice and then you will smile; wait for the right moment. That is again hypocrisy. When you are happy, be happy, there is no need to pretend anything.

And remember: each moment has an atomic reality. It is discontinuous from the past moment and it is not connected with the future moment. Each moment is atomic. They are not following each other in a sequence, they are not linear. Each moment has its own way of being, and you have to be that, in that moment nothing else. This is what is really meant by truth.

Truth means authenticity, truth means sincerity. Truth is not a logical thing. It is a psychological state of being true – not true according to some ideal, because if there is some ideal you will become false. If you think that to be like a Buddha is to be true then you will never be true, because you are not a Buddha and you will impose the Buddha on you. You can sit like the Buddha, you can almost become a marble statue, but deep down you will still be the same. The Buddha will be just a posture. And if you have an idea, you cannot be true to the moment, because the idea, is always there and you have to imitate the ideal.

The true man has no ideals. He lives moment to moment, he always lives as he feels in the moment. He is utterly respectful towards his feelings, his emotions, his moods. And this is what I want my sannyasins to be: authentic, true, sincere, respectful towards their own soul.

[Osho gives sannyas to a woman with Wilson’s disease which affects her balance, and movement.]

Deva means divine, saksho means witness – a divine witness. I know that you are in a difficulty with the body but the difficulty can be transformed into a blessing. There is nothing that cannot be transformed into a blessing. All calamities can become sources for celebrations: one just has to learn the magic knack of bringing about these transformations. The magic art of bringing transformations into one’s life is only one, and that is contained in the word ‘witness’.

If somebody has a perfectly normal body he will find it very difficult to become a witness to it. You will not find it difficult, so use it as an opportunity: become a witness to your body. Just watch

from the inside all the movements of the body, all the difficulties of the body. And never for a single moment feel that god has been unjust to you, that god is unfair; it is our interpretation. Change the interpretation and let this body become your field of witnessing. So watch, become a watchful. Doing is not going to help you, only witnessing is going to help you, because doing will be difficult.

You cannot do many groups, but don’t feel deprived; it is nothing to be worried about. If you understand me you may be benefited more than those who are doing the groups, because when you can do something the doer arises, and the doer is an ego; it is a barrier. When you cannot do, helplessness arises, and helplessness is tremendously beautiful because in helplessness the ego can dissolve and the barrier can be dropped. Let this body be a great opportunity, a golden opportunity, and you will feel grateful to god one day that he gave you a difficult body; you will not complain.

So this is your method, the name contains your method: watch and become very detached, aloof, distant. You are not your body; that realisation has to be your work. Start from the body; once you have learned that you are not your body, then the same method has to be applied to the mind, that you are not your mind either. But it is easy to start with the body.

In fact, Yoga postures were invented to create such abnormal postures that you could not become identified with them. Walking, sitting, sleeping, these are normal postures; one is identified with the normal postures. But when you are standing on your head it is not a normal posture; you cannot be identified with it. You have to remain alert, otherwise you will fall. You may break a few bones; you have to be very alert. The posture is so strange that alertness is a must. There are many postures, Yoga postures, that are really distortions of the body. The body is placed in such strange positions that the inside consciousness cannot get identified. Those are methods to dis-identify yourself from the body. Now this is available to you without any effort. You need not go to any Yoga teacher. Your body is born as a Yogi!

[She nods and smiles and bas got the point.]

Don’t feel at all that you have a difficult body – what to do with it? Use it and you will be tremendously benefited. Just become a witness: walking, sitting, cycling, just become a witness. Everything is going to be difficult. I have heard my sannyasins saying that when you go on the bicycle they all become afraid that you may fall any moment! But remain alert, take it playfully, and when you have become very centred and you know absolutely that you are not the body, then start working on the mind. Start with the body because the body is gross, and the mind is subtle. Then put the same focus on the mind: ‘I am not the mind.’ You have to do these two things and witnessing arises.

