CHAPTER 27
27 February 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Deva means divine, god, avesha means possessed by – possessed by god... and from now onwards I will possess you!
So relax and be possessed! Don’t fight with me, because that is sheer wastage of energy. If you remain in a let-go, much is going to happen. If you allow me, nothing is impossible, but the whole thing depends on your allowing me; that is the very core of it. And it is difficult... not impossible but difficult certainly.
We have been taught to fight, to struggle, to have our own way, to have our own will. We have been taught to be egoists – and that ego has to be dropped; only then do you allow. When you are not, you allow me – when you are, you cannot allow.
So from this moment, be a nobody... almost a nothingness, empty. Empty yourself of your will and suddenly you will see that things that you were trying for and wanting and desiring and which were never happening, have started to happen on their own accord.
God is available if you don’t fight. God is a gift – if you fight, you miss the gift. How can you get a gift when you fight? The gift has to be received, not snatched.
That is the meaning of the word ‘avesha’. It means to become receptive and let god possess you. Let him move you wherever he wants... Let him do things through you. Just be a vehicle, a passage, and soon you will start feeling that a new energy is coming into you which is not yours .
The distinction is so clear because the energy is so pure – you cannot believe it is yours; it cannot be of you. It is so beautiful, so tremendously powerful, and it is so inexhaustible that it cannot be yours. It is almost as if an ocean has fallen into a drop – it is so vast!
And that is the life I call religious: when a man lives possessed by god. [To a new initiate Osho says:]
Come here.… Raise your hands this way (above the head) and close your eyes. If something happens in the body, allow it. If your breathing changes, allow it; if your body starts swaying, moving, allow it.
Just be totally uncontrolled so I can feel where the energy is and where it is going and where exactly it wants to go... go into it.
Come here...! You have been coming to me for many lives – now you have arrived! This will be your name: Swami Anand Anubodha.
Anand means bliss, the ultimate state of human consciousness. Literally it means absolute happiness... but with a difference. When you are happy, happiness is something apart from you, something external to you – it has happened to you but you are not it. That is the difference between happiness and anand. Anand is happiness but not separate from you – it is you
And the second word is ‘anubodha’; it means recollection, remembering... that has to be also understood. Anand is not only the ultimate state – it is also the source. It is not only the end but the beginning too – alpha and omega both. And naturally it has to be so. Only that which has always been in the beginning can be the end.
The tree unfolds out of a seed because it was there potentially. If it was not there from the very beginning there would have been no possibility for it to happen. So the seed and the tree are not really different – the difference is only of expression. The tree is the expressed seed – the seed is the unexpressed tree. The seed is the potential tree and the tree is the actual seed, the actualised seed; the potentiality has become unfolded, manifest.
So this ultimate state of bliss is nothing new – it is a recollection... it is a rediscovery.
That’s why we are in search. How can you be in search for a new thing? It is impossible to seek and search for a new thing. Unless somewhere in some way you are already acquainted with it, unless somewhere in some way you have already tasted it, how can you seek it?
The absolutely new cannot be sought; there is no way even to desire it – because how can you desire the unknown?
Everybody is seeking bliss – that means that everybody has known it somewhere. Maybe one has forgotten the path, forgotten the key, forgotten how to reach it – but one had been there once, otherwise how should one seek for it? How can you seek it?
Some taste still lingers somewhere in your unconscious. Something goes on saying to you, ‘Attain to that again. Unless that is attained, nothing will he fulfilled. Seek it!’
It may not be possible to articulate it, may not be possible to say exactly what you are seeking, but an unknown search, an unknown thirst, an unknown hunger, goes on provoking, goes on goading. Not knowing what they are seeking, everybody is seeking the same goal. That goal is a recollection.
These two words – ‘anand’ and ‘anubodha’ – summarise the whole eastern approach. Bliss has to be attained but it is not a new attainment – it is learning a forgotten language again; it is a recollection. So when one really attains it, one simply feels like laughing, because it was already there, it has always been there. It was just by the corner and one cannot even understand how one went on missing it for lives together! One was missing for eternity – how?
