5 Blindness and following are synonymous

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‌CHAPTER 5

Blindness and following are synonymous

23 March 1988 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium

Question 1 BELOVED OSHO,

GEORGE GURDJIEFF IS REPORTED TO HAVE SAID, “REPORTERS AND SMART ALECKS WHO ATTEMPT TO ATTACK ME THINK THAT TO START SOME KIND OF MASS MOVEMENT AND ATTRACT LARGE NUMBERS OF FOOLISH FOLLOWERS IS A SIMPLE MATTER.”

BELOVED OSHO, HOW ABOUT THE FOLLOWERS OF PEOPLE LIKE BILLY GRAHAM? CAN YOU TALK ABOUT BLIND FOLLOWERS, AND REAL, AUTHENTIC SEEKERS?

Jivan Mada, to seek the truth, to long for the real, needs tremendous intelligence. Not only intelligence, but a great courage to risk all that is false, all that is superstitious, all that is mere belief – all that has been given to you by others but is not your own experience. The courage to be alone against the vast humanity – their religions, their political ideologies – certainly needs a tremendous love which is ready to sacrifice life itself but will not accept anything that is not one’s own authentic experience.

Truth is never borrowed; nobody else can give it to you. It is not something that can be transferred from one generation to another generation, one person to another person. Truth is your inner being – and the crowd has no approach to your inner being; except you, nobody can go there. This is simply the law of existence, that only the individual can rise to the heights of consciousness and awareness. The more you belong to the crowd, the deeper you fall into darkness.

But there must be some reason why so many people, millions of them, always remain part of crowds – Christians, Jews, Hindus, different kinds of crowds, Germans, Indians, Japanese, Chinese – crowd within crowd. They make smaller crowds, because the big crowd becomes too far away a thing. They make small families, small communities, small sects, cults. And not being satisfied with that, they start making Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, but they always need a crowd to belong to.

There must be some deep psychology behind it. Belonging to a crowd, whatsoever the nature of the crowd – religious, political, social, but belonging to a crowd – the very desire is to escape from oneself, is to avoid oneself. Is to keep looking at others so that you don’t become aware of your own being.

The fear is of oneself.

But why should people fear being themselves? There must have been a deep wound somewhere which prevents them from being alone.

According to me... I don’t know whether Gurdjieff is thinking in the same direction or not, but according to me the fear of being alone comes because every man, every woman, has to live in the womb of the mother for nine months in absolute darkness and aloneness. And to us, those are nine months, but to the baby in the mother’s womb it is eternity because the baby has no idea of time. But it is not unconscious, it is not in a coma; those nine months of aloneness have left a wound in every being. He is afraid to be alone again. Get married, have children, join clubs, become members of churches – any stupid circus will do, but don’t be alone!

Any absurd belief, if it makes you a part, a member of a society, of a religion, is helpful – not in finding the truth, but in avoiding the truth. The very word ‘belief’ means you don’t know; others know. And who are those others?

In my village there was a very well-known scholar, a brahmin priest, very well-respected by everybody except me. And I had my reasons not to be respectful. People thought, “Whatever he says is coming out of the sources of wisdom; he knows and we don’t know.” That’s what he had propagated.

All the priests in the world have been propagating the same thing: “We know and you don’t know. Accept what we say, make it your belief, never doubt, be obedient to the crowd, and you will be respectable.”

That priest lived just half a mile away from my house, in front of a huge garden. That garden belonged to the sect of which the priest was the head; it had become almost his private property.

My father had a friendship with the man, and he always used to take me to him and tell him, “Teach my boy something, because he seems to be a strange type. You ask him anything, and in answer he asks another question. He never answers anything!

“Even in small things: I tell him to go to the market and fetch some vegetables and he says, ‘Why not you? You are sitting so useless; at least I am meditating.’ And his meditation is his own invention. He just closes his eyes – nobody knows whether he sleeps or what, but he calls it meditation. And everybody else, he thinks, is doing useless things – ‘Send anybody!’

“Ask anything... And we are tired! Naked, he is going to the river. And I will say, ‘Listen, this is not good, going naked to the river,’ and he will say, ‘Why? If man is born naked he has a born right to be naked. And if people object, I will see to them; because I know everybody is naked behind their clothes, so what is the point? I am simply truthful; they are hypocrites, hiding behind clothes.’”

