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‌CHAPTER 26

26 May 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means bliss, joy, and niyama means discipline.

Let joy be your discipline... and a discipline is a discipline only when it is out of joy. If it is forced and you are not joyously in it then it is a self-imposed slavery, it is not discipline. You are torturing yourself, you are a kind of masochist – you enjoy self-torture. Then it is a disease and it cannot liberate you; it will create an imprisonment.

Of course, you will be the prison and you will be the prisoner, you will be the gaoled and you will be the gaoler. But still you will suffer and you will become divided – the gaoled and the gaoler; you will have two beings in you, split. One will be trying to control the other.

But that’s what has existed in the world down the ages. Very rarely can you find a man whose discipline is based in joy, whose discipline is not against celebration but part of it. Then discipline is not a slavery, it becomes freedom.

It helps you to be free if you are disciplined: if you have a certain integrity, it helps you to attain to more freedom. A person who is not integrated falls into the trap of licentiousness and thinks that is freedom. That is not freedom. A man who is not integrated and not disciplined thinks indulgence is freedom. Indulgence is not freedom. Neither indulgence nor repression is freedom.

Freedom is beyond both, and only one who is really disciplined can go beyond both. It needs great guts to go beyond indulgence, to go beyond self-torture, repression .

So I will call you, ‘ananda niyama’ – and this is a coded indication: discipline yourself but out of joy! Let them become almost synonymous – discipline and bliss.

Deva means divine and shavda means sound – divine sound.

And sound is going to help you very much, so listen to sound more attentively – any sound – because all sounds are divine: these birds chattering, this plane moving (overhead, and noisily), the wind passing through the trees. All sounds are divine because all is divine, so listen to sound very very attentively.

Let this be your meditation. Soon you will find a great silence arising out of the listening to sound. When you listen don’t think about what it is, don’t analyse it, don’t value it in any way as good, bad.

Don’t think that it is very beautiful or it is not beautiful, it is musical, it is noisy... no evaluation, no judgement. Just listen to it with no idea about it arising in you and you will feel great silence arising in you. Listening to sound you will start falling into meditation... and it will be very simple because sounds are always there.

[A new sannyasin asks about throwing the I-Ching and his future as a sannyasin.]

Mm mm. The sannyasin has no future – the sannyasin has only the present! And the future comes out of it naturally, on its own accord, so never plan for the future otherwise conflict arises. In fact there is no conflict in existence itself; the conflict arises because we start planning. We want tomorrow in a certain way, and if that doesn’t happen.And it is not going to happen that way, because the

whole is not in our hands.

[We think that we propose and god disposes, Osho says, but the disposing happens in our proposing: if we don’t propose, nothing is disposed.]

So the first thing to understand: the very attitude of a sannyasin is the attitude of non-conflict. I don’t want to create any struggle for you. I would like you to live in harmony with the moment.and that

is possible only it you don’t propose.

So let the moment come, see where it leads you, and surrender to it.

[The sannyasin asks about planning.but at least think about where your next foot is going to be

set down?]

That is not really planning. Planning is a strong word. It means that if it happens this way I will be happy, if it doesn’t happen this way I will be unhappy; planning implies that. Just vague ideas are okay, are allowed, and that too only for the time being, because you cannot immediately dispose of them. Just have a vague idea, just a vague idea with no involvement in it – that if it happens this way, good; if it doesn’t happen, you are not going to be miserable for it.

The idea should not be very certain, not very fixed. It should be thought of not as a plan but as a prayer – that if you find yourself in such and such a state tomorrow, good, it will be good. If it does not happen, that too is good; you will not be miserable because it has not happened. It was just a vague dream.and that too I am saying only for the time being. By and by you will realise that even

that is unnecessary: things happen on their own accord.

I am not saying that you are not to go and book a ticket for the plane. I am not talking about mundane things. I am not saying that you are not to go and look for a job. If one has to leave tomorrow then

one has to go and book a ticket and see when the flight leaves. I’m not talking about these things – these are okay; there is no conflict in them. Your existence is not in any way involved in them. No, but existence gets involved in psychological things.

For example, you say that if you are with [your woman], only then will you be happy. If [your woman] leaves you, you will commit suicide, you cannot live without her for a moment. This is your happiness, this is your life. If it is not like this, you don’t want to live at all. That is what I am talking about.

If god gives you [a woman], good; you will be happy and thankful. If god takes [your woman] away, then too you will be thankful, you will not have any grudge. You will say god is more wise, the whole is more wise. Who knows? – perhaps he is sending a better [woman]. Who knows? – at this stage of life maybe somebody else is needed for my growth. [This woman’s] work is done with me, my work is done with her; maybe it is time that we part. We don’t know, so why should we be miserable? Maybe something is going to happen by our parting from each other. So we are happy that we have been together for such a long time, we enjoyed each other, we are thankful.…

With deep gratitude you will say good-bye, and there will be no grudge, no crying, no weeping, no sadness; you will wait with great hope for the future again. One door closes, another immediately opens – that is trust. And one who has given [your woman] to you will think about it.