It is said when Bodhidharma became enlightened, when Bodhidharma arrived at his innermost core, he started laughing – rolling on the ground. All his friends and other seekers thought he had gone mad, and they asked, ‘What has happened?’ He could not even say anything because the laughter was so much... for days together he laughed!
He started driving others crazy. Others also started laughing, looking at this ridiculousness, and finally when he settled down a little, they asked, ‘What is the matter?’
He said, ‘It is so ridiculous! We are seeking something which we have already got! We have never missed it and there is no way to miss it! Even if one tries, one cannot miss it! It is ridiculous!’
The day you arrive, suddenly you see it has always been there but now you recognise it.
So it is a recognition, a recollection, a remembrance, of a language forgotten, of a path forgotten... but remember, it is only a remembrance. That is the meaning of the word ‘anubodha’.
Anything to say to me?
[The new sannyasin says: I don’t know.]
That’s good... that’s the right answer – about everything! [The sannyasin replies: It feels so ridiculous not to know.]
No, it is not ridiculous – it is true! To know is ridiculous, because the very nature of life is such that knowledge is not possible. Nobody knows anything – nobody can know anything. Ignorance is absolute. That is the meaning when we say that existence is a mystery – that is another aspect of the same thing. If existence is a mystery, knowledge is not possible. Then ignorance is simply the case. There is no way to get out of ignorance, no way !
An enlightened person is one who has accepted his ignorance and enjoys it... who is no more hankering for any knowledge. He is finished with knowledge. Not that he knows, but he knows only that knowledge is not possible – it was absolutely ridiculous to seek for it. Life is mysterious!
Life is there and there is no way to know what it is. Whatsoever you know is only superficial. Go a little deeper, scratch a little deeper. and again ignorance and more ignorance. It is just skin-deep, all knowledge, and only fools are befooled by it.
A man who is a little understanding will immediately recognise that nothing is known.
When Albert Einstein was dying, he said to a friend, ‘The whole life I have been working, and working hard, to know what life is, what this universe is, and the more I tried, the more mysterious existence became. Now I am dying completely ignorant. It is a mystery.’ And that has always been the case, with socrates or newton it has always been the case.
Buddha used to say to his disciples, ‘Please never ask any metaphysical questions!’ He had formulated ten questions, and whenever he came to a town, his disciples would go in the town and say what those ten questions were, asking, ‘Please, don’t ask Buddha these ten questions – about god about life about death about soul about moksha, nirvana.’ Everything was in those ten questions... in fact nothing was left to ask!
And Buddha used to say, ‘Nobody knows! Those who pretend to know are not even honest – insincere people... hypocrites.’
So in fact, ‘I don’t know’ is the only answer about every question that can be asked... that can possibly be asked. And don’t think it is ridiculous, because if you think it is ridiculous you will be searching for some answer, some knowledge. No, it is simple – that’s how it is.
How can anything be known? – because we are not separate from life, and to know life we have to be separate. Knowledge is possible when the knower is different from the known; a little separation is needed.
I can see you because you are sitting there – a little distance is there. You cannot cut the same sword by itself – another sword is needed. And I can see everything with my eyes, but I cannot see my eyes with my eyes.
We are life, we are existence – how can we know.7 The knower cannot be separated from the known – it is all one reality.
That’s why ignorance is primordial and absolute and there is no way to change it. It is beautiful that there is no way to change it, because the day knowledge becomes possible, wonder disappears.
So people who think they have known something lose their wonder, lose their quality of wondering. And the moment you lose your quality of wondering you are dead! Then you are not surprised by anything because you think you know.
A man who knows that he does not know is surprised by everything – everything is a miracle. Small things are great mysteries, and one has to be grateful for everything.
Just the other day I was reading about a hassidic rabbi.…
A disciple asked him, ‘How to pray, master?’ The old rabbi said, ‘Just do one thing: take this sheet of paper – a big sheet of paper – and write on it whatsoever you feel grateful about. Don’t miss even a single thing and don’t take anything for granted. Look around, and from the morning to the night go on writing on it whatsoever you feel grateful about, and don’t take anything for granted. That is prayer!’