That old priest said, “I will put him right. You go, and leave him with me. I will teach him something.”

My father left me with the priest... and you can understand what must have happened to the priest! Whatever he said, I discussed. That was very new, because the whole community... it had never occurred to anybody to challenge him.

He said to me, “Look: these are the VEDAS, the Hindus’ ancientmost religious scriptures.”

I said to him, “Just give me some evidence. On what grounds are you saying they are holy?”

He said, “Grounds? It is an accepted fact.” I said, “I don’t accept it. You have to prove to me that these dirty books, rotten... if you go to sell them, even the waste paper market people will not purchase them. And if you don’t believe me, come with me; take all this lot. I will not touch them.”

He said, “Your father was right.”

I said, “Now you figure out how to get rid of me!” He said, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Now I am going to be here. You asked my father to leave me behind. Now, unless I decide to go, nobody can send me away.”

His wife came from inside and she said, “Don’t fight with that boy, he has been harassing me.” The priest said, “You harass my wife?”

I said, “First give me the proof that she is your wife! Because many other people have said to me that this woman is their wife. Whom to believe? Show me the certificate!”

The old priest said, “My god, you... can’t you see my children?”

I said, “That is even more difficult. You may have some evidence from the court that this is your wife, but even the court cannot prove that these are your children.”

The wife said, “Don’t fight with that boy, because he will harass me more.” The priest said, “Where does he harass you?”

She said, “Everywhere! When I go to the river, he is standing naked under a tree. And once I said, ‘This is not right.’ He said, ‘Close your eyes!’ And I thought that perhaps he is right, what right have I to tell him? If I don’t want to see him naked I should close my eyes. Since that day I have not bothered about him.”

The old priest said to me, “Listen, you are not yet grown up; you should behave like a cultured, well-behaved boy.”

I said, “I always do what you are saying. For example, when I told you that you cannot prove these children are yours, was I not behaving intelligently? And you have been believing, unintelligently, that these children are yours. And you don’t have any proof! And being a holy priest... are you indulging in dirty sex?”

He said, “My god, you just get out of my house!”

I said, “I am going to visit this house now whenever I want. Otherwise I will tell the whole village that this idiot can’t answer even simple questions but he answers that God exists. He cannot even prove that his children are his.”

He said, “Listen, wait – let us compromise!”

I said, “For what? Compromise? Why should I compromise?”

He said, “No, wait...” And he told his wife, “Bring some sweets and other things.”

I said, “Okay, but that does not mean that it is a permanent solution to the problem. Today I may not harass you, but whenever I need sweets...”

And after two or three days I went, and as I entered his house he said, “No need to argue; just wait. I will call my wife for sweets.”

His wife said, “But this is going to be an unnecessary burden.” I said, “It is up to you; we can drop the negotiation.”

The man started fighting with his wife – “You should not speak when I am talking to somebody. You just bring sweets; otherwise this boy can destroy my whole prestige. He talks such strange things! Now I know why his father has put the whole burden on me.”

He told my father, “I cannot teach your boy. You will have to take him to somebody else.” My father said, “I have tried everybody. Everybody has to make a negotiation with him.” He said, “Negotiation? Has he told you?”

My father said, “Every time I take him to somebody” – an old advocate was his friend, one old physician was his friend – “he ends up negotiating. And in the negotiation he simply gives temporary relief and gets sweets or anything he wants, and makes it clear: This is only the beginning of a relationship that will last as long you are alive, for certainly he is going to live longer than you.”

I have not found a single person my whole life who does not have beliefs. And belief is sheer stupidity. It means you don’t know, yet you are pretending. You are not deceiving others – you are

deceiving yourself that you know. When you go to the church, or go to the temple, what is your knowledge?

Just in front of my house there was a temple of Shiva, and as you know, Shiva is represented by a phallic symbol. I used to tease the priest and ask what it is. “If you have any sense, cover it with some cloth.”

He would say, “I pray to you... You disturb my customers!”

I said, “Then some negotiation. Who told you that this is the way God is?” He said, “Everybody knows.”

I said, “I have even seen dogs pissing on it.” And dogs are very skeptical people; they find very strange places to piss. Particularly the Shivalingam, the statue of Shiva, is very appealing to them – an absolutely marble urinal, and very comfortable for them because they have just to raise one leg and Shiva comes just underneath them.

