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CHAPTER 27
Love your camel and trust
16 April 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium
Question 1 BELOVED OSHO,
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SUFI SAYING, “TRUST IN ALLAH, BUT TETHER YOUR CAMEL FIRST”?
SOMETIMES I FEEL I HIDE IN PASSIVITY, WAITING FOR THINGS TO HAPPEN. AND YET SOMETIMES I AM IN AWE AT THE WAY EXISTENCE SEEMS TO BE CONSTANTLY CARING FOR ME.
Kumud, the Sufi saying is as ancient as it is wrong. Nobody has ever objected to the inner contradiction in the saying. The saying is: Trust in Allah – trust in God – but tether your camel first. Obviously the camel is a priority. God is just a belief.
The saying is not in favor of Allah, it is simply denying the very existence of Allah. Trust in Allah cannot be put second to anything. It can be put second only if it is just a fictitious belief. That’s why I say the saying is absolutely wrong.
In fact it is saying, “Tether your camel first – then do whatever you want to do with Allah. Trust or no trust, but tether your camel first.” Such sayings have existed for centuries without being objected to because only a man of Allah can object. And in the marketplace you can find the camel, but not Allah.
If the trust is total, then forget all about the camel, God will take care of it. And if God cannot take care of the camel what else can he do? Your trust is not even enough for a camel’s care – who will care for you? Who will take care for this whole existence?
But the fact is, everybody believes in God and everybody knows it is just a belief. It is good, a social formality, but not a heartfelt reality. The real thing is the camel – heartfelt! You cannot trust God in such important matters as tethering your camel.
Then what is the purpose of your trust in God? If he is so inefficient that he cannot take care of the camel, it is better to forget all about God, tether the camel, and take every care that is possible for you to take. That’s actually what it is saying, but it is saying it in such a way that it looks as if it is a very religious statement.
It is utterly irreligious.
I don’t believe in God and I don’t even have any idea that God exists, but I believe in trust. This gives a strange turn to the whole thing:
Trust in itself is enough.
Don’t be doubtful, be trusting.
Naturally you will ask, “If there is no God, then whom to trust?”
Trust in your intelligence, trust in your love. Trust in existence. Trust in this whole universe, which is running so efficiently... no accidents, no stars colliding, no planets going away for a holiday. Everything is going so smoothly... and it is so vast and infinite that even a God cannot manage, the sheer vastness is such. But existence itself is intelligent.
Intelligence exists in many forms. The intelligence you are acquainted with is only one form of a multidimensional phenomenon – the human intelligence. But do you know, your body is also intelligent – apart from you. The body has its own wisdom. It does not ask you questions, “Now what to do? You have eaten food...” It does not ask you very essential questions: how to change this food into blood and how to change the dead cells in your body and replace them with living cells. It does not ask you even to please continue to breathe, continue the heartbeat. You are not needed. You can go anywhere, to a football match, or you can go to sleep; the intrinsic wisdom of the body continues to work.
And not only when you are alive! If you dig a grave – it should not be very ancient, otherwise you will find only a skeleton – a fresh grave, and you will be surprised that the man has grown a beard, his hair is longer, his nails are longer. And you know perfectly this man used to shave twice a day; has he forgotten completely? Even in the dead body a few functions continue; for example, the growth of the hair and the nails. They don’t depend even on your breathing, they have their own small area of intelligence.
The deeper one understands the intelligence of the body... one is simply amazed. Each cell – and you are made of millions of cells – each individual cell has its own intelligence and works intelligently.
It is so amazing that not a single cell in any body anywhere in the world is an idiot. The man may be an idiot – he may even be Ronald Reagan, it does not matter. The cell functions intelligently, goes on functioning, without any concern about your participation or consultation.
The trees go on growing – they have their own intelligence, they have their own sensitivity. And now instruments are available which can calculate the emotions and the sentiments of trees. They are just like cardiograms: you attach the instrument to the tree and you see a graph like a cardiogram makes. It is very harmonious, the tree is perfectly at ease, and then suddenly comes a woodcutter, from far away. And as the tree sees the woodcutter with his axe the graph immediately changes to make a very fearful pattern; all smoothness of the graph disappears.
The tree is freaking out! You may not hear it, because our languages are different, but the tree is sending messages. And other trees around can also be attached to these instruments – when one tree freaks out, other trees immediately start freaking out. You don’t hear, but the other trees hear; they know each other’s language.
