22 My experience is of the wordless

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‌CHAPTER 22

My experience is of the wordless

10 April 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium

Question 1 BELOVED OSHO,

ACCORDING TO MY DICTIONARY, A CULT IS “A RELIGION REGARDED AS UNORTHODOX OR SPURIOUS” – “SPURIOUS” MEANING “OF ILLEGITIMATE BIRTH, BASTARD.”

IS IT NOT TRUE TO SAY THAT THE REAL SPIRIT OF RELIGIOUSNESS CAN NEVER BE ANYTHING BUT UNORTHODOX; AND WILL ALWAYS BE INSPIRED BY A LOVE UNION, RATHER THAN BORN OUT OF A LEGALIZED CONTRACT?

Maneesha, I am not a man of language, not a linguist, not a man of words. My experience is of the wordless. Although I use words, I am not confined by them. To me there is only one dictionary and that is of existence, of experience. All other dictionaries are for mundane, ordinary affairs – not for this extraordinary love affair.

In the first place there is no such thing as religion. Just as there is no such thing as love, no such thing as beauty – these are not things. There is a certain phenomenon you can describe as religiousness, but you cannot confine it to the word ‘religion’.

Religion is a limitation; it has a boundary line, it is an imprisonment. Religiousness is open to the whole sky. It can contain the all. It has no doors, no windows, no walls.

The moment the experience of religiousness is formulated in language, condensed in certain quotes, scriptures, churches, the religion has already died. It is almost as if you have seen a beautiful bird,

an eagle flying across the sun, and you have experienced the beauty of the flight which knows no boundaries...

You can imprison the bird in a beautiful golden cage. In the ordinary sense it is the same bird that was in flight in the sky, but in truth it is not the same one. It has no sky of its own. It has lost its space, its spirit; it has lost its wings and it has not gained anything except a security, a safety. In the open sky there is always danger, always risk. Encaged, your nourishment is secured, your protection is secured, you are guarded, but you have lost your freedom. And freedom is your soul, your very being.

The same is true about truth, beauty, good: all great qualities are verbs, but you have transformed them into nouns.

There is no such thing as love. There is a certain experience which can be called “loving.” The word ‘love’ is dead; the word ‘loving’ is still a flowing river, unfrozen. There is no such thing as friendship, there is only friendliness.

The same is applicable to religion. To me there is no such thing as religion.

All those who pretend that they are Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians and Jews and Jainas are fake. They have not even understood the basic principle of religiousness. They are simply members of a crowd. Your religions are nothing but politics in the name of God.

A religion, if it is to be alive – if it is to be religiousness, a fragrance, a mystic rose – then it always has to be individual. There is no question of organization, no question of organizing truth. The crowd has a certain security, a certain power; in the crowd you feel a certain warmth, a coziness, but the man of authentic religion stands alone.

So the first thing I would like to tell you is: in the dictionary of existence, religiousness exists but there is no place for religion.

Religiousness means unorganized, individual experience of the truth. It is not a belief system, it is not a faith. It is more like a taste on your tongue, more like a feel in your heart, a deep penetration like an arrow in your very being.

It has nothing to do with any church, with any organized form, with any scripture. It believes only in itself. It believes only in its own experience. In this sense all the religions of the world are distracting you from truth – from your truth. They are substituting your authenticity with a bogus formulation of some theologian – some philosophy, some system of ideas. They are converting you into Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans, but they are not transforming you into being religious.

The moment a man is religious, he is no more part of any crowd, he is alone. Even if he stands in the crowd of all those who are alone, there is no crowd, there are only individuals standing together.

This is not a crowd; this is not a church. There is nothing like a Holy Bible for you, and there is no moral order, ten commandments; nobody is demanding that you behave, live in a certain way, to imitate Christ or Gautam Buddha.

This is a meeting of people who are trying to discover themselves, who are trying to go deeper into their own reality to find the truth of existence, which cannot be found in any scripture, in any philosophy.

So the first thing to be remembered, Maneesha, is: there is no religion as such, there is only religiousness.

Religiousness is alive, with a heartbeat.

Religion is something dead, a corpse which looks like a living human being but it is only a corpse. It does not breathe, its heart does not beat – there is no one in it, it is an empty house. The master of the house has left it, who could have been religious, but corpses are not religious.

Have you ever thought about it? – when a man dies, now can you decide whether the corpse is Hindu or Mohammedan or Christian? On what grounds? Because the corpse cannot believe. The corpse cannot act, cannot go every Sunday to the church. Whether you put this corpse into the grave or you put it on a funeral pyre, it has nothing to say about it, yes or no.

Still, corpses are also divided by organized religions. They are not only dominating you in your life, they dominate you even in your death. They don’t leave you any kind of freedom – even the freedom of death is taken away from you. You have only to be an imitator.