The priest said, “Don’t torture me with these things. I know that this happens. I have to clean, wash... and I wonder, why so many dogs?”

I said, “You need not wonder. Whenever I have time, I find dogs and bring them – ‘Where are you going? Unnecessarily searching for a place... just come here!’”

He used to give me bribes.

I wondered, What kind of religious people are these? What are their beliefs, and why do crowds follow them? From my very childhood I have been in search of a man who can say, “This is my experience.” Always it is written in the holy book, it is said by Jesus Christ, it is said in BHAGAVAD GITA.

Gurdjieff’s saying – and he was one of the most important men of this century, but he could not find a great number of followers. Certainly not crowds – not like the Catholic pope, six hundred million people. And he was condemned all over the world for making statements which were absolutely true according to his experience.

One is not obliged to say things which are written in the books of religions; you may say something which is not written in any religious book. Your own experience is the ultimate value. There are thousands of religious books, three hundred religions on this small planet and they are all contradicting each other. Certainly, truth is one. Maybe its expressions differ a little bit according to the personalities of people, but you can see: the essential will be there.

Gautam Buddha says there is no God. Mahavira says there is no God. And Jesus Christ says, “I am the only begotten son of God.” Now whom to believe? And certainly Jesus Christ has not the caliber of a Gautam Buddha or Mahavira, nor the experience, nor the intelligence. Whatever he has said is a repetition of the Old Testament prophets. Not a single word of his can be said to have contributed to man’s knowledge. But half of humanity believes in Jesus Christ, and in such a stupid idea, that he is the only son of God.

What happened to God? Has he gone impotent? – a natural conclusion, because I don’t think he knows anything about birth control. Neither in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament is there any mention of birth control, and still... It is going to be for eternity! A celibacy so long will drive anybody crazy. And nobody, no Christian ever raises the question that it looks a little stupid that only Jesus...

And this kind of idea is not only in the mind of Jesus. This is called, in psychology, “megalomania.”

Hazrat Mohammed says, “I am the last and ultimate word of God. After me there will be no prophet.” But what are the reasons? Has God stopped sending messengers? Up to Mohammed he had sent many messengers – twenty-four tirthankaras of Jainas, twenty-four avataras of Hindus, his own son Jesus Christ. Perhaps he could not find anybody else to send, so poor Hazrat Mohammed... It seems that since then, God has not found anybody to send.

But this megalomania has a reason: Mohammed wants the KORAN to be the last word. If God goes on sending prophets, they are bound to say things which may contradict the KORAN and he cannot tolerate it.

Crowds have followed these people, without ever asking, inquiring of Mohammed, “Where did you meet God? Has he given you any symbol to prove that you are the real prophet? Why should we believe that you are the real prophet?” Because the KORAN is not great literature. Ordinary poets have written better.

He was uneducated, he could not even write his own name. He had to dictate, and that too not in a single go; an illiterate man, once in a while he could manage something. The KORAN was dictated over his whole lifetime; just this one book – one sentence today, one sentence tomorrow, whenever he could manage some idea. God seems so slow, sending messengers and always choosing the wrong kind of people.

And there are immense contradictions in these books, but the followers are blind.

Gurdjieff’s statement is absolutely right that all believers are blind. And the blind people are very angry with those who say that they are blind. Just tell some blind person that, “Listen fellow, you are blind.” Blind people become absolutely mad if somebody says that to them. And if you say to them, “There is light,” they will ask, “Show us the proof, or let us take a vote, a mandamus!”

And in this blind world, if a mandamus is taken whether light exists or not, one can predict the conclusion: Light does not exist.

Gurdjieff could not find more than a small group of people. The reason was simple. Perhaps in the East he would have been able to find a few more seekers, but he was trying in the West. And he himself was a very strange and unique master. His methods were so strange that ordinary people would simply avoid even a glimpse. Whatever he said had such significance, but that significance is only for those who know.

For example he used to say that not every man has a soul. Now it is not right; I know that everybody has a soul. Still, I say Gurdjieff did a great service by declaring that not all people have souls,

because this idea that you have a soul has made you a non-seeker. This idea that you have it already... then what is the point of seeking?

It is simple logic. All religions have been saying that you have a soul, so what is the point of seeking? We have it! And all the religions are saying you cannot lose it, even if you want to lose it. Perfect! – so do everything else while life lasts. The soul will always be there, even after death.