And the same man – and this has been the most puzzling part – the same man with his axe may be passing by with no desire to cut the tree, and then the graph remains smooth, rhythmic, with no fear. It seems the tree is not only aware of you, it is also aware of your intentions. Its wisdom seems to be far deeper than ours, because if somebody is coming with a sword it does not mean that you will be certain whether he is going to cut your head, or just going on his way. But the tree somehow feels the intention of the person.
And when the gardener comes, the graph immediately changes. The graph immediately becomes a dance... the tree is so full of joy that the gardener has come, who has been his life source, who has been his friend, who has been always taking care of the tree.
Perhaps mountains have their own intelligence, oceans and stars. The whole existence as a cosmic whole may have different kinds of intelligence, but it is certainly an intelligent universe.
There is no need of any God. Because God will become old, will one day die and the universe will remain deserted: the engineer is gone and the workshop is closed. What will the poor stars do? From where will they get the guidance? Everything will become a chaos!
I have heard, a surgeon was saying that surgery is the oldest science, because God created Eve by taking a rib out of Adam. Surgery – a miraculous surgery, without any chloroform, without any developed instruments.
His friend said, “Surgery may be very old, but I am a creator, a painter. Creation is even older than surgery, because before creation there was only chaos.”
Then the third friend started laughing hilariously, hysterically. They said, “What has happened? Why are you laughing?”
He said, “I am laughing, because who created the chaos? He was a politician! Without a politician you cannot create chaos.”
So it is all wrong what is written in the BIBLE, that there was the word in the beginning. Absolutely nonsense. There was a politician in the beginning. The politician created the chaos and then out of chaos God can create the whole universe. But without a politician even God cannot create chaos.
In this whole universe, stars don’t go on strike because they don’t have any unions; roses don’t declare, “We are on strike and this spring there will be no roses because proper nourishment has not been given to us. And there are many roses who are unemployed – employment is needed; otherwise we will not blossom.”
No, existence simply continues smoothly, without any disturbance. It needs no God – God is simply its own intrinsic intelligence.
So there is no need to have trust in Allah. And what kind of trust, that it says, “But first tether your camel”? The statement is clear. It says trust in God or not, it doesn’t matter. Tether your camel, and then do all your namaz, your prayer, your meditation, but don’t just trust in God and leave the camel without tethering it!
I will not agree with such a proverb.
I would like to say to you, tether your camel and trust in your intelligence; trust in the intelligence of existence.
Trust is another name of love.
Love yourself and love all that is all around you. If your very being becomes just a loving being, perhaps you may not even need to tether the camel. Your love will stop him going from his place.
There is no need to create chains, there is no need to create prisons. Love is enough. But love is not a belief, love is a reality. It is in your very heartbeat, it is your experience. It is not in the scriptures; it is not Christian and it is not Hindu, it is not Mohammedan.
Love is the blossoming of your inner being just like a rose.
That’s why I have called this gathering and the talks, THE MYSTIC ROSE. Mystic, because only stupid people think that life can be understood. The greater is your intelligence, the more you will become aware of your ignorance; the wiser you are the less you know. And the wisest is one who becomes absolutely innocent, and the whole of life, existence in its all dimensions, becomes just a mystery. A mystery to be enjoyed, loved, lived, but not to be understood. The very effort to understand existence is an insult. Love does not want to understand; love simply wants to share.
Trust simply means you don’t live out of doubt. You don’t live the life of a skeptical mind. You don’t live in suspicion, you live like an innocent child, trusting everything. Only in the atmosphere of trust and love, only in that air of mystery, your roses can blossom, your life can become a garden. And each moment, you know things go on happening for which you have never asked; still you are so shy that you don’t even express your gratitude.
Kumud, you are saying, “Sometimes I feel I hide in passivity waiting for things to happen. And yet sometimes I am in awe at the way existence seems to be constantly caring for me.” The second part
is the reality: existence is taking care of you in many ways, which you may not even be aware of. There is no need to be worried, because all that is needed happens.
