CHAPTER 31
31 May 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
[A sannyasin says he wants to be able to open up more to Osho and to other people. Osho tells him that any effort to be open makes you more closed. You can’t do openness.…
The sannyasin explains: I don’t say anything that I mean in conversation, I don’t seem to be direct. If I want to say one thing I end up saying something else – something not related to what I wanted to say.]
That which you say must be also related although you may not be able to see the relationship immediately. Sometimes the mind goes on doing and saying things very indirectly, but everything is related; it may not be apparent, it may not be obvious immediately.
For example, you wanted to say something and you didn’t immediately say it; you said something else. In fact, this something else may have been more true in that moment than that which you had wanted to say. It simply says one thing – that planning does not work. It simply says one thing – that rehearsing is of no meaning. You have some vague idea what to say, and then you don’t say it because the situation does not allow it. It will be irrelevant if you say it; if you say it, it will not convey that which you wanted to say – because each moment brings a new reality.
You wanted to say to some woman ‘I love you’, but when you see her she is not in the mood to listen to that, she is not available, she is far away... maybe on some other planet. Now to shout ‘I love you’ is meaningless. She has to be in a very very receptive mood to listen to it, to listen to such a delicate thing as ‘I love you’... and she is not! Your unconscious immediately gets hold of it but your conscious still wants to say ‘I love you’, because the conscious mind is very foolish.
The conscious mind does not see the actuality of the situation: it goes on doing something that it has decided to do; it is a false mind. But the unconscious immediately feels the situation, shrinks
back and simply cuts out the idea of saying ‘I love you’! You say something else. Then you feel later on, you think retrospectively that you wanted to say ‘I love’, but you never said it; you said something else, so maybe you are not relating.
In fact, to say that you love that woman would not have been relating – that would have been against the situation. And the unconscious moves very very indirectly; it is intuitive, it is not intellectual.
The intellect is very foolish, almost stupid. It decides one thing and stubbornly it goes after it. The unconscious feels more, gropes more in the dark to find whether the right time to say it has come or not, whether this is the right moment.
There are moments when you cannot say certain things, and there are moments when only those things can be said... and one has to wait for those moments. The intellect does not bother – it goes on blurting things out, it is blind. It has a curtain on the eyes: it does not see the situation.
If you listen to the intellect and you force yourself to say something which was not relevant to the situation, then you will also suffer. You will say ‘There has been no response’; you offered love and there was no response at all. Maybe there was even an anti-response – the woman may react badly, she may feel offended.
The problem is that you are not yet able to follow the unconscious, consciously. The unconscious goes on working in its own way, and the conscious goes on working in its own way, and there is a rift between these two, they are not bridged, so you always find yourself in a dichotomy, divided. You do something that you never wanted to do, you never do the thing that you always wanted to do.
But my feeling is that your effort is to force the unconscious to follow the conscious – which is wrong! The effort should be to allow the unconscious more and to let the conscious follow it. The conscious part is tiny – one-tenth – and the major part is unconscious. And the unconscious is wise, it carries the whole wisdom of the past – yours and the whole humanity’s and the whole existence!
So don’t create a problem out of it. Just start feeling the unconscious more and go accordingly. [The sannyasin asks: So from that, how should I go about trying to follow the unconscious more?]
Exactly what is happening is right! You have to accept it. You don’t want to accept it; that is creating the trouble.
... Accept that what is happening is perfectly okay. Sometimes you wanted to say something and you cannot say it because the unconscious prevents you. Listen to the unconscious more, respect the unconscious more, and don’t create this problem, don’t force anything – that’s how it should be.
By and by you will see that the unconscious becomes more clear when you respect it, when you listen to it, when you follow it, when you are not against it. Right now you are against it, right now you are saying, ‘I should be able to say what I want to say!’ You want to dominate the unconscious. The part wants to dominate the whole – which is not possible. It will create more and more anxiety in you. Let the part follow the whole. Whatsoever is happening is right.
