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‌CHAPTER 10

10 February 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means the ultimate state of silence, peace, joy. It is all three together. It is not just joy, because joy can be very maddening. It is very clam and quiet; it has no excitement in it. Joy can have much fever, passion. So it is joy with a totally different quality to it – very silent joy, not like laughter but just like a smile... very subtle joy.

Joy ordinarily can create tension. Anand is non-tense joy – joy that comes out of relaxation when one is completely relaxed and there is no desire and no expectation and no future. One is just herenow, absolutely herenow – no energy going anywhere... just a pool of energy, unmoving.

In that very reservoir of energy a joy arises – which is a by-product. It does not come from the outside... it has no cause outside your being. It is more like a fragrance that comes from within the flower. It is not a guest – it is the very quality of the host himself.

So anand means silence, peace, joy... a very cool happiness. Yes, that quality of coolness has to be remembered. Once happiness becomes hot you are in trouble. Once happiness is hot you will fall out of your happiness – you will have to go to the unhappy state – because nobody can remain in a constant state of passion. It is tiring; rest is needed.

So this anand is more like compassion than like passion. One can stay in it forever and forever. Once one has attained it, one never falls from it – there is no fall possible.

In the East, the christian biblical story of Adam and Eve and their fall from paradise is not believed very much, because the East says that nobody can fall from paradise. If you can fall from it, it proves only one thing – it was not paradise.

In the East paradise is not in the beginning – it is in the end. Adam and Eve were not in paradise. They may have been in a blissful ignoranCe – which was disturbed because they ate the fruit of the

tree of knowledge. They must have been ignorant, just like animals. If animals eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, of course they will fall.

But this is not a fall; it is going higher. Man has not fallen from the animals – man has risen higher. Of course he has to pay a price for it – when you rise high, you have to pay a price. So man has paid for it.…

But in the East it has been always thought that paradise or a state of bliss can never be in the beginning. In the beginning there can only be a state of ignorance. Of course, ignorance is blissful, but it is not the ultimate state of bliss, because the ultimate state has to be fully aware, it has to be conscious blissfulness. A blissfulness which is unconscious is almost as if it is not. You are deep asleep – happily asleep, but asleep. That is not worth much.

It is like somebody who is under the influence of an intoxicating drug or alcohol and feels blissful because he becomes deeply unconscious .. . falls into a sort of coma, dreams a thousand and one dreams and is blissfully unaware of the anxieties and the challenges of life. But in the morning when you come out of it all those challenges are there – more so, because you have wasted so much time, and meanwhile the challenges were growing and were becoming more and more complex.

So the christian paradise seems to be simply a name for ignorance. The eastern concept of bliss, paradise, or whatsoever you call it, is not in the beginning – it is in the end. It is the ultimate achievement, it is the ultimate flowering. That is what we call ‘anand’.

And the second word, ‘prasthan’, means the first step towards it. Prasthan means the first step, the beginning – the beginning of the journey that leads to the ultimate state of bliss, the first step towards bliss. And sannyas is the first step – prasthan.

So don’t think that by becoming a sannyasin you have arrived – this is the beginning of the journey. Sometimes it happens .. . many people think that because they have become sannyasins, they have arrived. It is just the beginning – it is not the end. It is just the abc, and one has to go on much further... one has to go long. Far away beyond the stars is the goal.

But if you have taken the first step, the last will be also taken. The first step is the most significant step, because people are continuously hanging around the indecisiveness of whether to take it or not. The first step taken is almost half the journey.

So you have taken the courage and the decision... and the decision is very significant. Now this is going to be a commitment for a great work on yourself. And man grows only through commitment, through deep involvement, through sincere work.…

[Osho suggested that in the groups and in the camp, he should put all his energy unsparingly into whatsoever he was doing, for it is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.]

In my childhood I was sent to a master, a master swimmer. He was the best swimmer in the town, and I have never come across a man who has been so tremendously in love with water. Water was god to him, he worshipped it, and the river was his home. Early – at three o’clock in the morning – you would find him on the river. In the evening you would find him on the river and in the night you

would find him sitting, meditating by the side of the river. His whole life consisted of being close to the river.

When I was brought to him – I wanted to learn swimming – he looked at me, he felt something. He said, ‘But there is no way to learn swimming; I can just throw you in the water and then swimming comes of its own accord. There is no way to learn it, it cannot be taught. It is a knack, not knowledge.’

And that’s what he did – he threw me in the water and he was standing on the bank. For two, three times I went down and I felt I was almost drowning. He was just standing there, he would not even try to help me! Of course when your life is at stake, you do whatsoever you can. So I started throwing my hands about – they were haphazard, hectic, but the knack came. When life is at stake, you do whatsoever you can do... and whenever you do whatsoever you can do totally, things happen!

I could swim! I was thrilled! ‘Next time,’ I said, ‘you need not throw me into it – I will jump myself. Now I know that there is a natural buoyancy of the body. It is not a question of swimming,,it is only a question of getting in tune with the water element. Once you are in tune with the water element it protects you.’