And by the evening, when he had completed the list, the disciple felt tremendously prayerful. And he had not prayed at all, he was just writing on that paper!
But so many millions of things are there – we take them for granted. Somebody smiles at you and you take it for granted. A flower opens in your garden and you take it for granted. The moon comes and hangs just above your roof and you take it for granted! A bird comes and sings a song and you take it for granted. The sun comes and the stars.…
Millions of things are happening all around and you have not earned them. Everything is so mysteriousJust to feel the mystery of it and the gratefulness for it, is prayer.
Wonder is the door, and wonder means one is ignorant; one does not know, then there is wonder. And eyes full of wonder are religious eyes. Eyes full of knowledge are irreligious eyes.
Hence my whole effort here is to demolish knowledge and to create a possibility where you can wonder again. The moment wonder opens in your heart, you are transformed.
That’s exactly the right answer for every question! Whatsoever the question may be, ‘I don’t know’ is the right answer.
And feel that ‘I don’t know’ deeply... from the very bottom of your heart. Don’t just say it – be it! Feel it existentially and it will reveal to you great mysteries and will bring you to many beautiful benedictions.
[Osho asks a sannyasin leaving for the West if he has anything to say. He replies: I feel I have, but I don’t know what the question is.
Osho gives him a blessing]
Then just raise your hands and close your eyes.…
You have said it by your tears ! Words are very impotent. There are other ways to conveybetter
ways to convey. I can feel what exactly is there and why it is difficult to sayA deep feeling that you
will be going away, and you will be lonely and you will miss me, the whole atmosphere. But don’t be worried – you will not miss anything!
And sometimes it happens that you can find me there even more. Distance never destroys love – on the contrary, it creates more longing, more desireand it is your longing that joins you with me.
I will be there working with you.
Once you are a sannyasin, wherever you are, I am with you – that’s the whole purpose of sannyas.
It is an inner commitment: your commitment to me and my commitment to you. Once you are a sannyasin your journey is my journey, I am involved with you. If you go to hell, I have to come there.
[A sannyasin couple sit in front of Osho. The woman said she is apprehensive about returning to the West as her parents disapprove of her boyfriend, because he brought her to Osho.]
Mm... that means they are interested in me too! So help to bring them here, mm? Work on them – just love them, and there is nothing to be worried about... nothing to be worried about. Don’t be disturbed by them. Be with [your boyfriend], help them, and let them see that you have changed, how much you have changed, how more loving you have become; let them feel it!
Then they will not object, and sooner or later they will become interested to come here – they are already interested. If somebody is against me, then it is a good sign, mm?
Be very loving, and from your side, no friction. From their side, that is their business – if they want to be unhappy, let them be! But from your side don’t become unhappy and don’t take it seriously. It is always so.…
There is something very deep-rooted. The parents don’t like the idea of their children falling in love with anybody – whatsoever excuses they will find; that’s another thing. Sometimes they will say, ‘The man has no money,’ sometimes they will say, ‘He is not educated,’ sometimes they will say, ‘He is not of the same religion, not of the same race, not of the same language.’ They will find something or other but that is simply an excuse.
It is very difficult for your father or for your mother to accept somebody you have fallen in love with. Why? Because that means that you are going away from them.
A child is dependent on the parents, loves the parents. Then one day he falls in love with somebody and the parents start feeling jealous. They may not say but deep down they feel hurt... as if they have been betrayed; they feel that the child should listen to them.
That’s why marriage became so important in the whole world. Parents should choose the boy for the girl, the girl for the boy. They should choose, then it is okay – it is their choice. When you start choosing on your own, they feel offended – their ego is hurt.
That is one thing, and here the case is almost more dangerous: you have not only chosen murari – you have chosen me too! That is more dangerous; parents don’t like that at all! To fall in love with a master – that means you are gone forever.
