Poona

    1974-1981

    PART VII

    Contents

    Osho goes into Seclusion

    On 21st March 1974, exactly 21 years after enlightenment, Osho moves to Koregaon Park, Poona, where two residences in adjoining properties of six acres have been purchased. Osho is in seclusion, and for a month he is sick. He holds interviews on the lawn, only with sannyasins arriving or leaving; he gives a few individual meditations. At this time Osho said, "You may be watching my gradual withdrawal from activities".

    It is very considerately that I have become inaccessible. I was very accessible, but then by and by I began to feel that I couldn't help; it became almost impossible to help. For example, if I give you one hour, you talk rubbish. If I give you one minute you say exactly the thing that is needed--that's how mind functions.

    If I am available to you the whole day, I am not available at all. If you have to wait eight days or ten days, that waiting is needed for a certain tuning in yourself; for certain significant problems to arise.

    Sometimes I see that if you have a problem and you can come immediately, you will bring me trivia. During the day there are a thousand and one problems arising--they are not significant, but in the moment they appear significant. If you have to wait just one hour, the problem changes--then you bring another problem. If you are allowed to bring all your problems you will be in a mess, because you yourself will not be able to know what is needed, what is significant. So this is part of the whole process. wobble04

    It is difficult to reach me, you will have to pass through Mukta (who makes the appointments). By the time the appointment is given and by the time you reach me, your problem will not be there. Hence the appointment--because otherwise you will bring problems unnecessarily. They drop automatically by themselves. And if they persist, then they are worth bringing to me.

    By the time you come to me you will have already passed over it; and if you understand, that means that things that come and go are not worth paying any attention to--they come and go. You always remain, they come and go. You are the thing to be more attentive about, not things that come and go--they are like seasons, climate changes: in the morning it was different, in the evening it is again different. It changes. Find out that which doesn't change. flowrs03

    This has been my observation: many times when I am talking to somebody else I am talking to you, because I feel that is the most appropriate way. When I am talking directly

    to you, you may miss, because your ego becomes too prominent. When I pay attention to you, your ego comes up to the surface, and the ego won't allow. No, you are just sitting by the side, I am talking to somebody else; then you are listening more properly. Then the ego is not involved.

    If I am telling somebody else how to drop anger, you are listening, and because you are not concerned you are a little detached, and when you are detached you listen better. When you are concerned, when it is your problem, you are so worried about it that there is a barrier. When I am talking to somebody else and talking on his problem, I may not be talking to him at all, I may be talking to somebody else really. And when I start talking to you I may be talking now to the other person, not to you. That has to be decided by the master: what to do, how to do it.

    I had to stop personal interviews because of this, because I felt it took a longer time for the thing to reach you. If you are alone with me you become so nervous--and it is your problem, you cannot be detached, you cannot be an observer. And you are burdened so much by the problem that whatsoever I say, when I am saying it you know well it is impossible, because you think you have tried everything, and nothing happens.

    I had to stop personal interviews completely. Now it is better: ten, twelve people are there in the interview. I talk to a, and I may be talking to b; I talk to c, and I may be hinting to a. Now it is simple. When I hit somebody else, the hit may be for you. And you can take it easily, because it seems not to be meant for you. But it works. It finds you unaware. It penetrates deeper in you. It moves into the subtle layers of your unconscious without any effort because you are sitting relaxed. It is somebody else's problem.

    You may have observed that whenever somebody else is in difficulty you can be a wise counselor, a good adviser--everybody is a good adviser, I have never seen anybody who is not a good adviser when others are in difficulty. Everybody is a good adviser. You can give such wise counsel that even Lao Tzu will feel jealous. Such a great wise man! But when the problem is yours, suddenly you become childish. Suddenly you lose your bearings, you lose balance.

    Why does it happen?--because now it is too close a problem. You are already disturbed and you are expecting a miracle. You cannot give the same advice to yourself that you have given to others in the same situation. A detached feeling helps. justlt08

    When a master is near you, if you are frank, honest and true and bring your mind out, the master will penetrate you from the back door. From the front door your mind is going out; from the back door the master is entering you.

    So when near me on the lawn, be sincere and true. Don't bring questions which are intellectual, they are useless. Metaphysics is the most useless thing in the world. Don't bring any metaphysical questions, they are not true; they don't belong to you. You may have heard about them, read about them, but they are not part of you. Bring your nonsense out, whatsoever it is. And don't try to manipulate it. Don't try to rationalize it

    and polish it. Let it be as raw as possible--because before a master, you must be naked. You should not wear clothes and you should not hide yourself.

    That is an exposure, and if you can talk as an exposure--not as an inquiry, just opening your heart, not asking for anything--then silence will follow, because when you have exposed your mind and you have passed through a catharsis, silence comes to you. This is a different type of silence, not a forced silence, not a controlled silence, not a silence with any effort on your part.

    When you have exposed your mind completely, released all that is there, a silence comes, descends on you, overwhelms you, a silence which is beyond understanding, and a silence which is beyond you; a silence which belongs to the whole and not to the individual. clouds12

    Osho's Garden

    In April Osho gives eight discourses on the Geeta darshan, and a mass shaktipat. He talks of returning to Bombay, but at the end of the month announces he will stay in Poona. He begins to take walks in the garden.

    I live in Lao Tzu House and my garden is a forest. Mukta, my gardener, was very reluctant to make it that way--obviously, she is a Greek and thinks logically, and this is very illogical. No symmetry, no pruning is allowed. She prunes, though, when I am not looking! She tries to make something out of the mess.

    Vivek hates the whole forest around the house. She says it has destroyed all perspective; you cannot see. You cannot see the vastness of the sky; you cannot see anything from the room--it is so covered! In fact, I don't need to see anything--I have seen everything! But for poor Vivek it is difficult--she still needs to see a few things. I can understand her difficulty.

    A desert you can go on and on seeing; it ends nowhere. All the horizons are available. Its vastness and its profound silence have their own song, unheard, unspoken. The same is true about the path of silence. guida04

    Yes, if you are meditative then a beautiful house will have a totally different quality. A beautiful garden, a pond in your garden....

    Mukta has just made a pond by the side of my room, a really beautiful pond with a small waterfall. If you are meditative, then it is a tremendously beautiful experience just to see water dancing on the rocks, just to see the rocks, just to feel the texture of the rocks, the moss that will start gathering on them. Then everything is beautiful if inside your heart there is awareness; otherwise everything is ugly.

    It is not that a meditative person enters into heaven--no, heaven enters into a meditative person. Paradise is not a geographical place, it is a psychological experience. A meditative person can enjoy everything--only he can enjoy. He is not a renunciate. Only he knows how to taste the beauty of things, how to experience the tremendous presence of existence all around. Because he is, he knows how to love, how to live. dh0702

    Discourses: My Way, The Way of the White Clouds

    In May 1974, Osho gives a series of question and answer discourses in English, which explain his way, the master-disciple relationship, and the development of his work in Poona. The discourses are published under the title My Way: The Way of the White Clouds, and attract many seekers from the West.

    This very morning there were white clouds in the sky. Now they are there no more. Where have they gone? From where do they come? How do they evolve, and how do they dissolve again? A white cloud is a mystery, the coming, the going, the very being of it. That's the first reason why I call my way The Way of the White Clouds.

    But there are many reasons, and it is good to ponder, to meditate upon them. A white cloud exists without any roots. It is an unrooted phenomenon, grounded nowhere or grounded in the nowhere. But still it exists. The whole of existence is like a white cloud: without any roots, without any causality, without any ultimate cause, it exists. It exists as a mystery.

    A white cloud really has no way of its own. It drifts. It has nowhere to reach, no destination, no destiny to be fulfilled, no end. You cannot frustrate a white cloud because wherever it reaches is the goal.

    If you have a goal you are bound to get frustrated. The more goal-oriented a mind is, the more anguish, anxiety and frustration there will be, because once you have a goal you are moving with a fixed destination. And the whole exists without any destiny. The whole is not moving anywhere; there is no goal to it, no purpose.

    And once you have a purpose, you are against the whole--remember this--then you will get frustrated. You cannot win against the whole. Your existence is so tiny--you cannot fight, you cannot conquer. It is impossible to conceive how an individual unit can conquer the whole. And if the whole is purposeless and you are with purpose you are going to be defeated.

    A white cloud drifts wherever the wind leads--it doesn't resist, it doesn't fight. A white cloud is not a conqueror, and still it hovers over everything. You cannot conquer it, you cannot defeat it. It has no mind to conquer--that's why you cannot defeat it.

    Once you are fixed to a goal, purpose, destiny, meaning, once you have got that madness of reaching somewhere, then problems will arise. And you will be defeated, that is certain. Your defeat is in the very nature of existence itself.

    A white cloud has nowhere to go. It moves, it moves everywhere. All dimensions belong to it, all directions belong to it. Nothing is rejected. Everything is, exists, in a total acceptability. Hence I call my way The Way of the White Clouds.

    The white clouds have no way of their own--they drift. A way means reaching somewhere. The White Clouds' Way means a pathless path, a wayless way. Moving, but not with a fixed mind--moving without a mind.

    This has to be understood, because purpose is synonymous with mind. That's why you cannot conceive how to live without purpose, because the mind cannot exist without purpose. clouds01

    So I am the white cloud, and the whole effort is to make you also white clouds drifting in the sky. Nowhere to go, coming from nowhere, just being there this very moment-- perfect.

    I don't teach you any ideals, I don't teach you any oughts. I don't say to you be this, become that. My whole teaching is simply this: Whatsoever you are, accept it so totally that nothing is left to be achieved, and you will become a white cloud. clouds01

    You are asking: You have talked to us about total surrender to the master, but often our minds come up with reasons for not following the instructions literally. We say things like: The master can't know that the situation has changed; or, the master doesn't realize what the practical conditions are in the West. Should we follow everything the master says to the letter, or are there times when we should use our own discretion?

    You should follow either absolutely, or not at all. No compromise should be made, because anything half-hearted is not only useless but harmful. Anything half-hearted divides you--that is the harm. You should remain an undivided unity.

    So either surrender totally...then there is no need to think on your part; follow blindly. I emphasize the word blindly--as if you have no eyes; somebody who has eyes is leading you. Then you will remain an undivided unity; and undivided, integrated, you will grow.

    Or, if you feel this is impossible and cannot be done, don't follow at all. Completely follow yourself. Then too you will remain undivided. To remain undivided is the end, the aim. Both will do, the ultimate result will be the same. If you can be alone, without a master, if you can follow your own consciousness, wheresoever it leads, it is the same, the result will be the same. So it depends on you.

    But the mind always says: Do both. The mind says: Follow the master, but think about it. Follow only those things which you think right. Then where is the following? Where is the surrender?

    If you are the judge, and you are to decide what to follow and what not to follow, then where is the surrender, where is the trust? Then it is better to follow your own consciousness. But don't deceive--at least there should be no deception. Otherwise, you go on following yourself and you think that you are following a master.

    If you are the deciding factor, if you have to choose, if you have to discard something, accept something, then you are following yourself. But you can create the impression around yourself and you can deceive yourself that you are following a master. Then nothing will come out of it. You will not grow, because through deception there can be no growth.

    And you will get more and more confused, because if you are to decide what is to be done and what is not to be done, if you have to choose from your master's guidance, you will create a chaos--because whenever a master guides you his guidance has an organic unity about it. Every instruction is related to another. It is a compact whole. You cannot discard something and follow something; you will become a ruin, a wreck. Even if a single thing is denied, then the whole has been disturbed. You don't know how things are interrelated.

    So this is my suggestion to you: Remain a unit, undivided. Decide. If you have to decide, then decide: I will follow myself. Then don't surrender, there is no need either!...

    You can take my help if you surrender; you can take my help if you don't surrender, but you have to be clear about it. If you choose the path of surrender, then you have to follow me totally. If you choose that you are not going to surrender, then decide it. I can be a friend on the path, there is no need to make me a master. I can be just a friend on the path--or not even a friend.

    You are searching and you meet somebody absolutely unknown, a stranger, and you ask him: Where is the river? Which path leads to the river? When he has spoken you thank him and you move. I can be just a stranger. No need even to be a friend, because with a friend also you get involved. You can take my help--my help is unconditional.

    I don't say: Do this, then I will help you. I don't say: Surrender, only then will I help you. But this much I must say: Do whatsoever you like, but do it totally. If you are total, the transformation is closer. If you are divided, it is almost impossible. clouds12

    Osho then gives a series of discourses in Hindi: Nahim Ram Bin Thaon (English: Nowhere to go but in). He explains how a master can help, not by teaching but by awakening, for which meditation is the preparation.

    A few things will have to be understood. The first is that to attain buddhahood is very difficult. To be awakened is almost to attain the impossible. Total awakening is a

    phenomenon that does not and cannot happen every day, because there is a deep attraction to sleep and there is comfort in sleep....

    Now and then, maybe once in a thousand years, someone awakens. And whenever a single individual awakens, that door which is usually closed opens, even for those who are still asleep. Here we are so many people: suppose we are all asleep, then who will awaken us? If even one of us wakes up, the door opens up for the awakening of us all, because the one who is awake can awaken the sleeping ones, he can shake them to wake up....

    I am taking you into all these experiments with meditation so that it becomes possible for you to recognize the buddha when the meeting happens; so that you do not turn your back on the door when it opens; so that you won't miss even if the door opens only for a single moment. Meditation will help you to recognize the master. Now this is a puzzle, because normally we approach the master in order to learn meditation. But I am telling you, without meditation you will never be able to recognize the master. Where will you look? Only meditation will make you capable of seeing the master. If you try to recognize the master through your thinking, you will miss....

    Don't interpret, simply look at the facts. Don't be lazy. It is already late enough; wake up! It is morning! But for those who are asleep the night continues. Only those who are awake can see that the morning has come.

    And whatsoever I am saying to you, my emphasis is not on what I am saying, it is rather on shaking you, stirring you so that your sleep is broken. So many times I have to use what psychologists call shock treatment When someone has gone into extreme insanity, only the administration of electric shocks brings him back into sanity.

    You too need strong electric shocks. Hence, many times I say things that give you a jolt, a shock. And this process that I have been calling meditation is exactly electric shock treatment. It will create so many tremors in you that you will become an earthquake--and not until you are an earthquake will you break out of your sleep....

    All meditation techniques are techniques to shake you, to jolt you awake.

    And I am always waiting for that moment when your layer will be so thin that just the merest indication will shatter it. And if you are able to open your eyes and look even once, the matter is over.

    My speaking to you is nothing but persuading you, getting you to agree to a journey which is utterly unfamiliar to you, to a journey where you have no idea of the destination; where it is possible you may get lost, or it is also possible you may reach the destination. I am taking you in search of such a treasure which you have no idea of, and you will have to travel leaving that behind which you call treasure; hence your attachment is understandable. Every now and then you turn around and look back--it is natural. That

    you want to take along with you very carefully even that which is worthless is natural. Your sleep is natural, my shaking you is natural. nowher15

    You ask me: What is Your function here as a master?

    It is a difficult question, because I have to do so many things--without doing them, that is the most difficult part of it! I never leave my room, but I have to do many things, conceivable, inconceivable.

    But the basic function of the master is to force people out of their unconsciousness. It is a thankless job, because you have to hit them hard--their ideas, their notions, their middle- class, bourgeois philosophies. All that they have thought is great, all that they have thought is true, you have to go on telling them that it is all nonsense, that it is just bullshit! And of course they feel hurt....

    Allow a single insight of a buddha in you and you will never be the same. That's my function here as a master: to give you something which will not fit with you but which will be so tremendously significant for you that you will be ready to change for it, that you will be ready to risk everything for it. dh0702

    Whirling Meditation

    Osho introduces a new two-hour Whirling Meditation for the evening. Meditators do this at the nearby Empress Botanical Gardens, as well as Dynamic meditation each morning. (Whirling continues to be a much-loved meditation at the present time.)

    In the night, just the opposite of the morning--be completely unconscious; don't bother at all. The night has come, the sun has set, now everything is moving into unconsciousness. Move into unconsciousness. This whirling, Sufi whirling, is one of the most ancient techniques, one of the most forceful. It is so deep that even a single experience can make you totally different. You have to whirl with open eyes, just like small children go on twirling, as if your inner being has become a center and your whole body has become like a wheel, moving--a potter's wheel, moving. You are in the center, but the whole body is moving. Start slowly, clockwise. If somebody feels it is very difficult to move clockwise then anti-clockwise, but the rule is to move clockwise. If a few people are left-handed then they may feel it difficult; they can move anti-clockwise. And almost ten percent of people are left-handed, so if you find that clockwise you feel uneasy, move anti- clockwise; but start with clockwise, then feel. Music will be there, slow, just to help you. In the beginning move very slowly; don't go fast, but very slowly, enjoying. And then, by and by, go faster. The first fifteen minutes, go slowly; the second fifteen minutes, fast; the third fifteen minutes, faster; the fourth fifteen minutes, just completely mad. And then your total energy, you, become a whirlpool, an energy whirlpool, lost completely in it: no

    witnessing, no effort to observe. Don't try to see; be the whirlpool, be the whirling. One hour.

    In the beginning you may not be able to stand so long, but remember one thing, don't stop by yourself, don't stop the whirling. If you feel it is impossible the body will fall down automatically, but don't you stop. If you fall down in the middle of the hour there is no problem; the process is complete. But don't play tricks with yourself, don't deceive; don't think that now you are tired so it is better to stop. No, don't make it a decision on your part. If you are tired, how can you go on? You will fall automatically. So don't stop yourself; let the whirling itself come to a point where you fall down. When you fall down, fall down on your stomach; and it will be good if your stomach is in direct touch with the earth. Then close the eyes. Lie down on the earth as if lying down on the breast of your mother, a small child lying down on the breast of the mother. Become completely unconscious. And this whirling will help.

    Whirling gives intoxication to the body. It is a chemical thing, it gives you intoxication, to be exact. That's why sometimes you may feel giddy just like a drunkard. What is happening to the drunkard? Hidden behind your ears is a sixth sense, the sense of balance. When you take any drink, any alcoholic thing, any intoxicating drug, it goes directly to the center of balance in the ear and disturbs it. That's why a drunkard cannot walk, feels dizzy. The same happens in whirling. If you whirl, really, the effect will be the same: you will feel intoxicated, drunk. But enjoy--this drunkenness is worth something. This being in a drunken state is what Sufis have been calling ecstasy, masti. In the beginning you may feel giddy, in the beginning sometimes you may feel nausea, but within two, three days, these feelings will disappear and by the fourth day you will feel a new energy in you that you have never known before. Then giddiness will disappear, and just a smooth feeling of drunkenness will be there. So don't try to be alert about what is happening. Let it happen and become one with the happening.

    In the morning, be alert; in the afternoon, half alert, half unalert; in the night, completely unalert. The circle is complete.

    And then fall down on the ground on your stomach. If anybody feels any sort of pain in the navel center lying down on the ground, then he can turn on the back, otherwise not. If you feel something, a very deep painful sensation in the stomach, then turn on your back, otherwise not. The navel in contact with the earth will give you such a blissful feeling-- just the same as once you had, but now you have forgotten, when you were a child lying down on your mother's breast, completely unaware of any worry, any anxiety, so one with the mother, your heart beating with her heart, your breath in tune with her breath. The same will happen with the earth because earth is the mother. That's why Hindus have been calling earth the mother and sky the father. Be rooted in it. Feel a merger as if you have dissolved. The body has become one with the earth; the form is there no more. Only earth exists; you are not there. This is what I mean when I say break the cup completely: forget that you are. The earth is, and dissolve in it.

    During the one hour of whirling the music will continue. Many will fall before the hour but everybody has to fall by the time the music stops. So if you feel that you are still not in the state of falling then go faster and faster. After forty-five minutes go completely mad, so by the time the hour is complete you have fallen. And the feeling of falling is beautiful, so don't manipulate it. Fall, and when you have fallen then turn on your stomach, be merged, close your eyes. This merger has to be there for one hour.

    So the night meditation will be of two hours, from seven o'clock to nine o'clock. Don't eat anything before it. At nine o'clock the suggestion will be given to come out of this deep drunkenness, this ecstasy. Even out of it you may not be able to walk correctly, but don't be disturbed, enjoy it. Then take your food and go to sleep. wing01

    The New Phase of Osho's Work

    In June 1974, Osho introduces the first Meditation Camp with the announcement that the new phase of his work begins. From now on he will work only with authentic seekers. Osho develops this new phase throughout his seven years in Poona. For the first time, Osho does not lead the meditations in person. Instead his empty chair is brought in to the Meditation Hall.

    This Samadhi Sadhana Shibir, this camp for inner ecstasy and enlightenment, is just going to be a help for you so that which you have carried like a seed up to now can come out of your soil and become an alive thing, an alive plant. But the basic thing will be that if you want to be with me you cannot be with your mind. Both cannot happen simultaneously. Whenever you are with your mind you are not with me; whenever the mind is not there, you are with me. And I can work only if you are with me. Empty the cup. Throw the cup away completely; destroy it.

    This camp is going to be in many ways different.

    This night I start a completely new phase of my work. You are fortunate to be here because you will be witnesses to a new type of inner work. I must explain it to you because tomorrow morning the journey starts. (Here Osho explains the three camp meditations: dynamic, kirtan, whirling, see ps. )

    Another new thing, I will not be there; only my empty chair will be there. But don't miss me because in a sense I will be there, and in a sense there has always been an empty chair before you. Right now the chair is empty because there is no one sitting in it. I am talking to you but there is no one who is talking to you. It is difficult to understand, but when the ego disappears processes can continue. Talking can continue, sitting and walking and eating can continue, but the center has disappeared. Even now, the chair is empty. But I was always with you up till now in all the camps because you were not ready. Now I feel you are ready. And you must be helped to get more ready to work in my absence, because feeling that I am there you may feel a certain enthusiasm that is false. Just feeling that I am present you may do things which you never wanted to do; just to impress me you may

    exert more. That is not of much help, because only that can be helpful which comes out of your being. My chair will be there, I will be watching you, but you feel completely free. And don't think that I am not there because that may depress you, and then that depression will disturb your meditation.

    I will be there, and if you meditate rightly whenever your meditation is exactly tuned, you will see me. So that will be the criterion of whether you are really meditating or not. Many of you will be able to see me more intensely than you can see me right now, and whenever you see me, you can be certain that things are happening in a right direction. So this will be the criterion. By the end of this camp I hope ninety percent of you will have seen me. Ten percent may miss because of their minds. So if you see me don't start thinking about it, what is happening, don't start thinking whether it is imagination or a projection or am I really there. Don't think, because if you think immediately I will disappear; thinking will become a barrier. The dust will come on the mirror and there will be no reflection. Whenever the dust is not there, suddenly you will become aware of me more than you can be aware here right now. To be aware of the physical body is not much awareness; to be aware of the nonphysical being is real awareness.

    You must learn to work without me. You cannot be here always, you will have to go far away; you cannot hang around me forever, you have other works to do. You have come from different countries all over the world; you will have to go. For a few days you will be here with me, but if you become addicted to my physical presence then rather than being a help it may become a disturbance, because then when you go away, you will miss me. Your meditation should be such here that it can happen without my presence, then wherever you go the meditation will not be in any way affected.

    And this too has to be remembered: I cannot always be in this physical body with you; one day or another the physical vehicle has to be dropped. My work is complete as far as I am concerned. If I am carrying this physical vehicle, it is just for you; some day, it has to be dropped. Before it happens you must be ready to work in my absence, or in my nonphysical presence which means the same. And once you can feel me in my absence you are free of me, and then even if I am not here in this body the contact will not be lost.

    It always happens when a Buddha is there: his physical presence becomes so meaningful, and then he dies. Everything is shattered....

    My chair can be empty; you can feel my absence. And remember, only when you can feel my absence can you feel my presence. If you cannot see me while my physical vehicle is not there, you have not seen me at all.

    This is my promise: I will be there in the empty chair, the empty chair will not really be empty. So behave! The chair will not be empty, but it is better that you learn to be in contact with my nonphysical being. That is a deeper, more intimate touch and contact.

    That is why I say a new phase of my work starts with this camp, and I am calling it a Samadhi Sadhana Shibir. It is not only meditation, it is absolute ecstasy that I am going

    to teach to you. It is not only the first step, it is the last. Only no mind on your part is needed and everything is ready. Just be alert not to think much. The remaining time between these three meditations, remain more and more silent, don't talk. If you want to do something, laugh, dance: do something intense and physical but not mental. Go for a long walk, go jogging on the grounds, jump under the sun, lie down on the earth, look at the sky, enjoy, but don't allow the mind to function much. Laugh, cry, weep, but don't think. If you can be without thinking for these three meditations and the time between them, then after three, four days you will feel suddenly a burden has disappeared. The heart has become light, the body weightless and you are ready to take a jump into the unknown. wing01

    At the start of the camp You said You were moving into a new phase of Your work. We've felt it in meditation, but most important, You've changed the way You speak to us. At one time, for example, You never admitted to being an enlightened master, and now You do. Could You tell us more about this new phase of Your work?

    I can only say things which you have become capable of hearing. It depends on you. If you have become a disciple, then I can easily say that I am a master; but if you are not a disciple it will be just meaningless saying to you that I am a master. If somebody comes who is just curious about me, I will not say this to him; it would be pointless. He will not understand; rather, he will misunderstand.

    When you are ready to receive, only then can I give. And now that you are ready I can say many things which cannot be said to casual visitors. They are curious; their curiosity is shallow, they have not come to receive something. Their mind functions in a childish way: they just want to know everything, and they are not going to penetrate deeper into it.

    Now I can say many things to you, because I know that you will not misunderstand. Even if you don't understand this much is certain: you will not misunderstand.

    This will be a new phase; it has already started. I will be working only with those who are sober, not fooling around. I will be working only with those who have really come to a point where they need transformation--who are really sincere, authentic seekers and are ready to do whatsoever I say. To them I can say, "I am a master" to them I can say, "Come to me and drink out of me, and you will not be thirsty, ever."

    But this cannot be said to everybody; this cannot be said to somebody who is just passing, who you meet on the street. The more you get ready the more I can pour myself into you. Before, your pots were there but upside down; even if I had poured it would have been a wastage. Now many of you are in a situation where now your pots are not upside down, now they are right side up. Now I can pour, now I can trust that you will take it as a treasure, that you will hide it, that you will share it only with those who are sincere, who are in search. Many more secrets will be following, but they will only follow as you get more ready.

    The phase, a new phase, has started. I will not be working with the masses now, and I will be dropping all those who are just hanging around for other reasons, and not for their spiritual growth. There are many types of people, and even they are not aware why they are hanging around--but I know. I will be dropping them. Fewer and fewer will be accepted now. If I drop you, you will not be able to know that I have dropped you because you will go on thinking that you dropped me. That's how the ignorant mind always consoles itself.

    Now I will be working only with a few, a chosen few, and as you get ready many more secrets can be given to you, and I will be able to talk easily. Then I can be true, I need not say a lie to you then. I will not say what you want to hear; no, I will say what is really to be said to you.

    And don't wait for the future, because no one knows about the future. This very moment open yourself as much as you can so you can receive me....

    Right this moment I am here, available. Don't wait for the future, because nobody knows. Open your heart, become more receptive, get attuned. Everything is possible. At this very moment I can give you the key.

    A new phase has started. Now get ready for it, because it is not a question concerning me, it is a question concerning you. How much you can get, you will get; your capacity will be the limit. If you are totally open there is no limit. The whole ocean is ready to fall into the drop, but the drop is afraid. It is trying to protect itself....

    Meditation will make you ready, compassion will make you perfect. So carry these two mantras: pragya, meditation, karuna, compassion--let these two be the goals. Let your whole life revolve around them, and very soon you will be attuned. Then I can pour myself into you. wing11

    Discourse Series on Many Masters

    From July 1974, Osho continues to give discourses every morning until 1981, with alternate months in Hindi or English. He comments on the teachings of enlightened mystics in many spiritual traditions: Tao, Zen, Christianity, Hassid, Sufi, Baul, Hindu, Tibetan, Tantrik, etc. On alternate days Osho answers questions. Each series of ten or twenty days is published verbatim, as one book--over 240 books in seven years.

    A Buddha spoke, a Lao Tzu spoke, Jesus spoke and they knew that they were saying something which cannot be said, but they still said it. They tried hard their whole life to say it in so many ways. They used a thousand and one devices and they knew that they were going to fail. but still the failure is never complete.

    Yes, it cannot be said and yet something is being transferred. In the very effort of saying it, something is transferred.

    I cannot say what love is, but my very concern--that I would like to relate to you--will show my love.

    I cannot say what music is, but my very concern to convey it to you, will make you hear the music of my heart. diseas28

    I am using all climates, I am bringing all the possibilities to you. It has never happened before. Buddha created only one climate, one energy-field, Buddha-field. Mevlana Jalaludin Rumi created another, the Sufi-field. With Jalaludin only those gathered who were natural Sufis, with Buddha only those who were natural Buddhists.

    With me it is going to be totally different. This place is going to be the first place in the world, in the whole human history, where all climates will be available, all kinds of soils, all possibilities. So it is going to happen again and again, and you have to remember that you have to learn tolerance, sympathy. When something is not suiting you, just don't start condemning it--because if I am talking about it, it must be suiting somebody else. And I have to look to the needs of all.

    And those old kinds of special fields--the Buddha-field, the Sufi-field--cannot exist in this world now, because the earth has become so small. Countries are no more secluded; the world has become just a global village. We are so close to each other, and all the old barriers and boundaries are breaking on their own. Man has become more grown-up.

    So around me all kinds of people will be here. Jews are here, Mohammedans, Christians, Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Taoists--all kinds of people are here. People who believe in Yoga, people who believe in Tantra, people who believe in Zen, people who believe in Hassidism--they are here. And I have to nourish them all....

    I am going to go on speaking on all kinds of schools. And here, if you are a born Mohammedan, you have to disappear as a born Mohammedan. If you are a born Hindu, you have to disappear as a born Hindu. You have to find your natural qualities--because only nature grows. Birth is accidental, birth determines nothing. It was coincidence that you were born in a home where people were Hindus--it is as much a coincidence as if they belonged to a particular political party. If your parents were communists, you need not be a communist. If your parents were Catholics, you need not be a Catholic either.

    You have to search for your own path; each one has to search for his own path. I will make all the paths available to you, so you can see and feel. And when the right path happens you will immediately see great joy arising in you. That is indicative that shows that your climate has arrived, that this was the time you were waiting for, that this is your spring. easy208

    I am proclaiming a new religion--the essential religion. In Islam it is known as Sufism, in Buddhism it is known as Zen, in Judaism it is known as Hassidism--the essential core. But I speak your language, I speak the way you understand, the way you can understand. I speak-a very religionless language. I speak as if I am not religious at all. That's what is needed in this world. This twentieth century needs a religion completely free from all kinds of superstitions, utterly nude, naked.

    This century is trained in the ways of science, is trained very logically. Never before was any other human society so logically trained. I am talking about something which is basically illogical but I have to talk in a logical way. If you go to a Sufi he talks about the illogical in an illogical way. I talk about the illogical in a logical way. If you go to a Zen Master he simply talks in an illogical way. You will not be able to make a bridge between you and him. With me, the bridge is very easy. I go with you to take you with me further.

    First, I go with you. I make you perfectly happy that I am coming with you. Sooner or later you forget when things change and you start coming with me. I am ready to come into your valley--the darkest valley, wherever you are--I am ready to come into your unconscious cave...and in the way you want. I am ready to come there. Once I have entered there I can bring you out. That is the only meaning when I say, 'I proclaim a new religion.' sufis110

    I speak on Mahavir as a part of my duty--my heart is never with him. He is too mathematical. He is not a mystic, he has no poetry of being. He is great, enlightened, but like a vast desert; you cannot come across a single oasis in him. But because I was born a Jaina I have to pay some debts. I speak on him as my duty but my heart is not there; I speak only from the mind. When I speak on Mahavir I speak as an outsider. He is not inside me and I am not inside him.

    The same is true about Moses and Mohammed. I don't feel like speaking on them; I have not spoken on them. If I had not been born a Jaina I would never have spoken on Mahavir either. Many times my Mohammedan disciples or my Jewish disciples come to me and say, "Why don't you speak on Mohammed or Moses?" It is difficult to explain to them. Many times, just looking at their faces, I decide that I will speak; many times I look again and again into the words of Moses and Mohammed, then I again postpone it. No bell rings in my heart. It would not be alive--if I spoke it would be a dead thing. I don't even feel a duty towards them as I feel towards Mahavir.

    They all belong to the same category: they are too calculative, extremist; they miss the opposite extreme. They are single notes, not harmonies, not symphonies. A single note has its beauty--an austere beauty--but it is monotonous. Once in a while it is okay, but if it continues you feel bored; you would like to stop it. The personalities of Mahavir, Moses and Mohammed are like single notes--simple, austere, beautiful even, once in a while. But if I meet Mahavir, Moses or Mohammed on the road I will pay my respects and escape.

    I speak on Krishna. He is multi-dimensional, superhuman, miraculous, but seems to be more like a myth than a real man. He is so extraordinary that he cannot be. On this earth such extraordinary persons cannot exist--they exist only as dreams. And myths are nothing but collective dreams. The whole of humanity has been dreaming them...beautiful, but unbelievable. I talk about Krishna and I enjoy it, but I enjoy it as one enjoys a beautiful story and the telling of a beautiful story. But it is not very meaningful, a cosmic gossip.

    I speak on Jesus Christ. I feel deep sympathy for him. I would like to suffer with him and I would like to carry his cross a little while by his side. But we remain parallel, we never meet. He is so sad, so burdened--burdened with the miseries of the whole of humanity. He cannot laugh. If you move with him too long you will become sad, you will lose laughter. A gloominess surrounds him. I feel for him but I would not like to be like him. I can walk with him a little while and share his burden--but then we part. Our ways are different ways. He is good, but too good, almost inhumanly good.

    I speak on Zarathustra--very rarely, but I love the man as a friend loves another friend. You can laugh with him. He is not a moralist, not a puritan; he can enjoy life and everything that life gives. A good friend--you could be with him forever--but he is just a friend. Friendship is good, but not enough.

    I speak on Buddha--I love him. Down through the centuries, through many lives, I have loved him. He is tremendously beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful, superb. But he is not on the earth, he does not walk on the earth. He flies in the sky and leaves no footprints. You cannot follow him, you never know his whereabouts. He is like a cloud. Sometimes you meet him but that is accidental. And he is so refined that he cannot take roots on this earth. He is meant for some higher heaven. In that way he is one-sided. Earth and heaven don't meet in him; he is heavenly but the earthly part is missing; he is like a flame, beautiful, but there is no oil, no container--you can see the flame but it is going higher and higher, nothing holds it on the earth. I love him, I speak on him from my heart, but still, a distance remains. It always remains in the phenomenon of love--you come closer and closer and closer, but even in closeness there is a distance. That is the misery of all lovers.

    I speak on Lao Tzu totally differently. I am not related to him because even to be related a distance is needed. I don't love him, because how can you love yourself? When I speak on Lao Tzu I speak as if I am speaking on my own self. With him my being is totally one. When I speak on Lao Tzu it is as if I am looking in a mirror--my own face is reflected. When I speak on Lao Tzu, I am absolutely with him. Even to say "absolutely with him" is not true--I am him, he is me.

    Historians are doubtful about his existence. I cannot doubt his existence because how can I doubt my own existence? The moment I became possible, he became true to me. Even if history proves that he never existed it makes no difference to me; he must have existed because I exist--I am the proof. During the following days, when I speak on Lao Tzu, it is

    not that I speak on somebody else. I speak on myself--as if Lao Tzu is speaking through a different name, a different nama-rupa, a different incarnation....

    So Lao Tzu is just a spokesman of life. If life is absurd, Lao Tzu is absurd; if life has an absurd logic to it, Lao Tzu has the same logic to it. Lao Tzu simply reflects life. He doesn't add anything to it, he doesn't choose out of it; he simply accepts whatsoever it is....

    Remember this...I am not commenting on him. There exists no distance between me and him. He is talking to you through me--a different body, a different name, a different incarnation, but the same spirit. treas101

    It is said Buddha never laughed. And you can see Jesus...it is impossible that that face can laugh. Mahavira cannot laugh. There is only one man...and because of his laughter all the houses I have stayed in have been called Lao Tzu House. Lao Tzu is the only man who was born laughing. Every child is born crying. That is absolutely unique about Lao Tzu. There are many things in his life which are unique, but nothing to be compared with the fact that he was born laughing. Everybody was shocked. His mother and father could not believe it. Even a smile would have been too much, but he was laughing. And he remained a laughter all his life. chit21

    You say: So many times I can't understand your words because the sound of your words showers on me, your sound strikes me with energy, filling me, and as a shock, I feel in my spinal cord thrills, waves and vibrations. Should I be carefully aware for the meaning of your words?

    Then there is no need to be careful about the meaning of the words; that will be a disturbance. If you feel in tune with my sound, there is the meaning. If you feel you are being showered with a new energy, if you feel thrilled, pulsating in a new way you never knew before, if you feel a sort of new dimension arising in your being because of the sound of my words, then forget all about me. Then there is no need; you have got the meaning already. That showering is the meaning, that thrill in the spine is the meaning, that vibration that cleanses you is the meaning. Then there is no need to worry about the ordinary meaning of the words. Then you are getting a higher meaning, then you are reaching a higher altitude of meaning. Then you are really getting the content and not the container. The meaning of my words is just the container.

    If this is happening to you, then my words are no longer words to you; they have become existential. Then they are alive, then they have become a transfer. Then something is transpiring between my energy and your energy. Then there is happening something like what Bauls call love.

    Allow it. Forget all about the words and their meaning. Leave it for foolish people who only collect words and are never in contact with the content. The words are just like shells: hidden behind them, I am sending you great messages. Those messages cannot be understood by the intellect, those messages have to be decoded by your total being. That

    is what is happening--the vibration, the pulsation, the thrill, the showering of a new energy--your total being is decoding. This is real listening. This is really to be in contact with me, to be in my presence....

    When I talk to you my words are like caged eagles; my words are in a prison. If you really listen to me, you will drop the cage and you will release the eagle. That is what is happening...the thrill. Then the freedom is released; then you become the eagle--and higher and higher you rise. The earth is left very far behind. You can forget all about it. The ordinary is left very far behind. The shell is left, the container is left, and you have the whole sky open to you; you, your wings, and the sky, and there is no end to it. The eternal pilgrimage has started.

    Forget all about words and their meanings, otherwise you will be more concerned with the cage and you will not be able to release the eagle within you. belov110

    I have never spoken except in utter silence. You know, for years you have heard me. You know the silence in Buddha Hall. Only in that silence. Your English phrase is meaningful: that the silence is so profound that you can hear even a needle drop on the floor. So I know, but I am just accustomed to silence. glimps18

    In August 1974, Osho comments on the sayings of Jesus from The Gospel According to St.Thomas. These discourses, published under the title The Mustard Seed, become one of Osho's most famous and best selling books, and attract the interest of many Christians around the world.

    The four gospels of Jesus are recorded after his death, and not immediately, three hundred years afterwards. Now nobody was a witness; all the witnesses were dead. And these gospels were recorded by people who had not seen Jesus. They had not even seen Jerusalem. Now biblical research scholars have found that even the geography that they have mentioned in the four gospels is wrong. These people have never been to Israel. They have heard from others, who have heard from others, who have heard from others.

    That's why I have spoken on Thomas's gospel which was written in India. He was a direct disciple of Jesus, but his gospel is not included in the Holy Bible. It was discovered just thirty years ago, but it is the most beautiful because at least Thomas was a witness. And it has tremendous beauty because it is not only that he was a witness to Jesus, here in India he went through a transformation.

    He meditated, he practiced yoga, he lived like a sannyasin and moved from monastery to monastery. Buddha's air was still there. Buddha was gone five hundred years before that, but his fragrance was still alive. So in his gospel there is a certain authority which is lacking in the four gospels of the Bible. First he was a witness, he had heard Jesus, and secondly he himself had experienced the truth. The combination of both, gives a greater authority to the fifth gospel of Thomas than The Holy Bible. celebr02

    When I spoke on the gospel of Thomas, I received many letters from Christians: "What is the need of commenting on it? What Thomas has said is enough, clear enough." Certainly

    it is clear enough, because Thomas was also an uneducated man; he has ideas that are not very complex, that can be explained. But if I want to make something complex out of something simple, I can. That is not difficult. And when they heard me on Thomas, then they started writing letters to me: "We had never known that this is the meaning of Thomas."

    It has nothing to do with Thomas, it is simply my meaning. It is my gun on poor Thomas' shoulder. I am using him as a jumping board; and I have used all these people as jumping boards. I don't say that what I have said is their meaning--how can it be? I have come twenty-five centuries after Buddha; how can it be? Twenty-five centuries have not gone by uselessly. So when I speak on Buddha, it is not the meaning of Buddha, it is my meaning. I am using his words and putting my meaning into his words. This has been a continuity in India that makes for a tremendous development of ideas. unconc21

    I don't want you to become Christians--that is useless, that is a lie. I would like you to become Christs. And you can become Christs. seeds21

    Osho creates New Meditations

    From August 1974 to August 1975 Osho develops several new one-hour meditations, which continue to be the basis of the ashram daily program today, together with Dynamic Meditation and Whirling. These include Kundalini, Nataraj, Nadabrahma, Gourishankar, Vipassana, Devavani, Mandala; instructions for these are given. He introduces many personal meditations, which become well-known through The Orange Book, and later through the book Meditation: The first and Last Freedom.

    The ancient methods of meditation were all developed in the East. They never considered the Western man. I am creating techniques which are not only for the Eastern man, but which are simply for every man--Eastern or Western. light16

    Meditation was not something arduous or difficult, but to the Western mind or even to the Eastern mind today--which is absolutely overtaken by the Western ideology--watching the mind is not an easy job. So much garbage and so much crap has been forced into the mind that you go almost crazy just watching it. It is a film which begins, but never ends. You can go on watching day in, day out, year in, year out and the mind is always ready to supply new images, new dreams.

    It is because of this I had to create a few other devices--Dynamic, Kundalini, and others-- before you could enter into a silent witnessing meditation like Vipassana. I have made devices to help you cathart, throw out your garbage rather than waste time in watching it. chit03

    Kundalini Meditation

    This is the much-loved sister meditation of Dynamic Meditation. It consists of four stages of 15 minutes each.

    First stage: 15 minutes

    Be loose and let your whole body shake, feeling the energies moving up from your feet. Let go everywhere and become the shaking. Your eyes may be opened or closed.

    Second stage: 15 minutes

    Dance...any way you feel, and let the whole body move as it wishes.

    Third stage: 15 minutes

    Close your eyes and be still, sitting or standing...witnessing whatever is happening inside and out.

    Fourth stage: 15 minutes

    Keeping your eyes closed, lie down and be still. Medfre03

    If you are doing the Kundalini Meditation, then allow the shaking, don't do it. Stand silently, feel it coming and when your body starts a little trembling, help it but don't do it. Enjoy it, feel blissful about it, allow it, receive it, welcome it, but don't will it.

    If you force it, it will become an exercise, a bodily physical exercise. Then the shaking will be there but just on the surface, it will not penetrate you. You will remain solid, stone-like, rock-like within; you will remain the manipulator, the doer, and the body will just be following. The body is not the question--you are the question.

    When I say shake, I mean your solidity, your rock-like being should shake to the very foundations so that it becomes liquid, fluid, melts, flows. And when the rock-like being becomes liquid, your body will follow. Then there is no shaker, only shaking. Then nobody is doing it, it is simply happening. Then the doer is not. hsin02

    These are not really meditations. You are just getting in tune. It is like...if you have seen Indian classical musicians playing...for half an hour, or sometimes even more, they simply go on fixing their instruments. They will move their knobs, they will make the strings tight or loose, and the drum player will go on checking his drum--whether it is perfect or not. For half an hour they go on doing this. This is not music, this is just preparation.

    Kundalini is not really meditation. It is just preparation. You are preparing your instrument. When it is ready, then you stand in silence, then meditation starts. Then you are utterly there. You have woken yourself up by jumping, by dancing, by breathing, by shouting--these are all devices to make you a little more alert than you ordinarily are.

    Once you are alert, then the waiting. Waiting is meditation. Waiting with full awareness. And then it comes, it descends on you, it surrounds you, it plays around you, it dances around you, it cleanses you, it purifies you, it transforms you. isay206

    Nataraj Meditation

    Nataraj is dance as a total meditation. There are three stages, lasting a total of 65 minutes.

    Let the dance flow in its own way; don't force it. Rather, follow it; allow it to happen. It is not a doing but a happening. Remain in the mood of festivity. You are not doing something very serious; you are just playing, playing with your life-energy, playing with your bio-energy, allowing it to move in its own way. Just like the wind blows and the river flows--you are flowing and blowing. Feel it.

    And be playful. Remember this word 'playful' always--with me, it is very basic. In this country we call creation God's leela--God's play. God has not created the world; it is his play.

    First stage: 40 minutes

    With eyes closed dance as if possessed. Let your unconscious take over completely. Do not control your movements or be a witness to what is happening. Just be totally in the dance.

    Second stage: 20 minutes

    Keeping your eyes closed, lie down immediately. Be silent and still.

    Third stage: 5 minutes

    Dance in celebration and enjoy. medfre03

    There is nothing better than dance for dropping the ego; hence I insist that all meditators should dance. Because if you go really in a whirlwind, if you are really a whirling pool of energy, if you really are in the dance, the dancer is lost. In the dance the dancer is always lost. If it is not lost then you are not dancing. Then you may be performing, then you may be manipulating, then you may be doing some bodily exercises, but you are not dancing.

    Dancing means so lost, so drunk--and enjoying the energy that is created by dance. By and by you will see your body is no more so solid as it was before. By and by you will see that you are melting; the boundary is losing its sharpness, it is becoming a little vague. You cannot exactly feel where you end and where the world starts. A dancer is in such a whirlpool, he becomes such a vibration, that the whole life is felt as in one rhythm. trans208

    Nadabrahma Meditation

    Nadabrahma is an old Tibetan technique which was originally done in the early hours of the morning. It can be done at any time of the day, alone or with others, but have an empty stomach and remain inactive for at least 15 minutes afterwards. The meditation lasts an hour, and there are three stages.

    First stage: 30 minutes

    Sit in a relaxed position with eyes closed and lips together. Start humming, loudly enough to be heard by others and create a vibration throughout your body. You can visualize a hollow tube or an empty vessel, filled only with the vibrations of the humming. A point will come when the humming continues by itself and you become the listener. There is no special breathing and you can alter the pitch or move your body smoothly and slowly if you feel it.

    Second stage: 15 minutes

    The second stage is divided into two 7½ minute sections. For the first half, move the hands, palms up, in an outward circular motion. Starting at the navel, both hands move forwards and then divide to make two large circles mirroring each other left and right. The movement should be so slow that at times there will appear to be no movement at all. Feel that you are giving energy outwards to the universe.

    After 7½ minutes turn the hands, palms down, and start moving them in the opposite direction. Now the hands will come together towards the navel and divide outwards to the sides of the body. Feel that you are taking energy in. As in the first stage, don't inhibit any soft, slow movements of the rest of your body.

    Third stage: 15 minutes

    Sit or lie absolutely quiet and still. medfre08

    Gourishankar Meditation

    This technique consists of four stages of 15 minutes each. The first two stages prepare the meditator for the spontaneous Latihan of the third stage. Osho has said that if the breathing is done correctly in the first stage the carbon dioxide formed in the bloodstream will make you feel as high as Gourishankar (Mount Everest).

    First stage: 15 minutes

    Sit with closed eyes. Inhale deeply through the nose, filling the lungs. Hold the breath for as long as possible, then exhale gently through the mouth and keep the lungs empty for as long as possible. Continue this breathing cycle throughout the first stage.

    Second stage: 15 minutes

    Return to normal breathing and with a gentle gaze look at a candle flame or a flashing blue light. Keep your body still.

    Third stage: 15 minutes

    With closed eyes, stand up and let your body be loose and receptive. The subtle energies will be felt to move the body outside your normal control. Allow this Latihan to happen. Don't you do the moving: let moving happen, gently and gracefully.

    Fourth stage: 15 minutes

    Lie down with closed eyes, silent and still. The first three stages should be accompanied by a steady rhythmic beat, preferably combined with a soothing background music. The beat should be seven times the normal heartbeat and, if possible, the flashing light should be a synchronized strobe. Medfre10

    I have created so many mad kinds of meditations that you can be both together--mad and meditators! Slowly slowly meditation is bound to win over.

    You have asked, "Osho, I have three questions to ask you. How did you discover Kundalini meditation?"--the first question. Simple: Meditating down by the river upon a hill of red ants!

    And second: "And Dynamic?" That is even more simple; it was almost impossible not to discover it. I came upon it driving on Indian roads in Indian cars!

    And third: "And what about Nadabrahma?" Hm! inzen07

    Vipassana Meditation

    Vipassana is the meditation that has made more people in the world enlightened than any other, because it is the very essence. All other meditations have the same essence, but in different forms; something non-essential is also joined with them. But vipassana is pure essence. You cannot drop anything out of it and you cannot add anything to improve it.

    Vipassana is such a simple thing that even a small child can do it. In fact, the smallest child can do it better than you, because he is not yet filled with the garbage of the mind; he is still clean and innocent.

    Vipassana can be done in three ways--you can choose which one suits you the best.

    The first is: awareness of your actions, your body, your mind, your heart. Walking, you should walk with awareness. Moving your hand, you should move with awareness, knowing perfectly that you are moving the hand. You can move it without any

    consciousness, like a mechanical thing...you are on a morning walk; you can go on walking without being aware of your feet.

    Be alert of the movements of your body. While eating, be alert to the movements that are needed for eating. Taking a shower, be alert to the coolness that is coming to you, the water falling on you and the tremendous joy of it--just be alert. It should not go on happening in an unconscious state.

    And the same about your mind. Whatever thought passes on the screen of your mind, just be a watcher. Whatever emotion passes on the screen of your heart, just remain a witness- -don't get involved, don't get identified, don't evaluate what is good, what is bad; that is not part of your meditation.

    The second form is: breathing, becoming aware of breathing. As the breath goes in, your belly starts rising up, and as the breath goes out, your belly starts settling down again. So the second method is to be aware of the belly: its rising and falling. Just the very awareness of the belly rising and falling...and the belly is very close to the life sources because the child is joined with the mother's life through the navel. Behind the navel is his life's source. So, when the belly rises up, it is really the life-energy, the spring of life that is rising up and falling down with each breath. That too is not difficult, and perhaps may be even easier because it is a single technique.

    In the first, you have to be aware of the body, you have to be aware of the mind, you have to be aware of your emotions, moods. So it has three steps. The second approach has a single step: just the belly, moving up and down. And the result is the same. As you become more aware of the belly, the mind becomes silent, the heart becomes silent, the moods disappear.

    And the third is: to be aware of the breath at the entrance, when the breath goes in through your nostrils. Feel it at that extreme--the other polarity from the belly--feel it from the nose. The breath going in gives a certain coolness to your nostrils. Then the breath going out...breath going in, breath going out....

    These are the three forms. Any one will do. And if you want to do two forms together, you can do two forms together; then the effort will become more intense. If you want to do all three forms together, you can do all three forms together. Then the possibilities will be quicker. But it all depends on you, whatever feels easy. Remember: easy is right.

    As meditation becomes settled and mind silent, the ego will disappear. You will be there, but there will be no feeling of 'I'. Then the doors are open.

    Just wait with a loving longing, with a welcome in the heart for that great moment--the greatest moment in anybody's life--of enlightenment. It comes...it certainly comes. It has never delayed for a single moment. Once you are in the right tuning, it suddenly explodes in you, transforms you. The old man is dead and the new man has arrived. dawn16

    If you can do something with the breath, you will suddenly turn to the present. If you can do something with breath, you will attain to the source of life. If you can do something with breath, you can transcend time and space. If you can do something with breath, you will be in the world and also beyond it. vbt103

    Devavani Meditation

    Eyes remain closed for the whole meditaiton.

    First stage: 15 minutes

    Sit quietly with music playing.

    Second stage: 15 minutes

    Make nonsense sounds, for example "la…la…la," until unfamiliar word-like sounds arise. Allow an unknown language to speak through you in a gentle conversational way, do not cry or shout, laugh or scream.

    Third stage: 15 minutes

    Stand up and continue to speak, allowing your body to move softly with the sounds. If your body is relaxed, the subtle energies will move your body outside of your control.

    Fourth stage: 15 mintues

    Lie down; be silent and still.

    Mandala Meditation

    First stage: 15 minutes

    With open eyes run on the spot. Bring your knees up as high as possible. Breath deeply. Keep going.

    Second stage: 15 minutes

    Sit with your eyes closed and mouth open and loose. Gently rotate your body from the waist like a reed blowing in the wind.

    Third stage: 15 minutes

    Lie on your back, open your eyes and with the head still, rotate them in a clockwise direction. Let your eyes turn fully around in the sockets. The mouth remains open and the jaw relaxed with the breath soft and even.

    Fourth stage: 15 minutes

    Close your eyes and be still

    Music for meditation

    Chaitanya Hari, who composes and plays the music for Osho's meditations, asks: Is the music also a sort of ocean?

    It is because it simply gives you a totally different dimension. Many dimensions are available. For example when you are listening to me you are part of a totally different dimension--you become part of me. Then you start feeling my vibe. Then you start moving with me--howsoever reluctantly. Even a few steps--but you move in a different dimension.

    Music is a different dimension. You can be completely drowned in it. you can become drunk with it. It is a great therapy, and it can make you whole and healthy and holy. It is meditation, and a very natural meditation.

    [Osho says that just as physics says that everything is made of electrons, the eastern esoteric sciences say that everything is made of sound--not of electricity.]

    Music was born originally out of meditation, because in deep meditation one starts feeling the cosmic sound: 'omkar'--what the Zen people call 'the sound of one hand clapping'. It is not a produced sound. When two hands clap, it is a produced sound. When one hand creates the sound, without any clapping really--because there is nothing else to clap with--when the sound comes out of oneness, unity, unison, then it is natural. the cosmic sound.

    It is always there. When you become silent, you hear it. When you have too much noise in your head, you cannot hear it. Not that it is not there. It is always there, but you are not there. Your own noise, your own fussing mind, goes on creating such barriers that the still, small voice cannot be heard. Out of that original sound, music has been created.

    In the East we say that all music is an effort to bring that cosmic sound to be. That's why there is spirituality in Indian music. a new sensitivity which is nowhere to be found. In the western music there is too much sexuality, it is too sensuous. In the Indian music there is too much spirituality--it is not sensuous at all. It silences you, calms you down, cools you, and brings a breeze from the eternal. the breath of the eternal. It is an effort to give you an indication of the cosmic sound.

    It is just as when I am talking to you. My whole effort in talking is to bring you something that cannot be talked about...to say something that cannot be said. to bring to words something which is wordless. to define something which cannot be defined and is immeasurable. In the same way, music is an effort to say something about the cosmic sound.

    The greatest master is one, listening to whom you naturally fall into meditation: that is the criterion of a real musician, a real master--otherwise people are technicians. One can play the sitar beautifully and you can enjoy it--it's good, an enjoyment.

    But a person becomes a master when his created sound brings you something of the uncreated...when his created sound has a gospel in it...side by side comes the unknown...travelling with the sound comes the soundless. The sound you will forget, but the soundless will remain with you.

    Music is born out of meditation, and so is dance. In fact all that is beautiful has come out of meditation because there is no other way for it to come. Meditation is the door.

    Drown yourself in music--and don't practise it just like an art and a skill. Practise it like a meditation, practise it religiously. It is the holiest of holies. greatn08

    I am creating a situation here. This is an Alchemical field. This is not an ordinary ashram. This is a scientific lab. People are being transformed. People are moving into new dimensions, taking quantum leaps, arriving into new spaces. You cannot watch these things from the outside. perf203

    Darshans: intimate talks between Osho and his disciples

    Osho holds darshans at 7pm each evening for 1-2 hours. During darshan, Osho initiates new sannyasins from all over the world, gives personal meditations, answers questions, advises on problems, and checks people's energy. For the first time, Osho's intimate talks with his disciples are published.*

    *Note: the main accusation against so-called cults and sects, is that they control, enslave, and exploit credulous young people, divide families, kidnap children, etc. So this section of personal guidance from Osho is given in some detail to show how, as a spiritual master, Osho guides seekers who come to him.

    Darshan: About Sannyas

    The following is an example of Osho initiating a new sannyasin:

    Come a little closer and close your eyes. You pray inside, and if something happens in the body, allow it, whatsoever it is. If any movement comes in the body, energy starts waving in the body, or if you become like a small leaf in a strong wind, just pray and allow it.

    Osho writes her sannyas name carefully in the silence. He places the mala around her neck, touches her third eye (between the eyebrows) and shows her name-paper saying:

    Now I am going to be with you. This will be your new name: Ma Anand Tushita. Tushita means paradise and anand means bliss. wobble21

    Sometimes Osho explains the significance of the new name to an initiate:

    Chidambara is one of the most beautiful names in India. It means sky of consciousness, expansion of consciousness. So get in tune with this new name. It will mean the sky of love and consciousness. That is the goal of the whole of humanity and they both come together.

    When you love, you become more conscious. If you become more conscious, you love more. Love is the only religion... cypres06

    I insist for sannyas, because after someone has taken sannyas he is showing a great gesture of affirmation, of surrender, of yea-saying, of receptivity. By the very gesture of sannyas he has become different. The same person will take things in a totally different perspective now. He will be less resistant, more cooperative, and he will feel more responsibility. So it is going to be different.

    And then it becomes a family. If these twenty or thirty people (indicating the group before him) come in a group, just separately, then they are seeking their own ends and the group is just like a crowd waiting at the airport for a plane to arrive. There are thirty people sitting together but there is no inter-connecting link. They are all separate and it is just a jumbled-up crowd.

    But when everybody is a sannyasin they are not a crowd, they are a group. That is the difference between a crowd and a group. A group is where each individual is related to the other in some way or other--a river flows there and you are all in the same boat. You are not seeking your goal, and the other is not seeking his--you are all seeking a common goal. It is not competitive, it is cooperative.

    There is a vast difference--a family feeling of belonging to one goal; that you have a certain identity. It becomes a family, a community. A community or a family functions differently. The energy is multiplied and each person's change will affect all. If one changes in a crowd, then only one changes. A crowd remains aloof, because each is an island in himself, not related to anybody else. In a family--and sannyas is a family--one changes, one goes higher, and he is related to others, so others are pulled up. It is an unknown force. By and by you will start feeling that when one member changes, everybody goes higher; everybody has become more confident, less resistant. One person's realisation of any insight is shared. It is a very unconscious process, but by and by, working with people you will become aware.

    I have been talking to many types of gatherings. I have talked to crowds where each person is listening to me but there is no inter-relationship between the people. So it is as if I am talking to one person. There may be ten thousand people sitting there but I am

    talking to one person, because each person is one; there is no inter-link. That gave me the idea that this wouldn't do.

    Then I started creating a family. Now, when I talk to you, it is not that I am talking to one person; I am talking to a family. And I can see--it is so visible--that one person starts feeling high and suddenly the whole group feels the vibrations. One person starts smiling and suddenly the smile spreads; its ripples reach everybody. I can see that if there is someone sitting there who is not a sannyasin he becomes like an obstacle; the flow stops there. He is not part of the whole.

    So this is going to be totally different. And these are the implications of sannyas, but one only becomes aware by and by. hammer11

    My whole approach is to help you to be yourself. By becoming a sannyasin you are not becoming a follower, but a friend. You are not becoming dependent on me; on the contrary, I will destroy all kinds of dependencies in you. If there is anything worth giving as a gift, it is freedom. By initiating you into sannyas I am initiating you into total freedom. That's the very taste of sannyas: freedom. The very texture of sannyas: freedom. upset16

    A sannyasin asks Osho: Why am I wearing an image which is a symbol of you as a mala?

    This will have to be understood.

    What is an image? An image represents something. If you understand that it represents something, that it is not the thing represented, then there is no problem. The moment you forget that it represents something and it becomes that something itself, then the problem arises. For example, you see a milestone. On the milestone is written Delhi, and an arrow towards Delhi--50 miles. That milestone is not Delhi, although Delhi is written on it. That milestone is simply saying, "Go ahead. Delhi is fifty miles ahead." If the statue in the temple is just a milestone, there is no problem. If you think it is God, then the problem arises.

    The mala around your neck is not me! If you understand that--that it simply represents me, it is a symbol, a metaphor--then there is no problem. If you forget that and you start talking with the mala, and you start listening to the mala, and you forget all about me-- because then there is no need to come here; if you have the mala you have me--then you have fallen into a trap. You have become an idolator. Then you are getting into a very, very neurotic state. The symbol has become truth itself....

    The picture on the mala is not me; please don't pinch it! It is simply a representative. And it helps, because you are so unaware. It reminds you.

    So is the orange color: just to remind you again and again. Wherever you go people look at you with a shock--their shock reminds you that you are in orange, that you are a sannyasin. You were just going to say something, or hit somebody, and you see your

    orange and something stops exactly in the middle. You feel frozen. A great awareness has happened in that moment--of that old rotten habit of saying something ugly, that what you are doing is stupid. You were just going to say it and suddenly, the remembrance. The mala comes in between, or the orange. And those small moments of remembrance can be of great transformation. This is not idolatry.

    Idolatry is when you keep my picture and you worship it, and you are finished with it. Idolatry is worship without being in any way involved in the process of transformation. If an image can help to remind you about yourself, it is not idolatry. sands109

    A sannyasin says: I've been feeling a little perverse towards sannyas so I thought it best to say so...

    Mm, it can come. This idea can come. But always remember one thing: I am here to help you to be more free. If at any moment you feel that sannyas is becoming a burden to you, heavy, and if rather than being a help it is hindering you, then drop out of it--and with no guilt. I am the last person to create any guilt in anybody.

    Meditate over it. If you feel that it has become a confinement to you and you would be more free without sannyas, then I am always for freedom. Knowing well that you are wrong, still I am always for freedom--even if it is illusory.

    The sannyasin says: I don't want to drop sannyas, but I feel a need to fight against it, rather like a fish on a line.

    [chuckling] Mm! That you can do. Whenever you feel like fighting against me, you can do it. You can start with my blessings; that's not a problem, Anything that helps you grow and that you feel will give you more maturity--even if it is fighting against me--is good. And don't think in terms of your being a renegade or betraying me. Even if you want to be a Judas, be one.

    Remember only one thing--that whatsoever gives you happiness and growth is good. It is nobody else's business to interfere....

    So if sometimes you feel like fighting, fight. Don't repress it. If sometimes you feel like betraying, betray. Don't be worried about it. I am not here to create any sort of worry and anxiety in you. Whatsoever you feel good is good. Go into it. Go wholeheartedly and headlong so that whatsoever happens will help you. If it is a wrong thing, you will come out of it wiser. If it is a right thing, you will come out of it still wiser, so nothing is lost. In the total reckoning, the final reckoning, nothing is lost. Even going astray is part of following a path.

    So it is going to happen many times to many people that they will want to go away from me. Perfectly good. Sometimes you need your own space. To be near me becomes a heavy thing. So be here only when you want to be, otherwise go away. You should have your own space.

    And my sannyas is nothing else but an effort to give you the courage to have your own space. If someday you feel that this sannyas has become a bondage and you are burdened, drop out of it. And never think that you cannot do that because I have given it to you with such love; don't be worried about it. I can take it back with the same love.

    But I am the last person to make you feel guilty for anything. So if you are a sannyasin, it is your choice. If you are not a sannyasin, it is your choice. My blessings are unconditional. Whatsoever you are--a sannyasin or a non-sannyasin--makes no difference....

    And always remember that my suggestions are not commandments. The final decision has to be arrived at by you. Then too don't think that you are not following me or my advice. This is simply advice. It was never meant to be followed. The decision has to be taken by you.

    So my sannyasins remain absolutely free with me. Your relationship with me is of two free persons. I am not occupying your space. Whatsoever I say has to be pondered over by you, and the final decision has to be yours. Even if you decide to follow me, remember it is your decision. You can never blame me. I am not responsible.

    You cannot ever blame me. That's the beauty of giving freedom to people--they cannot blame you! So you think about it, mm? Good. roseis07

    A sannyasin, who is leaving, says she had met another group whom she trusted totally.

    So wherever your trust is be there. If your trust is not with me, then why waste my time and your time?

    I want to weed out people. I am in a hurry, and I want only those who are really with me so I can work on them. I have something to communicate to people; once they are ready it can be communicated. People like you will not be ready, or it will take so long that by the time you are ready I will be gone.

    So the best logical course is: you drop sannyas; and wherever your trust is, be totally there, maybe that's where you are to grow. And if some day you can be here with total trust, the doors are open; the doors are not closed for you.

    This may be the right way. A few people are like that: they cannot catch hold of the door directly; they go round about. You may be one of them. So before you go, leave sannyas. And there is no problem in leaving it. Sannyas is given happily and taken back more happily, because my boat is already too full, and I would like a few people to disappear.

    Those who are half-hearted, their being with me is just useless: it is useless for the work, it is useless for you, because you remain divided.

    And whenever you leave sannyas I am not angry, I am not in any way disappointed in you. Leave sannyas with all my blessings. My love remains the same; your being a sannyasin or not being a sannyasin makes no difference. But leaving sannyas will be helpful at this stage; you will be clear and at least you will not be divided. And whenever you feel that you can be totally here, totally with me, you are welcome; you can come. join18

    Darshan: Osho gives Personal Meditations

    A sannyasin, whose child has died, says she feels a sense of emptiness in her stomach. Osho suggests she fill the emptiness with meditation, with god...

    Do one small exercise from tonight, mm? Sit--the way you are sitting is okay (she is sitting with her legs folded under her). Just sit this way and first start feeling that emptiness in the stomach, mm?

    Then start feeling that it is coming up; that emptiness like a vacuum is coming up, a bubble of vacuum is coming up. Slowly, slowly, feel it and bring it up, and let it come to the crown of the head. Then suddenly feel that when it comes to the crown of the head, the crown opens and there is a hole. From that hole feel that the emptiness is going out.

    And when you feel this hole has come into your imagination, exhale deeply, and with the exhalation feel that you are exhaling from the hole also--not only from the nose and the mouth, but from the hole also. And with that air and exhalation feel that the emptiness is being-taken out, thrown out.

    When you inhale, feel that a great light is entering from the hole and you are inhaling light, streams of light...just like foam, light is going into you. When you exhale, feel emptiness going out; when you inhale, feel light coming in. Do this for at least ten to fifteen minutes and then go to sleep. Do it for one month and then you tell me how you are feeling.

    That emptiness will disappear and instead of emptiness you will start feeling full of light. You will start feeling that not only is the light inside, but that it surrounds your body. And that light will change many things. It will bring a radiance, a joy, a quality of dance around you. thisis12

    A sannyasin asks: When I am working in the town, by the end of the week I feel very tired. Sometimes I can't even stand. What can I do?

    I understand. Do one thing. Every night before you go to sleep, just sit in the bed and imagine an aura around your body, just six inches away from your body, the same shape

    as the body, surrounding you, protecting you. It will become a shield. Just do it for four, five minutes, and then, still feeling it, go to sleep. Fall into sleep imagining that aura like a blanket around you which protects you so that no tension can enter from the outside, no thought can enter from the outside; no outside vibrations can enter you. Just feeling that aura, fall asleep.

    This has to be done the last thing at night. After it, simply go to sleep so the feeling continues in your unconscious. That is the whole thing. The whole mechanism is that you start by consciously imagining, then you start falling asleep. By and by when you are on the threshold of sleep, a little imagination continues, lingers on. You fall asleep but that little imagination enters the unconscious. That becomes a tremendous force and energy.

    I don't see that the problem is within you. The problem is coming from the outside. You don't have a protective aura. It happens to many people, because we don't know how to protect ourselves from others. Others are not only there--they are broadcasting their being continuously in subtle vibrations. If a tense person passes by you, he is simply throwing arrows of tension all around--not particularly addressed to you; he is simply throwing. And he is unconscious; he is not doing it to anybody knowingly. He has to throw it because he is too burdened. He will go mad if he doesn't throw it. It is not that he has decided to throw it. It is overflowing. It is too much and he cannot contain it, so it goes on overflowing.

    Somebody passes by you and he goes on throwing something at you. If you are receptive and you don't have a protective aura. And meditation makes one receptive, very receptive, so when you are alone, it is good; when you are surrounded by meditative people, very good. But when you are in the world, in the marketplace, and people are not meditative but are very tense, anxious, have a thousand and one strains on their mind, then you just start getting them.

    And you are vulnerable; meditation makes one very soft, so whatsoever comes, enters. After meditation one has to create a protective aura. Sometimes it happens automatically, sometimes it doesn't. It is not happening automatically to you, so you have to work for it. It will be coming within three months. Any time between three weeks and three months, you will start feeling very very powerful. So in the night, fall asleep thinking this way.

    In the morning the first thought has to be again this. The moment you remember that now sleep is gone, don't open your eyes. Just feel your aura all over the body protecting you. Do it for four, five minutes again, and then get up. When you are taking your bath and your tea, go on remembering it. Then in the daytime also whenever you feel you have time--sitting in a car or a train, or in the office doing nothing--just again relax into it. For a single moment feel it again.

    Between three weeks and three months you will start feeling it almost like a solid thing. It will surround you and you will be able to feel that you can now pass amidst a crowd and you will remain unaffected, untouched. dance24

    Darshan: About Meditation

    A sannyasin says: I keep falling into all kinds of black holes and feel a lot of fear in me.

    These holes that you are feeling, black holes, you have been avoiding for a long time. They are there, and when you remain occupied, intensely occupied, you need not encounter them, but when you are unoccupied you are bound to encounter them.

    This time don't repress them. When they come, make it a point to go into that deep darkness, into that black hole. And if you allow yourself to go into a black hole it becomes a white hole. It all depends on your going or not going. Whatsoever you avoid becomes your enemy and whatsoever you accept totally becomes your friend. Black holes can easily be transformed into white holes.

    Now even physicists have discovered this phenomenon, that what is thought to be a black hole is only one side of the phenomenon; the other side is a white hole. This is a very new hypothesis that is becoming more and more significant every day.

    When for the first time black holes were contemplated on, discovered, it was very frightening. In a black hole everything collapses. That's what the astronomers say, that if the earth goes into a black hole it will simply collapse and disappear. A black hole is the greatest destructive force possible in existence, and once anything enters it, it cannot come out. It reduces everything to nothing. But soon astronomers became aware of another phenomenon, that from the other side it is the white hole--because every destructive energy is bound to have a creative aspect to it; the other side of the coin. So if the earth enters a black hole and collapses, disappears, this is a death; but from the other side the earth will appear again, fresh, young, revitalised--a resurrection. So each black hole is also a white hole, even in the world of physics.

    As far as my experience goes about human consciousness this is absolutely true. I don't know whether in physics it is true or still only a hypothesis, but the experience of human consciousness is absolutely clear about it. If you avoid something it becomes a black hole, it becomes destructive. Because you don't want to face it, and you have to face it sometimes, it is a very shattering experience when you have to face it. It impinges upon you with vengeance and you start avoiding it again; in that very avoiding you are creating it.

    This time don't avoid it. Go into it, disappear into it, let it overpower you, and from the other side you will come out resurrected. And then you will wait for the black holes to come, because now you know that each black hole has a silver lining to it and if you can go into it, it is tremendously creative. It is chaos from one side and cosmos from another side.

    Once you have learned it, then it is a joy to be crucified. If resurrection is certain, it is a joy to be crucified. You get rid of all that is rotten and you come out fresh, young, and innocent. Try it! This time don't avoid it. tunein24

    A sannyasin says: There is a place where my mind explodes inside. It implodes towards the centre and it is not very nice, because to explode is better.

    No, both are good and both are part of one rhythm. Explosion and implosion are just like in-breathing and out-breathing. Both are good. And the deeper your implosion will go, the bigger will be the explosion.

    Nothing can exist alone. The opposite is needed. So your mind is imploding and you are converging on your centre; allow it totally so you become just like a seed. Become smaller and smaller and smaller, just like a seed. That is what is happening to the tree. When the seeds come to the tree, what is happening? The tree is imploding. So it becomes smaller and smaller and smaller and then the seed will fall into the earth and then explode. Again the tree will arise.

    So the whole life is a rhythm between explosion and implosion. You breathe in. If you take deep breaths, if you inhale well, you exhale well. Then again you inhale. Every inhalation will help exhalation. Every exhalation will help inhalation. These are two polarities but complementary and helpful to each other. So don't be afraid of it. When it is happening, allow it. Soon you will see that the explosion will be happening.

    There are very few people to whom implosion happens so easily as it is happening to you. Explosion is easier to people because more people are extroverts, outgoing. Ingoing people are rare. Feel happy...you are a rare type; you may be a very rare type. People come and are very worried about their explosions; they want to implode. They want to go to the centre but they cannot. The more they try, the more they go outside somewhere. They never come home.

    So don't create trouble. It is good. Enjoy it and help it to go as deep as possible. myhart22

    Darshan: About Astral Projection

    A sannyasin says: Sometimes when I go to sleep and I lie on my back, I can feel something moving in my body. It's not my body...it feels like energy.

    Mm mm, it is energy--so help it to move, and don't stop it. Wherever it goes, you simply follow. Simply become the shadow and let it become the real; it is your real energy. So just help it to move.

    You may be scared in the beginning because it can go away from the body, and that is very scaring. Once you become attuned to it, it has a beauty of its own. Nothing can be compared to it--sexual orgasm is nothing. It gives you such a deep orgasm...the whole body thrills with bliss.

    If you follow it silently, without resistance, it will move away, and you may be able to see your own body lying on the bed--and you are standing near the door. You may be able to hover over your bed like a cloud. Don't be afraid. Enjoy it...it is perfectly good.

    When you come back to the body you will have a thrill. Leaving the body and coming back again, you will have a thrill, and the thrill is deeper than any sexual orgasm.

    In fact in sexual orgasm the same thing happens. Because of the female energy, your male energy is attracted so deeply that it leaves your body for a few seconds. It is not only an ejaculation of semen--it is an ejaculation of you. Your whole energy is ejaculated just for a second, and then you are again back in the body. And that is the whole thrill of it.

    Once you know how to do it without any partner, without any sex being involved, then sex becomes meaningless because now you know a higher way to attain to a deeper orgasm more easily, and at no risk, no cost.

    So allow this...it is very good. For fifteen days cooperate. tolose13

    A sannyasin who is returning to England says: I used to go outside my body and I didn't know anything about it until I heard you talking about it. It used to happen when I was frightened, and I wouldn't have any control over it. I'd go about four feet away from my body.

    Yes, allow it--it is beautiful, very beautiful. Simply enjoy it so it happens more and more. By and by it will become more and more smooth and you will be able to go further and further away from the body. One can almost float in the sky.

    You are separate from the body. The body is just an abode in which we are staying for a time being. So enjoy it and whenever you have time slip into it. If it is happening naturally, it is beautiful. It is a great meditation and will help tremendous growth in you.

    We have a certain attitude about things. For example if you accept the idea that you are separate from the body, when the thing happens you will become aware of it. If you reject the very idea and think that it is foolish, the thing will happen but you will bypass it. You will not recognise it or take note of it, because it will go against your mind.

    Then you will lose it. If you understand it and allow it, you know the path and how it happened. It is a knack, and you slip into that knack again and again and again and it happens more and more.

    People who have an idea that they have lived only once, are living only once, and that there are not many lives, also slip, sometimes, into their past lives, but they will interpret it in a certain way. They will say, 'This is just dream or fantasy, just nonsense, rubbish!' In that way they will block the door.

    There are people who sometimes move into deep meditation but they remain completely oblivious of the fact. If you ask them, they will say, 'Maybe I fell asleep,' or, 'I don't know what was happening!' The mind only selects those things which it accepts. That's why an open mind is needed with no dogma cluttering it. Then whatsoever happens, one is available to take note of it, to enjoy it, and if it is life-enhancing, to move into it. Then more and more things will happen.

    It is a chain. If you go one step into it, another step becomes available. If you go two steps, a third step becomes available. And only one step becomes available at one time. If you don't take the first step, the other steps are simply closed for you.

    Whenever it happens, push it back a little further. You feel it is four feet, try to make it five or six. If you feel it is in the room, just try to get out of the room. By, and by you will feel that a freedom is coming and you are becoming attuned to the phenomenon. Sometimes try to go out of the town, and then to Poona (laughter). Come from Oxford, mm?...because time and space are not barriers for it. getout24

    Religion says: that which is, allow it to happen. All that you can do is, please, don't disturb. Just allow it to happen. Remain alert and passive and then there is no need to come to me; I will come to you. Many times I have already reached you...whenever you were silent. So this is not a theory: many of you even know it by experience, but you interpret this also.

    People come to me and they say: This morning, meditating, I suddenly felt you, but I thought it must be a projection of my mind. Or they say: Last night suddenly I felt a presence, I became alert, and then I thought it must have been someone passing by, a wind may have entered the room and fluttered the papers, or just a cat has passed.

    So what I am saying, many of you have already felt. That's why I am saying it; otherwise, I would not say it.

    Don't interpret. When you feel the presence, allow it to happen. If you allow it to happen, it will materialize more and more. It is possible that I will be there, as real as I am here, sometimes even more so--because it depends on you how much reality you allow to happen. And your questions will be answered.

    Be more meditative and then you are nearer to me. Once you are totally meditative, you are me. Then there is no difference. clouds13

    This is my experience; many times it has happened. Somebody who is working deeply with me, growing, is in some dark night of the soul. He needs my help, and I go to him and he trembles, and he becomes afraid. Many times I say to my disciples, "If I come, don't get scared." At that time they laugh, they think I am joking. But when I reach them they tremble and they cannot believe that I have come. They can believe anything, but they cannot believe that I have come, because that is beyond their scope. foll301

    You ask: I have been told that you leave your body for several hours each day and that when you return you are very hungry and that you eat sixteen chapattis. Is this true? Yes, it is true. Whenever one leaves the body one feels very, very hungry on coming back, and after entering the body again food functions as a paperweight and helps the inner space to settle in the body again easily. Some day you will feel it, some day it will happen suddenly in your meditations, that you are standing outside the body and watching your own body lying there. Don't be afraid and don't be afraid about how you will now enter it. With just the idea of entering, you will find yourself in it. No effort is needed, just the very idea that you would like to enter, and you will, the very desire will lead you in. But then you will feel a very unnatural hunger, as if you have not eaten for many days. The body has lost much physical energy while you were out of it. There is a point beyond which you cannot be out of it, otherwise the body will be dead. To a certain limit you can be out of it, but in that time, in that interval, the body is losing energy continuously and very fast because you are not in it to hold the energy. The body is almost dead.

    When you enter it you will feel as if you have not eaten for many days. So that's true--but about the exact number of chapattis you will have to ask Vivek. Sixteen or not--that I cannot be the right authority about. treas204

    Darshan: About Problems

    Whatsoever I say is only a suggestion. It is not a prescription and you are not to follow it, because then I become the authority and I start forcing my ideas of happiness on you, and it goes on and on and on. These are just my suggestions. If you feel--and you have to feel--do them. Do them because you feel they are right, not because I have said them.... If you cannot decide, consult the I Ching! wobble22 Whenever you come across something in my words which is going against your experience in any way, immediately come and check it, because I am saying so many things to so many people and each person is so different....

    So whenever something goes against your grain, then immediately check. If something is going with your grain and everything is flowing, there is no need to check; then it is for you. But the ultimate criterion is your experience. bite11

    Many people, particularly Indians, write to me asking why I am not giving a certain discipline to my sannyasins. I cannot--I am not their enemy. I am not in any way here to dominate anybody, I am not here to dictate. I can help you to understand, then it is up to you. Out of your understanding if something happens in your life, good, but if it happens

    because I have said it then it is ugly. Then sooner or later you will repent, then sooner or later you will take revenge on me.

    I am your friend. I can help you to be more alert; that's my whole function. And then whatsoever is good follows so silently, just like your shadow. It makes no noise and it does not give any ego to you. As you become more aware, all ego disappears. You become more and more humble, more and more simple, more and more ordinary. And that ordinariness is divine, that simplicity is sacred. But discipline has to arise in you. I can commune with you my understanding, I can share with you my experience, that's all; then it is for you to decide what to do and what not to do.