And since then I have been throwing many people into the river of life! And I just stand there.… Almost nobody ever fails if he takes the jump. One is bound to learn. There is a very remote possibility of somebody drowning in life – a very remote possibility. But there is a possibility, because out of millions, one person may be so dead already that he may not take the challenge and may simply relapse. So then too nothing is wrong. We can say to the person, ‘Hope for the best next life – what else can you do? It was not even worth your surviving.’

Otherwise, if you put yourself at stake, it is a great challenge. And in that very challenge, something that is sleeping within you becomes awake, alert. It has to become alert because life is at stake, the survival is at stake, so all your potentiality has to flare up, and in that very flaring you will come to realise who you are.

So put yourself totally at stake. If you learned swimming, congratulations! If you are drowned, better luck next time, but don’t save anything.

[To a therapist from the West Osho says:]

You are perfectly ready for me. So first do the camp, and then lead a group here – that will be good, mm? You will find a great change when you lead a group here – it is a totally different quality of energy.

Leading a group in the west is one thing, but leading a group here is totally different, because all are sannyasins, part of a family. Nobody can be as open as they are, and they don’t have any resistance – they are not fighting. The groupleader is not in any way to manipulate, persuade, seduce them into some work; they are ready, they are flowing. It is so easy, because they don’t give any resistance.

It will be an experience for you too. When there is no resistance from the participants, suddenly the energy moves so high... it can move incredibly high. It can touch such peaks which cannot be even imagined. And when you are working here, you don’t work – I work through you.

What type of group would you like ? You lead a sexual group – it will be perfect. So let there be a tantra group – you lead a tantra group.

[A visitor says: I’m a very rational sort of person and very frightened to jump. I don’t think I know the meaning of surrender. I’ve been doing the Dynamic meditation in.Krishnamurti used to speak

very much to me. I started to peel a few onion skins off and I felt very frightened. There was no one to be with... And you speak to me very deeply as well...

Osho reassured him that if he could just be here, things would start happening.

Surrender is not something that can be done – it happens. A surrender that can be done is false. Real surrender happens – in spite of yourself, he said.]

And the second thing: my approach, my basic approach, is rational. My ultimate result is irrational, but my approach is rational. I have a certain affinity with any rational person, so I can go with you to the very extreme of reason; then I go ahead. When you have come to the very extreme of your reason, then you can see the point.

So irrationalism is not something that is against rationalism – it is something that is beyond it. Irrationalism is not something which is anti-rational – no, not at all. Irrationalism is something which is super-rational. You can use your reason only so far, then suddenly reason cannot have any go any more. And if you are really a rationalist, you have to go – because much is left and reason cannot cover it. If you are really a rationalist, you have to go into the irreason too. If you are not a real rationalist, you are stuck. You are not courageous – you were hiding behind reason. It was just a trick to protect yourself from life.

Otherwise a rational person has to come to a point one day where he finds that reason is finished but life is not finished, so what to do? The rope that you call reason has come to an end but life continues far beyond it, so what to do? Stop just because you are a rationalist? – but then this is not very reasonable, because life continues.…

It happened that when for the first time physicists became aware of the misbehaviour of the electrons – I call it ‘misbehaviour’ because it was not according to logic.… They became aware that the electron sometimes behaves as if it is a point and sometimes behaves as if it is a line. Now, these two things cannot exist together: a line is a line, a point is a point. A line is not a point and a point is not a line. The point has no length in it and the line has many points in it – that’s how it becomes a line – so how can a point behave like many points? It is impossible.

They tried to figure it out, to fix it – they could not do anything, because electrons won’t listen to you or your logic or your Aristotles – they won’t bother. They continued to behave in their own way.

The physicists had to formulate a very illogical concept – they call it ‘quantum’. They had to coin this word ‘quanta’. It means something which behaves in a very contradictory way, illogical way, absurd way – sometimes like a point, sometimes like a line.

By and by they became aware that there was much more in it: the electron exists at one point and then suddenly it exists at another point, never going in between. It exists at point a, then suddenly

it is found at point b, and the line that joins point a to point b never crosses it – it is a quantum leap! It simply jumps from one point to another, and in the middle it is not found at all. Now, this is impossible – this cannot happen; at least it should not happen!

So for twenty years physicists were worried about what to do with this electron. It does not behave according to logic. And when max plank formulated the theory, somebody said to him, ‘This behaviour is illogical.’ He said, ‘But what can we do? Change your logic!’

Then a new geometry evolved – non-euclidian geometry – because euclidian geometry could not help; it had to be dropped.

A new logic has evolved – it is non-aristotelean. Aristotle says, ‘A can be a; it can never be b.’ Now the new logic says, ‘A can be a and can be b also.’ This is how things really are!

So when you come across reality and it goes beyond logic, what can you do? You have to change the logic – you cannot change the reality.