Your love with [your boyfriend] will create trouble in their mind, but about that they can become settled, because they know that finally, one day or other, the girl has to find someone and love someone.
Sex, love, they can accept, but when you fall in love spiritually, that is too much. At least about that you should listen to them. If they go to the church, you should go to the church. If they are christians or mohammedans or hindus, you should be hindus, mohammedans or christians. At least about spirituality they think they know more than you.
This is too much! Not only are you denying them – you are denying their religion, their concepts, their mind. You are saying, ‘You are wrong!’ When you go in the orange with this mala, that means you are saying to them, ‘You are wrong.’
So it is on your part to be very polite and to be very loving and very graceful. If they are angry, that’s natural – accept it! Don’t get angry... understand it. They love you, they still love you, that’s why all those problems; otherwise, who bothers?
But let them feel the new quality that has arisen in you and you will see that soon they become interested. Mm? Go and leave a few books there... as if by accident (laughter). They will read them.
[Osho gave a sannyasin a name for his centre in Ireland, and went on to talk about the qualities of coolness and stillness.
One kind of stillness is dead, another has life in it – and one should try to attain to the latter. If one could remain cool, nothing would be able to disturb one]
Then you have a citadel within you and you can move into it any moment. You can simply go and have a shelter. Many times life is too much and one needs to move to some shelter. Life is too much restlessness, particularly so in the west, and one needs an inner shrine where one can relax and be in rest.
So around this idea create a small ashram, and soon people will start gathering and they will come.
All over the world there is such a great desire to find the way, that one just needs to start and people will be coming. When people will come, and when people grow, you will be rejoiced tremendously. There is nothing a man can be more happy about than when he sees somebody becoming silent, growing, meditative, happy, celebrating.…
So when you start a centre, a sannyas ashram, you are creating a field in which many people will come and flower. And each flower will help you to flower.
It is just as when the gardener sees that one of his trees has bloomed – he is tremendously happy. But that is nothing compared to when you see a human being blooming. If you have helped him in any way, you feel tremendously happy. Your energy has been used, has been of some use, has helped somebodyhas not been destructive, and has been creative. What more can a man hope
for?
[Previously a sannyasin had told Osho that he felt tired all the time. Osho gave him a meditation to be like an old man – See the darshan diary, ‘The Shadow of the Whip’, Monday, November 22nd. The sannyasin is now leaving for the West, and says that he feels he has missed because he has been too tired to do the camps and meditations. However he is more comfortable and at ease.]
Mm! You look more comfortable – you look less tired too!
Then choose some meditation which has no physical strain in it. For example, nadabrahma will be perfectly good.
And I don’t feel that you have missed. The feeling is natural, because you could not participate – but you have not missed.
Just come close[Osho checks his energy]
Maybe you have done more than you could have done through meditation.
You have gained more than you could have gained through meditation, because all those active meditations won’t ht to you anyway. You are a born Taoist! (with a chuckle) so active meditation won’t fit you – only inactive meditations will be helpful.
So next time when you come here, simply don’t get into active meditations and this tiredness will not be there. Next time when you come, listen to me, do the nadabrahma. You can go to the sufi meditation and can simply sit there in the middle of it. The energy is showering – you simply absorb it.
In the night you can go to the music group. You can just sit there with closed eyes – in the middle of it. Let them dance and sing and you just relax. When there are so many meditators, great energy is created. And if you can be receptive, you can gain as much as you want to gain.
Your path is going to be of wu-wei – of inactivity, passivity. So you have not lost anything – nothing to be worried about.
There you continue nadabrahma and sometimes just sit silently, not doing anything. If you sometimes feel like doing something active, slow walking is the best. You can go for a walk, but that too has to be done very slowly, very consciously, very silently, gracefully – no hurry and no exertion. Just move very silently, with awareness, watching every step. That will be perfectly good as far as active meditation is concerned.