    My sannyasins have to learn how to live in freedom. I know it is very difficult for you too--even my sannyasins ask: "If you give us definite rules it will be easier for us to follow them." I know it will be easier because that's what you have been doing your whole life. Somebody has been giving you orders and you have been following; that has become your habit. You would like me also to be a father figure, just to tell you that this has to be done and this has not to be done. That makes things cheap and simple you need not bother, you can simply depend on me. But that creates dependence and you lose something immensely valuable: you lose your freedom, you lose your independence, you lose your individuality, you lose yourself. And that is not my purpose here.

    My purpose here is to make you more and more unique individuals, more and more authentic individuals. I would like you to take the responsibility of your life upon your own shoulders totally so that you become completely free of all kinds of father figures. That brings great blessing and great benediction. ggate102

    A sannyas says: I'm taking heroin lately...and feeling negative.

    So if you want to feel negative, take it. It is destructive. You have some suicidal tendency deep down. These things are not going to help, and by and by you will lose control of your being.

    The sannyasin replies: I wish I would lose control.

    Then it is okay and nothing is to be lost. If you want to be destructive, it is your responsibility. If you are enjoying it, it is your responsibility. One is absolutely responsible for oneself, so whatsoever you are doing, you are doing to yourself. If you feel good, it is good. If you feel bad, then come out of it.

    But take a decision to go in or to come out of it. Don't just drift in--because drifting is easy; coming out will be difficult. It is very easy to get into any sort of wrong trip but once you are in it, the body becomes accustomed to it and then it is very difficult. Just a decision won't do. You want to come out but the body will pull you in.

    So, looking at all the consequences, one has to decide. And of course the decision is finally yours. I have nothing to say about it, because I never enforce my decision on

    anybody. At the most I can give you some humble advice--that you are playing with your life and nothing can be got out of it. It is a slow suicide. But if you like slow suicide, then it's okay.

    I'm not condemning you. I'm not saying that you are committing a sin or anything. I'm simply saying to do it knowingly, because coming back will not be easy. You can go in very easily because it is slow and there is no effort needed. It is downhill. Even if your car has no gas in it, it can go. But when you want to come out of it, then the uphill task. If you don't have any power, you are stuck in the valley of darkness, in depression. Then knowing nothing, people go on moving downwards because at least moving downhill they have a feeling that they are going somewhere.

    But all growth is uphill. All growth needs conscious effort. And all-growth is responsibility. But this is just my advice. If you go downhill, you go downhill. You decide about it, mm? roseis07

    Many people come to me because of illnesses. They have tried doctors, physicians, this and that "pathy"; they have tried many things and nothing happens. Then they come, then they talk about God. And I can see they are not interested in God at all; they are ill, physically, mentally, and they are in search of a miracle, some miracle medicine. They are talking about meditation, they are talking about God, they are even ready to take sannyas, but their search is wrong. They should not be near me, they should go to a physician, because they are not even aware of the spiritual urge in them. It is something physical, or something mental--which is the same, because your mind and body are not two things. They are two poles of the same phenomenon.

    And even if you are cured, nothing is cured in you. Even if you have a healthy body it makes no difference to your inner growth. Maybe, as you are health may not prove a blessing. It may even prove a curse to you....

    If you are here for something worldly you are near a wrong person, because I am not going to do any miracle, because that is the way to attract wrong people. I am not going to heal you. I am not going to do anything for any wrong reason. justlt02

    Darshan: Relationship and Sex

    I am not against relationship--I am all for it, but before you can relate, you have to be. And if you are miserable and you relate with someone, you are going to create more misery. The misery is bound to be multiplied; not only doubled but multiplied. He is miserable, you are also miserable. He cannot be alone, you cannot be alone, so you depend on each other. And whenever you depend on somebody, you can never forgive that man. He makes you dependent, he makes you feel helpless. He becomes powerful

    and dominates you. So deep down, every lover is against, hates, the person he loves-- because nobody can love slavery.

    You can love only freedom. But freedom is possible only when you are free to be happy, and when you can be happy absolutely alone. If there is nobody, then too you can enjoy, dance, sing. That becomes your very quality of being. Then you can relate...then your happiness relates. Your music relates...your singing and dancing relates. Of course you multiply your happiness.

    Whatsoever you have will be multiplied in relationship. If you have misery, misery will be multiplied. If you have happiness, happiness will be multiplied. In relationship you will be reflected in millions of ways--but you will be reflected. plan17

    A couple are present. The woman is not a sannyasin, and the man is. He says: It seems it's hard for one person in a relationship to take sannyas and the other to not be a sannyasin.

    But one can be a sannyasin and the other need not be a sannyasin; what is the problem? One is a man, another is a woman and there is no problem. Why can't one be a sannyasin, another not? There is no problem!

    (To the woman) What is the problem? His sannyas is creating trouble? How can his sannyas create trouble?

    She replies: He's been a great blessing of love, but I haven't been able to accept his name. I feel that he will not accept me if I am not a sannyasin.

    No, no there is no problem at all, mm?--there is no problem. You are imagining things unnecessarily. How can his change of name create any problem? Were you in love with the name or with the man?

    So the man is still there--he has not changed. And he will not expect you to become a sannyasin, no. If you want to, you can, but that is not his expectation. If you don't want to become, you can remain a non-sannyasin. There is no problem in it, mm? so don't be afraid about that.

    None of my sannyasins are going to enforce anything on anybody in any way, because that is my whole teaching--not to try to change the other in any way; accept and respect the other as he or she is. So that is an unnecessary fear. And you have to learn. you love the man, so learn his new name!

    There is no need to be worried that he will want you to become a sannyasin, no. Even if he wants you to, I will not give you sannyas; unless I feel that you are worthy to receive it, I will not give it. It is not easy. When you feel like it and I feel, 'Yes, the feeling has arisen in you', only then will I give it to you. So drop this idea; and there is no problem-- just be in love, mm?

    (To the man) And let her feel that your sannyas has made you more loving, more accepting, more relaxed, so that one day she will start feeling like becoming a sannyasin. But that feeling has to arise in her, it is not that you have to put it in her mind. Simply forget about it. Just love her as she is: that very love may change her mind. But make no effort to convert her. All efforts to convert are efforts to dominate, and the freedom of the other has to be respected. Just respect her as she is and love her.

    (To the woman) Do a few meditations, do a few groups, start feeling what is happening here. So many people are getting into it; there must be something in it. Don't think that only you are right. There are so many people; they must be getting something from it. bite15

    You say: Some women say that since they've met You, although their physical desires continue, a man is no longer satisfying enough for them. Other women say that since they have met You they feel more loving.

    This is my feeling, that whenever a male seeker comes to me he is interested in meditation; and whenever a female seeker comes to me she is interested in love. She can be made interested in meditation if I say that love will happen through it. But her deep desire is for love. Love is God for a woman....

    When female seekers come to me, it is bound to happen: they will feel more love, but then a physical partner will be less satisfying. Whenever there is deep love, a physical partner will always become unsatisfactory, because the physical partner can fulfill only the periphery, he cannot fulfill the center....

    So when female seekers come to me, their depth is shocked. They start feeling a new urge, a new love arising. Now their husbands or their boyfriends, their partners will not be able to satisfy it. Now this can be satisfied only by a much higher quality of being. This is going to be so.

    So either your boyfriend, your husband, has to become more meditative, create higher qualities of being...only then will he be fulfilling. Otherwise the relationship will break, the bridge cannot remain; you will have to find a new friend. Or, if it is impossible to find a new friend...then you have to love the divine. Then just forget the physical part--now it is not for you.

    The same happens to male seekers in a different way. When they come to me, they become more meditative. When they become more meditative, the bridge between their old partners is broken, becomes shaky. Now their girlfriend or their wife has to grow, otherwise the relationship is on the rocks, it cannot be maintained.

    Remember this, that all our relationships, so-called relationships, are adjustments. If one changes, the adjustment is broken--for the better or for the worse, that is not the point. People come to me and they say: If meditation brings higher qualities, then why is the relationship broken? That is not the question. The relationship was an adjustment

    between two persons as they were. Now one has changed, the other has to grow with them; otherwise there will be trouble, things will become false.

    Whenever a man is here, he becomes more meditative. The more meditative he is, the more he wants to be alone. The wife, the beloved, will be disturbed by it. If she is not understanding then she will start creating trouble--this man wants to be more alone. If she is understanding, then there is no problem; but that understanding can only come to her if her love grows. If she feels more loving, then she can allow this friend to be lonely, alone, and she will protect his loneliness. She will try to see that it is not disturbed--this will be her love now....

    So whosoever comes to me should come perfectly aware that it is dangerous to be near me. Your old arrangements will be disturbed--and I cannot help it. I am not here to help your adjustments; that is for you to decide.

    I can help you grow--grow in meditation, grow in love. To me, both words mean the same, because they reach to the same end. clouds13

    A couple with relationship problems come to Osho for advice, but the man does not like the advice given...

    When you fall in love, you decide for yourself, and when you want to separate you come to me--so you can throw the responsibility on me. No one ever comes to say that they are falling in love. They come only when they are falling apart....

    If I say live together, then whenever there will be conflict--and there will be twenty-four hours a day--you will be angry with me. You will say that this man is forcing us to live together--and of course you trust me, so you are living together.

    But that is not the point. You are living together because you are infatuated--but the responsibility goes on me. If I say separate then you will miss her and she will miss you, and then you will be angry.

    In fact for me there is nowhere to hide my head. You never leave any space for me--and whatsoever I say is going to be against me. And you come only when something is going wrong. Nobody comes to tell me that they are falling in love and to ask whether they should fall or not.

    The man says: Yes, I was aware that coming to you was tiring you with our problems....

    No, that is not the point. I would have stopped you then and there, because whenever two fools fall in love, there is going to be trouble. (laughter) And only fools fall in love, otherwise who bothers?

    Now you decide (chuckling)--don't throw it on me....

    I am also learning! You just go and decide, and whatsoever you decide to do, I bless! Right? wobble19

    A new sannyasin says she has been living with a man for a year who likes to be with other women also, and she does not know how to handle her jealousy.

    It is always difficult for a woman unless she also starts loving people; otherwise it will remain difficult. He cannot be prevented, and to prevent him is ugly also. Then you are destroying his happiness, and if his happiness is destroyed, he will take revenge on you; he will not feel so loving. If you try to dominate him, to prevent him from going here and there, he will feel suffocated.

    The problem is that down the ages man has always lived that way. And woman has never lived that way--for a few reasons. Firstly: in the old days, the problem was the child--if she gets pregnant then she will be in trouble--so it was a question of security, finance, and everything. Secondly: man himself has been teaching woman to be pure, to be virgin, always to love one person. Man has been using a double standard: one standard for the woman another for himself. The woman has to be pure, devoted, surrendered. And man? They say 'Boys are boys.'

    Man has kept all freedom for himself. And he could manage to in the past because the finances were in his hands. So financially he was powerful. He was educated, he had the job. The woman had no job, no education. Her whole world was confined to the house. She had no contacts outside the house, so it was almost impossible to fall in love. At least you need some contacts--only then can you fall in love with somebody. And man has created big China Walls around the woman. For centuries Mohammedans have not even allowed their women's faces to be seen by others. And the woman was not supposed to talk to any man. A long repression--it has gone into the very bones.

    Now things have changed. Now the woman is educated, she can have a job. She is as free as man. She can meet people, she can fall in love, she can enjoy life. The problem of pregnancy is irrelevant now; the pill has been one of the greatest freedoms. But the old mind persists, and it is not a small thing--thousands and thousands of years' conditioning. Your mother and mother's mother and all the women that have preceded you, were all conditioned, and that conditioning has penetrated into you too.

    So the problem will be there unless you become very conscious and drop it. Only two are the possibilities: one possibility is to go on nagging your friend, as women have been doing down the ages. That doesn't help; that simply makes the man feel more repulsed by the woman. The more you nag, the more you throw him into somebody else's embrace, because he becomes tired, bored with you, and he would like to go somewhere and meet somebody who will not nag; and it is a relief. That is not going to help and that is destructive too.

    The other thing is: become courageous, tell him that if he feels like that, then take note of it--you will also move in the same way. There should not be double standards! If he

    enjoys loving other women then you will enjoy loving other men. You love him but you will love other people too. Just make it clear to him, and immediately if he is afraid, if he himself is a jealous type, either he will say 'I will stop'--but then he is stopping on his own. Or there is no need to be worried--you start moving also. Nothing is wrong in it!

    I am not saying that he is doing anything wrong. All that I am saying is: there should not be two standards, only one standard for both. And each couple has to decide on a single standard; that is the commitment. Either you both decide that you will remain only for each other, monogamous--good, if you both decide willingly, happily, joyously. If it is not possible--one says 'I would like to keep my freedom'--then you also keep your freedom! Why be miserable? The misery arises because he is having fun and you are just sitting there thinking of him. You also have fun!

    And this is not a question which is personal only to you. This is going to be the question for every woman in the future. Gather courage! I will help you--these groups and meditations will help you. Gather courage, and tell him before you start moving 'This is going to be the case--don't feel jealous of me.' Because men are even more jealous; their male chauvinistic ego feels more hurt: 'My woman making love to somebody else?' They start feeling as if they are not man enough. But then that is his problem. First make it clear that you are to follow a certain standard. When two persons decide to live together, then a certain rule of conduct has to be evolved. When you are alone there is no question of any rule of conduct. Just have a rule of the game, but it will be applicable to both the parties.

    So whatsoever decision comes...either he decides not to go with others--it's okay--or if he decides that he would still like his freedom, then you are freed. Then don't be cowardly; start moving! There are beautiful people; why be confined to one? Each person can contribute something which nobody else can. Each person has such a uniqueness. Why not love many people and enrich your love? In fact this is not against the man you love. My own observation is that if you love many many people you will be loving your lover more also--this is a simple arithmetic--because you will become more skillful in love. You will have many aspects of love available to your knowing. You will become more enriched and ripe, mature.

    And this clinging to one person is a kind of immaturity. Why should one cling? Love is beautiful and love is divine, and all are the forms of god, so why get obsessed with one form when the form is not obsessed with you? If both are obsessed with each other, it is okay.

    This is an old idea which is not scientifically true, that if the man goes and has a little affair with a woman sometimes, then his own woman will suffer; she will not get as much love as was hers. That is wrong. She will not suffer, she will get more.

    And soon, seeing other women, meeting other women, again and again the realisation comes: 'What is the point? My own woman can give all this, and in a far more intimate

    way, with far more devotion, far more commitment. Why should I be moving like a beggar?' He will come home with a greater longing for you.

    In fact, modern psychology suggests that if the marriage is to continue, a few side affairs are always good and helpful to keep the marriage running. If there are no side affairs then the marriage becomes really a boring phenomenon. It becomes so heavy--the same man, the same woman, the same talk, the same love; everything sooner or later becomes a routine. Then the thrill is gone and all is repetitious, monotonous.

    Have a good talk with him and make it clear that if he is enjoying, then you are also free. And be free! Freedom needs a little courage, it needs guts, but you will enjoy it. And it is not going to disturb anything in your relationship; it will enhance it. You will stop nagging him. When you yourself start moving with people sometimes, you will stop nagging. In fact that's why women don't move, because then the nagging will be pointless. And they enjoy nagging--it gives them power. If they also move they cannot make the man feel guilty. And to make the man feel guilty gives immense power. But this is wrong. Never make anybody feel guilty. If you love the person, why make him feel guilty? If he likes it this way, let it be this way! You also have a few small love affairs. That will make both of you free from each other. And when love is free and is given out of freedom, it has a totally different quality to it. It has something really beautiful in it.

    Then there is no conflict, no fight, no jealousy, nothing of the sort. There is a calm and quiet, silent, relationship. When you are also moving into a few new loves and he is moving into a few new loves, both are always in a kind of honeymoon; meeting together is always beautiful. Then things never become old and rotten.

    Just a little courage...and it will happen! leap01

    A sannyasin says she has been working as a prostitute in the West. Returning there now to earn money to return here, she wonders whether to return to prostitution or not. A voice inside her says no--on the other hand it is a quick way to make money....

    Then do something else, mm? do something else...because prostitution is a betrayal of the body. There is nothing morally wrong in it but spiritually much is wrong in it. You are allowing your body to be used like a thing--that's a great insult to the body.

    When the other so-called religious leaders say they are against prostitution their reasons are different. When I say that it is not good my reasons are totally different. My first reason is that one needs to be in deep reverence with one's own body, one needs to be in love with the body, so how can one allow somebody to use it as a thing? It is a sacred thing!

    Yes, you can share when you love a person, but for money it is ugly. It is one of god's gifts to you--you can give it as a gift, but don't sell it. You have not purchased it, so you have no right to sell it! Mm?--it is a gift: we should be grateful to god that he has given us such a beautiful body. It is a temple.

    So when I say not to go into prostitution, my reasons are just the opposite to those other religious people will give. They are against sex, they are against joy. They are against anything that makes people delighted--that is their reason. They are sex-repressive people: they want everybody to be very limited in their sexual relationships.

    And a prostitute brings a freedom, that's why they are against them. They want a very rigid monogamy in the world: man possessing woman, woman possessing man, one-to- one. They are all for man being used as property and woman being used as property. To me, that too is prostitution. What they call marriage, to me is nothing but a permanent prostitution.

    Yes, you prostitute yourself to the same man again and again, that's all. You don't charge the man, but it is prostitution because it is based on money--it is a permanent license. To me the so-called marriage is nothing but a sort of prostitution.

    I am all for love and I am completely against marriage. Because I am against marriage, I am against prostitution too. Try to understand me: to me prostitution is just a by-product of marriage. The day marriage disappears from the earth, prostitution will also disappear.

    Where will you find a woman or a man to share his body with you because of money? It will be impossible. People will love and respect their body so much that will it be impossible. Yes, they can share their love energy with you but only when they love...there will be no other kind of relationship.

    Right now the marriage is a prostitution; there is no love. The wife goes on yielding to the husband because she has to, and the husband can force sex--legally! He can threaten that he will throw her out of the house, that he will not take any financial responsibility; then she will be on the streets.

    To avoid the streets she chooses this permanent kind of prostitution, otherwise she will be with many people. And one man is so ugly--how much more ugly will it be with so many men? So it is better; it is the lesser evil.

    Never treat your body as a thing. It is divine, it is divine energy. Yes, if you love a man give your total heart, give your total body, being, all that you have. But when the love disappears, or if the love is not there, then there is no other way. The body can be shared only in love: don't share even with your husband if the love is not there.

    If today you find that you are not in a love mood with your husband, say simply that it will be prostitution! When love is there, love makes everything beautiful. When love is not there, everything becomes a nightmare, ugly.

    So it may take a little longer for you to work, but that's good. Go, do something else--be respectful about your body. It is a god's gift, and you are responsible! God will ask you finally what you did with your body. So go, mm ? and go with tremendous trust--there is no problem in it. It will take a little longer to come back, but that's not a problem. Avoid

    the old trap. It will be easier for you to fall into the trap because easy money always can have an appeal, but that is dangerous. And you are strong enough now--nothing to be worried about. thisis16

    A masturbatory person remains childish, a homosexual person remains juvenile, a heterosexual person remains animal. These stages have to be passed. Don't get stuck anywhere. And I am not condemning, remember always; I have no condemnation for anything. Sometimes homosexuals come to me and they say, "But Beloved Master, we feel it is good." I say, "Okay. If you feel good, it is your life. Who am I to condemn it, and for what? Why should I condemn it? It is your life; if you decide to live it in this way, good. Live it with all my blessings." But I feel sorry, deep down--sorry because their growth will be hindered, sorry because they will not know what great possibilities they were carrying within themselves.

    Sex is not an ordinary thing. It is one of the most substantial parts of your being. One should not be so unalert about it. It is the foundation of your being: you are born through sex, you live through sex; your birth is through sex, your youth is through sex, your love is through sex, and your death is going to happen through sex. Your whole life is a sexual affair. One should be very very alert and watchful of what one is going to do with one's sex energy. melo04

    A sannyasin says: I still have much trouble when you talk about homosexuality.

    You have to drop that trouble...

    Even when I say something against homosexuality you should not be bothered by it. If you are bothered that simply says that you are still not settled, that somewhere you are still against it. Otherwise there is no problem!

    When I am talking to people I have to talk about general principles. When I say it is difficult for a homosexual to grow spiritually, I am only talking about a general principle, not that it is an absolute rule.

    If a homosexual person is perfectly at ease, there is no problem; he may even grow faster than a heterosexual who is not at ease. There are a thousand and one things; man is very complex. So if a homosexual is perfectly at ease, that is the thing for him; the unease really is the hindrance.

    So when I am talking, if there are a hundred homosexuals, at least ninety will try to get out of it and it is good if they get out of it: There will be ten who even if they try, will not be able to get out of it. That is simply natural to them; I'm not saying anything about them.

    But my problem is that if I talk about those ten, those other ninety will remain in it and they will never grow. So I have to look to the practicalness of it. When I have to choose a truth I have to think to how many people this will be helpful.

    So I have to look at the general. In ninety percent of cases it is true that through homosexuality it is difficult for a person to transcend sex and go beyond it, but exceptions are always there. And I call that person an exception who does not feel at all uneasy about it.

    So drop all uneasiness--because you seem to be a born homosexual, a natural homosexual. Heterosexuality will be unnatural to you and you will have to force it. That will create problems; it will not help you.

    But you can understand my trouble. My trouble is that when I am talking to so many people I have to just state the general fact. Even that is very confusing. If I state exceptions also, then it becomes difficult for anybody to understand anything of it. So my approach is that I will go on insisting on the general truth. Whomsoever can be changed by it will change, and the one who cannot be changed by it is the exception. There is no need, he need not be worried about it.

    I have no condemnation about anything. That word condemnation does not exist for me; it is not in my vocabulary.

    So it is perfectly good for you. Simply forget about it. Let me say whatsoever I say; don't bother about it. Whenever it comes to homosexuality, don't listen to what I say. You are perfectly at ease and flowing, so good! zero13

    People go on making love just to prove that they are males or females, or what charming people they are, beautiful people they are. People go on finding new women, new men, just to prove that 'I am still attractive.' My observation of people is that they don't fall in love. Their joy is not love, their joy is conquest. Once they have achieved a woman they are no more interested in her. It is not love. Now they are seeking new pasture, now they want a new woman. Now they want to prove again that they are still young, looked at, they still have charisma, magnetism. And the more women they can make love with, the more their ego is satisfied. This is not love. And Freud is right that sex gives ego- gratification.

    But look at Tantra. Tantra has a totally different idea. Tantra says: The appeal of sex is because it gives you a moment of egolessness, timelessness, meditation. body08

    A sannyasin, who plans to convert the Yoga centre he runs into an Osho Meditation Centre, said that he was confused about Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, both of which he tried to practise. He said that sometimes there was much tension in the sex centre and he didn't know what to do about this.]

    The Buddhist and the Hindu Tantra are totally different things. Just the name is the same. If you are confused about them, that can create a very deep conflict in your body. Forget both, mm? because it will be difficult for you to come to a harmony between these two. I will give you a simple method. Don't be bothered about Hindu and Buddhist Tantra.

    While making love, three things have to be remembered. One is: before you make love, meditate. Never make love without meditating, otherwise the love will remain sexual. Before you meet the woman you should rise higher in your consciousness because then the meeting will happen on a higher plane. For at least forty minutes sit looking at the wall with just a very dim light on so that it gives a mysteriousness.

    Sit silently and don't move the body; remain like a statue. Then when you make love, the body will move, so give it another extreme of first being unmoving so the body gathers momentum to move deeply. Then the urge becomes so vibrating that the whole body, every fibre is ready to have a movement. Then only tantric orgasm is possible. You can have some music on...classical music will do; something that gives a very subtle rhythm to the body.

    Make the breathing as slow as possible because when you make love the breathing will go deep and fast. So just go on slowing down, but don't force it, otherwise it will go fast. Simply suggest that it slows down.

    Both meditate together and when you are both feeling meditative, that is the moment to love. Then you will never feel tension and energy will be flowing. If you are not feeling meditative, don't make love. If meditation is not happening that day, forget all about love.

    People do simply the opposite. Almost always couples fight before they make love. They become angry, nag each other and bring all sorts of conflict--and then they make love. They fall very low in their consciousnesses, so of course love cannot be very satisfying. It will be frustrating and you will feel a tension.

    The second thing is: when you are making love, before you start, worship the partner and let the partner worship you. So after meditation, worship. Face each other totally naked and worship each other, because Tantra cannot be between man and woman. It can only be between a god and a goddess. It is a gesture, but very significant. The whole attitude has to become sublime so that you disappear. Touch each other's feet, put garlands of flowers there. The man becomes transformed into Shiva and the woman is transformed into Shakti. Now your humanity is irrelevant, your form is irrelevant, your name is irrelevant; you are just pure energy. Worship brings that energy into focus.

    And don't pretend. The worship has to be true. It cannot be just a ritual, otherwise you will miss. Tantra is not a ritual. There is much ritual in it, but Tantra is not ritual. You can repeat the ritual. You can bow down to her feet and touch them; that won't help.

    Let it be a deeply meaningful gesture. Really look at her. She is no more your wife, no more your girlfriend, no more woman, no more body, but a configuration of energy. Let her first become divine, then make love to her. Then love will change its quality. It will become divine. That's the whole methodology of Tantra.

    Then in the third step you make love. But let your making love be more like a happening than like a making. The English expression 'making love' is ugly. How can you make

    love? It is not something like doing; it is not an action. It is a state. You can be in it but you cannot make it. You can move in it but you cannot do it. You can be loving but you cannot manipulate it. The whole Western mind tries to manipulate everything.

    Even if the Western mind comes to find God someday, God will be in trouble. They will harness Him in some way or other, manipulate Him. They will put Him to some use, some utilitarian purpose. Even love has become a sort of doing. No.

    When you make love, be possessed. Move slowly, touch each other's bodies; play with each other's bodies. The body is like a musical instrument. Don't be in a hurry. Let things grow. If you move slowly, suddenly both your energies will rise together, as if something has possessed you. It will happen instantly and simultaneously together. Then only Tantra is possible. Move now into love ....

    Just feel energy descending on you and let that energy have its movement. Sometimes you will start shrieking, shriek. Sometimes you will start saying things, say. Sometimes only moans will be coming out, or some mudras, gestures; allow them. It is going to be a maddening thing, but one has to allow it. And don't be afraid, because it is through your allowing that it is happening. The moment you want to stop it, it stops, so you are never beyond control.

    And when gods make love it is almost wild. There are no rules, no regulations. One moves just on the spur of the moment. Nothing is taboo...nothing is inhibited. Whatsoever happens in that moment is beautiful and holy; whatsoever, I say, unconditionally. If you bring your mind into it you will destroy it completely. If you suddenly feel like sucking her finger and you say 'What nonsense!' then you have brought in the mind. You may feel like sucking her breast; nothing wrong in it.

    Nobody knows what is going to happen. You are simply left in the divine vortex. It will take you, and it will take you wherever it wants. You are simply available, ready to move with it. You don't direct it...you have simply become vehicles. Let energies meet in their own ways. The man should be dropped out of it--just pure energy. You will not be making love only through the genital organs; you will be making love through your whole body.

    That's the meaning of shivalingam: no face, no hands, no feet--just the phallic symbol. When Shiva made love he became just the phallus--the whole of his body. It is very beautiful...no face, nothing. Everything has disappeared.

    It is not that you are using your sexual organs only; the sex has spread all over. You head is as much a part of it as your feet. You have become a phallus. You are no more man; you are just energy. She is also no more a woman; just energy, a vulva. It is a very wild thing.

    If you meditate before and then worship each other, there is no danger; everything will move rightly. You will attain to a peak of orgasm that you have never known. Sometimes

    you will achieve it: a very great orgasm in which the whole body throbs and pulsates. By and by you reach a climax; again you come down. It will cleanse your whole being, the whole system. Sometimes there will be no ejaculation but orgasm will be there.

    There are two types of orgasm: the peak orgasm and the valley orgasm. In the peak orgasm you will have an ejaculation and she will have also an ejaculation of some subtle energies. In the valley orgasm you will not have any ejaculation. It will be a passive orgasm...very silent, very subtle. The throb will be there but almost imperceptible. In the peak orgasm you will feel very very blissful. In the valley orgasm you will feel very very peaceful. And both are needed; both are two aspects of Tantra. Every peak has its valley, and every valley has its peak. A peak cannot exist without the valley nor vice versa.

    [Osho said not to be too concerned about having an ejaculation. The Western mind tends to be too concerned about it happening and feels that something is wrong when it doesn't happen. The whole thing is to be totally in it and to leave things in the hands of God; it is His business. Your business is just to enjoy, delight, celebrate.]

    And when it has happened and you have both achieved to a deep orgasm, don't pull yourself out of her. After the orgasm, remain inside her and rest for a few moments. That rest is very very deep. After an orgasm a rest is like a valley. You have reached to the very peak and now you have come back to the valley. It is very cool and shady and you rest.

    And really much happens after the orgasm...the merging, the melting. Bodies are tired, exhausted, spent. The mind is shocked. It has almost been like an electric shock.

    When you come out of your love state, again pray together; end with a prayer. The difference is that when you meditate, you meditate separately and she meditates separately, because meditation cannot be done together. Meditation is a lonely effort. It is not a relationship. So you may be meditating together but still you meditate alone; you are alone and she is alone.

    Then you worship each other. That's again different. The other becomes the object of worship. then you make love and you are completely lost. You are not yourself, she is not herself. Nobody knows who is who. All is lost in a whirlpool of energy. The polarity of man and woman is no more a polarity; boundaries merge, mingle. Sometimes you will feel like a woman and she will feel like a man. Sometimes she comes on top of you. Sometimes you become passive and she becomes active and the role changes. It is a great drama of energies. All is lost, abandoned. Then you come out of that innermost experience; pray together. That's the fourth thing.

    Just thank God. And never complain. Whatsoever happens is right. Don't say 'This has not happened. This should have happened.' Who are we? He knows better. So just thank Him, whatsoever happens; thank Him with deep gratefulness. Bow down and put your head on the earth and remain there for a few moments in deep gratefulness.

    Meditation is alone. In worship, the other is important, and in prayer you both pray to God. So these three things have to be involved. They will create the ecology in which Tantra happens. And once a week will do.

    If you are moving in Tantra then no other love should be allowed otherwise it dissipates energy. But whenever you want to make love, make sure you have enough time. It should not be done in a hurry. It should not be like work. It is a game, play, and these energies are so subtle that if you are in a hurry, nothing happens. Tantra is not a fragment. You cannot practise it unless you create the situation. It is like a flower.

    You have to sow the seed and take care of the plant and water it every day. You look to whether the sun is reaching it or not. You cannot bring the flower, but you can create the situation in which one day the flower comes and the bud opens.

    So these three things are sowing the seed, caring for the plant, watering it and being continuously concerned about it; being careful, protecting it. Then one day suddenly--the flower of Tantra. It will happen.

    And now I am going to be involved with you, so there is no problem. I am coming with you. myhart17

    I have been telling you, "From sex to superconsciousness," and you have been very happy--you only hear "from sex," you don't hear "to superconsciousness."

    And this is the case with those who are against me and with those who are in favor of me- -the same. Man is almost the same; friends and enemies are not very different. I am being misunderstood by the opponents, and that is understandable, but I am also being misunderstood by the followers; that is not understandable at all. The opponents can be forgiven, but the followers cannot be forgiven.

    Because I said, "Sex is stupid," many angry questions have come to me. One of my sannyasins has written to me: "You have some nerve to say that sex is stupid!" She must have felt hurt. And I can understand: when you are living in a certain way you don't want it to be described as stupid. Nobody wants to be called stupid; it is not over the question of sex that you are disturbed. It is your life; if it is stupid and you are living it, then you are being stupid. That hurts. But I have to say it even if it hurts because that is the only way to make you aware that there is something more in life, something higher, something greater, something far more blissful, far more orgasmic.

    Sex is only a beginning but not the end. And nothing is wrong if you take it as a beginning; if you start clinging to it, then things start going wrong. If I say anything against homosexuality, immediately the homosexuals start writing to me. If I say anything against anything, there are people who will start writing. If it hurts your ego, then you are immediately ready to defend-not only to defend but to attack....

    ...After making love, at least for one hour sit in zazen and you will see what I am saying. You will understand what I mean when I say sex is stupid. After making love make it a point to sit in zazen for one hour just watching what has happened. Were you the master of it or just a slave? If you were the master of it, then it is not stupid. If you were a slave, it is stupid, because by repeating it you are making your slavery more and more strong, you are feeding your slavery.

    It is only through meditation that you will be able to understand what I have been telling you. It is not a question to be decided by argument, it can only be decided by your own meditation, your own understanding, your own awareness. inzen04

    My effort here is to make this commune sexually free. And when I say sexually free, it has two meanings. In the beginning, people will be easily available to each other, and in the end the very availability will make their minds transcend sex. And that is happening every day.

    Hundreds of sannyasins write to me, "What has happened? When we came, we were so full of sex, and now all that has disappeared. There seems to be no desire for it. Even if we are interested in somebody, it is more like friendship than any sexual relationship. We love to be together, but there is no need to jump into bed immediately."

    In fact, there are many sannyasins writing to me that sex has so completely disappeared, that for months or for years they have been celibate. Go and ask a Catholic monk or a Hindu sannyasin: they are trying to be celibate, and their minds are full of sex. We are not trying to be celibate here, but celibacy is happening.

    Whatsoever is easily available, automatically becomes uninteresting.

    In the West many people are turning towards homosexuality, lesbianism, for the simple reason that a man seems for another man to be a faraway goal because he is so unnatural; a woman, for a woman, seems to be a faraway goal, it seems so unnatural. A man and woman relationship is natural. So people are turning into homosexuals, lesbians. The reason is that when you make anything difficult, condemn it, repress it, it will become more and more attractive.

    In my commune nothing is repressed, hence everything, by and by, loses its attraction. One becomes more and more calm and quiet and settled. come06

    Many people become puzzled...just a few nights ago, a couple came to me and the husband was very much puzzled. He said, "What is happening to us? We are no more husband and wife--all sex has disappeared, but still we feel a deep intimacy." And I told them, "Something immensely valuable is happening. You are becoming brother and sister. Your love is taking on a new dimension, a higher one--that of nonsexuality. It is becoming purer."

    Hearing it, immediately everything became clear to them. They hugged each other, tears started flowing from their eyes. It was a beautiful scene to see--they understood it. Yes, it clicked. Yes, that's what is happening. They were worried because they came from the West--the East has always known it: that if love deepens it transforms the relationship; husbands and wives become brothers and sisters. And ultimately a moment comes when not even brothers and sisters...a kind of oneness arises, they become one. fish03

    Just the other day somebody had asked a question. He said that he has seen the most beautiful women around here that he has ever seen anywhere else, but they are non- erotic.

    Why is it so? It is so, his observation is right. If you meditate deeply you will become non-erotic. You will have a different kind of beauty, but it will not be erotic. It will start having the flavor of spirituality. It will start having the subtleness of grace, not the grossness of sexuality.

    Sex is gross because it is the lowest rung of your ladder. As energies move upwards a totally different kind of beauty and grace arises in you, which is divine. You become less and less of the body and more and more of the spirit. sos213

    Darshan: About Babies

    People ask me--sometimes a young man, sometimes a young woman--whether it would be a good thing for them to have a baby. I say to them, "First go deep into meditation, then you can become parents; otherwise, what will you have to offer your child? And if you don't have meditation, the child's presence will reveal all your weakness and all your poverty, because you will find you have nothing to give. So it is better that you first go deep into meditation and then become parents, because then you will be able to fulfill the responsibility of parenthood--and not as a duty, but blissfully."

    Give your children meditation as well as thinking.

    Thinking will help them to be successful in the world, and meditation will help them towards success in the divine. Give them thought to sharpen their intellects, give them meditation to nurture the sacred in their hearts. nowher10

    A sannyasin says she's pregnant. She'd decided to have an abortion and thought she was happy with the decision, but since then, whenever she thinks about it she feels a tremendous amount of sadness.

    Mm mm. This will be a momentary sadness. If you want to become a mother then you want to get into deeper troubles, because it is not a question that can be easily solved once the child is there. I don't think that you are ready to become a mother right now. But

    if you want to become one, that's your choice, mm?--that's your choice. But then you have to take the consequences also. Otherwise, everyday it happens, some sannyasin comes with two, three children, and they want Now what to do with those children?-- somebody has to take care of them. The mother cannot have her own growth, she cannot work; she has to take care of the children. And then there are complications.

    Once you have finished your growth-work then it is perfectly good. A child should be a leisure thing, mm? it should be the last luxury. Then you can treat yourself by being a mother, otherwise it will create complications. So you decide. Nobody is forcing you, it is for you to decide: if you want to become a mother then you want to become a mother. But then take the consequences also.

    People are not aware of what they are doing when they want to bring a child into the world. Otherwise they will feel sorry about that, rather than feeling sorry about an abortion. Just think of both the possibilities: what will you give to the child? What have you got to give to the child?

    You will bring your tensions into his being and he will repeat the same kind of life as yours. He will go to the psychoanalyst, he will go to the psychiatrist, and his whole life will be a problem--just as it is with everybody. What right have you to bring a soul into the world when you cannot give the person a whole and healthy being? It is a crime! People think otherwise: they think abortion is a crime. But the child will find some other mother, because nothing dies. And there are many, many women who will be happy to have the child; it is just that you will not be responsible for it.

    I am not saying not to become a mother; I am saying become a mother, but be aware that becoming a mother is a great art, it is a great achievement. First create that quality, that creativity, in you, that joy, that celebration, and then invite the child. Then you will have something to give to the child--your celebration, your song, your dance--and you will not create a pathological being. The world is already too crowded with pathological beings. Let some other planet suffer! Why this earth? In fact right now to think in terms of bringing a child is really criminal. The world is overcrowded. If a person has a little awareness, he will not bring a child into it at any cost; he will sacrifice his motherhood and fatherhood. The world is starving, people are dying and food is not there, the whole ecology is disturbed and life is going to be more and more ugly and hellish; this is not the right time.

    And even if you think that it is okay, that the world will look after itself, they will find some way, you still have to think about your child. Are you ready to be a mother?--that is the thing. And I don't mean by being ready to be a mother: are you ready to become pregnant. That is not being ready to be a mother; any woman can become pregnant. Pregnancy is not equivalent to motherhood. Pregnancy is a biological phenomenon. Every girl, a healthy girl, physically healthy, is able to become pregnant; but just because you can conceive it doesn't mean you have to have a child. Just think of many other things: you have to give a psychological womb to the child, a spiritual womb to the child. Is it ready? If it is ready, if you think it is ready, go ahead: have a child.

    I will start telling my people to have children, but let me prepare my people first. Then you will be happy to have a child and the child will be happy that he was fortunate to have a mother like you. Otherwise just go to any psychiatrist and ask 'What are people's problems?' They can be reduced to one thing: the mother. You ask the Primal therapist, you ask our therapists, 'What is the problem with people?' All problems can be reduced to the mother, because the mother was not capable of giving a psychological womb, the mother was not capable of giving a spiritual womb. Psychologically she was neurotic, spiritually she was empty, so there was no spiritual food for the child, no nourishment. The child comes into the world as a physical being, without a soul, without any centre. The mother was not centred; how can the child be centred? The child is simply a continuation, a continuity of the mother's being.

    You are young so there is no hurry. You can become pregnant again; there is no problem in it. But still, if you feel, 'No, this abortion is going to be very bad for me', have the child. I can only suggest, there is no order in it. Finally you have to decide on your own. Nobody can ever throw responsibility on me because these are just suggestions. Take it or leave it; that is up to you. And you are always responsible. If you take my advice, then you are responsible; if you don't take it, you are still responsible. I am just outside it. For me it is perfectly good, whether you become a mother or not is not a problem for me. But one should see all the implications of it.

    If one sees all the implications of it, very few people will decide to become fathers and mothers. And it would be a better world if fewer people decided to be mothers and fathers. It would be less crowded, less neurotic, less pathological, less crazy.

    Think about it. And don't be worried, just think; there is no hurry. For three days think, and then come to a decision and do whatsoever you feel. believ03

    A sannyasin says: I feel that I'm pregnant since we've been here. Is there any meditation or thing to do that will be helpful for the baby or for us?

    Just remain as happy and loving as possible. Avoid negativities--that's what destroys the mind of the child. When the child is in formation he not only follows your body, he follows your mind too, because those are the blueprints. So if you are negative, that negativity starts entering in the build-up of the child from the very beginning. It becomes almost built-in, and then it is a long, arduous journey to drop it. If mothers were a little more careful, no primal scream would be needed. If mothers were a little more careful, psychoanalysis as a profession would disappear.

    Psychoanalysis is doing great business because of mothers, because according to psychoanalysis man's only problem is the mother. If all the schools of psychoanalysis could be reduced to one single problem, it would be the mother. The mother is really of great significance because for nine months the child will live in the climate of the mother; he will imbibe her mind, her whole mind.

    So don't be negative. Be more and more in the yes mood--even sometimes when it looks hard. But that much sacrifice has to be made for the child. If you really want to have a child of some value, of some integrity, of some individuality, and a happy child, then that sacrifice has to be made. That is part of being a mother--that sacrifice. So don't be negative at all; avoid all negativities. Avoid anger, avoid jealousy, avoid possessiveness, nagging, fighting, avoid these spaces. These you cannot afford--you are creating a new being! The work is of such importance that one cannot be silly and stupid.

    Rejoice more and more, pray, dance, sing, listen to great music--not pop music. Listen to classical music, which is soothing and goes very deep into the unconscious, because the child can hear it only from there.

    Sit silently as much as you can, enjoy nature. Be with trees, birds, animals, because they are really innocent. They are still part of the garden of Eden--only Adam and Eve have been thrown out. Even the tree of knowledge is still in the garden of Eden; only Adam has been thrown out. So be with nature more, and relax so that the child grows in a relaxed womb, non-tense; otherwise from the very beginning the child starts becoming neurotic.

    To her husband, Osho says: And help her in these days so that she can be more positive. Don't provoke her into negativity. Give her more and more time so that she can sit silently, be with the trees, listen to the birds, the music. Avoid any situation in which you think it can become a provocation for her to become negative. Be more loving, rejoice in each other's silence more, because you are both giving birth to something which is divine. Each child is divine, and when something great is going to happen, a great guest is going to come to your home, you don't fight. And this may be the greatest guest that will ever come to you, so for these nine months be careful, cautious, watchful.

    Be more loving and less sexual. If sex happens out of being loving, it's okay--but not for sex's sake itself. From the very beginning that gives the child a deep-rooted sexuality. Sex is perfectly good in the context of love, as part of love--just as you hold hands and hug each other, as a part of love. One day you make love too but as part of love. It is not sexuality then; it is just a communion. You have not been thinking about sex; it has happened on its own. Playing with each other, being with each other, it has happened. You were not thinking of it, you were not brooding about it.

    If for these nine months you can avoid sex as sex, that will be a great gift to the child. Then his life will not be so obsessed with sex as people's lives are. Either they become too indulgent--which is obsession--or they become too repressive, too holy, too saintly; that too is obsession. In the world only these two types of people exist, and both are ill, both are pathological; the sinner and the saint are both pathological.

    A totally different kind, a third kind of human being, is needed. And that third kind of being will have this quality: no obsession with sex this way or that--neither against nor for; he will be exactly in the middle. Out of love sometimes he will move into sex, but then sex has a spiritual quality. It is not for sex itself. Because there will be no obsession

    with sex indulgence he will never become repressive. And because sex will have a spiritual quality it will give him glimpses of samadhi and he will start moving upwards, very slowly, very gradually, with no fuss about it. Otherwise spirituality makes so much fuss.

    A real spiritual person will not make much fuss; there is no need. He simply enjoys it, so he is not renouncing, he is not doing something great. He does not expect the whole world to give him attention and come and pay homage saying, "You are a great man because you have renounced this and you have renounced that." He does not renounce anything at all. He enjoys everything and because of his total enjoyment his energy starts becoming more and more delightful, and finally more and more lightful.

    So just these hints--you have to work them out. Good! athing07

    A sannyasin who is pregnant asks Osho for advice about the actual child birth.

    Just remain prayerful, meditative and delighting. When you start feeling that the child is coming, relax absolutely and help the child, don't fight it. Mm? we have been conditioned in such a way and we have been told that childbirth is very painful to the mother. That idea has been repeated so long that it has become very deeply rooted in us. It is an auto- hypnosis; there is no pain really. You believe, then it is there.

    In fact, there is a possibility of great ecstasy when the child is born. Once you can know that ecstasy, no love-making will ever give you that much ecstasy again--it is simply tremendous! So when you start feeling that the waves are coming, just cooperate, enjoy, start moving with the child, help the child--and wait with great expectation, that great ecstasy is going to be there. You will feel a great orgasm coming all over the body.

    Don't be shy--if you want to sing, sing; if you want to just utter gibberish, utter gibberish; if you just want to make sounds, make sounds; if you want to sway and move, sway and move. Don't bother about what others will say--just go into whatsoever spontaneously happens, and you will have known a great experience!

    In fact, that should be a must--because if the child's life starts with your pain, a conflict has started. The beginning is bad, and you will never have a real friendship with the child. He will look like the enemy: he has given you so much pain. So the very beginning of your relationship will be poisoned.

    If the child can give you great ecstasy, you will be grateful to him. And then there is the possibility of great friendship, of great love.

    So it is a must--not only for your being, but for the child's existence in the future, it is a must. What I am saying is that if it happens then the child will be very sane and will not have many kinds of mental illnesses that are naturally there with every child, with every human being, because the very beginning is wrong. The birth of a child in pain is a bad beginning, not a good start--the relationship is already of the enemy.

    So for these six or seven days, just relax, prepare, be joyful, meditate, pray to god. Just remember me, and when the child is coming take the locket in your hand and be ready for a great orgasm. And if it comes--it will come, I will see that it comes--don't resist! If you resist, it will be destroyed. It cannot come against you, it can come only through your cooperation.

    The primitives know how beautiful it is to give birth to a child. Never again does a woman come to that peak-- because it is the same energy source from where you attain the sexual orgasm. The child will be pushing the same energy source, will be trying to come out of the same tunnel from where you attain your sexual orgasm.

    In fact, why has this idea of pain arisen? My understanding is that sometimes if pleasure is too much it looks like pain--it is unbearable, then it looks like pain. That's why this idea that childbirth is painful has arisen in the human mind. It is really too pleasant--it is such intense pleasure, more than you have ever known before, so you misinterpret.

    It is unbearable; the happiness of it is so much, intolerable, you start feeling that you will die. So the idea of pain has arisen. And once it has arisen, by and by, it has got into the deepest unconscious and from there it is functioning. Just remember for these six days, every night when you go to sleep, remember that it is going to be a great day, a great experience, and the highest peak that you will ever attain. And it is going to be so!

    Let that day be of great ecstasy and meditation, of great joy. And if you can attain to an orgasm it will be a blessing to the child, because he will be coming out of a great orgasm, and you will feel grateful, always grateful towards him. You will always remember that day--it is impossible to forget it. And your relationship with the child will have a different quality.

    Everything is good, mm?

    To the father of the baby: Be there and help her to be ecstatic--and don't be there with a long face!

    Tell jokes and enjoy, mm? Don't be there with a long face--there is nothing to be sad about.

    Where will you be--in Ajit Saraswati's maternity home? (Ajit Saraswati is a sannyasin gynaecologist)

    He replies: Yes, we're going to rent a room...

    You can be there, mm? And a few sannyasins can be there. You can put on some music and incense and dance and sing. When a new guest is coming...!

    Invite a few sannyasins--they can dance and create joy and some energy there. Very good! madmen24

    Darshan: About Children

    A sannyasin asks: I'd just like to ask you about sannyas for my children. I have two children, six and eight, and they're probably going to come back with me in January for about six months.

    I have some doubts about sannyas, that it seems to be another form of baptism to put on them. Could you say something?

    No need to make them sannyasins just now; that will be a baptism and that is not good, mm? Let them come, let them feel. If they decide on their own, that's good; don't decide for them. Anything decided by somebody else is ugly; it is a kind of imprisonment, an indoctrination.

    So whether it is Christian or Hindu or Mohammedan doesn't matter. It can be my sannyas--it doesn't matter. If it is enforced by somebody else, with good wishes; that is not the point; that is not doubted at all. When you want your children to be sannyasins you want it with good wishes--you feel that will be a blessing for them, but that is your feeling --and even if it is right, it is wrong to impose it on them unless they decide on their own. So all that we can do for children is to just bring them into the situation where they can feel.

    And children are very perceptive. more perceptive than they will ever be again. Their eyes are more clear, they can see truth more easily than grown-up people because grown- up people have learned many things; the grown-ups naturally are conditioned more. Their mirror is no more a mirror: it has many clouds around it and much dust has gathered.

    So if you feel that something good is happening anywhere and you would like to share it with your children, bring the children to the situation and help them to be there, that's all.

    Never for a single moment enforce anything. don't even persuade. Don't even utter a single word about sannyas--let them come. They will be able to see, and if they feel, that's good; then they have the right to move into it.

    There is another kind of indoctrination which is anti--you can prevent them: when they want to do something, you prevent them; that too is the same. If the son of a Mohammedan wants to become Christian he will be prevented. That is in a negative way but again you are forcing something.

    If you love the child you love the child's freedom too. And never for a single moment think 'How can children think? How can they decide for themselves?' That is one of the

    oldest pieces of nonsense prevalent in the world--that people think 'How can the children think for themselves? We have to think for them!'

    If they cannot think for themselves then nobody else can...and I am not saying that they will always think rightly. Freedom to think implies freedom to go wrong; that's part of freedom. If you always insist for the right then you don't give the freedom at all. If you say only right should be done, then you decide what is right and you decide what is wrong and then again the freedom is crippled. Freedom means to do anything they want to.

    So bring them here, let them feel, and if they start feeling something then it is good. Mm? the day they want to take sannyas don't even come with them--let them come alone! stars12

    To a sannyasin, whose son had just been initiated into sannyas, Osho says that one should respect one's child, and that now her son was a sannyasin, she should regard him as a brother...

    A child is born to you, but he does not belong to you. Always remember that he has come through you. He has chosen you as a passage, but he has his own destiny.

    So giving him sannyas does not mean that you have to structure him. You are not to force anything on him. Sannyas is freedom, so give him freedom to be himself, and be alert not to impose anything. Love him as much as you can, but don't give your thoughts to him. When you meditate, just persuade him to be with you. Sometimes dance with him.

    And children can go into meditation very easily--one just has to know how to help them towards it. They cannot be coerced; that's impossible. Nobody can ever be coerced into meditation, because coercion is violence. How can one coerce meditation? It comes when it comes. But you can persuade.

    You can just invite him with tremendous respect. Dance with him, sing with him, sit in silence with him. By and by he will start imbibing it. By and by he will start enjoying the play of it. It cannot be a work for him. It cannot be a serious thing for him--it should not be for anybody. It can only be a play. So help him to play meditation...Let it be a game. Make it a game with him, and by and by he will start loving it. He will start asking you 'When are we going to play meditation?' And once he starts learning some ways of silence, then meditation has started working on him, and one day you will see that he is deeper in meditation than you had ever expected. So you have to make a meditative atmosphere.

    To make somebody a Christian is easy. You have just to impose a certain ideology, a catechism. You have to teach him that God is a trinity, and that Jesus is God's son and things like that, which can be learnt very easily, and which are very destructive, because the person will never be free to explore. These prejudices will always be there.

    So when I give sannyas to a child, it is not that you have to impose an ideology on him. You have just to persuade him towards meditativeness. It has nothing to do with any ideology--Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan; they are all irrelevant. It is more like love...it is a feeling. And if he can learn something of it, then it starts growing on its own. One day he will be grateful for it--that you helped him. Right now he cannot understand, so the whole responsibility is yours.

    And this is my observation--that if grownups are a little more meditative, children imbibe the spirit very easily. They are so sensitive. They learn whatsoever is there in the atmosphere; they learn the vibe of it. They never bother about what you say. What you are--they always respect that. And they have a very deep perceptivity, a clarity, an intuitiveness. You may be smiling but they will immediately know that it is false, because your eyes will be saying something else--and even more than that, your whole body will be saying something else, your gesture will be saying something else--that you are angry, that you are just pretending, that it is just a policy.

    They may not be able to formulate it in so many words, but they immediately feel it. So never be untrue with children because they will immediately know it. And once a child comes to know that his parents are untrue, his whole trust is lost. That is his first trust in life, his very base, and if that is lost he will become a sceptic. Then he cannot trust anybody. He cannot trust life, he cannot trust God, because those are very far away things. Even the father deceived, even the mother deceived; even they were not reliable, so what to say of anything else now?

    Once a child learns...and every child is going to learn; it is impossible to deceive a child. There is no method discovered up to now on how to deceive a child. He simply knows where you are, who you are. It is intuitive--it has nothing to do with his intellect. In fact, the more intellectual he will become, the more he will lose this intuitiveness, and he will not be able to see things as they are. Right now a child is immediate. He simply looks through and through. He looks at you and you are transparent. So never be deceptive....

    Love him and allow him to be a little meditative, and much is possible.

    That's why I say it is a great responsibility you have taken upon yourself. I cannot give him sannyas directly. It is through you, via you. So now you have to take care of two sannyasins--yourself and him. passio20

    A sannyasin, who is leaving, asks if she should stay at home and take care of her husband and children, or continue her work as a therapist. Osho asks if she needs to work for financial reasons, and she replies, "No".

    I think there is no need to work, but you can help the Meditation Centre there. Devote your time to the centre, whatsoever time you can give. And if they need it sometimes, you can lead groups there. But don't make it a whole time thing...so the family is not neglected.

    The family should not be neglected...because once children are neglected they will become accustomed to it, but they will become hard and for the whole of their lives they will suffer from the lack. If they have not been cared for they will not be able to care for others.

    This is a great problem that is facing the modern society, particularly in the West. If the father goes to work and the mother also goes to work then the children are almost orphans. And the presence of the mother in the home cannot be substituted by anybody else. It is not only a question of physical caring; it is a question of spiritual nourishment.

    So you cannot give the work to somebody else who is paid for it. Then it is totally different, its quality is different; there is no love involved in it. So, on the surface everything will be taken care of but deep down something will be missed. And the children may not ever become aware that they have missed something, but the whole of their lives will show it. That's what is happening on the psychiatrists' couches and in the mental hospitals. Out of four persons, three persons are mentally disturbed and the fourth is also suspicious.

    And love is the greatest therapy. So you will be running therapy groups for the children of some other mothers who have not loved them. And then some day your children will need therapy groups from somebody else! No need to work--take care of them. But you can devote. For your own growth it will be good, you can devote some time to the centre. sacyes13

    A sannyasin who is leaving says he is unsure whether to return or stay in the West and work to support his wife and children. He would prefer to be here.

    Just go and see what is possible. But don't be hard, mm? If it can be arranged in such a way that they don't suffer, arrange it and come. If you feel that it will be too much for them and they will suffer too much, then be there for a few more months and settle things by and by. Don't be in a hurry. By and by settle things....

    Just go and see. Just explain the whole thing to them--that you would like to come here....

    It is important for you to stay here, but that responsibility is there and those children will unnecessarily suffer, so that has also to be looked into. And sometimes to fulfill your responsibility is a great meditation. because you are sacrificing. They are your children and this is your responsibility, because you have given birth to them, to help them so that they can be on their own. Don't make it just a duty but a joy.

    Just go and see. If it is possible that nobody is hurt and things can settle, help them to settle and come back. If you feel it is difficult and it will not be possible, then wait, within a year, things will settle. Don't be worried, mm?--something will happen!

    Just see how things work out, but don't be in a hurry and don't be hard. Be loving and try to manage, I think within a year things will settle. Good! nobook28

    If what I am saying is heard, if what I am saying becomes prevalent in the world some day, then children will really love their parents, then children will be really in tune with their parents because the parents will not be enemies to them, they will be friends. parad106

    A child asks: What is my meditation?...I don't know what a meditation is.

    That's good! Mm, but you want to know? Mm mm. Start dancing! Wild dance is your meditation....

    To the mother: Tell him to go to the music group in the night so he can start dancing there.

    To the child: and when you are back home for at least twenty minutes, thirty minutes every night, dance. Put on any music and dance, enjoy dancing, and that will be your meditation. halle27

    When little Siddhartha first came... he was a small child, very small, maybe three years old or four years old. I can see exactly the moment he came to me.

    He had brought a small rug, and he came as if he was a grown-up. He unrolled the rug like the Zen disciples do, and he touched my feet. All those who were present started laughing. This little boy was doing a real thing, which is not expected from such a little boy. He touched my feet with great gratefulness, with grace, and then sat down on his rug.

    That's why I gave him the name Siddhartha. Siddhartha was Gautam Buddha's name given by his father. It is as beautiful as Buddha. It means one who has arrived: Siddhartha, one who has found the meaning, one who has found the significance of existence. zenman01

    An innocent mind can catch, can imbibe samadhi--he may not be able to understand what is happening.

    Many times it happens: when little Siddhartha comes for close-up or for charansparsh I can see it happening. He cannot understand what is happening, but he immediately goes into it. He will not be able to retain it because he is not aware of what happens, but he is open to me....

    He cannot understand what is happening, but he can go into it. Just the moment I see into his eyes he starts moving into samadhi. He can imbibe that opening. spcial07

    Darshan: Conflict with Family

    Just the other day there was a letter from a young boy from Germany. One month ago he also wrote--that he wants to become a sannyasin. He is only sixteen years old so I told him, "You inquire of your parents, ask their permission; otherwise they will create difficulties for you. If they allow, you are welcome."

    His answer has come and what he says is tremendously beautiful. He says, "Beloved Master, my parents will never understand you. We went to see the film about your ashram--I was the only one in my family who understood it. My father and mother were absolutely unable to comprehend it, what it was all about. And I am afraid that if I become more grown-up like them I may miss the opportunity. Moreover," he says, "I have dyed all my clothes orange so I am already half a sannyasin--just the mala is needed."

    He says, "I understood the film completely but my parents were simply confused by it. I have been trying to explain it to them, but they seem incapable of understanding." He also says, "I am afraid that if this is what happens when one becomes grown up, then I may miss the opportunity of becoming a sannyasin. So please, send the mala immediately before I become blind!"

    A child is not burdened with knowledge. You have to become a child again; then the work of a Buddha is very simple. It is the simplest work in the world--because the Buddha is not going to make you achieve something, he is simply helping you to see what is already the case. What can be more simple?

    But grown-up people are really blind, utterly deaf. Their hearts are closed, they can't feel, they are hung up in their heads, and to communicate with a Buddha you need an open heart. People are encapsulated in their thoughts, so much so, that they live in their own world, continuously imprisoned in their ideologies, in their words. You can't talk to them. You say one thing and they immediately understand something else. dh1204

    Another sannyasin says: I was wondering if you could give me some hints about life in the university and with the family because I'm going back sometime next week.

    It will be different--and it will be very good. It will give you new insight. Many things happen when you go back, because here you live in a different milieu. You will be going alone, the milieu will be left behind and you will enter into a totally different world, a different atmosphere. That will make you more sharp, centred. It will be a challenge, and you will have to respond more consciously.

    People will be arguing with you. They will think you are mad or something. People will think you have betrayed your religion, your country or something. You will have to be very very patient to understand what they are saying and to help them to understand what you are, where you are. And these things bring everything into focus. dance18

    Just two days ago a young sannyasin girl came to me and said, "My father is very worried. He says, 'How long are you going to go on with this meditation and sannyas? It's

    enough now, just come back and be a normal person again, live the way everyone else is living.'"

    The way everyone else lives is what we mean by normal. Mad though their way of life may be, the way everyone lives seem to be normal. Certainly when I knock on your door I am calling you to be something abnormal. I am beckoning you towards a life that others are not living that you will live...that will be unique, new, unknown. It needs courage. nowher15

    A friend has written--a sannyasin--that he left here dancing, ecstatic. His family had never seen him dancing and ecstatic. When he danced and was blissed out at home they thought he was insane. They came running, caught him, sat him down, and asked what happened. "Wait," he said, "nothing has happened to me. I am very happy, in bliss." The more he spoke of spiritual truths the more his family were sure something was wrong. They took him from the house and forced him to enter a hospital.

    A letter has come from him. He says, "I am lying here in the hospital laughing. This is great fun. When I was sad no one took me to get medical help. Now I am happy and people have brought me to the hospital. I am watching this drama. But they think I am insane. And the more they think I am mad the more I laugh! The more I laugh the more they think I am mad!" mahag106

    One man came to me and he said, "Since I have become a sannyasin, my children think that I have gone crazy, they laugh at me. Nothing hurts me more than this, that my own children...they look at me from the window, they don't come inside the room! They whisper to each other--I don't know what, but they talk about me. They think something has gone wrong."

    People are considering each other--and then there are millions of people to consider. If you go on considering each and everybody, you will never be an individual, you will be just a hodgepodge. So many compromises made, you would have committed suicide long ago. wisdom22

    A sannyasin says: I have guilt feelings towards my family. I feel I can't drop them right now.

    Then don't drop them! Who is telling you to drop them Just tell me, what is the problem with your parents?

    She replies: They don't accept me as a sannyasin. They're afraid to lose me.

    Then you will have to decide, because one day or other everybody has to go beyond the boundaries of the parents. Otherwise one never grows, one never becomes one's own self. There is no need to hurt them but there is no need to be dominated by them either. Just make it plain that this is how you would like to be. If they can accept you, perfectly good; if they can't accept you, then too that is perfectly good.

    The sannyasin says: I'm very afraid to hurt them.

    You need not positively hurt them, but if they feel hurt, that is their business, that is their problem; what can you do about it? Or if you want to drop sannyas you can do that. I am not saying anything to anybody. If you feel that you can't hurt them and that this will be hurting them, forget all about sannyas! Just be there...

    She says: I don't feel to drop sannyas. But I don't feel that I can resolve things this time.

    So next time you can; there is no hurry. Let it take a little time, there is no need to do it in a haste. This time go, be loving towards them, be respectful towards them, even if they reject you. They are your parents. You should not make it a condition that unless they accept you, you will not respect them; that again is forcing something on them. Be free and let them have their freedom. If they want to feel miserable about it, that too is their freedom; you cannot interfere in it. You can do everything possible not to make them miserable, but you cannot commit suicide just because they will be miserable.

    And their misery is just stupid, because you are not doing anything harmful to anybody. Just by becoming a sannyasin you have not harmed anybody. They must be having some very orthodox ideas. They don't know what religion is, they don't know what sannyas is. They must just be thinking that they have lost their hold on you. But that possessiveness is ugly, and they are being hurt by their possessiveness, not by your sannyas. That has to be understood: how can your sannyas hurt them? It is their possessiveness; they want to dominate you, they want to remain your boss. They would like you to do only that which they want you to do. But that is not right; that is destroying you. That is not love!

    My sister is writing that I will give them--yes, it's good blackmail--a heart attack if I come back here.

    Nobody has given anybody a heart attack. If they want to give themselves one, they can, but you cannot. Even if you die, do you think your father or your mother will die of a heart attack? Otherwise the world would be empty if people started dying like that! You have not done anything; you are just wearing orange clothes and they will have heart attacks! Then they must be waiting for it, asking for it.

    That is all stupid; these threats are just there to manipulate you.

    I don't feel the strength, the energy, to go against them; to say 'no'. I feel guilty.

    Just go there, see whatsoever happens, and whatsoever feels good, do. From my side, never feel guilty. If you drop sannyas I am perfectly happy. You look after the other side; from my side, never feel guilty. If you never come back there is no problem in it. I am not your father and I am not trying in any way to impose anything on you. Whatsoever you become, it's perfectly good. If you feel that this is less of a problem for you, drop sannyas. Choose whichever is the lesser evil, and I bless you either way. So from my side

    you are completely free; the other side you have to decide about. Just go and see whatsoever happens.

    If you feel the heart attack is coming, drop sannyas but ask the doctors first, don't trust your sister because a heart attack can be simulated. Ask the doctors; take your parents to the hospital and let them be checked. And if you see it is really coming and the cardiogram says, 'Now, beware!' simply drop sannyas; that's perfectly okay. With me there is no problem. All I am saying is that you have to be yourself and you have to learn to be free.

    These are all threats and they have violence in them. There are two kinds of violence: the male violence and the female violence. The male violence is aggressive, direct. The male violence says, 'If you don't listen to me, I will kill you!' The female violence says, 'If you don't listen to me, I will die.' But these are both violences, there is no difference.

    One is active, the other is passive--that's all. So don't be worried about this. Just go and see. And whatsoever you do is good. I am not here to create any problems for you; I am here to solve them, if I can. I will not burden you with new problems. So from my side you are going completely free, and there, just see--there is no need to decide right now-- and respond!

    And then come back. bite05

    A sannyasin says: I wrote you a letter about my mother. My grandfather is dying and my mother is very sick and your answer was go and serve them...I'm afraid about which situation I will find there.

    No, no, I will take care of you. You go, mm?--just help them; they need you. Let this be your meditation for a few months, mm? While you are there just help them and help them absolutely. Let them know what love is.

    Old people become helpless and nobody loves them, and in the West particularly they are really isolated. Nobody thinks of them, nobody is interested in them. This is a very ugly situation.

    So just go and let them have a feeling that they are respected, loved, that their life has not been in vain, that when they are gone, somebody will remember them. That gives a great centering to dying people, to old people.

    Just go and simply serve them, and with a smile and with a dance. Continue to meditate, and I will be with you. madgui25

    It happens many times to my sannyasins. When they want to go back to their homes they become a little apprehensive. They come to me and they say, "It is going to be difficult. My father won't understand me, my mother will not be able to see what has happened. When I go back they will not be able to see the fact: what has happened to me."

    I tell them, "Don't be worried. You simply go and you remain new. Don't try in any way to behave like the old." That has to be remembered because the temptation will be there. The mother is there, the father is there, the brothers are there, the whole milieu of the old, and the temptation will be that even if you have changed why create a disturbance for them? Just act like the old.

    But if you act like the old, that will be a deep disturbance for you. That will be a deception, that won't be authenticity. And in that way you are not going to help your family. That way you will be untrue to them.

    Be true. Even if they misunderstand in the beginning, accept that misunderstanding. It is natural. But you remain the one that you have become. Don't act; remain true. Sooner or later they will understand, and once they understand, your reality will start transforming them also. Reality is a great force.

    This happens many times. One sannyasin from England just wrote to me that "I was afraid, notwithstanding whatsoever you had said. I was afraid and as I came nearer to England my fear was tremendous. My father is very stubborn"--as fathers are--"and I thought: he won't understand, he won't even listen. He will think that I am mad and he will try and force me to go to a psychoanalyst. 'What has happened? Why are you wearing orange?' He is an old Christian, orthodox. It will be almost a shock."

    But he had to go back so he went. Now he has written: "They were shocked. They couldn't believe it. But as you had said, I tried not to be tempted to act. I remained true. And for the first time, after three or four days, they relaxed. Now for the first time something has transpired between me and my parents, something which I can call love-- which has never been there before. Fear was there, but not love. And they are asking me questions: what has happened to me? And they have even tried to meditate! "--which he thinks is a miracle. He thinks that I must be doing something from here.

    I'm not doing anything from here. Your truth, your authenticity, has a great power in it. Truth transforms not only you. Wherever you move, with whomsoever you relate, if you are true you become a great force. foll205

    Just the other day I received a letter from an old woman--I loved her letter. Her son was a sannyasin and he died just two weeks ago in a car accident. She writes to me: "I am grateful to you, because just before he died he came to see me after many many days, and he was so happy. I have never seen him so happy--he was almost dancing. And he was so loving to me...I have never seen him so loving. There has never been such a communion between me and him. There was always something like a wall separating us, but the day he came to see me, all barriers dropped. Although he died and I will never be able to see him again, I am immensely happy and grateful to you that you had made him laugh and sing and enjoy and you had helped him to drop his seriousness. He died joyously."

    It is from a mother. It is very difficult for a mother to accept the death of her son. But she could accept even the death, although she knows nothing of sannyas and she has never

    been here. But the one thing she understood was that something very essential had changed in the life of her son. She is not at all sad about his death. She is happy that before he died he had attained something; he had not lived in vain. come05

    A sannyasin says: I received a very strange letter today. My father requested that I say hello to you--which surprised me very much...I think that's his way of asking for your blessing.

    Mm...strange things happen. Life is more strange than any fiction...and more fictitious also.

    If one goes on believing and trusting, one comes to encounter miracles every moment. Just because we have lost the capacity to trust, much of the miraculous has disappeared from the world.

    So write him a hello from me, mm? (laughter) Good! plan01

    Darshan: Osho checks energy

    Often when sannyasins come with a problem, Osho 'checks their energy'. He may use a small torch to pin-point or focus energy. Sometimes there is a dramatic response in the person's body. Osho also asks other sannyasins present to sit with the person checked.

    A sannyasin says: I was really looking forward to coming to darshan tonight and then just sitting here...opposite you and facing you, just made me want to...cry (beginning to sob).

    Yes, I know! You can cry. I love people crying! It is good. Crying is beautiful. Don't take it amiss. It is beautiful...it is as beautiful as laughter.

    And I can see that it is not because of any misery that you want to cry. In fact you are surprised at your capacity to be happy. So you want to cry, that's all. Those tears are perfectly. You cannot believe. It is too good to be true. That's why it is happening. It is so much that you cannot say it in any other way so it comes out in tears. It is an overflowing heart. dance15

    Ordinarily we say that we breathe, and that's not true--life breathes us. But we go on thinking ourselves as doers, and that creates the trouble....

    Just sit and close your eyes. Raise your hands and allow your energy to go wild.

    The sannyasin sits in front of Osho as instructed. For a minute or two she is quite still, then a trembling of energy spreads through her body and steadily builds up to become an almost violent, thrashing movement. Her body jerks and trembles while grunts and

    groans are heard. The movement rises to a peak, and then falls away to a long slow 'aaahhh'...

    Good, come back, come back in control.

    Mm this way you have to allow, and then much will be possible. Energy is coming up and somehow you are controlling it. And this is the centre from where the control starts. Below it is the unconscious mind; above it, the conscious mind. This is the centre just in the middle, so a little control is possible there.

    Drop the control and then suddenly the energy will have an upsurge, a breakthrough. It will penetrate like a sharp knife, and may even be painful the first time it penetrates you.

    But then everything becomes so beautiful. Life is so tremendously beautiful. One has only to allow, and it is there just waiting for you, just for the asking. wobble08

    What about you? Something to say?

    Maria sits, silent, gazing into Osho's face.

    Then close your eyes and raise both your hands, and let energy flow. Feel me flowing in you, and if the body starts swaying and trembling, allow it, cooperate with it.

    Maria sits quite still and then very slowly her arms begin to rise, palms upturned, her mouth dropping open slightly. Slowly her hands move in front of her, arms extended, in a gesture of supplication, of receptivity.

    Osho shines a small pencil torch on her face and torso, and then sits, eyes closed, gently waving the torch backwards and forwards for several moments...

    Good, Maria, come back. Everything is going well.

    You have said it--and to say it through energy is a better way to say it. If you can be possessed by my energy and you can let go and can sway, you can convey more deeply that which cannot be conveyed by any verbal communication, because verbal communication is very superficial communication. All that is significant can only be conveyed through energy communication.

    Two lovers hold each other's hands and something is communicated. Or two lovers kiss each other, and something is communicated, or they embrace and something is communicated. When you allow yourself to be possessed by my energy, something in the deepest core of your being starts conveying, because those movements are not coming from your mind. It is a code. Those movements are coming from the very source of your being.

    Whenever you feel that you have something to say and you cannot find how to say it, say it through energy. You can dance, you can sing, you can just sit and allow things to happen. And all of my sannyasins by and by have to learn how to communicate through non-verbal energy, because by and by you will start feeling that it is more difficult to say anything, and you still want to say something. You have something to convey, but you don't know how to put it into words, how to tackle it through language; you cannot figure it out. So you want to say something and you don't find the right words to say it. Language is not adequate. It is a good indication that something deeper than the mind is happening.

    That which can be said simply shows that it is happening only in the mind; you have still not crossed the boundary of the mind, still the heart has not been touched. When the heart is touched, one feels almost incapable of saying anything. And there are even deeper layers than the heart.

    When the being is penetrated, one is simply at a loss. There is no way. One is simply dumb. That's what's happening to you. Good...be happy about it. Be happily dumb (a chuckle). Good. dance08

    A sannyasin sits without talking in front of Osho, and then with his encouragement, begins to allow her body to move spontaenously, sitting upright at first with her eyes closed, she suddenly falls into a bowing position, her head at Osho's feet. She slowly rolls over into a foetal posture, and then lies outstretched on her stomach, groaning, for some moments. She then rolls back again so that she lies at Osho's feet, on her back, her hand to her mouth...

    Your energy is flowing very well....

    Something very significant is close by. If your energy starts moving in the right rhythm It is only a question of rhythm. If you can vibrate in the right rhythm, you will be able to touch it. It is always a question of vibrancy.

    Existence is vibrating in a certain rhythm. If we can also vibrate in the same rhythm, there is a meeting immediately, a fusion, melting. We go on missing because we don't know what rhythm is and how to vibrate in the same rhythm. So close your eyes and start vibrating. You need not worry about what to do. Simply let go. By and by you will see a certain pattern, a certain field of energy arising around you. Do it for ten days every night and every day it will become more and more clear. And some day, something will happen. passio10

    A sannyasin says: I was aware of a tension in my third eye, and when I breathed into it-- into the third eye--it was burning. Then I had a catharsis. I went inside and the rest of my body was relaxed.

    Very good. Come here. Just look into my hand and if something starts happening in the body, allow it.

    She sits close to Osho's chair and, as instructed, begins to gaze steadily at Osho's outstretched hand.

    Almost immediately she begins to tremble, her torso and arms quivering gently at first and then more strongly. Finally the energy seems to take possession of her, flinging her to the ground, face downwards.

    After a few moments, Osho calls her back. She sits up, hair strewn wildly across her face and laughs for a moment in surprise at what has happened...

    Really good. It is something very beautiful and meaningful so don't get scared about it. Allow it to happen. The energy is reaching the third eye centre. When it reaches there, many manifestations happen in the body and you will feel almost as if it is burning. Sometimes the spot will be actually burned. There is an old woman here--she actually got the whole spot burned.

    When the energy is too much and too intense--it is electricity, body electricity--it can burn easily. But don't be worried; its being there is a great step towards growth. By and by your third eye will be able to absorb it, then the burning sensation will disappear. Suddenly, one day you will feel an almost ice-cool spot there: then the energy has settled. That ice-cool spot continues and that keeps you cool in any sort of circumstances. Somebody insults you--you remain cool. You fail in something--you remain cool. Then nothing can distract you once that third eye centre becomes cool.

    But it can become cool only when the energy moves there, works there, and settles there. In the beginning it will be really hot and fiery. The whole body will be relaxed--that's the beauty of it. Deep down inside you will feel relaxed. Nothing is happening there, everything is happening in the third eye.

    I can see that everything is going well. In the Tao group it will happen many more times. Allow it. If you become too afraid, remember me and leave it to me. Now I will do--your work is done! greatn06

    I am here; look into me, feel me, try to imbibe my spirit in you, let my flame come closer to you. Any moment there can be a jump--my flame can jump and light your unlit candle. Just come close, come close...and when I say come close I mean be more and more in love. Love is the only closeness there is; love is the only intimacy there is. It is not a question of physical closeness, it is a question of inner intimacy. Be open to me, as I am open to you; be available to me, as I am available to you. Don't be afraid, you have nothing to lose...except your chains. art10

    Later, a journalist asks Osho: I visited the ashram in Poona and often heard the word 'energy'. Please explain what energy is?

    There are things which can only be experienced and cannot be explained. For example, electricity is energy, but nobody has seen electricity in its purity, as energy. You have

    seen it in a lamp, as light; you have seen it moving a machine, a train; you have seen many manifestations of its work, but nobody has yet been able to see what it is that works....

    And the same is true about the word 'energy'. You may have heard my sannyasins continuously talking about it, and naturally you must have thought at least 'Thomas Alva Edison' knows the answer. But I don't know! I can only say how it works....

    Energy is our basic constituent. Its expressions may be different: it may express as love, it may express as laughter, it may express as silence. When sannyasins talk about energy they are talking about a special implication, implementation, of this energy.

    They are all meditating, and meditation certainly gives the energy a new dimension. It immediately starts moving around the person, and if many persons are meditating it becomes an energy field. Those who are open can just enter into the group and, they will be surprised, just as you touch an open wire of electricity and it gives you a shock, in an energy field if you are open you can feel it immediately engulfing you, overpowering you. This makes many people afraid of coming to the communes, coming to the sannyasins--they think it is something like mesmerism or hypnotism. It is neither hypnotism nor mesmerism, it is simply that so many people have pooled their energy in their silence that when you enter into the group you cannot remain unaffected by it.

    That's why I said, "It can be experienced but it cannot be explained." And all these communes that I have been creating around the world are just for that single purpose. Anybody who wants what this energy is can be a guest in a commune for seven days, mix with the commune for seven days, and feel it. You will know what it is, but you will not be able to tell anybody else what it is.

    The ultimate always is beyond explanation. But it is not beyond experience. last514

    Leaving Darshans

    You are asking: You talk a lot to us about how important satsang is, being in the presence of an enlightened, liberated man. Yet a lot of your sannyasins spend most of their lives away from you. If it was up to you would you have all of us live here in Poona with you all the time?

    No. Because to be in the presence too much can be an overdose. Rather than helping it can hinder you. Everything should always be in proportion and in balance. It is possible when something is sweet that you can eat more of it than you should. You can forget your need; you can overstuff yourself. And satsang is sweet it is the sweetest thing in the world. In fact it is alcoholic...you can become a drunkard. That will not liberate you; that will create a new bondage.

    Being near a Master can either become a bondage or a liberation, it depends. Just by being near, there is no necessity that you will be liberated: you can get indigestion; and you can become addicted to the presence. No, that is not good. Whenever I feel that somebody needs a space of his own, whenever I feel that somebody needs to go away from me, I send him away. It is good to create hunger, then satiety goes deep. And if you are with me too much you may become even oblivious of me. Not only indigestion, you may completely forget me....

    Things are complex. Sometimes I send you away to feel me more. It is needed. A separation is needed so that you can come close again. There must be a rhythm of being with the Master and not being with the Master. In that rhythm many possibilities open because, finally, you have to be on your own. The Master cannot be with you forever and forever. One day suddenly I will disappear--"dust unto dust." You will not be able to grope for me. Then, if you have become too addicted to me and you cannot be without me you will suffer, unnecessarily suffer. And I am here not to give you suffering; I am here to make you capable of more and more bliss. It is good sometimes that you go far away in the world, have your own space, move in it, live in it.

    And whatsoever you have gained here with me, test it in life, because an ashram is not in life. An ashram at the most can be a discipline; it is not an alternative life. At the most it can be a school where you have a few glimpses. Then you carry those glimpses in the world--there is the criterion, the test. If they prove real there, only then were they real.

    Living in an ashram, living with a liberated man, living in his energy field, you may many times be deceived that you have attained something. It may not be your attainment; it may be just because of the magnetism that you touch new dimensions. But when I am not there and the atmosphere of the ashram is not there and you move in the ordinary day-to-day world, the world of the market, the office, the factory--if you can carry the goal that you have attained here and it is not disturbed, then really you have attained something. Otherwise you can live here in a dream, in an illusion.

    No, if it were possible for me to have you all here, then too I would have sent you. I would have actually done as I am doing now; there would have been no change. This exactly is helpful as it is.

    Don't feel hurt when I send you away--you need it. And don't feel too elated when I tell you to be here--that too is a need. Both are needs. And don't make a fixed principle, because things are very complex, and every individual is unique.

    Sometimes I allow somebody to be here because he is so dead he takes a long time to evolve. Somebody evolves so soon--then within weeks I say, "Go." So just being here don't feel elated, and don't feel hurt if I send you away. Sometimes I retain somebody because he is very balanced and there is no fear yet that he will eat too much, fall the victim of the disease of overdose; then I allow him.

    Sometimes when somebody, I feel, has attained something, then too I send him away; because only the world can be the proof of whether you have attained or not. In the isolation of an ashram, in a different atmosphere, you may have glimpses because you become part of the collective mind that exists here. You start riding on my waves; they may not be yours. But when you go home you have to ride on your own waves--may be small, but better because they are your own, truer to you, and finally they alone have to take you to the other shore. I can only indicate the way.