I am not a religious person in the sense of being a blind believer – I am just the opposite. But what is true is true, and cannot be denied. My own experience I cannot deny. I have never cared about myself; I have never thought about the tomorrow and never thought about the yesterday. I have simply lived moment to moment, day by day.…
Jesus is right when he says, God give us our daily bread. His God is a fiction, but the idea of asking for daily bread is perfectly right – because anybody would ask at least for three months’ provision – daily bread? And what happens tomorrow if God is engaged somewhere else? Daily bread? Daily bread is simply Jesus’ way of saying that this day is enough unto itself, don’t ask for more. Tomorrow never comes; it is always today and today is enough to enjoy, to rejoice, to love, to dance, to sing. Don’t waste it in doubting, don’t waste it in desiring, don’t waste it in longing for faraway goals.
And it is your experience too, that, “Sometimes I am in awe at the way existence seems to be constantly caring for me.”
Keep yourself always aware of it and you will never be miserable and you will never feel suffering; you will never feel despair, anxiety. A man of trust knows nothing of these things. These things are the experiences of the people full of doubt.
The skeptical mind is the worst calamity that can happen to anybody. Even if the whole of paradise is given to the skeptical mind, he will not be happy. He will always ask for more, and he will ask whether this is real or ephemeral, “Is it true or just a dream?” His doubts will not leave him even in paradise. Who knows, he has fallen asleep and is dreaming.
Now, here, who knows this is not just a dream?
But to the man of trust even a dream becomes a beautiful experience. To the man of trust even the dream does not create doubt, does not create skepticism. And Allah has nothing to do with it. Love your camel – I will not say tether your camel, because the tethering means you don’t respect your camel; you don’t respect your love towards your camel.
It happened in one of the universities where I was a postgraduate student. I shared my room with a friend. The friend was a kleptomaniac – just to steal... It was not that he was a thief. It was his psychological sickness; stealing was his joy.
In the West now, there is so much shoplifting that big shops are engaging psychoanalysts to treat their customers – mostly women who go on stealing things for no special purpose, but just because it gives such a joy that you deceived all those fools.
And my professor warned me, “You shouldn’t allow that boy to be your roommate.”
I said, “But nobody else is allowing him. And in fact there is no compulsion on me” – those rooms were single rooms – “but I feel sorry that he cannot get a place. All the rooms are full and nobody is ready to allow him.”
And I said, “I don’t need that much space.”
My professor said, “You don’t understand – he is a kleptomaniac, he will steal your things.”
I said, “About that you don’t worry. In the first place I came in this world absolutely naked and I will go from this world absolutely naked. In between it is sheer stupidity to think that you own something. I don’t own, I only use. And if he takes it away, there is no harm – he will use it.”
And I said, “It will be a great experience to live with a kleptomaniac, and I am always interested in every beautiful experience. This is a great chance – I cannot lose.”
That boy heard all this and he said to me, “You are strange! They are all right, it is true: I steal things.”
I said, “You don’t be worried, steal. Everything that belongs to me is yours from the very beginning.” He said, “No! That means I cannot steal!”
I said, “It is up to you, but everything that is in this room belongs to you.”
He said, “You are a very difficult man. I have never imagined this idea. I enjoy stealing!” I said, “You can steal.”
“But,” he said, “if everything belongs to me what is the point? Just putting it from this pocket into another pocket – it is a waste of time.”
I said, “Then what do you want?”
He said, “Your things should be yours and my things should be mine.” I said, “Okay, but remember I am also a kleptomaniac.”
He said, “My god, you steal things?”
I said, “I steal; otherwise from where can I get things? Otherwise why have I allowed you in, when nobody else is allowing you? When I saw that the guy seems to be good, when I saw your suitcases I thought, it is perfectly good.”
He said, “But that means you will steal?” I said, “I will steal.”
We lived together and it was a great experience. I would take things from his suitcases and when I was gone he would take all the things back into his suitcases.
Finally he said, “This is stupid. Because of you I cannot go anywhere. The moment I go out, immediately all my things enter into your suitcases.”
I said, “There are only two ways: either everything belongs to me, then I will not steal; or everything belongs to you, then you will not steal. You can think it over.”
He said, “It is a very difficult situation. If I say everything belongs to you... that I cannot say. My things belong to me! And I cannot accept that everything belongs to me, because then the whole joy of stealing...”
I said, “Anyway, you decide. I leave everything in your hands.”
He waited for a few moments, and then he said, “It is better you have everything. I will steal somewhere else. In other people’s rooms – they leave their windows open...”
I said, “That’s good, but remember: everything that you bring here, once it enters the room it is mine.”
He said, “You are making things very difficult! I have given up all my things, and now even if I bring new things those too belong to you?”