In fact, if you understand me, my whole message is that whatsoever is happening is right; wrong never happens. It cannot happen really. How can wrong happen? We condemn it and then it becomes wrong; we bring in a value and it becomes wrong. Otherwise everybody is living as they should. You follow me? Everything is exactly as it should be.
... Drop that trying and doing. Just be as you are with no judgement.…
... I’m not saying that you are ‘xyz’ – whatsoever you are is good. How you are is not the point. That ‘how’ again brings in the same question of wanting to drop certain things. That ‘how’ brings in the question of whether you are right. If you are right then it is okay, you will continue; if you are wrong then something has to be done.
What I am saying is that whatsoever you are is right! There is no way to be wrong. How can you be wrong?
[The sannyasin answers: I feel wrong.]
That is possible, but you cannot be wrong; that’s what I’m saying. You feel wrong, but you cannot be wrong, so the feeling has to be dropped and the fact has to be accepted.
For one month drop one thing – judgement – and whatsoever happens.… For example, you wanted to say something and it doesn’t come. So that’s how it should be; accept it, enjoy it. Your unconscious is fully alive and it never allows you to be foolish.
When there is some need for it, it immediately takes over. When there is no need, it allows the conscious mind to have its game of planning and this and that – but whenever there is need it immediately puts the conscious aside and takes over.
And you are identified too much with the conscious. The conscious is a showpiece – nothing of much value, and any value that it has comes only if it follows the unconscious. If it starts fighting with the unconscious it simply creates misery.
And you are that which you can be – you will never be anybody else; there is no way. So it is up to you to create misery out of it or bliss out of it. You can create both: misery is possible, bliss is possible. Misery is your interpretation, bliss is your interpretation. Misery is fighting with the unconscious, bliss is to be with it. Misery is judgement, bliss is a non-evaluating conscious-ness, no judgement. And meanwhile, you remain the same whether you are miserable or you are blissful.
You follow me? – you remain the same.
The mango remains the mango, it cannot become a banana – but it can become miserable. Looking at a banana, the mango can become miserable, can suffer hell: ‘Why am I not a banana? What has gone wrong? Why am I not like the banana? Why am I just a mango?’ It remains the mango, but it will suffer.
Hell is the state of mind where you condemn your natural being. Heaven is the state of mind where you enjoy it. It is the same state of mind – the same people are in hell and the same people are in heaven – there is no basic difference, but just an attitudinal difference.
This looks very hard, mm? because ordinarily spiritual seekers are searching for some way to become something else. People come to me to become somebody else and I go on pulling them back to being themselves. They are hoping against hope. With me, if they succeed they will remain miserable. If I succeed, they can become happy.
And I am not saying that you will be happy if you become somebody – a great Buddha, a Christ. If you just remain yourself and let things be.…
Yes, there will be moments when you will be able to relate and there will be moments when you will not be able to relate; there will be moments when you will be open and there will be moments when you will not be open. When you are not open that’s exactly what is needed; when you are open, that is needed. In the night the petals will close and the flower will not be open; in the morning when the sun comes the flower will open. Now, it makes no problem out of it.So don’t make a problem out
of it.
No problem can be solved but all problems can be dropped. They cannot be solved because they don’t exist really; they are make-believe, constructed.
We construct them because we cannot live without problems – problems give us occupation, something to do – but all problems can be dropped. Now be a mango and be happy, or be a banana and be happy – there is nothing else to hanker for.
Then suddenly there is joy! [You are you, and you are going to remain you,] so why waste time? Why go on pulling yourself up by your own shoestrings? All this jumping is foolish! Rest in yourself.
For one month drop all judgements. And when I am saying ‘Drop all judgements’, this judgement is included in it.