Naturally, the outcome of this has been a humanity which is non-seeking, non-inquiring, only occupied in the mundane, material, small things – because unless you seek something greater than you, you cannot blossom. Gurdjieff was right, but anybody listening to him will become angry. If you had gone to him and he had said to you, “Listen, you don’t have any soul. You are just empty, an empty box, nothing inside. Go home”...

His insistence was very strange and very new, very original: “If you want to have a soul you will have to create it; you will have to do something. Call it meditation, call it discipline, but whatever the name is, you have to become crystallized in your consciousness. A crystallized consciousness is soul, and you are not crystallized. You are fragmentary, one fragment is going north, one fragment is going south... You are spread all over the place. Just gather yourself.”

Naturally people became angry, that “This is insulting!” To say that you are an empty box... But those who were intelligent remained with the man, because the man had such a presence that if you had the courage to look into his eyes and the courage to be with him for a few days you would understand – his saying you are not yet a soul is just a device so that you can start discovering, so that you can start going in. Whether he was right or wrong, he was provoking you, challenging you.

He was not against Gautam Buddha or Krishna, he was not against those great souls who have realized themselves. He was saying that the crowd which has accepted the idea of soul as a belief – its belief has to be shattered, completely shattered.

And unless you are completely shattered in your belief-system, you are not going to move a single inch in your growth. People were very angry with him.

Perhaps I am the only person with whom more people are angry, because Gurdjieff was not known to the whole world. He was known to a small group in France, in England, in America, but not around the world.

But, Jivan Mada, your question is significant: How to make a distinction between blind followers and real authentic seekers?

The first thing to remember is, all followers are blind. There are not some followers who are blind and some followers who are not blind. Blindness and following are synonymous.

And all authentic seekers are non-believers. All authentic seekers are bound to find themselves alone. They cannot be accepted by the crowd. They are too dangerous for the crowd, because they may destroy other people’s belief systems, they may destroy other people’s consolations.

Friedrich Nietzsche was confined in a madhouse, forcibly, although he was not mad. But whatever he was saying will look really mad to the crowd; for example his saying that “God is dead, have you

heard it or not?” He would catch hold of people by their collars and ask, “God is dead, have you heard it or not?!”

Now people thought, “This is too much! He is AGAINST God. We have heard that there are people who don’t believe in God, but he is going one step ahead. He says, The question of belief or unbelief does not arise; the fellow has died. And moreover, do you know who has killed him? You!”

Naturally people thought that he had gone completely out of his mind, it is better to put him in a nursing home and take care of him. He resisted, but what can he do? A single individual, of the greatest intelligence, was forced to live for one year in a madhouse. But in a way, in disguise, a great blessing came. That one year in the madhouse he could find time to write his most important book, THE WILL TO POWER. Anybody who can understand the book, THE WILL TO POWER will testify that the man who wrote it was not mad. No madman can write a book of such brilliance. But his statements were very shattering to the crowd.

He used to go before churches, and when they would come out he would say, “Listen, beware of this fellow Jesus Christ. He has been teaching things which are absurd and illogical.” Now to tell Christians who are coming out of the churches, listening to great sermons of well-educated idiots... but his arguments were very clear.

Jesus has said, “Do to others what you would like them to do to you.” Now, nobody will object to it, it seems to be a beautiful statement: Do to others what you would like to be done to you by them. But Nietzsche had such a brilliant clarity – he said, “What if your likings differ? Do to others what you would like them to do to you, but what if your likings differ?” Certainly inquire first what their likings are, and whether they would also like what you are giving them.

Secondly, and more importantly... this statement was made in reference to what happens if somebody slaps you on one side of your face – “Give him the other side too.” Looks very beautiful, very nonviolent, very peace-loving. But Friedrich Nietzsche’s insight is far deeper.

He says, “And what will you do if he gives you another slap on the other side of the face? You don’t have a third side – what will you do? Then you will be at a loss and look stupid.

“Moreover, when somebody slaps you on your face and you give him the other side of your face, you insult him. You insult his humanity, you show that you are a God, a superior being; you don’t behave like an animal. You are proving your superiority by giving the other side of your face.”

It is absolutely insulting.

The best thing is, if he has given you a slap, you give him a good slap in return to prove that “We are equal, we both are human beings. Neither you are lower nor I am higher.” It looks strange, but there is a point: these people who go on trying to present themselves as higher human beings are really trying to make others feel inferior. They are taking away your dignity.