    A Master should not become a bondage; and it is very easy for a Master to become a bondage. Love can always be converted into bondage. It can always become an imprisonment. Love should be a freedom; it should help you to be liberated from all fetters and bondages. So I have to keep myself continuously alert: who has to be sent, who has to be allowed to stay here, and how much.

    A rhythm is needed--sometimes being with me and sometimes not being with me. A day will come, you will feel the same. Then I will be happy with you. Whether with me or not with me you remain the same; whether here in the ashram, meditating, or working in the marketplace you remain the same--nothing touches you; you are in the world but the world is not in you: then you make me happy. Then you are fulfilled. yoga602

    A sannyasin asks: I'm going back to Scotland. The question comes to me of whether I should make this sort of decision myself or should I come to you and ask?

    When you cannot make the decision, when it seems impossible, only then. If you can make the decision, there is no need. You make the decision. One has to learn by and by to be on one's own and one has to trust oneself more and more. My help should not become a dependence. It should help you to become really more alert, more trusting of your own life, of your own heart's voice.

    So when you come to me and ask, it is not that I answer. I have to search into your heart to see what really would have been your decision if your own heart were functioning. I never give any decision on my own because that would be destructive. It would be something from the outside. So when you ask, I look into you; I don't decide. I look into you, I feel you, I see your own heart which you cannot see, and I let that heart decide. So at the most I interpret your heart to you. I am a midwife.

    So if you can decide, good. By and by you will start listening to your own inner core and what it is saying. And that trust has to arise. Otherwise trusting in me can become dangerous to you, because then you're always depending on some outside agent. It can become a habit, so that when you are alone or when you have gone far away from me you will be at a loss as to what to do.

    So even while you are here, whatsoever you can decide, decide. When you feel that it is almost impossible for you to come to a decision, the pros and cons are almost balancing, you are divided half and half, then only come to me. And then too, I can help you; I don't

    impose anything on you. At the most I become a bridge between you and yourself. That's my function.

    So by and by you can see the bridge, and you can go on moving from yourself to your real self; my need is less and less. One day there is nothing that you cannot decide. Then you have come of age. You become mature and ripe.

    So the first effort should be to decide on your own, otherwise people start coming for small things; that's bad. That is dangerous, a very harmful practice, because then you will lose all direction and you will always depend on some outside authority to tell you what to do and what not to do. That's what has happened to the whole of humanity. Every child is being directed by the parents, the society, by the teachers, the authorities, the priest, the state. There are so many people leading you so you lose all sense of direction. Whenever these authorities are not there, you are simply stuck. You cannot move; you are paralysed. So if your father is not there, you seek a father-figure.

    If your belief in one religion is gone, you immediately turn to another religion. If you stop going to one church, you start going to another church, but somewhere or other you are seeking the priest, somebody to tell you what is right, somebody to give you the commandment: 'This is right'; somebody to give you a sense of certainty that he knows. If you stop going to churches, you go to a psychoanalyst to tell you something, or you go to the politician. But you always go to somebody and you never come home.

    A master is not an authority, and whenever you see that a master has become an authority, he is not a master; he has become poisonous. A master is at the most a very polite hint, not an authority.

    He simply cares about you. He has no ideas to impose, no directions to give. He has no commandments. He is not in any way an expert. He simply loves you, cares about you, and under his care you start growing.

    Now it is a very paradoxical thing: you have to be helped but in such a way that the help does not become a habit; that is the paradox. Help can be withdrawn completely but then you are not helped. Then your freedom will become licence. You will move not knowing where you are going. You will stumble here and there almost like a drunkard, or you may start moving in a vicious circle.

    So to be left totally alone is dangerous and to depend totally on somebody is also dangerous. Somewhere between the two is the golden mean--to depend and yet not to depend. Take as much help as you can from me, but the help is to make you more mature. The help is to make you so alert that less and less help is needed; the help is not to make you more helpless. So, increasingly less and less help should be needed. That should be the basic effort. So always decide.

    Whenever you see some problem has arisen, it is a good opportunity, a challenge, a critical moment. Use it creatively, find out ways and means. Listen silently to your own

    heart and if a certainty arises from there, good; you have taken my help already. But only in rare moments when you cannot decide, when the darkness is too much and you are absolutely confused--if you decide this and the mind says that, if you decide that and the mind says this, and you go on hanging between the two; you cannot even see that one voice is the voice of your major being, you are divided fifty/fifty--then only come to me. Then too, remember always that it is not my advice that I am giving to you. It is your innermost heart that I am handing over to you. Soon you will start seeing it. roseis26

    Osho usually advises visiting students to complete their formal education, unless they are not enjoying it:

    A new sannyasin asks if she should complete the last year of her bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy.

    It is good to continue and to finish it. It will be helpful. Philosophy cannot give much, but it can give you a framework. It can give you a certain language to understand things, a certain clarity about concepts. It cannot give anything existential, but it can give you an intellectual clarity. And it is good training. One should not think that anything is achieved through it, but it can clear the ground for something to be achieved. So, good...one year is there. You finish it. roseis04

    Osho often reminds sannyasins to meditate. Besides a new name, wearing orange and mala, the only requirement to be a sannyasin is one hour's meditation a day:

    Back home, continue to meditate--at least one meditation each day. And this is going to be your moment-to-moment meditation: remember to feel blessed. If you can do that much, when you come back next time much will be possible. cypres01

    A sannyasin asks: I've been a doctor for the past ten years in Canada, working as a general practitioner and also an anesthetist. I don't know whether to return to that or to be here.

    It is good to continue the work and to continue working on yourself side by side. It is always good to be in the world. Never be an escapist because escape is not going to help. The best arrangement is to work in the world but don't be lost in it. Work for five or six hours and then forget all about it. Give at least two hours for your inner growth, a few hours for your relationship, love, children, friends, society.

    Your profession should only be a part of life. It should not overlap into every dimension of your life, as ordinarily it does. A doctor becomes almost a twenty-four-hour doctor. He thinks about it, he talks about it. Even when he is eating he is a doctor. While he is making love to his woman, he is a doctor. Then it is a madness; it is insane.

    To avoid this, people escape. Then they become twenty-four-hour sannyasins. Again they are making the same mistake--the mistake of being in anything for twenty-four hours.

    My whole effort is to help you to be in the world and yet to be a sannyasin.

    Of course it is more difficult because there will be more challenge and situations. It is easier to be either a doctor or a sannyasin. It will be difficult to be both because that will give you many contradictory situations. But a person grows when there are contradictory situations. In the turmoil, in that clash of the contradictions, integrity is born. You become more centred.

    My suggestion is that you go back but with this decision: that you work for six or eight hours and then for the remaining sixteen hours you are not a doctor at all. Use those sixteen hours for other things: for sleep, for music, for poetry, for meditation, for love, or just fooling around.

    That too is needed. If a person becomes too wise and cannot fool around, he becomes heavy, sombre, serious. He misses life.

    So a wise man has to be so wise that he can allow himself a little foolishness also. That is the greatest wisdom: to use foolishness also as a part of life so that you can laugh--not only at others but at yourself also; so that you can play for no profit, no motive; so that you can simply relate to people for no reason whatsoever. You can do many things that are not economical, not political; things that are just for pleasure.

    One should also remain a child. If you can find an old man collecting stones on the seashore, then he has understood life. If he can still enjoy collecting seashells just like a small child, with reverence and awe, full of as much wonder and surprise as if he has come across treasures, then he is really wise. He has matured.

    Real maturity always retains something of childhood, and a real wise man always remains available to foolishness also.

    So my suggestion is that you be here for as long as you want, and then go. Continue your profession back there as a sannyasin. Move in orange and let people laugh. You can also laugh with them.

    Life should be multi-dimensional; then it is rich. A doctor is monotonous; a politician is monotonous. Just one tone, just one note, they go on repeating, repeating, repeating. So seek, discover, investigate new realms and make life as rich as possible.

    Life should be of many colours, rainbow-like. All the colours should be there. One can face God only when one has become like a rainbow, with all the colours absorbed-- nothing sacrificed, nothing excluded, everything included.

    Whenever you can come here, come, and then go back. Later on, finally you can settle here, but here also you have to be a doctor, mm? Good! cypres03

    A sannyasin, who is leaving, says: It's very hard for me to leave you.

    Yes, it is hard for me too! You don't understand my trouble: every day so many sannyasins leave me; just think of me! letgo02

    Osho often gives sannyasins a small handcrafted wooden box when they are leaving. A sannyasin says she feels sad at the thought of leaving. Don't feel sad...but it's natural. Soon you will be back.

    You will feel sadness but it is good; that too is part of growth. Sometimes one needs sadness too. Remaining just happy by and by becomes shallow. You need to move to the opposite polarity. The day should become the night too. And height is good but depth is also needed.

    Somehow humanity has missed the beauty of sadness. It is tremendously beautiful, because the pain that it brings is a growth pain, a birth pain. So it is good to be here with me, and happy; then to go and be a little sad. Then you will come again with more possibility to grow.

    It is going to be just like a little fast, mm? The fast helps the hunger to come back. If you are here with me too long, by and by there is every possibility that you will start forgetting me, because that which is too close, that which is too obvious, is forgotten. That's how we have forgotten ourselves--we are so close to ourselves, and a little distance is needed.

    I know you will be sad, but accept that sadness and be grateful. That too is good. Go with total acceptance of whatsoever is. Say yes to everything, whatsoever happens, and then each moment brings infinite possibilities for growth.

    And I am coming with you. You will just have to learn how to feel me when I am not physically close; that's a learning. Once you know the knack of it, it is very simple. And you can feel even closer than when you are physically near me, because when the hunger is deep and you miss me, the urge is greater. When the urge becomes intense, the distance, the physical distance disappears, and the distance in time also disappears.

    People who still love Jesus become contemporaries of him, and he of them--after two thousand years. People who love Buddha suddenly can move into a different world; suddenly they are walking with him after twenty-five centuries--they can be with him.

    But very great intensity is needed, mm? So if you are really intense--and the intensity will come the more you will be there, far away--when you really feel the urge to be near me, keep this box in your hand this way, (Osho places the small wooden box in his left hand with the right one covering it) as if you are protecting something tremendously valuable, delicate, fragile...a flower. Then close your eyes and just remember me. Just remember as I am sitting here, just the same way. And immediately the whole climate will change. Either I will have to be there, or you will be here, but the climate will change Good.

    And go happily. wobble21

    Just a small sannyasin, Dheeresh, was going back to London. I gave him a box and told him not to open it. He said. "Yes, I will not open it." And then I talked to his mother, and again I told him, "Remember not to open it." He said, "I will never open it." The mother said. "He has already opened it!" yoga710

    Darshan: Sharing Osho's Vision

    To a sannyasin leaving for the West:

    Travel and spread my word!

    Every sannyasin has to do it now. Let it be your joy to share me with people. You have something immensely valuable to share, you are fortunate; don't be a miser and don't hold it. And it is needed immensely; people are in a desperate search for something, and because they are in a desperate search they become victims. There are many people around who are exploiting the spiritual urge of people.

    The urge is so new: for many centuries there has not been such an upheaval in human consciousness. This upheaval comes only after twenty-five centuries; it is a cycle. The highest peak of that cycle was when Buddha was alive. In India was Gautam Buddha, Mahavira and many other great teachers. In China was Lao Tzu, Lieh Tzu and Chuang Tzu and many other great teachers. In Iran was Zarathustra and in Greece was Socrates and Heraclitus, Pythagoras and many other great teachers. The world has never known a moment like that. It was a great upsurge of human consciousness. That moment is again coming close by; twenty-five centuries are complete.

    This age is going to touch its climax, hence so much search, particularly in the young people because they are the first to herald a new age. They are always the first to understand and to receive the new. The churches are dead and the people who go to the churches are dead. They don't belong to the future and the future does not belong to them. They cannot understand what is happening. They go on reading their bible or their gita and they don't understand that god is penetrating the world again, that a great climax is coming. And after that, humanity will enter a totally new kind of space, a new age.

    It entered a new age after Buddha. Religion was completely transformed: a new quality was brought to it, the quality of love. Before Buddha, religion was very cruel; that's why prophets who preceded Buddha look a little primitive. Their god was very vengeful, jealous, envious, angry, unforgiving. After Buddha, religion became soft and feminine; it became more aesthetic. It was no more masculine, aggressive, primitive, barbarian. God was no more an angry god; god was love. That's what Buddha and Christ brought to the world.

    Now again, a new step has to be taken and humanity will have to prepare before it can take the jump. This time it is going to be celebration that will enter into religion. Love is good but unless it is a dancing love and a celebrating love, it is mild, it has no passion in it. Now religion has to become celebration: celebration of life, reverence for life.

    First god was masculine, then god became feminine. Now god will no more be separate; god will not be a creator as opposed to creation. The next step in human evolution is that god will be creativity, not separate, not a person at all, neither male nor female. God will be simply godliness--no more god...a fragrance, not something concrete, very elusive and mysterious.

    Celebration is going to be the virtue. The non-celebrating person will be the sinner. So help people to become more celebrating. That is the message of sannyas--spread it! sunsun15

    A sannyasin, returning to the west, had previously written to Osho about starting a centre there--she wants to share Osho without coming on as a missionary.

    When I say don't be a missionary, I mean don't impose yourself upon others. Share, but don't impose. Sharing is totally different, it is very respectful towards the other person. Sharing is not violent, imposing is. You are not respectful towards the other person, you are simply using the other person as a means; you are only interested in converting him. That is wrong. Never use a person as a means to anything, because each person is an end unto himself.

    The missionary is very disrespectful towards the person. His whole idea is how to convert him, how to make one more person part of his sect. He is not really interested in sharing. Sharing is totally different: you share because you have experienced something, because you have seen something. You share unconditionally. If the person becomes converted that is just a by-product but that is not the motive of it. If he does not become part of it, you are perfectly happy: happy, because you shared. Your work is finished. You are not looking for any result.

    You meet a person and you share whatsoever you have seen, and there it is finished! Now, how the person responds to it is up to him. He may forget all about it; that's perfectly good, he has the right! He is not obliged to remember it. If he does not even thank you, that's perfectly okay, because even to ask for a thank you is ugly. You shared out of your joy, not for anything else. Or he may jump into the boat with you. That too is okay. Sharing is not result-oriented; the missionary is result-oriented: he shares only to convert. Sharing converts sometimes; that is an altogether different matter.

    I saw in your letter that you are too worried that you may become a missionary. And it is good to be conscious about the possibility, otherwise one tends to become a missionary. Just share and forget about it. Sow the seeds and go on moving and don't look back to see what is happening to those seeds. In their time, when the spring comes, something will happen.

    The founder of the Theosophical movement, Blavatsky, used to carry two bags on both her shoulders, big bags, full of seeds. Wherever she would travel...if she were travelling in a train, she would sit by the side of the window and go on throwing seeds. She might never come across that patch of land again. People were puzzled and they would ask, 'What are you doing?' She would say, 'These are beautiful seeds, and when the rains come they will bloom.' Those people were naturally puzzled. They would say, 'Will you be coming this way again?' She would say, 'I am a world traveller, I may never come again; but that doesn't matter! Somebody will pass, somebody will see the flowers, somebody will be happy--that is enough. Just to conceive of it, to contemplate on it, that next time after the rains and when this train goes by, thousands of passengers will be able to smell those flowers! To see those colours is more than enough! What more can one ask?'

    This is what sharing is: you simply go on throwing the seeds. So you travel, mm? and throw the seeds! Good. believ21

    There are many of Osho's Meditation Centres and residential ashrams around the world; he gives names for them

    And you can start a small centre in your home.

    I don't know if I am able.

    Mm! That I will make you. I make people out of nothings--don't be worried (laughter). That's my whole work.

    Just start with a small beginning--don't think of big things. A small tree sooner or later becomes a big tree, mm? You think only about the seed and the tree will take care of itself. Just go there, have a few tapes, books, and ask friends to come. You will be there in orange, and they will be interested in what has happened...call them, tell them. Just show them a few meditations, and a few are bound to be interested. Then things start rolling, mm? plan12

    A new sannyasin says: I'm just a little bit worried about when I leave here and I go back to Mozambique. There's no sannyas centre there and no sannyasins.

    You will become my centre...you will become my centre. That's how my centres start. Don't be worried! And soon sannyasins will be coming--I will manage it! sacyes04

    A sannyasins says: I am going to live on a small farm in Ireland. And I'd like to see it grow into an ashram.

    In Ireland? Try! I will give you a name. So make a small centre there.

    Osho gives the name 'Upashanta' and talks 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 somebody...has not been destructive, and has been creative. What more can a man hope for?

    Will it be easy to pronounce? Upashanta. Good! whatis27

    Purvodaya--a rambling South German farmhouse, long-time sannyas centre, a commune of sannyasins, kids, chickens, fruit trees, continual groups happening there, book and tape distribution throughout Germany. Massive organisation, sometimes efficient, sometimes chaotic.

    Siddhartha, who runs the centre says: I love my community and my family, but yet I cannot float totally with the difficulties there are. So millions of questions arise and no answer satisfies me.

    You are just taking the whole thing too seriously, that's all, and because of that seriousness you feel it as a burden and you create a burden for others too. Let things move in a more relaxed way. Don't make it something that you have to do. Don't make it a point of prestige. You are not to prove anything by it. Enjoy it. Let it be a play. If something happens, good; if nothing happens, that too is good.

    And we are only here on the earth for a few days. Sooner or later everybody is gone, and Purvodaya will be looked after by somebody else, so why bother so much? And I am not saying that if you bother less, less work will happen. More work will happen, because in a relaxed mind you have more energy, more creativity, more inventiveness. And when you are relaxed you help others to relax. When you are playful, you help others to be playful, and in playfulness much happens. In fact all creativity is a kind of play. Serious people cannot create anything; their whole energy is lost in their being serious.

    So be a little less German...a little less serious. And things will be okay--nothing to be worried about.

    This robe for you. leap11

    Development of the Ashram

    Until September 1974, there is little organisation in the ashram. Osho gives directions through Vivek, who looks after his well-being and household, and through his secretary, Laxmi, who is responsible for the ashram. Now, as more people participate, rules are introduced, and guarding at the gates.

    I give you freedom because I love freedom, but the ashram cannot give you freedom, the ashram is part of the world, the mundane world. That distinction you have to keep in mind. Don't identify me with the ashram.

    I may be a guest here, as you are, but I am also an outsider. This ashram is not mine--no ashram can be. The ashram exists for some other functions. It is an organization! An organization has to be an organization. Rules and regulations. How can you be loose and free in it? You cannot be. But you have to suffer the ashram for me. So just feel pity for it and don't get disturbed. treas404

    My trust is in the individual, I don't trust the crowd. The crowd is by its nature ugly. My sannyasins are connected with me individually. My sannyasins are not in fact connected to any organisation.

    If you see any kind of organisation, it is just like the post office or the railway management. It is not a church, it is just to make me available to you more easily, more comfortably--otherwise I would be crowded and it would not be possible to work at all. The organisation is there just like the postal department. It is needed. But it is not an institution. Its function is there, its utility is there, but it is not a church. My sannyasins don't belong to any organisation, they belong to me. And each sannyasin belongs directly to me, it is not via the organisation. The organisation is there only to facilitate things. It is not a party, a sect, a church; it is nothing of the kind. sufis108

    This ashram is just a device, nothing else. I am not interested in creating a monastery or an ashram. This is just a device so that people can be here with me and learn how to love and surrender...how to transform small things into great. how to transform cleaning into prayer or cooking into worship, or typing or editing or guarding or gardening into holy experiences. greatn12

    You are asking: You said that you never came across a woman who is really intelligent. But how come in the ashram all the executives are women? Because I don't want the ashram to be run by intellect. I want it to be run by the heart. I don't want it to be run by the male mind. I want it to be run by the feminine heart...because, to me, to be feminine is to become vulnerable, to become receptive. To be feminine is to become passive, to be feminine is to allow; to be feminine is to wait, to be feminine is not to be in a hurry and tense; to be feminine is to be in love. Yes, the ashram is run by women, because I want it to be run by the heart.

    I say I never came across a woman who is really intelligent. I mean 'intellectual,' not the intelligence I was talking about just now. That intelligence is neither male nor female. That intelligence is of the no-mind. Mind is male, mind is female--no-mind is none. No- mind has no sex to it. No-mind is just an openness, a space. There all dualities disappear- -male/female, yin/yang, positive/negative, existence/non-existence. All dualities disappear in the no mind, but before that no-mind comes, if you have to choose in the mind, then choose the feminine mind rather than the male mind--because male mind has an aggression to it....

    The feminine is not the goal--the feminine is nearer to the no-mind. That's why Lao Tzu goes on insisting, "Become passive. Wait, patience. Don't be in a hurry. And don't be aggressive," because truth cannot be conquered. You can only surrender to it.

    So the ashram will be run by women till I find people who have no-minds. When the no- minds are available then there will be no question of male and female; then the ashram will be run by no-minds. Then a different type of intelligence functions. In fact then only, intelligence functions: it is not intellectual; it is total. yoga508

    In India people have the idea, particularly the villagers--and eighty percent of India consists of villages--that if you serve a saint you earn tremendous virtue, punya merit, and you will be rewarded greatly in heaven, so you have to serve a saint. Now whether the saint wants to be served or not, that is not the point at all! So many times I had to force people to go out of my room because they wanted to serve me....

    They would force themselves upon me.

    It is out of those twenty years of experience that in my ashram you see guards--because the people have served me so much, I am tired of it!...

    And people ask me why there are guards! You cannot imagine what would happen to me if there were not guards--you cannot imagine! theolo04

    Osho advises a sannyasin on guarding in the ashram:

    Guarding can be very very useful--it can become a great meditation if you do it rightly, because all that is needed for the meditation is a requirement for being a good guard. For

    example you have to be alert, very alert, you have to be watchful about who is passing and what is happening all around...and that's what meditation is!

    There is a hassidic parable. A hassidic rabbi could not sleep one night, so in the middle of the night he came out of his house and walked on the road. There he met another man who was guarding a rich man's house, so they walked together, and the rabbi asked him, 'What kind of work do you do?' And he said, 'I am a watchman.' The watchman asked, 'What kind of work do you do?'

    And the rabbi laughed--he said, 'I am also a watchman but not as good as you! I fall asleep many times. My alertness is not perfect--I miss. There are gaps in my watchfulness.'

    Meditation is a kind of watchfulness and a sitting, just looking around with no purpose-- because there is no purpose. If anybody passes by you have to look without any purpose, without any judgement; you have just to see. That is another quality of meditation: to look at things without any kind of prejudice--good or bad--without any judgement. And then sitting there the whole day doing nothing the energy settles--it is not hectic; it rests.

    That is another quality of meditation. That's why zen people call their meditation 'zazen'; zazen means sitting and doing nothing. The very word zazen, means sitting doing nothing. The work of a guard can become zazen. stars27

    Osho’s Discourses

    In October 1974 Osho comments on Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing. Osho later said that if he had to choose the most important books in the world, Hsin Hsin Ming would be one of them, with Hakim Sanai's Haddiqa, and Vigyan Bhairava Tantra.

    We will be entering the beautiful world of a Zen Master's no-mind. Sosan is the third Zen Patriarch. Nothing much is known about him--this is as it should be, because history records only violence. History does not record silence--it cannot record it. All records are of disturbance. Whenever someone becomes really silent, he disappears from all records, he is no more a part of our madness. So it is as it should be....

    One thing I would like to say, and you have to remember it: Zen is a crossbreeding. And just as more beautiful flowers can come out of crossbreeding, and more beautiful children are born out of crossbreeding, the same has happened with Zen.

    Zen is a crossbreeding between Buddha's thought and Lao Tzu's thought. It is a great meeting, the greatest that ever took place. That's why Zen is more beautiful than Buddha's thought and more beautiful than Lao Tzu's thought. It is a tare flowering of the highest peaks and the meeting of those peaks. Zen is neither Buddhist nor Taoist, but it carries both within it....

    When a Sosan speaks, he speaks totally on a different plane. He is not interested in speaking; he is not interested in influencing anybody; he is not trying to convince you about some theory or philosophy or ism. No, when he speaks his silence blooms. When he speaks he is saying that which he has come to know and would like to share with you. It is not to convince you, remember--it is just to share with you. And if you can understand a single word of his, you will feel a tremendous silence being released within you.

    Just hearing here...We will be talking about Sosan and his words. If you listen attentively, suddenly you will feel a release of silence within you. These words are atomic, they are full of energy. Whenever a person who has attained says something, the word is a seed and for millions of years the word will remain a seed and will seek a heart.

    If you are ready, ready to become the soil, then these words, these tremendously powerful words of Sosan--they are still alive, they are seeds--they will enter in your heart if you allow, and you will be totally different through them.

    Don't listen to them from the mind, because their meaning is not of the mind; the mind is absolutely impotent to understand them. They don't come from the mind, they cannot be understood by the mind. They come from a no-mind. They can be understood only by a state of no-mind.

    So while listening here don't try to interpret. Don't listen to the words but to the gaps between the lines, not to what he says but to what he means--the significance. Let that significance hover around you like a fragrance. Silently it will enter you; you will become pregnant. But don't interpret. Don't say, "He means this or that," because that interpretation will be yours. hsin01

    Sosan's Hsin Hsin Ming...

    It is such a beautiful book, each word is golden. I cannot conceive of a single word that could be deleted. It is exactly that which is needed, required, to say the truth. Sosan must have been a tremendously logical man, at least while he was writing his Hsin Hsin Ming.

    I have spoken about it and I have never loved speaking more. The greatest moments of my speaking were when I was speaking on Sosan. Speaking and silence together...speaking yet not speaking, because Sosan can be explained only through no- speaking. He was not a man of words, he was a man of silence. He spoke just the minimum. books03

    I am using language because I want to convey something to you. But when you are not there, then simply I am not in language. When I have to speak I use language; when you are not there I am without language, then inside no words are moving. When I communicate I become a part of society. When I am not communicating I become a part of Tao, part of the universe, part of nature, or God--whatsoever name you want to give it, you can give.

    With God, silence is communication; with man, language is communication. If you want to communicate with God, be silent; if you want to communicate with man, talk, don't be silent. hsin10

    At this time, Osho personalizes many of his jokes on Mulla Nasruddin:

    I remember--and I will never forget it--the first time Mulla Nasrudin was introduced to me. A mutual friend introduced us. The friend said, among other things, that Mulla Nasrudin was a great writer. And he smiled knowingly. So I asked Mulla Nasrudin: What have you written? He said: I have just finished Hamlet. I couldn't believe my ears, so I asked him: Have you ever heard of a guy known as William Shakespeare? Mulla Nasrudin said: This is strange, because before, when I wrote Macbeth, somebody asked the same thing. And he asked: Who is this man William Shakespeare? It seems that he keeps on copying me. Whatsoever I write, he also writes. shoe05

    In December 1974 Osho comments on the Fragments of Heraclitus

    I have been in love with Heraclitus for many lives. In fact, Heraclitus is the only Greek I have ever been in love with--except, of course, Mukta....

    Heraclitus is really beautiful. Had he been born in India, or in the East, he would have been known as a buddha. But in Greek history, Greek philosophy, he was a stranger, an outsider. He is known in Greece not as an enlightened person but as Heraclitus the Obscure, Heraclitus the Dark, Heraclitus the Riddling. harmon01

    The Fragments of Heraclitus. I love this man. Let me mention it, just by the way, as a note in the margin, that I love all, but I don't like all. I like a few and I don't like a few, but I love all. About that there is no question. I love Jaydeva* as much as I love Heraclitus, but Heraclitus I like too.

    There are very few whom I can put in the same category as Heraclitus. In fact, even to say that is not true; there is no one. Now I am saying what I really wanted to say always. There is no one, I repeat, who can be put in the same category as Heraclitus. He is just far out--dangerously awakened, unafraid of the consequences of what he was saying.

    He says in these Fragments--the notes of a disciple. Heraclitus did not write. There must be something, some reason why these people do not write, but of that a little later. Heraclitus says in the Fragments: "You cannot step in the same river twice." And then he says: "No, you cannot step in the same river even once. " This is tremendously beautiful, and true too.

    Everything is changing, and changing so fast that there is no way to step in the same river twice; you can't even step in the same river once. The river is constantly flowing; going, going, going to the ocean, to the infinite, going to disappear into the unknown. books04

    *Note: Jayadeva: an Indian mystic

    And for the religious person also, the path is the goal. Wherever I am, it is the goal. Whatsoever I am, it is the goal.

    At this moment, my whole life converges upon me; there is nowhere else to go. One has just to celebrate this moment in totality. harmon05

    In January 1975, Osho continues his 10-part series of commentaries on Patanjali's Yoga sutras, begun in Bombay. In February, Osho comments on the Song of Songs by the Tibetan Buddhist master, Tilopa

    People ask me, "What are you doing here? Sometimes you talk on tantra and Tilopa, and sometimes you talk on yoga and Patanjali, and sometimes you talk on Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, the taoists and the tao, and sometimes you jump to Heraclitus and Jesus-- what are you doing here?" I am talking about the same thing. I am not talking about anything else. Heraclitus or Tilopa or Buddha or Jesus, makes no difference to me. I am talking myself. They are just excuses--because once you attain, you fulfill all scriptures of the world. Then there is no Hindu scripture, Jewish scripture, Christian scripture; then suddenly you become the culmination of all the scriptures.

    I am a Christian, a Hindu, a Jew, a Mohammedan, because I am no one. And the truth, once known, is beyond all scriptures. All scriptures indicate towards it, the scriptures are nothing but fingers pointing to the moon. Fingers may be millions--the moon is the same. Once you know, you have known all....

    Scriptures cannot lead you. In fact, they are dead without you. When you achieve to truth, life suddenly comes to all the scriptures. Through you they become again alive, through you they are reborn.

    That is what I am doing, giving rebirth to Tilopa. He has been dead for many hundreds of years. Nobody has talked about him, nobody has given him again a birth. I am giving him a rebirth. While I am here, he will be again alive. You can meet him if you are capable. He is again near here. If you are receptive, you can feel his footsteps. He is again materialized.

    Through me--I will give birth to all the scriptures. Through me, they can again come to this world, I can become an anchor. That's what I am doing. And that's what I would like you to do in your own life, some day. When you realize, when you come to know, then bring all that is beautiful in the past back and give it rebirth, renew it, so that all those who have known can be again on the earth and travel here, and help people. suprem05

    Therapy and the Psychology of Buddhas

    Throughout 1975 Osho revolutionizes Western methods of therapy with Eastern techniques of meditation. In April, Osho introduces this development of his work by describing a new Psychology of Buddhas

    All the Western psychologies are based on pathology, and a real psychology is needed that is based on the healthy person. The perfect psychology has to be based on Buddha like people, not just healthy people.

    So there are three types of psychologies. One, pathological: all Western psychologies are pathological. Only very recently some wholistic trends which think about the healthy person are gaining strength, but they are just at the beginning. Even the first steps have not been taken.

    There are psychologies of the second type which think about the healthy person, which are based on the healthy mind--those are the Eastern psychologies. Buddhism has a very, very penetrating psychology; Patanjali has his own psychology. They are based on healthy people: to help a healthy person become more healthy, to help a healthy person attain to greater health. Pathological psychologies help mad people to become healthy.

    Then there is a third type. What Gurdjieff used to call the ultimate psychology is as yet undeveloped. That type has to depend on Buddha. It has not been developed yet, because where to go to study a Buddha, and how to study a Buddha? And only one Buddha won't do, you will have to study many. Then only can you come to conclusions. But some day that psychology will happen, it is a must. It must be there because only that can give you the total perception into human consciousness.

    Freud, Jung, Janov, they all remain ill. They have never worked it out on themselves. Stumbling in the dark, groping in the dark, they come to some fragments and then they think that those fragments are complete systems. Whenever a fragment is claimed as a complete system it becomes a lie. A fragment is a fragment.

    Eastern psychologies are for healthy people, to help you to become more whole.

    And my effort will be to work out a psychology of the third type, the psychology of Buddhas, because that will give you the perfect penetration into the whole of human consciousness.

    Psychologies based on pathologies are good; they help ill people. But that can never be the goal. It is good, but just to become healthy, normal, is nothing much. Just to be normal is nothing much because everybody else is normal. It is bad to be ill because you suffer, but it is not much good to be normal because normal people are suffering in millions of ways. In fact, to be normal means only to adjust to the society. The society itself may be abnormal, the whole society may be itself ill. To adjust to it only means you are normally abnormal, that's all. That's not much of a gain. You have to go beyond social

    normality. You have to go beyond the social madness. Then only, for the first time do you become healthy.

    Eastern psychologies: Yoga, Zen, Sufism, all help healthy people to become more healthy and holy.

    The third type of psychology is needed, urgently needed, because without it you don't have the goal, the perception of the very end. That has to be worked out. Gurdjieff tried his best but couldn't succeed. The climate was not ripe. I am trying towards that again. It is difficult to succeed in it, but the possibility is there and one has to go on trying. If even a little more light is thrown on the perfect, the last, the ultimate psychology of man, even that is good, very helpful. yoga406

    The psychology of the Buddhas is a totally radical standpoint. One has to go into one's own consciousness without dividing it, without analysing it, without judging it, without evaluating it, without condemning it, without saying anything about it. Just go into it and have a feel of it--what exactly it is. The whole mind has to disappear, only then will you become aware of what it is--because the mind goes on creating ripples on the surface, and the mirror remains disturbed and the mirror goes on distorting. When the mirror disappears completely the mind disappears completely, and then there is pure silence, kokoro, nothingness, satori, samadhi--that samadhi is the non-analytical state of your being. That is your primal state. That is what God is. parad104

    And this much I can say about psychology: it is very much alive and there is hope. Much work is going on, and by and by psychoanalysts, psychologists, psychiatrists, are becoming more and more interested in meditation.

    You will be surprised. I have got all sorts of people here. From different professions people have come, but the most sannyasins have come from the profession of psychology, psychoanalysis. I have got hundreds of psychotherapists as my sannyasins. This is very significant. Not so many doctors have come, not so many engineers have come, not so many bankers have come, not so many politicians have come. The greatest number from any single profession is that of psychotherapists.

    That is a great indication. That shows psychology is moving beyond itself, psychology is moving into religion by and by. Sooner or later, psychology will become a very firm foundation for a religious leap. And unless it becomes a firm foundation for the religious jump, it will not have any meaning. It will get its meaning only when it becomes a step to the temple of God.

    But when I say 'when it becomes a step towards religion,' I mean simply religion. I don't mean Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism; Mohammedan, Jain, Buddhist, I don't mean. Those are not really religions, they have become politics. They are political organizations.

    A religion is very much individual. Religion is basically individual. It is a transformation of the individual consciousness; it has nothing to do with organizations. You are a Mohammedan or a Hindu or a Christian because you are born in that organization. Nobody can be born into a religion. Religion has to be consciously chosen. In the very conscious choice it becomes significant; otherwise it is meaningless. trans304

    In May 1975 the first bodywork sessions begin with Rolfing and massage.

    Osho recommends that a newcomer undertake the course of Rolfing, saying:

    When the mind is melting and changing, it is very simple to go into Rolfing, and great is the benefit because the body can change very easily with the mind. Something changes in the mind and, parallel to it, the body has to readjust, or if something changes in the body, the mind has to readjust. They both keep a very subtle harmony. So if you are in a certain state of mind, the body has a certain structure. When the mind changes, the body needs a new structure.

    And Rolfing is nothing but restructuring. It tries to melt the old musculature and helps the body to create new musculature. For example if a man is very angry, he has a certain musculature in the hands, in the arms, in the shoulders, in the teeth. An angry person is bound to have a very deep and subtle layer of tension in the jaw, in the teeth, in the hands. When you drop anger, or you release it, cathart it, suddenly there is no need for the old structure. So if you don't do Rolfing, that old structure can exist for months, even for years. That old structure can force you into old ways, into old habits, even though the mind has changed, because the body has its own weight.

    Many times you do things and later on you say, 'I did it in spite of myself.' How can a person do something in spite of himself? But it happens. It happens because the body has its own way and sometimes it is too much. The mind knows it is wrong. The mind doesn't want to do it, but the old habit is such that the body forces you and you are just pulled into the old habit.

    So when the mind is really changing through meditation, Rolfing is a great support and it changes the structure very easily. But if the mind is not undergoing changes, then Rolfing is very painful because the mind is not ready and you are forcing the structure to change, and that structure has an existential necessity. Even if you do Rolfing, the body will accumulate the same tension again. For a few days you will feel very good, but again, because the mind is still there, it will create its own field. roseis09

    Osho speaks to a sannyasin who is to begin massage in the ashram.

    Continue working, mm? Massage is something that you can start learning but you never finish. It goes on and on, and the experience becomes continuously deeper and deeper, and higher and higher. Massage is one of the most subtle arts--and it is not only a question of expertise. It is more a question of love.

    First learn the technique, and then the remaining I will teach you. Learn the technique-- then forget it. Then just feel, and move by feeling. When you learn deeply, ninety percent of the work is done by love, ten percent by the technique. By just the very touch, a loving touch, something relaxes in the body.

    If you love and feel compassion for the other person, and feel the ultimate value of him; if you don't treat him as if he is a mechanism to be put right, but an energy of tremendous value; if you are grateful that he trusts you and allows you to play with his energy--then by and by you will feel as if you are playing on an organ. The whole body becomes the keys of the organ and you can feel that a harmony is created inside the body. Not only will the person be helped, but you also.

    Massage is needed in the world because love has disappeared. Once the very touch of lovers was enough. A mother touched the child, played with his body, and it was massage. The husband played with the body of his woman and it was massage; it was enough, more than enough. It was deep relaxation and part of love.

    But that has disappeared from the world. By and by we have forgotten where to touch, how to touch, how deep to touch. In fact touch is one of the most forgotten languages. We have become almost awkward in touching, because the very word has been corrupted by so-called religious people. They have given it a sexual colour. The word has become sexual and people have become afraid. Everybody is on guard not to be touched unless he allows it.

    Now in the West the other extreme has come. Touch and massage have become sexual. Now massage is just a cover, a blanket, for sexuality. In fact neither touch nor massage are sexual. They are functions of love. When love falls from its height it becomes sex, and then it becomes ugly.

    So be prayerful. When you touch the body of a person be prayerful--as if God Himself is there, and you are just serving Him. Flow with total energy. And whenever you see the body flowing and the energy creating a new pattern of harmony, you will feel a delight that you have never felt before. You will fall into deep meditation.

    While massaging, just massage. Don't think of other things because those are distractions. Be in your fingers and your hands as if your whole being, your whole soul is there. Don't let it be just a touch of the body. Your whole soul enters into the body of the other, penetrates it, relaxes the deepest complexes.

    And make it a play. Don't do it as a job; make it a game and take it as fun. Laugh and let the other laugh too. Soon you will be helping many people. hammer18

    In August 1975 the first therapy groups begin. Included in the group process are daily Dynamic and Kundalini Meditations, and the 10-day Meditation Camp before or after the group. In darshan, Osho assigns groups, instructs group leaders, and meets with participants. By the end of 1977 there are 50 groups, and the ashram is known as the greatest growth centre in the world. Applications are made to register as a university

    Many people ask me why I insist so much on growth groups here--because no ashram anywhere in India has growth groups. My insistence is for a certain basic reason, it is very fundamental. The modern mind is very much repressed--the more cultured you become, the more repressed you become automatically. Those other ashrams in India have no notion of the modern mind; they still live at least three thousand years ago. They still think that Buddhist meditations will do, or Patanjali will do.

    And I know perfectly well that Buddha and his meditations and Patanjali and his methods are of immense value. But they cannot work directly on the modern mind. They were not invented for the modern mind, they were invented for a different kind of mind--more primitive, more simple, more innocent, more childlike.

    Before you can do vipassana or zazen you will have to go through groups like encounter and primal therapy and gestalt. They will destroy, they will take the poison out of your system. Then you will again be a primitive--innocent, childlike. Then vipassana can work, otherwise not.

    So here, in this place, first we emphasize catharsis. And when the catharsis is complete, only then the second step, meditation, starts. So you can think of my approach in three steps: the first is catharsis, the second is meditation, the third is prayer. revol02

    You ask: When the university began with you in Poona, some called it Esalen East. Esalen is a growth center in California. Does your university differ from California growth centers?

    Absolutely, because the founder of Esalen had come to be initiated in Poona, to become a sannyasin. He became a sannyasin. And he could see the difference, that what they were doing was just intellectual work, and what was happening in Poona was existential and experiential work.

    In Esalen there was nothing like meditation, and meditation has been my central teaching. Nothing else is needed. One simply has to come to a space within oneself where there is no thought, no feeling, but utter silence, and that comes through a very simple method: by watching your thought process. last224

    You ask me: Is that true that you have declared your therapists to be the best in the world? And what makes the difference between them and the famous therapists of the Esalen Institute?

    Yes, my therapists are the best in the world, for the simple reason that other therapists are only therapists, they are not meditators. My therapists are meditators too.

    Therapy is a superficial thing. It can help to clean the ground, but just to have a clean ground is not to have a garden.

    You will need something more. Therapy is negative; it simply takes away the weeds from the ground, removes the stones from the ground, prepares the soil for the garden. But there its work ends.

    Western therapy is still in its very primitive stage. It has to go a long way. And unless it becomes associated with meditation, it may help a little bit superficially but it cannot really help the person to grow.

    And it takes so much time. There are people who have been in psychoanalysis or in other therapies for ten years, twelve years. They have been changing therapists, but their problems remain the same. They have been digging deep in their dreams; they have been finding new analysts--Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian, Assagiolian--and those explanations seem significant for a moment. But they don't change anything. In fact people become addicted to therapy....

    And you have to look at one thing: the people practicing psychoanalysis and other concerned professions of therapy, these people themselves are not healthy. They know the technique, they have learned the technique, but they themselves are not healthy people--healthy in the sense that they have any integrity. Twice the number of psychotherapists go mad than any other profession. And twice the number of psychoanalysts commit suicide than any other profession.

    This is very strange...because these people should not go mad and should not commit suicide; otherwise how are these people going to help others?

    Not a single meditator has committed suicide down the ages. You cannot think of Gautam Buddha committing suicide. You cannot think of Bodhidharma going mad. It is simply inconceivable. So something very fundamental is missing.

    So when I say my therapists are the best in the world, I simply mean that my therapists are not only therapists, they are meditators too. Other therapists are only therapists. light16

    Osho guides group leaders

    The Encounter Group are at darshan. The leader says that every group is different.

    Mm, it has to be so because the group depends on the people. It should depend more on the people who participate...and no rigid structure should be given to it--so it remains loose, flexible. So whatsoever the need of the people, the group moves that way.

    The leader is just to facilitate the process. He is not really to lead. He is just to help-- wherever they are going, helping them totally to go that way. So each group is going to

    be different because it is created by the consciousness of the participants. Each group will have a different soul, an individuality--and it is good that it should be so.

    Don't try to force it to fall into any pattern, mm? Just move with the flow. wobble10

    Osho advises the Primal Therapy group-leader:

    When you work with people, you can work as a duty or you can work with them as a love. There is a lot of difference between these two. Duty is lukewarm, love is passionate. Duty can help, but love can transform. Duty can touch only the surface of the other person because it comes from your head. Love can transform because it comes from your heart.

    Whenever you are working with people, remember that each person is unique. You will never find such a person again; it happens only once. Each person is historic because he will never be repeated again. So each moment of contact will also be historical because it is unrepeatable; it is tremendously valuable. So whenever you are helping, help out of love. Flow, and forget helping. Start caring--that is the difference.

    If you help, you will be at the most a nurse. If you care, you become a mother. Help is a quantitative thing. Care is qualitative, and it shows an intensity; it is a flame. So be deeply in passion.

    Each individual is representative of the divine. Love him, worship him, respect him, and whatsoever you do, do in deep humbleness. Then you will be helped more than you are helping. Then you will grow more than the person can grow through your help.

    And there is no other way in the world to learn something than to become a teacher. But take it as a very very sacred and holy affair. Be really sincere and authentic about it. I'm not saying be serious. I'm saying be sincere, because once you become serious you cannot help. Be sincere but non-serious, playful. Take it as a fun--but don't forget the sacredness of it. When fun and sacredness meet, there arises a quality in you that can help. This is the alchemy of help: fun and sacredness meeting in you. hammer14

    The Aum Marathon group is an energy experiment to bring up your negative and positive, to help all sorts of energies to surface. For the first time you can face yourself as an energy system.

    The first thing is to face all your problems, naked, and the Aum will help you to do this. It is almost hell because the whole basement has to be opened and all the nightmares brought to your consciousness, but it is a great discipline. After five days you will feel so relieved because once you have understood where your problem is, you have almost solved it in a way. myhart05

    Osho recommended including a positive workshop with the Aum marathon group. Veeresh*, the leader reports: This group is amazing. The first part was the positive, and

    as you said, and the second part, the negative, was much stronger. All of a sudden I started to fall in love with the people.

    Good. That's how it happens. That's the polarity and one of the very basic, fundamental laws of life.

    If somebody is crying, help him to cry well, and soon he will laugh. If somebody is miserable don't try to bring him out of it; help him to sink in. Soon he will come out of it completely freed. If somebody is dying, help him die. He will resurrect. Just let life work. Simply understand the law and don't go against it, that's all. This is the law: never enforce and don't be bothered about the opposite. The opposite is coming on its own. It is just like a swinging pendulum.

    And the circle has to be complete--both yin and yang--and then a person is at peace. One should be capable of being negative totally, of being positive totally.

    Ordinarily the whole humanity has been taught to be positive and not to be negative. The result is that humanity has become negative. People don't know what joy is. They have forgotten the very language. You talk about bliss, and they simply listen to the word; they don't have any experience of it. And they have been taught continuously to be blissful, joyful. They only know what anger and sadness is. They have been taught to cling to just one polarity and have not been allowed to move to the other polarity. Life exists between these two poles...in the movement is life. And a real life implies both.

    A real life is so comprehensive that day and night, summer and winter, god and devil, all are in it. A god who is without the devil is not much of a god; he will be a very poor god. And a devil who has no divinity in him will simply be worth nothing. The day is rich because you have rested deeply in the night...the darkness allowed you rest. There are joys of work, but if you have worked hard, only then is the night beautiful. Otherwise you just go on changing from side to side the whole night and there is no sleep.

    This is what I mean when I say be a whole person. Nothing should be excluded...nothing should be excluded. Everything should be included, and in that inclusion of everything, you start soaring. Otherwise every human being is crippled because something has been excluded. Somebody has excluded his anger, somebody has excluded his sex, somebody has excluded something else

    No human being seems to be whole, but wounded, cut, fragmented. Let this be your whole work in the West. Help people to become whole. Just tell them that whatsoever is in you has to be included in your higher synthesis...it has its role to play. In the higher orchestra of your being, nothing should be left behind. All notes have to fall in tune, in harmony. Then something arises which is more than the total of all--and that is the whole. The whole is more than the total. Whole and total do not mean the same thing.

    Total is the way towards the whole, but the whole is more that the total. If all your parts are added together it will be total. If all your parts fall into a symphony, then it will be whole....

    And I am going to help you continuously wherever you are--now space will not make any difference. Just go on working as if you are working here. Go on calling me and I will be there. Much has to be done. getout19

    *Note: Veeresh founded the Osho Humaniversity in Holland, with affliliated centres around the world. Osho often speaks about him with love and encouragement.

    Veeresh says: Last year when I was in Europe and working, I introduced a lot of people to you. I find that people get turned on to me and think they're related to me rather than you.

    Whenever people think that, just tell them that you are part of me. Drop the division. Somebody turned on to you is turned on to me. Drop the duality from the mind and then work becomes easier.

    Allow me to work through you. And many more people will be coming through you, mm? I am not going anywhere, I will be sitting here, so you all have to go and work and spread me as far as you can. getout19

    Vipassana is a Buddhist technique in witnessing, which Osho recommends after participation in cathartic groups. The Vipassana group leader says: I have done groups like this before with Buddhists who have been meditating a long time, and they were so much more restless, and fidgety. I don't understand it at all! You said something about it being like a lizard basking in the sun. and because I'd always found it very very voluptuous, I felt guilty about it, as though. It is such a pleasant meditation!

    Everything has been good. Buddhist monks have made something ugly out of it. No meditation should be a strain, because then it isn't going to help. It should be a play.

    Old religions depend on guilt, and they create it. Once they have created guilt in you, you are caught, and then you need their help. First they make you ill, so then you need their help.

    But this is my whole point--that you are to learn how to be happy, how to be more playful. You are to learn how to be more ecstatic--and ecstatic in very ordinary ways. Life should be absolutely ordinary, and silent, and playful. All pressure should be removed from life so that the fountain flows freely.

    We will create a totally different thing out of Vipassana. So many people want to go into it, so we can have another group. hammer27

    A sannyasin says: I started as a behavioural therapist. I got fed up with it so I just did what I thought was right, relaxation exercises, psychodrama.

    That's better--continue. And when you come next time, go through all the therapies here. Then try to develop something of your own. You have the potential.

    And this is my understanding--that any technique developed by anybody else cannot make you a real therapist. You can borrow it, but it is almost as if somebody is copying a painting of Picasso. You can copy it--you can copy it perfectly well. You can be such a perfectionist that even the original may look a little faulty compared to the carbon copy, but then too the carbon copy is a carbon copy and there is no life in it. Truth has always to be discovered--you cannot borrow it.

    That's why it happens that when somebody invents, discovers a technique, in the hands of that man the technique has a magic. For example, Gestalt therapy: it was a magical thing in the hands of Fritz Perls...a really magical thing. The magic comes from the discovery, because the man and his technique are not two things. He has grown up with the method. The method is almost like blood and bones. It is part of him; the method is not separate. The originator has grown, and the method has grown out of so many life situations, observations--pain and suffering and pleasure. It has grown; it has seasoned through experiences. It is not a hot-house plant. It has really grown in the rains, in the hot sun, in the winter, in the cold, in the snow, it has grown. It has encountered life, and out of that total encounter, it has a conclusion. The same is true about Psychodrama: to Moreno it was an insight. The same is true about Psychoanalysis: to Freud, it was his own experience. It was something authentic that was rooted in him. It is true about everything.

    Now a problem arises. When a method has been successful--Gestalt has succeeded and it has been helping many people--many other people will start imitating it, they will start borrowing. It will not be in their being. It will not be connected to their roots. Their own core will remain aloof. Then the magic is lost. This is something very significant to be understood. People are surprised at what has happened and why it used to work.

    For example, Mesmerism worked tremendously in the hands of Mesmer. It was his life work. And once Mesmer was gone, Mesmerism was gone--many people tried--it became very ordinary. It had no miraculous power in it. It lost its spirit...just a dead corpse. Then people start condemning it because it didn't work any more. It happened like that with Freud's Psychoanalysis. By and by it has become antique, by and by it has become a museum piece. People talk about it, people read about it--now it is academic. But the charm, the thrill, the sense of discovery is no more there--cannot be there.

    Always remember it. Each therapist, if he is really a therapist, has to develop his own technique, his own methodology, his own philosophy, his own view. Learn from everybody--nothing is wrong in learning--but never depend on that learning alone. Otherwise you will always go on missing something. It has to be your life work, and it has to have your total energy in it, flowing. That is possible only when it is your own growth. sale20

    A sannyasin therapist asks about leading a group in the ashram.

    I will work with you--don't be worried. I will work through you. Everything is perfectly good.

    It happens to every groupleader when he starts working, because to work with me is totally different from working anywhere else. When you are working in the West, you are working on your own; you are the sole and the whole. When you work here you have to become a non-entity. You have to disappear completely to give way to me. You have to put yourself aside--you have to become just a vehicle.

    That's why in the beginning every therapist who starts working here goes through a few deep changes. But once those changes have happened, for the first time you will know what real work is. Because then it will not be a burden on your head; it will be just play. The responsibility goes totally to me. You can remain there only available, instrumental. You have only to allow me. And when the ego does not function, then the work becomes a meditation in itself.

    If the therapy groups help only the people who participate in them, that will not be good for the therapist. The therapist has also to grow. He has not yet arrived--he has to go a long way. So my way of working is such that it helps the participants, certainly, but it goes on helping the therapist too.

    So the therapist is just a representation of me there: his hands are my hands and his heart is my heart. And soon the knack is learned so that you can simply allow yourself to be possessed by me. Then it is a totally different kind of work. The quality is different and the quality simply soars high. What you have not done before you will see happening. Your touch becomes magical, because you are not alone in your touch. Slowly slowly it attains the quality of miraculousness; the more you disappear, the more miraculous it becomes.

    You start--you are ready. Just for a few days it will be difficult because you will have to change the whole pattern of the work. leap29

    A sannyasin who is returning to his job as a therapist in the west says: I fear giving a lot of energy and never getting any of that love back. Since I've been here, I realize that is something I really need. What do I do?

    Go with this new understanding and try to live in the new way. Don't fall back into the old pattern. And don't be worried about whether anybody is responding to your love or not; go on loving. It will not be long before people start responding; love cannot go in vain. But don't think of returns at all. If you think of returns from the very beginning, then you become hesitant, you become miserly. You start thinking, 'What is the point? I will give love and nothing will be returned, there will be no response and it will be lost.'

    Nothing is lost. never! All that you give is bound to come to you, is bound to rebound, sooner or later. Remember that, it is one of the most fundamental laws of life, it can't be otherwise. Maybe it takes a little time: if people are very insensitive it takes a little time

    for them to understand your love, to respond to it, to be loving. Or maybe people are very afraid of love, so when you give love rather than opening up towards you, they close, they become afraid. They are afraid because in love they will be vulnerable; they don't want to come that close to anybody. They have learned in life that whenever you come close to somebody you are being cheated, deceived.

    But don't be worried--go on giving love, and soon you will see that things have started happening: one response, then another, and then more and more responses start coming; then all explodes on you.

    I know that one needs the feedback, mm? otherwise one feels as if one is alone, just shouting in a wilderness. But wherever people are, they can't be so insensitive that they can go on being non-responsive to love forever; no, that is not possible. Nobody has a heart of a stone. Even stones don't have that kind of a heart. If you go on pouring love on a rock, sooner or later the rock also responds, starts singing a song to you, becomes soft towards you. It shows its heart to you, it has a different vibe and a different texture for you. Try it!

    Never be hopeless about love, because love is the only hope. And make it a point to go on giving whether the feedback comes or not, and you will be surprised that it does come...delayed, maybe, but it comes. Sometimes when it is delayed it is a surprise because you had completely forgotten about it; you had thought that it is lost. But one day suddenly it knocks on the door: it is there. It is a surprise; you cannot find from where it is coming because you have completely forgotten what you have done.

    So let this situation be a challenge to your love, and whenever you feel too depleted, come back; just be here for a few weeks and go. And finally you have to be here permanently, mm?--this is just for the time being, coming and going.

    Keep this (a box) with you. And when nobody responds, just put it on your heart: it will respond! bite23

    Osho advises group participants

    Therapy groups attend darshan together on the last day of each group, and sometimes during the group. Osho asks each participant in turn: Anything to say?

    A member of the Soma group says: After one of the meditations I felt vibrations of so much joy and happiness coming right up through my body. It felt so fantastic...just vibrating and vibrating. I'm just so full of love and gratitude towards you.

    Very good. This has been a breakthrough. But make it a point to relive it again and again. Just sitting silently, remember it; don't remember it, relive it. Again start feeling the

    same. Let the vibrations surround you. Move into the same space and allow it to happen so it becomes by and by very natural to you. You become so capable of bringing it that any moment you can do it.

    Many valuable insights happen in the groups but they need follow-up. Otherwise they become just memories and you will lose contact and will not be able to move into the same world. By and by, one day you yourself will start disbelieving them. You may think that it was a dream or a hypnosis, or some trick of the mind. That's how humanity has lost many beautiful expriences.

    Everybody comes around some beautiful spaces someday or other in his life, but we never try to make a path to it so that it becomes natural, so that it becomes just as when you eat every day, you take your bath or go to sleep, and whenever you close your eyes you can be in it.

    Osho gives him an energy darshan.

    Very good. You will be able to get into it easily. It has been tremendously valuable. So every day, just sit and try to bring this. Do it for ten minutes and you will be completely drowned in it. cypres04

    A group participant says: It was the most beautiful experience I have ever known...I felt my whole life had changed. But today it feels as if it has gone--all of it.

    Mm, I understand. If a group takes you high, you are bound to fall very low. That is the price one has to pay for going very high. People who have not gone so high are not so unhappy. But this is good. One should be happy about it.

    One should be happy that one has something which can be lost. You should be happy that you are feeling frustrated, because something has happened. In comparison to that, you are feeling unhappy and frustrated. If nothing had happened there would have been no frustration. That's the whole attitude of how to look at things.

    And what has happened will happen again. What has happened in the group can happen out of the group, because in fact it is not the group that is making it happen; it is you. You are allowing it to happen. And if you can learn how to allow it to happen, it can happen anywhere.

    The whole of life is so tremendously beautiful and so tremendously graceful....

    The monsoon had started only the day before.

    ...listen to those rains and clouds. Life is such an ongoing, continuous bliss. Just be happy...be open to it.

    Do one thing. When you go back home, just sit silently and allow it to happen again And don't be worried. It has nothing to do with the group. A group is just an opportunity to help. It has shown you the path. Now you know that it is possible, now you know that it can happen. Now you know that you are capable of it. This confidence is all that the group can give to you. It has been given to you. The group has worked tremendously well for you. It has functioned at its very peak.

    All that the group really has given to you is a confidence that this can happen to you--a possibility, a vision of your own potentiality. Now try it on your own. The frustration will disappear. So back home, just allow it to happen. Just remember exactly what you enjoyed so much--your blissfulness, being full of energy. Start dancing--move, shake, laugh. For one hour try to create it on your own. It will come. It may take a few minutes to bring it out, but by the end of one hour you will be able to.

    And I will go on working on you, so don't be afraid. cypres21

    The growth group is needed because you have a tremendous need to relate, to love, to communicate. In the West the basic problem is how to communicate, how to relate. Many Westerners are here. When they come to me in darshan their problems are a hundred per cent relationship problems--how to relate.

    Not even a single Indian has come who has said, 'How to relate?' That is not a problem at all. He says, 'How to be silent? How to be into one's own being?'...

    That's why I do not send Easterners to groups, except Japanese. I have sent a few Japanese because Japan is the most Western part of the East. I have sent Indians only once or twice--and these were only name's-sake Indians. They have been born in the East but their mind has not been developed by the Eastern concept, their mind is Western. They have been taught by Christian missionaries in Christian schools. Their whole education and up-bringing is Western....

    It depends on the person--on what he needs. To a few Westerners also I don't suggest groups. When I see some Westerner who has no need to relate then I don't suggest groups, then I say there is no need. But at least five thousand years of different psychological conditioning exists. That has to be taken note of. tao214

    When participants doze off in the Zazen group an assistant gently but firmly taps them with a stick on the top of the head, in the old zen tradition. Osho asks a participant how he felt when he got hit. He answers: Very good when I got hit.

    Yes it is beautiful. In Zen, they wait, they pray for it. By and by you will wait and pray for it....

    When you are starting to sleep, or dozing, then your energy is moving into another gear-- from waking to sleeping. It is moving, changing. You are just at the door, neither alert enough nor asleep enough, and then--a hit on the head, suddenly an awakening inside, a

    lightning. You have been caught on the door! And that door, and the realisation of your being caught on the door, is something very beautiful.

    By and by one starts praying for it. Who else was hit?

    Another participant says: I was hit several times, but for the first three times I thought something was happening inside my head I was not aware that someone else did it.

    (Chuckling) It happens that way. The energy suddenly comes up. It can be a feeling of something inside happening. hammer27

    You say: Osho, My idea of a good time is to go to a good French restaurant, eat my favourite food, smoke between courses, listen to music, drink lots of wine and read an absorbing novel--all at the same time. What to do? P.S. I am in the Zazen group at the moment.

    Zazen and Vipassana--these two groups give people such beautiful ideas! Every day I receive many letters from the Zazen and Vipassana groups--no other group gives such good ideas, because sitting silently doing nothing, one starts fantasizing about all kinds of things. Your idea is just farrr out! zzzzz15

    A visitor who is in a group says she is afraid to show her hate and anger to others.

    This is the beauty of a growth group--that it gives you an opportunity that is not available in the ordinary world. If the world would grow rightly, this opportunity would be available all over the world--everywhere: in the marketplace, in the temple, in the church, in the school, in the college, in the university. Then there would be no need for groups and you would be accepted everywhere. Nobody would be judging you and everybody would be trying to help you. People will appreciate that you are sincere.

    This is not possible in the outside world, hence groups have evolved; just twelve or twenty persons in a group, a closed family, in which everybody is ready to open. But when others are opening, it is easier to open; it becomes infectious. When you see that somebody has opened and nobody has condemned them, nobody has taken any judgement about it, and by opening the person has come to feel a freedom...you can see on the face, you can feel the vibe, you can see some changes happening around his space. He is no more the same constrained being. He is like an opening flower, and you can see the after-glow that comes after opening. You can see the relaxed grace, the dignity that comes to a person.

    If you go on seeing this happening and you cannot open, where will you open? It has to function like a chain. One person opens and suddenly another starts feeling that something beautiful has happened and thinks, 'Why shouldn't I take courage?' He opens and then a third takes courage. This is a chain-reaction.

    That's why person-to-person therapy has failed. People have been in psychotherapy for ten years, twelve years, even fifteen and twenty years, and nothing has happened. Within a ten-day group, that can happen which cannot happen in ten years of psychoanalysis, because there is no situation really--just the therapist and the person. It is not an environment in which somebody can flower, can take hints from others, can see what flowering is; can actually be a witness when somebody flowers and opens, and can see how beautiful one becomes. Suddenly the ugliness disappears from the face.

    So don't miss this opportunity. Just watch people...they are just like you; they also have the same problems. Nothing human is alien. Whatsoever problem you have, they are just the same; maybe degrees differ. When people are being angry and their hate is coming up, their sexuality is coming up, their greed is coming up--they are crying and weeping and laughing and things are opening, pent-up energies are finding release--watch! Get caught up in the flow! Ride on the wave! Take a jump! getout18

    A sannyasin has walked out of a group because she felt afraid. Osho tells her not to worry about the experience. He suggests she do the Encounter group which is softer:

    You need these groups but you are afraid. If you go through them, the fear will drop. There is no other way to drop the fear, otherwise you will always carry it.

    The only way to get rid of it is to pass through a situation where you think that there is some danger and then you pass through it and nothing happens. You come out of it completely open. It is finished, gone. If you are afraid of the night, go into the darkness of the night.

    I think you should try the Encounter, and if you don't feel like it, drop out. Just tell the groupleader that if you start getting too frightened, he has to allow you to leave. But do your best and don't be in a hurry to leave. If you feel that it is impossible to tolerate it, he will allow you to leave.

    But try. It is better to try, because otherwise how will you get rid of this fear? Even if you do three or four days of Encounter, that will do, mm? Good. cypres19

    Controversy about Sex and Violence in Therapy

    In this commune, I have arranged for many psychotherapies. They will be misunderstood by the masses, bound to be misunderstood--because in a psychotherapeutic situation you have to bring all the denied parts to the surface.

    If somebody has been denying his anger, it has to be allowed in a psychotherapeutic situation. Only then can psychotherapy be of any help--can it be therapeutic, can it heal you. It has to open all your wounds: much pus starts flowing.

    If you watch the encounter group you will feel sick. You will feel sick because you will see such animality coming out; you could never have imagined that human beings can be such animals. But that animality is within you too, just repressed. By repression you cannot dissolve it.

    In the encounter group--that is the meaning of the word 'encounter'--you have to encounter yourself in your totality. You have to bring out all that is repressed; you have to bring out all--without any evaluation about what is good, what is bad. And suddenly you see great animals roaring inside you. They are violent, and you have been taught to be non-violent. Your non-violence has repressed your violence.

    Great rage, for no reason at all, will arise. You will start beating the wall; you may start beating yourself. And you will say, "What am I doing? I have never done it before. From where is it coming?" But it is coming in great surges, in great waves. And the whole process is to let it be.

    And when all the parts have been expressed--your sex, your anger, your greed, your jealousy, your rage--when all parts have been expressed, a great calmness arises, the silence that follows the storm.

    This cannot be understood by the masses. In fact they are very much on their guard. They don't want to understand either--because to understand means they will have to look within, and they will find the same things inside themselves.

    But if you go on keeping these things inside yourself, you will remain always in a kind of disease. This is what your society has given to you--your society has made you a very ill person. This whole society is pathological. And whenever a pathology is social you never become aware of it, because everybody else is suffering from the same thing.

    To be total means: think of yourself as if you are the first man--you are Adam or you are Eve--and you have not yet met any priest and you have not yet met any puritan. You have not yet met any Morarji Desai. Nobody has told you how to be, what to be. Think of yourself as the first man or the first woman, and accept--because there is no other way of transcendence than acceptance.

    Buddha called it 'suchness'--tathata. Accept it: if God has given you these things, there must be a meaning in them. They must be seeds of some unknown flowers--they have to be used. In the soil of acceptance those seeds fall, disappear, and great trees of understanding arise, and millions of flowers of ecstasy, of joy, of celebration. peren110

    In one of our therapy groups a man's hand was fractured, and it got immense publicity against me--although I was not involved in any way; I was not present in the therapy group. But nobody asked the man himself.

    I called him and asked him, "What is your feeling? How are you feeling?"--the fracture was now healed, the plaster had been removed.

    He said, "I am amazed. I have always had the feeling that I could murder somebody. Since the fracture of the hand that feeling has disappeared. I don't know what has happened, how it has happened, but since that time I am feeling very humble; otherwise I was very arrogant." Perhaps his hand was collecting violence and he was repressing it. The fracture released the energy.

    I was condemned all over the world by the newspapers, that in my therapy groups violence is being used. But I was amazed: not a single journalist had the sense to have an interview with the man and enquire what had been his experience. His experience was totally different. He was feeling fortunate that it happened, because a load that he was carrying from his childhood had simply disappeared.

    So one thing: we should understand every energy--its mechanics, its working--and give it expression. mystic31

    A journalist asks about the controversy over groups

    In Poona there were few groups, and I was deciding people, which group they should go and in what sequence. These groups were therapies; so first silent therapies were given, meditative therapies were given. Those who could not succeed in them, then more active therapies were given to them. If even that was not enough, then therapies were given to them in which they can beat the pillows, shout, scream...but not to touch anybody. Mostly this was enough.

    Rarely there was a person who still needed something more, was yet not cleansed. Then for these there were therapies where they were allowed to have physical pushing. But there was a therapist to take care that nothing harms anybody. And these people were to fill the form that they are accepting certain therapy on their own--if they don't want, they need not. It was their individual choice. And these therapies helped these people immensely. And all these therapies whatever they were doing, they had constantly to remember witnessing--that was part which has not been known to the world--that even if they are hitting somebody they are just like a puppet, inside there was a watcher. And after hitting they will hug each other and they will cry and weep and great compassion will come out.

    In sexual therapies, I asked the men, the women that "What is your experience? What you have gained out of it?" And it was again surprising. That one woman told me that she had always dreamt that she is being raped. And she woke up in the middle of the night afraid,

    trembling, perspiring. And it was a constantly recurring dream. But after this therapy the dream has disappeared and the sleep has become silent and quiet.

    Was she raped?

    Not raped, but in a sexual therapy she was a participant. It was all playful, nobody was being raped. Nobody was forced against his or her will. And if anybody wanted to get out of it at any moment, he was free to get out of it.

    Did you ever participate?

    No, because I was not leading the groups, my therapists were leading the groups. last421

    In 1979, Osho comments:

    The modern growth movement is stuck. Encounter groups, primal therapy, gestalt, bioenergetics...and so many beautiful things are happening in the world, but they are stuck at a certain point. Their problem is: they teach expression--and it is good, it is far better than repression. If there is only this choice, repress or express, then I would suggest express. But this is not the real choice; there is a third alternative far more important than both these. If you express, you become habitual; you learn by doing it again and again-- you can't get out of it.

    In this commune there are at least fifty therapy groups running, for a certain reason. It is just to balance the thousands of years of repression; it is just to balance. It is just to bring to light all that you have repressed as Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Jainas, Buddhists. It is just to undo the centuries' old harm that has been done to you.

    But remember, these groups are not the end; they only prepare you for meditation. They are not the goal; they are just simple means to undo the wrong of the past. Once you have thrown out of your system all that you have been repressing all along, I have to lead you into watchfulness. Now it will be easier to watch.

    But you are not to become a group-addicted person, you are not to become a groupie. There are people now in the world who are group-addicted; they go from one group to another. One encounter finishes--then another marathon, then gestalt, then this and that.... After just a few days the itch arises--because where to express? In the normal society they cannot express, they have to repress. So the group becomes just an outlet. The normal society forces you to repress, the group helps you to express but you are not really growing. Again you will be back in the normal society, again repressing.

    And if you express in the normal society, you will be getting into far more dangerous situations. You may murder somebody--you have so much anger. You will be in jail, imprisoned forever. Or if you go on fighting with everybody--if you slap the boss in the office, if you beat your wife, your children, your husband--then your whole life will become a chaos, it will be impossible to live it. So after a few days of accumulation you

    need another encounter. A few days of encountering and you feel unburdened; back in society you will be burdened again. This is not going to help. This is a temporary relief.

    You can scream to your heart's desire in a primal therapy group, but if you start screaming on the road, then you will be taken to the police station. You can scream in a group context--it is allowed, helped, provoked; you are persuaded to scream, because since your childhood you have been repressing it. It has become a wound; it needs to be opened. If the pus oozes out and the wound is left open to the winds and to the sun and to the rain, it will heal itself, because you have a healing energy; it is inbuilt. But back in the society again...how long can you remain in a primal therapy group? Back in the same old society again, you will have to repress; you cannot go on screaming there. Then the scream gathers, then the steam gathers. Then one day you have to go into the group again. This is a temporary relief; good as far as it goes, but it cannot make you a buddha.

    That's where this commune is different from institutes like Esalen. They end with groups- -we begin with groups. Where they end, that's exactly the point from where we begin.

    And it is not a coincidence that thousands of therapists have become interested in my work. They have come here. Among my *sannyasins, the greatest group from any profession is that of psychotherapists. A great need is felt now all over the world that encounter, primal therapy, gestalt, can help a little bit to unburden people, but they cannot help to make them buddhas--they cannot help them to become awakened. dh0105

    Osho initiates His Father into Sannyas

    In October 1975 Osho's father visits, and asks Osho to initiate him. His new name is Swami Devateerth Bharti.

    My father took sannyas four years after my mother became a sannyasin. He started feeling bad that he was not courageous enough; but he started meditating, started coming to the meditation camps. And finally, one day, there were two things: the breakdown of the personality and the breakthrough into a new existence, into a new life. dless11

    My own father cannot sleep after three. He goes to sleep near about eleven, so he has three, four hours sleep at the most. My mother has always been worried, but I told my father to sit in meditation. So he sits from three, and that has become his door to the divine. For years now he has sat from three to seven. and he almost becomes like a statue; he forgets the body.

    Now that has been the most precious experience of his life; no sleep can give it. He is fresh by three; that's how his mechanism, his body, is functioning. In the beginning he used to try to go to sleep. It was a misery because the sleep wouldn't come and he would get tired trying to sleep, and frustrated; by the morning he would be frustrated. Three or four hours of struggles to sleep every night and it doesn't come; how can you remain

    unfrustrated? But since I have given him meditation, all frustration has disappeared, and those have become his most valuable moments. Now he longs for them: for twenty-four hours he thinks about them, because those are the most peaceful. He has used it rightly. losers23

    He was almost childlike as he went deeper into meditation. And he took sannyas only when he had touched the rock bottom of meditation, not before it. People take sannyas to enter into meditation; he waited. My mother took sannyas, my uncles took sannyas, but he waited.

    Everybody was asking me, "Why don't you tell your father?" My uncle was saying it, my mother was saying it.

    I said, "He has never told anything to me, never forced me to do anything. Now this would be absolutely unfair on my part to tell him to do something and particularly to take sannyas. Whenever he wants, he will say. I am not going to tell him. And I know he is waiting"--because he was continuously reporting about his meditation to me: how he was going, what he experienced, for how many seconds his thoughts disappeared and what kind of thoughts came when they came.

    Whenever he came to me he was mentioning his meditation--and that was a clear indication that he was waiting; until he had touched rock bottom he would not say anything about sannyas. And he knew perfectly well that I was not going to say anything.

    One day, in the morning...he used to meditate from three o'clock in the night up to six-- three hours. So just nearabout six, Laxmi came running and said, "Your father wants you immediately, and he also says, 'Bring a mala and the sannyas form.' I don't know what has happened to him." He had been sitting for three hours; he was staying in the room where afterwards Laxmi stayed, in Lao Tzu house in Poona, the same room. He had just come for a few days, so Laxmi had moved out and he was staying there. I went into the room. He said, "Now the time has come: give me sannyas." misery01

    Knowing my notoriety, knowing perfectly well all the condemnation being thrown at me from all the so-called respectable places, he became my disciple. That is courage, immense courage. Even I was surprised when he touched my feet for the first time. I wept...in my room of course, so nobody could see it. I feel those tears still in my eyes. When he asked to be initiated I could not believe it. At that moment I was just silent. I could not say yes or no, I was simply silent, shocked, surprised. Yes, you have the right expression in your language: "taken by surprise," and taken so powerfully. books08

    And when he became a sannyasin, I reminded him. I told him, "Look. Now you are going to be a disciple of somebody who is good for nothing. And all that I can do for you is to make you also good for nothing."* bond32

    *Note: As a child Osho was called 'good for nothing'. 'Nothing' also describes nirvana or enlightenment.

    Osho's Reading

    Osho continues to read--up to 10 books a day. He has explained that he can read a whole page at a glance. He makes notations in the margin, and refers to authors in discourse. He signs his name on the flyleaf, often decorating his signature with designs in coloured inks. Friends send him books from around the world, and his library increases to 150,000.

    I must have read more than any man alive on the earth, and remember, I am not boasting but simply stating a fact. I must have read at least one hundred thousand books, possibly more, but not less than that, because after that I stopped counting. books03

    Recently I was reading a book called The Secret Life of Plants. It is a remarkable book from the West which has just been published. It seems that the work that was pioneered by Sir Jagdish Chandra Basu is about to reach its climax in the West, with the revelation that plants have feelings just like people. nowher15

    I was reading about a Sufi fakir, Junaid. shiva02

    Just the other day, I was reading an old Indian fable, the fable of the woodcutter. The story goes this way. yoga607

    I was reading a few days before. I couldn't believe it, but it is a fact. I was reading a book about Lenin. yoga608

    Just the other day I was reading about a Hassid mystic, Zusia. He is one of the most beautiful Hassid mystics. sunris06

    I was reading the other day about a very beautiful Hassid mystic, Levi-Yizhak. perf101

    I was just reading about one Christian saint. clouds05

    I was just reading one Christian theologian's book. wing04

    I was reading about a Quaker, a very religious Quaker. sage03

    I was reading the life of a very famous bishop. He went to St. Mary's Church in Cambridge to deliver a university sermon. foll103

    I was just reading a story about a seeker who went to see Bayazid, a great Master. foll103

    I was reading about the life of Wagner, a German composer and great musician. foll106

    I was just reading a book on new religions in Japan. yoga205

    I was reading the life of a great Japanese poet, Issa. He suffered. He must have been a very, very sensitive man: he was a great poet, he's one of the greatest haiku poets. foll110

    The other day I was reading a few lines of Stephen Crane's. I would like to read them to you. foll209

    Just a few days before, I read a beautiful story of DuBois'. I would like you to listen to it and try to understand it. foll209

    I was reading Emerson. He says a very beautiful thing. He says sin is not just breaking the law. "Sin is not just breaking the law, but failing to discover the adventure at the very heart of living." foll211

    I was reading a song this morning and a few lines of that song appealed to me: Jor he kya tha jafa-e-bagvan dekna kiye ashian ujra kiya hum natwan dekha kiye. The meaning is: The garden was being destroyed and I watched it helplessly. Yes, your whole life is the same story. greatt03

    Yesterday I was reading a song written by a friend of mine, Kumar Barabankvi, who is an Urdu poet. A line of the poem is: "The destination seems to be near, as the path is deserted and lonely." greatt10

    It happened: I was reading Greta Garbo's biography. flowrs07

    In reading the memoirs of a poet, I particularly liked one incident. true104

    I was just looking at a few cartoons on Charlie Brown. In one cartoon he is playing with blocks, making a house out of children's blocks. He is sitting in the middle of the blocks building the walls. Then a moment comes when he is enclosed; all around he has made a wall. Then he cries: Help, help! He has done the whole thing. Now he is enclosed, imprisoned. This is childish, but this is all that you have done also. You have made a house all around you, and now you are crying: Help, help! And the misery becomes millionfold--because there are helpers who are also in the same boat. source05

    I was reading Wilhelm Reich's wife's memoirs. He was one of the most significant psychoanalysts, one of the most revolutionary--but when the question comes to one's own problems, the difficulty arises. His wife has written in her memoirs that he was teaching others not to be jealous--that love is not possession, it is freedom. But about his own wife, he was always jealous. source05

    Last night I was reading a book by Ugovetti, an Italian dramatist, and I came across a sentence I liked very much. Like the words of the Vedas, it is of great significance. Ugovetti said that if there was even one drop of water less in existence the whole universe would feel thirsty. greats03

    When I was reading Waiting for Godot I thought, Godot seems to be like a German word. The very sound of the word...One of my old *sannyasins, Haridas, was with me. I asked Haridas, "What is German for God?"

    He said, "The German for God is Gott!"

    It seems only Germans have Gott it! God does not mean anything. It is a meaningless word and you can manage to give any image to it. hari22

    Discourses: on Hassids and Jews

    In October 1975 Osho introduces Hassidism in a discourse series

    You ask me: When you speak of religions, you usually mention Christians, Mohammedans and Hindus, but not Jews. Is there a reason for it?

    There is a reason: I am the only Jew in India!...

    ...In fact, there have been only two source religions in the world: Hinduism and Judaism. Both are dead. Jainism and Buddhism are offshoots of Hinduism but because the root is dead the branches are dead too. And Christianity and Islam are branches of Judaism, and because the root is dead the branches are dead too. These are dead phenomena. I am not much concerned with the past.

    Yes, something beautiful has happened in Judaism, too, and that is Hassidism--and I have talked about it a lot. Just as I love Zen people in the tradition of the Buddha, I love Hassids in the tradition of Moses and I love Sufis in the tradition of Mohammed. These three are still alive in some small way because these three have never become established religions; they have always been anti-establishment, they have always been alternatives to the established religion, they have always been rebellious.

    Hassidism is worth talking about, not Judaism--and I have talked about Hassidism. I have been approaching Hassidism with my own experience. I have been bringing Hassidism up to date, trying to make it part of the twentieth century. Hassidism is the essence of Judaism, the very fragrance of it.

    And I have something of the Hassids in me, that's why I sometimes call myself a Jew. The Hassids love life, they are life-affirmative. They don't believe in renunciation, they believe in rejoicing. They believe in dancing, singing, celebrating--and that's exactly my approach too.

    My religion is something of a meeting of Zen, Sufism and Hassidism--and something more thrown in. inzen03

    I am very happy that fifty per cent--more than fifty per cent--of my *sannyasins are Jews. What I am saying can have appeal only to very intelligent people. Stupids won't have any attraction to me--only very intelligent people can understand what I am saying.

    But they have been hated, that is true. That hatred can be dropped only when Jews start changing.

    There are a few things that they can do. One is that they accept Jesus back home. If they can welcome Jesus back home almost ninety per cent of the hatred will disappear. And Jesus is theirs--more theirs than the Christians'. Jesus was born a Jew, died a Jew. He was the greatest Jew ever. He was not a Christian. If Jews can accept Jesus back home, that will change the whole climate in the world. And if Jews can put their energies--as they have put them into money--if they can put their energies into meditation, they will become the greatest meditators on the earth. They can herald a new era! isay208

    In fact, I have never tried to convert anybody, but there are a few rabbi sannyasins. That is strange! And not ordinary rabbis, famous rabbis. And I have not been in any way trying to convert anybody because I don't have any doubt. Why should I bother about converting anybody? I don't have to convince myself that I am right. I am! misery06

    I have been looking through the Talmud, and it is so tiring that anybody who suffers from sleeplessness, I suggest the Talmud--you can just manage two or three pages! It is so much nonsense, and on that nonsense rabbis go on interpreting, interpretations upon interpretations. And the original is basic rubbish. I have always suspected because the name rabbi' seems to be so close to rubbish' that there must have been some past connection between rubbish and rabbi! invita21

    Group Activities in the ashram

    Osho inaugurates many new activities, open to all in the Meditation Hall. Participants give a demonstration for Osho at the end of darshan, for example, Music group, African dance, Sufi dance, Karate, Yoga, T'ai Chi, etc.