And sometimes it is possible that you don’t need a woman at all. There come stages in life when the woman is not needed, when the man is not needed, when one needs to be alone; then that is good.

Trusting god means understanding that the whole is wiser, more wise than you, so whatsoever happens from the side of the whole is good. Yes, you are a little . foolish – you still dream – so meanwhile you will continue to dream a little, but you will dream, you will not plan. These will be just suggestions, not advice to god, not orders. Then there is less and less conflict and one enjoys life more, because when there is no conflict your energies are more in harmony: you are more organic, you are one piece, you are more together.

And in that togetherness there is joy. In that togetherness there is a well-being, a benediction. And out of that togetherness, whatsoever happens is right.

When a person is fragmentary, whatsoever happens is wrong. A fragmentary person is an insane person: one part going to the east, another part going to the west, one part not going anywhere, one part going up, another part going down. In a thousand pieces one is just destroying oneself and one has no self really – just a crowd: many selves but no self as such, many egos but no ‘I’, no integration, no centred feeling of being.

With this non-conflict, no future, no planning, living moment to moment, one becomes more one piece, one starts falling into one totality, one becomes an organic whole. And out of that organic wholeness one becomes holy – and there is no other holiness. That is what my sannyas is.

It is not against the world; it is against fragmentariness. It is not against matter; it is against a split mind. It is not against this world and its joys – it is simply against an insane way of living... and millions of people are living in an insane way.

Insanity seems to be normal. Sane people are very abnormal because they are very rare – they happen only once in a while, and then we behave very badly with them. We crucify a jesus, we throw stones at a buddha, we poison a socrates. We behave very badly, because they speak a totally different language, a strange language that we can’t understand. We cannot tolerate their joy; we are so miserable. We cannot tolerate their truth: we have become so accustomed to our lies that their truth is a disturbance, a disturbance in our nightmarish life. Their truth tends to wake us and that we don’t want!

A sannyasin is one who is learning how to live sanely, how to live mindfully, how to live in a more together way. So, no planning... and remember, I am not talking about ordinary things. Look for a job and book a ticket – those are not the problems – but no psychological planning. let the tomorrow remain open: whatsoever it brings, it brings. Whatever it brings we will face it and enjoy it. Let tomorrow remain a surprise – don’t plan for it. Remain with wondering eyes about what is going to happen.

That’s what innocence is, that’s what Jesus calls being like children.Just waiting for it – full of

thrill, full of excitement, but with no planning, because when you plan too much you miss. You miss the surprise of it and life becomes almost predictable. When life is predictable you are a machine, you have lost your manhood. When life remains unpredictable then it is a pilgrimage – a pilgrimage from one unknown to another.

So I am sending you into an unknown world, mm?

Just enjoy it wherever you are, and continue to meditate. Whenever you need me, just remember me. (he gives him a box) Keep this box with you and whenever you need me just hold it in your hand, remember again that you are a tree, the wind is blowing very strong, and start swaying with the box in your hand.… You will find me there immediately.…

Prem sarito.… It means a river of love. And love remains alive only while it is a river; when love becomes stagnant it dies. Love is only in the movement because love is a dance. Frozen, it is dead. Love is in the loving; it is not a noun, it is a verb.

[Osho says that as soon as you try to possess love, as soon as you take it for granted, it becomes stale and is no longer flowing.]

And the same happens in all kinds of love relationships – in friendship.… It can happen even in the relationship with the master. The honeymoon can end if you don’t understand that one has to remain in a flowing, river-like process. Otherwise the disciple starts taking the master for granted and the master starts taking the disciple for granted; then it is dead. Then the master is not a master and the disciple does not understand what love is.

With a real master it is always a flow. With a real master it is never a compromise, it is never an agreement, it is never legal; it remains open. And one never knows what is going to happen next – then there is great adventure.

That is the meaning of sarito, so remain in that adventure. Then a man can remain young for his whole life. A man dies young then; even in death he is young.

He may be one hundred years old but that doesn’t matter: his youth is something of the inner. He remains supple, flexible. He is not a dried and dead thing – the juice is still flowing.

So remain juicy and flowing.

[A couple of journalists are visiting the ashram. The man says I do work in a publishing house... and we’re trying to bring your books into Germany.…

But what is more important is to continue the work on myself, I think.]