A man like Gurdjieff had few people. He would not accept them as followers but just as seekers, as fellow travelers. And hard was the path. His way was very hard, but the result was tremendously beautiful. If somebody followed to the very end what he was saying – not just believing it but doing it,

exploring it by experiencing it – one became crystallized, luminous. In the West there was no word for it; the East knows the man has become the buddha, the awakened, the enlightened.

And Jivan Mada, you are also asking, “How about the followers of people like Billy Graham?”

That is the blind following the blind. Billy Graham is one of the greatest idiots as far as contemporary times are concerned. Naturally he has a great following: small idiots are everywhere available; when a great idiot arises, small idiots immediately fall in the trap.

Just look at the face of Billy Graham... I would not have believed that a man with such a face could find a single follower. So retarded, so ugly, no grace – but he is one of the greatest Christian preachers. And what he is preaching is just old nonsense which has been repeated for two thousand years, nothing original.

But people want leaders like Billy Graham; they give a certain consolation to you. They have not in any way, in their whole life, shocked anybody in his belief. They support your belief, they console you, they say, “Believe in Jesus and paradise is yours.”

And if paradise is available so cheap, I don’t think you are going to miss it. Why not take it, when it is available? You don’t even have to purchase a ticket; just believe, believe that Jesus is the son of God and after death there will be a Judgment Day.

It is strange, two thousand years have passed and the judgment day has not happened yet. Whenever it will happen everybody will rise out of the grave...

Just for a moment, visualize the scene – because out of graves will come only skeletons. People who have been in graves for thousands of years cannot have anything left but bones, and they will be so many, and only one day of judgment – perhaps from eleven to five, and the day is finished and God goes into retirement again.

And don’t forget that among those skeletons half are going to be women. There is going to be so much chattering, unbelievable, and fighting, because everybody will be looking: where is the husband? And in many many lives... If it is a question of the East, a man has been a husband of many wives and every woman has been a wife of many husbands – there is going to be such wrestling and boxing that God cannot make any judgment, on that day at least.

But people believe...

Ronald Reagan and Edwin Meese are going for a walk in the grounds of the White House, when they notice a large dog licking its private parts.

“Boy,” says Reagan, “I would love to be able to do that.”

“Then go ahead,” says Meese, “but if I were you I would make friends with him first.” These are the people... both of them go to listen to Billy Graham.

Elijah Lobotowitz is reading his newspaper one evening when his fifteen-year-old daughter, Sadie, comes in and says, “Dad, can I ask you something that will affect my life from now on?”

“Of course, dear,” replies Elijah, “what is it?” “Well,” says Sadie, “what is vice?”

Lobotowitz drops his newspaper and stammers, “Sit down, dear, and I will tell you.” Then he goes down through the Ten Commandments, paying particular attention to the subject of adultery. After two hours of graphic description, he sits back and says, “There, now do you know about vice? But why did you ask?”

“Well,” says Sadie, “you know I have been playing for the basketball team? Well, today I was promoted to vice-captain.”

During the second world war, Paddy, Sean and Seamus are fighting against the Nazis in France. Unfortunately they are captured and sent to a concentration camp. On Adolf Hitler’s birthday, the camp commander is in a good mood, so he calls the three Irishmen to his office. “Okay, you dumbkopfs,” he shouts, “as it is Adolf Hitler’s birthday, I am going to give you your freedom if you can tell me the sex of the bird on my helmet.”

Sean goes first and says, “Female.”

Seamus agrees that it is female, but Paddy insists, “Definitely male.”

“Good,” says the commander to Paddy, “you are right. But how did you know?”

“It had to be male,” replies Paddy, heading for the door, “with a prick like you under it!”

These are the people, the crowd. What more can you expect of them, except to follow any idiot who is bigger than they are.

Hymie Goldberg and his friend Moishe are having a drink in the clubhouse between races.

“A weird thing happened to me a few years ago,” says Hymie. “It was the seventh day of the seventh month, and my little Herschel was seven years old that day. We lived in apartment number seven, and I got to the track at seven minutes past seven.”

“You musta put a bundle on the seventh horse in the seventh race.” says Moishe. “I sure did,” says Hymie.

“And it won, of course,” says Moishe. “No,” sighs Hymie, “It came in seventh!” Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

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