Secondly, you are asking, “According to my dictionary a cult is ‘a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious’ – ‘spurious’ meaning ‘of illegitimate birth, bastard.’

“Is it not true to say that the real spirit of religiousness can never be anything but unorthodox; and will always be inspired by a love union, rather than born out of a legalized contract?”

In Germany my sannyasins have been fighting in two courts against the German parliament, because in the parliament they go on using the word ‘cult’ for my people. Christianity is a religion; my people are not religious, they are only a cult, unorthodox, spurious. In two courts we have won the case, that the parliament has no right to use a word in a derogatory sense and the courts have accepted that the word ‘cult’ should not be used for us. They can use “a new religious movement” but not “cult.”

Still the parliament goes on calling it a “cult.”

I would like to tell to my people not only in Germany, but all over the world: Don’t desire to be called to be a religion. ‘Religion’ is derogatory! Why be bothered by dictionaries? Why not listen to your own experience?

We are not a religion. We are certainly not an organization, orthodox or unorthodox. We are simply a gathering of individuals, respecting each other’s freedom.

Christians have been using the word ‘cult’ against all those religions which they think are not right. Every religion in the world thinks that truth, rightness, is their monopoly. If you are not part of their crowd you cannot be religious, truthful, sincere, honest; you lose all dignity in their eyes. Christianity thinks it is the only authentic religion.

In fact the truth is, it is born in the birth of Jesus Christ – it is the most spurious! Nothing can be more spurious than Christianity in all its forms. It is illegitimate – the very birth of Jesus is illegitimate. And who has ever heard... A “holy ghost” destroying the virginity of a poor young girl... and the claim of Jesus that, “I am the only begotten son of God.” It has no reason or rhyme in it. He cannot prove it logically. He is an ordinary carpenter’s son; he knows nothing about religiousness. He was born a Jew and he lived a Jew and he died a Jew. He was not aware that a great Christianity will be born because of his crucifixion.

It is not well founded either, not like Buddhism. Buddha has made it clear, step by step, how one can transform oneself. Christianity is just a compilation from twelve uneducated, illiterate disciples who became apostles. In the four gospels, if you look you can find enough religion to fill an ordinary postcard, because all are different versions of the same story. Four persons’ remembrance of the same Jesus, his crucifixion, his statements.

And I say, Jesus has no religious experience at all, because to me the fun-damental religious experience is that there is no God. The question of being the only begotten son of God is so stupid, but the whole of Christianity is based on it.

Religiousness is not dependent on any learning, on any knowledge. Religiousness is your flowering; it is the flowering of your own heart into a rose. It is your own authenticity. It is neither a cult nor a religion. If one wants to keep the word ‘cult’ in language, then all religions are cults.

Gautam Buddha’s experience was religious, but the people who were impressed by his grace and beauty and compassion founded a religion. It is not founded by Gautam Buddha himself; it is a cult. If ‘cult’ has to have any meaning, all religions are cults, dead things, dead memories of some living experience that you have come across but it is not your own.

You have seen in the eyes of a Gautam Buddha something which can only be called miraculous, something that is beyond all our experiences. You have seen in his face something that does not belong to this world. Impressed by him, you arranged a cult. You called it a religion.

So we can say, whenever there has been a religious experience, an explosion of religiousness in a being, around him, cults are born. Cults are not your experience, but somebody else’s experience. It is not your own story; it is somebody else’s expression, which has impressed you.

A really intelligent person never lives according to other people’s lives, howsoever great those lives may be – because everyone has to live a unique existence of his own. You have to be your own self. You cannot be Jesus, you cannot be Buddha, you cannot be Mansoor; you can only be whatever you are.

Religion is a crowd, gathered around the dead body of an experienced man. Because it is gathered around a dead body of an experienced man it does not become living. All churches are dead, graveyards of different individuals who had touched the very center of their being. These religions should not even be called religions, because that word creates a confusion. It is so close to ‘religiousness’ that it is better to call all organized religions “cults.”

As far as religion is concerned there has never been any religion and there will never be any religion. There are only religious people. And a religious person has no adjective attached to himself. He

is loving, he is truthful, he is honest, he is fearless; his life is a celebration, a constant festivity. He knows the very secret of existence, because he is also part of it. There have been religious people... and that’s what I want you to be.

Never become a religion. Remain individuals, searching and seeking your own truth, your own beauty, your own grace.

If all the religions of the world are dissolved – they need to be dissolved, because they are calamities and cancers on human consciousness and its growth; they are distractions, deceptions – then there will be only a few religious human beings here and there in the dark night, like stars, showing and giving you a strength that what is possible for another human being is also possible for you. What is hidden in one individual is also hidden in you. It is your hidden splendor. Somebody has become aware of it and you are fast asleep.