To become a witness is to be free from everything. That is freedom and that is the ultimate goal of human consciousness. The whole evolution is moving towards that freedom, freedom of the consciousness from all confinements. The body is a confinement, so is the mind, and we have to go beyond all confinements, we have to go beyond all containers. We have to become as wide as the sky so that we can contain the whole in our heart.

[A sannyasin says that he has done some groups at Esalen growth centre in the States. Osho suggests some groups here.]

Feel at home and feel relaxed. And remember a few things.… One is: to be with me all that is needed is the art of putting the mind aside. You have a very cultivated mind; it will be difficult to put it aside, but still it can be put aside. You have that capacity too. And once we have learned how to put the mind aside a tremendous change happens. Then you are no more a slave to the mind, and to destroy the slavery of the mind over the soul is the most fundamental step in sannyas. It will be hard but not impossible! So put it aside.

Don’t try to connect with me logically. I am not a logical person and the work that I am doing has nothing to do with reason. Although I talk rationally, I use all possible ways of logic, they are all in the service of something illogical. I use rational approaches just to bring you to the brink from where you can be pushed into the irrational.

All kinds of means are being used here but the goal is to come to a point where you can see reality without thinking about it. That is satori, that is samadhi: to be able to see, to be able to remain conscious and yet without any thought.

Somebody asked an early Christian mystic and saint, Tertullian ‘Why do you believe in god? The whole idea is absurd!’ And Tertullian is reported to have said ‘That’s why, precisely; that’s why I believe in god. “Credo qua absurdum’, because it is absurd, that’s why I believe. If it were not absurd I would not have cared at all, because all that is rational is human.’

Reason is a small phenomenon in the human mind. It is not something that is there in existence itself. Existence functions without any reason and without any rhyme either. it’s function is mysterious. It is absurd, and hence the beauty of it! It is good that roses are not rational and that cuckoos are not rational, that trees are not rational and rivers are not rational, otherwise this world would become so drab and dull. Then the rose would be arguing and the cuckoo would be proving something and the river would be writing treatises for Ph.Ds. Then it would be impossible to live here. The rose has no argument; it is simply there, naked, tremendously there with no argument. You cannot ask ‘Why?’ There is no why in existence. It is so, stunningly so.

When the mind remains entangled in its logical structures it remains closed to existence and the ecstasy of being alive. So I am here to destroy the logical structure. But I am not an enemy of logic. You can use it wherever it is needed: when you are doing some mathematical work you can use it. Then put it aside. One thing has to be learned: that one should be capable of putting it on and off. It is a machine and it should not go on continuously. One thing.…

The second thing: be in a kind of let-go while you are here. Meditation is not something that has to be done; it has to be allowed to happen. So be a little foolish, idiotic, mad – those are all beautiful words. Dance like a madman. Don’t think ‘What is going to happen after this dance? What is going to happen through this dance?’ The dance is enough, and while dancing don’t bring any motivation, any goal, into it. Enjoy it for its own sake, and it becomes meditation.

This is the golden key to transform any act into meditation, just enjoying it for its own sake. Then swimming can become meditation, going for a walk can become meditation, anything; then you have the magic wand in your hands. You can transform anything into meditation. The whole secret consists of a very simple fact: do something for its own sake, with no goal, with no future, and that’s what let-go is. So meditate, dance, sing; don’t judge.

And the third thing is: if I start doing something in you, don’t resist. Resistance comes; it is almost an autonomic reaction because we don’t want to be manipulated. The master has to manipulate. But his manipulation is totally different from any other manipulation that one can think of. He has to change a few things here and there, he has to break a few doors, unlock them. He has to pour his energy into you. And it is frightening because you have always remained so much your own master. Choosing a master, becoming a sannyasin, means that now you are giving your control to somebody.

So let it not be an empty gesture, really give the control to me, and you will be surprised: things that after many years you have not been able to do on your own can be done within seconds. But it all depends on you! Do not resist, and then eternal bliss will be yours. That is the meaning of your name: that something timeless, deathless starts coming, descending. That is another name for god!

< Previous | Contents | Next >