I said, “In this room. You can keep those things somewhere else, I’m not concerned.” He said, “Where else can I put them?”
I said, “I am ready for the other alternative also – still available.” He said, “No, that alternative I cannot choose.”
And he used to steal things from the cafeteria, anything. It was not that he was concerned about things, his joy was stealing – somebody’s one shoe! And I would say, “You... what will you do with this one shoe?”
He said, “That is not the point, the point is what he will do with one shoe! I am enjoying so much...” And I said to him, “Then keep this shoe here and find the other.”
He said, “But what is the need? We don’t need these shoes, they are not our size.” I said, “You find the other shoe.”
He said, “Let him suffer! Why...?” But he enjoyed every moment. I never saw him miserable, because he was making so many other people miserable! His only problem was to bring anything into the room, because once in the room it became mine. And I had to find the person whose shoe he had taken and give it back to him and tell him, “Don’t worry – and don’t report it to the police station.” Somebody’s bicycle... anything! And the day he brought a bicycle I said, “Do you know how to ride on the bicycle?”
He said, “I don’t know, but that does not matter. What will that fellow do? And anyway it does not belong to me; once it is in the room it is yours. I enjoy stealing, you enjoy using those things, or if you enjoy giving it back to that fellow, you can give it back. We both enjoy, and nobody is harmed.”
After six months he said to me, “It is becoming very difficult. Coming back to the room I feel so sad – I have brought all these things, but they don’t belong to me so I cannot do anything. And if I take them... where will I take them? And I cannot steal them, because that is pointless; that is just changing suits.”
I would find him in the university wearing my coat. I said, “Great! Anything else you have taken?” He said, “No, just the coat. And just to enjoy – I’m not going anywhere, just having a round.”
And I would tell him, “When you come back, just put the coat back in its place. And remember... have you forgotten these shoes?”
He looked. He said, “They are mine!”
I said, “If you can wear my coat, I can wear your shoes, there is no problem!” He said, “No, this is not right.”
I said, “Give my coat back and take your shoes and go to hell.”
After six months he left. He said, “You are dangerous. I have lived with many people and cheated them, but to cheat you is difficult. On the contrary, I take things from people with great difficulty, taking the risk of being caught, and finally they become yours! And now the whole university knows that I am a kleptomaniac.”
... Because I had made everybody aware: “If you are missing anything, just come to me.”
So he said, “You are enjoying on my behalf. I steal, I take the whole risk, and finally the man comes to you and takes his things back. I am going. I will live anywhere, even in the outside, but I cannot live with you.”
I said, “That’s perfectly okay, just let me look in all your suitcases to see how many things are really yours and how many things are mine and how many things belong to other people. Just take them out, and live wherever you want.”
He said, “You spoil everything! But I have found an innocent person who is ready to accept me as his room mate, not knowing that I am a klepto-maniac...”
I said, “How long will you deceive that person? Within hours he will know, because all his things will disappear into your empty suitcases. And I am coming with you to inform him, ‘Don’t be worried; this fellow is safe, he just enjoys putting things into his suitcases. Whenever he goes out you take them back, and you can also take his things into your suitcases. It is just a game, no harm.’”
The man said, “If you are coming with me, then there is no need to go anywhere. I will live here. It seems it is my destiny to suffer with you.”
I said, “Suffer? If you think it is suffering... I am enjoying every moment of it!”
It all depends how you take life. If you are of a possessive mind, you are bound to be miserable. If you are a very greedy person you are going to be in deep pain. If you are longing for success, power, prestige, you will be moving in a direction where only insanity, suicide, and all kinds of hells happen. Nothing fails in this world more than success, although the proverb is different. The proverb says, “Nothing succeeds like success.”
I say, “Nothing fails like success.” Because when you have reached the top you look very stupid. Before Henry Ford died he was asked, “What is your last statement before death?”
He said, “My last statement is that I am a good climber.” The person said, “A good climber? What do you mean?”
Henry Ford said, “Any kind of staircase – I am a good climber, I will climb to the top. And then feel stupid – where to go from there?”
Edmund Hillary on the Everest... what do you think? How was he feeling? How many days did he spend there? – only two minutes. And in two minutes the only experience possible would have been to think, “What an idiot I am, what am I doing here?” Risked his life – hundreds of others had died before – knowing perfectly well that he was taking a very dangerous route, and there was no reason why he should climb. Asked, “Why do you want to climb?” he said, “Just because Everest is standing there unclimbed. It hurts my ego. Man has to conquer!”