These two meditations Buddha used to do. For one hour he would sit under the tree to meditate, silently; for one hour, he would walk slowly. These are the only two meditations that brought him to his ultimate flowering, and these two will be good for you. So whenever you want to do a sitting meditation, nadabrahma; and whenever you want to do something active, walking, mm?
And you are going to be benefited perfectly – don’t be worried, mm? Good!
[A sannyasin said: I feel that I can’t get it together with.I feel unhappy and I feel that I can’t relate
to people and to you. But I don’t know what to sayI feel confused. How to continue?]
You create these problems yourself. What I am saying to you again and again is: stop improving upon yourself! Whatsoever is, is, and whatsoever is not, is not!
If you can’t relate, you can’t relate – forget about it! Why bother? Who has given you this problem – to relate? If you can relate, relate; if you can’t relate, don’t bother about it. There is nothing wrong in it.
It is as if a giraffe becomes worried about his long neck – because a giraffe must be getting worried seeing everybody with such a short neck, and he has such a long neck. What to do? You have a long neck – you are a giraffe – so why be worried about it? (chuckling) Mm?
Whatsoever is, is. Accept it – that’s all I am saying! Can’t relate – perfectly good! What is the need to relate? Drop the whole idea of it and suddenly you will see that things are beautiful and there is no confusion. The confusion is arising because you are continuously after yourself.
... There is nothing to miss! And there is nothing to gain! That which you have to gain is already there. If you relax, you will find it; if you remain tense, you will not find it. It is not something that you can miss. Whatsoever you do, you cannot miss it. It is your nature – how can you miss it?
It is as if a fish becomes worried that she may miss the ocean, and she is in the ocean! She drives herself crazy – worried that she may miss the ocean – and becomes neurotic and has to go to a psychiatrist.
How can you miss the ocean?! There is nothing to miss, nothing to gain. You already have that which you need, and you will never have that which you don’t need.
Be simple and accept whatsoever is, and float!
And I don’t see that there is any confusion – is there? (with a chuckle)
... You create and then it is there! If you want to create, you can create a thousand and one confusions every moment. If you don’t want to create, there is none. I don’t see.… There is no confusion at all.
With the idea that you have to improve, you have to become this and that, people go on creating new. . .
For example, in the old days they wanted to become moral; now they want to relate. But the problem remains the same... the foolishness is the same.
They wanted to become virtuous, celibate, this and that – now that is gone. Now the problem is how to relate, how to love totally and how to attain a total orgasm. The problem is the same! First they were trying to find how to be absolutely celibate, now it seems you have moved very far away, but you have not. Now, how to achieve a total orgasm. Just the name of the problem has changed, the disease continues.
The disease is: not to be what you are and be something else; never accept, never be content with yourself... hanker for something else. The problem remains.
Each century, each generation, creates new problems, but the pattern remains the same, the gestalt remains the same. The gestalt is simple: whatsoever you are is wrong, and whatsoever is right, you are not, so become that!
This is up to you – if you want to continue remaining confused, you can. If you are fed up with it, drop it right now.
I don’t see that there is any confusion possible... unless you create it, mm? For a few days listen to me and just drop all ideas!
[The sahaj group is present. One member says: I ended up in... with a very happy feeling of loving my mother, but I cannot get angry with my mother though I know that she’s completely... she’s standing in my way to approach women.]
Mm. I don’t think that it is necessarily so. Ordinarily it is so – that is the ordinary case, for the average it is so – but I don’t feel that about you. The mother is not standing between you and other women.
And there is no necessity that you should be angry and only then will things start happening, no. Because sometimes it can happen that a mother may have been so beautiful that you don’t have any anger. It happens! There are beautiful people in the world, and fortunately your mother may have been such a person that you don’t have any anger. So don’t create a problem – I don’t think it is so.
Rather than creating a problem, use the love towards your mother as a passage to other women – because every woman is a mother. If you can love your mother, you can love the whole world of women.
[The sannyasin answers: It’s difficult for me to see the real woman that is in front of me.]
Don’t be worried about it! To see the real, you will have to become like me – not before that, mm? (laughter)