    Now I am working with all the traditions together. Jews are here and Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians and Parsis and Sikhs and Jains and Buddhists. All traditions have gathered here. It is a unique experiment in the whole history of humanity; it has never happened in this way....

    I am using all the possible methods, and when all these methods meet of course there is going to be great contradiction. If you don't understand you will see only contradictions and contradictions. If you understand then you will understand the harmony of all these instruments together.

    People are doing Vipassana and doing the Sufi dancing and doing Yoga and doing Tantra and using Zen methods, zazen and other methods. And not only the old methods--they are doing all that has happened in this century after Sigmund Freud, all the psychological methods, all the psychotherapy groups.

    This is a meeting of the whole world. It is a universal religiousness that I am creating here. It is bound to be multidimensional if you understand. If you don't understand, if you still cling to a certain tradition, then it will look contradictory to you. ithat04

    Music Group

    In October 1975, an evening music group begins, with singing and dancing. This music group, with many different musicians, forms an integral part of Osho's work, and continues to the present day.

    The music groupleader asks for a name for the group.

    I will give you a name...Nadam. It means the ultimate sound.

    If every sound, every noise stops, then we start hearing the sound of that soundlessness, the sound of silence itself. That is nad.

    Nad means the basic sound out of which everything is made. In yoga, it is an hypothesis that everything is made of sound, sound particles. In a way, both science and yoga agree, because science says that sound is made of electrical particles, and yoga says that electricity is nothing but a certain combination of sound particles. So they have come to the same reality. But because yoga came through silence, through dropping the thoughts and noise of the mind and heard the innermost silence, yoga says that everything is made of sound. So I will call it Nadam Music Meditation Group, mm? Good! hammer25

    The Nadam music group plays at darshan...

    Music helps to bring you in tune with yourself. If you are really involved in the outer music, it brings you in contact with the inner music. Just be totally possessed as if you are not there but just a vehicle for something unknown, for something from the beyond. cypres01

    A musician says he has been composing songs with one of the singers and that it seemed different from the group's approach.

    You can do it, mm? Individually, or whenever you feel with somebody that you have a certain at-one-ment, you can make dyads, couples or three or four persons, and you can evolve. But in this group, you have to work totally differently. No individuality should be brought in...as if the whole group is one individual. Because if you all start being individuals, then there will be no group soul possible, and the beauty is in the group soul. I would like your group to increase by and by and become bigger. So the initial group should be so much in tune that when a new individual joins, he simply falls in line.

    You are going to be the very base of a bigger group which will be coming soon--so get ready! If you are not in tune, when new persons come they will not be able to get in tune. They will get into your disharmony, and they will go on their own way. Then everybody is moving away from each other and the group disperses. You are all playing and singing solo, so it is not an orchestra.

    I know it is difficult to be in an orchestra and spontaneous, but that difficulty has to be faced. And once you know the knack of it--how to be spontaneous and yet not out of tune, how to be spontaneous and yet flowing with everybody else, flowing in your own way and yet with everybody else. It is a little complex and subtle but that's the beauty of it.

    By and by your group will become bigger and bigger. When a hundred persons will be singing and playing together, you will create a pinnacle of energy, a tower. And that has to be so. Like a pyramid, mm? On the base you are a hundred. When you join together, the pyramid becomes smaller and smaller and smaller. Then comes the peak where every individual is lost; just the point is left. There will be a pyramid of music, singing, ecstasy.

    So do whatsoever you feel like doing separately. You can form your own small music friendships, but that is separate. When you join this group you have to follow a certain discipline, and yet you have to be spontaneous. It looks paradoxical, but soon you will have the knack of it. Once you know how to dissolve yourself, once you are not there, you will simply be surprised, amazed, mystified, that somehow the whole group is moving in one way, and spontaneously.

    Then you will feel an expansion of consciousness, because you are not there as an individual; you have joined together with a collectivity. No more islands. everybody has melted. And then the whole thing becomes intuitive. When you are separate, you are in directions. When you are not separate, you become intuitive. You are joined by a telepathic cord which surrounds you like a climate...touches you all. plays on your hearts, together. That climate takes over, and you are possessed. You have to learn it once and then you will know that everybody is moving together and yet nobody is forcing.

    Have you ever been in a crowd which is going to kill somebody, or going to burn a temple or a church or a mosque? or in a crowd which is protesting, shouting, screaming? Suddenly you will find that you have started shouting and screaming; that you are getting hot. What has happened? Just a moment before, you were cool and calm, and you were going to your job or somewhere else. You meet this crowd and people are shouting, and suddenly you feel you have fallen in tune.

    Have you seen soldiers walking in a rhythm? The military scientists say that whenever an army is passing a bridge their rhythm should be broken, otherwise the bridge can fall. Sometimes it has fallen, because the rhythm is such a thing that the whole bridge starts shaking--so soldiers are not to move on the bridge in step.

    Nietzsche writes somewhere, 'I have never seen a greater music--greater than when I see an army marching together.' He was a military-minded man. But he is indicating a certain truth. The truth is that whenever so many people are together, individuals disappear, egos disappear. An egoless consciousness arises which is bigger than all; bigger than the totality of all. It can be destructive...it can be creative.

    Hitler used it in a destructive way. He created a mass-mind. That mass-mind was completely mad. It almost brought the world to destruction, to total destruction--almost to the very brink. But the same thing can be creative. That's what I want you to be.

    If a collective soul can be destructive, why not creative? If people can move with such totality, such involvement and commitment that they are not there and something bigger controls them, then why cannot the same be used for creativity?

    And this is my understanding: if it is not done for creativity, again and again it will be used for destructiveness. If you cannot create groups which can enjoy being together in music, in poetry, in singing and dancing, people are going to shout in the streets, scream, go berserk, destroy...unless we can create just a parallel world of people who are creative in their togetherness. Individuals have been creative, but the problem is this--that groups have been destructive and individuals have been creative. The individuals are bound to fail.

    When a Hitler comes, he creates a group. When a Mozart comes, he plays individually. When a Mussolini comes, he creates a destructive harmony. The same is to be done by a Buddha also...exactly parallel. And if you can give people a creative togetherness, who is going to be destructive? Nobody. In fact the whole charm of the destruction is not in destruction--it is in being together.

    Let this be nailed into your heart--that the whole charm is of being together. People are fed up with themselves. They want to lose themselves somewhere, in an orgy--that is the attraction. But if you can give them a creative togetherness, they will not go in a destructive direction. There is no need--they will be so fulfilled.

    So this is just a beginning, remember. Everything that I am doing is a beginning. You may not be aware of what is going to happen.

    More and more people will join, so let the base be perfectly solid. When new people come, you will be twenty. When one new person comes he is bound to flow with the twenty--if the twenty are in harmony. If these twenty are not in harmony, he will go on his own way. Then it becomes a crowd. It will be destructive...it will create chaos. Even music can be destructive.

    Have you come across the latest research about music? Indian music and Western classical music is creative. The modern Western music is destructive. If western classical music and Indian music is played around plants, they grow fast. If modern pop music is

    played, the plant doesn't grow at all; it stops. It doesn't come to bloom...it becomes crippled and something in it dies.

    The modern music creates anxiety, anguish. So music can be destructive, can be creative. Everything can be either this or that. Togetherness can be creative or destructive.

    This group has to be very disciplined and yet spontaneous. It will take a little time for you to feel, but once you feel, once the vision has come to you and you have a glimpse, then you will be simply amazed how many treasures were already there and you never looked. getout01

    The ashram's music group plays at darshan again...

    Very good! You want to do one more?...Bring a greater climax, mm? The whole point is to lose oneself. The climax will come only when you are not individuals...just the group soul has evolved and things are controlled not by individuals, but by the group soul.

    So just lose yourselves--then the climax will come. You cannot bring it, you can only allow it. So allow it this time. getout01

    And music is good. Enjoy it. Move with the music and allow the vibration of it. Don't hold in any way. Let your whole being vibrate. In fact the whole existence consists of nothing but vibrations--millions of forms, but all the forms consist of different types of vibrations. Even physicists say that the deeper you go into the atom, the more you find that nothing is left but only a pulsating energy, vibrations.

    We are made of vibrations, so the more you vibrate, the more alive you are. Hence music is tremendously meaningful, because it can vibrate you. It can bring pulsation to many layers of your being which have become stale, stagnant. It can create ripples in your innermost core. If you allow and you are not afraid, those ripples will go on deeper and deeper and deeper. They will touch your very core, your very centre.

    So allow music to enter you. Just become a receptivity, an openness. Go all the way and don't hold, because holding will create trouble; your energy starts being divided. When music influences you, when you are under its impact, then completely forget yourself. Be oblivious of yourself. Just become part of it, and then you are nothing but a vibration. Then the music will start playing upon you and you will be just like an instrument.

    It is going to give you the greatest meditation that is possible. No other meditation is needed. passio13

    I conceive of man also as a musical instrument. One has to learn to play upon it. If you don't learn how to play upon it you will create only noise, and it will be a disturbance; rather than being a blessing it will become a curse. That's what goes on happening to millions of people: their life is nothing but a tale told by an idiot, full of fury and noise,

    signifying nothing. And the simple reason is that they don't know how to play upon their heart, upon their being.

    Just as one learns to play upon the piano, the sitar, the sarod, the veena, the violin, one has to learn to play upon one's own being.

    Sannyas has to become the beginning of that great art of creating music out of your own being. That music is what the mystics have called ecstasy, samadhi. That music is what others have called god, nirvana. And it is there, fast asleep; it has to be provoked, it has to be called forth. One has to be an artist, a musician. One has to be creative, and one has to be an explorer of one's own inner being.

    Religion is not worship, it is art. It is not formality, it is not a social institution; it is a transformation of your being. It is creating harmony in your soul, it is alchemy. script40

    Dance

    The drum is the most primitive instrument. When you feel that drum beating, your body responds, sways, you start falling into the beat, moving with the beat, and suddenly you have become a primitive, a natural being: all civilization drops. You are no longer here in this twentieth century and all the nonsense that goes on around--you have moved back almost ten thousand years.

    Just the other night, our Ethiopian sannyasin, Neeraj, came to show me a few Ethiopian dances. They were wonderful. He danced with a very primitive beat, very, very primitive. Ethiopia is one of the oldest lands on earth, it is the country of Solomon. Since Solomon they have been dancing with the primitive beat. It has a deep appeal. There is no need to understand it, your body will understand it. Nobody could understand the song that was following the beat but everybody understood the beat. There were Americans, there were English, there were Indians here and everybody could follow it. The language of the drum is universal. treas210

    The way of the Sufi is the way of the drunkard, the dancer, who becomes almost intoxicated in his dancing, who is transported through his dance. He is inebriated; his dance is psychedelic.

    It is said that Mohammed once said to Ali, "You are of me, and I am of you." When he heard this, Ali became ecstatic and involuntarily started dancing. What else can you do, when a man like Mohammed says to you, "You are of me, and I am of you"? How to receive this? Ali did well.

    And remember, it is not anything that he did. It was involuntary. He started dancing; out of ecstasy the dance started flowing.

    Another time, Mohammed said to Jafar, "You are like me in both looks and character." Here again, in wajd, Jafar started dancing. What else to do? When Mohammed must have

    looked into the eyes of Jafar, wajd, samadhi, was created, the transfer beyond the scriptures happened. How to receive this? How not to dance? It would have been impossible not to dance. Jafar danced....

    On the surface, from the outside, the Sufi seems to be dancing. But he is not dancing, because there is no dancer. It is pure dance. God has taken possession of him. The Sufi is drunk, intoxicated. His state is that of non-being. He is anchorless. The waves of the ocean toss and turn. First his inner being is stirred, great joy arises there; and then it starts spreading towards his body....

    You are participating in something immensely beautiful in Sufi dancing. Remember it: forget the dancer and be the dance.

    The way of the Sufi is the way of dance, song, celebration. secret14

    Dancing is immensely valuable. Dancing should become a natural phenomenon for everybody. It was once; it is still in very primitive people. It is not that a few people dance--there are no dancers; everybody is a dancer. Dancing is a general activity, like breathing. There are still tribes, small tribes in India in deep forests; their whole life is dance. They cannot believe that there are people who don't dance, because they cannot believe how you can live without dancing! Life will be almost nil.

    Their whole life revolves around dance. Each and everything becomes an excuse for dance. Each night is a dancing night and the whole tribe dances: small children, women, men, old women...no barriers of age. Dance is for all because dance is equivalent to life. Man has missed much.

    Bertrand Russell has said somewhere that he was always in favour of civilization, culture; he was a rational man. But when he came across a primitive tribe in Africa his whole idea of civilization simply fell down flat on the ground, and he started feeling very jealous. He writes, 'In that moment I was ready to drop all culture and all civilization if I could know how to dance again.'

    My *sannyasins have all to be dancers, and no excuse should be missed; each excuse has to be used as an opportunity to dance. Somebody's birthday, dance; somebody has died, dance. Somebody is ill, dance around him. Somebody is going for a journey, give him a farewell dance. Somebody is coming, welcome him with dance. Make it a point that the more you dance, the more you are in tune with god.

    When you dance it is god who dances in you; that's why it is so beautiful. Whenever you dance you are no more separate, you don't have a split. You are no more body/mind; you are no more this and that. You don't have alternatives. All alternatives disappear, all dualities disappear. In fact there is no dancer and the dance; there is only dance!

    One comes to a state of non-duality, and non-duality is orgasm. That's what people are searching for through love, through alcohol, through drugs--a state where they are no

    more separate from existence. But those methods are dangerous and very costly. You gain very little joy and you destroy your whole chemistry, your body. It is not worth it.

    Through dance you don't lose anything and you gain infinity. losers11

    I give you this as a key, as a criterion, as a touchstone. Keep it always in mind that whenever you are feeling uneasy, disturbed, restless, remember: you are doing something which is against the universal rhythm, the universal dance. You are out of step, that's all. Start moving back into rhythm, come back into harmony, and suddenly there is sunlight; the clouds have disappeared and the path has been found.

    Dance is a rhythmic movement. Dance represents god more than anything else. In my observation, dance is the most prayerful activity possible. When your body is in a dance and you are utterly lost in the rhythm of it, you start coming closer to god. halle16

    Just as music is one beautiful door, so is dance. And dance will help you immensely. The only secret is to be lost in it, to be drowned in it. One has to dance in a kind of drunkenness. It is intoxicating, if you allow it. If you allow yourself to be possessed by it, then the very movements create some alchemical change in the inner energy. It intoxicates. Nothing intoxicates like a dance, and sometimes the intoxication is so much that even those who are looking at the dancer start feeling drunk. But that is nothing compared to what happens to the dancer himself or herself.

    But dance should not be a performance, otherwise the whole thing is missed. Then it is just acting on the outside--the dancer is never lost in it. And that is the whole point, the very crux of the matter: dance is divine when the dancer has disappeared into it. When the dancer dies in his dance and only dance remains, then you are in the hands of god. Then he is moving you, he is moving within you. Then for miles you cannot find yourself, and the moment when you cannot find yourself is the moment when god is found.

    So while you are here, dance to abandonment! halle31

    Celebrations

    For several years there have been special celebration days: Osho's birthday (11th December), the anniversary of Osho's enlightenment (21st March), and the traditional Indian festival to honour the guru (Gurupurnima, July full moon). Celebrations include informal singing, dancing, and charansparsh with Osho. In March 1976 over 2,000 people attend. As the number of visitors increases to 7,000 in 1978, the celebration changes to a darshan with Osho in Buddha Hall, with singing, dancing and silent sitting. Osho encourages sannyasins to come for celebrations days; he indicates that with so many people present it is easy for him to raise the consciousness.

    Osho speaks to a sannyasin who is leaving:

    If you can manage to be here on the twentieth, (Guru Purnima festival) it will be good. Mm, because sannyasins will be gathering from all over the world and it will be beautiful to participate in their joy and celebration. If it is possible and it doesn't make much trouble for you. If it is easily possible, otherwise don't bother, mm? Just for one day, the twentieth, be here from the morning to the night and then you can go back. leap08

    I teach to you: Be the celebrators, celebrate! Already there is too much: the flowers have bloomed, the birds are singing, the sun is there in the sky--celebrate it! You are breathing and you are alive, and you have consciousness--celebrate it! Then suddenly you relax, then there is no tension, then there is no anguish. The whole energy that becomes anguish becomes gratitude; your whole heart goes on beating with a deep thankfulness--that is prayer. That's all prayer is about: a heart beating with a deep thankfulness. suprem04

    Take hold of your own life. See that the whole existence is celebrating. These trees are not serious, these birds are not serious. The rivers and the oceans are wild, and everywhere there is fun, everywhere there is joy and delight. Watch existence, listen to the existence and become part of it. Then you become a Baul, then you become a lover-- because love can exist only with a deep respect for fun, with a deep respect for delight. Love cannot exist with a serious mind. With a serious mind, logic is in tune. be non- serious. I'm not saying not to be sincere. Be sincere, but be non-serious. Sincerity is something else; seriousness is totally different. Be sincere with existence, then you will be true; you will become part of this cosmic leela, this cosmic play. belov109

    You say: I have heard that Your sannyasins celebrate death.

    You have heard rightly! My sannyasins celebrate everything. Celebration is the foundation of my sannyas--not renunciation but rejoicing; rejoicing in all the beauties, all the joys, all that life offers, because this whole life is a gift of God.

    The old religions have taught you to renounce life. They are all life negative; their whole approach is pessimistic. They are all against life and its joys. To me, life and God are synonymous. In fact, life is a far better word than God itself, because God is only a philosophical term, while life is real, existential. The word "God" exists only in scriptures; it is a word, a mere word. Life is within you and without you--in the trees, in the clouds, in the stars. This whole existence is a dance of life.

    I teach love for life.

    I teach the art of living your life totally, of being drunk with the divine through life. I am not an escapist....

    I am in tremendous love with life, hence I teach celebration. Everything has to be celebrated, everything has to be lived, loved. To me nothing is mundane and nothing is sacred. To me all is sacred, from the lowest rung of the ladder to the highest rung. It is the

    same ladder: from the body to the soul, from the physical to the spiritual, from sex to samadhi--everything is divine!...

    Celebration has to be total, only then can you be multidimensionally rich. And to be multidimensionally rich is the only thing we can offer to God.

    If there is a God, and someday you have to face him, he will ask you only one question: "Have you lived your life totally or not?"--because this opportunity is given to you to live, not to renounce.

    My sannyasins celebrate death too, because to me death is not the end of life but the very crescendo of life, the very climax. It is the ultimate of life. If you have lived rightly, if you have lived moment to moment totally, if you have squeezed out the whole juice of life, your death will be the ultimate orgasm.

    The sexual orgasm is nothing compared to the orgasm that death brings, but it brings it only to the person who knows the art of being total. The sexual orgasm is a very faint thing compared to the orgasm that death brings. What happens in sexual orgasm? For a moment you forget that you are a body, for a moment two lovers become merged into one unity, into one organic union. For a moment they are not separate entities; they have melted into each other like two clouds which have become one.

    But it is only for a single moment, then they are again separate. Hence all sexual orgasms bring in their wake a kind of depression, because you fall from the height. You reached a crescendo, and for only a fragment of a moment you remained on the peak and then the peak disappeared. And when you fall from that height, you fall into the depth of depression.

    This is one of the contradictions of sex: it gives you the greatest pleasure and also the greatest agony. It gives you ecstasy and agony--both. And each time you reach an orgasmic state, you know that soon it will disappear. Then there is disillusionment, disappointment.

    Death gives you the ultimate in orgasmic joy: the body is left behind forever and your being becomes one with the whole. It is immeasurable. If to become one with a single person gives you so much joy, just think how much joy will happen in becoming one with the infinite! But it does not happen to everybody who dies, because the people who have not lived rightly cannot die rightly either. The people who have lived in deep unconsciousness will die in deep unconsciousness. Death will give you only that which you have lived all your life; it is the essence of your whole life.

    If your life was of meditativeness, awareness, witnessing, then you will be able to witness death too. If your whole life you remained cool, centered in different situations, death will give you the ultimate challenge, the ultimate test. And if you can remain centered, calm and cool and watching, then you will not die an unconscious death, your death will

    bring you to the ultimate peak of consciousness. And then, certainly, it has to be celebrated.

    So whenever one of my sannyasins dies, we celebrate, we dance, we sing. We give him a good farewell....

    Yes, my sannyasins celebrate death because they celebrate life. And death is not against life; it does not end life, it only brings life to a beautiful peak. Life continues even after death. It was there before birth, it is going to continue after death. Life is not confined to the small space that exists between birth and death; on the contrary, births and deaths are small episodes in the eternity of life.

    We celebrate everything. Celebration is our way to receive all the gifts from God. Life is his gift, death is his gift; the body is his gift, the soul is his gift. We celebrate everything. We love the body, we love the soul. We are materialist spiritualists. Nothing like this has ever happened in the world. This is a new experiment, a new beginning, and it has a great future. come02

    New Death Celebration

    In March 1976 a Dutch sannyasin, Ma Vipassana, dies from a brain tumour. She has been in a coma for several weeks, and hospitalized. Osho recommended people visit and meditate with her to understand the process of dying. Now Osho gives the precedent for death celebrations: the body is brought to the Meditation Hall, and then carried to the burning ghats, with singing and dancing.*

    *Note: the darshan diary Nothing to Lose But Your Head, Ch.22, contains a description of Vipassana's death, of friends' reactions, the celebration, and Osho's discourse about it.

    Whenever somebody dies--somebody you have known, loved, lived with, somebody who has become a part of your being--something in you also dies.

    Vipassana had become a part of this commune, of this family. She was totally surrendered to me. Her devotion was complete. Of course you will miss her. A vacuum will be felt. That's natural. But the same vacuum can be converted into a door. And death is a door to God.

    Death is the only phenomenon left which is not yet corrupted by man. Otherwise man has corrupted everything, polluted everything. Only death still remains virgin, uncorrupted...untouched by the hands of man. Man would like to corrupt it also, but he cannot hold it, cannot possess it. It is so elusive. It remains unknowable--and man remains at a loss as to what to do with death. He cannot understand it. He cannot make a science out of it. That's why death is still uncorrupted. And that is the only thing left now in the world.

    Use these moments.

    When suddenly death enters into your consciousness, your whole life feels meaningless. It is meaningless. Death reveals a truth. When suddenly you come across death, the very earth underneath you slips away. Suddenly you become aware that this death also implies your death. Every death is everybody's death.

    Never send a man to ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

    In death we are all equal. In life we may be different, separate. individuals. In death, all individuality, all separation disappears. Death reveals a fact about your life--that whatsoever you have been thinking as very concrete, real, is very filmy. It is dream stuff. It can be taken away from you any moment. So don't be too much concerned with it...remain a little aloof.

    This is not your home--at the most an overnight stay. As Vipassana is gone, everybody has to leave. A caravanserai--you stay for the night, and by the morning you are gone. Everybody is standing in the same line, in the same queue. So don't feel sorry for Vipassana. Don't feel sad for her. If you at all want to be alert, aware, then be aware that your life--whatsoever you mean by it--is just a dream. Any moment it will be broken.

    The life that you have been thinking of as true life is not true life. Death brings this truth home. It hammers deeply into your heart. That's why it hurts. It is not Vipassana's death that hurts you. It is something else...it is your own death. It is the awareness that life is not worthwhile. And how much we get involved in it, how much we get identified with it. And how much we are ready to pay for it--and it is not more than a dream.

    Remember this...then you are using this situation for a tremendous awareness. Your whole life can be transformed--and then you will be grateful to Vipassana. And that will be a true respect for her. And when I say don't feel sorry for Vipassana, I mean it. She has done well, tremendously well. She has died as one should die.

    She accepted death. That is one of the most difficult things to do. Only if you are in deep meditation is that possible, otherwise not. Because the whole mind, the whole human mind, has been trained against death. We have been taught for centuries that death is against life...that death is the enemy of life...that death is the end of life.

    Of course we are scared and cannot relax; cannot be in a let go. And if you cannot be in a let-go with death, you will remain tense in your life--because death is not separate from life. It is not the end of life. Rather, on the contrary, it is the very crescendo...it is the very climax.

    And if you are afraid of the climax, naturally you will be unable, you will not be able in any way, to relax in life also, because everywhere in life, death will be felt to be hidden. You will be frightened.

    People who are afraid of death cannot relax in sleep, because sleep is also a very small death that comes every day. People who are afraid of death are afraid of love also,

    because love is a death. People who are afraid of death become afraid of all orgasmic experiences, because in each orgasm the ego dies. One who is afraid of death will be afraid of everything. He will miss everything.

    She relaxed. She died as I wanted her to die...in a deep let-go. She accepted death. She was not in any conflict...she was not struggling. And this is the criterion--that you have come to know something tremendously beautiful within yourself which is beyond death. One can relax in death only when one has come to feel something which is deathless.

    Those few days she was in hospital were days of suffering and sadness for you, but not for her. I have been continuously watching her. I have been in contact with her continuously. She was relaxing.

    She has gone into death without any struggle, without any fight on her part. Once you die that way then only one more birth is possible--not more than that. She will be born once more, that's all. And then the wheel of life and death is finished for her.

    You be happy for her--don't feel sorry for her. She has attained to something very beautiful...you should feel jealous. (laughter) And then you will be able to give her a good farewell.

    Remember, not only you are here--she is also here. I would like to tell a joke for her. It is not for you. (laughter)

    During a seance the medium was offering to bring people back from the other world. Among those present was a nine-year-old boy. "I want to talk to Grandpa," he said.

    "You be quiet," said the medium, annoyed.

    "But I want to talk to Grandpa," the boy insisted.

    "Alright, little boy," the medium said, and made a few hocus-pocus passes. "Here he is." "Grandpa," said the little boy, "what are you doing here? You ain't dead yet?" That I would like to say to Vipassana--"What are you doing here, Vipassana? You aren't dead yet!"

    In a way, nobody ever dies. In a way, every moment everybody is dying. So when you go to give her the send-off, give the send-off as one gives to somebody who is departing on a long journey. Not to a dead person--to an alive person. Let this be a send-off of dancing, celebration, festivity. She was a musician and a dancer--and she would love it.

    Dance when you go to give her the send-off this night. When fire starts consuming her body, dance as much as you can around her funeral pyre. Let your whole energy become a dance. Dance to orgasm...forget yourself completely. And give this send-off for her as

    if she is alive. She is alive...and if you really dance, many of you will feel her alive presence. A few of you, if you really celebrate the moment, will be able to see, actually be able to see her.

    So don't be sad--otherwise you will miss. Because when you are sad and gloomy and depressed, your eyes lose perceptivity. When you are happy and bubbling with some unknown joy, then your eyes are clear; then they have a clarity. And for this moment, deep clarity is needed, so that you can see the body burning on the funeral pyre, and you can also see the spirit moving away...farther away...to the other shore.

    If you dance, and happily, gracefully, sing. It will be difficult I know--but not as difficult as you think. Once you do it, by and by you will feel that it comes easy. The same energy that becomes gloom starts moving, starts flowing, and becomes a dance. In the beginning you may feel a little hard, because you have completely forgotten how to dance. You have forgotten how to dance in life, so how to dance in death? I understand.

    But once you start, the energy starts melting, and soon you will see you are dancing. And the sadness has disappeared, and your eyes are glistening with a new light and you will be able to realise something. I am giving you a particular meditation for this night.

    Vipassana has left--but don't miss this opportunity. Death opens a door of the unknown. She will be moving into the unknown. You can also have a glimpse. The door will open for her, but you can have a glimpse of the door, and her movement into the unknown. So don't be sorry there. Don't be sad. If you want to be sad, then don't go there, because your sadness will be a disturbance.

    Go there dancing, happy, singing! And dance so totally that the dancer disappears and only the dance remains. All of my sannyasins--dance round the fire, and your orange, your fire colour, will become flames. And you are going to have a tremendous experience, a royal feast.

    This is the way to give a send-off to a friend. And if you are happy, you help the other person to move easily into the unknown. If you are sad, it becomes difficult for the other to move away. Your sadness becomes heavy on the other person. It becomes like a rock, and hangs around the neck of the other.

    Be happy! And let the other person also feel that she is remembered, that she is loved, that she is accepted. and that she is leaving a happiness behind her, a gladness behind her. In that moment it is easier for the other to move; very easy to move. Then there is no repentance, and one doesn't want to cling.

    All have to go--man, woman, all. In India, women are not allowed, but I would like everybody to go. Why should women be prohibited from a beautiful and great experience? Death is for all.

    Even small sannyasins, kids, if they want to go, take them with you. Let them also face the truths. Let them also experience. Let them also start thinking along the line that even death is not bad, that even death is beautiful--so that they can accept.

    Unless you accept death, you remain half, you remain part, you remain lopsided. When you accept death also, you become balanced. Then all is accepted--the day and the night, the summer and the winter, both the light and darkness.

    When both are accepted, both the polarities of life, you gain balance. You become tranquil...you become whole. And remember always, my teaching is not for perfection. My teaching is for wholeness....

    Go happily...with deep prayer. If you cry, cry--but cry with happiness. If tears come, let them, but let them be tears of prayer, love, gratitude. Let them be tears of celebration.

    Tears are not necessarily of sadness, remember. Tears have nothing to do with sadness. They come only when something overpowers you, overwhelms you. Maybe it is happiness, maybe it is sadness. Whenever something is so much that you cannot contain it, it starts flowing through the tears. Tears are just symbolic of something overflowing. So if you want to cry, cry, but let them have the quality of a song. If tears come, let them flow, but let them have the quality of a dance.

    The Hindu way of burning the body is very significant. It is significant for the soul that has departed, because the soul can see the body being burned, reduced to ashes. It helps detachment. It gives a last shattering, a last hammering shock--because when a person dies, it takes a few hours for him to recognise that he is dead. And if the body is buried underground--as for Christians and Mohammedans--then it takes many days for the person to recognise that he is dead. With the Hindu way of burning, immediately it becomes a realisation that the body has been left.

    Vipassana is going to be there. It is good for her that she can see her body being burned, and turned dust unto dust. It is good for her. It is good for--you because the same is going to happen to your body also. Let it be a great meditation.

    Now I will not delay you any more. She has to go long...beyond the stars. For ten minutes sit in silence with me, and then you go....

    Life is beautiful...has its own blessings. Death has its blessings too. Much flowers in life, but much flowers in death also...and something of that has flowered in Vipassana.

    Remember all that God gives has to be taken in deep gratefulness--even death...only then you become religious. tolose22

    Just a few days before, Vipassana died. Her brother Viyogi was asked to hit her head; that has become symbolic in India. When a person dies and is put on the funeral pyre, the head has to be hit. Just symbolic, because if the person has attained to the ultimate, then

    the head will break on its own; but the person has not attained. But we hope and pray, and break the skull.

    The point of release becomes open. This point can be seen. Some day or other, when Western medical science will become aware of yoga physiology, this also will become part of all postmortems--how the person died. Just now they see only whether he died naturally or was poisoned or killed or committed suicide--all ordinary things. The most basic thing they miss, which has to be there on the report--how the person died: from the sex center, from the heart center, or from sahasrar--from where he died. And there is a possibility--and yogis have done much work on it--it can be seen in the body because that particular center breaks, as if an egg has broken and something has gone out of it.

    When somebody who has attained to samyama becomes, just three days before he dies, aware from what center he is going to move, almost always he moves from sahasrar. A certain activity, a movement, just at the top of the head starts working three days before one dies.

    These indications can prepare you how to receive death, and if you know how to receive death in a great celebration, in great joy, in delight--almost dancing and in ecstasy--you will not be born again. Your lesson is complete. You have learned whatsoever was to be learned here on this earth; now you are ready to move beyond for a greater mission, for a greater life, for more unlimited life. Now you are ready to be absorbed by the cosmos, by the whole. You have earned it. yoga801

    Discourses: Zen

    In February and March 1976 Osho talks on Zen, Zen hits, and the allegorical Ten Zen Bulls

    Zen is a simple life.

    And that is my teaching also: Be simple and nobody. Don't condemn anybody. Don't put yourself in a situation where you can feel holier than thou--never. Just be ordinary. And when you are ordinary, all anxiety disappears. source03

    If you really think about anger, from where it comes, you will reach to emptiness.

    Next time, when you feel angry...or if you cannot, then come to me, I will give you a whack. I go on giving, but my whacks are more subtle than Dokuon's. I don't use a real staff--it is not needed; you are so unreal, a real staff is not needed. I need not physically

    give you a whack, but spiritually I go on giving them. I go on creating situations in which I try to bring you back to your reality...

    A master is to help you to go to your inner emptiness, the inner silence, the inner temple; and the master has to devise methods. Only zen masters beat; sometimes they throw a person out of the window, or they jump on him. Because you have become so false, such drastic methods are needed....

    The whole art of meditation is, how to leave the personality easily, move to the center, and be not a person. Just to be and not be a person is the whole art of meditation, the whole art of inner ecstasy. flowrs02

    We enter on a rare pilgrimage. The Ten Bulls of Zen are something unique in the history of human consciousness. Truth has been expressed in many ways, and it has always been found that it remains unexpressed whatsoever you do. Howsoever you express it, it eludes, it is elusive. It simply escapes description. The words that you use for it cannot contain it. And the moment you have expressed, immediately you feel frustrated as if the essential has been left behind and only the nonessential has been expressed. The Ten Bulls of Zen have tried in a single effort to express the inexpressible. So first, something about the history of these ten bulls. search01

    Glimpses of Osho's Personal Life

    Osho lives in seclusion and silence (apart from discourses and darshans). Vivek is his personal caretaker, and a few sannyasins help her with cooking and cleaning, etc. Occasionally Osho comments on his personal life.

    Just the other day somebody asked a question--'Osho, you are getting so fragile and delicate and so sensitive to the smells of hair oils and shampoos that it seems we will not be able to see you unless we all go bald.' By the way, nothing is wrong with being bald-- bald is beautiful. Just as 'black is beautiful', so 'bald is beautiful'. But that is true and you have to be careful about it.

    I am fragile, delicate and sensitive. That is my strength....

    Just a delicate thread joins me with the body. And I am continuously surprised that somehow the whole must be willing me to be here, because I am no more here with my own strength, I am no more here on my own. It must be the will of the whole to keep me here, to allow me to linger a little more on this shore. Maybe the whole wants to share something with you through me. trans211

    You ask: Every time you come and go in the lecture, I am worried you may miss a step and fall.

    P.S. You look so drunk.

    That's true. But I have been drunk for so long that you need not be afraid. For twenty-five years I have been that way. In the beginning it really was difficult to walk. I was very much afraid myself that I might fall any moment. Somehow the body had become so distant and there was such a gap--earth and sky apart. It took time for me to settle down. Although everything has settled down, that drunkenness is still there. This is God- drunkenness. Once you have drunk from the spring of the divine you are never in a state of being undrunk. Once is enough. A drop of it is enough to drown you forever. You need not drink again and again; you will never become thirsty again.

    I can understand your question, but don't be worried. Somehow. I call it 'somehow' because I am not managing it. I cannot manage it because I am not there to manage it; it has managed itself. Somehow I remain drunk and I remain aware.

    Sufis have a particular principle about it--it will be meaningful to understand it. They call it an oscillation between the two states, ahwal. The two states are baka and fana: individuality and dissolution of the individuality. Between these two there has to be a kind of rhythm, a synchronisation. There are people who are in their baka, but they don't know anything about fana. Then there are people who are in their fana, but they forget how to come back to baka. Both are lopsided.

    A kind of balance is needed between the two--drunkenness and awareness. One has to be drunkenly aware, or alertly drunk. That is the highest alchemy--where opposites meet and they become one. That is the greatest synthesis....

    This has been one of the greatest problems on the path of the ultimate ecstasy, and you will find this phenomenon in many ways. You see Buddha. Buddha is drunk and alert together. Ramakrishna is not alert. He is drunk. Something of the balance is missing. If you ask me, I cannot tell you to make Ramakrishna a goal. When Ramakrishna would get into his fana state, for days he would remain almost unconscious. Once he remained unconscious in a coma for six days. And when he came out of it he started crying, and he started asking God, 'Take me back. Let me go into that again.' He became like a child. It is better than the state of baka--this ecstasy is good--but there is a higher stage to it. That is Buddha's state. He is drunk and yet alert. One has never seen him unconscious. He has managed the ultimate synthesis.

    The way of ecstasy is also the way of sobriety, because it is the science of the knowledge of states. As Sheik ibn Ajiba has said, 'A drunkenness with consciousness of the state is higher than drunkenness with forgetfulness. Ecstasy is not the goal but the means; nevertheless an absolutely essential means.'

    So you need not be afraid. I am drunk and alert together. My drunkenness takes care that I don't become so much alert that I am fixed in the baka. My awareness takes care that I don't become fixed in the state of fana. They help each other like the two wings of a bird-

    -they are opposite and yet complementary. With one wing you cannot fly, you will need both wings.

    And that is my teaching. My whole effort here is to make you alert and drunk together. Hence I go on telling you to dance and abandon yourself in dance, and I go on teaching you ways of meditation, awareness, vipassana--so that both can grow together. The day you are drunk, suddenly you will find a light burning in you which keeps you alert. And certainly, as Ajiba says, a drunkenness with awareness is higher than a drunkenness with forgetfulness. sufis204

    People have been asking me how I go on sitting with my left leg upon my right leg for hours. I can change but I don't see any need. For years I have been sitting that way and now it has become so comfortable that if I change it that will be a discomfort. In this posture I completely forget my legs; there is no need for me to remember about them. But if I want to change I can change, there is no problem in it.

    Once you live consciously, every act starts taking on a different quality: the quality of relaxedness, restfulness. A religious man can be religious twenty-four hours a day. dark17

    In Zen, when a meditator goes very deep, the only way to find whether he is alive or dead is to bring a mirror in front of his nose. You cannot hear his breathing, but on the mirror the breathing leaves a little vapor. That remains the only sign that he is alive. The heart starts going into a subtler rhythm, the pulse becomes so slow, almost invisible.

    Before quartz watches with batteries came into existence, I was in a difficulty. Automatic watches function perfectly, but they depend on your pulse. Your pulse goes on giving them movement, and the movement of your hands. The moment you put them away, within two or three hours they stop.

    I have tried almost all the best watches in the world which are automatic, but on my hand they don't go even for three hours. From the moment I put them on my hand, within five or ten minutes they stop, because everything is so silent. And unless I have to move my hands...and that is only when I am speaking to you; otherwise my hands are in complete relaxation with my body.

    Finally they said that no automatic watch is going to work on me so I have to use either the winding watch, which is an older version, or a quartz watch which runs on a battery. satyam23

    You may be able to know what time it is without looking at the clock, but an enlightened person cannot--because for him time has disappeared. For him there is no more time! For him there is only eternal now. Nothing moves. All has stopped. His clock has stopped! Now there exists no calendar in him any more. He has to look to know what time it is. You can feel the time because your clock, inside clock, is working; you can have a certain inference about what time it must be. And within minutes you will be right; at the

    most, within ten minutes you will be right. Your mind can calculate. You know what time is; you know how much it feels when one hour passes by.

    But to the enlightened consciousness, nothing passes. All simply is...and always is. There is no way to infer what time it is. Hence, I have to look at the clock again and again.

    Sometimes Vivek becomes very much puzzled, because just five minutes before I had looked at the clock and I look again. And she says, "Just five minutes before you had looked, and you are looking again." And I can understand her puzzlement: anybody can infer, any child can infer, that only five minutes have passed. But nothing is passing for me. Even for the day I have to inquire what day today is, what date today is. easy107

    I am not following the clock at all. But I have come to understand my body. I have come to feel its needs. I have learned much by listening to it. And if you also listen and you become attentive to your body, you will start having a discipline which cannot be called a discipline.

    I have not forced it on myself. I have tried all sorts of things in my life. I have been continuously experimenting just to feel where my body fits perfectly. Once I used to get up early, at three o'clock in the morning. Then at four o'clock, then at five o'clock. Now I have been getting up at six for many years. By and by I watched what fits with my body. One has to be very sensitive....

    You have to find your own body, its way, what suits--that's right for you. And once you have found it, you can easily allow it, and it will not be enforced because it will be in tune with the body, so there is nothing as if you are imposing it; there is no struggle, no effort. Watch, while eating, what suits you. People go on eating all sorts of things. Then they get disturbed. Then their mind gets affected. Never follow anybody's discipline, because nobody is like you, so nobody can say what is going to suit you.

    That's why I give you only one discipline and that is of self-awareness, that is of freedom. You listen to your own body. The body has a great wisdom in it. If you listen to it, you will always be right. If you don't listen to it and you go on enforcing things on it, you will never be happy; you will be unhappy, ill, ill at ease, and always disturbed and distracted, disoriented.

    This has been a long experimentation. I have eaten almost all sorts of things, and then by and by I eliminated all that was not suiting me. Now whatsoever suits, I eat only that. Vivek is in trouble, because she has to cook almost the same thing every day and she cannot believe how I go on eating and go on enjoying it. Eating is okay--but enjoying it?...

    But whatsoever I'm doing is not enforced, it is spontaneous. That's how by and by I became aware of my body's needs. I always listen to my body. I would never impose my mind on the body. Do likewise and you will have a happier, a more blissful life. trans104

    If you have to eat the same food every day, like I do, you will get fed up. Even my kitchen people who prepare the food, they are utterly fed up with it. Except me, everybody is fed up. My gardeners are fed up because they have to grow the same vegetables. Vivek, Astha, Nirgun, Pragya--they are all fed up--they have to prepare exactly the same every morning, every evening. There is no difference between my lunch and supper. And there is no dinner ever. Dinners don't exist in my life at all--just supper and lunch, the same, exactly the same. And I can understand they get fed up preparing, preparing the same thing every day.

    Unless you are enlightened you are bound to get fed up. Unless you are enlightened you are bound to get fed up. I, of course, enjoy it every time--because I go on forgetting about the morning, so I am again tremendously excited. When Vivek brings the food I immediately look: "What have you prepared?" And she looks very embarrassed. And I don't miss a single moment, I start eating. Because who cares what I had eaten yesterday and the day before yesterday? I don't carry all these psychological memories, so each time it is new. ultima03

    I was worried about my old parents when they came and stayed here--I was worried that it would be too much for them. But I was very happy when they went to take their meals with Krishna Mohammed and Radha--I was so happy! That was a great step! Otherwise, they are orthodox Jains.

    In my childhood I had a Mohammedan friend. It was very difficult for me to invite him some time for tea or for food, very difficult. And even if I would insist, my family would allow, but then we would have to sit outside the house to eat. feet04

    You ask: why do you always carry a towel? And why don't you drop it now?

    The first thing: the towel has been with me for almost twenty-five years. It is a silver jubilee year!

    And I am very surprised by the question because only last night I decided to drop it.... I decided just last night. But it is good that you have asked. It is a long history how the towel started to be with me, and before I part company with it I had better tell the story to you.

    When I started living in Jabalpur, there were so many mosquitoes--don't laugh, because you have nothing in Poona compared with Jabalpur; that's nothing--I had to chase them with the towel the whole day. It was impossible to sit still....

    In fact, mosquitoes are old enemies of meditators. Whenever you meditate, whether the Devil comes to tempt you or not, the mosquitoes will always come.

    For eighteen years I was in Jabalpur. My towel became my constant companion. When I left Jabalpur and came to Bombay I was thinking of leaving it, but then people started spinning esoteric theories about it. So just to save the theoreticians I continued using it.

    Now it is a superstition. The word 'superstition' comes from a root which means: something that was useful sometimes but the circumstances have now changed, it is no longer useful. But it continues. This towel is a superstition and I have continued carrying it just for your sake--because there are theoreticians, esoteric people around who have to have something to base their theories upon.

    One woman, one of my beautiful sannyasins from the Phillipines, told me that she had found out the truth about my towel. I asked what it was. She said, "You are a nobody, you live in nothingness, you have to hold something otherwise you will disappear." I said, "Right! Absolutely right!"

    Just three things I had: my lungi, my robe and my towel. My lungi is gone, you can see. Parijat helped me to renounce it. Parijat is my official seamstress--appointed by His Holiness, Osho Shree Shree Shree Rajneeshji Maharaj! She made the robe so beautifully that the lungi became almost absurd with it. It started looking like a bullock cart by the side of a Cadillac. So out of necessity I had to drop it.

    Now here goes my towel. The only thing left is my robe. Please never ask any question about it!...

    And here goes Bhagwan's towel. It is all that I have. So I must remind you again: never ask any question about my robe.

    I will throw the towel. Whosoever it lands upon becomes its proud owner, but nobody must raise their hands or try to catch it. Hmmm? You just be in a meditation, absolutely passive. That is the way God also descends! If you try to catch it you cannot be the owner of it.

    And if some problem or some dispute arises that two or three persons claim the towel, you can always go to Mulla Nasruddin. It will be difficult to locate him because he is a very subtle and invisible man. But he's the best. If you cannot locate him then you can go to the next best person, Swami Yoga Chinmaya. He will decide the dispute--who the owner is. And if it cannot be decided then you can always divide it.

    Remember that you are not to catch it. If you try to catch it, you miss the opportunity. Let it land on you.

    Here goes Bhagwan's towel...! art10

    Vivek, Osho’s attendant

    Osho sometimes mentions Vivek, his caretaker, in his discourses.

    You can ask Vivek--for two lives she has been falling in love; this is her second life with me. You ask her why, and it will be impossible to answer. She can cry or she can laugh or she can dance, but she cannot answer why--because there is no why in it. peren110

    Vivek was saying just the other day, and many times she has said it, that time flies so fast here that she cannot believe that she has been here for seven years. It looks as if just seven days ago she had come here. dh0207

    Love is not a quantity. When somebody says, "I love you very much," something is wrong, because love is not a quantity. You cannot love less and more. Either you love or you don't love. The division is very clear-cut.

    Just a few days ago a new book had come, and the first copy I always give to Vivek. I wrote 'With love to Vivek'. She told me, "Why not much love?" I said, "That is impossible. I cannot write that"--because to me, more or less is not possible. I can simply write 'love'; 'much love' is absurd. Quantity is not a question, but simple quality. belov202

    Love affair is a love affair! It is not logical. When you love a person, you love his wholeness, you love him as he is. And to be with a Master the only way is to fall in total love. Hence you start liking everything of the Master--yes, even his mispronunciations! Of course it is easy to love his beauty, his grace, his wisdom, but that is not enough-- unless you start loving him in his totality....

    I know that if sometimes I don't mispronounce a few words, you miss--when I mispronounce I can see the joy!

    Vivek goes on telling me every day, "Don't say 'aunt', it is 'ain't'." And whenever I come across it, just to be compassionate to you, I again say 'aunt'.

    And there is one more difficulty: there are a few things I cannot figure out. My whole life I have been unable to figure out what is left and what is right. In school when I used to go to the parade I used to write on my hands, "This is right, this is left." So whenever this question of 'aunt' and 'ain't' arises I am puzzled--whether it is 'aunt' or 'ain't', or vice versa!...

    My mind is just a mechanism. For me now it is absolutely useless: it is just for your sake that I go on feeding it a little bit. Just for your sake I am speaking, otherwise now there is no point for me. In fact there is no point for me even to breathe! It is only for you that I am breathing, speaking, living. Those who have eyes will be able to see it.

    Everything is a device. Remember it: you have to see the device to grow beyond it.

    And as far as the pronunciation is concerned, it is a miracle that I don't mispronounce all the words, or that even when I mispronounce you can still understand...because language is very alien to my being now--not English, but my own mother tongue is alien. I have become a stranger to my own mind; the distance is infinite between me and the mind. I am surprised myself that the mind goes on functioning. What I have known has been known in silence; no language can express it....

    So it is just a miracle happening, that I go on speaking to you, conveying to you something which cannot be conveyed, expressing something which is inexpressible, saying the unsayable. And you have to forgive many things.

    But everything is a device, remember...and as you get closer and closer to me, more and more subtle devices will be used. The day is not far off when we will be simply sitting in silence and there will be no question of language, words. Get ready for it, because that which I really want to communicate can only be communicated in silence. bestil08

    Nothing can create enlightenment. You have fallen asleep, I am shouting. And sometimes I really have to shout. Just the other day Vivek was saying 'You were shouting so much this morning that I am shaken, jarred; my nerves are on edge.' Good, so I will have to do a little more shouting. Sooner or later how can you avoid waking up? How long can you avoid waking up? sunris10

    One day--just a few days ago--Vivek asked me this question early in the morning: "Why do Jews have long noses?" I settled in my chair, in my posture. I made my towel comfortable, looked at the clock and I was just going to start a great discourse on the philosophy and the physiology of the Jewish nose. But then she became apprehensive and afraid. Naturally--because once I take off, then it takes ninety minutes at least for me to land on the earth. So she said, "Stop! Stop! I happen to know the answer! You need not give me the answer!"

    I was very shocked because I was already on the way. In a hurried way she said, "Because the air is free!"

    It is a beauty. I loved it. It explains everything. The Jews have long noses because the air is free! art06

    Just the other day Vivek was telling me a joke. She said, "Osho, do you know why the Jews have short necks?"

    And I said...(Osho shrugs his shoulders)

    And she said, "Yes, that's why!"

    When you love, what you can say except shrug your shoulders? And if you go on shrugging your shoulders the whole day you will have a short neck! ithat04

    You say: Someone has dared me to ask you this impertinent question--What do you do with Vivek? Anything I could possibly understand through telling?

    It will be difficult.

    Vivek is so close to me that she is constantly on the cross. She has to be; it is difficult. To be so close to me is arduous. The more you are close to me, the more the responsibility. The more you are close to me, the more you have to transform yourself. The more you feel the unworthiness, the more you start feeling how to become more worthy--and the goal seems almost impossible. And I go on creating many situations. I have to create them because only through friction does integration happen. Only through harder and harder situations does one grow. Growth is not soft; growth is painful.

    You ask me, "What do you do with Vivek?"

    I am killing her slowly. That is the only way for her to get a totally new being, to be reborn. It is a cross to be with me, and hard is the task.

    Let me tell you one anecdote:

    An unruly, problem son of a Jewish family was causing his parents much heartache by his behavior. He had been expelled from a state school, so finally, in desperation, they sent him to a Roman Catholic school. On his return from his first day, he went straight to his room and began to do his homework.

    His father came back from work and asked, "Momma, well, tell me the bad news."

    "No bad news, Poppa," said momma. "He came in as quiet as a lamb, and is now in his room doing his homework yet."

    "Homework?" exclaimed Poppa. "He has never done homework in his life! He must be ill!" So Poppa went to the boy's room and said, "What is this Momma telling me, that you are doing homework? Why this change of heart, all of a sudden?"

    And the boy replied, "Poppa, I am the only Jewish boy in that school. On the wall opposite my desk is a picture of the last Jewish boy they had there. Oi, you should see what they did to him!"...

    Jesus crucified.

    To be very close to me is to be on the cross. So Vivek has to do her homework, that's all. That's what I go on doing to her. Of course, she has to do more homework than any of you. belov202

    You can ask Vivek how arduous it is. Just a few days ago she was saying to me, "You are worse than Gurdjieff!" Now that is a great compliment. Gurdjieff was really very hard on

    his disciples, and she says, "You are worse than Gurdjieff!" But I can understand: I am hard, I have to be hard. The closer you come to me, the harder you will find me. belov210

    Old and New Friends

    Mm, here is Mukta. She cannot hide any feeling. If she is angry with me, immediately I know; if she is happy, I know. Just the moment I see her, I know how she is. Impossible for her! halle14 Just a few days ago it happened that a Japanese man took sannyas and Mukta told me that he was a she--some mistake from the office on her chart. So I gave him sannyas and gave him a 'Ma' name, but he was a man. And you know the Japanese, they are so polite they will not say no. I have heard that the Japanese have no equivalent word to no, they always say yes--hai. They are just being polite.

    So he accepted even that. He didn't say, 'I am a man. I am not a woman.' Only later on was it known that he was a man and I had given him a 'Ma' name. sufis207

    Whether you are a man or a woman, if you live in hippie style, sometimes it can be very difficult.

    When I give sannyas to somebody and I cannot decide, I have to ask Mukta, "Mukta, what do you think?" And now she has learned; whenever she feels that I will be in suspicion, she silently whispers, "She is a woman." trans404

    Sadarji is Osho's guard since many years:

    A belly laugh, like Swami Sardar Gurdayal Singh a belly laugh. Learn from him. He is our Zorba the Greek in this ashram. Learn from him how to laugh.

    Unless your belly goes into ripples you are not laughing. People laugh from the head; they should laugh from the belly. yoga1010

    You ask: Beloved Osho, please help me. Show me my path: love or meditation. Give me one sutra suitable to my nature. It is from Neelam. I know her. I have known her long enough, not only in this life, but in other lives also. Her path is absolutely certain: it is love. Through love she is going to achieve. Through love she is going to be. Through love all that can happen will happen to her, and I can say it absolutely. I may not be so certain when others ask me. Somebody who has come very recently, I have to know better, to penetrate him more, to watch him

    in different situations, to watch his moods, subtle layers upon layers of being, then... but about Neelam it is absolutely certain. I have known her in this life, I have known her in other lives. Her direction is absolutely clear: love is her meditation. belov202

    Chetna is Osho's launderess for many years. She asks: Beloved Osho, will you marry me?

    Again? The day you became a sannyasin you got married to me. This question is from Dharma Chetna. To ask again means you have forgotten!...

    Sannyas is a marriage--but it is deeper than the marriage that you know about. In an ordinary marriage two bodies meet. At the most, if one is very fortunate, two minds meet- -that is rare. The marriage that sannyas is, is not of the body not of the mind, but of the souls. Two beings meet. To be with the Master is to be in deep love with the Master, to be surrendered, to be open, to go with him wherever he is going with gratitude, with trust.

    You are married, Chetna. Keep alert. Don't go on forgetting. tao212

    Sheela is Laxmi's assistant

    Then there are thousands of ways of going away. Look at Sheela--she is fast asleep. This is a way of going far away. She can only go so far, and then the mind says, "It is better to fall asleep. Now it is getting unbearable." sands206

    You ask: This morning in the lecture I was fast asleep and suddenly felt a hard weight on my back. At first I thought I must be snoring or making a noise and someone must have woken me to stop me, but I found out that no one had hit me. What was it?

    The question is from Sheela.

    I have not answered it up to now because each day when I wanted to answer she was asleep again! It is not a new question! I have been waiting. But today she is awake so I thought that this is the moment.

    Sheela, can't you recognise my hand when I wake you? sufis202

    Whenever I see that somebody is yawning somewhere, I know now a joke is needed--and immediately the yawning disappears. Even Sheela comes back from her sleep! Once she is certain that now I am going to talk metaphysics she falls asleep, she goes to sleep, she takes a rest. But the moment I start a joke, even in her sleep she remains that much alert: immediately she is back. bestil01

    Satya Vedant:

    It happened to Sheela's sister. She was in a camp and she wanted to take sannyas, but the husband was not willing. The husband is a very, very educated man, hmm?...director of a research institute somewhere in America. Then she went home. There was constant fight.

    She wanted to take sannyas, she wanted to be initiated, but he wouldn't allow. Then he came to see me--"Who is this man who has been disturbing our life?" And he took sannyas. Now the wife is creating trouble! Now the wife is absolutely against. And he is a very simple man, really beautiful. And he goes on writing to me: "What to do?--because I love her, but she has completely changed since she has heard that I have taken sannyas." This is how things go. yoga505

    Maneesha, one of Osho's editors, asks: I am suffering from writer's block! I wonder, how is it that lately, as I feel more and more overwhelming gratitude and love, I become less and less able to express it? It pains me that I cannot share what I am experiencing. Your love-sick bard, Maneesha.

    It happens, Maneesha. The more you feel for me, the more you will feel incapable of expressing it.

    Superficial feelings can be expressed easily; words are adequate for them. Deeper feelings cannot be expressed adequately words are not adequate for them. Words are too superficial. When the feeling goes very deep, it goes beyond words. You can feel it, you can be thrilled by it, you can feel the pulsation all over your body and being, but you cannot put it into words. You can try and you can feel that you have failed. When you put it into words something very tiny comes up--and it was so huge when you were experiencing it, so enormous. It was so overwhelming. Now you put it in a word and it is just a drop--and it was an ocean when you were feeling it.

    I can understand Maneesha's problem. She is my bard and the deeper she goes into me and into herself, the more and more difficult it will be for her, the more and more incapable she will feel: But that's a good sign. That's a sign that something really tremendous is happening.

    Go on trying to express--because even if it cannot be expressed, it has to be expressed. Even if you cannot put the ocean of your heart into the words, don't be worried. If even only a few drops get into them, that's good--because even those few drops will lead people towards me, even those few drops will give them a taste, a taste of the ocean.

    And remember one thing, even a single drop of the ocean is as salty as the whole ocean. And even a single drop of the ocean is as much water as the whole ocean. It may be small but it has the same flavour. It may be very small but it has the same secret. If you can understand a single drop of water you have understood all the water that exists on the earth or other planets. Even if water exists on some unknown planet, it will be H20. We don't know, but if water exists on some unknown planet, it will be H20 and nothing else. We know the secret. A single drop of water has the secret.

    So don't be worried. The song is going to become more and more difficult. The deeper you go, the more you will feel dumb. The deeper you go, the more you will feel that silence is needed, the more you will want to sing the song in silence. But silence will not be understood by people. And Maneesha is my bard so she cannot be allowed.

    So let the writer's block be there. I will go on hammering on it and destroying it. And you go on singing your song. sufis208

    My personal physician is Dr. Devaraj. His father was also a well-known physician. His father has left in his will a strange condition; Devaraj will be able to get his heritage if he fulfills the condition. The condition is that the day he is accepted by the Royal College of Physicians as a fellow of the society, he will be able to get the money from the bank. If he never becomes a fellow, if he is not accepted by the Royal College of Physicians, which is the most significant fellowship in the whole world as far as physicians are concerned...

    When I came to know about it, I could see the incomplete ambition of the poor father. He would have longed his whole life to become a fellow of this royal society. Now he is burdening his son with his ambition. He will be gone, but still he wants his ambition to be fulfilled. And if the son cannot fulfill the condition he will be left as a beggar on the streets, he will not be able to inherit his father's lifelong savings. And he is the only son...the money will rot in the bank, but he cannot get it.

    Fortunately he managed, and managed far better than the father would ever have dreamt of. He became--he was accepted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the youngest in their whole history. People are accepted when they become old, experienced, when they have written many books and papers and done many researches and contributed much. Devaraj did everything very quickly. He was the youngest fellow of the royal society. satyam04

    One of the doctors who used to take care of me before Devaraj came, never stayed with me more than two or three minutes. And Vivek used to be surprised...because he would come, and he was in such a hurry--almost nervous, perspiring, in an air-conditioned room. It looked as if I was the doctor and he was the patient! And he would ask a few questions and he would say, "I will go out and I will give the prescription to Vivek." And then he would almost run out of the room.

    He never came to any lectures, he never came to any celebrations, although he promised many times, saying that his wife wants to come, so maybe this time he is going to come on the celebration day. But they never appeared.

    And Vivek used to ask me, "What is the matter? Why is he so nervous?"

    I said, "You don't understand: he is a very successful doctor, the topmost in the city, and he is afraid not to get in any way impressed by me, hypnotized or something. He does not want to get involved in any way except as my physician, and even that was only because it added to his qualifications that he was my personal physician." But he would almost escape--he could not even walk, he would almost run and jump out of the room--and Vivek had to follow him into another room, and there he would write the prescription or anything that he wanted to instruct her about.

    The fear was that it is dangerous...One of his friends, Ajit Saraswati, was my sannyasin. They were colleagues and they had studied together; both had studied in the West. And then Ajit specialized in gynecology, and finally he became a sannyasin. He used to tell the doctor, "You need not be afraid--nobody is made a sannyasin forcibly. You can at least come to listen to what is happening there or come to see what is happening in a meditation there."

    But to Ajit Saraswati he said, "I am simply afraid. I am at the top of my profession. I am earning well. My children are getting educated, and I don't want to disturb things. Everything is going so good that I don't want to get into anything that can distract me, and Osho is dangerous: he can distract me. He can pull me into meditation and into sannyas."...

    In India, people are interested in riches, technology, more factories, but I don't see people interested in meditation or in spiritual growth. Twenty-five centuries of poverty have erased the whole idea of spiritual growth. They want to be rich, they want to be a dominant country in the world. mystic32

    Scientific knowing is possible, but scientific knowing is not applicable here.

    You can know me scientifically. My doctor comes to examine my body; he knows me in a way. You don't know me in that way, you know me in a totally different way. My doctor is afraid to come to listen to me, because he does not want to lose a patient. If he listens to me, then I will be the doctor and he will be the patient! He comes and he is in a hurry to escape.

    Once it happened that he was holding my hand--I had some trouble with my thumb--and something happened to him which was not scientific. Outside the room, he told Vivek, "He is God, he is God!"--but since then I have not seen him, he has simply disappeared. Something nonscientific, something which was not of the head. He felt me for a moment but became frightened. wisdom28

    Ashram Expansion

    In March 1976, many new buildings are completed, which are the centre of the present commune. Osho names them after enlightened mystics: the residential Francis, Jesus, Eckhart Houses, and Krishna house with administrative offices, the front 'Gateless Gate' with octagonal Reception and Bookstall, Chuang Tzu Auditorium, Radha Meditation Hall, Chaitanya therapy chambers, Krishna garden and fountain. By October Vrindavan and Mariam canteens are set up. By March 1977 Buddha Hall has a roof, and ashram departments include: publishing, audio- tapes, press office, crafts, music, silk screen, boutique, carpentry and musical instruments; and by August 1977: bakery, jewellery, pottery, weaving, and medical. For the first time, a small fee is charged to attend discourse.

    You ask: You spoke of the silence one finds in the Himalayas--that it is of the Himalayas, borrowed, and will leave when one returns to the market-place. Is this true of the silence I am finding in your presence? Is it borrowed? Will it disappear when I leave from here?

    This place is a market-place. Can you find any other place which is more like the market? I could have made the ashram somewhere in the Himalayas. I love the Himalayas. For me it is a great sacrifice not to be in the Himalayas. But for a certain purpose I have not made my ashram in the Himalayas.

    I want to remain part of the market-place. And this ashram is run almost as part of the market-place. That's why Indians are very annoyed--they cannot understand. They have known ashrams for centuries, but this ashram is beyond their comprehension. They cannot think that you have to pay to listen to a religious discourse. They have always listened free of charge--not only free of charge, but after the discourse the ashram distributes prasad too. Many go to listen to the discourses not because of the discourse but for the prasad.

    Here you have to pay. What am I doing? I want it to be absolutely a part of the market- place because I want my sannyasins not to move into the monasteries. They have to remain in the world. Their meditation should grow in the world, their meditation should not become escapist. So whatsoever peace you are finding here, you will be able to retain anywhere you go. There will be no problem, not at all. I have been managing things in such a way that all that can disturb you anywhere else is present here. So you need not be afraid....

    My whole effort here is to create a miniature world where money is absolutely accepted, where women and men live together in joy, in celebration, without fear, where all that goes on in the world also continues and, alongside, the meditation grows. It becomes stronger and stronger because all the challenges are there.

    You can go anywhere you like. Nobody can take your peace away. Your silence is yours! It is not because of me. You have earned it, you have gained it. sos104

    Religion to me is not ritual. If you are looking for any ritual, no ritual exists here. To me religion is an insight, insight into the beauty of existence, insight into the tremendous mystery that surrounds us, insight into your own being and into the beings of others. It has nothing to do with any dogma, any belief, any creed, any cult--it is not a cult at all--it is just a totally different phenomenon.

    We are trying to live a meditative life, working in the ordinary way but working it with a different quality.

    People are working in the kitchen, cleaning the toilets, or in the carpentry shop or in the boutique or in the bakery or in the garden--just the ordinary kind of activities, but with a different quality: with a joy, with silence, with love, with bliss, with a dance in their heart, with celebration.

    To me, that is true religion: to be able to celebrate life is religion. In that very celebration you come close to God. If one is able to celebrate, God is not far away; if one is not able to celebrate life, then God does not exist for him. God appears only in deep celebration, when you are so full of joy that all misery has left you, all darkness has left you. When you are so full that there is no emptiness in you, that you have started feeling the significance of the ordinary, day-to-day existence, when moment to moment you live totally, intensely, passionately, then God is available.

    God is not a person but just an experience, an experience of overwhelming mystery, unfathomable mystery. It is not philosophy in the ordinary sense, it is not religion in the ordinary sense either. It is philosophy in the truest sense of the word--philosophy means love for wisdom; then it is philosophy. Religion, the word, very word, means to be in tune. It comes from religere: to be in deep harmony with the whole, to be married with the whole, to be related with the whole, to forget your ego and your separation. Then it is religion. ggate209

    Man needs a balance, and that balance is possible only if you learn the art of being active and yet remaining inactive inside. And that's what we are trying to do here, and in the bigger commune you will have more facilities to be active and inactive together.

    People who come to the ashram are a little puzzled. Many have written to me, "Everybody is working but nobody seems to be tense." In the office so many people are working, in the workshops, in the press office...so many people are working. Nearabout three hundred people are constantly working, and with no holiday--the Sunday never comes. But nobody is tense.

    Work is beautiful if it can be done without any tension, if it can be done playfully, if it can be done without any hurry and yet without relapsing into laziness. It is a very subtle and delicate art. Then you are neither Eastern nor Western--that's what I call the new man. He will not be Eastern, he will not be Western, or he will be both together. It has never happened before: my sannyasin has to prove it. Lao Tzu talked about it and a few people have tried it, but I am making an effort to create such a big space that millions of people can try it. It is such a blessing to know how to act without acting that everybody should have a little taste of it.

    When you are working, remember it; if you have gone for a walk, remember it--there is no need to be in a hurry. A walk has to be enjoyed. Go slow. There is no goal! Enjoy the trees surrounding the way, and the birds and the sun and the sky and the clouds, and the people that are passing and the smell of the earth--enjoy everything! Be alert.

    A lazy person becomes unalert. The very speedy person is so much in speed that he cannot be watchful of what is happening around him; he is rushing with such force that he cannot see anywhere else, he is focussed, obsessed with some goal. And the lazy person is so lazy, so unalert, so unconscious, that he cannot see. Both are blind.

    You have to find a synthesis. Be alert as the active person is, and be relaxed as the lazy person is. And once both these two are there together, you are balanced, and your life will have a new flavour, a new joy, a new ecstasy, which knows no bounds. fish14

    Reactions to Osho’s and his ashram

    At this time there is an increase in harassment of foreign sannyasins by local people, police and local government, eg assaults on sannyasins, building permits rescinded

    In those seven years (in Poona), by and by Indians disappeared from my vision. People from all over the world started coming. We had become, in India, an island where you could find Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Americans, Germans, Italians, French, English, Swiss, Dutch; even people from Soviet Russia--even they are here.

    But Indians simply disappeared, for the simple reason that I was not consolidating their beliefs. I was destroying their beliefs, and I was creating a totally new vision of meditation which needs no belief system as a support.

    That's why people from all over the world who had an inquiring mind, who were fed up with their religions, with their priests, with their churches, synagogues--they started coming there. They were ready--because there was no question of believing anything-- just experimenting. And the more they experimented, by and by they started feeling a new energy arising in them. Who bothers about God? And who bothers about paradise? We can create paradise here. And when you are in deep silence and meditation, you are a god, not a bit less--a little more, because God is just a fiction and you are a reality.

    But I could see that India had come to a point where perhaps it could not accept any living truth. dless16

    An Indian friend asks: Many times when I see our friends hugging, kissing passionately, and caressing each other's bodies, I feel that it is this sight which offends Indian society in general and creates great misunderstandings about you and your teachings. With this particular type of behavior, if the society is offended and great difficulties are created for the world of our Master, why shouldn't we simply correct our behavior when we are in society, whether in India, America, or Germany?

    This is what I have been talking about: the rotten mind.

    What is wrong in hugging a person you love, in kissing a person you love? Don't enforce your hug on anybody, that's true; then it is ugly--and that's what the Indians go on doing. And my women sannyasins are aware of it.

    If you are there in the marketplace, then Indians behave really in an ugly way. They will pinch your bottoms. Now, that is ugly. They will rub their bodies against your body. That is ugly. They will look at you as if they would like to eat you. That is ugly. They will look at you as if they would like to see how you are behind your clothes. That is ugly, but that is accepted, that is perfectly good.

    If you love a person and you hold hands and you hug each other and you kiss each other, it should be nobody's business. Why should others feel offended? If they feel offended, then something is wrong with them. Maybe they are feeling jealous, but they cannot show their jealousy, so they become angry. Maybe they would also like to hug somebody, but they don't have the courage; they are afraid of the society. Hence they feel very angry at you. What they cannot do, they would not like anybody else to do either.

    And, because they are so sexually repressed, whenever they see somebody hugging, kissing, holding hands, showering so much love on each other, their repressed sexuality starts surfacing. They become afraid of themselves.

    They are not offended by your behavior; they are offended by their own unconscious tendencies because they suddenly start surfacing! All their repressed sexuality starts coming up, and they become frightened that, if it is allowed, they may do something. They are somehow controlling themselves. Now, here is a person who provokes them. Here are two persons in such a deep hug, they start losing control.

    The Indian mind has lived in control, discipline, character. It is a hypocritical mind. On the surface is control, deep down there are all kinds of things boiling. And when you provoke them they are offended--not against you: they are offended by their own unconscious, but they are not aware of that at all. They throw the responsibility wholly on you, that you are doing something wrong.

    And although you are my sannyasin, still the Indian mind continues in you. It is a very deep-rooted thing, centuries and centuries of conditioning.

    You say, "Many times when I see our friends hugging, kissing passionately, and caressing each other's bodies, I feel that it is this sight which offends Indian society in general and creates great misunderstandings about you and your teachings."

    No, it is not creating any misunderstanding. Exactly, precisely, this is my teaching! It is love that I teach. It is loving behavior that I teach. You are not going against me when you are doing it.

    I would like the whole country to be in a hugging, kissing atmosphere. That climate is needed. People have forgotten how it feels to hug others' bodies. People have forgotten the warmth, the flow of energy that comes from the other's body. Indians have completely lost roots in their own bodies.

    Even husbands and wives make love so quickly, so fast, that there is no hugging, caressing at all. It is done almost as if it is a sin, in secrecy, nobody should know about it. Indians live as if there is no sex in their life. This has become their patterned way of existence; now you are disrupting it. I would also like them to learn a few ways of how to be loving. Love is not obscene, but that's how they think: they think love is obscene.

    If two persons are fighting on the road, no Indian thinks it is obscene. Even if they murder each other, nobody thinks it is obscene. In fact, the crowd will gather to watch what is happening and they will be very much thrilled. And if nothing happens, they will go away very sad, that "Nothing happened, and we waited so long." It was a kind of free entertainment. They are not offended. Even if knives are drawn, they are not offended. If blood flows, they are not offended; it is not obscene.

    In Indian films, murder is allowed, suicide is allowed; kissing is not allowed. Just think and see the whole absurdity of it. Murder is allowed. Kissing is far more dangerous, far more dangerous than murder? What kind of valuation is this? Suicide is allowed. All kinds of sadistic, masochistic tortures are allowed, but kissing is not allowed. A certain distance has to be maintained between the lips--six inches, I think. Lips should not come more than six inches closer; otherwise there will be an atomic explosion!

    It is just a very repressive society.

    There is no misunderstanding about me. I am very simple and plain. Whatsoever I say, I say, and I say it the way it is. I call a spade a spade. Then whatsoever happens, it's good. But I have decided to be utterly honest and truthful--whatsoever the cost. So don't think that "great difficulties" are created for me. Nobody can create difficulties for me. But if I have to say the truth, difficulties are bound to be there.

    And do you think if you stop kissing and hugging on the roads, streets, people will not have anything against me? Then why were they against Jesus? His disciples were not kissing and hugging. Why did they crucify him? Why were they against Socrates? Why did they poison him? Why were they against Al Hillaj Mansoor? Why did they kill him? These are excuses. Don't be deceived by the excuses that people find. If they cannot find this excuse, they will find another. And whatsoever I am saying is such--it is explosive, it is dynamite.

    In that way, you need not bother about what you do--whatsoever you do is okay: even if you become absolute saints according to Indians, then too they will be against me because what I am saying and what I am trying to do is utter rebellion. It has never been done that way, it has never been spoken that way--but people find excuses. If one excuse is dropped, they will find another.

    The Western disciples have come only recently. Seven years before, you were not here, and people were against me as they are against me today. I only had Indian disciples, but still they were against me. So it is not you, it is I who is creating trouble for himself. You

    are not responsible at all. You are just an excuse, and they go on finding excuses, and my every statement can become an excuse.

    In fact, your hugging and kissing and your caressing each other, embracing each other, has been a great help to me. Because of that they have forgotten everything else that I say! It is a protection. Now, I have even been seeing editorials written in which it is said that what Osho says is right; his disciples are wrong...and I am so grateful to you. If you were not here, I would be wrong! Now at least because of your behavior I am becoming prestigious, respectable.

    Go on doing it. Soon they will throw the whole responsibility on you and I will be completely free of blame!

    Even the Municipal Corporation of Poona has passed a resolution in which it is said that, "We are not against Osho's teachings--his teachings are perfectly true and right--but we are against the behavior of his disciples." So beautiful! I enjoy how stupid people can be. They cannot fight with me, they cannot argue with me, they feel impotent against me; now they are finding scapegoats, now they are finding other excuses.

    Continue doing whatsoever you are doing. This is going to help my work.

    And I am not here to compromise. Whether the difficulties are there or not, I am not here to compromise--not an iota of compromise. Even if they make my life impossible here, that is perfectly okay, but no compromise.

    And you say, "With this particular type of behavior, if the society is offended. " Society is going to be offended if we want to change the society, if we want to change the mind of the society. People don't leave their old minds easily. They have invested so much in it, how can they leave it so easily? They will be offended. And you ask me, ". why shouldn't we simply correct our behavior. ?" Your behavior is already correct. And if they are suffering, they have to correct their minds. If they are suffering, that is their problem. They will have to reconsider.

    I would like many more and many more sannyasins roaming around the country, hugging, kissing, loving. Make it a problem everywhere, so they have to understand that something has to be done. In the beginning they are always offended. Nobody wants to change. Even if it is for your benefit, nobody wants to change.

    Love is a religious phenomenon, the greatest religious phenomenon there is. It is love that becomes prayer.

    Sufis say. a great Master is reported to have said:

    I must empty myself to others

    in tears and in kisses, in hugs and smiles.

    That is the way one becomes empty and ready for God to enter in. In a moment, when one is empty, suddenly all becomes full of God. When you kiss somebody with deep love, you are emptying yourself into the other. When you hug somebody ecstatically, you are pouring yourself into the other. This is the way of emptying yourself. And when you are utterly empty, God comes in. To be empty is to be in meditation. secret16

    Others were getting disturbed, because my meditations are one hundred and twelve, in which a few are chaotic, dynamic, active. The people have to throw out all their screams, shout, throw out their anger, dance, jump, jog. Naturally the neighbors would be disturbed in the early morning, and every day the police were there saying that the neighbors are complaining. So I told my people that we have to find a place where there are no neighbors. last127

    Osho’s Discourses

    In June 1976, Osho introduces his much loved series on the Bauls

    I'm tremendously happy to introduce you to the world of the Bauls. I hope you will be nourished by it, enriched by it. It is a very bizarre world, eccentric, insane. It has to be so. It is unfortunate but it has to be so, because the world of the so-called sane people is so insane that if you really want to be sane in it you will have to be insane. You will have to choose a path of your own. It is going to be diametrically opposite to the ordinary path of the world.

    The Bauls are called Bauls because they are mad people. The word 'Baul' comes from the Sanskrit root vatul. It means: mad, affected by wind. The Baul belongs to no religion. He is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian nor Buddhist. He is a simple human being. His rebellion is total. He does not belong to anybody; he only belongs to himself. He lives in a no man's land: no country is his, no religion is his, no scripture is his. His rebellion goes even deeper than the rebellion of the Zen Masters--because at least formally, they belong to Buddhism; at least formally, they worship Buddha. Formally they have scriptures--scriptures denouncing scriptures, of course--but still they have. At least they have a few scriptures to burn.

    Bauls have nothing--no scripture, not even to burn; no church, no temple, no mosque-- nothing whatsoever. A Baul is a man always on the road. He has no house, no abode. God is his only abode, and the whole sky is his shelter. He possesses nothing except a poor man's quilt, a small, hand-made one-stringed instrument called aektara, and a small drum, a kettle-drum. That's all that he possesses. He possesses only a musical instrument

    and a drum. He plays with one hand on the instrument and he goes on beating the drum with the other. The drum hangs by the side of his body, and he dances. That is all of his religion.

    Dance is his religion; singing is his worship. He does not even use the word 'God'. The Baul word for God is Adhar Manush, the essential man. He worships man. He says, inside you and me, inside everybody, there is an essential being. That essential being is all. To find that Adhar Manush, that essential man, is the whole search.

    So there is no God somewhere outside you, and there is no need to create any temple because you are His temple already. The whole search is withinwards. And on the waves of song and on the waves of dancing, he moves withinwards. He goes on moving like a beggar, singing songs. He has nothing to preach; his whole preaching is his poetry. And his poetry is also not ordinary poetry, not mere poetry. He's not consciously a poet; he sings because his heart is singing. Poetry follows him like a shadow, hence it is tremendously beautiful. He's not calculating it, he's not making it. He lives his poetry. That's his passion and his very life. His dance is almost insane. He has never been trained to dance, he does not know anything about the art of dancing. He dances like a madman, like a whirlwind. And he lives very spontaneously, because the Baul says, "If you want to reach to the Adhar Manush, the essential man, then the way, the way goes through Sahaja Manush, the spontaneous man."

    To reach to the essential man, you have to go through the spontaneous man. Spontaneity is the only way to reach to the essence...so he cries when he feels like crying. You can find him standing in a village street crying, for nothing. If you ask, "Why are you crying?" he will laugh. He will say, "There is no why. I felt like, I felt like crying, so I cried." If he feels like laughing, he laughs; if he feels like singing, he sings--but everything has to come out of deep feeling. He's not mind oriented, not in any way controlled and disciplined. He knows no rituals. He's absolutely against rituals because he says, "A ritualized person is a dead person." He cannot be spontaneous. And a person who follows rituals, formalities too much, creates so many habits around him that there is no need to be alert. Alertness is lost; habits are formed. Then the man of rituals lives through habits. If he goes to the temple he bows down, not in any way conscious and alert of what he is doing, but just because he has been taught to do so, he has learned to do so. It has become a conditioning.

    So they don't follow any ritual, they don't have any technique, they don't have any habit. So you cannot find two Bauls that are similar; they are individuals. Their rebellion leads them to become authentic individuals. belov101

    In September 1976 Osho comments, in Hindi, on Ashtevakra

    Just a few days ago I was talking about asthavakra, mm? His name means he was bent in his body at eight points--his whole body was like a camel. He could not walk properly, impossible; in eight places his body had something wrong. He was a caricature--but he proved to be one of the greatest mystics of the world.

    The father must have cried and wept, the mother must have beaten her head when she saw this child: all wrong, nothing right. But this child proved to be one of the greatest seers India has produced. And his book, Asthavakrasanta, is incomparable in the whole world's literature. No Bible, no Koran, no Veda, no Gita, has anything comparable to it. It is simply transcendental! So, one never knows. madmen17

    In December 1976, Osho comments on the poetry of Kabir

    I invite you to come with me into the innermost realm of this madman Kabir. Yes, he was a madman--all religious people are. Mad, because they don't trust reason. Mad, because they love life. Mad, because they can dance and they can sing. Mad, because to them life is not a question, not a problem to be solved but a mystery into which one has to dissolve oneself.

    One thing more about Kabir's approach. He is life-affirmative. That too is an indication of a real man of understanding. ecstas01

    That is the game between a master and a disciple. Whatsoever Kabir is saying has not been written--it is addressed to his disciples. This is a spontaneous outpouring of his heart. He was a singer, he was a poet: somebody would ask something and he would sing a song spontaneously. And nobody has ever sung such songs.