Mm mm. Both are important, but the second thing is more important. And my approach towards religion is not such that it takes you away from your life work, no: it puts you deeper into it. It really makes you more intense in your life, in your work. To me, god is not something against life but in life. God is not transcendental but immanent. So the meditation is not a renunciation and my sannyas is not renunciation. It is living life more totally.

But the first and most basic thing is to discover yourself. Otherwise a man can live and can do many things and finally is very much frustrated one day because all that was meaningless. It was good but was not really significant. It does not give meaning to your life, it does not make you meaningful.

So to search for one’s being is the most fundamental question; then you continue doing whatsoever you are doing and you will find new dimensions in your work, new possibilities opening. You will be able to see now many things that were there but for which you had never looked because you will have a clearer vision, you will have a more transparent consciousness. You will be more alert and more aware, and you will be more loving; naturally, you become more creative.

So whenever you can come, come, and for at least a few weeks be here. And I can see a potential sannyasin in you.

Much has to be done there. Germany has been one of the most responsive countries for my work, so if you can bring out many books in German it will be good – you will find a great receptivity. From Europe, Germany has been the most responsive country – I have many many sannyasins in Germany. So do something!

[The woman journalist says her problem right now is low energy. Osho asks her if she has ever meditated. Only three times, here, she replies... ]

Mm mm... it can be low, and with a low energy level you will miss many things in life, because many things start happening only when you are on a high energy level. It is as if you go on living in a valley: you cannot see many things. If you go up to the top of the hill there is a greater perspective: you can see many things.

But many people have decided to live at the low energy level for a certain reason. It is more secure, more comfortable, more convenient. The high energy level is dangerous: one is always boiling, exploding, there is insecurity with the high energy level. Yes, there is adventure but insecurity comes in the same package and one never knows what is going to happen. And everything is always in a chaos at the high energy level – beautiful but always in a chaos; nothing is ever settled.

At the low energy level things are settled – one has planned a life and settled; but this is missing life. And everybody has got the same energy quantity. Now it is up to us what to do – whether to bring it to a maximum, or to remain at the minimum.

All my meditations are an effort to bring the energy level higher and higher so that one moment you explode. That explosion is felt almost as if one is going insane, and in a way it is insane. The ordinary sane person will say that you have gone mad, but now you will find for the first time that life has a splendour and a great depth and joy. Dance will come to your feet and a song will come to your heart... but work will be needed.

And this is my observation – that many women have settled on the low energy level. Down through the centuries man has forced them to never explode too much. Not even while making love are they allowed to explode, so what to say about other things?

Even while love-making they are supposed to lie down just like a dead body, a corpse. Only a bad woman makes movements while making love. A lady? never! So even love has not been allowed to women. Millions have never known what orgasm is. They just remain at the low energy level – man has forced it on them. It is good for man because a low energy level person remains a slave: she is always obedient, she follows your dictates. A high energy level is rebellious, is disobedient, can be disobedient at least.

So we have cut women from the roots. To make mothers, wives of them, we have taken away all wild joy. Naturally it has affected man too: when the woman is not very happy, not madly happy, the man cannot be happy either. We are bound together, so the man also starts dragging. That’s how the humanity has been dragging.

But you can bring that energy level up high. Next time come and be here for a longer time. It can explode, but you will have to take the risk! And that’s what my fear is – that you don’t want to take any risk, but without risk there is nothing in life. Then it is almost as if we have died already. With risk the door opens. And I can see that the energy is there but you are sitting on top of it.

[The hypnotherapy group is present. One participant says: Ohhh! I ’m so happy!]

You look happy and you are happy – that’s how one should be, so don’t become guilty about happiness. Let me feel your energy... come closer, raise your hands, and just go into it.

... Start doing one thing – this is the right moment to do it.…

Whenever you are sitting and you have nothing to do, just relax your lower jaw and open the mouth just slightly. Start breathing from the mouth but not deeply. Just let the body breathe so it will be shallow and will be more and more shallow, mm? And when you feel that the breathing has become very shallow and the mouth is open and your jaw is relaxed, your whole body will feel very relaxed.

In that moment, start feeling a smile – not on the face but all over your inner being... and you will be able to. It is not a smile that comes on the lips, mm ? – it is an existential smile that spreads just inside.

Try tonight and you will know what it is... because it cannot be explained. No need to smile with the lips on the face but just as if you are smiling from the belly; the belly is smiling. And it is a smile, not a laughter, so it is very very soft, delicate, fragile – like a small rose flower opening in the belly and the fragrance spreading all over the body.

Once you have known what this smile is you can remain happy for twenty-four hours. And whenever you feel that you are missing that happiness, just close your eyes and catch hold of that smile again and it will be there. And in the daytime as many times you want you can catch hold of it. It is always there, mm? Good!

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