My whole approach is very rational, so I can come with you as far as you want to come – and very rationally. Then a point comes when I say, ‘Now your reason is finished and life is still there, so would you like to go into this remaining life or not?’ If you are really a rationalist you will say, ‘Okay, I have to go into it. Even if it goes against reason, beyond reason, I have to go!’ – because a rationalist has no commitment to reason. If you are committed to reason you are not a rationalist.

You have to use reason as far as possible. If it covers the whole existence, good – but if it doesn’t, then what? There are only two possibilities: either to deny the remaining existence – that it is not; which is very irrational – or to accept it and accept that there is something which is not rational and yet which is.

So nothing to be worried about – just be here. Meditate, do a few groups, and I will take you beyond your reason. And the moment you move beyond your reason surrender will happen immediately, because surrender is irrational. It is not any conclusion that you come to... it is not anything that you decide. It is not anything that you calculate and conclude – no! It is something that takes possession of you from the beyond. But that happens only when you have slipped a little out of your reason; then you become vulnerable to surrender.

So I help people to be rational and then help them to be irrational too. There are two types of persons ordinarily: there is a person like eckhardt, boehme, ramakrishna – these are irrational people. You cannot find any rational explanation through them; they are absurd. If they appeal to you, good; if they don’t appeal, good, they are not bothered.

Then there is Krishnamurti – he is perfectly rational. He will not say a single thing which goes beyond reason here and there; he will just confine his whole statement to reason.

I am a totally different person – I am not like Krishnamurti or like Ramakrishna. I use reason as much as anybody wants it to be used; in fact I exhaust it. And I’m not against it. It is a good game, one can play it. And the moment you have spent it, then I take you beyond it. The real thing happens only beyond it.…

But I’m not in a hurry, and I never say to drop your reason. I say to let it be exhausted – then it will drop on its own accord. Carry it as far as you can, as far as humanly possible, carry it. One day you will yourself see that life is vaster than your reason, bigger than your logic.In that moment it

is dropped, and in that very moment surrender happens.

It is just like a seed falls into the earth, then the shell is broken, the hard crust dissolves into the earth and immediately the sprout comes out. The logic is the hard crust around you. Because of that hard crust surrender cannot happen. You are protected too much – you live in a capsule, encapsulated. That capsule has to be broken – that can be broken. All my methods are just to break it.

So be here, wait for the moment – it will come. Do a few groups, and after the camp continue the sufi dancing and the music group in the night – they both help to relax the reason – and the remaining I will do, mm?

[The hypnotherapy group was present. The leader asks about a participant who experienced much trembling and a pain in the chest. Osho checks her energy.]

It is a cleansing process, but it is not happening as totally as it should happen, hence the pain. Whenever a process is there, if it is not happening totally the lingering energy will create the pain. If it happens totally there will be great pleasure out of it, great joy. If it doesn’t happen totally the incomplete part remains like a block. That hurts and can be very painful.

So do one thing: every night before you go to sleep, lie down in the bed and allow it to happen. The only thing to remember is: concentrate at the sex centre. It is sex energy that is spreading all over. So inside concentrate on the sex centre and feel the energy is flowing from the sex centre to all the corners, all over the body. Let it have more the quality of orgasm, and then immediately you will see that the pain has disappeared. Enjoy it as a sexual orgasm.

Just do this for fifteen minutes every night before you go to sleep. But let it really be an orgasm – you are completely drowned in it. Let ripples arise from the toe to the head and be completely under those ripples. And enjoy it – don’t take it as work; think of it as fun.

It is a beautiful process that has started on its own – it will lead you to great heights. Just after two, three days you will feel that it has become so psychedelic, so colourful.

And the next group you have to book for is tantra...

Enjoy it really with no inhibition; just go into it. Let the whole body move, pulsate, and it will become tremendously pleasurable. All that is pleasurable, if not lived completely, becomes painful Pain is a process that has been hindered on its way to pleasure; then it becomes pain. Just enjoy it, and you will become so glowing and so happy. You have hit upon something very primal.

In tantra people work for this energy for years, then it happens. But it is sometimes coincidental that it happens without any work, mm? You should be happy about it, so don’t make a problem out of it – it is a blessing.…

[Another group member says: I felt in the relaxation the fear of going deeper. I have the feeling I am really afraid to allow myself...

In response to Osho’s query, she says she has not had an orgasm until now.]

So you also join the tantra group, mm? That’s the problem: if you are not orgasmic, this will happen again and again. Whenever you come to a point where something can happen, you will simply feel stuck. If orgasmic experience is not there, that will always be the boundary, in any deep experience: meditation, joy, happiness. Suddenly you will find that whenever you come to the boundary line, you are stuck. It is just there, close – you know it is just by the corner – and it is not happening.

It is very maddening – one feels it is just close by and yet feels impotent; nothing can happen. One feels one had been just to the door and has come back again; it feels very frustrating. But the basic thing is that sexual energy is not moving, and that is the basic energy – once it moves, then all other energy starts moving.

Sexual energy creates the path for other energies to move. So you join the tantra group, mm? You have to become orgasmic, that’s all. Good!

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