    The enlightened man is not other than the fool. Remember, while moving in the company of Kabir, that the enlightened man is not other than the fool. What makes a man enlightened is the realization that he is as a fool. 'My mind is that of a fool' says Lao Tzu. Kabir will agree perfectly, totally. 'How empty it is' says Lao Tzu '--as empty as the mind of a fool.' Emptiness takes nothing seriously, raises no one thing up over another. Worshipping nothing, it celebrates all.

    Kabir is a celebrant. He celebrates all--all colors of life, the whole rainbow of it. What he is going to say to you is not philosophy but pure poetry. It is not religion but a hand beckoning, a door half opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way back home, a way back to nature.

    Nature is God to Kabir--the trees and the rocks and the rivers and the mountains. He does not believe in the temples and the churches and the mosques, he believes in the living reality. God is there, breathing, flowering, flowing. And where are you going? You are going to a temple, man-made, to worship an idol, again manufactured by man, in his own image.

    Kabir calls you back from the temples and the mosques: What are you doing there? He calls you back to celebrate life. revol01

    You say: Since you gave me sannyas, I feel I am in a tremendous Poona fiction story.

    Right, I am creating a fiction here: the fiction of the Master and the disciple, the fiction of the god and the devotee. It is really a myth, but very alive. And there is no way to come to the truth unless you pass through a great mythology. Man is lost in lies. From lies there is no direct way to truth. Myth is a bridge between the lie and the truth. A myth partakes of something of the lie and something of the truth; it is a bridge.

    Yes, you are right. This is a tremendous Poona fiction story. Whatsoever is happening here is very fictitious--these people in orange, and so many crazy things going on, and I am supporting you and leading you towards nowhere and promising you things which cannot be promised.

    Man lives in lies, God lives in the truth; but how to bridge both? Man is a lie, God is a truth; how to bridge both? It is very impossible. Myth is the way--fiction, yes, a spiritual fiction. All the religions are fictitious, all the mythologies are fictitious, but they are of tremendous help. A mythology has something of the truth in it--maybe just a reflection-- and something of the lie in it. You can move through the myth towards truth. And if an alive myth is available, don't miss it...

    Yes, it is a fiction that I am creating here, but it is alive. That is the difference. While I am here, the myth is an alive bridge; you can pass through it towards the unknown. ecstas04

    In February 1977 Osho introduces sutras on Lieh Tzu, and in April 1977 Osho comments on the tantric mystic Saraha

    Now we enter into this great pilgrimage: The Royal Song of Saraha. It is also called 'The Song on Human Action'--very paradoxical, because it has nothing to do with action. That's why it is also called 'The Song on Human Action'. It has something to do with the being, but when the being is transformed, action is transformed. When you are transformed, your behavior is transformed--not vice versa. Not that first you change your action and then your being changes--no. Tantra says: First change your being and then your action changes automatically, of its own accord. First attain to a different kind of consciousness, and that will be followed by a different kind of action, character, behavior.

    Tantra believes in being, not in action and character. That's why it is also called 'The Song on Human Action'--because once being is transformed, your actions are transformed. That is the only way to change your actions....

    In these four verses, Saraha has invited the king to enter into his inner being, he has opened his heart. And he says: I am not here to convince you logically. I am here to convince you existentially! I will not give any proof, and I will not say anything in defence of myself. The heart is just open--you come in, you go in. You see what has happened...so close is spontaneity, so close is God, so close is truth. The sun has risen. Open your eyes!

    Remember, a mystic has no proof. He cannot have any proof by the very nature of things. He is the only proof--so he can bare his heart to you.

    These verses, these Songs of Saraha, have to be meditated on deeply. Each song can become the opening of a flower in your heart. I hope these forty verses will become forty flowers in your being, as they became in the being of the king. The king was liberated--so can you be. Saraha has penetrated the target. You can also penetrate the target. You can also become a Saraha--one whose arrow is shot. tvis101

    Osho develops the New Phase of His Work

    In April 1977 Osho advises that the second phase of his work will soon begin. Sannyasins who wish to participate will need to be committed, surrendered, to the commune. Osho develops this theme throughout the year

    A sannyasin says: Laxmi told me of the beautiful possibilitites of our building something new like a city, a new place for all of us. I do want to be a part of that.

    Mm, you will be! You will be part of everything that is going to happen. Mm? and thousands of things are going to happen--this is just a beginning! thisis09

    Now a second phase of my work will start soon and I would like only people who are really surrendered, and no negativity.

    Otherwise others will have to go, I will by and by send them. Now my work will take another shape; everybody will not be allowed. Up to now I was allowing everybody. If I have to work deeply then many people will have to go....

    And this is going to be the pattern of the work: whoever is working under someone has to surrender to that person. If somebody is working under you, he will surrender to you. The immediate person in charge of the work has to be surrendered to, because soon I will be settling for a different kind of work. madmen18

    Surrender is a device to bring you out of your ego. If you don't want to come out of your ego, I am not much interested in bringing you out of your ego; it is none of my business. If you are interested, I am available. If you are not interested, perfectly good. The door is open. feet04

    A master has to be skilled in the greatest art: the art of the human heart--because subtle are the problems, very complicated and complex....

    Very subtle is the art, it has to be--because it is an effort to transform the human heart, the greatest thing in evolution, the highest peak to which existence has reached....

    A master simply opens his being to you, demonstrates to you what Truth is.

    What am I doing here? I'm drunk with existence--a drunkard. And I allow you to come nearer to me to be drunk with me, to participate. And the closer you come, the more drunk you will become. And a moment comes when the disciple and the master sit silently--nobody knows who the disciple is and who the master is. They have come so close, like two flames coming closer and closer and closer, and a sudden jump--and the two flames have become one. To understand a master you need to come close....

    With a master, the final, the utterly final commitment is needed. That is the meaning: `You can't have anything from me until you die.' That is the meaning of this Sufi saying, because when you die then you are totally committed. Now there is no going back. There is nobody else you can fall back upon.

    A commitment is a point of no return. Where will you go back to? You have burnt the house. A cunning mind would like to be distant; not a participant, but an observer. Keeping the distance he keeps his house intact, so if something goes wrong he can go back, he can fall back. But all that is beautiful in life comes through commitment.

    In the West, particularly, commitment' has become a wrong word, a taboo word. The moment you hear commitment', you become afraid. That's why in the West all that is beautiful and the deepest, is disappearing. Love is not possible; only sex is possible. Sex is without involvement; love is a commitment. Sex is between two strangers; love is between two who are intimate, not strangers, who feel an affinity--who are not there just to exploit each other, but to grow with each other. A commitment is needed in love. And without love, sex will become futile. It has already become so in the West.

    Meditation is not possible if you are not committed. You cannot remain a spectator. If you want to be a spectator, then you will remain on the periphery. Commitment leads you to the very center of things.

    To be with a Master is a commitment. It is the highest form of love, the highest form of meditation, the highest form of prayer. In the West, only teachers have existed. In the West, teacher' and master' are not two totally different words; they are synonymous, they mean the same But in English there is no difference between a Master and a teacher. In English there exists no word like guru. It is a deep involvement with a person, such a deep involvement that you are ready to die for it.

    Love, meditation, prayer, all are deep commitments.

    And who is afraid of commitment? The ego is afraid of commitment--because commitment means now no more going back. The bridge is broken. You feel afraid. Only the future, the unknown future is there; past is no more. You will feel dizzy. And if you look in the eyes of a Master, you will feel dizzy--because he is vacant. It is like an abyss with no bottom to it. You would like to cling to something because there is danger, you will be lost for ever.

    And this is so! But you cannot find yourself unless you are lost. And you cannot be reborn unless you die. A Master is a death and a life. A Master is a death and a resurrection. until04

    You see this chair I am sitting on? Just four days before, I ordered Asheesh and Veena to prepare it for the Sufi lectures specially. They have worked day and night. They could complete the chair at only one o'clock in the night, just a few hours ago. They could have thought that why could I not have said so a few days earlier, why just four days before? But they enjoyed, they understood the design. And they went higher and higher in energy. Last night when they completed the chair, they were almost on a psychedelic trip! As they moved in surrender. It was difficult to complete it in four days, but they did.

    The chair was not the question at all. It was a naqshbandi, it was a design. They learned something out of it--that if you surrender, you can go high. The deeper you go in surrender, the higher you go in consciousness. They could have said that this is not possible. They would have missed--and they would have never known what it was meant for. But I am happy that Asheesh and Veena both understood the point. They went in deep trust into it, and they thought, when I have said four days then it must be possible, and they poured their total energy into it.

    And when you pour your total energy into anything in trust, it becomes meditation. It brings ecstasy. Last night they must have moved into a kind of wajd, a glimpse.

    When you are with a Master you have to be very, very conscious, because each and every thing is managed in such a way that it helps your spiritual growth....

    For example, preparing a chair, how is it concerned with sannyas? And how is it concerned with meditation? And can't I speak on sufism on another chair? We have many chairs. How is it concerned with Sufism? If you think about it, it is utterly irrelevant.

    But that is not the point at all. If you think that way, you will miss the whole point. secret01

    A sannyasin, who is leaving, says he has difficulty surrendering to the commune.

    The problem arises only when you start doing your own thing, and then you fall out of tune with the things here. Here the only way to be is to be totally in tune; otherwise you suffer and the whole community suffers. You will not feel happy and people will not feel happy with you.

    So here you have to dissolve. and then there is no problem at all. In fact, this mind that you feel continuously goes round and round in a crazy way will disappear by and by, once you have stopped listening to it--and that is the whole point of disciplehood. It is

    very difficult to get out of the trap of the mind because it is the mind that decides. It is the mind that even tries to get out of it.

    The essential of disciplehood is that you cannot get out of your mind on your own, because who will try and who will get out of it?--it is the same mind. So you choose a person and you say, 'I will do whatsoever you say.' You trust a person and you surrender. Then your mind will go on for months together, even for years, but by and by it will become less and less powerful over you because you cannot decide so you cannot support it.

    If you have to listen to me and if you do what I say then this mind cannot continue to be crazy for long, because your support will disappear. It exists with your support. It is almost like cycling: you go on peddling, the cycle goes on. After the moment you stop peddling how long can it go on for? Maybe out of the past momentum for a few yards, and if you are on a downhill road, then a few miles, but it cannot go forever.

    And when I say to dissolve here with me and with my work, it means that if you are working with Laxmi you have to listen to Laxmi, if you are working with Deeksha you have to listen to Deeksha; if you are working with Mukta you have to listen to Mukta. It is easy to listen to me. It is very difficult to listen to Laxmi because then your mind starts asserting itself. And there is every possibility that you may know more than Laxmi but that is not the point. Laxmi may be right in some things or may be wrong in some things, you may be right, but that is not the point either.

    Even if Laxmi is wrong and she says to do something, then take it for granted it is from me and you have to do it. In the beginning it will be a little difficult--difficult because you see that you can do better, difficult because you know a better alternative.

    And I am not saying that you are wrong, remember--you may be right but that is not the point. Right or wrong, you are not to decide. And this is part of my device--that sometimes I will not say to you what to do; Laxmi will say. Because when I say it is very easy to accept it. I will bring it from such a source where it is very difficult to accept. But to accept there will bring the surrender.

    And I am preparing something for the future so I don't want any dissidents here in any way. Because once things become bigger, if a few dissidents are here they will create cliques and will disturb the whole work.

    I want it to be absolutely homogeneous--with one voice, with one direction, with one soul. In the west many communes come into existence and die. In fact the average life of a commune is not more than three years. And the basic reason is that sooner or later dissident voices start becoming powerful, cliques form, and politics enters. And when politics enters into any commune, death has entered. Then conflict, then struggle, then power, and everything comes in from the back door.

    And remember, when politics enters it always enters with good slogans; that is its way to deceive. Even the person who brings it in may be deceived by it because he thinks he is doing something for the good, something for the welfare of everybody.

    I am trying to make this commune slowly in such a way that no politics enters in it. Thousands of people are going to come to be here with me...

    And Poona has just been a jumping board. That's why I would like to leave Poona soon-- because its work is finished. I have chosen people; now I can move into a more permanent commune. Poona was just an overnight's stay; its work is finished. justdo26

    You say: The other day I came through the gates with an Indian sannyasin and he was turned away by the guard with no reason given. When I spoke to Laxmi about it, she more or less told me to mind my own business. Whenever I see people being unjustly treated, my immediate reaction is to go to their assistance. Is it really none of my business what happens to other people?

    This is significant for everybody present here, and everybody who is going to be in any way related to me. Whatsoever happens in this commune happens according to me. I know who was turned from the gate. And the man who has been turned away knows why he has been turned from the gate. And it is none of your business to come into it.

    This you have to understand absolutely, that whatsoever happens here...I may not come out of my room, I never come out except in the morning and the evening, and I never go around the ashram--but whatsoever happens here is perfectly known to me, is happening according to me. Please don't interfere....

    Now I know the man who has been rejected and I know why he is rejected--and he also knows why he has been rejected. There is no reason to give any reason. If reasons have to be given for each and every thing, then my whole work will be simply to go on supplying reasons. There are thousands of people coming, and everybody has to be given reasons and explanations about everything? Laxmi is right.

    And always remember that Laxmi never does anything on her own. She is a perfect vehicle. That's why she has been chosen for that work. She simply listens and does. Whatsoever is said, she does.

    And you have to learn these ways, because soon we will be becoming a bigger commune and thousands of people will be coming, and these things have to be settled. You should not bring them again and again. Again and again you go on writing questions: "Somebody has done this. " That is for me to look to, and if I think that it is not right it will be prevented. You need not bring it to my notice even. You waste my time.

    And you get so excited. There are some foolish people who have renounced their sannyas because they saw something unjust was being done. Now they're just losing their opportunity. It was not their business. You have come here for your own growth. This

    acceptance has to be total, only then work is possible, only then I can help you. Please don't give suggestions to me. The moment you give me a suggestion, you are disconnected from me.

    This is not going to be a democracy. You are not to be asked what should be done and what should not be done. This should be remembered from the very beginning--that this is not going to be a democracy. Your votes will never be taken. You become part of it with that knowledge, that whatsoever I decide is absolute. If you don't choose that way you are perfectly happy to leave.

    People are prevented from entering but nobody is prevented from leaving. You can leave. Have you seen anybody being prevented from leaving? Leaving is perfectly free--you are free, that is your decision. If you want to be here you have to be totally here. If you feel that this is not the place for you, that your ideas are not being fulfilled, that it is not according to you, you are free to leave.

    This place will never be according to you. This place is to change you, it is not to be according to you. This place is going to be a transformation for you. And these are the beginnings. Who are you to know what is right and what is wrong? And who are you to ask for the reason? How do you come in?...

    But don't go on writing to me. Whatsoever happens here is happening with my knowledge. Not a single thing happens here which is not known to me, so you need not inform me about things, I know them already. It is a sheer wastage of time.

    And the moment you surrender and become an initiate, a sannyasin, that surrender has to be total. Just live a few months in that total surrender and you will see--it is alchemical, it transforms you. diamon08

    Sheela comes to darshan in Laxmi's absence if Indian people are present. Maneesha had queried her coming when there were no Indians present, and had also queried whether Sheela had been checked at the gate. (Everyone is checked for perfume, tobacco, etc., which might trigger Osho's allergies.) Sheela says: I got stepped on twice by Maneesha, and it just sort of got me aggravated.

    Always remember Sheela: that is her work. So if you are doing anything and it comes under somebody's charge, you have to listen to the person. Don't feel stepped on, otherwise how will work happen? It was natural; because there were no Indians she thought that Sheela was not needed. You became angry. You told her to mind her own business, but she was! You must have felt that you have been stepped on, but that is your attitude.

    As the work becomes complex we will have to see that whosoever is in charge has to be listened to, otherwise nobody will listen to anybody. If you are doing some work and you are in charge then everybody has to listen to you...even sometimes when they don't like it. Even sometimes when you are wrong, they have to listen to it, otherwise it will become

    impossible; this commune cannot function then. More and more work will have to be divided, and everybody should be supreme in his work.

    When Maneesha enters your work, you are supreme, so she has to listen to you; but this is her work--whether everybody has been checked or not.

    But I have been going through the check.

    Mm, that's okay, but this is her work; it is not stepping on you. And that has been the structure, that when Indians are there, somebody has to be there, so it was natural for her to ask. You need not get angry about it and you need not feel offended, otherwise rivalries will enter. That's what has happened to every commune. Then power trips come in: she has stepped on you, so you have to step on her. Then people become bitchy to each other, and that's bad.

    Everybody has to think this, that whosoever is in charge you have to surrender to...even though sometimes, I say, he may be wrong. That is not the point at all, that can be sorted out later on. But nobody should feel offended, otherwise it becomes impossible.

    Now, if nothing is said about it, the next time that Maneesha feels that you are unnecessarily there, she will not be able to say anything to you; she will be afraid that Sheela has to be left to herself. But if Sheela is left then why not Arup, why not Vivek, why not Mukta? Then things go on becoming more complicated. Now you are feeling miserable, she is feeling sad...for no reason! Be a little more alert and aware, and always remember, right or wrong, the person who is in charge has to be listened to....

    Do you know that all communes die? The longest life of a commune up to now has been three years. I would like this commune to live, and it is going to live, but then the functioning has to be totally different. Those communes die because they have a democratic structure; that's why they die. You cannot have a democratic structure in a commune, otherwise nothing will work.

    The commune has to be in a totally different way; it has to be a discipline. Not everybody has to assert themselves, otherwise fights and then cliques will happen; and then people will join together--a few people with Maneesha, a few people with Sheela--and then conflict over who is more powerful will happen. These things will go on and they will destroy the whole thing that I am trying to do; your energy will get involved in those things. They have to be avoided, and I am very alert from the beginning.

    So apologise to Maneesha. And if she is wrong, that is my business, I will see to it. Mm? but that is not for you. If sometimes you find that somebody is wrong, just report it to me, but don't react to the person immediately; just report it to me. That's for me to think about.

    I would like this commune to function so smoothly that it can become an example. Communes have become very condemned because they start with great enthusiasm, then

    everything falls flat. It falls flat because of the politics of people; and this is how politics enter. I am very keen that no politics should enter, and the only way is: always look to the person. You should have written a letter to me that this happened. I am always there; it would not have created any trouble. She cried, she is suffering, and you have been sitting there, miserable for no reason at all!

    So apologize to her, mm? bite03

    You say: I have lived in many communities, all sincere and well-meaning, yet everywhere I was appalled at the unconscious political ambition and intrigues which are underlying and dormant but come up in spite of the good intentions. How are you handling it here? Are you allowing it free play so that people can work it out of their systems--or are you nipping it in the bud?

    I don't believe in repressing anything--not even the poisonous politics--because repressed, it remains in your system; sooner or later it will take you over. And the longer it has been repressed, the more dangerous it becomes, because the deeper it goes into your very source of being. And if you are poisoned at your very source, at the very centre, then it becomes really difficult to uproot it.

    My approach about everything is to bring it to the surface. So I never nip anything in the bud, I help it to become a flower. And after the flowering, the flower starts withering of its own accord. That's the natural way.

    So in my commune, nothing is prevented. Ambitions are allowed, accepted, as being part of human beings, their ignorance, their unawareness. But I make my people aware that these are games. So play them, but play consciously. Become more and more alert and never let them become serious. If they don't become serious, there is no need to become afraid of them. The problem is that when a game becomes so serious then you forget completely that it is a game.

    That's where the politician is lost. He thinks he is doing something very serious. He is doing something very silly, but he thinks he is doing something very serious. All that is needed is to make him aware that this is a game. If you want to play it, play, but don't become so serious about it. Keep a little bit of humour. A sense of humour is one of the greatest keys to transform human personalities.

    Yes, you are right! Here also--because these people come from the world and they bring all kinds of infections from the world. They are not coming here fresh, they have been already conditioned. Ambition has already been put into them--their parents, the society, church, school, college, university. Everywhere they have been poisoned; they bring all that poison here. You cannot nip it in the bud otherwise they will become split and hypocritical. Then on the surface they will show humility, humbleness, and deep down they will think, 'There is nobody more humble than me'--and politics has come in. Deep down they will think, 'I am the greatest egoless person in the world'--but the 'greatest'.

    Now a new kind of ambition has entered. It is the same ambition, now the direction is new. And it is more subtle, and, of course, more dangerous too. And now it is pious, because it is in the name of religion. So even the poison no longer looks like poison; it is labelled nectar. It is religious poison, pious poison, and it is more difficult to get rid of the pious poison.

    So I don't repress anything and I don't help any kind of repression, I help people to bring whatsoever they have in them to the surface. I help them to be aware of it, to watch it, to see the foolishness of it, to see the stupidity of it--not because I say it is stupid, because if I say something and you only believe it, you will repress it. I help you--my function here is to help you become aware on your own. The day you see the stupidity of it, it will drop of its own accord.

    So I have created all kinds of games here. Yes, there is a hierarchy too so people who want to play, they can play the game of hierarchy. But sooner or later--because the whole effort is to make them conscious--they become aware that this is a game. And the moment they see it is a game, they are out of it. Seeing something as a game makes you laugh at it--a hearty laugh at your own self. And when a man can laugh at his own stupidities he is becoming wise. Laughter has to come out of awareness....

    Awareness is the only secret key: it transforms. It doesn't matter what your illness is, awareness is the only medicine: it cures all illness. If you are politically minded--and everybody is...In some way or other everybody is trying to be more powerful than the other. Even in relationships politics continue--the husband tries to be more powerful than the wife, the wife tries to be more powerful than the husband--hence the constant conflict, even between parents and children. Everywhere there is conflict. It is all politics, different faces of politics.

    So when you come to me I cannot expect you to come without politics--that is impossible. If you are without politics, you will not need to come--wherever you are, God will come to you. When you come here I accept all your human weaknesses. I have no condemnation. I don't tell you to repress; I don't want to make you feel guilty about anything. If you want to play the game of politics you are allowed to play it--with only one condition: become more and more alert while playing it. Have a sense of humour, and then all is well. Sooner or later it will wither away of its own accord.

    And so is the case with sensuality, sexuality; so is the case with possessiveness; so is the case with everything that man suffers from. sos112

    You ask me: What chance is there for Your ideal society in the face of the politicians and the priests and the vested interests of capital? First, I am not interested in any ideal society. For that matter, I am not even interested in any ideal individual. The word ideal is a dirty word to me. I have no ideals. Ideals have driven you mad. It is ideals that have made this whole earth a big madhouse.

    The ideal means you are not that which you should be. It creates tension, anxiety, anguish. It divides you, it makes you schizophrenic. And the ideal is in the future and you are here. And how can you live unless you are the ideal? First be the ideal, then start living--and that never happens. That cannot happen in the very nature of things. Ideals are impossible; that's why they are ideals. They drive you crazy and make you insane. And condemnation arises, because you always fall short of the ideal. Guilt is created. In fact, that is what the priests and the politicians have been doing--they want to create guilt in you. To create guilt they use ideals; that is the simple mechanism. First give an ideal, then guilt comes automatically....

    Accept yourself as you are.

    I am not interested in any ideal society, not at all. I am not interested even in ideal individuals. I am not interested in idealism at all!

    And to me the society does not exist, there are only individuals. The society is just a functioning structure, utilitarian. You cannot come across society....

    Put your whole energy into dancing, celebrating. And then you are ideal, here and now-- not that you have to become ideal.

    Ideology, as such, has lost its truth. In fact it was never there in the first place. And the power to persuade also is gone. Few serious minds believe any longer that one can set down blueprints, and through social engineering bring about a new utopia of social harmony. We are living in the age of utter freedom. We have come of age. Humanity is no longer childish, it is more mature. We are living in a very Socratic period, because people are asking all the important questions of life. Don't start hankering and longing for some future ideal, idea, perfection. Drop all ideals and live here-now.

    My commune is not going to be an ideal society. My commune is going to be a herenow commune. heart06

    Discourses: Sufis

    In August 1977, Osho's series is Sufis: The People of the Path

    Once a learned Mohammedan came to me and asked, "You are not a Mohammedan, then why do you speak on Sufism?' I told him, 'I am not a Mohammedan, obviously, but I am a Sufi all the same.'

    A Sufi need not be a Mohammedan. A Sufi can exist anywhere, in any form--because Sufism is the essential core of all religions. It has nothing to do with Islam in particular. Sufism can exist without Islam; Islam cannot exist without Sufism. Without Sufism, Islam is a corpse. Only with Sufism does it become alive.

    Whenever a religion is alive it is because of Sufism. Sufism simply means a love affair with God, with the ultimate, a love affair with the whole. It means that one is ready to dissolve into the whole, that one is ready to invite the whole to come into one's heart. It knows no formality. It is not confined by any dogma, doctrine, creed or church. Christ is a Sufi, so is Mohammed. Krishna is a Sufi, so is Buddha. This is the first thing I would like you to remember: that Sufism is the innermost core--as Zen is, as Hassidism is. These are only different names of the same ultimate relationship with God.

    The relationship is dangerous. It is dangerous because the closer you come to God, the more and more you evaporate. And when you have come really close you are no more. It is dangerous because it is suicidal...but the suicide is beautiful. To die in God is the only way to live really. Until you die, until you die voluntarily into love, you live an existence which is simply mediocre; you vegetate, you don't have any meaning. No poetry arises in your heart, no dance, no celebration; you simply grope in the darkness. You live at the minimum, you don't overflow with ecstasy.

    That overflow happens only when you are not. You are the hindrance. Sufism is the art of removing the hindrance between you and you, between the self and the self, between the part and the whole.

    A few things about this word 'Sufi'. An ancient Persian dictionary has this for the entry 'Sufi'...the definition given goes in rhyme: Sufi chist--Sufi, Sufist. Who is a Sufi? A Sufi is a Sufi. This is a beautiful definition. The phenomenon is indefinable. 'A Sufi is a Sufi.' It says nothing and yet it says well. It says that the Sufi cannot be defined; there is no other word to define it, there is no other synonym, there is no possibility of defining it linguistically, there is no other indefinable phenomenon. You can live it and you can know it, but through the mind, through the intellect, it is not possible. You can become a Sufi--that is the only way to know what it is. You can taste the reality yourself, it is available. You need not go into a dictionary, you can go into existence.

    If you are not ready to have a bite of Sufism you can at least taste it.

    And that's what I am going to make available to you--a little taste. And once you have tasted even a drop of the nectar called Sufism you will become more thirsty for more. For the first time you will start feeling a great appetite for God.

    These talks cannot explain to you what Sufism is--because I am not a philosopher. I am not a theologian either. And I am not really talking on Sufism, I will be talking Sufism. If you are ready, if you are ready to go into this adventure, then you will attain to a taste of it. It is something that will start happening in your heart. It is something like a bud opening. You will start feeling a certain sensation in the heart--as if something is

    becoming alert, awake there; as if the heart has been asleep for long and now it is the first glimmer of the morning--and there you will have the taste.

    Sufism is a special kind of magic, a rare kind of magic. It can be transferred only from person to person, not from a book. It cannot be transferred by scriptures. It is also just like Zen--a transmission beyond words. The Sufis have a special word for it--they call it silsila. What Hindus call parampara they call silsila. Silsila means a transfer from one heart to another heart, from one person to another person It is a very, very personal religion.

    You cannot have it without being related to an enlightened Master--there is no other way. You can read all the literature that exists on Sufism and you will be lost in a jungle of words. Unless you find a guide, unless you fall in love with a guide, you will not have the taste.

    I am ready to take you on this far-away journey, if you are courageous, adventurous. sufis101

    In this month Osho initiates new sannyasins with the 99 Sufi names for god.

    Sufis have beautiful names for God; in all they have ninety-nine names for God. One wonders why not one hundred? It looks so incomplete. For a certain, subtle reason, the hundredth name has been kept silent. That is the true name of God which cannot be uttered. The tao that can be uttered is not the true tao and the God that can be spoken of is not the true God, because the word 'God' falsifies the reality of God. So the hundredth name is the true name--what Hindus call 'satnam', the true name--but it can't be uttered. It will lose its beauty if it is uttered. It remains unuttered, at the deepest core of the heart. But ninety-nine names can be uttered just as a help to reach the hundredth. The hundredth name is almost a nothingness--what buddhas have called 'nirvana', nothingness.

    So I call these the ninety-nine names of nothingness. names01

    You say: When I was in Konya for the dervish whirling ceremony last December, I met a Sufi Master--Sulyman Dede. He asked me to carry his greetings to you and then asked me how I could know that you were a true Master. I thought there could be no satisfactory reply. Osho, what would you have said?

    In the first place, Raga, Dede would not have asked the question of me. He would have immediately recognized. He has already recognized--that's why he sends the greetings. He is a man of understanding, of great love and compassion.

    But he asked you, not because he has any suspicions or doubts about me--he asked you just to see your response. He asked your not for an answer but for a response--and you missed. It is true there is no way to reply to it satisfactorily, but he was not asking for any reply from your side--he wanted a response.

    You could have danced, and he would have understood. You could have hugged him, and he would have understood. A mad laughter would have been the answer.

    It is not a question of intellectual curiosity. He is not an intellectual man at all--he is a real Sufi. He would have understood it. Sufis know how to understand the ways of lovers. You could have just looked into his eyes with great love. He was not asking anything about me: he was asking something about you. These are the ways of the Masters.

    He apparently asked how you could know a true Master. In fact, he was asking, "Are you a true disciple?" You could have shown your disciplehood. You could have touched his feet. You could have cried in joy--or anything! Not ready-made, not manipulated by the mind, but spontaneous, on the spur of the moment...and he would have been immensely satisfied with you.

    Next time when you go to him, don't miss. If he asks again, this time do something. And remember, I am saying do something. A Sufi Master does not ask for an intellectually satisfying answer: he asks for something existential, an indication.

    He was saying to you, "If you have found a true Master, what happened to you? Show me! Give me a hint! Has love arisen in you? Have you become capable of abandoning yourself in a dance? Have you become capable of seeing the beauty of existence? Has humbleness arisen in you? Have you become prayerful?..." perf204

    The New Commune in Kutch, Gujarat

    In September 1977, arrangements are made to move in December to Kutch, Gujarat, where the New Commune is being set up. Osho talks about his vision for the New Commune.

    Kutch is part of Gujarat. Kutch is desert, dry. And the palace in Kutch... The father of the present Maharajah, had the same problem with allergies, so experts have explored all over Kutch, where the palace should be made, so it was exactly made as if for me. The palace was in such a place that the place was cool, dry, and immensely beautiful. And since the maharajah died, nobody has lived in that palace. And it was big enough for my commune; seven-hundred acres, and almost one thousand people could live, immediately, and then we could create more and we could purchase more, because Kutch is almost empty--nobody lives there. last317

    The architect who has been to start work on the new commune in Kutch has returned and says: It seems a little paradise.

    It is! And you have to make it one. Much has to be done there. We have to make it a paradise--small, but a paradise. It has to be converted into an oasis. The world is turning into a desert. People are losing all that is beautiful, all that is valuable. Values are

    disappearing. Man is becoming very very barren. If this continues then after one century love will become just absurd; the word will not mean anything. And that is the very heart! The day love disappears, all disappears--freedom and dignity and all. The day love disappears, man is a machine. It is only love that keeps man as something above being a machine.

    Mathematics can be done by the computer, logic can be done by the computer...and far more efficiently than by man. Only love cannot be done by the computer. So that is the only quality that can save. That is the only thing that is more in man than in a machine.

    We have to create a love oasis so the value does not simply disappear. People can come and see love almost visible, tangible. And it is possible. Much work has to be done, so put your whole energy into it. This is your life's opportunity! justdo26

    This whole experiment is to bring a kind of Buddhahood into the world. This commune is not an ordinary commune. This is an experiment to provoke god. You may not be aware of what is going to happen. You may be aware only of your problems--you may have come to me only to solve your problems. That is secondary; I am cooking up something else! (laughter) I am trying to create a space where god can descend more and more. This commune will become a connection. The world has lost connection; god is no more a reality. The connection is broken, and god can only be through the connection. God may be there, we are here, but there is no bridge so how do we know? This commune is an experiment to create the bridge. justdo19

    Feel happy that you are becoming part of this great milieu. Each sannyasin has to contribute much, because we are trying to materialise a great dream, a dream in which East and West can meet, a dream in which all religions can meet, a dream in which the earth can become our home--undivided, without conflict and war, without nations and races and colour divisions.

    Sannyas is a vision of a new world. Rightly understood it contains all that is beautiful from the past and all that is going to be beautiful in the future. It is a turning point. So be glad that you are also becoming part of something which is almost impossible but which still can happen. tongue10

    I would like my whole commune to live in as much comfort as possible. The commune has to become a model--a model for the whole world. My sannyasins are to live in every possible joy: physical, psychological, spiritual. The joys of the body and the joys of the mind and the joys of the spirit--all have to be lived in such a harmony that a new man is born out of that harmony.

    That's why I say: Be scientific, be aesthetic, and be religious. Out of these three dimensions, out of the meeting of these three rivers, the fourth will be created. And the fourth is my way. dh0110

    Education in the New Commune

    Osho talks about children in the new commune:

    Children are immensely intelligent, they just need a chance! They need opportunities to grow, the right climate. Every child is born with the potential of enlightenment, with the potential of becoming awakened, but we destroy it.

    This has been the greatest calamity in the whole history of man. No other slavery has been as bad as the slavery of the child and no other slavery has taken as much juice out of humanity as the slavery of the child, and this is also going to be the most difficult task for humanity: to get nd of it.

    Unless we arrange the whole society in a totally different way, unless a radical change happens and the family disappears and gives place to a commune, it will not be possible. The parental institution has become so deep-rooted in its structure that unless the whole pattern is destroyed and replaced by a totally new phenomenon which I call the commune....

    A commune is where many people live together collectively, not in single-family units. For example, this commune. Now, nearabout three thousand sannyasins are living here, fifteen hundred sannyasins are working in the commune. There are many children; these children are being loved by everybody. They are not just focused on their parents, they are enjoying immense freedom. They go and they visit other sannyasins, they remain with other sannyasins for days together. They have many uncles, many aunts....

    In a commune a child will not be obsessed with his parents. He will have more freedom, more liquidity. He will be more open to many people, many varieties. He will learn more. He will become multi-dimensional, he will become multi-lingual. And the most important thing will be that he will not be conditioned by anybody, because when there are so many people with so many different backgrounds he will be able to learn this: that 'My mother's or my father's religion is not the only religion,' that 'My mother's country is not the only country,' that 'My mother's language is not the only language,' that 'There are many languages and they are all beautiful, and there are many religions and they are all beautiful, and there are many countries and they are an beautiful.' He will have a more universal approach towards things. He will remain liquid, flowing, he will not become fixated....

    And if we can make children liquid, flowing, the countries can disappear sooner or later. The family is the basic unit of the nation, of the state, of the church, hence the church, the state and the nation, will all defend the family. They are not concerned about the misery of humanity.

    I am against the nation, against the church, against the state, hence I am in favour of the commune not in favour of the family. Once this old pattern of family disappears into a more multi-dimensional set-up, humanity can have a new birth. A new man is needed and the new man will bring the very paradise that in the past we were hoping for in some other life. Paradise can be herenow, but we have to bring about a new child.

    My sannyasins at least have to understand it very clearly. If you can be helpful in bringing the child to his uniqueness you win be helping humanity immensely. You will become the harbingers of a new dawn, of a new sunrise. zzzzz14

    In September 1977 a sannyasin, who is setting up a new school for sannyasin children in the ashram, asks about education in the new commune

    It will be a totally different thing! It will be a totally different thing....

    It can't apply here. A few things to remember, and then you can work them out. The first and the most basic is that we are not to enforce any pattern on the children. We have just to help them to be themselves. So there is no ideal that has to be enforced on them. You just have to be a caring atmosphere around them, so whatsoever they want to do you can help them to do better. Just help them to do it better. And they are not in any game, ambition-game.

    We are not trying to make them very very powerful, famous, rich, this and that, in their life, no. Our whole effort here is to help them to be alive, authentic, loving, flowing, and life takes care. A trust in life--that's what has to be created around them, so they can trust in life. Not that they have to struggle but can relax. And as for education, just help them to be more creative. Painting is good--they should try painting--or creating something else, but let it be creative; let them do things on their own. And don't bring in your criteria.

    For example, when a child paints, don't bring in adultish criteria; don't say that this is not Picasso. If the child has enjoyed it and when he was painting he got absorbed in it, that's enough. The painting is great! Not because of any objective criterion--the painting may be just nonsense; it may be just colours splashed, may be messy. It has to be because a child is a child; he has a different vision of things....

    Help the child to be completely lost, and whenever a child is painting on his own, he will be lost. If you force him to paint then he will be distracted. So whatsoever the children want to do, let them do; just help them. Mm? you can help in many technical ways. You can tell them--if a child wants to paint--how to mix colours, how to fix the canvas, how to use the brush; that you can help with. Be a help there; rather than being a guide, be a help.

    Just as a gardener helps the tree. You cannot pull the tree fast; you cannot do anything in that way, nothing can be done positively. You plant the seed, you water, you give the manure, and you wait! The tree happens on its own. When the tree is happening you protect it so somebody does not hurt it or harm it. That is the function of a teacher: the

    teacher has to be a gardener. Not that you have to create the child; the child is coming on its own--god is the creator....

    In this atmosphere of joy help them to learn two things--language and mathematics. History is meaningless bunk!

    Just two small things--a little mathematics will be needed in their life. And about that too: we are not to make them great mathematicians, just a little mathematics so they can figure out things. And language is needed so they can communicate. They can read poetry, they can enjoy the great works.

    And there is going to be no examination. There is going to be no gradation of who is first and who is second. Everybody is just the same. We make the space available for them to learn--they all have learned according to their capacities but who are we to judge? So no gradation, no examination. And when children are a little grown up let them learn practical things--carpentry, pottery, weaving--and they will enjoy all those things. When they are still more grown up let them learn something about electricity, cars, mechanisms, technology, but practical things.

    That's why the other day I said the university that is going to be will be Rajneesh International Anti-University. We will make everything anti: no examinations, and the vice chancellor and the chancellor will not have any degrees. Only sweepers and cleaners will have degrees!

    And you have to work it out soon because when we move, then at least one hundred children will be immediately available....

    Start working so it takes some shape before we move. Because there you have to start a full-fledged school. But it is going to be a totally different kind of school, because I am all for de-schooling society.

    Man can be saved only if society is de-schooled or if totally different kind of schools which cannot be called schools are evolved; then only humanity can be saved.

    So no ambition should be there, no comparison ever. Never compare a child with another and say, 'Look, the other has done a better painting'. That is ugly, violent, destructive. You are destroying both the children. The one you say has done a better painting starts getting the idea of the ego, superiority, and the one who has been condemned starts feeling inferior. And these are the illnesses--the superior and the inferior--so never compare!

    It will be difficult for you and other teachers because comparison is so much in us. Never compare. Each child has to be respected on his own. Each child has to be respected as unique--no comparison, no marks, no gradations. Because we are not going to create clerks or ugly things like that. We are going to create men and women.

    Yes, they will need a few things in life so they are practically helped. Those things we should give them--and then they have to choose their own. In the new place we will make everything available--painting, music, dance--so wherever they want to join in, they can; whatsoever they want to do, they can do. They can have their own combinations. There will be no syllabus--there will be only opportunity....

    Let children enjoy--there is no hurry; there is no need to have a programme of enforcement. Just let things happen; let it be a growing nursery. And be very careful, because out of this school will come a bigger school, then a college and a university, and everything will follow. This will be the seed.

    And whatsoever I have said about education and about things you just go through so you have some idea about what has to be done. But it is going to happen.

    And we have beautiful children around here--you just start, mm? Good. justdo16

    By the end of 1977 Rajneesh International University offers BA, MA or PhD courses under twelve departments, including special programmes in counsellor training and meditation.

    A sannyasin doctor of Allopathic and Ayurvedic medicine asks if he should become part of the university being set up here.

    I need so many people because so much has to be done. I need so many hands. The work is so enormous that it is impossible for me to do it on my own. The whole of humanity is in such a great need and the need has to be fulfilled. Otherwise humanity is just on the verge of committing suicide. Its sources of joy have run out. It is desperately struggling to survive. Meaning is no more there, any kind of significance has disappeared. People are only living because they are afraid to die, otherwise there is no reason to live. It seems utterly absurd to live because unless there is something beyond, life cannot have any meaning. The day God disappeared from the human mind, man started dying. Our roots have been in God, in the beyond. By God I mean the beyond, I don't mean a person.

    Man always lives in the hope of transcending, always lives in the hope of surpassing himself. The darkest hour comes when there is nowhere to go beyond, when there is no beyond. Then there is nothing to live for. You cannot just live--you have to live for something. Life needs a kind of significance, meaning. Religion is nothing but creating meaning in human life. Otherwise life becomes sad, dull, boring. Life becomes anguish, anxiety...without any kind of fulfilment.

    Great things have to be done. I will need all kinds of people of all talents, of all possible talents, because this is not one-dimensional work; it is multi-dimensional work. Sannyas is just a device to find people who can take the message to the masses, to the people who are in need. People are spiritually starved. They can survive physical starvation but they cannot survive spiritual starvation. It is difficult to survive physical starvation but not impossible. To survive spiritual starvation is impossible. Then there is no reason to exist at all. Suicide becomes more significant....

    And this university is not going to be an ordinary educational institution. This university is going to be education in life, education in God, education in meaning, in meditation, in prayer, in love. It is not going to teach arithmetic and geography and history. It is going to teach life as such and how it should be lived. It is going to become a great experiment in living, in new ways of living.

    Become a part of it! letgo08

    We have created hierarchy in society. The lowest are those poor people who are chopping wood or cleaning the roads. Why are they the lowest?--because they are doing the most essential things. The professors can be discarded, the society can exist without them; but the society cannot exist without the street cleaners, the toilet cleaners, the woodchoppers- -the society cannot exist without them. They are far more essential, far more fundamental, but they are the lowest.

    The whole idea is wrong. There is no hierarchy. The professor is doing his work, and the woodcutter is doing his work, and both are needed. Neither is there a hierarchy between men and other animals, nor is there a hierarchy between men and men. I am against the whole idea of hierarchy.

    And that's my vision of a new commune.

    In the new commune there is going to be nobody higher and nobody lower. In this ashram, there is nobody higher, nobody lower. There are toilet cleaners and there are professors, therapists, and they are all the same--they are all doing some useful work, some essential work. The vice-chancellor here, in this commune, is on the same ground as the woodchopper. The great therapist has no more prestige, power, than the toilet cleaner. Hence, there is no problem. A Ph.D. can choose toilet cleaning--one Ph.D. is doing that; another Ph.D. is just cleaning the streets of the ashram.

    If there is no hierarchy, there is no problem; otherwise, the Ph.D. will think, "How can I do this work, this menial job? I am not a hand, I am a head." In this commune there are no heads, no hands--people, whole people, respected, loved, for whatsoever they are doing, or whatsoever they can do, or whatsoever they like doing.

    This whole existence is a commune. God is the center and we are all its circumference. dh0306

    At this time, Osho emphasizes creativity in the new commune

    A sannyasin wonders if she should return to Germany; she is in the middle of a sculpture and pottery course.

    That is worth studying--I will not disrupt it, mm? Go and continue your studies. Whenever you can come, just come and then go back, but finish your studies because I will need a few potters and sculptors. In the new place we will be doing many things and

    sculpture will be one of the most important things. So get into it as deeply as possible. Just don't go so-so, go whole-heartedly into it so we can create something out of it. Your skill will be very very useful to the new commune. We will have guilds there; guilds of potters and guilds of carpenters and sculptors and artists, so there will be different dimensions to creativity. sunsun28

    A sannyasin had sent Osho some photos of his stone sculptures; stone arrangements.

    I looked at your stone sculpture--beautiful! In the new commune you will have to do a few things. When the new commune is ready you have to plan a small place for your statues. Just make as many Buddhas as possible! sacyes18

    To a weaver, Osho says:

    I liked your idea of making a workshop for rugs. That is one of the old Sufi things we should do; it's very good. Start talking to sannyasins so that you can create a group and then start....

    The work also has to be play. It has to be done joyously, not for any result but for its sheer joy. That's why I called it the Sufi work.

    Sufis have been weaving, spinning, carving; rug-making particularly has been one of the most cherished Sufi works, but it was a play, it was a game. They were in fact not making rugs; it was just a meditation. The rug was just a by-product; the idea was just to be meditative, to be playful, to be silent, to be utterly there. It was a kind of absorption, a creative absorption. And I respect Sufis very much for that, because in India the monks have been very uncreative; I am altogether against that. They have been sitting in their caves, very very inactive; they became almost oppressive in this country. They exploited it, they never contributed anything to the country. Their whole contribution was this, that they were meditating so the country had to look after them.

    Sufis are right, on the right track: meditate but contribute something to the society too. And if it can be done playfully, then it is not business; then it is meditation. And that's what I would like my commune to become slowly, slowly. We have to do many things. This commune has to be utterly creative, but the creation has not to become work--that is the whole point. It has to be playful, sincere but not serious, devoted; one has to be committed to it, involved, but not for the result's sake. It is art for art's sake: the joy is intrinsic.

    Start talking so that you have a few people in your mind and when we are ready you can immediately start working. bite18

    My sannyasins are from the most educated classes of the world. We have all kinds of people--artists, painters, professors, scientists, psychologists, therapists, doctors, engineers--all well educated. unio104

    Although the move to Kutch in December is postponed, Osho develops his vision with three concepts: the Buddhafield, Zorba the Buddha, and the New Man. Osho continues to speak on these aspects of his work throughout his life.

    Gautam Buddha's Prophesy and the Buddhafield

    In December 1977 Osho comments on Diamond Sutra wherein Gautama Buddha answers questions from Subhuti, his disciple. Buddha foretold that in 2,500 years his teachings would revive and start a new cycle of consciousness, 'turn the wheel of dhamma'. Osho explains that this is what he is doing, and reintroduces the word buddhafield to describe his work.

    Subhuti asked: 'Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the Sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?'

    Now you will be surprised: this is the time Subhuti is talking about, and you are the people. Twenty-five hundred years have passed. Subhuti has asked about you.

    Buddha has said that whenever a religion is born, whenever a Buddha turns the wheel of Dhamma, naturally, slowly slowly the wheel starts stopping. It loses momentum. mm? You turn a wheel, it will start moving. Then by and by, by and by, a moment will come when it will stop.

    When a Buddha moves the wheel of Dhamma, it takes two thousand five hundred years for it to stop completely. After each five hundred years it goes on losing momentum. So those are the five ages of the Dhamma. After each five hundred years, the Dhamma will be less and less, decreased and decreased and decreased, and after twenty-five centuries the wheel will stop again. It will need another Buddha to turn it for the coming twenty- five centuries.

    This is a rare phenomenon. It is really intriguing that Subhuti asked Buddha:

    'Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the Sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?'

    The Lord (Buddha) replied: 'Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the Sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.

    For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas. And these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of merit under one single Buddha only. On the contrary, Subhuti,

    those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the Sutra are being taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith, be such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of Buddhas, such as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands of Buddhas.

    Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye. Fully-known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata. And they all, Subhuti will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.'

    Buddha is talking about you. The Sutra is being read to you. Twenty-five centuries have passed. Subhuti has asked about you.

    The other day I had told you that many of you will become bodhisattvas, many of you are on the way. It is strange that Subhuti should ask such a question. And more strange is that Buddha says "Those people after twenty-five centuries will not be less fortunate than you but will be more fortunate."

    Why? I have been telling you many times that you are ancient ones, that you have walked on this earth many many times, that you are not listening to Dhamma for the first time, that you have come across many Buddhas in your past lives--sometimes maybe a Krishna and sometimes maybe a Christ and sometimes maybe a Mahavira and sometimes maybe a Mohammed, but you have come across many many Buddhas, many enlightened people.

    You are fortunate to know so many Buddhas, and if you become a little alert, all the seeds that have been sown in you by the past Buddhas will start blooming, will sprout. You will start flowering.

    Buddha says:

    Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye. Fully-known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.

    It is very mysterious, but it is possible. A Buddha can have a vision of the future. He can see through the fog of the future. His clarity is such, his vision is such, he can throw a ray of light into the unknown future. He can see. It will look very mysterious that Buddha sees you listening to The Diamond Sutra....

    This is ecstatic to even think that Gautama the Buddha had seen you listening to The Diamond Sutra. In The Diamond Sutra you are talked about. That's why I have chosen it. When I came across these words I thought, "This is the thing for my people. They must know that even they have been looked into by Gautama the Buddha; that something about them has been said twenty-five centuries ago; that they have been predicted.'

    The wheel that Buddha moved has stopped. The wheel has to be moved again. And that is going to be my and your life-work--that wheel has to be moved again. Once it starts revolving it will have again twenty-five centuries' life. Once it starts moving it goes on moving for twenty-five centuries at least.

    And it has to be done again and again and again because everything loses momentum, everything functions under the laws of nature--entropy. You throw a stone, you throw with great energy, but it goes a few hundred feet and it falls down. Exactly like that Dhamma has to be made again and again alive. Then it breathes for twenty-five centuries and then dies. Everything that is born has to die.

    But Buddha says, "Subhuti, do not speak thus." Subhuti must be thinking, "Only we are fortunate. We have listened to Buddha, lived with Buddha, walked with Buddha. We are fortunate, we are blessed people. What will happen after twenty five centuries when the wheel of Dhamma has completely stopped moving?" He is thinking about you unfortunate people.

    Buddha says, "Do not speak thus, Subhuti. Don't start thinking that only you are fortunate." That is a very subtle ego: "We are fortunate, nobody else is so fortunate." Buddha immediately puts his hand on Subhuti's mouth:

    'Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the Sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.'

    And I know, here are people who understand the truth. Slowly slowly the morning is happening, the dark night is disappearing. Slowly slowly the seed is gaining ground, entering in your heart.

    'For even at that time, Subhuti, There will be bodhisattvas,'

    There are many here who are going to become bodhisattvas. Just a little work more, just a little play more, just a little more effort into meditativeness, just a little more pouring of the energy, just a little more concentration of the energy, avoiding of distractions, and it is going to happen. And it is going to happen to many. And you are the fortunate ones, Buddha says....

    If you can even understand a single word of The Diamond Sutra, if you can understand a simple look of my eyes into your eyes, if you can understand a simple gesture of my inner dance....

    And you are the people Buddha is talking about. And you are the people I am depending on. The wheel of Dhamma has stopped. It has to be turned again. diamon03

    My effort here is just to reverse the whole process. I am trying to turn the wheel of dharma in a totally different way; I am trying to change its direction. It has been anti-life: I am trying to make it life-affirmative.

    Calmness is beautiful, but it must surround a dancing bliss. It must be capable of singing. If it cannot sing it is not true; it is not worth either.

    So my sannyasin has to learn love, life, laughter. I want to create a temple which knows how to celebrate, whose only worship will be festivity, whose only prayer will be dance, love, and who will know how to participate in this life--not to live for another life but to be totally herenow. Because God knows no other time than now and no other space than here. The real temple of God can be made only out of two bricks: those two bricks are now and here. wakeup11

    Put your mind aside--let there be a direct communion between me and you. And I'm not interpreting Gautam Buddha. What he is saying is my own experience too. Hence, in a way I am simply explaining to you my own existential experience. But I love Gautam Buddha, his words are beautiful. It is significant to revive them again and again, to give them life, to let them breathe again. I am not interpreting here, I am simply making myself available to him so that he can say something to you in your language, in the language of the twentieth century. dh0701

    The word buddhafield is of tremendous importance. You have to understand it, because that is what I am doing here--creating a buddhafield. It is just to create a buddhafield that we are moving away from the world, far away, so that a totally different kind of energy can be made available to you.

    Buddhafield means a situation where your sleeping Buddha can be awakened. Buddhafield means an energy field where you can start growing, maturing, where your sleep call be broken, where you can be shocked to awareness--an electric field where you will not be able to fall asleep, where you will have to be awake, because shocks will be coming all the time.

    A buddhafield is an energy field in which a Buddha matures beings, a pure land, an unworldly world, a paradise on earth, which offers ideal conditions for rapid spiritual growth. A buddhafield is a matrix.

    The word matrix comes from Latin; it means the womb. From that word we get the words matter, mother, etcetera. The womb offers three things to a newly forming life: a source of possibility, a source of energy to explore that possibility, and a safe place within which that exploration can take place.

    That's what we are going to do. The new commune is going to be a great experiment in buddhahood. Energies have to be made available to you, possibilities have to be made clear to you. You have to be made aware of your potential, and you have to be given a safe place from where you can work: a place where you are not distracted by the world, a place where you can go on without any disturbance from the crowd, a place where ordinary things, taboos, inhibitions, are put aside, where only one thing is significant-- how to become a Buddha; where everything else simply disappears from your mind--

    money and power and prestige; where all else becomes insignificant, when all else becomes exactly what it is--a shadow world--and you are no longer lost in the apparent.

    Maya is to be caught up in the apparent. That is the greatest illusion in the world. The apparent holds such sway on our minds. A buddhafield is a place where you are taken away from the apparent.

    In the silence of a commune, in the uninhibited, untabooed atmosphere of a commune, the master and the disciple can enact the drama totally. The ultimate is when the master can touch the feet of the disciple, when the master and disciples are lost into one reality....

    Now understand: if somebody says, "I will create the buddafield," and the emphasis is on 'I', then the statement is false, because a person who has the 'I' still alive cannot create a buddhafield. Only a person who has no 'I' within him can create a buddhafield. In fact then to say he creates is not right; language is inadequate.

    The Sanskrit word for creation is far better. The Sanskrit word is nirpadayati. It means many things. It can mean to create, it can mean to accomplish, it can mean to ripen, it can mean to mature it can simply mean to trigger into existence. That's exactly the meaning.

    A Buddha does not create, he triggers. Even to say he triggers is not good; in his presence things happen, in his presence things are triggered, processes start. Just his presence is a fire, a spark, and things start moving and one thing leads to another, and a great chain is created.

    That's how we have been going on. I simply sit in my room doing nothing, and seekers from all over the world have started pouring in. I don't even write a letter...just the presence. One comes, another comes, and the chain is created. Now the time has come when a buddhafield is needed, a matrix is needed, because you don't know--thousands more are on the way. They have already moved, they are already thinking of coming.

    And the more people are there, the bigger the buddhafield will be there, and the more powerful it will be. The possibility is that we can create one of the greatest and the most powerful buddhafields ever created in the world, because never before was there such search, because never before was man in such a crisis.

    We are on the threshold of something new that is going to happen to humanity. Either humanity will die and disappear, or we will take a jump, a leap, and a new being will be formed. We are exactly at the same point as millions of years ago when monkeys came down from the trees and humanity started and a new being was born. Again the moment is coming very close. It is a very dangerous moment, because there is every possibility....

    It was possible that the monkey may not have survived on the earth, he may have died on the earth, but a few monkeys took the risk. And they must have been thought of as fools by other monkeys, mm? who had always lived on the trees and were perfectly happy. They must have thought, "These people are going mad, crazy. Why in the first place are

    you going to live on the earth? Why create unnecessary trouble for yourselves? Our fathers and their fathers and their fathers have all lived on the trees."

    Again the same situation is going to happen. Man has lived a long time the way he has lived. By the end of this century a critical quantum leap is possible. Either man will die in a third world war or man will take the jump and will become a new man. Before that happens, a great buddhafield is needed--a field where we can create the future. diamon09

    A Master carries a noosphere around himself; I call it the "Buddhafield". Jainas have a very specific idea about it; they worked very hard to find it, exactly what it is. And I think no other tradition has discovered all the details about the Buddhafield that surrounds a Master like Mahavira. Jainas have worked--they were a little bit scientific in their approach--and I agree with their discoveries about the Buddhafield.

    They say a Master has a Buddhafield around himself extending in all the directions for twenty-four miles--a circle with the radius of twenty-four miles becomes a Buddhafield whenever a person becomes enlightened. No other tradition has worked it out with such scientific detail--even they have measured the length, how big is the circle that surrounds the awakened person.

    Whosoever is a little bit open entering in the Buddhafield will start feeling something strange that he has never felt before. But it happens only if one is open. ithat09

    I am creating this Buddhafield for all those who need to be with me, who want to be not only spiritually connected with me but materially too. I am a material spiritualist, or a spiritual hedonist. Any paradox will do to describe me. sands108

    You say: As more people come and take sannyas and more days pass, it seems that many of us grow together--stronger and stronger without even meeting much. It seemed to me when you spoke of the 'new community' that somehow it is an old community of friends, reuniting again through your love and grace.

    Yes, that's how it is. Many of you have been with me in the past. Many of you have been together with each other in the past. It is a meeting of old friends. You have forgotten--I have not forgotten. And sooner or later you will also start remembering.

    This new commune is going to be one of the oldest things on the earth, very ancientmost. And travellers from different paths have come--travellers from different directions and dimensions. Jews are here and Mohammedans are here and Hindus and Jainas and Buddhists and Christians and Taoists--all kinds of people are here. All cultures are meeting here; all religions pouring into each other. And a natural synthesis will arise. We are not creating any synthesis, but it is happening on its own.

    The universal man can be born only out of such a commune--the man who will not be a Christian and will not be a Jew and will not be a Hindu and will not be Indian and will not be Chinese and will not be German. All boundaries are dissolving here.

    And you are certainly not new. You have been here long enough, you have lived long enough. Many many lives you have been passing. And you have brought many riches; you have brought great heritages with you. And once all those heritages are poured into one pool, it will be one of the richest phenomena that has ever happened or can ever happen. feet09

    That's why my effort is to create a great Buddhafield, to release as much energy as is released in an atomic explosion. Sannyas is an effort to collect all those people who are ready to be aware, to be intelligent. And we have to spread the color all over the world. This is the color of spring.

    Man needs a new life, a new birth. And all that has been told and taught up to now has failed. It was bound to fail because it was not meant to create a better humanity; it was meant to keep man as much enslaved as he is. guida02

    Zorba the Buddha

    In June 1978, Osho coins the phrase Zorba the Buddha. The name becomes a trademark for sannyasin enterprises around the world, for example, restaurants and discoteques

    Have you read Kazantzakis' Zorba the Greek: Read it!...

    Allow me to coin the term 'spiritual hedonism', because ordinarily you think of hedonism as very earthy. "Eat, drink, be merry"--that is earthy hedonism. In spiritual hedonism that is there, and more also. "Eat, drink, be merry" is there--plus God. Eat, drink and be merry in the name of the holy, in the name of your God, your Father who is in heaven.

    Eat, drink, be merry--make them your prayer. Let your eating and drinking and merrying be a sort of ritual, a sort of prayer--a gesture of happiness that "I am okay, and I am happy that you have given birth to me. I am happy that I am, and my whole thankfulness goes to you."

    A spiritual hedonism is always there when religion is alive. When the religion becomes dead, hedonism disappears completely and the religion becomes antagonistic to everything that man can enjoy. Then religion goes on seeking ways and means of how to be sad, how to be more and more sorrowful, how to kill all avenues of delight and joy. Then it becomes ascetic. foll201

    Zorba is one of my love affairs. I love strange people. Zorba is a very strange man--not even a real man, only fictitious, but to me he has become almost a reality because he represents Epicurus, Charvaka, and all the materialists of the world. He not only represents them, but represents them in their best form.

    In one place Zorba says to his boss, "Boss, you have everything but still you are missing life, because you don't have a little madness in you. If you can manage a little madness you will know what life is."

    I can understand him; not only him, but I can understand all the Zorbas down the ages, with their 'little madness'. But I don't believe in a little of anything. I am as mad as one can be, totally mad. If you are only a little mad, of course you will understand only a little of life, but it is better than not knowing at all.

    Zorba, poor Zorba, illiterate Zorba, a laborer...he must have been huge, strongly built, and a little mad. But he gave great advice to his master: "Be a little mad," he said. I say being a little mad won't do; be totally mad! But you can allow total madness only in meditation, otherwise you will freak out. You won't be able to consume it; on the contrary, it will consume you. If you don't know what meditation is you will be burned. Hence I have coined a new name: Zorba the Buddha.

    Zorba the Buddha is my synthesis. I love Kazantzakis for creating a great work of art, but I feel sorry for him too because he is still in darkness. Kazantzakis, you need a boss, a little of meditation; otherwise you will never know what life is. books06

    I am teaching my people to live a single, unitary life. There is no need to postpone. Be natural. I want Buddha, Gautam the Buddha, and Zorba the Greek to come closer and closer--to become one. My sannyasin has to be "Zorba the Buddha." Bring earth and heaven closer; let God and his world be joined together. Let your body and your soul be one--a song sung in togetherness, a dance where body and soul meet and merge.

    I am a materialist-spiritualist. secret10

    My sannyasins have to take life very playfully--then you can have both the worlds together. You can have the cake and eat it too. And that is a real art. This world and that, sound and silence, love and meditation, being with people, relating, and being alone. All these things have to be lived together in a kind of simultaneity; only then will you know the uttermost depth of your being and the uttermost height of your being. dh0202

    The New Man

    In August 1978, Osho reintroduces his concept of the new man, homo novus, which he mentioned during his travelling years

    You ask me: What according to you is the most significant thing that is happening today in the world?

    A new man is emerging. The image of the new man is not yet clear, but the horizon is becoming red and the sun will soon be there. The morning mist is there and the image of the new man is vague, but still a few things are very crystal clear about the new man.

    And this is of tremendous importance because since the monkey became man, man has remained the same. A great revolution is on the way. It will be far more deep-going than the revolution that happened when monkeys started walking on the earth and became human beings. That change created mind, that change brought psychology in. Now another far more significant change is going to happen that will bring the soul in, and man will not only be a psychological being but a spiritual being too.

    You are living in one of the most alive times ever.

    The new man has already arrived in fragments, but only in fragments. And the new man has been arriving for centuries, but only here and there. That's how things happen. When the spring comes it starts with one flower. But when the one flower is there, then one can be certain: that spring is not faraway--it has come. The first flower has heralded its coming: Zarathustra, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus--these were the first flowers. Now the new man is going to be born on a greater scale.

    According to me, this new consciousness is the most important thing that is happening today. I would like to tell you something about this new consciousness, its orientations, and its characteristics, because you are to help it come out of the womb--because you have to be it. The new man cannot come from nowhere, he has to come through you. The new man can only be born through your womb. You have to become the womb.

    Sannyas is an experiment to clean the ground so that new seeds can fall in. If you understand the meaning of the new man, you will be able to understand the significance of sannyas too. And it is because sannyas is concerned with the new man that the old orthodoxies of all kinds are going to be against me and against sannyas, because this will be their end. If sannyas succeeds, if the new man succeeds, the old will have to go. The old can live only if the new man is prevented from coming.

    It cannot be prevented now, because it is not only a question of the new man's coming into existence, it is a question of the survival of the whole earth, of consciousness itself, of life itself. It is a question of life and death. The old man has come to utter destructiveness. The old man has reached the end of his tether. Now there is no life possible with the old concept of man but only death. The old man is preparing for a global suicide. The old man is piling up atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, in order to commit a collective suicide. This is a very unconscious desire. Rather than allowing the new man to be, the old man would like to destroy the whole thing.

    You have to understand, you have to protect the new, because the new carries the whole future with it. And man has come to a stage where a great quantum leap is possible....

    The new man will have to find new forms of community, of closeness, of intimacy, of shared purpose, because the old society is not going to disappear immediately. It will linger, it will put up all kinds of fight to the new society--as it always happens. It has so many vested interests, it cannot go easily. It will go only when it becomes impossible for it to remain in existence.

    Before it goes the new man will have to create new kinds of communes, new kinds of families, new communities of closeness, intimacy, shared purpose.

    That's why I am trying to create a small commune where you can be totally yourself-- away from the structured and the rotten world--and you can be given absolute freedom. It will be an experiment, because the future is going to move on those lines. It will be a small experiment but of immense significance....

    This, according to me, is the most important phenomenon that is happening today. A new man is coming into existence. The first rays are already on the horizon. Prepare yourself to receive the new man. Get ready. Become a host to the guest who is just about to knock on your doors at any moment. And that's what sannyas is all about: a preparation--getting ready to receive the new man. It is going to be a great adventure to receive the new man. It is going to be risky, too, because the old will not like it.

    Now you can understand why the orthodox mind is against me. I am preparing their graveyard, and I am preparing for something new. I am preparing a garden for the new. You are to open your hearts for the new. Uproot all the weeds of the old, drop all the conditionings that the old has given to you, so you can receive the new. sos114

    I teach a new man, a new humanity, a new concept of being in the world. I proclaim Homo novus. The old man is dying, and there is no need to help it survive any more. The old man is on the deathbed: don't mourn for it--help it to die. Because only with the death of the old can the new be born. The cessation of the old is the beginning of the new.

    My message to humanity is a new man. Less than that won't do. Not something modified, not something continuous with the past, but utterly discontinuous.

    Man has lived up to now not truly, not authentically; man has lived a very pseudo life. Man has lived in great pathology, man has lived in great disease. And there is no need to live in this pathology--we can come out of the prison, because the prison is made by our own hands. We are in the prison because we have decided to be in the prison--because we have believed that the prison is not a prison but our home.

    My message to humanity is: Enough is enough. Awake! See what man has done to man himself. In three thousand years man has fought five thousand wars. You cannot call this humanity healthy. And only once in a while has a Buddha bloomed. If in the garden only once in a while a plant brings a flower, and otherwise the whole garden remains without flowers, will you call it a garden? Something very basic has gone wrong. Each person is born to be a Buddha: less than that is not going to fulfill you.

    I declare to you your Buddhahood. peren202

    You ask: How can I become the new man that You speak about?

    When I say the new man, I mean the conscious man. Humanity cannot be saved if the conscious man does not arrive. In the past it was not so necessary, but now it is absolutely necessary, it is a must. If the new man does not arrive on the earth, if more and more people are not going to become conscious, alert, awake, then this earth is doomed. Its fate is in the hand of the stupid politicians, and now they have immense power of destruction, such as they never had before. That is something new.

    Just five years ago they had so much power that they could have killed every single human being seven times--although you don't need to kill any human being seven times, once is enough. We had five years ago so much atomic energy--atom bombs, hydrogen bombs--that we could have destroyed this earth seven times. And within five years we have really progressed--now it is seven hundred times! We can destroy seven hundred earths like this earth, and we go on piling up. And any moment, any mad politician can trigger the process of self-destruction.

    The coming twenty years are going to be the most dangerous in the whole history of humanity; it has never been so dangerous--we are sitting on a volcano. Only more consciousness, more alertness can save it; there is no other way. We have to de- automatize man. The society automatizes you. It creates efficient machines, not human beings.

    My effort here is to de-automatize you. I am doing something absolutely antisocial. The society makes you a machine and my effort is to undo it. I would like this fire to spread and reach to all the nooks and corners of the earth, to help as many people as possible to be conscious. If in a great quantity consciousness grows on the earth, there is a possibility, a hope, we can save humanity yet. All is not lost, but time is running short. Everything is being controlled by politicians and by computers, and both are dangerous. Politicians are mad. It is impossible to be a politician if you are not mad enough. You have to be absolutely insane, because only insane people are power-obsessed.

    A sane person lives life joyously; he is not power-obsessed. He may be interested in music, in singing, in dancing, but he is not interested in dominating anybody. He may be interested in becoming a master of himself, but he is not interested in becoming a master of others.

    Politicians are insane people. History is enough proof. And now computers are dominating. You know the saying: To err is human. That is true, but if you really want to create a great mess, human beings are not enough--you need computers. Now machines and mad people are dominating the whole world. We have to change the very foundation. That's what I mean by a new man.

    A new man means more conscious, more loving, more creative. This whole process is possible through being more meditative. Become more meditative, silent, still. Experience yourself deeply. In that experience, a fragrance will be released through you. And if many many people become meditators, the earth can be full of a new perfume. dh1011

    Discourses: Tao

    In August 1978, Osho talks on the Chinese Taoist treatise, The Secret of the Golden Flower

    This treatise, The Secret of the Golden Flower, is very ancient--possibly one of the most ancient treatises in the world certainly twenty-five centuries old, and the possibility is that it is older than that. But twenty-five centuries can be traced back very easily. And this treatise is also a great synthesis of all the great religions. That is rare, unique. The Bible belongs to the Christians, the Talmud belongs to the Jews, the Vedas belong to the Hindus, the Dhammapada to the Buddhists, the Tao Te Ching to the Taoists. But this small book, The Secret of the Golden Flower, belongs to no one in particular, or, it belong to all.

    It is deeply based in Taoist teachings. It is a flowering of the Taoist approach to life and existence. But it is not only that--Zarathustra has played a role. Zarathustra's teachings have been incorporated in it Buddhist teachings have also been incorporated in it. And a certain esoteric school of Christians, the Nestorians, they have also played their part. So Christianity and Judaism also have become part of it.

    It is one of the most synthetical approaches. It combines all that is beautiful in all the traditions of the world. For centuries it was only transmitted orally, and the book remained esoteric. It was not available to the public because it has something very secret to teach; it was available only to the disciples. The Master would tell to the disciple only when the time was ripe, because it gives you such a potential secret that if you don't understand rightly, if you do something wrong with it, there are found to be harmful effects from it. It has to be understood rightly, and it has to be worked at only in the presence of a Master. It is a powerful method it is as powerful as atomic energy.

    Now, the secrets of atomic energy are kept hidden from the public. Once they start leaking out to the public there is going to be great danger. If people can manufacture atom bombs privately, there is bound to be great chaos. Great secrecy is maintained about atomic research. Exactly in the same way this book teaches you one of the most potential methods of inner explosion. For centuries the secrets were guarded--only given to the disciples in privacy, in intimacy. And the people who followed this particular esoteric

    school resisted all temptations to write the book. In fact, all the religions of the world have long resisted writing their spiritual teachings.

    There is some beauty when something is transferred orally. It is alive--one thing--the Master is behind it. it is not a dead word, the word has soul, wings. The experience of the Master supports it; the master is a witness to it. It is not just speculation, not only a philosophy, but something existential, experienced, lived. And the Master has travelled the path; he knows the dangers of the path, he knows the pitfalls, he knows the points at which people go astray, and he will take every care so that the disciple cannot go astray....

    ...Why have I chosen to speak on it?--so that it can still grow. It is such a beautiful message to the world, it should not die. I would like to revive it. And now I can talk to people who are disciples, who have come to me and who are ready to die in order to be reborn, who are ready to die for flowering. The seed has to die, only then can it grow. The seed has to disappear, only then can the tree happen.

    I will be speaking to you on this small but immensely valuable book so that the book can become alive again. It can become alive between me and you. It can again start flowing. And it has something of immense importance. If you understand it and if you practise it, you will be enriched. sos101

    Persecution by Morarji Desai

    In October 1978, Osho exposes Prime Minister Morarji Desai's fanatical persecution

    Just a few days ago, Maneesha asked a question: "Osho, was the idea of moving to Kutch just a device?"

    It was not, Maneesha. I wanted to move to Kutch, everything was planned. But the politics of the country made it almost impossible to move. It is because of the mischief of Morarji Desai that we could not move. But why should the prime minister of this country be interested where I am going, where my people are going, what we are doing? We are not making any politics--my people are the most non-political in the world; we think politics is just stupidity.

    But that's why. Suspicion arises, doubt arises: if I am right, then they are all wrong. And if this idea spreads...and it can spread like fire. Truth has a potential--even if you crucify it, it spreads.

    Jesus was not destroyed by crucifixion. In fact it helped: Jesus became a great force in the world because of the crucifixion. Truth cannot be killed. But it can be delayed.

    People will be against you. Hence it is courageous to be with me. And I cannot give you anything--except nothing. That's what Ikkyu says: "I would like to give you everything, but we Buddhas don't have anything else except nothing."

    I can give you only nothing--that is my present. And you will be risking your all. Your life, your respectability, your family, your finance--you will be risking all. Risking all for nothing? You must be crazy. easy213

    You ask: Kindly let me know whether there is a law in India prohibiting Indian citizens to inhabit, dwell or live in a house or houses or an ashram in any part of India, to study and lead a blissful human life for the growth of religion and science?

    There is no law prohibiting us from establishing a commune. But the people who are in power always think they are beyond law. There is no law that goes against establishing a commune, an ashram. But the people who are in power can always find ways to delay it-- that's what they are doing....

    Mr Morarji Desai has been a deputy collector: he still functions like a deputy collector. That's what is being done with us--just delaying tactics. They go on asking about this, about that, and there is no end to it.

    For example, the Maharajah of Kutch donated four hundred acres of land in Kutch. It is desert land, of no use; nothing can be cultivated on it. That's why nobody has ever been interested in purchasing it, that's why the Maharajah easily donated it to us.

    Then the delaying started--it is almost one and a half years ago now. First they said they had to study the case, because the land is too close to Pakistan: in times of war they might need it. In times of war--when that war is going to happen, nobody knows--but in times of war they might need the land.

    Somehow we convinced them that it was not likely. Then they started writing letters saying that because there would be so many foreigners and it is on the boundary of the country, it was a question of safety and security: spies might enter.

    We convinced them. Then they started telling us that just close by it--not very close, thirty miles away--there is an army camp. And they didn't want us to be so close to the army camp.

    Now there is no law, but you can always find these things. So we dropped that idea. Still it is continuing, but we dropped the idea because this seemed to be too much of a hassle.

    So we purchased seven hundred and fifty acres of land (in Saswad), just close to Poona-- fifteen miles away. Now problems have started--delaying tactics.

    First they asked that we should produce a certificate from the medical board as to whether the climate is such that people can live there. Just fifteen miles from Poona! And just beside the land, two miles away, there are villages, and people are living there. Just close to the land, two hundred people are living.

    So we produced a certificate. That took two or three months--because the board consists of six members and unless those six members meet and agree. So they delayed and delayed; finally it happened. Then they asked for another medical certificate to say whether the water and the land are such that people can live there.

    There is no law against it, but these are tricks and strategies. They can't say no, they don't want to say yes.

    We inquired. All the authorities said that this has never happened before. Nobody ever asks about the water and the land and the climate--but if they are asking then we have to fulfill their requirements. So the paper work goes on and on.

    Now we have managed that. The land is barren, no cultivation has ever been done on it. But in their files it is mentioned as agricultural land. Now they have created some new trouble: we cannot construct on agricultural land; first we have to produce a certificate stating that it is non-agricultural land. Nobody has ever done any agriculture there; we took the officers to see, it is barren land, anybody can come and see--rocky, barren, absolutely useless. But they say that because in the file...

    So first we have to apply to transfer the land from agricultural to non-agricultural. That is taking time; now they are delaying that. This could be done easily, within a single day-- that is how it is done. Four months have passed: all the officials have been ordered to delay as long as they can. And when they cannot delay any more and it becomes a legal problem over which we could go to court--"Now you are delaying us too much"--then that officer simply sends the file to a higher official. He says, "Because it is such a complicated phenomenon and a political issue, and your master is a controversial man; and I am such a small official, I cannot decide it. Go higher."

    Now the whole process starts again with the higher official. It was to be done by the Tahsildar, the lowest. It moved to the S.D.O. Now the S.D.O. has taken his time; now his time is finished and it has moved to the collector. And the people in the collector's office say that it is going to move to the commissioner. And the commissioner is very friendly, he says it is beyond his power to do it: "You will have to ask the revenue minister of Maharashtra."

    Now the revenue minister says, "Your master is so controversial that I cannot take the risk of deciding anything, for or against, because there will be political repercussions from it. And I don't want to lose my chair, so you had better decide with the chief minister." And he said, "Even the chief minister cannot decide on his own; he will have to ask the whole cabinet."

    And my feeling is that they will say, "This cannot be decided by the Maharashtra government, it has to be decided by the central government in Delhi."

    And I am not only a nationally controversial figure, I am an internationally controversial figure. So my fear is that this will have to be decided by U.N.O.! So now as to when it will be decided, nothing can be said. These are delaying tactics and strategies. If they say no they can be caught immediately, because it is illegal to say no. But they don't say no.

    I can understand your anxiety, your problem. That is the anxiety of every sannyasin. It is becoming so difficult here, the space is so small. And thousands and thousands more are going to come: I have given the invitation to them, they are on the way.

    Even this land we are sitting on: we have been here for five years, and have still not yet legalized it. We are already here, they cannot throw us out, but they have not legalized it. We don't have the papers with us, the papers are with the government. They go on saying, "We are going to do it, we are going to do it"--but it never happens.

    This is how Morarji Desai is behaving, in a fascist way--but very legally; you cannot find any legal flaw....

    But if because of his personal disagreement he obstructs my work in such cunning and vicarious ways, then he is destroying democracy from the very roots. And then independence is simply a slogan, not a reality.

    I have not yet thought of leaving this country. But if this continues and the work becomes impossible, I will have to leave this country. And they should know perfectly well that once I leave this country it will prove to the whole world that this country only claims to be a democracy--it is not. And my leaving the country will not be only a single individual leaving: thousands will leave with me. That will show the whole world that the Indian claim of being the greatest democracy in the world is just hocus pocus.

    If I decide any day to leave this country--which they are forcing me to decide--that will be a calamity. Because my millions of sannyasins all around the world will become the living proof that this country is not independent, and this country is not democratic either.

    Thirty years ago, when India became independent, Winston Churchill said in the British parliament: "What we are doing is not right. Although it is every human being's birthright to be free, to give freedom to India is not right, because the time is not ripe. And within thirty years it will fall a victim to rogues, scoundrels and thugs."

    And I wonder--thirty years have passed: it seems Churchill's prophecy has come true. unio204

    One government officer, one S.D.O. had come to investigate the morality of my sannyasins, and Sheela was showing him around the ashram. When he found that Sheela and he were alone he asked Sheela, "Can I kiss you?" And he had come to investigate the

    morality of the ashram! And because Sheela reacted and shouted at him he had written a very nasty and wrong report about the ashram, and he has been one of the causes that we could not get the Saswad land for the commune. He created every possible trouble. And he was sending messages that "If Sheela comes to me, then I will help you!"

    Now these are the people...! Buddha had to work with these people, and Jesus, and Mahavira. They can be forgiven. They wanted to help man and woman both, but the trouble was the society. ithat08

    While Morarji Desai was prime minister*, he was phoning almost three times a week to the chief minister of Maharashtra, early in the morning, at six o'clock, saying "Do something--Osho's work should be stopped; his ashram should be somehow destroyed. Create legal problems--do anything that you can."

    This was reported to me by the chief minister himself: "What can I do? Three, four times every week, at six o'clock, I hear the phone. I know it is about you and your ashram. Whether he sleeps or not, whether he goes on the whole night thinking about you and your ashram It seems that if your ashram is destroyed, India will have no problems at all; you are the only problem."

    He created as many problems as possible. zara103

    *Note: Morarji Desai was Prime Minister from August 1977 to January 1980

    In fact, in Poona our commune attracted thousands of people from the world, and the government of Maharashtra would not allow me to leave Poona and move the commune to another place in India. They forced the central government that I should not be allowed to purchase any quantity of land anywhere, because "If these people move, then our whole tourism will flop." And that's what happened. When we moved, their whole tourism simply flopped. We were bringing in so much money to them, and we had made such a beautiful place that every day thousands of people were coming just to see the place. last226

    A journalist asks: There are reports that the Poona ashram owes the government something like 1.5 crores of rupees in unpaid taxes. Is this true? Are your tax hassles over, or has there been some kind of understanding with the government?

    Two things. One: those taxes have nothing to do with me because I have never been a part of any commune. And I don't have any post in the commune so any income tax or anything has nothing to do with me. I have always been a guest in every commune. I am not even a member. So there is no question of me being arrested.

    Secondly, those 1.5 crore--that is the creation of Morarji Desai. Morarji Desai has been against me for as long as I remember, for the simple reason that I am against Gandhism and he thinks he is the successor of Gandhi. He wants to be Mahatma Morarji Desai....

    When he became prime minister he immediately took away the tax-exempt status of the ashram in Poona. That created the trouble. Once the tax-exempt status was taken away, then income tax started arising. The Poona commune has been fighting for tax-exempt status, but as time goes on the income tax goes on growing. It is a legal matter, and it will be solved--it has nothing to do with me. last412

    Morarji Desai has been against me all along. The conflict has continued at least for fifteen years, but because he was not in power, he could not do a thing. Now he is in power, so the fascist in him surfaces....

    He said, somewhere, just a few days before, that he is willing to appoint a commission to inquire into the activities of my ashram, of this commune, but he said, "That is not going to profit Rajneesh and his work." Now what kind of commission will this be if he has already decided that that is not going to profit the ashram? A commission means an open inquiry. If the decision has already been taken, if he has already concluded that this is not going to help my work, that this is going to harm my work, what kind of inquiry will this be?