And when he came back he did not look as if he had found some great joy – just tired, tattered, sick. And when he was asked, “It must have been a great enjoyment,” he said, “Don’t harass me, I am harassed enough. It was the most stupid thing that has ever entered into my mind to reach the Everest. I never thought about what I was going to do there.” You cannot even purchase something – not even a cigarette, no movie house. Nobody there to see you and take a photograph.
Kumud, learn something by those experiences when you are in awe, seeing that existence is taking care of you. You are part of existence – your roots are not visible but there are your roots. The hands of existence are not visible, but they are all around you. All that you need is a deeply centered, relaxed, trustful being and miracles start happening.
The boys in the pub organize a grand Christmas raffle, and the prize is to be one night at the finest brothel in Bangkok.
Paddy wins the raffle, and on his return, he describes to his friends what happened.
He talks about the curtains of gold beads, the sensuous perfumes, the music, the exotic meal served by naked, twelve-year-old girls and other delights.
He ends each passage with:
“... to be sure, it was nothing like Dublin!”
Finally, Paddy describes the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, dressed in white lace. She came down the staircase, took him gently by the hand, and led him to her perfumed bed.
“... to be sure,” says Paddy, “it was nothing like Dublin!” “And then?” ask all his friends, “AND THEN?”
“Oh,” replies Paddy, “then it was just like Dublin.” A few really serious things...
The world is so serious that it needs to be awakened by laughter. To me, laughter is the most serious thing in the world: if the whole world can learn how to laugh there will not be any war and there will not be any poverty and there will not be Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians, because these are such jokes! There will not be any nations, because it is so stupid: When you can have the whole world as yours, why unnecessarily go on drawing lines on the map? The earth is one, man is one; his life, his death, his experience is one – why cut up into pieces this beautiful planet?
Paddy and Sean are drinking in the pub late one night when Paddy says, “I had better be going home or Maureen will kill me. No matter how quietly I creep into the house, she always wakes up and shouts at me.”
“You should do what I do,” boasts Sean. “I have a system. No matter what time it is, when I go home I slam the front door, stomp up the stairs, turn on the bedroom lights, take my clothes off, jump into bed, slap Bridget on the behind, and say, ‘Hey, honey! How about a piece of ass?’ And would you believe it? – she is fast asleep!”
Sadie arrives home ecstatic from her date.
She tosses her coat over a chair, drops her bag on the floor, and throws the rest of her clothing, with abandon, around her bedroom.
When she comes down to breakfast the next morning, her mother asks her if she had a good time. “Wonderful!” sighs Sadie, “I had a wonderful time.”
“I guess so,” remarks her mother. “Your panties are still stuck to the ceiling.” Before our prayer, our silence... a little more chaos:
“You never told me the truth about that donkey you sold me the other day,” says Farmer Giles. “You told me he was hard working and easy to handle, but I can’t get him to move.”
“Well,” says Paddy, “let me have a look at him.”
So they go into a field where the donkey is hitched to a plow, but the donkey won’t budge for the farmer.
Paddy picks up a big stick and cracks it over the donkey’s head, breaking the stick. “Now try him,” he says.
“Giddap!” shouts Farmer Giles and away goes the donkey.
“I don’t get it,” says the farmer, “you told me to be gentle with the donkey.” “Of course,” says Paddy, “but first you have to get his attention.”
Two tramps, Monty and Albert, are sitting together on a park bench.
Monty, who always looks skinny and half-starved, asks his friend how he manages to look so well fed and satisfied.
“Well,” says Albert, “I have got a system worked out. I collect a handful of cowshit from a field and then go to one of the big houses and ask for a little salt and pepper to put on it.
“Of course, the people take one look and say: ‘You can’t eat that!’ so they take me in for a good meal or send me to a cafe with some money.”
Monty thinks that this is a great idea. He finds some really old, dried up cowshit and goes to the biggest house in the neighborhood.
“Excuse me, lady,” he says to the woman who answers the door, “but do you have a little salt and pepper for me to put on my lunch?”
“You can’t eat that!” cries the woman in disgust, “you will be sick. Go round to the cow shed and get a fresh bit.”
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.
Now two minutes for absolute silence, close your eyes, no movement. And make this temple as if there is nobody.
... Now, let go.
Come back... Come back to life. Okay, Maneesha?
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