... Yes, you follow me? – this judgement is included in it. Tomorrow you may be judging something – then don’t say ‘I have to drop all judgements’! This too has to be dropped. Okay – if you are judging, it is okay. You cannot judge – but it is happening! So you cannot say ‘This is wrong; Osho has said “Don’t judge”! I am not saying ’Don’t judge.’ I’m simply saying that this judgemental attitude is meaningless; see into it, be clear about it. Tomorrow you will be judging again but then it’s okay, that too is okay!
By and by you will see within a month that judgement comes less and less and less, and one day suddenly it is not there. That day there is an opening. The clouds are no more there and the sky is clear and you can seeand what you see has always been there.
Once the emperor invited a zen master to deliver a a discourse to him. The zen master just stood there for a few moments and then walked out... not saying a single word! The emperor said ‘What is this? Is this man mad?’
And his prime minister said, ‘He has delivered his sermon. You asked him to come and say something on truth and he has said it – silence.’ This was that master’s way for his whole life.
When he was dying his disciples gathered and they thought that maybe at the last moment they could persuade him to be a little more articulate – maybe he would say something before he left – so they were waiting with great expectation.
He said ‘Now the time has come – good-bye!’ So one disciple said ’We are all waiting for your last message.
[A bird is flying around the back of the auditorium making a noise.]
Just like this bird, he looked up at the roof – a squirrel was running on the roof, making a noise ‘chi, chi, kit, kit’ – and he said ‘This is it!’, closed his eyes and died.
Each moment is a moment of liberation because each moment things are as they should be. Each moment the world is nirvana, each moment all is good.
Just start looking into that more and more... and with no effort. You are not to strain about it – it is such a simple thing; straining is not needed.
Just keep it in your heart. When next time you find yourself judging, relax – let things be as they are.
[The Leela group is present. One member says she enjoyed the group but feels a sadness about her. Osho said to accept sadness as a climate of life. Sadness adds depth to a person, Osho says, and the thing is to remain centred whether one is happy or sad.]
Just the other day I was reading about a Chinese king who was going to war. On his path he came across a small hut. He enquired who lived there because there was such silence around the hut. even the trees had a different quality and a different vibe. So he enquired, he stopped his horse and he said ‘Who lives here?’ People told him, ‘A great Zen master lives here. Nobody knows his name but he has lived here for many years. And you are right, sir: the trees have a different quality around here and the rocks tooeven animals have changed.’
He always wanted to see an enlightened man, but he was so occupied with many things about the kingdom .and he had never found any time. Now he was going to the war, but he said, ‘Okay, for a few seconds I will go and see the man.’
So he went to see the master.… He was thrilled! The very presence of the master was so tremendous you could almost have touched it. It was so tangible – almost physical, material.
The king said, ‘I am happy that I have seen you. I am unhappy too, because I am going to the war and maybe I will never be able to come back, because the enemy is very strong and we are fighting a losing battle. There is every possibility that this is my last day. Sir, can you say something to me? I may not be alive tomorrow, may be dead, so give me something, say something to me.’
The master looked into his eyes and just said one word. ’Awarenessjust be aware. Defeat comes,
victory comes, sometimes you are a king and sometimes you become a beggar, life comes and life goes – only one thing abides: awareness! No sword can cut it, no fire can burn it.’
And it is said that the king touched the feet of the master, went to the war, died on the battlefield that same evening.and died an enlightened person. He remained in his awareness.
Yes, everything comes and goes, but you remain. All passes by; only you never pass.
Watch this sadness. Soon you will be happy again; watch that happiness and don’t get identified. Remain a watcher on the hills; watch everything – the morning comes, then the evening, and the sun rises and the sun sets.
And don’t try to choose – don’t say ‘This is good, I would like to have more of it’, and don’t say, ‘This is not good and I don’t want any of it any more!’ No, don’t say anything.
What can you do? Whatsoever god gives as a gift accept as a gift in deep gratitude, and remain alert.
[A sannyasin who is leaving for the West says: I am afraid to be alone.]