    That's what he is doing with other people, with Indira. He has already decided, and then a commission is made. The commission only goes through empty gestures; the conclusion has already been reached. The commission has only to make a show that justice is being done.

    This is not the way of a democratic person. This is the way of a fascist. secret10

    You say: The Navabharat Times of October 13th carried a news item from Surat, Gujarat, according, to which the Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, said that he had read the book From Sex to Superconsciousness by Acharya Rajneesh and found it indecent and distasteful.

    Shree Morarji Desai is a very repressed person as far as sex is concerned. Now, this seems very strange. My discourses have been collected in two hundred books, books on Vedanta, books on Tao, books on Yoga, books on Sufism, books on the Upanishadas, books on the Geeta, the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, but he has been reading only one book-- From Sex to Superconsciousness. An eighty-three-year-old man, has remained celibate for almost fifty years, why should he be interested in the book From Sex to Superconsciousness? Certainly he is not interested in superconsciousness, because I have written two hundred books on superconsciousness. His interest seems to be sex. That's how it happens. secret04

    The Australian TV was coming to film the ashram, they were stopped. The BBC people had come, they had filmed half, and now they have been stopped by the government and they cannot film. And people call this the greatest democracy in the world.

    Journalists are being prevented from coming here--the world should not know what is happening here, people should not come here. But the reason is clear, obvious. The

    reason is: whatsoever they have been thinking is religion, I say is not religion. In fact, what they say is religion is exactly anti-religion.

    I am teaching you a new religion, a new dispensation, new in the sense that the priests have not allowed you to see it up to now--old and the ancientmost in another sense, because those who have awakened have always taught the same. easy203

    Osho in the World Press

    A sensation in the press precipitates Osho into the world news. In October 1978, Osho responds:

    One German film actress (Eva Renzi) had come to India to my commune there. Her image in Germany was falling down; she was getting fewer and fewer films to work in. She wanted some attention so she could again become a great star.

    She came to my commune, She did a few groups, meditated, and then suddenly--not saying anything to anybody--she disappeared. And while leaving Bombay airport, she gave a press conference in which everything that she said was a lie: that she has been beaten, she has been raped, that they were going to kill her; somehow she has escaped. In Germany, she became again a great famous star.

    Her husband wrote a letter to me. I want you to know what was in that letter. Her husband wrote, "I don't believe what my wife is talking about, because every day she goes on adding more and more against you and your commune. I don't believe that any such thing has happened to her. If it had happened, she should have gone to the police department nearest to your commune. There was no need to go to Bombay, one hundred miles away, give the press conference and get into her plane."

    But he said, "I don't believe any of these things have happened, but if they have happened I am immensely pleased, because this is what I have always wanted to do to her but I could not gather courage. She is a bitch!"

    What kind of life are people living if the husband carries such ideas about his own wife? And the wife must be doing things to him; otherwise, why should he carry these ideas in his mind? dless10

    This is part of the human mind: anything written and people believe it. The written or the printed word has a hypnotic power over people. I say something: if it goes against your scripture you come immediately to me to say that it is not written in the Bible--as if just by writing something it becomes true. If it is not written in the Bible, so what? So it is not written in the Bible! Improve upon the Bible--write it. At least you can write it in your own copy.

    But people believe the written word very much; it is almost hypnotic. That's why you can go on believing even stupid newspapers, because a printed thing, a written thing?--then it must be true. All kinds of falsities and lies go on being circulated.

    Just the other day I was reading one German newspaper. It says I have two wives, one Indian, one Western. Looks very relevant...because that's why I say "the meeting of the East and the West"! And the more amazing thing is that the picture that he has chosen to show of my two wives--one of them is Shiva! Shiva has long hairs; he is standing with his back towards the camera, so he is my Indian wife! It is really nice of these people....

    The other newspaper I was reading has written that I fly in a helicopter. I liked it. I never leave my room...and I fly in helicopters? True, I fly, but I fly without helicopters! And even a greater discovery is there--that I eat only eggs, meat, lobsters, and nothing else! Now millions of people in Germany will believe it: a written thing is a written thing after all.

    Another newspaper has a report that the reporter came to the ashram early in the morning, at five-thirty. He knocked on the door. A naked, utterly beautiful woman opened the door, hugged him, welcomed him, "Come in," plucked a fruit from this tree--looked like an apple--gave the fruit to the reporter, and told the reporter, "Eat it. It rejuvenates sexual energy."

    And you will be surprised--letters have started arriving. One man writes from Austria: "I am sixty and I have a young wife. Please, Osho, be kind to me. I can come to India. I have heard that in India things like that happen. Can you give me that fruit?"

    It is believed, and all kinds of rubbish, all kinds of falsities and lies go on being written. And many believe. secret11

    From Germany my friends have written that you should be alert, because so much of this kind of false information is spreading here, its effect will be that all kinds of mentally ill people, psychological insane people will start reaching the ashram. death10

    A journalist asks: You are still regarded as the guru of free sex in many parts of the world. Is that a misnomer? It is simply a misnomer; I have never been a guru of sex. On the contrary, I am the only person in the whole world who has been trying to transform people's sexual energy into spiritual energy. I am against repression because repression of sexual energy means there is no chance of spiritual growth.

    The people who have been with me have become less and less sexual, and have become more and more spiritual. Those who have been with me longer have lost all interest in sex.

    If you want to call me something, I am the guru who is absolutely anti-sex. But you know third-rate journalism which thrives on sensationalism--they created the misnomer. last408

    Strange things they go on saying--and not only saying, but believing. And now it is not only in India that they are saying hard words about me, it is almost all over the world.

    Just yesterday I received an article published in London. They say that I brainwash people here and when their brains are washed away completely, then the men are sent for smuggling jobs and the women are sent for prostitution. That's what I am doing to you, so beware! Once your brain is washed completely these two alternatives are left. And the man who writes it, writes it with great confidence as if he knows.

    Just the other day I received a news from Bombay. A sannyasin has come across a few photographs in a studio. The sannyasin could see in the pictures somebody who looks like me. At the first glance he was shocked; when he looked closely then he could see that it was somebody else, but with some similarity. Now, they have bribed this man to be naked among naked women, and they have taken his pictures, and now they are going to publish them all over the world. Great idea! I really loved it. Some imagination.

    But this is how they have been doing always. And I am not saying that they do it knowingly. No, they may be thinking that they are serving humanity, they are making people aware of the danger that I am. They may have every good intention behind all these things; that makes it more complex. They are simply servants of humanity. dh0903

    Just the other day, I was reading a report in the Indian Express. Their journalist had come here for just two or three days. He writes in his report that thousands of people were sitting so silently that you could hear the birds chirping in the trees. They were so silent, it was as if there was nobody there.

    And what is his conclusion? He thought it was all managed, that it was a performance. He thought it was a performance to impress the poor journalist from the Indian Express! He could not believe it, because he knows Indians, and he knows Indian meetings. That Indian journalist must have seen many many such meetings. So, seeing three thousand people sitting silently here, nobody stirring, nobody talking with each other, it was natural to conclude that it was just to impress him.

    When I was leaving that day, I saw two persons sitting here who looked absolutely out of place. And when I bowed down to you, they did not respond. Now, if many such people are here around me, nonresponsive, I will not be able to pour out my heart; it will be impossible. wisdom06

    A small anecdote:

    A little boy and his father are in front of the lion's cage at the zoo. Suddenly the little boy comes too close to the cage and the lion is almost on the boy.

    A man standing by with a swift movement grabs the boy and saves him.

    A journalist happens to be among the crowd, so he decides to write an article about the man's courageous act. Among other questions he asks him, "What religion do you belong to?"

    "I am agnostic," replies the man.

    The next day the newspaper carries the following headline: "Pinko Commie snatches lunch from hungry African immigrant." ggate209

    Perhaps Satyananda is here. He came as a journalist from Stern magazine in Germany. He was one of their topmost journalists, but he wanted to feel it--the meditations, the groups, silent sittings with me, discourses...he remained there for a few weeks. He wanted an inside story, not just a story from an outsider. He collected so much material and he was so happy when he went...before leaving he became a sannyasin, too. But as he reached the Stern office they started laughing. They said, "He is completely hypnotized! Look at his red clothes, mala...he is not the man we sent."

    When they saw his report they simply said, "Not a single word from this report can be published. You have been brainwashed, you don't know what you are writing. You are under hypnosis, you are being used as a medium; you don't know what you are doing."

    He said, "What nonsense are you talking? I have not been hypnotized."

    But what can he do? The report belongs to Stern, not to the writer. The writer is paid for it.

    He went on struggling, negotiating--"This much you can cut...this much you can cut. " And finally only one sixth remained. They distorted his whole beautiful article.

    But he was disillusioned completely--this freedom of expression, all these democratic values are just words. He resigned his position on the grounds that they had been printing things which were not true, and because they had inserted whatever they wanted into his article.

    He told them, "I cannot serve here like a slave anymore. You have not purchased my mind."

    He wrote a book, which became a best seller in Germany. He came back to live in India, and then he was in America with me. sermon11

    Rich Man's Guru Accusation

    Just a few days ago I told Laxmi to purchase the most costly car possible in the country. One thing good about Laxmi: she never asks why. She purchased it. It worked--it was a device. Laxmi was knocking on the doors of the banks to get money for the new commune. We need much money; nearabout five crore rupees will be needed. Who is going to lend that much money to me? The day she purchased the car, seeing that we have the money, banks started coming to her office, offering, "Take as much money as you want." Now she is puzzled: from whom to take? Everybody wants to give on better terms, and they are after her.

    I have been working in India for twenty years continuously. Thousands of people have been transformed, millions have listened to me and many more have been reading what I am saying, but the Times of India, the most conventional newspaper of India, still the most British, has not published a single article about me or my work. But the day Laxmi purchased the car there was a big article--on the car, not on me!

    Now they are all interested. The news of the car has been published all over the country, in all the newspapers, in all the languages. Now what kind of people are these? Their interest is not in me, not in meditation, not in the thousands of people who are meditating here. They are completely unaware of what is happening here, but they became interested in the car.

    They come here. Many people come to the office not to see me or to see you: they inquire, "Can we see the car?" Laxmi says to them, "You can come to the early morning discourse, and you can see the car too." And poor fellows--they have to come and listen for ninety minutes just to see the car. What a torture! And these are rich people, educated people. Can you think of a more materialistic country?

    And they are very worried, and editorials have been written on the car: they ask, "Why? Why can't you live a simple life?" My life is absolutely simple: so simple really, that I am always satisfied with the best kinds of things. It is absolutely simple. What more simplicity is possible? In a single sentence it can be said: the best kinds of things. There is no complexity about it. I like quality. I'm not interested in how much it costs but in the quality. I like quality in people, not quantity. I like quality in everything, not quantity. We could have purchased thirty Indian cars instead of this one, but that would have been quantity--and even thirty wouldn't have been of any use.

    But their puzzle, why they can't understand it, is that they pretend to be religious, but deep down their whole obsession is materialistic. They carry a hypocrisy, and to fulfill their hypocrisy the whole Indian religious world has to compromise. If somebody wants to become a saint he has to live in utter poverty. It is almost a kind of masochism; he has to torture himself. The more he tortures himself, the more people think he is religious: "See how religiously he is living!"

    To live religiously means to live joyously. To live religiously means to live meditatively. To live religiously means to live this world as a gift of God, but their minds are obsessed

    and they can't understand. Once the purpose of the car is served, it will be gone. The purpose is almost served, but it can show you.

    I can even come in a bullock cart. It would be even more colorful, and I would enjoy the ride more.

    They come here and they look, and their whole point is "Why such a beautiful ashram?" They want something dirty, shabby, a sloppy place, and then it is an ashram. They cannot believe that the ashram can be clean, beautiful, with trees and flowers, and comfortable. They cannot believe it. And not that they don't want comfort for themselves; they are hankering for it. They are, in fact, jealous. The Indian mind has become materialistic, grossly materialistic.

    A spiritual mind makes no distinctions between matter and spirit; it is undivided. The whole existence is one: that is the spiritual mind. The materialist, even if he loves a woman, reduces her to a thing. Then who is a spiritualist? A spiritualist is a person who, even if he touches a thing, transforms it into a person.

    You will be surprised by my definition. A spiritual person is one who, even if he drives a car, the car becomes a person. He feels for the car, he listens for its humming sound. He has all affection and care for it. Even a thing starts becoming a person, alive; he has communion with the thing too. And a materialistic person is one who, even if he loves a man or a woman, a person, immediately reduces them into a thing. The woman becomes a wife--the wife is a thing. The man becomes a husband--the husband is a thing, an institution. And all institutions are ugly, dead. sos204

    I receive every day hundreds of letters saying "If you are really a Bhagwan then you should open hospitals, schools, houses for the poor, for orphans, for widows." But nobody asked Buddha, nobody asked Krishna, nobody asked Mahavira, how many hospitals they had opened and how many schools they had opened. All that we asked them was whether they have achieved blissfulness. If they have achieved that, then all is achieved. Then their very presence is a healing force, then their very presence is educative, then their very presence is nectar. Then their very presence gives eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf and tongues to the dumb and hearts to the dead--their very presence!

    But Christianity has contaminated the whole world. Now even Hindus think that Mother Teresa is a real saint. Jainas think, Buddhists think, that unless you serve the poor, unless you serve the old, you are not a really religious person.

    The East has defined the religious person in a totally different way and I insist that the East is right, Christianity is wrong. First one has to become blissful oneself, then only can one share. ultima08

    Just the other day, somebody asked, "Beloved Master, are you not a hypocrite? Because you live comfortably, you live in a beautiful house, you move in a beautiful car, you live like a king."

    Now, he does not understand what the word 'hypocrisy' means. This is my whole teaching--to live as beautifully as possible. I am not a hypocrite. In fact I am living the way I am teaching. If I was teaching to live in poverty, and I was living in a palace, that would be hypocrisy. But I am not teaching to live in poverty; poverty is not my goal.

    You can go and tell Morarji Desai that he is a hypocrite. Or tell Sanjiva Reddy, the president of this country, "You are a hypocrite." You cannot say that to me. You can say to the president, Sanjiva Reddy, "You are a hypocrite, because you teach Gandhiism and you still go on eating meat. You talk about nonviolence and you go on eating meat! This is hypocrisy--pure hypocrisy, unpolluted hypocrisy!"

    But you cannot say that to Jesus. He eats meat, but he has never propounded vegetarianism; he has never talked about that kind of nonviolence. You cannot tell him that he is a hypocrite. Jesus drinks wine you cannot tell him that he is a hypocrite, unless he teaches otherwise.

    My whole approach towards life is that of total acceptance, is that of celebration, not of renunciation. How can you tell me that I am a hypocrite? I may be the only person on this earth who is not a hypocrite, because I have no ideals.

    The first necessity for the hypocrite is to have ideals. I have none; I am a nonidealist. I live naturally--and it is very natural to live in comfort and convenience. It is simply stupid, if comfort is available, not to live in it. If it is not available, that is another thing. Then whatsoever is available, live in it comfortably, manage to live in it comfortably.

    I have lived in many kinds of situations but I have always lived comfortably. When I was a student I used to walk to the university, four miles every day. But I loved it. I walked those four miles every day with great comfort; I enjoyed it. When I was a teacher I used to go on a bicycle to the university; I enjoyed that too.

    Whatsoever has been the situation, whether I have had only a bicycle or a Mercedes Benz, it doesn't make any difference: I have lived in comfort. Comfort is an attitude of mind, it is an approach towards life. I have lived in very very poor houses. When I became a teacher in a university, I started living in one single room with no windows, no ventilation. The rent was just twenty rupees per month. But I loved it, I enjoyed it, it was not a problem at all.

    Whatsoever the moment allows, I have squeezed the moment to its totality. I have drunk fully of the moment, I have never repented and I have never desired for something else; if something else started happening I enjoyed that too.

    You can never say to me that I am a hypocrite. It is impossible for me to be a hypocrite, because I have no ideals to fulfill, no oughts, no shoulds. The 'is' is all that is, and I live in it. unio108

    You ask: Are you not a rich man's guru?

    I am--because only a rich man can come to me. But when I say 'a rich man' I mean one who is very poor inside. When I say 'a rich man' I mean one who is rich in intelligence; I mean one who has got everything that the world can give to him, and has found that it is futile.

    Yes, only a rich person can become religious. I am not saying that a poor person cannot become religious, but it is very rare, exceptional. A poor person goes on hoping. A poor person has not known what riches are. He is not yet frustrated with it. How can he go beyond riches if he is not frustrated with them? A poor man also sometimes comes to me, but then he comes for something which I cannot supply. He asks for success. His son is not getting employed; he asks, "Bless him, Bhagwan." His wife is ill, or he is losing money in his business. These are symptoms of a poor man, one who is asking about things of this world.

    When a rich person comes to me, he has money, he has employment, he has a house, he has health--he has everything that one can have. And suddenly he has come to a realisation that nothing is fulfilling. Then the search for God starts.

    Yes, sometimes a poor man can also be religious, but for that very great intelligence is needed. A rich man, if he is not religious, is stupid. A poor man, if he is religious, is tremendously intelligent. if a poor man is not religious, he has to be forgiven. If a rich man is not religious, his sin is unpardonable.

    I am a rich man's guru. Absolutely it is so....

    If it were not for your money, you would not have been here. You are here because you are frustrated with your money. You are here because you are frustrated with your success. You are here because you are frustrated with your life. A beggar cannot come because he is not yet frustrated.

    Religion is luxury--the last, ultimate luxury I call it, because it is the highest value. When a man is hungry, he does not bother about music, cannot. And if you start playing sitar before him, he will kill you. He will say, "You are insulting me! I am hungry and you are playing sitar--is this the time to play sitar? Feed me first! And I am so hungry I cannot understand music. I am dying!" When a man is dying of hunger, what use is a Van Gogh painting? or a Buddha's sermon? or beautiful Upanishads, or music?--meaningless. He needs bread.

    When a man is happy with his body, has enough to eat, has a good house to live in, he starts becoming interested in music, poetry, literature, painting, art. Now a new hunger

    arises. The bodily needs are fulfilled, now psychological needs arise. There is a hierarchy in needs: the first is the body; it is the base, it is the ground-floor of your being. Without the ground-floor, the first storey cannot exist.

    When your bodily needs are fulfilled, psychological needs arise. When your psychological needs are also fulfilled, then your spiritual needs arise. When a person has listened to all the music that is available in the world, and has seen all the beauty, and has found that it is all dream; has listened to all the great poets, and has found that it is just a way to forget yourself, just a way to intoxicate yourself, but it does not lead you anywhere; has seen all the paintings and the great art--amusing, entertaining, but then what...? Then hands remain empty, more empty than they ever were before. Then music and poetry are not enough. Then the desire to meditate, the desire to pray, a hunger for God, a hunger for truth arises. A great passion takes possession of you and you are in search of truth, because you now know: unless you know what the secretmost truth of this existence is, nothing can satisfy. All else you have tried and it has failed.

    Religion is the ultimate luxury. Either you have to be very rich to come to this luxury, or you have to be tremendously intelligent. But in both the cases you are rich--rich with money or rich with intelligence. I have never seen a person who is really poor--poor in intelligence, poor in riches--ever become religious.

    Kabir becomes religious. He was not a millionaire, but he was tremendously intelligent. Buddha became religious because he was tremendously rich. Krishna and Ram and Mahavir became religious because they were tremendously rich. Dadu, Raidas, Farid, they became religious because they were tremendously intelligent. But a certain sort of richness is needed.

    Yes, you are right: I am the rich man's guru. trans310

    Osho comments on the Jonestown Massacre

    In December 1978, Osho speaks about the recent Jonestown massacre. American Christians, Reverend Jim Jones and his followers in Jonestown, Guyana, committed suicide or were massacred*.

    *Note: Later a book implicates the CIA, as Jones' group was in the process of defecting from the USA to the USSR

    Reverend Jones was able to kill nine hundred people, innocent people, for a simple reason: he was training them for death. You will be surprised to know that in Jonestown, lovemaking among the members of the sect was not allowed. Celibacy was enforced. There were hard strict rules: the people were not allowed to go outside the commune, no contact with outsiders was allowed. They were living in isolation, they were all ascetics.

    And it is because of this asceticism that they were ready to commit suicide. Now people are searching for the causes. Somebody thinks that he hypnotized people, somebody thinks something else--a thousand and one reasons are being found. The simple reason is, he diverted their eros--that's all. And eros can be diverted very easily....

    I am against ascetic attitudes, because they are ill attitudes, unhealthy, unwholesome. I am all for eros, I am all for life--because life is the temple of God, the only temple. And eros is the only way God is expressed in the world.

    If you move totally into eros, into love of life, into life-affirmation, into rejoicing, you will find, deep down hidden in life, God himself. Life is his manifestation; he is the hidden source of it. Don't go away from life--going away is going away from God. Hence my sannyasins are not to renounce but to rejoice.

    Now people have asked me a few questions: "Can the same thing happen here as happened in Reverend Jones' commune?"

    This will be the last place in the world where it could happen, because I teach you love, I teach you life. My whole effort is to make your energy move through life totally--nothing is left. And if you move totally through life, death disappears. Even when you die, you will not see that death is happening to you--you will see only that you are changing your abode, you are changing your garments. You are on an eternal pilgrimage.

    I teach you life, I teach you abundant life. This cannot happen here--I am not teaching you suicide. It can happen in any ascetic society, in any ascetic commune. But my commune is not ascetic at all. That's why Christians are against it, and Hindus are against it, and Jainas are against it, and Mohammedans are against it, and everybody is against it- -because they are all death-oriented. And my love is unconditionally for life.

    I teach you to love and to live. Death is impossible here--what to say of suicide? Even death is impossible here. If you die the way I am teaching you, if you live the way I am teaching you, you will never know death. Even dying, you will know that the flame goes on burning forever. unio202

    Just the other day I received a letter from Canada saying that the Canadian government is becoming concerned, very much concerned, about my sannyasins and the people coming to me from Canada. And they are seriously inquiring into the whole phenomenon, because they are afraid that my commune may turn into another Jonestown. Now, I feel happy, because when governments become concerned that means something is happening. When a faraway country becomes so much concerned that they are thinking of sending a team to investigate the whole phenomenon, that mean things are on the way, that I am becoming some kind of disturbance to them. I must be popping up in their dreams.

    And on what grounds are they becoming so much afraid? Because one American sannyasin committed suicide, another American sannyasin went mad. These two

    instances are enough. Now, Americans are all mad! And have you seen an American who has never pondered the possibility of committing suicide? The psychologists say that every American, at least four times in his life, thinks of committing suicide. The greatest rate of suicide is in America.

    Out of one hundred thousand sannyasins, one sannyasin commits suicide--that is enough! And that too an American sannyasin. What else were you expecting from an American sannyasin? Another American goes mad. it is absolutely normal! But the negative catches our attention immediately. How many Americans have gone sane, nobody bothers. And how many Americans have been prevented from committing suicide, nobody counts. They will never be counted. dh0102

    Now my sannyasins are in great trouble all over the world. Just a few days ago many letters have come that in Australia, the school, college, university authorities are very much disturbed by my orange-people, because many teachers, many professors, have become sannyasins. And a problem is being created by the parents and their leagues. The problem is being created that these orange people and their presence may corrupt their children, so the parents are against them. The Catholic priest comes in his robe; he is accepted, he does not corrupt. But my sannyasins, just because they are coming in orange robes, can be a dangerous influence.

    Anybody who is not behaving like you, not living like you, is hated. This is your experience in Poona too. The people are not really in any way harmed by you--my sannyasins are the most harmless people you can find anywhere--but people are against you just because you look different. bestil10

    One woman from America has written to Morarji Desai that her daughter is caught by an Indian Master, hypnotized. 'Save my daughter, send her back to me.' The papers have not said who this man is who has hypnotized her, the possibility is that it must be me. And the daughter must be here. Where else?

    Now parents are forming associations, societies, groups, to protect their children from getting into any Eastern trip. They are more afraid of meditation than drugs. In America there now exists an organization of parents to kidnap their children if they become meditators. And then those children have to be given to deprogrammers, to psychoanalysts, to deprogramme them--a kind of mindwash. This is illegal. And one psychoanalyst has been sent to jail in California for deprogramming, because he was too enthusiastic. At first parents were giving him the authority to kidnap their children, then he started on his own. Not even a parent has the authority to kidnap the child--once the child is of age no parent has the authority. But maybe they can manage it. They have lobbies in the parliament. They can manage it, because the judge is also a parent, a father, and the police and the lawyers--all are parents; they can manage, they can enforce it.

    But the psychoanalyst became a missionary on his own; he started kidnapping. He had an organization of kidnappers and he started mindwashing programmes--he called them 'de- programming'--so that a person becomes anti-meditation, anti-East, and falls back into

    the old fold. If he is a Catholic, then he becomes a Catholic and goes to the church; if he is a Protestant, then he becomes a Protestant and reads the Bible.

    These people are afraid--not only now, they have always been afraid. Buddha's story is just a logical extreme. Parents are afraid their children may renounce the world, that is the eternal truth in it. sos116

    It is not only that the Indian government is afraid of me. It is so absurd that other governments of other countries are becoming afraid. Now here are German agents from the German government, watching what is happening. Now the Indian government is afraid of why German spies are here! Now Indian spies are following the German spies: there must be something, otherwise why should Germany be interested in me? And soon other spies will be coming!

    And this is a place where nothing is happening for anybody. They're all fools! German, Indian, et cetera, they're all fools. They are unnecessarily wasting their time.

    But I am not saying don't send your spies. Go on sending. A few of them are bound to become sannyasins! A few of them have already become!

    Just the other day I received a letter from a very well-known professor in Germany just to inform me that the Protestant Church of Germany has sent spies here. Now they are becoming afraid because Christians are becoming sannyasins. That is dangerous.

    You will soon see all kinds of spies here. Be very loving to them, and help them to know as much as they can know about me. A few of them are bound to become sannyasins, and that will shock their governments and their churches very much.

    From a very reliable source in New Delhi, I have just received information that Eva Renzi was here as a German government spy. Now, this is what Indian spies have discovered! You see the paranoia? You ask me, "Why do politicians go on misunderstanding you?" To understand me, a little intelligence is also needed. secret20

    Discourses

    In November and December 1978, Osho introduces Hakim Sanai's Hadiqa or Garden

    Hakim Sanai: this name is as sweet to me as honey, as sweet as nectar. Hakim Sanai is unique, unique in the world of Sufism. No other Sufi has been able to reach to such heights of expression and such depths of penetration. Hakim Sanai has been able to do almost the impossible.

    If I were to save only two books from the whole world of the mystics, then these would be the two books. One would be from the world of Zen, the path of awareness: Sosan's Hsin Hsin Ming. I have spoken on it; it contains the quintessence of Zen, of the path of awareness and meditation. The other book would be Hakim Sanai's Hadiqatu'l Haqiqat: The Walled Garden of Truth--in short, The Hadiqa: The Garden. This is the book we are entering today.

    The Hadiqa is the essential fragrance of the path of love. Just as Sosan has been able to catch the very soul of Zen, Hakim Sanai has been able to catch the very soul of Sufism. Such books are not written, they are born. Nobody can compose them. They are not manufactured in the mind, by the mind; they come from the beyond. They are a gift. They are born as mysteriously as a child is born, or a bird or a rose flower. They come to us, they are gifts.

    So first we will enter into the mysterious birth of this great book The Hadiqa: The Garden. The story is tremendously beautiful....

    (Hakim Sanai meets a madman, Lai-Khur, who admonishes his hypocrisy yet prophesies a great destiny for him. Hakim Sanai experiences a satori...)

    So he went to Mecca on a pilgrimage, to meditate, to be silent, to be a pilgrim unknown to anybody, to be anonymous. The thing had happened, but it had to be absorbed. The light had happened, but one has to get accustomed to it.

    And when he became accustomed to the new gestalt, to the new vision, he came back to Lai-Khur and presented him this book, The Hadiqa. That's what he wrote on the way back from Mecca.

    He poured his experience, his satori, into this book. These words are saturated with satori. This is how this great book was born, like a child is born, mysteriously; like a seed becomes a sprout, mysteriously; like a bird comes out of the egg, mysteriously. Like a bud opens early in the morning and becomes a flower, and the fragrance is spread to the winds.

    Yes, this book was not written. This book is a gift from God. This book is a gift from God, and a gratitude from Hakim Sanai to that strange madman, Lai-Khur. unio101

    In December Osho talks on Pythagoras' Golden Verses

    Pythagoras represents the eternal pilgrim for philosophia perennis--the perennial philosophy of life. He is a seeker of truth par excellence. He staked all that he had for the search. He travelled far and wide, almost the whole known world of those days, in search of the Masters, of the mystery schools, of any hidden secrets. From Greece he went to Egypt--in search of the lost Atlantis and its secrets....

    It was a great effort in those days, to travel from Greece to China. It was full of dangers. The journey was hazardous; it was not easy as it is today....

    By the time Pythagoras came back, he was a very old man. But seekers gathered around him; a great school was born. And, as it always happens, the society started persecuting him and his school and his disciples. His whole life he searched for the perennial philosophy, and he had found it! He gathered all the fragments into a tremendous harmony, into a great unity. But he was not allowed to work it out in detail; to teach people he was not allowed.

    He was persecuted from one place to another. Many attempts were made on his life. It was almost impossible for him to teach all that he had gathered. And his treasure was immense--in fact, nobody else has ever had such a treasure as he had. But this is how foolish humanity is, and has always been. This man had done something impossible: he had bridged East and West. He was the first bridge. He had come to know the Eastern mind as deeply as the Western mind....

    But his whole life's effort was destroyed by the stupid people, by the mediocre masses. These few verses are the only contribution left. These verses can be written on one postcard. This is all that is left of that great man's effort, endeavour. And this too is not written by his own hand; it seems all that he had written was destroyed.

    The day Pythagoras died, thousands of his disciples were massacred and burnt. Only one disciple escaped the school; his name was Lysis. And he escaped, not to save his life--he escaped just to save something of the Master's teachings. These Golden Verses of Pythagoras were written by Lysis, the only disciple who survived.

    The whole school was burnt, and thousands of disciples were simply murdered and butchered. And all that Pythagoras had accumulated on his journeys--great treasures, great scriptures from China, India, Tibet, Egypt, years and years of work--all was burnt.

    Lysis wrote these few verses. And, as it has been the ancient tradition that a real disciple knows no other name than his Master's, these verses are not called Lysis' Verses--they are called The Golden Verses of Pythagoras. He has not written his name on them....

    If we can learn something from the past history, if we can learn something from Pythagoras. People could not use Pythagoras and his understanding, they could not use his great synthesis, they could not use the doors that he had made available. A single individual had done something immense, something impossible, but it was not used.

    I am trying to do exactly the same again; I feel a very deep spiritual affinity with Pythagoras. I am also bringing you a synthesis of East and West, of science and religion, of intellect and intuition, of the male mind and the female mind, of the head and the heart, of the right and the left. I am also trying in every possible way to create a great harmony, because only that harmony can save. Only that harmony can give you a new birth.

    But there is every possibility that what was done to Pythagoras will be done to me. And there is every possibility what was done to Pythagoras' followers will be done to my sannyasins. But still, even knowing that possibility, the effort has to be made again. Because this is a valuable time. It comes only once in twenty-five centuries when the wheel can move in a new way, can take a new direction.

    You all have to risk, and you have to risk all that you have. And risk it with great joy! because what can be more joyous than to give birth to a new man, to become vehicles for a new man, for a new humanity?...

    My sannyasins can become an energy womb, an energy field. A great synthesis is happening here. East and West are meeting here. And if we can make this impossible thing happen, man will live in a totally different way in the future. He will not need to live in the same old hell. Man can live in love, in peace. Man can live in great friendliness. Man can live a life which is nothing but a celebration. Man can make this earth divine.

    Yes: this very earth can become the paradise and this very body the Buddha. peren101

    Pythagoras says: Revere the memory of the Illustrious Heroes...

    ...of Buddha, of Lao Tzu, of Krishna, of Christ, of Moses, of Mohammed, of Mahavira. Remember! That's why I am talking on so many Masters: so you can remember that you are not alone on the path. Many have succeeded before you. You will also succeed. If so many have succeeded, why not you? Many have preceded you and reached. You are not moving alone; many are ahead of you. It is a long procession of truth-seekers. You are part of a great chain. You may be a small drop, but you are part of a great river--the river of Buddhas, of all the enlightened people of the world.

    That's why I am talking about so many enlightened people: to give you courage, to give you confidence; to give you the sense that you are in a great chain, part of a golden chain, and you are not moving alone. There is no need to be afraid. You cannot be lost! peren101

    New Phase in Osho’s work: Energy Darshans

    In February 1979, Osho announces he will not wait to move to the new commune; he will start a new phase with energy darshans. Up to 200 people are present in evening darshans. Instead of answering personal questions Osho now gives 'come close energy darshans', using mediums and live music. The 'guest' sannyasins sit in front of Osho, surrounded by mediums, who may place their hands on the guest, and sway or dance in place. Osho touches the guests and sometimes the mediums on the third eye. The ashram lights are turned off so everyone can participate. Some guests are so overwhelmed, they need to be assisted or carried back to their places.

    Before beginning the 'energy darshans' Osho speaks to the mediums:

    With me you have to be in a relationship which is not a relationship at all. So if I put my hand on your head, it is not somebody else's hand, it is your own hand. And when I put my head on your head it is not somebody else's head, it is your own head. That feel has to grow. As it grows, you will become more and more open vehicles for my energy. That has to be remembered, then your being mediums will become your great meditation. It will not only be helpful to the guest, to the person who has come for the close-up; it will be a tremendous upsurge in your being too.

    The second thing: this is the beginning of a new phase of work. I will relate many more things to you--many more that you cannot imagine, many more that you have never dreamt about--but the first basic you have to learn before that can be conveyed to you is: let this relationship with me be absolutely exclusive. This has not to become your gossipping.

    The temptation will be there, because when you know something and somebody else does not know about it, there is great temptation to play the role of the knower, and to say it. It is a human temptation. But this has to be remembered, that whatsoever transpires between me and you is an absolute secret.

    And remember, it is not the matter that is important; the matter may not be important at all. It is your capacity to keep it secret that is important. I may have simply told you that two plus two are four--that is not the point. It is immaterial whether you convey it to somebody or not; that is not the question. The content is not the question, the question is: your capacity of keeping it absolutely to yourself, your not revealing it even to your own spouse, your friend, your lover....

    So that is not the point--the content, or any secret--but your capacity to contain it. That you have to remember. If any of you starts gossipping, it is bound to reach me, remember: gossip has wings! And those who do that will automatically be dropped, slowly slowly. The higher work is not for them; they are childish.

    And the third thing: Vivek will be your chief, so you have to listen to her, to whatsoever instructions she gives to you. I have been working on her for seven years; now she is ready.

    So you have to surrender to her, you have to listen to her; whatsoever information she conveys to you, you have to follow.

    And I am in search of creating a big group of mediums, because as the commune grows I will need much bigger groups of mediums to help people. Thousands are going to come, and they are going to come so fast that you will not be able to manage them!

    So remember these three things. join27

    Again, before giving the 'come close energy darshans', Osho addresses all the mediums.

    While you are absorbing my energy feel utterly sexual, sensuous. In the beginning it will look very sexual. Soon there comes a point of intensity when it starts changing, when it starts becoming something that you have not known before at all, something that can only be called spiritual--but only later on, and only if you go totally into it. If you inhibit, your taboos come in and you stop yourself, then it remains sexual, it never becomes spiritual.

    All taboos, all inhibitions, have to be dropped; only then at a certain intensity does the transformation happen....

    This is the first thing to remember. The second thing to remember is: when you are joyous your energy flows into the other; when you are sad you start sucking energy from the other. So while functioning as mediums, be as joyous, ecstatically joyous, as possible; only then will your energy start moving into the guest. Only then will you shower your energy into the guest, only then will he start overflowing. Joy is contagious. So you are not to be a medium out of duty; it has to be a joyous celebration.

    The third thing: your bodies are musical instruments. The medium has to be just a harp in the hands of the master, so I can play on the music of your body, so I can help the music become awake in you. It has to be a very musical process, very graceful, very caressing, loving. When you play upon a musical instrument, you caress it with each touch. You have to become my harps, and you have to remember that--to be very very soft, open, vulnerable, available.

    A little resistance from your side and the music will disappear. Then you can go on moving in an empty gesture. It will be empty, of no use; it will make you tired. If you are not making an empty gesture, the guest is going to be helped and you are going to be helped; both are benefited. In fact the mediums will be benefited more, because they will be available every day.

    The fourth thing: the first medium, on whom I will be working more, has to function as a triggering point. So whatsoever starts happening in the first medium, you have to fall in tune with her, you have to just move with the first, you have to be just one with the first. And you will be surprised: what is happening to the first will start happening to you all, exactly the same, because it is not a question of the physical body, it is a question of an energy-field. I am just creating an energyfield: if you are ready, the first will be the triggering point and soon you will be taken possession of. So wherever you are--a few people will be standing here behind the guest, a few mediums will be sitting. Those who are sitting, they can also participate just by sitting there.

    The fifth thing: this is not only a small experiment to help the guest; this is to transform the whole energy-field of the commune. Right now it is a small commune.

    I was waiting for the new commune, but I think it will be delayed a little more, hence I decided that the work has to start. But in a way it is good: if you can fill these six acres of

    land with your energy, then it will make you able to fill the new commune. The new commune will be big, at least three square miles. But if you can fill six acres of land with your energy, it will not be difficult to fill the three square miles. It is not a question of how big the place is; the question is whether you have got the knack of it.

    So before the new commune happens I am trying to give you the knack of it. And it has started happening: the whole commune is affected. Even people who have not participated, who have not been here at all, even in their rooms they are affected.

    From tomorrow, the time for energy communion will be the time when all the lights in the ashram will go off. All activities will stop; for that half hour or forty-five minutes there will be utter darkness and all activities will stop.

    People, wherever they are, have to sit silently and be in a receptive mood, and whatsoever starts happening to them--there in their room, in the garden, wherever they are sitting, on the roof--they have to allow.

    So this will be the beginning, and once the experiment succeeds here, then I can prepare a bigger group for the new commune, because then there will be the need of a bigger group.

    The sixth point: the people who are sitting here in silent darshan, they can also participate. But they have to be aware: when the group is ecstatic, they can be ecstatic; when the group falls silent, they have to fall silent; when the group becomes absolutely quiet, they have to become quiet, otherwise they will be a disturbance. But when the group is going into ecstasy, into movement, into wild laughter, they can also. So you can also participate with closed eyes.

    Just two things to be remembered: when the group stops, you have to stop immediately; and the second thing, you are not to disturb somebody else who is sitting by your side, you are not to touch somebody else by your side. You have to be alone, on your own.

    So these things to be remembered. Good. join28

    Osho addresses the guests:

    What I am trying to do here is to give you a few moments, those peak moments when life becomes suddenly comprehensible. It is possible only if you move to the optimum; it is possible only when your energy pulsates totally. It is possible only when you are not holding anything back, when you are drunk, when you are madly drunk--drunk with your own energy, drunk with your own existence.

    Just the sheer beauty of being, the sheer beauty of existing, the sheer beauty that "I am breathing and my heart is beating", is more than enough to be grateful, to be absolutely thankful to God or to the whole.

    These "close-ups", these energy communications are just moments for you to move with me to the optimum. If you relax, if you fall in rhythm with me, if you don't keep yourself apart, the impossible becomes possible. And once you have tasted a few moments then you know that it is within your grasp. Then you can try those moments on your own. I can only give you a flavor, then you have to work it out.

    This is not the end of the work, this is only the beginning. I can simply open the window for a moment so that you can see that outside is the infinite sky and the stars. But then you have to work it out. Slowly, steadily you have to move and open your own windows, your own doors.

    But those first glimpses are absolutely necessary. Without those glimpses you will never have the idea of what life can be, what life is. And without the idea there will be no longing. Once you have tasted something, once you have chewed a little experience, once you have digested something of the unknown and it has entered your bloodstream, then you cannot remain at rest. Then you are going to become aflame. Then the great longing to attain to those moments again and again...and then finally not only to attain to those peaks but to abide there.

    So while you are here with me in these intimate energy communions don't remain separate. Fall utterly in tune with me. Dance, sway, hum, and be taken away from yourself. Allow me to take you away from yourself. Allow me to pull the earth from beneath you so that you can start falling into the abysmal. Allow me to turn you on into a totally different dimension of which you are not even aware, which you have not even dreamed about. Let me give you a dream, a vision. But it all depends on you: you can be just a spectator and then you will miss the whole thing. You have to be participants, you have to fall en rapport with me.

    This is subtle work, very subtle. You cannot see it from the outside. You will see the mediums moving and swaying, but that is nothing. That is only the visible form of something mysterious that is happening within them. Even they will not be able to explain it to you; it is not explainable. It can only be experienced and cannot be explained.

    So be participants, and not just so-so; that is meaningless--either one hundred percent or nothing. Below one hundred percent nothing ever happens. If you can keep this in mind then I can take you to the ultimate Himalayan peaks of consciousness. And once you have seen those sunlit, virgin peaks you will not like to come back, you will like to remain there.

    That longing--to abide there forever--is religion. Jesus calls it the kingdom of God, Buddha calls it nirvana; you can choose any name you like. But life is utterly meaningless without those peaks. And life is a turmoil if you go on living in the dark valleys, the dark valleys of mundane existence.

    These moments are sacred. I am trying to take you to the holiest of the holies, to the innermost shrine of your being. Come with me! Don't remain spectators. corner22

    When a true disciple comes to me and I touch his third eye, there is an energy connection. I become plugged into him, he becomes plugged into me: immediately an exchange of energy happens. It is an actual life-energy exchange. But a few people come, I touch their third eye...but they are just pretenders, they are not disciples.

    When a disciple bows down and touches my feet, immediately there is an energy exchange. My feet can immediately feel his touch. It is not just a touch of his hands, his whole life is pouring there. But then there are others who simply touch as a formality. Their touch is ugly, their heart is not in it.

    In close-up sessions the same thing happens. There are many who are moved to their very depths. Yogi and Rakesh have to carry them. They are so moved, so thrilled, they become so liquid, that they cannot move on their own. It is impossible for them to walk back to their places. They have to be carried. wlotus07

    Silent Satsangs and the Dhammapada

    In June 1979 Osho conducts a ten-day experiment in silent communion, satsangs with music and sitting meditation instead of discourses. On 21st June Osho introduces his 12-part series of commentaries on Gautama Buddha's Dhammapada.

    My beloved bodhisattvas. Yes, that's how I look at you. That's how you have to start looking at yourselves. Bodhisattva means a buddha in essence, a buddha in seed, a buddha asleep, but with all the potential to be awake. In that sense everybody is a bodhisattva, but not everybody can be called a bodhisattva--only those who have started groping for the light, who have started longing for the dawn, in whose hearts the seed is no longer a seed but has become a sprout, has started growing.

    You are bodhisattvas because of your longing to be conscious, to be alert, because of your quest for the truth. The truth is not far away, but there are very few fortunate ones in the world who long for it. It is not far away but it is arduous, it is hard to achieve. It is hard to achieve, not because of its nature, but because of our investment in lies....

    You have moved towards that risk. You have taken a few steps--staggering, stumbling, groping, haltingly, with many doubts, but still you have taken a few steps; hence I call you bodhisattvas.

    And The Dhammapada, the teaching of Gautama the Buddha, can only be taught to the bodhisattvas. It cannot be taught to the ordinary, mediocre humanity, because it cannot be understood by them.

    These words of Buddha come from eternal silence. They can reach you only if you receive them in silence. These words of Buddha come from immense purity. Unless you become a vehicle, a receptacle, humble, egoless, alert, aware, you will not be able to understand them. Intellectually you will understand them--they are very simple words, the simplest possible. But their very simplicity is a problem, because you are not simple. To understand simplicity you need simplicity of the heart, because only the simple heart can understand the simple truth. Only the pure can understand that which has come out of purity.

    I have waited long...now the time is ripe, you are ready. The seeds can be sown. These tremendously important words can be uttered again....

    My talking on Buddha is not just a commentary: it is creating a bridge. Buddha is one of the most important masters who has ever existed on the earth--incomparable, unique. And if you can have a taste of his being, you will be infinitely benefited, blessed.

    I am immensely glad, because after these ten days of silence I can say to you that many of you are now ready to commune with me in silence. That is the ultimate in communication. Words are inadequate; words say, but only partially. Silence communes totally.

    And to use words is a dangerous game too, because the meaning will remain with me, only the word will reach you; and you will give it your own meaning, your own color. It will not contain the same truth that it was meant to contain. It will contain something else, something far poorer. It will contain your meaning, not my meaning. You can distort language--in fact it is almost impossible to avoid distortion--but you cannot distort silence. Either you understand or you don't understand.

    And for these ten days there were only two categories of people here: those who understood and those who did not. But there was not a single person who misunderstood. You cannot misunderstand silence--that's the beauty of silence. The demarcation is absolute: either you understand or, simply, you don't understand--there is nothing to misunderstand.

    With words the case is just the opposite: it is very difficult to understand, it is very difficult to understand that you don't understand; these two are almost impossibilities. And the third is the only possibility: misunderstanding.

    These ten days have been of strange beauty, and of a mysterious majesty too. I no longer really belong to this shore. My ship has been waiting for me for a long time--I should have gone. It is a miracle that I am still in the body. The whole credit goes to you: to your love, to your prayers, to your longing. You would like me to linger a little while longer on this shore, hence the impossible has become possible.

    These ten days, I was not feeling together with my body. I was feeling very uprooted, dislocated. It is strange to be in the body when you don't feel that you are in the body.

    And it is also strange to go on living in a place which no longer belongs to you--my home is on the other shore. And the call comes persistently. But because you need me, it is the compassion of the universe--you can call it God's compassion--that is allowing me to be in the body a little more.

    It was strange, it was beautiful, it was mysterious, it was majestic, it was magical. And many of you have felt it. Many of you have felt it in different ways. A few have felt it as a very frightening phenomenon, as if death is knocking on the door. A few have felt it as a great confusion. A few have felt shocked, utterly shocked. But everybody has been touched in some way or other.

    Only the newcomers were a little at a loss--they could not comprehend what was going on. But I feel thankful to them too. Although they could not understand what was going on, they waited--they were waiting for me to speak, they were waiting for me to say something, they were hoping. Many were afraid that I might not speak ever again...that was also a possibility. I was not certain myself.

    Words are becoming more and more difficult for me. They are becoming more and more of an effort. I have to say something so I go on saying something to you. But I would like you to get ready as soon as possible so that we can simply sit in silence...listening to the birds and their songs...or listening just to your own heartbeat...just being here, doing nothing....

    Get ready as soon as possible, because I may stop speaking any day. And let the news be spread to all the nooks and corners of the world: those who want to understand me only through the words, they should come soon, because I may stop speaking any day. Unpredictably, any day, it may happen--it may happen even in the middle of a sentence. Then I am not going to complete the sentence! Then it will hang forever and forever...incomplete.

    But this time you have pulled me back.

    These sayings of Buddha are called The Dhammapada. dh0101

    The meditation that prevailed for ten days was with a difference--and that is the difference between Buddha's and my approach--a little difference, but of tremendous import. And that has to be understood by you, because I am not a mere commentator on Buddha. I am not only echoing him, I am not simply a mirror to reflect him; I am a response, not a reflection. I am not a scholar, I am not going to make a scholarly analysis of his statements--I am a poet!

    I have seen the same nothingness that he has seen, and, certainly, I have seen it in my own way. Buddha has his own way, I have my own way--of seeing, of being. Both ways reach the same peak, but the ways are different. My way has a little difference--little, but of profound import, remember.

    These ten days were not only of silent meditation--these ten days were of music, silence, and meditation. Music is my contribution to it. Buddha would not have allowed it. On that point we would have quarreled. He would not have allowed music; he would have said that music is a disturbance. He would have insisted on pure silence, he would have said that is enough. But that is where we agree to disagree.

    To me, music and meditation are two aspects of the same phenomenon. And without music, meditation lacks something; without music, meditation is a little dull, unalive. Without meditation, music is simply noise--harmonious, but noise. Without meditation, music is an entertainment. And without music, meditation becomes more and more negative, tends to be death-oriented.

    Hence my insistence that music and meditation should go together. That adds a new dimension--to both. Both are enriched by it....

    I started these Buddha lectures with a ten-day silence deliberately. It was a device to start with silence--Buddha would have been very happy. He must have shrugged his shoulders a little bit because of the music, but what can I do? It can't be helped.

    My religion has to be a religion of dance, love, laughter. It has to be life-oriented, it has to be life-affirmative. It has to be a love affair with life. It is not a renunciation but a rejoicing. dh0102

    New Phase: Osho Criticizes the Masters

    At the end of June 1979 Osho develops the new phase of his work; he will now criticize Buddha and other masters, where he does not agree with them

    You ask: Every time You have spoken on a master, I have felt You to be in love with that master and You flowing through his sutras. In this series though, I feel You standing apart from the Buddha and not really in love with his work. Is something changing or am I imagining things?

    You are not imagining things. With me, you will have to be always on the move--things will be changing. As you grow up I will be telling you things which I could not tell you before. It is not that my love for Buddha is less--my love cannot be less or more; my love is just love, it is a quality, it has no quantitative dimension to it. It can never be less or more--it simply is.

    I love Buddha, I love Jesus, I love Zarathustra, I love Lao Tzu, I love Patanjali--because I love...because I love you, because I love the trees, because I love the birds. My love is not less.

    And you are perfectly right that I am standing apart--I will be standing apart more and more in the future. I am preparing for the new phase. The work has to take a quantum leap, and much preparation is needed. The work has to take on a totally different quality now. Now I have people with me of great trust, of love, people who are committed and surrendered.

    In the beginning I was talking to the masses. It was a totally different kind of work: I was in search of disciples. Talking to the masses I was using their language; talking to the masses was talking to a primary class. You can't go very deep; you have to talk superficially. You have to look to whom you are talking.

    Then, slowly slowly, a few people started turning from students to disciples. Then my approach changed. It was now possible to communicate on higher levels. Then disciples started changing into sannyasins--they started becoming committed, they started becoming involved with me, with my destiny. My life became their life, my being became their being. Now communication took a jump: it became communion.

    Now I have got enough sannyasins...the work will have to move deeper.

    I was talking about Buddha before, and I was talking as if I was simply allowing him to flow through me. Now this is not going to be the case. This series is the beginning of a new phase.

    You have suspected rightly. Now I will have to make it clear what the points are in which I differ from Buddha, from Jesus, from Krishna. I have to make it very clear where I differ from them.

    Twenty-five centuries have passed since Buddha. Much has happened since then--much water has flowed down the Ganges. Everything has changed! If Buddha comes into the world he will not be able to recognize that it is the same world that he had left.

    I belong to this century. In these twenty-five centuries many new things have been added. For example, Buddha knew nothing about science--he could not. I am not saying that he should have known--he could not! It was impossible. Albert Einstein had not happened yet. Buddha was not aware of many things of which we are aware, I am aware. I have to incorporate all those things. Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx and Albert Einstein and many more have to be incorporated. Religion has to become more and more rich every day.

    I will have to make it clear where I differ. I will have to make clear what more I am trying to add to the religious heritage. I will not be just a vehicle anymore. That phase is complete. It was needed up to now, because I wanted...the people who loved Buddha, I wanted to approach them; the people who loved Mahavira, I wanted to approach them; the people who loved Jesus, I wanted to approach them.

    Humanity is divided: a few are with Jesus, a few are with Buddha, a few are with Krishna...and so on and so forth. There are no free human beings available. I had to pick

    and choose from different sects, from different communities, from different religions. The only way was: to speak the way Buddha spoke, then only would a few Buddhists become involved with me; otherwise it would have been impossible for them, they would not have understood me. Now they have become involved with me it is going to be a totally different matter. Now their love has arisen for me, it is easy for me to say where I differ from Buddha and they will be able to understand. It won't create any trouble for them, it will not be confusing to them.

    But remember, my love is not less because I am standing apart: my love is the same. My love is not going to change; it is not something that can change. But more and more it will happen: I will stand apart and separate.

    Now I have got my own people. And I have to make it very clear where I differ, where I am trying to give something new, something more; where I am trying to enrich the heritage, where I am contributing. And sometimes I will have to criticize too--but I love so much that I can criticize.

    Sometimes I am going to criticize Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus. Not that I don't love them--I love them, otherwise why should I speak on them? Even if I criticize them, that means my love is so much that I will take even that trouble, to criticize them.

    Buddha has given much to humanity, but humanity is an on-going process. And everything that happens to humanity brings its advantages and also brings its disadvantages....

    Many times I will criticize. Many times I will tell you about all the advantages and all the disadvantages that have happened. Buddha is the purest religious dimension, the purest possible, but how can I avoid saying that he is a one-dimensional man? If I don't say it, it will be untrue. If I don't say it, my love for truth is not total then. I have to say it, that he is one-dimensional--the purest in his dimension, but he lacks the other dimensions.

    He has no appreciation of beauty, not at all. He has no appreciation of music, not at all. He has no appreciation of love, not at all. The aesthetic dimension is missing, he has bypassed it. And he has no scientific approach; he cannot have--science was not yet developed enough. He is one-dimensional purity, but one-dimensional.

    And because he is one-dimensional, this whole country has remained one-dimensional. Buddha is one-dimensional, Mahavira is one-dimensional, Patanjali is one-dimensional. All the great religious masters of this country were religious people. They reached to the purest religious experience, and they tried to convert the whole country to their vision. But the disadvantage was that the country became poor. Without science no country can ever become rich. The country became outwardly ugly, starving, ill. Without science and technology, no country can be outwardly beautiful, healthy, affluent.

    Now, I cannot avoid mentioning it--that will not be true, and that will not be right either. That will be deceiving you! That will be a crime against humanity. It is time that

    somebody should have the guts to say it! Nobody in the whole world is doing it, and the time is ripe that somebody should shout and say that Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali, Lao Tzu, are immensely beautiful people, and they have contributed much--humanity would not have been what it is without them--they are our very soul, that is absolutely true, but there is a disadvantage because they are all one-dimensional. Other dimensions have remained paralyzed, crippled. And now the time has come: other dimensions have to be fulfilled too....

    Buddha has contributed immensely, but as a side effect he has been one of the causes of India's poverty. I cannot ignore that fact. I have to state it. I have not stated it up to now, but now I have my own people who will understand....

    Now I have to say it. And I know I am going to suffer much because of these statements, because in India people are not accustomed to hearing any criticism of Krishna, Mahavira or Buddha--no, not at all.

    First I will make it clear to you where I differ. And soon I will start criticizing the side effects too.

    Wait a little more, because I have to tell you the whole truth--the whole truth as it is, whatsoever the consequences. I will appreciate whatsoever is worth appreciating and I will condemn whatsoever needs to be condemned....

    We have to put things absolutely clear. We have to be very very dispassionate. That's why you are feeling there is a certain difference--there is. You are not imagining things. My work is going into a new phase, I am entering into a new phase. Before the new commune happens, I am preparing for it. dh0108

    Osho and Public Relations

    Osho uses new technology to send his message world-wide. Discourses are video-taped. The Press Office expands. Osho's address to the World Symposium of Humanity is televised in Britain, Canada and USA. A full-length feature film, Bhagwan, wins an award at Miami and Cannes International Film Festivals. Osho's meditations feature on a BBC Radio education program. The BBC refers to the ashram as the 'largest growth centre in the world'

    You ask: Why should there be a Press Office in the ashram?

    Why not?

    You know I am an ancient Jew--I answer a question with another question; that is an ancient Jewish habit....

    I am a modern man--in fact a little ahead of my time! I am going to use every possible means to spread the truth: newspapers, video, tape recorders, films, radio, television, satellite transmission, everything.

    Buddha had to go to every village. You didn't ask him, "Why do you go on walking from one village to another village?" That is a primitive way of spreading the message. For forty-two years he was travelling and travelling. Now to do that would be foolish.

    I can be in my room, and I can fill the whole earth with my message. It would be very unintelligent to go on walking from one village to another village. Buddha was helpless. If I had been there in Buddha's time, I would have done the same. If Buddha were here now he would do the same.

    The Press Office creates a question in many people's minds. They think truth need not be declared. It needs to be declared! Jesus said to his disciples, "Go in every direction and shout from the housetops! Only then will people hear, because people are deaf."

    I will not tell you to go and shout from every housetop; better means are available. Man has invented great technology. Everybody else is using that technology, but when it is used for truth, questions start arising. If you use it for business, good, if you use it for politics, good, if you use it for evil, perfectly right, but if you use it for God, then questions start arising.

    I am going to use all kinds of media. guest09

    You ask: Don't you have enough disciples? What is the need for videotapes of you and your commune? I have got only one hundred fifty thousand sannyasins in the world--that is just a drop in the ocean of humanity. And if you want to transform the consciousness of man it is nothing; it is just the beginning, it is just a seed. We have to go on spreading this new message--new in a sense, because of the so-called religions, and yet the ancientmost, because whenever anybody has known he has known the same truth.

    Truth never changes; it is always the same. Who knows it makes no difference, when one knows it makes no difference. Time and space don't matter.

    And this is a very special moment in the history of humanity: either man will destroy himself totally or a new man will be born. It has never been so important to transform the consciousness of man, to bring a radical change in the very vision of man as it is today. And we have to do it quickly because time is short. The politicians are piling up atom bombs, hydrogen bombs and whatnot. Just within ten years the power to destroy man has increased seven hundred times. Ten years ago it was enough to destroy humanity; now it is enough to destroy seven hundred earths of the same size. It seems to be simply mad. What is the point?--because we don't know any other earths yet. Yes, scientists say there

    are fifty thousand planets with life, but that is only a hypothesis. We may never reach them--we have only reached the moon....

    In such a mad world where mad politicians are so powerful, meditation can be the only way to defend life on earth. The inner revolution has to be spread as quickly and as fast as possible. Moreover, I am a twentieth-century man--I don't believe in bullock carts. You can see my Rolls Royce!...

    I don't go anywhere; there is no need now--that is out of date. I cannot reach many people by traveling, but now we have the media available. My word can go to the farthest corner of the earth--it is reaching already. Books are also old ways of reaching people; their days are also over. New methods have been evolved.

    A videotape is a far better way to reach people because they can hear me the same way as you are hearing me. And just hearing the word without seeing the person is one thing; seeing the person also makes a lot of difference. It is totally different because when you are listening to me on a tape recording or on records you will not be able to see my hand, which says more than I can say with my words. You will not be looking at my eyes, which have much more to say than words can convey. Something will be missing, something of immense value--the person will be missing. You will be hearing only a ghostly voice.

    I will use films, television, videotapes, tapes, every modern technique to spread the message. I belong to the twentieth century totally, wholeheartedly. And I love this century; I am not against it. I love science and its technology. It is in the wrong hands, but that always happens. Whenever something significant is discovered it always falls into the wrong hands first for the simple reason that they are very quick people, cunning people....

    Science has released tremendous power, but it has fallen into the wrong hands and the right hands are not there. We have to create the right hands; we have to create the right consciousness for that.

    Hence, I will go on working with all the modern media to reach as many people as possible. I am already reaching. You can see here people from almost every country. There is not a single country in the world now where my sannyasins are not. And they are creating a stir everywhere. They are bound to create a stir, they are bound to create a new kind of revolution--the real revolution.

    Political revolutions are not revolutions; only spiritual revolutions are revolutions because unless the inner being changes, no outer change is going to help.

    And, remember it, I am not an old type of saint: "Why bother about disciples and why bother about reaching many people?" It is not a question of bothering at all--I am enjoying it tremendously! It is not in any way work for me; it is play. And it is urgently needed, too. ggate104

    New Phase: Mystery School

    In July 1979, Osho explains the new phase in his work as a Mystery School, and its relevance in world history

    You ask: Would You please speak more about the new phase of Your work?

    Gurdjieff lived a life which was very mysterious; it was not public. His school was a hidden school. What was happening there, people were simply guessing.

    And that's what is going to happen in the new phase of my work. My commune will become hidden, underground. It will have a façade on the outside: the weavers and the carpenters and the potters...that will be the façade. People who will come as visitors, we will have a beautiful showroom for them; they can purchase things. They can see the creativity of the sannyasins: paintings, books, woodwork. They can be shown around--a beautiful lake, swimming pools, a five-star hotel for them--but they will not know what is really happening. That which will be happening will be almost all underground. It has to be underground, otherwise it cannot happen.

    I have a few secrets to impart to you, and I would not like to die before I have imparted them to you--because I don't know anybody else now alive in the world who can do that work. I have secrets from Taoism, secrets from tantra, secrets from yoga, secrets from Sufis, secrets from Zen people. I have lived in almost all the traditions of the world; I have been a wanderer in many lives. I have gathered much honey from many flowers.

    And the time, sooner or later, will come when I will have to depart--and I will not be able to enter again in the body. This is going to be my last life. All the honey that I have gathered I would like to share with you, so that you can share it with others, so that it does not disappear from the earth.

    This is going to be a very secret work; hence I cannot speak about it. I think I have already spoken too much! I should not have said even this. The work will be only for those who are utterly devoted.

    Right now, we have a big press office to make as many people as possible aware of the phenomenon that is happening here. But in the new commune the real work will simply disappear from the world's eyes. The press office will function--it will function for other purposes. People will go on coming, because from the visitors we have to choose; we have to invite people who can be participants, who can dissolve in the commune. But the real work is going to be absolutely secret. It is going to be only between me and you.

    And there will not be much talk between me and you either. More and more I will become silent, because the real communion is through energy, not through words. As you will be getting ready to receive the energy in silence, I will become more and more silent. But I am keeping a great treasure for you. Be receptive....

    And as my work goes underground and becomes more secret and more mysterious, more and more rumors and gossip are bound to spread all over the world. People become very suspicious of anything secret, and because they cannot find any clue, they start inventing their own ideas about what is happening there. So be ready for that too.

    But don't be worried about it. It is going to be a mystery school. Such schools existed when Zarathustra was alive; he created such a school. Many such schools existed in Egypt, India, Tibet. When Pythagoras came and visited this country he noted the fact of the mystery schools. He was initiated into many mystery schools in Egypt and in India. Jesus was trained by the Essenes, a very secret mystery school.

    All that is beautiful and all that is great in human history has happened only through a few people who put their energies together for the inner exploration. My commune is going to be a mystery school for inner exploration. It is the greatest adventure there is, and the greatest dance too. dh0202

    My effort here is to create a Socratic inquiry again, to ask again the fundamental questions that Buddha raised.

    In the new commune we are going to have seven concentric circles of people. The first, the most superficial circle, will consist of those who come only out of childish curiosity, or out of already accumulated prejudices, who are, deep down, antagonistic--the journalists, etcetera.

    They will be allowed only to see the superficial part of the commune--not that anything will be hidden, but just because of their approach they will not be able to see anything more than the most superficial. They will see only the garments. Here also the same goes on happening. They come and they see only the superficial.

    Just the other day I was reading a journalist's report; he was here for five days. He writes, "for five days," as if it is a very long time to be here; five days, as if he has been here for five lives! Because he has been here for five days he has become an authority. Now he knows what is happening here because he has watched people meditating. How can you watch people meditating? Either you can meditate or not, but you cannot watch people meditating. Yes, you can watch people's physical gestures, movements, dance, or their sitting silently under a tree, but you cannot see meditation! You can see the physical posture of the meditator, but you cannot see his inner experience. For that, you have to meditate, you have to become a participant.

    And the basic condition for being a participant is that you should drop this idea of being a watcher. Even if you participate, if you dance with the meditators, with this idea that you are participating only to watch what happens, then nothing will happen. And, of course, you will go with the conclusion that it is all nonsense--nothing happens. And you will feel perfectly right inside yourself that nothing happens, because you even participated and nothing happened.

    That man writes that he was in darshan and much was happening to sannyasins--so much was happening that after a deep energy contact with me they were not even able to walk back to their places--they had to be carried away. And then he mentions, "But nothing happened to me." That is enough proof that all that was happening was either hypnosis, or people were pretending just because the journalist was there, or it was just an arranged show, something managed--because nothing was happening to him.

    There are things which can happen only when you are available, open, unprejudiced. There are things which can happen only when you put aside your mind.

    The journalist writes again, "The people who go there, they leave their minds where they leave their shoes--but I could not do that. Of course," he says, "if I had left my mind behind, then I would have also been impressed." But he thinks the mind that he has is something so valuable--how can he leave it behind? He feels himself very clever because he didn't leave his mind behind.

    Mind is the barrier, not the bridge. In the new commune, the first concentric circle will be for those who come like journalists--prejudiced people, who already know that they know. In short, for the fools.

    The second concentric circle will be for those who are inquirers--unprejudiced, neither Hindus nor Mohammedans nor Christians, who come without any conclusion, who come with an open mind. They will be able to see a little deeper. Something of the mysterious will stir their hearts. They will cross the barrier of the mind. They will become aware that something of immense importance is happening--what exactly it is they will not be able to figure out immediately, but they will become aware vaguely that something of value is happening. They may not be courageous enough to participate in it; their inquiry may be more intellectual than existential, they may not be able to become part, but they will become aware--of course, in a very vague and confused way, but certainly aware--that something more is going on than is apparent.

    The third circle will be for those who are sympathetic, who are in deep sympathy, who are ready to move with the commune a little bit, who are ready to dance and sing and participate, who are not only inquirers but are ready to change themselves if the inquiry requires it. They will become aware more clearly of deeper realms.

    And the fourth will be the empathic. Sympathy means one is friendly, one is not antagonistic. Empathy means one is not only friendly; one feels a kind of unity, oneness. Empathy means one feels with the commune, with the people, with what is happening. One meets, merges, melts, becomes one.

    The fifth circle will be of the initiates, the sannyasins--one who is not only feeling in his heart but who is ready to be committed, to be involved. One who is ready to risk. One who is ready to commit, because he feels a great, mad love--mad, mad love--arising in him. The sannyasin, the initiate.

    And the sixth will be of those who have started arriving--the adepts. Those whose journey is coming closer to the end, who are no longer sannyasins only but are becoming siddhas, whose journey is coming to a full stop, is getting closer and closer to the conclusion. The home is not far away, a few steps more. In a way, they have already arrived.

    And the seventh circle will consist of arhatas and bodhisattvas. The arhatas are those sannyasins who have arrived but are not interested in helping others to arrive. Buddhism has a special name for them: arhata--the lonely traveler who arrives and then disappears into the ultimate. And the bodhisattvas are those who have arrived but they feel a great compassion for those who have not yet arrived. The bodhisattva is an arhata with compassion. He holds on, goes on looking back and goes on calling forth those who are still stumbling in darkness. He is a helper, a servant of humanity.

    There are two types of people. The one who is at ease only when he is alone; he feels a little uncomfortable in relationship, he feels a little disturbed, distracted, in relationship. That type of person becomes an arhata. When he has arrived, he is finished with everything. Now he does not look back.

    The bodhisattva is the second type of person: one who feels at ease in relationship, in fact far more comfortable when he is relating than when he is alone. He leans more towards love. The arhata leans more towards meditation. The path of the arhata is of pure meditation, and the path of the bodhisattva is that of pure love. The pure love contains meditation, and the pure meditation contains love--but the pure meditation contains love only as a flavor, a perfume; it is not the central force in it. And the pure love contains meditation as a perfume; it is not the center of it.

    These two types exist in the world. The second type--the follower on the path of love-- becomes a bodhisattva. The seventh circle will consist of arhatas and bodhisattvas.

    Now, the seventh circle will be aware of all the six other circles, and the sixth circle will be aware of the other five circles--the higher will be aware of the lower, but the lower will not be aware of the higher. The first circle will not be aware of anything other than the first circle. He will see the buildings and the hotel and the swimming pool and the shopping center and weaving and pottery and carpentry. He will see the trees, the whole landscape...he will see all these things. He will see thousands of sannyasins, and he will shrug his shoulders: "What are these people doing here?" He will be a little puzzled, because he was not thinking that so many mad people can be found in one place: "All are hypnotized!" He will find explanations. He will go perfectly satisfied that he has known the commune. He will not be aware of the higher--the lower cannot be aware of the higher. That is one of the fundamental laws of life--aes dhammo sanantano--only the higher knows the lower, because he has passed from the lower.

    When you are standing on the sunlit mountain peak, you know everything down in the valley. The valley people may not be aware of you at all, it is not possible for them. The

    valley has its own occupations, its own problems. The valley is preoccupied with its own darkness.

    The fool can come to a master but will remain unbenefited because he will see only the outer. He will not be able to see the essential, he will not be able to see the core. The fool comes here too, but he listens only to the words--and he goes on interpreting those words according to his own ideas. He goes perfectly satisfied that he knows what is happening.

    There are many fools who don't come here--they don't feel the need. They simply depend on other fools' reports. That's enough. Just one fool can convince thousands of fools, because their language is the same, their prejudices are the same, their conceptions are the same...there is no problem! One fool has seen, and all the other fools are convinced. One fool reports in the newspaper and all the other fools read it early in the morning, and are convinced. dh0207

    In the new commune I am going to give you methods to go to the deep collective unconscious. But it is a very dangerous trip and great arrangements are needed before somebody can enter the collective unconscious, because so much is there, millions of experiences and they will suddenly explode.

    A commune is needed. A closed commune is needed, the closed Garden is needed-- because it is not a question for the ordinary masses to know about; they will not be able to understand. And that's why if something reaches to the masses, some naked photographs reach to the masses, they are immediately against me. They cannot understand what is happening here.

    We are trying to penetrate into the deepest layers of consciousness. But this is an alchemical lab; the ordinary masses will not be able to understand it. And if they do understand, they will understand it according to themselves.

    I am waiting for the new commune: much more has to be done. But then things will become much more bizarre and you will need a field, an energy-field, that surrounds you like a soothing energy, that keeps you anchored with me so that you are not lost into the collective unconscious. Only then can the doors of the collective unconscious be opened.

    They can be opened, and it is tremendously helpful if they can be opened. If you can know your whole past, you will be freed from it. Knowing something is to be free from it: knowing the truth liberates. If you can be allowed to go into your past, to the very end, you will be finished with everything. Because millions of times you have accumulated wealth, and each time you have failed. If you can remember your past lives and you can see that millions of times you have been playing the same stupid game, to no point at all, then how can you go on playing it in this life again? It will be impossible.

    If you can see all your sexual experiences, it will be so ridiculous to still go on playing the same game.

    But for that, a totally secluded atmosphere and a great trust, and absolute trust, will be needed. Hence I am trying to create a commune which will be a world apart, and where we can go into the deepest possible experiments that have ever been done.

    And once you have gone backwards, you become capable of going upwards and forwards, because the process is the same. Backwards, it is easier because it is a known path; you have forgotten about it but it is still a known path, you can go backwards.

    Going upwards to superconsciousness and the cosmic mind is an unknown path. If you become capable of going backwards you will have learned how to penetrate the dangerous realms of your being. And then the next step higher can be taken: you can move from the conscious the the superconscious.

    It is the superconscious in which all the experiences of angels and devatas and gods and kundalini and chakras and lotuses opening happen; they are all contained in the superconscious. It is a beautiful world, it is psychedelic. Beyond that is the world of the cosmic mind where all experiences disappear--neither ugly nor beautiful, where the experiencer is left alone. Total, absolute aloneness. And that is the ultimate goal of consciousness, that is where evolution is moving towards.

    But before you can take that quantum leap into the world that is above you, you will have to get deeper into the roots, into the dark roots of your unconscious and your past experiences.

    Buddha and Mahavira both tried; they did great experiments. Those experiments are called jati smaran: remembering the past. And the past is vast--if you go on remembering it, it goes on revealing secrets.

    The man who has gone into his whole past will come back absolutely healthy and psychologically whole. He will not have any perversions. His whole life will be transformed just by going there and coming back. Then all that he can ever imagine doing, he had done many times, and it was all futile and it was all in vain.

    That very understanding, and all starts changing. And when you are free from the past you are capable of moving into the present: you can dive deep into the now and the here. unio108

    The function of a mystery school--a mystery school just like this--is higher than the function of a university. Its function is to make you conscious of your consciousness. To be conscious of one's consciousness is meditation; it is the first step to being really human. guest15

    Once we have moved away from the world, once we have our own small world, once we drop all the bridges, time will start disappearing. My effort is to give you a taste of timelessness. Once you have tasted it, then you can go back into the world and it will

    remain with you. The most important thing is to taste it once at least--no-time--and suddenly you are transported into another world.

    This world consists of time and space. That's how Albert Einstein defines it: spaciotime. He makes one word out of the two, because he says time is nothing but the fourth dimension of space. So this world consists of space and time, and in meditation you disappear from both, or both disappear from your being. You don't know where you are. You are, certainly, more than you have ever been; you are totally there but there is no space confining you and no time defining you. A pure existence. Once tasted, all foolishness disappears.

    The fool lives in time, the wise man lives in timelessness. The fool lives in mind, the wise man lives in no-mind. dh0207 The greatest miracle in the world is to be so intelligent that nobody, no society, no state, no church, can hypnotize you.

    My work here consists of dehypnotizing you. Hence, all the societies will be against me. Beware of it! To be with me is dangerous--all the governments will be against you. And this has to be known and accepted. This has to be simply accepted, because this is going to be the case. The more I start working deeply on you. It is just the beginning of the work: I am preparing the ground from where to take off.

    Once the dehypnosis starts functioning within thousands of people, all the societies, all the governments, all the states, all the churches, are going to be against me and my people--because this has never been done before. This is the greatest rebellion ever tried! This is true revolution.

    And if you pass through this revolution you will know from where freshness comes. It comes from your own innermost core. God is not outside you; it is your very center, your very ground. Freshness comes from it, life comes from it, love comes from it, bliss comes from it. All that is significant--poetry and music--they all arise from it.

    And when the dance comes from within, it has a totally different quality to it: it is spiritual, it is divine. dh0702

    Sannyasins are Friends not Followers

    The real master creates masters, not followers. The real master throws you back to yourself. His whole effort is to make you independent of him, because you have been

    dependent for centuries, and it has not led you anywhere. You still continue to stumble in the dark night of the soul.

    Only your inner light can become the sunrise. The false master persuades you to follow him, to imitate him, to be just a carbon copy of him. The real master will not allow you to be a carbon copy, he wants you to be the original. He loves you! How can he make you imitative? He has compassion for you, he would like you to be utterly free--free from all outer dependencies.

    But the ordinary human being does not want to be free. He wants to be dependent. He wants somebody else to guide him. Why?--because then he can throw the whole responsibility on the shoulders of somebody else. And the more responsibility you throw away onto somebody else's shoulders, the less is the possibility of your ever becoming intelligent. It is responsibility, the challenge of responsibility, that creates wisdom.

    One has to accept life with all its problems. One has to go through life unprotected; one has to seek and search one's way. Life is an opportunity, a challenge, to find yourself. But the fool does not want to go the hard way, the fool chooses the shortcut. He says to himself, "Buddha has attained--why should I bother? I will just watch his behavior and imitate. Jesus has attained, so why should I search and seek? I can simply become a shadow to Jesus. I can simply go on following him wherever he goes."

    But following somebody else, how are you going to become intelligent? You will not give any chance for your intelligence to explode. It needs a challenging life, an adventurous life, a life that knows how to risk and how to go into the unknown, for intelligence to arise. And only intelligence can save you--nobody else--your own intelligence, mind you, your own awareness, can become your nirvana.

    Be a light unto yourself and you will be wise; let others become your leaders, your guides, and you will remain stupid, and you will go on missing all the treasures of life-- which were yours! And how can you decide that the other's character is a right character for you to follow? dh0209

    People even follow, but then too they follow out of misunderstanding. Just by becoming a follower it does not change anything in your life. It is not a question of following somebody: it is a question of understanding somebody who is awakened. Hence, I don't call you my followers but only my friends. If you can be my friends, if you can be in deep love and trust here in my presence, if you can be present to my presence, if we can face each other and mirror each other, tremendously important things will start happening of their own accord--because your heart will understand, and when the heart understands, immediately transformations happen. dh0205

    You say: I watch myself as I act superior around non-sannyasins, and inferior around those who have been with you longer than I.

    This is what has been told to everybody: that you have to put yourself higher and higher, that you have to climb the ladder, that you have to be ambitious, that you have to be the first.

    My whole effort here is to tell you that you have to be just yourself, neither first nor last. And you are so unique that nobody, has been like you before, and nobody is going to be like you again. Hence, there is no question of comparison at all; you are so unique that you are incomparable. So drop this whole idea of comparison.

    It is comparison which creates trouble; then somebody is higher than you and somebody is lower than you. If you drop this comparative habit, then nobody is higher than you and nobody is lower than you. Then suddenly you recognize everybody's uniqueness. And the moment you can see everybody's uniqueness, your life has a different flavor. It becomes non-ambitious, it becomes non-egoistic. Then you are not trying to imitate, then you are not trying to compete--then you are simply being yourself, relaxing with yourself, and a great love for yourself arises. And not only for yourself: a great love--for everyone else also, because everyone is so unique. And it is because of the uniqueness of individuals around the world that the world is so beautiful....

    Drop this whole attitude, this whole approach. With me, nobody has to play the game of holier-than-thou. To me there is no division between the profane and the sacred, between the holy and the unholy--it is all one. wildgs11

    You say: In the old days you used to hammer us fiercely. Now you come into lecture looking around happily, like a farmer looking on his golden cornfields. Are you happy with us?

    I absolutely happy with you. I am one of the most fortunate Masters in the world, because a great many intelligent, alive, loving people have gathered around me. The very cream of the modern mind has gathered around me. I am tremendously happy, yes, just like a farmer when he looks on his golden cornfields.

    You are my golden cornfield. The crop is becoming more and more ripe every day. Many are blossoming, many are coming to fruit. Many are growing--in love, in awareness, in trust, in every possible way. I am tremendously happy that you are here with me....

    Jesus was not very fortunate. Buddha was far more fortunate. But I am even more fortunate than Buddha, because Buddha had only one kind of people around him. My disciples are multi-dimensional; they come from every nook and corner of the world. This is a universal brotherhood. This is for the first time that religion is taking off--from local limitations, becoming airborne. This is for the first time that religion is losing racial associations, national associations--Indian, Chinese, Japanese, German, Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Buddhist. We are creating a kind of religiousness without any name; a nameless religion can only be true to a nameless God.

    Yes, I am tremendously happy. The moment I look at you my heart dances with immense joy. And this is only the beginning. Many, many more are going to come, they are on the way. You are just heralding the coming of millions more. Hence your responsibility is great, because you will be preparing the way; the others who will come will learn from you. The others will learn love, awareness, discipline, spontaneity, individuality, freedom, all of these dimensions, from you.

    The new commune will have at least ten thousand sannyasins resident, and thousands and thousands will come and go. You are also fortunate because you will be the first bricks: out of you this great temple is going to be created, you will be in the foundation. Remember that responsibility, and remember that such a responsibility comes only as a benediction. guest08

    Death of Osho's Father and his Mahaparanirvana

    On 8th September 1979, Osho's father, Dadaji or Swami Devateerth Bharti, dies enlightened. At the death celebration in Buddha Hall, Osho places flowers on his father's body and touches his head. Osho creates an annual festival on 8th September, Mahaparanirvana Day, to celebrate all sannyasins, past and future, who have died and will die.*

    *The book Be Still and Know describes this celebration, illustrated with colour photos.

    You ask: Would you say something about your father's death yesterday?

    Vivek, it was not a death at all. Or it was the total death. And both mean the same thing. I was hoping that he would die in this way. He died a death that everybody should be ambitious for: he died in samadhi, he died utterly detached from the body and the mind.

    I went to see him only three times during this whole month he was in the hospital. Whenever I felt that he was just on the verge, I went to see him. The first two times I was a little afraid that if he died he would have to be born again; a little attachment to the body was there. His meditation was deepening every day, but a few chains with the body were still intact, were not broken.

    Yesterday I went to see him: I was immensely happy that now he could die a right death. He was no more concerned with the body. Yesterday, early in the morning at three o'clock, he attained his first glimpse of the eternal--and immediately he became aware that now he was going to die. This was the first time he had called me to come; the other two times I had gone on my own. Yesterday he called me to come because he was certain that he was going to die. He wanted to say goodbye, and he said it beautifully--with no tears in the eyes, with no longing for life any more.

    Hence, in a way it is not a death but a birth into eternity. He died in time and was born into eternity. Or it is a total death--total in the sense that now he will not be coming any more. And that is the ultimate achievement; there is nothing higher than it.

    He left the world in utter silence, in joy, in peace. He left the world like a lotus flower--it was worth celebrating. And these are the occasions for you to learn how to live and how to die. Each death should be a celebration, but it can be a celebration only if it leads you to higher planes of existence.