And religiousness has nothing to do with being orthodox. Certainly it cannot be orthodox. ‘Orthodox’ means following the tradition, follow- ing others, following the heritage, following the old and the dead. It is not even not orthodox, it is fresh. It is not against the orthodox, it is not anti-orthodox, it is simply fresh.

Just watch a roseflower growing – do you think it is following a program that other roseflowers have followed? or is it absolutely fresh? It knows nothing about the other roseflowers. Millions of roseflowers have been before it, millions will be after it, but as far as its existence is concerned, it is fresh, unique, in the present, neither against the past nor for. It has no concern with the past.

So not only is a religious person unorthodox, he is so fresh that he will not be even UNorthodox. To be orthodox is out of the question. He will be simply himself.

And you are asking, Maneesha, “... and it will always be inspired by a love union, rather than born out of a legalized contract.”

It is good poetry, but the truth is, it is not a union, either out of love or out of a legalized marriage. It is a discovery of that which is already the case inside you. You have it and you have forgotten it. Certainly it can be closer to a love affair than to a marriage. But in truth it is simply itself, not a union with any entity. It is a remembrance of oneself.

Certainly the so-called religions go on calling other religions illegitimate... because they are not born out of an unmarried woman and the Holy Ghost! But every other religion thinks in the same way: “others are illegitimate.” The truth is they are all illegitimate, because truth is not a marriage and truth is not a birth. Truth is already in existence, only you have not opened your eyes.

But certainly the religions, which are all orthodox, are bound to think about others... For example I have been asked hundreds of times to what religion I belong.

I said, “It is strange, why should I belong to any religion? I belong to myself.”

And the people who have asked me felt very strange when I answered because their idea was, your religion has to be legitimate: are you a Mohammedan, a Christian? Then they are satisfied, but if

you are no one they feel a little strange about you. They feel you are a lost soul. You should belong to some religion to have the label of legitimacy.

But in fact, to belong to any religion or to any political party, or any kind of organization, is to destroy your dignity. People hate crowds, but still go on living in crowds. They cannot gather courage to be alone and stand against the sky without any companion.

Just their own being is enough unto itself.

Mendel Kravitz comes into Doctor Bones’ surgery. “Doc,” says Mendel, “I think I have got the flu.”

“Very well,” says Bones, “just put your tongue out and then stick your head out of the window.” “What?” says Mendel, “Will that make me better?”

“Probably not,” replies Bones, “but I can’t stand my wife, who lives across the street!”

Moishe and Ruthie Finkelstein are at the theater watching a very sad play. It is a melodrama about a couple in love, and one tragic scene follows another.

Before the first act is finished, every woman in the theater is weeping. But Moishe is unmoved.

“Ridiculous!” he snorts every few minutes, “absolutely ridiculous!” – until there comes a scene in which the heroine lies dying in her lover’s arms, and Ruthie starts crying out loud. Moishe starts laughing.

“Look!” shouts Ruthie, furiously, through her tears, “if you don’t like the play, why don’t you go home and at least let me enjoy myself!”

Our unconsciousness is so deep... it would be a miracle if everybody were awake; the whole world would look totally different. Only once in a while a glimpse of wakefulness comes to you. But you don’t follow the glimpse; you settle back again in your misery, in your suffering.

It is a very sad story about humanity that we glory in our misery. People talk about their diseases continuously – their problems, their sufferings, their wounds. It seems if they had no wounds and no suffering and no problems they would be at a loss, what to do, where to go. There would be absolute silence around the world.

But people enjoy and exaggerate. They may be having some small problem, but they will magnify the problem so big that it seems that if their problem is solved, there will be no problem in the world. And people, just like problems, have solutions also: if their solution is followed, everything will be all right. And not only small people – so-called great leaders of humanity, and nobody has bothered to look at their stupidness.

In India all the Hindu shankaracharyas, the Hindu saints, are insistent on only one thing, that cow slaughter should be banned. That is the only problem, cow slaughter.

I have talked with two or three shankaracharyas: “Just listen for a moment. If cow slaughter is stopped, do you think the problems of the world will disappear? What about ecological problems, what about the black holes in space? What about diseases like AIDS?”

They simply waved their hands and said, “That is not... The first thing is, cow slaughter should be stopped.”

That is the greatest problem, and they have the greatest solution for it. In fact it will create more problems. Food is already not enough for people; there are people who are eating human beings and these idiots go on talking about how cow slaughter should be banned. We have not been able yet to ban human slaughter!

Just a few months ago in Palestine the government had to concede to the people... because there was great agitation; people were dying, there was nothing to eat and people wanted the government to allow them to eat the dead people. What is the point in putting them in the grave? Such good, delicious food, all prepared, and what stupidity! – when people are dying...