    He died enlightened. And that's how I would like each of my sannyasins to die. Life is ugly if you are unenlightened, and even death becomes beautiful if you are enlightened. Life is ugly if you are unenlightened because it is a misery, a hell. Death becomes a door to the divine if you are enlightened; it is no more a misery, it is no more a hell. In fact, on the contrary, it is getting out of all hell, out of all misery.

    I am immensely glad that he died the way he died. Remember it: as meditation deepens, you become farther and farther away from your body-mind composite. And when meditation reaches its ultimate peak, you can see everything.

    Yesterday morning he was absolutely aware of death, that it had come. And he called me. This was the first time he had called me, and the moment I saw him I saw that he was no more in the body. All the pains of the body had disappeared. That's why the doctors were puzzled: the body was functioning in an absolutely normal way. This was the last thing the doctors could have imagined, that he could die. He could have died any day before. He was in deep pain, there were many complexities in the body: his heart was not functioning well, his pulse was missing; there were blood clots in the brain, in the leg, in the hand.

    Yesterday he was absolutely normal. They checked, and they said it was impossible; now there was no problem, np danger. But this is how it happens. The day of the danger, according to the physicians, didn't prove dangerous. The first twenty-four hours when he was admitted to the hospital one month before were the most dangerous; they were afraid that he would die. He didn't die. Then for the next twenty-four hours they were still hesitant to say whether he would be saved or not. A suggestion had even come from a surgeon to cut the leg off completely, because if blood clots started happening in other places it would be impossible to save him.

    But I was against cutting off the leg, because one has to die one day--why distort the body and why create more pain? And just living in itself has no meaning, just lengthening the life has no meaning. I said no. They were surprised. And when he survived for almost four weeks they thought I was right, that there had been no need to cut off the leg; the leg was coming back, becoming alive again. He had started walking also, which Dr. Sardesai thought was a miracle. They had not hoped for that much, that he would be able to walk.

    Yesterday he was perfectly normal, everything normal. And that gave me the indication that now death was possible. If meditation happens before death, everything becomes

    normal. One dies in perfect health, because one is not really dying but entering into a higher plane. The body becomes a stepping-stone.

    He was meditating for years. He was a rare man--it is very rare to find a father like him. A father becoming a disciple of his own son: it is rare. Jesus' father did not dare to become a disciple, Buddha's father hesitated for years to become a disciple. But he was meditating for years. Three hours each day, in the morning from three to six, he was sitting in meditation. Yesterday also, in the hospital also, he continued.

    Yesterday it happened. One never knows when it will happen. One has to go on digging...one day one comes across the source of water, the source of consciousness. Yesterday it happened; it happened in right time. If he had left his body just one day before he would have been back in the body again soon--a little clinging was there. But yesterday the slate was completely clean. He attained to no-mind, he died like a Buddha. What more can one have than Buddhahood?

    My effort here is to help you all to live like Buddhas and die like Buddhas. The death of a Buddha is both! It is not a death, because life is eternal. Life does not begin with birth and does not end with death. Millions of times you have been born and died; they are all small episodes In the eternal pilgrimage. But because you are unconscious you cannot see that which is beyond birth and death.

    As you become more conscious, you can see your original face. He saw his original face yesterday. He heard the one hand clapping, he heard the soundless sound. Hence it is not a death: it is attaining life eternal. On the other hand it can be called a total death--total death in the sense that he will not be coming any more.

    Rejoice! bestil09

    And my father, before he died, told me, "Please forgive all of us--we were trying to make you part of the society. If you had not resisted so strongly we would have succeeded. But you were so strong in your struggle that we failed. But now I can say with great joy that our failure was good. Our failure gave you your individuality."

    He died as a sannyasin, enlightened. In the whole history, it has rarely happened that a father has become a disciple of his own son. And the moment he became a sannyasin he behaved like a sannyasin--not like a father. dless33

    You say: When you came to say farewell to Dadaji on the podium in Buddha Hall, suddenly the area where you and Dadaji's body were became like a film. You both seemed to be without substance. The other half of the podium where Mataji sat, and the rest of Buddha Hall where we were all sitting, seemed normal. Just the part where you were seemed different. What happened?

    Death, if it happens with enlightenment, is a tremendous experience. On the one hand the man dies; on the other hand he achieves the totality of life.

    When I touched my father's seventh chakra, just on the top of the head, those who were perceptive, silent, meditative, may have experienced something strange happening. According to the centuries-old science of inner reality, a man's life energy is released from the center, the chakra, at which he was living.

    Most people die from the lowest chakra, the sex center. There are seven chakras in the body from where life can go out of the body. The last is on top of the head, and unless you are enlightened life cannot go out from that chakra.

    When I touched my father's seventh chakra, it was still warm. Life had left it, but it was as if the physical part of the chakra was still throbbing with the tremendous happening.

    It is a rare happening. And in that moment it may have appeared to many that the small section on the podium where I was with my father's body was in a different world. It was, in a sense, because it was on a different level. Just by his feet was my mother...and ten thousand sannyasins in Buddha Hall--that was the normal world.

    But something abnormal had happened. The chakra was still warm, the body was as if it was still rejoicing in the phenomenon. If you had eyes to see, then this distinction was bound to be seen.

    It is good that it came to your vision, the difference. It is a difference of levels. The lowest is where most people are living, and the effort here is, in this mystery school, to bring everybody to the highest. psycho19

    Osho refers to when he was a child with long hair which his father cut short; Osho went to the barber and had his whole head shaved, which caused his father much embarassment, as people thought he had died.

    And this time when my father actually died, a friend inquired of me, wrote a letter, "What are you going to do about it? Are you going to shave your head?"

    I said, "I did it in advance, forty years ago! And one can do it only once. Moreover, this time my father has not died; in fact, he has been dead up to now. This time he has entered into eternal life; he has tasted for the first time what life is. I don't consider him as dead: he has never been more alive." special06

    My father is no more, but I remember him in such moments, when I suddenly see that I am behaving just like him. When I see his picture I know that when I too am seventy- five, God willing, then I will look just like him. And it is so good to feel that I will not betray him, that I will represent him even to my very last breath....

    My body functions exactly like my father's even in its illnesses. I am proud of it. My father suffered from asthma, so when I suffer from asthma I know this body comes from my father, with all its faults, flaws and errors. He was a diabetic, so am I. He loved to talk, and I have done nothing else all my life than talk. In every way I have been his son.

    He was a great father--not just because he was my father but because even though he was a father, he touched the feet of his son and became his disciple. That was his greatness. Books08

    I was worried about my mother when my father died. I could not believe that she would be able to survive. They had loved each other so much, they had almost become one. She survived only because she also loves me.

    I have been continuously worried about her. I wanted her to be near me just so that she can die in utter fulfillment. Now I know. I have seen her, I have seen into her, and I can say to you--and through you it will one day reach the world--she has become enlightened. I was her last attachment. Now there is nothing left for her to be attached to. She is an enlightened woman--uneducated, simple, not even knowing what enlightenment is. That's the beauty! One can be enlightened without knowing what enlightenment is, and vice versa: one can know everything about enlightenment and remain unenlightened. glimps02

    Although local authorities continue to create problems, in October 1979 the first sannyasins move to Saswad to set up a new commune. On Osho's birthday celebration 7,000 sannyasins visit for the day. Later, in March 1981, several ashram departments move there. Osho does not talk about this directly.

    Discourses: Bodhidharma

    In November 1979, Osho introduces one of his favourite masters, Bodhidharma

    I am ecstatic because just the name of Bodhidharma is psychedelic to me. In the long evolution of human consciousness there has never been such an outlandish Buddha as Bodhidharma--very rare, very unique, exotic. Only in some small ways George Gurdjieff comes close to him, but not very close, and only in some ways, not in all ways.

    There have been many buddhas in the world, but Bodhidharma stands out like Everest. His way of being, living, and expressing the truth is simply his; it is incomparable. Even his own master, Gautama the Buddha, cannot be compared with Bodhidharma. Even Buddha would have found it difficult to digest this man.

    This man Bodhidharma traveled from India to China to spread the message of his master. Although they are separated by one thousand years, for Bodhidharma and for such men there is no time, no space--for Bodhidharma Buddha was as contemporary as Buddha is contemporary to me.

    On the surface you are my contemporaries, but between me and you there is a long long distance. We live on different planets. In reality, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Pythagoras,

    Bahauddin, Bodhidharma--these are my contemporaries. Between them and me there is no gap either of time or of space. Superficially there is a one thousand years' gap between Buddha and Bodhidharma, but there is not even a single moment's gap in reality, in truth. On the circumference Buddha was already dead for one thousand years when Bodhidharma arrived on the scene, but at the center he is together with Buddha. He speaks the essence of Buddha--of course he has his own way, his own style, but even Buddha would find it strange.

    Buddha was a very cultured man, very sophisticated, very graceful. Bodhidharma is just the opposite in his expression. He is not a man but a lion. He does not speak, he roars. He has not that grace which belonged to Gautama the Buddha; he is rough, raw. He is not polished like a diamond; he is just from the mine, absolutely raw, no polishing. That is his beauty. Buddha has a beauty of his own, very feminine, very polished, very fragile. Bodhidharma has his own beauty, like that of a rock--strong, masculine, indestructible, a great power.

    Buddha also radiates power, but his power is very silent, like a whisper, a cool breeze. Bodhidharma is a storm, thundering and lightning. Buddha comes to your door without making any noise; he will not even knock on your door, you will not even hear his footsteps. But when Bodhidharma comes to you he will shake the whole house from its very foundations. Buddha will not shake you even if you are asleep. And Bodhidharma? He will wake you up from your grave! He hits hard, he is a hammer.

    He is just the opposite of Buddha in his expression, but his message is the same. He bows down to Buddha as his master. He never says, "This is my message." He simply says, "This belongs to the buddhas, the ancient buddhas. I am just a messenger. Nothing is mine, because I am not. I am only a hollow bamboo who has been chosen by the buddhas to be a flute for them. They sing; I simply let them sing through me." wlotus01

    While Bodhidharma was talking, his disciple must have been taking notes....

    For nearabout fourteen hundred years the notes were lying deep down in the earth. Just at the beginning of the century they were excavated. But if they had disappeared in the earth then too nothing would have been lost. Without them Bodhidharma's teaching has flowed, has blossomed in many people's lives. Through direct transmission from one master to another disciple, Bodhidharma's chain is still alive. The flame that he lit is still alive. There are still people who are gaining much from Bodhidharma's message. But still these words can be useful to you, not as words but as triggers for meditation.

    Speaking on Bodhidharma is just like speaking on myself. I don't see any difference, not at all. It is the same message. Bodhidharma is very close to my heart. This unique man, unique not only amongst men but unique amongst buddhas, is very close to my heart because of his uniqueness. He is a rare flower--wild, but very rare.

    Meditate over these words. Each word is pregnant. Each word is a seed. Each single word, if allowed to fall into the heart, can transform you totally. wlotus07

    In November 1979 a program of positive publicity begins with a theatre group, which later goes on tour. This is followed by music recitals by an orchestra, as well as fashion, art and craft shows. Osho does not talk about these directly; they are an expression of his teachings on creativity.

    Osho’s First Rolls Royce

    In December 1979, for the first time, a Rolls Royce conveys Osho to Buddha Hall for his discourse.

    You ask: What is so funny about Your driving to discourse in a Rolls Royce?

    There is a long story behind it! I was driving...I was coming in an Impala, and people like you started writing letters to me saying that, "This is a plumber's car!"

    I told Laxmi, "Change it!" So she bought a Buick--and people started writing to me that "This is a pimp's car!"

    So I told Laxmi, "Change it!" So she was bargaining for a Lincoln Continental. And people wrote to me, "This is good--this is a president's car!"

    I said, "That is worse--worse than being driven in a plumber's or a pimp's car!" So I told Laxmi, "Now, for a poor man like me, only a Rolls Royce will do!"

    Now, please don't make any objection to it...because coming from Lao Tzu to Buddha Hall, a helicopter won't do. Don't create troubles for me! dh0702

    I have been suffering because my sickness is not something that I can say I am cured of. It is allergy, so it can erupt any moment. Dust can create it, perfume--most dangerous. And there are a few things which I should not eat--any things which have acids. So if I just avoid them And in the commune everybody is aware of my trouble, so nobody will use perfume, nobody will come close to me if he has been smoking. Nobody will come to me if he has been perspiring, because any smell is enough to provoke it. And what it does is it starts breathing trouble; my breathing becomes abnormal, difficult.

    And then coughing starts. Then the coughing will continue at least for two hours to six hours. It is a problem in the night; then I cannot sleep. So this disease is such that I can never say I am cured. And I can never say that I am sick; only once in a while when something happens I am sick for a few hours. Otherwise I am perfectly okay.

    The second problem I had was my back. So my people have arranged for that too, because no medical treatment was helping. In India we had called experts from England who had worked their whole life only on backs, but they also said that, "This is strange."

    I knew that they would not help and I told them that, "The problem is, it is not a sudden thing--somebody slips and falls down and the back comes out. Then you can fix it. My problem is that I have been sitting in this kind of chair for almost thirty years. The chair changes but the shape remains exactly the same. So the back has got a certain curve, and if that curve is disturbed, then I am in trouble."

    I cannot sit on your chair. It is more comfortable, but my back will not fit with it. I can use only one car. I have used all the cars, the best in the world; the seat of just one car, one of the models of Rolls Royce, the Silver Spur, fits with me perfectly. It is not their costliest car; their costliest is the Corniche, then the Carmargue. And then the third is the Silver Spur. So I tried a Corniche--they didn't work, my trouble started. But with the Silver Spur it has settled completely. last224

    Osho blesses Indira Gandhi

    In January 1980, Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister

    You ask me, Karanjia*: You appear to have made a point of attacking the prime minister, Morarji Desai, and backing Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister, with all the spiritual power at your command. What is the background? Do you wish to replace Mr. Desai with Mrs. Gandhi?

    Yes. Absolutely yes. Again I would like to remind you that I have no personal attachment to Indira Gandhi. But she represents something far better than Morarji Desai represents. She has more progressive policies, a better vision of the future, and more understanding of the present. She is a contemporary woman, with immense intelligence and grace. She is not a faddist, she is not a dogmatist. She is flexible, open, vulnerable, ready to receive anything new, ready to understand anything that is happening in the modern world. Her doors and windows are open to the sun, to the moon, to the wind, to the rain.

    I have met both persons....

    While Indira Gandhi was prime minister, thrice she wanted to come to this commune. Thrice she informed us, "I am coming"--and again and again it was postponed. And the reason was that the people who were around her would not allow her. They said to her, "It is dangerous to go to Acharya Rajneesh; it will affect your political future."

    Even to come to see me seems to be dangerous. And I can understand: if she had come here, then all the shankaracharyas and all the pundits and all the priests would have been against her. So her advisers wouldn't allow her to come here. Again and again, she wanted to come.

    Even the desire to come, even the desire to be here and meditate and sit silently with me, shows a great openness. She has been reading almost all the books that are published, and she has been listening to the tapes.

    When I say it would be better if Indira comes back, I simply mean that I would like an open mind, contemporary, modern, humble, receptive to the new waves that are arising in the world so that this country also becomes contemporary and modern--which this country is not yet.

    I have great appreciation for her courage in implementing new programs even though those programs were against the traditional mentality of this country. I would like her to be back. In fact, anybody, any Tom, Harry and Dick, would be better than Morarji Desai....

    All politicians are evil. Then what should be done? Choose the lesser evil.

    Morarji Desai is a bigger evil than Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi is a lesser evil; that's why I say it will be better if she comes back. If I can find somebody else who is an even lesser evil than Indira Gandhi, then I am going to support him. But my support simply means a spiritual sympathy.

    I am not going to the masses to tell them to vote for this or that; I am not going into any activity. I have far better things to do: my energy has to remain involved with my sannyasins. I am here to create millions of mystics in the world. That's my sole purpose, and that's my joy and my celebration.

    On the margin I am going to comment on many things, but those are all just marginal things. And I am a spiritual person, not in the sense that I am against the world; I am a spiritual person because I rejoice in the world. The world is the manifestation of God.

    My whole teaching is: Rejoice--never renounce. Rejoice in the totality of life, the wholeness of it. Rejoice, and rejoice again. It is natural. People have always thought that spiritual persons have to remain far away from worldly affairs. To me, there is no affair which is worldly; all affairs are the same, all affairs belong to the one center. The ordinary life is also the extraordinary life. It is only a question of seeing, right seeing; then even pebbles on the street are transformed into diamonds.

    I love life in its totality, as it is. Politics is also part of it. It is not my concern--but because it is part of life, I am going to comment on it. unio208

    *Note: Karanjia is editor of the Blitz magazine

    A great meditative energy has to be released first. If millions of people become meditators then, slowly slowly, the structure of the energy on this earth will change--will start moving from the political mind to the religious mind. I am against the political mind, but I know that this cannot happen right now. It may take thousands of years. The

    beginning has to happen right now, the seed has to be sown right now. But the fruits will come only later on. You can become a non-political person right now, and your life will have a flowering. But as far as the whole earth is concerned, it is going to take time.

    What are we going to do meanwhile?

    I have blessed Indira Gandhi because to me she seems to be the least political amongst the Indian politicians. It will again look strange to you, because whatsoever has been said about her, spread about her, rumored about her, is just the opposite. But my own observation is this, that she has the least political mind. unio106

    Osho’s Jokes

    Osho has indicated that his discourses would become more illogical, irrational, more like poetry. Sometimes Osho's words in discourses and darshans are published in verse form. At this time he tells many jokes.

    Life is not economics, nor is it politics. It is a poetry, and the poetry is by its very nature, by its very definition, illogical. The poetry is beautiful because there are sudden leaps and jumps. The prose is not so beautiful, because there are no sudden jumps and leaps. The prose moves on plain ground, in a logical sequence.

    Sooner or later, when you are ready, I am going to drop talking in a sequential way. Sooner or later, when my sannyasins are ready, my talks will be more like a collage. You will have to find out what he means. You will have to find out your own meaning. I will say a few things, but I will go on jumping and I will not connect as I connect right now. Once you are ready--more attentive, more aware, more alert--I will not connect with logic, I will drop the logic. The unity will be there, but not on the surface. The unity will be there because they will all be my statements--the unity will consist in me. And the unity will be there because they are to be understood by your awareness--the unity will come in your awareness. But taken directly, if a visitor comes, he will think this man is mad. Right now I connect. I connect because I know you will not be able to understand the absurd yet. I am waiting for the day you are ready, so I can be as absurd as life is.

    Have you seen anywhere any symmetry in nature? It is not there. Man makes things in a symmetrical way. If he makes a house he makes it symmetrical. But in nature there is no symmetry. A great pine tree, and just by the side a small rosebush. And you cannot ask what is the connection between the rosebush and the pine tree. Existence will laugh; it

    will say, "Who said that there is any need for any connection? The rosebush is a rosebush and the pine is a pine--and both are happy. There is no need to bridge them."

    Sooner or later I am going to become just like life; I will say something and then I will forget about it and I will tell a joke which is completely unrelated. Then it is for you to work it out. Then it will be more beautiful, certainly more beautiful, because it will be more playful. That is the meaning of a collage, so many fragments from so many dimensions together. On the surface, no unity; but if you look deep there is an organic unity. That unity exists in the painter, not in the painting.

    If you really want to know the meaning of the poetry, you will have to go deep into the heart of the poet. For prose you need not go into the heart. Prose is plain, prose is worldly, prose is of the marketplace, prose is human. Poetry is divine. That's why all the great scriptures of the world are in poetry--the Upanishads, the Vedas, the Koran, Dhammapada. They are all poetry, beautiful poetry, outpourings of a singing heart. Logic, there is none; love, there is much. ecstas02

    You ask: Why are You not serious? Why are You always joking?

    God is not serious--what can I do? God is always joking. Look at your own life--it is a joke! Look at other people's lives, and you will find jokes and jokes and jokes.

    Seriousness is illness; seriousness has nothing spiritual about it. Spirituality is laughter, spirituality is joy, spirituality is fun. come07

    Just the other day one person has written to me, "You must be the first enlightened one who is telling jokes." Yes, that is true--at least I can claim that much originality! Otherwise it is very difficult to claim any originality in this world; there is nothing new under the sun. For millions and millions of years man has existed and thousands and thousands of enlightened people have existed; they have done almost everything that can be done. I was really searching what to do--something new! Then I stumbled upon jokes. I said, "This is right!" dh0408

    You ask: Are you pushing my pleasure button? When I sit in lecture I am all smiles and it takes me hours to wipe it off my face. You fool! Why do you try to wipe it off? I make so much effort to create it and you take hours to wipe it off! Never do it again--so that it becomes something permanent, something essential with you, something natural, something that surrounds you.

    But I know people are afraid of smiling, because if you are caught red-handed by others smiling for no reason at all, they think you are crazy. So people repress their smiles. That's why you must have been trying to wipe it off.

    But when I push the button I really push the button, and now I am going to push harder! You will not be able to wipe it off even if you make effort for hours or for days! Enjoy it!

    And what does it matter if people think you are crazy? Why be worried about it? There is nothing wrong in being crazy. Here, at least, everything is crazy!

    Just the other day somebody asked, "Osho, there are so many clocks in the ashram. Why do they all show different times?" Just crazy--cuckoo clocks! And if they all show the same time, then what would be the need for so many clocks? Then one would be enough! inzen05

    What I am trying to show you is this: that we laugh only when there is some reason which is forcing us to laugh. A joke is told, and you laugh--because a joke creates a certain excitement in you. The whole mechanism of a joke is: the story goes in one direction, and suddenly it takes a turn; the turn is so sudden, so drastic, that you could not have imagined it. Excitement grows and you are waiting for the punchline. And then suddenly, whatsoever you were expecting is never there--something absolutely different, something very absurd and ridiculous, never fulfilling your expectation.

    A joke is never logical. If a joke is logical it will lose all its sense of laughter, the quality of laughter, because then you will be able to predict. Then by the time the joke is being said, you will have reached the punchline because it will be a syllogism, it will be simple arithmetic. But then it will not have any laughter. A joke takes a sudden turn, so sudden that it was almost impossible for you to imagine it, to infer it. It takes a jump, a leap, a quantum leap--and that's why it releases so much laughter. It is a subtle psychological way to tickle you.

    I have to tell jokes because, I am afraid, you are all religious people. You tend to be serious. I have to tickle you so sometimes you forget your religiousness, you forget all your philosophies, theories, systems, and you fall down to earth. I have to bring you back to the earth again and again, otherwise you will tend to become serious, more and more serious. And seriousness is a canceric growth....

    Now, even medical science says that laughter is one of the most deep-going medicines nature has provided man with. If you can laugh when you are ill you will get your health back sooner. If you cannot laugh, even if you are healthy, sooner or later you will lose your health and you will become ill.

    Laughter brings some energy from your inner source to your surface. Energy starts flowing, follows laughter like a shadow. Have you watched it? When you really laugh, for those few moments you are in a deep meditative state. Thinking stops. It is impossible to laugh and think together. They are diametrically opposite: either you can laugh or you can think. If you really laugh, thinking stops. If you are still thinking, laughter will be just so-so, it will be just so-so, lagging behind. It will be a crippled laughter.

    When you really laugh, suddenly mind disappears. And the whole Zen methodology is how to get into no-mind--laughter is one of the beautiful doors to get to it.

    As far as I know, dancing and laughter are the best, natural, easily approachable doors. If you really dance, thinking stops. You go on and on, you whirl and whirl, and you become a whirlpool--all boundaries, all divisions are lost. You don't even know where your body ends and where the existence begins. You melt into existence and the existence melts into you; there is an overlapping of boundaries. And if you are really dancing--not managing it but allowing it to manage you, allowing it to possess you--if you are possessed by dance, thinking stops.

    The same happens with laughter. If you are possessed by laughter, thinking stops. And if you know a few moments of no-mind, those glimpses will promise you many more rewards that are going to come. You just have to become more and more of the sort, of the quality, of no-mind. More and more, thinking has to be dropped.

    Laughter can be a beautiful introduction to a non-thinking state. thund09

    And I have to tell jokes, because the things that I am saying are so subtle, so deep and profound, that if I simply go on telling you those things, you will fall asleep and you will not be able to listen or to understand. You will remain almost deaf.

    The profounder the truth I have to tell you, the worst joke I choose for it. The highest the truth I am trying to relate, then the lowest I have to go in search for a joke. That's why even dirty jokes...I don't bother. Even a dirty joke can be helpful--more so because it can shock you to the very roots, to the very guts. And that's the whole point! It helps you to come again and again to your alertness. When I see you are alert, I again go relating that which I would like to relate to you. When I see again you are slipping into your sleep, I have to bring in a joke again.

    If you really listen with alertness, there will be no need--I can say the truth directly. But it is difficult. You start yawning...and it is better to laugh than to yawn. trans302

    The insistence in the East is on god's sweetness, his loving qualities, his feminine face. In the East god is depicted as a dancer, as a lover, a flute player, a singer. He is not a very ferocious father-figure, sitting on a golden throne, just waiting for you to be caught and punished and thrown into hell, for small, tiny reasons...in fact, silly reasons that don't mean much.

    What great sins can man do? Somebody drinks alcohol, somebody smokes cigarettes, somebody plays cards and somebody has fallen in love with somebody else's wife--things like that. What do you call it in Italian? 'Peccadillos'?...

    Peccadillos? That's right...just small sins. God must be very mean if he counts these things, really mean.

    The Eastern concept is that god is love, sweet. Yes, god is your uncle. And god is not an earthquake but a flute player. From there you can start becoming more and more available to god. halle19

    love is juice

    we in the east have defined god

    as god has been defined nowhere else

    i have never come across a better definition and i don't think there exists any the upanishads say raso vai saha--god is juice this is a very strange definition sometimes i wonder

    i may have written that upanishad maybe in a past life otherwise who would do it?

    i cannot find anybody else doing it clapp13

    Osho recommends laughing at oneself rather than others; he often makes jokes about himself

    If you can laugh at yourself, everything is okay. People laugh at others, but never laugh at themselves. It has to be learned. If you can laugh at yourself, seriousness is already gone. It cannot make its abode within you if you are capable of laughing at yourself.

    In Zen monasteries every monk has to laugh. The first thing in the morning to do is to laugh, the very first thing. The moment the monk becomes aware that he is no longer asleep, he has to jump out of bed, stand in a posture like a buffoon, like a circus joker, and start laughing, laughing at himself. There cannot be any better beginning of the day.

    Laughing at oneself kills the ego and you are more transparent, more light, when you move in the world. And if you have laughed at yourself, then others' laughter toward you won't disturb you. In fact they are simply cooperating, they are doing the same thing that you were doing. You will feel happy.

    To laugh at others is egoistic; to laugh at oneself is very humble. Learn to laugh at yourself--about your seriousness and things like that....

    Let the laughter be a belly laughter, not a head-thing. One can laugh from the head: then it is dead. From the head everything is dead; the head is absolutely mechanical. You can laugh from the head: then your head will create the laughter, but it will not go deep in the

    belly to the hara. It will not go to your toes, it will not go to your whole body. A real laugh is just like a small child laughs. Watch his belly shaking, his whole body throbbing with it--he wants to roll on the floor. It is a question of totality. He laughs so much that he starts crying; he laughs so deeply that the laughter becomes tears, tears come out of him. A laughter should be deep and total. This is the medicine that I prescribe for seriousness. foll104

    What is Your message in short?

    Buddha's message in short is: Be a light unto yourself. And mine? Be a joke unto yourself! wisdom28

    What is your English--British or American?

    It is certainly not British. To be British is not easy. One has to be born British at least seven times. It takes a very long time to be British. And it is not American either because I am not a tourist. You know I don't even leave my room--what kind of American can I be?

    And why should my English be British or American? My English is my English--Osho English! And this is a democratic country and the constitution declares freedom of speech as one of the fundamental rights. I speak my own language. Why should I speak American or English? In fact, English is too uptight, it is too tense, and American has become too lousy--just the opposite; it is a reaction....

    So I simply speak whatsoever way comes to me, whatsoever way comes spontaneously to me. You will have to be a little patient with me inzen10

    Why did You decide to speak instead of writing Your philosophy?

    My spelling is far worse than my pronunciation! dh0910

    Beloved Osho, Don't You know how to count? One day after the fourth question You said, "Now the seventh question."

    It is really difficult for me. You should be happy that I don't say after the seventh, "The first question."...

    It is really difficult for me to count. I cannot count on my fingers. To keep my fingers at the back will be very difficult, and I don't have pockets! wisdom27

    Why do you make so many mistakes when you quote other people or refer to Biblical events or to scientific discoveries? I have answered this question many times myself in various ways. Now I would like to hear your answer.

    So allow me to commit a few more mistakes.

    First: my memory is marvellous.

    Mulla Nasruddin was talking to a man and he said 'My wife has a very bad memory.' And the man asked 'Do you mean she forgets everything?' Mulla Nasruddin said 'No, she remembers everything!'

    If Mulla Nasruddin's wife has a bad memory, I have a marvellous memory. I forget everything. And I enjoy this forgetfulness; I am not worried about it.

    Secondly: I am an ignorant person. I am not a scholar. I enjoy reading books, but I read the Bible, the Gita, the Koran just as one reads novels; they are ancient, beautiful stories. Krishnamurti says he never reads any scripture; he reads only detective stories. I read the scripture, but I read in the scripture just the detective story and nothing else. And I would suggest to Krishnamurti that it would be good if he should look into the Bible; you cannot find a more beautiful story full of suspense. Everything is there: love, life, murder; everything is there. It is very sensational.

    Scriptures, to me, have nothing special. Scriptures are as sacred as the trees and the rocks and the stars--or as secular. I don't make a distinction so I am not very serious about scriptures. The only thing I am serious about is jokes. So when I quote the scripture I quote from memory, when I quote a joke I have it written here in front of me. I never want to make any mistake about the joke--I am really serious. About everything else I am absolutely non-serious....

    Scholars become too serious. I am not a scholar and I have no respect for scholars. In fact my attitude is exactly the same as Mulla Nasruddin's.

    Once it happened:

    A man came to Mulla Nasruddin and said 'Nasruddin. have you heard? The great scholar of the town has died and twenty rupees are needed to bury him.'

    Mulla gave him a hundred rupee note and said 'Take it, and while you are doing it, why not bury five?

    'Remember, these scholars are very calculating and cunning people--bury them as deep as possible, otherwise they will come back. And if you need more money, come to me, don't be shy about it!' I am neither a scholar nor am I in any way respectful towards scholars or scholarship. That is all bullshit.

    I was reading a beautiful poem by E.Y. Harburg. A few lines are of tremendous import. Meditate over them.

    Poems are made by fools like me,

    But only God can make a tree; And only God who makes the tree Also makes the fools like me. But only fools like me, you see,

    Can make a God, who makes a tree.

    I am tremendously ignorant, and I am happy as I am, and I have no idea to improve upon myself. So if sometimes you are in an awkward situation: somebody says that 'Osho has said this and this is not correct'. It is your problem: then your Master is found faulty; you feel a little disturbed, your ego is hurt. As far as I am concerned I am perfectly okay. And I will continue to create problems for you! Now you find the answers: invent something, be a little imaginative or inventive. When I can invent so much, why can't you? You can find some esoteric, occult meaning in it. It is always easy: when you cannot find anything else, always try to find some esoteric, occult meaning in it--there must be....

    Don't be bothered too much about facts there are none, all are fictions. Remember, all are fictions, even my being here and your being here is a tremendous fiction. Nothing ever happens. Truth is. All that happens is fictitious; history is a fiction because whatsoever is, is... nothing ever happens there. God has no history and God has no biography. God only is, there is no 'was' and there is no 'will be'. There is no past and no future. tao110

    You say: I have heard that you sometimes make up questions to fit your jokes. Is this so? Please be truthful! It is very difficult for me to be truthful. I don't believe in anything, not even in truth! I am not a serious person at all! I believe in playfulness. So...how does it matter whose question it is? And do you think when you write a question it is better than when I write a question? And do you think that when you are writing a question you are really writing or am I writing through you?

    If I have to tell a joke tomorrow I can say something today and many questions will come tomorrow! There is really no need for me to write them--I can create questions in you; there is no difficulty. Otherwise, how do these many many questions come?

    But you seem to be serious. And I am serious only about jokes! I am not serious about anything else. That's why you never see me laughing at the jokes--I am really serious!-- because jokes are not a laughing matter. It is not a laughing matter. It is not a joke! It is one of the most serious things in life, in fact, the only serious thing.

    You ask me: I have heard that you sometimes make up...

    Sometimes! Always, every day! because whenever I come across a good joke I cannot wait for tomorrow. Who knows? Tomorrow may come, may not come. I may not be here, you may not be here--and the joke has to be told!...

    And you ask me: Is this so? Please be truthful!

    Even this question is invented by me! What more truth is needed to prove it? You have not asked it, but I have answered it! guida10

    You ask: I overheard someone say that you had problems--do you?

    Not one but many--you are my problems, one hundred thousand problems! And as sannyasins will be coming more and more, the problems will go on growing. Each sannyasin brings many problems. And I am here: you can surrender your problems to me. I can take all of your problems because I have none of my own. And because I have none of my own, you can drop your problems into me and they disappear. They have no place to cling to. They simply disappear into the abyss that I have become. fish15

    You ask: What did we do to deserve you as our guru, our master?

    I don't know anything about you, but I must have done terrible karma to deserve you! trans202

    Are You a black magician or a white magician?

    I am an orange one. dh0606

    Can a madman become a Buddha?

    Only a madman can become a Buddha! The so-called sane people at the most can become Buddhists but not Buddhas, they can become Christians but not Christs. Only a madman....

    My invitation is for the mad people of the world. I am a madman's guide to enlightenment! goose09

    What is Your dogma?

    Peter, I believe you must be a tourist here; otherwise you cannot ask such a question. I don't have any dogma. In the first place I don't like dogs at all! And 'dogma' means mother of dogs! Neither do I like any sonofabitch, nor do I like any mother of dogs! There are Christian dogmas and Hindu dogmas and Mohammedan dogmas, and what do they do? They go on barking at each other! I don't have any dogma at all. Even my kids understand it here, my small sannyasins. You can ask them. dh1206

    Do you partake of intoxicating beverages?

    How can I answer this question?--because before I answer I must know if it is an enquiry or an invitation! parad108

    Why are you called the Master of Masters?

    It is a difficult question. I had to look in the Akashic records, and not in the past Akashic records--because it is not recorded there--but in the future Akashic records. This is a future story. Listen carefully.

    It happened in Moksha, the ultimate resting place of the awakened ones. A journalist for the local newspaper, The Nirvana Timeless, was desperately seeking material to fill up the center page of the next edition which was due to appear in twenty-five hundred years. There was not much news around in Moksha, and soon he realized that he would have to make something up himself if the center page was not to be left empty again, as it had been for countless ages.

    Finally, he hit on the idea of choosing which of the many Buddhas, Arhatas, Bodhisattvas, Christs, Kutubs and other enlightened beings abounding in the lotus paradise was the Master of Masters--in short, a spiritual Mr. Universe competition.

    He summoned all the enlightened ones together and asked them to encapsulate in a short phrase the essence of their teaching, which would entitle them to the title of Master of Masters. There was, as usual, a deep silence which lasted a few hundred years. Finally a Zen Master stood forward and hit the journalist hard on the head. This was considered to be well deserved, but not very original.

    Another hundred years passed and then a Sufi stood up and began to whirl. Unfortunately he was out of training, and after a couple of months he fell flat on his face, causing some merriment among the Hassidic Masters, who had been surreptitiously pouring oil on the floor to bring the uppity Arab down.

    After some goading by Manjushree and Subhuti, Buddha slowly stood up and addressed the gathering in the following way: "There is no teaching and no one to be taught. There is no Master and nothing to master. Nothing can be said; there is no one to hear it." Then he held up a flower and Mahakashyap giggled as usual. Many applauded the Buddha, but to the journalist it did not appear like the kind of news which would help him to sell his paper.

    One after another the enlightened ones came forward to make their bids for the title. Moses gave a few new commandments. Bodhidharma stared at a wall for ninety years. Jesus made a mountain out of a molehill, and delivered a sermon from it. Diogenes displayed his suntan. Shiva and Parvati ran through one hundred twelve new positions they had invented. Gurdjieff drank twenty bottles of brandy, then walked on his hands on a tightrope over the plenum void, smiling with the left side of his face and grimacing with the right. Lao Tzu had a good belly laugh at all these antics. Mansoor would not stop shouting, "Ana'l Haq! Ana'l Haq!" and finally had to be put in a straitjacket and given a

    couple of valium. Vatsyayana gave himself a blow job to demonstrate existentially that sex and samadhi were manifestations of the same energy--and so on.

    It proved impossible to choose which of the awakened ones was the Master of Masters, since even the journalist had attained to choiceless awareness long ago. But the day seemed saved when Teertha, a relative newcomer from England, stood up and declared with typical British diplomacy, "The greatest Master is the one who has yet to come." Suddenly an Indian mahatma jumped to his feet and cried triumphantly, "Then that must be me--for I have been celibate for eighty-four million lives."

    By unanimous agreement the awakened ones decided that the mahatma's samadhi was not yet "seedless", and he was dispelled back to samsara to spill his seed once and for all.

    Just as the mahatma disappeared from sight, Osho came out of his room, where he had been sitting all this time, and made his way towards a small marble podium in the corner of the hall. A deathly hush gripped the audience, and even Mansoor shut up. If a look of dread could be said to cloud those tranquil eyes, this is what happened to the gathering.

    As Osho sat down and leaned towards the microphone, a cry arose from Mahavira, "Wait! Wait! We proclaim you Master of Masters! Now please go back to your room."

    Osho smiled innocently and left the hall. There was a sigh of relief.

    The journalist turned to Mahavira in consternation: "I don't understand. Why did he get the title? What did he do?"

    "Nothing," said Mahavira, "but last time he spoke here it took us seven hundred years to get him to stop, and send him to Poona!" ggate210

    Ethnic Jokes

    Osho teases sannyasins, and makes jokes about ethnic origins

    You ask: Are there great differences between the different races of mankind?

    Essentially there are no differences at all. Essentially there cannot be any differences. The whole of mankind is one species of being. But different races have evolved different qualities. They have lived in different climates, they have encountered different situations, they have passed through different histories; naturally they have learned to behave in different ways....

    So there are great differences on the surface--and the surface is all that comes in contact with others. Intrinsically no two human beings are different; in their innermost core all human beings are just human beings.

    So we have to understand both things. Essentially, all human beings are one, but accidentally they are not one. And it is not bad that they are not one. Variety is beautiful, it enriches the world, it makes the world more beautiful. It will be an ugly world where only Hindus live, where only Jews live, or where only Negroes live. It will lose all charm, it will lose all beauty.

    It is such a beautiful mess Italians and Polacks and the Germans and the French, and they all have their own ways, their own understandings, and they have all developed different styles.

    So although everybody, every human being belongs to one species, still we have been able to create a variety--different flowerings on the same bush. It makes the world really rich. I would not like to destroy these differences, I would like to enhance them--still with this understanding that human beings are human beings. Nobody is higher and nobody is lower; we should drop the idea of hierarchy, but variety is good. dh1208

    I love Italians--as much as I love others--but naturally many people are feeling jealous of Italians, for the simple reason that I am telling so many jokes about Italians. But the reason is not that I love Italians more than the Dutch or the Australians; the reason is simply that my librarian happens to be Lalita, an Italian, so she goes on finding Italian jokes for me! So rather than you desiring to be an Italian, just desire that I may get one assistant for Lalita from every country. In the new commune, I am thinking Lalita must have at least a dozen assistants! But beware of having this desire....

    Just the other day all the orange Italians and all the orange Polacks gathered together to decide who is really the greatest. Of course, there was no question of intellectual discussion. it had to be something existential! So they decided to go to the football ground by the side of the railway station and play football--whoever wins....

    For two hours everything happened--except football. Karate chops were flying and yoga was done and boxing and wrestling and Dynamic Meditation and Kundalini Meditation. And they had forgotten completely that they needed a few referees as well; there were no referees at all.

    After two hours even the football lying by the side started laughing! "What is happening?" Then a train passed by and hearing the whistle of the train the Italians thought the game was over, so they left the ground, thinking, "We are equal and the game is over."

    But the Polacks were bent upon winning, and now, because the sun was going down, the game became even more fierce. And finally after one hour's effort the Polacks were able to score one goal without the Italians, but that doesn't matter! dh1206

    Pope John Paul has stated recently that if a man looked lustfully even at the woman who is his wife he could likewise commit adultery in his heart. What do you say about it?

    What can be said about it? A Polack is a Polack is a Polack! Pope or no pope, a Polack remains a Polack. Now this is the ultimate in stupidity, one cannot surpass it: even to look at your own wife with desire is adultery! Then why in the first place one should get married? Just to commit adultery?

    In a way he has made a very difficult thing simple. One of Milan's newspapers seems to be far more wiser. The newspaper writes: "Life is hard for the adulterer--an endless round of cover-ups, tricks, juggling of the daily calendar and the need to buy useless and expensive presents for two women at once. Now the Pope has removed all these vows, because you can have infidelity in your own house!" This seems to be far more intelligent. It is really beautiful and juicy to have adultery with your own wife. A great idea!

    But these repressed people are bound to do such things.

    I have come to know that for the whole year, the whole past year, in his every weekly sermon he has been talking about sex--for the whole year condemning, condemning...Now why he should be so much concerned about sex, for one year continuously condemning? There must be something inside him, some wound which has not healed. ithat16

    You have sussed me out. Now is the time to tell my dreaded secret! I am one of Your Polacks. What to do?

    Prem Veechi, that's the most beautiful thing about Polacks I love and like. You are not the first Polack who has declared it. Asha wrote a note saying that, "Beloved Master, I am also a Polack." Anupama wrote a note saying that her lover, Amitabh, is a Polack. And many others. This is beautiful!

    And see what the British are doing. One British lady, Prem Lisa, has written saying, "We are superior so what can we do?"

    Veechi, it is beautiful to be a Polack. It is beautiful to be a little foolish, not so superior as the British. dh1202

    So many questions have come from British ladies and British gentlemen saying, "The British lady is just a myth and you should not be so interested in a myth. It is not a reality--the British lady exists nowhere." But these same people believe that the Polack exists, the Italian exists, the Jew exists. They are not myths, because when I am joking about Jews or Italians or Polacks, no British lady or gentleman writes to me that these are myths--they are realities.

    Now, no Jew, no Italian, no Polack is writing to me that the British lady is a myth. Why are only the British writing to me about it? Can't you see the point? And if it is a myth-- and I know it is a myth!--why not enjoy it? Why become so much worried about it?

    Somewhere deep down you believe it is not a myth, otherwise why? Have a good laugh and it is finished!

    But your concern to make me aware of the fact that the British lady does not exist...I know it! I am surrounded by British ladies! I have more British ladies around me than I have Jews or Polacks or Italians. I know it is a myth--but a beautiful myth! dh1203

    Nobody here wants to be forgotten. I am being reminded every day. The Australians are writing every day, "Have you forgotten us?" Norwegians, Swedish, Swiss, they are all writing letters, "Beloved Master, when is our turn coming?" dh1204

    People are shocked at Osho's Jokes

    Is there any joke that even you would not dare to tell?

    I have never come across any such joke yet. If you can find one, send it to me! To me all jokes are beautiful--the more outrageous they are the more beautiful--because my work here consists of shattering all your conceptions, your prejudices. So there is not a single joke that I have come across which I would not dare to tell. There is no question of daring--I simply enjoy! zzzzz09

    You say: In the past few days you have told some jokes that shocked me.

    But good--that at least one person is not asleep here. But you misinterpreted. It is natural because interpretations come from our own mind. He misinterpreted because he thought that they are crude and racist, because I joke so much about Jews.

    I love Jews! I am myself an old Jew, so it is difficult for me to forget them. They are the most beautiful people on the earth, hence so many jokes exist about them. And jokes exist because Jews are so intelligent. You joke only about a certain community because you cannot compete with it. The joke is a compensation.

    Jews are really intelligent, one of the most intelligent races in the world, and everybody feels incompetent with them--then you take revenge in your jokes. Jokes are very indicative. They don't say anything about the object of the joke, they simply say who has created the joke; they say something about who has created the joke. Wherever Jews exist people joke about them--because there is no other way to take revenge; in actual life they are far superior. It happens always.

    So your interpretation is your interpretation. You think that I am against Jews or something? I am a lover. But I can understand.

    You say, 'These are the stories I told when I was a boy. And when I told them it was with cruel intentions.' So of course you must be projecting your own cruel intentions on me. The stories may be the same, but the storyteller is not the same. Remember that, don't forget it.

    Ordinarily Buddhas have never joked. It is for the first time a Buddha is joking. It is something very new, so you are a little puzzled. But to me everything is sacred. There is nothing profane. From sex to sahasrar, I accept everything. My acceptance is total. My acceptance is absolute.

    So sometimes the joke can look crude, it can look obscene, but to me, nothing is obscene. Everything is just beautiful as it is. The obscene is an interpretation of the mind.

    Drop your interpretation. The shock is very good, but interpretation has to be dropped otherwise you will misunderstand me, and you will miss an opportunity....

    All my jokes are there purposefully to shock you, and those people who are very weak, weaklings, they have disappeared. They don't come to listen to me, they cannot come. Now only people who are courageous and who are ready to absorb these shocks can come close to me. But that is done knowingly. trans106

    Are You an anti-Semite?

    Levin, me? An anti-Semite? You must be crazy! dh1004

    I feel shocked when You use the word 'fuck'. What to do?

    It is one of the most beautiful words. The English language should be proud of it. I don't think any other language has such a beautiful word.

    One Tom from California has done some great research on it. I think he must be the famous Tom of Tom, Dick and Harry fame....

    He says:

    One of the most interesting words in the English language today is the word 'fuck'. It is one magical word: just by its sound it can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love. In language it falls into many grammatical categories. It can be used as a verb, both transitive (John fucked Mary) and intransitive (Mary was fucked by John), and as a noun (Mary is a fine fuck). It can be used as an adjective (Mary is fucking beautiful). As you can see there are not many words with the versatility of 'fuck'.

    Besides the sexual meaning, there are also the following uses: Fraud: I got fucked at the used car lot. Ignorance: Fucked if I know. Trouble: I guess I am fucked now! Aggression: Fuck you!

    Displeasure: What the fuck is going on here? Difficulty: I can't understand this fucking job. Incompetence: He is a fuck-off. Suspicion: What the fuck are you doing? Enjoyment: I had a fucking good time. Request: Get the fuck out of here!

    Hostility: I am going to knock your fucking head off! Greeting: How the fuck are you? Apathy: Who gives a fuck?

    Innovation: Get a bigger fucking hammer. Surprise: Fuck! You scared the shit out of me! Anxiety: Today is really fucked. And it is very healthy too. If every morning you do it as a Transcendental Meditation-- just when you get up, the first thing, repeat the mantra "Fuck you!" five times--it clears the throat. That's how I keep my throat clear! dh1104

    One Indian friend has written--his name is Iqbal Kureshi--he says: Osho, what you say between the jokes is beautiful, religious and spiritual, but the jokes destroy your image in the public eye. After all, what is the purpose of all these jokes?

    Iqbal Kureshi, that's exactly the purpose: to destroy the image! I don't want to be known as a saint--that's exactly the purpose. And I am not worried about what others think of me--I am not a politician. Only politicians are worried, continuously worried, about what others are thinking about them, because they have to depend on others--the others have the votes. I don't depend on anybody's votes, anybody's opinion. I am simply whatsoever I am. Why should I be bothered about my image?

    The very worry about the image is egoistic, but your saints are worried, I know that. I have known all kinds of your saints--Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Sikh Jainas, Buddhists--I have come across all kinds of your saints. They are far more political than your politicians, because this very idea is politics: what people are thinking, remain respectable. Respectability is nothing but nourishment for the ego.

    I don't want to be respectable. Either you love me or you don't love me; respect is simply meaningless. Respect and the desire for it is egoistic. So those who love me, they will love me as I am. I am not going to compromise, I am not going to accommodate. And I could create that accommodation so easily: I could not use a few words--'fuck' and 'shit'-- and I could become a saint. You see how cheap it is! But I am not interested in such cheap saintliness. If I am a saint then whatsoever I say is saintly; if I am not a saint then I may go on reciting the Gita and the Koran and the Vedas but I am not a saint, I am just a parrot.

    I am not interested at all in mirrors. I know my original face--and the original face is not known through mirrors. Public opinion is only a mirror.

    Iqbal Kureshi must be worried about my image. He says, "It puts your image upside- down." What is wrong with being upside-down? That's what they call in yoga sirshasan-- the headstand. And as far as I am concerned, I know that you are upside-down, so when you see me upside-down that simply means I am standing on my legs and you are standing on your head!

    The whole of humanity is standing upside-down, but because all are standing upside- down whosoever tries to stand on his feet will look upside-down--he will be a minority. The Buddha is always a minority.

    Iqbal Kureshi has asked in a friendly way...he must be in love with me so he is worried. He says: Whatsoever you say between the jokes is beautiful, religious and spiritual.

    I don't think so--that is really bullshit! Only the jokes are beautiful, religious and spiritual. But we cannot agree. I cannot agree with you because you are absolutely unconscious, and you cannot agree with me because I am absolutely conscious. We are living in totally different dimensions....

    He asks: What is the purpose of all these jokes?

    I also ask, "What is the purpose of all these religious and spiritual things that I go on saying?" Just old habit, I think. Otherwise there is no point! And sooner or later you will see--I will only tell jokes....

    But Kureshi is worried because he thinks the jokes are sometimes dirty. I have never come across a dirty joke. The idea of the dirty comes from your interpretation, otherwise what is dirty? If you think sex is dirty, then any joke which implies some sexuality becomes dirty. It is your idea that makes it dirty. To me sex is as sacred as anything else-- to me the whole of life is divine. And these so-called saints have always been telling you that the whole of life is divine, but it seems they don't mean it. I really mean it! ultima04

    Attempted Assassination of Osho by Hindu fanatic

    During morning discourse on 22nd May 1980, a Hindu tries to assassinate Osho

    A man threw a knife at me in the morning meeting...And it seems it was an absolute conspiracy, because just before the meeting, fifteen minutes before, the police informed the office, "Today there is a danger; a man is going to throw a knife at Osho. So twenty police officers should be allowed in."

    Now, this is stupid. If they knew that a certain man was going to commit a crime, they should have arrested him. Rather than that, they informed the office. As the story went on it became clear that it was absolutely a conspiracy. Those twenty police officers with loaded guns surrounded that man. The sannyasins thought that perhaps they were for our protection--that was wrong. They were for the protection of the man who was going to throw the knife. They were afraid that ten thousand sannyasins would kill that man if anything happened.

    And that man shouted--which is on record--"Shree Rajneesh, you are against Hinduism and we cannot tolerate your existence anymore." And he threw the knife at me. Because he was shouting I stopped and listened to him, what he was saying. It is on tape. He threw the knife from just fifteen feet away and it was strange, that the knife fell away from me-- eight feet away. Not only did it not touch me, it did not even touch anyone in the crowded Buddha Hall; nobody was touched by the knife.

    And then the police said, "It is a police case. We will arrest this man and bring him to the court."

    This was all strategy. You can see how politicians work--cunningly, inhumanely. They prevented us from putting a case against the man. They said, "There is no need. Ten thousand witnesses, his words are recorded, even the sound of the falling knife is recorded, and twenty police officers of high rank are witnesses--you need not be worried. It is going to be a police case. We will take him and produce him in the court."

    They took him away, presented him before the court, and the court released him, saying, "Such a thing has not happened at all." And because we had not put any case against him, then it was too late. The police managed it in such a way that they did not insist that the case happened.

    But I have been thinking about it: in such a crowded place even if a blind man throws a knife it is going to hit somebody. The knife behaved exactly like the rock and the elephant.* It was a police conspiracy and you can see the justice. When twenty police officers are present, when ten thousand people are ready to be witnesses; the knife is there, his shout is recorded, the sound of the knife falling on the floor is recorded....

    And what was the judge's reason to reject the case? The reason was, "If it was an attempt on Osho's life then why have they not brought the case? Why have they not reported the case to the police? And secondly, if a man was trying to murder Osho, those ten thousand sannyasins would not have let him go so easily." And we had not done anything because the police had prevented us, saying, "There is no need."

    Still, one of the most important criminal advocates of the supreme court of India, Ram Jethmalani was there--we had asked him to be present. He wanted to say something; the judge said, "You cannot speak, it is not your case." And certainly it was not our case. hari08

    *Note: refers to two attempts on Buddha's life which miraculously did not harm him.

    The Poona magistrate has given his judgment concerning the case of one madman who had thrown a dagger at me, obviously intentionally to kill me. He has freed him, and the reason that he has freed him, the most basic reason that he has given, is really worth consideration. I laughed at it, I enjoyed it!

    The reason that he has freed him is that if it was an attempt to murder me, then I would not have continued my discourse! Who can continue talking when somebody is trying to murder you? But he does not know me. I would have continued even if I had died--I would not have finished before ten!

    But he cannot understand, and I can understand him--he cannot understand. When somebody is trying to kill you, can you go on speaking the same way? His argument seems to be very valid. So what to say about the ordinary masses?--even an educated magistrate thinks in the same way. ithat08

    The magistrate must have felt guilty, seeing the whole thing. It was absolutely certain-- his own police officers were saying it, and ten thousand witnesses were there. The knife was there that the man had thrown. On the knife you could have found his fingerprints-- but nothing was done. No witness was called. The case was dismissed.

    The magistrate must have felt guilty.

    Through a common friend he informed me, "Please forgive me. There is so much political pressure and so much religious pressure on me, because that man belongs to a fanatic Hindu group and he has immense political power.

    "I am a poor man, and my promotion is due. If I do anything against him my promotion will be postponed forever. And they will send me to the ugliest, dirtiest place they can possibly find."

    In India you can find everything. There is a place, Cherapunji, where it rains five hundred inches in a year. You cannot get out of the house--it is always raining! Five hundred inches--that is the record in the whole world! Nowhere else does it rain so much. It

    simply rains the whole year! Nothing can be done. And whenever they want to punish somebody, they send him to Cherapunji.

    So he asked my forgiveness. I told the intermediary, "Tell him, don't feel guilty. I can understand--even without his saying--that the man who has tried to kill me has the support of the politicians, of the religious leaders. And don't lose your promotion--I have not lost my life! Don't be worried, you just get your promotion, get a better salary.

    "And as far as I am concerned, it does not matter whether I am killed or not. I have lived my live. I have enjoyed each moment of it, I have relished everything. I have never repressed any desire. What more can tomorrow bring me? There is no promotion for me.

    "I have experienced the ultimate; now, nothing more can happen. So life or death, both have become the same. And one day anyway I will have to die. This is far better."

    Ninety-nine percent of people die on their beds. That is the most dangerous place--just looked at mathematically, a simple calculation. Never sleep on the bed! Sleep on the ground. Ninety-nine percent of people have died on the bed--don't take the risk. But wherever you sleep, you will die--death is certain from the very moment one is born.

    And in fact, I am a nonserious man. I would love the drama--somebody killing me. dless29

    And the people of Poona are so orthodox, so prejudiced, so fanatic. It was not a coincidence that it was a man from Poona who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. Only Poona was capable to do that. Poona tried to assassinate me too. last610

    Just a few days ago a man threw a knife at me to kill me. Now, such a knife can be thrown only in India! When it fell just in front of me I thought it was a stone. My eyes are not bad, I don't need glasses yet: I can see very clearly. I thought it was just a stone--it looked so dirty! And when I saw the pictures of it I was very much puzzled--you could not even cut vegetables with it! This is the beauty of being in India. Now, in America or in Germany they would have done it with more sophisticated means. India is the best place at the moment to do my work, my kind of work. theolo02

    Ashram Security Increases

    In response to the assassination attempt and violence, ashram security is increased with extra guards, metal detectors and frisking before discourse

    The guards on the gate are for outsiders so that they cannot enter inside unless they are ready; the guards are not for the insiders to prevent them from leaving. That is the difference. In a jail the guards are for the insiders so that they cannot get out.

    Here there are guards, but they are not for the insiders. If somebody wants to get out he gets out with all my blessings. It was his decision to be in; it is his decision to drop out of it. He is a free soul. It is nobody else's business to impose anything upon him. dh0813

    If someone makes a noise during discourse, they are gently escorted outside where they can listen without disturbing others.

    You say: During lecture recently, I sometimes get this almost irresistable urge to jump up and down, wave my arms and sing or make noises. I am scared that one day I won't be able to contain it and I will cause a disturbance. What should I do?

    You need not worry. That is the responsibility of the guards! That is for them to think what to do. What can you do? If it becomes irresistible, if you cannot contain it anymore, what can you do? What can I do? That's why we have the guards, just to divide responsibility--that is their responsibility....

    What makes you so excited? So leave it to the Medical Center and to the guards, and don't bother me about such problems. Once in a while I expect such things to happen! theolo15

    One Indian friend has asked: When you say that not a single blade of grass moves but by God's will, why is there a metal detector and so many security arrangements here? It is because of his will! If not a single blade of grass moves, how can the metal detector move? It is so simple! If not a single blade of grass moves, how can so many guards move? But he thinks he is asking a very wise question. He must be thinking he is asking something which is unanswerable.

    You know nothing of God nor of his will, but you go on repeating cliches. You have heard these things and you start repeating them like gramophone records. You don't see the absurdity of it. If it is your understanding, the question cannot arise. The question is absolutely meaningless if it is your understanding. But it is not your understanding; somebody else has planted it in you. And all parents are doing it. and I am not saying that they are doing it knowingly; they are as unconscious as you are. These ideas have been planted in them by others, their parents, and so on and so forth. But you have to jump out of this vicious circle. ggate110

    Local Violence against Sannyasins

    Just the other day a young woman sannyasin was attacked by four Indians. Of course she screamed, and some sannyasins reached in time; otherwise they were going to rape her--

    they had torn her dress apart. And this is not just one accident, it has been happening every once in a while for almost six years.

    The Indian mind is so sexually repressed that it cannot love, it can only lust. And once the lust is there you start looking at everybody else in the same way; that is your language.

    When two Western sannyasins are hugging each other and the Indian--any Indian--sees them, the only idea in his mind is that of sex and lust; he cannot understand love. Not a single sannyasin from the West in these six years--and thousands have come, at least fifty thousand people come every year--has raped any Indian woman. But hundreds of attempts have been made by the Indians on Western women, and not only by ordinary people but even by police officers. Even to go to the police station is dangerous! Everywhere there are wolves--and these are very spiritual wolves, very religious! theolo15

    A sannyasin woman has her arm in a sling after being knocked down in the street by some hostile Indians. She says she is tired of violence around her and how to get rid of it.

    And violence is there. It is not around you; it is around everybody. Man has lived very violently; he has not lost his inner animality. Man is still wild inside; only on the surface does he look civilized. So violence is everywhere, the whole of life is full of violence. And where you don't see violence that is just a facade. If you go deep into it you will find violence there too. Even behind the name of love there is violence, so what to say about other things? But this is how life is!

    And you have to learn to live without violence in such a violent world. It is difficult to live sanely in an insane world but that is the only life there is and one has to find one's way to live through it. All that we can do is to never become violent against violence, because that is not going to help. Have deep compassion. If one has to suffer, one should suffer through compassion. And people who are violent are completely unaware; they don't know what they are doing. That's what Jesus has to say to the people; it is his last message to the world. He asks God to forgive these people because they don't know what they are doing.

    So one can pray, one can love and one can have compassion, but the violence is there. And you cannot change it because the world is so big; how can you change it? One has to accept it. With tears, but one has to accept it. And one can go on doing whatsoever one can do on one's own--a little bit, whatsoever one can spread. Spread your love. The world is like a desert but even if you can sow a single seed and only two flowers come to it, even that is something. In this vast desert land if two flowers or even a single flower comes up, that too is good.

    So don't be too concerned about it. Just be concerned about one thing: how you can love people who are violent and how to live in a world which is not sane at all. Find ways. And this is the whole effort here--through meditation, prayer, groups. These are ways to seek and search for some secrets so that you can go unscratched, uncontaminated by

    people's violence. But it is possible. The world will remain violent, you can become non- violent...and that is all that can be done. So don't be worried about it. opense10

    Just a few days ago a sannyasin, Meeten, was murdered. But he died beautifully, he died as a sannyasin. When he was murdered his last words were, "I can understand you--why you are killing me. I know that nobody has loved you in your life." He said these words to the murderer! "I know that nobody has loved you in your life and you are angry with society. You are not killing me, you are taking revenge on society. But remember, these are my last words," he said, "that I am dying with immense love for you. I love you!"

    These were his last words when he closed his eyes and died: 'I love you!' This is compassion! This is love!

    And the next day the huts of six sannyasins were burnt down. The sannyasins had come to the ashram and then somebody set fire to their huts. Now, nobody was caught red- handed and the police suspect that because there is a great antagonism among the Catholic Christians in Poona against me because I have spoken against the Pope and against Mother Teresa...the suspicion is that some Catholic hand is behind it. They cannot do harm to me, but they can do harm to my sannyasins; that is an indirect way of harming me. And these people talk about public service, serving the poor--all these murderers!

    If you look at the history of religion you will be surprised: all the religions have proved murderous. The whole history of man is full of blood because of these so-called religions and these so-called saints and these so-called enlightened people. zzzzz07

    Persecution of Osho

    I have come across people who are dead against me. They have not seen me, they have not read a single book, they have not listened to me, they don't know what I am doing and they are dead against me. Sometimes it is surprising. Even to be against, one has to come a little nearer, to know, to watch, to judge. They have not even seen me. They will not recognize me if suddenly they come across me. But they would like to kill me.

    What has happened to them? A deep fear--the volcano inside and the ego is sitting on top of it. And they are afraid to come near. Even to hear they are afraid; to read, they are afraid, because, who knows, you may be caught in the trap. So it is better to protect yourself and protect your ignorance. justlt06

    I receive letters and telegrams from all over the world. Just the other day Laxmi brought a telegram from Milan, Italy. This is the third from the same man, who goes on sending a message that "I want to kill you!" Now Milan is so far away, why he is so worried about

    me? And he means business--three times in a month he has telegrammed. I hope that he comes sometime.

    So many letters come, saying, "We would like to kill you." Why are people offended-- and offended by a man who never leaves his room? Why am I disturbing people in Milan and Berlin and New York and Delhi and Calcutta? Why?--for the simple reason that they feel hurt. dh0605

    The whole world goes on saying things about me. I don't even read them. Every day Laxmi brings hundreds of reports appearing in different languages from different countries. Who cares? If they are enjoying rumors, let them enjoy; they don't have anything else to enjoy in their lives. Let them have a little fun. Nothing is wrong in it, they cannot harm me. They can destroy my body, but they cannot harm me. And I have no image of my own; they cannot destroy that either. And I don't react, I act. My action springs out of my self, it is not to be manipulated by others. I am a free man, freedom. I act of my own accord.

    Learn the art of acting of your own accord. Don't be worried about criticisms and don't be interested in praises. If you are interested in being praised by others, then you cannot be unconcerned about criticism. Remain aloof. Praise or criticism, it is all alike. Success or failure, it is all alike. Aes dhammo sanantano. dh0210

    The more people become meditators, the more people become sannyasins, the less is the possibility of oppressing them, of exploiting them. And the orange people are spreading all over the world. It is an atomic explosion! Within six years thousands of people around the world have been transformed to a new vision, to a new lifestyle. They have been given back their individuality, their authenticity, their intelligence. Now nobody can exploit them.

    Hence it is certainly a rare phenomenon that I am condemned by Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Jainas, Sikhs, Parsis, Jews, everybody--I am condemned by the religious, the so-called religious--and by the politicians, by the journalists, by the so-called intelligentsia, the writers, the critics, because they are all part of a conspiracy against man.

    And I want to destroy that conspiracy totally. Only then can a new man be introduced on the earth. And the earth is waiting for the new man. The new man will be the salt of the earth. He will bring with him joy, dance, celebration. guida12

    Discourses: The Classic of Purity

    The Classic of Purity is one of the most profound insights into nature. I call it an insight, not a doctrine, not a philosophy, not a religion, because it is not intellectual at all; it is

    existential. The man who is speaking in it is not speaking as a mind, he is not speaking as himself either; he is just an empty passage for existence itself to say something through him.

    That's how the great mystics have always lived and spoken. These are not their own words--they are no more. they have disappeared long before; it is the whole pouring through them. Their expressions may be different, but the source is the same. The words of Jesus, Zarathustra, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Krishna, Mohammed are not ordinary words; they are not coming from their memory, they are coming from their experience. They have touched the divine, and the moment you touch the divine you evaporate, you cannot exist any more. You have to die for God to be.

    This is a Taoist insight....

    This profound insight is also one of the smallest treatises ever written. It is so condensed- -it is as if millions of roses have been condensed in a drop of perfume. That's the ancient way of expressing truth: because books were not in existence, people had to remember it.

    It is said that this is the first mystic treatise ever written down as a book. It is not much of a book, not more than one and a half pages, but it existed for thousands of years before it was written. It existed through private and personal communion. That has been always the most significant way to transmit truth. To write it down makes it more difficult because then one never knows who will be reading it; it loses all personal contact and touch.

    In Egypt, in India, in China, in all the ancient civilizations, for thousands of years the mystic message was carried from one person to another, from the Master to the disciple. And the Master would say these things only when the disciple was ready, or he would say only as much as the disciple could digest. Otherwise words can also produce diarrhea they certainly do produce it--our century suffers very much from it. All the mystics for centuries resisted writing down their insights.

    This was the first treatise ever written; that's its significance. It marks a certain change in human consciousness, a change which was going to prove of great importance later on because even though it is beautiful to commune directly, person to person, the message cannot reach many people; many are bound to miss. Yes, it will not fall in the wrong hands, but many right hands will also remain empty. And one should think more of the right hands than of the wrong hands. The wrong people are going to be wrong whether some profound insight falls in their hands or not, but the right people will be missing something which can transform their being.

    Ko Hsuan, who wrote this small treatise, marks a milestone in the consciousness of humanity. He understood the significance of the written word, knowing all its dangers. In the preface he writes: "Before writing down these words I contemplated ten thousand times whether to write or not, because I was taking a dangerous step." Nobody had gathered that much courage before.

    Ko Hsuan was preceded by Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu. Even they had not written anything; their message was remembered by their disciples. It was only written after Ko Hsuan took the dangerous step. But he also says, "Ten thousand times I contemplated," because it is no ordinary matter. Up to that moment in history no Master had ever dared to write anything down, just to avoid the wrong people....

    Ko Hsuan is simply writing it, remember it; he is not the creator of the treatise. He has also experienced the same truth because the truth is always the same whoever experiences it. Whenever one experiences it it is always the same, it does not change; time makes no difference. But what he is saying has been transferred by word of mouth for centuries, maybe for thousands of years. That's why we don't exactly know whose words they are. ggate101

    But when such great truths are put into language, difficulties arise because our language is made by us. It is not made by people like Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu, Ko Hsuan, it is made by the mediocre people the world is full of. Obviously, language is their invention and it carries their meanings, their attitudes towards life. So whatsoever you say is going to be somewhere inadequate--not only inadequate but deep down wrong also.

    This has to be remembered, and even more so about these sutras because these sutras were written originally in Chinese. Chinese is a language totally different from any other language, it is the most difficult language in the world for the simple reason that it has no alphabet, it is a pictorial language. Pictorial languages are the most ancient languages; they must have come from the very dawn of human consciousness, because when man is a child he thinks in pictures, he cannot think in words, so his language is pictorial. That's why in children's books there are so many colored pictures; the text is not much but pictures are many....

    And that's the difficulty with the Chinese language: it is a dream language, a pictorial language--each picture can mean many things. Hence there are translations of Chinese scriptures, many translations, and no two translations ever agree, because a picture can be interpreted in as many ways as there are people to interpret it. The Chinese language is only symbolic; it indicates. It is very poetic, it is not like arithmetic.

    If you remember this, only then will you not fall into the trap in which almost all the scholars have fallen.

    These sutras were not written in an alphabetical language so whatsoever is being said in these sutras is an interpretation. And I myself don't agree in many places; if I were to translate it it would be a totally different translation. I will tell you where I differ and why. ggate109

    If you can meditate, start from within, then look around and then look into things at their deepest core. First mind disappears, then form disappears, then matter disappears. Then what is left? That which is left is Tao, is nature. And to live in that nature is to live in freedom, is to live in eternal bliss.

    "Tao" is the word of Ko Hsuan for God. "Dhamma" is the word of Buddha for Tao. Buddha says: Ais Dhammo sanantano--this is the eternal law. Once you have seen the eternal law you become part of eternity. Time is transcended, space is transcended. You are no more and for the first time you are. You are no more as a separate entity, but for the first time you are the whole.

    This is my vision too. My agreement with Tao is absolute. I cannot say that about other religions; with Tao I can say it without any hesitation. Tao is the most profound insight that has ever been achieved on the earth. ggate109

    About Enlightenment

    Why does everybody think enlightenment is a joke?

    Sarito, it is! But only a child can ask such a beautiful question--Sarito is only twelve years of age. Enlightenment is a joke because it is not something that you have to achieve, yet you have to make all possible efforts to achieve it. It is already the case: you are born enlightened.

    The word "enlightenment" is beautiful. We come from the source, the ultimate source of light. We are small rays of that sun, and howsoever far away we may have gone, our nature remains the same. Nobody can go against his real nature: you can forget about it, but you cannot lose it. Hence attaining it is not the right expression; it is not attained, it is only remembered. That's why Buddha called his method sammasati.

    Sammasati means right remembrance of that which is already there. Nanak, Kabir, Raidas, they have all called it surati. Surati means remembering the forgotten, but not the lost. Whether you remember or not, it is there--it is there exactly the same. You can keep your eyes closed to it--it is there. You can open your eyes--it is there. You can keep it behind your back--it is there. You can take a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn and see it--it is there. It is the same.

    George Gurdjieff used to call his method self-remembering. Nothing has to be achieved, nothing at all, but only to be discovered. And the discovery is needed because we go on gathering dust on our mirrors. The mirror is there covered by the dust. Remove the dust, and the mirror starts reflecting the stars, the beyond. Krishnamurti calls it awareness, alertness, attentiveness. These are different expressions for the same phenomenon. They are to remind you that you are not to go anywhere, not to be somebody else. You just have to find out who you are, and the finding is not difficult because it is your nature-- just a little reshuffling inside, a little cleaning.

    It is said that when Bodhidharma attained enlightenment, he laughed for seven days continuously. His friends, his disciples, thought he had gone mad. They asked him, "Have you gone mad?"

    He said, "I was mad, now I have become sane. I have gone sane!"

    "Then why are you laughing?" they asked.

    He said, "I am laughing because I have been searching for thousands of lives for something which was already within me! The seeker was the sought, and I was looking everywhere else--I was looking everywhere except inside."...

    Sarito, in that sense enlightenment is certainly a joke. If you understand it, there is no need to seek and search; you can just close your eyes and find it. But this question coming from a small child is beautiful. The grown-up person will not be able to ask such a sane question. The grown-up person will ask, "What is enlightenment? How has it to be found? What are the right methods, ways and means? How should one live? What virtues should be cultivated? What prayers should be said?" And all those questions look very relevant.

    Sarito, your question does not look very relevant, but it is relevant, more relevant than any grown-up person can ever ask. Grown-up people ask questions which look good in the asking, but they are not really interested in asking an authentic question--they are afraid of asking the authentic question....

    Children have their own interests and they must be wondering, "Why? What is this enlightenment? And why are so many people interested in it? It must be some kind of joke!"

    In fact, it is a cosmic joke. It is God seeking himself. It is a game of hide-and-seek: God hides himself and then tries to find himself! Being alone, what else to do? come14

    Gunakar is one of my most beloved sannyasins. He is immensely talented...a keen intelligence, and an authentic search. He had come to me many years ago, and he has remained with me in many ups and many downs.

    The biggest problem with him was that he is a German, and a German finds it easier to be a master than to be a disciple, naturally.

    So while he was here with me in India he was intelligent enough to understand that he is not a master, and he worked as a disciple. But whenever he would go back to Germany, the trouble would arise: in Germany he would become enlightened.

    There are no outer criteria for enlightenment, so he would get a few Germans to support him also as the enlightened master. And once he got into the trip then it was not only that he would sit silently--that is very difficult for a German--he had to do something. Now that he was enlightened, he started enlightening the whole world: writing letters to prime ministers, presidents, all the ambassadors of all the countries, to the UNO, convincing them that except for enlightenment there is no way out.

    And when he would be going full-fledged, I would send him a message, "Come back to India because you have done enough. A little rest will be good." And coming back to

    India, his enlightenment would disappear. Sitting in front of me, he had to become a disciple again. He started feeling very strange because it happened once, twice, thrice....

    Then he said, "This is a strange thing. We think Osho helps people to become enlightened. I become enlightened when I am in Germany, and whenever I go back to Osho he finishes my enlightenment--I am back to zero!" So for almost six years, he had not come.

    Who wants to lose enlightenment? You come to me to be enlightened, and poor Gunakar had to come here to lose enlightenment.

    But a false thing is a false thing, an imagination is an imagination.

    You can brag, you can deceive, you can become a con man, but deep down you will know what you are doing.

    And finally he realized, in Germany, that once a man becomes enlightened he cannot become unenlightened; that is impossible, that has never happened in the whole of history--except to Gunakar. There is no other precedent. And he is intelligent enough and courageous enough; he dropped it himself. upan07

    Desiderata

    In August 1980, Osho comments on Desiderata of mysterious origin

    We enter today into one of the most beautiful worlds, that of a small document called the Desiderata. It is strange because it has appeared many times and disappeared many times; hence nobody exactly knows who wrote it. Truth has the capacity to appear again and again; because of human stupidity it is lost again and again too.

    The Desiderata seems to be one of the most ancient documents available today, but it is copyrighted by a poet, Max Ehrmann. In his book of poems it is also given as a poem authored by him, copyrighted in 1927 in America, although in the first edition he talks about the legend that this small document was discovered on a plaque installed in St. Paul's Church in Baltimore when built in 1692, but it was lost. There is no proof any more whether it was installed as a plaque in St. Paul's Church or not. The legend is there; it has persisted. It seems Max Ehrmann again had the vision of it. It came to him as a vision. He is not really its author but only a receptacle, a medium.

    This has happened to many other documents too. It happened in the case of Blavatsky's The Voice of Silence: she is known as the authoress of the book, but the book is very ancient. She discovered it in her meditations; it appeared to her.

    Many parts of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra are also very ancient, and the same is the case with Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat. Mabel Collins' Light on the Path is of the same category, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet also.

    I have looked into all Max Ehrmann's poems but no other poem has the same quality, not even a single poem. If the Desiderata was written by him then many more poems of the same quality would have flowed. It has not happened. In fact, the Desiderata seems to be so different from all his poems that it is impossible to believe that it has come from the same person.

    The same is true about Mabel Collins' Light on the Path. These are strange documents. The possibility is that they have always existed--again and again lost visibly, but truth manifests itself. Whenever there is a vulnerable soul, a receptive person, truth again starts flowing through him. And of course the person will think, "I am writing it."

    It is because of this fact that the Upanishads have no names of authors; nobody knows who wrote them, because the people who received them were very alert and aware. There were mystics, not only poets.

    This is the difference between the poet and the mystic: when something happens to the mystic he is perfectly aware that it is from the beyond, it is not from him. He is immensely glad; he rejoices that he has been chosen as a vehicle, as a medium, but his ego cannot claim it. In fact, you become a mystic only when you have dropped the ego. But the poet is full of the ego--not always but almost always. Once in a while, when he forgets his ego, he touches the same world that is the mystic's world. But the mystic lives there; the poet once in a while gets a glimpse of it. And because his ego is not dead he immediately claims it as his creation. But all the ancient seers were aware of it.

    The Vedas, the Bible, the Koran, the three greatest scriptures of the world, are known not to have been written by anyone. The Vedas are known as apaurusheya--not written by any person. Certainly somebody wrote them, but they are from God, from the beyond, from some unknown source. The mystic becomes possessed by it, he dances to its tune. He is no more himself--he is it. The poet once in a while gets a glimpse of it, a faraway glimpse....

    ...Once in a while the mystic is also a poet; that is a coincidence. Whenever it happens--as in the case of Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Mohammed--then we have something of the beyond available to us. But a mystic is not necessarily a poet; to be a poet is a different talent. One can be a mystic without being a poet, one can be a poet without being a mystic.

    When a mystic is a poet an Upanishad is born, a Srimad Bhagavad Gita is born, a Koran comes to the earth. But it is not always so. So many times it happens that the truth has to find the way through the poet because the mystic is not available.

    That's what happened with this small document, the Desiderata. No mystic seems to be available who can sing this song; hence Max Ehrmann is chosen to be a vehicle--but he is an unconscious person. He thinks he is writing a poem of his own; it is not his own, it has nobody's signature on it. And as you enter into this small document you will understand: it cannot be from a poet. It has the same quality as the Koran, the same quality as the Upanishads.

    It is also a strange document because in such a small space it says so much. It is really made of sutras--just a few hints. Nothing is said very solidly: just a few hints, fingers pointing to the moon. It is so small that after Adlai Stevenson's death in 1965 it was discovered that he had intended to send out the Desiderata as a Christmas card to his friends. It can be printed on a small card, a postcard, but it contains infinity--a dewdrop that contains all the oceans.

    It can be of immense help to you on the path; hence I call it Guida Spirituale. It begins: guida01

    New Phase: Osho Speaks His Own Truth*

    In mid December 1980 Osho announces a new phase: he will state his own truth. This he does in a new series, Philosophia Ultima, commentaries on Mandukya and Isa Upanishads.

    *Note: Osho introduced this new phase before going into silence, and continued it when he commenced speaking three years later.

    I don't agree with Jesus Christ. I have tried my best to agree with Jesus, with Buddha, with Patanjali, with Mahavira, with Lao Tzu. Now my new phase of work starts. I am fed up with agreeing, tired of it! So now I will simply say the truth. Enough is enough! ultima07

    It is a long story. The moment I became capable of seeing I started talking about truth as it is--naked. But nobody was ready even to listen to it. I was puzzled: I had found the original face, I had seen it, I wanted to share with those who were searching for it, but they were not ready to listen to it.

    For a few years I struggled hard, but then I saw that they were not wrong, I was wrong. They could not digest truth raw and naked; when you have been eating cooked food for many many lives you cannot digest raw food. I was wrong, they were not wrong.

    Then I started cooking things! Then I started saying things which they could digest. I became less and less concerned about truth and more and more concerned about the people who were to digest it; I had to see how much they could digest. And I had to prepare the food in such a way that it was sweet, not bitter, that it tasted good, it looked good. Whether it was nutritious or not, that was secondary. Who bothers whether Deeksha's cakes are nutritious or not? whether the ice cream is going to make you healthy or ill? Who bothers about these things? It tastes good. It may destroy you finally...

    And I was amazed--when I started serving cooked food people became very much interested and excited. That was a device: that's how I have been able to hook you all! Otherwise I was sitting on the riverbank day in, day out--not a single fish! Once I started

    serving cooked food--cooked according to your desires, not according to your needs. I didn't need to think at all about the truth in the beginning days, I forgot all about it. I stopped going to the river--the fish started coming to me on their own, walking long distances. So don't be too bothered about what I have said in my earlier works. I have said many things which I don't mean! What I am saying today is closer to truth than what I said yesterday, and every day it will become closer and closer to the truth. Before I am gone I will again have told you the naked truth. I had to take such a long route because there was no other way; I had to be very indirect. The moment I became enlightened I started telling people that there is no God--and they were shocked! Then I cooked it. I said, "There is God, but God is not a person, only a presence." This is cooked food. I am simply saying there is no God. But now it tastes sweet--no person, only a presence. But what else can you do? If people are foolish you have to be careful with them.... I wanted to say the naked truth from the very beginning, but to whom to say it? I had to drop that. For a few years I tried my hardest, but all the doors remained closed; nobody was even ready to listen. Then I changed the whole strategy, I became a little more diplomatic. Then whatsoever I wanted to say I started saying through Mahavira, through Buddha, through Zarathustra, through Lao Tzu, through Jesus. I continued to say things but I was using other people's names. And Christians became very much interested when I said the same things in the name of Jesus! Whatsoever I said in the name of Jesus is simply my own; it has nothing to do with Jesus at all. And if I meet Jesus there is going to be a great argument. They all must be waiting for me--let this guy come!--because I have been telling things in the name of Buddha which he never meant. but Buddhists became very happy. Fools are fools! The earth is so full of them. I started saying things in the name of Mahavira which are absolutely the opposite of what he said--because if I had to live with Mahavira in the same room, either I would leave or he would leave! We could not have tolerated each other. First, his smell. because he never used to take a bath. He was against taking baths because when you pour so much water on your body, so many small germs in the water die; that is violence. So he never took a bath.... One thing is certain: I could not have tolerated him in the same room. And he would not tolerate me either. He would simply go mad seeing my air-conditioned room my Rolls- Royce--he would simply go mad! He was an ascetic. According to me he was a masochist--now this is raw food!--he was torturing himself, he enjoyed torturing himself. And I am not a masochist or a sadist;

    neither do I want to torture myself nor do I want to torture anybody else. He was both, a sadomasochist: he was torturing himself and teaching people to torture themselves.

    But I have spoken on Mahavira. I had to play with words to manage my meaning in his words. It was a difficult task but I did it, and the Jainas were very happy.

    The same I have done with Krishna. I think my commentary on Krishna is the biggest in the whole of history. Lokman Tilak's commentary on Krishna, his Gita, was thought to be the biggest--it must be more than one thousand pages. But my commentary is twelve times bigger. And I don't agree with Krishna really! Whatsoever I have said--the words are his, the meanings are mine.

    But this can be done very easily with the saints who are dead. What can they do? And when we meet later on somewhere--if that meeting ever happens--then I can simply apologize; there is no problem in it. And I hope they will understand--because they themselves had done the same thing, and I am doing the same thing. There is no problem in it.

    So one thing: whenever you want to try to understand me, don't bring in what I have said in the past; that is not going to help. The latest has to be taken into account. And when tomorrow I say something, that will be even better. Before I enter into my grave, my last statement will be just the naked truth.

    But I had to take this long route for the simple reason that--whom to get hold of, with whom to share your experience? With whom? There are Hindus, there are Mohammedans, there are Christians, there are Buddhists, there are Sikhs, there are Parsis...not a single human being is available, all are already divided. The only way is to catch the Christians through Jesus and the Jews through Moses and the Hindus through Krishna. Once they are with me then they will be able to understand.

    And now I have found my people so I don't care much. Now I can start giving you my original experience. ultima15

    What I am doing here is pure Zen. I am helping you to get rid of your mind.

    Mind has many characteristics, many aspects. And each religion has chosen one aspect of the mind and made much fuss about it, has dragged that aspect to its ultimate, logical conclusion. This is something to be very deeply understood because it is fundamental for the understanding of the Zen approach....

    Zen is a transcendence of the mind. It does not develop any aspect of the mind, it takes you beyond the mind. And the only way to go beyond the mind is to enter into life hero and now. You are not to be a sado-masochist, you are not to be an escapist, you are not to be a fanatic, you are not to be a phony, a 'holier than thou', an egoist, you just have to be ordinary, utterly ordinary, in tune with life, harmonious with life....

    Zen is not a religion--drop that idea. Zen is not a church--drop that idea. Zen is a totally different approach. It is life; it is synonymous with life. It is living life with such intensity that your ego disappears in it, is burnt out, that you dissolve into life, that you are consumed by the fire of life. And only then can you know what a beautiful existence has been given to you as a gift. It is a sheer joy then, each moment...Each moment then is paradise. Paradise is now or never. zzzzz01

    The gods of the past are dead. And they cannot be revived again. They have become irrelevant to human consciousness; they were created by a very immature mind. Man has come of age. He needs a different vision of the gods, he needs a different kind of religion. He needs to be freed from his yesterdays, because only then can the tomorrow become possible. The old has to die for the new to be. revol01

    You ask: Why did You stop reading in 1980 and how do You stay informed on world events? I don't read any more. Otherwise I was perhaps the most educated man in the whole world. My own personal library was one hundred fifty thousand volumes, of immense value, and I was reading continuously.

    But then I began to speak my own truth and all those books started seeming rubbish. Slowly slowly they became meaningless. Once in a while one book may turn out to have some significance, but five years before (in 1980) I stopped reading. It was too much.

    You read one hundred books and one book sometimes turns out to be of any meaning. And that too is not going to increase my consciousness, my being.

    So for five years I have not read anything--no newspaper, no radio, no television. Once in a while if my sannyasins see a film which they feel has something significant, then I see it. But very rarely. last304

    Osho exposes Mother Teresa

    Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Prize for her charitable work in India, which Osho criticizes. At the end of December 1980, Mother Teresa writes to Osho.

    The politicians and the priests have always been in deep conspiracy, they have divided man. The politician rules the outside and the priest rules the inside: the politician the exterior and the priest the interior. They are joined in a deep conspiracy against humanity--they may not even be aware of what they are doing. I don't suspect their intentions; they may be absolutely unconscious.

    Just the other day I received a letter from Mother Teresa. I have no intention of saying anything against her sincerity; whatsoever she wrote in the letter is sincere, but it is unconscious. She is not aware of what she is writing; it is mechanical, it is robot-like. She says, 'I have just received a cutting of your speech. I feel very sorry for you that you could speak as you did. Reference: the Nobel Prize. For the adjectives you add to my name I forgive you with great love.'

    She is feeling very sorry for me...I enjoyed the letter! She has not even understood the adjectives that I have used about her. But she is not aware, otherwise she would have felt sorry for herself.

    The adjectives that I have used--she has sent the cutting also with the letter--the first is 'deceiver', then 'charlatan' and 'hypocrite'....

    Now I have criticized her and said that the Nobel Prize should not have been given to her, and she feels offended by it. She says in her letter, 'Reference: the Nobel Prize.'

    This man Nobel was one of the greatest criminals possible in the world. the First World War was fought with his weapons; he was the greatest manufacturer of weapons....

    Mother Teresa could not refuse the Nobel Prize. The same desire to be admired, the same desire to be respectable in the world--and the Nobel Prize brings you the greatest respect. She accepted the prize....

    That's why I have called the people like Mother Teresa 'deceivers'. They are not deceivers knowingly, certainly, not intentionally, but that does not matter; the outcome, the end result is very clear. Their purpose is to function in this society like a lubricant so that the wheels of the society, the wheels of exploitation, oppression can go on moving smoothly. These people are lubricants! They are deceiving others and they are deceiving themselves.

    And I call them 'charlatans' because a really religious person, a man like Jesus...Can you conceive of Jesus getting the Nobel Prize? Impossible! Can you conceive of Socrates getting the Nobel Prize or Al-Hillaj Mansoor getting the Nobel Prize? If Jesus cannot get the Nobel Prize and Socrates cannot get the Nobel Prize--and these are the true religious people, the awakened ones--then who is Mother Teresa?...

    The really religious person is rebellious; the society condemns him. Jesus is condemned as a criminal and Mother Teresa is respected as a saint. There is something to be pondered over: if Mother Teresa is right then Jesus is a criminal, and if Jesus is right then Mother Teresa is just a charlatan and nothing else. Charlatans are always praised by the society because they are helpful--helpful to this society, to this status quo.

    Whatsoever adjectives I have used I have used very knowingly. I never use a single word without consideration. And I have used the word 'hypocrites'. These people are hypocrites because their basic life style is split: on the surface one thing, inside something else.

    She writes: 'The Protestant family was refused the child not because they are Protestant but because at that time we did not have a child that we could give them.'

    Now, the Nobel Prize is given to her for helping thousands of orphans and there are thousands of orphans in the homes she runs. Suddenly she ran out of orphans? And in India can you ever run out of orphans? Indians go on creating as many orphans as you want, in fact more than you want!

    And the Protestant family which has been refused was not refused immediately. If there was no orphan available, if all the orphans had been disposed of, then what is Mother Teresa doing with seven hundred nuns? What is their work? Seven hundred nuns...then whom are they mothering? Not a single orphan--strange!--and that too in Calcutta! You can find orphans anywhere on the road--you find children in the dustbins. They could have just looked outside the place and they would have found many children. You can just go outside the ashram and you can get orphans. They will come themselves, you need not find them!

    Suddenly they ran out of orphans...And if the family had been refused immediately it would have been a totally different matter. But the family was not refused immediately; they were told, 'Yes, you can get an orphan. Fill in the form.' So the form was filled in. Till they came to the point where they had to state their religion, up to that moment, there were orphans, but when they filled in the form and wrote 'We belong to the Protestant Church,' immediately they ran out of orphans!

    And this reason was not given to the Protestant family itself. Now, this is hypocrisy! This is deception! This is ugly! The reason given to the family itself was that because these children...because the children were there, so how could she say, 'We don't have any orphans'? They are always on exhibition!

    She has invited me also: 'You can come any time and you are welcome to visit our place and see our orphans and our work.' They are constantly on exhibition!

    In fact, those Protestants had already chosen the orphan, the child that they wanted to adopt, so she could not say to those people, 'It is because there are no more orphans. We are sorry.'

    She said to them, "These orphans are being raised according to the Roman Catholic Church and it will be bad for their psychological growth because it will be such a disruption. Now, giving them to you will make them a little disturbed and it will not be good for them. That's why we cannot give the child to you, because you are Protestant."

    Exactly that was the reason given to them. And they are not stupid people. The husband is a professor in a European university--he was shocked, the wife was shocked. They had come from so far away just to adopt a child, and they were refused because they are Protestants. Had they written 'Catholic' they would have been given the child immediately.

    And one thing to be understood: these children are basically Hindu. If Mother Teresa is so concerned about their psychological welfare then they should be brought up according to the Hindu religion, but they are brought up according to the Catholic Church. And then to give them to Protestants, who are not different at all from Catholics...What is the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant? Just a few stupid things!...

    Just a few days ago there was a bill in the Indian Parliament Freedom of Religion. The purpose of the bill was that nobody should be allowed to convert anybody to another religion: unless somebody chooses it out of his own free will no conversion should be allowed. And Mother Teresa was the first one to oppose it. In her whole life she has never opposed anything; this was the first time, and maybe the last. She opposed it. She wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, and there was a heated controversy between her and the Prime Minister: 'The bill should not be passed because it goes against our whole work. We are determined to save people, and people can be saved only if they become Roman Catholics.' They created so much uproar all over the country--and the politicians are always concerned about votes, they cannot lose the Christian votes--so the bill was dropped, simply dropped....

    If Mother Teresa is really honest and believes that converting a person disturbs his psychic structure, then she should be against conversion unless a person chooses it by himself.

    For example, you have come to me, I have not gone to you. I don't even go outside the door....

    I have not gone to anybody, you have come to me. And I am not converting you to any religion either. I am not creating any ideology here, I am not giving you any catechism, any doctrine. I am simply helping you to be silent. Now, silence is neither Christian or Hindu nor Mohammedan; silence is silence. I am teaching you loving. Now, love is neither Christian nor Hindu nor Mohammedan. I am teaching you to be aware. Now, awareness is simply awareness; it belongs to nobody. And I call this true religiousness.

    To me Mother Teresa and people like her are hypocrites: saying one thing but doing something else behind a beautiful facade. It is the whole game of politics--the politics of numbers.

    And she says, 'For the adjectives you add to my name I forgive you with great love.' First of all, love need not forgive because in the first place it is not angered. To forgive somebody first you have to be angry; that is a prerequisite.

    I don't forgive Mother Teresa at all, because I am not angry at all. Why should I forgive her? She must have been angry. This is why I want you to start meditating on these things. It is said that Buddha never forgave anybody for the simple reason that he was never angry. How can you forgive without anger? It is impossible. She must have been angry. This is what I call unconsciousness: she is not aware of what she is writing,...she is not aware of what I am going to do with her letter!

    She says, 'I forgive you with great love'--as if there is small love and great love, and things like that. Love is simply love; It cannot be great, it cannot be small. Do you think love is a quantitative thing?--one kilo of love, two kilos of love. How many kilos of love makes it great? Or are tons needed?

    Love is not a quantity at all, it is a quality. And quality is immeasurable: it is neither small nor great. Whenever somebody says to you, 'I love you very greatly,' beware! Love is just love; it cannot be less than that, it cannot be more than that. There is no question of less and more.

    And what crime have I committed that she is forgiving me for? Just old Catholic stupidity--they go on forgiving! I have not confessed any sin, so why should she forgive me?

    I stick to all the adjectives, and I will add a few more: that she is stupid, mediocre, idiotic! And if anybody needs to be forgiven it is she, not I, because she is committing a great sin. She is saying in this letter, 'I am fighting through adoption the sin of abortion.' Abortion is not a sin; in this overpopulated world abortion is a virtue. And if abortion is a sin then the Polack Pope and Mother Teresa and company are responsible for it because they are against contraceptives, they are against birth control methods, they are against the pill. These are the people who are the cause of all the abortions; they are responsible. To me they are great criminals!

    In this overpopulated world where people are hungry and starving to be against the pill is just unforgivable! The pill is one of the most significant contributions of modern science to humanity--it can make the earth a paradise....

    I would like to destroy poverty, I don't want to serve poor people. Enough is enough! For ten thousand years fools have been serving poor people; it has not changed anything. But now we have enough technology to destroy poverty completely.

    So if anybody has to be forgiven it is these people. It is the Pope, Mother Teresa, etcetera, who have to be forgiven. They are criminals, but their crime is such that you will need great intelligence to understand it.

    And see the egoistic 'holier than thou' attitude. 'I forgive you,' she says. 'I feel sorry for you,' she says. And she asks, 'May God's blessings be with you and fill your heart with his love.' Just bullshit!

    I don't believe in any God as a person, so there is no God as a person who can bless me or anybody else. God is only a realization, God is not somebody to be encountered. It is your own purified consciousness. And why should God bless me? I can bless all your gods! Why should I ask for anybody's blessing? I am blissful--there is no need! And I don't believe that there is any God. I have looked in every nook and corner and he does not exist! It is only in ignorant people's minds that God has existence. I am not an atheist, remember, but I am not a theist either.

    God is not a person to me but a presence, and the presence is felt when you reach to the climax of your meditativeness. You suddenly feel a godliness overflowing the whole existence. There is no God, but there is godliness.

    I love the statement of H. G. Wells about Gautam the Buddha. He has said that Gautam the Buddha is the most godless person yet the most godly too. You can say the same thing about me: I am the most godless person you can find, but I know godliness.

    Godliness is like a fragrance, an experience of immense joy, of utter freedom. You cannot pray to godliness, you cannot make an image of godliness, you cannot say, 'May God's blessings be with you'--and that too with a condition: 'May God's blessings be with you during 1981.' Such misers! And what about 1982? Great courage! Great sharing! Such generosity!

    '...and fill your heart with his love.' My heart is full with love! There is no space for anybody else's love in it. And why should my heart be filled with anybody else's love? A borrowed love is not love at all. The heart has its own fragrance.

    But this type of nonsense is thought to be very religious. She is writing with this desire that I will see how religious she is, and all that I can see is simply that she is an ordinary, foolish person, just the same as you can find anywhere among the mediocre people.

    I have been calling her Mother Teresa, but I think I should stop calling her Mother Teresa because I am not very gentlemanly but I have to respond adequately. She calls me Dear Mr Rajneesh, so from now onwards I will call her Dear Miss Teresa--just to be gentlemanly, mannerly!

    The ego can come in from the back door. Don't try to throw it out. zzzzz13

    I have received a newscutting from Calcutta. The reporter says that he went to Mother Teresa with a cutting from a newspaper about my statement that she is idiotic. She became so mad she tore the cutting and threw it away. And she was so angry that she was not even willing to make any comment. But she has made the comment, tearing the newspaper cutting.

    And the reporter said, "I was puzzled. I asked that, 'the cutting belonged to me. I had just come to show it to you and to know your comment?'"

    And these people think they are religious people. In fact, by tearing the cutting she simply proved what I have said was right: she is idiotic--this is idiotic. I receive so many "compliments"--in inverted commas--from all over the world that if I start tearing them it will be enough exercise for me--and I hate exercise! wildgs10

    Religious Hostility

    Osho comments on the reaction to him of 'religious' people around the world, and exposes orthodox religions

    A new sannyasin has just written to me saying, "I am feeling very good here but when I go out, there are Christians who hand out pamphlets to me about Christianity, about Jesus, and they tell me that you are an anti-Christ. So what should I do?"

    It is natural. Christians are becoming afraid, because so many Christians are coming to me. The fear is natural, they have a vested interest. Hindus are afraid, Jainas are afraid; their fear is understandable. To take anybody from any group to which he has belonged is to offend the group, because their number is reduced. And number means power. In this world, the more people belong to your group, the more powerful you are. In the name of religion, much power politics goes on.

    So they will tell you that I am anti-Christ. They were telling Jesus' followers that Jesus was anti-Moses, they were telling Buddha's followers that Buddha was anti-Veda. That has been an old story; it is nothing new. unio110

    One bishop in England has written to one of my sannyasins who is also a priest--he is a chaplain at the University of Cambridge. The bishop has written to him: "We have heard that you have also become involved with this dangerous man, and this is not right for a Christian priest. Please explain." Our sannyasin--Chinmaya is his name--has written a beautiful letter to the bishop saying: "Listening to this man I became convinced that Jesus was a reality. Coming closer to this man, for the first time I became aware that Jesus is not a myth." Now, from a chaplain at Cambridge University, an important person...the bishop must be feeling very disturbed: 'What to do with this man?' And now Dynamic Meditation is being done in his church in Cambridge! inzen07

    Just the other day I received a letter from a Christian missionary, well-known all over the world. He writes, "Whatsoever you say is beautiful, logical, appealing, but still, you are an evil force because you are not a Christian, and Christ has said that many false messiahs will come, and you are one of those. And they will be very convincing and their words will look like truth, but it will not be true." The missionary asked, "Can you prove that you are the second Christ? If not, then you are a false messiah."

    Buddha is a false messiah then, because he is not a second Christ; and Krishna too, and Kabir, and Bahaudin--all are false messiahs. That's what Jewish rabbis were saying to Jesus!--that he is a false messiah. "Can you prove," they were asking, "that you are the messiah we have been waiting for?" They were asking for proofs. Jesus was not proof enough; they wanted some proofs, solid proofs, maybe a written letter from God saying, "Yes, I appoint him; he is not a self-appointed messiah, he is appointed by me."

    Jesus was present. They could not look at him, they could not feel him, they could not see him, they could not hear him, and they were asking for proofs.

    Now the same thing again?

    I am not a Christian. Certainly, I am not a Christian. Why should I be a Christian? My whole approach is either be a Christ, or don't be a Christ, but what is the meaning of being a Christian? Christ-consciousness is one thing; being a Christian is just a plastic flower. I am not a Christian. And I am not the second coming of Christ! Why should I be anybody else's coming? I come on my own. I am not anybody's carbon copy. Now the Christian is going to be against me, naturally. secret13

    You ask: Why are you being compared with Rasputin rather than with Jesus, Krishna, Mahavira or Buddha? Do you think that when Buddha was alive people were thinking that he was a god? Then you are wrong. Do you think Mahavira was worshipped by the people as a god? Then you are wrong. Of course, he was accepted by a few disciples as divine, but the major part of the society condemned him. They condemned Buddha, they condemned Krishna, they condemned Jesus, in the same way they are condemning me. In fact, in a roundabout way they are putting me in the same category with Jesus, Krishna, Mahavira and Buddha, by calling me Rasputin--because in their minds Rasputin is nothing but an evil spirit, a very powerful evil spirit. And of course, they are accepting one thing: that there is some power which is working here.

    Just the other day I received a letter from a sannyasin saying that a few months ago a television company had made a film of the ashram, and now a Christian priest is doing the commentary on it. And the sannyasin has seen the commentary and the film, and the priest is just stating lies, absolute lies. He has never been here. The film was made by the television company; the priest has never been here and he is commenting on the film, he is giving a running commentary on the film. So when in darshan people are moved, and they are dancing and they are singing and they go ecstatic, his commentary is: "Look! This is black magic! This man is an incarnation of the Devil. What he is doing is hypnotism, mesmerism."

    They are bound to compare me with Rasputin, just to condemn me. Once they have crucified me, the same people will worship me, but first they have to crucify me. And I am not in any way in a hurry--that's why there are so many guards and security arrangements. Naturally, twenty centuries after Jesus I am a little more alert about what they can do! Jesus was not alert about this, that they would go to such lengths. I know they can go--I know they will go--but I would like to linger on a little more so I can infect as many people as possible!

    So they will make every effort to destroy me--but because they cannot destroy they become enraged. Then at least they can write in newspapers and spread rumors--and I love it! I love all those rumors! Even respected newspapers, news agencies go on doing

    stupid things, but it creates sensation and they live on sensationalism. This is absolutely natural; it has to happen in this way. It can only happen in this way--this is inevitable.

    Only my people will understand what I am, and I don't care what others say--not a bit! In fact, I would like them to create as many rumors as possible, because their rumors bring people to the ashram--and once they are here I can always hypnotize them! Those rumors are bringing many people here. Once they are here their vision changes, their perspective changes. They start seeing that it is a totally different phenomenon: what is happening here is something totally different from what they have heard. What they have heard helps me because that becomes a contrast.

    If you come to me thinking that here is a Rasputin, and then you see and you listen and you sit in silence with me, suddenly the contrast is clear: where is Rasputin? Here is a simple man, talking in simple language, pouring his heart and his love sharing his joy, neither interested in any politics nor interested in any organized religion, only interested in one thing--how people can become more aware, more alert, more meditative.

    The priests are afraid--their business can be destroyed by me. The politicians are afraid because I can create, through creating consciousness, rebellious people. Hence they are going to conspire against me, but all their conspiracy is ultimately a help.

    It is my observation that truth cannot be killed. You can kill me, but truth cannot be killed. You can crucify Jesus, but how can you crucify truth? In fact, the crucifixion becomes a background in which the truth shines forth more clearly, more definitively than ever. So I enjoy their rumors. I never say anything against their rumors....

    But these fools are bound to do such things--this is expected. And I am not worried, because I have nothing to worry about. I have found that which is the fulfillment of my life. Now whether I am famous or notorious does not matter. Whether I am Rasputin or Buddha does not matter. A few people will think of me as Buddha, a few people, and the majority will think about me as Rasputin. That's beautiful.

    One thing I am certainly interested in is that everybody should think something about me! guida11

    You say: At this moment the Christian Broadcasting Company, NCRV, in Holland, has started a series of eight programs on spiritual movements entitled: Not To Be Believed. The producer-minister, Sipke van der Land, who has been here with his crew to film you and life at the ashram, called the first program: Bhagwan, Sex Guru from Poona....

    Because it is a Christian broadcasting company they must have come with prejudiced ideas, they must have come with a closed mind. They had come already with conclusions, hence whatsoever they say only shows something about them, nothing about me. And remember, their title is right: Not To Be Believed!

    They have received many letters--I have received many letters too--and there have been many comments in the newspapers in Holland. And almost all the newspapers have asked one question: that their whole program about me does not give any indication about the title, Bhagwan, Sex Guru from Poona. Their whole program has nothing to do with the title. People are meditating. People are sitting silently listening to me, people are working...It has no relationship at all with the program. What they have filmed and what they have tried to project is totally irrelevant! But they were not even aware, it seems, that the title has no relevance with the program--it has nothing to do with sex!

    And what this director has replied?--because the newspapers asked the director, "Why you have given such a title, which has no reference with the program at all? It shows a prejudiced mind!" So he has answered that, "That was our very purpose, that's our very purpose of a Christian broadcasting company: to expose everything that is not Christian." They are not concerned with truth--as if truth is Christian! Truth is neither Hindu nor Christian nor Mohammedan.

    And he should be reminded that Jesus was not a Christian himself! Christianity never existed in those days. Jesus was born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew! I may be a little bit of Christian--in fact, more Christian than Jesus!--but Jesus cannot be Christian at all. First they should condemn Jesus--why he was not Christian; that will serve their purpose more accurately.

    And they should make a film on Jesus. Jesus was moving with a prostitute, Mary Magdalene--must have been a sex guru! He was always in the company which this director would not approve of--gamblers, drunkards, prostitutes. He himself was a drunkard! He should make a film on Jesus. And there are rumors that he was a homosexual! I don't know how far they are true, but there is a possibility...because he was constantly moving with those twelve boys! And religious people are known, very well- known, to be homosexuals. Homosexuality is a religious phenomenon! When you keep men separate from women and women separate from men, homosexuality is a natural byproduct.

    He has also said in one interview to a newspaper, that "Bhagwan's sannyasins say that, 'We feel immense energy, that we feel the presence of Bhagwan transforming us.'" And he says, "I lived there for a few days--I didn't feel anything!"...

    But he had come with a particular idea. In a way it is good that people are becoming so much afraid of me. It is good: it shows that the impact is making them tremble. Holland is becoming one of my most important orange countries. Christians are becoming afraid-- it is good. Make them as much afraid as possible! Make everybody afraid of you! Let them all tremble--before they collapse! It is good... ithat02

    I have been in tremendous love with Buddha; I think there is no other man on the earth today who has loved Buddha as much as I. But just the other day I was reading in the newspapers: the president of the Buddhist Society of India is going to raise questions against me in the parliament in the coming session. I can understand, these people must

    be feeling very much offended because I am giving Buddha a new color--his color, Buddha's color. I am trying to bring his reality to you. And these people have distorted his image totally; they have made him look so sad, they won't allow him to laugh. If he laughs, they will raise questions against him in the parliament.

    I am offending people because I am trying to live religion not according to their ideas. dh0208

    Just the other day I received a very angry letter from someone who was here for a few days. He is the librarian in Dharamsala of the Dalai Lama's library--must be a scholar!

    He writes to me, "You are saying things which are not Buddhist at all. In Mahayana sutras," he quotes, "Mahayana scriptures, it is perfectly and clearly stated that one has to live life ascetically. And you are changing the whole color of Buddha--you are making him look as if he is a hedonist!"

    I don't care about the Mahayana sutras and the scriptures, but I know Buddha, I know his heart. I know that space from my own experience. I am not a scholar; in fact I have never read these sutras before! Every day I have to look at them and start talking to you. I am not concerned much with what Buddha said, but I know what Buddha would have said. I cannot believe that he was a pessimist. He believes, of course, in a totally different kind of life. He does not believe in the ordinary, unconscious life--dishonest, unauthentic, unloving, unmeditative. He calls that life misery, but only a certain kind of life he calls misery. True life cannot be misery, true life is bliss....

    But you cannot expect anything else from a scholar. A scholar is bound to be stupid, otherwise why should he be a scholar in the first place? An intelligent person will seek and search for truth. He will not bother about Mahayana sutras and scriptures. I have no respect for scholarship.

    And this man became very much disturbed, so much so that he has left already. If he had been here I would have hammered him a little more, but I received his letter just the other day when he had left. I hope that sometime again he will come, because to me the space of Buddha is a totally different space from what Buddhist scholars think it is.

    He said, "Whatsoever you are saying is illogical and against the scriptures." So far so good! If it is against the scriptures it must have some truth in it. If it is illogical then it must be closer to truth, because truth is illogical. Life is illogical. Those who think that life is logical are simply befooling themselves. Life is absolutely illogical because life contains contradictions and logic cannot contain contradictions. Logic is stupid. dh0907

    Whenever a Master arises, wherever, the priests are always angry, because when somebody starts speaking from the heart, the people who live in the head start losing their customers. Naturally, the priest is in business, he becomes very much angered.

    You will find millions of people angry with me. And a miracle! The Mohammedan priest is angry, the Hindu priest is angry, the Buddhist priest is angry, the Jaina priest is angry, the Christian priest is angry. This is a miracle! At least on one thing they agree: that I am wrong. That is their only agreement. Otherwise they don't agree on anything. Why should they be so much angered?--because whenever the real coin is there, the pseudo-coin starts feeling embarrassed. parad301

    People ask me why the society is against me. The society is not against me--I am anti- social. But I can't help it--I have to do my thing. I have to share what has happened to me, and in that very sharing I go against the society. ahthis01

    I cannot be supported by the society. It is a sheer miracle that I am existing, it is very illogical. I should not be here at all. The society does not support me, it cannot support me. In every possible way it will create--it is creating--hindrances for my work.

    Just the other day I was reading in the newspapers, one man has suggested to the government that I should be expelled from India. He must be a very religious man, because he says I am destroying religion. And he is not satisfied with just my expulsion-- he then suggests my tongue should be cut out, so that I cannot speak; and my hands should also be cut off, so that I cannot write. And he thinks he is a religious man! unio202

    Just the other day I was seeing the newspapers. One article suggests--a very religious person who has written the article--that Osho should be given electroshocks. This is Indian culture, religiousness, nonviolence, celibacy, great heritage, the country of the great seers--asking the government to give me electroshocks.

    The second article I saw yesterday was that I should be deported immediately. The third article was that the Indian government should throw me into the Arabian Ocean--not even in the Indian Ocean, because I may pollute the Indian Ocean. "Throw him in the Arabian Ocean, so if he pollutes, he pollutes the Arabs!"

    My suggestion is: all these three things can be done together; there is no need to do separately. First, give me electroshocks, then deport me and don't give me any passport, so of course I cannot go outside the country; and because you have deported me, then throw me into the Arabian Ocean. And this will save your country, your religion, your culture, your great heritage!...

    Not a single argument is said against me. Now, do you think these are arguments against me?--electroshocks, deportation, throwing into the Arabian Sea. these are arguments? Not a single argument is there. They are feeling very impotent, and out of their impotency great rage is arising. wildgs14

    Osho advises sannyasins on responding to negativity

    You ask: Working at Amitabh, your Amsterdam center, for the last few years, I have become aware that in our contacts with the media or government agencies we have been on the defensive and have been trying to be acceptable. Now the pressure is building up, specifically with the recent Dutch government inquiry into what they call 'sects'.

    It is coming to a point where becoming still more defensive would be a denial of our innermost experience. It feels that the time has come to be less accommodating, less compromising and less defensive. Could you give us your guidance, please?

    Anand Niketana, The most important thing to remember is truth cannot be defensive; it is against the nature of truth to be defensive. Just think: if Jesus has been defensive, then humanity would have missed all that is valuable. Truth has to assert itself. There is no need to be aggressive, remember that too. Truth is neither defensive nor aggressive, but truth has to be assertive....

    So, Niketana, you have been doing something wrong from the very beginning. There is no need to be defensive, there is no need to compromise, there is no need to be accommodating. it is better to be destroyed than to compromise, because when truth is crucified that's its victory, when truth is crucified it is crowned.

    So don't be afraid of crucifixion. It is beautiful to die on the path of truth, it is ugly to survive through compromising. Each compromise means you have fallen from the truth into the ditch of lies. What else can a compromise be?

    I have come across the news that the Dutch Government has made a commission of inquiry to investigate 'impartially' about sects. Now, this is sheer stupidity! How can they inquire impartially? And the people, the majority of the people, who have been appointed to the commission are Christian Democrats. Now, how can Christians be impartial? and they call it 'an inquiry into sects'. The very word 'sect' is condemnatory. Christianity is a religion--and my sannyasins are a sect, a cult! That is the beginning of prejudice. Now, how do you define a cult or a sect?

    When Jesus was alive, whatsoever he was teaching, and the people who were following him, were they a religion or a cult, a sect? Of course, in the eyes of the Jews--the established religion--it was a cult, a sect; it was not a religion. If it was religion, then Jesus could not have been crucified. A cult is something that takes you away from religion, that distracts you from the true religion, from the main path.

    Jesus was a cult when he was alive. Now, how can Christianity be a religion? If in the source it is a cult, if the seed is the cult, how can the tree be religion? And when Jesus was alive, then it was a cult, and now he has been dead for two thousand years and around his corpse a religion has grown. When Buddha was alive it was a cult, a sect; now Buddhism is a religion. So what is the definition?

    When the Master is alive, when he is living, when the truth is breathing, then it is a cult-- it has to be condemned. And when the Master is dead...and with the Master's death the

    truth disappears, because truth needs an embodiment. It is an experience; it has to exist in the person who has realized it. When the person is no more, the truth is no more.

    If Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Mohammed, while they are alive are only creating cults and sects, then the definition of religion is: the corpse of truth--rotten, stinking....

    So, Niketana, tell those fools there that "You are cults and we are a religion!" And make a commission of inquiry, because only my sannyasins can be impartial. Here are Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans and Parsis and Buddhists and Jainas; in my sannyasins all the rivers are meeting and merging. It is an ocean! Only my sannyasins can be impartial--how can these Christians be impartial? They have already shown their faces that they are Christians. They are already prejudiced that Christ is right, that the Christian dogma is right, that anything that goes against it is wrong. How can they inquire? Inquiry needs no a priori assumptions, no conclusions.

    So you can make, Niketana, a commission of inquiry to look into what Christianity has done in two thousand years. All kinds of crimes have been committed--murder, rape, arson--all kinds of crimes have been committed by these so-called religious people. In fact, they have proved the greatest calamity to humanity.

    Be assertive! Drop all ideas of being defensive! But you are still talking in terms of defence.

    You say: It feels that the time has come to be less accommodating, less compromising and less defensive. Less defensive or more defensive, less accommodating or more accommodating, less compromising or more compromising, is only a question of quantity. It is not a change of your vision, of your perspective. Change the whole perspective! It is not a question of less or more--simply drop being defensive. And don't move to the other extreme: don't become aggressive--but be assertive. Open up your heart, say the way you feel, explain it to the people the way you feel.

    You say: It is coming to a point where becoming still more defensive would be a denial of our innermost experience. Never betray your own innermost experience. If you betray it you are committing suicide. A person who kills himself physically is not really committing suicide, because he will be born again; he will have a new body that's all, a new model. But the person who goes against his own inner experience is committing a far deeper suicide--he is destroying his very soul. It is better to suffer; it is beautiful to suffer on the path of truth. Even death on the path of truth has a beauty of its own.

    And these governments are going to do the same thing everywhere, all over the world it is going to happen, because my sannyasins are now in almost all the countries of the

    world. Sooner or later everywhere the same problems are bound to arise. In Germany the government has appointed a commission, now it is Holland, soon it will be Italy, and so on and so forth. You are going to be tortured everywhere! That's how it has always been....

    So, Niketana, change your attitude totally. You are not to be defensive at all. But let me remind you again--because mind moves to polar opposites--I am not telling you to be aggressive, I am not telling you to be violent. I am telling you to be simply in the middle, exactly in the middle, neither defensive nor aggressive but assertive--standing naked in the sun, in the rain, in the wind and telling the world what sannyas is all about. ultima04

    You ask: I have heard that the German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, declared on television that sannyasins were very dangerous people for the state and society, and should not be engaged for public service or by respectable companies any more....

    I don't enjoy the idea of not getting a job because of my orange clothes or being molested by people on the street, as they very often become aggressive towards outsiders. You said that sannyasins are meant to be a provocation for the world, but do you want us to fight or to go underground?

    It is a good news! The politicians become afraid only when something really significant is happening--and they are becoming afraid all around the world. It is a good sign. It is immensely beautiful that my sannyasins are not being ignored. That's the ugliest thing that can happen to anybody.

    What the German Chancellor has said is right: sannyasins are very dangerous people! Religion is always dangerous; the moment it is not dangerous it is no more religion at all. Jesus is dangerous, Christianity is not dangerous--hence Christianity has nothing to do with Jesus. Buddha is dangerous, Buddhists are not dangerous. They have turned against their Master; they have compromised with the society--with all that is rotten, dead, traditional.

    It is bound to be so if you are trying to live life authentically, lovingly. Then the politicians are bound to be against. They have created a society which is based on hatred, violence, division, distrust, cunningness, hypocrisy. And to be religious simply means to be against all these things.

    To be religious means to live a life full of love, joy, innocence, freedom, individuality, to the extent that even if life has to be sacrificed for the higher values of freedom, love, truth, then one sacrifices it joyously. It is worth! Freedom cannot be sacrificed, bliss cannot be sacrificed, love cannot be sacrificed, and life is significant only if these things are flowering, blossoming. The moment these things are sacrificed there is no point in living. Then life is simply vegetating. (here Osho repeats what he said to Niketana above)

    My sannyasins will have to suffer, but suffering in itself is not bad, suffering in itself is not misery. If you are suffering because you cannot compromise, if you are suffering because you want to live your truth, it is a joy, it is a bliss. You have to become the very salt of the earth!

    And I know people believe the politicians. They will create all kinds of troubles for you, but I know only through those troubles you will grow. So whenever I hear that people are going to create trouble for you, secretly I giggle! I say, "Hee-hee!"

    You have also asked: And do you think it is cowardly that I am considering staying in India not only to be close to you but also to avoid these troubles? It depends. It is up to you to be clear. If you want to be here just to be close to me then there is no question of cowardliness, because here also you will have to face troubles--in fact many more...because the main troublemaker is here! I have always enjoyed mischief and I still enjoy--I don't want to hide it from you! From my very childhood I have enjoyed all kinds of mischief, and my enlightenment has not made any difference. At the most it has made my mischiefs a little bit enlightened, that's all, but the basic foundation remains the same. Of course I make mischiefs now on vaster, greater planes, my canvas is bigger, but I enjoy.

    So if you want to be here just to be close to me it is beautiful. but you will not be avoiding any trouble. In Germany you will be far better, because I have not heard yet that any sannyasin has been molested in Germany, raped in Germany, murdered in Germany, but in India all these things have happened. And many cases happened, because India is far more uncultured, far more uncivilized, far more irreligious than anybody else in the world, for the simple reason because Indians believe that they are religious. Their belief of being religious hides their irreligiousness. They are the greatest hypocrites in the whole world. But if you want just to avoid trouble, don't be here. Germany is far better.

    Secondly: if you are here only to avoid troubles there you will not be close to me; it will be a negative kind of closeness, and unless it is positive it is meaningless. If you are here to be with me, then it is perfectly beautiful. Otherwise, go to Germany and earn a positive relationship--accept the challenges there.

    And I am not for going underground--there is no need.

    Only in China and Russia I have allowed my sannyasins to remain underground. Now, two of my sannyasins from Russia are here. They have been underground there; somehow they have escaped. Only in China and Russia it can be understood that it will impossible to declare openly, but few Russian sannyasins are still doing it openly; they have found a beautiful way. If you are really ready, then you can always find a way.

    They are moving in red clothes and they say, "This is the color of communism!" And they are moving with a picture of mine in their malas and they say, "This is nobody but Karl Marx!" If one wants to find a way one can find a way! And they are enjoying, and I

    love the idea--nothing is wrong in it--because nobody knows about me so they think, "Maybe this is Karl Marx." And red is certainly a communist color so there is no problem about it. And you can always read my books hiding them inside Das Kapital, Communist Manifesto!

    But except China and Russia I will not allow underground work anywhere else. Remain above ground and give a good fight! And I am giving you so many weapons to fight. In fact, the people you have to fight with are already dead. Just a little push and they will fall flat on the ground. Much wrestling is not needed at all! They have been dead long... just they are standing there because nobody pushes them! wildgs02

    Osho's Books

    By 1981 there are over 240 books of Osho's discourses, and 46 darshan diaries, plus over 100 titles by foreign publishers, with translations into 13 languages.

    You may love to read a book which the Vatican has put on the black list. My books are on the black list. Even the books in which I have spoken on Jesus, and spoken very considerately so that nobody is offended--even those books!

    By mistake, one Christian press in England, Sheldon, which is owned by a Christian association, published my books. First they published The Mustard Seed, then they became interested in me. Then they published other books, and the Sheldon Press people became involved with me. They forgot they are part of the Christian association, they are owned by the Christians, and they are publishing the books which the Vatican has put on the black list! Eight books they published. Then it was made clear to them that there had been some mistake. Now they have dropped all the eight books, they have returned all the copyrights.

    Every year, the Vatican goes on putting together the black list, which books you should read, which books you should not read. Right now they cannot do what they used to do in the past: in the past they used to burn the books. In the basement of the Vatican, just in the basement of St. Peter's church, there is an immense library of all the books that they have burned in the past. One copy they have saved, but thousands. that means they have burned thousands of books, completely removed them from the whole earth. Wherever those books were found, they were burned. And whosoever resisted was killed or he was also burned with the books.

    In the library of the Vatican they don't allow anybody. That library should be taken over by UNO, immediately. It is not the property of the Vatican. And that library may reveal thousands of truths, inventions, discoveries which the popes down the ages have prevented from happening by burning the books. Now they cannot do that, but at least they can do one thing: they can publish, secretly, a black list. And they can put any book

    on that black list; then no Catholic is allowed to read it. If you read it you are committing a sin, a great sin--disobeying the pope, who is infallible. unconc26

    Just the other day a friend from Rome sent me a letter saying that the new Pope has released a five-page epistle, very stern, very hard, cruel. And the friend writes, "It seems that the epistle has been written keeping you in mind." Of course the name is not mentioned, but whatsoever is said seems to show that the Pope must have some idea of me in his mind. He must be reading The Mustard Seed, Come Follow Me... because he says, "There are people now on the earth who are claiming that their interpretation of Jesus is more right than the Vatican's interpretation. Beware of these people! Don't even listen to them and don't read them. If you read and listen to them you are bound for eternal hell."

    Now these people create a certain mind--but not a soul. Catholics have a certain mind, Mohammedans have a certain mind, Hindus have a certain mind. People who have no individuality start having a certain mind--the mob mind. bestil08

    The Protestant Church of Germany has circulated an order to all Protestant churches in Germany that my name should not be mentioned in any church. No books, no quotations should be quoted. That simply shows that they must be being used, people must be quoting me, otherwise why should they get worried? A committee was appointed to investigate and just the other day the West German government published a pamphlet to make people aware of the danger, particularly young people. The pamphlet says: "Although this man says that you need not leave the marketplace, that you need not renounce your home, your job, still people become so magnetized that they leave their jobs. And so many people are missing from Germany that it is not a small problem; it is taking on epidemic proportions."

    When a government becomes worried--and a faraway government. Seminars are being arranged all over the world, for and against me. I don't even go outside my room, but they cannot even ignore a man who just lives in his room, who never goes outside. I have even stopped walking in the garden--it may be objectionable to somebody! But this is, in a way, a good sign. inzen07

    I receive many letters from Russia. My books are being smuggled into Russia. People are reading, the books are moving from hand to hand, but underground. guest11

    There are nearabout fifty sannyasins in Russia, but they cannot wear orange, they cannot wear the mala--they cannot show that they are sannyasins. They meditate but they have to meditate underground in some friend's basement; they cannot make it public. They cannot publish a book of mine--and they want to publish books there. They have translated at least five books into Russian--handwritten, typed, cyclostyled. They are mixing with thousands of people, but underground. If even a single copy is seized they will be in trouble.

    Now, in such a society, how can you think of tackling the problems to change them? There is no freedom to think at all. And the same is true about Mao Zedong's China. come09

    I have spoken on many things in Hindi which I have not spoken on in English out of necessity, because it was not possible. And vice versa too. I have spoken in English about many things which were not possible to speak on in Hindi. My work has been a little strange. When all my books are translated from Hindi to English, and from English to Hindi, you will be even more bewildered than you are, more puzzled than you are--and I will have a good laugh. Whether I am in the body or not, it does not matter; I will have a good laugh, I promise it, wherever I am. I am bound to be somewhere in the cosmos. Seeing you puzzled, bewildered, shaking your heads not being able to believe, because I have spoken in both these languages in different dimensions... I only chose to speak in English because there is a dimension which cannot be expressed in Hindi. books05

    Death of Vimalkirti and his Mahaparanirvana

    In January 1981, Swami Vimalkirti, formerly Prince Welf von Hannover, dies from an hereditary condition. Osho announces that he died enlightened, and his Mahaparanirvana is celebrated.

    Just the other day one of our beautiful sannyasins, Vimalkirti, who belongs to the royal family of Germany, he is the great-grandson of the last German Emperor, suddenly collapsed. He was doing karate and his breathing stopped. His heart is functioning perfectly well, but the brain centre that controls the breathing is no longer functioning. There has been a haemorrhage; some blood has covered the breathing centre in the brain.

    I went to see him last night and although he is in a coma a part of him immediately felt my presence. When I touched him he responded. That response is not of the brain, that response is not of the body. The body is in a mess, the brain is no longer functioning, but man is more than the body and the brain. That something more, that plus, immediately danced with joy. I am part of him, he is part of me. In his life he is part of me, if he goes he is part of me. zzzz11

    Vimalkirti is blessed. He was one of those few of my chosen sannyasins who never wavered for a single moment, whose trust has been total the whole time he was here. He never asked a question, he never wrote a letter, he never brought any problem. His trust was such that he became by and by absolutely merged with me. He has one of the rarest hearts; that quality of the heart has disappeared from the world. He is really a prince, really royal, really aristocratic! Aristocracy has nothing to do with birth, it has something to do with the quality of the heart. And I experienced him as one of the rarest, most beautiful souls on the earth....

    The day he had the haemorrhage I was a little worried about him, hence I told my doctor sannyasins to help him remain in the body at least for seven days. He was doing so beautifully and so fine, and then just to end suddenly when the work was incomplete...He was just on the edge--a little push and he would become part of the beyond.

    In fact, that's the reason why I want one of the most modern medical centres to be in the commune. If somebody is just on the verge and can be helped medically to remain in the body for a few more days, then he need not come back to life again.

    Many questions have come to me about what I think of living through artificial methods. Now, he is breathing artificially. He would have died the same day--he almost did die. Without these artificial methods he would have already been in another body, he would have entered another womb. But then I will not be available here by the time he comes. Who knows whether he will be able to find a Master or not?--and a crazy Master like me! And once somebody has been so deeply connected with me, no other Master will do. They will look so flat, so dull, so dead!

    Hence I wanted him to hang around a little more. Last night he managed: he crossed the boundary from doing to non-doing. That 'something' that was still in him dropped. Now he is ready, now we can say goodbye to him, now we can celebrate, now we can give him a send-off.

    Give him an ecstatic bon voyage! Let him go with your dance, with your song!

    When I went to see him, this is what transpired between me and him. I waited by his side with closed eyes--he was immensely happy. The body is not at all usable anymore...The surgeons, the neurosurgeons and the other doctors were worried; they were asking again and again, enquiring about what I was up to, why I wanted him to be in the body, because there seemed to be no point in it--even if he somehow managed to survive his brain would never be able to function rightly. And I would not like him to be in that state. It is better that he goes.

    And they were worried about why I wanted him to go on breathing artificially. Even his heart stopped once in a while and then, artificially, his heart had to be stimulated again. His kidneys began to fail yesterday, his skull has been drilled--there was such a great swelling inside. This was something congenital; it was bound to happen--it was a programme in his body.

    But he managed beautifully: before it could happen he used this life for the ultimate flowering. Just a little bit had remained; last night even that disappeared....

    ...So today you will have to give a beautiful send-off to Vimalkirti. Give it with great laughter. Of course, I know you will miss him--even I will miss him. He has become such a part of the commune, so deeply involved with everybody. I will miss him more than you because he was the guard in front of my door, and it was always a joy to come out of

    the room and see Vimalkirti standing there always smiling. Now it will not be possible again.

    But he will be around here in your smiles, in your laughter. He will be here in the flowers, in the sun, in the wind, in the rain, because nothing is ever lost--nobody really dies, one becomes part of eternity.

    So even though you will feel tears, let those tears be tears of joy--joy for what he has attained. Don't think of yourself, that you will be missing him, think of him, that he is fulfilled. And this is how you will learn, because sooner or later many more sannyasins will be going on the journey to the farther shore and you will have to learn to give them beautiful send-offs. Sooner or later I will have to go, and this is how you will also learn to give me a send-off with laughter, dance, song.

    My whole approach is of celebration. Religion to me is nothing but the whole spectrum of celebration, the whole rainbow, all the colours of celebration. Make it a great opportunity for yourself, because in celebrating his departure many of you can reach to greater heights, to new dimensions of being, it will be possible. These are the moments which should not be missed; these are the moments which should be used to their fullest capacity. zzzzz15

    When Vimalkirti came to me and became a sannyasin I had no idea that he was the great- grandson of the German emperor--he never told me. He was a rare human being: being a part of the oldest royal family in Europe, he was just working as a guard in front of my house. You will be surprised--for years he was there, meditating, doing his work, but he never told anybody.

    When he died, only then did we become aware that he was the great-grandson of the German emperor....

    When he came to me and I asked him, "Vimalkirti, what work would you like?" he said, "You simply say--anything."

    I loved the man from the very first moment I saw him. He had a certain quality. So I said, "Okay, you be my guard, because you are so silent you will not create any disturbance. You just sit by my door."

    And he said, "I will remain grateful forever, because I would have never thought I would be so fortunate as to be so close to you. You will be sleeping just inside the door, and I will be sitting outside. You will be working inside, and I will be sitting outside. Just this closeness is enough for me; I don't ask for more. You have given me everything."

    You have to understand that in the world the program that says you have to do much to get anywhere is perfectly right. If you are after money, if you are after position, power, then you have to do much. But if you are just to realize yourself, you have not to do anything, because you have got it already. Just a relaxed moment, a peaceful moment

    when your mind is not wandering anywhere and just settles within itself--in that settling is liberation. socrat01

    Vimalkirti was a rebellious spirit. He married out of love--Turiya, a commoner. The whole family was against it--not just his own family but many families in Europe, royal families, because it is against their tradition. And naturally, because they're all connected, Vimalkirti became almost an outcast.

    If the empire had still been there, Vimalkirti would have been the emperor of Germany. His mother is the daughter of the Queen of Greece. She is also the sister of England's Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip. She must have other sisters, other brothers, who have entered into other royal families. They were all against it, they tried hard to stop Vimalkirti from marrying Turiya. But he was a man of integrity and intelligence. He could not understand the superstition. Nobody, no expert, if given few samples of blood can find out which is the royal blood. Blood is blood.

    And when Vimalkirti and Turiya came here, that was really outrageous--that the great- grandson of the German emperor, the oldest royal family in Europe, should become a sannyasin and be a bodyguard of a beggar like me who has nothing of his own. They have been so furious that when the Queen of Greece died--and she had become the Queen Mother because she had so many children; almost all the royal families had become connected through her children--her last words were, "Somehow bring Vimalkirti, Turiya and their daughter back from that dangerous man."

    But Vimalkirti died--and he died because this stupid idea of royal families marrying. Then you are really marrying your sisters, your brothers--they are all closely connected. And the closer is the connection, the more dangerous; this is the finding of modern science, medicine, physiology, chemistry. Marriages should be between people who are as far away as possible; then children are healthier, more intelligent, more beautiful. Otherwise, certain diseases go round and round in twelve or fifteen families....

    Still the mother, and later on the father who came, were angry at me. Their whole anger against Vimalkirti turned towards me. They were consulting legal experts about how they could sue me in the court for the death of their son. They had to stop that, because they would have given me a chance to prove to the whole world that this nonsense of royal marriages should be banned.

    They stopped suing me because Vimalkirti had died from a disease that he had inherited. Just after a few days, his uncle died in the same way--suddenly fell unconscious, brain hemorrhage, and finished. And later on, I came to know that their grandfather had also died in the same way. For no reason, no disease--just from nowhere the brain hemorrhage, and the man is gone.

    They stopped suing me, seeing the situation that I would bring into the court: Your father was not my sannyasin, Vimalkirti's uncle was not my sannyasin. Rather than suing me,

    take care of yourself because you will be dying in the same way, it is only a question of time. The disease is inherited. mess108

    Prince Charles is deeply interested in meditation. He is also interested in exploring the inner world. But in the West, unfortunately, such people are thought to be a little crazy--a little loony....

    When he was in India, he had specially called Vimalkirti and his wife, Turiya--they both were my sannyasins. Vimalkirti was one of his cousins. Vimalkirti was the great- grandson of the German emperor, and he was directly connected to Prince Philip; Prince Philip was his mother's brother.

    He talked for hours about me, about meditation, about what is happening here. Vimalkirti and Turiya both invited him to come; he was very interested, but very afraid of the royal family. He was specially told by Queen Elizabeth not to go to Poona. He went to see the shankaracharya, he went to see Mother Teresa, but Queen Elizabeth was more afraid of Poona than anything. golden35

    World Expansion of Osho’s vision

    Recently there has been a move to spread Osho's vision around the world. The sale of books, audio and video tapes has moved to USA. Sannyasins overseas are encouraged to support the meditation centres and communes. There are programs to train new group leaders. In March 1981 a one-day event is held in London: therapists trained in the ashram lead meditations and group structures, which is very successful. This is followed by similar events in other capitals in the world.

    My effort is not only to create the buddhafield here but to create small oases all over the world. I would not like to confine this tremendous possibility to this small commune only. This commune will be the source, but it will have branches all over the world. It will be the root, but it is going to become a big tree. It is going to reach every country, it is going to reach every potential person. We will create small oases; we have started creating small communes, centers, all over the world.

    Almost two hundred small families are functioning all over the world, but this is only the beginning. Thousands of communes are bound to happen once this commune has become really and totally established. It is going to create such an impetus, it is going to create such a longing all over the world, that we will have many many communes all over the world. And wherever my sannyasins are together, I am there. Wherever they will sit in meditation, my presence will be felt.

    So first we have to create the root, and then the branches. The whole world cannot come here, but we can send our messengers, our apostles; we can send our branches far and wide. We can cover the whole earth. We are going to cover the whole earth! dh0606

    The time has come when thousands of communes can erupt, explode all over the world. And that's what I am intending to do by creating so many sannyasins and then sending them back to their countries so that thousands of communes start functioning.

    I would like to create a chain of communes all around the world, so this commune does not remain only one oasis in the vast desert but becomes interlinked with many communes. That type of interlinking has never been done before; that will be new. Communes have always existed, but many communes functioning all around the world was not possible before; it is possible only today. Science has made it possible. The world is now so small, it is almost like a village, a global village. Man has come so close that now this possibility exists.

    I have got two hundred thousand sannyasins working all around the world, two hundred communes slowly growing. Soon there will be thousands of communes all around the world, and this will be the first chain of communes surrounding the whole globe! And the possibility of their success is becoming more and more than it was ever before, for the simple reason that science has come to such a growth that unless religion also reaches to the same point, humanity is doomed. Everything has become lopsided. It was never so before, in fact just the opposite was the case.

    Buddha's commune was far more advanced than the technology and the science of Buddha's day. Mahavira's commune was far more advanced, far ahead than the society, than the inner growth of man; there was a big gap. Now the gap is there, but it is a totally different gap. The society, science, technology, have gone far ahead than man's inner growth. Now the society and the science and the technology have prepared the ground; we can use this opportunity. We can help man come to the same growth, and that will he a balancing thing. All those communes in the past created an imbalance; they were out of tune. They were far ahead of their time, hence they were doomed to fail.

    But this time we can hope we may succeed, for the simple reason that we are not going against or too ahead of time. Time is ready and ripe and we are in tune with it. Only we are in tune with it; the whole society is falling behind--the modern technology, the modern science. All your so-called churches, religions are far behind modern science.

    What I am doing here is a very balancing phenomenon. Now religion can exist on a far higher level than it has ever existed, because science has provided the right background. And moreover, science has created a tremendous fear in the world that science can destroy the whole humanity. And now the only hope is that religion can save it. And when it is a question of survival, millions of people are bound to become interested in meditation because only meditation can save them; nothing else can save. If man remains the same and science goes on developing, then the very developing science will become a mountainous burden on man.

    It is a well-known fact that somewhere in the past, one hundred thousand years back, there were huge animals, far bigger than elephants, ten times bigger than elephants. What happened to those huge animals? They suddenly disappeared from the earth; only their skeletons are discovered. What calamity happened? No calamity from the outside, but they became too huge. The burden of their bodies became so much that they could not carry it; they became incapable from inside. Their inner being remained very small and their outer body became too big; it lost balance.

    The same is happening today with man: his inner soul is too small and his outer technology, his science, has become too huge. It can bring a Third World War, a total war, because it is a question of life and death; it has never been such a question before. There is a hope that religion can explode, and millions of authentic seekers are searching for it.

    We can create a chain around the world of such communes, and the whole world can be transformed into a Buddhafield. Then only there is a possibility of a communism arising out of love and arising from the highest sources, from the Everests--not a dictatorship of the proletariat, but a trust, a surrender to a Buddha. And out of that trust and surrender a totally new kind of communism can be given birth.

    In that sense I am for communism--but communists will be very much against me because if my type of communism succeeds then their type of communism is bound to fail. ithat15

    And if you cannot feel your own truth how can you share it with others? And that is the basic purpose of our coming into the world--to bring something of god from the beyond and share it.

    It has to be rediscovered. We have to destroy all the barriers that have grown around it. And that's the whole process of sannyas: sannyas means a total process of deconditioning. Whosoever someone is--Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, German, Japanese--it does not matter; we have to decondition him. The Christian will have to be deconditioned as well as the Hindu, as well as the Mohammedan. We will have to destroy all that has grown around your natural self. And once all the barriers are removed a great joy arises. Suddenly one recollects who one is and what one's purpose is here.

    In that very moment life becomes significant because you have come to your own truth-- and that is god's message. Then you can share it with others, then you can also help others.

    My effort here is to create as many sannyasins as possible so they can be spread all over the world and they can start triggering many many people into self-discovery. I am not creating a church or a creed, I am simply emphasizing a process. If one passes through that process one will come to one's own natural self. That is our truth, and that's also god's truth, because truths cannot be separate; our truth and god's truth are the same.

    Truth is one, but first it has to be discovered within oneself, only then can we see it in others too. And if you can discover it within yourself you can help others because the process is the same. thunk28

    You ask: Do you have a message for sannyasins and friends gathering at the Cafe Royal, London, for the "March Event"? My message, Anand Poonam, for the March Event in London, where thousands of sannyasins are gathering together for the first time to celebrate a new opening: the British Buddhafield... This is my message, tell them: Get rid of the past and the future, and live herenow! It is suicidal to live anywhere else than herenow, because each moment that is passing is precious, so precious that you cannot get it back. Don't waste it!...

    I say to you, there is no other God than life, hence the question of choice does not arise at all. Live! Live totally, live passionately, live intelligently, live lovingly. Become a flame so intense, so total, that each moment starts having the flavor of eternity....

    My sannyasins have to live as individuals. I am not giving you any discipline, because every discipline creates perversion, every discipline only fits to the person who evolves it. Just look at all the disciplines that have been propounded down the ages...

    My approach is of freedom. My sannyasins should live a life-affirmative philosophy, accepting, respecting whatsoever one is, not creating shoulds and should-nots. They are ugly, they are monstrous!...

    Anand Poonam, tell my British Buddhafield sannyasins...

    Be natural, be simple, be ordinary! There is a danger... because once you become a sannyasin you can start having an old, holier-than-thou outlook. My sannyasins are not to be holier-than-thou. Remember, I don't make any distinction between the sacred and the profane. To me the ordinary life is the only life. Yes, there is a way to live it with beauty or ugliness, with insight or blindness, with awareness or unawareness. One can live this same ordinary life in such an exquisite, extraordinary way that it becomes sacred, but there is no other life than this. You have to learn the art of transforming this very ordinary life into something beautiful.

    So don't become theologians, don't become missionaries. I hate missionaries! My sannyasins are not to be missionaries. Be contagious, but not missionaries! Infect people, but don't be missionaries!...

    Be simple, be natural, be spontaneous. I teach ecstasy--and ecstasy in the ordinary life. The life has not to be in any way renounced but transformed. Renunciation is escapism, it is cowardliness. And you have worshipped cowards as saints up to now. You have worshipped people who were not courageous enough to accept all the challenges of life. And there are millions of challenges--every moment there is a challenge. The coward escapes. The coward has to be condemned, not respected.

    My sannyasins have to live in the world, totally in the world, responding to every challenge, because the more you respond to the challenges of life the more intelligent you become. Intelligence is like a sword: the more you use it the more it remains sharp. If you don't use it, it starts getting rusty, it loses its sharpness--it becomes absolutely useless.

    Hence your saints look dull, dead. But we have been conditioned to respect these dead corpses. We have been told for thousands of years that these are the real people. They are not real at all! They are very plastic, very phony. A coward can never be a real person. Reality needs all the challenges of life, all the dangers of life, all the insecurities of life. Only then integrity arises, authenticity arises, responsibility arises.

    Be in the world but don't be of it. Live in the world, but don't allow the world to live in you. That's my message.

    There is a Zen saying:

    The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflections. The water has no mind to receive their image. The wild geese has no desire to cast its reflections in the water, and the water has no desire or no mind to receive its image--although it happens! When the wild geese flies, the water reflects it. The reflection is there, the image is there, but the water has no mind to reflect and the wild geese do not hanker to be reflected either.

    This should be the way of my sannyasins. Be in the world, live in the world, live totally, without ambitions, without desires--because all desires distract you from living, all ambitions sacrifice your present. Don't be greedy, because greed takes you into the future; don't be possessive, because possessiveness keeps you clinging to the past. A man who wants to live in the present has to be free of greed, of possessiveness, of ambitions, of desires.

    And that's what I call the whole art of meditation. Be aware, be alert, so all these thieves have no possibility to enter and contaminate you. Be meditative, but be in the world. And this is my experience: that the world helps immensely--it helps immensely to make you meditative. It gives you all the opportunities to be distracted, but if you don't get distracted then each success becomes a tremendous joy. You remain centered, you become the center of the cyclone. The cyclone goes on roaring around you, but your center remains unaffected.

    Be a lotus flower. In the East the lotus flower symbolizes the essence of sannyas. The lotus flower grows in the mud, dirty mud. It does not escape, it remains there. It floats in

    the lake in water, but there is a beauty, a tremendous phenomenon: it is in the water, but the water never touches it. It is so velvety that in the morning if you go... and you will find dewdrops gathered on the petals of the lotus, on the leaves of the lotus, and they shine like pearls in the early morning sun. But they are not touching. The lotus leaf or the lotus petal remains dry, it does not become wet. The dewdrops rest there, but they remain separate.

    That's the way of a true sannyasin: being in the world but remaining untouched, unaffected by it.

    Anand Poonam, when meditation--and this is what I call meditation: being in the world and remaining untouched--happens, love comes as a byproduct.

    These are the pillars of my sannyasins: first, life-affirmation, unconditional life- affirmation--these are the four pillars of my temple--second, meditation; third, love; and fourth... cannot be expressed in words. It can only be called the fourth, turiya. If you live life totally, meditatively, lovingly, you come to experience something which is inexpressible. Lao Tzu calls it Tao, Buddha calls it Dhamma, Jesus calls it Logos: different names indicating towards the nameless experience. If you prefer you can call it Cod. My own liking is to call it "godliness", not "God", because God gives you the idea of a person and godliness simply gives you the idea of a presence.

    These are the four pillars of my temple, and each sannyasin has to grow these four pillars because each sannyasin has to become a temple of godliness. wildgs01

    Osho will go into Silence

    You say: Your talk seems to get more and more crazy from day to day. That's my feeling. Is the day coming closer when you will not talk at all? It is absolutely impossible for me to predict the future. Who knows? Everything is possible! You see...? Any moment! But one thing can be said: before I stop talking completely I will start talking more and more in a crazy way. That is what I call heart-to- heart talk! zzzzz08

    Can silence be heard and understood?

    Only silence can be heard and understood. Words can be heard but only superficially, and can be understood--but only intellectually. Silence is heard existentially and is understood from your innermost being. It is a total understanding.

    I can see why you have asked the question, because ordinarily we understand only words. We are prepared to understand only words, not silence. We are educated to understand language and all its complexities. Nobody helps us to go beyond language, to go beyond words, to reach the wordless space within us.

    The society is against it, because if you can hear silence you will not be a part of the crowd mind, of the collective mind. You will become an individual immediately. And an individual is a danger to the state, to the church, to the society. An individual is always dangerous, because an individual is nothing but rebellion. His very presence is a risk for all the vested interests, for the establishment. The establishment wants you to be obedient: he wants you to understand the orders. The establishment wants you to be slaves, servants--efficient, of course, but not too intelligent; just intellectual, not intelligent.

    Silence is the explosion of intelligence. Silence means: inside you, you are just spaciousness, uncluttered spaciousness. Silence means you have put aside the whole furniture of the mind--the thoughts, the desires, the memories, the fantasies, the dreams, you have all pushed aside. You are just looking into existence directly, immediately. You are in contact with existence without anything in between you and existence. That is silence.

    And to be in tune with existence even for a single moment--is enough to make you aware of many things. One is that you, are deathless, and the person who is deathless cannot be forced to be a slave. He would rather like to die than to become a slave. He would rather like to risk everything than to risk his freedom because death means nothing to him....

    The moment you understand that you are eternal, all fear disappears. And the society exists through exploiting your fear; hence, it teaches you from the school to the university, it devotes almost one-third of your life in learning words, language, logic. It is not concerned at all that you should understand silence. That's the function of a Master: to undo all that the society has done to you, to help you to go beyond words.

    And you can experience it happening here--you can hear the silence. And when you hear it, there is immediate understanding. Understanding comes like a shadow following silence.

    To understand words and to hear words is very simple. Anybody can do it; just a little education about language is needed, nothing much. But a tremendous transformation is needed to hear silence and to understand silence. Silence is the basic requirement of understanding God, the basic requirement to know truth....

    Silence can be profane too. Silence can be sacred too. Silence has as many nuances, as many dimensions as your being has. It is multidimensional, and it is tremendously pregnant.

    Being here with me, being a sannyasin, can be defined very simply as learning to be silent--sitting in silence with me. I am using so many words for the simple reason so that words can give you the gaps. I can simply sit here...one day I am going to do that, when I will be just sitting with you.

    It is really a torture for me to talk. I would like as quickly as possible just to sit silently with you. But if you are not ready to understand it, you will fall asleep: you will start dreaming, you will start dozing away. You will not be able to understand it.

    My words keep you awake, and just between the words I give you gaps. And those are the real, essential things. Waiting for another word, you have to listen to silence. I tell you one joke, that wakes you up, then just searching for another joke. Not that I have to search for it--I know where it is. And it does not matter much, any joke will do, I can manage--but just searching for another joke, you are awaiting breathlessly, utterly silent. even though sometimes Monkeyjibhai Desai comes with his colleagues on the roof and they start doing their thing.* But you are not distracted; in fact, those monkeys help you to become more silent, more alert, so that you cannot miss any word that I am going to say to you.

    All this situation is being used to hand over to you few pieces of silence. It will look very strange to the newcomers that I am talking just to make you able to hear silence and to understand silence. But that has been always the way of the Buddhas.

    The day you are ready. and slowly slowly many people are getting ready. The day is not far away when I will have enough people ready; a certain quantity is needed. Just as at a certain temperature, a hundred degrees, water evaporates, there is a certain quantity which is needed for silence. And when so many people are here, then anybody who wants to fall asleep when I am sitting silent will not be able to fall asleep either. The silence all around will go on goading him to keep alert. The silence all around will not in any way allow him to fall asleep. Silence has its own tremendous force, its own power.

    So I am waiting for the right quantity--and people are coming. The moment I see that my commune has enough silent people and I can sit silently, and the newcomers will be transformed by the silent people--just sitting amongst them will be enough for them to have a taste, they will be drowned in your silence--then there will be no need for me to talk at all.

    Few people have fallen asleep...for them (jokes) wildgs09

    *Note: a group of monkeys sometimes make a noise on the roof of Buddha Hall during discourse

    Osho's Last Words before going into Silence

    On 20th March 1981, Osho gives his last English discourse, and on 24th his last Hindi discourse, before going into silence. On 23rd March 1981, Osho gives his last darshan in English; his last words are:

    meditation means becoming detached from the mind becoming a witness of the mind looking at the mind as separate from you that's what actually it is you can see thoughts passing by you can see desires passing by you can see the whole traffic that goes on in the mind the memories, the fantasies, the past, the future all kinds of things are passing you can just stand by the side of the road

    and you can see the whole traffic--you are not it you are the watcher, you are the witness and the witness is beyond the seer is never the seen the observer is never the observed this very experience is transcendence and once you know that you are not the mind the fear of death simply disappears as if it has never been there in the first place suddenly you are in the world of the deathless, the eternal

    there is no anxiety any more one is at ease with existence in a deep let-go a tremendous relaxation

    that relaxation is the ultimate goal of sannyas to know it is to know all to miss it is to miss all clapp23

    The Ultimate Stage: Silence

    On 10th April there is an announcement that Osho is entering the ultimate stage of his work and that from this date he will speak only through silence. He continues to meet with his secretary.

    On 11th April, darshan is held with Teertha, and Satya Vedant initiating sannyasins.

    Later, a journalist asks: On April 11, 1981, it was announced in Poona that beginning May 1, 1981 you would speak only through silence and that a new phase of your work would begin. This is correct?

    Osho: This is correct. One month in Poona while I was there. I was simply sitting and people were sitting by my side. Seven thousand sannyasins were living with me there. This was only one hour every day in the morning. Here also, once or twice, we have sat together. Slowly slowly, it will come again, everything, every day...it is kind of a prayer in silent communion.

    This was your decision to go into this silent stage?

    My decision.

    Okay, how long will this silent stage continue?

    It will continue.

    Until when?

    Until I feel again to speak. I have spoken so much that I felt I was speaking to the walls. It is almost futile.

    Then you would not be able to give me a specific date in the future that you would resume speaking?

    I cannot even say anything about tomorrow....

    Was the silent phase of your work, so to speak, in any way connected with your medical condition?

    No, not at all. I had been telling it for years, that one day I'm going to stop speaking and just communicate through silence. silent02

    Why did You enter Your long stretch of silence?

    I have never lived with any plan in my life. It has been something spontaneous, moment to moment. As I feel, I do it. I felt to be silent, I went into silence. I may have remained my whole life silent. There is no way to say why I started speaking again. The same spontaneity. Three and a half years silence and suddenly one day I felt that much has remained to say. I have not yet said that for which I am here. So better say it now, because who knows about tomorrow?

    But it is all spontaneous. There is no reason of going into silence or coming out of silence. But those three and half years created a beautiful gap.

    I was speaking for thirty years continuously. I think I deserve at least three years silence after thirty years continuously speaking....

    These three and half years silence has given me another opportunity that is just a byproduct. The silence was not meant for it.

    There were many people who were just hanging around me because of their intellects were convinced. My arguments were important to them although I was insisting that truth cannot be found by arguments. But they became addicted with my words, with my explanations. These three and half years, by and by they left, seeing that now I am not going to speak and silence they could not understand.

    Only those remained for whom it did not matter at all whether I speak or I am silent. Just my presence, and something transpires between my being and their being. It is a wordless communion. last404

    Silent Satsangs

    On 1st May, Satsangs, heart to heart silent communion with Osho begin. At the beginning and end the gauchchamis are chanted; there is a period of silent meditation; the satsang ends with music singing and dancing; Osho makes a namaste on arriving and leaving.

    In the tradition of Buddha there are three famous shelters: Buddham sharanam gachchhami: I go to the feet of the buddha, I surrender myself to the buddha. Sangham sharanam gachchhami: I go to the feet of the commune, I surrender myself to the buddhafield. Dhammam sharanam gachchhami: I surrender myself to the ultimate law which is personified by the buddha and is searched for by the commune, which has

    become actual in the buddha and is an inquiry in the commune. These three are the most important things for a seeker: the master, the commune, and the dhamma, Tao, logos, the ultimate law.

    Unless you are in contact with one who has already realized, it is almost impossible for you to grow. The hindrances are millions, the pitfalls many, the false doors many, the temptations are many; there is every possibility of going astray. Unless you are in the company of someone who knows the way, who has traveled the way, who has arrived, it is almost impossible for you to reach. Unless your hands are in the hands of someone whom you can trust and to whom you can surrender, you are bound to go astray. The mind creates so many temptations--so alluring they are, so magnetic is their power--that unless you are in the power-field of someone whose magnetism is far more powerful than any other kind of temptation, it is impossible to reach. That is the meaning of disciplehood.

    Buddham sharanam gachchhami: I surrender to the master.

    The master is such a magnetic force that your surrender to the master becomes your protection; hence it is called the shelter. Then you are secure, then you are guarded, then you are protected. Then your hand is in those hands which know where to take you, what direction to give to you.

    The second thing is the commune. Each buddha creates a commune, because without a commune a buddha cannot function. A commune means his energy field, a commune means the people who have become joined with him, a commune means an alternate society to the ordinary mundane society which goes after spurious comforts--it is there available to everybody.

    A small oasis in the desert of the world is what is meant by a commune created by a buddha--a small oasis in which life is lived with a totally different gestalt, with a totally different vision, with a totally different goal; where life is lived with purpose, meaning, where life is lived with method--even though to the outsiders it may look like madness, but that madness has a method in it--where life is lived prayerfully, alert, aware, awake; where life is not just accidental, where life starts becoming more and more a growth in a certain direction, towards a certain destination; where life is no more like driftwood.

    And the third is the dhamma. Dhamma means truth. Buddha represents the dhamma in two ways: one, through his communication, verbal, and second, through his presence, through his silence, through his communion: nonverbal. The verbal communication is only an introduction for the nonverbal. The nonverbal is an energy communication. The verbal is only preparatory; it simply prepares you so you can allow the master to communicate with you energywise, because energywise it is really moving into the unknown. Energywise it needs great trust, because you will be completely unaware where you are going--aware that you are going somewhere, aware that you are being led somewhere, aware that something is happening of tremendous import; but what exactly it

    is you don't yet have the language for, you don't have any experience to recognize. You will be moving into the uncharted.

    The buddha represents dhamma, truth, in two ways. Verbally he communicates with the students; nonverbally, through silence, through energy, he communicates with the disciples. And then there comes the ultimate unity where neither communication nor communion is needed, but oneness has been achieved--where the master and the disciple become one, when the disciple is just a shadow, when there is no separation. These are the three stages of growth: student, disciple, devotee. wisdom17.

    Osho flies to America for Medical Treatment

    Osho's health becomes more fragile. Besides his allergies he now has severe back pains. A specialist is brought from London to examine him; he recommends a treatment which is only available in the West. Osho is invited by his sannyasins in the United States of America to visit them. On 1st June 1981, he flies from Bombay to New York.

    When, in India, my back started giving trouble to me, they started giving me traction. I told them--Devaraj (my physician) was there--"Do you know from where the word traction comes, and what you are doing to me?" He said, "No. Traction is a perfectly good medical device and it is used everywhere." I said, "It was invented by Christians in the Middle Ages to torture people. It was a Christian device to torture people! You pull their hands at one end, their legs at the other end, and naturally, if you want any confession they will have to confess. If you want the woman to accept that she is a witch, on traction she is going to accept it because there is a point where she sees, 'Now my hands are going to be pulled off my body, my legs are going to be pulled off my body. It is better to say, "Yes, I am a witch," and get finished with this traction.' But once she has accepted she is a witch she is going to be burned alive."

    It was a torture device. It was just by coincidence it was found. person04

    You ask: You left India and went to America for health reasons?

    Even before my going there, the American sannyasins were trying to find a place for a commune. When I reached there, they thought it will be better that the commune should be in such a place which would be healthful for me as long as I stay there. And it will help them also to consolidate the commune.

    But I had not gone there to stay. The problems with my health are such that no cure is possible. All that can be done is, a controlled environment, so I am protected. For example, I have allergies for few things. If they don't come close to me there is no problem, and there is no disease. For example, perfume, dust, any kind of strong smell; now they can be avoided. So for four years in America it was possible to avoid them in the commune. It is difficult to avoid them in any other city. You cannot tell everybody not to use perfume. It was not said to the commune either, but people understood it.

    The allergy triggers coughing, sneezing, cold, and finally asthmatic attacks. And then it becomes a longer fit. Then it may take few days to get over it. Then I cannot sleep the whole night, the breathing is difficult. Humidity can cause it. The American sannyasins have chosen a place which was not humid, but still cold, dry.

    I have a bad back, and everything that can be done has been done. But whatever is done to make it better, it becomes worse. Finally we called one of the experts, Dr. Syriax from England, who worked for two days. He is a miracle worker. He has treated people--his hands have a magic touch--and his whole life; he must have been nearabout eighty when he came to see me.

    For two days he worked, and finally he said to me that, "You will have to live with it. All that can be done is that you should sit in a certain posture, in a certain chair, so you will not feel the pain. The pain can be avoided just by maintaining a certain posture and a certain chair, a certain angle to the body; but it cannot be cured. So there was no question of going to America for cure.

    We had been asking here for a palace in Kutch....

    Coincidentally, the Maharaja of Kutch had exactly the same problems, and that palace was made for him, to give him a controlled atmosphere--dry, non-humid, cool, and far away from society, city; and he lived in that palace as long as he lived. And he lived without any troubles; all troubles disappeared. Since he has died, nobody has used that palace.

    But Morarji Desai was prime minister at that time, and we have been fighting on each point, for almost thirty years....

    When I saw that they will not allow any place to me in India where I can live without unnecessary suffering from allergies, back pain, asthma, it was at that point that I decided that it is better to look somewhere else. America had a good number of sannyasins, and they were already looking for a place to make a commune, so it was very reasonable to tell them to look for a place with all these conditions. And they found in Oregon desert exactly the same conditions as exist in Kutch.

    But I had not gone to stay there forever. They had given me visa for few months as a tourist. last429

    When we were leaving Poona, there was so much preparation--particularly for Vivek, because she had to be concerned with my body, my food, and small details like that. I don't think she could sleep the whole time, she was so concerned that nothing should be left behind, and that everything should be available on the journey. Vivek was right when she told me, "Osho, you are like a huge mountain of gold which has to be taken from one place to another."

    I said to her, "That is true, exactly true. Just one thing has to be remembered: that the mountain, although golden, is alive and conscious too. So be very careful." glimps22

    When Osho travelled to the States, he gave gifts to his sannyasins:

    The other morning, when you mentioned about a pocket watch being the last present for people who retire, I was amazed, because when you left for America I was at my village, and I received by mail a unique present from you--a very beautiful Seiko pocket watch! I was delighted by this rare gift, but today I feel a bit shaky!

    Sardar Gurudayal Singh, I remember the pocket watch that I have sent you. I have been giving watches to hundreds of my sannyasins. The significance is simple, so you need not be worried by what I said yesterday.

    It was not a retirement gift; a sannyasin is never retired! He becomes enlightened, but retirement is not possible neither before enlightenment nor after enlightenment. Retirement does not exist in the world of a sannyasin, so you can drop your fear and worry; it was not a retirement gift. I have been giving watches to many people because my whole message is: Be watchful!

    So don't misunderstand me....

    But when I have given watches--and I go on giving--that does not mean that you are retired. That does not mean that your days are finished, 'Just count the hours on your watch.'

    It means: Be watchful, be aware and alert. Every moment is full of danger and full of ecstasy. If you can use it for awareness and watchfulness, it becomes a great ecstasy, the juiciest experience of life. invita22

    Rumours about Osho

    There are many rumours in the press about Osho visiting the States, which he later refutes in press interviews:

    Why did You leave India?

    For health reasons. I never wanted to leave. India may be poor, may have its troubles and problems, but it has a beauty of its own. last101

    I have denied the invitation to visit America for years. My first Western disciples were American. Mukta has been asking me to go to America, and she could manage it because she belongs to one of the richest families in the Greek world. But I said, "No, Mukta." notes02

    Didn't you speak against India when you left India?

    No, I have been speaking against the orthodoxy of India, the traditionalism of India, the caste system of India, the poverty of India. My whole life I have been speaking against these, because I love India and I want all these things to be immediately destroyed. It is my motherland and I would like it to be one of the best in the world--materially, spiritually, in every sense....

    I hate poverty; not poor people.

    In fact, I hate poverty because I love poor people. I don't want them to be poor. last410

    What about the income tax cases which have been pending against you when you left this country?

    There has been no case against me because I have never been part of any organization, I had never been on any posts. There has been no case against me. There cannot be. I don't earn anything. You cannot put income tax on me. I don't move out of my house. What case can be against me. If freedom of speech is a crime, then I am the greatest criminal in the world. last410

    There were stories at the time that You were forced out. Is that true?

    That is nonsense. I can go back there. Nobody can force me out of anywhere....

    Nobody forced me out of India. In India I was living with my commune, ten thousand sannyasins were living with me. It was my health that was getting worse and worse. last101

    It has been said to me that You left Poona in the dead of night. Is this true?

    Certainly true!

    The implication being that You sneaked away, as opposed to announcing it....

    That is wrong.

    Can You explain for me how You left Poona?

    I left in my Rolls Royce, and not in the dead of the night. I left Poona in the day, in the midday sun, with two Rolls Royces, three Mercedes Benz. With five cars I left in the

    middle of the day. I left Bombay at midnight, because the plane leaves at midnight. What could I do? last113

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