And these shankaracharyas don’t have even the awareness that in Palestine the government has accepted that you can eat a man, but only when he is dead, not before. But now, once you give a little rope... It simply means, first kill and then eat. If you die on your own accord, good; otherwise you will be killed. And that is happening. Now there are shops in Palestine selling human flesh. Not so many people die, so now there are gangs who are killing children, and once somebody is dead the body is eaten before the police find out who has killed him. And when the court comes to the conclusion that this man is criminal... that too will be given to people to eat! Because so much food shortage... and if people stop cow slaughter there will be more shortage of food.

I am not in support of people eating cows, but this is not a solution. What I am saying is that this is not the solution of all the problems that man is facing.

But deep sleep prevails.…

Mahatma Gandhi thought that if everybody spins the whole day on the spinning wheel, all problems will be dissolved. He spent his whole life spinning – nothing has been dissolved; only he is dead. His spinning wheel is worshipped now. That was his solution for the whole humanity: “back to nature.” He was against such innocent things... electricity.

You will not be able to imagine that he was against the mosquito nets because they prevent millions of mosquitoes from eating, which is their birthright. It is true that such good food, the whole restaurant... and they are dying to enter and finding ways to enter into the restaurant.

In his own ashram mosquito nets were not allowed. They are against poor mosquitoes. So he found a solution, and the solution was kerosene oil. Everybody had to paint his face and hands and anything that is uncovered with kerosene oil.

I said, “My god, you cannot sleep! The smell is so much, even the mosquitoes don’t come close to you – they are more intelligent! How are you going to sleep?”

But sleep or no sleep... such stupid suggestions. One of the prime ministers of India, Morarji Desai, thinks that if everybody starts drinking his own urine, all problems will be solved. And things won’t stop there; when you start drinking your own urine, what is the problem in drinking others’ urine? And when a guest comes, you have to offer him, “Have a cup of urine.” And this idiot has been drinking his urine for forty years, but no problem seems to be solved. And I don’t think... how will nuclear weapons disappear? But that is his unique solution.

Always, there have been people who have been giving solutions – so childish – and humanity is so asleep that it goes on listening to them. A few even follow them. Problems go on increasing.

There is only one solution, and that is that people should be more aware. And that awareness is religiousness.

Harvey Herschfield and Paul Perlmann have a small tailor’s shop in Jerusalem. Business is bad, so bad that they are thinking of selling the shop.

One day, Harvey rushes in with a newspaper and shows his partner, Paul, an advertisement from the government of Israel. The government is offering to pay a reward of one hundred dollars for every dead Arab.

The partners close their shop and buy camping equipment and guns and set off into the desert.

They have been there a week without meeting anyone, when one morning Harvey wakes up to find a gun sticking in his nose.

Looking slowly around, he sees that they are completely surrounded by thousands of Arab soldiers, armed to the teeth.

Harvey nudges his partner, snoring beside him. “Paul,” he whispers, “Paul, wake up! We are rich!”

Hamish MacTavish and Sandy MacPherson have been drinking all night when their money finally runs out.

“I’ve got an idea,” says Hamish, “let’s go to my house and borrow some money from my wife.”

So, the two of them stumble over to MacTavish’s house. They go inside, switch on the light, and there on the sofa is Hamish’s wife making love to a strange man.

Sandy is very embarrassed, but Hamish walks right up to Maggie. “Do you have some money,” he asks her, “for your ever-loving husband?”

“Yes, yes,” snaps Maggie, “Take my purse and for goodness sake, turn out the lights!” Outside the house again, Hamish empties the purse into Sandy’s hand.

“Great!” says Hamish, “there is just enough here for a pint of beer for each of us.”

“But Hamish!” says Sandy, “What are you going to do about that man in there with your wife?” “To hell with him!” snaps Hamish, “let him buy his own beer!”

Pope the the Polack arrives in Washington to meet Ronald Reagan. He is taken to the White House and given a beautiful suite of rooms. But when he walks into the bedroom, there lying on the bed with nothing on but the TV set is a beautiful girl. The pope is furious. He picks up the phone and calls Reagan in his office.

“What is the meaning of this outrage, you big American dodo?” shouts the pope. “How dare you embarrass me like this! I am His Holiness the Pope, and you have the nerve to humiliate me this way! I am going to sue you for every dollar you have!”

At this point the young lady gets off the bed and starts putting on her clothes. The Polack pope turns to her and says, “Just a moment, Miss, I was not talking to you!”

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Now, our two minutes of prayer. First freeze completely – no movement, no noise, as if there is nobody in this Buddha Hall.

Now, let go.

Now... come back to life.

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